Story Background
That Match
The fight with Shishitoren put both teams on the line.
Watching his friend go down, Kanuma angrily blamed Furin. When Suo stepped up to face him, he was met with a smile.
Suo was in no hurry to end the match. He met each attack and turned its force aside, leaving Kanuma lunging at empty air again and again. Worse than taking a hit was facing someone who remained so effortlessly in control—and so unfailingly polite.
Suo pressed him on one question: why did he only cry foul when he was the one getting hurt?
Suo won. But those watching also remembered how, little by little, he had made his opponent afraid to attack.
Back at the Counter
After it was over, the noisy regulars returned to Pothos.
As Nirei recounted the match, he glanced several times at Suo, sitting nearby. When he reached the part where Kanuma hesitated to come at him again, his words slowed.
“Now, Nirei,” Suo interrupted with a smile. “Keep that up and Kotoha won't let me through the door anymore.”
He gathered the empty cups on the counter, turning one cup so its handle lined up with the others. It sounded like another passing joke.
But he didn't change the subject.
“Kotoha.” He looked up. “Do you think I went too far?”
