Chapitre 29: Ryuuji's Fear

Alex and Oliver were given temporary bamboo swords and their respective kendo armor. Due to Oliver's different size, they couldn't find a suitable chest armor for him, so he needed to fight without one. The others thought it was alright even without the chest armor since Oliver's body looked like it was made out of steel. The only one who had a problem with this arrangement was Oliver himself, he was scared of getting hit, as he didn't really like getting hurt at all. Still, he didn't complain at all since a cool mercenary from a secret organization wouldn't be bothered even without armor

Sayaka was all over Oliver, teasing him left and right. "Who needs armor anyway your muscles are the best armor there is. Don't you think so my grumpy Oliver?" Oliver without breaking character backs away from Sayaka as she tries to feel up Oliver's muscles.

Alex on the other hand was feeling the weight of the bamboo sword seeing this was the first time he held one. It was significantly lighter than a normal sword, so he needed to swing it a few times to get used to the weight.

At first, Alex's swings looked clumsy since the weight difference really affected his perception of the weapon, seeing his clumsy display Ryuuga sneered. After a bit of warming up, Ryuuga approached Alex pointing his Shinai at him.

"Hey you amateur, how about a practice match before the enemy school comes? We got five minutes before they come that's enough time for me to finish you off." Ryuuga challenged Alex to prove that they didn't need these amateurs to help them.

Noel, Sayaka, and even Rachel wanted to say something but before they could do so Alex nodded his head. "Sure let's have a little practice."

'I can't get used to this weight, so better test it out. This guy isn't so bad after all, even though his aura of hostility is always leaking that might be attributed to him being a third-rate martial artist. I better go easy on him, since he was kind enough to help warm up a bit.'

The two stood facing each other, they didn't need a signal to know that the fight had begun. Ryuuga wanted to attack quickly and end it fast with a surprise attack, but when he looked at Alex he couldn't see an opening. Alex wasn't even in a proper stance his Shinai was pointing downwards, he had no defense set up yet Ryuuga felt like he wouldn't be able to hit no matter what he did.

Alex on the other hand was confused.

'Why doesn't he attack? He's even showing a lot of holes in his defense? Is he really not cut out to be a martial artist? Or is he showing a lot of openings to lure me into a trap? Well either way since he was the one who kindly wanted to spar, I'll wait for him to make the first move.'

Alex wasn't moving and simply stood there and was calmly facing the opponent. On the other hand, the one who kept on saying Alex was an amateur, Ryuuji was sweating so much and was even having difficulty holding his Shinai.

Every time he thought of attacking Alex, he would suddenly have a vision of being cut in half, even though they weren't even using real blades.

Noel noticing Ryuuji's shivering was a bit worried. 'Is he not feeling well? But he wasn't acting like this a while ago? Is Alex doing something to him that I can't see?'

Oliver who had extensive knowledge of martial arts without any practical experience, felt like he was watching a real sword fight. So he kept on nodding his head in total approval of the situation.

Sayaka's reaction was she had none, to her the spar between Alex and Ryuuji was pointless. She was now thinking of more ways to tease Oliver and Rachel. She wanted to tease Alex as well, but she noticed immediately even when Alex seemed confused his facial expression didn't change much, so it really wasn't fun teasing him. Oliver on the other hand looks like he's serious all the time, but every time Sayaka teases him, he reacts exaggeratedly and she notices a twitch here and there, seeing through Oliver's almost perfect act.

Rachel on the other hand knew what was going on. Seeing Alex fight her mother to a standstill, Rachel was able to determine Alex's level of skill. Most probably this idiotic guy called Ryuuji is scared of Alex. Because even if he is a third-rate fighter, facing a monster like Alex must be unnerving for him.

Alex wasn't getting impatient still he needed to test his strength while using a Shinai, but Ryuuji wouldn't move. When Alex decided to finally take action a girl from the female team of the Kendo club, disrupted the match.

"The Kendo team of Hillman High School has arrived."

Hearing the announcement Noel went into the middle of Alex and Ryuuji. "This match ends here." When Alex heard this he went to stand beside Rachel.

Ryuuji on the other hand felt his knees give in and knelt, he then proceeded to breathe heavily. Noel ran towards him in worry of Ryuuji's condition.

"Ryuuji are you alright?! Ryuuji?!" Ryuuji couldn't respond and could only look at Noel's face before fainting. Seeing Noel's face somehow calmed his nerves which resulted in him fainting.

The kendo club got riled up seeing Ryuuji faint. They rushed him to the nurse's office.

"Did you really need to do that to him?" Rachel asked Alex who didn't react at all to Ryuuji fainting.

"I didn't do that to him... His concentration and abilities were too lousy, he did that to himself. It's a good thing I didn't attack." Alex responded to Rachel's question without looking away from Ryuuji who was being brought to the nurse's office.

The nurse who looked at Ryuuji's condition simply stated he fainted due to fatigue. The Kendo Club members couldn't understand how he was fatigued, he didn't even move the entire spar.

Noel had no choice now. "I don't want to do this but we need to request the other team to have the exhibition match be between three fighters only."