SLKD – Volume 2 Chapter 12

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Chapter 12 – A Fight, A Challenge, A Dimensional Door

Standing in front of Class A’s classroom, Nagisa, while blushing, said to me in a sheepish tone, “I am sorry, Lin Xiang. I must have caused you some trouble, right?”

“Not at all. Hahaha!” I gave her a dry laugh. As a matter of fact, this has actually caused me quite a bit of trouble… and from the looks of it, if I don’t leave Class A soon, what awaits me would for sure be some severe beatings by a mad mob of boys who are in love with Nagisa. “Well then, I’ll first…”

“You, you must be Lin Xiang, right?” Right when I was about to leave, a rather good looking male student stepped out from Class A’s classroom.

“Erm…yup, that’s me; what do you need from me?”

“Don’t you and my classmate, Yorikawa-san, get along quite well?”

“Kitashima-san, Lin Xiang and I are not in any sort of relationship – so, please, don’t give him a hard time.” Nagisa looked at the student named Kitashima anxiously and gave him a reply before I could say anything.

“Hah!” Kitashima grinned – he gave us a brilliant grin, but his smile didn’t show in his eyes; his stare was ice cold. “Right, you guys aren’t in any sort of relationship. I am ‘Kitashima-san’, and he is ‘Lin Xiang’. I understand perfectly.”

“That’s because….” Nagisa fell silent, for some unknown reason.

Isn’t this darn simple? That’s because you and I are friends. Just hurry up and explain it to him.

“I just wanna know, Yorikawa-san, why you keep rejecting me even though I have asked you out so many times?”

“We… we are not right for one another.”

“Oh? Having a family net worth of several tens of billions, and being the only son of the Kitashima enterprise, I am still unfit for you? Are you saying that someone like me who ranks top in our grade is not even as worthy as someone whom everyone called ‘Trash’ Lin Xiang, who ranks top in our grade only if you count the ranking in reverse? “

“Hey, you bastard, watch what you are saying!” I was furious – how dare he call me trash? Even though… okay, alright, I had to admit, I was rather useless.

“Was I wrong? Incompetent-kun who couldn’t summon a single spirit?”

“DON’T SAY IT LIKE THAT ABOUT HIM! I apologize… I didn’t mean to yell. Actually, it is I who isn’t right for you; Kitashima-san, you are an excellent person, and there are plenty of other girls who are much better than I, so I was saying…”

“So, you were saying that I should give up on you?”

“…” Nagisa didn’t reply and just nodded her head ever so slightly.

“Hahah! No way! You are the first girl that I have liked. All those girls I had before, they all came onto me because of my family’s wealth, because of my ability. But you, you are different. You weren’t even moved by the 500 roses I sent you at the start of the school year. You were equally unaffected by the latest and greatest high quality magical stones…. You are a very special girl; if I can’t have you, I don’t think I could live it down.”

“Oy, even though I am not too sure what you meant by not being able to ‘live it down’, I’ll recommend that you run along now and not bother Nagisa anymore. Can’t you see from her expression that she is quite upset and troubled by this, you bastard?!”

Wasn’t this Kitashima guy too unreasonable? It was as clear as day from Nagisa’s facial expression that she was unsettled by this, but he just kept going on and on all by himself there.

“Oho? Incompetent-kun spoke? That is quite out of my expectation. You think you understand Yorikawa-san very well?” As he spoke, Kitashima quickly swang his fist around, aiming straight for my face.

“Bam….” (The sound of two bodies colliding with each other.)

“What? You were able to block my punch?”

“My sincerest apology, heir-apparent-kun. With your speed, it was difficult for me not be able to block it.” I grabbed onto Kitashima’s wrist tightly and began to slowly apply force….

“Please stop…. Lin Xiang, let go of him quickly.” Nagisa tugged at me anxiously.

“Oh? Rather strong, aren’t we? But.” Just when Kitashima finished talking, he suddenly yanked Nagisa towards him, then jerked his arm away from me. Just when I caught myself off guard with his movement, he rammed into me with his shoulder with an incredible force, and knocked me right off my feet, through the air; and ‘bang”, slammed me into the wall.

“Lin Xiang! Lin Xiang!” In a daze, I could see Nagisa, whom Kitashima had knocked down onto the ground, crawl towards me, and kept holding onto my head, and begged that I be alright!

I felt that my chest was about to explode, and my head felt like it was in a haze – I wanted to throw up.

“Humph!” Kitashima snorted, probably because he was jealous of what Nagisa did, right? In my daze, I could more or less hear him say, in a cold voice, “Incompetent-kun, you must really want to know what class my spirit is, right? To give you some closure so that you can spend the rest of your days in a hospital in peace, I will tell you – my spirit is the superior class earth bull!”

Upon hearing his words, other than students from Class A, everyone else who was standing around us gave out sighs of astonishment.

“It was a superior class spirit?! This…isn’t this guy totally badass? Before, with Takahashi being top in our grade, I have never really paid him, who was second in our grade, much attention; I can’t believe he is this amazing, he even summoned a superior class spirit.”

“Yeah, even though earth type isn’t much to write home about, it is still a superior class spirit, and this should take quite a bit of spiritual strength…. What scary guy! Looks like it is over for that Trash.”

“Totally. I thank my lucky star that I have never really offended him. On the other hand, why would the ‘Benevolent Little Angel’ hang out with that Trash?”

“Now, the Trash is done for, right?”

“Cough…” I gave a few painful dry coughs.

I was just wondering how he could be so incredibly strong, to be able to break free from my grip – as it turned out, he had a superior class earth spirit…. Just when did he attach the spirit onto his person? Did he do that when he came out to talk to me? It looked to me like this guy had every intention to start a fight with me from the very get go.

Phew! My body… hurts all over. Just how much force was behind that?

I moved Nagisa’s hand away, and with some difficulties, I slowly stood myself up. I looked at the wall behind me, and took a deep breath – if it was the “me” from before, I would have been DOA (dead on arrival) before I even got to the hospital.

Before me… on the wall that I just slammed into, there was a dent with a diameter of about half a meter. To top it off, around the indentation, the wall showed signs of crumbling… Bear in mind that the walls in Pillar Nofu Academy were magically reinforced. Unless it was an extraordinary amount of force assaulting it, the wall wouldn’t have suffered any damage at all…

This bastard was a very strong opponent. He was even stronger than Takahashi. On top of that, the only reason I was able to beat Takahashi was because he was possessed by a demon; that allowed my sacred fire to be effective against him.

However, this bastard is different; he wasn’t relying on the power of a demon, he was relying on his own capability. Since Takahashi left, he was the de facto number one in our grade. Now that he had a spirit with him, I could say for certain that he was even stronger than some of the sophomores in our school….

“Oh? You can still stand? This can’t be possible, can it?” Kitashima said it in a strange tone, as though he couldn’t believe what he just saw.

I could understand how he felt. After all, with that much force, most people would either drop dead or at least be completely paralyzed.

“Bastard! Don’t you get too cocky! I’m, no pushover either!” I ignored my pain and charged at him at full speed. I made a fist, pulled my arm back, and right when I was about to punch Kitashima’s smug face, an imposing voice belted out, “Stop!” It stopped me in my track.

“Satokatsu-sensei?” A student among the crowded cried out.

“What is going on here?” Satokatsu-sensei demanded as he pushed his way through the crowd of students surrounding us. His voice sounded imposing and made people feel intimidated.

The whole place fell silent all of a sudden.

“Don’t make me ask this again! What is going on here?”

“Nothing much, Lin Xiang and I were just having a friendly spar,” Kitashima replied calmly with a smile.

“Friendly spar?” Satokatsu took a look at me with suspicion, then he took a look at the indentation in the wall, “I don’t care if you are having a friendly spar, so long as you are fighting within the perimeter of the school, you need to be punished. Besides, you even damaged the wall. This is a serious matter. You all have to come with me to the Principal’s Office.”

Nagisa stepped in front me, shielded me with her body and said, “No… Sensei, I caused this incident… So… if you need to reprimand someone, please just punish me.” Looking at how she was trembling all over, she must be really scared, right?

“Anyone who violated the school rule must be seriously dealt with and be reprimanded. Since you said you were part of it, then you will come with us too.” Satokatsu’s facial expression didn’t show the slightest change, and here I was, thinking that he would be moved by those puppy dog eyes of Nagisa’s…

But, back to the matter at hand – I couldn’t believe that I had to go to the Principal’s Office again. I was just there yesterday… On top of that, this time around, it was because of a fight; I couldn’t even imagine what Grandpa Mitsu would think of me… And, I dragged Nagisa into this…

“Sensei, could you be lenient this one time? And let this go just this once?” I tried to act as humbly as I could.

“Are you certain?”

“Yes, I am certain.”

I saw him gave me a nod and announced in a calm voice, “In that case, seeing that you all are first time offenders, I will let this incident go this one time. I don’t want to see something like this happening again. If something similar were to happen again, I won’t be so lenient.” I guess Satokatsu believed that I was the victim here, so he accepted my suggestions.

“Thank you, Sensei.” I gave him a bow, expressing my gratitude.

He grunted and walked away as the surrounding students made way for him.

“Oh? Incompetent-kun, you even know Satokatsu-sensei? I really have to see you in a whole new light. On top of that, you are even unscathed after taking my blow?! Looks like, what you said earlier was no exaggeration – you are no pushover. In that case, let’s have a duel then! Right here, right now, I challenge you to a duel, with Yorikawa-san as our wager – the loser will never get to see Yorikawa-san again. What do you think?”

“Nagisa is not a ‘wager’, she is not a thing; don’t you dare randomly force her to be a wager willy-nilly! I, Lin Xiang, accept your challenge! But, we are not using Nagisa as a wager. If either of us loses, the loser simply has to give up seeing Nagisa!” Damn it, how could there be people like him, making decisions on everything all by himself?

“Even though you gave a good speech, the end result is still the same; there is no change to the arrangement – I don’t have a problem with that.” Kitashima gave me a smirk. Was he so confident that he thought he could, for sure, win against me?

“When and where?”

“No need to fuss over that. In four days’ time, during Monday’s competition, if we happen to match up against each other in the event, that would be perfect. Even if we are unable to match up against each other during the competition, it’s still no big deal. Since I know for sure that I will be the champion for this competition, I should be able to put in a request with the school to have a match with you afterwards.”

“I can’t ask for anything better.” Shit! That arrogance! I know that you might rank top among all the students in our grade, but to say it yourself, don’t you know that makes you look conceited?

“Lin Xiang, don’t, don’t… don’t accept this kind of challenge because of me.” Nagisa had been quiet this whole time, as though she was in a daze; then all of a sudden, like she had just woken up from a long daydream, asked me not to accept the challenge.

But, not accepting the challenge was not an option. I might not have known Nagisa for long, but even just based on this incident alone, I could more or less tell how Kitashima’s dogged pursuit had troubled Nagisa. In order to wipe away that distressed expression from her otherwise carefree and happy face, even if I had to be covered in bruises, I would still need to defeat Kitashima.

“No big deal. Besides, a man never backs down from his words. On top of that, haven’t we been friends since that night we walked home together? Friends – shouldn’t they help each other out?”

Nagisa didn’t say a word, but, isn’t that twinkle a drop of a tear coming out from her big and beautiful eye?

“Why are you crying? Did I say something wrong?”

“You…you truly are a… good person.”

“Damn it! The more I look at you, the more I can’t stand you, Incompetent-kun. I will definitely make you regret getting close to Yorikawa-san.” This time, Kitashima glared at me with killing intent.

What’s with the killing intent? Even though I am not sure what made Nagisa cry, do you have to be so mad at me that you actually want to kill me?

“I, too, will let you regret challenging me. ….Nagisa, please stop crying. It was all my fault; it was all my fault, okay?” Even though I didn’t know what I had done wrong, figured that I would apologize anyway.

“No, you haven’t done anything wrong. I should be the one apologizing, I am so useless, all I could do is cry….”

—————————— Classroom

“Lin Xiang, it isn’t true, is it? Are you really having a fight with Kitashima? You do know that he is number one in our grade, right?”

“Yeah, I am gonna fight him.”

“But…, he has dual abilities…. Besides, what’s the matter between you and Yorikawa?”

“Actually, Nagisa and I met when…”

After hearing my explanation, Satsuki, who was a bit agitated before, finally calmed down. Of course, I kept quiet about the little incident of me accidentally stealing away Nagisa’s first kiss. If I had told her about that, she would probably think of me as a pervert, right?

“What? How could she be so pitiful, and that way of solving her problem was way too dumb, no? She was lucky to have met you. And that damnable doctor… On the other hand, my premonition that day wasn’t wrong, someone really had taken notice…”

“What are you mumbling about?” Satsuki started her speech passionately, but towards the end, she kind of trailed off, and I didn’t manage to catch a word she said at the end there…

“Nothing – right, where do you plan to get a Éguilles Grass?”

“Argh… actually, I planned to ask my uncle to ask around; you know, since my father was so awesome, I figure that my uncle couldn’t be that far off, right?” Speaking of, I actually had no idea what my uncle did…

——————————— Friday

After my run-in with Kitashima, people in class began to look at me differently. This was because they knew just how solid that school wall was, and after I took that powerful blow from Kitashima, I could still act like nothing had happened: I fell asleep during class like before, I chatted with friends after class like before. This made them realize that there was more to me than met the eye.

This kind of thinking was no doubt beneficial to me. Reason being, a rumor about me making Nagisa cry had spread while we were up on the rooftop. Quite a few boys had already decided to beat me up. But because of the incident with Kitashima, they became hesitant – it was probably because they believed that they themselves wouldn’t have survived that powerful punch from Kitashima.

——————————— Saturday

‘Finally, the day has arrived! I finally have a chance to return to the Netherworld!’

‘It is now the Demon Word.’ Freed reminded Yalide.

‘Who cares?! Kid, you all set?’

After sneaking out without letting Silent Water know, we arrived at the woodland near my house. Yalide had said that the spatial membrane around this area was relatively weak, so he could utilize less of my energy to open up the dimensional door.

‘Mmm, ready.’

‘Then, close your eyes. Focus on your senses to feel the dragon power within your body; use your mind’s eyes to get a sense of the spatial structure and a sense of the spatial shape. Now, let your dragon power slice through that spatial dimension…’

I followed Yalide’s instructions, closed my eyes, and focused on sensing the dragon power within me…

‘This… what’s with this black hole?’

When I opened my eyes again, my left hand was emitting a pale black light. The light pulsed and twinkled, as though resonating with the black hole in front of me.

‘This is the dimensional door. You can go right in. It will only take a moment, and you will be in the Demon World. Once you get there, you can go find them Nora Grass and Éguilles Grass, then come right back here, resolve everything. After that, you can take me to the bookstore, and get me….’

I didn’t wait till Yalide finished and jumped headlong into that black hole – dimensional door.

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