Dokeshi March ~ 20!

They didn’t stop running until late into the night. The two of them had split up, come back together, moved onto rooftops when possible, doubled back a few times, and even set up a fake campsite inside an old bakery. Thick smoke slowly drifting from a partially blocked oven chimney would hopefully make it harder for any tracking animals to follow the trail, especially since they hadn’t stuck around long enough to get all smoky.

Suki had eventually found a recently abandoned blacksmith shop for them to hide their actual makeshift camp in. They were even within sight of the casino, which would be necessary for them to move through in order to reach the next area. Once they had laid eyes on the place, it had become readily apparent why no one could just hop over the casino walls.

“He isn’t just tapping into the power of the barriers to power his system. Dokeshi March is a madman! He’s draining the energy to create his own miniature barriers!” Suki was pacing back and forth, clenching and unclenching her fists. “No wonder the barriers in February were acting up and creating disasters. How many deaths of innocent people can we lay at that monster’s feet?”

Her gauntlets flickered in and out of existence, and her voice dropped to a whisper. “Just so he could sift his people, based on how well they gambled in his stupid casinos? He killed hundreds for the sole purpose of keeping the unlucky ones away from him?”

“It won’t matter much longer.” Grant once again felt a wave of determination wash over him. “We’re here to remove him from power, and that means making him pay for his crimes.”

“Oh, what, will you cut off his head, too?” Suki spun to face him, her gauntlets doing more than just flickering. They practically *clanged* into their full form. “Let me guess: killing him is your answer to this issue as well?”

<I’m just a sword spirit, but I wouldn’t answer that.> Grant closed his mouth just in time to prevent himself from letting loose the barrage of justifications he had been building in his head since the first time Suki had lashed out at him. Sarge was probably correct, and looking like a fool wasn’t going to help him. <Smart choice.>

“Suki. Give me your dirty laundry.” Grant held his mostly-healed arms out. “I saw a full rain barrel out back, by the forge.”

“What?” The rapid change of subject caused Suki’s gauntlets to unconsciously fade back into gloves. “Give you… my laundry? Why would I do that?”

“Remember? We made a deal. I have to do your dirty laundry for the rest of the month.” Grant pointedly roamed his eyes over her stained clothing. “We might not get another chance for a while, so I’ll scrub clothes while you whip us up something to eat.”

“That’s… you! Changing the subject…? Okay.” Suki took a deep breath, seeming to realize just how close she had been to losing control. That fact clearly bothered her. Not only due to the recent deaths, but the control structure in place would be hard for anyone to stomach. As a leader that she hoped others would aspire to be, Suki was used to putting the people first, making sure that potential wrongs in District March either never happened in the first place, or were severely punished. “At least you honor the deals you make, even if they’re punishments. Also, I’m washing my own underclothing.”

“Thank you?” Grant smirked at the thought. Personally, he didn’t see what the issue was, but it was funny to see her blush more the longer he held his laughter in. “Less work for me. I saw you bending pretty far when you were fighting, I figured I’d need to really work to get those clean.”

Suki’s blush faded slightly, and her face hardened as she remembered how the night had started. Hurriedly turning away, she picked out her more private pieces of clothing, then pushed over a surprisingly large pile to Grant to wash. He sighed as she looked anywhere but at him, and he couldn’t help but wonder how she had fit all of these garments inside the tiny pack she carried. He gathered everything and grumbled so softly that only Sarge could hear, “Is it just that I have never interacted with them, a Suki-specific thing, or are women truly this strange?”

<Kid, you have no idea. You think they’re mysterious now; just wait until they’ve had hundreds of years of practice befuddling people. You’ll think you know what’s going on, then… bam! You’re ripped outta your body and distilled into a sword.>

“What…? Is there more to that story?” Grant’s question went unanswered. He shrugged, and after setting up a line from the corner of the main building to the forge to hang the wet clothes on, Grant unwrapped a small package that contained a brick of lye soap and started scrubbing the soiled shirts and pants in the rain barrel. He found a depressingly large number of blood stains, mostly on his stuff. With his hands busy but his mind free, he worked methodically under the starlight and pulled up his stat sheet to study the changes.

Name: Grant Monday

Rank: Lord of The Month (January, February)

Class: Foundation Cultivator

Cultivation Achievement Level: 19

Cultivation Stage: Late Summer

Inherent Abilities: Swirling Seasons Cultivation

Health: 403/421

Mana: 22/22

Physical: 247

Mental: 87

Armor Proficiency: 131

Weapon Proficiency: 166

Weapon Absorbed abilities:

1) Sword Grandmastery: Imbue your weapon with a sword spirit that creates a model that allows for enhanced physical, mental, and weapon cultivation. Restriction: the training plan must be followed, else the ability locks for 24 hours. There is only one warning given per day.

2) Live by the Sword: Pause and meditate on the failures of your combat ability, healing up to 40% of all damage taken within the last 10 minutes, over one full minute. This ability will increase with physical cultivation.

3) Double Tap (NEW): After four consecutive hits on the same target, the fifth attack will be perfectly duplicated by an intangible copy of the Wielded Weapon. Damage is unblockable by all forms and types of armor, and effect is randomized between slashing, piercing, and blunt damage. Certain spell effects can potentially mitigate damage.

“I can think of some interesting uses for this.” Grant was especially happy to see the new absorbed ability. “It might not be too useful in a group fight, but in a one-on-one duel? They literally won’t know what hit them. A new ability is always great, and it looks like Live By the Sword got stronger? Nice! Increasing how much I can heal up is pretty important. I like not being in pain.”

<You shouldn’t just focus on abilities. You might not always have them, or be able to access them. The only things that are yours are your cultivation, and growing into the Late Summer stage of cultivation pumped up the damage you can deal out, gave you more mana—that’ll allow you to use your spell twice in rapid succession—and produced a huge upswing in health.> Sarge sounded grudgingly pleased to see Grant’s rate of growth. <If you keep this up, you just might have a chance to pull this off. Also, you should know that you rubbed a hole through Suki’s nice shirt with that rough bar of soap.>

“No!” Grant dropped the soap into the barrel and had to practically take a bath to fish it back out. Quickly inspecting the shirt, he found that he hadn’t actually worn all the way through the fabric, but it was close. He hoped Suki wouldn’t notice.

<Oh, she definitely won’t notice. I think you’ll be just fine.> Grant let out a huge sigh of relief at Sarge’s affirmation, stopping short at the subsequent snort. <Remind me to add ‘how sarcasm works’ to get in the rotation for training sometime soon.>

Ignoring the snooty sword spirit, Grant finished up the laundry and hung it on the line to dry. The slack twine drooped low enough that a casual passerby wouldn’t notice it, and the breeze blowing through the small yard should be enough to get the clothes dry enough by sunrise.

“I made stew again.” The quiet voice of Suki standing behind him made him jump slightly and take a defensive position by instinct. He’d been so caught up in the simple and familiar task that he hadn’t heard her approach. “I hope that’s not going to be an issue.”

Grant gave her a nod of acknowledgement, and they both returned to the dilapidated building. It was awkward between the two of them, so Grant used the silence to pick through the fruits and vegetables from the crate he had won at the casino. A few items had been bruised by the explosion on the bridge, but overall, the food looked unexpectedly decent. He was surprised to find a lack of poison or powder on them from the casino manager.

<The weasel probably thought he would be gathering the food right back up, so he didn’t want to mess it up.> Grant silently agreed with Sarge’s assumption; it made good sense. <Make sure not to overeat. You might have a lot of running to do tomorrow, and being too full will slow you down.>

“Don’t worry, I’ve learned that lesson.” Grant fished out two apples, tossing the perfectly ripe one to Suki. He kept the green one for himself, figuring that the tartness would complement the stew well, and he didn’t think Suki would notice the difference. She actually enjoyed drinking blended grass, for Regent December’s sake. “Apples for dessert.”

She gave him a nod in silent thanks, and they ate their stew rapidly enough that it had no time to cool. That was when Grant realized why she had been hesitant about the meal she’d made; since Suki hadn’t used any of the fresh ingredients he had worked so hard to get, it was exactly the same trail stew they had eaten several times before. Anything was better than another granola bar, and Grant honestly didn’t mind very much. Still… Suki calling attention to the fact suddenly felt like she was intentionally not using the spoils of the evening as a punishment.

“Do you mind taking first watch?” Suki grabbed his bowl and stretched. “I’m pretty beat.”

“Is this another test?” There was no reply, so he shook his head in disgruntlement. It had been an exhausting day, and she had done more running than Grant had when they were losing their pursuers, but he was on edge and not afraid to show it. He stood, flexing his sore arm. “I don’t mind doing it; I need to practice some sword forms in the yard. Just be sure to bar the front door. I’ll be out back.”

Suki still didn’t answer, so he took her silence as an agreement. After a few extra minutes to unpack his own bedroll, Grant decided it would be better to work through their disagreement… some other time. Perhaps after they had both had some rest.

“Okay, Sarge. Let’s do this. Time to train.” A veritable whirlwind of orange debris lifted from the ground and started swirling around him. As it encroached, all he did was smile. This was how he made sure his enemies would never be able to beat him just by encircling him.

Nothing would stand in his way. Winning was all that mattered.