Under the Guise of Training
When I finished a quick wash and came back out to the courtyard, Soye was nowhere to be seen.
Before I could even wonder where she'd gone, I felt her presence deeper inside the quarters.
Did she go ahead to look over the new rooms?
Thinking so, I approached the room where I sensed her—and Soye cried out in a rush.
"G-Gaga!? W-wait, not—not right now—!"
"Huh!?"
She tried to stop me as I stepped in, but my hand had already pushed the door open.
And beyond that open door stood Soye, wearing a dress cut away in so many places it could no longer be called a qipao.
Struck speechless by a sight I hadn't expected, I could only stare at her, blank.
"Ah... well... Siwol said men like clothes like this..."
At the sight of her twisting shyly where she stood, I lost all sense. I went to her and pulled her into my arms.
"G-Gaga!?"
"...Sorry. I don't think I can hold back."
My patience at its limit, I tipped her onto the bed beside us.
I leaned in, caught her chin, and moved to kiss her.
Until I saw her trembling, afraid.
Only when I saw Soye—shaking with fear, and yet closing her eyes to accept what I was doing so she wouldn't spoil my mood—did I realize how wretched my actions were.
"Sorry. I was too hasty."
After the short apology, I drew a little away from her.
If I stayed that close, neither of us was going to calm down.
"It's all right, Gaga. I..."
"All right, my—"
I caught the hand she'd reached out to comfort me.
That soft white hand still hadn't shed its fear. It was trembling uncontrollably.
"You're still shaking like this..."
"That's..."
I took her frightened hand gently and soothed her.
"I was too hasty this time. I should have been more careful... Sorry... no."
Just as I was about to apologize again, her words came back to me—that if there was time to say sorry, I ought to tell her I loved her one more time instead.
Careful not to startle her, I drew her into my arms and spoke.
"Gaga..."
At that, Soye too reached out her slender arms and held me.
Then, as if to comfort me in turn, she patted my back and whispered her love against me.
"I... I love you too, Gaga."
We stayed locked in that embrace for a long while before I was the one to break the silence.
"For tonight, I'll sleep outside. Get some real rest."
"What? No, I..."
"What's wrong?"
She was hesitating, as if there was something she wanted to say. When I asked gently, she paused a moment, then spoke.
"I... want to sleep together... with you, Gaga..."
They say that when something is too cute, it makes a person violent instead.
She was asking to sleep beside me the way a child begs to sleep with their parents, and I nearly let go of reason and pinned her down.
But I didn't want to see her struggle, so with superhuman patience I crushed the urge and came back to her side.
"All right. I'll stay beside you all night."
"Okay... But if you can..."
"Hm?"
"From now on, I'd like you to stay beside me every night..."
The words were a little direct, and my cheeks flushed before I knew it.
Embarrassed by what she'd said herself, Soye was just as red, her eyes darting everywhere but at me.
"All right. If that's what you want..."
I lay down on the bed with the shy Soye in my arms and pulled the blanket over us.
As I'd already noticed, her clothes were cut open here and there, so our bodies kept touching in places, and that was a problem—but I didn't want her to be afraid. I forced the desire down by sheer will and settled in to sleep.
And so the first day of my reunion with Soye—the day I had longed for, and longed for again, across six years—came to an end.
The sun had climbed enough that the sky was beginning to show blue.
Soye and I, freshly awake, stood on the training ground for the special training meant to prepare us for the spar from today on.
Once I'd finished stretching, she spoke.
"To start, I'll show you the basics, lightly."
"All right. Flying daggers first?"
"Yes. I'll show you the Flying Dagger Art and the Poison Art separately, and then how I link them."
"Got it. Come in!"
"Yes!"
The words had barely left her when a long needle flew at me.
I tipped my head and slipped it, and another came right after.
It wasn't all that fast, so I snatched it out of the air.
"This much is easy for you, I suppose?"
"It's a basic art, so the speed is only so-so."
"Hmm... Shall we skip this and go straight to the next art?"
"No. Show me all of it anyway."
"Yes."
After roughly five minutes of facing the basic art, I could tell what concept its creator had meant to put into it.
It wasn't focused on landing the flying dagger on an opponent so much as on deceiving them.
When I explained the sense I'd gotten from watching the art and taking it, Soye went on as if I'd hit the mark.
"That's right. The foundation of the Tang Clan's martial arts is deception. That's why this art could become the clan's basic art."
"Hmm. Then the arts after this focus even more on deception?"
"Not necessarily. Deception has its limits in the end. So once an art rises past a certain level, the focus shifts to increasing its power."
"Is that so?"
Having heard her out, I picked up one of the long needles scattered across the floor.
"Power, huh..."
I studied the needle in my hand and copied the stance Soye had taken a moment ago.
Right—concentrate internal energy at the fingertips, with exactly this feeling...
I drew the Thunderbolt Divine Art up to its limit.
A small violet spark wrapped his body, and he hurled the needle in the very form Soye had shown.
CRACK—!
Flashing violet, the needle flew and buried itself in the wall.
It was just as well that only Soye and I were on the training ground. Had anyone else been there, the force would have been dangerous.
"G-Gaga?"
"Huh...? Wh-why did that work?"
The underlying principle was different, and the method of circulating internal energy should have differed at least a little—yet what I had just thrown was, in its fundamental essence, completely identical to the demonstration Soye had shown.
If anything, the power was a little better...
After that, as I learned various arts of the Tang Clan from Soye, I was able to test other things as well.
The result...
"Gaga, what in the world are you?"
"I don't know either."
"Copying a martial art just by following it—I've never seen it. I've never even heard of it."
"Me neither..."
To start with the conclusion: copying every martial art was impossible.
Of course it was. Every art has an internal-energy method that suits it, and a martial art follows the method its user employs. An art without set forms—like the Formless Weapon Art I use, a formless art with no fixed postures—tends that way less, granted...
No. Thinking about it, it might be because of the Formless Weapon Art. Because it has no fixed forms, I might have been able to imitate Soye's Flying Dagger Art so convincingly.
My head was spinning with the tangle of thoughts when Soye spoke.
"For now, it seems you can only copy arts with simple movements?"
"Yeah. The movements are one thing, but delicate internal-energy control is the problem. Without precise circulation, it's hard to follow."
"Even that alone seems ridiculously unfair."
"Well, you're not wrong."
Put the other way, it meant that if I only knew the exact method of circulating internal energy, there was no art I couldn't copy.
Of course, it would still differ from the original.
"So—are we done with the flying daggers?"
"Yes. There's still one direct-line art passed down only to the Clan Head, but the Young Clan Head hasn't learned the direct-line arts yet anyway, so you don't need to worry much about it."
"Really? Then next is the Poison Art?"
"Yes."
"What kind of art is it?"
"Mm... Want to experience it once?"
"Sure."
The instant the words ended, Soye's hand flushed green.
From the green-stained hand, a green mist began to rise.
Then she kicked off and rushed me.
If the Flying Dagger Art was a mid-range or long-range way of fighting at a distance, the Poison Art felt like a close-range means of attack—more precisely, the strong sense of wrapping the body in poison and fighting with striking techniques.
Just as I was thinking it seemed a little cliché, the Poison Art showed its true worth.
"Kh!"
Pain came with a sensation as if my arm were going numb.
Soye's attack hadn't even grazed me.
While I was turning the unexplained pain over in my head, she spoke.
"With the Poison Art, it isn't enough just to dodge the striking."
"What...?"
"What's on my arm?"
"Your arm...? If it's your arm... Ah! The poison mist!!"
"Yes. The poison mist that rises from the Tang Clan's Poison Art poisons you just by touching the skin."
"That's a bit of a nuisance."
"Don't worry too much. If you circulate internal energy, you can drive it out quickly."
As she said, the moment I drove internal energy into the poisoned spot, the symptoms vanished.
"It's as easy to drive out as it is to be poisoned by. That's its nature. If it weren't, the Tang Clan becoming the greatest clan under heaven wouldn't have been a mere dream."
"True enough."
If a strong poison were also easy to inflict, nothing would be more broken.
"I get the general feel of it."
"Actually, I haven't shown you everything. A Poison Art user who has broken through the wall can also use techniques for mid-range attacks."
"Really? Could you show me, then?"
"Of course. But before that, I'll show you the basics slowly."
"All right. I'm counting on you."
And so the special training for the match against the Young Clan Head began.