"The way is," She started with a calm voice as she raised her Bokken, then with a short burst of speed that she used to cover the distance between us, she swung her Bokken at me while saying, "Defeat me in a fight, Haaa!"
Rolling away I dodged the swing of her Bokken, using the momentum of the body roll I pushed up my body off the floor standing up and taking a boxing stance.
"Challenge Accepted!" I said with a smile as this is the Saeko Busujima I know, straight forward to her desires. Earlier, when we were sizing each other after I dodged her first attack, I noticed her strange gaze. Then, as I told her my story, I noticed that the intensity of her gaze increased with time.
That all raises several questions in my mind, which I compared with the personality of the Saeko Busujima I know of from the story, a crazy sadist hiding behind the mask of cold beauty. The conclusion I came to is that after I dodged her ambush, I became a worthy opponent in her eyes and now she wants to fight me to her utmost desire.
"Haaa!"
"Haaa!"
With a battle cry both of us charged at each other, Saeko swung her Bokken aiming for my stomach but I used my forearm to intercept the blade, letting it slide over my skin while I forced it away from my body deflecting the trajectory of her swing by a good margin.
Doing this with one hand, I used the other one to launch a counter punch at her, which she dodged by canceling her strike and backing off.
"That was a good move."
Saeko complimented me while banishing her Bokken.
"Hehe. Thanks. Your reaction speed is also admirable." I replied while in my boxing posture.
"How about we kicked it up by a level or two," I advised.
"Hm. I think that would be for the best." She said this with a genuine smile on her face, showing that she is also enjoying it as much as I am.
"Okay. let me show you a glimpse of the powers I got from that goddess."
Saeko raised one of her eyebrows at my claim, but her expression changed into that of shock once she saw the red line (Magic circuits) appearing on my hand and arms as other parts were hidden under my clothes.
"Projection," I said in a low voice, only high enough for Saeko to hear me.
A moment after that, red lines appeared out of nowhere in front of me, twisting & intertwining to form a figure which became more and more real with each passing second.
"How?" Saeko asked in a disbelieving tone as she repeatedly looked at the Bokken in her hand and then at the Bokken I am holding.
"How is this possible," I completed her sentence while gaining her attention once again as I continued, "I have the power to create an exact copy of not-so-complex things as it takes a lot of energy from me to do this."
I answered her doubts as I looked at the Bokken in my hands. I just created it as during the storytelling session I told Raphael to use Appraisal on Saeko's Bokken and pass me all the information needed for projection.
Now that I hold it, I can feel its weight is distributed appropriately, making its body center located at the correct place, two hands forward of the handguard.
*Swing*
*Swing*
Doing some practice swings with the Bokken I looked at the still-surprised Saeko and said, "What are your thoughts on the second round."
I asked her, taking a ready-to-strike posture with Bokken in my hands. Hearing my words, Saeko came out of her surprise. Then she looked at my posture as she also got serious but the small smile on her lips gave away her real feeling.
"Let's start the second round." She said in a calm voice trying to hide her excitement behind it.
"Let's"
With that word from me, both dash toward the other, banishing our respective weapons. Compressing our muscles to store power in them, we release all of it in our respective swings as the other comes in our striking range.
*BANG!*
A loud sound is created as both our Bokken's collide with each other. At the moment of collision, the vibration from the strike traveled through our arms making them a little numb.
"You are packing quite a raw power in your slender arms, Saeko." I complimented her while our Bokken was in a deadlock with each other.
"Thanks, I am proud of them. It helps me in giving my opponents a wrong assumption about the force behind my attacks." Saeko replied visibly happy with my compliment.
"Ok-"
I am cut at my first word by a loud panicking voice, that came out from a speaker fixed at the top corner of the Kendo hall and Saeko is currently looking at it with a murderous look in her eyes, as it destroyed the mood I & she spend so much time to create.
But the words that came out of it next, made Saeko's mood complicated.
"This announcement is for all students.
A violent incident is taking place inside the school right now!
All students must follow their teacher's instructions and evacuate.
I repeat. A violent incident is taking place inside the school right now!
All students must follow their teacher's instruct ...
*silence*
*silence*
*Noise of door opening and chair falling*
Help me! Stop it!
Help me!
Stop it!
That Hurts! That Hurts! That Hurts!"
Then silence covers the speaker as no more sound came out of it, the mike must have been disconnected.
As the announcement ended, Saeko slowly turned her head in my direction with a complicated look on her face.
"What a shame it looks like our spar ends here," I said in a sad tone as we retracted our respective weapons. Looking at Saeko I continued, "It must be the virus I told you about."
Saeko was still looking at me with that conflicted expression on her face, but my next words decided our next course of action, "Don't be sad. If we were to go out right now. I am 100% sure we will come across those zombies that the goddess told me about. Out there you would be able to fight them to your heart's content and no one will even object even if you were to beat them to death with your Bokken as they all will be busy saving their sorry asses, as for the zombie themselves, they are created when a human dies, thus have no brains. So, also no risk of being questioned by them too."
I told her my conjecture of what must be happening out there, with a small joke at the end to disturb the heavy mood created by that announcement.
With that said. I stored my futon back in my inventory. Doing so, I looked back at Saeko, who is now looking at the place where my futon was placed a moment ago with a small surprised expression on her face.
Turning her head she looked at me and asked, "Inventory?"
My eyes widened in surprise on hearing those words coming out of her mouth as I never imagined that she would be knowledgeable about it, but in the next second my surprised expression changed into a happy one as now it will be easy for her to accept any other powers I have.
"Yes," I said with a smile. Then after a small pause in my speech, I continued, "Are you also a fan of the Isekai genre?"
"Hmm," She hummed in acknowledgment and then said, "I prefer to read some action and adventure ones in my free time."
"Then, would you like to hear the stories I know of based on those genres?" I asked her.
"It would be my pleasure, But only if we survive whatever is happening out there." She said looking in the direction of the entrance as the sound of students screaming can be heard from behind it.
"Are you ready to kill some zombies?" I asked Saeko, who, in return for my question, looked at the entrance with a predatory smile.
"I will take that cute smile as a 'yes' from you," I said with a smile, and I indeed find her predatory smile cute.
'Looks like I just found out something new about myself.' I thought to myself as from the corner of my eye, I caught the sight of light blush that appeared on Saeko's face due to my compliment.
"Let's go," Saeko said and started walking towards the entrance with quick steps, trying to hide the blush on her face from me. I also followed her with a small smile on my face. Being happy about how fast we became acquainted with each other and she even had a good impression on me alongside a more than healthy amount of interest in me.
With these thoughts in mind, both of us got out of the Kendo hall and started walking in the direction of the main school building, on the roof of which I first appeared in this world.
While walking, I started a small talk with Raphael.
'Hey, Raphael. Can you do something to awaken the bloodlines I possess?'
{Checking Bloodline Awakening criteria. Criteria check. Yes, bloodlines like slime can be fully awakened easily without any repercussions. But the same can't be said for other bloodlines like Devil, Angels, Spirit, etc as they need catalysts to activate them, which I didn't possess, but can be bought from the system shop. On the same note, I also advise you, Master, to increase your physique to an appropriate level before attempting to awaken heavy Bloodlines, as you will gain more benefits if you were to awaken more drastic ones like Spirit, Angel, Devil, Superman, Divine, Saiyan, etc.}
'Okay, I understand. So, the slime bloodline can be awakened easily?' I asked mentally.
{Yes, but it will take some time. Around ten to fifteen minutes according to my calculations.}
'Okay, I will ask you to do it later tonight' I thought and then continued talking with Raphael, 'Raphael, can you suggest ways to increase all of my stats quickly without destabilizing my foundation.'
{Master, I advise you to look at the things in the AKASHIC-RECORDS Library. There must be some Mana-based Cultivation manuals & Meditation exercises suiting your needs.}
'Ah! there is that too. Okay, I will take a look at that too tonight after awakening my first bloodline.' I said and then asked Raphael to collect a part of all the souls I will be killing, collecting soul energy is the only way to gain SP.
With all that I ended my talk with Raphael as we reached the school building, which is confirmed by the sound of students screaming that is getting louder and louder. Other than that, we also heard a few growling sounds of animals.
A few moments later as we reached the source of the screams, we came across a scene straight out of some Apocalyptic movie. Humans ran everywhere as the zombie's followed them, trying to get a bite out of them whenever an opportunity arose.
