Book 5: Chapter 144: Akimoto Hara vs Kazama Mayuzumi

“My son!!! What are you all doing? Hurry, save my son!” The imperial chancellor stumbled down the viewing platform, almost falling flat on his face. The other Fujiwaras all rushed down at his urging to help Koji out of the stands.

Seeing this, the patriarch of the Fujiwaras had an ugly look on his face, “These foolish things, now the Fujiwaras have lost all face!”

Finally, with the help of the Taira samurais, Koji was pulled out of the stands, covered in injuries and unconscious.

The hatred brewed in the Imperial Chancellor’s heart. In all these years, he had never been so humiliated in public before, just thinking of the praises he had received a while ago made him unable to face them.

He stared at Lily in hatred, but in front of Ayaka and outsiders, he could say nothing about this fair fight.

He glanced at Ayaka with reproach, as if asking her, why did she not punish this lowly female samurai who dared harm his son.

“Let’s go!” The Imperial Chancellor growled angrily.

“This contestant needs medical attention.” The Taira attendant reminded.

“Get lost! My Fujiwara clan has our own doctors! We don’t need the dirty hands of you savage warriors to treat!” he could only abuse these servants to vent his anger.

The group of Fujiwaras carried Koji away, the Imperial Chancellor and his retinue not saying a word to Ayaka to express their dissatisfaction.

“Wait.” Ayaka’s voice rang out.

Facing the command of the Chief Advisor, even if they were dissatisfied and unwilling, they could only stop and turn around.

“Kagami Lily has attended this compet.i.tion as a representative of my Fujiwara clan, won’t you congratulate her?” Ayaka asked1.

“Congratulate my a̲s̲s̲! One day I’ll lock you in jail and beat you, then I’ll completely mess you up. You’ve ridden on my head since you were a teenager, someday I’ll have my revenge on you arrogant woman!” Though he wanted to curse out loud, he dared not speak out loud.

The Fujiwara group looked at each other in dismay, before finally turning to look at Renbo for guidance.

The Imperial Chancellor, Fujiwara no Renbo’s face twitched.

Suddenly the elder with the tall forehead, the Fujiwara patriarch, stood up and clapped. No matter what the state of the Imperial Chancellor’s son was, this Kagami Lily had been in the spotlight recently. Not only had she entered the final tournament, she had also kicked away the strongest Genji genius. Though she was an outsider, the Chief Advisor had announced that she represented the Fujiwaras, thus saving their face within the army and samurai community. He was more than happy to stand up and applaud.

“I didn’t think Kagami Lily would join the Fujiwara’s faction!”

“The Fujiwaras have no decent warriors among the younger generation, but if this Kagami Lily is loyal to the Fujiwaras, then that would change.”

“This woman only recently arrived in Heian-kyo, but where she goes events happen, she’s a serious character!”

“She seems to be a close confidant of the Lord Chief Advisor, she has a bright future!”

There was a lot of discussion in the stands, cheers for Lily and congratulations for the Fujiwaras.

Seeing the atmosphere, the Imperial Chancellor could only congratulate with a twitching face, “Congratulations Miss Kagami.” the gritted sentence came out unwillingly. He immediately turned and left as the others in his group congratulated Lily and the Chief Advisor.

Sitting in the back of the stands was Tokugawa, though he wasn’t tall, he occupied three seats by himself. He said to Sakai, “Look at that, you should now understand why I lowered my head to that woman. Kagami Lily will be a central figure. Look how dazzling she is and yet she has only just recently arrived in Heian-kyo. Look at how close she is to the Lord Chief Advisor, yet she was only just a small female samurai with no background back in the eastern land.

“That, that’s amazing. What sort of luck does she have?” Sakai wondered.

“It might not just be luck. That woman has an ability, the ability to affect the destinies of the people around her. People with that sort of ability are generally called heroes! The worst thing I did was become her enemy, thankfully she accepted my apologies and is no longer hostile. She is no longer the same woman she was, I can no longer afford to anger her. I can only yield and wait for an opportunity, rashness is no longer allowed.” Tokugawa’s low voice echoed with slyness and incredible ambition2.

His surrounding retainers looked at him with respect and nodded.

As Lily left the stage, the judge announced “The fourth battle, Akimoto Hara, versus Sinless Domain, Kazama Mayuzumi!”

This was also the last battle of the round.

A tall, thin man walked onto the tournament stage.

His skin was slightly black, a long face, high nose bridge, deep cheekbones and a cold gloomy demeanor. He was dressed in a plain and outdated kimono and a seemingly ordinary blade at his waist.

No one knew where he came from, and since he didn’t report it, the judge didn’t announce it.

On the other side was a slender and short man. He had light silky curly hair and a face like a girl.

“Kazama Mayuzumi? I thought it was a woman, why is it a man?”

“Hah, how would you know there’s something there unless you pull off his pants, look at that little white face, that skin, that tender flesh, what sort of man is that?”

“Hehehehehe!”

Laughter surrounded the stage.

“Shh! You tired of living? That’s the young master of the Whirling Dojo! Don’t you know who his mother is?”

“Nara’s three heroes, Sakanoue no Tamurakonoe of the Maro dojo, Makoto Oniwa of the Makoto Dojo, and Kazama Mayuzumi of the Whirlwind Dojo. The sinless dojo’s three favorite candidates for the championship!”

“What favorite candidate? Didn’t Kagami Lily already kill Sakanoue no Tamurakonoe?”

Kazama Mayuzumi was long familiar with such rumors and ridicule. What he was concerned about was not the opponent in front of him, but Kagami Lily in the resting area, he would meet her in the quarter-finals. Though he still liked her, he didn’t want to lose.

No… actually losing to her, and being stepped on while she looked at him with arrogant and indifferent eyes would not be too bad…

“I just want to fight against her, no regrets.”

“Battle, start!”

Mayuzumi’s eyes were chilling, his body light, and the sword in his hand exuded an unstained green lotus aura.

His opponent, Akimoto Hara let out a shout and rushed toward Mayuzumi.

“Hmph! Plenty of flaws!” Though Mayuzumi looked feminine, his sword skills were among the top three of the younger generation of the Sinless Domain. No Imperial Guard dared declare they could win against him.

Seeing Akimoto rush forward with aggression and ferociousness, Mayuzumi took a light step back and to the side and released a quick slash at Akimoto’s shoulder.

Akimoto’s eyes glowed with a gloomy light, he ignored the slash aimed at his shoulder and slashed hard towards Mayuzumi’s waist.

“What! A lethal attack in the beginning!?” Mayuzumi quickly retracted his sword and dodged back. His sword had only lightly sliced Akimoto’s shoulder.

But Akimoto was unphased and continued his rush, his blade slashing directly at Mayuzumi.

“Courting death!” Mayuzumi swayed to dodge Akimoto’s attack before stabbing in retaliation.

“Pfff!” The sword stabbed deep into Akimoto’s chest.

“What!? You didn’t dodge?”

Akimoto ignored the blade in his chest and slashed at Mayuzumi’s throat!

“d.a.m.n!” Mayuzumi had no choice but to release his blade and roll to avoid the slash.

Blood spurted out of Akimoto’s chest, but he still continued his brutal slashes toward Mayuzumi.

The tournament floor was continuously marked with blade slashes as the heroic figure of Mayuzumi was forced to roll around on the ground by Akimoto’s fierce attacks.

Finally dodging past the blade whistling in front of his face, Mayuzumi had finally rolled to the edge of the tournament stage.

Akimoto had finally fallen onto one knee, and despite the blood pouring out of his wound, he pulled out the blade that was an inch away from his heart and threw it back to Mayuzumi.

The blade landed on the ground in between Mayuzumi’s legs.

Blood was dripping from the corner of Akimoto’s mouth, “Pick up your weapon and fight!”

Mayuzumi was stunned, why did this man with no reputation and an unknown origin fight with such disregard to his own life?

His hand grabbed his blade and noticed it was shaking.

He was not afraid of his opponent, rather his opponent’s battle intent despite the immense bleeding wound on his chest made him apprehensive, and for some reason he felt distress for this person.

“Kill!” Akimoto once again crazily attacked. Knowing that even if he slashed Akimoto, he would not stop the attacks, thus Mayuzumi could only forcibly block with his blade.

“Clang!!!”

Feeling his hands lose feeling from the collision, Mayuzumi’s body went numb as the impact blew him away.

“What, what blade is that? It looks so ordinary, yet it’s so heavy?”

With his arms numb, Mayuzumi only barely parried Akimoto’s fierce attacks.

“Bang——!” Mayuzumi’s stance was destroyed and his sword sent flying from the heavy impact, and Akimoto blade came up and mercilessly descended toward Mayuzumi.

He wanted Mayuzumi to die, despite Mayuzumi’s hasty dodge, Akimoto landed a heavy kick on that waist, sending Mayuzumi flying and rolling to the edge of the platform.

Having lost all feeling in his waist, Mayuzumi watched Akimoto charge with that heavy samurai blade. Humiliation surged through his heart as he closed his eyes and rolled off the tournament stage without regarding the shame of a samurai.

Stunned for a moment, Akimoto’s eyes were without hatred, but filled with murderous intent. He ignored the judge’s announcement of his victory and jumped off the stage.

“Kill, must kill!”

He mercilessly slashed down at Mayuzumi!

“Clang——!”

A gleaming tachi appeared in front of his unquestionably heavy blow and blew him back into the tournament stage cratering the stage!

Lily appeared in front of Akimoto with Yasutsuna held in her hand.

Her eyes shone with pity yet indifference as she gazed upon the heavily wounded Akimoto, “The match is over.”

“Miss…Miss Kagami…” Mayuzumi had thought he was about to die, had his feminine face pressed against the sand and stared at Lily’s fair white toes3, a blush spread over his face.

1. Yuki: I want to type in ‘taunted’ here… lol…
2. Robinxen: Uh oh.
3. Robinxen: AUTHOR PEASE