Ch.36

Once school we headed back to school it preceded normally for a few weeks. With our 'normal' classes and the hero studies class still going over the basics. Most of my classmates needed help with the basics and benefited from the hands-on training that the school provided. However, I and some others found this to be annoying as we had already passed the basics long ago. We could only go along with the rest of the class as we waited for the year to end as the next two years would be much more active for our hero studies.

"Akihiko, how about you and I spar after school together? We could learn more just from fighting each other than the same crap every time from Sensei Night," Rumi says to me as quietly as she can one day during our hero studies class. Though it seems Sensei Night heard Rumi, but didn't say anything as Sensei Night's eyebrow twitched.

"Sounds more to me like you just want an excuse to fight me," I say as I turn to Rumi, but on the inside, a part of me wants to spend more time with her.

"....Fine, you're not wrong. But I still think we'd learn more if you and I spared against each other once in a while," Rumi says to me with a slightly downtrodden look, but perks up again giving me a hopeful look. A small smirk rises to my face seeing her expression.

"Say I agree, where would we even spar?" I say after letting Rumi stare at me for a few seconds with a determined expression, which immediately becomes excited after hearing me.

"Don't worry I know a few places! Plus we can use some of the training areas after school, we just need to reserve them first," Rumi says having already apparently thought of places. I stare at her with my normal neutral expression, while she looks back at me with an excited one.

"Fine," I let out a sigh to which she seems to want to jump in excitement but holds herself back as we are in class. Though now everyone is looking over at us with confused looks or annoyed looks depending on the person.

After school, Rumi is waiting for me as she practically drags me to the place we'd be 'training'. Arriving at another building on the school grounds it seems to be the place that holds several training/sparing grounds. Each room can be reserved at the beginning of each day for use after school, though somehow Rumi had already reserved it like she knew I'd agree. Walking inside Rumi drags me to the room we'd be sparing in and it is probably like the other rooms in the building, a standard open court that is roughly thirty by twenty feet.

"This is the room where we will spar, you brought your gym clothes right?" Rumi says to me after we enter the room. I just nod my head.

"Good then the locker rooms are in the center of the building, go change and we will meet back here," Rumi says before running off to change too, seeing her this excited brings a small smile to my face. Once we both change and come back to the room we stand on opposite sides of the court.

"So we both will not hold back and give everything we got! The winner is decided when one person gives up or can no longer fight!" Rumi says standing across from me wearing her tight gym uniform, which is now somehow distracting me. I just nod my head half listening to her.

Then without another word, Rumi launches herself toward me attempting to kick my head. Her movement snaps me out of my distraction and I grab her leg before throwing her away from me as I knew she'd try to kick me with her other leg. She then uses this smaller space to launch herself off the walls at high speeds that get faster with each jump. Though unfortunately for her I can easily keep track of her with my extremely enhanced eyesight. She then launches herself at my back since I haven't moved after throwing her. I duck underneath her attack as she flies past me, she is able to catch herself before crashing into the wall.

"Stop playing around! I said don't hold back!" Rumi says now seemingly annoyed with me since I'm smirking at her after she failed to hit me.

"Maybe if you were strong enough to make me take you seriously I—" I say with a smirk still which seems to have infuriated her more, as she immediately attacked before I finished.

She no longer used her agility but tried to use her speed and strength to overwhelm me in close combat. Though she is still not strong enough to force me to take this seriously, she has gotten stronger since our first fight at the sports festival. Though so have I, as each passing day I can feel myself slowly growing stronger like I'm getting closer to reaching my full potential. I'm ducking or dodging each of her strikes without moving from my spot, this only seems to make her more frustrated.

"FOR FUCKS SAKE JUST FIGHT BACK ALREADY!" Rumi yells in complete anger as she is failing to hit me and to think a few months ago she was a few levels below me in strength but is now tens of levels below me.

"Ok," I say after dodging her latest strike and then punching her with enough strength in the stomach to knock the air out of her lungs. She doubles over after I strike her having not expected the strike even after yelling at me to hit her.

"Sorry may have gone a bit over—" I being to apologize only to receive a kick to the face from Rumi which flung my head back and stumble back two steps from the unexpected strike. Her kick hurt me just a bit, but the unexpectedness is what really got me.

"I didn't submit yet," Rumi says with a smirk now having stood up and giving me a battle crazed smile. Seeing her look, the feeling of excitement for a fight invades my system.

Then she beings to launch herself at me. The next two hours we spend sparing with one another, though I mostly dodge while landing a few strikes whenever she lets her guard down too much. She is slowly learning to be more defensive from our fight as she is normally all offense, but with me, she is realizing she is not as strong as she thought she was. By the end, she has a few bruises while some of my clothes are torn from her few hits she did land, but I look better than her.

"See I told you fighting can be fun!" Rumi says to me after we change back to our normal school uniform and leave for the day.

"Maybe for you, wasn't all that exciting for me," I say while giving her a smirk, which she just rolls her eyes.

"You're lying, I saw the excitement on your face when we fought. Especially towards the end," Rumi says to me with a smirk.

"Fine, though I guess this wasn't a terrible first date," I say with a small smile, trying to fluster her.

"Was the best first date I've ever had," Rumi says back with a smile, having not been flustered at all.

"Then maybe we can go out again sometime, I bet I can find something else you'd find more exciting," I say without thinking about it too much and then realize I just asked Rumi out. I turn to her with my neutral expression, but I can feel my emotions that I thought dead deep inside me being in turmoil. I see Rumi had stopped and looked at me with a surprised and flustered expression, I guess having not considered I'd actually ask her out.

"I...You serious?" Rumi says to me giving me a hard to read expression, which makes my deeply hidden emotions become more fluctuating.

'Well already went this far,' I think to myself at the same time.

"Yes, I'm asking you out on a real date," I say doubling down and looking at her with a serious face, but on the inside, I feel like my old emotions are about to burst forth. Rumi's face has actually gotten very red now and she seems to have become flustered again.

"Yes let's do it! I hope you have something good in mind, then again I guess our first date was a fistfight, not a good start to a healthy relationship," Rumi says having recovered from her flustered state and jokes about our spar.

"I have some ideas for this weekend," I say and instinctually grab her hand while we walk out of the school, she smiles at me holding my hand back.

'Oh shit, I've no idea what to do! I'll ask Shota for some advice and maybe Hizashi too! Gotta figure something out before this weekend!' I think to myself and begin to panic as we walk home together until we part ways at the train station. I then text Shota and Hizashi an emergency text to meet me at my home asap. When I arrive home they are there waiting for me outside.

"Everything ok Akihiko?!" Hizashi says nervously as he sees me since I've never texted them like this before and I can see they both have rushed over here worried about me.

"Shit sorry guys! I just need your help, I'll explain more inside and I'll cook for us as an apology for not explaining it better first," I say to them and they both share looks before looking at me even more confused.

As I'm cooking for us, I explain about my spar with Rumi and how in the end I asked her out on a date for this weekend. Shota gives me an annoyed and tired look since he was concerned about me, while Hizashi looks to be extremely excited for me.

"Oh man! My boy is growing up! Here I thought you'd die alone like Shota!" Hizashi says while wiping a fake tear from his eye and laughing.

"Really Hizashi, like you've had any luck!" Shota says while giving him an annoyed glare.

"I just might ask out Ryuko soon, I'm just surprised that Akihiko was the first to ask someone out. I always thought he'd get a girlfriend first between us, considering how they throw themselves at him," Hizashi says defending himself to Shota, before turning to me and giving me a thumbs up. Shota just sighs while shaking his head as I serve us all dinner.

"So what do you need us for?" Shota says as we eat. Hizashi just nods his head in agreement.

"Well I was planning on asking Rumi out, but later. I just kinda did it today without thinking and have no idea where to go or what to do," I say to them with an embarrassed face. While Hizashi just chuckles and Shota sighs.

"You asked the right person, though I'm not sure why Shota is here considering he is an celibate," Hizashi says giving me another thumbs up and a smile. Shota chokes on his food after hearing Hizashi's statement about him.

"I'M NOT AN CELIBATE!!" Shota says with a surprising amount of anger in his voice.

"Guys! Please focus I need the help!" I say with an exacerbated sigh. Shota shoots Hizashi another glare, while Hizashi chuckles before they both nod turning to me.

The rest of the night was the three of us brainstorming ideas for a real first date with Rumi. They both spent the night here as we hung out and got off-topic by playing some video games or watching movies. The next day came and the two were dead tired from the lack of sleep, but I faired much better than them since having an enhanced body has many perks. As we entered class Rumi just gave me a smile that showed several things to me, her normal friendly personality and a small flirtatious bit too. While Nemuri looked at our group confused as to why Hizashi and Shota a dead tired.

'Oh shit, I have to Nemuri. Hopefully, she doesn't try to fight Rumi since I figured she still likes me,' I think to myself as we take our seats and Rumi gives me a wink with makes me smirk at her.