You Must Bear It Whether You Admit It or Not

Sakamoto Tenryu’s hand rested on the hilt of his sword.

The man in the suit folded his handkerchief and slipped it into his pocket.

Neither of them attacked together. They were both waiting for Zhafu to make the first move.

Koji Takeda understood what was happening.

They were testing Zhafu’s limits.

So many people had died at the gate. The onmyoji had failed to hold him back, the paper figures had failed, and even the defenses here had been unable to stop him.

No one knew how much strength Zhafu had left.

That was the information gap.

Koji Takeda could make a rough guess.

Zhafu had attacked too quickly just now. He should have expended quite a bit of energy.

But Zhafu showed no sign of fatigue.

Koji didn’t know whether the man was pretending, but deep down, he still hoped Sakamoto the Sword Saint could kill Zhafu.

Zhafu raised a hand, and more than a dozen white bones came to a halt beside him.

He did not attack first. Instead, he asked the man in the suit, “How much did Peiluo Jia pay you?”

The man in the suit replied, “One hundred million yen.”

Zhafu was silent for half a second.

“That’s all?”

The man in the suit frowned.

Zhafu pointed at himself.

“I’m only worth that much?”

Koji Takeda nearly lost his composure.

The man in the suit looked at Zhafu. The trace of courtesy he had shown earlier finally vanished.

“Killing you is worth that much.”

Zhafu nodded.

“Fine.”

He took one step forward.

“Then I’ll make sure you lose money on this job.”

The man in the suit raised his hand. Two spring-loaded knives slid into his palms.

The blades were short, but finely made. Their silver edges flashed once in the light of the setting sun before he closed his hands around them.

They looked delicate and compact, though they also seemed rather unworthy of a grand stage.

Zhafu glanced at them but did not hurry to attack.

They were too short even for peeling an apple. For killing someone, however, they were quite suitable for hiding up a sleeve.

“Gale.”

The man in the suit spat out the word.

In the next instant, he lowered his body and leaned forward at a seventy-degree angle. With a burst of strength from his feet, his figure vanished from everyone’s sight.

Koji Takeda was still standing where he was, his thoughts half a beat behind.

Where did he go?

All he heard was the sound of wind rushing past his ear, followed by a numb sensation across his scalp.

He was an Esper.

And his ability seemed to be related to speed.

The white bones rising beside Zhafu abruptly sprang into motion.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

The bones swept sideways, blocked, and countered.

But the other man seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Only the sounds of impact confirmed that the man in the suit was attacking.

Every collision struck something solid, and the ringing of metal against metal echoed through the air.

A moment later, the man in the suit reappeared in his original position.

He straightened the sleeve that had been cut open by the white bones, then brushed a finger over his collar. The same professional smile remained on his face.

“As Mr. Zafu said, Peiluo Jia has indeed lost money on this job.”

He raised his chin.

“With Mr. Zafu’s strength, the price should have been two hundred million yen.”

But then he changed tack. “However, since Peiluo Jia has already accepted the contract, we will still give it our all.”

Sakamoto Tenryu glanced at him from the side.

He looked down on this assassin from Peiluo Jia.

Killing required timing, restraint, and an understanding of one’s opponent. This man loved putting on a show. Before his knife had even entered his target’s body, he was already reading out the invoice.

Sakamoto Tenryu did not interfere, however.

He disdained ganging up on a single opponent, so he merely stood to one side, with no intention of joining the fight.

After all, that would go against his martial principles.

More importantly, he wanted to see what else Zhafu was hiding.

Zhafu was too strange.

From the very beginning, his aura had been unstable. Something inside his body was pressing against him, as if it wanted to drill out through his flesh.

Sakamoto Tenryu had seen plenty of Espers, as well as monsters that had lost control.

Yet Zhafu had not lost control. It was obvious that his thoughts remained perfectly clear.

Zhafu merely tilted his head and looked at the man in the suit.

“Are all the people from Peiluo Jia this pretentious?”

“Only the strong have the right to put on airs.” The man in the suit took a step forward.

Zhafu continued smiling. “Is that so? Do you think people don’t know that Peiluo Jia’s headquarters are in Hokkaido? There will come a day when I pay you a personal visit. Just not anytime soon.”

The man in the suit’s expression finally changed.

As he spoke, Zhafu advanced step by step. His aura gradually became more chaotic—and more swollen with power.

Sakamoto Tenryu’s hand settled on the hilt of his sword.

He did not like this change.

This was not a simple increase in strength.

At that moment, Zhafu turned his head toward Koji Takeda.

“If you don’t leave now, you won’t get another chance.”

Koji Takeda froze.

After saying that, Zhafu paid him no further attention. Though he was only a Japanese high school student, a person’s fate did not consider their age when the time came to decide it.

Koji Takeda looked at Sakamoto Tenryu, then at the man in the suit.

Sakamoto Tenryu also turned toward Koji Takeda.

“He’s right. Leave. If you stay here, you’re very likely to die.”

“Then what about you, Sword Saint—”

Koji Takeda had not finished speaking when Sakamoto Tenryu raised a hand and cut him off.

“He didn’t come here to kill us in the first place. He has another objective.”

Koji Takeda cautiously looked at Zhafu.

Zhafu was looking back at him as well.

“Get lost. The next time I see you, you won’t be in the same state you are now.”

Koji Takeda did not understand what that meant, and he had no intention of asking.

He felt that he probably would never see Zhafu again.

Even so, he turned and bowed deeply to Zhafu.

“Hah. What a fellow who knows his little courtesies.”

Zhafu mocked him.

Koji Takeda turned and ran.

When he reached the gate, his feet faltered for a moment, but he still did not look back.

His mind was in complete turmoil.

What exactly had Zhafu meant by all those things he’d said?

Only after Koji Takeda left the shrine did Sakamoto Tenryu take half a step forward.

“If that’s the case, then let’s end this quickly. I don’t know what your objective is, but I can sense an extremely terrifying negative energy contained within your body.”

Sakamoto Tenryu pressed his hand against the hilt of his sword.

Zhafu raised a hand and patted his chest. With a grin, he said, “My objective? I’m here to collect a debt—a debt that’s seventy years overdue.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. Let the past remain in the past.”

Sakamoto Tenryu clearly knew what that history was. He was merely skirting around the issue.

Once certain things were acknowledged, drawing a sword became difficult.

Zhafu saw through his evasion, and the smile on his face faded slightly.

“You Japanese have a bad habit. When you owe someone money, you act like their servant. But when the ledger is brought out, you suddenly pretend you can’t read.”

“Heh. The past? That isn’t for you to decide.”

The man in the suit cut in, “Mr. Zafu, I’m not a politician. I’m just someone who gets paid to do a job.”

“Then you’re even worse off.”

Zhafu looked at him.

“A politician can still apologize on television. You can only lie on the ground while people walk all over you.”

The man in the suit’s fingers twitched.

He did not want to listen any longer.

The next second, Zhafu moved.

This time, he did not use the white bones.

He entered the fray himself.

If Koji Takeda had still been there, he would have realized that something was wrong.

Zhafu had always controlled the white bones from a distance to attack.

Yet now, Zhafu had charged forward personally.

That left his back exposed to the assassin from Peiluo Jia.

This was not a mistake.

It was an invitation.

Sakamoto Tenryu saw it.

So he retreated.

As he backed away, he kept his eyes fixed on Zhafu’s chest and spine.

Golden patterns were suppressing the black aura there, but many of those patterns had already cracked.