Correcting Ayanokoji

"Oh?"

Ryuuen's gaze swept over Xia Mu's back. He tossed the coat he'd been using to keep warm onto the ground. "You seem pretty confident, coming here all by yourself."

"Not quite."

The smile on Xia Mu's face faded like dew beneath the sun. "I've got one more audience member."

As if in response, a rustling came from the bushes, and Ayanokoji's figure stirred among them.

That shouldn't be possible. He'd been moving quietly. There was no way an ordinary person could have noticed him.

Only a hunter who had spent years roaming the wilderness would be that alert.

He remembered Xia Mu spending the past few days shooting arrows and catching fish in the water. It seemed he fit the bill.

Still, he wasn't particularly flustered. He stayed hidden.

Maybe Xia Mu was bluffing.

"An audience, huh..."

Ryuuen narrowed his eyes. Was Xia Mu talking about something like a camera, something that could record evidence?

He remembered how Xia Mu always liked to leave a record whenever he foiled one of Ryuuen's plans.

He really was cautious about everything he did.

But there was no way Ryuuen would let this so-called evidence leave.

He slowly approached Xia Mu, a dangerous aura surging from him.

"Oh?"

Seeing how calm Xia Mu was, Ryuuen grew interested.

His smile turned increasingly manic. He'd beaten up plenty of people, but this was the first time someone had come looking to get beaten.

As soon as Xia Mu came within range, Ryuuen attacked without warning. His roundhouse kick spun through the air like a whirlwind, lashing toward Xia Mu like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey.

Then he closed in like a gale, raining punches down on Xia Mu in a furious barrage.

He didn't care what kind of injuries Xia Mu suffered. Winning was what mattered.

That was what years of fighting had taught him: strike fast, hard, and true.

That way, he could break through his opponent's mental defenses first.

"Thud, thud, thud!" Countless hammer-like punches landed hard. Ryuuen was soon panting like a bull. He struggled to raise his eyes, only to meet Xia Mu's gaze, as tranquil as a still lake.

What?

He froze for a moment. He'd been beating Xia Mu this whole time. Even a dead man should have made some sound. Why wasn't Xia Mu reacting at all?

"Ryuuen, you're pathetic and pitiful."

Xia Mu hadn't moved from beginning to end. He'd wanted to see how powerful the violence Ryuuen was so proud of really was.

As it turned out, Ryuuen was weak as hell. All he had going for him was his vicious aura, his reckless brutality in a fight, and years of experience. That was enough to make plenty of students fear him.

But against someone with even a few years of martial arts training, he was nothing.

"You..." The smile vanished from Ryuuen's face. He furrowed his brow.

Before he could finish, Xia Mu's fist shot out like an arrow loosed from its string.

His fist flew like a cannonball, tearing through the air with a piercing whoosh.

Ryuuen tried to dodge. He knew what he needed to do, but his body wouldn't obey.

With a resounding thud, Xia Mu's fist slammed into Ryuuen like a hammer.

One punch was all it took. Like a mountain crushing an egg, it sent him hurtling to the ground like a cannonball, his mind in a fog.

He tried to struggle to his feet and fight back, but his body felt as if it had been bewitched. His limbs were limp and powerless. He couldn't move, let alone stand.

"That punch was too powerful. It paralyzed me instantly!" Ryuuen reached that conclusion, then struggled to shift his gaze back to Xia Mu. His eyes flickered with shock and wild disbelief, as if he were looking at a monster.

"You little bastard! Are you trying to kill me?"

Even in this state, Ryuuen was still arrogant. He wasn't afraid; instead, a crazed excitement radiated from him.

Xia Mu wouldn't dare kill him, after all.

He was right.

But Xia Mu had never intended to defeat Ryuuen physically alone.

To truly break someone, you had to destroy them psychologically first.

He crouched in front of Ryuuen and looked at him like he was no better than a pig or a dog. "Ryuuen, do you think you're clever?"

At first, Ryuuen's lips had still been curled in a cocky smile. But as Xia Mu spelled out his plan, one point at a time, the smile vanished.

"You signed an agreement with Class A, getting them to transfer a fixed number of points to Class C every month. In return, you'd tell them what you knew about the leaders."

"And you had Ibuki and Kaneda infiltrate Class B and Class D to try and find their leaders."

Xia Mu's words pierced Ryuuen's heart like a falling needle. If Xia Mu dared say all this aloud, he must already have a way to counter the plan.

"Of course, in the end, you were going to betray Class A and write down all the class leaders."

Xia Mu slowly laid out Ryuuen's plan. "That way, you'd instantly get two hundred Class Points. So it wouldn't matter if twenty students in your class dropped out. Your class was already in the negatives, so there was nothing left to deduct."

In the calmest voice, Xia Mu described Ryuuen's plan down to the last detail. "And even if something went wrong, it wouldn't matter. You signed an agreement with Class A, so they'd have to pay your class points every month."

"You're really good at finding loopholes in the rules."

At Xia Mu's words, Ryuuen's eyes widened in shock. Xia Mu was practically a worm in his stomach.

"You..."

Ryuuen's mind raced. "How did you find out?"

"Let me think. Ibuki or Kaneda?"

"Most likely Kaneda. Ibuki might hate me, but she'd never betray me."

"I'm confident about that!"

Ryuuen was already trying to get information out of Xia Mu, but Xia Mu wasn't about to fall for it.

He gave Ryuuen a deliberately infuriating look. "Guess."

"Don't worry." He slowly stood up. "Your plan won't succeed."

"And this is only the beginning. From now on, every plan you make will fail."

Under the moonlight, a chilling gleam shone in Xia Mu's eyes. For once, a trace of fear crept into Ryuuen's heart.

Xia Mu meant what he said.

He had the confidence of someone who had already calculated the outcome of the game.

"What are you planning to do?" Ryuuen gritted his teeth. "So this is your way of challenging me?"

"A challenge?"

Xia Mu smiled and pulled a pocket watch from his sleeve, swinging it in front of Ryuuen. "Didn't I tell you? Your day of despair has only just begun. You'll face even greater despair from now on."

"Don't you like controlling people through violence?"

"When you find out that everything you've done was meaningless, I wonder what kind of expression you'll make. I'm sure it'll be quite a sight!"

"You bastard!"

This time, Ryuuen was genuinely angry. Flames of rage burned in his eyes, but fear clung to him like a shadow, making his body tremble involuntarily.

He opened his mouth, ready to say something more—to defend himself or curse Xia Mu.

But as the pocket watch in Xia Mu's hand swung back and forth, his voice was like a demon's whisper, piercing his ears and reaching straight into his soul. Gradually, his consciousness became like a little boat tossed by a storm, growing hazy before finally sinking into endless darkness.

"You'll forget what happened tonight."

Xia Mu's words rang out like a divine command. Ryuuen answered without thinking. "Yes."

"Looks like your willpower isn't strong enough, Ryuuen."

Xia Mu looked at Ryuuen, now hypnotized, and shook his head with a laugh.

Or perhaps his own hypnotic ability was simply too difficult to resist.

Ayanokoji, hidden in the bushes, had witnessed the whole thing.

His calm heart, as still as a placid lake, began to ripple.

[Quest: Correct Ayanokoji]

[Progress: 1%/100%]

[Reward: 3 Skill Points]