Translator: Haruto.

Before I knew it, I had become a sixth-grader.

Today, I’m back to training with my master, just like any other day.

The only thing that has changed around here is the fact that I now have a new little brother.

He’s only one year old, and he’s already pretty cute.

His name is Kaoru, and he’s got long eyelashes just like mom.

Man, babies are adorable… He’s almost as adorable as Amane.

And goodness, he’s so squishy!  

In other—terrible—news…

Amane has started avoiding me.

Just kill me.

We used to walk to school together hand in hand, but now she doesn’t feel like it anymore.

In fact, she’s even running away as soon as she sees me these days…

My Amane-energy is running low. I might drop dead soon…

Alright, jokes aside, I just hope I didn’t do something to make her angry…

The next thing I’d like to report is that I’ve discovered that Asuka and Kaito have feelings for each other.

Neither of them knows their feelings are mutual, though.

As to why I know…

“H-He’s been feeling kind of down lately, so like… what do you think I should do?”

“Why do you have to cheer him up…?”

“I-I just have to!! The thing is, whenever he’s sad, I get this weird feeling in my chest and I just can’t stand it!”

“Oh, I see how it is. You like…”

“I-I-I don’t…!! Or, well… Yeah, maybe I do…” Asuka said.

Kaito asked me the exact same thing, so it was pretty obvious.

On another note, my training has progressed quite well.

Albeit, I did come close to drawing my last breath countless times while trying to increase my speed.

It’s almost a miracle that I managed to pull it off after only one year of practice.

The problem is, whenever you start running at high speeds you have to deal with wind resistance.

The first time I succeeded at reaching really high speeds I forgot to prepare for it and ended up suffering multiple burns all over my body.

Also, you have to be careful about how you move your legs, otherwise, you might burn way too much energy and well, kick the bucket.  

I failed over and over again and somehow survived, but you should have seen me all wrapped up in bandages like a mummy.

Unsatisfied with everything he put me through, my master told me, “I want you to solve 100 disentanglement puzzles in 100 seconds while accelerating your body.”

When I heard him say that, I felt the same kind of despair I experienced when I was teleported away to that forest.

To accelerate my movements, I would first unleash enough life energy to endure the toll it put on my body and then, I would make life energy flow into my brain to speed up my thoughts.

That last part was already dangerous as it was, and yet that geezer asked me to do that and more all in the span of an instant. Talk about unreasonable!

However, after hearing about how computers operate when they turn on, I came up with a solution to my problem!  

I just had to speed up my thoughts with life energy first, instead of doing it all at the same time. Thanks to that, I was capable of processing all the information that I needed without issue after accelerating the rest of my body.

My master said it was quite a peculiar way of thinking but that I had passed the test nonetheless, and that I was finally ready to learn the Shikiryuu Style.  

He decided to use the Shikiryuu Style’s techniques on me since he believed that was the best way for me to learn them. The Shikiryuu Style is composed primarily of powerful multi-hit attacks. And thanks to its particular running technique, each hit you land on your opponent becomes stronger than the last.

I asked him what should I do if I ever find myself mid-air for whatever reason, and he said, “Just kick the air.” I would have to move at four times the speed of sound to pull that off…

Thus, my overly complicated training regime continues, and I just keep running forward.

The Maiden Realizes What Love Is.

—From Amane’s Perspective—

My heart is racing.

Lately, my entire body feels so warm whenever I see Shuu-kun that I just can’t help but run away.

I can’t even look him in the eyes.

Today, I ended up running away from him again.

I’m not sure when this feeling began, or what it is exactly…

Perhaps I’m sick.

Now that I think about it, things began to change one day when Shuu-kun and I were walking to school, hand in hand like we always did.

Some boys from school began saying we were just like a married couple, and two lovebirds, and for some reason holding hands became super embarrassing.

From that moment on, my heart has begun to beat really loud every time I see Shuu-kun.

But I have no idea why…

At first, I wanted to ask Shuu-kun’s mom for advice, but I felt like that would be inappropriate.

Which is why I decided to ask Asuka-chan instead.

“Your heart beats fast…?”

“Yes…”

“Hehe! Okay, I’ll tell you the reason!”

“P-Please do!”

“It’s pretty obvious, really… You’re lovestruck!”

“Lovestruck?”

“That’s right! You’re in love!”

“In love…”

“And Shuu is the lucky guy, huh? Thank goodness. You’ve finally realized how you feel about him.”

“Wait, um… What’s love?”

“You really don’t know?”

“I don’t.”

“Love is that feeling that makes you feel all fuzzy inside and twitch all over whenever you think of another person. (At least that’s what my mom said.)”

“I-I see.”

So, this is love…

It’s a little heavy, but warm…

A little painful, yet pleasant…

I feel like I should treasure it, despite how mysterious of a feeling it is…

Ah, I also need to apologize to Shuu-kun.

Doing so proved to be harder than expected, but well, let’s leave that story for another day, okay?

Previous Chapter – Contents – Next Chapter

This month’s supporter: Greg.

Consider supporting me on Buy Me a Coffee!