You're Welcome

She smiled:

"That's cool."

Kiyoko lightly nodded. Everything in the way this girl was acting was light. Somehow, it felt as if she was afraid of doing sudden and swift movements. I wasn't sure why.

After finishing her plate, Kiyoko went back to her room.

And so our breakfast came to an end.

"So… Let's go to school," said Murakami.

"Yeah."

Let's go…

…

What followed was a very normal day. Around the afternoon, after the end of the classes, I went to the Dojo.

However, even before I reached the place, I saw a surprising sight in the hallway. It was Shirogane. He was waiting beside the door, staring at the ceiling. He saw me and, after a moment of hesitation, said:

"Hello…"

"Hello."

And so we started waiting for Takeshi.

Hm… Now that is strange. Usually, he always shows up early. Today, however, we saw him appear only five minutes late. His appearance made me worried. He was looking somewhat tired. However, once he saw Shirogane and me, a bright smile appeared on his face.

He led us into the Dojo and proclaimed the beginning of our today's training.

I positioned myself before the wooden doll and took out my sword. Then, I took a breath and started showering it with swift swings. Yesterday, I had reached [D-] mastery in kendo, so it was very easy for me now.

At first, this sight surprised Takeshi. Very soon, however, a bright shine appeared in his eyes…

He approached me and, after a moment of hesitation, said:

"Very good… You are making quite a progress."

Takeshi smiled.

Meanwhile, the doll that Shirogane was fighting with started shaking even more. Seems like he was quite annoyed by that remark.

Well, it's his own fault for having fun with his delinquent friends instead of training… And for not having cheat-powers.

"I think… It's time to start the second stage of your training," said Takeshi in a suddenly very serious voice and then told me to walk after him. He led me into a white square drawn on the ground.

Wait, does it mean that…

"Time for sparing," said Takeshi and took out his own sword.

I tensed up.

Fighting Takeshi one on one was going to be… Quite a task, that's for sure. Well, at least he is still injured, so…

I had no time to finish this thought because the very next moment Toma suddenly said:

"Wait, one more thing…" and then he started taking off his cast. Several moments after, he carefully put it on the ground and placed both of his hands on the sword.

I silently looked at Takeshi with my special eyes:

[Str: D

End: D

Int: D-

Special Abilities:

[Kendo: C-]

"…"

Just like I thought. His Kendo mastery had returned to its normal level. That means that he isn't injured anymore, and that means that…

"Let's begin," said Takeshi while looking at me with a warm smile on his face.

I signed and made a step in his direction while swinging the sword…

A few moments later I found myself laying on the ground and looking at the wooden doll with envy in my eyes.

This thing was lucky.

It couldn't feel pain.

Takeshi seemed very satisfied.

"Very good," he said.

"Should we take a break?"

"…no need," I sighed, forcing myself to stand up and shook my head.

A true main character should train like crazy.

'That's right! +5P for the spirit!' shouted the clown inside my head.

"Really? Okay…" Takeshi, meanwhile, was surprised by my desire to go on.

However, he was most welcoming about it...

And so, for the entire of the following week, we continued to spare with each other.

Nothing much has happened during that period of time. I was going to school, visiting dojo, and that is it. My world became very small.

Not that I was complaining about it.

I was training very hard, and so did Shirogane. He was skipping neither training sessions nor even normal classes. His sister was very happy because of that. Sometimes, she also was observing our training, but it was a rare occasion. Shirogane didn't like it, probably because he was embarrassed, and Yuki herself didn't have that much free time to spare. She was a busy girl. Not only did she have her own club activities to do, she was also the representative of her class…

Before, she couldn't commit herself to all these duties because she was worried about her brother, but not she became free to do so.

By the way, Shirogane did as promised and visited Aoi's grandfather to apologize. He even promised to pay for the broken window… The elderly man forgave him right away.

Aoi herself was much less tolerant… However, she also agreed not to call the police after some hesitation.

What surprised me is that after everything was done, Lu approached me and bowed with gratitude.

Seems like she remembered my promise to deal with this stuff and was very grateful for me for fulfilling it.

After that, our relationship had reached +35.

One more event happened that week. At the evening of the day I first saw Kiyoko, I had received the following message from her number:

[Thanks for breakfast

( ˘▽˘)っ♨]

I typed the reply:

[You're welcome.]

…