"Even so, what makes you think you can say you never studied under Mr. Katsura..." What Sogo Doma hadn't expected was that the moment he admitted he had indeed trained at the Kondo Dojo for a while, Rumi Tsurumi became agitated. "Mr. Katsura is an honorary instructor at the Kondo Dojo..."
"Heh..." Before she could finish, however, Sogo Doma realized she had probably misunderstood again. All he could do was sneer. "Setting aside the fact that when I was practicing swordsmanship with the Kondo Group, that Katsura guy wasn't some honorary instructor yet, the style I studied was neither Kondo Style nor any Katsura Style..."
Ahem. In truth, he hadn't meant to sneer. But as the saying went, starting a rumor took only one mouth, while disproving it could run your legs off. She had already been brainwashed this badly by Katsura, so if he calmly explained himself, she might misunderstand even more—if there was nothing to it, why were you so calm?
"It's not Katsura Style. It's Katsura Divine One-Heart Style!"
"Oh..." Hearing that familiar correction, Sogo Doma instinctively replied, "Got it. Katsura One-Heart Style..."
Yet his instinctive response made the corner of Rumi Tsurumi's eye twitch. "..."
She was so annoyed!
Fortunately, this wasn't her first time encountering this situation. In fact, she was already used to it. She remembered Mr. Katsura saying that at times like these, one had to decisively change the subject.
"Wait..."
"Hm?"
"You said the style you practice is neither Kondo Style nor Katsura Divine One-Heart Style. Then why did you go to the Kondo Dojo..." To study?
"Because Hijikata was there..."
"Huh? Mr. Hijikata?" So she knew that Hijikata guy too. Though, thinking about it, that was hardly strange. Katsura's shabby dojo was quite close to the Kondo Dojo. "Could it be