The Blade and Sword

CHAPTER 16-THE NEXT TOURNAMENT

Kotsuki really doesn't know how to reply Koten, as she only wants to marry her eldest senior, Koken. This is not what she wants. Even though she’s not rejecting Koten directly, she did tell Koten that she has someone she loves. Koten knew who she meant and he would never give up. He said he will prove to Kotsuki that he won't lose to his eldest senior, Koken. Then he walks away before Kotsuki has a chance to say anything. In short, after arrival as usual, they were guided to their resting room and the meeting will be held tomorrow morning. Usually the meeting only lasts for almost half a day if there are no urgent things to discuss. After the meeting is done, then the tournament will start later. The meeting was just like a casual chat among representatives from any sect as they can only meet each other on this day, especially for those people who were close to each other. And for Unkensō since they didn't have many allies, so most of the sect doesn't want to waste their time on them. Even so, there are one or 2 sects that are quite close to them that are still willing to talk with them, which are Hyakkatō and Gihōgé. As it was told before, Gihōgé was in the big-four sects for several years, that's why Unkensō still have someone backing them so they are not being bullied to the fullest by the other big three sects. However, since the last tournament, Gihōgé is already out of the big-four, so Unkensō has no one to back them anymore inside the big-four. Now, they can only depend on themselves by getting into the big-four for this tournament, no matter what. For Hyakkatō, the rumors said the previous Seimei-Sōshu was the older brother of the current Hyakkatō sect head. Maybe that's the reason why Hyakkatō doesn't want to join the Sect alliance organizations as their Shō-mon still holds the grudge against those sects that participated in eliminating Unkensō and killed his brother. There are some nice and kind sects that actually came to aid Unkensō. However, some conspiracy sects with evil purposes were guarding in front of the gate of Unkensō, trying to hold anyone that came to help. After those nice and kind sects passed through the gate and arrived there, the bodies were scattered everywhere. The ground from white turned to red as it was soaked by blood. The survivors who managed to run away, were also hiding themselves as they knew they were hunted. That's the tragedy that happened to Unkensō long ago. Well, return to Ryū’unsō. In short, the meeting was over, everyone returned to their room to rest for a while, after that the tournament will start soon. Not long after, everyone started to gather at the Ryū’unsō hall, whether the participants or the audience. The draw started to decide who against who. For, Koshin this year was his first tournament. This year's tournament participants are still the same as before. However with a little difference this time. As it was decided before, Unkensō received their punishment to fight in a qualifying match. The contender that Unkensō have to face before they get into the real tournament, called “Tenmyōden / Tiānmíngdiàn (Tianming-Hall)”. This contender to be said has defeated other low ranking sects and finally got a ticket into this qualifying match against Unkensō. This sect was quite mysterious as no one knew where it came from, and suddenly appeared in the pugilist world a few years ago. However, as the rule for the tournament, there will be only eight sects that join so between Unkensō and Tenmyōden, only one of them will get into the tournament. In short, this qualifying match has started. The first round was represented by Koshin and he easily defeated his opponent. In the second round was represented by their fellow disciple from the earth faction. However, their fellow lost, which means one to one point so the last round is the determinant which will be represented by Koten. As usual, there was also no problem for Koten to win it. In other words, Unkensō can officially join the tournament as it was meant to be. However, they didn't give Unkensō people to rest after the qualifying match. The Unkensō must still continue the battle for the real tournament. Some audience members started to whisper at each other about this matter as they thought the Sect alliance organizations intentionally wanted to burn out Unkensō so they could be eliminated easily. However, for Unkensō, they also noticed it but they won't just give up just like that. They will find a way to counter it. The first group will be Gōtosō against Ankengé. The second group will be Baikaden against Nishiōmon and the third group will be Gihōgé against Ryūsanmon. Then the last group will be Tōkeigé against Unkensō. In short, as usual Gōtosō got two straight wins with ease. The second group was also won by Baikaden with two straight wins as it was easy for them. The third group was won by Gihōgé who won in the first round and the last round. It was very intense for Gihōgé, as the result was not what they expected. But still, they won it.