Wooden Sanguine

A plain wooden blade with no ornament on it at all. This is the one Soul held when he first began training in martial arts, and the grain still carries the clumsiness and stubbornness of a boy.

Seen now, it reads as proof of exceptional skill and confidence: anyone who can make a wooden blade behave like this has no need of an edge. Countless swings have worn the edge round and polished the grip smooth, until it looks like an old thing handled half a lifetime.

Without an edge, speed and density are all it has. Once Wooden Blade Flurry begins, one slash chases the next with no gap wide enough for an enemy to raise a weapon, which is why the art cannot be blocked.

What it tests is not how deep a cut goes but how well the strike is measured: fast without falling into disorder, dense without seizing up.

Whether the blade is sharp was never the reason it stayed within reach. Landing every cut on the same point is.

Active | Wooden Blade Flurry: consumes 1 point of Sha-Chi to rain a rapid, tightly packed series of cuts. Unblockable.

Later | Back to Basics, Falling Petal Strike, A Light Touch, Basic Forms: four forms in that order, opening with Back to Basics and closing with Basic Forms.

Soul started with it, learning every stance against the grain of the wood.

When Sanguine came into his hands, the wooden blade was kept. It does not testify to what weapon he once carried, but to why he deserved the one that followed.