Chapter 10

I looked at the 'Sparrow' in the eyes, but without neglecting his body, looking for any movement he could do, and I realized that he had a disinterested expression, which I thought was normal, after all he must have seen people well stronger than me. As it looked like he wasn't going first, I decided to go first.

I put the sword in the scabbard, and was in a position to draw. The 'Sparrow' eyes opened even more, possibly wondering how I was going to act. I decided to use the thunder breath.

I took a breath, felt the wave of energy as usual and focused most of that energy on my legs. I went forward quickly and made a side cut, but the 'Sparrow' instincts were very good. He managed to deflect, receiving only a small cut at the waist, if he had only taken another second I would have managed to kill him with that blow.

Soon after dodging my attack, he made a vertical attack to hit me. I turned my body so that I could repel the 'Sparrow' attack. When I repelled, both he and I ended up backing up a bit.

As I had been repulsed while not in contact with the ground, I lost my balance a little when I touched the ground, and he decided to take this advantage. He came up to me quickly and landed a diagonal stroke from the bottom up. As I still didn't have all my balance, I just defended his sword with my sword.

My arms hurt a little when I received that blow, after all, just receiving the blow was more exhausting than repelling an attack with another attack. He ended up throwing me towards the wall, so I did a somersault so I could support my feet on the wall, and just as I had done before I used the wall to pick up momentum and head towards the 'Sparrow'.

He defended my blow, but I continued the turn and made another attack, which he defended but made him go back. When I touched the ground, I went forward again, and made another attack, but he changed the course of my blow upwards with his sword, and tried to hit me with his blade right after.

I crouched down while turning, so I could hit him. His sword went over my head, although I'm not sure how close the blade was I was sure it was almost close enough to cut my hair, and my attack hit him, but he had jumped back and the cut was as shallow as the first.

We stared at each other, swords in position. I realized that he didn't let his guard down even when it looked like he was going to win, which would make it harder for me to finish him, which didn't surprise me, after all he managed to survive Rabbit-san.

(Sparrow): "Whose apprentice are you?"

(Ichika): "...From Dragon-Sensei..."

His eyes widened at my answer.

(Sparrow): "It looks like he got a good apprentice... unfortunately you won't survive today."

(Ichika): "Don't put the cart in front of the horse..." - I said as I went.

We were exchanging blows for a while, I did some blows that were either repelled or superficially hit the 'Sparrow'. And somehow I managed not to get hit by any 'Sparrow' hit, but my arms were starting to hurt, my opponent had a lot of strength in his arms.

After a while, like what seemed to be just him being beaten, the 'Sparrow' moved away from me, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He stood in position with the sword in the top with the point down, and soon after I saw him make three strikes at the same time. I was sure he didn't use a breathing technique, so the fact that he could move so fast that he seemed to perform three strokes at the same time surprised me.

I saw the common point that the attacks had and I put the blade of my sword there, I was thrown backwards, more than the last time. I managed to touch the ground with balance, and I was already prepared to dodge a blow, which came shortly afterwards in the form of a thrust.

I deflected the attack with my sword and tried to hit him, but he moved the sword as if he wanted to make a circle, which did not allow me to hit him and my blade went up, but I took advantage of the impulse and made a vertical attack that was defended by his sword, and right after that he pushed me when the blades were touching, separating them.

(Sparrow): "You are really very good... you managed to survive my best blow..." - he said, panting a little.

I was starting to gasp and my arms were starting to really hurt, if it continued I really wouldn't be able to win that fight, because I was wearing out faster than him. He was in the position of the triple attack again.

When I defended the blow the first time, I felt only one contact, which meant that two of the blows were 'phantom blows', and only served to deconcentrate the opponent. I knew which direction the blow came from, but I didn't know if it would change this time, but I think he put too much confidence in that blow, to change which direction the final blow would come from.

(Ichika): 'Ichi no kata.' - I thought while crossing my arms, to the point that it seemed that I was hugging myself, with the arm that held the sword over the other.

The 'Sparrow' made his move, and this time I was able to keep up. First it was the attack that came from my right, then the one that came from above and lastly, like the other time, the attack that came from the left.

When the attack was coming, I crouched for the blade to go over me and moved forward, and got close enough while he was in the middle of the blow. That was my victory.

(Ichika): "MINAMO GIRI!" - I shouted as I spread my arms and cut him in half.

I remember the first time I used Minamo Giri, Dragon-Sensei said that the movement I made, it was like the water of a waterfall that hits the rocks hard.

After making the blow, I stood in the same position, and I saw the upper part of his body separate from the bottom and flaps the parts falling to the floor. His face was shocked, possibly never crossed his mind that someone was going to see him at his best blow. The pool of blood that both parts of his body were making was only increasing.

(Ichika): "...Never use the same strike twice against the same opponent..." - I said as if he could still hear me.

I took my eyes off that vision and realized that Tiger-nee-san had already finished her job with our target's accomplices. I took part of the yukata that the 'Sparrow' wore and cleaned my blade and put it in the sheath.

After that, I left the room to see the body of two guards, one had his head crushed and the other had a hole in his belly. It looked like Tiger-nee-san decided to do a general cleaning. I kept looking for her at the mansion, to find her in front of a large iron door with a padlock.

(Ichika): "Tiger-nee-san!"

She turned to face me and a giant smile appeared on her face, when she was close enough she hugged me.

(Tiger): "Good job, Ichika-kun! I knew you could beat him!"

(Ichika): "I got it thanks to his carelessness... he put too much faith in his technique..."

(Tiger): "It doesn't matter! What matters is that you made it! I'm proud of you!"

Upon hearing those words, a feeling of happiness invaded my chest. She released me after a while and I turned to face the door.

(Ichika): "There it is..."

(Tiger): "Possibly where he kept the women they kidnapped... and I'm sure they are still there..."

(Ichika): "Do we have to use the key or can we just break in?"

(Tiger): "That's exactly what I'm trying to find out... I don't think he would make things so easy..."

(Ichika): "Got rid of the guards at the mansion?"

(Tiger): "Of all of them, if you hadn't kept 'Sparrow' busy I would be in trouble."

(Ichika): "Did you find his office?"

(Tiger): "I found, as well as the names of the people that we got rid of..."

(Ichika): "Is the key still with him?"

(Tiger): "It's possible... I'll see it... stay tuned!" - she said while going in the direction I came.

I watched my surroundings while, in case any of them pretended to be dead and wanted to attack later. Shortly after, Tiger-nee-san returned.

(Tiger): "He really did have the key."

She opened the door and a strong smell invaded my nose, I was on the spot.

(Ichika): "Wha-! What is this?" - I said with my nose covered.

(Tiger): "He really screwed their minds..."

When I could bear the smell, I looked inside, I saw several women, young, old and even my age were in the middle. They were torn between how the girls Yun Shaoran showed his allies, most were begging for more drugs, others were dead-eyed, and some were really dead.

(Tiger): "Damn bastard..."

(Ichika): "What can we do for them?"

(Tiger): "Unfortunately not much... we can only hope that your families will help them return to what they were before... or the closest thing to that..."

(Ichika): "What about the woman who hasn't gone through all of this?"

(Tiger): "I told her not to leave the room, she must still be waiting there."

(Ichika): "What do we do, now?"

(Tiger): "We put our brand and leave the evidence of why we did it, and we do it."

(Ichika): "But how will the police come here, to show who he really was?"

(Tiger): "We tell the village leader to call the police saying he heard screams and gunshots, then the rest follows the course."

We went to the meeting room, I jumped over to where the camera was and picked it up and took it over to Tiger-nee-san. She hit the send button, both on camera and on tape, and left the two on the table, and placed the [Zodiac Beasts] symbol on the wall behind Yun Shaoran's body.

We went to the room where Tiger-nee-san said where the woman was, and told her to stay there until the police arrived, the woman did not respond, which made me a little worried.

We both left the mansion and went to the village, and told the village leader that the service was ready, that they were just waiting for the police to go there to meet with their families. Everyone had smiles on their faces.

(Tiger): "Just... be prepared."

All the smiles disappeared almost immediately. We went to the inn we were at, the moment we entered the room I ran to the bathroom and vomited in the toilet. Thanks to the anger and adrenaline, the nausea I felt after killing Yun Shaoran was mild, but now that it was over, everything had come on strongly.

I was on my knees in front of the toilet for a while. Tiger-nee-san even went to the bathroom and kept rubbing my back to try to help me. After that I got up, now I had no more nausea.

(Tiger): "I would prefer to go out today... but if you are still feeling bad, we can go tomorrow."

(Ichika): "No, I'm fine, really."

And indeed I was, which I found a little strange. It was like I really put it all out when I was throwing up. Tiger-nee-san looked at me worriedly

(Tiger): "Very well... let's go home."