Kagetsuna was getting frustrated.

Although this exchanging of pointers with his sister was the most fun he’d had in a long time, because he came into this fight with motives beyond just enjoying himself, he was less than satisfied.

He’d completely forgotten his original intention of just testing Kira’s strength. What he desperately wanted was for her to reveal those sword techniques that he’d only seen her practice in secret.

After over twenty exchanges, apart from using a few Skills at clutch moments, Kira refused to reveal anything more than what she ought to know. Her reasoning for this was that she needed to hide her true strength and, more importantly, she didn’t have a way to explain where she learned these techniques from. What was she supposed to say?

‘ “Oh, I was a skilled swordswoman in my previous life but I was reincarnated into this one with all my old knowledge. Please don’t think I’m crazy.”

Yeah that’s definitely going to work out.’

Regardless of whether people believed her or not, they would think that she was at least a bit damaged in the head. Preferring to avoid this situation, she would keep her true abilities hidden, even from her own close family.

She boarded this train of thought due to this, supposedly friendly, exchanging of pointers in which she was tempted more than a few times to use these techniques which were like second-nature to her. From the aggression she felt, Kira could tell that Kagetsuna was pushing her limits.

‘Is it possible that he knows about my hidden techniques? That shouldn’t be. I can detect people stronger than me with my normal senses even if they can mask themselves from my relatively weak Soul Sense. The people I’ve seen in this world so far have been careless with their physical movements. Although, with his talent, I must admit that it’s not impossible for him to be that careful.’

As this thought passed through Kira’s mind, she decided to test the waters and see what his reaction would be. If he had actually been watching her all this this time and kept it a secret, then she may be able to trust him with seeing the most basic techniques of her Takanashi-style swordsmanship.

If he hadn’t, then she could pass it off as something she found in an ancient scroll. Either way, she wasn’t about to reveal that she was from another world.

Despite having the overwhelming advantage in Soul Energy due to being of the Core rank, Kagetsuna had to admit that, in terms of pure swordsmanship, Kira was, surprisingly, able to keep up with him and even out-manoeuvre him at multiple instances.

At times, though, he noticed that she would start a movement, hesitate for a fraction of a second, then move in a way that was completely different. To him, this was evidence that she was about give in to the pressure he was applying.

‘Just…a little bit more.’

By now, both sister and brother were breathing heavily from their exertions, sweat rolling down their faces as they broke apart. Their last exchange had them extremely tense. Both of them were about to use a Weapon Skill but Kagetsuna realised that Kira didn’t have the energy so he refrained from using his own. They were both tired but his goal wasn’t yet achieved.

Just as Kagetsuna was about to call an end to the match, Kira did something that surprised him.

Kira flicked imaginary blood off her sword before slowly and elegantly sheathing it again. However, instead of moving to bow or cup her hands, she instead leaned forwards, one hand on her sheath, the other tightly gripping the sword’s hilt. At the same moment, Kagetsuna felt that Kira had become somewhat indistinct from the surroundings.

Suzuki-clan swordsmanship placed no importance on the sheath whatsoever. Combined with this strange visual phenomenon, Kagetsuna’s tiredness vanished as if blown away by a violent gust. In its place was an unspeakable excitement.

‘Finally, this is it. Don’t disappoint me now, Sis.’

Kagetsuna’s involuntary smile was all that Kira needed to know. He had been watching her and he could be trusted to keep these techniques a secret. Although she hadn’t actively practiced these particular techniques in a long time, they were deeply ingrained into her memory. She could correct any mistakes in the moment with no effort at all.

Kira stood, waiting, as Kagetsuna cautiously advanced on her. When he was just over a meter away, Kira made her move. Swiftly stepping to the side, she drew her sword and cut upwards in one smooth motion. Kagetsuna had barely registered her movement when he heard a whistle of air rushing towards his face.

Using his superior reflexes, he raised his sword to block and the clang of metal on metal loudly rang out but, as soon as the impact landed on his blade, the force vanished instantly and he just about saw Kira stepping away from him, her sword somehow still in its sheath.

‘What just…’

Before he could finish his thought, Kira moved forward again before suddenly disappearing from right in front of him. His instincts and a sound of parting air warned him of a danger near his feet. Stabbing his sword into the ground, and despite being stabilised by it, he felt another impact rattle his sword all the way to his shoulder.

He caught a glimpse of Kira in a bent-knee position almost parallel to the ground but, before he could remove his sword from the ground, Kira’s sword was already sheathed and she vanished from his sight.

It was clear that Kagetsuna couldn’t keep up with her right now. However, it wasn’t that her speed had suddenly increased. Rather, it was by applying two of the initiate-ranked principles of her Takanashi Clan’s training.

‘Takanashi Initiate First Principle: The Mask. To hide my thoughts and emotions behind an impenetrable mask. The less I give the enemy, the fewer advantages they can take from me.

Takanashi Initiate Second Principle: The Step. To move my body with as little actual movement as possible. The longer it takes the enemy to register my movements, the less time they have to react.

By training just these to a high enough level, I can hide my presence and enemies will struggle to perceive me even when I’m right in front of them and the movements they think they see will be as if looking into the past.’

On a battlefield, the single point of a fighter which would draw the most attention was naturally a sword which had been drawn. The presence of a naked blade would shatter these principles by virtue of the sheer attention it draws. It was for this reason that the Takanshi Clan developed these Iai, or ‘sheathed-sword’, techniques. The moment that the enemy saw the blade was already too late.

While these principles and techniques were of the lowest-level fundamentals, they were designed to work even against the highest-level swordsmen in Kira’s old world once one was skilled enough in them.

Kagetsuna, although he was a talented genius that would become someone great one day, right now he was but a child. That said, him being able to be this close on Kira’s trail could be attributed to his rapid growth but was mostly due to Kira’s fatigue and the limits of her current body.

Regardless, Kira would take any advantage she could get. Moving behind Kagetsuna, she rapidly wove together two cuts almost instantaneously towards his back. The first cut made contact, pushing him forward slightly, while the second one was avoided as he vaulted over his sword before him while pulling it out of the ground.

“Sis, you really do know how to hold back your strength.”

Kagetsuna managed to let out before Kira could move again. It had to be said that she was now thoroughly exhausted. That last movement cost her more than she intended, but she had no intention of losing this exchange after committing so much to it. Since learning about Weapon Skills in this world, Kira had been wondering about whether she could create a Weapon Skill.

Although none of the scrolls she had read had explicitly mentioned anything on the subject, Kira knew that Skills had to be developed by someone. They were too complex not to be.

With this in mind, Kira believed that, if she could create Skills using her techniques from her past life, she would be an unparalleled existence in this new world. Brimming with confidence from using her Iai techniques without flaws once again, she thought that now was as good a time as any to experiment at making a low-ranked Skill with her last dregs of her remaining Twin Energies.

‘I mean, what do I have to lose? I’ve read through all of the clan’s Weapon Skill scrolls already so I think I have a decent understanding on how they work.’

Mentally grasping at what miniscule threads of Life Energy were left in her muscles and almost invisible wisps of Soul Energy left in her dantian[1], she desperately focused as she fused them so that the ratio of Life Energy to Soul Energy was about 70:30.

From her studies, the more a Skill leaned toward the physical, the greater the ratio of Life Energy. The same was true for things she considered supernatural having a greater ratio of Soul Energy. After this, she drew the resulting golden energy through an Activation Path she thought was appropriate before allowing it to settle in her right palm.

Kagetsuna who was watching Kira intently after narrowly dodging her last attack, lowered his sword, mouth agape. He had good reason to be this shocked. The winds currently rising around Kira, who had her eyes closed, were extremely violent, the sign of a powerful Skill about to unleash. From his experience, a Skill of this level had to be of at least the Advanced rank. His shock quickly turned into concern.

“This is bad, this is bad. I need to do something, quick.”

Kagetsuna knew that while pushing yourself to energy exhaustion to train Skills was normal, and you couldn’t expect less from over-eager youths, common sense dictates that to attempt a Skill that was far beyond your maximum energy capacity could have devastating consequences on your internal organs and Soul Energy cultivation.

Thus the Advanced-rank Skills were kept well out of reach of those youths whose Soul Energy was naturally still very weak. The qualitative difference between Skill ranks couldn’t be compared to the difference between Skill level in the same rank, whether in terms of power, complexity or energy usage.

How Kira got her hands on an Advanced-rank Skill, not to mention why she was trying to use it when her Soul Energy was almost depleted were questions he would have to keep for later, assuming she survived this.

The second thing that disturbed Kagetsuna and caused him to pause despite his worry was Kira’s appearance. A golden glow was pulsating from her body at a steady rate, like a heartbeat. Advanced-rank Skill aside, this was definitely not normal. Because of these factors, he did what any child would do when faced with something they couldn’t deal with. He ran.

“MOM! DAD! COME HELP! SOMETHING’S HAPPENING TO KIRA!”

Meanwhile, Kira had no concept of time as she was manipulating the golden energy, nor was she aware of what was going on outside due to her intense focus. This was because things weren’t going according to plan.

‘Why isn’t the energy leaving my body?’

That tiny golden blob of energy that carried an extremely volatile power was usually completely calm when she had used Skills before and would leave her body as easily as Soul Energy circulated through her Soul Paths. Now, however, it had become agitated and was losing its perfectly spherical form.

Kira could tell that, should this energy burst apart and release itself within her body, the best case scenario would be that her Soul Paths and internal organs, if they weren’t completely destroyed, would never be the same again. As for the worst case, that was up to the imagination but, regardless of how, would almost certainly end in death.

Kira, however, didn’t intend to die so soon. She hadn’t even spent eight years in this world and she was already walking the line between life and death. She couldn’t help but laugh mirthlessly to herself as she used every single shred of her mental strength, Life Energy and Soul Energy to try and suppress the golden amoeba that threatened to break apart at any time.

Kira didn’t know how long she held out until a thread of that pure golden energy slipped from her grasp and escaped into her body. As soon as it passed the suppressing energy layer, created by her Twin Energies and mental strength, it burst into a million shards that were like white-hot grains of sand as they shot through Kira’s body, burning microscopic holes into her internal organs and Soul Paths alike, causing her pain on a level that she had never known existed before.

“Aaargh! Aaaaaaaaargh!”

After what seemed like an eternity but was in reality only a few seconds, those shards ran out of energy and fizzled away and Kira stopped screaming. The pain was so sharp that her body couldn’t even let itself shut down out of shock, even if it wanted to. Kira knew that she had to stay conscious, otherwise the rest of the energy that she was suppressing would almost certainly kill her.

Using the tiny bit of her mind that wasn’t forcing the golden energy down, Kira made herself sit down in the lotus position and calm her breathing while desperately trying to recover her Soul Energy. However, the amount of focus needed to draw the natural energy through her Soul Paths was more than she could spare right now and, when she tried, just before the golden energy could break through completely, the burning pain from the natural energy passing over the burned holes in her Soul Paths was enough to make her give up, it was simply too risky.

1…2…5 minutes passed by agonisingly slowly to Kira who was struggling with all her might to keep that golden energy in check.

Her energy reserves running dry, Kira had also reached the point where her mental exhaustion was reaching its peak causing her control over that Life- and Soul Energy barrier to waver. This wasn’t missed by that turbulent golden energy and it made a redoubled effort to break free.

‘So, this is the end again? After all the effort I put in, I’m going down due to my own ignorance. Fate truly has a horrible sense of humour. Friends, Elders, I’ll be joining you soon.’

Kira’s thoughts were dissipating as fast as her focus and the golden energy joyfully broke free, ready to wreak havoc on Kira’s unprotected body…

…

…when a sudden surge of blue light illuminated her entire internal body.

‘This…is…’

“Kira, honey, you need to stay awake. It’s not over yet. You can still save yourself!”

“Mo…ther…?”

Naomi’s voice was the most welcome sound she had ever heard. She didn’t even question why it seemed to come from within her head as the warm sensation of her mother’s Soul Energy entering her body comforted her and dulled the pain from her internal injuries to some extent.

“That’s it, focus on my voice. Thank goodness you had so little energy left when you created it, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to suppress it like this. I can hold it back for now, but you need to be the one get it out of your system.”

“What do you mean, Mother?”

While Kira didn’t have the mental strength to process complicated commands at this point, she knew that what her mother had to say could save her life.

“That abnormally pure energy created when we mix our Twin Energies doesn’t just disappear. It needs to be used somehow. Unless I’m wrong, you don’t have the strength or an appropriate, weak Skill to use it up. That leaves only one method. It needs to use itself up within your body.”

“I…can’t. It’s just…too painful.”

Realisation dawned on Kira and she remembered that searing pain she experienced not so long ago. That pain had already caused a seed of fear to be planted in her.

“Listen to me, honey. I’m going to release the smallest bit of it that I can. What I need you to do is make sure that it just barely touches your internal organs or Soul Paths. Just the lightest touch then draw it somewhere else. Can you do that for me?”

“I…can try.”

“Alright, here I go.”

Kira braced herself as a tiny golden droplet squeezed out from that vast blue shroud before exploding into golden dust. Despite her best efforts, the energy dust moved too fast for Kira to control with any degree of efficiency and it once again burned through her with impunity.

“Aaaaaaaargh!”

“Kira, focus. Easy now, stay calm. Take control of it as I let it go. Let it wash through your body, not cut through it.”

“Oh..k-k…kay.”

This time, Kira used her meagre remaining strength to capture the droplet in a sphere made using her mental strength before dragging the sphere across her organs and along her Soul Paths. Although the pain was still tremendous and caused her to yell out a few times as she moved it, she gritted her teeth and bared it. In this way, while she dreaded each new droplet with a now deep-seated fear, Kira exhausted drop after drop of the golden energy until it was finally gone.

While in no state to continue observing her body Kira let her internal focus slip away as her consciousness threatened to do the same. If she had any awareness of her body left, she would’ve been surprised to find that, where that golden energy passed, her internal organs and Soul Paths began to glow with a steady light. With every passing moment, they would begin to be filled with a golden energy that reached a purity that would cause people to be shocked.

However, that glow soon faded and, with it, that golden energy also vanished as if it never was.

“There we go. All done.”

Kira heard her mother’s voice as she cracked her eyes open to find herself staring at the sky, her mother’s hands on her dantian while her father and brother stood nearby, their serious expressions gradually becoming softer as they saw she appeared to be okay.

“Hel…”

Was all she could manage before she passed out, the pain, mental, physical, and spiritual exhaustion all compounding on a body that should have shut down long ago.

[1] Position just below the navel. Often referred to as the location of one’s core of internal strength.