Taisei woke up with a start. He had been practically ordered to go to bed, and he was not going to disobey. He stood from his bed and stretched, seeing that his father was already out. He found a note on the table.
"Taisei, you fell asleep yesterday morning and kept sleeping. I checked, and the Matriarch has approved a few grace days, so you are fine. Just don't go back to sleep for a second day. Touma." The note was in his father's handwriting, but he still signed it.
Fixing his bed, he put on a casual outfit and left their cabin. They were located on the outer rim of the clan in order to respond to potential threats approaching, so the location was rather quiet, which Taisei liked. He gazed out into the forest as early morning light poured in through the trees.
Eventually, Taisei made his way down the tree and toward the clan proper. He would grab a bite to eat, then maybe sit somewhere and do some bird watching. Or perhaps he could watch the younger clan members wrangle the boars, as he once had to do as a boy. A slight smile touched his face as he thought this. His planning was interrupted by the sounds of fighting.
Curious as to who could be sparring this early in the morning, Taisei made his way through the trees and occasional building toward the training grounds. As he got closer, the sounds got louder and more violent, making him consider if perhaps some adults were going all out. When the open field came into view, a strange sight greeted him.
The main field was completely surrounded by the younger Senju cast. Scattered around, he could vaguely make out multiple bodies of people he could only assume to be unconscious, as there was no way any killing would be taking place. Suspicion overtook him, and he quickly glanced around, hoping he wouldn't find what he was looking for. Up above, he spotted her. Lady Aina sat on a branch high up, overlooking the field. Taisei had a bad feeling.
Carefully approaching the group of rowdy Senju, he noticed that they formed a wide circle. They seemed content with watching whoever fought in the middle. Taisei spotted a familiar head jumping into the ring, and a second later, a visceral snap echoed out, causing everyone to cringe. It was the deep sound of bones snapping. Seconds later, the group of Senju in front of Taisei seemed to part, revealing the scene.
Taisei felt his body freeze as predatory green eyes turned to look his way.
—
Kotetsu had not accomplished his goal by the time morning arrived. He felt like he was on the cusp of figuring it out, but each time he thought he had the solution, it fizzled. Not that his efforts were in vain, however, as he had come to learn quite a lot about actual Chakra control.
The first thing he wanted to learn was how to move Chakra wherever he wanted in his own body. He figured it would be very simple, but it ended up taking him several hours of bashing his head against a wall. Whenever he made an attempt to push the infused Chakra, it resisted his effort and refused to move against the flow of his uninfused Chakra. After a fit of annoyance, he focused on gaining insight in the form of his not-so-horrible thoughts.
Throughout the night, he discovered that if he let the horrible thoughts come through, he could slightly direct them and trigger that strange recall ability. Kotetsu had learned through vague images and words that his Chakra network carried energy along its pathways in a twisting motion. Thinking that it couldn't be that simple, he played with the idea by willing his infused Chakra to just spin.
"Huh."
After some toying around, he discovered that his Chakra easily moved up and down his body by literally rotating it clockwise or counter-clockwise, depending on the direction. If he needed to move it up his body or down his arms, he rotated it clockwise. For traveling down his body or up his arms, counter-clockwise. He crossed moving Chakra off of his to-do list.
The next thing he wanted to learn was how to move infused Chakra outside of the body. While this appeared easy at first, it turned into a painful experience. Kotetsu discovered that he could push infused Chakra outside of his own body with ease. However, after leaving the immediate touch of his skin, his control over the Chakra lessened significantly. He made over a dozen attempts, with each ending in utter failure. He simply didn't know how to separate the infused Chakra from his body and maintain control over it.
Occasionally, there was a split second where he retained control, but he could not reliably repeat the effect. What he did learn, however, was that as long as the Chakra still held some part that was connected to him, his control would only slightly reduce in strength instead of vanishing. That was how he essentially accomplished his goal of moving Chakra outside of his own body, though he would be spending a lot of time refining the skill.
Next, he wanted to destroy the wooden shackles. He figured that by combining steps one and two, he could move some infused Chakra into the shackles, then, using it as a bridge, he could reach out with his will and kick the crap out of the Matriarch's own will. Gathering a tiny bubble of infused Chakra, he formed it into a strand and focused on moving it outside of his own body, still finding the experience jarring. Carefully and slowly, he moved the tendril of Chakra toward the shackle on his right wrist.
Then, he encountered the first unseen problem in his plan. The Chakra seemed to hit an invisible force, and failed to penetrate the shackle. Frustrated, but not losing hope, Kotetsu continued on his single task of breaking into the restraint. Several minutes went by as nothing happened, until sweat was practically pouring off of his face. Despite the failures, his skill with manipulating Chakra grew with each attempt.
He picked up a few things during this time. He discovered that the invisible force he was trying to get past seemed to be Chakra, but it was neither completely infused or uninfused. It was not wholly impenetrable, though. After a handful of attempts, he found that he could slightly push this mysterious Chakra aside, like working a groove into wood. However, the groove would repair itself too fast for Kotetsu to make any real progress.
In the middle of his experimentation, he had lost complete track of time and failed to notice sunlight peeking through his cage. A familiar itching returned to the back of his head, and he lost focus on the infused Chakra from his current attempt, watching the will evaporate into nothing. His sadness only lasted a moment, though, as the itching told him that Aina was nearby with his sword. Her form expectedly walked into view a minute later.
With intense interest, Kotetsu wanted to test something else now that someone was near. Staying huddled in the cage, he flipped his vision to his willpower sight as he quickly peeked at Aina. Almost instantly, her entire body was mostly covered in blue, with splotches of deep purple here and there. This caused Kotetsu to frown.
As he continued to look at Aina, something else caught his eye. It was vague enough that he had ignored it at first. From the top of her head to her waist was a line, or a wire of sorts. It seemed to evade his sight, and he almost lost track of the line as it undulated back and forth, like seaweed just beneath a wave. When he looked directly at the line, it brought to mind an image of growth, or life, or maybe both.
"Time to go." Aina's voice half ordered.
—
Aina had a lot to contemplate that night. She had sat still for several hours, losing track of time as she replayed her mother's story. The buzzing of mosquitos brought her back to reality, and she stood, leaving for her treehouse with conflicting thoughts still swirling in her head. She fell into bed and let strange dreams consume her.
Hours later, she crawled out of bed after a fitful sleep. Getting dressed for the day, she had not come to any conclusion about how she felt about the treatment of their prisoner. Not knowing what this new day would bring, she was not particularly hungry and opted to skip breakfast, instead making her way to the cages.
"Time to go." Aina half-heartedly ordered.
Aina looked down at the prisoner after ordering him to get up. He was covered in dried blood, and his skin had turned a disturbing shade of purple from all the bruising and cuts. His clothing was also filthy, and torn apart in several areas. He sat with his arms hugging his legs close to his chest.
"Okay." His muffled voice meekly squeaked out from the cage.
That's when the situation truly hit Aina. Somehow, this wasn't a shinobi, or a fighter. This was a damned kid. She didn't care what kind of stories her mother told about this kid's family. As far as she knew, the kid wasn't even aware of who they were, for the most part. While the kid began to slowly get to his hands and knees, she only grew more sympathetic toward his situation.
"Hey, uh…" Aina hesitated, knowing she was going against the clan rules regarding prisoners.
The kid scooched himself up to the wooden bars, ready to step out. His face appeared neutral and dissociated. Aina was fairly certain that the kid would not last another day of this cycle, so she at least wanted to know his name before he would go off to die.
"Tell me your name."
The kid glanced up at her with empty green eyes. Then, realisation came, and he blinked.
"...Why?" He asked, genuinely confused. Aina had to think up something random.
"For record keeping, we have… uh, a registry. I just need your first name."
He answered after a moment of silence.
"Kotetsu."
Aina nodded.
"Great. I, uh, I'm Aina."
The two stared awkwardly at each other.
"I know."
Aina could have sworn she heard sarcasm, but Kotetsu's entire appearance conflicted with that kind of tone. She held herself back from any further response, trying to pull her mind back to the current situation. Flipping through two handsigns, she touched the top of the cage and let the bars retract. Kotetsu stepped out, much steadier than Aina thought he should be. Didn't he understand what would happen now, how the rest of this day would play out?
She got a better look at Kotetsu after putting the bars back in place, frowning inwardly. She wasn't sure, but it felt like the boy was… prepared. Or at least, less scared. His face seemed lost in thought even though his gaze was trained on the ground at his feet. After looking him over for several seconds, she felt bewilderment when he glanced up to meet her eyes.
"Are we going?"
Aina expected him to be scared, jittery, or just overall depressed. He was trapped with a group of people he had no hope of ever beating or escaping. It was only natural for someone in that situation to fall into despair, to feel no hope. Instead of any of that, the one thing she felt from the kid in front of her above all else, was anticipation.
"Uh…"
She thought for a moment. Perhaps the kid had finally mentally snapped, and now he was merely a walking husk, waiting to be put out of his misery. But when she looked into his eyes, she found a determined gleam.
Not wasting any more time, she moved along, and Kotetsu followed behind expectantly. The two only had to walk a few short minutes as Kotetsu kept pace, not even trying to drag his feet. The training field came into view along with the dozens of young Senju sparring. Everyone present caught sight of the two new arrivals, quickly dismissing them despite Aina's own appearance. She honestly couldn't blame them.
"I am resuming the task." She spoke the simple words, then gestured to Kotetsu. She felt guilty for what would happen, as this would likely be his last day alive.
However, upon looking back at the prisoner, something felt… wrong.
Her intuition picked up and she focused on her Chakra sensory ability, something she had inspected the prisoner with every day, never finding anything of note. This had not changed at all on any of the previous days. Until now, that is. She felt as he roughly gathered a small amount of Chakra, infused it, then tried to crudely push it against his shackles. He did it blatantly, with her standing right there looking at him. His face looked slightly constipated as he worked, and she could not stop her face from reacting at the expression.
A few moments later, he let out the breath he was holding, and looked up at her. She felt the Chakra dissipate, and whatever he was trying to do clearly failed to work. She expected him to look distressed, or maybe a little worried, but instead he still appeared determined.
She continued to stare at him for several seconds. He had not once tried to break out of the shackles for the past few days, and as far as she knew, he had not even known how to. Not that it was difficult to figure out, as they were only training tools. Kotetsu had said himself he had no clue how the shackles worked, a statement both Aina and the Matriarch were confident he wasn't lying about. The only explanation she had as to why he suddenly knew how to break the shackles, was the sword strapped to her back.
She could hardly believe it. Even from the slight shock of that realisation, which she reeled in, she still could not stop herself from quietly speaking aloud.
"Not quite…"
—
Kotetsu knew it was now or never as Aina led him to the training field. He focused once more, gathering his Chakra for one final stand to penetrate the shackle's defences. He reached out with a tendril to each shackle, closing his eyes and focusing on the singular task of drilling past the barrier of Chakra. It completely and utterly failed.
Letting out a large sigh, he glanced up at Aina, suddenly wondering why she was staring so much. Her face was halfway between a smile and a scowl as she looked down at him, and Kotetsu had the sudden worry that maybe she could see what he was doing somehow. Did everyone have the ability to see willpower? Or was she seeing his Chakra? Either way, he was only left with confusion when she quietly muttered something.
"Not quite…"
Then she seemed to catch herself, and shot a look at him that Kotetsu could not interpret. He felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead until she finally turned away, giving him a final look before jumping high above. He sighed in relief. Since she hadn't killed him on the spot, that meant she either didn't know, or didn't care. That thought only brought him a moment of comfort, until he remembered that it was time to suffer his daily beatings.
He stumbled toward the mass of Senju with much less confidence than earlier. He was screwed, and he knew it. The first of his torturers, some kid a few years younger than him, ran toward him with fervor, ready to beat into Kotetsu. He considered trying to run for it, but he knew they would catch him with ease. He considered his options as the boy approached with speed.
A fist buried into his gut, and all of his considerations were buried with it. He was sent flailing to the ground as the wild and unskilled attack dealt more pain to his psyche than his body. He could cope with getting beaten by someone like Rata or even Jumaru, but when he couldn't even defend against little kids like this, his pride as a Shinobi bled.
He rose unsteadily to his feet, trying to block the incoming kick with his arms, but they met an unstoppable force and he was once again sent tumbling back. He knew that staying on the ground only meant getting relentlessly kicked, so he once again pushed himself upright as fast as he could. This time, another kid younger than him rapidly approached. He barely had time to see her long black hair as she grabbed him by the arms and spun, letting go to send him flying several meters away.
At this point, Kotetsu was barely paying attention to the "fight". He was too busy berating himself for believing that his progress in Chakra control over a single night could change his situation. The simple truth was that he had failed to break the shackles. If he couldn't use Ninjutsu, how was he supposed to beat them?...
Kotetsu prevented himself from crunching into the ground. He had gotten quite good at performing breakfalls over the last few days. His stream of thoughts brought him to a realisation, and he mentally kicked himself while trying to block a real kick, obviously failing.
The Senju weren't using Ninjutsu. So how were they beating him senseless? For a moment, he considered that they were simply speeding up their Chakra flow, as he had done so many times. He was not going to give up that easily, however. There was still a chance that he was doing something wrong, and he was not going to fall into that mental trap ever again.
He dodged a fist, then another, before getting grabbed and thrown once again. Kotetsu needed more information to reach a conclusion, and mentally reached for his willpower sight. His vision was suddenly filled with vibrant colours, and he focused on the next approaching Senju. It was the first kid that punched him, and he paid close attention.
The boy was suddenly coloured pink with some splotches of red, and about a quarter of his body was filled with the lighter shade of willpower. As he stepped into range, Kotetsu watched in fascination as most of the light moved down one shoulder, toward the fist. He kept watching all the way until the arm came up suddenly, aiming right for his face.
Kotetsu barely avoided the fist, feeling some of his hair rip away as the boy tried grabbing for his head. He attempted to sidestep out of the way, but the boy was much faster, practically lurching forward just to ram his body into Kotetsu's chest, sending him stumbling backward. The experience opened Kotetsu's eyes, and he thought he was beginning to understand.
If someone was simply flowing their Chakra faster, Kotetsu would expect to see the lighter colours circulating up and down the entire body in a consistent fashion. This was clearly not the case, though, which meant that they were not just speeding up their Chakra flow. It had to have something to do with the other part of Chakra control he practiced. So far, he had divided his understanding of infused Chakra into two categories.
One, was his infused fire Chakra. He could create a lot of this, but only with hand signs. Two, was his infused not-fire Chakra. This was what he created when he manually infused Chakra, and he didn't know how to create it with hand signs. Clearly, the Senju weren't using anything elemental, so they must be using the plain infused Chakra, which he aptly named non-elemental infused Chakra.
There had to be a way to infuse more of this non-elemental Chakra. Kotetsu had a feeling he was finally on the cusp of something.
—
By this point, no one else even bothered to jump in. Everyone else had their own things to do on the training field, and letting the younger brats release some tension by beating the poor defenceless prisoner seemed fitting. Some occasionally watched out of amusement, but most of those present only felt disgust at having to share the field with someone so weak.
Aina knew that was what everyone was currently thinking. After all, to every Senju present, the shackles that Kotetsu wore were nothing more than training tools. They were designed to open under an adjustable amount of force based on the user, meant to be used to force the user to manually infuse and manipulate their Chakra without using handsigns. Kotetsu had figured this out, but he simply had not applied enough pressure. She wondered if he even could muster up enough energy at all.
She was unsure why the Matriarch had used training cuffs on the prisoner at first, and it wasn't until the previous day when she had finally asked. The truth, according to her mother, felt like a rather large leap in logic.
"The boy's control over Chakra is peculiarly absent. I intended to give him a target to work toward, to force the sword to show him what he lacks. But he appears to be resistant to its effect, or perhaps he is simply an imbecile."
Aina made a fruitless attempt to get more information on the subject, such as how she even knows what the sword supposedly does, but the Matriarch refused to elaborate. However, after seeing Kotetsu make his earlier attempt to open his shackles, she knew that at least something had happened.
Barely 10 minutes had passed, and Aina was already considering ending the fight. Kotetsu hadn't even attempted to fight back for the last few minutes, to the point of barely even dodging or blocking attacks. Someone threw him across the field yet again, and he slowly got back to his feet, looking across at his attacker with a focused expression. Aina had not paid much attention to her Chakra senses, as the boy below had yet to try anything again.
His attacker, a Senju boy, lightly jogged toward Kotetsu, like he was moving to retrieve a toy he threw. Stepping within range, the boy lazily threw out a punch, and the mood instantly shifted.
The Senju yelped as he was lifted and slammed into the ground with a body throw so hard, he skipped across the ground like a rock. The sound reverberated across the field, and many eyes followed to witness the sudden brutal turnaround.
—
Kotetsu figured it out. He was plenty shocked at the revelation, and seriously considered giving himself a pat on the back. However, the approaching Senju shortened his celebratory plans, and forced him to act instead.
The thing he figured out was so simple that he felt sorry for anyone that had tried to teach him in the past. He knew he was dense, but this was next level. The basic principle he had figured out was how to properly infuse his Chakra. He didn't need to try moving it first, or spinning it, or form it into a bubble, or even keep the infusion to a single spot. He only needed to want it. Through some quick testing, he could literally just infuse Chakra right there, anywhere across his body, as long as it wasn't near the shackles.
With the Senju in range, and Kotetsu knowing what to do at last, he acted.
Closing his eyes in a controversial move, he spent his remaining seconds feeling the passive flow of Chakra through his body. Then, holding on to that feeling, he willed all of it to infuse. In the split second before the Senju attempted to punch him, his whole body exploded in so much power that Kotetsu was unable to move. His eyes flashed open, and he was just in time to see a fist being thrust directly into his face. It never connected.
Reaching up with both hands, Kotetsu's body felt weightless as he slightly pulled his head back, grabbed the boy's fist and arm, twisted one leg into the boy's pelvis, and threw the Senju over his shoulder. The boy slammed into the ground and bounced several times, eventually rolling to a stop over a dozen meters away unconscious.
Kotetsu had first tried to make sure none of the infused Chakra moved past his wrists and ankles, but now he put all of his attention on his most hated accessories. Not bothering with a tendril this time, Kotetsu simply willed the infused Chakra near the shackles to explode outward. He didn't even have to attack the Matriarch's willpower as the sudden force from his Chakra caused the cuffs to shatter, sending splinters out in every direction.
The action gave Kotetsu an intense sense of catharsis, and he let out a half-yell in pure joy. His eyes filled with tears as a warm happiness flooded him, but he kept the excitement from disrupting his concentration. He turned to face the rest of his torturers, who stared back with mixed expressions of shock, anger, and, in Rata's case, interest. Kotetsu made direct eye contact with the young man, making his intentions of revenge as clear as possible. Rata peered back, and only nodded.
While others might decide this was the best opportunity to run, escape, or otherwise flee, the only thing on Kotetsu's mind was how he could explore this new skill. He knew that beating every Senju present would be an uphill battle, but he was fully committed to learning. For the first time in a while, he felt eager to fight.
—
The first and most important lesson Kotetsu learned was restraint. He had begun the fight by exploding forward with so much power, he nearly dislocated both of his feet from the pressure. A spray of dirt and other debris arced away in the opposite direction from the force. He crashed directly into the group of Senju, sending many of them flying away and toppling others to the ground.
In the first handful of seconds, Kotetsu spun to his feet and erratically dodged each and every attack thrown his way. With his body filled to the brim with infused Chakra, he felt weightless as he twitched away from attacks, grabbing offered limbs and throwing Shinobi left and right. Some were sent away with less grace than others, being used as battering rams against their fellow Senju or as a shield from an incoming strike. Kotetsu had yet to throw a single punch, as he worked to gauge his own level of strength compared to those around him.
Not even half a minute later, the first real opponent finally appeared, moving faster than Kotetsu could react. Moving with reflex, he brought both arms up in a cross to block the incoming palm strike, feeling the impact push his arms into his chest as he was sent flying across the field. His hyperactive awareness let him twist in the air enough to mostly land on his feet and back, keeping his head from hitting the ground first. He glanced up to see the smiling face of his attacker, and Rata began to slowly walk his way.
"So, the prisoner finally wakes up!" Rata yelled.
Kotetsu tried to smile, but winced and coughed as the pain from the strike rang through his body. The damage from the attack was less than he expected. He was hungry to know more.
"I'm awake, and ready to fight. Please teach me." Kotetsu requested, bowing slightly.
Rata's smile widened.
"Then, let us begin."
Kotetsu barely caught the descending arm that tried to chop him in half. Raising both arms again, he felt panic as his feet suddenly spiked with pain as they dug into the ground. His arms seemed to absorb the blow easily, however. Another arm came from below, and an uppercut dug into his chest, lifting him up and away from Rata. He almost lost his focus on the infused Chakra as it felt like a spear tried to impale him, and he felt several ribs crack.
The uppercut lifted Kotetsu far off the ground, and he came crashing down seconds later. He instantly pushed to his feet without hesitation as Rata stood patiently. The two looked at each other for a scant moment, before resuming the brawl.
To everyone else observing the duel, one thing became clear after several exchanges between the two Shinobi. Rata continued his onslaught, firing out punches that routinely knocked out sparring partners and blew apart blocks of wood. However, even with the prisoner dodging most attacks, the few attacks that did land were either shrugged off or effectively blocked.
Rata wanted to taste the full strength of his opponent. As their fight progressed, he grew frustrated, not with his inability to deal damage, but at his opponent's decision to not strike back. He gave the prisoner several opportunities to attack him, but he never took the chance. If he couldn't convince him to attack with openings, he would force him to act out of desperation.
As the fight progressed, everyone spread around the field to get better views, while also giving the two Shinobi enough space for their brawl. Rata upped his speed occasionally, until he eventually doubled the amount of attacks he threw out. However, the prisoner remained even in pace every time. Rata appeared to have the advantage, as his openings shrank and his attacks became more vicious.
Kotetsu considered how to proceed with the fight. If he made a wrong move now, he would be flattened by one of Rata's heavy hitting strikes. He didn't take advantage of the earlier openings as he was still unsure of his own strength. Now, though, he understood that there was only one way to find his limit. Even though Rata had gotten faster, he was still full of openings to Kotetsu. It was time to finally see what kind of damage he could do, so he moved to make his first attack.
Rata had no time to dodge, not that he would have. The prisoner had waited for his arm to be outstretched, before dashing in without hesitation. Rata only had time to slightly glance down before a spear went through his gut. A sickening snap sounded out, and he felt his feet leave the ground for a moment as he was launched to the other end of the training field. Keeling over from the powerful strike, he felt that several ribs were broken, and he felt the urge to puke– until he glanced up at the prisoner. His right hand was bent too far to one side, and the wrist had begun to turn a dark purple. Rata frowned at the turn of events, and he focused on reducing his own pain.
Kotetsu wanted to scream, but just barely kept his reaction to a muffled groan. He was lucky that adrenaline dulled some of the pain, or else the broken wrist would likely have him rolling around on the ground. When his fist had landed, he had felt a rushing sensation through the connecting fist, and now it felt like he had a lot less Chakra. Looking up, he expected Rata to come for him again, but the Senju only stood with a startled expression. Kotetsu felt the need to barf, but there was nothing in his gut to throw up. A voice behind drew him out of his introspection.
"What the fuck is happening here? Did you idiots seriously let this thing do this much damage?"
Kotetsu turned to see the slowly approaching form of Jumaru. Instant anger rose up, and all notion of throwing up or crying out vanished. The truth was that right before he had punched Rata, he felt a sense of unease and wrongness. Not at what might happen to himself, but at what he might do to the older Senju. At the last moment before impact, he pulled the punch. The force snapped his wrist, drained a large portion of his Chakra, and hit Rata with the same force as the uppercut from earlier.
"Fine. I will teach you your place." Jumaru spat with venom.
Kotetsu was unsure about what he was doing wrong. There were times when he could take a large amount of force, such as blocking Rata's attacks, and times when he was fragile, like launching himself forward or trying to punch. The other Senju could attack without hurting themselves, which was his only indication that there was more he needed to learn. With this latest distraction, however, he was not thinking about restraint.
Jumaru's pace shifted from a slow walk to a sprint, coming straight at Kotetsu. He leapt, fist raised to lance down into Kotetsu's face. With casual ease, Kotetsu lifted his left arm and swiped out with an open palm carrying all of his strength. The same rushing sensation from earlier came, and Jumaru's face rippled and deformed as another snap sounded out, signaling another wrist broken, while Jumaru was knocked into a complete sideways spin midair from the force. The older Senju landed on his side, his neck bent at the wrong angle.
The training field was silent as Kotetsu looked down at the broken Senju. Foam formed at the mouth, and the body began to convulse. Kotetsu's stomach did flips as he stood, but then a familiar presence made him turn and look around in a daze. The crowd of Senju parted where he glanced, and he spotted something that definitely should not be there. In the middle of the forest, stood a large wooden door that he recognised. It was the same door that led to the torture chamber from Kouga's memory.
Kotetsu found that breathing had gotten pretty hard. He didn't care enough to try to find out why. Instead, he wanted to know why that damned door was here. Slowly, he marched toward the door. Every step became heavier than the last, and his vision began to darken until all he could see was the door. It began to creak open. He continued forward, a feeling of desperation urging him to go on, until he was close enough to…
With a deafening thud, Kotetsu Hoku fell flat on the ground, unconscious from extreme exhaustion, bloodloss, several broken bones, and the expenditure of nearly all of his Chakra.