Expert-Level Imperial Spirit Technique![Qi] and [Spirit]-The Crucial Choice! Koga's Early Childhood Education

In a secluded room in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.

Before the incense burner, three long sticks of incense burned slowly.

The drifting smoke calmed the mind.

With her black hair hanging down her back and dressed in plain white robes, Minamoto Shizuka sat kneeling before the small incense burner with her eyes closed.

Resting across her knees was a "Nodachi," its sheath black as ink and roughly three shaku three sun long—far longer than an ordinary tachi.

The mere sight of the blade was enough to make one's skin crawl. It clashed completely with Minamoto Shizuka's peaceful, tranquil air.

This sword was a cursed blade named Hotarumaru.

Its hamon was the rare "all-burning" pattern. In the darkness, the blade glowed with a cold, bluish-white light. It was said that every person it killed strengthened the glow along its edge by another fraction.

The Edo miscellany Mimibukuro recorded: "When the blade was swung, its trail lingered like a falling star." It was referring to this sword.

Hotarumaru had slain countless monsters and warriors since ancient times, yet now it lay quietly across Minamoto Shizuka's knees as she bathed in incense with it.

The furnishings of the entire secluded room were unremarkable, and so were the girl's movements.

It seemed like an ordinary morning.

The only thing worth noting was the phone deliberately placed before the incense burner.

That was right.

A phone.

A phone with no lock screen, its display still lit.

"Miss Four is sitting motionless in the meditation room alone again."

"This happens several times every month... Forget it. It's not our place to meddle."

Outside the meditation room, the servants on duty at the door kept their voices extremely low as they spoke. Little did they know that Minamoto Shizuka heard every word, every rise and fall in their