Crouching down, A sideswipe grazes the top of my head on its route.

My opponent doesn't let me go though as I have to dodge a front kick coming from my left side utilizing the momentum leftover from the sideswipe.

While catching a quick breath, I intently observe my opponent's state for any openings.

There!

My opponent’s body momentarily stagnates after his previous attacks.

Not missing a beat, I lunge to their left side while aiming for their shoulder with an upwards slash.

However, my strike is stopped right before connecting by a surprisingly flexible block by my opponent’s other blade.

Isn’t your body supposed to be more rigid with age, though...?

I timely retreat as a backwards swipe using the returning first blade misses me by a hair's breadth.

The reach advantage my opponent has over me is huge, my body’s stopped growing since I was ten, after all.

A Loli assassin is such a cliché, ugh...

It’s an incredibly vexing situation, but it works for my fighting style so I try not to complain much.

We’ve been fighting for a solid 30 minutes by now, yet we’re both unable to land a solid hit on each other.

Our spars have been ending in draws for the last couple of months, and my rate of improvement using Manager-san has practically come to a halt.

“All right, girl, let’s stop here.”

Puzzled by the sudden end of our duel, I look at him inquiringly.

“You’ve already absorbed all my skills, girl, your talent will stop you from progressing further unless you find someone better than me to absorb better skills from.”

Listening to his explanation, my eyes widen in disbelief.

I’ve actually become on par with Shishou in expertise in a mere six years.

That's a wealth of experience accumulated over sixty-odd years absorbed in no time...

“But you’re known as the best person in the current era Shishou.”

“Yeah, girl, that’s the problem. I can’t think of any other way for you to advance except combining body arts with swordsmanship to form a new martial skillset unique to you.”

I did try doing that before, but I found out that it’s not feasible.

It would take me at least ten years, and I have to wait for my body reaches its peak development before starting.

This makes it a meaningless endeavor as I know I’m changing bodies in four years.

If Manager-san could help, I’m sure it can be easily and seamlessly done in no time at all.

“If you want my advice, you should enrich your combat experience, no one has ever won a fight after nothing but the techniques. And fighting only one person for a long time won't help you much in this regard.”

Fumu fumu, I need to fight more people to improve, but I don’t know where to find such opponents.

“You’re twelve this year, which means you have one year until you are eligible for your first dan. I want you to get all dans up until the ninth dan and go for the tenth if you can.”

“Yes, Shishou! ...Can we still have occasional spars, though?”

“Kuhaha, you’ve really got no pity for my old bones, huh? Nevertheless, I don’t mind, I had grown bored of martial arts due to the inexistence of decent opponents before. Maybe an equal foe could push me to further heights.”

 

The old man seemed genuinely excited, and I didn’t mind accompanying him at any time.

My only regret is that I can't repay him for all his efforts.

Shishou did his best while training me, yet I can’t even fulfil his only request.

Dan tests would start at 13 years old with a one-year gap in between each one.

This means I would need to be at least 21 years old for my ninth-dan test, but I’ll probably leave by 16 which is only enough for the fourth-dan.

I’m gonna need to bring back one heck of a souvenir to make up for this later.

Right now, though, I’m looking for something to do.

Most of the things on my checklist are already done, my increased processing speed made sure of that.

Also, the estimated time for analyzing {Thought Acceleration} was reduced to four years with the growth of my brain.

The smaller frequency of interruptions due to swordsmanship made the estimation more accurate.

{Thought Acceleration} should be completed soon, so I’ll focus on learning different languages for now.

Languages are the easiest thing to master in my current state, they’ll also allow me to complement my knowledge using foreign sources.

Being too smart is a sin, wahaha...

Manager-san’s help in an information-reliant environment makes everything a piece of cake.

 

 

Junior high school years passed by in a flash.

After getting {Thought Acceleration}, life became more like a speed run on easy mode.

I could easily do anything after seeing it once.

My processing speed increased by 5 times letting me breeze through all that remains to grasp in this world.

The estimated time for mastery of all known languages was reduced to one year, after which I used Manager-san to analyze all I could about electronics, which took only a single day.

Freaking mental, I know right!

The other two years were spent hacking into secret laboratories and government facilities to find all the hidden information out there, it was impossible to find the traces of my intrusions much less follow them back.

In order to combat the boredom in between, I started dedicating time to studying other branches of what I’d already learnt.

Marine biology and ecology were two branches that interested me with their miracles and being vast enough to fill my time.

Gaming was another thing I heavily invested in, trying to get a thrill out of it after sparring with Shishou lost its magic.

I recorded ideas for future spells or martial arts from the games I played, some physics-defying feats not possible in modern worlds may be possible in magical ones.

Humanity's imagination is one of their rare good characteristics.

My emotional numbness started seeping in again sometime in between, and the fact that my friends started drifting apart didn’t help the situation either.

I was thrown into a classroom with no one I’d care about befriending during junior high school while the others were paired with some of their future friends. It's like my luck all suddenly ran out.

Aiko shared a class with Shinohara Mirei and Ooshima shared one with Shunsuke Yamada, their future clique members.

It frankly made me... Jealous, incredibly so. Jealousy was the only emotion I could still regularly feel while the others became rarer.

If the envy skill of the seven deadly sins was up for grabs, I’d be the first person in line.

Why do they get to spend time with MY friends while I have to stay alone?!

Aiko stopped her singing classes in favor of increasing her studying efforts to get into the same high school I'm aiming for, I was overjoyed!

 Until she became a part of Shinohara’s clique causing our time together to gradually decrease.

The same’s with Ooshima, he’s now almost always gaming with Yamada or speaking about games with him.

My attempts to join in were mostly unsuccessful even though I have better gaming skills than them.

Probably something about being boys or whatever.

Just wait for your gender flip Ooshima, I’ll make sure to get back at'cha, humph.

Luckily, my taste testing with Segawa-chan wasn’t called off.

Only her desserts could soothe my fragile mind, and frankly, I would’ve gone insane without them.

Sigh... I’m probably overreacting, but I can’t help it with my possessiveness.

I can still rein it in for now, but I don’t know what’s gonna happen in the other world.

They're all trying their best to keep in touch together, but reality and time don't care about anyone's feelings.

Since we are all gonna be in the same class at high school though, my condition should improve and we'll be back to spending time together.

The other problem I’m facing is how to appease my parents during my absence time, there's just no good solution.

It’s irresponsible of me to let them grieve or search for me after I’m no longer in this world.

They stopped worrying much about me after knowing that not only can I be considered the smartest, but also the strongest person in this world.

Patiently showing off my progress paid off in this regard.

While this could act as a stopgap measure let their hearts settle down, it’ll make their fears intensify in the long run.

There’s nothing I can do but strengthen my future efforts and hopefully, it’ll all work out.

{Analysis succeeded: “Soul Mark” ability obtained}

My train of thought is cut off by Manager-san’s voice announcing the last ability required for my preparations and the final ability I'll be analyzing here.

It took two years to analyze it even with {Thought Acceleration} active.

{Soul Mark}, the ability to leave a permanent trace visible on someone’s soul while using {Spiritual Cognition}.

I’ll be using it to mark the people I know now as I’m sure they’re not related to the Evil God D.

The future cast I currently have a connection with are Aiko Iijima, Touko Segawa, Ooshima Kanata, Mirei Shinohara, and Shunsuke Yamada.

I have direct or indirect ties with all of these guys and I'm sure they're clear whether due to the anime or due to my time getting along with them.

“Hurry up or you’ll be late, sweetie.”

I’ll be marking them secretly during this little outing I organized as a celebration to celebrate us finishing junior high school!

This is the last chance I’ll get to act recklessly so let’s make it count.

My trip with Theo and the first and only year of high school are the last events I'll go through. 

With no more future plans, and my final preparations considered 200% complete, I'll spend this last year and a half just chilling, woo.

There is one eerie discovery I made before though, the name Wakaba Hiiro is not present on any government databases... Not even in other countries.

It’s as if such a person does not exist.

Touching up on my makeup one last time, I pick up my handbag and leave for our appointment.