Discipline

Naoya Zenin's right hand was clamped around Mai's neck. The little girl's feet dangled above the ground, her throat squeezed so tightly that she could barely make a sound.

A few seconds earlier, fresh tear tracks had still clung to the corners of Mai's eyes, and her whole body had been trembling. But at some point, the trembling and sobbing abruptly stopped. The change happened so quickly that Naoya, still mocking her loudly, never noticed.

Mai Zenin-the soul inside this little girl's body had already been replaced.

In the first second after opening his eyes, Gu Yanzhi took in the situation: an adult man had a death grip on his neck, cutting off his breathing. The edges of his vision were darkening slightly from lack of oxygen. The man choking him was still saying something, his tone contemptuous and pleased, while Gu Yanzhi merely stared coldly at him, exuding an eerily oppressive presence.

"You're holding your head too high." The words came from the little girl whose throat was still being squeezed, utterly flat. They were quiet, yet Naoya heard them clearly.

Naoya froze. At first, he did not even register who had spoken. The mocking smile still lingered on his lips, but his brows had already drawn together involuntarily.

"Huh?"

Unable to quite believe his ears, Naoya instinctively voiced his confusion.

Naoya abruptly lost control of his body. An irresistible force slammed into his chest like a raging flash flood. Before he even had time to react, he shot straight backward like a cannonball.

He smashed a continuous trail of destruction through the wooden corridor. Beams snapped and roof tiles fell. His body hurtled through the corridor, then smashed through the paper door and thin wall of the tearoom beyond, burying him deep in its wreckage.

Dead silence settled over the garden.

Gu Yanzhi dropped to the ground and coughed violently several times.

Gu Yanzhi looked down at his hands. He flexed his fingers and said, sounding troubled, "How did this happen?"

He had not intended to use that much force. Waking up to find Naoya choking him had filled Gu Yanzhi with rage, and he had simply meant to repel Naoya away from him, not hit him this hard.

But-

Looking at the nearly demolished tearoom, Gu Yanzhi knew there was no way this would end peacefully. A disturbance this loud would probably alert every sorcerer in the Zenin Clan.

He crouched down to check on Maki first. As the older sister, the little girl had taken two brutal blows from Naoya. Now she lay motionless on the ground, with traces of the blood she had coughed up still at the corner of her mouth.

But the instant Gu Yanzhi reached out to help Maki up, every hair on his body stood on end. His instincts screamed a warning. He spun around and crossed his arms over his head.

A blurred afterimage shot out of the tearoom's wreckage.

Projection Sorcery activated. Naoya moved so fast that only a faint afterimage was visible in the air. Carrying a spray of rubble and wood splinters with him, he drove a vicious kick toward Gu Yanzhi.

A tremendous impact struck Gu Yanzhi's crossed arms. The kick sent him sliding several meters backward, his feet gouging two shallow furrows through the gravel path.

After taking Projection Sorcery head-on, Gu Yanzhi lowered his arms, brushed the dust off his school uniform, and raised his eyes to look at the man opposite him.

Naoya Zenin stood before the wreckage, panting heavily. Blood streamed from his forehead down his cheek, passing over his bloodshot eyes. He glared viciously at the little girl before him and spat, "You little bastard!"

Gu Yanzhi lowered his arms, his expression icy. He had never held any affection for the Zenin Clan, and his loathing for Naoya Zenin ran deeper still. If Naoya had no intention of stopping, he would gladly beat that revolting face until it could never smile again. And after that first strike, he knew perfectly well that he now had the strength to do it.

"Looks like you won't let this go unless I put you to sleep."

Naoya accelerated again. Projection Sorcery's twenty-four-frame trajectories wove a dizzying attack pattern through the air.

Gu Yanzhi remained calm, watching Naoya's movements intently. He now had the combined physiques of more than twenty people stacked onto his own. With Naoya's strength at its current level, he could track his movements.

In an instant, Naoya appeared at Gu Yanzhi's side and threw a punch at his face.

Gu Yanzhi turned aside and dodged. The rush of air from the punch grazed his ear, lifting a few strands of hair.

When the punch he had thought certain to land hit empty air, Naoya's composure finally cracked. His eyes widened, his pupils reflecting the little girl's eerily calm expression.

"How is that possible?"

Before he could finish the thought, his body abruptly stopped in midair, frozen in the act of punching like an insect trapped in amber.

The dust kicked up around him continued drifting forward. His wooden sandals remained tilted at the angle they had held when he pushed off the ground, but his entire body was immobilized, his expression frozen between shock and terror.

Gu Yanzhi walked toward Naoya. The Psychokinesis of his Object Manipulation Cursed Technique locked every one of Naoya's joints firmly in place.

Since things had already gone this far, he was in no hurry to hold back. Between the physical strength of more than twenty people and the psychokinetic restraint, Naoya had no room even to struggle.

Gu Yanzhi grabbed Naoya by the hair, yanked him out of the air, and slammed him hard into the ground. His back struck the gravel path with a heavy thud.

The psychokinetic restraint lifted. But when Naoya tried to roll over and get up, he discovered that the little hand pressing down on his head possessed astonishing strength. No matter how he struggled, he could not budge it.

"So no one in this goddamn Zenin Clan can keep you in line?" Gu Yanzhi straddled him and raised his fist high. A viciousness utterly at odds with this little girl's young face flashed through his eyes.

His fist came crashing down. Naoya's cheek caved in, and teeth flew out amid bloody spittle. His struggles weakened a little, but he was still mumbling curses.

"Then I will."

The second punch slammed down. The back of Naoya's head struck the paving stones hard enough to send cracks spreading through them. His hands finally went slack, and he lost consciousness completely.

Gu Yanzhi stood and shook the droplets of blood from his fist. A crowd had already surrounded him. The Zenin Clan's sorcerers had drawn their swords and pointed them at him, their expressions wavering between shock and uncertainty. Whispers rose throughout the crowd. The little girl they had always dismissed as useless had beaten the Zenin Clan's heir unconscious. No one would believe it if they told them.

Several maids huddled behind the corridor pillars, eyes wide and hands covering their mouths. They could not believe that the little girl Young Master Naoya had just lifted by the throat was now standing beside his unconscious body, shaking blood from her hand.

Naobito Zenin arrived at the scene as well. He passed through the crowd, which parted for him without prompting, and glanced at his son, beaten beyond recognition on the ground. Then he looked at Mai, standing beside him covered in blood, his expression complicated.