"Chain binding magic: Entangled lock." Chains snapped into appearance around me "It's nothing personal, I just know foreigners can be a annoyance" And he vanished. My short blade snapped out my sheath, batting the chains away as I leapt back out of their grasp. I looked to the ground and easily spotted his tracks heading back towards the town. In a flash I ran following his tracks, one hand on my katana in it's sheath. My light steps barely kicking up dirt nor making a sound.

In just over a few minutes of running I was back at the entrance of the grimoire tower, the man that had tricked me had the two nobles pinned to the walls as wells as a third chained up as he took the boy's grimoire. "I'm sorry but this four leaf grimoire will catch a nice price on the black market."

"Blue Flame Breathing: Fourth Dance: Hellfire Descent!" I leaped up as my cobalt blades ignited with blue flames. The thief turned around a slung his arm at me, chains erupting from the ground. My swords clashed with the magic metal with a clang. I skidded back weapons at the ready. "So you want to steal from others, where I'm from, that could end up with your hands getting cut off."

"Get out of here, this has nothing to do with you!" The chained up, black haired youth called out to me.

"The moment he decided to hurt someone it had everything to do with me. I'm not going to kill him, no. But it doesn't meant it won't hurt." I said coldly.

"Yuno!" From the raised tree line and wall fell another boy, the same one who didn't get a grimoire.

'Damn it, someone else I have to keep out of the fight!' Things got complicated fast.

Chapter 2: The two who would be Wizard King

I dashed forwards, burning blue blades sparking as I deflected the chains, "You are nothing but a foolish girl!" The villain shouted as four chains erupted from behind him, I slid along the ground as they sailed over me. I came to his feet and twisted around as a plume of blue fire lashed out at him, I left a cut in his pant leg.

"AAAAHH!" My head snapped to the side as the magicless boy charged him. But the man created a chain that wrapped around his waist and flung him into the stone wall.

"You really think you can take me down!?" The man laughed. his scarred face twisted in a smile.

I stood up in a ready stance. My breathing shifted as my veins bulged. My grip on my blades tightened. "Blue Flame Breathing: Fifth Dance: Rings of fire!" I twisted and spun on one heel landing three cuts on the man's chest, blood spraying at me.

"You bitch!" He shouted as a silvery glow appeared in front of me and four spiked chains lashed out at me. The attack ripped through my clothes and ripped my skin open. I stepped back keeping my blades up. I gritted my teeth as I sucked in breaths. I controlled my breathing and clenched the muscles around the cuts. "Why fight for trash like them? That one doesn't have any magic at all, he's worthless special gem, he'll be lucky to find work at all."

"I don't need a reason." I readied my blades. "I fight evil with my emblazed blue swords. Be it demons or humans. If he has no magic, then he has no right to let it hold himself back."

From behind the man the boy looked at me. His wide green eyes in shock. "Really you think that means anything?" he asked.

"Your right, I refuse to give up because I'm going to be the wizard king." He stood up.

"You're wrong Asta, I am going to be the wizard king!" The black haired lad called out, "Because you are my rival!"

I felt the air cool as Asta stood to his full height, the light dimming as a book from the woods approached him, the air almost seemed to darken as he looked at the grimoire. 'A grimoire... it... feels like a demon!' My eyes widened as I watched it float in front of the boy. Black and red energy seeped from the tome.

"What the...?" He said before a sword handle appeared from the pages. He reached out a drew the blade from the dark grimoire. The tip slammed into the stone. It was a massive blade, all metal and pitted in a black rust. Black lightning arced around him and for a split second I saw black markings on his face, a horn growing out of his head and a single eye blood red. "I may not have magic like you, but I have something else. MY MAGIC IS NEVER GIVING UP!" Asta flashed forwards, the paved stones where he had been stand shattered. He drew the blade back, his scream filling the area. The weapon collided with the criminal sending the man flying back hitting the wall falling unconscious. I sheathed my blades and turned away from the two boys.

"Hey, lady wait!" Asta ran up to me putting a hand on my shoulder. "Thank you..." His emerald green eyes looked into mine.

"Kokoro Aoihono. I have to be on my way." I said as I shrugged his hand off my shoulder.

The black haired boy spoke up. "The way you lit your blades on fire, that wasn't magic."

"It's a breathing style from my homeland. It took over five years to master. I must be on my way." I walked away.

"At least let us help you heal those cuts." Asta called out as I left.

"No need, the bleeding has already stopped." And I left them out of sight and made my way to the ruins under the demon skull. By that point it was deep into the night and I quickly dressed my wounds with strips of cloth and washed the blood out of my clothes in a stream before lighting a fire to stay warm as I leaned against a broken broken wall, sword across my lap.

I awoke in the early rays of dawn and quickly dressed myself before opening my grimoire. "Blue flame Armor magic." I said to my self as I followed what Mereoleona instructed me to do, calling upon my mana and creating gauntlets on my forearms. "Blue Flame Armor Magic: Ember Gauntlets." I read out the solitary spell. The armor resembled that of the Samurai, I smiled knowing that if I ever made it back, this magic would aid me in the hunting of the demons."

I dispelled the magic, I would need to train it over the next few months before I make my way to the capital.

I spent the morning dashing from broken pillars and shattered giant bones covered in moss as I caught pheasants, the wild poultry only making a strangled squawk as I snapped their necks, till I had around five birds. "That should be enough meat for a few days." I said to myself as I set them over the fire to cook impaled on sharpened stakes. I then went looking wild root vegetables, herbs and mushrooms. "I should be able to survive on this area for a few weeks." I said as I hung the bag from a nearby tree and turned over the meat.

It was then that I heard the loud ringing clash of metal on stone. "One!" Crang! "Two!"

I instantly recognized that voice as Asta's from yesterday. "What in the rotten depths of Yomi-no-kuni is he doing?"

I followed the sound of metal on stone and saw the single most stupid thing a person can do with a sword. Standing there with his back to me was Asta, his shirt off as he slammed the massive black rusted blade into a stone pillar over and over. "What the hell are you doing?"

He stopped mid-swing unable to stop the over sized weapon, the weight pulling him over to the ground. "Oh Kokoro." He said as he looked up at me.

"Call me Aoihono." I said as I crossed my arms. "That isn't how you train to use a sword. That's how you ruin it, and I don't care if it's some special magic sword that can't be damaged, it's disrespectful to the blade." I looked him over, his body had clearly been trained for years at this point.

"Well it's not like I have anyone to teach me." He said as he stood up. "What are you doing here?"

I furrowed my brow. "I was camping out here to train my magic for a few weeks before I leave to train in different environments."

"Okay... well, you use swords could you show me some of the basics?" He asked.

"Will you needlessly slam your sword into stone pillars?" I asked him.

"No..." He said slowly.

"You got six weeks to learn these skills before I leave." I said as I turned from him, "I'm going to teach you what my Blue flame breath style is derived from, Flame Breathing." I said as I had him follow me to my camp.

I sat down as I took one of the birds from the flames, pulling the charred skin off to get at the juicy meat underneath. "There are several breathing styles, the main five in the group I was apart of is Flame, Lightning, Wind, Water and Stone. Then there is the form they are derived from, Sun Breathing, used by a man about a century ago. And... moon breathing, but the only practitioner I've met isn't a member of my organization. Now these breath styles aren't magic so you should be able to learn the basics. We use breath techniques to maximize our lung capacity, pin point muscle control to close off bleeding veins and to hyper focus in battle in order to anticipate our foes moves." I explained to him.

Over the next few days he would surprisingly quickly take to the lessons on his total concentration breathing, and soon after that, Total concentration constant almost alarmingly fast. His daily workout goals almost doubled. 'If he was part of the demon slayers, he would be considered a prodigy.' I thought to myself as I watched him go, and go, and go. 'But his grimoire, every time I look at it, feel as though there is a demon right there...'

In a matter of four weeks he had a adequate grasp of the different Flame Breathing attacks, if altered to allow his massive blade.

in the fifth and sixth weeks we would spar, my flaming blue blades and magic against his single massive blade coated in red flames.

I dodged right as he swung upwards, flames dancing off my slender blades as his roared akin to a uncontrolled inferno. My magic now fully coated my my body in a light armor coating that I had quickly discovered did nothing to stop Asta's sword which smashed right through it the few times he had hit me. But it was a good way to call the match, either I cut him, or he dispels my armor.

I landed on my right foot, twisting around as my shorter blade lashed out at Asta, blue flames trailing it as I aimed for his midsection. He quickly spun his blade so that I stuck the flat of his blade. But now he had left me in a massive blind spot as he used the over sized weapon as a shield. I quickly stepped around it and swung my longer blade, leaving a shallow cut that just barely broke past the skin layer on his arm. "I win again." I said as I sheathed my weapons.

Soon we sat by the fire. "You are leaving tomorrow aren't you?" He asked me as I carefully picked meat off a wild pig into a cracked bowl Asta had given me with a roasted potato and carrot.

"Yes, I could teach you a few more tricks, but in all honesty, you learn fighting skills at a unnatural pace." I looked up at him as I slowly ate my food as he shoveled it into his mouth. "It's just part of how I'm used to living, moving from town to town to deal with demons."

"You have mentioned them before, why do you hunt these demons?" He asked me.

"Four winters ago, I lived with my Mother and Father, my mother's name was Odoru Aoihono. And my father Kawa Aoihono. My mother was a dancer and would bring me to the shrine of the local deities and spirits. She often warned me of dangerous demons who hunted at night to consume the flesh of men and women. My father was a swordsmen who took on students to protect our village. We were happy, the most respected family." I sighed. "Hatsukoi Haihoku, a young man only a winter or two older then me became a student under my father, and slowly, I would fall in love, until he asked my father for permission to have my hand in marriage when we were of age." I rolled my head back, "That day would never come. That same night a demon descended upon our village. A six eyed swordsman with a blade made of metal, flesh and eyes, black hair that had soaked in the blood of those he had killed and donned the purple garb of nobility. He killed and ate everyone, with swings of his blade like they were of moon light. I was hidden in a secret space behind a panel in the wall. Through the crack I could see him cut down down my mother, my father and his students long dead now."

Asta looked at me in awe. "I screamed, I cried for anyone to help, and just as he gripped me through the wall, a demon slayer arrived, the Flame Hashira as i would come to know him. he fought the demon till daybreak when it fled into the forest. Blood still clinging to his blade." I looked Asta in his eyes. "I swore to kill that demon, to avenge my home."

Sorry for the delay. I'm a busy person.