Act 3

Find An Opening

Honoka swings her wooden sword up and down outside on the school roof. She does it for however long she wants to, but she stops to take a breather. "O…kay, I don't know what I'm doing." She lets out a sigh as she looks up at the sky. "I want to learn a little bit of swordsmanship, but to ask Umi-chan to do it. Ahhhhh…this could be a little more difficult than I thought…" She sighs again. Just then, she hears some footsteps come toward her. Turning around, she sees Umi with her own wooden sword with a serious expression on her face.

"Ah, Umi-chan!" she says. "S-sorry I came early like this. But I was just so excited to train with you, that's all. I mean, heck, I thought I might as well train myself before we get started, right? Hehe~!"

Umi doesn't say a word. Instead, she points her wooden sword at Honoka. The ginger gives a nervous giggle.

"Well then, if that's the case," Honoka raises her wooden sword as well. "Let's begin~!"

However, before the ginger can even react, there is a blur of blue hair coming close to Honoka and swings her sword rapidly, back and forth, up and down, and diagonally all at once. Honoka has no idea Umi is THAT fast and tries to block them all with her sword. She stumbles back a little and charges at the bluenette.

"Yah!" Honoka cries.

However, Umi swiftly dodges it and hits Honoka on the back once. The ginger plops on the ground with an, "Oof!"

"Okay, Umi-chan!" Honoka says as she struggles to her feet. "No more playing around! You may have knocked me down, but I always get right back up! So, get ready, girl!" She raises her sword as she tries to leap toward her. She takes a big swing as she is about to close gaps, but Umi dodges it while closing her eyes.

"You're too slow," Umi says. She swings her sword, hitting Honoka on multiple parts of her body, knocking her down.

Honoka is on the ground with her butt in the air, her white bear panties showing, the one Kotori designed for her. "Umi-chaaaaaan!" she whines.

"Well, you can't just charge at an enemy straight on like that," The bluenette says, putting her hand on her hip. She softly bonks her on the head with the tip of her sword. "The only thing you can rely on is your head. You need to work on that, especially during studies."

Honoka groans as she gets back on her feet. "Okay! One more time, Umi-chan!"

Umi nods as she rushes toward the ginger, swinging her sword rapidly again in all directions. Honoka tries her hardest to block each one.

I got to somehow dodge them! the ginger thinks.

She blocks one last swing, comes closer to the bluenette and then, after pushing away the sword, she takes a swing and hits Umi's side. She summer salts behind her and swiftly turns toward her childhood friend.

"How's that!?" she says, panting.

Umi turns to her with a small smile. "Not bad."

"Oh, yaaaaay~!" Honoka jumps to her feet and hugs the bluenette. "I did it~!"

"Ah…H-Honoka!" The bluenette squeaks. "D-don't hug me like that! Someone will come!"

"It's just us, remember~? You and I agreed to train up here alone. Together~! Hehe~!" She nuzzles her face against Umi's, making the bluenette blush harder.

"Honoka! Cut it out!"

"Honoka-chan? Umi-chan?"

The voice that belonged to Kotori snaps them out of it and turn to their other designer who just opened the door.

"Oh! Hehe! Are you guys sword fighting right now?" Kotori says as she skips over toward her two childhood friends.

Honoka laughs nervously as she looks up at Umi. "Weeeelll….sort of~!"

"We are," Umi says as she looks at the ash-brunette. "Honoka's trying to concentrate, so…"

"Mind if I join~?" Kotori asks as she picks up the wooden sword Honoka dropped.

"Eh!?" the ginger says. "Wait…do you…even know what you're doing? What we're doing here is pretty serious."

Kotori glances at Honoka and then at Umi with a serious expression. "I can be serious, too, girls. You may not think it or anything, but I can be pretty athletic!" She jumps back a little while holding the sword in front of her.

"W-wait, Kotori-chan!" Honoka says, reaching her hand out, but the ash-brunette ignores her.

"Come on, Umi-chan!" Kotori says as she raises her sword high.

Umi does the same. Honoka wants to stop the designer from doing anything, but it's no use. Kotori lets out a battle cry as she charges at the bluenette and swings the sword. However, Umi simply knocks it out of her hands, sending it spinning high in the air and then landing about 10 feet from them. Kotori drops to her knees, shocked as Umi points her sword at the designer.

"You understand now?" she asks.

Kotori shakes in fear just a little bit before giving a nervous smile. "Ah…yes. S-so sorry, Umi-chan, Honoka-chan."

"No, no, no!" Honoka says as she rushes towards her friend's aid. "We just didn't want you to get hurt, but thankfully, Umi-chan didn't."

"Thank you, Honoka-chan," the ash-brunette says. "Say, do you mind if I watch the two of you? See what you have learned?"

Honoka brightens. "Oh, sure! Sure, no problem! Is that alright, Umi-chan?"

"It's okay with me," the bluenette says.

"Yay~!" Kotori cheers as she backs away a few feet. "Alright then, you two! Do your thing!"

Umi nods as she turns to the ginger. "You ready, Honoka?"

Honoka firmly nods as she readies her sword. "I was born ready~!"

"Then, let us begin."

The two charge at each other and clash wooden swords as a first hit. They push each other off and Umi charges again, swinging her sword rapidly and Honoka somehow manages to dodge them all and duck under one swing to get closer to the blunette. Umi gasps as she backs away and swing her sword once again. Honoka blocks it and then another attack after another. Kotori watches in excitement, looking back and forth at the ginger and the blunette. Umi is surprised that the ginger has learned this quickly just from 20 minutes ago. But there's no time to be thinking right now. Honoka is close to defeating her, so she can't back down now. She dodges Honoka's swing of her sword and then prepares to attack Honoka again with her quick swings. The ginger somehow blocks them all and then from the last swing, she knocks it out of her hands with strength she doesn't even know she has and then tosses her sword aside. She then jumps to hug Umi and kiss her on the lips, surprising Umi and Kotori as well. Both girls stand, frozen from the kiss for just a moment before they pull away and Honoka grins.

"Gotcha, Umi-chan~" she teases.

Kotori giggles at Umi's cute blushing face. "Honoka-chan's the winner~!"

"And this is your victory kiss?" Umi questions.

"Of course~" Honoka says. "I had to use my noggin and I did~! I found an opening just so that I could kiss you~!"

Umi slightly turns away, blushing. "Y-you're s-so sh-shameless, Honoka…"

The ginger hugs her and kisses her on the cheek. "I know. And I love to be~"