< You can use SP to buy swords, skills, and even abilities. However, you won't access it yet. You first have to teach swordsmanship, to a certain. Just use the swords from your brother's collection, temporarily. >
It's now 8: 00 in the morning, he's still somewhat embarrassed to talk to Scarlett thanks to yesterday's night accident. But he's not a man who would back on his words. Thus he asked the system for swords, which again recommended his brother's sword collection.
"Josh, can I borrow a sword from you?", he asked Josh at their breakfast.
" Umm, what use would it be for you? You don't even like swords. Wait? I remember you bring a cool looking sword yesterday, your armor was also tattered beyond recognition."
" Uh, well you know I'm a fan of swords, more than anyone knows. Well, I met this master a few years ago and he taught me swordsmanship. To make the long story short, he sacrificed himself while fighting some foes and gave me his sword as an inheritance. I was practicing with my sword yesterday and Scarlett saw me and I decided to teach her." he said, trying his best to cover up his lies with shrugs and whatnots.
Fortunately, Josh believed it. He was also ecstatic as he said, "Can you train me too? And since when you're that nice to sister-in-law?"
Kazuya sighed in relief, then he replied, "Uh sure, why not? And why can't I be nice? She's my fiancee after all."
…
With that, everything was settled, but Josh is still suspicious of why his brother is quite nice to his fiancee. He even remembered him cursing Scarlett's family and accusing them of their parent's death. But now, seems like everything is just fine.
A few minutes later, Josh and Kazuya arrived at their training hall. However, they have been waiting for almost half an hour but there's still no Scarlett insight.
"Brother, I think you should check sister-in-law.", Josh suggested.
Kazuya just shrugged and went to Scarlett's room. Arriving there, he knocks on the door and waited for a response. He could even hear music coming from inside. Seems like the woman didn't take his words seriously.
A few seconds later, the door opened. A young lady wearing nothing but pajamas with a shocked expression. She then said, " Uh, good morning?"
" Yeah good morning. Seems like you didn't take my words seriously.", he said with a face showing clear disappointment.
Seeing this Scarlett panicked. It's been years since she was trying to win this guy, at first they were slowly getting closer. However, when his parents died, it hit him so hard that he cut their relationship.
She even heard him cursing her family, blaming them. But still, she admired this guy. She knows that it was just because of the grave loss and that accident thus she did not take his words seriously. Now that he took the initiative and even called her babe, she would surely not let it pass.
" N-no no wait! I'm sorry, I thought you're just kidding because you're never been that nice to me.", she said as she took his hand, lowering her head to hide the blush.
Kazuya frowned, 'Just what did my predecessor had done to this girl?'.
"No don't be sorry. It's okay though, you could just keep whatever you're doing. It's not like I'm forcing you.", he shrugged.
Hearing it, she panicked, even more, she quickly replied, " No, it's my fault. I should have trusted what you said. You already know how much I like you so I should have proven it more."
'Wait? It's just training, like no big deal. When did it reach this much drama?', he frowned even more.
"Uh, okay. Then get ready, I'll be waiting at our training hall."
"O-okay, but what are we doing there?", she said with a blush and an innocent look, staring straight into his eyes.
" Uh, train swordsmanship?"
Realizing that she is overthinking and it was all just a misunderstanding, she turned around and hid her embarrassed look. Then she said, "Oh, right. Be right there!", that she sprinted inside.
" Uh- B-babe?", she said, suddenly. She knew that if he ignores it, she would need to woo him from the scratch, again.
This made Kazuya froze, though he wished to be one with his predecessor, to be him from now on and finish what he started. He's still not used to having a relationship. But as the saying goes, "Fake it till' you make it!"
"Yeah?", he hurriedly replied while staring at her back.
Ecstatic, Scarlett can no longer hold herself. She turned around and ran to Kazuya, she went for a hug. Kazuya accepted it, thus for the first time she felt his warmth.
Shyly, she looked at his eyes. She was just tall enough to reach his shoulders. It was a really cute picture, a girl in pajamas being hugged by his lovely boyfriend. She then said, " You know that I love you right. I know somehow you still don't know why I'm this infatuated with you. I will tell you that, but I want to make you fall for me first so you don't just pity me and fake your love, alright?"
He just nodded, while stroking her head to calm her feelings down. At the corner of the hallway, Josh giggled, happy to see that his brother finally 'accepted' a person that truly loves him.
...
"So my rules are simple, I'm the teacher and my words are the law. We'll train 5 hours per day, every evening. My training could be harsh or gentle, but I will make sure that you would learn swordsmanship from it. If you truly want to learn I want you two to be serious about it. Anyway, now I will just teach the basic strokes. Tonight, we'll do strength training.", he said in a commanding voice. " Any questions before we start?".
"Brother, can you show me a few awesome moves?", Josh asked excitedly.
" Sure I can. Babe, any questions?"
Scarlett just shook her head, blushing. She's enjoying this new treatment. Although she knew that his affection is no more than a close friend, for now, she's still happy because he keeps on calling her babe. For her, that was more than enough for the time being.
"Okay then, watch closely."
Kazuya then closed his eyes, diving to the lake of concentration. Slowly, he remembered the sensation he felt after his breakthrough. It was the feeling of Air, the Essence of Air specifically.
Then all of the sudden, he was engulfed by a blue aura. He started his dance, gentle as air, it was slow and steady. However, each strike packed strength and penetration. It was like air itself, treading with no obstruction.
It can only be described as elegant and gentle. The two were long lost in the 'show', it was relaxing to watch.
With a sigh of satisfaction, he finished his dance, his body seemed as light as ever. He then looked at the two. Excitedly, Josh said, "Brother! Let's start now, I want to do that as well.".
Even without a fight to test Kazuya's ability, they could say that it was not as simple as it looks.
The three proceeded with the training, Kazuya taught them the Beginner Sword Art, and later after it, he would teach them the breathing technique.
He started teaching them the basics, which is slash, stab, hack, and parry. Parry is the hardest of them. Then basic stances, for both defensive and offensive. It was just aesthetic for now, tomorrow would be the start of the real training in the path of the sword.
While the two are practicing their first Sword Art, Kazuya chatted with the system. As he heard an announcement from it and finally, for the first time, he saw his profile.
[ Name - Kazuya Red
Age - 18
Soul Strength - Grade SSS, Tier 2 (Immortal Soul)
Physical Strength - Grade C, Tier 3
Mental Strength - Grade E, Tier 3
Ability - [ Dimension Rift ] ( two more slots available )
Sword Arts - ??? (First Dance - Soothing Air Dance), Beginner Sword Art
Breathing Technique - First Foundation
Sword - Kozo( World Reaper )
----------
Students :
- Josh Red (new)
- Scarlett Hawkins (new)
----------
Shop :
SP - 2
Sword Arts >
Swords >
Armory >
Abilities >
----------
]
Slowly the system started to explain everything from it. Starting in the first three categories, which is Soul Strength, Physical Strength, Mental Strength.
Soul Strength is about the soul, of course, it was judge by this world's standard. The growth of this stat will affect your Psychic Energy, mainly the regeneration, quality, and amount that can be stored.
Physical Strength is very understandable. It's about skin, muscle, veins, bone, and even blood. Mainly, it is the whole body itself. It can even add some years to your life(Tier 3 - 120 years, Tier 2 - 300 years, Tier 1 - 500 years).
Mental Strength is unique actually. Its purpose is for the control of the Psychic Energy, as well the basic functions such as faster-thinking speed. The growth of it helps one to control and to use Psychic Power, the higher the Tier the higher the control you will have.
The Tiers and the Grades are as follows; Grade F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, and Tier 3, Tier 2, Tier 1(arranged in ascending order).
Next is the ability or Esper Powers, for Kazuya he has [ Dimension Rift ], and two more slots. The system indicated that he can buy the two abilities from it. But after buying there would be no replacement/return.
The next is about the Swordsmanship, which is Sword Art, Breathing Techniques, and Sword. For the Sword Art, there's a '???' symbol which means that the Art itself is not yet available, only the first dance. While the other sword art is just the Beginner which is given by the system.
Breathing Techniques is still on the First Foundation while the only sword he got is Kozo, which is also called 'World Reaper' by the system.
Then finally the 'Students' and the 'Shop'. Two students for now, which gave him 2 SP. The Shop is quite wide, and it has a lot of options. He felt dizzy just looking at it. The cheapest he can buy is at 1000 SP, not cheap at all.
He truly doesn't think that swordsmanship would be easy to learn, thus earning SP would be quite a challenge. Even with his advanced brain in his past life, it took him a couple of years to grasp a good understanding of swords.
This was not the problem though, what his problem is how the crap would he find students. Like getting these two is fairly easy, but any others? It would be a problem, no dilemma.
People here don't use swords, they use guns and mainly their Esper Powers. What use of a sword if I can one-hit-kill my enemy? What use will a sword, if I can't get close with my target. Sure that is a problem.
The first thought he got is to build a dojo and teach swordsmanship there. But it would need a very long time before people start to register. Hell, he was not even sure if someone would be interested.
Where can he find people that are easily driven by what seems to be new? Where? In the school, of course. He just needs to show a bit of his prowess in the sword. Be a warrior that fights with a sword. Then teenagers, mainly his age, would fall in line just to go 'learn'. Yeah, some will have the motivation but it would be mainly because it's cool.
Still, his first target is the school. He would need to register in an Academy. Luckily, there's still two weeks before the opening of the famous Esper school in this world. It's called 'Esper Union Academy', a school that focuses on nurturing Espers.