Shall We Rest for a Moment
"If you knew who I was, you wouldn't be talking like that."
At my muttered words, the guy took a step back. A smirk crept across his face soon enough, and he opened his mouth again.
"Ah, I get it. So you're somebody with a reputation, huh? Too bad for you. I don't have the faintest clue who the hell you are."
He didn't know who I was. Was Ryuzaki's name not as widespread as I'd thought? Ah — in cases like this, I suppose you called it notoriety, not reputation.
"...Hey. Hold up. Lend me your ear."
The lackey beside him leaned in and whispered something against his ear. The longer the whispering went on, the harder the guy's face became.
"So that's why you've been acting so damn cocky. The heir to the South, huh. What rotten luck."
The lackey fidgeted, poking at the guy's arm.
"...Hey. What are we gonna do?"
"Shut the fuck up. I've got my pride on the line. Just stay quiet."
"..."
He bared his teeth at his own underling, then turned his gaze on me. More precisely, on the textbook in my hand.
"So the rumors about the South being in an uproar were true. The so-called heir, walking around with a study guide like some honor student. You feeling all right?"
"I have no desire to speak with you. Get lost."
"Ha... hey."
He clenched his jaw, eyes flashing wide.
"...I get what kind of bastard you are. But that mean I gotta bow my head and go 'yes, sir' on my way out? Give me a fucking break."
I'd taken him for a common alley thug. The fact that he was still talking like this even after learning who I was meant he had something to lean on.
"I just... huh? All I wanted was a little meeting as a fan, and now the South's big shot thinks he runs the place? Huh?"
"Who I am is irrelevant."
"..."
"Senpai doesn't want this."
"So you're not moving, is that it?"
"How many times do I have to say it before it sinks in?"
"..."
Strange. Given how he'd been acting up to now, he should have flown at me in a rage already.
The thought had barely formed when his eyes began sweeping the area in every direction, like a man searching for something. The moment I saw that, instinct told me exactly what he was doing.
He's looking for the security cameras.
A street thug, hunting for CCTV. And what would he do next?
"You'll regret this. Are you really going to do it?"
"..."
"If you walk away now, you'll spare yourself a trip to the hospital."
He held his silence, staring me down without end.
Ah. He was going to hit me.
A fight, huh.
Frankly, it wasn't a field I had any confidence in. In my entire life, I had barely ever laid a hand on anyone. Two against one — by every measure it was a dangerous situation, and yet, strangely, I didn't feel a shred of tension.
The instinct that had been with me ever since I possessed this body — Ryuzaki's instinct — was whispering in my ear. These guys? They were nothing.
"Senpai. Please step back for a moment."
The instant I said that to Lee Sae-ah, a fist came flying, just as I'd expected.
I didn't close my eyes. I watched his fist tear toward my face as clearly as if I were reading an exam question. And then—
Click.
The world froze solid.
The fist that had been closing the distance with such ferocity hung motionless in the air. The only thing still working was my mind. I had all the time in the world. I analyzed the situation the way I'd work through a problem, step by careful step.
He was throwing a punch. His right arm was naturally pitched forward, and that had thrown his entire center of gravity off-balance. So what was the perfect-score answer here?
Duck under the fist. Then kick his leg out from under him, hard.
Plan locked in, I released the ability.
The world lurched back into motion. The fist came screaming in — but the analysis was already finished. I dropped my upper body. The punch whistled over my head. Before I could even glance at his reaction, I drove my leg into his with everything I had.
A heavy crack. He let out a strangled grunt, lost his footing, and went sprawling. I was about to step on him and pin him down when the interruption came.
"You little shit — I've been holding back!"
An agitated voice tore in from the side. I snapped my head around to find the lackey charging straight at me.
Click.
The world froze over once more, cold and still. Turning my head had cost me time — his fist was already a breath away from my face. Dodging was impossible. Block, then?
No.
Ryuzaki's instinct was talking again. A hit like this, it said, I could just take. Take it, then pay it back twice over.
I thought it over for a moment. Not a perfect-score answer, but a reasonable one. I released the ability.
A dull thud. The lackey's fist slammed into my chest. A sharp, tingling pain bloomed with the sound, but I rode it out, clamped down on his forearm, and lifted. I hoisted him up slowly, like a crane. He dangled there no differently than a child picked up by an adult.
"Wh— whoa?!"
The panicked lackey flailed and hammered at me with his free arm, but it didn't hurt. He couldn't put any real force behind it.
"As I believe I already told you."
"S-spare me...!"
"Get lost while I'm still asking nicely."
I drove my elbow into the dangling thug's jaw. I wasn't worried about him. People don't die from just this much.
A single crack. His jaw twisted sideways. He staggered for a beat, then his eyes rolled back.
One shot. I'd knocked him out cold in a single blow. I'd been planning to hit him a few more times like that, too. Just how powerful was this body of Ryuzaki's? It was almost a shame I lacked the experience to handle it properly.
One down. That left the one with no manners.
I turned toward where he'd fallen — and my expression went rigid. The guy was staring at me, breathing hard, and in his hand was a knife. Not a toy. A real one.
For the first time, tension stirred in my chest.
"...Are you serious about that?"
"Shut up...! You fucking arrogant bastard!!!"
He had lost his reason completely. Persuasion was off the table. The only thing left to think about was how he would move.
He'd charge, wouldn't he?
"Die already!!!"
Correct.
Knife in hand, he came at me like an animal. The movement was far more savage than I'd anticipated, but I steadied my breathing. Dangerous as the moment was, this was exactly when I needed to keep a cool head. Focus on evasion first. Even Ryuzaki's body wouldn't survive a knife in the wrong place. Dying once was enough.
Click.
The ability bought me time. I read the line of his attack. A horizontal slash from the left.
His knife hissed past my stomach by a hair. Counter—
No. That was a trap. If I stepped in to strike back, his follow-up would already be coming for me.
I need to bait a big motion out of him. I had to fool him. Make him believe he held the advantage.
And to do that...
I chained the ability, slipping through his assault. Click — left. Click — right. Click — a diagonal cut. Click — again, and again, and again. A headache arrived at a level I could no longer ignore, but I forced myself to push through it.
I'm starting to read him.
The more I analyzed, the more the attacks that had looked like pure chaos began to reveal their pattern. It was the same as grabbing hold of a problem I didn't understand and wrestling with it until I finally conquered it. In the end, fighting wasn't all that different from studying.
Then something broad and cold pressed against my back. A wall.
His face, twisted this entire time, broke into a grotesque smile. He'd think I was cornered now.
"Drop dead!!!!"
He roared and brought the knife down from overhead — a clear, unmistakable stab. Not the slashes he'd been throwing this whole time, but one big, committed thrust.
Idiot.
He'd walked right into the trap. I almost smiled as I brought up the textbook I had been clutching this entire time.
A thick, layered crunch. Hundreds of pages of paper seized the blade. The knife failed to punch through the workbook; it buried itself deep between the cover and the paper. The friction that hundreds of sheets could generate was more than enough to catch a single knife-point. My calculations hadn't been wrong.
"What the— what is this...!"
He couldn't hide his panic, fumbling to wrench the knife free. But my knee was faster, driving hard into his stomach.
He folded, clutching his midsection. I swung the textbook into the side of his head — not hard enough to kill. Just hard enough to put him under.
A single heavy crack. He didn't even manage a scream. He crumpled to the ground in a heap, and I nudged him with the toe of my shoe. No reaction. Properly out cold.
"...Hah."
I let out a small breath, and a question surfaced with it. By now the lackey I'd dropped first should have had more than enough time to get back up. Why hadn't any backup come?
I turned toward where the lackey had fallen. The question answered itself immediately.
"I suggest you don't move."
Lee Sae-ah had the broom pressed down on the lackey's head, pinning him in place. Every time he thrashed, she kicked his arms and legs without the slightest mercy.
She'd been holding him down this whole time. Sharp. No question about it.
If she'd come over to help me, it would have been dangerous. She knew exactly what she needed to do.
I walked over to the lackey she had subdued, crouched down, and met his eyes.
"Eek...!"
"Don't ever show your face in front of senpai again. And don't do anything that would cause her trouble."
"..."
"You catch my drift, I assume? I won't say it twice."
"..."
"Answer me."
"Y-yes, sir!"
"If you understood, pick him up and get lost."
Lee Sae-ah carefully lifted the broom and her foot away. The lackey scrambled up like his life depended on it, hoisted his unconscious partner over his shoulder, and fled without so much as a backward glance.
"...I take it we don't need to report this?"
"It would only make things bigger than they need to be."
They had approached Lee Sae-ah first. They had thrown the first punch. There was a high chance it would be ruled self-defense. But going that route would make everything a hassle in all sorts of ways.
File a police report and I'd have to appear at the station. For someone who, on paper, was still the heir to the Ryuzaki-kai, that was as good as walking into a cell myself. To make matters worse, I was currently a runaway. Well — a semi-forced runaway, but still. If I ended up hearing something like call your parents...
What a nightmare.
I could already picture the grotesque scene of a yakuza boss showing up at a police station. Yeah. Better to just let this go.
"If they come back, tell me. I'll pay them a visit myself."
"...Why?"
Her voice trembled, just slightly.
"Pardon?"
"...There's no reason for you to go through all that trouble on my account."
I understood why she'd said it almost immediately. She was someone who had given up on leaning on other people a long time ago. Of course she'd be suspicious of a kindness that came with no obvious reason attached.
The truth was, I had plenty of reasons. I felt a kinship with her. She was someone who, like me, had given up on relying on others. Maybe that was why I had this strange certainty that she, at least, would never lie to me. Ah — the fact that I'd been Korean in my previous life played a part in that feeling too. But that was a kinship I felt entirely on my own. She wouldn't understand it.
"There are plenty of reasons."
"...What?"
"We're in the student council together, aren't we?"
"..."
"And if you weren't around, I'd have to handle all those documents myself. I'd rather not."
Lee Sae-ah stared at me with her lips slightly parted, saying nothing. Maybe she needed time to sort through her thoughts. I waited quietly.
Her mouth opened sooner than I expected. Just not in the direction I'd imagined.
"...Your arm. There's blood."
"What? Blood... ah."
I followed her gaze. Bright red was running down my forearm. A cut, then. I'd thought I'd dodged everything cleanly, but it seemed I'd been nicked after all. Superpower or not, with zero fighting experience I still couldn't handle Ryuzaki's body completely.
Looking back, there were a lot of things I could have done better. Maybe I ought to learn some martial arts later.
Now that I'd noticed the wound, a sharp, tingling pain set in. I didn't let it show on my face.
"I'm fine. A bandage will take care of this."
"..."
Lee Sae-ah looked at the cut for a moment, as if turning something over in her mind. Then, as though she had come to a decision, she closed her eyes.
Quietly, she took hold of my wrist.
"Senpai?"
"..."
She pulled me to my feet and began leading me somewhere. The destination was the small residence attached to the shrine.
In other words — her house.