Whaaat, you need myyy help ? .
The girl was startled at me asking for her help while Sophia was a bit surprised too, I wonder if she had some othe plans or something, so I couldn't help but ask, saying :
" If you have other plans, then don't mind then .
No, I don't have any plans, I too want to be of help to you, Ryuu-san .
She said in a hurry and almost crashed into me as she suddenly got close to me and held my hands into hers, a snickering voice sounded from beside us, saying :
Wow Harukashi, you are quite bold today .
It was the voice of the annoyed Sophia, she seemed to have had the idea of having me train her in Herculean Strength again, or she maybe just want to spend some more time in tormenting me a bit more, either way, the moment that voice fell, the girl holding my hands suddenly let go and jumbed backwards a little with a red like tomato face, she was seemingly embarrassed after she heard Sophia's words describing her actions as bold and her finally comprehending what she did .
Seeing her like that, the gorilla like girl suddenly disappeared from my sight and in almost a blink of an eye, she was cuddling the startled Haruka and patting her on the head encouragingly while saying :
Here, here Harukashi, I didn't mean to startle you, I'm rooting for you .
Hearing these words, Haruka's face blushed even more and she tried to break her body free from the gorilla like girl, but her speciality was in her movement speed, so how could she be able to do so, she just kept turning around in the embrace as to indicate her being uncomfortable with it, but the airheaded kept squeezing Haruka's frame to hers even more tightly .
Haruka seeing that there was no way out for herself, turned her head towards me with a bit of struggle and looked at me with a teary eyes that were asking for help, I seeing her like that, said :
" Could you already let go of her Sophia, she is suffocating in your embrace .
Sophia :
What is that Ryuu-san, do you also want me to hug you too, here .
She said this and let go of Haruka and instead spread her arms and changed the target of her hug to me, but seeing that I was not moving, I didn't want a damn hug, all I wanted was to help Haruka get out of the uncomfortable situation, she was in .
Seeing me unmoving, didn't mean that she would just give up on the idea, once again, I saw her disappearing from my sight, but unlike with case with Momochi-senpai, the moment she did, I had already deployed Paradox instantly and took a step forward, she appeared jumping in the air like an seeing its prey, then I just sidestepped and parried her, seeing that I had evaded her .
She didn't stop and tried to catch me from all different kinds of angles but to no avail, in the end she just sat on the ground panting and said :
Ryuu-san is a bully .
Yeah, I was the bully in her part of the story. I guess that was fine, seeing that I was safe for the meantime, I turned back to look at the oddly intrigued Haruka, she was smiling seemed to be quite happy to see our interaction, but seeing me look at her like that, she once again blushed and lowered her head down, looking at the floor .
The girl shyness was much more than I had expected, I thought that she would be able to discard a bit of it already, but it seem that making her coming out of her shell, will still take a bit more time .
But it seemed that there was at least some progress, as even though she was lowering her head down like that, she still said :
How can I be of help to you Ryuu-san ? .
Even though she was still stuttering, but I considered this a progress nonetheless, hearing her question, I told her what I have in mind for this training session, my words were quite shocking to her to the point that she was forced to raise her head and look at with bewilderment, I said :
" Well, I wanted your help with refining my instincts, I felt that they become quite rusty in battle and I help that you would be able to help me in getting them to return to their peak again .
That wasn't what surprised her, she asked about how she can help, so I continued to say :
" Well, I hope you would be willing to attack me seriously while I blindfold my eyes and only count on my other instinct to sparr with you, what do you say .
The moment I finished saying this, she was flabbergasted and for quite a few seconds, she wasn't even able to respond to me, only after I snapped my fingers in front of her, did she finally regained some sense, she looked at me and widened her eyes then said :
I can sparr with you, no problem, but Ryuu-san the blindfold would be a great handicap, how will you be able to fight like that, how that will help in refining your strength .
" I will be optimizing the use of the other senses to make up for the loss of one and if not for the fact that your presence was quite unique to me, senpai, I wouldn't have asked you to sparr with me, but that uniqueness was what I believed to be quite suitable for me to use, so please allow me to take advantage of that .
The moment my words left my mouth, I realized that the last bit might be understood a bit wrongly there and my speculation was indeed right, the moment the girl heard these words, I saw her face getting so red that I was beginning to see an illusion of her head beginning to steam .
She wasn't the only one surprised, the girl who was helping herself up also seemed to have been paying a close attention to our conversation, she said :
It doesn't seem seem that Harukashi was the only one who had become bold with her words, Ryuu-san is even politely asking this kind of stuff, I wasn't expecting that .
These words were aimed at me, it was my turn to be flabbergasted this time, I hurriedly said :
" I meant to make use of that uniqueness of her to help me in training, don't cloud your head with dirty thoughts like that .
Is that so, then if that was the case, can I join as well, I will try to help in the best way I can, you can even take advantage of me as well .
Her offering to help was quite appreciated by me but just as I was about to thank her for the kind words she said, I heard the way she said the last line of words and almost scolded myself for thinking that this airheaded girl will ever change, i politely refused her offer, saying :
" Sorry Sophia-senpai, but your fighting style won't be suitable for this kind of task. I hope you understand .
She looked at Haruka and for some reason she congratulated her with a sulking tone of voice, she said :
Good for you Harukashi, you would be the one to sparr with Ryuu, I quite envy you .
The girl she was talking to was already having her imagination run wide and and although she seem to completely detached from the reality, she still absent-mindedly nodded, seeing her reaction, I couldn't help but laugh a little bit, just as I laughed, the girl seemed to have regained her senses and was no longer able to focus .
" If it was a bother, don't worry about it, I will postpone it to another time, when you are feeling better .
Momochi :
No, I'm fine, I'm fine, let's do this, what exactly do I need to do
I wad about to call it off due to her abnormal behavior, but the moment I did the girl wake up from her trance and said in a hurry that she was all for it, I checked with her one last time and was about to say something whene I suddenly felt danger and I directly evaded again, but this time I used Prana and Herculean Strength to remove the annoying girl that was about to crash into Haruka away .
It seemed that still hadn't given up, I looked at her and said :
" We'll be busy in training, why don't you try and improve the proficiency of your Herculean Strength Light Art on these guys .
I said this and pointed at a bunch of Shiroganes in the distance, but weirdly the moment I did, the guys who I were pointing at bodies suddenly shuddered and in unison, they all looked at me and I understood why were they reacting like 3 this, it just so happened .
But the guys who I was pointing at, were actually the group of Shiroganes who Sophia had already beaten before, they all gave me an ugly look then began to spit on me and I heard all kind of curses coming in my direction, after they heard what I was suggesting, they had no scruples with verbally insulting me anymore .
And what made the matters even worse was the fact that Sophia directly shook her head at my suggestion and said innocently and playfully :
No, I don't want to, they only a bunch of weaklings, I wanted to train with Ryuu as well, but since Haruka had already decided to accept your suggestion this time, I will just have to sit and watch you two and cheer for both of you .
Feeling that it would be pointless to try to dissuade her any further, I dropped to trying to do so and instead turned to Haruka and began explaining what she will need to do, I said :
" It's pretty simple actually, I will have you attack me with your full force, don't think of holding back, I will be able to tell if you did and it will benefit me more if you didn't hold back, okay .
She nodded her head weakly as if she had accepted what she needed to do, she then said :
Can I test some of my new ideas in this fight as well, I believe that they might be a bit of use .
" You can do whatever you want, just don't hold back and come at me with all your strength .
She once again nodded and I asked Sophia if she could go and ask if someone had a blindfold or something that could work in that way and she didn't move from here place and just untied her hair and let it loose then handed me the red scarf that she used to tie her hair, saying her look with her long hair loose behind her like that was a bit of a surprise to me, I couldn't help but utter :
" You know, this style look like it was tailored for you, you look great in it .
The girl in front of me blushed hard at my words and still replied with a smile, saying :
Since you liked it, I will be sure to go by this look more often from now on, then .
I was fighting the urge to blush at her words, but decided that since I was failing miserably, it would be better to shift my attention away, I got the scarve out of her hand and looked to check one last time with Momochi on whether was she ready or not and saw her eyes were empty as she began to touch her short hair, before I even ask what she was doing, she weirdly asked me a weird question, she said with an dispirited tone :
Then Ryuu-san, you like girls with long hair ? .
Huh, that was my honest reaction, even though I was wondering what even brought this subject up, I still counted it as just her being curious at my preferences and said :
" It's not I have a preference when it come to how long the hair of the person I like, long, short, I just like her to be confidence with her natural apperance, Sophia-senpai's blonde long hair was indeed mesmerizing, but just might be cause it was suitable for Sophia-senpai, in similar way Momochi-senpai's short hair might be another preference for me, since it also suit you quite well in my opinion .
As I said this, I noted that the blonde haired girl who was gloating for some reason and the girl that seemed to be dispirited both suddenly fell silent, both looking at me then looking at one another, this continued for a few minutes and as I was wondering what was happening here, I suddenly recalled that my words indeed seemed to create a misunderstanding, but one that I can't try to fix at least not by words .
After all, the only way I could fix this up was by telling the two girls in front of me that they were not pleasing to my eyes, I won't risk doing something so stupid, but I did notice that I seemed to be quite the silver-tongued back in my past life, the words that I just spouted seemed to be quite flirty, even though I had no intention in saying them in that way and it seem that the current misunderstanding stem from that .
" Are you ready Momochi-senpai ? .
As I said those words the two of them seemed to be agreeing on something as they both nodded at each other then nodded at me, I can understand why Momochi-senpai nodded at me, after all, my question was aimed at her, but why Sophia nodded as well, she nodded and then sat a bit far from us on the ground and had a hand supporting her chin .
I discarded thinking anymore into this and instead took on a ready stance like how Momochi-senpai was currently doing, I blindfolded myself and got ready as well, but just as a reminder, I still said :
" I will be counting on you using your full strength then .
Ummm .
That was all that I heard as an answer, then silence engulfed the atmosphere between us or at least that would have been the case, if someone wasn't disturbing this silence by cheering on both of us with a low voice, Sophia was cheering for the two sides equally with a faint voice that in her mind won't disturb our focus .
It ended up creating a disturbance, but not by much, I was able to filter these noises off, I took a deep breath and calmed myself down completely and began to spread my senses around me searching for clues about where the attack might be coming from, my senses were picking the movement of the girl in front of me moving at even faster speed than before, then I suddenly opened my mouth and said :
" Why did you stop ? .