CH 171

“Hoi!”

I carried the still unconscious Hisui in a princess carry and set her down on the grass in tree’s shade.

It was more like throwing her though, I pretended not to hear the loud thud and sat down next to her.

However, I did feel a little sorry for her, so I cleaned her sand-stained face with a cloth.

“But… that was the best way to reduce Hisui’s HP carefully.”

“A-Ha-ha-ha. Do I look like a person who would enjoy such a thing?”

“ughh…”

“Well, that was certainly quite a sight to behold.”

While my viewers were cornering me, A-chan came in giggling, then sat down beside me. It seemed she was happy with this situation.

Following Arthur, Kokuyo looked into Hisui’s face, who was lying beside me.

“How is Hisui?”

“She’s just fainted. I didn’t even mean to hit her that hard.”

“No, you certainly used all your strength to deliver that counterblow, didn’t you?”

“A-Ha-ha-ha.”

I don’t know what you are talking about?

“If anything, it wasn’t the impact of the hit that knocked her out, but the follow-up blow… Well, it has been a good experience for this child. She’s only thirteen years old, after all, so please bear with her immatureness.”

“eh?”

I couldn’t help but stare at Hisui because of Kokuyo’s remarks.

She’s taller and stronger than I am, but she’s only 13 years old?

It’s a bit surprising to think that a 13-year-old can grow up to be so developed, especially considering that oni folk looks so young even though they can be over 100 years old.

I guess that just means that they have a long period of youth to fight. Yeah, if so, that might fit their profile as a tribe specializing in fighting.

“She’s 13? You’re lying!”

“Oh, Himiko is almost 30, right?”

“Don’t remind me! It only makes me feel worse.”

When I teased her about it, she started to cry.

Still, she didn’t deny it. Well, considering her story about her disownment, I think that was about right.

“So, how was Hisui from Sukuna’s point of view?”

The question from Kohaku reminded me of the spar I just had, which is quite sad to be called one.

“Hmmm… she is tougher than I thought?”

“Yeah, you’re right about that.”

I was joking earlier when I said that I didn’t hit her that hard because, in reality, I slammed her with all I got.

Hisui’s speed is, in fact, very fast. If I added that force into the calculation, the impact she took should have been tremendously powerful.

Even so, Hisui’s HP could withstand it, and from there, she was tough enough to keep the substitute doll from breaking for a while.

In short, she was tough while being extremely agile. That was the impression I got.

“That’s caused by Hisui’s unusual status. Her highest stat after agility is… vitality.”

“… isn’t that a stat specializes in endurance battle?”

Since her highest stat was agility, and the next highest stat is defensive type, she definitely lacked firepower.

An ideal stat for tank, maybe…? It’s an okay stat If you’re in a party since you can team up with as many jobs as you want, but when you’re soloing, any battle will become a battle of endurance.

“I’m sure she’ll be a good warrior if she focused her growth in that direction. But Hisui herself admires Kohaku-sama, so…”

“Oh, so that’s why she got irritated at me.”

My status has been focused to strength since I was about level 30.

It’s not as extreme as Kohaku, but it’s still the highest strength value among all players.

And it cannot be helped since I need to allocate a certain amount of agility and dexterity in my early days, so it is bound to be lower than Kohaku’s extreme strength.

In contrast, Hisui’s status is the complete opposite of Kohaku’s; Agility and vitality. The fact that she admired Kohaku meant that she wanted to specialize in strength, but she ended up with a far from ideal talent.

Even so, at the age of 13, she is over level 100, so she is probably a diligent child with excellent combat talent.

This also means that her fighting technique alone is more than enough to compensate for her low attack power.

If Hisui had fought with a calm mind, there was a possibility that I would have struggled more.

While thinking about this, I stroked Hisui’s head, and she seemed about to regain consciousness.

“Ugh. ……”

“Good morning. How is your feeling?”

“Ah…., e…..umm.”

Hisui woke up. Then she froze when she saw my face and began to shake. Her eyes are teary. A complete fear could be seen inside it.

“Are you okay?”

“… I’m sorry, but my body trembled beyond my control…”

< It’s imprinted in her body…>

{imitating abused child?}

I could read the comments from my viewers from the corner of my eyes, who (as always) were saying whatever they wanted, and it was quite punishing this time.

I can’t help it. I’m a bit too motivated.

As I was making excuses in my mind, Hisui stood up and bowed deeply to me.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I was so rude to you when we first met.”

“No, don’t worry about that. No, don’t worry about that. I also deliberately provoked you back, and I also went a little too far with my actions.”

“… a little?”

“What is it?”

“No-nothing!”

I send my smile at Himiko, who dare to retort me. She then immediately runs to Kokuyo’s back. As expected from Himiko, she can mercilessly use people as a shield.

“I jumped at the trap and was crushed. The defeat was so clear that I could not even speak back. I thought I had unleashed the best attack that I could, but in retrospect, that was probably the biggest mistake I’ve ever made…”

“It was a fast but plain attack from the side. It was too linear.”

After hearing Kohaku’s comment, all Hisui could do was hang her head down.

She seemed to be thinking about the reasons for her defeat as she spoke, but that one comment probably touched the deepest part of her heart.

“You’ve been lured into one of the sweetest traps in that so many openings… Sukuna-dono jumped into a position where she could counter in an ideal way. It’s as if she read your thoughts and guided you into it.”

“Ah, yes, I saw an example of that technique recently, so I practiced a bit of what I learned from it.”

“Example?”

It was Kohaku who tilted her head when she heard my words.

“Yeah. You see, a while ago, I tried to kill a girl in the city of beginnings.”

“Yeah, and that’s not something you should talk proudly about, but that’s right.”

“At that time, I was aiming to kill the girl after examining all the people in the square, but as it turned out, it was a fake object that turned out to be Melty… or rather, it was a decoy. Anyway, the point is, I was led to do that.”

What happened just before the fight with Kohaku in the city of the beginning has been bothering me.

At that time, there were many NPC children in the square, and that girl was not the only one in a position where she could be easily killed.

Even so, I unconsciously tried to kill that specific girl, or you could say Melty is the one who guided me to aim for her.

“I recalled what happened that time, and it occurred to me that I might be able to use it to guide others, so I tried it. It went okay, but I’d give myself a score of 70.”

“Hmm, if it worked as intended, isn’t that a hundred?”

“I can’t guide people properly without opening my senses limit, so that’s a minus. It might go smoother once I get used to it…”

By closely observing the target’s every move, I can create an optimal opening and lead their attack to it. This is the only way to do it, but it requires an unusual amount of information to be processed in the brain.

It’s hard to keep up with my current concentration level, so I have to force my senses to open up and accelerate my thought process to fully process all the information.

“Sukuna has good eyesight, which makes her good at counter, but counters are only possible if the opponent attacks. If you can intentionally create an opening, you can expand your fighting style.”

Kohaku was the first to understand what I was saying, probably because she was there, and she nodded in agreement.

“But… No matter how linear I was, I think I was fast enough, but Sukuna-dono said that I was slow, right? Am I really that slow, Sukuna-dono?”

I couldn’t help but scratch my cheek when Hisui regretfully asked that question.

“Umm—no, that was a slip of the tongue back then. It’s not that I’m trying to make fun of you or look down on you.”

Before I hit Hisui with the counter, it seemed that she could hear the voice that I unintentionally let out while she was getting closer.

When I opened my senses limit to the fullest, my thinking speed also jumped to the limit to process the huge amount of information.

To put it simply, it also raised my concentration.

And in the past, it was not uncommon for my surroundings to slow down when I fully concentrated. Like when I fought the True Dragon of Apocalypse, I was able to get into a state of concentration which people called the zone.

But this time, it was on a different level than before.

“It was as if time had stopped,” I said

That answer to the accidental byproduct I had discovered by fully utilizing my five senses has made the air to my surrounding people a little colder.

Tl note:

I’m adding an isekai tag! –not.

But seriously… this is far beyond what VR could do… right?