Shun Yin's jaw literally dropped to the ground.
"What the actual fuck?"
"How about it?" the Assassin who introduced himself as Ying Bu Si asked. Shun Yin threw up both hands in disbelief.
"Don't fuck with me! What Bai Ye Sect!? What do you mean, destroy the Porter family and some King of Monsters? You're not referring to Godzilla, are you!? And why are you trying to rip off Owari no Seraph: Ichinose Guren, 16-sai no Catastrophe?! You think this is funny, is it? Wait until people report this story for plagiarism and force the author to take it down, and we'll see if it's funny!"
"…"
"Now tell me the truth or I'll cut you down!" Shun Yin pointed his sword at the Umbra Assassin. "And don't give me that Bai Ye Sect bullshit. I already know you're from the Umbra Sect, which is under the Assassins Guild. We're not going to complicate this further by throwing in random new sects, especially when the Dark Church is going to show up twenty years in the future!"
"Fine, fine." The Umbra Assassin held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry, I was joking. I've been reading too much manga and light novels recently, it seems."
"So? What are you here for?" Shun Yin prodded the guy with his flaming sword. Ying Bu Si immediately withdrew a step.
"Hey! Be careful with that!" He then cleared his throat. "Anyway, I'm here to offer you an invitation. I wasn't lying about that, at least."
"Invitation to what?" Shun Yin demanded, his brow furrowing. Ying Bu Si smiled and then bowed as he offered a hand.
"We would like to invite you, Huang Shun Yin, to the Assassins Guild. The Grand Master of Assassins holds your abilities in very high regard, and he hopes you can become one of us."
"Sorry, but I refuse."
"Oh! An immediate response!" Ying Bu Si clutched his chest in mock agony. "Couldn't you at least pretend to think it over?"
"No." Shun Yin's response was firm. His dream was to be a hero, a symbol and ally of justice who stood in the light, defending the innocent and letting everyone knew it was okay to hope…that there would be someone to save them.
An assassin was the direct opposite of a hero, skulking around in the shadows and performing subterfuge and other nefarious deeds. Their behavior and modus operandi didn't align with Shun Yin's values at all.
Therefore he instantly and firmly refused.
"Leave now and I'll forget that all of this ever happened."
"Oh? You actually think you can threaten me?" Ying Bu Si chuckled. "You'll regret declining our offer, you know?"
"I have no intention to be an assassin, ever. In fact…" Shun Yin's fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword and he pointed it at Ying Bu Si, unwavering. "I will stand in your way. The Assassin Guild? I'll make sure to save all those you target. Whenever you try to kill an innocent person, I'll be there to stop you with all of my strength."
"Big words from a brat." Ying Bu Si smiled. "You can't even beat me, and you want to try and stop the whole Assassin Guild?"
"You think I can't beat you?" Shun Yin smirked.
Ying Bu Si raised an eyebrow, and lunged forward so quickly that Shun Yin almost didn't react in time. The high school student managed to parry his strike with his sword, noticing that there was a shadow blade wreathing the whole of his currently fully healed arm. Spinning around, Ying Bu Si kicked at Shun Yin from below, forcing him to take a step back and bent his head backward to avoid getting a foot to his chin.
Ying Bu Si then whirled around and slashed with two shadow blades, each arm shrouded in deadly shadows. Shun Yin found himself forced back, attempting to fend off the deadly strikes with his sword.
Taking a deep breath, Shun Yin ignited his sword more ferociously than ever, the flames surging upward and engulfing the entire area. Ying Bu Si's eyes widened before he was immolated in the raging fires.
"Whoa!"
The Umbra Assassin jumped back, rolling on the ground to desperately put out the flames. He then shook both of his arms, which were still blazing with arcane fire.
Shun Yin didn't waste the opportunity and dove in, slashing at the now vulnerable Ying Bu Si. The Umbra Assassin spun around to dodge, but Shun Yin changed the trajectory of his sword at the last moment and hacked at him. Gritting his teeth, Ying Bu Si crossed his arms to block the blade.
Then flames poured out from Shun Yin's sword to bathe the Umbra Assassin.
"Cut through!" Shun Yin yelled as he threw his weight behind his sword, trying to slice through Ying Bu Si's defenses.
"That's dangerous!"
Panting, Ying Bu Si suddenly spun around, allowing the sword to slash through the air where his body had been. He then twisted his body and delivered a roundhouse kick that knocked Shun Yin's sword out of his grip.
Another kick forced Shun Yin back to a safe distance.
"Huff, huff…"
Ying Bu Si shook his hands more violently to put out the flames. He grimaced when he saw that the shadowy blades that once shrouded his arms had been completely burned away. Even so, he smirked when he saw that Shun Yin was similarly unarmed.
"Without your sword, what can you do?" he asked before he dashed forward with a punch. Shun Yin deflected his fist to the side, but Ying Bu Si continued to pummel him with a barrage of punches. "An Assassin's body has been honed into a weapon. Do you think you can fight on par with me, unarmed?"
Wham!
"?!"
To Ying Bu Si's surprise, however, Shun Yin deflected and knocked away each and every of his punches. Even his kicks, which he delivered from unexpected angles, were parried by Shun Yin's feet or knee. Instead, Shun Yin began to pressure him, knocking both his arms to the side and punching him in the chest.
"Ugh?!"
Before Ying Bu Si could react, Shun Yin stepped in and delivered a fast and furious hail of punches that slammed into his face and chest. Punching downward onto his solar plexus, Shun Yin then reversed direction and hammered Ying Bu Si from his chest upward into his face before twisting around and kicking him in the gut.
"Gah?!"
Ying Bu Si was sent flying several meters back, blood coursing from his mouth and nose. Blinking, dazed, he tried to rise to his feet, only to see Shun Yin approach his weapon. Spluttering, he glared at the younger man.
"You…what was that…?!"
"You claim that an Assassin's body has been honed into a weapon. That's the same for us martial artists, you know. Through training, we temper our body into a living weapon."
Shun Yin swung his sword and reignited it, allowing crimson flames to course along the length of his blade once more.
"Martial arts…" Ying Bu Si's eyes widened. "So that's it…the techniques you used earlier, they were Wing Chun!"
"Oh, so you do recognize them."
"But how…? You shouldn't have learned Wing Chun from the Miyamoto dojo...?!"
"Who says I learned Wing Chun from my master at the Miyamoto dojo?" Shun Yin snorted as he approached the downed Assassin, who coughed as he struggled to get up.
"Then…" Ying Bu Si's mind was racing as he considered several possibilities. "Your father…I see. He was Huang Ye Wen."
"So you know my father. That's right. He's the 572nd successor of the Southern Wing Chun arts, which has been passed down my family for generations. Admittedly, they have gone through quite a lot of changes, though. Especially with the advent of magic…my great-great-great-grandfather pioneered a new version of Wing Chun by combining it with magic…a form of esoteric technique…"
"Ba Qi." Ying Bu Si's tone was sour. "I've heard of it. You've learned Armament Ba Qi. No wonder you were able to break through my Shadow Defense. Even so…!"
Whoosh!
Shun Yin watched impassively as shadows flared up and surrounded Ying Bu Si, healing his broken bones and injuries.
"No matter how many times you hurt me, it won't change the fact that I'll just heal my injuries!"
"And that's the moment you're most vulnerable."
"?!"
Before Ying Bu Si could move, Shun Yin stepped in and swung his flaming sword. Not only was the sword wreathed in flames, he had enchanted it with Armament Ba Qi. Ying Bu Si screamed as the flames washed over him and the blade sliced his entire body in half, from head to groin.
With a sickening squelch, the two halves of his body fell apart. Flames continued to consume both body parts, eating away at flesh and the organs within.
Shun Yin extinguished the flames on his blade before he sheathed his sword. Then he turned away slightly to leave.
…only to freeze when he sensed something impossible.
"No way…"
He turned around and spotted the thick threads of shadow oozing from the insides of the split halves, reaching out and merging with one another. Slowly but surely, the shadows helped to knit the cleaved body of Ying Bu Si together. The Umbra Assassin slowly rose to his feet, almost like a broken, mechanical doll whose gears hadn't quite clicked together yet.
"Ah…damn. That hurts." Ying Bu Si reached up and wiped the blood from his face. "I'll admit it. Right now you're stronger than me. If this goes on, I'll run out of the mana I need to regenerate. Damn, I was this close to death."
Shun Yin was already dashing forward, his hand on the hilt of his sword as he prepared to unleash an iai.
"Oh, no. I don't want to get cut by you again."
Ying Bu Si smiled and then his body seemed to explode.
"!!!"
Shun Yin instinctively jumped back as countless tendrils of shadow writhed and lashed out at him. He was forced to draw his sword, ignite the blade, and cut through them before they reached him. the flames roared and incinerated a huge mass of shadows, but more seemed to emerge from the thick, no longer humanoid body that used to be Ying Bu Si.
That was fine. He just needed some time to cast a massive area of effect fire spell…
However, the monster that was Ying Bu Si suddenly stopped and withdrew all of his shadowy appendages, and resumed his human form.
"Damn it…somebody troublesome is coming." He sighed and shook his head. "I really wanted to play with you some more, Huang Shun Yin, but it seems that time has run out for me. Well, I'm sure we'll get a chance to exchange moves sometime in the future."
"I'll kill you the next time you show up in front of me," Shun Yin snarled. "And go tell your masters that I will never join the Assassin Guild. Any Assassin who shows up in front of me…I'll kill them. I'll kill them all."
"Perhaps you will. Or perhaps you will be the one who gets killed. Just try not to die until we meet again. I want to be the one who takes your life." Ying Bu Si raised a hand and gave a friendly gesture. "Well, I'll be seeing you."
And then he melted into the shadows, his presence completely vanishing. With a roar, Shun Yin blasted the shadows with his flames, incinerating the Sakura petals, but his spell didn't reach the enemy.
"Shun Yin! Are you all right?!"
He looked up and caught sight of his master hurrying over. Kicking off the ground, the master of the Miyamoto dojo cleared over a hundred meters in one bound and landed next to Shun Yin.
"I sensed a dangerous aura, and rushed over as soon as I can. What happened? Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm not." Shun Yin shook his head as he exhaled in frustration. "And…as for what happened, it's a long story."