Chapter 268: King of the Hill
Night fell over the Central Plaza of Kure Village.
The wooden scaffolding still surrounded the area, and the heavy curtains
remained drawn to keep the general public out. Inside, however, high-intensity
spotlights hummed to life, focusing their brilliant beams on the temporary
octagonal ring in the center.
A crowd of roughly a hundred insiders gathered around the perimeter. Raian Kure
had found a secluded, dark corner to lurk in. Ren Shiroki, Fusui Kure, and
Official Sonoda stood together near the ring, accompanying their representative,
Gouki Shibukawa, while they waited for the match to begin.
At that moment, a short, middle-aged man approached Sonoda. He wore a sharp
suit, but his head was oddly flat, giving him a comical appearance. A single
tuft of curly hair sat atop his crown, and his face wrinkled like a dried plum
whenever he smirked.
This was Akio Kono, the President of NENTEN, the MPD's opponent for the night.
In the Kengan world, when two "Employers" met before a match, it was usually to
exchange corporate pleasantries or, more commonly, to talk trash. Akio Kono was
firmly in the latter camp.
"Heh-heh-heh... I'm a law-abiding citizen, yet here I am acting as the MPD's
antagonist. What a strange feeling." Akio offered a hand to Sonoda, his eyes
glinting with a greasy, dishonest light.
He feigned concern, sighing dramatically. "Sonoda-dono, you're in a tough spot,
aren't you? Following orders from the top brass to accept a match you can't
possibly win. My condolences."
Sonoda paused, looking at the man with a weary, unimpressed expression. "To be
honest... I don't really feel much of anything regarding the stakes."
As a career lawman, Sonoda knew this match had political undertones.
Commissioner Haru Takeyama had scented an internal power struggle and decided to
use this Kengan match as a lure to draw out the dissenters.
But after surviving the "Convict Invasion" and witnessing the absolute mayhem at
the hotel, Sonoda's mental fortitude was at an all-time high. Corporate
posturing and political bickering felt like child's play compared to facing
Biscuit Oliva or the Ogre.
Whatever the higher-ups were planning, his job was simple: oversee the win.
Seeing that Sonoda wasn't biting, Akio Kono's brow furrowed.
"I expected the MPD to send that 'Executioner' fellow. I didn't think you'd hide
behind a celebrity 'Master' like Gouki Shibukawa."
Sonoda waved a hand dismissively. "No, no. Shibukawa-sensei is just a temporary
fill-in. He happened to be in town."
"Hmph. You're quite relaxed, Sonoda-dono. Do you really have that much faith in
this 'Master'?"
Akio Kono let out a low, mocking laugh. "I've heard the legends. They say the
'Saint of War' once defeated an Olympic wrestler who stood 195cm and
weighed 139kg. A miracle for a man of his size, certainly. But my fighter is the
'God of Destruction'! He is the natural predator of 'Masters'!"
"I'll use the MPD's reputation as a stepping stone to showcase his true power!"
Akio continued to drone on, his voice a grating buzz. Ren and Shibukawa both
began picking at their ears, looking bored.
Fortunately, the venue was ready. A female referee with short hair stepped into
the center of the ring.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Thank you for waiting!"
The referee wasted no time, her voice booming with authority. "Please welcome
our combatants!"
"Standing 242cm tall and weighing 315kg! With a Kengan record of 4 wins and 0
losses! The man who has earned his company over 310 billion yen—"
"Representing N社 (N-Company): The God of Destruction, Haruo Kono!"
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The heavy sound of footsteps shook the plaza, accompanied by a sound like a
struggling industrial engine—wheeze... huff... wheeze...
The audience gasped as they saw the silhouette emerging from the tunnel. It was
a mountain of flesh.
He wore custom-made denim overalls. His face was a sea of soft tissue, his body
shaped like a massive cement mixer. His limbs, however, were terrifyingly thick,
with the outlines of massive muscles visible beneath the subcutaneous fat. He
had slicked-back oily hair, wore round-framed glasses, and was currently
sweating profusely, remnants of snack-cake crumbs still clinging to the corner
of his mouth.
"Oho..."
Ren and the others arched their eyebrows. Can a human actually grow that large?
Just how much does his grocery bill cost?
Ren narrowed his eyes, studying the giant. Beside him, Fusui pulled out her
phone and began a tactical briefing.
"He's a high-priority target with four straight wins. I did a deep dive on him
earlier."
"That man... his birth name was Haru."
Ren leaned against the spectator rail, with Fusui resting her weight against his
arm. They looked like a couple of tourists watching a show.
"He was born in a village in the Himalayas, at an altitude of five thousand
meters. They called him the 'Avatar of Indra'."
"At six years old, he could lift a grown man with one hand. At ten, he was the
tallest man in the mountains. At eleven, he single-handedly killed a snow
leopard that was terrorizing his village."
"At fifteen, he completed the rite of passage for the Gurkha mercenaries—leaping
from a cliff to hunt blue sheep, then carrying 480kg of carcasses back up the
vertical rock face bare-handed."
"That feat made him the strongest warrior the Gurkhas had ever seen."
Fusui swiped to the next page of the file.
"A few years later, he was scouted by Akio Kono. He left the mountains for Tokyo
and became NENTEN's exclusive fighter. To keep him under control, Akio drowned
him in luxury. Junk food, video games, high-end entertainment... Haru's desires
spiraled out of control."
"The excessive gratification became a poison. It eroded the warrior spirit of
Haru and turned him into the gluttonous 'Super-Heavyweight' you see now—Haruo
Kono."
"..."
Hearing the briefing, Shibukawa blinked, looking impressed. "My, my! The little
Kure lady is remarkable. To have intelligence data on a remote Himalayan
village? I'm stunned."
"Of course!" Ren answered before Fusui could.
He slung his arms over the girl's shoulders, swaying them back and forth with a
wide grin. "That's the Hub's intelligence network for you, Sensei!"
Shibukawa's eyes crinkled behind his glasses. "Hahaha! You two are truly enough
to make an old man jealous~!"
The relaxed atmosphere was the final straw for Akio Kono. He stepped forward,
his face flushed.
"Have you all been blinded by the 'Master's' title?! Have you forgotten the
absolute physics of a weight class?!"
Akio pointed at the ring. "Compared to that wrestler you beat, Haruo is half a
meter taller and twice as heavy!"
"Master Shibukawa! Haruo's weight... it's more than six of you combined!"
"..."
Shibukawa tilted his head, his glasses reflecting the spotlights. "Akio-kun, are
you feeling anxious? No amount of repeating the obvious is going to make me
forfeit, you know."
The seventy-five-year-old master turned his gaze toward the massive youth in the
ring.
"At the end of the day... lean meat, muscle, or fat... it's all just 'Meat'.
It's all the same."
"A human has no need for that much bulk."
Shibukawa slowly reached up and removed his amber glasses, handing them to Ren.
"If it were a 'Monster' who had traded his humanity for a body of iron and hate,
that would be terrifying. But that boy? His flesh is saturated with human
desire. It's sweet, bloated, and soft."
"To me... he's nothing but a giant marshmallow~!"
Shibukawa patted Ren's hand. "Take care of these. They're made of genuine
tortoiseshell. Very expensive!"
Ren laughed. "You got it, Sensei."
"He's in!" the MC shouted. "Representing the MPD! The Grandmaster of
Aiki-Jujutsu—The Saint of War, Gouki Shibukawa!"
"Height: 155cm. Weight: 47kg!"
"Against the 315kg God of Destruction! Can the difference in mass be overcome?
Is the legend of the 'Master' a reality, or just a myth?!"
"Let's find out!"
Shibukawa stepped onto the sand, facing the hulking Haruo Kono. He kept his
hands in his pockets, a cheery, mischievous smile on his face.
Ringside, Fusui leaned into Ren. "By the way, the rules for this Summer Festival
are a bit special. It's a 'King of the Hill' format."
"From the first match onward, the warrior who remains standing at the end of the
festival gets the honor of lighting the grand fireworks display on the final
night."
Ren grinned. "Really? That sounds like fun!"
Sonoda nodded in agreement. But the logic made no sense to the business-minded
Akio Kono. "The prize is just lighting a firework? What's the point of that?"
Fusui thought for a second. "It'll look pretty... I guess?"
Seeing Akio's blank stare, Ren waved him off. "The prize doesn't matter,
President. It's the 'Process' of holding the hill that counts!"
Akio Kono went silent, giving up on trying to understand these lunatics.
Meanwhile, Reiichi Kure scooted over to Ren's side. He studied Haruo in the ring
and asked curiously, "Ren-kun, how would you handle a man that size?"
Ren rubbed his chin. "The reach advantage is too large. Aiming for the
centerline is a gamble. To take down a giant, the basic protocol is to target
the extremities—joints, ankles, or wrists."
Reiichi nodded. "And what would your specific approach be?"
Ren gave a helpless, bloodthirsty smile. "I'd probably just try to out-slug him.
Or go for a tackle."
Reiichi let out a dry laugh. "Of course you would..."
The Match.
Haruo Kono was panting, his mind already drifting back to the arcade game he had
been playing earlier. He actually leaned down to ask the referee for a snack.
The referee offered some hurried words of comfort before raising her hand.
"MATCH START!"
ZIP!
The hand dropped.
Haruo Kono—315kg of raw mass—unleashed a thunderous, labored roar. Fueled by
irritation and the need to end this so he could go back to his games, he locked
onto the tiny old man. The pressure he radiated was a physical weight.
But to the shock of the crowd, Shibukawa didn't dodge. He didn't even move. He
stood perfectly still, hands still in his pockets.
"Hahaha!"
Shibukawa beckoned with a curled finger, his smile widening. "Come on, little
Fatty-kun~ let's play!"
The sheer disrespect made Haruo's temper explode. He launched into a massive,
earth-shaking charge, intended to end the match with a single, crushing blow.
FWOOSH!
The wind pressure from the giant's charge was so intense that the front-row
spectators had to squint.
But in the heartbeat before the massive fist could pulverize him, Shibukawa
suddenly dropped into a deep crouch. He pressed his palms into the sand and
extended his body forward.
He didn't move away; he moved under. Shibukawa transformed into a living
trip-hazard, his body colliding with Haruo's lead shin.
WHOOSH!
Haruo's momentum turned against him instantly. His balance was deleted.
His 315kg frame pitched forward, and with a thunderous BOOM, he slammed
face-first into the sand, eating a mouthful of dirt.
Before Haruo could even begin to process the fall—
Shibukawa spun and leaped. Like a hunting hawk diving from the sky, he launched
a vertical foot-blade strike aimed directly at the back of Haruo's neck.
BANG!
"Aha! Point one to the old man~!"
(End of Chapter)
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