Chapter 27

Katsumi had a sadistic look in her eye that made me seriously question if this was really a way for us to get along.

"You don't have to do this, William. We know to obey the country's rules while in it." Ruri said, concerned.

"Empre- Ruri! William is showing his resolve here. It would be rude of us to turn him down now." Katsumi responded to Riru for me.

"You say that, but really, you just want an excuse to hit him, don't you?" Ruri asked deadpan.

"N- ... Whether that is something I want or not, it is simply unavoidable when sparing." She said while narrowly avoiding a lie.

I knew her intentions, but if I had to lose a fight to get on her good side, then so be it. However, I didn't want to be taken out of commission for it.

"Uh, can we lay some ground rules?" I asked.

She smirked at me. "Hmph! Typical of the weak. Go ahead. Make whatever rules you like."

OK jerk. I was only doing this because it was something you wanted in the first place.

"No headshots and first hit wins. Is that good?" I asked.

"Are you sure that's all you want? I can also fight with 1 arm behind my back, or balancing on one leg." She taunted.

"OK. Let's go with those too, then." I said readily and shamelessly.

"Huh!? No, I was just... goading you. I wasn't-" She tried to justify it, but I cut her off.

"It's OK. It's typical of the weak to make the rules, right? I understand. Anything else you would like?"

If I was going to get beaten up, I wanted to get some hits in myself first. Maybe I couldn't beat her in swordsmanship, but in trash talk? Sorry, but with years of online games at my back, she was the one facing a monster.

She took a stance with the sword at her side like it was sheathed, crouched low on one leg, and put her left arm behind her back. She also began mumbling something that I couldn't hear from this distance.

Ruri looked over at me, still with a concerned expression. "Are you sure you want to do this, William?" She asked as she walked over and stood off to the side between us.

"No. But don't worry, I'll be fine."

She nodded and raised a hand. "I, Ruri, witness this duel. Fight!"

Ruri dropped her hand. I was almost completely expecting Katsumi to immediately sprint towards me, but she stayed in that position. I guess she couldn't take the initiative on one leg, which I never actually expected her to honor. Maybe I had a chance then, but I wasn't going to underestimate her. One thing I learned through countless spars against the other heroes and Lawrence was to always assume they were at least twice as strong and fast as I initially expected. Also, if Ruri was right about her being similar to the heroes, I could probably assume that meant in power and skill.

Her wooden sword was on her left, pointed back, with her right arm across her body to hold the handle. If she was going to make a quick attack, it would have to be either an upward slash, a side sweep, or she could try to quickly raise it and bring it down, but we said no headshots, so that limited her options as well. An attack from my right was almost impossible. She was angry as hell, too. If I were her, I would probably use whatever would be the strongest. A side slash from that position would be a killer. At the same time, though, would she really go all out like that? This was supposed to be a friendly spar, wasn't it?

I decided to gamble it. If I could provoke her into a certain attack, maybe I could deflect it or dodge. I ran in while giving a half-hearted yell and raising the sword over my head. I intentionally let it wobble in a loose grip behind my head to give the impression of inexperience and to remove any possible suspicions of sudden movements I might make in the last moments. Ruri actually looked away, like she couldn't bear to watch it. I thought Katsumi might have second thoughts at seeing such an amateur display, which would've been bad for me if her intentions changed. Thankfully, or unthankfully, she actually seemed to be more excited and tensed up, ready to strike. From this distance, I could hear what she was mumbling now. She was just repeating, "Kill, kill, kill."

In the final closing feet, she wound up slightly, and I moved in advance. If I was wrong, this was about to be extremely painful. I moved the blade of the sword from behind my head, around my left side, and down my shoulder at an angle. At the same time, I crouched lower and to my right. The former was for the sweep, the latter was in case of an upward slash.

It was fast. Faster than the heroes had been in sparing, but not as fast as I knew they were capable of. Compared to Lawrence, though, it was manageable. I watched the expression on her face turn to frustration as she realized too late in her swing. Her sweeping blade slammed into mine with enough force that if I hadn't held it at an angle, it would've knocked me off balance. Instead, her sword deflected off and into the air. I immediately swung mine forward, but she leaned back enough to dodge it. In the process, she lost her balance on one leg, giving me a brief window before she could bring her blade back down. I reacted before I could think and leaned back while raising my left foot and launching it into her stomach. It sent her sprawling back and sliding over the grass.

I felt horrible the moment I did it. I never intended to kick her that hard or at all in fact. My body just moved. This was exactly the sort of thing Lawrence and the other heroes were complaining about in sparing. Less skill, less strength, less speed. Just cheap tricks that I couldn't help. I threw my sword off to the side and ran over to see if she was alright. She was clutching her stomach, trying to inhale, but couldn't. Other than having the wind knocked out of her, though, she seemed fine.

Ruri shouted from where she had been standing. "The rules stated first hit wins! The winner is William!"

She ran over next to us and knelt beside Katsumi. "Are you OK?"

Katsumi couldn't respond yet, but she nodded and rolled over, pushing herself up onto her knees and coughing.

"I'm sorry. I-" Ruri slapped my head gently.

"Don't apologize for winning. Shake hands." Ruri scolded cutely.

I hesitated. I was 99.9% sure she was going to murder me when she caught her breath, so that seemed like a bad idea. But I did it anyway.

"Um, good... match."

Katsume turned to me and glared. Then slapped her hand into mine and shook it.

"Forgive my saying this, but I thought you were a complete fool who had no talent at all and had somehow conned Ruri's ability. However, it seems I underestimated just how... masterfully you could act like one." She said, while tightening her grip on my hand, just before the point it became painful.

"... Kinda seems like you might be angry at me, even though it was your idea to fight."

"Not at all. You won a fair battle. Ignore the fact that I was only using 1 arm and balancing on 1 leg." She said through gritted teeth.

Ruri's ear twitched, but the lie was obvious enough without it. She let go of my hand and stood up before walking over to the river and sitting with her legs hanging over the edge, like Ruri had been when I showed up.

Ruri whispered, "Just let her sulk for a bit. I'm sure she'll be happy to have found a rival all the way out here."

"Yeah, I don't think I'm really rival material, but if she stops trying to fight me, then sure."

"Nope. The fights will become much more frequent now."

"... what?"

"You've proven yourself as a strong opponent for her. She'll want to test her skills against yours frequently to improve."

"Why wouldn't you tell me that before I accepted?!"

"Well, you just suddenly got up and picked up the sword. I asked if you were sure. At least now that you've earned her respect, though, she'll probably stop being so hostile towards you."

"Did your ear just twitch!? It just twitched! You're lying!"

"Woops. Haha."

“Aw, whatever. This sucks, but I'm too tired to deal with it today. That was all the energy I was gonna use to chop trees, and it just made things worse."

"It'll be fun. Trust me. See? No twitch. Why are you so tired anyway?"

"Yeah, maybe for YOU it’ll be fun.” I sighed, before continuing.

“I didn't sleep much. Nightmares. I'm going to see if I can do something about them today."

Ruri perked up. "I can help with that! Want me to take them?"