Early the next morning, Kaguya was awakened by the sound of birds chirping.
He stretched his aching muscles and began practicing basic swordsmanship with the Tsukikage.
Without a teacher’s guidance, he could only rely on the anime scenes in his memory, repeating the slashing movements over and over again.
Sweat dripped down his chin, leaving dark marks on the dirt.
One day while gathering wild fruits in the mountains, Kaguya discovered a naturally formed grotto.
The cave was dry and well-ventilated, making it an ideal long-term residence.
Kaguya set up simple traps at the cave entrance and used branches and vines to create a screen.
This crude “home” made him feel a sense of peace for the first time.
In the evening, Kaguya sat outside the grotto sharpening his blade.
The sound of metal rubbing against stone was exceptionally clear in the silent forest.
Under the Moonlight, he saw his own determined eyes reflected in the blade.
In the days that followed, Kaguya began a rigorous self-training regimen.
Every day before dawn, he would get up and run along the coastline until his legs felt weak;
He used vines to tie stones to tree branches to practice the strength of his swings;
He practiced stance training in the rushing stream to train his lower body stability.
His food every day consisted of wild fruits picked from the forest.
Kaguya didn’t care if they were poisonous or not; regardless, he couldn’t let himself starve to death.
Sometimes he would be lucky enough to catch a wild rabbit or find some stranded fish on the beach.
Blood blisters soon formed on his palms, which gradually turned into thick calluses.
To practice his swordsmanship, Kaguya used charcoal to draw marks on a giant tree and practiced precise thrusts.
Through day after day of training, his movements went from awkward to fluid, and he could even hear a slight whistling sound when he drew his sword.
On a morning three months later, Kaguya was on the beach resisting the impact of the waves.
Suddenly, he noticed a black dot appearing on the distant horizon.
Kaguya quickly hid behind a reef to observe.
As the black dot gradually approached, he recognized it as a small sailing ship with an unfamiliar emblem on the sail—not the Jolly Roger of the Buggy Pirates.
The hull was somewhat dilapidated, slowly approaching the island with the waves.
Kaguya gripped the sword in his hand, his heart racing.
This could be an opportunity, or it could be a new crisis.
He quickly calculated in his head: if the other party was a merchant ship, he might be able to take the opportunity to leave this place;
If they were pirates…
He glanced at his calloused palms; at least he was no longer as defenseless as he had been three months ago.
The sailing ship dropped anchor a hundred meters from the shore, and several figures lowered a boat and rowed toward the beach.
Kaguya held his breath and quietly approached under the cover of the morning mist.
He heard rough laughter and conversation, smelled the heavy scent of alcohol, and saw that those people all had weapons tucked into their waists.
When the boat ran aground, a burly man with a face full of scars was the first to jump off, his boots sinking deep into the wet sand.
“I heard there’s a village on this island.
We need food and fresh water!”
The Scar-faced Man shouted back.
“Everyone, move it!”
Kaguya quietly backed away a few steps and hid behind a palm tree.
He noticed that although these people carried weapons, their actions were undisciplined, appearing to be just ordinary pirates.
Just then, a thin and small figure stumbled off the boat, causing a burst of laughter.
It was a boy in shackles, his tattered clothes stained with blood.
“Move!
You piece of trash!”
The Scar-faced Man yanked the chain, and the boy was dragged across the beach.
Kaguya’s pupils suddenly constricted—this scene was so similar to when Roy was being bullied.
“It seems I can test the results of my training during this period.”
Kaguya quietly followed behind them, maintaining a safe distance.
The boy was roughly dragged along, falling every few steps, but the pirates only let out piercing jeers.
Kaguya’s heart beat like a drum, but his breathing was exceptionally steady.
Using his familiarity with the terrain gained over the past three months, he moved silently through the bushes.
When the group stopped to rest in a clearing, he saw more details clearly.
The Scar-faced Man had a flintlock pistol tucked into his waist, while the other three carried short swords and axes.
Just then, one pirate stood up and stumbled toward a nearby thicket.
Muttering under his breath, he said, “I’m going to the bathroom.”
These pirates were clearly unprofessional; they were already few in number, yet they had even been drinking before preparing to raid the village.
Did they really think they could easily plunder an entire village with just that flintlock pistol and a few pieces of junk weaponry?
However, this also gave Kaguya an opportunity.
A cold light flashed in Kaguya’s eyes.
That drunken pirate was unbuckling his belt with his back to him, completely unaware of the danger in the bushes.
Kaguya approached as silently as a leopard, and as the other man lowered his head to relieve himself, the Tsukikage suddenly thrust out, piercing straight through the back of his neck and out his throat.
The pirate didn’t even let out a groan before slumping down limply.
Kaguya quickly dragged the body into the bushes, his movements so clean and efficient that even he was a little surprised—those three months of hellish training had already formed muscle memory in his body.
And what surprised him even more was that his first kill didn’t cause him the slightest discomfort.
It was as if the cowardice in his heart had been left behind in that sunset three months ago.
After hiding the body, Kaguya hid to the side.
Since this man was taking so long to return, his companions would most likely come looking for him.
At that time, he would have another chance to launch a sneak attack.
As long as he took out one more, the rest would be of no concern.
Sure enough, before long, a pirate with a fleshy face came over, cursing.
“Jack, you bastard, did you fall into the latrine?”
He kicked aside the bushes and suddenly saw the wet blood on the ground, his expression changing drastically.
At the very moment he opened his mouth to shout, Kaguya flashed out from behind the tree, his blade light like lightning.
The pirate instinctively raised his short sword to parry, but Kaguya’s wrist flicked, and the blade eerily bypassed the defense, piercing accurately into his heart.
The pirate’s eyes widened, looking at the thin boy before him in disbelief.
“The second one.”
Kaguya whispered to himself, quickly dragging the body to a concealed spot.
Noticing that this pirate’s short sword was well-crafted, he tucked it into his waist.
The Scar-faced Man’s impatient roar came from a distance.
“What are you two trash dawdling for?”
Kaguya took a deep breath, adjusting his breathing rhythm.
Now only the Scar-faced Man and another pirate with an axe remained.
Using the cover of the bushes, he circled to the group’s flank and found the imprisoned boy curled up under a tree, despair in his eyes.
The Scar-faced Man seemed to sense something was wrong and pulled out his flintlock pistol, warily looking around.
“Something’s not right…”
He signaled his companion to be on guard.
Just then, Kaguya intentionally stepped on a branch, making a crisp snapping sound.
“Who’s there?!”
The axe-wielding pirate walked toward the source of the sound.
Kaguya had already been lying in wait behind the tree; as the other passed by, he suddenly swung his sword at the pirate’s ankle.
Accompanied by a scream, the pirate fell heavily to the ground, the axe flying out of his hand.
Kaguya stepped forward quickly, the tip of his blade pressing against his throat.
“Don’t move!”
The Scar-faced Man raised his flintlock pistol and aimed it at Kaguya, but the muzzle was trembling slightly.
Kaguya watched him calmly, noticing the cold sweat seeping from his forehead—this seemingly fierce pirate leader was actually panicking.
The long blade thrust out; Kaguya ignored the Scar-faced Man’s warning and decisively ended the pirate’s life.
The Scar-faced Man hadn’t expected Kaguya to be so ruthless, and at the same time, he felt that the other didn’t take him seriously.
So he decisively pulled the trigger.
But flintlock pistols had a low hit rate to begin with, and on top of that, the Scar-faced Man had been drinking.
This shot was wildly off-target.
Kaguya seized the opportunity and suddenly threw the short sword from his waist.
The Scar-faced Man tried to dodge in a panic, but his drunken body’s reactions were slow, and he was directly pierced in the chest by Kaguya’s short sword.
The flintlock pistol dropped, and the Scar-faced Man fell backward onto the ground, his eyes filled with resentment as he clutched the short sword.
“Drink less alcohol in your next life.”
Kaguya looked at the Scar-faced Man’s corpse and made a mocking remark.