Gengyo retrieved his sabre as the room watched on quietly. He tested its weight, reminding himself of how fast he would have to move it.

Jikouji went and scr.a.p.ed a handful of cups from the table. He had an intense look on his face. Gengyo could tell that he really wanted to win the little game they were playing.

"Ready?" Jikouji asked.

"Ready," Gengyo said with a confident smile.

One by one, Jikouji threw the cups into the air. The want to win had really gotten the better of him. He threw them lower than Gengyo had, giving him less time to attack them before they fell down.

Gengyo slid his left leg back and assumed a stance more suitable for a rapier. A deep breath prepared himself. Time slowed as he looked at the world through the eyes of a warrior. A thought flashed through his mind.

'It would be wrong to cheat my weapon, casting slashes when it is designed to thrust'. It would no doubt be harder to marry five thrusts than it would be to shatter the cups by whatever means possible, but Gengyo forced that limitation on himself. The cups were already falling.

He twisted his h.i.p.s and thrust straight and fast, shattering the first of the cups. At that height, it would have gone straight through a man's throat had it been a soldier rather than a cup.

And so the limitation of the thrust was revealed. He had to draw his sword all the way back before he could jab out once more, whereas with a slash, he could merely flick his wrist and proceed onto the next target.

'Faster,' he told himself. The first jab had merely been a tester. He knew he could operate at a much more impressive speed. He drew his blade back then thrust at the next cup with all the speed of a gunshot, smashing it to pieces. Within the same breath, he married a third cup with the tip of his sword, another perfect fencer's thrust.

There were still two cups left, falling through the air. They looked to be past the point of no return. They had fallen past his waist due to Jikouji's shallow cast height. Most would have given them up as lost at that point, but Gengyo had a standard to uphold. His men thought him weaker now that he had lost a hand. And perhaps he was, ever so slightly, but he was still stronger than all of them.

He clenched his fingers tight on the hilt of his sword, begging his body for an even faster speed. His legs tensed, offering their support to the movement. His h.i.p.s twisted back, then his whole body twisted forward, exploding like a coiled spring, his whole shape but a blur to those that looked upon it. Those last two cups seemed to shatter at the same time. A split second later, all the fragments of pot hit the floor.

"Five," Gengyo announced slowly.

A silence hung in the air, as though they still could not believe what they were seeing. Jikouji was too shocked to be irritated by his loss, for he knew full well that he had tried to put Gengyo at a disadvantage. He was the first to break the silence. He shook his head with a tired smile. "My fault for trying to beat you," he said, "there exist some monsters among us. Monsters that we'll never get close to, no matter how many limbs they lose or how hard we try."

"Fast!" Rin squeaked. "That was too fast, Nii-san! How do you manage to move so quickly? Is this a new technique? It is, isn't it? Tell me, how do you do it?"

"A new technique?" Gengyo repeated with a smile. "Ah yes, it's called 'not wanting to lose at a random game that my sister came up with, so I used every ounce of my strength'."

"Boo…" Rin complained, thoroughly dissatisfied with that response.

"I almost want a turn now," Akiko said, her hand on Gengyo's shoulder.

"By all means," Gengyo said, "I can toss the cups up for you."

"No. I'll stay where I am and pretend that I can at least win in maturity," Akiko said.

"There she is, mama Akiko, already setting a good example for my child," Gengyo teased.

"…��� Akiko could not even respond. She didn't seem to particularly like the title.

"Mama?" Gengyo repeated, prodding her cheek with a finger.

"Guh… I am going to have to get used to that," she said weakly.

"A good show, Miura-dono," Matsudaira said, offering his congratulations. "It motivates me when I see you perform in combat. It reminds me that I'm still far away from the martial ceiling."

"Not too far away anymore," Gengyo told him, "you've improved vastly in such a short amount of time."

"All thanks to the techniques and training that you and Jikouji have bestowed upon me," he said modestly.

"Heh, then let's toast to the technique of the drunken fist. Might be that if we drink enough sake, we might have a revelation. The key to ultimate power, perhaps?" Gengyo said, raising to his lips a bowl of rice wine.

Matsudaira grabbed one to join him. "Then we had better drink a lot," he grinned.

"The excuses you come up with just so you can force some sake down you," Akiko said, shaking her head. "Did you forget that we're under siege?"

"Under siege? It is they who are under siege. They've got a gruesome twenty-four hours coming up for them as they struggle to come to terms with the men we slaughtered earlier. We should drink and celebrate our reunion while we have the time," Gengyo told her.

"If you say so," Akiko shrugged, "but I do hope that you've knowledge of that drunken fist if it comes down to it, because I can't say I'd want to be fighting whilst full up on sake."

"Nonsense!" Morohira shouted, overhearing. "Fighting full up on sake is the only way to fight!"