Momo was sitting in the classroom; she was absentmindedly staring ahead. She was thinking about the other day’s spar- well one-sided beating, strangely enough, there were no injuries in her body. Not only that when she left the gym, she also didn’t even have the slightest bit of exhaustion left in her body.

Even though her body was in peak condition, she was mentally thoroughly exhausted. Prompting her to sleep as soon as she got home, resulting in her coming unprepared for the quiz this day. She still remembered that bastard’s laughter when beating her up. She even suspected all the scenarios that happened yesterday were a ploy prepared by Aito for him to beat her up for some reason.

But she couldn’t entirely blame him though, she gained more than a month’s worth of continuous training with only one spar. She couldn’t help but respect him for executing all those techniques perfectly without any flaws and being able to exploit every opening she had, all the while guiding her to mend those mistakes.

Just as she was absentmindedly staring ahead, she saw the figure of Aito walking in. his face was adorned with a gentle smile that could melt anyone’s heart, but to Momo, who experienced his ‘graceful and gentle’ teachings it looked more like a devil’s smile.

Seeing that Momo was looking in his direction, Aito’s smile intensified. Momo had cold sweat running down her spine when she saw that.

Aito slowly walked towards Momo who was desperately trying to avoid his gaze, on his way he didn’t forget to pat the small head of Inui Sanjuana.

“Good morning, Momo-Chan…”

As he greeted Momo, he immediately ducked avoiding an Eraser throw from Inui who was fuming from her head. But she didn’t follow up on that as the homeroom teacher had walked in.

Momo regained her composure, looking straight ahead with a straight posture completely ignoring Aito’s previous greetings.

Aito simply shrugged his shoulders and sat down on his without bothering to nitpick on her.

One of Momo’s friends who was sitting to the right side of Momo nudged her from her side saying,

“That was mean Momo-San, Aito was simply greeting you, No?”

Her gaze contained a hint of disappointment, whether it was directed towards Aito or Momo, or something entirely different is unknown.

Aito having listened to this from the side chided in,

“Momo-Chan is a bit salty because she lost a spar to me yesterday.”

Aito said this while grinning, Momo had a tick mark on her forehead as she spoke to Aito,

“Yes, I acknowledge my loss and will try my best to improvise, so can you mind your business and stop bothering me.”

Momo had a gentle smile on her face as she spoke, obviously trying to copy Aito’s benevolent side, and failing miserably as her forehead was covered with nerves bulging.

“How are you still the class leader with that attitude?”

Aito asked while covering his mouth with his hands.

Momo looked at Aito’s obvious acting with scorn, before taking a deep breath. She turned around no longer bothering with Aito’s existence. She knew the best medicine for these kinds of people was to ignore their existence. But for some unknown reason, his mere presence caused her irritation. But she couldn’t bring herself to hate him completely as he was not an entirely bad person. As he was revered as the idol of the whole school, it was not just for his looks it was also for his kindness, athletics, and academics. From an outsider’s perspective he was a completely good person, the only person he treated differently was Momo and the Inui girl whom he would tease from time to time.

She would sometimes think,

‘Maybe he does think of me as his childhood friend!!’

But Momo herself found this thought bullshit.

‘Pfft, what kind of bastard bullies a childhood friend so blatantly?’

Although she was denying it she thought there might be a slight chance of that being the case, after all, from what she knew he was not able to attend elementary school because of some kind of situation. She thought she needed more information on that.

Just as Momo’s mind was filled with such useless thoughts, she heard Aito calling out to her,

“Psst…Momo-Chan’’

She was trying to gain her attention with a low voice since the teacher had already begun the lessons.

Momo just wanted to ignore him. But as he kept on pestering her, she couldn’t help but look his way.

Aito did a slight bow and said apologetically,

“I’m sorry Momo-Chan for yesterday.”

His expression looked genuinely apologetic, he continued,

“I was just a little frustrated because you managed to land a hit on me because of my carelessness.”

‘Wow, he’s narcissistic even while apologizing.’ Momo thought looking at the figure of Aito Apologizing. Aito Continued,

“How about this, I’ll spar with you today. I won’t go overboard like last time. You just have to give me some of those cookies you brought. Oh, and some pastries as well.”

Momo looked at Aito as if he was speaking nonsense,

“I’d rather train alone.”

Said Momo in a serious tone, Aito continued,

“Oh, come on, don’t let your emotions make the choice. You felt it too, right? You were improving mid-fight. And It’s not like I’m going to let loose like yesterday I’ll spar with you properly enough for you to make rapid improvements.”

Hearing Aito’s words Momo started thinking, what he said was true she could feel the improvement, whether it is in the techniques or the time concentration and battle awareness, and when she left the gym she was completely relieved of the exhaustion, she had a theory that it was Aito’s quirk in play here.

It was not like she was the only one benefiting here, Momo could tell that even though Aito was skilled in handling the staff he was not that experienced. So, this was a perfect win-win situation, as she was slightly more on the profiting end, she didn’t see any reason to refuse.

“Very well, I’ll accept your offer.” Momo was a little stiff, well it couldn’t be helped. But the one who responded to her was not Aito instead, it was the homeroom teacher.

“Momo-San, is there Something you would like to discuss with the class?”

The teacher was asking this with a displeased tone. Momo was perplexed, but she quickly responded.

“N-No ma’am. I’m sorry!”

Momo said while lowering her head slightly,

“I’d expect more from the class leader.”

The teacher said this in enough voice for Momo to hear and went back to teaching the class.

Momo slowly looked at the cause of all this with a slightly dejected expression, never in her life had she been caught misbehaving in the class, as this was a first for her and the person in question, Aito was holding his stomach while holding in the laughter that was threatening to burst at any movement.

Momo felt stupid for thinking about believing this runt even for a second.

“I’ll see you at the gym.” However, as Aito said this, he had an expression of utter seriousness. Prompting Momo to nod Albeit a bit reluctantly.

…

‘He lied.’

Momo was laying on the floor breathing heavily, her whole body was drenched in sweat and shaking as if an earthquake was happening right at this movement. Several steel staffs and shields can be seen on the floor, some were bent at a weird angle, while some were missing some parts.

Aito was sitting on a nearby bench eating cookies,

“Tsk, tsk, you’re still too weak Momo-Chan, it seemed like you need to train more.”

Momo wanted nothing else other than to take one of the staff scattered around and smack his smug face in. But she couldn’t even lift a finger, because of the pain she had in all her muscles. It felt as if she was under a bus. How laughable of her to still believe in that bastard.

She felt hatred towards herself for believing him, he just wanted a punching bag, not some sparring partner.

After some time of twitching as a fish caught on the land, the exhaustion in Momo’s body started to disappear, prompting her to stand up. Aito was using his blood manipulation ability to heal her overused muscles as well as washing away the exhaustion. His father Taiga could use something similar, and he was more than capable of healing missing body parts, but it took him several years of effort to achieve. But Aito who had Ciel as a cheat could do this more efficiently and effectively than his father. Who knows what expression Taiga would make when he hears, Aito could use his skill more efficiently than him, although he would just be proud of his son.

Momo looked at Aito who was blissfully eating the cookies before snatching the pouch containing cookies from him, she wanted to do much more than this, but she was mentally thoroughly exhausted that she would sleep all day if possible.

Aito as if having read the mood didn’t protest and said, “bring some pastries next time. “

That day she swore, she would never let Aito taste the pastries from her home.
…

The next day,

Aito was doing a 45-degree bow saying,

“I’m really sorry Momo. It seemed like I went a little overboard last time. Please forgive me for that.”

She wanted to give smack in the back of his head with a metal bat but she Held it in because the others were watching them.

It seemed like this guy chose this place on purpose as she couldn’t lash out at him in any way without damaging her reputation.

Some passers-by asked, what the problem was with genuine concern on their faces, after all, it was pretty well known that Momo and Aito were somewhat childhood friends and they were at odds for some time. But Aito shook them off by saying,

“It’s nothing, I did a prank on her yesterday and it seems like she really took it to the heart.’

Aito said this with an awkward expression while scratching his head. Anyone would think of him as a pitiful friend trying to mend the relationship between friends. As the crowd’s opinion leaned toward his side, Momo was left speechless she was not even given time to explain anything.

“What was the prank?”

Someone with a brain for a brain asked this question. Aito was about to spout some bullshit, but Momo cut him off by saying,

“Now, Now! Thank you for your kind intentions, but this is a matter between us friends, we’ll deal with this on our own. And sorry for bothering you all.”

Saying this Momo dragged Him to someplace private. And said in a stern tone.

“What do you want now? Do you want me to be your punching bag one more time? If that is your intention, I’m sorry. I’m not a masochistic, and even if I were one, I wouldn’t be willing to be your punching bag one more time.”

Aito was a little surprised, even though he expected this reaction, he thought he could spar with her one more time before she explodes. It seemed like his observation skills are starting to rust.

[So, I won the bet!]

‘tch’

[Hehe]

Ciel had already predicted she would explode this time and that was correct. Now he had to polish his skills. Tsk, that’s the downside of being reborn as a kid.

[You could’ve polished it even while you were still a child.]

‘Can you please shut up?’

[…]

‘Let me show you, how to turn back this situation.’

This happened in a matter of split second as not even a second has passed after Momo stopped speaking.

Aito widened his eyes in surprise, before wiping his face with his hands, he released a soft sigh, before looking at Momo, who was looking up at him with a frown on her beautiful face.

“So, that’s what Momo-Chan thought!!...” he said in a soft murmur before talking to Momo in a gentle voice which he never used while talking to Momo.

“Then how about this Momo-Chan? I will stand in one spot, only using my staff to defend myself you can use any means. If you can make me, take a single step back, I will owe you one favor. I’m not saying this as a middle schooler Aito, I’m saying this as Aito Toda, the heir of the Toda family.”

Aito said the last part with Unprecedented Seriousness.

“…” Momo was speechless.

…

..

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A/N: I was going for a comedy route with this chapter but midway the mood shifted

(～￣▽￣)～

I’ll upload another chapter tomorrow

 ＼(ﾟｰﾟ＼)

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Thanks for reading the chapter >.<