"Owowowow...!"
Kaname cried out in pain again, especially from her butt after slamming hard into the ground.
Before she could even get back up, another figure came flying over and crashed right into her, making her yelp again.
The person who had landed on top of her was Tessa, who had just been thrown by the school nurse Kaname had labeled a refined scumbag.
Once both of them got back to their feet, Kaname picked up the baseball bat that had fallen nearby. It was a metal one.
Right now, she looked like a full-on delinquent girl.
So why had things suddenly turned into this?
How had it become a situation where both she and Tessa were armed and trying to attack Mr. Kain?
Had she successfully convinced Tessa to fight back?
Wrong.
The truth was that Kaname herself had gone crazy enough to join the combat training, stepping straight into hell and asking for trouble.
On the first day, after failing to find any evidence, she had come back the second day.
And right in front of her, on the rooftop, Tessa had once again gone through combat training.
If Tessa were really being abused, then there was no way she would be genuinely attacking Mr. Kain with a dangerous knife.
And it was genuine. Not fake. Watching it had made Kaname's heart jump into her throat.
Anyone who did not know the situation would think Tessa had gone insane and was trying to kill someone. Every strike was aimed like it could take a life.
And yet, in Kaname's eyes, these sharp attacks, the sort even adults might fail to block or dodge, were effortlessly avoided by Mr. Kain, who then countered and sent Tessa flying over and over again.
Looking at it that way, this really was Tessa using that kind of method to train herself.
But was this even "combat training"?
Did it really have to go this far?
This felt less like training and more like learning how to kill people.
Still, realizing Tessa was not being bullied or abused was not what led Kaname to join in.
The real trigger came on the morning of the third day.
Some damn biker punks had harassed her friend Kyoko on the street, knocking her down and tearing her arm open with a nasty gash. Kaname had been furious, hurling rocks at them like crazy, but they had dodged them all and escaped.
Watching the blood pour out, she had been completely at a loss.
As it happened, she still had the oral medicine Mr. Kain had given her that day.
And remembering how quickly Tessa's injuries had healed, she let Kyoko take it.
The result was downright astonishing.
In just ten minutes, the wound had recovered almost completely.
To be honest, Kaname had been worried there might be something wrong with the medicine, some kind of side effect, so she had taken Kyoko to the hospital that same day.
The results of the examination showed that she was absurdly healthy.
If there was any side effect at all, it was just that Kyoko had a bigger appetite than usual that day.
On the fourth day, Kaname came over again during non-class hours to watch Tessa's hellish training. Tessa's counterattacks had become even fiercer by then, and Kaname had found it a bit too much, so she had complained a few times.
And somehow, things escalated into this.
She had joined the training too.
If she could just hurt him even a little, make even a single hair fall from his head, that would count as a win.
He had acted like he was looking down on her, saying that if she managed to do that, then whatever request she made, he would do it.
On the other hand, if she failed to injure him at all during the six remaining days of training starting from now, then she would have to pay for both the Earth Elixir and the training fees.
And the Earth Elixir was that miraculous oral medicine for external injuries.
As for the payment, it was not the dose he had already given her. If she joined the training, she would have to take another dose too, otherwise she was so hopelessly weak that after just a few hits she would end up in the hospital, which would be a hassle for everyone.
Honestly, if Kyoko had not already used it, Kaname probably would have hesitated.
She had been a little impulsive too. Kyoko's injury that day had not really been life-threatening. Taking her to the hospital for bandaging would have been enough. There had been no need to make her drink some suspicious medicine you could not find anywhere on the market.
But since Kyoko had already taken it, then Kaname figured they would share the risk. If something went wrong, it would go wrong for both of them.
And as for this so-called payment, he did not want money.
He wanted her body's... secrets.
That bastard had deliberately paused after saying "body," making her think he was asking for her flesh, so she had cursed him out as a pervert, only for him to look at her with total disgust.
From Kaname's point of view, he probably just wanted the detailed data on the Earth Elixir.
She really had been tricked aboard the ship.
She had become a test subject for the drug.
That machine in the nurse's office was probably there to analyze her physical data.
Damn it.
At this point, all Kaname could do was try every possible way she could think of during training to teach him a lesson, including pulling dirty tricks whenever she got the chance.
Also, after successfully injuring him, she had added another demand he would have to fulfill.
A malicious, revenge-filled one.
She wanted him to lick her feet.
And today was her third day of training.
Honestly, if Tessa had not kept enduring it too, Kaname really would have dropped out already.
But if someone who looked even more delicate than she did could keep going, then there was no way proud Kaname Chidori was going to back down.
"Tessa, if we do it like this..."
Kaname and Tessa started discussing a new plan for how to coordinate and land a hit on him.
"Oh right, Tessa, have you decided what price you'll make that guy pay if he loses?"
"Um... no."
"How can you not have one?"
Kaname looked at her with the kind of expression people used when they were frustrated by someone hopelessly innocent.
Tessa seemed far too simple-minded, as if she thought the training and the Earth Elixir were already some enormous kindness and had no idea how to use the chance to get even for herself.
"If you really can't think of anything, then just do what I am. Make him crawl around like a dog and lick our feet."
"Uh..."
Tessa could only laugh awkwardly.
But for some reason, her mind briefly pictured the scene.
She hurriedly shook her head to throw the image out, her face turning red.
Honestly, what was she even imagining?
"Oh right, Tessa, when the school trip happens in a few days, are you going with us?"
"Mm, of course we are. If something suddenly happens to one of the students, having a doctor nearby would make everyone feel much more at ease."
The part of the plot Mr. Kain had mentioned was almost here, and the timing really was tight. It was set for the twenty-eighth, which happened to be the final day of the ten days they had expected the delivery to take.
Still, for Mr. Kain, there was a little room to spare, because he had paid for three separate one-hundred-hour stays.
That was a total of three hundred hours, or twelve and a half days.
One of the key figures among the attackers was a man named Gauron.
If Mr. Kain had not told them, they would have assumed he had been killed years ago.
If things went smoothly enough, then Mr. Kain might be able to kill him before he could hijack the plane, preventing the crisis entirely.
That would be best.
And over the past few days, Mithril had also been gathering intelligence and trying to confirm his whereabouts.
Since he was supposed to target the school trip flight and board it himself, then tracing that route should make it possible to find him in advance.
"Mr. Kain, look! What do you think this is?!"
Kaname's suddenly excited voice snapped Tessa out of her thoughts. She saw that Kaname was holding up a short strand of hair.
"You said it yourself. Even losing a single hair counts as losing."
Kaname grinned like a little thief.
"Are you sure that's mine?"
"Whose else would short black hair like this belong to? Mine is blue, Tessa's is silver, and this is black."
"Let me see it."
"Heh. What, you want to destroy the evidence?"
"Then how about this? Let's go to the hospital. I'll pull out one of my hairs, and we'll have it compared with the one in your hand."
Those words made Kaname's expression stiffen, and Tessa panicked a little too.
Trying to trick him?
Having clearly noticed something, Kain bent down and picked something up from the ground with an amused look.
"Kaname, then whose do you think this blue one belongs to?"
That made Kaname's face freeze too, especially since the short shape of that strand was... kind of awkward.
"I-I don't know."
"Then let's have this one tested too."
"Give it back, aaaaaah!!!"
Red-faced, the girl exploded and charged at him.
(End of Chapter)
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