"Show me... 'wax on, wax off.'"

Musubi's date was a lot shorter than the previous ones, and... I think, probably the most productive, as well as the closest to the original abstract of 'do stuff together.' Her idea was, since my Warehouse was full of teachers who could condense a thousand hours of training and practice into two hours of more intensive training, that we should find one who could do that for martial arts, and take a class together.

Faster than mortal eyes could perceive, I swept my forearms in semicircles, brushing aside punches that had been aimed at my face, neck, and upper chest.

"Yosh..."

I shouldn't have been surprised that this two hour 'beginner to black belt' shotokan karate course was being taught by someone who only technically wasn't Mister Miyagi, but, nonetheless...

As the capstone of our course, Musubi and I were matched against each other for five rounds of sparring. Despite having been tested on, literally, every single move in the book for Shotokan Karate, and demonstrating that I could perform all of them with at least passable competence, I still didn't quite feel like I was ready. Especially up against Musubi, for whom unarmed combat was so core to her identity that I saw her without a shirt more often than without her fighting gloves.

But... well.

The proof was in the pugilism.

The first thing I noticed, in our first round, was that she was faster than that Fist-type Sekirei I'd fought on the rooftop, back when I was rescuing Tsukiumi from Higa's capture squad. I couldn't help but feel like she'd always been faster; she had not just her own (admittedly damaged) tama, but also Yume's, feeding her powers with psychic strength. And Yume, unlike most Sekirei, had been awakened to be a guardian, and so had not had any sort of limiters placed on her strength.

So, yeah. Musubi was fucking fast.

The second thing I noticed...

...was that I was that fast, too.

I didn't have any Sekirei bullshit making me faster. No psychic strength, no tama, no nothing. I had the Body Mod declaring that I had 100x peak human physical capacity in any given arena.

And the fact that we were so evenly-matched, physically?

Well, that told me something about Musubi's capabilities, and how they measured up. And, since I knew from canon that she could match Karasuba and Miya in terms of speed and strength... well, I had an inkling of how their capabilities might measure up, too.

The third thing I noticed was that Musubi hit really fucking hard, when she did hit.

"First round, Musubi!"

"Well, alright," I said, picking myself up off the mat, as an attendant healed me with glowing hands. "Let's try that again."

"The trick is to stop thinking!" Musubi said, helpfully.

"No wonder you're so good," I said dryly.

She closed her eyes, smiling innocently, and rapped the side of her head with her fist twice.

"Alright, I think I got something," I said, before plunging myself into a meditative trance.

The round began.

Musubi approached. High jab, sweep aside. Low sweep kick, jump over, return flying kick to stomach. Block kick, jump off of blocking hand, catch chin on top of other foot on the way up and back.

"Round two, Rose!"

"What do you know," I said, coming out of meditation. "It worked."

"Oooooh," Musubi said, before spitting a bit of blood onto the mats. "Let's get serious."

----------------------------------------

We'd kept sparring for a good hour or so, going well over the five rounds that had originally been required. We kept learning as we went, the various techniques I'd been drilled in becoming more natural, and more fluid. I didn't have to go into a meditative state to 'not think about it' anymore, and it was a good thing, too.

Because, well, something I hadn't noticed during my martial meditation?

This was fun.

I was enjoying the exertion, the movement, the reading and prediction and the play of all this. That was what this was, really- it was playing. Musubi and I had stopped sparring, in the formal sense, and now, we were playing with each other, bonding and learning, hand in hand.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

I mean, okay, maybe it didn't look much like bonding when I managed to get a good hit in and sent her flying with blood spraying from her mouth, but when she landed, she always wiped it away and grinned back at me, mouthing the words 'good hit!' And, of course, she did very much give as good as she got- I hadn't won our original best-three-out-of-five, even with martial meditation, and she has definitely kicked every square inch of my ass at this point.

But, alas, while I didn't tire pretty much at all, Musubi was a different story, and so, after an hour, she silently signaled an end to playtime, and began to cool down, doing a few stretches and rubbing at a few sore spots. And then, before the healer from the dojo caught up to us- our play fight had gotten out of both hand and the dojo- she leaned in and kissed me.

Maybe it wasn't the best kiss, considering we both had blood on our faces, from cut lips and the like. But, well... Maybe I was insane now, but I found myself rather liking it. Even if it was a good way to spread bloodborne infections. It just felt so quintessentially Musubi in a way I couldn't help but find charming- kisses and kicks, a lover and a fighter, in equal measure.

Once we'd been patched up, Musubi sighed happily, leaning into me.

"So," Musubi said. "Can we have sex now?"

"If you don't feel like your legs are about to fall off, then sure," I said.

"I'll live."

----------------------------------------

My date with Tsukiumi was... considerably more difficult.

I just really, truly had absolutely no idea what she was interested in. She wasn't a Fist-type like Musubi was, so 'hey let's go visit a reclusive martial arts master and learn karate from her' wouldn't be quite the home run it had been last time, and since I didn't really talk to her much, I had no fucking clue what her interests were, either.

Thankfully, Musubi did know what her interests were:

Winning.

Tsukiumi wasn't just a prideful person, she was also a very competitive person. So, if I was going to play to that, I was going to have to construct a scenario where the two of us could participate in the activity of 'Tsukiumi winning' that was not just me bottoming for her for hours at a time; she wasn't the only person here who had pride, after all.

Thankfully, I had a pocket dimension full of other people who were plenty smart and had their own initiative. What I wanted turned out to be a place that already existed, and all I had to do was take Tsukiumi there, and let her have a good time.

"And you're certain this isn't cheating?" I asked, whispering to the carnival worker.

Tsukiumi was currently absolutely dominating the water gun race game, using her ability to conjure high-pressure geysers of water from thin air to bypass the comparatively wimpy water gun she was using.

"That's not a real thing, here," the carnival worker whispered back. "You two are the only real patrons at this booth- everyone else is an undercover worker. Wouldn't be a carnival where you always win if there were games you didn't always win, would it?"

"Point," I whispered back.

She won in short order, and for a prize, she received the object of desire of many a trans woman: a big blue stuffed shark plushie, which she immediately took shine to. It was hardly the first prize she'd won here, really, but it did seem to be the first one she liked as something other than a token of her victory and superiority.

"I won!" Tsukiumi declared, approaching me with her big stuffed shark hugged close to her chest.

"I saw," I said, nodding. "But then, it's you- was there ever any real doubt?"

She swelled up further with even more pride, and I grinned, patting her head affectionately. As cringe as this whole thing was, it was just a little endearing to watch her have the best day ever just from winning some carnival games. What could I say? Her joy was infectious.

"C'mon," I said. "Let's take a little break from winning and get something to eat, huh? Have you ever had funnel cake before?"

----------------------------------------

As afternoon turned to evening, and ten funnel cakes turned to the contents of Tsukiumi's stomach, we said our goodbyes to the carnival, and went out to simply sit and watch the sun set.

"Rose," Tsukiumi began, nervously.

"Tsukiumi," I replied.

"I... thank you, for this," she said. "It... it was wonderful. I am truly grateful I got to spend this day with you."

"It wasn't half bad for me, either," I said with a shrug, putting an arm around her shoulder. "That shark of yours is cute."

"I love it," Tsukiumi said, nodding as she stroked the plush surface of the shark. "And... I love you too, Rose."

"Love you too, Tsukiumi," I said easily. "May I have a kiss?"

She blushed, but then tilted her head up in silent assent. I leaned down to meet her lips, tasting the residual sweetness of the funnel cake, and... may have, as a result, put a bit more tongue into our kiss than I should've.

Well, Tsukiumi didn't seem to be complaining.

I wonder, how far would she take this?

----------------------------------------

"Hey, Rose," Chiho said as I walked into the room.

"Tsukiumi's boobs feel like a particularly nice stuffed animal," I said.

While Chiho was still coughing and spluttering and laughing, I left the room without saying another word.