Chapter 190: Chapter 98: Oh! Miss Kinoshita, Are You Blushing?

At this moment, Chokata was in a dazed state with both eyes unfocused.

"We... won...?"

Muttering to himself in this way, Chokata’s pupils gradually brightened with star-like sparkles.

He turned his head towards Aoto, his face full of excited laughter.

"Mr. Tachibana! We really won!"

"It’s our great victory!"

With that, Chokata dropped the bamboo sword in his hand, darted forward, and threw himself into Aoto’s arms, tightly wrapping his hands around Aoto’s neck.

Standing at only 155 cm tall, Chokata was a full 20 cm shorter than Aoto, so when Chokata jumped up and wrapped his arms around Aoto’s neck, his feet would leave the ground, making him hang onto Aoto like a large ornament.

Because Chokata’s momentum was too strong, Aoto could only instinctively hug Chokata tightly in return and spin around on the spot to dissipate the momentum that Chokata’s leap generated.

Chokata’s chin rested on Aoto’s left shoulder, and Aoto could even feel the heat from Chokata’s cheeks.

Although Aoto had been living under the same roof with Chokata for nearly a month now, this was the first time Aoto had such close physical contact with Chokata.

After embracing Chokata, Aoto discovered that Chokata’s body was much slimmer than he had imagined, making it difficult to fathom how such a slender body could possess such superb swordsmanship skills.

Now also sweating, Chokata’s body carried a faint scent of sweat, but it wasn’t unpleasant — at least Aoto didn’t find it so.

After spinning around six times with Chokata, Aoto finally managed to stabilize himself.

At this moment, led by Kondo, the students of Shiwei Hall rushed towards Aoto and Chokata with expressions of excitement.

In this match, Shiwei Hall had "lost" a total of four people — these four had bravely fought on after Aoto and Chokata staged a counterattack to hold back the main forces of the Little Chiba Sword Dojo, ultimately "sacrificing" themselves.

To defeat the Little Chiba Sword Dojo with only four losses... It was something they never even dared to dream about before.

Their two previous victories over Little Chiba Sword Dojo had been hard-fought, almost to the point where everyone on their side was nearly "dead."

Out of the corner of his eye, Chokata noticed Kondo and the others quickly approaching them.

"Guh..."

With a hint of embarrassment on his face, Chokata released his arms from Aoto’s neck.

"Sorry..." Chokata murmured, slightly bowing his head towards Aoto, "I got too excited..."

"No worries." Aoto laughed freely, "The fact that you instinctively came towards me shows how excited you are. In that case, I’d be more than happy to let you keep clinging to me for a while longer."

Hearing Aoto say this, the embarrassment on Chokata’s face gradually disappeared.

He raised his head again, his eyes reverting to the crescent shapes they had been before, grinning at Aoto.

By then, Kondo and the others finally arrived.

They surrounded Aoto, either crowding around him or directly hugging this major hero of their victory.

The excitement at Shiwei Hall formed a stark contrast to the desolation at Little Chiba Sword Dojo at that moment.

Almost everyone was in a daze.

Either staring blankly ahead or just spacing out.

Of course, there were some exceptions — like Yamanaka.

Yamanaka, with a slightly surprised look on his face, watched the people from Shiwei Hall not far away, gathered in one place, cheering and celebrating their victory.

"...Really a dojo with good vibes." Yamanaka smiled faintly.

Sazanoko remained standing in the place where she had just been defeated, still dazed.

"We... lost just like that...?" She murmured, touching her empty forehead where a porcelain bowl used to be.

"It’s just a fluke victory for Shiwei Hall!" A student from Little Chiba Sword Dojo shouted, his face flushed, "Not all our elite showed up, if all our experts had come today, there would be no way Shiwei Hall could win!"

As soon as he finished saying this, the student pursed his lips, realizing himself that his words were unreasonable, and shut his mouth tightly.

Indeed, not all of Little Chiba Sword Dojo’s elites gathered today.

Many of the experts in the dojo, ranked just below Yamanaka or nearly at Yamanaka’s level, either didn’t have the time or were not selected to participate in today’s "Red and White Battle" as Chiba Dingji wanted to "train the new recruits" more.

Though the lineup Little Chiba Sword Dojo fielded today was not their strongest, their overall strength was not weak.

As a distinguished school renowned nationwide, Little Chiba Sword Dojo naturally has rather strict admission criteria, not just any riffraff can apprentice here.

Little Chiba never recruits newcomers without any swordsmanship foundation; they only accept skilled swordsmen who already have good technique and talent.

Take Asakura, who is one of the relatively weaker participants in today’s match and served as their Grand General, as an example.

Although Asakura is new to Little Chiba Sword Dojo, before joining, he had already obtained the "Directory" rank, just below "Master of All Techniques," at a dojo teaching the Beichen One-Sword Style in his hometown. With skills like his, he’d rank around the middle or upper tier in small to medium-sized dojos.