「Since you’ve shown me that stance, is it alright for me to take it that you’re going to go all out?」

In response to Kuon, who asked that as if to make sure of it, I waved the tip of my sword.

It was a provocation of 『Come at me』.

「Fine by, meee~~!!」

Thereupon, Kuon expressed a fearless smile, changed his clenched fist into a knifehand, and ran towards me.

There was a *Dodododo* sound from him running on the wooden floor, and in the next instant, *Fu*, the footsteps vanished.

「!?」

It was an instantaneous reaction. Seeing a shadow appear in the corner of my field of vision, my body moved.

Lowering into a position that looked like I was squatting, Kuon’s kick passed over my head.

From my perspective, the kick that was sent out from the right was certainly Kuon’s.

The moment he knew that I avoided it, Kuon unleashed a thrust with his knifehand.

When I stepped back a little to dodge, he immediately closed the distance and stepped into my chest like boxing’s in-fighters would.

「You little.」

When I swung my spear to try and shake him off, he defended against it with one arm, and fired off another knifehand thrust.

When I greatly bent my upper body and dodged that with the so-called Matrix dodge, he kept his hand that was extended out from the thrust like that and swung it down.

With my upper body still bent, I took a large distance using Shukuchi (mine was just heavy work where I just kick the ground)[1] and dodged.

「Oh? ……I see.」

When I fixed my stance while I took my distance, my clothes seem to have been cut since the area of my clothes from my chest to my navel was torn.

It seems that I’ll get seriously injured if I take him lightly from thinking he is bare handed.

「Was that thing just now, a real Shukuchi?」

When I was preparing to pursue him, Kuon, still in the posture where he swung his knifehand down, looked at me and hardened.

「Eh? ……Well, yeah, it was.」

When I responded like that, Kuon bent forward and in the next instant,

*Giin!* (Clang!)

A shock ran through the sword I pushed out and the clashing sound of steel colliding with each other resounded.

「……Though it’s not something that you can learn just by watching someone, wha!」

A thrust fired with the speed of a Shukuchi. When I defended against Kuon put strength into his arm just like that as if he were pressing and cutting.

As I was locking sword to hand and pushing with a bare handed opponent, within that pitiful-looking situation, I cursed Jean.

（Jean, that bastard, he taught him the way to do Shukuchi, didn’t he!?）

Shukuchi was a technique that Sylvia reproduced to imitate my feat of strength by making use of Maryoku. Naturally, it was only something that the people within our group knew of.

And as for why Kuon was able to use this despite that, probably (though I’m mostly confident) Jean had taught it to him.

The reason why he had me participate in the Magic Clad Martial Arts Demonstration was probably to make me fight with this guy who was Jean’s student.

That’s roundabout, troublesome, and, most of all, I can’t stomach it.

How he didn’t teach it to an Onee-sama or a girl that was to my preference, but to a pretty boy!

「Guh!?」

Lightly brushing Kuon away with a tackle, I widened our distance.

When I did, maybe because he understood that he would be at a disadvantage if our distance widened, he tried to once again clad his feet in Maryoku but,

「I won’t let you!!」

Stepping in until it was he was in the spear’s range in one go, I held the spear in a reverse grip and fired a thrust with a speed that couldn’t be caught by the naked eye.

It was an attack not with the spearhead, but with the opposite butt end part. However, he just barely avoided it.

But even so, I didn’t mind.

I stepped in while swinging the sword in a horizontal slash at Kuon, who was trying to fix his broken stance, and then, gripping close to the spearhead, I fired a thrust.

Performing such simple actions as fast as I could, I unleashed the attacks with enough enthusiasm as I would when going “this is the end”.

Despite that,

「Hien ashi! (Swallow in flight leg)」[2]

jumping up with the spearhead as a foothold, the guy fired a kick that was aimed at my head!

「What an agile guy!」

He came doing stuff like an acrobat. Well, going by his physique, I didn’t think that he was a power fighter that did something like fighting head-on. After all, even though he’s a man, he has a slender body like that of a prince in a shoujo manga.

When I stepped in even more while taking the kick with my forehead, Kuon, while changing his stance in midair, fired off an axe kick.

「っ,!」

Slightly shifting my body to avoid that, I struck him down with the belly of the sword.

Kuon moaned from the pain, and made a loud sound as he fell down to the wooden floor. Moreover, when I prepared my spear to try and pursue, Kuon lowered his head and took the so-called dogeza posture.

「I give up!」

「Heh?」

I had thought that he was a battle maniac just like Agniera but, surprisingly, Kuon obediently admitted to his own defeat.

Since I had prepared myself to go through this right to the end, it was a bit anti-climactic.

However, maybe because he was plenty satisfied with our fight just now, there was no anger or chagrin within Kuon’s words of “I give up”. Rather, it sounded like he was delighted.

「Uhhm……Is something like this alright?」

「Yes!」

Vigorously raising his head, Kuon’s eyes were pointlessly sparkling.

I’m getting a bad feeling about this.

「Please……Please take me in as your disciple!!」

……I knew it. I knew it would be this kind of development. While looking down on Kuon who had once again lowered his raised head, I made a huge sigh.

09

Translator’s Notes:

[1] For those that forgot, Shukuchi is actually supposed to be done using magic.

[2] Original: 飛燕腳