231 Emmmmmmmm

Believe it or not, the Sugawara family's Shinto-Ryu Sword Style was almost on par with the sword styles of other families. However, the Sugawara family was the strongest of the Big Eight. Besides the flourishing of the Sugawara family, there were also others outside of the family who were involved in business and political circles. The Sugawara family had a footwork that had been passed down through generations.

Legend has it that Yasuaki Sugawara had never tasted defeat throughout his entire life, other than being pierced by an arrow, he was never injured by a sword, and it was all due to this footwork.

When the competition began, Katsuki Sugawara was the first to make a move. As her feet smoothly glided across the stage, the shinai in her hands was like a sharp blade, carrying a gust of wind as it sliced toward Kimura Kazuki. 

She was going at an extremely high speed, leaving no time for the opponent to prepare. Of course, if they were from the same realm, Kimura Kazuki probably would have thrown in the towel a long time ago. Katsuki Sugawara's speed and strength was ranked first amongst her peers.

At that moment, Kimura Kazuki understood why Mizuki Sugawara would say that Katsuki Sugawara played with variations of Shinto-Ryu. The Shinto-Ryu footwork of the Sugawara family was created by Yasuaki Sugawara, and was the type that emphasised on moving and dodging. Sword Saint Sugawara had created this footwork solely for dodging.

Sword Saint Sugawara was not a bloodthirsty person. On the contrary, he was quite gentle, and this could be seen through the story that had been passed on from generation to generation.

According to the story, once when he was on a ferry, a warrior challenged Yasuaki Sugawara to a fight, to which Yasuaki Sugawara agreed and said, "Let's settle this at the small island over there." The ferry reached the shore, whereby the warrior jumped ashore first, but Yasuaki Sugawara drove the ferry away, leaving the fuming warrior behind. 

He had gained fame due to his formidable strength, thus inspiring many to come forth and challenge him to a battle. However, there was no such thing as competitive Kendo during the Warring States Period. The people saw sword style as a fight of life or death, all duels were held with their lives on the line, and one wrong move could result in the end of their life. Therefore, Sword Saint Sugawara created the Ruthless Footwork. 

In many competitions that followed, with the help of the Ruthless Footwork, Sword Saint Sugawara avoided the sword styles of different kinds of challengers, subsequently defeating them, instead of choosing the brutal way of killing them. 

Yasuaki Sugawara was naturally gentle, but he did not advocate kindness. During the Warring States Period, people who were kind were generally very miserable. 

As these thoughts swirled in his mind, Kimura Kazuki did not use his shinai to deflect Katsuki Sugawara's shinai. The Ruthless Footwork, a footwork which prioritized dodging, had a sharp imposing manner when under Katsuki Sugawara's deployment as it followed behind Kimura Kazuki's figure tightly. In this moment, the Ruthless Footwork was no longer a footwork for dodging, but a footwork to pursue and attack. Katsuki Sugawara stuck close to Kimura Kazuki's body, like a shadow, creating a flurry of slashes as she went, but they were all dodged by Kimura Kazuki, as though he was the swordsman who had practiced the Ruthless Footwork.

While he was dodging, Kimura Kazuki was secretly astonished. Evidently, Katsuki Sugawara had a very deep understanding about Shinto-Ryu, each stab that came was more cunning than the last. 

The sword style that the Sugawara family passed down was called Kashima Shinto-Ryu, it was created by Yasuaki Sugawara after being inspired by the Chuko-Ryu and Katori Shinto-Ryu. Shinto-Ryu was a sword method that emphasized confrontation. Generally, offense and defense motion would not be seen together in the same move. It was either one chose to attack fiercely, or defend until the end! Thus, the technique of Shinto-Ryu was comparatively easier, and its moves were grand. Thus in order to have a good grasp on Shinto-Ryu, the ability to change between offence and defence had to be practiced until one has become top-notch in it. 

Shinto-Ryu also paid attention to the method of killing with one strike of the sword, but it was quite different from other sword methods. One such example was Ono's One Knife Stroke, which paid attention to flaws, then proceeded to kill with only one stroke of the sword.

However, Shinto-Ryu remained a mystery as it depended on one's instinct to kill. During a battle, a glaring light would flash, followed by a strike that came out of nowhere, leaving the opponent defeated. 

In layman's terms, during the fight, the person who deployed Shinto-Ryu would suddenly exaggerate, "Oh, you shall be defeated with this very strike alone." Then based on their instincts, they would directly strike a blow from a very crafty angle. This strike would usually be very crude, yet quite unpredictable, causing the opponent to have no chance at defending themselves. This was the reason why the other families did not like battling with the Sugawara family. Shinto-Ryu was an unpredictable sword style. Yet it was a sword style that could never be researched. 

Take the current scene as an example… The angle of Katsuki Sugawara's every strike was extremely unpredictable. Even Kimura Kazuki was rendered speechless. 

This was a competition, and according to the rules of the competition, marks could only be obtained if an effective body part was hit. But now Katsuki Sugawara was obviously addicted to showing off her sword style, completely forgetting that she had to hit effective body parts. Although her every strike was unforeseeable, even if her attack had hit a certain body part, it did not mean that she had won. 

Besides, it was evident that Katsuki Sugawara only knew how to attack without knowing how to defend herself. In fact, with every strike, there was an equal chance of counterattacking! She was going all out enthusiastically. 

However, at this moment, Kimura Kazuki could more or less understand why Katsuki Sugawara wanted to challenge him. It was because this maiden before him was obviously a sword fanatic. 

Katsuki Sugawara clearly knew that it was impossible for her to defeat Kimura Kazuki, but she still wanted to challenge him to a battle, all the hassle just to experience fighting against different styles of Kendo. The Yagyu Flying Sword Style was a sword style that was no longer extant, so it naturally became her top priority. 

Both of them attacked and dodged, although the result was yet to be determined, but it was extremely exciting to watch them battle. Upon seeing this scene, the audience held their breaths, their eyes growing huge in anticipation, unmoving, as if they were afraid that they would miss the very second victory was determined if their eyes blinked even slightly. 

Sitting in the resting area, Harunaka watched the competition closely. She knew that her senior was dodging on purpose so that she could fully observe Katsuki Sugawara's sword style.

The way Kimura Kazuki saw it, although Shinto-Ryu could not be researched, but the person could. The way a person attacked was traceable because sword style was not living, whereas a human was. Although Shinto-Ryu paid attention to surprise attacks, a person's movements could always be studied. 

This was the reason why he made Harunaka observe carefully… This was an idea that Kimura Kazuki thought of at the last minute. He did not even know if it would work, but if it could increase Harunaka's chance of winning even a little, he would willingly carry out his ideas. 

Far away, Ikioi Ito was stunned from watching the match. He turned to Mizuki Sugawara and could not help but say, "For some reason I feel like your sister is much better than you." Tomoya Saito, who was beside him, nodded his head earnestly. 

The corner of Mizuki Sugawara's lips twitched, but he made no effort to retort. 

Katsuki's sword style truly was better than his, but the reason he could always immediately defeat Katsuki in competitions was that his overall strength was much more powerful than that of Katsuki. 

In other words, Katsuki was currently about to enter the first stage of sword power, whereas he was already at the second stage. 

He did not require any sword style techniques, as based on his strength alone, he could defeat Katsuki immediately. 

However if they were to compete with sword style only… 

Emmmmmmmm.