Tendo Nabiki shared classes with Katie, and as such she was more familiar with the transfer student than her younger sister. For the first few days she was here, Katie was just a quiet girl who behaved herself participated in class, did her schoolwork, and, though polite, didn’t try to stand out. Still, other girls were intimidated by her, the few boys interested in foreign girls were disillusioned that she wasn’t a blonde-haired bimbo with giant tits like all American girls were supposed to be, and all the other guys in school were too busy trying to beat up Akane to even notice her.
Nabiki herself, ever the indomitable one, wasn’t bothered in the slightest by Katie. However, living with Akane did help her spot a wild animal was when she saw it and from day one she knew: Katie was the exact same sort of punch-happy maniac wanting an excuse to throw down that Akane was.
She expected a fight at some point to break out, but she didn’t expect her to go straight to calling Kuno out.
Nor did she expect her to be at Kuno’s level, or that she’d break him into pieces.
And she most certainly did not anticipate that being what got her out of her shell and friendly enough that Akane was inviting her to stay the night over at their house.
“She can’t go back to her place tonight, and since she helped me out, I wanted to be nice in turn,” Akane explained to Nabiki as they walked home with Katie trailing a bit behind them.
She glanced back at Katie, who passively stared back at her when she noticed her gaze. Returning the brunt of her attention to her little sister, the elder Tendo shrugged her shoulders. “Well, don’t destroy the house with your sparring or whatever and I don’t really care.”
“Thank you kindly,” a grateful Katie said.
“And we’ll keep any fighting in the dojo,” Akane promised.
Katie perked up. “You have a dojo?”
“Of course we do,” Akane said, like it was perfectly normal. “My Dad runs a school; that’s how I trained.”
Nabiki let out a short amused snort at Akane’s choice of words. “Runs is a very generous way to describe it nowadays.”
“Oh cool, what’s your style?” Katie asked, interested in her cosmopolitan style.
“The Tendo School of Indiscriminate Grappling,” Akane revealed with pride.
Katie never heard of anything like that. It kinda sounded like MMA, which was weird knowing the girl specialized in armed combat. “Indiscriminate?”
Nabiki nodded. “It means exactly what it says. Use whatever however, the only thing against the rules is losing–and even that is up for interpretation.”
That struck Katie with surprise. “Whoa, hold up, you actually train in something like that?”
“Akane does, I’m not at all about that scene,” Nabiki chimed.
“Yeah, Nabiki isn’t interested in fighting,” Akane clarified.
“Still, I’m impressed! That ain’t the kind of fighting you do on a mat or in an octagon.”
“Well, I don’t fight for medals, I fight to get stronger.” Akane put it so bluntly, Katie’s heart skipped a beat.
“… Hon, I wish I’d met you sooner,” she said in wonder, “I wouldn’t have spent the last four months bored out of my goddamn skull.”
Akane nodded in reassurance. “We’ll make up for it.”
Were Katie any less reserved she’d be bouncing with every step, eager to get to Akane’s house and spar with her new friend, but she did start walking a bit faster to keep up with them now. She didn’t need to show it, Akane could sense Katie’s anticipation, and she was thrilled herself–they were going to have so much fun!
Nabiki noticed the vibe humming between them. Yep, the exact same kind of maniac. “Four months, you say? You’ve been here a while.”
“Since a little before Christmas, actually.”
Some quick math floated through Nabiki’s head, before she came upon an epiphany. “… Oh.”
Akane looked at her sister. “What?”
“Yeah, what?” Katie pressed.
Nabiki averted her eyes and coughed. “Oh, for a second, reminded me of something from a few months back.”
She looked straight ahead and shrugged her shoulders. “It’s nothing important, though.”
Katie’s eyes narrowed a little, while Akane gave her older sister a puzzled stare.
“Good afternoon Akane, Nabiki,” a voice called from the trio’s right. Akane brightened, while Nabiki rolled her eyes.
Turning her head to the person who called out to them, Katie lifted an eyebrow at the plain-looking bespectacled man somewhere in his early twenties, sweeping the front doorway of a clinic. He had short brown hair, dark brown eyes, and was dressed in a dark gray karate gi.
He didn’t seem like much, but looking at Akane go from bright to radiant as she stepped up to him, she quickly figured it out.
So this is the man she was on about. She thought.
“Good afternoon, Tofu-sensei,” Akane greeted as she stopped and bowed. “How are you doing today?”
Dr. Ono Tofu was all smiles as he leaned on his broom in an informal bow of his own. “Well for once today, I’m not busy. It seems that the rush of customers I’ve had over the last couple days finally petered out.”
Nabiki kept walking, and waved over her shoulder. “I’m going on ahead.”
Akane barely paid her sister any mind, as she tried to evade the subject of Dr. Tofu’s past customers. “O-oh? That’s… well… at least you’re not swamped with work, right?”
“Yes, there’s still a lot of paperwork I’ve got to sift through. I might even need to hire an assistant soon.”
He looked over to Katie, and like he was just noticing her he gave a start. “Oh, pardon my rudeness, are you a friend of Akane’s?”
Akane was more than happy to introduce her. “Oh, this is Katie Izurando, she’s a transfer from America.”
Looking at Katie, she gestured to Dr. Tofu.
“This is Ono Tofu-sensei, he’s been our family doctor for a few years now–he’s a medical prodigy.”
“Charmed to meetcha,” Katie greeted. “Medical prodigy, you say?”
Dr. Tofu humbly rubbed the back of his head as he humbly played down his youthful achievement. “Now, I’m not a prodigy. Medicine’s just always been a passion of mine, so I got into it very early.”
Akane was pleased as punch to brag about him. “He’s only twenty! He was already graduating college when he was my age. He’s studied with the best medical professionals here in Japan, in America, and Ukraine.”
A small jolt ran through Katie, like Akane had said something unpleasant just then. Just as quickly, it passed. “… Ukraine, huh?”
As if he’d sensed Katie’s discomfort, Dr. Tofu quickly changed the subject. “So, on your way home from school on time, today?”
Akane missed it entirely. “Yes, I actually have a chance to, and Katie is coming to stay the night.”
Dr. Tofu looked back at Katie, his smile still warm and relaxed. “Oh? Be on your guard, Akane’s a bit of a scrapper.”
“I’ve seen it, she’s really good,” Katie agreed, before she noticed Akane visibly flinch.
“You’re a martial artist yourself?” Dr. Tofu asked, as he gave Katie a proper once over.
“Guilty,” Katie freely admitted as she recognized his appraisal.
“Fantastic! It’ll be nice for Akane to have someone her age who can keep up with her. She can be pretty rough–I’ve been taking care of her cuts and scrapes since the first day I opened these doors.”
“I-I’ve been getting into fights less,” Akane was quick to point out.
“Well, a fight isn’t much of one if someone is unable to hit back, right? You’ve really improved your form over the last couple of days,” he said with a wink.
Akane looked like she wanted to protest, but she stopped mid-breath and let it out as a strained sigh. “… That’s right!”
Katie could feel the tension in the air, it was weird.
“Anyway, I should um… get home, Katie really wants to see the dojo. See you later, sensei.”
Bowing quickly as Tofu returned her goodbye, and her face a considerable shade of red, Akane turned and resumed briskly walking home; Katie waved farewell and fell into step with a teasing grin.
“He’s the man you’re into, huh?”
“Yeah,” Akane admitted.
Katie glanced back and hummed. “Seems like a harmless guy, to me.”
Akane’s blush grew. “He’s so much better than all those stupid boys. More mature, smarter, stronger…”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
She is absurdly cute. Folding her hands behind her head, Katie pulled a small smirk. “… Can take a hit and not go down like an AV star putting in overtime?”
“Yeah…” Akane whirled upon Katie, startled. “Eh?!”
Katie broke into a laugh at Akane’s reaction, and she tried to subdue it into a giggle when she pouted at her. Is it possible to be too cute?!
Akane raised her nose and closed her eyes, which was even cuter!
“I have to remember that you’re an American, so it’s easier for you to make crass jokes like that.”
“Heheheheh… if you’re going to be this cute reactin’ to my crass jokes, then I’m going to make ‘em all the time,” Katie promised.
Akane whirled on her, startled once more. “Ah?! Cute?!”
Katie laughed.
@@@@@
Kasumi Tendo was well-used to her little sister Akane’s volatile temper, especially in the last three days. Ever since boys had begun trying to ask her out, Akane had been coming home completely steamed, slamming doors as she changed to work out her pent-up frustrations in the dojo. From what Nabiki told her, the boys who were interested in her youngest sister were really aggressive in their courtship, and she wasn’t used to it. Kasumi accepted it, but there was no discounting that whatever those boys were doing, it was making Akane angrier and angrier.
So it was a surprise for the mature and beautiful eldest of the Tendo sisters to find out that Akane was in a really good mood when she called her at around lunch time. There wasn’t much explained, just that Akane was bringing a friend home to sleep over, but she sounded so cheerful and excited that Kasumi was too eager to accommodate her to ask.
Since then she’d been awaiting her and Nabiki’s return, to just find out what happened, and Nabiki’s arrival home had her almost leaping from the kitchen table to greet her.
“Welcome home, Nabiki-chan,” she called to her as she made it to the kitchen doorway. “Is Akane-chan going to be home soon?”
“She’s right behind me, with her new friend. I’m going to my room to do homework. Text me when dinner’s ready, I’m gonna have my headphones on.”
“What’s her new friend like?” Kasumi asked after her.
“A lot like her,” Nabiki called back, and her bedroom door closed a moment later.
Kasumi smiled bright and went right to the door, just as Akane was opening it.
“Ahhh! Stop it already!” Akane mock-whined as she walked in.
“But you are, and I’m going to keep saying it, A-ka-ne-ko. You’re cute! Cute, cute, cute, cute, cute.”
Akane laughed, as though Katie’s praise tickled her. “You’re terrible!”
“But you’re the cutest!” Kasumi called over to her.
Akane turned to her sister with her bright smile. “Don’t you start, too!”
“Welcome home, Akane-chan,” Kasumi said gently to her youngest sister.
To Katie, she introduced herself. “And welcome to our home, her new friend. I’m Kasumi.”
Katie had a hard time responding, because the very sight of Tendo Kasumi had stolen her breath away. “Uh…”
This stunningly beautiful woman with long brown hair worn in a ponytail slung over her shoulder, looking like a perfect housewife in her dress and apron, and wearing a smile that reminded Katie of coming home from school to cookies, milk, and Disney movies… this woman was Akane’s older sister?!
“Uh… hi, I’m Katie…” She barely managed to squeak out in a low, retreating voice.
Akane looked at Katie, curious about her reaction.
“There’s no need to be shy. Please, come in, it’s so wonderful to meet a friend of Akane-chan’s.” The eldest of Akane’s sisters turned to walk back inside, giving her a friendly nod over her shoulder to her as she headed in.
When she broke eye contact, Katie lowered her gaze, her pale cheeks turning a nice shade of pink, before she looked away.
Akane sidled closer to her. “Are you okay?”
Katie nodded fast, while putting one hand on the wall and slipping out of her shoes. “Yeah, uh… yeah‘m fine. Your sister, she’s really pretty… uh… nice… and stuff… huh?”
Akane chuckled as she recognized Katie’s expression. She so totally had a girl-crush on her older sister. This wasn’t anything new, Kasumi had this effect on a lot of girls back when she went to High School.
She’d never seen it happen so suddenly, let alone with someone who’d been so cool a few moments ago.
“So, come on, let me show you the dojo! And we can get some training in!” She offered.
“Sure, that sounds good…” Katie replied, still distracted by Kasumi’s radiance.
To herself, she thought. Good golly molly…
As Kasumi went back to the kitchen to resume working on dinner, Akane led Katie down the hall adjacent to the rather spacious Tendo family’s dojo–a broad, high-ceiling building that was half the size of the main house itself. Snapping out of her Kasumi-induced daze, Katie let out a whistle as she looked around.
“You could train a lot of students here,” she said as Akane went to a small closet adjacent to the door.
“We used to have a whole class, but then my mother died, and Daddy lost interest in training anyone,” Akane said as she began to change out of her uniform for her white-colored karate gi. “After that, the class shrank until eventually I was the only one left. I mean I tried to keep it going, but I guess I was a little too intense for them.”
“I can’t imagine that,” Katie joked as she pulled her own uniform off.
Out of practicality–or rather laziness–she normally wore her exercise clothes under her uniform. In this case, black and neon green compression shorts and a matching camisole top she wore underneath. From her bag she grabbed a hair scrunchie to tie her long black hair up into a ponytail.
Akane finished tying the belt of her gi tight around her waist and turned to face Katie.
“Wow…” Akane murmured, more impressed than she’d ever thought she’d be by a girl. She looked every bit as fit and tough-looking as her joke of a run-in with Kuno demonstrated.
Katie glanced over at her and smirked. “Wow yourself, lookin’ so cute and fierce.”
Akane puffed up her chest and took the compliment with sharp nod. She wasn’t going to be embarrassed at praise here in her element. She walked towards the center of the dojo, Katie following. “What do you do for your training?”
“My secret is water,” Katie replied as she joined her and the two began stretching.
That made the shorter girl pause. “Water how?”
“I do my usual training in a pool, sometimes waist deep, sometimes fully submerged. That sorta thing, water resistance is crazy good for building up strength,” Katie explained, and Akane blanched. “… What?”
“Oh, um… I’m no good with swimming pools…” She admitted as she continued. “I’m not that much of a swimmer, more a sinker.”
Katie tilted her head to her in an apologetic bow. “You have my condolences.”
Akane brightened back up. “It can’t be helped.”
“What about you, hon? What’s your regimen of choice?”
Akane was happy to move on from the subject of swimming. “Nothing too out of the ordinary. I use weights, lots of running, and when I’m in a bad mood I break bricks.”
She finished stretching. “… I kinda ran out of bricks this past week, though.”
Katie likewise continued limbering up and hummed mock contemplation. “I can’t imagine why.”
“So,” Akane asked as she got ready, “How do you want this spar to go?”
“The first to fall loses?” Katie said.
Akane nodded and smiled. “Well, you asked for it.”
Rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck, Katie faced Akane as she popped her knuckles. They bowed–acknowledging the friendly terms of their spar–and assumed fighting stances.
“Ready?” Akane asked.
“Yeah, let’s dance,” Katie replied.
“Then here I come!” Akane called out as she rushed straight at Katie with a powerful punch.
The initial attack seemed slow to Katie right up until she realized how deceptive that was–like a train in the distance that appeared to be crawling along, but in actuality hurtling towards the person watching it at nearly 120 k/ph. She quickly went on the defense, bringing up her hands like a baseball catcher’s and blocking the punch, the full force pushing her back despite her braced feet.
Surprised, but undaunted, Katie vaulted right up and over Akane, twisting her body around to deliver a kick that Akane raised one arm to block–before kicking back just as Katie landed, forcing her to skip backwards from the heel aimed at her cheek.
When she escaped Akane’s reach, the older girl took advantage of hers, advancing forward with quick jabs that Akane parried and deflected, using her footwork and weaving around the strikes she couldn’t block to stay at the limit of Katie’s reach while trying to scope out an opening to break out with. Her opponent was quick though, with barely any gaps between her blows to capitalize on.
“Good moves, good moves!” Katie complimented as she faked a punch again–to pivot into the same devastating roundhouse kick she destroyed Kuno with.
Akane was much smaller than Kuno though and she used it–ducking under it to attack. As Katie’s foot went over her, she realized that the kick was different–the angle was too high. Just in time, she quickly rolled back as Katie’s leg came down much faster, the impact from her ax kick causing the entire dojo to shake.
“Whoa!” Akane scrambled back onto her feet, avoiding slash-like low kicks that Katie kept her from capitalizing against with wild and unpredictable feints.
Her footwork is so good… she really loves kicking! She thought right before she fired off a low kick of her own to stop hers. When Katie when high, so did she, once again crossing their legs and parrying her. She went on the offensive, unleashing snap kicks in quick succession aimed for Katie’s upper body, advancing with each kick.
As Katie was pushed back, Akane made a full rotation, rushed in low, and fired a right uppercut, forcing the taller girl to somersault backwards and land a much safer distance away, bouncing from one foot to the other as she resumed her loose fighting stance.
“Very cool, that almost grazed me,” Katie teased.
Akane began to mimic Katie’s bouncing motion, she was starting to feel a rush she hadn’t since she went head on with Kuno in kendo. “The next one will do more than that!”
“C’mon, c’mon~!” Katie invited, right before the two danced back into it and swung at each other.
Inside the sitting room, a napping meditating Tendo Soun was stirred by a noise he hadn’t heard in quite a while: The muffled thumping of footsteps, jumping, and stomping, the shouts of kiais, and smacks of blows being traded. Ah, what a nostalgic sound, it took him back to happier days, before the tragedy of his wife’s passing, a dojo full of students practicing their moves, sparring, training… all under his watchful eyes.
The mustachioed head of the Tendo family opened his eyes and smiled as he brought up his hand to stroke his chin. Ah, he remembered those old days so fondly. Maybe… maybe he ought to go back to that. Round up some students and teach the art of fighting as he’d been taught.
… Well, maybe not exactly as he’d been taught, but in a manner that wouldn’t have an angry mob knocking on his door.
An especially loud thump made Soun jump, and it was then that he finally realized that the racket wasn’t just him spacing out and reminiscing.
“Hmm?”
There was another, and now Soun was curious. An especially loud bang followed–the sound of another of Katie’s kicks barely missing its mark, followed by the thumping and shouting as Akane punished it.
Soun’s curiosity could take it no longer, and so he rose and made his way over to the dojo. He knew how his youngest daughter was when it came to training, and usually affairs such as sparring were far less violent and even more brief. As he walked down the short hallway from the main house to the dojo, he found his oldest daughter standing by the doorway, looking inside.
“Kasumi-chan, what’s that racket. Is Akane upset about something?”
Kasumi looked at him, smiling.
“Oh no, she’s sparring with a friend from school, it sounded like they were having fun, so I came to see.”
Upon reaching the doorway, he was surprised to see Akane locked in combat with a taller young woman he’d never seen before.
Katie ws on the offensive, jabbing quick and fast at Akane as she withdrew in a defensive posture, her hands moving just quickly to defend. She caught one punch and deflected it to her right, used her palm to divert another blow to her left, and brought both hands together to entirely block a third blow.
As Katie lunged with a fourth jab, Akane jumped back from it–surprising her as she landed on the wall to kick off and lash out with a spinning kick straight for Katie’s head. The taller girl had the wherewithal to raise her arms to block, but when the blow connected, it still had enough force to lift her off her feet and launch her across the dojo into the wall next to the doorway. Katie slammed into the wall hard enough force to splinter the sturdy wooden planks that went halfway up its sides.
Landing from her kick at the same time, Akane came to a stop, aghast. “Oh no! Katie, are you okay?!”
Soun was surprised himself. “Akane, what on Earth are you doing?!”
He looked at the foreign girl embedded in his wall and paled. It was an unfortunate fact that when Soun’s interest in training students began to wane, Akane attempted to pick up his slack. This led to the vast remainder of his students fleeing the dojo–or more specifically, fleeing Akane’s wrath. While the girl knew enough to hold back from killing anyone, she was just aggressive enough in a spar to break someone short of killing them.
It was one thing for local boys to taste her wrath, but a foreign guest?!
Akane looked over. “Daddy? Oh, I was sparring but…”
Katie, looking none the worse for wear, pushed herself out of the indent she made in the wooden planks. “Don’t worry, I’m okay.”
Akane looked back at Katie, awash with relief. “Are you sure?”
“C’mon now, hon, I ain’t tryin’ to ask you out. I can take a hit,” Katie teased as she went right back into a fighting stance and grinned. “We’re just getting warmed up, ain’t we?”
Akane’s relief turned into the brightest smile Soun had ever seen her with, before she laughed and returned to her stance.
The two began circling around the center of the dojo floor, like binary stars around a central point. Soun watched, enamored by the spar now; he couldn’t quite recall the last time he’d seen Akane so thrilled.
“All right, round two, you ready?” Katie asked with a competitive smile.
“If you are. Now that I know what you can take, I’m gonna hit harder,” Akane promised.
Katie lit up with anticipation. “Show me what you got, Akaneko!”
Before they could throw themselves back at each other, they were interrupted–by several smoke bombs rolling across the floor around Akane and Katie and exploding.