Chapter 383: Composure, Negligence (1/2)

Morning. Taiyou, Akiha, and Ruri were by the riverbank. Taiyou and Akiha were fighting each other, although it was more practice than anything. Akiha was the only one attacking, while Taiyou was parrying and dodging. Ruri was watching from afar in a white dress.

It was like morning radio calisthenics.

“Hey, you just gonna keep running? I can’t even hit you. Play fair and come at me from the front.”

“You seriously think I’m going to?”

“But you gotta…be…a man!”

“From what planet?”

Although he was exasperated, Taiyou carefully dealt with each of her attacks. Each of her blows were sharp, and nothing to be taken lightly. Although she wasn’t like Taiyou and his heavy hits, Akiha could still easily snap something off. Of course, that was largely because of Ruri.

Shirokiyami, the world’s strongest sword wielder, and a culmination of sorcery and destiny. Now that Akiha had her as a teacher, she was rapidly becoming stronger. However, that was only in terms of growth. In pure strength, she was still nowhere near Taiyou.

He let her attack all she wanted. As they were doing that, he realized something.

(Is she…trying to aim somewhere?)

Akiha looked like she was trying to land an attack with all her might, frantically. It felt like a child throwing a tantrum and wildly swinging around.

But her eyes…deep within her eyes, he glimpsed a mischievous gleam. She was evidently planning something.

Taiyou stole a glance at Ruri. The white girl had been far away; a soul wandering on the edge of fate. But now, she had a gentle look on her face.

Expectation.

Taiyou could read that from her expression.

(Yeah, there’s definitely something up.)

He confirmed before hesitating. Confirmation that something was up, but hesitation as to what he should do about it. He looked back at Ruri.

“Hey, what’re you looking at?”

“Whoa!”

He saw a conspicuously sharp attack headed his way. Taken off-guard, it grazed the tip of his nose. Taiyou hurriedly dodged it, practically falling backwards.

“Well that was a close one.”

“C’mon c’mon, don’t look away!”

“Right, I’d better not.”

Taiyou concentrated. Akiha wasn’t the kind of opponent that he could treat like an odd job. She was no issue if he concentrated, but one look away and things might take an ugly turn.

But at the same time, why not let her? He wasn’t sure what her objective was, but as long as he knew she was up to something, a little concentration should do the trick.

And most importantly…

(I want to see what it is she’s planning.)

He felt very strongly about that.

The way Akiha moved about was reminiscent of Ruri. They were in a teacher pupil relationship, so it made sense for their movement to be similar. In Ruri’s case, it was leaving afterimages or completely disappearing at high speeds. Above all, she boasted a power level several times higher than Taiyou. It was near impossible to gaze leisurely upon her movement, even if he did feel that there was true beauty in it.

But Akiha was different. It was like swinging with 140 kilos at the batting center and then returning 80 kilos while whistling. Taiyou, Ruri, and Akiha essentially had that kind of relationship.

So he decided to let her do it.

Carefully dealing with her, Taiyou let his guard slip just a bit, making it look natural. He shot a glance in Ruri’s direction, while of course still focusing on Akiha so that he could deal with anything. While his eyes were elsewhere, Akiha’s mouth twisted into a smile.

—-Here it comes.