Story 1 Martial Glory, Chapter 14 Commissioned by Aesh

Shigure's presence was a heavy blanket over selves and after a moment of kinda dancing around one another Honoka and I got back into the swing of things with the exception of myself switching from the Water Streaming Rock Smashing Fist to the Kyotōryū.

I held my hands in a knife-hands stance and as Honoka came at me with a swift jab aimed at my throat, I traded blows by stabbing my longer arm due to my height advantage at her own throat and she had to abort the attack as her senses scream at her to do so. And her instincts were proven correct as the tips of my fingers cut through her school uniform without issue.

Honoka's eyes flashed with a bit of red at hearing her school uniform's shoulder area rip but I couldn't help but notice that even as my finger pierced through her clothes, they only managed to skate across her flesh for the tinest of a second before her pivote out of the way. moved her away from my blow.

And that set the tone of the brutal sparring session with Honaka as I used the Empty Sword Martial Art of Kyotōryū to attack her and she would use her mix of boxing and other hard fist styles like Gokken, and Muay Thai to fight me.

A minute into the fight as I brought my hand down in a chopping motion towards Honoka after dodging a roundhouse kick, Shigure finally spoke up. "Jake, you have zero killing intent with your blade. You cannot cut Honoka without wanting to harm her even in the name of sparring."

Honoka and I both eyed one another for a brief moment and in unison we relaxed out of our stances, and I exhaled as I cut off my special martial arts breathing styles that helped elevate my strength. senses and reaction times. And while Shigure frowned at us stopping and not just continuing to fight, I spoke up with a wry smile. "Well... I don't have much fighting experience with that fight earlier today with that biker being the first real fight I ever had."

Shigure's face went flat as I continued to explain. "I get that killing intent is... A real thing and can influence a person's martial arts capabilities but I don't have the experience in real fights to control such things and I don't want to actually hurt Honoka more than bruises and some cuts."

Honoka for a second looked offended at me when I said I didn't want to hurt her. Still, when she heard the rest and took in how I simply didn't know how to control the weird local version of killing intent or Ki that martial artists used to insane effects, she nodded in understanding with her speaking up while looking at Shigure. "Shigure, he needs actual fights outside of sparring. Maybe he can go pick some fights with the local gangs of delinquents or maybe he can even be entered into the low-level Kengan scene as people are already clamoring online about him being part of our Dojo."

For a moment Shigure paused clearly in thought about Honoka's words before she blinked and a tiny smile crossed her face as she spoke quietly. "Ah... I have an idea, you come with me, Sakaki has a bet with Doppo Orochi and his dojo the Shinshinkai Karate School." She said my face twitched at hearing about Doppo Orochi.

I wasn't exactly so enthused about getting involved with the Baki scene honestly. They were a lot more brutal than the Kengan, and Kenichi fighters a lot of the time, and frankly... Getting involved with Hanma shit just sounded like a good way to get punched by the dude who broke the setting of 'normal' martial arts by punching an earthquake into silence

But, in the end, I followed Shigure while Honoka left to go get a shower with Marie following her into the main house. While we walked over to Sakaki's smaller house on the Dojo's large plot of land, I asked Shigure a question I had on my mind. "Beyond my physical fitness being rather basic, and my lack of intent in doing real harm, is there anything else I could improve on?"

Shigure was silent for a moment before she finally spoke in her normal quiet manner. "You are new to fighting. You are slow on counters, your counters lack the deadly edge of a fighter... And yes your body is nowhere near refined enough to be considered even adept level." She said before looking at me and she flexed her arm she had some good definition but even then she continued speaking softly. "You are still... Normal, you are not impervious to low-end bullets yet. Which makes you weak."

Her words were a brutal reminder about how Master's and Grandmaster's of this world laughed at the idea of modern weapons due to how they could run so fast and react to the way people aimed guns at them that they could avoid gunfire and even if they got hit, they could heal very quickly over the course of a mere week to heal from the bullet wounds.

Fucking Biscuit Oliva who could harden his muscles was able to absorb an entire magazine of point-blank shotgun shells and within six hours be wholly healed. It was truly ridiculous.

With that reminder of my weakness I kept silent as Shigure led me to Sakaki's bungalow and without hesitation Shigure knocked on the door with a loud groan echoing out of the building as Sakaki called out tiredly. "The hell you want Shigure?"

But Shigure didn't speak and with another loud grumble from Sakaki about ninjas being annoying and not wanting to shout at all. The door to the house slid open showing the tall heavily muscular form of the Karate Master in Sakaki Shio leaning on the doorway of his house's entryway.

"Whatcha want?" He demanded Shigure before his eyes focused on me and for a moment he dismissed me before he refocused and then held up his hands in an X in front of his chest as he said flatly. "Hell nah, I am not training the brat."

Shigure and I both tilted our heads to the side in unison making his lips twitch and then Shigure said flatly. "I know you have no interest in teaching... As you wish to continue drinking, playing with women, and getting money through missions to do the first two options." Shigure's utterly dry way of dissecting Sakaki's reasons for not wanting to teach me, unsurprisingly didn't bring any shame to the Karate Master as he proudly nodded in confirmation.

So Shigure continued undaunted. "He needs actual fights though. I want you to contact Doppo's adopted son and have him fight some students of the Shinshinkai." She finished and as she did so, Sakaki's face stilled and a series of emotions went across his face as he glanced at me.

Emotions like mischievous joy as he could see my ass getting kicked or I could actually win a fight and make him look better despite not teaching me anything. But there was also the pure apathy he had for the favor Shigure as he used a pinky to clear out his ear while speaking. "Eh... I think that sounds like a bit of a hassle honestly, he ain't my student and I don't want to take him as my student so having him represent me as Ryouzonpaku's section of Karate is a major no-go."

Before he could continue anymore, Shigure cut through coldly as she stated flatly. "I know... He is my student for now. If you won't then, I will take him to some Kengan fights then." Sakaki paused for a moment and I was reminded about how he used to be a special operations policeman whose whole job was dealing with martial artists. So it made me wonder how he felt about the clearly illegal Kengan fights that were so clearly an ingrained part of the world.

But in the end, Sakaki Shio shrugged and said with a grin. "Alright have fun getting the boy blooded Shigure but don't get him wrapped up in the big Kengan games, as they will eat him up." He said giving a warning to both her and myself, but me especially as he made eye contact the whole time as he spoke.