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Shimizu smiled coldly as she gazed upon the beautiful back of Lily disappearing into the darkness.
She caressed the mirror within her sash and wondered, “In the golden age of the mirror girls, they were indeed multiple mirrors, but the times have changed already now and almost all of the mirror girls have perished. Yet, two ancient mirrors have emerged in Kamakura City, which is really something unexpected. From the looks of it, Lil’ Sis Lily’s mirror doesn’t seem to have some extraordinary power, too.”
“Did she hide the power of the mirror from me deliberately and tricks me again?”
“No, that’s not possible since I examined the mirror personally with my spirit power. That mirror really doesn’t have any extraordinary power hidden inside and only seems to have a weak archaic fluctuation, which is probably its lame ability to reflect the clear appearance of someone. It’s an easy matter for the high-ranking onmyƍji to make a water receptacle do that with their thaumaturgy, so it’s not a really rare ability. Even though that mirror looks the same as mine, they aren’t of the same grade. There’s no mistake in this since I have confirmed it personally.”
“In the end, that’s just how little sister is. Even if little sister is a mirror girl, how could her mirror compare to that of her elder sister’s?”
Shimizu’s mind felt enlightened suddenly, so she changed into training robes and began practicing swordplay in the backyard. Unexpectedly, the practice had gone pretty smoothly tonight and aspects she felt confused about typically came to her naturally. Hence, by the time she had finished practicing a set, she had astonishingly reached the 7th stage of the mystic swordplay!
If it weren’t for the fact that she had begun coughing again because she had exerted herself too much, Shimizu wished to continue practicing in her currently pleasant mood. However, such progress had already made her quite excited!
By achieving the 7th stage, Shimizu’s strength had soared by 20,000 kan! She had made terrifying progress overnight!
“As expected, I really am a genius! The bottleneck I faced previously must have been a test from the mirror. Uesugi Rei only managed to defeat me because she relied on the formidable ancient sword in her possession. Hmph! It would be hard to predict the outcome if we were to duel again now.”
On this night, Shimizu returned to her room after taking the medicine and took out the white silk fabric of Lily’s.
“Lil’ Sis Lily
” Shimizu caressed the smooth and silky white fabric that had bound Lily’s body tightly once and buried her face into it suddenly. She took a deep, amorous breath and relished in the scent of Lily’s body fragrance, “Lil’ Sis Lily’s fragrance
 doesn’t seem like that of a naughty woman who would swindle me, and though it does resemble that of a naughty woman when whiffed
 I like that.”
Shimizu squeezed the white silk fabric between her thighs1, laid down on the floor, and rubbed the place between her legs indirectly through the fabric
2
“Lil’ Sis Lily, your elder sister likes you more than any other woman in the world. Do you know that? Lil’ Sis Lily
 Mmgh
”
Shimizu gradually calmed down after a while and rested on the floor. Although she wished to continue rubbing with that white fabric, she had begun to ponder seriously.
“Perhaps Lil’ Sis Lily was always pursued because she had that useless ancient mirror on her and thus become habituated to hide things to protect herself. As a woman who has lived a life of freedom in the Genji Main Dojo, it might be difficult for me to understand her crises-cultivated mindset.”
“Lil’ Sis Lily, it doesn’t matter whether you deceive me or trust me. As far as I’m concerned, you are just a woman who I will dominate and control sooner or later because I like you.”
“You exist to prove that Shimizu is the number one expert in the Land of East! Only the number one samurai woman of the East suits the number one beauty of the East. Isn’t that right, Uesugi Rei? Hmph! It’s impossible for you to snatch this woman from me! You are someone who just relies on an ancient sword. Do you know how hard I’ve worked to train? And you, what price have you paid for Lily?”
“I will definitely make all of Lily’s body and heart mine! Lil’ Sis Lily won’t have to feel embarrassed and hide things with a vigilant heart when I stand at the summit of the Land of East. I will bring peace to her heart by protecting her and no one will be able to hurt her in front of me! Wouldn’t she fall in love with me happily then?”
“And all this depends on
 my mirror! Shimizu has passed your test, right? I have a feeling that I’ve already returned to my path of success already, just like how things were two years ago, or else, I wouldn’t have experienced enlightenment in such a predicament. Hehehe! Mirror oh mirror3, what exists above the 10th stage of the mystic swordplay? I believe there’s an abstruse higher stage past it. You will impart it to me when I achieve the 10th stage, right? I feel that day probably isn’t that far away.”
Shimizu continued to train in seclusion over the next few days and Lily also trained for the training excursion while handling some matters alongside.
Saionji Kotoka would bring some documents and deeds for Lily to sign occasionally and she would sign them without even taking a look at them as she trusted Kotoka a lot. She would have probably signed them even if a slavery contract were mixed inside those documents as well4.
Kotoka was also pretty busy and would leave swiftly once the signing of the documents was done. She didn’t even have the time to speak to her daughter sometimes.
The day of the training excursion arrived pretty soon.
The boundless skies outside Kamakura were covered in grayish clouds early in the morning of this day.
Even the grass and trees on the mountains seemed to have lost some of their colors.
Lily and Nanako walked across a relatively wide meadow which was the gathering spot for this time’s training excursion.
Lily was dressed in a red kimono that was patterned with an ancient sakura tree and drifting sakura petals while Nanako was dressed in informal white clothes whose edges were embroidered in red along with a red short skirt and white stockings.
Each disciple was allowed to bring an aide for this time’s training excursion. Naturally, this wasn’t obligatory. After recalling that she had traveled with Shiu previously, Lily decided to bring Nanako along this time.
Nanako also seemed pretty happy with this decision as it was her first time taking part in a training excursion.
“Allow me to hold your parasol, Sister Lily,” Nanako stated.
“Huh? Hmm
 fine,” Lily had utmost trust in Nanako, so she handed the Sakura Parasol over to Nanako.
“Tch! Shortie,” It seemed that the Sakura Parasol didn’t like being held by others.
“What did you say?” Nanako also felt annoyed5.
“All right, now. Don’t quarrel with a parasol in such a location since it would just gather odd looks from everyone,” Lily smiled wryly.
“Hmph!” Nanako held the parasol at her side. Nanako hadn’t remained still in her days in the Genji Main Dojo and had practiced the sword hard. As such, her strength had reached the level of an early-stage sword master6.
Lily observed the quarreling Sakura Parasol and Nanako and suddenly felt that this combination of a little girl and a parasol looked quite charming.
Shimizu was actually walking beside them too as she had set off from the dojo along with Lily and Nanako.
Shimizu was dressed in a black kimono patterned with flowers and golden phantasmal butterflies, and carried a simple straight sword, her personal sword, Tranquil Bamboo, at her waist.
“This is unexpected. It seems like we are the first to arrive here,” Shimizu stated, “It seems that the disciples of these common dojos are quite arrogant.”
“Perhaps they are right behind us,” Lily suggested.
The disciples of each dojo gathered in succession by the time morning had arrived, yet the number was lesser than what Sakiko had mentioned previously. A total of fifty people had gathered this time while about a hundred gathered usually on previous occasions. Their strengths were also unevenly matched with a third of them coming from Kamakura while the others hailed from their lands. There were even two people from Takeshita Town, and this included the ponytailed senior sister who had guided her to participate in the samurai qualification test back in the first dojo that Lily had joined. What Lily wasn’t sure was whether this was a coincidence or a deliberate arrangement by Instructor Sakiko.
“M-Miss Kagami
” The ponytailed senior sister was also pretty astonished.
“Senior
” Lily felt astonished and also a bit embarrassed as she still didn’t know the name of this former senior sister of hers.
Another unexpected thing was that only one instructor had come to accompany the excursion team this time.
He hailed from Sagami province and had a short and stout figure with a triangular face that seemed to lack the vestiges of experience a bit and had the strength of a middle-stage sword master.
The instructor stood on top of a rock so that everyone took notice of him and declared in a considerably loud voice and vigor, “Disciples of dojos from the Land of East, the destination for our training excursion this time is Mt. Inda.”