Past the entrance of the cave with the numbers 3-2 inscribed on it resided a room identical to Kenja’s cave, except that on the floor, a mountain of books buried a young man.

The young man glared in annoyance at a snail sitting on the table. He had just told Snail to let him see some of his books on pills, but in the next moment, he was crushed by a pile of books.

“Why are you glaring at me like that? Disciple said he wanted to see my books,” he stated as if he had done no wrong.

“And seeing some of your books means to throw all your books related to the subject on top of me?” Kenja countered.

Snail let his mouth hang open, apalled by what Kenja had said. “All my books? Disciple, this meager number cannot amount to a drop in the ocean of books that I hold. If you wish, I can take out hundreds more related to pills and plants. Don’t insult my collection!”

Kenja bit his tongue and scrunched his nose out of anger. ‘How shameless…’

Snail not only hadn’t denied throwing the books on top of Kenja, but he also acted indignant over Kenja’s statement concerning his stupid book collection.

Kenja dropped the conversation for fear he might strangle the snail if it continued any longer. He pulled his hands out of the pile of books lying on his back and took one sitting next to his head, opening it to the first page.

He began skimming through all the books quickly. When he finished a book, he closed it and placed it on top of the previous one.

Even though he hadn’t owned very many books himself, he would read whatever he could lay his eyes on, sometimes assisting the elderly merchants with their business documents and logs. Occasionally, they would offer to lend him books or allow him to sit and read from their private collection. Because of such benefits, his reading speed wasn’t too slow, and he could quickly skim through the books looking for pills with keywords related to the body and soul’s flaws.

As he read, the pile of unread books lying on him became stacks of read books. Every now and then, he wrote down on a sheet of paper the name of a pill recipe as well as which book and page number he had found it in. Once he finished the final book, he placed it on one of the tall stacks and asked Snail for some more.

Snail had been carefully using a rag to polish his new wax onto his smooth shell. He paused to look at Kenja, showing a slight irritation with being interrupted.

“Hmph.”

Snail took the stacks of books back and materialized another pile of books above Kenja’s head. Kenja foresaw this and quickly sidestepped the downpour, giving Snail a mean stare after the crash.

Kenja glanced at the pool of water and then at Sakura who was standing against the table.

When he had first entered Hizumi’s room, he had taken four of the keystones from his storage ring and placed them together in the pool of water.

“Why did you place four of the stones in the water?” Snail had asked, puzzled by the action.

“Brother Akiyoshi said it himself, we can get more credits if we place the stones in the water.”

Snail had shaken his head at Kenja, still confused. “I meant, why did you place only four stones? Why not all of them?”

Kenja had chuckled at Snail, his smile full of mirth at seeing the ‘Supreme Snail-sensei’ stumped for once. “What? You have your secrets, can’t I have some as well?"

Kenja lit an incense stick and placed it next to Sakura’s hilt. He walked back to the heap of books, picked one up and began skimming through it. Whenever the incense stick fizzled out, he finished the book he was on and placed it on a stack before lighting another incense stick.

Once he had finished rushing through half of the books and noting an additional pill recipe, he went to light another incense stick. He reached for the vase that held the incense sticks to light another one and was surprised to see it empty.

‘There were more than thirty in here. I’ve been reading for more than a day...’

Kenja glanced at the pool where he placed the stones and began wondering whether he should leave now or not. He shook his head and looked at Snail who had withdrawn into his shiny and well-polished shell, leaving the jar of wax and cloth he used outside.

“Snail.”

Kenja rolled his eyes at Snail who didn’t answer back.

“Oh no! A book dropped into the pool of water,” Kenja said feigning surprise.

Snail popped out immediately with tentacles pointed at the water, looking to save the book. “What? How? Where is…” He stopped talking, realizing there was no danger to his books, and twisted his eyes to look at Kenja angrily.

Kenja had long-realized that Snail was a greedy bugger. He liked to take things and keep them for safe-keeping. Even though Snail had just gifted him an expensive-looking bed, the most probable reason he was willing to let it go was because he had an even bigger and fancier bed inside his shell.

“What do you want?”

“You said you would teach me two abilities of my choosing. So I want to know what abilities you know.”

“Hmph. I agreed to teach you two abilities of your choosing. I am under no obligation to list everything I know out for you like some sort of emissary or servant.” His eyes were closed as he pointed his tentacles up in the air, posing as some sort of privileged noble.

Kenja closed his eyes and massaged his temples once again. He knew Snail rarely made things easy, and he half-expected Snail would pull something like this, but it was still mind-grating to go through it.

“Fine...are there any techniques you are willing to teach me, Snail-sensei,” Kenja forced out his words carefully.

Snail peeked one eye open to look at Kenja and gave out a cough. “If you are going to be so persistent, disciple, I have a few techniques I am willing to impart to you.”

A stack of five or so manuals landed on the table. Kenja excitedly flitted through them to look at their names.

“Sunflower Seed’s Rebirth...Twirling Heaven and Earth...Yin-Yang Metamorphosis…” Kenja mumbled out in amazement.

‘These names are quite fearsome.’

Kenja opened one of the manuals and began reading it with anticipation, Snail watching from behind the book. Kenja’s eyes intently moved through the manual’s first few pages before reaching a spot halfways and stopping. His brows furrowed at something in the manual before he closed it and placed it back on the table.

He picked up another manual and repeated the same actions with it. His focused expectations turned into a gross distaste before switching to another book, until he had finished going through all the books.

“Snail…” Kenja spoke out in a quiet and cold manner.

“You have finished them quickly, disciple. Do you know which techniques you wish to learn?” Snail asked, eager to know what Kenja had decided.

Kenja was furious. Each manual he read would advance his cultivation tremendously, but the cost was equally immense. The manuals all required him to castrate himself in some fashion or forcefully cause his body to transform into a woman.

Kenja motioned for Sakura to fly to his hand. Her hilt landed in his palm squarely, and she emitted an excited, red aura, already understanding Kenja’s intentions.

“Wait, what are you doing…?” Snail asked, genuinely curious why his two companions were adopting such a menacing pose.

WHOOSH-PING-PING!

WHOOSH-PING-PING!

WHOOSH-PING-PING

After a few breaths of playing Smack-the-Snail-Against-the-Wall, Snail landed back on the ground, hiding inside his shell, and Kenja walked over to the table. He held Sakura up and examined the rust on her. Grabbing the bottle of wax and cloth, he walked over to the bed and sat down on it, placing Sakura on his knees.

With great care, he began slowly polishing Sakura with the wax.

Swish.

...

Swish.

...

Swish.

Nothing could be heard except the sound of Kenja gingerly waxing over every inch of the rust that covered the sword’s blade. Occasionally, the sword would vibrate as if she were being tickled but trying her best to stay still. Once he finished one side, he twirled her around and placed the tip on the floor so that he wouldn’t touch the newly-waxed side.

Swish.

...

Swish.

...

Swish.

Kenja felt at ease as he waxed her, sensing a close connection with the weapon. As another being who had to suffer through Snail’s shenanigans, they had a very easy time bonding. Kenja had always taken care of the people he had cared for or those who had done him a great service, and Sakura fell into both categories. He could do at least this much for her.

“You wax the copper trumpet with such care, but you didn’t even think to ask your Snail-sensei if he would like a rub?” Snail asked indignantly, eyes burning with jealousy at the treatment Sakura was receiving.

Kenja decided to humor him. “I am sorry. You had already finished waxing your shell, so I lost the opportunity. I will make sure to do it next time.”

“Hmph. You know that you can’t place her in the scabbard for three moons. The wax works by coagulating the Yin-infused moisture in the air onto the wax in order to purify the metal. If we sheathe her, the process will either be slowed or possibly ineffective.”

Kenja furrowed his brows when he heard this. He can’t waste time here doing nothing, and he had to check on his experiment with the keystones.

Sensing the distress from Kenja, Sakura floated away from him which had caused him to stand up in surprise. Then she flew to his back and attached her hilt to the space between his shoulder blades, not letting the metal touch anything. Kenja’s hair covered the hilt which gave him the fashionable look of carrying a blade on his back.

Kenja chuckled out loud. “Well, that solves that problem.”

He walked over to the pool and looked at his appearance once more, ensuring the lipstick had been completely washed off. He reached into the pool and picked up the pile of four keystones. Placing them in his storage ring, he walked to the door.

“Wait, where are you going?” Snail cried out, still sitting on the floor. He was doubly surprised that Kenja had decided to leave so suddenly and was about to leave without him.

“I am just going to check a few things out,” Kenja answered back vaguely.

“But your disguise. Without me, everyone will think you're a man.”

Kenja gave Snail a cold, hard stare and his fingers trembled as he curled them into fists. His jaws clenched and his lips frowned. The intensity of his demeanor continued to rise as he inhaled a large volume of air, as if the next few words took ten times the normal amount of effort to speak.

…

…

He opened his lips, and the words lunged at Snail ferociously.

“THAT’S BECAUSE I AM A MAN!!!”