"This blade is called the Void Blade. Its power is balanced and gentle, making it an extremely useful utility blade. It won't cause trouble like the Demon Blade: Crimson Sakura."
Hoshino introduced it solemnly. "Actually, the demon blade is one of the best blades around. Its power far surpasses that of the Void Blade. Unfortunately, you still made the same old mistake: insufficient control... That isn't your fault. It should be mine."
Hoshino sighed, and Ch'en lowered her head.
"I placed unreasonably high expectations on you. It was as ridiculous as teaching a four- or five-year-old child how to use a revolver."
Teaching a child to use a revolver, no matter how well they mastered the technique, would end with a gunshot and both the radius and ulna broken. It was a miserable outcome.
Ch'en had no particular thoughts on the matter. She only felt that her teacher was right.
"So, how should I use this Void Blade?"
"Like this."
Hoshino lightly swung the Void Blade. Multicolored hues flowed along its blade like a streaming rainbow.
The area around her immediately darkened, and everything became incomparably slow, as if they had entered the bullet time described in movies. Standing outside the area, Ch'en watched the shrine maiden lift a cup of tea and pour it out without hesitation.
Ch'en clenched her fists.
The water began to fall, but its speed slowed by an unknown number of times, like a movie's slow-motion shot. She could clearly see every splash appear and vanish. Hoshino emptied the entire cup, then leisurely moved it beneath the scattered stream of water. In an instant, every splashed droplet returned to the cup, as though the miraculous sight from moments ago had never happened.
"Did you see it clearly?"
Ch'en nodded like a pecking chick.
"That's the