Shido's eyelashes lifted slightly.
"…Okay."
That was my first thought.
From where i stood, it was obvious—this girl named Sakura is looking down on me. Not openly, not rudely, but the assumption was there. The kind people made all the time.
"Oh! She thinks I'm weak, huh?"
I almost smiled.
Still, i didn't feel offended. If anything, it made things easier.
From the way Sakura was speaking, the tension in her posture, and the clear reaction Ryuen's group had to her presence, it was obvious she had history with them. Bad blood i presumed. Deep enough that she'd stepped in without hesitation.
If she wants to take my place i thought calmly, she's more than welcome. I took a small step back. Not hurriedly, not nervously.
Just enough to place myself outside the immediate circle, i leaned slightly to the side as if this were no longer my problem. My lazy expression returned, my hands slipped casually into my pockets as i observed.
The girl named Sakura continued talking, her voice steady, unwavering. She reprimanded Ryuen without raising her tone, each word landing like a quiet accusation. Ryuen's irritation grew by the second.
And finally his patience snapped.
"You know what?" Ryuen clicked his tongue. "I don't even know why I'm trying to convince you to back off anymore."
He straightened, cracking his neck once.
"But hear this, Sakura," he said, a sharp grin forming. "This time, we came prepared."
Some of the masked students shifted, subtle types of energy's stirring around them.
"We're not losing today," Ryuen continued. "Not to you again."
His eyes hardened.
"This time—we're using our abilities. Fuck the rules!!"
Shido's gaze sharpened just a little, interest flickering beneath his calm exterior.
Ryuen lifted a hand.
"Go get her, boys."
The lackeys surged forward.
Sakura exhaled once, slow and controlled. She didn't look surprised. She didn't look afraid.
Instead, she rolled her shoulders lightly and adjusted her footing.
Her stance changed to a balanced, grounded, and precise stance i couldn't recognize.
"Oh your abilities, huh…" she muttered under her breath.
Her eyes locked onto the first attacker.
"Fine by me."
When Ryuen's hand dropped, the lackeys formation tightened.They didn't rush blindly.They moved like they'd practiced this before.
Two from the front. One flanking right. Another circling left. The rest spread to block escape routes.
Sakura didn't shift backward.
She planted her lead foot slightly forward, weight balanced. Her shoulders loosened. Chin tucked.
The first attacker lunged.
A straight punch aimed at her face.
She slipped to the outside barely an inch of movement her body turning just enough for the fist to slice through air. At the same time, her rear leg snapped forward.
A sharp kick drove straight into his midsection.
Thud!
The air exploded from his lungs as he folded and stumbled back into the others.
The second attacker tried to capitalize, swinging wide toward her ribs.
She pivoted smoothly to her right.
Her right forearm rose to intercept, redirecting the strike instead of meeting it head-on. In the same motion, her hip rotated—
Her shin cracked against the side of his left thigh.
A clean, precise impact.
His left leg buckled instantly.
No wasted motion. No dramatic flourish.
Efficient.
Behind the circle, Shido watched quietly.
"…Her base is stable."
Another attacker charged from her blind side. Or what he assumed was her blind side.
Sakura shifted half a step, letting him close the distance.
Too close.
Her knee drove upward towards his face.
The collision was brutal. The boy's head snapped back before he even understood what happened.
Three down.
The others hesitated only for a second.
Then the pressure increased.
Two more advanced together this time, coordinated—one went for high, one for low.
Shido's eyelashes lowered slightly.
"Oh-ho. Now it's gets interesting."
The two lackeys came at her together.
One swung high—a hook meant to draw her guard upward.
The other dropped low, sweeping toward her legs.
Sakura didn't retreat.
She stepped in.
Her left forearm rose just enough to shield her temple as the hook grazed past, and at the same time she lifted her lead leg—
The low sweep hit nothing but air.
Her planted foot pivoted sharply.
Her elbow drove backward.
Crack!
The one behind her staggered, nose bursting with blood as he collapsed.
The second attacker tried to recover, but Sakura was already inside his space.
Too close.
Her right fist snapped forward short, compact, brutal.
His head jerked sideways.
Before he could fall, she hooked behind his ankle and shoved.
He dropped hard onto his back.
Five down.
A murmur spread through the remaining group.
They adjusted.
No more testing strikes.
A faint shimmer flickered around one of them—subtle, barely visible, but enough.
The ground beneath Sakura's foot suddenly softened.
Not visibly—but just enough to disrupt her balance.
Sakura's eyelashes rose as she felt it instantly.
Her weight shifted.
A strike came from her right.
She twisted mid-step, letting the punch graze her shoulder instead of landing clean.
Another presence rushed from behind faster this time.
Enhanced.
She ducked.
A gust of air sliced over her head as something cut through the space where her neck had been.
'So they're starting to utilize their abilities? Good' Sakura thought.
She drove her palm into the attacker's sternum.
But this one didn't fall as easily.
His body absorbed it.
"Hmm some kind of reinforcement ability," sakura murmured to herself, without the slightest hint of surprise or worry.
The lackey she hit grinned behind his mask and grabbed for her arm.
She rotated sharply, slipping free before his fingers could lock.
But now three were on her.
"One with reinforced durability. One accelerating in bursts.... and another whose eyes glow faintly as if... calculating angles."
Shido's gaze sharpened slightly from the sidelines.
Now the numbers matter.
A rapid combo came toward Sakura—one high, one mid, and the last low.
She blocked two.
The third clipped her ribs.
A dull impact.
She slid back half a step.
Not hurt.
But pressured.
The accelerated one darted in again, aiming for her blind spot.
This time she didn't dodge.
She timed it.
The instant the lackey reappeared within her striking range—
Her left leg whipped upward in a precise and clean arc
Sakura's heel connected under his chin mid-dash.
His momentum worked against him.
He spun once in the air before crashing down.
The reinforced one roared and charged straight at her, planning to overpower her with sheer mass.
She inhaled once.
Then stepped diagonally.
At the last second.
He missed her by inches—
Her knee drove into his side as he passed.
Then another strike.
And another.
Targeting the same spot.
The reinforced shimmer flickered.
Cracked.
He stumbled.
And that was enough.
She turned her hip and drove a final blow into his liver.
His legs gave out.
Silence fell for half a second.
The very air was heavy. Dust rising slightly around sakura's feet.
More than half of them were down now.
Ryuen's smile faded just a little.
Shido, hands still in his pockets, tilted his head.
'…Interesting. She wasn't just reacting. She was reading them. But—'
The remaining iruka high students began spreading out again.
And this time…
The air around them shifted more noticeably.
Not subtle anymore.
The remaining lackeys stopped holding back.
The air shifted.
This time it wasn't subtle.
The ground beneath Sakura's feet hardened unnaturally—then rippled like disturbed water. The one controlling the terrain extended his palm, veins faintly glowing along his wrist.
Another raised two fingers.
Thin strands nearly invisible snapped through the air toward her ankles.
'Binding-type!'
A third inhaled sharply.
The air around him compressed.
'Pressure-type?'
They weren't rushing blindly anymore.
They were coordinating.
"Now," one of them hissed.
The ground jerked upward beneath Sakura's lead foot.
It wasn't enough to throw her completely off but enough to disrupt timing.
That half-second mattered.
The pressure user released his stored force.
Boom.
An invisible shockwave slammed into sakura's midsection.
This time—
She didn't fully evade.
The hit connected.
Her body lifted off the ground flying. Sakura twisted her body to the left and began sliding several meters back, her shoes carving into concrete before she finally stabilized herself.
A faint line of blood appeared at the corner of her lip.
Silence.
Then—
Sakura wiped it out with her thumb she looked at it then smiled slightly.
Not a smile of recklessness, nor not of amusement. But one of measure and slight interest?
Behind her, Shido's lazy gaze sharpened.
"Terrain manipulation. Binding threads. Air compression?"
Three support-types working in rotation.
Since the beginning of the fight shido's eyes where tracking Sakura's footwork.
Even under ability interference, her stance stayed compact. Weight distributed slightly forward. Guard high, elbows tucked tight to ribs.
That pivot earlier…
And the way she generates torque from her hips instead of her shoulders…
Another wave came.
The thread-user snapped his wrist.
The strands shot again this time higher.
Sakura stepped inward instead of back.
One thread grazed her thigh but failed to wrap fully.
She grabbed the strand mid-motion—
And yanked.
The user stumbled forward unwillingly.
She met him halfway.
Preparing a short-range strike.
Meant to be direct and precise.
Thud!! It connected.
The lackey dropped instantly.
Shido's eyelashes lowered thoughtfully: "Linear strikes. Tight guard. Heavy reliance on lower-body power."
The terrain user reacted quickly, lifting a spike of hardened earth toward her knee.
She jumped.
But mid-air, the pressure user released another blast.
This one caught her side-on.
She twisted to reduce impact—but she still hit the ground harder this time.
Dust exploded outward.
A few of the standing iruka students grinned.
"She's slowing down—!!"
They surged together.
Four at once.
One reinforced his fists.
One enhanced speed.
One distorted footing.
One prepared another compression blast.
This wasn't random.
It was layered attack.
Sakura rose just as they arrived.
The speed-enhanced one blurred in first—
She tracked him.
Not with her eyes.
With rhythm.
The instant he reappeared next to her—sakura's right leg whipped to the left.
The timing was near perfect—
But the terrain shifted beneath her support foot at the last second.
Her kick still landed—
But not clean.
He staggered instead of falling.
And that was enough for the reinforced one to slam into her shoulder.
This time—
The hit was solid.
Sakura slid back several steps.
Breathing heavier now.
The pressure user lifted both hands.
The air around Sakura tightened.
Not a blast but of Compression.
Crushing inward.
Her movements slowed slightly under invisible weight.
Shido's eyes narrowed.
"She's compensating by shortening her range, interesting."
He focused more intensely now.
"The way she guards.The way she pivots.
The way her shin snaps upward instead of outward… That chamber is high. And her stance isn't square enough for traditional boxing."
He tilted his head faintly.
'Is it a variant? Or did this world rename it?'
Another coordinated rush.
Under compression pressure.
Under unstable terrain.
Under incoming threads.
This time—
Sakura took a hit.
A reinforced fist clipped her jaw cleanly.
Her head snapped to the side.
For a split second—Stillness.
Then—
She exhaled sharply.
And adjusted her footing.
No panic.
No retreat.
Her guard tightened.
Her hips rotated differently this time.
More compact.
More deliberate.
Shido's eyes sharpened fully now.
"…Ah~Now I see it."
But he didn't speak.
He kept watching because the next exchange—
Would confirm it.