Campione: Strongest# 429: You're Stuck With Me

The midday sun beat down, drenching Mifune City in golden light.

Behind the central shopping mall, a lush, emerald-green lawn stretched out—a patch of urban greenery marked with conspicuous ‘Keep Off the Grass’ signs.

Ignoring all city regulations, two figures stood upon the freshly sprouted grass.

SHIKI was panting heavily, raw panic in her lively dark eyes as she stared at Haru, who was casually leaning against the building’s wall, arms crossed.

Seeing the terror on her face, Haru remained silent, simply waiting for her to compose herself.

When she realized he wasn't making a move, just quietly watching her, she took a small step back, her geta clattering on a piece of metal railing she had sliced earlier. She then leaned against the wall, mirroring him.

“Hah... Hey, Ghost Uncle, what the hell do you not like about me? I’ll change it, I swear! Just stop!” she exclaimed, her voice on the verge of a breakdown.

“Ghost... Uncle??” Haru froze for a moment, his lip twitching wildly.

Seeing his stunned expression, SHIKI raised an eyebrow, the panic in her heart finally subsiding as her usual sass returned.

“Well, you just walked through a wall to catch me, didn't you? And the police couldn’t see you...”

She didn't need to continue; her meaning was clear. Something that normal people couldn’t see and could walk through walls... what was it if not a ghost?

Hearing this, Haru understood her logic, and his face contorted in a wry, helpless smile.

His abilities—invisibility and phasing—were derived from the grand mystery known as the Second Law, the manipulation of parallel worlds. In her eyes, they were just tricks a ghost used to scare her?

What kind of self-respecting True Magic User would stoop to...

Haru remembered the time he’d chased a certain busty across Europe.

Ahem. Moving on. His current task was to make her understand that he was not a ghost, and certainly not an uncle.

Haru took a deep breath and pointed to his own cheek. “I’m not a ghost, and I’m definitely not an uncle. Seriously, with this face, how dare you call me an uncle??”

Though he maintained his nineteen-year-old appearance, his youthful features, so similar to Kasugano Sora’s, could easily pass for seventeen. In any case, he wouldn't be called an uncle by a thirteen-year-old girl.

“Oh,” she replied, her tone flat and deliberately drawn-out.

Hearing her mocking tone and looking at her slightly raised, willow-leaf eyebrows, Haru’s eyelid twitched. “What, you don’t believe me?”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s just that you’re so young and already a pervert. You’re not bad-looking, but you can’t find a girlfriend, can you? I feel so sorry for you, uncle.”

She looked at him with feigned pity, the words that came from her thin, cherry lips like sharp arrows piercing his heart.

“...” He really wanted to say that he had many girlfriends, and even more friends with benefits. But the moment the words came to his lips, his intuition told him that if he said it, he would only suffer a greater verbal blow.

‘And they said SHIKI was a sunny, tomboyish type. This doesn't match my impression at all!’

Could it be that this character setting had also been retconned by that old thief, Kinoko Nasu?

“You’re not Ryougi Shiki, are you?” Haru narrowed his eyes slightly and asked knowingly. Compared to the venomous-tongued girl before him, he felt that the icy Ryougi Shiki was more fun.

“Hmm? Since you’re also an anomaly, uncle, I guess it doesn't matter if I tell you. I’m Ryougi SHIKI, with the character for weaving. I'm the other personality in this body.”

She lifted her head slightly, her whole body leaning against the pale gray wall as she secretly recovered her stamina, speaking cheerfully. Though they were currently in a hostile relationship, it seemed this was the first time she had introduced herself to someone. She glanced at his face and said nonchalantly, “By the way, what’s your name, uncle?”

“You can just call me Haru. And don’t keep calling me uncle. If you have to, call me big brother!”

He lifted his left hand and, in a single movement, pressed it onto her small head, vigorously rubbing her silky black hair.

“Hey, hey, this is sexual harassment!” SHIKI, whose head was being swayed back and forth by his rubbing, said with a displeased expression as she slapped his hand away.

Hating others touching her hair was a shared trait of both her and the original Shiki. If not for the fact that she couldn't beat him, she would have already drawn her knife.

Seriously, for a monster-level martial artist to be such a pervert, God must be blind.

“No, I don’t think this level of contact constitutes harassment,” Haru said with a deadpan expression.

Which law stated that touching someone’s head was sexual harassment? None, right? Then it wasn't.

“Tsk.” She smacked her lips. The fact that she would only be beaten up if she drew her knife made her extremely displeased.

With a look of frustration, she silently leaned against the wall and fell silent.

Only the light and heavy breathing of the two remained on the lawn.

As time passed, her breathing grew calmer, and her lively dark eyes began to dart around.

“Your stamina has recovered, right? So, do you want to continue our game of escape?”

Though his attention had been focused on the Origin within her, her now-calm breathing had not escaped his sensitive ears.

Her thoughts exposed, her pretty face stiffened slightly, but in an instant, she had returned to a state of calm. To be more precise, she had switched personalities to Ryougi Shiki and back again.

Using a split personality just to maintain a calm expression... the Ryougi family seemed to have produced a rebellious daughter.

“Hey, uncle, didn't you just say you were going to buy me a kimono?” she said, straightening her back and pulling at her light blue kimono with a frown.

On the hem, near her calf, there was a huge gash, vaguely revealing her pale, tender skin.

“Oh? I did say that,” Haru said, raising an eyebrow and looking at her with keen interest, his tone strange.

“Then take me to buy one,” she said with a grin.

“Okay, then this shopping mall,” Haru said, lifting his hand and pointing his thumb to the wall behind him.

“Huh, there’s a kimono shop here? For your information, I only wear kimonos,” she said, slightly taken aback, a look of surprise on her face.

“I saw it when I was passing by just now,” Haru shrugged.

Her face stiffened. To have time to look around while tailing her? The young woman felt she had been insulted.

“Alright, then this one it is!” A fighting spirit burned in her eyes.