Hi all~ Today's teachers' day, so I have no school, so I decided to put up another chapter~ Enjoy~ Somehow I realized this is a really short chapter... sorry... O.o

Disclaimer: I don't own Shinkenger, just ShinkenSilver.

Chapter 4: 強敵

Genta

It's so nice to be here, with my own room, and everything. I can just come out of my room and stretch and go back in.

We gathered for sword practice. Or rather, the others gathered for sword practice and sent me to get Tetsuda.

I ended up banging on the door to the secret corridor, not wanting to go in, and after 10 minutes, my hand was starting to hurt, when he finally came out with a cross look on his face.

"Mou, can you just say you're coming and spare me all these knocking?" I told him, as I walked back to the yard.

"Why should I? I didn't ask you to come knocking in the first place. You're lucky I felt kind enough to even pay any attention and come out. I would've just left you there knocking the whole day. "

GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! What's this guy's problem? He's even worse than my Paris friend! At least that guy had some sort of common sense!

Or does he?

But anyway, we made our way to the yard, where a very irritated bunch of samurai awaited.

"Took you long enough!" To my surprise, Chiaki was the one who said that.

"Where's Ryuunosuke?"

Take-chan answered, "I told him to take a day off, having spent a day in captivity."

He's grown soft. Love does this to people, doesn't it? Or should I say, infatuation?

"Let's begin," Back to Tono-mode, huh?

Everyone split up, Chiaki and Mako sparring while Take-chan and Kotoha, while waiting for their chance, went back to basics training with the dummy.

I joined the dummy group, just to warm up before it's my turn to take on someone else.

"Move it." Tetsuda's command drew our attention, and I saw him using his shinnai to push Mako till she fell.

"Mako!" "Mako-chan!" Take-chan and Kotoha immediately went up to support her.

Chiaki wanted to do the same, but Tetsuda looked up from Mako's fall to him, immediately pointing his shinnai at the wood-based samurai and stopping his motion.

Without warning, he started thrusting his shinnai at Chiaki, who blocked his attacks. Unlike a few years ago, Chiaki managed to sustain a longer period of time, before Tetsuda got around behind him and dealt the final blow that knocked him unconscious.

"Chiaki!" Kotoha went over to try to wake him, dragging him to the side of the house. Mako got up. "That was a bit too much, don't you think?"

"No," Tetsuda coldly intoned, and began attacking her.

One by one, we fell at his sword, until Take-chan and I were the only ones left. "Tono-sama and a sushi seller. This is so interesting." He mocked us with that sneering voice.

"Genta, we attack together." Take-chan whispered to me. We split up and came at him on both sides.

Seeming to have anticipated this, he used his weapon to block off my backhand slashes, and dodged Take-chan's, such that I nearly got hit on the head by my best friend. Luckily, he had full control over his shinnai and I was spared of the unconsciousness.

"His style of fighting is different." I noticed. It was not like mine, but not like the normal samurai's. "It's not Kendo. It's more like fencing…" recalling my Paris friend, who challenged me to a duel once when I accidentally dropped my glove in front of him.

The way Tetsuda held his shinnai, his stance, even without the back hand, it was obvious that it was not Japanese.

"Look out!" I shouted to Take-chan when the shinnai came at him, having faked a top when it was aimed for his side.

It would have knocked his breath out of him, if not for a foreign sword getting in the way.

"Tono," Ryuunosuke nodded to him as he flicked the shinnai away.

Takeru

That made one more time Ryuunosuke came to my rescue. I watched as he faced off the guy who almost knocked me down, dodging his attacks as though he knew Tetsuda's every move.

Ryuunosuke's style of fighting had adapted to Tetsuda's, adopting the stance and the jabs. It was almost too practiced to be passed off as improvisation.

"You've gotten better, Ryuu," Tetsuda smirked as they circled around, causing Ryuunosuke to drop his defenses enough for him to be disarmed. Victoriously, Tetsuda pointed the shinnai at him, indicating a win.

"Argh! That jerk! He disrupted our practice and knocked us down like nothing! Who does he think he is?" Chiaki was whining as he held a bag of ice against his neck where Tetsuda struck him.

Genta draped an arm around him. "Face it, Chiaki, he's much better than us."

Though truthfully, it wasn't his skill that made me feel like my insides were burning. It was the way he called Ryuunosuke "Ryuu". Who does he think he is?

"No…" Ryuunosuke looked at the two of them seriously. "He's using a totally different style, one that none of you have experienced, or seen. If you've even lasted 5 minutes against him, it means that your skill is good."

Trust Ry… Wait, wasn't that Mako's line?

"Well, if he can almost beat Tono-sama, it just means that Chiaki, it's not just your skill." Kotoha added, to my dismay. "Kotoha! What's that supposed to mean?" She winced as I protested.

"Ah mou! I can't stand this!" Suddenly, Mako burst out. "Ever since Tetsuda came, our lives, our conversations, even our training, have been about nothing but him! I wish we could go back to the way things were a few years ago, when there was still laughter within these walls!"

"Mako-chan…"

Genta stood up. "Yoshi! Let's go to my sushi cart again! It's a treat!"

"Yatta!" Chiaki shouted, and raced Genta out of the mansion, followed by the girls.

Ryuunosuke got up slowly, and I could sense that Tetsuda's appearance was more straining on him than everyone else, for some reason.

I walked up beside him, just walking beside him slowly, when he said in a faraway voice, "I wonder how Hinoko's doing…"

"Let's go enjoy ourselves for tonight," I smiled at him, and his face showed surprise.

"What? Is it a crime for me to smile?"

"I..iie! Not at all!" Ryuunosuke looked away and went ahead of me.

The title means "strong enemy" and I took it from one of the KRW OST2 tracks (though they were referring to Terror in there). I'm sure you feel like killing Tetsuda now, so please review and you can verbally slash him up~ (omg i'm so mean to my OC)