SC1 8.2 – Reshaping Kato’s Martial Arts
Night in the hut was quiet and calm as usual. After dinner, I asked Yunno and Yui to have evening study for an hour. Therefore, starting today they would have two study sessions. One and a half hour in the morning, and another one hour in the evening.
After that Kato escorted them to brush their teeth before brushing their hair and reading them bed time story. Once Yunno and Yui fell asleep, Kato came to dinning hut and sat in front of me.
“What are you doing?” Kato asked.
“Preparing study material for Yunno and Yui,” I calmly replied.
“You really put great emphasis in Yunno and Yui study.”
“I have to. It will enable them to help me with my plan to enter food industry.”
“I see.”
I could tell Kato still had some hesitation with my plan, but she didn’t argue so I didn’t explain further and changed the topic.
Then, Kato gave the front yard a quick glance before saying, “When you have time, can you make post lamps for the yard? I still have a few lanterns. It’s a waste if we don’t use it.”
After slightly nodded I asked, “Anything else?”
“Pave the yard with stone block, and build a bamboo bench next to resting hut under a small roof extension.”
“Got it, but I can only work it in the morning so it will take 12-14 days to complete it.”
After a gentle smile Kato said, “No problem.”
“Now, let’s talk about your martial art and fix its problem.”
“Does my martial art have a problem?”
“It has fundamental problem.” After a pause I asked Kato, “Do you know what your soul mark is?”
Kato instantly shook her head. “No, Master said only Grandmaster Isser can check my soul mark.”
“Coincidently, I know how to check it and already did it.”
“Really?”
Big question mark popped out in Kato’s forehead, but I ignored it and continued, “Your soul mark is Silver Fox. It has great affinity with water and darkness.”
“Wait a second… My soul mark is Silver Fox and it has great affinity with water and darkness.” Kato’s expression instantly changed as she realized the flaw in her martial art. “Then, I don’t have compatibility with Wind Breath and Wind step.”
“Exactly.”
“No wonder,” Kato dejectedly said as her shoulder slumped down. “All this time I got a feeling my body rejects Wind Breath and Wind Step, and that’s why I can’t execute it properly.”
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“It’s a good sign if you can notice it.”
“But it’s still a big problem,” Kato said, still in dejected tone. “I don’t mind learning the correct skill from scratch, but I have to join martial guild to get it.”
“I can give it to you.”
“Sanno, don’t joke around. I’m not in the mood.”
It was natural that Kato thought I was joking around. Martial guild or martial family would limit the circulation of their martial skill only among their members. Therefore, martial skill was not commodity you could buy as long as you had the money.
Even a rogue member of martial guild or martial family wouldn’t pass their skill to someone unless the receiver was ready to be hunted and killed. However, as former Blackwing’s elder I had special right to distribute certain skill that I helped polishing into perfection to whoever I considered as my disciple or servant.
And so, I confidently convinced Kato. “I’m not joking around. Do you want it or not?”
“Of course I want it. Even if it just low-tier skill, it’s better than nothing.”
“Good, I will transfer it to you through soul binding.”
Without explaining to Kato that the martial skill I would give her was high-tier skill, I started the transfer. In summary, I gave Kato the Night Rain as her breathing technique. Water Step and Stealth Step as her movement skill, and Flowing Hand as her hand-to-hand combat.
Other than that, I also gave her Hallucinogen Spell, Night Fog Spell, and Healing Spell. She had high affinity with darkness so misdirection spell suit her, while her affinity to water enabled her to cast Healing Spell.
Once I completed the transfer Kato instantly looked at me with wide eyes. “Sanno, how could you know so many complete skills and spell?”
“Teacher gave it to me.” A simple lied slipped through my teeth, but from how Kato nodded her head I concluded she fully bought it. “Well, your Slash and Parry also need some fixing, so we will include this issue in our night training.”
Kato tilted her head as question mark appeared in her forehead, “Night training?”
“Three hours a day at night, after Yunno and Yui sleep, we will have some training and sparring,” I explained.
“I see.”
Without further ado Kato took out her kodachi, and I responded correspondently.
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Long time ago, after I completed my basic training Grand Elder showed me his ultimate sword stance, and I was instantly being mesmerized by it. His katana came out from its scabbard smoothly and lightly like his breath. One moment, he stood empty-handed. The next moment, his katana was already in front of his body.
Then, he lowered his katana to his right side, casually pointing downward. In a glance, Grand Elder was unready for combat. His stance was too relaxed and held no purpose. However, I could tell it was not the case.
I knew for sure that Grand Elder never drew his Katana without resolve or purpose to use it, and I was correct. That day, I learned the existence of ultimate one in the moment before the combat.
Far from being combat unready, Grand Elder was actually ready to welcome anything, anticipating nothing, accepting everything. His stance was a stance that presented neither defensive posture nor offensive preparation.
On earth, in ancient Japan to be precise, only one swordsman dared to adopt this kind of open stance. He was the undefeated Miyamoto Musashi. No one used it before or after him. While in the long history of Blackwing, only Grand Elder and I used it.
And right now, I used it in front of Kato, and as I expected, she looked at me with confused eyes.
“Sanno, are we really going to spar using live-weapon? I mean, I have blunt kodachi and we can use it.”
“Just attack me with everything you have.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m.”
“Okay.”
Wasting no time Kato raised her kodachi above her head, stepped forward, and then made a downward vertical slash. I could feel her hesitation as she deliberately aimed at empty spot next to my left shoulder.
Without many words reprimanded her hard way. I didn’t block or parry her slash, but avoided it by flanking her and making a compact circle, followed by heavy horizontal slash to her nape.
Paa!!
The flat part of my Kodachi perfectly landed on Kato’s nape, making her tumble a few steps forward while dizziness blanketed her mind.
“I said attack me with everything you have,” I calmly said.
“I see. It seems you are serious about our sparring.” Kato shook her head for a moment before adding, “I’m sorry for underestimating your intention. Now, I will attack you with everything I have.”
“Good.”
Without further ado Kato mounted another attack. This time she came at me with intention to beat the shit out of me. However, it was a thousand year too early for her to do that. Even though both of us were Level 1, my fighting experience and sword skill were far above her.
Therefore, even when out of her frustration she used dirty trick like throwing dirt to my eyes, I still managed to put her down to the ground with ease, over and over.
In short, seven times the hilt of my kodachi hit her gut and made her fell to her knee. Another six times it hit her nape and made her fell to ground face first. It was also not rare the flat part of my kodachi hit her side, wrist, or calf at full power.
Surprisingly, Kato didn’t utter any complaint, not even once. She just silently got back to her feet, and then continued the sparring as the determination in her eyes grew deeper.
When Kato finally couldn’t go anymore, I applied Healing Spell on her. We then took a short break before starting hand-to-hand sparring. I used this chance to teach Kato the Flowing Hand.
Fundamentally, Flowing Hand was like aikido. When your opponent pushed you, you pulled and slammed them. When they pulled you, you pushed and slammed them. In short, you manipulated their force against them. And when they kicked or hit you, you didn’t block it. You either avoid it, or parry it and directed it into a pulling or pushing motion before slamming or throwing them.
The only difference was, aikido user was taught to ensure their opponent landed safely with minimum damage, while Flowing Hand user was taught to kill their opponent with first slam or throw, like ensuring their head landed first as hard as possible.
Of course, even though this was Kato first time in learning Flowing Hand, I didn’t hold back in the slightest. I slammed her to the ground whenever opportunity presented itself. But at least, no matter how brutal my slam was, I ensured it would not result in broken bone or fatal injury.
When Kato couldn’t go anymore, I applied Healing Spell on her for the second time. After that I went to take a bath, while Kato sulkily sat in dinning hut. It seemed she was angry that I didn’t go easy on her in our first sparring, so I decided to wait until she was chilling down before talking to her.
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