Schrrrk—
Jinichi wiped the crimson blood trickling down his thick cheek with a finger. He checked the wound and let out a faint, fishy smirk.
'Hah, I can already see it. That battle-maniac is probably thinking something like, "How long has it been since I've had a real life-or-death struggle? How enjoyable!"—typical shonen manga battle-junkie boss tropes.'
Standing among the spectators with my arms crossed, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
Having traded one lethal blow each, both sides seemed to have gauged the other's level. Neither rushed in blindly now; instead, they squared off in a tense, probing standoff.
In that moment, Jinichi partially manifested his Cursed Technique, Rain of Ten Thousand Fists, conjuring a single spectral fist in mid-air and launching it toward Tsukishima Kanao.
Whish—!
Reflexively, Kanao generated a high-density sphere of Cursed Energy and sent it crashing head-on into the flying fist.
BOOM—!!
The collision of two Cursed Energies kicked up a cloud of acrid dust that blanketed the training grounds. In the blink of an eye, two silhouettes burst through the haze, clashing once more in a suffocating melee.
"Tch!"
Jinichi was clearly wary of Kanao's sharp elbow, which had just carved his cheek. To keep her at a distance, he threw a rapid succession of light jabs, incessantly hammering against Kanao's guard.
But Kanao didn't back down.
She forced her way through a heavy jab, taking the impact on her forehead to close the distance instantly. Her hands shot out, wrapping around the back of Jinichi's neck and interlacing her fingers. It was the Muay Thai plum clinch I had taught her.
Then, without a shred of mercy, she drove her knees upward into his torso.
One hit—K-THUMP!!
Two hits—CRACK!!
Three hits—THUD!!
Jinichi's massive frame flinched, his body stiffening. No matter how much Cursed Energy reinforced his durability, having knees laden with compressed energy hammered into his solar plexus and abdomen began to turn even his iron-slab abdominals a deep shade of purple.
Jinichi wasn't about to stay there and be a punching bag, though. He struggled violently to break the lock Kanao had on his neck. However, every time he applied power to twist his body, a knee strike would drive into his gut with perfect timing, stealing his breath and resetting his momentum.
'A situation where he can't pull his head back to escape, nor shake her off sideways.'
Trapped in the hell of a perfect clinch, Jinichi, a practical-combat sorcerer, chose a solution that was nothing short of brute idiocy: a head-on breakthrough.
He waited for that microscopic opening when Kanao coiled her body to drive in a fourth knee, then slammed his own skull forward with all his might.
CRACK—!!
"Kh...!"
Jinichi's surprise headbutt caught Kanao squarely in the face.
The sound of breaking bone echoed as her nose collapsed, a spray of blood erupting from the impact. Yet, even through that shock, Kanao didn't panic or let go of the clinch.
Spilling blood, she gritted her teeth and stubbornly twisted her trajectory, forcing the fourth knee strike home into Jinichi's abdomen anyway.
KA-THWACK—!
However, perhaps because her brain was rattled by the headbutt, the fourth knee lacked its usual power, and the grip of her arms weakened ever so slightly.
Jinichi didn't miss that split-second opening. He violently wrenched his shoulders, tearing himself free from Kanao's clinch and leaping backward to create distance.
A Special Grade 1 Sorcerer of the Zenin clan covered in bruises, and a freeloader with a shattered nose gasping for air.
The Zenin spectators surrounding the courtyard were deathly silent, swallowing hard at the sight of a gruesome, muddy brawl no one had anticipated.
As if in silent agreement that a brutal Round 1 had ended, the two caught their breath at a distance.
Jinichi massaged his bruised, rock-hard abdomen to check his breathing. Kanao, despite the blood pouring down her face, reached up with a detached expression and cracked her nose bones back into place with her bare hands.
"Kuhu... You're quite the man, aren't you?"
"What are you even saying? Gross. I'm a fresh, high school JK girl."
Immediately after that absurdly murderous exchange of banter—
Kanao pointed her left index finger straight toward the sky, while Jinichi sank into a deep, low stance, concentrating the full power of his body into his right hand.
Whirring————!!
At the tip of Kanao's outstretched finger, the surrounding air converged into a single point. A massive quantity of Cursed Energy began to coalesce into a sphere the size of a house.
Simultaneously, dozens—no, hundreds—of massive spectral fists sprouted in the air above Jinichi, reminiscent of a wrathful Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara.
The two stood facing each other, on the verge of a cataclysmic discharge of Cursed Energy.
The stances they took were utterly different. In fact, everything that defined them was an exercise in contrast.
Woman and man.
Slender, skinny frame and massive, muscular build.
A commoner from the back alleys and a member of a prestigious Great Family with centuries of tradition.
'There are infinite paths to express "martial arts," but at the absolute limit, they all lead to the same truth. Ten Thousand Flows Return as One, as they say.'
Despite being polar opposites, the murderous intent they radiated and the density of their overwhelming Cursed Energy were eerily identical. I watched this bizarre spectacle with my arms crossed, marvelling inwardly.
I looked around at the audience lining the courtyard. Ugly ones, handsome ones, old ones, young ones—a complete circus of human beings. Yet the expressions on their faces, all anticipating the head-on collision of those two immense powers, were terrifyingly identical. Perhaps this, too, was a form of the "Ten Thousand Flows Returning as One."
Silence hung heavy, like a bowstring drawn to the breaking point.
Despite gathering such massive energy, neither of them seemed willing to fire their technique first.
'Hey, Kanao. How long are you going to keep charging? Neither of you can just stand there staring... What, do you need a starting pistol like a track meet?'
I let out a smirk and raised my right hand high into the air from my spot near the referee's seat.
Then, I shouted in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Bang!"
No sooner had the word left my mouth—
Kanao's finger, which had been pointing to the sky, snapped down toward Jinichi. The colossal sphere of Cursed Energy floating above her—a thing like a miniature sun—traced a lethal arc as it screamed toward Jinichi.
'...Wait, what?'
I recoiled at the sheer size of the descending sphere, letting out a hollow laugh.
'Hahaha... That crazy bitch. That's way bigger than the homing missile she used when we fought in the net cafe! Well, I guess old man Jinichi has enough experience to defend against it somehow...'
KABOOM—!!
My complacent assumption was instantly shattered.
Jinichi hadn't the slightest intention of dodging or blocking that massive sphere. He launched the thousands of fists waiting above him all at once, and at the same time, he kicked off the ground with explosive force, charging straight at Kanao alongside the rain of falling fists!!
'Even Jinichi is sprinting! He's completely fired up!'
If those two massive volumes of mass collided head-on, I had a dark premonition that at least one of them—or both—would end up in a double suicide of mutual destruction. Going pale, I screamed at the referee, Nobuyaki Zenin, the veins in my neck bulging.
"Ref!! Stop the match right now!!"