"A deniaaaal!" I hit the last note, letting it sound clean and clear.

Technically I didn't need to do much work to get a studio clean track prepped for radio release. I had technically done it all before, but if I was going to make an official track I wanted to spruce it up a bit. This would be the version of this song everyone considered as the official one after all.

So I took some time and cleaned everything up, using the instruments in the rental room to make sure all the songs sounded as good as I could make them.

Then with Hiromi watching eagerly I created five copies on five shards.

"There." I told her, as I handed them over. "That's the best I can do-"

"It's amazing! You're amazing Motoko! Now it's my turn. I'll talk to Ash again, but maybe I'll try to contact Morro Rock as well!"

"Okay. Whatever you think is best." I decided and Hiromi perked up at my acknowledgement.

Nope. I wasn't uncomfortable. It was fine. If everyone started noticing me, I'd just change my face or something… Laughing man hack to make myself look like someone else. Boom. Problem solved.

Nodding at that, I decided since my job was done to go celebrate.

Hiromi and I split up, she was going to track down Ash, and try to get the songs on the air, while I decided it was time to do something completely different.

I pulled up to the Deravaja Dojo and stepped out nodding at how there were plenty of people around. Walking inside, I headed to the back and found Sensei as usual standing on the Tatami glaring at people until they did better.

He noticed me with a glance and then I enjoyed the fact he gave me a sort of double take with just his eyes as I approached his side calmly.

"That corner. Forms."

"Understood Sensei." I agreed easily. I was here to grind. Blades 7 was a disgrace especially since my Reflex stat which governed it was already at 9.

What kind of ninja was I with a low Blade skill?

I grabbed one of the shinai and found the corner he had ordered me to, and fell into the forms, moving through each movement with a cold blooded focus.

—--

*100 Blades XP Gained.*

*Blades skill level up!*

I nodded, as I finished the forms, taking a moment to breathe deeply. I had earned the level up half way through, so I had used the rest of the forms that I needed to finish under Sensei's eyes to adjust to the new knowledge. It felt good. Great even. I felt better, just with that one level up, proof that I was improving myself. Blades 8 was a good level.

"Musashi, you are against Kusanagi." Sensei suddenly called out and I looked over, the man really did have good timing. I had just finished the warm up, now time to put it into practice.

"Huh? I don't see the Oni." A young man called out, looking around in surprise. I took a moment to look him over. He was in a Gi, and I could tell at a glance, he was good with the Shinai he held in one hand.

He was definitely one of the main students of the Dojo.

"Sensei was talking about me. Motoko Kusanagi, Jun is my brother." I offered as I approached the man and he looked me over for a moment.

"I remember now. I've seen you around before." he greeted, as he looked me over. I could tell there wasn't much awareness in his eyes. He knew nothing about me, and didn't seem to care. But a moment later he shifted, giving me a small bow which I realized was actually the start to the bout. Musashi didn't care much for talking apparently.

I returned the bow and then he engaged bringing up his Shinai and moved, his feet barely leaving the floor as he rushed in.

Parry guided me in, locked my blade on his strike and forced it down, away from me. It didn't surprise him, or even make him hesitate, a moment later he continued on shifting his blade up and in a strike that I deflected back with a firm guard, and gave him my own swipe, which he seemingly disappeared from taking a few very fast steps back to dodge it.

This guy wasn't a joke. He was damn good.

Then he was back in, blade swinging and I let myself go on the defensive. The boy was good. Not overall as good as I was of course, definitely not as good on the defense especially, but he had a good enough foundation, and a reach advantage I found myself either needing to take risks to attack, or just falling back on the defense.

Stupid tall idiot.

Why does everyone have to be taller than me? I wasn't that short to start with! I was going to master the blade and cut everyone down at the knee so I was the tallest! I shook off the silliness and grew cold to focus on the battle in front of me.

Once more his attacks became relentless using his reach to strike in ways that if I was any less skilled would hit me, but I could hold him off, but couldn't push forward. Then I noticed something amusing. I was in better condition than he was, his relentless attacks wore on him, and his breath was coming out harsher and harsher.

If I couldn't defeat this incredibly skilled guy outright, then I would just let him wear himself out and defeat him that way.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

We continued, and I could watch as his frustration mounted, his continued failure forced him to try new moves, angles, He suddenly shifted, locking blades, and trying a trick to disarm me.

It wouldn't have worked, I know how to disengage, but he had made another mistake on top of that, so I decided to punish him for it.

He twisted, and it should have ripped the shinai from my grip, only my wrists were chrome. My entire wrist spun around, and since he had left himself open, I bonked him on the shoulder as I returned to my guard.

"Musashi. Fight your opponent, not who you want your opponent to be." Sensei called out and I could see the white hot rage flow up the young man's face, his neck, then cheeks, then ears all went red.

He took a few steps back and shifted back into a stance showing he was ready for another round.

"You're quite skilled." I offered, and instead of actually being taken earnestly, he very quickly lost his cool. I felt my amusement flicker into irritation, as he didn't even wait for any further acknowledgment before he rushed forward.

Striking in a flurry, using his height and weight to try and batter through my defenses. He gave up completely on anything but force.

But this guy was no Darth Vader. I deflected, and since he was going to be like that. I decided I would purposefully taunt him now. I started getting showy, parrying his blade away with a twirl, my shinai flashing in front of his eyes, before resuming my stance, to show how little he was pushing me.

Musashi, seeing me taunting him as he continued to fail, completely lost what little was left of his cool, and at that moment, I struck. My blade slammed into his wrist, and then I moved, angling my blade in and around and when we disengaged, his shinai came flying out of his hand. The same move he had tried against me, but against him it had worked.

He didn't curse, or do anything like I expected as I caught his blade and offered it back to him.

Just stared at me with a blank face as if everything that he expected had shifted.

"Kusanagi, forms." Sensei called out and I slumped. He had seen my flourishes and stuff to piss off Musashi and was punishing me for it.

I offered the Shinai back again and this time the young man took it, but he didn't thank me for the match when I offered my own. I shrugged and hurried to the corner to get the glare of Sensei off my back.

I watched out of the corner of my eye as Sensei pulled Musashi aside, and after a few quiet exchanges, I watched a glare be sent towards my body from the young man.

That could be trouble later.

—--

Taking a quick shower at the dojo I was heading back home. The exercise had actually done a good job of taking my mind away from the whole Rockerboy drama.

Thankfully I was feeling better about it once I came to the realization that if it failed it was literally a none issue.

So stopping for food, I headed home and came into the apartment with a bag of take out smiling a bit as Jun was there, along with Akari.

"I got food!" I called out and Jun grunted from the couch, but did look interested as I walked over with the bags and started putting everything on the table. "Hungry?" I offered Akari and she looked at me for a minute before breaking out into a smile.

"Sure, I can eat."

"Something going on?" Jun asked me and I smiled at him a little.

"Good and bad I guess. Hiromi went a bit crazy. You ever listen to Growl FM?" I asked, and Jun shook his head.

Which was obvious, it didn't play enough Us Cracks or other pop.

"Sometimes." Akari added and I settled onto the couch.

"Hiromi talked to Ash, the host and she played some of my songs." I explained and Jun suddenly started coughing having been half way into a box of fried rice already that apparently he started choking on.

"Hoo? That's pretty interesting." Akari offered, but Jun, after coughing and banging on his chest, looked to me in shock.

"Seriously!?"

"Yeah. I chewed Hiromi out for doing it without my permission, but it's done. I spent most of the day at the music studio making studio versions of the songs I played during the Red Dirt Gig, so Hiromi is probably currently calling up every radio station to try and get them played."

Suddenly I was swamped by massive arms as Jun lifted me right off the couch and started spinning me around.

"Motoko! That's amazing!" He shouted up to the ceiling, utterly pleased as he spun me around over and over.

"Okay enough! Put me down! Grrrr!" I growled as Jun continued spinning me seemingly refusing to let go. Before I finally started kicking a bit to show I was done and he let me back onto my feet.

"Will they play your song again? If they do, I want to hear it." Jun offered and I just scoffed.

"If you want to hear it, I'll just play it, or give you a shard or something. The current version doesn't sound great, since it's from the live show."

"I still want to hear it." He argued, going to the Radio to turn it on. I turned to Akari and rolled my eyes.

"Heh. Don't worry little killer. Jun-chan is just happy."

"I know that." I Responded back grumbling as I settled in, watching Akari reaching over and snagging all the good stuff out of Jun's meal…

I allowed it. Punishment for spinning me around like that!

"Any news on Yuto?" I asked, Akari quietly as Jun fumbled with the radio. His trouble not at all because I was purposefully fucking with the channel select making him go past the correct channel every time he tried to go to Growl FM.

Definitely not.

"Oh? Interested in hunting him down, little killer? Want to add another to your score?"

"I don't keep track, that would be tedious." I answered truthfully as I ate some food. "But you are still hovering around, and you aren't doing it just to hang out with Jun, you still have that air about you. Like you are here because you were told to."

"Hah! You have sharp eyes as ever! Yep. I'm still guarding your bro. But I've told Fujimura-Sama that nothing is going on, so I'm mostly here to cover Jun now, in case the Sushi shows up and tries to talk to him again."

"Sushi?" I asked, not sure why she used that word.

"It's what we call guys that are dead men walking. Uncooked, but still dead. Getcha?" She asked and I snorted at the term before nodding. Yeah I get it.

"Well that's certainly a visual." I muttered, but Akari just grinned at me.

"Motoko! They aren't playing your song!" Jun whined at me, and I gave him a bland look in response.

"Jun, my songs aren't the only one the station plays."

"It should be!"

I just rolled my eyes as I settled in to finish eating. Jun spent most of the meal bothering me about my music.

Stupid Oni-Chan.

—--

"Wow, you do need practice." I told Malcolm as I stared at his electronic score at the shooting range.

"Oh come on!"

"Yeah Malcolm! You need practice!" Hiromi teased beside him as her own score was much more respectable.

"Yeah Malcolm." Ichi joined in as well with a smirk that Malcolm almost punched him for. Ichi hadn't even done a round yet.

"You three are a riot." Rebecca offered standing in her own lane, her Ajax in hand as she was reloading it. Rebecca had definitely been more… Eager, than even Hiromi, but it didn't mean she was actually more accurate. Of course Rebecca had also fired all of her rounds in seconds, where Hiromi had plinked down the range.

This whole chain of events that led to all of us gathered at a gun range for practice had been simple enough. Malcolm had mentioned to me after meeting up with him for lunch that he felt like he needed more, to really act as a Solo, so I had invited him for a range day.

Then since range days were fun I had invited everyone else too.

I hadn't intended on inviting Hiromi because of school, but she had found out somehow and had decided this counted as a Section 9 activity so had joined us.

Honestly I just expected she wanted a break from class, but I didn't call her on it, I could understand being frustrated with a classroom.

"Rebecca, how quickly can you reload that thing?"

"I mean… Fast enough?"

"Get a few mags together and try to work on quick reloading as you run out of ammo, okay? I can give you some tips for faster reloads as well if you want." I offered, miming the motion with my own Copperhead as I aimed it down the lane, and then dropped, the mag flipped the other mag on the table into the receiver without any fumbling and mimed firing again.

"Sure Kitten, I'd appreciate that." She said quietly, then turning it into a smirk as I pouted at her.

"Yeah Kitten." Malcolm teased jumping on his chance for revenge.

I turned to glare at Malcolm who just smiled at me, but Rebecca had my back.

"Don't need to hear that from you, Stick."

"Stick?" I interrupted smiling because the moment Rebecca had said it Malcolm went a little red.

"Oh he didn't tell you?" Rebecca asked with a smirk and I looked at Malcolm, my face straight just waiting for the story to come out.

"Oh no. I'm not saying shit." He grumbled and glared at Rebecca who just cackled at him, before turning to the group and looking pleased to share.

"Stick here tried showing off his baby to me, and missed the gear shift, nearly sent himself into a pole." Rebecca explained and Malcolm moaned as I turned to him to give him a look.

"Really Malcolm? Again?"

"Again!?" Rebecca asked before cackling even louder and Malcolm's ears were turning red, which meant it was time to stop teasing him.

"You've been doing that race practice?" I asked, and Malcolm perked up a bit.

"I have! I asked around and got in touch with a guy that sets up some street races. Mostly I've just been checking out the routes they take, and racing through them, getting used to my baby." He explained and I just smiled at him in turn.

"Just make sure you don't miss the 'Stick' this time." Ichi razzed him and then Malcolm actually did lash out punching Ichi's shoulder sending the other boy away with a wince as he started rubbing where he was struck. "Ass."

"You're the ass!"

"Boys, you're both beautiful." Hiromi added, having turned back to the lanes. "Besides Ichi, Malcolm isn't the only one with a new nickname." Hiromi added, and I looked to the boy who instantly faced away, but I was insistent, and eventually Ichi slumped. Rebecca was too busy giggling into her arms as she was doubled over.

"It happened when we were moving stuff, and uh. Rebecca was with me. I was distracted and didn't notice the speed bump." He explained, and Rebecca then finally cut in.

"Yep, So he's Speedbump, now." Rebecca offered, and I just laughed at his nickname giving Ichi a commiserating smile and then whipped them all back into firing down the lane.