Chapter 6: A Flower, Violated

“What’s this? Making quite the late entrance, aren’t you? Were you perhaps waiting for your cue? How cute.”

As she spoke, she glanced toward the male students.

Among the group of boys, two of whom were restraining Mineki Shian, the rest stood forward as if to protect Abarabana Tenri.

“She must be very important to you, isn’t she? Then you’ll let yourselves be killed quietly… otherwise, you know what will happen to her, don’t you?”

One of the male students laid a hand on Mineki Shian. She grit her teeth, struggling desperately not to let a sound escape.

Abarabana Tenri was banking on the fact that as long as they had Mineki Shian in their grasp, he wouldn’t make a move.

But… Shiga Inui didn’t stop walking.

“You know… you’re kinda pathetic, or maybe you just don’t get it, or… well, if there’s one thing I can say, it’s this… If you wanna do it, go right ahead.”

As if the hostage meant nothing to him, Shiga Inui walked leisurely forward, cracking his knuckles.

Abarabana Tenri snorted.

“Hah… such a tough act. No, wait, are you really planning to abandon her? …That’s fine, too. You can regret it while you listen to her cry and scream!!”

That’s not it, Shiga Inui told her.

“Your entire premise is wrong.”

Shiga Inui spoke, looking at the sorcerer Abarabana Tenri with a pitying gaze.

“Neither I, nor Mineki, have the same thought process as a normal person… We’re sorcerers. We don’t hesitate to kill, we don’t fear being killed, we don’t flinch at violating, and we don’t lament being violated. Our minds have already reached enlightenment… So go ahead and do it. I’m going to do whatever the hell I want, too… But, let’s see.”

Shiga Inui pointed a finger at Abarabana Tenri.

“Whether you try to stop me, run, surrender, or cry and beg… I’ve decided I’m going to rape you. No matter what. I’m going to rip your clothes off, violate you miserably, and piss all over you.”

“Tch…”

Facing a gaze that could kill, Abarabana Tenri took a step back.

She was afraid… she was developing a feeling of submission toward this man.

“…Hmph, still just a tough act. If you read between the lines, doesn’t that just mean you won’t touch me as long as I don’t hurt her?”

“Listen to my words. Don’t go twisting them to your own convenience.”

The male students glared at Shiga Inui.

(“They’re different from the other students. They’re sorcerers I’ve enhanced with my nectar, with power equivalent to the Kigou-Class… There’s no way I can lose!”)

Shiga Inui circulated his ryuryoku through his body.

At the same time, he cloaked his entire body in ryuryoku as if it were a suit of clothes.

“Alright then… Time to go on a little rampage.”

Shiga Inui declared.

He kicked off the ground.

His leg strength sent him hurtling forward.

“A frontal assault, how straightforward… no, how foolish. You lot!!”

The male students, ordered to kill, rushed to meet him, sprouting wooden branches from their palms.

Three male students came at him first.

With his ryuryoku-enhanced state, Shiga Inui dodged a thrust from one of the students by twisting his upper body.

He drew back his clenched fist, swung his arm wide, and slammed it into the student’s neck, knocking him down.

“RAAAGH!!”

It was a lariat.

The student who took the blow hit the ground with a sound like a thick tree snapping.

Apparently, the strike had broken his neck.

The other male students extended vines from their fingertips.

They must have intended to restrain Shiga Inui.

In response, Shiga Inui didn’t dodge, instead grabbing the vines with one hand.

He spun his body around and pulled with all his might on the hand holding the vines.

The male student’s body was yanked down and flung into the air.

It was an extraordinary display of physical strength.

Even a veteran warrior… a sorcerer skilled in ryuryoku would find it difficult to possess such power.

He was like an infant, not even half a year having passed since he was born as a sorcerer.

But his innate sense and natural-born talent had allowed Shiga Inui to blossom as a sorcerer.

He possessed a potential so great that an average sorcerer, while pitying his circumstances, would be inwardly burning with jealousy.

Hiryuuin Fuuki, the one who made him a sorcerer, calls him this:

Shiga Inui, “The Peerless Prodigy.”

Even while facing multiple opponents, he himself had yet to even use a technique.

“…Tch!”

He mowed down the male students one by one.

From his blind spot, a bee controlled by Abarabana Tenri tried to pierce him with its stinger, but it was crushed the moment Shiga Inui’s fist connected, its bodily fluids splattering on his hand.

(“N-No… That’s impossible… It can’t be…! My elite soldiers… And on top of that, they’re enhanced with my nectar…! There are multiple Kigou-Class combatants here, at least, and yet, he’s breaking through them all… That’s… absolutely, i-impossible!”)

Abarabana Tenri was beginning to panic.

Sorcerers enhanced by her nectar were being overwhelmed by a former civilian, a mere half-sorcerer who hadn’t even used a single technique yet.

Shiga Inui was wreathed in shimmering ryuryoku, like flames.

His overwhelming power made him seem like an ogre.

Now that she was witnessing that power with her own eyes, she had no choice but to acknowledge it.

And that is precisely why Abarabana Tenri was terrified.

Of what Shiga Inui had said to her before the battle began.

The words that Shiga Inui would, without fail, rape Abarabana Tenri.

Those words were true; they were his genuine intent.

He possessed enough power to overwhelm this army and, at the end of it all, violate Abarabana Tenri.

Shiga Inui was going to rape Abarabana Tenri.

He was going to break her, ruin her completely.

(“No… No! This can’t be happening! I’m… I’m the one who’s supposed to make others submit to me! For someone other than myself to make me submit… I’ll never, ever accept that!!”)

Revulsion flooded her heart.

She trembled, a greasy sweat beading on her forehead.

That was why she had to finish him.

Not for her clan.

But for her own self-preservation, she had to kill Shiga Inui here and now.

Abarabana Tenri understood this instinctively.

“Hah, AAAAAH!!”

Erupting with ryuryoku from her entire body, Abarabana Tenri created a swarm of bees.

“Sting him to death!!”

As she commanded the bees, they slipped through the gaps between the male students and flew toward Shiga Inui.

Shiga Inui felt a sense of aversion toward the bees Abarabana Tenri produced.

Even he, still unscathed, was certain that he would be wounded if he took on that swarm.

“It’s about time I get serious.”

“Wha-!?”

Shiga Inui’s ryuryoku surged through his entire body.

The bees, storing up their deadly poison, aimed their stingers at Shiga Inui, trying to kill him before he could use his technique.

Faced with the approaching swarm of bees, Shiga Inui actually charged straight into them.

Perhaps he thought he’d be fine, having released his own power to act as an invisible suit of armor.

(“If he’s going to underestimate me, that’s fine. A ryuryoku defense is like a fountain, pushing back by gushing outward. If he keeps using it, his output will weaken… and since my father’s sorcery is absorbing his ryuryoku, a battle of attrition is to his disadvantage. We’ll just see how long he can last!”)

She found a faint glimmer of victory in his recklessness, in the fact that even after declaring he would use a technique, he was still facing this with mere ryuryoku manipulation.

But… the bees’ stingers never reached Shiga Inui.

“Wha-?!”

Just as the bees, flying like vertical bullets, were about to hit Shiga Inui, they slipped right past him.

(“His technique has activated—no… he’s not using one! It just looks like he’s slipping through them with his body’s movements, with sheer speed…”)

Impossible, she thought.

When ryuryoku is circulated through the body, the stimulation improves physical performance.

Blood flow quickens, muscles repeat a cycle of expansion and contraction, and the skin hardens.

The more ryuryoku is channeled, the more the body changes to accommodate it.

It is, in a word, the forging of steel; the more it is hammered, the more impurities are removed and the harder it becomes.

However, this was the pinnacle of martial prowess, something that could not be reached without long years of training.

And yet, he had already reached it. That was how Abarabana Tenri saw him.

(“Tch… even so, what I have to do doesn’t change… His physical enhancement is a product of his ryuryoku. If he keeps consuming it, he’ll keep getting worn down… If this turns into a war of attrition, I will win when his ryuryoku runs out!”)

Releasing enough enormous power to envelop the entire body increases physical exhaustion.

That’s why it cannot be used for long periods.

If she could just pinpoint the moment he deactivated the ability, she could inject the poison stored in her bees and kill him for sure.

That was her thought, but suddenly, Shiga Inui’s form vanished.

“He, he disapp—(“Where? Where did he go!?”)”

“How long are you gonna keep touching her, you bastards?!”

And then he kicked away the two male students who were holding Mineki Shian.

When she turned around, he was already at Mineki Shian’s side.

He was so fast that Abarabana Tenri, whose eyes couldn’t even track him, was stunned.

“Hah… uh.”

Her body was pressed tightly against Shiga Inui’s.

A soft sensation was transmitted to Shiga Inui’s arm and chest.

“Haa… hah… ah, ahh…”

Mineki Shian panted raggedly.

Flushed red with excitement, she gazed lovingly at Shiga Inui.

Unable to hold back, she tried to kiss him, but.

“Sorry, but you’re not the one I’m having tonight, Shian-chan.”

Saying that, Shiga Inui held her in his arms and moved far away.

“Ha… haha… H-how vulgar. After lecturing me on what it means to be a sorcerer… it seems you were just worried about her after all.”

Abarabana Tenri let out a strained laugh.

After moving Mineki Shian to a distant spot, Shiga Inui, without a trace of sorrow, turned his undivided killing intent upon Abarabana Tenri.

“Eek!”

Abarabana Tenri had been conceited.

Shiga Inui hadn’t been serious this entire time.

She had been completely and utterly looked down upon.

(“Humiliating. I should be flying into a rage, and yet… I can’t even summon any anger… Just being glared at, just being intimidated… my will to fight is rejecting this…”)

Though he put on a front, Shiga Inui had been worried about Mineki Shian… but now, he could go into battle without a single remaining concern.

No, this couldn’t even be called a battle.

All that was there was the strong preying on the weak.

A scene of simple, utter violation was all that could be drawn.

(“There’s no way I can win. From the very beginning, against this… this monster!”)

Her instincts screaming that she could not win, Abarabana Tenri was forced to submit. The action she took was…

“Hiih, ii.”

…to turn her back on Shiga Inui and run, leaning on her staff.

She cast aside her pride, her role, everything, and desperately tried to disappear from that place as just a single girl.

Her power was now used for the sole purpose of keeping herself alive.

“S-Scatter my petals, store the sweet dew, and with a honey that melts all, fill and moisten!”

She released the ryuryoku being supplied from Abarabana Taiju.

As a Shougou-Class, she was capable of summoning a shikigami.

“‘Hornet’!”

A giant bee appeared, two stingers extending from its forelegs.

Golden honey dripped from its mouth, and its torso extended like a bellows, tipped with a sharp stinger.

This was the greatest technique she could use, her full power.

And she had deployed it for the sole purpose of her own escape.

Her shikigami flew toward Shiga Inui’s head.

It tried to pierce Shiga Inui with its massive stinger, but.

“You really don’t get anything, do you?”

He had seen this before.

He was not an opponent who could be overwhelmed by a difference in numbers at this point.

He was a prodigy.

The chosen child of the sorcerers, beloved by ryuryoku.

With a single blow, using ryuryoku packed with all his might, he destroyed the giant bee.

(“N-No way! Impossible! Th-this is…!”)

It was burned into her subconscious.

The image of an absolute predator.

Even the shikigami she had created, staking her last sliver of hope on it, couldn’t even slow Shiga Inui down.

She threw her staff.

She probably meant to hit Shiga Inui with it, but since she threw it without looking back, it flew off in a completely wrong direction.

Her legs weak, she fell to her knees and began to crawl away.

But there was no way she could escape from Shiga Inui in this state.

He walked up and stood before Abarabana Tenri.

Tears streamed down her face, her expression painted with terror.

It was the moment Shiga Inui reached out his hand.

“…!”

The absorption of ryuryoku that had been occurring within the territory vanished.

Shiga Inui and Abarabana Tenri both sensed that Abarabana Taiju had been defeated.

(“No way… that man, with the long hair, defeated my father? It’s a lie… then… is this… our complete… defeat?”)

She had never thought her father would lose.

But now that the head of the family was gone, there was no reason for them to fight.

Seizing this moment, Abarabana Tenri decided to surrender.

“I-I surrender. It’s our loss. We no longer have any intention of fighting, s-so, to attack us now… i-it’s… there’s no merit! L-let us work under you. If you cooperate with me, we should be able to create even stronger sorcerers! My abilities can make that possible!”

First, she spoke of her usefulness and the advantages of bringing her into his fold.

Shiga Inui watched her with a cold expression.

“A-Are you sure about this?! This world runs on just causes! If you attack someone who has surrendered, you’ll be seen as evil! In a situation where everyone is watching each other, if you make the wrong move, you could be attacked by all the other sorcerers, you know?!”

Next, she explained just how disadvantageous it would be for him to lay a hand on her.

Shiga Inui remained completely unmoved.

“Uh, um… ah, p-p-please… don’t be rough with me…”

Finally, she begged, but Shiga Inui opened his mouth and said this:

“You know… people whisper that I’m a bastard, or that I don’t have a human heart, and well, the truth is, they’re right. I love it when arrogant women cry and beg for forgiveness. When I see their spirit break, it just, you know…? It gets me excited, doesn’t it?”

He was never going to forgive her.

Shiga Inui straddled her as she sat on the ground, grabbed her by the hair, and stole her lips.

He tore her clothes with one hand; she resisted, scratching at his arm with her nails and biting down on the tongue that violated her mouth.

Blood mixed with saliva, and the pain made Shiga Inui pull his mouth away from hers, blood dripping freely.

“Hiih, eek, s-stop… help, m-some… hel—”

Tears streaming, Abarabana Tenri cried, and then fell into despair at the sight of Shiga Inui’s excited smile.

“Ahhh… damn, this is incredible… I’m gonna play with you some more, so start moaning while I mess you up.”

stop, hic-

n-no, you can’t, it won’t fi-, stop-

agh, ahh! it hur-, you can’t! it’ll brea—

stop, my hair, don’t pull—, kyaa!!

some-, help me— no, ah!