The dojo was silent, broken only by the occasional soft sigh of frustration.
Mifune knelt on the cushion at the head of the room, his eyes moving slightly as he observed the disciples diligently training below.
More than half the disciples have managed to channel chakra into their wooden swords. This year's class isn't bad. It's just...
His gaze shifted to this year's top students, the two he had initially been most optimistic about: Chosuke and Tetsuren. The color of the chakra on their wooden swords was particularly deep, but both of them had to stop after maintaining it for just over twenty minutes.
Chosuke has enough focus, but his stamina is a bit lacking. Tetsuren is the opposite.
But even her lack of stability was only in comparison to Chosuke; she was still much stronger than the others.
As for the transfer student, Kaito, he had once again surprised him.
Golden chakra? I've never seen that before. Is it from a special bloodline?
That chakra gave him a faint sense of sacred inviolability, a world apart from ordinary chakra.
Captain Okihira's disciple will surely be extraordinary in the future. I wonder if keeping him in the Land of Iron is a good thing or a bad thing. The thought circled in Mifune's mind for a moment before vanishing. He refocused his attention on Kaito's training progress.
About ten minutes later, the color faded from Kaito's wooden sword.
Hmm, including the time from before, he probably maintained it for nearly half an hour. Good, that's not too outrageous. Mifune let out a subtle sigh of relief.
Afterward, the three of them continued their attempts, but none could surpass the one-hour goal.
"Alright, that's enough for today. Everyone, continue practicing on your own when you get back," Mifune said sternly. "Lest you slack off, I will inform you of this in advance: proficiently using chakra in your swordsmanship is the minimum standard to become a samurai. Next spring, it will be your turn for the assessment. I hope you will make the most of your time."
"Yes, sir!" The students' expressions turned grim, and some even looked crestfallen.
An assessment to become a samurai? Hmm, it probably doesn't matter if I don't participate. Kaito thought, a relaxed look on his face.
Suddenly, he sensed something. He turned his head and met Tetsuren's excited gaze.
"Urk..."
It looked like tomorrow would be another difficult battle.
After dinner, Kaito returned to his dorm and immediately picked up his wooden sword to practice. After several attempts, he still couldn't maintain the chakra flow any longer.
"Hah... don't swordsmen usually settle a fight pretty quickly? This training goal can't be a lie, can it?"
Tired from training, he lay down on his bed to rest for a bit, his mind starting to wander.
I remember reading somewhere that the samurai of the Land of Iron could also use their swordsmanship to perform chakra nature transformations, creating hurricanes, lightning, and other intimidating effects. In that case, could I also use such nature transformations?
If he wasn't mistaken, his golden energy was the legendary power of Arceus, which encompassed all types. Logically, it should be able to be differentiated into specific types.
Yeah, in my dreams. There's no way I can do that right now. He sighed.
"Wait!" A thought struck Kaito. He shot up from the bed with a smile. "How could I have forgotten about that?"
He quickly grabbed his wooden sword and silently chanted in his mind: Ice Punch!
Instantly, his right hand began to emit a bone-chilling cold, like a freezer. The cold air spread up the body of the sword, quickly turning the wooden blade into an icicle.
"Er, well, it doesn't look that great, but the effect should be decent. The key thing is that I don't freeze myself."
Unable to control the shaping of the cold air, Kaito could only comfort himself this way. At the very least, if it made contact with another weapon, the cold would travel along it and give his opponent a nice, frosty surprise.
"Why does it feel like it would be less effective than just using Icy Wind directly?"
Kaito shook his head, trying to dispel the thought.
If he was going to be a mage, he was going to be a mage who was invincible in close combat!
The next morning, at the same time.
Kaito yawned as he walked out of the dormitory building and approached Tetsuren, who looked like she had been waiting for a while.
"You're so slow!"
"What do you mean? It's the same time as yesterday."
"Less talk, let's get to it. I can't wait any longer." Tetsuren flicked her wooden sword, and a large mass of blue energy erupted from it like a fire, its movement disrupting the dance of the falling snow.
"I didn't use chakra in our previous fights because I was afraid you didn't know how. Now, I can finally go all out. You'd better bring your full strength too!"
"Heh, well then, let's see just how far you can push me." Kaito raised his wooden sword, and a brilliant golden light briefly dispelled the darkness.
Stimulated by the golden light, Tetsuren was momentarily dazed and narrowed her eyes.
"What do you think of my illumination technique? Pretty considerate, right?" Kaito said, holding his sword like a fluorescent tube to light up their duel.
"Not really." Tetsuren was unmoved. Once her eyes adjusted, she immediately took a step forward and delivered a heavy vertical slash.
Clang! The snow at their feet was sent flying in all directions.
Kaito blocked with a horizontal strike, feeling the immense pressure from his opponent. He couldn't help but grit his teeth.
This violent girl is getting more and more violent.
"Again, again, again!"
Tetsuren swung her sword excitedly, as if in a frenzy, her wooden blade becoming a phantom that was hard for the naked eye to follow.
Being on the defensive for the first time, Kaito started to get fired up too. Mustering all his strength, he met Tetsuren's onslaught head-on, not giving an inch.
Just as they were getting into the heat of it, one of his heavy blows sent Tetsuren's wooden sword flying from her hand. It spun several times in mid-air before stabbing into the snow.
At the same time, Tetsuren knelt on the ground, breathing heavily.
"Honestly, is your chakra free? You're just wasting it all," Kaito said, planting the tip of his sword in the ground and leaning on it to rest.
"Hah... hah... I don't know how to control my chakra... so I just... I just set its output to the maximum," Tetsuren said, panting between words.
"...That's really your style. Was it necessary? To turn a simple sparring match into a life-or-death battle. You know, you don't have to care what other people say. Men and women are the same; you don't need to prove you're stronger than men."
Kaito lectured her in the tone of an adult. "What does defeating me even prove? It proves nothing. The most important thing for a person is to be themselves."
"???" Tetsuren frowned. "What are you talking about? As if the opinions of those weaklings are worthy of being kept in my heart."
"Huh?" Kaito froze.
"Everything I do, I do because I like it. I like being a samurai. I like fighting with others. I like beating my enemies until they're on their knees, begging for mercy. I like charging forward without a care in the world. I like risking my life in a fight! That is my conviction!"
Heh, so she's a battle junkie. No wonder I don't see her later in the story. She probably got written out of the story early.
Kaito scratched the back of his head, preparing to make his escape. "Excuse me. Goodbye."
"Where are you going? Our morning training isn't over yet!" Tetsuren sprang up and blocked his path. "Spar with me again!"
"..."
Chosuke, who had just come out of the dormitory building, saw the two of them locked in intense combat and silently hid in a corner.