Singapore was certainly a different world altogether. But it was not the only world to be marveled at in Asia. Geneva spent a generous amount of time not only in Malaysia, but in the surrounding countries as well, such as Japan, China, and India. These countries were rich with a culture that was far different from anything she'd ever seen before. What was the most surprising to her, though, had to be that women were allowed to learn the art of sword fighting in Japan. Where in other countries, Geneva had to disguise herself as a man in order to learn their cultural practices, she was able to learn the Japanese art of kenjutsu, or the technique of the sword, openly as a woman.
Generally, Geneva tried to immerse herself into the country's culture as a whole while she took residence there. She picked up multiple languages while there, and even learned to read some of them. It was rather difficult to do, simply because she had never been exposed to the alphabets used in Chinese and Japanese. During her stay in Japan, however, she was able to learn much more about Chinese, and she learned that the two languages and cultures shared similarities with each other, which made things a bit easier.
Although she was still considered a woman in Japanese society, Geneva was treated with a certain respect, which she appreciated. The Japanese people realized early on that Geneva was some sort of higher being when she demonstrated that she could heal herself. She didn't know it at the time, but the Japanese believed her to be a goddess, just as the people in Africa had. Once Geneva fully learned the language and discovered this, she had thought about explaining herself, but she knew so little of the Japanese culture that she feared what they would do to her, should she reveal that she was deceiving them. So, she went along with it all, and thus, she was allowed to learn whatever art she liked. She taught them her skills as well, which they took a slight degree of interest in, but still believed their traditions to be superior. Geneva couldn't argue with that. Their sword handling techniques were incredible, and the swords they used were extremely strong and sharp. She fell in love with the katana, simply because it was different from anything she had ever used, and she fell in love with the style of fighting that the Japanese were masters of. Instead of using one hand on the katana, it was the practice to use two hands, which made the blade much faster and stronger than ever before.
However, something that had always interested Geneva ever since she had left Africa was the idea of fighting with two swords. The Japanese gladly helped her develop this skill, as well as a great deal of agility when moving about the battle terrain. She became quite skilled with two swords rather quickly, and once she was satisfied, she decided it was time for her to move on. The Japanese were sad to see her go, but decided to give her a special parting gift: a beautiful curved dagger. It had a thin hilt and a beautiful silvery blade, and Geneva adored it greatly.
Deciding to leave Japan was the easy part. But actually leaving was the hard part. It took Geneva some time to find a way to leave the country, simply because she had gotten to the country by stowing away on boats and ships. Finally, though, Geneva was able to find a ship that was headed back west along the southern Asian coast, so she decided to take her chances.
As nice as life had been for her in Japan, it was not nearly as nice out at sea. Not every ship that she boarded was run by Japanese sailors, or even Japanese pirates, so she did run into some problems. They weren't problems that she couldn't handle though, and much to her surprise, she found out that she already had a bit of a reputation in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. Although she still had to be cautious and remain well disguised, it was a bit delightful to her that she actually had a reputation to speak of. The fact that she was becoming somewhat feared and respected on the high seas was something that was only just a dream to her not too long ago, and now, it was playing out.
But just because her reputation was growing didn't mean that she was invincible. Many crews who knew of her existence and power not only feared her, but hated her as well. They were careful not to let anyone suspicious aboard their ships, and wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone they thought could be a stowaway. Rather quickly, it became a common superstition that it was bad luck to have a woman aboard a ship, which made it increasingly dangerous for Geneva. Although Geneva was immortal, she found that it would be more wise for her to stay out of potentially harmful situations whenever possible, and she finally decided that it would be best to leave that side of the world for a while, and slip back into a sort of anonymity like she had been used to.
So, somewhat against her original will, she forced herself to leave those waters once she had located a ship that was set to travel below the tip of Africa and back up toward Europe. She had been lucky to find a ship that was heading for Europe in the first place, for it was not every day that ships took the long, arduous journey around the tip of Africa. But, she noticed quite soon after the ship had made it around the southern cape that her reputation must have followed her, for the crew started to slowly become suspicious of her. So, she didn't give them a chance to do anything, and excused herself from the ship very late at night using a small rowboat, her tail between her legs all over again. Although she wanted to be safe from harm and potential capture, she didn't like the idea of still feeling too powerless to protect herself after all that she had learned over the many years she had spent traveling. That notion hardened her feelings immensely, as well as her determination.
So, she sat there, floating in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean in a tiny rowboat. She knew approximately where she was. But certainly she wasn't about to row herself to shore. As nice as it was to finally be alone, it wasn't exactly ideal. She would just have to wait for an opportune moment.