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584 – There Are Plenty Like Me Out There~~
🕑 Added 2025-10-12 17:17:21 +0000 UTCThe legendary Onibaku Duo never disappoint.
On the surface, they’re the notorious “Rampaging Angels” — leaders of their gang, all fists and fury.
But anyone who really knows them understands that Eikichi Onizuka and Ryuji Danma are just two lovable idiots.
They don’t fight because they enjoy it.
What they really want is… world peace!
And for that noble cause, Onizuka is willing to sacrifice his poor face.
“Owww~~!!”
With a dramatically exaggerated scream, Onizuka bent backward and did a full backflip, crashing into a pile of people like a falling bowling ball.
The crowd rushed to help him up, and even as he clutched his chest in fake agony, he managed to sigh in admiration.
“Wha—What a powerful draw strike!”
“Hahaha~~!”
On the other side, Miyamizu Mitsuha couldn’t help bursting into laughter.
She hadn’t even used much strength, honestly.
Turning her head, she caught Kyousuke staring at her — his eyes filled with affection.
“Kyousuke, did you see that? Wasn’t I awesome?” she asked, puffing her cheeks playfully.
“Yes, Mitsuha is the best,” Kyousuke answered without hesitation.
“Hehe~ Alright then! Next! Kisaki, your turn. Get over here and take your beating.”
“Wait, what? Didn’t I already—?” Kisaki’s jaw dropped.
“No excuses. Move!” Hojou said, kicking him lightly toward her.
Soon, nearly everyone from the old Higashi gang had taken a hit — except for those who’d earned a special “good guy” label in Mitsuha’s heart.
That label went to people who’d helped Kyousuke back when he was broke:
The farm kid who’d brought fruit from his mother’s countryside orchard,
the Italian restaurant owner who let Mitsuha taste-test new dishes for free,
and even Makki Hojou, the one who gifted them a luxury car just for fun.
The shrine maiden from the Miyamizu family lived by a simple creed — repay kindness, and settle grudges.
The training hall soon filled with laughter and excitement.
Even the members of Kaihin High’s Kendo Club, who didn’t quite understand what was going on, joined in the chaos.
One of the girls, Saimenji Mizuki, cheered louder than anyone — her endurance second only to Himeno Seiko.
But while everyone else was having fun, Seiko wasn’t smiling. Watching how close Mitsuha was to Hojou, and how effortlessly she fit into his world, left her heart aching. Unable to bear it, she quietly let her friend help her leave.
After the fun and mock battles, Mitsuha excused herself to the locker room to wash up, while Hojou Kyousuke stayed behind to continue “disciplining” the others.
———————————————————————
In Locker Room
As Mitsuha stepped inside, she immediately spotted Himeno Seiko, grimacing in pain as Arisugawa Ren carefully dabbed medicine on her bruised skin.
Mitsuha had held back during their match, but for a refined, pampered noble girl like Seiko, even a simple tumble would normally require calling the family doctor — so naturally, a bit of kendo practice had left her covered in light bruises.
“Let me do it,” Mitsuha offered with a gentle smile. “She doesn’t seem too good at applying ointment.”
“Oh, thank you so mu—wait… YOU?!” Ren froze mid-sentence, eyes widening.
Mitsuha didn’t bother answering.
She simply sat down beside Seiko, took the medicine from Ren’s hand, and began working with practiced motions.
“This might sting a little,” she said softly, “but you can’t go easy. If the medicine doesn’t sink in properly, it’ll hurt twice as much tomorrow. You have to rub it in so the healing effect activates fully…”
As she spoke, she carefully massaged the ointment into Seiko’s arm with slow, firm strokes.
“This balm was personally mixed by Kyousuke,” Mitsuha added with a touch of pride. “It combines techniques from the Hokushin Ittō-ryū school with my family’s own shrine remedies.
Rest properly tonight and you’ll feel much better tomorrow. Plus, it smells great — go ahead, take a whiff.”
Before Seiko could respond, Ren leaned forward and sniffed.
“Wow, you’re right! It has a faint plum blossom scent. I thought it was your perfume, Mitsuha.”
“Hehe~ Nope. My perfume today’s sandalwood.” Mitsuha giggled, her tone casual and charming.
“Sandalwood? Which brand? I didn’t know anyone made a sandalwood scent that smells this good!” Ren asked eagerly.
“It’s not sold anywhere,” Mitsuha said with a proud grin. “My grandmother made it herself.”
She lifted her wrist for Ren to smell again.
The sweat from sparring only helped the aroma spread faster, and the scent was subtle yet captivating.
“Your grandmother made it herself?” Ren gasped.
Watching the two chatting so easily, Seiko finally couldn’t hold back.
Her face twisted into a strained smile — one that barely hid her irritation.
“Miyamizu-san,” she said sweetly, “you mentioned that ointment was created by Hojou-kun, combining the Hokushin Ittō-ryū formula with your family’s own…
So does that mean your family is from a traditional swordsmanship lineage as well?”
She was fishing for answers.
If the Miyamizu family were indeed an old-school kendo household, that would explain why Mitsuha was so skilled — and maybe why Hojou was so close to her.
Yes… that must be it!
“Not really,” Mitsuha said, shaking her head with a soft smile.
“Then…” Seiko frowned slightly.
For all her earlier arrogance, Mitsuha carried herself with the quiet poise of someone raised in a distinguished family — from the way she spoke, to how straight she sat, to the elegant posture of her hands.
Even when swinging a bamboo sword earlier, her movements had been refined, almost graceful.
No matter how Seiko looked at it, Mitsuha didn’t feel like an ordinary girl.
“My family just runs a small shrine,” Mitsuha said simply.
‘Oh… a shrine.’
That made Seiko exhale in relief.
Nothing to worry about.
It made sense that a shrine maiden would have a refined air — that wasn’t the same as noble blood.
Her own lineage, on the other hand, was her strongest weapon.
Still, just to be safe, she decided to probe a bit more.
“I see~ Which shrine, if you don’t mind me asking? My mother’s acquainted with several major shrine families in Tokyo — we might have even met before.”
Her tone was polite and practiced, the kind of refined diplomacy that showed she’d been raised among high society — hiding her curiosity behind a friendly smile while subtly flaunting her family’s influence.
Mitsuha paused, lifting her head.
Her dark, crystal-clear eyes met Seiko’s — and when she caught the flicker of nervousness there, her lips curved slightly.
“I don’t think so,” Mitsuha said casually. “My family’s shrine isn’t in Tokyo. It’s called the Miyamizu Shrine.”
“A family shrine…?” Seiko echoed softly.
Himeno Seiko’s eyes widened.
The Miyamizu Shrine—named after the family that ran it—was one of those old, family-inherited shrines.
Though low-ranked among Shinto shrines, ones passed down through family names were usually steeped in history.
It was like Suwa Taisha, founded by the Suwa clan.
And in Japan—where even a ramen shop that lasts a century is treated like a national treasure—longevity itself meant prestige.
“Yes,” Mitsuha said casually, “it’s nothing grand. It may have a thousand years of history, but now it’s just that—history.”
“A thousand years!?” Seiko gasped, as if struck by the weight of something divine.
Mitsuha smiled gently. “Mm. A small family shrine—priests and shrine maidens are all from our household. As for that ointment, Kyousuke made it himself.
He saw how exhausted I was after practicing Kagura dances every day and came up with it to help.”
It was, of course, a truthful lie.
The ointment really was made by Hojou Kyousuke.
And it really was because Mitsuha often pushed herself too hard with both Kagura and kendo practice.
But the reason wasn’t her—it was for himself!
Everyone knows: the soreness that hits the next morning after intense training is way worse than the immediate fatigue.
Mitsuha did her best to massage her aching muscles after practice, but with how hard she trained—dancing, swordsmanship, everything—her tired hands barely made a difference.
Many times, Kyousuke would wake up feeling like he’d been beaten by fifty men.
Every muscle screamed in pain, forcing him to concoct a salve just to survive.
Ironically, he didn’t even need the stuff himself.
He’d trained his body from a young age, always pacing himself properly.
And ever since Naoka had gifted him that “Swordsmanship Talent,” his endurance had grown so fast that his fatigue couldn’t keep up.
No matter how much he trained, he never needed any ointments.
As for getting beaten up?
That was ancient history—so distant that when he thought about it, he felt like asking Kisaki to look up where those little punks from his childhood had ended up.
‘Anyway! The point is,’ Mitsuha thought proudly, ‘Kyousuke made the ointment because he felt sorry for me!’
Her eyes curved into crescents as she smiled, her expression glowing with smug delight.
Seiko ground her teeth, seething with jealousy.
“Wha—A shrine maiden!?” a voice suddenly squeaked.
Arisugawa Ren quickly shoved her phone in her friend’s face.
On it was a Google search result for “Miyamizu Mitsuha.”
A thousand-year-old family shrine? If it really was that famous, there’s no way it would be completely unknown. Just one quick search should expose the truth!
Or so Ren thought—until her jaw dropped at what she saw.
A comet that visited Earth only once every twelve hundred years had, for some reason, left its “blessing” three consecutive times in a small town called Itomori.
From that miracle came the founding of the Miyamizu Shrine—and the legendary “Divine Shrine Maiden” of the Miyamizu family.
———————————————————————
“The Miyamizu family has fulfilled its thousand-year mission. Both the shrine and the comet have become part of history.” T
———————————————————————
hat was the headline of the article.
It read like something out of a fantasy novel, yet strangely enough, the story was confirmed by many survivors of the comet disaster in Itomori.
Now both Ren and Seiko stared at Mitsuha with wide, astonished eyes.
“That’s just a story,” Mitsuha said with a soft laugh, shaking her head.
“A story?” the two heiresses echoed. “So it’s fake?”
“Mm,” Mitsuha smiled mysteriously. “Just… a story between me and Kyousuke.”
‘Damn it!’
There was nothing more infuriating than a cryptic person in love—except maybe being in love with the very man that cryptic person was talking about.
“Well then,” Mitsuha said cheerfully, wiping her hands with a tissue and standing up, “if you want to take a bath, go ahead. Just remember to reapply the ointment before bed tonight.”
“I’m not giving up!”
Though this woman was… admittedly incredible, Seiko Himeno wasn’t about to back down.
A great man deserves a woman who can match him—and that woman could be her!
“Eh?” Mitsuha paused mid-step, then suddenly burst out laughing.
“Oh~ Seiko-san, you’re talking about Kyousuke, right?”
“Of course I am!” Seiko said firmly, chin raised, eyes blazing with conviction.
“I see…” Mitsuha pursed her lips, her brows furrowing in mock contemplation.
“I personally don’t oppose it,” she said with a mischievous tone, “but I don’t support it either.”
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?” Ren asked, impatient as always.
“Well,” Mitsuha tilted her head playfully, “you probably think I’m like the guardian samurai standing at the castle gate—beat me, and you’ll reach the lord himself, right?”
“Isn’t that how it works?” Seiko frowned. Something felt off.
“Not at all~” Mitsuha grinned, impish and teasing.
“With your family background, you should know that back in the Sengoku period, shrine maidens and priests might’ve held high social status, but their actual power was nothing compared to the lords and generals who ruled.”
“Wait… what?”
“What I mean is,” Mitsuha said sweetly, spreading her arms wide so that her kendo sleeves fluttered like wings, “there are so many others who are just as strong as me~”
Seiko lowered her head in silence.
Even Ren had nothing to say.
Mitsuha smiled warmly at the two girls, then skipped off toward the bathroom, humming.
Ah, youth.
How nice that they had such spirit—and even nicer that they’d met such a kind senior like her.
Wow, I’m a senpai now, huh? That actually feels pretty good.
Next week, when Sayaka visits, I’ve got to brag about this!
And Yotsuba too—she needs to know that even these fancy rich girls can’t hold a candle to her big sister!
Turning on the shower, Mitsuha let the warm water cascade over her head, humming a cheerful tune.
What a perfect day—she’d driven away another girl scheming for Hojou and got to punch Kisaki and his gang to settle some unfinished business.
———————————————————————
Meanwhile, in the locker room, the two elite girls from Roppongi sat slumped on the bench, visibly crushed.
After a long silence, Ren finally whispered, “Um… Seiko?”
“I’m not giving up!” Seiko shouted, her tone a mix of defiance and determination.
“Even the strongest fortress can be conquered! If the guards aren’t strong enough—how else am I supposed to prove my worth?!”
Her eyes blazed with newfound fire. “Right, Ren!?”
“Uh…” Ren blinked, overwhelmed by her friend’s sudden battle spirit. After a moment, she said weakly,
“Actually, I just meant… I already called my dad to send us some care packages. What do we do now?”
