“That’s one childhood meal I’m happy to never taste again.”
“Begin,” the master’s staccato silenced our banter.
Kaneko struck first.
I barely got my guard up in time. The impact shot through my arms.
Damn, he was stronger than I remembered. So much stronger.
But that wasn’t what made me stumble back. It was his form—or rather, his lack of it. None of his movements matched thekataI’d been drilling for over a year. He didn’t stand in any stance I recognized. His strikes came from angles that shouldn’t exist.
“Not yet . . .”A whisper in my mind nearly caused me to stumble.
Nawa?I tried to respond, unsure if the dragon had actually spoken or if I was finally going insane and annoyed that the divine beast had chosen that moment to coo into my brain.
Kaneko flowed around my counterattack like water, tapped my ribs with hisbokken, and danced back.
“Point,” Master Hachan called.
The students leaned in, fascinated or ready to see me suffer. The latter was far more likely.
More masters appeared.
Then I noticed something odd. The birds had stopped singing.
“You’ve been practicing,” I said, circling again.
“You’ve been slacking.” He struck again, a series of blows that came so fast I could barely see them. My trained responses were useless—every block was a heartbeat too slow, every counter meeting empty air.
Hisbokkenfound my shoulder.
“Point.”
As I reset, something else strange happened. For a moment, when my anger spiked, I could have sworn mybokkenglowed. Faintly. Like a heat shimmer. But it vanished as quickly as I’d seen it.
I really was going mad.
“Come on, Yoshi,” Kaneko said, circling me like a predator. “At least make this interesting.”
He darted in, and I swung wildly.
He ducked, came up inside my guard, and shoved me back.
I stumbled, tripped over my own feet, and went down hard.
The watching students winced. A few snickered and whispered. But as I hit the ground, light flickered behind my eyes—golden, brilliant. There and gone in a heartbeat.
What was happening? What was happeningto me?
“Almost, but not yet . . .”The whisper was louder now. I looked around, knowing I wouldn’t see the speaker. She slithered about a throne manyrifrom where we fought.
“That’s not even a proper technique,” Daichi protested Kaneko’s point. The master’s face was placid and immovable.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Kaneko snapped back as he offered me a hand up. I took it, and he pulled me to my feet—then immediately attacked again.
This time I was ready, meeting his strike with my own. For a moment, we stood locked,bokkencrossed, faces inches apart.
“You’re holding back,” he whispered, just for me.
