Kazuma stepped further into the apartment.
His gaze briefly swept across the room. The floor was cluttered with scattered belongings, a few empty bottles lay in the corner, and the window curtains were half drawn so that only a thin layer of afternoon light seeped inside. The air felt stale, mixed with an unpleasant smell.
But his attention did not linger there.
His focus was on one person.
Takeshi Hongo.
Aoi, who stood several steps away from the door, began to feel something strange. Her body trembled without her realizing it, and her foot instinctively moved back a step.
Kazuma felt… different.
The man did not say a single word to her.
When Kazuma walked past her, his steps were calm yet carried an invisible pressure. The difference in their height and build suddenly made Aoi feel small—something she had rarely experienced since obtaining the Peach Blessing.
Yet the thing that hurt her the most was not that.
Kazuma did not even look at her.
He simply passed by.
As if Aoi were no one.
The girl froze in place.
Meanwhile, Kazuma had already knelt beside Takeshi. He quickly untied the rope binding his friend's hands before checking his condition.
"Hey, buddy. Thank goodness you're still alive."
"Ukh… Kazuma."
"Easy there. Your condition is really bad."
Kazuma carefully supported Takeshi's body, lifting him slowly so the man could stand. Takeshi's body was limp, his face covered with bruises, and his breathing was still unstable.
Kazuma then hoisted him over his shoulder.
But just as he was about to step outside—
Someone suddenly moved to block his path.
Aoi.
Her eyes, which had been empty moments ago, were now filled with surging anger. The hand that still gripped the whip trembled violently.
Her face was red with the weight of her emotions.
"SATOU-SAN!"
Kazuma stopped briefly and glanced at her. His expression remained calm, almost flat.
"Tenma-san, this has gone too far. You should be grateful I haven't called the police out of respect for you. I'll consider this an accident. I hope we can end it here. Hey, are you alright?"
Takeshi, slumped over his shoulder, struggled to raise a hand and gave a weak thumbs-up.
The small gesture was clearly forced.
But to Aoi, that sight felt like mockery.
"YOU TWO!"
Her voice trembled as she shouted.
The anger that had been building inside her finally exploded.
At that moment—
A dense crimson aura suddenly surged out from her body.
The energy pulsed like a thin glowing mist, following the rhythm of her heartbeat. The dark red color flowed around Aoi's body, making the air around her feel heavy.
The wooden floor beneath her feet creaked softly.
Crimson Devotion.
The Peach Blessing born from uncontrollable obsession.
The stronger her emotions toward Kazuma became, the greater the power pouring from her body.
Aoi's breathing became uneven. Her eyes locked onto Kazuma with a mixture of anger, hurt, and something far more unstable.
"I did all of this because of you!"
The red energy around her pulsed again, stronger than before, like a heart beating far too fast.
"Why do you always ignore me!?"
Kazuma looked at her with the same calm expression.
"I appreciate your attention, but I never asked for it."
"SHUT UP!"
Aoi's scream exploded inside the cramped room.
The crimson aura around her body swelled even larger, bursting outward like an invisible wave of heat. The pressure from that energy made the air tremble.
BRAK—
The apartment walls shook violently.
The hanging lamp on the ceiling swayed wildly, while the window glass creaked as if it might shatter. The wooden floor trembled beneath their feet, creating the sensation of a small earthquake shaking the entire building.
The vibration did not stop in that room.
The entire two-story apartment building began to shake.
Several residents who had been in their rooms were startled and quickly stepped out into the hallway.
"Is that an earthquake!?"
"What's going on!?"
Around three residents opened their doors in panic, asking each other while trying to find the source of the strange tremor.
Meanwhile inside the room—
Aoi's crimson aura continued pulsing wildly, filling the narrow space with unstable emotional pressure.
"If I can't have you, then no one else will!"
With that emotional scream, Aoi swung her whip toward Kazuma and Takeshi.
Her movement was fast—far too fast for an ordinary human.
The whip shot through the air with a sharp whistling sound.
If Kazuma had still been his former self—thin, with ordinary reflexes—that strike might have been enough to tear through both of them.
But three months of training under Yamazaki Kudo had changed many things.
Kazuma moved almost instinctively.
He lowered his body quickly while still supporting Takeshi on his shoulder, letting the whip pass only a few centimeters above his head.
WHRAK!
The whip slammed into the wall behind him.
The impact immediately carved a long crack across the apartment wall. Plaster broke apart and small fragments of concrete fell to the floor.
The structure at that point even seemed partially crushed, leaving a rough scar that no ordinary whip could have created.
Fine dust drifted through the air.
Kazuma slowly straightened.
His eyes now looked at Aoi more seriously than before.
He took a short breath.
In one swift motion, his foot moved.
BRAK!
His kick struck Aoi's body with precision—not meant to cause fatal harm, but strong enough to stop her attack.
The girl's body was thrown backward, crashing through the already damaged apartment doorway and landing in the building's corridor. The sound of the impact echoed along the hallway.
The residents who had come out earlier immediately froze.
Their eyes widened at the scene.
A girl surrounded by a glowing red aura lay on the asphalt outside, while a man stood at the doorway with an injured person over his shoulder.
Whispers quickly spread.
"What happened here?"
"Is that… Tenma-san?"
But Kazuma did not care about their stares.
His priority remained the same.
Kazuma immediately stepped out of the apartment while supporting Takeshi firmly, moving quickly down the stairs before the situation grew even more chaotic. His steps were fast but controlled, making sure his friend's body would not be jolted while descending the steps.
As soon as they reached outside the building—
A loud cracking sound came from inside.
KRRRAAAK!
A few seconds later, the apartment structure that had already been weakened by Aoi's outburst finally gave way. The cracked walls collapsed together, followed by the roof falling like a stack of cards.
Dust and debris flew into the air as part of the two-story building crumbled.
People nearby immediately screamed and ran away in panic.
Kazuma glanced back briefly.
Meanwhile, Aoi slowly rose from the rubble. Her hair was disheveled, her breathing heavy, and the crimson aura surrounding her body pulsed erratically again.
Her eyes quickly found Kazuma.
In the distance, Kazuma had just lowered Takeshi to a safer spot by the roadside.
That sight only caused Aoi's emotions to surge again.
Her apartment was destroyed.
And Kazuma… was still thinking about someone else.
The crimson aura exploded from her body once more.
Ignoring everyone around her, Aoi dashed forward to attack again.
Even though this was a public place.
The people who had come out of the building now watched everything with visible fear. Some of them had already taken out their phones and started recording.
Using an Ability against civilians was a serious violation.
In this world, powers gained from Peach Blessings were treated much like firearms—anyone who possessed them was required to have a license and follow strict regulations.
But Aoi no longer cared.
There was only one thing she wanted.
Kazuma.
If she could not have him—then the man would die with her.
Kazuma, who was the direct target, immediately moved to evade.
From the perspective of the surrounding crowd, the situation looked completely one-sided. A girl with a crimson Peach Blessing was attacking violently, while her opponent appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary man.
In the current world, that usually meant only one thing.
The man would be helpless.
Yet what happened was the exact opposite.
WHISSH!
Aoi's whip cut through the air at high speed, wrapped in the dense red aura of Crimson Devotion. The energy coating it made the attack far more lethal than a normal whip—closer to the slash of a katana capable of tearing through a human body.
But—
Kazuma moved.
His body tilted slightly to the side, allowing the whip to pass just in front of his face. The next strike came from another angle, yet he had already stepped half a pace backward, slipping out of the attack's path with a precision that should have been impossible for an ordinary person.
His movements were clean.
Calm.
As if he had already read the direction of the attack before it happened.
Even Aoi began to feel surprised.
Her whip swung again and again, slicing through the air with sharp sounds, but not a single strike reached its target.
Around the scene, the people who had initially panicked were now watching in disbelief.
One of them was even livestreaming the event from their phone.
"Wooo!"
A voice of astonishment could be heard behind the camera.
Viewers in the live stream were captivated as they watched Kazuma continue to evade attacks that should have been deadly.
Just an ordinary man.
Yet somehow able to move against someone wielding supernatural power.