Welcome to the next chapter of DxD – The Last Amagiri, but before starting the story. Let's answer some reviews:
Guest: Indra will be mentioned since this is still based around in canon, but I think that adding one of their weapons would be a little much.
Rider126: Taro will get what's coming to him soon enough.
Sonic: Thanks.
Training in the Mountains
On the same mountain where Kensei began his training with the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, he sat down on the ground with a blindfold covering his eyes and legs crossed. There were dirt and scratches as well as some lighter wounds on him from his training with Sun Wukong. As Kensei continued to sit there motionless without using his sight for this part of the test. Said instructor walked around his student holding his Ruyi Jingu Bang spinning the staff around in his hand, however, neither his footsteps or presence could be sensed by the ten-year-old.
This training was meant to train his reflexes in using senjutsu to sense a person's presence and aura at a second notice. Seeing how Sun Wukong as known as a monster for mastering both senjutsu and youjutsu, it was almost as if he wasn't there anymore, which Kensei was sometimes left to believe. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Sun Wukong extends his staff in the direction of Kensei who remained sitting there motionless, while at the same time focusing the smallest amount of touki possible at the tip of his staff.
Due to the overall strength of his legendary weapon, which he used when fighting against demons and even the other gods sometimes, a single hard it would be enough to down an adult male. As such, the simplest could end up with serious injuries. Kensei focused on the small amount of touki channeled at the tip of his staff but seeing he was still new to using senjutsu, his reaction time in using it on and off against was a little menial. However, he was still able to dodge the staff coming at him by moving to his head to the left.
"If possible, I would like to focus on training him more efficient than this," Sun Wukong thought as he called his staff back without saying a single word to give up his position. "Though, despite that this lad is picking up on all of the basics at a quick enough pace to somewhat make up for it. I had planned on teaching Kensei at least one Chinese martial arts and if there was enough time, a second, but if he continues this, then I should be able to teach him the basics in at least three."
Sun Wukong stated in his head before he realized the amount of focus that Kensei was putting in this training to learn as much as he could, while he continued to walk around him without making his presence known.
"He's putting so much focus into training every day, something like this should be a lot slower so that one doesn't overwork themselves. Based on what he explained, he started to train at around seven-years-old when all of his clansmen were almost wiped out. In that period, his mother trained him at the perfect pace so that he could pick up the basics of their Amagiri-ryū. Despite knowing about her son's talent, she trained him slower so that he wouldn't overwork himself each time needlessly."
As that thought entered his mind, Sun Wukong did the same thing as before and channels a small amount of his touki into his staff and aimed it as Kensei. Though this time, he wasn't able to dodge it in time causing him to be sent towards the ground with enough force to knock him over. Having been sent on the ground, Kensei pushed himself over onto his back and started to breathe a little heavier than before. Seeing that caused Sun Wukong to let out a slight sigh as he scratched his head.
"Kensei ended up mentally exhausting himself. Well, at least he did last two hours and a half in that position, then sense at least over fifty hits," Sun Wukong said after noticing the manner his temporary student was breathing as he stabbed his staff into the ground and pulled out his smoking pipe. "Alright, Kensei time to take a break before heading back."
"…alright."
Kensei said as he let a slight breath escape from his mouth, then took off the blindfold that blocked his view.
After being given a break by his instructor, Kensei rested on the ground with his arms and legs sprawled out with his chest rising upwards and descending downwards at a quicker pace. Sun Wukong then lit his pipe using fire-based magic and started to smoke it.
"Hmm, even though sitting down in a meditative stance like that doesn't look difficult, doing some like that can tire you out mentally. I know you're worried about that little girl and your friends, but there are over two more weeks until those devils take her off the island. And with how much you were able to pick up on the martial arts and senjutsu that I taught you, you should be strong enough to challenge those armed humans even if you half-assed this kind of training. Besides it's not like this training will mean you'll be strong enough to take on anyone, this is a training meant to further sharpen your combat skills as well as your physical abilities. The training you'll do later on in life will depend on you."
Kensei listened in to what Sun Wukong said and agreed with him, then while he laid on the ground, he started to circulate his ki to heal his fatigue and stamina. It was apart of the same healing aspect of senjutsu, which Hisui has used to heal Alice. Though he learned the basics of this, he had enough skill to utilize it to remove some of his fatigue.
"So what do you plan on doing after freeing everyone from this Hagun Island," Sun Wukong decided to ask since he was training himself to be able to defeat their captors. "It wouldn't surprise if he says that he wants to take his revenge on the Old Devils who killed his mother. Though I've seen a lot of humans give in to their hatred and kill all the people who've done them wrong in the past and ended up becoming poison to this world. I wouldn't want to end up fighting this kid one day and be forced to take him out."
"…huh? Well, I thought about it or a while and I'll probably end up having everyone living on Hagun Island move into my hometown. There aren't that many kids there who don't have homes to return to, so I thought that it'll be best if they reside in Kibou Town. Besides no matter, their connections, those old bastards or anyone can't enter the territories of the Amagiri Clan without permission due to the protective talismans in normal cases."
Sun Wukong was almost stumped about his response expecting him to say something like, 'I'm going to kill those old bastards'. He was able to easily tell that Kensei wasn't lying and it wasn't that difficult since he knew that this child wasn't the kind of person to lie about something this serious.
"I thought you were going to take revenge on the old devils."
"Oh, I'm still planning on it getting back at those old bastards," Sun Wukong was almost bemused by his honest answer without the slightest bit of hesitance behind them. "Though I'll decide what to do later after freeing all the people on Hagun Island. It isn't like I plan on taking them on as soon as I get out of here, however, it isn't like they plan on just letting all of us go with everything that we know."
Again, it was something that Sun Wukong also knew that due to their nature, there was no way that someone like the old devils would let the ones who knew about their secrets live. Even all of the children on Hagun Island will be eliminated without hesitations.
"I didn't think that you would have thought this through since you seem like the type to charge in without a single thought," Sun Wukong stated as he got to know somewhat about his personality throughout training him. "Was it something else that you learned from your mother?"
"No, it was something I learned from my father. Mom always said that he never made a serious decision without thinking about it first. Though, I heard that as a teenager, my father was courageous yet reckless a lot like my mom was at that age."
After saying that Kensei sat up from the ground and started to stretch his arms after feeling a little better after he mental exhausted himself.
"Well, why don't we head back to Xuanzang's home to eat?"
Hearing that question caused Kensei to stand up with an almost energetic look and at the same time, his teacher called his golden cloud, which both of them jumped on top of.
After a while, both of them arrived at the home of Xuanzang who sat outside in front of a metal pot, which stood above a fire. Kensei was able to smell the contents of the pot even before he landed on the ground and it came more apparent after landing nearby. As soon as he did, he also noted Yu-Long who laid down nearby the cooking metal pot waiting for the food to be cooked.
"Hey, Xuanzang-san."
Kensei greeted him with a bow causing the Buddha to smile a bit.
"How was training with Sun Wukong this time?"
"I'm getting the hang of using senjutsu on a whim at least thanks to Sun-sensei, but there are a lot of things that I need to improve on."
"That's good, but don't get discouraged," Xuanzang replied. "You're making a lot of progress in it considering that it has been just two weeks. Besides are you sure that you don't want to make any requests in cooking, I mean all you've had been eating is noodles or other basics. I thought most kids you're age would've gotten tired of eating the very same thing, I mean I don't mind cooking something else."
"Maybe if I visit another time, I promised myself that I would eat real food with both Claire and the others."
Kensei said without the slightest bit of doubt in his voice caused Xuanzang to look at him with an impressed look.
"Well, then I might as well finish. Also, we'll start the lesson later on."
"Okay."
Kensei replied as he took a seat on the ground near the cooking metal pot with Sun Wukong smirking a bit after blowing smoke out of his mouth. Aside from learning Chinese martial arts and senjutsu from the Sun Wukong, he was also learning several lessons from Xuanzang Sanzang like greater insight into their culture as well as how to speak Chinese. There were also some stories that the former monk told him about their various experience. After Kensei was offered lessons, Sun Wukong thought that he wouldn't be all that interested in learning about things, which had nothing to do with fighting, but he was surprised that someone like Kensei agreed.
"Looks like this kid has more interests than fighting, that's good to hear. It would be a shame if that became his full focus on life like that idiot descendant of mine."
Sun Wukong thought as he started to laugh silently to himself.
As soon as Xuanzang finished cooking the noodles, he poured each of the portions into a bowl for all three other people around him as well as for himself. Unlike Kensei, Sun Wukong, and Xuanzang who were using chopsticks to eat their noodles, the Dragon-King himself in his miniature form was eating his portion in a similar to that of an actual animal. It was the kind of thing that you would expect from the self-proclaimed Liveliest Dragon and also the youngest among the other Dragon-Kings.
Afterward, things went on as planned, Xuanzang started to teach Kensei various things about various subjects such as grammar, which were enough for someone his age to be able to understand. It is sounded like a scholar like himself to sum them up in such a manner. To be honest, Kensei was glad that Xuanzang took the time to do this, but it could be partly due to the monk being a little bored living on the mountain himself. And this also made Xuanzang happy to be able to teach someone most of what he learned himself.
"I'm happy to hear that there is someone your age interested in what I learned during my travels as a human."
Xuanzang said displaying his happiness about Kensei wanting to learn from him.
"Well, I thought that it was the perfect chance to learn as long as I was here," Kensei said as he glanced towards Yu-Long who was sleeping after eating dinner with them. "The second option would be the Laziest Dragon lying down sleep over there."
"Yea, Yu-Long gets like this after eating large portions of food sometimes," Xuanzang said after shaking his head a bit. "They have their differences, but both gods and dragons evil or not are pure beings who devote themselves to their own will and goals. Even if it seems odd to others, it is perfectly reasonable to them. Though there are a lot of them who takes it too far, then people such as Sun Wukong has to be the ones forced to either eliminate or detain them if necessary."
After saying those words, Xuanzang continued along with his lesson with Kensei for almost the remainder of the day since his training with Sun Wukong was already completed.
Later that night, since there were no other rooms inside of the home of Xuanzang, both Sun Wukong and Yu-Long retreated to their residence. The homeowner himself was sleeping inside of his room after a while with his guest being the only person currently still awoke and practicing something outside.
"Gah."
Kensei let out a small grunt as he slipped on the ground landing face-first onto the ground and rubbed his nose as soon as he stood up from off the ground. He thought back to his battle against Hayashi Namikaze and despite all the training that he was undergoing to sharpen his physical and combat abilities, it could be enough to let him fight against the gehenna guard, but their commander was different. Kensei viewed the others as thugs with the knowledge that higher-level beings existed.
All of the gehenna guards were just a ragtag group of people who experienced and lived through various kinds of supernatural events and armed themselves to compensate for it. A lot of them didn't even take their training seriously and just believed that they could handle children.
"But, he's in a different league altogether. I can tell that in swordsmanship he was far more skilled and honed due to years of experience. Hayashi has also trained his sense to make up for his lack of sight and was able to react to all of my movements without giving me a single chance to retaliate. Aside from that, those implants of his made him all the more dangerous. I couldn't react at all let alone notice him moving behind me."
If this training wasn't enough, then he would need something that could give him some kind of an edge when the two of them fight again. This was the reason why Kensei had to complete this new technique before fighting with Hayashi Namikaze again. He stood up again and continued to practice and train again, but he didn't plan on this training for the entire day since Sun Wukong would lecture him for not getting enough sleep. Though unknown to Kensei, Xuanzang was watching him with a smile on his face.
After waking up the next day, Kensei had started doing the stretching that he had been told to do before training by Sun Wukong. He was also dressed in the same gakuran-styled uniform that he packed from his home as well as being the katana that he borrowed from his residence's dojo on his left side. The latter arrived riding on top of Yu-Long and landed in front of him without issues, while the jade dragon remained in his natural form instead of turning into his smaller form.
"Good morning, Sun-sensei."
Kensei respectfully bowed his head with the Monkey King himself patting him on top of his head.
"Good morning, Kensei," Sun Wukong returned the greeting. "Today, we're going to be testing the results of your training so far as well as training your sensing skills using senjutsu."
Hearing that from his instructor caused him to make a confused look since he had just been training for a total of two weeks, but he was also excited about the fact that he would be fighting.
"To do this, we will be going to the mountain where I found you."
"You mean, the mountain filled with several dangerous youkai," Kensei said about a situation that would cause a normal child to be scared, but he wasn't normal as he formed a smile. "Awesome, so is this some kind of test to see how many youkai I can beat?"
"It's something akin to that, but I will explain it in detail after we arrive there."
Sun Wukong said just those words without revealing anything about his idea in this training.
Without saying another word and just exciting about fighting against monsters, Kensei jumped up and landed on top of the head of Yu-Long who lowered down enough to let him do so. After seeing his student excited about the training, Sun Wukong chuckled a bit, then landed on top of the head of Yu-Long and thus giving the signal for the dragon king to fly off towards their intended destination. Having flown at a further enough distance at a far higher altitude, the Monkey King pointed out something to Kensei.
"So, I heard from Xuanzang that you were working on a new technique last night."
Hearing that from Sun Wukong caused Kensei to jump up a bit not expecting for him to be figured out this early.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to lecture you or anything," his response caused Kensei to sigh a bit out of relief. "I'm interested in how he explained what you were doing. Though he couldn't go into full detail, it sounded as if it combined what you learned in the Amagiri Clan and what I taught you."
"Yea, my mom once told me that there have been some people in our clan who modified the Amagiri-ryū to match their preference and this is kind of something similar to that."
Kensei explained causing Sun Wukong to smile a bit.
"Well, if there is anything that you need just ask and I'll assist as much as I can."
The two continued to converse with one another like an actual teacher and student to the point of Yu-Long enjoying listening to the two of them converse like this.
It took just a couple of minutes, but the three of them arrived at a dark location that caused Kensei to shiver up a bit after sensing it. The sensation did feel familiar to him despite him not being conscious at the time where both Sun Wukong and Yu-Long found him. Even if Kensei wasn't informed where he was found, there was no way he could forget this sensation. Based on what he could tell, it expanded out for at least a couple of miles from some of the villages that all of them had just flown past.
After hovering at the top of the mountain, Sun Wukong had informed Yu-Long to stop at this height and he turned to face Kensei.
"Alright, now that we're here, I'll explain the purpose of this training," Sun Wukong started as he turned around to face Kensei. "This mountain, as well as the surrounding area, are filled with at least three-hundred youkai as well as one-hundred demons. Now, little to no humans would dear come near this area since several of their own all started to disappear and those who would come here would at times come to either fight the creatures here or to take some of the fruit or herbs placed somewhere on this mountain."
"You're right, I'm barely able to count the number of creatures that I'm sensing and even trying it starting to make my head hurt just doing it."
Kensei stated as he noticed that the auras of the creatures in the forest and mountain started to appear like blips on a map in his head and counting or locate them would cause him to feel woozy.
"I'm not telling you to defeat all of the creatures on the mountain that would just be too much. Besides a lot of the creatures on this mountain are well beyond your level to handle and that would be possible till you trained until reaching the age of sixteen or older. Kensei what I want you to do is just to sense out the creatures who're near or at your exact level of strength and fight just them while avoiding the ones stronger than you. Though there is no guarantee that you won't at some point come into contact with some creature beyond your level of strength, which is why I'll be sending a couple of insurances for you."
After saying that, Sun Wukong pulled out a couple of strands of his hair off of his head, then blew them off in the air causing them to drift off into several locations in the forest. Afterward, all of them had enlarged and created several clones of the Monkey King himself.
"These clones will be enough to handle the creatures you can't defeat if you run into them and all of the clones will be mostly hidden so that you don't get them to confuse with the others. I'll keep track of your status from on top of Yu-Long here and come to pick you up if you run into serious trouble or get seriously tired."
"Oi oi oi, old man do you expect me to just keep floating up here?!"
"This is the simplest thing that I could ask you to do."
"But, it is boring to just remain afloat up here!"
"Stop being lazy," Sun Wukong replied to Yu-Long who grumbled back at him. "Now, Kensei we'll begin to descend low enough for you to…oh."
As soon as Sun Wukong turned back to face him, Kensei had already jumped off of the back of the jade dragon energetically.
"This is going to be fun!"
Kensei shouted as he descended towards the ground in his unique manner with legendary figures from the Journey of the West to stare down at him.
"Shouldn't we catch him?"
"There's no need for that, he wouldn't jump unless he had a plan on how to land."
Sun Wukong answered the worried question from Yu-Long in a confident manner.
As Kensei continued free-falling with his arms stretched out while laughing causing both the monkey and dragon to wonder if he did have a plan about how to land. It was then that the ten-year-old realized that he was at a high enough, then turned his body towards the ground and reached into his inner pocket. What he pulled out was one talisman, which had magical characters written in ink on them.
"Come forth wind!"
Kensei called out as he held the talisman in his hands as he chanted, then threw it in the direction of the ground that he was quickly approaching.
As soon as it made it towards the ground, it started letting out a brilliant light and generated a burst of wind at the same moment he was about to hit it. This caused him to float off the ground for a couple of seconds before it vanishing into nothing as soon as its purpose was done, thus letting him land on the ground safely. Once Kensei touched the ground, he started to stretch his arms and legs.
"I'm glad that I brought these talismans from home before leaving," Kensei said as he patted the inside pocket he had all the talisman in. "Now, let's get searching for my first target."
Kensei said outside as he started to focus on sensing for the auras around the area using senjutsu, there were some youkai and demons around his general location. Though there were a lot of them who's stronger than himself meaning that he wasn't allowed to face them, there were three―
"Well well, what a sight to behold~"
"I didn't think that I would see this little brat again."
Behind him was the same spider and wolf youkai who found and attempted to eat him, but were all stopped by Sun Wukong before either could sink their teeth into him. The spider woman looked at him salivating after looking up and down his small frame, while the wolf growled at him. And the third demonic-looking youkai had appeared on the side next to him practically standing over him.
"To think that we would all be running into you like this."
The wolf spoke more difficultly with Kensei noting that there must have been something wrong with his mouth or jaw, possibly even both.
"It must have been your fate to be devoured by us."
The demon standing by him stared down on him in an arrogant manner.
"Ah, Onee-sama is practically salivating by just looking at you~"
And the spider woman was looking at him in a way that made him feel uncomfortable due to how suggestive it sounded. Though while all of them were planning on eating him, he used senjutsu to sense the auras of the three and all of them were at or lower than his level.
"Heh, I've heard that line before," Kensei said as he reached for his katana's hilt. "But, there wasn't a single oni or demon who was able to get in a single bite."
Kensei unsheathed his katana directing it towards the young as he turned towards the three creatures who were all staring him down.
"Thanks to that monkey, my jaw wasn't able to heal right," the wolf growled at Kensei was he took on a prepared stance meant to hunt him down. "To compensate for that, let me gnaw on your bones!"
As soon as the wolf crouched down on the ground, it had jumped toward Kensei opening his mouth not as wide it could before. Despite being pounced at by the wolf, he didn't panic since it was a lot slower than the monsters he fought daily as well as due to his training. Kensei then took on a stance, not from the Amagiri-ryū and instead is one of the Chinese martial art he learned from Sun Wukong. A white light was soon released from him, it was the touki that he was able to use before on Hagun Island, but having trained with Sun Wukong, he gained a better handle on using it.
"Oh, did you learn a new trick, but that's not gonna―!"
Before the wolf could make contact with Kensei, said ten-year-old, launched a short-range yet strong punch that smashed into its face causing it to stop in its tracks. It also felt pain transmit across its entire body from the force of that punch causing blood to drip out from its mouth and nose. Kensei was able to tell that there wasn't as much force behind it despite it being faster than it planned since he just learned the basics of it so he needed touki to be able to generate the necessary force required.
"Hmm, this is Bajiquan."
This was the name of the martial art he learned from Sun Wukong named Bajiquan, an external form of Chinese martial art, which focus on dealing short-range explosive power based on how much one has trained in it. But, he isn't that trained in using bajiquan so he isn't able to to generate the same amount of power, which someone who has mastered it could perform as well as being most famous for its elbows and shoulders strikes.
"Don't get cocky brat!"
The demon roared as he aimed his large fist at Kensei, but he soon noticed that Kensei pointed his free hand in his general direction positioning his finger as if prepared to flick it.
"I, as the Amagiri, release a bullet of wind―Fūtan."
A light started to shine in front of his finger with wind gathering around it, then it took form as a miniature shining object. In a single flicking motion, Kensei fired it at the demon standing in front of him making it come into contact with the demon's stomach forcing it back due to the pressure, but also caused greater damage due to the purification aspect of the spell. It was a basic one taught to kids in the Amagiri Clan known as a "Wind Bullet" to deal with weaker demons and evil spirits.
It wasn't enough to defeat him, which was a fact that Kensei knew, he unsheathed his katana and charged in the direction of the demon.
"Amagiri-ryū: Zanmaken!"
His katana let out a bright light as he charged for the demon and slashed diagonally down the demon's shoulder, which killed him in an instant. The demon landed on the ground motionless showing no sign of life.
"Oh, Onee-sama didn't think that you'd be this rough~!"
Again, the spider woman spoke in a tone that sent a chill down his spine, not due to feeling inferior to her, but as a result of how chilling it sounded.
"I swear, every time she talks to me the coldest feelings runs down my spine," Kensei thought as he stared at her with a sideways glance. "Look, I'm not into…creepy spider woman…so step off bitch!"
There was a moment of pause as the face of the spider woman scrunched up as Kensei glanced to the side with an odd look on his face. It was the kind of expression that displayed that those weren't the words that he meant to say out loud and it just came out.
"YOU LITTLE UNRULY BRAT!"
The spider woman exploded as a dark aura radiated from her entire body.
"Why did I say that?!"
Kensei shouted as he jumped out of the way at the same time, in which the woman launched her legs using just enough force to dig into the ground.
"I WAS PLANNING ON MAKING YOU INTO MY LITTLE TOY UNTIL I GOT BORED WITH YOU, BUT NOT I'M GOING TO DRAIN ALL THE FLUIDS IN YOUR ENTIRE BODY!"
"Seriously woman would you just fuck off," Kensei shouted after dodging the purple fluid that was spat out of her mouth and made contact with the tree near him causing the wood to melt. "Wait, didn't grandpa mention this to me before?"
Kensei questioned as he thought back to the words his grandfather said.
'Kensei, there may be a time when you find yourself in a stressful situation and if for whatever reason you end up saying swearing at your opponent. Then there may be sometimes you inherited from your mother. There were some times when Sakura just swears whenever angry or stressed…now that I think back, she does that regardless. Well, in your case it may be defensive.'
"Ah, that may be the case."
Kensei said as he nervously chuckled to himself.
He felt something odd, then moved fast and jumped onto the branch of the tree in front of him and as soon as he did, there was a thick web wrapped around the tree with enough force to crack it.
"Oh~ it's a shame, but I wished that you were older, then Onee-sama would have shown you true pleasure~"
"…."
Kensei went to say something but he stopped, not wanting to get the spider woman again.
From the looks of it, the web also came from her mouth, which means that she could fire off either acidic spit or a strong webbing. This fact was proven as the spider woman spat out poison in his direction melting the branch he stood on top of, then continued as he jumped from branch to branch at a high enough speed that she was unable to get in a clear shot at him.
"You can't keep running little boy~ Just come here into Onee-sama's embrace~"
Kensei didn't respond and thought, he knew from prior experience that he wouldn't be able to get in a clear hit if she were to keep spitting at acid at him. And he didn't want to run the risk of charging in at her in case of some of the droplets of acid spit broke apart and burned him. It wasn't until Kensei glanced at a certain area noticing that there was a familiar shape in the shadows of a tree and jumped down. Seeing him doing that caused the spider woman letting out a creepier laugh and spat out an especially large glob of acidic spit at him. Once he landed on the ground, Kensei picked up that shadowy object and hoisted it up and used it was a shield.
"Hahaha, do you think that rock will be able to…."
"Come forth wind."
Using another talisman, Kensei fired that object in the direction of the spider woman causing her a bit of shock, but it was short-lived as she spat out a large amount of web to act as a shield. This had wrapped the object that he was using as a shield to deflect her acid spit causing her to laugh.
"Hahaha, you gave up your last chance at…huh."
Before she could finish gloating, the spider woman realized that the object used as the body of her comrade, the wolf that Kensei sent flying, who had died as a child of the acid spit.
"Y-You used his body as a shield! What kind of child are….?"
She questioned as she glared at Kensei, but he wasn't in front of her eyes anymore, he wasn't there anymore.
Before long, she felt something stepping on her from behind, before a blade was stabbed into her chest piercing her heart. It was revealed to be Kensei who had used Hiei, a speed technique used in the Amagiri-ryū, in which the user steps out of their opponent's line of sight, then rushes at them aiming at their blindside.
"Why should I go easy on the people trying to kill me?"
"Y-You aren't a normal child."
"Amagiri-ryū: Enzan."
Instead of giving her a response, Kensei channeled ki into his katana, then converted it into flames thus causing the young woman's wound to be set on fire, which soon spread across her entire body even after he removed it from her. From his first short couple of minutes there, he defeated three of the monsters who had tried to kill him.
"Well, that's three creatures of the forest down. Let's see how many more I can beat before the days done."
Having said those words to himself, Kensei began venturing around the forest filled with dangerous creatures.
Several minutes to at least two hours has passed with Kensei since Kensei landed in this mountain. In that period, he found himself running into several monstrous creatures that he had zero chance against just like Sun Wukong had informed him about. In situations like that, he used senjutsu to hide from them, but based on several words from them, a lot of them smelled a mysterious scent from him. Though Kensei could hide in some of the foliage that gave off a stronger scent that kept his hidden.
He also ran into several demons and youkai who were at his level then was able to defeat them, in the end, using what he learned. Though there were some situations where he was able to just knock them out instead of being forced to kill them. A lot of the creatures attacked him without notice not letting him say a single word, but others he challenged to a fight. As such, Kensei didn't have a reason to kill the latter aside from the former who attacked with the pure and simple intent to kill him.
In situations like minutes before where he was unable to run from a stronger creature, one of the clones of Sun Wukong or several of them jumped in to handle it, letting Kensei escape. After the incident, he was sitting on top of a tree that was near a riverbed holding onto a piece of fruit that he picked up off the three. The moment that he took a bite out of it, he was overcome with a sudden sweetness that attacked his taste buds and the juiciness quenched his thirst. Of course, there was fruit that a lot of looks edible, but Sun Wukong told him all the locations where the fruit wasn't poisonous as well as what the inedible fruit looked like.
"Hmm, this is tastier than I thought it would be," Kensei hummed in a manner that looked like any other child his age as he took another bite out of the fruit. "I'm startin' to get used to using senjutsu to sense things."
The sweet fruit was enough for him to almost forget about what he doing there, but then a sudden out of nowhere thought entered his head. Kensei thought back to the conversation that he had with Amaterasu.
"I wonder when I will hear from Amaterasu-sama."
Kensei thought back to her stating that she'd sent a spirit to tell him about when they found a lead in the locations of the magic-circle leading to Hagun Island. Though as that thought entered his mind, there was a sudden noise coming from somewhere around him. It didn't seem to come from the impact of someone's power or aura since he was unable to sense anything using senjutsu, but it instead came from incredible strength.
"I do sense something powerful over there, but there is also some…humans there."
Kensei knew that whatever was attacking them wasn't something that he could fight, but there was a far greater feeling that overcomes. Without thinking about the consequences, he jumped off of the tree in the direction of the others using them as a means of getting to the location.
"I know Sun-sensei said that I shouldn't fight stronger monsters, but I can't just leave those people there."
Kensei thought to himself as he realized that this went against what Sun Wukong had told him not to do, but he is unable to leave people there to be attacked.
He continued to head in the direction of the source of the battle, which Kensei realizing that it was alongside the riverbed that he was nearby. Once he made it to the location where the commotion was coming from, the scene came into full view and caused him to at it in wonder. Along the riverside with its long serpentine body that looked a lot like that of Yu-Long, but it had darkish gray scales as well as not having an aura as strong or dense as the dragon king, but it doesn't change the fact of what it is.
"A dragon?"
Kensei looked and noticed that there was an eastern dragon in front of him. Standing in front of the dragon were a large number of people that the guest came from the nearby village. Around them, there were people dressed in Chinese themed clothing as well as some of them being armed with weapons such as metal staves and swords. Standing behind them were people dressed in normal grabs and a lot of them carrying a sack filled with what he believed were herbs and plants.
It was just as Kensei was told from Sun Wukong, some villagers would risk anything just to come to the mountains for various necessities.
(Don't let the dragon get to the villagers behind us. There are people in hometown in desperate need of all of the herbs were gathered.)
Kensei noticed that they were speaking Chinese, which due to all the lessons courtesy of Xuanzang, he was able to somewhat understand what a lot of them were saying.
(I know that, but it's not like it'll just let us run away.)
(That's why some of us will remain here and keep it at bay.)
Their plan made sense, but it wouldn't be a guarantee that none of them would be able to fend it off long enough to let the others get away in time. After making his decision Kensei started to get himself prepared.
(No, we can't ask any of you to do that.)
(There are a lot of people who needs those medical herbs and if sacrificing ourselves that everyone will get them, then that is a risk that I'm willing to make.)
(He's right!)
(Yes!)
After making their decision, the martial arts began to fire themselves up to face the dragon standing in front of all them. The dragon had decided not to wait anymore charged in the direction of the martial artists and villagers in an attempt at barring its fangs at them. Before it could move there was a sudden object thrown using just enough force that it was able to catch its attention.
(Was that a piece of fruit?)
(Who threw it?)
"That which is born from the clouds, descend and shock thine enemies."
Thrown in the air around the dragon were several talismans, which formed a pentagram and soon gave off a light, a large amount of lightning was brought down on top of it. Several bolts of electricity were sent throughout its body shocking it. Afterward, Kensei stood in front of all of them pointed his katana at the dragon who was shocked by the attack brought down on top of it.
(I…hold it all…so all of you leave.)
Kensei spot in some of the Chinese he learned from Xuanzang, but he couldn't say that he was fluent in it, but it was just enough for him to send his message to them.
(This isn't the time for jokes!)
(There's no way, that we're leaving a child to fight for us!)
He was unable to get all of the people behind him to leave this to him, but Kensei wasn't able to blame them as he was indeed a child in their eyes. There wasn't a single thing that he could think up to convince them to leave, but there was something that he could do. He focused his ki into his blade causing it to shine with a bright white light, then he brandishes his sword releasing a slash of ki that came into contact with the dragon.
(Did he just use his chi?)
(A child his age?)
(Maybe he isn't a normal child.)
Kensei could hear the words coming from them, then he turned towards them with his eyes radiating a strong fighting spirit. All of the martial artist behind him could sense his resolve to fight and none of them were at all able to question him.
(Those carrying the herbs will run in the middle along with us.)
(Are you seriously leaving this child here to fight alone?)
One of the villagers questioned.
(I hate to admit this, but he is the only one who has a chance against this dragon.)
(We can't let the chance he gave us slip.)
The martial artist had talked back causing the villagers to reluctantly agree with them, but they looked back at the child as he stood and faced the child. Though as planned, all of them followed the martial artists who acted as all their guards.
Seconds later, the dragon recovered from being stunned and charged forwards towards the villagers again, then Kensei directed his sword downwards with its point touching the surface of the river. Then he after took a single breath, he rushed in the direction of the dragon with both his hands positioned on the hilt of his katana. Using his touki, Kensei raised his physical abilities and channeled ki into his blade causing it to shine with a bright light. He focuses his strength into his legs and rushed, then jumped in the direction of the dragon.
"Amagiri-ryū: Zanmaken!"
Kensei brandished his sword aiming at the face of the dragon causing a wound that caught its attention, forcing him to face away from the villagers and martial artists letting him escape. Once he landed on the ground, he had jumped into the ground at the same moment that the dragon aimed its tail at him in a manner like a whip. Kensei was able to avoid it, but its tail continued knocking away several trees.
"This thing is stronger than all the monsters that I faced in the Gehenna Tournament."
It the air, he channeled ki into his blade again and released a slash in the direction of the dragon hitting its face while causing an explosion that blinded it for a moment. Once he landed on the ground, Kensei rushed towards the dragon with his blade in his hand, while reaching into his pocket and pulling out talismans. At the same time, the dragon regained its vision and again aimed its tail towards Kensei. Following the timing, he threw his talisman in the direction of the tail and formed a barrier in front of him.
Slam! Crack!
As soon as its tail came into contact with the barrier, Kensei jumped over its tail and started to let out a series of slashes into the back of the dragon, but none of the attacks were barely able to make a dent.
Crack!
After a while, several shards flew into the air, it originated from the edge of the katana, causing Kensei to stare at the chipped edges of his edge. Though he had channeled his ki into the blade, his katana still cracked after it had come into contact with its scales. After noticing the dragon beginning to move and aimed the tip of its tail at him, Kensei propelled himself away from the dragon. It resulted in Kensei landed in the river and the dragon turned in his direction and started to slam its tail down several times causing the ground to shake. Though he was able to avoid its tail, the dragon continued to slam its tail onto the ground confusing the young boy.
Shake! Spike!
Once Kensei heard and felt the ground below him shake, then an earth spike was aimed at him forcing Kensei to use his katana to block the point of the spike. Though he was forced off the ground and pushed into the air which left him no almost little option to avoid other attacks aimed at him. Before he knew it, the dragon had fired several earth bullets at him while he remained in the air. Without any other option to defend himself, he wrapped himself in touki to defend himself from the onslaught of earth bullets, but he could still feel the force behind the attacks.
A cloud of smoke was formed in the air due to all the earth bullets aimed at him, then he fell towards the ground still wrapped in his touki. Falling along with him was the broken half of his katana, while the hilt, which still had a blade attached to it remained grasped in his right hand. The dragon stared at Kensei who had his eyes closed in a manner that caused it to believe he lost consciousness, leaving its victory assured its posture surfaced.
"…!"
In a single moment, his eyes shot open and reached his left hand towards the broken half of his blade at the part where the blade had broken off. And he used the same spell from beforehand.
"I, as the Amagiri, release a bullet of wind―Fūtan."
Kensei fired off another wind bullet, but this time, he used it to launch his broken blade towards the dragon and it was stabbed in the dragon's eye.
"Raaaaaawr!"
The dragon let out a painful scream as its eye had been pierced by a blade with blood oozing out from its wound, which caused the dragon to go berserk.
At the same moment, Kensei landed on the ground letting out a painful grunt, but there wasn't much damage due to him using his touki. But, the impact from all the rock bullets did rough him up a bit causing bruises and caused him to let out a series of painful breaths. Though he was unable to remain on the ground for long as the dragon rushed at him with the intent of devouring him, which caused Kensei to push himself off the ground as the dragon bit into the ground where he laid.
The dragon unstuck himself on the ground crushing the rocks that were in its mouth and continued to pursue its target caught up in its wrath. A darkish gray aura started to radiate from it causing a shivering sensation to run down his spine as the dragon also seemed to break under its pressure. And through the use of senjutsu, he was able to tell that it was way different from before. This caused him to recall something his mother said.
'Kensei among all the creatures in this world. I believe dragons are ones you should be careful angering even if it is a low-class one, dragons will continue to pursue their target, even more, fiercer and stronger than before.'
"This is what my mom meant about that."
Kensei was unable to consider it anymore as the dragon continued to pursue him and aimed its tail at him, then using whatever of his katana was left, he blocked its assault and braced himself for its result. But, the impact was enough to send him back into a nearby tree cracking it on contact. Not wanting to fall, he used the tree as leverage to keep that from happening.
"This is my first time fighting a dragon and I can see where mom was coming from."
Kensei breathed out as he bent towards the ground as the dragon charged at him.
He could still feel the pain on his back and that would keep him from moving as fast as before, but the dragon is in hot pursuit of him. As he thought about what to do next, his mind went back towards what he had been trying to complete for the last couple days.
"I wonder if I can pull it off."
Kensei thought as he got into the position that he used during his training, then at around the same moment as the dragon would have bitten into him.
Suddenly, the dragon felt the tree that Kensei was standing in front of him breaking under the pressure of its jaws and break into several pieces. But, it couldn't feel the bones of a person breaking nor his blood entering its mouth a taste that he recalled from others it has eaten. The dragon uprooted what remained of the tree and threw it a far distance and looked for Kensei who seemed to vanish.
"That which is born from the clouds, descend and shock thine enemies!"
Kensei once again threw his talisman into the air forming a pentagram, then a lightning bolt came out from it, hitting the broken half of the blade that remained in its eye sending a bolt of lightning into it.
"Raaaaaawr!"
The dragon let out a painful roar that seemed to travel a great distance causing the nearby birds and animals in the air to fly or run away from the area. Kensei was revealed to be in the dragon's blind spot holding his hand out in its direction and let out a couple of breaths as he sat in the river. From that last attack, the dragon fell onto the ground motionless.
"*Sigh* That was tough. I thought that this thing was going to kill…me."
Once those words left his mouth, Kensei heard the dragon moving again and turned towards him angrier than it was beforehand. It roared again and caused at the young child who stood up again pointing what remained of his katana at it. Though there was something that neither Kensei or the dragon expected. From the skies above the dragon, a larger creature covered in jade scales crashed down on top of it causing the dragon to shake to where he was lifted into the ground due to the impact.
It was revealed to be Yu-Long who used his dragon claws to slam the dragon's head into the ground causing its blood to spurt out from its mouth.
"Oi oi oi, I'm not letting you kill this kid," Yu-Long said defensively. "He's the only one that I can have a normal talk with aside from the old men and he bought me good food."
Kensei laughed a bit after hearing Yu-Long's reasoning, but he later witnessed Sun Wukong who stood on top of the dragon's head jump down and landed in front of his student.
He was unable to tell what kind of look that Sun Wukong was making, due to his black shades, but there was an intense presence looming off of him.
"He looks pissed! Is this mad that I disobeyed him?!"
Kensei wondered as Sun Wukong continued to walk towards him causing the young child to bow his head apologetically.
"I told you not to fight the creatures stronger than you," Sun Wukong said in a tone that displayed what he felt about the manner. "And then you go around and disobey me and fought against this dragon almost getting yourself killed in the process. If Yu-Long and I didn't step in then you may have died and left all those kids on the island including that little girl you cherished. Kensei, will you fully accept the consequences of your actions?"
"…yes."
It wasn't the kind of response that would sound halfhearted, but he didn't regret what he did and was happy that he was able to rescue those people from the dragon. It was something that he would do again even if he were to redo this situation many times. And he was already prepared to accept whatever punishment that he was about to be dealt for disobeying the instructions of his teacher.
"Alright, then here it comes."
Sun Wukong raised his head, however, instead of bonking him on the head like he had done before whenever he had done something wrong. He instead petted Kensei on the head in a gentle manner causing the ten-year-old to look and noticed the proud smirk on the face of his instructor.
"I'm glad that I don't have the kind of disciple who would just abandon people in desperate need of help. Though some people would've followed an order like that without hesitation if it came from someone with a higher position like mine, there are times when one needs to disobey and request to save another life no matter the punishment that they would receive in the end."
"The old man does still have that mischievous side of himself from his youth. You should have seen him after you jumped in to rescue those humans."
Hearing those words from someone such as Sun Wukong hit Kensei in a certain spot as well as the testimony of Yu-Long who removed his hand from the dragon that he knocked out. It was enough to almost make Kensei tear up a bit, but he held it in and instead gave a big childish smirk after being praised like that.
"Wait, where those villagers able to get away?"
"You don't have to worry about that. The villagers almost ran into monsters, but I sent my clones to handle all of them before they ran into them. All of them were able to make it back to their home and you may have saved a lot more people due to them taking those herbs home."
"That's good," Kensei said with a gentle smile before glancing at his broken katana. "Though, I'll need a katana to replace the one that broke."
"Well, then I have some good news. Xuanzang had sent a message and informed me that the Chief-God of the Shinto Faction had requested that you return and meet one of their faction's important assets who just so happen to be a famous swordsmith. As well as to inform you that they found what you're looking for. So, I think that it will be a good idea to leave out tomorrow."
Hearing those words caused Kensei to feel a sudden hint of jubilation and thanked Amaterasu. Slowly, but surely he was getting closer and closer to being able to see everyone again, but there was a part of him that was also a bit interested in the identity of this swordsmith who had just a high standing with the other Shinto gods.
A/N: And there goes the tenth chapter of DxD – The Last Amagiri, in this chapter we went back to Kensei who was training with the Monkey King himself and showed a lot of progress in learning senjutsu. There were also a lot of things that he was learning from Xuanzang, while Yu-Long laid on the sidelines. Kensei later returned to the forest and showed his progress against the monsters who almost killed him after he was first sent there to die. He also put up a decent fight against the dragon was that attacking the people from the village. In the end, Kensei was saved and praised by both Sun Wukong and Yu-Long. And in the end, he was given some interesting information.
So, until next time.
Kensei's Harem: Alice, Claire, Hisui, Kunou, Lu Lingqi, Mirana, Sarah, Minako, Koneko, Kuroka, Ravel, Amaterasu, Brynhildr.