The summer rays shined down on the garden of the Miyakouji estate.
Clangs and clanks of hard objects slamming together echoed across the normally still garden.
“Hah! Not done yet!”
Naked above the waist and dripping in sweat, Godou thrust at Kiyoka with a wooden training sword.
Across from him, Kiyoka was also lightly dressed in just a shirt and pants, fighting back against Godou’s strikes with his own training sword. Sometimes he parried the blows, and other times he guarded them.
Miyo gazed out from the open veranda of the Miyakouji estate annex and watched them spar.
Did something happen with Godou?
It had been very late at night when the two returned from their attempt to arrest Eugene at his hotel.
Miyo was relieved to see them both come home safe and sound, but since they had let Eugene get away, they had both looked a bit dejected.
Godou especially.
He’d been frowning, and he’d asked Kiyoka for coaching immediately after returning home.
“Commander, it looks like I really have gotten sloppy. Can you spar with me and help me de-rust?”
Godou had asked this with complete earnestness, his usual wisecracking self nowhere to be found.
Miyo guessed he must have felt some amount of responsibility for letting Eugene get away. Maybe he was convinced he wasn’t strong enough.
It was a very rare sight to see Godou and Kiyoka sparing together to practice their swordsmanship, and Miyo found it novel.
“Hah!”
In each of Godou’s attacks, Miyo could see the power, speed, and heft behind his blows. Kiyoka safely responded to them all. The two men continuously moved in ways the average person could never imitate.
However, it appeared that fatigue had caught up with Godou, as a short while later, Kiyoka knocked his subordinate’s sword out of his hand.
Godou sat heaving his shoulders, out of breath, and Kiyoka picked up the sword in his stead. Kiyoka, too, was panting ever so slightly himself.
“Godou, you’re overexerting yourself. You’re putting unnecessary strength into each one of your movements.”
“…Yeah, you’re right. Haah.”
Godou dropped his shoulders, dejected, before Kiyoka said it was time for a break, and came over to the outside corridor in the shade, sitting with Miyo.
Miyo passed a hand towel to Kiyoka, and then another to Godou, following up behind him.
“Sorry for asking you to spar with me out of the blue.”
“I don’t mind. It’s what you needed right now.”
A stillness fell over the veranda, and the faint babbling of the stream running through the garden resounded loudly in Miyo’s ears. Kiyoka was gazing vacantly out into the garden when he casually broke the silence.
“It’s been a long time since we sparred together.”
Godou wiped his forehead with the hand towel and finally returned to his usual bright smile.
“It sure has been. Right after I returned from abroad and joined the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit, I badgered you to train with me nonstop, though.”
“How many years has it been now?”
“Five or six at this point?”
The two began to reminisce.
Miyo listened attentively beside them, giving herself over to the brief moment of tranquility.