Fight-ON!

[Verg Avesta]

So...after popular demand, Fight-ON! has finally arrived to the new Beast's Lair. With slightly edited first few chapters, re-uploaded rest of chapters, and a brand new chapter, I think we'll be getting to a good new start.

Well, without further words, here it is, once more: The tale of love and martial arts! Fight-ON!

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Fight-ON!
Chapter One
Beginning of the tale ~ Bluebird swordsman!


Summer grasses,
All that remains
Of soldiers' dreams

- Matsuo Bashō

Tokyo, Japan
Somewhere in Minato ward

Ding!

It’s that sound. The sound of a new life starting.

“Aah, that’s wrong, that’s the elevator isn’t it?” you say. I’ll tell you, to you people it might sound like an elevator, but to me? It’s clearly the sign that something has for once gone right. That is why I couldn’t care less what you think of me right now. I’ll do a little victory dance wherever I damn well please, thank you very much.

The doors of the elevator flung open, revealing behind them my new life. Apparently there was supposed to be a quite a nice apartment here in the top floor of this high-rise building. But what really made it great was the fact that it was cheap! With the amount of money I had, you wouldn’t be renting a suite. Even if the lady who sold me this apartment was rather doubtful of me, everything had gone well. I guess my introduction speech had made an impression to her.

“Hello, my name is Leon Hart. I just escaped from my hometown because the things there got too uncomfortable for me, and thus I’m hoping to start a new life here in Japan.”

What the hell. I guess good people still exist in this world. I wonder if I should do something for her if I ever see her again. After all, this apartment is…

My steps take me outside of the elevator, and I find myself face-to-face with reality.

“My apartment is………a shrine.”

W-w-w-w-w-w-what the……………

“That damn bitch tricked me----!! She said it was an old place, but not a…..rundown shrine!!”

There, on top of a high-rise building as ridiculously as an eagle in a canary cage, stands a shrine that looks like it’s all the way from Sengoku era. No, it’s less of a shrine, and more a combination of an old house and shrine. Most likely some kind of small shrine where the people working in there actually lived. And wait, did I see a torii just above the entrance from elevator!?

The shrine itself must have been originally of nagare-zukuri style. Unfortunately something akin to a crazy carpenter had probably attacked it, as there were random rooms, corridors and some more rooms sprouting into every direction. Just like if a kid had played with some legos, and noticed he was left with too many pieces over after finishing his masterpiece, this person had gone mad and added everything regardless of whether it fit. Sure it might have worked as a livable house back when it was built, but now that it was in near shambles…

It looks like that if I sleep here, I might be the next thing enshrined here!

“Great……….no wonder it was so cheap.”

Just what am I going to do now? Right when I thought I had gotten my life back on track, I’m faced with this problem. Only things I have are my white jacket, jeans, black t-shirt and orange sunglasses, plus my empty wallet. Oh, and of course this good-for-nothing building.

Walking over to the wooden steps that would have led to the building itself, I leaned back and gazed to the sky. The far larger skyscrapers almost blocked the sun from my view. Even if I was on top of a high-rise, Tokyo always had something bigger to show me. I was just a one person in a huge city where I did not know anyone. Far below me I could hear the noise of the metropolitan. Innumerable cars, innumerable people, innumerable lives. And I was just one drop in that endless sea of people.

“…….and just what are you grinning at?” I asked from the half-destroyed komainu which was still guarding the entrance to the shrine.

As I looked around one more time, I realized that this place was probably most obvious example of how time had marched on from those much simpler times of the past. This shrine had probably been on the street level before, but as Tokyo grew, it had to be moved on top of this building. Now the torii, komainus, tōrōs, temizuya, ema and the shrine itself had been cramped up into this small space. The past had been moved out of sight without destroying it. It was just like the people these days. Everything old is pushed somewhere so we don’t have to think about it, and concentrate only into the future.

“Bah. I’m getting moody. This isn’t like me at all”, I mutter to myself as I rise back to the sitting position.

Yeah, that’s right. I should act just like I usually do. There’s no point in worrying about the spilt milk. What’s done is done. The only thing I can do now is to make the best out of what I’ve been given.

“I wonder, are there any rooms inside where I could manage to sleep? That’s the most important thing to check at first, I guess.”

And thus I jump back to my feet and walk up the stairs. Unlike I expect, the door slides open easily. Seems like that even though the place looks rundown from the outside, some of the most important things are still working. With little more hopeful feeling I enter the shrine.

What greets me is a dusty but otherwise rather well-managed corridor. I leave my shoes at the entrance and walk further in, in order to grasp the layout of the building itself.

-------- What I realize quickly is that the place was bigger than I expected.

The shrine itself is in the middle of the building, straight forward from the entrance. Before the shrine, however, the corridor splits into two, making it a cross-junction. These two corridors go alongside the wall of the hexagon-shaped shrine room, and then join back behind it. On both corridors, on the walls opposite of the shrine-room wall, are three sliding doors to three rooms. They look like they’re meant to be slept in, as I found few futons in one of the rooms. Behind the shrine-room, where the corridors joined back together, were also three rooms. These were bigger, and one of them looked like a kitchen, while other two must have been dining room and some kind of relaxation room. There was also a small, cramped-up bath if one turned right from the entrance and followed along the corridor, before turning once again right into another small corridor.

What also surprised me was the condition of the interior. When I had looked the shrine from outside, I had seen that the roof needed fixing badly, and the walls should be painted again. However, if one did not mind the dust, the interior was in a good shape. Of course, most of the furniture was missing, but I didn’t mind.

------- After all, I had found a place to sleep for now. One that had turned out to be better than I had originally thought.

Now let’s see here. What would I need to do first in order to make this place a livable house again?

First of all I should go to a hardware-store. With the roof, there was lot to be done, and I did not have any kind of equipment to fix it, not even mentioning the materials. Paints should also be bought, preferably something that I could actually use to make this shrine look like a proper shrine. Floors had few cracks here and there, but I don’t think I would have to start paneling them. After all, there were easier ways, if it was just few cracks like that. The few sliding doors that also should be fixed would not cost much. Most likely I could get all that I needed by going through few local hardware-stores and-----

-------- At this point I could not take it anymore, but burst into laughter. Long, joyous and hearty laughter.

“……….Like the hell I got money to buy anything like that. Or enthusiasm to do that kind of shit”, I grunted by myself, directing my words to nobody.

While chuckling to myself, I felt a loud rumble in my stomach. This, and the gurgling sound that appeared along it, shut me up.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…..

“…….F-food.”

That’s right. There is one thing that even I have to get for now, no matter how troublesome it feels to go back to elevator, press the button, wait, and walk out to the streets of Tokyo when the doors open.

But did I have any money? Not only I had just used them to for long flight, but I had also paid one month of rent in advance, which had made my pockets lighter as fast as a rockabilly gets a new tattoo on his neck.

“Let’s see here…” I murmured while rummaging through my pockets.

‘Lo and behold! Coins!

“………….What’s this? A joke? ‘Cause I aint laughing.”

From my pockets emerged enough coins to scrap me up some measly 1200 yens.

-------- Tonight, we dine in hell.

With loud sigh, I put the coins back into my pocket and headed to the front door. Putting some more power to my unmotivated legs, I picked up pace and exited the house.

To be honest, I did not even want to look at the interior. The amount of work there would be threatened to make me cry. I mean, c’mon! I think there was a patch of grass in there!

But my swift legs carried me out of that horror-show, and into the elevator, which would take me to the street level, and into the wonderful, modern world, without any crazy shrines in places where they should not be.

Inside the sterile, metallic elevator I once again became acquaintance with the inorganic smells of the present-day metropolis. Pushing the lowermost button, I started the thing, and soon enough was I travelling towards the ground level. While the elevator descended the floors down, I had good time to think about my current situation. This time included some great thoughts, like:

“How am I going to pay me next month’s rent?”

“How am I going to pay my next meal?”

“Is it even legal to live in a shrine?”

“Will I be forced to do seppuku if I’m caught?”

“Goddammit, if it comes to that, I’m taking that woman who sold the place to me with me!”

“Maybe it’s best that I just keep as low profile as I can, yes…”

So……………….Yeah.

Ding! was followed by Swoosh! of the opening doors.

Through the lobby, hands in my pockets and sunglasses over my eyes to prevent anyone from making an eye-contact.

----------- Ah, no, no. Not the Matrix-style. My glasses are orange. Ya know, those sleek things? That kind of sunglasses. Less of a Neo, more of a surfer-boy-carrying-his-board-to-Aussie-BBQ.

And there it was, Tokyo. At least, Minato ward. And then there was me, on its streets, trying to find a place to gather some food.

---------------- And boy, were there places like that.

Even though afternoon was well on its way, innumerable places for food were still open. And not all of them were convenience stores, no. Small restaurants, few malls and things like that littered the cityscape. Of course there was also the option of hundreds of vending machines I saw on the way, where one could buy literally everything. I mean literally everything.

As in “living lobsters” everything.

The city itself was as busy as one could imagine. Everywhere I went, people. Lots and lots of people. And amongst that black-haired population, I was like a beacon with my clearly foreign appearance. The sight of me walking in the crowd must have been like watching a lone car surround by innumerable bicycles.

-------- Nah, scratch that. SUV sounds more like it.

Finally I made it to a promising looking place. It was not that far away from my place, and it was in a place that would be easy to remember. Just a normal convenience store in a corner of a street, with all kinds stuff on sale. The place’s appearance was even more enhanced by the broken scooter which lay there, and a grumpy looking girl leaning to the store’s window, probably waiting for someone.

Looks like it’s time to play an efficient customer again.

As the automated doors slowly open, a chime in the back of the shop tells the employee that a customer has arrived. I step inside, and after a while of inner arguing with myself, head to the section with the ready-made bentou. Picking up a reasonably priced one, I then head to get something to drink. The choice ends up being a soft drink, probably lemon-flavored. I’m not quite sure what it reads in the label.

In any case, I head to the cashier, who seems to have fun staring at the strange foreigner who has stumbled upon his shop. Fortunately, he eventually remembers his job, and so the money changes over. I wave my hand to him with affirmative grunt, telling him to keep the change. It’s not like I would do anything with the few measly yens I’d be left with. The employee puts my stuff in a small bag and hands it over, and with that, I’m off. Automated doors open once more, along with the chime, announcing my retreat.

----------------- Aah, food! With this, I should be able to make it through the day!

Just the thought of the things inside the bentou-box made me drool.

What? I’m a sucker for foreign foods.

Speaking of suckers…

“Hey, girl. Whaddya say ya come with us, and we’ll head for a little ride…?” This voice belongs to an ugly, almost middle-aged man who still hangs on to his image of being the head of a bunch of cool delinquents.

Actually, there’s whole bunch of them, and they truly seem to be some kind of local gang, what with all of them having a black leather jacket. And true to their “hive-mind, no-brain” style, they have all surrounded the same grumpy looking girl that I saw leaning against the store’s window earlier. The girl herself does not seem to even notice the guys, but I think that’s not gonna stop them.

“Heyyyy, c’mon! We’ll show ya some really good time, ya know…”

I guess he tried to sound charming. To be honest, it sounded just far too damn creepy.

----------- Aw, crap. Now the girl’s going to answer to their provocation. Shit, I’ll guess I’ll have to----!

“Oh, c’mon. Your hair is already leaving you, so now you’re resolved to get a girl by any means? That’s sad, really sad. People like you should just accept they need to don their suits, grab their suitcases and join the never-ending flow of salarymans…”

Was that too provocative? The whole gang turns towards me like I had shot their favorite idol.

“Huuuuuh!? Don’t ya stick yer nose to our business, gaijin.” The leader growls, pulling his jacket back and showing a folded knife he has ready on his waist.

“Gaijin or not, you must admit this is so lame it’s hilarious. Shouldn’t guys like you just spend their times playing pachinko, instead of trying to hit on girls so young they could be your daughters. Tut-tut. Shame on you, shame on you~”

That does it. They switch their attention fully off the girl, who uses the chance and begins walking away. Before that, she gives me a look that says:

Moron.

------------ Hey, bitch! I saved your ass! Don’t ya give me those eyes!

“Ya wanna go? I’m gonna cut your stomach open, ya blondie!!” The leader draws his knife and approaches me.

“Oh, sure, bring it on. In return, let me show you just how good I am at…”

-------- Heh. Damn these people…

“Running!”

And with that I dash into the opposite direction with all the power I have in my legs, leaving the gang behind for short few seconds, before they recover from their confusing and begin chasing after me.

--------------- Like the hell am I gonna pick a fight with seven people at once! Are you idiots!? Sorry, but I’m not some kind of shounen hero!!

“Come back here ya punk-----!!!” the unified roar of the gang is almost choir-like feat. Too bad any kind of choir that would consist of voices so ugly would never attain stardom. If they did, maybe they wouldn’t be here, chasing after me!!

Another thing that makes me like Tokyo: Its street are perfect when running away from a furious gang. Lots of back-alleys that lead back to the main street, corners, crowds big buildings that are surround by smaller ones……..it’s a paradise for someone running away.

-------- Well, of course the true paradise would be a safe place, but you get the idea.

I must have been a ridiculous sight, running with all the speed that my legs gave me, with the convenience store bag swishing back and forth on the other hand. At least the people gave me long looks as I passed them by, dashing.

Why thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I’m sure I am an interesting sight. Now could you please call the police to catch these middle-aged delinquents?

“This is going to be the last time I’ll help any damsel in distress! Take care of your own problems, god damn it!!” Was the selfish promise made by the knight who had to take the responsibility of angering the dragon.

It was at this point that I realized: “Ah, that’s right. They can follow me so easily because they see my head above everyone else in the crowd.”. Of course, what followed was a change of plans.

But I cannot help but to think – Really, Leon, you’re leading a quite miserable life. You pick a fight with people in the only capital in the world where you can be spotted in a crowd without trouble at all.

Misfortune? Nah, I think it’s time to face it.

---------------- Coming to Tokyo was a case of bad planning!!!

I duck and stayed low, gliding over the asphalt like some kind of idiotic F-16, gathering more strange looks from the passer-bys than ever before. But no matter how stupid, it looked like I was flying too low for their radar. The group began to be left behind, having to resort to actually looking for me from the crowd.

At this point I came to the street leading up to my apartment. Sensing a chance, I dived to the bushes that had been set as a decoration around the high-rise building. Only one who saw my glorious leap was strange looking man in black-and-orange clothes. Luckily it seemed that this weirdo did not care about me, as he nonchalantly begun eyeing the traffic again.

Yelling profanities that were as creative as a middle-school teacher, the group of middle-aged delinquents passed by my hiding place. With glee on my face, I watched them run into the distance, still clearly thinking they were chasing after me. Few more seconds, and they disappeared around the corner, allowing me to come out safely again.

“D----------------------------amn! It’s nice to be the popular transfer student, but being chased down by bunch of balding hooligans is something I’d rather not experience again”, voicing my complaints, I head back towards the entrance to the high-rise. The strangely clothed man gives me a amused smile, as if he could well guess what had just happened.

---------------------------------- I’m sorry. Whatever you imagine, it pales in comparing to the reality, so don’t even try.

Automated doors opened, letting me in.

If nothing, I had at least gotten some food out of all this.

………………….

Approximately five minutes from that, I found out that a bento does not like when it’s part of a grand escape.

“M-my……food….” I could only resort into frail cries of injustice as I drank what was left of my soft drink.

------ Of course the heavy shaking had put its toll in it, and now it just tasted like lemon-water.

“W-well, maybe I should test those old futons I found to change my mood with one swing!” I tried to convince myself with a false hope, and headed out to the rooms that surrounded the shrine-area itself.

My personal favorite of the rooms was the one corner room on the west side of the building. It was build so that the midday sun would shine perfectly in it, making it an ideal napping place.

And thus I decided to test it. Throwing the old futon I had found on the floor, I plopped down and put my hands behind my head, taking a comfortable position.

“Yeah, this is good. As long as I have a good place for napping like this, I’m satisfied.”

--------------- What can I say? I’m a man of simple leisures.

I know I should have started looking for work the moment I arrived into Tokyo, but I couldn’t help it. Right now, more than the desire to have money, I was overcome by a wave of sleepiness. Sure, I had a rough and long trip behind me, and this was the first time in long time that I could afford laze around like this.

Besides, I had just a rough experience with the locals. If Marco Polo was allowed to rest in India, maybe I’m allowed to do that here too.

“Just fifteen minutes…..I’ll rest my eyelids…..”

Before I even realized it, I had managed to fall asleep and travel to the dreamland.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

If there is one bad thing about napping, it’s the fact that you usually end up waking up in the middle of the night without feeling sleepy at all anymore. Then you’ll proceed to wander around the house for the rest of the night, trying to come up with some kind of meaningful activity. And when the sun finally comes up, you’ll realize that you’re sleepy again, but can’t go back to bed.

That was why I cursed the fact that I woke up past midnight.

There was also one fact that the suspicious woman who sold this apartment to me forgot to mention. There’s no AC unit here, and that would be the reason why I’m almost soaking wet from sweat, as if I had participated in the less glorified aspect of Otaku-culture, the things that involve hug-pillows and lot of movement.

----------- I cannot even begin to count to the murderous intents that must have been aimed towards me from all over the city. This is a dangerous path you’re treading, Leon…

“Damn. Looks like it’s going to be a long night, then…” I mutter, slowly standing up from the futon. Outside, the neon-lights have appeared alongside their normal brethren, giving off an impression of a city that never sleeps.

And that it truly was. Tokyo, that is.

How many people must have been still awake? Or how many had just woken up? I could well imagine how the delinquent group that had chased me today was now sitting in a bar, cursing the fact that I had gotten away and planning for revenge, which would most likely involve ropes, motorbikes and lots of pulling.

Don’t think about it, don’t think about it. Best just do something productive to take my mind of these things.

I opened the sliding door and slipped outside of the room. Although it was my house now, and nobody else lived in there, the thought of the shrine that was only a medium-sized wall away from me, made me silence my steps out of respect.

Which was good. After all, without doing that, I would have most likely…….

---------- Missed the small crashing sound that came from the shrine-room.

“E-eh!?” I yelped, before hastily covering my mouth.

That sound I had heard…it was most definitely done by human. There was no doubt about that. The question was: Who did it? And it would be followed by: Why is there someone in the shrine-room in the middle of the night??

It couldn’t be a ghost, could it? As ridiculous as my life had been till now, I would never forgive any kind of cruel god that would place a ghost in my way. No way, I’m going to quite the moment I see a ghost, thank you very much!

-------- My lonely rebellion: Pathetic.

I sneaked slowly towards the door of the shrine-room. As I passed a closet, I opened it. From the inside peeked a half-destroyed bamboo-broom. However, as long as it had the pole-part intact, it would serve as a weapon. Clutching that makeshift weapon, I edged slowly closer towards the door.

From inside the room, another series of noises came. I could even hear somebody mumbling to himself. If I had to make some guesses, the person inside was probably searching for something. A real person. Not some kind of ghost of the horribly-early-Christmas. Which means….hahaha…

---------- A burglar who decided to ransack an empty shrine? Too bad, mister. This place ain’t empty no more, and I don’t tolerate thievery in my home.

With skills that would have made a ninja proud, I edged along the wall and finally arrived to the double-sliding doors. I put my hand on the door, ready to slowly draw it open so I could peek at the burglar. With my right hand I held my bamboo-bat, ready to strike if the enemy decided to attack.

But when I put my hand on the door, many things happened at once:

1. 1. The door flung open and somebody stepped outside.
2. 2. I instinctively grabbed my weapon with both hands and swung it forward.
3. 3. As the person was walking quite fast, the impact was doubled, and I heard a large “smack!” sound as the broom-handle hit the person straight in the face.

This all was followed by a loud “fumph!” as the burglar in question fell to the floor from the impact.

“That’ll teach you to rob my house!” I snarled and stepped forward, finally looking at the unconscious person lying on the floor.

“…………Eh?”

Right there, on a floor, lay………a girl.

Clad in white kimono with pictures of blue birds, with blue hair in tight ponytail of a warrior, two white-and-blue katanas at her waist and the long, Japanese-type pipe fallen from her lips. A girl who I had never seen before. To be honest, that extremely traditional clothing and her hairstyle almost reminded me of a samurai. No, wait. Since she’s a girl, shouldn’t it be an “onna bugeisha”?

-------------- What’s onna bugeisha? Basically a female samurai, if you hadn’t guessed yet. In any case, I’d categorize this girl as one. Despite the fact she ain’t bad looking, she has this far-too-tough look on her face to be subject of any kind of admiration.

I like my girls blonde and bouncy, after all.

Nevertheless, right there and then, she looked nothing like a burglar. Taking her clothing into account, she could just as well be someone with ties to this shrine, and had just come to check for things.

--------------- And I had knocked her out. Great.

“Of all the things I must experience…” I grumbled, before gently lifting her up from the floor, not forgetting to also pick up her pipe.

I headed over to the kitchen. There I could get some cold water, which would probably wake her up quite nicely. As I walked, I could not help to notice how light she was, even while wearing such clothes, not talking about the swords she had. It made the carrying easy, however, so I could not complain. Only sound that accompanied me was her slow breathing and creaking of the floor. The whole house was silent, but it did no longer feel eerie. They’re right about it, it seems. Humans only fear things they don’t know.

Opening the sliding door with my foot, I flipped the light on with my elbow and made her sit down on the old cushion next to the table. The table itself was old one, and had probably been attached to the floor, as it had been left there. After making sure she was breathing alright, I stood up and walked over to the faucet.

While waiting for the water to get cold, I picked up a large glass. Then I filled it to brim with ice-cold water, which should do well in waking her up.

“That is admirable, de gozaru. After defeating thine enemy, thou proceed to take care of her. Umu. Thou art a truly honorable person, stranger-dono.”

Would you believe me if I said I jumped up towards the roof like characters in cartoons? Because that was exactly what I just did. Straight up like jack-in-the-box, with the glass of water falling from my hands into the sink. As I turned around with speed of lightning, I came face-to-face with the earlier girl I had knocked out, the pipe was now hanging from her lips, and her stare had been fixed at me.

“May I ask thy name, stranger-dono? Or dost thou wish to remain nameless, de gozaru?” she asked me with a dialect that felt like a slap from Edo-period in my face.

“H-huh? Ah, I’m….Leon….no, wait! My name is not important, but the reason why you barged into my house in the middle of a night is!!” I regain my composure, and snap at girl. She does not seem even a slight bit scared of me, even though our height-difference should make me a giant in her eyes.

---- And even more than that, I’d like to know who the hell speaks like that anymore!

“Dost thou live in this shrine? My deepest apologies, Leon-dono. ‘Tis but a small misunderstanding, de gozaru. Hath the shrine been empty, this journey of mine would have most likely ended. But now that thou art here, Leon-dono, thou might be able to help me, de gozaru.”

“…Help? What are you talking about?” I grumbled as the weird girl took a step back, giving me a deep bow.

------ Geh. Just what is this disgustingly love-comedy-type turn of events? Don’t tell me she’ll ask if she can live here, which would eventually lead to bundle of funny but liiiiiiittle embarrassing scenes during which we learnto like each other, raising flags on the way like that famous, fat plumber?

Aaaaah! I don’t want it, can’t I just be left alone----!?

“Hark well, for ‘tis an important story, de gozaru. My nameth be Tsunemoto Tsubasa, and I have come here to offer a prayer for the goddess enshrined here. Her nameth be Sen-no-Hime, and she art the goddess of competition and martial arts, de gozaru. The importance of the prayer is untold, for without prayer for Sen-no-Hime, I would lose my qualification for entering the Tournament of One Thousand Blades”, she told me.

W-what? This isn’t love-comedy at all? More like, this is straight from Shonen Jump. The weekly one.

As we talked, we moved back to the table. She sat on the other end, while I sat on the other, with my back at the door. As this Tsubasa girl continued speaking, I begun to realize that there apparently was a world I had not been conscious till then. World that sounded nothing I’d really like.

“Tournament of One Thousand Blades? What the hell’s that?”

“Dost thou have never heard of Tournament of One Thousand Blades? It’d be a fabled tournament where the masters of martial arts from all over the world gather, de gozaru. Hath one prayed at the shrine of Sen-no-hime, the location of the tournament shalt be revealed.”

This…..sounds unexpectedly serious.

“That tournament…you mean it’s some kind of a death-match?” I grimaced at the thought. “Sorry, but even if I could help, I will not. I want no part in some kind of “tournament of killing-each-other”, lady.”

Maybe she didn’t like my words, but Tsubasa glares at me like I had insulted her honor in some way I had no idea……which might not be absolutely wrong. Japanese are strict about their honor, and this girl seems to be the epitome of that behavior.

“Thou art wrong, Leon-dono. The Tournament of One Thousand Blades is not about killing. Tis’ but a pure competition, de gozaru”, she answered with more power in her voice. However, that glare she had shown for a second melted into a smile after that. “Thy way to frown upon killing is admirable, however. Thou hast earned my respect, Leon-dono.”

A moment of embarrassing silence passes after this sentence, until I can finally direct it back to the right track by smacking the table with my fist, indicating I finally remembered what we had been talking about.

“So……you were saying something about needing my help…”

Tsubasa nodded seriously.

“I’d like to requeth thee to help me search for certain letter revealing the location of the tournament. Normally it’d be hidden on the backside of the sacred mirror representing the goddess Sen-no-Hime, but now, there’d be naught, de gozaru. I prithee, help me to find it.”

A letter on the back of a sacred mirror? Yeah, I saw the mirror as I made my first round around this house, but a letter like that did not catch my eye. But since the girl had come all the way here to see it, I figured it would the least I could do, if I’d help her.

However, as I was about to voice my thoughts, a third voice joined the fray. A one older than us and meaner than us.

“Don’t bother. I already took it myself. There’s no reason to have any more unnecessary people in the tournament.”

H-huh!?

I spun around as fast as I could, as the voice had come from behind me. There, in the doorway, stood a man I had never seen before. Clad in black and orange clothes that were vaguely like those used in China many centuries ago, he sneered at us like a wolf that had cornered it’s pray. A large, copper-colored sword was ready in his right hand.

Bastard, I know you! You were hanging around the high-rise earlier today! All that time, just waiting to sneak into this place!? Give me a break, man! No, wait a minute, I have more pressing problems with this fella here. Like that………sword………..in his hand.

-------- What the hell!? A Dao sword? Just whatt era is this guy from!? I already though Tsubasa had been weird, but now this! And not only that, but there was a curve at the center of percussion near the blade’s tip, meaning this was, in fact, a yanmao dao style sword. Thrusting or slashing, that sword offered a good balance between the two.

And, unfortunately, I was just at slashing range.

“I’m afraid I’ll be lessening that aforementioned group with two more. Now that you know I stole the letter, I can’t have you ratting to the Tournament Council. And even more…” man’s grin widened sadistically. “I can’t wait to try this new blade of mine, anyways. Be glad to be killed by me, Demon-Jian!”

Hey, wait a minute. This isn’t fair at all. Why can’t you take out your unsuppressed urge to kill to someone else!?

With that, the man made a sharp, round move with his right hand which was holding the sword. Over his shaved, bald head came the sword’s blade, straight towards me. It was a beautiful motion, perfectly executed. By using the power of his wrist, this man had created a spinning momentum which shot the sword into killing strike.

A killing strike headed straight towards me.

------------------------ Crap. Looks like this is it. Someone like me has no way to dodge a sword so fast.

“Whoever raiseth his sword against Leon-dono, shall be smitten down by me, de gozaru. Remember that, tsujigiri.”

Thum, thum, thum, thum rang out the footsteps of my guardian angel.

It was almost absurd to look. Even knowing the sword that was few inches from my head, I could not help but to marvel at Tsubasa’s footwork. Without even so much as a jump, she stepped on the table, ran forward like she still had been sitting Japanese-style, heels close to the inner leg. Her posture was perfect and unwavering, and speed second to none.

The sword flew from her waist, still in its scabbard. Dao sword was blocked by the blue lightweight wood, although it should not have been strong enough to acquire such a miracle. And not only that. The scabbard’s sleek surface allowed it to slide forward, and it hit man called Jian square in the face. This threw him off balance, but he managed to grab a hold of the scabbard.

Unfazed, Tsubasa took a double-hand grip from her katana and drew it back with one fast move. Sword came swishing out of the scabbard, saya, and gleamed in the lights of the night-time Tokyo outside.

Thrust, which was barely avoided by Jian. Sideways chop, which cut him in the shoulder. Vertical slash that did not let him retreat, and drew a bloody line across his chest. Without changing the direction she faced, Tsubasa gracefully sidestepped and was suddenly standing, as she came down from the table. But even then, the height at where her head was did not change an inch. So solid was her movement.

The katana that had been lowered was brought up in a slash from right to left, once again wounding Jian. Chop, slash, followed by another chop and a thrust. The dao sword had to do everything it could to even barely parry these strikes.

--------------- To an outsider, it might have looked like it was Tsubasa who was parrying the dao sword with her katana. But for a katana, which was lighter weapon, it would have been hard. No, the situation was complete reverse. Tsubasa was attacking without a moment’s rest, forcing Jian to return the strikes. Thus, the illusion of parrying.

“Damn you, little girl! Don’t underestimate me----!!!” Demon-Jian roared like a madman, retreating to the wall, before bouncing back forward like a rabbit. He used his left leg to gain even more airtime by kicking the wall on his left, thus pushing him all the way to the ceiling.

From there, he brought down his sword with one furious slash.

There was no parrying it. A katana would be, in worst case, shattered if something powerful like that hit it head on. And it would certainly spell the doom of Tsubasa, the samurai using the said katana.

-------------- And that was exactly why Tsubasa did the unthinkable.

She sidestepped towards the table, then moved a rapid one step forward, before sidestepping back. While doing that, she took the katana by reversed grip, with the handle forward. As Jian came down, unable to stop his momentum, Tsubasa struck the handle straight into his ribs, causing the warrior to bend over and spit blood from his mouth.

One side-step back, and the sword was switched back to its original grip, but with the blade’s direction reversed. A movement faster than the eye could register, with sword being raised above her head and brought down with chop-like movement. The katana hit Jian’s wrists with its dull edge, making him drop his weapon. Tsubasa quickly bent her left knee, stepped forward and kicked the sword out of his reach with her right leg. One step back, and she was in her original position, sword aimed at Jian, now with the sharp edge forward.

------------ The fight was over. With the strange combination of iaijutsu and battojutsu, Tsunemoto Tsubasa had won.

“Dost thou give up and return the letter? Or shalt I cut thee down like a common criminal, de gozaru?” Tsubasa asked with a voice of steel.

Jian cursed, and from his pocket, he dug up a wrinkled up old letter that he threw at blue-haired girl’s feet. Without hurry, lowering herself elegantly by bending her knees, Tsubasa picked the letter up and stood up. Not once during this time did her sword waver or was unfocused on its target.

“Just you wait, girl! We’re gonna meet again in the Tournament of One Thousand Blades, and there, I’m going to slice you in two!” Jian growled. And then his stance changed.

Too late did I realize what he was going to do. He strained her knees, and before I could react to it, leapt towards the window behind him. I reached out my hand, tried to yell, but too late.

“Don’t do it! There’s----“

Crash! Demon-Jian had escaped through the window with victorious laugh.

“…………..A freefall of 110 meters below.”

There was a long silence after that. The situation itself was so full of black humor neither Tsubasa nor I could say anything.

T-this isn’t some kind of cartoon, isn’t this?

……………..

After we had recovered from the foolish escape of the crazy swordsman, I turned to face Tsubasa, who was now reading the letter that Jian had given her.

“Did you find the place where that tournament is being held?” I asked, peeking at the letter from above her shoulder. Samurai-girl nodded.

“Umu. The writing of this letter has informed me of it, de gozaru. But that poseth another problem. A one where thou might once again help me. Prithee, shalt thou listen to my requeth?”

Although the way she worded it was quite a weird, I did get the gist of it. And with slight hesitation, I nodded. It was just a request. If it proved to be impossible for me, I could just say no.

“The Tournament of One Thousand Blades shall be held in here, Tokyo, de gozaru. That is why I ask thee, Leon-dono: Could doth allow me to sleep in this shrine during the time I shall spend in the tournament?”

W------what!?

As in, live here together!?

It still came! I thought I had avoided her path, but this damn onna bugeisha appeared from behind and cornered me before I could even come up with a counter-attack!

I would have wanted to say no, but knowing that this place had many empty rooms, it could have made our newly-formed bond rather strained. That is why, fully knowing I would regret it later, I nodded.

“…….Fine. Do as you wish.”

“Great! I shalt serve thee while living this shrine, Leon-dono, to the best of my abilities! Although I do not know how long shalt this tournament go on, I wish we would get along during my stay here, de gozaru.”

And with those words, my life with the probably last onna bugeisha of modern era started.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“Hast thou done nothing but sleep all day, Leon-dono?”

“My money~! It’s low~!.................But that does not mean I want to work, ya know?”

“W-who art thee? Hath thou escaped while thou still had a chance, I would have overlooked this. Alas, thou art now in my grasp. Prepare thyself!”

“Hey………That’s……No way…….But isn’t that------???!?”

“Nin-Nin!”

New life of Battle ~ A rival appears!?[/I]

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Two
New life of Battle ~ A rival appears!?

Rule #1 when living with a samurai:

----------------- Take your naps outside.

“Leon-dono-----------! Where art thou-----!?” rang out the now-familiar yell of my room-mate. Familiar in a way that I no longer jumped up, unsure who it was, and thus revealed my hiding place.

My life had just had a head-on collision with a freight-train loaded with 10 tons of problems and awkwardness. Now the pieces from both had intermingled, creating a jungle of normal days that a guy like me has trouble venturing through.

I’m not actually sure where I went wrong. Allowing Tsubasa to sleep in my house was a one thing. The damn shrine was big enough for a full laestadian-family to sleep in, so I thought there might not be problem in letting one girl sleep in there. Sure, it could be problematic, but hey: It’s not like I thought my normal way of life would be disturbed by this new tenant.

Oh, how naïve I was when I was young.

--------------------- Which was three days ago.

In any case: My life is now something akin to a health-and-fitness show. For some reason unknown to me, Tsunemoto Tsubasa had gotten a weird idea from the way I had knocked her out with that handle of a broom.

“Leon-dono, I bring a requeth to thee, if thou would listen. I would want thee to become my mentor, ‘shishou’, de gozaru. Thou hast bested me in the art of swords, and I would like to learn from a master like thee.”

-----------------What? Death flag? No, clearly this in a new type of a flag, named: “Idiot flag”.

This isn’t manga you silly girl! I can’t teach someone who clearly has surpassed me in the “art of swords” while still in her mother’s womb, in case you weren’t born straight from the side of a mountain, as your physique hints.

“I shalt be in thy guidance from now on, Shishou. Please, take care of me, de gozaru”, she said while bowing so low her head touched the floor.

------------- Of course she was sitting Japanese-style, you idiot. Nobody could touch the floor with their heads while standing.

But more importantly! I said I couldn’t do it! But she did not listen, and so here I am, trying to hide from Tsubasa while napping, dreaming I could tie her up with all those “De gozaru”s, and ship her to the other side of the world.

At this point, somebody surely goes: “But at least you don’t get bored, right?”. As much as it eases your boredom, having someone act like a rejected protagonist from an old Kurosawa film in your already ridiculous house is like getting rid of back-itch by knocking yourself unconscious.

This explains why I’m on my back in the patch of grass outside the shrine, sleeping behind a bush that covers me nicely from view. The only way that idiot samurai could now see me would be climbing up the wall of the high-rise. A feat that would be nigh impossible, yet I wouldn’t put it past her. So here I can only hope that she is content in searching with ways that normal humans are capable of.

If you didn’t count the fool who thought me as her mentor, my life had become somewhat good, here in this new country, new city and new apartment. Sure, I had been here for only four days, but still, everything was turning out alright, even though in the beginning my future had looked grim.

But it was summer. Sun shone hotly, the sky was blue, I had no job which would have cut down my free time, nor did I attend to local university.

In other words, complete freedom.

These lazy days were the best kind of vaccine to the hectic escape I had had from my hometown, and now, as I lay here, under the blazing sun, I could easily dismiss those events that had happened as bad dream. Listening to the sound of the city from below, and the distant roar of an airplane, I could just take it easy and take things with my own pace, without worrying about anything. The world I saw tinted orange through my sunglasses was so peaceful right now, I almost suspected something was wrong.

-------------- Aah, but who cares, right? I can take my naps, so everything is alright, right?

Grrrrrrrr!

According to my stomach, it was not alright. I could guess that if my stomach sent a letter of complaint to me, all the trees in Japan would not be enough to make paper for it.

“Ah----! That voice! Leon-dono----???”

Crap. Looks like my traitorous stomach gave away my position. That girl sure has ears like real dog’s, even though otherwise she’s more like those ten stone guardian dogs in front of the shrine.

A set of quick footsteps, rustle of the bush, and suddenly I see Tsubasa’s face filling my vision. As I lay on the ground, she glares from above, her blue eyes telling me she is now quite magnificently restricting herself from telling exactly what’s on her mind, or more likely, what’s she’s thinking of me right now. Not to talk about the cloud of smoke she blows on my face.

Dammit, woman. Smoking pipe at so young age is bad for you, ya know?

“Hast thou done nothing but sleep all day, Leon-dono?”

Her question is more like a accusation. It’s true, of course, but the way she words it makes it sound like it’s something bad.

“Is it wrong even if I hadn’t? It’s not like I have anything to do”, I answer, already preparing my guard against her comments about my laziness. Instead, however, this girl sighs heavily.

“I am not saying thou art wrong, Leon-dono. Yet the perils of laziness are many, and even though thou are a great warrior, thy spirit must not be let grow accustomed to slow lifestyle. It could be thy undoing, de gozaru.”

“Hey, I told you: I’m no warrior. That hit right there was just a lucky strike, that’s all. Now could you let me sleep? There’s plenty of this summer sun’s warmth still to go, and I intend to catch it all”, I try to chase her away, but she shakes her head with annoyingly know-it-all expression on her face.

“Again with such humbleness, de gozaru…”

This girl would be deaf right now if the sound that grinding teeth together makes would grow according to your level of sheer annoyance.

As I refused to answer and dig myself deeper into this swamp of misunderstandings, there grew a long, slightly awkward silence between us. Only thing I saw was the face of Tsubassa through my orange sunglasses, and only thing she saw was me. Even though any outsider who would have seen this scene would have been sure I just triggered a flag, the explanation was far simpler: I was too lazy to look away, and Tsubasa stubbornly waited for me to speak.

“Why don’t you try it, too? Taking it easy isn’t that bad, every now and then.”

------- Tsubasa actually manages to look confused. Haven’t you ever just relaxed at your own pace, girl?

“I must ask thee, dost thou believe it is safe for even me to relax like that? If enemy would arrive, we shall be in trouble”, she asks with bit troubled face.

“Oh, just can it and lie on your back, here, on the grass. It’s about time.”

“Time, de gozaru?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

As awkwardly as a manatee on dry land, Tsubasa sat on the ground and lied down, making sure her sword didn’t get caught in painful position. It looked like kimono was not the easiest clothing to do such movement, but Tsubasa managed it surprisingly gracefully. She had to hold her long, Japanese-style pipe between her teeth so it would not fall. As she had mimicked my posture almost hilariously detailedly, she turned to look at me.

“So…………..what dost thou require me to do now, de gozaru?”

I chuckled and put my hands behind my head for a makeshift pillow, focusing my eyes straight up.

“Now you’ll have to wait. It shouldn’t take more than a minute before she-“

And as soon as I had said that………………..”she” appeared.

Riding a sleek-looking skateboard, this girl “rode” through the sky, right above us.

It was an amazing sight. She had gathered speed from the high-rise north of ours, grinded the rail of the other building that acted as something akin to a bridge between these buildings, and then jumped, which pretty much made her soar above our high-rise and land on to the next one, out of our sight.

I’m not sure why she did it. Maybe she enjoyed the thrill?

Pink hair flowing like a swallow’s tail behind her, dressed in fashionable clothing that would not protect her in any way if she fell. Well, if she actually fell, not even a Kevlar-armor would save her from certain death. But I knew that was not what she was thinking about. Just by looking at her, I knew she was simply enjoying the feeling of becoming one with the wind.

---------- I could relate to that.

And before you mention it, no, I was not looking at this girl’s panties. Of course, it wasn’t because she was wearing shorts under that skirt! It’s just generally rude to look at girl’s panties, that’s all!

…………..But if she hadn’t wore shorts, I guess I couldn’t have stopped myself from seeing them, right?

Three days ago, I had noticed this girl. And after that, I realized she must have gone through this “track” every day. Because as sure as clockwork, she jumped over my house as the clock hit half-past midday.

“Ah…”

I heard Tsubasa draw breath beside me.

---------------- Well, I guess it was same with the participants of the Tournament of One Thousand Blades.

They too wanted to enjoy the ultimate thrill, the chance to go all out with their all of their power, might and knowledge, not holding back one bit, seeing how far they could make. Each battle was like this course for that skateboarder-girl. They reached forward, putting everything they had as a wager, in order to see if the roulette paid off and they reached the other side.

If you were good at something, you wanted to see how far your skills would carry you.

That is the basic principle in everything.

“Strange………….I guess I just understood you a little, Tsubasa.”

“W-what dost thou mean, Leon-dono?” Tsubasa was clearly startled by my sudden voice.

------------------ A~ah! Now I feel like doing something.

“Hey, Tsubasa, let’s get going”, I suddenly declared, jumping up and flexing my tired limbs.

“Going, de gozaru? Where to, Leon-dono?” she asked, standing up with the grace of a running water.

------------- Oh geez, miss, thanks. Compared to you, my movements look like drunkard racing against cheetah.

“I think we’re missing some vitals here, in this house. Don’t you?” I asked, with slight grin sneaking upon my lips.

A plan was forming in my head. A plan that had taken fruit when I saw the old and dusty record-player in the corner of my room, forgotten by the last tenant who had been tricked by that fox of a woman.

“Are thou speaking of food? There art still few leftovers left in the fridge, I believe…….”

“Ah, no, no!” I chuckled. “It’s too quiet in here. I think we need some music.”

----------------- Tsubasa could not have looked more dumbfounded even if I had just revealed myself to be a robotic cat from the future.

“In other words, we’re going to look for good CDs!”

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

If there is one good thing about Japan, and especially Tokyo, it seems that they have lots of specialized shops spread all over the city. Having seen couple of video rentals, video game stores, book stores and all that kind of places around my neighborhood, it did not seem too far-fetched for there to be a record store somewhere in there.

And that was exactly what I was searching for with Tsubasa right now.

“Leon-dono! ‘Tis area hath no store as thou dost describe. Shall we conduct a search in the next district, de gozaru?”

“Good job, Tsubasa. Let’s move on.”

----------- Why do I have this mental image of blue-colored, overly-zealous tracking dog?

Should I explain a bit what this aforementioned “my neighborhood” is like? To be honest, this neighborhood was about the size of a small city, as that was what it pretty much was. Small city that had been swallowed up by huge kaiju-monster called Tokyo. To be a city that was apparently pretty much annually destroyed by a gigantic lizard, it sure was growing well. While the rest of the world had had problems with money, business had been booming here in the orient. Well, not anymore, at least. No matter how much people tried, recess was creeping up like Mothra from the skies.

Minato ward was pretty much one of those wards that were situated close enough to the center of the Tokyo without being too close to it. By the looks of it, new buildings were finished each passing day, and by the end of the week it had been taken over by some up-and-coming company, led by a young and promising man who had the business-idea of the century in his mind. In the midst of rises and falls of these countless of companies, all the other necessities to entertain the bored families of the employees had made their way into this city. This included countless of shops, specialty places like arcades, libraries, schools, hospitals, you name it.

Not only that, but the place was filled with people coming and going, not to talk about cars that had claimed the road on their own, save for few motorcycles and scooters that braved these concrete seas, probably feeling every day the same kind of nervous tension as those unfortunate clams felt that fateful day on the beach of Normandy.

---- I’ve wanted to say this for a while, but………your people are also driving on the wrong side of the road, Nippon.

Man oh man, Japan had truly become a place fit for the new millennia which was at the door, ringing the doorbell and hoping the father would not be too harsh on his daughter’s newest suitor.

“Leon-dono, dost thou think we should search from this area, de gozaru? If there art a store as thou described, this looketh like are it might belong to.”

------------ Crawl back to your time capsule, onna bugeisha. Hearing you speak that way amongst all these modern buildings is getting ridiculous.

After approximately ten minutes of more searching, we finally find the record store. Driven into corner of one street by seemingly ever-expanding MacRonald’s next to it, it hid away from most of the public who probably wouldn’t even dare to step inside into such shabby looking store. But to me, it was the most welcoming sight. After all, isn’t it an universally accepted fact that the more run-down a record store is, the more rare albums and singles you’ll find in there?

----- Of course, in those stores the employees tend to be elitist bastards, but as long as the only thing they can charge you is what you buy, not their lectures about the far better quality of that certain dirty brown guitar Les Paul made in accident, everything’s good.

Chi-ching!

Ah, you mass-produced chime that seem to have infested every store throughout the world. What could make me feel more at home than you?

“L-Leon-dono…….isn’t this place quite….suspicious? Thou might not know, but commoners hath habit of using places run-down as this to smuggle illegal goods from overseas, de gozaru”, Tsubasa whispered to my ear as we stepped inside.

“I think you’d find quite many things that you’d regard as suspicious in this store’s backroom, but I’m afraid none of them has anything to do with smuggling. Moreover, it’s perfectly legal to trade with foreign countries nowadays, we aren’t in Edo-period anymore, idiot.”

Don’t they call this tsukkomi in Japanese comedy? I think I’m doing this kind of thing daily after meeting Tsubasa…

The shop is, as expected, not a well kept place. The walls are covered in posters of old Japanese and American bands, and shelves full of old cds. Smaller shelves form some kind of isles in the middle of the shop, forcing people to walk through these tight “alleys”. Cashier’s desk is straight to the left from the door, and that’s where I turn at first, meaning to see what kind of employee does this place has.

What I see is an ass in jean shorts.

“H-Hindenburg in two!” I blurt out before I manage to think twice.

“Oh? Well, I can understand the shape, and I know it’s hot, so it does fit, boya.”

Owner of the ass acknowledges my accidental compliment. And shows me a lazy smile as she turns around.

This beauty-with-butt has apparently been in sun for too long, as even though she is clearly of Japanese heritage, her tan is almost foreigner-like. Still, black hair and eyes are almost dead giveaway. Dressed in nothing more but the aforementioned shorts and black tank-top, and showing off her tattoos like a male-peacock doing his dance, I’m forced to re-evaluate my thoughts about the management of this shabby record store.

“Hello and welcome, to ‘Who Made Who’, the best record store you can find these days in Minato ward! I’m the manager, Coco. Nice to meet’cha!”

Like the hell you are! Everybody can spot such an obvious fake name from miles away!

“It is a pleasure to meet thee, Coco-dono. I am here to accompany my shishou, Leon-dono who hath taken as his quest to find this store, de gozaru”, Tsubasa answered before I could, giving a deep bow to the manager of the store.

“Yes, yes, I know…….just try to act like everything’s normal, and you’ll soon be automatically ignoring it”, I whispered to confused looking Coco-san.

“……Edo-period?”

“I’ve been thinking that too. But I couldn’t find a time-machine in her luggage, so……”

Hell, from the start, this girl had no luggage at all!

“Ahahaha, well, I see, that’s the case, is it, ahahaha!” Coco tried to smooth over the whole thing with laugh, not noticing her words didn’t quite make sense. Then, regaining her composure, she pointed us towards the shelves. “Help yourselves with the stuff. If you need to find something specific, don’t come asking me. I got assistant to help customers with that kind of thing, but looks like she’s late today, so no can do, ahahaha!”

Don’t laugh, you horror of the shopping channel! If you don’t have customer service hotline, you shouldn’t be proud of it, dammit!!

“In any case, look around as much as you want! Be it songs from our island nation, or imports from the west, you’ll probably find it here, ahahaha!”

And so we did, despite my grumbling. The fact that I could get in touch with the western world through music was so tempting I forgot the slight contempt I held towards this woman who had never heard of the term “customer-service”.

I dug into the shelves full of records, followed by Tsubasa who had never apparently seen a world like this. She kept staring everything with her blue eyes wide open, carefully taking out albums from the shelves and examining them. I don’t think she understood anything when I told her about differences between singles and albums, different genres of music or quality of recordings, but she kept nodding and letting out little sounds like “hmmm”, “I see” and “De gozaru”, so I guess she just liked listening to someone explain something.

It’s a weird phenomenon, I know, but when someone who actually knows about stuff they talk about explains something, it becomes very easy to just go along with the flow and listen, even though you wouldn’t get it at all. At least when they are not trying to show off with their knowledge.

After a while of searching, I begun to grow suspicious. Sure, there were lot of records, but most of them were of Japanese origin, and 90% of them had some…..big-headed cartoon characters in their cover art. With really big eyes.

“…………just what is this crap? Sailor Senshi…….? Bunch of girls?”

“Doth hast found something interesting, Leon-dono. Just whoever might this drawn character be, de gozaru?” Tsubasa accidentally informed me that even she had no idea what this thing was.

“Oh? That’s anime soundtrack, boya.”

------- Didn’t you say you weren’t going to pitch in when help was needed, manager-san?”

“Ani………mei?”

“Anime. Animated television series, shown here in Japan. It’s still kind of a niche thing abroad, but I hear it’s started to make bigger impression of itself in recent years. You wouldn’t believe how devoted some fans are. And that’s exactly the reason what gives rise to plethora of character albums and soundtracks being released”, Coco explained. Unfortunately, it didn’t make this new form of entertainment really that much clearer to me.

“Oh, so it is that, de gozaru. My esteemed father-dono hath been, and art still, a loyal fan of Tomorrow’s Joe, which I believe to be one of these animes, de gozaru.”

----------- What? The whole thought of some old man with eyebrows like somebody had karate-chopped Brezhnev right in the middle of the forehead-wrinkles watching an animated show about some…….Joe? Whatever-man was highly ridiculous.

My favorite word lately: Ridiculous. My life had become just that.

“Ah, whatever. I’ll just try to find something good from these American imports you have……..”

Sinking deep into defeat, I continued my search…….

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

“That’d be 7520 yen~”

“Tsubasa, pay up.”

“……..Leon-dono? What art the meaning of this treachery?”

Ooooooh, it seems that the cool samurai exterior begins to crack when money is of question.

“My money~! It’s low~!.................But that does not mean I want to work, ya know?” I gave her a slight grin. “You’re freeloading at my place as it is now. I think it’s only fair that you help me out every now and then.”

“……As thou wish, de gozaru.”

Grudgingly, the blue-haired girl pays up, and thus puts her economic ability together with that of the Hart household.

“Hahaha, well--! Since you bought these albums, they belong to the household now, so they are property of both of us. You’re free to listen to them whenever you want, too.”

Tsubasa looks at me rather surprised, as if asking if I was one of those suspicious loan-sharks in tv-dramas these days. My nod seemed to dissolve those fears, as she took the albums from Coco with her usual, confident expression and gave deep bow to the manager.

“May the rest of the day be pleasant to thee.”

Oh, what albums did we by?

Right now, tucked under Tsubasa’s arm, are…….

1. “Greatest Hits” of Survivor, from one year ago. If anything was more planted into USA, watered with USA and had burrowed its root deep into USA, I didn’t know it. With hits like “Eye of the Tiger” and “The Moment of Truth”. Really, the fact that they had so an recent album was astonishing.

2. The one and only “Back in Black”, by Australian devils, the AC/DC. To the glam-rock-esque songs of Survivor, we had true Hard Rock from the 80’s. A little beaten up record had proven to be still in playable condition as we had checked it in the shop. That was why, right now, inside my mind I sang about certain woman knocking me out with those American thighs.

3. Last but definitely not least, a true gem of them all. George Thorogood & The Destroyers, with their infamous “Bad to the Bone” album. Blues-rock that would balance of the two other albums was necessary, and there was nothing that did it better than this. Not to talk about Carter’s sax, which would fight for supremacy against Thorogood’s voice in the title song of the whole album.

We were in good hands. Western world had not yet abandoned me here, in middle of Japan.

“Come again, boya! And bring that girl with ya too!” Manager said with grin while waving at us.

Damn you, fox-eyes. The next time I appear, I’ll make sure that damn assistant of yours is here in order to get some service.

With little more force than maybe was needed, I pushed the door open and got out to the street, bumping perfectly into passer-by. The said person stumbled few steps, before she spun around on her heels to face me and Tsubasa who had just closed the door behind her. This passer-by then pointed her finger angrily at me and yelled.

“Hey, wat’chit where you’re going, you damn-“

------------------------------!!!!!!!

“O-Orca!?”

“Aaah!! It’s you!! And stop calling me that, oaf!!”

In that instant, a string of exceedingly bad memories from the train-station flash through my mind. I find myself staring at a familiar face.

Sure, the clothes she now wears are different. She didn’t have that black and white jacket with hood before, nor those white shorts, but what I recognize is that slightly tanned skin, wild, black hair pointing upwards like a dorsal fin and those green, rude eyes. No, no, that’s not it either. How could I forget those ridiculous tattoos that are around her eyes, making her seem like a true-blue orcinus orca in human form!?

“Leon-dono, who art this-“

“Nobody, that’s who! We saw no one!” I say while quickly taking a grip of Tsubasa’s hand.

And then it’s dash!

We leave the small middle-schooler behind in a flash, even though she tries to chase after us. God bless her short legs.

“H-hey, ge’bback here this instant!! I’m not through with’ya yet, you food-thief!! I want my revenge, one more duel-----!!!”

“No way!!”

I flat-out refuse. I’m not getting associated with that girl ever again.

Also, forgive my poor translation. I did not have time to study Okinawan dialect that the girl uses as much as I had time to study basic Japanese.

“Food thief? Leon-dono…” Tsubasa’s words and eyes tell clearly what’s in her mind right now.

“No…..it’s a long story. You don’t want to hear it, really. Just let it be. I’m trying to forget it, too.”

Maybe Tsubasa understood the hidden meaning behind my words.

------- Really. I just want to forget everything regarding that girl.

………

……

…

We only stop running after the elevator-doors close, announcing our triumphant return to our home-turf. Hummmmm, the elevator goes, without any “slightly uncomfortable but not enough so you can’t really complain” music that usually accompanies these places in the west.

“But……Orca….de gozaru?”

“She certainly looks like one, doesn’t she?”

“Y-yes…..disturbingly so. She art……exactly like that wolf of the seas.”

Fortunately we agree about some things today.

Ding!

And so the doors slide to the side, letting us back to the roof overrun by grass that has become our home in past few days. The eleven stone-dog-guardians welcome us with their terrifying gazes, which makes me thankful that the toilet is not outside the shrine.

In rather “I’d like to talk but I’m afraid this atmosphere would not produce a conversation not idiotic” kind of atmosphere we made our way to the front door. Walking on the stone tiles reminded me that they too would have to be replaced when this place was going to be finally renovated. I mentioned about this and pointed out one tile as example for Tsubasa, and so we both leaned downwards to measure their overall condition. It was then that I spoke to her with voice nothing louder that whisper.

“You’ve noticed it, haven’t you?”

“Intruder, de gozaru.”

Had I not engraved this place into both of our memories while playing hide-and-nap-and-seek with Tsubasa during these past few days, we would have been taken in by surprise. Unfortunately for this perpetrator, we were well-versed in this environment, and that was why we noticed if something was amiss…………….or more precisely, if something had been added.

Without changing our expressions, we once again headed towards the shrine, as if nothing was out of ordinary. But as we passed a komainu without a pair, standing there in the row all by its own……………….

Tsubasa’s sword flew out of the scabbard and sliced that komainu.

Flutter, scatter! The evasive movement was perfectly executed as Tsubasa had sliced. Even though the figure that had been hiding in disguise had rolled backwards, it had, during the whole time, kept eye-contact with Tsubasa. Not only that, but as it rose up in kneeled position, the right hand was brought down in whip-like movement, sending three throwing starts hurling towards Tsubasa with deadly precision and force. But for someone like the blue-haired samurai, blocking them was easy. She did it with one-hand grip, before switching back to two-handed one.

The figure stayed still. It had not used the chance when Tsubasa was blocking to escape. Why?

……………I’m afraid I know the answer.

“W-who art thee? Hath thou escaped while thou still had a chance, I would have overlooked this. Alas, thou art now in my grasp. Prepare thyself!” Tsubasa recovered from the surprise and got back her usual posture.

What she was facing was someone dressed in black garments, lamellar-armor in her shins, arms, shoulders and knees. Loose garments, like her trousers, had been secured with a belt so that they would not flap while moving, creating unnecessary noise. That one piece of clothing in martial arts, tenugui, covered lower half of her face. Upper, however, was visible, and I saw the golden eyes that were fixated onto Tsubasa. White, short hair gave the eyes almost otherworldly contrast.

Why……did I feel like this person was from the exactly same time capsule as Tsubasa was?

“Hey………That’s……No way…….But isn’t that------???!?”

On this day and age………….isn’t it ridiculous!??

“That mark on thy shoulder……..thou art of Fūma-clan, art thou not!?” Tsubasa continued to press on the enemy’s identity.

H-hey, c’mon now….

“Nin-Nin”, was the cool, indifferent answer of the golden-eyed girl.

…

That girl’s a ninja for crying out loud!!!

“Fūma Rina. That is this one’s name. You two must be eliminated the residents of this sacred shrine. The ones to be eliminated must be you two.”

Why!? Why did these weirdoes get attracted to my home like this!?

“Leon-dono, stand back! I shalt handle her!” Tsubasa said with strong voice as she stepped forward to meet this adversary. This Fūma Rina, on other hand……..

Conjured up a pair of sai from the shadows.

“Eh?” my dumbfounded voice resonated. And that was the starting signal for yet another battle.

Fūma Rina charged forward.

Whereas Tsubasa had her second sword in the scabbard at her waist, this ninja-girl had armed both of her hands, and thus was able to dish out a flurry of thrusts the moment she caught up with Tsubasa. Six, to be exact. It took for so long for Tsubasa to regain her balance after the initial charge and swing her sword in defense. In the open ground, Fūma Rina had no place to trap the blade with her zai, and thus she was forced to roll out of the way of the strike.

What followed was ferocious chop from Tsubasa, which could have easily cleaved a man in two. I saw her gritting her teeth together so hard I was afraid she’d break her pipe. But that chop was for naught, as the elusive enemy had once again moved out of the way.

The first important rule of ninjutsu: Move out of the way.

Of the two fighters, Fūma Rina had far more in terms of evasiveness. Tsubasa’s footwork was solid, but her posture was sharp and stiff, like all those who fought with long sword. In order to keep the strength of her strike powerful enough to defeat an enemy with only one, she had to sacrifice much in terms of movement.

------------- And that was where this shinobi’s advantage lay!

A completely unfair match-up. Ninjutsu was, first and foremost, art which employed flowing through enemy’s strikes. I saw that from how, instead of backing up from Tsubasa’s vertical slash, Fūma Rina lunged forward, placing herself against Tsubasa’s arms, the place where the blade did not reach. From there, she switched to grip which brought the handles of the zai forward and delivered two punches straight to the head of Tsubasa, who had no way of dodging.

Staggering backwards, Tsubasa moved behind one stone guardian dog in order to get some distance to this agile enemy. But for no avail. Fūma Rina switched the sai of her right hand into her left, and spun around, her now-free right hand taking out something from inside her robes. That being….

----------- A fan of kunai!??

Like a fan she spread it out, all seven laid on her hand, beautifully arranged. But it was deadly, oh so deadly. Using the momentum of her spin as her advantage, those kunais where thrown forward, and they all found they target in Tsubasa’s body.

Shoulders, right thigh, left arm, two to the stomach and final one to the shin. Blood colored Tsubasa’s white kimono, and she gritted her teeth in pain.

But no cry of pain. She was a strong girl, far stronger than I was. And that was why she could counter-attack, execute her daring plan, even though the kunais had dug deep into her body.

Yes……it had been her daring plan.

--------Because Tsubasa was already on the move as the kunais had hit!!!

She jumped over the komainu, using the pedestal as her stepping stone. Right hand brought the katana down in one furious slash like a shooting star. Without letting out even a noise of surprise, Fūma Rina rolled backwards, dodging the slash. However….

“Too slow, de gozaru!!”

It was the left hand. The left hand was the one that scored the first hit. Drawing the another sword from the waist, it proceeded to swing the deadly weapon in a vertical slash, cutting a long wound into the area between Fūma Rina’s stomach and chest. And blood had been drawn from the white-haired ninja, too.

“Fffffhhhh!”

I now understood why Fūma Rina had not spoken once after the fight had started. From her mouth, she spat out a cloud of green smoke, a poison mist which blinded Tsubasa momentarily and burnt her skin. Unable to continue her momentum, blue-haired samurai stumbled backwards……and had the long truncheon plunged into her side.

“Gaaaahhh!!” For the first time she cried in pain. But even as the pain assaulted her body, Tsubasa did not lose her will to fight.

Enemy’s weapon was in her side. That meant enemy’s hand must have been there too. And for enemy’s hand to be there, it was easy to calculate where the enemy was, even without seeing!!!

Horizontal slash with the left and a overhead chop with the right, two blades cut Fūma Rina’s flesh and she was forced to retreat, leaving a bloody trail and her sai behind. Armed now with only one weapon, she faced Tsubasa who had suppressed her sense of pain, and pointed both of her swords at Fūma Rina….

No.

She sheathed them.

“For us to be on this path to the temple, ‘tis be naught but bad luck for thee, de gozaru. Thou faceth a blades of blue bird, and both can kill thee. But thy kunai did their job, and I cannot use my left hand, de gozaru. Thus…..thou must guess. Which sword shall I use, de gozaru?” Tsubasa spoke, which caused Fūma Rina to tense up.

Ah, that’s when I understood.

Battoujutsu. Tsubasa was now on her home turf.

The small aisle or path that the komainu created was a perfect environment to perform an attack like that. A true gamble of blades. Capable of using only one hand, Tsubasa was forced to do a choice between the swords, one that could cost her the match. And by making Fūma Rina realize this, she pressured the other girl, forcing her to also choose, which way to defend.

If this wasn’t a devil’s gamble, then what was?

“Here shall I come, de gozaru!”

Her running speed was awesome.

The energy that was created by the velocity of Tsubasa’s run would all gather into her sword strike, making the slash a true one-hit-KO……………if it would hit. All that made the difference was how the both girls would choose.

Would it be………..Tsubasa’s victory?

Or would it be………..Fūma Rina’s victory?

“Haaaaaaaa-----!!!”

I was about to see!!

Tsubasa’s form changed, and she readied her hand, as the other leg stepped forward in order to stop her movement after running. The hand wavered in the air between two swords for blink of an eye, before steering sharply……

“Left, de gozaru!!!”

Why did she announce it? Did she think it as an honorable thing to do?

That fool!!

She heard the shout, and thus, Fūma Rina was able to dodge immediately after the sword left it’s scabbard. A slash from the left scabbard would go in 90 degree angle, to the right. It was the most obvious scenario, and so she acted accordingly, rolling to the right. As the sword rose, she would be under the blade, ready to plunge her other sai into Tsubasa.

……………………Man…..what a dirty trick, Tsubasa.

For Fūma Rina was caught cleanly into slash going from right to left. A slash that came from sword leaving the right scabbard.

“AaAaaaaaahhh!!!” The girl that had been emotionless till now screamed. She had lowered her position, ready to roll to the right, only to have a sword slash right across her body, drawing a bloody line, so that now it looked like she had X-shaped scar on her chest.

It was……a really dirty trick. But so basic, she could not blame herself for falling it.

Have you guys ever heard of this peculiar, Japanese version of Rock-Paper-Scissors? It’s called Jan-Ken-Pon, and it has hundreds of variations. But this one peculiar one is what reflects to what just happened to here. See, whenever someone wins that Rock-Paper-Scissors, he must shout “look that way” and point one direction. The loser must look in the exact opposite direction in order to win. If not, the winner can punch the loser. That is, if the one ordered looks in the direction pointed at. A cruel little game, but one that was much like what just happened.

Tsubasa, knowing her chances were 50/50 when choosing the swords, decided to cheat in the Devil’s gamble. By yelling “left!” the moment just she drew her sword, she caused an instant reaction in Fūma Rina, who was already tense of waiting. Involuntary movement, where Fūma Rina’s body moved before she could process the information through her brain. You see, instead of going to the brain, the information of Tsubasa’s voice passed through the reflex arc straight into Fūma Rina’s spinal cord, and she reacted, not with her mind, but with her body.

Her reflex was faster than her thinking. Tsubasa had literally ordered Fūma Rina where she wanted her to be.

“Now tell me why hast thou trespassed in our home, or I shall-“

“Nah, let’s leave it at that, Tsubasa.”

Apparently I surprised both her and the ninja-girl writhing in pain on the ground, as both looked at me, dumbfounded.

D-damn, what are you staring me like that??

I scratched the back of my head, before walking over to the two.

“Really, you defeated her already, so it’s alright, isn’t it? You’re both here for the Tournament, so it’s not like you want to fight to the death, right?” I asked from them. As Fūma Rina heard this, her eyes widened in surprise.

“You are….in the Tournament?” her emotionless, yet pained, voice asked.

“Yeah. Well, this blue-haired doofus is, at least. I’m just a guy who lives here, and got involved”, I answered as I crouched down, helping her into sitting-position while examining the wounds on her body.

“This one is….sorry. This one thought you must people not involved, who just happened to live in a place which would be filled with lot of strong and dangerous fighters soon. The ones in danger like that must have been you………or so this one thought.”

I snorted.

“I realized that from the start. Not once did you actually try to use attacks that would have been lethal towards Tsubasa. It gave me a hint that you weren’t really trying to kill us.”

“D-dost thou speak the truth, de gozaru?” Tsubasa asked from Fūma Rina.

“Yes. This one swears it on the honor of her clan.”

This was followed up by little awkard silence, which Tsubasa used to pull the sai from her side out.

------------- It’s like watching two kids meet for the first time. Both of them are stiff, probably because of their traditional upbringing. Yet I can see they don’t actually want to be hostile.

Heh. Samurai and ninja are being shy towards each other.

“W-what art thou snickering at, Leon-dono?” Tsubasa asked from me, looking little peeved. I waved my hand.

“Ah, nothing, nothing. Don’cha worry about it.” I chuckled, before turning back to Rina. With her acceptance, I lifted her up from the ground via princess-carry style. Looking at those wounds, she would have had trouble moving herself, so I thought I might help out.

“Wasn’t there an old first-aid kit in the kitchen, Tsubasa? Let’s fetch that, so I can path you two rascals up.”

“R-rascals? What art thou implying, de gozaru??”

“Well, it looks like that, doesn’t it? Two kids have been playing all day long, getting bruises and such in the process, and the older brother has to put band-aids on them.”

“….Art thou likening the fabled Tournament of One Thousand Blades into a childs’ play?”

“N-no, no. Don’t show such a terrible face, geez.”

Bickering like this, we headed towards the shrine. After a while, even the doll-like, emotionless Rina could not help but to join into conversation.

“……..there truly is an aura of warmth around you. That aura of warmth, it truly is there. This one is bit jealous.”

“Well, to speak the truth…..”, Tsubasa seemed to make a decision, as she inhaled from her pipe and blew a cloud of smoke before continuing. “…..There art empty rooms in this house, de gozaru. Thou can liveth there, if thou want so. Dost thou see such an arrangement as a nuisance, de gozaru?”

W-what?! Why did this conversation suddenly take such a love-comedy type turn?? Did my shounen-hero type speech earlier activate a flag to a route I did not know even to exist!?

And why are you giving me such a long look, Rina----!?

“…….That……this one would like it. Nin-nin.”

D-damn, no, I don’t want another weirdo living in my house….

“Then it is settled. Leon-dono and I, Tsunemoto Tsubasa welcome thee into our household.”

No---------------------------------!!!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“You two have a traditional upbringing stiffer than my constipated anus, so why is it that I can’t take even a bath alone----!?”

“’Tis tea…….what a pleasant surprise, Leon-dono.”

“It’s the moment of truth. You’re giving it all. Nin-nin.”

“Speak for yourself, you damn twig. Who do you think you are, attacking an innocent person like that!? Or could it be………..that you’re in one of the local ‘stables’?”

“My thighs are not American. But I can surely knock you out with them, Leon. Surely it is these thighs that’ll knock you out.”

Chapter Three: Fighting against love-comedy ~ A team is formed!?

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Three
Fighting against love-comedy ~ A team is formed!?

“One, two, three…”

Counting as quietly as I could, I slide carefully and silently open the bathroom’s door. The old wooden sliding door lets out only a slight noise, but even that could be fatal. After all, in this environment, and especially during these occasions, my life is literally in danger.

Slipping in, I close the door as carefully as I opened it. The slightly louder thunk! that comes when door hits the wall makes me wince and tense up my body. I feel like a meerkat, freezing every time a passing predator glances towards me.

However, there is no killing intent that would radiate from somewhere close-by, showing me that I had been spotted.

I am safe.

The place I’m at right now is the small bathroom of this shrine/house. Although there was a single, rather large, Japanese-style tub, there were also few wooden stools and faucets from where you could actually wash yourself, using shampoos and soaps and whatever you needed to keep your body clean and sparkling. However, the only problem in this all is that the space where they had been cramped is far too small. The tub is right next to the washing area, making me question the logic why were they separated in the first place. It was almost like putting a toilet inside a shower.

------ Didn’t that one British comedian do that? Rowan…..Rowan something…..

Ah, who cares!

What is important now is that the bath is ready and waiting. I prepared it earlier today, in secret, so that nobody else would notice. This was mostly because lately…..I had encountered some problems. Nothing major, but it made me feel uncomfortable in a way. Or many ways. Or one superbly straightforward way, like the trajectory of a bullet………….unless that bullet was the one used to shoot that certain president.

I slip out of my clothes, folding them as best as I can to the stool. I never really learned housework back in my home. In my home, or rather, in my hometown, women clearly had women’s jobs, and men had their own. A very old-fashioned place on this day and era, but you couldn’t really help it. That was why I couldn’t properly cook even to save my life, but I knew all about maintaining equipment for….let’s say….fishing? Anything was fine, since men had all the “manly” jobs, meaning I was educated in them all.

And you’re questioning why I ran away from there?

As I test the water with my foot, it is almost perfect. The temperature is just right, and so I step in without hesitation. The other foot follows, and finally I sit down, submerging myself in the water so that only my head is visible. All around me now is the warm, relaxing water and the slight steam that rises from the water. Even during the summer, a hot bath sure is nice~

“This is heaven…..”

“Would you want this one to wash your back, Leon-sama? You must want this one to wash your back, right?”

“I knew it------!!!!”

Oh god! And here I thought I had managed to slip in unnoticed!! Why is it that whenever when I think it’s my victory, this idiotic ninja shows up from somewhere, proving me wroooong!?

My angry eyes scan the area, searching for the origin of the voice. And they finally find her. Submerged so that nothing can be seen, breathing through a hollow bamboo-stick that looks like an ancient snorkel.

-------- I see that you got wide array of ninja-stuff, Rina, but could you show them somewhere other than in the bath? It’s embarrassing and silly, really.

“So? Shall this one wash your back?” she asked again, her monotone voice being really unfitting for this situation. Also, her deadpan eyes stared my back with the intensity of middle schooler stalking his crush.

Scary!

“No you shall not!! Get out of the bath immediately!!” I yell from the top of my lungs. Rina obeys and jumps out of the bath with one huge leap, landing with her knee on the ground, and with her right hand in fist and also on the ground, bowing to me like I was some kind of shogun.

“Then what do you require, Leon-sama?”

------ Suia-sa! Your shogun is having a bath, idiot! I don’t need you here!! And even more so, if you’re going to act like that, why did you hide in the bath in the first place!? Shouldn’t you be like that other idiot, who-

“Leon-dono!? Art thou alright, de gozaru!??” another voice comes, and the sliding door is swung open. She has apparently been startled by my sudden yell, and ran here to see if something had happened.

Another idiot appeared-------!!!

Tsubasa stands there, her right hand on the handle of her sword, ready for an enemy. Instead, she sees me submerged till my neck in the bath, and Rina kneeling on the floor before me, so understandably, the blue-haired girl tilts her head in confusion.

“……..de gozaru?”

“This one was just here to help Leon-sama to wash his body. It is the least this one can do after he took me in.”

“Ah, is that so, de gozaru? If thou hath the need of help, it would have been my pleasure to help, Leon-dono”, samurai-girl turns to me while saying this.

“No, I don’t need the help of either of you!! Why are you two even able to come here, in the first place!?” I demand to know, now cursing the fact that I was naked. It really ate my authority.

“…….what dost thou mean?” Tsubasa tilted her head again.

“You two have a traditional upbringing stiffer than my constipated anus, so why is it that I can’t take even a bath alone----!?” This question went to both them and everyone in the vicinity.

Rina, however, was kind enough to answer it.

“Your body, Leon-sama, is the body of this one’s daimyo. If washing it is this one’s duty, then nothing else is needed to be thought by this one”, her cold voice announced. Oh, and while you say something like that, don’t sound like it was something I should have known from the very beginning! It’s annoying!

“Even in the past, it art the duty of apprentice to wash the body of his shishou. To think unnecessary thoughts…that would be rude, de gozaru”, Tsubasa said and ended it with sharp nod.

So, basically…….you guys are saying that my body….is something you do not look as the body of a man, but as simply something that needs to be washed, if asked…….

-------- Huh? What are these bitter, salty drops that fall down my cheeks? E-eh?

“Aargh, in any case, mind your own business!! This love-comedy situation is bit too much! I don’t need the help of either of you to wash my body, and that is that!” I finally managed to find the temper to strike back.

As both Tsubasa and Rina looked at me surprised, I jumped up from the bath and took the towel, wrapping it around me. I then took my clothes and, with heavy stomps, escaped through the door.

“L-Leon-dono, in thy back, what is-“

“It’s nothing!” I cut her off before she could ask about it. Instead, I retreated as quickly as possible in my room, slamming the sliding door shut behind me.

------------------------- Sigh.

Damn these two.

I know they mean well, but………….they really are a tiring duo.

Giving what has been probably my biggest sigh during this day, I plop down on my futon that still has not been put away. I think Tsubasa left it here on purpose, knowing I might come to take a nap at some point. Even though it has not been even a week since we met, she has become pretty good at knowing my thoughts before even I think about them.

Damn it all. It has been like this from the moment I took that ninja in.

My life, which had been quite awkward even before when there had been just me and Tsubasa, had become even more difficult. This idiot ninja had no qualms of appearing on most inappropriate moments, acting like some kind head-maid that had to take care of even the slightest thing that she could. Well, it’s not like that loyalty came unexpected. I thought she might be a bit weird in the head like Tsubasa, but seriously, these two take their jobs far too seriously. Samurai? Ninja?

----- Gaaah, in what kind of bottle have these two been preserved?! How can you raise people like that who clearly look like they are from Heian period, yet live in this modern world in brink of new millennium!?

And that’s not really the biggest problem. I could put up with the ways of old, but some other things are a….problem too.

Like that bath just now.

Those girls have too great curves for my mental health and purity. Tsubasa is obviously easy on the eyes, and even though Rina is flat as a board, she is dangerous just because of that. I’ve heard that there are people who are even fans of…….those kind of girls….nowadays.

Ow, crap, nosebleed, nosebleed….

I take a tissue from the box and wipe my nose, before slipping into my clothes. It’s not like I’m too lazy to get myself some clean clothes from the closet. It’s just that these are the only clothes I own right now. It’s not like I’m some protagonist of a comic who only wears same clothes every day.

------ Aah. Much better. Now, fully clothed, I stand a chance against those two. Man’s authority is thrown out of the window every time he finds himself naked in front of a woman.

No, wait.

……………Bah! You know what I mean!

I reach for my sunglasses, feeling it weird that my sight is not tinted orange as usual. Call me childish if you wish, but the fact that the colors are bit off makes me far more relaxed. Besides, orange is a cool color.

Hmh? Why aren’t my sunglasses here? Why are they not on their usual place where I leave them after bath?

…………..

Wouldn’t that be because I forgot them in the bathroom?

“No, no, no, no!” A series of loud yells escape my lips as the horrible mental image attacks my mind, and I dash out of the room.

It took me only about little over five minutes to dress up. However, as I run to the bathroom, I know I’m helplessly late. Far too late. In five minutes, those two might have already……..!

Sliiiiiiiide!

“Don’t touch my sunglass-“

….

As I said. I’m far too late. Far, far, faaaar too late.

For there, standing in an extremely awkward pose, with both her hands spread like an eagle, as if she was flying through the sky, and sporting my sleek sunglasses that were too big for her…………..was Rina. And as the door opened, she looked at me as if she had been expecting me, and spoke a name.

“….Kamen Rider.”

“No it’s not! Give those baaaaack!!!” I roared, lunging forward towards the idiotic ninja who was posing as something I had no knowledge of, and did not, in all honesty, want to know about.

But, even in my anger, I should have remembered my opponent was a ninja. Before I had even realized it, she was gone, and I face-planted into the tiled floor. Behind me, Tsubasa gave a sigh, while Rina calmly took the sunglasses off and put them beside me, on the floor.

“Leon-dono. Even though thou art my Shishou, sometimes thou doth things that art hard for me to comprehend, de gozaru”, Tsubasa comments, watching my defeated form while puffing a smoke-cloud after inhaling from her pipe.

Hey, no smoking indoors.

“Leon-sama, those sunglasses have to be very important to you. They must be very important to you”, Rina comments, her emotionless eyes staring at me without blinking. It feels like she’s making fun of me.

Then those eyes moved to stare back at the glasses. After a considerable silence…

“….Kamen Rider?”

“No Kamen Rider!! I like these glasses, and Rider has nothing to do with them!”

“Art they a memento of some sort, de gozaru?”

I picked the sunglasses quickly up and put them to their rightful place, now seeing the world once again as orange. After that has been taken care of, I turn to face the girls, who are looking at me with tilted heads like confused baby-birds.

“T-They’re just cool. That’s all”, I cannot erase the sullen feeling that is clear from my words.

“Cool…..de gozaru?”

It seems that the concept of cool evades Tsubasa by few miles.

“Yeah. I just like how they look. Plus I like how the world seems tinted orange while wearing them, though after a while the effect becomes lesser as I get used to the color. It’s like you with those colors, Tsubasa. You always wear a white kimono or yukata, with light-blue pictures. It’s a bit like that”, I explain. Tsubasa actually looks rather surprised that I have noticed this.

“M-me, Shishou? ‘Tis be naught but advice from my honored mother. She told me to wear this combination, for it bringeth forth my personality, or so she said, de gozaru”, she explains.

If she did not have her usual composed and tranquil samurai-face on, I’d think she was actually a bit flustered. However, only her voice sounded so. Rest of the body did not show any signs of that, so maybe I was just imagining things.

After Tsubasa fell silent, there appeared an awkward gap into our conversation. Each of us just stared at the floor, not really knowing what should be said next. Thankfully Tsubasa saved the day.

“Shalt we have some tea, de gozaru?”

Both me and Rina nodded, relieved the situation had been cleared.

…

…

So, here we are, all around an old wooden table that has seen its best days. While this tea-time from hell begins, my relief of the end of awkwardness has switched into fear that my own actions have made the situation even worse. You see, yesterday, it was me who visited local store to get some groceries we needed and could get with the measly amount of money we all had scraped up. Amongst those things was the tea that was now being prepared. Of course, it was nothing luxurious, just some bag tea. And that’s why I was a bit nervous.

If my tea was weighed, if it was measured, and found wanting, there was no doubt that my standing in the hierarchy of this house would drop miserably. Even now I did not earn any extra points for being man, so I was literally fighting a losing battle to keep any shred of authority I had.

“Shishou. Here, de gozaru”, Tsubasa says and pours some tea for me with an efficiency of a person who has been raised in an environment that should not even exist on this era. She repeats it twice, for Rina’s cup and her own cup, before finally putting the pan away and sitting down.

------- If there is anyone up there, please don’t let this be some kind of tea ceremony. I saw the look in Tsubasa’s eyes, and they had a gleam that I did not like.

From a mark that was unseen, but that everyone noticed, we took our cups and had a sip of this tea that was now the possibility my downfall.

Sip, sip, sip, the three of us went.

And what followed was a silence heavier than a oversized elephant.

……………………………………….

“’Tis tea…….what a pleasant surprise, Leon-dono.”

Eh?

Tsubasa flashed a rare smile that I have seen from her only a few times. She then brings the cup to her lips a second time, sipping, before putting it down.

“For a bagged tea, ‘tis be a pleasant surprise, de gozaru. Shishou seems to be also a master of teas”, she says with a clear voice, to which Rina nods.

----------- Master of teas? What is that? Are you trying to give me a nickname so I wouldn’t stand out from this small club of martial-arts masters you’ve formed?

Of course I don’t say that. I’m not a jerk.

“T-thanks”, I try to voice what I want to say, but I stutter in a way that makes me want to hit my face with my palm.

Even so, it is kind of strange. Here we all are, sitting around a table like some kind of twisted family consisting of a samurai, ninja, and a guy who got dragged into all of this against his will. Ah, what a horrible family this is. There is not even a mom to cook us something decent to eat. Not that I’d have my hopes up. Judging from these two, the mothers of Tsunemoto and Fūma are anything but good maternal material.

“….Did you just think something very rude, Leon-sama?” Rina asks while narrowing her eyes slightly. Although her voice does not betray any emotion, I somehow get the idea she’s slightly miffed.

“Well, it depends on your view”, I say while slightly feeling uncomfortable of this revelation that this girl is either very good at guessing, or has the gossip-spider-sense. “In other words, it is all up to you if you get pissed about it.”

“Ah, well said, Leon-dono. Even with thy words, thou art a Shishou who makes her disciple proud, de gozaru”, Tsubasa said, giving a need nod.

No, wait, that was just desperate attempt to avoid the subject at hand. And really, it creeps me out when you say you’re my disciple, so could you please cut it out? Haven’t you already realized which one of us is stronger?

Still, as always when talking with these two, I felt a slight uncomfortable feeling. It had nothing to do with them personally, but more with the way of their speaking. I understood both of them, but that was only barely. Having been taught only in the basic Japanese, I was forced to consult my dictionary every night in order to keep up with them every day.

First of all, there was Tsubasa. She spoke with very old, archaic form of Japanese, which was mixed a bunch of words typical of samurai. That was why I had to get use of things like her referring to herself as “Sessha” and other type of weirdness. It was only thanks to the bunch of old samurai films that I understood her. Even so, it was not always easy to understand what she was saying.

Then there was Rina, who for some reason I could not comprehend, spoke like courtesans of Yoshiwara. Her Japanese was filled with strange words like “Nushi”, “Wachi” or “De arinzu”, and only by listening to the rest of her babble was I slowly able to learn what she was talking about. In other words, in order to keep up with her, I had to “study” every time she opened her mouth.

See what I mean? Not only were these two clearly people from another world than me, but they even spoke in a way that I had to actively think about to understand them.

------------- Man’s life ain’t easy.

“Tsubasa, have you heard when the Tournament shall start?” Rina suddenly asked, changing the atmosphere of the room with that single question.

Tsubasa put her cup to the table, and when she opened her eyes that had been calmly closed, they had turned into steel.

“When the moon draws blood to the sky, so shall begin the Tournament of One Thousand Blades, de gozaru. ‘Tis be what hath been passed down from parent to a child in the Tsunemoto family. Doth must gather members and form a stable in the given time. If thy emblem art remaining in the Column of Challenges when the moon turns red, thy art participating in the Tournament, de gozaru”, she explained with a voice that would have fitted an ancient storyteller.

“……Have you….formed a stable?” Rina’s voice was even quieter than usually, and I realized this girl was asking something with great importance.

“Nay, I have not. For that reason, I shalt ask thee…….Rina-dono, would thou form a stable with me, and fight side-by-side with me, de gozaru? If thou wouldst do that, only one more member wouldst be needed in order for our stable to be official, de gozaru.”

If what I understood was correct, the Tournament of One Thousand Blades was not as simple as it seemed. From the looks of it, the Tournament was not a battle of individuals, but that of teams, or “stables”. And when what Tsubasa had said was filtered through ye olde filter, it became clear that somewhere there was something called “Column of Challenges”, which had emblems of these teams. If that emblem was there when the Tournament was officially started, your team would be able to participate. If the emblem was lost from there, you’d be only watching from the sidelines. As to the question how that emblem could be removed from this column………….well, there was only one way, wasn’t there? Losers go home.

-------------- Did this mean that right now, we were only in the qualifiers of this Tournament?

While my thoughts had raced all around this house, Rina had been lost deep in her thought. As if she had been waiting for me to concentrate on them again, she opened her mouth immediately after I had focused my eyes on them.

“This one shall. You are a merciless warrior, Tsubasa, yet your blade is gentle. There is no other type of warrior this one could trust her life with. Nin-nin. While you shine like Amaterasu herself before the enemy, this one shall move behind him, stealthily like Tsukuyomi.”

And at that exact moment, these two bowed down for each other.

“Then I shalt pledge my sword for you, de gozaru.”

“Then this one shall pledge her skills for you.”

And that confirmed the combination of ninja and samurai, two different kind of warriors that had now sworn to fight side-by-side.

“In that case, Shishou, wouldst thou join our stable as a manager, de gozaru?” Tsubasa’s eyes, which were shining from what I think I recognized as excitement, turned to me.

E-eeeh?! Manager?? It isn’t enough for me to live in this damned house that this Tournament is tied to, I have to be your stable’s manager too!?

“It’s the moment of truth. You’re giving it all. Nin-nin”, Rina added.

----------- Miss, you’ve been listening to that one CD far too much.

“Shishou!” Tsubasa suddenly said with a loud voice, before performing a dogeza before me. “It wouldst be a great honor, de gozaru, if thou wouldst watch over our stable and guide us in our road to the victory!”

Once she raised her head, there was nothing but determination left in them.

I know this is a misunderstanding. I’m not a warrior at all, and even thinking that I could be some sort of mentor to Tsubasa is ridiculous. Still…….her plead was so honest I was taken aback. It was like she was saying that it would be meaningless if I did not become manager of their team. That she wanted me to help them, and that only I could do it.

-------- To be honest, this is the first time someone has looked at me with so much trust in her eyes.

So…….I guess I can be excused then? This was my last chance to run away. After coming to Japan, my life had quickly spiraled down into a strange world where a huge martial-arts tournament was being held. Yeah, I had expected for my life to change when coming to here, but still……..this is bit too much!!

Tournament of One Thousand Blades? Stable? Me being the manager? That’s ridiculous!! There is no way that I, a jobless and penniless university student could ever hope to do something like that!! Isn’t it a job for people like me to be excluded from a fantastic world like this??

Yeah……………If not for pure luck, I would have been excluded.

So that is why I’m going to lie. In order to enter a new world, following these two girls….I think I’m gonna have to tell a lie.

Tsubasa, Rina….if you’re willing to put your trust in me…….then I guess I have to answer in a fitting way.

I’m no warrior.

And I’m no manager.

Yet I will do everything I can to fill the latter slot!

---------------- Man~. Just what kind of people are you, you two? Even a lazy idiot like me got all pumped up. Hahahahahaha~

“Alright. If you’re so sure, then I’ll be your manager”, I answer and hold out my hand which is tightened into a fist. A grin creeps on my face. “A manager that promises to help you towards victory with everything he has.”

“Thank you, Leon-dono!” Tsubasa bows once more, before clenching her own hand into a fist and putting it against mine.

“Then it is settled. Nin-nin.” Rina’s fist also touches my fist, and so the three hands form a strange kind of triangle.

It was a pledge and a oath. We would do our best to strive towards the victory. Even though our stable did not have a name yet, and it had not been officially recorded anywhere………at this moment………it was born.

This stable that would, I knew, change my life.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

Later that afternoon, I witnessed something I had till then only seen in movies. Usually accompanied by a cheesy music, and lot of cuts to speed up the sequence itself. Starting with failures, and then building to the mastery of whatever it was that the character was doing there. Yes, I’m talking about montage scenes.

Though this time it was not a real montage. Both Tsubasa and Rina were training, honing their skills to whatever battles they would face tomorrow. And that the music in the background was not cheesy in the least. Anyone who’d call AC/DC cheesy was to be strangled with Angus Young’s shorts. Especially when “You shook me all night long” was playing in the background, as it was now.

“Art thou sure thou do not want to supervise my training today, de gozaru?” Tsubasa confirmed one more time, like she had done enough time to qualify as a someone with horrible obsession.

“N-no, it’s alright, it’s alright. I have faith in your abilities, Tsubasa”, I hurried to refuse, once again. “Rina is here, so she can give you some advice if you need it. She’s got enough experience, after all.”

“This one’s thighs are not American. But this one can surely knock you out with them, Leon. Surely it is these thighs that’ll knock you out.”

------- Lame!! That joke was far too lame! And how could you understand the lyrics of this song so well, aren’t you Japanese supposed to be a joke when it comes to speaking English!?

“Right. I’m sure they can.” Instead of retorting, I just decided to let that one slide. If I did not, I would never had a chance to leave. “So, is there anything you specifically want from store?”

Both girls assured that they were fine with pretty much everything I just could bring. “Could” was the right word, as right now, our money was as low as high schooler’s mood when the summer vacation finally ended, and the dreaded school started once again, trapping the poor fella in a torment of tests and searching for girlfriend.

Maybe I could also buy some better similes if I had enough money?

Speaking of girls, I realized that I had missed seeing the skateboarding gal today. But knowing her unshakeable routine, she had once again passed over our house.

Leaving the girls behind to train while listening to vocals of Brian Johnson, I headed once again to the elevator that stood out like sore thumb amongst the things on this roof. All these stone guardian dogs and stone lanterns were pretty much everything one could move from shrine grounds, I guess. I pressed the button that would take me to the first floor, and so the doors closed, and the low hum begun, accompanied by some slightly annoying yet still addictive music. Before I knew it, I was whistling the damned tune even when I stepped out of the elevator. Maybe that was why the woman who went to the elevator while I got out gave me a strange glance. Well, to be honest, I did the same to her. Frankly, it was not usual to see someone wearing a tight, long-sleeved shirt that had a leopard-pattern. If something was cheesy, then it was that shirt.

I emerged to the streets, taking my place amongst the daily crowd that was moving like a school of herring. However, I felt pretty much like a shark as I made my way down the street, since as a foreigner, I was of course avoided. How glad I was that both Tsubasa and Rina seemed to be completely devoid of that kind of prejudice.

It was still strange. It was almost year 2000 now. Japan had clearly adopted many western things and customs, yet they shun the western people themselves. Although people in the places like shops and other public places like that were friendly once they realized I could speak Japanese well enough, the common people still seemed to be wary of me. That was why I was giving them equally suspicious look through my sunglasses.

-------- Aah, what a drag. To be thinking about depressing things on a sunny, hot day like this. With the sun shining from above as mercilessly as that prosecutor with bullet in his shoulder, it felt little bit sad that I was stuck thinking about how people clearly kept they distance from me.

“There you are!!! Just wai’dda minute!! It’s time to pay for all the bad things that you’ve done!!”

………

On the other hand, I’m gladder if people stay away from me. The other option, like this girl that’s shouting behind me, is far more worse.

Yes, I don’t even have to turn around to know who it was.

“Orca-chan………..are you stalking me or something?”

“Who’dde hell would stalk a plain-looking idiot like you!?” she yells after catching up with me and blocking my way.

--- Excuse me miss, I’m actually pretty confident of my looks, so don’t give me that bullshit!!

“Moreover!” She points her finger me. A quite a feat on its own right, remembering I’m about as twice as tall as she is. Well, maybe not, but you get what I’m saying. “Our duel!! One more time! I lost the last time, but I’m not gonna lose again!”

“Umm, could we save this for another time? I’m kinda in a hurry, you know? I need to go the store and all. We can play later, if you want”, I try to give an excuse so I could slip away. However…

Looks like I just pissed her off even more.

“Play!? Fuuuuu!! Are you calling an honored and sacred battle s-s-s-s-some kind of play!? Idiot! Oaf! Moron! Dumbass! Why don’ya just die!?” she explodes in a fit of anger, and I’m surprised I don’t see her shooting water from the hole in top of her head.

Oh, wait a minute. She’s not a real orca, right? And do orcas even have that hole?

In any case, it’s time for me to get out of here!

“Huh!? Why’rre you running for your life!? Stop!!” she yells after me, but once again, I have not the slightest intent of stopping.

“If I stay here any longer, the moment the police come to catch you for breaking the public peace, my status will change from bystander into accomplice, and that is the last thing I want right now!! I have no money to pay any fines right now!”

“Fuuun! This time I won’t let’ya escape!!”

And with those words, the middle schooler from the depths of the ocean sprints after me, apparently taking everything out of her small legs in order to keep up with me.

Oh, we must look like a really great duo. A young foreign man, taller than all the people around him, running for his life. And on his tail, a girl smaller than anyone around her, if her “dorsal-fin hair” is not counted, shouting curses with Okinawan language after the young man.

We shoot past the grocery store I was supposed to visit, and head deeper and deeper into the city. Well, it’s not my fault actually. It’s just that the deeper into this metropolis known as Tokyo we get, the more perfect places do I have to hide in. Alleys, corners, everything that comes with large amount of buildings. In a maze like that, I could get rid of this damn girl in a instant.

Well, I’m still in Minato ward, and it’s not like I can just easily jog from there to the heart of Tokyo. I’m not some kind of Paavo Nurmi who can stumble all he wants and still come out on the top!

“Stop chasing me, you damn orca! I’ve got actually important things to do, goddammit!!”

“Stop calling me that!! I’m not an orca, ya’hear!? I’ve got a real name, which is-“

“I’m not interested, just stop following me!! What did I do to be cursed like this!?”

“You ate my lunch!! Gulped it down like som’kind of….of….orca!!”

Oh, your rapier-like wit is too much for me, miss. Maybe I should just give up and prostrate myself while in awe of that silver tongue of yours?

“I know what’re thinking! J-just wait, I’ll com’up with something better soon!” she hurries to add.

---------- I just can’t wait.

“I’m a really weak person, you know! You’d gain nothing by dueling me!!”

“Weak!? The how’ddya explain your victory over me back at the train-station!?”

Well, you wouldn’t believe me, even if I told you. Really, you wouldn’t. For some reason, my fate has deemed it I’m only to win fights against girls who are either far stronger than I am, or just plain idiots, and do so with my pure luck alone. And the latter victory is something I’d like to forget. Especially the fact that I laughed over your slumped body while eating that bento, like an evil magistrate.

I’m trying to pretend that person was someone else. I truly am.

Aah! Enough of that! How the hell am I gonna get this persistent girl off my back?? Aren’t girls of her age usually supposed to spend time by spending their allowance to useless, cute things instead of chasing honest and good citizens like me around??

……………wait.

That’s it!!

“Orca-chan, look!”

I take something out of my pocket.

“Fuuun??” I can hear that even though she wouldn’t want to, her eyes can’t keep from focusing on the object I hold high in the air.

Ah, the persuasive power of the money.

“Go have a hamburger or something, and leave me alone------!!” I say and throw the money as far away as I can from myself.

Yes, I am crying bitter tears of regret. However, losing money is a necessary sacrifice I have to make to get rid of this girl.

I turn to look back but do not stop running. And indeed. Instead of chasing after me, Orca-chan now tries to catch the floating currency that evades her far better than I could, much to my chagrin. Yet I cannot stay and lament, I have to put some distance between myself and this girl.

Yes, as much distance as I can, while still heading to the direction that would take me towards home. That is why I keep on running and running, getting myself out of the place I left her. Soon I don’t see her anymore, and after few minutes, I’m pretty sure she cannot find me anymore.

There is also another thing that cannot be found. And that dawns on me as I turn towards the direction I should head to get home. The thing that cannot be found…..is that exact direction.

Since, I’m starting to believe I’m hopelessly lost.

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire, huh….? Damn this city is big. It’s no miracle that I got lost while running aimlessly, trying to get rid of that girl.”

As far as I know, I’m still in Minato ward. Hopefully. It’s not like I ran a huge distance, so I should still be in my “neighborhood”. But just how far I am from my own apartment evades me. And that is the source of problem. I don’t have a phone back home, so I cannot just call Tsubasa and Rina from phone booth and tell them to help me.

Looks like I’ll have to survive by myself.

Noticing that the sun was clearly descending in the horizon, I knew roughly the direction I was supposed to head to. Going west would only take me to Shibuya, so I should head to exactly opposite direction to get home, the area around central Minato. Keeping this in mind, I began my journey through the streets and alleys, determined to find my way back home.

However, I eventually noticed that the places I saw did not look even vaguely familiar. Instead, I found myself staring at unknown buildings, while the sky that slowly dyed itself orange reminded me that night was soon approaching. Keeping in mind that this was Tokyo after all, I wanted to avoid walking around during nights. As in any big city.

However, I should have remembered another rule there was about big cities. In my hurry, I decided to take a supposed shortcut through a long and dark alley, which stretched between buildings, and would, hopefully, save me some time. And thus, with my fast-paced steps, I entered the darkness of this said alley, trying to get through as fast as I could. Yes, I did not remember the rule, but my body itself was trying to warn me.

Unfortunately, I did not heed that warning.

That was why the attack came as complete surprise.

Fa-WHAM!!!

“GUAAAAH!!!”

I found myself flying through the air as something hit straight into my abdomen like a morning star. Yes, I really flew through the air from the force that said strike. That meant that there had to be tremendous force behind that said strike. And even more, the pain in my abdomen told me this was an actual punch, not just a hit with weapon or something similar.

Which meant that either the person who had attacked me was extremely powerful, or……I was up against something weird. After all, this was an alley. You had almost no space to gather momentum for your strike, even more so if you were hiding.

My back hit the asphalt and pain assaulted it too. However, gritting my teeth together, I could push myself up from the ground, and face the person who had attacked me. And through my orange-tinted vision, I really did see him.

“Was that……mune-tsuki?” I asked while gasping for breath. The figure ahead of me whistled slowly.

“Man, you’re pretty sharp, gaijin. You knew the name of the attack and everything. Can you then tell me from what martial art that strike was from?” he asks me with slight chuckle.

“I’d say aikido, but……it’s not, right? Judging from your build, I’d say….jujutsu…………..right?”

“Bingo.”

The light shifts as the person takes a step forward, and I can finally see the details.

He was tall, I noticed that immediately. Even taller than me. And skinny. Long hair did not lessen that impression at all. Baggy cargo-pants and a too big basketball-shirt of the Chicago Bulls gave a slightly thug-like expression. He also had numerous wristbands that covered his long, but feeble-looking arms. The sneakers I saw him wearing were some kind of name brand, judging from their quality compared to rest of his clothes. This look was finished up by multi-colored headband he wore to keep his long, black hair from getting into the way.

The face itself was as gaunt as rest of his body, but the sneer that his mouth was turned into almost split his face in half. And the teeth…….they looked almost like they had been sharpened. A predator’s smile. And predator’s eyes. Those red eyes were definitely predator’s.

“So you’re the kid that’s been seen hanging around with the heiress of Tsunemoto family. They told me you were some kind of pretty boy, but looks like we’re made of same ugly wood, aren’t we?”

Tsunemoto family? No way…….could this guy also be part of……..?

“Speak for yourself, you damn twig. Who do you think you are, attacking an innocent person like that!? Or could it be………..that you’re in one of the local ‘stables’?”

Ka ka ka ka!, the man laughed.

“That’s right, you got good brains there! You guessed it right even without me giving hints”, he chuckled. “Well, I guess I should introduce myself. Tohei Kumo, they call me. I’m the leader of Minato ward’s #1 stable…….Back-Alley Rockers. Nice to meet’cha…….Leon Hart.”

So it seems this bastard knows my name, is that it? And what’s with that idiotic name? “Back-Alley Rockers”? Just who came up with such a cheesy name??

“So……..What the hell do you want from me?” I decided to press to the point, instead of questioning this guy’s sense of style.

“What do you think? You’re a valuable asset, as the person who has you can pretty much order what the feared Tsunemoto Tsubasa does”, he tells me with a wide grin. “So I was planning on beating you up, dragging you into our hideout and then giving a phone call to the heiress of Tsunemoto family, ordering her to leave the city. We want no lions in our back-alley filled with cats.”

H-hey, wait a minute. You just said you’re going to-

“Too slow, kid. You blew your chance to run away.”

As if. I was just waiting for the right moment!

“Raaaaahhh!!” I plunged forward, hoping to be able to push this Kumo-guy with enough force to stun him for a moment, so I could make my escape.

But…….I forgot one important thing about jujutsu.

It was very defense-focused.

He intercepted both of my arms by doing a whip-like strike from below to above, forcing both of my hands to his right side. From there he locked my arms in place with his own arms , and pulled me momentarily forward, making me lose my balance. This was finished up with him pushing me to another direction, literally throwing me forward and making me spin through the air.

Wait a minute? Spin? Even if it’s jujutsu, it shouldn’t have that much pow-

“AaAAAaargh!!!”

I couldn’t help but to let a yelp of pain escape my lips, as I hit head-on the unforgiving wall of the alley. I drop on my knees and there to the ground, having to taste the dirty floor of the alley. But even as I taste the iron in my mouth, the enemy is far from quitting. Kumo charges forward with style that has got to be his own addition to the regular jujutsu. From the looks of it, this is some kind of street-fighting variant of the actual style.

But….I’m still not out.

I grab his leg the instant it steps within my range, stopping his movement fully. I hear Kumo cursing, as he knows that right now he cannot do really anything. I’ve stopped his movement, and to his techniques, I’m too low. In this passing second, only thing that can happen is my counter-strike.

Or……..so I thought.

Clack!

“Clack?”

Next I see the impossible. Kumo’s knee bends backwards, and he gathers enough momentum to launch a merciless overhead kick with his remaining free leg. My back creaks from the pain, and something white and red flashes before my eyes.

It’s not use. This guy…………….I can’t win against him!

“What’s wrong, man? Already giving up??” Kumo laughs and picks me up from the ground.

What follows is atemi. He strikes three nerve-points in my body, causing untold pain flash through my mind. As my hands go limp, he follows with a sideways throw that utilizes his arms. Yes, his arms, as they too suddenly bend in direction they are not supposed to.

Is this guy………..double-jointed?

The whip-like power of the throw makes me bounce from one wall to another. Although it might have looked comical to someone else, I cannot even begin to describe the pain I felt both in my back and in my head, as they both were smashed against those walls.

F-fuck…….

This pain………

I’m…………..not gonna win against him like this……………

It’s…..no use.

I’ve gotta run away…………….! Gotta get distance between………us!!!

It’s my last chance. The last throw put some distance between me and Kumo, and it opens a way out for me. I dash towards the exit from the alley, towards the street where the amount of people would ensure that Kumo could not attack me so easily. And if not that, I at least would not be confined in this claustrophobic place.

It’s………..like spider’s web.

Ha ha ha ha ha. Ironic. This guy……no, maybe it’s intentional? When faced against a guy named Kumo…..I find myself trapped in his web.

Maybe it should have been obvious from the start?

Few more steps, and I’m out. Just a few more steps, and my chances of escaping jump to astronomical heights.

But…………is it karma? Have I done something wrong?

Because I see a leg like a whip in front of me.

“AAAAAARRGH!”

Using once again his double-jointed nature to his advantage, Kumo lashed out an attack towards me, effectively stopping my escape from behind me. It was like a claw of a spider, reaching out and dragging me back.

I roll on the ground, trying to get up. But as I manage to raise my gaze, I realize it might not be the best idea.

That is because Kumo is standing right above me.

“I’ll just break your arm to ensure you’ll be a good boy. Don’t worry”, he laughs and reaches down.

No……..

No! Goddammit no!

Damn, Tsubasa, Rina, where the hell are you!? This was not supposed to happen! You two were supposed to take care of the fighting, while I supported you from the sidelines!

I was not supposed to………

Not supposed to…….!!!

“This will sting a bit.” Again, predator’s smile.

-----------------!!!

Fa-VHOOOOMM!!!

……?

Wait a minute…….?

I feel no pain, and breaking someone’s arm definitely does not give a sound like “Fa-VHOOOMM!”. So…….what just happened?

I open my eyes that I had closed tightly, and glance upwards.

A figure stands there. But it’s not Kumo. Kumo is gone. And from the looks of it, this person just punched him away with one clean strike. Her hand is stretched forward like a battering ram, and if she just did what I think she did, it shares something else in common with battering ram than just the straightness. A hand covered in sports tape, a hand which had apparently become my savior just now.

The person withdraws his hand, and I can hear how Kumo curses loudly. I can see that he has flown a considerable distance backwards, and now tries to stand up, while holding his broken nose.

One punch. One broken nose. Hell of a power.

This person with bulldozer-like strength cracks her knuckles and gives me a wide grin. Then her mouth opens, and she says four words to me.

And I don’t understand any of them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“I have failed thee, Leon-dono. Asking for thy forgiveness……after shaming myself in such a way, I do not deserve it!”

“This one thinks that you should get used to balancing three flowers on your hands. Nin-nin.”

“……..ya know!”

“I think her Kansai dialect is to blame.”

“So, in other words, our name shall be……..!!!”

Champion of Thailand ~ With the courage of lion!!

[Erlkonig]

Fuck. Yes.

[DreamsRequiem]

Fuck. Yes.

Doing it wrong

FUCK. YES.

[eddyak]

Doing it wrong

FUCK. YES.

Your avatar does it best.

And my sig's gonna need to vanish as soon as I can be arsed to get rid of it.

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Four
Champion of Thailand ~ With the courage of lion!!

I don’t believe in guardian angels.

I really don’t.

So at this point of the story, I’d like to ask a question…….

Who the hell is this girl, then!?

Standing in front of me was a person I had never seen before, yet who had saved me from having my arm or leg broken, and had forced my enemy to back down a considerable distance. And all this she had done with a one bare-handed punch.

How should I describe her?

She was tall, taller than me, that was for sure. Her clearly tanned skin gave a contrast to her spiky and wild blond hair. Green eyes were staring straight at the enemy with a sneering grin etched onto her face. She wore camouflage-colored pants, and had a sports top, with tight, red and black sports jacket on top of it, halfway open. The jacket was of same color as the sneakers she wore. There was also some sports tape wrapped around her hands, like she had been a boxer of a sort.

But no, that couldn’t be the case. I saw it in her stance………

She kept her leg ready to kick. And that was no boxing technique. No, as far as I knew, the stance where the hands were held up in fists and the right leg was slightly raised so that the knee pointed out……it could not be anything but Muay Thai.

At that point I was able to point it out.

This fight was over.

Tohei Kumo had recovered from the head-on punch he had suffered, like a freight-train loaded with twenty tons of whoop-ass had hit him straight in the face. The long-limbed bastard was already up, and with a vicious look on his face, edged forward towards the girl that had saved me. While he was being cautious, I could see from the look on his face, that the one thing he now tried to do was get a good grip of his opponent and end this fight with a single throw.

------------ A terminal case of bad planning.

As I suspected, Kumo lunged forward, his abnormally long arms reaching towards the grinning girl. It was a grip that he had used against me too, and tried to catch the hold of my whole body. But those same arms that had so easily twisted my body through the air were now pushed aside as the girl did not even back down.

No. She advanced. The basic and most brutal variation of defensive move. Offensive defensive move.

When compared to concrete brick, which can support about 675 pounds of force directed against it, human bones can handle about 14 times the same amount. This means that out of all the things in the human body, the bone is the most deadly substance. If you hit with a part that has more bone, it does more damage than the one that has not. And the place where human body is almost pure bone is the elbow.

And that was just what hit Tohei Kumo in the head like a knife.

As girl’s left arm pushed aside the reaching arms, her right arm lunged forward, keeping those arms locked. But what also moved was her right elbow, which twisted and hit Kumo on the side of his head, dealing a grievous blow. I could see Tohei Kumo’s eyes widen from the shock as his brain was suddenly hit with the tremor of the head being damaged.

But it had been within his calculations. He could afford taking one hit. I knew this was what he thought.

At that moment the familiar, chilling sound bounced off the walls of the back-alley, and I saw Kumo’s arms twisting, once again. The double-jointed man squirmed his way through girl’s defense, and caught a hold of her. Holding those dangerous arms inside his lock, Kumo was trying to make sure that the girl could not deal any more damage to him, be it with punches or elbows.

Sorry, Kumo. Even if you take four down, there’s still four to go.

Muay Thai is referred as the “Science of Eight Limbs” after all.

A knee, which must have generated over 500 pounds of force with that single, powerful move, hit Kumo in his gut, causing the man to bend over and spit blood out of his mouth. This was followed by another knee, and another. By taking a hold of her, Kumo had left his stomach completely exposed, the place most vulnerable to the pile-bunker like hits of Muay Thai knees.

Three hits. It took three knees to the gut until Kumo released his hold, and tried to retreat.

-------------- Rule #1 of Muay Thai: Never retreat.

The arms that had been freed were drawn against her body, and she crouched. Before Kumo even realized what was going on, the legs that had just been pummeling him turned into springs, and launched those fists upwards. Not just using the force of her arms, but putting her whole body momentum there too, the girl was able to score a devastating double-fist hit to the jaw of Kumo. Had he not been double-jointed, I guess that hit would have taken him out right there. After all, man’s jaw was left hanging in a strange way. A way that made me feel sick even when looking at it.

But it was far from over. Staggered, Kumo stumbled backwards, only to be caught in trap most lethal in the art of Muay Thai. The trap consisting of a whip-like appendage hitting you straight in the head with the force of 900 pounds, something that could pretty much crack your skull open like a sledgehammer to can of pineapple. The trap flying at so high speeds it has been dubbed as the “Bullwhip of human body”.

The trap named: “Thai Kick”.

Unlike what most of you people know as a kick, the Thai Kick actually puts the weight of the whole fighter behind that single strike. When the kick starts, the attacker is up on his toes on both feet, and then the lead foot rotates the heel so that the whole body literally becomes a whip that adds to the power of the kick. The twisting motion that powers up the leg makes it so that the shin that hits, not the foot, becomes a lethal weapon. It’s like a baseball-bat that cuts through the opponent.

And that mace just hit Kumo once again to the head, the place where he had been hit before.

-------------------- The tooth I saw flying out of his mouth was no surprise to me, to be honest.

But that one kick was not the core of the trap. No. As soon as the leg that had hit Kumo landed, out came yet another kick. Because as she was on the balls of her feet, the girl was able to launch a series of kicks, lightning fast, without interruptions. That was why it was important to not come back flat-footed from the kick.

And it was truly a machinegun of kicks.

I counted seven, and even then I wasn’t sure that was all of them. Truly, this girl had put Kumo through a shin-shaped hell as she had bounced her leg off his head again and again. The man who had beaten my sorry ass just before just before had been cornered completely by this mysterious girl, who showed no mercy. She was not going to kill, but there were ways to deal with enemies in a permanent ways besides killing them.

Realizing this girl was most likely going for one of them, Kumo gave a cry of rage, abandoning the feeling of pain inside him, and attacking even though he must have seen barely anything. The kick that was once again launched by the girl got intercepted, as the snake like arm coiled around it and threw her around, using the momentum of the kick to its advantage. She landed on her feet, but precocious moments were lost.

And the spider had already wrapped his web around her.

The arms locked in their places, holding her hands down so that neither elbows nor punches could be used. Kumo was also too close for any kick to connect. He took a step forward, moving fast enough for me to barely see it, and swung his right leg forward, and then blindingly fast backwards.

Legsweep. The basic of the basics.

Would this one move connect, it would be over for her. There was nothing much a Muay Thai fighter could do on ground, and that was exactly where a jujutsu master like him had spread his web. The floor was this spider’s hunting ground, and there was no way out of there. Once you got there, it was all over for you. Unless…………………

……………the spider was defeated before you fell.

The leg that was supposed to sweep her leg off never met any resistance. He toppled forward, ready to slam his opponent to the cold, hard asphalt, yet there was something wrong. He was going down too fast. He had never hit anything. And the opponent fell backwards. On purpose. Even though Tohei Kumo had not hit, he had still performed a legsweep. For moment, he was confused. Until he felt it against his stomach.

The limb most feared in close-quarters of Muay Thai. Knee.

A knee that was against his stomach, as they fell backwards to the asphalt.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!” The yell of pain was not a nice thing to hear. Tohei Kumo was defeated finally with this one strike, the one strike that had been turned from his own victory into an outcome least favorable to him.

Turn-around. Match, set.

Victory of the unknown Muay Thai girl.

Tohei Kumo toppled over, and could not rise again.

As I said in the very beginning, this fight was over from the start. As long as those two were standing, Tohei Kumo never had any chance.

“……………………..what the hell?”

I could not help but to let those words escape from my mouth. After all, they were the words that most easily described the current situation.

Maybe she heard me saying that, since as soon as those words had left my mouth, the tanned girl spun around on her heels, hands on her hips, and directed her beaming grin straight to my face. Yes, yes, I see that you have very good dental plan, now could you please open that mouth and explain why the hell did you just interfere with a fight that you had no reason to. No, I really am thankful for saving the situation, but sheez! This isn’t some manga, you know! Sudden appearances like that are not gonna make readers like you any more, you hear!?

“So….who? Who the hell are you?” I finally opened my mouth, as the girl had not yet opened hers. Hearing my voice, she snickered and spoke.

“########################”

………….

What?

Could you run that by me again?

“######################!”

No, still didn’t get it.

No, wait a minute, are you speaking Japanese, girl?? What you’re blabbering now sure seems similar, but the hell I have no idea what you’re saying!

“Umm….can you speak Japanese? Or English? Since I have no idea what you’re saying right now…..”

“###############”

I take that as a no.

Well, first things first. I stood up from the dusty alley, giving a sideways glance to the unconscious man that lied rather pitifully on the asphalt. Thanking the gods of style that my sunglasses were unharmed, I put them back on and turned to where the girl had been standing, only to find out that she was gone.

But she was no mysterious savior. As soon as I looked back at Kumo, I saw the girl rummaging through his pockets.

“Hey, don’t loot his corpse! That bastard is gonna respawn sometime today, and when he does, he’ll be very angry if he finds out you’ve taken his purple epics!!”

Not only does she speak some language I do not understand, but also a kleptomaniac? Or maybe just an opportunist? Whichever it was, it looked like this girl was truly a handful.

“###! #####” The girl said, chuckling like a middle-aged man and put her arm over my shoulders, giving me her trademark grin.

“Judging from your behavior, you’re asking for money. No way, bastard”, I denied the possibility of me rewarding her for her timely save.

Even though I was grateful, I wasn’t going to give her my last shreds of money. I had already sacrificed enough for that Orca-girl to make me cry tears of blood.

“Look, let’s just get out of here. As soon as someone sees that body, they’re thinking that filming of some grotesque crime series is going on here. However, after some thinking, they’ll realize it’s all real, and then they’ll call police. And we don’t want to be here when they call the police, or rather, when the police arrive. So let’s just go”, I said, while using the advantage of the girl having put her arm over my shoulders to goad her out of the alley.

Let’s just say that I felt like I had escaped from a secret boss dungeon when I stepped out of that alley, back to the clear, orange-tinted streets. Yes, tinted by the descending sun, not my glasses.

“Yo! Boya! She did a good job, didn’t she?”

And here comes the true boss of the game~!

…………….No, let’s take that back.

It’s just Ms. Hot-pants from the record store, waving at me while happily crushing a cigar in the corner of her mouth.

“Coco-san……what the hell are you doing here??” I asked, hoping to shed even some light to this ridiculous mystery.

“Oh, I’m just going back home. I closed the shop few moments ago”, she explained, nodding towards north, where her shop undoubtedly was. “But geez, that surprised me! She just suddenly bolted off to that back-alley, and hit that man straight into face. I thought she had gone crazy!”

“She……..you’re meaning…..?” I pointed at the girl who still was acting like we were from a clichéd friendship movie.

“Yeah, that girl who’s taken liking to you. She’s my assistant down at the shop”, Coco nodded. “Thunusakurn Kaeo is her name.”

Thun………….what?

“……I think I’ll stick to Kaeo. Nice to meet you Kaeo, and thanks for saving my ass back there”, I offered my hand for her to shake, and she grabbed it. “Anyways, Leon Hart…..no, wait, Hart Leon’s the name.”

Since Coco had introduced Kaeo by saying her name in Japanese style, family-name first, I did that too. Once again, the girl said something I could not comprehend and shook my hand. In her clutch I felt a bone-crushing power, and I was glad that she was not one of those bastard-like people who thought it was fun to try to crush other person’s hand while doing a handshake.

“Well, Kaeo, I need to run by the grocery store. Maybe you could escort Leon to his home, just to make sure all kinds of horrible people don’t threaten his life again”, Coco-san proposed with a sly grin.

Oh ha ha. Very funny. Why don’t you just die, Coco?

“Bah. I’m fine, I can get home by m-“

“####! ######, ##### ###### ####”, Kaeo said, and before I had managed to form any form of counter-argument to the hopeless “Objection!” she made to me, the girl begun dragging me along, showing the friendliness of a drunken sailor.

“There you have it, boya”, Coco-san laughed.

------------ No I didn’t! I most certainly didn’t “have” it!

In any case, before I could even stop this out-of-bounds train, Coco had disappeared from my sight. Instead, she was replaced with familiar shops and buildings, as we got closer and closer to my apartment. As much as it did shame me to admit it, this Kaeo-person seemed to know exactly where she was heading, quite complete opposite of my earlier, pitiful attempt of following the “map” to its “treasure”.

But the fact that she knew exactly what this treasure was bothered me a bit.

All in all, it became one of the weirdest walks I’ve ever had with a girl. Not that I had much experience, mind you. Sure, the girls I had dated back home were mostly the homely, girly type, and so you’d expect they’d love to take strolls on the many beaches of my home country, but nooooooo! They were too busy on taking care of all those chores they were expected to in our slightly chauvinistic community that they had no time for all that kind of romantic crap! Damn them all, men need some tender moments every now and then, too! How the hell can you have them when the girl you’re gunning for is sharpening her kitchen-knives at the same time!?

“Baby, I love to gaze deep in your eyes.”

“If so then watch out. If you accidentally get stabbed by this knife you won’t be gazing anywhere ever again.”

Graaah! Even thinking about it makes me mad!

……………………….Sigh.

Sorry, I just sometimes get worked up over things like these. Most of the things that have anything to do with my home country tend to get me worked up.

------ And no, don’t ask how hard it was to get rid of my virginity in an environment like that commune. I can offer you a simple answer to it, to prevent all further questions.

Answer: Hard.

Ripping myself back to the reality, I found that we had entered the familiar looking street that should, if my memory served me correctly, take me straight to my apartment. While there was still some walking to be done, the light had finally shined to the box of unfortunate events.

Though I’m not sure if I’m about to add one item to that box……….

After all, Kaeo, who had released me from her brotherly-love-grip and was now strolling down the street like a lumberjack who was inebriated after a party at the lodgings, was poking my ribs to get my attention.

“…………What is it?”

Instead of speaking (she might have realized I did not understand a damn thing she said at this point) she offered me something. As I took the weird device, it turned out to be a pair of headphones and a small CD-player that had probably come with a fannie pack to carry it around while on a walk. But without it (I think I saw the exact fannie pack on Kaeo’s waist, now that I thought about it…), I was forced to carry the thing on my hands.

As Kaeo urged me, I put the headphones on and hit play-button from the CD-player. It hummed for a while, letting out small noises. Compared to the older stuff back in Europe, these Japanese-made things had some quality in them, and they did not make noises so loud they’d block out the music itself. In any case, finally the CD inside started spinning, and I heard the first song of the CD, the one Kaeo had probably wanted me to hear.

The first words I heard were:

“Yo pretty time!”

…………………………what?

As the song continued, my confusion changed into utter disbelief, as I listened to the man rapping on the CD. Not only that, but the mental image that the song bought into my mind was almost too much, so I had to take off the headphones. As soon as I had done that, Kaeo gave me a wide grin.

“…………..What was that?”

And then this girl spoke the first word I understood from her mouth.

“Bomb-a-head!”

My, what a climax. I’m sure this will be a line that will have a special meaning in the dramatic ending of your route.

I handed the CD-player back to Kaeo in a rejecting silence. Apparently this was nothing, as the girl put the headphones on, and continued listening to that same song I had just heard.

Something must be wrong with the musical sense of Japanese. I mean, c’mon! What was that imitation of rap!?

However, there was no time for me to think about it, as we had finally reached the place we had been heading for the whole time. The familiar high-rise towered before me like some kind of god of misfortune. But right now, I was gladder than ever to see that stupid building with its annoying elevator-music. Day had been long, and I wanted to get into the bed already.

Slight problem arose when I entered the building, though. That was that Kaeo followed me. I’m not sure if she was waiting for some sort of compensation for bringing me all the way here, or if she had just genuinely forgotten that she was supposed to head into some other direction. Whichever was the case, soon I found myself in the elevator with this tall, tanned blonde, who was still nodding her head to the rhythm of that previous song.

---------- Damn, I really should bomb your head, you idiot!

Hmmmmmmmm! the familiar sound of the elevator taking me to the roof calmed my nerves. My bruised body was already starting to ache, and the sheer thought of getting a bath and sleeping whole night and late into the tomorrow felt almost too good to be true.

There was, of course, nothing that could prevent this from happening, right?

There was nothing that would extend this long day even more, right?

………..Right?

As soon as the elevator-doors opened and we stepped out, I realized how wrong I was.

“Tsubasa, no!!!!” I managed to yell, but it was too late.

Sword left its sheath. There was only one destination. The chest of this newcomer that had appeared after I had stayed far longer than intended in town. Tsubasa was not idiot, after all. She could count 1 + 1. There is only one reason that would make me late, and leave bruises in my body. And if that was combined with a person they’ve never seen before, it was suddenly 1 + 2.

---------- Too bad this idiot samurai got 4 as her answer!!!

Before I even had time to push Kaeo out of the way, the sword had already finished its arc. The silver death was not there to ask questions, but to wound. After the enemy was secured, questions could be asked. And especially against a opponent using bare hands, attacking them with a sword was almost an overkill.

This train of thought was wrecked when the air rushed past me.

……………

No, wait a second………….

What??

I saw the impossible. Right there, before my eyes. I doubted my own brains for a moment, as there was no way I could have perceived such a ridiculous scene right there. However…….it was real.

Thunusakurn Kaeo had stopped a sword with a single punch.

And that sword did not draw even single line of blood.

It had simply stopped, like it had hit a steel wall.

“……………..What…….art this…..?” I could hear Tsubasa mutter in utter disbelief.

“#####.......#####!”

Oh I’m sure that was absolutely stunningly cool and awesome retort, full of wit. Too bad I didn’t get it at all, you idiot!

Before I could even stop it, Kaeo had lunged forward with her knee, hitting defenseless Tsubasa straight into her stomach. Blue-haired girl was thrown backwards as her feet had not yet touched the ground when the hit came, and thus she was free to fly. And from the look on her face, that knee did hurt.

But it was not over yet. The shadows near the elevator moved, and before neither Kaeo nor I could react, something had moved forward with a speed that was hard to catch. She landed gracefully behind the tanned girl and revealed the two fans of kunai she had prepared, one in each hand. These then lunged forward, stopping only an inch before Kaeo’s throat.

Rina had not wasted a single moment when she saw Tsubasa to fail.

“Idiot! Put those things away before you poke someone’s eyes with them!” I gave her a good hit to the head.

Bang!

All the kunai fell to the floor, and Miss Ninja turned to look at me with rather hurt and confused eyes, while rubbing her head.

“………..this one does not understand.”

“What the hell are you two doing, attacking a guest that has come to visit us??” I glared at both of them, and to my surprise, managed to make Tsubasa shrink a bit. Rina just continued to look sullen. “Goddammit, with you two. Overreacting like this….”

I scratched back of my head, before giving one of those large sighs I had started to have lately, after I moved into this god-forbidden apartment.

Wait a minute? If it’s a shrine, can it really be a god-forbidden place? Or does it mean that it’s forbidden from all other gods? No, in the first place, what rule is there to prevent that two gods could exist in one place?

--------------- I’m getting slightly side-tracked here.

“Ahh, let’s just get inside. I’ll explain everything there. You’ll see that Kaeo, although her speech cannot be understood, is a normal person. Well, as normal as she can be, knowing that her Muay Thai is pretty much as strong as the fighting-styles of you two.”

Tsubasa tilted her head to the side, and for some reason, Kaeo let out an almost brutish laugh.

“########!!” she said, before bursting into laughter.

“I think her Kansai dialect is to blame”, the samurai girl suddenly said. “Thou art not native speaker of our tongue, so thou might have problem understanding her words. But fear not, for I can teach you to understand her.”

….K-Kansai dialect?

I looked at Kaeo, who gave me a thumbs-up and grinned widely.

“……………”

I returned it with a deadpan look.

-------- Just what kind of Thai-girl speaks Kansai-ben?

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

“………….In other words, thou were saved by this Kaeo-dono here, de gozaru?” Tsubasa asked once more for confirmation, and inhaled her pipe deeply.

“Yeah, that’s how you sum it while using the least words. So it’s alright, I guess”, I answered.

We were now sitting around the table of the dining room, all four of us. This was the most people this room had seen in god knows how long time, and to be honest, it was not a bad feeling. When I had first arrived to this house, it had felt a little bit empty, but now with Tsubasa and Rina here, and Kaeo being our guest, it seemed almost different place.

“Hmm, I art not sure if it is alright. After all, this stable known as “Back-Alley Rockers” art clearly targeting us, de gozaru. Dost thou think they would leave us alone?”

“………..Well, from the looks of it, their leader is pretty much a thug, so no way, I guess.”

“Umu. ‘Tis a problem we have to solve, de gozaru. The easiest way would be finding the third member and have our stable registered. When we art a official stable, we can challenge “Back-Alley Rockers” and drive their stable out of this area”, Tsubasa explained.

“But where the hell do we get a third member? It’s not great martial artists grow in trees, you-“

“####. #### ####, ####!”

Excuse me, could you not exclaim something so loudly with that brutish voice, right next to my ear??

“………..Dost thou truly mean that, de gozaru?”

“####.”

Both Rina and Tsubasa were staring at Kaeo with eyes wide as plates, and the tanned girl simply grinned at them as answer.

“………Umm, what’s happening here?”

“She offered to join our team as the third member, Leon-sama. Apparently she has been looking for a good chance to test her powers, and she said that anywhere a person like you, Leon-sama, is, must be interesting. So that’s why she has no qualms in joining. And judging from her power, she is a good fit. Nin-nin.”

Wow. I pretty much had guessed something like that, but Rina’s explanation confirmed my guesses. So, if Tsubasa would accept this girl, I guess the stable was finally formed, officially.

“….Then I shalt welcome you, Kaeo-dono. I shalt hope thou wilt bring honor to our stable, de gozaru.”

Tsubasa extended her hand across the table, and Kaeo grabbed it. They shook hands, confirming this new addition to our yet nameless team.

Three members and a manager. We were official now.

“Now that the stable consists of this one and two others…………we need a name for us”, Rina said, making us focus on a completely different thing.

“First of all, something as stupid as “Back-Alley Rockers” is out of question.”

My first rule was met with acceptance from all sides.

“Then how wouldst something like “The Brave Blades” or “Sword and Scabbard” sound, de gozaru?“ Tsubasa proposed.

--------------- Your mind is focused too much on one thing, miss.

“No……..First of all, only you of all the people here use a sword. So I don’t think so. Any other ideas?”

“This one thinks “Shadow Clan” or “Head-hunters” would be good. Good one would also be “Hunters & Seekers”. Nin-nin.”

Why do I have this creeping feeling that these girls think through some specially themed filter, which would quite easily explain the strange get-ups and even stranger customs.

“No. That would make us sound like we were some odd group after people’s lives, even though that is exactly what we are not. Any……..other ideas?” I shot down even that, and turned to face Kaeo, who had crossed her arms.

“#####, ####......................############ #### ###!” she said.

------- I feel like refusing it already, even though I haven’t yet understood what she said. Let’s just say I got this feeling……..

“This one has translated what Kaeo-san said. According to her, good names would be: “Killswitch”, “Derby Ball Hitters”, “Crushing Word” and……….”Head-bombers”.”

Anything but the last one!

And wait a minute, the rest barely even made sense!

“No, I think………..I think they’re bit nonsensical. You know, shouldn’t we have a name that actually meant something? Right? Right?” I tried to ask for agreement, and to my relief, both Tsubasa and Rina nodded.

Crisis averted.

“Then what dost thou think, Shishou? What art the names you wouldst propose for our stable, as the manager, de gozaru?” Tsubasa turned the tables, her blue eyes drilling deep into me.

Er…………….aah………..well…….

“Well, how about something like…..Terrasmith? Light Purple? ZZ Bottom?” I proposed, with slightly wishful feelings.

However………..

“Leon-dono……….”

Tsubasa’s gaze told me a lot. So lot I didn’t even have to look at the faces of Kaeo and Rina.

“I’m….sorry.”

My dreams were crushed mercilessly.

And so began our almost hopeless brainstorming session, focusing much on shooting down the horrible ideas most of us came up with. Ideas that were plagiarizing, stupid, nonsensical, too focused on one of our members or just plain idiotic, and thus we wanted nothing to do with them. During this time names like “Golden Lightning”, “Los Gringos Locos” (We are not Mexican!), “Rude Dudes with Attitudes”, “Space Age”, “New Way Order”, “The Junction Weapons” and “The Avalanche” were shot down. And for good reason, as you can see.

And so the evening turned slowly into night, and I begun to realize that whether I wanted it or not, Kaeo would be staying in this apartment this night.

------------- If my fears were right, she’d be staying here quite much longer, too. I had this warning signal that went off in my head, and it’s noise sounded like a small voice yelling: “Unwanted harem! Unwanted harem!”.

Damn this country.

“Ah……..!!” Tsubasa’s head suddenly jolted up. She had previously been in almost brooding-like posture, but now there was new light in her eyes. However, as she glanced at us, she seemed slightly hesitant.

“Did you get an idea?” I asked. To my surprise, she scratched her cheek. For Tsubasa, that was, shall I say……..rather meek gesture.

“Yes, but…….I am not sure if thou all wouldst like it.”

“Well, hit it. It’s not like we can decide before you say it”, I urged her to go forward. Tsubasa cleared her throat before beginning to talk.

“As thou all know, we art under management of Shishou, Leon-dono. That art why I thought it wouldst be good if we chose a name that slightly reflected this, de gozaru. That is why I propose we wouldst name ourselves…..The Lionhearts.”

…………………Eh?

Wait a minute? Like, Leon = Lion? That isn’t exactly wrong, girl, but how the hell do you think the other’s would-

“This one agrees. Nin-nin.”

“####”, followed by couple of nods.

------------- Oh I hate you guys.

Tsubasa turned to look at me, the one last person who had not said anything about this idea yet.

“What dost thou think, Leon-dono?”

“Well, it feels kinda………..weird. You know. But, if you guys really want to use it, then go ahead……..I’m just the manager after all………” I tried to frown to hide my embarrassment.

Slight silence filled the dining room, until all the three girls nodded as one.

“Then it is decided, de gozaru.”

“Indeed. Nin-nin.”

“####.”

Each of them extended a hand, and they put them all together, over the table. Then those three pairs of eyes turned to look at me, as if waiting for something. With slight groan, I extended my right hand too, and placed it on top of theirs.

Damn these girls like to do it the dramatic way.

“So, in other words, our name shall be……..!!!”

All four hands were raised at the same time.

“ The Lionhearts!!!”

It was a strange feeling of fulfillment. We had done it. We had a name for our stable, and we had enough members. Only things that were needed were apparently sending out the form to the council upholding the rules of Tournament of One Thousand Blades, and so our team would become an official team. We also needed an emblem, which we could act to that strange pillar Tsubasa and Rina had been talking about earlier.

So, in other words, we had taken our first step towards the Tournament. And most likely the second step, or the third, would land straight on the toes of the stable known as “Back-Alley Rockers”.

However, now there were few things in need of addressing….

“…..Do we have any food?”

……..

The atmosphere was so tense I could have eaten that too.

------------ Why yes, I am hungry.

In the end, it turned out that we actually had some food. When they had not heard anything about me, and I had seemingly disappeared during my convenience store trip, the girls had descended from our humble adobe into the world below, giving probably the people a show comparable to gods coming down from Olympus. They had then walked to that same convenience store I always frequent, but as I had not been there, they had just bought the lunches I was supposed to buy and then headed back to wait for me.

And right now, those lunches were waiting for us on the kitchen table

------------ Until they were transported before us….

“Itadakimasu!”

Let’s see now…..there were four of us, but only three bentos, so we all gave some for Kaeo, who, after all, was the visitor here. This became slightly strange evening meal, though, as thanks to Tsubasa and Rina, our bentos were not the most usual kind.

“Makunouchi-bento, huh…..?” I murmured while glancing at the thing from which Tsubasa was eating.

I guess the old-fashioned, traditional girl eats traditional food. Oh, and if anyone does not know, Makunouchi-bento is one with fish, meat, pickles, eggs and vegetables along with rice and an umeboshi. I was fine with Tsubasa picking one that had things she liked to eat, but…..

“Didn’t that cost more than usual bentos? You sure you want to waste our money like that, Tsubasa?” I gave her a rather stern look.

“F-forgive me Shishou. I was just rather overwhelmed seeing something I hath eaten before in my hometown, and thus I was not able to resist the temptation, and succumbed, buying this bento, de gozaru”, she explained.

“Ah, it’s okay. Just don’t make it a habit, okay? We don’t have too much money to spend anyways”, I reminded her, before digging into my own Shōkadō bento, consisting of rice, fish, some pork and Chinese cabbage.

“But I wonder why they always add far less meat if there is any fish put in the bento? It’s rather annoying, as I like both, but the meat is over far before the fish runs out”, I voiced the next thoughts that came into my mind.

“Art that for the reason that it is usually seen as bad thing to crave for too much, de gozaru? I think there is a proverb for it in Western world too…..”Juu caennot havu juur keiki andu iit it tuu.” was it?”

There is something fundamentally wrong in the way you said it, so you could not please repeat it ever again. Moreover, I’m not sure if that proverb does exactly fit with this situation, but whatever.

“#####, ####### #######”, Kaeo suddenly said, with slight snicker. I turned to Rina, who had taken the role of our assigned translator. The ninja-girl raised her gaze from her Chūka bento full of Chinese food, rather sullenly as she found her meal interrupted, yet conveyed the message with her machine-like voice.

“According to Kaeo-san, the fact that you complain about meat running out, Leon-sama, must mean that you’re the type to eat your favorite things first.”

Well, that’s true but………..how the hell did you know!?

“According to Kaeo-san, the fact that you actually complained about the meat running out means that you eat it first. After all, if you left it as the very last thing you eat, it would naturally not run out during your meal. Nin-nin.”

“Ah, well, that makes sense, I guess. Yeah, I guess I have bit of that habit. I like to get rid of things I need to do quickly, so I can concentrate on other things. Like sleeping.” I answered. After a while I decided to ask one thing that had been bothering me a bit in Rina’s way of eating. “I’ve been wondering this a little while but…………what is that thing you keep adding to that meat?”

Rina looked mildly surprised from my question, as she stopped adding the strange brownish liquid to her bento.

“This? This one finds Worcester sauce to be a good thing to add to steamed meatballs. Apparently it’s quite famous in Hong Kong style Chinese food. This one's mother has taken liking to it, although through curry rice. According to this one’s mother, curry rice, especially spicy one, tastes best with Worcester sauce?”

Tsubasa raised her eyebrows.

“Curry rice? Hath she forgotten that us Japanese hath our own soy sauce too, de gozaru?”

“No. This one has seen that she likes to use soy sauce with things like friend eggs. Nin-nin.”

Fried eggs with soy sauce? That sounds bit yucky, no matter how I think about it.

“########, #### ######”, the lady whom I could not understand joined in the conversation. Tsubasa gave her a rather doubtful glance.

“Mayonnaise? In fried eggs, degozaru?”

---- Oh, if this is….

“Actually mayonnaise goes well with almost any egg dish. You see, in the end, mayonnaise is made from eggs, right? Maybe they cause some kind of resonation with each other, but really, those two mix up quite well. I usually ate my boiled eggs with mayonnaise back home”, I said. Tsubasa nodded, as if she had truly learned something new just now.

“What was the food like in thy home country, Shishou?”

Uurrrgh, it’s come to this, huh….?

“Too light to my liking. There was not nearly enough meat in the food, and if there was, it was accompanied by tons of vegetables, bread, cheese and most of all, seafood. Though I’ve kinda taken liking to octopus, fish was never my thing, really. I’m glad to be here, to be honest. Although my favorite type of food is still Chinsese.”

“Chinese food……..and octopus, thou say, de gozaru? Shishou wouldst most likely be at home in Osaka, then. Ikayaki wouldst most be to thy liking, Leon-dono.”

Ikayaki…….isn’t that something like squid-pancake? And I heard they can make it in a minute, so getting a few wouldn’t be a problem. I could most likely stuff my stomach full and then loll around in those Osakan parks that are rather famous. And since it’s Osaka, I guess the two warring states period freaks would find something to do all by themselves, leaving me to marvel at the gastronomical miracles of Japan.

“This one thinks that not only ikayaki, but takoyaki would be favored by Leon-sama. And that can be found even around here. The closest occasion would the Obon Festival in few weeks”, Rina suddenly said, after a while of silence.

“Obon Festival……? Should we attend it? To be honest, I don’t have much knowledge of these Japanese traditions…..”

“If we art to go to Obon Festival, we wouldst have to find ourselves yukatas, de gozaru. Is that not a normal clothing for such an event?”

We can omit one person from that list, miss. If you would look in the mirror, you’d see that you’re wearing yukata, or something like it, every day.

“#####, ########### ###...” Kaeo said, accompanying it with a rather manly laugh.

“Indeed. Visiting a Obon Festival wouldst be nice, de gozaru….”

…………………..

Aaah, I guess the evening ends here, then?

Without much more to say, we begun putting away the bento-boxes that had been emptied from their contents. Since we had no dishwasher, we washed them with some cold water, before putting them aside for further cleaning tomorrow. Right now each of us was too tired to actually start cleaning them in a detailed manner.

Kaeo was apparently going to sleep in the same room as the two girls. Judging from the size of the rooms, it might get slightly cramped, but I guess they wanted to talk about some girl things, like bunch of teenagers on a class-trip.

And I was glad that none of them wanted to sleep in the same room as I did.

Still, it was little funny seeing someone as stiff as Tsubasa instructing laid-back Kaeo about our futons. I could not help but to chuckle, seeing that weird scene.

“This one thinks that you should get used to balancing three flowers on your hands. Nin-nin.”

Rina’s voice startled me, but before I could answer, the ninja-girl had walked over to the other two. I was left in the kitchen, scratching my head and letting out one of those oh-so-familiar sighs.

“It’s not like I’ve raised any flags yet…..”

Bah.

Maybe I’ll just get some sleep.

“G’night everyone”, my voice reached the room the girls were in, and each of them turned to say good night for me. However, one of these voices stood out a little.

“######, ####……..ya know!”

----------------------- Well, whaddya know? I actually understood her a little.

Lucky enough for me, my futon was laid on the floor, as usual. I was too lazy to put it in the closet myself, so it was best left there. That was the reason why, after crawling out of my clothes, I was able to just plop down on the futon and enjoy the warm summer night. Without AC in the house, it was quite warm, since it was summer. This warmth, combined with the sound of night-life from Tokyo was a strange experience. It was not as warm as it was back home, but it was nothing to scorn at.

Nipponese night ain’t so bad, really.

------------------------------- Yawn.

I guess I’ll get some sleep, then. I’ve earned it, after this rough day.

………

……

…

To be honest, I was expecting it.

Sometime after midnight, I heard a voice behind my door.

“Leon-dono…….art thou awake?”

And since I was expecting for it, I heard it.

“Yeah……what is it?”

The sliding door opened half way, and I saw Tsubasa sitting Japanese-style in the hallway. She was only wearing a simple white yukata, a contrast to her usual attire, which always had blue birds in some form. Her face, too, seemed almost bland compared to the usual one. Gone was the pipe, and even her hair, that was usually on warrior’s ponytail, was held free.

“If it’s about today-“

“Please listen to me, Leon-dono.”

………………

Well, that was unexpected. She interrupted me. Something she had never done before, and something I’m sure she would never do to her Shishou without a good reason.

“I have failed thee, Leon-dono. Asking for thy forgiveness……after shaming myself in such a way, I do not deserve it!” She said with a voice that contained a strong self-hatred. “As thy disciple, I should have been there to help thee, yet I was useless, de gozaru. I have no right-“

“Oh be silent, already. You’re making sure I have bad dreams tonight”, I grumbled, before rising to half-sitting position.

To be honest, I’m not good with these kinds of situations. So I might as well say what my mind tells me to.

“You see, today could not be avoided. It was pretty much my fault, I was the idiot who went to that alley. I should have realized it was a bad idea, since I was being part of this Tournament. So you are, by no means, responsible for this mess”, I laid it to her clearly, crossing my arms. “So stop it. That worrying. If you’re going to do it anymore, some other bluebirds are going to disappear, rather than the ones on your clothing.”

“But still, had I been more diligent-“

“Now listen here! Nobody is expecting you to be some kind of superhuman. No one. Not me, not Rina, not Kaeo. You are a human, and thus can only do what a human can do. So don’t try to take responsibility of things you could not prevent. That is only fool’s burden, and it has crushed far too many people already”, I said, while forming a smile I knew she needed right now. “Just do the best you can. Nobody can expect any more from you.”

…….

And then came the moment of silence, during which my words sunk into Tsubasa.

Followed by an answer.

“……..Thank you, Shishou. Thy words mean a lot to me, de gozaru. Now I can rest with ease, knowing that I have the right to be forgiven.”

And so, bluebirds returned to this house from their small trip.

“Don’t worry about it. This is another way a manager has to help, right?”

“Indeed.”

We both chuckled.

“Then……I shall bid you good night, Shishou”, Tsubasa said. I returned the gesture, and slowly she closed the sliding door, leaving me in the room alone.

I knew she had been quite shocked from the fact that I had been attacked and beaten up, and I knew that with her personality, she would try to take the responsibility all to herself. It was my job to defuse that kind of behavior. As a manager, and as a friend.

It really seems that people have all sorts of problems, huh………….?

…………

…..

…

A little while later, I went to make some tea for myself. I was not surprised to find that Tsubasa was already there.

We stayed up for a while, chatting and drinking tea, and watching the night of Tokyo.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“Don’t “bro” me! Besides, you’re a woman! Shouldn’t you be a little more discreet about the way you sit!?”

“I must admit it, de gozaru. She does looketh like a man.”

“It’s a letter of challenge. Read it really carefully, please.”

“Are you sure this is the right guy……….girl……..whatever?”

“Don’t worry. Your manager has a daring plan.”

Foolish boys and girls ~ Time to assemble the stable!!

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Five
Foolish boys and girls ~ Time to assemble the stable!!

Have you ever had the feeling where you just don’t want to wake up? Like, you want to just pull that blanket over your head to shield you from the morning sun and doze off into the slumber-world again, and not be bothered again? And do you find the reason that wakes you up, whatever it happens to be, extremely annoying?

Why, yes, I’m having that kind of feeling this morning. That’s why I mentioned it.

“Nin-nin. It’s morning already. Nin-nin.”

Oh shut up, Rina. And stop poking me with the handle of your sai. The possibility that you might use the other end is scaring me more than a little. And no doubt you’d do it with that same emotionless look on your face.

“Nin-nin. It’s morning already. Nin-nin.”

What are you, a human alarm-clock!?

--------------- The idea of a bobble-head figure of Rina, which would also be a clock, flashed through my head.

Weird. Really weird. But strangely fitting for her.

“Nin-nin. It’s morning already. Nin-nin.”

Each “Nin” was accompanied by a poke.

And there was one poke too much.

“Aaargh, for god’s sake, can’t a man have his sleep!?” I roared as I sprung out of bed, as if I were to attack the ninja-girl. Instead of being confused, she just looked me with her usual poker-face, letting out just small sound of:

“Ooh.”

------------ What do I need to do to get some emotion-filled reaction from this girl?

“So? What is it? For whatever reason could you have woken me up this early? My inner clock says it’s about 11, which must mean that in reality, the clock is nearing half past 12”, I asked from her, to which Rina answered quite surprisingly.

A sulking face, accompanied by: Grrrrrruuuuu of her stomach.

“I’m sorry. That is the only problem I cannot help you with. As you know, we’re out of money.”

Oh boy, that didn’t at least erase the sulking face. But what happened was.

Sliiiiiiiiiiide, thump! Thut, thut, thut, thut!

“Yoo! I brought some grub for ya!!”

------- You know, I’m surprised. I actually managed to make sense of what the person who entered the room said.

As those with any knowledge of the dreaded Kansai-accent can guess, the one who entered the room was none other than Kaeo I-have-a-surname-that-is-too-weird-to-be-remembered. She was carrying a plastic bag on her hand, which was probably filled to brim with foodstuff, judging from the looks of it.

Now, the only question is:

“Why are you here?”

“### ####, ya know.”

No, I don’t know. I don’t know half of that, actually.

“Could you run that by me again?”

And stop snickering, idiot.

“I’m ‘ere for breakfast, ya know.”

Thank you. That came out much clearer, and much slower.

“I’m assuming you’re the one doing the cooking. As I definitely do not know how to cook, and Rina here would most likely spice up the food with poison to strengthen our natural resistance to the venom used by our enemies. You know, the usual ninja-stuff”, I said with deadpan-voice.

Kaeo burst into booming laughter and sat down with a loud thump, like a drunken man dropping the floor.

“Bwhahahaha, me? ### ####, bro! Totally impossible!”

“Don’t “bro” me! Besides, you’re a woman! Shouldn’t you be a little more discreet about the way you sit!?”

“Don’cha sweat on the small stuff. We’ve got one that’ll cook somethin’ for us, ya know!”

Do I even dare to guess it? Well, it’s not like I’m really guessing. There’s only one idiot left in this house to cook our breakfast.

…………..

After getting fully dressed up and dragging myself to the kitchen, I found my suspicions unfortunately to be correct. There, having already emptied the contents of the plastic bag to the table, stood Tsubasa who had put an apron on and was preparing to start making our breakfast. The first breakfast which was not bento or some other ready-made food, mind you. We were moving up in the world, but it was a move similar to moving from sleeping in the sewers to sleeping in the streets. Not that much of a improvement, when you looked it from the viewpoint of normal life.

Well, to be honest, it did seem that Tsubasa did know what she was doing. Judging from how she handled kitchen utensils and the likes, it was not the first time she had done food. Only thing I feared that we would get something akin to the breakfast of soldiers from the Edo period.

“What’cha cooking?” I asked her as I stepped in the kitchen. Tsubasa gave me a flash of a smile, before concentrating in her work once again.

“Good morning, Shishou. Alas, there was none well-versed in the art of cooking amongst us, and thus I decided to use what little skills I hath to prepare us a breakfast, de gozaru”, she explained. “I chose today’s breakfast to be rice, some miso soup, grilled fish, tamagoyaki, seasoned nori and natto. The groceries Kaeo-dono brought with her made it possible to prepare these dishes, de gozaru.”

At this point, the man-who-loved-food in me screamed with joy. To be honest, I had wanted to eat real, home-made Japanese meal from the moment I had arrived in this country. Unfortunately, thanks to my financial situation, such thing had seemed far too luxurious for me. But now, thanks to Tsubasa, it seemed that my dream was finally coming true.

“Great job, Tsubasa. Great job”, I complimented her as tears of joy streamed down my face.

Tsubasa, on other hand, tilted her head in utter confusion.

Well, leaving the breakfast aside for a minute, there were other things we needed to discuss about, now that we all were gathered in here, in the same spot. After all, we were Lionharts. A stable that would participate in the Tournament of One Thousand Blades…………………..well, that is, we would when we got officially accepted as a stable and had our emblem added into the Column of Challenges, where it should remain till the tournament started……….which meant we would have to defeat all rival stables that would try to drop us from the tournament before it had even started.

In other words, I guess, we were in middle of qualifiers.

“So, I’ve been meaning to ask this for a while, but……..what are we doing now? We’ve got our members to form the stable, but how will we proceed? I know you’ve been talking about that ‘Column of Challenges’, but what is that thing actually? Some kind of office where the stables go register up so they could be counted as the participants of the tournament?” I asked.

“### ####, so not quite, ya know? Column of ##### is actually a physical ####. We’ll go there, add ### emblem, an’ be part ## the tournament”, Kaeo answered. And even though some of the words were complete mysteries to my ears, I could make out the general gist of it.

“Physical place?” I raised my eyebrow, for I could not help but to doubt this a little. “Where in the hell here in Tokyo would such a column exist?”

“It must the only place that could portray as a column big enough. The only tower big enough……must be it”, Rina muttered under her breath, but still loud enough so I could hear.

“So a place that could act as a huge pillar……? Oh crap, you don’t mean-“

“Bwahahahaha, that’s right! The #### Tokyo Tower! That’s the Column of ##### this time, an’ the place where’ll #### from all over the world put #### emblems on, ya know!” Kaeo laughed and hit her knee with her hand, as if it had been the funniest thing in the world.

---------- What the hell? So let me get this straight: The famous Tokyo Tower that hundreds of tourists visit every day is going to be filled with some kind of emblems? How does not anybody notice that!?

I could already see the ones responsible of maintaining the tower doing harakiris in a row.

“Dost thou think it as blasphemous, Shishou?” Tsubasa turned to ask.

----- Blasphemous might be a bit strong word, but it definitely is wrong on so many levels.

“It art the duty of the city hosting the Tournament of One Thousand Blades to arrange a Column of Challenges. Thus, it art their own idea, de gozaru. Dost thou understand, Leon-dono?”

So, in other words, the city of Tokyo chose that tower to be the pillar filled with strange emblems?

Oh, just forget it. If they were idiotic enough to do it themselves, I’m not gonna waste my time being confused about it.

“But I guess that in order to stick our emblem into that column, we need a emblem first, right?”

“That is right. This one does not know any Designers in the city of Tokyo, however. Nin-nin.”

Tsubasa shook her head, as if to agree with Rina, while pouring the miso soup.

“Neither do I. I only knoweth the royal Designer in Kyoto, but we art in a slight hurry, and hath no time to contact her, de gozaru.”

So, if neither of our traditional-values-and-Edo-period-pie girls did not know a Designer, the only person who could, was……

“Oh, I know ## Designer. Bwahahaha, but that person’s lil’ strange, so don’t ##### me, ya know!” Kaeo answered our expecting gazes with a laughter and quite scary remark, when you begun to think about it.

-------------- Somebody who even Kaeo thinks as strange……………..Scary!

It was then decided that we would go and see this Designer the first thing after the breakfast, and after that, we’d go over to Tokyo Tower to put our emblem in that damned pillar. That would ensure our place in the tournament…………well, unless some other stable would try to drop us from the game, that is.

Looks like it was going to be a busy day!

Seeing that Tsubasa was finishing her preparations of breakfast, I stood up and nodded to Rina who was sitting beside me.

“Help me a bit, will you? Let’s put cutleries to the table so we can begin eating the moment Tsubasa finishes”, I asked from her. Obediently, the little ninja-girl stood up and followed me to the cupboard which had all the necessary things inside it for a culinary experience, Japanese-style.

While we put up the cutleries, Tsubasa made few finishing touches on the breakfast she had worked hard for, before starting to move it to the table, one dish at a time. As we watched in amazement, our combined effort turned into a beautiful breakfast table. Well, the food might have been rather ordinary, and there were no extravagant things, but hey – It was the best we could afford. And besides, a bland meal with friends was always better than a great meal alone.

------------- I can’t believe I just thought such a corny line. The climate of Japan must have damaged my snark-gland.

“Well, what dost thou think, Shishou? I put some work unto it, de gozaru!” Tsubasa asked, wearing a rather proud smile, something uncommon on her face. I couldn’t help but to return that smile with one of my own.

“That dost looketh most delicious. I simply cannot wait to taste some of it with my own mouth, my dear disciple”, I answered, mimicking Tsubasa’s grandiose style of speech.

Kaeo burst into her loud and brutish laugh, Tsubasa let out a small chuckle, and Rina………………..well, Rina looked as indifferent as usual. Although some people considered my jokes as mocking, it seemed that these girls had learned that I never meant anything bad with them.

“…….what about this one’s work?” Rina asked, eyes directed straight at me. I absentmindedly pet her head and nodded again.

“Yeah, you did good work too.”

Clink!

A funny crack appeared in the atmosphere of our calm and gentle morning breakfast. Ah yes, in this pleasant feeling that had overcame me, I had forgotten that in the end, I had only known all these girls for less than a month. There were things that were still seemingly odd if I did them, and petting someone’s head was definitely one of them. I quickly removed my hand, and met with Rina’s emotionless, yet somehow unusually glare-like stare.

“A-ah, sorry………..It was an unconscious move. I just used to pet my little sister like that, so-“

“………………………………..It’s alright.”

Eh?

Rina, who had seemed almost shocked that I had done so, did not apparently mind it at all. No, in fact, as me, Tsubasa and Kaeo watched in utter amazement, Rina performed a half-bow and brought her head closer to me.

“In fact, this one would like to ask you to do it some more, Leon-dono.”

………………what? What kind of petting zoo did this become? And since when did the indifferent baboon in the corner turn into clingy sort?

It was a strange sight in a somewhat strange morning, all in all. I had understood partially what Kaeo had said, Tsubasa had made breakfast, and Rina felt comfortable when I petted her head.

------------ This world has started turning into weird direction.

In the end, we resumed the breakfast. It would have been shame to waste it, after Tsubasa had used all her skills as cook to make it. I noticed how everything that required cutting had been done with extreme precision, but rest of the work was rather rough. It was great, but not in a true culinary sense. But I didn’t mind. Right now I was fine with breakfast like this, if just the company was this good.

And yes, I did pat Rina on the head after she asked. It was not like I could refuse those eyes that were like a sulking cat’s.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

So, after stuffing our stomachs with food with the joy of a poet who finally saw a pay-check, we set on a quest to find this Designer of ours. Kaeo was the one leading us, and her long stride forcing us to hurry our steps in order to keep up with her. This was one of the reasons why I disliked women taller than me: You were always one who had to keep up, no matter what you did.

------- No, not in that way, idiots.

Speaking of which, the reason for her fast pace must have been because her stride was as wide as man’s. You know, not womanly at all. In fact, from head to toe, Kaeo always looked and behaved far more manly than I ever did. The way she talked, the way she walked, the way she sat, the way she interacted with other people…..even the way she burped was far more manly than I could ever achieve! God damn it!

Does this mean I should be jealous!?

“Art thou troubled, Leon-dono? Thou looketh to be lost deep in thy thoughts, de gozaru”, Tsubasa asked, apparently alarmed by the expression I had been wearing.

---- Yeah, I’m just jealous because the girl in front of us is far more man than I could ever achieve, that’s only thing that troubles me.

Of course I can’t say anything like that!!

“You know, Tsubasa…….is it just me, or does Kaeo look rather……manly……sometimes?” I asked with a whisper, trying to make sure that the person in question did not hear it.

Tsubasa looked unusually troubled for a second, before she nodded and answered with equally low voice.

“I must admit it, de gozaru. She does looketh like a man.”

So it wasn’t just me.

“Quit yer yapperin’, we’re #### there! Better #### #### in bein’ silent, since that person likes to work in peace an’ quiet, ya know”, Kaeo said with bellowing voice from the front.

You’re the loudest one hear, idiot!!

We had arrived in Shibuya sometime earlier, and we’re now walking the streets of this Mecca of nightlife, full of fashion and parties that were far too expensive for any of us to attend to. Well, not that I’d expect any of my companions to visit that kind of places. Tsubasa was far too traditional and up-tight to even think about that. I’m not even sure Rina knew what nightclubs were. And Kaeo………..well, I somehow saw her far more comfortable in a dusty old pub full of biker-dudes and fistfights.

And that left me alone. Me. A young man with no money.

----------------- Please excuse me while I cry for this pathetic character I’ve become.

“We’re ####. So keep yer mouth shut unless yer ask’d somethin’”, Kaeo suddenly announced with a serious voice.

Well…………..what to make of the building before us?

It was new, that’s for sure. Blue glass and white metal, so to say. One of those hyper-futuristic looking buildings that looked like they wanted to become time-machines through looks alone, and fly into the next century. Well, we were almost in the 2000, the magical year of the new millennium. But still………there’s limit to everything, hey? A wave-shaped building with no clear indication of the front door is always a sign of “going too far”, or rather “architect with too much time in his hands”.

Sterile staircase greeted us, being as white as the exterior of the buildings. Just white, white and some more white. And yeah, blue doors. Blue doors that seemingly varied in shape and size so greatly, that it looked as if other houses were made for giants, while others were those for hobbits to inhabit. Blue doors, in that wave-shaped wall, which made no sense.

------------ Wait, what??

“…….this one is not sure, but this seems to be optical illusion, Leon-sama. Look. The doors are the exactly same size and shape but……others are just upside-down compared to others. Nin-nin.”

…..what? Upside-down? Wait, wasn’t that….?

“…….Jastrow”, I muttered before I could stop myself.

Yeah, this had to be Jastrow illusion. A funny little trick, which made shapes of same size appear different. But still, to apply the whole concept into a big building like this……..somebody really had too much time in their hands.

“Ah, this house hath a name too, de gozaru”, Tsubasa suddenly said, pointing to a metallic letters on the wall next to the exit.

“Town Kinetic Visual Shell”

One thing is for sure:

----------- I never, ever want to meet this architect.

“C’mon, ####. We’ve got a person to meet”, Kaeo hurried us up, and thus begun to lead us into up, ascending the long and winding staircase.

White walls and blue doors.

I was really getting a headache. I’m not sure if the optical illusion was annoying my eyes, of if it was the hospital-like smell of the building, but I felt horrible. My head hurt, I felt somewhat nauseous, not to talk about claustrophobic. To be honest, I just wanted to get out of this building.

------ Oh, by the way, the bad thing about the hospital-smell is that hospitals don’t actually smell at all. Void of smells.

Yeah, void and emptiness is scary.

“Here we are.”

Riiiiiiiing! went the doorbell. Kaeo had pressed it before we had even managed to do anything, and so there was no going back now. For better or worse, we were meeting up with this Designer, who would design our emblem that would be used in this tournament.

………………..

Nobody was coming.

Nobody was coming, yet Kaeo did not seem to be in hurry to press the doorbell again. It was as if she had known that if it was rung twice, nothing would happen.

And then. Exactly one minute after that doorbell had rang.

Click-creeeeaaaak!

Lock and door opened. And out poked a head.

“………….Kaeo.”

“Y-Y. Nice to see ya again”, Kaeo said and shook hands with the person who had emerged.

The said person grunted, gave a glance at us, and opened the door wide open, inviting us in.

“Get in. We’re doing business, right?”

Entering the apartment of this enigmatic Designer was a task on its own. There were no normal light-bulbs. All the light inside was blue, just like the door had been. Through corridor, past kitchen, into the living room and from there, one room that was locked as we arrived, but then opened. It looked as if we had stepped into another world, save for one room, which had normal light. But that light was so bright it hurt my eyes.

And that one room was apparently the workshop of this “Y-Y”, judging from all the papers with emblem designs littered all over it.

“Leon. Tsubasa. Rina. This here is Y-Y. If it’s emblem ya want, Y-Y will do it for ya”, Kaeo said with surprisingly serious voice.

------------ Now that I thought about it, she had not had much of her usual gigantic presence after we stepped in this apartment. Did this Y-Y cause something like……..nervousness in Kaeo?

……

Bah! Couldn’t be!

“……..I’ll be taking the money from your victory spoils when you defeat other stables. Since you all look flat-broke”, Y-Y said, showing scary skills of observation.

Maybe I should observe this person some more too?

…………….Well…….where to start?

I’m going to be perfectly honest with all of you: I couldn’t tell for the life of me whether Y-Y was a man or a woman. From the looks of it he/she was Chinese, judging from the double-buns Y-Y’s hair was. His/Her body was petite and feminine, but it had no real grace, nor any shapes that women usually would have. And the fact that he/she was dressed only in far too large boxer briefs, leaving his/her rest body stark naked served also as confusement.

Oh, forget it. I’ll just call Y-Y “it” from now on. It certainly deserved it with it’s looks.

“Ummm…..Kaeo…?” I asked, voicing my suspicions. “Are you sure this is the right guy……….girl……..
whatever?”

At that moment, the soda-smelling breath of Y-Y was straight in my face. It had brought it’s face inch away from mine, and the look in those eyes with bag-loads under them was fierce. No, competitive. It saw my words as a challenge.

“………your stable name?” Y-Y asked.

………I guess I, as a manager, should say it.

“The Lionhearts.”

Y-Y’s smile was definitely creepy when it heard that.

“Give me four hours.”

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

Exactly five hours and twenty minutes later, we were back in the Minato ward.

And boy did we have an emblem!

Right now, each of us held one, plus we had a box of spare ones to go around. In other words, if we got around recruiting new members, we would hand out emblems for them. One was, of course, saved for the Column of Challenges. That emblem was larger than others, and had additional details. The “main emblem” so to speak, though we’d be more known through our regular emblems.

And what was this emblem like?

The main body of the emblem was a roaring, stylized lion’s head of red and black. It was shaped roughly like a circle with the lion’s eye, or rather the whole which portrayed it, slightly above the middle. Now, the mane of that lion turned into sharp and sleek flames, which covered 3/4 of the edge of the emblem, with the last quarter being the mouth and fangs. The stylized flame was like a edge of a buzz saw, only wilder with how it went to different directions. And in those flames, one letter in each, was written a name. “The Lionhearts” stood there proudly, with white letters against the red background. Those letters strongly resembled the flames themselves in how spiky they were.

……..god damn it. That androgynous freak really did have talent.

“……Umm….Leon-dono? Thou has done nothing else but gaze that emblem through whole journey, de gozaru. Is it not to thy liking?” Tsubasa asked with somewhat worried voice. I strongly shook my head, to tell my denial without words.

“No. It’s perfect. That’s why I can’t stop looking at it, you see?”

“Bwahahahahahaha! I told ya! ### ####! Y-Y’s the best, ya know!” Kaeo laughed and slammed my back with her hand, with enough force to almost knock me to the ground and out to count.

“Next time with less physical abuse, thank you”, I growled at her, only to be answered with a snickering grin.

“……this one advises that we take a shortcut here. It’ll lead us straight to Shiba Park”, Rina’s emotionless voice came from behind me, and I saw her pointing to a small alley that led towards the park, just as she had described.

Right now we were traveling to that much-mentioned Column of Challenges, in other words, Tokyo Tower. Which happened to be in the same exact ward that I lived in, not actually far away from my place at all. We just needed to travel slightly north from our apartment, and we’d arrive in the Shiba Park from which we would quickly get to the foot of the tall, orange tower that was dominating the horizon at this part of Tokyo.

“But there sure are lot of couples around here……….I thought you Japanese were supposed to be very modest about things like these, yet here I see all these dates going on”, I commented about the scenery around us, which, as you could have most likely guessed, contained lots of men and women, doing things that men and women do when they are together, but in public.

“Umu. Thou art right, Leon-dono. Such shamelessness, de gozaru………It is not of proper manners to be this way outside their house, especially if they art not married”, Tsubasa frowned upon the couples, and some even seemed to sense her disapproving gaze, as they quickly became very formal.

Well, what should I have expected? To be honest, I’m surprised that she has not yet fainted from all these things these today’s youngsters do, and remembering from what era her values are.

Hey, wait a minute. I’m not so old I could talk in this manner!

“This one does not understand what it is what these people are doing. These meetings must be important as there are so many of them. These meetings, they must be important”, Rina commented from the sidelines…

…….And caused a rather uncomfortable silence to fall.

“Well, you see……….” I tried to come up with a believable excuse as her eyes were firmly locked to me. “…….think of it as a rendezvous.”

“Hoo. This one will.”

-------- I’m such a coward!

You can imagine I was rather relieved when we finally got out of the park, and entered the vicinity of the Tokyo Tower. The red spike towered above us like an eastern copy of Eiffel Tower, which it pretty much was. However, it did not make it any less magnificent. The 332. 5 meters tall lattice tower was a grand sight no matter what. Countless radio and television stations used this tower to broadcast their signals, and it also served as a very popular place to visit amongst tourists.

And here were we: Two Japanese girls, one girl from Thailand and one boy who was in the completely wrong country for his own good. At the foot of this tower that had once snatched Eiffel Tower’s place as the tallest structure in the world with a mere 13 meters.

“We need to ### to FootTown if we wanna get where the emblems are placed, ya know”, Kaeo commented from behind me.

FootTown was a 4-story building at the foot of Tokyo Tower, and it housed several tourist attractions, a large FamilyMart, Tower Restaurant, Aquarium Gallery and souvenir shop, not to talk about many small, random little shops that have managed to buy a place from there. The elevators inside would take people up to the observation decks, both the one at 150 meters, and the higher one at 250 meters.

But we were not going inside.

“Let us take the stairs outside, de gozaru. Inside it art crowded, and we do not want to be recognized easily as participants in the tournament”, Tsubasa proposed, taking the lead of the group.

------ It’s your own damn fault for wearing such strange looking clothes. I mean, everyone in the area can spot you as weirdos instantly!

The staircase was actually not meant just to gain access to the roof of FootTown, but it also led up to the main observation deck, with amazing 600 steps in total. We only needed few of those since we would stop at a rather low height, but I must say, the ascending was not easy. I dread to even think what it would feel to climb all the way up to the main observation deck.

“Put some power to ##### legs, bwahahahaha!! ### ##### you ain’t in #### shape, ya know! Bwahahahaa!” Kaeo laughed and slammed my back with her open hand, causing me to cringe. The girl seemed to have the time of her life climbing these stairs.

The only ones with problems were me, and……..surprisingly Tsubasa. But the problem was rather different than it was with me.

“Next time I shalt not take a kimono when I am to climb stairs, de gozaru….”

As you can see.

Rina, on other hand, was clearly home. That girl had a balance of a scale which tried to find out which was heavier, Kaeo’s femininity or her intelligence.

“Here we are!”

Well, well, at last………the roof of FootTown.

And the Column of Challenges.

“Heh…….it does fit, though. The name.”

It was the central pillar of Tokyo Tower. Yeah, that was the Column of Challenges. The pillar that’s size far exceeds that of my shrine-like house, and which was like arm of a sleeping giant, resting there to support the weight of 4000 tons of steel. That pillar, which extended towards the sky so high that I could have not seen its end without breaking my neck in the process, was our goal of the moment.

And the goal of every other martial artists in the city of Tokyo.

“Countless emblems ……..it seemeth that other stables have started to form already, de gozaru.”

And as Tsubasa had pointed out, the pillar was filled to brim with emblems much like ours. Well, in the general sense. Of course each emblem was unique, and there were no two of the kind. Her eyes seemed to be analyzing each and every emblem while her lips inhaled smoke from her pipe, and then blew it out slowly, letting a small cloud of smoke into the air. That smoke hung desperately in the blueness of the sky, trying to preserve it’s, yet ultimately failed. It disappeared, and was never heard of again.

----------- Just like those stables that had put their emblems here, yet lost.

“Leon-dono……..the honor is thee, de gozaru”, Tsubasa said slowly and formally, giving me a slight bow. This bow was mimicked by Rina, and Kaeo gave me a reassuring nod.

I was holding the Master Emblem. So it was my duty to plant it here in this pillar.

With rather unsure steps I proceeded forward, trying to form some kind of resolve in my mind. Though seemingly easy task, the sheer pressure this whole thing put on my shoulders was nearly overwhelming. And if I had it this hard as a manager, how hard was it for actual participants? I could not look back at faces of Tsubasa, Rina and Kaeo, but I could feel their eyes glued to my back. I was right now carrying their dreams in my hand, and it was my job to help them into a place where they could give it their all, in order to achieve that dream.

“Yeah……….no time to get scared now….” I muttered to myself.

Let’s do this, then.

No hesitation anymore. Firm steps, steps of a man who realizes he is expected to do something. Each of these sure steps brought me closer to the Column of Challenges, and each of these steps took me further away from my normal life up till then. Well, as normal as you could call it. And when my right foot reached a place from which it could not really advance anymore, the work for my legs was over.

It was time for my hand. A hand which carried the Master Emblem, and the hand which I extended forward. A hand which carried the symbol of the dreams of the three girls behind me, and the hand which I promised that would not fail them. This hand was firmly gripping the true emblem of The Lionhearts, and this hand knew what it was expected to do. This hand extended forward, and………..

Planted the Emblem.

“Gu----!!! Ahh-----!!”

At that moment………..a wave of nausea and piercing headache hit me. I saw the world in strange colors for a split of second.

Amongst those colors was pink. A pink I faintly recognized from somewhere. A pink I thought I saw staring down at me from the top of the Tokyo Tower……..and the pink I saw every day, skateboarding over my house.

And then that color and the headache were gone. And it was replaced by a cloud. A cloud of cement-dust, which had risen when the ground below me had been struck with pummeling force.

“W-what!?” I managed to barely react when the dust-cloud cleared before me.

I was face-to-face with a man whose eyes spelled my death.

A dust-cloud which had left me completely defenseless. It was the perfect blind spot for every fighter to use, a blind spot which appeared just before the enemy. Even if you struck into that blind spot, it was not bound to hit, as it was larger than any hit could cover with one strike. And from the stance of that man’s legs…..with all of the weight resting on the back leg, which was bent at the knee, the rear foot was turned at about 20-30 degrees out and the knee sat at the same angle. Only the toes of the front foot rest on the ground, positioned in front of the back heel. I could see there was no weight on the front foot, and there was no bent in the ankle joint. A single vertical line was formed by front knee, front shin, and the rise of the foot.

“Enshin Kaikan-----!!” I growled instinctively.

“Yeah…..that would be exactly it. Bingo, man.”

Japanese man with blond hair that was swept up like it was bunch of thorny flames. He was dressed in ragged and dirty hakama, black sleeveless shirt and had huge, metal-plated gloves which matched quite nicely with his equally metal-plated (and huge) boots. His lazy, dirty-ground colored eyes analyzed me like a snake analyzes its prey, and I had no doubt that I was already in the fatal range if the man decided to attack.

“W-who art thou!? Step away from Leon-dono this instant, de gozaru!” Tsubasa’s yell echoed on the roof, and I could hear her running footsteps.

Zzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!

Something whistled through the air like a miniature kamikaze-flying,leaving a shallow cut in Tsubasa’s right cheek. The thin line of blood that then appeared was testimony of the skill of the thrower. After all, the thing that was thrown was not weapon at all. No, it had sliced itself into the concrete of the roof, a testimony of the technique and power behind the throw. And the damn thing stuck in the roof…..was a letter. An ordinary, western-style letter.

Somebody had just thrown letter with enough force to bury it into concrete.

“Oi, oi……just what kind of monsters are you?” I asked with low voice, my eyes searching for the thrower.

And there she was, above me, standing on the metal-bar that was one of the many holding up the structure of Tokyo Tower. A woman in tight jeans and leopard-pattern, long-sleeved shirt. And from the looks of it, the two articles of clothing were having a contest about which one could be more tighter and mimic that woman’s skin more without being a hindrance. Only ones out of that competition were the high-heeled shoes that looked like their heels could be used as weapons themselves. Add long, curly black hair, and you’ve got the woman who had just performed that marvelous trick of throwing.

“Ka ka ka ka…….we meet again, Leon Hart!” a third person bellowed, a person far more familiar to me this time.

“Tohei Kumo…..should’ve known it was you”, I grunted, seeing the spider-bastard clinging to the side of Tokyo Tower. It looked like he had certainly taken liking to the web-like maze of metal-structures of the Tower.

“And not only me……I’ve got my stable with me. The Back-Alley Rockers…….Tohei Kumo, Black-Bara….” he pointed at the woman above me, who gave a graceful nod. “and finally, Mitsuhane Hibiki. Together we are Minato Ward’s number 1 stable………and you’ll learn it soon, kids.”

Black-Bara pointed at the letter she had thrown. Kaeo, with serious look on her face yet retaining her usual cool, walked over to it and picked it up with ease. Thai-girl turned the letter around, looking at it from all sides, before waving it at the black-haired woman and raising an eyebrow.

“The hell is #### s‘posed to be?” she asked with rude voice, enough to make Black-Bara frown enough to break her beautiful expression for a moment.

“It’s a letter of challenge. Read it really carefully, please”, she pointed out. Kaeo looked at the letter, reached for the seal that bound it tight, and…….

Ripped it in half.

------------- Oh great. You just had to go and piss them off more, didn’t you!?

The two halves of the letter were taken quickly by the wind, and soon they disappeared into the distance and streets below. Back-Alley Rockers looked all in some state of amazement at the disappearing halves of the letters, as if they had hard time believing the disrespect they were just shown.

“Whole letter f’ra challenge? ### ###! Ya gotta do only one thin’ if ya ### to challenge us, ya know! An’ that’s to say ## to our faces!” Kaeo bellowed and pointed her finger at the Back-Alley Rockers. “Just come ‘ere an’ say, “C’mon!”.”

……..

For some reason, even though she managed to annoy me, I couldn’t help but to admire that idiot at that exact moment. With one sentence and one move, she had dissolved the threatening atmosphere the Back-Alley Rockers had managed to create, and turn the situation to our advantage.

“You…..you……barbaric-bastard! How dare you treat our challenge like that!?” Black-Bara growled, looking like she was ready to beat Kaeo’s spiky head into inverted shape.

“If ya wanna fight so bad…………..”, Kaeo’s grin was so magnificent I was surprised it didn’t blind us then and there. “Put yer emblem to the risk!”

Electrifying words. Words that even I understood as something far more than just a challenge to a petty fight between two groups.

This was an official challenge in the Tournament of One Thousand Blades. If Back-Alley Rockers accepted, it would be two teams that bet their emblems, and thus their spots to the Tournament, and fought to determine which one was more fitting to continue towards the ultimate victory.

------ Damn. Even in this situation, it’s hard for me to not get excited and pumped-up.

“……..First that heiress of Tsunemoto-family comes waltzing into this area like it was her own, then that foreign bastard dares to beat me up like a common thug……and now this? Challenging us to put our emblem to the risk…..?” Kumo’s teeth were grinding together and his fists were all white from being clenched together with such force. “Unforgivable…….unforgivable………unforgivable!!!”

Was that some kind of sign? At that exact moment he repeated the word the third time, both Mitsuhane Hibiki and Black-Bara retreated to their leader, taking a place on his each side, as the spider moved back to two feet like any normal human would have long ago. They stood there, three fighters, ready to face their enemies down below. Were they trying to gain some kind of advantage by being so high up there?

----------- Heh. Sorry, Back-Alley Rockers.

From here, you just look awfully small!!!!

Tsubasa was behind me. To her right side, Rina. And to Tsubasa’s left side, Kaeo. The three girls that were ready for their first official battle in the Tournament of One Thousand Blades. A match that would happen if Tohei Kumo would accept the challenge that had been turned against him. I think he never imagined that he’d have to put his emblem to the risk if he wanted to get rid of the competition in Minato ward.

But….

“…….FINE! I’ll accept! The Back-Alley Rockers accept the challenge of…..of….”

“The Lionhearts. Don’t ya forget our roar, ya hear me?”

------------- Kaeo, that was a horrible catchphrase. Please, never repeat it again.

“Okay then!” Kumo exclaimed. “The Back-Alley Rockers accept the challenge of The Lionhearts in the Tournament of One Thousand Blades!”

It wouldn’t have been such a grand announcement, if nothing had happened after that, and we’d have just gone to our separate ways after all that excitement and testosterone. However, the moment Kumo had announced that his stable would accept the challenge of us, a figure that had certainly not been there before appeared. A man clad in huge, blood-red cloak and armor that looked like it was from some ancient, from a faraway distant land. The cloak, or a cape was it, rippled through the air between the two stables facing off, and from within it, the said man appeared. He had spiky silver hair and pair of grey, sharp eyes that were like guns. At this point I realized that both sides must have been waiting for that man to appear, as I was the only one surprised, and freaked out, by his sudden appearance.

The man pressed some kind of highly futuristic-looking headphone on his right ear, and said loudly the following words:

“Stable: “Back-Alley Rockers” vs. Stable: “The Lionhearts”. Battle confirmed. Qualifier level battle. Match-type: Switch. Date of battle: Tomorrow evening, clock 19:00. Location: The shipment-yard of the harbor.”

Announcer? Or maybe some kind of referee? Yeah, referee looked the most likely option, seeing how both of the stables seemed to have more than vague of respect for this man. He stood there, between the two sides, unfazed. And that called for lot of nerve. Either he was powerful, idiot, or idiotically powerful. Or maybe powerfully idiotic. Any and all combinations were probably right, as long as it was made from words “powerful” and “idiot”.

“Shishou…….this art our first true battle. Dost thou feel nervous, de gozaru?” Tsubasa asked from me with low voice. I shook my head.

“No, rather than that……I’m excited. Seeing the abilities of these people……..I think I might have an idea.”

Tohei Kumo: A man with double-joints that allowed whip like movement and street-wise jujitsu. I knew everything I needed from his fighting-style.

Black-Bara: A woman who was clearly master of Shuriken-jutsu, and was clearly the speed-type, judging how she chose her clothing to reduce the friction created in the air to the minimum. But for what reason?

Mitsuhane Hibiki: A man who has mastered Enshin Kaikan style karate, and is able to create ultimate blind spots by using the dust and rubble thanks to his cloud forming moves. Clearly the most dangerous of the three.

-------------- Now…….how were we going to defeat these three?

If we were to face them with our current members, and if “Switch” was the kind of battle-style I thought it was…..

Hmh…..? Wait a minute….

Maybe she could…..

“Fufu….fufufuhuhuhuhuhu~”

Tsubasa looked at me, this time clearly worried. Maybe I had laughed in a way that was not very much like me, or rather, very much like my lazy self that had been in the surface during most of this time.

“A-Arth thou alright, Shishou? Should I prepare for medicine, or-“

“Don’t worry. Your manager has a daring plan.”

This made all of the three girls to look at me, confused.

“A plan that should crush the Back-Alley Rockers.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“Welcome to the grandest tournament of them all, here in Japan!”

“It won’t do if we are to just charge them, hoping we would get lucky, de gozaru.”

“C-crap…….It’s different from what I predicted….!?”

“This one could not last to the end. This one is sorry. Nin-nin.”

“W-what, don’t tell me……!?”

“And that is how battles are won.”

The First Qualifier ~ Genius of battle-theory!!

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Six
The First Qualifier ~ Genius of battle-theory!!

“Rina, get down from the street lamp.”

With a sullen look on her otherwise emotionless face, the ninja-girl obeys my words.

“Kaeo. Stop stuffing yourself with food. If you gorge now, you’re useless in the match.”

With a pissed off expression, our tanned Muay Thai-champion throws away the take-away bag from local hamburger joint.

“And Tsubasa………if you’ll continue that, you’ll get nicotine poisoning. And hyperventilate at the same time.”

With a strangely grateful face, Tsubasa forcefully put away her pipe to a safer place and breathed in some fresh air for a moment.

------------------- This is not good.

Needless to say, our team was nervous as hell. I had no idea that these three otherwise calm and collected fighters could get this giddy when it concerned an “official” match. Especially one at the lower end of the whole mountain we were supposed to climb. If it was this bad, then what was going to happen in the first “real” tournament matches? That is……if we’d ever make so far.

“Leon-dono, art thou sure this is the correct way to the scene of battle, de gozaru?” Tsubasa asked from me, looking like she was desperately seeking something to talk about so there would not be the awkward silence.

The only problem was…

“Yes, I am sure, as I was just two minutes ago. Now, could you find something else to ask, and stop acting like a little child on his first cross-country trip with his parents??”

It had been like this the whole time it took to walk from our apartment to the intersection we were right now. We could see the shipment-yard in the distance, and the city slowly changed to harbor. I could already hear the seagulls in the distance, those very epitomes of insatiable hunger. However, right now, they were also the announcers that told us we were getting closer and closer to our goal.

That is……………our first qualifier match in the Tournament of One Thousand Blades.

The Lionhearts versus Back-Alley Rockers.

In other words, Tsubasa, Rina and Kaeo versus Tohei Kumo, Black-Bara and Mitsuhane Hibiki.

I’m just the manager, so I’ll be on the sidelines, to my relief.

I didn’t know that much about the match itself, but I could imagine it as some sort of boxing-match with only judges along the competitors themselves. And as the appointed place for our match was in the shipment-yard, I could very well imagine that the “arena” would be surrounded by those large red and blue container boxes that were always present whenever you went to the harbor. So most likely I’d be watching the girls duke it out with Back-Alley Rockers in from the higher ground, which would be good. I’d be use the little knowledge I have about fighting to my advantage, and to give them some help.

What interested me was the “Match-Type” that had been mentioned few times, by that strange referee, and the girls themselves. Apparently, in Tournament of One Thousand Blades, there was always a certain “type” of match that would be played. That meant special rules, unique arenas, other objectives than beating the spirit of Bruce Lee out of the other competitors……….And for our match, the match-type would be “Switch”. All qualifier-matches were usually either “Switch” or “Face-off” types, and more types appeared when the tournament actually, officially, started.

So, what was this “Switch” type of match all about?

--------------- A rather annoying thing, actually.

All the members of the team would take part in the fight. However, only one person from both teams would fight at time. Whenever either member was defeated, another member from their team switched in. And here’s the peskiest part: The order of the fighters was randomized. In other words, you could not use strategy to decide the best line-up.

“………….If only we get lucky, this match is as good as won.”

I knew that much. We had one combination that would guarantee us an easy win. However, if that did not come true….

----------------- I don’t want to think about it. “Thinking” skill is only learned by level 10 Managers! I’m still level 2!

“Shishou…..art thou alright? Thou looketh rather palish, de gozaru...” Tsubasa looked at me, worried, as I rubbed my templates.

“Ah, it’s alright. I’m just trying to think about the match, but it’s no use…..I can’t make big plans until we find out the line-up.”

“In that case, may I suggest thou wouldst direct thy attention to Kaeo-san? She seemeth to be acting rather…..uniquely, de gozaru.”

Hmh? What’s that no-good muscle-woman doing again??

“That’s right, that’s right, gotta train some more ‘fore the match starts! Ya can ne’er be in too good shape, ya know!” I hear the voice of an idiotic lion from not too far away.

------ You have got to be kidding me.

Much to the shock of the few passer-bys that happened to be on the same intersection as us, Kaeo had started performing push-ups in the middle of street, going up and down on a pace that made me wonder why she hadn’t taken flight already. And with one hand, nonetheless. But as great as it looked, there was one thing…….

“Can you calm down already!? If you tire yourself out now, we have no chances of winning!!” I yelled at the tanned punching-idiot, who acted like she had swallowed a whole bottle of suspicious medicine from far-east.

Kaeo looked at me with a somewhat strange expression, which brought stomach ulcers to my mind for some strange reason. The girl, however, stood up as I had instructed, and drew a deep breath, before scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

“Hahahaa……I guess I got bit carried away there, right?”

And not just a little!

“But ya sure are calm, Leon. Good job our manager has nerves of steel, ya know?”

Actually, it’s the other way around. I’m the one surprised why you all are so nervous about this thing!

--------------- Good thing we’re already there. I couldn’t have taken any more of this.

The shipment yard is right ahead of us, and its main building is clearly where we need to go. I can tell this by the fact that every other place is surrounded by a metal fence, and to get to the yard, one needs to go through the main building. That, and the doors of the main building are open, and we can see light from the inside.

“Let’s go, then.”

We walk to the entrance, where we are assaulted by the light that seems rather unsuitable to this calm and gentle summer night. Or well, it would be calm and gentle, if we were anywhere else but in Tokyo. From my experience, all the nightlife that is missing from places like my hometown has somehow gathered here.

Well, not that I would have experienced any of that nightlife yet. I’m poor student, after all.

“Stable: The Lionhearts?”

I’m snapped out of my thoughts that are worrisomely similar as the lyrics in that one rap-song say. A man stands in the doorway, lit up by light from the inside, waiting for us. I’m not sure if this was the same man who had appeared yesterday, but at least he was wearing similar armor, and had most of his frame covered by the blood red cloak of his. The hood of the cloak had been pulled up, and I only saw the shadows that were covering his face. Yet I knew that I was the target of piercing eyes that must have been hidden under that hood.

“Y-yeah. We are”, I answered, trying to keep my voice steady. The man raised his hand in front of him, and looked at the strange device that was fitted around his wrist.

“You are exactly on time. Good. Follow me.”

And so our journey continued deeper into the large building. While we walked through the grey corridors of the place that was usually, most likely, used to house most important cargo before it was shipped inland, I noticed that the man that was guiding us most likely was not the man who we had met yesterday. After all, as I looked around, I saw many of people in similar attires. Most of them were men, but there were few women with them.

“Vanguard. They are here to keep the fighters in check, and to make sure that everyone obeys the rules of Tournament of One Thousand Blades. Nin-nin”, Rina told me with a low whisper when she noticed my confused expression.

The Vanguard representative that was guiding us led us through a long and winding corridor, which was apparently one of the many. Every now and then there was a door that led to a small office looking room, but they were curiously devoid of all people. Maybe all the workers of this place had been told to scram when the Vanguard had come here to prepare this for the match of the night?

“You shall wait in this room until you are called. Leave through the entrance on the other side. It will lead straight to the arena”, the Vanguard member said while he opened the door for us. After we had all gotten in, he saluted us, and closed the door behind us.

The room we were now in was kind of nice, actually. There were few sofas, a television, a fridge with some soda and sports drinks that you could apparently drink for free, as well as some magazines on the table for reading. All in all, this place reminded me of….

“……..Backstage?”

“Hm? What did thou sayeth, Leon-dono?” Tsubasa asked from me, as I had murmured that loud.

“Nah, it’s nothing. It’s just that this place……….it’s like backstage. Are you trying to tell me the participants of Tournament of One Thousand Blades are like rock stars of martial arts world?” I ask, slightly baffled. Kaeo laughs at my question.

“Ya bet! We’re ‘posed to be the best of the best, ya know? Damn right they’d be treatin’ us like rockstars!” he said and grins wickedly.

“This one must say that out of us all, Leon-sama fits this category the best”, Rina added.

------ Hey. How come your face is somewhat pitying? Are you trying to say it wasn’t a compliment? It was compliment, right? Please tell me it was compliment!

“Anyhow, Shishou. Dost thou hath any plan for the battle we are about to experience, de gozaru?” Tsubasa asked from me, turning the conversation once again towards more serious tone. I shook my head, however.

“Nope. I really can’t make any decision as long as I don’t know the line-up for today’s match. But…” I raised my hand as Tsubasa was about to say something, cutting her off. “I know this. I don’t think we have to worry about Tohei Kumo or Black-Bara. They are nowhere near the level of you guys. However, who I am worried about is that third one…. Mitsuhane Hibiki. He is clearly more skilled than his partners. I’m afraid that out of you three, the only one that could match him is Rina.”

I looked over at the small kunoichi, who I could barely to be of the legal age. I had to admit at this point, she was the most “experienced” of this group, and would fare the best in a battle. Tsubasa had technique and Kaeo had raw power, but Rina had clearly fought in real life-or-death situations before. If we managed to pit her against Mitsuhane Hibiki from the very start, with both at the peak of their powers, I think we would manage. She would take down Mitsuhane, and even if Rina then lost to Kumo or Black-Bara, both Tsubasa and Kaeo would be able to handle them.

But that was only if the line-up I wanted would happen. If something else would come up, it would become very troublesome match……..

“Huh? Are ya sayin’ I couldn’t beat that bastard??” Kaeo says somewhat threateningly while she cracks her knuckles. Without meaning to do so, I just managed to make Kaeo wish for her to pitted against Mitsuhane Hibiki.

“Most likely not”, I offer the harsh truth. “A brute-force type fighter like you would especially experience problems when fighting against him.”

Kaeo gives a “Tch!” sound and looks away with a large pout, but I think she knows I’m speaking the truth. After all, it was I who spent the whole day watching as these three trained and showed me their best moves, so I could come up with a decent strategy beforehand. But due to the match-type, it was hard. Very hard.

------ Oh yeah, and I’m still a novice in this whole thing. I guess that must have affected a bit too.

And then begins the waiting. Tsubasa lits up her pipe once more to calm down her nerves. Kaeo lays down on the sofa, complaining something about how they’re making us wait. Rina opens a bottle of water that was in the fridge and drinks it in one go. I guess the summer heat affects her too. I pace back and forth in this small room, trying to shake of the nervousness that is creeping up on me too. I know that if we lose this battle, we might have small chance of comeback by starting a new stable, but I’m not sure if these three could rise up for one more try. Apparently most stables defeated at this point won’t make a comeback with new emblem and name.

In other words, we have to win.

Not just to drop Back-Alley Rockers from the competition. But to make sure they don’t launch surprise attacks on our members, or any other people, anymore.

And if we win, we’ll establish some reputation for ourselves, which both protects and endangers us at this point of the tournament.

So, while winning is not all-rosy option, it’s the best option we have.

---------- And besides: No one of us wants to lose to those guys.

Ding dong ding!

“We would like to ask both teams to get ready. The match shall start in five minutes.”

As we heard the monotone voice of a woman echo from the speakers, we all stopped what we were doing and headed to the door that the Vanguard member had pointed for us. It would apparently lead straight to the arena, if what he said was correct. There were two lights above the door, one red and one green. The red light was on right now, and the green was off, which most likely meant that we were not supposed to go in yet. And so, even though Kaeo looked more than a bit raring to go, we stayed put. It would have been embarrassing to burst to the arena before the finishing touches would have been ma-

“Excuse me, Manager-san?”

“GYAAH!!”

I’m startled by the sudden voice that comes next to my ear. Even the girls seem alarmed, as all take their battle stances, but calm down after realizing it’s yet another Vanguard member. Apparently he wants to talk to me, so I nod at him, urging him to go on.

“What is it?”

“There is a slight problem. Your stable has not yet submitted their entrance theme song.”

Entra-WHAT!?

“……Excuse me?”

“It is a tradition in this tournament that all stables have their own theme song that is used whenever they enter the arena”, he explains, and after seeing my dumbfounded face, offers more details. “It has its roots on the fact that this tournament has also been one for the audience. A slight showmanship has been a part of it, always.”

Somehow the idea that Tournament of One Thousand Blades is a ancient and honored tradition where masters of the martial arts meet is crumbling away before my very eyes……

“…..But we haven’t prepared a one. What should we do?” I ask from him, to which Vanguard nods.

“Do not worry. We can arrange you any song you want to be played. Please choose one so we can move forward with preparations and start planning.”

……A “theme song”, huh?

Hhmmm….I guess that would fit. They never say it had to be from the home country of any of us or the sorts, so…

“The song we want is……”

I whisper the rest to the Vanguard personnel. He nods to me, makes a note in the small memo he carries and then salutes us, and walks away to the other direction.

“Leon-dono…..Can I trust thee?” Tsubasa asks, seeming little queasy as I chose the song without their consent.

“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine!” I grin to her and give thumbs up.

And before I manage to do anything else…

“Ding dong ding! Stable 2: The Lionhearts. Please enter the arena.”

The monotone female voice echoed from the speakers.

-------- Number 2? So does this mean that the Back-Alley Rockers are already waiting for us?

“Okay. Good luck, girls”, I nod to them, and give Tsubasa the sign to open the door.

She opens it and reveals the slightly downwards going corridor behind it. And beyond that…..I can see the night. And the arena that is waiting.

“Let’s go!!”

The adrenaline that has slowly begun to seep into our veins finally takes control, and we all pick up our pace. Soon our walk turns to jog. And after that, into run. We run towards the end of the corridor, where our first challenge waits us. The first challenge, and the challenge we must overcome if we want to continue on this road that we have chosen. The footfalls, the breathing, the rhythm of our hearts, it becomes one, combined with our expectations and dreams, a single force that ushers out of the corridor, and into the shipment-yard.

Where we are blinded by incredible light and the roars of cheers so big I have never heard anything like it.

-------------------------- WHAAAAAAT!?!?!?!?

It’s incredible. I’m awestruck, speechless. I have no safe place where to point my eyes, and no place to hide. They’ve already seen me. And now I and the girls are the center of attention of thousands, thousands of people.

What is this? What is this all!?

The arena itself is a large square fenced by the large containers that are seen everywhere in the shipment-yards around the world. The floor is concrete, and merciless to the fighters that will fall down to it. But that is not all. The arena itself maybe so simple, but it does not end there. That’s because those “container-fences” actually form a type of colossal stairs. Stairs that are packed full of people.

Audience. There’s audience bigger than what I have ever seen.

I can’t even begin how many people there are, ready to watch the match. But stairs continue for a long way, making the cheapest places so that you cannot make many details, just like in football match. The whole shipment-yard must be packed full of people. And somehow, amongst all these peoples, they’ve fitted lighting and speakers that would make show-wrestling matches pale in comparison.

We arrived into full-blown sports arena, built here in the shipment yard.

The roar and cheers of people, the music blasting so loud it threatens to overwhelm the sound of people, the lights that shoot through the air and cut the darkness, the atmosphere that beats in the rhythm of my heart……..It’s almost too much. We are overwhelmed. Every single one of us.

Now I understand why the girls were so nervous. They knew about this.

Kaeo is there, mouth half-open and glove-covered hands in tight fists, unable to move. Tsubasa is no longer smoking her pipe, but she is gripping the handle of her sword with her fingers white. Rina was stiff like a statue, unable to even move her eyes. And even though I could see the Back-Alley Rockers in the distance, waiting us in the arena floor, I could not move a step.

-------------- Damn. Did we freeze already? Is this how shocked we were about this?

Aaaah, it’s useless. In no way can we quit here. I’m the only one who didn’t know about this, and yet these girls are stopped by their nervousness.

………..Damnit. I’m their manager.

I have to do something.

………..

And then I hear it.

The song I chose. Even without realizing it would be used like this, in front of all these people, I chose that song. And now I’m glad that I did. Because when I hear that song, I can relax again. I’m in my element. Damn, that’s right. What did I think?

So what if these people are here?

----------------- We came here to win!!

Workin' like a dog for the boss man
Workin' for the company
I'm bettin' on the dice I'm tossin'
I'm gonna have a fantasy

So sings the male voice that echoes through the arena, in the ears of everyone. And with it, I raise my hand to the skies.

“Tsubasa! Rina! Kaeo! Wake up! We won’t stop here! We came here to win, right!? SO LET’S WIN!!!”

That wakes them up. That and the music. It drives the power back to their limbs, and they raise their hands, just like I did. We all have our index finger pointing the sky, and rest of the hand in a fist. This will be our sign. The sign that we came here to win.

“And here they are, from Minato Ward of Tokyo city! Their combined weight being 152 kilos! Tsunemoto Tsubasa, Fūma Rina, Thunusakurn Kaeo! Accompanied to the arena by their manager, Hart Leon!! They are: The Lionheaaaaaaaaarrrts!!!”

The voice of announcer resonated even over our theme music. As our name was said, the roar of the audience was suddenly accompanied by whistles. They were cheering for us. There was no way they actually knew us, but they still cheered for us.

We were combatants, after all.

And so, with our heads held high, and our arms raised, we made our way to the arena. The long walk down the ramp into the arena felt far too short, and when it was over, we found ourselves facing the Back-Alley Rockers, who were waiting us at the other end of the arena. Tohei Kumo, Black Bara and Mitsuhane Hibiki, all staring at us. Amongst cheering crowd and flashing lights, we still managed to stare only at each other.

Soon, this simple, square-shaped arena would be the place where either them or us would fall.

“Welcome to the grandest tournament of them all, here in Japan!” The voice of the announcer rang all around the arena. I saw him high above us, in the final row of containers on the opposite side. “The Tournament of One Thousand Blades kicks off this week with yet another qualifier match! The stables fighting it off this time are the local favorites, Black-Alley Rockers, who face the newcomer stable of The Lionhearts! While our veterans have already seven victories under their belts, their opponents are completely fresh! How do you think they’ll fare? If you feel lucky, head over to the betting booth, where you can put your money on for your favorite stable!!”

I saw that there was indeed a betting booth in one row of the containers, where quite many people had lined up. A small sign on the outside told what the current odds were. And I can tell you, they weren’t exactly in our favor. Looks like most of the people were betting the Back-Alley Rockers, and only tiny fraction had taken the risk of betting on us. Even right now, one pink-haired girl was placing her bets, and it seemed like she was…..

Hmh? Wait a minute.

-------- I know that girl.

And just as I thought that, the girl turned around, as if she had felt my gaze from the distance. I’m not sure if our eyes met, but I know that the sharp move that she made with her hand was most definitely directed at me.

No doubt about it. That pink-haired skater-girl had betted on our team.

“So, without further ado, let’s start up the match! Tonight we’ll be experiencing a true-blue Switch-type match, which means we’ll be seeing both stables in action! And because it’s a Switch-type match, we all want, the competitors especially, to see the line-ups of today. And what more are we waiting for!? Take it away, boys!! Show us the line-ups!” The voice of the announcer tore me from my staring-competition with the pink-haired girl, and I was put back to the ground by the realization that our moment of truth had just arrived.

----------- This would be a major factor in whether we would win or lose.

Our eyes are drawn to the large white sheet that has been spread as the “screen”, and the image that’s being projected into it. There we see both our emblem and the Back-Alley Rocker’s emblem, separated by a stylized “VS”. Below the emblems are three places for pictures, and they seem to be going through the pictures of the stable members in varying speeds.

And when those pictures stop…….It’ll show us just what kind of match this will become.

“All together now! Three……..two…….one……..STOP!!”

The announcer yells, and the audience repeats. The pictures on the screen change with a blinding speed for one second, before coming to complete halt.

And this is the result.

The Lionhearts VS Back-Alley Rockers
Fūma Rina - Tohei Kumo
Thunusakurn Kaeo – Black-Bara
Tsunemoto Tsubasa – Mitsuhane Hibiki

……….

“C-crap…….It’s different from what I predicted….!?”

I think this is the worst possible outcome for us.

Our best fighter is first, and theirs is last.

This is not good.

“So there you have it, folks!! In just few minutes, we’ll be seeing these six people duke it out in Switch-type match! Or maybe we won’t, if the power of the combatants is enough to destroy few of these flour-filled containers and spread their contents into the air, hahahaha! Anyways, let’s give the stables little time to come up with their plan, and then we’ll start!!” The announcer yells into his microphone.

I’m left with the grim looking girls, while looking at the Back-Alley Rockers on the other side of the arena. They look like they’ve just won the lottery.

“Man…..Leon any ideas how we should beat ‘em up?” Kaeo asked, slightly worrying expression her face. She still didn’t seem to have lost her positive attitude, but it was close.

“It won’t do if we are to just charge them, hoping we would get lucky, de gozaru”, Tsubasa added.

“……..This one is worried”, Rina agreed.

------------ Damn.

Just because of the line-up, we are going to lose? That’s not fair. There must be something, something we could do. Some way we could take out these three….

…….hmh….?

Wait a minute! if I remember correctly, then….!!!

“……….We can still win.”

The girls looked at me, confused. For the first time tonight, I grinned widely. Yeah, I had just found the path we should take if we take if we wanted to win.

“Don’t ya worry, girls. Your manager has plan!”

[CENTER]---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------
Fūma Rina vs.Tohei Kumo[/CENTER]

After I had instructed girls, I was guided to the special “seats” reserved for VIP-guests and managers of the stables. Since Back-Alley Rockers did not have a manager, I thought I’d be there alone, but to my surprise, I wasn’t. I was accompanied by a young woman, seemingly my age. Judging by her blond mullet and face, she was a foreigner, just like I was. Maybe a spectator from a stable of some other division? According to Tsubasa, each part of the world had their own qualifiers, and the ones here in Japan were just the ones for Eastern-Asia division.

The woman giggled loudly as she saw me, and then licked her lips.

------------- I feel like I’m being looked as an object. The realization both turns me on and scares me. Weird.

“So you must be, hahahaha, their manager? Leon Hart, was it?” she asked from me, giving a weird laugh in middle of her sentence.

“Yeah. That’s me. What about it?”

“Good, kukukukuk, luck on your match, hihihihi, tonight. You’ll be, hahaha, needing it.”

Okay, now you’re starting to creep me out, lady. That laugh is just too weird!!

Instead of focusing this lady that just kept on giggling, I turned my gaze to the arena. There, both teams were already in position. Black-Bara, Mitsuhane Hibiki were watching from the lowest row of containers, as were Kaeo and Tsubasa. Meanwhile, Rina and Tohei Kumo were facing each other in the arena. Even in the midst of the cheering and yelling audience, I could feel the tension crackling like lightning in the air. Or maybe it was just because of that?

“And here we go! Three, two, one……………………..FIGHT!!”

It was amazing.

Tohei Kumo ran forward the moment the gong‘s sound resonated through the arena, his long arms dragging behind him. Rina, on the other hand, just took her minimalist stance and kept her stare focused on the thug-like attack. When he got in the range, Kumo slammed his foot down to the asphalt and used his momentum to throw the rest of his body into backwards flip, holding his right foot down as an anchor. The left leg, and the body after it, were like the pointers of a clock that came crashing down at Rina with a tremendous speed. It was like a guillotine.

But Rina did not hesitate. Instead of getting caught up by such a unorthodox move, she dodged sideways and stopped Kumo’s attempt to adjust the foot’s trajectory by slapping it away with her palm. This was done with her right arm, as her left one had already reached for sai. She held it in reverse-grip, so that the painful, dull handle slammed right into Kumo’s solar plexus. The tall man gasped for breath, but did not lose his focus. Rina had taken a risk my not taking more distance to him, and now she paid the price. The long arms reached towards her, and while she managed to dodge the right one, the left one caught up with her extended arm holding the sai, and locked around it.

Tohei Kumo gripped tightly, lifted the smaller girl so she was in a painful position thanks to the arm lock, and unleashed a leg-sweep like a bullwhip. Apparently he was trying to take Rina down with a single move that would dislocate her arm. However, the advantage of having a smaller opponent quickly became his bane. Rina jumped up, dodging the leg, and wrapped her legs around Kumo’s extended arm. Before he managed to release himself, the other sai, now in right hand, stabbed right into his wrist, and with a scream of agony, he released his lock.

But it was not over yet. Rina made a painful twist with her knees, and Kumo’s arm was bent into unnatural direction. Although for a person like him it did not hurt so much, it did certainly serve as a distraction. This allowed to Rina to finish her momentum by utilizing the spin, and landing a clear kick straight to Kumo’s face, which sent both fights rolling into opposite directions.

“Y-you bitch…..!!!” I could hear Kumo growl as he slowly stood up from the asphalt, wiping the blood that kept oozing from his nose. “You want to play dirty? Then let’s play dirty!!!”

-------- He’s losing his cool. The worst mistake you can make when facing against Rina.

Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack!

The sickening sound that echoes through the arena is Tohei Kumo unlocking all his joints. He took a strange position with his arms stretched high, and his body swaying side to side. The woman besides me smirks as she watches down on the battlefield.

“Hahahaha, that’s Tohei Kumo’s, kihihi, ultimate technique: Wanderer Web. Ultimate defensive position, inspired by the, kukukukuku, Brazilian Wandering Spider”, she said.

Oh shut up. I’m not sure which one should I be worried, that creepy laugh of yours or that ridiculous stance of Tohei Kumo.

----------------Wait a minute.

Brazilian Wandering Spider…..? That couldn’t be some strange metaphor for…………Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?

No. It most likely was.

“Rina! Foo Fighters, third album, third song!!” I shouted from the top of my lungs, hoping my voice would reach the girl.

And she gave me thumbs up without her impassive face changing at all.

---------- Oh yes. She had understood.

As Tohei Kumo did not move a inch, it was up to Rina to charge. The sai were gripped firmly in her hands, and she ran forward, ready to stab the lithe man wherever he showed a weakness. But as soon as the girl had stepped into his range, the strangely dangling body of Tohei Kumo longed forward, all his limbs assaulting her from different angles like legs of spider, only his left leg keeping him in balance. All those limbs, threatening to lock around Rina’s limbs and drag her down to the ground, where she would be forced to give up because of the pain.

But that would have been an outcome if Rina had not realized my message.

Instead of trying to attack with her feet on the ground, where she was vulnerable, Rina jumped into the air and thus evaded Kumo’s arms, as he had not expected such a daring move. Like a cannonball, Rina collided with his upper body. This was followed up with Rina kicking hard with his both feet, shooting herself backwards and damaging Tohei Kumo’s upper-body area more.

Because of the force of the kick, Rina flew backwards and landed roughly on the asphalt, rolling away from her opponent to gain distance. But that was a bad move. The moment Kumo realized his opponent was in the ground, he attacked. His arms were like web, and they assaulted Rina’s wrists. Even though girl tried to break free by swinging her arms to the side, the grip of the tall man did not break.

………..Wait a minute. She didn’t try to break free.

She had thrown something.

Kumo screamed as the blood flowed from his arms. There, I saw the two kunais that had been thrown with deadly precision. Having anticipated that she would not be able to escape in time, Rina had taken the only countermeasure she had had. While Tohei Kumo was still trying to remove those kunai, Rina rolled backwards and jumped up with a grace of a swan. She landed perfectly on her feet and reached for the sai that had been put back to her waist some time ago.

“Watch out!!!”

I had forgotten. Spiders were not only restricted to two limbs. Neither was this spider. Those arms may had been taken out of the game for a while, but Tohei Kumo’s whip-like leg suddenly curled itself around Rina’s upper body, locking her right arm in place. And despite the bleeding, right arm jumped into the fray, locking Rina’s leg into unnatural position. Having new point of balance, the other leg was freed, and it was free to join in locking the last remaining arm of Rina. Tohei Kumo resembled a rubber-spider when he was hanging from Rina’s body, locking all but her remaining left leg. It look surrealistic see a man that tall curled up like a ball around a girl of Rina’s size. He was both upside-down and facing the wrong way, yet his double-joints allowed him to perform this no-way-out lock to Rina.

“Oh, is this it!? Tohei Kumo locks in his famous B-class move: Black Widow-maker! Can the small ninja-girl even hope to find a way away from this full-body-lock before they fall, and all that remains is pain!?” The announcer screamed into his microphone, most likely trying to get the audience even more excited.

Crap, crap, crap…..this isn’t good. That move will inflict pain and block of blood-flow in Rina’s limbs. So, basically, while she is experiencing the feel of her limbs being nearly torn off, she also has to fight against her body going numb and powerless by every second.

Rina tried weakly to shake Kumo off, her attempts growing more pitiful witch each try. Finally, neither of her arms moved, and her leg looked like it could barely stand anymore.

And then……..she began to fall forward.

“No, no, no, no!! Don’t give up yet!! You’ve got to win, Rina!!” I cannot help but to scream at her, which makes my strange, giggling companion in the “Vip-seats” cackle like a maniac.

I see them fall.

And there’s nothing I can do about it.

They hit the asphalt, and even though Kumo almost face-plants to the ground, it does not change the fact that Rina’s powers had been drained completely.

The blood on the asphalt tells me everything. Even though the start looked so promising, she was not able to....

What?

Blood?

“W-W-W-W-W-W-W-WHAT IS THIS!? Tohei Kumo has released his dreaded hold, and is now bleeding all over the arena!? What on EARTH did just happen!?” The announcer is, apparently, as shocked as I am.

There, on the asphalt, where I thought I’d see our first sign of defeat, lays the horribly bleeding Tohei Kumo. It seems like he’s got wounds all over his body. And Rina……is standing nearby, looking as calm and collected as always. It does not make any sense. I see it all with my own eyes, but it does not make any sense.

Not at until the blood on the asphalt reveals the truth, at least.

“…….T-those are….!!!”

Everywhere. They are everywhere. Whenever Rina rolled on the ground, she must have set them up, just in case something like this happened. And it paid off. Tohei Kumo fell into her trap splendidly. And after that, he could not rise again.

--------- And here we all forgot that this was not just a fight between two martial artists. The other person is a kunoichi, in the end!!

They were caltrops. Probably over hundred of them, so small they could barely be seen because of the blood. In the midst of the battle, it was no wonder Tohei Kumo did not realize their presence. When he, blinded by the victory, launched his death-lock upon Rina, it was all over. Rina didn’t struggle. She fell forward on purpose, and let Tohei Kumo be impaled in the caltrops littered all across the asphalt.

And that was the end of the match. Tohei Kumo could not handle being stabbed by countless sharp, small blades, which could have even been poisoned. Right now he just twitched on the ground, bleeding, while the medics rushed to help him.

“UNBELIEVABLE!! This newcomer of the Fūma clan showed just how dangerous opponents ninjas can be!! A trap after trap, the whole fight being nothing but deceiving!! You saw it with your own eyes, folks! The leader of the Back-Alley Rockers fell to this young kunoichi!! Give a big round of applause for Fūma Rina!!!”

The cheer of the crowd blocked all the other sounds in my ear. I couldn’t even hear the giggling of the woman who sat close to me. And neither did I care, really.

My eyes were glued to the figure of Rina, showing emotionless face as ever. As Tohei Kumo was dragged out of the arena, Rina turned to my direction, and formed a “V” sign with her index and middle.

That’s……That’s…..

------------------ Incredibly lame victory pose, Rina.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------
Fūma Rina vs.Black-Bara

It took them only few funny minutes to make sure that everything was ready for the second round to begin. This time it would be the “second-in-command” of Back-Alley Rockers, Black-Bara, against Rina. Small kunoichi was at obvious disadvantage, having just fought a grueling fight against Tohei Kumo. Although she did not seem even out of breath, I knew that the battle itself had taken its toll on Rina. Those holds Tohei Kumo had managed to lock in were real, and they caused real pain. And for Rina to not show any of it on her face right now……

I never quite realized how brave she was.

“And as we continue to our next challenger, it’s the winner of the last match, small ninja-girl, versus the feared “Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz” of Back-Alley Rockers: Black-Baraaaaaaa!!”

How do I get the image that the announcer does not exactly hold us in high regard? You could at least remember Rina’s name, fool!!

“I’m going to warn you, little girl, right from the start!” I could hear Black-Bara yell. She was clearly keeping her distance, eyeing Rina from the other end of the arena. “I’m not going to hold back. I am called “Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz” by the people of Tokyo…..and I shall teach you why, girl.”

I saw Black-Bara’s right arm raise, and the glimmer of the star-shaped shuriken between her fingers. As I had anticipated thanks to what I had seen, she indeed was a shuriken-user. However, something bothered me. Taking them out so blatantly, there had to be some kind of trick-

B-BLAM!

It was as if cannon had been shot down on the arena floor. The audience, me included, was dead silent. We were all staring at Black-Bara’s hand, where some of us could still see the dance of tiny flames. But that was not all. No, even Rina’s eyes were wide open thanks to the other thing. It was about those shurikens that had been in Black-Bara’s hand. They were no longer there. No, they were buried in a neat formation right in front of Rina. The funny thing about all this?

They had been thrown with a force that made them surpass the speed of bullets.

“T-this…..this is ridiculous…..” I managed to whisper. Somehow, my throat felt incredibly dry.

“Ridiculous? Kihihihihi, no, no. This is Tournament of One Thousand, hahahaha, Blades!” my creepy “companion” cackled.

------------- And thanks to her words, I now finally understood what they meant when they said that this tournament was the gathering place of world’s strongest martial artists.

There were bound to be lots of “monsters” like Black-Bara in the tournament.

“Ain’t nothing going to save you now, girl!” Black-Bara announced.

And the gong rang. Second round started.

I had never seen Rina run so fast. She had put both of her sai back to her belt, and was no devoid of any weapons. The reason was obvious. Those would just cut down the precious time that she needed to cross the distance between her and Black-Bara. After all, this fight was one of the location. If Rina managed to get close enough, Black-Bara would have no chance, that much I could tell. She was clearly all-out ranged-fighter, and thus would be destroyed by Rina in close-quarters combat. But when Rina was too far away to attack her in melee, Black-Bara was at advantage. In ranged combat she was clearly superior, after all.

That was why Rina rushed forward, intending to be faster than the second volley of shuriken that Black-Bara would launch. And indeed, only few seconds after the gong rang, and she had made it to the center of the arena. Three more seconds would be all it took for her to reach Black-Bara now.

……Unfortunately, that was too much. I saw Black-Bara’s hand move again.

B-BLAM!!

The ear-ripping sound resonated once again through the arena, and I saw Rina flying backwards as if she had been hit by a truck. Both her shoulder and abdomen had got hit, and due to the kinetic force of the shuriken, her petite body had been shot backwards. Asphalt was unforgiving, and I could just imagine the damage that was done as she rolled, her limbs flailing around wildly. Finally the friction stopped Rina.

---------- It was painful to look how she struggled up.

Thanks to my seating, I could see the damage Rina had sustained. Blood was now covering half of her face from the wound in her forehead (most likely thanks to the asphalt). The shuriken stuck on her shoulder and abdomen had caused blood to flow out and spoil her clothes and armor. Most likely she would not be able to use that left arm during this fight anymore. And judging from how ragged her breathing was, her body had taken also some damage that was not as visible as the just mentioned.

“See, girl? You got no chance in hell!! There’s no way you can cross that distance without getting hit by my shuriken! Few more hits and you’ll fall to the ground and never get up!!” Black-Bara yelled and laughed boisterously. And the audience laughs with her.

……it really seems hopeless. Even if she runs as fast as she can, Rina cannot make over the halfway before she’ll be hit again. And if she tries to evade the shuriken by taking pre-emptive turns and dodges, then she’ll go much slower, allowing Black-Bara to shoot at her multiple times.

-------------------- Speaking of which, I think I exposed her trick. Or rather, how she manages to put so much kinetic force into those shuriken of hers.

While watching that last show, I saw her hand move only once. But it was the sound that gave her away. It was not the sound of one “shot”, no, it was the sound of two “shots” that came almost at the same time. This means that Black-Bara actually “threw” the shuriken two times. Combined with the fact that she wore clothing that was so tight it must have reduced air-resistance to almost minimum, I could pretty much guess what she was doing.

On the first “throw” she did not actually throw anything. Instead, as she held those shuriken between her fingers, she slammed them together. This created friction and heat that burned up the air from that very spot, creating a short-time, extremely small vacuum. Thanks to her incredibly fast moves, she manages to time the second throw, the “actual throw” in almost same moment, so that when the shuriken arrived into the release point, they were actually still in the vacuum. The moment Black-Bara released those shuriken, the vacuum also closed up, and air rushed in. The air pushed the shuriken forward with incredible force, as for a short moment, the kinetic force in that vacuum was unbelievable. Thanks to that very power, the shuriken were shot out with the speed of a bullet.

First bang came from the shuriken hitting together. Second from the vacuum. And thus was born the reason she was called “Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz” by her fans. Black-Bara was truly a fearsome woman.

“…….it’s useless.”

…..eh?

It was the first time I heard Rina speak in that arena. She was staring intently at the dumbfounded Black-Bara, who was equally shocked that this emotionless girl had opened her mouth.

“W-what…..?” Black-Bara looked murderous that somebody actually talked back to her.

“……It’s useless. The next time you try to hit this one, you cannot even see this one. Nin-nin.”

“G-GYAAAAAA!!! You brat!! I’ll kill you!! I’ll kill you!!” Black-Bara yelled and took yet another set of shuriken between her fingers.

But Rina was already on the move. Before Black-Bara had even opened her mouth the second time, she had started running. I did not know if she had tried to trick her by this, but I knew it wouldn’t work. Black-Bara would be able to hit her with her shuriken before Rina would manage to reach the enemy.

Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!!

W-what? Helicopter!?

----------- No wait, that’s coming from the arena. What the….??

Then I saw that the origin of the sound was Rina. Or rather, her weapons. Both of her sai were being spun around like drummers spin their sticks for fun, and the weapons were made to hit each other just in front of Rina’s face. It was like she had two metal-propellers that kept hitting each other.

What was she trying to do? Take a flight?

No matter what you think, that is not gonna help you in any way, you idiot!!!

But as she could not hear my internal protest, Rina kept running forward, towards Black-Bara. The mentioned woman had already the shuriken in her hands, and she swung her hand backwards. I knew what was coming. A throw that would, if Rina was lucky, only repeat what just happened. If she wasn’t, it might even hit a fatal spot.

“Dieeeee, giiiiiirrll!!” Black-Bara shrieked and swung her arm forward.

But…….

To the amazement of Black-Bara, the audience, and me……..

Her target was no longer there.

Moment again ago, we had been watching Rina charge Black-Bara. The next second…..Rina simply disappears.

“W-W-W-WHAT IS THIS!?!? The little ninja girl just disappeared under our very eyes!! Are you seeing what I’m seeing, or rather, not seeing what I’m seeing!! We must be the dumbest audience in the world, as we just lost the sight of other person we were supposed to be watching!! Just WHAT is going on!?!?” the announcer yelled into his microphone, and made our ears ring with his high-pitched voice.

T-that Rina…..

If my hunch was correct….

She was a genius.

A mad genius and a monster like Black-Bara, apparently. But a genius nonetheless.

Maybe it was because of the simple absurdity of the situation, but nobody seemed to notice that while the girl was gone, a certain sound had not disappeared. Not at least until that sound actually stopped. It was the sound of Rina’s sai hitting together. And when it stopped………

…….The kunoichi herself appeared. Few inches from Black-Bara’s face.

“Jack-the-Tricker: Shimmer Flash”, Rina’s cold voice announced.

“UOOOOOOOHHH!!! It’s the world famous Fūma-style move!! Jack-the-Tricker variant!! What a fearsome opponent this little girl has turned out to be!!!” the announcer yelled, seemingly off his rockers.

I learned this only later, but it had been as I suspected. Jack-the-Tricker: Shimmer Flash was a move that played with heat, just like Black-Bara’s technique. But in this case, it was associated with the basic principle of heat.

Do you know of mirages? They are funny little things that happen in hot places, and I saw few even in my homeland, though that was rare. You see, as cold air is denser than warm air, it has greater refractive index. When light passes from colder air across a sharp boundary to significantly warmer air, the light rays bend away from the direction of the temperature gradient. When light rays pass from hotter to colder, they bend toward the direction of the gradient. If the air near the ground is warmer than that higher up, the light ray bends in an upward trajectory. Once the ray reaches the viewer’s eye, the visual cortex interprets it as if it traces back along a perfectly straight "line of sight". This line is however at a tangent to the path the ray takes at the point it reaches the eye. The result is that a mirage of the sky above appears on the ground.

So, when Rina kept on hitting her sai together in a rapid pace, she generated loads of heat that warmed up the air before her. This, of course, corresponds to the part of mirage’s explanation about “air near the ground being warmer”. When the rays of light hit the hot air in front of Rina, they bend upwards, and projected an image of the dark sky, very similar to asphalt, instead. So, to everyone who looked, it was as if Rina had disappeared completely from our sight. In reality, the hot air around her just “fooled” our eyes.

----------- That was the power of a kunoichi!! The power of a mirage!!!
“K-kuh, how did you---“ Black-Bara could barely let those words out of her mouth before Rina’s attack begun.

The sai in her hands were both struck into the sides of Black-Bara, dying the ground with blood. The two “blades” were deep in the flesh of the woman, and her cry of pain could be heard across the arena. But Rina was not finished. Instead, she took one step back and flung her arms to the side. Instantly, the hidden kunais appeared in her hands, five in each. Two fans of kunai, ready to dig into the flesh of her enemy. Rina crossed her arms before her, gave Black-Bara the last glance, and threw.

It was a spectacle to watch.

Kunais had pierced Black-Bara’s flesh all over her body. Her own blood painted over the original color of her clothes. And I knew that all those places Rina had hit were important for the nervous-system. Damage them a little, and the body loses its power until they have healed. Black-Bara had just been pierced by nine kunais that spelled her doom.

……….Wait a minute….Nine?

“Don’t look down on me, you brat!!” Black-Bara roared.

Her right arm, which had been, till now, used to throw those shuriken, had deflected the tenth kunai with the ranged weapons between her fingers. Although only one shuriken remained intact due to the impact of kunai and shuriken, it was enough. Letting out a furious roar, Black-Bara swung her arm.

B-BLAM!!!

Rina was thrown backwards by the point-blank hit from the cannonball-like shuriken. The girl hit the asphalt and rolled few times before coming to a halt. Her bloodied figure, now also sporting a shuriken stuck to her chest, still refused to give up. She lifted herself up with her arms and looked straight at Black-Bara.

“This one…..won”, she declared.

And before Black-Bara could even ask what she meant…….the spot behind her, where the deflected last kunai was…..was torn apart by explosion.

A rigged kunai, made to explode after certain amount of time had passed. I was no longer surprised by anything. If this fight had taught me something, it was that Rina was truly a ninja. And ninjas were masters of dirty tricks.

Black-Bara, hit by the force of explosion, was thrown to the ground. Just like Rina, her bloodied figure now lay on the asphalt.

Two women, battered and wounded, having given their all to win this fight. And when Rina could no longer drive strength into her arms and keep herself up, they seemed even more similar.

Neither Rina nor Black-Bara had any power left in them to continue.

This match was declared draw.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------
Thunusakurn Kaeo vs.Mitsuhane Hibiki

“This one could not last to the end. This one is sorry. Nin-nin.”

I tussled Rina’s hair when she apologized in a slightly sad tone, as if she herself had regretted she could not rise up again after the defeat of Black-Bara. I guess she too had a pride of some sort, and a draw against that woman bothered her a bit.

------- Silly girl, this kunoichi.

“Don’t worry about it. You managed to take down two of our opponents. That was more than I even hoped for”, a somewhat annoyed looking Vanguard Medic swatted my hand away, as if she had thought it was bothering Rina. “Now you need to just concentrate on recovering.”

Needless to say, Rina was in rough shape. However, the medics this Vanguard had were one of the best ones I had seen, and they had already patched Rina up to a condition where she could sit with me in the VIP-section and watch the rest of the match.

“This one is just glad the whole thing didn’t blow up in my hands.”

------- If you have time to be making bad jokes, then please, concentrate on resting. I’m afraid that if I tsukkomi-slap you, your wounds get worse. And then these medics will tsukkomi-slap me to hospital.

Good thing they’re trained to help those wounded, then. First aid can be given by the very person that beats me up!

“So……yer Mitsuhane Hibiki, the last o’ the Back-Alley Rockers?” I could hear Kaeo’s voice down in the arena.

------- Oh god. That tone. Most likely she has completely forgotten our plan.

“That I am. Bingo, as to say”, Mitsuhane Hibiki answered, while looking at Kaeo with a smile on his face.

“I’m just gonna say dis, but ya got no chance, ya know? I’ll beat yer ass so hard it’ll replace yer cheeks with yer buttocks!!”

Once again, I’m completely baffled by the sharp tongue Kaeo has. Not!!

“Oh, too bad, man. You see, I’m quite confident I’m enough to bring the victory home. It would not be first time this has happened”, Hibiki was not affected by Kaeo’s immature taunt, and instead continued to smile calmly.

------------- As I had predicted. From that attitude I saw immediately that he was the most dangerous member of Back-Alley Rockers.

“Oh, keep on dreamin’ ya idiot!!”

And the gong’s sound echoed through the arena for the third time.

Kaeo attacked immediately when she heard the sound. Her fist was like a battering ram that was aimed straight at the head of Mitsuhane Hibiki. One good hit from that fist, and anyone would find their heads crushed like tofu. Even a scraping hit would most likely be very dangerous. And that was not all. If that fist failed, the other seven “limbs” were there to make sure that the enemy would not find time to rest. In other words, Muay Thai was one of the things you would never want to find yourself against in close-quarters combat.

Unfortunately, this rule did not seem to apply to Mitsuhane Hibiki.

Kaeo’s opponent spun around on his heel while digging into ground with his other leg. The result was that ground below him was destroyed, and that a large cloud of dust and rubble was thrown into the air, hiding Hibiki inside it. Kaeo’s fist dived inside that cloud, but failed to hit. This dangerously exposed her side, and that was exactly what Mitsuhane Hibiki was after.

The moment Kaeo’s fist had reached the point of no-return, leg swooped out of the dust cloud and hit Kaeo’s unprotected side in a circular motion. The girl gritted her teeth together, and I could see that the pain was not easy to bear. She tried to bring her elbow down to the leg, but it was already gone, having disappeared back into the dust cloud.

“Have you understood now? You stand very little chance against me”, Mitsuhane Hibiki said with his calm voice, and appeared from inside the dust cloud. He had jumped backwards, gathering more distance between him and Kaeo.

“Screw ya!!! I’ll beat ya to death, ya know?!!”

Kaeo charged again, holding nothing back. Her fist came crashing towards Mitsuhane Hibiki, while her other left leg was positioned so that it would block every attack that the man could try from inside the dust cloud. Before he was hit, Mitsuhane Hibiki repeated his trick, creating another cloud of rubble and dust. Kaeo’s fist was once again swallowed up by that cloud, and hit nothing.

But this time, the counter was not a kick.

Before Kaeo could even yell from surprise, her extended arm had been caught up by invisible hands, and twisted painfully to the side. The spinning motion threw the girl to the ground, slamming her against the unforgiving asphalt.

Kaeo spat out blood and cursed, lifting herself quickly up. However, Hibiki had retreated even further, and was not staring at Kaeo with slight smirk on his face.

“Oooooohhh, this is the power of the infamous Antlion of the Back-Alley Rockers!! The former prodigy of the Cobra Cell stable, Mitsuhane Hibiki has showed just why he’s the most feared man in Minato ward!!”

----------- “Antlion”, huh?

I could understand the name. First there was Enshin Kaikan, which was feared for its style of directing the force of attacker away from the victim, and then striking at the exposed weak spot. Then there was that strange technique, which made him “invisible” in a single spot. Although the enemy knew where he was, they did not know in what position he was. And thus, with his fast reflexes developed for counter-attacks through Enshin Kaikan, Mitsuhane Hibiki was able to dodge everything that was thrown at him while he was inside that dust cloud.

Nothing flashy like Tohei Kumo’s double joints or Black-Bara’s cannon-shuriken. Mitsuhane Hibiki kept it very simple, but very effective. Wait the enemy to come out to you, and then attack, without risking yourself. A very good technique.

“Ya bastard!! I’ll kill ya!!”

----------- And for stubborn idiots like Kaeo, pretty darn effective!!

The course of the fight did not change. Kaeo attacked the dust cloud, found herself missing her opponent, and was then attack by a vicious counter-attack. While Kaeo was recovering from the hit, Mitsuhane Hibiki took more and more distance to her, to make sure she could not catch her without the trusty veil of dust around him.

But it wasn’t exactly Kaeo’s fault. Every single fighting-style, not counting ranged ones, would have had hard time with Mitsuhane Hibiki.

No matter what kind of attack Kaeo came up with, she never once scored a hit. A low kick that was supposed to sweep off Hibiki’s legs never met its target. The triple kick that was like a whip was dodged without fail. Even a roundhouse kick from up that would have cleaved other opponents in half could not connect.

It was useless. Kaeo could not hit Mitsuhane Hibiki, and every time she failed, there was hand, leg or a throw waiting for her. Enshin Kaikan’s Sabaki Method showed through Hibiki’s attacks, as each one of them meant to bring Kaeo down to the floor. However, instead of finishing her off, Mitsuhane Hibiki used the time it took for Kaeo to recover to retreat.

“He’s playing it safe……..and conserving his energy. He’s still got Tsubasa to beat, after all.”

Rina nodded to my comment.

“This one believes that Mitsuhane Hibiki intends to slowly wear Kaeo down. Leon-sama……….It seems obvious that Kaeo’s main trouble is adapting to a opponent that cannot be beaten with pure strength and speed alone”, kunoichi told me. And I agreed.

That’s why I had already said that Kaeo would not, most likely, win a fight against Mitsuhane Hibiki.

I would have said more, but it was then that the shocked sounds made by the audience caught my attention. I immediately focused back on the arena, only to see something I surprising. Though it should have been obvious.

After all, the arena did not continue forever. It had its limits.

Mitsuhane Hibiki had not yet realized it, but he could not retreat after this strike. While he had always retreated while facing Kaeo, he had apparently forgotten that he was also approaching the containers every time he took distance to Kaeo. And now he was paying for that mistake. Kaeo delivered a knee-kick assault into the dust cloud, only to be stopped by a punch to the stomach and a leg sweep that brought her to ground after that. While she was left to struggle up, Mitsuhane Hibiki laughed and jumped backwards.

Only to hit his back against the red container.

“Gotcha”, I could hear Kaeo growl. “It took ya some time to get there, but looks like this’ll be the end of the road for ya.”

With a furious roar, Kaeo lunged forward, her fist ready to rip a hole into Mitsuhane Hibiki’s chest. Too surprised to react fast enough, Mitsuhane Hibiki was left without the cover of his dust cloud.

------------------- That idiot!

It didn’t mean that he was powerless!!

It all happened in an instant. Mitsuhane Hibiki simply took a side-step and hit the center of Kaeo’s extended arm with his elbow, causing the direction to change ever so slightly. Kaeo, unable to stop, rammed her fist straight into the container behind Mitsuhane Hibiki. She had rushed into the first opening she saw, not remembering to use it wisely, but instead, just attacking wildly.

And now she paid the price.

The sound of ripping metal filled our ears, and to the shock of everyone in the audience, Kaeo’s fist actually tore open the side of the container. So much power had been put behind that one fist that it had actually destroyed the whole damn thing. And now the contents poured out. As the announcer had said, the containers were filled with flour, and it quickly became a huge cloud that covered most of the arena.

Wait a minute.

Crap.

Isn’t that almost like-

“I must thank you, man, for breaking open that container for me. Now I have the perfect advantage when it comes to next fight. A dust cloud I don’t even have to keep up.”

Kaeo never saw it coming. The deadly punch connected with the center of back, causing her to bend over into the roundhouse kick that was aimed at the solar plexus. As the girl toppled over, coughing up blood, she was finished with a chop between shoulders, slamming her against the asphalt. The bits of ground flew everywhere as bloodied Kaeo was defeated with a simple attack that she had no way to defend against.

----------------- Damn….

It was over. Kaeo did not get up. And judging from what I saw, her bloody and ragged figure was enough to tell me that even if she would have had the willpower to get up, her body would have been just simply unable.

The third round ended up in the victory if Mitsuhane Hibiki.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------
Tsunemoto Tsubasa vs. Mitsuhane Hibiki

…..This was it.

The final round. The one where it would be decided whether or not we would win.

The arena was still filled with the dust-cloud made from the flour in the air, and the visibility was almost zero. We could barely make out what was happening below. This was the most advantageous environment a fighter like Mitsuhane Hibiki could hope. Here, he would not even have to create his veil.

And against him was Tsubasa, who, despite her speed and fast reaction time, had to see where the enemy was in order to him him.

“Kakakakaka, you have no chance, boy! Hibiki is unbeatable in a place where visibility is zero! There’s no way you can win!!”

That voice belonged to Tohei Kumo, who had come to watch the match from the VIP-seats. He had arrived in the small break between match of Kaeo and Hibiki, and was now mocking us at the start of the third round. And, unfortunately, I knew he was right. That dust cloud was the ultimate advantage for Mitsuhane Hibiki.

------- But that did not mean I would just stand there and listen him badmouth us.

“Dream on, idiot. Just who do you think we are?” I glared at him and lifted my head, looking down on him. “We are The Lionhearts. And this match will end up in our victory.”

I could feel Rina clutching my wrist, as if to warn not to get too hot-headed. If we started a fight here, we might be disqualified for attacking members that were already out of the match.

But my burning feelings were calmed down after I cast a glance towards the arena. There, a figure approached the center of the arena, calmly and slowly, as if she was in no kind of hurry. Tsubasa cut a path through the dust cloud, and her steps fell as lightly as a snow would. She had no hurry, the match had not started yet. Instead, she took her time, keeping right hand resting on the handle of her other sword, and her left hand hanging free. The blue hair was rocked by the sudden breeze of night-time wind that was not enough to disperse the dreaded cloud of dust.

The usual roar of the audience slowly died down, in rhythm with Tsubasa’s steps. She managed to calm down her surroundings with the mere aura of tranquility around her. And I knew why that was. She had the confidence that she could beat Mitsuhane Hibiki. Actually, no. Most likely the thought that she would lose had not even come to her mind.

Two steps more, and he stopped in the middle of the arena.

“Mitsuhane Hibiki………….can thou heareth me, de gozaru?” I heard Tsubasa’s clear voice resonate down in the arena.

“……What is it, young lady?” Hibiki’s voice asked from somewhere within the dust cloud. He had not showed himself after the cloud of flour had been created.

----------------- Damn. Tsubasa’s behavior must have impressed even that man. He addresses her with a respect, after all.

“I am going to giveth thee a chance to walketh away, unharmed. However, if thou will not, thou shalt suffer an injury that will prevent thee from fighting again this year, de gozaru. ‘Tis meaneth that thou would not be able to participate in the Tournament of One Thousand Blades, de gozaru.”

There was a long silence, that wasn’t even broken by the audience or that obnoxious announcer. Even Mitsuhane Hibiki, who the question had been aimed at, did not answer. I used this moment of silence to stand up from my seat. This attracted the attention of Rina, Tohei Kumo, and that strange, constantly giggling woman. I turned my eyes towards Tohei Kumo.

“She’s serious. Order Hibiki to surrender. Otherwise he’ll suffer great injuries”, I said. Tohei Kumo looked at me with eyes filled with rage.

“Don’t look down on us, boy!! Stop talking crap!!”

--------------- You don’t seem to get it.

“I’m not talking crap. This is the truth. If Mitsuhane Hibiki attacks, Tsubasa will finish this match with two strikes.”

And as if it had been an echo, Tsubasa opened her mouth down in the arena.

“So? What is thy answer, de gozaru?”

The gong was hit for the fourth time, and it sounded like a bell that tolled for the finality of Tsubasa’s words.

Tohei Kumo’s hands were gripped in tight fists when he jumped up from his seat, despite his injuries, and yelled down to the arena.

“Go for it, Hibiki!!! Defeat her!! We can’t stop now, not before we have even managed to enter the true tournament!! If we don’t take risks, then we’ll never make it there!!”

And to answer those words, a calm and collected voice of Mitsuhane Hibiki answered from within the cloud of dust.

“Understood. Sorry, young lady.”

The fight had started. The footfalls of running Mitsuhane Hibiki that echoed through the arena confirmed that. Somewhere within that cloud of dust, he was charging towards Tsubasa, meaning to take her down like she had defeated Kaeo. Tsubasa herself was in the center of the arena, completely visible. She had no way to know where Hibiki was, and thus did not even try to see him.

Instead, she calmly took her sheathed sword and raised it above her head, so the handle was pointing towards the ground.

“W-what is that blue-haired girl doing….?” Tohei Kumo asked, clearly confused.

Tsubasa’s hand went to the handle of her sword, and she slightly spread her legs, preparing for a slash. But that slash was not aimed towards the enemy approaching from the direction Tsubasa could not guess. No, that slash was aimed towards the ground.

Dust cloud that covered his position. A slash that was aimed towards the ground. A girl who did not move an inch, instead of waiting her enemy to come to her.

It was a strange sight.

But even through that strangeness, when Mitsuhane Hibiki finally emerged from the dust cloud, his leg ready to bring Tsubasa down, Tohei Kumo saw it. He saw what had been our goal all along.

“W-what, don’t tell me……!?” his astonished voice came from close to me.

------------------------ Sorry, Tohei. This was your loss.

Out of all of us, Rina had the most fighting experience. Kaeo had most raw power. Tsubasa had the best reaction time, reflexes and speed. Remembering this, and the special properties of our arena, I had devised the quite risky plan.

Rina was supposed to take out at least Tohei Kumo, though the victory over Black-Bara was a good bonus. I’m not sure if Kaeo could have defeated her. In any case, with those two out of the way, we could concentrate on the most dangerous opponent, Mitsuhane Hibiki. Since I knew that he was one of the worst kinds of enemies a close-quarter-focused fighter could have, I understood that it would be nigh impossible for Kaeo or Tsubasa to beat him in a fair one-on-one fight. That was why we had to come up with something else.

The actual idea came from Hibiki’s own technique. Or rather, the special properties of dust, and substances like it. You see, it was actually deliberate that Kaeo destroyed one of the containers that served as the walls of the arena. This filled with arena with flour. It would serve us a ultimate advantage for Mitsuhane Hibiki…………but also as the ultimate weapon of Tsunemoto Tsubasa.

You see, a cloud of dust is one of the most dangerous things, as coal miners can tell.

“HAAAAAAA!!” Tsubasa’s yell echoed in our ears as she drew her sword with blinding speed, surpassing momentarily even the speed of Mitsuhane Hibiki who was about to hit her with his leg.

The sword flew from its scabbard, traveling downwards and slicing the ground at Tsubasa’s feet. Sparks flew into the air as metal hit the asphalt.

Yes, sparks. Friction.

And do you know what the four things needed for a dust explosion to happen are? Combustible dust. The dust being suspended in the air at a high concentration. That there is atmospheric oxygen.

…….And that there is ignition source.

KRA-KOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!

The explosion in the arena tore the air, deafening our ears momentarily with its force. We all were blinded by the light that emerged from the explosion that spread to the whole width of the dust cloud that had used to be there. In only few seconds, the arena had turned into a site of disaster. By igniting the flour in the air with the sparks, Tsubasa had made the arena literally explode.

But it was not over yet.

Sword cut the cloud of smoke made by the explosion, and exposed a single, unscathed figure down in the arena. I’m not sure how she had done it. Maybe she had cut the approaching force of the explosion with her sword, or maybe she had had some other way, but Tsubasa had not suffered any damage at all. On the other hand, Mitsuhane Hibiki who we began to see as the smoke dispersed, looked horrible. His skin had burnt and his clothing was only rags now. He had experienced the full force of that explosion as he had dived into its center.

Tsubasa sheathed her sword and took a stance in front of the roughly breathing Mitsuhane Hibiki who barely stayed up. With her left hand on the scabbard, holding it at the height of her heart, and with her right hand at the handle of the sword, ready to draw, Tsubasa stepped forward to deliver the final strike. The strike that would seal the outcome of this match.

“……..A truly……fearsome opponent…….Tsunemoto”, Mitsuhane Hibiki said with great pain. Tsubasa nodded.

“Indeed. My sword cuts the sky like a blue swallow, de gozaru.”

Seven steps was the distance between the two. Tsubasa’s feet began to move. In only two steps she had accelerated into a speed where she cut the smoke of the explosion like a gale force, and with the precision of an arrow. Her hands did not move from their position, and only her legs stayed in the move. It was like watching water being pressurized and shot out in a thin stream of deadly power.

Or like a blue swallow cutting through the azure sky.

Six steps. That was when the right hand began to move. The moment the katana’s blade touched the air, the smoke around the steel was turned into flurry of blue cherry blossom petals. The effect spread like a ripple in a quiet lake, and in the time it took Tsubasa to step the last and seventh step, the whole arena was already inside a storm of blue petals. Tsubasa drew a beautiful arc forward with her sword, like a crescent moon into the battlefield. The flower petals followed that movement, and formed a wave as soft as silk. The perfect blade met its target, and the blue petals covered Mitsuhane Hibiki.

“Hiken: Hakka Ryōran!!”

Blade cut the flesh. Red of the blood was mixed inside the torrent of blue sakura. Mitsuhane Hibiki fell without a word, and Tsubasa remained in the stance after the strike, with her other legs slightly bended and right hand extended forward just like her sword was.

That was it.

It was our victory.

Tsubasa had defeated Mitsuhane Hibiki.

The silence that fell into the arena was just like the blue cherry blossom petals that silently fell down to the asphalt. It took time, but one-by-one, as a slowly descending wave, they lost their ability to fly through the air, carried by wind of Tsubasa’s sword, and fell. And when after the last petal had fallen to ground, nothing moved in the arena, nor in the audience. Not a single sound was heard.

It was as if the world had ground to halt.

…

…

But even if it had ground to a halt……..

We had won!!

The silence was replaced with a cheer so loud it deafened me for a moment and rivaled the sound of the explosion that had happened just moments ago. It was unbelievable. Every person in the audience, without holding back, whistled, yelled, cried, cheered and screamed for our victory. Yes. The audience cheered for us. The underdogs who had just defeated the top team in Minato ward.

--------- I could not help it. I joined in.

The sound from the shipment-yard must have echoed throughout Tokyo that night.

A hand on my shoulder startled me, and forced me to return to reality. There stood the strange, blonde woman who had been constantly giggling. She cackled as she saw my dumbfounded face and licked her lips.

“I’ll be, kihihihihi, expecting a lot from you, hahahahaha, people.”

And with those words, she turned around and left, leaving me with no explanation. But it was offered by Tohei Kumo. His face was strange, as if a terrible burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

“Be careful, boy. That woman…….she’s one of the Ten Beasts. A powerful stable you do not want to mess with”, he warned me. But then, as if he had wanted to lighten the mood, he suddenly offered me his hand for a shake. “…………………………..It looks like we lost.”

“Yeah”, I took that hand and shook it. “And it looks like we won.”

“Fair enough.”

And so the man who had dragged us into this mess admitted his mistake, and turned his back to me.

Tohei Kumo left too, without saying anything else. I knew that there were no more hard feelings between us. We would never like each other, that was for sure, but Tohei Kumo and the Back-Alley Rockers would not bother us ever again. They would honor the result of this match. They made a mistake and took us too lightly, and now they had paid the price.

What happened next is somehow hazy in my memory, but it was most likely due to the sheer overwhelming feeling happiness and joy from our victory. I remember grabbing Rina’s arm and dragging her down the stairs that led to the ground-level. At the same time, Kaeo shook of the medics that were patching her up, and joined us. She almost tripped over and fell, but managed to catch a hold from both my and Rina’s shoulder, and together, although we stumbled, we managed to stay up. Then our rag-tag group made our way to the arena floor, where Tsubasa was waiting.

She had seemed so calm up there. When I know saw her face from close, her tears of joy were visible to me.

“Shishou, we won! We won, de gozaru!!” she yelled, like a small child that is feeling so proud from accomplishing something, her heart could burst from her chest at any minute.

“I know! I know!!”

------------ That’s funny. I’m not even sure what I was saying. But I don’t think that mattered at this point, anymore.

Tsubasa half ran over to us, and then joined in the strange group-hug we were performing. Kaeo was yelling obscenities and roaring how The Lionhearts would take on all who thought they’d best us. Rina did not say a word, but for the first time, I saw a true smile on her face. And Tsubasa kept yelling, “Shishou! Shishou!” into my ear till I was half-deaf. We laughed. We cried. And for the first time in my life I was kissed by three girls at the same time.

But that didn’t matter. It was a minor thing, and I didn’t even think it too deeply at that moment. After all, we had won. We had won our first match.

And that was all that mattered to us at that moment.

The Lionhearts vs. Back-Alley Rockers
Winner: The Lionhearts

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“………..Kaeo. I’d like an explanation for this before I sue you for sexual harassment.”

“Aohanaryuu? What’s that?”

“How come we’re still eating crap like this after getting famous………in our neighborhood…….amongst relatively small amount of people?”

“Detective Seong Lin-Lin, Hong Kong Police Force. May I ask some questions from you, Leon-san?”

“What’s next? A big-nosed man who sees everything from old bottles to toothpaste as a weapon to whack the enemies with?”

“It’s got to be nikuman – aru!”

Visitors from Jade-country ~ Lotus-flower mayhem!?

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Seven
Visitors from Jade-country ~ Lotus-flower mayhem!?

Some things in life are just so great that you could not live without them.

One of them is the fact that after a day of hard work, challenges and eventual victory, the rush of adrenaline and pure joy exhausts all those in the group you were, making sure that everyone sleeps far into the afternoon the next day. Of course that is nothing new to me, I try to do it every day, but in this house, with these three girls…………sleeping late is like buying a single lottery ticket in the shopping district and managing to catch the second prize (silverware and a brand new coffee machine) with it. Impossible, yet something every housewife dreams of.

-------- No, wait, I’m not a housewife. I’m a penniless university-student, aren’t I?

That’s right, and thus, I am more than happy to know that thanks to our victory over the Back-Alley Rockers, all of us are now sleeping as long as we want, satisfied. Even I am allowed to lie on my back on my futon, eyes half-open, gazing at the ceiling and listening to the hustle of Tokyo outside. Nobody tells me to get up even though clock says its way past midday. I can even roll around as much as I want, though I need to watch out as Kaeo is hogging up half of the space on my futon, so she might wake up if I….

…….

Eh?

“ W-w-w-w-w-w-w-WHAT IS THIS!?” I scream and jump out of the bed, trying to gain as much distance between me and tanned girl who is wearing nothing more than sports-bra and spandex-shorts.

Kaeo raised her head, giving a huge yawn that resembled me of a tiger. She stretched in a way that gave me a very, very good look at her muscular and dark-skinned body. To be completely honest, I didn’t find it all that unpleasant. Even though she had quite magnificent abs and muscles that normal high school boy would be jealous of, they didn’t look wrong at all. On the contrary! It was like she was-

……

What the hell am I blabbering!?

“Yo! G’mornin’, Leon”, Kaeo said and grinned at me, like we had been some sort of conspiracy members and were planning on world domination.

“………..Kaeo. I’d like an explanation for this before I sue you for sexual harassment.”

“Hm? Sexual harassment? Ya had no qualms ‘bout it last night, ya know?” She looked at me, looking a bit troubled, if I had been acting weird.

It’s not me! The whole situation here is weird!

“J-just to be sure……..d-did we…..?” I asked the dreaded question.

“Did we what?”

------ Well what do you think!? And why the hell are you looking so content!?

“Y-you know….t-that….you and I……..the thing that girl and boy usually do when they are sleeping in the same bed…..” I tried to explain, but I was unable to go into the details. Kaeo snapped her fingers as if she had understood.

“Oh, that? Nah, o’course we didn’t”, she said and laughed rudely, like she always does.

----- Oh, thank go-

“Ya did grope my ******* couple o’ times durin’ the night, though!”

Noooooooooooooooo!!! Even the language barrier could not save me fully!

M-my innocence……my solemn promise to not get involved with strange girls here in Japan….

“Whahahaha, don’cha worry ‘bout it, ya know! I don’t mind, ya are a good man, after all!” Kaeo tried to consolidate me by patting my back with force and laughing loudly.

“H-how can you act so calmly about it….?” I asked from Kaeo, while trying to hold back the lukewarm tears that threatened to fall down my face.

“Hmh? Whaddya mean? Ya and I, were friends, ya know. Just a lil’ skinship, skinship, whahahaha!”

How can this person be this frank!? No, before that, isn’t it usually so in all those stupid love-comedies that when a guy gropes the girl in his sleep, it’s slap-time? Then why is this idiot from Thailand acting like it’s a no problem at all?? What is this “we’re-just-boys-so-it’s-okay” attitude!? You’re a girl, dammit! Don’t make me feel any more insecure by laughing about things that I fret about!!

“What’s wron’, Leon? Ya look pale, ya know?”

And whose fault do you think it is??

……..Ah, this is not good.

Gotta calm myself down. If Kaeo is not going to care, then I don’t want to worry about this too much. Thus, I slap my both cheeks with my hands and focus, knowing full well that fretting over this is meaningless. I just gotta shape up, be a man, and take responsibility.

-------------------- But “taking responsibility” always sounds so dreadful when it concerns women!

“Let’s just go get some breakfast, okay? “ I suggest, which receives a heartfelt agreement from Kaeo. Together we get up, dress up in something more decent, and then head out to the kitchen.

But as I open the sliding door, I am greeted with two faces. One that looks like a sulking kitten and other being like a student whose school-trip was canceled.

“S-Shishou……art I not good enough to guard thy sleep, de gozaru?”

“This one would like to know why you allowed Kaeo-san to sleep in your room, but denied it from us, Leon-dono…..”

“Of for the love of god, not you too!!”

---------- I feel a big, big sigh is coming. This does not bode well for this day.

In any case, while listening to the complaints from the two idiots that had been left out of my slight mishap of last night, I made my way to the kitchen. The bright sun from the outside shone through the windows, illuminating the wooden floorboards that creaked under our feet. It looked just the kind of weather where I could open the window and find few birds singing happily, even in this city of Tokyo which was probably one of the most far-away places from nature in the world. In other words, it was not a bad kind of early afternoon to wake up to, especially after a day like yesterday.

There was one thing in Japanese houses that had always intrigued me. Unlike back in West, they had almost no doors here. Sure, individual rooms for persons had sliding doors, but for example our kitchen had no door at all. It was just a doorway which to walk through. Similarly, no sliding door had a lock in it. Basically, if you got past the front door somehow, you were free to walk around Japanese houses as much as you wanted. Or was it just in the old style houses like this? Well, in any case, Tsubasa answered like this when I voiced my thoughts.

“Hmh? We Japanese trieth to be perceptive and considerate, de gozaru. That art to show our good intentions.”

------------- Considerate? Then why is at least one of you always trying to barge in the bath while I’m there??

“Is that so? I guess the stories about the politeness of Japanese people aren’t all that far-fetched then”, I answered, and focused on cutting the vegetables, spinach and radish. Tsubasa was handling the miso, since she had most experience of us when it came to Japanese foods.

Incidentally, we had left putting plates on the table as Kaeo’s job. She couldn’t be trusted with any delicate job.

Once I got the vegetables right, I moved to finish up the chicken salad that I had left unattended for a while. Meanwhile Tsubasa, having already prepared the carrot miso soup, started to prepare the yam soup, while watching over the third-rate salmon that was cooking to perfection. With that, we were able to finish up our humble yet nourishing food in a short time, and begin our afternoon-breakfast. While Tsubasa and I cleaned up, Rina carried the dishes to the table with a diligence and utmost carefulness from which Kaeo could have learned a lot from. In any case, without any incidents, we started our breakfast.

But when I tasted salmon, it hardly tasted like salmon at all. In fact, the first thought that ran through my mind was: “Ah, is this even fish?”

“How come we’re still eating crap like this after getting famous………in our neighborhood…….amongst relatively small amount of people?” My complaint had somewhat failed, as when I talked, I realized that even though we had won against Back-Alley Rockers, we were still only somewhat famous amongst those enthusiastic who actually knew about the Tournament.

It’s not like we were something comparable to sports that, after all.

“’Tis just fine with me, de gozaru. As long as I can spreadeth the honorable name of my Shishou and Aohanaryuu, I am satisfied”, Tsubasa said with a content smile on her face.

Well, leaving that stuff about my (not so) honorable name aside….

“Aohanaryuu? What’s that?”

“Aohanaryuu, that art the name of the school of kenjutsu I belongeth to, de gozaru”, Tsubasa answered, while stuffing her face full of salmon. “Fmmgh mh mthmem tn mghm n, dm gbsaru.”

“As amazed as I am from the fact that you almost managed to say “de gozaru” with your mouth full of food; Do not talk while you eat. Weren’t you just talking about how good your behavior is here in Japan, you silly samurai?”

“F-forgive me, Shishou.” Tsubasa’s cheeks grew a little red, and next piece of fish she put in her mouth with her chopsticks was so tiny I could have mistaken it for a crumble.

-------- You always go for extremes, don’t you?

Well, setting aside the fact that Tsubasa was now only nibbling her food, it seemed that this breakfast was turning out to be one of the most normal ones. After the hectic ride that had been the past few days, it felt wonderful to be able just sit in peace, eat our third-grade breakfast and chat away in this relaxed summer atmosphere. The hot afternoon air that was outside had crept in like a thief, and just like the only burglar I had encountered in this house, it seemed to be here to stay. It affected the girls too. Kaeo had thrown away her jacket, and was now dressed just in orange tank-top and shorts. Rina was wearing something that strangely resembled a summer-version of her kunoichi-outfit. Sleeveless, of lighter-looking fabric and without armor, that seemed to be the current “trend” with it came to female-ninja-summer-fashion. In fact, what I had first thought to be shirt, turned out to be a one-piece garment, as her thigh-highs revealed. Combined with detached sleeves and geta-sandals, she looked like she was straight from some cheap light novel.

I don’t even want to know where this girl buys her clothes.

“Hmm….speaking of summer, we’re only about 7 days away from that Bon Festival which you guys mentioned…” I opened my mouth, since the conversation had grown silent.

“Aye, that’s right. We’re goin’ dere, right?” Kaeo’s eyes lit up as she remembered. Both Rina and Tsubasa nodded.

“This one thinks it would be a good idea. We could introduce Leon-dono a bit better to the Japanese traditions.”

“A~ah, who cares?? When it’s talk ‘bout Bon Festival, ya gotta remember the food, food! Ya know?” Kaeo salivated when she imagined the countless festival treats that were laid before her somewhere in her imagination.

----------- Even while eating, the top thing in this girl’s mind is food.

“……This one has no yukata, though. Leon-dono, we should go shopping for one before the day comes”, Rina said with slightly troubled look.

“Excuse me, but with what money?” I managed to ask, even though I knew that I would be most likely crushing the young girl’s dreams. However, before the disaster occurred-

“I thinketh we could use the money we acquired from defeating the Back-Alley Rockers, de gozaru.”

------------------------- What??

The room fell silent, and everybody was staring at the check that Tsubasa had brought to light from her pocket. If my eyes didn’t completely fail me at this most utmost and crucial moment, there was enough money for us to eat whatever we wanted for the next month. And according to Tsubasa, that absolutely astonishing sum of money was ours. Ours. Money. Astonishing amount.

“M-M-M-MONEY!?? We’re saveeeeeeeeeedd!!”

My scream of joy echoed in the rooftops of Tokyo.

“C-calm down, Sishou. Thou must remembereth that most of this money will go to pay the rent, de gozaru”, Tsubasa brought me back to earth rather cruelly.

“A-ah, yes, that’s right. I need to pay that devil of a woman who sold me this horrible apartment.”

Sometimes the world of adults just sucker-punches you when you expect it the least.

“B-but do look on the bright side, de gozaru! Thou hast now enough money to buyeth yukata for Rina-dono, Shishou”, Tsubasa tried to console me. And when I saw that the sulking look on the otherwise emotionless girl’s face was gone, I knew that not everything was lost.

…….Aw, crap. Now this is getting all mushy. Still………since we have that money, we should go all the way.

“Well, okay. We’ll buy a yukata for Rina for the Bon Festival……” I declared, to our group’s youngest member’s delight. “And……………well, I guess we should buy one for Kaeo, too. You don’t have one, do you?”

I turned to look at Kaeo, who was halfway slurping down her miso soup. The tanned girl looked at me, eyes wide, as if I had said something completely unexpected. With her slightly protruding canine tooth and that expression, she looked like a jaguar that had been caught being friendly with its everyday pray.

Our muscled heroine put the miso cup down and glanced at everyone, and we stared back. She then pointed slowly at herself, look of complete surprise still plastered all over her face.

“M-me? Yukata?” she asked.

“Yes, you”, I answered. “In yukata.”

There was a long silence, during which Kaeo just kept staring at me, her face never losing it’s confused expression. Then, as if feeling that she needed one more confirmation, she tapped her chest with her finger.

“Me? In yukata?”

“……Yes. Is it that a strange of a thought?”

Kaeo, to my complete and utter shock, fidgeted a little with her fingers, looking slightly embarrassed.

“B-but…..I got all dese muscles an’……I don’t look dat girlish….ya know?”

------------ W-what’s this sudden 180 degree turn in her personality?!

“I-it’s alright, it’s alright! I’m sure it’ll look good on you!” I hurried to assure you. Kaeo, now like a gentle kitten, nodded and started nibbling her food in the exact same way as Tsubasa.

In other words, now we had two people here whose plates were emptying with a speed comparable to a snail on a salt-desert.

“……….Rina? Don’t tell me you’re going to act like them too.”

“Don’t worry. Nin-nin.”

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

Despite the afternoon being well on its way, our fighters were relentless. After a small rest that followed the breakfast, they all gathered to the yard outside the temple, where the grass had grown the thickest. I was still surprised how the grass had literally taken control over the rooftop, and now it was just like the ground in a park. The fact was, the roof of the highest floor must not have been in the best condition, but I figured that the owner of the building would have to keep quiet about it. After all, they were renting a temple at the top of the building as a normal apartment, which must not have been very legal.

In any case, accompanied by the music of one of the records I had bought, the girls began their training. For Rina and Kaeo it was light sparring. Because our little kunoichi had good experience when it came to fighting, she could give Kaeo some pointers about what was best when considering her technique. Of course, since Kaeo practiced Muay Thai, their fighting styles were very different, but that didn’t mean they could not learn anything from each other.

Surprisingly enough, Tsubasa did not join them, and instead, kept walking back and forth on the edge of the “training ground”. At times, she gave a strange look over to my direction, which rang this certain warning bell in my head. However, before I realized what she was up to, it was too late, and the onna bugeisha had already walked up to me.

“Shishou! Let us have a spar, de gozaru!”

------------- Eh?

“I have not been able to hone my skills as well as I would have hoped, and thus, I would like to ask thy help, Shishou”, she said with extremely serious look on her determined face. However, that expression turned bit unsure as she looked straight at me. “W-wouldst that be possible……de gozaru?”

Oh dear.

I had forgotten it for some time, but Tsubasa still thought I was some kenjutsu master as I had knocked her out with a single strike back when we had first met. Of course she was completely wrong. I had not touched sword ever in my life, and to be frank, I would not even want to. Still, this girl insisted that I was her “Shishou”, “Master”, and kept asking me to act as her teacher in art of swordsmanship. Sure, I could be the manager of the team with little to no experience, but………..teaching someone to fight with sword was not something I could do.

----------- Still, that earnest yet slightly downcast look on Tsubasa’s face was something I did not want to turn into one of disappointment. She really did think me as a superior to her when it came to swords, and thus, I was the object of her admiration.

C-crap. The part of my brain that acts foolishly is reacting too strongly.

“S-sure. Let’s have a light spar.”

Nooooooooooooooooo!!!

Leon, you idoooooott!!

Before I even realize it, I have been given a bokuto, and Tsubasa too has armed with one. And we’re facing each other, these wooden swords in hand, about ten meters between us. Kaeo and Rina had stopped their spar too to be an audience for this fight of ours, and that made me feel even more nervous. In fact, the whole situation had quickly gotten out of hand. Tsubasa probably expected me to show her some amazing moves with sword, ones that would make me seem like some kind of hero from an old Kurosawa movie.

And the only thing I knew was how to hold Japanese sword right. And that I had indeed learned from old Kurosawa movies.

“Shishou! Art thou ready?” Tsubasa asked, her eyes gleaming with anticipation.

“W-wait, maybe we shouldn’t-“

“Here I come, de gozaru!!”

Before I had even managed to form a complaint, Tsubasa, with her wooden sword in hand, had moved forward with a speed that was more than overkill against a complete amateur like me. I could not even react to her movement in time, let alone think of some way to block her oncoming attack with my sword. So there I stood, completely dumbfounded and unable to react, while Tsubasa zoomed towards me like a gale of wind, ready to attack me with all her force. This would hurt. I knew it. Most likely that bokuto would come crashing down to my head, or somewhere in my upper body, and that would certainly hurt. She did not know I would not be able to parry or dodge, and thus she came at me with all she got. She was serious against someone who could not even put up a fight. This could not end in any other way than-

Crack!

“Eh?” I went.

“Uwah!” Tsubasa went.

Observation number 1: The ancient stones that had served as the yard of the shrine even after it had been transported were not in the best of conditions. Apparently, they would crack if you would step hard enough on them.

Observation number 2: Tsubasa had lost her balance completely after the stone under her footing had cracked, and now stumbled forward without losing much of speed at all. Even her wooden sword had dropped to the ground.

Observation number 3: While I could not react to Tsubasa’s sudden movement, I had indeed reacted to the fact that she was about to dive face-first to the ground. However, my timing was not the greatest, and thus, while I managed to stop Tsubasa from falling, the position of my hands was slightly awkward.

--------------- Well, this is surprisingly soft.

“!!!!!!”

Tsubasa let out a weird noise and stumbled backwards, dropping to the ground on her knees. Her hands were covering her chest, and with a quite flustered look on her face, she kept staring at me with a shocked look on her face. Needless to say, my face was more than red too, and I must have had equally surprised expression on my face, too.

That was…….did I just touch………….Tsubasa’s…….?

----------------- Nooooooo!!

“T-Tsubasa, w-w-w-w-wait, that was an acc-“

“S-Sishou…..the technique thou used…….”

“L-Like I was saying, it was an acc-“

“I-it art too powerful, de gozaru! I have lost, it is thy win!!” Tsubasa exclaimed with loud voice, while pressing her hand and forehead against the ground in order to show her defeat in a way of old Japanese warriors.

……..

What?

“Eh? W-what was that? You……lost?” I could not help to but try to make sense on what had just happened. Tsubasa nodded seriously, and in slightly admiring way.

“To have beaten me without even using thy sword……Shishou, I was not wrong about thy skills, de gozaru! Thou art truly the right samurai to teach me!”

-------------- This idiot!

It seemed that the whole situation had been filtered into Tsubasa’s brain through her own samurai-vision, and so it had transformed into something completely different. Seeing that as a hopeless case, I tried to search normal reactions from Kaeo and Rina, but the two weren’t helping: Kaeo had a strange grin on her face, while Rina looked at her own body and muttered: “It would not work against this one.”

Aaaah, what’s wrong with these girls!? Why was their common sense sacrificed in order to become martial artists!?

“T-that’s enough for today! I’m going shopping now!” I spouted something that would allow me to escape the situation fast. Tsubasa looked surprised.

“W-wait, Shishou! I pray thee, teach me that technique, de gozaru!”

“Never! That’s not something girl like you should know!! I’m going, bye!”

And before the thing could escalate any further, I sprinted towards the elevator. Luckily it was still on this floor, and thus I was able to slip right in and press the button that would take me to the safety of the lower floors. The doors shut, and the last thing I saw was Tsubasa yelling after me, most likely demanding me to teach her this “ultimate technique”.

------------- Bad hands! Bad hands! Look what you two got me into!!

“……Man, what a mess….”

Well, it was mostly a mess on my part. After my mind calmed down by looking at the changing numbers above the elevator’s doors, I began to realize that it was all about me panicking, in the end. Sure, Tsubasa’s lack of expected reaction had been a big part of it, but the true reason was because I myself got too flustered to act normally. I was a man of peace of and quiet, and was never made to handle such blatant love-comedy situations. And thus I did the first sensible thing that came to my mind, and retreated to somewhere where I could gather my cool.

----- Besides, now that I think about it, haven’t I experienced something far worse? Like that bath incident, for example?

“Maybe it’s because today’s breakfast sucked….” I concluded the analyzing of the even in my head as the elevator’s doors opened with an audible “ding!” sound.

The entrance hall of the apartment looked the same as always, with the bustling streets of Tokyo being separated only by a pair of doors. To be honest, it was quite a surprise to me when I started thinking about how much my life had changed since the first time I had walked through this corridor. Not only was I alone and penniless back then, but I was also unsure whether or not it had been the right idea to escape into Japan.

Nowadays, only thing that had changed was the first one. I was accompanied by a bunch of dimwits from a world that should not exist anymore. Well, barring Kaeo. She was just a normal kind of dimwit.

Well, in any case, as I had said I would go shopping, I might as well do so. We were missing some reagents for tomorrow’s breakfast, and it would be far nicer to eat something we made by our own hands, instead of those bentos that we had been munching in the beginning days. Not that they were bad, but eating food like that is bad for your body, and even if I didn’t complain, I’m sure our resident martial artists would have raised their voice about it sooner or later. So, having this new coordination set in my mind, I stepped out as the automated doors swooshed open.

And when I took my first step out, I bumped into strangely dense air, or so it seemed.

“Ah, sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going”, the strangely dense air said.

“No worries, the blame is mine, too”, I answered to the strangely dense air.

-------------- Eh?

There was something wrong with that just now.

“H-huh?? Is someone there!?” I half-shouted, quickly glancing around me, trying to find the source of the voice I had just heard.

“……W-what?” that same voice asked, clearly surprised.

“Where are you!? If you think you’re fooling me, you invisible man, I’ll let you know that I already heard you!!” I warned the possible threat and spun around, trying to catch the mysterious source of the voice with my eyes.

“Ummm…….down here….” the voice came behind me.

After I had turned around, and directed my gaze at somewhere around the height of my navel, I finally found the source of the voice. It was a person. Young boy? But……there was something wrong………

“148cm” plus “height” equals to……

“M-midget?”

“I’m not a midget!!” he flushed red on his cheeks and glared at me angrily. “There are laws that will punish you if you call someone a midget without a reason!!”

Certainly, I had met another strange person. He was dressed in what seemed to be copy of typical attire of polices in those kung-fu movies that centered around more or less hard-boiled detectives and cops going after nunchaku-wielding criminals. In other words, white shirt with black tie, brown pants with suspenders, a shoulder holster for the gun that I really hoped was not real, and a fedora that somehow broke the image of a cop by adding too much Humphrey Bogart. Boy had black, short hair that had a single clip in it on one bang, and energetic, violet eyes. Whoever this was, he had watched too many wrong kind of movies.

“So……what is a boy like you doing, going into apartment like this alone?” I ask from him, only to earn a even bigger glare.

“How rude! I’m not a boy! Can’t you recognize a girl when you meet her??” she asked, raising her gaze as if trying to seem proud, but only managed to look me somewhere around my chest area.

-------- But girl? Well, she seemed quite young, so it was hard to tell, but now that she mentioned it, her body was slightly more curvy than boy’s body should have been. Notice that “curvy” is very, very relative term here.

“W-what? Why are you staring me like that? I-I’ll tell you, there are laws that will punish you if you ogle girl’s body too much!”

“Ah, sorry, sorry. So, I was just wondering what you were doing here. I haven’t seen you around, so I guess you’re not from this apartment, right? Is there someone you are looking?” I asked. She looked at me, with slightly doubting gaze.

“And who are you…?”

“I didn’t introduce myself? Well, I’m Leon Hart, and I live in this apartment”, I answered. The girl cleared her throat very matter-of-factly, and took something from her chest pocket.

It turned out to be, to my utter shock, a police badge.

“Detective Seong Lin-Lin, Hong Kong Police Force. May I ask some questions from you, Leon-san?”

…………………what?

Detective!? This midget of a girl!? Who looks like she belongs into junior high school!?

“Umm……are you taking a game of “Cops & Robbers” a bit too seriously?” I asked, hoping that it would be the answer.

But no. My dreams of this incident being something normal were destroyed as fast as the hope of a high school boy’s of having a summer like in one of those adolescent dramas.

“Of course not! I arrived here in Tokyo this morning from Hong Kong, and I am currently on-duty! So, could you spare me some time, Leon-san? I would appreciate it!” she repeated her question, while saluting at me in a way that was, I admit, very police-like.

“I don’t have that much time…..I was going to go shopping before the sun starts to set, so….”

“Well then, if I accompany you to the market, can you answer my questions on the way?” She asked, her eyes brimming with same kind of energy as a young and diligent guardian dog would have.

-------- If this girl had had a tail, it would have definitely wagged enough to lift her in the air.

W-wait a minute! Hong Kong? Then would it make this girl the infamous….

Hong Kong Detective/Police type!?

“What’s next? A big-nosed man who sees everything from old bottles to toothpaste as a weapon to whack the enemies with?”

“Huh?” Detective Lin-Lin looks confused. I scratch the back of my head, trying to shoo away the foreboding feeling.

“A~ah, somehow, I think I’ll be having migraine by the end of this day…”

“What are you muttering, Leon-san? You said you were going shopping. Let’s be on our way, then!”

As I was not able to back out of this situation, I soon found myself being forced along with this junior high school kid slash police detective slash far too energetic midget.

Well, the shop that I usually visited was not that far away from our place, so it was not like I had to listen to her for very long. After we had acquired some more money, what with Kaeo pitching in, we had started going in the larger market instead of that one convenience store that I had usually visited earlier. One thing had not changed, though. Some days (like today), I saw that grumpy-looking girl leaning against the wall of the market, pressing the buttons of her cell phone furiously. But even though I had saved her from that bunch of no-good middle-aged delinquents, she had not even thanked me once. Well, it was not as if I was going to demand something like that.

In fact, right now, I was quite glad I had to deal with only this girl.

“Have you seen anyone suspicious around your apartment lately?” Was one of the first questions that was asked from me.

Soooo, suspicious? You mean apart from samurai and ninja that belong to a completely different era, a freeloader from Thailand, a guy who called himself “Demon-Jian” and jumped out of my apartment’s window, plus all manner of other weirdoes that concentrated around Tournament of One Thousand Blades?

-------- I feel like I should just go with no.

“Suspicious…..in what way, suspicious?” I try ask, hoping to find a way to change the subject.

“Hmmm, well……people that look like they’re clearly from another country, and have somehow ended up in here Japan”, Lin-Lin answered after some thinking.

“Ah, no, luckily. I’ve just had to deal with clearly Japanese problems.”

“Eh? What was that?” She asked, looking confused.

“Don’t worry about it. But no, I can’t say I have seen such people. Why are you asking, if I’m allowed such question.”

Detective Lin-Lin frowned, rubbing her chin like an old man from a hard-boiled detective movie.

“Well, it’s somewhat complicated situation. You see, few days ago, a couple of people slipped into Japan from China, without a passport or anything. And from the looks of it, they came here to stay. So I was assigned in the task of bringing them back into China”, she explained.

“Even though you’re from Hong Kong Police Force?”

“Well, it’s a long story…………and they had no one else to put on such third-grade, unimportant job”, she said, slumping forward and looking quite depressed. But soon enough, she perked up, clenching her fist and nodding to assure herself. “But if I do a great job now, I’m sure the chief will see my merits and offer me a better job! No, maybe…….a promotion!?”

“Somehow, I doubt that.”

“S-silence! There are laws that will punish you if you try to deny maiden’s dreams!”

------------- So now you’re a maiden too? Quite an amount of job for someone so young looking as you.

“And you think those people are somewhere around this area?” I continued the conversation. Detective Lin-Lin nodded.

“Most likely. There were few eyewitnesses that saw those people in the area close to your apartment building, so I wanted to check if they had taken a residence in that building. But if you, someone who lives there, haven’t seen them….”

“Well, they could have slipped past me. I live rather separated from other tenants of the house, after all.”

“Hmh? In what way?” Lin-Lin looks at me, surprised. Oh crap, I think it’s best not to tell that I’m in fact living a place where it would not, most likely, be legal to live.

“……..Separated by the wall around my heart.”

--------------- Aa~ah, what I said doesn’t make any sense.

“Huh?” Even Lin-Lin looks confused. Sorry, just take that nonsense as an answer and move on!

“A-anyways, you want to know anything else? I guess you’re hunting for places where they could be hiding, or something similar….” I tried to direct this conversation back to the right track. At the same time, I tried choosing between few brands of instant-curry. We didn’t really have anyone with skill of making real curry.

“Well…..they have to be able to make some money so they can afford food…….can you think of any place that would hire people “undercover”, without caring if they were legally in country or not?” Lin-Lin asked, while pointing at the cheaper brand of instant-curry and advising me with a: “This one is good”.

“Well, certain record store comes into my mind….” I said, remembering Ms. Hotpants and her quite lax sense of moral.

“Record store….? I see, that certainly would be a good place where to avoid the public eye while still being hidden. And you are saying that the owner of this record store is the kind that would hire these people, even if it’s against the law?”

“To be honest, I’m not quite sure if she herself is legally in this country…..” I groaned while we began to move towards the section of the store where they sold vegetables. To get there, we had to pass through the small aisle where they sold home electronics.

“Oh, is that so? Hmm, now I’m even more fired up about finding this record store! If I catch those two and this owner of the record store, then I surely-“ Lin-Lin suddenly stopped talking as her eyes drifted over to the young man who was staring intently at the shelves.

“Hm?” Even I became interested.

The man had a large trench coat, even though it was very hot summer afternoon. That alone was enough to raise my suspicions. But when I saw him open the coat and snatch stuff from the shelf, and then hide it under his coat, I knew that I had been right on the mark. A shoplifter. Well, it was not like I had never seen his type before. I would just have to act like I didn’t see anything, and quickly find an employee of this place to whom I could tell about this man. Then they would be able to catch him before he would have made it out of this-

Briiiiiiiiiiiii!!!

My thoughts were interrupted by the ear-breaking sound of a police-whistle.

“Stop right there, criminal scum! I’ll have you know, there are laws that will punish you if you shoplift! And I, detective Seong Lin-Lin from Hong Kong Police Force, am going to teach them to you!!”

------------ Why is this girl standing in such a grand pose, pointing at the shoplifter who was scared out of his wits like he had been found guilty of being the murderer in some Agatha Christie story?


“W-who the hell are you!? And who do you think you’re accusing of shoplifting!?” The young man with dyed blond hair yelled. It was obvious from the way he acted that he was trying to bluff. Well, it was not as if we hadn’t seen him just in action, stealing stuff.

“I just introduced myself, oaf! And soon, I’m going to introduce you to the local police station! Now, surrender your stolen goods and face your punishment!” Lin-Lin exclaimed with a strong voice, and produced a pair of handcuffs from seemingly out of nowhere.

“D-damnit! Why is a midget like you acting so tough!?” he yelled, and then took few threatening steps towards Lin-Lin, who was too caught up in the moment to realize she was talking to a guy was over 20 centimeters taller than her.

“Stop struggling and surrender, there is nowhere to run, criminal!”

Unfortunately, Lin-Lin’s words had the exact opposite effect. The punk raised his fist, his clear intention being that he was going to beat the girl up. Too late did this midget of a police realize she had gotten herself in a pinch, and only thing she could do was let out a short “Eek!”. The punk’s fist would reach her before she could even take step back.

Well, as if I was going to allow that. There was no way I could fight against a martial arts master like Tsubasa, but like the hell I was going to lose to a Sunday-punk like this.

---------- Thus, I intercepted the punch by grapping the hold of that punk’s fist.

“H-huh!?” he sounded shocked, and then turned to look at me.

Now, it’s good to remember few things. I was far, far taller than this boy could ever hope to be. I had also taken an expression of pure murder on my face. My hair was blonde, which is almost always associated with Yankees, delinquents and criminals in Japan. Now, combine all this with the fact that I was crushing the guy’s hand with all the power I could muster, and you can imagine a bit what that punk must have experienced, all at once.

“Ya really got sum nerve, ya bastard. I’m gonna tear ya ta shreds fer tryin’ ta hurt this gal….!” (Note: This was all said with the best imitation of yakuza-accent I could muster.)

Needless to say, the punk had turned ghastly white at this point.

--------------- Somehow, even the tiny voice that came out of his mouth sounded like ”blblblblblblblblblblb”-type of nonsense. Had I scared him that much?

………………

………..

…..

…

Well, it ended well at least. The market’s staff came to see what the commotion was about, and the shoplifter was dragged away. It was not as if he had courage to do anything more. Looks like I can be quite scary looking when I want to. Even Lin-Lin commented that she had thought some yakuza-boss had taken my place when she wasn’t looking.

I’m not sure if I should have been flattered about that or not.

After all that had happened and I had finished my shopping, we took a little break in the benches outside the market. Lin-Lin slumped to the bench, while I stayed up. I had to still get back before those three would get worried about me.

“Aah……looks like I acted a bit too hastily.”

Understatement of the year, miss.

“Well, you’re a police officer aren’t you? Your instincts just took over. However, you should be more careful next time, since guys that are bigger than you have the advantage that they can beat you up”, I offered some sort of consolidation.

“That’s horrible! There are laws that will punish you if you hit a girl, you know??” she angrily retorted, looking peeved about the fact that some guy could stoop so low.

“W-well, maybe they didn’t realize you were a girl? I mean, you’re still growing, so you don’t look that girlish...” I gave one possible explanation. Lin-Lin looked at herself with a doubtful gaze, as if trying to ascertain that what I said had some merit.

-------- Well, before she can get back at me from calling her “not girlish”…..

“Oh yeah: Here!”

I offered her a popsicle that I had picked from the market before we had gotten out. Lin-Lin stared at it with slight confusion, as if not sure what to do. Finally, she took it, after I had given a encouraging nod. The girl took out the light blue popsicle and threw the trash to the trashcan just near the bench, before tasting her gift a little.

“Mm……..It’s good.”

“Isn’t it? It’s the brand that I always buy when it’s hot summer. I was quite surprised they sell these all the way here in Japan, too.”

Lin-Lin did not answer straight, as she seemed to be too concentrated on the task of eating her gift. The sight of this small detective eating the popsicle was just slightly strange, so I could not help but to grin at it. While like that, Lin-Lin managed to look much more of her age.

----------- But, I can’t really stay here all day, watching her eat that thing.

“I guess I should be going. I’m most likely waited at home”, I said, and stretched under the sun’s orange rays. Lin-Lin nodded, and smiled at me.

“Well then, have a good evening, Leon-san”, she said, giving me a police salute. “Sleep well at night, for the officers of law are watchful! We serve with pride and care!”

“Okay. That’s reassuring”, I laughed, and waved a goodbye for Lin-Lin. Then I turned around, and with the shopping bag in one hand, headed towards home.

-------------- What strange girl. Was she really a detective? Or a junior high school student? Both?

Better not dwell too much in that, I guess.

In any case, even that small, strange event had ended well, and we both could continue with our lives. Lin-Lin would continue hunting those people, and I would continue being the manager of the Lionhearts. If those people Lin-Lin was looking were really hiding the area close to us, then we would most likely run into each other at some point again, but if not, then this might be our only meeting. Well, that’s just how the life usually is. Your life crosses with that of other person, but most of the times, just for a little while. Then they continue on their own ways, and never meet again.

….Is it the sundown that’s making me this stupidly poetical?

Luckily, I finally reach the street that’ll lead up to our apartment, so I don’t have a chance to dwell into any deeper thoughts. And even the remnants of those that I had just thought are driven away as I see a surprising but welcome chance close to our apartment.

“Hmh? A fast-food stall?”

It looks to be one of those stalls that are on wheels, and are pulled by small mopeds driven by the stall’s owner. A delicious aroma fills the air around it, and even though I just ate a while ago, I’m getting hungry because of the fragrance.

------- Aw, what the heck.

Since I know the girls would be delighted to have a little extra something, I decide to stop by the stall. Getting something warm and freshly made would be nice and welcome change for our usual dinners. Thus, I lower my head and sit on one of the chairs that have been set for the customers of the stall. There is only one customer besides me, and she is focused on munching away her food. The owner of the stall, young, brown-haired woman dressed in the usual white garments that chefs of places like this use, welcomes me with a bright smile.

“Welcome! How may I help you?” she asks with a clear voice. I scratch my chin and look at the menu that’s been stapled to the side of the stall.

“Hmm….I’ll have four large nikuman on-the-go”, I give my order. The girl nods and turns around, beginning her work with the food.

“That’s a good choice –aru. When it comes to stall food…”, the customer beside me stopped eating and grinned at me widely. “It’s got to be nikuman – aru!”

……………………aru?

-------- W-wait a minute!

The customer beside me……it’s clearly a girl. One with her black hair on two buns, and with sharp, yellow eyes. And she’s wearing a blue china-dress with elaborate, golden dragon pattern. Even those shoes are the types you see in Fuxia-movies, the small and black kind. I wouldn’t be too surprised even if I saw a pair of nunchaku on this girl’s hands. In any case, when her strange appearance is combined with the fact that she eats nikuman, and that she ends her sentences with “aru” in a very stereotypical Chinese way…….

………….and that she is, indeed, very suspicious looking person……..

----------- Isn’t she exactly the type of person that detective Lin-Lin was looking!?

“Y-you……don’t tell me……”

The china-dress girl looks at me confusedly, while munching her nikuman.

“…..what –aru?”

………………..if my hunch is right………then I have to get in touch with Detective Lin-Lin immediately.

And so, only day after our victory over the Back-Alley Rockers……

It looks like I’ve been dragged once again into some troublesome business.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“Huhuhuhu, witness the power of the dragon –aru!”

“Tsubasa, please………..don’t ask what this is all about………..”

“Leon-san, hurry! Throw that bottle of sake here!”

“So it is you, Leon Hart! Prepare yourself, for I have come to avenge my brother – the honorable man that you killed!!”

“I’m sorry, but I’m starting to believe that the whole family consisted of only idiots.”

“Blade of China…………..very well. Let’s see how you fare against the steel of Nippon!”

Dragon and the Tiger ~ Two swordswomen of the East!?


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Epilogue
A Three-Star Hotel in Minato ward

Detective Seong Lin-Lin, after quite an exhausting day, had decided to soak the rest of the afternoon in bath before taking the last look over the files of the two persons who had escaped here in Japan. She knew that it was best not to hurry too much, and as even she herself had just arrived in the city, it would be best to take things easy on the first day. Yet, somehow, she had gotten dragged into some very hectic business, thanks to not being able to contain her enthusiasm. After all, she was on her first official mission. The famous "Junior High Detective", as they called her, had messed up because she was too excited, and only thanks to certain man she had met earlier today was she saved.

"Leon.............Hart............"

Detective Lin-Lin muttered that name to fill the silence of the bathroom, but immediately after doing so she felt embarrassed, and retreated into the water so that she could be seen only from her eyes upward.

Feeling bit more courageous in there, away from the imaginary eyes of others, she could say that name again. But this time, only bubbles appeared on the water. And she heard nothing.

----------- And that was enough for her.

"Aaah, why am I mulling over such a thing!?" Detective Lin-Lin shouted as she suddenly stood up in the bathtub, while furiously scratching her head.

It was not like her. Not like her at all. Yet she kept replaying the events that had happened just an hour or two ago in her head. And then, after remembering the certain words Leon Hart had said, she took a good look at her own body from the full-body mirror that was at the wall of the bathroom.

"I'm not.................girlish?" She asked, though that question was not even directed at herself, the only person in the room.

Even the refreshing evening air that came from the open window did not help to clear her mind from thoughts. Detective Lin-Lin gazed outside, into the nightlife of Tokyo, and sighed.

"What do you then............consider girlish..........Leon Hart?"

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Eight
Dragon and the Tiger ~ Two swordswomen of the East!?

This…………..is bad.

This girl’s most definitely……the one that Lin-Lin was looking for. These over-the-top Chinese clothes, that accent………if there is a “suspicious Chinese person” anywhere in our neighborhood, it’s got to be her. And now I’m face-to-face with her. In a small space that is this fast-food stall. Though I know the help would be close by, there’s about 30 floors between me and those three that could help.

----------------- What should I do?

I know that this girl is most definitely one of those persons………yet if I lose her now, I’m fairly confident I can’t find her again. This is a big city after all. But right now, I have no way to contact Lin-Lin, and if I try something myself……well, I can most definitely see that this girl in china-dress knows some sort of martial art. Her posture, even while munching on that nikuman, is dead giveaway.

“Hmh? Is there something in my face –aru?” The girl in china-dress asked.

……What to do? Try something, and risk serious injuries? Or let them go, and risk losing this kind of chance for forever?

Damn! I have no choice!

“Here you are. Four large nikuman, just as ordered!” The bright voice of the young woman worker of this stall snaps me back to reality.

That’s right………there is a civilian here. I can’t let her get involved. In worst case, this china-girl might try to take a hostage…..and that wouldn’t be good.

…………Great. I’ll just have to retreat for now.

“……Thanks.” I paid for the nikumans and stood up, exiting the small stall. I left the criminal behind, knowing I could not do anything.

--------- To be frank, this left a bad taste in my mouth. If I had only known a quick way to contact Lin-Lin..!

A few minutes later, I was stood before the automated double-doors that led to my apartment. They slid open, revealing the lobby behind them. Before entering, I took one final glance at that small stall. There, I could still see the bright blue china-dress that marked her clearly as the target. She was probably gulping down the N-th nikuman of hers. And after she was satisfied, she would disappear, leaving me with no clues to give to Lin-Lin.

Unless………….

“…The stall itself.”

That’s right. With good enough luck, that girl who was the owner of that mobile stall would probably know where that china-girl was headed. Or better yet, she was a regular customer, and we could pin-point her general location by the help of that owner.

------ That’s it!

“Well, not all was for naught…” I murmured to myself while I headed inside.

But………..had I happened to look behind me after the double doors had closed, I might have thought differently. Because, there, back at that very stall from where I had left from……..the young woman who was the owner, was looking at me. With a glare that would have destroyed my very corpse if glares could kill.

Had I seen that…….I would have been saved from a lot of trouble.

Ding!

After a short trip towards the top floor in the elevator, the doors opened, revealing the familiar sight of the shrine that had been turned into a home for three martial artists and their more-than-in-over-his-head manager. I saw that the girls had already finished with their training and went inside. It was easy to see where each of them tended to do their own, specialized training. The patch of grass where Tsubasa usually was looked like it had been attacked by one of those guys who always make sure the golf-course in is perfect condition. Rina tended to train in the path surrounded by the stone lanterns, and those things had sure felt it. They were full of cuts and marks from different kinds of weapons, which made me realize just how vast Rina’s array of weaponry just was.

And yes…….then there was the place where Kaeo trained.

“I’m kind of surprised the roof hasn’t already collapsed…” I had to comment aloud.

Well, nothing more to say about that place.

In the end, I knew that I would have to do something about this since I was the manager. At least I should be able to repair some of the stuff that had been broken by the girls, and maybe, if our financial situation allowed, buy some stuff that would be easier to smack around than these poor antiques. I knew that Tsubasa would most likely see my point if I mentioned this, but Rina and Kaeo were a problem. The former would probably not just get it, and the latter just would not care. A bad combination, I tell you.

Thinking these annoyingly mundane thoughts that showed just how well I had adapted to the situation, I opened the sliding door inside the temple, and saw the hallway in pleasant color of orange, thanks to the combination of the descending sun and my sunglasses. After leaving my shoes at the doorstep (I can’t believe I had adapted to this Japanese custom), I headed inside. I was rather surprised that nobody had already come and greeted me, but most likely the three had found something interesting to do, and thus they hadn’t even realized that I was home.

----------- What, have I become something akin to salary man who expects a food, a bath, and his wife greeting him at the door when he comes home from work? The mere thought makes me shudder.

“Oi, rascals! I’m home!” I yell while carrying the stuff I bought to the kitchen.

To my surprise, I find even the kitchen empty. I would have expected to at least see Kaeo here, waiting for the food like the ever-hungry beast she was. I swear, her stomach was something like a Cave of Wonders. That was why it was so surprising to not see her here already.

“Well, it’s not my problem, is it…?” I muttered to myself while putting the stuff in the fridge. After I had finished, I decided to search around to the house, to see where those three had really went to.

I did not find them from their rooms, and even though I gathered up the needed courage and peeked into the bath, I did not experience a ridiculous scene like in those love-comedy manga that I had kept reading while taking the train to Tokyo. The bath was cold and empty, and there was no one there. To be honest, that was the point that I started getting worried. Sure, the girls might have just been out or something, but it was not like them to leave without even informing me some way.

Luckily, my fears were proven wrong as I finally headed, after searching the whole house, to my room. While trying to think about a place where the girls could have gone, I opened the sliding door, and was instantly greeted with the sight of those who I had been searching for. There, around the bag where I had bought the little things I had, were Tsubasa, Rina and Kaeo, all staring at it’s contents.

“Hey, what the hell do you brats think you’re doing!? That’s other people’s personal stuff!” I shout and run up to them, hoping I’m not too late. Unfortunately, it seems that I am.

The bag is open, and most of my stuff has been spread out. The girls were clearly going through it, like some kids searching for new toys. I guess they were curious or something, and had decided to use this chance as their advantage. But, still……….

-------- I’m slightly angry at them. I mean, this is my personal stuff.

“A-ah, Leon-dono!” Tsubasa greets me, jumping up hastily and bowing to me. “Thou cameth back, de gozaru.”

“G-gah! Leon! N-nonononono! This isn’t, I mean, we weren’t……” Kaeo tries to explain, but after realizing she’s still holding the “Japan for Beginners” book that was previously inside the bag in her hand, she falls silent.

Rina, on the other hand, does not even say anything. Instead, she has her eyes cast down, looking apologetic. That makes me realize I must look even angrier than I realized, and that’s true. When I see my reflection from the mirror, my face is in the kind of frown that I had never shown to the girls before.

----- Indeed. They had never seen me truly angry before.

Sigh……..Well, it’s not like I was planning on yelling at them, or anything. I just want them to think a little. And thus, I scratch the back of my head and relax my face-muscles, taking a gentler expression.

“Sorry, I got little agitated there….” I apologize for the girls. “But still……..that’s my stuff you’re rummaging through. You should know that other people’s stuff is not something you can just go through like that. I thought Japanese people were supposed to be polite and think of the other people all the time.”

“I apologize, Shishou…..Tis’ my fault, de gozaru”, Tsubasa apologized with a sad look in her eyes. “I proposed that we would doeth this, and-“

“Oi, oi, don’cha beat yarself up like dat!” Kaeo quickly interrupted. “We were just as curious, ya know?”

“Indeed. This one thinks it is not only your fault, Tsubasa-san”, Rina agreed.

Bah. Seeing the trio act together like this makes me forget I was angry at them in the first place. After all, they are now acting like a true team should. Knowing that makes me happy as their manager. And thus, as my bad mood is gone, I gesture Tsubasa to sit back down while doing myself the same. Finally, I take a look at the stuff they have spread on the floor. Everything from CDs to books to the unfinished sake bottle that I had with me are there, and I’m quite surprised they even managed to find the few special things I had hidden in the little pockets of the bag. They really must have gone all-out in their search.

“So?” I ask with a dry smile on my face. “Why did you lot do this in the first place?”

Tsubasa was about to answer, but Kaeo cut in first.

“Cuz’ we don’t know jack-shit ‘bout ya, Leon!”, the tanned girl said. “Ya’re like a void of information. We don’t even know who ya really are, and what ya’re doin’, livin’ in this place.”

Aaaaah, now I’m beginning to understand. It’s true that I’ve never told the girls much about who I am. And it was never really necessary, in the first place. We were just four friends who didn’t care about each others’ backgrounds, and that was that. But now that we had lived together for longer time, they had gotten curious about me. After all, I was a tall, blonde foreigner in Japan, which was pretty rare in itself. So I guess…….This is understandable.

“So that was it? You could have just asked me, you know?” I said while raising my eyebrow, to which the girls blushed slightly in shame. “Eh, whatever. It’s not that big deal anyway.”

The three all focused their attention on me, and so I began explaining my situation a little.

“Let’s see now………..well, as you can probably guess, I’m not from this country, originally. I was born and grew up in a little village in Europe. Our village was near a large river, and it was a really……..normal place. Sure, the area was more than a bit old-fashioned, but it was not a bad place to grow up in. There was me, my mother, and my older brother. Then there was the old man who always brought us fish in exchange for my brother’s work on fixing his fishing boat. There was that lady next door who watched us when our mother was away in the big city. Lots of kids who played with me and my brother every day…….”, I began telling them about my old hometown. However, when a memory crossed my mind, I could not help but to chuckle. “Ahaha, that’s right……….there was Cynisca too.”

“Cynisca?” Rina asked and tilted her head. I grinned, feeling slightly nostalgic about the old memory.

“She was…..the girl across the street. A complete tomboy who used to beat me in every competition. Fiery nature and loud mouth, she was an obnoxious brat…….though a good friend, still. My mother was very fond of her, and since Cynisca lived alone, she visited us many times.....”

All three were now listening without saying a word. Tsubasa and Rina were sitting in senza, while Kaeo looked like an old man enjoying a tale around campfire. With still small smile on my face, I continued talking.

“Well, years passed like you could expect them to pass. I went to school, excelled at some things, and didn’t excel at others. I hated math, but languages were always my strong point. Days went by one-by-one, and I grew. Soon I started taking part of the work in the village, developed interest in the opposite sex, dated few girls and made a fool of myself……..you know, usual stuff you do as a teenager.”

“Did thou……..” Tsubasa asked suddenly, looking very interested. “Did thou date Cynisca, de gozaru?”

------------ Huh!?

“Cynisca!? Bwahahahahaha, as if! She wasn’t interested in me! Nah, that girl was too enamored with competition, sports and stuff to pay attention to boys”, I explained. Then, while looking at the trio, I added: “Which, I can imagine, is not a strange thing to you three.”

I was answered with a three confused gazes. Ah, whatever. These martial-arts idiots are better off without boyfriends. Or rather, shall I say, the men that would be the targets are blessed for not having to deal with girlfriends like these.

“But……….as always, happy times can’t last. There was some trouble in the village, me and my brother got into a fight, I skipped the town……and wandered around for a while. That was…..not too long ago. After I made the decision to get out of the country, I bought a plane-ticket to here, Japan. First I went to Kyoto, but after some misunderstandings there, I had to head over Tokyo. I bought this apartment, without knowing about the place’s true importance, and…………..well” I smiled and turned to look at Tsubasa. “Then this burglar decides to break into my apartment, and the whole thing gets started.”

“Ahahaha…..can we just forget about that, Shishou?” Tsubasa asked, slightly embarrassed. Kaeo snickered, and even Rina gave a small smile.

“So, that’s about that. Nothing special, as you can see. Just a guy who happened to end up here in Tokyo, through pure chance”, I conclude my story.

However, to my surprise, Rina digs up something from inside the bag. Apparently, she had slipped it back when she had realized I was back.

“This one still wants to know………who is this, Leon-sama?” The little kunoichi asked, pointing at the thing in her hand.

It was…………a picture. A picture of a man with a wild grin, wild hair, and wild eyes. He must have been around 30-ish or something, and looked like he was about to try and take over the world. Yes, I knew very well who that blonde man was. After all….

“……….That’s my dad.”

This surprised the trio. Tsubasa, Rina and Kaeo looked at me, then at the picture, and finally me once more. They probably wanted to make sure that strong, confidence-radiating person in the picture was really related to me. And I couldn’t really blame them. People back at my hometown always told me I had more pessimistic attitude than my father, who was the kind of idiot that let nothing bother him.

“Thy……..father, de gozaru”, Tsubasa said, taking the picture from Rina and looking at it. Finally, she raised her eyes to meet mine. “Indeed. I can now see where thou hath gotten thy handsome features, Shishou.”

E-eh!? What are you spouting, you stupid samurai!?

“Yeah, ya’re right. In few years, Leon will be quite a man, ya know??” Kaeo laughed while looking at the picture, while whistling and adding: “Dandy~”

“Prince Maker?” Rina asked while switching the focus of her eyes from the picture to me.

“W-W-Will all of you just shut up!? Old bastard and I are nothing alike, so that’s the end of that!” I tried to ignore the heat I felt on my cheeks and snatched the picture from the girls. “Besides, he’s gone now, so there’s nothing we should talk about him!”

That made the conversation cease immediately.

“I…….I apologize, de gozaru. Art he…….dead?” Tsubasa asked. Both Rina and Kaeo looked like they were thinking they had hit a sore spot.

But……………….I shook my head.

“Nah……..old bastard wouldn’t die that easily. He was an amazing guy from what they told me. Tough as a mountain and strong as a giant. He and his buddies used to travel around the world, beating up bad-guys and saving damsels from distress……….that kind of thing. Or so I’ve heard. He was gone before I was even born, disappeared somewhere during his travels and proclaimed dead. But mom didn’t seem to think so, so maybe he just found…..something better to do. So I haven’t met him…….. even once”, I explained the situations.

------------- That’s right. Meeting with him should be impossible…………right?

The girls looked clearly relieved that they had not accidentally made a mistake, and so the conversation continued as normal.

“This one wants to know the name of your father, Leon-sama?” Rina asked. I chuckled and looked at the picture of the old bastard. A man who, if he was still alive, I should hate to his rotten guts………….

“Ah, yes. Old man, his………..his name was Leo-“

CRAAAAAASHHH!!!

My words were stopped by the sound of breaking glass. And it came from the window just behind us. Which was ridiculous. Because this place was over 110 meters in the air. And some idiot came through the window.

Something silky and yellow flew past my face. It was like I had suddenly been enveloped in a veil made out of breath itself. In truth, it was just the sleeve of the hanfu brushing past my face. Yellow and black, two very contrasting colors. These entered my vision as the person who had jumped through the window continued all the way to the other end of the room, and landed there gracefully like a flower petal. In a span of a time that must have been two, no, one second, a person had burst through the window, flown over our heads and landed between us and the door.

No, wait……..not just one person. There was another there. Her entrance was not as graceful, and there was more brute force in it, as could be seen from how she landed with a heavy thud, but it was in no way a clumsy landing. Far from it. It was a proud, dignified landing. And that person carried colors of blue and gold, in form of a cheongsam. And that attire I recognized.

-------------- These two are….!!

As said, other was a person familiar to me. A blue cheongsam with golden dragon pattern, black hair on two buns and yellow eyes that were calmly switching from one person in the room to another. This was the girl that I had seen in the fast-food stall just a while ago, and the one that Lin-Lin was chasing. There was a confident smile on her face, and the reason was clear. She was holding a three-sectioned staff, pang long gun, folded in her right hand. And from the looks of wear in the weapon, it was clear that the thing had been used more than just once or twice.

However, the other person was little harder for me to recognize. She was dressed in yellow and black hanfu, and in her hand, she carried an elegant jian-style Chinese sword. It had yellow cloth wrapped around it’s handle, and the scabbard was on her waist. The sword was pointed slightly upwards and towards us, being the usual stance when handling a jian-style sword. In other words, this person was not an amateur either. Her brown hair was shoulder-length, and her hazel-colored eyes were locked on me. It was not until I saw that brown hair and those eyes that I realized who this was.

“T-the fast-food stall lady….?” I asked, quite astonished.

------------ Yes, there was no doubt about it. This other person…….it was her.

“Who art thee!?” Tsubasa asked with booming voice and stepped forward, drawing her katana. “Answer, or I shalt have thy head, de gozaru!”

“Answer me, ne!” The brown-haired girl ignored Tsubasa completely, and pointed at me with her sword. “Are you Leon Hart, ne!?”

…..Well, that was unexpected. First of all, she knows my name. Second, she seems to have some business with me, though I have never seen this girl before in my life. Well, in any case, for the situation not to escalate further, I guess I should tell her the truth……for now.

“Y-yes, that’s right”, I answer. “I am Leon Hart.”

“So it is you, Leon Hart! Prepare yourself, for I have come to avenge my brother – the honorable man that you killed, ne!!” Flames of anger flashed in the girl’s eyes.

--------- Craaaaaaaap!!! I only escalated the situation further!

W-wait a minute. Brother? As far as I know, I have killed no man during my journey to Japan, especially not any Chinese. So why does this brown-haired girl think that I killed her brother? Damn, I need to find a way out of this mess quick, before everything blows into one catastrophe. After all, these two…….they looked more than ready to fight.

“You say I killed your brother…….but I don’t know who either of you is”, I answered, while trying to see if either girl was trying a surprise attack. “Care to enlighten me?”

“I am Feng-clan’s heiress, Chun! The would-be-head of the ancient and legendary Shun Li Jian style of the Feng-clan, ne!” she introduced herself in quite grandiose way. “I have come all the way from China to avenge my brother, who challenged the guardians of this shrine, and was killed and defeated by you, Leon Hart, who made him fall to his death, ne!”

Fall…………? No, wait, this girl couldn’t possibly be……..?

“And I’m Tai Fu –aru!” The girl in china-dress besides her continued. “I, as a travelling martial artists and the servant of the Feng-clan, am here to help m’lady to have her revenge –aru!”

“Shishou, this girl….art she not….?” Tsubasa asked from me, and I nodded.

“That is the only explanation”, I answered, and then turned my attention to Feng Chun. “Hey, you, girl……….you wouldn’t happen to be the sister of a man known as “Demon-Jian”?”

Flash of rage appeared in Feng Chun’s eyes.

“Exactly, ne!” She answered. “I had the honor of being his little sister…..until you dishonorably killed him with an underhanded move!”

“Underhanded move………this one has heard that he jumped to outside through that very same window without thinking at all”, Rina interrupted the conversation. Feng Chun looked, for a moment, very dumbfounded, until she got her vigor back.

“Y-yes! Underhanded and vile move, that was, ne!” she shouted. “A one that tarnished the esteemed name of Feng-clan and it’s honored members!”

“I’m sorry, but I’m starting to believe that the whole family consisted of only idiots.”

I couldn’t help it. This girl was as ridiculous as her brother had been.

“Y-you dare to mock me, ne!?” Feng Chun seemed infuriated. “I shall have your head, ne!!”

She was fast. Faster than I had even anticipated. Sure enough, this girl was as fast as Tsubasa, if not even faster. The sheer blinding speed that her sword traveled through the air, aiming for my neck with a decisive thrust, was too fast for me to even realize. I only understood she had attacked me after there was a clash of steel, and Tsubasa was standing in front of me. The blue-haired girl had deflected the attack with her katana, and was now standing between me and Feng Chun. Brown-haired girl, on other hand, was standing in elegant posture that was very fitting for one who used jian, the gentleman of weapons. She stood on one foot, other foot in “<” shape and her sword-hand curled so that the sword was pointing straight forward, and other hand balancing her stature.

“You dare to defend this murderer, ne??” Feng Chun asked, shocked. Tsubasa, on the other hand, had a cold look on her face.

“Thou raiseth thy sword against my Shishou…….that art the one mistake thou should not have done, de gozaru”, Tsubasa growled as an answer. Then, she took better grip of her sword and glared at Feng Chun. “Blade of China…………..very well. Let’s see how you fare against the steel of Nippon!”

Tsubasa was just as fast as Feng Chun had just been when she slashed forward. That strike was aimed for the head, a single strike that meant to end the battle in an instant. However, the elegant sword known as jian came into the way, and with a movement that was like flowing water, Feng Chun retreated. Compared to Tsubasa, who was fast and straight in her movement like a cut of the sword, Feng Chun swayed like grass in the wind, using her amazing footwork as her advantage. The powerful and precise cuts were dodged by suddenly as Feng Chun bend her legs and was suddenly far below the slash. From there she rose like a flurry of petals, spinning her sword around in a slash-like move and the proceeding with a series of thrusts all around Tsubasa’s body.

Although Tsubasa managed to parry the strikes, she was slightly at disadvantage in this environment. The room was not exactly large, and her slashes were something where she had to watch out for the roof. On the other hand, Feng Chun’s movement, where she focused much on circular motion with her sword and legs, was on the other end. Her horizontal strikes were wide, like movement of ballerina. However, the vertical strikes were usually something akin to how she spun her sword in a series of strikes, like a miniature windmill, and then continued with thrusts that resembled a bee.

Yes………this girl was like a killer bee: She circled around her enemy, until she found an opening and thrust with a deadly precision.

---------------- So swallow versus killer bee, huh? I couldn’t say I was not fascinated by this battle.

“Hey, hey, don’t forget me –aru!” Tai Fu shouted, and when I glanced over where she was, I saw that she was itching for a fight, too.

Girl had her pang long gun in a zig-zag form, the upper part that was under her hand, close to her armpit, forming a inverted V. The last section was in her hand, pointing downwards. Her right hand was extended forward, towards Tsubasa. Most likely, she was going to attack her the moment Feng Chun managed to score a good hit and make an opening in Tsubasa’s defense.

Of course, I couldn’t let that happen.

“Kaeo!” I yelled, and the tanned girl knew exactly what she was supposed to do.

Roundhouse kick was aimed straight at the head of much shorter Tai Fu, and the girl let out a surprised yelp as she suddenly realized she was under an attack. Only by using her free hand as a shield did she manage to stop the foot before it would have knocked her out cold. But, from the looks of it, even now Kaeo had caused a lot of damage. The way Tai Fu grit her teeth together showed that the force behind the kick was nothing to laugh at. And I knew it was. That thing could break a baseball bat with frightening ease, and when blocked by a human hand, it would cause terrible pain, if not actually breaking bones.

“Y-You’re good –aru. I’m impressed”, Tai Fu commented, breathing heavily. Kaeo grinned.

“Thanks. An’ I got lot more things like dat, ya know!”

Using her feet’s position where she was mostly standing on her heel, Kaeo drew her kicking leg back and launched it forward again, this time trying to start the feared machinegun-like kick-combo that Muay Thai fighters were famous of. Unfortunately, Tai Fu had anticipated something like that, and the Chinese girl dropped to the floor, dodging the strike. From there, she swung her three-sectional staff forward, using the two end-pieces as kind of stakes which she rammed straight into Kaeo’s chest. The tanned girl grit her teeth together in pain and was forced to retreat a step back.

--------- But it was a tactical step.

No sooner had Kaeo done that, when she suddenly changed the “limbs” she was attacking with. With Tai Fu in such lower position, Kaeo suddenly lunged forward with her elbow, aiming straight for the head of the smaller girl. Luckily for Tai Fu, she managed to dodge just in nick of time. If that thing had hit her perfectly, in worst case, her skull would have been badly damaged. Elbow of Muay Thai fighter is like a knife, and when it strikes, it is not pretty. That was witnessed, too, since even though Tai Fu managed to protect her head, her shoulder was not so lucky. The elbow hit it cleanly, blood sprouted. Kaeo’s elbow had cut through fabric of cloth and skin, and created a quite a wound on Tai Fu’s shoulder.

“Strong –arune……..really strong. I guess that means I’ll have to go all-out, too!” Tai Fu said, and looked like she was having fun. Kaeo laughed.

“Sure! Bring everything you got!”

But maybe that was a bad thing to ask. You see, the fundamental difference between someone with a weapon like pang long gun and someone using bare hands is that………..the former has longer reach.

Taking a two-handed grip, Tai Fu spun the weapon once around, before using it like a some sort of chain whip, hitting Kaeo straight in the head. After she had gotten the taller girl out of balance, Tai Fu quickly pulled the weapon back and started pummeling Kaeo with both ends, using them in a style not far from how nunchaku were used. Whenever Kaeo tried to gain some distance to get her act back together, a vicious strike like wooden bullwhip smacked straight into her head, keeping her off-balance. The strikes were always aimed at either head or the vital places in the chest area and stomach. In other words, Tai Fu knew what she was doing.

Suddenly, Tai Fu changed her routine, switching the three-sectional staff behind her and spun it around like a windmill. Kaeo, who was not prepared to this, got her face full of gruesome strikes from the wooden weapon, and I saw how blood flew to the tatami. Kaeo managed to halt the attack by daringly grapping a hold of one of the ends of the pang long gun, and then pulling Tai Fu closer while performing another elbow strike. Unfortunately, Tai Fu anticipated this, and spun the remainder of her weapon around, locking Kaeo’s left arm in place and placing the Chinese girl safely on her side, where she could not punch.

“It’s over –aru!” Tai Fu yelled and aimed a kick that was meant to hit the nerve-spot right in Kaeo’s back.

Yes, it would have been end………………if not for the fact………….

The fact that our team had a third member.

White flash across the room, and a small figure landed behind Tai Fu. Before the Chinese girl even realized it, there were pair of sai in Rina’s hand, and they were both in a reverse-grip, ready to be plunged into her extended leg. Time slowed down, and a second became a minute in my eyes. The way Kaeo had dragged Tai Fu in the needed distance, and how Rina had waited for the exact right moment when to burst into the scene, revealing the counter-attack that would cripple Tai Fu for the rest of the battle, and make her unable to her help partner who was engaged in the sword-duel with Tsubasa.

Rina turned around and extended her hands, aiming for the leg of Tai Fu. But at this point, something strange happened. That leg which was supposed to be the target, descended with such power the tatami barely could take it. Tai Fu forcibly rammed it into the floor to prevent the leg from being attacked. And that move served as a start for another as the girl let go of her weapon, which was still binding Kaeo’s other hand. The ramming of leg to the floor became a large step forward, and the hand which was freed too “L”-shaped position, and like a pendulum, it rammed itself right into Rina’s stomach. The power behind the strike was frightening, and it was clear that when it came to the raw power, this girl was at least half as ridiculous as Kaeo.

“Da Pao Quan…..?” I muttered, after seeing that fist connect and launch Rina to the other end of the room, where she hit the wall.

------------ Are you trying to tell me that this girl is actual Shaolin Kung Fu master!?

Yes, this was definitely Da Pao Quan. The back of Tai Fu was straight as arrow, and it seemed like her position was only changed by the movement of her legs, not her arms at all. Even when she had punched, she had taken a step forward to get into the range.

“Just to let you know –aru” Tai Fu said with a focused expression on her face. “I’m quite bit stronger when unarmed –arune.”

“Oh, that’s just great, ya know!!” Kaeo roared, and launched a punch that could have most likely gone through the wall if tested. The tanned girl had already managed to free herself from the three-sectional staff.

To my surprise, that move was easily redirected, and Kaeo got a face full of elbow. And it was not just any kind of elbow-strike. Unlike those of Muay Thai, it was not the kind that was meant to cut the enemy, no. This was explosive, short-range strike that was emphasized in power even more by the power that travelled from waist to limb, aided by the small charging step that Tai Fu took before launching the attack. And no, this was certainly not something that a student of Da Pao Quan would do. No, this was definitely………..definitely…..

Kai Men Baji Quan? How many fighting styles does this girl know?

My question was answered when the elbow-strike was followed by a movement that looked like Tai Fu was pulling a large, invisible rope from somewhere around Kaeo’s head. It was actually a punch, but the unique movement made me recognize the style immediately. It was Hsing I Chuan, or the ”Will Boxing”. The explosive power behind those seemingly linear moves was something to behold, even though I knew that I should not be fascinated, just looking at the simple power behind such an explosive move made me shiver.

“Seems like your friends are not faring well, ne!” Feng Chun mentioned to Tsubasa while trying to make her retreat into the corner. Tsubasa prevented this with a bold step forward that was followed by two slashes, horizontal and vertical.

“Dost thou really think thy friend can defeat both of them alone, de gozaru??” Tsubasa asked, sounding more than slightly ridiculing. Feng Chun growled, bend her legs towards the floor and spread her arms like a butterfly to avoid Tsubasa’s first slash, and then parried the next one with a rising combo of two slashes and two thrusts.

Swords clashed together, and for a moment, both Tsubasa and Chun were face-to-face, their swords locked together. If this had been one of those Hollywood films, most likely sparks would have flown from where the blades met each other and tried to win over the other in their sharpness. However, in the reality, only thing that that changed was that the sound of metal sliding against metal became audible, and that the face of both girls were locked in a snarls directed at each other.

---------- Yeah, it had become quite clear during this battle. Tsubasa and Feng Chun did not like each other. At all.

“Your sword is wavering quite a bit, ne”, Chun commented to Tsubasa, while taking a two handed grip of her own Jian. This was quite rare, as that sword was supposed to be used with only one hand, usually.

“I could sayeth the same about thy sword, too, de gozaru”, Tsubasa retorted, having the same kind of expression on her face as her opponent.

Tsubasa finally broke their stalemate by overpowering Chun with her weapon that was actually made to be held with two hands. However, instead of creating an opening, Feng Chun simply took a graceful step backwards, flowing out of the way of Tsubasa’s follow-up attack that would have otherwise created a wound stretching from her shoulder to the waist. And now, as Tsubasa’s shoulder was unguarded thanks to the slash that put her arms down, Chun struck. The jian-style sword was like a stinger of a bee as it plummeted through the air and hit Tsubasa clear on the shoulder.

Blood splattered on tatami, and the white kimono was ruined with red. Tsubasa flinched because of the pain that the tip of the blade inside her flesh caused. Although most jian-style swords seen in movies where those with rounded, even flat, points, this one was actually more like the style you’d come to expect from western swords. Though it was not that surprising that this kind of variation existed too.

“B-bastard!” Tsubasa growled and tried to land a strike on Feng Chun, but she just neatly dodged the strike by lowering her position. Tsubasa’s lack of actual combat experience showed in how she made a hasty attempt to force her opponent to retreat once they had scored a hit.

And that cost her.

Another thrust landed on her leg, below her knee. This time, Tsubasa could not hide the yelp of pain that escaped her lip, and she quickly put most of her weight on her other leg. Then, while grinding her teeth together and ignoring the pain, she moved her wounded leg backwards, separating it from the blade of the jian. This was followed by an overhead slash that only managed to cut Chun’s hanfu, as she sprung backwards in a half-jump that made her look like she had springs in her feet.

Letting out a shout, Tsubasa proceeded to press Chun further, starting to corner her with short-ranged, fast and powerful strikes that did not actually stop at any point, but instead, continued to changed direction whenever she had extended her hands as much as she could without tipping her own balance of. It was like watching a sped-up film about someone trying to chop someone else with a katana. So fast and sharp were Tsubasa’s moves.

Now that Tsubasa had stopped using the principles of Iaijutsu and moved to her own Aohanaryuu, Chun was having clearly harder time. She was forced to deflect many times in row, as opposed to just dodging the strikes. After all, now that there was no real pause between the strike and the next, moving between the strikes became just that much harder. The only option that was left to Chun was hastily spin her sword around, deflecting the oncoming strikes and trying to put a slash or thrust to wherever she could. I knew that as long as Tsubasa made no mistakes in her form and timing, things would be okay in that front.

----------------- Which could not definitely be said about battle between Tai Fu and Rina + Kaeo combo.

A powerful fist hit Rina right into the ribcage-area, and the charge of the small kunoichi was stopped dead in her tracks. The arms that had just performed that move spun around in clearly defined circle that stayed inside the imaginary border, and the feet moved, right leg stomping forward once and accelerating the rest of the body. Elbow strike was launched from the point-blank distance straight to Kaeo’s stomach, causing the taller girl to buckle over. This was followed by a palm thrust straight into her shoulder, which could have, in worst case, dislodged it. Luckily, the force was enough to throw Kaeo back and not cause any major internal damage. Still, the girl that possessed such ridiculous strength had just been punched around like a ragdoll.

Whirlwind that was Rina armed with her sai approached suddenly from below, almost touching the tatami. The speed of ninja-girl kept her in the posture even though her hands were holding the weapons, and thus she gained an advantage of surprise. But even that was not enough. Knee hit Rina in her chin, causing her to flinch upwards – an opening that was exploited mercilessly. After delivering a powerful blow with her shoulder to the upper body of Rina, Tai Fu lodged yet another explosive punch straight into Rina’s chest, causing the smaller girl to crash into the wall just behind her.

------------ The power of this china dress girl is ridiculous.

First of all, those moves she showed before with that pang long gun were not amateurish by the slightest. This meant that she had devoted life’s worth of time in studying how to handle that weapon. But it did not stop there. She actually, and efficiently, switched from one Shaolin-related martial art to another, and even used few moves and tricks from those that were not directly associated. If Rina was a kunoichi with extreme amount of rigorous training, then this Tai Fu………….judging by the fact of how much she knew about so many different martial arts………

………..A natural genius?

Yes, it could be. You sometimes heard stories about prodigies like that, and judging from how her attacks were mainly based around those styles of Chinese martial arts that had something to do with Shaolin kung fu. This itself hinted that this girl could very well have grown up in a Shaolin temple, where the amount of training she seems to have been through would not surprise me. Especially if this girl was actually the kind of natural genius when it came down to fighting, like I suspect. No, in fact, that would make the most sense, rather than the few alternatives the hypothesis had.

----------- In other words, a genius of martial arts trained in a environment devoted to martial arts?

No wonder Rina and Kaeo don’t stand a change in a small space like this. After all, Rina’s style was to use the terrain and the varying distances from the enemy to her advantage, most of the time. Even Kaeo’s attacks were usually wide and had a good range, mainly because she had been trained with that focus. But now they were against a person who knew martial arts that focused on the so called “personal space”. A concept which means that there is a certain range that the fighter turns into certain kind of “barrier” through which she lets no strike pass through, and counterattacks immediately if something strays into that territory. In other words, if either Rina or Kaeo mistakenly got, unprepared, into the realm of reach for Tai Fu, she would attack viciously, and there was no time to block or retreat. Long-range attacks were useless and if Kaeo tried to close in with her elbows and knees, she would pummeled for good, as she could not create an sufficient opening.

“Oi, oi, is this all you’ve got –aru?” Tai Fu taunted the two, while assuming the horse stance. However, that question did not seem to be mocking the duo, on the contrary.

She was honestly asking if they could not do better, as if wanting to see something more.

Rina, spitting blood from her mouth and not caring about the bruise above her left eye, took the stance with her sai. The one in her right hand was in reverse-grip and pointed towards Tai Fu, while the other one was in normal grip, and pointed upwards, so that her hands were both taking “L” shapes, only to different directions. Stance was wide and sideways, and the emotionless girl had a slight frown on her face as she looked at Tai Fu.

----------------- Yeah, Rina, with her experience, had long ago realized just what kind of problem they had right now. After all, without a doubt……

………….Tai Fu was far better than either of them when it came to technique and overall effectiveness in battle.


“Shut dat blabberin’ mouth…………already----!!” Kaeo growled, and despite her injuries, she performed an almost perfect close-quarter charge attack. And at that exact same time, Rina attacked.

It was a pincer attack, intended to force at least one hit to Tai Fu, which would open way for further attacks. Kaeo performed a move that started out as a knee-strike, proved to be feint which Tai Fu noticed too late as she stepped sideways to avoid it, and ended up being a twisting horizontal elbow strike. Meanwhile Rina lowered her posture and took a step forward, a move not unlike what Tai Fu used. This one was, however, adapted to sai, and was actually part of the original Okinawan-style that had been created around these weapons. Thus, the move actually turned into a double-attack. One was done with the handle of the other sai, and other with the pole end that was meant to be thrust into the flesh.

……..But…………………yet again……….

…..Tai Fu showed she was a notch better.

“Huhuhuhu, witness the power of the dragon –aru!”

The counter-attack was simple. Instead of trying to block both attacks at the same time, or panic and lose concentration, Tai Fu simple spun her body around in a manner completely unlike Feng Chun’s grandiose moves. It was fast, powerful movement with nothing extra in it. This way, she avoided narrowly the elbow of Kaeo and was able to launch a punch straight into the taller girl’s stomach. She also avoided the sai of Rina, using the momentum from the spin to plant an elbow strike to the side of kunoichi’s head.

---------------- A move that could be performed in only one exact tenth of second to be useful. Otherwise, one of these two would have noticed it and acted accordingly, scoring a hit. But no, Tai Fu counted the right moment, and waited for it.

As said, a natural genius.

Things weren’t looking good in Tsubasa’s end either. Thanks to her wound in her shoulder, her other arm had lost some of its power, and Chun was able to use this to her advantage. She parried Tsubasa’s sword, creating an opening which was left because Tsubasa was unable to lift her sword a fraction of a second early enough, allowing the jian-sword to slide past her defense, and earning thus another wound. This time into her chest. This attack continued with Chun taking a step forward and forcing Tsubasa to retreat. She spun the one-handed sword around, and started attacking from high and low, intending to force Tsubasa out of balance with her quick changes of force and height behind slashes and thrusts.

And Tsubasa, unable to break free, was sucked into that pace. This would mean that soon Feng Chun would start scoring more and more hits, thanks to her growing advantage.

-------------- Damn, this looks bad. If I’ll allow this to continue………..most likely…….

No. Most definitely…………we will lose.

But how the hell am I going to stop this fight that has already started? It’s not like I have the power to do that. In order to break this up, I would need someone with enough power and experience to take down two experts in a closed space like this. If only….!

If only……….there was someone!!

Damn!!! Is there nothing I can do!?

“Leon-san!!”

……………………..

Do you people believe in guardian angels? I might have said this earlier, but I don’t really. But right then and there, I started to think: “Ah, maybe there is someone actually watching over me?”. After all, this situation was defused by a new voice that cut the air, instead of the sound of fists and swords. It was a voice that I recognized, and whom I hoped that could do something, anything, to end this predicament.

It was Detective Seong Lin-Lin, from Hong Kong Police Force.

“To think that I’d find both of you by simply following my hunch and a obscure hint from a fortune cookie……..This must be fate, as they call it!” she exclaimed, while glaring at both Feng Chun and Tai Fu.

“Lin-Lin, watch out! They’re dangerous!” I warned her, but the girl just grinned at me.

“I know that already! But now, quick!” she pointed, not at me, but my bag and it’s spilled contents. “Leon-san, hurry! Throw that bottle of sake here!”

To be honest, I didn’t care about the weirdness of her request. Only thing I cared about was that Lin-Lin looked confident enough that if she got that bottle of sake, she could resolve this situation. I was not going to complain if she was planning to make those two drink till they passed out or something, as long as it defused this situation that would end up in our defeat in environment like this.

And thus, and took the sake bottle on the floor and threw it over to Lin-Lin, who caught it just barely. The girl almost dropped the bottle, but after letting it fly from hand to hand for a while trying to catch it, she was able to get a good hold of it. Lin-Lin popped it open, and began gulping the sake down like her life had depended on it. Everyone in the room simply looked in amazement as the young girl continued to drink like an old man, emptying the half-full bottle of sake in few minutes. It was not a large bottle, but still…….

--------- Wait? Did I just give alcohol to a minor?

“Ah…………That’s right. Now……now…..I can say that you’re under arrest…..!” Lin-Lin’s speech started to slow down. Did she drink it just as a courage-booster? If so, this arrest could end up very, very wrongly.

“Under arrest, ne?” Chun snorted at Lin-Lin. “Who are you, middle-school detective, ne?”

To my utter amazement…………………..Lin-Lin chuckled at the obvious taunt.

“Who am I….?” she asked with a voice akin to a whisper, before suddenly, her body burst into action. At the exact same time as Chun, tired of waiting, had suddenly switched her target, intending to finish this newcomer with a single thrust.

But that thrust hit nothing. After all, Lin-Lin had swayed out of its way just in time, avoiding the blade by an inch. Lin-Lin was standing groggily on her right foot, left one being up in the air. Before Feng Chun even realized what was happening, Lin-Lin leaned forward and planted a punch straight to Chun’s face. The result was devastating. Girl was thrown across the room like a pillow, smacking into the wall on the other side and dropping to floor from there.

T…………..that’s just plain impossible. From Lin-Lin’s arm that seemed no different from that of a normal middle-schooler………had come more power that Kaeo could produce with her full-power punch. That was, simply, impossible.

Unless………….unless that clumsiness I had seen Lin-Lin suffering from, occasionally, was not exactly just because Lin-Lin was a klutz. In theory, if one’s wrist-muscles were developed enough, and by enough I mean levels abnormal for a normal human, they could produce a ridiculous power even without the arm itself lacking in muscles.

And………on the other hand, those heavy wrist-muscles would mean that the coordination of finger-movement would not be that precise. And if that sake actually relaxed those muscles, allowing Lin-Lin to use them to the full extent………..then yes, it would be possible.

“I said it, didn’t I!?” Lin-Lin bellowed to Feng Shun, who had been already knocked out for good. “I’m Seong *hic* Lin-Lin from Hong Kong *hic* Police Force!”

-------- This girl!! She’s drunk like a fish, isn’t she!?

Indeed, but not just that. Lin-Lin’s face was clearly one of person who had had more than little more than required amount of alcohol. Her cheeks were bright red, there was a stupid grin on her face, and her eyes were narrow like fox’s. And on top of that, she was swaying back and forth like a drunkard, her fists doing strange circling motion in the air. Yes, she was definitely dead drunk.

….But there was more to it than just being drunk.

“H-hoh? You seem really strong –aru, Police-san!” Tai Fu commented, before moving in closer with a short-range charge that was followed by a punch aimed for chest.

That punch never connected. Lin-Lin stumbled forward, passing below the punch, before she rose up again and thus forced the hand up in the air. Then, with a movement that was as random as a drunkard’s tales, she spun around, aiming to smash her fist sideways into Tai Fu’s face just like she had done with Feng Shu. There was a loud boom as the punch with ridiculous power behind it connected – although not with Tai Fu’s face. Her left hand managed to grab hold of the fist just before it hit her face, stopping it barely. You could have barely wedged a sheet of paper between the fist and Tai Fu’s face.

And that face had the expression of shock on. Something which I had not yet seen Tai Fu to show. After all, her enemy, who had showed no knowledge in martial arts prior to drinking that bottle of sake, suddenly exhibited knowledge about zuijiuquan – In other words, Drunken Fist technique. And she was clearly not amateur either, having been able to catch Tai Fu off-guard.

“Oi, oi. This kind of power is ridiculous –aru…..” Tai Fu muttered, staring at the fist with new kind of respect for its owner. “I could die with a single blow if this hit me the wrong way –aru.”

More Tai Fu did not manage to say, as Lin-Lin dropped to her knees, and thus put her out of balance too. What followed was a rising double-hand-hammer punch that could most likely break someone’s spine in half. Luckily for Tai Fu, she managed to barely avoid it by redirecting the force by punching it. It was not easy task though, as Tai Fu’s face twisted in pain as the fists rammed together.

At this point Tai Fu must have understood that with our new reinforcement, she alone could not win this battle. Thus she retreated to where Feng Chun laid spread out on the floor, unconscious. With an easy move, she lifted her friend from the ground and flung her over her shoulder. Then the Chinese girl turned to face all of us, staring at her from the other end of the room. She grinned rather apologetically, as if she had been just a child that had been caught pulling a prank.

“D-don’t be too hard on m’lady –aru. She’s just rather impulsive person…”, she said and laughed rather nervously.

“Thou art aiming for my Shishou’s life, de gozaru. Dost thou think thou can leave just like that?” Tsubasa asked with a somewhat chilly voice and moved to block the path to the door. Tai Fu gave another chuckle.

“Well, that was the plan –aru”, she agreed. “Though not through that door –aru…..”

“Eh?” Tsubasa looked confused, before she realized what Tai Fu meant. “Wai-“

“Too late -aru!” Tai Fu yelled as she climbed on the windowsill. “Zaijian!“

---------- And with that, the natural born genius jumped down, proving to be a complete idiot.

“Not again!” I yelled as I rushed to the window, actually managing to not step on any glass that had rained inside when those two had entered.

However, against my initial thoughts, Tai Fu had not just jumped to her death. At least she had showed that she was wiser than the male heir of the Feng-clan. In truth, she had fallen few floors down, only to grab another a hold of another window sill of the actual apartments. And thanks to her raw power, she was able to fling herself up, even though she was carrying Feng Chun at the same time. The last thing I saw about her was how she kicked yet another window inside, and disappeared into the apartment behind that window.

“Dat was……pretty good, actually”, Kaeo murmured, having witnessed the spectacle too.

After that, a long, long silence fell into the room, which was only interrupted by Lin-Lin plopping to the floor and starting to snore somewhat audibly. Finally, after good amount of awkward silence, Tsubasa turned to me, and without caring about her wounds, gave me a long, hard glance.

“Leon-dono……..what………?” she started asking, but was unable to even find the right question at this point.

However, the only answer I can offer now, is…

“Tsubasa, please………..don’t ask what this is all about………..”

And thus we fell into the silence again. What remained was broken window, battered and beaten Kaeo and Rina, and Tsubasa with wounds around her body. Add to that Lin-Lin, girl who my friends had never seen, snoring on the floor like a middle-aged salaryman after having too many in the local bar, and you can quite imagine what kind of situation this was. It was really not something I would have wanted to find myself in.

So, it seemed that not only were those two the criminals Lin-Lin was looking for, they were actually related to us. After all, that girl, Feng Chun, seemed to think that we had killed her brother, while in reality, that idiot Demon-Jian had jumped out of the window all by himself.

Somehow, I did not like the way this thing was headed. At all. We had managed to make them retreat for now, but as long as this misunderstanding would not be cleared, they would try again and again. I knew it.

After all, I had seen the way Feng Chun had glared at me.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“So you’re saying that it’s all our fault…?”

“I-I’m not angry, ya know!? I just feel like…….I could do nothin’ back there……..ya know?”

“That girl………she was almost like a killer bee with those attacks.”

“R-Rina!? This is my bed!”

“Of course, Leon-san. To be honest………I’d be glad to help.”

“Kamaitachi? Don’t make me laugh. If that guy thinks he can outwit me……then he does not realize what kind of strategy I have in store!”

Howling Demonic Fist ~ Time for the counter-attack!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Author Notes:

Well, since some questions have been asked, I’ll be explaining some of the verbal tics found on different characters in the story so far. What is good to bear in mind while reading what the other characters speak (that is, other than Leon) is that Leon is actually translating what other characters speak, in his mind. This means that the various accents and ways of speaking Japanese are portrayed in a manner that mostly resembles them in English, though some words have been left because they are very important part of that character’s speech pattern.

So here are some explanations, character by character.

Tsubasa: Tsubasa speaks in very old and archaic form of Japanese, one of that was used much by samurai and their kind back in ancient Japan. In other words, this means that she, for example, refers to herself as “Sessha”, and instead of “desu”, she uses “De gozaru”. If you want to hear someone using this kind of speech pattern, Nagase Kaede from Mahou Sensei Negima is a good example. Of course, this kind of speech is not used anymore, and in reality, is only featured in anime and various historical shows about samurai. But thanks to her upbringing, Tsubasa uses in normal, everyday life. Due to the politeness and to reflect how old this style of talking is, Leon translates it into “Ye Olde English” in his head.

Oh, and about the word “Sishou” Tsubasa uses: It means, loosely, “Master” or “Teacher”, and is a term generally used in martial arts by disciples who train under someone with more experience. Since it is like another name that Tsubasa uses to call Leon, it has been left “untranslated”.

Rina: Rina, as mentioned earlier in the story, uses the kind of “Oiran dialect”. In other words, she speaks like ancient courtesans of Yoshiwara. The actual name of the dialect is “Kuruwa Kotoba”, and it is peppered with lots of strange words when it comes to referring oneself and others. Apparently this was to make sure those women who escaped from brothels were easily identified. The dialect died out in the Meiji period, though for reasons unknown, Rina continues to use it. Leon’s unfamiliarity with the dialect translates into Rina’s occasionally weird sentence structure, and referring to herself as “This one”. To hear this actual dialect, Tsukuyo from Gintama anime is a good example.

As for what comes to Rina’s usage of the phrase “Nin-nin”………….well, that’s just nonsense. A cliché-thing for ninjas to say, and thus, she uses it.

Kaeo: Kaeo’s usage of Kansai dialect was made fun of quite much, and thus she does not need that much attention in this section. Though it can be said that Leon barely understands Kansai dialect, and thus Kaeo’s speech is translated into very……rough form, that reflects both her way of speaking and her way of acting. Oh, and to be more precise, Kaeo speaks “Osaka-ben” variant of Kansai dialect. There are lot of examples of Kansai dialect in anime, and prominent ones would be, for example: Konno Mitsune from Love Hina, or Aizawa Sakuya from Hayate no Gotoku.

Orca: Since Leon’s grasp of Okinawan dialect is weak at best, some of Orca-chan’s words blur together, as seen during the few times she appears.

Feng Chun / Tai Fu: These girls use the most clichéd verbal tics that are around. After all, almost every time Chinese character is portrayed speaking Japanese, he or she ends the sentences with either “Aru” “Arune” or “Ne”. This apparently has something to do with how Chinese speakers tend to replace certain types of words with the ones from their native language. Of course to Leon, who is only well-versed in textbook style Japanese, this sounds wrong immediately. But since he does not know the reason, he is forced to “leave” those small errors in the speech of the girls. For examples of this, look for any Chinese character in anime. Chances are high that this verbal tic is used.

Well, that’s about it from the accents/verbal tics that have been introduced so far. When new ones arise, I’ll be giving some more info about them. But that is for later.

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Nine
Howling Demonic Fist ~ Time for the counter-attack!!

“Hoo? Boya, you’re up early. What’s wrong?”

Certain Miss dressed in hotpants that are sure to turn gazes in the middle of street addresses me as I’m making my way back to our apartment. As I already guessed from that overly-familiar voice, it’s none other than Choco, the owner of the record store I once visited, and Kaeo’s boss. She’s grinning at me with a cigarette on the corner of her mouth. I switch my plastic bag from one hand to another and approach her, giving her a dry smile.

“Well, the only thing that’s wrong is that I’ve got three idiots in my apartment. Well, four, but last one is not wounded like the rest of them”, I explain and raise the plastic bag with pharmacy’s logo in it. “Thus I was forced to go out and buy some stuff, you see.”

Choco laughs roughly, as if she understood exactly what I meant.

“So, I take it that Kaeo’s getting in trouble again?” She chuckled, and I heaved a big sigh.

“Not just Kaeo. Tsubasa and Rina too……..they all got pretty beat up by a couple of Chinese girls yesterday. I don’t want to go to details, but yeah, they didn’t fare too well against them. And now the window of my room is broken, too…..I’m just glad it’s summer, so there’s no problem sleeping with window open.”

Choco laughed and patted me roughly on the shoulder. I could see very well who Kaeo took after, as this older woman acted almost exactly like her. The scary thought about Kaeo being sweet, normal kid before starting to work under this hot-pants-lady crept into my mind, but I shooed it away very quickly. I had enough problems at home with three sulking patients and one somewhat shy middle-school detective, and this was a thing I did not want to add to that list.

“They lost? Hmmm…..” Choco scratched her chin, looking surprisingly serious. “Well, just keep an eye out for Kaeo. She really dislikes losing, ya know? So even if she’s acting like usual, she might actually be pretty down.”

---------- Eh? Kaeo, down?

“Ahahaha, stop joking, Choco-san”, I chuckled. “Just today, I saw her empty five cups of rice, so I’d say she’s as normal as ever, that Kaeo.”

“…….I see. Well, that’s alright”, Choco said with slightly strange look on her face, before nodding and grinning to me again.

“Well, since you got that many cute girls to treat, I don’t think this old lady should keep you from that any longer”, she said and laughed.

“Please, don’t say things that might be misunderstood if someone else heard them.”

As I turn around to leave, Choco crosses her arms and raises her eyebrow, looking at me with a very questioning expression. It was as if she didn’t quite believe me at something.

“Tell me, Leon………..you really don’t feel anything, living with girls like that?”

-------------- Che. What a stupid question.

“Of course not. What do you take me for?” I answer, slightly annoyed, and scratch my head. “To me, instead of girls, it’s just idiots and brats.”

And with that, I take my leave, leaving behind laughing Choco who was apparently amused by my last answer. To be honest, I’m quite glad she is laughing. That means she understood exactly what I meant by that last comment. Sure, of course, I like all three……….no, I guess that makes four……..girls, but…..

-------------- Well, that’s about it. It’s not as if one of them has any special meaning to me.

Finally, after trudging for some time in the huge crowd that fills the streets in the morning (and earning quite lot of curious stares from the locals, although the people living close to my apartment have seem to gotten used to seeing me), I see the familiar high-rise building with even more familiar shrine on the top. The summer sun makes it actually possible to see the light reflected from the shrine’s roof all the way on the top. I’ve been thinking about it, but after this problem with these Chinese girls has been taken care of, I’d like to buy some paint and tools, and shape up the shrine a bit. I mean, the tree torii that are up there have almost completely lost their bright, red color, never mentioning the shrine. And I guess these girls too could use some vacation from all the fighting. And what better way to keep your body in shape while not fighting, than to use it to make your house a better place to live?

------------------- Plus I need to get a new window for my room.

After entering the lobby of the building, I head straight for the elevator and press the button that’ll take me to the roof. While I listen to the low humming made by the elevator, I’m reminded even more about the yesterday’s happening’s. Meeting with Lin-Lin, stumbling into those two Chinese girls, Feng Chun and Tai Fu, both of them attacking us and nearly defeating us if it hadn’t been for the interference of Lin-Lin…………and most troubling of all, the way Feng Chun seems to think that I killed her brother. Well, of course I’m part of the reason he died, but it’s not like I’m responsible for the idiocy that caused him to jump down from the top of a high-rise building.

But how the hell am I going to explain it to that killer bee-girl? She seems troublesome in the same way as Tsubasa.

Ding! the doors open, and I step outside, greeted by the familiar sight of the shrine-grounds. As I had said, they are not on the best condition, and will definitely need some work later on this summer. If we leave it to autumn, then it’ll be too cold to do any work outside for a long time, not to mention winter.

…..Strange. Even with all this what has happened, I’m already acting on the basis we’ll all be still living in this same shrine, together, during next winter. Am I just optimistic? Or maybe I’m actually pessimistic? Well, in whichever case, seeing how those girls are, I don’t think I have much of a chance to make them move somewhere else during this year.

…..Not that I’d even want them to move anywhere else.

A sudden shadow that passes over my face catches my attention, and I turn my gaze straight up. There, I see the familiar sight of a skateboard far above my head, along with long, pink hair. It’s that girl again, the one who skateboards over this building every day. Though it seems that today she’s bit earlier than usual. And she’s wearing a short skirt. Which means that as she’s passing above me, I get a perfect look at her-

C-crap! My nose’s bleeding! Tissue, tissue…..

While I hastily try to find something to wipe the blood with, the skateboarding girl already lands on the building next to ours and disappears into the city as quick as a mirage. Yes, she’s very mirage-like existence in the first place, at least for me. I only see her from afar, and when I do, she seems to be completely in her own world, not caring an ounce about what happens around her. Some might call that kind of way of life selfish, but me? I find it somewhat fascinating. That, and the fact that she skateboards on the roofs of high-rise buildings.

Well, enough about her. As hard as it is, I’ve got to get my mind off the only girl that attracts my interest around here, and get down to the more mundane business.

--------------- That is, tending those three idiots.

As I open the door and enter our home, I’m greeted by ear-piercing yell that echoes from somewhere inside the shrine. That rough and uncouth voice can only be from one source, and my expectations are fulfilled when I hear the words that follow that scream of agony.

“Dat hurts, ya damn detective! I’ve had ‘nuff of dis, ya know!? Find someone else to torture with yer strength!”

Well, that certainly is Kaeo. And from the looks of it, Lin-Lin has decided to help to treat them. Only problem was that due to the muscles in her wrists, she was ridiculously clumsy. Thus, whenever she tries to do something that needs even little precision, it ends up horribly wrong.

And thanks to that, the scene I meet when I open up the door that lead to the previously empty room is not pretty.

“K-Kaeo-san! Please, stay still for a moment, so I can change your bandages!” Lin-Lin said with a troubled look, chasing after the tanned girl who kept crawling away from her.

“Hell no! Stay away from me!” Kaeo yelled and kept trying to escape.

------------ It was like some kind of cartoon chase-scene in the room. And both Tsubasa and Rina were watching it with very awkward expressions.

“Ah, Shishou! Thou hast returned, de gozaru”, Tsubasa said aloud when she noticed me, hoping to switch the focus of attention in the room.

The moment Kaeo heard those words, she crawled over to me with amazing speed, and hid behind my legs, growling at Lin-Lin like some kind of stray dog.

“Leon-san, please make Kaeo-san stop struggling! I can’t change her bandages if she keeps acting like this!” Lin-Lin complained to me, looking quite tired of Kaeo, who refused any kind of cooperation with the middle-school detective.

“Rather than that, I think I’ll make sure you don’t make the situation any worse than it already is”, I commented before giving a very heavy sigh.

In any case, I entered the room and sat down to the tatami, opening my plastic bag at the same time. Then I took a look at the three who were wounded at last night’s fight. Tsubasa had multiple wounds in her body from Feng Chun’s sword. They were all stab-wounds, but luckily, not too deep. If she kept herself bandaged, they would heal up in no time. Well, of course, for a normal person, they wouldn’t, but I’ve noticed that the participants of Tournament of One Thousand Blades have some ridiculous recovery-rate, not to mention the medics of those official tournament fights.

“Tsubasa, come over here. I’ll switch the bandages for you”, I said to her and gestured the blue-haired samurai to come closer. She did as told, and sat beside me, taking off her kimono enough so I could switch the bandages that covered the wounds on her shoulder and upper-body area.

“That girl………she was almost like a killer bee with those attacks.”, I murmured while taking of the previous bandages that had now dried blood in them. I threw them to the floor, and Lin-Lin picked them quickly up, proceeding to take them to the trash.

“Hmh? What’s this? Did you bandage this yourself?” I ask while I come across one particularly ridiculous contraption.

Seemed like Tsubasa had tried to cover as much as she could with one bandage, and had practically wrapped most of her upper body, starting under her armpits. It was almost as bad as in that one story where a vampire tried to patch herself up with packing-tape. Well, in any case, I better take this ridiculous bandage off and do it properly. Doing half-assed work would only work against us, and it really seems like I can’t leave it up to these girls to patch themselves up. Sure, they can fight, but they can’t clean up after themselves.

And so, with one brisk move, I untie that bandage and pull, making it come off rather easily.

----------- However, I get kind of different reaction than the one expected.

“S-Shishou, what art thou d-doing…….untying my sarashi…….like this……?” Tsubasa asked suddenly with very meek voice, her face bright red as a beef.

Whaaaaaat!? Sarashi!?

N-no, wait! That’s right! Sarashi is that stupid, winding piece of cloth that samurai used to wrap around their upper-bodies to resist injuries! And I mistook it for bandage, and now Tsubasa thinks I did it on purpose!!

“W-wait a minute, Tsubasa, I didn’t, I mean, it wasn’t on purpose…..no, I mean….” I turned to look at Rina and Kaeo for help.

-------- However, what met me was the sight of those two staring intently, both flushed on their faces (Rina less than Kaeo). I could swear I saw steam shoot out of their nose.

What is this, what kind of idiots surround me!?

“Tsubasa, sorry, I thought it was bandage, so I accidentally-“

“I-It art alright, Shishou…….thou dost not have to explain, de gozaru. If thou wanted to look, thou should have just said so……” Tsubasa interrupts me, while looking shyly away.

----------- Noooooo, this isn’t going the way I want it to go at all!!!!

Luckily for me, I hear a door opening, and knew that’s Lin-Lin who is stepping in. Although she is clumsy, she is amongst the people with most common sense I know here in Japan, and thus, I know she can clear up this misunderstanding for me.

“L-Leon-san, what is this…..?”

“Ah, Lin-Lin, good timing! You see, I happened to untie Tsubasa’s sarashi, and I really need your help in expl-“

I don’t get farther. A punch lands squarely in my face. Thank god it’s not one of her super-power punches.

“You beast!! There are laws that will punish you if you try to sexually harass girls who are unable to fight back!!” Lin-Lin yells, before assuming walking over to me.

And there, while I’m still trying to get up, Detective Seong Lin-Lin walks up to me and puts handcuffs on me. Then, I’m pulled up, and suddenly we are headed towards the front door.

“Don’t worry, I’m gonna go turn him up to the police station”, Lin-Lin assures the other girls. “He will never assault you like that again.”

“Sorry, I was wrong!! You are the biggest idiot here!!!”

My yell was probably heard in Hokkaido.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

“Dammit, if you’re so hasty to act, you’ll get us into serious trouble one day”, I groan while I continue to change Kaeo’s bandages. Lin-Lin bows to me apologetically.

Well, luckily, she didn’t manage to drag me to the police station. Somehow I managed to explain the situation, and when it was combined with Tsubasa repeating that I was innocent, we somehow managed to get through that thick middle-school skull.

“Ow! Owowowowowowowow!”, Kaeo suddenly screams and glares at me. “Watch what yer doin’, that really hurts, ya know!?”

“Don’t be such a big baby”, I answer and smack the new bandage I just put on her, causing her to yelp in pain again. “I’ve seen you in a fight, and if you’re practicing Muay Thai, you should be able to handle this much pain.”

While Kaeo is still trying to recover from the shock that my hit to the wound, I turned my attention to the two others. Rina wasn’t that hurt as the other two, as she had the experience needed to avoid worst wounds that happened in battles by lessening and flowing with the strikes enemy threw at you. I still had treated what I could, but most likely, she would be first one to recover. Tsubasa’s bandages had already been changed (and her sarashi had been re-tied), which left Kaeo as the last patient. She had been very problematic though, because it became apparent that although she could withstood all kinds of attacks during battles, when it came to pain that came from cleaning the wounds and patching them up, she couldn’t handle it at all.

“Owowowowowowow! It hurts an’ I can’t even reach it!!” she continued to cause ruckus while trying to reach that one wound in her back which I had treated last.

It was like watching dog trying to lick off the ointment you’ve put to its back to help a wound to cure.

“Oi, do anything to that bandage and you will be left without a food today, missy”, I warned Kaeo, which caused her to cease it immediately.

------------- Well, now that that has been taken care of, I guess it’s time to move to more serious things.

I leaned against the wall and looked at the four girls in the room. Everyone, with the exception of Lin-Lin, had been wounded when Tai Fu and Feng Chun had attacked us. At least in this small space, it was very probably that we would have lost, if not the interception of our dear detective. Those two…….although we outnumbered them, they still were very formidable opponents. Most likely, those two alone could have beaten Back-Alley Rockers.

“So…..Those two. Tai Fu and Feng Chun. It seems that the reason they left China was to get their revenge on us……..the persons they think were responsible for the murder of Feng Chun’s older brother. However….” I turned my gaze to Lin-Lin. “Is there anything else you can tell us about them, detective?”

Lin-Lin crossed her arms and sat to the tatami, and her expression changed to a serious one. Even Kaeo stopped whining and focused her attention on the small detective instead. Rina and Tsubasa had been keenly listening from the very beginning.

“Those two……….as you probably have guessed, they are from famous martial arts families from China. Feng Chun is the heir of the Feng-clan, which is famous for the Shun Li Jian style. Her older brother, Feng Wang, was the future head of the clan, but after the incident which concerned the Tournament of One Thousand Blades, he died, leaving Feng Chun as the sole heir. Most likely, that girl is not after you only because you killed her sibling, she is also burdened by the sudden responsibilities on her shoulders now that she is the heir, and wants to take it out on you.”

-------- Suddenly, my mental image of Feng Chun changed to a one of a young girl throwing a tantrum.

“Nevertheless, she is a dangerous opponent. After all, she was rumored to be far stronger than her older brother when it came to martial arts. Rumors say that when it was decided that Feng Wang would inherit the place as the head of the clan, Feng Chun poured all her heart into mastering the sword, intending to overcome her older brother at least in that way”, Lin-Lin explained. “Called “Black and Yellow Princess” amongst the members of her clan, she is said to be one of the fastest jian-sword users in modern age.”

At this point, Lin-Lin looked at Tsubasa with very serious eyes.

“Tsubasa-san…………I am not completely sure, but that girl……….I think she might be even faster than you. If we compare you two, your Aohanaryuu style is aimed towards short, burst-type strikes that strike the enemy with ultimate speed. However, her Shun Li Jian style is something that favors top-speed over short bursts of acceleration. When it comes to a battle that does not end with the first strike, she most definitely has the upper hand compare to you.”

There was a long silence that followed after this. Most certainly Tsubasa already knew this herself, but she had not said anything yet. That was because her pride as a warrior, as a samurai, most likely prevented her from revealing that she had lost in terms of speed, her specialty. From the corner of my eye I saw that the blue haired girl was staring straight ahead of her, biting her lip.

Lin-Lin cleared her throat and continued.

“However…………….Feng Chun is not the person I am worried about”, she clearly stated, causing all the three girls to look at her, surprised.

-------------- I knew she was going to say that.

After all, I had realized it too. Of the two people we had faced, Feng Chun was not the problematic one. No, it was that china-dress partner of hers……..

“Tai Fu.”

That name made Kaeo and Rina’s eyes grow dark. They both had fought against that girl and lost, and even Lin-Lin, who had punched Tai Fu with her ridiculous powers, had not been able to land a straight attack at her. Yes, of the two we had faced, Tai Fu was completely on her own level.

She was no opponent any of us could defeat at our current level.

“I’ve heard lots of rumors in my work, but there are some which are very persistent ones. This is one of those. It tells of the young girl from a small mountain temple somewhere in northern China, who pledged her loyalty to the famous Chun family in exchange for them to donate a large sum of money to the temple. The rumor tells that at first, the members of the Chun family had laughed at her proposal. However, after several gruesome tests, from which final was to face the 10 best warriors of Chun family at once, it was shown that the girl was an ally that was completely worth that large sum of money. After all, she passed all those tests without suffering a single wound.”

What Lin-Lin just told sounded ridiculous. But somehow, I could not ridicule it.

“Nobody knows who that girl truly is. Only things that are known about her are that she is a natural genius of martial arts, who can master any fighting-style, any weapon, in a time far shorter than what it would take from a normal person. She is the true epitome of the famous Shaolin martial arts, and people in the martial arts world call her “The Lü Bu of Shaolin”. That girl, most likely. is none other than………….”

Now all our eyes were focused in Lin-Lin.

“………..Tai Fu, the girl we just faced.”

Lü Bu of Shaolin? That girl? Unfortunately even I knew that the nickname was no exaggeration. That power, that technique, that innate knowledge about how martial arts should be used…………she was clearly a person who would earn the nickname “Flying General”. Even without a pheasant-tailed headdress, she was, most definitely, worthy of that name.

And that was very, very worrying.

How were we going to defeat people like that? Right now, our members were not strong enough to defeat two monsters like that. Rina……….Rina was our strongest member at the moment, and only in right conditions could I trust her to beat Feng Chun. But when it came to Tai Fu………there was no one that I could believe to defeat her in a battle. A genius like that would see through most of my tactics, and just crush them under her heel. She was not the kind that would make stupid mistakes.

Her partner, on other hand……….

“Hmm……this is troublesome. If our team was not so weak……” I murmured to myself. Unfortunately, it looked like Rina seemed to hear that.

“So you’re saying that it’s all our fault…?” she asked with a flat tone. I hurriedly shook my head.

“No, that’s not what I wanted to say. What I did was just stating a fact. After all, none of you, at your current levels, can compare to Tai Fu. Feng Chun alone would not be such a problem, but that damn China-Dress………….she’ll become a pain in the ass”, I told them.

And even though they might not have liked it, the three agreed.

In any case, if all we did was to sit here and worry about it, we would make no progress at all. I had noticed that at times like this, all you needed was to give your body something to do, and let your sub-consciousness work out things that were worrying. With that in mind, I pushed the problem with Tai Fu into the backburner of my mind, and clapped my hands together.

“Well, we won’t get far worrying about that. And besides, it’s not like we are destined to fight them in the near future. With good luck, they might just leave us alone after this, so it’s not like we have to worry”, I forced a grin on my face, trying to lighten up the mood. When the girls didn’t seem too assured, I added: “If they come for us, then let them come. We’ll be prepared. However, that is a thing to think only when they do. Worrying about something that we can do nothing about is just foolish, ya hear me?”

And that seemed to be the magic word. Their faces relaxed, and everyone nodded.

“Thou art right, Shishou”, Tsubasa agreed. “We musn’t let this get us down, de gozaru.”

“This one thinks that we should take this slowly. As long as they don’t challenge us to an official match, we have no reason to agree to fight them”, Rina added.

“And if they try to assault us somewhere, there are laws that will punish people if they try to kill others. I’ll alert the local police just in case, so we should be safe even when going out to the streets. It’s not like they can attack us in the broad daylight”, Lin-Lin concluded.

Luckily it seems that the girls were able to move forward from this defeat. I nodded to them and stood up, and they followed my example.

“Well then, we missed the breakfast today, so I guess it’s time to start making one. Although it’s past midday already, I’m still starving, so the next thing on the list is food, food!” I declared and started marching towards the kitchen. I could hear Tsubasa and Lin-Lin chuckle behind me, and together we headed towards the kitchen.

In the corridor, I asked detective Lin-Lin to stop for a while, because there was something I needed to ask from her. Tsubasa and Rina headed to the kitchen ahead, and I was left alone in the corridor with the small middle-schooler.

“W-what is it, Leon-san?” she asked from me, looking somewhat nervous for some reason.

“Eh, it’s nothing important but………eh, I guess it’s kind of important after all”, I sighed and scratched the back of my head. “I’ve got quite a big favor to ask from you.”

“I-If it’s just something I can do, then I shall most definitely try!” she declared surprisingly enthusiastically, while being strangely red on her cheeks.

“Well, I was just wondering………….do you want to join our stable? I mean, we Lionhearts could always use more members, and you are amazingly strong. We could definitely use a member like in our group”, I finally said what was on my mind, before continuing. “Of course, if you don’t want to, that’s okay. You don’t live here in Japan, after all, so I don’t blame you if you want to return to Hong Kong after all this is over.”

There was a moment of silence.

But it was finally broken when Lin-Lin looked up at me, and for some reason, gave me a smile like any I had seen from her before.

“Of course, Leon-san. To be honest………I’d be glad to help.”

Even though I was somewhat surprised how easily she agreed to it, I then stuck out my hand in front of her, and answered that smile with my own.

“Very well then………….welcome to The Lionhearts, Seong Lin-Lin.”

“I’m glad to be part of the team, manager!”

And that was how our team gained its fifth member. And our house, its fifth resident. Though she might have been somewhat obnoxious, somewhat loud, somewhat idiotic middle-school detective who was both clumsy and ridiculously powerful, she wasn’t such a bad addition to this household. She was, at least every now and then, more level-headed than the rest of the girls, so she should be of some help in keeping their idiotism in check.

Yes, from now on, Seong Lin-Lin was officially part of The Lionhearts.

As I turned to leave, for some reason, I realized that the door to the room we had just been was still open. Although I was sure I had closed it, being the last person to leave, there was still a slight crack there. It piqued my curiosity, and thus, I moved back to the door, and peeked inside.

Inside, I saw Kaeo standing in the middle of the room, her fists clenched and biting her lip. At that moment, the warning that had been given to me by Choco rang inside my mind once again. Indeed, at first I had thought Kaeo had been as good as ever, but as I replayed the last few moments in my mind, I began to understood that she had been, for some reason, oddly silent. After I had patched her up……..had she said a single word?

“She really dislikes losing, ya know? So even if she’s acting like usual, she might actually be pretty down.”

Choco-san………….did the defeat against those two really get to her that much?

“Kaeo…….” I opened the door, and was met with a pair of eyes that were surprisingly angry looking. I felt as if I had stepped into the den of a wounded tiger. “Is everything alright…..?”

“Yeah, everythin’ is just goddamned fine! I’ve never been better, ya know!” she answered with surprisingly harsh voice, and after saying that, refused to look at me in the eyes. I sighed, crossed my arms, and moved few steps closer.

“What made you so angry?” I asked, though I already had a good hunch, thanks to Choco’s warning.

“I-I’m not angry, ya know!? I just feel like…….I could do nothin’ back there……..ya know?”

In other words, she felt useless.

“Right now, in our stable………….Rina’s more experienced than me, Tsubasa’s faster than me, and with dat Lin-Lin as a new member, I’m no longer the strongest in the team either, ya know? So………….so……………what good am I for our stable?” she asked from me with a voice that sounded like it was almost forced through her teeth.

I cannot help but to sigh.

“Kaeo, listen…………..as a manager, I knew that at some point, someone of us would start to feel this way. Late at night, I would rack my brain, thinking of how I would comfort and help the member that would start feeling that way”, I walked over to the tanned girl, and put my hand to her shoulder. “And you know what? I never came up with anything. Even at this moment, I have no words to give you. No words to help you with.”

But…………..even so……………

“But just look at this body of yours. Look at these wounds that I spent this whole morning patching up. Are they the wounds of someone who is useless……..someone who has no meaning? No, this wounds tell it clearly……..they are almost screaming that you were there, in that place, protecting all your comrades”, I spoke slowly while moving my hand from her shoulder to the wound. “Useless person does not get wounded while protecting someone she cares about. Useless person cannot protect anything, as he will just quietly watch the life go by without trying to grab hold of other people, without trying to grab hold of the life itself. As long as a person gives himself a meaning, as long as person does something…………..he is not useless.”

Kaeo’s eyes were now locked into mine, and I saw her biting her lip even stronger. Her whole body was slightly shivering.

“Useless person is just a coward who steps away from life. Now tell me, Kaeo…………….are you a coward?”

With a grin that felt both forced and genuine, with expression that was caused by tears that were held back, she shook her head. She beamed at me, and shook her head.

“Nah. If there’ anythin’ I ain’t………….that’s a coward.”

That’s right. The rough and lazy, powerful tomboy who called herself Kaeo was nothing like a coward. From the first time I had met her, when she stepped between me and Kumo in order to save me, I had understood that there was no fear behind those eyes. Only determination. A person like her could, no matter what, be useless.

----------------- After all, there was only one coward in this house.

“That’s better. You are not a coward, and neither are you useless, Kaeo. So stop thinking about it too much”, I grinned at her and let go of her. “You’ll just make your head hurt, like usual.”

Kaeo makes a strange noise, almost as if she was laughing. She then proceeds to hit me on the top of my head with her fist.

“Don’t push yer luck, Leon. I’ll beat ya silly if ya try to say I’m an idiot, ya know?”

“In that case, wouldn’t the idiot be me?” I chuckle, and Kaeo laughs too.

Well, it seems at least one problem has been solved. Looking at Kaeo right now, it seems that she has certainly gotten some of her confidence back. And that was good. Out of all the members we had in this group, Kaeo was the one who would back down from no challenge, and fear no enemy, no matter how strong. It could be a bad thing at times, but it was also a good thing. She was a driving force to us others, and if she doubted her usefulness, it would affect the whole group.

------------- Besides, as her friend, I couldn’t just leave it at that.

“Oh yeah, Kaeo…..” I remembered one thing as I was leaving the room, and turned around.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“You’re old enough, right? How about you and I go have a drink later tonight? I haven’t had a chance to test the local bars”, I asked from her.

And as I had expected, Kaeo’s face broke into a wide, wide grin.

“Hell yeah!”

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

Well……………for the first time since my arrival in here (if you don’t count that blasted day I spent in Kyoto) I’m finally getting taste of Japanese night-life.

The double-doors closed behind us, and the light inside the lobby of the high-rise illuminated part of the street before us. Still, it was a hot summer night, so it was not like it was dark yet. In fact, most likely, it wouldn’t get dark at all. The millions of lights in this city would take care of that. Streetlights and neon-lights would create such a grand glow that the stars of the sky would not be able to compare to it. It was kind of sad, but on the other hand, this was a big city. And being someone who grew up in a small village, being in big city was always a new experience.

------------ And this time, I would experience it to the fullest!

It was strange seeing Kaeo dressed differently than usual. Her sporty clothes were gone, and now she looked more like a delinquent in her leather jacket and jeans. Still, I was glad she had changed clothes. Not that she was the worst dresser amongst our group. No, that award would definitely go to either Tsubasa or Rina, depending on the situation. Tsubasa would not look too weird in some very formal meeting, and on the other hand, Rina would definitely pass in one of those weird cafes of Akihabara I’ve been hearing about. In any case, yes, Kaeo was amongst the most normal ones when it came to dressing up.

Even though she dressed only in manly clothes.

“Hmh? Leon, did ya just think somethin’ rude o’ me?” Kaeo asked with a suspicious look on her face.

Sharp!

“That’s just your imagination. Now let’s get going, I’m thirsty already.”

And so we begin our journey towards the Kaeo’s “usual place”. Apparently, it’s some kind of bar close to our place, and so, it seems like a good place to start getting familiar with the nightlife of Tokyo. To be honest, I’ve never been a man who goes to nightclubs, since I like to drink my alcohol in peace. In that sense this was a good choice, too.

The only problem that had arisen was when we told to the other girls that we were going to have a drink in the evening. Tsubasa, Rina and Lin-Lin were all underage, and thus, could not join us. And, to be perfectly honest, they were the type of people I never wanted to see drunk. But even after I had explained it to them, the three had vehemently tried to accompany us. Tsubasa wanted to see what her “Shishou” did in places like that, apparently planning to use me as an example. Of course I told her that there are things a girl like her shouldn’t mimic, even if they were done by her Shishou. Rina, on the other hand, wanted to accompany us because she felt like I needed protection. Luckily, this sparked up Kaeo, since it seemed as if Rina didn’t deem Kaeo as good enough protection. After a while of arguing, we finally managed to convince Rina that I didn’t need any protection. And then there was Lin-Lin, who just wanted to come with us.

-------- Of course, we rebutted her request because she was a minor, and having her drink alcohol was not wise at all.

This reminds me……….isn’t it a bit risky to have her drink sake before matches, even though it opens up her Drunken Boxing skills?

Well, in any case, it does not take too long to get to the place which Kaeo mentioned. It lies in one corner, after a set of stairs that take us below the street-level, and through an old and sturdy looking wooden door. When Kaeo opens the door, I can hear a bell chime somewhere deep the bar, and my ears are filled with soft music.

It was a clean place, with wooden furniture, counter and dim lights. Well, it seemed to be the kind of place where you would drink and talk, rather than where you would drink only for drinking’s sake. But that was just fine with me, it was not as if I was going to get all smashed up here. No, this night was supposed to be a one for relaxation. After a worrisome day like today, it felt good to even think about sitting down, enjoying some alcohol and just talk about nonsense.

Hopefully Kaeo would just stay calm. I had no idea how that girl would behave under alcohol.

“Ah, Mama! I came with a friend!” Kaeo announced with a loud voice to a woman behind the counter.

This “Mama” was a rather beautiful, middle-aged woman who had very mature charm around her. She was dressed in dark red kimono, and her hair was up in a way that showed a lot of work had gone in it. The mole close to her lips was like icing of the cake. Yes, this person had the kind of charm who would work on anyone, despite this woman’s age.

“Welcome”, she said with a soft, almost hushed voice without raising her gaze. Her hands moved slowly behind the counter. Apparently, she was cleaning the glasses, what with the occasional clinking.

As we sat down on the bar-stools on the other side of the counter, I understood that the place was not really that big. There was only one room besides the one with the counter, and besides us, there was only one customer to my right side. Maybe it was a slow night, or then this was not that popular place. Nevertheless, Kaeo had said we definitely needed to visit here, and I trusted her judgment.

“I’ll have the usual, and this guy ‘ere…….he’ll have rum”, Kaeo suddenly decided for me.

“Rum?? Why rum??” I had to ask.

“Ehehe, ya look like a guy who’d drink rum, ya know?” she answered, shrugging as if she hadn’t really thought about it that much.

What am I now, pirate?

Well, in any case, I get my rum and Kaeo gets her……….red-something. I take sip of my dark rum, and as the liquid enters my body, I can sense a different kind of warmth from the one outside entering me. It’s been quite some while when I last just sat down and had a drink. After I left my hometown, I never stayed in one place for long, always drifting from one city another before I ended up here, on the other side of the world.

It’s funny. Here I am, about as far away as I can get from my old home, and I already feel completely at peace.

“Huhuhu……..ya got quite a face dere, ya know?” Kaeo chuckled after downing her own drink with one move. She then nodded to Mama, who began preparing another one for her.

“Hmh…..and what’s that supposed to mean?” I asked from the tanned girl while taking another sip from my rum.

“Nothin’ bad, ‘course. Just that, ya know, ya look’d like someone who, for first time in quite a while, can just siddown an’ breathe out…..if ya get what I’m tryin’ to say.”

“Oh, I get it. I can understand it perfectly.”

------------------- After all, it was exactly so.

I finally felt like I had settled down in this city, and thus, I breathed out.

“What about you?” I asked after a while of silence. Kaeo turned to look at me with her expression akin to question-mark, and thus, I continued. “I mean, you’re not from here in the first place, aren’t you? You’re clearly Thailand-born person, though I have no idea where you picked up that weird Kansai-ben accent of yours……but, in the end, it means that you’re not from Japan originally either. In that sense, you’re much like me. So……have you been able to sit down and breathe out?”

To my surprise, Kaeo laughed out loud when she heard my question. Then, after taking a more controlled sip from her new drink, she nodded to me.

“Shouldn’t dat be obvious? I mean, I’m livin’ in dat shrine with ya guys nowadays. An’ dat is home for me, ya know?” she answered to me.

--------- Yeah, I guess so. I guess its home for me already, too. Even though it’s only been short time.

“An’ it’s not just me, ya know? Tsubasa an’ Rina too…..an’ I’m sure Lin-Lin too, in time…….they all feel like it’s their home already. The more memories a place gains, the more it becomes somethin’ yer attached to. And dat place………..has lots of memories in it, already.”

I’m quite surprised. The usually straight-to-the-point Kaeo is talking this much, and about a subject like this, too. It’s not often you hear her open up that mouth and actually say anything that meaningful, or not related to food. And this is twice today, already. Maybe I have judged her wrong before? Maybe, just maybe, under that rough and rowdy exterior was actually much more deeper thoughts than I had ever anticipated? Maybe she actually understood much better what was going on than she let out, fooling us with that idiotic attitude?

“Mama, give me a third one!”

-------------- No, I think she’s just drunk.

Well, it’s not like there’s anything bad in that. I finish my rum too, and ask Mama to give me another. She says nothing yet nods, and soon her careful and calm hands give me another glass of the liquid that is making my thoughts a bit more jumbled than before. I lean on the counter and let out a sigh of content, and then proceed to take a sip. The low, almost inaudible music that sang on a language that I had not learned from my parents drifted into my other ear, and out of the other. And even though it was such a strange, unfamiliar language that I had learned because of moving into a foreign country, it still felt like a language connected with many memories. After all, when speaking that language, I had talked with people who had certainly taken my life to a new direction.

That reminds me……………how long has it been since I’ve spoken anything with my native language?

“Hmmmmmmm?” Kaeo let out a strange noise beside me and brought her face closer, looking smug for some reason.

“W-what is it?” I asked, warning bells ringing in my head.

“Dat sentimental face of ya just now……yer thinkin’ a girl, aren’t yaaaaaa??” She asked with most annoying tone, poking the side of my face with her index finger. “What was her name ‘gain……..? Cynical?”

--------- If you don’t remember someone’s name, don’t replace it with something bit similar!

“That’s Cynisca, and no, I’m not thinking about her, or any girl for that matter. Unfortunately, a student living in a foreign country and who has constant problems with money is not someone who can trouble his head with such luxuries as women”, I reply somewhat dryly. Kaeo chuckled.

“Awww, whazzat? Ya really don’t think anythin’ even though yer surrounded every day by gals like dat, huuuuh?”

You’re quickly turning into a real pain in the ass, Kaeo!

“Hah, don’t make me laugh. Only girls I’ve met in this country are bunch of weirdoes I’d rather stay as far away as I can. First there is samurai idiot, then there’s ninja idiot, then there’s punching idiot, then there’s detective idiot, not to mention two China idiots who are after my life………” to emphasize my point, I drank the rest of my rum down with one swift move. “You know, I’m the type of guy who gets turned on by homely girls. The type that are down-to-earth and have enough common sense to not to get dragged into ridiculous things like this tournament. What I need is someone welcoming me home with a warm dinner, rather than someone asking me to come up with a strategy to beat whatever the next team is going to be.”

“Ya are startin’ to sound like an old man, ya know……” Kaeo commented, causing me to frown at her.

“Shut up! Is it so wrong to ask for something normal from life??”

“Nah, it ain’t……..” Kaeo said, and took a long sip from her drink. “……………But still………….poor gals………”

………………….

“………..What do you mean by that?” I ask. Kaeo shakes her head.

“Nothin’. Nothin’ at all”, she answers, and then grins at me widely. “But ‘nuff ‘bout that! Ya need to drink more, more!!”

And thus she ordered one more round from Mama, who silently made us new drinks.

Well, even if the conversation had been a bit weird in the end, this certainly is not a bad night. Chatting away, killing time, drinking rum……..it could be far worse. Yes, life could be far worse than it is right now, and that is why I’m quite content at the moment. Even with those two China-girls breathing down our necks, the things are not completely catastrophic. This is just one obstacle we have to overcome, right?

“Excuse me…….I couldn’t help but to hear you mention “two China idiots”, and I was wondering….”

Yes, yes, they are just an obstacle-Eh?

I turn around, facing away from Kaeo, to meet the source of the voice I don’t know. It’s the third customer who has been silent till now, and who sat on my other side. Right now, he’s staring straight at me, and for some reason, the effects of alcohol drain from my head the moment I lay my eyes upon me. Maybe it’s just my inner sense, but yes, something inside me yells that this guy is dangerous. Not in the same way as Tai Fu is dangerous. No, if Tai Fu was dangerous in the same way as earthquake is dangerous………this man was dangerous in the same way as a snake is dangerous.

“I would take that as that you’ve met with Ms. Chun and Ms. Fu already………….well, this was a fortunate accident. I was about to head to your apartment anyway after this, but now I can give this to you in-person”, the man says with amused tone and lays something on the table. “How do you do? You must be Mr. Leon Hart………..allow me to introduce myself:”

The man before me is one with Asian features, lean figure and hair so long and silky it seems almost woman’s. He’s dressed in black men’s kimono with a white cloud pattern, and under it I can see a skin-tight, black body suit that reached all the way to the base of his chin, making it look almost like a turtle-neck. Fingerless gloves in his hand reminded me of boxing, but those leather gloves were not ones made for fighting. And then there was the eyepatch……..

Yes. This guy had an eyepatch over his left eye, like some kind of pirate.

“The name’s Kamaitachi. I am the manager of the Provisional-Stable “Double Dragon” which consists of the aforementioned Feng Chun and Tai Fu. Nice to meet you.”

P-Provisional-Stable!? You mean, this guy is the manager of those two!? C-crap, this is not good. Kaeo is still bit too drunk to have realized that something bad is going on over here, and I’m left alone to face this strange bastard.

“…………..What do you want…..?” I ask from him, frowning and preparing myself for an attack. Even if this guy says he’s just the manager………..I can’t be too careful.

“Oh, nothing special. I’m just delivering this to you”, Kamaitachi says and hands me a brown, small envelope. I take it with some hesitation, and after the envelope has switched owners, the man smiles coldly.

“That is an official challenge for a duel under Tag-ruleset. The time is day after tomorrow. You people better read the information inside carefully”, he spoke, and I could swore he was laughing inside his head.

--------------- Crap!

Official challenge? Can they really do that?? There are no other people but those two and this manager in that team, so they shouldn’t be able to…………….no, wait, he said “Provisional-Stable” didn’t he? Is that some kind of special case? In any case, this is bad……….now we are forced to fight them if we don’t want to drop out from the tournament.

“Well then……” Kamaitachi drank the rest of his drink, which smelled so sickly sweet it almost made me puke. “I’ll be taking my leave. I look forward to putting my strategies against yours, Leon Hart……….hopefully you’ll manage to entertain me just a little bit.”

The man in black stood up and left his place, leaving me and Kaeo behind. The girl had just now realized something bad was going on, and she was staring intently at the brown envelope I gripped in my hand. Most likely, she had realized for what purpose that envelope was.

…………Yes, this was bad. Not only had they managed to get us out of our makeshift cover by forcing an official challenge on us, but they had also found a manager who seemed to know what he was doing…….no, by no doubt, the whole “Provisional-Stable” thing had been this manager’s idea. I got that feeling as I looked him. Most likely, this Kamaitachi was not interested at all about the quarrel between those two China-girls and us………he just wanted to battle against us. As I had looked into those gun-grey eyes, I had definitely gotten that feeling. Even when the door closed, I kept staring after him, replaying the information in my head and trying to figure out how were we gonna survive from this situation.

-------------------- But still…………..I’m kind of glad. And my blood is boiling.

“Kamaitachi? Don’t make me laugh. If that guy thinks he can outwit me……then he does not realize what kind of strategy I have in store!”

I declared that to the night.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

“S-sorry, Leon, I think I’m gonna-“

And the rest I didn’t hear, as Kaeo almost dived towards the toilet, and I could hear the lovely sounds of our Muay Thai expert puking her heart out. It seems that even with that appearance of Kamaitachi, and the weird mood that followed, Kaeo was still all-set for drinking. And this was the result. She was puking all that she had drunk into the toilet like a middle-aged salaryman on the Friday night.

In the meantime, I stood behind her, rubbing her back and trying to help her to get over it.

--------------- Let me tell you, this wasn’t exactly how I wanted the night to end!

Still, after a while, Kaeo’s stomach was not so upset anymore, and she got over this. Then, with wobbly steps, she begun heading towards her room. After a while of watching her try to reach the corridor, I volunteered to help her. And so there we were, two drunken persons, leaning on each other, trying to get to bed. To be honest, at this point, it didn’t even feel weird that I had been drinking out with a girl in this manner. Kaeo’s personality and way of acting……….it was just like if I had been out drinking with one of my male buddies from home. Though it might be a bit rude to say it, Kaeo really was more manly than many guys I had met.

---------------- Yet, when she leaned on me……………she did have girl’s fragrance.

Eventually we reached her room, and I helped her to get the futon out. Once our drunken Muay Thai expert had plopped down on it, I pulled the blanket over her, which caused her to giggle.

“Just look at me now………the feared gal known as “Howling Demonic Fist” in her homeland, gettin’ helped by a guy to bed……they’d laugh at me, ya know?” she said. I gave her a slight hit to the forehead with my fist and smiled.

“Just shut up and sleep already. You need to save your voice for your whining tomorrow, when you suffer from hangover.”

And with that, I left her room.

It was completely silent at our apartment. There were no sounds from either Tsubasa’s or Rina’s room, and both were probably already fast asleep. It felt weird, being the only one awake. Even weirder was that I was holding on to a letter that would make our tomorrow far less relaxed than today had been.

But it’s alright. After all, you need days like this every now and then too. When you can just stop worrying about things and relax, and maybe grab a drink or two.

I entered my room and threw my jacket to the corner, along with my sunglasses and shirt. Then, after switching to my pajama-pants (It was too hot for the whole deal), I laid down on the futon that I had already set before leaving. I knew, after all, that it was always a pain to do things before sleeping after you had been out drinking, and thus, I had made sure I could just head straight to bed. This would make my night much easier……..

…………But it would also allow different kinds of problems.

“Hmh…..? What’s this…..?” I felt something hard hidden under the blanket, and I pulled it away, to see what had been hidden there.

…………………

There was a single girl there, soundly asleep.

“R-Rina!? This is my bed!” I blurted out before I managed to control my voice. But she didn’t wake up. No, the girl continued breathe slowly in and out, like a small kitten which had fallen asleep.

In other words, my futon was slightly crowded right now, and there was not really much I could do about it.

“……Rina-dono was waiting for thee this whole time, de gozaru”, came a voice from the doorway. Maybe I was just too drunk, but I wasn’t even surprised. If the other one was in some strange place, it wasn’t a big stretch to say that other one was, too. “However, she fell asleep little after midnight, so I covered her with thy blanket, Shishou, and let her sleepeth there, de gozaru. Was this a wrong course of action?”

I did not face Tsubasa, but instead, gazed at the ceiling and put my hands behind my head.

“Nah……………..It’s alright”, I answered.

“I see. Then sleep well, Shishou.”

------- I swear she smiled before disappearing back into the corridor.

“This futon………is big enough for two of us”, I murmured to the empty room.

And soon I fell asleep.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“It’s on a top of another high-rise building………pretty risky if you ask me.”

“So? Is this the best you could come up with? I am disappointed, Leon Hart.”

“I really couldn’t care less what they call you……genius or not, you’ll still be crushed under my fists!!”

“Today, I shall avenge my brother, ne!!”

“…………..Shishou……..never make me worry so much again. Or I shalt not forgive thee, de gozaru.”

“The path of victory…………..it’s open!”

The Ultimate Gamble ~ Not losing to the wind!!

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Ten
The Ultimate Gamble ~ Not losing to the wind!!

I must say, after my revelation, the atmosphere during the breakfast became a bit more tense than it usually was.

“So…you’re saying the two have formed a provisional-stable, and now they have issued an official challenge against us?” Lin-Lin seemed more than bit worried. “That is…definitely not a favorable situation. I cannot even bring the authorities into this, since it would expose the Tournament of One Thousand Blades to a needles danger. Nothing the ones sponsoring the tournament couldn’t handle, but still, it would be best not to lower our standing in their eyes.”

I had to agree with this. I mean, sure, since they were illegally in the country, we could just use the police to capture our two enemies, leaving us with only Kamaitachi to deal with, but still…….I didn’t like the sound of that plan. Plus, I’m not even sure a few police officers could catch someone like Tai Fu.

“Well? What art the details of our match-up, de gozaru?” Tsubasa asked, while sipping her miso soup. “Surely they gave thee the information?”

“Of course, just look for yourself”, I said and handed Tsubasa the brown envelope I had gotten last night. “It’s on top of another high-rise building………pretty risky if you ask me.”

There was a bit of a silence while Tsubasa went through the information, and finally raised her head.

“What I find more troubling, Shishou, art the ruleset, de gozaru”, she voiced her opinion. “A Tag-style match-up….dost thou know what it entails?“

-------------------- Well, I can pretty much guess, but let’s go over the basics, shall we?

A Tag-style match-up is one of the few rule sets used during the qualifier rounds. Unlike in the Switch-type of battle we had already experienced, in Tag, the whole team did not fight. Instead, a certain number of fighters were picked, and they then fought in a tag-style match. This meant that one fighter from each side was fighting at time, and once one of the fighters in “reserve” called out for change, they would switch places with the member of their own stable that was “active” at the moment. In our case, this would mean that we would have to choose two fighters to compete against Tai Fu and Feng Chun.

It might be needless to say, but it really made a job of coming up with a strategy even harder.

“So, Leon….do we have a plan? We can’t go in empty-handed, ya know”, Kaeo asked. The effects of last night were still clear on her face, but it did seem that she hadn’t lost a bit of that huge amount of energy inside of her.

“This one wants to know too”, Rina chimed in. I crossed my arms and frowned, trying to wrack my brains into producing something that would help us.

Let’s see now. Our enemies are the prodigy of Shaolin Martial Arts, Tai Fu, and the heiress of the Feng Clan, Feng Chun. In right circumstances, I would deem it possible for Rina to win over Feng Chun, and if we pitted Lin-Lin against her, she would definitely be defeated. However, the problem was Tai Fu. That girl was really the epitome of everything Shaolin Martial Arts represented. Defeating and overcoming her is something that is really not an easy thing to do, and out of all of us, I don’t think there are any fighters who could defeat her in a straight-up, face-to-face fight. If we could just combine the raw power of Lin-Lin with the experience and cunning of Rina, we would have a path to victory opened to us, but since we don’t, we would have to rely on something else. And unlike with Feng Chun, there isn’t even an emotional advantage we could exploit. The fact that she was here for revenge could be used against her, but there was nothing similar concerning Tai Fu…….

“This art a match-up that mustn’t be taken lightly, de gozaru”, Tsubasa murmured. “If either one of those fighting in this match-up would fall, it wouldst mean our defeat.”

…………….

-------------------------- That’s right!

“Eureka”, I spoke out, catching everyone’s attention. Four pair of eyes were glued on me, and they were shining with anticipation.

Yes, they had realized that I had found a way.

…………….After all, we don’t need to defeat Tai Fu. We just need to defeat Feng Chun in order to win. This is a Tag-style match-up, where the defeat of one member of the stable means defeat of all. So what if Tai Fu is a martial arts expert? She still has to abide by the rules. And if we can aggravate Feng Chun enough to force her to tag in, we could stand a chance of defeating those two….!

“Rina!” I spun so I could see the small girl sitting beside me. “How long does the partner have to wait in reserve after a tag has been made? In other words, after a tag has been performed, how long does one have to wait till another can be made?”

Rina’s answer came like from a machine.

“Exactly 60 seconds, in other words, one minute.”

Perfect. That’s more than enough time to pull this one off. At least, in the way that I envision it. I put my hands together and finally let a grin creep to my face. The faces of the girls’ lit up as they realized the plan in my head had just gotten green light from myself. Yes. This is a risky plan, that’s for sure. Hell, if there was any other way, I wouldn’t even think about it. But…..but…..if this is what is needed for victory, then to hell with it! If we want to win, we have to take risks!

--------------- Nothing ventured, nothing gained, huh?

“Okay, finish up your breakfasts, girls”, I said as I stood up. “We’ve got a day of training ahead of us. Because tomorrow, once the sun starts setting…………..we are going to defeat the Double Dragon!”

All of them nodded, in unison. And that made me realize just how tight our stable had become in the relatively short time we had known each other.

But I can’t start thinking things like that now. For we have better things to do.

“Kaeo”, I called out to get the attention of the tanned girl. When she looked at me, confused, I flashed her my most confident grin. “We need to try something out. I think that “something” is going to be our key to the victory.”

Yes….

A plan had finally formulated in my head. And it was a plan that would either make us suffer a humiliating defeat, or a glorious victory.

Just the way it should be.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

As the sun started to descend on that fateful day, five figures could be seen walking down the otherwise surprisingly empty street. Those five figures were us, heading out to the scene of our battle. The place? A huge high-rise building, even taller than ours. That place’s roof had been converted into a private-type fighting arena, that had no seats for the audience. Yet, I knew that around that building, on other roofs and armed with binoculars, there would be many, many people watching us. Even as we walked towards the place, I could feel the eyes of people following us, like we had been a group of knights marching into a battle.

No…………..maybe this was more like how in western movies people always stare at the main character, as he makes his way through the town to the scene of the duel with the antagonist?

Not many words were spoken during the walk. It seemed that all the girls were preparing for the up-and-coming fight in their own way. This was because I had yet to reveal who I was going to choose into our team of fighters that would participate in the Tag-match. For few reasons, I want to keep all the cards face down until the very end when the enemy would put all in, and then I would be able to reveal the cards that would either prove to be a dud, or a royal flush.

………….Of course, I was hoping for the latter.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but the fact that our footfalls seemed to match almost perfectly really created an image that we were heading to war. And it must have not helped that the girls around me were all staring in the distance, to the building ahead of us, with a determined expression. They knew this fight would be a big one, one that would most likely shape of what would become of The Lionhearts. And thus, they were ready to also bet everything they had into this one moment, into this one fight. We carried our ambitions in our hearts and our dreams in our backs. And as long as we were standing, I knew that none of us would give up on them.

--------------------- Seriously, this must be one of those moments in real life that would definitely need slow-motion.

It did not take us that long to arrive to the root of the building. It towered ahead us like some kind of giant, as if to block the path between us and the treasure, like in fantasy books. But we could not let something like that intimidate us. No, we would have to march on, and not look back. And I knew none of the girls would let something like this make them feel second thoughts. No, we had already won over Back-Alley Rockers, one of the most feared stables in Minato Ward. We would not lose to the likes of Tai Fu and Feng Chun.

“……..Are you ready?” I stopped before the heavy glass doors that would take us inside of what must have been an office building during the daytime. Now? Now it was a war-zone.

“Yes, de gozaru. Thou hast put thy faith in us, Shishou……..and for that, we shall not fail thee”, Tsubasa said with a determined nod.

“This one is ready too, no matter what may happen”, Rina agreed, before adding. “Nin-nin.”

“A’right! Let’s get dis show movin’! I can’t wait to get even with dat China-idiot, ya know!” Kaeo laughed and cracked her knuckles.

“L-Leon-san, I still need…” Lin-Lin started, but as I handed her a small bottle of sake I had bought earlier, her troubled expression vanished, and she nodded to me, her face a mask of determination and her mouth forming an upside-down “V” shape. “Understood. There are laws that will punish you if give underage people alcohol……but in situations like this, I’m ready to overlook those laws.”

----------------------- Yes, we were all ready.

“Then there’s no need to say anything more”, I spoke out, switching my gaze towards the building ahead of us. “We’ll go in there, defeat our enemy, and come out. It’s as simple as that. After all, with such determined people…”

I turned my eyes on the girls, and felt some kind of pride swelling inside me. This was our stable. We were The Lionhearts.

“….There’s no way we can lose.”

“”””Ou!!””””

The resolute yell came from each mouth.

But as we were about to head inside, it became apparent that our little pep-talk had not gone unnoticed. Around us, people were standing and staring, in a somewhat unnerving way. Were we really that strange sight? I mean, yeah, the clothing these girls wore was not the most usual type, but still….

------------------ However, I was wrong. They didn’t think we were weirdoes. On the contrary…

“Go, go, Lionhearts!!”

“Show those bastards who are the top dogs in Minato Ward!!”

“Make sure the Double Dragon never messes with our best again!!”

“We’ll be cheering for you guys, so you better win!!”

“Lionhearts! Lionhearts!”

…………These were………..fans?

No matter how I looked at it, these must have been the audience that was heading to the various buildings around the scene of our battle. They looked like perfectly normal people, yet they were shouting the name of our stable over and over again, showing they knew about the Tournament of One Thousand Blades. But what was more important, was the fact, that they were cheering for us to win.

In other words, these people believed in us.

“That’s damn right!!” Kaeo’s sudden yell startled me. “We’ll beat the daylight oudda those punks, ya know!!”

And this was answered with a roaring cheer from all around us.

“Hey, manager!! You better make damn sure you guys win!!”

One of the fans addressed me, and after initial confusion, I managed to produce a confident grin, and point at the orange-dyed sky above with my index finger.

“Don’t worry!” I yelled out. “The path of victory…………..it’s open!”

It felt almost like an explosion, yet its true form was the amount of trust the people around us put into us. The feeling was indescribable, but I know I would never, ever forget it. Even if I would fall to the deepest pits of hell some day, I would, most definitely, remember this scene as clearly as I see it now.

With the backing of the cheering crowd, we finally entered the building, swinging open the heavy glass doors with one strong move. I went first, and on my right side walked Tsubasa. On my left side walked Rina. Behind Rina came Kaeo, and behind Tsubasa, Lin-Lin. Our entry must have been so confident that the clerk at the reception desk did not even ask anything about the weird people that had just entered. Instead, she just looked at us with her mouth wide open, not uttering a word.

----------------- Fine by me. Explaining all this would take bit of time, which we didn’t have.

I called down the elevator, and when it came down and the metal doors swung open, we entered inside. The elevator was far bigger than the one in our home, and it even had a glass window on it, revealing the scenery outside. While Tsubasa pressed the button that would take us to the top floor, I leaned on the window, and watched as the scenery as we climbed higher and higher. The orange, descending sun seemed to be closer and closer, dying the world below it with its color.

“Shishou…..hast thou made thy decision, de gozaru?” Tsubasa suddenly asked, and when I looked behind me, I saw that all of the girls were staring at me.

Of course…….they wanted to know if I had already decided the fighters.

“Don’t worry, Tsubasa. I wouldn’t go to battle if my plan was not perfect”, I reassured here, and it seemed that those words were enough for my “disciple”.

Far too soon we heard a chime, and the elevator came to a halt. The metal doors opened with a loud sound, revealing the scene of our battle behind them.

A completely open roof, with no obstacles whatsoever. Not even a fence to make sure the contestants wouldn’t fall off the building. The place was large enough to pass as a football field, and there was even some left over. At least, there would enough space to fight properly this time, and what happened last time our two forces clashed together would not happen. And while the whole roof was empty of anything that might have come in the way of fighting, there were two elevated corners, which were surrounded by fence, and had benches where the rest of the team could sit while the two in the “ring” fight it out. In addition to the bench, each corner had a banner with the stable’s emblem on it. Which meant ours in the western corner, and the emblem of Double Dragon in the eastern corner. Their emblem was an intertwined dragons which had hold of each other’s tails with their mouths, resembling a double-Ouroboros.

After taking in our scene of battle, my eyes moved at the city that seemed to continue endlessly into every direction around us. I could see Tokyo stretch out as far as I could see, and it made me realize something. Even though we were kind of famous in Minato Ward, I was sure that there were plenty of other stables around, ones that were far better than us. However, since they lived in other parts of Tokyo, we had never heard of them. And we wouldn’t…

-------------- Unless we continued t win our battles, and attract attention.

That’s right. As long as we would continue winning, we would attract attention of more powerful and powerful stables, which would mean that in every fight, the risks would be higher. I know everything had felt really grand and final when we had been cheered on by that crowd, but now? I realized this was just one step on the huge staircase on top of that tower we were climbing.

Could we really do it? Could we really continue to win and win, until the very end? Even now I was not sure how we would end up. And in order to win this tournament, we would have to overcome odds like these every time.

This realization made me more than a bit nervous.

Until….

Workin' like a dog for the boss man
Workin' for the company
I'm bettin' on the dice I'm tossin'
I'm gonna have a fantasy

The familiar music filled my ears.

“Art thou feeling more confident, Shishou?” Tsubasa asked with a low voice. Without looking at her, I nodded.

“Yeah. Let’s do this the right way.”

We all raised our hands, and embraced the cheering we heard from the roofs nearby. And as I looked, I saw that people had gathered to the roofs, they were looking from open windows and from balconies, all cheering at yet another fight, in the Tournament of One Thousand Blades.

“And here they are, from Minato Ward of Tokyo city, and thus, defending their home turf against foreign invaders! Their combined weight is 196 kilos! Tsunemoto Tsubasa, Fūma Rina, Thunusakurn Kaeo and Seong Lin-Lin! Accompanied to the arena by their manager, Hart Leon!! They are: The Lionheaaaaaaaaarrrts!!!”

The familiar sound of the announced resonated in my ears, and I saw the man sitting by his announcer’s table, which was suspended mid-air by a huge construction cane. Apparently, the thing had been lifting some wooden platforms, but the announcer had hijacked it himself, and was now screaming into his microphone, as usual. However, there was another thing interesting about that crane…..

You see, on top of it, on the very edge, sat a familiar, pink-haired girl.

“So she really knows about this Tournament, huh….?” I muttered. Sure, I had seen her in the last fight, but I couldn’t be sure it was her.

This time, I was positive.

“Welcome, once again, to the grandest tournament of them all, here in Japan!!” the announcer’s voice screamed. “Tonight, we are here to see the newest favorites, The Lionhearts, duke it out against a provisional-stable that has just arrived from China! In other words, Double Dragon, which consists of two quite interesting members! First of all, there’s the heiress of Feng-clan, the infamous Feng Chun, whose skills with a jian are talk of the fencing world. And what about the so called Lü Bu of Shaolin Martial arts: Tai Fu?? Tonight, we shall witness them both as they are pitted against the young people who defeated the former champion’s of Minato Ward, Back-Alley Rockers!”

As we walked down towards our corner, holding our hands high for the audience cheering at our arrival, I could not help but to feel the tension that was soaring towards the sky like a space-elevator. But it was different kind of tension when compared to the one before: This was good tension, the kind that made me want to give it all I had.

And I was planning to. Oh yes, I was planning to.

“And not to talk about the managers of the teams! I mean, this is the first time since the infamous Gunkanjima island incident that we have seen one of the top managers of the today’s martial arts world: Kamaitachi! This eccentric mastermind from down south has definitely made a quite comeback today, managing a team of two monsters like these ladies, and challenging the newcomers like The Lionhearts themselves! However, they say that there’s always someone better than you, and tonight, we shall see if Kamaitachi is actually defeated by younger generation: After all, it’s Hart Leon, the man who was responsible from the downfall of Back-Alley Rockers! I can tell you folks, tonight’s gonna be a wiiiiiiiild ride!!!”

------------- Wait till you see what we’ve got in store, announcer. Just wait till you see.

As we arrived in our corner, we were confronted once more by one of those red-wearing referees of the Tournament matches. I wasn’t sure if this guy was the same that had made our match with the Back-Alley Rockers an official match, but it sure did look like him. On the other hand, all these guys look like the same so………eh, I wonder?

“Are there any question or confirmations you want to present before the match starts?” he asked from me while the girls were getting ready for their match, doing light warm-up exercises. In the other corner, Feng Chun and Tai Fu were doing the same, but Kamaitachi just sat on his elaborate chair, smoking his long, Japanese-style pipe, “kiseru”, and stared at us.

“None whatsoever”, I answered. Around me, the music that had been playing quieted down. “We can anytime you want.”

“Understood. We will soon begin the presentation of the Tag-members, and then proceed to the actual match. Have you chosen which members will participate in this match? Remember, the limit is two”, he asked from me, and once again, I nodded.

“Of course. As I said, we can begin anytime you want.”

“Excellent”, he said, and flashed me a surprising, dry smile. Maybe this guy was……the one from before?

After the referee had turned on his heels and returned to where the other referees were, I took a last, long look at the girls. Each of them was brimming with confidence, yet they hadn’t let it get to their heads. Sure, we had won a one big fight, but there were a lot more to come, and that was why they were proud but humble. And because of that, I, in turn, felt proud yet humble.

“Alright. Let’s do this, Lionhearts!”

“”””Ou!!””””

------------- Well, here comes the important part….

“Now, before we start……I want to request something from you all”, I spoke to the girls, and when they only listened intently, I decided to continue. “During the next match, I want you all……..to trust me. No matter what happens, I want you all to trust me.”

Well, maybe I could have made it sound less ominous. Most likely now I’m going to have to-

“”””Ou!!””””

--------------- Well, certainly not the answer I expected.

But as I looked at the girls, I saw all of them smiling at me. And those smiling, yet determined, faces told me: “Like we had ever done anything else”. And on top of that, there were Tsubasa’s words.

“The moment we wouldst not trust thee, Shishou…..we wouldst not be part of this stable, de gozaru.”

And that was enough of proof of their trust for me.

“Managers, please step forward!” Came the yell from the referee, and leaving the girls with a nod, I headed out towards the edge of our corner-area. Just like Kamaitachi, I put my hands behind my back and took the position meant for the manager of the team. These two positions were directly opposite of each other, and right now, between glares of me and Kamaitachi, stood only one brave referee.

“Team Double Dragon! Please present your choices for this Tag-team match!!” The referee yelled out and raised his hand, pointing at the direction of Kamaitachi.

Unsurprisingly, as Kamaitachi nodded for the girls, both Tai Fu and Feng Chun took a step forward, coming to the same line with Kamaitachi himself. As they were clearly visible for everyone, the black-haired man raised his voice.

“Team Double Dragon’s choices are: Tai Fu and Feng Chun!!”

The roar of cheering from the roofs around us almost echoed in the sky of Tokyo.

“Team Lionhearts! Please present your choices for this Tag-team match!!” The referee yelled out another time, this time pointing at our direction. And I knew, the time of decision had finally come.

But I would not chicken out from this risk. I knew it was big, and I knew that if this one backfired, more would be lost than just our right to be in this Tournament as The Lionhearts, but still………..this was the one risk I had to take. For the fact that this was maybe the only way that our current selves could beat both Tai Fu and Feng Chun together.

So stop the shaking of your feet, Leon.

Stop the tension of your body.

Stop the mad beat of your heart.

Relax. Right now, it’s all or nothing….

And I won’t be settling for nothing!!!

“Team Lionhearts’ choices are: Thunusakurn Kaeo and Hart Leon!!”

The Lionhearts VS Double Dragon
Hart Leon & Thunusakurn Kaeo – Tai Fu & Feng Chun

The silence after my announcement was so complete that you could almost touch it. Kaeo, with a determined, almost stubborn, look on her face had taken her place beside me, but even she did not say anything. Hell, the audience had forgotten how to cheer. Instead, everyone seemed to be just staring at us.

“Understood!!” Well, at least the referee wasn’t too surprised. “The first fighters may take their place! The partners shall remain in their respective corners!!”

When I heard that, I turned to Kaeo.

“You’ll be going first, since without a doubt, they’ll send Tai Fu out there first”, I said, and patted her on the shoulder. “Just concentrate on what we were talking about yesterday……and you’ll do fine. If you manage to pull it off…..then we’ll win for sure.”

“Don’cha worry ‘bout me, ya idiot”, Kaeo said with a grin, and touched my cheek with her fist. “This is a risky plan ya have here, ya know? Ya’re the one in more danger.”

“I know, but it’s the risk I’m going to take”, I answered sternly, before flashing an equal grin. “But thanks for worrying about me.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Like I had suspected, Double Dragons sent Tai Fu out first. This time, she was armed with a single nunchuck, instead of that three-sectional staff I had seen earlier. At this point, I was no longer surprised, since that girl could most likely handle all of the Eighteen Ams of Wushu perfectly if she wanted to. Meanwhile, Kaeo, who entered the arena too, had nothing else but the hemp rope that had been tied around her hands, like in traditional muay khat chueak matches. Two very, very different fighters.

As I eyed the situation in the arena, I happened to look at Kamaitachi’s direction. The man was staring straight at me, and that black eye was like that of a predator. And even though I did not hear him say anything, I saw what he mouthed.

So? Is this the best you could come up with? I am disappointed, Leon Hart.

-------------------- Don’t get cocky with your three aces yet, Kamaitachi. Wait till you’ve seen our royal flush.

While we had our own stare down, I could hear the two girls in the arena speak at each other, too. Tai Fu paid no attention to me. Frankly, I don’t think she even cared that I had been chosen as the other fighter. Someone at her level didn’t have to think about things like that.

“So, it’s you again, Muay Thai girl -aru! It’s great that I’ll get to spar again with you –aru. Just don’t think you’ll survive with nothing more than bruises this time –aru!” Tai Fu said to Kaeo, while swinging her nunchuck in a small circle in her hand, as if to warm herself up to the weapon’s weight.

“We’ll see ‘bout dat”, Kaeo growled, and took her stance. She wasn’t going to play around.

“Remember, you’re against a genius –aru”, Tai Fu reminded her, before taking her own stance, which was the one that most people who have any knowledge of martial arts are familiar with. You know, the one with the nunchuck’s other end held under the armpit, and the other in the hand.

---------------- I must say, it looked really fitting with Tai Fu’s China dress.

But more the two could not say, as that moment, the announcer started speaking once more. After all, the two were in their stances, and in their places.

“And here we go! Three, two, one……………………..FIGHT!!”

“I really couldn’t care less what they call ya……genius or not, ya’ll still be crushed under my fists!!” Kaeo roared, and lunged forward.

I must say that Kaeo did well to avoid one of the first and worst mistakes one does when fighting against someone with nunchuck. I mean, those things are so hard they actually break bone with ease, if swung with proper technique and enough power. That’s why blocking against them is really meaningless, as the only thing you’re going to get is your bones broken. So, what Kaeo did was exactly right. Instead of blocking against the straight down-towards-high strike, she moved slightly to the right, avoiding the strike. And a moment later, she planted a knee into Tai Fu’s stomach. When combined with the momentum of the girl herself, as she leaned slightly forward while swinging the nunchuk, the results spoke for themselves.

Tai Fu had to retreat few steps.

What filled the air after that was the series of high-pitched sounds that are easy to associate with nunchucks. Tai Fu kept using her nunchuk in a manner that was logical, striking from all sides, and never in pattern. After all, that would have given Kaeo another chance to strike at her weak point. And she too, knew that she couldn’t risk a punch from those hemp rope covered hands.

You see, that rope was like a knife when it was combined with the arms of a Muay Thai fighter. If a hit landed on you while the opponent was wearing those…….well, it would not be pretty. It would literally cut you. And that was something you did not want to experience, especially with a strike as powerful as Kaeo’s.

At this point the fight was forced pretty much into a stalemate, with both sides not wanting to take any unnecessary chances. Thanks to the wider space, Kaeo had now more advantage, and could utilize her body to the maximum limit. Other thing was the hemp rope, which made Tai Fu more careful than in the last match between the two. However, thanks to the nunchuck, Kaeo could not get in a punch, because of it broke any bones in her arms, it would be over for her. That was why she was forced to rely on low kicks that relied on her speed, and the machine-gun like repeating.

If there is one scary thing about Muay Thai fighters, it’s the fact that when they hit you with their shins, it’s going to hurt. And I mean really hurt. Tai Fu had to experience this after a moment had passed, when Kaeo’s footwork began to pick up pace. She continued to assault Tai Fu’s footing, forcing her to switch her stance all the time, and making her take unnecessary risks and leaning forward in order to get in a strike with her nunchuck. This climaxed when Tai Fu was forced to take two steps backwards and lean forward at the same time, allowing Kaeo to score a hit to her right shin with her own. The pained look on Tai Fu’s face told it all. She could probably feel a burning fire like a branding iron in her leg right now.

This was a mark for Kaeo to start her assault. She evaded the unfinished strike from the nunchuck, and turned her body around, drawing her fist closer to her chest. She could not score a punch, but she could use one of the other “Eight Limbs” of hers. And true enough, her right elbow came crashing down to Tai Fu’s head, drawing a bloody line to the girl’s forehead and forcing her to curse in Chinese. It was a clear hit, no doubt about it.

But there was a downside to it.

The nunchuck fell, and immediately, the situation experienced a turn around. Using the momentum produced by Kaeo’s elbow-strike, Tai Fu spun around on her heels, taking another style in use. She used her left leg as a lever of sort as she turned around, lifted with her feet, and delivered an open-palm, double-hand strike straight to Kaeo’s face. I could hear a nasty sound, and Kaeo was literally thrown backwards by the force of the strike.

----------- This was the field where the Lü Bu of Shaolin Martials arts truly excelled.

She followed Kaeo with two booming steps that must have left her footprints into the concrete below her. Yet another, this time straight-forward, open-palm double-hand strike was delivered, throwing Kaeo completely out of balance. Tai Fu’s left leg raised straight up, and her body arched like the letter C followed by her legs that made the letter I. It was one of the most memorable Chinese martial arts moves, and which later spawned the infamous axe kick. This kick, however, did not just take the leg up and down. No, in hands of Tai Fu, it actually threw Kaeo up in the air, and then smashed her right back to the ground, breaking the concrete and causing Kaeo to spit out blood.

Even I tasted blood, for I was biting my lip hard. But I could not call in a tag yet. Just like I had told the girls to believe in me, I had to believe in Kaeo.

Luckily, Kaeo managed to roll out of the way of the foot that would have otherwise crushed her chest, breaking ribs in the process. She got back up to her feet, but was instantly assaulted by Tai Fu. Kaeo send a punch straight to her face, but Tai Fu directed the force of the deadly punch upwards, leaving Kaeo’s body open. The girl spun, getting inside her defenses, and delivered a crushing strike with her whole left arm, pushing with her legs to gain more power. That was a textbook Baguazhang move called Zhuan Shen Zhang. And it worked, as Kaeo was once again hurt more.

The onslaught continued as Kaeo was battered up even more by palm strikes and moves that were like bursts of explosive power. Almost like dynamite thrown straight to her face. And if Kaeo tried to defend herself, with, for example, delivering a one-two elbow strike to upper body of Tai Fu, the girl in China dress just lowered her stance, becoming like an acrobat who seemed to glide above the floor, and then followed by with a strike to the upper body that was like a reversed waterfall.

It was hard to even look at. Kaeo’s skills were great as a Muay Thai fighter, and even though she wasn’t a complete punching back, she clearly didn’t have this match under control.

Tai Fu switched from style to style, stance to stance, creating a confusing array of strikes and hits from the whole spectrum of Shaolin Martial arts. However, what did not change was her mercilessness, and how she never left one sign of weakness go. If Kaeo showed one defenseless spot, she would attack it like a hungry wolf.

The worst part of it might have to be how Kaeo’s great powers were directed away from Tai Fu. As she focused on her punches and elbows, Tai Fu had an easy time forcing the strikes to miss their target, and deliver her own counter-attack to further harm Kaeo.

--------------------- I guess time starts to be up. Right now, it should be enough.

And it looks like Kaeo has the exactly same thoughts as I do.

Maybe the elbow-strikes and punches lulled her momentarily, but when the kick to the midsection was launched, Tai Fu was taken completely by surprise by it. I could see from her face, twisted in pain, that something could have been fractured by that one, precise, and painful kick. But, like always in Muay Thai, that kick was not the last one. Using the famous stance, Kaeo delivered three more kicks like jackhammer, and now, it was Tai Fu’s time to spit out blood from her mouth.

When the fifth kick was coming, Tai Fu managed to retreat, and she took some distance between her and the enemy.

“…..I’m surprised –aru. You’ve gotten better than the last time –aru”, Tai Fu commented, eyeing her enemy up and down. “Is it the fact that you can perform all your moves without being hindered by the space –aru? Or did you just get stronger –aru?”

“Who knows? An’ cares, for dat matter!” Kaeo laughed, wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth. She then proceeded to crack her knuckles, as if to test her hands. After that, she made a few, very fast punches to the empty air, causing Tai Fu to snicker.

“Sorry, but punches don’t count as a long-range attacks –aru. You’ll have to get closer in order to-“

The words of Tai Fu were cut off.

Why?

Because she was suddenly thrown several meters backwards.

Tai Fu got quickly, but she was still in a shock from the strike from nowhere that she could only stare at Kaeo. And that proved a wrong move. The Thai-girl’s hands whistled through the air again, hitting seemingly nothing………

And the air exploded.

What seemed like a wall made simply out of air was sent flying forward by Kaeo’s last punch. It tore up the concrete below its path, and headed straight for Tai Fu, knocking the girl out of balance and sending her flying backwards. The shock must have been too big for her to get her reaction speed up to the normal level. But I can’t blame Tai Fu. Even I would be speechless for a while if someone just punched a wall of hard, rock-solid air into me.

“W-what was…….that –aru?” Tai Fu asked as she pushed herself up from the ground, trying to stop her legs from wobbling. “That is not……..what is that…..-aru?”

“This is the reason why they call me “Howling Demonic Fist”……or rather…..”Paungol Landas”…………THE HOWLING PATH!!!!!”

The air tore up the concrete once again, and another wall of pure, solid air was sent on a collision course with Tai Fu. The girl had to dive out of the way, and managed to barely dodge the attack. The path of destruction continued from the spot Kaeo was straight to the edge of the roof. In other words, if one of those attacks hit Tai Fu head-on, she could easily be thrown out of the building.

I could see why her eyes had gotten all tense all of a sudden.

“Ya really got it wron’, ya know?” Kaeo grinned like a beast to Tai Fu. “Most people do. They think I’m nothin’ but a powerhouse with eight limbs. An octopus, ya know? But they are all wron’…….I’m nothin’ like octopus. I’m someone who’ll get ya, no matter where ya are. In other words, I’m a demon: Hantu Belia. And ya’re my prey, ya know!!”

Another series of punches in the air. This time Tai Fu realized what was going on, and dived for cover. However, Kaeo was not left shooting empty air. Instead of punching only with one hand, she punched with both, and delivered a kick to the very end, causing for three smaller projectiles of “hard air” to shoot out, chasing Tai Fu. And the last one hit. While Tai Fu managed to dodge the first two, the last one shot to her shoulder, making her spin around like a top, and crash into ground.

However, I knew that Kaeo could not keep this up for long. After all, I knew how Kaeo was doing this show of seemingly supernatural power.

This was an idea that I had gotten when watching Rina’s fight in our match against the Back-Alley Rockers.

You see, Kaeo actually had a rather interesting technique of her own that she had developed. Whenever using the hemp rope in her hands, the amount of friction and heat generated by her hands was nearly quadrupled. And believe me, the results were almost scorching hot. I was actually a bit surprised that the hemp rope didn’t start burning whenever she punched.

In any case, that heat was how Kaeo was able to actually increase her range when using the hemp rope. This was because the air density increased because of the hit, and when she punched, that dense air was propelled forward like a bullet. While punching with the rope, in other words, she generated this sort of “ghost fist” that extended the range of her attack over of what she actually could punch. This was a devious technique that could catch the best of fighters off guard, and why she was nicknamed “The Howling Demonic Fist”. After all, those punches emitted a sound that was similar to a howl of a beast.

When I realized this, and put it together with Rina’s display of using heat to affect the air around her in the match against Black-Bara, I found a new solution to extending Kaeo’s power even further. The result is “Paungol Landas”, the Howling Path. By punching repeatedly, and with great speed the same spot, Kaeo superheated the air and increased the air density to maximum levels. This all was followed by the hit of full force that put the heat to other use, and sent the “wall of high density air” that was created forward, crushing everything that came into its path.

--------------------- A technique that allowed a close-quarters combat specialist to hit in the long range.

If there is one thing I’m proud of after coming to Japan, it’s the creation of this technique. It’s the technique that was created by Kaeo and me, and its purpose was to give her an edge that no enemy, no matter how genius, could ever expect.

After all, Kaeo had just turned around the “rule” that no person fighting with her fists could hit someone at long range.

A prodigy and genius like Tai Fu must have found the thought nearly impossible.

But as I said, there was a downside to this incredible technique. Those who you paid attention might have already guessed it.

-------------- Yes, the heat.

The heat was slowly scorching Kaeo’s hands, and she could not keep up this technique for long. With the addition of the hemp rope which must have dug itself into Kaeo’s skin by now, I was sure that each “Air-wall” that Kaeo launched must have caused immense pain to her hands. It was not yet completely perfect technique, and it would definitely need some long-time testing to find how to get out of the flaw that caused damage to the user’s hands. But right now, it was the only thing we got.

Like a gun, it only had a certain amount of bullets.

“Kaeo!! Give it all you got!!” I yelled out, and without looking at me, the Tiger of Thailand answered.

“Ya don’t have to tell me that!!”

The rumble of the air as it was shot forward and destroyed concrete on the way was incredible. Rather than a howl, right now, it was more of a roar. Roar of Kaeo’s passion that drove her to give everything she had in order to win against Tai Fu, the enemy that had made fun of her earlier by defeating her. The insecure feeling that had taken over Kaeo momentarily was transformed into pure determination that was emitted by her fists. Kaeo knew that she was no longer a liability. No, nothing of the sorts. Right now, she was someone who was the most versatile of all the fighters in The Lionhearts. Since no one other could cause the amount of destruction she caused, both at close and long range.

The Tiger Demon known as Kaeo Thunusakurn was now dominating her hunting ground.

“………..It’s time…..” I muttered. After all, even though she was dominating her hunting ground now…..

From the looks of it, her hands were starting to be so numb she could no longer feel them. I saw the blood coming from inside her tightly closed fists, but when she raised those fists, I knew they no longer felt anything. The heat and the friction were taking their toll, and sapping Kaeo’s strength.

But it had not been all for nothing. After all, Kaeo’s opponent, Tai Fu, was in equally bad shape. She was breathing heavily, she occasionally spat out blood, and from the looks of it, her right shoulder might have been dislocated. In other words, she was just as roughed up as Kaeo. The genius had met her match in a person who simply refused to give up and lose to her enemy.

And that was why…

“”Change!!””

The voices rang out in the otherwise silent arena. Mine, and Feng Chun’s. We both, at the same time, had deemed that our partner needed to retreat from the battle at the moment, and thus, demand a change. Both Kaeo and Tai Fu had been driven to their utmost limits, and they needed rest.

So it was up to me to fight against Feng Chun.

In other words, a girl who blamed me for her brother’s death.

Oh dear.

“Change: Thunusakurn Kaeo and Tai Fu! Please retreat to your corners! Hart Leon and Feng Chun! Please step forward!” the referee announced, and thus, we did as was ordered.

As I left the corner, Tsubasa gave me the last, very concerned, look.

I felt everyone’s eyes glued to me as I walked to the arena, placed I had hoped I would never have to go. I mean, I was the manager. Manager’s don’t step into the ring, we support and guide our team from the side of the ring, and yet here I was, facing the girl who wanted to kill me. I wasn’t meant to fight in a place like this, the whole idea was ridiculous.

And just because it was ridiculous……it would work.

I had to believe in that.

“………I have no idea what you’re thinking, ne”, Feng Chun spoke to me as we approached our positions. “But I will make sure this is the last stupid thing you’ll ever do, ne.”

----------------------- I really don’t like that tone.

Far too soon my foot touched the torn up roof in the place that was the appointed starting position, and far too soon did I see the referee raise his hand.

“Fight continues! Begin!”

The moment Feng Chun took a step forward, I took few backwards, keeping my eyes on her. It was on a pure reflex, just like a small herbivore being eyed by a large predator. And apparently, this made Feng Chun amused. She started to circle, and I was forced to do the same in order to keep the distance between us as big as it was already. I really didn’t want to get any closer to Feng Chun that I had to, and you could probably guess the reason.

-------------------------- The moment the chance was given, she would kill me.

I could not help it. Slowly, as we circled like to animal’s facing each other, I started taking steps backwards, taking me closer and closer to the edge, and lengthening my distance from Feng Chun. I kept glancing slightly behind me every now and then, to make sure I was not about to fall off the edge of the building. I could feel the audience’s yes in me, and I could feel some disappointed. They had expected something. Yet all they got was how I shamefully kept trying to buy time, while Feng Chun was clearly playing with me, waiting for the moment to attack me.

15 seconds had passed.

And when the sixteenth second passed, I felt my leg hit the very edge of the roof. Yes, I could no longer back down any further. I had to face Feng Chun from this distance……..and try to win.

Was the announcer saying something? At this point, I could no longer hear or care. My whole vision was filled with only Feng Chun, and her jian sword pointed towards me.

“Looks like that’s the end of the line for you, ne”, she said, sounding quite happy. “There’s nowhere to run, ne. You offered yourself to me on a silver platter, and I’m not going to let that chance pass me by, ne.”

Feng Chun had finally opened her mouth, and something in those words put some energy into me. Maybe it was the fact that enemy that had not spoken till then finally spoke to me.

“You really are pent up on this revenge thing, aren’t you?” I stopped moving, and so did Feng Chun. We now stared at each other from the opposite ends of the torn up roof. “Is it really that important to you?”

“Important? Important!? You killed my brother, ne!!” Feng Chun screamed at me, and the tip of her sword wavered. “Today, I shall avenge my brother, ne!!”

“……Really? Do you really think I killed your brother?” I asked from her. “Your brother died because of his own actions, not because of me. The fact that you refuse to believe that is because you push the responsibility of all of this unto someone else, isn’t it?”

I could see the girl’s eyes flash with anger. I was treading dangerous waters here.

“S-shut up, ne! Stop trying to act like you are innocent to all of this, ne!!”

“But I am, aren’t I!?” Now even I raised my voice. “Your brother attacked us, ran away, and got killed because of his own foolishness! Not because of me, Tsubasa, or anyone else! And then you come and attack us, blaming us of something we were not responsible of!! Is finding a venting hole that important!? Venting hole that’s due to the fact that all the responsibilities of heir have been passed on to you now that your brother is dead!?”

I could almost see a shiver run through her like an arrow had hit her spine. That meant that my guess had been absolutely right. This was not about her brother’s death. Well, no, it was about that too. But what all of this pretty much boiled to was the fact that Feng Chun was about to be crushed down by the responsibilities of heir she knew nothing about before, and which she now needed to carry on her small shoulders. And in order to ease the frustration and pain it caused, she needed someone to be the reason for her life’s sudden change.

And because of my poor luck, I had become that person.

“SHUT UP!! You don’t know anything, ne! You don’t understand how it feels to have you whole former life ripped apart, and replaced with something you know nothing about, and never wanted anything to do with, ne!” She screamed at me. “And you’re the reason for it all, every single bad thing that has happened, ne!!”

……………..

This girl……….

How come those eyes seem almost begging to me.

----------------------- And it’s because of that I answer:

“That thing has nothing to do with me. Go throw your tantrum somewhere else.”

Those words were the last straw. Accompanied by a yell that I would remember for a long, long time, Feng Chun charged towards me. And 30 seconds had passed.

The charge reminded me a lot of Tsubasa’s charge during the spar we had had many days ago. Well, it was not that similar, but for a moment, I felt a kind of déjà vu inside my mind. While Tsubasa’s charge had been a light-hearted one done during the practice, Chun’s charge was one powered by her anger towards me. Her form was gone, she no longer remembered any of her skills as a warrior wielding a noble jian sword. Instead, her rage had taken control, and she charged at me while screaming her lungs out, the sword dragging behind her, ready to rip into my flesh.

The distance had decreased radically. While only few moments ago it had been as far away as I could get from Chun in this place, it had been reduced to a less than the half of that in only a short period of time. Feng Chun truly was one of the fastest person I had met, that was for sure. Tsubasa’s explosive bursts of speed were completely different thing when compared to Chun’s great top speed, but all in all, these girls were very similar, when I looked at them in the right way.

And that was probably why Feng Chun’s charge had reminded me of Tsubasa’s.

“Die, Leon Hart!!” Feng Chun yelled out as she was almost in the right distance to begin her sword strike. Time seemed to almost slow down like in the movies, and in only few seconds, I made the decision I had been waiting for.

We were down to 15 seconds, and this was the time, my finale began.

Instead of standing there like an idiot, I dropped my stance, and pushed with my legs as hard as I could. I ran forward. Really. It was the kind of explosive start that Tsubasa or Tai Fu could have done, a one that looked almost like a martial arts move by itself, and in reality, was mostly followed up by one that usually came from below.

Of course, this did not go unnoticed by Feng Chun. And it was not meant to go unnoticed.

My “attack” was timed just to the moment that Feng Chun came into the striking range, which meant, on the other hand, that I myself was on the striking range. Combined with the fact that “charged forward”, it would look like a slightly clumsy attack, but an attack nonetheless. And that was what I was counting for.

Feng Chun reacted automatically to what her mind perceived as an attack, since inside her mind, her most basic instincts got better of her, and she reacted on reflex. Her left foot landed in an angle that was supposed to slow down her speed. That is, if she had been on the roof that was only a while ago.

It was thanks to Kaeo that the roof was no longer like it had been.

The parts of the roof that had been torn up were not actually random. I had given Kaeo advice earlier on what I wanted, and she had tried to follow my orders to her best abilities. And thanks to that, our plan worked.

What should have been hard, smooth concrete roof, was now just torn up rubble. Feng Chun’s foot landed on that, and went immediately out of balance. Her posture was no longer stable, and she fell forward. However, her momentum plummeted her even further, throwing her forward with enough power to make her slide over the edge.

---------------- Crap!!

I turned around by using all the muscles in my legs and threw myself after her. I had meant Feng Chun to stumble and knock herself out because of the small elevated part on the edges of the roof. However, I had not meant her to fly over the edge, and fall to her death, just like her brother!!

No way am I going to let something like that happen!

“Haaaaaaa!!” I yelled out and extended my hand as far as I could while I jumped.

My chest hit the roof’s cold, destroyed surface, but it did not bother me at that moment. There were more pressing matters. My hand reached out, everything slowed down again, and I tried to get hold of the falling girl, only to……

---------------------- Catch her by her hand.

………………………………………………………………………….

It must have been a weird sight.

Two enemies, one which had sworn to kill the other, in a position like that. I, gripping as tight as I could of her hand, and Feng Chun, unmoving like a doll.

I turned around so I could use the rough terrain as a foothold, and began to pull with all my might. Feng Chun’s body was so light that I had no problem of getting it pulled up, but the way she did not move at all did not help a bit. In fact, it made it harder to try to get her back over the edge. If she had helped me even bit in saving her life, it would have made the whole thing much, much easier.

And 55 seconds had passed.

“Contestant Hart Leon has the enemy at his mercy, and the enemy is unable to fight back!” I heard the strangely distant voice of the referee. “Thus, the winner of this match is: The Lionhearts!!”

I guess the audience was cheering. I guess the girls were coming towards us. However, that all seemed very, very far away as I continued to pull Feng Chun from the brink of the same type of death that brother had suffered.

“………….I’m sorry, ne.”

------------------------ W-what?

“…………..I’m sorry, ne. For me to lose my mind at the last moment, and for you to defeat me in such a simple manner……it is no wonder why Tsunemoto Tsubasa respects a great warrior like you, ne”, she spoke with a voice that was drained of all emotions.

“W-wait a minute, that’s not exactly-“

“It is my loss, I admit it, ne. I also admit that what you were saying, was……..true, ne. Everything I did…..as much as I loved my brother, I knew that there was a good chance you were telling the truth, ne. Yet, still, I chose to believe in what would give me the perfect enemy to direct my anger towards to, ne. If I had a quest of revenge, I could postpone my duties as the heir, and thus, remove that heavy, heavy mantle from my shoulders for time being, ne”, she spoke out, revealing her thoughts to me. “Your harsh words, and my humiliating defeat…….you opened my eyes, ne. I have been a fool, ne.”

“………I also apologize for what I said. But I needed to aggravate you enough for you to react this way. I did it so I could have a chance at defeating you…..but also so that I might make you see how things really were. I’m glad that it made both possible”, I answered her in turn. It was a strange, speaking like this to a person you’re saving at the moment. “Lying to yourself is one thing no one should ever do.”

--------- Trust me. I know.

“You are right, ne”, Chun spoke, and finally gripped my wrist tight with her own hand. She placed her feet against the wall and began slowly moving upwards with my help. “That is why, I…………….I………..Leon, I no longer have the will or energy to fight, ne. The moment I saw myself flung over the edge of this roof so easily, I realized how weak and blind my thirst for imagined vengeance had made me, ne. You made me realize this, and thus, there is something I’d like to ask you, Leon……”

The moment I managed to finally pull her over the edge, she also pushed strongly with her legs, causing her to literally jump over the edge of roof and back to the safety. Feng Chun hit my chest and made us both tumble down to the floor. I sat there, bit dumbfounded, and Chun half-leaned against my chest, yet showed no intention of rising up. I could feel that her small body was all out of energy……

In more ways than one, that one move had drained her of all the rage that filled so far, and left only the void that had been the loss of her brother and the new life that had been forced onto her.

“Leon…………..” she whispered my name, and when I saw something wet in the corner of her eye, I directed my gaze upwards, towards the sky, to not shame her.

“…Yeah?”

“…………..Make me your disciple, ne. Just like you’ve made Tsubasa. I now understand why an already accomplished swordsman like her trains under you, ne. The fact that you could so easily destroy all that hate inside of me……..is a proof of that, ne.”

How should have I answered? I was no swordsman, I couldn’t teach these two anything at all. Yet they asked me to teach them. And right now, when a girl who’s crying to your chest asks you to make her your disciple, could you really refuse her?

“……..Alright.”

I can’t.

The others arrived at some point, and they stared at the strange scene of Feng Chun leaning to the chest of a man who he had sworn to kill. All spent, the rage having left her body, Chun could not even lift her gaze to meet the other girls. Tsubasa. Rina. Kaeo. Lin-Lin. Even Tai Fu was there, staring at the one she had sworn to protect.

As I had suspected, Tsubasa was the first one to open her mouth.

“…………..Shishou……..never make me worry so much again. Or I shalt not forgive thee, de gozaru.”

From her voice, I couldn’t tell whether she was angry or sad. Most likely, she was both.

“Understood.”

There might have been cheering. After all, The Lionhearts had won this round, and the Double Dragon had been defeated. Even Kamaitachi had disappeared somewhere. But more than the victory of the stable known as The Lionhearts, this match was the victory of a single person. A single person named Feng Chun.

And it was her victory over the anger against the world that had taken two of the most precious things from her. Her brother, and her life.

I could not really promise her anything. I was not a person who could teach someone something. Yet, I hoped that by showing her the funny and enjoyable days that I had experienced with my friends here in Japan……I could give her a life that, while not the one she had, would be the kind she could enjoy.

Yes.

This match was the victory of Feng Chun.

The Lionhearts vs. Double Dragon
Winner: The Lionhearts

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“Ooh, that suits thee perfectly, de gozaru! Shishou, thou looketh dashing!”

“This one was thinking of this mask. Nin-nin.”

“If there’s somethin’ I love, it’s the festival food, ya know!”

“There are laws that will punish you if you leave these poor goldfishes here, without trying to save them!”

“Y-you think China dress is strange in festival like this –aru?”

“Those fireworks……..they are like blooming flowers, Leon.”

Flowers of Summer ~ Let’s go to the festival!!

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Eleven
Flowers of Summer ~ Let’s go to the festival!!

It was strange. I felt almost as if our kitchen had grown smaller. While I was there, sitting and eating my breakfast, I felt that the room that had been almost hilariously big for our small group of four people was now getting somewhat fuller.

“Thou art quite magnificent cook, Tai-dono. I must sayeth I admire thy skills, de gozaru.”

“Ai ya, that’s nothing, that’s nothing –aru! Since she’s a hopeless cook, I’ve just been making food for m’lady here for a long time, so I’ve picked up a thing or two –arune.”

“S-shut up, Fu! I can make my own food if needed, I just choose not to, ne!”

“There are laws that will punish you if you make such a ruckus in breakfast table, you know? So quiet down and enjoy this food that has been prepared for us by Fu-san.”

Well, I guess there were reasons.

Indeed, our odd “family” had grown since the fight with the Double Dragon two days ago. Since Chun had insisted that she wanted to become my disciple, and I had already agreed to it, the girls came to a logical conclusion that she should come to live in the shrine with us. And where Feng Chun went, Tai Fu, the ever-loyal servant, followed. Thus, our house had suddenly acquired two new members – And we hadn’t even gotten used to Lin-Lin yet!

Though there was one thing we made sure at the very beginning. That was putting Chun and Fu to sleep in the room furthest away from Tsubasa’s and Rina’s room. And that was mostly because of Tsubasa and Chun. Those two had started seeing each other as a rival of sorts, and the fact that they were both my “disciples” didn’t really help.

------------ But that wasn’t all. We had also made one more change.

“Oh, Leon-kun! You are our manager, so you need to eat enough –aru! Have some seconds –aru!” Fu said with a bright smile on her face, and handed me some more food from the frying pan. Today our breakfast was Chinese, as you could have probably guessed.

But as said, yes, both Feng Chun and Tai Fu had joined The Lionhearts. And I was pretty glad about that, since they were certainly a great addition to our ranks. Now, with total three reinforcements from China, we already started to be a stable of some size, although in order to compare to most of the bigger names around, like Velvet Thunder or NYX, we would need many new members. But for now, things looked just fine. And I had to admit, with seven people living in this house, it was certainly livelier than before. A welcome change, that’s for sure.

“Oh, stop over-feeding him, Fu!” Chun butted in as I was about to help myself with some more breakfast. “He’s going to get fat that way!”

“Nahahaha, it’s alright –arune!” Fu laughed and gestured with her hand as if to shoo away the thought. “I’d like Leon even if he was bit plump -aru!”

“I-idiot! If he’s going to pull stunts like in our battle, we can’t afford for him to be in bad shape!” Chun retored, which caused Fu’s face to gain expression that seemed to say: “Huh?”

“Oh, that’s right –aru.”

------------- Oh yes, as it turns out, in addition to being natural genius, Tai Fu was a natural idiot.

“Oh, and Shī, about tonight’s training session, I feel like we should-”

“We’re not training tonight, Chun”, I sighed, repeating my words for the tenth time. “Try to get it to your head.”

“Oh, I-I’m sorry, I forgot again Shī. My bad, ne”, she laughed a bit awkwardly, and scratched the back of her head.

Now that Chun was out of that whole “dark and brooding avenger” thing, it became quickly clear that she had actually quite energetic and bubbly personality, though she tended to seem a bit workaholic, at least when it came to training. Tai Fu told us she had always been like that, but to be honest, it was a bit strange to see her personality change so much. She was always eager to help, always ready to do something, and seemed to possess almost infinite amount of energy – though some of it was spent when bickering with Tsubasa.

Oh, and how she addressed me as Shī? That’s apparently a Chinese word meaning “teacher”. So roughly equal to how Tsubasa keeps calling me “Shishou”. And since she wants to call me that, I let her. It’s not as if any harm comes from it.

As we continued to eat our breakfast, I began to smell something somewhat unpleasant. First I thought it came from somewhere outside, but after closer inspection, I realized that the source of the smell was somewhere inside the kitchen. It did not seem as if any of the girls had realized the smell yet, so maybe the wind blowing from the open window just managed to direct it straight to my nose. In any case, I started eyeing around the kitchen, trying to locate the source. If any of the food had been left out of the fridge, they would have most likely rotten by now. In this summer heart, you could certainly count on that.

After some searching, I was finally able to pin-point the place where the smell came from. Or rather, from whom the smell came from. That’s right, there was a certain person sitting amongst us who was, quite frankly, smelling a bit bad.

And that was our dear middle-school detective, Seong Lin-Lin.

“Oi, Lin-Lin…..”, I started, and caught the girl’s attention. “When was the last time you had a bath?”

A silence fell to the kitchen, and Lin-Lin looked around her, seeing somewhat ready to panic. She put down her chopsticks and smiled nervously.

“O-oh, I don’t remember. After all, when you work as a detective, you don’t have time for such luxuries as baths”, she tried to explained, and added weird: “Hohohoho~” laugh.

-------------------------- But I wasn’t fooled.

“So, in other words, you don’t like baths?”

Lin-Lin’s expression froze, and she looked like a small critter ready to run away as fast as she could. Looks like I had hit the spot dead-on. Even with her ridiculous powers and skills as a detective, this brat was still in middle-school. And kids at that age, or at least those unruly-type as Lin-Lin, tend to avoid bathing. I’m not sure what the whole thing with that is about, but I remember it from my time in middle-school. It was with boys, though, but Lin-Lin was like a boy in many ways, so I guess it was alright.

“NOOOooooooo, I don’t wanna take a baaaaaaath!” came the scream of fear, but it was too late. I reached over the table and nabbed Lin-Lin from the neck like a mother cat, and then lifted her petite frame in the air.

“Okay Miss, it’s time for you get a good scrubbing, even behind the ears!” I announced, and started dragging her towards the bath.

What I left behind, was a group of girls staring after us with somewhat confused faces.

After I flung open the door to the bath, I put Lin-Lin down for enough time for her to switch into a swimsuit. Sure enough, I wasn’t interested in a body of a brat like her, but the protests of this girl were too much for me to go through with my original plan of just stripping her and throwing her into the bath. While the girl changed in the changing room, letting out noises of complaint, I prepared the bath and changed to my own swimming trunks. For the obvious reasons. Finally, I heard the complaints subside from the changing room, which meant two things. First, she had finished changing into her swimsuit.

Second: She was probably trying to escape.

“Don’t even think about it”, I announced, and chased after her. Lin-Lin had almost made it to the door when I caught up to her, and nabbed her by the neck.

“Noooooo!! I can do it myself, let me gooooo!!” she protested, flailing her arms and legs. Thank god she hadn’t had any alcohol, so her punches would not send me flying through the wall.

“If I let you do this yourself, you’re just going to splash yourself with some water, right?” I asked, and the guilty expression Lin-Lin made was enough to tell me the truth. “Thought so.”

I dragged the girl into the bath, and threw her into the water. It was relatively easy, as the girl didn’t really weigh that much. As she tried to get up, coughing and splashing the water everywhere, I rummaged through the bottles of shampoos and shower gels we had. After finding two bottles that seemed almost full, I once again turned to face Lin-Lin.

The middle-school detective was sitting there in the Japanese-style bath, hugging her knees and looking at me very sullenly. To be honest, when she sat there, wearing that old school swimsuit of hers, her hair dripping wet, she looked pretty much like how I remember Cynisca looking back in the day. Well, that is, when she and I had both still been kids. The nostalgia this made me feel caused a smile to appear on my face, which in turn got Lin-Lin to look at me with a complicated expression. She was like a dog that had been tricked into a bath, and what was now wondering if it could still trust it’s owner.

“Here”, I showed her the shampoo bottle. “Turn around. I’ll wash your hair.”

“E-eh? I can do it m-myse-“ She started, but I cut her off.

“Oh, just turn around. You’d just do a half-hearted job. I’ll make sure your hair will be sparkling clean and smell nice after we’ve over”, I said and walked up to her. “Don’t you think it’s nicer that way?”

It seemed she was still pouting a bit, but at least Lin-Lin did as I asked her to. She turned around, still hugging her knees, and allowed me to start washing her hair. First, of course, I applied the shampoo. While I was scrubbing her hair, she spoke. It looked a bit comical, since her eyes were shut tightly, most likely due to her fearing she would get shampoo in her eyes.

“What did you mean by….nicer, Leon-san?” she asked with a bit hesitant voice. I sighed, and poked her head, causing her to let out a small sound of surprise.

“Are you an idiot? You’re a girl too, right? If we’re heading to the Obon Festival tonight, you need to look nice and smell nice in order to attract any boys”, I told her. If my experience count at all, I knew that places like that were places were girls wanted to look their best. “So, in order to charm some nice boy there, you need to be so clean you’ll almost shine.”

I chuckled, but for some reason, Lin-Lin did not join it. It seemed that my attempt to get her embarrassed and little giddy by talking how she would go around breaking young, Japanese boys’ hearts today had not worked as well as I would have hoped. Instead of the hoped reaction, she had gotten even quieter. Had I accidentally touched a subject that was painful for her?

---------- Well, the mistake has already been made. I can’t do anything else but push forward.

“Huhuhu, cat got you tongue?” I asked with a stupid grin, applying bit more force on my scrubbing. “Are you trying to tell me something like “A detective has no time for such foolish things as romance!” or something similar?”

To my surprise, Lin-Lin answered after few more seconds of silence.

“........it”, she mumbled. I did not hear it well enough, so I leaned forward.

“What did you say?” I asked, with a bit gentler voice than I usually used. Maybe, just maybe…….If Lin-Lin was troubled by something, I could help her.

“…..That’s not it”, she repeated, and shook her head. She continued fidgeting with her fingers. “I wasn’t really planning on……..anything like that at the festival.”

---------- Eh? This is certainly a surprise.

“What, isn’t romance what girls of your age are most interested in?” I asked from her, and stopped the movement of my fingers. “At least that was what I thought.”

Lin-Lin chuckled a bit. That was a welcome sound, as it made sure that at least I had not touched a subject that had brought up unpleasant memories.

“Well, that may be true, too, however………those boys you mentioned…..I’m not really interested in them”, she confessed.

Hm, wait a minute, does this mean……?”

“Hoooooohh?” I grinned widely, and brought my face closer to hers. She seemed to sense my movement, as she opened her eyes, and was startled at how close I was. “Don’t tell me, Ms. Detective, you’ve already got someone back home, in Hong Kong…….you know, that “special” someoneeeee?”

I raised my pinky and showed it to Lin-Lin. A Japanese gesture that I had learned some time back. And sure enough, that, and my question, seemed to hit the mark. Lin-Lin’s face grew red as a tomato, and she hastily shook her head, uttering words where she tried to deny it…….only to finally nod and sink to the water of the bath up to her chin.

“………….Something like that”, she finally admitted.

I couldn’t help it. The chuckle I was trying to suppress turned into a full-blown laugh.

“D-don’t laugh!” Lin-Lin said angrily. “There are laws that will p-p-punish you if you laugh at the romances of others!”

I waved my hands, as an apologetic gesture. It had not been my intention to insult her.

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean anything bad with that. I just thought you were being cute”, I said, with a chuckle still escaping my lips. My remark, however, seemed to be enough to convince her, as she quickly turned her face around, allowing me to continue my work. “Hmmm……that must be one lucky boy then. How long have you been together?”

“W-we aren’t together”, came the bit stuttering answer. “It’s just o-one-sided…….at least n-n-now.”

“Hmm, so you have a crush on some boy back there? Nothing wrong with that. There never is anything wrong with loving someone, is there?” What I said wasn’t really a question. “Even from my meager experience from this life, there is no better thing than to fall in love. Well, of course, there is that someone loves you back, but yeah…….you probably get my point.”

“Y-yes, I do……” Lin-Lin answered, before falling silent. After few seconds, she opened her mouth again. “Leon-san, do you…….have you ever fallen in love?”

----------------- I am a twenty years old man, what do you think?

Well, I don’t answer so sarcastically, of course. She seems genuinely interested, so I owe her at least an honest answer.

“Of course I have. Three times, to be exact. First one……didn’t go so well. My second crush never got anywhere. And the third one…….well, lots of things happened, and we got separated. That’s about it. So yeah, I’ve fallen in love”, I answered truthfully.

“Three, huh….” Lin-Lin muttered, and nodded to herself, for some reason. After that, she looked at me. “Leon-san, w-what……..what do boys like in girls? I m-m-mean, are there any universal things?”

“Well, let’s see…” I crossed my arms, pretending I was pondering. After that, I finally raised my index finger, as if I had gotten an idea. “How about them being clean?”

Lin-Lin looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. When my words sunk in, she let out a giggle, which turned into a laughter that came from lips of both her and mine. With a swift move, Lin-Lin put her head under water, washing the shampoo off from her hair. After she re-emerged with her hair dripping wet, she looked at me, and gave me a brilliant smile.

“Understood. Then I shall act to your suggestions, Leon-san!”

Well, maybe with this, Lin-Lin does not see baths as a troublesome thing anymore? At least I guessed so from the fact that she asked me to wash her back, and gladly, I proceed to do so.

Hrrrrrrr-clunk! The door of the bath was swung open. And before I could even glance back, the bubbly, energetic voice that had become familiar to me during the past few days announced:

“Shī, I’m here to wash your back, ne~!”

------------------------ Damn you, Chun!

As the voice had already informed, Chun had entered the bathroom. She was wearing similar swimsuit as Lin-Lin, although this was clearly made for her size. Dammit, you idiots! Where do you keep getting those ridiculous swimsuits?? Are you telling me there was some secret stash of them somewhere here in the temple??

“Oh, these?” Chun asks, as she sees my glare. She spun around, showing the idiotic school swimsuit. “Rina happened to buy them as she was visiting a second-hand shop, ne. She said they were in the case we needed to enter the bath with you, arune.”

………………Rina………I’m kind of thankful. Yet at the same time, I have no idea what is going on in your head.

“Soooooo, Leon, about your back……….eh?” Chun’s eyes widen a bit, as she looks at me. Well, I guess she has the right to.

---------------- It’s not like I told any of the girls about the huge tattoo I have on my back.

“What’s…..what’s this, Leon? This is……tattoo, ne?” Chun asked, as she curiously poked it with her finger, and started tracing the outlines of the tattoo. Lin-Lin looked at me with a curious face, too.

“That’s a tattoo, can’t you see? A tattoo one idiotic youngster took back in the day, thinking it was cool”, I answered nonchalantly. It was not a big deal after all.

And to be honest, I preferred to just not think about it at all.

“This is a……winged lion, ne?” Chun asked, to which I added, although I was growing annoyed to the whole subject.

“Yeah, that’s right. A great, large lion with huge, feathery wings. The lion symbolizes courage, strength and will to overcome any obstacle. The wings represent the ability to remain free, both from ties of emotions and the other earthly chains. With optimism, it could even be read as: “Courage that allows you to go as far as you want, into the horizon of your dreams”. Of course, there’s also the negative version, which could just as well be: “Strength that is not bound even by loyalty””, I explained with a bitter voice. “It’s a tattoo which a young idiot thought to symbolize something great, but which ended up completely meaningless. Ridiculous thing, to be honest…”

If Chun tried to continue about the damn tattoo, I was planning on giving a rather sharp remark. However, to my surprise, instead of asking yet another question, the girl simply said “I see”, and put her hand on my shoulder. And when I looked at her face, I saw a smile there.

“Alright then. A tattoo won’t get in the way of washing someone’s back, ne? So straighten up your posture, Shī, I’m gonna scrub you clean for tomorrow’s festival, ne!” Chun announced happily, and sat down on a small stool, the same kind that I had been using. Soon enough, I felt the bathsponge hit my back.

We must have been a weird sight. Lin-Lin, who sat in the big bath, having her back washed by me. And I, sitting on a small, plastic stool, and having my back washed by Chun. It was like a strange back-washing-train of some sort, yet it did not feel that strange. Although we might have looked a bit ridiculous, it was actually quite relaxing to just enjoy bath like that.

“Hmmmmm”, Lin-Lin let out a pondering sound as she stared at her own hands. “I wonder why your skin gets so wrinkly after you’ve been in a bath for a long time?”

“Hmm, isn’t that because, you know, your skin actually absorbs water? Or at least, I think I’ve read something like that some time ago, during my high-school days….” I answered, looking back at Chun to see if she had any more knowledge about the subject. Chun nodded to my words.

“That’s right, Shī. It is indeed because the surface layer of human skin absorbs certain amount of water after you’ve spent enough time in bath, ne. This is because the outer layer is actually composed of dead, dry skin, which obviously absorbs water quite easily, ne”, she explained very matter-of-factly. “When the skin absorbs water, it eventually, and inevitably, expands, thus increasing its surface area, ne. However, since the underside of your skin is connected to the layers that lie underneath, they can only cope with this expanding by getting wrinkled.”

------------- Wow. You sure know a lot, don’t you, Chun?

“Hmh, that’s interesting”, Lin-Lin commented. Pondering with a finger on her lower lip. “I guess it’s bit similar in what happens to old oranges. In their case, it just must be that the water is lost, or something similar.”

Chun puffed her chest, clearly proud that she had managed to teach something to a person younger than her. Okay, you’re allowed to feel proud, but don’t do that again. You’re pressing your breasts again my back, you idiot.

After we had finished washing each other’s backs, we moved to the bath itself, sitting down and leaning to the wall. Each of us let out a satisfied sigh. Sure enough, if there was one thing that was universally a good thing, it had to be a good bath. And I had to admit, this big, Japanese-style bath was one of the best ones I had experienced.

My thoughts are interrupted by Chun, who lets out a small chuckle.

“Really, this is truly something, ne”, she suddenly says, making both me and Lin-Lin look at her.

“What is?” I inquire from her, and Chun smiles at me.

“All this. You see, Leon, we’re almost like a family, ne? Sharing a big bath like this, eating together like this, living together in a big house like this…….it truly is like a family, ne”, she said, and looked at both me and Lin-Lin with somehow content eyes.

…………….well, who would have guessed? This girl actually had noticed something faster than I had.

Now that I started thinking about it, we truly had become an odd family of sorts. We woke up together in the morning, had breakfast together and laughed at the funny antics of some of the girls, then trained together, ate lunch together……..our days had went on, and meanwhile, we had become a tight group, with bonds that had been made stronger with each memory we had acquired together.

Isn’t that just what a family is all about?

“…..Yeah, I guess you’re right”, I nodded, before looking at the girls with a slight grin on my face. “So…….if we are supposed to be a family, what is this scene, then? A father having a bath with his two rebellious daughters?”

I chuckled, to which Chun pouted, and poked me in the ribs, causing me to yelp.

“Not fair! I wanted to be the mother, ne!” she complained. And where she stopped, Lin-Lin continued.

“Yeah! And there are laws that will punish you if you make me the daughter just because I’m the shortest one!” she warned me, with a bit peeved look on her face.

“Alright, alright, I understand. Brother and two sisters having a bath then, that okay?” I asked with a chuckle, before leaning back and watching the ceiling. I let my body enjoy the warm water of the bath.

“But, really……..family isn’t so…..bad thing, isn’t it?” I asked, not actually meaning the question to be answered. However, Chun did answer.

“Nope. Not at all, ne”, she beamed at me. “After all, a family can share any moment, good or bad, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right”, I agreed and nodded to her.

“Okay, you heard what he said!! Come in!!” Chun suddenly announced with a yell.

---------------- Eh, what was that supposed to-

Hrrrrrrr-clunk! The door to the bathroom was opened again. And in poured………the whole rest of the gang that had been left out.

T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-this…….!!

“THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT WITH IT BEING OKAY FOR FAMILY TO SHARE ANY MOMENT!!”

My desperate yell echoed in the skies of Tokyo.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

“Sheez…..talk about a nightmare……”

I muttered to myself, trying to erase the moments of horror that I had experienced earlier this morning. From this day forward, I would make sure that whenever I got into bathroom, I would do so alone. Unless you’re a complete pervert, there’s nothing fun in trying to fit in a place like that with six girls.

Right now, we were at a small textile-shop just down the street. As you might have guessed, the girls had come here to buy their yukatas. Instead of going to one of the bigger stores, they had opted to use this smaller store, most likely due to the quite designs they had seen on display in the window. Right now, the clerk (an older woman who was also the owner of the place, apparently) was helping the girls to choose their yukatas.

And me? As any male who goes to buy clothes with a woman, I was sitting on one chair in the corner, bored out of my mind.

------------------ Yawn~

Might as well take it leisurely. It seems like this will take some time.

“My, my”, an old voice wakes me from my daydreams. “Are you not going to buy anything, boy?”

As I raise my eyes, for some reason, I see the old lady with gray hair and big glasses, and the one who happens to be the owner of this place, staring at me. It seems that she has left the girls alone for a while. Maybe they are trying their selections on right now, and the old woman’s help is no longer needed?

“Well, I doubt there is anything that would fit me”, I answer honestly. I even stand up and let the woman take a good look at my body. “I mean, I’m far taller than most of the males around here. There are barely any places around here where I can buy suitable clothes.”

“Fufufufufu, don’t be so sure about that”, the old woman cackled, and began slowly heading to the employees room in the back. It seemed like she had gotten an idea. “Follow me, boy. I’ll show you something good.”

As I followed the old lady in to the back room, I was greeted with a bit of a strange sight. All the walls around there were full of pictures of this one, clearly foreign, man with blue eyes and blonde hair. He was dressed like a sailor in most of the pictures, which probably meant he was part of the navy. And judging from how old the pictures were, he must have been around during the time when the sea-traffic was in it’s peak in Japan.

“That handsome young fellow there is my late husband”, the old woman explained. She had probably seen me curiously eye the pictures. “He was from the English navy, but after we met and fell in love in Hokkaido, he quit and we began our life here in Japan.”

I-I see. But, what does this have to do with-

“There! Found it!” the old woman announced triumphantly, and emerged from a chest that seemed to be filled to the brim with clothes. She was holding something that seemed like a bundle of black cloth. “Come on, come closer. Take a look at this.”

I did as the old woman advised, and got closer to take a better look at the cloth. As the owner spread it out, I realized it was actually a yukata, that’s design was clearly for males. It was also for a person with much broader shoulders than your average Japanese man, which brought me to a simple conclusion: This was the old yukata of this woman’s late husband. It was black in color, and white geometrical shapes ran along its surface. They seemed to be something like triangles that were joined together. All in all, it was a pretty nice-looking yukata.

“Here. You can have it”, the old woman gave me a toothy grin, and handed me the yukata. Needless to say, I was a bit taken aback.

“I-I can’t take this! Isn’t this a precious memento of your late husband??” I tried to argue, but the woman just laughed and shook her head.

“Oh, that man never wore this, he liked brighter colors. Besides, I need to give you something as a gift, after what you have done”, she said, and when I looked at her confusedly, she winked at me, and nodded to the direction where girls were changing into their yukatas. “Oh, don’t be so modest. You’re buying that whole bunch yukatas, right? It’s always nice to see a honest, resourceful man, fufufufufu~!”

----------------- Lady, I’m not sure I like the way you are laughing.

Well, it became quite clear that a “no” would be taken for an answer, and so I was ushered into a dressing room separate from the ones the girls were using. There, I shed the clothes that were one of the few I were using here in Tokyo. After all, I hadn’t managed to pack that much clothing with me as I left. Sure enough, I had grown quite fond of these clothes during all this time. Still, it was kind of nice to get some new clothing, especially something a bit more tied to this island. That’s why I felt somewhat giddy as I put on the yukata. It was different kind of clothing from anything I had ever worn before, but I managed to put it on just fine.

After I had managed to make sure I had put it on properly, I stepped outside of the dressing room, wanting to see the conclusion from the mirror.

“Ooh, that suits thee perfectly, de gozaru! Shishou, thou looketh dashing!” a familiar voice said with a hint of amazement.

-------------- Dondake~

Or however they say here in Japan.

What greeted was a sight that even caught me a bit by surprise. Sure enough, I saw these girls on a daily basis, and they didn’t exactly dress in most normal ways. But still, seeing them all in such outfits……..well, I would be lying if I said it didn’t make my heart skip a bit. Of course I had been reminding myself all the time in the past how they were the kind of people I did not want to get involved with in “that” kind of way…..but when I looked at them now, I did actually realize that “Oh, wow, these girls are actually quite beautiful”.

First was Tsubasa, her blue hair now down instead of that warrior’s ponytail. She was smoking her Japanese-style pipe, and smiling at me. Her yukata was a deep blue one with a red obi-belt and white pattern that reminded me of various flowers. Needless to say, it suit her very well. Next to her was Rina, and her yukata was a red one with obi-belt of lighter color and with pattern of geometric shapes in deep black. The lines themselves took forms that resembled Japanese fans.

On the other side, we had a rather embarrassed looking Kaeo, who scratched her cheek, seemingly bit uncomfortable in her new get-up. Her yukata was green, and it had white flower pattern. The obi-belt was yellow with a hint of golden. The overall color-scheme matched her eyes very well. Same could be said about Lin-Lin, who had a deep-blue yukata, with yellow chrysanthemum pattern and obi-belt of the same color. I wondered if the old lady who owned the shop had some kind of strange sense of humor, seeing how those images were always associated with polices.

The last, but not least, were our newest “family members” in the back. Chun had a bright pink yukata, with a pattern of extending, curve-like shapes in colors that varied from completely white to lighter shade of pink. Her obi-belt was red, and all-in-all, the image the clothing gave fit her very well. Then there was Tai Fu, who was dressed in another China dress, instead of a yukata. This dress was, however, far more elegant looking, and it was clearly from a better material. The color of the China dress was deep red, with golden dragons going across its surface.

…………Damn. Just…….damn.

“You……you look great, girls”, I managed to compliment them in a rather blunt way. “Great choices.”

“Huhuhu, Leon-kun in speechless in front of a display of such beauty as us right now –aru!” Tai Fu chuckled. “It seems we’ve chosen right clothes, then –arune!”

“That art right, de gozaru”, Tsubasa nodded, and blew a puff of smoke from her mouth. “’Tis seemeth perfect.”

“Does that mean you’ll be taking all these?” the old lady asked with a smile, to which the girls nodded.

“This one thinks there’s no need to look for other ones. They’ve impressed Leon-sama, so that’s enough”, Rina concluded things with a rather embarrassing words, causing me to protest.

“H-hey! Don’t word it like that, people are going to get weird thoughts!” I said, only have the girls giggle at me.

----------------- Bah. Do what you want.

Well, in any case, trying not to listen to any more of the foolish things the girls were talking, I headed to the register with the old woman. It stung me a bit use our money, the money we had earned from our two victories in the Tournament, to such thing…….but hey: I guess I should just think of it as a “prize” for us, now that we had come this far. Surely enough, we hadn’t done nothing much but leave the starting line, but on the other hand, that itself was a impressive feat.

And if I could do anything about it, we would continue those feats even later on.

After I had paid up, the girls approached me, all with smiles on their faces. Feeling like something bad was coming, but that there was no way I could stop it, I questioned them.

“…..what? It seems you lot have something on your minds”, I asked. Tsubasa smiled.

“Oh, nothing much, de gozaru. We hath just wondered, Shishou, of the amount of money t’was left from the purchase, de gozaru”, she spoke. “If thou wouldst be willing…..wouldst thou be willing to let us use that remaining money in the festival itself, de gozaru?”

“Yeah, that’s right, ne”, Chun chimed in. “We might have our yukatas for the festival, but the festival is nothing if we cannot enjoy what the stalls in there offer.”

“…….So, what, you are a group of greedy daughters, asking for some spending money from their father?”

There was a short silence, as the girls seemed a bit embarrassed, and tried to look at anywhere else but in my eyes.

But, even so….

“Well, I don’t mind. I mean, it’s not like a festival like this comes so often, right?” I finally answered. “Sure, I guess we can go all out tonight!”

“””Ou!!!”””

Came the enthusiastic yell from the group of girls.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

The night was hot and almost humid, and under the starry sky, and surrounded by countless people, it really felt that we were in a festival. And we were.

The festival we headed that evening was held in a local shrine. No, of course it was not the shrine we lived in, as that place had been forgotten by everyone else but those weirdoes I kept meeting during the recent times. Instead, we were right now at Atago Shrine, one of the most prominent shrines here in Minato Ward. It was on top of Mt. Atago, and I guess in the ancient times, it would have had an excellent view over the city. However, during this time of skyscrapers, the things were different.

Different was also the fact that Atago Shrine was actually hosting an Obon Festival. Usually the thing was hosted by local people, and the location as down at the river, but because it was the last year before the new millennium, I guess the biggest of local shrines wanted to show off a little, and it hosted the local Obon Festival.

Also, it seemed that in rest of Japan, the Obon Festival was held in different times. However, what was called “Shichigatsu Bon”, was celebrated here in Tokyo around July. It seemed a bit strange for me that the same festival was celebrated during different times in the same country, but on the other hand, there were lot of things I found strange in Japan.

For example…

“S-Shishou! Wouldst thou be kind enough and buy me some shaved ice, de gozaru??”

As you can probably guess, this question came from Tsubasa.

When we had entered the shrine after a long walk up apparently famous stairs, the girls had been so intoxicated by the merry festival atmosphere that they had scattered everywhere. Only Tsubasa, who seemed unsure whether or not she should join in, had remained, mostly because she had been unable to make that decision. I guess it was a good thing, though. As a foreigner, I definitely stood out here, and many people were giving me rather curious glances. However, Tsubasa acted as a kind of “counter-balance”, as there were not many people who looked more traditionally Japanese than her.

Thank god she had left her swords at home, though.

“Shaved ice, huh? That’s right, that’s a popular thing here in Japan during the summer, isn’t it?” I asked, to which Tsubasa nodded with her mouth shaped like an upside down V. “Well, I don’t see the problem with it. Let’s search for a stall that sells some!”

Of course, since it was a festival, we didn’t have to search for long. After few minutes, we were standing before a stall with a bit of a line. In the stall, a older man with funny looking face was selling shaved ice that came in four flavors. While we waited, I turned to look at Tsubasa, who seemed to be excited at getting the shaved ice.

Well, I couldn’t blame her. It was almost 30 degrees of Celsius out here.

“What flavor do you want?” I asked, causing Tsubasa to ponder for a while. However, when she turned to answer me, it was a bit unexpected answer.

“I’ll let thee decide, Shishou. Thou hast ne’er failed me before, and as such, I wouldst place the decision in thy hands, de gozaru”, she spoke, smiling at me.

--------------------- C-crap, what’s with her, all of a sudden?

Well, anyways, after a minute or so, we finally got to make our orders. I glanced at the flavors that were presented, before making my decision.

“One melon, please, and one Blue Hawaii.”

“Alright. Here you go, Nii-san. And to your girlfriend as well!” the old man laughed, and handed over the shaved ice as I presented him the money.

However, what he said almost made me drop my shaved ice. Goddammit, old man! Can’t a guy walk around with a girl without it being grossly misunderstood?? I swear, Japanese people are so quick to jump to conclusions!

I groaned in annoyance as we left the stall, but Tsubasa opted to stay silent. When I turned to look at her, she laughed nervously, a little red on her face. Or maybe it was the light of the lanterns just reflecting on her cheeks, who knows?

“’Tis an troubling misunderstanding, is it not, de gozaru?” She asked, scratching the back of her head. I nodded, snorting in annoyance.

“Really! Just what was he thinking??” I complained, before forcing myself to calm down.

------------ Why was I getting so worked up over such a small thing, anyway?

“W-well, in any case, here. Your shaved ice”, I finally decided to diffuse to the situation by handing Tsubasa her shaved ice. In other words, the one with Blue Hawaii flavor.

“Thou hast earned my gratitude, Shishou. However, wouldst thou explain…..why Blue Hawaii, de gozaru?” Tsubasa asked, sounding honestly interested.

“Well, that is………..I mean, I chose it because…….”

My words kept fumbling, and I could not come up with a believable reason. But there was no way I could say the real reason, either. And of course, that was……..well, a blue-haired girl, dressed in blue, drinking a blue drink……

---------------- The image was too perfect!

“Ah, by the way, do you know where Blue Hawaii got its name?” I asked, trying to evade Tsubasa’s question by directing her attention somewhere else.

“No, t’would be information I do not possess, de gozaru. Wouldst thou explain it to me, Shishou?” Tsubasa asked, while eating her shaved ice.

“Well, I think this flavor was named after a drink that carried the same name and color. It was invented in, where else, Hawaii, by a legendary bartender, Harry Yee. It was meant to promote the blue colored Curaçao liqueur of a Dutch distillery, Bols. The name was actually from a song composed by Leo Robin, an American composer, for Bing Crosby’s film, Waikiki Wedding”, I explained briefly, before eating some of my melon-flavored ice. “That drink, and many others made by Harry Yee did much to promote the current image of the Hawaii. Ya know, the tiki culture.”

Tsubasa made a “hoo” face, and nodded, listening intently.

“I see, I see. To think that such a history wouldst hide behind a simple thing such as this flavor, de gozaru…” Tsubasa muttered, clearly impressed.

I was about to continue a bit more about Mr. Yee himself, but we were interrupted as suddenly I felt a gentle tug on my sleeve. When I turned to look, the “assailant” turned out to be Rina, who was eating a cotton candy which was almost as big as her head. Needless to say, I needed to hold back my laugh quite a bit when I saw that.

“Leon-sama. Tsubasa. This one finally found you”, Rina greeted us in her deadpan manner. I smiled at her.

“That you did. So, is something wrong? Or were you just getting lonely?” I grinned mischievously. Rina, as I had hoped, took a little sulking face that I had long since associated with her getting bit embarrassed.

“Of course not. A ninja cannot get lonely”, she answered. However, immediately afterwards, she tried to emphasize what she said with: “Nin-nin.”

“I see, I see. Well, even if ninja cannot get lonely, does she have enough money with her to enjoy the festival?” I asked, my grin widening. And with that Rina’s face turned to resemble even more that of a sulking cat.

“…………………….No.”

The hesitant answer.

I chuckled, but instead of teasing her more, I nodded reassuringly, gave a glance to Tsubasa who smiled as an answer, and then looked back at Rina.

“Alright. Show me what you were intending to buy, and I’ll get it for you”, I promised.

On a side note, I had deemed it the best option to keep most of the money we had left for myself. This way, the girls would not go too crazy with spending the money in this festival atmosphere.

“Alright. Follow this one”, Rina said. However, she apparently wanted to make sure I didn’t get lost on the way, as she caught a hold of my hand, and began leading me through the crowds of people.

It must have looked like a younger sister dragging her older brother in hopes of getting him to buy something for her. Well, that is, it would have looked, if I hadn’t been a foreigner. Now, some people might have made troubling questions about it. Rina was short, after all.

Well, never mind that. We’ve arrived to the stall Rina had set her eyes on.

“This one was thinking of this mask. Nin-nin.”

Aah, yes, the masks that are sold on festivals like this. Usually, they were either faces of some currently popular characters in kids’ shows, or some mythological things. As I had read a bit of Japan’s mythology before coming here, I recognized the masks of Tengu and different kinds of Oni. However, the mask Rina wanted was, unsurprisingly, from the section where the masks of popular TV-show and comic heroes were. And the one mask she wanted was…

“………….Kamen Rider.”

Not that thing again-------------!!

Yes, there it was. That damned face that seemed to remind Rina of my sunglasses, and why she had once before stolen them in order to mimic her favorite hero. Needless to say, I wasn’t that fond of it. You could even say that that face had become something sort of an enemy in my mind.

And now Rina wanted to twist the knife in my wound!

“H-here….” I gave her the money, while trying to restrain myself. “Just buy that damn thing already.”

And so she did. Although her face was as impassive as ever, I could see that she was happy from the small twinkle in her eyes. However, when she put on the mask and suddenly became something like a small grasshopper-kaiju-monster, I had to question myself if this girl was truly the same one who had defeated Black-Bara by such genius techniques.

Even more so, when she suddenly thrust her right arm at a diagonal to her left, rotated it clockwise until the arm was fully extended to her right, then quickly pulled her right arm into her waist while extending her left arm at a diagonal to her right.

“Kunoichi, henshin~” She shouted with a monotone voice.

“Stop it! Even if you assume that pose, you won’t transform!” I quickly retorted. “Besides, even if you could transform, what on earth would you transform into!?”

But Rina wasn’t listening to me. Instead, she had already snatched my wallet with her dexterous fingers. And now she was purchasing another mask, which, of course, was another variant of Kamen Rider’s mask. And this mask, she handed to Tsubasa. Of all the people, to Tsubasa!

“Put it on”, Rina ordered, causing Tsubasa to look a bit confused.

“E-eh? Dost thou want me wear this mask, de gozaru? ‘Tis most troublesome…” she hesitated, but when Rina kept pushing the mask in her hands, she finally took it, and put on her head.

Now that there were two masked idiots, Rina turned to look at me.

“………….What?”

“Leon-sama does not need a mask. His sunglasses already suffice. Nin-nin.”

Raaaaah, don’t insult my sunglasses! I’m not some kind of superhero, you know! Don’t assume I’m going to do that idiotic transformation with you just because my sunglasses remind you of that mask!!

------------------- Calm down, Leon, calm down……you need to find a way to escape this idiotism, before it is too late.

------------- That’s it!

“Hey, Rina”, I said with a voice that was meant to catch her attention. “Want to try this?”

I had scooped up some shaved ice that I had been eating till then, and pointed the plastic spoon towards Rina. The girl stared at the spoon through the slits in her mask, before finally, she carefully moved it to the other side of her head, revealing her face. The kunoichi then looked at me with a rather surprised expression. Well, that being Rina, the “rather” comes from the fact that I could actually see some of the expression on her usually unmoving face.

“……Can this one really have some?” She asked, sounding surprisingly hesitant. Had she really thought I was just playing with her?

“Of course you can”, I assured her quickly. It looked like my plan was working, and I was about to divert her attention away from the mask. “Here, say: “Aaaa”.”

Rina blinked once. Blinked twice. And…

“Aaa…” She opened her small mouth.

I carefully guided the spoon into her mouth, and when she was “in the range”, she closed her mouth, savoring the taste of the melon-flavored shaved ice. The small mouth chewed on the shaved ice, and I pulled the spoon out. She then gulped it all down, and after few moments of silence, I heard a small voice.

“….Good.”

“Isn’t it?” I smiled at her. “Especially when it’s this hot.”

Well, at least it seemed that the catastrophe with the Kamen Riders was avoided, but there seemed to be another problem. When I turned around to look at Tsubasa, she had pulled her mask to the side as well, and now she seemed to be preparing for something, a determined look on her face.

“S-Shishou!” She suddenly addressed me. “Wouldst thou grant me my request, de gozaru?”

“Sure…..what is it?” I asked, a bit worried about because of the look on her face.

“W-wouldst thou…..let me taste that shaved ice, too, de gozaru?” she asked.

--------------------- Lady, you are holding your own ice in your left hand.

But well, I guess she just wanted to taste the flavor, since Rina seemed to like it so much. I scooped up some more of that stuff into my spoon, and then directed it towards Tsubasa.

“Okay, say “Aaaa””, I said to her too. And she did.

However, something was a bit wrong.

While Tsubasa waited for the spoon, she kept closing and opening her eyes, as if preparing for a surprise attack of some sort. Not only that, but her whole body seemed to have tensed to the upmost max, and she looked like she was about to attack me. All in all, her posture was not of someone who was about to taste shaved ice. It was more like an assassin ready to attack.

----------- Stop it, you’re scaring me!!

“Haum……………………..de gozaru.”

Well, the spoon finally reached its destination, and Tsubasa got her shaved ice. However, the moment she finally gulped down the shaved ice, she suddenly flushed deep red on her face. It wasn’t that cold, though. Maybe Tsubasa was just sensitive to things that weren’t your average temperature?

“So? What was it like?” I asked from Tsubasa. “Good, wasn’t it?”

For a moment, I did not get an answer. Not until….

“S-Shishou! E-e-e-excuse me, but t’was a taste so magnificent that I have to buy a one for myself, too, d-d-d-de gozaru!” Tsubasa suddenly shouted, and caught Rina by the hand. “If thou w-w-w-wouldst excuse us now, de gozaru!!”

And with that, I found myself suddenly alone in the crowd, as Tsubasa speeded away while dragging Rina behind her.

“Y-yes…..?” I tilted my head, looking after the girls.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

My next encounter was while I was walking amongst the stalls of the festival, looking for some new and exciting things to buy or eat. While doing so, I heard a familiar voice humming loudly. It was one of those songs that drunkards tend to sing when they are heading back home. You know, the type that you can’t recognize, yet you know it’s a proper song.

And, of course, the one singing was….

“Kaeo?” I asked, while finding myself surprisingly unsurprised. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The tanned girl noticed me, and waved to me wildly. She was carrying loads of festival food, and her cheeks were red from having drunk so much. I knew that it might have been a bad idea to approach her now, but it was too late. The muscular arm caught me, and I suddenly found myself in a brotherly hold.

“Leoooon!! How’ya doin’??” Kaeo asked with a loud voice. “Wanna know somethin’??”

--------------- Warning bells started ringing in my head.

“Y-yes? What?” I asked, hesitantly.

“If there’s somethin’ I love, it’s the festival food, ya know!” Kaeo announced, and then whipped a takoyaki from somewhere, and forced it down my mouth. “Eat up, eat up! Gwahahaha, I got lots of dese, ya know!!”

Hot-hot-hot-hot-hot-hooooooott!!

The damn thing was almost burning hot, and Kaeo had just forced it down my mouth with no consideration whatsoever! I could almost feel my tongue getting numb, and I was sure that I would not taste anything for quite a while. Heck, a panicking thought passed in my mind when I thought what would happen if I did not manage to chew this thing and gulp it down. I could die!

“Guaaaah!! What are you trying to do, you idiot!? Kill me!?!?” I finally exploded, after managing to defeated the damned takoyaki. Kaeo frowned.

“Huuuh? Whaddya mean? I gave dat takoyaki for ya as a gift, ya know!!” Kaeo answered, getting worked up. “Ya sayin’ ya won’t accept it!?”

“Of course I won’t!” I answered angrily. “Who the hell would accept a gift that was about to kill him! That’s like eating a rice ball, only to notice there’s a needle hidden inside it!!”

“Shut uuuuuuup!!” Kaeo roared, and whipped up another takoyaki. “Just accept my gratitude like a good boyyyyyy!!”

She attacked, trying to stuff my face with another takoyaki. However, as she was quite drunk, her movement was far slower than usual. Thus, I was able to dodge, and snatch a takoyaki for myself from the plastic carrier she had for them. Now, armed with this fearsome weapon, I directed it at Kaeo’s face, and tried to make her eat it. It was my perfect counter-attack, where I would make her experience the same pain that I had experienced because of her.

Unfortunately, Kaeo had expected this.

Chomp!

Kaeo had swalloved the takoyaki and my fingers at the same time, literally digging her teeth into my hand. Needless to say, this was even worse than the burning hot takoyaki that had been forced down my throat. I swear, that girl’s teeth must have been as sharp as those of a tiger. And now she was stubbornly biting my hand, even though she had somehow managed to swallow the takoyaki few seconds ago!!

“Let go, idiot!” I tried to order her, but Kaeo just growled something about “gratitude”, and refused to let go.

Of course, it ended as well as you could imagine, with me flailing around, trying to shake off Kaeo, and that idiot refusing the let go.

“W-whoah!!”

I fell to my back on the ground, and that finally caused Kaeo to let go. She, however, fell on top of me, managing to barely stop herself with her hands. Now we were there, in a rather compromising position, in the middle of the festival. Kaeo was breathing heavily, a wild grin on her face, and I had to admit, a similar grin crept to my face, too.

After all, wasn’t this whole thing a very Kaeo-esque thing to happen?

“So?” the tanned girl finally asked, glaring at me with challenge in her eyes. “Do ya accept my gratitude?”

“As long as it’s not hot enough to burn my mouth”, I answered, to which Kaeo chuckled.

“Alright.”

And then, to my surprise, the girl took out the final takoyaki she had, and presented it before my face. After she was sure I had realized what it was, she softly blew on it, clearly trying to a bit more easily eatable. And after she had blown on it a few times? She took a bite out of it, making sure it wasn’t hot. And then, clearly satisfied, she stuck the rest in my mouth.

“Good, ain’it?” she asked, while chewing and grinning at the same time.

“Yeah. Delicious”, I laughed, and did the same.

After that, a police officer came asking if we were fighting, but we managed to assure him that it was nothing more than a play that had gotten a bit out of hand. After the officer had gone away, me and Kaeo bid farewell, as the girl wanted to search for Rina. I continued my walk amongst the stalls, wanting to see if there was anything more that would interest me.

Surely enough, I had heard that in Japanese festivals, you could play lots of games. Something like shooting prizes, ball-throwing, stuff like that. However, I had yet seen anything like that yet, and was getting a bit confused. Those small books I had read about Japanese culture had definitely mentioned that those games were part of most festivals, yet I hadn’t seen even one. Maybe they were on the other part of the festival grounds?

Thinking that, I headed closer to the area where the “yagura”, the place where the bon dance happened, was. There, I finally started seeing stalls that were more promising. Men and women were hosting games for kids and adults alike, and it got me to the mood to try something too. However, before I managed to choose what I wanted to try, a familiar voice caught my attention.

“Toriyaaaaaaa!!!”

Umm…………Lin-Lin?

Surely enough, it was our dear middle school detective. With fancy movement and shouts that would have belonged to a action-packed martial arts movie rather than to a festival stall, she kept trying to catch something from the water tank that was next to one stall. As I got closer, it turned out to be one of those goldfish-scooping games that Japan was rather famous of. Lin-Lin seemed to be very into it, as her eyes darted from one goldfish to another, as she tried to catch them. However, I guess her wrist-muscles made things harder, once again, as she kept ruining the small “poi” which was used to capture the goldfish.

Even when I approached, Lin-Lin didn’t realize I was there. So I was forced to tap her on the back, startling her.

“Well, well”, I chuckled. “Our dear Detective-san is saving goldfishes, today?”

To my surprise, Lin-Lin nodded with a serious face.

“There are laws that will punish you if you leave these poor goldfishes here, without trying to save them!” she announced with a booming voice, causing people around her to look. “That’s why I’m trying to save at least one before I go home!”

Well, that’s all fine and well, but…

“Lin-Lin…..how much money have you spent on this?” I asked with a slightly worried face.

And as I expected, Lin-Lin’s expression twitched.

“Please don’t ask that, Leon-san……I don’t want to think about it myself.”

Well, it certainly seemed that even though Lin-Lin wanted to get at least one goldfish, her overdeveloped wrist-muscles were causing problems. And of course, taking some sake was not an option either, unless she wanted to punch the hell out of the poor fishes. The situation seemed hopeless, to say at least.

…………I guess it can’t be helped, huh?

“Oji-san, give me a poi, too”, I asked from the older man who was keeping the stall. As Lin-Lin looked at me with a surprised face, I grinned at her. “I’ll show you how it’s done. After all, I was born on the edge of water. I know how fish think.”

“L-Leon-san…..” Lin-Lin seemed to be moved, and after I gave a reassuring nod, her face lit up. “Y-yes! Please, do your best!”

“Of course I will!” I announced, and when the old man gave me the poi, I handed him the money, and took it. Then I turned to face my current enemy.

Now, let’s see….

Fish easily sense of anything that moves within water, or disturbs the water in anyway. That’s why it was important to actually make it seem natural that something entered the small pool. Of course, since Lin-Lin had been going crazy with her attacks just now, they were all in a state of alarm. Still, I managed to slide my poi into the water without alerting the fish. I held the poi with the unframed flat side up, as that did not scoop water. By sliding in the poi in a angle, I managed to reduce the water-resistance, and enter the pool “stealthily”.

Now came the hard part. I had to move my poi inside the water in parallel with the actual flow of the water inside the pool. This would ensure that the fishes would not sense me, and that the poi itself would not get ripped. By utilizing slow, yet firm, movement, I managed to close in to the group of Demekin and Anekin type of goldfishes that had gathered into the one corner. As I crept closer with my poi, I prepared my bowl in my left hand, as it was the most important thing the moment the goldfish left the actual pool.

“…..Alright. Here goes”, I muttered.

I would need to pull out the poi in an angle in order to ensure it would not rip the paper. Also, I would want to avoid the tails of those goldfishes. After all, one slap from one of those could tear the fragile paper, making all my work to be reduced for nothing. That was why I turned the poi slightly around, before I prepared for the attack. One moment, and then I would….

Lin-Lin swallowed, clearly nervous.

The old man stared intently at my poi.

And I……!!!

“Haaaaaaaaaa!!!”

Attacked!!

A splash of water! A poi, slicing through the surface of the pool! A goldfish, caught completely by surprise! It never knew what hit it, only that suddenly, the water below it disappeared, and it was suddenly thrown up in the air, carried by a paper net. And as the final stroke……the bowl! A silver trap, gliding through the air! With a perfect move, it appeared below the goldfish, and even though it broke the paper with it’s powerful tail, it could not escape it’s fate…..!!

Blop. A small sound. A sound of victory.

The goldfish had fallen into the bowl. It was my victory.

“You did it, Leon-san!!” Lin-Lin rejoiced, and caught me in a big hug. I stared at the goldfish that was still trying to get free from my bowl.

“Well, well. That was quite magnificent, son. Here”, the owner of the stall handed me a transparent bag full of water, and I put the goldfish in there. Inside the bag, it swam around, looking at the new place it had gotten.

“Here, Lin-Lin”, I said to the girl who was still clinging on me. Lin-Lin took the bag with a joyous face, but after she realized she was still hugging me, she quickly let go, all red on her face.

“T-thank you, Leon-san”, she said, keeping her glance at the goldfish. “It was all thanks to you that at least one goldfish was saved.”

“Ah, that was nothing”, I chuckled, and gave the goldfish a glance too.

Hey, wait a minute…..isn’t this….?

“This goldfish…..this is a Lionhead Goldfish, isn’t it?” I asked.

And yes, there was no mistaking that large appearance. This was not the kind of goldfish you’d usually find in games like this. However, when I turned to the owner to ask about it, he was suddenly very busy with something else, and could not hear me.

-------------------------- Well, whatever.

We left the stall, with Lin-Lin still being absolutely beaming of having gotten the goldfish. She spent almost all the time talking to it. However, when I said that I was going to go check the stage of the Bon Dance, Lin-Lin suddenly turned to talk to me.

“Leon-san…..thank you. That was fun”, she said, giving me a big smile. I scratched the back of my head.

“Oh, don’t worry about it”, I answered. “It was nothing special.”

However, Lin-Lin shook her head to that.

“Yes it was. I think Leon-san…..has a certain gift. A gift to help people who are in trouble, or troubled by something. Just look at us all. All of us had our own problems, yet you gathered us together, and made us forget the things that had been clouding our days. I think it’s a very rare gift”, she spoke, with a honestly ringing from her voice. “So, I think it was something special………or rather, that you are special, Leon-san.”

“W-what are you saying…?” I stuttered, because those words made even me blush a bit. “Don’t you think you’re exagger-“

“No, I’m not”, Lin-Lin said firmly. Once again, her bossy nature shone through a bit. However, after that, she winked at me, and smiled. “Just trust my word with this, okay?”

And with that, and a goodbye, the girl left, leaving me more than a bit flustered on my cheeks.

-------------------- Geez! What was up with today’s middle schoolers??

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

My feet finally took me to the actual stage of the Bon dance. There, quite many people had gathered, as there had been an announcement just now, which announced the start of the Bon dance. I saw as the people gathered into rings around the yagura itself, while four rather young women were starting the actual song. As expected, it was the “Tokyo Ondo”, which seemed to be the most popular choice here in Tokyo, for obvious reasons. There were few men who played the various instruments, like the big drums, but these four girls seemed to be the center of the attention. Maybe they were rather popular singers, or something? In any case, I kind of liked their voices, and I had to admit, the tune of the song was catchy. A very different when compared to the songs associated with festivals in my home country.

The dance itself was a bit confusing, but after looking at it for a while, I was starting to get a hang of it. Not that I was planning on to go dancing myself, no. It consisted of arm motions that went from one side to another, and few different types of claps that happened in the middle. It was a rather hypnotic thing to look, all-in-all. Especially when a lot of people did it in almost perfect unison.

However, even amongst that hypnotic dance, there was a one person that caught my eye in the crowd that stood around the stage, watching the dance. That being the only person in this whole place who actually wore a cheongsam.

“Fu!” I called out to her, and when she perked up, wondering who was saying her name, waved and yelled again. “Fu! Over here!”

“Ai ya, ai ya, Leon-kun!” Tai Fu said with a bit goofy smile, and scratched the back of her head. “You found me - aru.”

“What, were you trying to hide?” I asked from her, with a bit of a grin. However, Tai Fu made an unsure nod.

“Well, after coming here, I began feeling like I was definitely in wrong clothing –aru” she explained, looking a bit troubled. “So I tried to hide here, where there was most crowd –aru.”

I could not to help but to sigh.

“Now look, Fu…” I started, but couldn’t say any more, as Tai Fu spun around, and showed me her figure. It was clear that she wanted to get my opinion on her attire, but I could not help but to have my eyes wander to silky-looking skin as her leg peeked from inside the dress, or her slender arms that still produced amazing power.

------------------------- C-crap! What am I thinking about this idiot!?

“Y-you think China dress is strange in festival like this –aru?” Fu asked, scratching her black hair, once again. I shook my head strongly.

“Of course not”, I answered firmly. “You’re just thinking about it too much. Nobody is going to chase you out of here even though you’re wearing an attire like that.”

To this, Tai Fu laughed, seemingly now on a more positive mood.

“Good! I thought it might be the case, but it seems that even idiots can think too much –aru”, she said, and laughed again. I chuckled with her, and nodded, approvingly.

“That’s right. Now quit staying on the edges like this, and enjoy the festival.”

To my surprise, Tai Fu didn’t give a spirited answer, however. Instead, she fidgeted a bit, giving occasional glances to the place where the Bon dance was happening. It was becoming quite clear what she wanted to do, and I quite easily guessed the reason why she didn’t do it, however.

“……Let me guess. You want to go take part in that dance, but you don’t know how to dance the Bon dance?” I asked.

“Tehehe~, that’s right –aru”, Fu admitted.

---------------- I knew it.

“Well, I guess it can’t be helped. Come over here, I’ll teach you. I think I picked the most important things about it already”, I said, and ushered Fu so that she was standing in front of me, with her back facing to me. Then I took a hold of her hands gently, and began guiding her.

“Alright, first the hands go in. Then you move them out, and clap, and once again in. Lift them, bring them back, take a step back, and lift them again. Them bring them to your sides, and bend them towards the sky. And then a step forward…”

We must have been a weird sight. A foreign young man in a male’s yukata, teaching a clearly Chinese girl in a cheongsam to dance the Bon dance. Still, I don’t think anyone minded. The more I had been on this festival, the more had I felt how welcoming it had been. The local people had not minded me at all, even though I had been a foreigner. More than that, they had seem to be genuinely curious, and had asked me a lot of questions as I had went from stall to another. Some of them had even come to talk to me as I walking around.

……………….but still, why am I getting a bit flustered? I mean, I have been in a close vicinity of a woman many times before, and now it’s this total idiot, yet I………..I find myself a bit nervous.

It must be something I ate today.

“Ah, Leon-kun! I think I’m starting to get it –aru!” Fu laughed, as she repeated the moves according to my instructions. Thinking it might be a good excuse to take some distance, I let go of her hand, but it immediately moved too fast, and struck me to the nose.

“………..Let’s try that again, Fu.”

Well, I didn’t expect her to learn it that easily. While this girl might be good at learning different martial arts, I have noticed that she’s horrible in everything else.

After we had practiced for a while, Fu wanted to go out to try the real thing. While I felt a bit hesitant, the people around us told us to go try it. According to them, if visiting some place, it was best to try everything out, and apparently, nobody would mind even if we joined the dance. Thus, we headed out to the dance stage (with Fu dragging me from the hand), and joined into the outer circle that was going clock-wise around the yagura.

And boy, that lasted a while. The four girls that were singing on the yagura didn’t seem to tire at all, not to mention to the men who played the instruments. Meanwhile, the dancers around the yagura kept changing on a decent speed, as people started getting tired and a bit exhausted. However, it seemed that Tai Fu had decided that we would not lose to the performers, and stubbornly stayed in the ring of dancers, forcing me to stay there too. It was one of the worst places where anyone’s sense of competition could awaken, and with Tai Fu, I could not help to wonder that I had gotten myself into a big trouble.

…………….

I think we were there for about an hour.

After we “retreated”, we were both breathing heavily, and our arms hurt a bit from all the waving we had done. It was like I had been lifting weights for a long time. Even Fu seemed to be bit out of breath, and she kept leaning on me while laughing. It seemed that she had had a good time, and at least from that, I was glad. After all, wasn’t it the meaning of a festival to enjoy it?

“Huhahaha~”, Fu laughed when we finally got to a bit more secluded place. “That was fun –aru! I never thought dancing in Japanese festivals would be like this –aru!”

I had to admit, I had had fun too. So, when we finally sat down to a bench, side-by-side, even I laughed. Fu looked at me with a wide grin on his face.

“Thanks, Leon-kun. If you hadn’t come, I guess I would have just stayed in the shadows for the rest of this festival –aru”, Fu said to me. Then, as if she had gotten a great idea, she snapped her fingers. “Oh, now I know –aru! Stay still!”

And before I could react, Fu brought her face closer…

------------------ And gave me a peck on the cheek.

“W-w-what are you doing, you idiot!?” I asked, hastily getting some distance between us. However, instead of sharing my current emotions, Fu just looked confused, and tilted her head.

“Hmh? You said earlier we’re like a family, right? Then isn’t this a good way to thank the other family members –aru?” she asked, sounding completely oblivious to the other things that one could think about what she had just done.

C-calm down, Leon, calm down…..that idiot wouldn’t know what “affection” was even if it performed a Bon dance before her, while wearing a toga! There’s no reason to be afraid that she actually meant anything more than what she said with that kiss. Calm down, just calm down……you’ve gotten out of situations more difficult than this. If you can awaken a wrath of some Honor Guard Captain in Kyoto and survive, this is nothing for you!!

“T-that’s right. It’s nothing at all. There’s nothing strange about that, no”, I quickly answered, and stood up from the bench. Even so, I had to get a little breather. And from the looks of it, staying with Fu would be more than a bit dangerous.

In many ways…

“Oh yeah, Fu?” I looked at the girl. “Do you know here Chun went? I haven’t seen her for the whole time we’ve been here…”

“Oh, M’lady?” Fu asked, pondered a bit, and then nodded, as if remembering. “She said she wanted to take a little break some time ago, and headed for that small lake in the temple grounds –aru.”

“I see. Well, I’ll go look for her there. Thanks!” I said, and then bid farewell to Fu, who kept staring after me after my quick escape.

------------------------- Well, can you blame me for getting out of there so fast?

The small lake in the grounds of the shrine was in southern part of the place, that much I remembered. As I kept walking in the crowd of people, I tried to look for signs that would point me in the right direction. However, since they could not be found, I was forced to ask help from the people around me. A couple of young kids, who seemed to be twins, told me that was I close by, and where I would need to go in order to get to the small lake. Or rather, the slightly more dependable-looking girl with twin-tails told me, while the short-haired one (who was named Tsuka-something) just stared at me while hiding behind her sister’s back. I thanked the girls from the information, and headed towards my destination. It took me only few minutes to get the lake to my sight, and once I saw it, I picked up my pace. Around me, the people seemed to be heading towards the direction where the yagura was, as most likely, the festival was beginning to end. At least, judging from the songs that the four girls on the stage sung now. The up-beat songs for the Bon dances had changed into a slower love-song, one that I had heard few times before in the radio. Although in radio, it was sung by a man.

“Nakashita koto mo aru tsumetaku shitemo nao
Yorisou kimochi ga areba ii no sa
Ore ni shite mirya kore de saigo no lady
Erii my love so sweet”

On my way to the lake, something caught my eye in a stall held by a younger woman. After slight consideration, I bought it. It wasn’t that expensive, after all. When the money and the item had exchanged owner, I continued looking for Chun.

As I arrived to the lake, it did not take me long to actually locate Chun. The recognizable pink kimono, and the brown hair were not far away from where I had arrived. I slowed my light run to a walk, and headed over to her. She heard me arriving, and turned around, seemingly slightly surprised to see me here. I had to admit, Chun looked rather picturesque there, on the shore of a small lake that reflected the moonlight. It also help that I still could hear the words of the song being sung on the yagura.

“Waratte motto baby mujaki ni on my mind
Utsutte motto baby suteki ni in your sight
Sasoi namida no hi ga ochiru
Erii my love so sweet
Erii my love so sweet”

“Yo”, I greeted her, and walked to the place next to her. “Did you have fun today?”

“Of course, ne”, Chun answered, giving me a bright smile. “I had my expectations about Japanese festivals, but this just goes to show how wrong one can sometimes be, ne.”

“Well, that’s good. It would have been shame if you were the only one of us who didn’t manage to have a good time”, I replied, to which Chun chuckled. “So, what did you do today?”

“Oh, I did lots of things!” Chun suddenly took a pose like she was shooting with a gun. “At first, I tried one of those shooting games! Then I went to eat some yakisoba, followed by a game of throwing the ball! After that, it was time for a karaoke contest, and I game second! And then, and then…!!”

Every time Chun described some new thing she had tried, she took a pose that was related to that activity somehow. Even after experiencing so much in such a short time, she was still brimming with energy, and kept moving around like somebody had directed an electric charge into her feet. But I was glad to see that. There was no sadness remaining of the things that had passed just a while ago. The Chun that focused on living was vastly different to the Chun that was obsessed with revenge.

“Chun…..” I tried to talk to her, but as she went on and on about what she had done, she didn’t hear me speak. So I tried again. “Chun.”

“W-what is it, ne?” Chun asked, a bit out of breath. She just had spun around, and was now facing me. I grinned at her, and put my hand in my back pocket.

“I bought something for you. Here.”

And with that, I took the thing I had bought, and put it in Chun’s hair like an ornament.

Sure enough, those small, colorful pinwheels were not usually meant as hair-ornaments, but when I saw this one, I just knew I had to try it. And my hunch was right. That pink and white pinwheel fit Chun’s image perfectly. I had slightly bended the handle so that even though it was in her hair, a breeze would cause the pinwheel to turn. And so it did. As an evening breeze passed over the lake, it made the pinwheel spin, and cause a slight sound, the type that most kids would remember if they had ever seen a pinwheel.

“T-this……this is…. Shī, I……thank you, ne”, Chun finally managed to blurt out. It seemed that my sudden gift had caught her by a surprise. However, she quickly perked up, and beamed at me. “T-thank you, ne! I shall treasure it, Shī!”

“Bah, don’t mind it. It’s just a cheap festival toy, after all. I don’t mind it, even if you lose it”, I answered, but Chun shook her head forcefully.

“Mm~m. That’s not true, ne. Since it’s a gift from you, Shī, it is a thing I should treasure, ne. After all, the worth of the gift is not measured by how much it cost, but the thought behind it, ne. And Shī…………..I can feel you behind this gift, ne. That is why I shall……..treasure it, ne”, she explained. It was almost as if she spoke clumsily to whatever came to her mind, but still, I understood what she wanted to say.

----------------- Since it was my gift with my feelings behind it, she would treasure it with equally strong feelings.

At some point, the music had stopped. At first, I didn’t even realize why it was so. I looked around, trying to see some reason why the girls on the yagura stage had stopped singing, but found none. Well, not until something suddenly lighted up the sky, and I heard a loud boom that seemed to fill the whole area. It was actually loud enough to actually feel resonating inside of me.

Fireworks.

A huge, green ball of light scattered into a countless smaller fragments that painted up the sky with their light. I saw that light when it was reflected from the surface of the lake, and from the eyes of Feng Chun. After all, the girl had been staring at the sky as the first firework had exploded, but now, her eyes were only at me. Why? I don’t know. But when the next firework exploded, this time a red with many smaller explosions around it, we both turned to look at that. It shone brightly above the festival grounds.

Yes, the festival was ending. But this was definitely a fitting way to end the wonderful day.

“Those fireworks……..they are like blooming flowers, Leon”, Chun suddenly spoke. She, however, kept her eyes in the sky, where the new fireworks kept appearing. “I am glad that I got to watch them with you, ne……”

--------------- Chun?

I turned to look at the girl, and although she seemed to be a bit flushed on her cheeks, it had to be due the large red firework that had just exploded above our heads. Chun was staring intently at me, her hands behind her, rocking back and forth ever so slightly while standing still. I was about to open my mouth, but Chun managed to say something first.

“Shī, I-“

The rest was swallowed up by another explosion. It was a golden firework, this time a cluster, exploded. I did not know what her following words were, but I knew they had been something big for her. After all, when she talked, it seemed that those words were not something spoken easily. Lots of emotions seemed to be backed behind them too, as her eyes were fixed straight at me when she spoke, and there were countless emotions on her face, showing at once. When she shut her mouth, she seemed me to be waiting for something. My answer? Had she not realized the firework had blocked all the sound?

“What did you say? I didn’t hear anything because of the fireworks” I asked from her. Chun looked a bit surprised, maybe even shocked, but after few seconds, she burst out into laughter. A laughter that sounded a bit relieved.

“It is nothing at all, ne. Don’t worry about it, Leon”, she answered.

“Oh, there thou art, de gozaru. We hath thought thou hadth disappeared completely, Shishou, Chun-dono.”

That voice belonged to no other than Tsubasa. And as I looked behind me, I saw the blue-haired girl approaching us. Behind her came Rina, Kaeo, Lin-Lin and Fu. It seemed like the whole group was gathered again, and from the looks of it, everyone had had great time. I greeted the girls, as did Chun. When they had gotten where we were, Tsubasa gave us a little questioning look.

“But why art thee here, de gozaru?” she asked. “’Tis a place quite far away from the ending festivities, de gozaru.”

“Oh, I thought this would be a good place to watch the fireworks, ne”, Chun explained, before grinning at Tsubasa in little mischievous way. “Plus I had hoped you’d have hard time finding here, ne.”

“W-why, thou little…” Tsubasa was about to start, but I stepped in between the girls before they started bickering here too.

“Oh, just shut up. We’re here to enjoy the fireworks, not to watch you two go at it again”, I said, making the both girls look little sullen.

“”Y-yes….”” they answered in unison.

At that moment, another great big firework exploded, filling the sky with its bright blue color. I heard some of the girls go “Aah” and “Ooh” around me, and I had to admit, it was rather grand sight. However, what caught me by surprise was when I heard Kaeo yell something behind me, from the top of her lungs.

“Tamayaaaaaa!!” The girl shouted.

“W-what was that?” I asked, somewhat confused. The explanation to this strangeness was offered by Rina.

“It is an old custom to shout the names of classic fireworks merchants during fireworks displays, Leon-sama”, she explained, and then demonstrated this as a new firework exploded in the sky. “Kagiya~”

---------------------- I kind of get it, but your yell could use some work, Rina. First, could you add some “emotion”?

Well, I guess one should as is done in the country one is in. That was why, when the next firework appeared and exploded in the sky, I was ready. And I wasn’t the only one. Tsubasa. Rina. Kaeo. Lin-Lin. Fu. And Chun. All of us joined in, and yelled towards the sky the moment the grand, big, red and green firework illuminated the night sky with its majestic appearance. Yes, the festival might have been ending. But nothing said that we were not allowed to enjoy it to the fullest until the moment there was nothing else left to do but to go home.

“”””Tamayaaaaaaa!!!””””

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“And who are you supposed to be, old man?”

“’Tis a land I know almost nothing of, de gozaru. Shishou, thou wouldst be wise to stay on thy guard.”

“Ah! Beach and sun! Is there more ya need?”

“Oi. Swordsman. Do you really want to pick a fight with those bigger than you?”

“Frankly, I couldn’t care less if you like me or not. I was ordered to keep you safe, and that’s all that matters to me.”

“……I didn’t ask for’ya help……why’ddya come to help me?”

“The sea……….it’s restless.”

The cerulean waves ~ Under the sun of Okinawa!!

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Special Chapter
Flowers of Many Kinds

My name is Tsunemoto Tsubasa.

I am a samurai, warrior, and a proud woman of the esteemed Tsunemoto family. I have pledged myself to the way of the sword, and I will live by my blade till the end of my days.

……….That is the formal introduction I should use from myself, but to be honest, even I find it a little tiring. And it certainly is intimidating, don’t you think? The first time Shishou heard me use it, he said it made me seem like I was going to kill the person I was talking to.

-------- I decided to never use it again, if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.

My days always start in the same way. I am most likely the first one to wake up, since I make sure I go to bed early enough on the previous day. For example, today, I am up at 6am, which is good, since I’ll be able to enjoy the company of the birds that have taken liking to the yard of the temple we live in. Thus, after opening the window and gazing outside, I could see those birds loudly “talking” amongst themselves. While watching this conversation go on and on, I dress up. You can probably guess that this takes some time, as a kimono is not something that is easy to get into, even if you’ve practiced it for years.

Finally, after donning my kimono, I close the window and head out to the kitchen. I was planning on making some breakfast today, since it seems that Shishou and the others are sleeping late, as usual. However, to my surprise, as I exit my room, leaving the sleeping Rina behind, I am met with a smell of spices and cooked meat.

In the kitchen, I find a rather unexpected sight. Tai Fu is there, already preparing the breakfast. The martial arts expert whom even I greatly respect shows that her skills do not only lie in battle, as she masterfully prepares the meat for the breakfast while frying the vegetables. The moment my foot lands on the floor of the kitchen, her eyes immediately turn to me, and she greets me.

------------- Such reflexes. There is no way I could launch a surprise attack against her.

“Oh, if it isn’t Tsubasa-kun –aru! I’m sorry I started making breakfast even though it was supposed to be your turn –aru”, she apologized, and I hastily shook my head.

“T-that art not the case, de gozaru. In fact, I art rather happy thou hast taken upon thyself to prepare our breakfast. After all, the one thou made yesterday was simply wondrous, de gozaru”, I quickly say, to which she laughs.

“It was that good –arune?” she asks, seemingly bit surprised. As I nod, the girl laughs embarrassedly, scratching the back of her head. “I see, I see –aru! Well, I’m glad –aru!”

I walk over to the table and sit down, feeling slightly anxious. From the very beginning, it was my job in this household to make food, and not that there is someone here who is far better at it, it’s like my place has been usurped.

I can imagine how Shishou would scowl at me if he heard my thoughts. He has that habit whenever I say what he calls “stupid things”.

“So, what art thou cooking today, de gozaru?” I ask from Tai Fu, to drive away the silence.

“Oh, I’m making some chicken and mushroom congee here –aru. With it, there are some you tiao -aru. You see these strips of dough –arune? I’m going to deep-fry them, and they can then be dipped to the congee –aru. It is basically like….what are those western things again….? Ah, porridge and croissants –aru!” the black-haired girl told enthusiastically.

-------------- I am somehow amazed that she has managed, in such a short time, to turn our kitchen into a place where you can deep-fry things. And speaking of those you tiao….

“Art they not known also as “Deep-Fried Devils”, de gozaru?”

“Oh, you know that legend –aru?” Tai fu looked a bit surprised. “Yeah, yeah, that’s their nickname –aru. Or rather, their name literally translated is deep-fried devils –aru. Supposedly, frying the things is supposed to symbolize frying some evil government people who put a famous poet to d eath –aru.”

As always, the stories from our neighboring country seem morbid as ever. I’m not sure I want to eat something that is supposed to symbolize a deep-fried government official.

“Tsubasa-kun……mind if I ask one thing –aru?”

Suddenly, Tai Fu sounds a bit more serious than before. I cannot help but to notice this sudden change in her tone, and turn my eyes towards the girl. She’s leaning to the table, looking at me with strange eyes, ladle on her other hand. Even while standing there, apron over her cheongsam, she managed to look like a true warrior, who was just letting her fighting instincts rest a bit. I could really understand why they called her a genius of Shaolin techniques.

“I do not mind, de gozaru. Do go ahead”, I answer, but cannot hide the slight tint of anxiety in my voice. Somehow, I’m not sure I’m going to completely like the question that will be imposed to me.

“……Do you hate M’lady –aru?”

It took me a moment to realize who she was talking about. However, when I thought about it a little, it became quite clear. Of course, she was talking about Feng Chun; that girl who also had self-appointed herself as Shishou’s disciple. Needless to say, we hadn’t been off to the greatest start. That kind of carefree attitude, and how she never thought about the consequences of her actions at all…………well, to be frank, I found them rather displeasing.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I hate her, but still…….we were not on exactly the best terms.

“………..I-“

Like yesterday.

When we had been training on the temple’s yard. Shishou had left inside to help Rina put a band-aid, as she had gotten a nasty scrape on her arm, leaving only me and Feng Chun there. I was doing my swings, which I always did before and after the training, but suddenly my wooden sword was hit hard with another one, almost making me lose my grip. I turned to glare at Chun, who was standing there with a strangely confronting look on her face.

“What art thou doing, de gozaru?” I asked, demanding an explanation. Chun just shrugged.

“Just testing your swing-speed, ne. I had already thought about it when we had first fought, but I’m starting to realize now that you aren’t really that fast at all, are you, ne?” she said with a slightly bored tone.

Needless to say, I was agitated.

“How rude! Dost thou say thou wouldst fare better when it comes to the terms of speed, de gozaru!?” I asked from her, but only received a roll of eyes as an answer.

“Isn’t that obvious, ne?” Chun said. “With your current level of speed, you cannot even keep up with me, ne.”

----------------------- Of course, I had become slightly aware of that fact in our battle together, but still, I could not let this one just go.

“We shalt see.”

I turned the wooden sword, bokutou, around, and delivered a slash that would have cut a tree in half, wooden sword or not. However, Chun had already kicked the ground, and retreated with a speed that left my slash paling in comparison. However, it was too early to give up after just one strike. I “sheathed” my sword and took two steps forward, lowering my stance, as if I was balancing myself on a rail. These two steps were enough so that the third one brought me right in front of Chun, and there was barely enough space for bokutou between our noses.

Intending to strike her left ribs, I launched a strike that used my own body as an extension, almost like a steel pendulum being swung. The wood burned my hand which acted as the “sheath”, which itself told about the speed of the strike.

But, I was obstructed by a bouncing lightning.

She spun around in a way that I had never seen before, almost making a windmill-like movement that made the small pinwheel in her hair to rotate wildly. The huge spin caused my strike to be deflected mercilessly, and suddenly, I found out that Chun had landed into a stance that allowed her to land a series of consecutive strikes towards my now-defenseless chest area.

It was easy to understand why she was nicknamed “Killer Bee”.

Even though I pushed with my left foot, which was in the front, reversing the movement that I had just performed, it was not enough. In a time that was only a second, not even two, seven strikes had landed straight to my chest, and I knew bruises would appear there tomorrow. The barrage would have lasted longer, if I had not managed to get out of the way in time. With three more steps, I was out of reach, and ready to attack again.

However…….

“See? You’re too slow, ne. That speed you’re so proud of is nothing when you compare it to the speed of most fighters that will make it to the actual Tournament, ne”, she said, putting away her wooden jian-sword. “If this is the fabled technique of the Tsunemoto family even I have heard of, then I am sorely disappointed, ne.”

……Of course it’s not. I know my ancestors were far better. I know my mother is better than I would ever be. Her long hair, blue as the sky. Her movement, elegant as a feather in the wind. Her face, more beautiful than the sun itself. Her skills, good enough to cut a swallow that’s flying.

------------ I would never be as good as she is. And that’s why I will never learn the true techniques of Aohanaryuu.

But I will…..continue trying. Because that’s the only thing I can do.

“I saw that, you know –aru.”

Tai Fu’s voice suddenly brings me back from my memories. Did I just get absorbed into them in mid-sentence? Maybe I’m still feeling a bit like dreaming. I woke up early today, after all. However, it doesn’t seem like Tai Fu was annoyed by the fact that I suddenly fell silent. Actually, she is smiling right now.

“Did it feel like M’lady was bullying you –arune?” she asks, with a slight grin. I cross my hands and snort.

“T’was the case, I say, de gozaru”, I answered.

To my surprise, Tai Fu laughs.

“Ahahaha, that’s nothing like that –aru! She just wants to say “You need to get stronger, so were’ on a same level” –aru! M’lady, you see, is just horrible at conveying what she really wants to say, ahahahaha!” Between her laughter, Tai Fu explained it to me.

……………..To think that her simplistic (Shishou would say “idiotic”) view of the world could uncover such a possibility. I was truly amazed. And when I thought about the whole deal this way, a smile came back to my face too.

“Dost thou mean she wants me to be her….rival, de gozaru?”

“Yeah, I believe so -aru. Well, of course, you two are rivals in one thing already –aru”, Tai Fu chuckled.

“What art that?”

Instead of answering, Tai Fu chuckled a bit more and turned back to the food which direly required her attention. I, too, stood up from the table and stretched. Since Tai Fu would be here, handling the food, there would be nothing for me to do here. And if there truly was a rival here who wanted me to quickly get on her level so we would be equal…..there was something else I should do.

As I headed towards the double doors that led outside, to the sunshine, I could hear Kaeo yawning heartily in her own room, and Shishou complaining something to Rina, who had, apparently, once again sneaked to his bed. Clock was almost seven, so people were starting to get up. Even Shishou, who had slept all the way till twelve during the first days I had lived with him.

After exiting the shrine, and embracing the sounds and air of Tokyo, I headed down the stairs, to the yard. Everywhere around me, I saw the grand city spreading around, buildings so tall they reached for the skies surrounding us, while allowing us to also glance at the people-filled streets below.

I took my bokutou from the rack next to the shade of the temizuya, and gripped it tight. However, after thinking a bit, I changed it to the type of training equipment that looked more like a club than a sword. It was meant to mimic the weight of a real sword, after all. Then, I brought it in front of me, and took the stance that anyone who practiced with katana knew.

If I wanted to be worthy of that supposed expectation….I needed to train.

Swinging the sword forward. A simple, yet surprisingly delicate movement. You cannot just swing however you want to. You have to swing it in a way that is meant to cut everything in front of you, even the very air itself. No, even the very thoughts of obstacles must be cut. The cut must be done on the level of you mind, in a way that neither anything physical, nor anything mental, can stand in your way. Because, if other remains, the cut only goes half way. To truly cut means actually severing the very reality before you, before your eyes, and before your mind. To cut apart the opposing will that stands before you.

But that’s not enough. As mother said, even that’s not enough. A woman who cut the friction of the sword away always said that it was not enough.

Not if you’re member of the Tsunemoto family.

To cut the very thought of cutting itself. If you cut, you must cut yourself too. To cut away everything unnecessary, every intention, every action, even the very thoughts themselves. If you are to cut the enemy, first, you must cut away your self. Cut your thought of cutting. Even that is too much. As long as there is something you do not cut, then the cut is not sharp enough. Then you have not cut enough. Therefore, you must away everything physical, everything mental, and even the fact that you are cutting them. Cutting away the very cut you are cutting. Only that way you shall truly cut.

A cut that is not a cut. Attacking without an attack. To see without seeing, to think without thinking, to cut without cutting.

Nirvana.

A place that exists without existing. And thus, you must cut without actually cutting. After all, you have already cut away the cut you just made.

It is the impossible the cut, the perfect cut, the cut which you always dream of. And the one I must reach.

And so I swing my sword. I cut away everything physical. I cut away anything mental. I cut away all the thoughts. My sword cuts the very fabric of existence before me, in so many ways I cannot even comprehend it. But if it does not cut away my thoughts, then it is still lacking. It means I have to cut even deeper, but at the same time, I must cut away the very depth itself. Nothing exists there, not even my cut.

I have to cut it all away.

And my sword swings. It swings only once, whereas before, it would have swung thousand times for practice. But this time, only once. Only one time. Yet this one cut is so, so much more important than any of them before. Even the wooden training equipment that I use, as blunt as it is, makes a sound as if I was slicing through water with a blade made out of glass.

I see the air before me open. Even if it is just for a fraction of a second, I see how the world before me is cut, even though there is nothing there. From that cut, I am sure, that one day, I will be able to see it.

Nirvana. I will cut my way into the Nirvana of the swordsmen.

Just like my mother did.

“……………That was one hell of a swing.”

The voice that makes me come back from that strange place where I had fallen in my mind is one I know very well. It can be annoyed, it can grumpy, it can be a voice that complains that he would only want to sleep. Yet it is a voice that also contains warmth more than any other voice I’ve ever heard. It is a voice that acknowledges us all, the people brought together by circumstances so different yet so similar, as a one big family. It is a voice that I’ve grown to respect during these weeks, and the voice that has taught me many things.

And I turn around, to see the person that voice belongs to. Smiling at me, standing on the doorway, his eyes looking at me behind those orange sunglasses. It seems that he realized I had gone here, and had come to look at me. After all, Shishou is not the type of teacher that teaches me the skills he himself knows. No, he wants me to find those skills myself. I’m sure that if he was like the other teachers I have had, I would have learned many wondrous attacks and styles by now, but with him, I’ve learned things that are far more important.

I’ve learned what it is to have a family, and someone who trusts you to succeed. Someone who knows that you will eventually reach that place you aim for, even if it is Nirvana.

Yes, that person is…

My Shishou: Leon Hart.

[Theocrass]

So THIS is what they were talking about! I always thought FIGHT-ON was some game everyone wanted to borrow off you.

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Twelve
The cerulean waves ~ Under the sun of Okinawa!!

The sound of seagulls was almost deafening. Those bastards were everywhere, no matter where in the world you were. As my old man had called them: “The very image of garbage”. Even now, as I stood there, leaning on the rail and staring at the water that passed below us, I could hear the noisy chatter of those birds as they flew around our small vessel.

------------ Yes, because right now, we were crossing the sea to a certain group of islands that was quite famous in Japan.

Everything started a few days ago. We had been enjoying the lazy and peaceful days that had arrived after it had become obvious to the public that not only had we defeated the “Double Dragon”, but had actually assimilated both of its members into our own stable. Especially the addition of Tai Fu had been something that had made the other stables wary of us, and right now, it showed in how they kept a respectable distance from us. Only after they would have gathered enough information about our fighting strength would they actually make any moves.

And this all meant that we were relatively safe for few weeks.

Well, in any case, during this period of peace, I made one rather unfortunate encounter. I had just gone to the grocery store on one sunny Wednesday, and was making my way back to our apartment, when in the lobby of the high-rise I ran into an old man, who approached me immediately. He was the type of person who you would immediately know to be trouble. Not because he was tough-looking, but because he had the kind of eyes that had seen adventures, and promised you more of them. Grey, large moustache and balding hair, along with wrinkled skin and attire that reminded me of one of those 30’s gentlemen adventurers………….

------------ Well, you get the idea: Trouble.

That man approached me the moment I had set my foot inside the lobby, and before I knew it, I was staring straight at those narrow, brown eyes.

“Are you a tenant of this house? Who are you?” he asked, sounding almost like a landlord who was out for blood, or another tenant who had a complaint about the noise coming from upstairs.

Now, you’ll have to understand, I am still not perfectly sure how legal it is for us to live in that shrine. Thus, I created a hasty lie that I was about to feed to him, and went with it.

“E-eh? My name is Leon. I live on the top floor. I live upstairs from you. Yes, I think you’ve seen me before.”

Wait, wasn’t that….?

“Leon? As in “Leon Hart”?” the old man asked, bringing his face even closer, which was quite a feat itself, seeing how he was a good deal shorter than I was.

“That’s right”, I answered, getting ever more nervous.

“Excellent. Then, I have a proposal to you”, the old man said with a wide grin. “You are the manager of “The Lionhearts” aren’t you? Then you are probably the type of a fellow who does not fear a little adventure……..are you?”

………….I knew it from the first moment. This guy is a trouble.

Despite the fact that my mind was screaming protests like a certain hobbit that had been tricked by a bastard of a wizard, I still somehow found myself in the elevator with this old man, who was humming to himself, seemingly very satisfied. After my grumpy: “And who are you supposed to be, old man?” he introduced himself as Arakaki Takeshi, and his occupation was, according to himself: “Roamer and an adventurer”. When I shook hands with him, it was pretty clear why this man knew my name. That tough and worn skin had clearly seen its share of battles that happened with fists, open or closed. In other words, he must have been another martial artist.

Understandably, the girls were rather suspicious when I brought this strange old man home, but since he asked very politely for us to at least listen to his proposal (I swear, this man must have been a lady killer in his youth. Even now, I think he made few of the girls weak at their knees), we sat around the table in the kitchen, trying not to care about the heat of the sun outside, and let the old man tell his story.

--------------- It was more serious than I had originally presumed.

It seems that there is something seriously weird going on with the Okinawan stables down in the southern Japan. According to Arakaki-san, they usually have a small tournament amongst themselves to find out which are the best teams to send in the actual qualifier-rounds of the Tournament of One Thousand Blades. Well, this was what happened this time too, but somehow, things took a wrong turn at some point. Apparently, stables began disappearing left and right, vanishing completely and never resurfacing. By the time the tournament was supposed to start, there were only few stables left, and even they refused to fight, out of fear. After all, rumors had began to travel that one of the ultimate ancestors, “Ryugu”, or the sea, had began to collect the teams one-by-one, as they were unfit for battle. The stables that were left feared that they would be marked as unfit too, and instead, opted to forfeit from combat completely.

This all spiraled to point where the local priest had to promise that a sacrifice would be made in order to satisfy Ryugu. At first it was thought that the sacrifice would be of the usual kind, but now there was pressure from the oldest and most respected members of many martial arts family in Okinawa, who wanted to make sure that Ryugu would be calmed. They demanded a human sacrifice. As disgusting as it sounded right now in the modern times, some of those old men apparently lived like it had still been the times of Ryūkyū-kingdom. They did not see anything wrong in sacrificing some person if it meant calming down the Ryugu, and allowing their stables to enter the Tournament of One Thousand Blades.

What some men will do for honor.

It sounded very fishy business even at that point, but when Arakaki-san informed us that last week, a local stable that had never been heard before in Okinawa had signed in for the Tournament of One Thousand Blades, it got really suspicious. It was almost as if somebody had wanted to heavily cut the competition before the Okinawan teams had even entered the actual competition.

“Which gets me to the gist of why I am here”, Arakaki-san finally said, looking at all of us with serious eyes. “”The Lionhearts” might be a well-known team here in Tokyo, but nobody outside of the city has heard of it. However, your power speaks for you, and thus, I would like to ask for your help. Come to Okinawa. Search the real reason for why the stables have been disappearing, and, if you can………please save the young girl who is supposed to be sacrificed next week for Ryugu.”

I knew that at this point, all of the girls would have been ready to charge head first to Okinawa in order to save the girl who was supposed to be sacrificed, and beat everyone who might have had something to do with the events one way or another. However, I had to use a bit more practical point of view. If we did this, and succeeded, our fame would spread on even larger area, and I knew that at that point, we would be considered more of a real threat by the rest of the stables. Did we really want that already? Wouldn’t it be better for us to lay low for a while, when we could? Not to mention that fighting in Okinawa would most likely let the other stables know much about our fighting prowess, seeing how we would strangers in the south, and everyone would take interest in us.

“…….But what’s in it for us?” I had to ask, even though the girls gave me some bit of harsh glares. However, at least Rina seemed to understand from where I was coming from. “We would be risking ourselves, and our secrets, in exchange for saving a person we do not even know. Are you saying that’s all you’re offering?”

“Well, not exactly”, Arakaki-san chuckled and looked at me in a weird way. “But, you see, one of your assumptions is wrong there, boy. It’s not like this person is a completely stranger to you…”

-------------- What? Not a complete stranger…..?

“What do you mean?”

The old man grins like a lion to me.

“You see, the girl who is supposed to be sacrificed, and who is the daughter of the local priest, is-“

“Leon Hart! Are’ya listening to me!?”

A noise right beside my ear shakes me awake from my reminiscing. As I look to my left, there stands a small girl, perhaps of the same age as Lin-Lin. She is wearing a black and white jacket with hood, and her shorts are of the same color-combination, with the white being in the front and black on the back. She has a black hair that’s shaped in a ridiculous form, almost like a dorsal fin. But what’s even more ridiculous are the tattoos that go around her green eyes, which make her look even more like a real orca. Yes, I think even you have recognized who this girl is, with her slightly tanned skin and bad attitude.

Orca-chan. Or as she likes to call herself….

“Fuuuunn! You called me “Orca” in’nya mind again, didn’t you!? My name is…..!.......uu---uuuu…..” The girl’s spunk suddenly died out when she realized I was grinning from ear to ear. She knew what was coming, but since her hot-headedness had gotten the better of her, she had walked right into the trap.

“Yeeeeeees~?” I asked, smiling like the aforementioned orca. “What is your name?”

First, a sulking expression. Then, a gaze that searches for a escape route. Finally, when there is not one to be found, she succumbs, pouts and finally mutters something that is not quite audible.

“Yes? Can you say it a bit louder?” I ask, trying to hold back my laugh.

-------------- And she goes past the explosion point.

“My name is S-S-S-S-S-Shinjou Shachi, goddammit!! Don’t forget it!!”

And so the air was filled with my laugh, and Shachi’s futile attempts to get me to silent down.

If you need some help to figuring out what I found so funny, I can tell you. You see, Shachi’s first name has the general meaning of “Luck” or “Fortune” in Japanese. However, since the word for “Orca” also happens to be “Shachi” in Japanese, you can see what makes me burst out in laughter every time she says her name out loud, and why she is so hesitant in saying it. Apparently, she had not realized this small connection before I mentioned it to her this morning. I blame those ridiculous Okinawan languages this girl speaks whenever she gets agitated. At least her normal speech is not too much influenced by them, but sometimes, few stray words appear here and there, and it sounds almost slurred.

“A-anyway, I want to ask you someth-WILL YOU STOP LAUGHING ALREADY!?”

--------------- I am being pounded in the back by fists of a 16 year old girl. The world is surely a strange place.

However, it is far too late. Trying to calm down right now is a bit hard thing to do, and if Shachi is trying to ask something serious from me, then she’s not going to get a serious answer in some while. The girl herself seems to understand this, as finally she raises her head, acting like I had gravely insulted her, and marches away with a face as dark as a thundercloud.

“I’m not going to forget’his, Leon Hart! Just you wait!”

And so, the little sea-creature storms off, leaving me behind. And yes. I’m still laughing.

“Shishou……..” Tsubasa, who arrives to fill the place left empty by Shachi, seems a little troubled. “Dost thou not think thou art teasing her a bit too much, de gozaru?”

Well, that might be true. But I have the right to tease her, damn it! She continues to accuse me for being a food thief, even though something like that never happened.

--------------------- No. I know it happened. I just want to pretend that the person enjoying his victory over a junior high school-kid back then was not me.

“W-well, I guess I might……..but don’t forget that we’re doing this trip for her sake, to save her, so she must put up with a little payback from our part” I answer, which makes Tsubasa tilt her head, slightly confused.

“I-Is that so, de gozaru?” the samurai-girl asks, and I nod strongly.

“Yes. It is a sort of compensation for all the things we will most likely be going through in the near future. So you should do it to her too, it’s only fair”, I advice Tsubasa, who is now listening to me intently. After I understanding the gist of it, Tsubasa’s mouth turns into an upside-down “V”, and she nods, her hands as fists.

“U-understood, de gozaru! What dost thou think I should do, Shishou?” she asks, sounding very enthusiastic.

----------------------- This is too easy.

“Here, take this”, I turn to fish out one of the things that can be found in the boxes that are here and there on the deck of this old ship. After giving the thing to Tsubasa, I whisper the rest of the plan in her ear, before sending her off. “Make me proud, my student!”

“Ou, Shishou!!” The blue-haired samurai yells, before disappearing to the direction where Shachi also went.

That girl…………..She’s an idiot, isn’t she?

But if I thought that the visitors would stop and leave me alone with my half-interested watching of the seagulls, then I was wrong. Since now, I was approached by two figures I had gotten to know only during these short few days it had taken us book a trip to Okinawa. The first one was, as you could have guessed, Arakaki Takeshi, looking as dandy as ever. The second one was a far more unpleasant person. A girl with a vapid expression, and eyes as dull grey as they can be. She was wearing one of those traditional outfits of the Ainu people, complete with a headband. She also had the traditional tattoos around mouth and forearms. Her dark-green hair matched the colors of her outfit perfectly, but I got the feeling it was not out of fashion sense, but because she didn’t have other kinds of clothes to wear. Of all the people in the ship, she looked most out of place. After all, the Ainu people originated from the Northern Japan, and this was Japan’s southernmost tip.

“You really have some interesting friends”, Arakaki-san laughed, winking at me. “And I do not mean just those two who came half-running past us. One of your friends, the little kunoichi, is standing on one foot at the very edge of the bow. The tanned girl, on the other hand, is emptying the contents of her stomach in to the sea.”

Rina and Kaeo, I see……how am I not surprised.

“What brings you here, Arakaki-san?” I ask from the old man, turning the face the two. “Most likely not just some friendly small-talk?”

“Well, to be honest, that’s a part of the reason why I came here”, the old man laughs, before nodding towards the girl behind him. “The reason I came here was because I figured you and her could do a little heart-to-heart. You know, get to know each other a little better. You’ll be working together during this “mission”, after all.”

Yes…..I guess we will. However, the looks on both of our faces were those that said: “I don’t want this, let me go already”. However, Arakaki-san stayed stubborn, and when he was like that, we both knew that we would not be able to get anywhere.

But still…………..I knew this girl didn’t have a good opinion of me.

This girl: Unkatuye.

“……..So? How about it?” Arakaki-san asked with a grin on his face, looking like he was enjoying this immensely.

“There’s nothing to talk about”, Unkatuye said bluntly. “Why should I force myself?”

Notice the absence of “We”. Apparently, forcing me to do something was not something Unkatuye objected to.

“Oh, come on. You’ll find it much easier to protect someone if you know him a bit better”, Arakaki-san said to the girl, who, in return, gave a loud sigh.

“I still do not understand why I am supposed to guard this outsider. I mean, just look at him. His whole face looks idiotic”, came the merciless answer. You can see that she does not really like me. And the feeling is mutual.

“Says the girl who does not look like anything.”

Seriously, that girl’s face is made from stone.

“What was that? Do you want me to break your bones or something?” came the reply with a slight hint of anger. However, I’m not going to back down, even though I know this girl could probably make true of her threat.

Apparently, this girl Unkatuye, is not only a semi-adopted child Arakaki-san picked up during his travels, she is also the person he passed all his knowledge of traditional Okinawa-style karate. And, according to the information I heard from Rina after Arakaki-san had left on the day we had met him, Arakaki-san himself was almost legendary when it came to the world of traditional Karate. This, of course, meant that the girl before me could be counted as one of those martial-arts-idiots that I kept meeting, thanks to the stupid step to this side of the world that I had taken.

But yeah, I had seen this girl practice her kata earlier today. And she was no amateur. If I had to guess, her striking power came somewhere lower than Kaeo’s, and her speed was around that of Rina’s. Yet, I got this nagging feeling that it was not all there was to this girl. Perhaps it was the fact, that after having witnessed both Rina and Kaeo doing amazing things in fights, I could sense the same “vibe” coming off from this girl. In any case, I knew she could handle herself in fight. And thus, Arakaki-san had assigned her to protect me during my investigations, despite the fact that I already had a cadre of “bodyguards” with me.

But that did not mean I had to like her.

“No, if that can be avoided, I’d appreciate it”, I brush her threat off, and prepare to give a snarky comeback. However, when Arakaki-san gives me a warning glare, I decide to say something else. “But I think there is one thing we both have the same opinion of.”

This earns a suspicious gaze.

“And what could that possibly be?”

I turn to look over to the other end of the ship, where the duo who owns this whole vessel is, at the moment, keeping our course in check.

“That our “captains” are suspicious to the max”, I say, and feel cold sweat appearing on my forehead. And when I see Unkatuye glance in the same direction, her expression is a mirror-image of mine.

“Definitely. How could you agree to their deal, Arakaki-san?”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t usually judge the book by its cover. The two who owned this small vessel apparently came from Shangai, and it definitely showed from how the whole ship seemed to have been purposefully been made to resemble a three-sailed junk ship. However, when those two “captains” first introduced themselves to me, I knew they were someone who you should never trust. First of all, they dressed in rather old style of clothing, the type that sailors tended to use in old China. They were also wearing those straw hats that were in the shape of almost flat cones. The two women had blue eyes that were almost like slits, making them look like cats or foxes, and their faces were in what seemed like eternal glee.

And the way they introduced themselves.

“”We are both Chinese, if you please. We are both Chinese, if you don’t please.”

The way their heads moved from side-to-side at the exactly same time, almost like they were one and the same person, was just outright creepy! Not to mention what they said to me the moment we had left the harbor in Tokyo.

“”There’s no need for expression so hostile. If we fancy you, you’ll stay for quite a while.””

------------------ I want to get away from those two as fast as I can!!!

“Well, by using their services, the boat-ride here was so cheap that even your team could afford it without having to loan money from me”, Arakaki-san said with a wicked smile that was directed at me.

Ugh, the old man got me for good. That had been one of “rules” I had set for Arakaki-san. After all, I didn’t want us to seem poorer than we were. However, it seems that this pride of mine had backfired, and made us prisoners of these two Shangai-twins that I definitely did not want to become our permanent chauffeurs.

But, at least up until now, they seem to have taken us towards our intended target.

That is, the Naha harbor.

The largest city of Okinawa could be seen not-so-far in the distance, shining like some kind of metallic jewel in that lush, green island surrounded by clear blue sea. I knew, however, that it was not the place we were actual going. No, from Naha, where we would have a small break, we would head over to the Tokashiki island, which was our destination. There, in a resort town, we were supposed to make our investigation. After all, the island, and the other island close to it, called Zamami island, were supposed to be the locations of the tournament here in Okinawa.

“It won’t be long now”, Arakaki-san said with a dry laugh. “I was actually born in Tokashiki island, so I know these parts very well. You all will be able to stay in the lodges at the beach, divided between the girls, and then one for us men………….”

At this point, Arakaki gave a sly glance the girls who could be seen here and there behind him on the deck.

“………..Unless some of them want to share a lodge with you during this trip, of course.”

I felt a shiver of fear running through my spine as heads everywhere jolted up, and looked at Arakaki.

“No-no-no-no-no! I’m fine sharing a lodge with you! Just fine, just fine, thank you!!” I hurried to reassure Arakaki, who cackled at my obvious panic.

“Ah, I see. Then so shall it be. I suppose we can divide to the lodges pretty much immediately after we have arrived to the island, since I already have necessary preparations m-“

“HEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!” a piercing cry suddenly cut into Arakaki’s words. It was Orca-chan. And she was running on full-speed towards us. “Heeeeeeeeelp!”

Yes, it was obvious that Shachi was being chased by something. That something being Tsubasa with a concentrated face, armed with a whaling harpoon that had been left on the deck of the ship.

------------------- Well, I was wondering how long it would take.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

“Ah! Beach and sun! Is there more ya need?”

Kaeo, sometimes, you say just the right words.

Our group had made land, and we were now standing on the small dock of the beach resort town we would be staying during our stay. The sun shone on full force from up-above, and the sea glittered like a blue sapphire. The beach was of the color of golden hay, and the tropical trees were so green they almost hurt my eyes. It was truly the kind of paradise on earth you only see few times in your life……..that is, whenever you gather enough money to go to south. I myself had visited this one island south of my home country, and it had offered similar experiences. But I must admit……….Okinawa really stole my heart when I laid my eyes upon it.

“Last one on da beach is a hermit crab, ya know??” the tanned girl laughed, before sprinting into run and heading over to the beach, quickly followed by everyone else. It seems that they took this kind of competition very seriously.

The only ones left behind were me, Arakaki-san, Unkatuye and the Shanghai-twins. The duo that I mentioned last were unloading some stuff they had brought to the island, while the three of us who seemed to have most sense in our heads decided to take it slowly, and not get ourselves too giddy over the sudden summer heat and the beach. But still…………this really was like a luxury vacation!!!

“How do you like it, hmm~?” Arakaki-san asked as we walked down to the dock, and from there, to the street that would lead to the resort town. “Isn’t the Tokashiki-island something worth visiting?”

“Definitely”, I answered with a nod, stretching at the same time and letting the sun caress my skin. “This is the perfect kind of place for relaxation and resting.”

“Idiot”, Unkatuye said suddenly, causing me to frown. “You did not come here to play around. You’re here to solve what is happening with the stables of Okinawa.”

“You know, with your attitude, you’re not winning any friends”, I commented to the vapid-looking girl, who just snorted and turned her head away as a answer.

“Frankly, I couldn’t care less if you like me or not. I was ordered to keep you safe, and that’s all that matters to me.”

------------------------------ I seriously do not like this girl.

But the weather was too good for me to keep caring about Unkatuye’s salty attitude, and thus, I opted to concentrate instead on the good things that were happening right now. Like the fact that we would get to spend our whole stay here on this beach-resort town, in what seemed like very classy lodgings. That itself was like a true vacation, one that we had needed for a long time. Sure, we still had to catch whoever was responsible for all the strange things that were happening here and rescue Shachi, but c’mon…..

Wouldn’t you be a bit excited about getting a free vacation?

When we finally got to our next destination, a large building where the reception desk for all the small lodges scattered around the beach and the vicinity, it seemed that the girls had all finished their race. And from the looks of it, it was the poor Lin-Lin who had been the dead-last, as Kaeo and Fu were prancing around her, causing the girl to blush and try to argue back, only to have the two of them start again. When she saw us approaching, her cries of help got a new target.

“Leon-saaaaaaann! Help meeeee! Kaeo-san and Fu-san are t-t-t-t-“

“Oh quiet down, you silly little detective”, I answered, before glaring at the two who were having fun at her expense. “And you two: continue like that and I’ll make sure none of you has any time to spend relaxing at beach, and instead spends it on rigorous training.”

“S-sorry –aru…..” Tai Fu apologized, which was followed quickly by Kaeo’s similar act. I think they would not have said sorry so quickly, if the threatening glares of others had not put pressure upon them.

“Well, with that out of the way….” I said, before I’d manage to heave another heavy sigh, which had become something of a trademark for me lately. “……How about we get the keys for our lodges, and take our stuff in? After that, I think we could all use some relaxation after such a tiring trip.”

“”””””Ou!!! “”””””

The answer that came from the cadre of girls was in perfect unison.

And so, only about ten, fifteen minutes later, I had opened the door to the wooden lodge where I would be staying during this trip. Sure enough, it was with Arakaki-san, but at least that would be better than staying with any of the girls. I had had enough of Rina sneaking into my bed every other night, and having some peace of my own would be like a heaven-sent gift. And that was why I wasn’t against the idea that I would have to share a lodge with Arakaki-san.

However, nobody said I would have to share it with Unkatuye too.

“Why are you here!?” I bellowed as the green-haired girl entered the lodge only little after me.

“Why? Because I always sleep in the place where Arakaki-san sleeps, in order to guard his sleep”, the girls says without batting an eyelid, and just walks over to one of the beds, and throws her luggage on top of it.

“B-But…..you’ll be sleeping in a lodge with two guys! Don’t you find that a little inappropriate??” I still try to extract some common sense from her, but it seems that that well has dried up.

“Inappropriate? I have nothing to hide from my master, and you’re just an idiot.”

With a loud grumble, I admit my defeat and walk over to the bed that is furthest away from Unkatuye’s bed. At least, this way, I can manage to have a small portion of that peace I dreamed of, even though it won’t be nearly as glorious as I imagined.

But even though I’m still somewhat grumpy from the fact that I now have to share my room with not only a weird old man, but a vapid Ainu-girl, the sun that’s shining from outside does not let me lie in that ditch for very long. As Unkatuye is not paying any attention to me right now, I can easily change into my boardshorts and fish out my towel from my bag before she even realizes that somebody just was, for a moment, half-naked in the same room as her. The mere thought that she would turn around and see my naked butt sped me up to Tsubasa-like speeds when I changed my attire, and luckily, I was safely inside my orange-and-blue boardshorts when she finally decided to actually do as I feared.

“…….What are you doing?” Unkatuye asked with a slightly confused tone. My only answer was a grin and:

“Going to the beach, of course.”

And with that, I left.

The sun that met me outside seemed like it was almost cheering me on to go take a swim, and thus, I half-ran to the edge of the cerulean blue water that spread so far as the eye could see. And for seawater, it definitely wasn’t cold. Thus, without being able to wait anymore, I walked up to my knee-length in the water, allowing the waves to wash over me, and enjoying the jewel of the summer that had been granted for me.

“Umm, Shī? Are you going to swim with your sunglasses on, ne?”

Of course, somebody brought me back to the surface of the earth at that exact moment. I prepared a witty comeback that would direct the attention away from my mishap, and then turned around to face Chun, and Fu who was most likely standing behind her “M’lady”. Instead, I found out that no words came out of my mouth as I was too surprised to even say something. It felt like somebody had just punched me in the guts, yet I knew no strike had been made.

No, I was just too stupified by those swimsuits.

Chun was wearing a pink racing-type swimsuit for girls that seemed to make the curves of her body even smoother than they were before. Perhaps she herself realized this effect to some extent, as she had a somewhat shy grin on her face when I looked at her. And Tai Fu did not fall close behind. She was wearing a one-piece swimsuit that seemed to mimic a cheongsam to some extent, with its pattern and decorations. Needless to say, the size of her chest could be realized far easier when she was wearing that red swimsuit, but the idiot did not even seem care about it. Instead, she just opted to smile like an idiot.

“S-so, Shī? Want me to hold those sunglasses while you go for a swim, ne?” Chun asked slightly nervously, as if to break the awkward moment my staring had created.

“Oh, y-yeah, sure. Here you go”, I took off my orange sunglasses, and for a moment, I felt the world was too blue. However, I shook off that feeling and threw my beloved glasses to Chun. They travelled through the air, only to……..

Swooosh-grab-thupthupthupthup!

…….End up in completely wrong hands.

A white shadow had passed between us, caught the sunglasses, and then landed on the sand next to us. And of course, there was pretty much only one person whom I could imagine pulling a prank like that. That would be, of course….

“Nin-nin.”

“Rina, give them back. Right now.”

Our resident ninja had gotten her hands on those sunglasses she seemed to be fond of for some very strange reason. And not only that, she was wearing some very strange get-up right now. That is, a Japanese school_-swimsuit. A blue one. It even had a little name tag which read: “Fūma”. For a brief period of time, I wondered who the hell had gotten her such a bizarre outfit, when the culprit herself announced her presence.

“It looks really good on her, ya know?”

Kaeo, who else?

The tanned girl was wearing a sports bikini of yellow color, something that suit her almost perfectly, both for her image reasons and for…..erm, “bodily reasons”. Well, moving aside from Kaeo’s “assets”, I………erm, I mean, wow……….doh! I didn’t know she so----What the hell am I thinking!? It’s not like big bo----well, they certainly are bigger than I expected so, I can’t really be blamed if I………no, does this mean that merely the sight of them is going to throw me into a such a weird mood that all I can do is to stare with my mouth open. I mean, they’re just surprisingly big boo-

NUOOOOOHHH!!! Get a grip, Leon! You aren’t a person like this!

“Uhuhuhu, Leon-kun, are ya findin’ somethin’ to yer likin’?” Kaeo chuckled and moved in closer, much to my horror. Soon, I found that she was leaning her well-toned and muscled body against mine, threatening me with a soon-imminent, radical blood loss through the nose. “Don’t ya worry, I won’t mind, ya know? We’re pals, after all, gwahahahaha!”

D-damn it! Are you trying to drive me nuts, you stupid girl! I’m a man too, you know! I’m not responsible of what happens if you start pushing weird buttons!

Luckily, just as those amazing things are about to knock me right out cold, my saving angel appears and rescues me from this blissful torture.

“K-Kaeo-san! There are laws that will punish you if you sexually harass our team manager!” Lin-Lin yelled with angry voice.

In normal situations, even though she was still in junior high school, Lin-Lin did actually manage to muster a voice that held some authority. However, right now, that effect was completely gone. It might have had something to do with the white version of the same kind of school swimsuit as Rina that she was wearing, hers sporting a nametag that read “Seong”. Or it was the fault of the inflatable armbands that she wore? Or perhaps it was the brightly colored swim ring that looked like it should belong into the kiddy pool? No, I’m going to go with the combination of all of those. Somehow, I got this idea that Lin-Lin wasn’t exactly the best of swimmers.

“Sexual harassment? What’cha talkin’ ‘bout, this is just a ‘lil skinship, skinship~”, Kaeo laughed as she rubbed her body against mine, as if to tease Lin-Lin some more.

----------------- Dear god, I’m going to pass out any second.

“S-stop that immediately, Kaeo-san! I mean it! Just look at Leon-san, he looks like he’s about to die!!”

Don’t worry about me. This is the way every man dreams of going.

“Whaddya mean, he’s smilin’, ain’t he? That means he’s happy, ya know?”

Yes. In every sense of the word.

“That has nothing to do with it! In fact, that makes it even more dangerous! Cut it out, now!”

M-maybe you should, I mean, I’m really starting to feel like I’m going to-

“Don’t panic, Lin-Lin! No harm can come of-“

“SHISHOU! KAEO! WHAT ART THOU DOING, DE GOZARU!?”

And so, the thunder descends amongst us.

Tsubasa, in her blue bikini, seems to not have taken liking to the way Kaeo was treating me. Her face is something even I have not seen before, and even Arakaki-san, Unkatuye and Shachi coming behind her seem to be bit wary of her right now. However, Kaeo sees only challenge in this. Luckily, she loosens her grip, which allows me to sneak away from the danger with the help of Lin-Lin. After all, Kaeo no longer pays attention to me, as she confronts Tsubasa.

“What’cha matter, Tsubasa? Somethin’ botherin’ ya?” Kaeo asked with a grin, which only made Tsubasa’s frown clearer.

“I….I do not think the way thou wereth holding Shishou was most appropriate, de gozaru”, she finally voiced her thoughts. It seems that even if she was an idiot, her upbringing could not let her allow such “skinship”. “Thus, I wouldeth like for thee to stop that, de gozaru.”

“Whaaat~?” A new voice chimed in. It was, of course, Chun. “Was what you just saw something you couldn’t handle, ne? Are you feeling, for some reason, a bit insecure, Tsubasa-chan, ne?”

-------- I have no idea what you people are talking about anymore. Just let me out of here!

“W-what dost thou mean, de gozaru?” Tsubasa asked, turning her attention now to her rival, Chun. “Unlike thee, Chun-dono, I hath nothing to be insecure about. On the contrary, right now, I thinketh it should be thee who should be worried, de gozaru.”

Crack! Two heads collided as the rivals faced each other. They were standing side by side, but their foreheads were touching each other, like they were trying to force the other to back down. And both of them wore expression that only seemed delighted, but behind them, the flames of rivalry burned brightly.

“Those sure are some big words there, Tsubasa-chan, ne. Let’s see if you have anything to back them up, ne. How about sixty laps around this beach to determine who is the one who has something to be insecure about, ne?” the china-girl in pink issued the challenge. And of course, the samurai in blue answered it.

“Tis’ a deal, de gozaru!”

And while we others were still confused as heck, the two of them dashed off to the other end of the beach like pair of cars in Dakar Race. And we were left behind, wondering just what was going on in the minds of those two idiots.

“So? Leon-kun, where are ya? We can continue if ya want, ya know?” Kaeo turned to face the direction to where I had disappeared after the two girls had ran to off to the distance.

However, it was already too late. I was already swimming farther away, determined to get as far away from Kaeo as I could. Never again would I have such a lapse of good judgment, and fall to prey for such deceiving things. First of all, she was almost like guy with her personality. Second, she was an idiot. Third, I was an idiot for getting giddy about such things. Fourth, she was an idiot.

But………..but……..

I have to admit, they were really big----

NUOOOOOOOOHHH!!

My desperate cry echoed under the clear blue sky, and I picked up the pace of my swimming.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

Whether you move under the sun all day or just lie on the beach, under the sun, all day, the result is pretty much the same: You get tired, and burned by the sun.

That was exactly what had happened to all of us. We all had spent so much time enjoying the beach, the sun and the sand that we had completely exhausted ourselves. But as Arakaki-san said, that was a good thing for people of our age. We could start the investigation tomorrow, since we had made a long trip to here, after all. And even if we had played around the whole day, it did not mean we had forgotten the true purpose of why we were here (Even though Unkatuye claimed so). I had noticed a few times during our boat ride that Shachi had been staring into the distance with a gloomy look on her face; something I had never seen before. Thus, playing around like this was a good thing for a kid like her. It made her forget the dreadful task that was looming ahead of her, in the future, that we were supposed to prevent. At least for a little while. And, most important of all, it brought back the smile upon her face.

And it seemed that it had made her get one new friend, at least.

“Alright, now paddle with’ya feet”, Shachi instructed, while holding Lin-Lin from her hands. The other girl began waving her legs around in almost furious manner, that would have gotten her drowned if she was really swimming.

Yes, Shachi was now teaching Lin-Lin how to swim. It had been revealed that Orca-chan was actually an excellent swimmer, and her ability to hold her breath and withstand high pressures was amazing. No, in fact, everything in that girl’s swimming abilities was amazing. The speed she moved under and on the surface water, the height she could jump from after diving down and then plummeting back to the surface….she could even keep her eyes open under water and still see like it had been above ground. It was rather amazing, and it allowed me to crack few more Orca-jokes when she was about to have that gloomy expression again.

So, at first, having an expert like her teach a complete amateur like Lin-Lin in the art of swimming was met with slight suspicion. After all, a natural genius and a master could never understand things that worry amateurs like Lin-Lin. I don’t know why Lin-Lin’s ability to swim was so poor, but it was on that kind of level where she barely could keep herself up with all those floats she wore. That was why the fact that Shachi actually handled the teaching superbly was rather surprising. Not only did she take her time to teach Lin-Lin the very basics until they were etched into her memory, she also handled the emotional side as well. After all, it seemed that one of the things that made Lin-Lin wary of water was because of how deep it was.

Watching those two, Shachi and Lin-Lin, still playing in the water even though the sun was setting was quite a heartwarming scene. After all, they were pretty close in age, so it was no surprise they’d make friends with each other quickly. Even Lin-Lin, who always stood by the rules, found something refreshing in the free-spirited wild-child like Shachi. And I guess to Shachi, Lin-Lin, who always knew what to do, seemed very reliable.

“Slow ‘own a bit, be a little calmer…….thas’right, thas’good!” Shachi cheered on Lin-Lin as the latter slowly got hang of how legs should be used during swimming.

“They art almost like sisters, de gozaru”, Tsubasa whispered to me. She was sitting on the porch of one of lodges with me, watching how the two played around in the water.

“Oh? But aren’t you yourself being quite sisterly at this moment?” I ask with a hint grin on my face. Tsubasa became mildly red of her face, and gave a sneaking glance to the girl who was leaning to her shoulder at the moment.

After the race full of rivalry and passion, the two competitors had fallen to the sand, both of them out of breath. In other words, the result was that Tsubasa and Chun were now leaning against each other, both too tired to get up. Chun had actually fallen asleep, leaving Tsubasa alone in this situation that seemed to make our dear samurai-girl a little bit uncomfortable.

“T-that art not true, de gozaru! ‘Tis a-“

“Oh, I’m sure it is”, I answer, and stand up, chuckling to myself. However, Tsubasa’s next word made me stop chuckling.

“Do not wonder too far, Shishou, de gozaru”, she warned me. “’Tis a land I know almost nothing of, de gozaru. Shishou, thou wouldst be wise to stay on thy guard.”

“Of course, I know that. I’m going just over there.”

I know what she means, but there has been one thing that’s been bugging me for a while. And so, I head over to the place that has been trying to gain my attention many times now. Although I know there is one danger in that place, the fragrance that is drawing me to that place is just too much.

Barbeque. Kaeo and Fu were preparing a beach-barbeque.

“Aiya aiya, Leon-kun –aru!” Fu greeted me when I approached the girls.

Apparently, they had gotten their hands on an old coal grill that was, at the moment, roasting some meat, mushrooms and different kinds of vegetables. There seemed to be lots of fish too, mainly from Okinawa area. Had the girls spent some time fishing today? In other words, was this their catch? Somehow, although Kaeo was still holding a fishing rod in her hands, I’m more inclined to believe that Arakaki-san, who was now sleeping in a chair at the porch of one of the lodges, had his hand in this, too. According to Unkatuye, her master was a superb fisher.

Kaeo was grinning widely as she watched the ribs of some unknown animal (pork, perhaps?) roast in the grill. Too widely, in fact. I was beginning to think that the bottles of beer that I saw on the table had something to do with the clearly merry mood of the two girls. However, since the sun was already descending, I had to admit that they were free to enjoy few cold ones. We would most likely have a rough tomorrow, after all, since we would need to do some detective work around the islands.

“Hmm, something smells good”, I commented as I took my place around the grill, giving a small thanks to Kaeo who handed me my own beer.

“Xie xie”, Fu thanked me in Chinese. “Though it’s not that much –aru. We were just getting hungry, and decided to whip up something that’s easy and quick in beaches like this –aru.”

“Well, it’s exactly what it should be, no?” I laughed, catching a rib and few mushrooms from the grill and plopping them down to my plastic plate. Kaeo laughed.

“Ya really know what’s it all ‘bout, Leon-kun! After all, a beach means barbeque and beer, ya know?” she laughed, munching happily on another rib. She was almost like a tiger feasting, what with the juicy grease dropping from the rib.

“You’re almost starting to sound like an Australian, what with your fascination to barbeque, beach and beer, the Three Big B’s”, I chuckled at the tanned girl, who stuck her tongue out as an answer. “Soon you’re going to tell me that you’re a big fan of surfboarding or something, no?”

“Oh, in fact, ya know, I kinda like surfboardin’, Leon-kun”, Kaeo surprised me. “In fact, I’m pretty good at it. Ya should see me goin’ someday…..how ‘bout tomorrow? When the waves get big.”

“In the case you don’t remember, we’re here to do work”, I had to remind her. “Tomorrow, and the days after that, are all reserved for uncovering what the hell’s going on here, and saving Shachi from becoming some ridiculous sacrifice for a goddess that does not even exist. Today was an exception, since we had a long journey behind us, and frankly, we all needed some time to unwind.”

“Do you have any kind of ideas about this –aru?” Tai Fu joined in the conversation, looking at me with her big, round eyes.

“Well……..just few hypothesizes, really. But since I’ve got nothing else, that’s where we’ll have to start. First of all, I want to check what kind of influence the Shinjou family holds on these islands. And with Shinjou family, I mean, of course, the lineage of priests of local religion that Shachi belongs to. You see, I find it a bit weird that out of all the people that could be sacrificed, they choose the daughter of the head priest, and not that priest himself. In addition, even though we’re now living the year 1999, stubborn geezers like that who still want to use something as crude as human sacrifices……….I dunno. It feels a bit fishy, if you ask me. Are they really so adamant in killing a single girl just to appease a goddess who might or might not exist?” I drank down my beer in one go, belched, and then continued my rambling. “Not to mention that mystery team which supposedly signed up for Tournament of One Thousand Blades the moment the other stables quit completely, and the Okinawan tournament was cancelled……….we need to find out about that too. There are too many coincidences happening to my liking.”

“Aiya…….you’ve really thought about this a lot, haven’t you, Leon-kun –aru?” Fu looked at me, bit surprised. Then she made a little apologetic smile. “Sorry, it was just a bit hard to follow –aru.”

“Mm, well, you’ll see tomorrow. We’ll start by visiting the Shinjou Shrine on the neighboring island”, I told them our plan for tomorrow. “After that, we’ll head to town, and try to gather information about this new team that appeared. During that time we’ll have to be careful. If we would accidentally meet up with members of this stable, who don’t like us snooping around….”

Well, I guess everyone can imagine the rest. That was why I wanted to have, at least, Tai Fu and Rina by my side when I was doing that investigation.

-------------------------------------- Speaking of which, where’s Rina?

When I searched with my gaze, it seemed that Arakaki-san had found a new fan. He had woken up from his nap when Rina had approached, also carrying a fishing rod. It seems that the poor kunoichi had not caught anything, but was more than willing to learn some techniques from a real master. Unkatuye was watching Rina with eyes that told that she was not completely content with having such a stranger close to her master, but even she would have to know that Arakaki-san was more than capable enough of protecting himself, even if Rina was an enemy.

Well, it seems we’re all accounted for, then.

“Hmm, Leon-kun”, Kaeo said with an amused voice, breaking me away from my thoughts. When I looked at her, she was pointing at somewhere behind my back. “It seems that there’s someone here who wants to talk to you.”

When I turned around, a familiar face stood there. It seems that they had stopped having swimming lessons, and now Orca-chan was-

“Don’t call me Orca-chan!”

Damn it, can she sense it even in my monologue?

“W-well, what is? You have something you want to talk about?” I asked from Shachi, who was still glaring at me. The small girl snorted, but finally nodded in affirmation.

“There’s………there’s something I need to ask you”, she finally blurted out, seemingly avoiding eye-contact with me at the same time. “Could we go over there to talk? It’s something I want to ask…..in private.”

“Uh….sure? Okay, let’s go”, I agreed, a little unsure where this sudden change in attitude had stemmed from.

And so, trying not to care about Kaeo, who kept yelling things like “Lady Killer!” and “Lolicon!”, me and Shachi made our way a little further away, on the empty part of beach, close to the spot where Shachi and Lin-Lin had swam together. Sensing the mood that was both bit anxious and bit hesitant, I let Shachi set the pace of our steps and start the conversation. We had managed to walk for a good while, and leave a nice set of tracks in the sand when she finally opened her mouth.

“Leon Hart……..there’s a question I’d like’tto ask”, she suddenly said, her speech wavering once again between the Okinawan dialect and your typical, regular Japanese. “Can’ya answer me honestly?”

“It depends a little of what you’re going to ask”, I answered with a slight grin. “For example, if you’re going to ask for the information of my credit card, I’m not going to say anything. On the other hand, if you’re going to ask about the kind of woman I prefer, I can answer that I love blonde beauties with big boobs.”

“S-s-s-s-shut up! I didn’t mean that! Why don’ya just die, Leon Hart!” Shachi became red like a tomato from her cheeks, and I could swear that if she was any more embarrassed, steam would have shot out from her ears.

Ten or more seconds passed as I let her calm down in peace. And maybe it was thanks to the fact that her bare feet we’re ankle high in the refreshing sea-water, but nevertheless, finally, and surprisingly quickly, she looked at me once again with a calm face. No, maybe calm wasn’t the right word. Maybe she was a bit……curious?

“…………….”

“……………You can go ahead.”

She takes a deep breath, and-

“……I didn’t ask for’ya help……why’ddya come to help me?”

And so comes the question that I have been waiting for.

To be honest, I wasn’t that sure myself. I mean, Orca-chan and I did not know each other that well, anyways. She was just a young girl whom I had met on the train station of Kyoto, the first city I had arrived in Japan. Back then, I had been hungry as a wolf after being chased around by that damned Honor Guard and their stick-in-the-mud captain, so when I saw an unopened bento in her hands, I had opted to do the impossible, and steal it. Unfortunately, the brat had been more powerful than she had first seemed, and if she had not herself collapsed from hunger, I might have actually lost. Nevertheless, that’s all there is to it. I just stole her lunch, and ended up meeting her later, completely by an accident, in Tokyo.

So why, the moment Arakaki-san had mentioned her name, had I chosen to go to Okinawa, without a doubt in my mind? What had made me so sure at that moment? Maybe, just maybe……..

I guess it was just that.

I saw so much of myself in her. I was just like that when I was younger. Angry and rebellious against the whole world, ready to take on everyone. I had gotten into trouble many times back then, which had not made my brother very happy. And so, when I realized that this young girl, who was like a slightly warped reflection of my past days, was in trouble………..I felt like I wanted to help her.

That I wanted to save her.

But was that really what I could say? I mean, I had this reputation to uphold. I wasn’t the one to talk about mushy things like this, and to actually say that I felt like she was like me back then…………well, it felt rather awkward. So, perhaps, I should once again come up with something witty and-

“I want to save you.”

E-eh? Why did I blurt that out?

“………W-what……? Save me………..me?” Shachi asks, her eyes round as jewels from surprise. The way I had said it was even more confusing.

-------------------------- But now that it was said, I have to follow through.

“Yeah. Is that so wrong?” I ask from her, and look her straight in the eyes. “Do you find it strange? That I would want to save you? A person I’m not that familiar with? To be honest………….even I do not know the reason. But I know this. I want to save you.”

Those last words that I repeated stop her dead in her tracks. The small girl stands there, sundown in the background, along with the orange-dyed ocean. Her eyes stare straight at me, and her mouth is slightly open, like she wanted to say something, but could not do it. Her cheeks appear red, though that might be just an illusion of the descending sun.

The simple intention of saving her was enough to stupefy her to silence.

“No…….it’s no’wrong……..but do’ya really…………really mean it?” Shachi asks, her expression telling me she’s afraid. Afraid to ask this. “Can you really save me?”

To emphasize how serious I am, I put back on my sunglasses, and take a totally serious expression, one that not many have seen.

“I will do anything in my power to save you.”

Those words are enough. Her expression relaxes, and I can see that Shachi is relieved. She’s still young, you know? Not a child anymore, yet not nearly an adult. She’s in the growing period, and she still needs people she can rely on. No, even adults need people to rely on. And now, she finally found one. I cannot imagine how relieved she must have felt. And the fact that I can be that person…………fills me with gratitude towards her.

But on that very moment she’s about to answer…….

“Oi. Swordsman. Do you really want to pick a fight with those bigger than you?”

Both Shachi and I turned towards this new, hostile voice. The immediate moment I saw the scene unfolding before my eyes, I knew it was trouble. Tsubasa, who had probably taken Chun back to the lodge to sleep, had bumped into a local by an accident, and the tall, suntanned young man was not apparently going to let it go. Normally, Tsubasa would just apologize and walk away, but apparently, it had not worked this time. The man had, after all, apparently tried to catch Tsubasa by her arm, to which the onna-bugeisha had responded by dodging backwards by a reflex, and taking her stance, only to realize she was not carrying her swords.

On the other hand…….this man was clearly carrying his weapon of choice. A long, wooden staff that was about six feet long.

Bō. One of the more traditional weapons of Okinawan kobudou.

This young man with bleached hair and black eyes had a cocky grin on his face, and he was dressed in light attire: A Hawaii-shirt and boardshorts of matching color, black and red. He was the type of person you would immediately identify with surfboards and stuff like that. And those teeth seemed so white they had to have been whitened.

“I art not trying to pick a fight with thee, de gozaru. On the contrary, it seemeth that thou art the one acting in a hostile way…..” Tsubasa said with a glare, only to be answered with a snort.

“Me? Really, girl, you just keep on insulting me. First you don’t even apologize, now you try to imply things that are not true…..” the man grinned sadistically and raised his staff slightly. “It’s almost as if you’re asking to get beaten.”

This is definitely not good. Either that guy is drunk, an idiot, or both.

I turned to Shachi, since we needed to act quickly if we wanted to avoid a fight. The girl should know how to contact the local authorities, and if they were not around to be reached, we would have to find the others quickly, since greater numbers would definitely defuse the situation.

But Shachi was not there.

I only saw footprints in the sand that led towards-

“Oh shit.”

By turning my head towards the direction of Tsubasa and the young man, I just managed to see how a small figure almost glided through the air with one jump, and launched a vicious strike towards the head of the man with a wooden weapon I had not witnessed ever before. Well, I did know what weapon it was, but I had never seen it in action. But yes, that weapon…..or those weapons………….tonfas. The symbol of Okinawa, nowadays. Weapons that were great choice for Shachi because of her stature.

The wooden shaft of the tonfa hit the man straight to the side of the head, and the power of the momentum behind that strike must have been enough to put lights out from a lesser man. But instead, he was simply set stumbling to the side, almost falling to the sand, yet staying up with the help of his staff. With a swift move, he swung his staff around, but only had its intended route of attack by Shachi’s second tonfa. The small girl was a flurry of strikes that stayed up in the air simply because of her well-placed footwork. She came back to the sand only to launch herself up again, and sometimes she even gained more height by jumping on top of the swinging bō staff and then jumping again.

The wooden weapons flied through the air, creating a complex net that was very different from what I had usually seen in the swordfights I had witnessed before. The swings of the staff were large, but the thrusts were vicious like attacks from a pile bunker. One hit from those would have most likely put Shachi out of commission, and she could not even redirect them because of their small area of coverage. But the girl countered all that with her speed. She was like a black and white superball that bounced around her enemy. She was not fast like Tsubasa or Chun, but instead, she was so small and agile that she was harder to hit than Rina, who herself was a trained ninja. When I saw the battle unfold my very eyes, I was beginning to realize that it was very good luck that I had defeated Shachi back then, on that train station. Her fighting prowess………could it be close to those of the girls in our stable?

If I had to say, then Shachi’s defensive power would be a lot more than that any of the girls’ I knew. But not because she was tough. But because she read the “currents” of the air that appeared because of the enemy’s attacks.

Yes, most likely her ability to so perfectly avoid all her enemy’s attacks was because she was capable of such a ridiculous feat. To read the currents with her eyes before they were even fully formed……..to predict the currents of air…………it was almost like predicting the flow and intent of water itself.

Truly, she was a chosen child of the sea.

A flurry of strikes like a rain pouring down from the black and blue sky, Shachi attacked the man with a no intention of backing down. No, after having seen one of the people she was about to entrust her life to being harassed by this man, Shachi had resolved to remove him.

But the man had had enough.

“Aaargh!” he growled, forcing Shachi backwards with a huge swing from his staff, and then continued to spin it around, preparing a next attack. “I lost my interest in this job, thanks to you, brat! Mark my words, I’m going to get you later!!”

“Oh, in’ya dreams! So shut up and drown in your idiotism!” Shachi answered with determination, and lunged forward to a new attack.

But the man was ready. His staff razed the sand before him, creating a tall, thick wall of sand that hung in the air for a moment. Shachi cursed and dodged to the side, with the intention of avoiding the wall of sand, and at the same time, the trap that the man had most likely laid out. But the moment she did so, a bō staff shot out of the wall of sand, hurling towards her stomach. It hit her straight on with a force that made me flinch. Shachi was thrown back like a ragdoll, and rolled on the sand, unable to get back up. The man emerged once again from the sand cloud, ready to finish his job.

But he did not realize he had just unleashed the beast.

“YOU BASTAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRDDD!!”

I’m not sure where she had come from. I’m not sure how she managed to muster her ridiculous power so fast, but I’m sure it had something to do with those beer bottles that Kaeo had been showing around earlier. But nevertheless, what appeared to the battlefield was a demon of which’s kind I had not seen unleashed yet. It was Lin-Lin, full of rage of seeing her newest friend get hurt in the hands of this strange man.

The small hand was avoided easily, as the man jumped back with a cocky grin. However, that grin soon turned into a mask of horror as he saw what happened next. The fist hit the ground. The sand. And the moment that happened, the whole ground shook, and what appeared was a huge crack in the beach. Enough power to the point of it being ridiculous. This was truly the power of Seong Lin-Lin, the Colossal Fist of The Lionhearts. A single punch with enough force to rupture the beach, and send seawater roaring in to the crack in the ground.

“W-what the hell!?” the man managed to utter, before the rushing water caught up with him, pulling him under the turbulent waves. Before he, I, and maybe even Lin-Lin could understand what was really happening, a blue, crashing water had caught our opponent.

He was gone in matter of seconds, leaving behind nothing but a roar of anger and revenge. The enemy that we had just faced against was “defeated” with a single punch from Seong Lin-Lin.

As the sea settled down, and we began to realize there was nobody let to fight anymore, the few hectic minutes began to slow down to the normal time again. When I regained the control of my body again, and no longer just stood there, stunned, I ran over to Shachi, who still lay in the ground. She was clutching her stomach, unable to get up. I helped her into a better position, trying to find out how serious the wound was.

“This is…….no’good……no’good…..” Shachi muttered, as if she was not even thinking about the pain that was causing her body to bend over completely.

“W-what?” I asked, trying to make sense to what she was saying.

However, the only thing that answered me was her wild eyes, and the words:

“The sea……….it’s restless.”


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Fight-ON!

“She’s scum. She’s a scoundrel. She’s a roller, and a cad.”

“The more I learn about this, the more unpleasant this business seems to be.”

“Ah, don’worry about me. I’m alright now. However, how is Kaeo-san?”

“So…………how many of them are there in total?”

“To be honest, Leon-kun –aru…………these kinds of things could seem almost trivial to me if I was not helping M’lady and you all –aru.”

“So, you’re the one who beat my dear friend?”

“You knew…………my father?”

The approaching storm ~ Pirate Empress of Japan!?

[ItsaRandomUsername]

GLORIOUS~ ;A;

[Verg Avesta]

Fight-ON!
Chapter Thirteen
The approaching storm ~ Pirate Empress of Japan!?

Restless waves woke me up in the early hours of the morning.

It was not as if I had been exactly bothered by the waves themselves. However, the words of Shachi from the day before kept ringing in my head, and when I combined them to the sound that seeped into my dream from the reality outside, I found out that my eyes were wide open, and I could no longer sleep at all. It was one of those moments when you opt to just stare into the darkness, and are not able to get out of the bed even though you know that would be the logical course of action. Only the snoring of Arakaki-san could eventually break through my solitary moment, and thus, I stood up from my bed, got dressed quickly, and headed outside, trying not to make so much noise as to wake up the other two people in this room.

“And where do you think you’re going?” A grumpy voice asked, signaling that clearly, I had not been nearly as sneaky as I thought I had been.

“Do I really need to inform you of my every planned course of action?” I asked while staring at Unkatuye, who, in turn, stared right back at me from her bed. She was in a half-sitting position, and only the blanket covered her from my stare.

--------------- Not that she seemed too much bothered by it. I guess the fact that she considered me the lowest part of the food-chain around here also warranted that my stare was not something she would get bothered about.

“Considering what kind of mission we are on here, and considering what kind of person you are, yes…..I think that would be wisest”, Unkatuye said, with no hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Somehow, that made it even worse.

“Really now. Just how long are you going to act like that? You know, I don’t mind if you’re being ass to me, but eventually, you’re going to hit a brick-wall called ‘No Social Life’, you know?” I asked from the girl, folding my arms. “Ending up as a secluded person who does nothing but watch TV in her underwear, play video games and order food to her doorstep really is not the best way to end.”

“Stop speaking nonsense. My life has no need for social interaction with other people. After all, I am the student and the guardian of Arakaki-san. And that’s all I ever will be”, the girl replied bluntly. “Besides, whether it’s you gaijin, or the Japanese themselves…...why should I, an Ainu, get along fine with you?”

To be honest, I had been expecting something like that. Sure enough, I did not know much about the situation with the Ainu people. I only knew that they were some sort of group of indigenous people who had lived in the northern Japan, around Hokkaido. Whatever happened to them…well, it’s the usual story, I guess. Nevertheless, as always, these kinds of stories always held much bad blood in them, whether or not it was actually the fault of the people involved.

“…Is ‘being nice and being friends’ not a feasible answer to that question?” I tried to lighten up the mood, but the vapid expression on the girl’s face drove away my hopes.

“As if. Associating myself with you would just be repeating the same mistake that my ancestors did, and that is something I do not want. I will not be recorded to the history falsely”, Unkatuye spoke strongly. “No matter what happens.”

Those words carried such finality, that I knew our conversation was over. Thus, I turned around and headed to the door of the lodge. As I put my hand on the metal handle of the door, however, I had to take one last look at the green-haired girl. She was still sitting on the bed, the blanket covering her body. However, I still saw her slender shoulders, and the graceful, elegant neck, along with her powerful arms. And those arms, along with the area around her mouth, were elaborately tattooed, showing just how proud she was of her heritage. She carried within herself the history of a people whom most of the world did not know even existed. And she was determined to not let any of that history she carried go to waste. I could understand very well her determination.

But still…

“……Your determination is admirable. However…have you ever thought that the way you feel, the way you want to live…is also important?” I asked from Unkatuye one last time. What I got as an answer, was a simple gaze.

“Stop speaking nonsense. I forbade such thoughts long ago.”

That was the metaphorical door that closed between us. Moments later, I closed the actual, physical door between us, thus separating the two of us in both ways.

What greeted me outside was the beautiful sunrise over the ocean, the endless beaches of sand, and infinite sea of clear blue that stretched before me. I stretched, shrugging off the heavy feeling left behind by my conversation with Unkatuye, and proceeded to walk over to the edge of the water, where I could let the salty water wash over my feet. After few seconds of thinking, I splashed some of that water on my face too, waking myself up completely. The refreshing feeling of the water hitting against my skin perked me up, and thus, I was able to welcome the new day with an appropriate, satisfied smile.

“Mmm~hmmm! Yeah! Okinawa is definitely not bad!” I laughed, as I enjoyed the warm air and the general seaside air around me.

I could hear seagulls crying in the distance, a sign that always brought forth to my mind some images from back home. After all, although we hadn’t exactly been by the sea, it was not as if it had been a long trip to get there. As kids, we had always enjoyed taking a day off, and going off to the beach, just to fool around, swim in the ocean and eat ice-cream.

------------- Speaking of people who enjoy sea…

I saw two pair of legs kick the surface of the ocean, and immediately, a mesmerizing figure jumped high into the air, as if she had been a dolphin breaking the waves. Her tanned body was covered only by a black-and-white two-piece swimsuit, which’s surface, full of droplets from the sea, reflected the light of the rising sun. With a graceful motion, she soared upwards, only to perform a backwards somersault. A perfect arc which left her facing the water, hands extended towards the wave-covered surface. Like a knife, she cut that cerulean blue deep below her, and dove deep into the ocean.

It was mesmerizing to look. She continued to move beneath the waves, and thanks to the clearness of the water, I could see her every movement. Swiftly, like her namesake, she kept diving even further and further, and yet, she also showed that this whole ocean was now her playground. Without any regard to rules of the dry land, such as “up” and “down”, she played in the water, enjoying the freedom only the vast waters surrounding her could offer. Even the colorful fishes, living in the blue world around her, were not afraid of her. No, instead, they swam past her, unfaltering, as if sensing that all of them belonged to this very same world.

Once more, she spun around, creating a whirl on the surface of the water far above her, and then began ascending, aiming, at the same time, towards the beach. I could see faint bubbles forming on the surface, and eventually, they were accompanied by the girl herself. She opened her mouth and I could hear her loud gasp, now that she was close to me. Her eyes blinked a few times, in order to adjust from the underwater world to the one above the surface, and when they did, she finally realized I was there. Maybe the fact that I had been watching the end of her play in the water was somewhat embarrassing, since she blushed ever so slightly from her cheeks. Yet, at the same time, due to the afterglow of the dive, she still seemed very content with herself.

The girl I have been talking about all this time is, of course, Shinjou Shachi.

“L-Leon-san! Why’re you here?” she blurted out almost immediately, effectively breaking the mood around us with her tone that was equivalent of raising your fists and doing few jabs at the other person in the conversation.

“No reason. I just thought I’d come here to enjoy the morning of Okinawa, and what do I find: An Orca in her element”, I chuckle as a response, to which Shachi, of course, answers with fire and spunk.
“S-s-s-s-shut up! I’m an uminchu, so I’ve got’to keep my skills honed”, she protested, using a word I was not familiar with. And so, I raised my eyebrow, giving her a questioning look.

“Uminchu? What’s that? A Pokémon?”

“No!” came the angry response, and a splash of water, as Shachi stood up in a defiant manner from the water. As she walked over to the beach, I handed her the towel that had been waiting for her there, but got no word of gratitude. “We uminchu are famous Japanese pearl divers. Most, if not all, of us are women, so that’s already something. However, our glorious way of diving, dating back over 2000 years, has lasted this long, and uses no external help when it comes to diving.”

“Ah, I see, I see”, I nod to her words. “So, basically, you’re like that Kissy Suzuki?”

“Don’t compare me with’a woman like that”, Shachi glared at me, before looking a bit confused. “No, wait, which one are’ya talking about? The movie version, or’tha novel version?”
“I haven’t seen the film version, unfortunately. What makes me even sadder about it, is the fact that I like Sean Connery as an actor”, I told her the answer, and the girl’s expression softened.

“Ah, alrigh’then. I guess I can live being the novel version, what with being’an former Hollywood actress and, as‘in reality, uminchu”, she giggled, before looking a bit bitter. “A ninja-agent, on’tha other hand…”

We both glanced over to one of the lodges, where we knew Rina was sleeping. Yes, there was just enough “ninja-agent” in that one girl for our group, and we certainly were not in a need of another one.

“In any case, have you eaten breakfast yet?” I asked from Shachi, and she shook her head. “Well, that’s good. Want to come with me, then? I’m sure they have already served the breakfast over in the reception building.”

“Sure!” Shachi nodded, with a smile. “I was beginning to get hungry anyways.”

And so, we headed over to the biggest building on the beach. That was the reception building Arakaki-san had visited yesterday to get the keys to our lodge. The large, wooden building was facing the ocean, and on it’s terrace, we could enjoy a wonderful breakfast, sampling local foods and enjoying the view that only Okinawa could offer us. In the light of the rising sun, the cerulean ocean that reflected that light, and the tropical trees that absorbed that light with all their might......well, you might as well call it an “ideal” place to eat your breakfast.

As I had expected, they were already serving the breakfast, and both me and Shachi were directed straight to the terrace, where a buffet was waiting for us. It started with vegetables and fruits, stuff like the bitter melon, Goya, that had been introduced to the island from China, papaya, mangos, and the like. It went on to miso soup, eggs and rise, which formed the main portion of the breakfast, along with the with the rather extravagant amount of pork that was being served. I guess it wasn’t for no reason that the island had saying of: “The Okinawan cuisine starts with pork and ends with pork”. What I really liked, however, was the Okinawa soba with slightly flatter noodles than usually, that was served with some soki. Soki were boneless pork ribs that were simply too delicious for me to pass up. I knew it was bit heavy for a breakfast, and Shachi even warned me about it (“That’s just stuff served for hungry, hungry, tourists”), but I couldn’t care less.

-------------- Besides, I had awamori-with-water-and-ice to wash it down. Even though Shachi clearly was not too fond of the fact, that I drank something with alcohol first thing in the morning.

“So, how are your bruises? Judging from the fact that you were up so early for a swim, there was nothing serious, right?” I ask from Shachi in the midst of our breakfast.

“Ah, don’worry about me. I’m alright now. However, how is Kaeo-san?”

Yes…….Kaeo.

“Erm, well……I managed to carry her to her bed last night, but I’m not too sure. At least, she’s suffering from a terrible hangover after drinking so much Orion beer”, I answered truthfully. After all, last night, while grilling, Kaeo managed to down couple too many drinks, and ended up passing out.

In short, our only “casualty” from the incident yesterday came because of drinking too much.

“Well, that’s good. Do’ya think it will affect our investigations today?” the girl asked with a little worried expression on her face. However, I shook my head.

“Don’t worry. If I know something about Kaeo, I know that she can be never truly defeat by alcohol, only “driven back for a moment”…….most likely, tonight, she’ll be in a drinking competition with some sailors in order to extract some information from them”, I told Shachi.

“Fuuun…..I’m not sure if I should’be happy about’dat or not….” the girl sighed, staring into her miso soup with a troubled expression.

“Don’t worry!” I reassured her, and laughed on top of that. Shachi looks at me, clearly somewhat surprised. “Being all gloomy like that doesn’t suit you. You’re much more natural when you’re blushing like mad from anger, yelling loudly about how your name is not “Orca-chan!”, you know?”

“S-s-s-shut up! And before you even say it, Orca-chan is not my name!!” the girl said loudly, and pointed at me with her chopsticks. “How hard can “Shinjou Shachi” be for’ya to remember? I mean, you remember even weird’uns like “Tsunemoto Tsubasa” and “Thunusakurn Kaeo! Why can’t’ya remember mine??”

---------------------- This girl is so easy to aggravate.

“Maybe it’s because Orca-chan fits you?” I asked, and before Shachi could launch into another fit, I continued. “I mean, your hair is like proud dorsal fin of an orca, and you move as gracefully as one in water. Doesn’t that mean you two are similar?”

“……F-fuuun…..”

Well, that certainly made her stop her angry comebacks. I mean, the whole girl shut up quicker than I could have even imagined, and now, she was simply staring at her breakfast, meek as a kitten. Even though I snapped my fingers few times in front of her face, she seemed to be too deep in thought to actually realize I did it. However, that small smile on her face told me that she was not certainly silent because of a shock.

-------------- Well, if she’s smiling, I guess it’s alright.

“Anyways, do you mind if I go visit the Shinjou Shrine first thing when we get to Naha? I want to talk with your father about the situation a bit”, I jumped to the next subject, and finally got Shachi to focus again.

“Actually, there’s no such thing’as “Shinjou Shrine”, Shachi corrected me. “You see, our family is just’he “caretaker” of that shrine. Which is the “Naminoue Shrine” in Naha.”

“I see…..well, that makes things easier. We can hit two birds with one stone”, I nodded, scratching my chin. “After that…….well, I guess the elders who want you sacrificed would be the logical next step, but…….how do I have this foreboding feeling that it’s not going to be so simple meeting them.”

“You go’that right”, Orca-chan said and nodded. “They’ve basically barricaded themselves inside the Shuri Castle, which’is nowadays closed fo’the public. Getting’ta meet them, especially since ya’re friends with Arakaki-san……is not going’ta be easy.”

“Well, although I wouldn’t want to rule that action out completely, at least we’ll have to postpone it….” I muttered, and took a sip from my awamori. Now, during the morning, the alcohol put a nice speed to my thinking. “I guess all we have left is to try and acquire more info about this mysterious stable that has appeared.”

“You don’think that….they’re behind this whole mess?” Shachi asked, looking a bit scared. “That team……could they’ave done all this just’in order to ge’to the Tournament of One Thousand Blades? If, normally, their stable wouldn’t have been accepted….it could just be…..”

“It is a possibility”, I nodded, strongly. “If there was a reason that, for some reason, prevented that stable from participating the tournament held here, and thus, prevented their entry to the actual Tournament of One Thousand Blades, a desperate maneuver like this could just be……..but, if they were really under such a constraint, wouldn’t the elders had guessed that something like this would happen? And wouldn’t they try to stop it? There are too many questions that arise from this that I don’t like………and neither do I like the fact that we don’t even have to look for answers to find more questions.”

“Questions that give birth’to more questions, huh….?” Orca-chan said with a loud sigh, and gazed at the sea, where the sun had already climbed above the horizon. “Lately, my life has been nothin’but that. Fuuun. Sometimes, it woul’be nice to find some answers and solutions, too.”

“Really? I always thought that the fact that we have questions is a sure-fire way to know that our lives will never be dull. As long as we have something we don’t know, a “riddle” poised to us that we are willing to solve, we have something to entertain us, and even more so, give us a concrete thing to do, no matter where we are. Without questions, with all the knowledge, there would be simply nothing worth doing in this world”, I gave my opinion. “Heck, even around the fifth century, which people usually regard as “barbaric” times, people were constantly challenging themselves to know more, and to answer things that were left as “challenges”. One who comes to mind is certain bishop of Sherborne, who wrote the semi-famous “Symposii Aenigmata”…………..But now I’m starting to veer off-track. What I wanted to say was that as long as we have questions, something we don’t know, we have a mystery to intrigue and inspire us in our life.”

“Wouldn’t that mean that………a being like the Christian God woul’be utterly bored?” Shachi asked, having listened surprisingly intently.

“Well, who knows!” I laugh it off, and chew on my last piece of soki. “I know I would be bored if I was him. Omnipotence might not be as good as they say.”

At this point, we both chuckled like idiots. It was really a rather meaningless discussion, but it was perfect for breakfast when neither of us was that tired.

“Well, shall we get going? I bet the others are waking up too”, I asked from Orca-chan, who agreed.

“Yeah. Let’s go. We got’a long day ahead of us.”

And so, we left the terrace, and the wonderful view to the ocean, and moved back inside the building to take our trays back. After doing that, we headed to the exit, once again seeing the endless-looking beach with small lodges dotting it. The wind was almost non-existent, even though we were next to the sea, and I knew that the day would turn out hot. It certainly was welcome change of pace from the usual warm weather of Tokyo, which felt a bit suffocating, thanks to it being such a big city. Here, in Okinawa, it was the fresh, enjoyable, eternal type of warmth that every human being longed for.

As we walked, Shachi was having fun leaving her footprints in the sand. Seeing how big difference there was between the two sets of prints we left behind, even I found something to chuckle about them. Unfortunately, because we both were now focused on our feet, even I could not see from the distance just what waited for us near our lodges.

It was only after we made it over there that we got to witness that bizarre sight.

“Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!”

The music that echoed in the small area was something I was so unprepared for that I simply froze out of pure shock. Sorry, Carl Douglas, but honestly, this song is something that should have never been done. Really.

“Those kids were fast as lightning!”

But what was even more bizarre was that, to this music, I could see Arakaki-san performing his katas. To this dastardly music that I would expected any self-respecting martial artist to hate with extreme passion. But there I was, seeing Arakaki bring his hands, after crossing them in the middle, to his hips, and then up to his face, where he extended them to the both sides. Then, with extreme speed, both hands struck forward, and the legs brought him closer to the “enemy”, almost like he had been walking on a tight-rope. Suddenly, Arakaki-san burst into action, with a double-punch to all directions, before finally throwing himself down to the sand, where he directed two kicks to the both sides. This was the start of a kata known as “Unsu”, and which was known as one of the hardest katas in Shotokan.

And it was done the rhythm of that shameless slap bass.

“In fact it was a little bit frightening.”

But what was even more bizarre was that, just after I had witnessed Arakaki-san starting to perform that kata, I could see how a certain green-haired girl followed in suite, performing those same moves to the same rhythm, as if the song that the Jamaican man sung had been a perfect way to adjust the flow of the kata. The vapid expression on that girl’s face did not falter for a moment, but I saw that, few times, her eyes darted at me and back, and I could feel an atmosphere filled with desire to sink below the sand fall over her.

“Don’t worry, Unkatuye…….you look kind of cool”, I tried to encourage her.

“Shut up. Go and die”, was the answer I got.

“Oh, if it isn’t Leon. How are you doing this morning?” Arakaki-san asked with a big grin on his face, as he finished up his kata with a single, straight punch that was on the height of his chest. “Well, I presume?” “To be honest, waking up in an environment like this is like a dream come true”, I laughed with a grin. “When you’ve gotten used to the air of a big city like Tokyo, a sea breeze like this does you wonders.”

“Ahahaha! That’s right, that’s right! I thought you’d be happy about it”, Arakaki-san laughed merrily. “I remember the first time I really got out in the world, after spending so long in my cramped up, old apartment. The smell of seas and adventures….it never lets a man down.”

“To be honest, I could do with bit fewer adventures, but never mind that…” I straightened my posture, trying to get some seriousness to my voice. “Are we ready to leave to Naha? I mean, if we want to get some work done, I guess we should start as early as possible…”

“Well, I’m not sure”, Arakaki-san said, and looked bit mischievous because of my confused expression. The old man pointed towards the sea. “If you want an answer to that question, you should ask from the people who are holding us up.”

And so, I look over to the ocean, which is, by this time, already enjoying the full blaze of the golden sun.

--------------- You have got to be kidding me.

There, riding on the shoulder of the still-blue, slowly rising wave with her bright yellow and blue surfboard was none other than Kaeo. Sure enough, she had said yesterday that she could surf, but seeing her do that before my very eyes was bit surprising. As the wave got higher and higher, Kaeo nimbly got on to her board, and faced downwards. Then, with a perfect timing, she descended down the wave, performed a cutback which brought her, once more, back to the top of the wave to do a top-turn and shoot a spray of water in the air, and then dove down, as the wave had climbed to the top of it’s momentum, and started breaking in a perfect cylinder shape. Kaeo, her mouth in a wide grin, shot through the sideways tube that had been created, and like a pro, directed her board out of the other end before the water from above could touch her.

As Kaeo re-emerged from the other side of the wave, she did not stop there. Instead, she aimed for the one last remnant of the wave before her, took her surfboard against it, and headed straight up it, as if trying to topple herself. Instead, her high speed paid off, and the girl was launched high into the air with her board, like the almost gone wave had given her the last gift it could offer. I could hear Kaeo’s laughter over the roar of the waves, and when the board finally descended on the water, I saw an expression I had never before seen on the girl’s face. No, I had seen it once before.

The moment she mastered the usage of the “Howling Path”.

“Oooooooi! Kaeo!! You want to come out of there alreadyyyyy!?” I yelled over the roar of the waves, and the girl answered by waving her hand.

“Yeah, give me a minute!” I heard her voice, and right after saying that, Kaeo plopped down on her board, and begun paddling towards the shore with her hands.

A minute or two later, she emerged from the sea, dressed in her swimsuit and holding her board under her arm, still smiling from ear to ear. And she was also drenched in the salty seawater, but that did not seem to bother her the slightest. I smiled at the approaching girl, and raised my hand with the thumb and pinkie fingers up while the index, middle and ring fingers remained folded over my palm.

“Hang loose!” I greeted her, and Kaeo nodded at me.

“Thanks! Nothin’ beats a lil’ surfin’ in the mornin’, ya know?” she laughed and repeated the same gesture as I did. “So, I guess we’re preparin’ to move to Naha soon?”

“Yeah, that was the intention”, I answered. “As soon as the others wake up, which should be any minute now, knowing Tsubasa, and we all have gotten our preparations ready, we’ll be heading over to that island. First things first, we’ll be visiting the Naminoue Shrine, and having a talk with Orca-chan’s dad. After that…….It’s all about information gathering.”

“Ooh! Does dat mean I can visit local bars in order to collect information?” Kaeo asked, clearly excited. “’Cause, ya know, I’d be really good at dat, ya know?”

----------------------- Yes. For some reason, I have no problems believing that be it anywhere in the world, if it just was a bar, you’d fit right in.

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

Naminoue Shrine, a red and white building located on a high bluff overlooking the Naminoue Beach and the ocean beyond it. It is the primary Shinto shrine found in Okinawa, but originally, it was a sacred place of the ancient Ryukyuan religion, and devoted to nira kanai, the mythical source of all life. It was devoted to Shinto under the control of Japanese government some hundred years ago, and now, symbols of ancient Ryukyuan kings are enshrined here as the primary objects of worship. They say that the reconstruction of this temple, destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, was finished was just about six years ago. That’s why I was kind of surprised at how “new” the whole place looked.

Also, unlike our very own apartment in Tokyo, this shrine was literally more of a real shrine. While ours was incorporated as more of a “temple” style, where the quarters of the priests and monks living inside were in the same building as the main hall or worship, here the people working in this shrine lived in the outbuilding near the haiden, or the main hall. The outbuilding lied on side facing the road leading up to the haiden, leaving the impressive view from the bluff completely unobstructed. Even the tropical trees that surrounded the shrine had been cleared out of the way.

------------- Well, enough about admiring the view. We came here for a reason.

“Haah……..Shinjou-san, is it? I shall go see if he is available”, the miko that we had come across said, and hurried over to the outbuilding. Or maybe, in this case, I should have called her “kaminchu”. After all, even though she was dressed like a Shinto priestess, miko, she had an amulet which hinted at her true faith being that of a kaminchu, people who specialize in the magico-religious practices of the local religion.

It seems that the situation with the religion here in Okinawa is just as messed up as it is with the martial arts.

“Dost thou think Shinjou-dono can be found inside, de gozaru?” Tsubasa asked with a low voice from me, to which I shrugged.

“Who knows? I’d imagine a man who is about to have his daughter sacrificed because some old men are superstitious would be quite busy”, I answered honestly, to which Chun laughed.

“That’s right, ne”, the girl giggled. “But lucky for him, we are here to help, ne!”

“Help –aru!” Fu chimed in, and thus, earned a glare from me.

“Could you two calm down and keep quiet? We are in a sacred place, after all. Show some respect, idiots”, I gave a sharp order, and both of them scratched the backs of their heads, in unison, looking apologetic.

“Kannushi will meet you immediately”, the miko informed us as she finally returned, after spending about ten minutes in the outbuilding. “It seems that he has been waiting for you.”

“Thank you”, I bowed to the woman, who repeated the gesture. Then, I nodded to the girls behind me. “Alright. Let’s go. And behave.”

Down a rock-paved path to the outbuilding, and up the small set of stairs, and we were finally on the sliding door that led inside. Since I had already grown accustomed to some of the more common customs here in Japan, even I remembered to take my shoes of before stepping on the shining, wooden floor. After that, it was the simply matter of kneeling outside the door, Japanese-style, and waiting for Orca-chan’s father to acknowledge our being there. Usually, I think a kannushi would have taken some time before allowing the guests to enter, but as soon as my knees touched the floor, I heard a male voice call for us from the inside.

“Please, enter.”

---------------- It seems that we are not the only one who feel the weight of time pressing on our shoulders.

Inside the outbuilding, the lighting was dim, being only achieved by a couple of small windows and a bunch of candles that seemed to be part of some religious ceremony. The room itself was completely empty, if not counting for those candles that were placed around, and a single table on the other end of the room, with three picture-frames on it. The only “thing” inside was a middle-aged man, sitting Japanese-style on the wooden floor, while wearing a turquoise kariginu, and an eboushi. On his right hand, he carried an ivory shaku, a sign of his position as a kannushi.

The man’s grey eyes followed us intently, as our rag-tag group took a formation something akin to a wedge of cranes, and we all sat down in a style similar to him. Being the manager, I sat in the front, with Tsubasa on my right side, and Chun on my left side. Then, I bowed, with my hands placed on the floor, and the others followed en suite.

Who says I wasn’t taught proper manners?

“Welcome. I am the kannushi of Naminoue shrine, Shinjou Kujira. It is a pleasure to meet you, The Lionhearts”, Orca-chan’s father greeted us, adding a gesture of acknowledgment to return our nod. His eyes moved to Arakaki-san. “I thank you for coming here on such a short notice. It eases the burden on my heart to have help on these dire times.”

“I thank you, Shinjou-san. However, even though my age my fool you, I am not the leader of this group. That honor belongs to this young man…” At this point, Arakaki-san nodded towards me. “…and thus, you should address him when speaking about The Lionhearts coming to your aid.”

“A-ah, I see…” Shinjou Kujira said, looking a bit flustered. He gave me an apologetic smile. “Do forgive me, I assumed that…”

“No, no, it’s alright”, I hurried to assure him, and then gestured him to continue. “I am the manager of stable, The Lionhearts. My name is Leon Hart…..that is, Hart Leon. It is an honor to meet you.”

“Leon……………Hart?” Shinjou Kujira’s eyes widened the moment they heard my name. “Are you, perhaps, related to the……….”Golden Mane” Hart?”

…That was a name I had not expected to hear. “Golden Mane” Hart. In other words…………none other than the old bastard. The man who had acquired fame as a hero of sorts by traveling all over the world, defeating powerful enemies and evil villains, rescuing women from dire perils, and saving people who had no one else to turn to. He was what we’d call a “Hero”. True definition of that word. To be honest, I was not surprised that his name came up sooner or later. But to hear it from the mouth of Orca-chan’s father…came a bit out of the blue.

“You knew…………my father?” I asked, not even able to guess what expression I had.

“Well, I did not exactly “know” him…….however, I do know about the deeds he has performed. After all, one of those was defeating a warlord that had been plaguing Okinawa for a long time from his forth in Nakijin Castle. I was but a young man back then, but I remember the Golden Mane’s brilliant form perfectly. When he headed out to battle with his companions…….it was like watching a hero from the legends arise once more to the world of today”, Shinjou Kujira explained with a strange, a bit nostalgic, smile on his face. “The fact that he defeated that warlord made it possible for Okinawa to be what it is today. For that fact, we are eternally indebted to him.”

You hear that, old bastard? You just managed to make a whole prefecture indebted to you.

“But the fact that you truly are related to the Golden Mane fills me with hope…….after all, this cannot be mere irony, but a sign from the gods”, Kujira said, and looked at me, expectantly.

“W-what do you mean?” I asked, a little troubled by the sudden way he changed his tone.

“You see, the name of that warlord the Golden Mane defeated was Bakukaze Ryuunosuke, the “Demonic Dragon of East China Sea”. And now, the stable that emerged after the disappearance of other teams here in Okinawa, and which has spread fear amongst the citizens of Okinawa……is being led by a young woman known as “Pirate Empress of Japan”……….Bakukaze Chisame”, Shinjou Kujira’s words fell heavily from his lips.

Bakukaze…….Ryuunosuke and Chisame? A former warlord who had this area in his iron grip, and now a leader of a stable that suddenly appeared after all other teams disappeared……….I would be a fool to write this off as a mere coincidence.

------------- But still……..

“An Pirate Empress named “Chisame”……..?” I asked for a confirmation while trying to stifle my laughter. “That’s……surprisingly cute.”

However, Orca-chan’s father’s face was not that amused.

“It would be…..if that name was written like it usually is, with the kanji “千” for thousand, and ”雨” for rain. However, this girl’s name is actually written with “血” for blood, and “鮫” for shark.”

Scary! A girl with a name like that has to be scary like hell!

“W-well, in any case…..The more I learn about this, the more unpleasant this business seems to be”, I cleared my throat. “It seems that you are suspecting this stable to have a hand in this whole mess. And to be honest, I cannot blame you for suspecting that. After all, arising to the spotlight after every other stable has disappeared or withdrawn from the competition…………that is already very suspicious. However, now that we know that the leader of that stable shares a name with a former oppressor of this same area……..interesting questions arise.”

“Indeed”, Kujira nodded, looking troubled. “And during the time the “Storm Lords” have been in the area, they have made the lives of the citizens around these parts hard. After all, right now, there is nobody around who could stand up to them, and so, they can do as they please.”

“Most obvious scenario would be, of course, that the Storm Lords have been behind the disappearances of other stables, and they did it in order to by-pass the initial tournament held here in Okinawa……but a question remains: Why? If they are so powerful, why would they resort in to something like this? Was there something, like who their leader was, that prevented them from entering the tournament here in Okinawa? And what about Shachi? Is her sacrifice just an unfortunate conclusion to this unrelated scheme of Storm Lords?” I turned my thoughts into jumbled words, but even though it sounded perhaps a bit confusing, Shinjou Kujira kept nodding to my every word.

“Unrelated or not, what matters is the fact that my daughter is in danger. Whatever the truth, what you have to expose, and find a proof of, is the truth that the disappearances have nothing to do with angry gods or spirits. Only a proof like that, shown to the people of Okinawa, could prevent the elders of the clans from sacrificing Shachi”, Kujira told me.

“Otou-san…..” Orca-chan looked at her father with an expression that betrayed only little of the fear the girl must have been feeling. “Don’t worry’bout me. I’m sure Leon Hart can find a’way to solve this whole mess.”

That trust…….it all originated from one sentence. From the sentence where I declared that I wanted to save her. And I would give everything I got in order to be worthy of that trust. Even if it means getting tangled up in a world of pirates or whatever.

“If you truly are related to the Golden Mane……then I am sure that you can get to the bottom of this, and bring to justice the person responsible”, Shinjou Kujira looked at me with reflection of Orca-chan’s trust in his eyes.

-------------- And me?

“You can count on me. There is no way I will allow your daughter to die, Shinjou-san.”

To be honest, that was one of the rare times I actually felt like there was some of my father’s heroic blood in me. However, that feeling was slightly lessened by the fact that I could hear what Kaeo whispered to Fu after my declaration.

“Look at dat Lady Killer. Sha-chan’s blushin’ so ‘ard she’s ‘bout to melt like a puddin’, ya know?”

Shut up, Kaeo!

---------------------- Fight-ON! ----------------------

“Alright. The plan is this: We divide up to search information about the Storm Lords, from whatever sources we can, and by the end of the day, we meet up here, in front of the city hall. After all, this is a place we all can find. Now…” I took a good look at the group we had, and made some decisions.

“I guess you, Arakaki-san, and Unkatuye, are going to investigate by the two of you?” I asked, and to that question I got two answers.

“Yeah, that was the plan. I know this place like the back of my pockets, so I think I can make some good progress, even without much help from others.”

“Of course. There is no way I’d go with anyone else but my master.”

------------ Gee, Unkatuye. Thanks for being so friendly and socially open.

“Okay, then you two will team up. The rest of the teams I planned are…..Tsubasa and Chun, you are one “duo”, at least”, I told the girls, and immediately, got a rather emotion-filled response.

“S-Shishou?? Why wouldst thou pair myself with this…this….air-head, de gozaru??” Tsubasa demanded an explanation.

“Air-head?? What do you mean with that, ne!?” Chun looked at Tsubasa with miffed expression on her face.

------------- I had anticipated this, though.

“It’s especially because of this that I’m pairing you two up for this “mission”. You two need to learn to get along and work together if you want to be for any use for this stable of ours”, I admonished then with a frown. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

““Y-yes…””

Well, with that out of the way…

“Lin-Lin and Orca-chan, you two should take care of all the places where younger people hang out. You know places like that, no?” I turned to look at Shachi, who nodded, but did not seem satisfied, for some reason. This prompted me to ask another question. “You got some problem with this arrangement?”

“Not really……..but when in my father’s presence, you seemed to have no problem remembering my name. Fuuun”, she said, her brows raised.

“That’s because I had to behave in a sacred place like that. When I’m allowed to be myself, you’re just an Orca to me”, I told her the truth.

“S-s-s-shut up! You’re horrible, you kno’that!?”

---------------------- Well, at least she had gotten back her usual spunk and fire. Seeing that made me relieved a bit, and so, I concentrated on the last two pairs.

“Anyways. Kaeo and Rina, you’ll be pairing up too for this. Fu, I want you to come with me. To be honest, we are about to go to one place where I want to have the best protection possible, and I know there is nothing that will get past your eyes”, I told the girls.

“Aiya aiya…” Tai Fu scratched the back of her head, looking somewhat embarrassed. “Xie xie, Leon-kun. Then, I will do my best to protect you –aru.”

With our “duos” now specified, it was time for us to proceed with our current plan. Since Storm Lords was the only clue we had right now, there was no other way but to search around Naha for information about this mysterious, and feared, stable that had appeared suddenly. And most of all, we wanted information about their leader, Bakukaze Chisame. After all, she shared the name with the former feared figure of these parts, Bakukaze Ryuunosuke. I know that if we’d have some indiscriminating evidence about this Bakukaze Chisame, the elders of the clans would be almost forced to listen to us. After all, they should remember what happened last time someone with the name “Bakukaze” was around these parts.

And if we got face-to-face with these elders of the clans…..I would start my mission to save Shachi. After all, her life depended on the decision of those geezers. So there would be no way around it. I would have to convince them that Orca-chan was more useful alive than dead, or at least, the outcome of her living would be far better than her dying as a sacrifice.

“Leave no stone unturned. We need to get to the bottom of this, and if people are unwilling to talk, then we will have to make them talk”, I told everyone. “Our friend’s life depends on this. And we promised to save her. So we cannot afford to fail because we did a half-assed job.”

All the girls, and Arakaki-san, nodded at me.

“So, let’s do this, Lionhearts!”

“””””Ou!! “””””

And so, we left to different directions. In order to find out about the stable that would, most likely, be our enemy.

The direction Fu and I headed towards to was the seedy part of the town around the harbor, where I knew we would find at least bit of info about the so-called “pirates”. After all, if they really lived up to their titles as pirates, they would have had run-ins with local sailors, who would have not taken kindly to getting robbed on the high-seas. Add in couple of shots bought by a curious tourist, and I’m sure at least few of these sailors would be willing to tell their opinion to us. And in that opinion, truths about the stable would he hidden. And those truths were exactly what we were looking for.

Eventually, we found a promising looking bar. It was bit of a run-down place, but judging from the lights and the noise that could be heard from the inside, it was in usage by large amount of people. I nodded to Fu, who nodded back, reassuringly. I was glad to know that my back, and front for that matter, where guarded by this girl. To be honest, when it came to skills, Fu was the number one choice when selecting someone to protect you.

And as Chun had shown us, when Tai Fu promised to protect someone, she would do it to the very end.

“Okay, first, we have to buy some drinks. Then, we need to look for a angry-looking sailor that seems to have lost everything just recently”, I told Fu. The girl looked a bit curious, as she peeked at the tables set around the bar.

“Umm, Leon-kun? Doesn’t that man look exactly like your description –aru?”

I looked at the direction Fu was pointing at, and indeed. There, alone in one corner table, sat a gruffy-looking sailor with bald hair and moustache that made him look like Fu Manchu. Fortunately, his round face lessened the resemblance to the personification of the yellow peril, and thus, I deemed it profitable to actually go and try to get some information out of the man. Thus, we headed over to the counter with Fu, bought three beers, and headed back to the corner table where the man was sitting alone, drowning his sorrows into alcohol.

“Excuse me, can we sit here?” I asked from the man, and before he could answer, sat down. That way, whether he liked it or not, we had already entered into a conversation. Looking at me, the man shrugged.

“I guess you can. It’s not like there’s any worth to anything anymore”, the man answered, giving a large sigh.

“Oh? Now what has given birth to an opinion like that?” I asked, and when the man gave me a dirty look, I simply grinned and pushed the beer in front of him. “They say that sad stories are easiest to tell with a wet throat.”

“You’re right about that”, the man gave a sad chuckle, and drank the beer down with one move. I decided to sacrifice my own beer, and pushed that in front of him too, earning a tired grin from the man. “Thanks, kid. I really needed this, but I no longer have the money to buy even a drink for myself…”

“…Were you robbed?” I ask, and immediately, get a positive answer in form of a nod.

“Worse. Plundered. By a pirates, for Christ’s sake! And not just any pirates, no”, the man spits on the ground, looking agitated. “Wokou, attacking our own land! I was robbed by that Bakukaze-girl and her gang. Only six people raided our ship, while rest of their crew just watched from that blasted ship, “Arashi Maru”. Storm Lords, my ass…….they are bunch of pirates, plain and simple!”

“Bakukaze……you are talking about Bakukaze Chisame, aren’t you? Could you tell us more about her, and the Storm Lords that she leads?” I asked, leaning unconsciously forward now that we were getting closer to the subject I really wanted to know about.

“Bakukaze Chisame? She’s a scum. She’s a scoundrel. She’s a roller, and a cad. All the sailors and other men of the sea around here are in love with her, and her wild attitude, yet she cares about nobody but herself. A truly despicable woman, despite being so young. She does what she wants, takes what she wants, and lets neither law nor anyone else tell her what she can and cannot do”, the man explained. And even though he had just recently been robbed by that same woman, I could hear a slight admiration still lingering in his voice. This Bakukaze Chisame must be someone truly extraordinary. “And then there’s her personal guard, the Storm Lords…..they say that they are also a stable in the Tournament of One Thousand Blades, yet they seem more like the best-of-the-best and worst-of-the-worst pirates that she has managed to find.”

“Storm Lords………yeah, they do seem like a dangerous bunch”, I acknowledged his information. “So…………how many of them are there in total?”

“Six, if we count Bakukaze Chisame herself. There is helmsman of Arashi Maru, the infamous Hoshizuna Kin, who enjoys taking the innocence of young ladies as much as the treasures of others. Then there are individuals like Dokuga Habu, master of poisons, and Umihara San, a half-American, half-Okinawan beauty. From Iriomote, they have Kawasemi Sora, whose innocent appearance can only be matched by the lack of compassion in him. And, of course, there is Bakukaze Chisame’s first mate, Yamagame Kameko. They say that the whole crew respects her just as much as they respect the captain herself”, the sailor kept delivering a name after another, as if recalling a nightmare. “And then there’s her……………..Pirate Empress of Japan, the Last of all Wokou, Demonic Shark of the East China Sea………Always dressed in blue like the stormy sea, with hair as grey as the great beast from which she derives her name from…….Bakukaze Chisame. The beast that roams the waters around Okinawa, searching for fragrance of blood, which would lead her to another prey.”

It was a fact now: The respect that, even as a villain, this Bakukaze Chisame held amongst the sailors of Okinawa was one-of-a-kind. Even when robbed by her, even after their lives where driven into a ruin by her, they still found themselves oddly fascinated by her, and the aura of charisma and power around her.

“Yeah, even I have got it pretty bad”, the man laughed, as if he had read my thoughts. “But really, I think the most troubled by the fact that Bakukaze and her crew are here is Shinjou Kujira. Not only is her daughter prepared to be a sacrifice for Ryugu, but now that the supposed daughter of his nemesis is her……..I don’t envy the man.”

Nemesis? What was this? Was there some personal history between Shinjou Kujira and Bakukaze Ryuunosuke?

“What do you mean? Why would the kannushi of Naha think a pirate as an exceptional trouble, as you say he does?” I tried to inquire from the man, and his expression darkened a bit.

“You see, that has to do with something that happened way back, almost twenty years ago. Back then, this same area was terrorized by a warlord known as Bakukaze Ryuunosuke, said to be the father of Bakukaze Chisame. Nevertheless, that man was devious. He knew that Shinjou Kujira was one of the strongest warriors and fighters of Okinawa, and neutralized him by kidnaping his wife-to-be. Even though a foreign hero, who appeared to help us back then, managed to eventually rescue that woman, she was so traumatized by the event, that the baby she was pregnant with back then was a stillbirth”, the sailor gritted his teeth together, as if he himself had felt hate for the whole incident. “And she never recovered. During her next pregnancy, the one that resulted in the current daughter of Shinjou Kujira, Shinjou Shachi, the wife died. It was a great shame……losing a beautiful woman, and a great kaminchu like Shinjou Nami, was a great blow to all of us. After all, she was supposed to be one of the next nūru, the most important kaminchu there are in Okinawa.”

--------------- So, there was something personal to Shinjou Kujira in this whole deal after all? Well, aside from the horrible fate her daughter was about to face.

“You said that Bakukaze Ryuunosuke used Shinjou Kujira’s wife as a means to stop him from trying to meddle into his affairs, right? Then why didn’t other martial artists and warriors of Okinawa do anything about it? From what I’ve seen, there are plenty of strong people on these islands”, I asked from the sailor, who seemed a bit troubled from having to answer this question.

“That is…………..well, I do not know for certain, but they whisper that for a reason or another, Bakukaze Ryuunosuke was in favor of the elders of the most martial arts clans around these islands. It seems that the reason for why those clans did not directly oppose Bakukaze lied there”, he told me, giving a nervous glance to other tables, as if he had expected to see an agent of the clans sitting there.

….So, it all went a full circle, and came back to those elders, once again? Not only where they now trying to push forward the idea of sacrificing Orca-chan in order to calm the “Sea”, and thus bring back the tournament of Okinawa, they also had not opposed the warlord Bakukaze Ryuunosuke back in the day? Why? Had the fact that this pirate lord ruled Okinawa somehow furthered their own, unknown goals?

“S-sorry, kid, but I’d rather not talk about these things”, the man suddenly said, and stood up. “It’s not like I don’t want to help you with whatever you are investigating, but you must understand…….if I’m brought to the attention of the clans, it will be the last time I’m heard from.”

------------- That sort of influence, huh? These clans started to almost sound like local crime families…….

“Very well. Take care, then. And thank you. You have given me lot to think about, and some important information”, I nodded, and so, with curt goodbyes, the sailor headed out of the door of the bar, leaving me and Fu alone in the corner-table.

“Leon-kun……what do you think –aru? From what I could understand, those elders seem more and more like bad news to me –aru….” Fu besides me commented, and I nodded.

“I’m ready to bet my sunglasses that they really do play a big part in this whole mess. What is so important about the Bakukazes that the elders keep on willfully ignoring them, and instead, finding a scapegoat like Orca-chan?” The whole deal with these old men stunk badly. “It’s almost like……..the elders were scared of the Bakukazes. Like they had some kind of advantage over the elders.”

Could it be? What if Bakukaze Ryuunosuke had found some kind of terrible secret that the elders of the clans did not want revealed, and had passed that information to his daughter? If that was the case…..I could understand why the elders would have done as they had done till now.

Was that………really the case? If so, we would need to-

“…! Leon-kun!” Fu’s voice brought me back to reality, and like electricity, an alarm rang through my body. “Be careful!”

Fu’s words were meant to act as a warning about the approaching person, who was clearly heading for the table. But even without them, I would have known to watch out. After all, there was only one, extremely long, kiseru I knew that was used to smoke this certain flavor of kizami. This stinging smell that was like a killing intent itself was far from the airy fragrance of the kizami that Tsubasa smoked……no, this smell, by no doubt, originated from….!!

“So, you’re the one who beat my dear friend?”

Kamaitachi.

And there he was. Dressed in black like a lithe shadow that had appeared from the corner of the bar, he gazed down on me with his single, arrogant eye. The young man had not changed at all. That sneer on his face, that confident posture……it was like his loss as the manager of Double-Dragon had not happened at all. No, to be honest……..knowing what kind of a man he was, I doubt he even remembered that occurrence anymore. It had been just a minor fun for him, and since it had not worked out for him, he no longer thought about it.

But Fu and I both remembered, and thus, if looks could kill, we would have already murdered Kamaitachi over dozen times.

“Fancy meeting you here”, I replied with a similar tone, refusing to back down before his gaze. “For some reason, I am not really that surprised to see that you are here.”

“And you shouldn’t be”, Kamaitachi chuckled. “After all, whenever there is history of martial arts to be made, I, Kamaitachi, can be found there. And that is exactly what is about to happen in Okinawa. After all, for the first time in the history of these islands, a single stable will emerge from it, without winning the traditional Okinawan martial-arts tournament, and enter the Tournament of One Thousand Blades. I am, of course, speaking of a team that should be quite familiar to you too, even though you’ve been here only two days……”

--------------------- Like there was any other chance.

“You’re the manager of the Storm Lords.”

It was not a question.

“Indeed. It seemed that the Storm Lords were in a dire need of a manager to get acknowledged as a real stable, and thus, I offered to take that position. Knowing my reputation, they were more than happy to take me in. Thus, you can now call me the official manager of the stable: Storm Lords”, Kamaitachi snickered at me. “Which brings me to another point I just wanted to spell out for you: Would you mind going back now? You see, if you poke your nose any further into the business here at Okinawa, I’m sorry, but my stable is forced to take action against you.”

“Threatening me? Is that how low you’ve become, Kamaitachi? Being a normal delinquent now, demanding for lunch money?” I mocked him. However, it did not seem to faze him much, as the man merely raised his eyebrow at my insult.

“Threatening? I was merely giving out free advice. You, of all people, should feel grateful. After all, a newcomer-manager like you couldn’t hope to-“

“Shut up –aru. We do not want to see you anymore, Kamaitachi”, Tai Fu suddenly stepped into the conversation, and she was glaring coldly at the man. The power behind those eyes made even Kamaitachi take an unsure step backwards. “You tricked us once –aru. Do not think you can do it again –aru. “

“……….Very well. Since the prodigy of Shaolin Martial-Arts so demands, I shall withdraw for now. But do keep my advice in mind. After all, Okinawa is much more turbulent place than it seems to be on the first glance”, Kamaitachi chuckled maliciously. “The storm is coming, after all…….”

And with that, the man blew a cloud of smoke from his pipe, and turned around. He gave one last look at me, and seemed to laugh at my foolishness inside his mind.

“Till we see again, Leon Hart.”

“You’d better hope that day never comes, Kamaitachi.”

No more words were exchanged. The man in black left the bar, leaving me and Fu alone on the corner-table. After we had sat there for a while, in complete silence, both staring at the door through which Kamaitachi had exited, I could sense something akin to heavy tiredness falling to our shoulders. Maybe it was because the tension, that had just been high, was suddenly released, or maybe it was because of the reality of the situation we were in was creeping up on us………..in any case, after sitting there, staring at the wooden door for a while, I felt much, much more tired than when we had first entered this bar.

“Leon-kun……how about we start heading to the meeting place –aru?” Tai Fu finally suggested, breaking the silence. “It has already gotten a bit late, and it will take some time to walk from here to the city hall –aru.”

“……………..Good idea. Let’s go, Fu.”

I wasn’t exactly on my most talkative mood.

As we exited the bar, what we were greeted by was the midday-sun that had slowly begun it’s descend towards the horizon. The afternoon was just starting, and we still had a lot we could achieve today. And I knew enough to be glad about that fact. After all, time was something we did not certainly have too much. Every second, the clock ticked closer to the point where we could do no longer anything to stop Orca-chan’s cruel fate, and thus, we were, literally, fighting against the time.

It was funny, though. After all, when Fu and I walked through the streets, looking at the normal lives of the people here in Okinawa, it would have been hard to even imagine that something like a human-sacrifice could even be thought of. This was a happy, modern society, where no such atrocity should have been accepted. Yet the power of those elders was vast, and their word was the law. Okinawa did have a governor, but most likely, he had no business when it came to interfering with the orders from the elders of the clans. And here, far in the south, the hand of Japan’s government did not reach.

That meant we would have to take care of this all by ourselves.

I knew that what we were essentially up against was the true will and power in Okinawa. The elders of the clans would not meet us, that much I knew. They were stalling for time, for whatever the reason. All so that Bakukaze Chisame could do as she pleased, just like her father before her. Just what was in that name, Bakukaze, that made the elders handle them with such silk-gloves? I intended to find that out, and right now, there was only one place I knew I could get that information.

------------------------- Arakaki-san.

He was a local, and had probably seen many years come and go here. Not only that, but it was clear that he was very accomplished martial-artist. This would, in return, mean that he was a very important figure, when it came to the martial-artist-clans of Okinawa. And thus, it was not far-fetched to think that he would have met the elders at least once, if not more often. I would have to squeeze the information I wanted out of him in order to understand more about what was going on, and to formulate a plan on how we were going to avoid all that. And I would-

“Leon-kun, do you want one –aru?”

Fu’s voice came so surprisingly, that my head jolted up from my thoughts like it had been electrified. As I looked at the girl in cheongsam, she had stopped before a small stall. In it, an old lady was selling fruits, and was now offering my friend a slice of melon.

“Erm…..Sure. Here, let me dig up my wallet…” I begun rummaging through my pockets, my Fu stopped me with a shake of her head.

“No, no, let me handle it –aru”, she said with a smile, and handed the old woman some cash. In exchange, she got two slices of delicious, irresistibly red-colored melon, and handed the other slice to me. “It’s not bitter, but……maybe that’s for better –aru! Ahahaha~”

I joined in her laughter, and together, side-by-side, we once more started to make our way towards the city hall, this time while munching on the melon. We had to be rather careful when eating it, because melon happens to be one goddamned messy fruit. Still, it was so sweet that I did not even dare to criticize it. After all, when something tastes so good, and when your friend has bought it to you, one cannot just badmouth the thing, even if it happens to a bit hard to eat without getting your hands on that juice.

“It’s funny –aru”, Fu suddenly said, gazing at our peaceful-looking surroundings with a strangely wistful look in her eyes. “To be honest, Leon-kun –aru…………these kinds of things could seem almost trivial to me if I was not helping M’lady and you all –aru.”

I….think I can understand what she is talking about. After all, it’s not as if I haven’t witnessed Tai Fu’s amazing abilities in battle myself. Yes, I have never seen a fighter like her before, nor even heard about one. To think that someone could have absorbed so many fighting-styles, and mastered them, blending them into one harmonious collective that lost to no one……….it was truly the epitome of being a prodigy. However, those blessed with power always found themselves surrounded by less and less people. And if we followed that logic, the one who was most powerful, had to also be most………

“It’s alright, isn’t it?” I asked nonchalantly, taking a bite of my melon. “It’s not like we’re going anywhere. So, as long as you stay with us…..Chun, me, and everyone else…..we’ll make sure the world around you will stay interesting every day. Whenever you think of something to laugh about, I will find something that will make me laugh even louder. And whenever you cry because of something, I will find something worth even more tearful sob. That’s just the way it goes. That’s why friends are important……because we can turn something trivial into a vibrant, colorful experience called “life”.”

Tai Fu’s eyes were glued on to me, and to be honest, I felt a bit embarrassed under her stare, especially after I had said such things. Then, without a second though, Fu gulped down the last of her melon, and threw the skin to the nearby trash-can with a three-point shot. She then faced me once again, with a large grin on her face, and to my utter shock, ruffled my hair.

“Aiya aiya, Leon-kun!” she laughed. “I think I’m starting to understand why M’lady insisted we’d stay around you –aru. Even I’m starting to see that if we are with you, there’ll be no dull moment in our lives –aru. Just fun –aru!”

“H-hey, watch it! You’re getting my hair full of melon juice! S-stop!” I tried to resist, but Fu proved too strong. And so, before I knew it, I found myself in a sort-of-headlock, getting a noogie from the feared “Lü Bu of Shaolin Martial Arts”.

“Ahahaha~! Don’t think you can escape anymore –aru!” Fu laughed, grinning from ear to ear. “You promised to make my life more interesting –aru. I’ll make sure you’ll hold on to that promise –aru!”

“That hurts, you idiot! Stop!” I complained, but my complaints fell to deaf ears. “I swear I’m going to take it back! If you continue, I’ll let your life be as dull as it always has been, you idiot! N-nooooooo!!”

My yells of despair echoed in the streets of Naha.

But to be honest…….I didn’t mind. And I knew that Tai Fu also knew that I didn’t mind. She might have been an idiot, but she wasn’t stupid. And she knew that I had been completely serious about my promise just now. In the end, we were friends. And friends always helped out each other. Just like in this case. Whether it was about saving your friend from being sacrificed in some stupid ritual, or just promising to make their every day interesting and new, a true friend would have always honored those promises. Big or small, irrelevant or important…….a true friend always honored his promises.

And I would honor my promise with Tai Fu. It was a small price to be paid for having her in our stable. If I could acquire the services of one of the strongest fighters in China by just simply entertaining her every day, then I was willing to do that. Simply because it was very easy.

After all, simply by having someone standing by your side, even the strongest fighter could erase the feeling of loneliness. And there were plenty of us by Tai Fu’s side. Just like there were plenty of us by Orca-chan’s side.

All fighting for her sake.


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Next time on Fight-ON!

“So that’s the place……Shuri Castle.”

“Don’t worry about it boy. We all carry our own burden. This old man included.”

“They don’t call it a “monsoon storm” for nothin’, ya know? Even I’d think twice ‘fore goin’ out in a rain like dat.”

“Dokuga Habu……….at your service.”

“My father was a great man. The kind of man Okinawa needed to make it strong! The fools just never understood it.”

“If that’s the truth, then I’mma bash those elders’ heads’in! Fuuuun!”

“This is………..blood?”

Gathering black clouds ~ Mystery as deep as the Ocean!

[Tobias]

Yay, fight-on's back, now, BL seems complete again!

Gaia will be happy, kaeo seemed especially cute this chapter, and the plot thickens!

Golden Mane

why does that almost feel like a kazu reference?

EDIT: wait wait, gaia supports tsubasa.


ah well, hell, kaeo is growing on me then!