The black stone pulsed faintly as Rei held it through the night. His body ached, but his spirit burned hotter than ever. Shira stood across from him, sharpening her blade with calm precision.
"Again," she said flatly.
Rei dragged himself up, sweat dripping, knuckles raw. His Enso flickered around him, unstable, jumping off his skin like sparks from broken wires. He swung clumsy at first, then sharper, until threads of energy clung stubbornly to the edge of his blade.
His breath rasped. His arms shook. "Haaah… dammit…" He tripped, landed hard, spat dirt, then pushed himself back up. Shira didn't move to help. She just watched.
Hours passed like punishment. Rei fell, rose, and fell again. At last, just before dawn, his blade split the air with a strike so sharp it cut stone. A glowing scar crawled across the floor.
He collapsed, chest hammering. A crooked smile tugged at his lips. "I… I finally cut it…"
Shira slid her blade back into the sheath. "Name it."
Rei blinked, confused. "What?"
"Every true strike has a name. Otherwise, it's just flailing."
Rei's grip tightened. The scar in the stone glowed faintly, whispering back at him. "…Blade of Resolve."
Shira's eyes flickered—approval, quick as lightning. "Then make it worthy of that name."
But the Blade of Resolve was more than just swinging harder. Shira forced Rei to thread his Enso into the strike. The energy could sharpen the cut, could make his body move faster, but if he lost rhythm, it would rip him apart from the inside.
The first tries were ugly. Sparks leapt, muscles spasmed, blood beaded from his palm where the Enso burned. He cursed, shouted, nearly threw the blade away. Shira barked back, "Again."
Night after night, Rei forced himself to breathe with it. Inhale, channel, exhale, release. Sometimes it fizzled out. Sometimes it exploded in his hands. But one night, the ribbon of light held steady. His strike landed clean. The Blade of Resolve carried not just steel but Enso's hum.
He looked at his hands, trembling. A grin broke through the blood and exhaustion. For the first time, it didn't feel like Enso was devouring him. It felt like it was listening.