Suguha was eating breakfast in the dining room. Her mother had to leave early today so it was just her until Kazuto finally woke up.
That sleepyhead.
"Morning, Sugu," Kazuto said with a yawn.
"Morning, Kazuto," she answered through her toast.
She observed him as he sat down.
He was smiling carelessly as he reached to grab the food spread on the table.
"You seem happy." She couldn't help but feel happy herself to see him looking so carefree.
"I guess I had a good night."
She smiled, wanting to believe that she was the reason he had a good night.
"So, Kazuto," she began as he started shoveling food into his mouth. "Do you have any plans for the day?"
"Not a thing," he answered as he grabbed another slice of toast.
"Really? No bike ride or playing online games?"
"Nope," he answered, completely unconcerned that he was acting like a total introvert.
"If only you had some friends," she teased him, "maybe then you'd have someone to have fun with."
She was expecting him to bite back, maybe saying he doesn't need friends or say that she didn't have any either.
But there was only silence.
She took a look at his face, only to be surprised by the expression.
He looked hurt… empty… almost regretful.
"Oh uh," she needed to cover this up. "If you aren't doing anything, maybe we can do some kendo together!"
The hurt eventually lessened as he forced a smile at her.
"I suppose," he answered. "The doctors did say that I needed some more physical exercise." He paused to take a bite of his eggs. "Although I don't think getting into a fight with my sister is what they had in mind," he said jokingly.
"It'll be fine! I'll go easy on you," she promised, resisting the urge to cross her fingers.
"Okay, Sugu! Let me teach you what I learned!"
The two of them entered the dojo barefooted, bowed to each other, and then began to prepare themselves respectively. As they finished tying the headgear's laces at the same time, the two of them walked to the center of the dojo and bowed to each other once again.
Suguha slowly stood up from her crouching position, grasped her favourite shinai tightly, and took a centred stance. Meanwhile, Kazuto—
"What is that pose?" she asked, confused. It certainly wasn't a kendo pose.
"This is my sword style," he answered while answering nothing.
Clearly that game had caused more irreparable damage than we had first thought.
"Now, Sugu, let me teach you the art of the sword!"
"…"
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
In that moment, she convinced herself that it was fine to hit him just a little harder than she should.
"Kote!" she called.
She swung down at his left forearm. But amazingly, her strike hit nothing.
He had moved out of the way at an unbelievable speed, as if he knew precisely how she was going to strike him.
Not giving her time to think, he tried to strike her with the shinai in his right hand. It was fast!
But still easy to dodge.
She couldn't help but grin, excited for what may be a real challenge from him.
She followed up by attacking with a flurry of strikes.
With incredible movements, he was able to dodge a few of them while only keeping slight distance from her shinai.
Alas, he started to stumble after the 3rd strike, allowing her to follow up with two strikes, one on each forearm.
Weakly, he brought up his weapon and briefly got into a strange pose.
While she was curious, she didn't wait to see why he was doing so.
She stepped back and advanced to finish the fight.
With his slightly stunned arms, he moved his shinai to parry hers. And he did it masterfully.
However she was far stronger than the boy who only started to move after over 1 year of being immobile.
Once he was staggered, she seized the opportunity by launching her finishing blow against his head.
"Men!" she called the kendo strike.
She saw him close his eyes, bracing for the impact…
*Tap*
But she only lightly tapped his helmet.
I would never hurt you too hard, she wanted him to know. At least not as long as I can help it.
He opened his eyes with a grateful look, but he dramatically stumbled onto his behind regardless – His shinai clattering to the side next to him – as if she hit him with all her strength.
In her opinion, their duel was a one-sided massacre.
Although Kazuto was a bit more skilled than she had expected, his body was still weak.
And for some reason he kept making strange poses as he fought.
She wasn't going to ask him what he was thinking just yet. That could wait.
"You're skilled," she complimented him as she pulled off her mask, "but you lack power." She took some time to check out his body. He had steadily gained a bit more muscle compared to when he first woke up. "And not just because of your body."
"Sugu," he chided her, "you can't expect me to hit my beloved sister with all my strength, can you?"
She put her mask over her face, hoping that he would think it was for intimidation, but really, she was hiding her blush.
"Well more than that, you'll need to have courage if you want to beat me!"
As soon as she said the word "courage," he flinched and his expression became downcast.
"What's wrong?" she asked with concern.
"I-it's nothing," he said as he hastily pulled off the rest of his gear. "Sorry."
"I'm sorry too," she apologized. "I'm sure you're very brave, Kazuto, after all, you're a survivor."
"Thanks," he said gruffly. "But don't worry about me."
I always worry about you.
They walked out of the dojo together, and as they did so, she barely heard him whisper something under his breath;
"I have no courage."
Originally I didn't include any description of their kendo fight and was only going to say that it was a one-sided massacre with some exposition afterwards. Mainly cause I suck at writing fight scenes. But I figured it should be added to show that Kazuto is going to be less skilled than he was during their fight in canon, having 11 months less experience and all. I don't think he'll be able to cut bullets in GGO. Still, this is how I'll improve, especially if I continue writing "Midnight Shadow".
Writing about kendo, it reminds me of one of the first SAO fanfics I ever read: "The Kendo Club".