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‘Spirit’: a title given to the ability found in certain individuals; which allows them to exceed normal limitations. Spirit develops based on ones actions; abilities being selected during early stages of one’s life and at an unknown age the selection ceases and only those talents are reinforced. For example, a youth with spirit who performed various tasks requiring much strength and stamina, should these tasks be continued and the difficulty gradually increases, will have phenomenal power, endurance, or both.
The advantageous military application of Spirit caught the attention of many nations, and special military schools were created to further this talent. Although ‘Spirit’ does not guarantee a super-soldier, such a possibility exists and has occurred.
In the nation of Illis, the city of Ravis, it was just another Sunday at the Crawler residence for Taro. His parents were assigning duties for the approaching harvest and, as usual, he received the most and hardest tasks.
“Man, I thought Spirit makes life easier.” He thought, rubbing the brown stubble on his head.Taro, 16, is the third eldest son of the Crawler family, but the oldest of the household. His two older brothers, Keith and Brass, had joined the military, achieving the common ranking of a regular since neither of them was gifted with Spirit.
In fact, Taro was the only one who was.
They hadn’t been seen for years upon having being transferred to a different city and neither of them bothered to write. Keith and Brass were eighteen and twenty-one respectively, so no one was terribly concerned about them either.
“Rinslet, as always, you’ll be in charge of household chores and errands.” Their father announced.
Rinslet, 19, is the oldest daughter of the family. However, she does the least work of the family because of her condition. As if being quite frail wasn’t enough of a liability regarding the Crawler lifestyle, Rinslet was frequently in poor health; preventing her from performing any serious work.
“Rica, Ruri, you’ll help Jeth carry the crops once Taro and I cut them.” He finished. “Now let’s get to work.”
Rica and Ruri were the youngest of the family and twins. The two nine year olds were always given the same job so that they’d always be in the same place at the same time. Jeth, 12, the youngest son was often placed to keep an eye on them.
“Oh, Rinslet, you’ll need to go to town today and get the plumber, the kitchen sink’s acting up again.” Mrs. Crawler yelled from another room.
“Anything else?” Rinslet called back
“Oh yes, I’ve got a list of things we need for next week. Hold on…”
“Next week…let’s see… September twelfth! Taro’s birthday!” She thought, looking over at him as she was given the list.
“Be careful!” Taro shouted, as usual, just as she closed the front door behind her.
“By the way, Taro, I heard we’re getting a new head of the guard sometime this week; an elite!” Mr. Crawler said. “Maybe this one’ll give some pointers to you apprentices.”
The ranking of those with Spirit is as following: apprentice, warrior, veteran, elite, and, lastly, champion.
Apprentices, as the title suggests, are ones still receiving basic combat training and still learning how to properly improve their talents bestowed upon them by Spirit.
Warriors are simply those that have graduated. Veterans are highly skilled warriors that serve as prized bodyguards and bounty hunters during peace times.
Elites are few and far between that are prized by the military. Their skills and Spirit often set them a few levels above regular soldiers. Even the weakest of the elite ranking are able to win against twenty skilled regulars, although with moderate, to occasionally heavy, wounds. These people are often placed in charge of a city’s defence.
Champions are on a wholly different level. Only an elite of unparalleled ability can achieve this rank. A champion serves as an emperor’s bodyguard or an army’s safeguard. Although even a champion can’t defeat an army head on, five of them using the proper tactics would allow for an army of three hundred regulars to be defeated.
Taro nodded in agreement. “That’d be nice, but I doubt we’ll get that lucky.”
“Well… if you work hard, this afternoon I’ll let you go train with that Kanna girl.”
“Really?” Taro asked. His father nodded. “Well then, stop standing around! Let’s go!”
His wooden sandals softly clicked as he slowly walked down the street. Just audible over the sound of his footsteps was a muffled cry.
“Damn it…”He slightly increased his pace after identifying the source of the plea. As he approached, the sound of hushed voices could be heard.
“Shut up and stop struggling, stupid bitch!”
“Hey, you went first last time! It’s my turn!”
“Keep your voice down! And you, stop struggling! Or do you want to die?”
The samurai stopped upon reaching an alley and placed his left hand on one of his two swords and made a loud click with a sandal.
Two burly men looked up from a crying, frail woman with long hazel hair and a purple dress.
“Hey, if you kill this cross dresser, you can have her.” The man restraining the woman said.
“Heh, it’s a deal.” The other replied, pulling out a cudgel.
“Cross dresser?” The samurai thought angrily, looking down at his hakama.
In one fluid motion, his sword was drawn, tore out man’s throat, cleaned, and placed back in the sheath.
Both thugs were wide-eyed, although only one stayed fixed on the swordsman. The woman screamed as loudly as she could with a hand over her mouth. The remaining ruffian hastily pulled out a knife and placed it over the woman’s heart as she resumed sobbing.
“Truly, she makes a lousy shield.” The swordsman commented with a frown.
In truth, however, the samurai smiled inwardly. The difference in size between the frail hostage and large brute left him with several possibilities to hit a critical area.
Instinctively, the man tried to compact his form behind the woman, trying not to move the positioning of his weapon. “You let me go, and I’ll give you the whore.”
Bringing up his sword arm, the samurai began rubbing his chin and raised his eyes to the cloudy sky. “That would involve the least bloodshed…”
With his other hand, he drew a throwing knife from a pocket of his ‘dress’ and sent it flying into the man’s throat, cutting the woman’s left shoulder as it did so. The impact knocked the thug backwards and his weapon tore into the woman’s chest.
The brown-haired woman let out a stifled cry before swooning.
“Shit! I thought my aim was better than that.” The swordsman thought bitterly when he noticed that his weapon had injured the hostage. He walked over and felt the woman for a pulse.“Still alive…I guess I’ve an obligation to fix her up.”
Carefully lifting her, he headed back out onto the street and realized he didn’t know where a hospital was.
“Ah hell, with how much she’s bleeding, by the time I find one, she’ll be dead already… might as well do it myself.” He thought as he began sprinting down the road he had approached from.
“Well? Was that enough for today?” Taro asked.
“Yeah, it’ll take us a few hours to carry all you went and cut.” His mother commented. “Go ahead and get your training done.”
Taro ignored the emphasis on ‘training’ as he grabbed his practice mace and rushed out the door.
“I wonder what’s taking Rinslet so long?” Jeth muttered.
“Maybe she finally met a nice man.” His mother thought aloud.
“Don’t get your hopes up.” Mr. Crawler muttered, reaching for his pipe.
Alright, I've been hoping to upload this story for quite some time now. For anyone interested, I've also got a story posted on under the same pen-name (Naruto story - romance / comedy).
To anyone reading, let me know what you think. I've got a number of chapters prepared in advance and I'm willing to update fast if asked to.
I hope anyone who stumbles upon this story will enjoy it. I can say this right now, it's going to be slow starting, but it will pick up eventually.
