“This is love, n.o.body could fully understand it. . . This is love, you fell in with no reason. . . ”

Sakura was singing a song from the modern age under a winter sakura tree on the Kurokawa Mountain Stage. When she turned back, she found Harun.o.bu’s shadow was among the people outside the gate of the stage. She sighed as she scattered the white petals. The flowers fluttered to the ground like snow.

Following the army to the mountain to dig for gold, she truly did enjoy a life of freedom. But she couldn’t persuade herself to relax about her relations.h.i.+p with Harun.o.bu, as if she were as besotted as the lyrics she’d just sung. If not because the mining plan was so complicated and the whole project occupied all his time, according to Harun.o.bu’s personality, with her being the only woman in the mountain, he wouldn’t be able to not touch her now.

The dark of night secretly descended, swathing all the landscape in and around the mountain like a piece of chiffon. Harun.o.bu didn’t come to see her these nights. She knew he was working very hard as the leader of the state. She hoped he slept well every night. That was the only wish she had for him. But when night came to visit, she always wanted to go to his bedroom to see if he would be working overnight.

Whizz. . . A cold wind blew against her back, and a slim dark shadow flew past her ears. She moved quickly to avoid being struck by the shadow. Then she realized it was a feathered arrow.

Yamamoto Kansuke again? Was he taking the advantage of the dark to kill her?

She had no need to doubt. Besides Kansuke, n.o.body would use this method to “contact” her. She rolled up the hems of her skirt and sleeves, took out a stick from the bamboo fence in front of her, and quickly ran into the vast woods to chase after him.

Before she could call out the name Kansuke, the secret man was already waiting for her in the forest. Sakura was surprised to find that the man was not Kansuke. He was as strong as a bear. She could guess how powerful his arms would be. She bet he could easily pick up a boulder as tall as a man. The man’s face was covered with a black cloth, and his exposed eyes looked fierce.

“Girl, you’ve come just in time. Welcome your death!”

The booming voice of the man shocked her. She stepped back a little. She must have heard this voice somewhere before, but she forgot where. Seeing the man standing there like a steady mountain, with his feet wide apart and arms crossed over his chest, she grew confused.

Didn’t he say he wanted to take her life just now? Then why was he just standing there, still as a statue?

Was he going to keep standing there without attacking her? If so, why did he say he wanted to kill her? Sakura raised the stick transversely in front of her chest. While she was confused by the man’s action, she suddenly noticed that the man had no weapon. But, based on his stance, he wasn’t a ninja.

An idea occurred to her, and she swung her stick up toward the man. Just as the stick almost made contact with the man’s head, she suddenly changed directions and used the stick as a spear to hit the man’s lower body. The man yelled “Ah!” with astonishment and used his hands to chop her stick into two segments.

Here’s the opportunity!

Sakura was not sure if the man was a ninja. His posture just now was to bait her into attacking first. She heard from her grandpa once that in the ancient j.a.panese sword arts, there was a kind of art that combined the movements of attack and defense together, called Iaido. The pract.i.tioners always used different gestures of defense first. If the opponent attacked first, they would defend with this gesture, and meanwhile, they made the best use of time to check out the opponent’s flaws. When they began to attack, they would give the opponent a deadly hit. The only way to defeat them was to lure them into making the first move.

The man didn’t expect that the slim girl would break his Iaido. But as a strong man, he couldn’t give up immediately. So he lifted his arms and walked closer. Sakura was amazed by his intention. The man wanted to push her in the manner of sumo. But it was good that he was running toward her.

She stood there quietly, using her fist to punch his stomach quickly, and then retreated immediately. The man lost the advantage with his sumo movement, but Sakura was also very careful. The man’s power when breaking her bamboo stick could not be overlooked. When her fist reached the man’s gut, though she had already used half of her strength, his abdomen was as hard as an iron plate. Her palm rang with pain after impact. 

d.a.m.n it! Do you want to force me to attack you?

Sakura had thought that the man would give up when he knew she’d discovered his shortcomings. But the man was like a soldier in the battlefield—he tried his best to kill. Soon, they’d clashed dozens of times, their movements flying back and forth, riling up fallen leaves that whirled into the air. The shadows cast by the stars among the trees were broken by their moves.

At first, she only thought of escaping from this fight. But the man would not let her go, and his movements became more and more powerful. In the tussle, her face was. .h.i.t by the man’s right hand, which was hard and thick.

She couldn’t tolerate it anymore. “Hey, haven’t you heard the saying that n.o.body goes for the face in a fight? Do you want to disfigure me?”Sakura stepped out with her right foot; her body swerved to the left side and she jabbed the man with her left hand, while her right fist struck the left side of his ribs.

The man knew her fist was not powerful enough, so he didn’t move to avoid the attack. Instead, he used his fist to defend against hers. But he didn’t guess that her move was a feint, and her foot had already kicked him in the knee. The man felt his leg lose its strength and his big body fell down.