Chapitre 68: CH_3.9 (068)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
———
.
'—a shinobi is much more than the chakra he wields—'
Did Takuma fully understand the depth behind the meaning of the words that Maruboshi had said to him nearly a year ago? The answer would be 'No'. His teacher had put him through many different skills that he initially thought would be of no use to him. To this day, there were skills he thought he would never ever use.
However, at the same time, the cycle of D-rank missions had shoved him into many paths of life. He had done more different things in his life than ever before. From farming in the soil to sewing with a needle to construction work under the sun to balancing books in an office to standing at a gate and smiling at people as they walked by— he had done a lot of jobs. And surprisingly, some of Maruboshi's teaching had helped him along, and he had learned much more things along the way that had come to his aid in one way or another.
Looking back at it, he was surprised at how little his previous self knew. The stupid college bozo wouldn't have been able to survive in the world if he was one day kicked to the street to fend for himself.
So, while he didn't fully agree or even understand his teacher's words, Takuma had to agree that having knowledge and skill of various kinds was beneficial in general.
Simultaneously, he was still a shinobi. He believed that if he was to learn different skills, they should be more suited to his job title and not just anything until he could call himself a jack of irrelevant trades. His time was better suited to learning and trying things he deemed more useful.
Which was why he decided to test out something practical and valuable to him in the future… and not all because he thought it was fun and something he always wanted to do.
Across the street from him was the headquarters of the Hidden Leaf's— nay, the Land of Fire's— biggest publishing house— Sume Publications. Takuma didn't have time to read many books in his time here, but he did follow the newspaper, and book reviews were a thing in it, and he had heard much about books from Sume Publications.
Takuma wanted to see how deep he could get into the building without getting caught. He could, of course, transform as one of the employees and walk into the building, but the risk of getting approached and talked to by someone was high. If that happened, his disguise would be outed with his inability to talk back— he could act rude and ignore everyone or pretend as if he was in a hurry, but that wasn't ideal.
Moreover, as useful as Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu) was, trained shinobi could catch flaws. They had gone over it during basic training, looking for flaws in each other's transformations. And while Sume Publications was a civilian establishment, he didn't want to use that tactic. It was a self-restriction.
He had something else in mind.
Takuma looked down at the simple set of repairman clothes— they were the equivalent of the high-vis vest— and tucked the ladder under his arm and picked up the red toolbox before jumping down from the building's roof.
He walked up to the entrance of the building where two shinobi stood guard. Even though it was a civilian establishment, a couple of genin guards were hired by the business. The building was both the headquarters and a large printing press. In the Leaf village, a shinobi hub, having one or two genin guards, was considered the basic level of security for those who could afford it.
Taking a calm breath, Takuma crossed the road with his head held high. He had the toolbox, ladder, and a clipboard with blank paper— that was all he needed. Even if they were shinobi, they were still humans. He just needed to believe that this was where he belonged. He could do it.
Without slowing down or looking at the guards, he walked past them into the building. Takuma felt their eyes on him, and for a moment, he felt his heart skip a beat, but as he kept walking, they didn't stop him.
His lips twitched upward as he stepped inside the building. It worked! 'Holy shit, I didn't think it would actually work!' he cheered to himself. But as it turned out, a simple suitable disguise and the right attitude were all he needed to get into most places.
Putting away his smile, Takuma continued. To his surprise, even the receptionist didn't stop him as he walked deeper into the building.
Well, better for him.
His destination was on the floor with the editors, specifically fiction editors. His target: Shindo Eru, a senior editor for Semu Publications.
The reason why Takuma had chosen Semu Publications and Shindo Eru was that he knew both. During one of his delivery stints, he had been asked to deliver a package to Semu Publications, and the recipient had been Shindo Eru. He had been in the building once and had seen the man once.
If it wasn't his first exercise of the type and he wasn't participating in the Ring and thus short on time, he would've chosen a fresh target and would've done scouting— but since he still had to do missions, he deemed that experience as scouting.
As long as he entered Shindo Eru's office without raising suspicion, he would consider it a win.
From what Takuma remembered, Shindo Eru's office was on the edge of an office space that was shared between junior editors in an open-cubicle style. Shindo Eru, being a senior editor, was given his own closed office. For Takuma to enter the office, he needed to go through an entire floor of people without raising any eyebrows.
He had delivered the package directly into Shindo Eru's hands in his office— and he could've used the delivery boy's identity again, but that would've only given him a few seconds in the office, and that's only if Shindo Eru was in his office. If the man wasn't in his office, he would've been forced to hand the faux package to someone else.
He could hide somewhere, but that would've restricted his reconnaissance options as an unknown person would've stood out.
But, a repairman?
Takuma opened his ladder under a bulb just outside the office space with a direct line of sight to the office and pretended to work while observing the premise to figure out how he could get into the office and stay for a reasonable amount of time.
An ideal period to try getting into the office would be lunchtime when people go out to eat, but that was a little over an hour away, and he couldn't wait that long without someone figuring out that something was wrong. And, from the looks of it, Shindo Eru wasn't in his office.
Even if he could stay until lunch, he didn't have that kind of time. He had a fight right after lunch; as he was still a new fighter, his fights were not at times one could call primetime. He needed to be out and away to get prepared for his fight.
"Is there something wrong with that?"
As Takuma was peering around, a voice called out to him. He looked down and saw a bespectacled woman with documents cradled in her arms staring up at him.
Even though he was expecting someone to talk to him, it still surprised him. It took him a moment to reply, "Ah, there's nothing wrong; it's just routine maintenance work, miss," he said with a smile.
"Then can you look at help me with the light above my desk, it has been flickering lately," said the lady.
"Sure, where is it? I will head over there after I'm done with here," he said, keeping the pretense. Inside he was annoyed about the hindrance in his mission, but he kept the pleasant mask on the outside.
Contrary to his expectations, the woman pointed inside the office space. Takuma's eyes shined. He smiled and assured the woman that he would be there to help her in a jiffy. He followed the lady with his eyes, and her desk was a pebble's flick worth of distance away from the office. Lady luck was with him today.
He counted two minutes before heading to the lady's desk, and she showed him the bulb that was bothering her. Takuma set up his ladder and began his pretense.
"Hmm, this looks like it has reached the end of its life; we will need to change the bulb and put in a new one, miss," he climbed down from the ladder. "I don't have one that will fit in this socket right now, but how about I exchange this bulb with one from a less inconspicuous place. That way, you won't wait until we order a replacement."
"That would be really helpful, thank you," the woman smiled.
"Then, I will go search for a matching one," Takuma said, pulling the nigh invisible string wrapped around his pinky.
*Thud!*
The woman turned and gasped when she saw that a pile of paper on her desk had fallen down. She turned and saw that Takuma was nowhere to be seen.
"Huh, where did he go?"
. . .
Takuma silently closed the door to Shindo Eru's office behind him. He grinned as he looked inside the empty office. The tricky part was done, now all he had to do was complete the task and take his exit.
The office had a messy desk filled with stacks of paper in envelopes that looked like manuscripts. There was a bookshelf with a lot of books. Takuma could've stolen them, but he didn't want to cause harm to the man (or the people who had sent the manuscripts). This was just an exercise.
Other than the furniture and decorations, there was a large metal almirah. When Takuma pulled on the handle, he found the doors locked.
'This is it; this is a proper place,' he smiled.
Takuma took out his lock-picking kit from his person and got to work. It took a little under two minutes to pick the lock and… click!
He was in.
There were more documents inside, a packed lunch, a jar of candy, a change of clothes, a formal suit, and more. None of the things interested him. He just wanted to test out his lock-picking skills on the 'field.'
And for the final step… Takuma picked up a blank paper and a calligraphy brush from the desk
Takuma grinned as he put ink on the page.
. . .
Getting out was easier. Takuma threw a smooth decoration pebble from Shindo Eru's decorative bowl across the office space and made a large glass jar fall. The crash was loud enough that it caught everyone's attention for a moment, which was sufficient for Takuma to sneakily get out of the office.
He replaced the woman's bulb, packed his stuff, and walked out of Sume Publications with no one knowing any better.
And later that day, lady luck continued to shine on him as he got a sub-three-minute knockout on his opponent.
It made him think if he should go prowling into buildings as a ritual before fights.
It was a good day of quick in-and-outs.
———
.
Shindo Eru looked up at the faintly flickering light bulb in his office with a frown before looking down at the manuscript envelope. He pulled out the manuscript with the title:
[Icha Icha – Part 1]
— Jiraya
As he got ready to read the first manuscript by the one of the three great Sanin, Jiraya, another folded page fell out of the envelope. It was an unruled page, different from the manuscript paper.
He spread it open,
"Huh?"
Written on it in bold writing were the words:
[BIG DADDY WAS HERE]
Shindo Eru frowned before shaking his head.
He could never understand the eccentric minds of shinobi.
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
Chapitre 69: CH_3.10 (069)
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón @
[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis.
———
.
"Standing victorious at a record of 9-6, I introduce…. SCARS!"
Takuma ran into the arena and locked onto his opponent. A woman that went by the fighter alias Purplewind with a winning record of 36-34 — an almost equal split. And from the looks of it, she was about to complete her initial contract; one more win would mean she would complete her contract with a winning record.
And that win wouldn't be against him, Takuma declared to himself.
"So, you're the new rookie, eh," Purplewind, wearing a grey sports bra and shorts, looked him up and down before scoffing, "you don't look like much."
Takuma didn't respond to the pre-fight chatter and moved in for the attack.
Purplewind had experience and immediately switched modes. She stuck faster than the wind and blocked Takuma's first and second strike in less time than it took to blink. Takuma squared his legs and reset the tension in his foot with a quick hop before lifting off the ground as he twisted his body to put all the momentum behind his elbow that rammed into the block guarding Purplewind's head.
The crowd roared as the fight's momentum turned to eleven right off the bat.
Purplewind footwork all but teleported her a step back as she created enough space before swinging her leg like a scythe toward Takuma's torso. Takuma didn't have a millisecond of rest as the moment his feet touched the ground, he bent his body back into a bridge, barely avoiding the vicious leg strike as it whiffed a few inches above him.
His senses and mind worked together to birth a flash of battle instinct. Even with Purplewind not in sight, he tensed his muscles and shot up a leg like an arrow on a tense bow. Baam! His leg countered Purplewind's jackhammer fist.
He called upon his abs and backflipped himself off his hands back upright. His guard barely went solid before Purplewind's both feet sent him flying across the arena. Takuma gained balance mid-air and held himself steady as his feet skidded across the floor on re-contact, all the while he kept his eye zoned in on his opponent.
Purplewind didn't wait for Takuma to hit the ground and was already charging toward him to maintain the pressure. Takuma shot forward the moment the sliding momentum allowed him.
The two fighters met in the middle. Takuma buried a punch into Purplewind's gut while her uppercut nailed Takuma square in the jaw. She was flung back and barreled as her feet failed to grip the ground. He staggered on the spot and felt his body go through a hard reboot with a momentary blackout.
Takuma shook his head as his eyes refused to stabilize the world. When he could barely make sense of his vision, he immediately searched for Purplewind and found her jumping through the air toward him. His first instinct was to nail her with a Raiton: Shokku (Lightning Release: Shock), but reason took over him the next moment, and he got ready.
Purplewind landed on the floor and immediately sliced her leg in an arc. Takuma effortlessly pulled his torso back to let the strike pass him and then bashed his head into her. It didn't do the damage he was expecting as Purplewind crashed him to the ground.
No grace was spared on the floor as they battered each other with the fervor of a zealot. He pulled on her tight hair bun to jerk her back to the ground. She kneed him in the crotch as he tried to scamper away. Both tried to get up but were more focused on ensuring that the other didn't regain footing before them.
Purplewind got a bit of space and instantly maneuvered into barring Takuma's arm into an arm lock.
Takuma's danger sense screamed hard. Wrestling locks weren't popular with shinobis because they meant a commitment to contact for a period of time, and that opened the aggressor to vulnerability to getting stabbed. Striking was the bread and butter when fighters held superhuman strength and could lift several times their body weight.
But there were no weapons in the current fight, and the Ring wasn't a combat sport.
Takuma knew that if he didn't act soon, Purplewind wouldn't stop at bending his arm until he tapped out— she was going to snap his arm. A broken limb was practically a guaranteed loss, and the damage would then reflect on his life outside the Ring.
He roared as he lifted himself up and Purplewind's body with him and slammed her head into the arena floor with as much brute force as he could muster. He could feel the opposing pressure on his stiffened arm loosen a fraction; he didn't let it pass him and pulled his arm free.
Wanting to re-group, Takuma pulled back away from Purplewind. She got up and also didn't rush into things, and maintained distance. The two fighters circled around the arena, observing each other with their nerves ready to burst into action at a moment's notice. The crowd mimicked the image inside the arena and fell into a murmuring hush, making the underground cave seem emptier than it was.
The balance broke like a crack in a glass. Takuma and Purplewind moved at the same time and met in the middle. Blows were exchanged in a matter of seconds. The pain was beginning to simmer in his body, and Takuma knew he needed to finish the fight before he made a slip, and Purplewind punished him for it.
He jumped to avoid a sweeping leg and focused on his feet to remain agile to avoid Purplewind's attempts to get something that wasn't a glancing blow. He looked for an opening, anything he could use to counter and drag her down into defeat.
He found one.
Purplewind, who was hot on his tail, keeping close to building pressure, paused for a blink of a second. It created space, and Takuma knew this space would disappear soon, so he decided to go in and exploit it.
He stiffened his calves, switched out of the reverse gear, and hopped an inch to reset his feet to go in for the hit. He leaped forward with a raising knee strike and a punch below the ear to get her vulnerable.
But in the same breath, Purplewind pushed the knee strike aside, and before he knew it, he had a fist inch away from him. It was fast. Much, much faster than anything he had seen from Purplewind. She hadn't suddenly gotten faster, as if she had been holding back the entire time; this was a matter of timing— pitch-perfect timing.
And then the fist hit him in the throat— a staple in the Ring.
Before he could even feel the aftermath of his throat punched in, Purplewind kicked him below the ear, snapping his neck. He was mid-air, and the strike spun 180 degrees until he slammed his head on the ground.
Everything after that was a blur as he was hit more, and he couldn't defend until he blacked out.
———
.
He didn't do anything wrong,
Was Takuma's conclusion as he stared at the fight summary stuck in the loss section of his wall.
There was nothing wrong with his decision to exploit the opening he saw. Yes, it wasn't a particularly great opening, but it also wasn't bad. It wasn't his choice that had led to his defeat.
'Did she bait me?' he clicked his tongue. Even if she did, how did she predict his moves so accurately? He could've gone in a completely different direction. It was uncanny how well she had responded. Her counter to his counter was so perfect that he couldn't respond until the end. She simply picked the best move.
The fight had gone well until that point, which in some way, made it his worst loss to date. The only thing worse than that would've been if he had choked away a dominant performance.
Takuma sighed in his frustration as he flicked the paper. The fights were tapped, so he couldn't even go replay the fight to see if he was missing something.
He concluded that he needed to get better with his opportunity selection.
With that, he went to sleep.
———
.
"Currently running hot with a seven-fight win streak, an old name in the ring, the master of combat— BISHOP!"
Takuma watched a man only a few inches taller than him walk into the ring with an eased swagger. He could tell it was a grown man and not a growing child, which meant that the man was short in height. Like some of his other opponents, Bishop interacted with the audience before the fight, hyping the people up.
Takuma was told to ignore the audience, to act like a stoic, battle-hardened figure. It supposedly went better with his branding, and Takuma was satisfied to uphold that. He used the time to loosen his legs as he observed Bishop. The crowd was the biggest Takuma had seen. It was his first time fighting on a Friday night— he was supposed to in the morning, but when he came in, they told him that he would be fighting in the evening.
Every one of his opponents was an unknown to him because he was only given the timing of his fights and not who he was going to fight. He could find that out easily by dropping by the betting counter, which had the fights listed a couple of days in advance, but that didn't help him as he would need to go watch his opponent fight, and till now, he didn't have the time to go watch a fight.
He needed to study the opponent during the fight.
Bishop's audience work was over, and unexpectedly, he walked towards him until he was only a couple meters away from Takuma, who took a few steps back. It was unusual to start a fight at a close distance when the arena had so much space.
"I'm going to pound you, boy," Bishop said with a pop. His brown hyena mask enhanced the mocking of the words.
Takuma tilted his head, confused. Well, he was not confused— this was clearly trash-talking. However, Takuma wasn't in the mood to reciprocate because, unlike Bishop's whopping fourteen-fight win streak, Scar had a two-fight losing streak. He hadn't lost twice in a row before Purplewind; he didn't want to extend that loss streak to three.
The announcer backed out of the arena, and Bishop kept his eyes on Takuma. The moment the metal door slammed closed, Bishop raised his guard up, but unlike Takuma's expectations, Bishop didn't come at him with bellicosity. The man simply kept his guard up and stayed light on his feet.
Without a word, Takuma attacked.
In the beginning, they flowed with each other, letting their strikes dance. Then flow gave way to force and Takuma started his offense. Fighting an opponent closer to his size felt comfortable as Takuma circled, attacked, and defended only when he must, pushing Bishop, seeking to push the man past the limit of his prowess.
Bishop, however, seemed unbothered by the aggression and kept his guard up. He dodged what he could and blocked the other.
Takuma felt in complete control of the fight, and yet he didn't seem to be able to land solid hits.
'He's… slow?' Takuma observed to himself. No, 'slow' wasn't the correct term. Bishop was lightning-quick in his dodges as he weaved around Takuma's attacks. But it was like Bishop had no sense of urgency in his movements.
Why was Bishop satisfied to follow Takuma's pace and practically hand the momentum to his opponent?
Takuma led with a fury of strikes, targeting everything from the head to the legs, but Bishop continued to be on the defensive. Even when Bishop took hits, he didn't look bothered. And Takuma knew this wasn't an ability to attack— he knew better than anyone else what it felt like to be unable to attack while under offense, the entire first year of his existence as Takuma, he had struggled with that— this wasn't that.
What was Bishop planning?
Takuma suddenly checked if he was going too fast. He was familiar with the tactic of cranking up the pace of the fight slowly until the opponent couldn't maintain it— and strike at the breaking point.
But no, Takuma found that he wasn't over-pushing himself. He wasn't getting baited.
What then?
"Okay, that's enough from you, boy," Bishop said, his tone relaxed.
Takuma's instincts acted faster than his mind, and he sensed danger. He immediately shifted his stance to fall back…. He didn't see the strike coming. He only felt the front of his mask bending until the solid fist struck his nose.
It's broken, Takuma could tell even before he could gather himself up after the attack.
Bishop darted in, Takuma reached up to block, and Bishop's left cracked him in the ribs.
"Ack," Takuma wheezed, pain coursing in his side as he backed away. He hadn't been hit this hard in his life. How could he hit so—
Bishop hit him again, forcing out another cry of pain.
Whatever part of Takuma's mind was clouded with pain was focused on pain, but every time he tried to rebalance, he was hit again. He dodged one strike to his strong-side, only to get bashed in the weak-side. He wasn't even allowed to brace himself as Bishop laid heavy strikes that brutalized him one hit at a time.
Takuma's body burned, and his white blurred white as he fell to the arena. The crowd's noise grew distant as his body contracted itself to protect him, but no other attack came.
He closed his eyes to the sight of Bishop's back with his arms spread wide.
———
.
Takuma stared up at the ceiling of the Ring's medical room with a dazed look. His nose was broken, his entire body purple and bruised. The iryo-nin had said he was lucky to have gotten out with a slightly cracked rib and nothing else. Bishop had clearly placed his hits deliberately.
He felt powerless.
For the entire fight, when he attacked, he couldn't do damage, and when he was attacked, he couldn't defend. He hadn't felt this powerless since his entry into this world.
His moves were predicted. Any opening he showed was exploited. Bishop had barely broken a sweat the entire fight and still broke him down with leisure.
He didn't know where things had gone wrong except for the fact that Bishop outclassed him in every way possible.
"Are you ready to leave?"
Takuma turned his head slowly to the side towards the iryo-nin who had treated him a couple times. She was a young brunette with freckles on her face. She seemed to be cleaning up the medical room, ready to leave or, at least, end her shift.
From what he knew, she was Enomoto's apprentice. And as expected of Shady Guy, he had rolled his apprentices into the Ring.
"Yeah, just give me a minute," he said, not looking forward to lugging himself back home.
He thought he had jinxed himself. He had not wanted to get a third continuous loss and had then handed the win to Bishop on a bruised platter.
"You know…"
Takuma glanced at the iryo-nin.
"… you have a tell."
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
200+ Classement
Power Stone 
109 Power
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