"This rope capture skill is harder than I expected." Chokata, who had been carefully observing and feeling Aoto's movements, expressed his low amazement, "You actually have to control the hands while tying the rope... Hmm? Mr. Tachibana? What's wrong with you? Why are you spacing out?"
Chokata looked at Aoto, who seemed to be daydreaming, with a puzzled gaze.
Snapped back to reality by Chokata's words, Aoto laughed a few times and said:
"I'm fine. I just happened to see a strange-looking bug crawling on the wall, so I was just looking for the bug."
"A bug? Where?"
"Couldn't find it. Probably was just seeing things."
Making up a random lie to brush off Chokata, Aoto quickly opened his system interface —
[Name: Tachibana Aoto]
[Currently possessed talents:]
[Night Vision, Sword Genius]
In the talent list, behind "Night Vision," there was suddenly an additional "Sword Genius."
——Demonstrating the rope capture skill to Chokata... could this be deemed as having fought with Chokata?
Aoto carefully recalled the playful scenes with Chokata just now.
The time spent playing with Chokata... indeed exceeded 10 seconds, reaching the "time needed to replicate talent" mentioned in the system's introduction.
At this moment, Aoto was flabbergasted: the system's criteria for "combat" seemed much broader than he had imagined.
He had just thought they were merely playing around, but the system deemed it as a fight.
Focusing his attention on the talent entries in the list, a virtual screen introducing the talent would automatically display.
Unable to believe the system's notification he had just heard, Aoto quickly put his attention on the "Sword Genius" entry.
[Sword Genius: Swordsmanship talent amplified to 50 times the average level of an ordinary person]
Seeing the content written on the virtual screen, Aoto was first stunned with disbelief in his eyes, and then uncontrollable joy erupted from his chest.
This is exactly the kind of talent he is eager for now!
A talent that can help him quickly become stronger.
After the joy, Aoto's excitement turned into astonishment.
——This person... actually has such an incredible talent?
He couldn't help but cast a surprised glance at Chokata in front of him.
At the same moment that Aoto cast a surprised glance at Chokata, he heard Kondo's loud voice coming from the dojo entrance——
"Hmm? Toshisuke, what are you doing?"
Kondo strode back into the dojo with a set of brand new swordsmanship protective gear.
"Mr. Tachibana was just demonstrating their rope capture skill to me!" Chokata hopped over to Kondo, explaining the sequence of events with glee.
After understanding what happened, Kondo lifted his hand and, with a not-too-light not-too-heavy force, gave Chokata a knock on the forehead, making a "dong" sound.
"Ah, ow! What are you doing?" Chokata raised one of his beautiful eyebrows.
"Hey... this rope capture skill is quite handy indeed... even Toshisuke can't fight back." Saying this, Kondo smirked mischievously, lifting his hand to knock on Chokata's forehead again.
Dong.
"Ah! Just you wait!" Chokata, frantically twitching his bound hands in an epileptic-like manner, tried to regain the freedom of his hands bound behind his back, but the knot Aoto tied was a special knot for restraining prisoners, not easy to undo without some skill.
Dong.
"Ow ow!"
After being flicked three times on the forehead by Kondo, Chokata, in a state of urgency, simply gave up on freeing his hands, instead, like a bull, he opened his mouth wide, shouting "ow ow," while using his forehead to butt against Kondo's lower back.
Watching the interaction between Kondo and Chokata, Aoto couldn't help but laugh.
"You guys get along well." He said.
"Sorry to let you see that." Kondo raised a hand and rubbed Chokata's smooth forehead, which had just been the target of three "flick-to-the-forehead" shots, "Alright, alright, I apologize to you."
Seeing Kondo take the initiative to admit his mistake, Chokata no longer pursued the matter, merely glaring at Kondo with a resentful look.
After pacifying Chokata, Kondo placed the protective gear he had been holding onto the ground in front of him, "Come, Aoto, try on this set of gear to see if it fits. If it fits, we can start training directly."
In his past life, Aoto had never seen the protective gear specifically used in Japanese swordsmanship with his own eyes. "Original Tachibana Aoto" had never visited the Sword Dojo, so there was naturally no knowledge of how to wear the gear in his memory.
Kondo, considerate as he was, upon noticing Aoto's unfamiliarity with wearing the gear, immediately stepped forward to help.
The protective gear Kondo brought was new, with no unpleasant smell and a perfect fit.
Seeing no issues with the gear, Kondo nodded with satisfaction on his face, "Very well! Then..."
Before Kondo finished his sentence, the sound of footsteps came from the dojo entrance.
"Good morning, young master. We came to practice swordsmanship."
"Good morning, young master."
...
At the entrance, four young men appeared.
These four are likely the other apprentices of this Sword Dojo—Aoto thought to himself.
And what Kondo said next confirmed Aoto's guess.
"Oh, you came to practice swordsmanship then." Kondo smiled at the four, "Come, let me introduce you. This is your new junior—Tachibana Aoto."
After briefly introducing Aoto's situation to the four, Kondo suddenly asked Aoto:
"Mr. Tachibana, you mentioned to me earlier—that you've learned some swordsmanship from your father, right?"
"Yes." Aoto nodded, "Just a bit of basics."
"Alright, I'd like to first confirm your current level, so we can teach you more effectively. In a bit, spar a little with one of your senior brothers, don't be nervous, just treat it as a game."
Kondo's method of "confirming a student's level" was standard practice in a martial arts hall, so Aoto had no objection. Moreover, sparring and competition he eagerly looked forward to, so he nodded without hesitation: "Sure! No problem!"
After Aoto nodded, Kondo turned to look at a tall figure among the four apprentices who had just arrived at the dojo:
"Mr. Suzuki, get your gear on, you'll have a simple match with Mr. Tachibana."
...
...
The tall man named Suzuki swiftly and deftly donned his armor.
He and Aoto placed their bamboo swords at their left waists, squatting on opposite sides of the dojo, bowing to each other in salute, then mimicked the motion of drawing a sword as they unsheathed the bamboo swords from their left waists, slowly rising afterward.
This was the full set of etiquette for sparring in the dojo.
After completing this entire set of rituals, the sparring could begin.
The first to launch an attack was Suzuki.
"Yaah—!"
Suzuki yelled wildly as he swung his sword at Aoto's forehead.
It wasn't just an ordinary scream. This wild yell had a technical name called "Qi Union."
Simply put, it's a forceful shout that comes from focusing one's qi in the dantian to enhance power and intimidate the opponent through sound.
Aoto didn't understand swordsmanship, but he knew hand-to-hand combat skills and police baton skills, which gave him an extremely strong foundation in footwork and a wealth of sparring experience.
With such rich sparring experience, there was naturally no reason to feel intimidated while facing Suzuki.
Aoto calmly stepped back to dodge Suzuki's slash.
Kondo, Chokata, and the other three apprentices who had come with Suzuki to practice swordsmanship were now sitting at the edge of the dojo, watching the duel between Aoto and Suzuki intently.
Suzuki was the type who enjoyed attacking relentlessly.
He launched one continuous attack after another on Aoto.
But all of these attacks were deftly dodged by Aoto using his adept footwork.
Seeing Aoto dodge Suzuki's attack once again with his footwork, Chokata whispered to Kondo in a voice only the two of them could hear:
"Brother Kondo, when Mr. Tachibana told me he's skilled in hand-to-hand combat and the Jitte Technique, he wasn't lying. In terms of footwork, many of our seasoned practitioners at Shiwei Hall can't match Mr. Tachibana."
Kondo didn't reply, merely nodded in silence, as he continued to watch Aoto and Suzuki's bout with great attention.
This was a sparring session to assess Aoto's current skills.
Thus, Aoto knew that if he kept on defending and evading, Kondo wouldn't be satisfied; Kondo likely wanted to see how his offensive capabilities were, and if he didn't start attacking soon, Kondo wouldn't call off the sparring.
Therefore, after dodging another of Suzuki's attacks, Aoto seized the moment when Suzuki's sword had just swung and hadn't yet been retracted, and he swung his bamboo sword aimed at Suzuki's head.
However—Suzuki was adept in offense and equally strong in defense.
He quickly retreated a step, swiftly retracting his bamboo sword to parry Aoto's strike.
Undeterred, Aoto struck twice more.
Bang! Bang!
The sound of the bamboo swords clashing echoed twice.
Again, Aoto's attacks were neutralized by Suzuki.
Not only were they neutralized, but after parrying Aoto's final attack, Suzuki stepped forward quickly and, seeing Aoto's bamboo sword deflected and his guard wide open, delivered a heavy slash to Aoto's chest.
At this moment, the three apprentices who had come to learn with Suzuki all showed smiles as though they'd witnessed something amusing, one even letting out a low chuckle.
For these three who had studied swordsmanship, Aoto's previous slashes were incredibly poor, making them feel as though they were watching a child flail a sword, leading them to laugh out loud.
Noticing the laughter, Chokata immediately shot a fierce glare at the three.
Silenced by Chokata's glare, the three quickly erased their smiles.
While Chokata used his gaze to stop the three from laughing, Kondo remained expressionless, pondering to himself:
—Mr. Tachibana's skill level... I think I've grasped it...
After watching the series of exchanges between Aoto and Suzuki, Kondo had already formed an assessment of Aoto's abilities: his footwork was decent, but his swordsmanship was just slightly better than that of an ordinary person who'd never touched a sword.
—His basic swordsmanship is somewhat weak and needs to be learned from the ground up.
—Overall, he's just an ordinary person with a relatively good foundation in footwork.
—For now, let's leave it at that.
Judging it unnecessary to have Aoto and Suzuki continue sparring, Kondo slowly raised his hand to call off the practice.
However, right at that moment—
"Hmm?" Kondo's eyes widened slightly, fixing intently on Aoto in the dojo.
Chokata mirrored this action.
Kondo and Chokata, almost simultaneously, widened their eyes and intensely focused on Aoto.
A growing astonishment slowly filled their eyes.
...
...
Kondo and Chokata couldn't see—it was as if there was a "high-speed projector" running in Aoto's mind.
The projector was replaying the scenes from his previous bout with Suzuki.
Aoto's gaze fixated uncontrollably on the "film" playing in the "projector" of his mind.
In his head, the "film" played frame by frame.
In reality, Aoto slightly loosened his grip with his left hand holding the sword, and his left heel lifted ever so slightly.
—I seemed to grip the sword a bit too tightly just now... My center of gravity was set a bit too far back...
The "Sword Genius" entry on his system's talent list shone with brilliant golden light at that moment!
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