“B-Because we’re not like that!” Aiko stammered in irritation.
“Really? I was hoping for some kind of passionate kiss exchange, or something.”
“Yeah, give her a big old smoochie-poo!” Mutsuko threw her arms around Aiko and pretended to kiss her.
“No one asked you, Sis!” Yuichi groaned.
The tension was rapidly slipping away.
“I don’t feel like dying today, and I won’t let you kill Noro or my sister. If you want me dead, you’ll have to work for it,” Yuichi said, turning back to Natsuki.
“Oh, what a manly thing to say,” she said pleasantly. “I do like that kind of thing... But goodbye.”
With that, Natsuki pulled the trigger.
✽✽✽✽✽
“Huh?!” Natsuki’s eyes opened wide. She fired two more shots in quick succession, but neither even left a scratch. Yuichi dodged them all with the slightest of movements.
“What’s going on?!” Natsuki asked, her dismay unguarded.
“I thought you you were going to use some kind of superpower, but you just shoot people, huh? That’s a relief.”
It wasn’t that she was missing on purpose. She had taken aim at his chest to ensure a direct hit. He was about ten meters away — more than close enough — and her bullet had gone exactly where she’d aimed it. Yuichi just wasn’t there.
“It’s not that surprising, is it? Bullets fly in a straight line from the barrel. They’re the easiest things in the world to read,” he said.
The moment she’d pulled the trigger, he’d stepped to the side, dodging the bullet. A simple enough thing to say, but nearly impossible for an ordinary person to do.
Natsuki stared blankly into space for a moment, then adjusted her aim.
Again and again she fired, pushing Yuichi towards a corner. She wanted to get him somewhere where he would have no room to dodge.
Soon, she had accomplished just that. She fired again.
But he didn’t fall.
Natsuki’s jaw fell in disbelief. It was inconceivable.
The bullet had been deflected.
Yuichi stood in front of her, holding his right arm perpendicular to the floor, along his median plane.
The sleeve of his blazer had ripped, revealing something black beneath. It was a weapon known as a tonfa. Yuichi had carried it in hidden in his blazer.
“Projectiles won’t work against Yu! He can even dodge a bowgun in his face!” Mutsuko exclaimed.
“Yeah, Sis... though I thought I was dead when you started using real arrowheads without telling me...”
“That’s a special baton known as a tonfa! It’s made of steel so it can deflect even 9 mm bullets!”
“Why did you even have that?” Aiko asked in exasperation.
Natsuki listened in stunned silence.
“I had one in my room!” she chirped. “Yu said he won’t carry blades, but it still works pretty well! And it’s cool!”
After running out of bullets, Natsuki reflexively exchanged cartridges to reload. But no matter how many times she fired, she couldn’t hit him.
“I bet I know what Yu is thinking... ‘Now, Takeuchi! Cast your gun aside and come at me!’”
“I am not thinking that!”
Natsuki tossed her gun aside. To the others, it probably looked like she had risen to the provocation.
“Huh?” Yuichi squeaked uncertainly. He probably hadn’t really expected her to really throw her gun away.
“I can’t believe it... I actually underestimated you...” Natsuki began to shift her stance forward. Surgical scalpels appeared in both of her hands.
“I’m going to dissect you,” she cried, “and decorate my room with your skin and guts!” And then, she charged straight for him.
✽✽✽✽✽
Natsuki crossed the space between them in an instant, bringing a scalpel up in a swing. Yuichi blocked with his tonfa, and she sprang back instantly. The tonfa split in two and hit the floor with a clatter.
Cutting through steel. Was it a special property of the weapon, or was Natsuki just that skilled? Either way, he knew that he couldn’t afford to take a direct hit. The slightest scratch might tear his arm off.
“There’re a lot of theories about possible victims of Jack the Ripper, but there are five we know of for certain. They were all prostitutes, but there were signs that even after the incidents started, they invited Jack into their rooms willingly, which has led to a theory that he was really a woman. And he used some kind of blade for the kill, which is why we call him ‘the ripper.’ Because of the surgical precision with which he removed their internal organs, they think he might have been a medical professional... So Takeuchi being a woman fighting with scalpels is kind of a cliché,” Mutsuko was explaining, barely even glancing at the fight between Yuichi and Natsuki.
“Mutsuko! This is no time for lectures! Sakaki’s gonna die! Shouldn’t you be helping him?” Aiko reproached her.
“Aw, Yu’ll be fine. Anyway, under the ‘woman’ theory, it’s weird to call the killer Jack, so they usually use Jill the Ripper or Jane the Ripper. Jack is a common name kind of like Taro in Japanese, see? And I guess Jane would be like Hanako, huh?”
“Excuse me! Is this really the time?” Yuichi screamed as he dodged scalpel slashes coming at him from all directions. Her apparent total lack of concern was really starting to get to him.
“Keep it up, Yu!” Mutsuko cheered.
“Sakaki!” Aiko screamed.
Mutsuko’s lackadaisical encouragement betrayed a total lack of tension on her part. He was grateful that Aiko, at least, was screaming her heart out.
“Oh, Noro, I keep telling you, don’t worry so much,” Mutsuko said calmly. “He’s using his furukami, it’s just at a very low level! Probably because of that friend Takeuchi mentioned. He doesn’t want to exhaust everything he’s got just on Takeuchi and end up immobilized!”
That’s true, but you don’t have to tell her that, you know... Yuichi grumbled to himself as he continued to dodge. It was really annoying to have someone see right through you.
“Oh, so you really are underestimating me...” Natsuki murmured icily. Her attacks picked up in speed.
Yuichi kept avoiding her blows. He knew he had to judge his counterattack carefully. If he got too careless, he could end up sliced. But even the dodging was starting to get dangerous...
Natsuki’s scalpels were already moving faster than his eyes could see. Her hands were moving in constantly-changing, disorienting patterns. He couldn’t keep dodging them forever.
He was moving at least halfway on instinct by now. If he kept this up, eventually, she would catch him.
He had no choice but to find a way to finish this now. He gathered up all of his focus, then thrust his arms out instinctively in the direction of the scalpels’ arc.
“Ah!” Natsuki’s eyes opened wide. Yuichi’s hands found purchase around her wrists.
The scalpels fell from her hands as he started to squeeze. He then tried to apply crushing force, but she wouldn’t bend. They were locked together in a stalemate.
“Wow, it’s impressive that she can hang in there against Yu’s grip strength! And he’s using a weak furukami, so his grip strength exceeds over 200 kg. She really must be a sort of yokai.”
Mutsuko’s leisurely commentary once again reached his ears. She must be completely unconcerned about him. He was glad to know she had faith in him and all, but a little pearl-clutching would still have been nice.
Natsuki’s murderous stare brought him back to reality. This was no time to be dividing his attention.
Natsuki’s hands were immobilized, but so were his. It was strength against strength. Neither one could use their hands, which meant that kicks were the only option. Even so, he could tell that Natsuki was on guard for any sign of sudden movement.
So he lashed out with a kick Natsuki couldn’t possibly anticipate.
It came from above, crashing down on Natsuki’s head.
✽✽✽✽✽
“Huh? What?” Aiko couldn’t believe what she’d just seen.
Yuichi had pitched forward, throwing his right leg up behind him. His toe had drawn an arc through the air, over his back, and crashed back down on top of Natsuki’s head.
She had never seen a person’s body move that way.
“Scorpion! A special number one finisher, making use of extreme flexibility to send a kick over your own back in a mimicry of a scorpion’s sting!” Mutsuko cried.
“...I don’t know why, but something about knowing Sakaki’s legs are that long kind of gets on my nerves...” Aiko murmured.
“No matter how incredible the move, she seemed to be able to tank it if she knew it was coming,” Mutsuko continued. “But it looks like she didn’t anticipate that one at all.”
Yuichi looked down at Natsuki, who had been forced down to her knees.
She raised her face, looking up at Yuichi with tears in her eyes.
“Huh?” he asked.
“That was just mean...” she moaned.
“Um, well, we could stop this right now if you’d just drop that weird plan of yours...” Yuichi was caught off-guard by Natsuki’s strange personality shift.
She began reaching a hand towards Yuichi, slowly and carefully. Taking it as a concession, he took her hand and helped her up.
“Yu, no!” Mutsuko shouted, leaping to her feet.
Just as she started to get to her feet, Natsuki suddenly tugged on Yuichi’s hand, throwing off his balance.
Then she lashed out with a merciless kick, which Yuichi was too off-guard to dodge.
It struck him directly in the crotch.
✽✽✽✽✽
Her hit having landed, Natsuki smiled in triumph.
As long as Yuichi was standing, he seemed capable of defending his median plane against any attack. The only way to get past his guard was to disrupt his balance.
Once she had done that, all that was left was to kick with all her might.
A man’s greatest weak point. Even the slightest touch would have an effect. It could rupture his balls. In the worst case scenario, the shock could be enough to kill him.
But her moment of victory was short-lived. Suddenly, the world went white around her.
An instant later, she processed the pain.
Once again, without knowing what hit her, she hit the ground, tumbled end over end, then slid into the pile of steel.
Blood leaked from her nostrils. She coughed up red.
The pile of steel began to sway. She tried to get away, but her legs wouldn’t move. She just barely covered her head in time.
Just one hit had done all this. It was like being struck in the face with a steel beam.
“That hurt!” Yuichi cried out, his tone more annoyed than anything. It was clear that the ball-shot hadn’t been as effective as she’d thought.
It made no sense. Yuichi Sakaki... he defied understanding.
Why could he dodge her bullets?
Why could he stop her slashes?
Why could he strike from a deadlocked position?
Why could he counter after a kick to the balls?
Her mind was a whirl of questions. But she silenced them all. It didn’t matter.
This was fun.
A feeling of joy welled up in her heart.
Yuichi was strong.
Oh, the ecstasy that killing him would bring her! It could satisfy her killing urge for years to come... Just the thought of it caused her to tremble.
Her lips began to curl upwards in a smile.
✽✽✽✽✽
“...Um... Sakaki got kicked, right? In his... um... you know...” Aiko stuttered, balking at actually saying the word. She knew that a man’s crotch was his most vulnerable point.
“Hey... Yu, you let your guard down! You’re lucky she went for the crotch-shot, but what if she’d used a scalpel instead?” Mutsuko seemed relieved, letting out a sigh as she sat back down on the steel.
“Why is that better?” Aiko asked.
“Because Yu can take it. He does kotsukake. It’s a technique where you use your abdominal muscles to draw the balls up into your body.”
“Um?” Aiko was dumbstruck as to how to respond. She didn’t know much about boys’ bodies. Maybe they could do that? Her health classes had never covered it, at least...
“There are ways of moving the body taught in old-style martial arts. You can change the position of your internal organs, or stop their functioning to channel that power elsewhere and stuff. Kotsukake is one simple form of that. Well, at the start, we just forced them in...”
“Huh? Forced them in...” Aiko turned bright red. She was imagining something entirely unseemly.
“Huh? Aw, c’mon. He didn’t have hair down there yet, so it doesn’t count!” Mutsuko waved her hands dismissively as she spoke.
Aiko found herself wondering, once hair grew down there, did it count?
“Hey! Stop talking about that! That was traumatic!” Yuichi shouted.
“Hey, Noro, in Japan we call them kintama, or ‘gold balls,’ but in America they call them ‘family jewels.’ Did you know that? I wonder if we had a similar inspiration. Anyway, I’m just glad that Yu’s good ol’ jewels are safe. He’ll be getting a lot of use out of them, I bet!”
“U-Use? Um...” Aiko turned even redder and looked away. She didn’t have to ask. She could easily imagine what Mutsuko meant by that.
✽✽✽✽✽
“Quit talking about that already!” Yuichi groaned, desperate for the conversation to end. His sister was talking to a female classmate about his balls. He wished he was dead.
But that couldn’t be what he focused on. The battle wasn’t over yet.
Yuichi looked at Natsuki.
She pushed her way out from under the pile of ‘ and staggered to her feet, snapped her broken nose back into place, and snorted out a fountain of stored-up blood.
“Ah, this is amazing. What’s going on, hmm? Are you really human, Sakaki?”
“Look... Can we just call this off already? I swear we won’t tell anyone about you, so please, stop all this nonsense.”
“How can you say that? I’m so excited right now... Can’t you tell?” Natsuki began to stagger towards Yuichi.
“No, I can’t.”
“Come on, let’s keep going. I want more. More!”
Natsuki rushed into melee range, lashing out for Yuichi with a stab from her right hand while her left hand struck at his side. Even without scalpels in them, her hands were quite powerful. But they didn’t make contact.
As she fell upon him, Yuichi dropped his hips and lashed out. His hands caught Natsuki right in her soft chest. It was a move where the heels of both hands struck the opponent simultaneously, similar to a strike known as the Double Crashing Palm.
Natsuki was thrown back a second time, and hit the floor immobile.
This time, it was over.
Yuichi fell to a knee in exhaustion, the aftereffect of the furukami. He’d been using it in small doses, but now he’d reached his limit.
“Yu, you pervert!” Mutsuko shouted.
“Huh?” The accusation left Yuichi open-mouthed in shock.
“Sakaki, you lech!” Aiko added, parroting Mutsuko.
“Huh?!”
It had been a spur-of-the-moment desperation move, but to Mutsuko and Aiko, maybe it looked like he’d copped a feel. Mutsuko had taught him this move as part of his so-called “kamehameha training,” though, so he couldn’t figure out why she was so mad at him.
He’d survived a match to the death only to be called a pervert by his sister and his classmate. Could there be a more pathetic fate?
“Hey... Why do you have to call me that?”
“Yu! I know you wanted to touch them because they’re bigger than Noro’s, but that’s no reason to cheat on her!”
“Um, could you not put it that way
? It really hurts...” Aiko mumbled.
“Whew... I think I won, but what do we do now?” Yuichi collapsed onto the floor. Even sitting up straight was beyond him. Two battles in two days was taking a toll.
“We just have to talk to her, right? The battle’s over, so she’s got to do what we say,” Aiko offered.
Yuichi agreed. If this wasn’t enough to stop her, he didn’t know what would.
“What the hell?” The sudden voice caused everyone to turn back.
A big man swollen with muscle had arrived at the edge of the arena.
The words “Serial Killer’s Lackey” hung over his head.
There was a katana in his hand. He sounded genuinely surprised to see how the battle had turned out.
“Damn! She threw off my pacing...” Yuichi swore. He had known she had an ally in the wings, but Natsuki had taken all his attention.
He tried to sit up, but he couldn’t muster any strength. He couldn’t even find it in him to stand.
“Sis!” Yuichi cried out, pleadingly.
“Yeah, yeah. I got it, I got it. Whenever you can’t deal with something, that’s when I step in.” As if reading Yuichi’s mind, Mutsuko began strolling up to the large man.
✽✽✽✽✽
“I guess it’s safe to assume you’re against us, huh?” Mutsuko said haughtily.
Aiko came along with Mutsuko, cowering behind her. “A-Are you sure about this?”
The man was so tall she had to crane her neck to look up at him. He’d be a tough opponent even for Yuichi. It was hard to believe Mutsuko stood a chance.
The man didn’t attack right away, perhaps still a bit off-guard about the situation. The thought that his boss might lose had probably never entered his mind.
“Don’t worry! No need to be scared just because he’s big! He might be stronger than me, but strength isn’t what matters when it comes to incapacitating someone,” Mutsuko said confidently.
As if coming to his senses, the big man broke out into a run, closing the distance between them quickly. Perhaps he thought she would be an easy mark, because he ignored the fallen Yuichi and went right after Mutsuko and Aiko.
Mutsuko took something out of her blazer pocket and gave it a light underhand toss.
It traced a neat arc directly for the charging man’s face. He tilted his neck to dodge it, but he was a bit too late. He hadn’t realized the slow-flying object’s real danger.
The World's Strongest Little Brother Page 14