Book 8: Chapter 10: Clarice’s Self-Defense Tutorial

Every time, I was always warned by Irene not to get ahead of myself.

It’s partly because I’m a rarity here, being an all-sought black-eye black-haired man, and partly because she cares about my wellbeing.

To supplement that fact, she has even provided Edith, her personal bodyguard, to be my attendant, and Clarice, as my full-time bodyguard, when Edith was away.

However, I am also a man. Even if I can’t go so far as to fight on my own, at the very least, I want to be able to protect myself.

For example, if someone attacked me, I would at least be able to manage on my own while the girls beat up the enemy. Pretty pathetic from Earth’s standpoint, but this isn’t Earth anymore.

Irene was against it, as even learning it will result in injuries. Edith, same as Irene, isn’t going to teach me how to fight as well, but for a different reason. She said that I might get too overconfident and harm myself even more, which puts the cart before the horse.

But now that we have Clarice, I decided to take the opportunity and talked to her about it.

“Hey, Clarice. I want to learn some self-defense techniques, even if they’re just the basics. Can you teach me?”

“Hnn? I don’t mind. Does Aki want to get stronger as well?”

“Ah, yeah. Well, at the very least-”

“I see, so Aki wants to aim for the strongest with me!”

“Not that much!”

I hurriedly denied Clarice. If I inadvertently nodded here, she would definitely set up a grueling training menu along with a vibrant smile on her face.

“You see, if I’m too weak, then Clarice won’t be able to move much when the enemy comes, right? I thought maybe, if I could manage myself in the meantime……”

“I see, you’re right. I’ll definitely gonna get jittery if my moves are limited to protect Aki. I get it!”

“Isn’t that right? So, will you―”

“In case that happens, all that you need to assault them first before they assault you! After all, you’re a wild boar, surprisingly!”

“No, that’s not what I meant!”

Ever since we met, Clarice, maybe because she’s too honest to her own desires (i.e., a musclehead), she really doesn’t listen to me.

This chapter is made by rocheneorecormon of stabbingwithasyringe translations.

But thankfully, after a series of simple but thorough explanations, I finally got my intentions through.

Of course, for the other girls not to find out our secret training session, we held it in a forest a bit of a distance from the mansion.

Disguised as the usual stroll, I went only with Clarice, so that we won’t raise any suspicions.

But as for secretly learning martial arts upon arriving at the place,

“Hmm. What to do……is that? No, that……mumumumu.”

Clarice groaned cutely as we stood against each other, still haven’t thought of the moves that she will teach me.

“You see, there are many different types of self-defense. In some extreme cases, it is often safer to defeat someone with a single blow than to prevent yourself from being defeated with 10 or 20 moves. I’m in that direction.”

Clarice moved closer to me and lifted my arm. Then she giggled as she gave it an acupressure squeeze.

“Mmm-hmm. Let me check your muscles for a minute.”

Her hands touched my pecs and then drifted straight to my legs. After she finished touching me all over, Clarice nodded, then said to me.

“Yep, that’s all about it. You aren’t macho, which is pretty obvious, but you seem to have all the muscles you need. So, rather than just playing the role of a passive victim……”

She came around to my side.

“Aki, try hitting me in the front for a minute. You don’t have to think too hard, just go all out like a normal person.”

“All right.”

I nodded and let out a quick punch.

It’s an amateur one with no particular martial arts experience whatsoever.

“Hm. This time, watch me as I do it.”

Clarice said, then threw her fist with a light feel. I could hear her punch cutting the wind, clearly showing the difference from mine in terms of speed and weight.

“First up are the hips. Aki, you’re almost exclusively hitting from your shoulders. You should focus more on twisting your hips first. Like this.”

Clarice goes behind me and grabs my arms and hips, moving them around as she gives me a lecture about posing, including the proper timing to twist my hips as well as the timing to stretch out my elbows.

She corrects my form with her hands as I strike my fists several times.

“If you can do the basics, you will be able to apply them even if your posture is a little bit off. However, that means your body has to master the basics first.”

I followed her instructions and released my fists repeatedly, one arm at a time. Once the right punching pose is corrected, she goes to the left. It was the same for my kicks as well.

My muscle mass didn’t change, but with the training, my punches and kicks have gained speed and power. Of course, it’s not good as Clarice’s yet.

“Un, un! I knew you had it in you. Now, do you want to climb the top of the world with me?”

“Well, that’s a little too……”

I appreciate her enthusiasm, but it’s not really my goal. Besides, I was able to catch up to her right now because she had set her bar really low. I don’t know what kind of challenges she will give me if I suddenly blurt out something like wanting to be the strongest out of the blue. I don’t want to bite more than I can chew.

Also, for a person who calls her jumping from roof to roof as a ‘moderate exercise,’ I don’t think I’ll ever catch up to her.

“Really? What a shame… Those four are the basics, but at the very least, for now, you should be able to fight back with any of your limbs.”

“Un. Thank you.”

“There’s also a lot of ways to attack, depending on the distance between you and your opponent and which side you’re on. In the meantime, I’ll teach you how to dodge first.”

Clarice said and touched my body again.

“The human body has joints, and the direction in which it moves is basically fixed. So……..”

“I see, it won’t turn over here, no matter what I do.”

“Yep. Well, if you put more power beyond that direction――you don’t have to be so frightened, Aki. You won’t break or dislocate anything. Just go as I say.”

Well, I know, of course, that she doesn’t intend to do anything terrible. However, I still couldn’t help but doubt. After all, a play-biting of a lion is much, much different from the ones of a kitten, and doesn’t necessarily mean that a normal human being will be left unharmed.

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“Anyway, the point is, once you know the direction and range of motion of your joints, you’ll be able to read your opponent’s movements to some extent, thus making it easy for you to counterattack. After that, parrying and dodging will be easier, and to some instances, you can even use the momentum to throw your opponent. Like this.”

She grabs me.

“I’m gonna do a throw on you. Are you ready?”

“Ah, yeah.”

The instant I nodded with quite a bit of fear, gravity suddenly left my body. A moment later, I was looking up at the blue sky, hiding through the gaps of the overgrown trees.

“Huh?”

“If you can figure out how joints work, you’ll be able to do it as well. Now, try it on me.”

I grabbed her as she told me to and put the force in the direction she indicated, throwing her on to the ground. It wasn’t as easy as Clarice said it would be, but I could certainly feel the flow of power in my favor.

Clarice, now lying on the ground, gets up right after.

“Sorry. Your clothes, they got dirty.”

“Hmm? Of course, it’s gonna get dirty! If not, how are you gonna practice? Now, Aki, try to get the position of my joints properly. Here, touch me.”

At Clarice’s urging, I put my hands over her body.

I examined what parts and joints are there and how far they move in which direction.

I grabbed her arms, which, despite its thinness from afar, it felt strong as it was wrapped in supple muscles. It was definitely a girl’s arm with skin as firm and smooth, yet it had force worthy of unleashing that much power.

“Nn, it won’t bend even if you push it further in that direction.”

It seems that the final range of motion is greatly affected by the way the joint bends and the path it takes, where it can change significantly, even with a slight difference in them.

I thoroughly learned every movement of Clarice’s body, that even she doesn’t consciously understand because of her lack of awareness of the matter. Well, maybe because she’s acting primarily on instinct?

I lifted her thighs. Clarice herself moved them without going against the direction I wanted.

I bent her knees and ankles as she continued to lift her legs. Clarice’s body is flexible, so she’s able to bend much more than me.

“Hnn, that’s about as far as I can go.”

Like a gymnast, I made Clarice spread her legs apart vertically before she brings them down. The next step was to spread them out horizontally, where she sat down and put her legs apart, making an almost perfect side split to my surprise.

This one lined up to about 180 degrees, but if observed carefully, it was never really that number, but it was almost as close. This shows that no matter how soft the surrounding muscles are, there are still physical limits because of the joint itself.

“Hnnn, Aki?”

I was staring at her hips when Clarice called out to me. I nodded and then went over how far the knee joint would move with her body.

After learning the joints, I was taught another technique based on it. We did it for a couple of times, with lots of me being thrown off and pushed down as I dodged her bursts. She said once I learned the origin and the direction of the force, I would be able to figure out the rest for myself. To put it in simple terms, once I know which direction an attack will go, I can utilize it to make my opponent fall.

Of course, no matter how hard I try, I wasn’t able to knock her down, not that I’m trying to, though. After all, it’s not a good thing to be overconfident of your own power.

Despite my shortcomings, Clarice is constantly praising me. I was so absorbed in the practice that I was able to gain a good progress from it.

By the time that the sun was beginning to set, something that I should have expected happened. My body started to scream at the incomparable amount of exercise I was getting.

“That’s about it for today. Are you okay, Aki?”

“Yeah, somehow.”

I tried my best to squeeze out a reply as I lay on the ground.

Clarice and I are both completely covered in sweat and mud.

“Aki, can you stand on your own?”

“Yeah.”

I pulled all my nerves over as I wobbled to stand up. My knees were still jerking from overwork, but not to the point where I can’t walk.

Today’s training has made my mind a little stronger. In addition, I was able to find out how to use my body more effectively in dangerous situations.

Of course, I had just gotten started, so I still have to keep my guard up.

I head back to the mansion alongside Clarice, who’s still amazingly keeping up with my pace despite our strenuous workout.