.
"That's enough Kouzuki!"
"Enough? You make it sound like I was the one who did something wrong sensei" his gaze left Tomoyo and now landed on Miyamoto who shuddered.
"No you didn't" he sighed. "Looks like I need to tell you a few things later. I'll first need to clear a few things up first"
"What do you mean?"
"Kouzuki-kun, I talked to Shiroyuki Jirou-sama earlier and know about the duel between you and Shiroyuki-san. I believe that you are aware that she does not have any peers even remotely close to her level of skills correct?"
"Correct" he calmed his expression and listened.
"But she lost to you, someone who is even the same age as her. She finally found someone in her generation that she can compare herself with. Jirou-sama had informed me that Shiroyuki-san here had trained non-stop ever since she was defeated by you and wanted to catch up to you. She wants to see if her efforts had any progress but you simply dismissed her without as much as an explanation so how could she just accept it as simply as that?"
"(comparing herself to me? Then why did her version in the future beat up the version f me who didn't know swordplay?)" he felt a little skeptic about Miyamoto's explanation but if he took his consideration of the robot girl from his previous life out of the question, it would make sense.
"You did nothing wrong but her crying made you look like the bad person. I understand why you're angry but please understand that Shiroyuki-san here is not very good with words so you need to be a little patient with her. It may take a while but I do believe that if both of you work together well, you'll be able to answer the department head and Jirou-sama's expectations"
Kazuya understood what he was trying to say. His enmity with the other version of Tomoyo has affected his patience when dealing with her. She isn't to blame for what happened and maybe learning to understand her a little may shed some light into why she did what she did to him.
"Is what Miyamoto-sensei said the truth? Did you practice hard over the weekend?" he turned towards Tomoyo whose tears had stopped flowing.
*nod*
"I can see that It's still not enough for me to even think about accepting a spar request from you" he didn't change his opinion despite Miyamoto's interjection.
"Kouzu—" Kazuya raised his hand to stop him before he could call out.
He made sure that Tomoyo was still looking at him before he held the bamboo sword with both hands and assumed a normal kendo stance. He then raised his arms slowly before swiftly swinging it down. It was as if the air had been visible and cut down by a single swing.
"I'll consider sparring with you using one hand if you can at least achieve that swing"
Tomoyo tried it immediately but knew that it was far from what she saw and felt. She tried it multiple times before turning towards Kazuya who seemed to have been dissatisfied with the sword he used and moved on to picking another.
"(Looks like I'll just have to focus on training my body until I get myself one I can use)" he thought as he put everything back. He felt a tug on his sleeve and found Tomoyo trying to copy his swing. "(Is she asking for tips?)"
"…" she stared at him after doing a couple more.
"From this point onward, I will allow you to show me your best try at swinging your sword once a day. If it meets my standards then I will spar with you but if it doesn't then you will have to wait for another day. Do you understand?"
*nod*
"Then I will count those swings as your try for today. I suggest you do 50 swings to practice and then 50 sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups and then 50 swings again. Try to feel the difference between when you swing the second time and maybe you'll figure it out"
*nod* she affirmed before leaving him be and doing what she was told.
Kazuya walked towards Miyamoto who was waving at him and they left the club together. It was only at after they had gone that the deathly silence in the dojo turned into clamor after everything that had just happened.
"So what did you want to tell me before sensei?"
"Well… I still haven't decided whether to talk to you about this or not but this was the part I wanted to talk about but left out intentionally earlier. But since the incident with Shiroyuki-san happened then I might as well tell you about it since you probably don't have anyone that will tell you about it"
"What is it? Now you have me all curious"
"Kouzuki-kun, do you know what is the most unreasonable, undecipherable, unpredictable, illogical thing this world is?"
"Love?"
"Hey how old are you? That's quite deep but that's not what I mean this time"
"humans?"
"Close but not quite" Miyamoto felt a little perplexed since Kazuya hadn't given an answer that wrong but just not the answer he was looking for to prove his point.
"Then what is it?"
"It's women. Didn't you just experience it for yourself? You did nothing wrong yet you turned out to be the bad guy"
"Hmm…"
"With a person of your talent, background and charisma, you'll be constantly dealing with them not too long in the future so I believe you should learn about them and how to deal with them"
And there began the first class of Miyamoto Shinichi's 29 years of understanding the mysteries of women. Kazuya was skeptical about it at first, he had technically lived longer than this teacher of his if he counted the years that he had no recollection of but after listening to what he had to say, it was as if he couldn't stop nodding in agreement.
He may have lived longer but most of it was spent focusing on his own goals. Kazuya came to believe that he could have avoided his tragic fate if he had understood women more and paid more attention to them. Combining what he learned from Miyamoto to the memories of his first life gave him a lot of insight, but it gave him a side effect of subconsciously forming a fear towards women.
The already good impression that Miyamoto had in Kazuya's mind immediately soared. If someone asked him what he thought of Miyamoto, then Kazuya without any hesitation would call him a 'master' when it came to what men needed to understand about women. His own inexperience made him put Miyamoto up into a high horse. What Miyamoto did not know was that he had gained the utmost respect of a prideful and special existence that almost no person could accomplish even if they tried.
"Let's stop for today. It's almost time for everyone to go home"
"Thank you, Miyamoto-sensei, you have no idea how much you've helped me with your lecture"
"Haha the sensei in the way you call me isn't there without a reason you know"
"that would make almost all the people I have to call with 'sensei' fake then. You're quite the rare breed of true teachers that care and I appreciate and recognize the fact. I owe you a debt and if you're ever in any kind of trouble, please do not hesitate to tell me about it"
"You don't really need to but okay. (How much teachers can you have already met to make such a claim?)" he smiled and went back inside the dojo with him only to find an unusual sight. The members who were usually dressed and awaiting the coach's dismissal by now were all covered in sweat. They were religiously swinging their bamboo swords downward after Tomoyo swung hers.
"This…" Miyamoto blinked. He tried pinching himself to confirm if he was dreaming because no matter what he did, these children hardy gave it their all when doing exercises.
"Hmm… If that robot girl is the standard for unbeatable in the tournament then I guess there is hope for the team match after all"
"Oh? Jirou-sama said you had a good eye" Miyamoto didn't let what he just heard off. " He mentioned you said Shiroyuki-san couldn't beat you even before she tried. Can you tell which of the members are the strongest just by watching them?"
"I don't dare say I can pick out the regulars but I can see the people with the most potential. Aside from me and the robot girl, that scrawny guy, that short haired girl and that bossy dude who picked a fight with me should have the most potential and should be the strongest amongst them. That tall girl and the bespectacled guy beside her can be the back-ups."
Over the weekend, Kazuya didn't lie. He did study to prepare for the academy. What he studied however was about kendo. He now understood the rules and system they used for tournaments. So he easily picked out the required number of people from the various members.
"Are you sure? The one you referred to as the 'tall girl' is the current captain of the club you know"
"they aren't that much far apart when it comes to their current skills. This is why I said potential and didn't rank them according to strength. If that were the case then only the bossy guy and the short haired girl can be considered. The last spot is a contest between those other three"
"I see. Well your assessment isn't too far off from the current roster, but I'll consider it"
"Don't mind me, the team is for you to decide. I'll be satisfied as long as I fight in the individual tournament"
"Do you know who the champion was last year?"
"Was it the robot girl? If it was then the tournament itself is a forgone conclusion"
"It wasn't. She only took third. Elementary school tournament is between six different grades after all. Unlike the middle school and high school divisions, it is much more chaotic"
Kazuya went on ahead and changed. He didn't get to do any training himself as planned but he was satisfied with what he learned. He looked at the students trying to catch their breaths after completing the exercise. He randomly thought of testing Tomoyo before heading for the exit. He was stopped before reaching the end of the dojo by a soft tug on his sleeve.
"What is it? You've already used up the chance to show me your swing today"
*shake shake* she looked back at him after shaking her head sideways.
"Then what is it?"
"…" the look in her eyes changed as she kept looking him directly in his eyes. Kazuya for some reason thought of something.
"You want me to wait for you?"
*nod nod nod* he noticed the subtle difference in her gaze.
"Fine then. I'm going to your place anyway" He watched her go swiftly into the changing room. Just a few moments later he suddenly felt a presence stealthily approaching behind him. He quickly spun to immediately jump backwards and saw who it was that managed to get this close to him.
"Hoho. You're getting more and more interesting Kazuya"
"That's not a good joke grandpa Jirou"
"Hahaha! It's your own fault for making this old man curious. You can let go of that pencil now, the way you're holding it is scary"
"Please don't do that again grandpa Jirou. I get startled easily and thankfully this is a great place or It would have been dangerous" he truly meant it. Being stabbed in the back made him overly sensitive towards being surprised from behind.
"(Does he mean that that pencil would have been used on me if this wasn't a school? Truly an interesting grandson you have here old Kou)" he thought before giving Kazuya a nod.
"Oh, thank you for the clothes. I'm sure you'll get a lot of new students if I wear it in the tournament"
"Haha! Saw right through me. You'll have to get first place first kid"
"Let me worry about that. You only need to worry about if your granddaughter can surmount the physical differences of older participants"
"That didn't slip by you as well. Does that mean that you recognize Tomoyo's ability?"
"Naturally. She was raised and lives inside a dojo, if she's not as good as she is then that would already be a question of her potential"
"Are you saying that my granddaughter's talent is normal?"
"That depends on how much effort she puts in. Potential will only remain potential until it is developed. Everyone has the potential to be something. We humans are the most dominant species of this planet and we didn't get that status by sitting on chairs"
Tomoyo joined them and made their way towards Jirou's van. He found that talking to Kazuya was always interesting and his point of view was definitely unique and full of wisdom. In his old age, he could still be excited by him and felt like he was talking to his old friend. Tomoyo was silently watching them while walking beside Kazuya. No one could tell what she was thinking but no one else was ever to walk beside her, that is until this mysterious transfer student arrived.
The middle school students also started to leave the school grounds. A young boy saw Jirou and immediately straightened himself before walking towards to greet him. He stopped at the sight of the young boy standing in the middle of Jirou and his granddaughter seemingly enjoying a conversation with this famous old man.
"(Kazuya? What's he doing here? Isn't that the uniform for the elementary department)"
This boy was none other than Lee. His gaze immediately changed to one filled with hostility. Because of what Kazuya said, he had been banned from contacting anyone from the Kouzuki household. Even Kyouko had refused all his efforts of trying to explain himself. Now, his supposed younger brother was walking alongside the head of the Shiroyuki dojo which he had entered but hadn't gotten the chance to get much out of buttering up Shiroyuki Jirou.
Kazuya felt the hostile gaze and glanced at the direction it came from. His eyes met with Lee's and kept calm as he was surprised to see him here. He remembered that Lee was wearing the middle school uniform for the academy and inwardly laughed at himself. He pondered for a bit but even though Lee knew that he had been seen by him, he did not try to hide his hostility.
"(So it's going to be this way huh?)" he couldn't help but sneer.
Kazuya made sure that Jirou didn't notice it. He smirked at Lee and raised his hand and gave him the middle finger before laughing out loud. He made it seem like he was entertained by what Jirou was talking about but both these so-called brothers knew that Kazuya was laughing at none other than Lee. To top it off, he even used his other hand and used it to give him another middle finger.