A twenty-year-old girl was producing swordsmanship that a master of any age, let alone hers, would have killed for, her footwork leaving no wasted motion, the katana changing angles between heartbeats to find gaps in Kaede's guard that had no business existing at the speed their exchange was running.
'The rightful heir...' The thought passed through the Fujimori ranks like a current beneath still water. 'A once-in-a-lifetime genius of the sword... If only...'
No one finished it.
Kaede's blade came down, and the thought died with it.
The strike buckled the ground beneath Ayame's guard. She caught it on the flat of her katana, and her boots carved furrows through earth as the impact drove her three full meters back.
The same soldiers went pale.
They knew Kaede was strong, but the gap between the last time they'd seen her fight and now had widened even further. She was growing rapidly, even after reaching her current power level...
