Leo Kuroshira

Story

• 不屈の剣士

  Ronin Mage “あなたよりも常に強い人間がいます。その人は常にトップにいるわけではありませんが、彼はあなたの足元にいるかもしれません。”
• Born in the land of the rising sun during the era of sengoku, Leo Kuroshira was a raised with a normal childhood. He was born to a family whose men often turned to the path of the warrior, so he was expected to do the same. As such, he was trained in the way of the katana from a young age. He was rather adept at the art of swordsmanship and became a warrior before his twentieth decade. He was not anyone remarkable for his time.
  
  That all changed one day. He was sent on a mission by his superiors to act as an extra sword for a warlord while he sailed to foreign land for negotiations. He was rather excited at the thought of seeing another land, though he did not show his excitement as he was one who preferred the idea of concealing emotions. Unfortunately for him, while he was on the seas, the weather turned foul and a storm had kicked up, causing the seas to become rough. This continued to the point where the ship which he was venturing on had smashed into a rock formation which broke sea level, causing the ship to turn into nothing but splinters. Leo managed to survive the crash and remained conscious long enough to feel himself get taken away by the violent currents.
  
  After the incident, Leo came to on an unfamiliar bed in a strange house. He immediately shot up from the bed only to hear people speaking to each other somewhere else in the house in a tongue he did not know. He looked down at his body to find himself in clothes which were not his own and not like any of his culture. He found his blade sheathed on the floor next to the bed. He was simply happy it had not washed away with the waves. He quietly stepped onto the floor, took his blade and attached it around his waist. He then walked over to where he heard the talking coming from, but ensured to keep quiet. He spotted an elderly couple laughing over a shared loaf of bread. The man in the couple spotted Leo and gestured for him to come over with a smile. The man spoke, but Leo stood there without words as he could not understand him. The man finally picked up on Leo’s lack of comprehension and motioned for him to wait there as he walked off. He eventually returned with what looked to be a seal written in characters foreign to Leo. The man placed the seal on his own tongue, on which it dissolved entirely leaving not a trace.
  
  Leo was taken aback by this and instinctively took a few steps back. The man then spoke in Nihongo, telling Leo that there was nothing to fear. The fact that the man had suddenly learned Leo’s native tongue only frightened him more. This fear caused him to immediately run out of the house, but what he saw outside only boggled his mind once more. When he looked around, he saw men and women of ethnicities he had not even known existed using abilities which he could not conceive of to do basic household tasks. He saw women manipulating the wind to dry their clothes, men creating water to care for their crops and a great many other things which his mind could not begin to process.
  
  He was afraid. When one makes a warrior afraid, the warrior responds in the only way they know how to: combat. He charged with a battle cry at one of the men irrigating their crops with water he had created out of nothingness. He had full intentions to strike at him with his blade, but he was abruptly stopped by the same old man which had learned Leo’s tongue. He had his hand outstretched towards the sengoku and created steel which emerged from the ground and chained Leo’s legs and arms, forcefully pulling him down onto the ground.
  
  As it would happen, the old man was the mayor of the small village on whose shores Leo had washed up on. He was also a former member of something known as the Wizard Warriors, which were, as he explained, the official protectors of the land. The old man offered to let Leo go on the condition that he restrain his instinct to attack that which he cannot understand. Leo took a moment to meditate while restrained and agreed.
  
  Though he was only 18, Leo had determined that the life ahead of him was to be that of the warrior. However, upon seeing that the people of the land which he had just arrived in used powers beyond comprehension, he became afraid though not deterred. This fear made him even more excited to go on the warrior’s path. He had asked the old man to teach him the powers that the people of the land wielded. The old man stated people were born with the power and it could not be taught; Leo persisted. Upon noticing the sengoku’s determination, the old man agreed without another thought.
  
  Three months passed. Three months of intense, backbreaking but ultimately fruitless training. Eventually, at some point in this training, Leo developed a fever and was forced to rest until he had gotten better. Though he was opposed to the thought of time going by without any work being done, he recognised that he could not get anything done while he was ill and became bedridden. He stayed in bed for a week. At one point during this week, Leo came down with hallucinations of his homeland. He saw war and strife, sengoku fighting and dying with honour, families being torn apart over trivial things as titles and land inheritance. While his mind experienced these hallucinations, his body experienced pain. Burning pain. Agonising pain. Though he knew not of the pain his very body was feeling, those around him did. He screamed in his bed and he sweated profusely. Once the pain had stopped, so too did the hallucinations.
  
  Once Leo had awoken, he experienced a feeling of emptiness inside. Not emotional emptiness, but a physical one. Like a hunger which needed to be sated. To remedy this, he did what anyone would do when they hungered. He ate until he could eat no more. After he had digested his meal, this emptiness was filled as well. He went out to train once more. He drew his sword, and when he did so he found it covered in a coating of shadowy darkness. The old man was struck with awe for more reasons than one.
  
  Leo had finally learned magic, or so he had thought. The old man informed him that he had not seen a magic such as that before. He was curious, but Leo was ecstatic. He set out immediately to figure new ways in which he could manipulate his newfound magic. He found that when it coated his blade, he could use it to fortify the weapon as well as increase its destructive force. He also found that he could sink his body into the darkness of the shadows as he desired.
  
  His training continued for nine more months as he tried to find new ways in which to master his magic. Eventually, when he thought he had learned enough, he told the old man that he would apply to become a Wizard Warrior. The old man told him that the initiation for Wizard Warriors was one week away and that he would need a guide to get to the capital where it was being held. However, he also warned Leo that there would be a high chance that he would not be accepted into their ranks due to him being a foreigner. Leo was nothing if not determined, and was set on at least trying. The old man became envious of the sengoku’s determination once more and agreed to accompany him to the capital and watch him do his initiation.
  
  The two gathered their necessary supplies and went on a five day journey to the capital of the land. It was a grand place. The only spaces not taken up by buildings were the streets which were filled with bustling people. It was a stark contrast to the little village where Leo had arrived. On the sixth day, the two rested. The seventh was the day of the initiation and Leo was fired up.
  
  The initiation was to take place in a stadium at the centre of the capital. The audience would consist of citizens of the capital and, most importantly, captains of the Wizard Knights squads. Magic users would be required to participate in three stages: the molding stage, the raw magic stage and the combat stage. The final stage was the one everyone had enjoyed the most.
  
  In the molding stage, magic users would have to use their magic to bend existing objects to their will. In the raw magic stage, the level of the magic users’ overall magic capacity would be examined. In the combat stage, each magic user would face off in a tournament style combat. Once Leo had gone on for his turn in the first stage, the crowd fell silent at one glimpse of his skin. They knew he was a foreigner. Even with this, Leo was still determined.
  
  For the first stage, Leo was tasked with molding a block of solid steel into the likeness of one of the squad captains. Unfortunately, for him he contained no molding magic. Leo was still determined. He concentrated his dark magic and caused the steel block to fall into the darkness. Upon seeing what type of magic he used, all of the spectators collectively gasped. Not only was he a foreigner, but his magic was foreign as well. Leo remained focused even with the outburst of the crowd. In the end, however, it did him no good as all that happened was that his darkness crushed the steel but did not mold it. He tried again. Once more. Yet another time. He kept trying it until his time had elapsed. All he had managed to do was exhaust himself and crush the steel. Even with this first failure, he remained determined.
  
  The second stage: the raw magic stage did not go much better for him. Each magic user was required to step in front of the squad captains to have them assess their overall magic level. All of the participants before Leo displayed above average magic levels. However, when it was Leo’s turn, Leo’s magic was not able to be sensed. This was because the magic he used was not seen before in that land and, as such, was unable to be detected with magic detectors from that land. As a result, Leo’s overall magic level was deemed to be nonexistent. Even with this second failure, he remained determined.
  
  The third stage: the combat stage was where things began to turn around for him. Leo was originally set against the worst magic user as the matches were based off of the assessments given from the previous stage. Leo ended the match within seconds by knocking out his opponent with his sheathed blade and without the use of magic. His second opponent was not much better and only lasted a few seconds longer because he knew to run. His third opponent forfeited as he was afraid of the pain Leo might inflict upon him. This continued up until the final match where Leo was faced off against a young man who was thought to possess potential magic power strong enough to eventually rival the squad captains. Leo remained determined.
  
  In the fight, Leo’s opponent had used steel magic which was something Leo thought ideal. A clash of magic steel against Japanese steel craftsmanship. He unsheathed his blade and waited for his opponent to make the first move. His opponent fought him in a rather underhanded way. He used his steel to faint an attack while he focused magic into the ground beneath Leo’s feet to create chains which would grab him from underneath. Upon seeing that his opponent was prepared to use underhanded methods such as that, Leo thought it fair that he do the same. He used his dark magic to sink his body into his shadow before the strike hit and emerge behind his opponent before he realised what was happening. Once he did this, Leo delivered a strike to the back of his opponent’s head with the flat side of his blade which knocked him out. Though Leo had won, the crowd booed him simply because he was a foreigner. Even with this, Leo remained determined.
  
  When it came time for squad captains to decide on which magic users to choose for their squad, the crowd was filled with cheers. Each magic user got into a squad. Then it was Leo’s turn at last. The crowd fell silent. He remained unchosen. He stood there in shock. His shock turned to anger and he yelled. He then fell silent, apologising for his insolence before leaving the stadium. The old man met him on his way out and expressed his condolences. Leo was no longer angry and, so, he smiled at the old man. He told the old man not to worry about him. He said that his heart was that of a warrior, and once a warrior’s heart is made up there is no changing it. He told him to save his condolences for anyone who gets in the way of a warrior’s heart. Leo remained determined.
  
  Leo said that he would not go back with the old man, but instead would find work in the capital. He said that when he visited, he would bring back enough gold to sustain the old man’s village for years. The old man was grateful to Leo for his promise and left him with tears in his eyes. As Leo was walking around the capital, he was stopped by a group of people who were in the crowd when he was taking part in the initiation. He recognised them as the old people who did not boo him off due to his foreign ethnicity. They introduced themselves as a wizard guild known as the Spirit Knights. Their faces contained the biggest, warmest smiles. One of them, a woman who looked to be in her twenties approached Leo and began to feel his arms, his legs and even his blade. All the sengoku did was stand there in confusion. One of the other guild members, another woman who looked to be in her thirties shot a glare to the woman who was feeling up Leo, causing her to obtain a look of terror and then back off.
  
  A young man about Leo’s age expressed his amazement at Leo and his magic. He asked Leo if he would be willing to join the guild. Leo thought on it for a moment. The second the young man said that Leo would get paid for being a member, he decided he was going to join.
  
  Leo joined the guild. He was introduced to everyone and taken in as a member of the guild’s family. He did jobs for the guild and set aside a portion of his payment in order to keep his promise to the old man. He became friends with each guild member. He built his strongest bond with the young man from before. He learned that his name was Ray and the two became the best of friends, as well as rivals, often going on missions together. They would also often have little feuds as brothers do.
  
  As Leo went on jobs, so too did his skill grow. As his skill grew, so did his fame. He climbed the ranks in the guild. After starting from D class mage upon him joining, he reached B class within half a year and A class in one year. Eventually, Leo obtained the legendary S class after two years. Not long after this, Ray also obtained this S class title so as not to be outdone by his rival. Leo lived, loved, and laughed with his guild as if it was his family. The warrior had finally found something to fight for other than the honour of the sengoku. He fought for the bonds of friendship which he had built with those in his guild. He remained determined to never lose, never surrender and never let anyone harm his comrades.