Chapter 3: Third Day: Dueling Sumiko

You rotate your neck a bit as you get up and out of your room, strolling over to the balcony overlooking the living room. Fumiko's lounging in a tank top and short shorts, hair tossled around her body as she watches some television show. You think it's a romantic television show she watches?

Romance stuff in this world (or at least in Kurogaya) follows a subtly different pattern from in your world. Love triangles featuring two guys are very rare, and come off as vaguely taboo. Love triangles with two girls... you don't think you've even seen one. Maybe because the audience wouldn't buy it, with the way women don't get jealous?

The general plot is always that the viewpoint character (boy or girl) has a particular partner in mind, and then the story and conflict arise from them pursuing that person. There's no odd misunderstandings in a relationship to stretch out the run time, no gradually developing relationship that emerges out of friendship, or anything like that. Somebody actively decides to pursue somebody else, and that's how the story starts. They almost always end in the girl and the boy getting together, not that that's different.

There's a really heavy trope for female protagonists that they see the male love interest do something like caring for abandoned kittens or nursing an injured bird back to health, and decide to pursue them based on that. Male protagonists tend to have a much broader variety of motivations.

"Yo, you wanna watch?" Fumiko calls up to you, shaking a bag of potato chips in her left hand. Women get really lucky in terms of just being able to pig out and it not mattering too much. "It's the third episode, I can catch you up."

"Sure," you say, coming down the stairs. Fumiko sits up on the couch, and you sit down next to her. She's a real beauty - tall, lithe, athletic, with brown-black hair that reaches to her shoulderblades. She puts the potato chips in between you and her.

"Right, so, this one, the girl's got a boy she's interested in. That's the girl," she says, pointing to a young lady with vivid green hair. "There's a bit of a twist, though, because she's not human."

"She's not?" You ask. She looks pretty human.

"Yeah. She's an alien from a parallel world, sent to live among humans to learn about them. They only showed her home world in the pilot, it's all super CG stuff, she actually looks like a three-legged spider thing, this is just a body she's extruding into our universe." O...kay. "Anyway, she's sending back messages home, telling them about stuff, you know. At one point, she's planning on eating this carton of abandoned kittens, when somebody comes by, and she swoops away to hide. Then in comes Hiro, this college student, feeding the kittens, and she falls in love."

"So now she's trying to get with him?"

"Yeah. That's his sister," she says, pointing back to the screen, "she's trying to befriend her so she can find out what kind of stuff he likes." You reach into the bag of potato chips and remove one to eat yourself.

On screen, the girl - Tichi, which is apparently a shortening of Ti Chi Ri Chi Chi Ti Ti Tsi Chi, if your sister is to be believed - is busily trying to smooth things over with the girl on screen, made difficult because she acts like an enormous autist with a bizarre diet (and she decided to meet with her love interest's sister at a restaurant because ???). You lean into Fumiko, who adjusts slightly so her shoulder offers you a better head rest, then snakes her hand up behind your back and pats your head.

"How realistic are these shows, anyway? Obviously not in the being an alien bit."

Fumiko takes a potato chip and eats it, thoughtfully considering the question. "Eh, they're alright. Obviously in real life, sometimes you don't get together with the guy. And they're TV, anyways, so there's all kinds of stuff that makes for good plotting but not for a real pursuit. Why? Interested in a girl?" She teases.

"Maybe I'm trying to figure out if a girl is interested in me," you say, with a certain smugness in your voice.

"You mean besides Terumi? Because I can tell you she probably is."

"Yeah."

"Mm. Girls can kind of dance around it, a lot more than guys do. Just ask her out, if she blushes and stammers or says yes, she's interested." She ruffles your hair a bit. "High school's too short to waste your time on stupid pining and relationships you don't care about." Her attention is drawn back to the screen, as Tichi gets stopped by a cop. "Oh shit," she says. "Oh, this cop dude, he's super suspicious of her..." she trails off, watching, entranced, as the cop harasses Tichi. To be fair, he is right, she is an alien spy.

Oh, and here comes in Hiro, pretending to know Tichi and bugging the cop. Apparently this is the first time they've ever talked to one another. Tichi is trying to thank him but too much of an autist to do so effectively.

Then comes the commercial break, and Fumiko leans back, tension leaving her. She kisses the top of your head. "Nice to just hang, we've never really done that much. You always focused more on Minori and Momo, when we were younger."

"They were the bigger hassle, I was trying to help out our mother and Mariko."

"Thoughtful," Fumiko says.

"Mom... might have picked out a girl for me to pursue," you say. "I don't mind her, though I think she might be a bit focused on the ladies at the moment."

"Man, don't worry about it. Girls kiss and cuddle, it's not like with boys where it means they're off limits for good."

"Have you ever kissed and cuddled another girl?" You ask, out of curiosity.

She snorts. "Nah. Knew some that did. Pretty much all of them have boyfriends now."

There's a lapse in the conversation, but you don't really want to pay attention to commercials and you don't want to move from your comfortable position on Fumiko's shoulder, either, so you take a new tack. "Can a girl really just fall in love with a guy from seeing something small, like him being nice to abandoned kitties? It seems weird."

"Mm. I'll let you in on a secret, li'l bro, might help you snag a girlfriend." She turns her head towards yours, her breath on the top of your head. "For a girl, the single most important trait in a guy is how he treats those weaker than him when he thinks nobody's watching. Pretty much rock solid, like, I'd tell you that, mom'd tell you that, Mariko'd tell you that, Momo and Minori are young but they'd probably tell you that when they're older. It's a bit of a contrivance that girls happen to see the guy feeding abandoned kittens, yeah, that probably wouldn't happen in real life because it's such a cliche the girl would be suspicious, but... stuff like that, yeah."

"Huh."

The commercial break soon comes to an end, and you watch the remainder of the episode with your older sister. Tichi is furtively following Hiro from a distance, disappearing and reappearing in odd ways that probably are very cheap to produce. The episode closes out with her crawling through the ceiling and peeking through a hole at Hiro while he drinks coffee.

You give Fumiko a chaste peck on the cheek before getting up. "Nice spending time with you, big sis," you tell her, and you detect the hint of a flush from your kiss. You head back up to your room, spending what time you have before school to finish off the first volume of The Tragedy of Tomoko Sakamoto.

When you get to class, somebody has written a note on the board saying "Amaya-sensei is running late!" You settle down into your seat awkwardly, but this does give you the opportunity to talk to somebody else as they come in...

You consider talking to Yuriko or Noriko, but when Sumiko comes striding in, confident, chewing bublegum, you know you've got to talk to her. She plops down in her seat with a loud noise, leaning back and blowing a bubble.

You turn in your own seat to face her, one arm resting on your chair's back. "Hey, Sumiko," you say. "Nice match yesterday, in gym. My legs are still a little sore from all that dodging."

"Yeah," Sumiko says, with a casualness. "Same here. Good fight, a duel for the ages." She's wearing a certain confident smirk and leans forward, muscular arms pressing against the table, the angle giving you a better look at her bosom, which is fairly big, even by local standards. "You were a worthy foe."

You ogle her shamelessly, admiring the curve of her bust, her muscular arms and stomach. She doesn't even react. "You weren't bad yourself." You tilt your head. "I saw you in fencing club, and was thinking of joining myself. How is it?"

"It's the best fencing club you can expect, in this modern world," Sumiko says, shoulders squared, expression steely. "The time when people earnestly focused on the cultivation of the martial talents has long passed."

"So you'd recommend it, then?"

"If you're interested, yes. There's nothing inexcusable about the quality of teachers and equipment." She raises one arm, curling it to show the muscle. "I'll give you a real show in a clash of blades."

"It's a date, then," you say, with a gentle smile. "Incidentally, have you thought about drama club? You seem to have a flare for the dramatic."

"Pfuh. Don't insult me by comparing me to sissy actresses. I'm the greatest warrior of a generation, and I speak with a gravitas befitting my station."

"I can't think of any way to argue with that. I'll see you this afternoon, then."

"When next we speak, it will be on the field of battle." Sumiko then turns her attention to Shuichi, apparently having decided your conversation is over.

Since Sumiko's decided to abruptly end your conversation, you turn your attention over to Yuriko, who's staring alternately at Kiyomi, Kyoko, Reiko, Terumi, and really any girl she can see. "Enjoying the view?" You ask, teasingly.

"I am quite enjoying the view, thank you," she says, primly, raising her chin. "There is nothing wrong with looking, we have eyes to see with, after all." She seems a mite overly defensive.

"Yes, and you have such lovely ones," you tell her, with a soft smile, staring deeply into her eyes. She stares back, then starts to blush, finally turning away. "I'm not any different. I like to look at pretty girls too," you tell her, running your tongue along your upper lip and admiring the curve of her neck and breasts. She has a full, perky pair, her school uniform having the top several buttons undone as so many girls around here do, letting you get just the hint of a lacey white bra. Either one of her breasts are big enough you could easily fit a hand around them, and the thought of groping them gets you hard.

Yuriko coughs, clearing the silence. "Wh-which girl do you think is prettiest?" She says, as a conversation starter. "And not me."

"Well, if I can't say the lovely flower of the Sakamoto family with such a delicious bosom and well-coiffed hair..." you trail off, thoughtfully, and Yuriko blushes a bit. "Then there's so many different sorts of beauty on display here. Reiko's innocent charm, Terumi's stoic beauty, and of course, Sumiko's muscular roughness." Yuriko glances over at Sumiko, and she runs her tongue along her upper lip as she considers it. "I think those would be my top three."

"Those are the three other girls sitting next to you," Yuriko teases. "Is proximity all it takes to rouse your passions?"

"I selected my seat very carefully," you explain, raising your chin haughtily.

"Hm, so you sat next to me because you thought I was pretty?" She runs her fingers along your arm, gently walking her hand up your length in a tantalizing fashion.

"I might just have."

"Mm, I wanted to sit next to Kiyomi, but she picked a corner and got Kyoko and Noriko to box her in." There's a little whine to her voice. You suspect Kiyomi picked her spot, and preventing Yuriko from sitting next to her, willfully.

"Luckily, it meant I got to sit next to you," you tease, with a smile. She blushes again.

"Ah, you're a charmer," she says, glancing away. "You're just saying what you think I want to hear, so you can seduce me."

"Nah," you counter. "I'm saying those things because I want to see you flustered and blushing." Her cheeks light up. "But, they're also true."

Yuriko fidgets and stammers, at which point, Amaya-sensei finally shows up, looking flustered herself, rubbing at her face, trying to wake herself up. "Sorry, class," she says, sharply, in a commanding tone of voice. "Last night was hell. Let's focus on today, hm?"

You nod, and everybody focuses forward on Amaya-sensei. You study your spare materials in that time.

The first two classes of the day are dull, then lunch comes around. "Okay, okay, everybody up." She says, waving you to your feet. "Chop chop. Okay. Now, jump." You do so, and so does everybody else, to varying degrees of efficacy. "Alright, now you can mill about for a bit. I don't want anybody sitting down for at least five minutes, I'm tired of looking at you all sitting there with your legs slowly atrophying for six hours straight."

She, of course, remains seated. The class moves around a bit, typical groupings disrupted by making everybody stand up.

You take the opportunity to speak to Noriko. As you move over towards her, Kiyomi briefly takes up a defensive stance, but as she sees you're talking to Noriko, she quietly departs. You watch her go, elegantly dodging what looks to have been an attempt to give her a full body hug from Yuriko (or else just a straight up grope) before sliding up next to Sumiko, with Shuichi stepping away.

"Did you want to talk to me?" Noriko asks. Her voice is soft, quiet, almost a tickle on your ears.

"Yeah, I did," you tell her.

"What about?" She asks the question without emotion or pep, and yet also without irritation or exhaustion. Her busted lip from your first day is a bit scabbed over, but her black eye has only moderately declined in its intensity.

"I wanted to introduce myself." You offer your hand, slowly so as not to spook her, and she shows scarcely any reaction before reaching for it and shaking it back. "I'm Nanashi," you tell her.

"I am Noriko," is her soft-spoken reply.

"I've been meaning to get to know the rest of the class, have to kind of make my way around a bit," you explain, and she nods, no smile on her features, just that same empty, pensive expression. "What do you do for fun?"

She tilts her head, considering the question. "I like speaking to Kiyomi. Sometimes I walk around for a while before heading home. When I get home, I study and sleep in my room, for the most part." She lets out a soft exhalation of breath, not quite a sigh. "I suppose I do not do a lot of things for fun."

"Are you in any clubs?"

"Not at present, no. I suppose that would also be a good thing to do before going home. Are you in a club? Could you recommend one for me?" She asks, tilting her head.

"I'm considering joining the fencing club, I liked it back in middle school."

"Ah." She's so very soft and quiet, as she looks down at her body. She's small, not even coming up past your shoulders, and her messy black-grey hair frames a cute face, even if it's currently marred by a black eye and a scabbed lip. Her bust is just a petite little pair of B-cups. Her limbs are thin, not to the point of emaciation, but clearly she isn't exactly physically active. "I do not think I would be a very good fit for fencing," she says.

"Probably not," you agree. "Any good places in town to explore? I don't walk around the city that much."

"Oh. I like the Hanahiro Memorial Park. There are lots of flowers there. Sometimes I think about picking one, but it would just die, and I could not take it home anyway."

"If you like flowers, maybe you could join the gardening or flower arrangement club?"

She looks at her fingernails. "My father does not like it when I come home dirty, so I do not think gardening would be a good fit for me."

"Ah, maybe flower arrangement then, I think that's pretty clean."

"Maybe," she agrees, her gaze sliding back up to meet yours.

"Oh, and hey, maybe you could show me around the Hanahiro Memorial Park some time?" You ask. "I'd like to stretch my legs."

There's a small hint of a smile, the edges of her lips and eyes turning up just a micron. "I could show you around. Is there a time that you would prefer?"

"I have a spar planned with Sumiko today."

"Ah. Would after that work for you? I could wait. I do not have anything better to do." She says it in a toneless voice that doesn't even suggest that she realizes how pathetic it sounds, even after the fact. She just keeps her gaze level on you.

"That works for me," you say, with a smile. Your stomach growls.

"It has been five minutes, you can sit down and eat," Noriko tells you, her voice having just the trace of concern. "Do not feel as though this conversation is so important you must starve yourself."

"Oh, no, I just got distracted talking to you," you say, offering her a winning smile. You step back to your desk and snap up your lunch box, leaning against the wall next to her. She awkwardly sits down, and the two of you start to eat. She eats primly, each bit of food cut and sliced up before being fed into her mouth in a manageable chunk. Her meals look home made. She remains quiet until you break the ice again.

"Nice food?"

"Yes. My mother made it, and she is a very good cook. It is one of the primary reasons why my father married her, according to him."

"Ah." Man there's definitely something going on with Noriko, but you don't want to have that kind of private conversation where just anybody could listen in. So you try to meander around mundane topics, mostly about what kinds of sights there are in Hanahiro Memorial Park. Lunch eventually ends, however, and everyone returns to their seats, Kiyomi avoiding getting too close to you or Yuriko as she comes back.

When the school day ends, you head to the fencing club, with Sumiko walking alongside you, since you're both on the way to the same destination. Her expression says nothing so much as "Don't talk to me," as she moves with stern intent, so you remain silent.

The two of you get changed into your outfits, and you spot Noriko on the sidelines, apparently observing. The referee pauses as you come out with different weapons - you, with the thrusting sword, and Sumiko with the slashing one. "You can't use two different weapons," he says, in an official sounding voice.

"Let's flip a coin," you say. "Heads slashing, tails thrusting?"

Sumiko nods. "Fate will decide the field of battle."

The referee takes out a coin and flips it into the air. It spins and eventually lands on the ground, making a quiet spinning noise. He kneels down, squatting over it, before declaring the result. "Tails. Thrusting it is."

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"Seems the fates favor you," she says, as she returns her wooden sword to its sheathe and collects a metal tipped rapier. The two of you take up your positions, bowing to one another, and then the referee calls the match.

She's good, damned good, but her footwork is sloppy, obviously she's inexperienced with the best way to fight thrusting, even if she's seen it and knows how to put her feet. You have to push yourself to keep up your fighting spirit, but even she finds herself waning in intensity as you make lightning dashes under her guard, scoring points each time before the two of you reset positions. In a real fight, you doubt this style of managing her would work, but in a real fight, there'd be all sorts of other factors going into it.

You out her, with your sixth successful strike to the torso, and the referee calls it. 6-2. You take off the mask, wiping the sweat from your face, and Sumiko does likewise, wearing an animal grin. "Now that's the sort of man I like to see," she barks. "Most men today are too pitiful to learn how to really fight, but you've cultivated your natural talent to the point you could even defeat me."

Noriko is watching from the sidelines still, her face placid and utterly unreadable.

"I can't take too much credit for my victory," you tell her. "But I appreciate the praise, and you're a worthy foe as well. Perhaps a rematch in a few days, with slashing weapons."

She smirks, a little cockiness returning to an already warm expression, and slaps your shoulder. "I'll look forward to it, Nanashi-san." Then she departs, and you walk over to Noriko.

"Are you done here, Nanashi-san? I can show you around the park, if you still want to see it."

"Yes, I do," you tell her. "Let's go, then," you say, and she stands up, her head not even level with your shoulders as she walks alongside you to the exit. You have to slow your pace so you don't go too fast. "Are you okay with riding with Shiiro-san and I to the park?"

She looks at the car, tilting her head. She removes her phone, a dingy flip phone, and her thumbs move swiftly as she texts somebody. "Okay," she says, closing the phone and sliding it back into her pocket. "We can take your family's car."

You nod, opening and holding open the door for her, and she slides inside, taking up the driver's side back seat, while you take passenger side. She presses her hair against the window and stares out it.

"Do you know Sumiko at all, Noriko?" You ask, trying to coax her into a conversation.

"Some. She is nice. Are you a friend of hers?"

"Hm. I don't know. I think we're rivals, maybe. I only just met her recently, but I'd certainly like to be her friend. I'd like to be your friend, too."

Noriko offers just the hint of a smile. "Thank you for saying that."

"I do mean it," you say. You gingerly reach over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She doesn't flinch or otherwise respond, her eye just quietly focusing on your hand as though she was confused by it. "I would very much like to get to know you better, Noriko."

After a long moment, her gaze turns back up to you, her expression empty. "I think being your friend would be nice," she says. "You seem like a good person, from what I have seen."

You offer her your warmest smile, and she repays it with a very slight, almost plastic one of her own. The intercom buzzes to life. "We're at Hanahiro Park, sir. When should I come pick you and Ms. Noriko up?"

"Ah, a couple hours," you say. "Thank you, Shiiro," you say, as you exit the vehicle, Noriko following you shortly. "Now, you said you could show me the sights?"

She does. There's several species of flower planted in the park that aren't native to Kurogaya, and she manages the Wesmiri ones with what (to your once-American ears) sounds like a flawless accent, so you presume she does as well with the others. They bloom in interesting colors, chosen by their nation of origin; the Wesmiri are arranged into reds and whites and blues, shaped like the complex striped-and-starred flag that Wesmere uses. (It's not the same as America's - the stripes are red and blue, with blue stars on a white circle in the center.) Apparently the planting was a gift of abiding friendship from the President of Wesmere in 1972, one Darryl Archideld.

She goes on like that, showing you statues commemorating famous events in the past century or so of Kurogayan history; this park was set up in 1908, so it's not too old. In another mildly disconcerting difference, there are just as many female statues as male ones, and they come from the same walks of life. Samurai, inventors, scientists, politicians. It's almost bizarre to think about how sexist Earth was by comparison to here.

You also pick her brain about her hopes and dreams for the future. She has depressingly few. The closest you can narrow her down is: "I want to be happy. Other things aren't as important as happiness."

"How would you get that happiness, then?"

She tilts her head, as though she hadn't even considered the question. "I don't know. Maybe I would move to Yangfang or Wesmere. Or another city."

"And what would you do there?"

"Get a job."

Hm. Not exactly the most well-developed dream. You finally come around to the subject you've been avoiding. "How did you get that black eye and busted lip?"

Her response is smooth, clearly rehearsed. "I got in a fight."

"You're four foot ten and I could lift you with one arm."

She smiles, but it's even more plastic and fake than normal. "You should see the other guy."

You give her a serious look, your eyes staring down at her for a moment before you squat down so you're eye level with her. "Come on, Noriko. Tell me the truth. I promise, I won't judge you."

She's silent for a long few seconds, her expression totally empty of all emotion. The silence drags out, and for a moment you wonder if she's just trying to use silence to avoid the question. "I left my shoes where they were not supposed to be."

Now it's your turn to tilt your head. "And...?"

"My father was not pleased. He was sufficiently drunk that he forgot that the school year was about to start, so he decided to strike me in the face."

"Does he do that often?" You ask, your voice quiet.

"No. Normally he strikes my chest or stomach, as that is covered by clothing and more difficult for others to notice."

"That's not what I meant. Does he hit you often?"

Her expression grows distant. "He strikes me approximately five or six times a month, twice a month hard enough to leave a mark. He prefers to strike my mother, as she rarely leaves the home."

You open your arms, and hug her, hefting her up off the ground as you pull her against you. She squeaks, her body stiffening, then goes limp, letting you hold her like that. Your hands gently stroke her hair, softly petting her, reassuring her with your movements. You gingerly kiss her forehead, a chaste little peck. "If you ever need someone to talk to without consequences, I'll listen."

She nods, not speaking, her expression as illegible as always, and you put her back down. "Thank you, Nanashi-san," she says, softly, her expression looking up at you with those big eyes of hers.

"Have you told anyone besides me about this?"

She shakes her head. "Normally I tell them that I got into a fight, as this stops them from asking further questions."

"How can I help?"

She tilts her head. "I do not know."

"Well. If you need to get away from home, I can talk to one of the other girls from class and see if they'll let you stay over. I'd offer you the couch at my place, but apparently that's inappropriate."

"I appreciate the thought."

"What he's doing to you and your mother is wrong."

She tilts her head to the side again. "Things being wrong does not prevent them from happening, Nanashi-san."

"It's also illegal."

"That also does not prevent them from happening."

"There are people you can turn to, Noriko. I'm not going to force you, or pressure you, but I can be there to help you, if and when and how you need it." You place both hands on her shoulders, and she nods very gently.

"I appreciate the thought, Nanashi-san. Could your driver take me home? I think we have been out so long that my father may be there when I arrive, if I walk."

"Of course," you say, and she guides you back out of the park as you text Shiiro to come pick you up. "Ah, do you want to trade phone numbers? That way you can call me if anything happens or you need my help."

"Certainly." She collects her flip phone, little boops for a few seconds. "My number is 647-56635-683."

You input the number. "Mine is 647-77642-736," you tell her.

She repeats the number back to you. "Let me call you so as to ensure we have both input the numbers properly," she says, as you spot Shiiro's car in the distance. He pulls up to the curb, and your phone goes off. The caller ID says Noriko. "Good. It appears I have your number correct. I will call you if I can think of any assistance that you can provide me in this matter." She slides into the car, putting her phone away. You're on the wrong side to see her bruise or her busted lip, and framed in profile like this, she's actually very cute. Small, vulnerable, but with a completely calm and stoic affect that makes you want to burst through it.

Of course, you do also want her to not get beaten by her father.

You arrive at her home. A small apartment complex, with her on the second floor. She stares at her apartment, eyes focused into the distance, before nodding to herself. "I do not think my father has arrived. Thank you for your time, Nanashi-san," she says, as she leaves the car.

You hurriedly follow behind her, surprising her with a hug. She goes stiff, as you wrap your arms around her from behind, your chin on the top of her head. "I'll see you tomorrow, Noriko. I'll try to help you find a club that you like. Stay safe," you tell her, pecking her on the top of her head before letting her go.

She steps away, briefly glancing over her shoulder at you, and you think her cheeks are just a little pink. "I will also see you tomorrow, Nanashi-san," she says, as she turns back towards her apartment, marching with purpose.

You hop back into the car. "Back home, sir?" Shiiro asks.

"Yes, thank you." You fold your arms. Then you flick out your phone and start searching for DV resources.

Domestic violence is treated fucking awful in Kurogaya, Christ. Terrible conviction rate, cops don't really care, it's treated as a personal problem rather than a legal one. So, back home, you wouldn't expect the cops to help you out with your wife cheating on you, they don't expect them to help you out with your spouse beating you. There's a lot of very cringe-inducing stories from DV victims that go something like "I was screaming for hours and no one did anything" or "the cops showed up and decided not to get involved because it wasn't a robbery."

It's a personal problem, so it's viewed as needing a personal solution. If you try to leave and then the guy beats you, then the cops will get involved, but if he just hits you, nobody's going to proactively come help you out. The basic thinking is, if you don't care enough to leave, why should we care enough to intervene?

The car arrives home. "We're here, sir," Shiiro says, from the driver's seat.

"Thank you, Shiiro," you say, as you depart the car. You head into the mansion, looking for Fumiko, and finding her fortunately practicing her sword strikes with a test dummy. "Evening, Fumiko," you tell her.

"You're home late," she says, lowering her sword and popping open her helm. Her hair sticks a bit, here and there; the higher body heat of women means they have a tougher time with the full-enclosing fencing uniforms. Not so much to ruin their ability to fight, but enough to want to take regular breaks. She grabs a bottled water from the ice cooler and chugs it down. "Making some friends?"

"A couple," you tell her. "Speaking of. One of them wants to fence me, but slashing bracket. I'm pretty sure she's a devil at it, so I'd like to have a chance to practice a bit more beforehand. You do some slashing bracket, right?"

She leans her head to one side. "More than you, I guess. Sure, I'll spar with you a bit for practice. Warm myself up, too. Get your suit on and we can go."

You collect your fencing uniform, pulling it on over your body, making sure it's all in place, before returning to the fencing room. Fumiko's plopped down, chugging down a second bottle of ice water, and she grabs a couple ice cubes from before and pops them in her mouth. "'s good trick," she says, through a mouth that currently has two ice cubes in it. Then she closes her helm. "Helpsh keep you cool. Lesh go."

"Lesh go," you tease, and she rolls her shoulders before grasping her sword and pretty much jumping into it.

You block and parry but are largely on the defensive, with her making minor corrections here and there where your footwork's wrong. She drills those points repeatedly, moving back so she can repeat the move, only properly this time. Dodging plays much less of a role with slashing weapons, and you don't so much parry as block. Making attacks requires careful timing and reading of your opponent, and the rhythm's different from thrusting weapons.

Still, by the end of the bout, you plop down, quite tired, taking off your suit, while Fumiko goes to get changed back into normal clothes. You can hear as she showers off the sweat, and the image of that - of her tall, athletic body, coated in sweat and water, dark hair tossling and sticking, gives you an erection. She pops out in that kind of very light tank top/short shorts combo she favors after exercise, and you manage to avoid leering. "Gonna take a shower yourself or you like stinking?" She teases.

"Ah, yeah, I should," you tell her, heading into the bathroom.

When you come back out, she's gone, though you can hear the television running, so you follow her over there. She's lounging on the couch, Minori sitting beside her and kicking her legs, her focus on the television. "'s a historical drama," Fumiko says. "Onna-bugeisha meets cowboy stuff. Want to watch?"

"Yeah," you say, "lemme in the middle here," you add, pushing the two girls apart and wrapping your arm around either of them, so that your hands are on their shoulders. Minori just flatly takes it, while Fumiko snorts a bit.

The film runs for two hours including commercial breaks, and the story is a fish out of water tale of a Kurogayan onna-bugeisha being married off to a Wesmere cowboy from a well-to-do ranching family, mostly from the cowboy's perspective as he experiences (19th?) century Kurogaya towards the end of samurai rule. It culminates in a battle where the cowboy uses his superior knowledge of firearms to help save the day and drive off a bunch of bandits, winning the unambiguous approval of his wife's family.

You would guess it is probably a very historically inaccurate portrayal of how Kurogaya adapted military technologies from Wesmere. Your guess is confirmed when Minori takes the end of the film to begin talking about how it's completely historically revisionist, and basically none of it ever happened in the slightest. There was a Wesmere cowboy who helped modernize the Kurogayan military with his wife, but he was on the losing side of the eventual civil war for the nation and that was the proverbial that.

"Not everything has to be some hyper-accurate portrayal, Minori," Fumiko says, leaning back in your arm, putting her head on the back of the bed.

"It's not even vaguely related! It's full of 'characterization' that completely contradicts history, when history was actually much more interesting! Like, McDichael wasn't illiterate, he was actually a college graduate!" Fumiko rolls her eyes, and Minori goes "ARGH!" before stomping off to her room.

"Pfuh. Kids," Fumiko says, blowing some hair out of her eyes.

"Hey. I'd like some advice," you say, to Fumiko.

"Shoot," she says.

"One of my classmates is being abused by her father. I want to help, but I don't know what to do."

Fumiko tilts her head to one side. "What's the mom doing?"

"She's also being abused, apparently worse than the classmate."

She straightens her head back up, chewing on the thought. "That's a tough one. Could maybe send some guys to fuck him up, but he'll get better sooner or later. Could have him killed, that's clean. You know where he works?"

"No, but I could probably find out," you say, not really wanting to argue with Fumiko's immediately murderous line of thought.

"Nah, nah, killing's too messy. Hm. Issue is really the mom. If you could convince her to leave him, then she'd be able to take your classmate with her. Nice, tidy, neat. Dad fucks off unless he wants the cops beating him up and throwing him in jail. Hard to convince a woman to leave her husband, though," she says, with a pop of her tongue. "Not impossible, though. Just, hm. I'd try talking to her, maybe? Argue that she should leave him, for her daughter's sake. I remember, one of my friends in college had that kind of an issue, only it was her mom that was the violent one. Family priest - they're Anagogic - finally told her dad that he had to leave her mother or she would wind up killing their children. Just stole away one night and never looked back."

"You always give the best advice. Right, then, I'll go see about rounding up a posse, I'll let you know when we can whack her dad."

"Ha ha," Fumiko replies, tonelessly, not falling for your line at all.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll talk to her mom. See what I can do."

You eat a small supper before cracking off Volume 2 of the Tragedy of Tomoko Sakamoto. When you'd left off, she'd met the man who was obviously set up to be her future savior, the kind-hearted and gentle Ryu Charikono, who nursed her back to health as she was dying of dysentery. As Volume 2 opens up, it's revealed that he recognized her as a member of the Sakamoto clan, but would never leave a person to die of a wasting disease like that because of his own experience. Predictably, Tomoko falls deeply in love with him and they wind up making love, with her swearing an incredibly intimate and poetic oath to him, even though at that point she's little more than a concubine or mistress. You take note of it, on the suspicion that it might be the sort of thing Terumi likes. It's just a guess, really, and taking note of it doesn't mean you have to use it later.

"Your enemies shall be my enemies; your children, as my children. My father is your father, my mother your mother, my loyalty to those that bore me no more than that I hold to the air I breathed as a little girl. Of my self, there is no part of me I want to keep hidden rather than unveiling it to you: all that I am shall stand by your side, even unto death, where I shall march with you, hand in hand, into the next life."

The whole scene is so incredibly emotionally intense and tinged with a kind of deep eroticism that you wind up having to put the book down to go to the bathroom and jerk off to the image of it. Tomoko, the flawed but loyal warrior woman, swearing undying and absolute loyalty to her lover, her breasts heaving, her eyes full of lust and love as she kisses every part of him that she can reach while kneeling. You explode into the shower, and turn it on to wash away the cum before stumbling back to bed and falling asleep.

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