Swept Away

Strange words. (10)

"You're sure you want to do this?" I asked for the third time.

"Yes. It'll be fine." Answered Frei, slightly annoyed by now. Her timid facade was getting thin.

We were getting strange stares from the people in the subway.

Well I was a very occidental looking young woman, looking like she got out of a classic/punk model show. That wasn't of my own volition by the way. I had a really hyper-excited friend who loved dressing me up.

I was super uncomfortable, the shorts-jeans I was wearing were giving away way too much leg for my taste, and the shirt with the leather jacket were way too fashion-heavy.

At the least the shoes were practical, more like boots really, giving away the punk vibe.

But I wasn't the one getting the most stares.

Frei was currently wearing her kimono and hakama, and carrying a wooden bokken. She wasn't really bothered by the onlookers, she was focused.

We were a strange looking duo to say the least.

Someone even tried to touch my ass in one of the wagons. His hand got violently struck by a wooden sword before it even came close.

I silently thanked Frei. That wasn't a novelty of my body I wanted to try.

Shiwazaki-sensei's dojo wasn't far away from my old apartement, which meant it was pretty far away from our new.

After one hour of public transportation, and fifteen minutes of walking, we arrived at the old dojo, situated on a classic japanese sacred mountain. With a traditional temple on top. The building was used for the training sessions.

We passed next to three relatively young burly men running up and down the hundred stairs to the bottom. They must've arrived late for the lesson, as they were obviously being punished.

I recognized most of them.

They didn't.

They looked at me pretty carefully too.

Yeah, now that I was in the other sexe's boots (literally), I saw how blatantly men could look at woman.

They didn't even notice Frei. She was making herself discreet. Wasn't really difficult when you were accompanied by a 5 foot 8 (178cm) swedish-french girl.

When we arrived close to the top, we could hear multiple "Heeeeiiiiii!" being shouted repeatedly.

It was a nice day, they were training outside.

Reiki Shiwazaki, the fifty year old teacher and father was circling around ten or so japanese martial arts students.

He immediately spotted us appearing out of the staircase.

"Pfiuuuu." I exhaled, a bit winded by the climb.

I saw my old sensei walking towards us.

"What are you two girls doing in my school?" He asked us aggressively, almost spitting the word 'girl'. His english was perfect. "Those grounds are not authorized for sight-seeing." He looked at me, seemed to almost recognize me, but only got confused a bit.

Frei stepped forward.

He stared at her for a bit, before realization struck him.

"Mizuna?"

"Frei" My friend corrected. "Ohayô Otou-sama."

That seemed to anger him even more.

He began to quickly speak to her in Japanese, which I could barely follow.