‘Takuto Style Form of the Earth, Second Stance! Rising Boulders!’ Yuuji shouts.

As he yells out the technique that he’s using, he slams the pommel of his katana on the ground. Some huge rocks appear from there at once. I dodge them all effortlessly by jumping backwards.

All of a sudden, Yuuji’s in mid-air.

‘Takuto Style Form of the Air, First Stance! Whirlwind Slash!’

He slashes his katana at thin air five times. Five thin blades made of air come flying at me. I summon five skeleton fishes with my ring to intercept them.

‘Take this!’

As gravity is pulling him down to the ground, he uses the momentum to swing his katana downward. I block his attack by raising my spear diagonally. I immediately roll sideways so that his weight doesn’t crush me. Before I manage to get up, Yuuji charges forward and swings his katana downward one more. Once again I block the attack by holding my spear diagonally. I push my body forward so that my spear can push Yuuji away. While he’s staggering backwards, I use the chance to get up.

‘Hey hey, is that all you can do? You aren’t as tough as I heard you were~.’ Yuuji taunts me with a mocking expression.

I didn’t bother answering him. No point falling for his cheap taunt and wasting my breath. While we’re dueling, the girls are watching us closely. Some of them are saying something to each other. I guess if this part is shown in a real anime, it’s the part where the audience can listen to their analysis of the fight. Unfortunately, I’m not part of the audience this time. I’m one of the participants. As such, I try to ignore their words so that I don’t lose my concentration.

‘If you’re not attacking, then I will! Takuto Style Form of the Water, Sixth Stance! Dance of the Water Dragons!’

Twelve serpent dragons appear and try to bite my head off. I counter by summoning skeleton fishes of the same number. My fishes are proved to be stronger when they clashed and only his dragons disappear. My fishes push forward and attack Yuuji. He dodges around while cutting them down one by one in a skillful manner that I grudgingly acknowledge as good.

He clicks his tongue in annoyance when he’s done. ‘I knew fighting you with the Form of the Water is a bad move. Oh well. Onwards!’

He inhales deeply and grips his katana with both his hands.

‘Takuto Style Form of the Earth, Fifth Form! Immovable Mountain! Form of the Wind, Third Stance! Hawk Dive! Form of the Earth, Sixth Form! Onslaught of the Behemoth! Form of the Wind, Fifth Form! Weasel’s Requiem!’

He uses techniques after techniques effortlessly. I manage to block, parry or dodge the all easily due to his pointless habit of yelling out the name of his techniques before he unleashes them. It might have overwhelmed someone who has never fought against a successor of the Takuto Style. Unfortunately for him, I’ve seen those techniques over and over again when I was watching the original anime. Hence, I knew how to counter each and every one of those techniques that he’s proud of.

After crossing weapons for a while, I’m sure of one thing. Yuuji isn’t as strong as he was in the original anime, even though he’s supposed to at this stage of development in this world. The fact that he isn’t using Dojigiri is already a dead giveaway, but I needed to be sure before I go all out on him. Allow me to explain.

Some of you might have already realized that the techniques of the Takuto Style are based on the four elements: Earth, Wind, Water and Fire. In the original anime, Yuuji has only mastered the techniques from the first three forms when he left his grandfather’s place. It’s only during the beginning of Season 3 that he reluctantly crawled back to his grandfather so that he could learn the techniques of the Fire Form right before the joint training between the Tokyo Branch and the Osaka Branch began.

Ever since Yuuji mastered the Form of the Fire, he barely used other Forms since the Form of the Fire is the strongest out of the four Forms. Furthermore, he didn’t use a single technique from the Form of the Fire on me even though there were a few perfect chances of using it just now. That just sealed the deal that he didn’t know the techniques.

That said, it doesn’t make Yuuji any less easier to defeat. Another thing about the Takuto Style is that instead of using mana like magic or spiritual power when using onmyoji techniques, they use chi, which is something akin to life energy but different from the first two power sources. At least, the Chinese said so. Yuuji is coincidentally born with a huge amount of chi inside his body, which is why he could go wild for a long period of time without tiring himself out. Way to give the main character an almost invincible plot armor, screenwriters.

However, it still remains true that I had been disrupting his growth ever since I arrived at this world and refused to be a mob. I’ve not only took away his love interests and fame, but I also took away something extremely valuable for a warrior. His battle experience. By denying his fights against strong enemies, the Yuuji standing before me is just a frog under the well who thinks that he’s invincible just because he had been training under his strict grandfather for a long time. Since that’s the case, it would be easier for me to break his confidence.

I bide my time and only counter his techniques without striking back. As more and more times go by, he’s getting more and more irritated and infuriated.

‘Why aren’t you attacking?’ he asks me. ‘You’re not taking this fight seriously!’

I shrug. ‘If you want me to, try driving me to a corner. Maybe then, I’ll be more serious.’

‘Are you saying that I’m so weak you’re not even bothered to use your full strength?’

‘Your words, not mine.’

He grits his teeth in frustration and brings out his techniques and attacks more ferociously. That’s it. Be more impatient. Be more irritated. Waste more and more of your stamina with attacks that your opponent has already seen through.

Around ten minutes later, his breath is getting heavier, and he’s panting quite loudly due to lack of stamina. In addition, he’s sweating a lot. No matter how many chi he has inside his body, it still wouldn’t matter if he has to spent an enormous amount of stamina to swing his katana in order to use the techniques. Speaking of which, the strength of his techniques are getting weaker too.

‘Damn it, fight back like a man!’ Yuuji shouts at me. ‘Are you just going to defend yourself and do nothing?’

Since he still has the luxury of raising his voice, I’m guessing that his stamina is not completely gone.

‘Didn’t I tell you just now? If you want me to be serious about this, you yourself should use your full strength and corner me.’ I tell him calmly.

He grits his teeth and growls frustratingly. ‘Man, I’ll enjoy beating you up and see you crying on the floor when I’m done with you! Takuto Style Form of the Wind, Sixth Stance! Wrath of the Wind God!’

A huge transparent oni appear behind Yuuji. The oni was about to open up the sack he was carrying behind his shoulder. Before he could do that, I raise up my right hand with my ring on it and summon my skeleton whale shark. It opens up its huge maw to spit out a jet of murky water towards the oni. The water pierces the oni’s chest and vaporizes him. The oni disappears in a loud bellow of pain.

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Yuuji turns around in shock. When he turns his neck to face me once more, he actually looks scared. I supposed I can’t criticize him for it. After all, this Stance is his strongest technique right before he learned Form of the Fire. Perhaps out of sheer desperation, he even used techniques from Form of the Water even though deep down he might have realized that those techniques have a much lower chance of dealing damage than his other forms since they have bad compatibility with me. Whatever he was thinking, I manage to counter them just like I countered his Dance of the Water Dragons.

And that’s it. I’ve countered all the techniques he knows of. He has gone completely pale. His entire body is shaking from being cornered. Most importantly, his signature cockiness that I had witnessed way too many times for my liking when I was watching the original anime is completely gone.

‘Why? Why are you so much stronger than me?’ he asks me in a soft voice. ‘I’m the successor of the Takuto Style. I’m supposed to be invincible…’

There’s no way I’m telling him. I’m not as stupid as some people in other animes or series who would tell their opponents the mistakes they made during or after the fight they had. I’m not going to give him a single chance of turning this around. I’ll pummel him without him learning his mistake so that he won’t think of challenging me ever again.

I take a thrusting stance with my spear. Yuuji sees me getting ready for my attack and responds by taking up a stance as well. I crouch slightly and charge. Having taken considerable psychological damage and mostly out of breath, he’s barely able to parry my thrust. I don’t stop there. Right after he’s done parrying my spear away, I notice that he’s full of opening, so I use this chance to kick his stomach.

My kick wasn’t that strong, but it still managed to send him rolling a feet or two backwards. And it was strong enough to make him gasp for air, his katana dropped to one side. I as about to finish him off when he rolled towards his katana and grabbed it in one fluid motion.

‘Bring it.’ he says to me while still gasping for air.

I shrug and continue with my merciless attack. He struggles on with partly blocking and partly futile attempts to hit me with his techniques. After countering a few techniques, I realized that rather than wanting the attacks to hit me, Yuuji just wanted to use the chance just so he could catch his breath, even means he could only rest for a single second.

The fight keeps dragging on, and dusk almost approaches. Yuuji’s getting more and more weaker, while I can do this for a few more hours. I think the only reason he hasn’t give up yet is he has the pride as a warrior from the Takuto family that he would bring out every time he’s about to lose in the original anime. I’m actually kind of surprised that he didn’t spout it out to me. I also think that he’s still being protected by some plot armor since any other opponent would have lost due to lack of stamina. I know my theory is correct as his strikes are getting stronger bit by bit the more he rests up. That’s it. I’m finishing this.

I thrust my spear forward for a few times. Yuuji still have trouble in catching his breath, so he kind of panicked when I become more aggressive than before. He moves his katana all over the place so that he could block my thrusts. I watch his movement closely and manage to graze the back of his right hand with the tip of my spear. That makes him drops his katana in pain.

I use the momentary distraction to stab my spear on the ground and proceeds to one-two his jaws. That surprises him even more as he’s trying frantically to block my blows.

I made sure to make my first eight attacks hurt extra more as I was thinking about those times he made the eight heroines cry. The one who made them broke their heart wasn’t this Yuuji, but I don’t care. A right punch to his left jaws for Mashiro. A left punch to the stomach for Sakuya. A knee kick to his stomach for Ichika. An uppercut to his chin for Madoka. An elbow to his nose for Yui. A turning kick to his right ribs for Natsuho. A strong slap to his face for Miyako-san. And finally a punch straight to his solar plexus for the heroine who has yet to make an appearance. I didn’t hit his groin. I’m not that merciless.

‘No fair, this is supposed to be a fight between weapon users.’ he complains after getting hit by all those attacks.

I shrug since I couldn’t care less. ‘You should have established the rules before we began, then.’

See, this is why I bothered to learn Jiu-jitsu. Some people got so accustomed to fighting with their weapon they’ll be overwhelmed the moment their lost it. At least learning hand-to-hand combat will give me more options just in case I find myself to be in a situation where I can’t use my weapons.

I manage to land another hit on his right jaw with my left punch, making him collapse on the floor. While he’s groaning on the cold hard ground, I calmly pull out my spear right where I left it and walk towards him. I then point the tip at his throat.

‘Do you surrender?’ I ask him. ‘And think carefully before you answer. Very carefully.’

I added the last bit since I know him to be a stubborn and prideful idiot who literally rather dies than surrendering. There was an occasion where he was so reckless with his life he got slapped hard by Sakuya for disregarding his own safety over some petty pride.

As I expected, Yuuji doesn’t answer for quite a while. I could tell that he’s trying his hardest to think of a way to turn this situation around from the way his eyes are darting all over the place to look for things to use against me. I make sure to be on guard just in case he still plans to pull something. At long last, he hangs his head in defeat.

‘I surrender.’ he whispers.

He was being so soft I could barely hear him, but hear him I did. I nod in satisfaction and pull back my spear so that he could get up. I’m not going to put it away until he leaves, just in case he resorts to some petty payback attacks. The girls who were witnessing the fight walk towards us when they saw that it’s finally over.

‘You are going to uphold your part of the promise, right?’ I ask him.

I know I’m basically spreading salt on his wounds, but a deal is a deal. I’m not going to overlook it even though his eyes are basically dead.

He nods slowly.

‘Of course. I have that much pride, at least.’ he tells me in a soft voice.

He then slowly looks at Sakuya. ‘Can I count on you to handle to paperwork, prez?’

Sakuya nods. ‘Of course. It’s part of my job, after all.’

‘Thanks, prez. While you’re doing that, I’ll just pack my stuff at the dorm and leave.’

He picks up Takamaru and its sheath before leaving. He didn’t leave any snarky or cringey comments. He left without so much at looking at any of us. Only then I keep away my spear.

‘What did I tell you, Akira? An easy victory for you.’ Madoka tells me after Yuuji’s way out of sight.

‘I’m not trying to boast, but I guess I fought tougher opponents.’ I say while trying to sound as modest as possible.

‘How were you even sure, Kojima?’ Ichika asks curiously.

Madoka first mentioned the flaw Yuuji had that I mentioned, which is the way he would announce his attacks beforehand. There’s also the fact that unlike me, he doesn’t know any martial arts.

‘Lastly, their personality is the exact opposite.’ Madoka ends by saying. ‘Takuto Yuuji is rash and hot-blooded. He’s also someone who rarely stops and thinks. Akira, on the other hand, always manage to remain calm and find a way to best his opponents. When two opponents of similar skills clash with each other, their strategies usually decide the fight.’

‘Either way, good work Akira-kun.’ Assaf-sensei congratulates me.

‘Thanks, sensei. Now let’s go back. I’m hungry.’

‘Do I have the honor for being in charge of cooking tonight, master?’ Kuromi asks me.

‘If you want to, sure.’

‘Please go ahead and wait at Akira-kun’s room, everyone. I’ll join you all shortly right after I’m done with Takuto-kun’s paperwork for dropping out of the Academy.’ Sakuya tells us.

While we’re at my room, Yui the ever-kind angel actually feels pity for Yuuji.

‘Can’t you just rescind the deal you agreed on, Akira-kun?’ she asks me.

‘No can do, Yui. The two of us entered the fight while knowing the risks it carries. If I act like the deal has never been made, it would just insult Takuto’s pride.’

Besides, I don’t want to, not even when Yui’s the one asking.

‘To be honest, Takuto Yuuji was one of the top candidates to be expelled when we had a meeting the other day.’ Ichika says to us.

‘How so?’ I ask her.

‘He did a lot of sexually explicit things. I will not tell you any of them since they might be too much for Kiryuu.’

‘What were stopping you from expelling him then?’

‘Principal Morifuji had an extremely good relationship with Takuto Yuuji’s grandfather. The latter had pleaded to the former to turn a blind eye to all the nefarious things his grandson did throughout the semesters numerous times. This time, since Takuto Yuuji is leaving the Academy on his own accord, there is nothing his grandfather can do to prevent it.’

That reminds me. There were a few scenes in the original anime where Ichika was covering up for Yuuji as he was committing sexual crimes like peeping at the girl’s bath. Naturally, she didn’t do the same here since she’s not in love with him like in the original anime.

Sakuya comes inside my room after half an hour. While we’re eating our dinner, she tells us that Yuuji’s application to leave the Academy has been approved by Principal Morifuji.

That night, I slept extremely well. I know I’m not really supposed to, since I technically bullied a guy to leave school. However, I still can’t keep my happy emotions in check on the fact that I’m officially the main character of this version of the anime.