Chapter 24: Roundhouse

'...What?' Takachiho was completely bewildered and shocked that he couldn't properly respond. Because what happened was completely impossible! He was sure that he had dodged Zenkichi's punch and didn't even feel it graze anywhere near his face!

'How!? There is no possible way that it was because he became lightning fast! No, moreover it's impossible for him to become that fast in just a few weeks, even training a diverse set of martial art skills couldn't help him that much.' Takachiho's face turned ugly and he clenched his fists and shifted his feet around. 'The punch was too delayed, it shouldn't have been if his punch was too fast for me to see. And that timing...'

'But the most unbelievable thing is that my skill, Auto-Pilot, didn't manage to fully react to his attack!' Takachiho felt cold sweat rolling down his temple.

'Hitoyoshi Zenkichi, this bastard, he has more than one abnormality!'

Zenkichi grinned.

"Get ready you sack a shit, cause there's more coming."

Takachiho gritted his teeth and glared at Zenkichi, readying himself for the next attack. He couldn't let his guard down now that he knew how formidable his junior had become.

Zenkichi charged at him forward and sidestepped his right foot, pivoting and leaning his back over, and sent a high kick with his left leg over Takachiho that would've hit his jawline if he hadn't countered it by kicking his right leg against it and sending his leg back down.

Takachiho didn't want to give Zenkichi any momentum and sent a counterattack with another kick towards his right shoulder, he kept track of him and know that he's become a user of multiple martial arts but it doesn't erase the fact that he's more proficient and built with his legs due to practising Savate so his upper body should be much less durable.

'Go down, junior–!' Takachiho widened his eyes as he saw Zenkichi lowered his right front arm down and draped it across his midsection, blocking his kick and soon parried it with his left fist and quickly followed his attack by swinging his hand down onto the ground and delivered a spinning high kick towards Takachiho but he dodged it with his abnormality.

Zenkichi wasn't finished as he continued on charging at him, as if he was dancing, he was lashing out and creating arcs of kicks so quick that no normal person could keep track of him. Every student in the pool had already noticed them and was watching them in awe, the announcer even started commenting on their fight.

Takachiho couldn't afford to be distracted by the spectators, he had to focus on Zenkichi's attacks. He had to admit, it was impressive how Zenkichi had improved in such a short amount of time. His movements were fluid and graceful, yet powerful and deadly.

'Boxing, then Capoeira?! His moves aren't just like someone who just casually learns multiple martial arts just because he's overconfident; he's no jack of all kinds and master of none. He's slowly becoming a jack of all kinds and master of all!'

Clicking his tongue, not wanting this whole thing to blow up anymore than it should, Takachiho wanted to withdraw. He already got what he came here for.

However, Takachiho had his own pride and was not one to be easily defeated. He had joined this project because he wanted to find an equal. And the guy in front of him is proving to be one.

Not unlike White Ghost, a true monster that can easily wipe out an entire squad of fully trained elite soldiers under 10 minutes with nothing but his hands.

Takachiho didn't just want to fight some strong monster like that and get slaughtered, he wanted a rival.

He wanted to enjoy a good clean fight, with nothing but hands, feet, body, and skills.

Takachiho had years of training and experience on his side. He knew how to read his opponent's movements and predict their next move.

'You might've destroyed anyone else with such skills, but I'm a researcher and Abnormal, Hitoyoshi. Unless you're like Gun, you can never manage to land a hit on me.'

As Zenkichi went for another high kick, Takachiho ducked and countered with a devastating uppercut that made Zenkichi stagger back. Takachiho saw his opening and went in for the attack, but Zenkichi recovered quickly and blocked each of his blows with ease.

The two of them continued their intense fight, each skilled in their own way. It was a sight to behold, with both of them moving so quickly that it was almost as if they were dancing together.

But the two didn't pay them any attention.

"...What's going on? How did this happen?!" Uzaki mumbled, looking extremely confused as to why the seemingly gentle person she got acquainted with started getting violent with someone that looked like a senior or a teacher.

It wasn't uncommon to see people fight in school, some of the students are martial artists enthusiasts and some are delinquents as well, so Uzaki had seen some Crow Zero level fights before but she never saw one so close!

"What should I do...? Ah! That's right, my team and the student president could–" Uzaki turned for their help, only to freeze in shock.

Zenkichi took a step forward, held up his left hand, straightened his fingers, and forwarded up at Takachiho's sternum, attempting to do a one-inch punch, but he merely smirked at him and sidestepped at the last second when he was just about to land the punch. Takachiho found an opening and went for a side kick to his neck but Zenkichi jumped back and went to punch his face, only for him to dodge again.

Zenkichi clicked his tongue and back off to evade a punch that was going to hit his right kidney.

'No matter how powerful my blows are, if they don't hit then it wouldn't matter. I only managed to get that first hit in because of my Abnormality skill. Plus,' He glanced at the crowd that was forming around them. 'it's getting out of hand. I don't want to get more attention than I already have.'

He turned towards to look at Takachiho and lowered his arms.

"Takachiho-senpai, why are you here?"

Takachiho raised an eyebrow, snorted, and replied.

"Tres Bien. Finally, you finally asked that question. You're a pretty rude junior."

Zenkichi snorted and crossed his arms.

"Says the guy that went to punch me first just when we first met."

Takachiho laughed. "Haha! You were trying to get even? Tres Bien. Fair play. To answer your question, I was just gathering some data on a few interesting samples in this little event you guys are doing."

"What?" Zenkichi narrowed his eyes.

"Yes." Takachiho nodded with a grin and explained, "You see, to cut to the chase, you gave me a wake up call. When I thought we had everything collected on every student in this school and other POI(people of interest) in other schools, you showed off an ability we never knew you had."

"And so, not only me, but it ruffled a lot of feathers. A whole lot of researchers that had numerous projects and other researchs about our main goal, that had gone through a lot, had to halt them and had to sort this whole situation up, asap. And so, as one of the few student researchers, was selected to assess the entire school body."

He let out a sigh and shook his head. "It's a pain in the ass, let me tell you. To be honest, we had a team made up of literal ninjas to process the students' database but they were sent outside for the POIs in other schools. And so, it's up to me to scan the students here. It isn't going to be easy to gather a lot of students and show off their capabilities."

His lips widened.

"But it looks like I got lucky, you guys created the perfect event for me to do my job."

"...You took advantage of the event and spied on your POIs to properly assess their abilities and value." Zenkichi's eyes narrowed, realizing Takachiho's plan this whole time.

He wasn't going after him, he was going after the whole school!

Takachiho chuckled, looking like he understood what Zenkichi was thinking, and said. "Oh you can finally be reassured Hitoyoshi, I'm not going after you anymore."

"..." Zenkichi coldly stared at him.

"Hey, what's with that look? I'm not lying! Though you shouldn't be relieved either," Takachiho's face scrunched up into an awful frown and he let out a sigh, scratching his head. "because the guy that's going after you next will be a whole lot more terrifying."

"You think this is simply over?" Zenkichi scoffed and gave him a death stare. "No. No matter who your group sends, I'm still going to beat you and tear that group apart."

Takachiho smirked. "Well then, when you can finally hit me, I'll be waiting. If there's anything I love more than research, women and looking good? Fighting." He burst out laughing and turned around to walk away, though not before looking over his shoulder and said. "Oh, and by the way, you might want to look back at that large monitor recording the final game of the event. You'll want to see the results."

"Huh?"

Zenkichi furrowed his brows confusion as Takachiho walked into the crowd, and he realized the crowd wasn't gathered because of them as they didn't react to the latter walking through them and was staring up at something else.

"What the heck's going on–?!" His eyes widened in complete shock.

There on the screen monitor, in high definition; HD; 4k; was the image of Medaka making out with Kikaijima.

"...Damn."

[❄️❄️❄️]

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