Sister

Azuma had to stop his interactions with Shigure since he received a call from his mother.

He was traveling from town to town, answered the phone. "Hello."

"Hello son, since you were traveling I forgot to tell you, as you were not visiting that often, I was feeling lonely so, I may have gotten you a little sister. Maybe you can visit soon, she is dying to meet you." His mother told him as if nothing like she was telling him to buy groceries from the supermarket.

Azuma almost dropped the phone when his mother finished talking, he was twenty-five, and he has a little sister? "Wait what, little sister? With whom?"

"Oh, with no one, I kind of adopted her, well anyway, hope to see you soon," Mikumo said, then hanged the phone, not letting Azuma say anything else, or before answering any other question.

Exited at the prospect of having a little sister, Azuma rushed to his mother's home, not thinking about who could it be, had he stopped and thought for a second he may have remembered that his mother did adopt a prodigious little girl.

After days of traveling back he finally reached Mikumo's home, he stopped living there some years ago, sleeping in hotels or renting houses, he had a plan on where to buy a home, but that's for a later date.

Quickly entering the house, he searched for his mother, and new little sister, reaching the garden he saw them, his mother had changed her appearance, opting for one reminiscing of the one shown in the story, long waist-length black hair, an open Kimono to showing off her bosom and a wooded bead necklace around her neck.

Without paying any attention to the little girl training besides his mother, seeing his mom's new appearance, Azuma only shouted, "Christ mom, bras, have you heard of them?"

Mikumo chose to completely ignore him, signaling to him to greet the small girl, there, he saw a small girl, around six or seven years old, with long black hair, tied on one side down to her upper back in the front and long fringe in the front of her face.

Seeing her, it hit him like a ton of bricks, this was Chikage Kushinada, his mom's disciple and a member of Yomi, Yami's OSNF disciple group.

Had he not known better, Azuma would have sworn she was his mother's biological daughter, same hair color, similar clothes, and to top it all, the same expressionless melancholic look on her face.

Ignoring his look, Chikage asked the man in front of her, "Are you my big brother?" Trying really hard to not show any expression on her face, her shy although excited tone and red cheeks betrayed her.

Her cuteness and effort to appear as his mother surprised him, "Yes little girl I am. Are you my new little sister?"

When Azuma called Chikage little sister, the rest of her already failing façade crumbled, nodding excitedly, she answered, "Hai! I'm so excited to meet you, mother Mikumo talked so much about you, about how you are really, really strong, or, or how proud she is of you, but she also called you a bastard, who forgets his own mother, she said that when she thought I wasn't looking."

By now Azuma had narrowed his eyes, looking at his mother with suspicion, Mikumo only looked away, not an ounce of emotion, like the little girl was talking about someone else, not her. "Really now? Maybe I shall disappear for a longer time, maybe mother would talk more about me behind my back if I did.." Mikumo shot him a threatening glare, daring him to try and do so.

"Hai, hai, I also want mom to praise me, that's why I've been practicing reaaaally hard." Chikage nodded happily once again.

Walking closer to the girl, Azuma patted her excitedly nodding head, "Yes, little sis, you should practice hard to make mom proud. Why don't you keep practicing and let mom talk to me, okay?"

Her brain having short-circuited by the pat, Chikage only kept nodding, "Yesh." She rushed to one of the rocks in the garden to practice.

Azuma approached his mom and gave her a hug, "Sorry for not visiting" Mikumo only humph, but returned the hug, nonetheless.

"So, why adopt the girl?" Azuma asked his mom, who only shrugged her shoulders, "I found her some months ago, she is extremely talented, a prodigy you could say. I also wanted to pass the Kushinada style to someone, I did teach you, but you focused on that style you created, besides as I told you before, I did feel somewhat lonely."

Azuma, ashamed for having let his mom feel lonely only apologized to her, promising to visit her often, interested in his new little sister he asked, "Prodigy you say, how is she?"

"Will reach middle-class disciple in some time, may even reach high-class disciple by twelve or thirteen." Mikumo had a hint of pride in her voice, having a prodigious son, and now a prodigious adopted daughter.

Joking Azuma said, "Oh my, I may need to step up my game or my little sister will surpass me."

Mikumo only rolled her eyes at her son's antics, snorting, "Please, you think I can't feel your ki? An advanced grandmaster at twenty-six…"

Azuma laughing loudly ignored her mother and walked towards Chikage, "I'll check her training, you can go relax or something." Mikumo only narrowed her eyes at her son but did exactly what he said.

Azuma talked with Chikage, trying to find out how her time with his mother had been and how she was treating her, in the original series Mikumo never physically abused her but did try to brainwash her to become an emotionless machine that could kill without blinking. He trusted his mom, but asides from him, she never showed care for another, so he was still worried.

He was scared of how hard Chikage tried to be emotionless like his mom, remembering that in the original timeline the girl almost developed a second personality that matched more her age, having a really big, sweet tooth, smiling happily, and enjoying spending time with her friends.

It seems that his worry was for nothing, instead of harsh conditioning, Chikage only tries to resemble Mikumo because she was the little girl's role model, wanting to grow up to be like her. Thus, it would seem Kenichi will still meet an emotionless Chikage, although for a completely different reason.

Azuma, in the following weeks, would start teaching Chikage the smallest of basics on taekwondo, for the girl to have an effective tool to attack or defend with her legs, not Renewal, since its physical requirements were off the charts, especially for a girl that focused on jujitsu that was 100% skill, 0% physicality or strength.

Azuma taking advantage of his alone time with Chikage started telling her some white lies about his mother, for example, that she was absolutely terrified of large insects or that she needed to defend her mother from men.

After Azuma left the Kushinada state, Chikage, much to Mikumo's bewilderment would start to 'protect her' from insects, shouting something like, "Leave foul beast! I will not let you attack mother." or "It's okay mother, I will protect you."

Or when the mother-daughter pair would leave on a trip, anytime a man would approach Mikumo, Chikage would enter an attacking stance and shout, "Leave!, I will not allow you to go near my mom."

What? Did you believe Azuma would forget his revenge against his mother for "forgetting" to tell him about the requirements to reach grandmaster class.

Azuma, not forgetting to call Ilona to check on Shizuha, left with a destination in mind, it was time to meet some very interesting people.

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I tried to make Chikage the same, without the terrible upbringing she had.

I hope it made sense.

Ciao