Chapter 19: Ririko: I Am a Love-Brain

Same morning, during break time in the classroom, the window-side seat in the back row.

Tokugawa Ririko stretched out her hand palms, lay prone on the desk surface, lazily basking in the sun's baking.

Where lies the meaning of one's own sword-swinging?

Ririko thought.

—Could it be that the tens of millions of swords she swung day and night without sparing herself were just so that Uesugi Toru, more than a decade later, would use his talent to ruthlessly humiliate her?

Beside Ririko, her two close friends were crunch-crunch eating shrimp chips, heads together whispering.

The gloomy girl gasped in shock: "So listless, could yesterday's rumor be true?"

The sunny girl feigned covering her face wanting to cry: "Little Tokugawa falling in love, at least wait until ten years after I die!"

"The rumor is true, the love is false."

The two close friends' whispered muttering, falling into Ririko's ears, was no different from shouting at the top of their lungs; she practically heard it crystal clear.

Shizuma Manatsu, that is the sunny girl, covered her mouth and exclaimed: "The intelligence actually wasn't fake!"

She threw an arm around Ririko, wiggling eyebrows: "The other party is called Uesugi Toru? Heard he's a gloomy otaku just like Runa! Little Tokugawa how did you meet him, how did you start dating?"

"If you want to scold me just say it straight! No need to use someone as a metaphor to insult me!"

Kitano Runa, wearing black-rimmed glasses, clenched both fists at her chest, putting on an angry look: "What did we otaku ever do to you!"

Ririko pushed away her close friend's face, snatched the shrimp chips in one handful, poured them all into her mouth and crunched away.

"My shrimp chips!" Shizuma Manatsu exclaimed, but seeing the bag already empty immediately did a 180 attitude change: "Eat! All can eat! Just count it as love war funds!"

Ririko's cheeks slightly bulging, chewing while speaking: "First, Uesugi-kun isn't frail; second, I have no interest in love."

Shizuma Manatsu stared at her a while, smiled: "Since no interest, can you push his LINE to me? Happens recently gloomy gothic style suits my taste."

Kitano Runa, who hadn't spoken, pinched her nose and waved: "Put it away, total turn-off."

Ririko shook her head: "Won't push. He has no time for that, still has to practice sword with me."

"Yo-ho, still concealing." Shizuma Manatsu smiled ambiguously: "Practice sword? From where to where?"

Looking at Ririko's silent taciturn appearance, the two looked at each other, spoke in unison:

"—Girl, you're in love!"

"I'm not."

"You just are in love!"

Ririko fiercely slapped the desk and stood up, loudly retorted: "I'm not!"

Once these words were said, Ririko only then discovered the whole class was looking at her in unison.

Because she normally in outsiders' eyes was always the "taciturn cold goddess", so today this volume could count as unprecedented.

"Look, you're flustered."

Shizuma Manatsu pointed at her saying: "Normal you simply can't be bothered to refute this kind of topic."

Ririko realized with a start, discovered it really was exactly this logic.

She scratched her head, sat down, asked her close friends puzzled: "Could it be, wanting to trample Uesugi-kun underfoot and humiliate him also counts as love?"

The two close friends looked at each other in shock, they communicated with their eyes for a while, finally Kitano Runa said seriously:

"Of course it counts!"

She, who had deeply cultivated the 2D domain for a long time, held her mobile phone, opened layer upon layer of hidden precious bookmarks,

Very quickly, the new world's great gates opened toward Ririko.

"Th-this is what?!"

Ririko's complexion instantly flushed red, she hurriedly looked around, only after discovering no classmates were paying attention to them did she breathe a sigh of relief.

Took over the mobile phone, flipped through the black-and-white manga within.

Unknowingly, Ririko had already been deeply immersed by the roller-coaster story, exquisite artwork, and passionate fight scenes.

She originally didn't want to keep reading, but curiosity drove her to instinctively swipe her fingers.

One volume after another, one chapter after another.

Until the screen displayed "No next page" did Ririko raise her head, seeing two close friends holding back laughter beside the desk.

Ririko suddenly spoke: "I understand."

—So-called love is the desire to dominate another's emotions.

—Wanting to watch the once-stronger strong obey your every word, make the talent far above you genius prostrate in submission.

This, is love!

Only eighteen years old, practiced sword fifteen-plus years, Ririko understood everything.

This great enlightenment appearance made the two close friends blankly go "ah".

—Not sisters, you read a book and can comprehend life philosophy?

Now, Uesugi Toru swinging sword half an hour equaling her swinging sword one month, reversed into a great good thing.

—The stronger the strong, the more genius the genius, the more meaning there is to trample them underfoot.

And those with a bit of talent who are smug, themselves ordinary yet unwilling to invest everything, those small-fry nobodies she couldn't even be bothered to spare a second glance.

Then yesterday she shouldn't have produced the "like a mayfly seeing the blue sky" despair thought, but should have applauded and praised Uesugi Toru's powerful talent!

Ririko thought to here, recalled a buzzword she once heard: "This kind of thinking shift, is that the so-called 'love-brain'?"

Online they say, girls with love-brain are all not quite normal, all should go to the hospital for proper treatment.

Now looking at it, not necessarily.

Thus, that sword heart of the girl which yesterday nearly shattered re-knit, becoming unprecedentedly crystal clear.

This moment, Tokugawa Ririko easily crossed that "Man and Sword as One" which had trapped her footsteps for ten-odd years, reached the sword art realm rare in the present age, in ancient times only touchable by Great Sword Masters—

Sword Heart Penetration.

Kitano Runa looked at Shizuku, who was faintly glowing all over, and stuttered, "Became, became a Buddha?"

Shizuma Manatsu, however, didn't care about the natural phenomenon of sunlight shining over: "So, do you like Uesugi-kun?"

"Like, of course I like him."

Shizuku smiled gently.

In the afternoon, pulling Uesugi-kun along to skip class and go cultivate together.

She gazed out the window at the brilliant, fervent Sun, her eyes full of anticipation.

——Uesugi-kun, you must become strong quickly.

……

However, before the afternoon arrived, the two ran into each other in the cafeteria.

"Shizuku?"

Uesugi Toru, who had gotten an extra-large portion of beef rice, stopped his steps and looked at the two beside the expressionless Shizuku: "These two are……"

"Uesugi-kun! You're Uesugi-kun, right!" Shizuma Manatsu, who had also gotten an extra-large portion of lunch, winked at him very familiarly, "My name is Shizuma Manatsu, I'm Little Tokugawa's best friend, please take care of me!"

Shizuku has friends too?

Uesugi Toru, who nearly blurted out this sentence, coughed once and said: "How about we find a place to sit down first."

Shizuku nodded silently, incomparably cold and aloof.

Uesugi Toru also didn't know what was wrong with this guy; as long as there were many people around, she seemed to become like this.

Could it be a passive was triggered?

Can't figure it out.

However, the current Shizuku didn't seem to have that feeling of having something weighing on her mind anymore, pretty good.

The four sat down, the two best friends naturally playing wingman, deliberately letting Uesugi Toru and Shizuku sit facing each other.

The two didn't stand on ceremony either, putting down their trays and wolfing down the food.

This scene made Shizuma Manatsu and Kitano Runa beside them look a bit dumbfounded.

How come the little couple meets, but doesn't say a single word while eating?

This, is this right?

Actually this is very right.

Uesugi Toru felt that when eating, one must eat properly.

And Shizuku only uses food to recover sanity when her mood is terrible; under normal circumstances, eating to her is merely consuming food to replenish energy.

But the two best friends didn't know this, and thought they were in a cold war.

Helpless, Shizuma Manatsu could only take the initiative to find topics everyone might be interested in to liven the atmosphere.

She smiled and casually said: "Recently, the spiritual events on our side seem to be very popular, seems like they've been on Twitter trends several times."

Kitano Runa tried her best to act as the atmosphere group: "Amazing, amazing, really?"

"Of course!"

Shizuma Manatsu opened her photo album and shook her mobile phone: "Look, you guys look, these are my selfies from these two days, isn't the shadow flashing by in the back very creepy."

She put her hands on her hips and laughed hehe:

"——I specifically searched in the topic, this seems to be called White Prajna, heard it's a terrifying Evil Ghost."

Clack!

Clack.

Shizuma Manatsu discovered Uesugi Toru and Shizuku put down their chopsticks in unison and looked at her together.

She raised her hands and stuttered:

"Wh, what's wrong?"

(End of Chapter)