At 3:30 PM, the school bell rang on time, signaling the end of classes.
"Haru-kun."
Almost as soon as the substitute teacher left, Takamatsu Tomori, who sat in front, turned around, her eyes filled with worry as she looked at Kazama Haru:
"Your conflict with Nakamura-san... is there really no other way?"
Kazama Haru stood up to pack his bag, his tone relaxed as he reassured her, "Tomori, you don't need to worry about me. I'll handle these troublesome matters. Don't forget—I'm very reliable."
But even though he said that, Tomori still looked uneasy, her gaze fixed on him as if she was afraid she would never see him again.
Seeing her so anxious because of him, Kazama Haru felt an overwhelming sense of guilt.
To ease her tension and ensure she wasn't implicated, he tentatively suggested, "Tomori, if you're not in a hurry to go home today, could you wait for me at school for a bit?"
"Half an hour at most. After I finish up there, I'll walk you home, how does that sound?"
"...Eh?"
Tomori hadn't expected him to say that so suddenly, and she was momentarily stunned: "Haru-kun walk me home? But our houses aren't in the same direction... And, Haru-kun, don't you have a work shift..."
"It's fine, really."
Kazama Haru chuckled, rubbing his neck. "I already requested leave from work at noon. Anyway, since I can go home so early today, if Tomori doesn't mind, I'd like to drop by your place today. Is that okay?"
"Mm... If that's what Haru-kun wants, then I'd be very happy to."
Takamatsu Tomori nodded gently, a hint of a happy smile appearing on her face.
"I'll wait for you at the Astronomy Club room, Haru-kun. You must be careful, promise me..."
Under Kazama Haru's gaze, Takamatsu Tomori slowly raised her right hand, extending a delicate, pale pinky finger.
A yubikiri?
*pinky promise
Kazama Haru chuckled, remarking that Tomori was indeed a girl who valued rituals. He likewise bent his right pinky finger and gently linked it with hers.
Taking the salmon-print bandage that Takamatsu Tomori forcefully handed to him, Kazama Haru walked out of the classroom.
After making another phone call to confirm that Renako had also found a safe hiding spot as they had agreed, Kazama Haru did not rush out of the school gate. Instead, he walked unhurriedly towards the Girls' Kendo Club.
Even though he had acquired unimaginable power at noon, facing an unknown number of opponents, he—steady as a defensive tower—still wanted to add another layer of insurance by finding a handy weapon.
A shinai, which had a certain lethality but wouldn't cause fatalities, was an excellent choice.
Originally, lending out shinai was absolutely forbidden by the strict Girls' Kendo Club.
But under Kazama Haru's humble and polite request, the female club president, who had been successfully charmed, ultimately couldn't resist his ikemen charisma and willingly lent out the bamboo sword.
Ding.
Skill: Kendo LV4 (Master) acquired.
Wish points balance: 6950.
Placing the shinai into the empty guitar case on his back, Kazama Haru, who had instantly transformed into a Kendo Master, walked calmly towards the school gate.
Stepping out of the school gate, Kazama Haru immediately spotted a group of delinquents, dressed in various flashy outfits, squatting under a large tree about ten meters away.
A rough estimate put their number at at least ten.
Riko Nakamura was tightly embraced by one of them—a delinquent with bright yellow hair and three exaggerated lip piercings—her face showing a fawning, ingratiating smile.
Seeing Kazama Haru walk out of the school gate with a calm expression, Riko Nakamura's face instantly contorted into a furious scowl, and she raised her hand to point at Kazama Haru.
"Koji-kun, it's him! Not only did he speak disrespectfully to me, but he even slapped me at noon!"
The delinquent named Uda Koji looked in the direction she was pointing, and when he clearly saw Kazama Haru's face, he let out a disdainful sneer.
"Let's go, time to work!"
As he raised his arm and shouted, the fierce yakuza thugs all stood up, stomped out their cigarettes, cracked their knuckles, and stretched their necks as they surrounded Kazama Haru.
The surrounding students immediately noticed the unusual situation, and fearing trouble, they let out exclamations and scattered like startled birds.
Only Kazama Haru seemed completely oblivious to the impending danger, his eyes fixed only on the path ahead, even yawning boredly.
Seeing this, Uda Koji's eyes narrowed dangerously. In his eyes, Kazama Haru's calm and relaxed expression was a provocation to their yakuza pride.
Before he could speak, a burly man with bulging muscles and a terrifying scar on his face had already sneered and blocked Kazama Haru's path.
"You're Kazama Haru, right? Come with us."
To take Kazama Haru to a secluded spot and slowly "deal with him," he directly reached out and grabbed Kazama Haru's collar with no reservation in his force.
"Heh heh."
However, what answered him was a mocking sneer, and a burning pain from his arm.
At some point, Kazama Haru had instantly appeared a few steps away in a safe position, pulling the shinai from the guitar case on his back and fiercely slashing it down onto the burly man's arm.
"GYAAAAAAH—!"
A heart-wrenching scream echoed through the entire school street. The bone-crushing pain from his arm made the delinquent collapse to the ground, clutching his wrist, almost losing consciousness from the agony.
Even so, Kazama Haru's attack showed no sign of stopping. He raised his foot and directly kicked towards the man's face.
Strike one blow to prevent a hundred blows—this was a principle he had understood in his previous life.
Since he chose to suppress violence with violence, he had to hold nothing back, making beasts like Riko Nakamura see him in the future like a mouse seeing a cat, only able to cower and walk with their heads down!
CRACK—!
Accompanied by the clear sound of a fractured cheekbone, the burly man, who took the merciless blow to his face, instantly blacked out and fell backward, losing consciousness.
"With just this much skill, you have the nerve to pretend to be yakuza?"
Kazama Haru stretched his neck, slowly stood up, and pointed the shinai at the astonished and enraged Uda Koji.
At this moment, the scornful composure he had previously displayed had vanished, replaced only by a furious rage from being mercilessly mocked and disbelief at the situation before him.
His most prized thug, who usually didn't bat an eye at dirty work, was now so easily taken down by the student in front of him?
What a joke!
Uda Koji's face instantly turned ashen. He coldly spoke to the equally shocked thugs behind him, "What are you standing around for? Go, all of you!"
At this reprimand, the dozen-plus thugs around him snapped out of their daze. They immediately displayed their professionalism as enforcers, quickly forming an impenetrable circular encirclement, trapping Kazama Haru in the center.
However, compared to their initial ferocity, their eyes now showed more than a little panic.
Especially when they saw Kazama Haru slightly lower his stance, assuming a proper kendo stance, the fear in their eyes became even more evident.
"Oi, that guy being surrounded, he looks like Kazama-kun from the first year."
"Uso! Now that you mention it, I recognize him! He's really cute!"
"Not only is he handsome, but I didn't expect him to be so strong. Fighting so many delinquents by himself, and effortlessly too—it's like something out of a shounen manga."
The students watching from a distance quickly identified Kazama Haru. Girls, who had already heard about him, gasped in surprise and quickly pulled out their phones to record videos.
But Kazama Haru was not disturbed by the surrounding noise. At this moment, he felt an unprecedented calm within. Facing the crowd's encirclement, he slowly closed his eyes.
For a true Kendo Master, the sword in his hand was an inseparable part of his body. Even without sight, guided only by instinct, he could track the enemy's position.
"Hmph!"
Taking a deep breath, Kazama Haru's foot quietly stepped back. The next moment, he and his sword became one, instantly shooting forward, moving like a nimble dragon among the attacking thugs.
Unlike strictly regulated kendo matches, Kazama Haru was now facing a true life-or-death struggle.
There was no need to consider valid strikes, nor to show courtesy to opponents. For him, who possessed the legacy of countless Kendo Masters, kendo at this moment was purely a killing art!
Dodging a short-haired thug's baseball bat swing to the head, Kazama Haru used the momentum to spin around, striking the side of the opponent's face with a backhand swing of his shinai, causing blood to flow freely.
A burly thug, covered in dragon and tiger tattoos, roared and unleashed a heavy punch from behind, aiming directly for Kazama Haru's back of the head. If this blow connected, it would at least result in a mild concussion.
But Kazama Haru seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, sweeping the shinai backward without any warning.
With a whistling sound, the burly thug clutched his knee and fell to the ground, letting out a pig-like wail.
"This is... Hokushin Ittō-ryū!"
*a highly influential classical Japanese martial art ( koryū ) founded in the 1820s by the legendary swordsman Chiba Shūsaku Narimasa
The Kendo Club president, watching from the sidelines, exclaimed. He had some knowledge of the kendo style Kazama Haru was using, but his proficiency was vastly inferior—like heaven and earth apart.
Every move, every stance, seemed like muscle memory naturally formed after thousands of repetitions, completely internalized into instinct.
"You brat, don't look down on people!"
Uda Koji, who had been watching from the side, could no longer suppress the rage in his heart. He drew a dagger hidden at his waist and, like a mad beast, fiercely lunged, stabbing towards Kazama Haru's chest.
A cold glint flashed in Kazama Haru's eyes. For a beast that dared to try and kill him, there was no need for him to hold back either.
His wrist strength, capable of generating a punch that created a wind current, was unleashed without restraint. He gripped the shinai tightly and brought it down with full force onto Uda Koji's wrist.
Uda Koji felt a sudden immense force from his wrist. The webbing between his thumb and forefinger instantly split open, and his arm bone shattered into fragments under the unrestrained strike.
But it wasn't over yet. Even though he had fallen to the ground in pain, Kazama Haru still showed no intention of letting him go.