The next day, Tatsumi attended school as usual. The sky was bright with a violet hue in it. The clouds drifting above were sparse so people knew that the day at Giol City would be bright.

  With the usual schedule, Tatsumi attended css and even noted what he cked in a book for a certain subject. He did this to make sure that he got a comprehensive understanding of the subject.

  Then there was the sound of a bell coming from the speaker signaling the end of the css. All students rose up from their seats and thanked the teacher for teaching them.

  ‘Since today I have some spare time, let’s go to the Kendo club. I need to train my close-range combat capability as much as possible.’ Tatsumi thought as he went directly there.

  The area was quite rge for a space specifically for the club. Of course, it was to facilitate the activity that was ongoing there.

  There was a rge square mattress in the middle of the rge room. That was where the Kendo club activity took pce.

  Currently, three pairs of people were practicing their swing with the wooden sword, the edge of which had been dulled so it would not be overly lethal. Tatsumi opened the sliding door with a little bit of force, and the six people there saw him enter the premises.

  When they saw what was going on, they became excited as their eyes lit up. Their expression was one of reverence, which Tatsumi did not like. But he kept that to himself and did not express it.

  ‘They are diligent, I can give them that.’ Tatsumi commented.

  ‘And you are a monstrous prodigy in terms of combat. That is the reason they give you that look.’ Kudungga chuckled and commented.

  ‘Why should they care about that? Shouldn’t they care about themselves first?’ Tatsumi did not know the exact reason but those people somehow were attracted to him.

  Tatsumi pced his usual bag in a certain corner before he picked up the wooden sword. All of its edges had been dulled so that it would not hurt when accidentally grabbed by someone. Of course, it would hurt if someone hurled or swung it hard at someone.

  Tatsumi swung it horizontally ten times before switching it to a vertical ssh, ten times just like before. Every time he did this, he felt something stir inside him. It was the desire to improve his skill in combat that burned in his heart.

  Of course, the form when he did it was practiced thousands of times, so the six who looked at him were mesmerized by the elementary form of Tatsumi’s swordsmanship.

  From swinging it diagonally to doing a ssh followed by a thrust, Tatsumi trained his body so that his form would be suitable to respond to almost any situation.

  He did this so many times that Tatsumi knew where he should put his force, where to add weight to a certain pce, where he should hold the hilt of the sword, where he should pce his feet…

  After that, he felt that his body had warmed up, so he looked at the six members of the Kendo club.

  “Alright, who wants to have a sparring session with me?” Tatsumi asked. He knew that he was stronger than the six but he could not help but want to raise the skill of the club members so that he could improve his own skill.

  Although they would lose, every single one of them wanted to be a sparring partner for the famed seventh member of the Kendo club so they all raised their hands.

  Excluding Tatsumi, the club had two young women and four young men. Their common trait was their passion for learning swordsmanship, which was why they were captivated by Tatsumi’s style of handling the wooden sword.

  Tatsumi had to choose one of them, so this time, he chose the one with the highest capability for sparring.

  “Okay, Senior Edward can go and be my partner for today,” Tatsumi said.

  “Thank you!” the young man called Edward was gd and went to the square. Tatsumi also entered the square.

  The main rule of Kendo was to eliminate the threat. To do this, there were three ways. Disarming the sword, knocking them off the square, or threatening to hit the vital part of the body.

  Successfully accomplishing one of the three would allow one to be a victor. And the victory condition was to be the victor in at least three out of five matches.

  Tatsumi gripped his wooden sword as he prepared his stance. His eyes were focused fully on his opponent’s every move and stance. Even to the point where he could read the breath inhaled and exhaled.

  Edward was also preparing for his best condition. He wanted to see where he fell short and improve based on that.

  ‘To think that I will be sparring against him…how exciting!’ he thought.

  Tatsumi watched every single detail of his opponent and Edward nodded. Tatsumi nodded too which meant both of them were ready to spar.

  But Tatsumi did not move at all. Edward was stunned for a moment. Then he decided to be the one who took the initiative and attacked. His leg moved a bit rge as he held his sword in a certain stance.

  Tatsumi saw the movement and knew that this was going to be a horizontal ssh coming from his left so he positioned his sword appropriately. As expected, two wooden swords hit each other but Tatsumi’s stance did not waver at all.

  ‘Good, he put strength into the swing. But that leaves an opening…’ Tatsumi thought as he retracted the sword and swung his sword diagonally. Edward defended by moving his sword to the predicted trajectory of the opponent’s sword.

  The problem with that was that his stance was grinded bit by bit and Tatsumi knew this would be the outcome so he did just that. The exchange went into dozens if not almost a hundred.

  Each swing caused Edward’s position to be more precarious because the more the sparring went, the more he realized that Tatsumi made it so that his positioning and stance were off and disadvantageous.

  Then another vertical ssh from top to bottom came and Edward had to defend himself once again. After the initiative, he lost the momentum of the sword as Tatsumi’s swing was not only full of strength but also fast.

  It was fast enough that all he could do was defend against it. His brow furrowed as he tried to see an opening and found out that there was one.

  So Edward used the opportunity when Tatsumi retracted the sword to unch a counterattack. He put all his strength into it as he aimed at one vital part of Tatsumi’s body.

  But then he saw Tatsumi smirked as he suddenly spun around and did a diagonal ssh. Since Edward put his all into the attack, he could not change the direction easily. And that was the moment where his stance was broken and Tatsumi used it to disarm him.

  The wooden sword that Edward used was thrown away as Tatsumi put his wooden sword just slightly near Edward’s neck.

  “You let me win, senior,” Tatsumi said while he analyzed the recent battle in his mind. Edward had some improvement and that was why Tatsumi went so far as to test it by exchanging dozens of moves with him.

  “No, I think you are the ones going easy on me.” Edward accepted his loss and he was also surprised to know that the fw in Tatsumi’s stance was actually a feint.

  “At least senior has some improvement to be happy about,” Tatsumi added and Edward ughed.

  As for the spectators, they were amazed by Edward’s movement which was getting better each day but also by the way Tatsumi used a fw as a deception to lure Edward in.

  “Your stance is good.”

  “Senior Edward only lost because of a feint.”

  “Tatsumi is really good at this. As expected of him.”

  The club members all agreed that Tatsumi was the highest standard for swordsmanship and Edward was always the second.

  “I am not that good. Please, seniors, don’t overpraise me. It makes me uncomfortable.” Tatsumi said honestly.

  “No, you deserved it.”

  “You are good enough to be included in a Federal Match.”

  Tatsumi knew that his skill was acknowledged by the seniors. Actually, the Kendo club had only him as the one below the third year as a member so he felt responsible for the club.

  As for the ck of members from the second and first year, it was because not many were interested in using cold weapons. After all, this was the time when hot weapons were rampant and popur.

  After that, Tatsumi and Edward exchanged moves with Edward having a win in the third round but was defeated the third time in the fourth.

  “Seniors, I have something to do so I will be off. If there is something you all have to discuss with me then please say it now or say it to the homeroom teacher.”

  Tatsumi grabbed back the bag that had been pced in the corner. His sharp sense returned to normal but then he saw someone who felt familiar.

  ‘Ah, she is here again.’ Tatsumi felt uncomfortable whenever she was near him. He did not know the reason but it did not hurt to be careful.

  But Tatsumi knew that she had already noticed this aspect of his life so he was not surprised by this development.

  “Eh? Why are you here?” one of the seniors knew about Ame so she approached Ame.

  “I am here for Tatsumi.” Ame said with a smile. All the seniors knew that Ame had been looking for Tatsumi but he did not want that to be known, at least as long as possible.

  That was why he told the seniors not to tell Ame about him. But it turned out that she could find out on her own.

  “Hmm. I am here. What do you want?” Tatsumi sighed as he approached her. Ame’s eyes brightened when she looked at him.

  “It is just that cssmate Chen Fei wanted to give this to you…” Ame pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket. Tatsumi instantly recognized it. It belonged to him but he remembered that he did not bring that item in his bag.

  ‘Chen Fei, why did you give it to her!?’

  As if knowing what Tatsumi was thinking, Ame expined.

  “Well, Cssmate Chen Fei gave this to me because he had some activity after school and could not come to you personally. Seeing that I am acquainted with you, he decided to entrust me to give this to you.”

  Tatsumi could only accept things as they were and grabbed the handkerchief. It was a gift from Feng Mo that he cherished so he often brought it with him. This time was a bit special because he wanted to quickly train his swordsmanship as soon as possible.

  ‘Your hunch is not wrong. I mean at this time Father God should have arranged everything in preparation for another Star Battle.’ Kudungga added.

  ‘Yeah, I know that. But I feel like I am still weak. Should I embark on the path of a Transcendent?’

  ‘Perhaps but the moment is not there yet. I believe the opportunity to become one will come to you soon.’

  After having a brief exchange of thoughts with Kudungga, Tatsumi faced Ame once more.

  “Thank you for bringing this to me. This means a lot to me.” Tatsumi said with a serious face. His eyes were also serious as he looked directly at her.

  Ame nodded, accepting his word.

  “I thought that you were indifferent to things. Turns out that I am wrong.” Ame suddenly said to him. Tatsumi did not understand why she had some interest in him so he could only let it go.

  “If there is nothing to discuss, I’ll have to go.” Tatsumi said before he walked away. He took notice of Ame’s reaction to him. He did this because he wanted to know why she kept coming to him.

  Ame raised her hand to her chest and waved it gently at him. Tatsumi sighed and left the premises.

  Tatsumi had to go to the local newspaper distribution to do his job. His job was quite well-paid for that particur position.

  He had to go to several pces where it was a good spot to sell the newspaper. Fortunately, there were people who wanted to buy it even today so he could quickly be done with the job and return to the distributor to report back that he had done so.

  Tatsumi had learned that to attend high school, he had to pay for its tuition. It was because the Hinon Federation only covered elementary school and middle school. The second purpose was that he wanted to increase his resume so that he could be counted as an experienced bor force. Third was that he wanted to have his own source of money.

  After all of that was done and he had already settled the money, Tatsumi was all smiles.

  ‘Seeing you so happy just to receive this amount of money makes me feel bad. You should aspire to get more, kid!’ Kudungga commented on the side.

  Tatsumi was not happy with that so he replied, ‘This is hard-earned money, alright. I believe that with the right investment, I can make more money in the future.’

  ‘But investment is hard. Only one percent of them succeeded while the rest only drank soup from the pieces of meat that comprised the total wealth of the civilization.’

  Tatsumi almost choked since what he heard was the truth. But he wanted to invest in the project where Charlene was working. He believed that investing in those projects allowed him to get a return in bulk and rge numbers.

  At least Sister Annie told him as such. Whether she was a reliable source of information, Tatsumi knew that Annie could not say that without some confidence.

  The violet sun painted the sky in a bit of blue but the cloud was sparse so he could see that evening was coming. Tatsumi could practically see stars from where he was walking.

  But he felt a strange feeling. He felt that what was going to happen was going to affect him greatly. He did not know for certain but that feeling caused his expression to change.

  ‘What’s wrong, kid?’ Kudungga asked with worry.

  ‘Uncle, I feel uncomfortable. It feels like my stomach is churned and twisted. I don’t know the cause but it makes me nervous for some reason.’ Tatsumi replied.

  ‘Do you feel something else? Like sensing something?’ Kudungga tried to verify something.

  ‘Feeling what? The more I get closer to that section of the park, the more I feel uncomfortable.’ Tatsumi realized that point as he was still walking.

  ‘Be careful. I feel like something monumental just happened near you. Beware!’ Kudungga warned.

  ‘I will.’

  Tatsumi got closer to the park section where it was quite desote and with almost no one around. Tatsumi felt that this should not happen at this time and pce but reality told him that something that was out of his perception was happening.

  It was because the situation in front of his eyes did not conform to the usual everyday situation he had seen before.

  He knew for a fact that this section of the park could not be empty at this time, there should be definitely some people who wanted to do something or just wanted to enjoy themselves in the park.

  Even the branches of the tree did not sway despite the fact that there was wind blowing. Tatsumi took notice of the surroundings and found out that many things did not make sense when he thought about it.

  ‘What is wrong in this pce?’ Tatsumi looked around and found many discrepancies with the usual park he had seen. The strangest thing that he discovered was a strange space near the bench of the park where the air seemed to distort.

  ‘Hmm, this is serious.’ Kudungga responded after seeing what Tatsumi had seen.

  ‘What is that, Uncle?’ Tatsumi asked in his mind.

  ‘That is the sign that someone used a substantial amount of Malicium in a pce other than the Undead Secret Realm.’ Kudungga expined.

  “What?” Tatsumi was surprised to find that the matter seemed to direct him toward the involvement of the Transcendent forces.

  As far as he knew, Malicium was the product of the undead element formed by its condensation. It was quite harmful to the living being as he knew it from the others from the Library of Consciousness but to see one right in front of him made Tatsumi not know what to do.

  Then the pce where the air distorted suddenly moved into a vortex in which something came out. Tatsumi hid in the nearest tree which could cover his body while slowly looking at the unfolding scene.

  Tatsumi took a peek and realized that it was two familiar figures. His eyes widened as he did not believe what had happened.

  ‘No way! Why, why is he here with her!?’ Tatsumi witnessed the fact that Chen Fei and Mikazuki Ame were the people who came out of the distortion in space.

  ‘Calm down. Right now, you are likely to be in the field where the interference from the Malicium is strong. Looks like this is no mere coincidence.’ Kudungga added.

  ‘What does it mean? Am I trapped in this field along with Chen Fei and Ame?’ Tatsumi probed.

  ‘Most likely, that is the case.’ Kudungga replied. Tatsumi was cursing his bad luck but more importantly, he had to help Chen Fei. He did not know why they were there but there was probably a reason.

  Tatsumi looked once again and saw that Chen Fei was slightly injured, but Ame was completely fine. However, her face was quite pale due to fear.

  For Chen Fei, he had a slight cut on his forearm that cut through his uniform into his arm. But his back was all Tatsumi could see.