In that case, the sneak attack she pulled just now—
“Won’t work again. He won’t give her another chance to use her Evil Eyes on him.”
So then, what are we supposed to—
“No need to worry. She’s an idiot when romance is on the table, but most of the time, she has a surprising mind for strategy. She’s not stupid enough to waltz on into a fight without a plan. Quite the opposite, in fact. If she’s going out of the way to show herself like this, it could very well mean that she has her sights set on an unprecedented chance to get the upper hand on Kiryuu.”
Yeah...I’m not really following this. It felt like Sagami had just struck up a conversation about characters from a story I’d never actually read. Saitou Hitomi and Kiryuu Hajime seemed to have some sort of deep connection with each other, and Sagami seemed to know all about it, but I was completely clueless.
Now then—it might seem like I just took a very extended period of time in a very tense situation to casually discuss a new character who’d just arrived, but bear in mind that said discussion transpired with Future Sagami over the course of a split-second premonition. Back in the real-world timeline, barely a moment passed after Saitou’s arrival before yet another new character came into play.
“Hraaah!”
A man sprinted onto the scene with all the speed and force of a raging hurricane, roaring like a frenzied, feral beast and carrying a large jackknife in a backhand grip. It was an incredibly decrepit blade, so beat up and jagged that its edge had grown saw-toothed, and the way he slashed at Kiryuu with it reminded me of how boxers threw jabs.
Kiryuu just barely evaded the man’s attack, dodging the knife’s edge by a paper-thin margin. He looked frustrated—almost as if he’d thought he was actually in danger for once. The way he dodged made it seem like he thought that even a scratch from the blade would spell disaster.
The knife-wielding man’s first attack had fallen short, but he moved on to the next one with such fluidity it was like he’d been counting on Kiryuu pulling off a dodge. Evading at the last second had thrown Kiryuu off-balance, so the man followed through with the motion of his slash in order to pivot into a spinning hook kick at Kiryuu’s midsection.
It was a nasty kick that the man had put all his strength into...and it scored a clean hit. The sole of the man’s work boot sank deeply into Kiryuu’s flank through his jet-black coat. Kiryuu had raised his arm to guard at the last second, but it hadn’t been enough to diminish the impact much at all, and he fell to one knee.
“Heh! What’s wrong? Wasn’t that coat supposed to have an anti-whatever barrier on it or some shit like that?” the man gloated with a savage grin that made him look like one hell of a delinquent. He didn’t give Kiryuu time to reply, instead charging forward in another brutal assault, swinging his jagged knife with wild abandon.
“Toki Shuugo... He’s another of Kiryuu’s allies-turned-enemies,” Future Sagami helpfully explained. I thought he was about to launch into another telepathic character introduction, but as it turned out, I ended up hearing from the real-world Sagami instead.
“Are you all right, Sagami?” asked Saitou. She’d run over to help him upright while the guy with the knife was occupying Kiryuu’s attention.
“Yes... Well, more or less. I have to say, though...I never thought that you’d end up saving my tail,” said Sagami. “I apologize for every single time I’ve called you an old hag up to this point. I’ll make it up to you, I swear—from now on, I’ll refer to you as a relatively young MILF instead.”
“Right... If you’re doing well enough to crack wise, then I guess you’re in better shape than I thought,” replied Saitou.
“You could say I’m hanging in there.”
“Anyway, you can keep your apologies. It’s not like I earned them—I knew perfectly well you were about to get killed, and I was totally okay with gambling your life to wait for just the right time to spring my trap.”
“Ahh, yes, of course you did. I figured as much, considering just how perfect the timing was.”
“Lucifer’s Strike is an absurdly potent power—enough so to make Hajime an indisputably superior fighter. It doesn’t have many weaknesses to speak of...but it does have one: the fact that he can’t use his biggest attacks in rapid succession,” said Saitou.
“Oh?” replied Sagami. “Ah—come to think of it, Nakki sided with you, didn’t she? That would explain why you know all about his power’s flaws.”
“His control over gravity just isn’t very efficient, energy-wise, and the bigger the move, the more of his fuel it burns. But the thing is...for who knows what reason, Hajime always brings those big moves out anyway whenever he’s finishing an opponent off. It’s like using one of his special moves is a matter of image for him, or his pride wouldn’t allow for any other way, or something like that.”
“Both, I’d imagine.”
“Well, anyway, the point is that Hajime’s MP is totally drained right now. He’ll have a hard time taking on Toki in that state—hard enough that he won’t be able to focus on anything else.”
Lo and behold, as Saitou spoke those words, the gravitational force that had been weighing on me vanished. If she was right about everything she’d just said, then Kiryuu had exhausted his MP so severely that he couldn’t afford to keep me paralyzed anymore. I felt so light all of a sudden, I lost my balance and nearly face-planted into the ground.
“It’s nice to meet you, Andou Jurai,” Saitou said as I staggered precariously, just barely managing to stay upright. “I don’t think you know anything about me at all, but I’ve known about you for quite a long time. You’re... How should I put this? I guess you could say you’re the unwitting third player in my personal love triangle.”
“I’m what?” I said, gaping at her.
“Ha ha ha! Sorry—that probably sounded like gibberish to you, huh? Long story short, I’ve thought of you as my rival in a really weird, one-sided sort of way for a while. Don’t worry about it,” Saitou replied. Her one visible eye narrowed as she flashed me a lighthearted smile, but a moment later, her expression shifted into something much more wistful. “Hajime’s been over the moon ever since he met you, you know? It’s like he finally found someone who understood him—someone who’s cut from the same cloth as him. When he talks about you, he gets this look in his eyes that I’ve never seen from him before.”