The sound of crying echoed throughout the dojo.
Almost everyone was shocked to their cores by this scene, but it was a different type of shock compared their earlier surprise.
The twin witches... the beautiful, talented girls who never showed their true feelings; the girls that the entire grade secretly feared... were actually crying!?
Not only that, they were crying so wretchedly.
They hugged each other tightly, and both tears and snot flowed out as their bodies trembled.
They lacked their usual imposing mannerism and behavior.
Suddenly, it seemed liked they 'd recalled something as they let go of each other and hurriedly brought out their cell phones... before despair clouded their expressions yet again!
"I set a new password for your cell phones—did you forget?" Seiji stated calmly.
After glancing at him, the twins threw away their cell phones and started crying again as they embraced each other once more.
Everyone was struck speechless by this situation.
Just what exactly was going on!?
Kyosuke Akanishi and all the other karate club members were utterly confused. Chiaki, Mika, and Hoshi began to understand what was happening after they recovered from their shock.
"My sisters..." Hoshi had a complex expression.
"They've been forced to the brink—that's why they've broken down," Chiaki sighed.
While she was surprised at how the twins lost control of their emotions, after thinking about it with a clear head, she considered it to be the natural outcome of facing off against Seiji.
"They're... crying like young children," Mika muttered to herself.
"I... I've never seen my sisters cry like this... The last time I saw them shed tears was so long ago..." Hoshi said in a soft voice.
'From a certain angle, these twins are still children,' Seiji thought as he watched the girls.
Their mental development became twisted at an early age and was never corrected. They grew up abnormally, and their immaturity and weakness was well concealed by their excellent appearance and behavior on the surface.
They were just like a tree that grew up crooked. The treetop was covered with flourishing leaves and branches, but the trunk below had a twisted shape. The moment it met a true thunderstorm, it would break—and expose its weak nature!
Perhaps they deserved some measure of sympathy, but regardless, they weren't children anymore. There was no more room for forgiveness no matter how slight the mistake.
Seiji took his gaze off them and glanced at Kyosuke the club captain before sweeping over the other karate club members with his eyes.
"Since it's come to this, there's no need to hide anything. My request for Rion and Kotomi Amami... was to make them destroy all their own blackmail material on others and change themselves for the better if I achieved victory!"
His loud words temporarily overwhelmed the twins' sobbing and rung clearly in every person's ears.
Blackmail material? Change themselves for the better?
All the karate club members felt another wave of shock surge over them upon realizing what they had heard!
Those like Kyosuke, who were being blackmailed by the twin sisters, quickly understood what it meant!
And those that weren't being blackmailed, but were still under the twins' control, due to reasons such as fear of their dominance, inwardly shouted in joy as well!
This was... freedom!
That's right—freedom. If Seigo Harano had spoken truthfully, then his victory meant the freedom of every single person under the twins' shadowy control!
After coming to this realization, they looked at Seigo Harano differently. They wanted to believe in him, but they still held doubt.
There was just one problem.
Was this all true!?
"Of course it's true." Seiji detected the crowd's suspicion and relieved it directly. "I have no reason to lie. It's up to you guys whether or not to believe me. With how these two... are in their current state, it's equal to admitting defeat... But if any of you still aren't satisfied and don't believe that I've won yet, or want to defend them, I'm more than happy to continue this duel."
Seiji folded his arms over his toned chest. "But I'm going to say it straight out—I'll treat anyone who still wants to stand before me as my serious opponents, just like the twin sisters. I won't promise... to go easy anymore."
His voice remained calm.
But all the karate club members were filled with terror as an almost tangible pressure swept over them!
He wouldn't promise to go easy anymore... This meant that he hadn't even used his full ability!
As they recalled his previous duels, this seemed quite obvious.
He just instantly defeated ten people over two rounds, and not a single person was able to withstand more than a single blow. That meant that none of them were close to being able to bring out his true ability.
Also, the most obvious evidence was the fact that this "destroyer of clubs" just defeated ten people, but... he didn't even break into a sweat!!!
Monster.
This was what the twin witches had just called him.
Now, all the karate club members were inwardly agreeing with that assessment.
Merely the thought of an all-out fight against this terrifying existence filled them with fear!
No wonder the witches had broken down.
They tried to imagine being in the twins' shoes, facing an angry Seigo Harano... heavens, no more imagining this topic!
As they pictured the scene the karate club members unconsciously shivered.
The twin sisters had always been enduring such frightening pressure...
The karate club members started to feel a sliver of pity for the crying twins... even though they knew that the twins received their just deserts.
"Does anyone still want to fight?" Seigo's voice rang out again.
The karate club members looked towards the monster... whoops, the legendary "destroyer of clubs," and all of them averted their gazes or lowered their heads when Seigo looked in their direction.
Who would want to fight on behalf of the witches!?
The taste of freedom was wonderful as well as unexpected! Perhaps they would have wanted to face him if they didn't know the truth, but now that they knew his motives, anyone that still wanted to face him would be an idiot!!
No, they'd be even lower than an idiot! Fighting the sake of those two unworthy girls and facing off against that... dragon! Yes, dragon!
Not even that crazy knight who attacked a windmill would do such a thing for the twin witches!!
None of the karate club members believed themselves to be crazier than that fictional insane knight, which was why none of them stood up.
No, wait—there was still one person standing.
Seiji looked at Kyosuke Akanishi. They exchanged glances, communicating nonverbally.
'Do you want to fight me?'
'No, no... this lowly one doesn't dare!'
'If you admit I've won, that means admitting that I've defeated the entire karate club by myself... As the captain, you're not even going to try?'
'No, no, no... this lowly one definitely wouldn't dare; it's your victory!'
Although all of the above was nonverbal, it was the basic essence of their communication through their eyes.
Kyosuke Akanishi averted his gaze from Seigo Harano and pretended to be engrossed by a butterfly flying outside the window.
Seiji was rather surprised that even the club captain admitted defeat so readily. He believed that Kyosuke would personally fight him for the sake of the karate club's pride.
'I suppose Rion and Kotomi are just that unpopular.'
As soon as he stated the truth of the matter, none of the karate club members—including the captain—were willing to stand and fight for her anymore; nobody even spoke up on the twins' behalf. This was despite having to swallow the bitter medicine of admitting defeat to a single person.
Seiji believed that to be the truth, but he didn't realize that it was his overwhelming physical ability which scared them into submission.
He believed that if the entire karate club swarmed him, he'd be plunged into a sticky situation... but he didn't know that the karate club members now considered him to be a dragon!
"If nobody wants to fight anymore, let's end it here," Seiji declared.
He then looked towards Rion and Kotomi.
They were still crying, albeit softly.
"It's my victory. Now then, are you going to adhere to your promise, or are you breaking it?"
The words that the twins said right before they broke down, and even their actions that proved they still wanted to try something with their cell phone. Seiji decided to ignore all that one last time for Hoshi's sake.
This was the final time he would calmly ask the sisters this question.
Yes or no.
Do you two... want to see what's on the other side of life?