Chapter 72: Yukinoshita Yukino is a Vengeful Woman
"Haaah..."
Chishima Akishin exhaled a long, heavy breath, forcing the storm of fury back down and masking his aura. He looked at Yukino and said, "Have Yuigahama explain it to you."
He changed again.
In Yukino's eyes—and in the eyes of everyone watching—Akishin had suddenly reverted to the usual Chishima-sensei they knew.
With a small nod, Yukino walked over to Yui.
A midday breeze drifted across the court, ruffling hair and swaying the hems of their gym clothes. The only sound was Yui's hushed, frantic explanation to Yukino.
Hayama and his group didn't move an inch. Looking down at Hachiman, who was still sitting in the dirt, Akishin leaned over and extended a hand.
Hachiman blinked, stunned. He looked up at Akishin's face and saw only the usual calm. The bone-chilling cold from moments ago felt like a hallucination, yet the memory of that primal fear was burned into his mind.
He still didn't quite grasp the root cause, but Hachiman understood one thing: he had screwed up. He had made a mistake so grave it had driven his teacher to a state of pure wrath.
He hesitated for a moment before taking the hand. It was rough, covered in the thick, hard calluses of a swordsman. Hachiman had his own calluses, but they were nothing compared to the maps of iron on Akishin's palm.
Akishin pulled him up, then stepped back, his voice dropping into a serious register. "Do you know why I'm angry?"
"..."
"You don't? I suppose that's to be expected. But as my disciple, there is something you need to learn."
Akishin locked eyes with Hachiman. His tone shifted, becoming loud and punctuated, each word landing like a hammer blow. "A disciple of Chishima Akishin kneels to his parents, and to no one else! That includes me! Do you hear me? No matter the reason, even if you are in the wrong, you can make amends in a thousand different ways—but you are strictly forbidden from ever kneeling again. If I see it one more time, you can walk away and never call me 'Sensei' again!"
Whether in his previous life or the one before that, Akishin had never believed in destiny. He had fought against the heavens, against the earth, against others, and most importantly, against himself.
He never gave up. He had crawled out of abysses and dragged himself through swamps. From the mire to the shore, only to fall back in and start the crawl all over again.
Akishin's dark eyes bored into Hachiman's. "Do you understand?!"
Hikigaya Hachiman lowered his head and shouted back with everything he had: "I understand!"
The realization finally hit him.
Was it because he'd damaged Chishima-sensei's reputation?
No, that wasn't it. Sensei wasn't the type to get worked up over something as petty as "face." Nothing he had ever said suggested he was some ego-maniac who demanded respect...
So...
There was only one other possibility.
Hachiman was well-read; he possessed a library of obscure knowledge that often colored his speech.
Connecting the dots with what Akishin had just said, Hachiman's mind flashed to films, TV dramas, and literature from their neighbor, China—specifically the cultural weight placed on kneeling before an enemy...
The thought made Hachiman go pale. He wanted to deny it, but his gut told him he had hit the mark.
Sensei knows so much Mandarin... there's a good chance he learned his Kendo in that country...
Which meant...
He had committed a massive, cultural taboo.
In the end, Chishima-sensei is just too soft-hearted.
Hachiman slowly looked up. The midday sun beat down on him, but he felt no warmth—only a lingering chill. He noticed Akishin was now looking toward Hayama and the others.
"Hayama-kun, are you still here? This court was booked by Totsuka-kun; the right to use it is his. If you have an issue with that, feel free to take it up with a faculty advisor."
The words were flat, but they made Hayama's group flinch.
"Then... we'll be going. Our apologies for the trouble, Chishima-sensei." Hayama didn't dare push his luck. He quickly reached down to help Miura Yumiko to her feet.
"Wait a moment, Chishima-sensei. You aren't just going to let them walk away, are you?"
Yukino's voice cut through the tension.
Hayama froze mid-motion.
Akishin turned to look at Yukinoshita Yukino as she stepped up beside Hachiman.
She gripped her tennis racket, her eyes cold as she glared at Miura and Hayama. "Chishima-sensei, they didn't just humiliate your student—they humiliated a member of my club. Since they wanted to use tennis to decide who wins, I will use tennis to crush their pride into the dust. Don't look at me like that; I happen to be a very vengeful person."
Miura Yumiko gritted her teeth. If there was one thing she hated, it was the way Yukinoshita Yukino looked down on everyone as if she were standing on a pedestal.
Akishin let out a small smile. He nodded, then looked at Hachiman. "And you? What do you think?"
Hachiman answered firmly, "I want to win it back, too."
"How's your body?"
"I'm fine. Sensei didn't use any real power back there."
The leg sweep had been deliberate, but it hadn't even carried the force of a single sword strike. He just hadn't had a Shinai to block it this time.
"Very well."
Akishin looked back at Hayama. "Hayama-kun, you heard them. The match continues. I will be the witness this time. If you win, the court is yours."
It wasn't a suggestion; it was a command. Fury flickered in Hayama's eyes as he looked at Akishin, but he didn't refuse. That lingering sense of danger hadn't entirely faded from the air.
...
The match officially resumed. The atmosphere was stifling. None of the spectators dared to speak. They watched the court in total silence, occasionally stealing glances at the figure standing in the corner.
The tables had turned completely. Before, Hayama's group had been the ones applying the pressure. Now, Akishin's mere presence was crushing the life out of Hayama's side.
Yukinoshita Yukino's technique was formidable, and with a Hikigaya Hachiman who was significantly more capable than his original self, they absolutely dominated Hayama and Miura.
Hachiman didn't even need to rely on the wind to secure an easy victory. It was a testament to the importance of having a top-tier teammate in a doubles match.
Of course, Akishin had no idea how the "original" story was supposed to go. Seeing that Hachiman and Yukino had the win in the bag, he turned and slipped away.
In the heat of the final point, everyone's eyes were glued to the court. No one noticed that Akishin had vanished.
Once the victory was secured, one side cheered while the other slumped in defeat. Miura Yumiko looked like she wanted to spit out a few more barbed insults, but the memory of the sheer terror Akishin had inspired kept her mouth shut.
Only then did everyone realize the teacher was gone.
Hachiman sent a text to Akishin and got a reply almost instantly: [In the office. Go to the infirmary and get yourself checked out. If there are no issues, you'd better be ready for serious Kendo practice this afternoon!!!]
Those three exclamation marks sent a shiver down Hachiman's spine. He briefly considered lying about his condition, knowing that a "healthy" status meant a brutal training session awaited him.
He then saw Yukino hand a first-aid kit to Totsuka Saika. It clicked then—that was why she had disappeared for a moment earlier.
She went to get a medical kit for Saika's injury.
...
What was Chishima Akishin doing?
He was back in the faculty office, immersed in a classic literary work. Within a short span of time, the events at the tennis courts had already spread through the school like wildfire.
Surprisingly, the situation hadn't spiraled out of control. The students who had been there were too intimidated by Akishin to exaggerate the story.
Even more shocking was that the actual facts—the cause and effect—stayed intact. It didn't turn into a messy rumor.
After hearing the truth, many students felt Akishin's actions were entirely justified. Consequently, Hayama Hayato's popularity took a noticeable hit.
Many of the boys in Class 2-F had long been annoyed by Hayama's clique, who often treated shared resources as their own personal property.
However...
"Shizuka-chan, I really wasn't bullying the students. I didn't even say anything mean to them. If anything, I was the one yelling at Hikigaya," Akishin said with a wry smile, meeting Hiratsuka Shizuka's suspicious, wide-eyed stare.
He set his book down. On the page, a single line had been underscored in red ink:
—Use the ways of a scoundrel to deal with a scoundrel; use the ways of a thug to deal with a thug.
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