Chen Yu, Branded a Traitor

(After thinking it over, I'll make it three updates after all. There'll be one more tomorrow.)

They looked toward the source of the voice and found Chen Yu holding a spear, with the Pink-Haired Girl, who had a tiny mouth, caught in his other hand.

"How? What are you doing here? Ah, right. You're always with Gen, after all. Has our great doctor become a traitor too?" Hyoga asked in surprise as he looked at Chen Yu. Then something occurred to him, and his expression settled.

"No, no, no. I'm not a traitor. I just don't like people setting fires, understand? Especially these past few days." Chen Yu gave Hyoga a serious look.

This bastard had sent her to set a fire at the most crucial time for him. If the danger sense he'd honed since childhood hadn't alerted him to the girl, he really wouldn't have noticed her.

After all, she was a gymnast. With her agility, she could slip just about anywhere without any of the people here noticing.

Unless they had Ukyo. Unfortunately, Ukyo hadn't heard Mozu, or perhaps Mozu had used some special method to appear at Sea-Crying Cliff. There was no way to know any of that now.

Hyoga stared at the Pink-Haired Girl, momentarily stunned. He hadn't expected her to fail. By all rights, a doctor like Chen Yu shouldn't have had the ability to catch her.

"How did you catch her?" Hyoga asked.

"Simple. Catch her off guard, and you've got her." Chen Yu planted his spear in the ground, then scratched his head.

Hyoga also noticed the spear beside Chen Yu. It looked far better than the one he'd made.

At that thought, he glanced at his own spear, then at Chen Yu's. Immediately, he charged forward with his broken spear shaft, trying to seize Chen Yu's spear.

But Chen Yu delivered a spinning kick straight into the shaft Hyoga raised in an instinctive defensive reaction, sending it flying.

Hyoga used the momentum to pull the girl over to him.

"That kind of power isn't something a doctor should possess," Hyoga said, feeling the force of the impact.

"Well, doctors need to defend themselves too, don't they? I'm scared of violent patients, you know. And I'm not a traitor. Wherever there are patients, that's where I'll be." With that, Chen Yu picked at his ear.

"Patients?" Hyoga murmured.

"As a doctor, I can't stand by when there are patients in need. Hurry back. This girl will wake up soon. Whatever grudges you have can wait until the next opportunity." Chen Yu brushed the matter off with a laugh, walked through the crowd, and headed back.

Seeing this, Hyoga looked down at the girl in his arms. He didn't blame her, merely sighed helplessly. "No shame in losing this one. Let's go. We'll meet again... Senku... and Chen Yu."

With that, Hyoga left with the girl on his back.

Magma and Kohaku wanted to give chase, but Senku stopped them.

"Why are you stopping me, Senku?" Kohaku asked, looking at him.

"Now isn't the time. We only got lucky this time. We still need plenty of backup plans. Let's go," Senku explained before heading back as well.

Hearing that, everyone else could only return reluctantly.

They hadn't suffered any losses this time, so they still had plenty of manpower to devote to projects that would give them ways to respond.

Meanwhile, after returning, Hyoga told Tsukasa about Gen and Chen Yu's betrayal.

Then he told Tsukasa that Reiko and Miwa might also betray them.

But Tsukasa refused to discuss it.

"Those two..." Hyoga tried to continue.

"Are you going to eliminate our doctors too? We only have three right now. Even if we revive others, would they understand our conditions as well as these three do? We've already lost one top-class doctor. Do you want to eliminate the other two as well?" Tsukasa cut him off.

Seeing how serious Tsukasa was, Hyoga felt as though he had anger to spare but no way to vent it.

Tsukasa and Chen Yu were too close. Even branding Chen Yu a traitor couldn't make Tsukasa act against him.

There was nothing he could do. He couldn't beat Tsukasa, so in the end, Hyoga could only swallow his anger and storm out.

Tsukasa went outside and gazed ahead, recalling what Chen Yu had said when he left: "I will..."

"I hope you keep your word, even if you've never broken it before." As Tsukasa spoke, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Have we... gotten ourselves into trouble?" Reiko's voice came from behind Tsukasa.

Hearing her, Tsukasa turned to look at Reiko and smiled faintly. "It's all right. As long as I'm here, no one will hurt you."

Then he patted Reiko's head. If only his little sister were here too.

At that thought, Tsukasa sighed and continued gazing into the distance...

"Say, is it really all right for you not to go back?" Kohaku asked worriedly.

"It's fine. I did hurt Tsukasa a little, but as long as I go back and spend some proper time with him, he'll let all this go. Though that really isn't fair to him." Chen Yu stroked his spear.

"Speaking of which, Hyoga's spear seemed..." Kohaku looked at the spear in Chen Yu's hand, recalling the afterimages she'd seen when she attacked Hyoga earlier.

"That's how spears work. They're mainly used for thrusting. A light, flexible shaft lets the wielder handle it more skillfully. The spears you made are a little flexible too, but they're still too ordinary to achieve that effect," Chen Yu explained.

"Is that so?" Kohaku said after listening.

"All right, the fight's over. Kohaku, Kinro, come with me," Chen Yu told the two of them.

But Magma blocked his path.

"Chen Yu, I think you told me before that Senku... was my ancestor, right?" Magma asked, glaring fiercely at him.

"Isn't he?" Chen Yu turned to Senku, wanting him to explain.

"No. We're only father and son in name, not by blood," Senku explained to Chen Yu.

"Oh, he isn't? Then he isn't. What's that got to do with me? I'm not your ancestor." After hearing Senku's explanation, Chen Yu gave Magma an exasperated look.

"You bastard!!" Magma nearly exploded with anger. One simple "he isn't" had completely shattered the mindset he'd built up.

"I thought Senku was my ancestor, and I was thinking about everything I'd done to him, and how hard I'd work from now on..." Magma sank to his knees and sat back on his heels, drawing circles as the dim light fell over him.

"All right, all right. We'll have uses for you later. Come on, I'll teach you how to fight too." As Chen Yu finished speaking, his expression suddenly turned terrifying.

Kohaku, Kinro, and Magma huddled together in fear.

Even Suika stared fearfully at Chen Yu. At that moment, she felt he was terrifying beyond belief.

(How was this chapter? By the end, my heart was feeling a little uncomfortable. I originally meant to stop at a thousand words, but leaving it there seemed a bit too abrupt, so I went ahead and added the rest.)