## Chapter 3: The First Experiment
The sake was cheap and burned all the way down, but it was the best thing I had ever tasted. The fish, too, was glorious—flaky, smoky, and gone in three bites. My body of flesh and blood, hummed with a primitive satisfaction. The adrenaline from the earlier fight had faded, leaving a deep, bone-weary tiredness, but also a strange, vibrating energy.
I sat by the dying fire, staring into the embers. I could still feel the sensation of the sword cutting through the bearded man's stomach. I still taste their blood in the air.
Those three men were untrained, overconfident. I had absorbed generations of swordsmanship, from the flowing grace of Ittō-ryū to the brutal efficiency of Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū. Kurō's body had its own muscle memory, a solid foundation of twenty years of training. But what happened when I combined the two? What were the true limits of this vessel?
