Chapter 31: A Test of Blood and Beauty
(Or: Romance as Motivation? Classic Master Jin Move.)
You'd think after a day full of spiritual leaks, Mana mathematics, magical cats, Demon negotiations, and increasingly suspicious supernatural schoolgirls, I'd get a quiet night's sleep. But nope. My brain had other plans.
I found myself standing in the dream world again, a place that tonight looked suspiciously like one of those little noodle stands near the train station, except this one was floating in the middle of a starry void. Naturally.
"Yo!" Kaito waved at me like we were meeting for coffee and not inside some mysterious metaphysical realm that apparently existed because our souls had been thrown into the wrong universes. "Took you long enough. Thought you died or something."
"Only my dignity," I groaned, dropping onto the seat beside him. "You would not believe the day I had."
He grinned like a kid who had just been promised the greatest gossip in existence. "Hit me with it."
So I told him.
I started with Reina Tachibana, the terrifying Taekwondo delinquent queen otherwise known as Nemesis, and explained how I had beaten her three main fighters, fought her afterward, and somehow ended the afternoon with her entire gang joining Red Dawn. Kaito's eyes widened more and more as the story continued, until by the time I mentioned Reina herself joining, he looked like I had just told him I'd conquered a small country.
"You absorbed Reina's gang?!" he sputtered. "Dude! I've had a crush on her since middle school! You're living my fantasy in my own body!"
I shrugged with all the fake humility I could manage. "What can I say? She kicked me repeatedly, headbutted me, tried to cave in several important organs, and then we had a bonding moment."
Kaito stared at me with naked betrayal. "You say that like it makes this better."
"It was a very meaningful bonding moment."
"You're evil."
Then I told him about the talking black cat, because apparently that now counted as normal conversation material. I explained how Kuroha had been following me, how I caught her pretending to be an ordinary cat, and how she had eventually dropped the name Ryūseikan like I was somehow supposed to know what that meant.
"And she didn't explain what Ryūseikan actually is?" Kaito asked.
"Nope."
"Why?"
"She said cats don't do exposition."
Kaito went silent for a second before slowly nodding. "I respect her."
"Of course you do."
Then, because the universe clearly hadn't been satisfied with magical cats and gang recruitment, I told him about the surprise visit from Sora Kurotsuki, Student Council President of Seika Academy and, as it turned out, a Demon from the hidden supernatural world. I explained that she had an older sister who had apparently encountered me before, and while I was almost certain that sister was the mysterious Magical Girl who had healed my hand, Sora had very deliberately left without telling me her name.
Kaito leaned closer. "So Sora's sister is probably the Magical Girl?"
"Probably."
"And you still don't know her name?"
"No."
"How did you fail that badly?"
"I asked!"
"Clearly not hard enough."
"I was negotiating with Demons at the time!"
"Excuses."
I ignored him and explained the rest of the meeting: Sora's attempt to recruit me properly, my refusal to become a Demon or permanent subordinate, and the compromise we had eventually reached where I would remain human and work with her when I chose to accept a particular job.
Kaito just stared at me for a full ten seconds, his jaw slowly falling open. "Bro. You fought Reina, recruited her gang, caught a magical cat, met Sora Kurotsuki, discovered Demons are real, and became a freelance supernatural mercenary in one day? You're not a Ninja. You're a dating-sim protagonist with a violence problem."
I held up a finger. "Correction: I haven't dated any of them."
"Yet," he muttered darkly, crossing his arms. "I'm telling you, man, you're going to end up with a girlfriend before me, and you're the guy whose idea of flirting apparently involves getting kicked through walls."
"I wasn't flirting."
"You told Reina she was special after throwing her onto concrete."
"That was encouragement."
"That was flirting with extra steps."
I sighed. "Don't worry. You've got your own training arc. How's that going?"
Immediately, Kaito's face lit up like a festival lantern. "Oh! I finished the beginner phase today. Master Jin said we're finally moving beyond the same basic training routine in Blackwood Forest."
"Nice," I said. "Maybe you'll finally see something besides trees."
"As long as it's not the same trees and not another lecture about how accidentally launching myself into a river is somehow a 'valuable lesson in bodily control,' I'm happy."
Considering Ren's body could carry absurd amounts of weight, move faster than Kaito's instincts could properly handle, and turn a careless jump into an aerial emergency, I could understand his frustration.
Then Kaito leaned closer, dropping his voice like a man about to reveal classified information. "And guess what? Master Jin finally started my harem training."
I blinked. "I'm sorry. Your what training?"
"Harem training," he repeated proudly, like he had just enrolled in an elite academic program. "He says wanting multiple relationships is easy, but actually maintaining them without becoming a lying idiot requires skill, emotional intelligence, honesty, and apparently remembering an unreasonable number of birthdays."
I raised an eyebrow. "That actually sounds surprisingly responsible."
"Oh, it gets worse. He invited three of his lovers to tea and told them to explain every mistake he makes in relationships."
I stared at him.
Kaito's face twisted with remembered trauma. "One of them brought notes."
I started laughing.
"A written list, Ren. Twenty-three separate complaints. Another one corrected the first list and added six more."
That only made me laugh harder. "What did Master Jin do?"
"He sat there drinking like this was a completely normal afternoon and told me, 'A wise man accepts criticism. A wiser man learns which criticism will get him stabbed if ignored.'"
"That sounds exactly like him."
"Then all three threw cushions at him."
"That also sounds exactly like him."
Kaito tried to look offended, but eventually started laughing too. "He actually likes me, you know."
"I noticed."
"He said he spent years trying to get you interested in romance and failed so badly that he started questioning his abilities as a teacher."
"That is not my fault."
"He said a girl once asked you to walk her home and you thought she was worried about bandits."
"The road wasn't properly guarded."
Kaito stared at me. "Ren."
"It was a legitimate security concern."
He put his face in his hands. "Master Jin was right. You were hopeless."
We both laughed, and for a moment the void felt less like some impossible realm created by a soul accident and more like two friends sitting somewhere after school, trading stories about gangs, magic, martial arts, annoying mentors, and questionable romantic ambitions.
You know. Teenage stuff.
Once we had finished trading stories, Kaito leaned in again, but this time the excitement in his eyes was mixed with something much more serious. "Alright, listen. Jin explained something today that might actually help with what Sora told you about your spiritual energy."
I straightened immediately. Finally, something useful.
"Earth's system really is different from yours," Kaito continued. "Back home, your Ki is produced from physical and spiritual energy working together as one system. On Earth, those two things stay separated. Physical energy develops into Ki, while spiritual energy develops into Mana."
"I already suspected that much."
"Yeah, but Jin thinks that's exactly why your soul and my body aren't cooperating properly. Your soul has spent your whole life developing through a system where both energies reinforce each other, but my body grew up in a world where they're supposed to develop independently. You can understand the principles, but you can't just force your old cultivation method into my body and expect it to work."
"Like trying to fit two connected rivers into separate channels," I said.
"Exactly," Kaito replied, snapping his fingers. "Jin actually used almost the same example."
"Of course he did."
He leaned forward. "The physical side is straightforward. If you keep training my body properly, learn Earth's circulation method, and eventually develop enough control, you should be able to awaken Earth-style Ki. The spiritual side is stranger, because your soul is already ridiculously powerful compared to my body, but you haven't actually learned to turn that spiritual energy into Mana."
That was almost exactly what Sora had told me. My soul contained a huge amount of spiritual energy, but instead of functioning properly inside Kaito's body, some of it was simply leaking.
"So I've got the energy," I muttered, "but not the system needed to actually use it."
"Pretty much. Jin said your previous training should still help, though. Concentration, willpower, spiritual perception, illusion knowledge, mental resistance—none of that disappears just because the energy system is different. If you learn Mana properly, you might eventually be able to rebuild some of your old techniques through a different foundation."
My eyes narrowed. "Illusions?"
"Probably one of the easier things for you."
"Barriers?"
"Eventually."
"Spiritual constructs?"
"Maybe."
I could already feel my brain beginning to race through possibilities.
Kaito immediately pointed at me. "Stop making that face."
"What face?"
"The face where you hear one new principle and mentally invent fourteen dangerous experiments."
"I was doing no such thing."
"You absolutely were."
I sighed. "Fine. How do I awaken Mana?"
Kaito hesitated, which immediately made me suspicious.
"Kaito."
"There are apparently two common ways for someone with dormant spiritual potential to become consciously aware of it."
"Go on."
"The safe way is having an experienced Mana user carefully introduce their own Mana into your system. Not enough to hurt you, just enough to help your body recognize what spiritual energy feels like when it's being consciously manipulated."
Sora immediately came to mind. Considering she had just handed me a beginner's magic textbook and agreed to teach me about the supernatural world, that sounded relatively simple.
"And the unsafe way?" I asked.
Kaito looked away.
"Kaito."
"Jin specifically told me not to tell you."
"That means I definitely want to know."
"That is exactly why he told me not to tell you."
I stared until he finally gave in.
"Fine. Extreme emotional or spiritual shock can sometimes force dormant abilities to awaken naturally. Basically, if the soul is pushed hard enough, it can suddenly figure out how to reach the energy it couldn't consciously access before."
I considered that.
Kaito immediately jabbed a finger at me. "No."
"I didn't say anything."
"You were thinking about it."
"I was evaluating the information."
"You were evaluating where to find something dangerous enough to shock your soul."
"That is an unfair characterization."
"Master Jin literally predicted this conversation. He said, and I quote, 'If you tell Ren that mortal danger could awaken Mana, that fool will begin planning how much mortal danger is technically necessary.'"
I remained silent.
Kaito pointed triumphantly. "That face! Exactly that face!"
"…I'll ask Sora."
"Promise."
"I promise."
"Good."
I frowned. "Tell Jin he worries too much."
Kaito grinned. "He predicted that sentence too."
I hate teachers who know me.
"Thanks, Kaito. Seriously. That helps."
"Anytime, bro."
We bumped fists and sat for another moment beneath the impossible stars, two people trapped in the wrong bodies trying to work out how to keep those bodies from exploding from entirely different kinds of power.
One thing was clear, though. If I wanted to master Earth's Mana system, I needed someone who actually understood it, which meant my next conversation with Sora had suddenly become even more important.
Either that, or I could ignore my promise and go searching for extreme spiritual trauma.
Which, for the record, I absolutely was not planning to do.
Probably.
----------------------------
Kaito's POV
Kaito woke with the sun barely appearing through the branches, the morning air thick with mist and the smell of dew-soaked leaves. Blackwood Forest wasn't exactly the most welcoming bed-and-breakfast in existence, but after weeks of living there it had started feeling strangely familiar, assuming your definition of home included giant predators, poisonous plants, and teachers who thought surprise attacks were an acceptable substitute for an alarm clock.
He sat up slowly from his sleeping mat and rubbed his face. Ren's body wasn't physically tired—the ridiculous thing could perform thousands of basic exercises without caring—but his mind still carried the strain of Ki control, technique practice, Shadow Clone memories, and another long conversation inside the dream realm.
"Aaah," Kaito groaned as he stretched. "Another beautiful morning in trauma camp."
He went through his usual full-body routine, not because Ren's muscles desperately needed warming up but because familiar movements helped Kaito settle mentally into the absurdly powerful body he still hadn't completely mastered. The danger wasn't exhaustion; the danger was forgetting how much force the body could produce and accidentally launching himself through a tree again.
After finishing, he headed down toward the river. Breakfast had become one of the easier parts of life in Blackwood Forest. Kaito crouched beside the water, waited until he spotted movement beneath the surface, and struck quickly enough to pull out three decent fish without destroying the riverbank, which he considered genuine personal growth.
A rustle from the brush caught his attention.
"Oh, hey. Breakfast part two."
Two large forest snakes slid into view. Kaito stepped back, triggered one of the simple prepared rune traps Master Jin had taught him to place around camp, and watched the earth erupt with a sharp blast that knocked the first snake sideways. The second lunged and received a carefully controlled strike from Ren's hand before it could reach him.
"Forest diet," Kaito muttered as he dragged the catch back toward camp. "Ninety percent protein, ten percent wondering whether this is medically advisable."
By the time he returned, the fire was lit, the fish were sizzling, and he had prepared enough food for himself.
Which, naturally, meant three other people immediately appeared.
Master Jin, Akira, and Daichi emerged from the forest with the supernatural timing of predators who had somehow developed the ability to sense free breakfast from several kilometers away. One moment Kaito had been alone; the next all three were sitting around the fire like this had been their plan from the beginning.
"Smells good," Akira commented.
Daichi nodded. "Better control than yesterday."
Master Jin simply sat down and extended one hand. "Feed your teacher."
Kaito stared at him. "You can hunt."
"Yes."
"You can travel through shadows."
"Yes."
"You are three hundred years old."
"Also yes."
"And yet you keep stealing breakfast from a fifteen-year-old."
Jin smiled. "A student caring for his teacher builds character."
"A teacher hunting his own breakfast also builds character."
"I have enough character."
Kaito sighed and passed him a fish.
Once they had started eating, Jin glanced casually toward him. "Well?"
Kaito knew exactly what he meant. "I talked to Ren."
All three became noticeably more attentive despite pretending otherwise.
"He formed a gang."
Daichi slowly stopped chewing. "Ren?"
"Yep."
"A gang?"
"Yep."
Akira looked toward Jin, while Jin leaned back with the expression of a man receiving wonderful news.
"I knew I should have corrupted him more."
Daichi stared at him. "That is your response?"
"He leaves my supervision for several weeks and immediately becomes interesting."
Kaito laughed. "He calls the group Red Dawn."
Akira raised an eyebrow. "Dramatic."
"That's what I said. He also defeated another gang leader named Reina Tachibana and recruited her group."
Jin's eyes immediately narrowed with interest. "Reina Tachibana?"
"Martial artist. Around our age. Apparently very pretty."
Daichi groaned before Jin even opened his mouth.
Master Jin's face lit up. "Did Ren notice?"
"Sort of."
"Progress!" Jin declared. "Actual progress! I spent years trying to teach that boy basic awareness. A girl could practically announce her affection in writing and Ren would ask whether she wanted help improving her dagger technique."
Akira calmly took another bite of fish. "That happened twice."
"Three times," Jin corrected.
Kaito laughed. "He did spend suspiciously long describing Reina's fighting style."
Jin placed a hand over his heart. "My efforts were not completely wasted."
Daichi muttered, "None of this was your effort."
"Everything good Ren does is indirectly my effort."
"That is not how teaching works."
Jin ignored him.
Kaito continued explaining what Ren had told him: the magical cat named Kuroha, the mysterious place called Ryūseikan, the Demon Student Council President Sora Kurotsuki, and the fact that Sora had noticed something unusual about the relationship between Ren's soul and Kaito's body.
The joking atmosphere faded slightly at that.
"They haven't discovered the soul exchange," Kaito explained. "At least Ren doesn't think they have. They just know something about him doesn't fit."
Jin nodded slowly. "That was inevitable. Ren can hide his origin from ordinary humans, but experienced supernatural beings were eventually going to notice that Kaito Hoshino changed far too dramatically in too little time."
Kaito leaned back. "Sora tried to recruit him as a Demon."
Jin's expression hardened.
"He refused."
It softened again.
"Good."
"He agreed to work for her occasionally as a paid ally instead."
Daichi rubbed his forehead. "Of course he did."
"And she's apparently connected to that Magical Girl Ren met before. Sora said the girl is her older sister, but Ren still doesn't know her name."
Jin's eyebrows rose. "Interesting."
Kaito grinned. "Ren's surrounded by girls already. Reina, Sora, mysterious Magical Girl…"
Akira gave him a flat look.
"What?"
"You sound jealous."
"I am jealous. He's in my body!"
Jin leaned toward him. "Then become worthy of similar attention yourself."
Kaito immediately straightened. "Speaking of that…"
Daichi closed his eyes. "Here it comes."
"Can I meet some girls from the Sect?"
Jin smiled.
Akira sighed.
Daichi looked like a man watching an unavoidable natural disaster approach.
Kaito continued, "You already started teaching me about relationships. I need practical motivation."
"That," Jin said solemnly, "is the most sensible thing you have said all morning."
Daichi stared at him. "No, it isn't."
Jin reached into his robe and produced a thick book.
Kaito blinked. "Were you carrying that the entire time?"
"Always be prepared."
The book was a compilation of profiles from tournaments, sect exchanges, and regional competitions, listing promising young cultivators from different clans and schools. There were fighters, healers, formation specialists, beast tamers, sword cultivators, and more, all around Kaito's age.
Jin flipped through several pages before stopping on the first profile. "Aya Morishima, sixteen. Healing specialist, Foundation Establishment, excellent academic record, won a regional medical competition last year."
Kaito leaned closer. "A healer?"
"Correct."
"She could patch me up after training."
"She could also reject you immediately."
"Why do you always destroy the fantasy?"
"Because rejection is part of romance."
He flipped again. "Kaede Sunahara, seventeen. Fire specialist, sword user, tournament semifinalist."
Kaito studied the picture. "She looks terrifying."
Jin nodded approvingly. "Good taste."
Next came Mio Kanzawa, sixteen, a lightning cultivator known for her speed; Reika Amagiri, seventeen, a formation prodigy from a respected clan; and Yuna Shirasagi, sixteen, a beast-partner Ninja and expert tracker who fought with twin short blades.
Kaito slowly closed the book after the final profile. "…Okay. Motivated."
Daichi looked disgusted. "This is ridiculous."
"You're just jealous."
"I am an adult."
"Adults can be jealous."
Jin nodded approvingly at Kaito. "Remember, though, these girls are not prizes. Winning battles does not earn you anyone's affection, and strength alone does not make someone a good partner."
Kaito nodded. "I know."
"If you truly want multiple lovers someday, then become someone capable of treating each relationship honestly and seriously."
"I know."
"Remember what matters to them."
"Got it."
"Do not lie about your other relationships."
"Obviously."
"Do not promise exclusivity to several women simultaneously."
"That sounds suicidal."
"Correct."
Then Jin's grin returned. "And once you understand all of that, learn to charm them properly."
Kaito pointed at him. "There you are."
Akira sighed.
Then the atmosphere changed.
"Good," Akira said.
Something in his voice made Kaito lower the book.
Jin's smile disappeared. Daichi's irritation vanished with it, and suddenly the three veteran Ninja sitting around the fire looked less like eccentric teachers and more like men who had survived centuries of violence.
Kaito swallowed. "What?"
Master Jin rested his hands on his knees. "Your beginner training is finished."
Kaito nodded carefully.
"You've learned basic control of Ren's Ki, learned how to regulate his strength well enough to move without destroying everything around you, developed Shadow Clone Art to the point where you can maintain roughly ten clones before the mental strain becomes dangerous, and learned enough of Substitution and Shifting Form to use them under controlled conditions."
"Right."
"You have also improved considerably in combat."
Kaito glanced toward Daichi. "My brain remembers every lesson."
Ren's body certainly wasn't tired from them.
Jin continued, "But controlled training against teachers is not the same as fighting an enemy who genuinely intends to kill you."
The forest suddenly felt colder.
Kaito stared at him. "What are you saying?"
Akira answered instead. "You have one final test before we move on."
"What kind of test?"
Nobody smiled.
Jin looked directly into his eyes. "A death match."
Kaito blinked. "Wait, what?"
"A real enemy Ninja," Jin continued. "No rules. No artificial restrictions. He will not know that this is a training exercise, because for him it will not be one."
Kaito's mouth went dry. "But why?"
Akira answered calmly. "Because the world does not care how much progress you made during training. Once someone genuinely attempts to kill you, fear changes how you think, how you move, and how well you can use everything you learned."
Daichi folded his arms. "You have trained against us for weeks, but some part of you always knew we would stop before killing you. That safety disappears in a real battle."
Kaito looked down at Ren's hands and slowly tightened them into fists. "Can't I just train longer?"
"You can," Jin replied. "And eventually you will still need to face this."
The silence that followed was heavy. No jokes, no teasing, just three veteran Ninja looking at him with the experience of people who had seen enough battles to understand exactly what they were asking.
Kaito swallowed. "Who am I fighting?"
"A rogue Ninja," Jin said. "Foundation Establishment Realm."
That made Kaito's stomach tighten. Someone at that level could actually damage Ren's body if Kaito handled the fight badly enough.
"What did he do?"
"Murder," Jin replied immediately. "Five confirmed killings, including two Veiled Moon couriers, and several attacks on civilians while escaping pursuit. He knows he is being hunted, and if you confront him he will attempt to kill you."
Kaito remained silent for several seconds before finally asking, "Do I have to kill him?"
"No."
He looked up.
Jin's expression remained serious. "The Veiled Moon Sect kills when killing is necessary. We are assassins, Kaito, but we are not murderers. If you can defeat and capture him safely, then do so."
Relief loosened something in Kaito's chest.
"But," Jin continued, "if the choice becomes his life or yours, you choose yours."
There it was.
Kaito looked down again. Ren had already crossed that line. Ren had killed enemies before and understood when lethal force became necessary.
Kaito didn't.
Not really.
He had fought people, survived attacks, and endured weeks of training, but nobody he had faced in this world had genuinely wanted him dead.
"I don't know if I can do that," he admitted.
Jin nodded. "Good."
Kaito frowned. "Good?"
"I would be worried if you were eager to kill someone."
The answer caught him off guard.
"You do not need to enjoy killing," Jin continued. "You should not enjoy it. What you need is enough resolve that, when another person forces that decision upon you, you do not freeze and allow yourself or someone else to die because you were waiting for a cleaner answer."
Akira nodded. "Real combat does not pause while you decide what kind of person you want to be."
Daichi added, "You decide beforehand what lines you will cross and why. Then you live with the consequences."
Kaito stared into the fire for a long moment.
Then—
Flip.
The profile book opened directly in front of his face.
Kaito blinked. "…What?"
Jin held the book with an utterly serious expression.
"Motivation."
Daichi slowly turned toward him. "Jin."
"What?"
"This is possibly the worst moment you could have chosen."
"Nonsense."
Master Jin pointed at the photographs. "Kaito, if you die today, you will never become Harem King."
Kaito's eyes widened.
Oh.
That bastard.
"You will never travel the world, meet extraordinary women, become strong enough to impress them, or build this legendary romantic life you keep talking about."
Kaito clenched one fist.
"You're manipulating me."
"Absolutely."
"At least you admit it."
"Honesty is important in relationships."
"That has nothing to do with this!"
"It has everything to do with everything."
Akira actually laughed, while Daichi looked as though he was reconsidering every decision that had led him to this campfire.
Kaito took a long breath. The fear was still there, and no amount of attractive tournament profiles was going to erase the fact that another person would soon be trying to kill him. But underneath the fear was something else now: resolve.
He wasn't going to die in Ren's body. He wasn't going to leave Ren trapped on Earth forever because Kaito had failed to return his body alive. He wanted to see his parents again, wanted to become strong enough to survive this insane world, wanted to prove that he could become something more than the joke everyone on Earth remembered, and yes, someday he still intended to become the Harem King.
"Okay," Kaito said, standing. "I'll do it."
Daichi studied him carefully. "Because Jin showed you pictures of girls?"
"Partially."
"Of course."
"But mostly because you're right," Kaito continued, looking down at Ren's hands. "If I leave this forest thinking I can survive on my own, then I need to know whether that's actually true. If this guy tries to kill me, I'll beat him. If I can capture him, I will. And if he gives me no other choice…"
He hesitated before forcing himself to finish.
"…then I'll do what I have to."
Jin studied him for several seconds before nodding. "That is all I needed to hear."
Kaito exhaled slowly. "When does this happen?"
Jin's expression changed into the particular smile that usually meant someone else was about to have a terrible day.
"Dusk."
Kaito froze. "Today?!"
Daichi stood and began walking away. "You should have asked sooner."
Akira followed him.
Jin tossed the book toward Kaito, who barely caught it.
"Study."
Kaito stared at him. "The enemy or the girls?"
Master Jin stepped backward into a shadow and vanished.
His voice drifted back through the forest.
"Both."
Kaito stood alone beside the campfire, holding a book full of young tournament champions while slowly accepting the fact that in only a few hours, someone was going to genuinely try to kill him.
He looked at Aya's profile, then at Kaede's, then toward the dark forest surrounding the camp and finally closed the book.
"Survive first, romance later," he muttered. After another moment, he sighed. "Master Jin is a terrible influence."
From somewhere much farther into the forest, Jin shouted back:
"I HEARD THAT!"
Kaito closed his eyes.
Of course he did.
The death match began at dusk.