76 Ash 110
Waiting for the next appearance of his teacher which was due on that day, Shuai was already out on the courtyard practicing by himself with his polearm which was apparently a weapon not welcome in his house according to his father. That revelation just made him so angry which was why there was no direction in the way he was using the weapon. He was just swinging it around wildly and with reckless abandon to vent his frustrations and his very loud grunts of anger was enough for the rest of the household, at least the help, to decide to keep away and not get involved. Among them in hushed whispers they spread among themselves the news about the 'wild beast' which had taken over the courtyard and woe to any who enters it which is why it would be best for all of them to just ignore it entirely. Not even to tell the other members of House Chisuo about it since that would mean they would want to be brought into the courtyard to see what was going on and whoever was stupid enough to let them know was also going to be the one unfortunate enough to have to lead them to it. So despite the danger he posed to anyone else, the young Chisuo was pretty much free to practice however he wanted with his polearm and he was not going to stop, no matter what he said.Although it took long enough for Youdu to finally figure out his son had decided to leave the sword alone to pursue his path with polearms. That was not what should have happened as the reason Youdu uninvited an outsider into the Chisuo estate was to either teach his son how to be a good and proper duelist while he was able to keep himself clean from the affair of teaching his son himself in the interest of maintaining their good relationship or, to push the boy so hard he would never want to have to have anything to do with fighting ever again after all the trouble he had caused earlier in the season. It was not entirely the young Chisuo's fault as all the children were involved whether by encouraging the mischief, causing the violence or leading the rest of the children in their wildness. A lot of the children had ended up with more cuts and bruises in that season than they have had over their entire lives and one child had even been beaten up badly enough his own parents could not recognize him and he was no longer seen in the neighbourhood. That was not the way Youdu wanted Shuai to grow up and he had hoped he could support his son on a better path.
Which was why there was that big outburst over breakfast when he finally decided to interrogate his son in his progress of the pursuit of martial arts. Could the Chisuo's have another budding duelist in the family? Yes but also no. Not like this. What would the people think of a noble using a commoner's weapon? In a duel? That would reflect badly on the house, on him and he could not but help to compare him and his son in the harshest manner possible after he found out. The people knew him for a time because of his ability with the sword and the honor he showed them by using it in his duels but Shuai with his polearm? They would be known as nothing but jokes for as long as they were in the public eye. Dishonorable curs, so what if he could win his fights with a polearm? Anyone could. If he had to use the polearm he was already admitting he could not win the right way. And what was the right way? Bla bla bla. There was a lot to be said about two equal opponents in the same arena fighting through the same means as fairly as possible so it was only by skill and righteousness that one would win. This was why duels existed as a part of Kalzasi's culture and everyone put it to the pedestal. This was what Youdu believed.
But Shuai, he only wanted to win otherwise there was no reason to fight. There was no glory and honor in losing, only suffering which was all the kids had when Big Gwin took over that time. Which is why, and he told his father firmly, he was not going to give up on his chosen weapon unless his father would rather the boy try to learn how to use a gun instead. That was of course an attempt to bait the man into accepting the lesser of the evils since knowing his father's ideas of guns, that they were cowardly ranged weapons and a piss poor replacement to magic, the polearm would not seem too bad. While the young Chisuo may have thought he won this round as his father had nothing more to say other than to admit he had carelessly picked Shuai's teacher without learning what was the man's weapon of choice or his reputation with the dueling community of Kalzasi. Despite being a noble and the leader of his house, its obvious Youdu may have a lot more to learn about intrigues as he had been so easily fooled into thinking Shuai's teacher was the best for him after the brilliant progress in their first season working together.
And Shuai? Whatever victory he seemed to believe he had was shortlived when his teacher on his arrival suggested for the boy to put the polearm away as they were going to back to training with swords for a spell. A lot more to learn of intrigues? Hah! It seems as though Youdu had played his piece and forced the young boy's master to backtrack on his lessons to go back into something which was acceptable to his rigid old man. Otherwise why would he suddenly suggest they train with swords now of all times. "No I don't want to train with the sword. I want to use the polearm and neither you nor father can make me!" which before his teacher could reply to ask what was going on as he could not even understand that random outburst, Shuai started to sweep his polearm at his teacher. To make room as he was thought to do. While he had no intention to connect any hits, his teacher with his wariness heightened did not even notice what his student was trying to accomplish and retreated before trying to convince Shuai to put the polearm down so they could work things through. As the boy firmly declined with even more sweeps at his master's direction, the man decided this foolishness had to stop or someone would get hurt and picked up the training sword he brought along with him. It would seem that his student was going to get the chance he wanted to spar with him after all.
But that spar did not take long as armed with a weapon the more experience man easily subdued his student of a few seasons first by parrying the polearm away and getting close enough to restrain the boy by the hands. If he had not remembered his early lessons about the spear, it would be good if Shuai would from now on remember this moment. Even though the longer weapon provided a lot of advantages he should never let anyone enter within his reach. Did his student learn the lesson? Good. With a shove to the ground so the young boy could chill and cool off he told Shuai to spill and spill he did about everything since he had breakfast with his father in the morning. His teacher found it funny and gave him the easy solution of just not letting his father know from now on that he was practicing all those terrible, dishonorable weapons for the weak and cowardly. Instead give the man a show that Shuai was back to the sword. How? Like they were going to do now. No doubt after the heated morning argument, his father would be observing today's lessons from somewhere in the estate. It was a good thing for the both of them then that the lesson plan for the day called for swords, right?
And not just swords. They were also going to use knives and shields and even more swords. Humans had two hands for a reason and that reason was to be able to hold two weapons! That was a simplistic idea but nonetheless an effective one and Shuai was going to be shown how. Actually now that the man thought about it, this may be another one of those lessons Youdu would not have wanted his son to have because there were only so many weapons acceptable to the dueling community to be used alongside their swords. Oh well. Too late to change the lesson plan now and to start, Shuai was instructed to perform his drills with the sword at least once for each move. Just so he could ease himself into the next step of the day's training. With still a little more anger of his own to let out Shuai did not stop at just one run of it and his master in his understanding of the boy let it past until he had worked it out. All done? Good. Then it was time for Shuai to get that on that other hand of his the knife. In his hands he found it to be in a weird shape, full of teeth at the back. Yeah, he was going to be using those too but it was a duelist thing so Youdu would not have much room to complain.
What Shuai was going to learn next was going to be hard because he was going to to have to split his attention between the weapons in both his hands in order to use them effectively and he should not feel down if he could not do it right away. It would be a miracle if he could even learn how to do it within a year as there were plenty of masters who were still trying to do it. Some people were just not suited to even try learning this but for a lot of them, their pride would be hurt badly if they could not and because of this they persist in their futile efforts. Hopefully Shuai was not going to be another addition to that number. And then they started, with the student being told to attack his master as he would with his weapon normally. Not with the knife, but with the sword first. Yes, like that. After he got into the rhythm his teacher started to attacked although he always slowed down and pulled his blows to give the boy a chance to react. The Shuai was instructed to try blocking with his knife while continuing with his attack and for his benefit so his mind could adapt to the idea quicker, his teacher in all his attacks sent at the boy also yelled them out when he did. With a warning when it was already as slow as it was? Talk about a pampered student.
Then they continued still with a sword but now accompanied with another sword. This was simpler or at least according to his instructions to just use both. There was no further instructions, no further hints and Shuai just went right in for the attack. After it had continued for quite some time his teacher started yelling his attacks and slowing down as he did earlier, Shuai also had to learn how to defend, or did he forget? He switched between attacking with his sword in his right hand and then the sword on his left hand, each time trying to find another way to connect a hit on his teacher however he always, always forgot to use his other hand to defend and left it idle although was that not how it always had been ever since he started training. True but his teacher also thought Shuai could adapt quicker than a lot of the other kids but now he could see it was only because the boy was driven to beat his opponents, a trait which was of no help to him in this exercise which was going to take a lot longer than his teacher expected. He was anticipating maybe a year, at soonest.
And then they switched up the pair of weapons again, this time the sword accompanied by the spear. A shorter weapon, a weapon of the same length and then a longer weapon. Shuai suspected there may be a pattern at work here. Just like the two previous weapons he was instructed in a different way to use this pair in tandem. Unlike previously where the swords were the focus, he had to start with the spear over here? He took quick stabs with the spear to lead his teacher around him which seemed just a little too easy, the man must be playing along. Then leading him sufficiently a ways to the side, Shuai swooped his spear a little to gain some distance before going in for a big lunge in for his teacher to take his dodge. "Did I do it right?" he asked when he saw his teacher hit the wall. Well that was the right conclusion but not the correct method as it was noticeable unless his teacher called for it, the boy was too passive with his accompanying sword and used his spear as, well, how he would have used his spear ordinarily.
They were also supposed to get started on shields but with the delay Shuai had caused and in his difficulty of picking up on the idea to use two weapons together, his teacher found they had not enough time and would have to leave it for some other day but that would not be an entirely bad thing. it was always good to leave something for his student to look forward to in their upcoming lessons.