One of the two remaining Iruka students stepped forward as if to "Assist" Ryuen. But instead of taking Shido seriously, he moved with the kind of confidence that only numbers could give.
"Huh, only now you enter the fight? Just when the woman saving your ass is in a clutch? What—trying to be the hero who arrives just in time to save the damsel?" the Iruka student mocked.
Shido didn't respond. He simply stood there, calm and confident.
Not getting any reaction, the student scoffed.
"A hero saving the damsel in distress? Don't make me laugh!!"
He took a sharp inhale—
Then suddenly dashed toward Shido's blind side, making it look casual, as if he were merely reclaiming Iruka High's pride.
Shido didn't even turn his head.
The attack came fast. A straight punch aimed for the ribs, meant to lock his movement for Ryuen's follow-up.
That was when Shido moved.
Not backwards. Not sideways. Instead he stepped in.
His left hand caught the attacker's wrist mid-extension, fingers closing with precise timing. His shoulder rotated, hips following a fraction of a second later. The boy's balance vanished as if the ground itself had betrayed him.
A pivot.
A drop in Shido's center of gravity.
Then—
Impact!
The iruka student flipped over Shido's left shoulder and crashed into the ground hard enough to knock the air out of him in a single, brutal burst. The sound echoed across the training field.
Silence.
Not a dramatic silence.
A real one.
The kind that came when a fight ended before the brain could even process what had happened.
The last standing Iruka student stared at his fallen schoolmate, shock clear in his eyes.
He's schoolmate's rolled-back pupils told him everything. The guy was unconscious.
Dropped in a single exchange.
Now only three people faced Shido.
The final Iruka student, Ryuen.
—and Sakura, watching from behind him.
Ryuen's grin didn't disappear, but it changed.
Shido straightened his uniform sleeve as if he had merely brushed dust off.
"That's one," he said calmly.
Ryuen moved first.
A fast direct punch far heavier than anything thrown before.
Shido slipped it by a hair's breath to side.
He didn't block, didn't deflect no he completely dodged it.
Another strike followed immediately for shido's right, then a kick towards his ribs, then a sweeping backfist. Ryuen's offense became a continuous chain, each movement feeding the next.
Shido gave ground, step by step, his body flowing just outside the range of impact.
To an untrained eye it looked like he was being pushed back.
But his gaze was focused. Calculating.
Amplification.
That was my initial hypothesis for Ryuen's ability.
But it isn't a fixed multiplier.
—it stacks.
When he first landed a clean hit on Sakura, I assumed it was a simple three-times impact boost. But every subsequent strike made her recoil more than the last. The increase wasn't linear. It was compounding.
That's when it clicked.
What if Ryuen's power isn't a constant ×3…
—but a ×3 that builds on itself with every confirmed hit?
Each direct strike landed would triple.
If he landed another—
It would stack again.
Three becoming six.
Six becoming nine.
And it wouldn't stop there.
So Shido didn't let a single clean hit connect.
He brushed attacks aside at the last possible moment. Redirected force instead of stopping it. Let strikes pass close enough to stir his hair but never touch his body with full contact.
"Your ability isn't just reinforcement," Shido said while weaving past a punch that cracked the air where his jaw had been. "It's cumulative."
Ryuen's eyes narrowed.
"Each successful impact strengthens the next. Exponentially inefficient if the opponent never gives you the first proper strike."
He stepped inside Ryuen's range again, forcing the larger boy to pull his own power back to avoid overextending.
"You're trying to corner me," Ryuen laughed, swinging again.
"No. I'm making sure you never start," calmly explained Shido.
From the side, Sakura watched in complete stillness.
'His movements are clean. Too clean', she realized, a quiet shock settling in. 'There's nothing wild about them. Nothing flashy like someone who leans on raw power. Every shift of weight, every angle, every breath—this is experience.'
The thought made her chest tighten faintly.
"I really thought he was just a pretty face."
Ryuen pressed harder, his attacks growing more aggressive, trying to force even a glancing blow.
A sleeve tore where a strike grazed.
But the body beneath it never took the impact.
Not once.
Shido's voice remained even as he moved.
"If I let you hit me even a single time, this ends in your favor."
He ducked under a hook, his foot sliding behind Ryuen's stance for a moment—testing, measuring.
"So I won't."
Ryuen's grin returned, sharper.
"Then stop running."
Shido finally stopped retreating.
For the first time since the exchange began, he stood his ground.
The distance between them collapsed, Ryuen run forward not wasting this opportunity.
Sakura's vivid violet eyes widened slightly.
"So he's done analyzing."
The air changed.
Not with abysmal pressure, nor killing intent.
But something heavier than both—
Control.
And in that instant, Sakura watched the way Shido moved—the precision behind every step, the absolute certainty in every decision—and a thought surfaced, uninvited.
'The way he fights… he isn't guessing. He knows.'
Then Shido moved.
Not faster.
Not stronger.
Just at the exact moment no one expected.
The result left Sakura, Ryuen, and the last standing Iruka student completely floored.
A quiet breath caught in Sakura's chest.
'Maybe… just maybe, he's the one who could help me.'
Her gaze sharpened, locking onto him fully now—no longer as an opponent, no longer as a curiosity—
But as a possibility.
As if he had read the intent before the muscles even obeyed it, Shido's right hand shot forward and closed around Ryuen's extended arm.
Not a frantic grab.
Not a desperate interception.
A precise capture.
Ryuen blinked—once—confusion flashing across his face. For a fraction of a second he couldn't understand the purpose.
No strike followed. No immediate attempt to damage him.
What is he—
Shido pulled.
A sharp, compact yank that dragged Ryuen a half-step off his centerline.
Ryuen's first instinct was simple—He's pulling himself in to attack.
His body prepared to stack power into the next impact.
But he did something completely different, that it floored the remaining Iruka student and Sakura.
Once Ryuen was within range, Shido did not do what everyone expected—he did not attack directly.
Instead, he flicked his hand downward while holding Ryuen, as if trying to break his arm. But instead of a bone-cracking sound and Ryuen's agonized scream being hard, something unexpected happened.
It was as if the law of gravity had completely disappeared from Ryuen's body.
Shido pulled Ryuen's arm up and lifted him and levitated him in the air for ten seconds, like Ryuen's body weighted nothing.
The scene was so shocking that everyone froze in place—even Ryuen himself.
From his point of view, one moment he was on the ground about to attack, and the next he found himself upside down, looking down at the world.
It was almost comical.
But Shido did not give him time to process it.
His next move came immediately—
—and it knocked Ryuen out cold.
After levitating him in the air for about ten seconds, Shido abruptly—yet dramatically—flicked his left wrist downward.
It was as if another switch had been turned on instead of off. The law of gravity around Ryuen's body became three times heavier than before, and at tremendous speed his body came crashing down to the ground.
The impact was so great that it instantly created a crater beneath him.
Shido, standing only a few feet away, looked completely unaffected and unmoved, as if the shockwave and the collapsing ground beneath Ryuen had nothing to do with him.
Absolute silence.
The last Iruka student stared at the crater.
At first he looked for movement—some sign Ryuen would rise again, that the second-in-command would drag himself out through sheer will like he always did.
There was none.
Ryuen's eyes were rolled back.
His body lay slack at the center of the impact.
Out cold.
The realization struck harder than the collision that had put him there.
The entire exchange had been one-sided—yet not in the way he understood combat. Shido hadn't overwhelmed him with a barrage. He hadn't even traded blows.
He had defended, observed. Avoided every clean hit.
And when he finally chose to attack—
It ended in a single move.
The Iruka student's throat tightened.
Ryuen wasn't just strong. He was the second in command—the pillar beneath their leader, the one everyone relied on when things turned violent. His ability was monstrous, a power that made prolonged fights unwinnable for anyone who faced him head-on.
That was precisely why he held his position. Because only someone even more insane stood above him.
Shido bent down onto both knees and waved a hand over Ryuen's face, confirming that he was truly out cold.
Receiving no response, he remained in that position.
But the moment his gaze shifted to the last standing Iruka student, his expression turned ice–cold — matching the words that followed.
"You."
"Y–yes!?" the visibly terrified Iruka student stammered.
"Take this joke out of my sight," Shido ordered, his tone deliberately frigid as he pointed at Ryuen's unconscious form.
The student trembled.
"Y–yes, sir! Right away!"
He rushed forward, stopping in front of Shido. With extreme care as if afraid even a sudden movement might provoke him— he lifted Ryuen's body, looping one arm around his own neck to support the weight.
Then he looked back at Shido, clearly waiting for further instructions.
Shido spoke.
"Run back to your boss and report every exact detail of what happened here. Do not omit anything. As for your other schoolmates—come pick them up later when I'm not here. Understood?"
The Iruka student nodded frantically, beads of sweat pouring down his face.
Shido could see the fear clearly.
He immediately knew the boy wouldn't dare leave out a single detail.
A cold, emotionless smile appeared on Shido's face.
He patted the student's cheek twice.
"Good boy. Now run."
The student bolted — faster than Sakura had ever seen any of them move.
But before he could get far—
"Stop."
He froze.
Inside, panic exploded: 'What else does this monster want? Is he still going to beat me up?'
"Oh yeah. I almost forgot," Shido said calmly. "Pass this on to your boss."
Knowing he had the boy's full attention, he continued:
"Tell him his second–in–command was a great disappointment. I hope the boss himself will be worth the effort. If he wants to avenge his man, he can find me anytime at Douma High. I'm always ready for a challenge."
A brief pause.
"That's all. Now you can truly go."
The student waited five seconds just in case. When nothing else came, he ran, carrying Ryuen's unconscious body with him.
That left only Shido…
…and Sakura.
—If one ignored the twenty unconscious Iruka students scattered across the ground.
The silence that followed felt strange.
Shido was still in the same kneeling position he had been in since the student left with Ryuen.
On the surface, he stared at Sakura with a blank expression.
Inside his mind:
'This girl… ever since she appeared, she's been reminding me of a certain old but popular anime from my previous Earth.'
'But instead of a pink, yelling banshee— this Sakura is calm and cool. Her attitude… her clothing style… She's definitely a tomboy!'