Not long after…
After finishing breakfast, Aiden strolled idly once around inside the shrine. Feeling it was meaningless, he decided to go out for a walk.
Only, when he followed the maid and came to the underground parking lot of the shrine, he discovered that his motorcycle was gone.
Casting a glance at the maid who turned her gaze elsewhere, Aiden finally knew why, when she was leading him to the parking lot, her face had shown an awkward expression.
"Looks like I can only go out by taxi!" Aiden muttered a sentence, turned around, and walked toward the outside of the parking lot.
At this time, that maid hurriedly ran over, and at his side said, "Um, sir, actually the eldest lady left you a set of car keys, you can drive whichever car you like to go out."
As she spoke, the maid lifted up in front of Aiden the large bunch of car keys she was holding in her hands.
Aiden stopped his steps, gave a rough glance, and discovered that those keys were almost all luxury car keys. The worst one was still an R-made GTR.
Aiden was also not polite, after all Chizuru had not been polite to him either, so he directly chose that GTR.
Back when watching Initial D, he had been brainwashed, always wanting to give it a try, but usually at home he had no chance to use it, now at last the opportunity had come.
Aiden's driving ability was already very strong, and after obtaining the system, his control ability for all vehicles had reached the peak level. After skillfully starting it up, he began wandering idly around Tokyo.
However, Tokyo gathers nearly one fifth of all of R-country's population, considered one of the most crowded cities in the world. Aiden had no chance at all to unleash the performance of that sports car, so he decided to wander around near the suburbs of the city.
Sure enough, after slowing down, the road conditions were obviously much better, and Aiden was also able to somewhat unleash the performance of that sports car…
Just like this, when it reached noon, Aiden parked the car at the entrance of a random restaurant he found. He did not go back to the shrine to eat lunch, and before going out he had already told the maid inside the shrine.
After that, Aiden entered that restaurant, and welcoming him was an elderly auntie, who enthusiastically asked, "Welcome, may I ask sir what you would like to eat?"
Aiden looked at the menu, ordered a few dishes he was interested in, and then casually found a seat to sit down.
Not long after, the dishes were served one after another. Because they were common dishes, the portions were all very generous, and the taste was also not bad, so this time Aiden ate very satisfyingly.
Only, just as he was eating in big mouthfuls, the conversation of a few people at the next table attracted his attention.
"Have you heard? That Shiranui Dojo has started recruiting people again."
"Shiranui Dojo, recruiting… I remember the head of the dojo, Shiranui Hanzo, didn't he already pass away a month ago?"
"I heard it's the granddaughter of the head, Shiranui Mai, who took over."
"Shiranui Mai, ah, so it's her. I remember she's a very beautiful girl, but does she really have the ability to hold up the dojo?"
"Back when her grandfather was around, Shiranui Dojo had already begun to decline. Often they couldn't recruit even a single student in a year, and I even heard her parents were beaten to death by others in a match."
"So tragic, no wonder it declined. But, she should be able to recruit people, right? Last time I saw that little girl called Shiranui Mai, tsk, she really is very beautiful."
"What's the use of being beautiful, strength is the true way. If she really has strength, then she should go participate in that so-called big tournament, and win the title of strongest fighter."
"It's the KOF tournament!"
"Yeah, yeah, KOF tournament. I heard the team that wins first place can get an extremely huge amount of prize money…"
Hearing the conversation of these few people, Aiden paused for a moment in slight daze. Shiranui Dojo was actually nearby, and had already declined to the point of not even being able to recruit students.
'Another storyline not in the game… but, why does it feel a bit familiar?'
Thinking of this, Aiden quickly cleaned out the bowl in front of him, casually tossed down a few bills, and left the restaurant. He was already somewhat impatient to see the real-world model worker Shiranui Mai.
Since Shiranui Dojo was nearby, and people had even mentioned it, it was very easy to find. Afterwards, Aiden casually asked a few people on the roadside, and found the location of Shiranui Dojo.
Aiden got out of the car near Shiranui Dojo, slowly walked to the dilapidated entrance of the dojo. Because it was the suburbs, very few people passed by nearby.
Even if people did pass by, they only gave a glance at this broken-down dojo, not like Aiden, who stood at the entrance carefully sizing it up.
Most likely because of lack of funds for maintenance, the main gate of the dojo and the plaque with the big characters "Shiranui Style" written on it were both decayed and rotten. But it seemed someone had carefully wiped them clean, with not a speck of dust on them.
As for who did it, there was no need to guess.
After finishing his look, Aiden walked forward and lightly knocked on the decayed wooden door. He didn't dare use too much strength, afraid he might break this wooden door.
Only, after he knocked a few times, there was no response from inside.
"Could it be no one's home?"
Aiden thought in puzzlement, then tried pushing it, and to his surprise discovered it wasn't even locked.
Then he gently pushed open the door, and the decayed wooden door immediately let out an unpleasant creaking sound.
However, at the instant the door opened, Aiden discovered that in the huge dojo inside, there was only a girl in a red-and-white kimono sitting on the steps of the training hall.
No need to think, the kimono girl before his eyes was Shiranui Mai.
Only, the girl had not noticed his appearance. At this time she was curled up, sitting on the steps, burying her head deep into her knees. Her hair, tied with a white cloth strip, swayed lightly with the breeze.
Suddenly, a few fallen leaves from the tree inside the dojo dropped down, drifting past in front of the girl, carried by the breeze…
At this moment, the lonely girl, the vast and desolate dojo with no other people, plus the occasional tree leaves stirred by the breeze, this scene even made Aiden feel a bit of heartache.
Then, in his heart he cursed, 'Andy, you really are no damn good, such a good girl and how could you bear to abandon her…'
Afterwards he sighed, and knocked again on the door he had pushed open, trying to draw the girl's attention.
But this time he might have used a bit more force, the sound successfully startled the lonely figure out of her desolate mood, but it also made the decayed wooden door fall off the doorframe, with a bang smashing onto the ground, directly breaking into several pieces, adding yet another touch of bleakness to the already declining dojo.
The commotion made the girl raise her head. On her exquisite face was full of sorrow. She looked at the door broken into pieces, her rosy lips moved a few times, but in the end she didn't say anything. Yet when her attention landed on Aiden, the girl's eyes immediately lit up.
"You are… here to learn martial arts?"
Her voice was timid and weak, but carried full expectation.
Although Aiden really wanted to say he wasn't here to learn martial arts, just to take a look, and also that her ancient martial arts weren't suitable for him, but seeing the girl's eyes filled with expectation, he couldn't help but nod his head.
"Yes!"
Just two very simple words, a very simple action, but it made the girl instantly jump up in joy, trotting with small steps all the way toward Aiden.
When she was still three steps away, she stopped, cupped her hands before her chest, and once again asked with full hope, "You are here to learn martial arts?"
"Yes! I am here to learn martial arts!" Aiden emphasized his tone, and forcefully nodded his head.
"Yay! That's great, Grandpa, I've finally recruited a student!" The girl, confirming she hadn't misheard, immediately jumped up. At this moment, the word "innocence" was displayed to the fullest on her.
Looking at the overjoyed Shiranui Mai, Aiden's face showed a faint smile, but very quickly, he turned his face aside.
Inside the girl's kimono, she was still wearing that somewhat revealing Shiranui ninja battle outfit. With her jumping and hopping movements, the two big white rabbits were also bouncing and hopping…
The girl happily jumped for a while, then remembered Aiden was still standing at the doorway. She quickly stopped, stood properly, first pushed back the strand of hair hanging in front of her eyes behind her ear, then took a few deep breaths to calm her constantly heaving chest.
But the excitement on her face had not yet faded, leaving her delicate face tinged with an unusual blush.
"Sorry, I lost my composure! After all, you are the first student since I inherited the dojo." Afterwards the girl placed both hands at her lower abdomen, slightly bowed toward Aiden.
But after saying this, she realized she had misspoken, and quickly covered her mouth.
'How could I say that, this will make him think our Shiranui Style ancient martial arts are bad and can't recruit students, then he'll surely run away!'
So, the girl weakly said again, "Um, actually our Shiranui Style ancient martial arts are very powerful… Eh eh eh, just very powerful, anyway. Please, come with me first, I'll pour you a cup of tea, then we'll discuss things like fees and such, how about that?"
After finishing, the girl looked at Aiden with a pitiful expression.
Aiden gazed at the girl who didn't look like a proper head of a dojo at all, sighed slightly, and then nodded, "Alright!"
However, just as he finished saying the word "alright," the girl already couldn't wait, seizing his hand, pulling him along as she ran toward the dojo's training hall…
Inside the training hall, the girl brought over a small table and two cushions. After Aiden sat cross-legged down, she knelt to sit.
"Hello, my name is Shiranui Mai, I am the successor of Shiranui Style ancient martial arts and of the Shikotsuken, also the head of Shiranui Dojo, and also your future teacher." The girl first bowed to Aiden, then began her self-introduction.
"Aiden, from Z-country." Aiden's reply was very simple.
"From Z-country…" Shiranui Mai paused, her expression beginning to turn aggrieved, "Then will you really take me as your master?"
'Z-country… that means later he might return to his own country, right?' Shiranui Mai thought gloomily in her heart.
"Of course I will, I… I came here precisely to take a master." Aiden said against his true feelings.
But in fact, after seeing the girl's lonely figure earlier, his thoughts had changed. Perhaps taking a master wouldn't be bad. Of course, if this cheap master only had himself as a disciple, then all the better.
As soon as Shiranui Mai heard this, she instantly let out a sigh of relief, patting her bulging chest in gratitude, "That's good, that's good!"
"Then, may I ask, what is the process for taking a master? And, how much is the tuition?" Aiden admired her a few times with his gaze, then asked.
"Process… tuition…" Shiranui Mai became a bit troubled. The process of taking a master was easy, she could even completely waive it. But the tuition…
She glanced at the broken-down training hall, then looked at the doorway where the shattered door lay in pieces. After hesitating a moment, she stretched out one finger.
"You see, how about one hundred thousand R-yuan per semester?"
Hearing this number, Aiden was momentarily stunned. 'This cheap?'
But seeing Aiden not react, Shiranui Mai thought she had asked for too much. Biting her lip, she changed her one finger into five fingers.
"Then five…"
But, before the word "ten-thousand" could even leave her mouth, Aiden had already pulled out from behind him three thick bundles of banknotes, all in denominations of ten-thousand.
"Since I'm taking a master, of course the gift for taking a master can't be lacking. Here is one million, counted as my tuition."
"Mm, the door was just now damaged by me, so I'll compensate teacher another one million. Also, teacher, your dojo seems to need some renovation, so here's another one million added. Altogether three million. Teacher, what do you think? Is it reasonable?"
'Reasonable, of course reasonable, even if you requested to be vice-headmaster it would be reasonable....'
At this moment, Shiranui Mai was already enveloped in immense happiness, she felt like she had picked up a treasure.
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