"I don't know what you're talking about, Raiden Mei. Not everything can be forgiven."
Li Wu's voice was frigid.
"The reason I could forgive you before was because I was the one you hurt. I understood your sorrow. I understood your pain. That's why I was willing to let bygones be bygones and extend a helping hand to you."
"But the people you hurt this time aren't me. I have no right to forgive you on their behalf. I am not the one you should be asking for forgiveness."
"Besides, the person you are holding onto right now isn't me. It's your new friends."
Li Wu looked at her coldly.
"But you've always been the most important person to me! Friends can't even compare to you!"
Raiden Mei's desperate shout was met with dead silence. She had no choice but to forcefully swallow her soaring emotions.
"If... if I get the forgiveness of the people I hurt... can we go back to how things were?"
Raiden Mei clutched her chest as she asked. The profound agony in her heart seemed to fill the entire dojo, suffocating the air around them.
"That is a false premise."
Li Wu looked down at his bokken. His gaze turned icy. He pointed the tip directly at her, his thoughts racing.
Setting aside the myriad of complex reasons why victims might choose to forgive their abusers—whether genuine or coerced—the fact that the abuse happened cannot be erased. The scars will always be there.
Unless someone could travel back in time and physically stop Raiden Mei, facts were facts. No amount of justification was anything more than pathetic sophistry.
Let alone the fact that she didn't even have a justification.
"Let's communicate using the most primitive method in this world. As long as you defeat me, whatever you say is right. If you lose, then reflect on yourself."
"As for whether you reflect on the mistakes you've made, or reflect on your lack of strength—that is an issue for you to consider. It is entirely up to you. It has nothing to do with me."
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Wu lunged forward again. This time, he was twice as fast as before.
The tip of his bokken thrust squarely toward Raiden Mei's shoulder.
Clack!
Suddenly, Li Wu caught sight of a hard object hurtling toward his head from his peripheral vision. He hastily tilted his head to dodge.
It was Raiden Mei's bokken.
Instead of defending against his attack, she had chosen to counterattack.
What speed...
If his reflexes hadn't been superhumanly enhanced, Li Wu was certain that strike would have cracked his skull open.
Right as he dodged, a sharp whistling sound sliced through the air.
The bokken swung downward, aiming directly for his abdomen.
Li Wu pulled his sword back to block. Instantly, Raiden Mei changed her stance. Her bokken spun along the shaft of his, the tip accurately pressing against his stomach before thrusting forward.
Clack!
Li Wu leaped back. He glanced down at the fresh crease stabbed into his shirt and fell into deep thought.
Looking up, the crimson glow in Raiden Mei's eyes was exceptionally vibrant. Purplish-black electricity crackled and danced across her fingertips.
The Authority of a Herrscher.
She had begun drawing Honkai energy from the Imaginary Tree to empower herself. By manipulating magnetic fields and electric currents, she was vastly accelerating the transmission of electrical signals in her brain, exponentially enhancing her reaction time and visual acuity.
But even that shouldn't have been enough to land a hit on him.
Just a moment ago, Li Wu had clearly felt a sudden, drastic drop in his own reaction speed.
Otherwise, with his S-Rank physical constitution, there was absolutely no way he couldn't have dodged that thrust.
The answer was obvious: Raiden Mei had completely mastered the Authority of the Herrscher of Thunder, utilizing it to an unprecedented level that she had never achieved in the original game or manga.
"Little Li, you said it yourself. Only the strong have the power to define right and wrong. As long as I defeat you, you have to listen to me!"
Raiden Mei crouched low. Her thighs bent slightly as she held the bokken with both hands leveled at her shoulder.
It was the standard preparatory stance of the Hokushin Itto-ryu.
With her exceptional swordsmanship combined with her Herrscher-enhanced physique—and regardless of whatever unknown powerup Li Wu had clearly received—she was confident she could win without endangering his life.
She felt so incredibly powerful right now that even if it were Kiana, the "Perfect Goddess" everyone worshipped, Raiden Mei was certain she could defeat her easily.
"...No matter how much time passes, the foundational code of this world will always be the law of the jungle. Civilization is nothing more than a thin veneer," Li Wu said, tilting his neck until it cracked.
He gripped the hilt of his bokken tighter. His overwhelming grip strength caused the dense wood to splinter and crack.
"But that is the truth of survival, not the truth of wisdom."
"You have strayed too far. I take back what I said earlier. I cannot possibly allow you to win against me."
Li Wu closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his dark brown pupils had vanished. His irises were dyed a mysterious, majestic, molten gold.
His entire aura fundamentally shifted. As he raised his sword, the cheap, ordinary feeling surrounding him was completely obliterated. It was as if the supreme glory of absolute authority and power bowed in submission beneath his glacial gaze.
"Then let's test that!"
Raiden Mei charged. Her movements were blindingly fast. Her blade slashed upward diagonally at a vicious angle. The wooden edge brushed right past the fabric of Li Wu's chest, missing him by a hair's breadth.
I missed?!
Raiden Mei frowned. Using the momentum of her swing, she spun her body around for a full 360-degree rotation, putting her entire weight into a horizontal sweep.
Li Wu leaned back. The tip of her sword grazed the tip of his nose.
Missed again... by just a fraction of an inch.
His expression remained completely unchanged. Those molten golden eyes just stared at her calmly, as if he were watching a toddler desperately throwing punches that could never possibly reach their target.
Gritting her teeth, Raiden Mei cranked up the output of her Authority. The electrical signals in her neural network fired at an inconceivable speed, far surpassing the absolute physiological limits of a human being.
The world in her vision came to a near standstill.
Hokushin Itto-ryu: Kasumi!
She poured every ounce of her strength into this single strike.
Li Wu raised his hand.
Using only the flat side of his bokken, he gently nudged her blade.
Raiden Mei's ultimate technique felt as if it had struck cotton. The kinetic energy was completely dispersed.
The recoil knocked the bokken straight out of her hands, sending it clattering onto the floor.
"I think there is no need to continue," Li Wu stated flatly, his tone completely indifferent.
Raiden Mei stood frozen in place. Her pupils contracted violently as she stared in absolute disbelief at her disarmed weapon. She clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles turned white.
Impossible...
Why?
Her reaction speed had already transcended human limits!
Every strike she made utilized all her strength and the absolute perfect angle!
She had already mastered every single technique of the Hokushin Itto-ryu and commanded the Authority of a Herrscher!
Why?
Why do I not even have the right to touch him?
If this continues, I'll lose him forever... I'll lose the right to even stand in front of him...
I won't accept this... I will NEVER accept this!
"No..." Raiden Mei lowered her head, murmuring frantically. "I won't accept an ending like this!"
The crimson glow in her eyes condensed into tangible, blood-red lightning that crackled wildly around her body.
"It's not over yet!"
The moment her words fell...
BOOOOOOM!!!
Outside the dojo, the sky—previously only weeping a gloomy drizzle—suddenly lit up as if daybreak had arrived. Deafening, apocalyptic peals of thunder tore through the heavens, descending upon the mortal realm.
Gale-force winds violently battered the windows until the glass shattered with a cacophony of CRACKS. Rainwater was ripped into the dojo, splashing wildly across the wooden floorboards.
"A thunderstorm?! How could the weather forecast be this wrong? They said it was just a light drizzle!"
Before the teacher could even finish his sentence, another colossal lightning bolt slashed across the sky, blindingly illuminating the world.
Wind and rain aggressively swirled around the two figures standing on the mat.
Raiden Mei's eyes had turned entirely blood-red. Like the eyes of a demon, they were feral, twisted, and utterly terrifying.
Her hair tie was ripped away by the gale, allowing her long dark hair to whip wildly behind her back.
A Domain?
Li Wu looked down at the floor. The surface looked completely normal, yet he could sense something profoundly altering the space around them.
The magnetic field is shifting...
The Authority of the Herrscher of Thunder governed electromagnetism—one of the four fundamental forces of the universe. If applied correctly, she could entirely strip away the electromagnetic interactions between atoms. Manipulating a localized magnetic field was well within expectations.
I can't let this drag on.
Gripping his bokken, Li Wu lunged toward Raiden Mei with a vicious downward slash.
Having his body physically remolded by the Divine Blood, his speed was astronomical. Even against this Herrscher-state Raiden Mei, Li Wu was confident she couldn't dodge.
And indeed, Raiden Mei just stood there, completely motionless, acting as a perfect target.
But then, the unexpected happened.
As the bokken closed in on her, no matter how much force Li Wu poured into it, it physically could not advance any further.
An unfathomably massive repulsive force was preventing the wooden sword from touching her.
SNAP!
In an instant, unable to withstand the sheer pressure of Li Wu's monstrous strength and the Herrscher's absolute repulsive field, the bokken violently shattered. It burst into a cloud of splinters that the wind immediately swept out of the dojo.
"Little Li... As long as I will it, every single person in this city, every machine, the electric current in every wire—they can all become my weapons."
Raiden Mei looked at him. She opened her arms and reached toward him, her blood-red eyes swirling with an almost deranged, obsessive infatuation.
"There's no need to continue. I have already won. I can destroy everything, or I can protect everything. As long as you are willing to return to my side..."
"You seem to have forgotten something," Li Wu said.
"What?"
"The test isn't over yet."
As his words fell, Li Wu pushed through the atomic repulsion field, step by agonizing step, until he stood directly in front of her.
Just as he had predicted, any energy related to the Honkai was rapidly absorbed by his body, which in turn violently aggravated the dormant Divine Blood.
He couldn't afford to let the Divine Blood fully activate. Once it did, he would be forced to find Kallen and have her absorb it, which would ruin everything he had set up.
Li Wu raised his hand.
Spreading his fingers wide, he palmed Raiden Mei's face and, without a shred of hesitation or mercy, slammed her head violently into the wooden floorboards.
BAM!!!
He didn't use his full strength. This level of impact wouldn't kill a Herrscher. But it was definitely enough to infuriate an unawakened Herrscher... or, knock some sense into her.
Raiden Mei was completely stunned.
When she finally processed what had just happened, she logically concluded that she should be furious. She should resist. She should use her overwhelming Authority to blast Li Wu into oblivion.
But... his hand is so warm.
The students and the teacher in the dojo were utterly dumbfounded.
From their perspective, all they saw was Raiden Mei's eyes suddenly becoming bloodshot. Li Wu swung his bokken at her, but it inexplicably shattered on its own, its fragments blown away by the wind.
Then, Li Wu struggled forward like he was walking through thick mud, grabbed her by the face, and entirely unreasonably smashed her head into the floor!
"Stop! STOP! You're going to kill her! Li Wu! What the hell are you doing?!"
The teacher's face went deathly pale. Completely disregarding his own safety, he sprinted onto the mat.
If something terrible happened to the heiress of ME Corp, his life was absolutely forfeit!
But no matter how hard the teacher pulled, he couldn't budge Li Wu's arm even a millimeter.
However, Li Wu stopped on his own accord.
He sensed the surrounding magnetic field rapidly returning to normal.
The next second—
Raiden Mei suddenly opened her mouth and latched onto one of his fingers.
Li Wu froze.
The golden light in his eyes instantly extinguished. He immediately tried to yank his hand back.
But Raiden Mei refused to let go. She gently, almost like a nursing infant, suckled on his finger. She grabbed his arm tightly with both hands, using all her strength to prevent him from pulling away.
Her eyes had returned to their normal, beautiful purple. Her expression was almost pathetically submissive.
The whiplash was too fast.
The bizarre scene left the teacher and students utterly stupefied.
Did Raiden Mei get her brain knocked loose? She just got domestically abused, and now she's... flirting?!
They had always known the ME Corp heiress and Li Wu played rough behind closed doors, but they never imagined it was this freaky!
What kind of couple gets into a violent fight, the girl gets her head smashed into the floor, and instead of getting angry, she subserviently starts licking his fingers?!
On the mat—
"Let go," Li Wu demanded, his tone laced with impatience.
"N-no!" Raiden Mei mumbled, her voice muffled around his finger.
"Let go."
"N-no!"
"Let go!"
"N-no!!"
An incredibly farcical, dramatic scene unfolded in the dojo.
The two people who had just been locked in a high-stakes, apocalyptic confrontation were now bickering like toddlers, purely competing to see who was louder.
Li Wu's face remained utterly emotionless, but the growing impatience in his voice was palpable.
Raiden Mei was even more stubborn. Dignity? Grace? Reputation? She threw it all out the window. Like a frantic shrew, she wrapped her arms and legs entirely around Li Wu's left arm, clinging to him like a koala just so he couldn't pull his hand away.
Li Wu had absolutely no desire to stay entangled with her any longer.
Without hesitation, he activated [Future Loan], instantaneously extracting his finger from her mouth. In the exact same breath, he struck the back of her neck, knocking her unconscious, and then manually stitched the sequence of events together to make it look seamless.
If their brief fight earlier looked like domestic abuse, Li Wu's actions right now made it look like he was preparing to dispose of a corpse...
"Give me your phone," Li Wu demanded, holding his hand out toward the terrified teacher.
"O-oh! Okay, here!" The teacher stood frozen, shivering violently before hurriedly fishing his phone out of his pocket and slapping it into Li Wu's palm.
Just as expected.
In the contacts list was 'Ryoma Raiden'—saved under the note 'President of ME Corp', rather than 'Raiden Mei's Father'.
Li Wu called the number. He calmly informed Ryoma that his daughter had fainted, but was currently in stable condition, and requested he send someone to pick her up.
Once the message was delivered, he hung up without a second thought.
Looking at the clock, it was already near the end of the period. Since the test was over, there was no reason for him to stay in the dojo.
In fact, coming to school at all was entirely superfluous. If it weren't for the fact that his previous life trajectory revolved almost entirely around this school, Li Wu couldn't think of a single reason to return to Chiba Academy.
He walked out of the Kendo dojo.
The rain was significantly heavier than before.
The sky was oppressively gloomy. Hidden within the thick black clouds, streaks of lightning occasionally flashed, vanishing as quickly as they appeared.
Countless new "mirrors" had formed on the ground, the torrential rain turning the entire city upside down.
Holding his black umbrella, Li Wu strolled leisurely across the sports field, stepping over puddle after puddle.
Who knows how long this rain will last.
He had seen a phenomenon like this before.
It was identical to the highly dangerous zone in Siberia. When a Herrscher's Authority was unleashed on a massive scale, the overflowing Honkai energy would drastically alter the natural environment.
Siberia had a spatial rift where Honkai energy endlessly poured out, merging with natural elements to spawn countless Honkai Beasts.