Chapter 44: A Different Genre
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 44: A Different Genre
The moment their fists flew at each other's faces, an all-out brawl began.
When Yoo-Sung struck Ivan's jaw, Ivan retaliated by hitting his nose. When Yoo-Sung hit his shoulder, Ivan countered with a kick to the shin.
Despite fighting at point-blank range, neither man gave an inch. Their minds were focused solely on attacking, blocking, and striking each other's bodies.
If an ordinary person had taken even one of the dozens of blows they had already exchanged, they would have been rushed to the intensive care unit long ago.
But the two men, possessing ideal muscles that were both elastic and hard, along with an uncanny durability, acted as if they were unfazed even after taking a barrage of such attacks.
"Khahahaha! You're holding up well, boy! Then try taking this!"
In an instant, the aura around Ivan, who was facing Kim Yoo-Sung, shifted.
'Медведь императора'
The Emperor's Bear.
Struck by the fist he swung, Kim Yoo-Sung's eyes widened in shock.
But Ivan paid him no mind and unleashed a flurry of blows.
The instantaneous punching power of a brown bear reaches about one ton.
While the human body's structure prevents it from generating the exact same force, it was possible to replicate a similar level of power depending on muscle mass and body weight.
Yoo-Sung, who had been planning to fight while taking hits, seemed to have a change of heart after being struck once. He opted to evade rather than block.
As a result, the dynamic of the fight naturally shifted.
It became a battle between one who sought to land a blow and one who sought to avoid it.
But no one can dodge every attack forever, and Yoo-Sung was no exception.
"Kahak!"
A fist he failed to dodge due to a sudden feint slammed into his solar plexus, sending a jolt of pain so intense he couldn't breathe.
He gritted his teeth and tried to push Ivan away, but the man stood his ground, silent and solid as a rock.
Ivan was on a fundamentally different level from the man named Boris he had fought during the day.
He was, in a word, the strongest.
But Yoo-Sung didn't despair. Just as he was about to slam his fist into Ivan's face once more...
"Stop! Please, stop!"
Sasha, who had only been watching the fight until now, suddenly jumped between them.
*
'How did it come to this?'
Sasha wondered, looking up at the blue-haired man standing before her.
Ivan Vladimirovich Romanov.
One of the fighters known as the world's strongest, and also her biological father.
At first, it was just a simple case of running away from home.
Then, she had coincidentally run into Kim Yoo-Sung.
Thanks to hiring him as a one-day escort, she had been able to finish her tour of Akihabara safely without being dragged away by the head of her security, Captain Boris.
She had enjoyed herself, and she was grateful for how considerate he had been. She had planned to apologize for her lies and end their one-day relationship.
But the situation changed drastically with the sudden intervention of her father, who arrived by helicopter.
Yoo-Sung had only gotten involved because of her lies.
But her father had suddenly started testing Kim Yoo-Sung, and for some reason, he had taken such a liking to him that he tried to scout him as a scholarship student for the EE Foundation.
The incident had already snowballed out of her control, and before she knew it, the two men had started fighting.
That's why she had jumped in between them now, before it was too late.
"Papa, please stop. You've fought enough."
As Sasha spoke, looking up at him, Ivan, still high on the thrill of battle, commanded her with cold eyes.
"Move, Sasha. My conversation with that boy is not over."
"If you don't back down, Papa, then I won't move either."
At that, Ivan's eyebrows twitched in clear annoyance.
"...This one and that one, why can't any of you just quietly say 'yes' to what an adult says..."
And then, he finally laid a hand on his own daughter.
"Kyaaah!"
Grabbed by the scruff of her neck, Sasha was thrown like a piece of luggage.
Fortunately, he had tossed her toward a patch of bushes in the park, so she wasn't seriously injured. But because of it, Kim Yoo-Sung and Ivan were once again facing each other one-on-one.
Kim Yoo-Sung, who had already reached his physical limit from the long fight, asked in a strained voice.
"...So you'll show no mercy even to your own daughter if she interrupts your fight?"
Ivan chuckled and replied, "Hmph."
"They say a lion pushes its cub off a steep cliff to raise it stronger. She may look delicate, but that girl Sasha carries my blood. A fall like that won't even leave a scratch on her."
Looking down at Kim Yoo-Sung, Ivan spoke.
"I will ask you one last time. Come and work under me, boy. In return, I will give you the power to rule the world."
Kim Yoo-Sung looked up at Ivan, his eyes blazing as he answered.
"I refuse."
"A pity."
The moment Ivan said that and raised his right fist...
Swish-swish-swish!
A massive shuriken suddenly flew in from somewhere and embedded itself at his feet.
"Hm?"
Ivan recognized the shape of that shuriken.
No, it was impossible to forget.
After all, this shuriken was one of the favorite weapons used by the man Ivan had been searching for so desperately.
To dare use this in front of him was nothing short of a blatant provocation.
"Who's there?! Show yourself!"
Ivan, who had been about to finish off Kim Yoo-Sung, shouted as he scanned his surroundings. With a brilliant flash of light, a ninja in black clothes rushed forward and swung a ninjato at him.
"Kuh!"
Fresh blood scattered in the air.
As Ivan, wounded for the first time since arriving, staggered back, a kunoichi with purplish-black hair and her face covered by a black mask stood in front of the near-unconscious Kim Yoo-Sung, as if to protect him.
"Fuma Yukika, acting head of the Fuma ninja clan's 17th generation. Appearing now."
At the sudden intrusion of a NINJA, Sasha, who had just managed to pull herself together in the soft bushes that had cushioned her fall, couldn't help but let her eyes sparkle in admiration.
The ninjas from Japanese animation were real!
*
I could only stare, dumbfounded, at the person who had suddenly appeared before me.
It was because someone I had never expected had come to save me.
Our first meeting was a chance encounter during a dojo-crushing spree. After that, she started blatantly tailing me, eventually going so far as to start showing up at the gym I went to. My stalker senpai.
Fuma Yukika was standing before me, dressed in a black ninja uniform.
Wary of Sasha's father, she held her sword out and glanced back at me to ask.
"Are you okay, Kim Yoo-Sung?"
"Senpai, how are you here...?"
"The man that guy is looking for, Fuma Kotaro, is my father. He left the village ten years ago and we lost contact."
Fuma-senpai explained simply, then added that it wasn't what was important right now.
"I was going to stay out of it if I could, but that man was really trying to kill you. I couldn't just stand by and watch, so I intervened."
As she spoke, Fuma-senpai held something out to me from behind her back.
They were two pills, one black and one red.
"One is a Fuma Style special provision pill. If you eat it, your body's natural healing ability will increase, allowing you to move unless the injury is fatal. The other is a Ghost Pill. Eating it will artificially cause the Ki in your body to go berserk, allowing you to temporarily use power you couldn't before. Of course, there are some side effects, but for you, they won't be anything to worry about."
Hearing her words, I swallowed the black pill first. Fuma-senpai let out a small, relieved laugh and aimed her ninjato at the overwhelmingly powerful man, Sasha's father.
"While he recovers his strength, I will be your opponent, Ivan Romanov."
At that, the man called Ivan burst out laughing. "Khahahahahahat!" he roared, speaking with delight.
"I've heard of you! That the Black Yaksha had a daughter of marriageable age! So that was you!"
He then spread his arms wide and shouted.
"Excellent! I don't know what you're plotting, but come at me! It's been a while since I've felt the power of the Fuma Style Assassination Sword!"
The moment his words ended, Fuma-senpai shot forward at a speed invisible to the eye.
'She's fast!'
It was an unbelievable speed.
She charged forward as if her body itself had become a bolt of lightning.
Fuma-senpai darted around Ivan at a speed that left afterimages, disorienting him.
It was as if she were using the art of cloning.
Slice!
The silent assassination sword, cutting its target before they even realized they'd been cut.
Gashes opened up here and there on Ivan's steel-hard skin, and blood began to trickle down his body.
But Ivan, who had only been laughing joyfully, suddenly shot out his right arm and grabbed something.
"Kuh!"
It was Fuma-senpai.
"Your footwork is quite fast, but not as good as your father's!"
Ivan ruthlessly slammed Fuma-senpai, who was struggling in his massive, bear-like grip, into the ground.
KRA-KOOOOM!!
A huge cloud of dust erupted, and the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.
"Hm?"
But when the dust settled, what remained was not Fuma-senpai, but a ninja-shaped doll.
"Ninjutsu, the Art of Shedding."
Fuma-senpai, who had suddenly reappeared next to me, kindly explained the technique before glancing at me.
"Looks like your wounds have healed to some extent. Now, swallow the Ghost Pill."
"You said earlier that this has side effects. What are they?"
"It wrings out every last drop of Ki in your body, so at worst, you'll just feel sluggish for a few days. Even that will return to normal once your Ki recovers."
"If that's all..."
As long as the side effects weren't something serious like hair loss or erectile dysfunction, I was more than willing to take it.
Gulp.
The moment the red pill passed down my throat, I realized something was wrong.
'It's hot!'
It was literally like swallowing fire. The moment I took the pill, my body became insanely hot.
At the same time, my heart began to pound like crazy, as if it were broken.
I frantically asked Fuma-senpai if something was wrong, but she just said it was normal and told me to bear with it for a little longer.
And then—
"Hraaaaaaah!"
Unable to bear the heat any longer, I let out a roar and tore the black short-sleeved shirt I was wearing off with my bare hands.