"Now that we know whose Spirit you inherited, we can change your training into something more fitting," Hachiman said as we once again stood in our empty corner of Kuoh Park.
"What will we be working on anyway?" I asked the God of Archery, "I know he's a powerful swordsman, but I don't know anything supernatural that he might have known about,"
Hachiman grunted and stomped on the ground, a small wooden table appearing between us.
"Swordsmanship comes to you naturally," He said as a paintbrush appeared on the table with several paper slips, "Let's see if Calligraphy does as well,"
Looking at the brush on the table, I sat down and picked it up.
"Not going to question it?" Hachiman asked as he looked down at me.
I shook my head, "I'm assuming this has something to do with the magical paper that I saw in my dream,"
Hachiman grunted and sat down on the other side of the table, "Correct, While Watanabe-No-Tsuna wasn't the best there was in utilizing Onmyodo Talismans, he still had some talent in them. Here we are checking to see if you have something similar," he explained before producing a paper talisman from out of nowhere and placing it on the table.
"This is one of the most basic talismans you can learn," He pressed an armored finger on the paper, "It is simply used to deter and keep away evil spirits,"
I nodded as I looked at the Talisman.
"I want you to copy this talisman over to your paper, You have one hour to get this right before we move to our next task," My eyes widened as Hachiman placed a time limit on this exercise.
"Wait-"
"Your timer starts NOW!" And with a slap of his hand on the ground, an hourglass appeared on the table, the grains of sand quickly falling.
I carefully looked at the paper Talisman he placed on the table in front of me, A cursive symbol painted on the paper pulled my eye towards it.
My hand moved to the brush, looking for any kind of paint to use before I heard a dripping noise.
Looking at the brush, I saw it already inked and wet, ready for use.
I grabbed a blank paper slip and placed it before me, the talisman Hachiman produced beside it, and I started copying the symbol from the Talisman onto the paper.
A gentle stroke of a brush, the calm breeze of the spring wind, and the warm touch of the sun on my back. My hand moved almost fluidly as I worked the brush over the paper, everything was on the wrist.
And then the Paper exploded into smoke.
..............
The God of War and Archery looked on as his student rolled out of the cloud of smoke and started coughing on the ground. With a wave of his hand, the smoke vanished.
"Try Again," Hachiman told Motohama Ken, "Your Calligraphy was good, For an illiterate fool that is."
He stepped closer to the table and looked at the soot-smeared paper Talisman.
"Your brush strokes are uneven, You misspelled the second Kanji, and the paper itself is upside down," The god told the Human, pointing out all the places he got it wrong.
"Try Again."
..................
After forty minutes, and a dozen more failures, a success appeared.
YOU ARE READING
Side Character DxD
FanfictionMotohama isn't an important character. He doesn't even get a last name. His character Archetype is Perverted Best Friend. He never engaged with the plot of the world around him. He is, without any question, A Side character. Until I took over, that...
