First Form / Technique

At the Ryōzanpaku Dōjō, Noah stared at Kenichi who was drawing circles at the corner with a lifeless expression, depicting a person who lost all hope in life.

He could understand what he was feeling right now, after defeating Daimonji he thought that it was going to be over and he would be able to go back to his peaceful life.

However Kenichi was wrong, once you defeat someone another one pops out of nowhere like a certain cliché from the abominable Xianxia & wuxia novels.

But either way, that was how the world of fighting worked, either you fight endlessly or you do nothing and be a coward and die miserably in the end.

Once you start fighting there's no turning back, that was the case in this world but in Noah's world… meh.

Depends, anyway Noah would leave the comforting to his Masters as they were more experienced about these kinds of situations.

All of them went through the same thing as Kenichi.

After that they started their training with Akisame, Noah felt that something was different about this time's training. It felt like the boulder he was carrying now was heavier than usual!

He slowly lifted his head and saw that Akisames' eyes were glowing!

'Ah! I knew it!' Noah could only hide the bitterness in his heart, this time he didn't turn on his Live Stream because it was unnecessary.

Live Streaming would only make things worse for him! His viewers wouldn't give him a word of determination and instead they would vigorously rub salts and spice with acid straight in his wounds.

He wasn't a Masochist, he decided that he would only Live Stream a fighting scene or necessary moments.

After training with Akisame, he got somewhat used to his training regime and wasn't as tired as before when after everything training he would become like a lifeless corpse.

It was finally time for Shigure to train him, after he mastered the basics of how to properly use a few types of weapons, Shigure decided to teach him one of her techniques today.

Noah was excited to learn a weapon technique, especially from Shigure. The sensei he loved.

"Shigure-sensei please teach me." Noah said with a plain tone, it wasn't polite at all nor did it carry the excitement he was feeling, he tried but couldn't really help it that he was like that.

But Shigure wasn't displeased at his plain monotone voice, in fact she was extremely happy to be called 'Sensei', especially from Noah. Though her expression didn't change her tone held her excitement clearly.

"Ahem-! Sensei… will teach you..!" There was a hint of pride in her voice, she straightened her posture and as she did her Heavenly melons jiggled.

The technique she taught was called fading slash, it was really an unbelievable technique if Noah didn't see it himself he wouldn't believe that such a technique existed!!

When Shigure first showed him the technique, it truly caught him off guard.

She attempted to swing her Katana towards Noah's shoulder and by instinct Noah was prepared to dodge it, however before he could even move the katana was already at his neck instead of his shoulder blades!

That made him confused, he swore that Shigure was just about to swing the Katana and that too at his shoulders, but it turned out that it was already at his neck?

Noah's eyes were wide open at that moment, the Katana was still on the air but all of sudden it vanished and appeared near his neck?

"Sensei what was that?" Noah asked in confusion.

"That… was the fading slash technique, as you can see it needs immense speed to perform this technique." Shigure spoke, while Noah was smiling bitterly and replied.

"You know… I can't move that fast right? I'm not at a level where I can use 'Ki' freely or use it at all for that matter."

Shigure stared at Noah and suddenly tilted her head and said. "How.. do you know about 'Ki'? Did Akisame tell you... about it….?"

'Ops, I wasn't supposed to know that yet, well whatever, I'll just make up a BS excuse.' Noah thought for a second, and then he answered.

"No, actually Akisame-sensei didn't teach me about 'Ki' but since I was practicing martial arts and I'm somewhat of a fan of a certain manga called…. Dragon Ball, they also have this 'Ki' thingy that they use in martial arts so I assumed that this is also the case for all of you too sensei."

Shigure gave him an 'Oh!' reaction, though she didn't know what DB is, she didn't ask anything further and plainly spoke.

"You... don't need 'Ki' in the fading slash technique, at your current foundation… it's enough... for you to perform it...! Speed is one of the main requirement… but the most important requirement in this technique… is to trick the opponent's eyesight!" Shigure continued to explain the technique, its uses and how to perform it.

While Noah was listening, he felt that this technique wasn't as useful as it first seemed, because according to his observation it would only work for fighters of High Class Disciple and below.

There was no way it would work on Expert Class fighters and above.

But regardless it was his first weapon technique that he learned from his lovely Shigure sensei. And anyways, it was still very useful at his current level. He was being too narcissistic when he was thinking about a technique that would work on an expert class. He was only a Low Class Disciple according to the system and he had a long way to go so he shouldn't have unnecessary thoughts like this.

So he started imitating Shigure's actions and her teachings, it wasn't that hard nor was it simple he could finally perform a rudimentary version of fading slash at the end of Shigure's lessons.

Though he was nowhere near mastering it as there were plenty of weak points and flaws in his execution and overall action, Shigure was still surprised to see him being able to perform the technique after only a few hours of training.

But her surprise didn't last long, she remembered when she was learning this technique it took her half a day to perform it and the two days later she had already mastered the technique.

However there was a base difference between Noah and Shigure. She was born with a blessed physique that was perfect for Martial Arts.

Her foundation was already overqualified when she started to learn this technique, and Noah on the other hand started building his foundation a week ago.

So that's why he couldn't perform the technique very well, it was impossible for him to master this technique as fast as Shigure, what he lacked the most was foundation and it was something that had to be built gradually over a long period of time.

..

..

..

At school, Noah's muscles all over his body were sore and aching, it wasn't surprising since even though Shigure's lessons were finished he continued to perform and master the technique.

It was also the same for Kenichi, he had also adapted to his new daily schedule, however Noah pitied him a lot, after all Apachai was one of the Masters that taught him.

He thanked God that Apachai didn't seem to have an interest in teaching him Muay Thai or else he wouldn't not only be putting Kenichi but also his own destiny for being targeted by that Death God. It was really his good luck that he didn't end up in his clutches.

While he was thinking about all of this, it made him realize something. 'Does Shigure-sensei wear a bra? No more like does she even wear panties?'

Slowly his face was getting serious as he thought about it, meanwhile both Miu and Kenichi, who seemed to have taken 'observing Noah' as their favorite pastime at school, were wondering what he was thinking about. They thought that it should definitely be something serious and important to have made Noah make that expression.

However, if they could hear his thoughts they would be speechless, after all they have come to know that Noah was a very solemn and serious guy who had a no nonsense policy.

Finally after thinking for a while he finalized his thoughts 'She really doesn't seem to have any! I should buy her some underwear and bra… but it's really embarrassing… moreover I don't even know her sizes… this is really complicated...'

As his face was getting more and more serious by the second, both Miu and Kenichi gulped and were getting worried about Noah.

Kenichi was about to go ask about what Noah was thinking, when suddenly the door of their room opened loudly.

BANG!!

"Shirahama Kenichi! Show yourself!" It was Fukuda, he looked around the room and finally saw Kenichi.

"You! Follow me outside!"

This interrupted Noah's thoughts, and he was finally able to realize that he was thinking about something irrelevant and pointless.

He stared at Fukuda and thought 'It's starting, huh?'

( -END- )