Chapter 119. Commotion (3)
Shuriken cut through the darkness.
They seemed to have been painted black, making them difficult to see with the naked eye.
But Kang Yujin dodged them without much trouble.
Six of them? No... are there more?
He could visually confirm six ninjas.
But he had a feeling that wasn’t all.
Hard to tell...!
Whether it was because of some specialized training or the effect of a skill, the ninjas barely gave off any presence.
It was already dark enough to make them difficult to see.
On top of that, he could barely sense them.
The conditions were considerably unfavorable for Kang Yujin.
But...!
Six ninjas attacked from all directions.
Kang Yujin used [Circular Step] to move rapidly and evade every attack.
At the same time, he punched down one of the ninjas he passed while using the skill.
One.
The remaining ninjas hesitated after losing one of their companions in an instant.
Kang Yujin raised his leg without hesitation and kicked the nearest one.
The ninja flew backward and crashed into the shutter of a nearby shop.
He didn’t get back up.
Two.
Kang Yujin spun around and slammed a Hwaseong Sect Shoulder Crash into a ninja attacking from behind.
Boom!
The ninja was sent flying into one of his companions, and both tumbled across the ground.
Three. Four.
Then a ninja wielding a dagger and another holding a sickle charged him.
Kang Yujin tried to punch the dagger wielder in front of him, but another ninja immediately threw his sickle.
In fact, it was a chained sickle.
The chain twisted cleverly through the air and wrapped around Kang Yujin’s arm.
With his movement momentarily restricted, the dagger-wielding ninja rushed in.
Five.
Kang Yujin simply ignored the chain and drove his fist into the dagger wielder’s face.
Then he moved his arm and yanked on the ninja who had thrown the chained sickle.
The ninja struggled desperately, but the difference in strength was obvious.
He was dragged helplessly toward Kang Yujin.
Kang Yujin kicked him in the head.
The ninja collapsed unconscious.
Six... Is that it?
At that moment, a shadow flashed through the edge of Kang Yujin’s vision.
He instinctively turned toward it.
Then pain stabbed into his back.
Shuriken?
The wound wasn’t deep.
Considering it had pierced his rider-suit-type protective gear, the weapon seemed fairly high-grade.
But it had only nicked his skin.
Still...
the wounded area suddenly began to burn.
“It’s poison.”
A voice came from behind him.
Kang Yujin turned.
A man dressed in black like the other ninjas was approaching.
“You’ll find it difficult to move. Without an antidote, you’ll die within ten minutes.”
“You are...”
The man removed the hood covering his face.
A gruesome sword-like scar ran across it.
“Matsushita Soichiro...”
“Yes.”
The moment he nodded, every ninja lying nearby crumbled away like sand.
“Ninpo. It’s different from the ninjutsu passed down in our world. It is a supernatural art.”
“So I was fighting clones you created?”
“That’s right.”
Kang Yujin clicked his tongue inwardly.
He had thought their presence felt strange, but he hadn’t imagined that all six of them were clones.
Each individual clone had been weak.
Still, the fact that Matsushita could use a technique like this at all was impressive.
An ordinary Contractor would probably get killed before they could respond to an ambush like that. Is he specialized in assassination?
Kang Yujin had assumed that someone Keito brought with him would be fairly capable.
But he hadn’t expected an ability like this.
“Why did you attack me?”
“Do you really not know?”
“No idea. Did Keito order you?”
“Do not call him by his name so casually!”
Matsushita suddenly shouted.
“In Japan, unlike Korea, we do not casually call people by their given names. Using the family name is the standard, and almost no one uses a given name immediately after meeting someone.”
“Oh, really?”
“Even in Korea, don’t people normally use only a given name if they’re close? Everyone still calls you ‘Kang Yujin,’ don’t they? They don’t go around calling you ‘Yujin-ah.’”
“That’s... true.”
Imagining Lee Jukheon calling him Yujin-ah or Seok Taejun calling him Yujin-ssi felt strangely awkward.
“Then should I call him Saionji from now on?”
“Call him Lord Saionji or Mr. Saionji!”
“You’re picky...”
“No, that is not the important point.”
Matsushita shook his head.
“Kang Yujin... you injured my lord’s face, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know!”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, Kang Yujin had punched Keito in the face during their midnight fight.
He remembered Keito spitting blood afterward.
“I don’t think I injured his face. The inside of his mouth probably just got cut.”
“That is the same thing! To dare injure his body and make him bleed...!”
“Wait. I wasn’t the one who started...”
Kang Yujin stopped before claiming Keito had picked the fight first.
Thinking about it...
they had thrown their first punches at exactly the same time.
“What is it? Go ahead. Make your excuse.”
“Well... uh...”
“So there is no excuse.”
“No, but it wasn’t like I attacked Keito one-sidedly.”
“I told you not to casually use his given name!”
Matsushita scowled.
The scar across his face twisted with the expression, making him look extremely intimidating.
“I was prepared to forgive you if you showed remorse, but clearly that was a mistake. It doesn’t matter how my lord feels about you.”
His voice turned cold.
“You will pay for your crime here.”
“So this is your personal decision.”
At first, Kang Yujin had thought Keito had betrayed him.
Now that he knew Matsushita was acting on his own, that misunderstanding was cleared up.
Still...
Kang Yujin felt slightly disappointed.
“Struggle in agony from the poison, Kang Yujin.”
Matsushita stared at him.
Then his expression changed.
“Wait. Why are you still standing normally?”
“Oh, that.”
“What?”
“Most poisons don’t work on me.”
“What?”
Kang Yujin flexed the muscles in his back.
The shuriken still embedded there was pushed out.
Then he kicked off the ground.
Matsushita reacted quickly despite his shock.
He really is fast. Maybe even faster than Lee Jukheon.
If Matsushita decided to flee, catching him would probably be difficult.
Kang Yujin decided to end this quickly.
“What do you mean poison doesn’t work on you...?!”
“Doesn’t your lord resist poison too?”
"...!"
Kang Yujin used [Circular Step] to cut into the path Matsushita was trying to take.
Predicting his movement, he threw a punch.
But the instant his fist connected, Matsushita’s body scattered like sand.
“Seriously, how many weird techniques do you have?!”
“I am contracted with the A-rank Constellation ‘Leader of the Ten Braves,’ Sarutobi Sasuke! This level of ninpo is nothing to me!”
“Never heard of him!”
Kang Yujin raised his arm as he answered.
A shuriken flew in from his blind spot and struck that arm.
If he hadn’t lifted it, the weapon would have cut his face.
The power isn’t that high. But if this keeps happening...
Just like the saying about clothes getting soaked in a drizzle, constantly allowing attacks like this would eventually become dangerous.
He also had to consider the possibility that Matsushita possessed a powerful hidden weapon.
No choice!
Kang Yujin activated [Protective Gang Qi] to defend his body, then pulled his flail from his inventory.
He drew up all his strength and began swinging it violently in every direction.
“Ugh...!”
Clones were one thing.
But a real human suddenly turning into sand was impossible under normal logic.
That meant the true nature of Matsushita’s ninpo was probably an illusion.
He was likely retreating at extreme speed while leaving an image behind to steal Kang Yujin’s attention, then attacking from a blind spot.
Then I just need to take away the space he can escape through!
Kang Yujin couldn’t use magic.
The only area attack he could manage was to swing the flail in a huge circle and eliminate Matsushita’s escape routes.
“How can you swing such a heavy weapon that quickly... Ah!”
At last, the flail’s chain wrapped around Matsushita’s ankle.
“Try slipping your ankle out with ninpo!”
Matsushita was clearly an agility-specialized Contractor.
Against Kang Yujin’s strength, he couldn’t properly resist.
With the chain still wrapped around him, Kang Yujin slammed Matsushita into the ground.
“Gaaah!”
A scream burst from Matsushita as he crashed into the concrete.
“K-Kang Yujin! What happened?!”
Seok Taejun, who had noticed the commotion, came running over.
“Isn’t that Mr. Matsushita from Japan? Why are you...?!”
“He tried to kill me.”
“What? Why again...? Kang Yujin, did you do something wrong?”
“Why are you blaming me?”
Still pinning Matsushita down so he couldn’t get up, Kang Yujin sighed.
“All right, Matsushita.”
“Kuh... to think I would suffer such humiliation...”
Matsushita was bleeding from the corner of his mouth and looked miserable.
“Honestly, I could kill you.”
“Kuh...”
“You attacked me and even threw poisoned shuriken at me.”
"..."
“But there’s an important negotiation going on, so I probably shouldn’t kill you here.”
Kang Yujin looked at Seok Taejun.
“What should I do?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Still, just forgiving him feels wrong. We should punish him somehow.”
“Hmm... maybe break a bone?”
“That would be too obvious. What if people ask why he’s injured?”
“Tell him to say he accidentally got caught in a hotel room door.”
“Hmm...”
They were seriously discussing it when...
“You seem to be having trouble deciding.”
A voice came from the rooftop of a nearby building.
“You are...”
“Lovely morning, isn’t it?”
A woman in revealing Chinese-style clothing stood above them.
She possessed a seductive beauty.
Daji.
Once a nine-tailed fox who had thrown the world into chaos, she had now reformed and, like Kang Yujin, served the ‘Nameless King.’
“If you’re wondering how to punish that Japanese man, why not hand him over to me? I was ordered to investigate the situation in Japan anyway.”
“Investigate Japan? Was that His order?”
“Yes, of course.”
“That’s...”
“I’m probably better at torture than you are, don’t you think?”
"..."
“Then it’s decided.”
Daji descended from the rooftop and approached Matsushita.
The moment he saw her seductive beauty and revealing clothes, Matsushita’s face turned red.
He was fairly old, but surprisingly innocent.
“Oh? Were you expecting something?”
Daji smiled.
“Unfortunately, I recently changed my image to something more pure and innocent! In the old days, I might have given you some thrilling, sexy, pleasurable torture... but I don’t do that anymore!”
She looked down at him with a bewitching smile.
“Instead, I’ll make sure it hurts a lot. Who knows? Maybe somewhere along the way, the pain will start turning into pleasure.”
"...!"
“And since things will get awkward if you remember telling us all your secrets afterward, I’ll erase the specific memories once the torture is over.”
Her smile deepened.
“Still, you might have nightmares every time you fall asleep for a while, so prepare yourself.”
“W-Wait! Hey! Kang Yujin! Look at me! Look at me!! Ugh!”
Kang Yujin deliberately turned his gaze away.
Matsushita made one last desperate attempt to use some kind of ninpo.
Daji lightly tapped him with the tip of her foot.
His body immediately went limp.
“All right, I’ll take him with me. Don’t worry. I’ll return him to the hotel before morning.”
“Yeah... I’ll leave it to you.”
Feeling the slightest bit of sympathy for Matsushita, Kang Yujin watched as Daji dragged him away.
“Kang Yujin... what exactly happened?”
“Seok Taejun, when you meet Japanese people, don’t casually call them by their given names. Apparently you’re supposed to use their family names.”
“Oh, really? I didn’t know.”
“If you’re careless, ninjas might attack you.”
“Stop talking nonsense and go inside to sleep. Ninjas only exist in manga.”
“I’m serious.”
Kang Yujin wanted to explain further, but he was sleepy too.
So he simply followed Seok Taejun back to the hotel.
