As I made my way back to the most northern tip, the first thing I saw was Ryouta blocking my path.

"Takanori-san..."

"...Ryouta-san."

There was a look of guilt on his face as he called my name.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were with Shimada-san."

"Ah... the truth is, when I heard you say to him that you were coming back to end this, I rushed all the way down here to try and convince you to back out of this."

"I see."

While this was an annoying roadblock, it was one I could easily get past. If Ryouta tries to block me physically, I'll be able to force my way through since I'm not wearing my watch to track my location. That way, if he tries to get me eliminated through breaking the violence rule, there won't be any proof I was here to commit it, thus keeping me safe.

"...also, Takanori-san. About what I did earlier, I—"

"Don't worry about it."

I wasn't interested in Ryouta's self-pitying, so I cut him off before he could finish.

"Matsushita-san and the others caught me. I know you were just trying to help."

"I know... but still, I feel incredibly guilty for having to catch you off guard like that... I'm sure you must've felt extremely betrayed by me in that moment... especially since it ended up being pointless in the end."

"To be honest, I was more surprised that pushing me off that cliff was part of your plan."

Ryouta looked away, pressing a hand onto his face and sighing.

"It was supposed to help you get away from Shimada-san so I could deal with him... but then you ended up nullifying it's purpose by coming all the way back here."

"I came back precisely because you don't have any way to stop him."

I decided to be blunt here to try and get Ryouta to give up. He's already played his role for me in my plan, so there was no need for him to try and help me anymore.

"...you're wrong about that, Takanori-san."

I raised an eyebrow.

"You still have something else in mind?"

"Remember earlier, when Shimada-san said that it would be impossible to arrest him right now?"

"Yeah."

"He's wrong. The truth is, it's entirely possible to do so, even now."

The moment Ryouta said that, I perfectly understood.

"One of the people here that's part of the faculty is actually the superintendent of the police force on GEN Academy— Juumonji Eisaku-san."

That's right. Last evening, Juumonji interviewed me alongside Hiden-sensei about Shigeru's allegation against me. Since he's the head police officer, he had the authority to arrest Shimada, even at this outdoors school.

"Since Hiden-sensei has the recording proving Shimada-san's guilty of conspiracy to kill, I could easily ask him report it to Juumonji-san and give the audio as evidence. This would allow him to arrest Shimada-san on the same day, and by extension, get him expelled from the school. However..."

Ryouta did a long sigh.

"...I'm also aware that I'm not in a position to make such a large call. My decision on this matter depends entirely on what you want, since the only reason I became involved is because you requested for my help. I want to respect your wishes, so I know that going this far may be overstepping the boundaries of what I was supposed to do, but... I wanted to ensure your safety as much as possible, Takanori-san. It's your choice on whether or not you want me to do this."

Ryouta turned to face me, looking deep into my eyes.

"After all... I can tell by the expression on your face that you want to settle the score with Shimada-san yourself personally. And I don't want to steal your limelight."

Even though Shimada brushed him off with a laugh earlier, the truth of the matter was Ryouta had him completely restrained from the very beginning. The only reason Shimada could act so brazenly was because Ryouta didn't reveal the full extent of his plan.

By concealing the fact he could pull off arrest on the same day, Ryouta fed a false belief into Shimada's ego and made him think he had beaten his plan, giving him a huge weak spot that he was blind to.

In Shimada's head, all the obstacles in his way had been torn down. The death match he'd been yearning for all these years was finally within his reach. His obliviousness to Ryouta's bluff could potentially end up being his own downfall.

In fact, this plan went beyond just stopping Shimada from killing me.

At any given moment, Ryouta could expel Shimada from this school with a simple phone call.

That was the sort of power he held over him.

And Ryouta was giving me control on whether or not he'd do it.

"...it's not easy to decide when you spring such a heavy choice on me suddenly."

"If you don't want to, it's fine. I'll delete the recording and forget this ever happened."

"Are you really okay with that? In the future, that could become extremely useful."

"Yes. To be honest, I'd rather not expel anyone, let alone my own classmate. So, if you have a way to stop him that doesn't resort to something as drastic as this, then I think you should follow through with it."

"...for such a kind person, you sure have some ruthless plans."

Ryouta chuckled nervously.

"...I guess I do, huh?"

"You can throw it away. Despite all the trouble Shimada-san has caused you, you still look reluctant to get rid of him."

"It's hard to explain, but... Shimada-san is brimming with potential. I think it'd be a waste of talent if someone as incredibly smart and gifted as him gets expelled or arrested. Even if he's a bad person right now, he still has the chance to grow into a good person in the future... and I want to believe that he'll mature and outgrow this nonsensical side of him one day. Plus..."

Ryouta looked up into the sky with longing eyes.

"...his existence reminds me every day to not grow complacent, that there's room to expand upon myself. Because there's someone better than me, it motivates me to keep training, keep pushing, and keep getting better. All so that one day I can become good enough to reach the peaks they've already grazed..."

With his outstretched hand, he grabbed a star in the night sky.

"...and maybe one day, completely surpass the limits of what they've achieved. I know it's a selfish reason, but I think getting rid of such a wonderful rival figure would be such a shame."

Ryouta closed his eyes and laughed awkwardly.

"S-sorry, I talked a lot there..."

"No, it's fine. I understand how you feel."

After all, aiming to overtake your class one day is the main reason why I do what I do.

"Rest assured, I don't have anything like that in mind either. My only goal in this special exam was to stop Shimada-san from killing Nakajima-san. Now that I've achieved that, everything else is just a loose end for me to tie up."

"You weren't expecting Shimada-san to try and kill you...?"

"...making him change his target from Nakajima-san to me was part of my plan from the very beginning, Ryouta-san."

His eyes widened as I walked past him.

"I had no clue... somehow, it feels like that would be something I'd do too."

"It was the only way to get things where I wanted it to go."

I glanced behind me, noticing Ryouta frowning.

"Takanori-san, be honest with me... are you really going to fight Shimada-san to the death?"

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out."

I could hear him take a step closer to me.

"I'm not joking around here. Surely you know this is a bad idea."

Turning my head fully, I looked at him over my shoulder.

"And I'm not either. I'm well aware of the risk this involves."

"Then why? Why are you doing this?"

"Follow me. You'll get to witness firsthand the moment I've been waiting for since the very beginning of this special exam."

Ryouta's eyes widened.

"You've planned all this out since even way back then...?"

"More or less, yeah. This is how I always intended to end it."

I turned away from Ryouta, walking straight towards the place where Shimada would be waiting for me.

"...to be honest, I'm still sceptical of this plan you have, but since you seem so confident in it... I'll put my faith into it for now. I'm curious to see how this will all end."

Ryouta followed me, keeping some distance between us.

"Oh, right... one more thing."

"What is it?"

"Whatever you do, don't interrupt me."

Even though it was meant to be an order, it ended up sounding more like a threat.

"G-got it..."

"I know you don't want to see me get hurt, but that will be unavoidable due to who we're dealing with. I just wanted to let you know beforehand, since I get the feeling you might try to act like a hero and jump into the fray."

"If you think I'm going to be that troublesome, why bring me along?"

"Because having a witness is good for insurance."

"You really like to have back-up plans, huh...? You know, there might be something as being too cautious, Takanori-san."

"I'd rather not risk it. Besides, I have another reason to bring you up here."

And this was the real reason why I was stringing Ryouta along with me.

"And that is?"

"You'll understand soon enough."

"Okay...?"

I pushed past the branches blocking my way and squeezed through the trees that acted like a curtain to what lied ahead.

As I emerged out of the darkness, I could see a single figure standing under the eclipsed moonlight like a silhouette.

That bored expression flickered into a wicked grin as our eyes crossed paths with each other.

Shimada turned around to face me.

"Yuuto..."

"...Shimada-san."

As I approached him, Ryouta stayed hidden in the shadows to observe us from afar.

It was smart of him to do so, since Shimada didn't want anymore interruptions when it came to our confrontation. If he made his presence known, Ryouta would just be inviting Shimada's ire.

At the same time, Shimada also walked towards me, closing the distance between us.

"Let's do this, shall we?"

His voice was filled with venom. Like me, Shimada had destroyed his watch in order to disable his GPS signal and prevent an emergency alarm from sounding off. Since those two things would make covering up our fight more difficult, we both understood to get rid of them beforehand.

"...if you wish."

Wasting no time, Shimada launched a front kick at my stomach. I bounced back to dodge it, before jabbing at his face. Predicting my move, he raised his forearm to block, and took one large step forward to get into my space.

Despite his long reach, which would've given him a huge advantage against an up close fighter like me, he wanted to taunt me into striking him back with all my might so he could catch me off guard and counterstrike.

This would be easy for Shimada to do since he was so fluid with his movements, allowing him to attack fast and retreat back to a stable position.

It's one the techniques he learnt from capoeira, a dance-like fighting style that suited him well due to his acrobatic body and powerful legs.

While he was in front of me, he threw a few feints to try and flinch me. I didn't take the bait, but just in case he tried seriously punching me, I kept one arm up. However, I felt certain he wasn't reckless enough to try and best me in my own area of speciality.

While his punches were decent, since he was also trained in kickboxing, they were nowhere on the level of mine. Almost all the time I spent on training had been dedicated to perfecting my punches, ensuring they would be stronger than anybody else's.

One bad punch from him, and my counterstrike would knock him out cold. Shimada knew this better than anyone else.

Getting this close was also dangerous for him due to how much of his body was exposed. Of course, this opened the opportunity for him to knee me, but it was risky due to fact it put his face and torso within my range.

I could easily just wear down his body before delivering a fatal blow to his head. And since this isn't a sanctioned sport, shots to the back of the head and neck were allowed. If I wanted to, I could even elbow him in the face.

In such a scenario, sticking to pre-trained techniques acted more like a guideline or a suggestion. Half the actual battle would be dictated by your ability to navigate the moment as well as surviving whatever kind of attacks may come your way.

"Are you just going to stay hiding behind your arms forever, Yuuto?"

Shimada launched his fist at my face again, but I didn't react. Yet again, it was another sucker punch.

"Are you going to do any other move than these fake outs? It's getting awfully predictable."

"So you enjoy being put on the defence?"

Just as Shimada asked this, he lifted his knee up to strike me. I took this chance to take a sweeping kick at his other leg to try and knock him off balance, but Shimada quickly put his lifted foot down to stabilise.

"Not particularly. But I'm not one to initiate an attack either."

"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be..."

He laughed a little before unleashing a fury of jabs at me. At first I didn't block them, since I expected them to be feints again, but when one of them grazed the side of my face, I realised he wasn't playing around anymore.

Huddling my arms to block the punches, Shimada worked on chipping at my lower body, kicking my shins and kneecaps. Using his forward momentum from attacking, he tried to push me back into a tree, presumably to pin me against it.

"Oi, why aren't you fighting back? I thought you didn't want to be the one to start things off!"

Shimada yelled in my face as he hailed down more punches on me. There was very little opening for me to fight back due to how fast and erratic he was throwing them, so it's not like I had much choice in the matter.

If I tried punching now, Shimada's fist would get me in the bridge of my nose, which would not only stun me, but also make my eyes tear up due to the septum being hit. This would obscure my vision and give him an even wider opening to go haywire on me.

Sooner or later, Shimada will have to tire out from punching and kicking so rapidly like this. For now, I could endure the punches he threw my way since they weren't that strong.

What I would have difficulties against though were his kicks, which had a tremendous quaking sensation behind them. My legs were beginning to ache as I couldn't guard all of them. I could try to avoid them, but due to his reach, that was near impossible.

I stood firm and kept taking hit after hit. As soon as I had a chance to attack him, I'd take it. But in such an advantageous position, I don't think Shimada will let down any time soon.

However, there was one weak point I zeroed in on for a chance to counter.

Whenever he pulled back his fist for another punch, Shimada opened up a vulnerability on that side of his body. There, his head and neck was exposed, meaning that if I could land clean hit, I could knock him back and slip out of his barrage.

I kept a close eye on the flow of his movement. Left, right, left, right, all of which were aimed at my head. A simple pattern which had no variation aside from when and where he'd kick me. That made predicting an opening more reliable.

As he slung back his left arm for the follow up jab, I thrusted my elbow forward, slipping into the exposed space on the side of his face, and drove it into his throat.

He made a gargling sound as my arm made contact, but still followed through his punch, which missed as I ducked down and sent an uppercut into his stomach with my right arm, before following with a left hook to his jaw.

However, despite simultaneously getting smacked in the face, neck, and torso, Shimada used this as an opportunity to chop the back of my head like it was a buzzer, causing me to stumble down.

As I tumbled, he also shot up his knee to try and get me in the face, but I managed to stabilise at the last second and dodge it. Now that I was free, I leapt back to create some space between us, and began encircling around him.

Shimada did the same, matching my movements in parallel while cracking his neck that had been hit. A smile emerged on his face.

"That's more like it... come on Yuuto, show me more of what you can really do!"

Straight after, he tried closing the gap by bursting forward with his right leg, gliding into another front kick. I evaded it and charged from his left side, but he spun on his axis and redirected it back around towards me in a reverse arc.

I chopped down on that leg with my left hand, causing Shimada to wobble. Presented with a golden opportunity to take him down, I burst forward with a multitude of rolling punches to his chest.

However, despite the force I threw at him, Shimada managed to land on his hands, stabilising himself into a handstand. Then, he dropped his body forward, swinging his legs down with a hammer dropkick.

I took the brunt of his heel with my right arm and punched his back to throw him off balance. Shimada toppled to the floor, but spun on his back to launch into another frontal kick to get back up. I slapped his foot away, causing him jitter back.

"Getting desperate now, are we?"

I said that to try and rile him up, but Shimada looked like he enjoyed the fact I was able to keep up with him. He raised his arms, getting into another fighting stance with a unperturbed smile.

"Don't get cocky just because you knocked me down once!"

He charged at me with another set of vicious punches. I raised my forearms to block them, even though they were beginning to bruise badly from all the shots they've taken.

"So I'm allowed to get cocky if I knock you down again?"

He throwing a strange mix of jabs, hooks, and haymakers, with the only thing in common being how much force Shimada was putting into them. This left accuracy on these shots to be less than desirable.

"Of course. In this world, it's winner takes all!"

Shimada exploded into a series of consecutive kicks and punches, not giving me room to breathe at all. He's improved a lot since then, that's for sure...

I don't remember him being so aggressive, but considering I was his opponent, I guess he was scared of me hitting back with enough strength to split open his head again.

For Shimada, the easiest way to prevent me from attacking him was by forcing me to go on the defensive. By continuously piling pressure on me through a never ending series of attacks, he was able to achieve this.

"If you're a loser, you might as well be dead. If you're a loser, nothing you do has any worth. All of your results, all of your hard work, all of your efforts... everything you do becomes meaningless!"

With little room to counterstrike or initiate an attack of my own, all I could do was endure Shimada's beat down until he started running out of breath or the force of his attacks weakened. Unfortunately, I don't think either is happening anytime soon.

"You know this better than anyone else, don't you? After all... the person who won most of all... was you!"

Despite how long this challenge has been going for, Shimada's kicks still feel as crisp and fresh as they were at the start of the exam. While his fists were a bit more sluggish, his kicks were more than enough to compensate for it.

If he continued wearing down my body with those powerful shots to my leg and stomach, there was a good chance he could get me, especially since Nakajima injured my knee and ankle earlier with that knife of his.

However, I noticed something peculiar while Shimada was fighting me.

He was using his hands more than his legs.

"Because you were so much better than everyone else... we all had to chase after you, try to catch up to you, and eventually surpass you..."

In total, I've counted one hundred and thirty six punches thrown by him compared to the measly seventy nine kicks he's launched so far in our fight.

Despite it being his main weapon, Shimada was refusing to use it to its fullest potential. Even though he thought of this as a death match, he wasn't trying to kill me with all his might like I expected him to.

"We lived in the shadow that you created from shining so bright... from being better than everyone else, from winning so much... but do you know what happened to us losers?"

I don't know why he was hindering himself like this. If he came at me with those kicks of his, I'd be forced to respond with punches of equal strength in order to keep up.

But his insistence on using his fists meant that I haven't felt any urgency to fight back. I can keep enduring his punches since they did so little damage to me.

Whatever the case, it would work to my advantage later. If he doesn't want to lose so badly, then why fight so inadequately?

"Because we couldn't beat you... we were deemed as failures."

I peered into Shimada's gaze, one that was fully concentrated on killing me, but I couldn't get a read on his current mental state.

"Failures that could only do one thing correctly..."

To me, he was just rambling nonsense.

"...becoming sacrifices for the winners."

I didn't have any reason to listen all of this.

"Imagine... the last living remnant of the Kuroshi family... one of the three great houses... the pillar of medicine... the only trace left that proves their existence... losing to the child of a bastardised king like Kirukiru..."

I didn't have any obligation to listen to his sob story.

"...I refuse to acknowledge it. I'll prove once and for all that you're nothing but a fake, and that I was the real masterpiece."

For me, the only thing I needed to focus on was carrying out my plan to the very end.

"And to do that... I'll destroy you— with your very own signature weapon!"

That was it.

"Try me."

I uttered that while pulling back my right fist.

Shimada's left arm, which had been blocked from hitting me this entire time, finally landed a punch on my scarred cheek.

However, in retaliation, I slammed the side of Shimada's right face with my own punch, sending him flying into a tree.

It was a swift but accurate jab that had moderate power behind it.

Shimada screamed as his body slammed against the trunk and recoiled in pain.

Hissing, he let out a low chuckle, rising back to his feet like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

"If you could do that from the beginning, then why didn't you...?"

"I didn't have a chance to do so."

"What an annoyance..."

For the first time in this fight, I could glean a hint of emotion on Shimada's face.

Even though he was smiling like a psychopath, he too, was reliving a trauma from the past.

In those wine coloured eyes of his, I could see something akin to hatred bubble up.

"...and here I thought I was keeping pace with you."

Using the tree as a launch pad, Shimada kicked off it with his right foot, front flipping twice in order to close the distance between us that I had created. As he got ready to flip for a third time, I swerved out of the way and shuffled back.

"Ah... just die already, Yuuto!"

Completing that flip, he launched into another one, this time aiming to get me with a heel kick to the chest. I didn't have the time to avoid it, so I leaned forward to take the brunt of it with my left shoulder.

"Die! Die, die, die!"

Before I could grab onto his leg to suppress his next attack, Shimada pulled it away at the last second and transitioned it into a spin kick that whirled around my face.

"Just die already!"

With such speed and force, blocking it with my bruised forearm was pointless. It smashed through and got me in the face, breaking my nose and leaking blood down my chin.

"I've had enough being second best to someone as undeserving as you...!"

My vision blurred as my eyes teared up from my septum being hit. This let Shimada punch straight through with a jab, bopping my head. He followed up with two more straight jabs.

"I've had enough of you hiding your true abilities and pretending like you're something other than what you really are!"

He was only three punches in, but due to how cleanly those shots hit me, my face was beginning to swell with bruises. I raised my arms to defend, but Shimada broke through them with a back kick, before throwing two hooks at my chin and jaw.

"I'm going to drag you into the light whether you like it or not!"

On the inside of my mouth, I could taste blood and feel my inner cheeks puff up. Shimada punched me two more times before slamming the back of my head with a roundhouse kick to try and force my submission.

I barely held on, but my vision was getting worse due to the repeated stamping on my face. My right eye was bleeding, and my left eye was sswelling to the point I couldn't open it anymore.

"You're still standing?"

"...you're going to need more force than that to take me down."

"I can't even understand what the hell you're saying."

Shimada cracked his knuckles, laughing under his breath.

"Well, it doesn't matter. Once I kill you, everything will be over. Let's end this!"

With my senses distorted and my vision skewed, Shimada unleashed a flurry of punches at my head just like earlier. However, this time, all of them landed, causing me to stumble to the ground from the repeated force that was being built up against me.

"How does it feel, Yuuto?"

Shimada kicked me on the stomach, burying me into the floor. He jumped on top of me, keeping me pinned to the ground by sitting on my stomach and unloading a medley of heavy punches onto my face.

"How does it feel to finally know what losing tastes like?!"

I closed my eyes, letting Shimada do what he wanted as he poured all his power into killing me. Each time his fist landed, it made a wet slapping noise due to all the blood covering my face.

"How does it feel to be under someone else for a change, huh?!"

Every blow was powerful and distorted, backed with enough strength to kill a normal person at least two times over. After awhile though, it all started blending in and feeling the same to me.

"Savour this moment forever, Yuuto..."

Despite laughing like a child while beating me to death, I felt nothing stir in my heart.

"...because after this, you won't ever get to taste anything ever again."

Shimada struck down with a force even greater than his kick.

"Did you feel that? That's the power I've been saving up to kill you with."

I let out a cold breath.

The truth is...

I was bored out of my mind fighting him.

Despite giving him complete free reign over my body, the only significant thing he's done so far is beat my face up.

For someone who wanted a death match so badly, I was disappointed that this was the best he could come up with.

His actions were the furthest thing from a person fighting with the intent to kill.

To me, they were more like that of an angry little boy throwing a temper tantrum.

Unable to communicate with words like a normal person, he had to resort to violent means to vent out his misguided frustrations.

But unfortunately for him, he chose the worst possible punching bag to wail on.

OST: Ayanokouji vs Ryuuen

"...are you satisfied yet, Muteki-san?"

"...what?"

Shimada, who was about to punch me again, stopped as I uttered his real name.

"Do you feel like you've gotten your payback?"

"Of course I haven't. I'll only feel that way once you're dead."

"I see. In that case, keep punching."

"What?"

To Shimada's surprise, I urged him to keep going.

"You heard me right. I'm telling you to continue. It's the only way I'll get to atone for the sins of my past."

He punched me in the face.

"Don't mess with me... what do you think you're doing, trying to turn your death into some sort of noble salvation? We're both fighting to the death because we want to, not because one of us wants to die on purpose."

"There's no point continuing when it's clear I've lost, especially this badly... I never thought you of all people would try to learn my style of punching. If you have that, as well as your explosive kicks, then no one can stop you... not even me."

Shimada's eyes widened.

"You've proven yourself to be better than I am, Muteki-san. You've won this death match. So hurry up and kill me already."

He opened his mouth to speak, only to close it. He tightened his hand into a balled up fist and raised it over my head, growling while showing off his gritted fangs.

"What the hell are you playing at...? Giving up this easily... are you trying to make a mockery out of the hell we went through?"

"It's only hell for you. For me, the Under Doctrine..."

...was the worst thing that's ever happened to me.

"...was the best thing I've ever done in my life."

Shimada slammed me in the head.

"Shut up... how the hell am I supposed to prove I'm better than you when you weren't even taking this seriously, huh? How am I supposed to feel satisfied, knowing that you weren't even trying to kill me in this death match, huh?!"

He punched me again.

"Aren't you doing it right now? You've proved you're better than me by beating me in a fight..."

"A fight which you weren't even trying in!"

"I was trying my hardest..."

"That was your best...? Don't make me laugh!"

Shimada punched me in the head again.

"I know you can do better... I know you can fight better... I know you can kill me in one strike! But yet you refuse to, despite having all that power...!"

"...yeah, I wonder why."

He punched me again.

"...what a waste of a life. If anyone found out about how pathetic you became, then the whole Doctrine would be deemed a failure."

Shimada looked down at me with a delusional smile.

"I can't let that happen. Not when so many people died to get you to where you are today. It won't be satisfying, but for the sake of everyone who had to sacrifice themselves for your ritual..."

He winded his right fist back as far as it would go.

"...with this punch, I'll reap your life."

And sent it rocketing towards the centre of my face.

With that, everything has fallen into place.

It's time to reveal the true form of my plan.

As a token of my appreciation to his stupidity, I was going to thoroughly teach Shimada just how wide the difference in our abilities are.

Grabbing hold of his left arm, I used it as a crutch to lift myself up from the ground.

And as his fist got closer to my face, I caught it like a baseball with my right hand.

Shimada's eyes widened.

"Yuuto, you..."

"...are you done yet?"

Before he could respond, I let go of Shimada's fist and punched him in the voice box.

This caused him to wheeze and jump off me, covering his throat.

"That was dirty of you..."

He spat on the floor, rubbing the base of his neck and narrowing his eyes at me.

"I don't want to hear any complaints like that from you of all people."

Shimada chuckled.

"So that last punch was enough to light a fire under your ass, huh?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?"

"You actually bothered to block that shot. That means you're finally going to get serious, right?"

I sighed, getting up from the floor.

"Sorry, Shimada-san."

Wiping the blood dripping down my face, I walked up to Shimada.

"But you're not even worthy of my full power."

He had assumed a fighting stance, but let his guard down the moment I said those words.

"Huh?"

With only a few centimetres worth of space between us, there was no reason to drag out this farce anymore.

"I'll make it easy for you to understand."

Without warning, I walked up to Shimada and punched him right in the solar plexus.

"Yuu... to—!"

Rendered unable to breathe, Shimada dropped to the floor, his consciousness collapsing out from under him.

"You never stood a chance against me in the first place, Shimada-san."

I looked down at the miserable body of the man I had just knocked out.

I couldn't even feel bad for him.

He had brought this upon himself by running around and causing trouble for so many people, including me.

"...that should be the end of that."

I sighed, dusting my hands together. Seeing as the fight was over, Ryouta emerged from the bushes and ran towards me.

"Takanori-san! Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Your face, it's..."

Ryouta's hand reached out to wipe the blood off my cheek, but I slapped it away.

"...like I said, I'm fine. It's not that bad. Honestly."

Ryouta frowned before nodding.

"Is Shimada-san going to be okay too...?"

"Yeah. He'll wake up sooner or later. There's no need to worry about either of us."

I bent down and scooped up Shimada's limp body in my arms.

"I'm glad to hear..."

Ryouta breathed a sigh of relief before making a dubious expression.

"...but was all of this really necessary?"

I can understand his uncertainty, but at the same time, I wasn't going to explain it to him what happened here outright either. I know that he'd be able to piece it together in the future anyways, so I'll just leave him with a hint towards solving it.

"Of course it was. Knocking out Shimada-san was a part of my plan."

"It was...?"

"...you'll see soon enough. In any case, all of this is finally over now. You can clean your hands of the situation. I'll take it all from here. Once again, thank you for helping me out. Ryouta-san."

"No, no, it's alright! If anything, I should be the one thanking you for telling me about all this. And... I'm sorry for all the trouble me and my classmate Shimada-san has caused you..."

"Call it a fair trade. Considering the state he's in, Shimada-san probably won't be able to continue the special exam anymore. The staff might deem it necessary for him to drop out entirely."

When I uttered those words, Ryouta's eyes widened for a split second before going back to normal.

"Yeah, that's probably for the best... um, but what about you? Are you going to drop out as well?"

"Why would I?"

Just as Ryouta was about to answer, I cut him off.

"I still have to beat you after all."

"...e-eh?"

Ryouta was stunned at my declaration of war.

Without elaborating, I turned around and quietly made my exit.