"NO."
Kazuma answered without hesitation.
The answer came out clearly, without the slightest doubt.
He had absolutely no desire to become Ren Yamashiro's dog.
His pride as a human and as a man was not that low.
It was true that in the current world, the position of men in society had fallen quite far compared to the past. However, for Kazuma, that was not a reason to lower himself.
He still had limits he would not cross.
Ren tilted her head slightly.
"Heeh… why?"
Kazuma looked at her with a flat expression.
"Wasn't my answer just now clear enough?"
Ren instead seemed even more curious.
"Yes. I still don't understand."
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked Kazuma up and down.
"Why would a man like you reject me?"
The sentence came out just like that—without any awareness that, to others, those words could sound very demeaning.
And right after that—
The atmosphere in the room changed.
An invisible pressure spread from Ren Yamashiro's body.
The air inside the room felt heavier.
The wooden table trembled slightly. The curtains near the window rustled without wind. Even the lights on the ceiling seemed to shake a little.
It was not just an aura.
It was the pressure of a high-level Ability user.
Kazuma immediately felt it.
His body tensed slightly, but he did not step back.
The training he had undergone for the past three months immediately showed its value.
Under the guidance of Yamazaki Kudo, he had gone through training far more brutal than this.
Yamazaki once said that water is the purest form of limitation for the human body.
In water, humans lose almost all of their advantages.
Breathing becomes difficult.
Movement becomes slow.
And the deeper someone dives, the greater the pressure that crushes their body from all directions.
One day, Yamazaki forced him to train in a public pool with a depth of fifteen meters.
There, Kazuma had to endure for a full ten minutes.
The water pressure from all directions felt like it was crushing his body.
His chest felt as if it were being pressed by a massive rock.
His joints creaked.
His muscles screamed.
He even experienced severe decompression, a pain that made his entire body feel like it was being squeezed from the inside.
But he endured.
And after going through that brutal training repeatedly, his body changed.
Yamazaki Kudo himself once told him one thing.
That Kazuma's body possessed something very rare among ordinary humans.
The Extraordinary Body.
The Extraordinary Body is a body that surpasses the physical limits of normal humans—a body with a much higher destructive capacity than the general human standard. It is not something that can be obtained through hard training alone.
Someone can only have it if they are born with that potential.
However, that potential does not appear automatically. A body like this must first be awakened, then forged through extreme training until it reaches its true form.
And according to Yamazaki—
Kazuma already had that potential from the beginning.
The brutal training he went through over the past three months was not to create new strength, but to sharpen the potential that already existed.
If the world had not changed after the emergence of Mato, then Kazuma would most likely stand at the peak of humanity in terms of physical strength.
But now the world was different.
That title practically belonged to the person standing in front of him.
Ren Yamashiro.
Of course, Kazuma also had an Ability.
But it was something he had to hide carefully for his own safety.
Because if the world found out that a man possessed an Ability, it would not end well.
Under the pressure filling the room, Ren Yamashiro stepped closer.
Her violet eyes stared directly into Kazuma's.
A few seconds passed.
But Kazuma did not move at all.
No step back.
Also, Kazuma was curious whether his charm was so captivating to the woman known as the peak of humanity. If so, that would be a bad thing. His development so far had been to protect himself and the people around him, but it had instead changed many things—especially his charm and charisma. He had grown from a boy into a man in just a few months.
Was that what made him interesting, or… had Ren realized something?
Ren observed him closely.
Then the pressure suddenly disappeared.
The air in the room returned to normal.
"Heeh…"
Ren smiled faintly.
"You're getting more interesting."
Her gaze still assessed Kazuma like someone who had just found a new toy.
"I want you even more."
Kazuma simply let out a small sigh.
"Are we done?"
His tone remained polite, but it was clear he had no interest in prolonging the conversation.
"Sorry, but I have a training schedule with my master."
He turned toward the door.
"So I'll be going now."
Ren was slightly stunned.
Kazuma's attitude—casually ending the conversation and then deciding to leave just like that—was not something she usually experienced.
The person standing before him was Ren Yamashiro.
A woman who was difficult to meet even for high-ranking officials. A figure who, in many places, was called a living god because of her power and influence.
Usually, people would become nervous just standing in front of her.
Some tried to please her.
Others did not even dare to look into her eyes for too long.
But that young man spoke only as necessary, rejected her offer without hesitation, and then chose to leave because of a training schedule.
And the strangest part… he did it without fear.
Ren stood silently for a moment, watching Kazuma's back as he walked toward the door.
She even forgot to call him back.
Only when the door was about to close did she realize something unusual within herself.
'What is this feeling…?'
There was something unfamiliar.
A feeling she had almost never experienced before.
Slightly uncomfortable.
Slightly piercing.
Not anger.
Not annoyance either.
More like something lost before she could grasp it.
Ren slowly crossed her arms.
Her violet gaze remained fixed on the door that had just closed.
Then a name appeared in her mind.
'Kazuma Satou…'
Ren wanted him even more.
---
Kazuma parked his motorcycle in the public parking area and walked toward the dojo. As he entered, his mind was still occupied with what had happened earlier—but suddenly, the world flipped upside down.
It was an Aikido technique. However, Kazuma, who had experienced it hundreds of times, was used to breaking free from the rotation and landing smoothly.
At the same time, he performed a leg sweep that caused someone behind him to fall—but that person immediately counterattacked.
Kazuma blocked the strike, grabbed the person's arm, and executed another Aikido technique, sending them spinning through the air before landing smoothly.
"Wow… you're getting more skillful."
Yamazaki Kudo praised Kazuma.
"Sensei… huuh, good thing I didn't go too rough just now."
"Heh, who do you think I am! You were still holding back!"
"What are you talking about! I could've twisted your arm off!"
Yamazaki Kudo snorted softly, the corner of his lips lifting into a mocking smile.
"If it wasn't me just now, you'd definitely have had a hard time!"
He casually brushed off the dust on his sleeve as if he had just finished a light warm-up.
"Then I guess I'll have to repeat your training again!"
Kazuma immediately froze on the spot.
"Huuh…"
A long breath escaped his mouth. His shoulders dropped slightly, as if all the remaining energy in his body had vanished at once.
After going through the series of brutal training, the dojo finally returned to a calm atmosphere.
Kazuma sat on the wooden floor, his breathing still a bit heavy. His body felt hot, and his muscles were tense from the training he had just gone through. On the other side of the room, Yamazaki Kudo stood casually, as if all of that had been nothing more than a light warm-up.
A moment later, the old man finally spoke.
"Kid, what's bothering you?"
Kazuma raised his eyebrow slightly.
"Yeah?"
Yamazaki clicked his tongue.
"Do you think I wouldn't notice!?"
He crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"I appreciate that you managed to get out without injuries after facing a rampaging Ability user. That's no small feat." He paused for a moment before continuing in a sharper tone. "But that's clearly not what's bothering you."
His sharp gaze assessed his student from head to toe.
"So why do you look disturbed?"
Kazuma fell silent for a few seconds.
Then he scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression.
"Well… it seems I've caught the attention of a lioness."
Yamazaki immediately frowned.
"A lioness? Who are you talking about?"
Coincidentally, the television in the corner of the dojo was on, broadcasting the afternoon news. The screen displayed a report about the latest activities of MDF.
Kazuma raised his hand and pointed at the screen.
Displayed there was a photo of a woman with dark purple hair and sharp violet eyes.
Ren Yamashiro.
Yamazaki stared at the television screen for a few seconds.
Then slowly, he turned back toward Kazuma.
"…Well, you're in trouble, aren't you?"