A Calm Life, and a little more useful.

A young man collapsed face-first onto his pillow. Having just returned from his work, he was exhausted of being berated by his boss and random self-entitled customers. For the thousandth time.

Beside him, unbeknownst to his knowledge, his lamp flickered violently.

"Raito!" Yuki called. "Come set the table, breakfast is almost ready!"

Yuki was the young man's sister, and although she acted quite close to a mother, she wouldn't ever miss a joking opportunity.

"It's almost 6 in the afternoon! To hell with breakfast!" Raito replied.

"Same thing, but be fast, I'm hungry!"

Shaking his head, Raito placed his head back on his pillow, figuring he would be able to set the table in a few minutes. His family was never strict, so he knew it wouldn't be a very big deal.

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"Raito Gurando, get your ass down here now!" someone screamed. Raito groaned and sat up. The voice was his father's. For him to be this angry, he must have slept for about a week - or, he forgot to set the table. Glancing at the clock..

"I slept for 16 hours!?" He yelled in shock. The clock clearly read 10:12AM. Fortunately, it wasn't a school day, so he didn't have to rush so quickly downstairs. Quickly after getting changed, he glanced at his lamp - it was still on.

"Raito! I will count to 3!"

Hearing that call, he quickly fled to the living room, where he at least wouldn't be berated any further for sleeping so late.

As for the lamp on his desk, as soon as Raito left, it became completely dark, despite it still being powered.

"What took you so long? Dad's been screaming for like, the past 15 minutes." Said Yuki after noticing his "speedy" arrival.

"I.. had an unplanned nap." Raito said, drowsily, obviously still having just woken up. Well, it wasn't like he hadn't.

"Well, wake up quickly. I need to train for the competition, even if it is in a month, it is still going to affect it, even if only minisculely."

Raito nodded with a yawn. "Alright, I'll train with you, but don't be such a braggart like last time"

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Quickly after eating breakfast, Raito and Yuki quickly went to the garage and immediately grabbed their mock-weapons. Although they were simply made of foam, they had sturdy blades. It allowed the reciever of the attack to suffer no physical harm, while still remaining rigid enough to have no deformations in the blade so it could move through the air smoothly. After finding their own with only a small amount of bickering as to who got what weapon, Raito ending up with a katana and Yuki a dagger, they went outside and took combat stances.

Picking up a small pebble, Raito announced, "As soon as this rock hits the ground, we start!" He threw it high up and resumed his stance. It hit the ground and as if like lightning, Yuki rushed to Raito and unleashed a fast horizontal slash. Raito quickly parried it with a perpendicular one, pushing it upward. Keeping contact with the opposing blade, he used it's own momentum to push Yuki into a vulnerable position. The defense was so quick that Raito almost felt like his muscles were glowing.. and from anyone's perspective in the broad day, he looked normal, but if one paid close enough attention.. he actually was!

He emitted a faint golden light, it was so dim it nearly matched the color of his skin. It was absorbing into his skin and eliminating fatigue, although very inefficiently. Even so, it was far more than enough to become noticable.

Resuming with the fight, Raito quickly spun his blade so it grinded against Yuki's sword with the sound of foam scraping against foam. His angle allowed him to quickly plant a slash on her left side, causing her to step back in surprise! Since when had her brother become so overpowered in combat against a trained martial artist? After all, although it took some time to explain, it only took a matter of seconds in execution. Nevertheless, she quickly regained her composure and prepared to attack again.. only to realize she couldn't move any further forward, with a blade to her neck! 'When did he even have time to get here? His sword is single edged, he would have to have drawn back to his left before releasing another attack, since one at that angle would definitely cause a bit of weakness in the wrist, easily exploitable. And yet, I can't see his blade go back, nor any apparent flaws of his current actions!' she hung upon the topic for a minute before finally attributing it to luck.

She smiled at him. "That was fun, up for another one? That ended far too quickly for me."

Raito, still feeling no fatigue, quickly agreed and proceeded to defeat his sister easily once more.. even faster than the first time!

Repeating this for an entire hour, Yuki eventually gave in, and she could tell that his movements were not lucky.. it was her own poor experience. Deprived of energy, they both headed inside. Raito entered his room, only to find it completely dark. He tried to switch on his lamp, only to find it had already been on. Confused, he flipped it again, but it remained off. "Turn on you damned thing!" he muttered, and as if by magic, it did, with a quick bright flash before returning to it's normal brightness.

"The hell?"

With a surprised look on his face, he tried to make it turn off again, and it did at just a mere thought, and on again whenever he wanted. However, Raito noticed that when he turned it back on, it would give a slightly higher burst of light for just a fraction of a moment, but only when he turned it off artificially. Almost like the light built up when he turned it back on, seemingly why it didn't flash as bright as the first.

With a slight smile, Raito muttered under his breath.

"This could be useful".