Ever since Ryujin could crawl around on all fours, she was known to be an absolute menace — always picking up random items and wielding it with as much deftness as one would expect from a kid. Through the years, she had survived through countless reprimands from her parents, all to no avail. On a singular fateful day, while she was lazing around watching the tv, she finally found a purpose in life — a newfound passion

 

Her parents saw how their usually boisterous child — now seven — was still in front of the television, eyes trained intently on the masked athletes in their pristine white suits standing ready on the piste. Immediately, they knew that their tenacious child had set her sights on something. When Ryujin turned around, fingers pointing to the screen, brows furrowed, mouth open and ready to state her demands, her dad simply held a hand up in front of her face. 

 

“We know. Let’s book a trial session for you and let’s see how it goes from there, okay?” 

 

After a few agonising days’ wait to the weekend, young Ryujin and her father finally arrived at the fencing academy, where the duo was promptly whisked away into the training area. Ryujin’s eyes flitted around the training area, watching the graceful movements of the masked combatants.

 

The instructor that was assigned to her had brought out three weapons, and briefly explained to her, pointing at the weapons as he ran through. He started with the one that had a large bell-shaped guard.

 

“Epee, this weapon is about being careful and opportunistic. When you manage to touch your opponent on the tip with this, you will get the point. Usually, for the other two weapons, there is a priority system that dictates who earns a point in the event of a double touch. However, for the epee, when you get touched, so will the opponent. If two lights are shown on the scoring system, then it’s a point awarded to each fencer. Hence, pacing of bouts for this weapon tends to be a bit slower compared to the other two.”

 

He then moved to the next one, this time having a guard stretched down the grip of the blade. 

 

“This one’s the sabre, the only weapon where the blade’s contact point is the entire length of the blade, unlike the other two which is only from the tip. This weapon type is based on speed and quick reactive decisions, as each point can be scored within a second of starting.”

 

Finally, he moved onto the last weapon, shaped much like the previous epee but with a much smaller guard surface. 

 

“Lastly, we have the foil. This weapon scores points much like the sabre, whose scoring rules I will explain should you choose to pursue the weapon. It is rather like the midway point between the two previous weapons, to be frank…”

 

The instructor then gestured to the three weapons that he was holding on to, “So which one would you think you’d like to pick up?” 

 

Without any hesitation, Ryujin simply threw a little smirk at her father before turning her sights back at the instructor. “Definitely the sabre, the rest doesn’t seem that fun.” 

 

To absolutely no one’s surprise, she took the sport like fish to the water as she threw her entire being into it. 

 

(Meanwhile, her family was just glad that their young kid was no longer trying to hit things around the house.)

 

---

By the time Ryujin entered middle school, her name and fencing prowess became relatively well known. Whenever the participant list got posted in the competition halls, murmurs of her name was a commonplace thing. 

 

“Damn, Ryujin’s in my poule… just my luck.”

“Urgh, Ryujin’s name is here, guess I’m not getting a medal today.”

 

She never paid them any heed though. To her, if they were worried about her being in the competition, maybe they should have just trained harder.

 

(Though Ryujin couldn’t help but to feel proud of herself. It was her hard work that paid off, her recognition and her pride!)

 

As she got older, she joined more competitions, collecting medals from various events left, right, and centre. Her days became a stringent routine — school during the day, fencing academy in the evening. She attended training almost daily — taking breaks only one or two days a week. Honestly, Ryujin just lived and breathed the sports, clinging onto the passion like her life depended on it.

 

It was a routine that stuck with her, everlasting through the years and the many more to come.

 

---

High school brought changes, though indirectly. As Ryujin lazily strolled into the competition venue, a different name flitted through the air, carried by murmured whispers. Curious, the sabreur approached one of her teammates. “What’s going on? Is there someone new?” 

 

Fellow sabreur and captain of their team Yeji halted her unpacking process as she looked up from her gym bag. The cat-eyed girl glanced around before giving a shrug. “I think I heard from Chaeryeong that there’s a new foilist that just entered the scene? She mentioned that her school had a transfer from Canada, and she’s apparently some sort of fencing prodigy.” 

 

Ryujin arched a single eyebrow as she gave an appraising nod at this new information. Chaeryeong was an ex-classmate and teammate of Yeji and Ryujin back in middle school, but she had elected to enrol in a different high school as she had followed the tracks of her older sister. Ryujin prodded Yeji lightly with an elbow, “Hey Yeddeong, since we still have time before we start warm-ups, wanna go see the new girl?” 

 

Yeji simply laughed as she zipped her bag shut after grabbing her phone, “Finally interested in something other than sabre? That’s new!” 

 

Ryujin responded with just a lazy roll of her eyes as she sauntered off to the pistes to spectate the ongoing finals match. By the time she arrived, she saw the referee gesturing, preparing to start off the bout again. 

 

As Ryujin moved to reposition herself closer to the front of the piste, she could feel the tension settling in the space,  almost as if everyone was holding bated breaths. With a quick glance of the score, she could easily see why that was the case. Not only was this the match point for the finals, the new girl was absolutely demolishing her opponent with a score of 14 to 6.

 

Any thoughts that were running through Ryujin’s head were immediately silenced as the referee shouted, his voice cutting through the air.

 

“En grade! Prêtes? Allez!”

 

In a blink of an eye, both fencers charged forward, one charging forward like a bull, driven with desperation, while the other seemed almost as if she was floating towards her opponent. A few sharp clangs of the blade rang out, and suddenly the buzzer rang with a singular light on the scoring system. 

 

(Graceful, silent and deadly precision exuded right from the posture of the unknown fencer down to the glistening tip of her blade.) 

 

“Parry, riposte! Touché!” 

 

An arm was raised on the side of the mystery fencer, and instantly cheers broke out. Ryujin spotted Chaeryeong standing on the sidelines, hopping on the balls of her feet as she clapped enthusiastically alongside her school’s team. Someone from their team walked up to the piste and started helping the foil champion with her wires, and finally, the foilist lifted her mask off. The cheers escalated as the winner’s name was chanted.

 

“Lia! Lia! Lia!”

 

Just then, she felt Yeji lean towards her with a single nudge, smirk in her voice and her breath brushing against her ringing ears.

 

“Penny for your thoughts?”

 

Ryujin knew how her own fencing looked like -- she had reviewed recordings of her previous bouts after all. Her fencing style was like a raging tempest, crashing into her opponent with merciless intent. Whereas what she had seen from the fencer — Lia, she reminded herself in her head — was drastically different. 

 

The intent to win was still cemented with the sharp whips of the foil, yet every movement from Lia flows with the gracefulness of water. It was alien to see, yet mesmerising to watch. Never before had Ryujin ever thought that such standards of a deadly dance could be seen in the sport. Yet, she found that she had not felt threatened, but rather, what had set within her was deep-seated awe creeping through her nerves.

 

Ryujin just looked at the foilist as she exhaled softly.

 

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen fencing this… beautiful.”