Female Swordsman Training Dojo

As night deepened, shadowy figures appeared.

Chapter 168: The Swordsman's Must-Have Show of Pretense

Corporal Tanaka, or rather Sergeant Tanaka, lay on the roof, the dim moonlight falling on the garbage beside him, obscuring the view.

He gently stroked the Arisaka rifle (Type 38 rifle) in his hand. The gleaming gun body exuded a rich gun oil scent, which calmed his excited mind slightly.

He looked at the tall building next door. The lanterns at the entrance on the first floor were still bright, illuminating not only the entrance but also most of the road.

Anyone who passes through here will inevitably be exposed to the lights. And Hiraharunobu, his target will definitely come here as well.

Because this is the newly established Aozora Business Alliance office, Taira no Shin's lackeys are all gathered here, relying on the police and bodyguards to escape the punishment of justice.

Chapter 180

—That's what Corporal Tanaka thinks, anyway.

That's pretty much true, after all, Qingxin's partners aren't stupid enough to continue splitting up when things have escalated to this point. Otherwise, they might all be taken away by a bullet or even a knife one day.

Furthermore, the fact that they were united and gathered together would facilitate collaborative work, so they decided to buy this five-story building in Asakusa and use it as their joint headquarters.

Then Hijikata Souji sent some police officers, along with bodyguards they hired themselves, so they were assured they wouldn't be killed by the psychopathic gunman.

With their combined financial resources and the influence of Harunobu, they even hired an Onmyoji to set up a protective barrier. Even if monsters or other creatures invaded, with the barrier and manpower, they could at least hold out until Harunobu came to rescue them, if not completely safe.

Therefore, Corporal Tanaka couldn't blow his head off from 800 meters away, nor could he sneak in.

But it doesn't matter. If he can't get into the heavily guarded high-rise buildings, can't he at least snipe Hiraharu, who comes over every night to check the situation?

Stroking the brand-new rifle in his hand, Corporal Tanaka grinned maliciously.

He knew Taira no Harunobu was formidable, but he was ultimately just a samurai who wielded a sword. No matter how skilled he was, could he possibly fly hundreds of meters away to the rooftop and deliver a fatal blow?

Moreover, this is all on the premise that his head wasn't blown apart by a single shot.

But how is this possible?

It's not like he hasn't killed samurai before. Those down-on-their-luck samurai who still live in the shogunate era and refuse to accept the return of their lands and the Meiji Restoration reforms always manage to suddenly start some strange rebellions.

But no matter how skilled they are with their swords, a single bullet can still take them down.

No matter how fast it is, it's just one round, or at most two rounds of salvo.

Now, he is simply repeating the actions he performed on the battlefield.

Corporal Tanaka brought his eye close to the scope and aimed at the open space in front of Harunobu. Meanwhile, the soldiers hidden in the alley below released the safety of their homemade pistols, aimed at Harunobu, and pulled the trigger.

Gunshots rang out!

Ten men, ten guns, 90 bullets.

They fired simultaneously from both the front and rear, forming a temporary barrage of fire. A barrage that was utterly insurmountable for any single individual!

Even so, Corporal Tanaka kept his eyes fixed on the empty space in his scope. Having participated in suppressing a samurai rebellion, he knew very well that a samurai's premonitions were often irrational; sometimes, just by aiming at him, a samurai could sense someone plotting against him from hundreds of meters away, which was why he aimed at the empty space.

He believed that a powerful samurai like Taira no Harunobu must have already noticed the soldiers aiming at him, and given his fierce nature, he would definitely charge forward to try and eliminate those soldiers. In other words, he would be offering his own head to the muzzle of his gun!

……

But the next second, the second after the gunshot rang out, Corporal Tanaka stared blankly at the open space in front of him.

No, didn't Taira no Harunobu notice anything? He was just shot to death like that?

"Won?"

At that moment, the same thought crossed the minds of the soldiers and Corporal Tanaka.

Without the aid of magic, no human could survive this level of firepower!

Corporal Tanaka released his index finger from the trigger, even excitedly pumping his fist. He hadn't expected the mission to go so smoothly; he had been prepared for Hiraharu Nobu to escape alive and had even planned ahead for the number of snipers.

After all, these samurai do have a certain intuition for danger, and it would be easy to detect if you aimed a gun directly at them.

But now, there's no need to think about those things anymore. All that's left to do is... um? What are those guys still doing standing there? Are they waiting for the police to come and arrest them?

Corporal Tanaka looked at his subordinates with a puzzled expression, then looked closer at the scope with a questioning gaze.

As his field of vision zoomed in, his eyes began to tremble.

Pupil earthquake.JPG

He didn't see the corpse of Taira no Harunobu riddled with bullets as he had imagined. In fact, he only saw Taira no Harunobu's calm face and his constantly waving longsword.

Water Breathing? Eleventh Type? Water!

Harunobu swung his dagger, swiftly and precisely cleaving the incoming bullets in two, allowing them to avoid his body and fall to the ground.

Seeing this, Corporal Tanaka's hands trembled, and instinctively he turned his gaze toward Harunobu's feet.

The bright yellow bullet fell precisely, its cross-section as smooth as if it had been polished.

!! ?

Corporal Tanaka quickly dropped the rifle he had just been treating like a precious treasure, as if it were a red-hot branding iron, and rushed towards the pre-arranged evacuation route with incredible speed.

Harunobu, having finished firing his bullets, took a step forward amidst the click-clack of empty chambers. His shoes made a soft sound as they touched the ground, but to the soldiers, it was like a thunderclap.

Without prior arrangement, they turned and ran.

But Harunobu wasn't so kind as to let the murderers who tried to turn him into a sieve go. His soft, watery breathing surged forth, allowing him to swiftly and smoothly overtake the soldiers, and in the blink of an eye, he knocked them all to the ground with the back of his sword.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that Qingxin is afraid of their status as soldiers and doesn't dare to make a move, he just doesn't want to waste these ready-made teaching tools.

He followed the same method, catching up with and defeating the soldiers fleeing in another alley. Harunobu glanced at the rooftop where Corporal Tanaka had been lying and shook his head regretfully.

He ran faster than he expected; no wonder he's an elite sergeant. But that's about enough; quantity is more important.

Dropping the soldier in his arms, Harunobu called out to those behind him, "Mrs. Tachibana, you can come over now!"

Tachibana Nako, who had been left behind to wait for orders from the beginning, came over with her almond-shaped eyes wide open and her cherry-like mouth unusually agape, forming an "O" shape.

After all, cutting bullets is such a spectacular sight!

Moreover, throughout the entire process, the teacher only used the breathing technique of water!

"So? Now you know how powerful Water Breathing is, right?"

As Qingxin spoke, he habitually performed a blood-vibration technique to shake off the flame scent from the ashen blade and then sheathed it.

"Yes!" Tachibana Nako exclaimed excitedly, her voice trembling. "I fully understand!"

"I see... Then tell me what moves I used just now, starting from when I told you to stand by."

Qingxin entered the in-class quiz mode.

Nako Tachibana also thought about it seriously, and after a moment she replied, "Since I left, Master has been maintaining the Eleventh Form, Zami, right? And when we got close to the alley, he must have already sensed the presence of the enemy, so he was very calm when faced with the attack and launched a counterattack immediately."

"During the counterattack, I used the First Form: Water Surface Slash, the Ninth Form: Water Stream Spray, and the Fourth Form: Strike Tide."

"Finally, in order to capture these murderers, I used the Third Form: Ryuubu!"

After saying that, Tachibana Nako looked at Harunobu with some trepidation, like a student waiting for the teacher to judge her grades... Hmm, that seems to be the case.

Harunobu didn't tease her, and nodded affirmatively: "You're absolutely right, no wonder you're a genius of the Water Sword."

"No, it's all thanks to the good education provided by the teachers' college..."

Before Nako could finish her happy words, Harunobu interrupted her.

“However, your questioning of the Water Sword makes me very unhappy, so I will punish you now.”

Nako Tachibana immediately pursed her lips, looking nervously at Harunobu. Despite being a mother of a six-year-old, she acted like a nervous elementary school student in front of Harunobu.

She asked cautiously, "Um, what are the punishments at the teachers' college?"

Chapter 169: The Secret of Cutting Bullets (Third Update)

"Don't worry, I'm not some kind of devil."

Chapter 181

"I won't deliberately make things difficult for you." Harunobu said, and as Tachibana Nako calmed down, he pointed to the soldiers he had left together, "If you can defeat these people with the Water Sword, I will approve that you can continue learning the Water Sword."

"that's it?"

Naoko blinked, feeling that Shifan was really too gentle, which made her an easy target for bullying.

Just then, the soldiers woke up, so Harunobu didn't bother arguing with the arrogant young lady. Instead, he looked at the soldiers whose eyes were filled with fear.

“You are the bravest Yakuza I have ever seen, so I can give you a chance.”

"If you can defeat my disciple, I will let you go. Otherwise, prepare to spend your whole life in prison."

"No, you might even be shot. After all, killing someone with a gun is a serious crime, let alone attacking a samurai like me."

"So you are Yakuza. If you were soldiers, breaking the law would be an even more serious crime, and it might even implicate your family."

Harunobu watched with satisfaction as the soldiers grew increasingly tense and fearful, then called out to the Qingkong Business Alliance office, "Hey! You over there! Bring over a few knives! Wooden knives are best!"

Soon, someone approached, bowing respectfully and somewhat awkwardly, and presented ten real swords: "Master Ping, we don't have any wooden swords here..."

"Well then, that's settled then. Thank you." Harunobu politely returned the greeting, accepted the ten katana, and turned to the soldiers. "Let's get started right here, with everyone as witnesses."

Seeing the police uniform on the man who had just come over with a knife, the soldiers' last shred of hope vanished.

They initially thought that as long as they denied it to the death, Hiraharu Shinji wouldn't have any evidence to prove what they had done. And even just to reassure the remaining brothers, Major Katsura Konosuke would never abandon them!

But upon seeing the policeman, their fear-driven minds finally remembered the large group of witnesses nearby. Perhaps even police officers were among them! Maybe their heroic actions of firing their weapons had already been captured on camera.

Taira no Shin wasn't threatening them; he was simply stating the facts of what was about to happen, and even offering them a way out.

Either they honestly accepted their Yakuza identity and were imprisoned or executed, or they exposed their military status, which would not only certainly lead to their execution but also implicate their entire family.

As for defeating Taira no Shin's disciple and successfully escaping punishment?

Give them two hundred... no, three hundred meters, and give them an automatic rifle, and they'll give it a try. But Taira no Shin's intention was clearly to have them engage in close combat. What's the point of that? Although the army does have swordsmanship training, it's not the focus of their training, nor is it their area of ​​expertise.

And it goes without saying that the swordsmanship of Taira no Harunobu's disciples is extremely high; they definitely cannot win.

The soldiers' frustration was obvious, and Harunobu noticed it, so he added, "If you think you can't beat them one-on-one, you can all come at me together."

After saying this, the soldiers finally regained their confidence, each picking up a katana and scattering into a scattered formation. Only Tachibana Nako looked completely bewildered; her earlier sense of certainty had vanished in an instant.

One against ten?

I?

"This is punishment, Mrs. Tachibana." Harunobu, who had stepped aside, switched back to Thunder Breathing, preparing to provide assistance, even though theoretically it wasn't necessary. As long as Tachibana Nako, who was already a Water Breathing intermediate practitioner, didn't make any mistakes, dealing with these ten soldiers whose sword-wielding posture was not even standard should be quite easy.

Tachibana Nako reluctantly drew her katana from her waist and habitually announced, "Natural Harushin-ryu, First Generation, Tachibana Nako."

The soldiers announced their names one by one, and then launched their attack simultaneously.

Two soldiers charged from the front, while three attacked from each flank. The last two circled around to Tachibana Nako's back, attempting a backstab. These soldiers had said they had given up, but faced with the chance to escape punishment, they still gave it their all. They had never coordinated so well during military exercises and training!

Facing the approaching enemy, Tachibana Nako, who had calmed down and accepted reality during the roll call, exhaled a breath of stale air, and her body, which seemed somewhat heavy due to her impressive bust, began to swell in an instant.

Water Breathing - Third Form - Flowing Dance!

He dodged the upward slash coming from the front to the left, and at the same time, he slashed at the hands of the two people attacking from the left, causing them to drop their weapons in pain. Then he kicked the katana in mid-air, sending them to the waist and legs of the third person on the left who was a step slower.

Having successfully dealt with the three on the left, the enemies on the right and in front had caught up. Tachibana Nako moved again, arriving next to the enemy who had become separated from his teammates due to turning. She grazed his hastily slashing katana and struck him on the neck, knocking him unconscious.

Then jump away again and repeat the above behavior.

The battle ended easily, in less than a minute, and Nako Tachibana remained in a state of water breathing the entire time.

This was within Harunobu's expectations; he hadn't intended to make things difficult for Tachibana Nako through this "punishment." He simply wanted her to have a direct understanding of her current fighting strength, especially after learning Water Breathing. Besides that, he wanted to see if Tachibana Nako would change in real combat—like Amu Hojo did.

However, it seems that this is not the case now.

Even in real combat, Tachibana Nako's temperament is still so...soft? She's not even as assertive and domineering as she was at the "parent-teacher meeting".

"Teacher training, I've completed it."

Naoko carefully sheathed her sword, approached Harunobu, and whispered something.

Qingxin snapped out of her daze and nodded: "Yes, you succeeded. How do you feel now?"

"That's amazing!" Tachibana Nako looked up at Harunobu, her eyes sparkling. "But, what level of skill does a teacher need to reach to cut bullets as easily as you did just now?"

"This... you can have it now." Harunobu pulled a fox-shaped ema (votive plaque) from his pocket. "As long as you have this."