Quantum Leap - Vol. 5 The Adventures Of Yokoso Harune

C010 The Unkillable Kodachi Of The Century

“Well, it called the different profession as something else in other parts of the world and era I guess. I sat in my room as I placed the kodachi next to my Takamura on the tatami mat. Since there was nothing much to do, I took the kodachi and inspected its masterpiece.

It was a short 2-foot blade that was adorned with a black lacquered sheath. There were no intricate designs on the sheath and the handguard was of oval design. It covered the grip with a layer of cloth and it felt comfortable when held in one hand.

The handle was 8 inches long making the entire length to be slightly shorter than 3 feet. A short ornamental tassel was at the end of the handle, stressing the whole look of the kodachi to have a slightly better outlook.

I withdrew the kodachi from the black sheath, and it was a double-sided blade. Few blacksmiths would forge a two-sided blade as its more tedious to upgrade the blade, for its hardness and durability.

If the blade needs any repairs, it would be a dead kodachi after several visits from the blacksmith unless he knows how to perform blade washing technique.

This blade washing technique is unique, only a Forge Master could perform it successfully every time. If he is using a normal grinding stone, they could revive a deadly weapon up to another 5 times. However, if he used another grinding stone that was made entirely of marble, then it would be revived up to 10 times.

There was another legendary grinding stone, but it was so rare that there might be only one in the whole of Japan. This grinding stone was so legendary that it could revive a dead weapon and revived it to up 20 or 25 times more.

The cost for blade washing using this legendary grinding stone would be almost like purchasing 2 new kodachi instead. I sheathed the kodachi back in its sheath and tucked it under my obi on my left side. Since I was just slightly under 1.4 meters tall, the length of the kodachi was alright.

I remembered the Keris in the 1st series. It was a Keris that cannot kill another human being but it could kill an attacking beast instead. I took this kodachi for a test ride and see how well it performs. I had a crazy idea but I just wanted to test it and see if it works.

“Sensei... Would you like to test something with this kodachi? Could you please hell me out with something?” I asked Hiko-sama, and I awakened him from his daydream or trance and stood up and came forward to me.

“What do you want to test with the kodachi? It’s a double-bladed weapon, and it’s one of its kind. What do you need me to do? Hiko-sama showed his interest when I mentioned to him I wanted to do a test.

“Could you get a live chicken for me, Sensei? I want to try out something. Later you will know but I can’t tell you right now.”

“OK, give me a while. I see if I can buy a live chicken from our neighbours. Are you going to kill it with the kodachi to test its sharpness? It’s sharp you know.”

“It is not about the sharpness, Sensei. But some time back I used a small dagger with a wavy blade and it doesn’t kill or hurt a person. This time I want to see if I could do it on a chicken and see if it would be alive or not. But I won’t kill it first, I just want to test it out.”

“Alright Harune, let me go round the neighbours first, “Hiko-sama replied and then left to see if his neighbour could lend him a chicken to do some experiment.

In a short, while he came back with a fat chicken and he told me we intended this chicken to cook as dinner and if it comes back dead, then it should be alright.

“Sensei, please hold the chicken and spread its wings for me. I will see if this little experiment works.”

Hiko-sama pulled one wing outstretched to me to do the small experiment. There is a twine on the chicken’s leg so it won’t be able to run around and escape.

I unsheathed the kodachi and held it near the wing. Hiko-sama was surprised the moment I withdraw the kodachi, and he thought I would use it to swing at the chicken. I reassured him it’s a close distance slice.

“Hold it steady please, Sensei. Now watch my hands and the kodachi closely.” I said while I gathered up Psi energy in my hands and directed it to the handle of the weapon. My hands glowed a bluish hue, and it spreads to the whole kodachi. Then I brought the blade down on the chicken’s wing.

The blade sliced cleanly, and the wing got separated. There was some blood as I sliced at it and held it aside. The wing had decapitated from the main chicken’s body.

Then suddenly, the decapitated wing began to automatically reattach itself back to where I had sliced. A short moment later, the wing was back in position and it flapped wildly.

Next, I gathered energy again, and it enveloped the whole kodachi with the bluish hue and this time I thrust the blade cleanly into the body and sliced down. The chicken was flapping, and some blood trailed from the entry wound and pooled to the ground.

A short while later, the entry wound made by the kodachi closes up and the chicken was back to its original form as if it was never been thrusted with the blade.

Last, I gathered the psi energy again, and I chopped the head of the chicken instead. Blood began spurting from the neck and the blood again pooled on the ground. A short while later the decapitated head reattached itself to the neck, and the chicken clucked again.

“Cluck... Cluck... Cluck...!!!” roughly translated “YOU f*****g BASTARD! No animals were to be hurt in this series and yet you chopped my wings, you stabbed me and you decapitated my head and all joined back as per normal! You think I am your guinea pig or what?!”

“Sensei, hold the chicken well. This is my last experiment.” I advised Hiko-sama who was now staring at the chicken and staring back at me with his eyes wide and his jaws wide open. All he could do was nod his head and waited for the next experiment.

I held the kodachi horizontal towards me as I gathered the killing instinct of using the Kamehameha. One hand was on the oval guard and the other was right at the ornamental tassel of the handle. In a moment, I had gathered the energy, and I swung the blade slightly at the chicken’s neck. The whole kodachi was glowing with a slight reddish hue.

The head was immediately decapitated and again some blood sprouted from its neck and pooled to the ground. The chicken flapped wildly and then it became still.

“Sensei, just place the chicken on the ground and move a few steps back.” Hiko-sama complied and moved away just in case I wanted to furiously chop the chicken for calling me a f*****g bastard earlier.

This time the chicken head did not reattach back. I gathered psi energy into the blade and it replaced the red hue with a bluish hue. I waved the blade over the chicken a few times and then sheathed it back of my obi.

Suddenly the dead chicken with its decapitated head reattached again. After a quick moment, the chicken was alive and was flapping its wings wildly on the ground and clucked again.

“Cluck... Cluck... Cluck...” it seemed to say, “YOU f*****g BASTARD...! GIVE ME THE KODACHI AND LET ME SLICE YOU WITH IT AND FEEL HOW WAS IT LIKE TO DIE AND THEN SEE THE LIGHT AGAIN, YOU f*****g CRAZY RONIN...!!!”

“Haa... Haa... Haa..., the experiment worked very well, Sensei. Please return the chicken and I will tell you about it.”

Hiko-sama picked the chicken and walked to his neighbour to return it. A short while later I gestured Hiko-sama to sit at the terrace as I explained my theory.

“Harune, can you explain and slowly this time on how you can chop the wing and then it can reattach itself back. Then you chop its head and the chicken died. Then you waved the Kodachi over the body, the head reattached again and it is alive! It’s as if the chicken was dead and brought back to life.”

“Yes, Sensei... For the first 3 experiments, I had used the Psi energy that I had gathered and used it on the chicken. If you notice, the blade had a bluish tinge, the Psi energy that radiates through it caused this. It is healing energy. We chopped the chicken as it was for the blade, but since healing energy surrounded it, the parts reattached again. Do you understand so far, Sensei?”

Hiko-sama nodded and he added," If you don’t fuse any healing energy then the chicken would have died, right? “

“Yes, Sensei. Just like a normal butcher knife. If there is no healing energy passing through it, then the chicken or person I stabbed will die.”

Hiko-sama nodded at my theory so it proved the practical.

“When I killed the chicken, I used the psi energy to kill it. It was part of the Kamehameha psi energy and the moment I chopped its head it died. Even if I do not use the psi energy, the chicken would have surely died too. Remember, I asked you to move away?”

“Yes, I remember. I was thinking you are going to chop the chicken in 24 small pieces!”

“I used the healing energy and replaced the Kamehameha and I just waved the blade over it and the psi healing energy ‘sprinkled’ over the body. A few seconds later the chicken is alive, right?”

“Yes, correct. That I don’t deny. What I am asking right now is what is the purpose of this experiment?”

“If I were to decapitate someone, then I might join back his arm and leg, torso or even his head. But if I see someone dead, do you think I could bring him back alive?”

During this time, Mr Director intervened and exclaimed offscreen towards us."BOY, are you going to start a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE or something?!? Once you revive the dead, they ALL going to be the next WALKING DEAD in this series, you know? What? You going to resurrect the villagers from where you were found, is it?!? You’d better not think of anything crazy, woiii... This era has no hot weapons where one shot to the head would bring them down!"

“Harune, who is that just now? I heard some blabbering and shouting about walking dead or something like that.”

“Sensei, just ignore the fat bastard. He doesn’t think about my welfare. Let me lie in the snow for more than 24hours. Didn’t leave me any money or extra clothes. And there was no food or drinks while I was laying down in the snow waiting for rescue.”

“Ah... Such a person exists, huh? Tsk... Tsk... Tsk... Lucky I came along at the right time or else you would have turned blue and black for frostbite.”

“Ya lor Sensei. This person only knows how to direct me to write fillers for each chapter and hit over 1800 words and above to make this chapter interesting.”

“Haiya... hard on you ah, Harune. I think you already hit 2k words for this chapter alone. So what is your next plan now?”

“Let’s start our expedition. We can get a pony, get a supply of food for 3 days. Dressed up like ninjas or maybe just use a balaclava to cover our face and head. Then we go to the village where you found me and see if we can revive some people or not.”

“It sounds like a crazy idea. But what will Mr Director say? Will those people turn into the undead? And by this time we reach there, the vultures would have pecked their eyes out and may have eaten the brains.”

“Well, Sensei what you say makes sense. We don’t want to have a village full of zombies but if those bandits come back, they’d be in for a surprise.”

“Zombies are the walking dead right? So do they eat, drink and sleep? Are you going to take a plot twist and add some chapters on zombies as well?”

“Sounds interesting, Sensei. At least there is a plot twist and you get to kill a few and I get to kill a few. If let’s say we start an apocalypse, then the readers might learn a thing or two on what to do if the world had these walking dead around.”

I heard again Mr Director hollering offscreen," You are giving a spoiler right? Dam you kid! You make my business hard you know. God Damn you. I hope you freeze and zombies eat your brains."

“No way Mr Director. I have the swordsman master here by the name of Hiro Seiko you know. Don’t play play hor... I know him for his 1 strike 100 kills you know like Inuyasha!”

“Err... Harune, I’m getting a splitting headache now. I’ve got too much information to digest, and you mentioned about Inuyasha. A person named after a dog? An Inu? Urrgghh... Harune, I’m going inside to drink a bit of sake and lie down. You should too since it’s past dinner and it’s getting dark. Don’t forget to take my laundry in OK?”

Hiko-sama walked into the house and was last seen rubbing his head and holding it with two hands as he went to his bedroom to drink the jar of sake he had bought earlier.

As for me, I sneered back at Mr Director and went to the side of the house. I took the dried laundry and left mine outside since its a little bit damp and went inside to fold Hiko-sama clothes.

I then shut the front sliding door and went back to my room to rest a bit as well.