Jigen-ryū, Kesa-giri
"Ha!" The middle-aged man let out a sharp shout. The bamboo sword in his hand swept across the firmament like a hanging rainbow, and the explosive tearing of the air carried the momentum of an approaching mountain storm as it descended straight toward Lu Mingfei's head.
Jigen-ryū, Kesa-giri!
The defining characteristic of Jigen-ryū is its emphasis on the heavy diagonal slash from above, aiming to cut down the enemy with the very first strike. Another notable feature is the booming battle cry unleashed during the attack, designed to seize the psychological initiative and overwhelm the opponent in order to pave the way for a fatal, one-hit kill.
At the end of the shogunate era, the loyalist swordsmen of the Satsuma Domain used this single technique alone to defeat swordsmen of numerous other schools. Although the technique is so simple it has been whittled down to a single vertical cleave, it is a flash of sword light honed and accumulated through years and years of relentless practice.
Ever since the middle-aged man first encountered Jigen-ryū, he had strictly adhered to the school's golden rule: "Strike three thousand times in the morning, three thousand times at night." Through years of rain or shine, day in and day out, he never missed a single day, making this his ultimate trump card.
Just as almost no one can withstand Cheng Yaojin's three signature axes, very few people could ever endure the middle-aged man's opening stance. Even high-ranking swordsmen holding a sixth dan would often find themselves dazed by his sudden, explosive shout, their helmets rattling just as the dust settled.
However, facing Lu Mingfei, the middle-aged man had no choice but to open with his absolute best.
The longer he locked eyes with Lu Mingfei, the more his heart pounded with unease. This teenager, who had only been practicing swordsmanship for three years and was barely eighteen years old, gave him the feeling of a seasoned grandmaster who had been tempered through a thousand hardships—composed, at ease, and completely devoid of openings?!
The middle-aged man knew that if he dragged the fight out any longer, his disadvantage would only grow. Lu Mingfei remained as unmovable as a mountain, while his own imposing aura was being imperceptibly chipped away piece by piece.
In sword duels, momentum is everything. If, as time passed, his entire momentum were to be exhausted and completely suppressed by the opponent, then the duel would effectively collapse on its own. What would even be the point of fighting?
The hanging rainbow swept past the crown of his head, the nylon-wrapped bamboo sword kicking up a howling wind as it rushed toward him. Yet Lu Mingfei met this earth-shattering strike with nothing more than the simplest upward parry—no charging up, no thunderous shout, and no ferocious bulging veins.
He merely raised his hand and flicked upward. The middle-aged man's seemingly unstoppable attack was casually deflected away by Lu Mingfei just like that. The hanging rainbow was batted back up into the sky, suspended high in the firmament, unable to fall.
What Lu Mingfei used to answer the middle-aged man was also a Kesa-giri—specifically, the "Lion's Manifestation" of the Satsuma Jigen-ryū.
Unlike the middle-aged man, whose technique merely approached the realm of Unmyo, Lu Mingfei's Kesa-giri genuinely produced the Unmyo effect. The downward chopping motion was clean and crisp, its speed too fast for the naked eye to catch, resembling a flash of lightning tearing through storm clouds!
As the bamboo sword plummeted straight down, the middle-aged man blanked out in a daze. For a fleeting second, he truly believed he was facing a ferocious lion gripping a blade, descending upon him from the heavens!
He didn't even have time to bring his sword back to block. Even though this was just an ordinary sparring match and the weapon used was a standard training bamboo sword, he genuinely caught the scent of death in Lu Mingfei's strike. With his vast experience in swordsmanship, his heart hammered against his ribs at death's very threshold, causing him to stagger back half a step.
Thud!
After the lightning and thunder had passed, the bamboo sword struck the middle-aged man's face guard with a crisp smack. Yet none of the expected outcomes—neither a snapped blade nor a caved-in face guard—occurred. Once that unstoppable blow landed, its force was surprisingly, exquisitely light.
The outcome was decided, and a tidal wave of cheers and thunderous applause erupted from the sidelines.
The children shrieked at the top of their lungs, chanting the moniker of the "Children's Palace Sword Saint," worshiping the idol standing right before them who had just ended the battle with a thunderous strike. Meanwhile, the slightly older kendo enthusiasts had long since finished recording satisfactory videos, eagerly waiting to go home and meticulously study this mesmerizing duel.
Only the middle-aged man knew the terrifying truth: if that had been a real blade, sharpened and thirsty for blood, and if he had happened to be the hypothetical enemy in that teenager's mind, that piercing, ruthless flash of sword light would have instantly pierced right through the paper-thin face guard, cleaving his proud head and his entire body cleanly in two!
"Begging your pardon, Director." Lu Mingfei withdrew his bamboo sword, bowed first, and instantly slipped back into his usual cheeky grin.
"You little punk..." Unlike Lu Mingfei's utter composure, the middle-aged man was still trapped in the shadow of impending death one second, only for the guy who had just tried to beat him to death and split him in half to turn around with a cheap, shameless smirk the next, wearing the expression of an absolute deadbeat who cared about nothing.
"You little punk, I don't recall ever teaching you Jigen-ryū sword techniques!" The middle-aged man threw an arm aggressively around Lu Mingfei's neck. "Fess up! When did you steal the Lion's Manifestation, and how on earth did you manage to master Unmyo?!"
You had to understand that even after immersing himself in Jigen-ryū for a full decade, he had barely managed to touch the threshold of Unmyo. In the grand scheme of kendo practitioners, that alone made him undeniably gifted!
Just how old was Lu Mingfei? How many years had he even practiced kendo? Was this kid even human? No wonder this guy was always nagging him with the phrase, "The gap between humans is bigger than the gap between humans and pigs." Looking at it now, it was nothing short of an absolute truth!
"Let go, Director, you're gonna choke me to death!" Lu Mingfei slapped hard against the middle-aged man's muscular arm, crying out loudly for mercy. "Don't make it sound like I'm some kind of sword thief! Didn't I pay you my tuition? Besides, if I was gonna steal any techniques, I'd go steal from Senior Brother, I wouldn't need to steal from you!"
"You brat, and you've got the nerve to talk! You paid tuition for a single semester, but you've been hanging around my place for three years! If you rolled up your bedroll, you'd treat my dojo like your actual home—you practically want to eat, sleep, and take a dump right here!" the man cursed furiously.
"That just proves your dojo has a welcoming, homey vibe!" Lu Mingfei shouted back.
"Look at you running your mouth!" The middle-aged man finally released Lu Mingfei's mutt-like head.
The very next second, however, the back of Lu Mingfei's head took a heavy blow. He clutched his skull and wailed in agony, completely losing the dignified demeanor of an expert he'd had while dueling the middle-aged man. "I was complimenting you, Director! It's bad enough that you return kindness with hostility, but what are you gonna do if you break my brilliant, peerless brain?!"
"I didn't hit you," the middle-aged man said, spreading his hands wide to demonstrate his innocence.
"I hit him!" A voice mixed with annoyance and a hint of playfulness came from behind. Lu Mingfei and the middle-aged man whipped their heads around in unison.
Standing behind them was a tall and dazzling figure. Her red hair was tied up in a high ponytail at the back of her head, a butter-yellow cropped vest worn over a sky-blue unbuttoned T-shirt, and form-fitting jeans hugging her slender legs. Since the dojo had a strict shoes-off policy, the girl was barefoot, which only made her look even more adorable.
"Nono?" Lu Mingfei froze for a second, asking tentatively.
"What the hell!" This time, it was the girl's turn to wear a completely blank expression.