Awaiting soft rains(An extra's novel)-Chapter 102: Intent

The combat hall was dim as I stepped in; the few lights still on illuminated Kaito’s lonesome figure in the center. He sat cross-legged, eyes closed as though meditating.

The man made no acknowledgement of my presence. I was sure he was aware.

Looking around awkwardly, I scratched my neck before carefully sauntering right up to him. As much as I wanted to punch his face in, standing before his ’defenseless’ figure, I felt no burning anger or urge to take a shot.

What I felt most clearly was the memory of his blade against my neck. Just as I began rubbing my neck to ease it, Kaito’s eyelids flipped open.

His eyes landed on me immediately; they were indifferent. Bored, as if staring at a waste of time.

"So you’ve finally arrived, Victor."

"Yes, Instructor."

Kaito pushed himself up. He made no acknowledgement of the fact that he’d almost let a skinwalker kill me, and instead just stood there, scanning me from top to bottom.

"You’ve been marked by the Lady?"

"Yes. I have, sir."

His face scrunched a little.

"Then I assume you have at least some knowledge of the things happening beneath this veneer."

"I do, sir."

Kaito drew on the katana perpetually resting on his waist, not fully unsheathing it, just showing a sliver of the actual blade. Yet in that instance, I felt an unexplainable pressure on me.

It was similar to what I felt when watching him kill that skinwalker. Except the invisible blade wasn’t just on my neck; it covered every inch of my body in a manner that almost suffocated me.

Alarm bells were ringing in my head.

One wrong move, and I could be sliced into a million pieces. I could only freeze in response.

Kaito sheathed his sword back, and the pressure disappeared instantly. Almost like it’d never existed in the first place.

It was only when it was gone that I realized my clothes were soaked in cold sweat. Before I could even let out a sigh of relief, I realized Kaito was standing right before me.

He looked down on me, his gaze tinged with slight disappointment.

"If you do understand that much, then how do you let yourself be so weak?"

"I’m trying to advan—"

"That doesn’t matter. It isn’t an excuse for your pitiful combat skill. Don’t go blaming your burden either. Even that can’t explain your sorry state. It’s like you’ve never wielded a weapon before."

I tried to keep my face as calm as possible while answering. I doubt the cold sweat still rolling on my forehead helped that in any way at all.

"I haven’t, sir."

"Did that matter when that skinwalker almost killed you? Did that matter when I drew my blade just now? You would’ve been dead. Your enemies don’t care for excuses. They won’t wait for you to grow; they will exploit your burden the moment they learn of it. It’s never been a fair world."

He paused, turned away from me, and walked back towards the point he had been sitting. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"You must do everything within your power to improve yourself."

"Understood, sir."

I wiped some sweat off my brow.

’I don’t think he’s going to be apologizing any time soon.’

Not like I’d expected him to in the first place. The moment he reached his original spot, he kicked up a basic rapier I’d only just noticed into his hands.

’He’s definitely been watching.’

Then he tossed it to me.

I scrambled a bit, but managed to catch it by its hilt.

’Haaa...’

By the time I focused on him again, the man was sitting cross-legged. Focus fully on me.

"Show me what you can do."

I looked between him and the blade for a moment, then wordlessly shifted into a stance. It was a basic rapier stance; I’d gone through the manual when I chose to switch weapons. Using [Error Sense], I could properly execute it now.

If a bit rigidly. I hadn’t gotten a proper hold on Maki’s technique yet.

Activating [Error Sense], I began going through stances. My body almost subconsciously correcting its posture to reduce imperfections.

Advance, Lunge, Thrust, Cut, Retreat, and so on.

Kaito watched me move with interest for a bit, before raising a hand, stopping me.

"That’s enough. Your stances and posture have gotten considerably better since my last class."

"Thank y—"

"Deactivate that ability."

"I’m sorry?"

"Deactivate that ability of yours. I can’t tell exactly what it is, but it’s helping you with your stances."

’He can even tell that?’

I sighed, deactivating the ability before going through the stances again.

Contrary to what one might expect, my moves didn’t feel all too bad. It was something I’d noticed from repeatedly practicing with [Error Sense]; after enough times, the near-perfect version slowly ingrained itself as muscle memory.

The process wasn’t perfect in itself though, as Kaito was soon to point out.

"Stop. That is enough."

I stopped again. Slowly feeling the burn from my burden; it wasn’t much yet, but I was starting to feel dizzy.

Kaito continued.

"Your stances aren’t the worst; nowhere near good still. But even worse than that, they are rigid. You’re just going through the motions. It’s no better than dancing."

’Is this the compensation?’

Since he was willingly offering pointers, I buried all other matters in some corner of my mind, focusing on making the most out of this.

So I replied honestly.

"I don’t understand."

"Why do you fight?"

I considered his question a bit.

"Hmm... to win?"

"That’s too vague to be considered even slightly useful. Let me rephrase this: back when you faced the skinwalker, what thought came first to your mind?"

"Escape."

"So you fought to escape then, failingly, but there was intent behind it. What do you fight for now?"

"I—"

"It is to kill, Victor. That is the primary purpose of combat; it should always be your goal in any fight. Perhaps different situations might require secondary objectives. But your main goal should always be the death of your enemies. If you do not practice with this intent, or with an objective at the very least—"

He paused, glancing up and down my wary form. The man stood up.

"—then you’ll always find yourself too overwhelmed to react."

Kaito drew his blade. Fully this time.