Story 5

Sparring

In Flora's house, Yuuki is waiting for Flora in the guestroom while she's changing clothes. It doesn't even take three minutes for her to be done, she's already with Yuuki before he can finish the snack offered to him.

"Whoa, that was quick."

"I'm the type that changes quickly and doesn't require makeup. As long as I look fresh I'm ready to go."

"You're unlike many other girls that I know. They take at least five minutes just to change from sports uniform to school uniform. No offense."

"None taken…. Really?"

"Yeah. But let's not talk about that."

After the small conversation, Flora tells her mother that they'll be going out now. The pair says goodbye to her as they head to the field to meet Aka and his family. Flora asks about what activity he and Yuuki will do.

"What are you going to do with Aka?"

"Practicing, sparring to be exact."

"Sparring? Are you actually preparing for a competition?"

"Nah, we just spar occasionally."

"Occasionally?" Flora asks in confused/curious expression.

"Yeah."

"Why though?"

Yuuki makes the 'I don't know how to explain this' expression. With nothing more to say, Yuuki and Flora continue to walk their way to Aka's place. Suddenly, they hear a shout behind them.

"Flora!"

Flora and Yuuki turn to the shout and find a girl running towards them as she waves and shouts Flora's name again. Flora gets excited all of a sudden as she runs toward the girl and hugs her. The two spend time greeting each other before Flora introduces her to Yuuki.

"Ah, Yuuki. Meet Rose. She's one of my best friends."

"Good afternoon, I'm Yuuki," Yuuki greets Rose with a smile, but Rose remains expressionless.

"Just call me Rose," she replies.

"Alright."

"Ehe, that's just how she is. You just have to get used to her." Flora explains Rose's manner to Yuuki.

"I understand."

"Anyway," Flora ends the introduction and continues to walk with Yuuki and Rose. "Whatcha doing here, Rose?"

"I have nothing to do at home, so I decided to take a stroll around the city. I happened to see you walking together with this guy. Let's just say I want to go out with you."

"Ah, we just happen to be going somewhere."

"Somewhere? Where exactly?"

"Wahhh… I don't know. This is my first time going there too. But basically, my friend is going to practice."

"Practice for what?"

"Um… sparring?"

Rose feels intrigued, and with a smile, she says, "Well, I'm looking forward to it."

"Yeah, it's not often we see people sparring. And this one is free to watch."

"Right, right." Flora and Rose laugh together.

Yuuki watches the girls laugh together as he walks alongside them. Along the way, the girls occasionally chat about their daily life and how they have been doing, but out of nowhere, Rose talks about how much she dislikes boys. It gets quite irritating to Flora and especially Yuuki, but they get over it.

"I'm sorry she's like this at times." Flora apologizes to Yuuki for Rose, he just sighs it off.

"Rose, can we not talk about that again? At least not in front of a boy, please?"

"Hmph, whatever. But since you said that he's a friendly person, I'll let him pass."

"I'm sorry again, Yuuki." Flora apologizes to Yuuki again, but he has nothing to say about it.

At last, the trio makes it to Aka's place. As they arrive, Flora, Yuuki, and Rose are welcomed with a pair of twin, white-haired girls in white traditional clothing. The girls greet them politely and one of them gives the trio a little tour of the place as the other one informs Aka that his friends have arrived.

Aka walks into the room along with the girl that informed him, he thanks her and greets his friends. Aka proceeds to take Yuuki to the armory with him while Flora and Rose are escorted by the twin girls to the field, then they leave to serve them snacks. As the girls are waiting for Yuuki, Aka, and their serving of snacks, Rose comments on how peaceful and calming the place is.

"I like this place," Rose says in her calm voice, "It's nice and breezy."

"You like places like this, don't you?"

Rose nods, "I do. I really like places like this."

"So how's your life in Heaven so far?"

Rose takes a deep breath and breathes it out, "It's very peaceful. I'm not in pain or being anxious all the time. It's…."

Rose is lost in her words as she leans into Flora, "Thank you so much for being someone that has been always supporting me as a friend."

Flora headpats Rose, "Yeah, I'm glad you're in a much better life now."

A brief silence.

"Do you plan to have a boyfriend?"

"Ah, ehrm, I'm not," Rose feels slight discomfort.

"Oh, are you into girls?"

"No, it's just… I'm still traumatized from my past life."

"Oh…. I'm sorry."

Rose feels down as she remembers her miserable life in the past. Flora tries to get her mood back. Fortunately, before Rose feels worse, the twin girls return and give them a serving of tea and snacks. Rose is distracted from remembering her past and starts to feel a little better, the wind gently blows over them to make the mood better.

After a while, Yuuki and Aka enter the field with a man alongside them to act as a referee. As the sparring begins, Aka flies towards Yuuki with the sword pointed at him, Yuuki evades the attack and immediately performs an upward slash on Aka's back. One point for Yuuki for the evading and follow-up attack.

"Nice, Yuuki. Very nice," Aka compliments.

The two continue to spar, Aka fights aggressively as Yuuki keeps defending himself. The swords of the two constantly clash against each other, until eventually, Yuuki finds an opening and slashes sideways, Aka quickly reacts by blocking his attack, but the moment the sword is blocked Yuuki delivers a kick to Aka's body, staggering him to the side. The referee calls out Yuuki for playing dirty, however.

"No, please don't call him out," Aka says, panting from the spar.

"Master Kaede, your opponent was playing dirty on you."

"He wasn't," he replies, looking at the referee, "That was the point of this sparring. To test our capability, what we can do to defend ourselves and how we can improvise in certain situations. In short, he didn't cheat, he was improvising."

"I understand," says the referee, "Now, return to your stance and continue."

"Great job, Yuuki. Great job," Aka compliments again as he and Yuuki return to their stance and prepare to continue the spar.

"You're welcome," Yuuki replies.

The spar continues, but with how Aka and Yuuki spar, it has become similar to an actual fight. The two combine their skill of swordsmanship, kicks, and punches. Aka seems to have the upper hand as he relentlessly gives everything he has until he kicks Yuuki and jumps into the air to finish the spar with him winning.

"Use your elemental ability, Yuuki!" he shouts as he leaps into the air towards Yuuki.

Following Aka's saying, Yuuki freezes the air around him and forms several spikes to protect himself from the incoming Aka. The fiery boy maneuvers and lands away from Yuuki to avoid impaling himself into the ice spikes. Yuuki crawls out of the ice shelter and continues the spar.

At the same time, the sky gets darker and darker as they spar. When the rain finally falls upon them, Aka finds Yuuki seemingly holding back his feeling. Aka feels a little nervous because he knows why Yuuki is holding his feeling back, but he keeps his confidence firm and tells Yuuki to come to him instead.

"Very well," Yuuki says.

Yuuki creates an electric bolt and accelerates it towards Aka as he runs towards him. Aka successfully evades the electric bolt at first but the bolt suddenly turns and electrifies him. Not only the speed of the bolt is extremely fast, Yuuki can freely control the direction of the electric bolt, making dodging the attack very difficult. Being wet from the rain makes it worse as the electricity lingers, weakening him even more. Aka picks himself up and continues to spar. As the sparring continues, Yuuki and Aka use their elemental ability, Yuuki constantly uses electricity and ice while Aka fights with fire, manipulates the field, and defends himself with earth.

Unfortunately for Aka, the tides have turned on him as the electrifying effect of Yuuki's electric ability keeps stunning him. Seeing that Aka has been weakened, Yuuki uses this opportunity to defeat him. He lets Aka attack him then stuns him, followed up by partially freezing Aka to immobilize him, and as the finishing, Yuuki puts the sword tip behind Aka's neck. Yuuki unfreezes Aka as the referee finally ends the spar.

After the spar is over, Yuuki and Aka are being taken care of their injuries and make a quick recovery. Aka comments on how Yuuki has fought well and improved.

"You're very different compared to the spar a couple of months ago. You've improved a lot, Yuuki."

"Hehe, I'm used to manipulating particles already, so that was nothing much." Yuuki and Aka laugh together over their achievement.

"Well, with you winning today's sparring, what about me taking you to lunch? I'll pay."

"Great idea! But," Yuuki looks at Flora and Rose, "I'd like to bring them with us."

"This is… acceptable."

"Thank you, Yuuki!" Flora shouts as she hugs Yuuki, flustering him very much.

With that, Yuuki and Aka, as well as Flora and Rose, spend the rest of the day dining in a cafe before returning to each other's home. Today was one exhausting day for Yuuki and Aka.