BELLRAM V02 - Ambivalence of Light and Shadow II

BP004-P05 - Subjugation 05

Violet had a rectangular belt bag over her left buttock. - There was no other way to put it. The belt bag was not the eye-catcher with these pants. - After a short rummage, she had pulled out a pen and a notepad and given both to Yuri. She had then said something else to Yuri, but Meia hadn't been paying attention. After that, Yuri had gone behind the carriage and now, barely a minute later, she came back. Violet was given both back and pocketed them, then she came to Meia with the sword.

"Here. Attack me with it."

Meia thought she hadn't heard correctly at first. But Violet seemed to be serious. She held the sword out to her with the handle.

"I can't do that."

"Do it." Violet cut her off.

The tone was firm. It seemed impossible to refuse.

Meia gripped the sword hesitantly, but she didn't feel comfortable with it. Her fingers were even trembling. Why was she being forced to do this?

The trembling did not last long. When Violet let go of the sword and the weight was transferred to her hand, the tachi was heavy - very heavy. It was much heavier than it should be. Meia could barely hold it and almost dropped it, but managed to grab it with her second hand in time. The tachi was as heavy as a dumbbell. Meia only knew tachi from pictures, but she was absolutely sure that it shouldn't be like this. But the tachi was not even just difficult to hold because of its weight. The weight distribution was also completely wrong.

"A problem?"

"N-No."

Meia raised the sword and took a closer look at it. The tachi was in good condition for the most part, but it also looked a little battered. The blade was scratched in several places. As far as Meia could tell, the scratches were not from normal defense, but rather from improper use. Meia remembered how roughly she had been dragged to the carriage. The masked woman presumably handled her belongings that roughly as well.

The cutting angle of the tachi was sharp. From this position, Meias would estimate it to be 30 degrees, or 15 degrees on each side. The blade had only one further bevel from the cutting edge to the ridge line. The cross-section of the tachi was a real wedge. It could certainly cut very well. This was one of the advantages of single-edged swords. A double-edged sword with equal bevels on both sides would be too thin and would feather too much. For the first few years, Meia's training sword was a classic one-and-a-half hand sword. If it had been sharpened, it would have had a cutting edge, then a concave broadening, then a linear broadening, then a fuller, then the other side. When hit, the concave broadening quickly increased the resistance, but it could not be avoided either, because then the sword would not have the desired strength. It was therefore more difficult to get deeper than with a tachi.

Meia tried to think of the best way to attack with this sword. Her thoughtful gaze briefly met Violet's waiting one, which only put her under more pressure. Why had she even borrowed this sword when she had two of her own? Meia would have preferred to look at hers. They were much more interesting.

"I just want to assess your skills. Just hit for me."

Meia stood a few steps away from Violet. It seemed she wanted to defend herself unarmed.

Meia held the tachi two-handed to the right of her body and turned the edge towards herself.

"No. Please use the sharp side and full power."

Meia didn't think this was a good idea. She still turned the sword back around, but she would rather not do it. Was it really okay to attack someone unarmed with a sharp weapon? What if Violet couldn't defend herself? Meia wasn't sure if she could deflect her own attack in time. Especially with a weapon of this sharpness and the fact that Violet was wearing no protection at all, she would almost certainly injure her at the very least. How was she even going to fend off the tachi with its range without a weapon? There were techniques for it, but ... Meia didn't want to end up in the mud. Maybe she just wanted to avoid it? From above was probably the best option in that case.