26 I want a katana

Leader Anver dismissed us early after the practice. We didn't patrol the forest today. He probably thought we would spend the entire day practicing spear throwing…

Sensitivity was still a major problem with my augmentations. Since I couldn't feel the spear in my metal hand as much as in my left hand, I couldn't do stuff that needed high accuracies like spear throwing, or any kind of throwing, really, without relying on the Pre-action Planning System. I'm sorry, Mr Anver. I don't think I would get any better even with practices.

Mr Anver looked like he had given up after he instructed me to throw without closing my eyes for a few times. I mean, I missed the intended direction by ninety degrees. It's very hard to release the spear at the right time when you couldn't feel its weight properly, you know?

Then leader told me to throw "strong". Umm, it was a bit over the top. Of course it was! My arm was the closest I could get to military grade aug you know? I spent my entire summer saving up for it! Be at awe, witness my amazing dark-energy powered, superalloy arm, capable of 10 thousand newtons of force! Ehehe…

Miss Lena said something to mister Anver, then just grabbed me and dragged me away, in a beaming grin. I resisted in to no avail.

To be honest, big sister scared me, just a bit.

I was slowly learning the speech of this world with captain Jack and sister Emma's teaching. Mister Anver taught me a few words too, but whenever I spoke to him, he looked at me, half confused and half disappointed. I told sister Emma about this. She said to me that, um, "your accent leaves a lot to be desired".

But there was one word I was pretty sure I could speak like a local. "Cute". Or rather, "cuteeeeee~!". The word was imprinted into my mind whenever my cheeks were being yanked from my face or when I was being suffocated by a certain someone's excessively forceful embrace.

I'm serious, I was not sure if she hadn't disfigured me and turned my face into something weird!

Every time I thought about it, I still shuddered and unconsciously checked if my head was still vertically longer than horizontally!

And I also wasn't kidding about being suffocated! Yes, I know what you're thinking, "how could a modern genetically enhanced human with superalloy skeleton and augmented muscles be suffocated by a medieval woman?"

I peeked at sister Lena. We were now at the town's marketplace, and she was enthusiastically pointing to some of the weapons on the blacksmith shop's display wall.

You see, if this woman ever got pregnant, she could single-handedly breastfeed the entire town. She must be a cow-human chimera. Yes, that must be it. There was no other explanation.

She picked up something and turned to me. Her boobs swayed like a flag being waved in the air and nearly hit my face. I was standing like a meter away from her.

I now understand why she was the crossbow-handler in the team. No, it wasn't because she was a woman and the job of vanguard was dangerous. That's ridiculous. The reason was simple. She had that biological bipod that enabled her to shoot crossbow efficiently from any stance.

"Naomi!"

I woke up from my trance, realizing my hands were on my pitiful chest and my eyes were… No, my eyes weren't wet. It was just a bit dusty in the market, you know. I was definitely not crying over all the unfairness in the universe and how life is futile.

Big sis was holding a short cutlass in her hand and speaking excitedly. She took my hand and put the sword in it. She made the gesture of swiping in the air. She was telling me to try it out.

My full attention turned to the sword. I had never held a sword in my life. I felt thrilled. I took a stance from an anime I watched on the neural net and swung the sword, trying my best to copy the main character's movement when she was heroically fighting the giant robot.

"Swoosh". Oh, it felt amazing.

A few swings later, I was immersed in it without knowing. I reenacted the entire anime fight right in front of the blacksmith shop.

The sound of the blade whizzing in the air, the domineering smile as you downed your foes like cutting through grass, the moment when you plunged your sword into the eye socket of the villain robot and hearing its whimpering "It.. it can't be…", then you put a foot on the dead final boss' face, kicking it away and raised your sword to the air, in the middle of the thunderous cheering. The young boy, your companion, and resistance soldiers cried tears of joy when you had finally put a stop to the machines' insidious plan to destroy the remnants of humanity …

When I finished, the shopkeeper was laughing loudly as he repeatedly slapped his knee. Miss Lena giggled amusingly with a hand on her mouth.

[What have I done…]

I glanced around and saw people looking at me weirdly. I pulled the hood on my coat almost to my chin and embarrassedly handed the sword back to the big sis.

She took it, and in a huge grin, opened her arms.

Oh no. No more.

"So cuteeeeeeeee~!"

And my vision turned dark.

My artificial lungs worked the best they could. If the chemical oxygen reserve in my lungs hadn't been spent in outer space, it would have activated as my life was being endangered.

My "desperation phase" once again kicked in and time seemingly slowed down. It felt like years had passed since the day I was buried in the mountains of meat.

When sister Lena finally released me five minutes later, I wobbled around like a puppet with its strings cut off. I shook my head to regain consciousness and retreated away a hundred steps, just to be sure.

In the end, I was not satisfied with the swords in the shop. I tried to tell sis Lena that I already had a sword. She understood me, albeit looking a bit dejected.

I desired a sword that didn't exist in this western-earth medieval world. I wished for the same weapon that the MC in my beloved anime was wielding, and it was the best-looking sword ever.

***

"No. That's a horrible idea."

"Please, sister Emma, please…" I cried out, opened my eyes as big as possible and turned my head down while looking up, displaying my best irresistible 'upturned eyes'.

"It's not like I don't want to make the sword for you, but your request is unreasonable. What do you mean you want a 'human-sized katana'? Stop watching so much anime!"

She turned around, put down the half-finished gun, and with a hand on her waist, spoke to me with her finger raised.

"You can't handle a big sword in real life. It has nothing to do with strength. You don't have enough mass to anchor yourself to the ground when you swing it. The sword would swing you instead."

No…, reality is cruel. Please stop reminding me of it, sister Emma. Let me have my anime dreams…

Sister Emma put both her hands on her face. She wiped it down in a very, very slow motion.

"Why do I have to lecture you of this… This is basic physics… This is the first thing you learn in school…"

She sighed and closed her eyes.

"Even if I make you a normal sized steel katana, you know, a katana doesn't suit you at all. Katanas are very fragile, and you have superhuman strength. If I have superalloy to make your katana, I will consider it, but we don't have any."

I relented. "Please sister Emma, there has to be a way. A normal katana is fine. You have to understand, katana is the only sword for me. If anyone who can help me, it's you, a genius engineer who can solve any problem!"

"You can't strike with a steel katana. You can only slash…" Emma put a hand on her chin, pretending not to hear my shameless praise. "You have the speed to close the distance with your opponent quickly. But normal sword styles are not suited to high-speed slashing like that. You need a very low angle of slashing if you don't want it to break."

Emma raised a finger. "How about reverse grip handling? I don't know if your mercenary leader can teach you that style, though…"

A girl was standing coolly in the forest, holding her katana in a reverse grip. Red leaves were falling around her in the cold autumn breeze. Corpses of hostile beasts laid around her. She wiped her sword with the sleeve of her shirt and sheathed it, walked away without looking back.

My imagination exploded. Oh my god, it's so beautiful…

I jumped up and hugged sister Emma while continuously thanking her. She smiled at me and ruffled my hair with her hand.

At that moment, the door opened. Captain Jack appeared behind it, but stopped when he was about to walk in.

"Oh. Excuse me."

The door closed.

"No! It's not what it looks like!" I hurriedly jumped away in panic and ran toward the door.