Chapter 77: Follow Your Heart, Follow the Blade
The hut stood close to the sea, and the stretch of open ground beside it had become Axel's training field.
By the time the sun climbed high overhead, he had already been swinging his sword for hours without pause.
Even with a body far stronger than before, his arms felt heavy, his legs were starting to numb, and his clothes were soaked through with sweat.
With vector manipulation, he could have regulated the heat in his body, transferred excess warmth away, and kept himself in perfect condition through sheer force of calculation. In theory, he should have been able to finish this training session without breaking a sweat.
The fact that he looked like this was enough to show how brutal the session had been.
And yet, calling it brutal was not entirely accurate.
For the past few hours, and in fact for days now, all he had done was repeat the most basic movements.
Swing after swing.
Nothing flashy. Nothing profound.
Momousagi had taught him only the fundamentals. Straight cuts. Rising slashes. Downward chops. Horizontal sweeps. Diagonal slices. Simple thrusts.
Then she had him repeat them again.
And again.
And again.
At noon, Momousagi's voice came from behind him.
"Time to eat."
Only then did Axel stop.
He lowered the heavy wooden practice sword in his hand and exhaled slowly. His breathing was rough, but he still managed to carry himself inside.
During these past few days together, he had come to understand something very clearly.
When it came to training, Momousagi was strict to the point of being merciless.
Outside of training, though, she was more like a gentle older sister.
He washed his hands with the water set aside in the room, then dropped into his seat and started eating without the slightest bit of restraint.
Vector manipulation could protect his body and accelerate recovery, yes, but that all depended on energy. Training at this level meant burning through reserves at a frightening rate. By now, he was starving.
Seeing the speed at which he devoured the food, Momousagi rested her chin on one hand and smiled.
"Looks like my cooking has improved lately. Even a picky little brat like you is eating this enthusiastically."
Her words were not wrong.
Axel usually rejected strange looking dishes on sight. If the appearance ruined his appetite, that was the end of it.
But once training got hard enough, appearance stopped mattering. As long as it tasted good and filled his stomach, he could accept it.
He swallowed a large bite of meat and replied, "Big Sis Momousagi, a woman this virtuous must have plenty of admirers."
Momousagi lightly tapped him on the head with her chopsticks.
"You little devil. What do you think about all day?"
Then, after a brief pause, she added with a sigh, "As for admirers... yes, there are some. But one of them is especially troublesome. I have rejected him over and over, and he still refuses to give up."
There was genuine helplessness in her tone.
Axel kept chewing while calmly piecing it together in his head.
That had to be Tokikake.
The legendary persistence king who could be rejected countless times and still keep charging back in.
Frankly, it was almost impressive.
After lunch, Momousagi tidied up the dishes, then led Axel back outside.
Today, however, she did not immediately tell him to resume swinging.
Instead, she stood in the center of the training ground and said, "I'm going to check the results of your training these past few days. Attack me with everything you have."
Axel was not surprised.
In fact, he had been waiting for this.
Tsuru had entrusted him to Momousagi. If all she intended to teach him was basic repetition, that would have been far stranger.
He walked to the center of the clearing and picked up the wooden sword once more. Then he took a few deep breaths and adjusted his condition.
Momousagi did not rush him. She simply stood there and waited.
Finally, Axel lowered his center of gravity.
He bent his knees, drew the wooden sword back to his left side, and gripped the hilt firmly with his right hand in a sword drawing stance.
His eyes sharpened.
"This is my strongest move, Big Sis Momousagi. Be careful."
He had no intention of engaging her in a slow exchange of standard forms. Against someone on her level, basic swordsmanship would only end in one thing: him getting smacked around without even understanding why.
So he chose the strongest slash he could currently produce.
"First move... Cloud Slash!"
The instant the sword came out, the surrounding energy aligned with the trajectory of the swing.
A pale blade pressure erupted from the wooden sword.
Ordinarily, a slash like that should have weakened as it cut through the air, its force gradually worn down by resistance and recoil. But Axel's technique broke that rule. The longer it moved, the more surrounding energy it gathered, and the more its power swelled.
That was why he had named it Cloud Slash.
Like gathering clouds into a storm.
The strike flew forward, growing stronger as it traveled.
Momousagi's eyes flickered.
She had not expected such a bizarre slash from him.
Still, her reaction was terrifyingly fast.
She did not even bother drawing Konpira.
She simply lifted the sheathed blade in one hand and, with casual precision, knocked Axel's slash aside as though brushing away a leaf.
Then she walked straight toward him.
Axel had expected surprise.
Perhaps even praise.
Instead, what approached him was a stern faced Momousagi.
Before he could speak, she flicked the hilt of Konpira against his head.
Thwack.
"Ow!"
Momousagi's gaze sharpened.
"Brat, didn't I say I wanted to see the results of your training?"
Axel held his head. "You did..."
"And what have I been making you train?"
Axel's voice immediately weakened. "The basics."
"I know that," she said flatly. "Then why are you using some strange custom move? Are you looking for a beating?"
Axel instantly shook his head.
That answer had come a little too fast.
Momousagi stared at him for another second, then said, "Again."
This time, Axel did not dare show off.
He stepped forward and began using only the fundamentals she had drilled into him.
Simple cuts. Controlled footwork. Clean angles. Direct transitions.
Momousagi met each movement effortlessly.
She blocked every strike with ease, and each time she did, her blade redirected his force with almost insulting smoothness. There was no wasted motion, no excess strength, no dramatic display. She simply stood there and dismantled everything he did.
To Axel, it felt almost childish.
As though he were a toddler waving a stick in front of a master.
After a while, he could not help sighing.
He had known it would be like this.
That was exactly why he had tried to sneak in his ultimate move at the start.
Momousagi caught that sigh and misunderstood it.
She assumed he was frustrated by the monotony of the basics, and perhaps by how little effect they seemed to have in an actual exchange.
After all, she herself had once gone through the same thoughts.
So she lowered her blade and asked, "Do you know why I'm not teaching you my swordsmanship?"
Axel paused, then shook his head.
Momousagi looked toward the sea before speaking.
"What is a sword to a swordsman?"
"Is it a weapon to protect yourself and others?"
"Is it part of your strength?"
"Is it the other half of your life?"
She let the questions hang for a moment before continuing.
"All of those answers can be right."
"But at its core, a sword is still a weapon meant to kill. Swordsmanship is a method of killing."
Because Axel was still young, she paused after saying that, perhaps worried the bluntness of it might hit him too hard.
Then she continued in a calmer voice.
"If I teach you my techniques directly, it will put you inside my mold. And once that happens, breaking free of it will be very difficult. Do you understand?"
Axel nodded.
Of course he understood.
The moment someone else's framework became your instinct, anything outside it became harder to grasp. That was one of the reasons it was so difficult for students to surpass their teachers.
Momousagi seemed satisfied that he understood, so she continued.
"There is no strongest technique."
"Swordsmanship is forged through practice, through fighting, through survival, through life and death. What suits one swordsman may be useless to another."
"Only what you truly comprehend for yourself can become your own path."
Then, seeing that Axel was still listening intently, she gave a simpler explanation.
"There are swordsmen who specialize in heavy, overpowering slashes."
"There are those whose swordsmanship is dazzling and beautiful."
"There are those who rely on agility and unpredictability."
"There are all kinds."
"Why?"
"Because each of them found their own way."
Axel's eyes sharpened slightly.
"So... follow your heart, and follow the blade?"
Momousagi repeated the words softly, as though tasting them.
"Follow your heart, and follow the blade..."
After a brief silence, she smiled.
"Yes."
"That's a good way to put it."
Then she raised Konpira again and pointed the sheath at him.
"So for now, your job is simple."
"Master the basics."
.....
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