『28』

After everything was settled, it was time for Shinju to leave. But currently, she is being held down by her cute student, Chloe.

"Chloe, I can't stay here with you all forever." Shinju said with a helpless face.

Chloe looked up with a pout and tiny droplets of tears near her eyes, "Can't you return to school with us?"

"I'm sorry, Chloe." Shinju said as she kneeled down and patted Chloe's head. "I have to quickly go back to the inn. Hana is waiting for me to return and I don't want to make her wait."

Chloe looked down but still accepted Shinju's head pats. It was fun being with Shinju, she had an open minded personality, and didn't judge them. She had also gotten stronger being with Shinju.

"Don't look at me like that, I might really have to stay with you. Here, let me give you this instead." Shinju said as she took off a hair clip.

The hair clip was blue that matched with the color of Shinju's clothing, it was more like her theme of color. She attached it to Chloe's head.

"That's my parting gift to you, you can show it off to your friends, and make them jealous." Shinju said with a grin.

Chloe smiled and touched the hair clip with her delicate hands. She had a soft smile on her face and her cheeks were a bit red.

"Thank you!" Chloe exclaimed in happiness. "I'm going to treasure this forever!"

"Good! Make sure to never lose it or I'm going to come after you!" Shinju said as she acted like a monster.

"Hehe, I won't!"

Shinju smiled, "And don't forget, this isn't goodbye. We're going to see each other in the future, and become strong by then."

With that being said, Shinju turned around, and started to walk away.

"Wait!"

"Shinju-sensei!"

Familiar voices called out to her, but Shinju couldn't turn around or else she would give in. Instead, she raised her arm, and waved at them without turning around.

"All of you! Become strong and we'll meet again!"

The five students watched with tears in their eyes as Shinju's figure slowly disappeared into the descending sun. They were soon forced to leave by Tiss-sensei.

"Haaaa…" Shinju let out a long sigh as she placed her hand over her heart. "Kids these days are really adorable. I might have a soft spot for them. Is it because of Hana?"

She mindlessly questioned herself as she followed the trail that would eventually lead her back home.

The moon's light illuminated the trail where Shinju was following. Suddenly, there was killing intent coming from behind her.

Shinju quickly pulled out her katana and deflected the blade that almost cut her.

"I'm surprised you were able to dodge that." the figure with short black hair and violet eyes said.

Shinju grinned, "How could I not have? That swing was too slow, any mediocre warrior could've done the same thing I did."

However, the figure that attacked Shinju did not show any sign of being provoked by her statement.

Once again, Shinju brushed the blade aside by horizontally attacking it from below. She applied quite a bit of magicules into her arm and at the rapier.

However, it did not break.

"Your rapier, there's something special about it. Any normal weapon would've been broken by my attack just now."

"It's true that this rapier is special, but there is no need to tell a corpse about it."

Shinju simply laughed and pointed her blade towards her opponent.

"Then I'll accept your challenge, try to kill me, and struggle as much as you can since you'll never be able to kill me."

Hinata felt a slight shiver when she saw Shinju's crazed smile. She had been quite informed about Shinju's skills regarding swordsmanship by the Church. Somehow, it felt like the report from the Church was inaccurate.

'The data doesn't match at all.' Hinata thought.

As she parried each of Shinju's strikes, her hand was starting to feel numb. Every single one of Shinju's strikes became stronger and faster. She was able to keep up only because of her two skills.

Thought Acceleration and Universal Sense.

Hinata tried using her Copy skill on Shinju to see if she was using any sort of swordsmanship or speed skill. But to her surprise, it was just Shinju's raw strength.

'This is nowhere close to the data!' Hinata yelled in her mind with sweat dripping from her forehead.

Shinju was happy. There was someone that could stand a chance against her in terms of swordsmanship in this world. Although she wasn't quite comfortable with the way she was moving, she was getting used to it.

A quick vertical slash followed by horizontal slash from right to left. An attack from below, a feint, and another attack from above.

Shinju could tell her opponent was starting to struggle. But she had to give it to her, to be able to keep up with Shinju for this long.

"But I guess it's time to end it." Shinju muttered, though Hinata had heard it.

When Shinju was about to charge towards Hinata, she was caught off guard for a second when Hinata came towards her instead.

"You think I'll let you defeat me? Dream!" Hinata yelled as she raised her rapier to the sky. "Let me provide you with a prayer to the divine. I hope and desire for the power of the holy spirits. Listen to my appeal and overcome everything in your way! Disintegration!"

Shinju watched as numerous magic circles appeared in the sky, every single part of her body screamed at her to get out of the day.

"Now that is dangerous."

But did she have time to get away? Shinju could sense she only had a few seconds to move out of the way or else she would've disintegrated. Suddenly, a single word appeared in her mind.

'Amenotejikara.'

A space-time skill that allowed her to shift spaces and swap places with any target that was given to her by a spirit.

Instantly, Shinju activated a skill, and had swapped places with an innocent ant that was minding its own business.

*BOOM*

A wide golden beam of light destroyed the ant and everything that was inside its radius.

"That was dangerous."