My Girlfriend is an Evil Woman

Kitahara Hideji, carrying a backpack and a sword bag, holding a heavy cardboard box, finally returned to the front of the apartment building, sweating profusely after the exhausting journey. In his previous life, he might not have been particularly strong, but he could definitely carry boxes and books without breaking a sweat. This young body was still underdeveloped and quite weak.

As the saying goes, “The last mile of a hundred-mile journey is the most challenging.” Upon reaching the entrance of the apartment, he felt completely worn out. Putting down the box, he took a deep breath and looked at the building in front of him. It was old and dilapidated, with broken bricks and tiles. Last year’s withered ivy still clung to the walls, and this year’s fresh green vines gave a sense of being ready for demolition. The only advantage of this apartment was its incredibly low rent. Even after using the housing allowance from Private Fukuda Academy to rent the place, he still had some money left to improve his life.

Moreover, the apartment was not far from the academy, so he didn’t have to spend much time commuting. As for learning swordsmanship, well, he couldn’t go back to China to study at the Shaolin Temple and learn the Yi Jin Jing.

But it didn’t matter. Learning something new was never embarrassing. Who cared where he learned it from? Japanese Kendo might as well have been copied from China!

After resting for a while, he picked up the box and went straight to the fourth floor. As he turned the corner of the staircase, he saw a small figure sitting with knees hugged at the end of the hallway. The person heard the footsteps and turned to look. It was Ono Yoko, the neighbor’s child. Kitahara Hideji politely greeted her, “Onii-san, hello.”

“Hello, Yoko. How are you?” Kitahara Hideji smiled and said, unlocking the door with his key. Yoko was a well-mannered little girl, always greeting others when she saw them. She was quite adorable.

Once inside, he took off his shoes, turned on the lights, and placed the box and sword bag on the tatami. The one-bedroom apartment was about thirty square meters, with old and worn-out tatami mats, a ceiling covered in stains and mildew, and cold, white energy-saving light. With a few corpses thrown in, it could easily become the setting for a horror movie.

After freshening up and changing into comfortable home clothes, he hung up his school uniform neatly. Then, he sat down and looked around. First, he opened the sword bag and took out the Shinai. As he stared at the Shinai for a few seconds, small characters appeared beside it: “[Item: Bamboo-Cutting Sword],” followed by a closer look at the “+” sign. He expanded the detailed description – Bamboo-Cutting Sword, high-quality, measuring three feet eight inches in length, made by combining four bamboo pieces from the same stalk, with sheepskin wrapping at the front end and leather wraps and a leather grip at the two ends and the middle respectively. When equipped, it could provide minor damage.

Minor damage… well, it’s acceptable, after all, it’s a sports tool.

He placed the Shinai aside and then took out various types of practice wooden swords from the sword bag. After examining each one, he realized they were all used for Kendo practice. He couldn’t help but admire Shima Rei for being so reliable in preparing the necessary training tools.

He wasn’t a fool; he could tell that Shima Rei disapproved of him learning Kendo on his own. Despite that, Shima Rei still wholeheartedly prepared the necessary training tools for him, which showed that this person was worth getting to know better. If Shima Rei really wanted to avoid trouble, he wouldn’t have bothered with such detailed preparations. It was evident that he cared a lot.

Of course, he had his reasons for wanting to learn on his own. He opened the cardboard box and took out a book. As he gently caressed the cover, he saw the title “The Book of Five Rings,” a modern print with Miyamoto Musashi as the author.

He murmured softly, “Hopefully, it’s a skill book.” Saying that, he opened the cover, and suddenly, his vision went black. After a moment, a semi-transparent dialogue box appeared before him – “Do you want to learn skill [Sword Technique: Niten Ichi-ryū]?”

“Yes!”

“[Sword Technique: Niten Ichi-ryū] has been learned. Current level: 1. Obtained passive skill [Dual-Wield Mastery], proficiency will increase as the main skill level rises.”

Kitahara Hideji let out a sigh of relief. It worked just as he hoped! This darn mobile game finally came through. He had previously tried with physics and chemistry books, but they didn’t work. He almost thought he could only use it to learn languages.

He immediately activated the skill [Sword Technique: Niten Ichi-ryū], and countless images naturally emerged in his mind. Countless scenes of slashing flashed before his eyes, and his hands couldn’t help but twitch with excitement.

He closed his eyes and reminisced for a moment, feeling a bit annoyed – Niten Ichi-ryū used two swords, but could he use two Shinai in a Kendo competition?

He couldn’t overlook the importance of being able to use it in Kendo competitions. He had a feeling that Fukuzawa Fuyumi wouldn’t just give up easily – of course, if she stopped bothering him, he could consider it as learning a self-defense skill! But if she continued to cause trouble, she would probably take advantage of her Kendo experience to provoke him. He needed to be prepared in that aspect.

He emptied the contents of the box directly, but looking at the mess scattered all over the floor made him feel uncomfortable. He quickly stacked the books neatly one by one before flipping through them to find a suitable one.

“Kashima Shintō-ryū, founded by the Sword Saint Tsunemori Hōgen, belongs to the Shintō-ryū school. The Sword Technique emphasizes fundamental training, and the ultimate skill ‘Ichino Tachi’ is achieved by practicing 6,000 strikes on a wooden stake daily, each strike possessing lethal power.”

This one seems good, but let’s see…

“Yakudan Jiki Shintō-ryū, a derivative Sword Technique of Shintō-ryū, was once active on the battlefield, known for its fierce and exceptional nature. During the Meiji Restoration, the Satsuma forces used this school to slaughter the Tokugawa shogunate’s troops, resulting in rivers of blood.”

This one feels a bit too violent for the modern society…

“Yagyū Shinkage-ryū, originating from Kage-ryū, its core philosophy is ‘not to kill, but to win by not being killed.'”

What kind of Sword Technique is this? A laid-back Sword Technique?

It had to be said that Shima Rei was indeed fond of Kendo. He collected a vast amount of material, ranging from officially printed books to photocopies, and even hand-copied manuscripts. He didn’t know how much time and effort were invested in this collection. Unfortunately, it all ended up being inherited by Kitahara Hideji due to his angry younger brother.

After some consideration, he chose Kashima Shintō-ryū and directly started studying the skill from the book in his hand. However, a prompt appeared in his mind – this skill could be combined with [Sword Technique: Niten Ichi-ryū] to form [Ancient Swordsmanship]. Should they be combined?

Oh?

Kitahara Hideji hesitated for a moment, as in the original mobile game, skill fusion was a paid feature that allowed skills of the same type to share experience points. But he had never spent money on in-app purchases before and had never used this feature. Now, it seemed that the game was being generous.

He immediately selected the fusion option, and the system promptly prompted: “Skill [Ancient Swordsmanship] created, current level: 1. Obtained passive skills [Dual-Wield Mastery] and [Sword Mastery].”

His worries about learning too many skills and spending too much time practicing were now dispelled. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Kitahara Hideji fused all the books related to Sword Technique in the box into [Ancient Swordsmanship]. Finally, he picked up the Shinai and activated [Ancient Swordsmanship] for a simple swing, an empty slash. Instantly, a green text prompt appeared in the lower-left corner of his vision: “[Ancient Swordsmanship] experience +1, current experience 1/100.”

Kitahara Hideji felt satisfied and took another step to perform another swing. As he observed the experience increasing by +1 again, he felt a subtle joy within.

He focused wholeheartedly on practicing, and soon, the system prompts came in succession:

“[Ancient Swordsmanship] current level increased to LV2.”

“[Ancient Swordsmanship] current level increased to LV3.”

“[Ancient Swordsmanship] current level increased to LV4.”

“[Ancient Swordsmanship] current level increased to LV5, skill upgraded to the initial stage. Obtained passive skill [Meditative Battle], character level +1, strength +1, intelligence +1, Charisma +1.”