Love & Rain [Sabigiyuu]

[19] Vulnerabilities

A few months pasted by smoothly, Sanemi and Obanai seemed infinitely quieter and better behaved than before and all was well. Even though Giyuu was obviously incapable of doing much with her rising physical disposition to any sort of physical activity she still managed to pass the time.

A few important things had happened since then. Sabito had been taught a very interesting and important technique Giyuu forced upon him for reasons she wouldn't disclose initially.

Although he found it hard to practice on his own, with the assistance of Mitsuri and further development of the form with Gyomei he found it easy to practice his newly acquired technique.

"11th form; dead calm" he thought envisioning it how she described as he lowered his guard and stilled his heart as best he could.

The loud clatter of the wood hitting against wood rang out through the yard as Mitsuri stood still after a few seconds of striking his training sword.

"Mine broke again!" She declared loudly not understanding how that was possible. Was she really that rusty with a regular straight ended blade?

Was using her whip blades really getting her normal sword handling technique this dull?

Sabito exhaled a quiet breath as he let the feeling of the artificial calmness dissipate.

It was certainly difficult to maintain for a while, but it worked.

"I did it." Sabito thought quietly as a small clapping could be heard.

Bother the pillars heads turned to see their spectator.

Giyuu clapped a few times at her husband's success.

"You did it." She said smiling slightly at him to which he looked relieved.

This technique he'd never really seen before until Giyuu introduced him to it a few weeks ago so it was a small miracle he got it down so fast. Especially since he was going off only the description of what to do and how to do it.

Mitsuri looked between the two as yet again the small jealous feeling arose before it was quelled by her satisfaction at getting to spend time her at all.

Ever since her first initial visit she had made it a point to visit every week. Although she'd never have expected to be requested to spar with Sabito in an effort to help him improve a technique of Giyuu's for his own use.

"It's tougher then it looks, I barely got it that time." Sabito said to which Giyuu shook his head.

"It's far better then it was a week ago." She said rejecting his humble attitude wishing to see him take full pride in his accomplishment.

"I can't believe my sword broke again though, that's like..... the 30th one....." Mitsuri said slightly deflated.

"You still never explained why you wanted me to learn this, or why you made such a form either while I was gone." Sabito said walking over and sitting next to Giyuu on the wooden deck.

Mitsuri also came over to take a seat and rest but also to listen in on whatever story Giyuu was about to spill since she was curious too.

"Why else, for self defense, despite our breath style's fluidity and adaptability it lacks any major fallback for defense outside of relying on the user to be capable of adapting enough to keep themselves out of trouble." She started to explain.

"But what happens when you can't simply dodge or block every strike with one stroke of your blade?"

"You get hit?" Sabito answered.

Giyuu gave him a smile that was more forced to which he looked confused. Was that not the right answer?

"Sabito, I didn't want something like what happened to you to happen to me too. We aren't invincible, so I focused on something that would keep me alive if I ever needed to protect myself."