Chapter 23 A Promise

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: SHIZU AND AZI ARE STILL BOTH DRUNK AND SLURRING)

Shizu fell to her knees after she witnessed her katana break from Azi's heavy strike with his oversized greatsword. He stood triumphant over her with a gleeful expression of victory as he pumped his fist up in the air as he cheered.

"YES! I WON! I DID IT! I DIDN'T FAIL....huh?"

Hearing a soft whimpering Azi cut his cheering short as he began to notice the tears on Shizu's face, he initially thought that Shizu was crying over her loss but felt that his assumption was wrong.

"Whatsup, what is wrong?"

Shizu looked up at Azi and then at her katana on the ground and then back to Azi. Affirming how indifferent Azi looked made her cry as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"500,000!"

"500,000?" Asked Azi, he didn't understand what she meant at this moment but seeing the broken katana a line of cold sweat began to form on his brow.

"This costed me 500,000 Minos to fix and costed me more to get it customized. Waaaah, you broke my favorite weapon." She then began to pound the ground like a child as she cried out with even more tears streaming to the ground.

Besides her was a deformed metal umbrella and a katana that was broken in half.

Through his drunken thoughts Azi finally noticed the severity of the damage he did and attempted to look for a solution by turning to Kajima as he was the foremost expert when it came to fixing weapons. "You made Shizu's weapon, right? You can fix it? Right?"

"Sure, just give me 1,000,000 Minos and the materials." Kajima sarcastically said.

"1,000,000 Minos. I don't think I can.. umm…"

Astonished by the amount of money, Azi's voice began to tremble.

"C-Can y-you put it on a tab?"

"Nope."

The nonchalant refusal hit Azi hard and his mind raced to find a solution. He had somewhat sobered up a bit from the fight and was a bit calmer. Now able to think more rationally he believed he may have gone too far as the fight he had with Shizu was only supposed to be a sparring match that initially used disposable weapons.

While Azi was thinking to himself, Kajima thought that this would be a good chance for Azi to learn a lesson so he made a suggestion.

"How about you fix it Azi? Think of it as me cashing in the favor you owe me for today's match?"

"But I have no idea how to fix her weapon."

"Well better get started on learning how, or are you going to go back on the favor you owe me and the responsibilities of your actions." With a judgemental look and tone, Kajima let loose a bit of his overbearing pressure as he glared over at Azi who had a drunkenly sobbing Shizu laying on the ground next to him.

Following his gaze, Azi again saw Shizu's pathetic state. He felt bad for making her cry but felt annoyed by the turn of events. Scratching the back of his head he then sighed and begrudgingly accepted his responsibility. 'Fine, dammit all. I'll do it. I fucking do it!' He then approached Shizu and knelt down in front of her.

"Alright Shizu, I'll fix your weapon." He gave a compassionate smile to try to comfort her and Shizu looked up from the ground to meet his eyes. With tears still in her eyes and with her lip quivering she pleaded.

"Promise?"

Unable to deny her pleading look for a second time today, he grimaced in defeat.

"Alright! I promise. It's going to be ok. So cheer up."

Placing a hand on her head, Azi began to pet Shizu and rubbed a bit behind her fluffy ears. This caused Shizu's expression to turn happy as she pounced on him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She began to hug him tightly and nuzzled her head against his neck.

Azi hugged back as he comforted the suddenly delighted Shizu. He likened her current state to one of his past memories which was about a friend's cat that was always clinging to him when he came over to visit. His reminiscence of the memory was suddenly interrupted as he was hit by a bout of fatigue and drowsiness.

Shizu also felt the same as the post match relief had caught up to her and she began to lean forward onto Azi. This turn of events caused the two of them to fall to the ground. Unable to fight his drowsiness, Azi could not resist the weight of gravity and fell on his back with Shizu still holding onto him and him holding onto her in a mutual embrace.

Their bodies made a soft thump and they laid there, snoring fast asleep and were completely out like a light.

Rubbing his temples with his thumb, Kajima grinned derisively. "I knew this was going to be a headache."

After letting out a sigh, he then got to work and attempted to lift Shizu off of Azi but realized that they had both wrapped their arms around each other in a hold that Kajima could not break without using sufficient force. When he tried to really force them apart, they unconsciously clung to each other like two animals huddling for warmth.

This made sense as the cold night air was all around them and the snowy ground was not as comfortable as a snug bed.

He laughed wryly at this as he muttered to himself.

"Ah, to be young, but really? How can these two get along so well so soon? They already became so clingy to each other? Hahahaha"

After his little laugh, Kajima picked the two up as they held onto each other. He then made his way to one of the bigger spare rooms next to Azi's. It had a stored futon bed with enough room for the two of them to fit on.

After getting it ready, he laid the pair down on the futon and then tucked them both in as if they were his children. As a precaution, he finally placed two buckets in the room as he suspected that the hangover was not going to be pleasant.

While quietly closing the door, Kajima gave his farewell.

"Sweet dreams ya love birds."

Before completely closing the door, Kajima gawked a bit as he witnessed Azi and Shizu begin to nibble on each other's necks as if they were instinctual animals. The cute scene made Kajima's heart feel warm but he had to keep himself from laughing as he imagined what would happen when they woke up.

'They are nibbling each other's necks like wild animals marking their territory. I wonder, is this the start of a true romance?'

His thoughts carried Kajima through the night and he began to wonder what kind of future those two would have together.

*****

When morning came, Azi felt a wet sensation on his neck. When he opened his eyes, he was met with the sight of pink skin and he could feel something in his mouth and on his tongue. 'Hmmmm so…. Soft? What is this?"

Pulling his head away from the pink skin, he noticed that it was Shizu's neck and saw that a trail of drool hung between his mouth and her neck. He saw a similar line of drool connecting her mouth to his own and began to realize what had happened.

Feeling a bit embarrassed, he tried to move away but he was in Shizu's firm grip as she resisted to let him go. Giving up since he didn't want to wake her, he laid his head against the pillow he shared with her which allowed him to see her sleeping face up close.

Azi had to admit, Shizu was a beautiful young woman. He could feel with his hands that were around her, that her skin was soft even through the fabric of her clothes. He then saw how her hair flowed so smoothly in such a nice color of red that he wanted to stroke and comb it.

'How can someone this beautiful and elegant, be so brash and brutal. But even if she is violent, she is sexy in all the right ways. Oh my god, her waist is so small and her skin is so… soft. I wonder what her.. No no. Let's not think about that. That was an accident, but what would they feel like if I touched them directly? Oh god I'm turning into a pervert.'

Realizing that as his eyes wandered to a certain ample part of Shizu's body, Azi's thoughts were starting to walk down a possibly lewd route. He closed his eyes to focus on something else which had him trying to remember what happened after he got drunk.

He remembered most of last night's events but what was more important was the fact that he promised to fix Shizu's weapon which made him feel that he was in over his head. Nonetheless, he resolved himself to complete the task as he thought to rise to the challenge rather than turn away from it.

Azi did not want to break his promises as he did feel at fault for what he did. If he had held back, he should have been able to prevent such an incident.

'I really need to watch how much I drink in the future, but for now I need to focus. I can't go back on my promise and I don't want to make her cry again. So what do I need to buy to get started?'

With his resolve rising, he unintentionally hugged Shizu's back a bit tighter as he thought deeper on his next plan of action. As Azi's grip tightened, it had awakened Shizu as her eyes began to slowly open and she noticeably stirred awake. Azi, noticing the slight murmurs coming from Shizu as she awoke, kept his eyes closed and pretended to sleep.

Her eyes now open, she saw Azi's sleeping face and noticed a small red mark on his neck. Realizing what she must have done and remembering that she cried in front of him like a child who lost their favorite toy, she went red in the face at the memory of the events from last night.

Drunkenly, she wanted to put Azi in his place and make him see her good points but she failed spectacularly and felt like wanting to curl up into a ball to hide her shame.

But, all she could do was lay next to Azi as she could not think of a way to avoid waking him up.

Not noticing that he was just pretending to sleep, Azi continued to keep his eyes closed. He feared that Shizu would punish him again and to avoid it, he kept up his act.

After a few minutes, he felt that enough time had passed for Shizu to collect herself. The stirring he felt in his arms around Shizu had stopped, so he pretended to wake up. Slowly opening his eyes to make it look like he had just woken up, he acted a bit surprised to see her.

Their eyes were locked onto each other for a few moments and when Azi was about to say something, he and Shizu's faces changed to a shade of deathly green.

They scrambled out of each other's embrace and tried to find something to hurl into. Luckily, thanks to Kajima's foresight, there were two buckets that they could use.

A few minutes passed as the pair sat on the futon with a bucket in their hands as they threw up the contents of their stomachs. After a while they felt much better and when their sights met each other they both laughed at the turn of events.

"I guess the alcohol wasn't agreeable yesterday, let's be sure to be a bit more cautious next time."

Azi nodded in agreement to Shizu's wise words and added. "Sure and thank you for the match yesterday. If you hadn't agreed, my drunk self would have gotten more riled up"

"Is that so? But on another topic, just where did that strength come from? You held that greatsword so easily with one hand? And your swings were so powerful."

"I think it's because I was drunk and because of the magic I unintentionally used. I remembered that in my past memories that I abstained from alcohol due to how rowdy and overly excited I get when I drink too much. I remember three people trying to hold me back, but they failed to contain me and I tormented them with my drunken antics. I think they forgave me, but I promised to not let it happen again, so I abstained from drinking."

"I see."

'This boy has a lot of mystery to his past. I wonder what he was like before his amnesia. He seems smart so maybe he can provide the Kujyuri with some of his own…. Wait? What am I thinking, this sounds manipulative?'

Shizu then shook her head to clear her thoughts and focused.

"Anyway, Let's get going. You have a weapon to fix and I have to make a few rounds through the village."

"Sure, Sure But mind if I come with you, I think I need to buy a few tools and materials to get started."

Nodding with no objection, Shizu added.

"Be sure to use the 7000 Minos we gave you. You can use it for whatever you need, but I won't be paying you for the repairs on my weapon. You are my apprentice now and I am your knight, I must teach you how to take responsibility for your actions."

She gave Azi a smug smile of pride as she implied that not only had he taken her beloved weapon away from her, but that he had also had the audacity to lay in the same bed as her. Picking up on her gestures, Azi grimaced a bit as he felt as if he had fallen into her trap.

Shrugging it off as he knew that he could not turn back time, he smiled a bit to himself and put on a formal tone.

"Yes, my knight, but about what just happened this morning. I would like to formally apologize for sleeping in the same bed as you. If there is anything I can do for your forgiveness, please tell me."

"OH! No need to worry, you make for a good body pillow. You feel really warm and your black hair feels fluffy and soft. But if you want to pay me back, then how about you be my body pillow whenever I want."

His face reddening, Azi looked away as his formal tone loosened as he pouted.

"Denied"

"Don't make me use the silver seal."

Turning his head back, he glared at her and gave a chiding remark.

"You act like a child, ... talk about fitting."

"I'm guessing you have no qualms?"

His shoulder's slumping as Azi realized that his rebuttal was ineffective, he sighed and pouted as he grabbed a pillow to comfort himself.

"Yeah, Fine, ok, whatever...."

"Soo CUTE!!!" Shizu then pounced on Azi and began petting his black hair while embracing him into her soft ample chest.

"Not this again! HUMMMMMPH." Trapped again in her soft embrace, Azi could feel a lack of oxygen assail his senses as Shizu purred in delight.

"hmmmmmmmmm so warmmmmm."

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