"The first form is the simplest. A straightforward thrust attack. Since you've mastered the breathing itself, I suppose you won't have a lot of trouble with it"

You gripped the wooden sword, determined to try it.

After that day in which you told him about your reason for fighting, he became less cold towards you. Well, he wasn't talkative either, but he began watching you train and correct the things you did wrong.

Now, after another week of rough training, he decided you were prepared for the actual forms of the mist breathing.

"I'll show you, then you do it"

The ravenette positioned himself in the center of the garden, where you two usually train. He closed his eyes momentarely, then took a deep breath.

"Breath of mist; first form: Low Clouds, Distant Haze" his voice sounded with such serenity and, at the same time, overflowing confidence in what he was doing.

As he attacked forward, your eyes shimmered. A trail of mist lingered from where he stood and the tilt of his sword.

He turned to look at you with the deadpan stare you were so used to by then.

"It's your turn"

You gulped, feeling your hands sweating. With mere two months of training, how could you possibly accomplish something like that? Yet, he had no interest in hearing your rants about how unprepared you were. If you had to practice that form until your hands bled, so be it.

Knowing that too well, you had no option but to do your very best.

You positioned yourself in the same spot whilst he took a couple steps back. You closed your eyes, the same way he did before unleashing his attack, with the purpose of calming yourself down and reassuring that you could do it.

"Breath of mist; first form: Low Clouds, Distant Haze!"

All your muscles burnt with the move, but you knew you hadn't done it right after noticing that no mist could be seen, giving away the fact that your attack didn't have the strength given from the breathing itself.

You sighed.

"It's fine. Try again."

Being determined to do it right, you repeated the same steps. Over and over, frustration noticeable in your hardened face.

The wood cutting the wind continued on for several minutes, those that painfully turned into hours and hours of not taking a gasp for air and scratching your skin with the handle.

The sword slipped from your sweaty hands, which moved to cover your face in shame.

Tokito picked up your sword from the ground, in a somewhat slow and patient manner, just to pull your hands away from your face delicately and hand you the weapon. He wasn't annoyed, nor did he look disappointed. He was just neutral, as always.

"I'm sorry, I'm not getting any better even after you've been here this week."

"Don't apologize. Oyakata-sama is very concerned for you, he told me to go easier on you."

He twirled his practice sword and took his position a bit farther away from you.

"Come on, imitate me. I'll do it and then you mimic it, over and over, until you do it right."

Mouth agape, a rosy color painted your cheeks. "O-okay!"

『 °*• ❈ •*°』

Your whole body was sore. You were used to a strong soreness after all the months you'd spent training, but this was some next level soreness. It has hell itself.

"Ouch..."

Shifting positions in your bed was horrible, it hurt. In spite of that, you were so hungry that you needed to go get something from the kitchen. Deciding to endure and ignore the pain, you headed out.

In the middle of the night, you had to be careful of not waking the only person in the whole state besides you. Although the 'carefulness' was unnecessary since the mansion was so big that Tokito wouldn't hear you unless you broke the fridge or something.

As you tried to heat up something, your spoon fell in the narrow space between the oven and the fridge. You turned off the stove and kneeled down to get it. Despite the darkness, your eyes caught a big black hairy thing right behind the silver object.

You began sweating aggressively, your hand slowly crawling into the space to pick the spoon up.

Please don't be spider. Please don't be a goddamn spider.

Oops, it was a spider. That little bastard came rushing towards your face, forcing you to pull back as fast as you could, with eyes widened and a fear bigger than the whole mansion.

"Fucking hell!" you cursed, jumping on a table to get away from it.

The spider seemed to want vengeance. Its many eyes stared at you like a predator to a prey, despite the size difference between you two.

Thanks to all the noise, Tokito showed up from the hallway that connected the kitchen and living room with the bedrooms. His body was droopy, he was rubbing one eye, sleepy.

"Why are you being so loud?"

You pointed to the hellish creature, shaking.

"S-S-S-Spi... Spider... There's... There's a spider!"

Tokito, tired, turned his head towards the creature, frowning at it, his hollow eyes glaring at it.

The spider sweated aggressively, jumping out of a window to never return.

Tokito then turned to you, your cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"I don't like spiders" you justified yourself.

He stared at you, blankly. "Yeah, I can tell"

Before he returned to his bed, he stood there, only staring at you. You noticed something deep in his empty mint eyes; you couldn't help but get lost in them, not in a pleasant way. They appeared completely lifeless at first, but deep into them, there was so much rage, sorrow, lament, and, ultimately, cold. Devoid of any hint of light.

As he took his leave, you could only set a pair of compassionate eyes over him.