Chapter 26: "Old Friend"
After Mihai entered Chiba, the first thing he discovered was a large number of members of the Yomi Hand-to-hand Group.
But, as he expected, after the Campione Hikigaya Hachiman went to Tokyo, there were no important figures from the Hand-to-hand Group left in Chiba.
Only small fry remained, and they couldn't even detect Mihai's arrival.
But Mihai's target was not among them.
As Mihai approached the Hikigaya residence, he discovered traces left by the target.
"Still so cowardly," Mihai scoffed contemptuously, then followed the trail.
He was the kind of person who liked to say, "The greater the skill, the greater the boldness," and "So-called morality is just mutual comfort among the weak."
Urashima-style Koryū Jujutsu was one of the unarmed martial arts schools successfully absorbed by Yomi in its early days.
However, it turned out that the Urashima family actually belonged to the "Living Fist" faction, which later became Yomi's mortal enemy. The contemporary Urashima family successor stayed in Yomi for several years without even killing a chicken.
But because the Urashima family had provided assistance within their capabilities during the early formation of Yomi and maintained good relationships with various unarmed martial arts schools in Japan, they were not significantly ostracized within Yomi Hand-to-hand Group.
After all, Yomi was fundamentally a group of masters whose goal was to preserve the origin of martial arts; it wasn't a requirement to kill people to survive. It was simply that the masters of Yomi generally believed martial arts to be killing arts and had no taboos about killing.
However, compared to the more moderate Hand-to-hand Group, the Weapon Group was an outright killing stream.
In fact, the relationship between the two was so distant it was almost hostile, often resulting in mutual slaughter. If not for the goal of achieving the "Eternal Sunset," the two sides would have fought each other into a bloody mess long ago. This is evident from the fact that the Weapon Group did not regard Hachiman Hikigaya as their spiritual leader—the Weapon Group believed that the martial arts schools represented by the Hand-to-hand Group were themselves the product of martial arts being suppressed.
This was also the reason Mihai held a grudge against the two people from the Urashima family. Being part of the same batch to enter Yomi, and belonging to the weapon and unarmed factions respectively, they were naturally antagonistic, leading to a complex web of grievances on all sides.
But the reason was no longer important. By the time the two from the Urashima family left Yomi and disappeared under assumed names, Mihai already hated them to the core.
People say that those who offend a Campione will have their organization and themselves completely eradicated, but Mihai didn't believe he, as the highest-ranking member of the Weapon Group—which also had a Campione as its spiritual leader—needed to be concerned about this.
He was actually not a mentally sound person; he had been addicted to killing for many years and was unable to extricate himself.
Following the tracks of the two, he entered a park where a small patch of woods grew.
Mihai, who believed that "The greater the skill, the greater the boldness," entered the woods without concern, taking the huge scythe he had been carrying on his back.
Then, he finally saw the person.
"I thought you would keep running. What gave you the courage to stand before me?" He looked at the man sliding down from a tree and said, "Urashima Keitaro."
This man, whom he utterly despised, had almost become one of the Nine Fists of the Hand-to-hand Group.
Mihai called him a man whose "martial arts are messy and neither fish nor fowl."
Mihai had a reason for saying this, as this man hadn't actually studied his family's Jujutsu deeply, far less than the other woman in the Urashima family, but he had haphazardly learned a bunch of other martial arts.
The downside of doing this was obvious in Mihai's eyes. Anyway, before the man left Yomi, he hadn't won against him many times. If the man hadn't been an important figure in the Hand-to-hand Group at the time, he would have killed him already.
"A decade ago, you and your sister together weren't my match. Now you're alone, what can you do?" he sneered.
"Long time no see, Mihai." The man who landed from the tree, if Hikigaya saw him, he would be greatly astonished.
It was his father in this world. Hikigaya had once judged that although he knew martial arts, he was only at the level of a Master.
At Hinata Manor, Hikigaya learned the man's true name from Maeba: Keitaro Urashima.
But the Keitaro Urashima of today displayed the aura of an Expert. Just by watching him walk—like a silkworm bending, lifting like carrying a pole, every step an extension—his entire body seemed to have become one large arm.
If Hikigaya were here, he would instantly recognize this as the Silkworm Step from the Chinese Dai Family Xinyi Fist.
And the Dai Family Fist is a killing art.
"I didn't expect you to track me down, but is this necessary? Our relationship doesn't seem to be this bad."
"Where is your sister?"
"She went to ask the companions who followed you to get some good rest."
"Still so cowardly. I bet you still haven't killed anyone. Walking around like a monkey, truly a disgrace to martial artists."
"It seems you still want to kill me…" Keitaro Urashima's face showed an expression Hikigaya had never seen before. He adopted a low posture, head tilted back, eyes looking up, much like a monkey.
"Truly a monkey…" Mihai also switched to gripping his large scythe with both hands, his left hand near the connection point of the handle and the blade, and his right hand near the tail of the handle.
But in the next moment, he stepped forward with his left foot, bearing the weight of his entire body. He tightened his grip on the weapon with all his strength, violently striking the critical point of Keitaro with the outer cutting surface of his double-edged scythe.
To a normal person, the distance between Mihai and Keitaro vanished, and the cold, flashing scythe instantly thrust into Keitaro's chest.
But Keitaro's body contracted, his back arched and rounded, and his knees bent again. He silently slid away, perfectly avoiding Mihai's attack.
Mihai had seemingly anticipated this. Using the downward momentum of the initial strike, the scythe sprang upwards, aiming for Keitaro's jaw.
Keitaro's expression remained unchanged. He still looked timid and cowardly, but his evasion was incredibly smooth, causing Mihai to miss again.
But Mihai's scythe then fiercely hacked downwards, its tip barely grazing Keitaro's face.
Amidst the stormy barrage of attacks, Keitaro remained silent, doing just one thing: dodging.
No matter the angle of Mihai's attack, he always made it miss by the slightest margin.
"Do you only know how to dodge?!" Mihai mocked, but he started to feel uneasy.
It was clear that Keitaro had learned a new fighting style, and this monkey-like style made it difficult for him to land a hit, as the opponent was genuinely cautious, huddled up like a forest monkey, and would dart away at the slightest disturbance.
In the past, Keitaro should have been struck by his third combination attack.
Instead, as it was now, the surrounding trees were practically leveled by the wind of his blade, yet Keitaro remained completely unharmed.
"Damn it!" Mihai finally couldn't help but curse. "What kind of killing fist is that, just dodging all the time! Then I'll go kill your daughter first!"
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a chill run down his body, and Keitaro, who had been dodging in front of him, suddenly stopped moving.
This filled Mihai with delight. He tightened his grip on the scythe, ready to cleave, but in the next moment, Keitaro vanished from his sight.
"You won't kill my daughter." He only heard that one sentence, but the voice came from below his head.
He looked down in surprise, just in time to see Keitaro's crouched, arched figure had somehow inserted itself into his chest, his shoulder pressed against Mihai's sternum.
"You won't kill anyone anymore."
The next moment, Mihai felt himself flying through the air.
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