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Chapter 6 — It’s a Martial Arts Technique Where I Throw Something So Fast You Can’t See It

Yogiri and Tomochika were surrounded by five fully armed men. Metal armor covered them from head to toe, and they held swords. It seemed they had no desire to talk things through and were aiming to kill the two of them. The way they called them “fresh meat” made it sound like they intended to eat them. Yogiri could see killing intent emanating from them like a black fog. They were likely already in range to attack.

“Mokomoko, can you restrain them or something?”

While they seem quite skilled, I believe Tomochika is enough to disarm them if it is a simple brawl. However, they likely also possess the Gift. In that case, she would not stand much of a chance.

“Then I guess I’ll deal with them. Stay back, Dannoura.”

Yogiri stepped casually towards the first man, who couldn’t react until Yogiri was right in front of him. Yogiri wasn’t a skilled fighter, but he naturally had no fear of his enemy. There was no hesitation or nervousness in his actions. Because of that, his opponent failed to be on guard against him as he walked forward.

Yogiri stretched a hand out and placed it on the man’s chest, finally prompting him to react. He lifted his sword up to strike but never managed to bring it back down. He collapsed motionless on the spot.

“Uhh, what do you call it? Sniping?” Yogiri said.

That refers to guiding an opponent’s actions from afar, Mokomoko replied. You are likely referring to a technique that penetrates armor. In the Dannoura style, it is called Penetration.

“Yeah, that one. Penetration. I can ignore armor and inflict damage straight through it,” Yogiri said, turning to the other four men. Of course, he was just bluffing and had used his instant death power to kill the first one.

“What?!” They never expected Yogiri would attack them. The men began to panic.

“You’re planning on killing us, right? Of course I’m going to fight back.”

“Dammit!” One of the men swung his weapon from quite a distance away. It was a kind of ranged attack they had grown used to in this world. Yogiri deftly sidestepped the attack. Any attack that would be enough to kill would be visible to him as a black line before it happened. Avoiding it was easy for Yogiri at that point, but from their perspective it made him look like a master. He remained totally composed, stepping out of the way of the attack before raising a hand towards the man who had swung his sword. The man immediately collapsed.

“I-Impossible!”

“This is sniping. It’s a martial arts technique where I throw something so fast you can’t see it.”

“You’re just making it up as you go, aren’t you?” Tomochika sighed.

“I’m sure you thought we’d be easy prey, but this is how it is. So, what next?”

“Something’s wrong! No one with the Gift could use the path and just wander in here! Anyone who made it here should be nothing more than prey!”

“That’s what I want to ask you about. Can we talk about it?”

“Of course not! Those two just let their guard down! We underestimated you, but now that we know you’re strong—”

This continent was overrun by constant bloody warfare. If these men were aligned with one of the four factions, they must have been reasonably strong themselves. It was obvious they would have special powers and would likely have ways to deal with others having powers as well.

But they couldn’t take any of those measures here. The moment they tried to do anything, Yogiri recognized it and retaliated, causing another two of the men to collapse. One died while speaking and another while silent.

“I think you guys rely on the Gift too much. Just accept what’s happening in front of your eyes.”

The people in this world had absolute faith in the powers they held. When it failed to function, it seemed like their brains did too. The final remaining man screamed as he turned and ran, finally realizing he was now the one being hunted.

They could finally get some talking done. Yogiri killed the man’s right foot. Restricting the target of his power was tricky. This time, he was trying to only target the big toe of the right foot. That way, even if he missed slightly, the man should still survive, but the sudden loss of feeling in the tip of his foot would cause him to stumble and fall.

Just as Yogiri had hoped, the man tripped and fell forward, landing in the grass beyond the stony ground.

“Stop running. We just want to ask you some questions.”

The man shrieked. He might have been confused about why he had suddenly fallen, but that kind of cry was too much of an overreaction. As Yogiri thought that, the grass began to wrap itself around the man, which must have been what he was afraid of.

Yogiri no longer felt that calling the stuff “grass” was right. It was green, long, and thin, and covered the ground. It looked just like grass, but the way it writhed was unnatural.

“P-Please, save me! Pull! Get me outta here!”

The grass-like strands had wrapped entirely around the man. They groped all around his body, like they were trying to find the gaps in his armor.

“I guess I have to if we want you to talk.”

But if they got close enough to pull the man out, the grass would probably attack Yogiri as well, so he killed the grass around the man before approaching.

“I’ll help you, but answer some questions for me.”

“O-Okay! I’ll tell you anything! Just save me!”

Yogiri grabbed the man’s legs and pulled him out. As an adult man wearing plate armor, he was fairly heavy. Yogiri managed to get him back to the clear stone ground, but it was exhausting work.

“What is that stuff? I knew it looked weird.” It writhed despite there being no wind. He had thought it was strange but had never expected it to attack someone.

“Am I...okay?” the man asked between gasps.

It took a little time, but he finally calmed down. Yogiri took the time to catch his breath as well.

“I want to ask you about a lot of things, including what just happened, okay? If you try to hurt us again, I’ll kill you.”

“Okay! I won’t do anything! I’ll tell you everything I know! Please, spare me!”

“What do you think? I’ve gotten better at this negotiation thing, haven’t I?” Yogiri had been bothered by how often he was told his diplomatic skills were lacking.

“That’s not negotiating, that’s just coercion!” Tomochika responded.

The threat of violence is a fundamental backdrop to the art of negotiation. But...

Apparently, his companions didn’t agree.


◇ ◇ ◇

“My name is Yogiri Takatou. What’s yours?” There may have been no point in introducing himself, but it would be difficult to have a discussion without knowing each other’s names.

“I’m Matsuo.” Maybe as a gesture of good faith, Matsuo lifted the visor of his helmet as he gave his name. He looked like a middle-aged man, somewhat Japanese, but there were plenty of people like that in this world, so Yogiri didn’t pay it much mind.

“There are four countries on this continent, right? Which one are you with?”

“The Slow Life League.”

“Didn’t seem that way to me!” Tomochika interjected.

The man spat. “I never liked it either. I got forced into it when I first came here.”

“Why did you attack us?”

“For your meat. For food...”

“Huh? You were going to eat us?!” Tomochika flinched.

“We weren’t going to eat you! But fresh meat is like gold around here!”

“There’s not much meat?”

“Yeah. There are few wild animals on the continent. People are barely able to raise livestock.”

“Why?”

“You saw the stuff that grabbed me earlier, right? It’s called Seyla. It’s all over the continent. It turns anything it grabs, whether plant or animal, into an undead monster. Of course, you can’t eat it. You can boil it or burn it, but it never dies.”

The word “Seyla” caught Yogiri’s attention, but it was unrelated to the current conversation, so he set it aside for now.

“So, uhh...isn’t it bad enough here that the four countries have bigger things to worry about than each other?” Tomochika sighed.

“Yeah. I feel like you have better things to do than fight.” Yogiri felt the same way.

“Hell if I know. I have no idea what the higher-ups are thinking, but it definitely doesn’t seem like they’d be willing to cooperate.”

“So you were planning on killing us and selling us as meat.”

“Exactly. The only people that come here through the path are weaklings who can’t fight. We thought we were really lucky to notice you...”

“You mean the light we walked on? Doesn’t anyone else use it?”

“Traders use a larger path that takes them right to the neutral zone at the center of the continent. Anyone who gets dumped out here is just a weakling no one cares about. Normally.”

“I see. So your outfit is to protect you from the Seyla?”

“Yeah. You can’t let it touch your skin. Luckily, the Seyla can’t infect anything tiny like spores or seeds, so if you cover your body entirely, you’re mostly safe. Well, underlings like us have to dress like this, but the stronger guys can put up a barrier to keep it out.”

“So if we had accidentally stepped into the grass—”

“You would’ve become one of the Seyla too. We wanted to get to you before that happened.”

“Why didn’t that Potenti guy tell us anything about this?!” Tomochika shouted angrily.

“He didn’t seem to care about us. He probably thought we’d die right away, since we were just ordinary humans.”

“I’m sure Hiruko and Luu will be fine, but does Hanakawa have any way of dealing with this stuff?”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine too.”

“Can you stop having so much faith in him for no reason?! We should definitely try to go and help him!”

“You say that, but he’s probably really far away. At that academy or whatever.”

“Suudoria Academy? Yeah, that’s pretty far,” Matsuo said. “The continent is about two thousand kilometers from its south end to the north end. You’re right in the middle, so if you went straight there, it’d still be a thousand kilometers away.”

Matsuo gave them a rough outline of Belm. It was two thousand kilometers from the south end to the north end, and four thousand kilometers from east to west. It felt a little small for a continent but was still plenty large for their purposes. Each of the four nations held one of the corners of the continent, trying to keep the Seyla at bay. They continuously warred over control of the territory that had yet to be infected. Anyone would think that leaving a place like this behind would be the smart choice, but apparently, that was impossible. Once someone came here, they couldn’t leave.

“So Potenti lied to us! You asked if we could leave, right?!”

“He said that it’s up to the countries’ own rules.”

“Oh, no, as long as you two don’t get infected by the Seyla, you should be able to get out. Ordinary humans can pass through the barrier like it’s not there.” He must have been talking about the invisible wall that Hiruko had run into. If that was the only problem, Yogiri and Tomochika should have been able to escape with no problem.

“But that means everyone else is stuck here.”

“We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it.”

First, they needed to find the Philosopher’s Stone they had come here for. They could worry about escaping after that. It was always possible they would be able to make it back to Japan without ever leaving Belm. Worrying about it now wouldn’t help them.

“Anyway, haven’t we heard the word Seyla somewhere before?” Yogiri asked Tomochika. He thought she might remember better than he did.

“Seyla, huh? I think I’d remember a name like that. Wait, was there a Sage named Seyla? It sounds similar to the others, like Sion, Lain, and Raiza.”

“Not much connecting them except that they have short names. Oh, right.” Yogiri suddenly remembered. “Seyla...like Seira Tendou?”

“Hm? Oh, you know about it already? Yeah, that’s the official name.” Matsuo gave them a puzzled expression.

“What, is that someone’s name?” Tomochika asked.

“Yeah. Seira Tendou. The name of Sage Lain, Reine Tendou’s younger sister.” Yogiri finally remembered he had heard that name from Risley.



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