Chapter 189: Kendo, Ito Ittosai (Long Chapter)
Ting, ting, ting...
The continuous clashing of blades echoed through the field of reeds, sounding like a piece of the most intense music. As it reached its frantic climax, the sound shifted into that of a cruel slaughter. Life after life flickered out amidst those metallic collisions.
Severed reeds, distinct sword gashes in the earth, the metallic scent of blood spreading through the air; the sky grew increasingly dim, golden lightning snaking through the clouds as if the heavens might collapse at any moment.
A severed hand, drenched in blood, lay discarded on the ground. Three fingers were already missing from it before it had been lopped off. A few meters away from the limb, two corpses stood perfectly upright.
Even in death, they refused to fall. The long swords in their hands acted as crutches, propping up their motionless bodies.
Ting, ting, ting...
Ten meters away stood Akishin. His right hand was the only limb left relatively intact, though his entire body was soaked in crimson. His kendo uniform had been reduced to tattered rags. His left arm, severed at the elbow, was bound tightly with bandages, yet blood continued to drip, one bead after another.
A gash ran across his face, deep enough to expose the bone beneath the flesh. Yet, Akishin seemed oblivious to the pain. His eyes were bloodshot, fixed solely on the enemy before him. He looked utterly mad, yet at the same time, unnervingly calm.
The sword patterns on [Rebirth] in his hand had grown increasingly strange, pulsing with a faint, eerie red glow.
Ting!
Facing a Tachi blade swinging toward his neck, a flicker of loss appeared in Akishin's bloodshot eyes. He leaned back with every ounce of strength he had, the blade sliding harmlessly past his skin.
The next second, a foot slammed into Akishin's stomach.
Bang!
Akishin was sent flying, spraying a mist of blood into the air. He crashed several meters away, his body suffering immediate, heavy trauma.
Cough!
More blood erupted from his mouth, mixed with bits of internal organs. His body trembled slightly. There was no resentment, no crying out; instead, he actually laughed...
Ito Ittosai. A legendary grandmaster of the sword from Japan's Sengoku period. He had spent his life traveling the provinces, testing his skills against masters everywhere, eventually founding the Itto-ryu style—a school that would go on to define Japanese Kendo for generations.
He was a foundational ancestor, a patriarch of the blade.
Compared to the Kendo of Sanada Nobushige or Yagyu Jubei, Ito Ittosai's style wasn't flashy or wide-reaching, nor was it particularly cunning or cruel.
He simply ensured that every slash, every thrust, and every movement consolidated his essence, energy, and spirit. It was peerless, impenetrable—a true interpretation of the profound secrets of Itto-ryu.
——Whatever stands before me, I shall cleave it with a single strike.
And he didn't limit himself to the sword. As long as it secured victory, he would use his fists and feet without hesitation.
Akishin couldn't parry Ito Ittosai's strikes. Even when he managed to block, the sheer force behind the blows would leave his arms mangled.
Furthermore, after killing Sanada Nobushige and Yagyu Jubei, his leg tendons had already snapped from the forced use of the Piercing technique...
A complete monster. Even with Akishin's strength stat at 23 points, he couldn't hold his ground.
Dressed in linen Gofuku, with grayish-white hair and a rugged face, the old man carried an air of natural authority without needing to express anger. His build was sturdier than Suzuki Tsuyoshi's, standing half a head taller than him as well...
Watching the tall old man approach, Akishin's gaze drifted to the side. Two other figures stood there, watching the scene with indifferent eyes.
Finally, Akishin looked up at the sky.
A gentle breeze brushed against his body, which had turned hot from excessive blood loss. It felt cold, not painful. With the last of his strength, he asked: "Patch, which round is this?" But no sound came out.
Patch replied: [Round 98.]
"... Almost at a hundred rounds, huh! ... I need to go home soon! ... Shizuka is still waiting for me! ... Tomorrow I still have to attend Soichi's parent-teacher meeting! ... I'm not even married yet! Ha~~"
Struggling with his broken body, his wounds tearing open once more, he slowly forced himself up, using [Rebirth] to prop himself steady.
Kendo is an art of technique and strength, supplemented by 'spirit.'
For experts at the level of Akishin and his opponents, spirit outweighed technique.
The approaching old man wasn't in perfect condition either. His body was covered in wounds. A massive gash yawned across his left shoulder, cutting through a third of it.
His chest bore a sword scar deep enough to reach the bone. Half of his aged face was sunken in, yet his eyes remained razor-sharp.
Ito Ittosai stepped over the blood-soaked reeds, stopping two meters in front of Akishin. The wind whipped through his grayish hair. In the old man's eyes, Akishin saw a flicker of acknowledgment.
Akishin smirked.
But the blood filling his mouth made the smile look absolutely ghastly. He could no longer move; at this point, he was simply waiting for death to claim him.
He just refused to lie down in the dirt and be butchered.
In the first thirty rounds, he had finally managed to kill Sanada Nobushige and Yagyu Jubei in succession, but after that, he had never been able to break past this tall old geezer...
If it were a one-on-one duel starting at full health, Akishin was confident he could take them down, but this was a gauntlet of consecutive battles.
After cutting down Sanada Nobushige, he immediately had to face Yagyu Jubei. Once finished with Jubei, he had to face Ito Ittosai. And behind him stood Sasaki Kojiro, and finally, Miyamoto Musashi!
Was Yagyu Jubei weaker than Ito Ittosai?
Not necessarily.
At their level of Kendo, all of them were heroes, the protagonists of their own eras who had survived countless slaughters. Each of their lives was a legend. Small differences in skill didn't mean much.
Besides, their focuses were different.
If Ito Ittosai and Yagyu Jubei were to fight, the winner would likely be Yagyu Jubei.
That was just Akishin's personal assessment.
The difficulty lay in the endurance. Often, by the time Akishin killed Sanada and Yagyu, he was already heavily wounded by the time he reached Ito Ittosai.
Out of 98 rounds of slaughter, he had only actually reached Ito Ittosai 35 times!
These five weren't mindless objects or set programs. While they didn't speak to Akishin, they observed, adapted, used tactics, and weren't bound by formality.
While Akishin studied their Kendo, they were busy researching his weaknesses.
Everyone was moving forward; everyone was covering their flaws.
How could he defeat them?
Simple—just move forward faster than they do!
This was the hardest bottleneck Akishin had faced so far, without exception. If he couldn't overcome it, he would be trapped here forever, disappearing from the outside world, and Shizuka would lose him for good.
98 rounds of slaughter represented 97 deaths, and he was about to welcome the 98th.
——This isn't a game. The sensation of death is terrifyingly real.
Previously, Akishin had never died this many times. Normally, his mental state would have started to fracture by now, but he was surprisingly calm. The closer death felt, the calmer he became. All his previous negative emotions had vanished...
Akishin had never felt this tranquil. He could clearly hear the swaying of the reeds; he could feel the trajectory of the wind. Even the increasingly strange [Rebirth] in his hand became quiet, restrained, and hidden, its violent aura completely retracted.
[Sword Meditation], though it didn't consolidate sword shadows in his mind, continued to run on its own...
The two stared at each other for ten full seconds. The blood beneath Akishin had already pooled into a small pond.
He was going to die from blood loss very soon.
Yet, he laughed.
Ito Ittosai moved, stepping forward, the O-dachi in his hand sweeping toward Akishin's neck...
...
When his consciousness returned, he was back at the very starting point of the battle.
The severed reeds, the sword marks in the dirt, the splattered blood, the fallen limbs... everything had vanished and reset. A wind that was neither weak nor strong continued to blow through the reeds. Black clouds rolled in the sky, golden lightning gestating within them, waiting for the moment to strike.
Akishin stood in his original spot, gripping [Rebirth] tightly. His scars, his severed left hand, his stamina, his clothes... everything had been restored.
It made one wonder if everything before had just been a nightmare!
Akishin raised a hand as if to touch his neck. Halfway there, he lowered it. He shook his head with a faint smile, looking at the five figures standing tall before him.
A powerful, sword-like aura continued to press down on the surroundings.
Akishin no longer cared about it.
He raised his right hand, pointing his blade toward the five of them. For the first time, he spoke to the group: "Remember this, all of you—my name is Chishima Akishin! If we ever meet again, I'll definitely buy you all a drink, hahaha..."
He suddenly burst into laughter. It was a laugh of freedom, of arrogance, of madness, and of genuine honesty. His laughter filled the reed field, carried by the wind to distant places...
The five figures remained silent for two seconds, then gave a single nod.
Sanada Nobushige gripped his twin blades and stepped out.
This time, he actively walked toward Akishin.
Akishin's smile faded. He gripped [Rebirth] and moved forward slowly. As they closed the distance, Sanada Nobushige's twin O-dachi slashed horizontally from left to right.
Akishin held his sword horizontally, gripping it with both hands. The veins in his arms bulged. He performed an upward slash, striking both O-dachi simultaneously.
CLANG!!!!!!
The massive sound nearly shattered his eardrums. Both of Sanada Nobushige's O-dachi were instantly knocked wide open. Standing in the Chishimaya stance, one could clearly see the look of horror in Sanada's eyes.
Sanada Nobushige's defense was wide open. Akishin stepped forward, his long sword piercing directly through Sanada's heart.
Sanada Nobushige lowered his head, staring at the blade buried in his chest. Perhaps not expecting to lose so quickly, his eyes were full of disbelief.
——He still had enough strength left to raise his sword and at least wound Akishin in that moment, but he didn't do it.
He nodded to Akishin once more. His twin O-dachi fell to the ground to support his weight as the life slowly drained from him.
If one had to rank the Kendo strength of the five, Sanada Nobushige was the weakest. But Sanada wasn't purely a swordsman; he was a general, a warlord. He was at his strongest on a battlefield atop a warhorse, fighting with a long spear...
Akishin pulled out [Rebirth], releasing a spray of blood. He flicked the blade gently, and the bloodstains splattered across the snow-white reeds, looking sharp and vivid.
One down!
Stepping forward again, Akishin turned toward Yagyu Jubei. Each footfall felt as if he were walking a path paved in blood.
There was no killing intent, no aura of violence—just a man walking forward with a sword in quiet contemplation.
Yagyu Jubei mirrored the movement, coming out to meet him.
As they drew close, Akishin reached out his left hand, and a scabbard materialized.
Shh~ Clack!
[Rebirth] entered the sheath. Akishin's body coiled, lunging forward.
Yagyu Jubei instinctively took a defensive stance.
The next second, the blade flashed out.
[Iai-jutsu · Swallow Strike · Triple Strike.]
Ting!
The first strike. Yagyu Jubei parried it, sparks flying.
TING!!
The second strike, the one with the most power. Yagyu Jubei parried this too, but his blade was knocked off-course.
Puchi!
The third strike, the strangest one. Yagyu Jubei hadn't anticipated it and couldn't block. The blade sliced through the wrist holding his sword. He watched with his own eyes as his right hand, still clutching his blade, fell to the ground.
Finally, [Rebirth] in Akishin's hand performed a forward thrust, piercing Yagyu Jubei's heart.
In a mere instant, Yagyu Jubei had been defeated.
The three men watching from dozens of meters away took on increasingly serious expressions.
"Jubei, you could say this was the easiest time I've ever had killing you."
Akishin looked at his right hand, where the skin between his thumb and forefinger had torn. He smiled at the Yagyu Jubei before him, as if saying goodbye to an old friend.
He leaned down, picked up the long sword from the ground, and handed it to Yagyu Jubei.
Yagyu Jubei stared deeply at Akishin. His left hand took the sword, using it to prop up his body as he lost his signs of life.
Akishin withdrew [Rebirth] with a single flick, adding another bright stain to the white reeds.
Two down!
He stepped forward again, walking toward Ito Ittosai.
The wind suddenly picked up, blowing through Akishin's fine hair and revealing the sharp, narrow eyes beneath.
The black clouds sank lower, golden lightning pulsing within them...
Shh~
Ito Ittosai drew the O-dachi that had consistently blocked Akishin's path.
Akishin began to run, faster and faster. Closing in on Ito Ittosai, he bent his knees.
[Piercing.]
He vanished in a blur, leaving two small craters in the dirt behind him.
Ito Ittosai performed a downward vertical slash. Akishin held his sword with both hands, meeting it head-on.
Clang! Shh~
The two long blades collided, grinding against each other and showering sparks. Their handguards locked together. Ito Ittosai took a step back, leaving a deep footprint.
Akishin was practically pressed against Ito Ittosai. Both sides' swords were supporting each other. They glared at one another through the steel; neither willing to yield, neither daring to make the slightest move. A single lapse, and a head would be rolling the next second.
In the end, Ito Ittosai's raw strength was still superior.
Akishin was forced back.
The blades separated, then instantly clashed again. [Rebirth] in Akishin's hand was being pinned down.
Seizing the opening, Ito Ittosai kicked at Akishin's ankle. Simultaneously, his long sword slid past [Rebirth] in a forward thrust, piercing directly between Akishin's chest and stomach.
As Ito Ittosai prepared to drive the blade deeper, Akishin didn't retreat. Instead, he lunged forward into the man.
Puchi!
Half the blade emerged from Akishin's back, the once-clean steel now drenched in blood. Ito Ittosai tried to pull back, but Akishin threw his left arm around him in a hug. His right hand raised [Rebirth] and plunged it into Ito Ittosai's heart from behind.
Blood leaked from Akishin's mouth as he chuckled softly: "Old man, how about you let me pass? I'll give you three glasses of alcohol."
Ito Ittosai's sword, which had been about to twist and disembowel him, stopped.
Akishin pulled out [Rebirth] and laughed: "Thanks." He stepped back, the long sword sliding out of his body. A pale hue washed over his face, and he knit his brows slightly in pain.
Ito Ittosai flicked his long sword, the blood scattering in an arc across the white reeds. He pressed both hands onto the hilt of his sword. His tall body stood straight, and he slowly lost his signs of life.
Akishin flicked [Rebirth], blood once again forming an arc on the snow-white reeds.
Three down!
Checking the wound between his chest and stomach, he saw it had luckily missed his vital organs.
He lifted his feet, walking toward the fourth person.
It was a middle-aged man. A very handsome middle-aged man, wearing a Kendo uniform from the Sengoku era. His aura was gentle. If one didn't look closely, he didn't look like a swordsman at all, but rather a poet.
Sasaki Kojiro. A master of the sword from the Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He held the title of Ganryu (or Kishiryu). A famous swordsman from the late Sengoku period who founded his own school.
Legend has it he was incredibly handsome and specialized in using a three-shaku long sword—because the blade was so long and its reach so wide, he developed a secret technique to slice swallows in mid-air, as even a swallow couldn't fly out of his range. It was named [Tsubame Gaeshi].
He had dueled Miyamoto Musashi, whom later generations revered as the "Sword Saint," at Ganryujima (Funashima Island) in Shimonoseki City.
In most people's knowledge, the winner of that duel was Miyamoto Musashi, who killed Sasaki Kojiro. But in reality, the details of the duel, the participants, and the ultimate outcome are still debated by historians.
Perhaps this was a special arrangement by Patch. Since Miyamoto Musashi was also here, this order wasn't a mistake.
Akishin walked toward Sasaki Kojiro, sword in hand.
Sasaki Kojiro looked at him, but shook his head.
Akishin's footsteps faltered, his face showing confusion. Did that mean he wouldn't fight?
Sasaki Kojiro didn't explain. The next second, he drew his beloved sword, an inheritance from his master—the three-shaku, two-sun long Noda-chi, [Monohoshizao].
Shh~
The beautiful blade carried a faint blue shimmer.
Sasaki Kojiro raised [Monohoshizao], pointing his sword toward Miyamoto Musashi!
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