Kazutora's Friend~

"If I already had salsa and tango lessons together with him... what's next... waltz?" Senju's heavy eyelids opened and soon I asked her tired voice asking.

"Lessons with who?"

"Just a passing tower... don't worry about it." I stood up and finally my pain caused by the system vanished.

"Freedom." I think a tear fell down my face, I felt like I was a terminally ill patient that miraculously has been cured from their deadly disease.

"I will always try to stay healthy, no more junk food for me. Thank you, god." I put my hands in prayer, while Senju stared at me in disbelief.

"Is there something you need to get off your chest?" I heard concern in her voice, but I just shook my head assuring her everything was alright.

"On the contrary, I need to show you this!" It was time to display my newfound strength, now when the muscles could pull up the weight without much strain. So I picked up Senju bride style.

"Just a few months ago this wouldn't be possible," I told her feeling quite proud of my achievement, sure I didn't acquire these muscles by normal means, but I had to abandon some of my pride and principles to get where I was now. Once I walked down, Kazutora as well as my parents looked astonished by the sight.

"When did you become so strong?" Brother questioned me.

"Recently, but fear not my dear brother, I will build enough muscles to be able to carry you like a small child as well." I put Senju down on the chair and started to fool around by making body-building poses.

"Strong," I repeated the word every time I changed to another position. I heard both mom and dad praising me, which felt nice to hear.

"When you behave like this, it's hard to imagine that just recently you were barely staying alive." Kazutora pointed out, I guess since his Intelligence was debuffed, he lost some of his reasoning. Which prompted him to say stuff that was better left unsaid.

"Kazu-chan that happened in the past, let's not dwell on it." He nodded his head, I guess he acted like a little lamb around the family setting. Which made me unable to envision him like he was in the manga, but could this change if he stayed too long with Valhalla? All I could hope for was that I would be at the right time and place to stop him. While making sure to not reveal my identity.

After we finished breakfast and changed our clothes I headed out with Senju.

"So you mean you will go out today to visit the Valhalla headquarters?" She asked as I nodded my head.

"But don't worry about me, I already seem to have met an ally." I exchanged numbers with Jun and after he found out about me being also in the LGBTQ+ space he managed to open up to me. I guess he was searching for a person that would understand his struggles.

"It's actually hilarious what you told me... why would you call yourself Jesus?" I just turned my head away being quite embarrassed by the mishap.

"It just happened."

"But it's, even more, funnier because there is a person with a similar name of your choice." Yes, that sounded like a freaky coincidence.

Once we reached the school gates we stopped talking about the matter, since I advised her to not talk about this topic on the school grounds. If Kisaki heard us two talking about Valhalla, he may get suspicious.

After my foot passed by the door frame, all I could feel was this stinging look coming from Kisaki's direction.

"Oh, Tetta-Kun considering your expression you must have loved the gift I gave you." He slammed his hand on the desk.

"Rather than that, I'm planning to hand it to Hanma instead." There was no doubt in my mind the giraffe would do something weird with it, but hey that hardly concerned me, but I was quite offended he would give something like this away.

"Then you can just return it to me if you don't want it." He avoided my gaze and looked away. What was I supposed to make out of this reaction? Did it mean he liked it but was too tsundere to admit the fact? This guy was not only confusing himself but also me, he needed to make up his mind and soon.

I left this matter at that, and when lunch came around I had to deal with another issue.

"Why would you give my brother something like this, are you out of your mind?" Nahoya was glaring daggers in my direction.

"Sorry, should I take it back your majesty? Was my gift unfit to your tastes... but I thought I gave it to Souya, not you... so why are you complaining in his stead?" Nahoya bit his lip.

"Why don't you just date him instead of beating around the bush?" Nahoya asked, well if I knew what the system wanted from me, I maybe would agree to date someone.

"I reckon... that is none of your business..." If someone questioned my intentions again I would lose it, I must have showcased my fury because Smiley actually flinched.

"You are scarier when you aren't saying anything."

"Please don't kill my brother," Souya said earnestly, I wasn't too sure why he thought I would even try to attempt murder on the peachy guy.

"Going to jail for a guy like this is not worth it." And our silly fight began once more.

When school was over I made my way home and once I had some food in my stomach I grabbed all the necessary stuff and made my way to the Valhalla headquarters. Strangely enough, not many subordinates were there.

"You're late!" Hanma said as I felt my eyes roll.

"I told you I won't be coming so early, maybe you like to skip school, but I don't." He didn't seem to like that I talked back. He tried to come close so I decided to make a performance for him. After making a fancy bow I expressed my nonexistent sadness.

"My apologies your majesty, how about you accept this token of gratitude that you had to wait in this cold." Honestly, it wasn't cold at all, strangely enough, Autumn in Japan was quite a pleasant experience. I tossed him a package of snacks, which I was sure I have seen him snack on before.

"Are you trying to win me over by snacks?" Hanma asked as I just stood there not acknowledging his question. I wanted to know what he was up to, so I could leave quickly and return home. I had some homework to go thru after all.

"I start to like you even more." I guess he respected the people that fed him.

"I asked for your assistance because I wanted to see your fighting skills." He stood up and started to leave the building.

"Couldn't we have met at the designated place, talk about a waste of time." I was in a rush after all. The tall guy just chuckled but didn't comment on my complaint.

So we made our way to some abandoned warehouse, there was so much chaos taking place, I heard a shouting match happening between Hanma and the other guys and before I could make out what this was about, Hanma charged in like a mad man. I think there were at least 10 different guys present, they split their targets most of them taking on Hanma instead. Yet one guy's Luck stat was so low, that he tripped in my presence.

"Amazing." I heard myself express. At first, I was trying to avoid all the punches those people tried to land on me, but once I knew their overall stats I started to calculate my movements.

I assumed, considering this was my first real fight experience, that I would be freaking out, but it was the opposite. I was calm, and due to my high Intelligence stats, the systems sometimes pointed out people's weaknesses to me which I made sure to aim for.

"What's with this stupid mask?" One of the opponents asked me. Which I found absurd, was this his idea of trying to agitate me, so I would lose my cool? I didn't feel any need to explain myself to those hotheaded guys. Sure in the end I received some punches back, but with some endless scummy tactics I took them all down. Hanma was already finished at this point and I was annoyed at the fact of how many bruises I would have to deal with.

"Are we done here?" I asked the giraffe as he nodded his head, and then put his hand around me.

"You better at this than I anticipated, how about I make you one of the captains?" Didn't he need to have it approved by Kisaki first?

'Would you rather accept or deny and slap his hand away?' I wanted to be left on the sidelines.

"You give me too much credit, denied." I slapped his hand away while declaring.

"If that was all I'm returning home." And left him behind. Once I realized he was nowhere near my vicinity I took off the mask and took off the Valhalla jacket and flipped it inside out so no one would know what it really was. And considering Kazutora wasn't at home I got rid of the hair extensions inside my room. I quickly changed to some new clothes so no one could make the connection and just began studying.

When Kazutora came back home one hour later I ran to greet him. But to my surprise, he dared to drag the giraffe alongside him. I came in between them two trying to shield Kazutora with my own body.

"Oh~" Just by the reaction alone I could tell he had no clue I was his sibling.

"Who allowed you? To hang with my innocent big brother? Are you here to corrupt his mind, you wicked giraffe?"

"Your words are so harsh Michi, I have not done anything of such." He claimed but I just narrowed my eyes at him.

"Suspicious!"

"You two know each other?" Kazutora asked as I nodded my head.

"He hangs around my classmate... following him like a lost puppy!" Ha, take that Hanma! I would call him a love rival, but at this point, brother was probably aware of Kisaki's existence.

"But why did you invite him here?" Like why? Kazutora didn't answer probably because he could see my pure distaste for this guy. I crossed my arms puffed my chest and decided to be angry with him.

I just went inside my room and resolved to not interact with the giraffe, who would have thought that after an additional hour he would invite himself over?

"Oh~ Nice room you have here~" He was looking around his eyes landing on the paintings I made.

"You're quite the artist." I couldn't tell if he was sincere or actually just wanted to fill in the silence.

"Can you get out?" I seriously didn't want this guy roaming around, would Kazutora take care of him if I asked him to? Would Hanma even listen to his words? But then I realized something, how come I could see two of his abilities? So I changed my focus on the status window.

'Ability: Cozy Pillow. Rank: A. Can put to sleep even the rowdiest of babies.' I glanced at Hanma and then at my skill, remembering what happened with Taiju last time. I got an idea and it looked like the system agreed with me on this matter.

'Would you rather put Hanma Shuji to sleep or kick his ass?' Beating him up was tempting but I didn't want to showcase my abilities in front of him. So I sat on my bed and clapped onto my lap. He laughed.

"You want me to sit on your lap or something?" I shook my head.

"Put your goddamn head on my lap and stop talking." I guess my change in attitude freaked him out a little.

"Come on, before I change my mind." He actually followed my request but tried to tease me about it.

"Shhh, be quiet unless you want me to push you to the ground." Some melody and brushing my hands thru his hair and he was out pretty fast. That's when Kazutora came thru the door.

"Have you seen-" He stopped when he saw the culprit he was looking for sleeping on my lap.

I out my finger to my lips while telling him.

"Shhh, the baby is sleeping." Kazutora didn't seem too happy at witnessing this scene, despite he didn't say anything even when Hanma woke up and left.