A Friendly Spar at the Police Headquarters
Hmm… That hellish weekend is already over. Just like I was thinking last time, maybe I should meet up with Officer Ilyna for a spar.
After a weekend full of twists and turns, it was a weekday morning. Seong-il arrived early at the first-floor office, ate a light breakfast, and waited for Charlotte while thinking.
“Good morning!!”
Not long after Seong-il had come downstairs, Charlotte descended into the office. Seeing her, he greeted her politely.
“Good morning! Great Detective!”
“Oh! Mr. Seong-il, you’re up early!!”
After speaking, she sipped the bread and soup Sia had prepared on her desk and answered him. Seong-il got straight to the point.
“Great Detective! Would it be all right if I stopped by the police headquarters today?”
“Hmm…? So suddenly?”
“Yes!! Last time Officer Ilyna requested a spar, so I thought I’d go apply for one today…”
“Oh…! That’s an excellent idea! It looks like a wonderful opportunity to show some patriotism! If both you and Officer Ilyna grow stronger, the country will prosper! And it’s good for our detective agency too!! How could I possibly refuse!! Go right ahead!!”
What the… what does me getting stronger have to do with patriotism?
Swallowing the question that had risen all the way to his throat, Seong-il awkwardly thanked Charlotte and headed for the police headquarters.
Oh… It’s quite impressive.
True to its status as one of Windom’s major institutions, the Windom Police Headquarters was large and beautifully decorated. Seong-il entered the building while marveling at its appearance, which resembled a small medieval castle.
“…Excuse me?”
Seong-il awkwardly approached what appeared to be the front desk and spoke to the female officer on duty.
“How may I help you?”
The cute-looking officer answered him kindly. Seong-il began explaining his identity and business.
“Ah! I’m Han Seong-il, the detective assistant working at the Moriarty Detective Agency. We were recently appointed as special advisors to the police headquarters…”
“Ah…! You mean the Great Detective’s agency?!”
“Y-yes…?”
“Ooh!! I’m a huge fan!!”
Fuck? Out of nowhere…?
Hiding his bewilderment, Seong-il began talking with her. The female officer’s face turned bright red as she grabbed him and chattered away. It took quite a while before he could finally escape her and bring up the main topic.
“So you have business with Officer Ilyna, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right…”
Thanks to her help, Seong-il finally managed to reach the department where Ilyna worked.
“Ah!!! Detective Assistant!”
“Oh!! Inspector Lestrade!”
However, Ilyna was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Inspector Lestrade suddenly popped out. Seong-il asked him,
“Did you have a good weekend?! Is Officer Ilyna at her desk right now?”
“Ah~ If you’re looking for Officer Ilyna, she should be in the sparring room! I’ll take you there!”
“Ooh…! Perfect, because I came specifically to spar with her!!”
“Hahaha! Excellent timing!”
Fuck… Maybe I shouldn’t have come to spar after all.
Grumbling inwardly, Seong-il followed Inspector Lestrade to the sparring room. Once there, he finally spotted the person he was looking for.
“Ah!! Detective Seong-il!!”
“Hello! Technically I’m the detective assistant…”
“It’s all the same!! Anyway!! Nice to see you!! What brings you here?”
Ilyna welcomed him warmly and asked about the purpose of his visit. Seong-il explained that he had come because of the sparring match they had discussed previously.
“Huuuuh?! You… you really came to spar with me?!”
At his words, her face turned as red as her crimson hair. Seong-il calmed her down and answered,
“D-don’t get too excited! I haven’t been able to find a suitable sparring partner at my level, so I’ve only been doing image training. My progress has been completely stalled. I’m the one who desperately needs your help, Officer…”
“Aha…!!”
Ilyna looked as delighted as a child. She quickly ran to a corner, brought something back, and handed it to him.
“This is…?”
“A training uniform!”
“Oh… We’re jumping straight into it, huh?”
Having grasped her intention, Seong-il followed Ilyna’s guidance into the changing room, put on the training uniform, headgear, and gloves, then returned to the sparring area.
“Whoa!!!”
At some point the dojo had filled with police officers.
Sh-shit, what the hell is this…?
Seong-il was flustered by the sudden situation. Inspector Lestrade, completely unaware of his discomfort, looked at the officers and shouted,
“Attention everyone!! This is the assistant to the Great Detective Charlotte, who recently subdued the Phantom Thief Luphtesia! The master of martial arts, Detective Assistant Han Seong-il, has come to the Windom Police Headquarters to teach us a thing or two!! Let’s give him a big round of applause!!”
Fuck? Since when am I a master of martial arts?! Inspector Lestrade, you son of a—!
Whether Seong-il was embarrassed or not didn’t matter. The officers roared with thunderous applause.
Clap clap clap!! Clap clap clap clap clap!!
Overwhelmed by their reaction, Seong-il walked toward the sparring area.
…I’m probably going to get my ass handed to me and humiliated.
“Please take care of me!!!”
“Yes… I’ll do my best…”
Ilyna bowed energetically toward him. Seong-il awkwardly bowed back, thinking,
Fuck… Since it’s come to this, I won’t hold back at all!
With that thought, he began gathering his internal energy from the very start. By the time he was ready, Inspector Lestrade had stepped between them and raised his hand.
“Biting, headbutting, and elbow strikes are forbidden! Everything else is allowed! I’ll count to five and then the match begins!!”
“5…. 4… 3… 2.. 1..! Sparring match, start!!”
The moment Lestrade finished speaking, Seong-il exploded the internal energy he had gathered and mercilessly unleashed the first form of the Mountain Shattering Divine Fist.
“Hiiik…?!”
Startled by the superhuman speed of his punch, Ilyna turned her head to dodge. But Seong-il casually twisted the trajectory of his fist to follow her movement and slammed it into her face.
“Kehek!!”
Ilyna had twisted her waist forty-five degrees in an attempt to evade. Yet despite her effort, the moment Seong-il’s fist connected with her face, she felt as if she had been struck by an iron club and was knocked out in a single blow.
Huh? Why is she so… weak?
As if cold water had been poured over Seong-il’s display of power, the entire hall fell silent in an instant. The officers stared at him in shock at his martial prowess before they began roaring.
“Uwaaaaaah!!!”
“He took down Ilyna in one hit?!”
“As expected!! Subduing Luphtesia wasn’t just empty talk!!”
Don’t you guys ever consider that you might just be really weak?
Seong-il looked at the officers with pity. But he soon changed his mind.
No. I really have become stronger thanks to my martial arts. This match with Ilyna simply made it obvious.
Seong-il realized that his earlier speculation about whether he had grown strong enough to hold his own in reality had been clearly proven. He unconsciously broke into a wide grin.
Fuck… At this rate, I should be able to handle someone like Young-tae. I need to return to reality soon.
“I… I lost…”
A woman’s voice reached the ears of the dazed Seong-il.
Oh crap!
Realizing he had failed to show consideration for the person he had defeated, Seong-il felt a pang of guilt. He quickly grabbed her hand, helped her up, and answered,
“Not at all! I just used one of my family’s secret techniques for a surprise attack, which is why you were subdued so easily, Officer Ilyna. If we had fought properly, you wouldn’t have gone down that quickly.”
“…!!”
Ilyna’s face filled with emotion at his considerate words. She asked him,
“Th-then…! C-could we have one more match?”
Huh…? That wasn’t part of the plan…
Seong-il fell into deep thought. Hmm… This time I’ll only use about one-star internal energy and see how it goes. It should still be manageable… and if necessary I can always raise it further.
Having decided, Seong-il nodded and answered her.
“All right! Let’s have a proper match this time. In that spirit…”
He paused mid-sentence and looked around. After scanning the room once, he shouted,
“The truth is!! The reason I defeated Officer Ilyna so quickly just now is because I used my family’s secret martial technique!!! That’s why I’d like to have a proper rematch with her. What do you all think!!”
At his macho declaration, the officers fell into a frenzy of excitement.
“One more!! One more!! One more!!”
Satisfied with their reaction, Seong-il turned to Officer Ilyna, extended his arm, curled his fingers, and beckoned.
“Let’s do it one more time.”
At his confident expression, Ilyna’s face stiffened slightly as she nodded. The two of them quickly assumed fighting stances and focused, waiting for Inspector Lestrade’s signal.
“Once again!!!!! I’ll count to five and the match will begin!!”
“5…. 4… 3… 2.. 1..! Sparring match, start!!”
This time, since he wasn’t using his internal energy to the maximum, Seong-il couldn’t swing his fists at the lightning speed he had displayed before. Thanks to the slower attack, Ilyna was able to use the same evasive posture as last time and barely managed to avoid it. She then sharply countered toward Seong-il’s face.
Bam!
Perhaps because he hadn’t raised his internal energy to the extreme, Seong-il took the counter directly to the face. Even so, her attack didn’t hurt very much.
Huh…? I can take this.
In a normal situation his nose would have been shattered. But with his body protected by internal energy, her punch caused him neither significant damage nor pain. Having gained confidence, Seong-il raised his internal energy to two stars and focused on dodging her attacks.
I can see it?
Ilyna’s punches looked like slow motion. Without even using the forms of the Mountain Shattering Divine Fist, Seong-il watched her fists openly with his eyes, tilting his head to dodge them.
“Whoaaaa!!!!”
To the officers who didn’t know the truth, it looked like a master of martial arts using extreme reflexes to perform sway-type evasion techniques. It created an enormous stir, and soon the officers began cheering wildly for him.
“Waaaaah!!! Han Seong-il!! Han Seong-il!!”
For nearly four to five minutes, Seong-il toyed with Ilyna, dodging her punches as if playing with her. Growing flustered and then feeling extreme humiliation, she suddenly changed her stance.
Huh…? What is this…?
She spread her legs shoulder-width apart, lowered both arms below her chest, and opened her palms. The moment Seong-il stood there blankly at the unfamiliar posture, she bent at the waist and charged at his midsection like lightning.
Oh shit!!
It was a ground tackle he had never experienced before. Unable to offer any resistance to Ilyna’s charge, Seong-il was knocked down pathetically onto the floor. Then came her joint lock.
Fuck!! This hurts like hell!!
The weight difference between the female Ilyna and the rather sturdy Seong-il was considerable. Under normal circumstances with similar techniques, Seong-il would have held an overwhelming advantage even in ground fighting. However, having never learned ground techniques except for striking, he couldn’t use any proper counter and began to be subdued in an instant.
At this rate I’ll lose…!
Seong-il felt a sudden, intense sense of crisis. He struggled desperately to break free of her joint lock, but it was already perfectly applied. There was no way to resist.
In that case…
Realizing he had no way to overcome her, Seong-il gritted his teeth. As a last resort, he began raising his internal energy, pushing the Heaven-Earth Yin-Yang Dual Cultivation Divine Technique to the extreme late stage of three stars—every bit of power he could currently wield.
Fuck, try blocking this.
Thinking that, he gathered energy into his suppressed right arm and let it run wild.
“!!!!!”
Ilyna, who had been smoothly pinning his arm, was shocked by the absurd power she suddenly felt and looked at his face. Ignoring her completely, Seong-il circulated explosive energy through his meridians and flipped her over with his arm!
“Ugyaaaaaah!!”
Letting out a beast-like male roar, Seong-il clenched his teeth and hurled Ilyna toward one of the walls.
“That’s impossible!!”
Ilyna couldn’t believe what was happening. Shocked by Seong-il’s monstrous movement, she began flying toward the wall where the officers were gathered.