Chapter 8: Chapter 8- Showdown & Kendo

A few days later,

I lay on the hospital bed squinting my eyes as the sunshine fell on them through the blinds.

Lost in thought, I mentally go over this period and prepare myself for the upcoming showdown.

It’s been five days since I’ve been admitted to the hospital, I first woke up by the night of the second day.

My body was is actually fine, not a single scratch, but dad insisted that I stay for a couple of days in case I go into shock due to trauma.

This bit of free time was spent reflecting on the past and drafting up new plans for the future.

I gave up planning two days in though, reality is often contrary to our expectations and all.

Having a general checklist and getting it done before high school should be the best way. 

“Your luggage was moved to the car, baby. We’re going home.”

Mom’s condition has recovered a lot from being barely able to hold on to calm, only her shaking hands betrayed the remaining bits of grief remaining inside her heart.

Dad hadn't entered my ward more than once per day, the reason I say entered is that he’s almost always sitting outside, he doesn’t enter because he struggles to control his expression in front of me.

But that doesn’t mean isn't better, he’s gone from incontrollable anger at the start to a more restrained sort of irritability, but I could see the firm determination in his eyes to make those three gangsters’ life a living hell should the law's punishment be only an equivalent of a slap on the wrist.

Theo brought a variety of foods every day to help me get through this hard time.

I tried my best to overcome my close contact problem, I can force myself if I have deeper ties with the person, but I think physical contact with strangers is going to be hard in the future.

Looking at my mother’s lonely back, I take the initiative to hold her hands.

She looks at me in surprise, then her face brightens into a bright smile, tightening her hands around mine.

Must’ve been hard for you, I’m sorry… she had to stop herself from patting my head over a hundred times these days.

My real test’s coming though, the elevator ride.

I get on and quickly occupy a rear corner while pulling mom’s hand.

Other people start getting on, and it’s getting fairly crowded.

Although it is hard, I force myself to calm down until we start descending.

When a guy starts stretching, shortening the distance between us to less than a meter though, my efforts quickly amount to nothing.

I hurriedly hide behind mom with a tense body.

All right, so one meter’s the limit distance of strangers, for now, I’ll try to decrease the limit as much as possible until it’s time for martial arts training.

Getting off, we walk through the crowded reception lobby and exit the hospital.

I spot both our and Theo’s cars and I realize they had wanted to split into two cars to relieve my anxiety.

My heart feels warm, but I insist on riding with both of my parents, they had a hard couple of days, and being with them is what I should do.

Dad starts leisurely driving while taking the long route home, giving me a much-needed breath of fresh air.

We reach home around two hours and four snack breaks later.

“Mom, dad, we need to talk. I’ll come down after taking a shower.”

Giving them a quick heads up, I dash to my room and promptly head into the shower after preparing a change of clothes, missing the combined looks of worry and relief that crossed their faces.

 

An hour later, I am all freshened up and calmly seated on the living room couch, although inwardly, I am extremely on edge.

Mom and dad are on the opposite couch waiting for me to collect myself with encouraging looks.

“Uh-Uhm… Well, to start off, I don’t know why, but my memory is so strong that I’ve never forgotten anything before, I can also understand anything if it’s carefully explained.”

To be honest, I can normally learn stuff while Manger-san is analyzing things, literal parallel thinking, I’ve just been slacking off and having fun this entire time.

Taking a deep breath and continuing after seeing their attentive expressions.

“I would like to learn all class materials up until before college in advance, and free up my study time until I can decide which major to study.”

The last part’s a lie, I’ll probably stop my studies at the high school level and depend on Manager-san for all further knowledge, I really hope Manager-san can be upgraded in the future though.

Manager-san can analyze objects in my field of vision, speeding up when in direct contact with the object, and can decipher recorded knowledge.

However, she can’t provide any conclusions or connections, leaving all the processes following the analysis up to me, like theorizing, deriving, etc…

A surprised expression appears on their faces, followed by a relieved smile moment later.

“That’s fine, Tomoko, you don’t have to act the same others do, you know? We love you any way you are.”

Huh? Wha-what? They knew about that?! How?!!

Sensing my confusion, Mom raises her chin proudly while explaining her elaborate discoveries and how I was unknowingly caught on camera.

“It was soo cute seeing you imitating Aiko-chan, fufufu.”

My face goes beet red, and my hands shoot up to hide it.

“AHHH, this is so embarrassing! Why didn’t you say it that earlier, I must’ve looked like an idiot!”

They laugh  for a couple of seconds,  then focus back on my next request.

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“I want to participate in self-defense and combat classes after I am done with my studies.”

I say in a serious yet pleading tone, those classes mean frequent exposure to injuries which is likely hard for them to accept.

Rejection is not an option here though; I need to get used to such situations and might even participate in extreme activities in the future.

A solemn silence settled over the living room.

Dad looked thoughtful while Mom seemed to want to disagree but held herself back.

“But we don’t want you to get hurt, Tomoko. And you had already asked us to spare you from sports, right?”

“Yes, but what… happened, made me realize that my body is too weak, I felt… too powerless.”

This silences them again until Mom squeezed dad’s arm and spoke to which he nodded.

“Okay, Tomoko. However, I will be present with you at all times preventing you from overexerting yourself.”

I guess that’s fine for now…

Right the next day, all the books I asked for were obtained by dad using his connections.

While it should not have taken me much to review them, Manager-san’s flaws are clearly highlighted in such situations.

Even though I had studied this before, it was in a different language and sequence, and Manager-san can’t derive the corresponding Japanese equivalents to it.

It took me an entire year of re-reading these materials in Japanese until I got the hang of it all.

 

One year later,

Kindergarten’s finally over!

Although elementary school probably won’t be much different, this still marks a major milestone in my life.

I just recently finished reviewing all the materials and was tested by dad.

I flawlessly aced everything though, I’m such a cheat wahaha!

With Manager-san by my side, it’s as if I am carrying a dimensional library with me everywhere.

I’m looking forward to you evolving into {Great Sage} someday, Manager-san. Work Hard!

The effects of last year’s events became less and less obvious over time, although some innocuous effects remained.

It took a while to prevent my body from stiffening close to strangers, but now I only feel uncomfortable with my personal bubble being invaded, and my disgust for people who force their will upon others shot up through the roof.

Doesn’t affect my daily life much though, unlike the times when I couldn’t get close to Aiko without a five-minute buffer.

Also, not having to act the role of a normal child was a great weight off my shoulders. Being natural made life just much more relaxed.

I assumed the older sister kinda role with Aiko as well, she’d always follow me around like a little tail.

At first, I wanted her to stop, but it quickly became clear that she is too shy to make other friends.

Giving up, I decided to show genuine care in our interactions so that it wouldn’t end up as some awful memory when she looks back on it in the future.

Not much happened the past year, the frequency of my outings decreased because I was busy studying, and most of my time outdoors was spent with Aiko while accompanied by one of the adults.

Enough of that, today’s my first day visiting the Kendo dojo near our house!

We live in an upper-class area, any place in here is pretty high quality with some sort of famous bigshot running it. 

Mom disapproved body arts until my body is moderately developed though, worried about the hidden sequela of hidden injuries in childhood.

“All right, princess, it’s time for your knight training. I’ll leave you with Kaori while I wander around  for a bit, take care of her will ya?”

Theo’s voice snapped me out of my reverie.

Looking out the window, I spot the dojo’s entrance with a wooden sign hung above, the first dojo master’s family name was inscribed on it apparently.

Lifting my small duffle bag, I hop out of the car and take a breath of fresh air.

A few seconds later, mom also gets out and gestures for me to follow her inside.

 Reaching the entrance, I take in the view of tens of trainees from all sorts of different backgrounds in the same place.

From kids to late adults, both genders, seemingly upper-class people to lower-class ones.

The only commonality among them is their respect for the old man who seemed to be the dojo master, he had such a strong aura that made them put down their differences in his presence.

Oi oi isn’t this old guy the sort of master you’d see living in seclusion bettering his swordsmanship in some anime?! Can you follow your settings, please?!

I suddenly feel a line of sight locking onto me and look up to find the old man observing me, just how sharp are your senses, old man?!

His gaze intensifies for some reason.

Ah, you wouldn’t happen to possess the mind-reading ability, would you, kind sir...?

I get the feeling this old man will probably beat the sloth out of me for the rest of my life.