Chapter 28: Ch 28: The Ronin

It's been a week after Oka's improvised birthday party, the promise between the two friends had left Tomomi very excited, after all, who would not be excited to see real sword arts practiced by real experts who belonged to a real Samurai clan? well apparently there were two but she was sure to get more information when she actually went.

All of the information she got was from Oka babbling about her sword, her family, her sword, a code of honors, and her sword. She of course paid proper attention, but her clear memory did not work at all with new ones, unfortunately.

*Ding

Tomomi was startled and almost fell face first but managed to stabilize herself, she immediately started shuffling into her pockets before she took out her new phone and stared at it for a few seconds before sighing in relief.

[Oh thank god it's only a phone notification, I really need to get used to having a phone]

Because she was visiting a friend's home, Tomomi's parents decided to finally buy her a phone. She was wondering why they hadn't bought her one since other kids in class, including Oka, already had one. When she asked why the answer she got was that 'she didn't need it'.

"Stingy" She muttered under her breath.

Of course, the main reason that she didn't have a phone was mainly that both of her parents didn't have one at that age, even though smartphones were relatively cheap since this world is three whole centuries ahead of her last one, showing how both of them were very broke at that point in time.

They decided to buy her one the day after Oka's birthday, Tomomi encountered something interesting while buying it though, she had to get some test inside the phone store relating to how she would use the phone.

Apparently, having fingers made of literal rubber makes the technology behind touchscreens not work as intended, so she had to spend 10 minutes on some test for it basically.

The test consisted of the clerk pulling out a few different phones that she had to test and use with her fingers. There were around 20 different 'test phones', only 5 of them worked perfectly while the other 15 had difficulty registering her fingers. After that, the tech company would simply make the phone with the specifications required, which boiled down to 'Preset 1' with modifications on the touchscreen.

Tomomi of course searched about this since it interested her, she, of course, wasn't the only person who had problems with her phone because of quirks, there were a whole lot of problems that required a 'personalized fix' for each individual.

Some people had hands too big to use normal phones, could be made of different materials incompatible with touchscreens, had extreme or uncontrollable strength, changed temperature, or even had hands in different shapes. Since quirks are becoming more common among the population, the tech companies had to adapt to fit the needs of the people.

[What a pain that would be...]

Tomomi inspected her phone while thinking about the sheer amount of headaches many past engineers must have gone through to keep up with quirks in order to make phones functional. Worse of all, this problem is not exclusive to phones, any and all products that require human interaction had to adapt to the fast change in the human themselves.

In the era where that happened, the chaotic period between the first developments and suppression of quirks, to the eventual settlement of heroes and society, that period of time was where mass production simply died.

In today's time, mass production is on its bare bones only affecting products with many parts that are interchangeable to fit the user, such as phones and computers. Other industries were not spared and had to delve into specialization like clothing that had to be divided between sizes, materials, trends, and support items.

[All of that for a simple phone]

*Ding

Tomomi stopped thinking about the strange ways quirks affected society that she still had to understand completely and looked to her phone, there were applications like Youtube and Twitter so there being some for text messages was not a surprise at all, she decided to text with Oka while on the car ride to her home.

 

---

[Oka♡]: r you sure you know which one is it???

[Oka♡]: there's a bunch of similar buildings over here you might get confused (´･_･`) 

[You]: yeah yeah I'm sure, dad knew the place and he's the driver so it should be fine

[Oka♡]: how??

[You]: elaborate.

[Oka]: how does he know? no one evne glances in this direction

[Oka]: *even

[You]: i guess he should know his way around the city since he's a cop

[Oka]: ohhhh that makes sense, I'll still wait for you a the entrance anyways to make sure \(ᵔᵕᵔ) 

[You]: thanks! ٩(^‿^)۶

---

 

Tomomi stopped messaging her friend and focused on social media to entertain herself, she didn't have any other contacts apart from her parents and Oka since she didn't have any other friends at the moment. She was trying but she has only managed to have a good relationship with her classmates.

[Well it's a start I guess]

Tomomi thought as she scrolled through her pretty barren social media. Surfing the web was not unusual for her but browsing social media was, so taking it as a test for the phone she started using it to see how it differed from her world.

To be fair, she was not impressed.

Apart from the distressingly high amount of crimes she saw, there were no other things that really stood out. Everything from the occasional funny remarks, and gushing about real people to a decently unsettling degree was there, just that the celebrities were replaced by heroes. From the edgy ones like Endeavor and Gangorca to the more tame ones.

One would expect that beauty standard to be a bit toned down but they were definitely still there, even a bit more imposed, although quirks definitely made people look more diverse there were some that focused a bit too much on beauty. Overall, Tomomi could confidently say the amount of 'ugly' people she has seen since being here has been minimal.

[Although that could be simply because this is an anime?]

As she was 'investigating' her social media she was taking occasional glances outside the car to see where they were going, she noticed how gradually the concrete and glass houses of her neighborhood eventually became traditional Japanese houses made out of wood and woven bamboo with the occasional window with glass. 

"We're here" 

"Un!"

Tomomi caught in the sight of a familiar teal-haired girl in front of one of the larger houses, she excitedly took her seatbelt off and opened the door, with a spring in her step she approached Oka and with a wide smile while waving at her.

"Good morning Oka! Nice to see you"

"Good morning! I'm also glad to see you again" She replied with a gentle smile.

Tomomi took a good look at her friend, she was wearing the teal-colored kimono with the azure dragon on her back, her hair tied in a messy ponytail reaching to her back with a big sunflower hairclip on her side. The crimson-colored scarf that she wore everywhere was still with her as it matched her eyes.

The most noticeable thing about her was the katana strapped at her hip, it's scabbard was white with light blue accents in the form of 6 circles with small squares inside them along both sides of the scabbard. The katana was at an awkward angle due to her current height so it stood out the most.

"Thanks for receiving us" Takeshi said startling Tomomi as she was a bit too engrossed in seeing Oka's new sword.

"It is my responsibility to receive guests as the host" the determination in her voice made Takeshi smile.

"Still, you have my thanks" He decided to give her a few pats of goodwill.

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"Un! I will humbly accept them!" Oka straighten up as she tried to sound respectful.

Tomomi and Takeshi were led to the doorstep of the house while Tomomi herself was examining her friend and environment, she noticed how relaxed she was. Although she kept her 'discipline' in school she definitely look more in her element here than there, so she made it her goal to make Oka comfortable at least when she is with her.

Of course, Takeshi wasn't going to stay, he was just dropping her off her daughter and later would pick her up, but he wanted to see who were Oka's parents. So he would greet them and thank them in advance for keeping Tomomi occupied and entertained.

*Knock, knock

Oka knocked on the door and waited for a bit, Takeshi tried to look approachable but failed and Tomomi tried to look normal but her flexible face made it impossible to not at least smile in excitement. They heard steps approaching the door before it simply slid and someone greeted them.

"You must be Oka's guest"

From the door a tall female got out, with a confident smirk plastered on her face and shape features, she looked at Tomomi and inspected her before going to see Oka.

"Good job receiving them!" She said with a toothy grin, making Oka blush and look away.

Takeshi was taking a closer look at the woman in front of him, she was loosely wearing a light green kimono with no design, it was so loose that you could see the sarashi covering her decently sized breast, A pair of wooden sandals paired with tabi socks. A katana with a green hilt and a red scabbard attached to her hip.

She had Azure blue hair put on a messy ponytail that reached all the way to her knees, it had a slight waviness to it, paired with the sharp features of her face and crimson-colored eyes, it made her look like a predator. Even then, the most prominent feature was a slash scar that started from the upper left corner of her face and went diagonally down.

It parted her left eyebrow in two uneven parts, it went over her nose and ended on her jaw. The slash itself was deep enough to be extremely visible yet the woman in question had a confident smirk because of her looks.

Both of them looked dead in the eye, Tomomi swore that she saw sparks fly off while they were sizing each other up, the stare-down lasted for half a minute before they both nodded at each other in an acknowledgment of some sort.

"Heh~ you really are strong, huh?" The woman let a chuckle while extending her hand to greet him.

"You're not half bad yourself" Takeshi replied indifferently while shaking her hand.

"Soo~" After shaking hands for another minute in which the two of them were straight up measuring their grip strength "Wanna spar?" She asked him as she put her hand on her sword, Takeshi scoffed at her question and answered.

"No, I came here to drop off my daughter" He pushed Tomomi forwards "Hope she doesn't trouble you today" He ended as he looked at the woman with a judging gaze.

"Don't worry! Ryuuko Asano right here will make sure to deliver her in one piece at the end of the day! Ha~ha~ha" Takeshi nods at her as Ryuuko laughed boisterously while waving nonchalantly.

"Thank you, Ms. Asano, have fun with your friend Tomomi" Takeshi caressed Tomomi's head one last time as he turns around.

"Of course! Have a good day dad!", "Have a safe trip!" Both Tomomi and Oka waved at him with smiles on their faces. Takeshi simply waves lightly without looking back as he gets in the car and leaves.

Tomomi turned her head and got a good look at the still grinning woman who had opened the door, Tomomi, of course, had a raised eyebrow questioning the strange sense of comradery between her dad and Ryuuko who had started calming down and lightly adjusting her yukata since it was starting to fall off.

"Mom do you know Mr. Mizushima?" Oka also was eyeing her mom suspiciously.

"Nope~ First time I have seen him in my entire life" She ruffled Oka's hair as she suddenly stopped and began thinking seriously "He does seem as strong as they made him be~ I wonder how I could fight him? Maybe I should commit a crime?" 

Tomomi looked even more weirded out as she faced Oka who was behind her, "This is your mom?" pointing behind her at Ryuuko who was pacing back and forth as she murmured how to get herself in a fight with the police.

"he~ he~" Oka could only laugh shyly as she rubbed the back of her neck, "I wonder myself that often" She said with an embarrassed blush.

"...Well that could work for a boring Tuesday, anyways" Ryuuko turned to the two girls as she clapped to get their attention, "Let's receive our guest, c'mon!" She began to walk very exaggeratedly to the house.

Tomomi once again looked at Oka with a look of disbelief and Oka simply looked away from her mom and Tomomi, She decided to shrug it off and follow along with Ryuuko.

---

 

 

"Don't forget to leave your shoes at the entrance" Ryuuko signaled Tomomi as she changed her footwear to wooden sandals which made Ryuuji nod in approval.

"Good! Kids these days don't have a smidge of knowledge of traditional housing" Ryuuko explained as she faced Tomomi while continuing walking, effectively walking backward without a problem.

Tomomi dismissed Oka's mom's behavior as she focused on her statement, that it was true that the traditions and culture of many countries are still technically preserved through the quirk manifestation period, but it has noticeably diminished over the years.

The very idea of traditional houses of any flammable material like wood and bamboo is crazy, after all, the number of quirks that are related to fire, electricity, smoke, and the likes are very abundant, making it a matter of time before a criminal or quirk manifestation accident occurs.

So modern houses made of steel, concrete, and glass are a prominent type of structure all over the world. It does not help that hero versus villain confrontations can be very good at demolishing old houses that were not ready for quirk manifestation.

So yeah, not a lot of people even bother with traditionalism in their architecture. Only rich people such as endeavor could even afford these things. This train of thought did leave Tomomi with an interesting realization.

[Is Oka rich?]

Tomomi never really thought too much about it but Oka did always buy food and other random foods at school, so at least she received more allowance than her. It wasn't that Tomomi was even remotely close to poor but she decided that maybe trying her money scheme earlier than intended.

[Oka is surprisingly adept at using computers too, maybe I could rope her in!]

Tomomi decided to leave her thoughts behind to simply appreciate the house in all its beauty, the wooden planks, and Tatami floor were definitely comfortable. She was very interested in those sliding doors with paper walls and got to touch them, they had a very pleasant texture in her opinion. The garden with bonsai trees was relaxing to her and the cleanliness of the place did surprise her.

The most interesting part to her was just how big the place was, she was later informed that the 'house' was actually more of a complex with a dojo in it. It was just that they entered through the house part it as to let her get accustomed to it and explore to her heart's content.

Paintings of old sayings in extremely precise calligraphy hung on some walls as they reached the dojo part, Ryuuko had been explaining anything that Tomomi was interested in while also letting Oka add some fact that she purposefully 'forgot'.

Since it was a free day for the Yukimura household, no students were in the dojo but the instructor itself was present at a set table while drinking green tea leisurely. In his hands, a book rested while he eyed the new arrivals with lazy eyes.

"Welcome to our humble house" He said with a fatherly smile, Tomomi immediately bowed a bit.

"the pleasure is mine! this house is truly beautiful and I'm grateful to be a guest!" She said somewhat respectfully which earn a laugh from the man in front of her.

"I see! that's good then" He said as he put both the tea and book down.

Tomomi looked at the man in question, he had dark green hair slicked back and it reached to his neck, bushy eyebrows, and slightly rounded eyes. Wearing a light blue yukata with no pattern on it and a sword that was resting beside his chair, with a red hilt and a green scabbard, the opposite of Ryuuko's own sword.

He had an unkempt beard and he looked disciplined and somewhat tired with the darker tones below his eyes. If she was to define the aura of this man it would very noble while also looking strict and responsible.

"I'm Noriaki Yukimura, swordmaster, leader of this dojo, and most importantly, little Oka's dad" 

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