No, no matter how effective it is on you, you should be able to withstand garlic to a point, Gaspeeeeeeeeeeeeer! From the start, that joke is too overdone already! Gya-suke! After this, we’re doing practice to make you overcome garlic! I’ll replace your normal food with garlic rice and garlic toast! You can’t just withdraw from the front lines without doing sufficient surveillance! Having gotten mad, I tried to activate my Sacred Gear, but—. [Partner, doubling is dangerous. Now that you’re connected to that guy’s Sacred Gear, you’ll have part of your power stolen by him if you double.] —! That’s right, Saji’s Sacred Gear has the ability to suck in energy from the thing it is connected to. Now that my Sacred Gear and his Sacred Gear are connected, doubling is dangerous! [To detach this line, you have no choice but to blow it away by using the after-shocks from activating Balance Breaker.] Damn it! My hand was forced right from the outset! —I’ll activate Balance Breaker and blow away this line! “Start!”
[Count Down!] The time until Balance Breaker was displayed on the jewel and the count had begun. Now that it’s like this, I can’t use my normal Sacred Gear abilities! I couldn’t use either doubling or transfer until I transformed into Balance Breaker! For two minutes, I had no choice but to evade Saji’s attacks! This was a short, decisive battle. We’ll use the momentum of activating Balance Breaker to continue on all the way to the [King]! And the likely candidates for doing that were Kiba and Xenovia. I’ll act as a diversion and attract the enemy here! In order to get some distance, I tried to temporarily draw back from here, but—I was pulled by the line and lost my balance! As I thought, Saji’s Sacred Gear really is troublesome! “Are you running away, Hyoudou! ?”
In an instant, the space between us was shortened and—Don! A kick was delivered to my abdomen! Gahoh! My upper body was pulled down by Saji’s kick. But, I had already put strength into my abs and avoided the worst of the damage. Hehehe, it’s because I properly did my basic training. I had confidence in my abs! “Heh, even though I kicked quite seriously there. You also seem to not have done incomplete training.”
Having not given the damage he had thought he would, Saji smiled bitterly. It’s impossible to run away here! Then, I’ll just attack from the front! I gave up on getting some distance from Saji and suddenly headed towards him! I wasn’t that good at fist-fighting with my body, but I had accumulated plenty of basic training! I had made a body just for the sake of close combat! All that’s left is to believe in my own body! I clutched my fist and tried to strike at Saji, but—. Saji fired a line at me from his right arm! Does he intend to suck away my power!? I was on guard, but the line went passed me and attached itself to a certain store’s light. “Nimura! Put on the sunglasses we got at that store just before!”
Saji and Saji’s kouhai took out sunglasses from their pockets and put them on! What were they—. Just as I wondered this, I immediately understood the meaning behind it. Kah! The store lighting issued a blazing light and burned me and Koneko-chan’s vision! Damn it! They’ve blinded us! [They got you. He caused a burst of light for just an instant by connecting his line to the light and sending magic power into it.] Don’t explain it so calmly, Ddraig! It’s no good! I can’t open my eyes—. Dogon! “Guhah!”
Once again, I received an impact in my abdomen! Because I didn’t strengthen my abs this time, I received the damage completely! Then, while my body was hunched over, I received another blow from Saji to my back! Ooooooooooow! The pain was welling up inside me, and then my jaw—. Bagan! An uppercut-like attack from Saji sharply shot through my jaw! From such a considerable impact, I fell face-down on the floor. …Kuh…He got me. He had completely stolen the beginning…Moreover, he gave me considerable damage. My teeth rattled from the impact to my jaw. I had also gotten a cut in my mouth from it. The taste of blood spread within my mouth. My eyesight was restored and—. While still face down on the ground, I looked up and…
I saw Saji point his hand at me and trying to fire a magic bullet at me! He intended to deliver the finishing blow right away! I quickly got up and rolled over to the side! Don! A big hole was made in the floor from the magic blast he fired! What power! It was completely a finishing blow move! It’s dangerous! I was going to exit the stage before I activated Balance Breaker. I wouldn’t be able to say anything about what happened to Gasper then! “…Not bad, Saji.”
“Hyoudou. I’m serious. I'm going to seriously defeat you, the Sekiryuutei.”
—. Saji’s eyes were filled with resolution. I could tell that his seriousness was tremendous. Then, Saji raised his hand and tried to fire another magic blast. Don! He fired another high-volume mass of magic! The size of it wasn’t considerable, though. Mostly like, he was following the rule that said that not to damage the building as much as possible. But, the attack was powerful enough to take down an opponent like me! I dodged, and the store I was standing at before was destroyed by the blast of magic. However, how did Saji create such an attack? I had heard that he had low magic like me. Yet, how was he able to release such power? At that moment, I opened my eyes widely. Because Saji’s Sacred Gear had its line connected to his chest— to his heart. —The source of Saji’s continuous attacks was his life-force!? “Saji! You! Are you converting your own life-force…into magic power! ?”
“That’s right. With my low magic, this is the only way for me to shoot powerful attacks. I convert my life-force into magic power using my Sacred Gear’s ability. It’s just as you see. I’m [risking my life], as it were.”
“Do you really intend to die…! ?”
Saji—smiled with a serious look. “Yeah, I intend to die. I intend to beat you with the intention of dying. —Do you understand our frustration, having our dream laughed at! Do you understand our desperation as we believe in our dream? This battle is being broadcast across the entire Underworld. We have to show the seriousness of the Sitri group in front of those guys that laughed at us!”
Suddenly, I remembered that scene. —Yes, this is similar to the time where I marched into Buchou’s engagement party. I didn’t consider my own life and simply poured my first into rescuing Buchou. I just thought of helping Buchou, even if I died. This battle overlapped with that scene. Saji, you’re the same as me from back then. As me and Saji were going through a fierce battle of dodging and drawing near at that time, Koneko-chan and Saji’s kouhai had started attacking and defending against each other next to us. Koneko-chan was superior in hand-to-hand fighting. Even so, though, the female opponent was hanging on well and the battle was intensifying. However, after Koneko-chan’s fist grazed her opponent’s cheek, a change occurred.