Pushing my glasses my nose, I studied the new opponent cautiously. A little after evening, in the main building of my high school, a single beautiful teenage-looking girl stood, beckoning me forward seductively.
I was not moved at all.
"This is the first time I've been asked to dance. Unfortunately, you have the wrong stance."
The lady frowned, bewildered. "Why are you rhyming your words?"
"There is strength in words. They can be used as wards."
"…huh?" The girl shook her head. Unlike the ghosts, she wasn't dressed in a white gown. But she wasn't wearing our school uniform either, so she most likely wasn't a student here. She looked too young to be a teacher, and in any case, I didn't recall any teacher looking like her. Not that I recognized every teacher in my high school, but even so…
Instead, she was dressed in a short blouse with a bottom knot, revealing her smooth midriff. Her shapely legs were clad in jeans, the denim tightly hugging her thick thighs. Of course, I was only studying her legs because I was watching out for her kicks. No, I was telling the truth. It wasn't because I was a horny teenager…
Like I expected, the girl threw a kick that I dodged. She whirled around and followed up with a second roundhouse kick that I parried, but there was a surprising amount of strength in that slim, lithe body of hers. My feet skidded across the floor, and I grunted from the blow.
No time to recover, though. She was slashing with those sharp, deadly nails of hers. I warded them off with my peach wood sword, and sparks flew as arcane forces clashed. My knees buckled from the impact when she put all of her weight behind that blow.
Landing on the ground, she deftly converted her momentum into a kick. I brought my leg up to block the blow, but the power numbed my knee. Staggering, I managed to deflect another slash with the peach wood sword, desperately retreating.
This lady…she was strong! Just as skilled as my dad, if not more so!
No…my dad had better techniques and more experience. This girl simply had more strength and greater speed, perhaps because she wasn't human.
Kicking off the ground, she launched herself high up, spinning about before crashing down on my position, descending with a heel drop. I slid to the side to avoid her drop kick, which smashed a crater into the concrete floor, and retaliated with a strike from my peach wood sword.
The girl's eyes narrowed and she knocked the wooden blade aside with an elbow. Twisting her body flexibly, she lashed out with a sweeping kick that almost knocked my feet out from under me. Fortunately, I managed to jump above her leg and avoided getting tripped up.
Thrusting the peach wood sword at her head, I was impressed when she cocked her head to the side and dodged it. Somehow, the tip of the blade grazed her cheek, leaving a thin line of blood, but she merely shrugged it off, got under my guard and slammed a palm into my chest.
Or tried to.
Fortunately, I blocked her palm strike with my elbow, but even so, her attack jarred my arm and almost caused me to drop the peach wood sword. Gritting my teeth, I spun away, making use of her momentum to push me to safety, and attempted a counterattack. The lady dropped to a crouch before cartwheeling and kicking out. Her foot almost connected with my jaw, but I managed to throw my head back and clumsily stumbled out of the way in time.
"Do you know who she is?" I asked Shu Hong Qiu, who was wisely keeping her distance. She might be intelligent, the top math student in our year, as well as a highly competent member of the student council, but she didn't have martial arts training like I did. It was better for her to leave the fighting to me. Any attempt on her part to physically intervene would most probably result in her simply getting in my way. "I don't, but she seems pissed."
"I don't recognize her," Shu Hong Qiu admitted, shaking her head. She clenched her fists so tightly that the color had drained from her fingers. "Hang in there, Ming Cong. Reinforcements will be here soon."
"Hah!" The girl laughed as she kicked me. "I have more than enough time to kill the both of you before those servants of yours arrive!" She turned to leer at Shu Hong Qiu, somehow blocking the swing of my peach wood sword without having to look in my direction. The lady was clearly toying with me. "With you dead, I'll finally be able to fulfil my mission!"
"So you're the dude that Shu Bai Chun's rivals hired to haunt his granddaughter." I shook my head and sighed heavily, correcting my stance and readying for another onslaught. "Oh boy, but this is going to be quite the gigantic bother."
"Oh? You know about that?" The girl raised an eyebrow and smirked. "So you must be the guy Shu Bai Chun sent back to protect his granddaughter."
"What are you talking about?" Shu Hong Qiu blurted out. "What does my grandfather have to do with anything?"
"Oh, poor girl…you don't know anything, do you?" The lady burst out laughing. She ducked under my desperate swing and countered with a kick. I parried it, but was sent skidding a few paces back. Grimacing from the pain, I adopted a defensive stance, but my opponent was more interested in talking than fighting at the moment. She directed her gaze at Shu Hong Qiu, but I wasn't deceived by what appeared to be a distracted attitude. I could tell that there were no openings in her seemingly loose stance. "Your grandfather has to do with everything. How do you think your family's privately own corporation rose to such prestige and wealth?"
"What do you mean by that?" Shu Hong Qiu demanded.
"Are you really that naïve, or are you pretending not to know?" The lady giggled. "Your family's company was built upon the blood and sweat of others. The destruction of rival companies. The exploitation of workers. Did you think such riches could be accumulated without the sacrifice of others?"
"That's…"
"Of course your grandfather and the old fogeys who ran your company would earn grudges from other people. There are a lot of victims who pray for the demise of his family…even to the point where they would petition the dead. And of course, many of the victims have died, either from poverty or violence meted out by your grandfather and his contemporaries. They hold lingering grudges."
The lady tossed her head back, her hair falling over, and laughed.
"It's karma, I suppose. What goes around comes around."
Shu Hong Qiu cast a glance in my direction. Even without looking at her, I could tell what she was thinking. She was wondering what I had to do with all this…how I was related to her grandfather. However, now wasn't the time to be asking questions. Her gaze darted back to her smartphone. How many more minutes before reinforcements arrived?
Even if they came, what could they possibly do against this lady? She was clearly not human. Did they have some sort of countermeasure against her?
Speaking of which, if she wasn't human, what exactly was she?
"I don't suppose you're a vampire named Geraldine, are you?" I asked, keeping my distance warily. All I needed to do was buy time. I didn't need to defeat her. It was a valid strategy in high school tournaments. When pitted against a superior opponent in a martial arts match, for example, aim for a draw to minimize a chance of defeat.
A tie was better than a loss.
The lady stared at me incredulously. "A vampire? Geraldine? Where did you even get that from?"
"Katsurou Shimizu's Ghost Gunslinger. Truly an amazing read, I can attest."
The lady sighed loudly and rubbed at her cheek, looking irritated. "If you think you're anywhere near Kenichi's level, you might as well kill yourself now. Also, is Shu Hong Qiu supposed to be Yuriko? I'm afraid she's nothing like an exorcist."
"I'm just an ordinary high school girl!" Shu Hong Qiu protested hotly. "What kind of normal high school girl doubles as an exorcist in secret!?"
"I'm not sure you can call yourself ordinary, especially when your family's very wealthy."
"Who cares about that?!"
"Anyway, you can just call me Jiang Shi." The lady was massaging her forehead in exasperation. She glared at me, her eyes glowing red in the darkness. For an instance, I wondered if I could win by psychological warfare – by irritating her to the point where she would stop attacking, and stalling for more time. That hope was dashed immediately when she grinned wickedly. "I'll at least do you the favor of letting you know under whose hands you died."
Then she lunged at me, almost taking me by surprise. I warded off her first slash with the peach wood sword, the blade sliding against the nails with such friction that sparks scattered between us. While I stumbled from the blow, Jiang Shi followed up with a kick from below that broke through my guard. Despite throwing my head back, her foot still managed to graze my jaw. I felt my teeth crunch against each other, and blood trickled from my chin.
I desperately kicked, but she caught my foot with her knee before ramming her elbow down on my leg. Crying in pain, I fell, but I somehow lashed out with my peach wood sword. She caught it with her nails and shoved the blade aside before ramming her knee forward. Even though I instinctively twisted my face to the side, it sent my glasses flying to the side.
Half blinded, I reacted more on instinct than sight, ducking another slash and hearing the whistle as the nails sliced through the air than actually seeing the gleaming blur. Her next blow caught me by the temple, a knee that almost knocked me out cold. I staggered and twirled my peach wood sword about, but I could feel that I hit nothing. Instead, something struck my lungs and almost fractured my ribs.
"Gah!"
Doubling over, I sank to my knees. Horror filled me when I realized that I wouldn't be able to last more than a few seconds at this rate. She was overwhelming me completely…as I suspected, up until now, she was toying with me.
Even if the reinforcements had arrived in school, they still wouldn't make it. They would have to run up the stairs. By that time, Jiang Shi would have carved me up into dozens of pieces.
"I've to admit, I'm impressed. Out of all the high school students I've preyed upon, you've lasted the longest and given me the most trouble. I don't normally turn guys into ghouls, but I wonder just how strong you'll become if I convert you…"
"Like hell I'll let you." I gritted my teeth, tasting blood. Now that it had come down to this, then I would have to execute a move that resulted in mutual destruction. Spinning the peach wood sword about, I beckoned her over, even though I couldn't see her. All I could make out was a fuzzy outline.
That was sufficient.
"You won't realize what kind of fuse you blew."
"Hah! Pretending to be strong until the very end. I'll confess that I don't hate that."
Jiang Shi giggled before she charged. Even if I had my glasses on, I wouldn't have made out more than a blur. Dropping my guard, I did my best to evade her slash. Just as I expected, Jiang Shi anticipated that and switched to a kick that jarred my head, causing what seemed like a concussion. As I toppled over, I executed my move.
While Jiang Shi closed in for the kill, her nails stabbing toward my chest, I brought the peach wood sword up and pierced her. To my chagrin, I missed her vital points. instead, the blade punctured through her gut, spilling blood. Jiang Shi hissed, but it was obviously not a mortal wound.
"You bastard!" She snarled and seized my throat, her nails digging deeply into my flesh and drawing blood. "I'll kill you!"
I cursed inwardly, ruing my missed chance. If only I had struck true, then I would have ended the whole thing. Were my reflexes too slow? Was it luck? Or had I gotten complacent and my skills had dulled?
Dad was right. I should have continued to strive for improving, not remain contented.
As my consciousness faded and my supply of air was cut off, I heard a banging noise. A crowd of people were rushing in. Jiang Shi clicked her tongue and mercifully released me, bounding away as lights flashed across the corridor. Glowing paper talismans struck the space where she formerly occupied, but she was gone, leaving a trail of blood behind her.
If I hadn't injured her, perhaps she would be confident of taking on this many people. I wasn't sure. All I was aware of was Shu Hong Qiu and her staff rushing toward me while I gasped and heaved on the ground, on the verge of passing out.
"Ming Cong! Are you all right?"
"I'm sorry…this battle I've surely lost. I might have wounded her, but at what cost?"
Shu Hong Qiu stared at me, but she seemed relieved – at least, as far as I could tell with my deep myopia.
"If you're still coming up with these ridiculous rhymes, then you're definitely okay."
"Oh, I'll definitely live," I assured her. "I still have a lot to give."
Then I allowed the warm embrace of darkness to envelop my fading consciousness and blacked out completely.