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"Tch." Takachiho clicked his teeth as he looked around the hall, trying to find any trace of Zenkichi, only to find the dazed members of Moji's gang and the still unconscious Hyuga. "He escaped? So he isn't a battle junkie, what a shame. I was just getting into the fight."
He let out a sigh and cracked his neck around, grumbling, "Well, this was for the best as well. If he was still in his normal form then I would've been confident to capture intact and unharmed, though in his metal form – there was just no way for me to hurt him, much less capture him."
His face turned blank, cold. 'I was getting hurt instead, I had only attacked and countered him a couple of times but my legs are already trembling and I don't need an x-ray to know that the bones in my legs have cracked.'
'It's a good thing that he didn't fully explored the full extent of his abnormality and increased his physical capabilities. He would've became a real fucking bullet. If it wasn't for my unparalleled reflexes and I simply just relied with my speed and kickboxing, I would've ended up as that guy on the floor.' Takachiho sweatdropped, for the first time in his life, he was afraid of someone's potential.
Because unlike that Gilgamesh wannabe in the Thirteen party, who's just wasting his potential by being so caught up with his emotions...
Zenkichi Hitoyoshi had the eyes of a man who'd do anything to get what he wants.
'I have to prepare the stage for when he comes after us. I have no question that he used that flash grenade to test out his theory on what my ability is, and he's probably certain by now, so junior...' His face contorted and his lips curled into a wide grin.
Shigusa Takachiho only had one purpose in life and reason for joining Hakoniwa Academy, and that was to find an equal.
His eyes glanced and then looked over his shoulder, smirked, and calmly said.
"I hope you heard what I had said. So don't show such a hostile expression, Medaka Kurokami."
Standing in the middle of the shoji was Medaka, wearing her student council uniform, with her arms crossed beneath her voluptuous chest with an emotionless expression on her face.
"K-Kurokami-san!" Moji and his boys shouted in surprise.
Medaka turned towards them with a warm smile and said, "Good work everyone, for standing your ground and finding your passion once more."
"Ah, well..."
"Y-You see..."
It was like an arrow had shot their heart, they blushed in embarrassment and turned to look away, all of them didn't know what to do.
But Moji quickly shook off his fluster and, with a terrified expression, tried to warn Medaka. "Kurokami-san! You have to get outta here! That guy, Takachiho, he's dangerous! He–"
"It's fine Moji-senpai." Medaka reassured him with a closed-eyed smile before turning towards Takachiho. "I just wanna talk with him, that's all."
She tilted her head and said. "Takachiho, was it? I believe this is the first time I've ever heard that name in this school. Also, hostile? Do I look like that to you?"
"Yeah." Takachiho grinned as he stared unblinking at Medaka, no, the beast that was just one step away from tearing him apart. Hell, he could see a phantom image of a ferocious giant lion head behind her. "You do, actually, you look pissed off.'
'So this is the girl the chairman recommended us to observe and recruit into the Thirteen Part? Tres Bien. I can see why you recommended her. I can feel it. This eerie calmness, that bloodthirst hiding behind her eyes. She has–'
Medaka suddenly disappeared from her spot, turning into a blur, before reappearing in front of Takachiho, in mid-air, without any fancy tricks or wasted movements, and simply threw a punch towards his face with all her strength.
A punch capable of breaking through concrete with ease!
'–potential to be the monster among monsters!' His lips widened as he sidestepped to the left, dodging her attack and raised his arms towards her, grabbing the head of Medaka to lock her in his grasp, and sent his right knee cap to her face but she blocked it with her right palm.
"Hey, why did you try to capture Zenkichi?" Medaka asked with a grin on her lips, her hand trembling.
It wasn't because she couldn't handle his attack or struggling to keep him from pushing his knee upwards, but it was because she was trying to keep him from freeing himself!
A bead of sweat runs down the side of Takachiho's face, mixing with the blood dripping down from the small cut, just under his right eye, where Medaka's punch passed by.
'Holy shit. She actually managed to graze me? Although it's a small cut, but still. My abnormality and speed makes me the fastest guy in the entire school! Not even that 'person', someone who had unified all the gangs in the Kanto region, could put a scratch on me but Kurokami could?' He gritted his teeth and moved his left arm over her neck, keeping her place, and raised his right arm up and dove down the back of her head with an elbow strike.
And yet, despite the blood dripping from the back of her head to her forehead, clearly damaging her skull to the point of a concussion, she still calmly grinned at him – surprising the fuck out of him.
"My turn." She muttered out loud as she slapped his knee cap and both of his arms away before she started to blur in place and dozens of herself began to appear, surrounding him; all in different positions of martial stances.
Taekwondo. Karate. Systema. Jet Kwun Do. Savate. Aikido. Boxing. Muay Thai. Jujitsu.
"!" Takachiho widened his eyes in utter shock.
'The information is all wrong. Didn't she get weaker from hiatus after some big incident three years ago back at her middle school? This is–'
All the speed clones of Medaka quickly closed in on him, cornering him from all sides.
And despite being trapped...
Takachiho looked on with complete utter contempt, still grinning, as he proceeded to bob and weave all of Medaka's attacks with complete ease.
'He's–' Medaka narrowed her eyes, as if she had come to a sudden conclusion but before she could react, Takachiho had already grabbed her right arm.
"I. Got. You~ Tres Bien." He slowly muttered those words out, utterly smug. Raising an eyebrow, he tilted his head and said, "By the look on your face, it seems you've probably caught up on what my ability is."
"I have." Medaka narrowed her eyes, slightly glowing, trying to use all of her strength to get loose. "So what are you going to do about it?"
"This." Takachiho didn't even hesitate, with a smile on his face, he kicked up his knee to her forearm, making a loud crunch – breaking her arm.
"Kurokami-san!"
"You fucker!"
"Get him!"
Moji and his gang were immediately infuriated when they witnessed what he did to Medaka's right arm, and they all didn't even hesitate to rush towards him with all their shinais raised above their heads with the intention to beat Takachiho up.
"No! All of you, get back!" Medaka, the tough motherfucker that she is, didn't even cry over her arm but had instead told off Moji's group to stand back, shocking them silly.
Takachiho coldly stared down at Medaka and without saying anything, he blurred and reappeared at the entrance of the dojo; leaving with his hands tuck in his pockets.
'This is bad. We need to update our archives and send out more people to gather intel on certain personnels. If these two have changed in just a few months, then who knows what those other candidates have achieved as well. It's going to be hard trying to convince most of those bastards to join us and plan B isn't going to work if the information we have on them isn't up-to-date.'
'Looks like we have to hire those shinobis, again.' He let out a weary sigh, wondering just how a simple favor had escalated to such an extent.
"Wait! I'm not done with you yet–!" Medaka tried standing up but, with wide eyes, she realized that she couldn't feel her legs. Looking down, she found her legs had bent unnaturally, like a puppet without its strings.
'When did he–!?'
"Tres Bien, Medaka Kurokami. I will admit, you are strong! But you are still far from reaching your true potential, or returning to your previous peak state. So until you reach either of those, I will not fight you." He raised his right arm up over his head and waved.
"Shigusa Takachiho..." Medaka furrowed her brows, looking undisturbed by her broken limbs, but was greatly showing interest in the person who had actually managed to put her in this state, not many were capable of doing that after all. "Just who are you? And why did you try to capture Zenkichi?"
....
Behind the dojo building and in a small clearing surrounded by green foliage, Zenkichi sat cross-legged with his back against the building.
He looked weary, like someone who had finished doing some heavy lifting; sweat running down the side of his normal, non-metal, face.
"Fuuuck. I wanted to continue fighting that bastard." Zenkichi cursed as he took a deep breath, trying to not scream out in pain from, what he could tell, like his muscles burning and squirming.
His entire iron skin slowly receded back to normal, like a chameleon changing back to its original color.
He grimaced and said, "Looks like I shouldn't be overconfident, just because I got a powerful ability. Because I didn't acquire "The Iron" naturally and only got about a day of training to use it, I didn't manage to find out its limits....until now." he let out a dry chuckle then groaned.
Zenkichi had found out that, "The Iron", ability is straining his body every minute he uses it, especially in combat he had with Takachiho, and it wears off after some time with a side effect of a burning sensation in his muscles. He didn't understand why but he had a feeling that "The Iron" had a certain requirement to be used with any consequence but he didn't have it.
Did he need a stronger body? Is that the requirement to further use The Iron?
"It just goes to show, no matter how many skills or abilities I get, if I don't manage to control them then they're useless." He rubbed his temple in frustration, not knowing what he should do.
Should he just leave The Iron skill alone and try to luck out on some other skill tomorrow or the days after?
[Ding! Status updated!]
[Ding! The Iron information has been updated!]
'Huh?' He blinked his eyes, surprised at the sudden screen prompt in front of his face and he opened up his system stats.
....
[STATUS]
NAME: Zenkichi Hitoyoshi
RACE: Human[Quincy](Not-Awakened)
AGE: 16
GENDER: Male
BLOOD TYPE: AB
MENTALITY: Above Normal
PHYSIQUE: Above Normal
SOUL: Abnormal
ABILITIES:
-Lottery[??](An ability that is self explanatory, it gives the user the chance to get a random prize at a certain selected location by the user, which said location is used as the prize pool; anything in the location is a prize; whether it be skills like The End, Real Eater, etc. and other stuff like money, bag, notebook, etc. This ability could only be used once a day.)
-Savate[Normal](It is a French kickboxing combat sport that uses the hands and feet as weapons combining elements of English boxing with graceful kicking techniques. Despite its grace and beauty, savate is an effective method of self-defense.)
-Cooking[Normal](You can cook like any decent, independent and self sufficient human being.)
-The Iron[Abnormal](New!)(User can coat his skin partially or fully in a layer of iron, making his body virtually invulnerable to physical harm while the ability is active. However, since the user hasn't properly awakened his racial abilities then it comes with a limited time of use and side effects after use: like a burning sensation of their muscles and/or their skin, and exhaustion.)
....
"What the–a quincy? What the heck is that?" Zenkichi was completely surprised at his race stat. He was some higher level human being or something? What the heck, is this system turning into The Gamer or something?
But that word, he couldn't help but feel it was familiar for some reason...
He shook his head, gritting his teeth, he groggily stood up and started walking back to the main school building, specifically towards the infirmary.
"I'll think about this later. I need to head to the infirmary to rest and even get my head wound properly dressed, fucking Hyuga..." He clenched his hands, his eyes coldly glinted. "Shigusa Takachiho and Youka Naze, I swear, I'll be coming for your asses next."