"I'm not a child!"
As soon as she finished speaking, without waiting for Aiden to respond, a ball of purple flame appeared in the red-haired girl's palm, and she directly swung her hand, hurling it at Aiden's face.
But despite the two of them standing face to face, this attack actually missed. Because at the moment she raised her hand, Aiden had already leapt straight up seven or eight meters into the air.
However, he didn't activate his profession, he used lightness skill instead.
Seeing Aiden leap into the air, the red-haired girl reacted instantly and jumped up as well. Flames burned fiercely in her hands, dragging a ribbon of fire around her body.
'Hundred Styles... Oni Burn!'
Or, to put it more simply, an uppercut.
But Aiden had already predicted she would use this move. After all, she was Iori Yagami's sister. If Iori could do it, Tsukihime definitely could too.
His body twisted midair in an extremely strange posture, narrowly avoiding the oncoming flames. Then he landed quickly, followed by a forceful push with his heel, causing his body to drift backward more than ten meters.
At this moment, Tsukihime had also landed. She crouched slightly, one hand forward and one back, then lunged toward Aiden. The distance of over ten meters vanished in the blink of an eye, and she raised her hand to grab at Aiden's chest.
Aiden had no choice but to twist his body again and dodge to the side. Then he saw Tsukihime, unable to pull back her move in time, raise her hand and slam it heavily into the ground.
BOOM!
With a deafening explosion, dust filled the air. The ground beneath Tsukihime's feet was blasted open by violent purple flames, forming a huge crater several meters in diameter.
On the side, Mai Shiranui, who had been watching the fight, stiffened instantly.
Aiden, on the other hand, folded his arms and spoke to Tsukihime from more than ten meters behind her,
"Fixing that crater will cost at least three hundred thousand yen…"
"Shut up!"
Tsukihime turned around and glared at him angrily. Her lips moved a few times before she snorted coldly and said, "I'll pay for it."
'Anyway, when you already owe a lot, one more debt doesn't weigh you down…'
Thinking this, Tsukihime rushed at Aiden again, flinging her hands repeatedly and throwing several clumps of purple flame at him.
'One Hundred and Eight Styles... Dark Thrust Hand.'
Facing the extremely high-temperature purple flames, Aiden didn't dare dodge this time. The dojo was mostly made of wood, if it caught fire, things would get bad.
Immediately, Aiden's eyes sharpened as he activated the Swordmaster profession. Using his fingers as a sword, he slashed out several streaks of sword energy in succession. After all, with Major Star Rank strength, it was basically impossible to directly block Tsukihime's purple flames, they contained a portion of Orochi's power.
At that moment, sword energy and purple flames collided in midair, exploding into sparks that filled the sky, like a rain of fire falling all around.
Then, half a meter of sword energy extended from Aiden's fingers as he lowered his body and brushed past Tsukihime, who was emerging from the fiery rain.
Rip!
Hearing the faint sound of fabric tearing near his ear, Aiden didn't even turn his head. With his back to Tsukihime, whose face had suddenly turned bright red, he said, "If you keep fighting, you'll be battling me completely bare."
As they passed each other, Aiden had moved at incredible speed, slashing several times across her body. He didn't injure her, but he sliced open every single button on her upper clothing.
For now, this was the only way to stop her attack.
At this moment, Tsukihime could only clutch the collar and front of her shirt tightly with both hands to keep herself from being exposed.
Even though her personality was wild and unpredictable, she was still a woman, and a high school girl who had just turned eighteen. She still had a sense of shame.
She bit her lip in grievance, her eyes reddening, then without saying a word, she ran behind the big tree in the dojo. Only then did she poke her head out from behind it and shout at Aiden, "You're shameless, vulgar, despicable…"
Unfortunately, coming from the girl's cool, clear voice, those insults carried absolutely no killing power at all.
Aiden picked at his ear and said casually, "Go ahead and curse me. I don't care. But Miss Tsukihime, what's more important right now isn't yelling at me, it's figuring out how you're going to get home."
"None of your..."
Tsukihime really wanted to say none of your damn business, but after thinking about it, she held back.
"Go find me a jacket," she changed her wording.
"Sorry, the owner here is her." Aiden shrugged and pointed at Mai Shiranui, who, along with King and Yuri, was watching the show with obvious delight.
"You should ask them," Aiden said with a grin.
"Though I don't know whether they'll be willing to lend you one… Mai, what do you think?"
As he spoke, Aiden looked at Mai Shiranui and gave her a meaningful glance.
Mai immediately understood. She placed one arm beneath her chest, lightly pressed her butterfly fan against her delicate chin with the other, thought for a moment, then looked at Tsukihime with a half-smile.
"That depends on her attitude."
'Attitude…'
Tsukihime bit her lip, then lowered her head and said to Mai Shiranui, "Miss Mai, I went too far before. I'm sorry."
In order not to expose herself in front of others, the proud girl finally chose to bow her head.
———
Mai Shiranui was, in the end, a kind-hearted woman. Even though Tsukihime's apology wasn't very sincere, she still found her a suitable outfit.
After changing clothes, Tsukihime became much more well-behaved, though when she occasionally glanced at Aiden, there was still a trace of displeasure in her eyes.
Displeased or not, after that brief fight, Tsukihime already understood the gap between herself and Aiden. That razor-sharp sword energy could have punched several holes through her body, and she wouldn't have been able to dodge it at all.
What surprised her, though, was that Aiden's fighting style just now was completely different from how he fought on the tournament stage. It wasn't domineering, instead, it was light, fluid, and agile.
As a result, the displeasure in the red-haired girl's eyes gradually turned into curiosity.
However, just as she was about to shamelessly ask Aiden about it, a voice suddenly interrupted her.
"Excuse me, is this the Shiranui-style dojo?"
The voice was crisp and pleasant, it was actually a little girl's voice.
Everyone turned toward the entrance at the same time and saw a blonde little girl in a princess dress standing there.
The girl wasn't very old, about the same age as Goenico. She wore a sweet smile that instantly made people feel fond of her.
Seeing such a cute girl, Mai Shiranui smiled and said, "This is the Shiranui-style dojo, little sister. Are you here to become a disciple? But today's Sunday, if you want to join, you'll have to wait until tomorrow."
Influenced by Aiden, the Shiranui-style dojo now had weekends off.
"No wonder there are only a few of you here. I thought I'd come to the wrong place." Hearing Mai's words, the blonde girl let out a sigh of relief, then sweetly said, "I'm not here to become a disciple, because your strength isn't good enough."
As soon as she said that, everyone present frowned at the same time. Even Tsukihime felt displeased, how was there someone even more arrogant than her?
"Then what are you here for?" King asked patiently.
The little girl glanced at King, her face showing an expression like just as I thought, then took an envelope out of the teddy-bear shoulder bag she was wearing and said to everyone, "I'm here to deliver an invitation."