chapter2 · 020-ep20
Episode 20: An Achievement After So Long, and a Conclusion?
Right after finishing that baffling achievement — touching the opponent's body with your palms, mid-combat —
【World-First Reward will be granted】
【Passive Skill Acquired: Contact Perception】
A new Skill was carved into me.
Contact Perception?
What's with that exquisitely plain name?
And before I could even learn the details, Rio stepped in once more.
Bad.
The moment I thought so, my hand had already moved.
I caught it with my palm. Unthinking.
The achievement was done already, and I still did it out of habit.
But the instant my palm touched —
The weight that should have rung deep into my arm slid smoothly off to the side.
"...?"
I'd taken it head-on, and yet the impact didn't properly stay.
It hadn't vanished.
Where Rio's force was coming from, and where it was headed —
that was transmitting through my palm.
The angle of the fist.
The tension in the arm.
The set of the shoulder.
The weight on the planted foot.
I couldn't see all of it clearly.
But the moment I touched, I knew: ah — this can be redirected.
Instead of taking Rio's right head-on, I shifted it outward with my palm.
And the impact that should have dragged my whole arm along with it flowed past, as if its core had been knocked loose.
The left that followed was the same.
The instant my palm met the fist, I knew the direction of the force.
Not receiving it dead center.
Easing it off just slightly to the side.
Just that, and Rio's attacks stopped being things that broke my body, and became things that slipped past my flank.
That was when I finally understood.
Contact Perception.
This wasn't some grand skill that showed me the opponent's future.
Just: the moment you touch, you know the flow of force.
You know the tilt of the weight.
You know the small starting point for shifting into the next move.
Plain.
Astonishingly plain, visually.
But —
this one's strong while staying plain.
Flowing Rio's attacks right, flowing them left.
And into the small gap that opened at his chest,
this time I slipped in a strike of my own.
Shallow.
But a first.
The first time I'd turned from a state where all I could do was defend into offense.
"Ooh."
Small voices leaked from around us.
No big cheering.
It really came through — the spectators were locked onto this match too.
Rio also stepped back a single step.
Not major damage.
But clearly different from before.
Rio's eyes narrowed, just a little.
"...Huh."
How do I put it — a "huh" loaded with admiration.
Or maybe, "he's started having fun" is more accurate?
"That one just now — nice."
"Thanks."
"Did you grab onto something?"
"Well, a little."
"I see."
Saying that, Rio stepped in again.
Fast.
Same as before — no, a touch faster?
But this time, I wasn't only being pushed.
Attacks I'd had no choice but to defend against until a moment ago.
Now, the instant I touched them, they held a little meaning.
This fist is for pressing in.
This elbow is for linking to the next.
This step-in is for crushing my escape route.
I understand.
Not all of it.
But far better than before.
"...Hey, something changed."
"He was getting pushed around just now, right?"
"If this is Intermediate, I can't keep up."
The crowd's murmurs shifted, little by little.
At the start it had been completely Rio's match.
That's a fact.
But not now.
I was still being pushed.
Even so, it was no longer one-sided.
"Amazing."
"At what?"
Rio took a little distance.
"...You're really a first-year?"
"That's your takeaway?"
"Mm. It's a little hard to believe."
"Well, I have a hard time believing you're a second-year, for my part."
"Maybe that one's mutual."
Saying that, Rio set his stance again.
And here, the air somehow changed.
"In that case — I'll go just a little faster."
It was plenty fast already, though.
The moment I thought that, it genuinely got faster.
A fist raced along the edge of my vision.
The instant I thought I'd dodged, the next one was already there.
Rio's attacks didn't stop.
Fast, heavy, and on top of that, zero waste in the links between one strike and the next.
Just receiving them took everything I had.
Into that, I slipped palms, read the force's direction with Contact Perception, and somehow bled off the power.
Touch it, and I know the flow.
But get blasted through before touching, and it means nothing.
Sometimes the next attack was already beginning the instant I made contact.
Strong.
Even having gained Contact Perception, Rio was just plain strong.
If anything, it's because I gained this skill that I understand.
Rio's attacks aren't merely fast.
Every single strike is placed there for the sake of the next one.
I'd think I'd parried the front punch, and past where I parried it, the next attack was already waiting.
My escape routes were being sealed.
I was supposed to be deflecting everything, and still I was being cornered, little by little.
Even so, for now, I was still keeping up.
Rio's right extends.
I set my palm to its trajectory.
The instant I touched, the flow of force ran into my palm.
I can let this go outward.
I judged so, and released it to the right.
Right after, Rio's left shoulder edged forward, just slightly.
It's coming.
A mid-level right hook.
With Enemy Observation, I can read where it comes from.
With Contact Perception, I can knock the core out of the fist I touch.
With Posture Control+, I can pull my crumbling balance back.
But that alone isn't enough.
Only deflecting will never reach Rio.
What's needed here is to step in, one step.
Off the recoil of the right I'd flowed away, the space at Rio's chest opened, just barely.
Scary.
Genuinely scary.
But it's here or nowhere.
I slipped in, half a step.
Rio's right hook passed through, right beside me.
Wind grazed my cheek.
Close.
Far too close.
But by that same margin, my left reaches too.
Off-Hand Strike.
I swung that skill-loaded left through the shortest possible arc.
The target: his flank, where the biggest opening had opened just now.
A dull response stayed in my fist.
Rio's body wavered, and his feet went back — one step, two, three.
It landed.
It properly landed.
The impact felt clearer than usual.
Maybe Vital Point Correction, picked up in the Sakagami fight, was doing its work.
But —
Rio didn't fall.
Didn't crumple.
Without so much as his breathing disordered, he slowly raised his face.
The moment I saw it, something cold ran down my spine.
...No, hold on.
That is the face of a guy it basically didn't work on.
A shiver of goosebumps rose.
The color of his eyes had changed.
This wasn't the Rio from moments ago.
The softness, the freshness — one layer of surface had peeled off, and I felt like I'd glimpsed the something underneath.
"...Hah. Nice."
Rio laughed, small.
But that smile wasn't the soft one from before.
He was having fun — and somehow, it was frightening.
"This is just too good. With you as my opponent, I think I can afford to shift up a gear or so."
Bad news.
That was instinct.
Not logic.
Something had clearly changed.
Something asleep inside Rio had woken up.
The sensation was of it taking concrete form right before my eyes, this very moment.
"That's far enough!"
It was Saeki's voice, sharp.
Unmistakably different from before — a voice for stopping things.
"I won't let this go any further."
The hall went dead silent for an instant.
Rio stopped where he stood and kept quiet for a few seconds.
Then, breathing out softly, he let the tension off his shoulders, as if pulling back in that precarious air from before.
"Rio. I told you, no going all out."
"...Ah. Yes. My apologies."
The usual soft, Rio-like look had come back to his face.
But one thing was unmistakable: what I'd just seen was no illusion.
Saeki-san stepped forward.
"The match ends here. It's a draw."
A draw.
I'd gone toe-to-toe with a front-line opponent.
No such realization hit me.
No — it couldn't have.
Rio hadn't been serious.
He'd been holding power above even that.
If that man ever went all out, I'd probably have been done in one hit.
"Whew. You got me, you got me."
Saying that, Rio came walking over.
And, perfectly naturally, held out his hand.
"It's been ages since I had this much fun."
"Well. Thanks."
Catching my own breath, I took the hand.
There, Rio dropped his voice, just slightly.
"But you really are something, Ren-kun."
"...Somehow I can't take that at face value."
Naturally.
Being even with a not-serious Rio — that's practically a loss, when you think about it.
"No, no, Ren-kun. However you slice it, your ability leans Advanced-tier. With the dungeons under lockdown right now, this is seriously insane stuff."
"...Is it, now."
There, Saeki stepped forward.
"All right — you two, fall back and take a rest. Next — anyone else want a turn at sparring?"
At that suggestion, the room fell silent.
Nobody so much as started raising a hand — if anything, they were avoiding even catching Saeki's eye.
Watching that had killed their will to fight, I'd bet.
In a variety of senses.
Or so I idly thought.
"...Hey. Next time we've got some free time, why don't you and I have a nice, unhurried chat?"
Midway from the center of the room toward the walls, Rio fell in right beside me and said it.
"No, no — what would two dudes even talk about?"
"Haha — 'two dudes'? What a menacing turn of phrase, Ren-kun."
Laughing as he said it, Rio sat right down with his back to the wall, same as me.
So, um. Once again: what is this guy?
He sidles up like a people-friendly dog.
I'll watch my words since he is technically my senpai, but man, of all the weird people to get marked by.
I sighed, deeply, on the inside.
That night.
In a room at the facility, Kujō Masaomi sat alone, going over the documents on his desk.
A brief report on today's opening orientation.
Attendance numbers.
Placement numbers.
His impressions of Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced, respectively.
Kujō worked through them in order.
Partway through, a knock came.
"Come in."
He returned it shortly.
The one who entered was the Intermediate instructor, Saeki.
"When the senior staff works this late, it makes it harder for the rest of us to go home, you know?"
"You're always heading home early anyway."
Without taking his eyes off the documents, Kujō batted back the banter.
"So. What is it?"
"A little something about today's Intermediate group."
At that, Kujō finally raised his face.
"Something happen?"
"Yes. Something interesting happened."
"Something interesting."
Coming out of Saeki's mouth, that was a first — even for Kujō, who'd known the man ten years.
"There was a certain high schooler we had spar Fujigaya Rio."
"With Rio?"
"Yes."
"...And?"
"Even, or better. If I hadn't stopped it, there's no telling how it would have gone."
A beat of silence.
Kujō said nothing, eyes still on Saeki.
"His Job Skill — did he use it?"
Kujō asked, low.
"No. I stopped it right before he did. But left alone, he most likely would have."
Job Skill.
When their Level hits 10, an Awakener obtains their individual Job, and their Job Skill.
For example: Kashiwazaki Yura, who handled placement at the orientation.
Her Job was Appraiser.
And her Job Skill, Appraisal.
That's the sort of thing this refers to.
"To think Rio — who's in the dungeons with the nation's elite every weekend — got pushed to the very brink of firing his Job Skill."
"Yes."
Saeki nodded, short.
"The name?"
"Himuro Ren. A first-year in high school."
Only then did Kujō drop his gaze to the name field on the report.
"...Himuro Ren."
Tracing the name in a short murmur, Kujō let out a small breath.
"It seems holding the Awakener Development Program truly was the right call."
Quietly, Kujō said it.