Riyo undid a metal clasp or something of the sort. First her left glove, and then her right glove, fell to the ground. She wasn’t bare-handed under the gloves, though. There were thin pieces of cloth wrapped around both of her hands. They probably weren’t heavy or hard, but were simply meant to protect her hands, rather than being a weapon like the kuduses.
“Please fight me.”
Before Haru could answer, Riyo took her boots off as well. Like her hands, her legs had thin cloth wrappings around them.
Haru took off his mask and set it on the ground. His face was different than before. It was still pale as pale could be, with a network of blue veins under the surface. But even so, Manato got the impression that something had changed. When he had first seen Haru’s face, it had looked like the face of a dead man, or of something artificial, but now, while it still only had a thin semblance of life to it, he didn’t look dead anymore. Haru then took his cloak off as well.
“If that’s what you want, I’ll spar with you.”
“I’ll be going all out from now on.”
Riyo tilted her body. She was already running. She’d said that, from now on, she’d be using her full power. Which meant that she hadn’t been before.
There was an incredible sound, and Haru went flying.
“Ngh—”
Haru spun through the air, only to be smacked down out of it. Riyo had taken off at a run, gotten ahead of him, and then hit him in midair with a reverse roundhouse kick. And as his back hit the ground, there was already another attack coming at him. Again. Riyo turned diagonally, and as she did, she swung her arms into Haru’s body. He didn’t just lie there and take it, though. He curled into a ball, as if assuming a defensive position.
Haru’s body bounced upward, and as soon as he was airborne, Riyo pummeled him with both her arms again.
If she’d done that to Manato, he didn’t know if it would kill him, but it would probably have been enough to knock him out. How had Haru gotten out of that situation? Manato had watched the whole thing without blinking and he still had no clue.
Haru grappled Riyo. No, he tried to, but she immediately threw him. You’d think that would have put some distance between them, but not when Riyo was his opponent. She closed in on Haru, whom she had just thrown, in an instant, and what did she try to do to him next? It wasn’t clear. Whatever it was, he blocked both her right arm and her left leg with his hands at the same time. Using the momentum from having been pushed away, though, she shifted her center of balance diagonally and performed a backward somersault.
Riyo’s head swayed up and down as she moved in a circle centered around Haru. Her legs were obviously in motion, since she was running, but her arms, and even her fingers and wrists, were moving too. They never stopped for a moment.
Haru was hunched over with his knees bent, and he wasn’t moving. Blood dripped from the left side of his lips.
“Odradd was originally a fighting style meant for unarmed resistance,” Yori explained. Her whole body was slightly tense. “It’s easier for Riyo to bring out her full strength without kuduses and hadumas. But often the user’s body can’t take the strain and breaks down.”
“Are you worried about Riyo?” Manato asked.
Yori snorted. “That girl decided to go this route on her own. If she had continued training with the Six Embers, she might not have gotten to Yori’s level, but she could have gotten somewhere with it.”
“The Six Embers is what you use?”
“Riyo wasn’t blessed with a natural ability for inhaling mana. Unless you can use both the internal spirit—prana—and the external spirit—mana—you can’t master the Six Embers. So instead, she apprenticed with this inscrutable Emi or Bubur or whatever and learned Odradd.”
“Oh, I see. Riyo must’ve thought she couldn’t become as strong as you with the Six Embers.”
“For her to try to become as strong as Yori was a mistake in the first place. Riyo’s just not good enough for that.”
“But if she couldn’t at least get close to being as strong as you, she’d have needed you to protect her.”
“Even if Yori didn’t want to, Yori would have protected her,” Yori said, pulling the knee she was hugging closer to her chest. She sounded sullen.
“Well, she is your little sister.”
Manato chuckled. Without missing a beat, Yori slapped him on the back, and not lightly. Manato coughed. Her response seemed so silly to him that he ended up laughing again. This time, she didn’t slap him.
Riyo moved to attack Haru again, but it seemed like something had changed. He deflected her long right arm with his left hand, and at the same time, he reached out with his left leg and kicked her right knee, or rather, pressed down on it with his left foot. Riyo stopped. Not of her own volition, but because Haru had forced her to. He then used her right knee as a stepping stone to gain some elevation.
It’s a knee strike.
Haru aimed his own right knee at Riyo’s face, but her body was incredibly flexible. It was shocking to think a spine could bend like that, but she managed to bend over backward, out of the way of his knee strike.
Manato couldn’t keep track of what happened after that. He didn’t know how, but Haru was briefly able to put Riyo in a pinion. She slipped out of his arms, though, and instead pinioned him herself. But no sooner had that happened than they both fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs.
“Haruhiro’s already seen through Riyo,” Yori murmured. Bitterly. “Odradd seems unorthodox at a glance, and it’s far from simplistic, but there are rules governing it. Riyo is still easy to read compared to her master, Emi Bubur. Once she builds up some more experience, she’ll outstrip her master in no time, but Emi Bubur is stronger now.”
“What about Haru?”
“His performance isn’t a matter of strength.”
“Well, what is it, then?”
“He’s a monster.”
What did she mean by that?
Riyo and Haru didn’t get up for quite some time. They rolled around on the ground, trying to pin each other, grabbing at arms, legs, and necks.
But then, Riyo suddenly leaped back up to her feet. Haru rose only a split second after that.
Riyo caught Haru’s face between her arms. Oh, but she wasn’t just wrapping her arms around him. After she got a good hold of him, she twisted hard. Manato shuddered. It was so scary he could only laugh. If she had done that to him, it would’ve been terrible. His bones would’ve been broken, and his head would’ve popped.
Haru’s neck bent in a strange direction. His head hadn’t ruptured. That obviously wasn’t gonna happen. But his face was a mess. His skin was torn open and blood was spurting out of him.
“Is something wrong?” Haru asked, despite the terrible state he was in.
Riyo seemed to hesitate for a moment before she followed up with a roundhouse kick using her left leg. She might’ve been trying to catch him between the kick and a right-hand strike.
Haru wrapped his arms and legs around Riyo’s left leg. He seemed to be trying to break her knee and ankle joints. In order to stop him, she slammed the leg he was clinging to into the ground, but that wasn’t enough to get him to let go.
“Is that your full power?”
“Grr!”
Riyo was getting mad. Even Manato could tell that she’d lost her cool. She jumped up, spun diagonally, and swept her left leg—and Haru—across the ground. That didn’t knock him off her either, though. She swung her leg up high and performed a heel drop, or rather, a Haru drop, smashing him into the ground twice.
Before Riyo could repeat the move a third time, Haru did something. It looked like he struck her belly around where her solar plexus was. It wasn’t a full-strength punch, but more of an open-palm slap. For a brief moment, the way she was moving her limbs became uncoordinated, and he was able to use that small opening to rapidly shimmy up her body. Haru pushed Riyo over and got on top of her.
“Ooh!” Manato stood up without thinking.
Riyo was lying on her back with Haru straddling her belly. His arms were crossed, and his hands were on her neck, throttling her.
Yori let out a sigh. “Normally, people can’t fight like that,” she said.
Riyo had probably wanted to throw him off, but she hadn’t been able to put up any meaningful resistance. Haru seemed awfully used to doing this. He’d knocked her unconscious in no time.
“Sorry... Yume... Ranta...” Haru said through labored breaths as he moved away from Riyo. His neck was bent backward and to the right, and his face was a terrible mess, yet Haru stood there calmly. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the right word to use. But then again, maybe it was.
“Your...great-granddaughter is...tough... I’ve got...to hand it to her...”
He was probably speaking like that because his broken neck made it hard to talk. It must have been bothering him, because he grabbed his head with both hands and turned it to face straight forward. He held it in that position for a little while, after which it was apparently all better.
Haru released his head and turned to face Manato and Yori. His neck wasn’t bent anymore, and his face was changing too. It was covered in blood, but the muscles, blood vessels, and flesh all looked like they were bubbling as they restored themselves.
Manato was quick to heal too, but he wasn’t that fast. And the way his wounds healed was nothing like that either.
“Yori. Did you want to fight me too?” Haru asked.
“Don’t lump me together with Riyo,” Yori grumbled. Then she lowered her head and slumped her shoulders. “Great-grandma wouldn’t have blamed you for what you did. And Yori won’t resent you for it either. Tell us more about our great-grandpa, Haruhiro. I want to hear what you have to say about him.”
“Of course,” Haruhiro said with a nod. “I’d be happy to. I haven’t talked about him in ages.”