When Mutou Judai returned home, Erina was sitting on the living room sofa wearing red-rimmed glasses, currently reading through a book.
When she heard the door opening and looked over, she saw Mutou Judai.
"Judai... did you finish discussing things with Chairman Okuya?"
"Yeah, all settled."
Mutou Judai nodded as he said this.
"But tomorrow or the day after, I might need to go there again... This time was mainly to have Chairman Okuya find me an editor, and later I'll probably need him or that editor to introduce me to illustrator matters."
"Judai, you actually wrote a novel?"
"Yeah."
Mutou Judai took off his coat and casually picked up the water glass from the table, pouring himself some water.
After he entered, Erina stood up and arranged the seafood rice she had prepared for him earlier, bringing it out.
When Mutou Judai sat at the dining table, he looked at the seafood rice before him and was momentarily lost in thought.
"...Looks like I didn't come back too late."
"Mm, it was just finished not long ago."
Hearing Erina say this, the sentiment in Mutou Judai's eyes disappeared, and he began eating directly.
After a few bites, he swallowed what was in his mouth, then very casually asked Erina.
"Oh right, Erina—I encountered the Wu Clan today."
Mm... hm!?
Erina, who had been sitting across from Mutou Judai with her hands supporting her chin, was obviously stunned after hearing him say this.
"The Wu Clan?"
"The Wu Clan is a clan of assassins... Normally you wouldn't encounter the Wu Clan. Since you did, were you targeted by them?"
"Not exactly..."
Mutou Judai shook his head, then gradually told Erina about everything regarding Karura and the two Wu Clan members who later came after him.
"It felt like the Wu Clan people seemed to be looking for trouble with me, but they also didn't seem like they came to kill me... But to be safe, I still didn't kill them and specifically emphasized sniper rifles."
The current Mutou Judai had merged 40% of Jack Hanma's template.
With this, he couldn't ignore all types of bullets.
If it were close range with many guns...
Even Hanma Yujiro could be successfully ambushed with tranquilizer guns when he was off guard, let alone Jack Hanma.
But simple sniping was useless.
Mutou Judai had Jack Hanma's memories.
This guy had been targeted by sniper rifles when fighting people before.
With just one sniper rifle, he could react through crisis instinct—he might not be completely unharmed, but he wouldn't die.
After all, the threat from sniper rifles was too great. These Hanma aliens had combat instincts and crisis reactions carved into their bones, becoming alert the moment such major threats aimed at them.
And if after this, Wu Clan people really chose the sniping method to deal with him.
Then...
—Next, he could plan how to destroy this family!
Mutou Judai was never a soft-hearted person, and he was never brainless either—throughout his journey so far, even though his bloodline and Hanma blood in this life craved battle, cheered for battle, making his blood boil before combat.
Even so, Mutou Judai would still choose relatively stable methods for fighting.
Against Himuro Ryo, he used curses.
When dealing with Meguro, after initially giving him a kick to confirm his strength and threat level, he then chose a venting fighting style.
Against Kiryu Setsuna, he used curses.
Against Nikaido Ren, it was mainly because he wanted to test his Soru and Sonic Punch—and he was also prepared to curse the opponent if necessary.
This was the same when dealing with the Wu Clan.
He had the curse skill, so when fighting people, he would choose cursing as the most stable and gentle fighting method.
Then he would deliberately cooperate with these bloodlines to disguise himself as arrogant, making opponents misjudge.
And this trick was very effective.
To exaggerate, if you saw a maniacally laughing demon-backed Hanma Yujiro, you could never classify him as a brain-type fighter.
Mutou Judai was exactly this type of brain-type fighter.
He also felt that although his bloodline and Hanma blood in this life were the type of bloodlines only fighting races would possess, he himself was a calm-type character.
This discord was his best disguise.
His "Tiger" nickname was also quite deceptive.
So although Mutou Judai said Meguro's purity wasn't high.
—His own purity wasn't high either.
Using that line from Baki:
Purity... is it useful?
This was Mutou Judai's current thinking.
After hearing what Mutou Judai said, Erina slowly frowned. She didn't panic but began thinking.
"If this matter involves the Wu Clan targeting you, then the danger isn't the Wu Clan—they probably received a commission, and since you can instantly defeat two Wu Clan members they sent, with this kind of combat ability, the Wu Clan would abandon such an unprofitable task..."
"But I'll use Totsuki's power to help you inquire about this—after all, Grandfather and the current Wu Clan patriarch are old acquaintances. We'll discuss it then. But be careful during this time... mm, I'll be careful too."
"Mm."
Mutou Judai had already finished the seafood rice.
Hearing Erina say this, he nodded.
Erina took the bowl and casually put the dishes and utensils into the kitchen dishwasher, then returned to Mutou Judai's side.
"Oh right, Judai."
Erina looked at Mutou Judai and slowly smiled.
"About seven days from now, are you free?"
"Yes."
Mutou Judai directly gave his answer.
Or rather, with old man Mutou Yugi already gone, Mutou Judai's busy times were basically helping Erina with things, so when Erina needed him for something, he was basically always free.
Hearing Mutou Judai say this, Erina breathed a sigh of relief.
Previously, she actually didn't plan to involve Mutou Judai.
But ever since Mutou Judai killed Meguro at the Totsuki resort, Erina knew that Mutou Judai had already broken in himself.
And whether it was then or now...
She had clearly dragged Judai into this.
But she could feel that she was strangely happy about being able to fight alongside Judai...
The current me is really despicable!
So...
"Judai... seven days from now is the Kengan match between Totsuki and Toyo Electric, wagering my God's Tongue... The opponent will most likely be that 'Tiger' Wakatsuki Takeshi, who has muscle density fifty-two times that of normal people and has won hundreds of Kengan matches with only two losses—a super fighter."
"Can you help me win this match?"
Erina's words were somewhat selfish.
But Mutou Judai was happy about Erina starting to blush and be selfish in front of him, or rather not treating him as an outsider anymore.
As for Erina's request...
"Sure."
"Anyway, from the moment I took the name 'Tiger' and registered the trademark for this name, I could probably feel that there would be a battle between me and this Wakatsuki Takeshi sooner or later."
"So since you've said so..."
Mutou Judai looked at Erina and slowly smiled, appearing confident while being extremely calm inside as he promised Erina:
"—Just wait for me to defeat him!"
...