Konno Daisuke was kicked by Toru into the wall outside the competition area.
He found it hard to breathe. His body slid down the wall to the ground, one hand covering his chest, his heart filled with horror.
After learning that his first opponent was Fujiwara Toru, Konno Daisuke had not given up. Instead, he actively searched for Toru's past combat videos, hoping to find weaknesses and try to defeat him.
He was also a participant who could reach the top eight in the National Tournament, and he was definitely a master among the younger generation of karate competitors.
Toru had no past competition videos, only killing videos.
And based on the analysis of those videos, Konno Daisuke admitted that Toru's karate was very strong, but from what was shown in the videos, it was definitely not strong enough to surpass Makoto.
As Konno Daisuke, who had fought Makoto twice and was known as Chiba's Tiger, he believed that it was not as if he had no chance of winning against Toru, only that the chance was somewhat lower.
Moreover, a match was a match, and Toru could not possibly use those killing moves on him, which actually increased his chances of winning.
It was not until today, when he actually came to the match venue, faced Toru in person, and was kicked flying by him, that Konno Daisuke felt true shock.
He did not know whether Toru's karate was stronger than Makoto's.
But purely in terms of strength and physical ability, Toru was even stronger than Makoto!
Was this guy really human, and not some robot in disguise?
That guy Makoto was already inhuman enough, almost reaching the limits of the human body.
Konno Daisuke had not expected that today he would encounter a terrifying existence that surpassed Makoto and went beyond the limits of physical ability!
His defensive stance had already been perfect enough, and he had even been confident that he could block a few of Makoto's moves.
But he had not expected the power of Toru's kick to be so great, leaving him with almost no ability to resist.
If he had not also been one of Japan's top masters, with strong physical conditioning, that kick just now might have knocked him out cold.
But even so, Konno Daisuke felt his arm go numb and his chest struggle for breath. He could only sit on the ground and slowly recover.
Even the referee and commentators at the venue were stunned.
The Match Committee had arranged for Toru and Konno Daisuke to face each other in the first match precisely for ratings and popularity.
But no one had expected the match to progress so quickly.
Everyone had thought Toru would win, but they had not expected him to win so easily.
The referee looked at Konno Daisuke hesitantly, suspecting that he was faking it.
But Konno Daisuke's condition could not be faked. That was the typical complexion of someone having difficulty breathing.
"Konno-senpai, can you still fight?"
The referee felt that Konno Daisuke was too weak. He had not given the audience any kind of performance at all.
Seeing the referee's gaze, Konno Daisuke cursed inwardly.
Why the hell don't you go take Toru's kick yourself? That would definitely be trying it and dying! If I keep fighting, I'll break bones!
This was only a preliminary match. He would not be eliminated just for losing one match.
But if he suffered a serious injury in the first match, then there would be no point in looking at the matches that came after.
Konno Daisuke made a decisive choice. Covering his aching chest, he grimaced and said, "I surrender. I am not Fujiwara Toru's opponent."
As Konno Daisuke's words fell, the entire venue went silent for a moment, followed by the cheers of the crowd.
"Oh oh oh oh!!"
"As expected of Fujiwara-sama, he defeated last year's top sixteen in just one move!"
"Hey, how can you call him top sixteen? He was only eliminated last year because he ran into Makoto. If he hadn't met Makoto, he might have made the top eight or even top four."
"You're right, so Fujiwara-sama is amazing, defeating last year's top eight in one move!"
"..."
"Give me back my money!"
"Hurry up and refund me! You're just fooling people!"
"What kind of Chiba's Tiger is this? You don't perform like this! Why don't you go join WWE!"
"Bastard, you're the shame of us Chiba people!"
"..."
While there were people supporting Toru, there were naturally also people who were not convinced by him.
Some local people from Chiba, especially some of the men, had come to watch the preliminary rounds not to support Toru, but to support their Chiba karate idol, Konno Daisuke.
But they had not expected Konno Daisuke to be defeated in one move, instantly killed. They simply could not accept it.
Even against Makoto, Konno Daisuke had only lost after several moves, but facing Toru, he was defeated in one move. If this was not acting, then what was?
They believed Konno Daisuke had taken money to perform here and had disgraced the people of Chiba!
...
In Osaka, at a karate dojo, a tall, muscular, dark-skinned man was watching the livestream on his computer.
After seeing Toru kick Konno Daisuke flying and leave him unable to breathe for a short while, his expression turned serious.
"What do you think? What do you think of Fujiwara Toru's strength?"
A spry old man in his seventies, wearing a karate gi, walked over.
Makoto came back to his senses. Looking at the old man beside him, he respectfully said, "Teacher!"
This seventy-year-old man was Tatsuhito Takami, the successor of Japan's famous Tenshin-ryu karate.
When Makoto was young, he encountered a bottleneck in his karate training. He came to Osaka to study under Tatsuhito Takami, and because of that he broke through the bottleneck and became a karate master.
Aside from his first teacher, Tatsuhito Takami was Makoto's true master.
"Hmm, what do you think of Fujiwara Toru's strength?"
"I can't see through him."
"Oh? If you were to fight him, who do you think would win?"
"If it were a fight to the death, he would win. If it were a match with rules, I couldn't judge without fighting him."
Tatsuhito Takami looked at his most outstanding disciple.
At this moment, Makoto's eyes were filled with excitement and anticipation. The way he looked at Toru was frighteningly fervent.
"You would actually admit that you would lose to the other side in a life-and-death fight."
"I've watched his videos and analyzed them frame by frame. He has extremely rich experience in life-and-death combat. It really makes you wonder what he did in the past."
As proud as Makoto was, he did not dare lower his evaluation of Toru in the slightest. "...Although I have a record of more than three hundred consecutive victories, all of that is match experience."
"Without match rules, I definitely don't have as much experience as him."
As he said this, Makoto rewound the computer video and watched again the scene of Toru kicking Konno Daisuke flying, then said:
"Last year and the year before, I fought this Konno Daisuke twice. His strength is not weak. At the time, I didn't go all out, but even if I had, I couldn't have defeated him in one move."
"Fujiwara Toru's strength is greater than mine!!"
As he said this, Makoto quickly squatted down, picked up a heavy dumbbell from the floor, and did a set of strength training.
He had not expected there to be someone in this world who was stronger than him!
Tatsuhito Takami nodded slightly. "Fujiwara Toru's teacher is from Uechi-ryu in Ryukyu, but his current karate has long gone beyond that style."
"Even if the founder of Uechi-ryu were resurrected, he definitely would not be his opponent."
"Just like you, Kyogoku, the founder of our Tenshin-ryu cannot reach your level. Among the many masters in the history of karate, I do not know who can compare to you."
"You have already created your own style and can be called Kyogoku-ryu. This Fujiwara Toru can also call himself Fujiwara-ryu."
"Ever since I took you as my disciple, I have regretted that after you reached the peak, you might not be able to make any further progress, because no one would be your opponent anymore."
Tatsuhito Takami sighed with emotion. He was not praising Makoto just because he was his disciple, but because Makoto was not the only person he had seen in his life. Even if one flipped through the history books, there was no karate master who could compare with him.
Makoto had won two national championships, but he had never used his full strength.
Tatsuhito Takami had originally thought it was already incredible that there was one Makoto in this world, but he had not expected another Toru to appear.
This made Tatsuhito Takami excited.
With a confrontation between two such astonishingly talented masters, perhaps they could reach the true highest realm of combat through their duel, rather than being limited to so-called karate.
"There are too few videos of Fujiwara Toru to clearly see his techniques, but there is no denying that his techniques are very strong, and in terms of physical ability, he is even more powerful than you, Kyogoku. You have met the strongest opponent of your life!"
Tatsuhito Takami patted Makoto on the shoulder. "...Do you have the confidence to defeat him?"
"Of course I do. Having Fujiwara Toru as an opponent is my luck. If not for him, my strength might stop here for the rest of my life, but with him, I will definitely make further progress!"
Makoto clenched his fists. His tone was excited, and flames of battle burned in his eyes. He could not wait to fight Toru.
...
Konno Daisuke was already the strongest competitor in the Chiba Prefecture preliminary bracket.
Even Konno Daisuke could not withstand one move from Toru, so the remaining preliminary competitors were even less likely to be Toru's opponents.
The preliminary matches for the National Karate Tournament were held simultaneously across the country to determine who would qualify for the finals.
Because of their large populations, the Tokyo area and Osaka area, the two most economically developed regions, would send many competitors into the finals from their preliminary matches, accounting for eighty percent of the national total.
The entire preliminary round would take place over several days, with one match after another, almost without pause.
Although the overall level could not compare with the finals, the matches were frequent enough to satisfy the audience.
On the first day of the preliminary round, Toru also honestly took part, staying in the venue from morning until evening.
Toru strongly suspected that this was intentional on the part of the organizers, making him stay in the venue longer to attract viewers.
And in today's three matches, Toru also won easily.
(To be continued.)
Reviews
All reviews (0)