Glimses of You

Final Selection

1917 Mount Fujikasane. Final Selection

~Tomioka Giyu~ 13

A blade whistled through the air, cutting a hole in the world that enclosed me. The scenes in front of my eyes were dissipating like ripples in a calm pond. I tried to blink to hasten the process. It slowly helped, and more things became visible. The fog in my head started to clear, akin to fogged glass slowly becoming transparent. I began to make out shapes and colors. Yellow and green blobs decorated the darker surroundings. An odd shape stood before me, a peachy color adorning its top with a little white blip near it. My mind and eyes almost fully cleared as I tried to recall what had happened.

"Giyu, are you ok"

As the sound of a voice cascaded upon my ears, I glanced up to find my best friend Sabito staring at me. He stood in front of me, his sword palmed in his right hand.

I found myself looking at his face a bit longer than normal as I observed his appearance. He looked quite tired and had some small cuts in his checkered uniform. The mask he wore above his head had marks of dirt.

"Man, that demon did a number on you" he spoke again

I recalled the time before he showed up, it becoming all the more clear. I was engaged in combat with a demon. It was rather strong compared to all the previous ones found on this mountain. Halfway through the fight, I got hit with some sort of hallucination-based attack, and I was locked into place, gazing at scenes and memories that were not my own.

The illusions I witnessed felt so real, but it felt as though I wasn't the one living them, only accompanying the world that progressed around me. I regained my thoughts and apologized to Sabito, who still stood before me.

"'Sorry about that," I said trying to apologize for my unresponsiveness.

"What even happened?" he asked. "You just started standing in place after locking eyes with that demon."

"I don't really know myself. I just looked at it and saw some illusions."

"There shouldn't be any demons with special powers here." He spoke

"Yeah, we should let someone know about it," I spoke

"We can do it after, are you good to go?" he asked

"I should be," I said, stumbling as I attempted to stand up.

"Are you sure?"

I adjusted myself again, pushing up and standing. Sabito had a hover hand near me, making sure I didn't stumble again.

"The Illusions seemed to have hurt my head a bit," I said with a smile

"I'll be fine," I added

Sabito looked at me, seeming to eye me up and down.

"I'm glad you're okay," he said.

"Thank you," I responded.

"Well, let's get going, Giyu. We have more demons to kill."

I nodded with a smile, giving affirmation. Sabito and I had been progressing through the mountains, trying to take out as many demons as we could as we progressed through the exam. The demon he had just taken down was part of our efforts to split up and help two people at once. Of course, the person I was helping immediately turned tail and ran, leaving me to fight the demon on my own, which had painfully clear results as I had been trapped in a simple illusion.

I looked at Sabito again. "Where are we going to head next?" I asked.

"We should probably head east," he responded.