A little after the Sanbaka (Three Stooges), Chizuru Raikouji, and Satsuki "May Brooks" Sakaguchi had already arrived at Yokohama and found their respective places to stay...
During the majority of the Edo Era, from 1639 to 1854, Japan was under lockdown from foreign trade care of the Sakoku (Locked Country) edict full of isolationist policies.
The Sakoku Era was established to prevent foreign influences like Christianity from spreading across the nation and undermine the power of the local government, which was what happened to the Philippines when Spain spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. They gained Roman Catholicism in exchange to becoming a Spanish Colony.
Whole countries have been conquered by world superpowers due to cultural exchanges and catechism. Japan didn't want any part of it. This was why the Hidden Christians were so severely persecuted by both the shoguns of yore and the current government.
Then the black ships of Commodore Matthew C. Perry came along and forced Japan's Bakufu (Shogunate) to trade with the western world. What pushed them into the Sakoku Era—the fear of subjugation—was also what pushed them out of it.
The Convention of Kanagawa was then established in order to construct five new ports to allow Japan to trade to the rest of the world for the first time in centuries, which was one of the unequal treaties that led to unrest and eventually revolution during the Bakumatsu (End of the Bakufu).
One of these very ports opened up in 1859 in Yokohama.
Ever since then, Yokohama had become an international city and Japan's gateway to the rest of the world. It was like Japan's own version of New York. It was a melting pot of people and cultures.
Regardless, among the goods traded in the Port of Yokohama were the Japanese long-tailed chickens that beguiled the Europeans. In 1864, they became the first documented export by the westerners.
A gorgeous bird straight from The Orient. This smallish chicken with an unusually long tail like a phoenix and a pea-colored walnut comb had yellow feet, legs, and beak. Its breed was, incidentally, named by people outside of Japan after its port of origin: Yokohama.
To be more specific, some of the Yokohama birds reached Paris's own Jardin Zoologique d'Acclimatation (Zoological Garden of Acclimatization), which was also the publication that decided the name of the breed in the first place.
A few years later, the bantam Yokohama was taken to Germany for crossbreeding with standard-sized German bantam chicken breeds that were suitable or complementary to their own coloring.
The first president of Bund Deutscher Rassegeflügelzüchter (German National Poultry Association), Hugo du Roi, started breeding the Yokohama with local chickens. This breed was also documented through illustrations by Jean Bungartz in his Geflügel-Album of 1885.
At any rate, one such Yokohama firebird "somehow" ended up in the hands of the Great Gan, which harkened back to his other misadventures with a similarly peculiar chicken found in Shinshushin.
What interesting new, multi-chapter misadventures were in store for the Sanbaka now that the Thieving Gan had found another unusual fowl to exploit?
"Hey, Three Stooges! Oh wait, I'm part of the Three Stooges. Anyway, wake up! Check it out, yo! I got a Yokohama from Yokohama in Yokohama!" said the Grinning Gan to his fellow Sanbaka. "What do you think, Yoshi-boy? Patches? Maybe we can find a cockpit for it to compete in or have it breed with Sanosuke back in Shinshu!"
However, the two other "stooges" had other ideas.
"No! Not again! Give that chicken back to its owners, you poultry thief! DOTOU NO KEN!"
"OW! My wrist!"
The chicken flew away from Gan's grasp, which made him run after it.
"...Don't you get it, Yoshi-boy? Gaijin (Outsiders) love these long-tailed birds! Imagine how much they'd pay to get this URK!"
"I'm sorry, Gan-chi. Yahiko-chi is right. Let that chicken go. Cancer Stance: Vise Grip."
"Nooo, Patches! Not my groin! GUAAAAH!"
The (probably) stolen fowl then flew away from the Penniless Gan's grasp, but not before it pooped on his bandanna-sporting head first.
"Aw, come on!"
Rurouni Yahiko
A Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction Continuation Story by Chester Castañeda
Been a while, huh? I had to rewrite this chapter because my dumbass overwrote the original file with the next chapter. Dammit.
Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.
Chapter 52: A Friendly Sparring Match
A little before the Sanbaka, Chizuru Raikouji, and May "Satsuki Sakaguchi" Brooks arrived at Yokohama and found their respective places to stay...
Prior to when Kinta Minakata's confrontation with his Uncle Tatsuya occurred, the Three Stooges arrived along with Chizuru and her best friend May in Yokohama by train.
It was a long, five hour trip. They got off the train during a nippy afternoon. The sky was red. There was a warm glow everywhere they looked. Like they were covered in gold.
However, the coldness of the weather belied the look of warmth of everything around them. They could actually see their breaths rise from their mouths in puffs of smoke.
Soon enough, the lie melted away and turned into harsh, cold reality as the last vestiges of sunlight left them.
Chizuru stretched her arms up and cracked her neck. She finally got the opportunity to stretch her arms out after the long, cramped, and uneventful ride.
She then turned and demanded, "And where do you think you two are going?" after she spotted both Yahiko and Satsuki on their tiptoes, sneaking gently towards the nearest bushes or woodlands with careful steps as though eggshells were strewn all over the train station floor.
Together, they said, "To spar."
The Raikouji Heiress wagged her finger at them. "No, you martial arts hooligans! Do that tomorrow at Sakaguchi-ojisan's dojo. It's already late and it's getting dark. And cold. I want to find a bathhouse so badly, Satsuki-chan! Let's take a bath together!"
They both pouted at Chizuru. "Aw."
Raikouji rolled her eyes. "Spare me, you two."
Yahiko then asked, "Grandpa Sakaguchi? You mean Sakaguchi Satoru-san's father...?"
"The old man is Kyoko-chan's maternal grandfather," corrected Chizuru. "Satoru-san is his son-in-law."
Brooks further explained, "Grandpa Genzo. My adoptive grandfather. The grandmaster of the Musou Madden Ryu and owner of the Sakaguchi Dojo."
"Oh, is that right? I better arrange our sparring match through him, then."
Satsuki grinned. "Can't wait for tomorrow to come! I'll knock you out, kiddo!"
Yahiko smirked. "Well, you can try."
Earlier, both May and Yahiko were on the edges of their respective train seats as they arrived in their destination. They were looking forward to spar with each other after talking extensively about martial arts and swordsmanship.
During their rescue of Minoe and many (other) kidnapped daughters at a bandit camp, they saw each other in action.
Myojin and his kendo counters plus weapon-snatching techniques.
Brooks with her elegant, long-distance polearm attacks.
They couldn't wait to beat each other up and test their strength.
"Welp," said Chizuru after she was done with her stretches, "Time to bathe then hit the hay. You Sanbaka okay? You can find an inn for you to sleep at just fine, right?"
The Guffawing Gan guffawed. "No problem. We'll find a room to stay immediately. Isn't that right, Patches?"
"Patches" or Munenori Minoe was just about to escape their midst as well, intending to patrol the streets of Yokohama until he could locate the Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior) of Shogo Amakusa.
"Hey, where do you think you're going, Patches?" the burly, barrel-chested man picked Minoe up by the scruff of his collar. "You might get lost again or something, like in Hiroshima."
"N-Nya?" Minoe mewled at Gan.
"Aw, how cute," said Gan, petting Munenori's head.
As for Yahiko, he spared Gan a dirty look, murmuring, 'You mean I'll find a room for the night while you two will share the room with me as I foot the bill for the rent. Bunch of freeloaders.'
He also considered pushing Gan to get a job for nearby construction work and Minoe a job as at least an errand boy for a local restaurant in the area so that the two would start pulling their own weight in terms of group expenses. For all the good that'd do.
That night, inside the nearest bathhouse Yahiko could find that was still open so late in the evening...
"Aaaah. This feels so good."
The Son of Tokyo Samurai relaxed in the steamy hot tub. Or at least he tried to.
Feeling fidgety, he wouldn't stop moving, which annoyed the other patrons of the establishment.
He couldn't sleep back at the inn so he decided to take a bath instead.
He didn't know what to do with himself. He was like a child about to have his birthday party or something.
The (Japanese) native was so restless tonight.
Could anyone blame him? The long-distance polearm style of Satsuki was just what he needed in order to bring his Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Revisal Techniques to the next level.
If he could somehow beat her with the Tsui Gami (God Hammer) and the Dou Gami (God on Earth), then he'd prove the worth of the techniques he made up himself and could call his own.
Prove that his Musha Shugyo (Training Pilgrimage) all over Japan (more like the Kanto region so far) that led to him becoming a rurouni (vagabond) himself wasn't a waste of time.
Her style was the exact test he needed to see the mettle of his Revisal Techniques.
He finished soaking in the tub like stewing food and finished up by sitting on a small stool and splashing himself with a bucket of cold water that woke up his nerves.
He couldn't wait for tomorrow to come.
As he left the men's side of the bathhouse and walked in the hallway, he then felt something soft and fragrant bump into him.
"EEEK!"
"Ah, sorry! I didn't notice I've wandered off, Miss...?"
"...Joshua-kun?"
"EH?! M-Miss May...!"
Or whatever her name was. May. Satsuki. Brooks. Sakaguchi. She had so many names!
They'd ended up bathing at the same bathhouse, bumping into each other in the common area leading to the girls' and boys' changing rooms.
Small world.
Yahiko gulped as he caught a peek of the soft mountain peaks and valleys of May's curvaceous, milky-white figure even in that thick bathrobe she wore that could barely fit her (It was Japanese-woman-sized instead of foreigner-sized).
He redirected his gaze from her cleavage to her mesmerizing blue eyes as a vision of Tsubame Sanjo entered the edge of his imagination. Also, for some reason, the imaginary Tsubame was patting her own chest with tears on her eyes.
Out of jealousy, perhaps?
No, it was envy. Jealousy was when someone was worried something would be taken away from them. Envy was about wanting something someone else had.
Ah, now the crying Tsubame in his mind was hitting him softly for thinking she was envious of May Brooks. Adorable.
In any case, when their gazes finally met, they grinned at each other knowingly.
"Let's do it soon, Yahiko-kun!"
"Absolutely! If I could do it with you tonight, I would, Satsuki."
They then rethought and reconsidered their phrasing when they heard the sudden buzz of rumors and hearsay around them from passersby and bystanders.
"How shameless."
"What a flirty couple."
"How'd that runt end up with a goddess like her?"
"Get a room, you two!"
"Are they a couple? Or is he her customer...?"
Even Satsuki ended up chuckling, whispering, "What are you saying, Joshua-kun? You make me blush."
He rejoined, "That's my line, Miss May Brooks!"
"...GET A CLUE, YOU TWO!" screamed Chizuru—who had been standing there the whole time but Yahiko didn't notice—as she pulled her friend Satsuki away from the leering eyes of the nearby males and the gossiping mouths of the nearby females.
As for Yahiko, he avoided the stares, glares, and congratulatory pats to the back of the crowd as he went to the men's changing room.
Regardless, he'd definitely do it with her soon. 'Spar, that is.'
He was itching to show her how her long-range attacks could be countered and see how she'd react to the perfected versions of his newly invented techniques.
He had no intention of losing against her tomorrow.
She was a rung in his ladder to success. The next step on his stairway to heaven and greatness.
She would help him prove to himself, Kenshin, and others that he deserved to inherit and wield the sakabatou (reversed-edge sword).
'Sorry in advance for your loss, Satsuki,' he apologized to her in his mind. 'You will be my guinea pig for my new moves.'
It was a cold winter morning when the Sanbaka arrived at the Sakaguchi Dojo.
However, even the crisp dryness of a sky sprinkled with dancing snowflakes wasn't enough to extinguish the dancing flames from Yahiko's eyes.
They were fetched by the two best friends, Ribbon Girl and the Blonde Gaikokujin (Foreigner) Bombshell (Chizuru and Satsuki) at a restaurant. After having breakfast, they took a carriage straight to the Sakaguchi Dojo.
Incidentally Satsuki was staying at the dojo and home of her adoptive family. Chizuru tagged along with her and was practically having a sleepover with them, since she was a family friend and all.
"Ah, Yahiko-kun! Minoe-san! Gan-san! Welcome back!" said Kyoko Sakaguchi, the girl they met back from Shinshushin, before catching herself. "Oh wait, we're not in Shinshu! My pardons! I meant to say nice to see you three again!"
She was sweeping the front yard of the dojo when they saw her.
"Soba Daughter! I mean, Soba Girl" greeted Gan while Minoe waved from behind him.
'Minoe's extra shy today, isn't he?' thought Yahiko.
"How's Officer Daddy (Satoru Sakaguchi)? Or Soba Lady (Nonoko Sakaguchi)? Is your mother taking care of Sano (the Peculiar Chicken, not Sanosuke Sagara)?"
Kyoko giggled. "'Officer Daddy' is here in Yokohama with me. We answered Grandfather's summons for all his best students to gather at the family dojo. 'Soba Lady' is doing fine and so is Sano."
"Please don't humor him," Yahiko warned Kyoko about the Nicknaming Gan, but she then turned the tables on him and remarked, "Don't you do the same to Chizuru-chan when you call her Raccoon Girl, Yahiko-kun?"
Yahiko was left speechless by that.
"HA! She got you there, Yoshi-boy!" mocked Gan.
They then entered the dojo itself. It looked pretty much like the Kamiya Dojo, but much bigger. Probably older. Like a theater hall almost. As expected of a kenjutsu and iaijutsu school sponsored by one of the richest families in Japan.
Speaking of Chizuru, Yahiko stopped cold when he saw the outfit she was wearing. Instead of her usual "ribbon on shoulder-length hair and boots" combo, she instead wore a kendo uniform and had her hair put up on a ponytail.
"Kaoru," he mumbled.
"Whaddya say, Yahiko?" she asked.
"Nothing, Tanuki-chan Niigo (Raccoon Girl Two)."
"See? You and Gan really are birds of a feather!" Chizuru said loud enough so Kyoko could overhear her. "You and your stupid nicknames." She pointed at her ponytail. "Did that Kaori person have the same ponytail as mine now?"
Yahiko scratched his chin. "Nah, her ponytail is longer. And it's Kaoru. Kamiya Kaoru."
Chizuru chuckled. "So she's my love rival for the Vagabond's affections, huh?"
"Let it go, Tanuki-chan. Kenshin's already married," Myojin scoffed.
She teased, "Maybe he'd like a mistress instead! Never say never!"
"Yeah, right. Kenshin taking on a side chick. That would be the day." Yahiko rolled his eyes, smiling. "Jeez, stop being so thirsty, woman! And wear your hair without the ponytail! It's weirding me out."
Chizuru shrugged, undid her ponytail, and shook her head to unravel her shoulder-length hair back to her usual hairdo. "Okay. How do I look now?"
"Like normal," Yahiko said.
They then entered the Sakaguchi Dojo, only to be greeted by dozens, perhaps almost a hundred or so iaijutsu and kenjutsu students of varying skill levels. Some were paired up with one another to spar. Others were practicing drills and kenjutsu forms.
Yahiko and the other two Sanbaka then introduced themselves to an old man at the center of this human maelstrom who used a bokken (wooden sword) for his walking stick.
He was the grandmaster of Musou Madden Ryu. The grandfather of Kyoko and Satsuki. The family friend of the Rakoujis and the master of Kinta Minakata or the Mimawarigumi Battousai.
Genzo Sakaguchi.
The three bowed down low at the venerable old man, who in turn nodded and bowed himself.
"Satsuki told me all about you, Myojin Yahiko," the Sakaguchi Patriarch said. "You're doing a Musha Shugyo (Training Pilgrimage), right? Our school would be honored to train with you. Which school are you from?"
Myojin nodded to Genzo and then said, "I train under the Kamiya Kasshin School in Tokyo, sir." At the back of his mind, he mused that Genzo reminded him of Miyauchi Maekawa, founder of Chuetsu Ryu. An elderly master swordsman himself.
Yahiko even heard from Kyoko and Satsuki that their grandfather was primarily a blacksmith and swordsmith by trade on top of being a swordsman with his own swordsmanship school. What a multi-talented fellow he was.
Genzo then said to Minoe, "Have we met before?"
Munenori shrugged, brushed his bangs back, and smiled. "Nope. Can't say we have." He then turned serious. "Is Minakata Kinta-chi here?"
"Kinta-kun? No, not yet. He might be busy with his family business," said the senior citizen. "You have business with him as well?"
"You could say that," said the eye-patched man with an unreadable look on his face.
On Yahiko's right was a crowd of students doing fifty strokes with their shinai (bamboo blade) in Water Stance. On his left were other students who were instead dueling against one another in a sparring tournament of sorts.
Myojin had heard that the Sakaguchi Dojo was offering lessons to women and children as well for sports and exercise purposes, but ever since the Minakata Family emergency, they stopped those lessons and focused on getting all their top students together instead.
Come to think of it, Kaoru herself had been offering the same types of lessons in Tokyo. It was peacetime at this point of the Meiji Era, after all. To survive, kendo and kenjutsu schools like theirs should adapt with the times.
Therefore, there were only three women (four if you counted Minoe) in the dojo at the moment, two of whom were relatives and students/instructors.
Speaking of which, in the midst of all this bedlam was Satsuki Sakaguchi, also known by her original (birth) name of May Brooks. She was apparently an instructor of Musou Madden School as well, with her wielding a shinai and everything.
Long story short, she was a lost orphaned(?) child from a foreign land who ended up adopted into the Sakaguchi Family, eventually turning into a teacher and martial artist once she grew up.
'Huh. She's an English and P.E. (Physical Education) teacher, huh?' Yahiko mused, amused. 'What a versatile family the Sakaguchis are. They can hold different jobs while still remaining students of Musou Madden Ryu.'
"...Don't look away! Look at your opponent's eyes, Jake-kun! Don't pull back," Satsuki said to one of her students. "Emerson-san, your form is slightly wrong. To do the Chudan-no-Kamae (Water Stance), you should leave the left foot slightly behind the right with the left heel slightly raised. Point the shinai on your opponent's throat too."
"YES, SATSUKI-SENSEI!" the students shouted to her over and over.
Many of the students, mostly males, were head-over-heels enamored by her and her use of pet names. She was also looking more Kaoru-like in action than even the Kaoru look-alike Chizuru.
"Oh, so you do that thing where you give out English nicknames to all your students, huh?" teased Yahiko as he waved hello at his future sparring partner. "And here I thought that was something special you did just between the two of us."
"JOSHUA-KUN! You made it!" said May with a clap before pouting. "Stop teasing! I'm just bad at pronouncing Japanese names! Anyway, let's get changed in bogu (armor) so that we can get started!"
"Hey, who is this 'Joshua-kun' turd anyway?"
"I don't like that smug look on his face!"
"He does not deserve any attention from our golden-haired goddess!"
"Go home from wherever you came from, you teenaged brat!"
Welp. It looked like the simps... well, simpletons... of Musou Madden Ryu were a little bit jealous of Yahiko getting Miss Brooks' attention.
However, Genzo summoned both Yahiko and Satsuki before they could get prepared for their match.
"Wait a minute, you two. Hear me out. I have an idea," said the Sakaguchi Patriarch.
The five standard kendo stances were taken from different swordsmanship schools that were all combined into kendo (way of the sword)—the sports-like, competition-driven, and streamlined national martial art descended from kenjutsu (classical swordsmanship schools before the Meiji Era).
These five basic stances were indeed shared across all traditional swordsmanship schools in Japan. They were partly based on the different sword schools incorporated into one unified swordsmanship style in an effort by Chief of Police Toshiyoshi Kawaji to standardize kenjutsu among the police.
They included the following:
Chudan-no-Kamae (Water Stance).
Joudan-no-Kamae (Fire Stance).
Gedan-no-Kamae (Earth Stance).
Hasso-no-Kamae (Wood Stance).
Waki-Gamae or Waki-no-Kamae (Metal Stance).
These stances were also used in specialized iaijutsu or iaido (quick-draw) swordsmanship schools like Musou Madden Ryu and its parent school, Hasegawa Eishin Ryu (founded by Chikaranosuke Eishin), particularly when it came to Metal Stance.
Later on, in 1932, Musou Shinden Ryu (founded by Nakayama Hakudo) would also follow the same tenets After all, even in an iaijutsu school, you should still be able to fight in the right stance after your sword had already been drawn.
Water Stance was the most basic posture that provided a balance between defensive and attacking techniques. Chudan was the typical "signature" stance Kaoru used whenever she sparred or fought. Yahiko also tended to fall into the same stance during his own battles until the last few years because his Revisal Techniques favored the more offense-driven Fire Stance more.
However, quick-draw strikes usually preferred using the Metal Stance more, with the handle near the belt line and the tip pointed away from the opponent like a sword about to be drawn from its sheath.
In light of this, Yahiko cleaned house and won against many of the students of Musou Madden in their kendo sparring matches. He knew all the stances by heart and how to counter them because of his years of kendo drills, sparring, street fighting, and dueling experience against the Ten Swords and the Five Comrades.
As the Coadjutant Master of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, he was supposed to at least be good enough do that.
By last year, he'd become a national-champion-level swordsman known as "The Catcher of a Thousand Blades" in Tokyo. He was also fast enough to stop the first five attacks of the nine-strike Kuzu Ryu Sen (Nine-Headed Dragon Flash).
Genzo Sakaguchi's bright idea was to have Yahiko and Satsuki warm up before their sparring match by having them spar with all his students first.
Regardless, the fully armored Yahiko proceeded to do a kendo clinic on all the greenhorn students of Musou Madden School.
Throughout the morning till noon, he engaged in three-point matches with the students of the Sakaguchi Dojo. Kyoko served as his judge who raised flags whenever someone scored a point. The one who earned two points first won.
"MEN! (FACE!)"
"KOTE! (WRIST!)"
He tested their knowledge on Shikake-Waza (First Attack Techniques) and Oji-Waza (Counter Attack Techniques) by controlling the pace of the match, slowing it down with counters left and right that made them hesitate then initiating attacks of his own to mix things up as well.
"TSUKI! (THROAT!)"
"SAYU-MEN! (LEFT-SIDE FACE!)"
Initially, many of the students attempted to do Waki-Gamae against Yahiko's Chudan, eager to show up this interloper and show off to their blonde goddess Satsuki how good their iaijutsu was.
The whole school of Musou Madden Ryu was based on the phases of the moon. They had what was known as the Waxing Stance, which was an ordinary iaijutsu stance. However, the Waning Stance was the Waxing Stance but with your back on the opponent and your sheathed sword facing him instead.
"YOUNG MOON SLASH! MEN!"
"DOU! (BODY!)"
They soon dropped their amateurish Waki-Gamae and quickly realized how unready they were for iaijutsu as Yahiko again and again baited them to attack his Fire Stance and easily parried and riposted with his Kaeshi-Waza (Riposte Techniques) and Debana-Waza (Preparatory Counter Techniques).
Afterwards, many of them stuck to using the basic Chudan or Gedan stances they were used to in order to have a better chance of hitting the kid. They still couldn't touch him.
"KOTE!"
"DOTOU NO KEN! (BILLOW SWORD!) KOTE!"
Many a student's wrist-attacking Hikibana-Kote (Withdrawal Strike Wrist) technique to an off-balanced, withdrawing opponent were tested care of Yahiko's former signature technique, the Shippu Jinrai Dotou no Ken (Gale Thunderclap Billow Sword).
The Dotou no Ken countered the traditional Hikibana-Waza with a much snappier disarming strike. It got its full name from the whiplash sound it produced that sounded like a clap of thunder or the crack of a whip.
Meanwhile, at the same time in another part of the dojo, Satsuki quickly defeated her share of sparring partners with brutal and methodical attacks from her Gedan-no-Kamae (a stance that had the sword pointing down towards the floor or the feet of her opponents).
"KO...!"
"YOKO-MEN! (RIGHT-SIDE FACE!)"
She dispatched her opponents with the efficiency of a machine, touching them up from Earth Stance with the so-called Young Moon Slash to the face or helmet every time.
"...Hey, I thought you told me you've never wielded a sword in your entire life!" Yahiko had asked Satsuki after seeing her use a shinai instead of a bo (wooden staff).
"No, I said I've never quick-drawn a sword from its sheath in my life," she had clarified. "I can wield a drawn sword just fine. I use the shinai and bokken to practice forms, but a bo or naginata is still my preferred weapon."
And indeed, even though Musou Madden Ryu was an iaijutsu school, its techniques were also applicable to even naginatajutsu or polearm fighting styles.
Even though the blonde girl wasn't using her favored long pole or naginata, she wielded the shinai like one. Also, thanks to the length of her arms, her tallness, and her natural reach advantage, the lanky blonde also somehow lengthened the range of the kendo stick by stretching her body to its utmost at the last second, catching her opponents by surprise.
Every round of each match Satsuki had flew by in seconds rather than minutes. The time it took to reset back into position lasted longer than their exchanges.
"ME...!"
"MEN!"
In turn, it was Grandpa Genzo who served as the judge for Satsuki's matches. No student of theirs could even touch her or dodge her efficient bamboo blade shots.
"Satsuki. You keep aiming for the head. Vary your attacks or you'll get countered," reminded the stern Genzo. "Stop headhunting."
Meanwhile, May murmured to herself, "It should be fine, right? I keep winning anyway."
Unlike Yahiko's matches and their variety due to the boy's huge bag of kendo tricks, Satsuki's matches were more disturbingly similar and uniform. Predictable, even.
"D...!"
"MEN!"
She whipped around her kendo stick so fast it flickered like an eye blink. She aimed it at the helmets of her opponents for a "Men" strike every time like some sort of headhunter.
She should've been predictable enough to get countered by any of her students, but so far her Young Moon Slash shot out so fast she got away with headhunting every time.
She was outright mesmerizing, the way she fell into Earth Stance yet swayed her full-bodied figure for a strike in an undulating fashion, her unceasing attacks as constant as the clash of tidal waves against the hard rocks and coarse sand of the shore that sometimes grew turbulent enough to create a tsunami.
Her bright blue eyes shining in excitement even as her blonde hair framed her creamy white face like threads of gold gleaming in sunlight.
Yahiko caught himself staring at Satsuki's... bounciness in time to deflect a "MEN!" strike to his helmet and face mask with his shinai. Or so he thought.
But Genzo raised the flag and gave the point to his student instead of Myojin, saying, "Very good. You've read the feint he uses to draw out counters whenever he switches from Water Stance to Fire Stance. Do it again to win."
The samurai boy from Tokyo harrumphed at his biased judge but soldiered on. He even did the same Water to Fire Stance switch that Genzo encouraged to counter.
The smug Musou Madden Ryu student read Yahiko's "Men" feint of attacking with the opening-filled Fire Stance and thusly dodged the real attack afterwards before probing with a "Tsuki" thrust.
However, Yahiko did a quick Nidan-Waza (Recovery Technique) wherein his missed strike followed another "Men" strike in a smooth transition that forced the student to backpedal with his throat thrust, retracting it into a block.
Big mistake.
Myojin's experienced eyes noticed that the student had weak kisei (vigor or spirit), which led to him yielding under pressure.
Instead of pushing through with his Tsuki counterattack, the kid balked at Myojin's reaction time and follow-through Men attack, which left him and his shinai wide open.
"MEN! TSUI GAMI! (GOD HAMMER!)"
The Son of Tokyo Samurai merely intended to disarm his opponent before hitting the helmet, but the three-strike Tsui Gami not only broke apart the student's bamboo blade into splinters—it also struck hard enough to crack open his face mask.
Yahiko turned in time to see Genzo's slack-jawed expression before he cleared his throat and raised his flag, signaling a victory for the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Master.
As the old kenjutsu saying went, "Let them cut flesh so that you may strike bone."
Yahiko's own personal peanut gallery clapped at the display.
"You show 'em, Yoshi-boy!" said Gan.
"Way to go, Yahiko-chi!" said Minoe.
"I have no dog in this fight, but that was pretty impressive, Yahiko," said Chizuru. 'Who does that though? Crack a mask open like a walnut with a bamboo sword? Jeez.'
Yahiko then pointed his shinai at Satsuki, who herself had just dispatched another one of her students in seconds. He shouted out to her, "Is that enough? Have I proven myself yet? Can we spar now?" although the question was more directed to her grandfather than herself.
May Brooks' deep-blue eyes glinted at Yahiko. "I'm ready when you are, Joshua-kun."
"I agree. The two should spar," a voice from the entrance of the dojo declared.
Everyone in the training hall turned in time to see who the new person was.
In strode a swordsman wearing a high-collared brown coat, a white haori (upper garment), and a blood-red hakama (pants) that matched his crimson hair color flanked by another man with a black pompadour and a colorful flowery haori and hakama as well as a doll-like little girl with ginger-red or orangey hair.
It was none other than the Mimawarigumi Battousai (or Iaisai), the Kagemusha (Body Double) of Shogo Amakusa, the Judas Iscariot of the Hidden Christians, the Battousai of Skill of the Battousaigumi (Battousai Group), and potential heir to the Minakata Pharmaceutical and Foreign Trade Zaibatsu (Megacorp).
Kinta Minakata.
As a side note, the guy with the flower shirt reminded Yahiko a little bit of Hitokiri Gasuke. But only a little.
"KINTA-SAMA!" cried Satsuki out, waving at the pokerfaced man.
"Kinta-sama..." Kyoko murmured softly before pulling at her dougi (uniform) collar up to her ears in order to hide her face like a turtle retracting to its shell.
"Kagemusha," said Minoe, who by instict reached for his twin weapons. His eyes becoming sharp slits of malice as shades of Kaede emerged from inside him.
'So this is the Minakata Kinta I've been hearing so much about,' mused the nonplussed Yahiko. 'He sure has quite the effect on women.'
Rather than be more Kenshin-like as a few of his multiple monikers would suggest, Kinta reminded Yahiko more of Aoshi Shinomori with how gloomy he was.
Another thought then occurred to the young lad. 'I expected him to be taller.'
The trio of newcomers introduced themselves to the people in the training hall.
Yahiko already figured out the authoritative figure with the high-collared coat was (of course) Kinta Minakata. His two other companions were Sho Kojima (pompadour guy with flower garments) and Abelia La Cerca (the little lost girl gaijin that looked like a doll).
To oversee the proceedings, they sat near the weapons display with its elevated floor filled with real and practice swords, spears, and glaives.
Regardless, it was time for their main event.
By the time Yahiko and Satsuki were done with their "light" sparring, they defeated 25 students each. Myojin lost only one round in one of the matches and Brooks lost no rounds.
Both Genzo and Kyoko Sakaguchi were now serving as judges for the bout, with them watching on either side of the two combatants. Typically, three high-ranked officials were needed to judge an official bout, but those were for formal or national tournaments, not for a friendly sparring match.
And so there they were. The kendo bible versus the long-range naginata expert.
"Kick his ass, Satsuki May-sama! Avenge us!"
Satsuki retorted, "Practice your drills and avenge your losses yourselves! Jeez!"
The first round was over before anyone realized, lasting all of 3 seconds.
Even Chizuru, who'd seen both Yahiko and Satsuki in action, wasn't quite sure who'd win. She favored May mostly because she'd known her for much longer and seen her in action multiple times, but from what she'd seen from Myojin, it wasn't going to be an easy fight.
He could do things no other opponent of May so far could.
Wishing to put her best foot forward and show off, Miss Brooks initiated the first strike with the intention to end the duel in two rounds.
Yahiko thusly deflected with a Suriage-Waza (Rising Slide Motion Technique) to give him enough room to do a Men strike to both Satsuki's shinai and her helmet. Two for the price of one.
"MEN-SURIAGE-MEN!"
"MEN!"
Satsuki reacted thusly, backing up to give herself enough leeway to respond with a circular strike that struck much deeper than the Young Moon Slash.
"TSUI GAMI!"
"MIKAZUKI...! (CRESCENT MOON...!)"
The Mikazuki O Tsuku Nari (Crescent Moon Slash) was a deeper, stronger cutting technique that could induce muscle-tearing lacerations instead of shallow flesh wounds. It traveled just as fast as the Young Moon Slash but it took longer to prepare it, so you should have perfect timing with it as a counter or when initiating the strike.
It was also Kyoko's favorite "signature" technique to use.
"...MEN!" they chorused.
They exchanged bamboo blade blows, and in the end, Yahiko's shinai managed to turn Satsuki's shinai into splinters from the quick consecutive blows to it followed by a strike to the helmet that protected her skull.
He won the point first. However, at the same time, Satsuki drove a follow-up Tsuki thrust (her own Kaeshi-Waza) despite having a broken kendo stick, the shattered edge making contact to Yahiko's throat.
Mutually assured destruction, in short.
Yahiko's head turned towards Genzo so hard his neck hurt. Was the exchange a draw? Or was the biased judge going to give the point to Brooks? Who won the exchange?
With a grimace, Genzo spat(!?) at the floor of his own dojo and raised the flag for Yahiko, giving him the point for the first round.
One of Genzo's students balefully sighed and ran to get a rag to wipe the spit on the floor.
Myojin exhaled the breath he didn't realize he was holding in. What a relief.
He inwardly celebrated, pumping his fist backwards near his hips but in a way that hid it from view of the Grandmaster of Musou Madden Ryu for fear of him attacking then and there or even withdrawing the point.
As for the out-of-breath Satsuki, even though her pale face was obscured by her kendo mask, Yahiko could somehow see her smile in between the grills because of how wide it was.
"Wew lad. That was a helluva strike, innit?"
"...What?"
She also started laughing. Laughing like an excited child about to play in the playground. Like a hysterical madwoman, even.
"You're an interesting fellow, Joshua-kun."
Genzo took one look at the shattered kendo sticks and barked the following orders. "Get Myojin Yahiko a bokken (wooden sword). Get Satsuki-kun a bo (long pole). Do it now. We don't have all day."
The second round was as long as the first round was short. As long as the day was long, it felt like.
So many things happened in that round.
First off, a giddy, skipping Satsuki shifted from her Gedan Stance to the Waki Stance, which was the kendo stance version of the iaijutsu (quick-draw) or battoujutsu (classical quick-draw) stance.
It was also an unusual stance to see in naginatajutsu.
A Waki-Gamae that mirrored the Waxing Stance of the Musou Madden Ryu.
'Interesting. First time I've ever seen an iaijutsu stance used for naginatajutsu,' thought Yahiko.
Secondly, as she struck first, her hands, arms, and pole strikes whirled so fast they practically flickered on sight.
"MEN! MEN! DOU! MEN! TSUKI! KOTE! MEN!"
The pole and its long range seemed even longer than normal, allowing her to push and bully Myojin with combination attacks from across the room while keeping him on the defensive. Granted, Yahiko dodged, parried, and blocked all of those strikes, but he couldn't get into range to attack Satsuki.
It was then that Tokyo Samurai Descendant realized he'd have more trouble measuring her already significant reach advantage by sight now that the weapon whipped around from her back to her front instead of right in front of him. The flickering strikes didn't have gaps between them either, making them hard to counter.
The Young Moon Slash from the Waxing Stance of Musou Madden Ryu was a technique named after the specific moon phase wherein only the tiniest sliver of moonlight peeked out from the shadow cast by the earth directly after the New Moon.
In just a few seconds, Yahiko felt Satsuki hit him almost twice with Young Moon Slashes already after multiple attacks where he couldn't get into range.
In fact, the eagle-eyed Genzo almost raised the flag on Satsuki, declaring her the winner of the round. However, her strikes were light, one-handed, and hit other than the Face, Body, Wrist, and Throat targets, which usually didn't count for a point.
"MEN! MEN! TSUKI! MEN! MEN! KOTE...!"
"...KOTE!"
Also, for the strikes that did accurately land a point, Yahiko managed to make contact with his Dotou no Ken and do a wrist-aimed counter, thus the point would've (should've) went to him or resulted in a draw.
Thusly, Genzo kept quiet and continued watching.
One of them had to do a significant strike in order for them to win the round decisively.
Satsuki put the pressure on, forcing Yahiko into her trap, with the Young Moon Slashes serving as her bait.
Even when Myojin managed to do the Suriage-Waza, Shikake-Waza, Debana-Waza, Hikibane-Waza, or Kaeshi-Waza to cut the distance between them, she immediately stuffed down his attempts at attacks, deflections, blocks, and counters with another Moon Phase Strike.
"HANGETSU O TSUKU NARI! (HALF MOON SLASH!)"
"TSUKI-TSURIAGI...! Dammit!"
Every time, he ended up playing into her hands, receiving no shortage of (Waxing) Crescent, Quarter, Gibbous, Half, and Full Moon Slashes, forcing him to back off. He didn't even have enough space to time a God Hammer anymore.
The closer he got to his striking range, the stronger and faster her attacks became, like how the closer to the sun the moon got the more sunlight it received and the bigger its moon phase became.
Damned if he went in and damned if he backed out.
"TSUNAMI! (TIDAL WAVE!) MENDOUMENTSUKIMENMENKOTEMEN...!"
She then hit him with a Tidal Wave of continuous strikes that had been growing in momentum since the first few strikes. It was high tide and she ended up drowning him in pole strikes that forced him to block and dodge but do little else.
Her lovely body itself undulated and wiggled in every which way like ocean waves, from the front to the back, exuding softness and femininity even as she hammered him to submission with wave upon wave of strikes like water gradually smashing rock to sand over time.
The so-called kendo bible couldn't even think of proper response, riposte, or rejoinder with the flurry of thrusts and swings of the staff that reminded him of Kenshin's Ryu Sou Sen (Dragon Nest Flash) and Kaede's Scorpion Nest and Swarming Barbs.
By the time a smug Genzo raised the flag and called the round for Satsuki, Yahiko had been legitimately hit 9 to 10 times. He was also drenched in sweat and full of welts on the parts of his armor that were only covered with cloth.
Imagine that. She should've won about 10 points in one round for what was supposed to be a three-point match.
In fairness to him, Yahiko did overhear Genzo mutter under his breath several times, "I can't believe he dodged that," "You can do better than that, Satsuki-kun!" or "Dammit, missed again."
Yeah. No bias at all there.
The whole training hall went silent at the display of strength and skill. Even Yahiko's peanut gallery was left speechless.
The dojo then burst into applause and cheers.
"Yeah! He's already dead! Put him out of his misery!"
"MUSOU MADDEN RYU IS THE STRONGEST IAIDO IN JAPAN!"
So this was the true form of Satsuki's kenjutsu, huh? Or rather, her naginatajutsu.
Whatever it was, Yahiko didn't like her crummy style one bit. It reminded him a little too much of Yutaro Tsukayama's own fencing-like kenjutsu.
Satsuki pointed her pole at Yahiko. "Sorrymasen, Joshua-kun. I intend to win this."
"Sorimasen...?" repeated the Tokyo teen, which made Satsuki blush.
"SUMIMASEN! (PARDON ME!) I-I meant to say sumimasen!" Miss Brooks said, explaining, "I mixed up the English word 'sorry' with 'sumimasen! Sorrymasen! I mean, sumimasen! Darn it!"
It then dawned to Yahiko that he, a descendant of samurai, just lost a round of sparring to a blonde foreign woman with a washing pole who couldn't even speak straight Japanese sometimes.
For shame.
Originally, Minoe had his attention and gaze solely trained on the newly arrived Kinta. However, as the friendly spar between Satsuki and Yahiko became more serious, his eyes wandered towards the escalating match.
'Not bad,' he thought. 'Even Yahiko-chi couldn't get close to Satsuki-chi at all.'
As for the Pensive Gan, he scratched his chin and nodded sagely. 'Yoshi-boy is being too careful. Those love taps shouldn't hurt too much. He should grit his teeth and just rush in against Miss Melon.'
"You moron. This is a points-based spar, so getting hit by taps is all it takes to win," reminded Chizuru.
To the huffing and puffing Yahiko, Gan shouted a sentiment the boy surely shared. "Points-based kendo is bullshit!"
"Hell yeah, it is," said Yahiko, pointing at the direction of the booming voice without looking.
As for Genzo, he sweated hard and glared at the boy. 'He got hit 9 to 10 times out of 100 strikes. He defended against about 90 strikes and landed more counters percentage-wise. He made her miss so badly. He blocked. Parried. Countered. Who is this boy?'
As though reading her grandfather's mind, Kyoko answered, "He's Myojin Yahiko, Grandpa. I told you about him, remember? He's the boy who dueled against Seta Soujiro-kun to a draw!"
"Seta-kun? Impossible!" Genzo snorted. "Him? Have a draw? Against Seta-kun? No, he must've lost the match. Seta-kun is leagues above him. "
Overhearing that response, Yahiko gripped his bokken almost tight enough to make the wood splinter. 'Is that right, Old Man? Why I oughtta...!'
With renewed determination, he focused his attention on one of Genzo's star pupils: Satsuki Sakaguchi and her impenetrable wall of pole strikes.
It was the final round of their spar. They were tied one to one. The first round took 3 seconds and the second round lasted a whole 3 minutes that felt like 30 minutes instead.
Everyone was at the edge of their seats. Or at least their respective pillow mats if they weren't just seated on the bare floor.
The air was thick with sweat, humidity, and anticipation.
"Round three. Begin!" beckoned Genzo.
They started where they left off, with Yahiko dodging and unable to cut the distance between himself and Satsuki thanks to her flickering Young Moon Slashes.
The Young Moon Slash was named as such because it was a long-range flesh cutting attack that arched and hit shallow but moved with little prep time. This served as Satsuki's range finder and when avoided, she could do a Tsuki thrust right off of it with a short dash.
If done on the opposite Waning Stance instead, it'd be called an Old Moon Slash or named after the moon phase directly before the New Moon and after the Waning Crescent. It cut on the reverse direction of the Young Moon Slash, creating a 360 degree perimeter around the Musou Madden Ryu practitioner that kept all enemies at bay.
Earlier, Yahiko had to deal with countless probing Young Moon Slashes coming from above and below him from all angles, forcing him to back up and make her miss in order to even see her flicker strikes coming.
"TSUKI! KOTE! TSUKI! KOTE! TSUKI!"
This time, she attempted to disarm him from the start, attacking him with thrusts to the throat or slashes to his wrists or gauntlets.
"MEN! YOKO-MEN! MEN! SAYU-MEN!"
With all those things in mind, Yahiko changed things up and did hard, shuddering parries from the Joudan-no-Kamae that bordered on attacks themselves to deflect away the weakest and shallowest of slashing techniques from the Musou Madden Ryu.
As Yahiko dashed forward during the longer gaps between strikes, Satsuki backpedaled and circled around the boy to keep the distance between them and within her long-range control.
Also, as he started closing in, she began aiming at his head and midsection, since they were bigger targets from up close.
"MEN! DOU! MEN! DOU!"
"Yes, yes. Mendou. This fight truly is mendoukusai (bothersome), isn't it?" he joked.
"Shut yer bloody trap! MEN...!" she shouted.
"...MEN! DOU GAMI! (GOD ON EARTH!)"
Yahiko said "Men" as though he was aiming at Satsuki's helmet with a downward slash, but he expected her to evade it with a backdash, so instead his bokken made contact with the floorboards below them.
His thrice-hitting, full-bodied strike then made the entire floor shudder like there was an earthquake, which made Satsuki lose footing and go off-balance.
"...Blimey!"
As Miss Brooks readjusted her footing, Yahiko finally stepped close enough to put her within his striking range.
'He went through all that trouble to get past her Young Moon Slash trap, only to fall into another,' thought Genzo. 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire! She's actually deadliest at close-quarter in-fighting!'
From the Metal Stance, Satsuki dashed forward instead of back and "drew" her long pole weapon in an upward arc.
"DOU! HANGETSU...!"
May again used the Half Moon Slash, halving the bone-cutting strength of a regular Full Moon Slash in order to take advantage of the faster preparatory motion and recovery of the Hangetsu O Tsuku Nari.
"OUGI! (SUCCESSION TECHNIQUE!) HADOME! (SWORD HALT!)"
Yahiko had used the previous round to get the proper timing of the Half Moon Slash, allowing him to catch and trap the pole with the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Succession Technique of Hadome without it accidentally hitting his wrists and giving the point away to Satsuki.
Genzo's jaw dropped, his eyes wide open. He gripped the sticks of the flags he was holding so hard they snapped in twain. "Satsuki! Don't let that brat dishonor our school!"
"HAWATARI! (SWORD CROSSING!)"
The second part of the succession technique was a sliding circular parry similar in concept to the Suriage-Waza. Move the sword away to another direction to force open an opening and strike it in one fluid motion. However, Yahiko noticed no resistance from Satsuki as she moved her body along with the direction of the parry.
Wait a minute. He had seen this move before. Or something like it.
She moved along the path of his parry and reversed her long pole's momentum to the opposite direction in order to do a hairpin turn by the balls of her lead foot and complete a downward "Men" strike. She transformed her parried upward Half Moon Slash into a Full Moon Slash.
"Wait, no!" Kyoko cried out, remembering Yahiko's duel with Soujiro. "Yahiko-kun can counter from there too, Satsuki-neechan!"
"SAYU-MEN! MANGETSU...! (FULL MOON...!)"
Yes, of course.
Her Mangetsu O Tsuku Nari (Full Moon Slash) counterstrike move was similar to the second part of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu Ougi, the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki (Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash), which Yahiko saw Kenshin Himura use in his first encounter against Enishi Yukishiro.
It failed then but as Yahiko understood it, it worked against Makoto Shishio and the principle behind it was easy enough to grasp.
Even if the first slash missed by a mile, got blocked, or ended up parried altogether, the consecutive follow-through strike was sure to protect the user against counters, assuring no openings.
But if and only if the opponent didn't expect the second slash.
"MEN! TSUI GAMI!"
"Bloody HELL, mate! Not that move again!"
The pole broke apart then exploded into sawdust and splinters. Yahiko had destroyed her weapon with his thrice-striking, rebounding technique.
He'd actually been chipping away at the pole all this time using his shuddering hard parries earlier that made the wood reverberate and crack under slowly building pressure.
The absolute mad lad actually did it. He won.
Was this it? Did she just lose?
Oh no, Satsuki realized she was going to humiliate herself in front of "Kinta-sama"! The love of her life.
She looked over her shoulder towards the stone-faced former Mimawarigumi samurai. His face unreadable as ever.
Did he even care that she was about to lose?
"NOOO! SATSUKI!" she heard her master, her adoptive grandfather, and her savior scream after her staff got broken into splinters.
Grandpa Genzo. The man who rescued her as a lost English orphan in the middle of the Boshin War.
He clothed her. Fed her. Paid for her schooling. Gave her new parents through his own children and even a new sister to boot. Adopted her into his family. Became her Japanese surrogate grandpa.
He helped her reconnect to her roots by paying for her trips to the British Embassy and countless novels from her homeland to relearn the English language.
She became good enough at English and Japanese to earn jobs as a Japanese-to-English translator and school teacher.
He even taught her Musou Madden Ryu and the art of using the naginata even when he was mostly a blacksmith and kenjutsu expert.
She went through grueling training, taking on grown men twice her age (but not her size, since she herself grew to about the height of the average Japanese man) at many a contest, perfecting her style that won her local competition after competition.
She lived for these victories not for her sake but for the sake of seeing the proud look her grandpa would give her every time.
It made the kind old man who saved her life again and again after she lost everything happy, which also made her happy.
No. This was not yet over. Not yet.
She was not satisfied with this outcome.
Myojin shifted from Water Stance to Fire Stance yet again, preparing to hammer his bokken right into Satsuki's helmet with a face-planting Dou Gami, a helmet-shattering Tsui Gami, or even a quick Shippu Jinrai Dotou no Ken to earn the point and disarm her.
'It's time to finish this.'
Before Yahiko knew what had happened, the world went white.
There was still plenty left of her staff to attack Yahiko with. He savored his victory with finally landing the Tsui Gami on her twice too much to notice she could still fight.
He had left his guard down.
"DOU! NISSHOKU! (SOLAR ECLIPSE!)"
Minoe stood from his seated position, the memory of Kinta doing the same move against Shogo Amakusa coming back to him.
The Solar Eclipse move, much like a real solar eclipse, involved using the Full Moon Slash to overwhelm the incoming attack of the opponent with the right timing, resulting in the slash overshadowing and overpowering whatever the enemy planned to do.
It was a counter Full Moon Slash, in short.
His full-bodied Dou Gami, while more powerful than the Tsui Gami because he used the force of his entire body weight to execute the strike, took too long to prepare, leaving him wide open against an armor-breaking slash from the Waki Stance using what was left of Satsuki's staff.
The old kenjutsu saying of "Let them cut flesh so that you may strike bone," applied here too.
Satsuki allowed Yahiko to break apart her pole to open him up to a counter against his counter.
After a minute of stunned silence, Genzo raised the flag on Satsuki, declaring her the victor of the match.
Yahiko crumpled to the ground in a boneless heap like a deflating balloon, the hard strike emptying his lungs of air in an instant because it was actually strong enough to break through his lacquer armor.
His mask fell and clattered on the floor soon after.
Wow. He had lost.
He couldn't believe it.
He had that match in the bag but then he lost. He was winning but he tripped on the finish line while doing his victory lap. How embarrassing. He was careless.
No, she was simply the better (wo)man that day.
His hubris led to his downfall. He definitely underestimated both Satsuki and the Musou Madden Ryu.
Just because he got a draw from his duel with Soujiro Seta and won against Hananuma Masakichi Inoue (it was actually a double team with Shura the Pirate Captain), it didn't mean he was suddenly hot stuff.
He should try winning matches on his own before thinking he could easily take on martial artists who'd trained for longer than he did.
He thought that just because he'd seen the best battoujutsu in Japan care of Kenshin that he could take on all iaijutsu, iaido, and naginatajutsu schools in the nation. What arrogance.
She was a rung to his ladder of success? What an overinflated ego he had!
He really did have much to learn.
He looked up in time to see a sweaty Satsuki tower over him, with her mask and armor removed.
He then got a look at the imprints of the mask on her face and the welts on the parts of her hands and arms that weren't covered with gauntlets.
Man, they were really going at it, weren't they?
The blue-eyed, blonde-haired bombshell of a warrior goddess offered her hand to Yahiko in order to help him up. "Good match. Let's have a rematch sometime in the future, Joshua-kun."
Heaving a sigh of defeat and resignation, Myojin smiled wryly and took Satsuki's hand, amazed at how soft the non-callused portions of it were, then stood up with her help.
From behind her, Yahiko heard her personal peanut gallery of all the Musou Madden Ryu students cheer them on.
"Not bad, kid. Nice kendo strikes and form."
"What did you say your kendo school's name was? Kamiya Kasshin in Tokyo? I'll tell all my family in Tokyo about it!"
"Yep. Good match, Miss May. I'll have my revenge on you soon enough." Yahiko then added, "I hate your naginata style, by the way."
"EH? But why, Joshua-kun? What's wrong with it?"
"I mean, it's fine and effective. But if you're going to beat me, knock me out. I'm not a big fan of the 'Death by a Thousand Cuts' shtick."
"Ha! It was good enough to beat you and break your armor! And you were knocked down on your feet!"
"Nah, I totally could've kept fighting if we were using real weapons."
"No, you're totally being a sore loser right now!"
Without any pomp and circumstance, the Sanbaka exited the Sakaguchi Dojo in a huff once the fanfare of Satsuki's win had worn down.
"What have we learned today, boys?" Yahiko asked his comrades.
"Points-based kendo is bullshit," said the Snobbish Gan.
"Damn straight. What about you, Minoe? What are your thoughts?"
"The Dou Gami takes too long to execute, leaving it open to counterattacks. Also, the fact that you kept shoehorning in the Tsui Gami made you even more predictable in the match," was Munenori's frank appraisal.
"..."
"...Er, points-based kendo is bullshit?"
"Mochiron (But of course), Minoe," said Yahiko, stealing Minoe's catchphrase.
"Ahahah, yes. Mochiron," said the eye-patched Togakudan member in resignation. He then tilted his head to the side and smiled as he moved his bangs away to get a better look at Myojin.
"Yahiko-chi?"
"What is it, Minoe?"
"I love the glint in your eyes. I was worried about you for a second." Munenori readjusted his wig and eye patch, smiling. "It looks like you still have some fight in you."
The Tokyo Samurai Descendant harrumphed. "It'll take more than a loss to keep me down. What am I going to do now? Go home to Tokyo with my tail between my legs? Nope. This ain't over!"
With a nod and a wink Yahiko couldn't see because Minoe had an eye patch, the gentler version of the Battousai of Speed said, "Mochiron."
Lucas Grant walked into the seedier parts of the Kannai Foreign Settlement in the Naka Ward of Yokohoma.
He specifically wandered around burakumin territory. The hidden outcasts of Japan. Once upon a time, he stood among their ilk. Banished from Japanese society because of how he looked. What he symbolized.
Rejected by even the rejects of society. His kind was not welcome anywhere in the island nation. A half-breed bastard that was neither a native Japanese citizen nor a full-blooded gaikokujin (foreigner).
Not Japanese. Not a foreigner. All he knew was what he was not. If only he could understand what he was. Who he was.
But he was in disguise as well. He used one of the realistic masks given to him by The Faceless, allowing him to blend in with the rest of the burakumin.
It hid his most Caucasian-looking features and made him appear like a full-blooded Japanese person for once.
It couldn't quite hide the sharpness of the bridge of his beak nose at a side profile. It couldn't work miracles. However, it did use optical illusion and makeup trickery to make his nose appear less sharp at a three-fourth profile so his face didn't quite look like the hatchet of an axe.
Also, thanks to his past dealings with the hobos and homeless people of a typical burakumin village, he knew how to interact with them and keep them from pickpocketing him or robbing him blind.
It took a former outcast to know how other outcasts thought or behaved.
After avoiding fights (and stabbings from shivs and makeshift weapons) with a glare and the glint of his blade and sensing the little thieves that lurked in the shadows, he came upon a filthy beggar of particular interest with a hood over his face.
He was not just any filthy beggar. He was the one "beggar" of the lot who was able to parry a swing of his heavy sword with a rapier.
"Luke. It took you long enough to find me," said John Rathbone, A.K.A. Seth Merrick, A.K.A. Fabian La Cerca.
The man of a thousand faces and names, none of which were his own. The one they called The Faceless of the Brigands Guild.
The man that helped train and strengthen Lucas so that he could one day enact his vengeance against the Minakatas for what they did to him and his mother.
"You have a different name now, don't you? It's been a while indeed," said Lucas with a smirk before sheathing his bastard sword Arondight away. "You have more lives than a cat."
In this guise, The Faceless was known as Haruka, a homeless burakumin with dirt all over him, including his teeth.
Haruka hid his slight foreign accent and Japanese word mispronunciations by pretending to be dumb or a bit slow.
"So you're finally prepared to face the Minakatas, huh? After all this time..." said Haruka, picking at his teeth with fish bone.
"How was Minakata Kinta as an opponent? Is he as fierce as his legend suggests, Old Man?" asked the disguised Lucas.
"Yes, indeed he was, Luke. We're every bit equal in skill, although I wonder how much better I would've fared if we were the same age," said the old man.
Underneath all his ratty clothes were bandages and stitched wounds from his battle with Kinta.
Haruka had himself stitched up good as new by the finest Japanese surgeons he could afford.
He got the surgery done by pretending to be a rich Japanese merchant and paying the doctors in cold hard cash from the money he gathered from his days as a gentleman thief.
Lucas groaned, remembering flashbacks of his own sparring sessions with the Master of Disguise, particularly when fighting his master fencer personality. He suffered humiliating defeats against The Faceless every time.
"The Kagemusha is as good as you?" Grant scratched his chin. "If that's the case, then I really should get your own prodigal son and Lentz out of prison to take him down, or else he'll turn me into shish-kebab!"
Haruka smirked, twirling his dirty mustache. "Ehehehe. Not necessarily."
The Faceless scratched the facial hair attached to a newly reconstructed face mask. "Don't sell yourself short, kid. You actually have a big advantage over him. I didn't notice it at first, but..."
To Be Continued...
Ugh. I had to write this chapter twice. The first version of this was fun to write as the words just flowed from my brain to the page like water. Alas, I overwrote the original file with Chapter 53, and here we are!
However, they did say to be a better writer you need to kill your babies. Well, I sure did abort that one. Here's hoping I ended up with a better product overall afterwards!
Obrigado,
Abdiel