Lucky Pervert? Part 1
At the Chiba family dojo, home of the "Sword Sorcerers," Leo was once again up at dawn, not at school but here, training. For six hours, with only a lunch break, he swung a wooden sword, sweat pouring from his body. The heavy, iron-cored practice blade was a beast even for seasoned swordsmen—three hours would leave most groaning in defeat. Yet Leo's physical stamina and mental grit left even Erika, who never held back her sharp tongue, quietly impressed.
"Alright, stop!" Erika called.
Leo lowered his arms, exhaling heavily. Across from him, Erika wiped sweat from her brow with a hand towel.
"Gotta say, you're tough," she remarked. "Not much swordplay experience, right?"
"Compared to you guys, I'm a total rookie," Leo admitted. "But I'm used to swinging picks and sledgehammers in the mountaineering club."
"Picks, sure, but sledgehammers?" Erika raised an eyebrow. "What kind of mountaineering club is this?"
"I've got my own questions about that," Leo muttered. "But if we're talking tough, you're no slouch yourself."
As Leo pointed out, Erika wasn't just supervising. She'd been standing opposite him, demonstrating swings for him to mimic. Her own practice blade danced in sync with his.
"Mine's lighter," Erika said, tossing her wooden sword to him. "I'd have tapped out ages ago with that monster you're swinging."
Leo caught the blade effortlessly, gave it a test swing, and frowned. "It's light, alright… too light. Feels awkward to swing with both hands."
"That's where skill comes in," Erika replied, her tone matter-of-fact, devoid of bravado or pretense.
She dabbed the towel at her neck, then tugged at the collar of her kendo uniform, fanning herself to cool off. No skin or undergarments were exposed, but the motion was enough to make Leo flush and avert his gaze.
Erika, careful to avoid any wardrobe mishaps, didn't notice his reaction at first. But his obvious discomfort sparked a twinge of awkwardness in her too.
"…Where are you looking?" she asked, her voice tinged with irritation.
"Huh?!" Leo jolted, flustered beyond reason.
"I-I wasn't looking at anything!" he stammered. "Nothing at all!"
His panic only made things worse, stirring a faint embarrassment in Erika despite herself. As a teenage girl, she wasn't immune to such moments.
"I know you didn't see anything!" she snapped. "I'm saying stop staring off into space!"
"Right, sorry," Leo mumbled, chastened.
An awkward silence settled between them, but Erika wasn't one to wallow in embarrassment.
"…Let's move to the next phase," she said, breaking the tension.
"Cutting straw rolls, right?" Leo confirmed.
"Exactly. Follow me."
Erika led him to a room lined with walls of tightly bound straw rolls arranged in a lattice. This was where practitioners honed their blade alignment—learning to swing a sword in a perfectly flat arc. Without such precision, a blade couldn't unleash its full potential, a skill critical for the Usuha Kagerou technique Leo was striving to master.
"Here's a real sword," Erika said, her tone serious. "Be careful."
Instead of tossing it, she handed him the unsheathed blade, gripping it by the handle's center. Leo took it carefully, his right hand near the guard, his left at the hilt's end.
"You know the drill, right?" Erika asked.
"Yeah," Leo nodded. "Start with the top roll in the first column, cut clean without touching the second roll below it. Then hit the second, then the third, down to the fifth. Move to the next column and repeat, left to right."
"Well done," Erika said. "I'll be resting in the back. Call me when you finish the rightmost column."
"What about the sword?" Leo asked.
"There's a sheath by the entrance," she replied, pointing. "Just slide it in. The sheath takes care of maintenance."
Leo assumed the sheath had built-in mechanisms for cleaning and oiling the blade. Nodding, he watched as Erika raised a hand in farewell and left the straw-cutting room.
After finishing the straw rolls, Leo set out to find Erika but quickly realized he had no idea where she was—or where anything in the sprawling Chiba estate was. Predictably, he got lost.
Wandering aimlessly, he ran into someone who seemed to be Erika's older sister. She lent him a mobile device loaded with a map of the estate and marked the lounge where Erika was likely resting. She even handed him a key to unlock the door.
"Lucky break," Leo muttered, grateful for the loan.
He reached the spot indicated on the map and scanned the area. Spotting a door, he knocked and called out, "Hey, Erika, you in there?"
No response.
"Erika?" he tried again. Silence.
"Alright, I'm coming in," he announced, figuring a lounge didn't require much ceremony. Using the borrowed key, he slid the large door open.
"Wait, hold on!" Erika's voice rang out.
"Wha—?" Leo froze.
As the door opened fully, he was met with the sight of Erika, lounging in nothing but a loosely tied bath towel, clearly not expecting company.
"You idiot pervert, get out!" she shrieked.
Snapped out of his shock by her fury, Leo scrambled out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Once Erika had changed, her first act was to march up to Leo and deliver a resounding slap. Leo, knowing he was in the wrong, took it without complaint.
"That scheming, spinster hag," Erika growled, referring to her sister. "I can't believe I thought she was just being nice."
The fact that she'd used an open hand rather than a fist was likely her way of acknowledging Leo as a fellow victim of her sister's prank.
"Forget what you saw," Erika said, her voice low. "Or, well, I know you can't, so…"
She paused, and Leo felt a chill—not of relief, but dread.
"I'll drill so much into you that you won't have room to remember anything else," she declared, her eyes glinting with menace. "Not just Usuha Kagerou—the full basics of swordsmanship."
She repeated "full basics" for emphasis, her aura downright terrifying. Leo didn't dare crack a joke.
"…I only brought one change of clothes," he ventured weakly.
"I'll cover spare underwear," Erika shot back. "It's on the house, so don't worry."
Leo's feeble attempt at resistance was brushed aside. And so, he found himself roped into an overnight swordsmanship training marathon.
Even with Leo taking center stage, in an alternate timeline, we'd have him tangled up with Tatsuya just as much…
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