.
Note: As Promised. This takes place during the summer vacation some time after volume 2 ended.
.
Akabane Nanami, currently a respected middle school student of Akaryuu Academy where she was known as the fierce blade, was now standing in front of the Shiroyuki dojo feeling a little nervous. She was hesitating whether to go inside or just wait for the person who asked her to come.
She received a message a few days ago and it was from no one else but the boy she had taken great interest in.
"[Meet me at the Shiroyuki Dojo Wednesday at 7 in the morning if you are free]" was the content of the message he sent her through mail. She couldn't believe her eyes and thought that she wouldn't be receiving any messages from him after they exchanged contact details since the circumstances concerning her were resolved on the same day.
"I didn't expect you to be here so early" A familiar voice reached her ears and startled her from behind. She couldn't mistake this voice for anyone else as she turned around to slowly find Kazuya wearing a tracksuit and looked like he had been out for a run.
"G-good morning K-az… Kouzuki-kun" she tried using his first name but opted to use his last name instead. She didn't want to sound too overly familiar.
"You can call me Kazuya if you want to" Kazuya smiled. He could tell that she was holding back so he found it a little interesting. "Well… that is if you don't mind me calling you by your first name as well pretty-san"
"I-I-I-I D-don't mind" she tried hard to give out reply with a straight face but being called like that again made her face heat up and sent her mind to the clouds. Being called rough, violent, monster, and other things that weren't as remotely as close to what she saw him as is what Nanami was used to hearing. So even though this wasn't the first time Kazuya has called her as such, she really couldn't get used to it.
*tug tug tug* the girl who was silently standing behind him pulled on Kazuya's sleeve and pointed to herself.
"No" he shook his head. "You will always be called robot girl until you learn how to call me properly and not just pull on my sleeve" Kazuya turned to answer the expectant girl beside him. Tomoyo's expression didn't change much but her eyes told him that she was disappointed.
Nanami finally noticed Tomoyo's presence and was able to pull herself back together because of it. In front of her were the only two people she and her rival had trouble dealing with when it came to Kendo. It may sound embarrassing if anyone heard that the famous first and second place rankers in the middle school national competition had trouble fighting these two elementary school students but to her, these two could even compete in the high school competition without having too much to worry about.
"G-good morning Shiroyuki-san" Nanami greeted the robot girl. This was another person who she couldn't beat before she left her elementary school department. This seemingly emotionless girl was similar to her in a way since both of them remained in second place but surprisingly, she didn't seem all that bothered by it because she got along with Kazuya quite well from where she was standing.
*shake shake shake* Tomoyo shook her head.
Nanami was nervous. She thought that she was being rejected by Tomoyo. Kazuya asked to meet in their dojo so what would she do if this girl didn't allow her to enter?
"This is why I told you that you need to speak"Kazuya ruffled Tomoyo's hair which the robot girl didn't like as she looked back at him with resentment in her eyes. "Don't expect people to understand you like your grandparents or me" Kazuya gave a sigh. "She thinks you're rejecting her greeting and not her way of addressing you"
"???" Nanami was confused. She didn't know how Kazuya can tell what the Tomoyo meant but it was amazing that he could do so.
"Sorry about this girl. As you can see, her nickname is self-explanatory. What she meant is that you can call her by her given name too since she already heard about how you've helped me from that day" Kazuya explained.
True enough, Kazuya already told the robot girl that he wanted to invite a friend over to the dojo. He told her about how Nanami helped out when he explained the details of what happened on the day Kazuno Tech was attacked. This gave Tomoyo a good impression towards Nanami since she helped and protected Kazuya from further danger.
"I see… then if you really don't mind then I can call you Tomoyo…-san?" she tried to confirm.
*nod* Tomoyo gave her approval and put Nanami at ease.
Kazuya grinned. It was good that these two got along because, in his mind, these two had beastkin like qualities. Although the qualities they showed were of different races, the beastkin usually got along with each other unless it was the violent ones that no other races got along with.
While Nanami was like the proud people of the wolf-kin. Tomoyo showed qualities of the silent and cool cat-kin or as they would call it here as neko-kin.
This was why Kazuya felt quite comfortable hanging around these two. They weren't as complicated to handle like Ayame or Takaya who were cunning and calculative as humans were feared and supposed to be.
"Now that the introductions are out of the way…" Kazuya looked at Nanami from head to toe. She was wearing a skirt and looked extremely girly. Of course, he didn't really look at her in the way Nanami was assuming but the beast-like girl still couldn't help but feel her face heat up and her knees weaken a little bit.
"I-Is something the matter?" Nanami looked a little worried about how Kazuya was silently observing her openly. She really didn't mind him looking at her but she was worried that she couldn't handle his intense observation for a long period of time.
"I think I should apologize for not making myself clear when I sent the message to you. I called you here because I wanted to ask you a question" Kazuya looked at Nanami directly in the eye. "Do you want to be able to get the chance to beat Kuronuma Ayame?"
Kazuya's unexpected question made Nanami's body tremble. How could she not want a chance to defeat the enemy she's been aiming for since they were in the elementary division? She wanted to answer right away but she was hesitant, if she was taught one thing that she actually listened to, it was that nothing was for free.
"You don't have to think about it much" Kazuya smiled as he noticed the change in her expression. He was actually thankful that she felt a little cautious about his offer. It means that she wasn't as naïve as she seemed. Kazuya's opinion of this seemingly shy girl improved a bit. She was indeed raised by a family that was from the underground world. "I heard Kuronuma Ayame say that she doesn't have her eyes on anyone in the same division and seeing after you've helped me a great deal in the last incident, I've been thinking of ways on how to repay you for all the help. This is what I thought of"
"You don't really have to. I didn't do it because I wanted something in return. Though I am interested, I haven't really done anything that a friend wouldn't have done" Her response made Kazuya give a warm smile towards her. He already thought about making this girl a friend and it looked like she was already treating him like one.
Nanami didn't understand just how it was rare for this boy in front of her to even think about considering treating someone as a friend. She was probably the first he even considered for the position ever since his return. Though Kazuya had friends like Tomoyo or Takaya now, they were the types who proved themselves first.
"Then going by your logic, should I put it as helping a friend out? I want to help you improve your skills if I can. That naïve girl from before is growing to be cocky after stepping up to middle school and it won't likely stop unless someone pushes her off that high horse of hers" Kazuya grinned.
He actually had another purpose other than helping Nanami out. It was to let Ayame worry about a person that was on her level. When Kazuya and Tomoyo finally reach middle school, Ayame and Nanami would both be in high school. Though there may be a chance for them to find some challenges there, with Ayame's natural affinity to mana, it was very unlikely for her to have some trouble.
Starting from the middle school level, the genders were separated for the individual events. Though there were some tournaments that allowed mixed genders to participate, the main national tournament was separated by genders so Jirou had high expectations for his granddaughter and Kazuya to be paired together as the king and queen of the kendo scene.
"I…" Nanami hesitated. She had actually brought a chance of clothes and they were inside the bag behind her feet. Kazuya invited her to a dojo after all.
"Looks like you came prepared" he laughed. "Let's go inside then. I will need to tell you a few things before we begin" he led Nanami who was still trying to process how things were going. She still hadn't given a clear answer but Kazuya took it as her acknowledgment and followed after Kazuya and Tomoyo.
How could she let a chance of beating Kuronuma Ayame go? She was considered her rival in the girls' division even if she didn't see her as one. Those standing at the top from the very start didn't know how things looked from the bottom so with Ayame's streak after she got separated from Kazuya's division, what Ayame could think and focus on was the only person who didn't even set her in his sight.
There was no doubt in Nanami's mind that Kazuya could help her. After what she witnessed herself, She couldn't help but admire Kazuya further when it comes to his fighting prowess. She never thought that she would one day put someone younger than her on a pedestal in line with people such as her grandfather and his friends.
"You need to get changed first" Kazuya said after they arrived in one of the empty dojos that were used by them to train with Jirou. He let Tomoyo take care of their guest as she didn't seem to mind Nanami's presence compared to others. "(I guess it was probably a good idea to have given her an explanation)" he thought.
Kazuya was actually being sincere in teaching Nanami a thing or two. The only problem was that if she was able to feel the presence of mana and actually be able to naturally harness it.
This was why the venue was chosen to be the Shiroyuki Dojo. Though Kazuya's formation mainly started and formed at the Kouzuki house, the years he has run through the neighborhood, additional little formations were formed and as a result, the neighborhood they were in slowly gathered a suitable amount of mana. One of the strongest points was, of course, the place where he was slowly raising the robot girl and his company's security team.
From Kazuya's point of view, he thinks that Nanami and Tomoyo were more alike than it seemed. In the times he's faced Nanami in the tournament, it wasn't that she was inferior to Tomoyo's talent in the least. It was just that Tomoyo had touched the possibility what Jirou referred to as internal energy by her grandfather.
The robot girl had more focused training while Nanami heavily relied on feral-like instincts which held back her prowess in a strict environment like a Kendo tournament. She was basically a very capable fighter but what she could do was very limited in a competitive environment. In this sense, Kazuya and she were alike. The only difference was that with his battle experience, there was really nothing much Kazuya needed to win such a constrained competition. Therefore, he knew how he could help Nanami get the better of Ayame soon enough, that is if she listened to what he had to say.
"Kid" Jirou looked like he had rushed here. He was supposed to have left before they returned but he seemed to have rushed back for some reason. "Isshin just called me and said that you invited his granddaughter here?" he went straight to the point.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Isshin called him up to brag about Kazuya personally inviting his granddaughter to meet up at their place. He emphasized that Nanami had gone out of them looking like she dressed up for a date so Jirou went on back and found Kazuya inside the dojo where he and Tomoyo practiced.
"I did. Is there something wrong?" Kazuya was a little confused. He couldn't have returned in such a hurry because of that, could he?
"It's not like there anything wrong with that…" Jirou couldn't explain it well. He didn't want to sound like someone who intervened with his personal relationships but Isshin's bragging made him a little concerned, "Why did you ask her to come here?"
"For a lot of reasons, one of them being so that she could beat Kuronuma Ayame off her throne" Kazuya grinned. He knew that Jirou wouldn't be against that at all. Komori had been bragging that her granddaughter was the champion of the Kendo tournament in the middle school department while pointing out that Tomoyo was only in second place.
"I like that idea!" he reacted as Kazuya expected. Komori was shameless enough to brag about it since Kazuya wouldn't be in the same division as Ayame, unlike Tomoyo who was in the same grade. If Ayame gets beaten after her grandfather's excessive and shameless boasting, Komori wouldn't hear the end of it. Just thinking about this, Jirou's face beamed with delight as he saw his friend's granddaughter coming back with Tomoyo.
"G-good morning S-Shiroyuki-sama" Nanami didn't expect Jirou to be present when she returned so she was nervous. They really didn't have much interaction since she rarely joined whenever her grandfather would meet with his friends so she didn't know how to act around him.
"You can call me grandpa Jirou like this lad over here. Any friend of my grandchildren are welcome here" he laughed. "The kid has already told me about what he plans to do but everything, in the end, will depend on how hard you work" Jirou encouraged Nanami. She was the key to him bringing down Komori's arrogance a notch. Since Tomoyo couldn't do it because of the difference in their ages, one that comes from his dojo would suffice and would cause an even bigger hit to his friend's ego.
"Y-yes" Nanami was a bit surprised at the warm reception. He was told by her grandfather that Jirou might make things difficult for her but he was very accommodating. Was it a thing for these old men to talk badly about each other?
"I'll leave you kids to it then" he left merrily. Jirou Trusted Kazuya's abilities to teach Nanami since his own granddaughter was a prime example of what Kazuya was able to do with his private lessons. Not only was Tomoyo able to improve upon her mana control, but also her progress compared to what he had planned out for her were monstrous.
It could be said that once both of them entered their own divisions, Jirou was confident enough for them to rule their divisions even in the high school level. This was just how much these two children had improved.
"Now then let's start. I want you to say and describe if you feel any changes" Kazuya's words confused Nanami but she nodded anyway.
What came next was a weird sensation that she couldn't accurately describe. Kazuya had directed the flow of his mana towards her. He hoped that his intuition was correct and this girl was like the robot girl who continued to watch. She did go through a similar process after all. The only difference was, Kazuya's methods towards this girl was completely towards her who was given heavy pressure because of the enmity he had with her in his previous life.
"Warmth…? I feel like I'm being soothed? I don't know if that makes sense but that is what I'm feeling right now" Nanami closed her eyes to immerse herself in the feeling.
Healing magic and destructive magic was the easiest to sense since they changed things physically and had some kind of manifestation. Healing magic is self-explanatory but some of its other effects recovered stamina or increased one's capability to remain calm and such while destructive magic involved the five senses primarily.
Though Kazuya had yet to spend much time with Nagato Tsuna, he had once warned him to be careful of how he excluded mana on default. Tsuna understood this very well because since they were both former heroes, they used to have an abundant amount of mana that made them unconsciously project or release mana on default. This was because they had no prior experience on handling mana since they were on earth.
Tsuna compared Kazuya and him to cups that had a waterfall filling it constantly with water when they were in Edea. On earth, however, depending on the location, it was like a faucet that filling the glass that was Kazuya.
"You need to get used to controlling your mana when you aren't paying attention. You might attract unwanted attention if you continue as you are now" he warned. "Though you might not notice it, you can affect those close to you because of this and might even awaken some people you don't intend to"
"Awaken?" Kazuya asked. This term was something he wasn't aware of.
"Though Earth can be said to be a wasteland that barely has any mana, it still has a noticeable amount to people like us who can sense and utilize it. You should know the saying that you can't un-see what you already saw? It is similar to that. We cannot un-sense mana even if we wanted to. It has already become part of our lives" Tsuna explained.
"That still doesn't answer my question" Kazuya frowned.
"Basically, it's something I call people who have been made to sense mana. Your grandfather, your mother, and your big sister are examples. Though I made Kou aware of mana, you made your mother and big sister aware of it. I call them awakened ones" he laughed. "Jirou's granddaughter can be considered half awakened because you still haven't decided whether to explain everything to her in detail"
"Going by your theory, can every person on earth be 'awakened'?" Kazuya curiously asked.
"Probably not. Even in Edea, you should be aware that there are still those normal citizens who don't even have the right aptitude for mana even though the world is overflowing with it. It is the same here on Earth. The only difference would be is that it would be dangerous for those who have the capability to be awakened to all have the capability to harness it. This world's mana is scarce enough as it is and the number of people that will abuse this will not be few.
Since they experienced similar things, Kazuya understood Tsuna's explanations quite easily. This former hero even imitated how Kazuya normally was but on a scale that befitted his experience. This made Kazuya become aware of the mistake that he has committed on earth ever since he gained the ability to utilize mana once again.
"(This was probably what made the extremely sensitive Ayame pick him out amongst all the other people when they first met)" this memory made him frown because he could have avoided such a troublesome person if he was aware of it.
Kazuya looked at the person he had chosen to awaken himself. Though he was still not sure whether his decision was right or not but he was at least sure that this person would not do anything that would put their families against each other. This was the first time he tried reaching out to someone because he knew that he would need to take a few risks with people because, in the end, he alone may not be enough.
"You're doing well. Now continue listening while trying to feel the changes" Kazuya praised Nanami and glanced towards Tomoyo who was listening in quietly. This robot girl was unexpectedly a pleasant companion who stayed by his side. He wouldn't have noticed that he had still been unsure of how to treat this girl if Tsuna hadn't pointed it out so he finally came to a decision to repay the loyalty she has shown so far.
"What both of you are feeling is called 'mana'. This is not the internal energy you probably heard from your grandfathers already. That could only be counted as a branch of numerous ways to utilize it" Kazuya started his lesson on the basics of mana and its uses. Nanami had already passed the test and with the help of the secondary gathering formation he would activate whenever he was present in the Shiroyuki dojo, Nanami's instincts and her trust in Kazuya made it easier for her to understand and get a grasp of what he had to say.
It was obvious that Nanami's affinity was the same as Tomoyo's. Both girls were warrior types which Kazuya could relate to based on experience so teaching them didn't require much effort. What surprised Kazuya, on the other hand, was that he realized that he had underestimated just how Nanami was in sync with her senses. What was holding this girl back whenever she fought was her ability to process thoughts while in the midst of battle.
This was an extremely rare trait because from what he assumed of her, she was the type who relied on her instincts but it looked like Nanami was given another advantage. This was usually developed by veterans of battles so Nanami who didn't have the amount of experience close to Tsuna or Kazuya clearly stood out.
"(What an interesting discovery)" Kazuya smiled at Nanami.
Though it might sound great at first, this trait acted as a disadvantage for Nanami. Her indecisiveness when it came to the competition and how she should act was why she lost matches that would really count. Against someone like Ayame who was used to completions and was formally trained, that slight hesitation of Nanami's was deadly.
Nanami was felt that Kazuya had shared a great secret with her. This es especially because of his strong warning about revealing these abilities even to their loved ones. From there, she could tell that he had placed quite the amount of trust in her. She felt truly grateful for such an opportunity because of the things that surprised her the most, is that her rival, Kuronuma Ayame, was already able to use it at an advanced level.
What did this mean? This meant that no matter how she would have tried, Ayame would have been a step ahead of her If she simply used these abilities Kazuya informed her that Ayame was capable of. This made her even more determined to put to heart whatever it was that Kazuya would teach her.
"(His offer was to defeat Kuronuma Ayame… Can I really do it?)" was the question inside her mind. Just finding out that such abilities could be used by her if she tried hard but actually facing someone who had years of experience ahead of her? She didn't think that she would have a chance anytime soon.
"I know what you're thinking" Kazuya gave her a smile that somewhat soothed her worries. "Aren't I a lot younger than Kuronuma Ayame? Has she ever beaten me?" Kazuya grinned.
He was right. Just his instructions on how Nanami should train before and after lessons with Kazuya convinced her of how hard this two younger than her trained. She felt that she had been slacking off compared to these two.
"I'll… work hard" she shyly said.
"That's good to hear. I do have a lot of expectations from you and I also hope that we have a long-lasting relationship that will grow as time passes by. Out grandfathers may be friends but I want our relationship not to be affected by theirs" Kazuya patted her head. Nanami wanted to rub the itch on her ear to make sure that she heard him correctly.
"(Did he just say that he wanted to have a relationship that would be long-lasting!?)" her inner monologue screamed. "(A relationship that has nothing to do with our grandparents!? Is this a proposal!?)"
*tug tug tug* Tomoyo moved to his side. She was listening intently to his lecture but she didn't need much to understand after staying by Kazuya's side the longest amongst their age group.
"What is it?"
"Me… too…"
.