Chapter 54: Bro, Don't Mess With Me
After cleaning up the room, Kazama began calmly assessing his control over the Shadow Khan.
The situation wasn't optimistic.
He discovered that The Shadow card had actually forcibly seized partial control of the Shadow Khan from Shendu.
Unlike Tara or Shendu who possessed a direct line to the Shadow Kingdom and could pull as many ninja as they wanted with control permanently in their hands—
Kazama was different. Once his Shadow Khan were scattered or destroyed, they would return to the Shadow Kingdom, and after disappearing, there was no way to resummon them.
This meant he couldn't casually use them as cannon fodder anymore.
Kazama counted.
Excluding the two assigned to Valmont, he only had sixteen Shadow Khan left.
"Truly the newly rich who still must budget carefully."
Kazama sighed and waved away the ninja still standing by in the corners.
He really needed to consider obtaining his own batch of Shadow Khan.
Though they were currently disposable consumables, at least they didn't require wages or meals. Using them to move bricks and make money was still quite cost-effective.
What more could he ask for?
As for Valmont's side, Kazama wasn't worried at all.
He understood that man too well.
In the original series, Valmont was a man of his word—when he said he wanted money, he wanted money. Talismans and masks and such didn't matter. They'd all ultimately become money-making tools anyway.
Moreover, to be safe, Kazama had Shadow Khan monitoring him 24/7. If there were any problems, they'd notify him immediately.
After handling these matters requiring brainpower, Kazama's gaze finally returned to Yukino.
The boy looked rather wretched now. On the torn shirt at his abdomen, a patch of dark red blood had seeped through.
That was from earlier at the school stairwell when that thug Mishima Kini had punched him hard.
Although Yukino had been enduring it, Kazama knew very well that punch was definitely not light.
He walked over and gently poked that abdomen belonging to himself.
"Hiss—!"
Yukino wearing Kazama's shell sucked in cold air and instinctively shrank back.
"Don't touch it. It hurts."
Her tone held both grievance and stubbornness.
"Pain is good."
Kazama skillfully pulled out the standard first aid kit. As a solitary orphan, this thing was essential.
"Take it off."
He held iodine and cotton swabs without looking up.
"...What?"
Yukino froze, suspecting she'd misheard.
"Take off your shirt. How can I apply medicine through clothes?"
Kazama raised his head. Those pretty eyes were written all over with "are you an idiot?"
"I..."
Yukino's face instantly flushed red.
Though she was currently using a boy's body, being watched by another person—especially when that watcher currently wore her own pretty face—not only didn't reduce the shame but multiplied it.
"Hurry up. Otherwise if the wound gets infected and festers, I'm the one who'll have scars."
Kazama urged impatiently.
"We're both men... oh wait, now I'm the woman and you're the man. Anyway, the body is my own—what's wrong with me looking at myself?"
This rogue logic left Yukino speechless. She bit her lip, performing actions Kazama would absolutely never do normally.
Button by button, she undid the shirt. As the fabric slid down, that boyish torso was exposed to the air.
Not particularly muscular, but with smooth lines and obvious muscle definition.
Those were traces left by long-term part-time work and exercise.
Only now, on that originally clean skin, several shocking bruises had appeared.
"Tsk, that bastard really didn't hold back."
Kazama's eyes darkened. That distressed expression wasn't fake at all—
After all, once they switched back, he'd be the one suffering.
Then he dipped a cotton swab in disinfectant and wiped the wound with extremely gentle movements.
Yukino sucked in cold air, her body instinctively flinching.
At this moment, afternoon sunlight filtered through gaps in the curtains, landing precisely on Kazama's profile.
Yukino looked at that face so close before her.
That face she'd seen in mirrors for eighteen years.
Cool, refined, carrying a kind of unapproachable pride.
But at this moment, the expression in those eyes was something she'd never seen before.
Gentleness.
"It might hurt a bit. Bear with it."
Those thin lips that originally belonged to her parted slightly, speaking a warning tinged with indulgence.
The cotton swab gently touched the wound.
That stinging sensation definitely existed, but in this instant, Yukino's brain seemed to short-circuit, completely ignoring the pain.
Her heartbeat began accelerating.
Even abnormally fast.
"Thump, thump, thump."
That sound echoed in her chest cavity, making her eardrums numb.
What was happening?
Why did she find "herself" at this moment so attractive?
No, that wasn't right.
That wasn't herself—that was Kazama Chiba.
But this gentleness, this feeling of being treated so carefully, and that faint fragrance emanating from him (the scent of her usual shampoo), mixing together, created a lethal chemical reaction.
Too unfair.
Really too unfair.
Why did this guy using her body have even more charm than herself?
That protective instinct emanating from his bones, paired with that originally somewhat cold face, actually produced an extremely lethal chemical reaction.
It was like you'd been driving a family car for years, always thinking it was just so-so.
Then suddenly a race car driver got in and pulled off a drainage ditch drift, so cool you didn't even recognize the logo anymore.
"Could it be..."
A terrible thought surfaced in Yukinoshita Yukino's mind.
"This guy is more suited to being 'Yukinoshita Yukino' than me?"
This cognitive dissonance and shame instantly rushed to her head, even accelerating her blood circulation.
"What's wrong? Does it hurt that much?"
Kazama, focused on treating the wound, noticed something off.
He looked up, puzzled at "his own" face that had instantly turned liver-colored.
"Fever? Or did you get a concussion from that beating?"
Kazama was about to reach up and feel his forehead when suddenly two warm streams flowed down Yukino's nostrils without warning.
Drip.
"Holy crap?!"
Kazama jumped in fright, nearly jabbing the cotton swab into the wound.
"What's wrong with you?! Internal injuries acting up?! Kerberos! Put down that damned pudding! Call 120! No wait, call an ambulance!"
Frantically grabbing tissues, his voice cracked. This was his body! If it really got damaged, what would he do in the future?!
"No... no need!"
Yukino was mortified to death.
Too embarrassing.
Really too embarrassing.
As the young lady of the Yukinoshita household, actually getting infatuated with her own face and having a nosebleed?
If this got out, she, Yukinoshita Yukino, could just disappear from this planet for the rest of her life.
"It's just... just the weather's too dry! I'm not used to this body's constitution!"
What a terrible excuse.
Even she didn't believe it herself.
"What do you mean 'it's not'! It's bleeding this much and it's not serious?"
Kazama was genuinely panicked—that was his body! What if there really was some hidden illness?
"Come on, come on, to the hospital! I knew those thugs had no restraint! If they beat you into an idiot, I'll become an idiot too!"
"I said it's nothing, so it's nothing!"
To cover this embarrassment that could cause social death, Yukino forcibly changed the subject.
"Speaking... speaking of which, I have something to tell you."
She took the tissue Kazama handed over and stuffed it roughly into her nostrils, speaking nasally:
"About that ceramic lamp—the auction."
"Hmm?"
Kazama's hands paused while putting away the first aid kit.
"I didn't know that ceramic lamp was so important to you before. At the time I thought you were just a shill, so I didn't stop my sister... I'm very sorry. Really. I apologize on her behalf."
"Huh?"
Kazama froze. Looking at that boy blocking his nostrils while seriously apologizing, he couldn't process this extremely jumpy train of thought for a moment.
"You mean that? It's fine. Just pay attention next lifetime."
"I'm serious."
After letting the burning feeling in her heart gradually subside, Yukino said: "That money... I'll find a way to repay you at triple the price."
Kazama looked at her like she was mentally challenged.
"Miss Yukinoshita."
"Do you think money can solve everything?"
"I..."
"Alright, shut up. I don't want to discuss this with you."
Kazama directly interrupted her spellcasting.
Seeing Kazama didn't want to talk about it, Yukino didn't press further and obediently closed her mouth.