It is a hot summer day afternoon. I was walking down the street that I have walked down upon hundreds of times in my life. I don’t usually like to tell stories about myself, as I don’t really believe to be anything special. Rather, what happened to me, was what was special. Well, I am dead anyway so we have all the time in the world.

I am called Kato, a normal 17-year-old guy who likes to read mangas and read online novels. I live or rather lived, in a small coastal city near Tokyo, it's called Hitachinaka. The population is roughly 100,000. My life was serene, I wasn't a complete otaku and had a rather vast quantity of hobbies, in which I had interests in. Firstly I should say that I was born in a family of Kendo practitioners, my dad was an instructor and my mother… well, a national champion. At the age of 4, on the day of my birthday, I received my first kendo practice sword. Yeah, talk about expectations… But I’ll admit that I really enjoyed swinging the sword, and became rather adept at it. My sparring partner? obviously my little neechan. Little because she was never able to surpass my height although being a year older than me. She got her first sword at the same age as me but she didn't really enjoy using it too much, although after I got mine, for my parent’s delight, we became sparring partners (if you could call us that, it was more like child's play) and started our rivalry in kendo.

At my seventh birthday party, I received my first camera. Which leads to my other hobby, which was slow motion. Haah you thought I was gonna say something along the lines of photography or cinematography, but no. Rather, I enjoyed making slow motion videos, and analyze everything that happened in the world around me at a significantly slower speed. Incidentally, right around that time was when I made my first female friend. Hoy! Don't think of anything lewd, I was still only seven. The girl I befriended in grade school was Itomori. She could probably be the girl of your dreams, silky red hair, a beautiful and innocent smile and more importantly great skills in Krav maga. I know right, fantastic. The first time I approached her from behind was the first but also the last one. we were all in class on our first day in our second year of preschool, she was a new kid that wasn't around in the first year, as she had just transferred there from Israel (although originally being from Japan herself). The class was packed and all of the kids wanted to go meet itomori-chan, but none of them really had the courage to do so. Except for the girls, of course. Well as I saw my opportunity to be able to speak to her first, I went there from the back and extend my arm toward her shoulder to get her attention and BAAAM. I am sitting on the floor with my bleeding nose. Everyone was shocked, even sensei didn't quite know what to do. Ironically enough, she was the first one to help me get back up. She asked for forgiveness at least 20 times although I did say it was ok at around the second one. Well, whatever the case, she brought me some tissues and escorted me to the nursery. She also stated that she would stay with me until I was taken care of because it was the least she could do. Well besides all that, we were at least able to talk for about 10 minutes as that was the time it took for my bleeding to stop, During that time I came to the understanding of her having a fear of people she doesn't know, and places she is not familiar with, as a result, she explained that maybe my unexpected touch from her back might have triggered her attack reflexes. Well, I didn't resent her in the least, rather, I asked her if she could teach me a few of those techniques she used to attack me after school. Her eyes light up in a very scary way.

As agreed upon we met after school in the courtyard in front of the school, where she explained that the martial arts that she used was called Krav Maga and it originated in Israel. I was perplexed at why a seven-year-old girl, would be learning such lethal techniques at such a young age (not that I could say anything) and she explained that it was a treatment that her psychologist suggested to treat her fear of the unknown. We spent the rest of the day talking, which didn't really end up in me getting taught some super cool moves, but I did befriend Itomori chan, which I was super happy about. From that day onward we were always together in school, and even outside of school. She even taught me Krav Maga during free time as I found it very entertaining, in exchange I taught her kendo, as she was very interested in what I had been learning up until now. It was a fair exchange. For the rest of the year, I can't exactly say that the rest of the male class population was looking at me with benevolent eyes.

During the next three year years of grade school, I improved both my Kendo and my Krav maga exponentially, through the use of my third hobby, slow motion. During practices, I would record myself fighting with Itomori chan, and later during the times when I was alone, I would analyze the moves of my opponent and mine, and later try to incorporate my new findings in the fight with itomori.

At the end of grade school I was able to win my first fight against her, and from there on she would never be victorious again. Although she was quite frustrated by this, it lead to her try even harder and consequently also pushing myself over the limit. Like this our growth in both Krav maga, and kendo was crazy. My parents and oneechan were all very perplexed as well.

During Middle school unfortunately for the first two years, we were placed in different classes which kind of made us distant during the day but we spent more and more time together outside of class. As the years passed we grew and we were already 13. The innocent childhood friend relationship that we had until then had started to collapse because of the different rumors and expectations that were placed upon us by our class. But we managed to hold out until we were both 15, the year we entered high school. To be honest, in a small city, rumors spread fast, and on our first day of school, they labeled us the fighter couple. although neither of us really minded that name, it was obvious that there was now some tension between us, something other than friendship.

During the firework festival that we had during summer, I gather up my courage and invited her on a date. fearing a massive outburst of potential lethal attacks directed towards me I stood with my heart frozen until she looked away and conceded for us to go together to the fireworks festival. Although I wasn't able to see her expression, I sure couldn't hold back mine, of absolute joy. Therefore I was really happy she wasn't looking my way.

The next day we met at around the Dojo and went to the festival together. When we got there I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of people that we encountered, I think that I never saw that many people together all at once. Even Itomori who was mostly able to subdue her fear of unknown people grasped my hand in reflex, and then took it back immediately while blushing bright red and stuttering that it was an accident. I told her that it was better if we did hold hands as we would lose sight of each other if we didn't, convincing her took no time at all. Although I thought that I was manipulating the situation for my own benefit, the reasoning that I had made also sense so I had no particular feeling of guilt. The night proceeds smoothly until we were able to find a plot of grass for ourselves. The action of laying down side by side was something that we had done many times over up until now, but this time it had a different meaning. We sat down on the towel and gazed up at the stars. The many hundreds of people that were also there for the spectacle disappeared from our vision, as the fireworks started their colorful dance my hand slipped onto hers, for which we both instinctively looked in the direction of the other. Our faces were so close that I could feel her breathing. The outside noises turned muffled and time seemed to slow. We didn't avert our eyes from each other for even a second, then as she closed her eyes and tilted her head my blood came rushing to my head as my heart had started pumping like never before. what was I supposed to do, what was she trying to do, all these question and doubts rushed into my thoughts. But, as I regained composure I saw again the memories that we shared from childhood and as a roll of film that passed in front of my eyes I recalled every moment that I had spent with her and how much I enjoyed it, as this was occurring in my head, my body started to instinctively move and I closed my eyes as well, our breathing seemed to synchronize and our lips were coming to contact. A surge of electricity burst from inside of me as the pink soft lips of my ex-childhood hood friend was pushing against mine. My first kiss, I thought.

From the day after we were an official couple, although we were still embarrassed to say that in front of others we were super cozy with each other. Just as you'd expect from a teen right?? (nothing lewd yet though!) The one who was even more happy about this development was oneechan who was very delighted to hear that her brother had become a man. Although I knew she was referring to something else, I let it slide which made her mischievous smile even bigger. Well other than that there weren't many other interesting things that happened in my childhood, well up until right about a few minutes ago.

[ skills till now:

kendo Krav Maga slow motion vids First kiss skill ]