Chapter 11: Prologue M -ZERO-

"Haa... haa..."

‘Just how many times have I ended up staring at the ceiling?’

I fell once, then got back up.

I charged at him again, only to be slammed into the floor once more.

He kept using his hands and feet to put me on the ground.

And aside from that very first time, he truly had not used his sword even once.

Yet I had not landed a single effective hit on him.

He maintained that hair’s-breadth distance where my sword seemed as though it might reach him, evading every strike as fluidly as water flowing past.

His movements as he slipped past me were impossibly smooth.

As though he already knew where my sword was headed, he moved his body just slightly before the tip could touch him.

Even as a fellow swordsman, I had initially found his skill impossible not to admire.

Yes.

At first, I did.

‘Really, at first.’

"Ngh...!"

I clenched my teeth, trying somehow to regain my composure.

But the more I watched him, the more I felt my insides begin to boil.

It was because of the attitude the Homu Sword Saint was showing right now.

At some point, he had pulled out a book from who knew where and opened it in one hand.

And he never took his eyes off it.

No, more accurately, he did not even spare me a glance.

As though the contents of the book in his hand were far more important than the sparring match unfolding before him.

And yet, he leisurely evaded me as though he knew every direction from which I would attack.

Right.

He dodged.

Left.

He dodged again.

If I aimed for his neck, he dipped his head slightly. If I aimed for his legs, he moved only the tip of one foot out of range.

Even when I abruptly changed the direction of my attack, the Homu Sword Saint was already gone from that spot.

Watching him, rather than admiration, all I could feel was my anger steadily piling up.

‘Just how lightly does he take me...?!’

But I clenched my teeth and suppressed my anger.

My opponent possessed skill on an entirely different level from mine—something I had already felt firsthand.

If I let my emotions sway me against an opponent like that, there was no way my blade would reach him any more than it had already.

"Inhale... exhale..."

I close my eyes and draw in a deep breath.

Then slowly let it out.

I lower my body.

I bend my knees, gathering strength in my legs.

Once again, I take a deep breath.

My heart pounds rapidly.

I can feel every muscle in my body drawing taut.

And then.

"!"

The instant my lungs fill with air, my closed eyes snap open.

I kick off with my bent knees and launch myself forward.

Faster than I have ever been.

At a speed surpassing my very best, I rush the Homu Sword Saint.

I swing my right arm wide.

"?!"

That was the moment.

For the first time, the Homu Sword Saint—who had only ever barely slipped past my sword strikes—lowered his body.

His eyes dart toward my right hand.

And for just an instant, a trace of what seemed like surprise passed through his gaze.

‘Huh?!’

—For a moment, I felt as though that was what he had said.

The instant I saw him looking at my right hand, I smiled inwardly.

"Haaah!"

Because there had been no wooden sword in the right hand I had swung sideways in the first place.

No matter how much I kept increasing my speed, I did not think I could land a sword strike on him head-on.

The faster I became, the more brilliantly he moved in response.

As if an invisible wall stood between him and my sword, he did not allow even a single effective hit.

That was when I came up with a feint.

But a simple feint was obviously not going to work.

He was not someone who watched my attacks with his eyes and dodged them.

Then I could use that very fact against him.

The fact that he dodged without looking at my attacks.

That was the opening I was aiming for.

The method I devised was a false strike swung with all my sincerity behind it.

The real attack was elsewhere.

My left hand, catching the wooden sword I had released as I swung with my right, then swinging it again.

Just as I expected, the Homu Sword Saint lowered his body to evade without even looking at the attack from my right hand.

Only then did he look at me.

But by the time he saw what I was doing, it was already too late.

The wooden sword in my left hand was cutting through the air, driving in at his side.

And at that moment.

The book in his hand flew into the air.

Far away.

It spun limply as it fell to the floor.

At the same time—

Thwack!

A solid impact travels through the tip of my sword.

‘I did it!’

I see the Homu Sword Saint blocking my attack with his wooden sword.

In other words, my full-powered strike had reached him.

If this had failed, then the false strike I used to deceive him would have been a failure as well.

But fortunately, this time it had worked.

"Whew..."

Letting out my excited breath, I lower my wooden sword.

"My victory, Homu Sword Saint."

The Homu Sword Saint stared silently at me for a while.

Then he shook his head and held up his sketchbook for me to see.

[Yes, and my defeat.]

"Woooooo!!!"

At that moment, all the emotions I had held back burst out at once.

Joy enveloped my entire body.

Without realizing it, I clenched my fist tightly and cried out in triumph.

Any sense of dignity I had possessed had long since vanished from my mind.

It was true that I had admired his skill.

But at the same time, I had felt something else as well.

A towering wall that seemed impossible to overcome.

It felt as though I were looking at an enormous wall I could never reach no matter how often I charged it, whose end I could not even see no matter how desperately I struggled.

That was what the Homu Sword Saint had been until now.

That was why I was even happier that I had made the first crack in that wall.

Right now, it was no different from having crossed into a new realm.

No, to be exact, I could not even tell how many realms I had crossed all at once.

That was how different I felt from before.

I would have to carefully assess my condition and swordsmanship later to know for certain.

That was how overwhelmingly powerful the person before me was—so much so that I could not even gauge his level.

And that remained true even now that I had grown stronger.

I had been acknowledged by someone like him.

How could I not be happy?

Though separately from that, my body had reached its limit and I sank down where I stood.

After opening and drinking the bottle of water he handed me, saying I could rest, I was tying back my disheveled hair when the Homu Sword Saint sat down across from me.

[To commemorate your victory, I shall give you this.]

"...What is this?"

After writing that in his sketchbook, he reached into his robes, took something out, and handed it to me.

It was a letter.

I took it and examined it from every angle.

It looked like nothing more or less than an ordinary letter.

"This is not going to explode or burst into flames when I open it, is it?"

[You have watched too many movies. It is just an ordinary letter.]

"Then why are you giving it to me?"

[Because you can use it to draw your father’s attention.]

"..."

His sudden words left me frozen in place.

‘My father’s attention?’

The attention I had wanted to draw so desperately yet had never received—not once—with just this one letter?

"Are you making fun of me right now?"

[No.]

"Then how could something like this possibly draw my father’s attention?"

[Give him that and tell him to fulfill his old promise. It will take care of itself.]

"An old promise..."

Those words sounded as though this person knew something about my father—

[I could tell from your sword.]

"What?"

[That you are Raiden Ryoma’s daughter.]

"...!"

As though he had seen straight through me again, his words made my eyes widen.

He had figured out whose daughter I was from my swordsmanship alone.

Even though I had never said my father’s name myself.

Yet he was looking down at his sketchbook as though it were nothing remarkable.

"How do you know my father’s name...?"

[We had a connection in the past.]

"Even if you had a connection, can you remember all of that?"

[Swordsmanship is, in the end, no different from the time etched into a person.]

He wrote in his sketchbook for a moment, then showed it to me again.

[Just as even the same swordsmanship can vary wildly in power and speed depending on who wields it.]

After reading those words to the end, I nodded in agreement.

He was certainly right.

Even if two people use the same swordsmanship, the way it looks is bound to differ completely depending on the person wielding the sword.

But then a new question arose.

"May I ask one thing?"

[What is it?]

"You said that you learned whose daughter I was by sparring with me, right?"

[Yes, I did.]

"But then... how did you know my name before you even knew about my father?"

After hesitating for a moment, I struck at the crucial point.

"I never directly told you my name in the first place."

"Cough!"

At that moment.

A sudden cough rang out.

At the same time, the Homu Sword Saint’s body stiffened strangely.

Then he straightened his posture, pretending nothing had happened.

But it was too late.

I stare intently at his face.

The Homu Sword Saint slowly turns his head, avoiding my gaze.

"..."

I silently watch him for a moment, then narrow my eyes.

Something is suspicious.

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