Chapter 191: This Isn’t a Place for You to Play House

Crack!

“Ah!”

Crack!

“Ah!”

On Saturday, after Yuki Asahi finished his morning classes and arrived at the training base, he heard strange noises coming from the gymnasium.

Usually, no one trained in the gymnasium… but those sounds… was that really training?

Jiang Jian Yue pushed open the gymnasium doors and her eyes widened at the surprising sight before her—a large, muscular, bald Black man holding a whip, chasing a panting, overweight boy while swinging the whip with a fierce whistle.

“Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me!”

The fat boy’s face was a mixture of tears and sweat, and his entire face looked as if it were sizzling with oil.

The bald man noticed the movement behind him, stopped, and looked toward the door.

A hint of surprise appeared on his face.

“Yuki?”

Yuki Asahi walked up to the man and asked in confusion, “You know me?”

“I am the Missy’s guard. You can just call me Mark.”

Mark had seen the unconscious Yuki before at Lake Toya.

“And this is…”

Yuki looked at the fat boy, who was still running even without the whip behind him, and asked curiously.

“Oh, you can just call him Akio.”

Mark saw the fat boy’s pace slowing and shouted, “You’re failing already when we’re just warming up?!”

“Yes, sir!”

“As you can see, we need him to lose some weight.”

Mark shrugged.

“Of course, weight loss is secondary. The main goal is to help Akio build enough self-confidence.”

Yuki was thoughtful and muttered, ‘Can fitness… build confidence?’

“Of course, though this is specifically for Akio.”

Mark was a surprisingly observant big man; otherwise, he would not have become the Team Leader of the Dark Crow Unit.

He spoke with a smile, “As for you, Yuki, you are already strong and respectable enough.”

Yuki’s face turned slightly red, and he said bashfully, “I… really?”

Mark nodded, then said, “It might be better if you were a bit more willful sometimes, Yuki. You don’t need to consider everyone else’s thoughts.”

“Eh… but that would cause trouble for others.”

A trace of bitterness appeared on Yuki’s face.

Mark thought to himself, ‘You Japanese people say “don’t cause trouble” every day, yet you cause plenty when it matters! — Except for the Missy, of course.’

“Your complexion doesn’t look good. Is the training pressure that high?”

Yuki shook his head and did not answer directly. Instead, he watched Akio, who had started running again.

“Mark, do you think… he can really pull through?”

He pointed to his own heart.

“I mean… in here.”

A look of understanding appeared on Mark’s dark face.

He put down the whip, walked to the side of the court to pick up a bottle of water, unscrewed it, and handed it to Akio, who had just finished a lap and was nearly collapsing.

“Drink some water and adjust your breathing.”

He turned back to Yuki.

“Physical changes take time, but reshaping willpower is even harder. His heart has been sick for too long, rotting away while he kept himself locked in that room. The Missy gave him an opportunity, but deep down, he still feels that his polished exterior is a lie, and that he is still that useless Akio underneath.”

Mark’s gaze turned sharp.

“The fear of ‘losing’ lashes him more than any whip ever could. I’m not training him to become a bodybuilder. I’m doing it so he understands that even as Akio, he can do something, and he can… learn not to hate himself so much.”

“When the day comes that he can calmly face ‘Akio’ in the mirror and even lift his chest with pride… only then will his current life stop being a phantom that could collapse at any moment.”

Yuki nodded thoughtfully.

“Thank you, Mark. I think… I understand a little now.”

He looked at Akio, who was still struggling to take steps, and his gaze became firmer.

“Good luck, Akio!”

Mizuki Kotaro heard the encouragement and raised his head with difficulty, sweat blurring his vision.

He couldn’t see clearly who was speaking, but the warmth in that voice made his nose sting, almost bringing him to tears again.

Mizuki Kotaro took a deep breath and pushed his heavy feet forward with even more effort.

“Mark, I… I should go to training now.”

Mark grinned, revealing a row of white teeth that looked like they belonged in a commercial.

“Go on, Yuki. Remember, true strength is for protecting, but sometimes, you need to let it be seen.”

Yuki nodded, took a deep breath, and turned to leave the gymnasium, heading toward the underground training ground reserved for the Special Response HQ.

The passage, filled with a sense of modern technology, felt like a corridor leading to a gladiator’s arena.

The heavy alloy doors opened quickly after he swiped his card, and the atmosphere inside the training ground was more solemn than ever before.

Reina Hayami—the only girl with burgundy short hair in the team who explicitly supported him—was pacing anxiously by the sidelines.

When she saw Yuki enter, her dark gray eyes immediately filled with a worried look.

In the center of the area, Kenichi Matsumoto, the man with a buzz cut, stood with his arms crossed and a grim expression.

Beside him, the white-haired Ryota Ando tapped his foot impatiently on the ground.

Meanwhile, Tsubasa Kubo, the gloomy youth with pale purple hair and red eyes, leaned against the shadows of the far wall, expressionlessly playing on his mobile phone.

It was as if everything happening before him had nothing to do with him.

“Our Captain is finally willing to return?”

Ryota Ando was the first to attack, his voice drawn out and full of provocation.

“What, is your idol work finished? Or was there another ’emergency’ that required a high school student Captain like you to go save the world?”

Yuki ignored the sarcasm and looked directly at Kenichi Matsumoto.

“Senior Matsumoto, Senior Ando, I am very sorry about the interruption to our last training session. But the situation was urgent then—”

“Urgent?”

Kenichi Matsumoto interrupted him coldly, his voice low and suppressed with anger.

“Captain Yuki, this isn’t a place for you to play house! Don’t you know that our Special Response HQ Unit 1 represents the national team? When the time comes and we can’t produce results, it’s the reputation of the entire country that will be disgraced!”

As a former self-defense officer, Kenichi Matsumoto had developed the habit of worrying about the nation despite his low rank, escalating everything to a national level.

He took a step forward, and an invisible pressure radiated outward.

“In last week’s sparring, you were like a limp noodle. Recently, you haven’t even been able to follow basic discipline. Tell me, what right do you have to sit in the Captain’s seat?”

“Matsumoto! Yuki, he—”

Reina Hayami couldn’t help but speak up.

“Reina, shut up!”

Kenichi Matsumoto barked.

“This is no place for you to talk!”

Reina Hayami’s face turned pale with anger.

However, she stubbornly took a half-step toward Yuki’s side, showing her stance through her actions.

Yuki’s face, however, was incredibly relaxed, as if he were ignoring Kenichi Matsumoto’s words.

“I understand your doubts, Senior Matsumoto.”

Yuki’s voice was unexpectedly steady as he looked Matsumoto in the eye.

“During last week’s sparring, I indeed… had too many reservations. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to control my strength and might injure you, Senior. That was my mistake, and I apologize.”

He bowed slightly.

Both Kenichi Matsumoto and Ryota Ando froze for a moment.

What did he mean by “injure the senior”?

‘Is he looking down on me?!’

“However…”

Yuki straightened up, his Golden Eyes as calm as a deep well.

“I stand by my judgment. My friend’s life is more important than a training session. As for the position of Captain—”

He paused, his voice cutting like a blade.

“If you believe I am unworthy, then use your strength to prove that you are more qualified to lead this team than I am.”

“Ha! Finally, you’ve said something a man would say!”

Ryota Ando gave a sinister laugh and cracked his knuckles.

“Matsumoto, it looks like our little friend wants to play for real? Then let’s stop the talk!”

Unstable energy fluctuations began to surge around him, seemingly warping the surrounding light.

“Just as I intended.”

Kenichi Matsumoto’s gaze also became dangerous.

He raised his hand, and from a metal rack in the corner of the training ground, more than ten fist-sized alloy training balls instantly levitated.

They began to rotate slowly around him, emitting a low hum.

“Let me see just how much of this hidden strength you actually have… Reina, Kubo, move back!”

Reina Hayami gave the two men a worried look but quickly retreated to the safety zone.

Tsubasa Kubo looked down at where he was standing and curled his lip.

He was already far away, yet they still told him to move back—what a pain!

The battle was triggered in an instant!

Ryota Ando launched the first attack.

His figure blurred as he closed the distance between himself and Yuki with extreme speed.

A fist carrying energy fluctuations aimed straight for Yuki’s face.

At the same time, the alloy balls controlled by Kenichi Matsumoto shot toward Yuki’s joints and vital points from all directions like cannonballs, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound!

Yuki’s pupils constricted, and the light from his Golden Eyes flared.

He no longer held anything back.

Boom!

He didn’t choose to dodge Ando’s fist.

Instead, he moved even faster, sidestepping and slamming his shoulder and arm into the inner side of Ando’s offensive.

At the same time, his right hand shot out, accurately grabbing Ando’s wrist.

“Ugh!”

Ryota Ando felt as though his wrist had been caught in a steel vice.

His bones let out a crisp cracking sound.

His entire body was pulled off-balance by a massive force, and his attack instantly crumbled.

Yuki used the momentum to throw him.

Ryota Ando was slammed into the ground like a ragged sack!

Thud!

Dust flew!

Ryota Ando was left dazed and seeing stars, and the energy he had tried to condense was shattered by the brutal physical impact.

Facing the whistling alloy balls, Yuki displayed agility and reflexes far beyond his previous showing.

He moved like a phantom through the dense rain of projectiles, dodging most of the alloy balls by a hair’s breadth.

When one was unavoidable, he met it with a punch.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yuki’s fists collided with the high-speed alloy balls, actually producing the sound of metal clashing against metal.

Those alloy balls, which were strong enough to pierce through steel plates, were smashed by him—it was clear who was harder.

“What?!”

Kenichi Matsumoto’s expression changed drastically.

His precision and power in controlling the metal balls were far greater than last time.

He thought he could suppress his opponent instantly, but he never expected Yuki’s strength and defense to be so terrifying.

This was not the restrained high school student from last week.

“Senior Matsumoto, it’s my turn!”

Yuki gave a low shout. Seizing the gap between the alloy ball attacks, he pushed off the ground, causing it to crack instantly.

He lunged toward Kenichi Matsumoto like an arrow released from a bow.

Matsumoto was shocked and hurriedly mobilized all the alloy balls to defend, weaving them into an airtight metal storm in front of him.

Golden light exploded from Yuki’s eyes. He didn’t flinch or dodge; he charged directly into the lethal metal storm.

Schlick—

The sharp alloy edges grazed his arms and back, drawing streaks of blood. But Yuki seemed unable to feel the pain.

He pushed through the cutting metal storm and broke through the defense in an instant.

Carrying an overbearing aura, he threw a punch toward Kenichi Matsumoto’s face.

In his haste, Kenichi Matsumoto crossed his arms to block.

Boom—

Kenichi Matsumoto felt an incomparable, massive force hit him.

His arms went numb with intense pain, and his feet left the ground.

Like being hit by a king of the road speeding on a highway, he was sent flying backward.

Pfft—

Kenichi Matsumoto crashed heavily onto the ground more than ten meters away.

His throat felt sweet, and he spat out a small mouthful of blood.

His face turned pale instantly.

The metal balls lost control and scattered across the floor with a series of clangs.

The entire training ground fell into a dead silence.