NoGift

She wasn"t really particular with all the details.  All she knew was that he sieged a castle of a certain warlord of Kano, kill all the people inside and managing to do that all by himself.  But because of what he did, he garnered a lot of enemies.  He had been hiding from all those people since.  Not because he"s afraid of them, of course.  Knowing his master, he"s probably just too lazy to deal with them.  Heck, he couldn"t even be bothered to shave his stubbles, why would he even care about those people?

This person, who looked like a member of a punk-rock band, was most probably from Kano.  As evidence of that shuriken he kept on throwing.  Argent really didn"t think much when she saw him throwing those.  But when he mentioned her master, she couldn"t help but think of that possibility.

He only mentioned her master when he saw her move and fight.  He only related her master to her because of that.  Which meant that he was quite familiar with her sword technique - the Sui-Ryu style.  Although Argent was not familiar with the life of his master before they met, she knew that all the things that made him famous all happened in Kano.  So the people who could recognize his swordsmans.h.i.+p at a glance could only be from Kano.

She raised her guard up and instead of answering, she immediately attacked the man.  

Kazumi didn"t really expect the teenager to answer.  He took out a kunai and met the sword coming at him.  The two weapons collided, producing sparks of light.  "I haven"t seen anyone using Sui-Ryu for almost a decade.  It"s quite nostalgic.  You just used [Mizukodo] and [Ikkaku] earlier, right?"

Argent was not surprised when she heard this.  After all, she already deduced that the guy was familiar with her sword style.  If she was surprised by one thing, then it was the fact that he could accurately name two of the 12 core techniques of Sui-Ryu style she used earlier. 

"s.h.i.+ngen must be doing really well these past years.  Even accepting an apprentice.  Somehow, that makes me really, really... mad," he continued.   

Argent ignored him.  But him directly calling her master by his name must meant that he knew her master personally.  Then she noticed his little movement of throwing a kunai at her feet using his free hand.  She jumped back.  But when she was about to land, another shuriken flew to her direction.  By its trajectory, she could see that it would land at the same time as her and on the exact same place as her.    

Her pupils shrank.  She didn"t hesitate and immediately used [Kouki].  It"s a technique that could make her weightless for a few seconds, allowing her to use the air currents under her feet as a temporary foothold.  This made her stop at the middle.  While airborne, she didn"t waste time.  She raised her sword and used [Ikkaku] once again.  But she didn"t stop there.  She immediately followed it up with [Habu].

Two explosion suddenly sounded.  One was from the kunai Kazumi threw first, and the other was from the shuriken.  Who would have thought that none of those two actually hit the teenager.  Instead, a big, straight slash came down on Kazumi.  He sneered.  Although he was a bit surprised, with his good reflex, he managed to avoid it with no problem.  What he didn"t expect was that the moment he moved to the right, another slash was waiting for him.  This time, he had no chance to avoid it.

Kazumi gritted his teeth and flipped back but that slash still hit his left leg, producing an almost five-inch long wound.  The wound was shallow but it still irked the h.e.l.l out of him.  How long had it been since he was last wounded?  And it was still caused by the apprentice of s.h.i.+ngen.  

But before he could show his anger, something dropped on his shoulder.  He looked up and saw one of the teenager"s feet stepping on him, causing him to move a few steps back.  Then he saw him planning to kick the side of his head using his other foot.  Of course, he wouldn"t just stand there and do nothing.  Being stepped on was humiliating enough.  There"s no way he would take all these lying down.

Kazumi held the ankle of the teenager"s foot that was about to kick him.  He gripped it so tightly that if it was an ordinary person, their bone would definitely be broken by now.  But Argent Blackbourne seemed to not feel anything.  Instead he thrust the sword downward, directly towards Kazumi"s forehead.  

Kazumi didn"t let go, as probably what this guy was expecting.  The moment the thin sword came down, he flexibly moved his head to the side.  It still caught the side of his ear.  But he didn"t care.  A kunai appeared in his other hand.  He did not forget to put his Mana in it before quickly stabbing it on Argent"s calf.  Then he let go of the teenager"s ankle and jumped backwards, waiting for the explosion to happen.

But the expected explosion didn"t happen.  The only thing he saw was the blood staining Argent"s pants.  

He suddenly felt like something was wrong.  How could this kunai not explode?  He was sure that he put his Mana in it.  His Gift worked in a way that when he put his Mana in any solid object and once that object hit another solid object, it would definitely explode.  That"s why whenever he threw something that was infused by his Mana, it would definitely explode the moment it hit something.  The size and power of the explosion depended on the amount of Mana he put in an object.

Even if he infused a little amount of Mana in that kunai, it would still cause a small explosion.  He was already expecting the little duke"s leg to explode, scattering his meat and bones.  He was even imagining that beautiful face writhing in pain.  But instead, all he got was a bit of blood and the teenager"s still indifferent face.

Kazumi"s first thought was that this Argent Blackbourse did something to mess up with his Mana.  So he threw another shuriken towards the direction of the teenager, infusing it with as much Mana as he could.  

Argent furrowed her brows.  Because the moment the man threw the shuriken, she could already feel the large amount of Mana inside it.  Instinctively, he felt that this one would cause a much bigger explosion than normal.  So she used [Mizukodo] to be as far away as possible from the area of explosion.

Her guessed was right.  When that shuriken hit the ground, a large explosion powerful enough to wipe the surrounding trees and shake the ground happened.  Smoke formed and slowly drifted upwards.  Even if Argent already moved far, she was still blown away and her back hit a tree.  Before she could steady her feet, someone already gripped her neck and pushed her back towards the tree.    

Kazumi"s eyes behind the mask was s.h.i.+ning brightly while looking at Argent Blackbourne.  With the explosion that just happened, he could prove that there was nothing wrong with his Mana.  Then that meant that the problem lay with this person.  

Suddenly, all the thoughts of Hattori s.h.i.+ngen was thrown off of his head.  Even the fact that Luce seemed to give Argent special attention was easily forgotten.  All he could think of was how to check if his Gift would not really affect this person.

An almost bloodthirsty smile appeared on his face.  "Say, if I stab you right now, would you really not explode?"

He took out a kunai and stabbed it down towards Argent.