Chapter Three
The large leaves of the oak filtered the morning light. She had only left if sometime in the night to get her now dry clothing. She had also taken a sword. If she was going to learn swordsmanship she had to have something to practice with. The old used swords had been leaning against the side of the cabin and she had spent quiet a while choosing the lightest and oldest one so as to not alert Seijuro, but that was almost pointless. Seijuro was bound to notice. From her perch she could see the smoke curling up into the sky. /It's so peaceful here. I never noticed how beautiful the trees were. I've always thought of them as lumber that needed chopping and hauling.//
"No, no. Have you forgotten everything within a span of three days, Kenshin?" Seijuro yelled at his apprentice impatiently. "Again, faster. And bend you're knees more, loosen up a little."
"Sou Ryu Sen," the boy yelled and rushed at his master. Seijuro avoided the sword easily as well as the sheath that came behind it and Kenshin stumbled, not anticipating the lack of impact.
"You shouldn't be so confidant that you're attack is going to hit. If you stumble you're dead." Seijuro said annoyed. "Again."
Aisu looked at the stance carefully. How his body turned to one side. How he held his yet sheathed sword. How he dashed and drew his sword. She stood up and took the same stance, nearly falling off the tree. She stepped forward as she had seen Seijuro and Kenshin do, and nearly tumbling to the ground again. The second time was easier, then third better yet. She was learning to balance her weight and became familiar with the swords weight. She aimed for a leaf weaving its way to the ground. Right, left, right and draw. The leaf split in half and fell to the ground. Soon she managed to draw the sword and use her sheath to follow it up without losing her balance. More and more split leaves tumbled to the ground and more and more time passed.
Perhaps the hardest move was the Ryu Tsui Sen. To jump and land back on the same branch without slipping was almost impossible. /Lucky Kenshin, he gets to do this on the ground and it doesn't matter where he lands because he doesn't have to worry about becoming a pancake if he messes up// Aisu thought at she sought to pull herself up after failing to land on the limb she was aiming for. Aisu once again took her stance near the trunk of the tree. She stepped forward and jumped up, feeling the leaves brush against her arm as she flew past their branches. For a moment Aisu felt herself floating far above her target. She readied her sword, aiming for the bough in her path, which split a moment later. Her feet landed unwaveringly on a limb. Perfect, finally.
Time flew by and there was no keeping track of it. Her days of training were exhausting for the most part. From the looks he often threw in her direction, she was sure that Seijuro knew what she was doing, however he made no move to stop her so she kept learning. Every step, every movement, every attack drilled itself into her body. Sou Ryu Sen, Dou Ryu Sen, Ryu Tsui Sen, Ryu Sho Sen, and Ryu Kan Sen. Aisu practiced and mastered them each just as Kenshin was. And even now, Kenshin was leaping at Seijuro and she was watching them fixedly. Kenshin had once again failed to do anything productive aside from landing himself in the dirt. Determined, he got up again and took his stance.
"Endurance isn't going to win this Kenshin," Seijuro lectured. "You're body is out of energy. The only reason you're still able to get up is because your using you're swordsman spirit to muster that energy." Kenshin looked at Seijuro confused, panting heavily.
"All right enough of that for today," Seijuro sheathed his sword and Kenshin did the same.
He nodded and all but fell to the ground. /At least I'm not the only one suffering from exhaustion// Aisu thought as she too sat down on her lookout and listened.
"A swordsman spirit is a phenomenon no one can fully explain, however, all swordsmen seem to have it to a certain extent. It lets you stand and fight longer than your physical abilities would normally allow. It gives you strength when you need it most and is in some way related to your ki."
/Is there any way to control it? Can it be used for anything besides endurance? Do you know how to use it?// Questions flashed through her mind. She wanted to ask them all but unfortunately for her. Kenshin would have to do all the asking, but he did not. Aisu made herself comfortable and started taking a count of all the scrapes and calluses she had gotten today and willed them to heal quickly so she wouldn't be sore. Now that she thought about it. She had been healing relatively quickly given the amount of times she had cut herself or slipped. She looked over in Seijuro's direction. Kenshin was still sitting there not having asked any of the things she had wanted to know.
/Seijuro said that the swordsman spirit could give someone more energy. What if it gave someone energy to heal?// Aisu thought about it skeptically. /Energy can't come from nowhere. You either have it or you don't. But what if the swordsman spirit doesn't actually give energy, but merely redirects it. A body needs a certain amount of energy to run and the rest is used in whichever way the user wants to. What if the user unconsciously redirects that energy towards stamina? Now there was an idea. If that was true then there was no swordsman spirit at all, merely a redirecting of energy that anyone might do in a drastic situation. That didn't go against what Seijuro had said though because the only people in which this was likely to occur was in a swordfight.//
Her first thought was to ask Seijuro but she could hardly do that. She examined the scrapes on her leg and willed them to close. Willed her energy into the wound, to close it. Nothing happened. It was already getting dark and the familiar fire started sputtering in the clearing. Aisu felt her eyes close and was soon asleep.
The familiar cries of "again," and "no, you're doing it wrong," were already coming from the cabin. Aisu started. Why hadn't she woken up? She tried to lift her arm to rub the sleep out of her eyes but found it oddly heavy. She looked down at her hand and realized with a start that there were hardly any cuts to be seen. Most of them were gone and those that were not were less swollen and had developed clean scabs. Dimly she remembered her train of thought from last night. If her subconscious really had taken her energy and redirected a lot of it towards healing she was certainly feeling the effects now. She could barely move without sending her head into dizziness. There was something curious. The places where her cuts had been were unusually cold. Not a biting cold. It was refreshing and clean. Her head hurt as if she had not slept for days and she could hardly bring herself to sit up. One day of rest won't matter I suppose she thought dimly and drifted back to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
"There are people suffering," Kenshin said to Seijuro. "How can you not let me go?"
"Fine then, go." Seijuro said in a half-angered voice.
He turned and walked towards that cabin, while Kenshin looked after him for a moment and then left into the forest. /If Kenshin isn't going to learn anymore then neither can I. // This realization lashed through her mind like a whip. If Kenshin was gone then there was nothing to watch, nothing to learn. /I suppose I'll have to ask him to teach me again// Aisu thought reluctantly, but what was the point. Aisu sat for a long time, contemplating the situation, finally deciding that it could not hurt to ask. She jumped down from the perch and made her way towards Seijuro's cabin. By the time she got there Seijuro was feeding the ever-crackling fire.
"Unlike Himura Kenshin, I would like to continue my training." Aisu said.
She was leaning against the same tree that she had used to hit Seijuro the day she had met him. Her arms were crossed over her chest. The beat up sword was at her side and her eyes were narrowed so that he once again felt like she was staring right at his soul. Seijuro turned around and faced with one of his own stares.
"You are not my pupil and I won't teach you."
"You know I've been watching you train Kenshin and you know I've practiced that same moves you taught him. Even if you refused to directly teach me I have learned much of the Hiten Mitsurugi style."
"What you do not seem to understand is that you can't learn certain things by just watching. Hiten Mitsurugi is one of them."
"I want to try again." Aisu said suddenly. "I want to try to hit you again and this time you can't go easy on me."
She walked into the clearing fully facing Seijuro now and took her battoujutsu stance. Seijuro did not show any signs of taking up her challenge instead he merely looked at her stance.
"You're turned to far to the side," he said measuring her stance carefully. "By swinging your sword over a longer distance you gain power but lose speed. You're leaving yourself wide open for attack if you don't accelerate that blade fast enough."
"You have to find a balance between power and speed," Aisu replied, quoting Seijuro. "If I can accelerate fast enough how much I turn won't matter."
"But what if I'm faster," he smirked and took is own stance.
Aisu took the initiative and charged at Seijuro. Seijuro did the same. Blades flashed at the same time and hit each other with such force that Aisu felt her hand quiver. Seijuro was stronger and managed to throw her back. He wasted to time waiting for her to recover, rushing at her with his sword ready. Aisu barely dodged the blow and readied her own. Seijuro blocked with his sword and she was again thrown back. /His strength is too great. I can never win if I rely on strength. so lets go for speed. Ryu Sou Sen!// Arm, shoulder, chest, head; Seijuro managed to block them all, but barely. Aisu was starting to sweat a little as she landed on her feet, her sword ready, immediately dashing at Seijuro once again, hoping to catch him by surprise. Counterattacked low, forcing Aisu to jump up awkwardly. Seijuro smiled, thinking he had her, in response to which Aisu turned her awkward jump into a Ryu Tsui Sen. Blocked again.
"I'm not going to lose my balance that easily. I trained in a tree for the last few years, and balance is something I've mastered."
"I don't doubt that, however," Seijuro continued. "Now you will lose."
Aisu readied herself, watching Seijuro, trying to anticipate what he would do.
"Do you know of the Kuzu Ryu Sen?" He asked, knowing she did not. Aisu's eyes narrowed in return.
"It's an attack that hits all nine vital point at the same time, an extended version of the Ryu Sou Sen you used." Seijuro took his stance. /This ends now.//
/An attack that hits nine points at once? Not possible if you only have one sword, unless it is done so fast that it seems to be happening at the same time. Still I doubt that I'm fast enough to block them all. so I'll dodge them.// Aisu thought determinedly. She saw the first one coming, the second close behind and then the third, fourth. ninth. They were all coming towards her in such close succession she almost could not tell. She blocked the first one and managed to move out of the way of the second, third and fourth, but by then Hiko had adjusted too and there were still five points coming at her on even closer succession than before. She blocked one more before feeling a sharp pain in her shoulder. Aisu threw herself to the side, avoiding the last three points. /She shouldn't have been able to dodge any of them, much less block them.// Seijuro's mind raced.
Aisu ignored the pain in her shoulder. /How do you defend against the Kuzu Ryu Sen?// Aisu wondered. Seijuro had re-sheathed his sword as soon as he had completed the attack.
"No." Aisu yelled as she rushed at him, doing her best to imitate his Kuzu Ryu Sen. Seijuro's eyes showed slight surprise as he saw what she was doing. Aisu Could see her sword, all nine strikes, although not as fast as Seijuro. She watched him to see what he would do. The next thing she knew she was lying on the ground panting, an acute pain in her chest. /I shouldn't have used that attack// Seijuro mentally cursed himself.
"Look's like I got you," he said stating the obvious. /But that was close, She's even faster than before.//
"Look's like it," Aisu replied reluctantly getting up with some difficulty.
"That attack that you used to block the Kuzu Ryu Sen, what was it."
Her question went unanswered.
"What was it?" She asked more insistently.
"Well since your asking I guess you didn't see it, which is good."
"I did see it a little bit." Aisu replied straining her mind back to that moment. "It was like battoujutsu, but way faster, with much greater reach."
Aisu narrowed her eyes at Seijuro who was ignoring it.
"The attack I used is one that you, as an illegitimate apprentice, will never learn. It could have killed you easily."
Aisu's anger flared up but she forced it back down. /I have to get him to teach me.// Aisu though desperately. She raised her hand up to her shoulder concentrating her energy on the spot. Slowly the wound stopped bleeding and started to close itself. Seijuro had a watchful eye on her, which was exactly what she wanted.
"How are you doing that?" He asked. /Finally, I thought he'd never ask.//
"I'll tell you, if you teach me," Aisu replied in a quiet voice.
"I can't teach you." Seijuro said frustration creeping into his voice. /Why can't this girl just understand that I can only have one pupil?//
/There goes my last bargaining tool// Aisu thought reluctantly as she took her hand away from her healed shoulder. It had become cold. Just like the first time she had healed her scrapes and every time she had practiced in between, her shoulder seemed to be surrounded by an aura of winter weather. She took the sword from her belt and handed it to him.
"I'll come back some time. And when I do, I'll be stronger." Aisu called over her shoulder as she walked in the same direction as Kenshin had. "I'll do what your 'real' pupil is going to do. I'll use my sword to protect people and maybe someday you'll see that I'm just as good as Kenshin."
"If you're going to use a sword to protect people you'll need this." He threw the sheathed sword to her and she caught it deftly. /And the problem is not that you are worse than Kenshin; it is the fact that I can only have one pupil.// With a slight smile, she disappeared into the undergrowth.
The large leaves of the oak filtered the morning light. She had only left if sometime in the night to get her now dry clothing. She had also taken a sword. If she was going to learn swordsmanship she had to have something to practice with. The old used swords had been leaning against the side of the cabin and she had spent quiet a while choosing the lightest and oldest one so as to not alert Seijuro, but that was almost pointless. Seijuro was bound to notice. From her perch she could see the smoke curling up into the sky. /It's so peaceful here. I never noticed how beautiful the trees were. I've always thought of them as lumber that needed chopping and hauling.//
"No, no. Have you forgotten everything within a span of three days, Kenshin?" Seijuro yelled at his apprentice impatiently. "Again, faster. And bend you're knees more, loosen up a little."
"Sou Ryu Sen," the boy yelled and rushed at his master. Seijuro avoided the sword easily as well as the sheath that came behind it and Kenshin stumbled, not anticipating the lack of impact.
"You shouldn't be so confidant that you're attack is going to hit. If you stumble you're dead." Seijuro said annoyed. "Again."
Aisu looked at the stance carefully. How his body turned to one side. How he held his yet sheathed sword. How he dashed and drew his sword. She stood up and took the same stance, nearly falling off the tree. She stepped forward as she had seen Seijuro and Kenshin do, and nearly tumbling to the ground again. The second time was easier, then third better yet. She was learning to balance her weight and became familiar with the swords weight. She aimed for a leaf weaving its way to the ground. Right, left, right and draw. The leaf split in half and fell to the ground. Soon she managed to draw the sword and use her sheath to follow it up without losing her balance. More and more split leaves tumbled to the ground and more and more time passed.
Perhaps the hardest move was the Ryu Tsui Sen. To jump and land back on the same branch without slipping was almost impossible. /Lucky Kenshin, he gets to do this on the ground and it doesn't matter where he lands because he doesn't have to worry about becoming a pancake if he messes up// Aisu thought at she sought to pull herself up after failing to land on the limb she was aiming for. Aisu once again took her stance near the trunk of the tree. She stepped forward and jumped up, feeling the leaves brush against her arm as she flew past their branches. For a moment Aisu felt herself floating far above her target. She readied her sword, aiming for the bough in her path, which split a moment later. Her feet landed unwaveringly on a limb. Perfect, finally.
Time flew by and there was no keeping track of it. Her days of training were exhausting for the most part. From the looks he often threw in her direction, she was sure that Seijuro knew what she was doing, however he made no move to stop her so she kept learning. Every step, every movement, every attack drilled itself into her body. Sou Ryu Sen, Dou Ryu Sen, Ryu Tsui Sen, Ryu Sho Sen, and Ryu Kan Sen. Aisu practiced and mastered them each just as Kenshin was. And even now, Kenshin was leaping at Seijuro and she was watching them fixedly. Kenshin had once again failed to do anything productive aside from landing himself in the dirt. Determined, he got up again and took his stance.
"Endurance isn't going to win this Kenshin," Seijuro lectured. "You're body is out of energy. The only reason you're still able to get up is because your using you're swordsman spirit to muster that energy." Kenshin looked at Seijuro confused, panting heavily.
"All right enough of that for today," Seijuro sheathed his sword and Kenshin did the same.
He nodded and all but fell to the ground. /At least I'm not the only one suffering from exhaustion// Aisu thought as she too sat down on her lookout and listened.
"A swordsman spirit is a phenomenon no one can fully explain, however, all swordsmen seem to have it to a certain extent. It lets you stand and fight longer than your physical abilities would normally allow. It gives you strength when you need it most and is in some way related to your ki."
/Is there any way to control it? Can it be used for anything besides endurance? Do you know how to use it?// Questions flashed through her mind. She wanted to ask them all but unfortunately for her. Kenshin would have to do all the asking, but he did not. Aisu made herself comfortable and started taking a count of all the scrapes and calluses she had gotten today and willed them to heal quickly so she wouldn't be sore. Now that she thought about it. She had been healing relatively quickly given the amount of times she had cut herself or slipped. She looked over in Seijuro's direction. Kenshin was still sitting there not having asked any of the things she had wanted to know.
/Seijuro said that the swordsman spirit could give someone more energy. What if it gave someone energy to heal?// Aisu thought about it skeptically. /Energy can't come from nowhere. You either have it or you don't. But what if the swordsman spirit doesn't actually give energy, but merely redirects it. A body needs a certain amount of energy to run and the rest is used in whichever way the user wants to. What if the user unconsciously redirects that energy towards stamina? Now there was an idea. If that was true then there was no swordsman spirit at all, merely a redirecting of energy that anyone might do in a drastic situation. That didn't go against what Seijuro had said though because the only people in which this was likely to occur was in a swordfight.//
Her first thought was to ask Seijuro but she could hardly do that. She examined the scrapes on her leg and willed them to close. Willed her energy into the wound, to close it. Nothing happened. It was already getting dark and the familiar fire started sputtering in the clearing. Aisu felt her eyes close and was soon asleep.
The familiar cries of "again," and "no, you're doing it wrong," were already coming from the cabin. Aisu started. Why hadn't she woken up? She tried to lift her arm to rub the sleep out of her eyes but found it oddly heavy. She looked down at her hand and realized with a start that there were hardly any cuts to be seen. Most of them were gone and those that were not were less swollen and had developed clean scabs. Dimly she remembered her train of thought from last night. If her subconscious really had taken her energy and redirected a lot of it towards healing she was certainly feeling the effects now. She could barely move without sending her head into dizziness. There was something curious. The places where her cuts had been were unusually cold. Not a biting cold. It was refreshing and clean. Her head hurt as if she had not slept for days and she could hardly bring herself to sit up. One day of rest won't matter I suppose she thought dimly and drifted back to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
"There are people suffering," Kenshin said to Seijuro. "How can you not let me go?"
"Fine then, go." Seijuro said in a half-angered voice.
He turned and walked towards that cabin, while Kenshin looked after him for a moment and then left into the forest. /If Kenshin isn't going to learn anymore then neither can I. // This realization lashed through her mind like a whip. If Kenshin was gone then there was nothing to watch, nothing to learn. /I suppose I'll have to ask him to teach me again// Aisu thought reluctantly, but what was the point. Aisu sat for a long time, contemplating the situation, finally deciding that it could not hurt to ask. She jumped down from the perch and made her way towards Seijuro's cabin. By the time she got there Seijuro was feeding the ever-crackling fire.
"Unlike Himura Kenshin, I would like to continue my training." Aisu said.
She was leaning against the same tree that she had used to hit Seijuro the day she had met him. Her arms were crossed over her chest. The beat up sword was at her side and her eyes were narrowed so that he once again felt like she was staring right at his soul. Seijuro turned around and faced with one of his own stares.
"You are not my pupil and I won't teach you."
"You know I've been watching you train Kenshin and you know I've practiced that same moves you taught him. Even if you refused to directly teach me I have learned much of the Hiten Mitsurugi style."
"What you do not seem to understand is that you can't learn certain things by just watching. Hiten Mitsurugi is one of them."
"I want to try again." Aisu said suddenly. "I want to try to hit you again and this time you can't go easy on me."
She walked into the clearing fully facing Seijuro now and took her battoujutsu stance. Seijuro did not show any signs of taking up her challenge instead he merely looked at her stance.
"You're turned to far to the side," he said measuring her stance carefully. "By swinging your sword over a longer distance you gain power but lose speed. You're leaving yourself wide open for attack if you don't accelerate that blade fast enough."
"You have to find a balance between power and speed," Aisu replied, quoting Seijuro. "If I can accelerate fast enough how much I turn won't matter."
"But what if I'm faster," he smirked and took is own stance.
Aisu took the initiative and charged at Seijuro. Seijuro did the same. Blades flashed at the same time and hit each other with such force that Aisu felt her hand quiver. Seijuro was stronger and managed to throw her back. He wasted to time waiting for her to recover, rushing at her with his sword ready. Aisu barely dodged the blow and readied her own. Seijuro blocked with his sword and she was again thrown back. /His strength is too great. I can never win if I rely on strength. so lets go for speed. Ryu Sou Sen!// Arm, shoulder, chest, head; Seijuro managed to block them all, but barely. Aisu was starting to sweat a little as she landed on her feet, her sword ready, immediately dashing at Seijuro once again, hoping to catch him by surprise. Counterattacked low, forcing Aisu to jump up awkwardly. Seijuro smiled, thinking he had her, in response to which Aisu turned her awkward jump into a Ryu Tsui Sen. Blocked again.
"I'm not going to lose my balance that easily. I trained in a tree for the last few years, and balance is something I've mastered."
"I don't doubt that, however," Seijuro continued. "Now you will lose."
Aisu readied herself, watching Seijuro, trying to anticipate what he would do.
"Do you know of the Kuzu Ryu Sen?" He asked, knowing she did not. Aisu's eyes narrowed in return.
"It's an attack that hits all nine vital point at the same time, an extended version of the Ryu Sou Sen you used." Seijuro took his stance. /This ends now.//
/An attack that hits nine points at once? Not possible if you only have one sword, unless it is done so fast that it seems to be happening at the same time. Still I doubt that I'm fast enough to block them all. so I'll dodge them.// Aisu thought determinedly. She saw the first one coming, the second close behind and then the third, fourth. ninth. They were all coming towards her in such close succession she almost could not tell. She blocked the first one and managed to move out of the way of the second, third and fourth, but by then Hiko had adjusted too and there were still five points coming at her on even closer succession than before. She blocked one more before feeling a sharp pain in her shoulder. Aisu threw herself to the side, avoiding the last three points. /She shouldn't have been able to dodge any of them, much less block them.// Seijuro's mind raced.
Aisu ignored the pain in her shoulder. /How do you defend against the Kuzu Ryu Sen?// Aisu wondered. Seijuro had re-sheathed his sword as soon as he had completed the attack.
"No." Aisu yelled as she rushed at him, doing her best to imitate his Kuzu Ryu Sen. Seijuro's eyes showed slight surprise as he saw what she was doing. Aisu Could see her sword, all nine strikes, although not as fast as Seijuro. She watched him to see what he would do. The next thing she knew she was lying on the ground panting, an acute pain in her chest. /I shouldn't have used that attack// Seijuro mentally cursed himself.
"Look's like I got you," he said stating the obvious. /But that was close, She's even faster than before.//
"Look's like it," Aisu replied reluctantly getting up with some difficulty.
"That attack that you used to block the Kuzu Ryu Sen, what was it."
Her question went unanswered.
"What was it?" She asked more insistently.
"Well since your asking I guess you didn't see it, which is good."
"I did see it a little bit." Aisu replied straining her mind back to that moment. "It was like battoujutsu, but way faster, with much greater reach."
Aisu narrowed her eyes at Seijuro who was ignoring it.
"The attack I used is one that you, as an illegitimate apprentice, will never learn. It could have killed you easily."
Aisu's anger flared up but she forced it back down. /I have to get him to teach me.// Aisu though desperately. She raised her hand up to her shoulder concentrating her energy on the spot. Slowly the wound stopped bleeding and started to close itself. Seijuro had a watchful eye on her, which was exactly what she wanted.
"How are you doing that?" He asked. /Finally, I thought he'd never ask.//
"I'll tell you, if you teach me," Aisu replied in a quiet voice.
"I can't teach you." Seijuro said frustration creeping into his voice. /Why can't this girl just understand that I can only have one pupil?//
/There goes my last bargaining tool// Aisu thought reluctantly as she took her hand away from her healed shoulder. It had become cold. Just like the first time she had healed her scrapes and every time she had practiced in between, her shoulder seemed to be surrounded by an aura of winter weather. She took the sword from her belt and handed it to him.
"I'll come back some time. And when I do, I'll be stronger." Aisu called over her shoulder as she walked in the same direction as Kenshin had. "I'll do what your 'real' pupil is going to do. I'll use my sword to protect people and maybe someday you'll see that I'm just as good as Kenshin."
"If you're going to use a sword to protect people you'll need this." He threw the sheathed sword to her and she caught it deftly. /And the problem is not that you are worse than Kenshin; it is the fact that I can only have one pupil.// With a slight smile, she disappeared into the undergrowth.