Chapter 6: Ryuen time.
A week after the big announcement of class placements.
It is Saturday afternoon when I was called out by someone. The path for how the Class C will go forward is this day.
I moved to an inconspicous place.
"This guy is really calling me to these random places, it's really annoying." I said out loud.
I opened the door that leads to the rooftop of some building. Since there isn't classes today for the weekend, there are limited number of people in this place.
"Ku ku ku, so you've come Akabane."
The one who welcomed me is the man with shoulder length hair with a smile on his face. In the side are some of the students in tow I'm familiar with.
Ishizaki Daichi, he's the guy that dozed off at the start of the classes. Ibuki Mio, a girl that is always by herself but with considerable athletic ability. And lastly Yamada Albert, a big black half Japanese guy in our class.
There were others like Komiya Kogo, Kondo Reo, and Kaneda Satoru too.
"What's this? A gathering of ragtag bunch of lowlives gathering here?" I said with fully intention to provoke them.
"You bastard!" Ishizaki really wanted to lash out, but Ryuen waved his hand at him.
"What's this Ishizaki? Did Ryuen finally put a collar on you on his leash? What a cute little puppy you have become." I said continuing to push their buttons.
Not gonna lie, I'm starting to think all of this are interesting. My inner Karma is tickling me inside.
"Enough of that Akabane. I have something important to talk with you." Ryuen said.
"What a coincidence. I also have something to talk with you about." I said.
"Akabane, what do you think about this school's S System? Knowing that you're smart, you already have your own thoughts about it don'tcha think?" Ryuen said.
This school's S System. This school might be pretty well regulated with it's rules, but there are still some loopholes, blindspots, or anything that falls in the gray can be overlooked if you play your cards right. Researching the surveillance cameras, bribing the senior students, and making the back-alley deal with Class A were all part of it.
That's not something Ryuen at this stage knew about and are still experimenting the boundaries on how much the school can tolerate.
"Oh? You mean that previlage where the school guarantees the university or workplace of your choice after graduating?"
"That's right. And to get that, we need to climb up to Class A. What do you think?" Ryuen said.
I only gave him a smile, "Well you could say I'm not really interested with that."
"Ku ku ku, you might say that now. But aren't you interested in climbing up classes and crush the enemies? Join me Akabane, as long as I lead this class I'll guarantee this class will win." A wide smile plastered on Ryuen's face and offers his hand on my direction.
"Haaa... And what do you want? You want me to be one of those pet dogs like around you? I'm sorry but I'm not interested. It's fine if you want to play king of the mountain and try to look tough, but keep it only to your scented territory." I mocked them, fully intending to pick some fight.
"So you won't accept my offer. Then I'll just have to crush you here, so you'll never defy me again." Ryuen said signalling Ishizaki with his chin.
Ishizaki came at me with a full force swing of a punch. I dodged it with minimal movements putting myself in an advantageous position. I set up a trap, and after only three moves I neutralized his movements with a gut punch.
Komiya and Kondo also came at me after Ishizaki. They come at my flanks which made it a little challenge to fight. I moved in a way where I was barely managing myself to get out of their attacks.
But with each move I made, I was putting them out of balance. I was moving as little as possible and yet at the fastest speed possible, rendering them powerless.
I finished it off with a punch on each of their temples knocking them out in a single blow.
Albert moved at my blindspot and hugged me from behind. He was fully intending to restrain my movements with pure brutes strength. It's a wise choice, this way I wouldn't be able to use techniques to fight.
Next I used my feet to deliver a kick on Albert's shin. He flinched a little loosening his grip on my torso. With a little freedom of movement, I drove my elbow straight on his gut followed up by a knee straight on his face. I finished him off with an axe kick on the top of his skull.
"Come on. Is that all you've got?"
"Well, I guess we underestimated him. He acted so tough because he was confident in his skills, huh? I didn't expect this."
It was Ibuki's turn. He moved like an agile wildcat using her kicks. His maneuvers surely came from being highly trained martial artist. But I caught her legs in the ankles and slammed her down to the ground fully injuring her.
"What's this Ryuen? Are you content on leaving it all to your dogs? How about you come down here and let's throw down? If you want to come at me, then do it as if you'll try to kill me." I gestured with my hand across my neck in a provoking manner.
Ryuen looks like he's fully intending for a fight, not clearly intimidated by my threats.
"Ku ku, even if I have to die. I'll make you submit to me."
He immediately jumped on me for a kick. I dodged nimbly to the side. But then he followed it up with throwing sand on my face. Such unconventional tactics might have surprised normal combatants, but I was trained by elite assassins around the world. Even without relying on my vision, I could still read his moves like the back of my hand.
I threw him down at the ground. I stomped down my foot but he was able to roll away just in time. When he got up, I gave a spinning side kick hitting him in the liver.
"Guhaa!!"
His body collapsed on him. No matter how much tough and vicious you are mentally, no matter how much fighting spirit you have, once you received a direct attack coming for your liver your biological functions to receive commands from your brain would cut off. It will incapacitate the person instantly.
"Really? Would you rather die huh?"
I pulled out the hair of his bangs up to look at me in the face.
"Then, what about now?"
"Ngh!!" Ryuen threw another punch with struggle.
I was surprised he still have the strength to fight back when his body is in that state. Impressive, really impressive.
He stood up from his feet, but his legs were already shivering. Clearly the damage he took was nothing to scoff at. He shouldn't be standing based on pure logic. He was standing only purely out of his willpower.
"I didn't really want to use this. But since you're so persistent."
I moved closer at his face. My hands wide apart. And then...
CLAP!
Ryuen is stunned. He collapsed down like a log.
...
A couple of hours later, Ryuen and the others were able to recover. I ordered Kaneda who didn't participate in the fight to help them.
Even when they suffered several injuries, it would only take a day or two for them to recover. I was careful not to use lethal force or assassination techniques in a high level.
Ryuen suffered the greatest damage of all. Although he didn't suffer any broken bones or bruises like the others, the lingering side effects of clap stunner might resurface but he should be able to recover in a couple of days just before the start of classes this week. It's a matter of psychological mind.
My skill level on this technique is already at Advanced level. I held back not to permanently impair his mind.
"So it was a complete defeat for me."
"Anyone with a good insight should have come at me alone. If you faced me alone, surrender should be he wisest move."
"Heh, and here I thought looking down on others is my specialty. Guess I'll have to retire from that." Ryuen said.
A week passed by since the information about how the school operated were revealed to us. Ryuen judged that for him to win, he would first make himself the king of the class. He managed to bring most of the class under his rule. Ishizaki, Albert, Ibuki are proof of that.
"So? How are you going to use me?" Ryuen said. I could tell he's acting subservient now. Maybe because of my interference, he somewhat changed than the original.
"Use you?"
"Don't play dumb. Since you beat me with everything I had, then aren't you going to be leading the Class to climb in Class A now?"
However he didn't expect that in the middle of his conquest, he would step on a dragon's tail. He stumbled upon it and was prepared to fight for his life. And yet he was spared. The dragon let him reign over his own kingdom.
"Ryuen, in the first place I don't have any intentions on taking on as the Class C's leader. You can do anything you want in Class and take the leadership role for yourself. I have a different plan in mind." I said.
"What do you mean by that?" Ryuen asked.
"Heh, I knew you would say that. The fight we'll have with other classes, I'm sure it wouldn't be easy. It will be an uphill battle where we don't even know how far we'll have to climb to reach the top. I will let you lead the class with your policies on how you want to win this battles, I will cooperate. But I have no intention on being your dog. I could have objection over your methods, but I will give your free reign as long as you showed results. That should be fine isn't it?" I said.
Ryuen looks at my face as if discerning if I was being sincere. After all he just experienced complete defeat from me.
Ryuen didn't just used violence to gather his lackeys. Based on the information I got, Ishizaki and Ibuki lost a bet with Ryuen. They fought and Ryuen won, so they followed him. However Albert was different. No matter how polished was Ryuen's combat ability, he couldn't win a hulk like Albert in straight up fight. Ryuen asked Albert to cooperate with him. Albert accepted since he doesn't really want violence, and he believes that Ryuen would definitely lead this class to the top.
I didn't remember all the details in the novel, but I was judging it based on real primary source of information.
"I understand."
With that we put our discussion to a close. With this Class C has taken a step forward.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone