Chapter 21

Previously; "Stop being a wimp, you annoying brat. Here I thought you were smart. Losing your advantage by letting your opponent know you have zero experience in fighting. Disappointing." She said as she finished her sentence while looking at the lone goon with a 'you understand?' grin

"…"

"…"

I was truly mystified, to think this woman was this crazy. I knew she might have been, with her always throwing jabs at me but to think she was actually this crazy.

I took out a kunai and walked a distance in front of the goon. He had readied himself a while ago. Just because the mother daughter pair were distracted during their talks did not mean he would attack or escape. With the monster of a mother around, there was no way he was going to even attempt it.

As for the goons he came with, who cared about them when he had not even secured his own life yet. In fact, he had already intended on leaving them the moment he won the fight against the daughter.

He had a machete in his hand, ready for the fight. Before we began, he looked towards Mebuki who was now leaning against a tree. "Oh, don't worry. If she gets injured or killed that would mean she was too weak."

Even as she said that I saw the leader shiver as a look of horror appeared on his face. I rolled my eyes at Mebuki's statement. I knew for a fact she did not mean it but I was also sure she meant to tell the goon not to hold back. I had to be careful.

"What are you waiting for, an invitation?! Attack!" Mebuki roared.

I dashed towards my opponent intending to finish it quick. The moment I got to him, he quickly side stepped and kicked my stomach hard. The force knocked the wind out of me and threw me back towards my starting position. That hurt. I coughed out a bit of blood and forced myself to stand.

"Oof, that had to hurt." Mebuki commented at the side.

In truth I was hoping the muscle memory thing would kick in. Was it that Sakura never practiced any taijutsu or did it just not kick in? I was really hoping I could ride on the muscle memory thing until I could get some proper training of my own.

That was probably a bad idea that could cost me my life. It was not as if I was unaware of the dangers of this world. I'm not some weird protagonist that had to lose something before finally realizing they were in an actual world full of actual people instead of a manga or anime.

The only reason I could test that out was because I knew Mebuki would not have let me died but it was still a very dumb idea. If he had slashed instead of kicked, I might have been in a very bad situation and I doubt she would have come to my rescue.

I picked myself up once more as I began to think about my options. I pulled out five other kunai and shuriken deciding to fight long range but the goon leader did not just stand there. He dashed towards me at full speed and slashed downwards. I rolled out of the way just barely as his machete slashed into the ground.

I intended to capitalize on that as I quickly picked myself up but was met with another kick to the stomach. This time he did not wait and rushed towards me once more and before I could even complete the fall, he was already on me with his machete already falling, aiming for my head. I gritted my teeth and threw out all the kunai and shuriken I was holding onto tightly at his head the very moment my back hit the ground.

There was no proper aim, I just wanted to force him back and his lean to the side forced him to deviate his downward slash which narrowly missed my head, with him having to dodge a kunai heading straight for his eye. I jumped up but not before receiving a wound across my cheek as he slashed outward at me, barely missing again. I put some distance between us fast. I probably would not have been able to do that if I still had my beer gut back on earth.

'Ten kunais and shurikens and all missed the mark. This is so bad.' There was no luck at all. My opponent was a very experienced man; He had probably had to fight for his life most of his life. Well, maybe to me.

My breathing had become heavy and ruff. I had been kicked hard twice and it was not a nice feeling. I wanted it to stop. I looked towards Mebuki to try and signal her to get me out of the situation but she just kept grooming her nails with a bored expression.

'I want to stab her so bad.'

The goon leader panicked when I looked at Mebuki. He quickly looked back only to see Mebuki removing dirt from her nails. It was an opportunity for me. I quickly pulled out more than ten shurikens and threw them at the leader. Quantity over quality in this case. Pulling out another batch I threw them at him again.

He might have sensed the danger and quickly turned. He began running out of the firing range as he used his machete to try block some aiming for vital spots. He was not so lucky though. About two had lodged into him, one in his right thigh and the other in his side. Threw out more than twenty and only two had hit its mark. It seemed I needed to add shurikenjutsu (knife or kunai throwing) to the training list.

'That should reduce his mobility'. As if to mock my thoughts, he dashed full speed towards me. There was barely any change in his steps. Thankfully I had not lowered my guard as I began running around throwing kunais and shurikens. I had decided to turn it into a battle of attrition.

'Let's see if you bleed out first or I run out of shurikens first.' He had already pulled out the one stuck in his leg but left out the other in his side. Regardless, he was still bleeding out, especially since he was exerting himself so much trying to get withing range.

We were both battling for our lives. Him more than me, but still, I felt that crazy woman would truly not intervene as long as it did not threaten my life. Meaning I could lose an arm and she would probably not intervene. Maybe she would but I was not about to test it out.

The leader had begun to slow down a lot. I would never run out of shurikens and kunais. All I had to do was pick up a dodged or blocked one. He on the other hand would definitely run out of blood. I stood a distance away, breathing heavily as we had both stopped moving. I was tired and nauseas.

He was on one knee breathing even harder as he kept on coughing blood. The battle was finally over. I collapsed exhaustedly on my butt, taking in large mouthfuls of air. My entire body hurt and it felt like it would not listen to me at all. That was a mistake.

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