Chapter 27: Subduing the Demon

"Impossible... Impossible!" Kiryu Setsuna muttered as he staggered backward.

This time, Hakudo Kyo did not stop him. After all, the contest had already ended, hadn't it? As for that lost, dazed expression, he had seen it countless times during his dojo challenges in Fukushima. The secret techniques forged through painstaking effort, blood, and tears—mastered in battle by some nobody after just a couple of moves. Even for a martial artist whose spirit had been tempered a thousand times, such a blow was truly too cruel.

If Hakudo Kyo could understand Kiryu Setsuna's current state, what happened next utterly defied his expectations.

Kiryu Setsuna's pupils were bloodshot, saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth like a rabid dog. At this moment, he looked less like a fanatic and more like someone about to commit a mad suicide attack!

"Unforgivable! How dare you injure this body, offered to the world's only god! Offered to the flesh of the King Horse!"

"I'll kill you!"

It was as if he had flipped some switch within his body. Kiryu Setsuna's waist-length hair writhed like a living thing, and the murderous intent that had sunk faded now surged like oil poured onto a blazing fire!

—He was like a demon!

The world slowed before his eyes. His heightened perception could even make out the slight quiver of Hakudo Kyo's lashes beneath his astonished expression.

It is said that when a person is dying, their life flashes before their eyes like lantern slides. To complete such a swift review of one's life, it is because the brain lifts its restrictions in times of crisis. Thought accelerates, and dynamic vision is enhanced.

This is the human phenomenon known as "near-death time dilation."

Martial artists, refining and summarizing this scientific phenomenon, had transformed it into a practical technique.

—The secret art: "Two Tigers Style: Demon Subjugation!"

In this slowed world, Kiryu Setsuna dragged his temporarily disabled arm, his steps flickering as he prepared to unleash that strange footwork once more.

But just as his toes gripped the floor, his muscles coiling like compressed springs ready to burst—

The skinny youth before him, with a smile that was both excited and tinged with regret, snapped his fingers.

"How terrifying, this move! But unfortunately, I probably won't be able to learn it this time."

What nonsense was he saying?

Kiryu Setsuna ignored the dying man's ramblings, intent only on striking his opponent's skull with the Rakshasa Palm!

But just as he was about to initiate the "Fox Shadow Style: Flash," his strength vanished as if a floodgate had opened, draining away without a trace!

Was this a symptom of hypoxia? What...?

He didn't even have time to finish his thought; a suffocating sensation suddenly seized his neck, followed by darkness at the edges of his vision from lack of oxygen.

"Thud—"

The sound of flesh hitting the gym floor echoed. The beautiful, long-haired man had collapsed, unconscious.

"As expected, with someone like you, if I don't keep a trick in reserve at the end, it's not so easily finished."

Hakudo Kyo, standing before him, slowly lowered the arm he'd used to snap his fingers, withdrawing the aura he'd applied to Setsuna's carotid artery.

Meanwhile, a few spectators nearby, startled by Kiryu Setsuna's sudden counterattack, were only now realizing what had happened.

"Oh, oh, oh! Hakudo, you're amazing!"

Zawa Nagaitai's worldview had been completely overturned today; he was the first to rush up to his idol—Hakudo Kyo. But as he drew closer, his gaze kept drifting to the fallen Kiryu Setsuna, until finally, cold sweat broke out on his forehead and he awkwardly stopped a meter away.

Hakudo Kyo smiled faintly, understanding his timidity; after all, he was only a high schooler who'd just left behind his delinquent life yesterday, hoping to return to normal.

"Matsuda, call someone to take him to the infirmary. Kozu, you go, too! Don't wave your hand—do you want to lose your arm?!"

"Yes, yes, President! Heh heh!"

"...Sigh."

The beautiful president, cigarette dangling from her lips, issued orders with brisk efficiency.

She certainly didn't want her hard-won ace to suffer mishaps from delayed treatment.

But when her besotted, blushing secretary and the now shy, honest Kozu approached her, she couldn't help but pinch her brow and sigh.

Finally, the one who walked past the others to stand beside Hakudo Kyo was Sayako, smiling gently.

"I heard you say you were interested in his final technique? Actually, within the Poison Island Style, there is also..."

Unlike the vase-like heroines of films, fussing over the hero's triumph, Sayako, born into a warrior family, swept her gaze over Hakudo Kyo's form and spoke first of what mattered most to him.

It was because she wholeheartedly believed in the abilities of the one she valued, and wished to help him, that she went straight to the point, intent on entrusting even her family's secrets.

Hakudo Kyo was moved, but interrupted her with a soft smile.

"It's still too soon for this, Sayako. I haven't even figured out the new realm I achieved today. Besides..."

He leaned in, whispering by Sayako's ear,

"When I truly have the right to call myself the 'head of the Poison Island Style,' it'll be time enough to talk."

To claim the title of "Poison Island Style head" meant, whether marrying in or making her his wife, he would have to become family with the style's sole heir—Sayako!

Sayako remained composed, though a faint blush appeared on her face.

~~~~~~

After Hakudo Kyo donned his coat, the three left the gates of Royal Sakura Girls’ Academy without delay.

Originally, according to Sayako and Kana Ryuin Shion's plan, they were supposed to have lunch and afternoon tea together—such was the ritual of a proper sisters' meeting.

But when the beautiful president stormed in, declaring, "You injured my best fighter at the most critical moment of the Kengan Deathmatch. Just seeing you pisses me off," the three had no choice but to swiftly vacate her territory.

Yet Hakudo Kyo couldn't help but notice that when she said "pisses me off," she kept gritting her teeth while exchanging looks with the calmly smiling Sayako...

It hardly seemed to be because of him, did it?

Rather, Sayako herself seemed visibly more cheerful since leaving.

"What's the matter, Kyo? You've been looking at me."

"No, it's nothing.

Maybe it's because I saw so many girls at the academy, including beauties like Miss Kana Ryuin... But compared to them, I suddenly feel you're even more beautiful!"

Hakudo Kyo shook his head briskly.

Training in martial arts hadn't made him stupid, after all!