The next day I had gotten up while it was still dark, and had formally challenged Haposai to test my skill...
We were still fighting when everyone got up. I had managed to use his applefire burn technique against him a number of times, and managed to survive his onslaught with his pipe by blocking with my cane.
Soon, he jumped back, and I followed, not looking where I was going, only to have him knock me into the fish pond. "No fair! That's cheating!" I yelled when I surfaced, and then noticed that haposai had latched himself onto me, so knocked him off. "Well, you do have some degree of skill." He said after he stopped skidding, though I was still clenching my fist in anger...