Three Years On

April 6, 2026

“So,” Ruka Kishio said as she, Tenko Ikezawa, and Yoshiro Arikawa stood at the front entrance to a rather prestigious high school in Yokosuka known as Baron Kazunori Samejima High School. “How does it feel to finally be high schoolers?” The building they were in front of was an imposing structure measuring five stories high at its tallest with two two-story wings on either side of the main tower of the school. The building, constructed in the early 1950s and added onto several times since then, replaced an older structure that had been destroyed by air raids in the Second World War.

“Doesn’t feel different yet,” Yoshiro replied, looking over his new uniform. “Let me guess. It will be soon?”

“To be honest,” Ruka shrugged. “I’ve been here a year now, and aside from the entrance exam and all the new clubs that we didn’t have in junior high school, it’s not radically different.” As a second-year at Samejima High School, she wore a blue uniform shirt with a white undershirt and a gray skirt, a striped black and white tie used to indicate her grade. Tenko had the same uniform, but with a solid black tie. Yoshiro had the same solid black tie and a similar shirt and undershirt, but with a pair of pants instead.

“I think the tie concept is pretty cool,” Tenko commented. “Black for first-years, striped black and white for second-years, and white for third-years.”

“I know, right?”

Then, Kumiko ran over to them, happy to see them finally attending the same high school together. “Hey, guys!” As she ran over, Tenko and Yoshiro saw that she was in a female uniform. “Glad you guys are finally here!”

“It feels good to be together in the same school,” Yoshiro agreed.

“Yeah. I’m ready for my third year of finally wearing a proper uniform.” She then commented with a slightly sad tone of voice, “I just wish it wasn’t my last year to wear something like this.”

“They make fake school uniforms for people into that sort of thing,” Ruka joked with her. “I’ve told you this before, Kumiko-kun.” At this point, she was on a first-name basis with the entire group who had been with her in junior high school. “Maybe this was an awakening for a new fetish of your’s.”

“Shut up,” Kumiko lightheartedly replied to her. “I don’t have a school uniform fetish, Ruka-kun.” Like Ruka, Kumiko was also on a first-name basis with her, adopting the same honorific she used for her.

Yoshiro then checked the time and realized both he and Tenko had somewhere to be. “Ah shit, we better hurry. The first-years’ ceremony starts in fifteen minutes.”

“We gotta go,” Tenko then said to Ruka and Kumiko. “We’ll see you inside!”

“Bye,” Kumiko said to both of them as they walked in. “I’d hate to see either of them be late for their entrance ceremony.”

“I almost was,” Ruka chuckled. “That’s what happens when a magical beast decides to come around before school, I guess.” As the two of them walked into the building to head to their own homerooms, they were met with throngs of other students from all three grades. “Truth be told, I never would have thought I’d be in a school like this.”

“I worked my ass off to get here even before I met you guys. It was mere coincidence that Miyashita-san wanted to go here too.”

As the two of them walked up a set of stairs to go to their classrooms, they passed by Yoko, who was going down the same flight of stairs. Yoko saw them and said, “Oh, hey there.”

“So,” Ruka then asked her. “How does it feel to be in your last year living here?”

“It actually feels pretty weird knowing that I gotta move out when this school year ends,” Yoko admitted. Of all the members of the Fox Knights, only she and Hana were resident students in the school’s dorms, with everyone else commuting to school via public transit or by walking. “It’s been a good two years so far, but I am looking forward to eventually moving out.”

“I’m surprised,” Ruka replied to her. “You were pretty gung-ho about moving in when you first got here with Kumiko-kun, but now you’re looking forward to moving out?”

“It would be a nice change of pace,” Yoko shrugged. “Listen, I got my reasons, okay? I’ll see you guys later.” She then walked down the stairs, leaving Ruka and Kumiko to themselves.

“She’s still grumpy,” Ruka commented with a chuckle. “Well, I’ll see you later, Kumiko-kun. I gotta run to my class.”

“Goodbye,” Kumiko said as she waved at Ruka before she too went off on her own to go to her class.

As Ruka walked into her classroom, she saw that Hana and Sayaka were already sitting down along with most of the other students inside. She took her seat next to them and asked them, “So, how’s your first day of this year so far?”

“Decent so far,” Hana replied. “Thanks for taking care of that Class Five for us yesterday.”

“No problem.”

Sayaka then told Ruka, “I almost got hit by a car on the way here. Some guy didn’t notice me in the crosswalk, and he ended up stopping only about a meter from where I was standing.”

“Did you tell him off?”

“No,” Sayaka admitted. “I just ran away since I was scared.”

“Man, I would have ripped into that guy if that was me.”

Hana then added, “And then there’s me, who doesn’t have to worry about that.” All three of them then laughed at her remark. “Life in the dorms has its advantages.”

“That’s just your opinion,” Ruka shrugged. “Personally, I think the fact I live in Yokosuka itself means I don’t really have to move out. I mean, I get why you wanted to, but that’s just me.”

“Yeah,” Hana nodded. “Moving into the dorms was a good step for my mind. It was nice to get away from the drama in my family ever since my mother and my father divorced each other. Every time I go back, it seems like I go back to a metaphorical cyclone of drama and nonsense, especially from my father’s side of the family since my grandfather is on the verge of death.”

“How long do the doctor’s say he has left?”

“They don’t think he’ll make it to the next year,” Hana sighed. “It’s tough, but he’s been suffering a lot for the past two years.”

“That sucks,” Sayaka commented, feeling bad for her leader. “If you need anything when he passes away, just let us know.”

“Thank you, but I’ll be fine,” Hana assured them with her trademark confident smile. “I’ve been preparing for the inevitable for a while now. If anything changes, though, I’ll let you both know.” She then looked at Ruka and asked her, “On another topic, did you run into Yoshiro-kun earlier? How’s he doing?”

“I sure did,” Ruka replied. “I said hi to him before he and Tenko went off to the entrance ceremony for the first-years.”

“I’ll have to see him at some point when he gets done with that. Seeing him escaped my mind, actually.”

…

Later on, during lunch break in the middle of the day, Ruka had just finished eating from a bento box she had prepared for herself while doing some homework in her classroom when she got a text on her phone from the Agency. She looked at it and sighed, saying to herself, “Of course it comes in right after I finish eating.” She quickly put her empty bento box away in her bookbag and then briskly walked out of the room as she read the details of the reported magical beast sighting near the school. “A Class Three… That’s a pretty good payout, too…”

Once she was out of her classroom, she acknowledged the text on her phone before she ran to the stairs and raced down them. Once she got down to the ground floor, she raced out of a door to the outside and then checked her phone to see who else had acknowledged, finding that Yoshiro had done so. When she rounded a corner, she suddenly found herself face to face with two other students in her grade, a boy and a girl, the latter of whom turned to her and yelled, “Kishio-san?!” Based on what she had seen, the two had been making out before she had interrupted them.

“Sorry,” she quickly apologized before passing by them. “Coming through!” She thought to herself in amusement after leaving them behind, “Those two were kissing each other, weren’t they? I think they only got together back in February, and they’re already making out behind the school like that.”

When she got to a fence that blocked her path, she quickly hopped on and began to climb it, scaling the fence with ease and then running to find the magical beast after reaching the other side. Then, after running behind a small apartment building near the school, she found the beast in an empty alleyway, or rather, the two beasts, both of whom looked like cheetahs but had dark red fur and uncannily human-like teeth.

“Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me,” she muttered before she held out her left hand and her transformation ring began to glow. Within a split second, she transformed into her magical huntress outfit before she drew her sword. “I hope they aren’t as fast as cheetahs.” She got her answer when one of them roared at Ruka before running at her at full speed. “Fuck!” When the cheetah-like beast attempted to trample her, she quickly moved out of the way and used her sword to block a swipe by one of its paws, cutting it open. The beast whimpered in pain before the second one also charged at Ruka, who did not see it coming in time to react.

Thankfully, Yoshiro jumped in just in time and instantly killed it with a blow to its neck and upper body, slicing it wide open and spilling its blood all over the ground. Ruka, seeing her chance, then attacked the first beast, which tried to bite her. She managed to cut the beast’s face and split one of its eyes open before then stabbing it in the neck, killing it. As both beasts collapsed to the ground and died, Yoshiro told her, “You almost got yourself killed. You need to be more alert when there’s multiple magical beasts.”

“Oh, shut it,” Ruka retorted as she caught her breath. “I was well aware there were two magical beasts. I could have dodged.”

“No, you couldn’t have. I swear, it’s been almost three fucking years, and you’re still going into battles with almost no thought, Ruka.” Even though the two still got on each other’s nerves, Yoshiro by this point had also begun to call Ruka by her first name, albeit with no honorifics just like he had before with her last name.

Ruka ended her side of the conversation with, “Enough. Let’s not argue on the first God damn day of school, okay?” She then arched her back before remarking, “Besides, today my back’s been killing me more than usual, and after school, I gotta go look for some new clothes.”

Yoshiro blushed slightly when he looked at Ruka arching her back, her figure becoming a bit more pronounced as she did, and looked away. “Ah, right, uh…”

Ruka sighed in annoyance. “What? I was just arching my back a bit.”

“Whatever.” Yoshiro then began to walk away.

“Oh, and…”

Yoshiro turned around, stopping in his tracks. “Yeah?”

“Thanks for that, by the way.” Ruka admitted, “Even if I could have gotten them both by myself, it was still a lot easier with you.”

Yoshiro gave her a faint smile before replying, “No problem.”

After the two of them transformed back into their school uniforms, Ruka looked over her clothes to make sure none of the blood on her magical huntress outfit got onto them, including her bra underneath her uniform coat and undershirt. She then sighed and said to herself, “Another round of new bras. At least it’s not as frequent as it once was anymore.”

…

April 8, 2026

Daisuke and his small family were eating with Ruka tonight. “So,” Daisuke said to Ruka as they ate together. “How have the first few days of school been?”

“Nothing eventful yet,” Ruka replied. “Emphasis on yet, of course. I’ve only had a single battle since school started, and that was on the first day. It isn’t as eventful as my first day ever at that school.”

“I still couldn’t believe it when you told us,” said Ayumu. “I always heard stories about how some of the kids at that school acted, but hearing about it from someone who saw something like that happen really put it into perspective.”

“Even the kids of the upper class aren’t immune from being screwups or party animals,” Ruka commented. “That third-year who did that with his girlfriend got in so much trouble.” She, Daisuke, and Ayumu all made sure to not say exactly what it was so that Hideki would not have to hear about it in full due to how young he was. In Ruka’s mind, she thought to herself, “Fucking your girlfriend in one of the bathrooms and getting caught throwing away a used condom isn’t a great way to start your school year.”

“My school was near there before it shut down and consolidated with it,” Ayumu commented. “We were an all-girls’ school, but Samejima High School was coed. Even back then, the kids there got into mischief. Girls from our school got caught plenty of times with boys from over there.” She then playfully nudged Daisuke with her elbow. “Isn’t that right, honey?”

Daisuke playfully denied to her, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I was totally the perfect student when I went there, and so was my brother.”

Ruka chuckled. “I still can’t believe all the mischief you and Dad got into when you both went to that school.”

“Mommy,” asked Hideo, who was now a young child. “What were those boys and girls doing? What was Daddy doing with Mommy?”

Ruka and Daisuke held back laughter as Ayumu blushed and told her son, “Oh, uh… We were all doing grown-up things, dear.”

“But they weren’t grown-ups.”

“Hideki, you’ll find that teenagers like to try grown-up things a lot when you get older,” Ayumu explained.

Daisuke then said to the rest of them to change the subject, “So, anyway, on another note, I still can’t believe it’s been almost three years since you teamed up with Miyashita Hana. How’s she doing with everything going on with her family?”

“She’s mentally preparing for when her grandfather dies,” Ruka explained. “The doctor’s say he won’t make it to the end of the year. On top of that, there’s still drama between her parents even a full two years after the divorce went through.”

“That’s ridiculous. Everything should have been settled two years ago.”

“I know, right? Her dad is a wreck between that and his father dying, not to mention the growing calls for President Sakamoto to resign.”

“Ah, right, I forgot that Miyashita-san works in his office.” In recent weeks, there had been calls for the President of the Protection and Research Agency, an older man in his sixties named Ken Sakamoto, to resign due to the mismanagement of funds that were supposed to be used for pensions to pay former magical huntresses and huntsmen. “I know he didn’t have anything to do with the pension stuff, but even so, that’s gotta be a huge headache for him.”

“Who would even replace him?”

“If I had to guess,” Daisuke theorized. “It would probably be Yamanaka Hiroto. He’s been itching to be Agency President for years, and this is his chance to get it. He has plenty of supporters among the admin staff and even among quite a few huntresses in the field.”

Ruka rolled her eyes. “Ugh… Hearing his name annoys me. His nephew’s a manwho-“ She immediately stopped herself when she remembered Hideki was in the room. “I mean… His nephew likes to party a lot.”

“I know what you were going to say,” Daisuke replied. “And I’ve heard the rumors.”

“I really don’t like his nephew or his brother. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree based on what I heard about Yamanaka Toru when he was my age.”

“What about him by himself?”

“By himself, I don’t really know. I’ve only met Yamanaka Hiroto once, and that was a bit after we killed that Class One back in 2023, so I don’t really know how he is. He seemed nice when he met the Fox Knights, but I don’t know if that was him being genuine or if that was just for show.”

“Ah, I see.”

Ruka then continued to eat her dinner, but stopped when she remembered something. “Oh yeah, by the way, I joined an after-school club.”

In disbelief, Daisuke replied, “Wait, really? You’ve never been in any after-school clubs until now. What is it?”

“I signed up for the fencing club, actually.”

“It’s been a while since you’ve fenced. What made you wanna do that again?”

Ruka shrugged. “I just figured I’d get back into it. I haven’t been able to do as many battles against magical beasts given that the school is a bit further away than my junior high school, so doing something to keep up my swordsmanship skills would help.”

Ayumu commented, “Ah, right. I almost forgot your family was really into fencing in the past.”

“Yep,” Daisuke replied. “That’s kinda why I used a sword when I was a magical huntsman.”

“And that’s exactly why I use one as a magical huntress.”

…

April 9, 2026

Hana was sitting in her dorm room alongside another student who lived with her, a girl that, in fact, had gone to school with her. “So,” Riko Ayano said as she unpacked her bookbag following another day of school. “How was your day, Miyashita-san?” By now, almost three years after losing an arm to a magical beast attack, she had managed to get a working prosthetic to replace it.

“Just another normal day,” she replied as she did paperwork for the Agency at the wood study provided for the room. “The kendo club let out a little early today, so I was able to get here a few minutes ago and do homework.”

“I gotta say,” Riko commented as she zipped up her bookbag. “I was surprised when you joined the kendo club when you first went to school here. You never did it at all until last year, and yet from what I’ve heard, you’re really good for someone who only has a year under their belt.”

“Thanks,” Hana said with a chuckle. She thought to herself, “That’s what happens when you’ve been using a real sword in real battles for five years before then.” She then asked her, “What about the school newspaper?”

“I collected some stories and began to edit them,” Riko replied. She was a member of the school newspaper club, working primarily as an assistant editor. “We’re running ahead of schedule for the first issue of the year, which is unusual for us. Usually, we have a few hiccups in the beginning of the year as we do on-boarding for the first-years.”

“Ah, nice. I can’t wait to see the fruit of your labor, Ayano-san.”

“Speaking of clubs,” Riko then wondered. “I’m surprised Kishio-san didn’t choose a club at all until this year.”

“I think the fencing club will be a good fit for her. Same with Yoshiro-kun.”

“Ah, right, I forgot that your one first-year friend joined it, too.”

Then, Hana heard her cellphone ring with a call. She checked to see who it was and sighed, seeing that it was her mother. “Hang on, I gotta take this.” She answered the phone with, “Hello, Mom?”

“Hey, Hana,” said Ayumi. “How was your day at school today?”

“It was nice,” she replied. “The first meeting of the kendo club this year was today. It ended a little early, though.”

“Ah, nice. Did you guys get a lot of people to sign up to join this year?”

“Not too many,” Hana admitted. “So far, only five. We’re hoping a few more join within the next two weeks.”

…

April 10, 2026

After school that day, Ruka attended the first session of the fencing club at the school for the year, her first ever session period. As she changed into her gym uniform in the girl’s locker room, she said to herself, “Fencing isn’t all that popular here compared to kendo, but it seems there’s enough to garner some interest.” Her outfit consisted of a white t-shirt with blue shorts, standard attire for Japanese schools. When she was finished, she walked out to the gym.

A male teacher who acted as the club’s advisor saw her and waved her over to the rest of the group on the other side of the gymnasium. “Ah, Kishio-san, over here!”

“Got it,” she replied before running over to meet with the rest of the club, which consisted of eight other members at the time besides her.

As she fell into the line of students, the same teacher called over another student without mentioning their name. “Come on over here, we’re about to start!”

However, when the other student replied to him, Ruka realized immediately who it was and sighed. “Coming!” As said student reached the group, he turned and looked at Ruka, saying in confusion, “Wait, Ruka?”

Ruka replied similarly, “Yoshiro?”

“Ah,” said the teacher. “You two know each other?”

“We went to the same junior high school together,” Ruka explained. “Although he was a grade lower than me.”

“I see.” He then turned to the rest of the group, which had a total of ten members consisting of three girls and seven boys, and told them, “Welcome to the Baron Kazunori Samejima High School’s Fencing Club. If you’re new and don’t know me already, I am your advisor, Tsugaru Yasu. I’ve been the advisor of the fencing club since its inception in 2017, and I’ve personally done both kendo and fencing since I was seven years old. Now, we have two new students among us today who have joined the club for this year. May you two introduce yourselves and state why you joined?”

“I’ll go first,” Yoshiro offered as he raised his hand before stepping forward, turning around, and bowing to the rest of the club. “I’m Arikawa Yoshiro. I’m a first-year student of the school, and I joined the club because I have an interest in swordplay.”

Ruka then stepped forward and bowed as well. “I’m Kishio Ruka. I’m a second-year student of the school. I actually used to do fencing when I was younger, but I have not practiced in several years. I hope to be able to relearn what I may have lost and even advance my skills.”

As both of them went back in line, Yasu said to Ruka, “I see you already have some experience. Even better. That means we’ll be a little less forgiving of you when you make mistakes.” After some light laughter from the rest of the group, he assured Ruka, “I’m just messing around with you. Don’t worry. Now, with all that said, we’ll start with some practice for those of us who are returning. I’ll take care of the two new members and help them get started. For now, we’ll have them use the spare swords and spare gear until they get swords and gear of their own.”

…

About twenty minutes later, after both Ruka and Yoshiro both got set up and fully dressed in fencing gear minus the helmets, Yasu stood in between the two of them, both of them carrying foils. “Now, we’re gonna have the two new members do a test bout to see where they’re both at. This is not meant to be competitive in any way, and is really just to set a baseline for where to go from here. With that said, I want both of you to treat this like it was a competitive bout.”

Ruka looked at Yoshiro and asked him, “Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he replied.

“Put on your masks,” instructed Yasu, to which both Ruka and Yoshiro put on fencing masks. “Now, en garde.” As he stepped out of the way, Ruka got into a perfect fencing pose, while Yoshiro attempted to do one based on what he had seen. After a few seconds of waiting, Yasu said to begin the bout, “Allez!”

Ruka quickly pounced, swiping at Yoshiro but getting blocked in the process. Even so, Ruka was able to push Yoshiro back several feet, her last experiences in fencing with her grandfather clearly showing. He was able to block several more blows after the first, but on the sixth total attempt by Ruka of the bout, he was unable to react in time, and she managed to strike him in the chest area, a winning move.

Yasu commanded, “Stop!” As both Ruka and Yoshiro backed away and then took their masks off, he told both of them, “Alright, not bad. Kishio-san, you in particular did a very good job. It’s clear to me that you definitely had a lot of experience with fencing in the past. As for you, Arikawa-kun, you aren’t bad for a beginner, but you do have a lot to learn. Don’t worry, though, we’ll train you.”

“Thank you,” Ruka replied to Yasu.

“Understood,” Yoshiro replied to Yasu as well.

As Ruka took off her fencing gear, another member of the team, a third-year boy, remarked to her, “Are you sure you stopped fencing a while ago?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“It didn’t look like it,” he commented, impressed with her skills. “Granted, it wasn’t entirely perfect, but it was still pretty damn good for someone who hasn’t played in a few years.”

Ruka smiled with confidence and replied, “I guess I have a good memory.” She thought to herself, “That and I still use swords as a magical huntress even if I’m not fencing. Speaking of, I wonder if Yoshiro joined the fencing club for the same reason I did…”

Meanwhile, Yoshiro thought to himself as he took his fencing gear off, “Ruka must have joined the fencing club for the same reason I did: To hone my skills in swordplay as a magical huntsman. I just hope she doesn’t get on my nerves too much when I’m here. You know, she can be so reckless in battle, and yet when I fenced against her here, her moves seemed far more elegant and controlled.”