Chapter 45: The World is Out of Joint
Raika kicked at Kobayashi's wrist, trying to break free. Kobayashi, unconcerned, let him go a step early.
The two of them created some distance.
As the saying goes, as soon as an expert makes a move, you know if they've got it or not. From that brief exchange, Raika felt the pressure.
"I admit I underestimated you. But next, I'm going to use my real strength!"
"Are those your last words?"
Kobayashi cracked his neck, then clenched his right hand, finger by finger, making a series of popping sounds.
Now, it was Raika who was being underestimated.
Feeling insulted, the corner of Raika's mouth twitched, his eyes growing more dangerous. He then charged forward again.
Still as a virgin, swift as an escaping hare!
Raika held nothing back this time. He was like a thunderbolt. In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of him!
He threw out both fists, a flurry of blows so dense that not even wind could pass through. It was a ferocious assault, like a violent storm, raining down on Kobayashi's face.
But Kobayashi was not to be outdone, and he met the attack with his own flurry of fists.
Their fists and palms collided violently in mid-air, creating a series of booming sounds.
Seeing that his prolonged attack was ineffective, Raika shifted his body slightly, found an opening in Kobayashi's defense, and launched a two-hundred-and-seventy-degree spinning side kick, carrying an incomparably powerful and sharp force, aimed viciously at Kobayashi's temple!
The temple is a weak point on the head. A heavy blow there would, at the very least, cause a concussion and shock.
As expected of a master of the Imperial Fist Temple. Whether it was the force, the angle, or the timing, everything was just right. This was a killing blow. If it connected, Kobayashi would surely die on the spot.
However, Kobayashi was not flustered at all. It was too by-the-book. With just a slight bend at the waist, he dodged the sharp attack.
His fight with Leone had made him more accustomed to wild, chaotic attacks. A rigid, textbook move like this was full of openings in his eyes.
The fight continued, but Kobayashi began to mutter something under his breath.
"Straight punch, low kick, spinning elbow strike, palm strike, side kick, uppercut..."
"What are you mumbling about?"
"Nothing. Just figuring out your move set."
"...What?!"
In the instant Raika was stunned, a glint flashed in Kobayashi's eyes. He closed the distance, got inside his guard, twisted, and drove his elbow viciously into Raika's chest.
"Pu-koff!"
Taking a heavy blow, Raika's momentum faltered, and he pulled back to create distance.
Kobayashi didn't pursue. Instead, he took out a card. Looking at the words [Imperial Fist Temple Boxing] on it, he couldn't help but let out a light laugh and say—
"—You're surprisingly untalented."
"You have no talent."
The abbot had given him such a cruel evaluation.
At the age of 15, after three years at the temple, Raika had finally become the most outstanding student of his class through his own talent and hard work. Raika thought he would get stronger and stronger, that his strength would reach the level of an acting master. Even the old masters in the temple thought so.
But, from the moment he met the abbot and heard those words, "no talent," he was cast into the abyss.
From that day on, the nightmare began.
And it lasted for a full 20 years!
It was as if he had been cursed. For a full 20 years, his strength did not advance even an inch!
No one knew the reason; no one could figure it out.
Some said he was cursed, that all his talent had been used up. Even he himself thought that his talent had been exhausted, which was why his strength could not progress.
He racked his brains, trying to find a way to break the curse.
Finally! He thought of a brilliant method!
—Since my own talent has been used up, why not just plunder it from others?
That's right! That's what he should do!
Having already fallen into madness, he thought he could seize the talent of others this way. Taking his own experience as an example, the age of 12 to 15 was when talent erupted. So, he would hunt children of the same age group, stimulate them with different methods, and then take their heads.
He paranoidly believed that this would increase his own talent. Little did he know, he had already become a demon!
Kobayashi looked at his adventurer card, not knowing what to say. To have practiced a martial art to the point where he could turn it into a skill just by watching two or three times... yet, martial arts required flexibility and creativity above all else. For a moment, he didn't know whether to call him a genius or an idiot.
"Shut up..."
"Hmm?"
"I said shut up! I have absorbed their talent! Just give me time, and I will become stronger!" Raika roared, as if denying something.
Seeing his twisted expression, Kobayashi hadn't expected that a careless word would hit his sore spot.
"What talent? It's just the madness of a paranoid man."
"I told you to shut up!!!"
Raika charged at him again, still using his proficient Imperial Fist style. But being so by-the-book, once his moves were figured out, he couldn't even touch the hem of Kobayashi's clothes. Furthermore, having lost his reason, his movements became more and more wasteful.
His next move was a step-in kick.
Seeing his chance, Kobayashi suddenly attacked, kicking him squarely in the left kneecap.
"Gak—"
The heavy blow made Raika's knee go weak, and he fell to the ground.
Kobayashi looked down at him and said coldly, "What's wrong? Isn't the next move a palm strike? Can't you use it? Of course not. Because your left knee, which you use to generate force, is useless now. That's why I say you have no talent. You only know how to use your moves by the book."
"Wh...?!"
Kobayashi's taunt made his face change drastically, but before he could react, he was grabbed by the neck and lifted high into the air.
Without any courtesy, he directly used a basic Lich skill on him—[Drain Touch].
Feeling something draining from his body, Raika's face filled with terror.
"What is this? Something is draining from my body!"
"It's your talent."
"Wh-what?!"
"Didn't you plunder a lot of talent? I'm absorbing that talent now."
It was actually his life force. But to punish Raika, to give him the despair he least wanted to hear, Kobayashi had changed the word to "talent."
"No! No! That talent is mine! It's mine! Give it back! Give my talent back to me! Give it back!!!"
As expected, he became even more frantic.
"I'm not giving it back."
Kobayashi grinned, and said with malicious glee, "Thank you for collecting all this talent for me. I'll make good use of it."
With that, he increased the absorption strength.
Now, the sensation was even clearer to Raika, and the terror on his face grew more pronounced. But no matter how much he struggled, he could not break free from Kobayashi's giant pincer-like grip.
"Give it back! Give it back! Give my talent back to me! Give it back! That's mine, it's my talent! It's my talent! Give it back to me!!! Give... it... back... to... me...!"
His initial violent struggles gradually faded into silence, but even so, his mouth continued to chant the word "talent." The death dance of a man consumed by paranoia played out before the eyes of Night Raid.
But no one present felt that Raika deserved any sympathy.
After he had completely stopped breathing, Kobayashi released his hand. With a thud, Raika's corpse fell to the ground.
"How could you possibly plunder talent? You fool."
"Master Kobayashi..."
RyuZU walked to his side and handed him a spherical object wrapped in cloth.
Kobayashi knew what it was.
Silently, he took it, a wave of grief brewing in his heart.
Why?
Didn't you already know? This is a world where man eats man. Anyone can die. Why do you still feel sad? Why do you have the thought of wanting to do something?
...
I know.
It's goodness.
It's the goodness in my own heart that wants me to do something.
The moonlight poured down on him, as if he were the natural protagonist, and now it was finally his time to take the stage.
And in this warehouse filled with darkness, he issued his first declaration.
"—The world is out of joint.
Ah! What a cursed, chaotic era this is! To think that I was born to set it right!"