AN: With the release of a main chapter comes the first of two side story chapters. These ones are a little easier to write as they are more or less free writing with minimal planning. I call this a testing ground for potential future writing. Feel free to voice your own opinions on it and it can be used to improve not only this story but the main one as well.
Enjoy.
I do not own H.O.T.D or any of the characters created from it. Only the OC's, they're mine. All mine I tell you.
The next morning...
Morning broke and the sunlight of a new day made it way into the room where two young adults were currently sharing a futon together. Well sharing is more like the woman of the two had basically moved herself to the point where she was lying on top of the young man who had somehow not noticed her move during the night or he did and just didn't care.
Saeko was the first to awaken from her slumber and with her groggy eyes began to notice the somewhat different environment than her usual room.
'Oh yeah, I came to sleep in James-san's room last night. Mmm…, so soft.' she thought as she patted and felt what she thought was the bedding.
She quickly came to realise that the 'material' she was touching was a little harder than normal bedding material. The young woman slowly looked up and went wide eyed quickly which snapped her fully awake in an instant at the realisation of her position. Whilst she may be lying on top of the young man underneath her, it seemed during the night she slipped underneath the covers and her head was using James' right shoulder as a form of pillow. Also, it seemed that one of her legs has risen and was lying across the abdomen of the young man in question and her right arm was over his chest.
Saeko slowly, tried to remove her legs away from him first without waking the young man up. However, she grazed past a certain area with her legs which caused her to stop instantly.
'Is that his...?' she gasped in thought.
Any resistance telling her not to check under the covers and confirm her suspicions, were fading away and instead a red mist was descending upon her face. She lifted the covers gently and saw that in fact her leg was now resting just below the young man's crotch area but it wasn't the only thing she saw. Fortunately for her, James was wearing pajama bottoms which he changed into before going to sleep last night.
'Is this what they call, Morning wood?' Saeko recalled hearing about it from her fellow classmates at school during their PE changing discussions. These girls would regularly talk to each other about their boyfriends early morning habits and it seems that the purple haired girl was getting her first experience at this situation.
'Maybe I can find out what holding one is like.' Saeko smiled at the thought, curiosity getting the best of her.
She moved her right arm slowly, taking great care to take note of the feelings of moving her hand over his stomach. She made note of how defined his muscles are underneath the top he was wearing despite the initial small frame his body looked. Her hand was getting closer, the tips just touching the pajama bottoms mere centimeters away, when…
"Saeko-san what are you doing?" came a voice close to her.
The young woman in question whipped her head round to see the young man below her wide awake looking straight at her with a questioning look on his face. Still beet red from earlier, she quickly moved her hand away and moved herself to the edge of the futon. The young man sat up and leant towards the young woman before lifting his hand towards her face.
*Flick*
The swift flick straight onto the young woman's forehead caused her to rub it. The look it was giving off was the polar opposite to the ice queen the young Busujima always portrays herself as.
"Don't touch what isn't yours." was all he said before he got up and left the room to go to the bathroom.
Saeko looked in the direction of the door which the young man walked out of. A sense of wonder crept into her mind on what just happened and the reaction she got of him.
'D-did I go too far?' she thought about as she sat there for a few minutes. Hearing the water running what she assumed was the shower. She decided it was be best to go and have her own in her own shower.
30 minutes later
Both James and Saeko reconvened in the dining area. A noticeable silence as he sat there in complete silence whereas the young woman prepared breakfast. James had purposefully entered last between the two to see what the purple haired girl would do.
His wake up was not pleasant for him for a number of reasons. Anyone in the world including the young man himself would not have complained waking up to someone of Saeko's beauty. However, he did not want to jeopardise his relationship with her and her father by letting 'boys be boys' and let something happen between them. Besides he knew better than that from all of his training with his father, along with the rules the family have set for relationships with opposite genders, it made things as they are to make sure the younger members of the family didn't go around sleeping with anyone they wanted and producing children that would be unworthy of the name and the legacy it carried.
Saeko on the other hand wanted to get downstairs first. She still was thinking that pushed her boundaries a little too far with the young man and she figured that cooking him breakfast would be a good start to making amends for earlier. The young woman did wondered how she moved during the night to end up in that position in the first place.
She decided on the traditional breakfast. Miso soup with some steamed rice to the side. It wasn't much but they needed to go shopping today to prepare for her father's arrival that afternoon. Fortunately for them, it was the weekend so no school for either of them so they had more than enough time to go out and get what they need for the next few days. Saeko figured that her father would be needing at least something to eat before heading to bed to recover from the jetlag, so she planned to buy enough for that reason alone.
The two sat opposite each other eating their respective meals again in silence. The awkward atmosphere between the two was evident to both of them to which they drowned it out by concentrating on eating. Once they both finished it was Saeko who made the first move.
"James-san, I...I" she stuttered out nervously trying to grab his attention.
The young man looked up at her, eating the last bite of the meal before putting his chopsticks down to acknowledge the purple haired girl.
"So what was that about earlier?" he spoke in a serious tone.
"I..I…" was all she could stammer out.
"I think I last night was, 'Heaven forbid what your father would do to me if something more happened'. I think the message was clear." James interrupted.
All the young girl could do was sit there in silence as he went on.
"Waking up to you on top of me I can handle. People move in their sleep especially when they are cold. Waking up to you drooling on me I can handle. People do it sometimes and is relatively common to people who sleep on their side." James went on, the drooling comment made her put a hand to her mouth in shock that she would do something like that.
"But I thought you were better than that Saeko-san. I thought you would be better to go back on your father's rules like that." James finished giving the young girl in front of him a lot to think about.
Saeko just sat there, processing what the young man said to her. In her mind, she agreed with his every word. She took it too far. She knew her father didn't want them to get in trouble and that was a perfect example of it. What would her father say if he found out? A betrayal of his word and trust. She would have been lucky if all that would of happened is her father evicting the young man in front of her.
As a result, she simply lowered her head.
"I'm...sorry, James-san. I let curiosity get the best of me. Please forgive my actions." she spoke softly whilst closing her eyes not meeting his.
*Whack*
A sharp pain hit the top of her head causing her hands to shoot straight at the source. She opened his eyes to see James' arms reset themselves after clearly been near her head.
"Accepted. Besides, we both have secrets to keep don't we?" James sighed as he got up from his sitting position.
Saeko just looked up at him with a puzzled look at what he just said.
'Secrets? What is he hiding? Does he know about mine?' the thought popped in her head as images of her past flash through her mind.
"Saeko-san?" the male's voice snapped her from her thoughts.
"Huh, yes James-san?" she quickly answered after getting caught off guard a little.
"I said, do you want to go out and grab the shopping now? I'm sure you want to be home for when your father gets back and don't you have a kids class to teach in the early afternoon?" James stated.
Saeko quickly composed herself before rising to her feet and dusting herself off. She carried the plates and placed them on the counter to be washed by one of the maid who was coming over to help clean the house later.
"Yes, lets get changed and get going shall we?" Saeko walked through the door into the hallway first heading for her room.
The young man watched her leave the room and shrugged to himself going to go and get changed himself.
Later
The two returned to the house after going to the nearby shopping market. It was only the next stop on train to reach the larger shops where they could get everything they need. Following the events of earlier, the two did not speak much only of what they needed to get and where Saeko could remember where they were in the store. James felt the need to carry the bags once they had finished as it felt a good exercise to combine it with the weighted clothes he was carrying for some additional training.
When they got inside, James offered to pack everything away and help the maid know which chores she needed to spend the most attention on whilst Saeko went to the dojo to setup ready for the kids class in an hour.
The kids class doesn't require much in terms of actually training technique but more of keeping the kids in line which is why Saeko took over teaching this class from her father around six months ago. She felt that she needed a bit more of a role with her father's work so he can prioritise more important tasks where he was bound to do. The kids themselves were aged between 8-11. The elder Busujima did not enlist anyone younger as they would be too much to handle as their minds would not be ready for the kind of training he would teach them once they got to 12. Saeko's main routine for each lesson would be a simple warm up exercise without bokkens with some stretching to get the kids nice and ready. Then she would group them up based on current ability with the Kendo arts and have them practice their forms for 15 minutes. Of course with the more advanced pupils, she did not have to pay much attention to them all unless something major cropped up. The other pupils who were lesser skilled than the others needed more attention as they were prone to making basic mistakes in both technique and form so it ends up in Saeko having to correct any errors before having them resume. Finally she ends the session off by having a few pairs of pupils from each group selected at random and has the rest of the pupils watch them spar, afterwards she would ask them on the spar and what could be done differently to perhaps change the result.
Well that how it would usually would go. This time due to her father's absence. James would be assisting her today and she wanted to mix things up a little. She managed to get him to agree on assisting her with the class a couple of days ago and after a bit of persuasion he eventually agreed to help in a supporting role only and the young girl was happy with that. The young man eventually joined her in the dojo just as the children were being dropped off by their parents. After nodding to her in passing, he took his place slightly behind her right shoulder as they greeted the parents, watched the children gather and see their parents slowly file out of the dojo to leave them there for the next couple of hours.
As the last parent left the dojo, Saeko broke their silence to indicate the start of the lesson.
"Right everyone into lines, spaced at shoulder length apart. We'll start the warm-up." she called out.
The children who most of them have been doing these lessons for a while now understood and immediately followed their instruction whereas the rest of them followed suit and eventually they all got into four lines with fairly equal space between them.
"Before we all start, I want to introduce my assistant for this session only in my father's absence, James Carter. Please address him as, Carter-sensei." she continued as the young man next to her bowed slightly as he was introduced.
It was then one of the young girls in the third row stuck her hand in the air. She looked around 9 years old and was acting very shy as if she was embarrassed to ask the question she was going to ask.
"Yes. What would you like to ask me little one?" James answered the call.
"Excuse me, Carter-sensei but is Busujima-sensei your girlfriend?" she all but blurted out.
The girl then put her hands to her mouth as if to catch her words but they proved futile as everyone in the dojo heard that. Seconds later, all of the other kids started laughing at varying degrees, some at giggles to roars of laughter from others. The only two not laughing were the two at the front, the male of the two looked across and saw that Saeko went quite red at the sudden question. It seemed she was not expecting that to be asked. Nevertheless, James stood up and walked ahead to address the class himself whilst Saeko could get the time to compose herself.
"Busujima-sensei is not my girlfriend. I have recently arrived here on an exchange from my homeland of England. Whilst I have no sword knowledge, I am trained well enough in martial arts to know technique and execution to the point where I will be more than capable of acting as sensei a group of your age bracket. I will be supporting Busujima-sensei as she teaches you today so feel free to come to me with anything if Busujima-sensei is not around to help you." James explained to the group pacing from one end of the dojo to the other.
Saeko who had regained her composure had now stood up to address the group.
"Okay, lets start with the warmups. You guys know the drill." Saeko called out once more and the group fell silent as they begin their warm up routine.
James meanwhile had resumed his seat and observed as Saeko called out certain light exercises for the children to do and alternating every 30 seconds for another exercise. This carried on for 5 minutes before she called time to their warmup and they began their stretches as a means to regain their breath and finish warming up their muscles. It was imperative that Saeko focuses mostly on the children's arms and legs in their stretches as it would be those muscles that would be being worked on in the session. A couple of minutes later and Saeko finished the warm up routine completely.
Afterwards, Saeko split the group in two based on her prior knowledge of each child's ability. The weaker skilled students went to the left with Saeko to practice their katas in a more controlled environment. The other though were taken by James outside into the garden, it was not usual that the kids were taken outside of the dojo for their training as their was licensing by the governing body of kendo for places of practice and in the garden outside of the dojo was fine as long as they kept within the Busujima property walls, when he asked, the purple haired sensei gave him a funny look but agreed.
James lined them up once more as set them to practice their katas, whilst it was a basic task even for them, he wanted to see how well they were executing the most basic stances and form of kendo. The scene reminded the young man of learning swordsmanship for the first time under his Mother when he was 6 years old. The Carter matriarch had taught him basic forms of fencing and had him practice them after studying for an hour each day to nail the forms into him. As with any Master, you cannot truly master the art without the basics and having do them almost on instinct when warming up came second nature to him.
He watched as each of them performed their katas with their shinhai, stopping them when a mistake was made, correcting it and explaining the reasoning behind it. The process repeated for around 20 or so minutes before the young man stopped them and paired them off to begin sparring. He placed it into a tournament style where the winners would keep going and the losers would sit out and watch the rest of their group go at it. It prove quite the challenge for the children as it seems they had not learned to pace themselves when dealing with one opponent after another as when it got down to the final 4, they were quite tired and mistakes were becoming more evident in their sparring.
After they had finished the tournament, an hour had gone into the class so James had them break for 15 minutes for rest and reflection and sensed that Saeko had done the same. She had moved her part of the class outside to enjoy the fresh air and it also made things easier to observe the class that way.
After the break, Saeko called them all inside and had them sit on both ends of the dojo floor thus to create more space in the middle. She walked over to her spot where she started the class and watched them all sit down. James on the other hand was the last to enter so he could make sure that all of the children had entered the dojo and have taken their seats. He was still in the doorway when Saeko called to him.
"Carter-sensei, stay on your side." she called as she drew her shinhai and took a stance.
The young man sighed in response and took a position on his end of the dojo.
"Can't we not go a day without this. I'm sure you don't want to embarrass yourself in front of your class." James almost moaned in response. He took an open stance, standing legs shoulder width apart and arms at his side, it was not a stance, aimed to just frustrate the young woman opposite him.
"Busujima-sensei, what are you and Carter-sensei doing?" one of the children called out as the rest of the students were whispering to each other.
"Your sensei wants to show a real fight. More like how to lose." James stated as he watched the young swordswoman's movements.
"This time will be different. I will finally best you and everyone here will see it." Saeko grinned as she stay rooted to the spot.
"Ahh, staying still this time. Still makes no difference to me." James stepped forward and simply walked towards her.
Saeko thought he would have charged her simply to end matters quickly with the class watching but to see him walking towards her, was annoying her greatly. It was as if he thought she was beneath him. Once he got within a few meters of her, she stepped forward with her shinhai above her head going for the classic overhead strike to start but halfway through her 'strike' she stopped and spun to switch to a strike aimed at his left side, she figured that by feinting her first move, she would catch him off guard whilst he was dodging it.
James on the other hand caught the movement instantly and side stepped to his right avoiding the strike completely. He then proceeding to expertly dodge half a dozen strikes aimed at different parts of his body at varying angles. With all of the spars that they have been doing, the young man had gotten to the point where he knew Saeko's style enough to know how to avoid her strikes effortlessly to which he was demonstrating with his movements. He kept her at striking distance whilst dodging all of her strikes. After finding an opening he stepped forward closing the gap to less than a meter between the two and he grabbed one of her wrists holding the shinhai and with a fist raised he made a punch attempt and pulled it just inches from the swordwoman's face.
Saeko stepped back once to gain distance to attempt an overhead but she forgot that the young man was still holding on to her wrist and had left herself open for another pulled punch to the abdomen. Frustrated, she didn't react when a kick connected in the same place blowing her back and onto the floor. She noticed it wasn't a strong kick, just enough to put her on the ground but it still stung as she rose to her feet.
"Come on Busujima-sensei, you're overthinking things." James mocked as he took a Japanese boxer stance of moving his feet with his hands raised.
The act of the young man in front of him annoyed Saeko somewhat that she was feeling that he was still holding back. That he wasn't sparring to win but to force her to submit instead. She regained composure though and moved forward using the style she knew best, using quick strikes which most people could barely dodge but her opponent was remaining light on his feet and was dodging each one she made. It was as if he knew her movements before they happened.
James decided to humor the swordswoman in front of him and the class watching on the outside and let the spar drag on for another minute before spinning after one of her strikes to virtually get behind Saeko and grabbed her and all but throwing her over his shoulder to have her land on her front on the floor. The action had obviously caught her off guard as she lost grip on her shinhai as it flew away by a few meters before landing on the ground away from anyone.
Saeko tried to get up after that but she was pinned to the ground by James placing one of his knees against a specific point on her spine below her shoulder blades making it difficult for her to move with all the weight James was carrying along with his own body weight. After a good 30 seconds of struggling, she gave up and stopped moving, she moved her arms so she could lean her head on her right hand as if she was fed up of being in that position.
James looked up and turned to the rest of class.
"Okay, so how did I win that despite not having a shinhai to use?" James called out to the class who were only now just regaining their own composure.
There were a few whispers that could be heard in the dojo by both teachers.
"Busujima-sensei lost…"
"I thought she was an undefeated champion. How could she lose?"
Eventually one of the kids raised his hand and James pointed at him to speak.
"You were faster than Busujima-sensei." the student spoke.
"Yes, that's one thing. Anything else?" James responded again looking around to which no-one answered.
"So then, here's a little life lesson on combat. Swords and other close quarter weapons only have an effective range of their users arm length plus the weapon length but if you want to minimize effectiveness then bring the fight to arms length. By doing so, a two handed user like Busujima-sensei cannot attack properly without leaving herself open to counters. Her style consists of keeping opponents at weapon range whilst dealing quick strikes before her opponent can react. Knowing this, I can use that to my advantage and get close enough for her to use a move that she isn't used to and quickly counter it. Grapples and throws are the best thing in these situations because kendo and similar arts rely a lot on balance and movement to gain an advantage." James explained as he got off of Saeko and helped her to her feet.
'Actually there's a lot more to it than that but then I might blow my cover on the real skill I have.' James thought after his explanation.
"You say it like you know more than you let on Carter-sensei." Saeko brushed herself down to fix her attire which had been ruffled somewhat over the course of their spar.
"When training in martial arts, learning how to deal with weapons is taught right after the basics." James answered.
"Hmph, well that's that I suppose. Right everyone back into lines, let's begin the cooldown to finish off the class." Saeko called out once more as the children groaned at the end of the explanation not hiding their fact of wanting to learn more.
Whilst the children were beginning their cooldown exercises, their respective parents started to arrive and observe the last few minutes of the session, occasionally taking photographs which Saeko allowed during the cooldown periods as she knew who they were. Once they were finished she dismissed the class and slowly but surely the children along with their parents started to file out of the dojo, the two sensei's could hear the children's excited words as they left.
"Whos the new teacher?" asked one of the parents.
"He's so good, he beat Busujima-sensei in a spar with his bare hands." their child exclaimed.
"He showed us how to improve our katas." another child spoke.
The groups went out of earshot as they left the boundaries of the Busujima-estate to which once silence was felt by the two of them, the male of the two started chuckling.
"Kids eh?" James noted as he made his way to start tidying up.
He turned and noticed Saeko with her arms folded with what looked like a pout on her face.
"What?" he questioned.
"You didn't need to humiliate me in front of my class like that." Saeko huffed.
"That's on you. Even so, they needed to know that even Masters of the arts are still learning. You learned something, right?" James plainly stated.
Saeko went into thought about what he said. She realised that this wasn't just a lesson for the kids class but a lesson for her instead. She had been trying to spar with him and any chance she could get, only for the same outcome to happen every time. It was just her attitude to each fight, hoping she would learn something from the battle rather than analysing her own moves and wonder why she lost.
"I think you learned something at least. Anyway it's time to prepare for Oji-san's arrival, he'll be here in an hour." James continued before gesturing to the young woman towards the door.
"Right, we have to change and prepare dinner." Saeko walked forwards and the two left the dojo together.
An hour later
The front door opened to reveal the current head Busujima family. Greeted by his daughter and the young Carter boy, both of which bowed as he walked through the door into the main hallway of the house. The daughter walked forwards to hug her father and hugged him first.
"How was your trip to America, Father?" she spoke.
"Hmph, it was fine. Americans love having everything bigger than it should be." the elder, Kage replied.
"Good to know. I have prepared dinner, I shall attend to it and prepare it." Saeko giggled before retreating towards the kitchen to prepare dinner.
That left the elder Busujima and the youngest Carter.
"I take it, there was no trouble in my absence?" the elder asked.
"None. All the classes that Saeko-san taught in your absence went smoothly." James reported eyeing the elders movements as he picked up his bags.
"Help me move my bags to my room James-san. The journey was long and I need to rest after dinner to recover." Kage spoke.
The young man walked forward and picked the last remaining bag and joined the elder Busujima to drop them off in his room. Once they got there Kage ushered James inside and as they put the bags down he turned to the young man with a serious look on his face.
"I want you to tell me straight. Did anything happen between the two of you whilst I was away?" he asked with a serious tone with his arms folded.
James looked at the older man dead in eyes, noticing the seriousness in them. He thought it would be best to remain truthful with the man.
"Well there has been a couple of things I think you should be made aware of that happened in your absence." James started but noticing the elder clenching his fists he quickly put up his hand to stop anything happening as a result.
"Before you do anything though, hear me out…" James continued.
An continue he did, he talked about the constant sparring he did with her every evening, the times he carried her to her futon after each spar, the help he gave for her classes and finally and most notably the incident that very morning. James made sure he mentioned that whilst it was wrong to allow her into the same futon as him in the first he made sure he never took advantage of or let Saeko's curiosity get the better of her and let something happen between the two. He would not want to betray Kage's trust like that.
The elder Busujima stood there taking it all in. At first, he wanted to act like any father would for their precious daughter but as the young man in front of him talked more and more, the more he realised that he couldn't lash out just for that. The boy made his intentions clear and prevent anything happening. Of course it was avoidable in the first place but he wanted to keep the peace between both him and his daughter.
Kage sighed before finally breaking his silence.
"First off, I thank you for helping out with the classes, I know you're not trained in swordmanship despite our attempts to get you involved. As for your spars with Saeko-chan, I wonder what she will gain by constantly challenging you. Although she was complaining before you arrived that she needed a challenge." Kage responded.
James remained silent as the elder continued.
"However, I am not impressed by what happened this morning between the two of you. However, based on your actions then I cannot complain of the desired outcome, you have been raised well James-chan. I'll think of an appropriate punishment for the two of you later once I have had a word with my daughter, nothing too harsh just something I can keep an eye on you two on." Kage went on.
"Now then, I would like to see you spar someday. The only thing I saw from you was from your first day with us and I would like to see what you are made of in a proper environment." Kage finished.
James processed the words spoken to him and simply bowed in response.
"Thank you Oji-san for seeing things from my perspective. Though you may get to see it sooner than you think." James replied sparking a raised eyebrow from the older male.
"Explain?" Kage bluntly asked.
"I received a message from my father who will be in the country shortly on a business visit. He said he would be dropping by to check up on me whilst he is here and since he taught me everything I know from a fighting standpoint I'm sure that he would be keen to test me." James explained.
Kage started roaring with laughter in response.
"Well I look forward to it, it should be a good fight. I shall prepare some vintage sake for his visit." Kage laughed.
It was at this moment James' phone buzzed which caused a moment of silence. Taking the phone out of his pocket, the young man opened the message.
'I'll be arriving at your residence tomorrow to visit you. Not sure when I will be getting there but I need you to run an errand before I arrive. We're planning on revealing the real you to your so called guardians. So time to build a following James. Go and grab your equipment and move it to the Busujima residence as there is no point hiding it any longer. Although do not reveal your true self until I arrive. It will be unlikely they will believe your stories until I'm there. Until then. -CC' it read.
'Speak of the devil.` the young man thought as he turned back to the elder next to him.
"That was my father. He will be arriving tomorrow. As for when I am not sure." James spoke as the elder raised a hand under his chin.
"I shall have our maid make sure the house is suitable enough for when he arrives. But we have nattered for too long, Saeko-chan will think I've done something." Kage replied as he gestured the young man out of his room.
James chuckled in response and went for the door.
"One last thing, James-chan." Kage stopped the young man from leaving by closing the door.
The said young man turned back to the elder in response.
"What do you think of Saeko-chan anyway?" Kage asked in a serious tone.
"In what manner are you suggesting Oji-san?" James asked back immediately.
"Give me you general opinion. I will not take offence." the elder spoke in the same manner.
James looked at the older man to see what position he had to respond to.
'This is about what my current feelings are towards Saeko. He's asking in case anything does happen between the two of us what my intentions are. Either way, I'm telling the truth, I'd hate to think if he took things the wrong way.' James thought as he crafted his response.
"You've raised a fine daughter, Oji-san. She is a strong, independent young lady which any man would be lucky to have her when the time comes. She is strong in her studies and her skills with a blade are not too far away from your own." James answered calmly whilst maintaining eye contact with the man.
The said man raised a hand to his chin to contemplate what he was told but James interrupted his train of thought.
"But...there is something I've noticed." James continued causing Kage to move his hand away from his chin.
"Go on." Kage gestured for the young man to continue.
"Whenever we sparred, it would start out okay but after a while, I noticed her demeanor change. One from calm and composed but slowly start to become more wild and erratic. Almost as if she was enjoying it a little too much and was letting her emotions take control." James explained.
The elder processed those words and he thought back to before the young man's arrival, how Saeko wanted a challenge in combat as she would beat all those around her. It was why she was the national champion after all.
'Perhaps I've brought her up too well.' Kage thought to himself.
"I have raised her as a traditional Japanese child from long ago. I am a man who still believes in the Bushi ways and I have raised my child to be the next onna-bugeisha who will make her own destiny. As for what you have just told me, I am not aware of this but maybe that is something that my daughter would eventually divulge and deal with on her own." Kage explained in return.
James listened to those words and thought about it himself.
'There's something more here but I'll have to find that out on my own.' James thought as the elder opened the door behind him.
"Now then let us have something to eat, I wish to be fed before I nap after my long journey." Kage chuckled before gesturing the young man to exit the room first.
James walked forward and exited the room whereas the elder stood there for a second watching the young man walk away.
'To figure that out from sparring alone. I look forward to his father's visit.' Kage said in his mind before leaving the room himself.
In the skies above Japan
"Mr. Carter your plane shall be touching down in a few minutes." the voice on the tannoy announced.
The middle aged man drank the last of his drink before handing it back to the flight attendant. He then pressed a button on the side of his seat which rotated it round to a forward facing position and with the backrest reset to the upright position. The plane itself was a Legacy 450, currently the newest in the generation of private jets. Chris had borrowed it from a friend to travel to the eastern countries summit taking place between the eastern superpowers.
'That conference was annoying to say the least. I hope my wife is having easier luck with the UN.' Chris thought as he remembered the events of the last couple of days.
'Now that the conference, I think it's time to pay my son a visit.' Chris smiled as the plane began its descent.
AN: So that is it for this chapter. Please rate, review and all of that good stuff.
Until next time.