A rugged man with such tender eyes looking at you—Aoto couldn't help but shiver slightly.
"K-Kondo, is something wrong?"
"Mr. Tachibana." Kondo raised his hand and patted Aoto.
As Kondo reached over, Aoto almost instinctively pulled his shoulder back.
"Have you learned swordsmanship somewhere before? Do you frequently use a sword?"
"No, I only learned a move or two from my late father. Usually, I perform my duties with bare hands or use a jitte."
"That contest just now was truly an eye-opener!" Kondo was full of excitement. "Although your swordsmanship still needs improvement, your talent is truly exceptional! Just now, when I saw you could adjust your movements so quickly, I couldn't believe my eyes!"
Kondo praised Aoto directly and quickly.
"Mr. Kondo, you're flattering me." Aoto quickly responded modestly out of politeness.
Aoto maintained a calm smile on the surface.
But at this moment, deep inside, his emotions were as turbulent as a violent whirlpool.
If Aoto had to describe his newfound talent in one sentence, it would be: Like trying to milk a bull — completely over the top!
Everyone else could see Aoto rapidly improving during the fight, not to mention Aoto himself.
Just now, when he realized that his movements and sword skills had become so sharp, Aoto almost shouted out in surprise.
Until that moment, Aoto truly understood the meaning of "exceptional talent."
Exceptional talent means achieving what ordinary people can only do with 99% effort with just 1% of effort.
In the previous battle, Aoto did almost nothing, yet he was able to beautifully correct his own movements. This feeling was something Aoto had never experienced before, neither in his past life nor in this one.
And Kondo's praise continued:
"In just a few moments, you made such progress in swordsmanship—that's the kind of astounding development I had only seen before with Toshisuke!"
Aoto: "Toshisuke?"
"Ah, I haven't told you yet." Kondo's mouth curled into a proud smile, "Toshisuke is the pride of our Shiwei Hall!"
"He showed amazing talent in swordsmanship from a very young age."
"When he first started learning the sword, he was much like you—no one taught him what to do, yet he was able to adjust his sword skills on his own, and fine-tune his body's posture to be more suitable for wielding a sword."
"Brother Kondo." At this time, Chokata interjected with a slightly displeased expression, "Why do you keep giving me more and more titles? Saying I'm the pride of Shiwei Hall, I can't take it."
"I'm just stating the facts." Kondo shrugged.
As Kondo and Chokata were bickering, Aoto silently retorted in his heart:
—Of course, he's like me because we now possess swordsmanship talent on the same level...
—The pride of Shiwei Hall... No wonder he has such a flamboyant talent of "Sword Genius."
—Hmm? That's right...
—I remember now...
—I first heard of "Chokata Toshisuke" from Yamanaka...
Aoto suddenly realized—why, when he encountered Chokata earlier and heard his self-introduction, his name seemed so familiar.
Because he just heard from his friend, Yamanaka Keisuke, about this name.
Yamanaka had previously mentioned that Chokata Toshisuke from Shiwei Hall had impressive skills, so much so that his master, the Hall Master of the Little Chiba Sword Dojo, couldn't help but extend an olive branch to him.
—No wonder Yamanaka went out of his way to praise his skills... With such swordsmanship talent, it would indeed be strange if he weren't strong...
With this thought, Aoto couldn't help but subtly shift his gaze and once again quietly sized up Chokata several times.
If not for copying the "Sword Genius" from him, Aoto would find it hard to imagine that this slender and beautiful young man was actually a swordsman with such extraordinary talent and strength.
"Aoto, your swordsmanship talent is quite remarkable! You are a promising talent!" Kondo's loud shout brought Aoto's consciousness back to reality, "As long as you practice diligently, achieving success in swordsmanship in the future won't be a difficult task!"
"I don't aspire to achieve such high accomplishments in swordsmanship," Aoto half-joked, "as long as I can keep being better today than I was yesterday."
This sentence from Aoto was imitated from a former friend with whom he worked out at the gym.
His friend often kept the phrase "My goal is to be better today than I was yesterday", which was probably quoted from somewhere online, on his lips.
When his friend said this sentence, he looked very cool—but it would have been even cooler if this friend spent more time operating the equipment instead of spending most of the time posing in front of the mirror and posting on social media when saying it.
"Oh, oh!" Aoto's previous statement made Kondo's eyes light up, "That's quite a good expression you just used!"
"Alright! Let's put the chatter aside." Kondo crossed his arms, "I now have a rough understanding of your current level and talent."
"Your current level is quite average, so you need to start learning from the most basic sword stances."
"How about it? Do you want to start training now?"
"Of course!" Aoto said without hesitation.
"Alright then!" Kondo grinned, "Well then..."
"Young Master! Young Master Kondo! Is Young Master Kondo here?"
Just as Kondo was enthusiastically speaking, there was a sudden urgent call from the entrance of the dojo—a loud voice from a man dressed in commoner's attire.
"Xiaoliu?" Kondo looked at the man with a surprised expression, "What are you doing here?"
"Young Master Kondo," said the burly man Kondo called "Xiaoliu" with a wry smile, "your family's Hijikata Toshizo has run into trouble."
As soon as Xiaoliu said this, Kondo and Chokata's expressions immediately changed.
"What happened to Asui?" Kondo asked urgently.
"Didn't Hijikata go back to his homeland in Tama to visit his family a few days ago?" Xiaoliu said, "You know, Hijikata has always been a restless person, so shortly after returning to his hometown, to pass the time, he resumed his old business and went around Tama selling his Ishida Powder Medicine."
"As a result, just yesterday afternoon, something happened. A group of people came to cause trouble for Hijikata."
"The man claimed he was a former buyer of Hijikata's. He said that after purchasing Hijikata's Ishida Powder Medicine and finding it useless, he gathered a group of people to confront Hijikata for an explanation."
"That group came aggressively, with a total of over twenty people."
"You all know Hijikata, that thorny evil child, and his temper. He directly started fighting those people."
"One person against more than twenty, and it was a battle that turned the skies dark."
"Although Hijikata won, he was also seriously injured. He is now recuperating at his home in Tama."
"Though Hijikata instructed his family not to inform you of his injuries, his brother-in-law Suzuki decided to send me to inform you."
"Where is Mr. Hijikata injured?" As soon as Xiaoliu finished speaking, Chokata hurriedly asked.
"His leg and forehead are injured," Xiaoliu replied. "The leg injury seems quite serious; he will likely be bedridden for the coming days."
"Toshisuke!" Kondo said loudly to Chokata without hesitation, "You stay here, I'm going back to Tama to check on Asui."
"I want to go too!" Chokata responded without thinking, "Mr. Hijikata is injured. How can I just pretend not to have heard and stay in Edo peacefully?"
"No way. If you go with me to visit Hijikata, then who will watch over Shiwei Hall?"
Kondo and Chokata were arguing about who should visit Hijikata.
Aoto, who didn't know who Hijikata was, quietly moved next to Suzuki and asked:
"That... who is Hijikata?"
"Hijikata Toshizo. One of our Shiwei Hall disciples," Suzuki whispered to Aoto, "Since you're new, you probably don't know about our Shiwei Hall's 'Five Great Vajras,' right?"
Aoto: "I really don't know."
"Now that you're part of Shiwei Hall, make sure to pay close attention to our five individuals known as the 'Five Great Vajras' in Shiwei Hall."
Suzuki cleared his throat and began to speak fluently:
"The first is the head of our Shiwei Hall, our master—Kondo Shuuzo."
"Though our master is 68 years old, he is still in good health. He usually appears benevolent, but he is exceptionally strict about anything related to swordsmanship."
"Remember not to do anything disrespectful to the swordsmanship in front of the master, like deliberately dirtying a bamboo sword. The master despises those who disrespect the sword or swordsmanship."
"The second is the young master... ah, that's Kondo Isami."
"Because Kondo Isami is the deputy master of Shiwei Hall and the young master of our sword dojo, we usually call Kondo Isami the young master."
"Due to master's age, the operation of the sword dojo and the teaching of swordsmanship are mostly handled by the young master."
"In no time, the young master will likely inherit Shiwei Hall and officially take over the position of sect leader of the Natural Reason Heart School, becoming the fourth generation sect leader."
"The third person is Lord Chokata Toshisuke."
"The Chokata family and the Kondo family have an excellent relationship. The two families are almost like one."
"The relationship between the young master and Mr. Chokata is also almost like brothers."
"Mr. Chokata has a long history in Shiwei Hall, having become the master's inner disciple at the age of 9 to study the Natural Reason Heart Stream."
"If I remember correctly... Mr. Chokata is 16 this year, meaning this is his seventh year at Shiwei Hall."
"Currently, there is almost no apprentice in Shiwei Hall with more seniority than Mr. Chokata."
"If both the master and the young master happen to be absent from the sword dojo, Shiwei Hall will be directly managed by Mr. Chokata."
"The young master often lets Mr. Chokata assist with the operation of the sword dojo and the instruction of swordsmanship."
"Mr. Chokata's status in Shiwei Hall is second only to the young master."
"Like brothers..." Aoto recalled the scene just now where Chokata's hands were bound by his rope capture skill, and Kondo was teasing Chokata, "No wonder they seem so close."
Suzuki continued his explanation of the 'Five Great Vajras'—
"The fourth person... is Hijikata Toshizo."
As he spoke, Suzuki's mouth twitched.
"Hijikata Toshizo is the second most troublesome person in Shiwei Hall."
"If you run into him in the future, remember to be cautious."
"How is he troublesome?" Aoto asked.
"He is one of our Shiwei Hall disciples."
"This person and the young master are from the same hometown, both born near Edo in Tama."
"The young master, Mr. Hijikata, Mr. Chokata, they have an extremely good relationship. Their relationship is almost like brothers from another mother and father, like Liu, Guan, and Zhang in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms."
"Mr. Hijikata has quite a bad temper and a sharp tongue, so he often gets into trouble outside and fighting with people is a routine occurrence for him, which is why he is called the 'thorny evil child.'"
As he said this, Suzuki looked at Kondo and Chokata, who were still arguing.
"Mr. Hijikata went back to his family in Tama a few days ago."
"Sigh, even going home is full of unrest... this thorny evil child, truly..."
As he said this, Suzuki shook his head with a bitter smile.
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