Hitoshi’s eyes bolted open as he found himself drifting off to sleep.  He let out a yawn as he pulled himself up from a sound from behind him.  His head turned, looking at the trees and small cliff-like segment of the land behind him.  He raised his eyebrow as he heard what sounded like the scurrying of little legs.  There was something back there.  He could tell there was something back there.  What’s more was that the scurrying sounded oh-so-familiar.  “Rivercrabs” he whispered to himself as he closed his bag and began to creep around the trees, towards a small stairway that went up to the next ‘level’ of the course.

As he came around, he placed one foot on the stairs and immediately froze.  Crouching down in front of the first couple steps, he could see the scurrying critters coming out into the open, right above the final step of these stairs.  He crept his head above the steps and looked as he saw two Rivercrabs walking around the open grass and stopped at the top of the stairs, looking the opposite direction.  They didn’t seem to have noticed him, and he kept his position, ensuring that they wouldn’t become aware of him during that moment.

Slowly standing up, he watched the two crabs for a few minutes, still partially waking up, himself.  As he started to regain his focus and saw them doing whatever it is they did as they made conversation, he saw that one of them was shaking its head, up and down.  Hitoshi’s eyes widened as he saw this action.  It was the same mocking action the crab from earlier had done to him earlier!  His mouth was hanging wide open as he grabbed his sword and screamed down towards the crabs.  “It’s you!”

The crabs, immediately recognizing his presence, turned around and looked at him for a moment.  They blinked at him for a second before the non-mocking one scurried back into the forest.  The other one, however, stood there, and continued mocking Hitoshi, snapping it’s pincers at him and making that laughing head-shake.  This was starting to enrage Hitoshi and made him think on a lesson he’d been taught just a few weeks before.  His breathing was heavy and his arms were tightly gripped on the sword as he lunged at them and went into action.

The Rivercrab had seen Hitoshi’s rage and sprinted off into the distance.  Still chasing after it, Hitoshi started running everything through his head as he put his lesson to good use, feeling a surge of energy running through him at that moment.  He leapt into the air and screamed down at the monster as he came down, his sword swiping at it, at the same time.  “DOUBLE CUT!”  As Hitoshi came down, the sword sliced into the crab, immediately shredding two of it’s legs.  After his boots hit the ground, the crab was launched forward, into a cliff wall ahead.  Continuing the maneuver, Hitoshi launched himself into the air again, almost immediately after landing and locked onto the crab again. 

As he came down again, the sword stabbed into the grab’s torso, immediately impaling it.  Hitoshi stood there for a moment, tossing the crab’s body off into the distance and looked at his sword, covered in the beast’s blood.  As he regained his breath, he walked to the side, where part of the creek that ran around the Training Course was lying.  Making a couple quick slashes into the water, Hitoshi cleaned his blade of the blood that had been put on it. 

After cleaning his sword off, he returned to where he’d killed that last Rivercrab and found yet another Coda Seed.  Between his steadying breathes, he let out a smile as he pocketed this seed.  He was getting extremely close to completing his goal.  He had seven seeds.  Only one more and he could return to Professor Moriko and be on his way.  Heading up a nearby staircase, he started jogging through the forest-clad Training Course, in the hopes that he’d find the other seed quickly.

Making a few quick turns around the forest, he saw two more Rivercrabs, scurrying around on the grass.  Not giving them a chance to turn and attack him, he whipped his sword out mid-run and leapt into the air, delivering yet another Double-Cut on the first, impaling it and launching it’s body forward, hanging from the branches of one of the trees.  The other one made haste and dove into the bushes, knowing when to pick fights and when not to.  Hitoshi let out a small smirk, letting his new ability go to his head as he ran further and further, getting close to a place he’d been before.

He finally came to a fork in the path.  To the left was what looked like a small treasure chest, placed there by the professors, filled with medicines and food for the students to use as needed.  To the right was what looked like another seed, the final one he needed.  He thought about just jumping for the seed and not worrying about the chest, but it enticed him too much.  Taking a quick run to the left, he approached the wooden box.  Putting his sword away, he pulled the box open to reveal a small vile of Smelling Salts.  “This is the stuff that can wake someone up when they fall unconscious” he says to himself as he pockets it and heads back to the other path, bagging the Coda Seed on the way.

After a quick jump across the creek and a run across the bridge he’d encountered upon coming to the Course, he jogged his way up to Professor Moriko, whom was still standing in front of the cabin, her eyes locked onto him as her silky black hair blew in the wind.  He held his head down as he first saw her, eyeing the boots she was wearing.  After a second, though, he shook his head around and looked at her, holding out the eight seeds he’d claimed.

Moriko quickly snatched the seeds from Hitoshi’s hands and had a smirk-like smile on her face.  “Good work, Hayama!  I will get these planted at once.  Now scram.  I can’t have Principal Ayuka on my case for keeping you here too long.”  She was keeping that smirk on her face for a moment, but soon turned it into a normal-like smile as she continued.  “Oh, right.  Before you head off, I suppose I should give you something for the trouble, to perk you back up.  After all, we don’t want you showing up to your special appointment while looking tired and fatigued.  Take these Dumplings.”

Hitoshi quickly bagged the bagged-food the Professor gave to him, gave her a nod, and then ran from the Training Course, heading off to Main Campus, presumable to go see the Principal…or maybe not.