Swordmanship~

On Sunday morning, I woke up while holding Senju in my arms, we both were snuggling into each other. This happened because yesterday she insisted on staying the night, there being two main reasons for her request. One because it has been a while since we last had a proper sleepover and two because I basically reserved her whole Sunday for myself and my shenanigans.

Considering how cute she looked an evil plan was already cooking in my mind, I took my phone and decided to bully her boyfriend this fine day by taking a photo and sending it over with a caption.

"My cute girlfriend~." Only after breakfast did I receive a reply, but it seemed like he didn't only stop at sending me a wall of texts. Considering Senju knew and proceeded to ask.

"Michi, what did you do for Chifuyu to keep telling me he's jealous?" I gave her a smug smile, showing her the picture. Was she perhaps telling me to stop?

"Great, let's send him some more." And so we did upon her request. The first was of us hugging, the second was where I was giving her a peek on the cheek, and the third one was where I was the one receiving it. So a call came thru.

"Is it fun to play with my feelings like this?" Chifuyu asked as we just laughed.

"Come on you know we are just joking around." His response was.

"With Michi, I never know." Rude.

"I would never go for people that are already taken, listen gotta have some dignity and manners, but at the same time I can bully you a little from time to time."

"Please stop bullying me I have a weak heart." He said it in such a strange tone it must have been a joke.

"Should I have an ambulance on standby, you may not be able to handle my next move," I expressed, while Senju was just laughing in the background.

"There is more?"

"Yes gotta drag my girl on a date, for a picnic perhaps?"

"I want to be on board," Chifuyu demanded.

"Sorry, in any other circumstances I would, but my brother is coming, and yeah you know where he is mentally at the moment."

"I guess we would end up in a fight." He admitted, at least he was understanding.

"Next time, after the fight between Valhalla and Toman I will make sure to add you to the equation." Chifuyu seemed to be happy with this development.

"Promise?" He asked as I agreed.

"Yeah, you got my word." And so we put on the Hanfu's I bought after our conversation, yes I was going to walk around in this all day and force other acquaintances to wear them as well. You can't be ashamed of your style if you have a whole party rocking up the same outfit behind you.

"Stonks." I was checking myself in the mirror admiring the handicraft and the amazing piece I had the chance to wear.

"Kazutora are you ready?" I asked since mom was kind enough to prepare food for us for this marvelous trip. My incredible plan was to have food inside the forest and afterward engage in some role-playing and swordplay. And who was taking care of securing some wooden swords? Ran. It felt so strange to have someone that was considered a full-fledged adult come around to play with me.

Could he possibly think that my weird ideas were funny? Enjoyable?

I knocked on Kazutora's door, only to hear him talking with someone on the phone.

"That won't happen Hanma, not today." I just opened the door, stormed inside, and snatched the phone away from his hands while telling the giraffe.

"Big brother is mine for the day, so piss off! You may not get an ounce of his attention span today." And I ended the call while turning to Kazutora.

"Listen if he calls again don't pick up." Like I would let him have an opportunity to ask for my brother's presence in the headquarters. Like no tall guy, find someone else to bother. Kisaki perhaps.

"Also you look handsome, lemme take some photos to make them into my new lock screen." Mom seemed to have agreed, and she joined me a few moments later.

"Yes, you doing good with the posing." I gave him a thumbs up and once I found the perfect photo it replaced the one of sleeping Keisuke and Chifuyu that I never bothered to change before.

Soon we heard motorcycle noises from the outside, it was a pleasant surprise to see the two Haitani brothers here.

"Oh, you have a Hanfu too?" I asked Rindou as soon Ran admitted.

"Yep. I bought him a set, knowing he would be sulking if I didn't." I looked at Rindou, was he really as his brother described? Senju and Kazutora shortly came out holding the items we needed. So after packing up the necessities on our motorcycles I jumped onto my bike.

"Say you want to join me or someone else? Or do you plan to ride my bike instead?" I wouldn't really mind if she was the one driving.

"Wait I can? You won't mind?" I shook my head and already knew what answer she would give me.

"Great! Even my older brother and Wakasa won't let me touch their bikes, you're too generous Michi." More like I only bought a motorcycle because the system asked me to, so I believed I just didn't have such a big attachment to it as others.

"Don't worry, even if you break it and crash it, I wouldn't bat an eye. The only important thing is your safety." Senju seemed touched.

"You're just saying this because you can buy a new one easily." Kazutora pointed out as I stuck my tongue at him, he didn't need to expose me like that.

"I said what I said, now let's go... Also Ran you have the goods?" I asked as he nodded his head.

"Yep, one for each person, tightly secured." Even Rindou didn't seem to know what the two of us were talking about.

"Why are you two speaking like you plan to smuggle drugs?" And so I made a deep voice trying to imitate the narrator guy from the movie trailers.

"This winter, one guy, hires a woman, and two teenagers, to smuggle drugs across the border in his van, under the pretext they are on a family trip. To not seem suspicious." Everyone just scratched their heads in confusion.

"Wait you guys get paid?" Yes, one of the most memorable memes.

"She's too far gone into her own head, let's just go." Senju sat down on my motorcycle as I scooted over to make her some space,

"How about riding with me instead?" Ran asked, as I denied the proposal.

"Maybe on the way back." But only if the system made it a mission. And off we went, five strange people wearing Hanfu's on motorcycles, what a sight to behold.

Once we reached the place we took out a blanket and put all our items on it, that's when the system gave me an important mission.

'Would you rather speak and act like you are in a Wuxia setting or like a lady that resides in the emperor's harem?' I think the choice was simple, mostly because I didn't have the patience to come up with complicated and sophisticated roundabout ways to portray my thoughts. Yes who had the time to play mind games? I could just run around with my sword, asking people for duels, complimenting their strength, and yell how they were lacking cultivation or something.

Abruptly Ran whipped out the swords as I picked up one for myself.

"Very well fellow martial artist, let's compare our strengths and techniques," I said pointing my newly acquired sword at Ran, who just smiled and whipped out one for himself.

"Which sect do you belong to?" Was my question, Ran seemed confused at the question I posed him with.

"Just make something up, here let me go first..." I thought about what would fit me the best.

"I'm from the Mount Hua sect, a fellow participator in the Plum Blossom techniques." If I remember right there was a manhua using those terms.

"I'm from the Roppongi Sect?" So unoriginal, he just slapped the word sect on the place he was ruling over.

"Very well let's begin our duel, show me what you're capable of." And so we clashed our wooden swords. It was fun, with all the quick movements, trying to read his next attack pattern. I couldn't keep a composed face, because I found this predicament all too funny. Who would have thought I would have enough power to convince someone to play with wooden swords? And in the middle of a forest, while throwing some cheezy lines.

"Your swordsmanship is good." Not really I couldn't have known, but it was a fact that he was blocking most of my advances to land a blow on him. This was good because I had a hard time controlling my strength since I never got many opportunities to use it.

"Kazutora, let's try it as well." I heard Senju say as they had fun running around chasing each other. Which was fine, no one needed to take it as seriously as I did.

Suddenly I found an opening for a strike and went for it, managing to knock out the sword from his hand.

"I won!" I was really excited only for him to use his foot to knock my sword off as well.

"Isn't martial art about using your body for fighting as well? Let's have a rematch." Was he trying to take this opportunity to test my strength?

"No thank you, I don't want to dirty this beautiful piece of clothing." I crossed my arms and refused to proceed with a fistfight.

"Some other day maybe." When I know I won't lose within mere milliseconds.

"Rindou, you're my next opponent. Let's see what you got." This time I decided to bow before the duel, to add some spice to the dramatics.

Rindou was a more aggressive opponent, as he was trying his best to win no matter what. Quite a competitive spirit, I think he forgot all this was supposed to be for fun, so there were two options I could see myself going for, either letting him knock out my sword to finish the duel or try even harder to try to see thru his nonexistent pattern of blows.

Because he was so aggressive his techniques were sloppy, not sure if he even knew anything about sword-wielding. And now my brain was making it sound like I knew what was going on, without having any prior experience in this kind of matter. Then I reminded myself of a few techniques I saw in manhwas, would it work? Who knew? I tried for the fun of it, but this time I was the one that lost.

"Yes!" Rindou exclaimed as I decided to retreat to the blanket.

"Jesus, he has too much energy, I'm exhausted." Senju came back and she offered me water which I was grateful for.

"Are you already tired?" Ran asked while seeming surprised.

"Taking on Rindou second was a mistake. He doesn't know what role-play implies." I should have gone with Senju first, we would probably put on a wacky front before engaging in battle. I gave her a signal and since the day before I talked about the Chinese dramas I had seen in my past life, she seemed to know the gist of it.

"You who dwell in the demonic sect techniques must be taken care of."

"You orthodox sects are such hypocrites, who gave you the right to decide what's right?"

"And they kiss, revolutionary." Kazutora came back from what seemed to be his toilet break. We two just roared in laughter, as I was reminded of the Untamed TV drama.

"You should start writing novels brother." I joked, but he didn't seem to take my suggestion seriously.

Next, we watched how Rindou and Kazutora had a fight with each other. They were going head to head, I found myself cheering, but also preparing to take out the food since we wanted to have a picnic.

Even when the food was out, they were still going full out, none of them wanted to lose.

"How about you continue it after the food?" I asked they looked at each other but eventually agreed.

"Great, finally some little peace." I could finally listen to some birds instead of the swords clashing since that was quite a stressful environment while eating food because you never knew when that sword would come flying at your head.

When we finished eating however something strange took place, a black bear showed up and every single of us froze in place.

"Ok, I never had such an experience before." It seemed like none of us knew what to do in this situation, but Venus.

'Would you rather greet the black bear and ask if you can pet him or scream at the top of your lungs?' I stood up and yelled out while bowing.

"Mr. Bear please let me pat your soft fur!" I must have startled it with my yelling because it ran away, causing the others to just laugh at my interaction with it.

"You must have offended it somehow that's why it ran away," Kazutora mentioned as I pouted sadly.

"But I asked for its permission, was I rude perhaps?" I asked myself, but after this, our group didn't want to take any more risks. As Ran said, he could take on delinquents, but bears were a different story. Though before we left Venus decided to throw another mission which I already anticipated.

'Would you rather ride with Ran Haitani or Rindou Haitani?' Since I promised Ran, I decided to choose him as an option.

"Thanks, guys for spending time with me," I told them after we arrived back home.

"How about a goodbye kiss then?" I just rolled my eyes at Ran but Kazutora came in between us.

"Back off, the only person I will approve of is Baji." I stared at the back of his head, no glared. If that was so, was I supposed to become single forever if your killing attempt on his life was successful? Huh? Kazutora? What was that about?

In the end, both of them seemed to have misunderstood where my visible rage was coming from.