This is my Reaper. There are many like it, but this one is mine

"Much obliged, Auber-sama. Keiko-sama, tomorrow we'll be learning something new, and I'll bring someone along with me for you to spar against, so be prepared for that. They won't go easy on you, so don't go easy on them! Otherwise, I'll be heading off now, hubby said he'll be cooking tonight~! Ciao!"

She didn't wait for any responses. Instead, Yua did a quick but full bow to both Ulv and Keiko, then sped off into the sky and dashed away at speed that would have one believe she was Keiko's hoho tutor instead. As for the student, she was still lost in thought while holding her stretches on the ground. What drew her out was the flare of a kido zooming onto her and exploding abruptly. For Keiko, this was totally unanticipated. For Ulv, the speed that the kido traveled was entirely trivial, and the kido itself was non-lethal. The source was from the hallway they came from that led to the courtyard, the screen to it open.

Stepping through into the courtyard was a very normal looking man. Dark and short hair, fairly tall but a bit skinny, maybe an inch or two off from Ulv's height shorter. He wore a relaxed yukata that gave him a bit of a sloppy look, and a bit of a tan, completely out of place in a noble manor, and much less kept together than the previous two instructors. His reiryoku was also a great deal smaller than the other two, not suppressed down like them but just smaller in total. A bokken hung on his hip, fastened to him by the yukata sash. He brought his non-kido casting hand to his mouth and yawned into it before speaking lethargically.

"You missed my lesson and then wake me back up to come back to the manor? That's pretty rude, Keiko."

"O-oh, it was you, Yamamoto-sensei."

Keiko brushed herself off from the soil upturned by the kido blast, and stood up properly to greet him with a bow.

"Sorry about the lesson, I met Auber-sama along the way."

The two spoke very casually to each other, and it didn't look all too jarring for a teacher-student relationship. Yamamoto looked quite young, as well, perhaps in a human's later teens or early twenties.

"Auber-sama, this is the last tutor I called back, Yamamoto-sensei. He's my general combatives tutor."

"How's it goin'?"

He turned to Ulv and offered a short wave before his attention settled back on Keiko.

"So? What's up with this? I went to sleep early thinking there was nothing for me to do today, but you managed to disrupt my plans twice in one day. I'm guessing it has something to do with this woman?"

Keiko furled her brow at his last remark.

"That woman is Ulv Auber, Yamamoto. The Mayor of Minatumi Harbour, and a realm-renown figure."

The man looked back to Ulv and scanned her up and down.

"I don't get it. Why's she dressed as a maid? Also, that didn't answer my question."

He brought his hand to his mouth and yawned again, the index finger on his other hand pointing outward to shoot a small kido blast much like the last one at Keiko's feet. The girl yelped in surprise and just barely dodged out of the way.

"Stop! Lemme talk! I called you back because Auber-sama wants to know what my curriculum is like before she teaches me!"

"What the fuck? You've brought me here to show me my replacement, and what I've been teaching you? I thought I had job security, what the hell, man."

"Hey, she was supposed to dodge that! That's a foul!"

Yamamoto protested the interference, but his expression wasn't one that made it seem like he actually cared. It was likewise to the pressure she supplied. It was definitely effecting him, and he made a visible effort to withstand the pressure, but it didn't seem like he was encumbered by it, such that he could even make jokes.

"O-oh, I'm startin' to get why she's my replacement."

Keiko wasn't sure exactly what was happening, but she could connect the dots. Ulv was standing between them, and even though she didn't look like she was doing anything more, suddenly Yamamoto was struggling to keep standing. If it was Keiko herself who was actively putting him to his knees, she'd hold a big smile in satisfaction and lord her power over him, but that was because of the sort of relationship they had, almost like cousins, or siblings or something. So in a panic, Keiko started tugging at one of the frills of her maid dress.

"H-hey, wait, Auber-sama, it's okay! That's just part of how he teaches me, with surprise attacks and stuff! Yamamoto's said that I should be prepared at all times, and he's been tutoring me for a while now, so he's not a really bad guy or anything!"

Ulv couldn't have been aware of it just yet, but Keiko had a lot of reservations in dealing with men. Even men in her own family were difficult to deal with--actually, men in her own family especially. So for people like Yamamoto or Aslan, who she didn't talk to with a lot of distance, even if she wasn't conscious of it, they were at least a little bit important to her. They were the exceptions to her difficulties, and a large factor of that is how they treated her, and how she treated them.

Yamamoto let out a sigh of relief from release before reaching into the breast of his yukata to pull out a small water bottle, downing the whole thing in one go. Meanwhile, Keiko also explained her side.

"Ah, yeah, I get that. But, that's just something we kind of do. He surprise attacks me, and if I see him, I surprise attack him--or, well, I try to. I was angry about it at first, but it has helped me develop some battle sense, and sometimes it's fun."

Yamamoto yelled out something along the lines of ""Fun? Fun is for games, this is training!" in the background, but much of what he was saying was drowned out while Keiko continued.

"Yeah, I know, Nobles need to be treated with and act with a sense of propriety. I didn't like Yamamoto, I reaaaally "Wow, rude" didn't like him at first, but it was also a nice, new experience to not be treated so loftily, and Yamamoto's one of the only guys who does that, and not in a contemptible way. I dunno how describe it. Anyways, at least give him the chance to show you how he really teaches me? Please, Auber-sama? I don't want there to be bad blood between any of the people I'm close to, you know?"

As if she were a cat, Keiko's pupils practically seemed to enlarge as she pleaded to Ulv with upturned eyes, continuing to tug at her maid frills, the illusion of sad purrs coming from her.

Keiko was silent in Ulv's lessons. Nobility was something ever present in her life. To her, it was a lifestyle, a manner of reference, and a note of lineage. But, the actual "meaning" and "purpose" to a noble was nebulous. It wasn't really something she understood in the sense of why nobles were treated differently. Simply that they were, that it was customary and right, and that she should act accordingly, just as others. What Ulv said seemed to both confuse and clarify things for her. It seemed like her status as a noble, and the reasons for how she was treated and how she should act, truly was not for "her". It was for others? It was to establish a certain way in which she was seen, not the way in which she was, or who she was?

Her silence wasn't in ignorance but thoughtfulness. These words were to be committed to memory. As for Yamamoto, he silently waited for their conversation to be over, not really paying attention to it. A short pause after Ulv was done speaking, Keiko responded.

"Okay, Auber-sama. I'll keep that in mind. Yamamoto-sensei! Let's begin the lesson."

"Huh? You ready? Okay. Let's begin."

Once he said that, Yamamoto stepped up and pulled out his bokken and stepped forward. There wasn't much change in his expression, it was still languid and unfocused, but to Ulv the steeling of his reiryoku was clear, and it flared with heat. None of that escaped his body, just bubbling inside.

"This is general combatives, Keiko. Grab your sword."

The girl complied and ran inside, coming out with a mock asauchi, fully bladed and sharpened. Soon, they talk stances opposite to each other.

For the next full hour, it was non-stop combat. In stark contrast to Yua's training regimen, which was methodical, step-by-step, and formal, this looked more like a one-sided beat down. Keiko never landed a hit on the man, while his bokken continued to slam into her sword and body over and over again. The girl never let her eyes leave his body, and every time she was tossed to the ground, she got back up for another round. For Ulv, who was here to assess, some things likely stood out which made it apparent that, despite the look of it, this really was a lesson.

Every time Yamamoto beat Keiko into the ground, he used different footwork and techniques. The first round was staunch, and he stood his ground. It was defensive and rooted in countering, always moving according to the opponent. If Keiko went in with a right step forward, Yamamoto would step to the left to have his right foot match Keiko's, constantly keeping himself adjacent to Keiko and denying any chance for a clear strike forward.

Once he tossed her to the ground, Keiko got back up, and Ulv would definitely see that her movements were identical to his previously. This time, Yamamoto stepped forward aggressively, going for a strike, and Keiko's footwork was steadfast and defensive, moving to keep herself adjacent to him.

This sort of thing happened at least a dozen times, each time a different style of footwork. Yamamoto would do something new, beat the girl down with it, and the girl copied his manners precisely. Then, once she showed proficiency in it, he'd bring out footwork that worked well to counter what he just taught her. It was a wordless lesson that was learned entirely through experience, relying both on Yamamoto to demonstrate his teachings effectively, and Keiko to be able to follow-up on it.

The last 'bout was the most dynamic, with Yamamoto constantly changing foot-work styles and striking postures, mixing them together to fight. Keiko was doing the same in turn, though her movements weren't as sharp, fast, or strong as his. Sometimes, they attacked or defended using their weapons, interlacing hand-to-hand in-between when distances were closed. Occasionally, they'd use spiritual energy to enhance their strikes, whether to feint a strong blow by making it seem empowered, or as a genuine hit.

In the end, Keiko was collapsed on the ground breathing haplessly. Her body was laid out flat and spread out, drenched in sweat, while she stared up at the sky. Yamamoto was sweating a good deal as well and sat down onto the ground, taking control of his breath back.

"Good stuff. Make sure you, uh, yeah.... haaa... practice, and stuff... haaaaaa... You're getting better, though...."

Yamamoto's head was down in recuperation when Ulv made the verbal jab, but when he lifted his face to look at her, he responded with a cheeky wink and smile. At closer inspection, the heat from his reiryoku bubbling internally was exponentially higher than the start of the fight, like his body was a furnace. The places where he was sweating had the highest concentrations of heat, like his forehead, and his exposed arms and chest. Areas less visible and obvious were untouched by the heat, and in turn untouched by his sweat. The man didn't say anything, but he mouthed out a few short words, "Don't tell the kid."

Keiko, on the other hand, was a bit listless and unfocused. It wasn't until after Ulv finished saying something, that Keiko even realised she was being talked to. She wasn't aware of what Ulv said, but it was probably better to agree here.

"Huh? Wha? Oh, uh, yeah, just... gimme a minute, Auber-sama."

The girl started focusing on her breathing more, taking control of it and calming it down. She concentrated on letting her reiryoku match the pacing of her breath, every exhale and inhale pushing the energy throughout her body to rejuvenate herself. After a good minute, Keiko picked herself up, and started some recovery stretches, stealing glances at Yamamoto to mouth out to him, "What are we doing?" [color:72aa=88A1A8]"Food."

Once she was done with her stretches, Keiko stood up straight and was ready to lead Ulv over to the eating area. On the other hand, Yamamoto stood up from the rock once his skin looked dry, pulled another small bottle of water from his yukata, and downed it.

"Well, you girls have fun. I'm gonna go home and eat too, then go back to sleep."

In this situation, Keiko normally would've invited the person to eat with them, but knowing Yamamoto, he was just going to deny it vehemently and go home anyways. So to save them the trouble, Keiko simply bowed and gave parting words.

"Thank you for your time, Yamamoto-sensei. Don't worry, I don't think you'll be out of a job, you just may have to come in less. Even if you were let go, I'm sure you can find good work elsewhere, like some menial labor jobs, or to become my servant instead!"

"Oy, oy, oy, don't scare me like that. I think I'd rather re-enlist into the Gotei than do that! But if it's just gonna be me coming in less, I don't mind that at all. Good meeting you, Ulv, hopefully we don't meet again, I'm not a fan of my bones creaking when I'm not even that old."

If there were no interruptions besides responding farewells, Yamamoto would offer a parting wave and leisurely walk back into the manor to go home.