The sky was only a dull, grayish-bright. In April's spring, the early morning still carried a faint chill—cold enough that when you woke up every day, you didn't want to leave the warm comfort of your blanket.
And yet, in that kind of weather, Nanase was already there—serious as could be, dressed in sportswear, standing properly at attention, waiting for Yukio to train her.
Yukio, out for his morning run, spotted her at a glance—the girl with pale-gold hair drifting in the wind beneath that lingering, tender glow.
A clean, plain white T-shirt—no patterns, no letters—yet because Nanase's shapely figure supported it, the outline of her body showed easily through that simple fabric.
Paired with white athletic shorts, snow-white legs, and white running shoes… the full set of all-white clothing made her already fair skin look even more luminous.
Like an elf stepping out of the late-winter snow and into spring.
As Yukio approached, he gave her another glance—her hair was tied into a single ponytail for convenience, and under the morning light it shimmered brilliantly.
"Wait while I finish my morning run." Yukio left her with that and started running.
"Yes!" Nanase answered just as seriously, then—following her own habits—ran behind him.
One in front, one behind. No tense chase, no gritted teeth trying to catch up.
After a few laps, they both slowed down. Shoulder to shoulder now, it was more like a walk as they left the track.
For both of them, this was just routine maintenance. They barely even broke a sweat. Yukio quickly led her to a training area with a standing heavy bag.
"This is…?" Nanase hadn't expected Yukio to straight-up secure a training space for her. Just from the look on her face, she was clearly shocked.
"Don't make such a big deal out of it." Yukio casually flipped on the lights. "This is the karate club's activity room. The student council keeps spare keys for all club rooms, that's all."
"If it weren't close to the summer club tournaments, they wouldn't be here early in the morning anyway. This just happens to be convenient for you."
Nanase nodded blankly a few times. Then after he finished explaining, she suddenly raised her voice, formal and loud. "Yes! I will study diligently and not disgrace Yukio-senpai's skills!"
"..."
So serious. Fine—he wasn't going to correct her habits. Yukio waved her over toward the heavy bag.
"Since you already know there's a gap between your physical ability and your enemy's…"
"Then we'll start with power-generation technique. You said you trained before—let me see how you generate force."
Very quickly, Nanase showed him her power technique.
The instant her foot stamped the ground, she channeled the ground reaction force, rotated her waist to add torque, and poured it all out with her punch—the heavy bag swung up high, accompanied by a deep, solid thump.
"Alright. Now show me your original technique." Yukio gestured, signaling that he wanted to spar with Tsubasa Nanase. Nothing revealed someone's base skill, agility, and reaction speed better than this.
"Then I'll be rude. Hah!" Nanase first nodded with perfect courtesy, then shouted and rushed in—straight punches, kicks—all of it was avoided effortlessly by Yukio's small movements.
"My turn." Yukio pressed back.
He didn't use full strength—this was only training-level pressure—but even so, it was clear that when his fist was about to land, Nanase would repeatedly either block with the thickest part of her palm or hook his wrist and peel it aside.
She was deliberately exploiting the advantages of her flexibility, her slightly faster reaction speed and vision—catching the flow of the attack again and again, then deflecting it with minimal cost.
A smart choice.
When your physical ability is inferior, that "four ounces to move a thousand pounds" style is the best fit—certainly better than big, wide, head-on collisions.
That was enough.
Yukio suddenly drove a straight punch forward—aimed directly at Nanase's forehead!
She couldn't take it.
Nanase had exceptional dynamic vision and mental reaction speed. The moment she saw the line of that punch, she could already be sure of one thing—unlike the previous practice-level pressure, this punch… she couldn't deflect it.
She forced power into her toe bones, retreated two steps in a row, and slipped out of Yukio's range.
Yukio stopped smoothly. "Not bad. Come here."
First, he called Nanase back those two steps, then demonstrated as he explained.
"If you want to take down someone with better physical ability than you…"
"Then you need to understand the body's weak points. Like the chin, the kidney area—places you can attack from the front. From the back there are even more: the back of the neck, the heart area, the spine, the lower back."
"Of course, if your sense of justice allows it—eye gouging and hitting the groin are both lethal vital points."
"Huh?" Nanase blinked, like she couldn't fully accept that, but she didn't say anything. She just nodded earnestly, signaling she'd memorized everything.
After that, Yukio pointed to several spots on his own body again as he continued demonstrating.
"And when you face attacks you can't block and can't take…"
"If you can't deflect them, you can do what I did to Housen—hit the nerve points and cripple the opponent's offense. Like the nerve points in the arms, the nerve points in the legs—those are here, here, and here. You need to remember them."
Nanase's eyes lit up even more. This was exactly what she wanted to learn!
She immediately raised her own hand, pointing left then right. "If it's the nerve point, it should be… here, behind my elbow."
While teaching Nanase, Yukio seemed to recall how his grandfather used to teach him. Without thinking, he subconsciously copied the old man's mannerisms.
With a casual reach, one hand landed on Nanase's shoulder, while the other pressed down on the nerve point on her right arm. After a brief feel-around, he found it—then pressed hard.
Nanase's eyes narrowed slightly as numbness spread.
"For you, the nerve points are here… and here… and here." Yukio didn't stop at the right arm. Next was the left arm—then the left leg, then the right leg.
And just like that, Nanase completely slipped out of her serious, focused learning state.
Her dazed, pretty face flushed faintly—like morning fog fading as the sunrise climbed, her cheeks tinted with a rosy dawn.
Her arms and legs felt numb and tingly, like they'd turned soft.
Even though she knew Yukio-senpai was teaching her fighting skills…
Wasn't this… a little too close? No, no, how can I think like that? Senpai deliberately made time to teach me!
The student council president had to be extremely busy—student matters, club matters, and on top of that, senpai was also the unifier of Second-year Class A, and had to handle class affairs too.
In that situation, he still carved out precious time to teach me—how can I let my thoughts run wild?
…But senpai's palm is kind of warm…
No, no! Why am I thinking weird things again?! Focus, focus—listen properly!
"Remember?" Yukio asked. As he spoke, he seemed to find the same teaching mode his grandfather had, and he even tossed out an old-man-ish line.
Nanase answered without thinking. Chest out, head up, she shouted loudly. "Remembered! Senpai's time is extremely precious!"
"???" Yukio stared. After teaching you all that, how did you end up remembering THIS?!