The Art Of Sword

Sunz gets out of the car and heads to No-Name’s room while Sogae continues with her job.

Sunz wanders through the hall on the floor that he has never been on. The layout is the same as his floor, the hard part is looking for room ###

Sunz: Room ### where is this? Should I have gone to the training facility first to check if she was there?

“Should have thought beforehand! It’s probably been 12 hours since I last saw her. Do these people sleep more or less than the normal average?”

Sunz continues talking to himself while wandering through this “Labyrinth”. But he doesn’t know that there is an entity following right behind him.

Sunz: Where the hell is that room?... Wait, if I can’t find her in her room, or the training facility. Where do I go next?

“Do I go back here and wait? Wouldn’t that make me look weird? Plus my body is beat up. Probably going down then back to my room if she ain’t there.”

Finally, after wandering for several minutes Sunz found room ###... Which is next to the elevator that he came from.

Sunz: My brain is in such a mess right now. But at least I found the room.

Sunz knocks on the door once “Hello anyone in there?” but no answer.

After some seconds.

He knocks on the door again “Hello anyone in there?” but no answer.

Sunz (Should I wait here for like 10 minutes?... OK, one more before waiting, repeat then leave. Third time a charm!)

Sunz prepared to knock but stopped after being grabbed on the shoulder by the entity that was following him.

Entity: What business do you have around here?

Sunz: I come in peace.

Entity starts squeezing Sunz’s shoulder with a lot of force.

“Let me rephrase that! What are you doing, in front of MY ROOM!?”

Sunz: Your room?... Are you No Name? If so I want to ask you something.

The Entity releases its grasp on Sunz’s shoulder.

Sunz turned around and saw that it was No Name, still wearing the same outfit as before.

No Name: What is it so important that you want to ask me at this hour?

Sunz: It’s not important. Just want to ask, are you going to continue training tomorrow?

No Name: Yeah, has any problem with that?

Sunz: Can you cancel that plan?

No Name: Why? Give me a reason.

Sunz: Because I’m not going to train anymore and just have a day off. Plus you fighting against those AI isn’t going to make any difference to your strength.

No Name *sigh*: Looks inside your hat.

Sunz: My hat?

Sunz looks inside the head of his ‘Windbreaker’ and notices some dirt and dust in it.

No Name: “Not going to train anymore” pretty good excuse. Trying to increase your chance of winning through lies. I expected better from you.

Sunz: I’m not lying! Allow me to explain what happened before.

After some minutes of retelling his fight against ONE.

No Name shakes her head in disappointment

“Dueling against the final opponent of this tournament isn’t training then what is it? There are holes in your reason!”

Sunz: That was my Elemental self. The me that will fight against you will be the inferior version of you.

“And to be honest! During my fight with ONE, I didn’t gain anything. Probably because I was at my peak potential during that fight.”

No Name: Are you doing this because you accepted your defeat?

Sunz says with a smile on his face: Precisely! I have to face the truth.

“My journey is the shortest of everyone here. You can say, I made it this far in the tournament due to sheer luck, and I wouldn’t disagree.”

“When I saw you fight. Your skill was the purest out of everyone here. From the form to techniques, it wasn’t elegant or perfect but, you understand the sword better than everyone else.”

“You can take everything I said with a grain of salt. Even though I admitted my defeat, I won’t be going easy on you. I want to improve my technique to your level.”

“Sometimes the Weak has to be a threat to the Strong. So I’ll make sure you gain something during our fight.”

No Name: Are you always like this? Talkative?

Sunz: Not at all! Talking that much surprised me too.

No Name: Well then, now that I see you mean no harm. Why do you want me to cancel my training?

Sunz: I want you to have a day off. And invite you to hang out with us. Do you accept?

...

No Name: Sure why not!

Sunz: Wow, didn’t expect you to agree.

No Name: Your reason made me agree. You were right when said that ‘Training against AI won’t make a difference.’

“And to be honest, I feel that. Maybe, what I need is a break. So who are we going to hang out with and where?”

Sunz: Location that hasn’t been decided. For who…I think Jihu, Grace, and Yama will agree?

No Name: Ddd did you really not plan ahead?

Sunz: Yeah.

No Name: Then do it now. What are you waiting for?

Sunz: I’m going to do it once I get back to my room.

No Name: Ugh you’re so slow.

No Name forcefully pushes Sunz aside, unlocks the door to her room, and then drags Sunz by the collar into her room.

No Name: You can sit on one of those chairs.

Sunz takes a seat, quickly pulls out his phone, and texts Jihu, Grace, and Yama.

No Name: Make sure that you also include ‘No Name is coming with us.’

Sunz texts to everyone.

No Name is coming with us too.

The Gang Sunz, Jihu, Yama, Grace, No Name.>

Sunz then shows his phone to No Name and asks: Is it good?

No Name: Why are you showing it to me for?

Sunz: To make sure that I don’t miss anything.

No Name: You are so weird sometimes.

Sunz shrugs his shoulder: Eh!

“Why did you bring me into your room for? I can just finish texting outside.”

No Name: And see you fainted again. The amount of energy you regain after that fight, is still not enough for you to stand around for 10 minutes. Let alone multitasking.

Sunz: What do mean by ‘Again’? I’m sure that you never saw me fainted.

No Name: Look like Sogae didn’t tell you. I never saw you fainted but I saw the aftermath. I report you to Sogae after seeing you just lying on the floor.

Sunz: I guess thank you.

No Name: Don’t bother. I need you out of that room so I can train that all.

…

Sunz's phone starts buzzing from many notifications.

No Name: Look like they responded, check them.

Sunz takes out his phone and starts checking.

Message from Yama: Sure, I’m free.

Message from Jihu: Count me in. I’ll take care of where we’ll go since I know you have no plan.

Message from Grace is the same as others but she also includes some ‘Angry Emoji’.

Sunz shows No Name the message and asks: Does this mean anything?

No Name: What are you trying to show me this time?

She glances at the message for a second then immediately runs to the door and opens it. She checks left and right of the hall but doesn’t see anyone.

No Name closes the door then tells Sunz: It’s time for you to leave.

Sunz: Sure, but what was that for?

No Name: Grace must have seen you talking to me and now she is suspecting something between us.

“Now! You must go back to your room and explain everything to her.”

Sunz: OK then.

No Name opens the door for Sunz to leave. After getting out of her room Sunz suddenly has a question.

Sunz: Will you have enough energy to hang out with us tomorrow? You know, you just wake up.

No Name: I can manage that. Now hurry! Your lady is waiting.

No Name closes the door to her room and Sunz goes back to his room.

After opening the door to his room, Sunz notices that the light is on. (She must be here.)

When he walks further into the room, he sees Grace sitting on his bed reading her book.

Grace noticed Sunz come in and greet him with a loving smile. But to Sunz that smile radiates more negative energy than positive.

Grace jumps out of the bed to give Sunz a big hug and asks: What were you doing before that made your body so tired?

“And instead of coming back to your room. Why did you visit Her?”

Sunz tries to answer calmly: I was inviting her to join our group tomorrow trip.

Grace: OK then. Do you mind if I talk with her?

Sunz: Well, that depends on her not me.

Grace: Can you give me her room number?

Sunz: Why?

Grace: So me and her can familiarize with each other.

Sunz: OK then, her room is ###. Please be civilized.

Grace then releases Sunz out of her hug and tells him “Take care and don’t oversleep!” then leaves the room.

Sunz: Well that was smooth sailing!

Sunz turns off all of the lights and goes to bed.

Sunz: Darkness I both love and hate you.