And...
Wait... Now that she looked close, wasn't the design of these swords a bit familiar?
Ś̵̛͜h҉̛̕͡e҉̵̶͜ ͜q͏̴u̡͠i̷̛͟ę͝͝ţ̢͘͝l̨y̢͠ ̡̛̀͘o̵̡̧͡b̕͟s̶͘͟e̷̢̢҉̢ŗ̡̨͘v̵̴͝e̕͜͏͘s҉̸̕ ̷͢a̧҉̸͝ş͜͟ ̢a̕͡ ̧̛m̵̢̀́͢a͘҉͟͠͠ń̶̕͟ ̵͠p̢̡͘͠r̛o̸͝u̸̧̕͞d̸̷͡͝͝ĺ̷̀͜y͝ ̸̵͜s͏́͘͠h̕͠o̴̶͢͞ẁ̡͜͞s̢͜͡ ̢͏̀͡͞t͏҉́w̵̧̕͟o̷̕͘͞ ̴̶s̡͜w҉̛o̧͢͢͠͏r̛҉d͢͏̴̢s̵̵̢̀͠ ̵̴̢̀͞t͝҉̶̵̨o̷̕͞͝ ̸͡a҉̷́͘ ̵̢͢͝͡s͞͡m̶̀͜͡a̷͘͜͟l͟͝ļ̀͘ ̷͡c̵҉̶̛̕h̨͟͞͞͞ì̡͢͝l͏͟ḑ̷̧
She blinked, and the recognition was gone, replaced by a growing confusion. How strange, she could have sworn... No. It must have been her imagination. Wait... What had she been thinking about again?
...loved this place, in fact the whole of Tiānshì City is so full of the old ways it is entirely welcoming and truly comforting. I know little of those times as I unfortunately saw destruction of them rather than living through them..
Eh, destruction? But the culture here is so pretty? And surely, news of such an atrocity would have been all around town.
She relaxed slightly as she listened to the woman, despite the sad topic. However, she tensed again when the blades were drawn. Even when not aimed at her, the live swords brought back unpleasant memories.
...
Exhale...
That seemed to be better. It wasn't quiet as effective as when she had been merely observing from afar, but she had always had trouble maintaining that state when something unexpected happened, so it was nothing new.
Nevertheless, the swordsmanship of the woman seemed different from the ones she had seen before, even since coming to this place. In the other world it had just been a tool of brutality. Here, wielding it had been upgraded to having an extension of oneself, and even being an art. But even then it was nowhere near as refined as what she currently saw.
...
Be graceful, eh?
"That's amazing", she said softly.