Furious

The Samurai Duel is a time-honored form of combat in Sakura Country—at least in Beihai's past life, the version iterations in Sakura Country were too fast.

Sakura Woman had already reached a level of absurd rhetoric where she'd say things like "I just want him dead, but I don't actually mean any harm."

Eighty percent of those accusations were false, but they usually ended in a guilty verdict. The man had no recourse at all, and once convicted, he'd face two to three years in prison.

It made men miserable, but for every high wall, there's a taller ladder. Someone quickly figured out that if it was handled as a brawl, you'd only get fifteen days in detention at most.

That was the angle. Once someone filed a false accusation of indecent assault, the man could immediately declare that the woman would engage him in a Samurai Duel.

Even if the police showed up, they could only treat it as a fight. In the end, the man could hire a lawyer and claim the woman was trying to force him into a Samurai Duel.

What fault was Beihai's? He was just finding himself an escape route at a critical moment—otherwise, if she framed him, he'd be looking at three years in prison minimum. Who could take that?

Kikyo Kushida's face shifted through a range of emotions in front of Beihai. She looked down at the hand gripping her chest, then up at Beihai, feeling like her head was spinning.

She wondered if she'd misheard. "Your hand is already on me, and now you're talking about a Samurai Duel?"

"There are already your fingerprints on my chest. If you don't want to—"

Huh!

Before she could finish, a fist slammed into her stomach, accompanied by Beihai's words.

"So you want to have a Samurai Duel with me?"

"Think it through. There are no cameras here. Even if your chest has my fingerprints, other parts of you will too—like your face, which will have the full imprint of my palm."

"Indecent assault is serious, but if it's mutual combat, I only go in for half a month. And the school will just sweep it under the rug."

"So do you really want to go all out with me, at the cost of a bruised and battered body?"

Kikyo Kushida froze. She was being threatened—by that bookworm, that gloomy otaku, blatantly threatened.

The foolproof plan she'd imagined never materialized. Why? This wasn't how it was supposed to go. She was supposed to use her own innocence to frame him.

With the added line, "What kind of girl would joke about her own purity?"

But what was this about a Samurai Duel? What was this about mutual combat? Only half a month? And a palm print on her face—wasn't that just a slap?

When had the meta shifted this far ahead? Wasn't it always that a girl threatened a guy a couple times, and he'd just cave?

Especially someone with Beihai's personality—a gloomy otaku, easy to manipulate. How had it gone wrong?

This wasn't just punching cotton; it was like he was wearing thorned armor. She'd not only failed to land a hit but hurt her own hand.

And most importantly, Kikyo Kushida quickly slapped Beihai's hand away and stepped back two paces, her mind a mess. She'd let him take advantage and gotten nothing in return.

Kikyo Kushida now resumed a girl's proper reserve, crossing her arms over her chest as if she hadn't just willingly offered herself up like a freebie, but rather looked like the victim.

"You bastard! Are you even a man?"

Beihai clenched his right fist and said casually, "How can you assume my gender? If you want to get technical, I could be a helicopter."

Kikyo Kushida looked at Beihai's demeanor and realized she'd been fooled by his act. She'd thought he was a little white rabbit, a goblin-like creature in real life who only gazed up at the saintess.

Hiding his filthy thoughts inside, only to vent them in some dark corner. She never expected him to be this cunning.

Kikyo Kushida was furious—furious that he had her under control, furious that he'd taken advantage of her, and furious that she'd gotten nothing out of it. Worse, she'd lost the initiative.

"Tch." She let out a sound, realizing her body was no longer a bargaining chip.

Kikyo Kushida's mouth twisted into a pout that could rival a dragon king's, but quickly her expression turned pitiful, tears welling in her eyes as if she'd been horribly wronged.

"What do you want me to do?"

As she said this, she unconsciously stepped forward two paces, then directly looped her arm around Beihai's, sinking into a tender embrace.

Beihai felt nothing throughout. To both of them, this was just a hassle, so he simply reached out and grabbed her chin.

"What do I want? You're recording, aren't you? Hoping I'll say something like 'I want to XXX you, then XXX you'—some weird demand."

"If you release that, my reputation is gone. Then you can say whatever you want. The truth is whatever comes out of your mouth."

Kikyo Kushita's expression changed, the pitiful act gone.

Kiyotaka Kiyotaka watched from the side with great interest, then reached out and directly took her Terminal.

"Yep, it's recording indeed."

Too fast. By the time Kikyo Kushida reacted and tried to pull away, her chin was still firmly clamped, unable to move. She could only bluster on the spot.

"Hey! You bastard—"

But inside, she was already panicking. She was completely at the bottom now, at their mercy. There were no cameras here. She'd basically dug her own grave.

"Now I can lay out some conditions. Like buying some weird toys, making you strip and take a few photos while wearing them. Your life would be over."

Kikyo Kushida was genuinely terrified. This was straight out of a doujin plot, and it seemed like a real possibility. The thought of spending the next three years as someone's sex slave—

She couldn't tell if it was a threat or serious, but she leaned toward the latter. After all, this kind of goblin, this kind of otaku, really would fantasize and act on it. She didn't dare gamble.

"Disgusting! Let me go!"

She struggled, even tried to scream, but Beihai had planned for this. Why else would he have grabbed her chin?

With a simple upward twist, he could cover her mouth. By now, Kikyo Kushida's eyes were completely panicked, her body going weak.

Seeing the tears streaming down her face, Beihai judged the moment was right. He let go and snapped a few photos.

"I can't be bothered with you. What happened today was just an accident. If you hadn't made the first move, I wouldn't have bothered threatening you either.

You saw what happened today—I was pretending, and you were pretending too. We don't interfere with each other. But if you dare to come and disturb me, then I really will have to control you. I hope my threat doesn't become reality. Understand?"

After Beihai let go, Kikyo Kushida couldn't even stand steady. Her face was streaked with tears, and she even plopped down onto the ground.

Luckily, her mental fortitude was decent enough that she didn't wet herself outright—otherwise, that would've been truly mortifying.

Now, as she looked at Beihai, where was any trace of scheming in her eyes? When it came down to it, she was just a little girl. After being shaken so thoroughly by reality, she was completely subdued.

The only thing Kikyo Kushida could do was run her mouth—which was also the one thing any character could do after being beaten to their knees.

"Beihai, you bastard!"