Return to the Stage
We said goodbye to the deer and made our way down the mountain path, only to run headlong into a fresh obstacle.
There wasn’t a single carriage anywhere in the village below.
“Where would you even find something like that in a tiny place like this?” one of the villagers said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
I couldn’t exactly argue with that.
“What should we do? I guess we walk.”
“I’m fine. I’ve always done that before meeting you, unni.”
I’m not fine.
How far was Yangyang, and she expected us to walk all that distance?
The road ahead looked bleak.
Money was useless if there was nothing to spend it on.
Still, no matter how much I complained in my head, there was nothing I could do.
What else was there to do? We walked.
In the end, we started trudging along the dirt road toward Yangyang.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Yangyang was far.
Too far.
Now that I could handle internal energy, my body didn’t really tire, but walking endlessly along a road with no end in sight was enough to make a sigh slip out of me every few steps.
The one pleasant thing was that I ended up talking with our Chung-ah a great deal.
“How much farther do you think we’ve come by now?”
“We’re almost there, unni.”
When I whined, Chung-ah answered in a soft voice, as if she were soothing me.
Apparently, whenever you asked how much farther it was, that was the universally accepted answer, no matter the era.
Talking with her taught me a great deal about the state of the martial world.
After the war between righteousness and evil, the Martial Alliance had tightened its bonds around Wudang and Shaolin, while the unorthodox sects had been reduced to little more than a fading memory.
More surprisingly, the Heavenly Demon Cult had, during the course of that war, deliberately avoided harming common folk and instead focused its attacks on the unorthodox martial artists. Because of that, there were plenty of people among the commoners—and even among the younger members of the righteous schools—who didn’t actually hate the Heavenly Demon Cult.
But the martial world was still centered on Buddhist and Daoist thought, so the cult, as a heretical faction, was still looked on with suspicion.
And among the Six Great Clans, the Murong Clan had apparently lost a great deal of its former influence.
Listening to Chung-ah chatter on without pause, filling the road with tidbits about the world, made the journey strangely enjoyable.
Then, all at once, it occurred to me that if we were going to keep walking all the way to Yangyang, I ought to make some kind of preparations for the future with Chung-ah.
“Chung-ah. Do you have a signature technique?”
“A signature technique?”
I nodded vigorously.
A signature technique.
A move that defined a person.
Their trademark technique.
Their finisher.
No more half-hearted flailing with my fists.
I wanted to make one technique that would represent me, something I could rely on when the dangers ahead finally came barreling down on me.
“For me, it has to be Black Star Breaker Slash, right?”
That huge beam she’d used on the black-clad man in front of the inn last time?
Then again, for her, who treated firing beams as a basic attack, a giant beam really would qualify as a signature move in the truest sense.
Chung-ah looked at me as if she were wondering why I was suddenly asking this.
“What about me… what do you think mine would be?”
What kind of image did I have in other people’s eyes?
I waited for her answer with a little thrill of anticipation, but what came back was nothing like what I’d hoped for.
“Hmm…?”
Chung-ah tilted her head, looking as though the question were genuinely difficult.
Seeing her slip into deep thought, I abandoned my expectations as well.
Guess I really should go with an energy wave after all?
But now that it was time to decide, it was hard.
I’d just have to test things out little by little.
From that day on, whenever we reached a campsite, we spent our time exchanging blows with energy pellets.
When Chung-ah fired a beam, I’d catch it, compress it into a pellet, and throw it back. She would then intercept it with another beam.
It was fun, like playing catch, but since it depended on Chung-ah firing first, it was hard to call it my own finisher.
Still, Chung-ah seemed to take the game very seriously and kept begging me to continue, so I had no choice but to repeat it every time.
“Catch!”
I slapped the pellet toward her like a volleyball spike, and Chung-ah swung her sword wide to bat it away.
“Kuh.”
The recoil from knocking the pellet aside must have been pretty fierce, because her arm trembled faintly.
Hmm. Maybe I should make it a little weaker?
“Here I go again!”
“Y-yes!”
When I tossed the next pellet, Chung-ah hurriedly set her stance.
Doing it every day had taught me a few tricks.
In the end, timing was everything.
Maybe I should put some spin on the next shot?
Crack, crack—the sounds of pellets being thrown and struck echoed through the mountains.
It was surprising that even after making that much racket, no bandits or beasts ever came charging out.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
One day, after finishing our game, I’d been about to turn in early when it happened.
The warmth of the campfire was cozy, and together with the cooling weather, it made sleepiness creep over me all at once.
I’d just leaned against Chung-ah’s shoulder and was about to drift off into a light doze when I felt rustling movement in the woods.
“Did someone come?”
“Huh? No?”
But someone definitely had.
When I rose and headed toward the sound, a shadow emerged from the grass.
The figure bathed in moonlight was familiar.
Long hair red as blood, a pitch-black robe.
Most of all, a beauty so striking it made my eyes widen.
The self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon had appeared again.
“How…?”
Out of nowhere?
Had she been tailing me all this time?
Startled, I stumbled back.
Chung-ah, who had been watching my reaction to this new arrival, began to draw her sword before freezing mid-motion.
“What the—!”
Looking more closely, I realized that, just as before, some invisible force seemed to have blocked Chung-ah’s hand from drawing her blade.
The girl smiled at me and spoke in a friendly, almost affectionate tone.
“Teacher! It’s been a while.”
Her eyes were fixed entirely on me.
The serious, wary Chung-ah standing behind me didn’t seem to exist at all.
My instincts screamed a warning at the self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon’s appearance.
I felt my body tense of its own accord and carefully tried to gauge her intentions.
“It has.”
“What do you think? I look quite a bit more like a girl now, don’t I?”
As if she didn’t care about our reactions at all, she spread her arms cheerfully and spun in place.
Even seeing her again, she was still absolutely not in her right mind.
Was this her way of mocking me, remembering what I’d said that day?
I thought I’d developed at least some skill in reading people by now, but all I could think was that she remained utterly impossible to predict.
“Yes, you do.”
“I was surprised myself. In the meantime, your aura has become even purer, Teacher. From far away, I almost mistook you for some kind of spirit beast. Have you perhaps decided to stop hiding your martial arts?”
“I never hid them to begin with. There was nothing to hide.”
“……I see. That makes sense.”
What had I said that triggered her?
The shadow that had always hidden somewhere in her brightly smiling face deepened, and the atmosphere changed in an instant.
Ugh. Impossible to predict.
Fine, I won’t act like a show-off.
When I shivered at the eerie speed with which her mental state seemed to shift, the self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon smiled again.
“By the way, were you on your way to Yangyang?”
“…Yes.”
“Then would you mind if I traveled with you?”
“Huh?”
“I’m headed to Yangyang as well. I was planning to join the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly and become friends with lots of girls my own age.”
She brought a hand to her mouth and laughed like some villainess in a cheap serial drama.
That was definitely a lie.
“What are the odds of such a coincidence? It feels almost like fate.”
At that, I squeezed my eyes shut.
This deranged compulsive liar had definitely been tailing me and was now pretending it was a coincidence so she could join our group.
So this was her goal again: to massacre my cringey past?
The self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon walked past me and moved to stand in front of Chung-ah.
For some reason, Chung-ah just stared at her with a dazed expression.
“So you’re the child allowed to stay by the teacher’s side. I’m positively envious.”
“...Do you know my unni?”
“Of course I do. In the past, I was by her side. Or was it in the future?”
When was that ever true!
I wanted to object, but the self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon’s face showed not the slightest trace of awkwardness, the kind that would reveal a lie.
…You can’t hold a conversation with a madwoman.
“But still, that’s a matter for unni to decide.”
“Exactly! As expected of the teacher’s disciple. Isn’t she wonderful?”
“I agree with that statement.”
To my surprise, she seemed to be communicating just fine with Chung-ah.
Were chuunibyou and insanity only separated by a single sheet of paper?
I’d better be careful too.
There was still some trace of chuunibyou left in me, and if I slipped up, I might end up joining that band of lunatics myself.
The two of them, now having found enough common ground, relaxed almost at once, and the heavy mood dissolved.
Moving over to the campfire, Chung-ah and the self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon began chatting away pleasantly.
“You saw the teacher fight?”
“Yes, we’ve fought together several times.”
“I’m jealous. What is he like? He’s amazing, isn’t he?”
“Of course. Every movement was so dazzling it hurt to look at.”
“Wow.”
The fact that the subject of their conversation was me was deeply annoying.
And yet, after exchanging only a few words about me, Chung-ah and the self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon were already sitting together in front of the campfire, laughing brightly as though they were having the best time.
...Hard to tell them no now.
Maybe they really had hit it off, because I’d never seen Chung-ah become friends with someone so quickly.
When she first met me, she’d been prickly as a hedgehog with its quills up.
A little unsettling, maybe, but the self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon didn’t seem to mean any harm, so I decided to keep watching.
More than anything, I was so relieved the tension had suddenly vanished that sleep started to drag at me.
Hoping nothing strange would happen, I left Chung-ah and her to themselves and drifted into sleep.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“The Dark Angel of Justice?”
“Yes.”
As they traveled toward Yangyang the next morning, Chung-ah and the self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon—Dokgo Ryeon—were already deep in cheerful conversation.
The two of them had apparently talked all night while I was asleep, because by now they were already on unni-and-younger-sister terms.
Terrifying, this girls’ talk.
And of all things, her name is Ryeon.
Her name reminded me of the insult I’d flung the first time we met.
I had called her crazy-woman Ryeon.
And now her actual name was Ryeon, which meant I’d effectively sworn at her using her own name.
Looking back now, it was amazing she still bore me any goodwill at all.
“…To wield the power of the fallen heavens is justice. It means resisting absurdity and annihilating evil.”
“Oh. Not bad. A clear goal gives you the strength to keep going. I like that.”
Chung-ah and Dokgo Ryeon smiled at each other.
The two of them fit together frighteningly well.
Watching them made me jealous enough to sour my mood.
“Fallen heavens, then… that’s the opposite direction from mine.”
“What martial art does Dokgo unni practice?”
“Ryeon unni is fine. I practice Cheonmashingong. It’s the martial art of standing above the heavens.”
“Cheonmashingong….”
“You know it? I’ve already reached the Amta stage, you see.”
“Amta?”
What was that supposed to mean?
My head snapped around at the familiar term that had slipped out of their conversation.
“That’s a strange word, isn’t it? It’ll probably be hard to understand right away.”
“…I know Amta.”
“Really?”
“Darkness, falling. It isn’t so different from what I know.”
“Amazing. You know Amta? As expected of the child traveling with the teacher.”
Dokgo Ryeon’s gaze turned to me.
At the same time, Chung-ah looked at me too.
The emotions in their eyes were different.
One was curiosity, the other confirmation.
Why are you asking me?
The Amta I know is short for “female corruption.”
Why are you two making such a big deal about becoming women?
With the mood clearly expecting me to answer no matter what, I forced an awkward smile and said, “Well, words can have a lot of meanings. But in the end, they’re similar enough, aren’t they? It’s about overthrowing the existing order.”
The situation of two beautiful girls casually dropping the word Amta from their mouths was itself a perfect symbol of a collapsed order.
Apparently satisfied with my improvisation, the two of them nodded.
“As expected, Teacher, that is what it means.”
“That does make sense. Even the outlook on justice matches.”
Both of them looked completely convinced.
Seeing how pleased they were only made my emotions more complicated.
“Then Chung-ah and I are Amta comrades now.”
“Is that how it works?”
“Isn’t that what the teacher said?”
“I suppose it is.”
As Dokgo Ryeon lightly tapped Chung-ah’s shoulder, Chung-ah smiled and nodded.
…I have no idea if Amta has any other meaning, but watching two beautiful girls puff themselves up with pride over the idea that they’d both become Amta together was a thoroughly catastrophic sight.