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'Wow. That hurt. Like really hurt.' Myoujou winced as he exhaled sharply.
'I guess not wanting to kill doesn't mean that they won't hurt if they connect.' Myoujou dodged a blow that connected to the gash he left on the second tree, punching right through it as the tree started to fall.
'Plus, he's got great strength as well.' Dodging a kick aimed at his head, Myoujou was nearly struck by a hook to his chin before…
-[WATER MIRROR: OVERFLOW]-
Altering the trajectory of Saiga's fist by a narrow margin, Myoujou ended up redirecting the flow of his power slightly as he grabbed onto Saiga's fist, making Saiga's attack that was a certain hit, a near miss.
'This move! I recognize it!' Saiga wondered before catching himself. Flipping over to catch his balance, this little game of cat and mouse continued before Saiga decided to wrap this up. 'This kid, he really is a disciple of that Lazy Titan over there...'
'I'll finish it with this, then I can at least be on my way if I can't get any answers from them.' Saiga thought.
Placing an unbelievable amount of strength within his legs, Saiga pushed off of the ground with such speed that it cracked the earth underneath him.
'A blur?' Myoujou braced himself for the inevitable impact. 'This guy is a bonafide 'Master' ain't he? I'm having trouble keeping up with both my eyes and my senses.'
-[FURINJI STYLE: INSOLATED STRONGHOLD STRIKE-]
Saiga launched a devastating vertical kick aimed at Myoujou's core that would surely crush the insides of whatever poor sap was on the receiving end.
'F-Fast!' Barely managing to cross his arms in a guard, Myoujou was sent skidding back more than a few feet as he tried to keep afoot.
However, Myojou had a little something up his sleeve… Something that helped him avoid having his insides torn apart from Saiga's vicious kick.
-[CLEAR MIRROR: FORTIFICATION]-
It was a technique under the Masukagami/ Clear Mirror Formation, a defensive technique of sorts that by instantaneously tensing and tightening all of his muscles at the moment Saiga's foot made its impact would allow Myoujou to increase the solidity and density of his body, mitigating the damage done to his body by a doable degree.
But even with this, Myoujou had to take a few seconds to register the hit.
-Ssssssizle….-
Searing pain coursed through Myoujou's body momentarily as he took the attack that was definitely within the realm of a 'Master' Martial Artist, and at that moment, he definitely reached the conclusion that he was searching for.
'As expected of a Martial Artist of this caliber… If I didn't put up my guard at that very moment...'
And as for what would happen if he tried to tank the hit without this move?
'If I didn't block that... he probably would've torn right through me with that kick.'
"Euugh." Myoujou shuddered slightly thinking about the number of broken bones he might end up with.
'In the best-case scenario, ending up in dreamland might not be too bad...'
'Huh, he withstood that?' Saiga was surprised, with the amount of control Saiga had over his own strength, the move he used wouldn't be able to kill a person, but it still should be enough to send someone around Myoujou's level flying into unconsciousness…
'But in that case… Just how durable is his body then…?'
"Phew…" Myoujou broke out into a small sigh as soothed his arms from the heavy blow of a Saiga that still seemed to be holding back. "Alright, I've seen enough. I'm satisfied."
"What?" Saiga asked. Didn't he want to fight?
After that, Myoujou suddenly dropped his stance he was walking over to where Shintarou stood.
"Oi Shintarou. This guy here? He doesn't seem to be the guy that's leaving all those hole wounds on the bodies we've passed by." Myoujou shrugged as if he hadn't just picked a fight with someone and was only minding his business. "It turns out my little worry was true after all..."
"Really? If so, then it looks like something annoying must be happening in the background, kid." Shintarou said. Seems like there was something much more sinister happening in the background other than a clan battle after all. "But whichever weirdo it is, they must be a strong one, huh?"
"Tell me about it…" Myoujou said. "There really are some weirdos in all corners of life."
"Huh?" Saiga couldn't help but be confused. First, some kid picks a fight with him for some reason, and now he's just talking nonchalantly with his teacher?
'Just what the hell is going on...?'
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-Sometime Later-
"You'll have to excuse the kid for that, he tends to get a little excited when I let him out sometimes" Shintarou chuckled seeing Saiga's reaction.
"Like hell I was excited, this is a serious situation here, geezer." Myoujou snapped back. "And besides, what was that about 'letting out'? am I some kind of dog, huh?
"Uh-huh.." Saiga murmured. He was wondering what was going on.
"Ahem-ahem. Sorry about that old man, but I had to make sure. There seems to be some weirdo that looks like you killing people around here, so I had to make sure."
Myoujou apologized. It wasn't his style to mess with people he had no business with, but this was a life-or-death situation so he had to call all the stops. "Honestly, it didn't seem that this was the work of multiple people, so I got suspicious of it..."
"But you wouldn't happen to have any clue about who's on a murder rampage around these parts, right?"
"...?" Saiga paused before sighing.
-sigh-
"No problem... And no, I don't have a sparkling clue about any of this— which is why am on the lookout now..." Saiga really didn't take much offense to it in the end, after all, he was used to people trying to kill him without a reason, so the fact that Myoujou bothered explaining was a plus in his book.
Though, after hearing what the boy had to say, Saiga himself was now left with even more questions.
"Wait. you said that it's not me." Saiga questioned. "Why exactly, though?"
"Well, because of this," Myoujou pulled out a few strands of blond hair from his pocket. Not to blame you or anything, but it really does 'look' like you to be fair…"
"But, you seem to already know about this, don't you? Well, it's to be expected after all." Myoujou nodded.
"Well, of course, he would. Seems impossible to live long around these crazy fellas without picking a few things up." Shintarou said.
"Wait, really? I see…" Myoujou murmured. "This guy is a Furinji, not a Kuremisago, so I guessed he might've moved here later on… Then again, I guess 'Nurture' can take over 'Nature' when you live among savages like those crazy mountain-forest people for that long…"
"Ahahaha… No, no, no, I just found out about this right now." Saiga sweatdropped. These two seemed to have quite a misunderstanding about the people that live within these mountains. And his deductive skills to boot! "But do you two mind telling me what you guys know?"
"Well, it's not like I know much, other than dead people and hair strands like yours..." Myoujou said. "Name's Myoujou. Myoujou Kurogami."
His caution, though hidden, was still present as he greeted Saiga. To Myoujou, Saiga felt quite 'upright' and 'earnest' for someone embroiled in a life-or-death plot that was currently underway, and the contrast to the cold-faced trash-talking Kuremisago threw him slightly off balance.
"Quite the firm hands you got there, Mister." Myoujou noted. He felt that he was gripping steel wrapped around flesh in place of a hand.
"Ah yes, once again; I'm Saiga Furinji, nice to meet you." Saiga responded as he shook Myoujou's hand.
'This kid... His hands are filled with quite the amount of calluses, aren't they? Looks like he has his own stories and journeys of his own...'
"Anyways..." Retelling the events that took place prior to meeting Saiga at this very ruined manor, Saiga was finally filled in on what Myoujou had known concerning this 'suspect' that was prowling about.
"So that's why you tried to fight me the moment you saw me…" Saiga sighed as he rubbed his creased eyebrows. "Well, with that being said, I'm glad we could sort this out quickly..."
"Though unfortunately, I would say that it was nice to meet you, but I'd prefer if we'd met under much more peaceful conditions."
"Really? Same here old man, but then I wouldn't be able to eat, you see? Since we gotta work to eat and stuff." Myoujou replied blankly.
'Old man? This kid…' Saiga started to rub his head with even more vigor. "Saiga. You can call me Saiga, Kurogami."
"Ok."
"..."
"You do know that I'm still in my twenties, you know? I'm far from being an old man." Saiga smiled.
"Yeah, I guessed so. That's why I called you an old man…" Myoujou replied.
"..."
Saiga shot Shintarou a questioning look
"Well, he always does that." Seeing the look on Saiga's face, Shintarou simply chuckled.
It was one of the few 'truths' of the world that Myoujou wholly believed in.
-Any person whose age was above eighteen was a certified 'Old Person'.
Because of this line of logic, he countlessly found himself being a natural enemy to certain members of a certain gender who cared about their age.
"Ahem. With all that being said." Saiga began. "I have a favor to ask of you two."
Shintarou raised an eyebrow in question as Myoujou looked on.
-'What could he possibly want?' They wondered.
This wasn't something he wanted to do, bringing people into this situation, but he had no other people left to depend on at this time.
-And as they say, 'Desperate times, call for desperate measures'.
"This isn't what I should be asking of you, but here I am doing so regardless. I require your strength. In a way, I would like to hire you two, I guess."
" —Mr. Shintarou for his proven strength befitting of his name and moniker, and his disciple Kurogami. I would like your assistance in getting to the bottom of this… Predicament." Saiga sighed as he bowed.
"Hmmn…" Myoujou hummed as he folded his arms in thought. He looked over at Shintarou who was scratching his five-o-clock shadow beard lazily, but he knew deep down that the giant of an old man was also thinking about this deal as well.
'This may or may not be good for us… Buuuuut, and when I say this I mean a very large but, if it goes wrong, which it totally will, is the money and payment that good that it would make dealing with these nutjob clansmen chasing us across the world in the future worth it?' Myoujou thought.
Seeing that it was happening on enemy turf, and the person he'd just fought had been living here for a while, Myoujou felt that he had gotten the general strength level of most people in the Kuremisago Mountains.
And he could tell, that if there were more folks like Saiga around, this job might not be as easy as he thought it might be.
'But then again, it would be A-OK if we just dipped and peace-d out like we planned when shit hits the fan… Which we did plan on doing…'
Myoujou knew very well, if they did stick around… Then, something bloody was about to transpire and they had front-row tickets to witness it.
"Well kid, whaddya think? It's not like we have to." Shintarou asked. He seemed to have already made up his mind but was wondering what his disciple thought of it anyway.
"Maybe this might end up a bust and we won't get any money out of this, or maybe we might win, and then have nothing but the hatred of an entire clan and a measly pay for all our troubles…" Myoujou furrowed his brows as he wracked his head. "According to the data, the side Saiga belongs to is against the Traditionalists, which are also the main branch… A-K-A… The main ones running things here…"
"But for all the trouble that this could end up being… pretty neat!" Myoujou broke into a small grin. "There's no better place for me to test what I've learned and get stronger while I do it than 'A-balls-to-the-walls' place like this, don't you think Shintarou?"
"Hah! Ya really think so kid? But you're right, the best place to sharpen your fangs is where other beasts with sharpened fangs live!" Shintarou laughed. "But be careful, you might lose your fangs and yer life if you mess around got it?"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it alright. It's one of the main things you tell me over and over again after all." Myoujou said. "Besides, I bet we can get some sweet compensation for this detour, huh, Old Man?"
"I'm not old, but yes, I can assure you that your efforts will be well paid for. I promise it on my name." Saiga said.
"Well, I don't really care for your name, just the payment." Shintarou yawned as Myoujou nodded. "But with that, I guess we're all set for a little detour of sorts, eh?"
"Then does that mean…?" Saiga asked, he didn't really understand the disciple and master duo speaking, but he sort of got the gist of what they were saying anyway.
"We're in Saiga-boyo, this little trip of yours is going to be a major shitstorm my disciple says, and when it comes to bad things happening, he's rarely ever been wrong, ya hear that?" Shintarou responded.
"Is that so?" Saiga smiled. It was nice to have some help that he could count on. Besides, even if he'd barely met these two for a long period of time, he felt that he could count on them since they didn't really have many motives other than money and looking for a fight. "I hear you clearly, and thank you."
"Where to then, Mr. Employer?" Shintarou asked.
"Kuremisago Clan Mountain Peak." Saiga spoke firmly. "It's where most of the elders stay, and if I'm correct, it must be where Senzui must be heading to."
"You, however, I knew you to check the places were my comrades are positioned, and if they're doing all right for now."
'Senzui.' Myoujou muttered internally. He had never met the guy, but he had a feeling based on how strong Saiga was that this guy was also strong, and he didn't like it one bit.
It wasn't just because his gut was telling him that, but because it meant that there was one more person who was potentially stronger than him.
And he didn't like the idea of there being multiple people at once who were way stronger than he was.
It was already bad enough for Myoujou that Saiga seemed just as confused as he was, knowing that the strong man had some secret teammate in the corner of the shadows, slinking and floating away like a ninja.
"Alrighty then, lead the way." Shintarou said as Myoujou nodded.
Myoujou knew something was about to happen on this trip, but if he could get stronger, he could think of the consequences at a later date when he was still alive and well. 'Just like in those Chinese novels… Surviving tribulations will bear fruit and help you in the future.
'But for now, I'll just keep on marching on… Just as I've always been.'
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12TH FIGHT: A Secret Storm Rages (2) END
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12th Chapter Out!
The Arc's Climax Is On It's Way...
As Always, Thanks For The Support~