Chapter 179: Mai Shiranui's Worries and Nash's Debut (Patreon)

"Uwah!"

Juri Han had marched up to Yang, grabbed him by the collar and started devouring his mouth. Beside them, Mai Shiranui instinctively covered her face. Then, just as instinctively, she spread her fingers and peeked through the gaps at the two kissing nonstop, torn between embarrassment and curiosity.

Juri drew the healing effect out of Yang's body in a steady stream, rapidly replenishing what the fight had cost her. Only when the weakness in her body had shrunk dramatically and her battle-wearied muscles had slowly loosened did she let go of him, a little reluctantly.

"Haa, that's much better!"

Juri tipped her head back, wiped the saliva from the corner of her mouth, and looked at Yang. "You've got nothing else on right now, right? Train with me. When we're resting, I'll let you do whatever you want to me."

Chun-Li, standing nearby, was already pressing at her temples, unable to take any more. Kure Karura, on the other hand, chimed in with great interest. "Oh, is that so? But Juri's pretty obedient afterward anyway, isn't she~?"

"It's not the same!" Juri shook her head, folded her arms, and said with firm eyes, "I've got things I need to do. And some of them I have to do myself..."

She paused, then turned to Yang and said seriously, "Even if you helped, it wouldn't count. Some things I have to finish with my own hands!"

"I know," Yang said with a nod, looking into her eyes. "I'll help you."

Hearing that, Juri froze for a moment, then scratched her head, oddly flustered, and turned away. "Well... fine."

Nearby, everyone was chatting as if nothing were unusual. Mai Shiranui had been holding it in for a long time, and she finally couldn't any longer.

"Um... what exactly is going on between all of you?! Why does it feel like everyone except me is super close with A-Yang?"

Chun-Li blinked, then said in mild surprise, "Is that how it feels? But aren't you and A-Yang close, too, Mai?"

"Huh? Are we?!" Mai froze.

"Of course," Chun-Li said, as if it were obvious. "The two of you set aside time every day for that guidance in the Mind-Flame arts, don't you?"

"I don't really understand energy conversion, but I can more or less sense your auras blending together. And there's quite a bit of physical contact, too..."

Her voice trailed off toward the end. It wasn't that Chun-Li felt embarrassed—

Or rather, after spending so much time with Yang, and after being thoroughly devoured by him, Chun-Li still felt a pang of moral shame at certain moments. But simply describing things like this was something she'd long since gotten used to.

The main reason was that Juri and the Kure sisters were so open and passionate. More than once, Chun-Li had come out of the bath to find them already getting cozy with Yang on the second-floor living room sofa, as if no one else existed.

Even someone who still cared about such things would, after enough time, grow used to it.

Besides, Yang himself was a man of fierce desires. In that department, he was no less intense than his hunger for battle.

It was all fighting in the end, anyway.

As for why her voice kept shrinking now, it was simply that Mai's face grew redder with every word, until her whole head looked ready to sink into her chest.

She seemed bold, but because of how she was raised, Mai was unbelievably conservative about relationships. At home she'd put on her ninja outfit and admire herself in private, but most of the time she wore ordinary clothes, like a biker outfit.

Now, under everyone's gaze, Mai could only feel a tangle of emotions.

Above all, around Yang she always felt a bit on the back foot...

She wasn't dense. She knew that around Yang she kept making small, intimate gestures without meaning to, and that for no reason she'd drift over to hover near him.

Yang seemed very sharp about it, too. Every time, he caught each of those gestures and gave her a response that left her satisfied.

He never brushed her off, and he never pushed her for an answer, which only left Mai not knowing what to do.

"All in all, it's because A-Yang's private life is just too weird, isn't it..." Mai sat down on the floor cushion, her plump thighs crossed in a way that drew the eye, and said with a sulky, wronged face:

"I'm pretty good-looking, right? Pretty face, great figure, and my love life is spotless. Until now I haven't had a boyfriend, never mind a male friend.

I thought a sweet romance was waiting for me, but looking at this, it's basically hell difficulty!"

She grumbled on, then stood up, planted her hands on her hips, and looked at Yang. After hesitating a moment, she huffed out:

"But I'm not giving up that easily!!"

"Mm. I believe you," Yang said with a nod.

"Pfft, no, you don't!" Mai lifted her chin proudly, then tapped his forehead with her little fan. "But whether you believe me or not, I won't give up easily."

"I believe you," Yang said, nodding again.

Seeing that he trusted her as always, Mai finally felt a little reassured. She nodded in satisfaction. "Fine... By the way, is there anything to eat? I'm kind of hungry, too."

"Mm. I do need to make something."

Yang nodded at Mai's words. Considering what might happen in the future, he did need to prepare some vitality food in advance, just in case.

"Hey, you're just going to leave me hanging~?" Juri pouted, annoyed. "You could feed me first~... Mm, forget it. You go cook, and I'll handle the rest myself!"

As she said it, she seemed to imagine some amusing scene and broke into a wickedly gleeful grin. "If you can't hold back later, don't blame me~"

Chun-Li pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed, clearly guessing what indecent game Juri had thought up this time.

Sensing Chun-Li's despair, Juri's smile only grew brighter. It made Mai and the others wonder whether Juri was so uninhibited in front of Yang just to needle Chun-Li...

Well, there was probably a little of that.

Cooking, eating, training, and just like that, the day was over.

The next day, Yang headed to the arena.

"Hey, over here, over here~"

Tokita Ohma waved at him from nearby.

Though no one said it aloud, with Yang at the center, Ohma, Sekibayashi Jun, Kure Raian, and many members of the Nogi Group and Ohzakura Girls' Academy had tacitly formed a small spectator group.

Ohma and Sekibayashi Jun needed no explanation. In Yang's words, they were both good buddies, and being around them took no effort at all.

"Come to think of it, I didn't expect you to come watch the matches."

Yang turned to Kure Raian. "Is there someone here you're interested in?"

Yang considered himself fairly familiar with Raian's temperament.

For Raian, watching a match was nothing special. But showing up leisurely after the match had started was completely different from waiting in eager anticipation beforehand.

Raian shrugged at Yang's question. "It's all right. Mostly it's for Charlie Nash."

"That Inaba guy is fine... The families have some ties, mostly, and he's an old acquaintance from the Kengan Association.

But this Charlie Nash is a bit interesting. Intel says he's mastered some special energy conversion? Anyway, I had nothing else on, so I figured I'd come take a look."

Yang nodded, realizing that Raian's reason for watching was still mainly Charlie Nash.

He had already confirmed with Kure Erioh and the others that Shadaloo was on its way, but Raian clearly didn't know that Charlie Nash's true identity was an artificial human brainwashed by Shadaloo.

Then again, even now, only a handful of people knew anything about Shadaloo: Yang, Chun-Li, Katahara Metsudo, Kure Erioh, Akoya Seishu, and a few others.

Katahara Metsudo and Kure Erioh needed no explanation. They were old hands of the Kengan Association, and with this happening on their turf, their help was essential. Otherwise, little could have moved forward.

Chun-Li and Akoya Seishu were simply there because of their positions: one as Interpol's representative, the other as the Violent Martial Arts Riot Squad's representative in Japan's fighting world.

As for everyone else, apart from people Yang trusted absolutely, like Juri Han, even Raian knew nothing.

With that in mind, Yang nodded in full agreement. "We should be careful... Let's observe."

"...Hm?"

Raian raised an eyebrow as if he'd realized something and looked at Yang, but then withdrew his gaze and said no more.

Yang was curious about Inaba Ryo, too.

Mostly it came down to some of the original author's philosophy in Kengan Ashura.

Unlike Itagaki Keisuke, who drew the world of Baki, Yabako Sandrovich never meant to expand the setting very far. He only wanted to depict a story about fighting. Though it contains plenty of things like Kengan physics and Kengan physiology, it never touched much on the real world from start to finish.

That also made the story comparatively less free...

And it made the characters' strength rise and fall, high one moment and low the next.

Take Lihito, for example. Though his strength shot up in the mid-to-late Kengan story, when he first faced him there was a dedicated panel showing his finger strength cutting through rebar like butter.

Inaba Ryo is the same. In a flashback panel, facing point-blank submachine gun fire, he could swing his hair and cut those bullets apart, knocking them aside...

Yet later, the God of Combat, who is clearly far stronger than both Lihito and Inaba Ryo, says something as deflating as "There is a high wall between bare hands and weapons"...

While he was lost in thought, the arena lights suddenly dimmed, leaving a single dazzling white pillar of light at the center of the ring.

In an instant, the noisy stands seemed to be hit by an invisible pause button, and everyone turned expectant eyes toward the center of the ring.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for waiting! The moment we've all been waiting for has finally arrived!"

Katahara Sayaka stood in the middle of the light, her red dress stirring without any wind, tossed by a draft from nowhere, or perhaps by her own surging will. Under the snow-white light, her silver hair blazed like a pale, burning flame.

Her voice was high and full, every word hurled up to the dome and then slammed back down.

"The Kengan Annihilation Tournament, Round of Thirty-Two to Sixteen! Day Two! Match One! The heir of a thousand-year assassin clan and a soldier of the United States Air Force from across the ocean will write the opening movement of this struggle for us!"

"First, the most threatening assassin freak! Entering the fight at the perfect moment, skilled in bare-handed combat and master of secret techniques passed down in his family for hundreds of years, with only one goal: victory!

Representing Penasonic, and entrusted with such a heavy burden in his very first Kengan bout! Height 155 cm, weight 62 kg, the youngest and lightest male fighter in this Kengan Annihilation Tournament! The ghost of the black curse, Inaba Ryo!"

As Katahara Sayaka spoke, a gaunt figure stepped out of the shadowy passage.

He was a pale-skinned man with delicate yet twisted features. He came forward step by step with a hunched back like some uncanny spider, draped in long, tough black hair that gleamed with a strange sheen and had a distinctive wet texture, like seaweed.

Raian merely curled his lip in contempt, a faint look of disgust on his face. But his eyes were bright with thought, clearly taking in every move Inaba Ryo made.

Hm... He knows of him, but has never met him?

Yang nodded to himself.

Both were assassin clans, but it was plain that Raian had only heard of Inaba Ryo, without studying him deeply or ever having met him.

After all, Inaba Ryo's family was more connected with the Urita clan, the family of Penasonic's chief.

As for Penasonic... Hearing the company's name, Yang raised an eyebrow slightly.

Its real-world model was obvious. Just change the e to an a, and you'd find the real company: Panasonic.

"And his opponent!"

Katahara Sayaka cried out. "A former lieutenant of the United States Air Force, who has carried out many classified missions, a battlefield ghost who has walked the line between life and death again and again! Representing BOSS Burger, making his first appearance in the Kengan Association, height 186 cm, weight 93 kg! The soldier, Charlie Nash!"