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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 8 Chapter 6.4

「OK then, I’ll get serious.」

Shiki’s eyes suddenly became fixed.

「GuGyaaaaaah!」

With a roar, Masaaki swings his arms around and attacks Shiki. In response, Shiki relaxes all of her body and welcomes him.

「GuGyaaaa!」

If Masaaki with his arms swinging all around is like a storm, then Shiki dodging every blow would be like a willow. She continues to dodge the powerful punches with a smooth motion. She approaches him with that same flowing motion until pressing her body tightly against Masaaki’s. She places her right shoulder against Masaaki’s chest, as if resting her entire weight on it.

「Badump, badump, badump….」

She closes her eyes as she is pressed against him, sensing the sound of his heartbeat.

Suddenly her eyes open wide.

「Break!」

Smack

Neither Yukihime nor Kagetora, who were watching this, could understand what happened or why.

From the pressed together position, Masaaki was suddenly blown away like a baseball being hit for a homerun. After flying several meters into the air, he collapsed to the ground on his back and immediately began to convulse as if clawing at his chest. Eventually he stopped and became completely still. The iron shackles around his wrists and neck disappeared.

Looking at Masaaki, who had stopped moving, Yukihime had a vague understanding. Masaaki was dead.

Shiki approached Masaaki without panicking and crouched down next to him. She then calmly examined his body. She placed her hand on his neck to check for a pulse. She opened his closed eyes, lifted his shirt, and put her hand on the left side of his chest.

「One, and a two….」

Smack

Immediately Masaaki’s body jumps up in shock.

「Guh, Gah, haa haa haa….」

Masaaki, whose heart had completely stopped, regains his breath.

Shiki says to him, 「Do you understand me? The battle is over. The moment you let the Nanana collection go out of control, you lost. Do you understand?」

Masaaki regains consciousness, but doesn’t respond. However, seeing that the shackles don’t seem to be activating again, Shiki assumes he understands and gives instructions over the intercom to retrieve Masaaki, 「Rescue team, can you hear me?」

「What did you just do?」

Yukihime, unable to comprehend what had happened, couldn’t help but ask her.

「Not much really. I didn’t know how to stop the Nanana collection, so I just quickly switched off the breaker.」

「Did you kill him?」

「I didn’t kill him. I just gave his heart a little smack.」

「Did you stop his heart?」

「Yeah.」

「How did you do that earlier?」

「If you want to affect the inside of a person, Fa-jin is the best technique. It has nothing to do with physical strength.」

Shiki talks briskly as if it’s no big deal at all.

「Wouldn’t you have killed him if you had been careless?」

「That’s not true. After all, I know the entire structure of the human body. From how to stop the heart to how to make it move.」

Yukihime was speechless after hearing Shiki’s words.

「Seriously, what kind of scary things are you babbling on about Shiki? The kid is totally put off by that.」

Suddenly a familiar voice came from behind him and Shiki turned around with a suspicious look in her eyes.

「At the very least, I don’t want to be told that by a mad scientist.」

There stood a blond, slim man in a white coat with rabbit earrings on his ears that were strangely striking.

Shiki asks her colleague, 「What are you doing here Saito?」

It was Futaba Saito, Nanaejima’s greatest mind. One of the GREAT 7.

2

「Are you motivated, Yaman-kun?」

「Yeah, I guess so.」

As I emerged from the flowerbed, Ikusaba-san aimed the <<bow of light>> at me.

「So then? How exactly do you plan to defeat me?」

「Don’t be so cautious. I’m not planning anything evil.」

「What are you talking about?」

「I’m just saying. That said, that doesn’t mean I don’t have an ultimate weapon.」

「An ultimate weapon? The <<sword of Nanana>>?」

Ikusaba-san looks at the sword on my back.

「I have that too, but the one I’m talking about is this one.」

I took out a blue jewel from my pocket, <<Yuugutoth’s one eye>>.

「What are you planning to do with it?」

He asked bluntly, without any sign of surprise or fear, and I laughed confidently.

「This is what I’ll do.」

He holds <<Yuugutoth’s one eye>> in his left hand and points it at his right eye. Then he closes his left eye.

Beyond the blue transparent gem, Ikusaba-san stood there. He was about 20 meters away.

「Okay, let’s do this.」

He then takes off running towards Ikusaba-san.

**********************************************************

Juugo charges towards him, peering into the gem. The strange sight clearly confused Ikusaba. What on earth is Yama-kun thinking?

From here, Juugo has his left eye closed, and his right eye is a blue gem. It’s a rather silly sight. If anything, I feel astonished.

Ikusaba then takes aim at Juugo with the <<bow of light>> and creates an arrow of light.

No matter what Yama is planning to do, it will not change what Ikusaba does. He will shoot arrows of light from his <<bow of light>>. If he manages to avoid them, he can simply stop his movement with the <<grim reaper’s whisper>>.

But then, Ikusaba suddenly remembers. He heard about the blue gem that Juugo holds over his eye from Tensai, who was his partner in the second round. The ability of <<Yuugutoth’s one eye>> is to see through other people’s lies. Why is Yama holding it up now? In the middle of a battle, and at a completely unrelated time? No, is this really a bad time to use it?

It sees through lies. Or rather, does it not let anything but the truth through?

Then a possibility crosses Ikusaba’s mind. In other words, if he uses that gem, it might be possible to prevent the ‘absolute command’ of the <<grim reaper’s whisper>>, which force others to follow orders against their will, from going through. Is that why Tama-kun is holding it and charging forward? To seal off any ‘absolute order’?

It’s not impossible.

The distance between him and Juugo is only 15 meters.

Since it’s Juugo, it’s not impossible.

It’s possible that he hid his trump card until this very last moment, until the very last battle where the <<sword of Nanana>> was at stake. Just like I hid the <<bow of light>>.

Rather than dealing with the problem by not letting the ring get in his line of sight, he was just going to ignore the ‘absolute command’ of the <<grim reaper’s whisper>>.

In truth, there had been plenty of opportunities to use that ability up till now. But it was Yama. It was entirely possible that this was just a bluff. So what should I do?

Ten meters left.

Ikusaba quickly changed his mind. It doesn’t matter whether his ‘absolute command’ works or not.

In that case, I’ll give an ‘absolute command’ and then fire an arrow of light. If it works, I’ll just shoot him in the spot where it’s stopped, and if it doesn’t then I’ll just throw him.  What I should do doesn’t change.

So I’m going to give an ‘absolute command’ and then fire an arrow of light.

「Don’t move, Yama-kun.」

3

「That’s what happens.」

He grinned as he ran with both eyes closed. The moment he finished hearing Ikusaba-san’s ‘absolute command’, he opened his right eye. This was to avoid the arrow of light that was sure to come flying at him immediately.

He believed that this is how Ikusaba-san would read and react to the situation. It was the best way to deal with a situation that Ikusaba-san would fear, and an opponent against whom ‘absolute command’ might not work. That is to give an ‘absolute command’ and then fire an arrow of light.

There are several reasons for this, but right now Ikusaba-san only has one fear. Wondering whether ‘absolute command’ will really work on me or not. This isn’t a problem that affects the battle now, but also the rest of the battle. He wants to know the answer now.

Unlike me, who is trying for an ultra-close range battle, Ikusaba (who uses the <<bow of light>> and <<grim reaper’s whisper>>) is doing what’s best for victory. He will attack carefully to take advantage of this difference in strength, and is sure he will win.

In a sense, this is the difference between my usual strategy of taking a gamble and charging in, and Ikusba-san, who has an overwhelming strength advantage.

And therefore, due to this difference in thinking, the strategy of giving an ‘absolute command’ before firing an arrow of light is assured.

So, first off, I was able to avoid the ‘absolute command’. It wasn’t a bluffed, like guarding against it by using <<Yuugutoth’s one eye>> (which I hadn’t tried before and had no intention of trying) but rather, I closed both my eyes and didn’t look at the <<grim reaper’s whisper>>.

I’m now 8 meters away from Ikusaba-san.