Wild Worlds Await (Musashi x Kimbra)

[SuperSaiyanMusashi]

Padded wooden weapons bounced off each other with wild speeds as 2 warriors continued their duel. One had blue hair, wore a white karate uniform, and had crazy blue hair worn in a spiky tail, and wielded a pair of padded staves. The second had her black hair tied back in small tail, wore an orange mini-dress, and wielded 2 smaller weapons, both padded for safety. The clashes continued until their weapons and hands were caught together an odd knot. The first warrior, grabbed his female opponent by the forearm and slammed her overhead on her back, though he appeared to be holding back his immeasurable strength. The prone female looked up her attacker and snapped a finger on her free hand, causing a flash of light to blind him. She hopped back up, grabbed him by the shoulders and buckled his leg, causing him to fall on his back while his eyes slowly recovered from the sudden light flash. She was about to pretend to impale the young man until he piped up, "Aunt Kaede, you know I can't use Ninpo; you call that a fair duel?"

Kaede, a seasoned kunoichi, advised her student, "Musashi, your enemies are going to have powers you don't. If you really plan on carrying on our noble purpose you'll have to accept that. And practice against it in training."

Musashi realized, "Oh yeah.."

An older samurai walked out into the yards behind the great pagoda and summoned, "Hate to break up your little sparring session but it's happening again!" Hearing of his omens, Musashi and Kaede dropped their practice weapons and briskly returned to the home to convene in a chamber underneath the ground floor. On the way, they passed by a series of paintings in which they themselves were depicted in settings about their home. Also portrayed in the images was a boy, who, when drawn next to Musashi, looked about 4 years older.

In the center of the lantern lit basement stood a small box resting upon a pillar. Inside the box, a white flame danced around in ways atypical of natural fire. The elder samurai rested a hand atop the box, and his family members soon did the same, allowing a surreal vision to fill their heads. Musashi's curiosity soon turned to horror as he heard the screams of suffering and saw odd images of human soldiers turning into glowing-eyed, skeletal swordsmen. After another minute, the visions cleared, returning the viewers to reality.

"There's an Oni in that world..." Musashi realized. His longtime caretakers nodded as Musashi continued, "..we have to go there and catch it before any of those things we saw happen! Okay dad, you ready?"

Musashi's adoptive father shook his head lightly, "Actually, son..it's your time."

Musashi looked shocked. "You're..not coming? We always hunt these evil monsters together!" Hoping for backup, he turned to his honorary aunt and longtime mother figure, "Aunt Kaede?"

Kaede looked to her veteran partner as she checked, "Samanousuke? It's your knee isn't it?"

Samanousuke nodded, "It's still ailing from crushing blow I suffered last time we fought an Oni-mutated warlord. If I take another hit like that in the next month, it could suffer permanent damage."

Kaede also lamented, "And I can't go with you either; there's reports of unrest in neighboring kingdoms. If I don't keep the youth in our town up on their training, we will all be danger!" She then encouraged, "Besides, Musashi: you're over 20 now. You have it in you to succeed without your father or me supervising you."

Samanousuke added, "She's right, son; I'm getting older. I can still swing a sword for now once my knee has healed, but I won't always be here when Oni threaten the outer worlds. You are the future of the realms!"

"Alright," Musashi agreed, feeling odd about his first intentional solo mission, but also feeling his natural bravery and love of battle start to take over. "I better get there before..whoever that Oni found starts to realize how dangerous his new powers are!" he declared. He hugged his aunt, gave his father a light, one-armed shoulder hug, then walked outside the family pagoda, pulled out a little yellow recorder, and played a 6 note song with it. Moments later, a little whirlwind, not much taller than Musashi himself, started spinning in front of him. He jumped into it, at which point the tiny tornado vanished, and Musashi with it.

The bright yellow sun shined high in the deep blue sky, sharing its warm light upon the busy city as its many finely-dressed inhabitants walked, shopped, conversed, and entertained in a variety of unique ways. Just barely noticing that he had come upon a city was a strong, oddly-dressed young man with a long, spiky, blue ponytail and bright eyes in a lighter shade of blue. He wore a white martial arts uniform decorated in red and yellow, his solid chest muscles slightly visible where the lapels crossed. He had 2 swords on him, both in their sheathes: 1 was slim and curved, its scabbard affixed to his white belt, the other heavy and straight, stored on his back. He occasionally looked up to see where he was going, taking care not to bump into any of the busy people, but much of his attention was focused on a yellow and red armlet he wore.

Reaching a fountain near the center of the opulent town, the samurai stepped around the 4 different sides of the flowing fountain and tapped his wristband once each time. When he did, the article would squeeze his wrist with varying degrees of strength, as well as tug his hand in another direction, each of the 4 attempts seeming to converge upon one particular path. Finally, emitting a slight, "Hmm," he sat upon the stone bench encircling the watery decoration and took a moment to look around. Observing the people about, who were likely oblivious to the impending threat upon their whole land, Musashi felt the pressure of his job's demands weigh on him.