Chapter 99 - Tezguniuth, The Mean

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Advance Merry Christmas Folks. 

Sorry, this chapter is very short  compared to the usual, and time was tight due to me doing a lot, I mean, a LOT of cooking, for very little pay. But hey, free food for days. 

It will be the same tomorrow too.

I just wish I was a fast enough writer to have prepared a few chapters in advance. Unfortunately, not. 

As you might all notice, even this author's note is haphazardly written.

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Kotone and Tezguniuth are now in the front yard of the Red's house, standing a few meters apart, facing each other.

Kotone is already assuming a stance, ready for action at any moment, while Tezguniuth simply has his arms crossed on his chest, resting them on his big belly.

"Make your move…" Tezguniuth then lazily beckons Kotone before putting his hands down on his sides.

The intimidation Kotone felt earlier from the demon towering over her, is taken down a notch. She is instead a bit irritated seeing that Tezguniuth seems to not see her as a threat and is not taking the spar that is about to occur, with an air of dismissal.

*thck**thck* with just two quick huge steps, Kotone is already in front of Tezguniuth, her arm cocked, about to throw a punch.

Midway through her punch however, *slap* her fist is parried by Tezguniuth to the side with a forehand slap, forcing her out of balance. As she tries to regain her balance, the back of the hand that slapped her fist aside, is now approaching her face. She can only try and duck as quick as she can as an attempt to dodge.

Her attempt is only half successful as *thnk* Tezguniuth's hand grazes her forehead.

The simple graze however is enough to shake her vision for a moment, almost making her trip.

She then hurriedly hops to the side to regroup.

As soon as she distanced herself, she gets goosebumps, just realizing that Tezguniuth's slap that looked casual and lazy, is powerful enough to potentially knock her out.

Before she can come up with a new approach for an attack, Tezguniuth starts marching towards her direction at an imposing manner with his arms swinging on his sides. She nervously swallows and gets ready to defend.

As Tezguniuth is at a certain reach, he raises his hand to his face's level, and swings it down at her.

Kotone leans back, easily dodging the slap but almost gets caught again by another backhand.

This scene repeats itself as Tezguniuth continues marching forward while throwing alternating forehands and backhands at different angles, forcing Kotone to continue stepping back while dodging.

A few moments later, Kotone gets used to the pattern and she realizes that Tezguniuth is not as quick as she feared, making her calm down a bit.

She is about to make a move, when *fwap* Tezguniuth's hand comes at her again, but this time at a much faster speed that the ones that came before. .

She manages to dodge the hand but her nose being grazed by it stuns her. Before she can recover, a shadow draws closer which she knows is a backhand from Tezguniuth. Unfortunately, her body is not cooperating with her mind's intention of dodging and she can only close her eyes and braces herself.

The next moment however, to her confusion, no slap lands on her face. She slowly opens her eyes and finds that Tezguniuth actually stopped his hand just a few inches from her face.

*tk* *tk* The hand then pats her cheek softly twice, followed by "HAH. Flinchy flinch~" a teasing comment from Tezguniuth.

She sighs in relief, watching Tezguniuth retreat his hand.

"Weird… Why do you look so scared? I thought we were just warming up?" Tezguniuth asks as he steps back.

"W-warm up?" Kotone is taken aback.

"Yes. I caught a glimpse of you mercilessly whacking Fumio's body with a steel pipe. I'm no match to Fumio-san, but from what I saw, I thought you at least have the strength to tire me out." Tezguniuth ponders with a hum.

"Ah… I see…" Kotone is enlightened. She realizes that Tezguniuth must have seen her use her spiritual energy.

"That was me going all-out, Tez-san." Even though she finds herself outmatched, she does not want to use her spiritual energy for the spar. Especially in a spar with someone who does not seem interested in sparring with her again in the future.

She is actually planning on using her spiritual energy to power in her resistance seals for weight training later in the afternoon. If she spends all of her reserves in the spar, she will also have to wait for the night time, for the moon to show, to quickly refill her reserves again using her newly learned Celestial Body Breathing Technique.

"I'm sorry, Tez-san. Even if I go all-out, I don't think five minutes is enough to tire you out." She can only apologize to Tezguniuth.

"Oh…" Tezguniuth nods.

Kotone is relieved that Tezguniuth does not seem annoyed or disappointed.

"Well. Doesn't matter. Let's continue our warm-up. I'll go a bit easier on you this time." Tezguniuth marches to Kotone again and swings his hand at her once again.

"W-wha…" Kotone jumps away.

"Why not just ask Xoz-san or Rezonad-san?" She wants to get out of the sparring, finding that she is not ready to face someone of Tezguniuth's strength.

"Hah! Boss man wasn't lying. You really are afraid of getting hurt..." Tezguniuth says as he goes on pursuit.

"I'm not afraid. I just hate the feeling…" Kotone gets offended.

"Either way. You're still not used to it. And I gave my word to boss man that I'll help you with that fear." Tezguniuth swings.

"Kichirou-san asked you?" Kotone is surprised as she ducks under a forehand slap.

"Yes." Tezguniuth confirms.

"Why didn't he tell me?" Kotone hops back to avoid a backhand.

"He forgot, maybe?" Tezguniuth takes a swing once again.

"He doesn't forget anything…" Kotone grumbles as she dodges. She figures that Red must have kept it from her just for kicks.

"But, why are you coming to me just now?" Kotone asks as she distances herself for a breather.

"We should have started a few days ago."

"I was busy starting a toy company for boss man." Tezguniuth says, marching to Kotone again, not allowing her to take a break.

"Wow… For a demon of sloth, you're rather busy." Kotone asks as she takes a stance.

"I hate the errands. But whipping you to a fighting shape… I can enjoy." Tezguniuth as he ups the speed.

<>

An hour later.

"Haaa… Holy shit. I need to get used to this body…" Tezguniuth says, as he sits down on the clay ground with a satisfying grunt.

Kotone meanwhile, is lying flat, dead tired, not caring at all about getting dirty, "*haaaaaa…. Ha..." and is hungrily catching her breath using the basic breathing technique.

Unlike Tezguniuth who is only lightly winded, her body is drained.

"What do you mean, Tez-san?" She asks.

"Unlike my original body, this one is a bit stiff to control." Tezguniuth says.

"I hope you don't get used to it before I beat you." Kotone jokes.

"With how well- or should I say, how badly you're doing? I don't think so." Tezguniuth shakes his head, not in the mood to joke after getting disappointed.

"An hour, girl. An hour. You never forced me to use two hands."

"R-right… Just one hand... Sorry." Kotone realizes and her confidence takes a hit.

"But you have thousands of years of experience fighting." She argues however.

"Wrong. I'm a demon of sloth, so just a few decades, a century at most...

"But I acknowledge your point. Still. You have the strength and if you know what to do with it, you can get me to fight you seriously." Tezguniuth throws back.

"What should I do then?" Kotone can only accept the criticism.

"The first step to getting used to the pain, is blocking. Starting tomorrow, stop dodging, and resort to blocking." Tezguniuth says.

"sssss?" Kotone hisses, just imagining how much it will hurt.

"If I were you, and I would be jumping at this head on. Boss man told me that he left you different types of medicinal baths. What's there to worry?" Tezguniuth scoffs, a bit jealous at Kotone's privileges.

"You don't know how much those baths hurt." Kotone grumbles.

"Right… I heard from boss man that you want to beat Oonishi Gentarou? Then I approve of your attitude… Very nice…" Tezguniuth claps at Kotone.

"…" Kotone gets embarrassed at the sarcastic comment.

"Or is it all just smack talk? Because if that was all that was, then hey, sorry for misunderstanding." Tezguniuth shrugs.

"I-I'm not… talking smack..." Kotone gets offended.

"Then prove it to me tomorrow. Prove to me that you have the right to the potential that you hold." Tezguniuth challenges.

He can only hope that his bitter but encouraging words, can fan the flames of motivation in Kotone, just like Red asked of him. 

<>

9 PM

"Wow… you look f*ckin serious…" Kotone is interrupted from her cultivation in the backyard, under the moonlight, by Fumio joining her.

"Uhn…" Kotone simply nods in acknowledgment.

"Wow. Something happened today?" Fumio is taken aback by Kotone's mood.

"Yeah…" Kotone nods and starts telling Fumio her spar with Tezguniuth.

...

"So, yeah..." Kotone concludes her story, feeling better after sharing her frustration.

"Wow… Tez-san's that mean, huh? Looks like you really have to do better tomorrow." Fumio can only console her.

Inside however, he scoffs, knowing that Red is manipulating Kotone.

"Anyways. Did you find your sister?" Kotone asks.

"Yeah." Fumio nods.

"So? How did it go? Why wasn't she answering your calls?" Kotone asks in great curiosity.

"Secret…" Fumio smirks in reply.

"Not fair! I told you about my embarrassing sparring!" Kotone complains.

"Okay. Something happened that made her quit the clan. We talked and we agreed that she will live with me temporarily before she's back on her feet." Fumio satisfies the curiosity.

"That's great news! When's she moving in?" Kotone is happy for Fumio.

"In a few days."

"Then what are you doing here? You should be helping her." Kotone gets invested in Fumio's situation.

"Because it's that time for Yoshiko-nee." Fumio says.

"What do you mean?" Kotone asks.

"Boss told me that if he's not back by the end of the month, we'll have to give Yoshiko-nee the talk ourselves." Fumio says with an excited smile.

"Wha-" Kotone takes a few seconds before her eyes widen in realization.

"O!! 'THE' Talk!' She stands up in excitement.

"Yes. Let's rehearse.. We'll wake her up at midnight."