TBCTW Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Outside of Rules

Chapter 1, Part 3

Novel Title: 獣はかくしてまぐわう (The Beasts Copulate This Way)

Author：風結子 沙野 (Fuyuko Sano)

Illustrator：小山田 あみ (Oyamada Ami)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: 鹿倉 陣也 (Kagura Jinya -MC) & ゼロ (Zero -ML)

*Please read at novels.space, the original site of translation. TQ*

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Growing impatient, the man in military attire lunged. Rough play seemed allowed; brass knuckles covered his fist. The punch aimed straight for the tattooed man’s face—yet, just before impact, he ducked low and tackled from below. Like a bulldozer, he lifted the military man into the air. As the brass knuckles swung down again toward his head, the military man was thrown against the fence.

When his body hit, the cage sparked loudly, crackling with electricity.

As the military man writhed on the ground, the tattooed fighter locked him in an armbar, twisting his arm in an unnatural direction with a sickening snap.

With his right arm broken, the military man pulled a knife from his belt. He drove it toward the tattooed man’s calf, but his muscles absorbed the impact without piercing. The tattooed fighter wrapped his thick arm around the other’s neck, rendering him unconscious, and the match ended.

The tattooed fighter stood and stepped on the unconscious military man.

That movement triggered Kagura’s realisation.

“That guy… Riki, huh?”

He’s a member of Enwu, assigned by Zero to keep an eye on Kagura as a bodyguard alongside Kataware and Haiiro. He’s the young man with piercings.

Zero commented with satisfaction, “If he’d broken his bones entirely last time, he would’ve won.”

“Riki is unarmed, but are weapons allowed?”

“Yeah. Pretty much anything goes, though guns, acid, and poison gas are banned since they’d harm the audience.”

“…Has anyone ever died?” Kagura asked, and Zero shrugged.

“At least no one’s been confirmed dead in the ring.”

Apparently, VIPs from both the public and underground spheres are ravenous for such thrills.

Zero slung an arm around Kagura’s shoulders, leaning close to whisper in his ear.

“Second place gets you twenty million yen, first place fifty million. You get that every week in a tournament. And best of all, the earnings made here are tax-free in this building.”

It’s really tax evasion, but since even the highest-ranking officials consider this place untouchable, it’s as good as tax-exempt.

With an hour until the championship match, Zero took Kagura around the B-rank accessible areas.

The second basement was the underground fighting arena, the first floor a lounge, the third a club, the fourth a bar, the fifth a karaoke room, and the ninth a restaurant. The upper floors had VIP sections for the karaoke room, restaurant, and bar.

“From famous celebrities to guns and drugs, there’s nothing you can’t get here.”

Seeing Kagura’s grimace under his half-fox mask, Zero teased him.

“Looks like I can only show you up to B-rank with that pure-hearted streak of yours.”

When they returned to the underground arena, fighters were entering the ring.

One was Riki. The other was a man noticeably smaller in build but still taller than average, with a slender frame overall.

Kagura asked Zero with a dubious look.

“That’s the top-ranked fighter?”

“Yeah, no one’s ever won a tournament he’s entered.”

Kagura took another long look at the top-ranked man from afar. He wore a high-neck, sleeveless black top and fitted black pants with a glossy finish that made them look like an alluring rubber suit. His head was covered by a rubber mask that left only his eyes and mouth exposed.

A twinge, almost like pain, shot through the back of Kagura’s neck.

He’d felt this sensation quite recently.

“That top-ranked guy is—”

As Kagura murmured, trying to recall, Zero whispered the answer.

“You were looking for information on Renjou, weren’t you?”

The gong marking the start of the match resounded.

Almost instantly, Renjou leapt toward Riki. Despite taking Riki’s punch to his solar plexus, Renjou wrapped both arms around Riki’s thick neck and coiled his legs around Riki’s waist. It looked almost like a heated embrace.

Riki’s fists struck Renjou’s sides and back, but his punches seemed to lack force.

Upon closer inspection, Renjou’s arms and legs, which seemed to only cling, actually displayed prominently rippling muscles.

Riki staggered as if he were being crushed by an octopus tightening its grip to shatter his bones.

Before long, Riki’s hands shifted from throwing punches to trying to peel Renjou off him. But when he realised he couldn’t shake him, he charged toward the metal fence.

Renjou’s body was slammed against the fence, sparking and crackling as electric currents and bursts of flames and smoke erupted from a concealed mini-bomb.

…But Renjou did not release Riki.

A sinister laugh cut through the smoke-filled air of the underground arena.

It was Renjou’s laughter.

As the mini-bombs continued to explode, their bodies, locked together as one, jerked violently with each blast.

Finally, Riki’s body wavered greatly and collapsed backward.

On top of the sprawled-out man, Renjou twisted his body. He raised his upper body into a straddling position.

Then, he arched his back and thrust both arms into the air.

The previously silent arena erupted into cheers. The crowd’s excitement sent vibrations through the floor.

A man in a white coat entered the ring to confirm that Riki was unconscious.

It had only been a short ten-minute fight, but the highly stimulated audience appeared satisfied.

“As erotic as ever,” Zero murmured quietly.

Kagura felt something akin to sexual arousal too, though he didn’t want to admit it. And along with that, he also felt a chill.

Kagura had a background in kendo and had even placed second in the National Police Kendo Championship. However, Zero had once told him:

“You’re skilled at kendo, and a rather good detective too. But in the end, that’s just in a world governed by rules.”

“Outside those rules is my world. Just do as I say.”

“I’ll be the one to protect you.”

Because of his confidence in his own skills, Kagura had found that statement humiliating, as if it were an announcement of his irrelevance as a fighter.

But now, for the first time, he understood what Zero meant.

“So that’s what fighting outside of rules looks like…”

Zero responded to his murmuring in a bitter tone, “Though it’s rare to see someone fighting with that level of disregard for self-preservation and without rules.”

An image of the giant river otter that Sanae had shown him flashed through Kagura’s mind.

A top predator that could drive off jaguars and even attack crocodiles.

Renjou wasn’t particularly large in build, and his face was beautiful enough to pass for a woman’s. But his fighting style was full of madness and menace, a relentless determination to win regardless of how much damage he might take himself. There wasn’t even any calculated risk in letting his flesh be cut to strike at the bones.

It was all so shocking that he felt a lingering discomfort in his gut. Pressing his hand to his stomach, Zero suggested, “Since we’re here anyway, why not grab a drink at the bar?” They still had about an hour until Kataware’s van would come to pick them up.

It was a rare opportunity to infiltrate this ‘Invincible Castle’. At the bar, they might even be able to pick up information from the patrons’ conversations. With that thought, Kagura headed to the bar with Zero.

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*Translator’s Note: in a place outside of rules, what do you think they’ll do, eh? -K

Next update: 2025.10.13

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