A Round of Teasing

The shrine maiden's figure was bathed in radiance.

It was not true light, but some kind of divine glow—an aura-like ability so dazzling it was impossible to keep one's eyes open.

That broken blade still hung at her waist, its severed portion tucked inside the sheath. Like its owner, it was full of deceit. It was mud splashed in the Guard Department's face, and a key reason Ch'en had been called in for questioning.

"Scamming people in the streets again?"

The black blade left its sheath. Though Ch'en was furious, she had not brought Chi Xiao with her today.

It was a contradictory sort of behavior. Bringing Chi Xiao seemed to mean she was giving it her all, yet using this standard-issue Lungmen police longsword gave her the sense that she had not gone all out.

She had not thought that much about it beforehand. It had been entirely instinctive.

The blade came down from above.

Ch'en seemed somewhat cautious. Her blade's trajectory changed several times in midair, carrying an inscrutable quality. Hoshino placed a hand on her sword hilt and flew backward against the light, her wide sleeves billowing in the wind.

She had no particular techniques to speak of.

Nor did the weapon matter.

The instant her opponent pursued with another slash, a method of countering her simply surfaced in her mind.

Her hand remained tucked within her sleeve. As she retreated, the breeze stirred her robes, concealing the movement of her arm. In an instant, the formerly fluttering, shapeless sleeve outlined the form of a blade. Hoshino leaped upward as the radiance vanished, and her sword carved the most orthodox Reverse Kesa Slash from within her sleeve.

"Why? You only have a broken sword."

Ch'en was nearly swallowed by the doubts in her heart, but she possessed the most straightforward swordsmanship in all of Lungmen.

And besides...

Ch'en really wanted to beat Hoshino.

A silent collision.

The shower of sparks she had imagined never appeared. Hoshino continued rising through the air, and her sleeve collapsed with a boom upon the first clash. She had never truly drawn her sword. At the start, she had merely used the blade to sketch the stance of an upward slash.

It had truly been nothing but an empty stance.

The expected resistance never came. Ch'en fell with her sword raised while Hoshino continued ascending, turned over in midair, then mercilessly planted a foot on the dragon's back before landing perfectly with a precise backflip.

Naturally, Ch'en hit the ground before Hoshino did. She simply did not look nearly as graceful or nimble. Instead, she looked rather disheveled.

"Does that even count as swordsmanship?"

"That depends on how you understand it. I'm a pragmatist. To me, swordsmanship is a broad concept. There has never been a fixed school—only techniques used at will. Any enemy facing me will feel the unfamiliarity of meeting me for the first time."

Hoshino felt like some old charlatan.

Actually, she had prepared all those lines in advance. If she had needed to improvise, she could never have come up with so many lofty words.

"If I were to explain it with a Yan Kingdom idiom, it would be: follow your heart without overstepping the bounds."

Hoshino continued.

"To be honest, around sixty percent of your skill lies in that sword. Another twenty percent comes from the innate intimidation and explosive power granted by dragon blood. You can leap five meters into the air, but when it comes to swordsmanship itself, you're pitifully weak."

"..."

Ch'en could not refute her. This woman had just knocked her flat and now stood calmly before her, holding a pitiful half-broken sword.

Looking closer, there was an invisible pressure about her.

As long as she held a weapon, she controlled the entire direction of the negotiation.

The way she kept rambling really made her seem like an old hag.

"I have had the honor of experiencing both your blade and that of your best friend. Now that I see it, the gap between you two is truly enormous. You could even say you cannot see so much as her back—you can only see her taillights."

"..."

Silence.

A terrifying silence.

The moment Hoshino calmly mentioned that person, the air froze.

To Hoshino's surprise, she saw anger in Ch'en. Before this, Ch'en had tested her, been disappointed, and even panicked for a moment, but Hoshino had never sensed anger from her. It was a very strange thing. Hoshino watched as Ch'en's white teeth clenched tightly together, her dragon tail trembled faintly, and thunder seemed to brew in her throat.

Hoshino nodded.

"Want to grow stronger quickly? Want to grasp power you cannot control? Anger is a good method."

"But blind anger alone won't do."

Hoshino took two steps back, preparing to make a break for it. She called for Rope, but after searching for a while, she could not find her. Turning around, Hoshino was surprised to discover Rope standing with Hoshiguma, whispering to her while Hoshiguma held a tub of popcorn.

She hurriedly waved.

Hoshiguma pushed Rope by the back, urging her to run away with Hoshino. After provoking a dragon's fury, they really did need to prepare to flee.

The two vanished in a flash at the end of the empty, desolate street.

Once she confirmed they had both left, Hoshiguma walked over to help her old colleague up. To her surprise, Ch'en rose faster than anyone. Before Hoshiguma could reach her, she sprang to her feet and brushed the dirt off herself as if trying to hide her embarrassment.

If she had been a green rookie, Ch'en might have been blinded by anger. But she was clearly no longer young. Her anger had only lasted a moment. The instant Hoshino left, her intelligence reclaimed the high ground, and Ch'en began to think carefully.

Present evidence.

Think it over repeatedly.

Scrutinize and verify.

Reach a conclusion.

Finally, after a long while, Ch'en raised her head to look at Hoshiguma and asked blankly, "Hoshiguma, does that shrine maiden really know everything?"

"After thinking for so long, that's the only question you came up with?"

Hoshiguma asked, torn between laughter and tears.

Hoshiguma felt that her serious, responsible colleague had either become stupid, or perhaps been kicked stupid by the shrine maiden.

"Old Ch'en, did you hear what she said just now?"

"Don't mention it. Who the hell knows whether she was telling the truth? A final weapon made by Thunder God Industries like Chi Xiao... If she had met that person, then either she became a convert, or she was already a ghost beneath her blade. There is no middle ground."

"You understand her that well?"

"Drop it."

Ch'en clearly did not want to bring up those old matters. Her hand rested on her sword hilt as though she were desperately suppressing something. She transformed her nowhere-to-place anger into a fierce determination to arrest Hoshino, glaring at the now-empty end of the street as she swore:

"No matter where you hide, whether you are in Lungmen or not, I will throw you, you scammer of a shrine maiden, into prison."

"Tch."

Too much personal emotion was never a good thing when handling a case. But there was still that little footprint on Old Ch'en's coat, and she had been provoked like that. Perhaps she was simply still angry. Watching her point at the sky and curse, Hoshiguma could not bring herself to offer any words of advice.

Hoshiguma pulled Rope's file from her coat and began writing.

[The target scattered all the money she stole. Her methods were a little clumsy, and her motives were not exactly pure, but unexpectedly... she was rather cute.]