Chapter 42  : Invitation

A short while earlier.

"Why did you come here as well?" Kaede Juumonji furrowed her brows at the red-haired man.

The red-haired man held a cigar in his fingers, which he intermittently took long drags from. He had fierce, bushy eyebrows, a hardened face, and his eyes gleamed with a savage light. His name was Zankita Juumonji, and he was her half-brother from a different mother as well as one of the top-notch fighters in their mafia gang. He was a true battle maniac.

"Is that how you should be talking to your older brother? Hmph, I even saved you recently!"

"Big Brother Hisashi was the one who saved me, not you."

"What!? It was clearly me…"

"Big Brother Hisashi was the one who convinced father to not punish me, or did you really think that you could convince father with your fists?"

"Er…" Zankita Juumonji scratched his head with a trace of embarrassment, "Well, at the very least, I was on your side!"

"Fine then. Thank you, Big Brother. But… why are you here?"

"Your gratitude sounds totally insincere!"

Zankita spat out the cigar dangling from his mouth.

"I’m obviously here to see the guy you were talking about."

"You could meet him after I invited him to our place as well." Kaede sighed, "Big Bro, are your hands itching for a fight again?"

Zankita merely chuckled without replying.

"I knew it… let me warn you beforehand—you’re definitely no match for him!" Kaede told him seriously.

"You can know just by seeing Furu-chan—how long would it take you to defeat Furu-chan? Three minutes? One minute? Hmph, well he used only one second and one punch!"

Furu-chan was the scarred man who Seiji had one-hit-KO’d while reaching for his gun. He was one of the stronger fighters in their organization.

"How would I know if I don’t try for myself?" Zankita’s eyes were showing the determination of a duelist.

Zankita loved fighting. Matching bare fist against bare fist was Zankita Juumonji’s favorite activity in the world!

He had the unwavering belief that men should talk with their fists! For him, that was the only type of communication where he could determine a man’s truest personality.

Unfortunately for him, his younger sister and brother both strongly disagreed with him, and they even told him his way of thinking was too archaic and old-fashioned.

Who cared!? That was Zankita’s opinion.

He didn’t understand the way his little sister and brother thought either; all he needed to know was that they were his cute family members.

Ever since becoming undefeated and rising to become the number one fighter in their organization, Zankita wished to seek for someone stronger to fight with. However, due to his father’s restrictions as well as his status, he hadn’t been able to achieve that goal until now.

An interesting fellow had finally appeared.

He single-handedly defeated one-third of all the goons in their gang, and he even defeated Furu-chan with a single punch. All the members he defeated were still resigned to resting in the hospital.

Even though Zankita could do the same thing, he had to admit after watching videos of the incident that he couldn’t do it the same manner.

No… more importantly, is a person with such an outrageous amount of power even human!?

Zankita Juumonji knew that there was a hidden side to this world that ordinary people didn’t know about. Not underground organizations like the mafia gang his family ran, but "mystical" things that were incomprehensible to ordinary people.

This person probably belonged to that category.

This idea alone made Zankita more excited than anything, to the point where his entire body trembled with anticipation!

He couldn’t bear to wait for his little sister to invite that person over to their place.

He wanted to meet that person as soon as possible and challenge him!

…

Seiji already anticipated what would happen next when the red-haired man looked at him.

As the red-haired man began to rush towards him, he chucked his bookbag into the air.

*Whoosh!* As the red-haired man approached Seiji, he threw a straight uppercut, aiming directly for Seiji’s face!

*Smack!* Seiji was unfazed by his uppercut and easily blocked his punch.

The red-haired man immediately followed up with a rapid flurry of tornado-like punches!

To everyone else, his fists were thrown with such speed that they could only see blurs. Before they could even see the attack clearly, Zankita had already punched again.

Even with this blinding combination, Zankita had failed to land a single punch.

The boy in the high school uniform was able to block each and every attack!

‘Amazing!’ Zankita Juumonji shouted in his heart.

He was pushing himself to his utmost limit. He used his full power and maximum speed for every punch, desperately hoping that at least one blow would land on this youth’s body!

But it was still fruitless!!

The high school boy’s expression remained calm throughout, just like… No, he completely saw through each of his attacks and was able to block everything!

Then how about this!?

Zankita feinted with a punch, before he suddenly kicked out with his right leg towards the high school boy’s left shin!

Juumonji style kicking technique—Whirlwind Kick!

This move had broken the leg bones of countless underground fighters.

How would this brat block it? Or would he dodge instead!?

Zankita received his answer in the next moment.

Seiji neither blocked nor evaded his kick.

Instead, he took a single step towards Zankita and closed the distance between them.

His one step was followed by a devastating elbow attack!

*Bang!*

Zankita discovered that he was flying through the air.

It felt like he had been hit by a car!

When he finally landed back down to the ground, the leftover force forced him to roll him several times before friction finally absorbed the impact.

In order to maintain his image in front of his subordinates, Zankita crawled up again after receiving Seiji’s elbow. However, his chest was throbbing explosively, and he failed to suppress the mouthful of blood that spurted up.

Everyone silently watched Zankita struggle.

*Thud!* Suddenly, a loud sound echoed out.

Seiji reached out with his left hand and managed to perfectly catch the bookbag that he had previously thrown into the sky.

The spectators wordlessly focused their gazes on him.

What the hell! How could he possibly be this… cool!?

Kahei Watari and Takashi Kobayashi completely astounded.

He tossed his backpack into the air before the fight started, had a high-speed fistfight which they could barely perceive, obtained victory with ease, and timed it perfectly to catch his backpack again… Was this even real life!?

Was this supposed to be a scene from a movie!?

The two delinquents’ minds were in turmoil.

Kaede Juumonji’s eyes were starstruck. Her pale face flushed deep red, giving her a sultry appearance.

"B… brilliant…" Zankita Juumonji barely managed to speak as he forced himself to remain standing while wiping the blood from his mouth.

"It… seems like you’re real…"

‘Don’t act like you did that simply to see if he was the real one or not!’ Kaede Juumonji thought to herself as her half-brother interrupted her daydreaming.

She then sighed deeply.

"You guys… hurry up and take this idiot away to see a doctor."

After ordering her subordinates, she turned around and walked slowly towards the high school boy.

"My deepest apologies, my idiot big brother was rude to you."

Seiji silently watched the blonde girl who lowered her head and bowed towards him.

"Sorry for troubling you to come all the way here. But please believe me—we harbor no ill intentions towards you. My name is Kaede Juumonji, and the idiot that attacked you is Zankita Juumonji. We’re from the ‘Juumonji Group’. It’s fairly well-known in this area, and we would like to invite you to our place to have a chat with us about various matters," Kaede said in a soft and gentle tone.

"What if I refuse?" Seiji asked.

"Then we’ll invite you every day until you agree." Kaede quelled her nervousness and continued to speak softly.

After a moderate period of silence.

Seiji finally let out a sigh.

"Alright, seeing as how you were relatively polite about it, I’ll come with you to your place for a chat."

At any rate, if something bad happened, he could just load again.

Not only that, he also needed some more information about this group of theirs… At the very least, he needed to know their intentions in order to know how to deal with them.

Kaede inwardly heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"Thank you very much. Please get on our car then." She indicated to a nearby car with her hand.

Just as Seiji stepped forward, two voices suddenly spoke up.

"We… we want to go as well!"

It was the two delinquents. Kahei Watari and Takashi Kobayashi seemed tense yet resolute as they looked at Kaede.

"You only found Harano-san because of me." Kobayashi ground his teeth as he spoke: "He’s our classmate and our… savior! We can’t just watch you guys take him away!"

"Even though we don’t have the power to stop you, but… at the very least we want to accompany him." Watari also opened his mouth and spoke in a low voice.

Seiji blinked in surprise.

Kaede was also somewhat taken aback.

"We’re inviting Harano-san as our guest, so there’s nothing to worry about. However… if Harano-san wishes to, you two can also tag along." Kaede allowed Seiji to choose.

Those two delinquents didn’t seem all that bad.

Seiji smiled mentally. At least they weren’t the ungrateful type.

"If you want, feel free to come. I’d also like to ask you two just exactly what happened."