Chapter 115: Transmission Complete
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 115: Transmission Complete
Maybe it was because a strange sense of challenge had been ignited in me, but for the past three days, I’d lost all track of time, completely absorbed in my training for the first time in a long while.
It seems I’d fallen into a rut without even realizing it.
I never knew learning something new could be this much fun.
And then, on the morning of the fourth day.
After my dawn workout and an early breakfast, Li Meiling spoke to me.
"I'd like to go somewhere a bit farther away today."
"So suddenly?"
"Fierce Tiger Piercing Spear is a secret technique of my school. Even though I've agreed to teach it to you, there's no need to expose the technique to too many eyes."
For that reason, we decided to take a train somewhere quite far, for the first time in a while.
Specifically, we were going to Mt. Fuji, the first name that comes to mind when you think of Japan's famous mountains.
The world is a convenient place these days. If you take the express train from Shinjuku Station, you can reach Lake Kawaguchiko at the base of Mt. Fuji in about two hours.
Of course, the ticket price was steep, but with the allowance I'd saved up, it wasn't unaffordable.
Meiling also promised she’d pay me back for her share as soon as her reissued card arrived in the mail.
So, after quickly finishing our breakfast, we immediately took the subway to Shibuya Station.
*
Personally, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Japanese train stations is the bento boxes.
Not only does each station sell a huge variety of lunch boxes, but they’re made with local specialties, so you basically can't go wrong.
An army marches on its stomach… no, I guess in this case, Mt. Fuji is best seen on a full stomach. Even though we had just eaten breakfast, we bought bento boxes to eat as a snack on the train.
I wondered if a broke high school student like me should be indulging in such a luxury, but since I’d already decided to spend the money, I figured I might as well go all out.
Truth be told, this was my first time going to Mt. Fuji as well.
The decision to choose Mt. Fuji as our training spot was heavily influenced by that selfish desire.
On the way, Li Meiling listened to music on her phone, and surprisingly, most of the songs on her playlist were K-pop.
When I asked her about it, she said K-pop was apparently all the rage among teens and twenty-somethings in China right now.
She said she started listening because a college friend recommended it, and it was better than she expected, so she listened to it from time to time.
…So all that stuff they were blabbering about on TV wasn't just nationalistic hype?
It was a truly surprising fact.
"Want to listen together?"
As I kept glancing at her phone screen, she must have misunderstood my intentions, because she offered me one of her wireless earbuds.
It was too late to say no, so I accepted her offer.
Given her profession, I naturally assumed she’d be listening to something with a fast BPM, like rap or dance music, but her taste surprisingly leaned toward ballads.
…Why is that Butter Prince guy on here?
*
We got off at Kawaguchiko Station, the last stop on the express line.
Lake Kawaguchiko is a massive volcanic lake situated 800 meters above sea level on Mt. Fuji.
As the second largest of the five lakes at Mt. Fuji and a renowned tourist destination, the shopping district around the station was bustling with hikers preparing to climb the mountain.
Li Meiling, who had slipped into tourist mode and was reading a pamphlet from the information center, remarked, "It says this place is famous for its sulfur hot springs, created by a volcanic eruption."
"We don't have time for hot springs, do we?"
"Tsk-"
She clicked her tongue in disappointment, but the prices here were astronomical, with a single night at a hot spring inn costing tens of thousands of yen.
No matter what, I couldn't just lend her that kind of money on the spot.
Instead of heading toward the mountain ridge that hikers normally used, we took a back trail that no one used.
Honestly, doing this in a national park was a great way to get lost, but since she wanted to maintain secrecy, we had no choice.
After walking for about ten minutes, we arrived at a clearing in the middle of the forest, completely isolated from the tourist areas, and set down our things.
Though "things" was a bit of an overstatement. It was just a travel backpack with water, a towel, and a change of clothes.
Taking off the bag, I rolled my much lighter shoulders and slowly walked toward the center of the clearing. Meiling, who was also dressed in comfortable clothes, stood opposite me and said, "Alright, I will now begin the transmission of the secret technique."
"Yes."
Her expression was completely serious, different from before, and I watched her with a tense face.
With the tip of her straightened foot, she drew a circle around her body.
"The martial art I have learned, the Heaven-Shattering Six Harmonies Mahayana Baji Quan, is a unique style created by my master, known to the world as Dongfang Bubai, in his youth. It's a combat-oriented art that absorbed only the strengths and ultimate techniques of Xinyi Liuhe Quan, Baji Quan, and countless other Chinese martial arts. Because the movements resemble a dance, it is also called Pacheonmu, the Heaven-Shattering Dance."
"Pacheonmu!"
It sounded like the name of an ultimate martial art from a wuxia novel.
The picture she eventually completed was not a simple circle.
It was the diagram known as the Bagua, the Eight Trigrams, which is also used on the South Korean flag.
"And the main principle of Baji Quan is this very Bagua. These lines here represent the eight forms of nature. Of course, the story gets much deeper if we go further, but that's not something I need to teach someone who's just going to be scratching the surface, so I'll give you the short version."
As she spoke, she extended her right arm forward.
"The martial principle contained within the technique you will learn, Fierce Tiger Piercing Spear, is Li, which represents fire, and Xun, which represents wind. In other words, you must strike fiercely as fire, and swiftly as the wind."
"Fiercely as fire, and swiftly as the wind?"
What kind of vague nonsense is this?
"Right now, you're thinking, 'What kind of vague nonsense is this?', aren't you?"
"No, I'm not."
"Really?"
"Really."
I felt a pang of guilt but played dumb.
She still looked at me with suspicion, but perhaps because there was no time to waste, she let it slide.
"Anyway, that's all the advice I can give you. Now that you can perfectly handle the foot stomp and the rushing hammer, it's important that you realize how to use it yourself. You already meet all the conditions."
Listening to her, I slowly clenched and unclenched my fists.
I felt like I was on the verge of understanding something.
Honestly, I just wished she would tell me the answer, but she must have her reasons for holding back.
"So, should I just keep practicing on my own today?"
Li Meiling shook her head.
"No. Today, I'll be your sparring partner."
"What?"
I stared at her, startled by her unexpected words.
But she didn't look like she was joking.
"Enlightenment is crucial to receiving the secret arts of our school. And the best way to attain enlightenment is to push the body to its absolute limit."
"But you said it's only in its second generation."
"...This is how I learned."
In other words, she was telling me to shut up and fight.
Her entire aura had changed, completely different from when we fought at Yaguchi's dojo the other day. I swallowed hard.
This is the presence of a top-tier fighter...
It couldn't compare to the immense pressure I felt when I first fought Ivan, but the her who was revealing her true intent was undeniably a powerhouse.
I probably couldn't beat her as I was now.
But just because I didn't think I could win didn't mean I was going to give up before I even started.
In the first place, I was here to learn.
I slowly changed my stance.
It was the ready stance she had shown me before.
One arm rested lightly at the waist, while the other hand was held out in front of the chest.
It was different from the boxing or Combat Sambo stances I often imitated.
Then, from our identical stances, we began to fight at the same moment.
"Half-Step Crushing Fist, Strike All Under Heaven."
BAM!!
It happened in an instant.
Before I could even react, she closed the distance and got inside my guard, stomped her foot, and drove a rotating fist into my abdomen from point-blank range.
Unlike before, even though I had clearly wrapped my entire body in ki, my body flew backward as if it were a lie.
When I came to my senses, a sharp pain was radiating from my stomach.
Logically, it was impossible.
"With just a half-step of Baji Quan, one can conquer the world."
With one hand behind her back, she beckoned to me with her palm.
"I won't use my knife-hand. One wrong move and you could die."
Then, with a provocative smile, she said, "Come at me ready to die."
I gritted my teeth and charged at her.
*
A massive pine tree, pierced by my knife-hand, topples over.
CRASH!
The endless sparring, which had started at 11 AM, finally came to an end at 7 PM.
In an extreme situation where life and death hung in the balance, I had finally learned Fierce Tiger Piercing Spear, the secret art of her Pacheonmu.
Even though we were on a plateau 800 meters above sea level where a cool breeze blew even in midsummer, by the time the transmission of the technique was complete, we were both drenched in sweat.
Although I was the one who'd been beaten up one-sidedly, it seemed that repeatedly using major techniques had taken a significant physical toll on her as well.
Covered in sweat from head to toe, we returned to the train station we had arrived at that morning.
It was late, but we had to get back to Tokyo.
However, the words we heard from the ticket office in front of the station were nothing short of shocking.
"The last train left a long time ago, pal. There are only two trains to Tokyo a day, so you should've come earlier."
"What?"
Just like that, it looked like we were stranded on Mt. Fuji for the night.
A grown man and woman, at that. All alone together.