Heroine-Saving System: Reborn In A Third-Rate Manga As The Protagonist-Chapter 109: Zero Intent

However Takeru and Ryouma watched as the commoner crossed the blue flames rather easily without looking even a bit disoriented and his suit was still complete with not even a scorch mark on it.

His legs trembled as he tightened his grip on the dagger.

’I only have three more steps until the cooldown comes in so I can’t afford to waste any of them...’ He thought, watching Koya’s approach and trying to read the trajectory. ’I can counter hi...’

Koya sped up.

The boost in speed was not gradual but rather it was instantly, the distance between them collapsing in a single acceleration and before Takeru’s brain had finished processing the change in speed the strange blade was already in front of his forehead.

It was close enough that he could feel the displaced air from it.

’I’m going to die.’

His body moved before he decided to move it and the frame state activated on pure instinct with the world breaking into still images while the gap between frames opened up around him...

Takeru was four meters back before the thought completed.

It was the same reflex that his older brother had beaten into him during sparring, the survival response that kicked in when his mind was too slow and his body was too scared.

’I activated it on instinct.’ He thought, standing at the edge of his step range with his chest heaving.

Four meters was the maximum. He could attack from here, drive the dagger forward into the next frame and appear at Koya’s back... but he already knew how that ended.

The first exchange had shown him.

’He can read it... The moment I decide to step, he already knows.’

The frame world vanished and the regular world snapped back to full speed and Koya’s blade slashed through the air where he had been standing, generating enough wind pressure to blow Takeru’s hair backward from four meters away.

「This fight is OVER for Takeru-kun 😭😭😭」

「BRO RAN 💀 Didn’t he talk all that talk???」

「Wait why does he look more handsome with shorter hair though 👀」

「He literally speed walked away from that blade I can’t 😭」

「Ok but objectively the shorter hair is hitting different ngl 🔥」

"Running now, eh?" Koya looked at him with mana leaking around his eyes. "I wouldn’t expect a noble to run from a—"

One of the B-Class students dived in from the side with a powerful kick aimed at Koya’s ribs.

Koya turned and parried it with his forearm and the impact redirected the student’s momentum upward.

Before the goon had finished rotating in the air, Koya had caught the ankle mid-spin and driving him straight into the ground with a crunching sound that ended the conversation.

He let the leg drop and looked at the remaining goons. They had formed a line in front of Takeru with their shoulders squared.

Koya grinned.

"Is that how it is?" He muttered and dismissed the Hollowblade. It was overkill against people who weren’t Takeru. ’But if I break his legs he can’t run anymore.’

"Oi, Amagi! Don’t forget about m—"

Koya pointed at Ryouma and slotted in the skill he had prepared for today.

「Unique Skill: Extreme Mana Enhancement (B)」

「This skill works by enhancing the quality of the mana in the reserves of an awakened by five times, which in turn supercharges a regular spell.」

Immediately mana began sparking around him, coiling around his entire body as it would to a Blue-liner and Ryouma’s eyes widened.

"Just fuck off." Koya said, and the fireball that left his hand was not a regular fireball.

It was a compressed sphere of supercharged blue flame the size of a person that hit Ryouma in the chest like a cannonball, carrying him backward through the air and detonating on impact with the treeline... the explosion took out several trees and a wide section of bushes in both directions as the shockwave flattened the grass in a ring.

The afterglow was blue for three full seconds before it faded and his hand smoked. He used it to adjust his hair and used the other to straighten his tie.

’Nothing good comes from staying angry.’ He thought. ’I’ll focus on knocking them out.’

「BRO ADJUSTED HIS TIE AFTER THAT 😭😭😭🔥」

「SOMEONE IS USING THIS AS THEIR PFP I ALREADY CALLED IT」

「He looks like a romance manhwa ML who also happens to commit crimes 💀🔥」

「The suit + blue flames combo is so unfair to everyone watching」

「I am down BAD for him rn and I refuse to explain 😭🔥」

「Mafia boss arc activated let’s GOOO 🔥🔥🔥」

「The way he fixed his tie after destroying a noble is soooo hotttt」

「Stream peaked... This is the best content of the year.」

Four goons remained in front of Takeru. Koya looked at them and then looked at Takeru over their shoulders.

"You challenged me to a spar with the grace of your family on the line and your own pride as a noble, and you’re hiding behind people?" He glanced over at Miyuki, tied to her tree. "Miyuki looks very disappointed in you."

His murderous intent had deactivated when the anger settled and Miyuki could breathe properly again.

She looked at Takeru and she tried to make a poker face, however to Takeru, she looked disappointed.

"Besides... you all ambushed me out in the open. You attacked first." Koya said.

"But you were the one who attack..."

"I was merely defending myself and you cut off my hair." He said. "Since you have your own requests for this battle, I’ll bring mine. To challenge me to a proper match with all our prides on the line, you’ll give me one million Individual Points."

Takeru blinked.

"One million? What do you..."

"Come on... You’re a noble, surely that’s not difficult."

"It’s too co—"

"Are you saying Miyuki is too cheap?" Koya asked. "That she’s not worth a million Individual Points?"

Takeru’s expression moved. He closed his eyes for exactly one second, breathed out, and opened them again.

"My Miyuki is worth far more than material money." He said. "You have your wish. One million Individual Points... and three million Crowns on top of that if you win."

He dismissed his dagger back into his crest and straightened up. ’Brother always said having stakes was the key to doing more than you thought you could. I do this for Miyuki.’

"Very well then." Koya looked in Ichinose’s direction and the drone shifted slightly in its position above them. "We’re being livestreamed... This is probably everywhere by now."

Takeru followed his gaze and processed that for a moment.

The viewer counter on whatever platform this was probably running on had numbers he didn’t want to think about.

’I’ve been chickening out.’ He thought. ’While Brother is probably watching...’

Something solidified behind his eyes and he looked back at Koya and stomped the ground.

"Go!"

The four goons rushed forward.

The one at the front had a Familiar out which was an adult Cindervix moving at its master’s pace with its jaw open.

It closed the distance between itself and Koya fast and lunged for the bite but Koya sidestepped and kicked it in the ribs mid-air. The Familiar hit a tree trunk and left a crater in the bark before sliding to the ground unconscious.

The first goon was already there.

"For the Kurohane Clan!" He came in with a short sword, diving forward.

Koya sidestepped and the man recovered and came back in a clean arc that Koya stepped away from. The man pressed, stabbing several times in quick succession, reading the dodges and genuinely trying to adjust.

"Stay still!" He yelled and brought the sword down in an overhead strike.

"Okay." Koya caught the blade between two fingers.

「WHY IS HE STILL IN CLASS 5 BRO 😭😭😭」

「He caught a SWORD with TWO FINGERS」

「Class 5 is a social experiment at this point 💀」

「Someone explain to me what is happening」

「He said okay like he was agreeing to something 😭🔥」

His other fist drove into the man’s stomach hard enough that consciousness left immediately. Koya took hold of the head before the body fell and used it to shield against the next one coming in from above with a Scythe that was covered in poison from the air.

’What is the obsession these people have with being in the air?’ He thought.

"Argh, fucker!" The scythe user was already committed mid-swing and had to drag it sideways to avoid hitting his own ally, making the blade strike the ground next to Koya instead.

The moment his eyes came back up from the redirect, Koya was already through his guard and the strike that followed put him out cleanly and the two bodies hit the ground.

"Come on." Koya dropped both and looked at the remaining two. "You’re not entertaining the viewers enough."

「He’s RIGHT though 😭 step it UP」

「These goons need to refund their training fees fr」

The last two looked at each other and then they ran at him together, closing in from two angles simultaneously.

Koya waited until the last moment, dropped and stamped one arm into the ground with the crack of bone was audible before coming up with a kick directly into the face that sent the owner of the arm into the air.

The back elbow that followed caught the second one clean on the jaw and he was unconscious before he finished spinning.

Both hit the ground.

「Ok at least those two lasted longer than the others I’ll give them that 💀」

「A whole two extra seconds of consciousness 👏👏」

「Carry them out with respect they tried their best 😭」

Koya looked at Takeru, who was now standing with his arms at his sides and his expression fully composed.

The livestream was real... The stakes were set and his subordinates were dealt with... There was nothing left between them.

"I’ve taken care of your goons." Koya said. "Though they are nobles... wait, can I get charged in court for this?"

He considered it for half a second. "Whatever. I have a good lawyer."

In the treeline, Mio grumbled under her breath.

"I knew it... He’s going to dump the aftermath on Boss." She paused. "I have to admit though... Koya-kun moves nicely."

"Yeah yeah." Pale’s astral form appeared beside her. "Once you stop looking at the way his trousers move we can have a serious conversation."

Mio’s face went red immediately.

"I was looking at his footwork. I am not... I have never been horny in my life..."

Pale gave her a side-eye that communicated everything.

"So we’re pretending last night didn’t happen?"

Mio buried her face in both hands.

The Silkstrike Mink next to her had its eyes locked on the fight ahead with a deeply proud expression on its face.

"It was a mistake." Mio said from behind her hands. "Your tendencies engraved themselves into my body somehow."

"None of the changes I make in your body persist after I leave." Pale said. "When I got merged with you, my rank reduced and I entered Blue crest again... When I’m in your body, I use your base speed but I can’t touch your Red crest ability or your Bide. You don’t inherit your breast size by the way... and when you’re in your body, you can use your mana better than standard Red-liners but you can’t use elemental spells because..."

"I know, focus on the battle." Mio said, still not uncovering her face.

Across the clearing Takeru stepped forward, closing the distance between himself and Koya slowly and deliberately.

He was using a conversation as cover to get within four meters before either of them made a move.

"I bear no ill will toward you for any of this. It is part of our spar." He said. "Since I have now seen your technique... the one that temporarily spikes your mana quality, and the blue flames that burn considerably hotter than standard fire, I’ll tell you mine in return."

He stopped at exactly four meters.

"Frame Magic." He said. "The ability of the Kurohane clan. Put simply... I perceive time as a series of still images rather than a continuous flow, like frames in an animation. The gaps between those frames are where I exist and move. To anyone outside of it, I simply disappear from one position and appear in another and there is no motion to track because the motion happens between frames where the world cannot see it."

He paused.

"And Phantom Arsenal." He continued. "I project weapons from my crest as physical constructs with real weight and real cutting power. I can materialize up to ten simultaneously and attack you from all sides."

Takeru activated Frame Skip.

The world dropped into still images and he was at Koya’s right shoulder with the dagger already moving and committed to the angle; however Koya’s body rolled backward just as he materialized and the shoulder that he had aimed at and should have been there already gone so Takeru’s dagger cut air.

He didn’t chase Koya though, instead his crest flared gold immediately and five weapons tore out simultaneously... a Katana, a Spear, twin Wakizashi, and a broad Nodachi as well as a shortsword.

All of them launched from different trajectories, converging on the Koya who was still mid-leap.

Koya moved his face left and the Spear passed his cheek close enough to draw a line of air against the skin.

His right hand came up and caught the Katana by the handle mid-flight with the blade still hot from the crest and used the grip to redirect his momentum, deflecting the first Wakizashi with the flat.

He got a forearm up for the Nodachi and pushed it sideways while the second Wakizashi clipped his collar and buried itself in the soil behind him.

He hit the ground in a skid with the katana still in hand and used it to deflect the last weapon before it reached him.

’He’s not as weak as I thought.’

"I must commend you." Takeru said, pulling all five weapons back into his crest in a single recall before he rolled his neck once. "But you don’t seem to understand what the power of the Kurohane clan truly is... I don’t need to skip between frames to be dangerous."

He pushed mana into his legs... It was the same kind of mana that made skipping frames possible but it was redirected entirely into movement and he dashed.

The gap between them closed in a straight line and Koya met him and the exchange started with no preamble.

They collided fully and both went airborne from the impact, rolling through the air together.

Koya got his foot onto Takeru’s chest mid-rotation and kicked him downward. Takeru hit the ground and staggered with one knee down but Koya was already there with mana loaded into both feet and Mana Mode rejuvenating every circuit simultaneously before slamming both feet into the ground where Takeru had been.

The crater spread outward in a ring but Takeru had already moved.

He came in with a straight punch but Koya felt it arrive before it arrived with the intent being detected by Danger Sense and he was already sideways when the fist passed through.

The kick that answered it caught Takeru clean in the stomach and he tumbled backward, the momentum in it slamming him backward until he hit the grass near Miyuki’s tree. He caught himself with one hand and looked up at her.

She was watching him with a shy look on her face and he gave her a small smile however before he could even see her change in expression, Koya’s foot hit him in the back and sent him into the tree trunk making the bark crack from the impact. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

’One thing I’m noticing.’ Takeru thought, getting his hands under him and pushing off the tree.

His last Frame Skip step was still sitting in reserve and he had been holding it deliberately.

’He feels where my attacks are going to land from the moment I decide on them... before the body has even moved.’

He shot a single weapon from his crest which was one Spear angled at his stomach and before the construct had fully cleared the gold light, Koya was already moving sideways.

The Spear passed him clean and buried itself in the tree behind him, the impact slicing through the rope that had Miyuki tied.

She caught herself and rolled to the side.

’Is he reading the intent behind my strikes?’

He rolled sideways, dodging a kick that caught the tree instead and brought fruit raining from the branches above.

He got both feet planted and drove a two-handed kick at his opponent’s stomach.

Koya parried it with one hand, absorbed the force without shifting, and Takeru used the contact to flip himself upright then immediately dodged a stomp that left a crater where he had been standing.

’He’s reading the intent the moment I form it. That’s why Frame Skip failed the first time... I decided on the destination and he was already leaving it before my body moved.’

He got both forearms up and took the next punch on them.

The force pushed him several meters back and left both wrists humming with numbness.

’How do I cover intent? Brother said it once. What was it?’

Koya opened his hand and a volley of fireballs launched outward immediately... they were fast.

Takeru pulled several weapons from his crest and set them rotating in a shield in front of him making the blades spin fast enough that each fireball that contacted the surface dissipated with the constructs distributing and shedding the heat completely.

’Zero intent... That was it. Brother said it clearly... if the decision and the action happen at the exact same moment, there is nothing to read before it arrives. That means there’s no gap between choosing and doing and the intent doesn’t precede the strike. It is the strike.’

"This was a good battle." Koya said. "But you’re owing me money."

He used Speed Blitz.

The distance collapsed in an instant... in a single moment, Koya had cleared several meters and the next there was no distance between them. He also had Murderous Intent fired simultaneously so it hit Takeru like a wall and making his whole body freeze for the half-second it took Koya to cover the remaining ground.

The Hereto Dagger was drawn and aimed at center mass and Takeru felt the fabric at his chest give as the point came through the cloth.

The last Frame Skip step activated and completed before Danger Sense had anything to register... because there was nothing to register until it was already done.

Takeru was gone and Koya’s dagger drove forward into empty air making him skid to a stop in silence.

’I can’t feel hi—’

The attack came from behind. A sword entered through his back and the tip came out the other side of his stomach, catching the light for a moment before going still.

Takeru’s feet touched the ground behind him and his breathing was ragged.

"It’s over." He said quietly. "I win."