Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
Outside the Jinwen market, Kazuki quietly observed the old lady who was sitting in the narrow alley until it was midnight. When he saw that she did not move, he used the Sun and Moon sword and brought her home. He was only human, and it was only natural to have compassion.
Even if he did not know how long it had been since the old woman had passed away, but since he could see her, it was evident that she really did exist. He could not pretend as if he had not seen her and just let an elderly person remain next to a dumpster in a narrow alley.
When he reached home, it was nearly one in the morning... Letting the soul of the elderly woman out of the sword, she still had the same empty look where her gaze was vacant and unexpressive.
Even though she was looking at him, Kazuki knew that her consciousness was on the verge of fading away.
However, just to be sure, he asked a few standard questions, and as expected, he did not receive any reply. In fact, she was not even repeating the sentence she had been uttering earlier.
“Oh, Sunny, please don’t believe what Rieko said, she was lying...”
He silently recited the sentence by heart. The meaning of the sentence was pretty simple, it was just an innocent reminder. He could not think of any deeper underlying meaning in the utterance.
Returning the soul of the old woman into the Sun and Moon Sword again, Kazuki did not apply the Consciousness Comforting Method on the elderly woman to erase her consciousness. With what was left of her consciousness, it was certain that she could not last for more than a few minutes. However, there would be next to no reiki that could be formed after erasure anyway...
If her obsessiveness could be resolved, it would still be possible to extract some more refined reiki.
Furthermore, the previous red reiki formed by Akie Hanzawa had bewildered him. Now that he had met another spirit apparition, he instinctively wished to resolve her obsessiveness and see if the reiki formed by every spirit apparition was red or if it differed according to individuals.
As for the reason as to why the apparition of the old lady lingered for half an hour at Unit 1105 of the 11th floor at the 15th block, he still needed to investigate.
As he came up with this thought, Kazuki dozed off as he lay on his bed.
——
“What? You want to hit Harunaka and the girls? How could you?”
The second day during lunch break, Kazuki held his phone as he listened to Sena Nagayama speak, to which he answered with slight helplessness, “It’ll just be hitting their palm with a ruler, there’ll be no use of violence. Yesterday, I let them sit for an assessment test that was entirely possible to complete within half an hour, but they took two hours. It was obvious that they were trying to delay the time. This was only the first session, it wasn’t even an official start, so it’s easy to tell that they have a lot of ways to deal with private tutors.”
Hearing this, Sena Nagayama fell silent as she could not help but strongly agree with the last line Kazuki had said. Furuhashi Harashin had appointed many private tutors for his daughters that by now, Harunaka and the girls would already know how to deal with private tutors.
Otherwise, there was no reason why so many private tutors had failed and resorted to running away. Moreover, she also understood that Kazuki could not possibly fight and strategize against those girls every single time. After all, he was there to help them with their studies, not for any other reason.
As such, special authority was necessary.
Sena Nagayama was not an unreasonable person. After all, private tutors and school teachers were different. Apart from that, schools of the modern era were banned from implementing physical punishments on students, so it became relatively more difficult to discipline students. It was hard to determine whether this phenomenon was good or bad.
However, it was indeed time to discipline Harunaka and the girls. Sena Nagayama was pleased with the girls on other aspects, but when it came to their studies, she was particularly dissatisfied.
“If you do hit their palms with a ruler, you won’t break them, would you?”
“Don’t worry,” Kazuki replied, sincerely. “They will only feel pain, but there won’t be any long-term injury.” He was not sure about other teachers, but with reiki, he could naturally control his force, limiting the pain to the area of the palm. At the same time, he would be able to practice his control over reiki along the way. The more precise such control is, the more beneficial it would be when using swordsmanship in the future, not to mention how much more powerful it would become.
“Alright then, it’s all up to you, Kimura-Kun.” Sena Nagayama finally gave the green light in the end. After all, the private tutors in the past were lessons to learn from. If Kazuki could not help but resign as well, then she would be at a loss on what to do.
Even with the special authority given by Sena Nagayama, Kazuki did not bring along a ruler for the following Wednesday and Friday tutoring sessions. Aside from the fact that he was trying to give Harunaka and the girls another chance, he also wanted to observe the four girls.
Yet, he soon realized that other than Furuhashi Natsui, the other three girls were beyond his help, but of course, this only referred to their studies.
From other aspects, they could be considered as excellent. Furuhashi Harunaka was very intent on kendo. When he showed up on Wednesday at 6.30 in the evening, he caught her dressed in simple female kendo uniform, practicing the action of hacking with a bamboo sword on the balcony. Although the practice was in no way entertaining, she was undeniably enjoying herself.
On the other hand, Furuhashi Fuyuno regularly practiced various voicing techniques, as well. Just like Furuhashi Harunaka, she trained every single day without stopping.
As for Furuhashi Akino, if being a homebody was a real occupation in this world, she would unquestionably suit the job.
Yet, the one he was exceptionally pleased with was Furuhashi Natsui. On Wednesday, everyone else’s middle school test papers were basically blank, especially Furuhashi Akino, who did not write anything at all. The question paper that was handed to her was in the exact same condition as before.
Only Furuhashi Natsui had filled the test papers with answers. Even though more than half of the responses were incorrect after checking, he could not help but compliment her attitude.
Little did Kazuki know that when Furuhashi Natsui was in the society classroom earlier, a freshman female student had brought along her textbook to ask Furuhashi Natsui some questions. Yet, Furuhashi Natsui could not answer them, causing the girl to mutter under her breath, “I thought the Head of Department would know everything...”
That remark made Furuhashi Natsui flush with shame and embarrassment.
Her eldest sister poured her whole heart into kendo, and in the future, when she mastered kendo, she could even participate in the national kendo tournament. Although her younger sister was always hiding away in her room, it was her dream to be a game designer... Not to mention the fact that she was working hard toward achieving her goal. She had even heard that she had found some business partners online, and they were coming up with a small game as a test run.
On the other hand, her youngest sister’s dream was to be a voice actress. A goal that she was focused on achieving as well. She seemed to be the only one without any vision... All she wanted to do was to lead the girls to take over the school and fight for the position of student council president in her sophomore year.
Yet, if she were to lead a group of students, knowledge would be crucial, right? She would not be able to know the answer to every single problem students faced, but she could do her best to progress in this aspect...
Then, she would become a strong and capable woman that is greatly admired by her subordinates. Just like Kazuki.
This was the reason that had prompted Furuhashi Natsui to fill in all the answers for the test paper. Although she had used a copy of Kazuki’s textbook to answer, it was enough to startle the others.
She glanced at her sisters’ looks of astonishment and puffed out her chest slightly as a sense of pride emerged from the bottom of her heart. Especially when Kazuki praised her in front of Harunaka and the girls, she was thrilled beyond words.
I might not be as exceptional as all of you in some other aspects, but when it comes to studying, sorry... I, Furuhashi Natsui, will take the first step.
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