An Assassin's Respite

An Unexpected Outcome

Katsugaya wastes no time at the start of the fight and charges straight for Kazuna. He activates his power when he’s halfway there. His skin begins to take on a silverfish metallic coloring that resembled iron, or maybe even steel.

 “So, his power allows him to change the composition of his skin. From the look of it, I'd say It’s either iron or steel.” Kazuna notes. 

Katsugaya throws a strong right followed by a swift kick. Kazuna swiftly dodges both of the attacks. 

“He’s got a lot of power and pretty standard moves.” He notes as he dodges two more attacks. 

“But..” He dodges another punch.

 “He’s much too slow.” He finalizes as he easily avoids a barrage of punches.

 Katsugaya screams in rage. “Just hold still!” Everyone watches the fight as if their eyes are glued to the two fighters.

“He’s dodging Katsugaya’s attacks so easily. But, how does he intend to hurt Katsugaya when his skin is iron?” Kagura wonders.

 “Well, I guess it’s about time I started my counter-attack.” Kazuna states. 

He dodges a left hook from Katsugaya, grabs his arm, and tosses him about a dozen feet. Katsugaya lands on his feet and immediately charges towards Kazuna again. Kazuna enters a stance and places a hand over one of his sword’s hilts.

 “Katsuchi style; sheathed slash.” 

Katsugaya runs past Kazuna and slows to a stop behind him. Kazuna begins to walk off the field. After a couple of steps, Katsugaya falls to the ground unconscious.

There’s complete silence before cheering finally erupts from the crowd. Kagura’s eyes widened at the exemplary swordsmanship she had witnessed. Kazuna enters the opening hallway where Kagura was watching in utter disbelief. Kazuna shows up out of nowhere, picks a fight with one of the stronger students at the school and, not only that, but he wins the fight with little to no effort.

 “Where did you learn such an advanced sword technique from? And how did you manage to hurt Katsugaya through his iron skin?” Kazuna looks at Kagura as if the question was self-explanatory but he quickly changes his expression as if he just realized who was asking the question. 

Kazuna gives Kagura a little smile as he answers. "Family technique. Maybe I'll show it to you some time. You're a swordsman too right?" Kazuna asks while pointing to the sword at her waist.

 "Y-Yeah." She replies. 

"Now, why don't we head to our next class. It should be starting soon right?" He says.

"Yeah." Kagura replies as she speeds up to walk next to him.  

“Who are you Kazuna Katsuchi? How did you learn such an advanced sword technique at such a young age? What family are you from that teaches their children techniques like that? How are you able to cut through iron so easily? Adding that to the mystery you already are I can tell you’ve got a lot of interesting things hidden beneath that calm expression.” Kagura says to herself. 

The two reach their classroom and are immediately greeted by an ecstatic Matt who slaps Kazuna on the back. 

"I knew becoming friends with you was going to be a good idea. You haven't even been here a full day and you're already looking like one of the strongest students in the school. That fight was really something else." He says in admiration.

"It was nothing really." Kazuna humbly replies.

"Come on now Matt stop pestering him. Class is about to start so go sit down." She orders. 

"Okay, your highness." Matt says jokingly as he heads to his seat.

 Throughout the day students were constantly talking about and following Kazuna around. It was quite the first day of school for him and he had become quite popular. Finally, the eventful school day ended. Kazuna was about to leave class until he remembered something very important. He immediately turns around and heads for Kagura. 

“Kagura, I just remembered something important!” Kazuna exclaims. 

“What is it?” Kagura asked confused.

 “Well, it seems that I live next door to you so I was wondering if you could help me get home?" Kazuna asks in embarrassment “Please?” He pleaded. 

“Of course I’ll guide you home. You did just move here so it must be pretty difficult adjusting to the streets.” Kagura answers with a smile. 

“Thanks, Kagura.” He replies gratefully.

They arrive in front of Kazuna’s house which is directly next door to Kagura’s. “Thank you so much, Kagura.” Kazuna says.

 “Yeah, no problem.” Kagura replies while blushing a little. “If you need any help getting to school tomorrow, I’ll help you get there too.” She says. 

“Well since we live next door to each other, we can just walk to school together every day.” Kazuna answers. 

“Huh!” She takes a step back and her face goes bright red. Kazuna looks at her with a blank face.

 “Are you okay Kagura?” He asks while leaning closer to her.

 “Y-Y-Y-Yeah. I-I-I-I’m okay… I-I-It’s just that you said that so suddenly.” She answers while fidgeting.

 “What’s wrong with what I said?” He asks while scratching his head.

 “N-Nothing at all. See you tomorrow.” Kagura shouts in response. 

She then turns around and runs into her house leaving Kazuna alone and completely confused. 

“I wonder what that was about.” He says.

He heads into his house and prepares to go to bed after showering and eating dinner. While lying on his bed, drifting to sleep he thinks.

"So, this is what it's like to live a normal school life. It's not nearly as boring as I thought it would be. I guess you weren't just rambling like some senile old man huh, grandpa."  And with that final thought, Kazuna falls asleep ending his eventful first day of school.