Background
Suima’s Tiger was the original version of Orensakino, written back in 2019, heavily inspired by Naruto, while I was only able to get to chapter 3 in the original, I only have the first chapter saved, past this
Chapter 1: Introduction
“Before recorded history, a woman from Purpong, discovered she could alter the snow that made up the land around her. Not it’s color, but it’s shape. She discovered she could do this by contracting her muscles and making quick movements with her arms and legs. She was killed shortly thereafter for her unique gift, with people from her village believing her to be a demon, however shortly after her untimely death, people began discovering they had this power too, but it wasn’t limited to snow, nor was it just a way to shape things however they wanted. People could manipulate the state at which a matter was, changing a solid into a liquid and a liquid into a solid. While initially these people were shunned and hated, even outlawed in the south-eastern countries. Ahem, it wasn’t until the middle of the first age that we began to accept these people and the discrimination towards them lowered, at the same time, groups of people started to pop up that specialized in the use of these abilities in darker ways but were governed by no country, military, or man. These groups didn’t gain a name until the second great war. Due to their tremendous help in the war, they were honored in the north, even given military roles, and to keep up, the southern countries had to do similar actions, implementing these groups into our military, as long as they would join. As long as they followed the laws and helped us out in times of need, these groups were given freedom to use their abilities, however they saw fit. These groups were named Shishibuki. Skip ahead some time to today, and we now call those abilities Haichi, and the users Hatsudō. Haichi is the action of manipulating a matter’s phase transition, like vaporization, and melting, by spiritually effecting the pressure of our surroundings and the temperature of an inorganic object, allowing us to change, or arrange, the shape and volume of a material. However most people are only capable of manipulating one transitional phase, or Haichi. Hatsudō count for roughly eighty percent of the world’s population. Uhh… S-something, something, another something. That’s all I got.”
Finally finishing, the boy takes his breath as the rest of the room claps and the teacher says through a deep voice
“Better than your last one, Seiki, though it could have been better.”
With a slow, almost uncaring nod, the boy’s sharp, spiky hair catches the eye of a teacher passing the door, as he lets out a heavy sigh and motions his hand towards his seat, looking to the teacher, as if asking if he could return, to which the teacher replies with a nod before standing, himself, and looking over the class. Walking around his desk and getting to the front of the class, the teacher looks to the students with saddened eyes, taking a moment to let the boy sit down, he speaks up in a soft but shaky voice.
“As you all are aware, today is it. Most of you have decided the next step in your journey.”
The teacher’s lip trembles as he takes a moment, his eyes tearing up as he stares at one student in particular. Continuing only after he’s regained his voice.
“While I’m happy for you all, to have found something that you’re interested in, I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t give you a warning. One that you may or may not have heard by now and one that you may or may not hear again later. It’s true, the shishibuki are considered the best Hatsudos, and are able to do incredible feats, I warn you all that it’s not just give. It’s gained. Their strength is gained from going through the harshest training imaginable. Many people enlist yearly, but only a fourth of them actually make it, and only one fourth make it back home after failing. The other two fourths die…” The teacher pauses for a moment as he examines the whole class as they stare at the unusual scene.
“So before I dismiss class today, I just wanted to tell every last one of you, you are all good kids, and you will be missed. While I doubt you will, I do wish that you either send me a letter or ask your parents to inform me that you’ve made it in or back.”
A few minutes pass as silence fills the room, the students staring in fear, sympathy, and excitement, as one even peered at the teacher with hate.
“It’s okay, Shoko Sensei. Our parents warned us.”
One of the female students let out, as their teacher finishes off his message.
“I’m just trying to tell you all to be careful. Don’t do anything stupid during the training and be cautious.” Continuing under his breath “I hate this time of year.”
With that, the teacher picks up a bell from his desk and rings it, cuing the students to take their leave, with Shoko giving each one a hand shake before they exit the class.
Shortly after this, the student who gave his speech aloud, lets out an excited yell and fist pumps the air as he throws his bag to the ground, getting just outside of school grounds before pointing to the tallest building in town, a tower that dwarfs most of the buildings in the large town. As he points to it, he begins yelling;
“HAH! I TOLD You! Everyone doubted me! But look at here, my future is smelling just fine, isn’t it!? You’re a bunch of bakers, they said, you’ll just get yourself hurt before you even start for the shishibuki, they said. Well I’ll come back only when I’m head of the shishibuki, and that’s what I said!”
As he continues to yell, he feels a sharp pain at the back of his head, causing him to grab it, wincing as he peers back to find another boy walking towards him, rubbing the sore spot, he hears as a higher, almost nagging voice lets out as it’s source crosses their arms as they get closer
“Stop shouting, Kaorai, you’re annoying everyone!”
Kaorai’s frown from the pain turns into a smile upon noticing whose approaching him, leading him to ecstatically wave to them, accompanying it with
“SABANI! How’s it hanging my man!?”
“It’s hanging downwards, your guy.”
“Haha! Man, I thought you already left, I didn’t see you in class!”
Having stood in place, letting Sabani catch up, he passes Kaorai as he turns and begins walking alongside him.
“That’s because I wasn’t in class, I was kind of hoping that loser, Kuremu would be there, buuuut, apparently he’s not as big a nerd as I thought.” Sabani says, giving a sigh before continuing, “Which is where you come in, you know where he is?”
“Kuremu? No, he wasn’t in class either?” Kaorai says below his breath
With another heavy sigh, Sabani tilts his head and looks to the sky as they walk, saying in an annoyed tone as he places a toothpick in his mouth
“Yeah, you two are friends or whatever, right? Where is the kid?”
“Well, if he wasn’t in class, then he might’ve already left.”
“Well, that’d be great, but I was put in charge of telling him… And you, that we’re leaving as a group.”
“We are?”
“Yes, Kaorai, now think, where would he be?”
It takes a couple of seconds as Kaorai seems to stare into space before he places a hang on his chin, saying
“He’s probably with that weirdo.”
Sabani stops, glancing to the dark haired boy as he asks
“Weirdo as in the Rinha?”
“Which would mean he’s probably on the Yakushi roof.”
“Why would they be there?”
As Sabani asks this, Kaorai, completely ignoring him, turns in place and begins marching the opposite way as Sabani follows him.
“Better respond to my next question, paper boy.”
It takes the two some minutes, but eventually they arrive to a tower, one of the largest in the village as Kaorai rubs the back of his head, still hurting as he enters, Sabani just behind.
“Again, Kaorai?”
A feminine voice questions causing Sabani to look to a tall, long orange haired girl as she leans on the counter between them, a sleeved hand propping her head as she gives the two a stern look, a spider dangling from her other hand as it hovers over the counter.
“Wh-What?” Sabani attempts to yell, but falls flat as his hands begin to tremble.
“Not this time, Dobutsume, we’re looking for Kuremu, is he up there?”
“Hmm, dunno, but I heard some yells, so probably.”
The girl says as Kaorai gives a smile and starts for the stairs, Sabani, holding a steady distance from her, keeps his eye on her as he continues following Kaorai until the two reach the top. Sliding the paper door out of the way as the two find the roof filled with smoke before hearing a clash of metal against wood along with the sounds of grunting and huffing, occasionally following it. Kaorai begins trying to blow away the smoke as Sabani steps in front of him, letting out a loud, obnoxious,
“Kuremu!”
The noises settle long enough for the smoke to clear as they find Kuremu breathing heavily in the middle of the rooftop, a couple of scratches and marks along his body as holds a pair of tonfas, his body moving up and down with every breath. Staying in place, Sabani lifts his head, saying,
“I was told to inform you and dumbo Kaorai that the rest of us are going to be leaving in groups, tomorrow.”
Kuremu stares at Sabani, finally regulating his breathing as Kaorai glances to Kaorai with a ‘Hey!’ expression as he continues,
“Tensakami split us into two groups.”
Sabani stops suddenly as the sound of heavy breathing appears behind him, causing him to jump forward and turn around, bringing his hands up in a defensive position as a slender man in a light jumpsuit stands, hunched, behind him, every breath now heard through the respirator that covers the lower half of his face, the top half covered by a pair of goggles that hide his eyes as Sabani lets out a quick, unnecessary, directed,
“AHHH!”
Through long, paused breathes, Sabani feels as though the newly arrived figure stares into his soul as, in between breaths, they say in a deep, masculine voice,
“We are… Aware of this… Juryoku… We were… There.”
Scoffing, Sabani turns around and stares back to Kuremu, asking loudly as he moves his headband up a bit,
“Why do you hang out with this freak?” As he asks this, Kuremu shakes his head as Sabani notices something on his shoulder, turning to see a blade pointed at his throat, with the figure having quickly and quietly moved closer while he turned, glancing to Kuremu as the blade was taken away, Sabani finishes, speaking with almost disgust, “Tensakami said you should be told, thought I’d be nice, seeya!”
With his message said, Sabani turns and leaves, giving Kaorai a final glance, seeing he has made his way into a squat, leaning against the wall leading from the stairs, giving the dark haired man a wave as he exits the roof.
Rain lightly begins to fall as the figure snaps his head to the left as he starts to watch something very closely.
“So, what’re these groups?” the crouched, Kaorai asks as rain lightly begins to fall on them.
“Tensakami, Richaku, and Kakkonosu thought it would be a good idea to make plans and go in groups.” Kuremu responds as he looks to the figure, their attention zooming in on the non-visible entity
“Why?”
“Couple of reasons, however one of the main ones, are the Hatake and Miyaki. The other major reason is the long journey alone wouldn’t be smart.”
“The.. Who?” Kaorai asks, genuinely confused, causing Kuremu to take a double look at him.
“H-Have you.. Never listened to our village history?”
Kaorai gives a shrug as Kuremu continues,
“Never noticed the different sides of the village?”
Kaorai looks to the figure as he is beginning to lower, slowly reaching into his pack before snapping out of it as Kuremu calls out,
“Gaidoshu!”
The figure’s head snaps towards Kuremu, asking after a second of silence,
“Did you see… Them?”
With a smile, Kuremu twirls one of the tonfas around in his hands before looking back to Kaorai, continuing their conversation,
“We’re leaving with Richaku, in the afternoon. Tensakami is taking the Hatake, we’re heading with the Miyaki.”
“You should have been there, Kaorai.” the feminine voice returns, followed by steps as she enters the roof.
“Afternoon, Dobutsume.” Kuremu lets out with, with a nod as she responds,
“Have you really stopped asking if you could come up?”
“Climbing up here is much better a workout than the stairs.”
“I suppose that’s true, but it’s still rude.” Dobutsume remarks with a smirk, looking to Kuremu through the bangs that cover her eyes.”You tell him the groups?”
“I was just getting to that.”
“We’re leaving in two groups. The morning group leaves with Tensakami, and the afternoon groups leaves with Richaku, our groups is us four, Shisei, Sabani, Chikai, Kowasuki, and Kotaru.”
Kaorai looks around for a moment before giving an expression of disappointment, saying in a depressed and defeated tone,
“Oh.. Yujinko goes with Tensakami and I get stuck with Chikai.”
With Dobutsume’s smirk growing, Gaidoshu watching the scene, his respirator being the only form of noise that comes from him, and Kuremu reaching into the pack tied to his belt, Kaorai looks to the sky. The clouds in the sky slowly move along as Kaorai looks back down, now in front of the path leading out of the village.
“Where is that guy?” A spiky haired boy says, pacing in circles as Kuremu lets out
“It’s not even time to leave, Kotaru, calm down.”
“Yeah? Well, we could have gotten a head start.” The boy lets out through his teeth.
Kuremu looks around to the group that has assembled, with most of the members who’re set to leave already there, only one missing as Dobutsume says with a hearty laugh, her grin as wide as ever,
“Hey, Sabani, wanna fight?”
Giving a sarcastic laugh back, Sabani rolls his eyes as he looks to another boy standing off to the side, his head hanging low as he appears to be lost in thought. Several minutes pass before Gaidoshu lets out through exhales,
“They.. Must have… Got him.”
Kuremu gives his friend a glance, seeing him squatting on the edge of the roof of one of the nearby buildings before looking towards the inner part of the village as a figure turns the corner, the hilt of a blade on his back as he walks with a hunch, not as defined as Gaidoshu’s, but still noticeable, shoulders rounded. With a small smile growing on his face, Kuremu looks as the person approaches, Sabani lets out a sigh as he rolls his neck before seeing the figure saying,
“Finally, Chikai! The hell took you so long?!”
Raising his head and furrowing his brow, the figure places a hand on his sword’s hilt before moving it to the back of his head, saying with an emotionless tone,
“I didn’t realise you were waiting on me.”
“Well, you’re here now, so if everyone is ready, it’s already past the time we were supposed to leave.” Kowasuki lets out, brushing the long dark blue hair out of her face.
“Finally.” Dobutsume barks, as Sabani snaps his fingers, looking off to the side, quickly noting to himself,
“Damn it, it was Chikai, not Kuremu.”
Richaku, who had been leaning against the village’s wall, pushes off it, saying through boredness, opening his eyes just enough to see everyone,
“As Kowasuki said, that’s everyone.”
Gaidoshu drops from the roof he had been perched on, rolling as he hit the ground, into the middle of the group, as everyone positioned their bags, turning to leave the village, but are interrupted as Chikai gives the group a soft smile, asking,
“Just wondering, but, why were you waiting on me?”
Everyone stops as Sabani lets out,
“We’re heading to the capital as a group, just someone forgot to tell you.”
“Someone?” Dobutsume quips.
“Ah.” Chikai lets out, taking a moment to think before asking, “Sorry, but, who’re you all?”
The group is taken aback, all of them looking to him for a moment, an awkward silence combs the group, only being broken when Dobutsume says in a questioning manner,
“We’re.. The other students that’re joining the shishibuki. We were in the academy together.”
“I wouldn’t know, I didn’t keep up with the people from there.”
“You and Richaku were in the same class. You trained with us for years.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to keep up with people.” Chikai responds, rubbing the back of his head and letting out a chuckle.
“Isn’t apart of being a shishibuki gathering and retaining information from your surroundings?”
“If there was more important info to keep up with.”
Upon hearing this, a wave of anger fills Kuremu as he goes to say something, but keeps it in, with Richaku instead being the next to talk, saying under his breath,
“Everything has to be such a bother.”
“Okay, we’ll give you the run down.” Kaorai butts in, continuing, “I’m Kaorai, nothing special, then we got Kuremu, one of the more focused people from my class, Gaidoshu, he’s a bit odd, but he’s pretty cool once you get to know him. Sabani, who I’d say the same thing about.”
“Hey!” Sabani interupts, but is ignored as he keeps going,
“Dobutsume, she might not look like much, but she’ll getcha! Kowasuki.. Well, she’s just nice. Kotaru, who is constantly in a bad mood, and then Richaku, who is tied for smartest kid in the academy.” As he goes over everyone in the party, he gives them a point, finishing with, “And then there is you. And that’s it.”
“You forgot someone, dumbo.” Kotaru quips, giving a thumb point to Shisei, who is standing in the corner of the group, turned away from it, looking back to them.
“Ahh! I almost forgot, you also got Shisei.” Kaorai leans in and covers a side of his mouth as he says, “He never does anything.”
“Thanks for the overview.” Chikai responds, giving another chuckle as Kuremu begins walking down the path, the others following shortly after.
Several days pass, with bickering taking up most of the travel, mostly done by Sabani, Kotaru, Kuremu, and Dobutsume. Chikai had found his place in the back of the group alongside Shisei, as Richaku lead the way, Kowasuki just behind him as she and Kaorai tried to keep the peace between the four who kept making arguments. Gaidoshu seemingly disappeared since they left the village.
Forest and plains making up the surroundings, it wasn’t until the fourth day of their journey that they finally found the end of the forest, coming out to see a sight most beautiful. A tower, taller than anything they’ve ever seen before, over a wall that was twice the height of the trees that surrounded them. Both sat on a hill, overlooking a village that surrounded the hill. With the sun setting, Sabani gets misty eyed as the group stops to look upon the capital, the sun setting just behind the hill.
“Alright, start looking for a sight.” Richaku slips out, sitting his bag against a tree.
“A sight?” Kotaru questions, raising a brow.
“Why? We’re there. We see the capital, we can sleep in a bed again!” Sabani lets out, looking to the group’s leader.
“It’s another couple hours walk and everyone is tired, it’ll be after dark before we get there. It would be best to have another rest and spend most of the day tomorrow finding the other group and getting a tour of the place.” As Richaku explains, the other members of the group go looking for a good place to set up camp.
With Kotaru giving a scoff, and Sabani looking back to the capital, letting out a sigh, the group set up camp nearby with the capital in the horizon. The night quickly flies by, with the members of the group taking two hour turns on watch, as they had done all of the previous nights of the journey. Sabani, the second to last to keep watch, finds himself looking at the stars overhead, when he hears the sound of a cart passing by. Curious, he investigates the noise to find a cart, full of bags and boxes, being pulled by a dark bovine, surrounded by a group of men, most of which have a weapon of some kind.
The man leading the group, stops, causing the other’s to stop as well, as they all look to Sabani, who gives them a cheeky stare. One of the men standing to the side of the cart, places a hand in his clothing as the leader of the group questions in a deep, scratchy voice,
“You with anyone?”
Taking a moment to look between the members of the group, holding his expression of superiority, Sabani responds with a tone of ennui,
“No.”
“You know what time it is? You shouldn’t be out here alone.” Offering a hand towards Sabani, the leader of the group continues, “Why don’t you join us?”
“Nah. I can take care of myself.” With a pause, the other members of the group gain a look of surprise as the leader looks back to them. “You heading to the capital?”
Looking back to the boy, the leader asks,
“What’s your name?”
“Sabani Jaidai, soon to be Haichibuki Jaidai.”
“H-Haichibuki?” The leader stumbles, his foot forcing it self to slid back just a bit before the man who placed a hand in his clothing suddenly brings it out, along with it is a stick large enough to catch Sabani off guard, not by it’s sheer size, but the fact that he was able to hide it so well. “You’re with the shishibuki?!” The leader cries out, his eyes widening as the other members surround the cart, with the leader and the guard the only two to not be in any type of formation.
“Y-… Soon?” Sabani replies, unsure as to why the group had such a strong reaction to the statement. “I’m supposed to join tomorrow.”
“And you’re out here training, I see.” the leader says, his voice gaining a shakiness to it as he places a hand in his clothes.
“N-No, I just.. Thought it’d be nice to ca-” The leader cuts him off, responding,
“So we have a lone rabbit, out for a bit of nightly training, do we?! Well, Heiji, I think it’s time for a bit of nightly training for ourselves!” The leader lets out, bringing out a short, curved blade.
“Ra- N-No, I was just, ah, damn it! What are you talking about!?” As Sabani tries to capture the situation, the guard, Heiji raises his stick above his head, holding it with both hands, prepared to swing in a downward motion, saying with a fairly high pitched voice,
“I’ve been looking forward to adding one of you Hatsudō to my Bo’s streak.”
“Why are you wanting to fight a Haichibuki? Aren’t you farmers or something?!”
“No, you idiot! We’re bandits! And Kusanagi offers a great price for Hatsudos.” The leader lets out, lowering his blade, getting ready to rush Sabani. “Especially rabbit Haichibuki.”
“Oh…” Sabani lets out quietly in an already defeated tone. Finding himself frozen, Heiji rushes towards him, going to axe swing his Bo staff into the boy’s head. Thinking to do nothing else, all Sabani can do is quickly and tightly close his eyes.
With a little bit of a scraping sound filling the following moments, Sabani feels nothing, causing him to open his eyes. As he does, he finds Chikai standing between him and the large man, his sword fully drawn, held to his side with his left hand. Heiji’s stick much shorter than it was, he finds the bandit’s eyes nearly popping out of his head, now the one frozen in place, all that he manages to do is let out a breath of fear as the leader begins rushing towards the three but is stopped midway by a rock slamming into his face, coming from a nearby bush behind Sabani.
The with the leader hitting the ground with a thud, his blade falling from his hands to the ground as he holds his face, Chikai quickly raises his blade and swings it across the bandit’s upper body, blood flying from the blade as it exits the other side of the man’s throat before his entire upper body is stained with it, constantly flowing down his body.
With the rest of the bandits watching as their leader and biggest member of their group are taken out effortlessly, one of them slaps their bovine and lets out a command, causing the big creature to start running away, as the members jump on the cart, throwing down some of the bags that filled it.
Watching the cart speed away, Chikai lets out a quiet, but firm,
“It’s not nice to attack civilians.”
Giving Heiji a strong kick to the leg, the brute falls to his back, holding his neck, clinging to the possibility of life, but is too late, dying of blood loss. With his loot gone, his toughest dead, and the rest of his men gone, the leader begins shaking, but not out of fear as Chikai approaches him, instead out of anger.
“You bastard!” The leader calls out, continuing as Chikai croaches, getting eye level with him, “Look at what you’ve done!”
“I was simply defending my company, as far as I seen, you attacked first.” Chikai lets out as Sabani looks to the side, finding Gaidoshu hiding in a nearby bush.
“He said he was alone!”
“What’s your name?”
Lowering his hand to reveal his left eye had been gouged out by the rock, as it went directly into it, the leader goes to grab his blade but isn’t quick enough as Chikai slams his blade on the man’s hand, leading him to wince and let out a gasp of pain before saying,
“I-I’m Ishikawa! Ishikawa Akashi!”
Hearing nothing else for a few seconds, Sabani looks over to see Chikai sheating his blade, causing the same scraping sound he heard when he closed his eyes, he swws Ishikawa’s lifeless body laying on the ground as Chikai stands, and begins walking back towards him.
“You killed them.. Th-That was… Awesome!”
Sabani lets out, watching Chikai pass him, going back towards the camp, saying along the way,
“They were hardly bandits, just some peasants who figured they’d get some haneo from you.”
“You still had them running!” With a chuckle, Chikai looks back to the glowing boy,
“You shouldn’t have left the camp, you were on watch.”
A few minutes later, the two get back to the camp, Gaidoshu disapearing again, as Chikai tells Sabani to get his final bit of rest before the jouney continues, taking his position on watch a bit earlier than planned.
Minutes pass as Sabani finds himself unable to sleep, addreniline filling his body as he tosses and turns, eventually sitting up and asking in a hushed tone,
“Hey, Chikai… Where’d you get that sword?”
Looking to the questioning lad, Chikai looks down for a moment, having taken his blade off and placed it on the ground next to him as he leaned against a tree. A few moments pass before he looks back up, answering,
“Tis was my brother’s. Only thing I have of my family’s.”
“Oh… what’re they dead or something?” Sabani lets out, a bit louder, with no heisitation or care.
“I…” Once again taking a moment to answer, Chikai gives a soft smile, finishing, “I don’t know. The sword and my name are all I have. The people who raised me said my brother left it with me when he gave me to them, and told them my name and our relation.”
As Chikai gives a sad expression, Sabani gives a nod, finding himself getting lost in the thought of his own family tree.
A couple of hours later, the sun warms the sleeping bodies of the rest of the group. With a smile, Sabani starts to pack his things, with the rest of the group starting to wake up, one by one, Richaku being the first and Kotaru being the last. Upon hearing all of the commotion, Kaorai opens his eyes to see Dobutsume stretching as if she were a cat, her head hung low, and her high in the air.
Having been one of the first to wake up, Kuremu finishes packing as Kotaru raises, glancing over the group to make sure everyone is awake, he finds himself pasuing for just a moment as he looks to Kowasuki. Continuing to the next person, he sees Shisei giving him a smile, having witnessed the way he was looking at Kawasuki, leading Kuremu to look away in embarressment, gaining a slight blush.
As he looks away, he finds Gaidoshu whispering something to Richaku as he gives the hunched boy a nod before looking to the rest of the group, letting out a soft, uninterested,
“The path ahead appears to be clear, meaning we should get to the capital, or at least the surrounding village within a few hours.”