"Perhaps we are quite lucky."
Shion slowly narrowed her eyes as she watched Jaden, now clearly serious, and the extremely disheveled Nikaido Ren climb back up from the ground.
"Jaden's recorded Kengan matches are only two," she said calmly. "Add the one against Kiryu, and that makes three."
"This match..."
"...is the fourth."
She continued without looking away.
"The first was against Himuro Ryo. One punch. Finished."
"The second was against Meguro. According to intelligence, Jaden also defeated him purely with strength, without relying much on technique."
At this point, Shion glanced sideways at Kiryu Setsuna.
Kiryu looked back at her and naturally continued the topic.
"Speaking of which," he said softly, "I'm still unclear about how I lost to him."
Kiryu Setsuna's memory of that fight was fragmented.
All he remembered was a deafening boom.
Then darkness.
When he opened his eyes again, he was lying in the infirmary at Koyo Academy.
Afterward, he hadn't been particularly bothered by winning or losing. That match hadn't involved Koyo directly.
Still-
He had been curious.
He had asked Shion.
Her answer back then had been simple.
-"You were knocked unconscious by one punch."
Kiryu had asked others afterward.
Every spectator said the same thing.
Combined with his own memory, Kiryu had to admit-
It was possible.
And yet, instinctively, he found it difficult to accept.
Until today.
-Today, he could finally witness it from a third-person perspective.
With that thought, Kiryu focused entirely on the ring.
Shion, after briefly meeting his gaze, also locked her attention back onto the arena.
She didn't want to miss anything.
But her voice didn't stop.
"Kengan is an extremely complex form of martial competition," she said. "It isn't a performance. It's a real fight."
"A fight to the death."
"Because of that, fighters use all kinds of methods-overt and covert. Tricks, tactics, misdirection."
"And beyond those tricks," she continued, "every fighter is skilled in at least one domain of combat."
In other words-
"Whether it's a one-punch knockout or overwhelming someone with sheer strength..."
"What Jaden has shown so far cannot be his true limit."
"Either his power is far greater than what he's displayed..."
Shion stared at the ring and stated her conclusion evenly.
"-Or he's finally going to get serious and use the martial art he truly specializes in."
The spectators beneath the ring were restless.
Excited.
Hungry for violence.
Inside the ring, Nikaido Ren slowly regained his composure.
His head was still spinning.
His ears were ringing from the slap.
-His strength is absurd.
Nikaido Ren still couldn't understand why Kiryu had failed.
The sonic boom should have worked.
But it no longer mattered.
After using Kiryu, he had closed the distance-
And before he could even begin rapid hypnosis, a hand had landed on his face.
Just a slap.
And yet, it left him dizzy, disoriented, unable to recover.
If that had been a punch-
The result would have been unthinkable.
Kiryu didn't work.
Realizing this, Nikaido Ren spread his feet and shifted his stance.
The Heavenly Wolf Fist had lineage.
Its history wasn't ancient, but decades ago, it had proven itself in real combat.
If the style only relied on Kiryu, it would have vanished long ago.
So now, Nikaido Ren abandoned Kiryu.
He adopted a different stance.
He resolved-
No matter what, he would not let Jaden's fist land again.
That thought-
Stopped there.
In the next instant, a massive roar erupted throughout the underground arena.
Bang!
A heavy, explosive sound detonated in the air.
And at the very peak of that sound-
Nikaido Ren saw Jaden.
He was already standing in front of him.
Jaden's fist was drawn back to his waist.
A straight punch stance.
-So fast!
Nikaido Ren didn't even have time to think.
Before the heavy sound faded, a sharp sound followed immediately.
Without pause.
Nikaido Ren's pupils shrank.
He knew that sound.
-The sonic boom of Kiryu's first step!
Because he had practiced Kiryu for years, the sound itself didn't stun him.
But even in that instant-
Even while realizing that Jaden had seemingly learned Kiryu just by seeing it once-
His body reacted on instinct.
-Too naive, Jaden Yuki.
-Using Kiryu against me?
Nikaido Ren's hands turned into claws.
They struck simultaneously from the left and right, aiming for the corners of Jaden's jaw.
And then-
There was no then.
According to his understanding, hypnosis should follow the sonic boom.
But in reality-
He only heard the boom for an instant.
And in the very moment his hands began to move-
Jaden's fist arrived first.
Faster than sound.
It slammed directly into his face.
Boom!
Nikaido Ren was blasted into the air.
His body flew straight off the ring.
"This..."
Nikaido Ren's defeat was beyond doubt.
Blood streamed from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
His condition was unclear.
Shion instinctively signaled the medical team.
But her focus wasn't on victory.
It was locked onto that final strike.
It looked similar to what she'd seen before.
Extreme speed.
One punch.
Instant defeat.
But this time-
Facing an attack so fast that she couldn't even tell whether a punch had been thrown-
Shion realized there was something she hadn't understood.
Ogami Sakura felt the same.
She knew Jaden had used a technique.
But it was too fast.
Everything happened too quickly.
Even she couldn't grasp the mechanism.
Only Kiryu Setsuna stood frozen.
Eyes wide.
Because he saw it.
He truly saw it.
Unlike Shion and Ogami Sakura, Kiryu possessed a state called Koma-Fallen Demon.
Whether it could even be called a technique was unclear.
Its principle resembled the moment when one's life flashes before their eyes near death.
Put simply-
Bullet time.
Most people could only experience it at the brink of death.
Kiryu Setsuna, however, could activate it the moment he sensed danger.
Even mild danger.
The instant he felt Jaden's overwhelming aura-
That Hanma-like pressure-
Kiryu activated Koma.
He saw everything.
"Incredible..."
Even Kiryu, whose interests lay elsewhere, couldn't help but speak.
Ogami Sakura.
Shion.
Even Akemi, who was still unaccustomed to the brutality of underground fights-
All turned toward him.
Kiryu watched Jaden descend from the ring and spoke.
"First," he said, "he struck the ground repeatedly in an instant."
"A dozen times-no..."
"That had to be dozens of times."
"And he used the reaction force from those ground strikes to propel his own body."
It was a movement method far cruder.
More direct.
More absolute.
Even more extreme than his own Fox Shadow Style: Shun.
Kiryu paused.
Then he spoke two words.
Words that caused Ogami Sakura, Shion, and Akemi's pupils to contract.
"-Mach Punch."
"Because Nikaido Ren's Kiryu just produced a sonic boom," Kiryu continued, "I can be absolutely certain."
"That punch-"
"-was a Mach Punch."
"The technique Jaden used just now..."
"...was a Mach Punch."
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