Twenty years prior – Mutsue Yasuri, Hero of the Rebellion, had named Shichika, not Nanami, the next Master of the Kyotoryu. Then, for nineteen years, Mutsue had conveyed the teachings of the Kyotoryu to Shichika alone – in other words, Mutsue taught Nanami nothing.
Not because of her sickly constitution.
And surely not because she was a woman.
She was simply too strong to learn anything from anyone –
Not only did Mutsue refuse to teach Nanami, he barred her from all manner of exertion. She was not allowed to train in any way.
Her strength broke the mold.
Her strength broke the rules.
Not only as her father, but as a swordsman, Mutsue saw it as his duty to contain her.
But then –
What of the Ominaeshi she had used on Kamakiri.
And the Hinageshi she used just now.
She was a proven master – but how? If she had never been educated in the Kyotoryu, how could Nanami attain such mastery? But the solution to this paradox was all too simple.
She had been watching – all this time.
She had been watching – all the way.
As her little brother practiced. As her little brother trained.
While Shichika Yasuri – exerted himself.
She had watched the matches between father and son, at times unsubtly, and at times from the shade of a tree – never missing a moment, as if stricken with envy.
For nineteen years, Shichika had trained without rest, through rain and wind and snow – and for nineteen years, through rain and wind and snow, Nanami, at rest, had been watching.
Watching.
And learning.
Studying someone else while they were training, you could learn whatever they were learning, only better – but Nanami had gained the ability to watch and learn with unreasonable precision and facility.
Considering how she had been forced not to exert herself, her ability was inexplicable – an expression of her genius.
To coin a phrase, distance makes the eye grow sharper.
If she saw something once, she remembered every detail.
But if she saw it twice, it was hers.
And the proud and ostentatious Chocho Maniwa had twice already wowed Nanami with his Harlequin Butterfly!

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