Chapter 10
You know there is something really exciting about holding a real sword. I went to the Lord of the Rings exhibition in New Zealand when Return of the King came out in cinemas, and I remember seeing Aragorn's sword which is called Anduril, Flame of the West, reforged using the shards of Narsil, the Sword of Elendil.
I saw it, held back behind glass, revered and respected for it's beauty and now fame, but I wasn't allowed to hold it. But I did hold another sword, one with no name. It was a broad sword. What struck me most about it was the shear weight of the blade. I could barely raise it above waist height.
It makes you wonder at those who swing their swords with ease. ZORO! HOW ON EARTH CAN YOU CARRY ONE IN YOUR MOUTH? WOW!
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Tashigi's Heart: A Swordsman's Style
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After hours of being soaking wet, drenched by the rain and then the sea, I finally managed to get dry in the warmth of my cabin. It was quite spacious, but that was probably because I was the only person who would be sleeping in it. I was lying there on my bed. For some reason I was the only female officer who had wanted to come aboard on this journey from the Marine base of Logue Town to journey the terrors of the Grand Sea. 'So I have the entire room to myself. Just myself. My space.'
It was moments like these that I regretted being born a world apart. I could hear the sounds of laughter coming from underneath me, up through the floor boards, the melody of a well-played musical instrument, and the song of a heart that feels free, a person who holds nothing back. 'They sounded like they were having so much fun.'
It was moments like these that I would sit back and imagine what life 'could have been' if I had not been me. Hadn't someone just placed me inside the wrong body. I wanted to be with everyone, to laugh and make jokes, be them good or bad, and to have them laugh with me. But I just couldn't because it would be embarrassing, unprofessional and undignified for a 'young lady' to be staying, sleeping in the same quarters as the men. So I was here alone.
It was moments like these, when I'm trying to get some sleep, that the things I didn't let distract me during the day come back all at once to fill my mind, and taunt me with everything and nothing necessary. My train of bizarre thoughts went a bit like this.
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bed is so hard,
head aches, why does it ache?
my mother hates me for being here, that's why it aches,
she would be wearing a glamoured up right now and going out on a date or to a dinner party,
she was never really proud of me
if I was with her now...
she would try to set me up with some rich young man to get me as far away from her as possible,
married to someone whom she wouldn't be embarrassed to have as a relative,
she loves all things young and beautiful
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and then she would probably think herself in love with him and end up almost having him fall in love with her...
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gross ...kill that train of thought...
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I am 21 already,
Where did my teen life go?
I don't have many good friends,
no, I don't have friends.
I have comrades
They're better than friends
I have knowledge and desire
I have purpose
I can see a blurry path ahead, but my hope is strong, I will prevail!
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I wonder what time it is?
Did I pack my winter gear!?
Yes,...
…...
"'And this one? The Wado Ichimonij my Sword!'"
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what on earth?
Oh, that was what he said to me in the shop, right?
Why am I thinking about him now?
I turned from my right side over to my left.
The last thing I want on my mind is Zoro.
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"Why don't you stop acting like some dead person you don't even know, and start acting like yourself!"
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I threw back by bed covers as that memory came back to replay.
HOW DARE HE! I still can't believe he said that, what a jerk! His stupidity was really something. His statement didn't even make any sense?
I sat up on the side of the bed and held my head in my hands. I just couldn't believe this was happening. It wasn't as if I hadn't had enough trouble sleeping anyway. I slapped my checks with my palms, and walked over to the books that I had decided to bring along.
'What do I feel like reading right now... Why did Zoro have three swords? He was brilliant with just the one. Where would he get the advantage? Most people just tend to find one extra sword one sword too many, that it just gets in the way. I know what I'm talking about. When it comes to studying techniques and doing research on the art of swordplay I'm an expert. I know I still have a long way to go before I can be recognized as a legendary swordswoman, but I will never give up.'
'I know how long it takes for a man to become good enough to fight with the sword. Out the time needed to turn a beginner into a competent swordsman, for a man to become an expert in fighting with dual blades you would have to double the average time amount and then double that again. The result, I guess, would be a fairly decent estimate of the absolute minimum time a swordsman (or woman) would need to learn the two-sword style to the point where he/she can effectively defend him/herself with it; the real time would be even longer.'
'I've often wondered why it should take this long? I think its principally because the swordsman would have to train their non-dominant arm until they can fight as well with that arm as they do with their dominant one, changing themselves into an ambidextrous fighter.'
I reached for the book that this train of thought lead me to. 'A Swordsman's Style.' I flicked through the pages to find the pieces of information I was looking for.
I noticed a few key points and started writing down notes.
Chapter 12: Two long-bladed swords.
1. Who uses two-sword style
2. Know your swords.
3. Don't use it on a massed battlefield.
4. Use it only against unarmored or poorly-armored opponents.
5. What guards to use?
6. Don't fall into a rigid, predictable pattern.
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"Using two Swords or Rapiers, now has become recognized as a style of fighting in its own right. The swordsman has opted to use two swords instead of a sword and shield. The Masters of this art, for honourable and knightly weapons, state they be not used in the wars. To him that would handle these weapons, it is necessary that he can as well manage the left hand as the right, which thing shall be (if not necessary) yet most profitable in every other kind of weapon. But in these principally he is to resolve himself, that he can do no good, without that kind of nimbleness and dexterity. For seeing they are two weapons, and yet of one self same kind, they ought equally and indifferently to be handled, the one performing that which the other does, and every of them being apt as well to strike as defend. And therefore a man ought to accustom his body, arms and hands as well to strike as defend. And he which is not much practiced and exercised therein, ought not to make profession of this Art: for he shall find himself to be utterly deceived."
I lent back against the bedpost. 'Had Zoro lost many times before? He couldn't be that much older than me, could he? How could he have got so good at using two swords and use them in such perfect sync. I glance down at my sword, He must have been training since he was a child, I picked up Shigure drew her out of her sheath. I only started in my late teens. Well,... properly that is waving a wooden stick about when you're a child, by yourself wasn't training, but playful imagination.'
I set down Shigure across my lap. I love how the light from the nearby lamp gets reflected off the shiny metal surface of her blade. I watched as I moved a reflection from the blade, over my ceiling, moving it this way and that. My hand gripped the hilt. I could hold it so tightly, and yet he had knocked it clean out of my hands.
'Yesterday, I can truthfully say, was my first real experience and test of my skills in a life-or-death situation. Zoro had made all the other pirates I had come across so far, look like weaklings. It was no wonder he had been so good as a bounty hunter.'
'Once I had started practising swordsmanship, I became aware of how stupid some authors, writers, and scriptwriters were who wrote stories about characters who randomly pick up any sword and start fighting with it. It takes a man a long time to get used to a sword.'
2. Know your swords.
If you want to fight with two long blades, both of them should be yours because you want to be familiar with their characteristics-their weight, their balance, how well they respond to changes of guards, how easy it is to track them through cuts and thrusts, and many other subtle variables that are easily missed by people with no swordsmanship training whatsoever. A blade picked up at random is practically guaranteed to be unfamiliar; even if it was part of the same production batch as your own blade, the sword is likely to have received minor or major personal customizations that would make it feel "odd" in your hand, and the attention you need to spare for the impromptu adaptation to this new blade would distract you from the more important effort of coordinating your swords' movements into a seamless whole.
In short, don't just pick up a sword lying around and hope that you'll become instantly proficient in combining it with your other blade. If you want to fight with two long swords, make sure that both of them are with you right from the beginning and that you've totally accustomed yourself to the peculiarities of each.
'So that is some advice people can't just ignore. I have spent years training and I chose my sword because it felt right in my hand. Why did Zoro take Kitetsu the third? It didn't look like he really wanted it that much just considering it. But then again as soon as he heard the rumours of that sword it seemed to make him want it more. Was Zoro's main purpose for living just to break the rules everyone else lived by?'
'In our fight... He didn't use Kitetsu against me. Was that luck on my part or a conscious decision on his? If he had drawn the cursed sword would I be dead right now?'
I shuddered at the thought. 'It wasn't luck though. There had been a reason he had stayed his hand. What,. What was it?... It was that girlfriend of his that he said I looked like. Who did he say she was? He didn't give her name then, Wait! He called me by a different name that other time'.
I put my head in my hands. 'What had he called me as he left that shop? Was it the same person's name that he had spoken about later the one I looked just like?'
"See you around, Kuina."
'Yes! He had said that to me.'
'So, Wait... he called me by his girlfriend's name.' I felt an unwilling blush spread across my face. I hadn't even thought about that before.
Time to change the subject! I turned back to the book.
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3. Don't use it on a massed battlefield. Two swords can be a viable style for a one-on-one duel, one against few, but you are not to use it in a war zone and for good reason. The environment of massed hand-to-hand combat doesn't allow the two-sword style to develop its full effectiveness, mostly because the style requires such intense concentration on individual defence and offence that it inhibits the coordination needed for effective formation fighting. In any case, the opponents a swordsman might meet on the battlefield are likely to be armoured-which is the crux of the next point.
4. Use it only against un-armoured or poorly-armoured opponents. Wielding a single sword two-handed is a much better choice against a fairly well-armoured opponent because you need the extra power and precision of a two-handed grip for finding the gaps, joints, and/or weak points in the armour. This applies regardless of whether your opponent is armoured in mail, scale, lamellar, or plate.
'Not many people wear armour nowadays so in some form or another Zoro has an advantage, but in order for Zoro to actually fight properly against an armoured person if he comes across one, he would have to learn how to make his hands stronger just for the precision of accurate cuts. Unless he finds a way to cut through steal. Like that could ever happen.'
5. What guards to use? Different masters have different opinions about this; one of the most common guards has both swords held low near the corresponding hips with the points angled upwards and inwards towards the opponent's face. Another modifies this by having the rear blade (that is, the sword on the side of the rear foot) held at shoulder height and angled slightly upwards across the body to protect the head. The third has the forward blade similarly poised near the hip while the rear blade is held with the hilt high above the head and the blade sloping downwards to point directly at the opponent's face.
'Now that I think about it, he didn't seem to bothered about his guard. It was a if he didn't even care. But then again, maybe you didn't need a guard if you were always attacking your opponent and not letting them get near you. There had been a few times when I had got close to a head strike, but he had blocked them because I had to defend at a faster attack. I need to work on that. I need to get faster.'
6. Don't fall into a rigid, predictable pattern. It's true that the masters say one blade should be defending when the other attacks, and that this is a practical advice worth more than its weight in gold. But don't always use the same blade for the same role; each blade should be able to flow from attack to defence and vice versa as the situation demands, and the other blade should be able to match by instantly taking up the opposite role. Note that, as with any other form of swordsmanship, the "defensive" blade does not defend just by blocking the way for the enemy's attack in a static manner. Quite the contrary-the most effective kind of defence with the sword threatens the enemy with a counter-attack at the same time that it shields the swordsman's person from harm. One good way to do this in a two-sword style is to keep the defensive blade pointing towards the enemy in such a way that it would impale him/her if he/she attacks directly from his/her current position.
Another good way to defend offensively-particularly against a similarly-armed enemy-is by using the defensive blade to find and bind both of the opponent's blades and shift them out of line as the offensive blade moves in with a cut or thrust at the opponent's exposed body.
I find it hard to believe that one man could be so good at fighting. I put down the book, resheathed Shigure, and took off my glasses. 'Now I should be able to sleep.' I rolled over to try and get some rest. I needed to get some before I was demanded outside.
'How strong is he? He must have been training all his life. What is his purpose for fighting?'
'What! why are these questions doing in my head right now? Why is my head hurting? I grabbed the hard pillow I was sleeping on and threw it to the floor. 'The last thing I need right now is to let my mind wonder again.'
'Sleep.'
'Sleep'.
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"Is it because I'm a woman? … I didn't just pick up this sword to play around."
'I can't believe I said that it sounds so stupid now...'
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"I can't stand the fact that you exist! You have the same face as a girl I once knew who died a long time ago!" 'Ahhhh! No! I can't think about this right now!'
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'What if he had taken me as a hostage? Tied me up and dragged me with him. Thank God he didn't. Did it cross his mind that it would have been a good way to escape, one without need for worry about an attack from the marines? Would the strawhat pirates have thrown me overboard once they were out of harms way or would they have made me stay? What would that have been like?'
'NO MORE! I need to get up. The only reason I can imagine not being able to sleep is that I haven't distracted my mind enough. I need food, not a book, I need food. I got up and started humming away to my sleep deprived mind.'
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Give me food.
It's Time to eat.
When I get in the mood.
Then I'll sleep.
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I reached into my pack that was beside the bed. 'YEAH! Chocolates! Just what I need right now. Yummy.'Once I had those, I grabbed my water flask, from another pouch, drank from it and poured some of its contents over my head. 'Oh, that felt better. Now I can get some rest.'I lay back down on my bed. My head was still aching, but it'll be fine in the morning. I closed my eyes and let my body relax. Time for sleep.
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Where would you like to see this story go?
More detail or more action?
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P.S. Thanks for all my reviewers who felt like pointing out my spelling mistakes. Sometimes they just slip past my observation. :D