Chapter 49: Yukino Suffers Heavy Damage
Just after Kazama had "persuaded" The Change card to sleep—
At the same time, on the west stairwell of Sakigawa High's main building.
This area was usually a surveillance blind spot and a gathering place for so-called delinquents.
The air reeked of cheap cigarettes mixed with old hair gel—a pungent combination.
Yukinoshita Yukino had originally planned to hide somewhere quiet on the roof, but encountered a lovely surprise at the stairwell entrance.
Three boys wearing garishly modified school uniforms blocked the stairway corner like meat walls, completely cutting off the path.
The leader had dyed yellow hair and a half-unlit cigarette in his mouth, staring at Kazama Chiba with eyes that looked like they'd found their father's killer.
That was Mishima Kini.
Sakigawa High's infamous gang leader—did everything except good deeds.
"Well, well, if it isn't our young master Kazama?"
Yukino frowned.
Although this body was much larger and stronger than her original one, that instinctive disgust still made her want to step back.
"Please move aside."
She used Kazama's deep voice to speak in formal language completely inconsistent with this body's usual style.
"This is a public area. Your behavior constitutes obstruction of passage, violating school rule number..."
If this were the usual Yukinoshita Yukino, this kind of presence might intimidate these rabble.
Unfortunately, she currently wore Kazama Chiba's face.
And Kazama Chiba's position in this little circle was as an easy target to bully.
"Huh? School rules?"
Mishima Kini laughed like he'd heard the world's funniest joke, exaggeratedly cleaning out his ear.
"You're talking to me about school rules? Kazama, did you knock your brain loose just now? I haven't even settled accounts with you for switching the shoe locker nameplates last time! When I opened that locker and got doused with a bucket of glue, where were your school rules then?"
As he spoke, his expression turned vicious as he approached step by step.
"Those were brand new limited-edition sneakers! You did it on purpose, didn't you? Huh?!"
What was he yelling about? Shoe lockers? Glue?
Yukino couldn't understand these hostile words at all.
She just found it absurd—did Kazama Chiba really survive in this kind of environment? Dealing with these uncommunicative savages?
"I don't know what you're talking about. If it's a misunderstanding, we can go to the guidance office—"
"Misunderstanding my ass!"
Mishima Kini hated this honor student tone most.
He didn't give Yukino a chance to finish speaking. His fist swung hard toward her abdomen.
"Ugh—!"
Yukino's vision went black.
Her stomach felt like it had been hit by a truck. That intense pain she'd never experienced before instantly blanked her mind. Her previously straight back curved like a cooked shrimp.
Her attempts to maintain an elegant posture instantly collapsed.
"Cough... cough cough..."
She clutched her stomach, legs buckling as she knelt on the ground.
It hurt.
It really hurt.
As the second young lady of the Yukinoshita household, the worst injury she'd suffered in her life was a scrape during gym class.
This kind of malicious, unreserved violence was a dimensional reduction strike for her.
So this... is violence?
No room for reasoning. No space for explanation.
In this school supposedly full of youth, this kind of savage vigilante justice actually existed?
Was this the world Kazama Chiba faced every day?
"You're down already? What happened? Usually you're pretty good at dodging, aren't you?"
Mishima Kini clearly hadn't expected this guy to be so easy to beat today. After a moment of surprise, his smile became even more cruel.
"Since you're not dodging, don't blame me for being rude! Brothers, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Beat him good!"
"Hey, boss, that's enough."
A lackey beside him looked nervously at the newly installed voice-activated device overhead.
"I heard Hiratsuka Shizuka specifically requested the school install voice-activated alarm systems in these blind spots to catch bullying. If it detects words like 'help' or 'stop,' the police coming is one thing, but if she shows up we're finished—"
Mishima Kini glanced at him. "That's easy to fix."
Then he exchanged a look with his accomplice. Both faces simultaneously showed a knowing smile.
"Since we can't curse, let's yell that instead!"
"Oh! Got it!"
The next second, the lackey also cooperatively shouted and struck the same pose.
Yukino lying on the ground struggled to open her eyes, looking at this scene in confusion.
Have these guys lost their minds?
Before she could figure out what was happening, Mishima Kini suddenly took a deep breath, channeling his energy, and let out a glass-shattering roar at her:
"SASUKE—!!"
"NARUTO—!!"
"Let this guy taste our unmatched bond!!"
Accompanied by these hot-blooded manga-style yet extremely absurd shouts, two fists the size of sandbags whistled through the air toward Yukino's cheeks from left and right.
Yukino desperately closed her eyes.
She had no strength to dodge.
The severe abdominal pain made even standing difficult. She could only watch helplessly as those fists grew larger in her vision.
In this moment, what welled up in her heart wasn't just fear, but a deep sadness for the person called Kazama Chiba.
So he'd been living in this kind of hell all along?
She wanted to close her eyes and accept this final humiliation.
But after waiting a while, the expected pain didn't arrive.
Yukino tremblingly opened her eyes.
What met her gaze was herself.
Kazama Chiba stood casually in front of her, steadily catching the punches from both Mishima Kini and his companion.
"Yuki... Yukinoshita?"
Mishima Kini was clearly stunned by this sudden turn of events.
He looked at the school goddess who'd suddenly appeared, then at his fist that was caught and couldn't be pulled back no matter how hard he tried. His face was written all over with disbelief.
Why is this girl so strong?
"Hey, young lady, this doesn't concern you, right? We're just having a friendly exchange with our classmate—"
"It truly doesn't concern me."
Kazama tilted his head slightly.
"I'm just passing by. By the way..."
"Aren't you afraid of being seen by surveillance doing this?"
"Huh? Surveillance?"
Mishima Kini's accomplice laughed like he'd heard a joke.
"Young lady, are you really clueless or just pretending? This crappy school doesn't have money for full coverage surveillance! This place is a blind spot! Can't even catch a ghost on camera! As long as we don't talk, who knows what happened here?"
"I see."
Kazama nodded, his face showing a look of sudden understanding.
"That makes things simple then."
"Since no one can see, you can all die now."
The moment those words fell, the air twisted almost imperceptibly.
Yukino felt her vision blur. The three figures standing before her suddenly became hazy—
Then, like a movie scene, those three delinquents seemed to suddenly lose interest, or perhaps feared the Yukinoshita family's influence. Cursing and swearing, they withdrew their hands while shouting things like "how boring" and "we'll get you next time" before turning and swaggering away from the stairwell.
"They... left?"
She breathed a sigh of relief, her taut nerves finally relaxing.
However, in the real world—
Before those two thugs could comprehend what "die now" meant, black shadows had already coiled up their ankles.
Immediately after, sharp shadow spikes pierced through their throats, hearts, and limbs like a hot knife through butter—completely unobstructed.
Even their screams were blocked in their throats.
The three bodies didn't even have time to fall before those hungry shadows instantly devoured, decomposed, and dragged them into the bottomless dark abyss.
As if nothing had ever happened.
"..."
Kazama clapped his hands, releasing the illusion barrier on Yukino.
He looked down at his own body still lying on the ground with blood at the corner of its mouth.
"Hey, can you still stand up?"
Yukinoshita supported herself against the wall and stood, looking at the empty hallway in confusion.
"They... left?"
"What else?"
Kazama said lightly. "Probably intimidated by my kingly aura. After all, this body is the school's number one beauty."
However, this beauty was currently clutching her still-aching mouth corner, wiping away a trace of blood.
"Your... interpersonal relationships are truly catastrophic."
This was probably the greatest humiliation Yukino had suffered in her life, but even now, she still tried to maintain her pitiful self-respect through this barbed assessment.
Kazama quietly looked at that face that belonged to him but now showed that stubborn expression only Yukino would have.
"I don't usually feel anything about it."
"After all, I don't live based on interpersonal relationships."
Yukino fell silent.
She looked at the person who had just saved her, complex emotions welling up inside.
"...Thank you."
She said quietly.
Though she had ten thousand questions, though she felt incredibly conflicted about this guy who could always appear precisely at trouble scenes, this thanks came from instinctive upbringing.
"You saved me again."
Kazama didn't want to bring up childhood matters, so he crossed his arms and explained:
"No need to thank me."
"I wasn't saving you—I was saving myself. If those two punches had damaged my internal organs, I'd be the one suffering after we switch back."