CH 5.2

“It’s too late to be scared now. I’ll make you regret to the death that you dared to fight me! “

Kawato rushes in, shouting angrily.

( We’ve already started !? )

He screams in his mind, but he can’t think of anything unimportant; what Kawato and I are going to do now is to fight.

Unlike sports, there is neither the necessity nor the inevitability of a fair fight when someone starts it.

Shiki, who had no time to think about how he would land a front kick, was so desperate that he unhesitatingly threw a front kick as hard as he could at the oncoming Kawato.

“Aww! “

Almost at the same time, Kawato punched him directly in the face.

From the feel of the soles of his feet, it seems that Kawato was also caught by his front kick, but because he was punched in the face, he could not confirm which part of his opponent’s body he kicked.

He fell down because he was also hit when he was standing on one leg due to the front kick.

Shiki thought without a doubt that he would be killed if he was pinned down like this and tried to defend himself by shrinking down like a turtle.

“…what? “

He sees Kawato in his vision, prone on the ground with his hands clutching his stomach.

“God…damn it…. “

He cursed in a hushed voice but did not seem to be able to move even a little from his prostrate-like position.

“Hey. You won the first exchange because you did what I told you. “

Karin walks up to him with a subtly smug look on her face and holds out her hand.

He hesitates to hold Karin’s hand, but that’s no reason to ignore her kindness, so he takes her hand and stands up in contemplation.

( Is this… really real? )

Looking down at Kawato, who was lying on the ground, he couldn’t understand what was happening.

Karin, perhaps sensing his state of mind, asked him something like this,

“Try to remember the time when you almost collided with me again. Shiki was going up the stairs in a five-step leap at a time as it was normal, right? “

“That’s… because since the first year, Kawato-kun and the others have been making me do their errands every day with a time limit, so it just happened naturally.”

“I don’t know if it’s good or bad for Shiki to say that, but anyway, you were forced to dash up the stairs every day, and that’s how you got decent leg strength to climb the stairs in a five-step leap as it was normal. That’s why I gave you that advice. With that kind of leg strength, I thought you could handle an idiot guy who is not used to fighting. “

Karin’s unexpected words make Shiki’s eyes widen.

“Not used to fighting…that Kawato-kun? “

“Well, to be precise, all three of them are.”

Karin says calmly, and Shiki is now very quiet.

“You look like you don’t believe me. The only reason Shiki feels that these guys are good in a fight is because they are used to beating people up. It doesn’t mean they are used to fighting. In fact, that’s the reason you were able to beat that idiot Kawato.”

“That’s… might be possible, but… “

It’s still incomprehensible to me―perhaps this thought was showing on his face. Karin continued her explanation as if to emphasize her point.

“People like Kawato and others have an advantage in a fight compared to ordinary people like Shiki because they are used to beating people up. The people who are used to beating people seem strong because they are, in most cases, either those who do not hesitate to hit people or those who like to hit people, and unlike normal people, they can hit people as hard as they can and look strong. Shiki can only kick Kawato as hard as he can, partly because you were desperate, right? “

Just when he thought that might be true, he suddenly realized.

“Don’t tell me that…Kohinata-san calculated all that and gave me that advice?”

Suddenly, a silence fell.

“Err, o-of course I did.”

Karin’s eyes amusingly wandered as she answered him.

“Don’t tell me…Kohinata-sa――”

“Aah! You know! That’s it! For example, if two guys have the same punching power, but one is used to hitting people, and one can only hit people with half the force because he’s not used to hitting people, the difference in punching power would simply be twice as much, right? Shiki’s illusion that Kawato and the others were experienced in fighting was due to the difference in their punching power! “

“That means… if I hadn’t been so desperate, my kick might not have been as powerful as Kohinata had assumed, and I might not have been able to beat Kawato-kun… “

Again, silence fell.

“Oh, I believe anyone can be a good fighter when they want to be! It’s true! I’m not lying! “

Karin’s eyes were swimming so much that he couldn’t help but smile as she emphasized this.

( …yeah. Let’s just say the result was a blessing in disguise.)

Shiki was kind enough not to mention it.

“Anyway! Our school is called a fin-de-siècle school because there are so many delinquents and idiots, but surprisingly few are used to fighting in the true sense. I think there are maybe only two or three dozen of them. “

The number of delinquents at St. Lukimantz Academy is 70% of the more than 650 students enrolled.

Maybe Karin is right that the number of people who can really fight compared to the number of delinquents may be surprisingly small.

“Especially a guy like Kawato. He seems to have hit only weak guys, right? He may think that someone weaker than him can’t fight back, and even if he has experience in one-sidedly hitting someone, he doesn’t have much experience in being hit, so his defense is not very good. So I thought that a guy with legs as strong as Shiki’s would be able to sink him with a single front kick.”

Karin looks at his crotch, and Shiki closes his crotch subconsciously.

“Well, if you can shoot a high kick, that would be better, but you haven’t done any flexibility exercises, have you? “

He thinks to himself, [Oh, that’s why she was looking at my crotch.] and he replies with a nod of the head.

“Then, why don’t you start today? “

When she asked him this, Shiki was blindsided.

Kawato, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly got up.

“Ooooooriiifuuushhiiiii !!! “

He shouts in an animalistic rage and tries to hit Shiki.

The sheer force of the scream is so strong as if it will cause a yelp of pain to escape from his throat.

” ……!? “

Suddenly, a high kick hits him.

Karin’s right leg hit Kawato in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious this time.

“If you can get your legs up smoothly and swiftly like this, I think Shiki will be able to beat most people.”

Karin smiled triumphantly at him, but Shiki turned his away from her even though it was too late.

Again, Karin is wearing a mini-skirt.

What would happen if she did a high kick with such a skirt?

Seeing Shiki’s reaction and his refusal to make eye contact with Karin, Karin’s face turns reddish.

“You’re a fool, you know that? Of course I’m wearing safety pants under my skirt, and I’m not ashamed to show it.”

The color of her safety pants was pure white, and although he thought it was rude, he was deeply surprised about the color.

“I was not a child to make a fuss over someone looking at my pants, you know. The reason I’m wearing such a skirt is just to tempt the boys and play with them.”

The unintelligible bravado continues.

Perhaps because of her bad attitude, like a delinquent, for better or worse, Karin does not want people around her to think that she is naive and inexperienced.

Just as he was smiling at her childish attitude, he suddenly realized that his fear of the [Empress.] had decreased significantly

“Anyway, I don’t care about the pants, let’s get back to Haruno now.”

TN: Shiki with a high-kick, probably at the end of volume 1. (illustration from the book.)

Left Text: Life-or-death decisive battle―!

Right Text: “If you don’t stand up, I’ll kick you. In the same place I did before.”