A Quick Fight during Homeroom

Standing at the front of the classroom of 2-F, right beside Umeko, the homeroom teacher for 2-F, is a small child standing 123cm tall. She has long black hair that reaches her waist with the ends of her hair curling upwards and is wearing a white blouse that's a couple of sizes too big for her, showing a decent chunk of skin around her shoulders and collarbone, and a pair of black cargo pants.

"You should have heard about her at the assembly this morning, go ahead and introduce yourself," Umeko says.

"Huang Luan, a pleasure. I met some of you last night, you may remember me. Any questions?" she asks, keeping her introduction short and simple.

"Wow, she's shorter than me," mutters the class rep, Mayo, in a quiet voice that only a few people can make out.

Slightly jumping up from her seat, Kazuko raises her hand, "I have a question, why do you smell like smoke?"

"Because I was smoking on the roof earlier. You see, I have this illness if I don't smoke Mild Seven Cigarettes for too long my body starts to shake," Huang Luan says, mimicking Benkei earlier words.

This time with no one to stop him, Morooka says, "Isn't that just withdrawal symptoms!"

Not even denying it, Huang Luan just says, "Yeah, it is."

"Huang, I'm going to have to ask you to come to see me after class so we can talk about this smoking habit of yours," Umeko says.

"I'll think about it. Anything else?"

"How old are you?" Christiane asks the question everyone wanted to ask.

"I'm the oldest person in the school."

Of course, no one believes her. Although because of Mayo's appearance, they don't doubt that she's probably their age.

"Why did you transfer her now? Is it because of the Bushido Plan?" asks Yamato.

"No, it's because I was expelled from my previous school and evicted from the dorms, both because of poor conduct. I decided to complain to Tesshin about this and he decided to invite me to join Kawakami. Nothin' better to do so I figured I might as well. I'm also living at Kawakami Temple for now."

"... Eh? My house?" Kazuko says.

"Inu, how could you not know about a resident in your own house?" Christiane asks.

"But I've never seen her before and Onee-sama never mentioned anything about someone staying with us. Oh, but Grandfather said there would be a surprise," Kazuko says.

"Wanko, ignoring the latter two points, you saw Huang-san last night along with Yoshitsune," Yamato says.

For a second, Kazuko blanks out, trying to remember before she suddenly realises that Yamato's right.

"Oh, yeah, she was the little girl who was there when we won. But more importantly, Huang-san, I challenge you to a duel! You threw that bench earlier, right? So you should be pretty strong."

"Ehhh… that sound's like a pain, I don't want to. It's a much better use of time to just laze around and bask in the sun. Sensei, where's my seat."

"Huh, oh, a new desk was brought in this morning for you, the empty desk in the back by the window."

"So I've finally gotten my hands on the legendary protagonist seat," Huang Luan says as she walks over to her desk.

As Huang Luan sits down, Umeko says, "I'll leave the rest of homeroom for you all to socialise. It'd be good if everyone can get along with Huang Luan and bring her out of her delinquent ways."

In her seat, Huang Luan's eye twitches listening to her new teacher. 'But I like being a delinquent,' though Huang Luan's quiet thoughts don't last long as she is soon surrounded by several other students due to her cute appearance. But Huang Luan manages to get most of them to return to their seats by releasing a bit of her aura, causing Umeko to think it will be a long time until Huang Luan's drop her delinquent ways. However, this show of force only serves to pique the interest of the seven members of the Kazama Family in 2-F, being the only students still surrounding Huang Luan.

"Yo, you're pretty interesting, despite being so small, haha. I'm Shouichi Kazama, leader of the Kazama Family! The man whose as free as the wind and as spirited as a storm."

"We met last night, but we never got around to proper introductions. Naoe Yamato, I guess you could say I'm the tactician of our little group."

"Shiina Miyako, Yamato I love you. Nice to meet you," she says before returning to the book in her hand.

"I know but let's just stay friends," Yamato says, brushing off the sudden confession in the middle of an introduction.

"Are they always like that?" Huang Luan asks.

"Yes, I was also a bit surprised by it when I first met them. But I've gotten a bit used to it. My name's Christiane Friedrich, you can call me Chris."

Flexing his muscles, Gakuto introduces himself, "I'm Shimazu Gakuto."

"You can ignore him, he's just a muscle head," Miyako says.

"Hey!"

"Haha, anyways, I'm Morooka Takuya, but everyone just calls me Moro. I heard you calling this the protagonist seat earlier, what's you're favourite genre?"

"Magical Girls, specifically PreCure," Huang Luan answers without any hesitation.

Hearing her answer, the Kazama Family and everyone else eavesdropping in the background can't help but think, 'her tastes match her appearance.'

"As for the one that's been pressing you into a fight is…" Yamato says, leading into Kazuko introducing herself.

"Kawakami Kazuko. C'mon, let's have a duel!"

"I'm still going to refuse. I don't feel like fighting right now," Huang Luan says, resting her head on her desk.

Yamato drags Kazuko to the corner of the classroom and whispers something into her ear. With sparkles in her eyes, Kazuko returns to Huang Luan's desk, "I shouldn't have expected as anything from someone so small."

Huang Luan's eye twitches, as a feeling of annoyance builds up in her. But she knows that it's just a provocation being directed by Yamato so she ignores it. And while Kazuko doesn't relent, her voice begins to sound monotonous, as if she's reading a script of provocative phrases from a list. In actuality, she is just reading off a list that Yamato mailed to her phone

Despite knowing full well that, Kazuko doesn't actually mean what she's reading and that everything is being supplied by Yamato. Huang Luan eventually gives in after a couple of minutes, both not willing to stand the insults to treating her as a child and to just get Kazuko to quit bringing up the topic.

"Fine, I'll agree! Happy now!" Huang Luan says.

"Yes. Sensei!" Kazuko yells, calling for Umeko.

"I've already gotten approval for you," Umeko says handing Kazuko a dulled replica naginata. "Do you need any weapons, Huang?"

"Nah, I'm fine with my fists," Huang Luan says, getting up from her seat.

"Very well. Then both of you head to the field."

As both participants head down to the field with their class following behind them, they end up meeting the Principal at the front doors of the school.

"I was waiting for you all to show up. I'll be here to watch over and serve as the referee for your duel," Tesshin says.

"Principal?" Umeko questions.

"Don't worry about it. I just wanted to watch the duel of someone who told me they would fight on their first day of school," Tesshin says. 'And it's better for me to watch personally and make sure Luan doesn't go overboard.' Turning to Huang Luan, Tesshin says, "I believe you owe me a good drink now."

Huang Luan doesn't say anything and grunts before she reaches into her pocket pulling out a large gourd that's been tightly sealed.

"Here, it's a Baiju I've been ageing with that special gourd for a while now. I shouldn't have made that bet…" Huang Luan says as she exits the school building.

"Wow, what kind of pockets are those!? To be able to hide just a large thing, I want clothes like that!" Kazama says.

"It's not the clothes that are special. But it's not important, it's better we move on ahead. Don't want to keep the moody child waiting," Tesshin says,

"I heard that!" Huang Luan shouts from her position on the field.

Standing opposite to each other with roughly 10 metres distance between them, Kazuko gets into a fight stance as she awaits the signal to start while Huang Luan is keeping her hands in her pocket.

"Are you both ready?" Tesshin asks.

"I'm ready!" Kazuko shouts energetically.

"Yeah, I'm ready whenever," Huang Luan says.

"But you aren't even in a fighting stance," Kazuko says.

"Don't worry about it. Just start the damn thing Tesshin."

"Then Begin!"

As soon as the fight starts, Kazuko dashes towards Huang Luan who is just standing in place as she spreads her arms out wide. "Oh, you're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're coming right at me?"

Though Kazuko doesn't really react as she just has a confused look for a moment before she refocuses on the fight.

"Did she just make a Jojo reference!" Moro yells from the sidelines.

"Go on Wanko, you've got this!" Yamato yells.

Walking calmly towards Kazuko who is running at her, dodges the strike from below as Kazuko swings her naginata for an upwards strike, then dodging the follow-up as Kazuko swings it back down. Using the brief moment where Kazuko can't respond after such a movement, Huang Luan swings her fist into Kazuko's abdomen, sending her flying through the air.

Crashing into the ground, the force of impact causes Kazuko to tumble and roll over a couple of times. And seeing the damage dealt, Tesshin decides to end the match right there. "The winner is Huang Luan!"

"Wait, I can… still fight!" Kazuko yells. But her legs betray her as she needs to use the naginata as support for her to even stand.

"You aren't in any condition to keep fighting. You should know your own body better than anyone. And having taken a hit from Luan, you should know full well how much strength she has. Perhaps I should have mentioned it before, but in terms of direct combat ability, Luan's strength is comparable to Momoyo's. You should know that she held back quite a bit during this fight. It's good to be competitive, but don't go past what you can't handle, Kazuko," Tesshin says, persuading Kazuko to give up trying to continue.

With everything settled, Huang Luan says she's going on ahead and disappears after taking a step. Meanwhile, Yamato and Miyako help Kazuko to the infirmary before returning to class. But as they return they notice that Huang Luan isn't in the classroom. Looking out the windows, Yamato notices her on the rooftop, smoking a cigarette. 'Someone with strength on par with Nee-san and has a close relationship with the Principal. Wanko doesn't seem to hold any hard feelings against her and even wants to fight with her again. It might be worth trying to make a connection with her.'