Chapter 107 Chapter 107 “The beautiful things are still to come.
Elio awoke from his sleep to the familiar sound of a flute. It must have been Asari Ugetsu playing his shakuhachi. The morning breeze ruffled the curtains, and Elio slowly rose from his bed, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He sat quietly for a moment, motionless, simply listening to Ugetsu's flute. It was a gentle melody, yet with a touch of sadness.
When Elio crawled out of the room and found Yu Yue sitting on the roof, the latter stopped playing and smiled at him apologetically.
"Did I wake you up?" Yu Yue asked.
"That woke me up just in time," Elio said.
Ugetsu nodded thoughtfully. Elio sat down beside him, and Ugetsu continued playing his instrument. He didn't ask Elio if he had a nightmare, and Elio didn't ask if he missed home. Only after the song was over did Gatlin's head pop out from under the roof.
"Breakfast time." Gatlin said with a somewhat stiff expression.
As soon as Ugetsu nodded, Gatlin quickly reentered the house. This clearly confused Ugetsu, and Elio couldn't help but chuckle. Ugetsu, having just learned Italian, probably spoke to everyone with the highest honorifics to avoid mistakes. This made Gatlin feel very uncomfortable, and he almost avoided Ugetsu.
However, Ugetsu, noticing this, became even more polite to him. This was all a strange cycle, and Elio wasn't ready to reveal it just yet. Even Giotto was watching the show.
"Do you feel that he is avoiding me?" Yu Yue asked doubtfully.
"I don't know." Elio said innocently.
Ugetsu's eyebrows rose. Elio quickly slid down from the roof first, landing effortlessly. He smiled at Ugetsu, a clear "Can you do this?" attitude. This reminded Ugetsu of the black cat back home. The samurai couldn't help but laugh, his doubts forgotten. He stood up from the roof, gathered his hunting robe, and walked down. Elio raised an eyebrow as he watched Ugetsu walk to the edge and land with grace and power.
"How is it?" Yu Yue said.
“Impressive,” Elio said with a smile.
They walked together to the dining room and conference room, where Giotto, Gatlin, and themselves were alone. Rambo was still napping, while Gatlin, without a word, hurried along, eating his meal. As Elio pulled up a chair and sat down, he fled, toast in his mouth. Ugetsu followed his back with a confused gaze. Elio and Giotto exchanged glances, noticing the smiles in each other's eyes.
"How have you been lately, Ugetsu?" Giotto asked kindly in the Japanese he had learned from Elio. "You sound a little homesick."
"It rained a little last night," Yu Yue came to her senses and admitted frankly, "The beautiful music reminded me of the 'startled deer' in the courtyard of my hometown."
Giotto was a little confused as he tried to learn the pronunciation. "'Scared deer'?"
He looked at Elio, who, biting into a tomato, also looked bewildered. Ugetsu smiled and explained the courtyard's design of bamboo tubes striking stones. It was meant to "scare deer," as the name suggests; before leaving Japan, Ugetsu hadn't imagined that Europe wouldn't have this clear, ubiquitous music, just as he hadn't imagined that Europeans would enjoy coffee as much as they enjoyed tea.
It was all so different, yet so fresh.
Giotto was clearly curious about Japanese culture. Unlike other Europeans, who were politely socializing or perhaps even offensively discriminatory, he listened to Ugetsu's story with genuine curiosity and interest in his eyes, even suggesting he might live in Japan someday. Ugetsu immediately invited Giotto to stay at his house, hoping he'd reciprocate his generosity, though that remained a distant possibility.
This was probably why Giotto left his bloodline in Japan. Elio simply thought so.
After breakfast, Giotto quickly disappeared into his busy schedule. Elio invited Ugetsu to join him in training the new recruits, and to have a show match with wooden swords. At least, that was the plan at first. But as Ugetsu separated his legs, lowered his center of gravity, and slowly pointed the wooden sword, raised in both hands, at Elio's throat, the artist, who had been discussing music that morning, underwent a startling change of demeanor.
Like the art of flowing water, Ugetsu's aura gradually shifted, revealing the weight of the hillside and the sharpness of the peak. The students, who had been noisy, couldn't help but lower their voices, captivated by the Japanese samurai's artistic and murderous aura.
He was definitely not, as he said, "only a little versed in swordsmanship." Elio thought, these Oriental humble words!
But it must be said that Elio was genuinely intrigued by Ugetsu. It had been a while since he'd fought such a well-matched opponent. Looking at Ugetsu, Elio smiled. He gracefully turned sideways, extending his right sword arm, and pointing the wooden sword at Ugetsu's face.
"Please," Elio said.
Ugetsu struck first. He swung his sword toward Elio's face, neither too fast nor too slow, a polite probing blow. Elio, though unaware of his intention, knew that even a novice fencer could find a way to dodge or resist the blow. In European parlance, it was truly gentlemanly. Elio dodged the blow with a simple step, his wrist swiveling as his sword brushed past Ugetsu's, marking the first round of the exchange.
"Beautiful," Yu Yue praised.
"The best is yet to come," said Elio.
It was Elio's turn. He habitually twitched the tip of his sword, then remembered it was made of wood, lacking the fluid quiver of a steel sword. Yu Yue watched him, silently waiting for Elio to begin his sword dance—this was their testing combat at this stage, graceful yet powerful. The onlookers still held their breath, but soon, Elio and Yu Yue tacitly accelerated their movements, their wooden swords slashing, striking, and defending, leaving afterimages in the air.
"I bet five dollars that the mentor will win." A militiaman whispered.
"You never know," another militiaman whispered, "I'll bet on Lord Chaoli."
But they could hardly see the fight between Elio and Ugetsu. Dust flew as the area of their fight widened. The students kept giving way, practically taking up the entire training ground. They even began to exploit the environment to their advantage. Dust flew as Ugetsu's wooden sword slammed into the wall, leaving the onlookers gasping in amazement, no doubt that even a wooden sword would have been enough to knock anyone unconscious. Then Elio, rising from the angle between the two walls with incredible agility, suddenly climbed higher, using the height advantage to strike fiercely.
“…It turns out the instructor held back when he beat us.” A militiaman said quietly.
"I thought I could beat him after ten years of training," said another militiaman.
Elio and Asari Ugetsu had no time for conversation. They were so engrossed in the fight, their last ounces of rationality barely enough to keep them from becoming true killers. When Elio's sword finally reached Ugetsu's abdomen, Ugetsu's blade struck his wrist.
If this were a real duel, Elio would have ripped Ugetsu's belly open. But Ugetsu would have disarmed him at the same time, and his next blow would have been a deadly one.
For a moment they stood still, staring into each other's eyes. Then the cheers of the students broke out in unison.
Yu Yue laughed first. He released his sword-wielding hand and reached out to Elio. Elio laughed too, letting the wooden sword in his right hand drop naturally. He lifted it gently and shifted it to his left hand.
When Elio shook Yu Yue's hand with his right hand, Yu Yue asked him, "Isn't this how you Europeans shake hands?"
"Exactly," Elio said with a smile.
Then, amidst the chaos, they turned to face the Self-Defense Corps students. Ugetsu bowed slightly, and Elio waved at them.
"Fight in pairs," Elio said, "and the loser stays to clean up."
Amid their wailing, Elio happily dragged Yu Yue away, preparing to eat some cookies beforehand. Someone called out to their departing figures, "Master! We still want to see you take out that sword and fight!"
Ugetsu raised an eyebrow, clearly interested, "'The sword'?"
"I'll show it to you later," Elio said generously, "but it's a sword for killing people, not for fighting with friends."
He used this reason to reject the students' calls, telling them to wait until he could get serious. As he said this, Elio was stunned for a moment, remembering his sword fight with Alvin, and then smiled slightly.
I wonder what Alvin would say if he saw him now, Elio thought.
Then Elio told himself not to think about it. But before he could force himself, Gatlin appeared in the corridor, walking towards them.
"Sure enough, here you are," Gatlin said to Elio. "Giotto is looking for you."
"Huh?" Elio was a bit surprised. Gatling's expression made it seem like Giotto had something important to ask him, something that hadn't happened in a long time. The last time Giotto had asked him to do something was to train these militiamen, and that had been years ago.
"Militia training?" Elio asked Gatling as he walked towards Giotto's office (which was originally the study in the manor).
"I'll take your place," Gatlin said. It wasn't the first time this had happened. The militiamen knew Gatlin just as well as they knew Elio. He and Ugetsu nodded politely and were about to head back to the training ground where Elio had just left. But suddenly, an idea flashed through Elio's mind, stopping him in his tracks.
"Gatling," Elio called out to him, "Ugetsu was just training them with me."
Yu Yue raised an eyebrow again. He seemed to understand Elio's meaning. Only Gatlin paused and looked over in confusion.
"I think he could help," Elio glanced at Ugetsu, "What do you think?"
"I believe I can do my bit." Yu Yue answered in his usual humble style.
Gatlin looked at Ugetsu's wide sleeves and asked, "Seriously?"
He was clearly skeptical. Elio smiled, not intending to tell Gatlin that Ugetsu was actually quite skilled in combat.
"You two can discuss it. I'm leaving now," Elio said. He then put aside the rambling but irrelevant discussions between Gatlin and Ugetsu and headed for Giotto's office. The door was ajar, presumably awaiting Elio's arrival. Elio knocked once and then pushed it open.
"You looking for me?" Elio asked.
Then he noticed another person in the office. It was Spedo, a man he hadn't met before. He was wearing the Bourbon uniform that Gatling had always disliked. He looked up and examined Elio critically.
"Him?" Spedo drawled. "Are you serious, Giotto?"
Elio's eyebrows rose sharply. But he didn't speak immediately. He simply closed the door behind him and looked questioningly at Giotto, who was smiling bitterly at Spedo's words.
"I believe you two can work well together, I really do." Giotto clasped his hands in pleading. "Elio, Damon, could you do this just once, just for me?"
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The author's comment: *The shakuhachi, a traditional Chinese musical instrument, was introduced to Japan during the Tang and Song dynasties. Made of bamboo, it is coated with cinnabar and lacquer on the inside and incised on the outside. It now has five holes (four in front and one in the back). It is a wind instrument that vibrates along the edges, named for its length of one foot and eight inches. Its tone is desolate and vast, expressing an ethereal and tranquil mood.
**Jinglu, also known as Tianshui or Sengdu, is a bamboo water device in Japanese gardens that operates through the principle of leverage. It consists of two bamboo tubes, upper and lower. When the upper tube is filled with water to a critical level, it tilts downward due to gravity imbalance, dumping the accumulated water. When it resets, its tail strikes the stone pier at the bottom, producing a sound. This device combines the functions of scaring away birds and animals with the enjoyment of the waterscape. Modern, simplified versions retain the dynamic flow of the water but omit the sound-generating mechanism.
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