Chapter 15

A New Challenger

It's just another day, another afternoon at DOATEC Girl's Academy. Naotora packs her things after the final bell rings. She grabs her school bag and heads toward the front entrance where her girlfriend, Mai is waiting. She gives a wave to signal her and the brunette nods with a smile.

"Ready to go~?" she says.

"Yes!" Naotora replies. "Was I late? If so, I'm very sorry!"

"Don't be! You were right on time to me~"

"Ahhhh…thank goodness," Naotora sighs in relief.

"Well, let's go~" Mai says. "To Nao-chan's house, away~!" She pumps a fist forward as she says this, making Naotora giggle softly.

The two girlfriends exit the school and walk on the sidewalk, chatting and laughing. It's their usual routine to walk together before and after school to and from the train station they always take. Both of them are very happy since they became a couple. They're always inseparable, doing everything together. Training, going out on dates and studying together. They even have some sleepovers together as well, which makes things even better. Naotora cannot be any happier than she was when she first came to this high school. Mai Shiranui was the only one who put light into her life when she needed it most, despite her constant apologies. No one else would put up with her bad habit except for Mai. The bubbly ninja just sees past it and thinks of her nothing more than a cute and shy girl that's in front of her right now.

They get to Naotora's stop after about 15 minutes and the happy couple start to enter her neighborhood. Mai stretches her arms with a happy moan and lets out a happy sigh afterwards.

"Ohhh, I can't wait to try Nao-chan's cooking again~" Mai says.

"Ahhhh…I'm making dinner again, huh?" Naotora says softly.

"You bet~!" The brunette winks at her.

Naotora lets out a sigh, but shakes her head with a smile. "I…I won't mind cooking…i-if it's for you of course."

"Yaaaaaay~!" Mai cheers and hugs her. "I love you, Nao-chan~!"

"Ahaha…"

Mai pulls away with a giggle and the two of them still walk along the sidewalk toward Naotora's home when Mai stops. She can sense a strange presence somewhere. Naotora takes notice and puts on a frightened expression.

"Wh-what is it, Mai-chan?" she asks.

"Someone's here," Mai says, taking one of her steal fans from her cleavage out. Her eyes widen and uses her ninja speed to jump out of the way. "Nao-chan, look out!"

Naotora doesn't have time to react because a blur of purple rushes in and tackles her toward a wall. A girl with short purple hair and wearing what it appears to be a violet kuoichi dress with purple thigh high stockings and a large orange ribbon tied around it. Naotora puts on a serious expression as she tries to punch the girl for tackling her like that, but the violet haired girl swats her fist away and does some fast jabs to the chest and face before kicking her leg to get her on her knees.

"How useless," the girl says with a huff. "You can't even react to a single attack I do to you." She smacks her in the face. "Do you really come from the clan of samurai?"

"Hey!" Mai throws her steel fan at the girl's head, making her draw the attention to her. She jumps down from a tree she hid in and stands up straight. "Ayane-chan, that's no reason to talk and beat up my girlfriend like that!"

"I-I'm so sorry…" Naotora says.

"Mai Shiranui," the girl, Ayane says. "It's been a while. Though, I don't know why you take this useless samurai as your girlfriend when she clearly cannot have any confidence in herself to fight back." She smacks Naotora again.

"That doesn't give you the right to just go in and beat her up like that!" Mai counters.

"Ayane-san…" Naotora says as she stands up. "I'm very sorry, but you'll pay for what you have done." She ducks from the swing of Ayane's punch, punches her upward, then spins a back fist before grabbing her arm and throwing her overhead to the ground and stomping on her. "I'm so sorry, but that's what you get!"

"Yes! That's my Nao-chan~!" Mai cheers.

Ayane gets to her feet and dusts herself off. "That all you have? Listen, if you're really from the great Ii Clan, then you should put in a little more effort into your fights."

"I-I was putting in a lot of effort, thank you very much!" Naotora argues.

"Those punches were weak. Didn't even scratch me," Ayane says. She turns to Mai. "And Mai. The only reason I know about her is because I've been secretly watching her. I transferred to this school along with my older sister, Kasumi. Guess you didn't notice me until now."

Mai puts her hand on her hip. "You should've told us before hand. But you need to apologize to Nao-chan for just beating her up like that. She doesn't deserve this kind of treatment."

"Like I said, I wanted to test her confidence," Ayane shrugs. "It seems that she needs a lot more work put into it. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to break up your relationship. It's just that you need to think about it for a moment." She turns to leave. "I'll be seeing you two later, Mai…Naotora." With that, she disappears into thin air with her ninja speed.

Naotora fidgets a little while tapping her index fingers together, legs squirming together. "M-Mai-chan…am I really that weak? Because I'm with you?"

"No, that's not it," Mai says with a serious expression. "Nor it's true either. I think you're awesome and the way you fought back was excellent. You're a very strong warrior to me."

"Th-thank you, Mai-chan." Naotora isn't sure if she'll ever see that violet haired ninja again, but her words are still sticking with her despite Mai's comfort. Has she still been lacking confidence despite being with Mai?

**Later**

It's lunch time and Naotora has barely touched her food. Mai takes notice and puts on a worried expression.

"Nao-chan, I told you not to let it get to you," she says, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I understand Ayane-chan was trying to get her point across, but you don't need to hold on to it."

"No," Naotora says. "But I can't help but want to prove myself to Ayane-san that I'm a great warrior to the Ii Clan. I can't let this slide, Mai-chan. I'm very sorry, but…I'm going to challenge her to a battle."

"Eh!?" Mai gasps. "Are you sure about that? I mean, you don't know how she fights or anything, except yesterday."

"I know, but another thing I've learned from Father," Naotora says. "Is to always read the opponent despite fighting him/her for the first time. Mistakes can be made at first, but that's how you learn to read their moves. I HAVE to do this, Mai-chan. Otherwise…how can I be a deserving girlfriend to you?"

Mai pauses for a second before putting on a smile. "You know what? I think you're gaining confidence already~"

"Y-you think so?"

"Absolutely. The way you want to challenge Ayane-chan is a great start to boost your confidence~. Your father would be so proud~" Her expression changes a little. "Nao-chan, I'm sorry this happened earlier. You see, Ayane-chan and I are childhood friends, along with Kasumi-chan. They would visit my household almost every day, training and talking to each other. Ayane-chan and I would do most of the fighting though. After they started middle school, we kind of gone our separate ways. I don't know why we haven't kept in touch in a while. Ayane-chan still hasn't changed though. She's still the same strong and confident ninja I know."

"I see…now I understand," Naotora says, nodding.

Mai smiles. "Don't worry. All that matters is that you need to prove yourself to Ayane-chan. And I'm sure you'll do wonderfully."

"I hope so~" The shy girl hasn't been this determined in a long time, but it's a good thing. She knows how Ayane is capable of, if maybe a little, so she will be able to fight her with no problem.

**Later**

School ends and Mai waits for her girlfriend by the entrance as usual. But instead of going to the train station, the brunette is going to take her where Ayane is, which is at Kasumi's household. Taking her by the hand, Mai and Naotora head over there within about 20 minutes. Sakura petals are scattered on the ground, a nice looking home awaits them and there is Kasumi, a girl with long ginger hair tied in a pony-tail, tending the garden. She looks up to notice Mai walking toward her, smiling a gentle smile while waving.

"Mai-chan~" she says. Her soft-spoken voice is so soothing to everyone's ears. "It's been a very long time."

"Not since middle school," Mai says. She turns her head toward her shy girlfriend, who is sort of fidgeting and tapping her index fingers together. "This is my girlfriend, Naotora Ii."

"Ah…p-pleased to meet you, Kasumi-san!" Naotora says. "I-I'm sorry for walking into your home like this. I-it's not what you think! I'm…I'm only here to see Ayane-san!"

"Oh, Ayane's in the dojo," Kasumi replies. "Do you want me to take you there?"

"Sure!" Mai replies.

"Right this way then~"

"Th-thank you very much!" Naotora says as she bows.

The ginger leads the two of them downstairs until they arrive at the dojo. Sure enough, Ayane is there, practicing her fights until she takes notice of her older sister with Mai and Naotora behind them.

"Ah, Onee-chan," Ayane says.

"These two want to see you," Kasumi says.

"Alright, thanks."

The ginger turns to the couple. "Would you two like some tea or anything?"

"In a little bit, okay?" Mai says. "There's something we need to do first."

"Okay. Call me if you need anything," Kasumi says as she bows and turns to leave.

Naotora is the first to turn towards Ayane, taking a brave step forward. "A-Ayane-san! S-so sorry to enter your home like this, b-but I've thought about it a lot since yesterday. A-and you're right. I DO lack self-confidence, but I'm not always like that. I put up a good fight and I'll prove it to you. I-I challenge you to a battle!"

Ayane chuckles and smiles. "Alright, then. I accept your challenge. Seems like you're confidence has risen a little."

"It will rise higher than you would expect once I win!" Naotora declares.

A few minutes after, Mai in the middle watching while Naotora and Ayane are 10 feet away from each other in their battle stances. They take a few side steps while staring down at each other. They charge at each other and Naotora is the first to attack. A few punches to the face, then some spinning kicks back and forth and then a straight kick to the gut, sending Ayane flying toward a wall. The violet haired girl jumps to her feet and leaps in the air to tackle Naotora, but the shy girl rolls away to dodge it and then rolls to the right to dodge her upcoming jabs and kicks. Naotora straightens and punches her again with a roundhouse kick to top it off. She then goes for several more kicks to the face and chest, lifting her high in the air. While airborne, Naotora uses her high speed kicks to keep her in the air for a little bit longer before flipping and kicking her down on the floor. Naotora lands on her feet to deliver another devastating kick, but Ayane uses her ninja speed to dodge it.

"You bore me!" she taunts.

Naotora doesn't listen and keeps on fighting. She goes in to deliver more kicks, but Ayane grabs her by the foot and kicks her in the chest as payback, sending her far away to keep distance. Naotora rolls to her feet, but gets kicked again by Ayane since she's so fast. When Ayane charges at her again, Naotora gets up to perform a roundhouse kick to stop her and jumps in the air to perform a kick by moving her feet like a bicycle and lands on her feet afterwards. Ayane jumps to her feet and swings her fists lightning speed at Naotora, who is unable to react to it at first. But she blocks what it seems to be the fourth attack and tries her hardes to block all the other high speed jabs and punches Ayane is trying to deliver. She sees an opening while blocking and trips Ayane by the leg, making her go off balance and then delivering a high kick to the face to stun her a little. She then kicks her in the air and performs her high speed kicks to keep her there a little longer before flip kicking her back on the floor.

Mai is anxious, but also excited to see her beloved fighting to prove herself. It looks like she is winning because she is reading Ayane's moves as she fights. She is definitely improving on her confidence greatly by doing this. Naotora continues fighting the best of her ability while Ayane is trying to attack her full on. She cannot let herself get beaten by this shy samurai. She charges and punches her upward, downward and then a straight punch to the gut, making her tumble to the floor. But that doesn't completely stop her. She rolls to her feet and uses her kicks once again to hit Ayane. One, two, three and four her kicks go, up down and around with Ayane unable to react to all of them. One last kick is a straight one to the gut, sending the violet haired girl flying toward another wall. Naotora quickly jumps on her to make her stay down and jumps away, her battle stance remaining. Ayane is unable to get up anymore.

"Haaaah…haaaah…h-how was that?" Naotora says. "Did I prove myself enough?"

Ayane struggles to her feet. "Not going to lie, you put up a good fight. And you fought with honor. I guess you proved me wrong after all."

"Ah….r-really~?" Naotora brightens.

"Absolutely," Ayane nods with a small smile. "You also proved your reason to be with Mai."

"Yaaaaaay~!" the brunette cheers. "Nao-chan wins! I'm so proud of you~!" She goes and hugs the shy samurai.

"Th-thank you very much~"

They pull away to see Ayane walking up to them, holding out her hand.

"This is my proper introduction," she says. "I'm Ayane, a ninja of Onee-chan's clan, Mugen Tenshin. Nice to meet you."

"A-and I'm Naotora Ii, head of the Ii Clan" the shy girl replies, gently taking the violet haired girl's hand. "A p-pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Mai smiles a gentle smile as she sees them shake hands. She is glad that the two of them are finally becoming proper friends and the fact that Ayane accepts their relationship.

"Welp, I better get back to my training," the violet haired girl says. "You two are welcome to stay here if you'd like. It's been a long time since we saw Mai here anyways."

"We would love to~!" Mai replies, clasping her hands together happily. "What do you think, Nao-chan~?"

The shy girl nods. "I think it's a great idea! Thank you very much~!"

"Alright then. Let's let Onee-chan know and we'll have some tea and a chat," Ayane says. "Come with me, please."

The three girls start to head upstairs with Mai and Naotora holding hands. The shy girl and the bubbly brunette exchange glances and smile. Naotora herself knows that her confidence has risen thanks to fighting Ayane. She has proven herself to be a more deserving girlfriend to Mai than ever before.

A/N: I kinda love the relationship of Ayane and Naotora, considering they have their own little story and cutscene from "Warriors All-Stars". Plus that, Naotora admires her as well, so I thought I might add it here.

Hope you enjoyed that chapter. Long and detailed reviews because I worked hard on this one especially the fight scene.

Have a nice day~!