Like any good attack made by Seiji, it had completely no thought put into it. He burned on pure emotions. Takako was a twisted bitch that needed to be stopped. That was the only thing going through his mind. It would have been better if he was thinking about saving Katsumi, but have to take motivation where you can get it.

Not that it meant much, the defense that Katsumi naturally had through her powers kept her from taking any real damage from Seiji. His blind fury did shit all to guide a well-aimed shot at her. It was made incredibly easy to block. Despite it, her feet still slid back a little from the force.

She immediately threw out a counter landing on Seiji’s already disabled arm. Pain jumped up through Seiji’s body, breaking him out of his blood boil. Reminded of the pain, it shot waves of sudden fatigue to all corners of his body. It felt heavy and difficult to move. The adrenaline started to dissipate or not able to keep up with everything. ‘Not now! I need to keep going!’

Clenching his fist up, Seiji did everything he could to convince his body to keep moving in the only way he knew how. Which was just pumping his muscles and getting them moving. ‘I’m not about to let it happen again! Not like before!’ Flashes of Nerine went through his mind as he thought about what he didn’t want to remember.

While Seiji worked to get himself more built up to fight and push through his sluggish body, Takako wasted no time arming herself and going on the attack. She found a stray metal rod from the pile of trash throughout the grounds. “You look like you’re having some fun! Let’s get to painting with my brush!” She spun around for the opening barrage.

Chapter 331 – Back-to-Back Knockout

Off balance with his focus trying to get himself back, Seiji didn’t immediately notice the incoming attack. His body still refused to move the way he wanted anymore making it even harder when she swung at him. The bad arm took most of the hit, but the force transferred through his body. He went flying backwards crashing into the damn wall of the school.

“Damn…everything’s starting to hurt like hell…” Seiji started to move again, but it was only in time to be clocked in the face by Takako. He went tumbling through the classroom and into the hall and back into another classroom. As he stood up, Takako was right there again. He had no chance. “…da—“ He went flying once more.

Takako seemed to be getting enjoyment out of throwing him around the school. Once she finished her makeshift game of solo soccer with Seiji’s body, there were too many holes to count in the school. Where there were no holes, it was only because the walls had collapsed. Debris and dirt crumbled down as the school was never meant to take any of the beating given. Only through a miracle did it continue to stand.

Bruised, battered, beaten, and all of the rest of the “b’s” to keep the alliteration going only loosely described the state of Seiji. Not too unlike the school, it was a bit of a miracle that he could still be standing. He nearly looked like a walking corpse with how much Takako changed him with her attacks.

Dropping the rod to her shoulder, she stood to admire her work. “My you look awful. I’m impressed that you can even breathe let alone stand.”

“I’m not…letting you…win…”

“That’s fine resolve, but what can you do? You can’t beat me.”

“You…haven’t beaten…me yet…either.”

She smiled to see that he still had some talk left in him. “Well we’ll see how long that remains true.”

“Long enough…for me…to beat you…out of that girl.”

“You are amusing,” laughed Takako. She tightened her hand on the rod looking ready to continue where she had left off.

Seiji didn’t like the look of the situation. ‘I can’t feel half of my body and it feels even more heavy than before. I don’t know how long I can keep going… I must stop her soon before my body gives out!’ He just didn’t know how it was going to do with his body the way it was. But in reality, that didn’t really matter too much. Seiji ignored any further thoughts or complaints both from his mind and his body. Neither helped him in the fight at the moment.

It might have felt heavy, but he didn’t move as if it had been. While not at his usual speed, he threw himself at Takako as she came swinging once more. Taking the opening swing to his injured side, it gave the chance to take advantage of the big opening he created. A weapon in her hand left her confidently over extended. He had no trouble getting a punch in, though it brushed against her off hand. It wasn’t a full deflection, but most of the force he had behind it fell out.

He couldn’t even manage a word before she recovered and counterattacked. Blood sprayed from the new wound that mixed in with the rest. It stopped being possible to tell the new from the old or where they started and ended.

“That was cheeky of you.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She swung down at Seiji, but through a force of will he grabbed the metal rod with his hand. Blood sputtered out from multiple wounds due to the force. A white light flashed for a moment through his scars on his arm. “You know…no offense to the girl…but I’m really starting to hate…hearing her voice.” The metal groaned under his strength. He started to stand up, meeting directly with Takako. A curve began to develop in the rod. Gritting his teeth, the muscle on Seiji’s arm tensed a little and expanded slightly.

A bit of surprise started to overtake Takako, witnessing Seiji’s pure strength overwhelming her power. She recoiled a little, which was her mistake. Seiji immediately capitalized on it. Pushing through her weakened hold, his fist rammed through her jaw sending Takako flying back out of the school.

Panting heavily, Seiji staggered forward after the very likely still healthy girl. His body felt like lead, but he pushed through. ‘I’ve gotta end this… This girl is completely twisted…’ Through the smoke and clouds, he noticed the shadow appearing through the mist. It wasn’t a surprise, annoying, but not a surprise.

What blood had started to dry and wipe away from the fighting before had returned with renewed vigor. The damage from Seiji’s punch couldn’t really even be seen through all of the blood. It looked like she should have been unconscious, but still stood like a puppet on strings. “You’re a resilient one. That badly beaten and still able to knock me off my feet.”

“And I’m going to keep doing that until you stay down.”

“I already told you. Even if she’s unconscious I can control her body. The only way you can defeat me is if you rip all of her limbs off.”

“It won’t come to that. I’ll defeat you and send you packing.” Seiji threw up his fist showing that he was ready for more. “So you better start looking for the door, because I’m going to be sending you back to your own body for Yuki to deal with!”

She laughed again amused by something else. “That boy, he’s likely already dead.”

Seiji’s eyes narrowed not believing her for a moment, but still confused by why she would even think that. “Lies aren’t going to help you. Yuki’s coming for you!”

Katsumi’s head shook and turned in very uncomfortable angles. “Saki already dealt with him. A single kick was all it took to deal with him.”

“What?”

“He became a star the way he shot out of there.”

The laughter from Takako started to get on Seiji’s nerves. He ground his teeth tightly together almost causing them to bleed. Another flash of light ran down Seiji’s arm. The twin scars glowed white. “Enough!”

Her laughter suddenly ended when she started to feel the ground rumble under her feet a little. All her taunting stopped as she no longer had any words left. She didn’t know what was happening.

Talismans materialized out of thin air all around Seiji. They quickly wrapped up all of his wounds to such an extent that they covered him from head to toe. The only thing that remained was the white glow from his arm and two lights where his eyes were. Seiji had more of the appearance of a demon than anything divine.

He roared through the talisman making waves over the ground with the dirt. Seiji stalked forward making the ground crack a little with his step. “…I…”

“What the hell is this?” question Takako, taking several steps away from Seiji’s approach. “None of them had this in their memories.”

In a moment, the pace Seiji made changed. His speed quickly increased as the talismans at his feet glowed. He darted in a straight line at Takako, but missed with her sidestepping him. Seiji plowed through the earth mound in front of him and carved out the fence as well before he came to a stop.

He turned around his head, getting a lock on Takako once more. Another roar escaped his talisman-covered mouth.

“Damn…this isn’t like anything that they predicted.” Takako removed another couple of pieces of metal from the pockets of Katsumi’s skirt. She quickly slapped them in place and locked everything down. The metal expanded in a straight motion from the backs of her hand. Small individual pieces built out and snapped quickly into place. In seconds, she had two quarter meter length double edged blades. “Time to kill!”

Takako moved around, finding Seiji’s new speed to be difficult to handle. “He’s gotten faster and he already was impossible to manage when I was just taunting him.” She blocked with her arms a direct strike that she couldn’t evade. It picked her up and threw her like a bullet the entire length of the school grounds creating a ten-meter tall column of smoke.

She kicked away the debris and waved off the smoke only to hear what seemed like a stampede. Takako quickly jumped into the air just as Seiji’s glowing fist rammed into the earth. A five-meter crater now stood where she had been only a moment before. Debris threw up into the air from the impact, knocking her in a different direction. She dug the blades into the side of the school to support her hanging while staying out of Seiji’s range. “Damn, he’s stronger and faster. What the hell got into him?”

Another roar. Seiji could see Takako, but she was out of reach. “Fiend! Won’t…”

In broken Japanese, it didn’t seem like much, but she still started to put things together. “Are you telling me, he turned into a beast because I said Yuki’s dead?” A deeper roar came from Seiji like a reply, only it rattled the school. “You can’t be serious? He’s gone into a berserker rage over that? Does he think he’s in the movies?”

Any more talking had to wait. Seiji leapt into the air after Takako. He missed, but only because she jumped further up the school. Clawing through the cement of the walls, he climbed after her to the roof. The weight of his steps though didn’t give the school much time, already damaged and weakened as it was.

Takako dodged and kept backing away the best that she could. However, Seiji stayed on top of her. He eventually cornered her and grabbed her by the neck. Roaring like an animal, he pounded her repeatedly into the roof until it was collapsing. Then he jumped off the roof leaving the crumbling third floor behind to slam her into a deep crater.

Her arms were the only defense she could muster against Seiji. The only benefit was that he only had one arm to fight with. At least, that was what she expected. In the middle of the pummeling, he paused for a second winding up his disabled arm as the talismans suddenly started to glow. With both arms working suddenly, she couldn’t hold up to the assault.

“Muscle…bound…bastard…” she managed through the beating. Takako held the defense, but the metal of the gauntlets were starting to show dents and gaps in the plating. She waited for an opening. In the pause between the attacks, she leapt forward throwing her blades out in an arc. Thick streams of blood trialed behind her as she dropped down to the outer edge of the crater.

Seiji roared at the loss of his left arm, but the talismans quickly covered up the gap and sealed it off. He turned back up towards Takako and leapt after her.

“Ugh…damn, doesn’t look like it even—“ She tried to dodge away, but still got clipped by the edge of Seiji’s fist. Katsumi’s body flew back into the school leaving smoke billowing out. Takako ripped her body out of the debris and forced it back up. “—slowed him down a bit. Really has turned into a beast. Good thing I was planning on killing him.”

Takako swung the blades down, throwing off the blood they picked up. She knew that Seiji would be coming for her again. The sound gave it away, not that she needed the clue. Forcing Katsumi forward, she charged in after Seiji. She broke through the edge of the school just as Seiji was coming in. The left arm gone, he had an entire side open to him that he did nothing to guard. “Perfect opportunity. Time to die!” Her blades aimed straight for his heart. It would put him down in an instant.

However, just as her blades began to hit flesh a loud shot from outside rang out. A bright pink beam shot through the air and pierced Seiji and Katsumi’s body in the same motion.