Chapter 216: Hypnosis
The scene on the street had turned into something utterly bizarre.
Ren Shiroki stood in a bladed stance, every muscle coiled with high-tension
energy. He was focused entirely on the space in front of him, his face flushed
with the exhilaration of combat—but there was no one there.
Dorian, the man he was supposed to be fighting, stood calmly behind Ren's back,
a serene, mocking smile on his lips.
"Hey! Hey!!" Katsumi Orochi's eyes were nearly bulging out of his head.
"Ren-kun! What the hell are you looking at?! Ren!!"
Lihito roared even louder, his voice echoing through the deserted neighborhood.
"Wake up, Ren! He's behind you! Stop punching the damn air!"
On the empty street, the shouts of the fighters carried for blocks, but no
matter how loud they yelled, Ren Shiroki didn't flinch. He continued to throw
punches and fire off kicks into the empty space before him, moving as if he were
locked in the middle of a frantic, high-stakes exchange.
"Heh... it's quite effective, isn't it?"
Dorian let out a low chuckle, his voice dropping into a slow, rhythmic cadence.
"He can't hear you. You could scream directly into his ear and it wouldn't
matter."
"Mr. Ren is currently... occupied."
Dorian glided to Ren's flank, his eyes tracing the young man's vitals. "Ren-kun
is fighting a 'Phantom' inside his own mind. A phantom that moves exactly as he
expects—a Dorian that fits his own mental image of a battle."
The explanation left the masters in the courtyard stunned. They stared at the
scene, unable to process the logic of it. Among them, Fusui Kure looked the most
shaken; she was the one who trained with Ren the most.
"Is this like Ren-chin's 'Image Training'?"
Fusui recalled Ren's daily drills, where he would spar with imaginary masters.
Ren attributed it to a hyper-active imagination, similar to shadow boxing but
far more intense—to the point where he could actually sustain minor trauma like
nosebleeds from "phantom" hits.
And now, Dorian had hijacked that ability, forcibly dragging Ren into that
state?!
"Retsu-san!" Fusui turned to the Fist Master. "Is there a Kenpo technique that
can do this?"
"This isn't Kenpo..." Retsu Kaioh's brow was deeply furrowed. "This... is
Hypnosis!"
Hypnosis?!
Even a man as seasoned as Doppo Orochi looked bewildered.
"It exploits a duelist's psychological blind spots," Retsu explained grimly.
"The desire to win beautifully, to win with absolute dominance... Dorian seizes
that mindset and weaves a dream around it!"
"The victim of the hypnosis creates a 'favorable' opponent—one that moves in a
way that allows the victim to execute their intended combinations. They
unconsciously hallucinate the 'ideal' flow of a match!"
Fusui blinked. "Then, the thing Ren-chin is fighting right now—"
"Exactly. It has no physical form. It is a pure fabrication of his own psyche!"
Retsu looked at Ren. "In Dorian's web, Ren is locked in a deathmatch with a
ghost!"
Zip! Swish!
Ren fired a flurry of punches and kicks into the void. Sweat sprayed from his
brow as his "battle" raged on.
"Truly remarkable," Dorian mused, studying Ren's movements from inches away.
"The boy has a vivid imagination. The more creative the mind, the deeper the
hypnosis takes root. The results are... satisfying."
Zip!
Ren lunged forward, catching "nothing" in a clinch and driving a savage knee
upward. His movements were as fast and lethal as a hunting tiger, yet they posed
zero threat to the real Dorian standing beside him.
"Haha... look at him go. So much effort..."
"Ren-dono, you've worked so hard to experience my 'Everything.' It's almost
adorable." Dorian settled his feet, his smile vanishing as he tilted his head
back. "But now... the curtain falls!"
"Since you wish to live in this dream forever, allow me to send you on your way.
To the world of eternal slumber!"
Whoosh!
Dorian aimed for the side of Ren's neck. He coiled his left hand into a
back-fist, preparing to deliver a crushing blow intended to collapse Ren's
trachea and sever his consciousness permanently.
But in the heartbeat before Dorian's knuckles could touch Ren's throat—
BANG!
Ren's body suddenly jerked. He was launched backward as if hit by an invisible
truck. He flew through the air and slammed into the pavement, skidding several
meters and leaving a dark trail on the asphalt.
"GAH—HK!"
Ren clutched his throat, coughing up a spray of crimson. His shirt was instantly
stained red. The scene was gruesome.
The hearts of the observers sank. From their perspective, Ren had just taken a
lethal blow and was dying on the street. He needed medical attention
immediately.
The veins around Fusui's eyes throbbed as she triggered the [Release]. She
reached for the sidearm in her bag, ready to end Dorian, but Retsu's hand
slammed down on her shoulder, stopping her.
"Wait! Something is wrong!"
Retsu narrowed his eyes, replaying the last second in his mind. "Ren... he was
blown back before Dorian hit him?"
"...Before?"
The description left the others even more confused.
But the one who was most baffled of all was Dorian himself. Because Retsu's
judgment was 100% correct. Before Dorian's lethal back-fist could connect, Ren
had driven his own feet into the ground to launch himself backward, evading the
strike by a fraction of a millimeter!
"?"
Dorian stared at his own fist, then at the fallen Ren. He hadn't even begun to
process what had happened when—
Zip!
The prone Ren Shiroki suddenly arched his back laterally, his body forming a 'C'
shape as if dodging a stomping foot from a phantom pursuer.
"――??"
Dorian was lost. He watched as Ren performed a bridge, drove his heels into the
asphalt, and performed a mid-air back-flip, landing steadily in a low crouch.
"TAKE THIS!"
With a roar, Ren sprang from his crouch. He pulled both fists back to his waist,
palms facing each other, and drove them forward in a synchronized dual-strike.
FWOOOSH!
The double-fist slammed into the empty air, creating a violent gust of wind.
[DRIVE IMPACT: TIGER TWIN TOWERS]!
Looking at that counter-attack, Dorian knew that if he had been in the way, he
wouldn't have been able to block it cleanly. He would have taken a massive hit.
And in that moment, Dorian finally understood the reality of the situation.
"It's his mindset!"
Retsu Kaioh realized the truth. "The 'Strength' Ren Shiroki craves... it isn't
an easy victory. He wants to witness true power. Sometimes, his soul actually
wants the opponent to be even stronger than they are!"
"To Ren, a battle plagued by misfortune, unexpected variables, and overwhelming
odds... that is what a 'Real Battle' should be!"
"Ren doesn't crave the 'Result' of the win. He craves the 'Process' of the
struggle!"
Dorian reached the same conclusion.
He watched Ren, who was now being systematically "beaten" by the phantom in his
mind. Ren's nose began to bleed, and one of his eyes was turning red as vessels
burst from the psychological stress of the "phantom hits." Dorian burst into a
fit of maniacal laughter.
"I've never seen hypnosis work like this! It defies all logic! His own fighting
spirit is working against him! It's making the phantom move like a god!"
Dorian walked forward, seeking a real opening. "I'm honored, Ren-kun. To think
that in your imagination, I am this powerful...!"
Whoosh!
Dorian unleashed a high-roundhouse kick aimed at Ren's skull.
But the instant before impact, Ren's arms snapped up in a high-low guard,
executing a frame-perfect counter-catch.
[ZANGIEF'S TUNDRA STORM]!
Dorian's ankle was seized in a vice-like grip. The convict's eyes widened in
shock.
He caught it?!
Before he could react, Ren twisted his waist, using Dorian's own momentum to
upend the giant. Dorian was slammed into the pavement with a thunderous CRUNCH.
Zip!
Ren lifted his right foot and drove it downward with bone-crushing force into
Dorian's stomach.
[ZANGIEF'S POWER STOMP]!
CRACK!
Dorian's abdomen buckled under the weight. His face turned a sickly shade of
purple as veins throbbed on his forehead. He opened his mouth in a silent scream
of agony.
But Ren didn't relax. He immediately drove a knee upward and followed through
with a secondary snap-kick—aimed at the empty air.
In his hypnotic hallucination, the phantom Dorian had evaded the stomp and was
counter-attacking. Ren was responding with a Muay Thai double-scan-kick!
Tap!
Ren's foot touched the ground, and he stood perfectly still.
Before him, the real Dorian... and the phantom Dorian... were both neutralized.
The real Dorian lay on the ground, retching blood.
"Magnificent!"
Retsu Kaioh couldn't contain his praise. "To fight a powerhouse in his mind with
zero retreat, to duel a monster of his own making... Ren is already long
accustomed to this state!"
Whoosh!
Ren drove off the ground, performing a full forward rotation in the air. His
feet arched like a silver moon, carving a lethal path through the night before
slamming into Dorian's face.
[RASHID'S ALTAIR]!
BOOM—!
From Ren's perspective, he had just hit "Two" Dorians.
One was the standing phantom, whom he had just caught flush on the nose. The
other was the prone, real Dorian, whose face had just been pulverized by Ren's
heels.
Splurt!
A twin spray of blood erupted. Ren had predicted the "standing" Dorian's
movements so perfectly that his real-world follow-through had decimated the
actual Dorian on the floor.
"Nice... That was perfect!"
(End of Chapter)
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