Chapter 41: Everyone Go to Sleep...
This scene was a little strange.
A bunch of people were squatting or sitting, while two were essentially... fighting under everyone's watch.
Although calling it a fight isn't entirely accurate.
In reality, one side was aggressively attacking, while the other side dodged or neutralized every single strike.
"Hikigaya, take this Iron Fist of Love properly!" shouted Hiratsuka Shizuka in frustration after having failed to land a hit for a while.
She really missed the good old days—back when Hikigaya was still cute and obediently accepted her lessons full of "teacherly love."
Now he wasn't cute at all!
"Take your damn fist yourself! Do you even remember how many times you've punched me in the past?" Hikigaya dodged another strike and retorted.
His eyes, however, were focused sharply on Shizuka, watching her every move.
What made martial arts masters terrifying was their ability to improve with even the smallest opportunity, and to discern their opponent's techniques and patterns after just one fight.
Though Hikigaya wasn't a master, he was a god-slayer with cheat-like abilities—so he could do it too.
For a god-slayer with strong learning capabilities and sensitivity to magical energy flow, stealing an opponent's martial arts was absurdly easy.
After observing for a while, he realized that Hiratsuka Shizuka's martial art was indeed quite unique.
Though not elegant, it was extremely powerful.
Her style mainly used her right side for offense, while the left was for defense and movement. She adopted a side stance in combat. Her upper-body strikes usually aimed around the opponent's ears, while her lower-body attacks targeted the knees and lower abdomen. High kicks were rare, most staying below the knee. She also emphasized rounding the shoulders and tucking the head.
Her footwork was subtle and good at disturbing the opponent's sense of distance. Her palm strikes came in light, medium, and heavy variants. The light and medium palms resembled the light and heavy punches of Andy from The King of Fighters, quite textbook. The heavy palm was similar to the medium in form, but used foot-twisting and palm-rotating motions to amplify power. Fingers were kept close together but slightly bent, with an open palm center. When striking, the fingers naturally flared open, releasing physical and spiritual energy in an explosive burst. The force was shocking.
That explained how someone who looked so fragile like Hiratsuka could smack a little bear cub flying with a single palm.
But it wasn't without weaknesses. For example, long-distance movement was slow, and effective attacks could only be launched when within one punch and one palm's distance.
Clearly, this was a close-combat style, or rather, a grappling and short-range striking style. Technically, it emphasized restricting the opponent's movements. It didn't leave much external damage, but caused considerable internal trauma—similar to a concussive effect.
But by now, he had seen enough.
Then, under Hiratsuka Shizuka's astonished gaze, he slid sideways, twisted his body, and struck with his palm.
The move was identical. The force application was the same. The problem was—the god-slayer's magical power output was on a completely different level from even a martial arts master.
So when Hikigaya's palm swept past the side of Hiratsuka's face, a visible shockwave blasted out from his flared fingers, first blowing her long hair into the air, then carving a trench into the ground.
Hiratsuka Shizuka's eyes widened. She looked back at the trench, then back at Hikigaya's face, then back again...
After repeating this several times, she gritted her teeth and shouted angrily: "You bastard! You copied my Koppōjutsu, didn't you?!"
Oh, so it's called Koppōjutsu...
"Told you—you can't beat me." Hikigaya smiled cheekily as he withdrew his hand. Perhaps intentionally, he let his fingers brush her face.
The she-dinosaur immediately kneed toward his "little buddy" without hesitation.
What the hell! Are you even a woman!?
Shocked, Hikigaya quickly closed his legs, clamping her knee just in time—only to receive a punch to the stomach.
Shit, let my guard down. But then again...
Shizuka let out a pained "Ow!" as if on the verge of tears.
Does it hurt? It must hurt, huh? Your bro here has abs now, okay?
A god-slayer's bones were like alloy, and even bullets couldn't pierce his skin. You actually dared punch that kind of body—pain's the least you deserve!
Enjoying the murderous look in Hiratsuka's eyes, Hikigaya felt smug.
So satisfying. Sweet revenge.
Yeah, this definitely wasn't about personal grudges. Definitely.
It was merely a normal act of resistance against past tyranny.
"How long are you planning to keep clamping me?" Suddenly, Hiratsuka's angry voice snapped him back.
Looking down, he realized—he'd forgotten and was still clamping her leg.
What a fine leg. Even through pants, he could feel its fullness. If he didn't let go soon, his "buddy" was going to protest.
As he released her leg, he also slid back over ten meters.
He had no intention of testing whether the god-slayer body enhancements extended to his "little buddy."
Also, Hiratsuka actually tried to kick him again the moment she got free, okay!?
Her eyes were red now—she looked like an angry rabbit.
"Come here and let me kick you once, or we're not done!" The she-dinosaur growled, clenching her fist.
"If I trust you, I'm an idiot." Hikigaya snorted. "Besides, you can't beat me. Keep pushing me, and I'll marry you and abuse you every day without feeding you—believe it or not?"
"Um..." From the spectator section, Shirahama Kenichi timidly raised his hand. "Teacher-student relationships are against the rules..."
Two murderous glares instantly made him shrink back. Beside him, Furinji Miu patted him on the shoulder with a helpless smile, as if comforting him.
But he wasn't the only one...
"Lord Hachiman, I think this is a feasible option." Tirawit Kokin said seriously. "It's only natural for a strong man to have women around. And this woman does meet the criteria."
"Though I don't think it's necessary," Boris Ivanov nodded with a stern face, "my master said that aside from intense martial arts training, an ordinary person's life is a fun toy."
"Does Lord Hachiman like female martial artists? Then I'm totally in the running too!" Rachel Stanley had stars in her eyes. "Oh my, how embarrassing!"
"Yeah, women are great. Just men is really boring," said Raden Tidat Jihan, a genuine harem king, looking like he'd just realized something. "Compared to other methods, getting to know each other through martial arts is indeed faster."
The last big guy didn't say anything. Ever since Hikigaya had met him, he hadn't spoken a word. But seeing everyone staring at him—especially Rachel pushing him to "Say something, you dummy"—he finally looked resigned, raised a thumb toward Hikigaya, and gave a reluctant thumbs-up.
Everyone just go to sleep already!
Just as Hikigaya was about to shout that, Hiratsuka's stammering voice drifted to his ear.
"Hikigaya!" This woman actually blushed and called out excitedly, "I'm your teacher, okay?! Your teacher! Trying to woo me with martial arts—you're ten thousand years too early, brat!"
You go sleep too...
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