Kenichi: Not just her disciple
I do not own Kenichi.
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AN: Hello readers. Thank you for patiently waiting for another chapter. I am still only updating about once a month. My main focus is still on my Familiar Of Zero story.
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Chapter 3
Turmoil
Friday morning at Ryozanpaku.
Everyone except for Kenichi was getting ready for breakfast.
Miu had gotten breakfast ready before her and Kenichi head off for school like usual.
Miu had an emotionless face as she had gotten all of the trays set.
Grandfather, Kensei, Akisame, Apachai, and Sakaki were all sitting at the table.
No one has said a word yet.
Sakaki had an annoyed look on his face from the awkward silence.
Kenichi had not walked out to get his breakfast yet.
"Why is everyone so quiet?" Apachai speaks up.
Kensei and Akisame just sip their tea.
"Apa?" Apachai says as he whips his head back and forth, looking at everyone.
Shigure walks into the room and instantly notices that Kenichi was not at the table like he usually is.
'Hmmmmmmm.' She thinks.
She stands by her tray on the table and then looks at Kenichi's empty seat.
"Where . . . is . . . Kenichi?" She asks aloud.
Miu gets a sad look on her face, but doesn't say a word.
Sakaki grits his teeth at the silence from the others.
"Apachai don't know. Kenichi never misses breakfast." Apachai innocently says to Shigure.
Shigure gets a bothersome look on her face and looks at the others.
'Do I really have to ask again?' She thinks.
"Where . . . is . . . Kenichi?" She asks again.
Sakaki slams his hand on the table.
"The cat is already out of the bag. Doesn't anyone else have the balls to tell her?" Sakaki says to the others.
Apachai looks back and forth at everyone again.
Sakaki looks at Shgure, who is staring at him with a puzzled look on her face.
'What is going on? Everyone was quiet last night after dinner.' Shigure wonders.
"Kenichi found out that Miu only likes him as a friend and that Hayato was having her act like she likes him an order to keep him here. Is that about right?" Sakaki says as he looks over in Miu's and grandfather's direction.
Miu covers her face.
Hayato puts a hand on Miu's shoulder.
Apachai sits there with his jaw dropped and lets out an innocent "Apa."
"Well that was awful blunt." Kensei mutters.
"Not one for tactfulness, are you Sakaki?" Akisame says to Sakaki.
"No reason to beat around the bush, and I told both of you that I didn't like this when we figured it out." Sakaki says to Akisame and Kensei.
"He . . . was . . . Being . . . tricked?" Shigure asks.
Akisame sweat drops.
'Perhaps . . . . this should have been thought over a little more.' Akisame worries.
'I think that it might be in my good health to stay away from her for quite a while along with my camera. I can't tell if she is upset, but I don't want to mess with an upset Shigure.' Kensei thinks.
Sakaki gets an obviously worried look on his face as he looks at Shigure.
'She may be hard to read, but her ki is certainly an indication of how she is feeling.' Sakaki thinks.
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Kenichi slowly gets ready for school.
He has bags under his eyes from lack of sleep.
'All of the others are probably ready for breakfast.'
He puts a couple books in his bag and then pauses a moment.
He lets out a sigh.
'There is no way I can face them right now. I just can't. Especially Miu and grandfather.'
He closes his bag.
'I will just have to get something from a vending machine.'
Just before reaching for his door, he takes a deep breath.
He rushes out of his room, down the hall, and continues past everyone at the table.
"Bye. I am heading off for school." He says to them as he waves and gives them all a fake smile.
Shigure is stunned as she watches him rush past and leave.
'This is not good.' Shigure thinks.
Miu runs off.
Sakaki shakes head.
'The kid didn't even eat breakfast.' Sakaki thinks.
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Shortly after Kenichi left, Shigure starts sneaking around in the rafters and drops down into Kenichi's room.
'Maybe one of his books will help me.' She thinks.
She starts rifling through his books and reads them while lying on his bed.
She takes a big whiff of his bed.
'This smells like Kenichi.' She thinks and smiles.
Tochumaru helps her out by getting the books for her that are along the shelf.
She tries reading through the books to find something that will be useful to her.
Book after book start littering the bed all around her.
She ends up dozing off for a short while on his bed, but eventually wakes up and starts reading again.
Tochumaru was about to get to a peculiar black book with a dragon on the cover that was the last to read when she hears Kenichi come home and start walking to his him.
He is about to open the door.
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After school lets out, Kenichi slowly walks to the gardening club.
'Man, this is bad. I haven't been able to focus all day. Plus I have been wasting energy trying to avoid Miu.'
As Kenichi makes his way to the greenhouse like a zombie, he hears a voice as if out from nowhere.
"Hello Kenichi."
A chill shoots up his spine.
He looks over and it is Niijima.
Kenichi sighs.
"Not now Niijima." Kenichi says as he tries to keep walking away.
Niijima follows behind.
"What's with the glum look?"
Kenichi doesn't say a word and just keeps going.
'Nijima is the last person that I would like to see right now.'
"You look like you just got dumped by Miu or something." Niijima says as he starts his maniacal laugh.
Kenichi turns around and punches Niijima.
As Niijima flies back from Kenichi's punch he looks up into the sky.
"Oh look! I think I see my mother ship." Niijima says as his snake-like tongue flails about.
He lands on the ground writhing and twitching.
Kenichi continues walking.
Takeda walks up to Niijima's dazed body and looks at him. He has his school bag slung over his shoulder.
"What did you say to Kenichi this time?" He says to Niijima.
Niijima pops up.
Takeda backs up in surprise from the fact that Niijima recovered so quickly.
Niijima starts typing in his PDA.
"That hit was harder than usual. I have to update his information."
Takeda shakes his head.
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Kenichi finds Izumi in the gardening club already. She is wearing the typical school uniform with a sailor shirt and black skirt.
When she sees Kenichi, she instantly smiles.
"Hi Kenichi!" She says and waves at him.
He gives her a wave and a half smile.
While she shows him a few plants that have started to bud, she notices that something just seems off about him.
He grabs his straw hat and a watering can.
He starts tending to the flowers with Izumi.
His mood starts to perk up as he puts his focus completely into his gardening activities.
'He seemed sad earlier. Maybe now is my chance.' Izumi thinks to herself and shifts her glasses.
She starts to reach for Kenichi's shoulder as he is bent down tending to some plants.
Just as her hand is about to reach his shoulder to get his attention, there is a knock on the door.
She sheepishly backs away and pouts.
"Who could that be?" Kenichi asks.
Izumi shrugs her shoulders and goes over to the door.
As she opens the door, she is forced to look up at a hulking mass.
She turns pale and passes out.
Kenichi, with the speed of a leopard, rushes over to catch her before she falls to the ground.
He looks over into the doorway and shock comes over his face.
Sakaki is standing just outside the doorway.
"What's with her?" Sakaki asks.
"I think you scared her half to death."
Kenichi gently sets her on a bench.
Sakaki also sits on a bench. It creaks a little bit from his weight.
She wakes up after a couple moments and sits up in panic. She freezes when she sees Sakaki.
Kenichi sees that she is about to let out a scream.
"It's okay Izumi. He is one of the masters at the dojo I am training at." He says to her.
This quells her enough from screaming.
"So. . . . . . He's not here to wreck the place?" she sheepishly asks.
"I don't think so." Kenichi says in response.
"Give me some credit kid." Sakaki says smugly to him.
Sakaki turns his head to Izumi.
"Hi. I'm Sakaki. I'm just here to talk to him." Sakaki says to Izumi.
"O . . . kay. I'm Izumi." Izumi says nervously.
"It's okay Izumi. I will finish up here and then close up." Kenichi says reassuringly to her.
She nods.
"I will see you in the morning then. Bye Kenichi." She says to him and waves.
He waves back, and then she leaves.
Kenichi's facial expression changes to a mix of annoyance and anger.
"What are you doing here, Master Sakaki." He says to Sakaki with a stressed tone.
"As I said, I want to talk to you."
"What if I don't want to listen?" Kenichi says in retort as he crosses his arms.
"Then you have two other choices. I can follow you around 'til you do listen. You know you can't get away from me. Or I can beat you to a pulp so you have to listen."
"That's not a very good way to get my attention."
"Do I look like a diplomat? My fists usually do my talking."
Kenichi sighs in defeat.
"Okay. The first option it is."
"Good."
Kenichi hangs up his hat.
"This better not be another trick to make sure I stay at the dojo."
Sakaki shakes his head.
"I just wanted to tell you how I feel without the others around."
Kenichi gets a puzzled look on his face.
"Even if you don't believe me, I at least want you to hear me out."
"I am listening." Kenichi says apprehensively.
"I didn't like what was going on. As soon as Kensei, Akisame, and I figured it out, I told them I didn't like it."
Sakaki emphasizes this by pointing a thumb at himself.
"It was only just recently we figured it out. The old man never told us anything, but we assumed that somehow he knew that we knew. "
Kenichi grabs his own head and ruffles his hair in frustration.
"Why didn't anybody tell me? Why would you guys even let this go on?"
"I think that the other two were okay with it to some extent. They like you and they didn't want you to leave."
"What about you Sakaki?"
"I didn't like it, but I also didn't know how to handle this. I told you that I am not a diplomat. I also told you not to ask me for relationship advice. I was once played for a fool in my past too. I know what it's like Kenichi."
Kenichi's mood lightens a little when he hears that Sakaki had something happen in his past too.
"We aren't supposed to ask questions or interfere in each other's affairs at Ryozanpaku, and this went too far."
"Is it really true that the only reason that he had her lie to me was because he thought that I would leave?"
"How am I supposed to know? That is the only thing that I've got to work with though."
"Do Shigure and Apachai really not know?"
"We never talked about it with them."
Kenichi sits down and puts his head in his hands.
Sakaki stands up and heads for the door.
Just as he is about to open the door, he looks over his shoulder at Kenichi.
"I don't know if you are going to stay at Ryozanpaku Kenichi, and I am not going to ask you. I wouldn't blame you if you did leave. You probably don't even know what you are going to do. But I hope that you at least say goodbye if you are going to leave. I like ya kid, and I am sorry that this happened."
He leaves and shuts the door behind him, leaving Kenichi in there with his own thoughts.
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Kenichi arrives at Ryozanpaku and hesitates before opening the door.
He opens the door after a moment and slowly walks in.
Then, he heads straight for his room, ignoring everything else.
He opens the door and walks inside.
What he didn't see was Shigure replacing a ceiling tile just as he was walking in.
After an already long day, he decides to just collapse into his bed.
He opens his eyes after he notices something peculiar.
'Why do I smell Shigure's scent?' He thinks as an unconscious smile comes across his face.
He looks around his room.
'Everything seems to be in place. All of my books are in place and nothing else seems moved out of position.'
He shrugs it off and sits up.
'What the hell am I going to do?' He asks himself.
He heads out of his room and continues on to go outside.
He first runs into Miu in her practice uniform.
She sweat drops after seeing the frown on his face.
After a slightly awkward pause, she speaks up.
"Hey Kenichi. I was just about to do some warmups. Did you want to join me?"
He stares at her for a moment.
'There's no way I could with my current mindset, especially with her.'
"No. Not today."
Miu freezes in place while Kenichi just walks past her.
As he keeps walking, He runs into Akisame as he is exiting the dojo.
"Good afternoon Kenichi. Are we training today?" He asks Kenichi.
'You haven't even tried to approach me. At least Sakaki did.' Kenichi thinks to himself as he looks at Sakaki.
He sighs.
"No. Not today."
As he walks, he sees Sakaki standing in the middle of a half a dozen pillars. Sakaki's back is turned to Kenichi.
Sakaki notices Kenichi over his shoulder but doesn't say a word to Kenichi.
'I said what I needed to say to him.' Sakaki thinks.
Kenichi watches as Sakaki gathers his ki. His hands are in fists at his sides in a standard karate stance while he does this.
Kenichi watches this for a moment.
When Sakaki releases his ki, he uses a quick flurry of kicks and punches that knock the tops of the pillars off while the lower halves still remain.
'It's amazing how much power all of the masters have.' Kenichi thinks.
He continues walking around.
He comes to another area and finds Kensei balancing on a thin pole that the tip of his foot can barely fit on.
Kenichi scowls after a moment.
'Was it really worth lying to me to keep me here?' Kenichi wonders.
He walks away.
"Hey Kenichiiii!" Apachai calls out.
He walks over to Kenichi.
"Nobody wanted to play rock-paper-scissor today. Did you want to train with me even though you are sad?" He asks Kenichi.
Kenichi smiles at him.
'Ever so blunt and innocent. I can't be mad at him, but I don't feel like it today.'
"I am sorry Apachai, but not today."
He walks away from Apachai.
At first, Apachai looks sad, but then he gets a serious look on his face and jumps away.
Kenichi stops in the middle of a short bridge over a pond and stares at his reflection in the water.
'I don't know what to think. I am so confused. I am really wondering if I should stay. Maybe I would be better off leaving. I've been lied to and had my heart torn out because of the lies. Ragnarok wants to hunt me down and is causing a lot of trouble in my name. I am still so weak according to Miu and the other masters. Do I even stand a chance against them? Maybe if I leave, then the problems with Ragnarok will also go away. Who am I to fool with my ideal to protect everyone?'
He sighs heavily and looks up into the sky.
'How am I supposed to feel about Miu and all of the other masters over this whole situation? I want to train to protect people, but what are my reasons anymore?'
Shigure was watching him intently from a tree.
'What is going on in his head? He seems very conflicted.' She wonders.
Her attention gets deflected when she sees Apachai.
'Miu will be serving dinner soon. I think that I am going to skip it too. Besides, I am not very hungry anyways.' He thinks as he starts to make his way back to his room.
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Shigure hangs upside-down from a branch and stares at Apachai.
"Apachai?"
He looks back to her. He is holding a voodoo doll that resembles Kenichi in one hand and a hammer in the other.
"I will use this to make Kenichi feel not so sad anymore."
He holds the doll up to the tree and is about to strike a nail into it.
"For Kenichi's happiness!" Apachai calls out as he starts pounding the nail in.
Shigure decides to help him out by holding the nails for him.
'Maybe it will work.' She thinks.
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Shigure comes to the table and notices that Kenichi is not there again.
"No . . . Kenichi . . . again?"
Miu looks down and seems really upset.
'He needs to eat.' Shigure thinks.
She looks down and sees both her tray and his tray.
With a swift motion, and under the cover of her kimono, she grabs both trays and walks away.
Akisame narrows his eyes as he watches Shigure walk away.
'What is going on with her? Something seems to be changing with her.' He thinks as she walks away.
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After a sigh, Kenichi goes to turn away from his window and nearly bumps into Shigure.
He was about to holler out but she puts a hand over his mouth.
"Shhhhh. . . . Don't . . want . . . others . . . to know." She whispers to him.
He gets a puzzled look on his face, but he nods.
She lets go.
He notices that she has a tray with two serving of food on it.
"Eat. . . with me." She says quietly to him.
'This is really unusual of her. I kind of don't want to turn her down, but I just want to be left alone to think.'
He starts to shake his head.
The smell of the food hits his him and makes his stomach grumble.
She looks at his stomach and then cants her head.
"Eat . . . . with me." She says again.
He nods and smiles at her.
They both sit on his bed across from each other.
She takes the chopsticks and gets a piece of fish for him. She holds her hand underneath what she picked up with the chopsticks in wait for him to open his mouth.
"I could feed myself." He says to her.
She doesn't change her position.
'I guess it can't be helped.' He thinks.
He opens his mouth and she proceeds to feed him.
As he chews the food, he gets a small blush.
'That was actually kind of nice.' He thinks to himself.
After a few more bites, he grabs the other set of chopsticks.
'I should return the favor.'
He picks up a piece of fish and holds it out to her and waits.
"Your turn." He whispers to her.
This time she is the one to blush.
'Kenichi feed me?' She ponders.
She pauses a moment.
"It's only fair, and you need to eat too." He says as he reasons with her.
She closes her eyes and opens her mouth.
He puts the food in her mouth.
'This is not an unpleasant thing to do with Kenichi.' She thinks to herself.
They keep doing this 'til the food is gone.
She was just about to get up from the bed.
"Shigure?"
She looks at him.
Both of them are still blushing from the intimate moment that they just shared.
"Thank you. That was very nice, and you saved me from facing the others."
She gives him a smile from the compliment.
'There's that beautiful smile again.' He thinks.
She exits back up into the rafters.
After she leaves, he grabs his black book and writes in it.
He puts it back away after he writes a few things down.
He hears a knock on his door and he gets up to open it. When he opens the door, Miu is standing there.
His eye twitches.
She has her hands nervously clasped together in front of her.
"Kenichi, can we please talk about this? I am really upset over this."
"I can't deal with you right now." He says to her.
The frown on his face makes her feel even more guilty than what she already was.
"My feelings for you were used against me and people were just letting it happen." He says to her.
Without another utterance, he slowly closes the door.
He collapses back onto his bed and goes back to his conflicted thoughts.
'I think that I might need to spend some time away to figure things out.' He thinks to himself before he goes to sleep for the night.
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A/N: Thank you for reading my Kenichi story. I hope you enjoyed the third chapter.
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