Arc: The Strongest Disciple
Chapter 5
On August 1st, 1578, Yarimato’s first training session began, which would last for eight long and difficult years.
Takahashi took Yarimato outside and stood in front of him, saying, “Listen to me carefully, boy. If you haven’t changed your mind about becoming my disciple, then today will be the start of our first training session, which will last until you turn eighteen. I give you the choice to leave this mountain and never return, as this mountain is not for the weak, but if you stay, know that you will beg for death every day and regret this choice, but only in this way you will achieve the power of the sword.”
Yarimato: Yes, I want to be as strong as my father.
He gave his life in battle to protect me, and that is why I also want to become strong, so that I can save someone else from a fate like mine.
Takahashi frowned and replied in a malicious tone: I don’t like you.
You are weak, small, and stupid.
It’s a miracle that someone like you is alive only because you climbed this mountain and managed to survive.
That is why I am giving you one last chance to leave this mountain, since we have already helped you, and you will survive for another couple of weeks.
Yarimato didn’t want to back down, so he clenched his fists and replied loudly, “No, I don’t want to run away anymore, so I’ll stay and accept your training!”
Takahashi: All right, then you should know something about me.
Thirty years ago, I started training people like you, and in those thirty years, I have taught only three students because I worked with each of them individually.
So, I will not take another student and will not leave you alone until you die or reach the age of eighteen.
Well, let’s start our training!
First, Takahashi-sensei gave Yarimato a bokken to test his strength, while the teacher himself held a “shikimizue” – a katana hidden in a wooden cane that mimics the curves of a sword, with a handle made of the same wood for complete concealment.
Takahashi’s shikimizue was long and slightly curved, up to one meter in length, as if the blade had previously been a katana and had been converted into a concealed blade.
Yarimato had no idea that the wooden stick in his teacher’s hands was a concealed blade, as he had never seen one before.
Takahashi: Attack me and fight me with all your strength, I need to understand how weak and powerless you are.
Yarimato, enraged, attacked Takahashi-sensei and began to swing his wooden sword.
The teacher easily dodged Yarimato’s attacks and kept looking him straight in the eyes, while Yarimato was completely focused on each swing and, glancing for a second into Takahashi-sensei’s eyes, Yarimato lost his grip, and Takahashi lightning-fast drew his blade from its sheath, cutting the bokken in two and grazing Yarimato’s left shoulder with the tip of his sword.
Yarimato didn’t even have time to understand what had happened before Takahashi-sensei had already returned his sword to its sheath.
Yarimato: Ouch, my shoulder!
Yarimato felt the wound and grabbed it, when suddenly he was struck in the face with the scabbard of the shikimizue.
Takahashi: You mustn’t pay attention to such minor wounds, because while you are distracted, your opponent is already striking.
Yarimato was surprised and couldn’t believe that it was possible to be so harsh with a student, but remembering his teacher’s words, he understood what he meant when he said that it would be painfully difficult.
Takahashi: Get up, take a new bokken, and attack me again until your fingers and toes are rubbed raw.
Yarimato silently got up, took another wooden sword and attacked his teacher again, and again received a blow to the head with a stick.
Yarimato got up and fell, and again got up and fell, so on until he broke all the wooden swords.
It was already getting dark outside, so Takahashi said, “That’s enough for today. By the way, you’ll have to make twice as many swords as you broke, and you won’t go to bed until you’re done.”
Yarimato wiped away his tears, took a knife, and went into the forest to gather sticks.
After gathering twenty sticks and barely making it up the mountain, he fell to the ground as soon as he finished climbing the stairs.
His legs and arms were bleeding, and he couldn’t take it anymore and fell asleep from exhaustion.
Yarimato lay there all day, and no one even helped him.
When he got up, he made his way to the dojo, where he washed and bandaged his wounds himself, and then went to sharpen swords from the sticks he had brought the night before.
This continued for the first three months, and every day Takahashi beat Yarimato and deliberately broke his Bakken.
Yarimato held on at first, but after the third month, his nerves began to fail, and he began to have nightmares.
He couldn’t sleep for a long time and stopped eating, even though it was difficult for him to shove food into his mouth because his teacher beat him with his sword for every bite.
Therefore, Takahashi-sensei ended the training with a battle and began to build up Yarimato’s physical strength.
Takahashi made him carry sacks of rice, buckets of water, and even a whole felled tree.
Takahashi: I cut down this tree, and now your task is to drag it to the stairs and then lift it to the top of the mountain.
Yarimato: But how can I?
I’m only ten years old!
It’s impossible, even you couldn’t do it!
Takahashi didn’t listen and hit him on the head with his sword, saying, “It’s not my business how you get it up the mountain, so deal with it yourself.”
Yarimato tried pushing and pulling, but he couldn’t move it.
Yarimato had an idea to simply chop the tree into pieces and carry them up the mountain, but he had never held a sword before and didn’t even know how to do it.
So, at night, he sneaked into the armory, where there were many swords and other weapons.
Finding a sword, Yarimato decided to borrow it for a while, but then he saw an old blunt axe.
Yarimato remembered seeing men chopping trees with such axes, so he took it and went back down to the forest to try to chop the tree.
But after spending the whole night there, he only managed to make a couple of cuts in the tree’s bark, so, feeling frustrated, he fell to the ground and fell asleep.
Yarimato had a nightmare in which his parents were killed again, but this time the murderer was his teacher.
Yarimato jumped up from the ground and wiped the sweat from his forehead, realizing that it was a dream.
Yarimato still couldn’t get used to the fact that he had lost his sight, so he often had nightmares like the one he had on the night his parents died, in which he completely lost his sight and fell into an endless void.
Yarimato was about to leave the forest and return to the mountain when suddenly Takahashi-sensei attacked him from the bushes.
Yarimato did not expect this and, frightened, fell to the ground.
When he tried to get up, Takahashi-sensei pinned him down, pressing his sword against his chest.
Takahashi: I see you haven’t moved from your spot, you’re pathetic.
Yarimato became angry and, grabbing the sharp blade of the sword with his left hand, began to lift it above him to get to his feet.
Takahashi: Oh, so you’re not giving up after all.
Come on, fight for your life, get up and do everything you can to achieve your goals.
Yarimato gritted his teeth and raised the sword higher and higher, but his hand was already starting to slip from his own blood.
Raising it to a small height, Yarimato moved the blade to the side and, jumping to his feet, jumped onto a fallen tree.
Yarimato: Come on, attack me!
I’m ready to fight you.
Takahashi smiled and said, “Do you really think I’m going to swing and cut the tree in half? No, you won’t catch me that easily.”
Yarimato: The old man is not stupid, but okay, I’ll make him attack me.
He thought to himself.
Yarimato attacked his teacher with his bare hands, and the teacher simply hit him on the head with his sword sheath.
Yarimato fell to the ground, grabbed his head, and tried to get up again, but his strength was gone.
Takahashi sat down on the tree, put the sword back in its sheath, and said, “Listen to me, I’m going to tell you something important.”