The Making Of A Broken Character Part 10

---

TLN: I know I said there wouldn’t be a chapter today, but the last chapter also ended up leaving off on a sort of cliffhanger. I’m running on fumes at this point though, so I’m actually going to take a short break. Chapters will resume on the weekend, hopefully.

---

How many times had he been hit?

She had been able to deal with things so far by following the textbook.

Specifically, she could parry Higure’s giant sweeping right hook. She could also elbow strike him in the Adam’s apple whilst doing a leg sweep on him.

How many times had Higure fallen over?

So far, as if natural, he had been getting up while carrying a sneering smirk.

Ten minutes had already passed.

She had gotten fed up with having to repeat this exchange, unleashing her fists―tens, perhaps even hundreds of times.

Within this, Ruri had some points of question.

Again, Higure attempted to send a body blow to Ruri.

He raised his arms, readied his joints, and threw his own body down.

He carried it out way too smoothly―there wasn’t a single danger to it.

In the beginning, there were several moments that gave her the chills when he had managed to properly handle himself―but as the number of attacks accumulated, his handling became more smooth.

In other words…Ruri gained confidence of herself.

―Are his movements…getting slower? I don’t understand why…but I can manage things with this speed.

Higure clicked his tongue while making an expression as if he had some leeway still.

“Oh, what a nuisance. I didn’t think that a meathead would make it this far. Hmph…at this rate, that guy is actually going to wake up.”

While lightly swinging his arm, light particles began to coil around his right arm.

“Such shame it is, but this farce ends here. Since this puts a heavy load on my body, I didn’t want to use it for such small fry.”

A sword of light immediately formed.

Ultimate Defender, a skill that adds 20% of Higure’s defense power to his attack power.

Certainly, if she was hit then she would be driven into a corner, unable to fight…but Ruri opened her mouth,

“I’ve already seen that skill just a while ago, but there’s no point if you can hit me.”

Higure held the sword over his head and threw it down.

By dodging with a side step, Higure’s back was now exposed.

Just like that, she grasped hold of Higure’s body and performed a Ura nage (a suplex). (TLN: Ura nage is a throw done in Judo)

At that moment―a scorching shock ran through Ruri’s side.

“Wha…?!”

Higure pierced Ruri, who had moved behind him, by stabbing through his own body, piercing his own stomach in the process.

“You…deliberately…left yourself open…to….stab me…in a suicidal act…*cough*…*wheeze*…”

Then and there, two people collapsed in bloodshed.

Ruri could not comprehend has had just unfolded.

He pierced his own body for a surprise attack. She could understand that…but for Higure to do such a thing…

“W…why…?”

“The difference in the level…of our Auto Recovery. It is I…who will…recover sooner…”

Ruri’s Auto Recovery was Level 7 and Higure’s was Level 10.

To get out of the unwinnable state of the battle, he understood to make use of the difference in recovery time.

“Not that…That’s…not…what I’m asking…Why…did you…go so far…as to let yourself take damage?”

“Oww, how painful this is…I’ll tell you that…the reason…is for…souls…converted into points.”

“The souls…?”

“I said…the souls. They have become a portion…of their former selves.”

Slowly, Higure stood up from his spot.

His torn flesh seemed to regenerate and it was clear that the recovery process had begun.

“If I cannot force someone under my will, then I cannot convert their soul into points. After all, didn’t they originate from someone else?”

With a cold sweat, he continued.

“Yes, their soul has to submit to me. So, do you know what’s necessary in order to place them under my servitude?”

Finally, Ruri’s recovery process had begun.

However, Higure had already recovered a majority of his pierce-inflicted wound.

“In my case, I use my overwhelming pride to change the very vigor of their soul. I have placed hundreds of souls under my domination.”

With a derisive feeling, Higure smiled and plainly stated,

“I was able to suppress and bind to the weakened souls…of those people from a while ago…who were crushed down. You realized that my movements became duller, right?”

“You’re saying…?”

“I commend you. You were able to drive to a corner…just a bit. It’s possible for the souls I’ve converted into points to run away from me, and so my own power was in the midst of declining. Well, it had gone down by 10%.”

Rubbing his stomach with his palm, Higure lightly nodded.

So, although there were some minor setbacks, as you can clearly see―this is my definite win.

With, Higure raised his legs as high he could, trying to stomp on the head of Ruri.

While coughing blood, she rolled sideways then unsteadily got up.

“It’s not…over yet…”

“What a tough bastard you are. However, the souls that have dispersed are once again under my dominion.”

Higure threw a front kick at Ruri’s side- the place where she had been pierced through before.

After falling back several steps, a strange phenomenon occurred when she was about to collapse.

The impact from collapsing had softened, as if she were wrapped in a weightless cushion.

Because of that, she was able to hold her ground at that spot.

“What happened…just now…”

“Oooooh, eyes over hereeeee! You can’t kick the bucket just yet! Female Gorilla!”

A left had struck into Ruri’s side once more.

Ruri had already exceeded her physical limit.

It was beyond the level where she could make do with fighting spirit and willpower.

When she was about to fall from behind once more, this time she clearly felt something supporting her back.

Higure’s mouth gaped open with a dumbfounded expression.

Ruri saw it―once she turned around.

Countless pale light particles danced around. They were accompanying her back, or rather, they were actually supporting her back.

“I…was protected…?”

The myriad of particles strengthened their light as if to respond to Ruri’s words.

Hiding his irritation, Higure’s countenance and manner of speech became a jumble.

“The souls I’ve converted into points…escaped? How did those dead people do this…they lack a physical body…”

They were the souls that Higure absorbed, all of which were participants in his death game.

Naturally, they bore a grudge against him after death.

At this time and place, it was inevitable for them to lend their power to Ruri instead of Higure.

However, according to Higure’s words, the body-less souls should not be able to interfere with the living world.

The reason this happened―was because of Yuuki’s cold sweat from his pain.

Having a Nayuta-level vitality―his sweat was also a source of life-force and held a special power. (TLN: Oh boy, here we go again)

Once evaporating, the water of life filled the general vicinity of the room―Then, there were also the regrets of the people who befallen to tragedy by Higure.

The two had intermingled and caused what can be called either a magical or scientific change.

 

In other words―the souls that Higure absorbed became as powerful as they were when they were still alive.

 

“What, what’s happening?! This makes no sense, why?!”

Higure felt a cold sweat running down his back.

Behind Ruri he clearly saw the figures of those he had forced to die.

At first they were particles of light, but now they had a translucent appearance, glaring at Higure with an expression of anger.

They totaled to―more than 100 people.

Though they lacked physical form, the sight of them lining up behind the Ruri gave off a far too intimidating feeling.

While feeling emotions similar to panic, Higure threw a right-handed straight punch towards Ruri.

With his vector of power, she would get blown away.

In that direction, the translucent people assembled as if to become a cushion.

Though they were able to quickly dampen the impact, there seemed to be a limit to what they can do as mid-level entities.

Ruri was blown towards the wall despite the strategy to assemble.

“…It appears as though I lost my composure…right, wouldn’t you agree?”

Higure stated so with a sneering smirk.

“The living people of this world are stronger then the dead. The dead lack physical bodies, do they not? It would only be natural.”

Just before Ruri’s body collided with the wall―the blow to her body was gently softened.

At that moment, a foul odor penetrated her nose.

“…Sister?”

“You…seemed to have been walking a painful road after we parted…My apologies, Ruri.”

“You’ve…come back to your senses?”

Then, Ruri noticed it.

Saori’s body was being wrapped in a sacred, silver light, and that body was gradually tumbling down.

“I’ve come back to my senses…but I don’t have much time. I was already dead from the beginning, and I’ve only been bound here against my will by forbidden magic.”

“…Sister?”

“I don’t know why, but there’s a mysterious field of power within this place. A field of power that’s purging the negative forces. So…it seems that the wickedness that had bounded me here was lifted.”

As Ruri was holding Saori in her arms, Saori’s left arm had turned into soil.

In the next moment her right foot turned into soul―returning to what it once was.

“…Sister? You’re going to disappear? Such a thing is too cruel…”

“No, Ruri…I will live on within you. Together with all the souls that suffered a twisted fate by Higure.”

With those words, Saori’s body turned entirely into soil and crumbled down.

Light particles emerged out from the remaining lumps of earth, and entered into Ruri’s heart.

One after another―the dead once again turned back into light, and were absorbed by Ruri’s heart.

“Hey…are you serious…! How distasteful this all is! What are you all doing?!”

Seeing what happened, Higure broke into a full sprint.

All the leeway he had in his facial expression had disappeared and his brow had furrowed.

“The points I’ve harvested for my skills! Aaaah, you can’t be serious!!!!”

‘No way…’ though Ruri.

Ruri put her palm to her heart and as spoke aloud as if addressing something.

“…Sister?”

As she suspected- her older sister’s voice echoed in her mind,

‘Now, rise up Ruri!’

“What do…I do…?”

‘You already know, don’t you? The points from the souls are all coming to you. Go and accept all of what the souls can offer.’

“But…my status reached its max limit. Even if my distribute the points into things like defense or HP…there won’t be any change.”

‘What are you talking about? You’re supposed to put it all into attack.’

“Huh…? Attack…?”

‘You still don’t get it? You’ve got to fight. He deals some serious damage. You probably…won’t be able to recover from that.’

Ruri, while still down, sent a glance towards him.

As her older sister had said, there didn’t seem to be any signs of being able to recover from an attack.

‘So, you’ve got no option but to do it, am I right?’

“But, I…won’t be able to penetrate his absolute defense.”

‘Ruri? You decided to fight, did you not?’

“Yes…I’ve decided…but my status has reached the limits so my attack power won’t raise…”

‘Ruri? Who decides these limits? You have unlimited potential. If you want to know why, it’s ’cause you’ve chosen to fight. Yes, fate has opened its paths up for you.’

“But…”

‘Besides…you aren’t alone in this fight. You can hear voices other than mine- can’t you?’

Closing her eyes and looking within her heart―she could hear the voices of more than 100 souls in her mind.

Judging from the voices, they all agreed, entrusted their power and wishes to Ruri.

There was only one thing all the voices wished for.

 

In short―it was to give Higure a beating.

 

With a nod, Ruri deeply agreed with them.

Even if she had no grounds for it―she gained confidence.

Yes, if one can’t do something alone, then with a sister―no actually, then with everyone it can be accomplished.

Even if you can’t do it―keep trying until you die.

―Alright, let’s do this. Everyone, entrust this to me…

Ruri firmly got up from the floor.

Her distance from Higure was roughly four meters. There was a wall behind him, so he had no place to run.

Again, she momentarily closed her eyes and called up the status screen.

Now, Ruri owned 12,000 bonus points―all of which were assigned to attack power.

“You can’t avoid your death! If you have no aptitude towards the points you converted, then you cannot exceed the imposed status limits! No matter what you do, it will be in vain, Oh hoh hoh hoh hoh hoh hoh hoh hoh!

Riding on that momentum, Higure struck out his fists.

It was the same amateur blow as ever since he focused on defense, so she could keep dodging it for however long she needed to.

However.

Ruri made a cross-counter towards Higure.

With that, she unleashed a pursuit of consecutive, consecutive, consecutive blows.

She ignored her defenses and dedicated everything to her might.

Once she had dealt around 20 rushes of blows, Ruri felt a slightly abnormal phenomenon.

“…Your speed…is increasing…? Don’t tell me you’re acquiring skills from the bonus points?”

With Higure’s words of dismay, dozens of souls freed themselves from Higure’s heart, being absorbed by Ruri.

Worry began to spread in Higure’s heart, as his grasp over the souls had loosened and the souls were escaping.

She continued dealing continuous blows.

Left straight, right high, elbow strike, heel of the palm.

Several tens and hundreds of repeated blows gave Higure’s body a fleeting numbness as attacks were spreading across it.

“The souls are leaving, my status is plummeting…this is…of your doing…is it not?”

She unleashed more consecutive blows.

She continued the consecutive blows, and still kept dealing consecutive blows.

She continued for as long as she was still breathing, for as long as she was living.

Higure’s expression was colored with impatience.

At that moment, yet more souls had been absorbed by Ruri, adding to her bonus points, which she naturally added to her ‘power’ attribute.

An uppercut socked him square in the chin.

―Thank you, everyone. All of your wishes are definitely adding to my power.

Souls were being torn off of Higure while he was trembling.

As soon as she could, Ruri allocated points into her ‘power’ attribute.

―I will destroy―this supposedly impossible wall that lays before me!

She whacked Higure’s chin as soon as she tripped him up.

Whilst he was mid-air, she brandished her fists―and sent a blow with all of her might.

At the same time, Higure’s expression had distress mixed into it.

―Break it! Break through the limits!

Along with a pained expression from Higure―a large mass of souls were absorbed by Ruri at an unprecedented scale.

She had enacted her limit break and her attack power continues to increase.

“How ridiculous! The imposed maximum for attack power―has had its limit…broken?!”

Physical ability falls under the category of attack power.

In other words, without knowing it, her consecutive blows have continued to increase in speed.

They have far surpassed the speed of sound―and yet they still continue to increase in speed.

From a high-speed to a super-speed, and from a super-speed to god-like speed.

“What’s with this crazy speed?!”

Countless fists kept assaulting Higure.

He wasn’t even a sand bag at this point. As far as the eye could see, she was like a machine gun and one might mistake her consecutive blows with a round of firing shots.

Damage had accumulated throughout his entire body, and Higure already couldn’t grasp where it hurt anymore.

However…Higure had light particles coiling around his right hand.

It was the Ultimate Defender skill.

“My defense power exceeds the limits! I’ll end this in a single blow!”

In half-desperation, Higure swung the sword downwards.

He did that think that the attack would hit the current Ruri. However―

―I got her!

The sword of light had sliced through Ruri, cutting her into pieces―or at least it seemed like it.

It was actually an afterimage caused by her hyper-speed movement.

“Too slow!”

Higure heard a voice from behind him and turned around.

“This bastard…is going to be the end of me…?”

“Wrong, Higure! These people that you’ve oppressed―all of them will be your doom!”

She continued,

“―It’s lights out!”

Although Higure could not perceive her attack―like a thrust spearhead, it had pierced through his throat.

Although it didn’t actually penetrate his skin―it had surely gouged his throat internally, and he was blown backwards in a grand manner.

“Gobuhwa!”

From his throat to his esophagus, blood overflowed in his mouth.

While revolving around in a tailspin, Higure flew backwards, his sight now facing the wall he was about to crash into,

Once he was thrown against the wall, he could not take an offensive or defensive position.

Then…he was at a loss for words.

“Nice pitching, shrine maiden lady…I wonder if I can squeeze in some sweet revenge.”

Yuuki stood up from where had been blown away to.

With a bold smirk, he had stared straight at Higure.

“Pitcher: Shrine maiden lady. Batter: myself. Right, Higure?”

At that moment, Higure saw it.

He was now at this time―brandishing his fists. It was likely that he was going to unleash a blow with his full power.

In addition, when he twisted back to the limit, there was something exposed beneath his mantle―Some kind of black circle was pasted on his back.

“Hey, Higure? You were truly a strong enemy―You’ve gone and made me use my prized treasure (Pip Elekiban)!”

A sudden comeback, and―a Pip Elekiban.

Higure did not know why he was…using a magnetic pharmaceutical product meant to heal one’s back.

However, there was one thing he understood.

―He’s going to knock me out at full force…

“Well then, Higure! Let’s see if we can score―an extra-large out-of-the-park home run!”

Higure completely understood what was going to happen next.

To his front was the Tiger that had blown him away already. (TLN: I believe this a reference to the Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese baseball team)

Behind him was the Dragon that was about to blow him away (TLN: I think a reference to the Chunichi Dragons)

[Post-TLN: So it turns out that there’s more to the dragon-tiger thing than baseball, as jorgelotr has pointed out:
“part’s that and part the word 竜虎 (dragon and tiger), which means either ‘hero’ or ‘two fated rivals’, which gives idioms such as 竜攘虎搏 (dragon chasing and tiger pouncing), which means ‘fierce fighting’, 竜虎の争い (fight between a dragon and a tiger), ‘well-matched contest’, and 竜虎相搏つ (dragons and tigers attack each other), which loosely translates as ‘diamond cuts diamond’. It’s also the underlying motif in many martial and non martial-related series, one of which would be Tora-Dora (“tora”= tiger in japanese, and ‘dora’ is the first half of ‘doragon’= dragon in engrish; on the other hand, the MCs are ‘Taiga’= tiger in engrish, and ‘Ryuuji’, whose first half ‘ryuu’= dragon in japanese).” – jorgelotr]

No matter what he did, he could not vision anything for him other than defeat.

So,

In words that weren’t really recognizable as actual words, Higure shouted with his crushed throat,

“AAaaaskhkugalgaaskalaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!”

In his scream he concentrated in his mind to deploy all 255 defense skills.

Getting ready to assault, Yuuki entered into attacking position and roared.

Ruri was taken aback, but was able to recognize what was happening.

In light of that, she also roared herself to overtake Yuuki’s roar.

Once Ruri’s voice completely overshadows that of Yuuki’s―they unleashed their fists.

“Here we gooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!” “Here we gooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (TLN: Both Yuuki and Ruri are saying this at once, but I’m not sure how to convey that so I just wrote it twice. In Japanese you use double quotation marks, but I don’t think that rule applies to English.)

Their fists approached.

Every single defense skill making up his reinforced protective wall―was broken through by brute strength without much effort.

“－－－－－－－－－－－－!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

On the verge of death, the scenery around him moved as if it was in slow motion.

He saw Yuuki’s fist slowly approach him.

He recognized that the fist was about to sink into his face.

What Higure felt was not just pain, but what felt like an explosion.

What Higure couldn’t recognize was that the impact―had explosively burst open his head.

In accordance to the vector of Yuuki’s power, his body began traveling backwards.

While breaking through the wall, being swept through the forest surrounding the research facility, and while being wrapped in a blue flame from the air friction heat―Higure was blown away.

His consciousness blacked out once he had flown ten kilometers.

And so, Higure was blown far beyond the horizon.

---

Author’s Note:

So now the subtitle collection is over. (TLN: I think the author was taking suggestions for a subtitle to this novel, or something)

In the the epilogue next time, there will be a follow up to the older sister and the crowning glory against Higure.

---

[Previous] [TOC] [Next]

Follow 2Slow2Late MTL on WordPress.com