"Stop trying to portray yourself like a big shot old man" Ryuuko interrupted the conversation making everyone look at her, she sat down beside Noriaki as loudly as she possibly could without breaking the floor.

"I'm only 2 years older than you" Noriaki calmly said as he continued to sip his tea.

"As I said, ancient" Ryuuko mercilessly spoke while inspecting her nails.

Noriaki's eye twitched, he opened his mouth to say something before simply stopping himself once he saw Oka's and Tomomi's dumbfounded expressions, he sighed before continuing to speak to them.

"I hope my wife hasn't been too annoying in the tour of our home. She has a way with words that is honestly hard to describe" The wry smile on his face made Tomomi feel pity for the guy but she answered nonetheless.

"Not at all Mr.Yukimura, she has been a pleasant person to talk to and has answered most of my questions so I know she is very knowledgeable" She affirmed as she remembered many small facts and niche details about Japanese culture that she didn't know about.

She was an otaku in her previous life and did literally live in japan for the last 8 years of her life, but apart from daily bits of culture that she learned due to the osmosis of living here, she really didn't learn that much. She attributed that to not only the idea of quirks just straight-up making some traditions impossible or discontinued but also to globalization.

An entire three centuries have passed since the invention of the internet, it was not a question of 'if' globalization would diminish the amount of individuality of each country, it was a matter of 'when'. So her not really knowing a lot about the culture was not only because she was lazy but also because of the times.

But mainly because she was lazy.

"Don't forget beautiful and very strong!" Tomomi snapped out of her thoughts at Ryuuko's remark, she got a good look at the woman who was definitely Oka's mother if one ignored her personality, and a single thought passed through her mind as she saw the clear resemblance of Oka in her.

[Are female genes dominant in this world?]

A question she did not believe she would ask in her life, her 'sample' was only herself, Oka, and surprisingly the broccoli protagonist Midoriya and the explosion boy Bakugo. All four of them seem to resemble their mother the most in terms of appearance for some reason, she didn't really have many friends to prove her theory but she put a mental note on that to see if that was the case.

As for Ryuuko herself, Tomomi saw the wild and frankly intimidating aura that she gave off, it seemed Oka was accustomed to it and Tomomi herself could fend it off thanks to her dad giving a similar vibe, only his was colder and 'reined in' in nature.

"I don't know about the strong part but she is indeed very beautiful" Tomomi honestly answered, Noriaki nodded in agreement to the 'beautiful' part while Ryuuko had a small blush at seeing him nod.

"HA! You have good eyes kid!" Ryuuko exaggerated her response to get rid of her blush.

"It's just a fact Ms..." Tomomi looked a bit lost at the conflicting information in her brain before looking at Oka for help.

"Asano is fine kid, also pretty shameless there huh?" Ryuuko interrupted her before looking straight at Noriaki who reluctantly looked at her. "You kind of remind me of a certain perv-"

*cough*

Noriaki's cough made Ryuuko stop talking, but the smug look that she was giving him caused him to frown for a bit before he opened his eyes when an idea came to mind.

"I take it you two haven't eaten lunch yet with how long the tour has been right?" Noriki ignored Ryuuko as both Oka and Tomomi nodded n unison.

"I could eat lunch right now"

"I am a bit famished"

Noriki nodded at both of their responses, "I see, it does make sense since the tour of our home was quite long, so..." he looked Ryuuko dead in the eye with an innocent smile.

"Could you go and make us lunch sweetheart?" Noriaki said with a sickly sweet tone.

"..."

Ryuuko glared at Noriaki for a few seconds, she wanted him to make it instead since she wanted to talk with the girl who actually got her daughter to talk about her problems. She sighed and lazily got up as she went to make the lunch that she previously planned to make, Noriaki wanted to talk with those two alone and he was very determined to do it by the look of his eyes.

Ryuuko let him do as he wanted, she was better at everything when compared to Noriaki, with the only exception being stubbornness. And that was saying something knowing Ryuuko, but that was 'the' reason why she even fell for the guy.

[What an idiot~]

"Tomomi eats a lot! so be sure to make lots of food!" Oka added as she saw her mom open the sliding door.

"Sure, sure" Ryuuko replied absentmindedly since she was remembering the idiot of the Yukimura clan trying to court her and failing repeatedly with a smile on her face, forgetting why she was even reluctant to go fetch lunch.

[C'mon Oka! don't rat me out me like that!?]

Tomomi instead opted to look at Oka with a glare, she just happened to look at a 'very interesting' part of the wall while whistling horribly, evading her judging gaze.

"No need to feel embarrassed at being hungry" Noriki said while he drank the rest of his tea, dismissing the whole thing off with a smile.

She knew that some quirks do indeed make people go hungry to function properly, cases of quirks having consequences of extreme starvation were rare but they did exist. So her being able to eat a lot was not really a complete anomaly and it was written on her quirk registration.

Not like anybody could see that document that easily.

[I still have a bit of dignity though!! I'm already 8 years old!]

"I-I uhh thanks for the hospitality"  She scratched her cheeks while defaulting to being polite, a technique she refined in her previous life when she couldn't think of anything.

"As I said, no need to worry young lady, we wouldn't make our guest be hungry while in our home" Noriaki once again reassured her that everything was fine, he was beginning to see how these two friends were similar in personality with the politeness of her speech.

"Yeah! Don't worry about the food! we have it covered and Mom's food is pretty good" Oka added while nodding at her own words.

[She does sound like her mom while she is calm] Tomomi thought.

All three of them leisurely talked for a few minutes, the main topics being either Tomomi's likes and dislikes or the great samurai that the Yukimura clan was supposed to be. Of course, Noriaki didn't forget to gloat about being a man of honor and having married the strongest woman he knew.

She was sure she heard someone slip in the kitchen when he said that out loud.

Noriaki himself was simply observing the interactions between the two girls that were happily chatting, he heard them and analyzed them for a few minutes, and slowly the smile on his face blossomed into a full-on toothy grin.

"Right I should do that right?" he said as he attracted the attention of both of them. Noriaki bowed at a perfect 90-degree angle towards Tomomi, almost hitting the table in the process before speaking clearly

"Thank you for becoming my daughter's friend!"

"..eh?" Tomomi's brain short-circuited. Her blood rushed to her checks once again, tinting them in a nice reddish color before she could speak again.

"Wait! You don't need to thank me for that, I..."

"Nonsense! My daughter may be cute as hell but she definitely wouldn't get any friends if it wasn't for you" Tomomi stopped once again at Noriaki's behavior doing a complete 180, shattering her established beliefs.

"I-I wouldn't r-really say that?! she now has some friends from her own eff-" She tried to argue with Noriaki who was still bowing to her but she was cut off once again.

"She always speaks of you and how you 'motivated her' and 'gave her the courage' to do all of those things, so I still have to thank you personally" Noriaki had stopped bowing midway through his speech while looking at Tomomi with a serious expression, Before he bowed once again at full force, slamming his forehead against the table.

"THANK YOU for not letting my daughter end up as a useless friendless loner NEET"

"DAD?!" Oka said completely flabbergasted at her father's words, Tomomi's brain was on the verge of shutting down but she swore she saw blood splash on the table.

[This guy is definitely not better than Ryuuko!] 

"Ah well, I'm glad..." Tomomi said without much thought before she cleared her throat by coughing and rebooting her brain once she saw Oka with a teary expression.

"I mean I am very much honored to be Oka's friend, if the situation presented again I would do it again... yeah 10/10 experience" She said while still trying to piece her thoughts back together into something cohesive, the results were... alright, but they did make Oka smile which was the objective.

[She is somehow becoming more innocent? I worry for her future]

While Tomomi was thinking of how to make her friend less naive, Noriaki had already sat down as a normal person should and had served himself another cup of green tea that he was currently sipping on. Tomomi of course didn't believe even for a second that Noriaki was the old man with wisdom that he tried to portray himself as.

"Anyways on a more serious note," Noriaki said as he perfectly portrayed the image of an old man with great wisdom "I'm grateful to you, even if you don't think you did that much to help my daughter" He said as he ruffled Oka's head with a gentle smile on his face.

"My little Oka may have inherited her father's handsomeness, her mother's sword talent, and many more good things, but she also gained my stubbornness and Ryuuko's Pride," he said with a chuckle as he looked at Tomomi with the same smile.

"You wouldn't believe how I looked when she actually told me what was troubling her! I really wanted to go and bea- I mean, scold those kids!, and then she told me someone actually did it for me, I was a bit disappointed but I felt mostly relieved that someone had helped her when I wasn't even aware of the problem" He said with a bitter smile.

"So once again I thank you for getting Oka to actually trust us and being her friend"

Tomomi nodded in acknowledgment as there were simply no words needed between the two. She saw the serious look on Noriaki's face, the complex emotions reflected in his eyes made sure to tell her everything that there was something more to this. Noriaki was simply a man who cherished and knew not to take for granted trust from people.

Even from his own family.

As Tomomi slowly digested all the information she gained from Oka's dad, she remembered that her mom was cooking so she decided to clear a question she had.

"May I ask something?" She asked.

"Go ahead" He nodded.

"Why would you send Ms. Asano away to tell me this?" Noriaki nodded since her question was valid if one was talking about someone who wasn't Ryuuko.

"That woman would tease me for the rest of my life because I bowed to a child" Noriaki said with a fake frown while shaking his head.

"She would never let him live that down" Oka added while nodding.

"It also makes it so that she has to thank you personally, she would piggyback off my apology if she was here, I'm 300% sure of it" He said while closing his eyes as if it was a fact.

"Her head is only filled with swords, honor, and pride" he added before a small shadow approached behind him.

"Who are you calling an airhead, dear husband~" Ryuuko, who had brought a small cart with different food, asked him while looking with a devilish smile.

"Your hypothetical not-twin sister" He said without question.

"I see that you're getting a bit too cocky for your own good... I think that I need to have a talk with you" She said as she flawlessly put the dishes on the table while looking at him with a terrifying gaze. 

"I don't talk with people shorter than 1.70 meters" Noriaki said without thinking, he was indeed above that threshold while Ryuuko wasn't, but he forgot about something.

"What a terrible father we have here, huh~ you will make our daughter cry with that attitude of yours" Ryuuko said as Oka actually started tearing up again, Noriaki was wide-eyed while he tried to defuse the situation.

"No, wait... I mean..."

All of that happened while the table was completely set up by Ryuuko without anyone acknowledging it.

---

 

All in all, the whole lunch in the Yukimura household was definitely pleasant but a very different experience from what Tomomi was used to in her own home. Both of Oka's parents did talk 'well' to Tomomi and Oka but were extremely childish between themselves, bickering through the whole lunch by poking fun at each other.

Although different, Tomomi liked that whole thing since Oka seemed very eager to show her off but was also embarrassed when both of her parents teased her about how she talked about her best friend. Ryuuko also did thank her as Noriaki predicted, she seemed to care a lot about her daughter but seemed a bit lost on how to show it properly if the longing look on her face told Tomomi anything.

After lunch, Noriaki showed the dojo part of their household while pointing out the normal activities of the dojo and how it would normally operate, he let Oka and her play around after Noriaki proved to not be that knowledgeable on the history of the samurai.

The dojo itself was absolutely massive since it was divided into rooms with specific purposes such as a place for sparing, weights and training, lectures, and even a room to test quirks since apparently using swords as a complement for your quirk was not that rare, she learned that Oka's parents inadvertently use their quirk due to them being active all the time.

That type of quirk was very common among people and Tomomi technically was included since she was always made of rubber, Noriaki makes it so the calmer he is the more strength he has, which explains why he tries to portray himself as a wise old man while only being thirty-six.

Ryuuko's quirk on the other hand makes her hair pick up on any information on the environment and makes it 'hearable', so she can 'hear' how hot something is and much more. From what she explained it made it extremely disorienting since new sounds would appear constantly even when she slept.

That was an extreme disadvantage for her and her only saving grace was that the sound became muffled the longer her hair is since the sound was picked up by the hair endings and had to travel along the hair to reach her. So her hair being almost at her knees was not only for show but it actually made sense.

Eventually, she asked to see how Oka trained, Oka herself was very eager to show her friend how she trained since she saw something similar in Tomomi's house. The stances and physical training done by the 8-year-old impressed her, mostly because it was somewhat bizarre to see someone so small do full-on adult training in front of her, she never really saw something similar in her old world.

She attributed the apparent normalization of training at a young age to the fact that quirks and heroes existed, and that maybe this was technically a shonen manga, even if she hasn't seen a lot of action of any kind.

Tomomi inspected the training equipment since she didn't have a lot of it in her home, and surprised Noriaki and Ryuuko by holding a 24 Kilogram dumbbell as if it was nothing. She, of course, told them that her quirk made her stronger but she didn't know how exactly.

She didn't tell them that she was doing strength training mainly because Gear Third requires raw physical strength to even be able to move the enlarged parts of the form.

"Still that is quite the sight" Noriaki noted with interest as he saw Ryuuko approach Tomomi.

"HA! you really are that guy's kid! wanna learn swordsmanship?" Ryuuko asked with a glint on her red eyes as she eyed Tomomi like a piece of meat, she grinned even wilder once she noticed how she didn't even flinch when she glared at her.

Noriaki's eyes almost popped out when he heard Ryuuko's question, he was a master swordsman and proud samurai that practiced the art of the sword at an early age. But he recognized Ryuuko as someone superior in the art. The only reason Ryuuko wasn't the instructor in the dojo was because of her personality, she would sleep and eat rather than teach 'ungrateful brats' that could only complain or follow instructions like broken records. So he took the mantle of instructor in her stead.

He saw the same stubborn Ryuuko make the offer as if it was nothing, which was beyond crazy for him, that would make Tomomi the second student since she also teaches Oka, even if her teachings were a bit too on the nose for him.

Noriaki was glad that there were no flies in the room since he stayed there the whole 10 seconds that took Tomomi to answer. Her thoughtful expression was banished once she looked into her hands.

"No, but thanks for the offer" She declined politely.

Ryuuko narrowed her eyes at her while inspecting her, "Any reason why you declined me?" She had a pretty good idea of what it was but asking didn't hurt anyone in her opinion.

Tomomi made a wry smile, she really did have a good reason to decline, one would be because it would cut the time she puts into her strength training, and the other would be...

"It's your quirk isn't it?" Ryuuko asked with a softer voice, Tomomi simply nodded as she pinched her cheek.

"Yeah, I'm kinda made of rubber" She stretched her cheek all the way before letting it go, making her head bob from side to side for a second.

[At least the bobbing of my head is becoming easy to tolerate]

Ryuuko clicked her tongue in annoyance, quirks tend to kill homogenization of any kind, although each person has a different from of swordsmanship that is personal to them, one must first learn the basics and quirks have a tendency to disrupt that process. Not only can they make swordsman bodies have properties or proportions not viable for swordsmanship but they also made opponents with different insides, making it difficult to stab them in the right vital organs for the kill.

Being made of rubber would make it so that receiving any kind of force is too unpredictable for the receiver. Their stance would literally wobble and move all over the place which would shave precious seconds. The only option would be to suppress the quirk as much as possible but that requires some mental fortitude, and most importantly is quite rude to even suggest.

Suggesting someone suppress their quirk could be considered an insult especially when the quirk is something instinctual, like having better hearing or liking blood because of your quirk.

[Dammit! This kid is really sharp too! she could see through all of that.. got my blood pumping for no reason at all]

"I see the problem, you could still learn swordsmanship but I imagine that you already have other ideas" Ryuuko saw Tomomi nod and she let a defeated sigh.

Tomomi heard Oka let out a tired breath, she was sweating bullets during the whole conversation since she never even heard her mother be interested in instructing someone that wasn't her. Her training was definitely not something she wished upon others, no one was crazy enough to train at a such young age after all.

Oka, of course, didn't see all of Tomomi's training when she visited, so she didn't know that she would actually enjoy the training instead of hating it.

"Why are you frowning love?" Ryuuko turned around to see Noriaki grinning.

"I'm just a bit disappointed that my abilities won't spread as much, I'm the better teacher after all" Ryuuko explained while forcing a smile on her face but Noriaki simply continued.

"Better teacher?" He looked at Tomomi before smirking at Ryuuko, "You already have a 50% fail ratio though? How are you better than me?" Ryuuko almost popped a vein at his remarks since she was fired up.

"Want a visual demonstration?" She asked while Noriaki simply ignored her.

"I got a very visual demonstration of you yester-"

*Clang

Tomomi barely registered anything as two blurs appeared in her view followed by sparks flying in the air, and before she knew it, two swords were trying to win a contest of strength against each other. The sheer speed of the drawn already made Tomomi tense, but the oppressive aura that both Ryuuko and Noriaki exuded did not help her calm down.

"My~ how aggressive of you, aren't you taking this too seriously?" Noriaki leisurely said but his eyes were solely focused on her. 

"Aren't you taking this too casually?" Ryuuko replied as both of them jumped back and took a stance.

Noriaki held his katana with two hands in front of him and it was pointed downwards, Ryuuko had put her sword back in its scabbard and was very leaned in, her eyes closed while trying to wait for a weakness on her opponent.

The whole room was in silence, and Tomomi was sweating bullets.

[Isn't this a bit too much?]

She tried to say something but Oka tugged on her shirt while shaking her head, she told her that this type of thing was actually very normal in her house and that she shouldn't interfere. Tomomi gave her a very uncertain nod and focused on the duel once again.

Noriaki stood still while trying not to show any weakness in his own stance, but he sadly did not account for a small breeze that made his clothes ruffle gently. His muscles twitched at the disturbance and Ryuuko 'heard it' and deemed enough of a distraction to shoot off like a rocket at him.

Tomomi was extremely surprised at the show of speed, although Ryuuko was fast, she wasn't faster than her dad and she could still see her if she paid enough attention. But the sword draw actually scared her! She barely could see the sword fly from her scabbard to almost touching Noriaki's chest in a fraction of a second.

[I can't react to that!!]

Noriaki of course blocked the sword with his own without much of a reaction, but he was still pushed back quite a distance due to the strength of the slash. Ryuuko pressed her advantage by going on the offensive and he had no other choice than to trade blow for blow while trying to see if he could break through Ryuuko's senses.

Clash after clash, sparks flying everywhere, and both of them slashing and blocking slashes and stabs that were barely visible a dozen of times in the span of seconds, one-moment Ryuuko's would be bounced back and another she would try to stab Noriaki in the shoulder.

Ryuuko who visibly had less strength than Noriaki used each clash to try and disarm Noriaki or to get pushed back and somehow use that momentum against him. Noriaki's moves and slashes instead were calculated and steady but they flowed well into each other and he always had a way to counter them no matter how insane and unpredictable Ryuuko was while fighting.

Unfortunately, he could not keep it up forever.

He underestimated the force behind the last slash Ryuuko threw him and his own sword was blown back, leaving his chest completely exposed. Ryuuko didn't even hesitate as she slashed across his chest with so much force that he was sent crashing into one of the walls of the room, making a crack into it.

Tomomi was shocked at the sight she saw, the whole thing only took two minutes, and yet the number of times they exchanged clashes was in the hundreds. But most importantly Ryuuko actually slashed him. Tomomi clenched her fist as she started yelling.

"OI! What the h-"

"Damn, can't you have mercy on an old man?" Tomomi froze, she slowly turned her head towards Noriaki who was starting to dust himself off the debris on his yukata with a frown on his face.

"...what?"

"What's the wrong kid? surprised at my incredible swordsmanship?" Ryuuko said with an extremely wide smile, she continued to stare at Noriaki while trying to find out if he was injured in any way.

"I mean...uhh? How?" Tomomi asked blankly as Noriaki simply smiled.

"Swordmasters cut only what they want to cut!" Ryuuko said as she cut a table in half with the same sword she use on Noriaki "See~" The smug look on her face was making Tomomi's eye twitch.

[She is insane huh?]

Tomomi shook her head and saw how Noriaki was fine, he himself assured her of that, although his yukata now had a diagonal slash his skin did not even look bruised, he actually was hurt more because of him crashing into the wall than the actual slash itself.

Tomomi could only accept such a nonsensical answer after a bit of thinking. the concept of cutting something only when you want to cut it was stupid, she did not really think that it was possible but there was a possibility of it actually happening, but there was a variable that she often forgets about.

This is a shonen anime.

"So you only cut what you want to cut?" Tomomi said as she looked at Noriaki and then at Ryuuko with a smirk. Ryuuko promptly bonked her on the head with the scabbard.

"You're really cheeky aren't you?" She said with a smile on her face while trying to change topics, "Guess that's what it takes for my daughter to open up huh?"

[Of course, I don't want to cut my husband, you stupid child]

Tomomi smiled at her answer.

---

 

After the whole duel, Tomomi and Oka had some appetizers before training in the dojo due to Ryuuko wanting to at least show how 'true swordsmen duel', after a few hours, Takeshi came back to bring his daughter back home.

Ryuuko again asked the police officer for a spar but she was promptly rejected due to Ryuuko heading to Tomomi completely exhausted due to the amount of training that she did, she defended herself since she did actually deliver Tomomi in one piece. That did not amuse Takeshi, but he let it go since Tomomi had a lot of fun.

After the guest left, Ryuuko sat down in the living room to drink some tea in a good mood, overall, the whole visit was a lot more eventful than she wanted it to be. but it wasn't bad, she was thankful that someone like Tomomi had made her daughter happier and their being friends was even better.

Noriaki eventually accompanied her as they both sat beside each other while drinking tea.

"How is the score?" Noriaki asked Ryuuko.

"998 - 2 in my favor" Ryuuko said with a smile on her face while Noriaki nodded.

"So it's our thousandth duel! we should celebrate" Noriaki loudly exclaimed as he looked at her.

He actually didn't keep a count of the duels, that was Ryuuko's thing because she had pride in her wins, but he himself didn't care too much about them. He simply fought Ryuuko to get her to blow some steam off after getting excited about getting a new apprentice and failing to do so.

"What are you thinking?" Ryuuko said while looking suspiciously at Noriaki who had been pestering her today more than usual. Noriaki simply smiled lecherously.

"He he~ it's been 8 years already? shouldn't you know? make anoth-" A palm in the form of a claw landed on his face and started applying pressure.

"I'm gonna stop you right there 'swordmaster', I think I should be the one to decide the celebration since I'm the winner of 99.8% of our duels" Ryuuko said as she started using the iron claw on her husband to stop him from getting any funny ideas. 

"WHAT? C'mon, can you do an old man a fav-" Noriaki spoke while still being grabbed by the face but Ryuuko simply answered by applying even more pressure.

"OW, OW okay okay I get it!!!" He whimpered in pain as he was released, he rubbed his face before looking at her with a smirk.

"I actually didn't get it!" Noriaki said as he continue to ogle her body. Ryuuko rolled her eyes at the antics of her stubborn husband, eventually, she relented to his funny ideas. 

[Damm pervert]