In the courtyard, the girl's sword flashed and wheeled.
Fallen blossoms swirled around her blade, spilling their fragrance through the air!
From the veranda, Tetsu no Sosuke watched in silence, adding a few strokes to the paper now and then.
Three days had passed since Kochou Kanae had agreed to let him watch her train each day.
Every day, Tetsu no Sosuke showed up as regularly as if he were clocking in for work. He brought rice balls he had made himself, took his seat, and watched without a word for two or three hours.
Once Kochou Kanae finished training, they sat together on the veranda, ate his rice balls, drank tea, and chatted for a while. Then Tetsu no Sosuke said goodbye and left.
But today, for some reason, Kochou Kanae seemed distracted.
Her swordplay was a little ragged, and her expression was distant.
Even when she walked over to him after training, she seemed to have something weighing on her mind.
Worried, Tetsu no Sosuke set his paper and pen aside and went to meet her. "Are you all right?"
Kochou Kanae shook her head. She looked at him, as if she wanted to say something but could not.
Then she caught sight of the paper and pen he had left on the floor and stopped short. "Is that..."
Tetsu no Sosuke glanced back. His face changed, and he hurried over to snatch them up and hide them behind his back. "It's nothing."
"Let me see."
Kochou Kanae looked at him steadily.
Helpless, Tetsu no Sosuke brought the sketchbook out from behind his back.
The lines on the page depicted a girl practicing with her sword.
Her graceful figure and nimble swordplay sent petals drifting all around her, making her look like a butterfly spirit dancing in the wind.
The drawing was so delicate that even the butterfly ornament in her hair looked lifelike.
"Well... I, I was just..."
Tetsu no Sosuke did not know how to explain. After three days, he had seen everything he needed to see.
His design for the Nichirin Blade was already more than halfway complete. Today, he had come simply because he wanted to see her.
On a sudden impulse, he had drawn the girl before him.
He had meant to take the drawing home and keep it for himself, but its subject had found it.
Kochou Kanae looked at herself on the page, an unreadable emotion in her eyes.
She pressed her lips together gently. "I have to leave."
"Oh. All right. Mm... wait, what?"
Tetsu no Sosuke froze, then jerked his head up.
Kochou Kanae was looking at him too. She seemed to have so much she wanted to say, yet her lips stayed closed and she said nothing.
"So... so soon?"
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