——The Swordsmanship competition of the Marquis of Aizu will begin the day after tomorrow.
——I wonder if there will be any formidable opponents...
This was the first ti Aoto encountered such a traditional one-on-one Swordsmanship competition since he traveled to this era.
While feeling a bit of anticipation, he couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous.
Aoto didn’t know what level his current skills were compared to the new apprentices from other Sword Dojos.
If he perford poorly in the competition, like getting defeated in the first round... even if others wouldn’t look at him strangely, he would feel quite ashad himself.
Moreover, if such an embarrassing situation like getting knocked out in the first round happened, it wouldn’t be conducive for him to learn talents from other participants.
Therefore, to avoid such an occurrence, Aoto had been training much harder lately, squeezing out more ti for training, striving to further improve his Swordsmanship level before the competition began.
After ticulously completing the entire set of warm-up exercises, with a thin layer of sweat on his skin, Aoto exhaled and proceeded to take a bamboo sword from the nearby sword barrel to officially begin today’s morning training.
But at this mont——
Click, click...
Aoto suddenly heard a faint, strange noise unexpectedly coming from the ceiling above his head.
"Huh?" Aoto paused and frowned, looking up at the ceiling.
——Is it a mouse?
Aoto instinctively thought it might be a mouse running above the ceiling.
But as soon as this thought popped into his mind, he dismissed it himself.
Kondo and the others have always been very particular about the hygiene of the Shiwei Hall.
The dojo, along with their residence, has always been kept very clean.
Since moving into the Shiwei Hall, Aoto had never seen a mouse inside...
Click!
Suddenly! A panel on the ceiling behind Aoto was moved aside, creating a gap wide enough for an adult to pass through.
Then, a petite black shadow swiftly leaped down through the gap, landing steadily behind Aoto.
In the next instant after the shadow landed on the floor, they flattened their palms, facing them upwards... it seed like they were trying to strike a strange pose.
But Aoto did not give this person any chance to assu such a pose.
Lately, Aoto’s nerves... were actually always in a tense, alert state.
After further offending the Anti-foreigner Group, given their reckless nature... it wasn’t impossible for them to retaliate against Aoto in so aggressive way.
Therefore, upon hearing the strange noise behind him and turning to see a black shadow jump down from the ceiling... Aoto hardly hesitated at all ——
"Who goes there?!"
Aoto shouted and then lunged at the black shadow like an arrow released from a bowstring!
"Tachibana..." The shadow opened their mouth, seemingly wanting to say sothing to Aoto.
But before they could utter a word with any specific aning, they were tackled to the ground by Aoto, who didn’t notice the shadow trying to speak...
Aoto initially intended to directly draw his sword, but because his Ghost-Slaying sword and Wakizashi were both lying by his feet, bending down to pick them up would take too long, so he decided to simply pounce forward and use his equally skilled hand-to-hand combat skills to subdue this unwelco guest more efficiently.
"Mmph mmph—!" The shadow let out a scream and then twisted their body like an eel, trying to escape from Aoto’s "embrace".
Aoto found that this shadow was quite capable, as they knew force-relieving techniques to escape from soone’s control, making it surprisingly difficult for him to restrain them completely.
With no other choice, Aoto could only increase his strength, while also trying hard to grab the black shadow’s arms, preparing to use capture techniques from his previous life to completely subdue them.
While wrestling with the shadow, Aoto suddenly noticed... this person... slled nice...
Embracing them, Aoto noticed a faint fragrance emanating from the person... the scent was so light that it couldn’t be detected unless extrely close.
While slling the nice fragrance... Aoto felt his right arm touching sothing... strange.
Aoto’s right arm was wrapped around the shadow’s waist.
While entangled with the shadow, his right arm unknowingly lifted slightly.
As it lifted... his forearm touched two things with a very peculiar texture.
Heavy, soft...
"Ugh...!" As Aoto’s right arm touched these two things, the shadow let out a low cry.
Then, the shadow freed one hand and pulled down the mask on their face.
"Mr. Tachibana, it’s ! It’s !"
"...Eh?"
A familiar voice.
Aoto paused in his attempt to control this shadow’s hands, looking bewilderedly at the person in his arms.
"Miss Kinoshita...?"
"Why are you... wearing the Cat Monk’s clothes?"
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Asking for monthly tickets! Asking for recomndation tickets!
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