Bab 26: 26 Tadakomi
'I stood at the peak of martial arts.'
'Martial Artists could analyze every single movement I made and study it to be called the god of martial arts.'
'But he appeared.'
'I lost even with the martial arts I was proud of.'
'For the first time in 781st tries, I remembered the sensation of individual defeat.'
'I've... lost?' thought the woman as she savored the taste of apple under the bloodied sky.
The woman despised the man who was an obstacle to her perfection, but she was laughing when she ate the apple.
---
'If I am not imagining did he just completely disappear?'
'Yeah, right?'
'What kind of magic did he use!?'
While the crowds whisper to each other, I landed my eyes on Kishi who was kneeling on the spot. After the judge made her call, my victory was announced.
It isn't weird for her to be frustrated although it isn't an official Kendo match as I was bare-fisted. What frustrated her the most was, in fact, she completely lost sight of me despite being the opponent she has to defeat.
"I...I've lost completely," Kishi said in low voice, admitting her defeat and not questioning what I did to completely disappear in front of her.
"Good response, it was a nice match, then I'll be taking the group you've founded," I quickly got to the point.
"Change your group name in LINE to 'Tadakomi Bodyguard' and tell your group member to start protecting [Komi Shouko] & [Tadano Hitohito] from the dark. Just do the job you've been doing as a hobby till now and increase the number of people you will protect," I continued.
"Why? you may think, but you will know sooner or later. With a queen exists a king," I turned my back to depart then stopped.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you this but I've sent and pinned the data of the suspect to keep an eye on in the LINE Group," I waved my hand without turning to Kishi and left the place.
The information I've pinned in their LINE Group is data consisting of face pictures, names, personalities, movement patterns, and their grading depending on the danger they possibly contain.
By the way, Yamai Ren has graded A on the list and she wasn't the most 'dangerous' person in the last. Above her was S Grade and on it was mostly a player who is ready to kill the main character or cause an extremely strange action to engrave their existence in this server after learning a useful skill here.
Although the words 'dangerous' was used here, in the end, the player in the S Grade list was a beginner like me who chose to learn a skill in Romance manga rather than Action manga.
'Tadano Hitohito...?' thought Kishi as she stared at my departures.
---
Later that day, Kishi was walking by the hallway when her eyes caught a figure of a person.
Under the rainy and gloomy sky, Komi was observing quietly as the drop of water rhythmically hit the ground.
'Did she forget her umbrella today?'
'No way, it's Komi-san we're talking about. But, what if she really did forget it? No, no. I should know my place, I, a knight have no qualification to lend my queen an umbrella even if she did forget it.'
Kishi had a conflict inside her and...
'But...'
"Ah, Komi-san, did you forget your umbrella today?" Tadano arrived and Kishi unconsciously hid as she eavesdropped on the two's conversation.
Komi looked at Tadano like a surprised cat and nodded with a face that is hard to understand.
"Do you want to borrow my umbrella? I can wait for the rain stop at the school while doing the class committee documents for the next Monday," Tadano tried to hand Komi his ordinary-looking umbrella.
'Ah...' at this point, Kishi who was eavesdropping understood Karma's meaning for 'King,'
While she, who self-proclaimed herself as Komi's knight was stuttering by herself, in confusion whether to lend Komi an umbrella, Tadano who found Komi directly tried to lend her the umbrella.
'I wasn't indecisive about whether to lend Komi-san the umbrella or not because I'm not qualified for it. I couldn't make a decision because I was afraid to embarrass myself.'
'I was afraid that if I try, Komi-san might decline me. But, Tadano Hitohito wasn't,' of course Kishi isn't telepathy to be able to read minds but Tadano seemed genuine to Kishi, at least amongst the people who tried to approach Komi Shouko.
Hurriedly, Komi's hand trembled as she took a notebook and showed its content.
[N, no you don't have to do that to cover for my carelessness.]
'Hmm... so you can stutter at the notebook,' Tadano couldn't help but think as he looked at the panicking Komi.
"Ah, then would you like to share an umbrella?" Tadano made an action he definitely wouldn't do normally.
Everything was Karma's fault. The common sense he shows for his wife was sometimes, not common sense for a normal high-school student. That's why, Tadano's attitude has been screwed, rolled, and made a mess by Karma's daily actions for him.
Then, Tadano noticed how strange his action was, and flushed his face as he hurriedly said, "Ah no, it's not like that, I don't have impure meaning, I just thought that if we... shared umbrella..."
Tadano's moving hands were akin to a buddha with hundred hands as his voice continued to lower as his sentences goes on.
Komi's pupils dilated and her eyes quivered as she looked at Tadano. Then, she used the notebook to hide her flushed face as she weakly nodded to his suggestion.
The girls' talk Chloe and Komi did at her home yesterday was shaking Komi and making her unnecessarily conscious of Tadano.
If Najimi was by there too, Chloe wouldn't have suddenly brought upon a love's talk but unfortunately, the two were alone yesterday and Chloe wasn't afraid of indulging in the boundary of love.
Although it was a one-sided complaint, praise, annoyance, and gratitude toward Karma, Chloe yesterday suddenly acted drunk upon drinking a bottle of juice and started asking Komi whether she have a boy she is interested in.
Not an ounce of thought had she considered this but after being asked by her friend, a single face for some reason welled up in her mind and this greatly shook her mind and the effect remained till today.
"L-l-let's go then..." Tadano stuttered as he opened up the ordinary-looking umbrella.
For a short moment, only the sounds of rain hitting the two's shared umbrella remained. However, they didn't hate this tranquilness.
***
2023/7/9
Before me, a considerably short woman just the height of my chest appeared. The girl could be called 'beautiful' but it was the cute type of beautiful and never sexy.
All I questioned inwardly was, 'why gothic attire and a nekomimi instead of your usual combat attire?'
"Neeeee!! You just thought why a cat's ears, right!? Don't you ever make fun of it!! It's because of the curse I took from Nekozoku after I fought them!! Never in a million chance I am wearing it because I thought it look cute!" Shion's cat ears moved up & down as she angrily spoke.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
R4IN
R4IN The small apple story is approaching its end because I have no more imagination left for her.
Also finally meeting with Shion nice