Nothing much happened in the classes for sword arts. Ryfin was teaching us how to gain more control over our magikens, how to use them efficiently, and how to blend the abilities it increased into our sword styles.
I am not proud to say this but at this point in the sword art classes, I was the only student without a magiken. This, of course, invited unwanted attention to me but it’s been a while since I was this and all the taunts and light bullying had stopped by now.
Now, I was able to magiken with the help of the Requiem sword but why I wasn’t using it here, there were two reasons for it.
First, I had no fixed control over it. During my fight with the klauth, I was completely overwhelmed by its power and my enhanced sense that I wasn’t even able to deliver a straight slash. I don’t want to lose control here, hence I was better off not doing it.
And secondly, for some reason, my magiken only worked when I was using the Requiem sword. I had tried doing it with a normal sword, but it didn’t work. I don’t know the reason, but it was on the list of things I’d to ask Req about.
That settles it, I guess. Since I didn’t have anything to do, the three-hour-long class felt like an eternity to me.
๐๐ง๐๐๐ธ๐๐๐oฮฝ๐๐ญ.๐๐m
The way sword arts classes were held made it worse. Unlike the magic classes, here you had to improve by yourself since sword art is all about creating your style.
Ryfin would help the students from time to time, pointing out their mistakes and adjusting their stances, but the rest they had to do on their own. We were in a different bunk room than before, and this one was filled with all sorts of human dummies.
They came in various sizes and body patterns, some clad in armor, while some enchanted with spells that would make them release a little explosion if hit by the sword. Honestly, I could not even describe them completely, the variations were crazy in numbers.
Although, this was like a paradise for the students. The reaction when they first saw this bunk was the same as the one you get after leaving a bunch of kids in a room filled with toys.
It wasn’t long before each of them grabbed the sword and began grinding their sword techniques and beating the hell out of the human dummies. At one point, I even took pity on the poor dummies, all while I slashed one with a magiken-less sword in my hands.
Doing nothing would have been weird and awkward, hence I was perfecting my stance and technique with a normal sword without magiken. In the middle of it all, Req interrupted multiple times, suggesting that she can tell me some good moves but I denied her outright.
That wasn’t what I was trying to do here, I wanted to try and create a technique of my own and use the sword arts how it was supposed to be used. I mean, yeah, until now all of my attacks were a mixed mess of the basics I was taught by Anya and the moves I’d seen in anime and movies. They weren’t a part of any technique.
I was not interested in swords, to begin with, so I ignored this flaw until now, but since I had the Requiem sword now, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try and do the real thing for once.
Therefore I told her to only guide me to improve my stances and work on my basics. The result, well, I was surprised by how much she taught me in three hours.
I won’t say this lightened the fire and bought out my hidden talent for sword arts, no, nothing like that. But it sure made me get a hold of all the basics I had forgotten.
I may be giving Req more credit than she deserved, since all she did was tell me the basics I already knewโwhich Anya taught me. Up until now, they were just pushed back in my memory, and she did the job of bringing them forthโlike revising your syllabus before the exam.
And by the time the classes were over I stepped out of the bunks, I knew all the basic stances, techniques, and attacks whether they be defensive or offensive.
All in all, the sword arts classes weren’t as dry as I thought they would be.
Done with the lessons for today I walked out and on my way saw the time on one of the wall clocks. It was 4:20 in the evening right now.
I was getting hungry, so I headed straight for the cafeteria and had my evening snack accompanied by a large cup of coffee. Then, as I was told by the staff, I went to Ryfin’s office and collected the notes for all the classes I had missed.
No, I didn’t. I went there but came back empty-handed since the offer was that I have to copy the notes by myself. I’ve mentioned this before, but all they taught during the time I was absent was elemental magic, and I had no need for those notes. Hence, I brushed the matter off and came back to my dorm room.
I took off my shoes, got inside, and closed the door. I took off my blazer too and hung it inside the wardrobe, but let the uniform remain on my body. Then I stepped inside the kitchen, grabbed a plate, and came back.
Sitting on my bed, I rested the plate on the desk and emptied the paper bag I was carrying on it. Two round and brown circles with a hole at their center rolled out of the bag and onto the plate. They were donuts I’d bought on my way back.
I waited for a few seconds, sitting quietly before the Requiem sword that was placed in the corner of my room shone a brilliant white, a light that enveloped the whole room within itself for the time it was out.
The light vanished and a girl with dark ocean-blue hair appeared before me.
