The Gemini Princess wants me to confess my feelings!

Kirihara Akira gasped for breath, as if she wanted to exhale her lungs out, and hearing this really broke her defenses.

He looked up to argue, but a towel flew over and covered his eyes.

As I took off the towel, I saw Mori Kiyoha tilting her head back to drink water. The water overflowing from the narrow mouth of the water bottle mixed with sweat and slid down her fair skin. She then picked up the towel again and casually wiped the water stains off her delicate neck.

Kirihara Akira stood there resting for a while, and the two remained silent.

Mori Kiyoha recovered even faster. She casually hung the towel around her neck, subconsciously offered a water bottle, and then immediately pulled it back as if she had realized what she was doing.

She let out a long sigh and said, "You're such a weirdo."

Kirihara Akatsuki rolled her eyes and asked, "What's wrong with me?"

Mori Kiyoha said, "Kurokawa, the bodyguard who fled our house to escape punishment, once told me that a person's physical fitness is the foundation of a person, and things like fighting techniques and power generation skills are all external techniques that utilize the human body."

Although he's a traitor, I believe he wouldn't lie to me about something so trivial.

"Your physical abilities are even inferior to mine..." Mori Kiyoha carefully chose her words before continuing, "yet you can easily take down several adults, several gangsters who are used to fighting, so I really don't understand."

"He probably didn't lie to you, but..." After listening, Kirihara Akira paused for a moment, sat down on the stone stool next to her, caught her breath, and started to keep her in suspense, saying, "Give me a drink of water, and I'll tell you."

The darkness concealed the blush on Mori Kiyoha's face. She glared fiercely at Kirihara Akira, pressed the bottle button, and the bottle cap popped off with a click.

She held the kettle in her hand, tilting it at an angle, and aimed it at Kirihara Akira's mouth from above.

Kirihara Akira was stunned for a moment. What kind of play was this?

Sen Qingye looked down at him from his high position, his disdain in his eyes conveying only one meaning: drinking it meant accepting charity, not drinking it meant lacking the courage to accept it, his single-mindedness had turned him into a double-edged sword.

Kirihara Akiko gritted her teeth and bit down on the bottle opening.

Mori Kiyoha panicked instantly and instinctively pulled the bottle back. With a pull and a tug, Kirihara Akira's mouth was painfully choked, and she instinctively let go.

Water gushed out, soaking Kirihara Akira's face.

Mori Kiyoha was furious: "What kind of pervert are you! Who gave you permission to kiss me?"

Upon hearing this, Kirihara Akira was a little dumbfounded. She immediately realized that she might have misjudged Mori Kiyoha too much. She gave an awkward dry laugh and wisely changed the subject: "Ahem, Kurokawa probably wasn't lying to you. That applies to most situations, but I'm obviously not one of them."

Mori Kiyoha turned her head to look at the sky, and Kirihara Akira thought she was angry, but actually she just didn't know where to look.

The spilled water dripped down Kirihara Akira's face, down her neck, and onto her collarbone. The moonlight, as if playing a trick, provided only a tiny ray of light, just enough for her to see this detail.

She could only ask in a cold, hard tone, "Oh? How are you different?"

Kirihara Akira said, "First of all, I'm an expert enough, much more so than he is, and much more so than he imagines. Secondly, the yakuza that day were amateurs, much more amateurs than you think. Although I've never seen my family's Kawasaki brother fight, based on my guess, if Kawasaki were ten years younger, even twice the number of people in the club wouldn't be enough for him to beat."

Kirihara Akira reached out and wiped away the chilling water stains on her collarbone, and continued, "The opponent in aerobic exercise is yourself. You have to overcome your own physiological instincts and hone your own will. This is an abstract concept."

In a life-or-death battle, your opponent is real, their skill level is objective, and their physical weaknesses are definite.

"Ignoring the difference in numbers and avoiding direct confrontation, strike weaknesses with sufficient force. Unless your opponent is a heavyweight, people's reactions are all roughly the same."

Kirihara Akira deliberately used a sinister tone to say, "The knife goes into the flesh, and then the person falls down."

Sen Qingye wasn't intimidated by him. Instead, she sneered twice, then opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.

Kirihara Akira asked with a smile, "What are your concerns?"

Mori Kiyoha shook her head, not voicing the many questions that were swirling in her mind.

In fact, Kirihara Akira could tell what she wanted to ask.

Kawasaki, the Mori family's bodyguard and head butler, dedicated most of his life to honing his skills. He was incredibly strong in his youth and only in his old age did he accumulate unparalleled skills. So how did Kirihara Akira acquire all of this?

It was a secret, she knew, and that the secret had been exposed to save her, so she wouldn't pry into it.

Just as this girl always insisted, she could be wicked, but not despicable.

After a long silence, Mori Kiyoha slowly spoke: "Could you teach me these techniques?"

Kirihara Akira looked up, somewhat taken aback.

Sen Qingye was a little uncomfortable with such a direct conversation, and her face turned slightly red with embarrassment.

Kirihara Akira gripped the towel and said, "Why bother with me? Wouldn't it have been better to ask Kawasaki?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Kirihara Akira regretted asking them.

Because the answer is actually quite obvious.

Mori Kiyoha said expressionlessly, "Kawasaki is Mori Akari's loyal servant. I run around this yard all day long, already stepping on her red line. It's hard to imagine that she would agree to let Kawasaki teach me how to fight people."

Besides, we're in our final year of high school, and Mori Akari's priority for me is getting into a good university. She wants to arrange for a private tutor or a professional teacher to start teaching me right away, but I don't have that much time.

"That makes sense." Kirihara Akatsuki neither agreed nor disagreed, but instead rested her chin on her hand and began to think.

Mori Kiyoha flicked her ponytail and said, "Fine, if you don't want to teach, then don't."

"Who said I don't want to teach anymore?" Kirihara Akira gave her a strange look.

"Then what do I have to give in return?" Mori Kiyoha's expression remained unchanged, but her voice softened considerably.

"Hmm... I haven't decided yet." Kirihara Akatsuki already had an idea in mind, but she kept it to herself and said instead, "I'll owe it to you for now."

Mori Kiyoha said, "That won't do. Who knows what kind of perverted demands you'll make later? It's better to just say it now."

"...What kind of person am I in your heart?" Kirihara Akatsuki said helplessly, "Don't worry, I would be crazy to make such a perverted request. Not only will you not fulfill it, but you will also be able to blatantly renege on it after you have the upper hand."

"Hmph." Mori Kiyoha snorted coldly, turned around and took a step, her tone elusive and meaningful as she said, "Maybe I really will agree? You can give it a try."

Kirihara Akira shrugged and said, "No thanks, I don't want to be chopped up by your professional team and sunk into Tokyo Bay."

Mori Kiyoha's voice faded into the distance, then drifted back: "A small fry is a small fry, all lust and no guts. Don't blame me for not warning you, you only have yourself to blame for being spineless."

A vein throbbed on Kirihara Akira's forehead; a surge of malice welled up within him, and he felt an urge to rush forward and show her what true courage was.