Half a century ago, there was a rumor among the samurai of the Tsukino Country, a part of society.

"Stick art is the father of all martial arts. ”

This theory has its own set of theories, and although the stick itself is simple, the application technique is ever-changing. It has something in common with spearmanship, swordsmanship, and many other skills. As a result, some samurai who combined their opinions, combined each other's experiences, and drew materials from ancient books, rose to prominence among the many swordsmanship and spearmanship, creating a school that respected stick art.

The founders of the genre proudly referred to themselves as "first-class", meaning that they were constantly changing from their roots, and that the skills they had learned were the origin of everything.

And they are really capable of fighting.

In the various martial arts competitions held between the Japanese warriors in those years, it was not uncommon for several first-class grandmasters and disciples to achieve proud results. Although there are often swordsmen or gunners who curse that they have drilled into the loopholes of the rules, they use the techniques of the sword to play the sword competition, and the sword skills to play the gun competition. However, the remarks of these subordinates are often ridiculed by first-class disciples, and they are ignorant and inflexible, and refuse to admit defeat.

If you had been born in that era and had seen the myth of being a first-class person, you would probably have listened to their theories as many people back then, believing that it was indeed a perfect technique, ever-changing, and could simulate anything.

In the tournament 50 years ago, it was a winning general. Victory fueled a first-class reputation, and they rose to prominence for a time.

Back then, even the town of Aochi in the far north had a first-class dojo, and the samurai holding wooden sticks when they went out became synonymous with martial arts, so that most of the other people stayed away from them and feared them.

But what catches fire quickly often doesn't last long, and the reputation that has been built up over the years of the first class crumbles in a matter of months just because of one thing.

There is a way to make a big move, and the first-class disciples who are strong in their own strength and strength are not less in conflict with people in other dojos in various places on weekdays, and most of the time they are indeed able to defeat their opponents with their fame and skills.

Until they encounter an enemy that they are not good at dealing with.

That is, outside the dojo, outside the martial arts arena, the enemy with real swords and real guns.

One person, defeated 6 first-class disciples with wooden sticks.

And this person is not even the hidden sword saint that was rumored by the folk back then, he is just a drunk, a down-and-out samurai, because of the jealousy in front of the beautiful daughter of the hotel family and the first-class disciple had a conflict, he pulled out the only sharp knife of value on his body with the strength of wine.

All laws are one, and stick art is the origin of everything - yes, in terms of the techniques used, there is no doubt that the stick can simulate swordsmanship and spearmanship.

But after all, it's just a weapon for practice, no matter how similar the simulated skills are.

It's not a sword after all.

Sharps never need to think about how to deal the maximum blow with a unique technique, that's the job of blunt objects.

Sharps simply need to be sharpened and then sharpened against your opponent's body that lacks armor defenses.

Just touch the epidermis and pull it lightly, and the cut is enough to make your opponent feel great pain and fear of blood loss.

In the martial arts competition, which also used bamboo and wood weapons for practice, the invincible first-class stick technique encountered the sharp weapon of the Eight Classics, and these six disciples suddenly found that the weapons in their hands were so weak.

They succeeded in the attack.

The samurai were so drunk that they couldn't even parry the starting hand, and they had the advantage of numbers.

However, in the face of the wandering samurai who drank and drank high, the striking skills of the first-class disciples who could score and win in the tournament could not knock him to the ground, and it was even difficult to stop him from approaching.

Accustomed to striking scores, they don't even know how hard they have to use to guarantee a knockout.

And this drunken samurai who couldn't even stand on his feet, had no discipline at all, and just relied on instinct to wield the sharp waist sword, as long as he touched it, it was basically a long and narrow groundbreaking wound.

The cut wound was bleeding profusely, and their own warm, sticky blood flowed down their arms and onto the palms of their hands, making the sticks in their hands slip. The stimulation of the pain made them panic and lose their original pride.

Several people screamed and tried to beg for mercy, but the drunken wandering samurai could not care about this, and he stabbed someone with a knife.

Although the conflict ended with the government sending archers to shoot arrows to kill the mad wandering samurai, the situation did not expand further, but it also caused the reputation of the first-class to plummet.

"Are the skills learned by the samurai of peace for millennia, the skills used to win in the arena, the same skills that were originally used to defeat the enemy in battle?" – there was a similar discussion back then, but in the end, it was still buried in history because of the lack of real battlefield threats.

Time has erased everything, and fifty years later, only a handful of people remember it.

- Yajiro is one of them.

The little young master's face was now pale, and his breathing was gradually chaotic.

When Henry and Mira summed up the criticism and the wooden knife contest in front of them in the midst of their previous journey together, he remembered the incident of "The Fall of the First Class", which he had read in his own collection but only regarded as a part of history, and did not pay much attention to it.

There are people who are not convinced.

After all, no matter how you say it, he is just a teenager. It is human nature that people who have studied for many years and have achieved a small amount of technology are almost completely denied, and they are more inclined to resist than reflect.

But this makes the current scene extremely ironic.

Alone.

There was only one person standing on the opposite side.

He's not even a samurai, he's just a rogue.

The sword he was holding was not a waist sword that only a samurai was worthy, but a short and poorly made portable short knife with far length and workmanship far below the famous sword in Yajiro's hand.

But he was unscathed, and the little young master hung up.

Yajiro had a long, narrow wound on his left forearm, stained red with a luxurious koi pattern on a white background, and blood was bubbling out under the heavy breathing and the powerful pumping of his heart due to the tension of injury and actual combat.

A sense of fear gripped Yajiro's heart.

He constantly motivates himself with samurai rules, trying to keep himself from looking at the wound on his forearm and focusing on the enemy in front of him. But I can never forget the moment of injury, the sharp pain like fire, and the cold touch of the blade.

"It's not difficult, I'm made for it. Even though he hadn't gone to the front line to fight in his previous clash with the bandits, Yajiro had always thought that he could behave like his own adult samurai.

However, the situation on the battlefield was complicated, and the samurai in the battle against the bandits were also wearing full body armor and horses, and they had a great advantage in equipment.

But he was alone at the moment, opposite him was a rogue who was about thirty years old and in the prime of life, and his physique and physical strength were above him, although the weapons were inferior to him, but they made up for it in other ways.

The more you drag it out, the more bad it is for yourself.

He could already feel that his left hand was beginning to stiff and tremble due to excessive bleeding, and from the thumb holding the handle of the knife, it was always difficult to grasp and exert force, most likely not only skin trauma, but also scratched tendons under the skin.

This was really supposed to be an ordinary day, but Yajiro, who came out alone to relax, met this guy who didn't look like a good person on the road and was harassing women, and he helped in the spirit of a samurai.

He didn't think much of it when the commoner woman turned and ran, without the slightest intention of finding someone to help him, a young boy.

Even when the middle-aged rogue on the other side pulled out his short knife, he was still confident, and even thought that this was a good opportunity to make a name for himself and prove his strength.

There are many things to regret, and maybe if you tell your companion before you go out, everything will be different. When the blood gushed out, I felt the pain and the loss of my life, and a lot of regret was tangled in my heart. He remembered his own account of the return to the first class, and the criticism of Henry and Mira, who were extremely resistant to it.

You must move forward, you must break the dilemma, you must fight back and defeat the opponent, and win from the desperate situation.

When faced with great pressure, the speed of one's mind becomes very fast, and he picks out the cases of those fascinated samurai who have gone against the current to break through the difficulties from the books he has read in the past, and encourages himself over and over again.

But his feet never moved.

"Father, mother......" blurted out the words lost his former pride, and at this moment he lost his aggressive and tough appearance, and changed back to the little young master who had not yet grown up.

He realized all this after he said it unconsciously, and his heart-shaking heart and injured arm began to shake the opponent's knife in the middle posture of the police ring towards the opponent and trembled with his body, and the five big and three thick rogues on the opposite side laughed loudly when they saw this virtue:

"Are you scared, are you scared! Crying and shouting your parents' names, hahahahaha! Where is the arrogance!"

It's just that he is older than him and has seen blood, this untrained rough rogue, in the first confrontation, the little young master who hesitated due to lack of experience.

Who is more ruthless in actual combat.

His experience was more of a contest with a wooden sword, so when he habitually tried to knock down his opponent with his usual technique, he realized that he had a real sword in his hand.

Yajiro hesitated, he thought that the other party was just a molester and did not deserve death. He did what an experienced swordsman should never do—he was confused in white-knuckle combat, and he changed his mind on the fly after the move was used, fearing that he would be too heavy.

The hesitation prevented him from using his original skills, so he was obviously attacking, but he didn't hit because he tried to get there.

The next second, the other party rushed over, and the long-trained reaction was not unpleasant, Yajiro immediately reacted and blocked, but the sharp sharp weapon was different from the round wooden knife, he blocked the opponent's blade, but because his arm accidentally touched the short knife of the rogue who had been framed, he was cut out of a wound.

This is a common occurrence in wooden knife duels, and he has even become accustomed to the feeling of his arm being touched by his opponent's wooden knife - anyway, as long as it is not a hit, according to the rules, the opponent will not be counted.

But sharps are different after all.

The words of Henry and Mira, the fate of the first-class disciples, had never been so clearly and profoundly seared into his memory.

Are you going to die here?

His left hand, which had begun to tremble due to excessive blood loss, was no longer able to exert his strength, and his body, which had become stiff due to nervousness, was completely unable to use his usual skills. The other party was laughing, but Yajiro didn't even have the strength to get angry, his arrogance was all gone, and all that was left in his heart was fear and regret.

He began to reflect on his mistakes over and over again, thinking that if he had changed his steps, he might not have ended up like this.

He began to reflect on the past initiatives that were obviously impossible to change, and began to imagine the "ifs" that were impossible to achieve, rather than focusing on breaking through the immediate dilemma.

He panicked.

He was desperate.

He was scared.

No matter how arrogant he is on the surface, no matter how many times he wields a wooden knife, Yajiro has always grown up in a warm environment and the love of his parents.

Some over-pampered boys.

He committed the taboo of a martial artist, and instead of being able to be distracted during the battle, he began to blame himself for himself, and then lost the confidence to move forward.

He felt that he could not win, and he began to hesitate because he had a clear understanding of what would happen if he lost the battle—death.

No matter how much self-encouragement I put in my heart, my feet still can't move like lead.

Liukou's eyes narrowed, his gaze sharp. He noticed this, he knew that this young master of the samurai had already lost, and he also began to think about whether to keep his hand, just take off the valuable money from the other party and leave, after all, killing a samurai who looked rich would not do much good to himself.

——

"Hey, isn't that Young Master Yajiro?" "What are you doing?" ”

The woman's voice suddenly sounded, the first was the carefully worded Chinese language of the moon, and when it sounded like it was from a rich family, it was followed by another person whose pronunciation was not very standard and the words were slightly rude.

The white-haired girl and Miss Doctor walked out of the alley behind the two facing each other, followed by Sakura and Lulu.

The four of them who went out shopping got lost, and the confident Miss Doctor thought she knew something about town planning and acted as a tour guide, but she was Dr. Xing Yong and not Dr. Land, so she just became more and more dizzy.

After getting completely lost, the four women who started walking with the idea that "if you go in one direction, you will definitely find a way out", finally bumped into such a scene inexplicably.

"Tsk, do you know someone? Rogue smacked his tongue, then lifted his heel.

"I-" The confused young master turned his head when he heard the movement, but he was speechless, and the sharp-eyed Luo An girl caught the red color of the torn wide feather sleeve of his left hand and the blood dripping onto the dirt in an instant.

Yajiro's face was pale and sweating profusely, his breathing was disordered, and his body trembled.

The metal reflected the sunlight, and the smell of blood mixed with the stench of sweat from the heat of battle.

This is a familiar taste of Mira.

She reacted.

"Pick it up—" In an instant, the girl threw the snacks and sake she had bought to Aya next to her, and then rushed out like lightning, and threw the hat that blocked her vision towards the Liukou.

"Tsk, woman?" the middle-aged man rushed towards Yajiro's pace of attack and subconsciously stopped because of the oncoming hat, he raised his hand to block the hat that was not able to do much damage, but Mira did not intend to rely on the fluttering hat to cause real damage.

The distance between Rokoko and Yajiro is closer than the distance between the girl and the two.

It takes time for her to get closer, and the other party is able to attack Yajiro faster.

So Mira decisively threw out the hat.

- Let him stop his pace and buy time without closing the distance between him and Yajiro.

- and made him subconsciously raise his hand to block his field of vision, not seeing what was happening.

All she needed was a few seconds.

When the rogues slowly lowered their hands in front of his face, and were about to vent his anger and show that he had brute force to smash the hat on the ground—

The girl had already rushed in front of him.

In a few seconds, she lowered her figure, and decisively and quickly dashed to close the distance, rushing directly to the middle of Yajiro and the Roko.

"What the—" Before the hurried rogues could lower their knife hand, the moment the one-handed knife came out of its sheath, the counterweight ball fell directly to his chin from the bottom up, and he lost his balance and fell face to the sky, but still did not lose consciousness.

"Drink!" Mira then deflected her wrist as she swung it, striking him on the forehead with the back of her heavy knife.

"Boom!" the other man immediately rolled his eyes, but the speed-seeking girl knew that her attack had not completely discouraged him, so she kicked the rogue in the abdomen the moment he fell to the ground.

"Uhhh

In the blink of an eye, she had already completed the two things of knockdown and disarming, and she also kept her hand not to let this person's blood be splashed on the spot in the peaceful town, so as to avoid being questioned by the government.

"Uh-" The other four didn't react at all.

"Uhh

Sakura and Aya check Yajiro's injuries, Lulu, unpack the wine and snacks and bring them over. Mira, who was still calm, spoke quickly to remind, and Aya, Sakura, and Lulu reacted.

The two quickly approached the little young master who was stunned in place, while the Yiren girl untied the packing rope and let those things scatter in place and walked over. But when Miss Doctor was about to examine his wounds, she found that she couldn't break it, and Yajiro trembled, but he held his hand tightly on his waist knife.

His muscles were all stiff.

"This, you put down the knife!" said the Oiran who came up to help him with some displeasure, but the little master couldn't react no matter how he shouted as if he had lost his soul.

"Pressing his waist with her knees—" Mira, who was still vigilant and pointed a knife at the rogue, commanded Lulu to imprison the other party completely, and the petite Yiren girl turned the rogue's over with a little difficulty, leaving him face down in the dirt, and then pressed his knees against his waist and used her weight to prevent him from rolling over and resisting.

After that, the wrists of the hands and the ankles of the feet are tied back as if they were prey, and the hands and feet are tied together.

"What's next?" Lulu turned to look at Mira after the imprisoned rogue finally lost his threat, and the other two finally broke Yajiro's fingers and removed the knife and began to treat his wounds.

The little young master fell down directly at the moment of relaxation, and the Luo'an girl, who confirmed that there was no threat, took back the one-handed knife she was carrying and picked up the hat, but just when she patted the ash on it and was about to put it back, there was movement on the other side.

“......”

After a short eye contact, it was obvious that both sides had clearly judged the situation.

The seven or eight new people were all men, some older and some young, but none of them looked like good people.

And when they saw the middle-aged rogue lying on the ground, their eyes became hostile.

"Tsk-" Mira turned her head.

"Run!"