The Sword Deity in Tokyo

Chapter 65: Yagyu Flying Sword Style

Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

Kazuki knew that everyone’s personality was affected by multiple factors.

Mikito Hanzawa’s parents died when he was a child, and after he grew up, his brother was always out working. It seemed that both of them were interdependent, but due to work reasons, Akie Hanzawa rarely took notice of his younger brother’s daily life.

Therefore, external environmental factors were crucial to Mikito Hanzawa’s development. He developed a submissive personality and his attitude of just scraping by as the days passed. Kazuki was sure that Mikito Hanzawa must have gotten used to being bullied during his years in middle school.

Moreover, according to Akie Hanzawa, his younger brother was interested in light novels and anime. There were many posters of anime beauties, figurines, pillows, accompanying merchandise, and so on scattered around the house. Kazuki knew that Mikito Hanzawa had made these collectibles his spiritual sustenance. Despite the bullying, Mikito Hanzawa had not fallen into depression, and even after the death of his brother, he did not lose his will to live. These collectibles should be given credit for it.

However, to make Mikito Hanzawa change for the better, preaching will be of no use. Practical means must be used to open his eyes, and with Mikito Hanzawa’s submissive personality, only a forceful pressure would make him change.

Therefore, Kazuki did not continue to observe Mikito Hanzawa. He returned home quickly and began his daily work.

Drawing talismans, honing himself, and injecting reiki into the Art of Kendo.

As for that Magatama, he spent half a day studying it yesterday. However, because he was too low level and having too few tools at his disposal, he still could not find out what was the function of this Magatama.

In addition to honing himself, he turned everything inside out to find his middle school textbooks. He dusted them off and then flipped through them. The original host was a decently above-average student, and his body was taken over by another spirit after his death. In the last two months of middle school, he put everything he had into studying and managed to excel in his academics.

On every page of the textbooks were his detailed notations.

He did not know if the Furuhashi sisters still had their middle school textbooks. Even if they had kept them, those books would be blank and entirely unmarked. So, he planned to photocopy these books at a printing shop.

After arranging the books in a stack on the table, Kazuki suddenly sensed a peculiar presence. His vision was quickly shifted onto the Art of Kendo on the table. At this moment, the originally unassuming The Art of Kendo book was glowing faintly.

Is it transforming into a spirit? Kazuki was shocked, his mind was whirling.

It cannot be... Even if he did inject reiki to the Art of Kendo every day, the spirit should not be activated so quickly. According to his calculations, it would probably take him years to do that.

The reiki he injected was nothing compared to the reiki drawn in by The Art of Kendo during the era of recuperation of reiki. Because of that, he would search for a Kendo dojo to learn to fence after getting his first salary as a tutor, which was what he had initially planned.

The glow was so weak that if Kazuki had not kept his attention on the book, it might not have been discovered unless the lights were turned off.

Kazuki could care less about the textbooks right now. He sat in a chair and reverently picked up the ‘The Art of Kendo,’ lightly flipping through it. The light emitted from within was very weak, so just a single page in the book might have metamorphosed.

As expected by Kazuki, when he turned to page 16, he found a faint glow encroaching from the edges of the page toward the center.

Seeing this, Kazuki felt a speculation form in his mind. When this glow completely envelops this page, there will be a change.

The Kendo style recorded on page 16 was the Yagyu Flying Sword Style. Kazuki was not familiar with this Kendo style. In his previous life, he knew that Fumihiro Senshin was Japan’s number one sword sage, but he did not get to know the sword sage in more depth. As a result, he was unaware of the achievements of Fumihiro Senshin and the Kendo style he used.

There were many Chinese practitioners, it didn’t make sense for him to forgo the bird in his hand, for the one in the bush.

The book ‘The Art of Kendo’ was just a scientific history book. Each page recorded a type of style. Descriptions of each style, historical information, but as for swordsmanship, it was not recorded at all.

Kazuki needed to learn swordsmanship at a Kendo dojo. ‘The Art of Kendo’ was just an encyclopedia which didn’t explain how to practice swordsmanship. Otherwise, with his nature, he would have begun to practice it first thing after purchasing this book, instead of just setting it aside.

However... it was also because the book was an educational, scientific book that he managed to get ahold of it.

According to the details on page 16, the Yagyu Flying Sword Style was a style introduced by a sword sage named Isshin Yagyu during the warring era. Isshin Yagyu initially practiced his ancestral Kendo style, the Yagyu Single Sword Style. It preached the braving of all adversity and agony to land a single fatal strike on their opponent.

However, Isshin Yagyu believed that life is valuable. Since men were all spirits of nature, therefore life is noble, so how can lives be handed over to the weapons held in their hands? Everyone only has one life, entrusting their lives to their weapons was an act of sheer stupidity.

So, Isshin Yagyu wandered around the world and honed himself for a decade, finally innovating the Yagyu Flying Sword Style by using the Yagyu Single Sword Style as the foundation.

For Yagyu Flying Sword Style, the key was the words, ‘Flying Sword.’ Yagyu Flying Sword Style focused on extreme speed. The moment the sword was drawn, dozens of slashes would be dished out. The other party would die in an instant, before even being able to react.

With the Yagyu Flying Sword Style, Isshin Yagyu completed the feat of massacring ten thousand people during the warring era, becoming the most revered sword sage in Japanese history.

While staring at page 16, Kazuki observed that the speed of the glowing coverage was neither slow nor fast. He continued to observe it as he began to do some mental arithmetic in silence. The time required for the glow to cover the entire page should take about a week.

A week later, he would know what the change would be. Although he had speculation, he could not confirm it. Kazuki had thought of speeding up the reiki input, but after trying it, he found that there was not much impact on the speed of glow coverage on the page.

However, Kazuki believed that it was a good thing for ‘The Art of Kendo’ to go through a transformation.

Kazuki did not draw any more talismans as he was too unsettled by the changes of ‘The Art of Kendo.’ So, he picked up the middle school textbooks and started to read them patiently, taking notes on some of the core knowledge, to make some preparations for next Monday’s class.

Nevertheless, he reckoned that next Monday, he would not start the lecture directly, because he needed to figure out what level of knowledge the Furuhashi sisters were beforehand.

It seems like I would have to buy some middle school past exam papers...

Nearing midnight, Kazuki finally turned off the lights to get ready for sleep. Looking at the faint glow from ‘The Art of Kendo,’ it seemed like the book could not be brought around these two days. Thus, he placed it in a drawer and locked it with a key.

I’ll draw a couple Immobilizing Talismans to be placed on the table tomorrow, in case there are thieves around...

After that thought in his mind, Kazuki laid on his bed and fell into a deep sleep.

Tomorrow, he had to pay a visit to Akihide High School.