Ch.354349 – Two Years Since Escape

It’s always the second week that’s the real challenge.

Whether it’s dieting where you want to quit by week two, or boot camp where the real hazing begins in the second week.

I gave Emika a stern warning just before we hit that critical second week.

“This is where it gets real. If you’re not careful, you could fall into a slump or get the yips.”

The yips, or focal dystonia.

It’s a phenomenon where the automated process breaks down because you’re paying too much attention to your movements due to increased anxiety and pressure.

It’s commonly seen among pitchers because human throwing ability is a highly intelligent act developed through long evolutionary history.

You start questioning yourself: How far did I extend my arm before? Am I moving my legs correctly?

Self-doubt amplifies and performance deteriorates further.

Once an ability ingrained at the genetic level goes awry, it takes a long time to recover.

You must never lose yourself, no matter the situation.

“Yes…! I’m ready!”

Emika is at the beginning stage of “mental internalization.”

She knows how to control her body perfectly and is attempting to expand outward.

“Until now, you’ve only focused on executing perfect movements. Now you need perfect responses. Take your kodachi and close your eyes.”

Vision is both a blessing and a curse for humans.

The world is three-dimensional, but the image on our retina is two-dimensional.

Therefore, misjudging distance happens quite frequently even among swordsmen.

Emika stood in front of the training dummy with her Japanese sword, taking her stance.

“Do whatever you’re comfortable with. Preferably something you’re confident in.”

“I’ll demonstrate Kasumi no Tachi from the four Omote no Tachi techniques.”

Standing at an appropriate distance, Emika took an upper stance, raising her sword high.

First move, she lunged forward instantly, thrusting her blade toward the dummy’s neck.

Second move, simultaneously moving diagonally to evade an imaginary counterattack while bringing her sword down, and third move, striking down at the dummy’s open upper section.

If her attack were blocked, she’d block a lower counterattack with the fourth move, then block a mid-upper combination attack with the fifth move in Ogasumi stance, fake an upper attack with the sixth move, and finish with a thrust as the seventh move.

True to her confidence, there was not a single wasted motion.

Even a middle school student at the academy would have fallen in one strike if they had faced this technique unprepared.

Now it’s time for my coaching.

“You can open your eyes. Now do the same to me.”

I stood in the dummy’s place, holding a wooden practice sword for children.

“Even with a scabbard, isn’t this dangerous? Without an extreme-intent small sword, this attack can’t be—”

“Why are you chattering so much! Just do it already!”

“Y-yes!”

Same first move, I lightly stepped back to create distance.

Emika confidently moved diagonally and swung her sword.

*Clack!*

“Huh?”

But my sword didn’t deflect—it stuck firmly to her longsword.

I used wrist strength to push her sword aside and swung my wooden sword hard toward her forehead.

“What good is memorization if you can’t adapt!”

*Thunk!*

“Aaaah!”

A clear sound rang out as the wooden sword collided with Emika’s skull.

“Listen well, Emika. Dueling isn’t the Olympics. You don’t fight with the same weapons under the same conditions. I think I advised you about this last year too, but you haven’t fixed it at all?”

“But I didn’t expect the sword not to deflect…”

“You work with aura professionally and you can’t account for a coefficient of restitution?”

[Composition: Iron oxide-aluminum-magnesium]

[2nd Circle Cast: Thermite Reaction]

[Cast Canceled: Thermite Reaction]

I created another lightsaber and crossed it with another sword.

*Woong-*

“It passes right through the sword?”

“You can change a sword’s characteristics infinitely depending on aura density and properties. How can someone who wants to wield a sword have preconceptions about swords? As I’ve said repeatedly, a sword is just a sword.”

When I sighed deeply, Emika’s gaze dropped pitifully to the floor.

“Hmm, this is hard…”

“I’m frustrated too.”

“But I can’t possibly consider every situation.”

“Of course not. What I’m saying is to break down your time. Your cognitive processing speed is excellent. But each movement is unnecessarily large and slow. Yet performing established techniques faster isn’t meaningful either. So break down your distinguishing movements in detail. To respond immediately to any variable.”

Prediction belongs to the realm of psychological warfare and luck.

You shouldn’t rely on probability for your life, though it might work in a fighting game with multiple rounds.

“The person who makes the final decision wins. That’s the essence of dueling.”

In the end, dueling is just like rock-paper-scissors.

Of course, if you have extremely strong scissors, you might pierce through a fist.

If not, all competitors are bound by the game of moves.

Just having a vague idea that your opponent will throw cloth gives you the confidence to throw scissors.

“Get up, let’s try again.”

Nothing is more effective than pain when pointing out mistakes.

Humans are animals after all.

I corrected her with my wooden sword whenever Emika’s arm strength faltered or her calf’s center of gravity was off.

*Whack!*

“Ugh!”

“Who taught you to do it like this?”

“My master.”

“Really? That person needs to relearn through pain too.”

“…!”

Emika’s mouth fell open as if she’d heard something forbidden.

“What? It’s not different, it’s wrong. There may be no correct answer in martial arts, but there are definitely wrong answers.”

Eventually, Emika sat down on the bare ground and wiped away the sweat flowing like beads.

I could see dark bruises forming all over her body.

I gathered my things, preparing to go home.

“Is that it for today?”

“Yes. If we continue, I might get angry and hit you.”

“Tch, you’ve already hit me plenty.”

“You’d think differently if you got hit properly?”

Emika pouted with a distorted face.

“That National Exchange Competition is nothing. Who was last year’s winner again?”

“Ashvin Ramakrishnan. An Indian kid. He can’t participate this year due to age restrictions.”

“Right, I saw him and he seemed about your level. A few slaps with external manifestation would—”

“NoName, NoName.”

“Huh?”

“What triggered your awakening to the mental world? No one in this world awakened their aura earlier than you, right?”

I kept my mouth shut for a moment.

I couldn’t bring up my past life.

Maybe I could tell a slightly modified version?

“I had a little sister, you know?”

“A sister? From the orphanage?”

“Let’s say something like that. The situation was similar to an orphanage since no one was around. Anyway, that neighborhood had poor security, so there were many bad people. Then one day, my sister was kidnapped.”

“Oh no! What happened to your sister…!”

Emika covered her mouth and opened her eyes seriously.

“The outcome of kidnappings is predictable. She died.”

“Ah…”

“We found the culprit quickly, and he was truly a worthless human being.”

“NoName, I didn’t know you experienced such a sad thing… Did the criminal go to prison?”

“No, I killed him.”

“…What?”

“I beat him to death.”

* * *

Lisianthus, tulips, dahlias.

This year too, I bought the same three types of flowers and went to visit my mother.

I prayed for her peace for a long time in front of her urn.

I chattered like a child about everything I’d experienced over the past year.

Saving my orphanage friend Baek A-rin from a strange old man on Durido Island, meeting an elite couple and a girl with difficult family circumstances at Korea University.

Mom probably wouldn’t remember all their names, but I recited them in order: Teacher Baek Bonggon, Daniel, Shin Yeon-ho, and Ban So-wol.

I told her about traveling abroad for a change of scenery and appearing on the Genius Discovery show.

I got caught in a bomb attack in between, but I lied about receiving a clown box so Mom wouldn’t worry.

I mentioned fighting with Professor Cheon several times before reconciling, and now calling him by the awkward title of “Dad.”

I also broke a treasure of a major Japanese school and smashed the heads of growing students at the Academy Competition without discrimination.

I especially wanted to go to Neverland with Mom, and it made me tear up that we never had the chance.

I’ve been busy filming commercials to pay for Adella’s ransom, and I was secretly happy that the healing magic I researched in my past life was being developed as medication.

It was unfortunate that I lost track of Walpurgis, but I was relieved that the 7th Circle spells were cast successfully.

Recently, I had a headache because of a tax investigation, but it passed without much trouble, and the sports day with friends remained a good memory.

These days, I’m really busy helping Emika with her training.

“Thanks for listening to me today too.”

Before leaving, I suddenly noticed the eight empty spaces around Seol-ah’s urn.

The columbarium staff said they left them empty as a gesture of gratitude, but it made Seol-ah look lonely.

I recalled the deceased acquaintances from my past life one by one.

My birth mother Tenebreia and cute sister Niobe, the three hero party members Klaus, Sylvia, and Remilia, plus Master Maria and Chief of Staff Luri make seven people.

‘Oddly, there’s one empty space. Hiasen, I’ll just count you as dead too.’

With the country in chaos, there must have been at least one civil revolution.

That makes exactly eight.

I didn’t particularly want to commemorate them.

It would only increase my guilt, and since I decided to focus on this life, I chose to accept my past life simply as a past life.

As I was leaving the columbarium, I received a call from Emika.

“Hello, Emika? Why are you calling at this hour?”

“This is Koizumi Yoshihiro.”

“Oh, hello. What’s the occasion?”

I heard a hoarse voice and thought he might have caught the flu.

Why was the master calling from Emika’s phone?

“Miss NoName. I think it’s best to end the lessons with my successor now. I’ll deposit payment for the six sessions if you provide your account number.”

“What? Wait, why so suddenly?”

“The young lady says she doesn’t wish to continue the education.”

I frowned at this unexpected statement.

“Is this Katsuhata Emika’s opinion? What reason did she give?”

“It entirely reflects the young lady’s opinion. We’re also puzzled, but wouldn’t you know better, Miss Name?”

Could it be…

Just because of that one comment?

I tried to think if there was another reason, but the only time Emika’s expression changed was when I mentioned that.

“Can I at least come by tomorrow to hear the reason for quitting?”

“Just a moment… Would that be okay? Yes, she says it’s fine.”

“Alright, I’ll come right after the academy ends.”

Sigh…

Taking care of kids is really difficult.

* * *

‘It definitely wasn’t a lie…’

Emika had been good at detecting lies since childhood.

By observing the elders of her family who extremely disliked causing trouble, she could tell that aura movements differed slightly between when people were sincere and when they weren’t.

“Katsuhata, next time something like this happens, I’d appreciate if you told me first instead of the head of the family. Do you know how awkward this was?”

“I’m sorry. The head happened to be right in front of me…”

“I never imagined you, who was doing so well with the successor training, would act like this. Is it so humiliating to learn from a 9-year-old?”

“That’s not it.”

“Ah, NoName is here. Let’s hear the reason.”

NoName entered the traditional hotel reception room still in her academy uniform.

Emika and her master sat side by side on the sofa, while NoName pulled out a chair across from them and sat down.

“Why did you suddenly decide to stop learning? Was I too strict? I didn’t realize you were struggling so much because you were keeping up so well.”

NoName’s training was indeed incredibly difficult.

This level of intensity was hard to find even within the Katsuhata school.

But NoName, who talked about killing someone without blinking an eye, was an object of fear itself.

If NoName had been an adult, Emika would have thought it was good that the criminal died on the spot.

‘NoName is only 8 years old…’

This was far beyond the category of a child.

A monster in a child’s disguise, or a demon.

On the other hand, feeling guilty for thinking of NoName that way, Emika decided to stop the education.

“Is it true that you killed someone?”

Emika asked in a voice so quiet it was barely audible.

Koizumi Yoshihiro’s white eyebrows rose strangely.

NoName shrugged casually despite the question.

“Oh, was that the reason? Of course it was a lie. I’ve never killed anyone.”

There wasn’t a single fluctuation in NoName’s aura heart.

That means it’s the truth.

‘What? Why is this the truth? Did I misunderstand?’

Emika’s cheeks turned bright red.

She felt foolish for agonizing over this for three days.

“What are you two talking about?”

Koizumi Yoshihiro asked, crossing his arms.

“Oh, Katsuhata asked me how I achieved external manifestation. I told her there was someone I really wanted to kill, and that was the catalyst for my awakening.”

“Hmm… Awakening the inner world through anger is very rare, but not impossible. Some people lead with reason rather than emotion when angry.”

“Then what you told me…!”

“Oh, of course it was an exaggeration, just an exaggeration.”

NoName smiled brightly.

Her aura wavered slightly.

It was neither truth nor lie—ambiguous.

‘Maybe not quite an exaggeration, but she didn’t actually kill anyone?’

Emika thought hard.

That much was within Emika’s acceptable range.

“So you’ll continue lessons today?”

“Yes, I’m sorry for misunderstanding…! I must have been possessed by something.”

“That’s good then. What do you think, Mr. Koizumi? Has Katsuhata improved a lot?”

“She’s even mastered the family’s higher sword techniques on her own. If I had known the synergy between geniuses would be this good, I would have arranged for them to meet sooner. By the way, NoName, have you considered joining the Katsuhata school?”

“You know I like things as they are now.”

“I understand. I look forward to your continued help.”

Koizumi and NoName shook hands in trust.