The damp floors that exude the unique smell of the southern region, the mud walls that are closed but not soundproof at all, and the darkness where you can see light through the cracks in the doors, but you can't see your fingers...... This dark space, which exudes an eerie aura that is enough to make people claustrophobic, is a small room located deep in the corridor of Saotome House. The room was originally an abandoned Tu cage used as a storage debris, but since Nao learned karate, it has become a place for meditation or punishment.

Saotome Nao stood motionless in the room, her right foot retracted into the hem of the kimono and she stood only with her left foot. Although her left leg, which she used to support her weight, was sore, it still stood stubbornly and alone. A pair of eyelids drooped slightly, neither closed nor opened, staring at the bright light under the crack in the door, the golden-green eyes were glazed over, and it was obvious that its owner was thinking something. The dilapidated car outside the courtyard had been driving away for a long time. And while it was still at the entrance of the courtyard, Nao was already standing in this room.

Standing on one foot in the cage - this is how her grandmother punishes Nao whenever she lacks training or makes mistakes. But this time it was not a punishment for training mistakes, but another inexplicable punishment that no matter how much Ren Nao thought about it, it was fruitless. She stared straight at the light under the crack in the door, her mind drifting to the event eleven hours ago that had kept her standing from twelve o'clock in the noon until now.

At that time, when she and her sister Natsu returned home hand in hand, there was the man who Nao hated very much on her knees in the living room, Harumi Saotome. He looked much more energetic than when Kohei died, the fat on his waist and abdomen had made his shirt high, and his slick head looked shiny for some reason, but the two split eyebrows and the red rosacea had not changed at all. He sat in front of his grandfather and grandmother, and the smile on his face could not be classified as kind.

"Yo, little Nao, long time no see!" Saotome Harumi turned her head to greet Nao, who had just entered the door, and Fuer saw Natsu, who was hiding behind her because she felt her sister's angry aura, and her lips surrounded by stubble grinned in an arc: "This is Kohei's posthumous son......, right?

"There's no need to sue you!"

Nao reflexively held Natsu behind him, and shot his sharp eye knife at the man in front of him who was full of smiles, watching his every move vigilantly. The man's smile stiffened for a moment, but he turned around with a playful smile and raised an eyebrow at Nao's grandfather, Saotome Rintaro.

"Dad, I'll just say that the education here is not very good! Look at the children here, this is the attitude towards the elders?" Saotome Harumi glanced at Nao with her spare eyes, and then said with a smile to Lin Taro: "How about it, think about the building I just mentioned? My apartment is big and spacious, and it's a big city, so it's better than here? Living there is also good for Nao's education!"

"Harumi, even if you have been working in Chiba for a few years, don't forget that you are also from Okinawa! Okinawa has always been your hometown, and you are also a person who was educated in Okinawa! I am also an Okinawan, and I am not ready to leave Okinawa for the rest of my life!"

"Oh, you're really old! Didn't you understand what I just said? I didn't tell you to go too, after all, I still have to do my filial piety! Although you have been divorced from your mother for decades, you are still my father!" Saotome Harumi looked like 'don't you tease' and laughed at Rintaro, "Besides, I'm doing this for your good! Although Mrs. Sakurako has lived in Okinawa for decades, she has always been a Kanto native, and I'm afraid she is as reluctant to leave her hometown as you are!"

"We won't leave, die of this heart as soon as possible!" Nao, who had heard Harumi's intentions from a few words of dialogue, couldn't hold back the anger in his heart and rushed to him in one step, grabbed the man's collar and shouted: "Not only slandered my father, but now you still want to get rid of my grandmother and us?!

"You little ghost!"

"Sister......

"Nao!" Saotome Sakurako, who had been silent, slammed her crutches on the ground, glanced up at Harumi's darkening face and his ready appearance, and said to Nao slowly, "I don't remember teaching you to make such a humiliating act in front of outsiders." Go, pull Natsu and sit down on the side. ”

“...... Be. Nao looked at her grandmother, who didn't even raise an eyebrow, let go of the hand that was pulling Harumi's collar, gritted her teeth, stepped aside, and pulled Natsu, who was already about to cry, to sit in the corner of the room.

"Hey, what an uneducated little ghost. Harumi Saotome cursed and turned her gaze to her father again, "I really don't know what else you have to complain about." If you hadn't divorced your mother and left us mother and son behind, we wouldn't have lived in Chiba for so many years...... Now that my mother is dead and you are old, I came to support you, and you are still picky?" he sneered and moved his gaze to Nao, "This little ghost has exactly the same eyes as your son, if it weren't for the fear that she will become like his father in the future, I wouldn't be able to do this idle mind!

"Oh, thank you so much. Saotome Sakurako chuckled, but there was no smile in her eyebrows, "It's a pity that how we educate Nao is our family's own business." Even if she follows in Haoping's footsteps in the future, I will not have any regrets. ”

"You're saying I'm nosy?" Harumi twitched the corners of her eyes, pulled the fat on her face and shook a little, opened her mouth and said to Nao's grandmother in a vicious voice: "What does it matter to you that I support my father? This house belongs to our Saotome family! I respect you for being a senior before I call you Mrs. Sakurako, I didn't expect you to be so ignorant of this old woman?!I ......"

"-Shut your dog!!"

Hearing this, Nao, who had been holding back her anger, couldn't hold back any longer. Forget it if she doesn't say her, not only slandering her father, but also making insulting remarks to her grandmother now? Is it tolerable! She doesn't have the good concentration of her grandmother, and if she doesn't teach this meaty-faced bastard a lesson today, she doesn't deserve to be called Saotome Nao!

Nao rolled over and got up, and her legs bent suddenly as she took a step, and she just took a step and came to Harumi Saotome, and at the same time secretly exhaled, pulled her fist and slammed it down on Harumi's fat face. But Harumi seemed to be in a position the moment Nao stood up, and with a slight sideways turn dodged her attack that was enough to break the bridge of her nose. How could Nao stop there, seeing that the blow failed, he changed the direction of his body in an instant, turned his body and turned his waist, and a side kick with a standard posture mixed with the whirring wind went straight to Harumi's neck.

"Shrinking the ground and the pace of ancient martial arts??" Although she is a teacher, but also a teacher in the dojo, Saotome Harumi is still good, and she was not hit by Nao's side kick but flashed over, and at the same time sneered at her with ease: "Although my skills are good, I am still a little tender!"

Before the last word landed, Harumi Saotome launched an offensive. He grabbed the back collar of Nao with his left hand before she could retract the kicking leg, and with a push he tossed Nao aside, while his other hand clenched into a fist, ready to hit her in the face before she could maintain her balance. But Nao, who was thrown aside, did not stumble as he thought, but quickly supported the weight of his whole body with the kick he had just kicked, and flew up with the momentum of the pusher, and flew up with the other foot, directly attacking one of the weakest parts of the human body, the ribs.

Saotome Harumi saw that Nao was not only extraordinary but also vicious, and he could no longer keep calm when he still had room to spare. He took a sip and blocked Nao's leg attack with his arm, trying to grab Nao's incoming leg with his backhand while striking her jaw at great speed.

Although Nao has practiced Okinawa karate for several years, he is still immature after all, and the other party's experience and strength are superior, although he retracted his leg in time, he still couldn't stop his hand from hitting his jaw. She breathed heavily, and slammed back to dodge the attack that would have shattered her jaw. But just as she was about to succeed, a carved ironwood cane suddenly appeared in her peripheral vision. Nao, who had been attacked by this thing for many years, reflexively twisted her body outward, dodging the crutch that was a few points faster than the throwing knife.

"-Bang!"

The heavy ironwood cane fell to the ground. Nao turned her head to look at her grandmother who suddenly attacked in surprise, but unexpectedly heard the wail of Harumi Saotome. I saw Saotome Harumi sitting on the ground rubbing her calves, and her face showed a painful look.

"Nao!!" Sakurako Sakurako suddenly snorted, startled Natsu, who had shown a sluggish appearance since Nao's shot, "Just shoot casually, the old body doesn't remember teaching you to be so impulsive!!"

"Grandmother, grandmother......" Nao looked at her grandmother in surprise, wondering why she was so angry. It was obviously the disgusting man who spoke disrespectfully, why did he teach her a lesson? But as long as the grandmother who said the word "old body", Nao did not dare to disobey. Because it was only when the training went wrong that the grandmother used the word to refer to herself. She clenched her fists reluctantly and bowed down to Sakurako.

"I'm so sorry, Grandmother!!"

"Take Natsu down, and then you go to Tu Cage to think! Don't come out without my order, do you understand!"

"Yes......"

So after this incident, Nao has stood from that time to the present.

"Hoo ......"

Thinking of this, Nao let out a sigh of relief. She moved her stiff neck, and her long-standing cervical spine clicked. There was a gurgling sound in her stomach, and her head was a little hungry. But she, who had always been very obedient to her grandmother's words, had no intention of destroying this "punishment" from it. Even though she'd been standing on one leg here for more than twelve hours, even though she still didn't think she had done anything wrong.

Suddenly, there was the clatter of crutches on the ground in the hallway, followed by the sound of Suosuo's footsteps. Nao raised her eyelids slightly, only to see that the door of Tu Cage was slammed open. She was uncomfortable with the sudden light piercing her eyes, and she squinted at her grandmother who appeared in the doorway.

"Are you hungry?" said Grandmother's voice, which sounded kind.

“...... No. ”

"Oh, is it......" the expressionless grandmother chuckled, "So, do you know what you are doing wrong?"

“...... Nope!"

"Oh, I don't think I'm wrong, and why did I punish you, you know?"

“...... I don't know!"

"--Fool!" followed by the sound of the cane slamming on the ground with a loud cry from the grandmother, "You only noticed the attack in front of you, and you didn't see the leg he kicked out when you dodged backwards? If I hadn't thrown the crutches, you would have been in the hospital by now! I couldn't even see Cheng Dù's attack, and all the lessons I have taught you in the past few years have been in vain?!"

"Grandmother, grandmother?" Nao's eyes widened when she heard half of it, "You mean ......"

"I know what you're thinking. Do you think I'm angry at those frivolous things?" Grandmother suddenly lowered her voice, and her words were full of laughter, "If it weren't for my bad legs, I wouldn't have been you." ”

"Grandmother obviously managed to take care of that guy with just one cane, even if she has bad legs, she can still teach him a lesson!" Nao put down her right leg, which had been shrunk for twelve hours, and rolled her eyes at her grandmother with her numb limbs, she couldn't see it anyway. Then something suddenly came to mind, and he asked eagerly, "What happened to that thing, that guy gave up?"

"Nao, tomorrow you and Natsu will come with me to the main island. Grandmother didn't answer her, but said this coldly.

"Could it be ......," Nao's heart sank, "Grandmother, how can you let that guy get away with it?

"I'm going to let that milky little hairy kid succeed?" Saotome Sakurako snorted from her nose, "It's just that your grandfather seems to blame himself for the death of his ex-wife, so let him blame himself for a few more days, let's go to Aiko's place for a while." ”

"Are you going to Aiko's grandmother......" Nao listened to her grandmother's words, and a lot of black lines slipped down her forehead, "Grandmother, you won't be ...... Got angry with your grandfather, right?"

"What are you thinking about all day, little head?" Sakurako poked Nao's head with her finger, and then said with a sigh and faintly, "Aiko's husband passed away last month, and my daughter can't come back from abroad, and only one son is by my side, so I invited us to come and live a few days ago, and I agreed to her early." If there are no surprises, I will retire with her in Tokyo. Your grandfather doesn't want to quit his job at the school, so let him stay here and live with his son. ”

"That school ......"

"Of course in Tokyo, both you and Natsu. ”