Chapter 4. Projects, Otakus, and Forgiveness. Part 3: Fights On Fights.

Hiroto, Daizen, and Fuzumi all looked at each other, like Daizen being the guy who likes to work out and do anything physically challenging, tried to go first but quite comically something happened again like before when he tried to go first. Hiroto stood up and announced something.

“I’ll go first.”

Daizen, like before, stood up again and yelled at Hiroto, slightly annoyed once more.

“Hey come on man! Not again! You guys are doing this on purpose.”

Alex continued to watch from his separate corner that was by the kendo room window. He laughed at the situation. It was funny because Daizen had not only been denied to fight not once but twice. He wondered what Hiroto was going to do in the fight, he knew he was smart but could his smarts be used in battle? Well, I guess he was about to find out.

Hiroto just like Alex ignored Daizen as he confidently walked over Toroma, as he walked forward his long yellow hair a white glare covered his glasses like a cool anime character. He looked toward Toroma as he bent his body down and picked up the sword that was on the ground. He picked the sword up which was the one that Alex was using and held it in his right hand. Unlike Alex, he didn’t put both of his hands on the hilt of the sword. He only put his right hand on the hilt, he then extended his right to the side of him, he simultaneously pushed up his blue glasses.

Toroma held his sword with his left hand also just like he did before. He held his offensive position as he explained the rules to Hiroto just in case he didn’t hear it before. Toroma was going to go easy on him since Hiroto didn’t have any powers.

“Alright, we try to hit each other anywhere on the body, the first one to drop their sword loses, got it?”

Hiroto pushed up his glasses as he nodded and simultaneously spoke toward Toroma.

“Yeah, I got it. Let the best man win.”

“I’ll countdown then.”

Toroma said, while smirking.

They both jumped back and held their swords, they both confidently looked at each other. Toroma smirked as he then began to do the same countdown, he did last time from his fight with Alex.

“3,2,1 and NOW!”

As soon as the words exited Toroma’s mouth both Toroma and Hiroto both rushed at each other, They ran fast at each other as the side of their swords clashed causing the wooden swords to make an echo sound throughout the room. Hiroto’s long yellow hair would swing back and forth since he was running. They tried to push each other back by putting force on each other’s swords from their sides.

Hiroto then pulled his sword back since he knew that trying to push each other back would just end in him being pushed back. Hiroto then went over his situation, he observed how Toroma fought before in the previous fight. He knew that Toroma’s strength was speed and swordsmanship techniques. He also learned how he stood and how he attacked. Hiroto used his smarts and determined if he wanted to beat him, he would have to attack him by using his strength and his smarts to try and deduce what Toroma was going to do. It was a long shot since Toroma was faster than him, so it would be hard to determine what he was going to do but he had to give it a shot.

As Hiroto pulled his sword back Toroma continued to try and hit Hiroto’s face with the sword. He swung multiple times and every time he swung, Hiroto quickly blocked it and stepped backward quickly. Hiroto was still trying to analyze how Toroma swung his sword as he desperately tried to dodge his efforts to hit his face.

Toroma was relentless and continued to try and attack him with his wooden sword. He could tell that Hiroto was getting tired, but the funny thing was they both were. They both were tired. The both of them had been swinging their swords and colliding for the past two minutes.

Hiroto and Toroma backed up as their breathing rates began to increase as panted harshly. Toroma and Hiroto stared at each other waiting for one of them to talk. Toroma was a bit tired from his last match with Alex so his stamina was very low. He was struggling to hold his sword in his left hand as sweat ran down his forehead. Toroma’s body was also slanted.

Hiroto was tired, he wasn’t that physically fit, he was as scrawny as Alex and was only a bit stronger than him. He could tell by Toroma’s body language and by observing his breathing patterns from afar. Due to these factors, he knew he would only get this chance to attack him. So, he took advantage of his situation and quickly pushed up his glasses with the right middle figure. He then quickly rushed at Toroma, he ran from left to right to confuse Toroma on where he was going to attack.

Toroma raised his sword anticipating Hiroto’s attack, he held his sword up with his left hand, and tightly, he went into a defense-like position.

As Hiroto came up right in front of Toroma he lifted his sword over his head putting both of his hands on the hilt and pretended to aim for the top of Toroma’s head.

Toroma instinctively responded and quickly put his sword over his head in hopes to block the attack with his weapon, but something unexpected happened, Toroma blinked his eyes as he anticipated the swords to clash, but he wasn’t expecting to feel a sharp blow from Hiroto’s sword on his right side. This made him be pushed back, it was unexpected and quickly shocked him making him drop his sword. Toroma looked at Hiroto in pure shock and somewhat amazement. He then looked up at Hiroto who was holding a pose and pushing up his blue glasses with his middle finger. Toroma then asked how he did it.

“How? Did you hit me? I saw you try to collide with my sword.”

Hiroto then confidently smirked at Toroma as he held his sword in his right hand and then used his left hand to push up his glasses as he explained a shadow covered the right side of his body.

“It’s quite simple really. You fell right into my trap. How long were you under the illusion that hit your sword?”

In reality what happened was, Hiroto pretended to hit his sword on Toroma’s. He knew that Toroma would try to block and that would just end in another round of colliding swords. So, when he saw Toroma blink he instantly stopped his sword from hitting Toroma’s, he pulled his sword back and, then changed his sword's direction instantly, and put both of his hands on the hilt of the sword. He changed the direction of the sword by moving his sword and maneuvering it to hit Toroma’s right side. He put everything into hitting Toroma with the sword and even flexed his muscles for maximum strength. It was very impressive because he did this for three to five seconds. Hiroto wasn’t that strong but due to the surprise of Toroma being hit unexpectedly, he was able to get the win by surprising him and using his smarts to think fast.

“It was that simple really.”

Alex watched the whole thing, To be completely honest he didn’t know he was going to win the fight beforehand. He honestly thought that Toroma was going to win due to his superior fighting skills and strength. He knew Hiroto was smart as an all living hell but he didn’t think he was gonna use his smarts to win. He underestimated Hiroto, he felt dumb for losing and he knew that Hiroto was going to be cock and mock Alex for not winning his match. Then the demonic angelic voice spoke in his head, the voice had more of the demonic voice to it as it mocked Alex for losing.

“Wow, you're so weak Alex. Hiroto doesn’t even have Glow and he still won. He should have power instead of you.”

Alex was angry, his temper was slowly starting to rise, he wanted to fight and get angry against the voice, but then he realized if he got angry and spoke to the voice he would just be looked at as crazy by everyone else in the kendo room, but then Hiroto spoke up one last time before he sat down next to Daizen and Fuzumi.

“Plus, I had to win this fight, I couldn’t be as weak as Alex.”

Alex heard this obviously, he was watching everything from his separate corner. He then saw this opportunity to take out his anger. He was already angered by the voice in his head bullshitting, but when Hiroto was acting all cocky like he expected he instantly took out his anger on him. He wasn’t seriously angry at him since they were all friends and junk, but it was more of joking anger to keep his funny persona going.

“S-shut up! You just got lucky! Toroma would have kicked your ass too if he wasn’t tired!”

Hiroto was smart and didn’t get mad. He just gave Alex a condescending look, dropped his sword in the middle of the room by Toroma’s feet, and then sat down next to Fuzumi and Daizen.

Toroma then let out a sigh, he hadn’t been beaten in so long, but he also hadn’t fought another person in a kendo match for so long. Toroma was tired, he also wasn’t trying on Hiroto that much since he wasn’t using his aura. He just clapped toward Hiroto and accepted his loss. He happily clapped his hands at Hiroto as he congratulated him for beating him in a sword fight.

“Good job, I wasn’t expecting you to do that.”

Hiroto spoke up from the crowd with a stereotypical smart guy response.

“All a part of the plan.”

Toroma let out a quick sigh, Toroma was mad but he was very good at holding in his emotions. He knew he lost to two factors. The first factor was he was tired from fighting Alex and used a bit of stamina when he used his aura ability. The second was that He wasn’t trying; he was more used to using his powers when fighting. He didn’t take out his anger on anyone, but before he asked who wanted to fight next, he walked to the mini-fridge in the room and grabbed a water bottle, and chugged it all down. He then went back to his previous fighting spot and then looked toward the crowd of Hiroto, Daizen, and Fuzumi.

“So who wants to fight next, will it be Daizen or Fuzumi?”

Daizen was going to try to go and fight but something told him not to do it. He knew that someone would magically interrupt him and step up to fight Toroma before he did, and on cue, Fuzumi stood up.

Fuzumi was shaking. She didn’t like fighting with her friends but she already promised to fight and spar with Toroma.

“I-I guess I’ll go n-next…”

Fuzumi said nervously as she walked up to the middle of the room, She moved slowly and was quite nervous. She didn’t like to fight or get hurt, she was a teasing but small german girl. Her green eyes squinted as she picked up the sword off the ground. She held her sword in a defensive position, she was still shaking.

Alex watched from his corner, he could tell by Fuzumi’s body language that she was nervous and didn’t want to fight. He knew she wasn’t gonna put up much of a fight, but he wasn’t the only one who noticed this; everyone else in the kendo room noticed this also, but they didn't comment on it. Alex’s phone dinged from his pocket, he checked the notification as he saw it was a text message from his mother, he read the message.

- Why does it say you missed class? Call me now.

Alex instantly turned off his phone. He didn’t want to be interrupted and he didn’t want to stress about it right now. He would worry about that when he went home.

Toroma let out a sigh, he noticed that Fuzumi was trembling and was nervous. So, he made a plan, he would pretend to hit her, and then she’d drop the sword and he wouldn’t have to hit her. He felt bad so he had this plan in his mind, since Toroma knew she knew the rules since she watched the previous battles he began to countdown.

“Get ready, I’m gonna count down. At one we’ll start alright?”

Fuzumi blinked rapidly as her face had a panic reaction. She nodded hesitantly.

“10….9...8...7...6...5.”

But when Toroma hit five, he began to speed up and spoke his numbers faster than before.

“4,3,2,1.”

As Toroma counted fast, Fuzumi started getting more scared, and once he hit number one Fuzumi was so petrified she dropped her sword losing the match.

Everyone other than Toroma snorted as they tried to hold in their laughter, they didn’t want to be mean and straight up laugh at her. The situation was just so funny, but Alex was an asshole. He couldn’t hold in his laugh any longer so he just let out his laugh.

“Haha! You suck Fuzumi!”

Toroma let out a sigh, this was part of his plan after all so he didn’t laugh since he kind of expected this to happen.

Fuzumi turned around. She wasn’t scared, she was just terrified of hurting her friends. She didn’t like Alex being an asshole. She was also very emotional since she was embarrassed, but also just because. In a fit of rage and embarrassment, she turned around and threw the wooden sword right at Alex’s face. As she also threw the sword, she yelled in German since she was pissed off.

“Du bist ein Scheißmann!”

Alex got hit in the face because he was laughing and not paying attention, he also closed his eyes while he laughed. So, when he was hit by the sword in his face, he was mad but his mom and dad always taught him not to hit girls so he held himself back from just punching her in her face. He just yelled at her back in anger, it was a joke but he was still pretty mad. He threw the sword back into the middle by Toroma’s feet.

“Shut up, you German tsundere!”

Fuzumi turned around with her face all pouty as she said another insult at Alex. She then sat back down in the crowd next to Daizen and Hiroto.

“Hmph! Idiot.”

Everyone else in the kendo room except Alex and Fuzumi lightly laughed at the situation, but after the laughter, a smirk came onto Daizen’s face as he realized it was his turn to fight Toroma. He quickly got up, and instead of Toroma announcing he was ready to fight he did instead.

“I’m ready to sword fight, Toroma!”

Daizen said as he quickly unrestricted his tight uniform, he threw his blue tie from his black suit uniform. He did this so he could move faster without feeling all uptight.

Toroma quickly smirked as he liked Daizen’s confidence. He had heard a lot about Daizen since he was one of if not the most popular people in school. Daizen was an upperclassman and is known for being the best athlete on every sports team. That would include Kendo but it wasn’t as popular in school and wasn’t played professionally by others. Toroma did see him play basketball games before but he didn’t analyze his plays because he found no reason to, but the one thing that he and everyone else in the school knew was, Daizen was the most physically fit person in the school.

While Toroma was thinking about Daizen’s physical prowess, he was already up next to Toroma. He quickly grabbed the sword off the ground that was by Toroma’s right foot. He instantly jumped back with his sword in his right hand, he held a loose position and he jumped from side to side in excitement.

Toroma was surprised by this, not by him moving back but by the fact that he did it so fast. He disregarded it for now and began to explain the rules again and was about to count down.

“So the rules ar-”

Daizen then spoke up interrupting Toroma, He knew the rules and didn’t find the point of him saying them again.

“Yeah I know, whoever drops the swords and blah blah blah. I’m too pumped, I wanna have a sword fight so just count! I’ll try my best, I’ve never played kendo.”

Toroma did secretly find repeating the same rules quite annoying but since Daizen wanted him to just countdown he did. As he counted down, he held his sword in his left hand as he held his defensive position putting his sword in front of him, but using the side to block any attacks that Daizen would try and hit

“Alright….. 5,4,3,2 1.”

As soon as Toroma said one, Daizen quickly used his left hand to move his bangs so he could see with his left eye. He then ran straight at Toroma, he ran straight trying to hit Toroma in the side shoulder. He did this by maneuvering his hands and arms and shifting his sword once he was close enough to Toroma.

Toroma was shocked and quickly used his defensive position to his advantage. He used the side of his sword to block Daizen’s attack but he manipulated it and turned it to the other side allowing him to block sufficiently. He then proceeded to parry Daizen’s attack with his own. He pulled his sword back and put it above him and pulled his sword down and to the left to attack his left arm with his bicep. He knew he couldn’t attack his right arm because that could be blocked easily by Daizen’s sword but his left arm was fair game.

Daizen, seeing Toroma moving his sword, closely watched as he somehow predicted where he was going to attack. He saw him move his sword up so he guessed that Toroma was gonna attack his right shoulder again. He was wrong and was hit in the left bicep by Toroma. He instantly stepped back as he was attacked, he did this so he wasn’t open to getting attacked repeatedly. He smiled as he was happy that he was losing at something, he couldn’t believe that he was losing at not just one thing but two. He smiled as he snickered at Toroma.

“That was good! Nice one Toroma!”

Toroma smirked also, he could tell this fight was going to be a good one. They were both physically strong, the only advantage Toroma had over Daizen was that he was more experienced in kendo and sword fighting.

“Now it’s my turn to attack you, Toroma!”

Daizen said, as he then rushed at Toroma instead of rushing straight at him like last time he decided to step from side to side to confuse Toroma of where he was going to go and where he was going to attack, and where he was going to move. Once he was close enough and in front of Toroma, he stepped to the side fast causing a mini shockwave causing the wind to blow. He quickly disappeared because he was fast; he then appeared behind Toroma attempting to hit him in the back of the head with the front of the sword.

Toroma when he saw Daizen disappear, turned around and began to look in every direction.

Alex smirked as he continued to watch. He was impressed by Daizen’s speed, but it was nothing known to him. He had seen Daizen move so fast it seemed like he had disappeared before, Alex had seen Daizen at basketball games flank a person so fast, and make a jump shot in five seconds so this was nothing known. The voice then chimed in as it spoke in Alex’s head, it had more of a demonic tone this time as it spoke.

“Heh. He’s even stronger than you even with your glow.”

Alex whispered an insult back at the voice as he continued to focus the fight.

“Shut up.”

Toroma then looked behind him, and before he was hit in the back of the head he turned his body and head around and was hit in the head instead causing him to be pushed back by force. It hurt like a bitch for Toroma, but Toroma knew he couldn’t dwell on that attack because he couldn't keep his eyes on Daizen. He focused on Daizen so that wouldn’t happen again, the pain lingered but even in his pain, he knew he couldn’t lose. He held a defensive position that was looser so that he could turn around and block if he needed to.

Daizen stepped back after the attack, He then rushed at Toroma from the front once again, he attempted to try and hit Toroma in the chest.

Toroma’s face went red as Daizen tried to hit his chest with the sword, he quickly put his sword up and blocked Daizen’s attempts, their swords clashed causing an echo sound throughout the room. Once Toroma realized that his chest was no longer in danger he stopped blushing and focused on the fight more.

Daizen noticed Toroma’s face got red but he didn’t really care. He pulled his sword back and then attempted to maneuver his sword differently. He put the tip of his sword to the left of his chest and then attempted to hit Toroma in his face.

Toroma instantly blocked, clashing their swords once again, He then parried like he did before he attempted to hit his chest.

Daizen blocked and shifted his body to the right side, he then attempted to hit Toroma on the right side with the front part of the wooden sword. The fight was anticipating to watch, over and over their swords clashed. They kept blocking and parrying their attacks over and over again, Daizen was having a lot of fun as sweat dripped down his and Toroma’s forehead. Daizen loves showing his strength but in all reality, Daizen wasn’t using his full strength, he was just having fun but after five minutes of them just clashing he decided to end the match with a cool-looking anime technique. He jumped backward as he stared Toroma down, he then spoke some cool, cliche words.

“This was fun, Toroma.”

Daizen said somewhat with his tired and strained voice. He then continued talking as he was getting ready to attack Toroma.

"𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰, 𝐈'𝐦 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐨𝐟𝐟. 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐬: 𝐄𝐧𝐝.”

As soon as those words left Daizen’s mouth, Toroma thought Daizen was bluffing; he just held his defensive position putting his sword in front of him. He kept his eyes on Daizen and he didn’t move, but little did he know a single blink was the thing that would make Toroma meet his end. When Toroma blinked, Daizen was gone he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his stomach but more specifically his solar plexus. He couldn’t breathe, he then was hit in the back so hard with Daizen’s sword causing him to fall right on his face.

Toroma didn’t know how he was hit, He couldn’t even see how Daizen hit him but he was hit for sure.

Daizen stood over Toroma with a smirk on his face. He wasn’t that confident that he could damage Toroma with his sword that much but it worked out for him.

Toroma looked up at Daizen as he was on the floor and asked one question.

“How?”

Alex watched from his corner. He found it ironic that Toroma was in the same position that he was when he and Toroma were fighting earlier. He was also surprised that Daizen was still able to move that fast even in his school uniform. But then he remembered about the start of Daizen’s and Toroma’s fight and then remembered seeing him take off his suit and tie. He then realized he probably should have done that in his match.

When Toroma asked Daizen about how he beat him, Daizen just shrugged as he looked at Toroma on the floor. He then spoke to him with a bit of carelessness.

“I just tried my hardest to win nothing special.”

Daizen carelessly said as he sat down and smiled, He was being humble and not boasting about his win. He sat down in the crowd next to Fuzumi and Hiroto.

Toroma was amazed at Daizen’s potential; he was so strong that he thought maybe even with his powers he maybe still couldn’t beat Daizen. Toroma slowly got up, he stretched his arms as he then walked over to the mini-fridge. He was tired and decided to get another water bottle. So, he grabbed the water bottle and just like before chugged it all down. He then threw it in a small little trash can.

Alex was still mad that he lost, he wanted a rematch so he decided to voice his opinion. He stood up from his corner as he pointed at Toroma as he began to yell.

“Hey, you! Toroma, let's fight again!”

Alex said as he smirked making eye contact with Toroma. They were just about to start fighting again, but then they were interrupted. Fuzumi quickly and loudly talked as his tone of voice was worried and scared. She stepped between Toroma and Alex.

“H-hey guys stop it! Don’t you think that's enough for today? Plus, we have to go to the mall and pick up stuff for the project!”

Everyone other than Fuzumi had forgotten about the project and going to the mall to pick up project paper and other stuff they needed for the island project. Alex and Toroma looked towards Fuzumi and at the same time, they spoke the same words.

“Oh yeah, I forgot.”

Alex and Fuzumi slightly laughed, realizing that they said the same words at the same time.

Hiroto then spoke up from the spot he was sitting in.

“How are we gonna get there?”

Fuzumi smiled as she looked toward Hiroto.

“I’m gonna order an uver now. Well, when everyone is ready to go.”

Uver was a ridesharing app that allowed people to pick you and bring you places.

Toroma then nodded as he remembered, he then spoke up toward everyone.

“Ok. Well, can you guys step out and wait for me at the gate? I wanna change out of this gi.”

Fuzumi nodded as she grabbed Alex, Daizen, and Hiroto with one hand. Everyone made sure to grab the book bags that they dropped when they sparred. They stepped out of the room and they made small talk as they went down the school stairs and made it to the front of the game eventually. The conversation of the three wasn’t very important; it was just all about the fights that they had and how strong each of them was. They sat on a bench that was by the front gate, the sakura tree petals fell as they all talked and laughed with each other.

“You were so cool back there Daizen!”

Fuzumi said cheerfully to Daizen, impressed.

Daizen scratched the back of his head as he said something a humble person normally says.

“It was nothing.”

Alex was mad that Fuzumi was impressed by Daizen but not him, but he decided not to get mad, he just waited for Toroma to come back.

Steps could be heard from afar that made Daizen, Fuzumi, Alex, and Hiroto look to the left of them near the school. They then saw Toroma in the school uniform with his hair in a man bun. Toroma waved as he smiled.

“I’m ready!”