By the second week, Koji was becoming much better at being on the defensive side than he used to be.
Not only that, but he felt his endurance was greatly improving too; whether this was due to the fact he would practice breathwork in his free time, or because he kept training his defensive ability for hours on end--he did not know; though, he felt it must be a mix of both.
'That stupid breath work shit, I remember all those ads on sites I used to visit about Yoga--well, I guess those ads helped me out now.'
He tried every breathing technique he learnt while being interrupted by Yoga advertisements, and he found one that worked out pretty well for him.
'I wonder if breathing techniques are a big thing within martial arts, I'd assume they are...'
Koji was feeling more and more ignorant on when it came to martial arts, and he hadn't even read a book or really learned about it yet!
Simply through his own thought--just this was able to convince him of how little he knew.
'I've finally found something I really enjoy--though I used to dislike martial arts, maybe it was due to fighting Ivory with nothing but my limbs for so long...'
'Swords are much more fun than that.'
...
On the third week, he improved even more--his defensive skill had skyrocketed from the first week, and not only that but his endurance vastly improved.
At one point, he could only defend in a fight for barely 20 seconds--indeed, it was a daunting task to just defend in a swordfight; this was due to defensive moves often having such good offensive ability.
Yes, it was not like defense and offense were two black and white concepts; often, a defensive move could result in an effect that is often the goal of an offensive attack.
For example, blocking your enemies strike, and their sword being cast away--this results in their balance and resolve being somewhat disrupted in many cases.
Another example would simply be dodging; one would be surprised how unbalanced an opponent gets after missing a strike.
Though, the best representation of this concept is parrying; a parry is a defensive move, but has incredible potential to be an offensive one, and is meant to result in the opponents disadvantage.
So staying completely defensive throughout the fight proved to be extremely troubling.
However, now that Koji was used to such a thing it was of course--still incredibly difficult--in fact, when he went against kids who were above average in swordsmanship he got completely decimated within 30 seconds; though, if his opponent wasn't very skilled, he was able to last over a minute.
This doesn't seem like much, but in the context of a duel it is an extremely significant increase.
Especially because Koji was preparing for fights with experienced martial artists--currently, he was simply fighting people new to it.
'Later on this should be more helpful, as fighting more experienced people will lead to longer fights due to the more complicated traps made by their technique.'
...
On the fourth week, he improved even more; at this point, Koji was able to defend against the higher level kids for about 40 seconds now--not only that, but he started getting less and less tired throughout the fights.
'Now, I have to start trying to be unpredictable in combat--I guess I should start theorizing on some traps I could set within the fights to slowly gain leverage on my opponent.'
This was something that would take Koji hours and hours of thinking to successfully pull off, and he also would have to practice each method in combat itself; except, Koji wanted to link all of his traps together to form a sort of unescapable labyrinth.
'I remember a manga that had an arc about a labyrinth...'
Koji wanted multiple traps he could resort to, and therefore decided that he should have a first move in the fight that could link to pathways where he could trap someone.
Say you are at a stop in the road where you can go three ways--though, each of the ways all lead to different ways--and those ways to different ways; until eventually you are totally lost, and give up.
The best martial artist is the one who can prepare the most ways for his opponent to go; these ways represent where the fight goes after an encounter.
Though of course, if you create the way--you must make sure you can also keep them on the road.
'High level martial artists... They must have thousands of reactions prepared for situations--fights between them, without intervention of Relics must take hours--though, maybe I am missing something.'
Being prepared for all situations, it seemed extremely difficult; that's why Koji felt the need to simplify it, to where he had flexibility within his technique.
Because if the opponent does something unexpected, how would Koji counter it if he simply has a set of traps that have specific requirements to be fulfilled?
He needed adaptability, he needs to be able to lure his opponent into a new trap if his first one fails.
He has to create a way to lead back to his traps on the spot.
This did not mean he needed to create new traps necessarily; he just needed to carve a path back to them in the fight; if one diverges from one of his ways, he needs to be able to create ways that simply lead back to those ways.
One could call this a trap in of itself, but what Koji means by traps is a duel ending situation that the opponent is unable to escape.
'Fuck, this shit is too complicated--I really need a teacher for this...'
Of course, Koji did have Cecilia--though, she really only taught surface level things and never dived deep into martial arts theory; she simply taught the kids the correct way to swing a sword, and how to react to some common strikes.
After this, Koji got to work--he thought of various traps he could lure his opponent into during a fight, and he thought more about martial arts theory.
Eventually it was time for him to head home from Cecilia's school, different from his first time riding to the school he now always had his mother pick him up.
"Koji, how was class today? You're doing so good, Cecilia always has good things to say about you--she mentioned your performances in duels; you know, I'm very proud of you."
Mei's blue eyes slightly sparkled with joy at seeing Koji again, which was only natural--after all, he was her son; she loved him very much.
"It was good, Ms. Cecilia is the best!"
Koji faked a kids enthusiasm, and swiftly replied to Mei even though he was still busy thinking about developing his martial arts technique.
He really disliked talking to Mei, or any of his family for that matter--truly, it all felt so fake; he was not their child, he was a teenager brought from earth to this strange world.
But honestly, Koji felt a love towards Mei that a child would feel towards a mother; he hated faking all of his words to her, but it was necessary.
Deep down, one of Koji's wishes was to find someone he could tell the truth to.
Shortly, the carriage reached Koji's home--he did the usual: he ate dinner, talked to his parents and his sister, and then he went to his room to sleep.
'It really is so bittersweet...'
With that final thought, Koji's eyes closed--his breath slowed, and he fell into a deep sleep.
He had spent a long time in this world, and became accustomed to his new life for the most part; though of course, despite his determination to reach his goal, and despite him trying to feel as happy as he can, his guilt and sadness still remained.
As if fate felt that he wanted a good nights sleep, and to be left alone--Koji's eyes opened.
What he "woke" up to, was not his room.