“Where else would I be?” Kitahara Minakaze replied.
The Frivolous Youth pondered for a moment.
“In a situation like this, shouldn’t you be screaming ‘What’s going on?!’ and running away to call the cops or something?”
Kitahara Minakaze pointed to the spot where his sister had been blown away, which was now shrouded in thick smoke.
“Oh, I get it.” The Frivolous Youth realized.
“So what’s your relationship with her?”
“As unworthy as I am, I just so happen to be her older brother… well, probably.”
“What do you mean ‘probably’? That’s hilarious.”
The Frivolous Youth slapped his thigh, laughing loudly.
“So what do you want to do next? Play the hero saving the damsel in distress? Or are you hoping she’ll get up and hack us to pieces?”
Kitahara Minakaze shook his head.
“No, I just want you to explain to me what the hell is going on. Honestly, one baffling situation is enough; spare me from a second one.”
The Frivolous Youth restrained his smile and said with great interest, “I’m under no obligation to explain anything to you. How about this: after you pass on to the afterlife, you can ask your sister?”
He seemed to be looking forward to Kitahara Minakaze’s reaction.
But the Salaryman Uncle behind him couldn’t stand it anymore and loudly reprimanded him, “Hey, cut the crap and go check on her! There are only five minutes left in the ‘Stasis’!”
“Urusai! Don’t we still have five minutes?! Are you in a rush to clock out, old man?!” the Frivolous Youth turned his head and said impatiently.
“Damn right I am! I’m in a rush to get off work! Don’t underestimate how crowded the trains get during rush hour, you bastard!”
“So annoying! Just quit your job then!”
The frivolous-looking youth yelled back.
However, yelling aside, he didn’t intend to delay any further.
He shrugged at Kitahara Minakaze and spread his hands.
“Sorry about this, bro, but that’s the situation. I’m gonna have to trouble you to go ahead and die now.”
With that said.
He stopped paying attention to Kitahara Minakaze, turned his head, and walked straight toward the spot where the sister had been thrown.
“Fist-Fist-Fist.”
As he walked, he opened and clenched his fingers, repeating the motion three times.
Approaching the edge of the thick smoke, he hunched his back and fiercely swung forward.
“Line.”
“Fist.”
The two voices rang out almost simultaneously.
A flash of a blade collided perfectly with the shockwave of his fist, shattering with a bang.
A muffled groan came from within the thick smoke.
“Haha, I knew it.”
The Frivolous Youth smiled somewhat smugly.
“Hey! Behind you!”
Right at that moment.
The Salaryman Uncle suddenly shouted at him.
“What do you mean, behind me…”
The Frivolous Youth turned his head dismissively.
He was just preparing to mock the uncle for making a fuss over nothing.
But as soon as he turned his head, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a figure charging toward him at the speed of a sprinter.
A fist magnified in his vision…
“Face-Breaking Fist!”
Kitahara Minakaze mimicked him with a loud shout.
Using the momentum of his forward dash, his fist planted itself heavily onto the bridge of the youth’s nose.
Splat.
Blood sprayed from his nose into the air.
Then, with a pat, it dripped onto the ground.
The Frivolous Youth stumbled back several steps, stunned.
He looked at the drops of blood on the ground, then abruptly snapped his head up.
Clutching his profusely bleeding nose, he quickly clenched his other hand into a fist and said in exasperation, “What the hell are you doing?! You bastard… Gah.”
Before he could finish clenching his fist or finishing his sentence, Kitahara Minakaze grabbed his wrist and twisted it to the side, interrupting his attack.
As the youth cried out in pain, Minakaze delivered a solid front kick right to his stomach.
“You bastard!”
The Salaryman Uncle grew anxious.
He aimed his index finger at Kitahara Minakaze and fiercely slapped his own shoulder with his other hand.
Kitahara Minakaze took a large stride forward, ducked his head, and tucked himself into the Frivolous Youth’s embrace.
Bang.
Flames and thick smoke explosively erupted in midair.
The youth, hunched over from the kick, became the perfect cover, blocking the vast majority of the explosion’s force.
Kitahara Minakaze was completely unharmed.
You f*cking…
hit friendly fire.
This was the last thought that formed in the Frivolous Youth’s mind before he lost consciousness.
“You little brat! Come out!”
The Salaryman Uncle panicked; the sudden turn of events had clearly exceeded his expectations.
He once again aimed his index finger at Kitahara Minakaze, who was hiding in the Frivolous Youth’s arms, while slowly approaching him.
However, he hesitated to slap down the hand that acted as the ‘trigger’.
“1, 2, 3!”
Kitahara Minakaze silently counted three seconds, then forcefully shoved the unconscious Frivolous Youth away.
Propping his hands against the ground, he executed a sideways roll.
Bang.
An explosion detonated on cue.
Thick smoke filled the air.
“What the hell is up with this brat?!”
The Salaryman Uncle stared at the thick smoke, shifting his index finger left and right as he searched for Kitahara Minakaze’s figure, somewhat flustered and exasperated.
The scene remained at a standstill for a brief moment.
Until.
Clatter.
A faint sound came from his front left.
“Left!” the Salaryman Uncle shouted loudly, abruptly shifting his index finger to the left.
A small chunk of concrete slowly rolled out from the smoke.
The Salaryman Uncle’s eyes widened, and he instantly whipped his head around.
Just in time to see the smoke gradually clearing.
Kitahara Minakaze’s figure was revealed.
He was in a half-crouch, his center of gravity shifted forward, placing most of his weight on his arms and front leg, like a leopard waiting to pounce on its prey.
The moment the Salaryman Uncle saw him.
He moved.
Dashing forward.
With astonishing explosive power.
In almost an instant, he arrived right in front of him.
“You—” The Salaryman Uncle took a half-step back, gasping in a breath of cold air.
His hand, shaped like a gun, shifted horizontally, aiming at the instantly approaching Kitahara Minakaze.
Kitahara Minakaze had just rushed right up to his face.
He lowered his body; the two were separated by a mere body’s length.
He only needed to dash one step forward to touch his opponent.
It was fast.
But still a bit too slow.
It’s over.
The Salaryman Uncle thought to himself, his index finger aimed at Kitahara Minakaze’s head, his other hand just about to slap his shoulder.
But right at that moment.
Kitahara Minakaze suddenly looked at him and revealed an expression of extreme terror.
But it wasn’t directed at his index finger, but rather at what was behind him.
As if he had suddenly seen a vicious demon.
Seeing Kitahara Minakaze’s expression, the Salaryman Uncle’s motion of slapping his shoulder stalled.
After all, having never undergone strict training, instinct still caused him to slightly tilt his head at this critical juncture, looking as if he were about to turn and check behind him.
Although the Salaryman Uncle quickly realized that now was not the time to care about that, that split-second of hesitation was enough.
By the time he snapped out of his instinctual reaction and looked forward.
Kitahara Minakaze was already gone.
“Uncle, you’re so naive, so noob, and your skill wind-up is so obvious. Why are you even playing around with superpowers?”
Kitahara Minakaze’s voice rang out right by his ear.
A large hand suddenly magnified in front of the Salaryman Uncle’s eyes.
And grabbed him right by the face.
“Do you think I want it to be like this?!”
The Salaryman Uncle subconsciously shouted.
With his vision obstructed, he directly aimed his index finger at the ground and forcefully slapped his shoulder.
At the exact same moment.
Kitahara Minakaze took a step forward.
Gripping the man’s head with his left hand and carrying his forward momentum, he flipped him over and slammed him into the ground.
The sound of the explosion and the THUD of a head making intimate contact with the ground rang out almost simultaneously.
…
The sister squatted in the corner.
Hearing the frequent explosions and angry roars outside, she endured it for a while until she finally couldn’t hold back anymore.
Gripping her katana, she once again assumed a stance as if preparing to use an Iai slash.
After building up her momentum, she lightly exhaled and uttered a single word: “Swallow.”
Light as a swallow, she broke through the thick smoke.
Then, holding the hilt of her sword with both hands, she looked around warily.
No one attacked her.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, she noticed the Frivolous Youth passed out on the ground, his nose still spurting blood.
She stared blankly.
Next, she looked in the direction where her stepbrother had just been.
No one was there.
She stared blankly again.
Finally, she cast her gaze forward, where thick smoke was similarly permeating the air.
She could only barely make out two silhouettes.
One lying down, one standing up.
But she couldn’t see them clearly.
“Brother?”
She cautiously took a step forward.
And called out softly, her voice tinged with a sob.
Up ahead.
The thick smoke gradually dispersed.
The figures could finally be seen clearly.
However, the one lying down wasn’t her stepbrother, but rather the Salaryman Uncle.
At this moment, his eyes were rolled back in his head, and his nose was similarly spurting blood.
And her stepbrother was standing to the side, stepping on the man’s head, saying, “So, can you explain things now… Damn it, why did you pass out?”
Clang.
The sword dropped to the ground.
Hearing the sound, Kitahara Minakaze turned his head.
He saw his stepsister with her small mouth wide open in an ‘O’ shape, and he also saw the sword on the ground.
He fell silent for a moment, pointed at the sword on the ground, and said, “You just said, ‘As long as I have my sword, I won’t let you come to any harm.’ Well, now I’m dead.”
Hearing this, the sister…
Froze for a second.
Then frantically scrambled to pick up the sword from the ground and gave Kitahara Minakaze a deep, sudden bow.
“Sumimasen!”
Kitahara Minakaze looked at her.
She was bent over, her head bowed low.
This was the first meeting between Natsume Mio and Kitahara Minakaze.
It was…
pretty humorous.