“Ah… hey Lily”

“Shiro? It seems that you had a pretty intensive training. Are you alright?”

“I think I am”

“Good to hear. By the way, where’s Mizuki?”

“Oh!? I thought she followed me here. Well, as the class is about to start I can’t go look for her. Let’s believe she’ll get here”

“Ok then” she said.

After that little chat I sat in the desk in front of her and waited for the class to start.

The groups were divided the same way the P.E class was so I was already familiarized with the people that were with me.

Suddenly, a female adult (around 30 but very hot) entered the class and started talking to us.

“Good morning students. I’m the teacher of the “Light Swordsmanship” class. My name is Dianne Scwart and I hope we can get along well.

We’ll first start with a brief explanation of how this and the other classes work. Then, you’ll introduce yourselves and we’ll start the class. Sounds right?”

“Yes” everyone said in chorus.

“Great!” She said while closing her eyes and giving us an innocent smile. Every guy in the class fell in love with her immediately and even got some mild nose-bleeding, including me.

“This class, right before lunch, is about theory. We’ll see everything that we need to now before doing it with the sword. After lunch, I’ll teach you how to translate that knowledge from words to sword.

That’s pretty much it, now if could introduce yourselves, that’d be great. Let’s start this way”

All the boys were shaking from the nerves when they had to introduce themselves with the teacher. Obviously, I was no exception. More than not being and exception, I was the worst of everyone.

“Uh… Uhm… My name is Kuroshi… I mean… Shirogawa… I mean… Shiro Kurogawa! Nice to meet you!”

“Haha Shiro, there’s no need to be so nervous. I know being at the Academia is hard but don’t worry, I’ll treat you nice” She said again with that relaxing smile of hers. I couldn’t dissimulate the nose bleeding and ended up in the floor.

You could tell the girls were extremely jealous of her, but not because it was me, but because she was enchanting every guy with her charm.

After everyone finished introducing, we started the class. I usually slept in those kinds of classes but I didn’t in that one. There was a lot of interesting information that ended up being useful time later. For example, there was a time that I was fighting this guy who was incredibly strong. I didn’t know how to beat him but then I noticed the kind of sword he was using, and used the characteristics of it against him.

Also, I think I didn’t sleep in that class because I couldn’t stop watching the teacher. I mean, light brown hair, great body molded by training, that beautiful white skin tone and a pair of dark blue eyes that just made everything better. Damn she was hot.

The time passed and the class eventually ended. All the guys seemed sad but then the teacher reminded us that we were going to see her again after lunch. The mood changed and we were all happy again.

“Shall we go get lunch?” said Kristian.

“Yes! I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!”

“Eat a horse!? God that’s awful D:” said Kristian.

“Oh sorry man! I didn’t mean that! It’s just a phrase the people from my village say”

“Hahaha I see. I freaked out for real!” he replied.

We went to the dining hall and had to make a very long line in order to get our food.

When we were almost about to get our turn, I remembered I hadn’t seen Mizuki since the morning.

“Hey guys, have you seen Mizuki? Was she in class?”

“Oh yes! Mizuki! I hadn’t seen her either”

“Me neither”

“Hmm, I’ll look for her”

“Wait Shiro! And your food?” said Lily.

“I’ll eat later!” I said before disappearing in the distance.

“Where could she be? She was with us during the morning training but then she disappeared and didn’t go to class…” I was thinking while running nowhere.

“She has to be in the room!” I thought and immediately changed my direction.

I walked up the ladders and my legs were really feeling the pain of an intensive P.E class. Still, I didn’t give up and reached to the fifth floor, where my room was located, walked the aisle and got to my room.

I opened the door without knocking and, as I predicted, there she was, lying in the bed with her arms opened and looking to the ceiling.

“Mizuki! Ah…”

“Hey Shiro…” she said with a very discouraged tone.

“Where you here all the time?”

“Yes…”

“Are you alright?”

“No… I’m feeling… I don’t even know how…”

“…”

“There are just so many things in my head right now that I don’t know what to think…”

“Look Mizuki… I’m terrible at comforting persons (Author’s note: I don’t know if that’s way to say it) but… you can’t give up. We made a short but difficult journey to get here and here we are. You… no… we cannot give up now that we passed through this much”

“…”

“Why don’t you get to classes with me and try to get distracted?”

“Ah…” she sighed. “Alright”.

We got out of the room and headed to the dining hall.

“Also…” I said “aren’t you hungry? I don’t know you but I’m starving”

“Hmm” she laughed, “I could eat a horse”

I smiled and kept walking with her.

When we reached the dining hall I spotted Kristian and Lily who were happily talking.

“Damn, I left them alone again…”

When I was thinking that, Lily raised her hand and called us.

“Shirooooo! Mizukiiiiiii! We’re hereeeeeee!”

“There they are! They’re harder to lose than a cat!”

“Losing a cat?” Mizuki asked.

“Oh sorry, it’s just a phrase my dad used to say”

“Haha I like it” she replied.

She was laughing and I was happy.

We went to the table where our friends were and Lily asked Mizuki what happened to her.

“I was feeling a bit bad but I think I’m ok now”

“Really? That’s good to hear”

“You got us worried” said Kristian.

“You shouldn’t have worried guys…”

“Of course we had to! We’re friends aren’t we?” Kristian told her.

“Thanks” finally said Mizuki.

I was about to sit when I realized I had no food.

“Oh man! I didn’t order! I hope there’s still food. Let’s go Mizuki”

“Yes”

We went to order our food but there was no line anymore and the chefs were closing everything.

“C’mon! Not so much time passed since I left and everyone already ate?”

“Hmm, excuse me. We were late and couldn’t order food. Is there something left?”

The lady from the kitchen looked at us carefully and with a serious expression on her face.

After a while she smiled and told us: “Ahh young love, so innocent. There isn’t so much time to be alone is it? Don’t worry, I got some leftovers”

“Hehehe thank you…”

I couldn’t tell her we weren’t a couple so I just received her food with a smile on her face.

I hadn’t look at Mizuki but when we were leaving, I saw her all blushed and ashamed.

“She really has her own charm! She’s so cute!” I thought while cleaning the blood from my nose.

We went to the table and finally ate our long-awaited food.

“This looks so good! I can’t believe these were leftovers!”

We happily ate and when we finished, we headed to the class where we were supposed to meet our teacher.

“Hey class! You all ate well? That’s good because you’re going to need energy for this next class. Follow me; we’ll go to our assigned place in the forest”

We walked the same path that we walked in the morning and reached the same place we used to train.

“Everyone here? Ok. Before we start I need to know who has used a sword before and who doesn’t know anything at all. Please raise your hands the ones that don’t know how to use a sword”

Like 9 persons raised their hands including Mizuki.

“Ok, I’ll teach you all the basics. The ones that do know how to fight, please fight among yourselves to practice meanwhile”

“Yes ma’am”

“Hey Lily do you want to…” at that moment I was interrupted by a guy who wanted to fight me.

“Excuse me, are you Shiro?”

“Uhmm yes”

“Oh this is great! I heard you’re quite strong. Would you mind having a fight with me?”

He wanted to fight me! I still can’t believe that I got popular so fast.

“Where did you hear of me?”

“Mr. Melinor told me about you. The thing is that I really want to be strong and because of that I want to fight the best ones!”

“Well I’m honored but I’m not that strong…”

“C’mon! Don’t be so modest, just one fight!”

“Ah… ok”

“Great! Then, let’s start!”

We each grabbed one of the wooden swords and placed ourselves in the rectangle.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yes”

“Then… start!”

No one moved. We were carefully attentive to our movements.

We slowly started walking in circles, always attentive to a minimal reaction.

I made a feint by moving my right leg and my back to the front as if I was about to attack, but quickly got back to my original position.

He didn’t hesitate. He maintained his position and kept looking at me with a killer gaze.

“This guy is serious” I thought.

We slowly got closer and closer and closer. Every step we took to the front was carefully calculated and then… he attacked. I quickly parried but didn’t counterattack instead, I took a step back and everything remained like before.

There was nothing in the world apart from us both. We were extremely concentrated.

I moved to front and attacked the same way he did but he parried and counterattacked. I could dodge and again we got back to our original positions.

That game lasted a while. Every attack was more elaborated and longer.

At some point of the fight we didn’t stop attacking. The rhythm completely changed and it was a whole different fight now.

He attacked me and I parried, counterattacked and he parried.

We were just crossing swords, moving from one place to another.

The fight was fast and intense. We didn’t want to lose and we were fighting with everything we had. Unfortunately, at some point, my movements became slow.

“Not this thing again” I said knowing what was happening.

I couldn’t keep parrying and suddenly the guy dodged one of my attacks, got behind me, and put his sword on my shoulder.

“Checkmate” he said.

Then, a lot of persons started clapping and telling us that it was a good fight.

“When did all these people start watching?” I said in low voice while looking everywhere. Then I saw the guy and he had the same look of disorientation I had.

He bent his legs, stretched his hand and helped me get up.

“That was an intense fight” he said.

“Really good fight man. Also, I need to know the name of the guy that just beat me”

“Haha knight’s pride? I like it. My name is Aldair Crouch better remember it”

“Hmm I will”

When I said that, everyone started clapping again and we hugged in sign of respect. It was a very cool moment.

After that we finished the class and everyone went back to their rooms.

“Shiro that fight was awesome!” Lily excitedly said.

“That was amazing man! That was the first time I saw you fighting and it was great” said Kristian.

“Thanks guys! It’s a shame I lost…”

“Don’t worry man. You are lacking stamina right?” asked Kristian.

“Yes…”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about. Mr. Leondre will train you so you improve a lot your stamina”

“That’s exactly what I need”

We stopped talking and then I looked for Mizuki who was behind me the whole time.

“Mizuki you were there?”

“Ah… yes” she glumly said.

“Try to light up a bit because we have special training now remember?”

“I’ll try my best…”

I knew she was depressed but I decided to wait till we were about to sleep to talk to her.

I went to my room to rest for a bit when I ran to Lily who was going to the baths.

“Hey” I said.

“Hey”

“What’s up?”

“Not so much… you?”

“Not so much…”

Silence again.

I felt extremely awkward because I didn’t think about any conversation topic.

“So… how’s life?”

I’m not kidding I really said that.

“Fine, you know, just learning how to kill monsters to make a living of it”

“Hey! I’m doing that too! What a coincidence!”

“Yay! Then we are monster-slayer partners!”

“Yay! Hahaha”

But then, there was silence again.

“You know…” we both said together.

“Oh sorry you wanted to talk?” I asked.

“Don’t worry, you go first”

“Ok, the thing is that I feel a bit worried about Mizuki…”

“So… Mizuki again…”

“She’s been very sad today and I really want to help her but I don’t know how…”

“I think you should just talk to her and ask her why she is like that. Try to see what happened to her in the past or something like that. If a person is so depressed, it must be because they remembered something from the past or something very bad happened to her. Go ask her and you’ll see what’s happening”

“Hmm I think you’re right. Thank you for helping me”

“You know what Shiro? You’re very kind…”

I blushed.

“…and that’s why I like you”

I double blushed.

Then, I felt how a pair of warm and delicate lips kissed the center of my cheek.

K.O

“Bye” she happily said like if nothing happened.

I stayed there just thinking on everything when I reached a conclusion.

“I like her… a lot…”

After that I went to my room, rested a bit and then went to the gym where the special training was going to take place.

When I got there, I saw Mizuki and got happy to see her.

“You came!”

“Yes…”

Then, the professor entered the class and he seemed pissed off.

“Let’s finish with this fast” he said.

“You know why you’re here? Because you’re all a bunch of lazy brats who never had to do anything in life. But now is different, now, you’re going to have to work really hard if you want improve. You’ll start running all over the gym”

All the persons, who were more than just Yusei, Mizuki and me, stayed still.

“NOW!” he screamed and we started running.

“Faster faster FASTER!” he kept screaming to all of us.

After a couple of laps we were all exhausted but there was someone who was worst than any of us…

“What are you doing? You gotta run, not walk. Fast!”

“I can’t sir”

“You can’t!? What’s your name!?”

“Mizuki sir”

“Mizuki, if you want to be someone in life you better start running like there was no tomorrow understood?”

“Yes…”

“Then DO IT!”

“Ahhh!” she quickly accelerated and started running very fast. You could see it that she was suffering but she didn’t stop. She kept running with everything but then she felt.

…

There was silence; no one knew how to react.

“Ah…ah…”

She started crying.

She stood up and left the place running.

“What the fuck is wrong with you! She’s just not capable of running that fast! That’s why she’s here, to improve her stamina so she can compete with the others!”

I left the place running and went looking for her.

While I was running I heard how the Professor was telling them “those are the pussies that won’t get far in life. If you want to be successful, don’t be like them”

I wanted to punch him but Mizuki was more important.

I went to the room and she was there crying in the corner.

“Mizuki…”

“Don’t talk to me! You made me this!”

“Mizuki please…”

“Get out please…”

“Wait!”

“Get out!”

“Mizuki please just let me tell you something!”

“…”

“I know this is super hard and that this day was probably the worst of your life but please listen to me. I want to help you”

“But why would you want to help me? I’m just a stranger that you met yesterday!”

“Because I really like you! You’re a good friend and a good person so that’s why I want to help you”

“… Talk. But it better be fast”

“Ok. Why don’t you go, take a bath, get changed and wait for me in the entrance of the school”

“Uh?”

“Be sure to put yourself something good because we’re going to go out for a while”

“Hmmm”

“It’s a surprise so just trust me”

“… I’ll go”

“Really? Thanks a lot! You won’t regret it I promise!”

I left the place, took a bath, got changed and waited for her at the entrance of the school.

It was a beautiful night, the stars were out, the crickets performed their act and more importantly, there was peace.

Everything perfect for what I wanted to do…

Thanks for reading and I hope you liked the episode.

Good night n.n or day... or afternoon... I don't when you're reading this...