Henry Carter thought for a moment—when it comes to things like this, the sooner the better. Who knows what kind of tricks that Emily Turner might pull next? If he really got beaten up by her, that would be way too embarrassing—getting thrashed by a little kid would be a lifelong psychological shadow. So he asked, “Can I get them now? If possible, I’d like to take a few more back to look over... That Emily Turner said she’s from an offshoot of the Ono Itto-ryu. Are there any sword styles that can rival hers?”

Ryan Smith looked at Henry Carter, not sure what to say to this complete outsider. There were so many things to explain, but after thinking it over, he decided it’d be easier to just let him read the books himself. So he nodded and said, “I’ll just bring them all for you.”

His sister had made such a scene, and he was full of resentment. He decided to go home and have a big fight with her, and as a small act of revenge, he’d ransack her room in advance. Lending the books to Henry Carter would be a small compensation.

The three of them didn’t usually go the same way home—normally, they’d part ways at the station. But this time, they first took the train together to the station near James Walker’s house, and only after watching James Walker stagger off did they head toward the Smith home together. Emily Turner’s strike had been accurate, but James Walker was actually fine—he’d just fallen, so he was still a bit unsteady on his feet, but he’d probably be fine by tomorrow.

Ryan Smith and Henry Carter changed train lines, then walked another half hour before getting off again.

When Henry Carter got off the train, he found himself in a place with mountains on one side and the sea on the other—he’d arrived in the southern district of Nagoya City, an area full of villas, a newly built wealthy neighborhood after Nagoya’s expansion. It seemed Ryan Smith’s family was quite well-off.

This wasn’t something you could tell at school. Everyone wore the same school-issued uniforms—even the socks were either provided by the school or had to be bought at designated stores. Unless you were deliberately nosy, it was hard to tell who was rich or poor.

Ryan Smith wanted to invite Henry Carter to his house for a bit, but Henry Carter declined, choosing to wait at the station and smilingly told Ryan Smith to go fetch the things.

Ryan Smith insisted twice, then gave up, figuring Henry Carter probably didn’t want to disturb his mother. So he went straight home, said nothing, and headed directly to Evelyn Smith’s room, sweeping up all the materials and books she’d collected over the years, and even grabbed her sword bag used for training camps—this unlucky sister, tonight he’d have it out with her!

Chapter 11: Classical Swordsmanship

Henry Carter slung his schoolbag over his shoulder, carried the sword bag on his back, and hugged a heavy cardboard box in his arms. After working up a sweat, he finally made it back to the front of his rented apartment building. In his previous life, he wouldn’t say he was super strong, but he definitely wouldn’t have broken out in a sweat just from carrying a box of books. This teenage body hadn’t finished growing yet—he was still awfully thin and frail.

The last leg of a journey is always the hardest. When he reached the apartment entrance, he felt completely exhausted. He set down the box and took a deep breath, looking at the old, shabby building in front of him—crumbling bricks, broken tiles, last year’s withered ivy still clinging to the walls, and this year’s fresh green vines sprouting up. The whole place looked like it was just waiting to be demolished. The only good thing about this apartment was probably the rent—it was dirt cheap. After using the private Daifuku Academy’s housing subsidy to pay the rent, he even had some left over to improve his life a bit.

Besides, the neighborhood wasn’t great—security, transportation, leisure, shopping, all kinds of things were lacking. Thinking about it now, learning kendo might not be a bad idea—at least he wouldn’t be completely defenseless if something happened.

People should have the ability to protect themselves. This time, he’d been so focused on chasing his dream of getting into a good university that he’d almost forgotten that. As for learning kendo, well, there was no other way—he couldn’t just run back to China, and going to Shaolin Temple to learn the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic was out of the question.

But it didn’t matter. There’s no shame in learning something new, no matter who you learn from. For all he knew, Japanese kendo might have been copied from China anyway!

After resting for a while, he picked up the box and headed up to the fourth floor. As soon as he turned the corner at the top of the stairs, he saw a small figure sitting at the end of the hallway, hugging her knees. Hearing the noise, she turned and looked over. When she saw it was Henry Carter, she stood up politely and greeted him, “Onii-san, hello.”

“Hello, Yoko.” Henry Carter smiled and greeted her as he took out his key to open the door. This little girl was the neighbor’s child, named Evelyn Taylor. She was always very polite, always greeting people when she saw them, and was actually quite cute.

He went inside, took off his shoes, turned on the light, and set the box and sword bag down on the tatami mat, stretching out with a long yawn. It was a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment, about thirty square meters. The tatami was old and worn, the ceiling was stained and moldy, and the energy-saving light cast a ghastly white glow—add a corpse and you could start filming a horror movie right away.

He washed up, changed into his home clothes, carefully hung up his school uniform, then sat down and looked around. First, he opened the sword bag and took out the bamboo sword inside. He stared at the bamboo sword for a few seconds, and immediately a small line of text appeared next to it in his vision: [Item: Split Bamboo Sword]. He stared a bit longer at the “+” sign after the line, and a detailed description popped up—Split Bamboo Sword, high quality, length: three shaku eight sun, made from four pieces of bamboo from the same stalk, the tip wrapped in sheepskin, both ends and the middle secured with tip leather, handle leather, and center binding. When equipped, it provides a small amount of damage.

A small amount of damage... well, that’s fine. After all, it’s just sports equipment.