Uh, Sure, Dessler Does Look Like He’d Be Good at Billiards – Part 05

I thought I’d be made to sit and get chewed out endlessly, but instead I stepped outside without even putting on a jacket.

So there I was, shivering in the cold air, staring at the pigtailed girl in front of me. I couldn’t possibly say, “Shall we talk inside?”

After all, the fault was entirely mine. Still, it was really cold tonight.

“Ayumu.”

Her face was still frozen in a smile. Even a smile can be unsettling if it just doesn’t shift at all.

Big Teach’s lecture was about to begin. I braced myself, ready to endure any attack she threw at me.

“Here I come.”

The world went black. The road in front of the shop that fit two cars, the buildings around us, the cloudy, zombie-friendly sky—everything in every direction was swallowed by darkness, leaving only me and Big Teach.

I couldn’t even tell if what I was standing on was really the ground. I was being dragged into this strange void.

“Now then. This will last until you make me give up.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Only people I acknowledge for their strength can get away with sexually harassing me. My pride won’t allow being outdone by someone weaker.”

“Is that how it is?”

“So now, you’re going to fight me and win.”

Seriously? Why did it come to this? I could never understand how Magiclad Girls thought. Haruna just attacked one-sidedly and that was it.

“Wait! I’ll take any punishment, but what do you mean win?”

“We’ll keep fighting until you land a hit on me. Does that not count as punishment?”

True, that was a terrifying ordeal.

“As I recall, you’re good at brawls,” Big Teach said, leaping off the blackened ground.

I wasn’t even sure it was ground, but the loud, crushing footstep rang in my ears.

Her fist, with skin so pale and smooth it seemed almost see-through, dug into the pit of my stomach.

She’s fast. Before I could do a thing, she was already inside my guard and attacking.

As I doubled forward, her elbow slammed into the back of my head. If it were Haruna, she’d be satisfied by now.

“Come on, if you don’t fight back, we’ll be stuck here forever. I’m not going to kill you, by the way.”

This was hell. It had to be hell.

I tried throwing a light punch at her face.

Big Teach caught my arm, and with a sharp crack, bent my wrist in a completely wrong direction. “You can heal yourself, right? I don’t need to use any healing spells on you?”

Ah, so that was it. Destruction and regeneration, over and over again.

“By the way,” I said.

“Yes?”

“The last person who sexually harassed you. How long did it take them to land a hit?”

“They managed to land one punch after a week.”

She couldn’t possibly mean they fought in this space the whole time, right?

“You’re serious? Until I land a hit? Someone’s got to watch Kyouko.”

“If you go all out, I think this will be over soon.”

Fine. Got it. I’ll do it. Hitting someone I harassed sounded like the most despicable thing possible, but if that’s what she wanted, I had no choice.

Besides, this was a good chance. Chris and Big Teach should be around the same power level.

I was a zombie. I felt no pain, and my body regenerated quickly. I’d make full use of that and press the attack.

Even if I couldn’t win, continuing to fight was what mattered. That was something Big Teach herself had once taught me.

“All right, then. I’ll get serious.”

“Okay!” Big Teach answered cheerfully.

I stepped right up to her and threw a punch.

“Too slow.”

She kicked my fist upward with the tip of her foot. My body opened wide, and her palm gently pressed against my chest.

Boom. Something exploded. There wasn’t really a sound. My heart burst inside me just from a touch. Sure, I was already a dead man, but she could stand to show a little bit of mercy.

If she was someone I’d faced for the first time, she’d think I was finished and drop their guard, but she knew better.

“Since we’re at it, maybe I should fight using Chris’s style?”

“You can do that?” I asked.

“I do carry the title of strongest, after all.”

She giggled, covering her mouth. Then she blurred.

An instant later, her fingers jabbed into my throat. My mouth opened reflexively, but that was my chance.

“Got you!”

She overstepped. From this distance, my right hook couldn’t miss.

My fist struck her soft cheek for sure. But her face stayed smiling. No damage at all?

I followed with a flurry. No matter how many times I hit, nothing worked.

What the hell? While I frowned, a blow landed on the back of my head.

The force launched me about thirty meters. With no walls or obstacles in the dark void, I just kept tumbling.

“You’re far too careless.”

Footsteps clicked behind me as Big Teach walked over. Wait, what about the one I hit? No, she was still right where I’d knocked her. There were two of her?!

The one I punched vanished like smoke.

“This is a spell that creates a copy of myself. Double.”

A clone. So that kind of magic existed too.

“But Chris never used anything like that,” I said.

“Copies are just puppets, really. Chris stacks several over herself and fights that way.”

“And why would she do that?”

“To limit her opponents’ options. People call her the most powerful, but there are attacks she can’t block or ones she hates. Say you launched a really effective move. If it lands on a clone, though, you’ll assume it did nothing. Now here’s the question: what do you do if your punch doesn’t work?”

“If punching fails… I’d probably switch to a joint lock or something.”

“Exactly. Just as planned, I just shut down punches, the attack I hate the most.”

Clap, clap, clap, clap. Big Teach applauded.

So that was the secret behind the so-called invincible monster. I should’ve figured it out sooner.

When a sword slashed or pierced, there was no way to walk away without a single wound. If it pierced, the skin should at least dent in where it entered. But no wounds at all? That meant attacks never landed in the first place.

“Just so you know, that’s not the real issue,” Big Teach said.

“What do you mean?”

“As the name Double suggests, this magic makes two of me. But Chris can create dozens at once. On top of that, she uses illusion magic to make them translucent.”

“Yeah, that’s a little too advanced for me to keep up with.”

“In other words, no matter how many clones you beat down, you’ll never touch the real one.”

Ah, I see. Even if I tried to push past the clones to get at the real one, there would still be dozens more waiting. No wonder she was known as the strongest.

“The thing is, Ayumu, you attack at full power way too much. You need to focus more on counters.”

“Counters, huh.”

“That’s right. For example.”

Big Teach lunged. A small fist appeared in front of me. A right straight.

I dodged instantly. She was wide open. This was my chance.

Here it comes. Counter.

As I swung my fist across to clash with hers, her other fist smashed straight into my face.

Fast. Way too fast.

“That was me throwing a light attack and then countering when you tried to answer it. When you’re being attacked, you should think about defense or evasion, not about landing damage. The trick is to bait out the opponent’s attack, because when they’re attacking, they’re not thinking about defense. Then you just time your strike with theirs.”

“Got it. Thanks for the tip.”

I snapped my broken nose back into place and readied my fists.

“Now then. Do your best to land just one hit, okay?”

Her smile was as fresh as a cheerful baseball team manager’s.

All right, a light attack first. I closed in with my left shoulder forward, throwing a quick jab. That was when Big Teach went for her strike.

Whoa! A lightning-fast thrust grazed past my ear.

I spun to the left to dodge and carried that momentum into a high kick. The heel of my sneaker slammed into the side of her head.

“Huh?”

I… got a hit in?

“If I wasn’t using Double, that would’ve been the end. Too bad. Still, you really surprised me.”

Damn it. I sighed. I only hit a clone.

“That was too fast for even me to follow,” she said delightfully.

Seriously? Wait, hold on. I get it!

“Mind if I try that again?”

“Go right ahead.”

I rushed in the same way, left shoulder first, quick jab. This time her thrust came, just like before. She even played along and kept the same move.

As I dodged, I drove a right straight toward her face. I stopped it a hair’s breadth from her nose.

“My, my. What a waste. You could’ve finished it there.”

My hunch was right. The time it took for my strength to build up had shortened. Maybe my limit even went past 600% now.

Normally, I had to build up before unleashing an attack. Like telling the batter, “Here comes a 150 km/h fastball.”

But not this time. A sudden dramatic surge of power threw off her senses. She thought it was a 100 km/h pitch, and it suddenly turned into 150.

I’m getting stronger.

“Since you’re doing better than I expected, Ayumu, I’ll start going all out too.”

“Fine by me. Bring it on!”

I grinned back, eager to drill this lesson into my body through repetition.

Big Teach pulled a Japanese sword out of her clothes like a stage magician. “Htaed fo regnibrah a tub gnimrahc dna ylevol!”

Not that! Anything but that!