Training

Umiko and George went on to make a simple but very effective training regimen based on the strengths and weaknesses of each member of the club. It also took into account Hiroto’s help as a sparring partner, allowing for quite the flexible plan.

It mainly consisted of many types of exercises to build both more endurance and also help some, like Kayoko, get into better shape. She wasn’t bad, but clearly her own workout routine was quite lacking.

Next they would do many, many mock battles. That was done for the sake of helping the fighters to better their reflexes, reaction time, and overall on-the-fly strategies.

Duels are very complex, and they can go in any direction at any point. Being able to make split decisions in the middle of combat was a must.

On that front, Izumi Kayoko was struggling the hardest. Her mental ability to come up with plans in the heat of action was good, but she failed a lot when actually putting those plans into motion.

Onimaru Ken had a similar weakness to his club mate. He has one main battle strategy and while that usually worked, it just isn’t enough for a battle against the current strongest school in the region.

With that in mind, a couple of days go by. The Yumehara Dueling Club slowly gets used to their new schedule, going to school during the day and training during the afternoon and into the night.

However, while their training itself was in motion, the place where they did it was severely lacking.

Sadly the group had to settle for the little soccer field by the riverbank. The facilities at school were in use by the other sports clubs, so they needed to improvise.

“Hah!” Kayoko plants her feet into the ground, before doing an elbow strike right to Hiroto’s stomach, sending the brunet boy stumbling back.

“Gah!” The boy manages to catch his footing at just the right time to barely dodge his opponent’s next attack, an open palm strike aimed at his chest. “Hah!” Being able to catch her arm during the offense, the star-eyed boy flips the fashionista over and slams her back against the ground.

“Stop, that’s enough for now.” George shouts while approaching, he was just a couple feet away watching the spar. “You’re getting better Izumi, but there’s still some noticeable delay when you connect your strikes.” The blond points out. “Try and let them flow more naturally into each other, with less thinking in between, okay?”

Hiroto watches as the older man couches the fashionista. As it turns out, their advisor was actually really knowledgeable about dueling, and he was capable of identifying their weaknesses by just watching them fight once.

That was surprising, seeing how unfairly the headmistress seemed to treat this specific club. Maybe she had a change of heart?

Whatever the case, Kayoko’s voice brings the star-eyed boy back to earth. “Yes, sensei!” The silver-haired teen bows politely, then turns to the brunet. “I’m gonna grab something to drink, you want something?”

Hiroto shakes his head, and she gives him a thumbs up before walking away.

“How are you feeling?” George asks, making the boy stare at him confused. “I mean about the training. Are you having fun, or is it too hard on you?”

“I’m fine.” Replies the brunet. “And it’s actually kinda fun-“ He adds with a whisper. “-Anyways! How is Umiko doing?”

“Well-“

The duo looks towards the other side of the soccer field. They witnessed a scene that was in equal parts funny and somewhat sad.

Umiko was relentlessly striking the ever-so-tall Ken with many punches and kicks, but the black-haired teen wouldn’t move an inch or even really react to any of her blows. It was like watching a gag from an old cartoon, but in real life.

Would be pretty cute if she didn’t have to somehow get into the same level as her peers in just four weeks.

“-She is certainly trying.”

While comical on the surface, there was something about her efforts that did have an effect on the other two.

Her unbreakable spirit.

The power to take any challenge head-on was stupid, but also surprisingly inspiring. If George had to guess, he would say that even without noticing, Ken and Kayoko most certainly could feel her determination and that by itself was helping them progress in their own training.

‘Physical strength may be necessary to win a duel, but so is mental resilience, and that she seems to have in spades.’ The blond chuckles to himself. “We can only hope to have her ready by the end of those four weeks.”

Hiroto just nods without muttering a word. “…” The expression on his face was hard to read, but if George had to guess, he would say it was-

“I’m back!” Announces the fashionista, taking the older man out of his thoughts. “Ready to continue, Kanzaki-kun?”

“Yeah.” With that, the two move along in the field and once again start to spar.

The training continued, but Hiroto’s thoughts and feelings haven’t become clearer in the slightest.

***

A full week passes by and the team was slowly but surely improving. Both Kayoko and Ken were working through their weaknesses quite effectively.

The same could not be said for Umiko, however. Her improvements were simply too little for the amount of time they had to prepare.

Kurohane wasn’t just another school, their power even at the lowest level was way above that of an average person and the bluenette was barely at that threshold…

Speaking of the devil, the blue-haired teen and the club advisor did a round of research on their future opponents and the results were surprising to say the least.

The way Kurohane Academy utilizes clubs is a little different from Yumehara’s. With them having many versions of a single club, each ‘branch’ of the club was incentivized to compete against its other branches instead of working as a single unit.

Currently, there are three different clubs pertaining to freshmen, all of them being very powerful obviously, but the ones that Umiko will be fighting are interesting cases.

Made just this year, they hadn’t had as many accolades to their name as the older branches, except for having a member of the Kurohane family as their leader. That group consists of: Higashi Kaoru, a boy with a Megumu-Type eye, the other one being Nakai Katsuhito with a Genso-Type.

Finally, there was Kurohane Takahashi, with his extremely powerful modified Henkei-Type.

This trio went around a while back, challenging other schools to friendlies and winning with almost no difficulty.

Umiko had already witnessed just how strong Takahashi could be and the other two were just as terrifying.

For that reason, the blue-haired teen decided to take matters into her own hands and began training by herself after club activities.

Once everyone had left, she put on her bright blue tracksuit and sneaked out of her dorm to go to the riverbank. There wasn’t a lot she could do without a training partner, but she had to be getting stronger… right?

While yes, the bluenette didn’t need to win her fight, that didn’t mean she would be satisfied with just leaving everything in her club mate’s hands.

‘I’m part of the club too, dammit!’ Shouts the blue-haired teen internally, before letting her body hit the ground. “Urgh.” Groaning, Umiko stares at the starry sky for a second.

It was quite a rare sight, especially in this more urban city zone, to be able to actually see the stars. It reminded her of-

“Quite beautiful, is it not?”

She didn’t even need to look in order to know who it was. “Yeah.” Umiko’s reply was dry and indifferent. “Grandpa loved nights like this.”

“Yes, he really did.”

An awkward silence falls as the two figures stare at the night sky, one not wanting to talk and the other trying to find her words.

After some tense seconds, the blue-haired girl hops to her feet and looks back at the person standing behind her, that being the Headmistress of Yumehara. “What do you want, hag?”

“Not even trying to be polite now?”

“Why should I? Will you stop screwing me over just because I’m nice?”

“…” The elderly lady sighs. “I had a lot of work today, so I stayed at school and saw you sneaking away.” She looks towards the river. “Umiko, you can come home, you know?” The tiny sparkles of the stars above reflected beautifully out of the water, a beautiful sight indeed.

“Nah, I’m good. The dorm's kinda cozy.” The bluenette replies while going down into the soccer field. “Why would you even want me there?”

The headmistress watches as the girl starts gathering her belongings. “I’m not so heartless as to leave you without a home.”

“Sure, sounds like something you would do.”

“Umiko.”

“Give me a break!” The blue-haired girl suddenly shouts, feeling all of her anxiety finally exploding out. “I already told you, without grandpa there-“ She looks down at the ground and holds back the urge to continue shouting. “-that isn’t my home.”

Now done with her things, the bluenette grabs her bag and runs off into the distance, her destination no doubt being the school’s dorm.

Being all by herself, the elder turns around and once again looks towards the sky. “…” She pulls an old looking pendant and carefully opens it, revealing the image of a happy family. “Dear-“ Her eyes laser focus one person on the picture, that being of an older looking gentleman with a nice, big, smile. “-I wonder if you would hate me too?”