Chapter 30

Gakuto lay flat on his back, completely sore and stiff, staring up at the canopy of leaves overhead. He had to admit that getting flung down the side of a mountain wasn’t part of what he expected when he landed on Tsuiraku.

He groaned, turning over onto his side before sitting up, noticing all the rock and dirt surrounding him. It was a miracle he hadn’t been buried after he tumbled down the rockface of Mt. Ochiru. His body was aching, no doubt covered in bruises.

“Ugh, it feels somehow worse than my early training with old man Jiro.” Gakuto turned his head up, trying to get his bearings, but outside of the cliff wall that he had been forced to treat like a tumble mat, he couldn’t see anything except the dappled sunlight between the gap in leaves.

There was a cacophony of ambient noises coming from the surrounding forest, various birds and insects chirping and the occasional creaking of tree limb or bamboo stalks in the breeze. Gakuto stretched his aching arms, trying to relieve some of the stiffness before daring to get onto his feet. He brushed at the back of his head, knocking some dirt and gravel off when he realized he was on a bed of leaves, moss and twigs.

Gakuto scrambled uneasily to his feet, his gaze now focused on the forest floor, as he did a full spin of the area. There was a decent sized area encircling where he had landed, with no sign of rocks or detritus from the rockslide. At its edge, he found the dagger laying on undisturbed forest ground, one of its gemstones glowing. He gingerly crouched down to pick it up, turning it over in his hands before looking up at the cliff once more.

“Did you save me, Setsuna?”

He carefully sheathed the dagger as he stood back to full height, stepping closer to the pile of debris, searching briefly for his jian. He sighed after a few moments, not wanting to dig through the disturbed ground in search of the blade which was almost certainly broken.

“Well, I doubt the trouble I’d get into over losing the sword is any worse than for coming here with Kaede…” Gakuto said, letting out an exasperated sigh as he removed the sword’s sheath from his back, leaning it against the dirt.

His mind flashed back to the confrontation with The Hound and how the being’s mystique was shattered when it had heard about Kaede being contacted by the moon princess, before the rockslide had triggered, the three of them soon to be casualties.

Yet, The Hound had saved Kaede, doing something strange with its shadowy cloak, carrying her back up to solid ground. That was the last thing Gakuto had seen, through the billowing dust, before he had fallen beneath the treetops.

He reached up, clutching at his right shoulder, wincing in pain. The Hound had hardly touched him when it caught his fist, but it seemed like he was about to wretch Gakuto’s arm from its socket. He could still move it just fine, but if he had to run into The Hound now, he knew he would even be further outclassed.

Gakuto gritted his teeth in frustration, reminded of how outmatched he was. Even after all the years of training with Jiro, The Hound had made him look like an amateur. He had clearly been toying with Gakuto with everything but that kick, when he lunged out in desperation.

Gakuto ran his hands over his stomach, wincing and gasping for air when he ran his fingers over the bottom two ribs on his left side.

“Those are definitely broken…”

He looked back up at the canopy above, trying to figure out the sun’s position from the beams that peeked in and out of the treetops. It looked like they were angled slightly towards the rockwall. Gakuto knew the mountain was on the east side of Tsuiraku, so that meant he was facing the northern part of the island.

“There was another slope down from the village where the mountain path began… In my current shape, I won’t be able to climb either slope and who knows if any villagers would hear me call up for help… There are the tide pools on the northern side of the island, heading that way should lead me to a path that can get me back to the village. Maybe I’ll even see some fishermen who can give me a ride in their boat.” It wasn’t the smartest plan, but as long as he stuck close enough to the cliff walls, he could probably navigate his way back here.

He sighed, before he stepped over some of the debris, heading deeper into the forest.