“AHH-ahhhhhh—!!!” Kashima grasped his arm and screamed. He threw himself to the ground and was stunned to find Lily with a blood-dripping sword.1
The other four disciples were also astonished. They were prohibited from fighting each other with real swords in the dojo grounds, but Lily really couldn’t bear it anymore to witness the innocent Nanako being bullied and humiliated. She had completely lost her rationality and only killing intent filled her thoughts.
“You! —You lunatic!! You frigging madwoman!! How dare you cut my hand, ahhhhhh—!” Kashima held his severed arm and kept shuffling backward, “Go and kill that female lunatic!!”
Although these guys were momentarily stunned by Lily’s display, they were still the disciples of this dojo and brave samurai that wouldn’t shirk back from killing. It was just that, however, they only had wooden swords and didn’t have any real swords with them.
As such, they drew their wooden swords and attacked Lily.2
That one strike was done in a fit of rage, but after she calmed down a bit later, she realized that these were no ordinary enemies. Regardless of their moral conduct, they were still the disciples of the prominent Genji clan, she couldn’t simply kill them!
If that wasn’t the case, Lily wouldn’t go through the trouble to cut off Kashima’s hand, but his head instead.
She could still be excused if she cut off Kashima’s hand in a fit of rage, but she would really be in for it if she killed fellow disciples with a real sword while they used wooden swords, even though she really had the urge to do just that.
Lily turned her blade and faced her opponents with the back of the sword. Then her other hand grabbed the scabbard.
Those disciples were late-stage swordmasters at best, they threw themselves at Lily without holding back.
To Lily, however, swordmasters were nothing to write home about.
She held the Crescent Moon single-handedly and swung it with unbelievable speed.
“Clink! Clank!” She repelled the wooden swords of two disciples, took that chance to step forward and got between the two of them, then she abruptly whipped and jabbed with the scabbard in her other hand.
“Flip! Swoosh!” One of them was sent flying and left a big hole in the wooden wall, the other one fell forward while holding onto his stomach.
The remaining two attacked from behind in succession.
Lily intercepted one of the wooden swords with the back of Crescent Moon and slid all the way down to his hand, it was his bane that the wooden sword didn’t have a hilt guard.
“Argh!” The disciple let out a cry as his bones were fractured.
The other disciple managed to land a hit on Lily’s head with a resounding ‘bang’!
The wooden sword broke on impact, causing Lily to stagger and her long hair to cover the face.
“Sister Lily!” Nanako shouted weakly with concern. “Hahaha!” That disciple laughed complacently.
However, contrary to his expectation, Lily didn’t collapse but spread her legs to maintain her stance. When she lifted her head, one could see the blood trickling from her forehead, but her eyes were glowing with an ominous red color.3
“Eeek!” That disciple was overwhelmed by Lily’s killing intent, he let go of his broken wooden sword and fell on the ground limply.
Then, he turned around and crawled out of the room as though to run away.
These four disciples were ranked in the forties and thirties, and yet, three of them were defeated while the last one had run away!
Even Kashima, whose severed wrist continued to bleed non-stop, was shocked by this.
Lily took two steps forward and pointed her long tachi in front of Kashima’s chest.
“Just what is going on here?” Lily asked coldly.
“M-misunderstanding… this is a misunderstanding! Y-your attendant spoke rudely to our boss and insulted him, t-that’s why we- we came to teach her a lesson. It’s a misunderstanding!” Kashima panicked and explained in a hurry.
“You lie… it- it’s…” Nanako’s little face was bright red, but the intense pain caused her to pause momentarily.
“Spurt!” Lily stabbed Kashima lightly, “Speak the truth.”
“Eeek— Y- what are you doing! Are you trying to kill me? I am the young master of the Kashima clan from Mikawa, my father is the elder of Tokugawa Shigemori, one of the Furinkazan, then what about you? What status do you have to blatantly kill in the dojo? This is a matter between us and that little b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲, what right do you have to interfere? Do you know of the consequences if you kill a disciple in the dojo? C-can you undertake the respon—”
“Pfff—”
Lily thrusts the sword deeper into Kashima’s body.4
“Argggghhhhhh— It hurts!!! You lunatic, are you crazy?!”
Lily stared at him with no emotion and said with an icy tone, “Listen, I have no idea what the consequences are for killing you, but what I do know is that, if my Crescent Moon pierces you a little deeper, you will no longer be alive to witness it for yourself.”
Kashima was stunned momentarily. Lily’s crimson eyes seemed to carry a hint of delight and bloodthirsts, it was as though she viewed killing as a pleasure and not a sin.
He suddenly felt that this woman wasn’t all talk, if she said she would do it, she would!
A demon! This Lily is not normal, she’s practically a bloodsucking demon!5
Kashima was terrified…
“Wait! Stop! I-I will say it, I will tell you everything, don’t kill me… b-but can you give me a moment to stop the bleeding first?”
“Say it first, and stop the bleeding later,” Lily coldly urged him.
Kashima trembled all over as his willpower collapsed. He told Lily everything, from Tokugawa’s scheme to poison her with the tea powder and threatening Nanako with the drug.
“The antidote, the undiluted version, give it here!”
“Yes…” Kashima took out a yellow pill with his trembling hand, “Eat this, and the poison in her body will be completely dispelled.”
Only then did Lily withdraw her blade. She received the antidote and immediately let Nanako take it.
After taking the antidote, Nanako’s complexion started to look better. Her eyes were teary and brimmed with resentment, but she only pursed her lips and flinched.
Lily glanced at Kashima and his group, “What are you loitering here for, get out!”
They shuddered and lent each other an arm to get up staggeringly, then they quickly scrammed out of the room.
“Wait!” Just when Kashima was about to reach the door, Lily stopped him with the sword pressed against his neck. He was scared stiff and broke out in cold sweat.
“Tokugawa, where is he?” “A-at the dojo, p-practicing his sword skills…”
Lily turned her blade and used the side to fling Kashima, causing him to scream as he rolled out of the house, then he crawled up to his feet and ran through the rainy street.
After making sure they were gone, Lily got beside Nanako and stooped down to support her back, “Nanako… are you alright?”
“I-I’m… Nanako is fine… I’m fine…” Only one side of Nanako’s messy hair was bundled up, her complexion was pale and there was blood at the corner of her mouth, she also had quite a few injuries on her body. Never had she imagined the Genji Main Dojo she always admired would be such a vicious place. If Lily hadn’t arrived on time, she really had no idea what would become of her.
With all these grievances accumulated, Nanako finally succumbed and dropped her strong front, she trembled as tears flowed out of her big eyes unrestrained, then she buried her face in Lily’s bosom and cried out loud.
“Big sis, why are you so late! Why did you only come now— Nanako was so scared! They bullied Nanako, they are so scary! Tokugawa is scary! Wuaaaaahhh—” 6
Lily didn’t see it with her own eyes, but she could imagine how frightened Nanako was. With Nanako’s haughty attitude, there was no way she would easily show her weakness before Lily. The threat and fright Tokugawa instilled in Nanako was perhaps worse than that time she was kidnapped by Hojo and Akira’s gang!
Those were mere hoodlums, but Tokugawa was different, he was from the same school! For a Genji disciple to be this malicious and despicable, it was really unexpected!
“Bang!” Lily punched the ground and smashed the floor!
“Tokugawa Shigetsugu!” A cold flame burned within Lily’s eyes.
After Nanako calmed down a little, she pulled Lily’s sleeve and said out of concern, “Sister Lily, you must not go look for Tokugawa! I heard that he was third ranked in the dojo, he’s too strong! Although big sis is strong too, Tokugawa is still too much for you to handle. Moreover, his father is from the most prominent clan in Mikawa second only to Ashikaga, and he’s one of the four strongest in Kanto. Sister Lily, we must not use brute strength to deal with Tokugawa!”
Nanako fished out the tea powder packet, “Sister Lily, we can just give this to Teacher Sakiko and report him.”
Lily cast a gentle gaze at Nanako and held her hands, then she took the packet and stuffed it into her sash. Afterward, she held Nanako up in a princess carry.
“Huh? Sister Lily, what… are you doing?”
Lily opened the parasol and carried Nanako all the way to Shimizu’s house. Although Shimizu and Yoshiko weren’t around, there was another maid who kept looking after the house.
“Nanako, nobody in the dojo would dare to break into this house, you rest here for a while,” Lily left Nanako in the guest room.
The maid naturally knew Lily was Shimizu’s training sisters, so she let them in without complaint.
“Then I’ll trouble you to take care of my sister,” Lily said.
“Please rest assured, Miss Kagami. The young miss is wounded, I will immediately summon the doctor who usually looks after Lady Shimizu,” the maid answered while arranging the bedding for Nanako. Then she proceeded to procure some water to wipe the blood from Nanako’s face.
Lily finally relaxed and said to Nanako with a smile, “Nanako, you take a rest first, big sis will be back.”
“Ah!” Nanako forced herself to get up to look towards Lily, “Sister Lily, are you going to… find Tokugawa? Don’t do it! He is stronger than big sis and is very scheming on top of that, big sis will only suffer losses if you fight him…”
Although Nanako was beaten into this state by them, she put behind her desire for revenge and said this out of concern for Lily. This, in turn, only made the anger burn with more ferocity in Lily’s heart. However, she just smiled with her eyes and said, “Don’t worry, big sis will take care of it properly.”
With that, Lily leisurely turned around and left Shimizu’s house. She didn’t take the parasol and walked on the rainy path with her sword alone. Her eyes were burning with undisguised anger as she made her way towards the dojo.
Right now, in the confines of the dojo hall.
Tokugawa was giving advice on swordsmanship to a few disciples. Now that Shimizu was not around and Senior Kondo was wounded, he acted as though he owned the entire dojo.
“No, that’s not how you do it, if you don’t apply your strength steadily, it will affect your stance later…” While speaking, Tokugawa helped the disciple adjust his posture. Regardless of gender, family background, or appearance, Tokugawa taught everyone equally, with patience and care, that’s why Tokugawa had the nickname of “replacement teacher”.
“That’s it, that’s it, that slash was perfect, you might surpass me soon if you keep up like this, hehehe,” while Tokugawa was giving pointers to the other disciple, he laughed self-righteously.
There were dozens of other disciples practicing in pairs, but there were just as many lining up before Tokugawa in hope of getting his advice. In their hearts, Tokugawa was a respectful man worthy of their admiration.
Although Tokugawa made his underlings collect small fees from some of them, they felt it was quite reasonable since they were getting protection from them as well as some pointers. Especially since Tokugawa was very sincere and reliable, they were more than willing to pay up.
“Creaaaaak—” With an ear-piercing grinding sound, the dojo door was pulled open and the cold wind from outside immediately rushed into the room.
Tokugawa and most of the disciples turned to look towards the entrance.
They saw Lily standing there with a long tachi hanging by her waist, she was drenched by the rain from top to bottom and her long hair was sticking to her pretty face as water dripped down.7
