Repayment
Frank seemed just as intent on fighting properly.
He lowered his upper body slightly to shrink the target of his vital points, clamped his elbows tight against his sides, and raised his clenched fists all the way to his chin.
Peek-a-boo style.
He had taken boxing's in-fighting stance.
He'd put his own spin on it, though — unlike the orthodox form, he kept both forearms spread apart, leaving his chest and stomach completely exposed.
At a glance it looked flashy and intimidating, but to Jun's eyes — eyes that knew just how solid and stable the real peek-a-boo was — it was nothing but a flimsy posture stuffed with empty bravado.
Still, it's annoying enough.
Even a stance like that was a hundred times better than none at all. Simply taking the posture made vital points easier to protect and helped keep some measure of balance. On top of that, the twins had assumed similar stances and stuck close to Frank's flanks. Whether they'd practiced coordinating for a moment like this or not, their formation looked fairly solid.
He wouldn't be able to put them down in a single breath the way he had those scattered thugs lying around the clearing.
Having made that call, Jun checked on Leon's situation.
Thud! Thud!
"Donald! Get out of the way!"
"Kh! Your opponent is me!"
Leon was locked in a fight with one of the beaters — the one who'd seemed more interested in him than in Jun. With no one else around them, the two of them had apparently been going at each other exclusively since the brawl began.
Guess I shouldn't count on any help.
The matchup was a bad one. Leon's opponent, Donald, was one of the few Ability holders in the church. His Ability was Physical Enhancement — Trait: Hardening, a simple but troublesome power that boosted the body's performance and durability. Leon was maintaining a consistent edge using Aura, one of his own Abilities, but it didn't look like the fight would end anytime soon.
Well then, I'll just have to work a little harder.
It was a bit of a hassle — not a situation he was going to lose. Jun casually rolled his arms in circles to loosen his shoulders, then settled into his stance: peek-a-boo style. Not a flashy, modified version like theirs, but one that hewed as close to orthodoxy as possible. Then, swaying his upper body left and right like a roly-poly toy, he advanced one step at a time, slowly pressing in on them.
"Kh! Damn it!"
Whatever had him so frustrated, Frank — who had been holding on to a measure of composure — spat a curse and charged at Jun.
As Jun searched for an opening in the man rushing toward him, he happened to meet Frank's eyes and thought: those eyes were looking at him, yet somehow seemed to be seeing someone else entirely. In this urgent situation, who was Frank projecting onto him?
Well, it's obvious even without looking.
It had to be Leonard — the original of this stance, the one who'd taught it to the church orphans.
"You go and modify it however you want, and then get jealous?"
Jun called out as he tilted his head slightly, narrowly slipping past Frank's left straight. At the same time he swung his fist along the optimal path and, in the blink of an eye, landed jabs on Frank's fully exposed chin and left chest.
Stagger—
Forced to expel the air from his lungs, Frank reflexively straightened his upper body to breathe, then lost his balance and reeled. The blow to the chin seemed to have gone soft in the knees. It was perfect timing for a finishing blow, but Jun pulled back without a second thought.
The twins' fists slammed into the spot where he'd just been standing.
Interrupted by the twins — yet thanks to them, a new opportunity presented itself. In the gap where Frank's vision was blocked by the twins, Jun used Blink to shift behind him. Frank's unprotected back came into view, as if begging to be hit.
Boom!
Jun spun halfway around and drove a rooted step into the ground. He slammed a fist loaded with rotational force and rebound power straight into Frank's side.
A body blow.
Frank's body folded into an L-shape.
"Gahhk!"
"Frank!"
"Rank!"
"A-Attack him already!"
At Frank's scolding the twins hurriedly tried to attack Jun, but he had already backstepped and put distance between them.
Frank on his knees on the ground, and the twins shielding him as if to protect him. All three had their eyes wide open, determined not to go down as absurdly as before, so Jun couldn't easily press the attack. So he dropped his stance and slowly circled around them — to provoke them while striking at any opening that appeared, no matter how small.
Jun's eyes gleamed a fierce blue.
Meeting those eyes, Frank and the twins trembled involuntarily. They all recalled the same memory — of being chased by a wolf they'd once happened to encounter. Their instincts screamed. Run. That thing is a predator, and you are nothing but prey.
"Don't mess with me. Don't you dare mess with me!"
"I didn't say anything, you bastard."
Jun rebuked Frank in a voice utterly free of tension. That only made Frank feel more wretched.
"You — you lot wouldn't understand. How I feel, how we feel, why we went crooked!"
"No, I do understand."
"...What? What would someone like you, who has an Ability, know about it?!"
Frank's face twisted severely. An indescribable rage filled both eyes. Even facing it directly, Jun spoke calmly.
"The craving and greed for Abilities. The envy and jealousy toward those who have them. How could I not know? I've been on the receiving end of it since the day I was born."
Most countries in Lumen were class societies, but with a sufficiently excellent Ability, class could be overturned at any time. In fact, it wasn't uncommon for a peasant who'd been farming one day to suddenly awaken an Ability and become a knight or a low-ranking noble. And the top-tier adventurers, all of them powerful Ability holders, were people even high-ranking nobles couldn't treat carelessly. Naturally, the common folk's craving and jealousy toward Abilities only grew.
"I understand. I do. Craving and envying what you don't have is an unavoidable part of human nature. But..."
Jun fixed Frank with a sharp glare. His eyes held a resolute firmness with not a shred of mercy.
"That's as far as it goes. Don't use that natural craving and jealousy as an excuse for going crooked."
Even Harry had shown a faint craving and jealousy whenever Jun used his powers. The other kids, the church nuns, the village adults — all the same. But none of them, like Frank, had wallowed in self-pity over their lot and vented that anger outward. Everyone lived content with their own lives.
"Frank, the reason you went crooked is just that you're a bastard. And the reason you're a bastard is that you were born that way."
Jun was of the view that human nature was fixed from birth, and that nature — save for a rare few — never changed no matter how much you tried to correct it. That was thanks to living with two beasts across twenty-seven years of his previous life and ten years of this one.
"Shut up! You got proof?!"
"I do. Peek-a-boo — why'd you modify it however you liked?"
"Th-that's..."
"Because keeping your forearms pressed together for long is hard, right? Because it doesn't look cool or threatening, right? Am I wrong?"
Frank hesitated for just a moment before shouting that he wasn't. That brief hesitation was answer enough.
"If you'd truly wanted an Ability — if you'd sincerely wanted to change your own situation — you shouldn't have done that. You know why the Father taught you this stance, don't you?"
When Leonard taught the church orphans this stance, he'd simply said he was teaching them so they "wouldn't go get beaten up somewhere." But any kid with even a little thought knew there was a deeper meaning hidden in those words.
"...The Labyrinth."
"That's right. Father never said it outright, but the 'somewhere' in 'don't go get beaten up somewhere' almost certainly means the Labyrinth. Otherwise he wouldn't train the kids every day and teach them Labyrinth knowledge."
The invasion routes of other worlds — the Labyrinths. They overflowed with all manner of extraordinary treasures and power, and among them were things that could awaken Abilities. That was why so many sought out the Labyrinths — and died meaninglessly. The stance Leonard taught was the bare minimum lifeline so they wouldn't become one of those people.
"Think you can survive?"
"What?"
"You've been picturing yourself living large on the power and money you got from the Labyrinth, haven't you? Am I wrong?"
Frank flinched as if struck by the truth. Jun looked him over from head to toe with indifference and said:
"Look at your belly. Puffed up fat on the booze and meat you stole by force."
"Look at your legs. Gone soft after taking just a few hits."
"Look at yourself. You, who never prepared for the future and only wallowed in self-pity and rage."
"You'll die. You'll die. Without ever accomplishing anything. Pathetically."
With that subject-less sentence, Jun quietly pointed at Frank. Frank knew full well what that gesture meant.
"Shut up!!!"
And so he raged — to refuse to acknowledge those words that felt like prophecy, to erase the faint conviction that had taken root in his chest.
"Don't want to admit it? Then come at me. Land one hit on me. Then I'll tell you I was wrong."
"Stop running your mouth like you're so great!"
"Frank!"
"Don't go!"
Shaking off the twins' attempts to stop him, Frank kicked off the ground and charged at Jun. Toward that guy, Jun...
Quickly drew a wooden staff from his subspace and leveled it.
"Blergh!"
Thud!
Frank, charging like an enraged bull, offered up his belly straight to Jun's wooden staff, made a bizarre sound, and toppled backward.
A subtle silence settled over the clearing.
"Fuck..."
"...bastard."
A moment later, the twins came to their senses and cursed Jun's cheapness on Frank's behalf. But far from being offended, Jun cheerfully swept his bangs back and declared with full confidence:
"Listen up, brats. Life is the real deal. The one who wins, even if it's dirty, is the one who counts."
"Mm-hmm! Our Juni is right!"
Portuna, who had flown over at some point, nodded vigorously in agreement with his words. That left the twins with nothing to say.
While everyone else was left dumbfounded, the adult wearing a child's mask and the angel wearing a fairy's mask joined hands atop the loser's body and performed a victory dance.
Watching from the heavens, God Bright clutched his head and let out a sigh — but the two of them had no way of knowing that.