Kapitel 56: Before the Nationals

*tug tug* *shake shake* Tomoyo tried waking up Kazuya who was still asleep.

From the first day Kazuya had stayed with them, he had always been the first person to wake up early in the morning. Tomoyo who would only wake up later adjusted her own body clock to train with him in the morning.

He may have been given an early rest by Jirou because of their tournament today but Kazuya used that time to catch up on the work he's left piling up because of how worn out he had been after his prolonged matches with Jirou.

"…" Tomoyo stopped and stared at his sleeping face and thought about letting him rest more since he had still been seriously doing things with the computer he brought when she fell asleep.

Kazuya, Tomoyo and Jirou took a flight in the evening and arrived at the western prefecture. They came half a day later than the rest of the club members as Jirou wanted some extra time with Kazuya and Tomoyo in the dojo. He was given free time as soon as they arrived at the hotel where he stayed to catch up with everything he's been neglecting for the past few days.

"Mmmm… where have you been… big sis…" Kazuya mumbled as he grabbed the small hand that was tugging his sleeve and pulled it.

Tomoyo was immediately thrown into Kazuya's bed as he followed up by putting his arm around her back and locked her body against his. He had gotten used to sleeping with Mei that he unconsciously hugged the girl who he thought was sneaking into his bed.

The innocent robot girl couldn't make of anything he was mumbling nor could she. Kazuya's sudden move took her off guard and she didn't know how to react to her current situation. When he slept in her room, the most she had done was holding on to his arm or sleeve when she was falling asleep.

"…" Tomoyo had been observing and staring at him a lot but this was the first time she could do so this close.

Her pupils slowly moved as she looked at his sleeping face. She felt a little nervous since he had never taken such an action for them to be close before but from what she was taught, people can start off by being bitter enemies but after a while, they would naturally grow closer. This was the first time she was experiencing such a thing so with the combination of what she learned, she thought it was natural.

In some respects, she was right about this. Even Kazuya himself hasn't realized it yet but just by sleeping so peacefully with Tomoyo in the room, he had already acknowledged her existence. He had lowered her guard against her enough to even mistake her for someone else.

It may have been his fatigue or accumulated stress that caused it but whatever the reason was, Kazuya was already holding the robot girl so closely and the innocent robot welcomed it. She even gently tried to fix his hair to get a better look at his features.

Kazuya, who was still sleeping felt it. It was one of Mei's habits to tease him in his sleep so he reacted as he usually did and snuggled his face closer to Tomoyo's body to protect his head.

"!!" Tomoyo froze as Kazuya snuggled himself closer. she could feel her face heating up but couldn't understand the reason why.

Her heartbeat accelerated as his scent entered her nostrils. She touched her face and was surprised on how much heat she radiated. Tomoyo was puzzled by her own reaction but knew that the cause was the boy that was holding her tightly.

"Ka… zu… ya…" she carefully put her hand on top of his head and gave him a gentle patting. She always liked it whenever she was praised this way by him so she thought to return the favor.

She was very thankful because even though he was tired after dealing with her grandfather, he would still spare some time for her. He wasn't the only one who grew. Tomoyo's skills and especially her mana control has gone up a notch.

Tomoyo couldn't bear to wake him up now so she just continued to pat his head until she fell asleep again.

In the venue not too far from the hotel where Kazuya and his teammates stayed, Miyamoto had just finished attending the meeting to determine the placings the various different schools will participate in in the team matches.

The Kendo national tournament was a joint event with the middle school division. It will be divided into two days. The team matches for both divisions will be for one day where the middle school students will be in the morning and then the elementary division will be in the afternoon. It will be switched on the next day where the individual tournament for the elementary division will be held in the morning then the middle school division in the afternoon.

Miyamoto was feeling good since the defending champions were on the other block. He wasn't as confident as the individual competitions because although he had many talented students, they were very far from Kazuya and Tomoyo's level. One misstep and they could be eliminated.

He knew that he had to carefully consider what their strategy would be since Tomoyo and Kazuya's fame had reached the ears of those participating in the nationals. Even though Tomoyo did not participate in last year's national tournament, both she and Kazuya were still the youngest people to have seats in both the individual and team matches.

Kuronuma Ayame's fame from her results in last year's tournament made other teams wary of her. She was the reason that there were a lot of scouts in the regional championships. Some of them didn't take note of Kazuya at first but since the battle between him and Ayame was inevitable, videos of his matches were now in the hands of various schools.

Without Kazuya's knowledge, he had been labeled as the biggest and most unpredictable factor in this year's competition.

Miyamoto rushed back to the hotel to tell Jirou about the good news. He was informed that he and their teams' two aces arrived last night. The tournament was going to be held in the afternoon so there was little time for them to develop strategies now that hey know who they will be facing.

"!" Miyamoto froze in his tracks as soon as he entered the hotel. He immediately recognized the two women who made him feel breathless. One was identified as Kazuya's mother and the cold one was referred to as Kazuya's future wife.

"You're Kazuya's teacher, Miyamoto-sensei right?" Kyouko recognized Miyamoto and greeted him as Mei was inquiring with reception about their reservation.

"Y-yes, It's good to see you again Kouzuki-san. What brings you here?" he asked. Miyamoto was not privy to Kazuya staying at the Shiroyukis so he didn't know what they were here for.

"We came to watch the nationals. Grandpa Jirou said that he would bring Kazuya here so we made reservations here as well" Kyouko explained.

"I-I see… I'll go and get Shiroyuki-sama then" Miyamoto was a bit surprised at the way she addressed Jirou but shrugged it off. He couldn't afford to make a fool out of himself in front of a student's parent.

"Kyouko-chan you're here?" Jirou showed himself in the reception area before Miyamoto could do anything. He was looking forward to at least get a conversation off of the girl who just joined them while holding a key card in her hands.

"Where's Kazuya grandpa Jirou? We haven't seen him for days and want to see how he's doing" Kyouko wasted no time to ask.

"It's a good thing the three of us stayed in the same room. From the looks of it, you're going to take him with you after the daily competition" Jirou laughed. He expected this to happen and booked a room for the three of them but he stayed over at a friend's place when he arrived and left the Kazuya and his granddaughter to have a good rest.

"My Kazu stays with your granddaughter!?" Mei reaction startled the two men.

"Yes, is there a problem with that? They are still children after all" Jirou asked. Mei didn't know how to reply since what she thought was still unconfirmed. Due to Kazuya's explanations, he had spent a lot of time as a teenager in his visions. Others may see him as a child but for her, he may have already developed a mentality of one going through puberty or even more.

"Don't mind her grandpa Jirou. She just misses Kazuya as well. Can we go see him now?" Kyouko was relieved that me didn't answer the question and intervened before she could.

"Here is the key. Since Miyamoto is here, he should have the listings for the competition so we need to discuss plans for it" he handed Kyouko a keycard. "They are in room 214. Kazuya is an early riser so I reckon he should already be up and about" Jirou excused himself together with Miyamoto who was still thinking about how Mei had reacted earlier.

The two ladies wasted no time and took the elevator to meet with Kazuya. Kyouko used the keycard and opened the room and carefully opened the door to give her son a surprise but what they witnessed surprised them.

""!!""

In the spacious room with two beds, Kazuya was sleeping soundly while snuggled up to Tomoyo's chest with his arms around her back. The usual emotionless girl was sleeping soundly as well but had a smile that was never seen while she was awake.

Mei's eyebrows shot up at the sight. She didn't doubt Kazuya since this was the usual position he would take when they slept together. She instead glared at the girl who dared to take her rightful place and took advantage of the sleeping boy to pose as her.

"(Who!?)" Kazuya could feel a growing bloodlust and it immediately roused his peaceful sleep.

He didn't waste any time and extended his senses to cover the room. He kept still to be on the safe side since the hostility wasn't directed at him. It was only after he felt the two presences and identified them that he was able to calm himself.

He slowly opened his eyes and realized that it was still dark. It felt like his head was leaning on a wall covered with a curtain but he was startled when the wall seemed to be breathing. Kazuya quickly realized that why the familiar presence was hostile almost immediately.

"This thief actually tried to pose as me while my Kazu was sleeping!? Unforgivable!" Mei couldn't hold it anymore and tried to step forward to break the two apart but was stopped by Kyouko.

"Calm down Mei!" she didn't want her son to be disturbed since this was the first time she saw him oversleeping ever since that incident. His training must have taken a lot out of him.

Mei was right on the money with her guess and Kazuya was a bit glad that she didn't misunderstand. It was probably his fault that this happened because Tomoyo would be satisfied by just grabbing his sleeve in her sleep.

He loosened his hold on the robot girl and moved so that her sleep wouldn't be disturbed. It would have been trouble if Tomoyo woke up in front of Mei who was acting like this. Kazuya sat up slowly and looked at the two who entered their room.

"Good morning mom, big si—" Kazuya was immediately grabbed by Mei and taken into her arms.

"I knew letting you stay with them was a bad idea!" Mei was still annoyed especially since she could smell another girl's scent on her Kazuya. This made Kyouko who couldn't stop her assistant sigh.

"Let him go Mei" Kyouko missed her son as well and wanted to hug and talk to him but this was hardly the place to do it since another child was sleeping.

"No! I have to get rid of that girl's scent!" she refused.

"How is Kazu going to get his things so that he can move to our room then?" Kyouko persuaded her with something she couldn't refuse, she wanted to leave the room quickly before Tomoyo's rest got disturbed as well.

"Tsk! Fine" Mei reluctantly let go of Kazuya. It was only after she let him go that she realized what she had done and turned away to calm her own nerves. She had too many thoughts in her head previously, but it was all overshadowed the moment she saw Kazuya on a bed with another girl.

The two women took Kazuya to the room they reserved on the higher floors. He knew that the two missed him and he missed them as well, so he spent the whole morning with them. They stayed in the room where they had room service provide everything as the two didn't want to separate from him until it was time for the competition.

Mei who had been quiet as she watched the mother and son catch up felt vexed. She did miss Kazuya especially since his 3 day departure was so sudden but ever since his confession, a thought had been plaguing her mind.

"(If Kazu had that vision then would that make his mental age actually older? Until how old was he before he woke up?)" she would always think about this which was why she refrained from visiting his room while he was still awake after her birthday.

"Big sis?" Kazuya sat beside her thinking she was still mad about Tomoyo. "Are you still mad?"

"No…" she pouted. "I'm just your big sis who can't compare to girls your age right?" she was a little nervous about what his answer was going to be, but this was a test to see how he would respond.

Even though he had come clean with her about a lot of things, Mei knew that he still holding back something. She knew that even if she asked him, it wasn't guaranteed that he will tell her. She understood that he had to wait a bit more if she wanted to ask. For now, she could only observe and come up with everything based on what she's observed.

"How can that be? Isn't big sis going to be my wife? That hasn't changed and will not change in the future unless big sis doesn't want me anymore" he looked straight into her eyes to show he wasn't lying.

Her intentions ended up backfiring as Kazuya ended up confusing her more. She definitely didn't think he was lying but her mind was in disarray because of what he said. This was the same Kazuya who reassured her previously about his relationship with other women and established a fine line between them and her.

Mei could only grab him and place him on her lap while placing her chin on top of his head to avoid letting him see her face. This lasted until the three of them headed to the stadium where the competition was going to be held.

They took a cab to the venue and as soon as Kazuya entered the large gymnasium, The three of them frowned after they saw the new name of the gymnasium. [Black Steel Hall] was engraved on a large wooden block at the entrance. They all had a bad feeling but they were already here and there was no way Kazuya was going to stop because they didn't like the name of the venue.

Kazuya immediately noticed gazes directed towards them from various places. He was still wearing his casual clothing so he doubted a few would recognize him as a participant. He hid a grin by looking at the shiny wooden floor. With the name and now the stares, he was more convinced that he wasn't going to be bored in this competition.