Chapter 42 Another Stormy Night

  The second-to-last day of their training camp was in the afternoon when they had just finished training and it started raining heavily.

  "Oh, what luck!" Tao Cheng exclaimed with delight as he looked at himself and found that he hadn't gotten wet in the rain.

  "Hiss......" Haitang got wet quite a bit, so his mood wasn't very good.

  "Hey, viper, how did you become a water snake?" Taicheng said with sarcasm upon seeing Haidang's disheveled state.

  "Shut up, stinky monkey." Haitang didn't back down either.

  "Damn it, python, want to fight?" The fire in Tauchen was immediately ignited.

  Others watched as spectators, and Taishi, who had originally intended to intervene, was stopped by Kikumaru, knowing that going up now would be useful.

  "Ah Tō and Kaidō seem to still have a lot of energy, Dry. What do you think? Should we double their training for tomorrow?" said Nifū with a gentle tone.

  "Ah." The two who were just arguing immediately stood up straight and looked at Ni with a flattering expression, but Ni was still smiling at Qian.

  "If their training doubles tomorrow, there's an 80% chance they won't have the energy to fight anymore." He said dryly.

  "Haha, then it's double."

  "Ah!" Taicheng wailed.

  "Hiss......" Haitang's face didn't look good either.

  After watching this farce, everyone went to have dinner.

  At dinner time, Yafeng didn't eat much and had a "don't disturb" expression on her face. After finishing the meal, she went back to her room.

  Sanada naturally knew the reason. Originally, he was going to follow Kaze up directly, but when he saw Shinso following him and had a sweat on his body, he went back to his room to take a bath first.

  He saw Yafeng's bad mood and originally planned to return to the room to accompany her, but was detained by Xiangri on the way, wasting some time. When he returned to the room, what he saw was Yafeng curled up in the quilt. He walked to the bedside and sat down with a light tone: "Ah, why does our little princess Yafeng seem so unspirited today? This doesn't look like Yafeng's style."

  Yah Feng naturally also heard Ninxu's words, but she didn't respond. Ninxu was very puzzled by Yah Feng's abnormal behavior, however Yah Feng staying under the quilt like this wasn't good either. Just as he wanted to pull Yah Feng out from under the quilt, a knock at the door came.

  Shinji opened the door and saw Makoto Tachibana wearing a bathrobe, clearly having just taken a shower.

  "Sanada!"

  "Is elegance hidden within?"

  "Ah."

  Just as Shinoda finished speaking, Sanada walked past him into the house. When he saw Kaze curled up in his blanket, Sanada quickened his pace and sat down on the edge of Kaze's bed, gently pulling at his blanket and saying softly, "Kaze, it's me. Come out, don't cover yourself."

  Yah Feng heard the familiar words and felt the familiar breath, her heart calmed down a lot. She saw her lift up the quilt and pounce into Tiantian's arms.

  "Brother, brother, don't go, I'm scared." Yafeng tightly hugged Chen Tian, whispering softly in his ear.

  "Don't worry, I'm here." Gentaro softly said as he gently patted Yakazu's back.

  The ninja who was forgotten at the door was stunned by this scene, and it took a while to recover. He gently closed the door, walked to his bed, sat down, and looked at those two people with a bitter feeling slowly filling his whole body.

  Under Sanada's gentle touch, Yagyu gradually calmed down.

  "Yafeng, let's change positions, okay? This way Yafeng will be very uncomfortable." Zhen Tian spoke gently, not like himself.

  Yah Feng gently nodded and loosened her grip on Shinada's waist, but tightly wrapped herself around his arm. As soon as Yah Feng let go, Shinada immediately adjusted his position to lean against the headboard. Just as Shinada sat down, Yah Feng quickly wrapped herself around him again, tightly hugging his waist with her head buried deep in his chest, her body still curled up.

  Sanada saw that Akane had found a comfortable position and covered her with the blanket, continuing to soothe her. He knew that Shinbei had many questions for him now, but he had to wait until Akane fell asleep before he could answer them.

  About half an hour later, Yafeng's breathing became stable and her body trembled much less. Sanada knew she had fallen asleep.

  "You can now raise your doubts."

  "Sanada's words brought Shinso back to his senses, 'What's wrong with Yafeng? Why does she seem so uneasy and frightened?'" Shinso's face was filled with concern, a far cry from his usual carefree self.

  "Yafeng has a deep fear of thunderstorm nights, and whenever it's a stormy night, she becomes very frightened and is on the verge of a mental breakdown, requiring someone to accompany her."

  Although I had been prepared for Sanada's words, it was still shocking and heart-wrenching to hear them with my own ears.

  "So, do you know the reason?"

  "Uh, Uncle and Auntie's car accident happened on a stormy night, and Yafeng woke up to know that Uncle and Auntie had passed away on another stormy night. So the psychologist said that it was probably because of this that Yafeng would have an instinctive fear of stormy nights." (Note: The second part is not translated as per your request)

  For such a reason, I don't know what to say, but I'm getting more and more heartbroken for Yafeng. "Then, did the doctor say it can be cured?"

  "The psychologist said that if Yafeng wants to thoroughly cure her phobia, she needs to face the thing that makes her afraid again and break through it. However, Yafeng's heart disease relapsed last time because the death of her uncle and aunt had a huge impact on her, and now making her face this again might be too much for her heart to bear. So, the doctor suggested creating a safe, harmonious, and warm environment for her to slowly open up and break through her fear, and before that, just having someone accompany her every time there's a thunderstorm at night would be good."

  Watching the silent Nintama Rantarou decide to be a good person and not let him continue to struggle.

  "It's possible that because Yafeng was with me the first time she experienced this situation, afterwards on stormy nights Yafeng must be by my side to fall asleep. Once, my mother tried to accompany her but she couldn't sleep and curled up alone, not letting my mother touch her. So just now, Yafeng's lack of reaction towards you doesn't mean she doesn't care about you, it's just that on a night like this, she's still not used to your company. Moreover, regarding this matter, Yafeng also hopes that not too many people know."

  Sanada's explanation is understandable at first glance, but somehow it still feels a bit off in his heart.

  "Is Yafeng better than before now?"

  "After two years of effort, Yafeng's condition has improved a lot. Now she won't wake up with a start because of thunderstorms, so please rest assured."

  "Uh-huh."

  "By the way, can you trouble yourself to bring Yafeng a piece of cake and a cup of milk? She didn't eat much tonight."

  He leaned against the corridor with a look of exhaustion, realizing that he had always relied on Masayuki to deal with Kaze and wasn't happy about it. But today he found out that it was his own fault for not doing enough, and that he wasn't a good brother after all.

  He didn't let himself be depressed for long, and soon he regained his usual elegance.

  Arriving at the living room, I saw that person sitting on the sofa elegantly sipping coffee, and my heart warmed up a bit.

  "Is anything wrong with that unpretentious woman?"

  Listening to Tsuba's awkward concern, he couldn't help but laugh, "Tsuba, you must treat Yafeng well from now on, but you'll have a lot of trouble."

  "Hmph, I'm not afraid of any difficulties at all. I am the most magnificent."

  "Hmm, I believe it, but your enemy is Sanada, and Akakaze has a strong brother complex." After saying that, he ignored Kiyoshi's reaction and went to the kitchen.

  When he took out the good things, the department was still in a daze.

  He had just gone upstairs when he saw Nifu wandering in the corridor.

  "Is there something wrong?"

  "Is your footwork and elegant movement still good?" Nii's single sword cut straight in.

  "Futaba is very concerned about Yafeng."

  "We're allies, after all."

  Nishizumi's smile deepened as she watched the exchange. "Well, it seems your charm is quite considerable, Yukari," she said with a hint of amusement. "Still, I think Taki is more to my liking."

  "Is that so? Yafeng is fine, just being playful." Ninxu still intentionally raised the dinner plate in his hand.

  He nodded and said, "Then I won't disturb you."

  Ninomiya returned to the room and saw that Yafeng was sleeping soundly, while Shinoda had one arm around Yafeng and the other hand holding a book he was reading.

  After putting the cake in a safe place, she drew the curtains and prepared for bed.

  "Don't turn off the lights, Yuka will be scared." Shinda hurriedly stopped him.

  He nodded and returned to the bedside, just about to fall asleep when another knock at the door rang out.

  As soon as the door opened, I saw a smiling and radiant Yukimura and a gentle and elegant Liu.

  "Kōmura, Yanagi, what's going on so late?"

  "Excuse me for disturbing you, I'm looking for Genichiro, is he here?" Kosuke smiled harmlessly but his eyes kept darting inside.

  "Ah, yes," Nintou naturally noticed Kōmura's slight movement and casually leaned to the side, allowing him to see the two embracing inside. "Yakaze is not in a good mood today, so Totada stayed behind to keep her company. Kids are like that, always throwing tantrums."

  It's clear that Yukimura and Yanagawa have accepted Ninton's words, after all, everyone has seen how much Yafū relies on Sanada.

  "Hehe, in that case, we won't disturb you anymore."

  "Well, goodnight."

  After Toko and the others left, Sanada nodded lightly to Shinoda in gratitude for his help. Shinoda shrugged and returned to his own bed.