I'm in Teresin, dedicated to playing badly

The next second, Kitahara Shinji did not retract his sword. Instead, he used the impact of slashing at Sirius's wrist to strike her face again, landing steadily between her mask and breastplate at the slight opening.

Then, Shinji Kitahara's voice rang out.

“I haven’t studied proper kendo, so I’m not very familiar with the rules of the dojo.”

He looked at Sirius, gently tapped the flaw with the blade of his wooden sword, and spoke calmly.

"But by my usual standards, you should be considered the loser now."

"What do you think, Sirius?"

Chapter 233: Is there a problem?

The standard that Shinji Kitahara mentioned was based on actual combat.

In actual combat, there is only one standard for victory or defeat from beginning to end: to completely incapacitate the opponent, regardless of the form it takes.

Even if Sirius is wearing protective gear, if Shinji Kitahara were holding a real sword and slashing down at this angle, Sirius would already be a headless knight.

As for Sirius, although he had never had a chance to fight to the death, looking at the wooden knife held to his neck, he showed no signs of being a sore loser and readily admitted his defeat.

"Then you win this round."

However, although she quickly admitted her defeat, she soon spoke up again, saying that she wanted to have another round with Shinji Kitahara.

Shinji Kitahara did not refuse.

After all, he could tell that Sirius had held back quite a bit when he attacked because he was human, and Sirius would definitely not be satisfied with ending things like this.

"Then do it again."

As he spoke, he withdrew the wooden sword that had been held against Sirius's neck, stepped back slightly, and once again assumed a fighting stance.

This time, having learned from its previous experience, Sirius no longer simply viewed Kitahara Shinji as a human. It took a serious approach, preparing to treat him as an opponent on par with Rudolf, and then—

Click.

Five seconds later, Shinji Kitahara placed one foot on the back of Sirius's sword, and with just a little force, the wooden sword in his hand could pierce Sirius's eye socket through the gap in the protective gear.

"...Again."

Sirius, undeterred, raised her wooden sword again. And because of her previous two defeats, this time she didn't defend but instead took the initiative to attack. And then—

thump—

Three seconds later, Sirius fell to the ground, and the wooden sword in Kitahara Shinji's hand grazed her face protection and struck the ground with a crisp sound the moment she landed.

"Are you coming again?"

However, this time, before Sirius could answer, Rudolf, who had been observing from the side, suddenly spoke up.

"Trainer Kitahara, if you don't mind, would you like to have a match with me?"

Rudolf spoke slowly, tapping his wooden sword.

Perhaps because of three consecutive losses, or perhaps simply because they wanted to see Rudolph make a fool of himself, Sirius didn't compete with Rudolph this time and easily let Shinji Kitahara go to Rudolph's side.

However, what the other two didn't expect was that after deciding to fight against Shinji Kitahara...

Before the battle began, Rudolf removed his protective gear, leaving him only in a loose gi, and raised his wooden sword at Shinji Kitahara.

Rudolph did this not because she enjoyed being beaten.

Based on her observations, Sirius was defeated so easily by Kitahara Shinji largely because the protective gear delayed his movements.

The faceplate, in particular, while it did protect vital organs and prevent accidents, the inconvenience and limited vision it brought became a fatal weakness for Shinji Kitahara when he attacked.

While Kitahara Shinji was somewhat troubled by Rudolf's removal of his armor—mainly because it would make it harder for him to retaliate—he did not object and quickly assumed a fighting stance.

Then, just as Rudolf had predicted, after discarding her protective gear, her speed and reaction time increased significantly, and she performed much better than Sirius had before.

He held out for more than ten seconds before Shinji Kitahara struck his hand with a sword, causing him to drop his weapon to the ground.

After that, Rudolf challenged Shinji Kitahara three times. Unfortunately, apart from the first time, although he performed better than Sirius in the other two challenges, he could not surpass the time she lasted in the first one.

"Trainer Kitahara, you... are very strong."

Logically speaking, after being defeated so many times, Rudolf should be somewhat unhappy now.

Strangely, despite her failure, Shinji Kitahara noticed that the woman's mood had improved considerably, and even her eyes seemed to hold a strange light when she looked at him.

Something feels off...

However, before Kitahara Shinji could think about the problem in detail, Sirius, who had just finished watching Kitahara Shinji and Rudolf fight, stepped forward again and said that he wanted to have a few more matches with Kitahara Shinji.

Because their usual sparring partners are Senior Ma Niang and Eclipse. The former always uses Ma Niang's overbearing physical strength and swordsmanship to cheat, while the latter is simply a numerical monster who can't be broken even if he stands there and hits him.

Shinji Kitahara, who had basically never sparred with normal people, rarely had the opportunity to spar safely with a rookie—at least that's what he thought. After thinking about it, he didn't refuse.

Then, as the night deepened and the moon rose, the sounds of clanging and banging echoed continuously until midnight in the dojo that symbolized the main family, interspersed with some heavy breathing sounds.

After an unknown amount of time, the sounds of fighting in the dojo finally stopped.

Rudolf and Sirius lay on the ground, unusually peacefully together, gazing at the man still standing not far away, their chests rising and falling slightly.

At the end of the battle, after discovering that Kitahara Shinji was indeed very strong, and even during the battle with them, he was improving at a visible rate.

After some time of deliberation, Rudolf and Sirius finally decided to join forces.

Although it's not exactly a glorious thing for two horse girls, and two rather capable horse girls, to team up and defeat a human, at least they still wanted to win a game after losing all night.

Unfortunately, they never got what they wanted in the end, and were defeated by Shinji Kitahara in a two-on-one battle.

As for Shinji Kitahara, after defeating the combined forces of Rudolf and Sirius, he didn't seem particularly happy. Instead, he stood there in a daze.

The horse girl's strength is indeed formidable...

In fact, Shinji Kitahara's victory tonight was not solely due to his technical skill.

After all, no matter how sophisticated the technology is, the difference in physical abilities between humans and horse girls is still there.

Even if he reacts quickly, if the opponent slashes with all their might, even if he can keep up with the speed, it is impossible for him to block the blow unscathed.

One force can overcome ten techniques; Shinji Kitahara had a profound experience with this during the solar eclipse.

Based on this, after the sparring session began tonight, Shinji Kitahara began to try to mobilize the energy within his body, just like when he tore the car door apart before, in order to obtain some of the power from the horse girls.

Having learned from his previous experience, and considering it was just a regular sparring session, he did not choose to use the power of the Eclipse again, but instead opted for the relatively peaceful power of the Inner Force.

Furthermore, this time he did not choose to unleash all his power at once, but instead tried to output it in small, continuous bursts, like flowing water.

In this mode, although the improvement is not so obvious, probably only about 20% to 30% of the original power, it is still a huge improvement for Kitahara Shinji. At least it allows him to withstand the attacks from Rudolf and Sirius through skill.

Otherwise, facing the combined attack of the two, although he would still win in the end, he would never have won as easily as he has now.

Just as I expected, as long as I don't use excessive force, it won't cause any damage...

After briefly checking his own body and confirming that everything was fine, Shinji Kitahara looked at Rudolf and Sirius, who had almost fully recovered.

"Um, you two, shouldn't we go back and rest...?"

He hadn't noticed it when he was in the heat of the moment, but now that it was over, Shinji Kitahara realized it was already past midnight.

When the topic of going back to rest came up, Rudolf and Sirius exchanged a glance.

Because of someone's interruption, what should have been a battle between the two to determine the winner and decide Kitahara Shinji's fate has turned into a situation where both of them are lying on the ground.

Moreover, judging from their current state and the fact that it's already past midnight, they won't be given a second chance to duel.

"...Never mind, let's go to Rudolf's room."

Just as Rudolf was pondering how to reasonably get Shinji Kitahara over there, Sirius suddenly spoke up.

Then, before Rudolf could even react with surprise, Sirius spoke again, his tone irritating.

"You kicked my door down, how can anyone live here now?"

"...I'm really sorry."

Although he said he was sorry, Rudolf's face showed no sign of apology whatsoever.

However, despite deciding to go to Rudolph's room, Sirius didn't intend to make things too easy for Rudolph. She then used the excuse that her door was broken to ask to sleep at Rudolph's room together.

Although Rudolf would have preferred to refuse Sirius's request if possible, Sirius had already prepared before making the request, giving her no chance to object, and quickly finalized the matter.

Afterwards, since it was already quite late, the three of them went straight to Rudolf's room after resting.

However, due to the fight just now, Rudolf and Sirius were both sweating a lot and needed to take another shower.

As for Shinji Kitahara, since he won relatively easily and was a little embarrassed to use Rudolf's bathtub, he said he would just spend the night on the sofa dressed and didn't plan to take a shower, and then lay down on the sofa.

Rudolf had no objection to this, and then turned and went into the bathroom.

As for Sirius, she originally planned to take a shower and go to sleep after Rudolf finished showering.

But as she watched Kitahara Shinji gradually close his eyes on the sofa, preparing to rest without any guard, a few inexplicable emotions flashed in her eyes. Then she took a step and slowly walked towards him.

Shinji Kitahara was about to go to sleep, but as he drifted off, he suddenly felt something on his body.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that Sirius had somehow sat on him, holding his wrists with both hands and looking at him with a smile.

"...Sirius?"

Shinji Kitahara tentatively spoke.

"This is......."

"Didn't you say you were a hands-on practitioner?"

Sirius smiled as he looked at Kitahara Shinji beneath him, shaking the hand that was holding his arm as he spoke.

"In this situation, can you still beat me?"

Honestly, yes.

After all, Sirius was only holding his arm; his hand was still free. He could pull something out of his almost nonexistent system at any time to take her down. If all else failed, he could also use the power of Eclipse.

But the problem is that it's unnecessary.

After all, he had already won all night, and Sirius wasn't some irredeemable enemy, so Shinji Kitahara didn't want to cause any more trouble.

After thinking for a moment, he pretended to struggle a few times, but when he failed to break free, he gave up and said helplessly.

"It doesn't look good."

Although it was a dishonorable sneak attack, hearing what Kitahara Shinji said made Sirius feel somewhat better after being thrashed all night.

"So that means you lost?"

"Ah."

Shinji Kitahara simply nodded.

"So, can you get off me now? I'm really sleepy..."

"That won't work."

Sirius spoke, then slowly lowered his head.

"You had so much fun beating me up in the dojo, now it's my turn to get my revenge..."

Wasn't it you who insisted on fighting me?

Shinji Kitahara thought to himself, but seeing Sirius's face getting closer and closer, he swallowed his words back.

Oh well, let her do whatever she wants. Anyway, it'll be her turn after Rudolph finishes his shower...

Thinking this, Shinji Kitahara sighed, closed his eyes, and chose to give up.

As for Sirius, she originally just wanted to joke with Kitahara Shinji, but as their faces drew closer, a strange impulse began to grow in her heart.

However, if it were just a little impulsive, it wouldn't be enough to make Sirius do anything.

The problem is that, just as Sirius got close enough, Shinji Kitahara chose to give up and even closed his eyes.

This action instantly triggered Sirius's nerves.

The daytime frustration, Rudolf's sudden change of expression, the questions and answers after his return, and the previous humiliation...

After all that trouble, she just wanted to make a little joke, but this blockhead wouldn't even cooperate?

Who can bear this?

So, fueled by various factors, the next second, accompanied by a surge of inner impulse, Sirius lowered his head.

Sensing something, Kitahara Shinji opened his eyes in surprise, but before he could utter a sound, his mouth was covered.