"So. Oni-san, can you tell me more about the floral village?" Shiori asked cheerfully. After talking with the guardians, she developed a new routine.
She would get up every morning and train with Akira until lunch. Then, she would focus on her own studies and practices. Right after dinner, she would go to sleep until the early hours of the night.
She would wake up in random places, always something for her to explore. She was beginning to see puzzle pieces coming together, but she wasn't sure how she felt about the picture being painted.
Still, she would finish her investigations and head out to meet Oni. They would spend their nights talking, but she mostly enjoyed listening to his stories. Oni seemed to be an endless well of adventures and knowledge.
He would tell her about all sorts of faraway places, how their ways of life were vastly different, and how much he learned from each of them. Shiori felt a sense of wonder about how much the world was bigger than what they expected.
He would tell her stories as they walked around the temple's perimeter. Sometimes, he would order her to stay as he dashed to take care of some shadows. Then he would come back. Often, he was in a trance.
He would seem distant and detached. Then, he would notice Shiori, and it would immediately go away. Shiori was not stupid and knew deep down that it was a mask. Was he pretending all the time when he was around Shiori? Because to her, he always seemed at peace when he was talking to her.
He gave her the expression of someone who doesn't have many people to talk to, and then they finally find someone who is willing to listen. It was an endearing expression she often saw on hunters or travelers and even those who spent a large amount of time outside the village alone or in small groups.
She didn't like to admit it, but she felt similarly during her solo travels. That is why she was so insistent on spending time with the man. Some of the things he told her made her worry. His stories painted a picture of a difficult past.
He didn't tell her his age, but if she had to guess, he was in his late twenties. This meant that he was a teenager during the third Shinobi war. He probably lost people then, probably his village, which is why he traveled so much during his youth.
After all, the Shinobi Wars were not a safe time for adventuring. Even the villages that were not directly involved had high numbers of casualties. It was one of the reasons that civilian villages hated shinobi to this day.
So, from the tone of his stories and how often he had to travel, he was probably a war orphan who had to be on the move. Maybe his unique looks made it obvious that he had shinobi training, and the villages would turn him away.
Shiori didn't want to assume much but couldn't help but hypothesize.
"Of course, Shiori-san. The floral village was not a shinobi village, but its people sold their craft to shinobi. They grew a special type of flower that…." Shiori snapped out of thoughts, focusing on what she was sure was a fantastic story.
Today was the day. Shiori was finally ready to fully release her seal. Akira looked serious as they entered the clearing. They stood in silence for a moment, and then Akira nodded.
She knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time and skill. Today, she was finally ready. She wouldn't lie and say she was not afraid, but she was mentally ready to handle it. So she took a deep breath and entered her meditative state.
One by one, she let the seals go, letting the feeling wash over her, but she stayed in control. She took her time with each layer, not rushing the process. Finally, she reached the last layer. She decided to just go for it.
She released the seal, and a rush of power washed through her. This layer was more intense than the others, and she was fighting hard to stay in control. The power was violent and foreign, acting with a mind of its own.
It was taking a lot from her, both physically and mentally. She could feel herself losing. Her mind was getting fuzzy, and she was sure she would lose consciousness. Then she felt it—the warm rush of Akira's chakra wrapping around her own, not taking the control away from her but stabilizing her enough to snap out of it.
She gave a reassuring squeeze back and calmed herself. She used the same strategy as previous times, and soon enough, the chakra calmed down. She was finally in control. She waited for a minute before opening her eyes.
And then she saw it. Just for a brief second. So short that she wasn't even sure it was there. It was gone in the blink of an eye, and she saw Akira getting up and reaching for her. Her head swayed, and she felt warm arms wrap around her just as her own knees gave up.
Her ears were ringing, and she couldn't understand what Akira was saying. She felt something warm on her face. She tried to wipe it off with her hand, and when she saw her hand, it was covered in blood.
She only managed to raise her head and see the panicked expression on Akira's face before she blacked out.
She felt as if she was underwater. Then it came to her. The clarity. Everything finally falls into its place. Her eyes snapped open. She was in her room, with Akira sitting next to her. She struggled to get herself into a sitting position.
Akira reached out to help her up, and Shiori grabbed his hand, afraid that what she said next might cause the man to flee.
She looked deep into his eyes as she said the words. "You are Oni-san, right Akira-sensei?"
Akira seemed frozen. Like a defense wall immediately kicked in, and he was detached. She couldn't read anything in his body language or face. She tried to reach with her chakra, but Akira pulled his hand away so harshly that she stumbled forward.
Before she could react or do anything else, he was gone. Shiori jumped to her feet, wanting to follow the man. She did not expect that reaction. It was a wild guess—something that seemed so far-fetched, but it made sense.
From the first day she met him, she could tell that something was hidden in his chakra—something that seemed to belong yet felt foreign. She could never tell since the man was actively keeping it hidden.
The same could be said with Oni. Despite the scary first encounters, she could always feel something familiar in his chakra. Something that pulled her towards him. A sense of familiarity, and she suspected why she felt so safe with the man.
Still, there were more similarities between them: the way they talked, the way they pronounced the words, their body language, and some of their smaller reactions. At first, she put them up to probably spending long amounts of time with each other.
After all, they both mentioned being in the temple for a very long time and since the temple is so isolated, it made sense. But today, she found out the truth. She didn't know how it was possible, but somehow, it was.
That moment. When her seal was unlocked, and her abilities were at a maximum, she felt the hidden truth under Akira-sensei's chakra. For a flash of a second, he felt the chakra of both men coming from the same body so clearly.
But how was it even possible? They had completely different bodies and appearances. It just didn't make sense. They were two different people. She was sure that Oni did not personally know her before that night.
He seemed hesitant to introduce himself, but there wasn't a sense of familiarity in him. There was maybe some recognition due to feeling her chakra in the temple and in her room, but not a personal one.
She needed to know more, so she had to find her sensei. She started spreading her chakra, searching for the man. She couldn't sense him at all, so she started focusing more. He was either hiding or leaving the temple, and she was so afraid of the second possibility.
So she pushed more and more into her senses. She used her new powers from the unreleased seal to find the man. But he just wasn't there. She started to panic. She needed to find the guardians.
She rushed out of the room despite her body's protests for rest. She could feel Daichi in the library, and he was the closest, so she headed there. She ran into the room, slamming the door open.
Daichi was sitting at his usual table, going through scrolls. She ran up to him. "Akira-sensei is gone," she said frantically.
"What?" Daichi said, shocked as he dropped the scroll he was reading.
"I found out the truth. He is the same person I meet every night, but as soon as I said that to him, he just ran away." Shiori said, still trying to catch her breath.
"Sit down, Shiori-san, before you fall over. Tell me everything." He said in a serious tone.
"But I need to find him. What if he runs away? I have to…." Shiori trailed off.
"No. He is unable to leave the temple grounds." Daichi said as he got up to force Shiori to sit down.
"But it can't be. I searched everywhere with my chakra. He is not here." Shiori said urgently, trying to get away from the man.
"I promise you that is true. Do you remember when we told you that this temple was made to keep the inside and outside world separate? One of the things that the temple keeps separate is Aira's access to the outside world. The seals would never allow him to leave the temple grounds." Daichi said as he finally managed to get a hold of her and make her sit down.
"What?" Shiori barely managed to get out. The revelation has shocked her too much.
"It is true, I promise you. But it is not my story to tell. You are the one who has to break the curse. We all believe in you. But you have to hurry as time is of the essence. I'm afraid that we cannot help you past this point, so you are on your own." With that, Daichi left the library.
Shiori was left with more questions than answers, but she knew what she had to do.