Near

Months or years crawled away, I'm not really sure, life as a grandmaster is boring, extremely boring, I kind of understand why the Ryōzanpaku masters got so into training Kenichi.

At first, it was awkward in Ryōzanpaku, I got my revenge on Kensei, not that it stopped him, but he did lessen his peeping with Shigure, seeing she was taken, besides, most of his attempts ended with him ending with a stick up his ass or a broken camera.

Akisame gave me the stink eye for months, really treating Shigure as a daughter, he was not happy with the news, but Shizuha gave him The look, and he calmed, we actually became friends. I understand why Saiga is friends with the man, he is calm, fun to be with, enormously stubborn once he makes a decision. I was able to look at his famous 'Eh, I don't want to.'

Apachai was funny, it appears me being Shigure's boyfriend gave me instant access to being the big man-child's friend. Sakaki was a different story, after my first week visiting Ryōzanpaku, the man challenged me to a fight. Let's leave it at the man sulked for a week, then went onto drinking himself to oblivion, his personality actually being quite a tsundere.

Miu was happier than I've ever seen her, having his mom, me, and knowledge on her dad, who visited often. After meeting Miu, he would come to drink with me and Akisame, sometimes dad joined. We talked, about common stuff and if he had news, he would rat on Yami, OSNF was pretty much completed, Ogata, being the last one to join.

Miu had completely different teenage years than in canon, however, It would appear that her upbringing with dad made her clueless to some stuff, and she still instinctually attacks everyone who is approaching her from behind.

In better news I found where Miu's curse and behavior come from, Miu has a tendency to 'lose' clothes when fighting, her clothes ripping in every fight, proceeded by violent embarrassment. Shizuha's clothes did exactly the same, and she behaved exactly the same way afterward. It would appear to be a blood curse, passing from generation to generation.

Shigure and I finally had sex. Aww, my cute girl, even after all her 'girl' talk with Shizuha, still blacked out after the deed. The next morning, she ran to Shizuha, the girls disappearing quickly after, that same night Shigure returned, way more mentally prepared. Pretty much after every 'fun' night, Shigure would run to Shizuha, they would talk, and Shigure would subsequentially do more risqué stuff, my adorable girlfriend quickly starting to become a closet pervert.

I wonder if all the night activities we did, came from Shizuha, I dreaded the woman, she was the closest to an 'ara-ara' person I knew. No one would have guessed that under all that noble lady behavior a monster lurked. I was starting to believe Kenichi's biggest obstacle wouldn't be me, father, or Saiga, but Shizuha. I pray for your future Kenichi, Shizuha can't be beaten, bribed, or tricked.

I tried visiting mom, but she told me about her disciple being the best or something like that, now I actually believe she stayed on Yami, to compare disciples with the other masters, it seems her pride would not allow her to have anything but the best disciple in OSNF. The cries of torture I heard Chikage scream when I called, reminiscing of mine when mom entered drill sergeant mode.

I was not worried about Chikage, mom was being strict but when I called my little sister, who was in some whole god know where training, she did tell me that although the training was hard, she was having fun, pride swelling on her, trying to make mom proud by destroying the rest of Yomi, Yami's kiddie division. She was jealous of Shō Kanō, who was also receiving some of mom's training, saying stuff about how he was taking her precious time with her mom, slowly I realized Chikage developed a mother-complex, ahh, but she was happy so who cares.

._._._._._._._.

One day, I had a talk with dad, "Hey dad, we need to talk."

He appeared to be drinking some tea alone, so I took the chance, "Yes son? What's on your mind."

"Kai Midō is dead," I told him like it is.

He looked sad but not surprised, I wonder why? Sighing, "I see, thanks for telling me, but how come you know?"

I told him the truth, "I saw it happen, it was Ogata."

With some anger in his voice, "And you allow it to happen, why?"

Still calm I answered, "He was sick, I didn't know why, but he was definitely sick, Ogata challenged him to a duel, and Midō accepted, he could have refused."

With a bigger sigh, he accepted my response, "I understand, it would appear it was Midō's decision. I met him months ago, and he, indeed was extremely sick, barely holding on."

Dad understood where I was coming from, he probably knew Ogata better than me, having realized his personality the moment he saw him. Dad knew, how much Ogata loved martial arts, so he must have reached the same conclusion as me, had Midō not accepted Ogata would have left without killing him.

"I did save Midō's pregnant daughter, the girl attacked Ogata without reason or care, had she continued Ogata would have killed her."

This time dad was surprised, scared, and angry, with a big smile of relief he told me, "Thank you, son, you prevented a horrible tragedy from happening, I knew there was some of me in you, not all is your mother's."

Now I was offended, did he thought I was some soulless monster, bastard. "I'm not some unfeeling thing you know."

Coughing, he did not answer and continued drinking his tea, ignoring me. I just huffed and left, completely forgetting I originally had no plan to save Mayu.

._._._._._._.

Soon more years passed, and regretfully my little niece was still bullied in school, bitchy girls, jealous of her beauty, academics, popularity, and spot on the gymnastics team. She still tried wearing glasses, but a talk with her mother quickly resolved the issue.

She definitely was more self-confident and happier, carrying herself with pride, but much like her weird family in the dojo, she lacked real friends, most approaching her for her looks or grades.

So, we decided that she needed to change high schools.