The Sword Deity in Tokyo

Chapter 140: Hitting The Pointed Spots

“The Yagyu Flying Sword Style?” Harunaka asked curiously as the name of the style sounded familiar to her. The next second, her voice increased in pitch as she asked excitedly, “Is it the style passed down from the Yagyu Sword Saint?!”

Those around Harunaka, who heard what she said, began exclaiming in shock as well.

The Yagyu Flying Sword Style was the style created by Yagyu Isshin.

Yagyu Isshin was a Sword Saint who was respected by all during the Warring States Period, which was clearly recorded in the history books. The Yagyu Flying Sword Style had not been passed down. A pity mentioned by some of the elders in the world of Kendo from time to time.

“Yes.” Kimura Kazuki nodded. This was not something that had to be kept secret.

With confirmation from Kimura Kazuki, the members of the Kendo Association were launched into chaos. They could not believe that they were fortunate enough to be able to witness the long-lost Yagyu Flying Sword Style in this modern generation.

They did not think that Kimura Kazuki would lie since such matters could be tested and verified in an instant.

“Head of Department Kimura, in the video on the bullet-screen website, was it the Ten Thousand Flash move that you used?”

“It probably wasn’t. It is said that the Ten Thousand Flash can release more than 10 strikes at once, it was a legendary sword style!”

“Well, since that was a legend, then it has to be an exaggeration. Can a person really release more than 10 strikes in a single second? Have you ever seen that?”

“It really was clearly stated historically that the Yagyu Sword Saint was able to release more than 20 strikes in a second.”

“But no one has ever seen that!”

“Aren’t you talking nonsense? The Yagyu Sword Saint was from the Warring States Period, how would I have been able to see that? But since it was historically recorded, that means someone must have seen it.”

Before Kimura Kazuki could say anything, the members started arguing because of the Yagyu Flying Sword Style. As members of the Kendo Association, most of them had joined because of their own interest, but some of them were very well-versed on the history of Kendo as well. Therefore, it was natural that their opinions on Yagyu Isshin differed.

Yagyu Isshin was a publicly acknowledged Sword Saint with great capabilities, but some felt that it was too much of an exaggeration. Things like tens of strikes in a single second were most probably nonsensical and made-up praises in fear of the powerful Yagyu Isshin back then.

During the discussion, they suddenly realized something. The successor of the Yagyu Flying Sword Style was right in front of them, and asking Head of Department Kimura would satisfy all their questions.

However, when they looked over to Kimura Kazuki and asked him questions, he merely smiled and did not say a word.

Everyone was somewhat disappointed since it was apparent that there were certain things that Kimura Kazuki did not want to divulge. To them, as the successor of Yagyu Flying Sword Style, this meant that Kimura had to be very familiar with Yagyu Isshin because the Yagyu Flying Sword Style was lost after Yagyu Isshin passed away.

At the time, Yagyu Isshin attempted to get back to the Yagyu residence to pass down his sword styles to his family, but he had died of an illness on the way back, passing away in regret.

Back then, Kimura Kazuki had also thought that Yagyu Isshin’s experiences were as recorded in historical facts. Still, after talking to Yagyu Kenichiro, he realized that that was far from the truth.

Yagyu Isshin had lived for over 70 years and had already returned to his family when he was 55 years old, passing all of the sword styles he created to his family. However, to learn the core sword styles of the Yagyu Flying Sword Style, one of the learning requirements was to achieve an understanding of sword power. At the time, Yagyu Isshin was the only one in his family who was able to do so.

Therefore, in full dependency on the core sword styles, Yagyu Isshin had further created the three elementary Rainstorm, Drizzle, and Vibrative Styles.

All these three styles could be learned without an understanding of the sword power. Yagyu Isshin’s hope was simple. He had hoped that his family members would be able to practice the basics when they are young so that they could practice the core sword styles straight away when they achieve an understanding of sword power.

However, until the day he died, nobody in his family was able to achieve an understanding of sword power, which was no doubt a regret indeed.

Kimura Kazuki knew that it was chaos back then during the Japanese Warring States Period, where there were new families built, and families destroyed every day. In such an era of chaos, it was too hard to focus on the cultivation and practice of sword styles. Many practiced in their wanderings as Yagyu Isshin had done. All of them died under the circumstances of the time.

After the death of Yagyu Isshin, his family was killed at the hands of their enemies, with few survivors. Under circumstances where their enemies had wanted to take away the Yagyu Flying Sword Style forcefully, the Yagyu family had resisted, preferring to destroy the sword styles instead of giving it away. This eventually resulted in the three elementary styles being lost as well.

If it were not for spiritual bodies, it would still have been lost.

With that thought, Kimura Kazuki dismissed the members, making them continue with their practice. He then told Harunaka, “Since you paid fees for lessons, I’ll teach you seriously. So let’s start with the ‘Rainstorm Style.’”

Before this, Kimura Kazuki had actually planned to simplify the ‘Rainstorm Style’ to teach it to Harunaka.

This was because the prerequisite to learning the ‘Rainstorm Style’ was a clear understanding of the acupoints of the human body. Although there was no necessity of memorizing all of them. Personally, he felt that the memorization of all the acupoints of the human body had to be done.

However, even if Harunaka was able to memorize all of them within a short time, she would definitely confuse them in a real battle. This would easily expose Harunaka’s weaknesses during the Kendo competition. His teachings could not possibly be making Harunaka weaker.

The first requirement to note for the ‘Rainstorm Style’ was to remember the acupoints of the human body. The second requirement was to be able to hit the pointed spots during actual combat.

As long as these two requirements were followed, she could be considered as inducted into the ‘Rainstorm Style’ already, even if she had not begun practicing it.

The first requirement was rather easy since it was only a matter of time spent on memorization. However, the second one was quite hard. If a dummy was used during practice, maybe the second requirement of hitting the pointed spots could be met, but the thing was, a dummy could not move. The opponent in a battle would never stand still, so it was tough to meet the requirement. It was a test of observation, response, and decision-making all at once.

Yet Harunaka had been able to achieve an understanding of the ‘Vibrative Style’ by herself, meaning that she was probably already very familiar with the acupoints of the human body. Otherwise, she would not have been able to use the style because the ‘Vibrative Style’ required a very high level of observation, response, and split-second decision-making.

The ‘Vibrative Style’ would put a focus on the arms, using the maintained vibrations of the arms to search out the point of resonance in the opponent’s weapon. With the point of resonance as the core, the vibrations of the arms would be spread out to make the opponent’s wrists feel tired and weak. The main key to the ‘Vibrative Style’ was the point of resonance.

This was as such because, in the process of combat, everyone would wield their weapons with both hands where there would definitely be a slight change in movement or grip. Therefore, when changes occurred in the grip of the hands wielding the weapon during movement, the point of resonance would change as well.

To apply the ‘Vibrative Style’ successfully, there were three conditions that had to be met. The opponent’s point of resonance had to be observed to anticipate the opponent’s direction of attack, then attack had to be immediate. The immediate attack had to hit the bullseye of the point of resonance by hitting the pointed spot.

Only then could that form a surefire kill!

The ‘Vibrative Style’ was indeed hard, but if it was mastered, then it could become the style that decides the final outcome of a match.

Furthermore, even though this style was hard to handle in the earlier stages, but once mastered, it would dominate the whole competition. This was also why Shintani Satorusa was experimenting with the style because she knew the great power of this type of attack.

Of course, if the capabilities between two people differed too much, it did not matter how powerful any sword style was.

Watching Harunaka nod with excitement, Kimura Kazuki asked, “Are you familiar with the acupoints of the human body?”