Chapter 39 - Responsibility

*Whoosh*

Fumio leans back as he lets the point of the wooden blade slash air in front of him.

While he is a bit surprised of Kotone's speed, he already expected it, having gone through the same sudden dramatic changes that she is going through.

"W-wha…" Kotone on the other hand, is dumbfounded.

She is surprised at how quick she just moved. She then looks at Red and Fumio to get answers, but she only receives looks that tells her to keep her offense on.

"Hey…" Fumio does not want his or Kotone's test to be interrupted by her questions so he steps to Kotone's space and he gives her a karate chop to the shoulders.

He controls his speed and strength however, his aim only to keep Kotone focused, so he is not surprised that Kotone dodged his hand easily.

"Focus." Red says, getting Kotone back in action.

"HIYAH!" Kotone attacks once again with a downward slash.

Fumio, having trained to fight bare handed against armed opponents even back in the Hasegawa Clan, sees through Kotone's attack immediately. He underestimates Kotone however.

Kotone after her downward slash failed, continues with an upward diagonal slash, and when that is dodged once again, like she expected, thrusts her sword forward to the direction where Fumio moves his body to.

Fumio, seeing that it is too late for him to dodge, quickly steps back, softening the hit from the sharp end of Kotone's wooden sword. He then hops backwards to increase the distance, intending to cool down Kotone's assault.

"I hope that won't leave a bruise…" Fumio mutters as he caresses the painful spot.

He cannot help but be surprised by how well Kotone's three attacks flowed well after each other despite having only picked up the sword for three months.

This pause in action meanwhile makes confusion catch up to Kotone.

*WHOOSH* *WHOOSH* *WHOOSH*

She is still baffled as she does random swings with her wooden sword, slicing the air. She cannot believe that she is moving even quicker than Red. She then puts the wooden sword in front of her face and *thunk* hits her forehead softly. Feeling the slight pain, she afflicted on herself, "I-it's real…" she confirms that she is not dreaming and is further baffled.

Realization also catches up to her, replaying in her mind how Fumio dodged her quick strikes.

"Y-you're a superioris?" She asks Fumio in shock. Fumio once told her that he is her fellow non-superiori. This commonality in them is one of the things that made the two be in good terms with each other.

Fumio meanwhile, no longer wants to continue his 'test' seeing that Kotone is more interested in answers. He then looks at Red to which Red simply nods in response.

"I'm not. And neither are you. We're the same type of people." Fumio responds to the question.

"T-then… what are we?" Kotone can barely process her situation.

"You, me, and boss: we are human. Humans who just happened to have the talent to practice the certain type of powers that boss has." Fumio answers based on all the information he collected from Red so far.

"Then… The massages, the medicinal baths, the training…" Kotone does not know how to phrase her question.

"Yes. All the work I had you do… resulted to this." Red confirms. "Sorry for the deception." He adds.

Kotone finally relaxes.

"I-I thought…" She sighs, as she replays the events since Red entered her life. "Never mind." She shakes her head.

"If this is the compensation by being deceived, then I'm willing to be deceived more." She chuckles.

"Hahah…" Fumio understands what Kotone is feeling.

"You have always been suspicious of why I've been generous to you, am I right?" Red asks.

"Yes." Kotone admits.

"And you think that I'm sort of a weird, twisted man who took you in as some sort of an experiment, correct?" Red asks again.

"Well… experiment is a bit…" Kotone, now clearer at her situation, gets embarrassed by the accuracy of Red's guess.

"It does not matter." Red waves off Kotone's embarrassment.

"I took you in because people like you, like us, are rare, living treasures. To me at least. Treasures that would be a waste if left buried among the soil of the earth. Treasures that can be molded, polished, and forged to their fullest value." He takes a deep breath.

"But most importantly, even if I die, I want my wisdom, my arts, to live on." He looks at his two students.

Kotone and Fumio look at Red in a new light. In addition to the new impression, they both feel a huge weight get on their shoulders. They then exchange looks to look what each other are thinking and after a second, they both nod to each other.

They have reservations however.

"I get if it's Fumio-san, as he's spent a more time with you. But why me too, Kichirou-san? The way I see it, your powers can change the world, and to pass it on to me, even though you value me, is a bit…" Kotone finds the huge responsibility overwhelming.

"Because I trust your character." Red says.

Kotone is somehow humbled and moved by Red's words.

"Boss, I'd be honored to learn from you and grow stronger, but…" Fumio suddenly realizes something.

"Are you sick or something? Don't you still have the time to find a wife and have a child you can train and teach? You're not dying, are you?" He asks, worried.

His words also worrying Kotone.

"Puhah!" Red guffaws at Fumio's question.

"Kid, I still have many years ahead of me. And do you think you're the only ones who are getting stronger?" He asks rhetorically.

This information however, stuns Fumio who has seen what Red can do.

"You're getting stronger? Even with your strength now?" He cannot help but ask.

"Of course. There are still many things I can do that you haven't seen." Red smirks.

It has been 10 months since he has awakened in this word and while he did not have intensive training, he has been slowly but stably getting more powerful. His body has gotten stronger due to his advanced resistance seals which he has been fueling with a quarter of his spiritual energy reserves he always spares for it.

When it comes to his spiritual energy, it has slightly evolved in quality and his reserves of it rising by a few percentages with the help of his celestial body breathing technique.

He noticed however that the moon's light is slowly getting less and less effective for his cultivation. A sign of which he will soon cross to the next level where he will have to cultivate using the light of the sun.

"Then why are you in a hurry to …" Fumio is confused however.

"I'm not in a hurry because of me, it's because of you two." Red says.

The two give him puzzled looks.

"It's a shame actually. I wish I found you two when you were but small children." He shakes his head.

"I simply want you two to grow strong enough for me to share the rest of my arts with you two... But that will take years, even decades."

"Decades…" Kotone's eyebrows jumped and Fumio whistles.

"So, I'm giving you two this chance to make an important decision." Red continues.

"One, as you grow in strength, you two will shoulder this long-term, NO, this LIFETIME's responsibility of protecting our secrets and spreading our arts." He pauses for the two to process.

Seeing as the two understand the weight of the responsibility and would want to hear his second choice, he continues.

"Or two, call it quits. You can still be in my employ, but will no longer receive teaching from me. You will take what you have already learned from me, and master it. That would be enough for people of your potentials to grow strong enough to stand even among the 1% of the world and can live the rest of their lives in peace." He concludes.

Kotone and Fumio do not know what to say but simply ponder.

"How strong am I now?" Kotone is the first one to speak up.

Fumio and Red smirk at the question.

"Psh. You are already part of the top 1%." Fumio scoffs.

"What do you mean?" Kotone asks.

"You're already as strong as the strongest of the D-Class superiori." Fumio says, shocking Kotone.

"Do you know the universal ratio of superiori?" Fumio asks.

"I kind of but I already forgot how it works." Kotone admits.

"Okay. As you know, the human population is divided into two, the superiori and the non-superiori, at 50 percent each.

"E and F Class superiori are hard to count. But starting from D Class and up to A Class, it follows the '17 rule'.

"Out of the 60 million superiori in Japan, an estimated 3 million of it are D-Class, which is already the top 5% of all superiori. Divide that by 17, that's 150 to 200 thousand C-Class. Divide that by 17, then there are around 10,000 plus B-Class. Then divide that again by 17, then there are around 600 A-Class Superiori."

Kotone's head at this point, starts spinning at the numbers and Fumio notices.

"I'm sorry. Let me get to the point… out of the 60 million superiori in Japan right now, only around 200,000 can beat you in a fair fight. That's three people per thousand. Factoring in the non-superiori population, that's just 1 to 2 people a thousand." Fumio explains.

"I-I get it…" Kotone nods. "But there are a way more good people around than bad, so my chances of running into a fight is even smaller."

"Yes." Fumio nods.

"You've really thought this through, huh." Red is amused by Fumio's calculations.

"What boss? I was powerless and at the bottom of the society. It's just satisfying to think that I've climbed to the top." Fumio says proudly.

"Heh. Buddy. Power isn't all about if you can beat someone in a fight." Red chuckles.

"I know that too, boss." Fumio scoffs. "It's just fun to think about." He pouts.

Kotone on the other hand, is done getting over her surprise with her newfound power.

"So… What's the point of becoming even stronger?" Kotone raises to the two.

"Me? Well…" Fumio has also asked himself that same question during the past few months.

"Boss said that I'm mid-level C-Class right now after getting my breathing technique to the next level. But 100,000 people still pose a threat to me in our country alone. In the world, around 15 million people are stronger than me. I want to live a peaceful life so I want to get stronger to reduce the chances of that peace being ruined." Fumio shrugs.

"Peaceful life…" Kotone repeats. "Sounds simple, but hard to achieve." She nods after a realizing the weight of that desire.

"Yes." Fumio nods.

"And… I just wanna see how far I can go. You've not seen Boss' strength, but I at least have an idea. I want to know if I can reach his strength one day. That's my new purpose in life." He opens up.

"Purpose…" Kotone utters.

Red at this point is chuckling inside. He thought that Kotone will leave his tutelage and that he will have to convince her from doing so. But with Fumio's help, chances of Kotone refusing to continue have drastically decreased.

"I'm also thinking of having my family one day. What kind of a father I would be if I couldn't protect them?" Fumio adds.

Kotone smiles bitterly at that, but quickly rids of the feeling it took out of her.

"Yeah. That makes sense." She nods.

"And finally… Without boss, I'd be dead right now. He's the only one who really cared for me in my life. He took care of me better than my blood did. To be honest? Even though boss doesn't feel the same way? He's family to me." Fumio concludes as he nods at Red.

Red already has an idea of how Fumio feels, and he is pleased with the kid's loyalty. He smiles and shakes his head however at how Fumio wears his heart in his sleeves.

"Although this is all new to me, I know that I'm no longer as powerless as before." Kotone sighs.

"And here I am… For the first time in my life, valued, important to anyone aside from Haruto…" She looks at Red in resolve.

Red can only smile, having confirmed that he did not break Kotone's trust.

His smile meanwhile, warms and moves Kotone's heart.

"And, even though all of this started with your lies and pain from you, Kichirou-san. And you, keeping things from me, Fumio-san. I think I've found a place I belong.." She smiles the sweetest Red and Fumio had seen her smile.