It is time.

Me vs Mrs Katsuragi.

The former student against his master.

It's the battle of the century!

A battle that will divide the heavens and split the earth!

Ok. I'm just exaggerating. But still... That's how I feel right now.

Because the last time I challenged Mrs Katsuragi to a spar, I ended up taking her whole fist to the face and suffered a black eye for weeks before it recovered.

Man, was it embarrassing to go to school in that state.

What's worse, the gym is playing boss music right now over the speakers.

Which is why, for my spar against her, I have only one tactic: Avoid getting hit as much as possible!

"Well then... Come at me however you like, boy!" Mrs Katsuragi announced as she took her predatorial bear stance, raising both hands in the air and her legs spread apart while leaning slightly forward, almost like she's towering over me in a menacing fashion.

I took a deep breath in and out to calm my nerves, being clearly afraid of this adversary. Then, I clenched my fists and raised them up into a boxer's stance. Afterwards, I dashed forward.

Moving in towards Mrs Katsuragi's range, she swung her right arm down at me.

I dove even lower at the last second, avoiding the attack and continued charging forward, whereby I proceeded to deliver a powerful kick to her ankle with my shin, causing her to lose balance and fall.

Using the momentum of her falling, I then deliver an open palm strike to her face. Followed by several punches to her chest. Finishing the combo off with another open palm strike to the other side of her face to push her down.

Thus, the giantess fell. But she got up instantly, sending a mean right uppercut to my jaw which I was barely able to see the attack coming and narrowly avoided it at the last second.

Shit... That was close.

"Not bad, Yoruto. You've certainly gotten better." Mrs Katsuragi complimented me with a terrifying smile full of joy and excitement, feeling the thrill of battle.

"Uhh... Thanks..." I replied, having a bad feeling for what's to come.

Then, without any more words, Mrs Katsuragi came charging at me.

She first threw a straight right, followed by a left hook, and then a shin kick.

I moved my body to the right to dodge the first strike, then the left to dodge the next. Afterwards, I jumped to the side to avoid the kick, spun around and countered and a backhand strike to her face. To which, she responded with a mean left punch which I had to dodge by jumping a step away from her, as her fist smashed through the floorboard of the ring instead.

Yeah. I would be dead if that hit me.

"Are you trying to kill me!?"

"Oh, don't worry, boy. I know you can take it."

With that response, she came at me even harder than before.

Left hook, right hook, quick jabs, shin kicks, sweep kicks, Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, elbow strikes, full body tackles, Shoryuken. It was a flurry of deadly attacks that can easily take me out using her entire body.

I had to dodge and keep dodging with my guard up to avoid a knockout. Narrowly doing so each time her strikes came, which puts me at a disadvantage for I am unable to strike back.

An opening is what I need but, where can I find one against her!?

The fear of getting hit by those muscles is strong. And so is the idea of tiring out by staying on the defense. That's why, as I continued to evade every strike Mrs Katsuragi threw at me, I waited and observed her movements. Looking for the opportunity to strike.

That moment came when she wind up a devastating right hook at me. And I met her blow with my right knee.

We clashed. But, my goal wasn't to try and overpower her. That would be impossible. No... My intent was to redirect her fist, giving myself an opening to strike back. And as soon as I did that, I spun and jumped, delivering a stunning kick to Mrs Katsuragi's jaw, putting her in a temporary daze.

And immediately after doing so, I opened my arms wide and clapped Mrs Katsuragi's ears to put her more in a daze.

Now... Now's my only chance!

With my opponent discombobulated, I decided to put all or nothing into my next attacks. Starting with several blows to the chest. Following up with a slap to her face. Then another one to the other side of her face, as I continued striking her chest again with a flurry of punches. Before repeating the slaps again to keep her disoriented.

Elbow strikes, knee strikes, shin kicks. Using other parts of my body, I kept the rush going. Trying to do as much damage as possible to Mrs Katsuragi before she can recover.

However, I was too conceited with that thought. Becoming too focused on my rush, I had failed to notice Mrs Katsuragi smiling in the corner of my eyes. And before I knew it, my vision went blurry.

Wha... What the...?

A few seconds later, the pain registered in my head as I realised that Mrs Katsuragi had clapped back at me while I was too deep into my rush.

My mind was in a daze. I tried to regain my focus and throw one more punch, but Mrs Katsuragi stepped to the side and evaded that.

Then, I knew what was coming next and there was no way for me to avoid it.

First, with her left hand, she grabbed my right arm. Then, with a mean right hook, she punched me in the guts.

I could barely hold my consciousness when she did that. But honestly, I would prefer to have let it go just then because the thing that comes next was what I feared the most.

With her maintaining a tight grip on my arm, she lifted my whole body up into the air and started flinging me around like a wet towel.

But it was just getting started as she then grabbed my leg with my other hand and proceeded to swing me around like a pair of nunchucks, before finally slamming me onto the ground with an incredible force.

And just like that, it was game over as I blacked out.

A while later though, I woke up to the horrid smell of ammonia in my nose and got up.

"Hah! See, ladies. I told you it will wake him up."

"Gaaarh! Ughh! Why the piss balls again!?" I yelled.

"Well, you weren't waking up. So I did what I had to." Mrs Katsuragi replied with a smug smile.

"Just let me wake up naturally, why can't you? Gwaahh... I'm taking a shower right now." I said and got off the bench I was lying on.

However, Mrs Katsuragi and the ladies followed me. "What a coincidence. We were about to hit the showers too." She said. "So let's take one together. What do you say, ladies?"

""Hoorah!!"" They shouted, but I had to burst their bubbles.

"No, no, no, no... What are you ladies saying? I'm not a kid anymore. There's no way I can—"

"Then here's your punishment as the loser of our spar: Bath with us, Yoruto. And afterwards, we can go for round two." Mrs Katsuragi said, completely shutting down any form of refusal I can make now because of that.

The little sparring match that the Muscular Tomboy housewives tend to hold in this gym also has a small bet in it, whereby the loser has to do whatever punishment the winner says, simply for fun. Nothing more or less.

And generally, that means I can dish out punishment to every single one of the muscle ladies whom I have defeated prior to my defeat at Mrs Katsuragi's hands. But I normally don't do that sort of thing and usually forget about it after a while.

With that being said, I still have to fulfill the "punishment" that Mrs Katsuragi has issued. Simply because... Well... I lost. And the loser has to do what the winner says.

So, that happened. Yeah. I showered with a group of muscular women and got my back washed by Mrs Katsuragi who was using the same shower stall as me because there were not enough.

And then, we went for round two.

I lost that one as well and was made to pleasure Mrs Katsuragi with my magical touch.

After that, round three.

Then, round four.

Then, round five.

Eventually, we stopped at round six because it was getting late. So, we ended things at that.

"See you, Yoruto! It was nice sparring with you again!" Mrs Katsuragi shouted, seeing me off with Miss Karin and the rest of the ladies.

"Same. It was nice to spar with you again. Not nice to get beaten up though..." I remarked, having lost every round against her.

"Hahaha! Well then, looks like you'll need to improve further to prevent that from happening again."Mrs Katsuragi said and slapped my back. Hard. "Come visit us again soon, alright? I'll beat you into shape again."

"I'll come again soon. But not to be beaten up. Anyways, bye everyone!"

"Bye, Yoruto!"

"It was nice seeing you again!"

"Next time, it won't be so easy for you!"

"""Goodbye!!"""

And so, I went home feeling quite refreshed despite taking lots of hits during the spars.

Will today's training be enough for the raid boss? To be honest, I'm not so sure.

But, there's still some time before the day we agreed on to challenge the Umbra Lord of Marionettes once more. So, before that day comes, I'll try to prepare as much as I can, while also searching for more allies who can join us in the raid, later tonight in the game.

Currently, there is me, Sanae, Hikari and Himeji in the team.

The number we want is six people total. Basically, a single full party. And those remaining two players have to be someone whom we can trust and work well with.

I already have someone in mind for our fifth member. But looking for the sixth is the problem.

However, that issue can be dealt with later tonight once I start looking for our sixth member in the game.

For now, I need to make dinner for Hikari and Mom.

It's a good thing I made the preparations early before going to the Juggernaut Gym. All I need to do is to finish the rest and it's set.

"I'm home!"

"Welcome back, bro! What are we having for dinner to—"

Hikari burst out of her room first the moment I returned. However, she froze for a second when she saw my face.

"Pfft! What happened to your face, bro!?" She started laughing.

"Katsuragi." I answered with a poker face. However, it made her laugh even more.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! You got rekt by her again! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!"

Good grief... I should have expected this to happen.

While Hikari was laughing her ass off, Mom came into the scene as well.

"Ah. Welcome back, Yoruto. Did you go out somewh— Pfft!"

And then, she dropped to the ground, laughing.

"Hahahahahahahahaha! What happened to your face!?"

God dammit...

I heaved a big sigh.