The tension was rising, making everyone around Jeffrey uneasy.

Magatsu was uncertain of how powerful the guy was, so he decided it would be for the best to leave him alone for now.

Sasha and Selena were still angry at how he treated their friend but weren't surprised. That was one of their least favorite cousins for you.

Everyone but him was sitting on the couch. He had finished smoking before entering but was already readying another cigar.

– Uh, Jeff – Sasha politely addresses him. – , could you not smoke inside my house? The smell is horrible and...

He completely ignored her as he lights the thing up, takes a deep cloudy breath in and slowly lets it out, the cigar in between his fingers.

– You were saying? – He nonchalantly asks her, annoying Magatsu even further. When Sasha saw her friend's shaking fist she reassured him everything was alright by placing her hand over it. They looked at each other in the eyes and he understood the message right away, sighing with defeat.

– In any case – Selena speaks up. – , you should get over with what you came here to. I bet you don't want to stay in such a poor place like this neighbor for long, so might as well get going as soon as possible, right?

After thinking about what she said for a second or two, Jeffrey blows another cloud of smoke before saying.

– You're right about that. In any case, let's get this over with. Where are your training grounds? – He asks Sasha, who points at her backyard. – So let's get going.

And with that, he starts walking towards said location, the hand that didn't have his cigar half the time inside his pocket. Once he was far enough, Magatsu growled mildly with annoyance.

– I wanna punch him in the face. The guy is just as bad as... – He interrupts himself for a second. – Yinsak.

– I know – Sasha says while standing up. – , but you either get used to it or move to somewhere else like I did. In any case, I'll get changed and grab my stuff. Once this ends, I'll never have to even think about them again.

She then goes to her room to get her training clothes. In the meantime, Selena looks at Magatsu with half-closed eyes, a playful smile on her face.

– So, how are things going between you and Sasha?

The question catches the boy off guard as he looks at her a bit startled.

– What do you mean?

– Oh, you know what I mean. You can't hide how you look at her, how you act when addressing her. When it comes to stuff like that, your body always betrays you.

Now at the verge of sweating, Magatsu looks somewhere else with a nervous face.

– It's not what you think...

– Right, and Jeff is actually a nice guy but is misunderstood by others. – She sarcastically says while chuckling to herself. – Let's make a promise. If you tell me how you feel about her, I won't share a word of what you say to anyone.

Magatsu looks at her with doubtful eyes for a bit, his eyebrows furrowed. After three seconds or so, he looks down to between his legs.

– I... don't feel comfortable talking about this.

– No one does, not in their first time. – She reassures him. – Come on, before she comes back. I wanna know.

Magatsu looks at her with weirded out eyes.

– Wait, you just want me to say it because you're curious? Now, that's a good one. – He then stands up while twisting his neck around, soon walking towards the yard. Defeated, Selena sighs with a sad smile and follows him.

A few minutes later, Sasha appears with her fighting attire: a boxer-style outfit consisting of a short shirt, showing some of her belly, shorts, small leather gloves, and a hair tied in a straight spiky ponytail. The whole thing had a black with dark blue details for its colors.

– Weird. – Jeffrey comments while eyeing her cousin from top to bottom. – That isn't what one would usually wear to sword train...

– Not like that matters to you. – Sasha quickly cuts him while grabbing two training swords, throwing one to him.

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She doesn't waste time in readying her stance, both her hands holding her sword. He just stays there while loosely holding his sword with his right, his left doing nothing.

– Won't even take the damn thing seriously, will you? – Magatsu asks him with an annoyed voice tone. Jeffrey ignores him, again.

– Don't hold back. – He says while taking a step forward. Sasha takes one back. He frowns at this. – The hell? I thought this was a spar, so why are you backing off?

She never had the opportunity to fully know Jeffrey, so every time she saw him he was either dating his girlfriend, smoking or beating people up. All she knew is that her parents told her to stay away from him, but it seems that he changed. If so, only a bit, because for her he is still the same threatening-looking guy from before.

Naturally, she wouldn't say that out loud.

– It's nothing. Just warming up. – She says while twisting her neck and wiggling herself before finally starting the match.

He doesn't let her start and takes another step forward. This one, however, is immediately followed by a short dash. Jeffrey aims a poke to her chest, one she deflects with a side swing. He isn't affected by it as he swings his sword sideways, aiming for her chest. She manages to block it in time.

She pushes his sword away and takes a step back, followed by a downward strike to his neck. He sidesteps it with a short leap and goes for a sideways swing, hitting her as she couldn't get rid of her momentum in time. She yelps but continues to try and hit him.

Things keep at this pace for about a minute before Jeffrey changes his posture, raising his sword high above his head with his left hand in front of him. Magatsu immediately took him for a videogame sword fighter and internally laughed at the thought. Sasha, on the other hand, took that as a real threat and grew more anxious.

– Either you end this or I do. – Jeffrey says while taking a short step forward. – And you don't seem like wanting to pull the trigger, so I might as well do it.

Now taking things a bit more serious, Jeffrey twirls his body and crouches slightly before dashing forward with extreme speed, catching her off guard. He threatens a straight poke aimed at her chest, one she reacts to in time by readying her sword to parry his, but he abruptly stops right in front of her and dashes to his left, surrounding her and soon reaching her flank. This, she can't react to, gaining another sideway strike to the gut. Magatsu flinches at the sight.

Jeffrey isn't planning on giving her time to breathe as he pokes her again on the back, forcing her to thrust her waist forward. She tries to use the opportunity to strike him with a spinning move, but he sees it coming and leaps to safety.

She is now hard breathing as he merely takes one deep breath.

– Gotta give you some credit, you're doing quite alright against me. Looks like you weren't slacking off with your swordplay like the others thought. – He walks around with his sword resting on his shoulder, a small smirk across his face. – Still, I feel like you're not quite there, you know? Like something is missing.

– How would you know? You never care for anyone that isn't you. – Sasha says with some annoyance. Jeffrey chuckles once at the comment.

– So that's what you think of me, huh? That's a half-truth. I really don't care, don't get me wrong, but I do pay attention. So, is it because you like using those silly axes or something?

– I don't think I have to tell you, so why should I? – She retorts. The adrenaline was rushing through her head and she wasn't thinking straight. She gains another chuckle from her cousin.

– Didn't your parents teach you manners? Geez. Lucky for you, I'm not here to tell how you should behave or not, so I'll pretend you didn't talk like that just now. – He readies the same stance from before. – And I'm not done here. Prepare your gut.

She obliges and their spar continues for another three minutes, their swords constantly hitting one another with force. At some point, she hit him once in the leg, but he overreacted on purpose to distract her, piercing through the opening she gave him.

Jeffrey was enjoying himself with this, his smirk growing more and more as he hit his cousin again and again in various places or against her sword. If there was something he liked doing as a teenager, it was picking fights, and sparring with Sasha like this was giving him such nostalgic feelings he struggled several times with properly holding back so he wouldn't break something when landing a hit, or the sword itself if they collided.

Sasha, however, was growing more and more tired of both the fight and Jeffrey's constant cocky attitude in general. It seemed like the fight wasn't going to end until sunrise when Selena pointed out the obvious.

– Jeff, remember you came here to check on her skills, not to show off. If you did your job, end this and go home already.

His smirk slowly went away as the realization came to him. For as much fun as he was having, he wasn't here for that. He forces a cough and stands straight, his sword resting in his right hand.

– There's that. I mean, things could keep going, I wouldn't mind, but I don't think Sasha over here can't keep up with me. In any case, let's stop.

Sasha smiles after hearing that. Now, all she had to do was wait for him to send his report to her father and that would be the end of it. No more of her family coming to check on her to see if she was keeping up with her sword training or whatnot.

– So? – Selena didn't see many of her family members often, but Jeffrey was someone she had enough of for a lifetime. She asks him, rather annoyed. He shrugs while throwing the training sword on the ground.

After a few more minutes, Sasha accompanied Jeffrey to outside with her friends, both of them with pleasure to see him go. Before he actually left though, curiosity took the best over Magatsu as he had to ask.

– Hey, what's up with this weird tattoo on your neck?

He was already with another cigar in his mouth as he looked at Magatsu with furrowed eyebrows before shrugging.

– Good luck figuring it out yourself, failure.

– Way to behave like an adult, Jeff. – Magatsu mocks him, gaining a glare that sends a chill down his spine.

– Show the manners your mother didn't give you, you brat. You're lucky I did what I came here to.

Finally, he starts walking away, not turning back. If it was possible, a vein would have popped from Magatsu's forehead with how angry he was. After Jeffrey was long gone, he turns to Sasha with an annoyed expression.

– One hell of a family you have.

– You haven't seen half of it. – She and Selena say at the same time, the former a bit embarrassed.