Paradise Found

CHAPTER 5

Chapter 5

Warning – Kyohei's language.

Minor changes to dialogue made 25.11.18

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"Aw, shit."

I frowned at the expletive, but said nothing, instead attempting to focus my attention and what little was left of my patience back to my current endeavors.

My return to the worksheets in front of me was short-lived, however, when I heard a small yip from the large canine sitting next to me to remind me to pay attention. Kyohei had brought his dog this time, and had tasked the animal with keeping me focused on my homework.

I glanced towards the ninken, the large form of the hulking dog was sitting taller than me in my seated form, close enough so that its soft, brown fur was brushing against my yukata. The canine was massive, looking like some sort of bizarre mix between a fierce wolf and a fluffy St. Bernard. Aki, his name was, and the dog had not left my side since Kyohei had ordered it next to me, giving me a nudge with his nose or a small whine any time it looked like I was getting distracted.

Kyohei had given me worksheets of kanji, which was essentially child-level homework for me to complete, while he went to work sealing every inch of my apartment in privacy seals, safety seals, chakra sensing seals to alert him if any foreign chakra entered or was used inside my abode, and a couple others that I was unfamiliar with but had not argued him on.

The only problem was that he truly was as horrible with fuinjutsu as he had claimed before.

Apparently, fuinjutsu was an extremely sensitive art. One wrong stroke or too much chakra used to activate a seal and boom, you've either caused some sort of catastrophe or blown a hole out of the side of a young woman's apartment.

Thankfully, it had yet to come to that. I doubted Yamamoto-baa-san would be very pleased if that was the case, no matter how much she doted on me.

I returned to my kanji exercises, obediently tracing over the symbols and repeating them to myself under my breath as he had instructed me to. It had come as quite the shock to him that I was mostly illiterate, and he had poked fun at me until I snapped a few days ago. He ended up feeling guilty for his teasing afterwards, and the result of his regret was not an apology, but instruction instead.

Kyohei was teaching me how to read and write, and I almost wished he wasn't, even if I was grateful to learn. He was a horrible teacher, and it meant that he had been spending the majority of his free time since our introduction a week ago in my apartment. But it was not just Kyohei – It was Aki now, too.

And that enormous dog of his just kept shedding everywhere. I kept finding tufts of brown fur in all the little nooks of my apartment, no matter how hard I cleaned when they left.

He no longer snuck into the apartment anymore, like he had the first week after we had discovered our similar origins. Now he came, knocked on the door, and waited for me to open it instead of barreling through a window as he had a few times previously. When I had asked why he was now being so open about his visits to my apartment, which had probably been seen by others by now, he had only waved off the question, stating that it was part of his 'plan'.

I wasn't sure I wanted to know what this master plan of his was, but he had only asked that I trust him, and I had reluctantly complied. Even if our personalities clashed at times, he had done nothing but help me so far, and I had little reason to doubt him. If I went down, it was likely he would go down with me.