Chapter 211: Chapter 211
Rayleigh returned home later than he planned, and by the time the rear gate closed behind him, the night around the house had gone quiet enough that even the distant noise of Orario felt muffled.
He stood in the courtyard for a moment without moving, letting the cold air clear his head.
The day had not been physically exhausting, not compared with a proper Dungeon run or one of Alfia’s so-called training sessions, but his mind had been busy from morning until night.
Ais’s visit to the forge and the faint response from the broken remains of Gonryōmaru’s bond had all piled together until his thoughts felt like a messy workbench.
The worst part was that he could already see the beginning of the answer.
That was always dangerous.
When Rayleigh did not understand something, he could be patient.
When he saw a possible path, his hands started itching before his common sense finished speaking.
Ais still had part of Gonryōmaru’s imprint left in her soul, and if he handled it well, he might be able to build a new vessel for that remaining will.
The idea was already forming in his head, piece by piece, and that was exactly why he had to be careful.
Ais would not treat Gonryōmaru 2.0 like a convenient replacement.
She would cling to it, push herself for it, and probably bleed for it if nobody stopped her, because the girl was too honest and too stubborn when it came to strength.
Rayleigh checked the seals around the house before stepping fully inside the courtyard.
Only then did he look toward the veranda.
Alfia was sitting there with a book in hand, a plain wooden staff leaning against the post beside her.
The lamplight from the room behind her softened her figure, but Rayleigh knew better than to trust that kind of peaceful picture.
Alfia could sit quietly enough to look like a noble lady in a painting, then break a man’s ribs a breath later without changing expression.
Her silver hair was tied loosely behind her, and her mismatched eyes lifted from the page when he approached.
No one in Orario knew she was alive and Rayleigh intended to keep it that way until revealing the truth became safer than hiding it, and right now that day was nowhere close.
Alfia looked at his face for a while before closing the book.
"You look troubled."
Rayleigh stepped onto the veranda and sat down across from her. "That obvious?"
"To me."
"Then I’ll blame your eyes instead of my face." He leaned back and let out a breath, not bothering to hide the fatigue from her.
"Ais came by today and said Gonryōmaru wasn’t completely gone. What’s left is damaged, but it responded when I checked it."
Alfia’s gaze sharpened a little.
Rayleigh continued before she had to ask. "She tried to use Shunpo three times after the blade shattered. Riveria only found out after the third attempt left her dizzy and bleeding. Ais said she wanted to know whether Gonryōmaru was still there, and honestly, I can understand why she did it, which makes the whole thing more annoying."
Alfia listened in silence, her fingers resting lightly against the closed book.
Rayleigh looked toward the stones in the courtyard, his mind returning to Ais’s expression in the testing room.
"There’s still an echo inside her. The problem is that if I forge a new blade too soon, she’ll chase that echo like it’s the only thing in the world. Gonryōmaru protected her once by taking the burden of Bankai onto itself. Ais knows that. She also blames herself for it. If I hand her a new vessel before she learns how to stand still, she’ll just hurt herself in a cleaner, more efficient way."
Alfia finally stood.
Rayleigh’s eyes dropped to the training staff.
"Ah. I knew the staff was there for a reason."
Alfia picked it up without ceremony. "You already know the answer."
"I know the beginning of the answer!"
"That is enough to make you reckless."
Rayleigh could not even deny it properly, which was irritating. "You realize most people offer advice with words first, right?"
"You have already used words."
"And now?"
"Now your body learns."
Rayleigh rubbed his face with one hand. "Every time you say something like that, my survival instincts start filing complaints."
Alfia stepped into the courtyard. "Good. Use them."
That was how her training always began.
No long lecture, no dramatic threat, no kind explanation about growth and hardship.
Alfia simply stood there, and the air changed because his body understood before his mind did that a monster had decided to move.
Rayleigh drew Benihime and released the blade in one smooth motion.
"Awaken, Benihime."
Crimson light flowed along the steel.
Alfia closed the distance before the release had fully settled, her staff cutting toward him with the kind of clean, compact motion that looked almost gentle until it arrived.
Rayleigh raised Chikasumi no Tate.
The blood-red shield caught the blow, but the impact still drove through his arm and shoulder, making the bones in his forearm ache as the stones beneath his foot cracked.
He had blocked it, but the way the force traveled into his body told him he had relied too much on the technique itself.
Against most opponents, the shield would have ended the exchange.
Against Alfia, it only meant he had given her something solid to hit.
She gave him no time to complain.
The next strike came lower, aimed at his ribs.
Rayleigh shifted with Shunkō running through his legs, angled the shield instead of planting it in place, and let the staff’s force skid across the crimson surface.
The blow still dragged him half a step sideways, but this time it did not bury itself straight into his bones.
Alfia’s expression did not change, yet the next attack came faster.
That was the only praise she needed to give.
Rayleigh used Nake, Benihime to throw a crimson slash across her line of approach, then followed with a short burst of Shunpo to create distance before she could fold the space against him.
Alfia moved around the slash with frightening ease, but not without adjusting her path, and that tiny change was enough for Rayleigh to breathe.
He layered Blut Vene under his skin the moment she entered his guard, took the next strike on his forearm, and countered with Shunkō driving through his elbow.
The staff turned at the last instant, and his counter slid off harmlessly.
Alfia’s palm stopped a finger’s width from his chest.
Rayleigh froze.
If that had been a real strike, he would have been launched through the wall!
Alfia lowered her hand. "You are thinking too much about the sword."
Rayleigh let out the breath he had been holding. "That is usually considered reasonable when someone is attacking me with a weapon."
"You used Zanpakuto to answer every problem. That makes you predictable."
Rayleigh glanced at the blade in his hand, then back at her.
He understood the point, and because he understood it, he disliked it even more. Benihime gave him excellent answers.
Too excellent, maybe.
When the answer in his hand was this clean, it became easy to forget that the battlefield would not politely wait for the right technique to solve everything.
Ais had done the same thing from the other side. Gonryōmaru’s Bankai had answered her will, and that answer had been so powerful that she would naturally want to reach for it again.
The problem was never whether the power existed.
The problem was whether the person holding it could survive wanting it.
Rayleigh adjusted his stance.
"Again."
Alfia’s eyes shifted slightly.
This time, she came in barehanded.
That was worse!
The staff had reach, shape, and clear lines.
Alfia’s hands had none of those comforting limits.
She struck from angles that looked too short to carry power, stepped into spaces Rayleigh thought were safe, and used the smallest contact to ruin his balance.
Rayleigh answered with Shunkō, Blut Vene, Benihime’s shield, and the occasional Bakudō to break her rhythm, but Alfia was merciless about wasted movement.
Every time he relied on a technique without matching it to the moment, she punished him.
Not heavily enough to truly injure him.
Just enough to make his body remember.
Rayleigh lost count of how many exchanges passed.
Sweat dampened his shirt, his breathing grew rough, and his hands started to ache from shifting between sword work, Reiryoku control, and defensive reinforcement.
Still, the messy thoughts in his head slowly became clearer.
Gonryōmaru 2.0 could not begin with the forge.
It had to begin with Ais learning not to chase the echo.
If she could sit with the pain and still choose restraint, then the new vessel would have somewhere safe to connect.
If she could not, then even the best blade Rayleigh could make would become another way for her to break herself.
Alfia finally stopped after a strike that forced Rayleigh to use Blut Vene and Chikasumi no Tate together just to avoid being sent across the courtyard.
He stayed on his feet, barely.
His shoulders were burning, and his breathing sounded terrible even to his own ears.
Alfia studied him, then rested the staff against the ground. "You understand now."
Rayleigh looked at her through the faint steam rising off his skin from Shunkō’s fading output.
"I understood before."
"You understood the words."
He gave her a tired look. "You really enjoy making the distinction painful!"
"Pain is harder to forget."
Rayleigh wanted to argue, but his body had just finished proving her right, which made the whole thing extremely unfair.
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