The Woman in the Black Qipao
I sheathed my sword, but I did not let my guard slip. Only when the monster had melted into smoke and vanished did I finally allow myself a long, full-body stretch.
"It's over..."
Every last ounce of strength drained out of me. This was a monster I had nearly died to again and again... no — a monster I had actually died to once, and only barely managed to bring down.
And yet here came Sapi, strolling toward me with no urgency in his stride and no tension anywhere about him. Nothing at all.
"Congratulations. And this time, I mean it more than I ever have."
"More importantly — aren't we going to see your master?"
Only at that did Sapi turn his head. "We should."
"You're always dashing off to her. Why so leisurely today?"
"..."
After a moment's thought, he answered with a faint smirk. "There's no need to hurry here." And with that, he set off at an unhurried pace, leaving me to trail after him with nothing but bewilderment on my face.
The closer we drew to the center, the fewer monsters I could sense. Until now they had only ever watched us from afar, or failed to notice us at all — but here, toward the heart, there were none to be felt. Sapi seemed to have no interest whatsoever in that uncanny emptiness; he simply walked, slow and easy, trailing a fingertip along the trunk of a tree as he passed. This was a man who, of late, had kept his eyes fixed straight ahead as if something were forever snapping at his heels. And today, he was actually looking at the scenery around him.
"You seem happy."
"Yeah."
A short answer — and not a flicker of hesitation in it.
"Did something good happen?"
Sapi tipped his head back toward the sky for a moment. Through the gaps in the leaves, the light of dozens of moons came seeping down.
"It's been a long time..."
"?"
"...since I've had someone I wanted to see."
All I could do was blink at those words.
"A friend?"
"..."
"Family, then?"
"..."
"Or... a lover?"
Sapi shook his head, slow and deliberate. "The master we're on our way to see right now."
"That swordmaster of yours?"
"That's right."
"Just how strong is she?"
He considered it for a moment, then smiled a little. "Incredibly."
"How incredible are we talking?"
"..."
Instead of an answer, Sapi offered only that smile, and kept walking.
And so we walked on — until a woman came into view. Short black hair. Inverted eyes, with three beauty marks beneath them. A figure in a striking black qipao, who could only be Sapi's master.
"Who are you?"
With that single sentence, she vanished from my sight — no. By the time my senses caught up with the world, her blade was already resting against Sapi's throat.
"Why did you not dodge?"
"Well... because your killing intent was overflowing, wasn't it?"
"Then all the more reason you should have dodged, was it not?"
"Isn't your sword a blade forged not by killing your opponents, but by killing yourself?"
"..."
"That is why I took this killing intent for a counterfeit — and did not dodge. Master."
The smile on the woman's face deepened.
"So. What business brings you before me?"
With that, Sapi's master turned her gaze upon me. "Is this one your disciple? At last I shall have someone who calls me 'Grandmaster.'"
"Master, regrettably — this one is not my disciple, but my companion."
"Hoh... then why have you come to this place?"
Sapi deliberated for a breath, then spoke. "Teach my companion, Master."
"Well, if that is so, first we shall make a circuit of this Domain, and—"
"I would have you teach nothing but the truth of the sword — none of that conditioning of the body."
"..."
Sapi's master looked down upon the two of us with eyes fuller of killing intent than I had ever seen.
"Disciple... would you sip only the sweet, and cast all the rest away?"
"Yes."
One word, delivered without a tremor of doubt.
"Disciple... from the moment I first laid eyes on you, you confounded me — and even now, you confound me still."
"Master."
"Very well. Speak, then, with that greedy mouth of yours."
"My companion is not here to learn your swordsmanship."
"..."
Sapi drew a slow breath and pressed on. "That one will forge a new sword — one that carries on the very truth you pursued."
"How arrogant you are, Disciple. You yourself cannot wield my swordsmanship to perfection — how dare you speak such words?"
"Am I not the only one alive who can use every last technique you ever taught?"
"Have you forgotten that I named you a mediocrity — that your sword carries none of the truth I pursue?"
Sapi simply held that killing-intent-laden stare.
"Those eyes of yours, that see all things... yet understand none of them... Yes... I shall teach you as I did back then, Disciple."
Then Sapi's master strode up to me and brought her sword down. The blade slipped past my side.
"Child. What did you feel from that swing?"
"That if it had actually hit me, I'd be dead?"
"..."
Sapi's master only turned her head away. "Wrong. You have never once accepted your yesterday."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"That is for you alone to come to understand."
And just like that, a day in this place went by.
"Rise, child."
Still adrift between dream and waking, I hauled myself up at the voice. Seeing me on my feet, Sapi's master drew her sword.
I shook off the drowsiness in an instant and leapt to do exactly that. And then something opened up before my eyes. This was no sight seen through my own two eyes. It was the blessing of the Heavenly Eye — vision granted through that other sight. And in that vision, countless slashes were carving Sapi's master apart.
The moment my mind failed to follow that surreal tableau—
Crack!
In a single heartbeat, her sword was at my throat.
"And this time — what did you feel from my sword?"
"I... honestly don't know."
"Your eyes do not seem to be lying... Speak honestly, then."
"I saw myself being cut to pieces by countless slashes."
Sapi's master broke into a broad grin, returned her blade to its sheath, and vanished. I hadn't felt so much as a wisp of killing intent. And yet she had tried to kill me. The thought that she might have taken my life for real, had I not grasped something — anything — broke me out in a cold sweat.
"Sapi, I'm hungry."
I demanded food from him the way I always did. "Sorry, but you're going to have to starve."
"What?"
"It's part of the training."
"..."
Starve? While I was this ravenous I could barely see straight?
"Sapi — she keeps asking me what I felt from your master's sword. What am I even supposed to tell her?"
"Hm... just starve. And accept it."
"Are you insane?! I'll die at this rate!"
"Then die."
"What?"
"And accept the dying."
"..."
"That's the full extent of the advice I can give you."
Several days passed. I had to keep fighting that freak of a woman, and on top of that I couldn't eat so much as a crumb, so I was starving — and the fury just kept boiling up. So I marched over to Sapi.
"Sapi! Is this really okay? Not feeding me at all?"
"..."
"You need at least something in your stomach to train, you know!"
"Hm... that is a fair point."
"Right?!"
The instant Sapi conceded, my voice shot up louder than it had been in days. "Then eat."
"Where?!"
"It's all around you."
"What?"
I scanned our surroundings — there was nothing in sight you could honestly call food. But Sapi recited it all without missing a beat. "Mud. Tree bark. Rotting leaves. Human bones. All of that is what you can eat, for the time being."
Too dumbfounded to even argue, I simply walked away.
"So that child has yet to grasp even a single thing."
My master's voice drifted over, and I turned my head with practiced nonchalance. The hem of the black qipao swayed faintly in the wind; the sword still hung at her waist.
"Disciple. Rather than fixate on that creature, would you not gain far greater enlightenment beneath me—"
"I will never understand your swordsmanship, Master."
"Yes..."
"But."
My master's gaze came to rest on my eyes. "Not once — not once has your sword ever carried the trace of a man who has slain himself."
I only listened.
"You are ready enough to slay yesterday's self. But tell me — do you not hew him down far, far too easily? Regret, attachment, hesitation — all of it cast aside before the blade even falls."
Gazing up not at the countless moons scattered across the sky, but at the one lone star that was not among them, my master went on. "Always, you have looked only to the future. Never once a thought for the self that stands in the present."
"..."
"And so your sword is perfect — and yet it remains a half-made thing, a blade into which your will has never once poured itself."
I quietly closed my eyes. "Even so... that child has a better chance of understanding it than I ever will."
Only then did my master let out a short, dry laugh.
A day passed. I was hungry. I was dizzy. But Sapi's master appeared, and we fought — and once again, I lost to a single stroke.
"What did you feel this time?"
"...Sorrow."
"A pity — but you came close."
Another day passed. I was honestly about to lose my mind from hunger.
Sluuurp.
Sapi was drinking something. I bolted over to him. "What is that? Just one sip!"
"Sure."
Sapi handed the broth over with almost insulting ease. Gulp... The moment that warm liquid rolled across my tongue, exactly one thought filled my head. "It's awful! Blegh — ptui!"
"Well, it is nothing but tree bark boiled in water."
"Why would you even drink that?"
"To make myself desperate."
With that, Sapi took another swallow of the bark water. And I was supposed to keep enduring this?
My body had turned to dead weight. I didn't have the strength left to leap anymore, and my sword might as well have been some colossal mountain. Even so, I fought Sapi's master — and fell, once again, easily, to a single stroke.
"What did you feel?"
"...I don't..."
"I cannot hear you."
"I said I don't know!"
For the first time since arriving in this Domain, I let out a scream — a howl stuffed full of pure, unfiltered rage.
"Good."
"Huh?"
With that single word, Sapi's master vanished once more.
This was it — the honest limit... I had to put something, anything, into my stomach. Not that I wanted to eat mud. A tree came into view, and my feet carried me toward it without my ever deciding a thing. Crrrack. I peeled away a strip of bark, shoved it into my mouth, and forced myself to chew.
"Ugh — blegh!"
Clear bile dribbled from my lips. I chewed again anyway. And Sapi only watched, saying nothing at all.
A day passed. When I woke... I would have to fight while starving.
"Rise, child."
"..."
So I rose, and fought again — and again was beaten in a single stroke.
"And this time — what did you feel from my sword?"
"Hunger...."
A mutter weighted down by an empty stomach. But Sapi's master's reaction was nothing like what I had expected.
"Good. But this, too, is a matter you must come to accept."
And with those words, Sapi's master abruptly vanished once more.