Part 18 — Meeting

The wielders of the Testudo Style bear the Celestial Blood. They read the future and look into the past. Having incorporated that into their fighting, they’ve also expanded their insights into reading the future beyond mere combat. The old man with long, unkempt hair, bleached of color from age, is the head of the Testudo Style, and he has foreseen something he’d rather not have.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings...but Ran will be returning.”

The head of that house gathers the heads of the other houses and makes his report, more than a little sourly. It’s perhaps only natural that the assembled heads of the houses all shared his grim expression upon hearing the news.

Those assembled, the head of each style and each house, had pride in one thing and one thing only — their martial art. The arts that had been passed down generation to generation since time immemorial were their symbols of strength and reasons for being. But they had been thoroughly defeated by a young woman who was a product of chance, a girl who fought with wild movements that had nothing to do with the refinement of martial arts.

Of course, they’re all merely human and not lords of any sort. In their daily lives, they do odd jobs to keep themselves fed, and it’s not as though they’re like Sansui or Suiboku, practicing from dawn till dusk each and every day. The styles may have over a thousand years of history, but they don’t have any Immortals that have been around for a millennium. But, even then, they’d all believed in the strength provided by martial arts, and it gave meaning to their lives.

That was all — they were all — destroyed by a genius, a talented individual. Frankly, almost all of the houses had been relieved when she left. None of them even considered sending anyone to follow her and kill her. The village had reached a consensus that they just wanted to pretend she’d never existed at all and thus forget about her.

“My precognition isn’t absolute, but...she is most certainly returning this way.”

The precognition that comes from Celestial Blood manifests in two forms: visions that change and visions that don’t. For example, a premonition that it will rain tomorrow is one that will not change. Unless someone uses the Immortal Arts or Vajra, it’s not something that changes once foretold. Or, rather, it’s something that can’t be changed by merely foreseeing it.

On the other hand, in examples such as the battle between Sansui and Saiga, the actions of human beings will change dramatically from the simple act of observation. This is because, if the diviner changes their actions based on their vision, other people will change their actions in response to the diviner’s changes.

In those circumstances, the future changes from the very act of the diviner acting on their own information. It’s the very basic truth underlying Testudo Style. And because it’s a martial art that doesn’t include direct attacks or defensive maneuvers, it’s always been seen as a rather weak style.

However, it’s thought to be unerring in situations such as this. As such, everyone present sank into a gloom at knowing that the monster was coming back.

“What do we do?” someone asks. The others remain silent.

The simple truth was that, as Ran noted, until her losses to Sansui and Sunae, no one in the village could stand up to her, not even by attacking her all at once. It was true that she had been a big fish in a small pond, but in the end, within Tempera Village, she was absolutely invincible, and a pest that threatened both men and livestock alike.

That pest had taken several girls from the cadet branches and left. And now she’s coming back.

“And not just the five of them, but there are outsiders accompanying them. Further... Among them is the wielder of Eckesachs.”

A murmur goes through the room as the house elders talk. It seems that the elders themselves were rather skeptical, but according to the tales, there was a legendary individual who had decimated the village a thousand years ago, and that individual had been wielding Eckesachs.

They had all been skeptical at the sheer ridiculousness of the tale, but Ran’s birth showed them that it was perfectly plausible. That meant that there was enough power approaching Tempera Village to destroy the village twice over.

“Well then, everyone, what shall we do about this?”

“What to do? What even is there to do?!”

The village is weak tea, Ran had said. Her observation hadn’t been wrong.

Suiboku had said that the concept of being the strongest was a goal, and that it was plenty to have it as something to work towards. The people of this village can use martial arts. That’s their reason for existence. And as a simple fact, they’re extremely strong.

But they’re not desperate for more. None of them are like Ran, seeking more challenges in the outside world. They were content to live their lives out in this cloistered village, practicing against well-known friendly rivals, passing their art from generation to generation, respecting their fathers as their masters. They had no intention of letting the girl who’d destroyed all that back in.

But in that case, the question remains of what they could do about it. Trying to fight her off, trying to reject her...the people of this village know the futility of that better than anyone.

“If there is one hope left to us, it’s that she appears to have learned how to restrain her rage during her time in the outside world. If we don’t treat her with hostility, we should be able to avoid having her go on a rampage.”

There are opponents who even she can’t defeat outside of the village... Someone exists who’s superior to the collective power of this entire village, and that someone is able to restrain her. That fact leaves the elders in a dilemma. While they’re glad that she can be restrained, celebrating that fact feels like an admission of failure.

“I believe...that we should welcome them. At the very least, we shouldn’t fight them.”

Just because they regret their past actions, there’s no need to welcome them with open arms. But if this opponent can be reasoned with, meeting with them seems to be the best choice. Of course, it’s not as though there’s anyone among the gathered elders who still wants to fight her.

“That’s fine, sure... But what’s the point of the meeting? Why are they even coming here?”

“I don’t know. That’s not the sort of thing I can foresee yet.”

The things that can change based on precognition are extremely difficult to read. At the very least, they can’t look into what will happen over three days before the actual event takes place. But it’s also proof that how they respond will change how the visitors respond.

“At the very least, it won’t end up the same way as what happened when Eckesachs’s last master appeared here.”

The worst scenario would be if an opponent approached that wouldn’t change their attitude, regardless of how they dealt with them, though they would also have a very high level of certainty in the accuracy of the prediction. That worst-case scenario isn’t happening. By telling the others this, the elder of the Testudo Style is trying to calm them.

“You say that, but what’s there to do?”

“Yeah... How do we put it?”

Even if, by some miracle, they were here to apologize, they don’t even want to see their faces. They’d like to forget about Ran and the other four, pretending they never existed. As such, they’re really just afraid, but Ran is just that much of a symbol of dread to them.

“Then we have no choice... I will take this matter into my own hands. But, in exchange, I ask that you give me full discretion on how to handle the four who accompanied Ran.”

The Testudo Style elder had known, even without divining, that this would be the outcome. That the others all remained silent, showing reluctant agreement to his proposal, shows that his judgment was sound.