...*peck*

"OW! What the..." I open my eyes and only see darkness

'must still be night'

I rub my eyes and look around until I see,

"Freya!"

There she was on my head. I hold up my arm and she perches on it

"Hey girl! Did you get the letter to the others?" She flapped her wings once

"That's good" I smile sadly as I remember the other hashira

'i wonder how they're doing' I think as I pet Freya underneath her beak

"How did you follow me here?"

She jumps of my arm in front of me, spins in a circle and jumps

"So the circle stayed a bit after I was sucked in and you flew in it?"

She flaps again

"I see, to be honest I'm really glad your here"

She jumps on my shoulder and nuzzles into me. I chuckle and look to the east to see the sun peeking out.

'i should train, the last thing I need is for my skills to rust'

I jump off my tree and see luka in his sleeping bag mumbling something and Alice coiled around a tree. I smile at the sight of their relaxed expressions. I begin to walk to the forest clearing.

'God, when was the last time I slept outside at night' I chuckle, 'if the others saw me, they would beat my ass for being so stupid' I think as a stand in the middle of the clearing

I get down into a hand stand and spread my legs into a splits. I stay completely still and close my eyes.

Focusing on my hands, I feel the vibrations through the earth. I feel the wind blow around my body in a pattern as if it was dancing. I hear the splash of a drop hitting the waters surface from a near by pond. I feel the heat of the sun hit my skin warming me up. Focusing on all these aspects, I slowly connect to the flow of life around me. I use total concentration water breathing to calm me down and focus on the vibrations through the air. I can feel every living being around me, how many trees are in the forest as black and white images start to form in my head showing the surrounding landscape. I feel Luka jolting from his sleeping yelling something I could not hear, I feel that same strange presence in the sky from yesterday looming over us. I focus on the presence before I feel a huge ripple in air directly in front of me, causing me to suck in my breath, breaking my total concentration breathing and ripping me out of the flow. My eyes snap open and I land on my knees.

*Pant* *Pant* 'Shit, I let myself get distracted'

I try to get as much air back into my body and raise my heart beat back to normal. An effect of this particular technique is that it causes your heart rate to slow down to dangerous levels and your blood circulation also slowing down, after all, humans aren't supposed to be able to connect to the flow of life since it's so taxing on the body.

I look at Alice who is staring at me and get up

"Do you mind" I say with an annoyed look on my face

"What was that?" Alice says with a suspicious look in her eyes

"What"

She glares, "What was that, you were able to connect with the flow without the spirit of water, as a human that shouldn't be possible"

'Spirit of water?'

"I don't know this spirit of water but what you just saw was an ancient technique my master tried to teach me" I say as I cross my arms showing I won't reveal anything else

She narrows her eyes at me until she closes them and sighs

"Luka says breakfast is ready" she says and slithers off

I look away and take a deep breath and resume my total concentration constant.

'i have to give my complete attention and focus to connect but is something catches me off guard, I'm instantly ripped out of the flow. How did master Yamakaze keep the connection on like second nature?'

I sigh to myself, 'of all the breathing styles I had to learn the toughest one to master...damn my pride'

I whistle for Freya and I see her emerge out of the trees and land on my shoulder

"More conditioning and meditation for me hm" Freya screeches in response

I walk to the campsite to see everything packed and my traveling partners finishing up.

"Sorry we started witho-" Luka starts until he sees Freya. Alice looks up in confusion and looks to me then Freya

"L/N, you have a bird on your shoulder" Luka states still staring in shock

"She not a bird, she's a peregrine Falcon and her name is Freya" I say as I pat her head

"Is it your pet" Alice says which makes me glare at her

"No, Freya is not my pet she is my messenger, partner and my second pair of eyes from the air" I say before I make a clicking sound signaling Freya to take off which made them both stare in shock until Luka realizes something and bows his head toward me

"I'm sorry l/n but Alice ate your breakfast saying you were taking to long"

I chuckle in response, "it's fine to be honest I don't usually eat breakfast" I smile as I start walking back to the main road.

"Why?" Alice asks with confusion written all over her

"I wasn't allowed to eat until I finished my morning training and by the time I did finish, it would be noon" I reminisce and steal a glance at Alice who's face was contorted in horror causing me to mentally snicker

"Really! That sounds horrible" Luka exclaims

"It was but it made me into the person I am today" I smile

"Wow, your like a true hero!" Luka says with stars in his eyes

My smile vanishes as a melancholy expression replaces it

"No, I'm no hero I just did what I had to do to survive.." I whisper

'is that your excuse, they were still people you know, forced against their will to be transformed yet you still killed them'

I clench my fist and breath in and look to the horizon

"Hey, look we're almost there come on, I'd like to get there while I'm young" I laugh as I start jogging,

"Hey wait for me" Luka yells as he starts running after me

Behind us Alice stands still for a second before she starts slithering behind us as Freya watches us from above.

(Time skip)

We ran for awhile until i stop a few meters away from the towns gate

"Why did you stop?" Luka asks with his face flushed red from excursion

"We can't go in with Alice the townsfolk will go into a panic" I say while trying to think of a solution

"Hey Alice can you make yourself look human" Luka asks

"Why must I take on such a troublesome form" Alice scoffs turning away

Luka stays silent for a moment

"Because if you don't you won't be able to eat your ama ama dango" luka says with a hint if pride in his eye

Alice recoils then sighs

"Fine" she says as a white light blinds me for a moment

When I open my eyes I see Alice but instead of lavender her skin is a peach color while her tail turned into legs...but she still has on her skimpy clothes and tattoos.

"Is this good enough" Alice grumbles out

"Ya sure I mean people can be pretty gullible" I say nonchalantly as I start walking forward

Luka just sighs while Alice smiles in victory and both follow me

When we arrive at the gate I take a step in but stop

Luka looks at me in confusion and opens his mouth to speak before I put my hand on his mouth

"So you noticed" Alice whispers as Freya perches on my arm waiting for a command

"Ya, it's to quiet for a town and there are no guards" I whisper back and turn my attention to Freya

"Scout the area from above" she takes off and goes into the town

I look to Luka who seems to have just figured out something is wrong

"Draw your sword and keep your guard up" I say as I take out my katanas and walk through the gate with Luka in tow.

As we walk, I notice that the towns people boarded any windows and entrances. I narrow my eyes and look up to see Freya circling what seems to be the main plaza

'so she did find something wrong'

I silently run towards the plaza and hide behind a tree, soon Luka appears and I pull him beside me. I look behind me and see a bunch of guards and soldiers laying on the ground unmoving. I look closer to see they're all still breathing with not a drop of blood on the floor. I turn my gaze up until it lands on the person responsible for all of this.

She had short, red hair and Amber eyes. She was pale and had green scales on her neck, body and limbs. Her hand were claws as was her feet.

Finally, she was covered in armor and had a large bastard sword in her hands. I narrow my eyes

'her power is like a volcano waiting to erupt, it's overwhelming'

I see three guards get up and face her.

"How boring. Is there not a single strong person in this entire city?" She questioned in an unimpressed tone

"D...Damn it" one of the guards mumbled

"She's so...so strong" another stammered

The last one had stayed silent clearly frozen in terror

"You three... Are you going to fight or not?" The monster asked

"Grr...Damn you!", "I won't let a monster like you do whatever you want!" The two soldiers yelled in unison and charged.

"That's the spirit!" She yelled as her sword burst into flames

'shit, she's more dangerous than I thought, these soldiers don't stand a chance' I grimace as the monster takes them both out in a single swing.

"Well then...what are you going to do" she asked the last soldier

"Ah..AHHHH" the man shrieked fearfully and ran away

"Hmph" she stood still, "a wise choice, but in the future, you can never call yourself a soldier or a hero" she concluded

"Is that it?! Having your city taken over by a monster... there's no complaints!!?" She yelled her voice echoing throughout town and sending shivers up my spine

Silence...

'well, looks like I'll be revealing myself sooner than I had liked' I think as I grip my katanas tighter.

Right as I'm about to reveal myself, Luka decides to run out

"Ho...hold it!" He yelled gripping his sword tighter to stop his shaking

'oh you absolute dumbass, actually you know what, this will pose as a lesson, a reality check to show just how hard he needs to work' I think prepared to jump in at a moments notice

"What was that boy!" She asked menacingly

"A...I'll be you opponent!" Luka yelled glancing at me for a second. I nod my head to show I'll intervene if necessary. He stands up straighter, holding his sword with steady hands with his confidence boosted.

"I see...very well then, The Fire swordman Granberia shall be your opponent!" She declares

'fire swordsman, if her technique is anything similar to flame breathing than most of her attacks will be a powerful single strike' I think and observe

Luka moved forward pulling back his sword

"Take this!" He cried swinging his blade forward, but his blade did not hit its target

Granberia's silhouette blurred and appeared behind Luka, delivering a light but swift kick causing him to fall

"Damn it!" He tried to get up but she stepped on his groin

'BITCH! that's a low blow!" I grit my teeth

"You challenged me when the adults ran, I respect that but I won't give you a second chance next time" she steps off him

"Grrr...it's not over yet!" Luka said as he got up and assumed a stance I didn't recognize

He jumped forward, slicing through the air, as his sword aimed for his opponent's neck. Granberia's eyes widen and she steps back, with his sword missing

"No way..." I hear Luka whisper

"Why do you know a monster technique?" She starts

"There's no way you could have thought of it yourself. who taught it to you?" She demands

"I won't say a word" he yelled

"Is that so?" She trailed off before she suddenly smashed the flat side of her sword against him. Making him go flying backwards and smashing into a wall and fall. He spat out blood on the floor and wheezed

'oh now you did it'