VI - Unknown Resonance

Haku held the headdress made of bones, feathers, and human ears in her hands for a long moment, studying it closely.

“And you’re certain this will be enough proof for the Guild?” She gestured behind her, where the fallen Mustel chief still lay. “Wouldn’t it be better to take the head?”

Pan flinched.

“N-Not necessary, mm! I’ve heard other adventurers say regalia like this should be more than enough proof to complete this kind of quest.”

Her eyes lingered for a heartbeat on the bloodstained ears, and a wave of nausea hit her.

Besides, this is disgusting enough already. If we carried an entire head with us, I probably wouldn’t be able to stomach a single bite on the way back...

“Very well,” Haku said at last. She tucked away the grisly proof, slung her shield over her shoulder, and added, “Another one of those things that seems to be different in every world.”

A short while later, they were already making their way back down the same narrow path they had climbed.

Once again, Haku found herself watching Pan move effortlessly through the ravine, and the faint smile that crept onto her face remained there until early evening, when they finally reached level ground.

They made camp at the same spot where they had rested on the journey out. The old fire pit still sat exactly where they had left it.

While Pan eagerly unpacked their rations, Haku stepped into a nearby meadow and glanced around thoughtfully.

“This should do...”

She turned toward the campsite.

“Pan. Could you come here for a moment? I want to test something.”

Pan had just stuffed a handful of dried apple slices into her mouth when she heard her companion call.

“Mmmph?”

What's gotten into her? And why hasn't she taken off her gear yet?

Reluctantly, she got to her feet and walked across the meadow, swallowing the last of the apples as she went.

“You want to test something, mm?”

Haku gave her a gentle smile.

“Please, forgive me.”

She lowered her visor and drew her sword.

Pan instinctively took a step back.

“Haku...?”

In the next instant, the silver blade flashed toward her.

She barely managed to dodge in time.

“W-what are you doing?!”

Instead of answering, the Sword Saint attacked again.

Pan dodged every strike on instinct alone.

She leaped backward, ducked beneath a slash, then slipped past the blade, not even understanding how she was managing it.

But Haku increased the pace. Her attacks became faster. Sharper. More precise.

By now, Pan had stopped thinking altogether.

She simply reacted.

Finally, her back struck the trunk of a tree. As Haku’s sword came down once more, she had only one way out.

She sprang upward and caught hold of a thick branch.

“What the heck is your problem, mm?!” she shouted down at Haku.

Only the groan of the trunk answered her as the tree suddenly began to tilt sideways.

“Hm...? Waaaah!”

With a deafening crash, the entire tree toppled over, Pan and all.

Cursing, she fought her way out of the tangled branches, leaves and twigs clinging to her hair and fur.

“Are you trying to kill me?!”

Haku still stood before her, sword in hand.

Then she calmly stepped forward, raising her blade.

Pan wanted to step back...

...but her body did something entirely different.

“WOULD YOU STOP ATTACKING ME?!”

She moved forward, her left hand seizing Haku’s sword arm, her right hand planting against Haku’s shoulder.

With one smooth twist of her hips, she pulled Haku off balance.

A heartbeat later, the Sword Saint flew cleanly over her shoulder and hit the grass with a heavy thud.

Silence.

Pan’s breathing came in ragged gasps.

Then she froze, staring at her own hands in disbelief.

“How did I...”

Slowly, Haku climbed back to her feet, a satisfied smile on her face.

“I knew my instincts about you were right.”

“What are you even talking about?!” Pan burst out. “First you attack me out of nowhere, then you cut down a tree, and now you let me throw you halfway across the meadow!”

Haku calmly sheathed her sword and pushed her visor back up.

“Please forgive me, but it had to be done. It was the only way to discover what your Resonance truly is.”

Pan blinked.

“M-My Resonance? But we already settled that. I don’t have one! The test...”

“...didn’t detect it because it doesn’t recognize it,” Haku finished quietly.

Pan frowned.

“It doesn’t recognize it? What’s that supposed to mean, mm?”

“When you defended yourself against the Mustel today, you weren’t thinking. Your body simply reacted. As though it already knew exactly what to do.”

“B-But... that wasn’t anything special,” Pan protested.

Haku shook her head.

“That’s where you’re mistaken. I’ve seen something like it before. In the world of the Great Heroine Valannia, there was a small tribe whose people achieved a similar mastery over their own bodies. Valannia once spent an entire afternoon trying to land a single hit on one of them.”

Haku looked at Pan’s hands for a moment before meeting her eyes again.

“When I watched you move today, it reminded me of them. I think the same kind of mastery may be sleeping inside you.”

She extended a hand toward Pan.

“Your strength doesn’t lie in a weapon. Nor in magic. Nor in anything else these lands seem to know.”

She slowly clenched her hand into a fist.

“It lies within your body itself.”

She looked Pan straight in the eyes.

“Pan... I believe your Resonance is martial arts.”

Pan stared at Haku as though she’d lost her mind.

For several long moments, she couldn’t find her voice.

“Martial... arts?” she repeated incredulously.

Then she burst into loud laughter.

“Hahaha! Good one, mm! A Resonance without weapons or magic? There’s no such thing.”

“Perhaps not in these lands,” Haku admitted. “But isn’t it possible that your Resonance is just unknown here? That it can only be recognized... in your homeland?”

For the first time, uncertainty crept into Pan’s stubborn skepticism.

Thoughtfully, she looked down at her hands.

“Are you saying... they might actually recognize this kind of fighting back in Panwan, mm?”

Haku nodded.

“I do.”

Pan fell silent.

Without realizing it, she closed her eyes.

Panwan...

Something stirred deep within her.

A dusty courtyard.

Children standing barefoot in a circle.

An old man demonstrating a series of slow, flowing movements.

Pan’s eyes flew open.

“M-maybe you’re right. There’s... something there.” She pressed a hand against her forehead. “But I can’t really remember, mm.”

As suddenly as the vision had appeared, it slipped away again.

“It’s been so long since I left Panwan,” she murmured sadly. “Everything that’s left from those days feels more like a dream than a memory.”

Haku watched her in silence.

“Sometimes the body remembers what the mind has long since forgotten.”

Pan lowered her gaze to her hands once more.

“But even if I do have this... martial arts Resonance you’re talking about...” She looked up at Haku uncertainly. “That doesn’t make me a warrior like you. And it certainly doesn’t prove I’m some kind of Great Hero, if that’s what you’re thinking!”

Haku didn’t answer immediately.

“Perhaps it doesn’t,” she said at last.

Pan blinked, seemingly surprised by the admission.

A small smile crossed Haku’s face before she inclined her head toward the camp.

Side by side, they walked back across the meadow, the evening breeze rustling through the grass.

When they reached the fire pit, Haku knelt beside the neatly stacked branches they had gathered earlier.

“Whatever your destiny may be, I can see the extraordinary potential sleeping inside you,” she continued as she arranged the tinder beneath the firewood.

“We only need to find someone who can show you how to awaken that potential.”

She struck flint against steel.

A single spark landed in the tinder.

“Someone?” Pan echoed, frowning.

A tiny ember glowed, slowly spreading until the first flames began to dance between the branches.

Haku watched them with quiet satisfaction.

“Someone who can kindle the spark that’s already inside you.”

Pan dropped down beside the fire with a huff and folded her arms.

“But where are we supposed to find someone like that, mm?”

Haku smiled gently.

“Why, in your homeland, of course.”

The fire crackled softly between them as Pan stared into the flames.

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