FROM EVERY MISTAKE

ONE GROWS FURTHER FORWARD

❖ Logue Town, a fairly large and rather popular town that was usually a well-known trading spot - there was nothing about this place that signified that it was special to anyone other than traders but for Dallas, it was home. Having grown up inside of the town since he was born, he always felt a natural duty to keep it safe and protect it from those that would seek to destroy it or cause havoc within it. That wasn't solely including Pirates either, Marines caused trouble in the town plenty of times through unnecessary actions in apprehending criminals or bringing attention to the city through their stay there. It almost sickened Dallas that this endless tide that pushed back and forth with the forces of Marines and Pirates continued - that's one of the many reasons that he had taken up the sword he now carried on his hip.

Quietly Dallas strode through the streets during this cold night, his breath visible to the air as the more chiller seasons swept over the land. Mind, it was not cold enough to snow or anything of that sort but it was definitely going to be a brisk evening for any that went outside without so much as a coat to wear. Thankfully for Dallas his usual wear kept him free from the cold to a certain degree but he was almost regretting the fact he hadn't brought with him a scarf or something alike one. No one could deny the night's beauty though as the moon's glow filled the sky with it's full radiance, the clouds circling around it but not daring to cover it, Dallas liked to imagine that anyway, giving a small chuckle in his amusement as a result.

Unfortunately for the swordsman though, tonight would be a harsh lesson for him, especially as Dallas had exited the edge of Logue Town's edge where he was going to originally take a seat on a hill not too far and watch the sky but was interrupted by the sight of two teenagers about the same age as him. His eyes had to adjust to their shaded forms for a moment before he could fully make out their appearances and immediately noted that these two were students under his teacher who studied the same style as him. "Akida and Matsuda?" He questioned aloud to himself before drawing closer.

"What are you two doing out here at this time? I mean, reason-wise that is, I'm sure it must be important if you've come all this way just to visit this hill, haha." He attempted at cracking a little humor to his peers but by their solemn expressions, they were not here for mere joking and instead Matsuda, a rather lanky boy with blonde hair had given a much graver tone than expected when he spoke; "We're here to test you for the Master, Dallas."

DON'T RUN AWAY BOY

THEY ARE COMING TO GET YOU

❖ Immediately as the word 'Master' was mentioned, Dallas' expression sunk and his open approach to the duo before him was shot down. If they were here on business from his sensei then this was no joke and was something to be taken seriously. Good students had their swords broken and bodies hurt beyond belief in the training methods that his teacher utilized to help bring out the raw power in those that could learn the Shigure Soen Ryu style. He was not a man who forgave failure lightly and the two students in front of him were most likely bound by the idea that if they did not defeat Dallas here, they would be barred from using the style ever again. It was sad and cruel but Dallas was instilled with the same penalty here.

"If that is what you came for then there is nothing I can say to change your minds of this. I already know what will happen to the three of us if any of us fail to reach the desired result that he wants. So let us not waste time trying to prevent the inevitable." Dallas took his hand onto the sheath of his katana and used his free hand to unstrap it's bindings from his hip, freeing it with it's sheath still on. "I'll warn you though, if you come at me - I won't hesitate to fight with my resolve.. I can't afford to lose here and neither can you two. So come!" Dallas shouted his words to the both of them before drawing his blade with the other two following the same motions after him.

Dallas took the short delay the others had in removing their swords to his advantage, they might possibly have been more inexperienced than he was or just more unlucky. His body had leaned forward in a tilt downward to the ground, holding his sheath in one hand and his blade in the other. He pressed his right foot against the ground in a pivot as the two students moved their blades to face his assaulting form.

"Uraagh!" Akida, the boy to his left with red hair called out, swinging his blade at a horizontal arc in an attempt to cut off Dallas' movement or make him dodge more closer to Matsuda who had his sword held above his head, prepared for a downward slice. Dallas' eyes had followed both individual actions from his current distance; they were a fair 3 meters away but with Dallas' running he was encroaching the reach of their swords, the two of them standing around 3 1/2 meters apart from each other. Dallas brought his left hand up with the sheath in tow when deciding to go towards Akida first and locked it's length with a strike with the other boy's sword, pressing back against it with as much force as he could muster. Akida was the most vulnerable target to Dallas since Matsuda had the advantage of height with his blade being held upwards.

"Akida!" Matsuda exclaimed but by that moment it was too late, Dallas had spun himself around the sheath and the katana striking it and had swung with his own weapon, marring the flesh of the red-head with a deep cut to the shoulder. The result was Akida running back a meter or two to try and get more distance between himself and Dallas. One of his hands moved from the handle of his sword to clasp onto his wounded shoulder and feel the slow pool of warmth that blotched his white shirt with the stains of crimson. Akida had begun to shake slightly with fear, sure he had faced the master in combat before as training but at least then he knew he was safe from being too wounded, he was terrified that Dallas might actually kill him.

"Didn't I tell you?! You need to come at me with everything you have, you can't just focus on playing it safe! That's not how we were taught, you'll leave each other open if you don't focus on yourselves!" It wasn't Dallas' place to try and teach the boys how to handle themselves but he didn't want to leave them to get hurt so easily - it wasn't fair like that. Why did his Master have to set them up like this? What even was his goal?  

THE STRONGEST DREAM

IS THE ONE THAT NEVER DIES

❖ Even with Dallas' words of wisdom the two seemed to be hardly concerned with acting on the advice. Akida had begun to pace his breathing down and show Matsuda that he was alright, to which the uninjured of the two nodded in response and began his attack on Dallas. Matsuda charged at Dallas from the side now that he was where Akida once had stood before backing off, a hefty swing of his sword from the upward position was given in an attempt at overpowering Dallas. "You'll pay for what you did to Akida!"

Dallas' reflexes were just sharp enough to raise his sword overhead and catch the strike of the other sword but the impressive physical stature that Matsuda's body held was enough to cause him to fall onto one knee while reinforcing the back of the blade with his hand. "Tch! What has the Master been feeding you both?! To have this much strength...?" Dallas grunted out as his sword felt like there was a ton weighing on it. While he was in the midst of blocking Matsuda's swing, Akida had fully recovered himself from the shock of damage and had lunged with his sword held out forward. "Hold him still, Matsuda!" Akida spoke, giving the vocal cue for Matsuda to press down harder.

There was hardly a good chance to move free from Matsuda's pressure, so Dallas' teeth began to grit when he felt the sharp sting of Akida's sword pierce his side in a moderate cut across it. He was lucky that his clothing wasn't skin tight so marking where to hit wasn't easy and Dallas had some stable positioning in this case. That didn't stop the wound from bleeding through the light fabric of his shirt, making it well known to the two students that damage was indeed done.

"That is just a taste of what it will feel like throughout this." Matsuda said with a small smile, obviously quite pleased with their efforts and the satisfaction of payback for Akida's shoulder wound. Dallas however wasn't having any of this, this was no game and he didn't have the luxury to provide these two with any mercy, they surely would not show him any. He  released the pressure of his katana to allow the pressing sword of Matsuda's to come hurdling down while he used his leg to push himself back a half meter to let that sword hit the ground.

"I'm sorry.." Dallas said in a hushed tone before with how close now that he was to Matsuda and the fact the boy had his sword cutting into the ground, he had the opening he needed -- positioning his katana upright now and slamming it's length through Matsuda's chest. They wore no armor they weren't prepared to take such strikes but Dallas wasn't about to die here - not for them and certainly not before he could achieve his dreams.

"Ak..id..a.." Matsuda said, his hands trembling before his grip loosened on the handle of his sword, coming soon to drop it onto the ground. "N..no way.. this can't be happening! This is a joke, right?" Akida replied to the scene before him, watching his best friend dying while impaled on Dallas' weapon. "The Master put you up to this, right? Come on Matsuda! Quit kidding aro--" Before Akida could even finish his sentence, Dallas pulled his sword cleanly out of Matsuda's torso who proceeded to collapse onto the ground and stain the grass beneath him into a dark red.

"This is no illusion, Akida. People die like this - the sword isn't meant to be held like some toy! You almost killed me too, don't think that you're innocent with this. Matsuda and you both knew what this meant -- so don't try to kid yourself into thinking that this isn't real." Dallas had straightened himself up, a hand resting on his side where he had been cut, feeling the slicked fabric beneath his digits and that warm sensation about it that never boded well. "Make your choice here and now, Akida. I'm willing to let you walk away from this, just take the punishment of never wielding another sword again. Don't let yourself be killed by it like Matsuda was. I don't want to have to end the life of another one of my peers."

Akida's entire body shook in fear, the realization of death gripping him all at once before he fell to his knees, dropping his sword and began to sob out openly into the air. He was stricken with the grief of never smiling again with his friend, never training with their swords together or talking about the ones they loved. The two students were no more, just a dead body and the shell of a boy that may never retain his love for swordsmanship again.

Dallas sighed and smiled to himself, seeing that Akida had given up all hopes of continuing this fight. He wouldn't have to kill another poor misguided soul tonight... at least, that's how it should have been. A new set of footsteps were unaccounted for with those present but as Dallas turned himself around, one hand still on his wound and the other gripping his sword, he'd come to see an all new danger had presented itself to him. His teacher was now walking his way over and if he had sent the two boys like this then the odds were that he was not here to just talk either.

THE CLASH OF BLADES

ONLY ONE CAN LEAVE INTACT

❖ Looking with disbelief, Dallas stood there for a few moments just watching as his Master continued to walk near. His eyes had already narrowed by this point and he felt a seething rage gripping over his heart. He had sent the two boys to their deaths practically, while he wanted to shout at him, he had his thoughts completely blown away by what the man before him said next; "What's wrong, Dallas? Why do you refuse to kill the other one? It's your fault that Matsuda is dead right now.. isn't it?" This man held no remorse in what he did and even spoke with some form of a smile as he looked at Dallas now, awaiting some change in expression.

Dallas' voice crackled out and his eyes opened fully, beginning to shout towards the older man. "How could you use him like that?! How dare you lay the lives of your pupils with such ignorance, to use them just to get at me, why?! You could have come to kill me yourself or test me again if that's what this all is!" He rang, hoping to get some sense of reason out of his mentor. It was all lost on Ken though, the man having risen his two swords from their sheathes and pointed them right at Dallas. "How.. Why..? You ask such trivial things boy, this style was passed down to weed out the weak-willed and cannot be carried by those that have no drive in this world to survive! If you cannot even see that then you will perish just as Matsuda did.."

Dallas would have barely enough time to react before Ken was upon him, lunging forward with both swords as he swung them downward from above, enough power in both that when Dallas went for what he had with Matsuda's blow earlier -- he was crushed. He collapsed onto the ground under the unfathomable pressure that overpowered what Dallas currently held, his level of swordsmanship was leagues above Dallas' current level and it clearly showed.

"That all ya got, kid..?" Ken asked the boy that now lay on the ground by his feet, turning one of his swords to be held towards the ground backhandedly before stabbing it directly through Dallas' left shoulder, reminescent to the blow that Akida had earlier suffered. "Gyaaaagh!" Dallas cried out, blood seeping around the cold steel from his wound and onto the ground beneath him in a slow pool. The wound was not fatal but too much blood loss would definitely be Dallas' downfall if he didn't repair the would to his mid-section and the new one to his shoulder. This battle wouldn't be one of just skill but also of time.

"What's that boy? I couldn't hear you.." Ken asked as he twisted the blade into the shoulder some more. Dallas had to think through the pain, taking a stronger grip of his sword and ultimately deciding upon something completely unthinkable. With a turn of his head, he'd lift it and suddenly whip it against the blade stabbing through his shoulder, this would prove useless.. at first. Ken even smirked, finding the action futile and hilarious but his smug expression was soon broken by the sound of the repetitive strikes with Dallas' head. The pounding force of his skull proved enough to wear the weapon's durability down until with a loud CRACK sound, the blade had broken with the sword left in two pieces with one half still inside of Dallas' shoulder.

"What in the name of --" Ken's words would have been cut short however by the rising boy beneath him, grasping a tight hold of both his own weapon and the blade of the now broken sword of Ken's. Dallas had arose from his spot and with a force of momentum, crashed his forehead into the face of his Master, blind-siding him by such a barbaric choice of attack. Ken staggered backwards from Dallas, holding onto his face as his nose bad begun to bleed. "Wretched boy.. how dare you!" He groaned out in fury, aiming now not to just play with Dallas but to kill him swiftly and be rid of his pupil once and for all.

Akida watched the intense battle of a man he had grown up learning from and a peer that he had learned alongside of throughout his lifetime. Still holding onto Matsuda's body, he glanced down at his blood-soaked friend's corpse and had reached an answer that he had never thought he'd come to. He took hold of Matsuda's sword and dropped it down in front of himself, using the only technique that he had successfully mastered from his teachings.

Ken had recovered from his stagger and was about to use the dizziness that Dallas was still suffering from to his advantage but it was interrupted by a stinging sensation that rippled like the spread of fire, right through his chest. Akida's voice rung out through shared silence between all three still alive: "Yarazu no Ame.." This was the third offensive technique used by the students of Ken's passed down style, performed by dropping one's sword in front of them and kicking the weapon by it's hilt to fire it at a fast speed to penetrate the opponent. Ken's face had turned around and looked at Akida with an expression of shock, never expecting such a cowardly boy to attempt a strike at the very man that taught him. "Aki-"

The name that Ken was about to speak however would never meet the air to his own dismay. He had been left wide open for turning his attention away from Dallas, who was now no longer paralyzed by his dizziness and had taken it upon himself to use another of the techniques belonging to the Shigure Soen Ryu. "Beccata di Rondine!" The same sharpness that had gripped Ken's chest had spread from one point into a whopping six as he was run through five more times with Dallas' sword now. "Cu..rse.. you.." Ken would gasp out with his final draw of breath, his heart having been one of the many points pierced by Dallas' blade.

A TROUBLED ENDING

WHAT WILL YOU DO?

❖ Holding his sword as blood dripped from it's length, Dallas breathed heavily, straining to keep himself upright underneath the damage of his wounds. Akida as well had fallen onto his knees and sat down, resting his hands onto his thighs as he attempted to catch his breath, his shoulder wound hardly stinging but it paled in comparison to the amount of pain that he could see Dallas coping with currently. "I'm sorry.. I'm so sorry.." Akida spoke towards his peer, attempting to repent for his actions up until now and for taking advantage of his Master.

"Don't.. apologize.." Dallas said between panting breaths and used his sword to keep him standing after now turning it downwards and stabbing it into the ground. "He would've.. killed you... for your failure anyway, I believe.." Turning his eyes down to the body of Ken beneath him, he looked at the moon reflecting off the blood and then looked up to it properly. "If anyone should be sorry, it's I for killing Matsu-" Akida cut into the sentence mid-way with a quick; "N-no! Matsuda wouldn't want you to feel sorry for defending yourself, that's not what he believed in! He wanted to fight you with what he could and I'm sure he would've been more angry with you if you hadn't come at him fully."

Dallas felt worse by hearing those words which seemed to drip with Matsuda's admiration but he didn't have time to think on it right now, he had to stop the bleeding that was quickly causing his vision to blur and his fingers to go numb. "Can.. you get help?" Dallas questioned Akida right before he fell to the ground right next to Ken and blacked out.




Dallas had been taken to the medical building by some of the civilians Akida had managed to convince to transport him. He was put through a surgery to close the wound of his mid-section and shoulder which by themselves wasn't too hard to do but the amount of blood that he had lost had been substantial. The Doctors explained to Akida that without the proper transfusions, Dallas would most likely not make it, so under Akida's first step of courage, he had convinced some of the civilians who helped bring Dallas there to offer some of their blood if they had the right type.

The tests came back with only two donors, Akida himself and a woman in her early twenties, a lucky break for both the doctors and Dallas. With the blood taken and transferred into the young swordsman, Dallas' operation was successful and his recovery had only taken the two days past. This would be the day now in which Dallas had awoken to find Akida sitting at his bedside, sleeping from having stayed the night over.

"That seems to be an uncomfortable spot to sleep in." Dallas chuckled out, leaning up from his bed and attempting to free himself from it. He couldn't manage to get more than a few feet off the bed's comfort before flopping back down against it again in exhaustion with his wounds aching. This had woken Akida from his slumber of whom panicked at seeing Dallas' body moving when it flopped down. "D-don't move too much, the Doctors said that you could reopen your wounds if you're not careful!" The boy had flailed his arms some but as Dallas calmed down, so did he.

"You could have died if we didn't manage to find some donors for your blood type.. thank god we did." Akida sighed and then smiled towards Dallas. "I know you may not forgive me for attacking you but would it help any if I told you that I'm going to abandon using the Shig-" Dallas shot the boy a glare which made him freeze up and go silent. "Don't quit the style, Akida. You can learn the rest of it from the scrolls that write about the style, you don't need our Master anymore. You performed that technique perfectly in that battle.. if you hadn't done it then I might not be here right now. Your abilities could save a life one day, just like you saved mine Akida." Dallas' lips turned into a smile again and Akida seemed to finally relax and tried not to sob at being told such encouraging words.

A few minutes had passed between the two boys as they sat there before Akida had come up with a question that he felt was important to ask Dallas now. "What are you going to do now? Are you still planning on setting out there? To the seas, I mean. You could get killed out there! Are you sure that you can handle it all by yourself?" The boy had tilted his head, waiting for a response with his hands tightly clasped together in nervous anticipation.

Dallas had to consider his choices once again, he really had been close to death this time around but in the end there was only way this really could go. "If I don't set sail then the deaths of our Master and Matsuda will have been in vain. I'm going to go out there and become even stronger than I am now. I know Ken may have been twisted in what he did but I do feel like I've grown some from this." Dallas paused and then looked towards Akida and nodded towards him one last time with conviction laced in his voice. "I set sail right after these wounds are healed enough to travel."