Chapter 36: Best Friends! We're Half Brothers!
For a brief moment, the air seemed to stop moving.
Megumi Fushiguro's guarded expression cracked, shifting into pure disbelief.
Nobara Kugisaki nearly dropped the hammer in her hand, her mouth hanging open.
As for Aoi Todo, the man at the center of it all, he stood there with his thick arms crossed over his chest, completely motionless.
Only two clear streams of tears slowly slid down his rugged face.
Drip.
The tears struck the concrete with a crisp sound.
"Ugh..."
Todo suddenly tilted his head back and let out a choked, emotional sob, like a giant on the verge of collapse.
That nonexistent memory had now rooted itself completely in his mind, wiping away all the violence and scrutiny he had shown earlier.
His heart roared.
So this was it.
This was the answer he had been seeking all along.
Sure, he always talked about liking tall women with big butts. He used that question to judge other people, to determine whether they were worth his time.
But that was only the surface.
Buried beneath that seemingly crude preference was a soul searching to be understood.
Boom!
A violent surge of cursed energy exploded out of Todo's body, kicking up dust and leaves in every direction.
He suddenly took a step forward and flung his arms open wide, as if he were about to crush Yami in a bone breaking embrace.
"My best friend!!!"
His voice thundered across the gate.
"I knew it! I just knew it! Someone like you would understand!"
"Even though we only met today, our souls have known each other for a thousand years!"
"We're half brothers!"
Megumi: "..."
Nobara: "..."
The two exchanged a glance and saw the exact same speechless disgust in each other's eyes.
What the hell was wrong with this guy?
One second he was ready to beat someone half to death. The next second they were "half brothers."
Was this really Kyoto's ace?
Was this even treatable?
And yet, faced with Todo's overwhelming enthusiasm, Yami's expression did not change in the slightest.
He merely shifted one step to the side, light and clean as a leaf drifting away on water, avoiding Todo's sweaty bear hug with effortless precision.
"I don't know you," Yami said calmly.
There was no sarcasm in his tone.
He was simply stating a fact.
"It doesn't matter!"
Todo missed his target, but showed not the slightest embarrassment.
Instead, he pounded his chest with a fist like a slab of iron, producing a heavy thud.
"Our current unfamiliarity only exists to deepen our bond in the future!"
He pointed dramatically at himself.
"I am Aoi Todo, third year student of Kyoto Jujutsu High!"
"From today onward, you are my dearest brother, Yami!"
The tears on his face evaporated almost instantly under the heat of his excitement, replaced by a wild, burning battle intent.
Then he ripped off the last pathetic strip of cloth still clinging to his upper body, revealing his absurdly muscular frame in full.
"Even so..."
His grin widened.
"Men must verify their friendship with their fists!"
Thump!
The ground shook beneath his feet.
Todo vanished from sight.
"So fast!"
Megumi's pupils shrank.
That speed, achieved through raw physical ability alone, was actually even more explosive than his own body reinforced with cursed energy.
So this was Kyoto's monster.
"Come on, my brother!"
Todo roared as his massive fist, wrapped in dense cursed energy, tore through the air toward Yami's face.
He showed no mercy at all.
To him, going all out was the greatest form of respect.
Faced with that overwhelming punch, Yami did not draw his sword.
He did not even move his feet.
To outside observers, he looked almost frozen, as if Todo's pressure had pinned him in place.
But only Yami knew what was actually happening.
In his perception, the world had slowed.
Against Todo's overwhelming strength, the straight aggression of Sun Breathing was ill suited for a friendly spar like this.
In the space between one breath and the next, a new rhythm formed in his mind.
A softer current.
A calmer flow.
A blade that did not clash head on, but guided and redirected.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, host. You have comprehended the derivative Breathing Style: Water Breathing.]
"Total Concentration... Water Breathing."
Yami lifted his left hand slightly.
The scabbard of Shiranui traced a smooth arc through the air, gentle as a ripple spreading across a quiet lake.
Just before Todo's fist could touch the bridge of his nose—
tap.
A soft sound.
The black scabbard landed with perfect precision against Todo's wrist joint.
There was no collision.
No hard impact.
Only a continuous, elastic force, fluid and soft, like water flowing around stone.
Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance.
Yami's body shifted like a leaf gliding over a river's surface. With the slightest turn of his wrist, the devastating punch that could have shattered rock was pulled off line.
"What?!"
Todo's expression changed for the first time.
He felt as though his fist had plunged into a rushing current. Instead of meeting resistance, his own strength had been caught, redirected, and carried away.
And in that instant, Yami stepped in.
Using Todo's forward momentum against him, he lightly tapped the end of the scabbard against his abdomen.
Water Breathing, Seventh Form: Piercing Rain Drop.
He had not even drawn the blade.
And yet, that thrust carried a piercing force like water drilling through stone, slipping past layers of muscle and striking directly into Todo's core.
Bang!
Todo's enormous body lost balance and blasted backward like a cannonball.
Boom!
He crashed into the roadside greenery, smashing through branches and kicking up a cloud of dirt and leaves.
"Todo senpai!"
Mai Zenin cried out instinctively, her eyes widening in disbelief.
That monster had just been sent flying.
With a scabbard.
And the sword had not even been drawn.
The dust settled.
Todo slowly climbed out of the bushes, looking a little ragged. Dry leaves clung to his shoulders and hair, and his abdomen still throbbed from the strike.
But his face showed no anger whatsoever.
Quite the opposite.
His grin grew even brighter. Even crazier.
"Hahahaha!"
"Good! Good! Good!"
He slapped the dirt off himself and stared at Yami with raw, undisguised admiration.
"As expected of my dearest brother!"
"Your taste is refined, and your skills are even better!"
He pointed at Yami with an expression that looked one step away from religious devotion.
"That move just now... pure technique, wasn't it?"
"No brute force. No flashy power. You took my own strength and used it against me!"
"Wonderful!"
Todo straightened up fully, still half covered in dust, but no less imposing than before.
He gave Yami a deep, lingering look.
From beginning to end, Yami had not moved a single step.
"Fine. That's enough greetings for today."
Todo glanced at his watch.
"If I keep fighting now, I'll miss Takada chan's handshake event."
His face turned deadly serious.
"That is absolutely unacceptable."
He turned around and waved with his back to them.
"My brother! Be ready!"
"At the sister school exchange event, I'll come at you with everything I have!"
"Then we'll enjoy a truly satisfying fight!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Still laughing, Todo strode off as abruptly as he had arrived.
He had come like a storm.
And left the exact same way.
Only a mess remained behind him, along with several deeply shaken onlookers.
"What... what was that idiot even here for?"
Nobara's lips twitched as she stared after him, her worldview visibly taking damage.
Megumi let out a slow breath of relief, then looked at Yami with a complicated expression.
"You okay?"
"Yeah."
Yami slid Shiranui back into its sheath and calmly watched Todo's disappearing figure.
That man was insane.
But his heart was surprisingly pure.
And more importantly...
Yami lowered his gaze slightly to the sword in his hand.
In that brief exchange, he had clearly felt the density of the cursed energy suppressed inside Todo's body.
If he had tried to put him down using only physical skill and swordsmanship, without the overwhelming force of Sun Breathing, it would not have been nearly so easy.
"A decent opponent," he murmured.
Then he dismissed the thought.
His eyes were no longer on these students.
The sword in his hand existed for only one purpose.
To cut down the most evil curse of all.
"Let's go."
Yami turned to the two of them, who were still half stunned.
"It looks like Maki senpai's run into some trouble."
The moment he said it, the air around him cooled slightly.
In that brief lull after Todo's departure, he had caught something else.
A sharp metallic click.
A breath of malice.
And the distinct presence of a gun aimed at someone he acknowledged as one of his own.
From Mai Zenin's direction.
If he had not misread it, the revolver was loaded with real bullets.
Yami's eyes turned cold.
He was usually gentle.
Patient, even.
But if someone tried to harm a companion he recognized...
That was a completely different matter.
.....
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