178 WOULD YOU REALLY NOT EXPLODE? (1/2)

ARGENT was surprised hearing this person say the name of his master.  But she was careful not to show it on her face.  She knew her master had an infamous reputation.  Mostly because of what he did at his country of origin - Kano.

She wasn't really particular with all the details.  All she knew was that he sieged a castle of a certain warlord of Kano, kill all the people inside and managing to do that all by himself.  But because of what he did, he garnered a lot of enemies.  He had been hiding from all those people since.  Not because he's afraid of them, of course.  Knowing his master, he's probably just too lazy to deal with them.  Heck, he couldn't even be bothered to shave his stubbles, why would he even care about those people?

This person, who looked like a member of a punk-rock band, was most probably from Kano.  As evidence of that shuriken he kept on throwing.  Argent really didn't think much when she saw him throwing those.  But when he mentioned her master, she couldn't help but think of that possibility.

He only mentioned her master when he saw her move and fight.  He only related her master to her because of that.  Which meant that he was quite familiar with her sword technique - the Sui-Ryu style.  Although Argent was not familiar with the life of his master before they met, she knew that all the things that made him famous all happened in Kano.  So the people who could recognize his swordsmanship at a glance could only be from Kano.

She raised her guard up and instead of answering, she immediately attacked the man.

Kazumi didn't really expect the teenager to answer.  He took out a kunai and met the sword coming at him.  The two weapons collided, producing sparks of light.  ”I haven't seen anyone using Sui-Ryu for almost a decade.  It's quite nostalgic.  You just used [Mizukodo] and [Ikkaku] earlier, right?”

Argent was not surprised when she heard this.  After all, she already deduced that the guy was familiar with her sword style.  If she was surprised by one thing, then it was the fact that he could accurately name two of the 12 core techniques of Sui-Ryu style she used earlier.

”Shingen must be doing really well these past years.  Even accepting an apprentice.  Somehow, that makes me really, really... mad,” he continued.

Argent ignored him.  But him directly calling her master by his name must meant that he knew her master personally.  Then she noticed his little movement of throwing a kunai at her feet using his free hand.  She jumped back.  But when she was about to land, another shuriken flew to her direction.  By its trajectory, she could see that it would land at the same time as her and on the exact same place as her.

Her pupils shrank.  She didn't hesitate and immediately used [Kouki].  It's a technique that could make her weightless for a few seconds, allowing her to use the air currents under her feet as a temporary foothold.  This made her stop at the middle.  While airborne, she didn't waste time.  She raised her sword and used [Ikkaku] once again.  But she didn't stop there.  She immediately followed it up with [Habu].

Two explosion suddenly sounded.  One was from the kunai Kazumi threw first, and the other was from the shuriken.  Who would have thought that none of those two actually hit the teenager.  Instead, a big, straight slash came down on Kazumi.  He sneered.  Although he was a bit surprised, with his good reflex, he managed to avoid it with no problem.  What he didn't expect was that the moment he moved to the right, another slash was waiting for him.  This time, he had no chance to avoid it.

Kazumi gritted his teeth and flipped back but that slash still hit his left leg, producing an almost five-inch long wound.  The wound was shallow but it still irked the hell out of him.  How long had it been since he was last wounded?  And it was still caused by the apprentice of Shingen.

But before he could show his anger, something dropped on his shoulder.  He looked up and saw one of the teenager's feet stepping on him, causing him to move a few steps back.  Then he saw him planning to kick the side of his head using his other foot.  Of course, he wouldn't just stand there and do nothing.  Being stepped on was humiliating enough.  There's no way he would take all these lying down.