[Completed] Bad Boys J Episode Zero - Part 3: The Future
Title: Bad Boys J Episode Zero - Part 3: The Future
Drama Type: Yankee Drama
Episodes: 1-3
Broadcast Network: Kira Channel
Broadcast Period: 16-June-2014 - 01-July-2014
Sypnosis:
*dramatic male narrator voice* Set after the events of the movie, our group of friends takes a trip down memory lane as ghosts from the past come back to haunt the teams of Hiroshima. As old friendships are rekindled, there is talk about a big party that is supposed to shake the whole city. WWTD - What Would Tsukasa Do...when even the Skytree Elbow proves itself to be useless?
WARNING: This is NOT an actual continuation/special of the drama. This is a fic = this is my own wishful thinking. *sigh*
Disclaimer: I don't own the people. I don't know the original manga/drama/movie etc. but I own the story of these three 'special episodes'.
Episode Zero - Part 3: The Future
After Eiji and Hisao had ‘dropped him off’ in the morning, Yoji had been working in the kitchen of the okonomiyaki restaurant for most of the day - things happening with the team were no excuse to take the day off. Not after he’d gotten his job back again, not after having been given one more chance. One last chance. He couldn’t waste it.
He was trying his best to focus on his work but of course his head was full of other things right now. There were a lot of things he needed to think about. A part of him was glad that he was alone back in the kitchen, so nobody could see him zone out from time to time, while doing the dishes, cutting ingredients or mixing batter.
It wasn’t until the busier evening hours and the dinner time rush had passed that the owner called him over to help in the restaurant. He came out and cleared some tables while he listened to the owner having a conversation with a lone customer over the sizzling of a fresh okonomiyaki on the teppan.
“A lot has changed in the city, hasn’t it? I’m glad that the okonomiyaki here never change though. They still taste as good as ever,” a voice said in a friendly conversational tone.
“Good food doesn’t change,” the owner replied with a smile. “Here you go. Please enjoy!”
“Itadakimasu,” the other accepted the food. “I guess you’re right. It’s not the food that changes. The city and the people are what changes. Mostly the people.”
Suddenly Yoji felt eyes on his back and he turned around, only to almost drop everything he was carrying when he saw just who had been talking with the restaurant’s owner. It was a smile that greeted him, a smile that looked friendly at first but when you looked closer it sent cold shivers down your spine. The smile was hiding the other’s other side, a side that was a lot less pleasant than this. The friendly smile and short, slender appearance of the other betrayed his true ‘form’, true nature.
“You’ve changed, Yoji. You’ve changed a lot since we last met,” the other noted and gave Yoji another once-over. “Long time no see. Are you surprised to see me here?”
“Yazawa!”
The other still looked very much like Yoji remembered him, maybe a little older. Yazawa’s hair was still dark brown and wavy as it had been back then. Instead of Gokurakucho’s customary black leather jacket, white shirt, the other was wearing a white rider’s jacket made out of leather over a grey tank top, grey was the color of the Shidokai.
Despite the jacket the other was wearing, Yoji could see the muscles the article of clothing was covering. Whatever Yazawa had done in the past few years, it hadn’t made him rusty.
Had the other come here to fight him? Had it been wrong to think himself safe at the okonomiyaki restaurant - a place that the fights shouldn’t have reached? After all the chance of getting innocent bystanders involved here was very high. Or was the other waiting for him to finish his work for the day and then confront him on the streets?
Yazawa was looking at him and Yoji tried to hold the other’s gaze as if it would help him to answer the question that was burning on his mind right now.
What was the other thinking?
Danno, after checking with other branch leaders from BEAST whether or not some suspicious activity had been detected in their areas, was on his way to visit Kaori, Kazu and the other two at the hospital when a nurse stopped him by the reception desk of the nurse’s station. She handed him an envelope and said that someone had left it here for him. His eyes caught a glimpse of the Shidokai mark on the back of the envelope and he took it from the nurse with a nod and quiet ‘thank you’. Walking over to a waiting area, he opened the letter.
A place and time were written on it along with a date and the words, ‘Party Time!’
So the party was about to start, was it? Well, he couldn’t say he minded. The sooner he could be over and done with this thing, the better. Checking the clock on the wall, Danno realized that whatever was supposed to happen was going to do so in an hours time. So he had an hour to get to wherever the place was? That should be manageable.
When he crumpled up the piece of paper, Danno couldn’t help but smile a little bit in anticipation. Dirty methods or not, if he could get a decent fight out of this, it would be worth all the trouble. Whoever was calling him out better be worth it.
He’d heard the rumors about the Shidokai and their strength. Especially the former member of BEAST whom none of the previous tops had dared or been able to control interested him.
Looking over to the corridor where Kaori’s room was, he sent a silent apology to her but he knew she’d understand. This was something he had to do. He’d do something nice in order to apologize after Kaori could leave the hospital again and things had blown over.
When Danno had left the hospital again in a hurry, Inaba appeared from behind a shelf in the nurse’s station and handed the nurse who’d talked to Danno a bill after high-fiving her.
The nurse smiled, “Anything for you, Inaba-san. Even without the tip.”
“Take care of Kaori as well for me, will you, Minapi? Not like in the good old times, though, mind you,” Inaba smiled back.
“Will do!” the other mock-saluted to her.
Grinning, Inaba mirrored the other’s action before she left the hospital as well. It paid off to have a good network of people around the city still, people, who’d disappeared from people’s memories. A lot of the former members of the ANGELS had changed a lot ever since their ‘golden days’ and had taken on normal jobs now and had turned into ‘normal people’. Inaba had made good use of that and the fact that even Kaori had not recognized Inaba’s former teammate.
The location Danno had been asked to come to turned out to be an abandoned factory building down by the docks. He noted that it was shielded from view and very much out of the way. Nobody would disturb them here. It was dangerous but he wasn’t someone to be deterred by something like that. He wasn’t planning to lose after all. So it didn’t matter where he was, where he would be fighting.
Walking further into the building, he looked around. There were some steel bridges and ladders above him. He could see some movement up there.
“Come out. I know you’re there,” he called out.
“Heh, so you’re the dangerous BEAST everyone’s talking about? I heard you’re pretty strong so that has me really excited,” a voice spoke up from somewhere above Danno. Someone jumped down and elegantly landed a few metres in front of him. “It’s been a while since I’ve been allowed to face a strong opponent. Someone who can make my blood boil.” The smile on the guy’s face was pleasant and friendly. “I look forward to it.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Danno asked.
“Ah, where are my manners,” the other looked at Danno and suddenly his expression changed into one that looked a little bit insane and most of all like that of a person lusting for blood. “I think the people from your team used to call me ‘Jackal’ or something but my real name’s Tokuyama Hiroshi. Not that you’ll remember it when I’m done with you.”
“Were you the one who did that to Kazu and the others?” Danno asked, although he could guess the answer already. He looked at the other and his eyes narrowed dangerously. He could sense the threat the other posed.
“Kazu? Ah was that the good looking tall guy? The small guy who can’t seem to talk? Or the one with the cheekbones and cornrows? I don’t think I caught their names,” the other asked and laughed merrily as if he were talking about fluffy little kittens. “Did you like the flowers? I think they gave his bloody face a nice touch.”
“Don’t fuck with me,” Danno went in to deliver the first punch.
To his surprise, he hit the other square in the face. Tokuyama stumbled back and then laughed softly before turning to look down at Danno again. His expression had turned well and truly insane by now. He was smiling as well. “I’m getting really excited now.” He moved forward and delivered a kick that Danno could just block with his arms, crossing them in front of his face. The force of the attack sent him stumbling back a couple of steps though.
His opponent was no joke. Well, Danno definitely saw no need to hold back anymore and went to retaliate. What irked him the most was that Tokuyama seemed unaffected by his attacks, the pain that should have been inflicted even seemed to make the other happy.
He was fighting with a madman. Taking a step back and trying to catch his breath a little bit, Danno tried to think of a new strategy. He couldn’t just fight normally with the other.
“Why does stuff keep happening here at the club?,” Hisao asked when he looked around the dance floor in search for another note. “Is this someone with a grudge against you after all?”
Hiro made a face, he was looking very serious and not even a little playful right now. “That’s exactly what I’m wondering about right now as well.”
Hisao and Eiji had gone to the NIGHTS club after they’d ‘dropped off’ Yoji at the other’s workplace. Once they’d gotten to the club, Eiji had gone off to find Mika and Hiro had invited Hisao to accompany him - they were counting on the fact that whoever had attacked the members of BEAST, wasn’t the same person that had left Kenjo at the club before.
Eiji had then been found beaten up and unconscious in the main area of the club. Mika had just wanted to fetch something from one of the backrooms - girls only - quickly, so she had told him to wait for her there. When she had returned to where she’d left her boyfriend, the other had been lying on the floor with a bleeding wound on the back of his head.
Of course Hiro and Hisao had hurried over immediately after hearing about it. The two had been ‘patrolling’ the streets around the club to look for suspicious activity.
“There doesn’t seem to be another note,” Hisao made a face. “Ugh, are they playing with us?”
“I’ll kick their asses for this,” Hiro muttered. Then his expression softened a bit and he turned to look at his companion, “By the way, why are you here, Hisa? Shouldn’t you be with the rest of, you know, your team?”
Averting his eyes, Hisao admitted, “I was worried about you guys.”
“Aw, there’s still some attachment after all, huh?” Hiro walked over and slung an arm around the other’s shoulders. “I admit that somewhere in my heart, you still belong here, too. And you always will.” He smiled, “But I know you’re happier with the other guys now.”
“Don’t get all sentimental now,” Hisao pushed at the other but without any force behind the action. “Maybe this is just because...back then when the Shidokai was around, I was still part of NIGHTS. Everything that’s happened, is making us all return to the past. So, I guess it was inevitable that I came back here.”
He paused and looked around. “Where did Jun and Kenjiro go? Didn’t the two say they’d come and join us after checking around the main room?”
Frowning, Hiro looked at a clock on the wall, “That’s taking far too long.”
“Shit,” Hisao ran towards the main room immediately.
When they got to the entrance to the main room, it was pitch black and they couldn’t see anything up front. “Jun? Kenjiro?” Hisao called out and tried to find something to grab on, something he could use to orientate himself in the dark.
“I can’t believe Hiro’s top executives are the two clowns now but somehow I am not surprised either. Aren’t you at least a little mad that he’s replaced you with them, Hisa?” a voice, that didn’t belong to any of the members of NIGHTS, asked. “Then again, I can’t blame you for leaving the team. After all, I did the same thing.”
“Who-” before he could finish his question, Hiro suddenly tripped over something on the floor and just when he landed on his ass, the lights were turned back on. Now they saw that Hiro hadn’t tripped over something. He’d tripped over someone. The unconscious form of Yokokawa. Kenjiro and Jun were lying down on the dance floor in a similar state. “Compliments on the new addition there, though. Adding some variety. A tough guy. Funny.”
Up on the sofa which Hiro usually used, a lone figure dressed in a black medium-length trench coat was sitting and waiting for them by the looks of it, with their arms crossed and legs resting on the table in front of the sofa. “I got bored waiting for you guys to come over. So I had the others entertain me for a little bit while I waited. I guess you have only halfheartedly passed on my teachings, have you?”
Hisao’s eyes widened when he recognized the person in front of them, “Kazuya.”
Kazuya smirked and gave him a mock salute, “The one and only, Hisa. The one and only.”
Hiro and Hisao looked at each other before they turned back to the person sitting on the sofa again. They were trying to analyze the situation, were trying to come up with some sort of plan. It wasn’t easy to do so, though. Neither of them was able to judge the situation.
Kaori stepped outside the ward to make a call. Danno wasn’t replying to her messages and he wasn’t picking up his phone. It was making her worry.
“Hide,” she whispered and put her phone away again.
“Ms. Nakai? Your boyfriend was at the nurse’s station just now,” a nurse walked over to her. “He received a message though and after reading it he left in a hurry.”
Her eyes widened, “He did? What message?”
The nurse produced a card. It was the same card Danno had received, “I picked it up when he dropped it in his rush to get to wherever this is, I guess?”
Kaori grabbed the card and stared at it. “Oh no,” she grabbed her phone again and bowed to the nurse, “Thank you!” And then she hurried over to the other end of the hall again to make another phone call. “Kumi? Do you know where Tsukasa is? I need to talk to him…”
The nurse’s smile turned into a smirk when she watched Kaori go.
“Mission accomplished, Inaba-san.”
Tsukasa had gone to the hospital after Kumi had told him that Kaori had something to tell him and that he should get there ASAP. After she’d told him that Danno had been called out, he’d started to have a sinking feeling in his stomach. He’d taken the ‘invitation card’ from Kaori and was running to the place written on it as fast as he could.
When he arrived at the abandoned factory, he could see Danno and a male he didn’t recognize, fighting only a few metres away from the door. He came just in time to witness Danno being thrown back by a particularly strong looking punch.
Moving forward, he called out, “Danno-kun!”
“Don’t come over here,” Danno hissed and straightened up again, wiping some blood from the corner of his mouth. “This is a one-on-one. And it’s my fight.”
A new voice spoke up from the side, “Yes, Tsukasa-kun. You should mind your manners. One can’t simply interrupt a one-on-one. It’s against the rules and it would be really unfair, don’t you agree? It would also hurt Danno-kun’s feelings.”
A male dressed mostly in black, except for a long grey trench coat, emerged from the shadows not too far away from Tsukasa. He had a pleasant smile on his lips. “Yo, Tsukasa-kun. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Never thought we’d meet again in a place like this.”
Mouth falling open, Tsukasa blurted out, “Shinya-kun?!”
“Isn’t the world small, Tsukasa?” Hosoda smiled. “I think it’s funny how small it is.”
Tsukasa recognized the other from some parties he’d attended with his parents when he’d been younger. He’d been happy to find some kids there around his age he could play with. The other had been one of them. They had gotten along well.
His mother had seemed happy about it. Saying how ‘Shinya-kun’ was the son of someone in the same company as Tsukasa’s father but in a higher position, so getting along with him was a very good idea and would surely make Shinya’s father regard Tsukasa’s own father better by association. The two had run into each other time and again at the other company events, even after Tsukasa’s family had moved to Tokyo just before his sixth birthday. Otherwise the two of them would have probably attended the same school later on.
“You’re the leader of the Shidokai?” Tsukasa asked, although he already knew the answer of course. “Why are you doing this? Why did you come back?”
“Because I love this city, Tsukasa. It hurt to be away from it, to be away from my friends. My parents took it all away from me and sent me to a place far away, unable to return,” the pleasant expression remained on his face but there was something dark in his eyes. “I am going to lead this city towards its future. I will complete the Shidokai’s mission.”
He leaned back against a pillar. “I heard you’ve caused quite an upheaval here. You know, I was really surprised to hear that YOU had become the 8th Generation of Gokurakucho. You out of all people. I’ve known you for a long time after all. I watched you toughen up a bit when you met Shinichi and Aoi-chan after you moved but to come this far… It actually made me happy. I’ve been wanting to see you again but well, I wasn’t able to as you know. Since well, from a certain age onwards, you don’t attend those company things anymore.”
Looking over his shoulder, he continued, “As you can see, Danno is quite busy with Hiroshi. And he isn’t the only one who should be busy right now. Your friend Hisa should be with Hiro, right? I think that Kazuya’s been waiting for them already, so they won’t be coming here any time soon either. They have NIGHTS issues to ‘talk’ about. Then, from what I heard, your friend Eiji is with his girlfriend and they went to watch a movie together, so he won’t answer any call or message until later and won’t come. And neither will Yoji.” Hosoda paused for a moment before he added, “Nagi should be with him now.”
He smiled. “I know Nagi is quite small but his strength is not to be underestimated. Even when faced with an opponent like Yoji. Or should I say, especially when facing someone like Yoji?”
Yoji fought a lot with his legs after all, his strength laid in his kicks and in the wide range he had at his disposal for attacks. Yazawa was the opposite. He was small and agile and could slip past Yoji’s defensive line easily. He always had stable footing and his strength were short-range attacks with arms and fists. In addition, Yazawa had watched Yoji fight a lot more than the other way around. He was in a better position to anticipate the other’s actions.
“And what does that mean?” Tsukasa swallowed. He could feel himself getting worried for his friends but he knew he couldn’t go and help any of them. He couldn’t get away from here, plus, he was facing the ringleader. Which could only mean one thing really but he refused to say it, refused to acknowledge the truth.
Hosoda was still smiling at Tsukasa, “You know what that means, Tsukasa-kun. It means that I’ll be your opponent and you’ll have to fight me.”
The two looked at each other and Tsukasa tried to order his thoughts.
“What if I don’t want to fight you, Shinya-kun? There is no reason for us to fight, is there?” he tried. “Why do we have to fight each other?”
“Tsukasa, have you still not understood that you’re sort of important in this city? You’re officially the number two. In some circles you’re even said to be the number one. Whoever wants to be at the top has to inevitably go through you first,” Hosoda pointed out. “So that’s what I’m going to do.” He popped his neck. “Be glad I’m sticking to the rules and am not using an army of goons to just overrun the city. No, I’m not going to waste time with that. Challenging all of you one on one is a lot easier and more efficient. Plus, nobody will be able to say that it was fake victory then because you were already too tired from fighting with the footsoldiers. I didn’t bring anyone else. There’s only us, only you and me.”
Slowly but steadily, Hosoda was advancing towards Tsukasa. “I heard you will only fight seriously when you’re provoked enough that you snap, so I guess I’ll need to give you some more motivation to fight, right?” He eyed Tsukasa, his eyes cold and dangerous, “Instead of making you angry like everyone else did before me, though, I’m going to try a different approach.” Hosoda cracked his knuckles.
“I’ll warn you that I won’t hold back. Even if you don’t want to fight back or anything, I’m here to defeat you and I will do so thoroughly. Think about it, though, Tsukasa. It’s not just about you, there are a lot of people who rely on you and are counting on you. You’re the top of Gokurakucho, you carry a huge burden on your shoulders,” Hosoda said and by now, he’d come close enough to loom over Tsukasa. “If you go down, all of Gokurakucho will fall. What will the other’s say when you wake up again at the hospital? What will Kumi look like? How is she going to take it? What about the others? Yoji, Hisao, Eiji. Are you really going to just give up without a fight and let me do as I please?”
That had Tsukasa tighten his fists. He could clearly picture the worried expressions on his friends’ faces. He didn’t want to picture the look on Kumi’s face if that really happened.
“Alright, I’ll fight you. If I make Kumi said, I won’t be able to forgive myself!” Tsukasa hollered and then went to throw the first punch at Hosoda. Or at least he tried to.
They were pretty evenly matched, none of them being able to really deal the other any real damage. Tsukasa could avoid Hosoda’s attacks for the most part and the other ducked almost all of his. He changed the way he attacked but with the same result, so he tried to channel even more strengths into the attacks that he was already doing. If he couldn’t succeed by changing his tactic, he’d just have to break through the wall with force. And well, Tsukasa still had ‘that’, his special technique and famous final attack move.
He hadn’t wanted to use it on the other but it looked like he didn’t have a choice.
“Here goes,” he whispered to himself and then charged at Hosoda. Tsukasa rose up and raised his elbow but suddenly a pair of hands shoved him off.
Hosoda had effortlessly caught his elbow when he’d tried to use the technique which had brought down EDEN’s Masato. Tsukasa had crashed down onto the ground and was only slow to get up again. His ‘final attack’ had failed. The shadow of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, covered the Skytree and the darkness swallowed it up completely.
“Too naive, Tsukasa. There’s no way something like that would work on me,” Hosoda snorted.
Getting up again, Tsukasa raised his arms and fist again, preparing for a new attack. He couldn’t give up, he knew that but despite everything the other said and did, Tsukasa couldn’t bring himself to get absolutely serious. Hosoda was still his friend. His childhood friend whom he’d created lots of good memories with, with him he’d smiled and laughed. It was just like asking him to fight with Shinichi or Aoi or Yoji, Hisao or Eiji.
Tsukasa charged forward with his mind still troubled but he couldn’t afford to stop fighting right now. It was too late to pull out again.
“I can’t let you make the people here sad. I won’t let you make the people here sad. This city is good just as it is. Everyone’s happy and things are going well. I won’t let you destroy that, even if you’re my friend,” Tsukasa shouted determinedly and then put his all into the next attack. He’d gotten close enough to Hosoda to attack the other from a short range now.
Suddenly he noticed though that he’d left his side undefended and open. Hosoda had of course noticed that as well and was already moving to use that opening for his next attack. Tsukasa stopped and braced himself for the impact , tried to somehow still move out of harms way. It was all he could do right now, it was all he was able to do right now.
He closed his eyes and waited for the blow.
“Tsukasa!” a familiar voice - that wasn’t Hosoda’s - called out to him and he opened his eyes again, only to blink at what he saw when he did.
Hosoda had moved closer of course and had his fist raised and extended still but he was moving slowly and without any intention to hurt Tsukasa. Instead both of their fists met in a gentle bump - although it was still forceful enough to send Tsukasa staggering back a bit.
“Shinya-kun?” Tsukasa looked confused by the other’s actions.
“I’m passing on the torch to you, old friend,” Hosoda smiled. “You’re taking good care of the place I love. The place we all love. So I think I can keep leaving it in your care,” Hosoda straightened up again and looked at the him and Tsukasa’s eyes widened when he recognized the other’s smile. It was the same bright and honest smile he’d remembered seeing on the other’s face when they had talked and played at all those parties. The smile he’d seen on the face of Hosoda Shinya, his friend. “There’s no need for me to fight you anymore. The party’s over now. At least for us.”
“Shinya-kun,” his voice was quiet and then he turned towards the source of the voice that had called out to him just now. “Yo-chan?!”
Yoji jogged over from where he and a male Tsukasa didn’t recognize, had been standing in the door of the abandoned factory. He checked Tsukasa for injuries and then let out a soft huff of air that almost sounded like a sigh. “I guess our top might not be the typical hotheaded one but he sure is a passionate one after all, I give you that.” He was addressing the other male.
Laughing softly, Yazawa stepped over to look at Hosoda. “No worries, Yoji. For all I know, it might not just be his fault. Shinya is good when it comes to drawing out things that people usually keep hidden.” He looked at the top of the Shidokai. “It’s over, huh?”
“Good timing as usual, Nagi,” Hosoda brushed some dirt off his coat. “Yes, we’re done. And I think Hiroshi is almost done as well.” He looked at Yoji then. “You’ve fought your battles?”
“There was a lot less fighting than I would have anticipated,” Yazawa laughed melodiously, “I guess people do change when given some time and after experiencing certain things.” He eyed Yoji as well with a spark of amusement but also a certain fondness in his eyes.
Yoji had been tense after leaving his workplace - earlier than planned. Just like he had thought, Yazawa had been waiting for him. The other motioned for him to follow him somewhere and Yoji had felt compelled to do so.
To his surprise, Yazawa proceeded to lead him closer to the Gokurakucho hang out, to the big bridge that was just down the road and had the team’s logo sprayed on it to mark their territory. It was a place Yoji liked - he often came here to think, usually about matters concerning the team. Not so much now but back in the days, he’d done it quite a lot.
What surprised him even more was that Yazawa didn’t seem to be making any move to fight him. Instead Yazawa leaned against the wall and looked at Yoji.
“I’m glad to see that you’re doing fine. I’d even say you’re doing way better than before when Ishida and I were still around. Kiriki Tsukasa sure has changed you. And in my opinion, he did a pretty good job doing so,” he smiled. “Of course everything you went through has changed you as well but I’d say that the impact of meeting your current top was bigger.”
“I guess so,” Yoji admitted and then averted his eyes. He went to lean against the bridge’s pillar as well. “I was told that I resemble you now. That I started to become more like you after what happened with Keita and then after Tsukasa became the new top. And that I’m very much like you were back then now.”
Laughing softly, Yazawa eyed the other, “Is that so?” Then he crossed his arms. “And do you think that’s a bad thing or a good thing?” He sounded a little amused.
Grumbling, Yoji admitted, “I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”
“The past made us who we are now,” Yazawa closed his eyes. “The present follows the past and here we are who have become. And the future is who we will still turn into.” He opened his eyes again, “Those were the words I told Ishida back then and which I tried to tell you once but you weren’t listening, so I hope you were this time around.”
He laughed when he saw Yoji’s eyebrow twitch a little bit.
“Pass them on as well, will you? To the next generation, to the current generation as well. Along with everything else you already know about Gokurakucho, that is one of the main principles the team is supposed to function after,” Yazawa uncrossed his arms and pushed himself away from the wall a bit to get a better look at Yoji again.
“I went to see Keita before I came here,” Yazawa changed the topic then, his amused grin softening into a warm smile again. “He’s doing great at his job. In a few years, he’ll be a good carpenter. And maybe the father of Nao’s kids.” He laughed softly. “I’m glad you guys worked things out again after he was released.”
“Yeah,” Yoji smiled as well. “I heard he was doing well, too. He messages me sometimes.”
“Keep it up. Maybe you guys can open your own okonomiyaki restaurant someday,” Yazawa grinned. “I’ll be the first one to come and eat.” Then his expression softened. “Ishida-kun owns a restaurant now, did you know? After he stepped down as Gokurakucho’s leader he went to become a fisherman. He sailed the world with some of his friends and now settled down and opened a fish restaurant in Kyushu. I went there not too long ago. He says ‘hi’ and asks whether things are okay and Gokurakucho’s still doing fine. We talked about what happened back in the day and we’ve resolved our issues. We’re different people now than we were back then so we could look at everything from a different point of view now and saw just how stupid we were. We’re friends again. Not that we were ever anything else.”
Yazawa checked his clock, “Ah, I guess we should get going soon. Or we’ll miss the end of the party. And that would probably be uncool.”
“Wait, was that all you wanted? You just wanted to talk to me? You didn’t come to-” Yoji was stopped mid-sentence when Yazawa lifted his hand and motioned for him to stop talking.
“I didn’t come here to fight you. Or at least, I wouldn’t have fought you unless you were the one who attacked me first. I wanted to see who you had become, Kawanaka Yoji. I wanted to make sure that I left Gokurakucho and this city in good hands. And because I think that that is the case, there is no need for me to do anything else,” Yazawa explained.
Yoji frowned, “What about what happened to the members of BEAST? NIGHTS?”
“I do things my way,” Yazawa shrugged, “And the other’s do their own thing. Come on now. Your top is waiting for you. You don’t want to let him wait for too long, do you?”
Hosoda glanced over to where Tokuyama and Danno were still going at it. “I think this will still take a while. That leaves Kazuya.” He checked his phone. “No message, huh.”
Yoji blinked and pulled out his phone as well. His was flashing with a message. “I have a message from Hisa,” he mumbled and then opened it to read it. “Hah?”
Yazawa raised an eyebrow inquiringly, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s from three hours ago. I didn’t check my phone ever since I got to work this morning,” Yoji frowned. “He says Eiji was rushed to the hospital because someone attacked him at the NIGHTS club. They found him knocked unconscious.”
“Did you do that to Eiji-kun?” Tsukasa asked.
Hosoda blinked, “Eiji? No, I didn’t do anything. Nagi?”
Yazawa shook his head, “That wasn’t part of any plans. And I doubt Kazuya would have touched him. That’s what the movie tickets were for.”
“Movie tickets?” Yoji asked.
“We gave Mika movie tickets, so she and Eiji would be at the cinema while things went down,” Yazawa explained and smiled. “Since Eiji is Eiji. He’s good the way he is.”
That actually made Tsukasa smile a bit before his expression turned serious again. “But that means there’s someone else who’s trying to use the confusion you caused for his advantage.”
“If it happened at the NIGHTS club, I’m sure Kazuya will have heard of it from Hisa and Hiro by now and will look into it,” Hosoda furrowed his eyebrows. “Otherwise we’ll have to investigate that.”
Of course the incident with Eiji was the current topic at the NIGHTS club as well. “Did you knock Eiji out when you came into the club? Was he standing in your way?” Hisao asked and glared at Kazuya. “That’s not like you.”
Kazuya raised an eyebrow, “Eiji? I did not see him here when I came in.”
Hiro frowned, “How did you get in anyway? Even if you had forced your way past people, the doors were locked today and only someone who was let in from the inside or someone with a key could have come in. And the only people with keys were either inside, or me.” Apart from Hiro, only Jun and Kenjiro had keys to the club from the team. And-
“I let him in,” Erika appeared behind Kazuya. “And until a few minutes ago, we were still talking here. That is, until Jun, Kenjiro and Yokokawa interrupted us.”
“Why did you do that?” Hiro looked baffled.
Hisao blinked and then stepped forward, “You didn’t come to destroy NIGHTS, did you?” He looked at both Jun and Kenjiro’s unconscious forms. “You came here to give us another one of your lessons. After all this time.”
Smiling, Kazuya looked at Hisao, “That’s just like you, Hisa. You’ve always been a quick one. And I dare say that you’ll know the answer to the question I’m going to ask you. It’s the one you asked me so long ago actually. Do you think Hiro’s found what he was missing in my opinion?” He rose from his seat. “If you can’t come up with a satisfying answer, I will destroy NIGHTS, though and leadership will fall into the hands of the Shidokai.”
“What I’m lacking?” Hiro raised an eyebrow but then he seemed to remember the circumstances under which Kazuya had left the team years ago. “Why I’m unsuited to be the top of NIGHTS?” his eyes narrowed and then he looked at Hisao. “Why would Hisa know?”
“Easy,” Kazuya pointed out, “Because both him and me left the team, didn’t we?”
Feeling all eyes on him, Hisao looked down. “How would I know.” His voice betrayed him though. He knew that Kazuya was referring to but he didn’t want to say it.
“Hisa!” Hiro grabbed him and made him look up. “What is it?”
Kazuya added, “It’s the reason why you left NIGHTS, isn’t it, Hisa?”
“You never told us the reason why you left,” Hiro noted. “Maybe it’s time to do that now.”
“Please don’t make me,” Hisao begged softly and closed his eyes. “Please don’t.”
“Hisa, please,” Erika spoke up this time around. “You’ve been carrying that burden for so long. It’s the reason why you’ve never come back here, isn’t it? Only a drastic situation like the one that Kazuya-san and everyone created recently made you come back here and temporarily made you forget about other things that happened in the past but on your own, you wouldn’t have set foot in here again if it hadn’t been strictly necessary.”
Hiro shook Hisao, “Hisa! Say something!”
“You shouldn’t be so rough, Hiro, this is a delicate matter,” Kazuya scolded. “Well, let’s try and do it this way then. How would YOU feel if I were to defeat both of you and then tear this club down and chance it completely?”
“I would NOT let that happen!” Hiro let go of Hisao and looked at Kazuya instead. “I’ll protect this place.” After all, it held many memories and it held a lot of significance to him, to them. It was their ‘home’ and they - NIGHTS - had put a lot of heart-blood, sweat and tears into it, into making it what it was now.
“I’m just talking hypothetically here. What IF that were to happen and you’d have to stay on the team and settle down in a new environment again? It’d still be the same people but everything around you would be different,” Kazuya continued.
Hiro replied, “It would feel weird. It wouldn’t feel comfortable anymore. Even if I still knew the people, I’d feel out of place.” He blinked. “Are you saying that-”
Hisao had turned away from them and was looking over to the bar counter where the framed pictures were still standing. “I suddenly felt like I didn’t belong here anymore. At first I thought it was me, who changed but I think it was the opposite. I hadn’t changed but everyone else had. And that included you, Hiro.”
“Tell me, Hiro, what were the principles that NIGHTS was build on?” Kazuya asked.
“The number one is the most powerful in the team, that doesn’t have to be in terms of fighting power but it can also in terms of looks and popularity or it can be a matter of cunning and intelligence,” Hiro replied immediately but then slowed down. “He is the one who has the complete trust and loyalty of his group behind him and he is responsible for raising the next generation. The top never stands alone, he always has people covering his back and he can only freely move and do as he pleases because he has absolute trust in the others and that trust must be mutual. There should be respect, there shouldn’t be fear.”
That had been what Kazuya had taught them when they had first started.
Hisao cracked then and he blurted everything out, “Suddenly we felt more like we had become BEAST. Suddenly everything was just about who was the strongest, it wasn’t about doing things together anymore and doing things the way we used to do them. It felt like we’d become part of them without having really been taken over by them.” He paused and swallowed hard. “The NIGHTS I joined and was part of was a closely knit group, where one could rely on another. We stood behind our leader because we thought he was the one who was worthy of being at the top and he led by example and his actions would positively influence the rest of us. Just like back in the host club days.”
Walking over, he picked up one of the pictures, “The top brings in the clients and is the figurehead of the club, the ‘banner’ that people will recognize but once he brings people into the club, he introduces them to the rest of his group and that way, strengthens the group as a whole as well. It’s just like how Kazuya-san took us along when we first joined. He introduced us to the girls. We entertained them and even one one of us screwed up, we’d be able to make up for it again together. The girls then brought others along, who’d designate us, or they’d ask to sit with both of us and Kazuya-san together and in turn, Kazuya-san met more girls as well and the circle repeats. And you know that we never followed Kazuya-san because we were scared of him or anything, because he was stronger or more senior than we were but because he was the one who’d taken care of us, who’d listened to our problems and who’d been there for us when we needed him.”
He clenched his fists. “When it looked like you were going to rise more and more in the ranks, I didn’t follow you because you could kick my ass in a fight. I followed you because you were my friend and I trusted you and because I thought you had the qualities one needed to do this job. You made things fun for all of us at the parties, you brought alone the girls and entertained them but also pushed the rest of us and told people about our appeal. You took care of us and watched over us. You didn’t...’rule’ us.”
He took a shuddering breath, “When everyone around me seemed to distrust each other and the order of everything was dictated by whoever was the strongest, I couldn’t take it anymore. I just couldn’t feel at home any longer. I was no longer among friends but among enemies. It was nothing personal, if you or Erika had ever wondered about that.” If it had been, he wouldn’t have kept in touch with the others after all, wouldn’t have asked Hiro for help when his father had been hospitalized a couple of months ago. “It was just that I couldn’t deal with the whole thing anymore.”
There was a long pause and Hiro continued to look at Hisao’s back. Both he and Erika looked more guilty than surprised right now by Hisao’s outburst.
Neither of them expected Hisao to continue, “But I still believe that deep down, you know all of this, too. And I think ironically after Tsukasa beat some sense back into your brain, things seemed to improve again.” Hisao looked at where Yokokawa was lying. “You took him in because you knew he’d be a good asset and you wanted to support him, support him in finding a new way of life. I know there’s things involved like defeating him and all that but well, nobody expects a complete change from one moment to the next. But I think it’s a first step. I think he’ll be someone who you’ll be able to rely on without having second thoughts. He’ll be there, he’ll stick with you even if you’re defeated by someone in a fight because you gave him something more. You didn’t rule over him with your strength, you were the one who gave him something great, a new life.”
His eyes went back to Jun and Kenjiro. “I think it’s similar with those two. You have Kenjiro a home, a place where he felt he belonged in. You took in Jun because you saw his potential and because you saw how those two would be able to complement each other and create a sense of balance that would be important for the group. They’ll still need some work but I’m sure they’ll come around sooner or later.”
He turned around again slowly and addressed Kazuya again instead of Hiro, “Is that enough of an answer for you? The answer is, I do still believe that he has what it takes.” Then he sighed, “But I think I have to agree with you now that it was too early back then. Right now is a different matter, though. I think Hiro belongs at the top of NIGHTS. He’s the one to do this job. And if I were still a part of the team, I’d support him. Considering that I’m not, though, I don’t get to have a say in this but, I still support him. Even as a member of Gokurakucho.”
Looking at Hiro and Erika, Hisao said earnestly, “A part of me will always be a part of NIGHTS. A part of me will always belong here.” He smiled softly, “Maybe we can all celebrate my 25th birthday here when it rolls around. Just like in the good old times.”
“I’ll make it grander than your 20th and you better get that top of yours pissed drunk, too, then,” Hiro walked over and put both of his hands onto Hisa’s shoulders. “I’m sorry for not noticing, Hisa. I’m sorry I was the one who disconnected you from the place you called home, the people you called your friends. It’s shameful to admit that I was the one who might have brought down the ‘real’ NIGHTS.” Then he smiled. “But I’ll be the one to bring them back again, I swear. I hear that’s what the ladies like about me. I get beaten but I recover again quickly and rise up like a phoenix from the ashes. A nice image, that perfectly fits Hiro-sama of the Hiroshima NIGHTS, don’t you agree?”
Laughing, Hisao punched Hiro’s shoulder gently, “Never change, idiot.”
“You just told me to change and now you’re taking back your words? I don’t get you, seriously,” Hiro tsk-ed but he was laughing as well. Then his expression softened again and he gave Hisao a genuine smile. “Thank you, Hisa.”
“Don’t get all sentimental on me now, please,” Hisao snorted. Then he almost flew forward and against Hiro’s chest when Erika hugged him from behind.
“You’re both idiots. You’re all idiots. Every single one of you! Aaaah! Guys are so complicated!” she sniffed and buried her face in Hisao’s hood. “Idiots, idiots, idiots!”
Danno took a deep breath. He’d listened to what the others had said. So this was the true meaning behind everything that had happened.
“Are you going to give up now that you know the truth?” Tokuyama asked, panting slightly.
“What they did is their thing, what I do is mine. This is our fight. I won’t stop,” he looked at the other. “I’m not going to stop until I figure out what kind of stupid lesson you want to teach me. I also can’t let the defeat of Kazu, Sakuragi and Harada sit on me like that. You trespassed into my territory, I’ll chase you out again.” Danno took off his coat and threw it onto the ground.
All the moving around had him feeling a little hot. It had been a long time since a fight had been this exciting but also challenging.
Yutaka had probably been the last person to make him quite this serious and had been the last really formidable opponent.
Speaking of Yutaka, maybe that was a better strategy. Danno crouched down lower and changed his stance a little bit. He’d watched Yutaka fight - inside and outside the ring - and the other’s ability to spot openings and weaknesses was something Danno could almost admire him for. Maybe that would help him now.
“Oh, looks like we’re finally getting somewhere, Danno-kun,” Tokuyama smiled and then changed his stance as well. To Danno’s surprise he recognized it. He’d fought against someone else using that stance before. One of the former tops of BEAST.
Tokuyama altered the stance though and attacked with a kick. It was similar to an attack that Kazu would use so Danno knew how to block it effectively.
The other came at him again, ever changing his attacking patterns. It should have been irregular and unpredictable - and to someone else it would probably appear as such - but not to Danno. There was no pattern and he couldn’t predict the other’s movements but he knew how to react to all of the attacks because he recognized each of them. Some were his own - he had just used them in the fight - and others were those of people he knew, had known.
“Do you get it, Danno?” Tokuyama smiled at him again. “Or should we continue? I’m afraid we could keep on forever if we did that. Or maybe your youth will win over me.”
“You’re not that much older,” Danno retorted and let out a puff of air. “I think I get what you are trying to tell me, though. Although you really took a roundabout way of doing that.” He made a face and then broke out of his fighting stance to pick up his coat again. “Guess it’s over.”
“The strongest is the one who has the strength of many, “Tokuyama grinned and hopped over to the other. “Each opponent the BEAST devours becomes part of it and its own strength.” He tilted his head over, “There, I said it the easy and straightforward way.” Laughing, Tokuyama skipped forward and towards where Hosoda and Yazawa were.
“Shinya, Nagi! I’m done, too!” he chirped.
“We can see that,” Yazawa snorted.
Hosoda looked over at Danno, “I like your guts, Danno. And I like how terrifying you are.”
“Tsk,” Danno snorted softly. “I should kick your ass for doing what you did.” He looked at Hosoda. “I do not approve of those methods of yours.”
“Kazu and all have regained consciousness. It looked far worse than it was. He doesn’t have any broken bones. Just a lot of bruises,” Yoji reported to Tsukasa and Danno when he got off the phone. “Hisa just left the hospital and is on his way to the station with Kazuya-san.”
Tokuyama cracked his knuckles. “That Kazu guy, he put up a good fight. I just pointed out his weaknesses to him and then send him off to sleep to think about things.” He smiled.
“I don’t ever want you to point out my weaknesses to me,” Tsukasa edged away.
Danno let out a sigh. His shoulders slumped a little as well as the tension was released.
That didn’t go by unnoticed and Hosda smiled quietly to himself before he addressed the group, “Well then, let’s all go to the station as well to meet the rest.”
It took them a bit to get to the station. When they arrived, they found Hisao waiting for them with Kazuya and two more people behind them.
“Kaori,” Danno approached his girlfriend and then raised his eyebrow when he saw what the other was wearing. “This jacket…?”
“I don’t need it anymore,” Inaba smiled. She had removed her piercing and had donned different clothes. “So I gave it to Kaori. Along with some other useful things.” He eyed Danno. “Always remember this, Danno, a man is only as strong as his woman makes him because behind every strong man, there needs to be an even stronger woman. You might be the ones who fight at the frontlines but it’s the women who’re holding the fort while you’re gone and make sure that everything you’re fighting for will still be there for you to return to.”
She looked at the others as well, “That goes for all of you and not just Danno by the way.”
“Yes ma’am,” Hisao saluted and Erika behind him threw a pointed look at Hiro. The two had made their way over from the hospital as well.
Tsukasa addressed Hisao then, “Hisa, what about Eiji? How is he? What happened?”
“Eiji woke up earlier when we went in to check on him. It’s nothing bad, he’ll be back out by tomorrow morning. He also told us who attacked him,” Hisao heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe it.”
“Who was it?” Yoji asked.
“Apparently one of the guys in NIGHTS had been jealous of him ever since Eiji’s and Mika’s relationship became known to the rest of NIGHTS. He’s had a crush on Mika for a long, long time apparently and it totally broke his heart when he heard that she was dating another guy and on top of that a guy from another team. To make matters worse, Eiji and Mika were then allowed to keep dating because of the special agreement Tsukasa and Hiro made. So his feelings of jealousy have been culminating. When he saw Eiji alone at the club, he couldn’t keep everything in anymore and it exploded out of him. He attacked Eiji from behind and caught him off-guard.” Hisao pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Love surely is a scary thing,” the corner of Yoji’s lips twitched.
Hiro straightened up, “I’ll take care of it. So you guys don’t have to worry about it. I’ve already apologized to Eiji on behalf of NIGHTS and he’s accepted it, so there won’t be any bad blood between our teams. Just so you know.”
“Well then, I guess this brings our little party to an end,” Hosoda announced. “It’s time.”
Kazuya stretched, “Ah, it sure was nice to be back here again. To meet everyone.” He grinned at Hisao, Hiro and Erika. “I’m relieved now.”
“Wait, what are you saying-” Hisao was interrupted by Hosoda.
“We did all of this to see whether we could turn our backs on Hiroshima without regrets,” the tall leader of the Shidokai said. “And to tie up some loose ends.” He smiled and looked at the bracelet on his wrist, one that sported the same charms as the one Inaba had been wearing on her chain and was now also wearing as a bracelet around her wrist.
Then he continued his explanation, “Our aim was to change Hiroshima and the teams back when we formed this team. Our goal has been achieved, so we’re no longer needed here and can ‘rest in piece’. This will officially be the end of the Shidokai.”
“So, you’re going to leave Hiroshima again?” Tsukasa asked.
Hosoda nodded. “I’m going to study in Tokyo from now on and do my own thing. I don’t want to be in the shadow of my family for all my life. I’ll prove to them that I can do things on my own without my father’s name.” He looked determined. “And I’m going to take Rena with me.” He smiled at Tsukasa. “You are always welcome to visit if you come up to see Kumi-chan and the others. I’m sure Shinichi and Aoi-chan would like that, too.”
“I’m moving to the countryside to live on a farm and help around there. Probably somewhere in central Japan, Mie or Ise or so, wherever the wind blows me. They need young guys with too much energy, so if you have some people who want to quit the team and work instead, feel free to send them my way if they’re okay with it. They won’t be discriminated against, no matter what their past track record looks like but they better behave from then on, or I will make their life hell,” Tokuyama’s expression was dark and scary for one moment but then he grinned and produced a small bouquet of bright yellow dandelions from somewhere to hand it to Kaor with a flourish. “They’re not gold but well, close enough?”
“I’m running a small shop in Osaka now that specializes in biker and leather jackets,” Yazawa said and then tugged on Yoji’s and Hisao’s jackets. “If those ever need to be replaced or taken care of, come to me. I’ll give you a special discount on everything.” He laughed. “Also, if you’re really in need of a job in the future, I’ll always have work for you, too.”
“I’m not too far away either, just up in Kyoto. I teach at a high school and university cram school,” Kazuya grinned. “You may ask for the charismatic teacher who always comes to work on his bicycle, if you ever decide to give university or vocational school a try.”
Hosoda and Tsukasa bumped their fists together. “I’ll leave it in your and your friends’ hands, Tsukasa. The bright future of this wonderful city.” He grinned and looked at Hiro and Danno as well. “I’ll look forward to what the Holy Trinity of Hiroshima will be able to do.”
“Holy Trinity?” Tsukasa blinked.
Danno rolled his eyes.
Hiro grinned, “That makes me sound like a god or something. I like it! Worship me!”
Inaba laughed, “Well, somebody has to succeed the three generals. And well, making you the second generation of generals just didn’t seem to fit. So we had to come up with something else. I’m glad you seem to like it.” She checked the clock then before she looked at the four males around her, “It’s almost time to go, guys. Or we’ll miss the last shinkansen.”
“Take care everyone,” Hosoda inclined his head and then offered his arm to Inaba. She linked arms with him, waved to Kaori and Erika and then left with Hosoda. The three others followed suit soon, after saying their goodbyes as well.
“See you, Shinya-kun!” Tsukasa called out before the group moved too far away. “I’ll definitely come and visit you! Good luck with everything! And come back here whenever you want! This city will always welcome you back with open arms and a smile! That’s something nobody will ever be able to take away from you, ever!”
Looking back, Hosoda smiled and waved to Tsukasa one last time before he and the others disappeared inside the building on the escalator.
A few weeks later, Hiro stood in a karaoke room and cheered, “Ladies! And gents, welcome to this most fabulous party! We are going to celebrate a new chapter in the history of NIGHTS today and you’ll all be part of it. Are you have fun?”
“Yes!!!” the group cheered.
“Are you ready for more fun?” he asked.
“Yes!!” the group cheered again.
“Alright! Then it’s time for the King’s Game!” he let the cup with the numbers go around.
Again, Yokokawa ended up with the king’s number, “Number 3 and Number 2, Pocky Game!”
Kenjiro got up, “Alright, let’s do this! I’ve got number 3, who has number 2?” He looked at Jun pointedly. “It better not be you again.”
Jun made a face, “Nope.”
“Ah und in that case, who’s got number 2?,” Kenjiro blinked. This was new.
Someone got up and a leather jacket was thrown onto the couch, “Bring it on, Kenjiro.” Hisao lifted up the stick with the number ‘2’ written onto it.
“Urgh, worst case scenario,” Kenjiro groaned but then grabbed a pocky stick anyway. He blinked for a moment as he noticed that it was shorter than usual - courtesy of Kazuya, who’d sent extra short pocky sticks for their party because it would make things all the more entertaining, “If you touch my lips I will kill you, bitch!”
“Not if I kill you first,” Hisao challenged and bit into the other end of the stick.
Hiro cheered and wrapped an arm around the person next to him. Erika crossed her arms and smiled in amusement. “Who’ll win, Hiro? What do you think?”
“This isn’t about winning, this is about the entertainment,” Hiro grinned. “Come on, Hisa! Let’s go Kenjiro! You can do it! Yes! That’s the spirit! One more! Closer!!” he cheered along with the other girls and guys in the room.
“Go Hisa!!” Eiji cheered from where he was sitting with Mika. He looked at his girlfriend and smiled. “I guess your NIGHTS parties can be fun after all.”
Mika was beaming, “I’m so happy you’re here with me! I never would have dreamed that I’d get to go to a party with you!! Ah, this is so nice!!” She hugged him tightly, prompting Eiji to turn a little blue from the lack of air.
“Baka, baka, not so tight!!”
At the BEAST lair, Kaori was looking at a couple of boxes that had been delivered to them - along with the latest newspaper featuring the results of Yutaka’s boxing matches along with another letter that had held two tickets for the title match.
The boxes all contained fresh fruit and vegetables. Smiling, she looked at Danno, “We can make food for everyone!” She looked at the BEAST Ladies. “We could go to the park and have a picnic with everyone when the leaves turn color soon.”
Kazu raised an eyebrow, “BEAST having a picnic?”
Danno leaned back, “If the Ladies want to do it, why not?” Then he mused with a smile, “It’ll also confuse the hell out of everyone else.” Keeping an element of surprise was always a good thing, especially when it came to fights.
Blinking, Kazu looked at Sakuragi and then shook his head. “Alright, if Danno-san says so.”
“Wohoo, picnic!” Harada cheered.
Suddenly the whole room went silent as everyone turned to look at him.
“...what?”
Yoji had received a parcel as well. He’d opened it in the Gokurakucho hangout and had found a letter and a brand new riders leather jacket inside. His old one had admittedly gotten very worn out and especially the fight he’d had with EDEN’s Masato had dealt it some damage - scratches being the less severe, holes and rips being the worst.
‘Time to let the old one retire. It has enough battle scars now. Hope it fits. - Nagi’
When he opened the jacket around, his eyes widened a little bit when he saw a design on the inside. It was stylishly faded but if one looked closely, they’d be able to see the butterfly design there still, along with the ‘Gokurakucho’ kanji.
Putting it on, he went to look into the random full-length mirror they had standing around at the hangout. The jacket fit perfectly and allowed him to move however he wanted - which was important for fights. The jacket was cut in a similar way as his own, so it didn’t feel strange or too new either. A fluid transition from the old to a new generation?
He smiled a little bit at that thought.
When he was about to put the box away, he noticed another layer in it. Opening that as well, he found another jacket there, one that wasn’t made out of leather and another note.
‘If you ever get yourself a girl and take her out, please don’t wear the leather jacket. ;)’
“Hey!”
At the central train station, Tsukasa was carrying Kumi’s suitcase up for the other. When they stood on the platform, he hugged her impulsively. “Good luck, Kumi-chan. I know you can do it,” he smiled at his girlfriend. She was going to Tokyo to take the entrance exams for the universities she wanted to study at. “Call me when you arrive. And if you need help, get in touch with Shinya-kun. He’s a good friend of mine and he’ll help you if needed.”
Kumi nodded, “Un. I’ll do that.”
“Do your best and I’ll be doing my best here as well,” Tsukasa smiled and took Kumi’s hand with his and squeezed it gently. Then he straightened up and took a deep breath. “Can I k-k-k-”
“Tsukasa-kun?” Kumi blinked. “What is it?”
“K-K-Ki-” he kept stuttering. “K-Kiss for good luck?” Tsukasa swallowed and then slowly leaned in just when the shinkansen zoomed into the station behind them and blew Kumi’s skirt up, so of course she yelped and reached to push it down again.
Tsukasa sighed. Maybe he should just give up.
- FIN -
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
Drama Type: Yankee Drama
Episodes: 1-3
Broadcast Network: Kira Channel
Broadcast Period: 16-June-2014 - 01-July-2014
Sypnosis:
*dramatic male narrator voice* Set after the events of the movie, our group of friends takes a trip down memory lane as ghosts from the past come back to haunt the teams of Hiroshima. As old friendships are rekindled, there is talk about a big party that is supposed to shake the whole city. WWTD - What Would Tsukasa Do...when even the Skytree Elbow proves itself to be useless?
WARNING: This is NOT an actual continuation/special of the drama. This is a fic = this is my own wishful thinking. *sigh*
Disclaimer: I don't own the people. I don't know the original manga/drama/movie etc. but I own the story of these three 'special episodes'.
Episode Zero - Part 3: The Future
After Eiji and Hisao had ‘dropped him off’ in the morning, Yoji had been working in the kitchen of the okonomiyaki restaurant for most of the day - things happening with the team were no excuse to take the day off. Not after he’d gotten his job back again, not after having been given one more chance. One last chance. He couldn’t waste it.
He was trying his best to focus on his work but of course his head was full of other things right now. There were a lot of things he needed to think about. A part of him was glad that he was alone back in the kitchen, so nobody could see him zone out from time to time, while doing the dishes, cutting ingredients or mixing batter.
It wasn’t until the busier evening hours and the dinner time rush had passed that the owner called him over to help in the restaurant. He came out and cleared some tables while he listened to the owner having a conversation with a lone customer over the sizzling of a fresh okonomiyaki on the teppan.
“A lot has changed in the city, hasn’t it? I’m glad that the okonomiyaki here never change though. They still taste as good as ever,” a voice said in a friendly conversational tone.
“Good food doesn’t change,” the owner replied with a smile. “Here you go. Please enjoy!”
“Itadakimasu,” the other accepted the food. “I guess you’re right. It’s not the food that changes. The city and the people are what changes. Mostly the people.”
Suddenly Yoji felt eyes on his back and he turned around, only to almost drop everything he was carrying when he saw just who had been talking with the restaurant’s owner. It was a smile that greeted him, a smile that looked friendly at first but when you looked closer it sent cold shivers down your spine. The smile was hiding the other’s other side, a side that was a lot less pleasant than this. The friendly smile and short, slender appearance of the other betrayed his true ‘form’, true nature.
“You’ve changed, Yoji. You’ve changed a lot since we last met,” the other noted and gave Yoji another once-over. “Long time no see. Are you surprised to see me here?”
“Yazawa!”
The other still looked very much like Yoji remembered him, maybe a little older. Yazawa’s hair was still dark brown and wavy as it had been back then. Instead of Gokurakucho’s customary black leather jacket, white shirt, the other was wearing a white rider’s jacket made out of leather over a grey tank top, grey was the color of the Shidokai.
Despite the jacket the other was wearing, Yoji could see the muscles the article of clothing was covering. Whatever Yazawa had done in the past few years, it hadn’t made him rusty.
Had the other come here to fight him? Had it been wrong to think himself safe at the okonomiyaki restaurant - a place that the fights shouldn’t have reached? After all the chance of getting innocent bystanders involved here was very high. Or was the other waiting for him to finish his work for the day and then confront him on the streets?
Yazawa was looking at him and Yoji tried to hold the other’s gaze as if it would help him to answer the question that was burning on his mind right now.
What was the other thinking?
Danno, after checking with other branch leaders from BEAST whether or not some suspicious activity had been detected in their areas, was on his way to visit Kaori, Kazu and the other two at the hospital when a nurse stopped him by the reception desk of the nurse’s station. She handed him an envelope and said that someone had left it here for him. His eyes caught a glimpse of the Shidokai mark on the back of the envelope and he took it from the nurse with a nod and quiet ‘thank you’. Walking over to a waiting area, he opened the letter.
A place and time were written on it along with a date and the words, ‘Party Time!’
So the party was about to start, was it? Well, he couldn’t say he minded. The sooner he could be over and done with this thing, the better. Checking the clock on the wall, Danno realized that whatever was supposed to happen was going to do so in an hours time. So he had an hour to get to wherever the place was? That should be manageable.
When he crumpled up the piece of paper, Danno couldn’t help but smile a little bit in anticipation. Dirty methods or not, if he could get a decent fight out of this, it would be worth all the trouble. Whoever was calling him out better be worth it.
He’d heard the rumors about the Shidokai and their strength. Especially the former member of BEAST whom none of the previous tops had dared or been able to control interested him.
Looking over to the corridor where Kaori’s room was, he sent a silent apology to her but he knew she’d understand. This was something he had to do. He’d do something nice in order to apologize after Kaori could leave the hospital again and things had blown over.
When Danno had left the hospital again in a hurry, Inaba appeared from behind a shelf in the nurse’s station and handed the nurse who’d talked to Danno a bill after high-fiving her.
The nurse smiled, “Anything for you, Inaba-san. Even without the tip.”
“Take care of Kaori as well for me, will you, Minapi? Not like in the good old times, though, mind you,” Inaba smiled back.
“Will do!” the other mock-saluted to her.
Grinning, Inaba mirrored the other’s action before she left the hospital as well. It paid off to have a good network of people around the city still, people, who’d disappeared from people’s memories. A lot of the former members of the ANGELS had changed a lot ever since their ‘golden days’ and had taken on normal jobs now and had turned into ‘normal people’. Inaba had made good use of that and the fact that even Kaori had not recognized Inaba’s former teammate.
The location Danno had been asked to come to turned out to be an abandoned factory building down by the docks. He noted that it was shielded from view and very much out of the way. Nobody would disturb them here. It was dangerous but he wasn’t someone to be deterred by something like that. He wasn’t planning to lose after all. So it didn’t matter where he was, where he would be fighting.
Walking further into the building, he looked around. There were some steel bridges and ladders above him. He could see some movement up there.
“Come out. I know you’re there,” he called out.
“Heh, so you’re the dangerous BEAST everyone’s talking about? I heard you’re pretty strong so that has me really excited,” a voice spoke up from somewhere above Danno. Someone jumped down and elegantly landed a few metres in front of him. “It’s been a while since I’ve been allowed to face a strong opponent. Someone who can make my blood boil.” The smile on the guy’s face was pleasant and friendly. “I look forward to it.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Danno asked.
“Ah, where are my manners,” the other looked at Danno and suddenly his expression changed into one that looked a little bit insane and most of all like that of a person lusting for blood. “I think the people from your team used to call me ‘Jackal’ or something but my real name’s Tokuyama Hiroshi. Not that you’ll remember it when I’m done with you.”
“Were you the one who did that to Kazu and the others?” Danno asked, although he could guess the answer already. He looked at the other and his eyes narrowed dangerously. He could sense the threat the other posed.
“Kazu? Ah was that the good looking tall guy? The small guy who can’t seem to talk? Or the one with the cheekbones and cornrows? I don’t think I caught their names,” the other asked and laughed merrily as if he were talking about fluffy little kittens. “Did you like the flowers? I think they gave his bloody face a nice touch.”
“Don’t fuck with me,” Danno went in to deliver the first punch.
To his surprise, he hit the other square in the face. Tokuyama stumbled back and then laughed softly before turning to look down at Danno again. His expression had turned well and truly insane by now. He was smiling as well. “I’m getting really excited now.” He moved forward and delivered a kick that Danno could just block with his arms, crossing them in front of his face. The force of the attack sent him stumbling back a couple of steps though.
His opponent was no joke. Well, Danno definitely saw no need to hold back anymore and went to retaliate. What irked him the most was that Tokuyama seemed unaffected by his attacks, the pain that should have been inflicted even seemed to make the other happy.
He was fighting with a madman. Taking a step back and trying to catch his breath a little bit, Danno tried to think of a new strategy. He couldn’t just fight normally with the other.
“Why does stuff keep happening here at the club?,” Hisao asked when he looked around the dance floor in search for another note. “Is this someone with a grudge against you after all?”
Hiro made a face, he was looking very serious and not even a little playful right now. “That’s exactly what I’m wondering about right now as well.”
Hisao and Eiji had gone to the NIGHTS club after they’d ‘dropped off’ Yoji at the other’s workplace. Once they’d gotten to the club, Eiji had gone off to find Mika and Hiro had invited Hisao to accompany him - they were counting on the fact that whoever had attacked the members of BEAST, wasn’t the same person that had left Kenjo at the club before.
Eiji had then been found beaten up and unconscious in the main area of the club. Mika had just wanted to fetch something from one of the backrooms - girls only - quickly, so she had told him to wait for her there. When she had returned to where she’d left her boyfriend, the other had been lying on the floor with a bleeding wound on the back of his head.
Of course Hiro and Hisao had hurried over immediately after hearing about it. The two had been ‘patrolling’ the streets around the club to look for suspicious activity.
“There doesn’t seem to be another note,” Hisao made a face. “Ugh, are they playing with us?”
“I’ll kick their asses for this,” Hiro muttered. Then his expression softened a bit and he turned to look at his companion, “By the way, why are you here, Hisa? Shouldn’t you be with the rest of, you know, your team?”
Averting his eyes, Hisao admitted, “I was worried about you guys.”
“Aw, there’s still some attachment after all, huh?” Hiro walked over and slung an arm around the other’s shoulders. “I admit that somewhere in my heart, you still belong here, too. And you always will.” He smiled, “But I know you’re happier with the other guys now.”
“Don’t get all sentimental now,” Hisao pushed at the other but without any force behind the action. “Maybe this is just because...back then when the Shidokai was around, I was still part of NIGHTS. Everything that’s happened, is making us all return to the past. So, I guess it was inevitable that I came back here.”
He paused and looked around. “Where did Jun and Kenjiro go? Didn’t the two say they’d come and join us after checking around the main room?”
Frowning, Hiro looked at a clock on the wall, “That’s taking far too long.”
“Shit,” Hisao ran towards the main room immediately.
When they got to the entrance to the main room, it was pitch black and they couldn’t see anything up front. “Jun? Kenjiro?” Hisao called out and tried to find something to grab on, something he could use to orientate himself in the dark.
“I can’t believe Hiro’s top executives are the two clowns now but somehow I am not surprised either. Aren’t you at least a little mad that he’s replaced you with them, Hisa?” a voice, that didn’t belong to any of the members of NIGHTS, asked. “Then again, I can’t blame you for leaving the team. After all, I did the same thing.”
“Who-” before he could finish his question, Hiro suddenly tripped over something on the floor and just when he landed on his ass, the lights were turned back on. Now they saw that Hiro hadn’t tripped over something. He’d tripped over someone. The unconscious form of Yokokawa. Kenjiro and Jun were lying down on the dance floor in a similar state. “Compliments on the new addition there, though. Adding some variety. A tough guy. Funny.”
Up on the sofa which Hiro usually used, a lone figure dressed in a black medium-length trench coat was sitting and waiting for them by the looks of it, with their arms crossed and legs resting on the table in front of the sofa. “I got bored waiting for you guys to come over. So I had the others entertain me for a little bit while I waited. I guess you have only halfheartedly passed on my teachings, have you?”
Hisao’s eyes widened when he recognized the person in front of them, “Kazuya.”
Kazuya smirked and gave him a mock salute, “The one and only, Hisa. The one and only.”
Hiro and Hisao looked at each other before they turned back to the person sitting on the sofa again. They were trying to analyze the situation, were trying to come up with some sort of plan. It wasn’t easy to do so, though. Neither of them was able to judge the situation.
Kaori stepped outside the ward to make a call. Danno wasn’t replying to her messages and he wasn’t picking up his phone. It was making her worry.
“Hide,” she whispered and put her phone away again.
“Ms. Nakai? Your boyfriend was at the nurse’s station just now,” a nurse walked over to her. “He received a message though and after reading it he left in a hurry.”
Her eyes widened, “He did? What message?”
The nurse produced a card. It was the same card Danno had received, “I picked it up when he dropped it in his rush to get to wherever this is, I guess?”
Kaori grabbed the card and stared at it. “Oh no,” she grabbed her phone again and bowed to the nurse, “Thank you!” And then she hurried over to the other end of the hall again to make another phone call. “Kumi? Do you know where Tsukasa is? I need to talk to him…”
The nurse’s smile turned into a smirk when she watched Kaori go.
“Mission accomplished, Inaba-san.”
Tsukasa had gone to the hospital after Kumi had told him that Kaori had something to tell him and that he should get there ASAP. After she’d told him that Danno had been called out, he’d started to have a sinking feeling in his stomach. He’d taken the ‘invitation card’ from Kaori and was running to the place written on it as fast as he could.
When he arrived at the abandoned factory, he could see Danno and a male he didn’t recognize, fighting only a few metres away from the door. He came just in time to witness Danno being thrown back by a particularly strong looking punch.
Moving forward, he called out, “Danno-kun!”
“Don’t come over here,” Danno hissed and straightened up again, wiping some blood from the corner of his mouth. “This is a one-on-one. And it’s my fight.”
A new voice spoke up from the side, “Yes, Tsukasa-kun. You should mind your manners. One can’t simply interrupt a one-on-one. It’s against the rules and it would be really unfair, don’t you agree? It would also hurt Danno-kun’s feelings.”
A male dressed mostly in black, except for a long grey trench coat, emerged from the shadows not too far away from Tsukasa. He had a pleasant smile on his lips. “Yo, Tsukasa-kun. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Never thought we’d meet again in a place like this.”
Mouth falling open, Tsukasa blurted out, “Shinya-kun?!”
“Isn’t the world small, Tsukasa?” Hosoda smiled. “I think it’s funny how small it is.”
Tsukasa recognized the other from some parties he’d attended with his parents when he’d been younger. He’d been happy to find some kids there around his age he could play with. The other had been one of them. They had gotten along well.
His mother had seemed happy about it. Saying how ‘Shinya-kun’ was the son of someone in the same company as Tsukasa’s father but in a higher position, so getting along with him was a very good idea and would surely make Shinya’s father regard Tsukasa’s own father better by association. The two had run into each other time and again at the other company events, even after Tsukasa’s family had moved to Tokyo just before his sixth birthday. Otherwise the two of them would have probably attended the same school later on.
“You’re the leader of the Shidokai?” Tsukasa asked, although he already knew the answer of course. “Why are you doing this? Why did you come back?”
“Because I love this city, Tsukasa. It hurt to be away from it, to be away from my friends. My parents took it all away from me and sent me to a place far away, unable to return,” the pleasant expression remained on his face but there was something dark in his eyes. “I am going to lead this city towards its future. I will complete the Shidokai’s mission.”
He leaned back against a pillar. “I heard you’ve caused quite an upheaval here. You know, I was really surprised to hear that YOU had become the 8th Generation of Gokurakucho. You out of all people. I’ve known you for a long time after all. I watched you toughen up a bit when you met Shinichi and Aoi-chan after you moved but to come this far… It actually made me happy. I’ve been wanting to see you again but well, I wasn’t able to as you know. Since well, from a certain age onwards, you don’t attend those company things anymore.”
Looking over his shoulder, he continued, “As you can see, Danno is quite busy with Hiroshi. And he isn’t the only one who should be busy right now. Your friend Hisa should be with Hiro, right? I think that Kazuya’s been waiting for them already, so they won’t be coming here any time soon either. They have NIGHTS issues to ‘talk’ about. Then, from what I heard, your friend Eiji is with his girlfriend and they went to watch a movie together, so he won’t answer any call or message until later and won’t come. And neither will Yoji.” Hosoda paused for a moment before he added, “Nagi should be with him now.”
He smiled. “I know Nagi is quite small but his strength is not to be underestimated. Even when faced with an opponent like Yoji. Or should I say, especially when facing someone like Yoji?”
Yoji fought a lot with his legs after all, his strength laid in his kicks and in the wide range he had at his disposal for attacks. Yazawa was the opposite. He was small and agile and could slip past Yoji’s defensive line easily. He always had stable footing and his strength were short-range attacks with arms and fists. In addition, Yazawa had watched Yoji fight a lot more than the other way around. He was in a better position to anticipate the other’s actions.
“And what does that mean?” Tsukasa swallowed. He could feel himself getting worried for his friends but he knew he couldn’t go and help any of them. He couldn’t get away from here, plus, he was facing the ringleader. Which could only mean one thing really but he refused to say it, refused to acknowledge the truth.
Hosoda was still smiling at Tsukasa, “You know what that means, Tsukasa-kun. It means that I’ll be your opponent and you’ll have to fight me.”
The two looked at each other and Tsukasa tried to order his thoughts.
“What if I don’t want to fight you, Shinya-kun? There is no reason for us to fight, is there?” he tried. “Why do we have to fight each other?”
“Tsukasa, have you still not understood that you’re sort of important in this city? You’re officially the number two. In some circles you’re even said to be the number one. Whoever wants to be at the top has to inevitably go through you first,” Hosoda pointed out. “So that’s what I’m going to do.” He popped his neck. “Be glad I’m sticking to the rules and am not using an army of goons to just overrun the city. No, I’m not going to waste time with that. Challenging all of you one on one is a lot easier and more efficient. Plus, nobody will be able to say that it was fake victory then because you were already too tired from fighting with the footsoldiers. I didn’t bring anyone else. There’s only us, only you and me.”
Slowly but steadily, Hosoda was advancing towards Tsukasa. “I heard you will only fight seriously when you’re provoked enough that you snap, so I guess I’ll need to give you some more motivation to fight, right?” He eyed Tsukasa, his eyes cold and dangerous, “Instead of making you angry like everyone else did before me, though, I’m going to try a different approach.” Hosoda cracked his knuckles.
“I’ll warn you that I won’t hold back. Even if you don’t want to fight back or anything, I’m here to defeat you and I will do so thoroughly. Think about it, though, Tsukasa. It’s not just about you, there are a lot of people who rely on you and are counting on you. You’re the top of Gokurakucho, you carry a huge burden on your shoulders,” Hosoda said and by now, he’d come close enough to loom over Tsukasa. “If you go down, all of Gokurakucho will fall. What will the other’s say when you wake up again at the hospital? What will Kumi look like? How is she going to take it? What about the others? Yoji, Hisao, Eiji. Are you really going to just give up without a fight and let me do as I please?”
That had Tsukasa tighten his fists. He could clearly picture the worried expressions on his friends’ faces. He didn’t want to picture the look on Kumi’s face if that really happened.
“Alright, I’ll fight you. If I make Kumi said, I won’t be able to forgive myself!” Tsukasa hollered and then went to throw the first punch at Hosoda. Or at least he tried to.
They were pretty evenly matched, none of them being able to really deal the other any real damage. Tsukasa could avoid Hosoda’s attacks for the most part and the other ducked almost all of his. He changed the way he attacked but with the same result, so he tried to channel even more strengths into the attacks that he was already doing. If he couldn’t succeed by changing his tactic, he’d just have to break through the wall with force. And well, Tsukasa still had ‘that’, his special technique and famous final attack move.
He hadn’t wanted to use it on the other but it looked like he didn’t have a choice.
“Here goes,” he whispered to himself and then charged at Hosoda. Tsukasa rose up and raised his elbow but suddenly a pair of hands shoved him off.
Hosoda had effortlessly caught his elbow when he’d tried to use the technique which had brought down EDEN’s Masato. Tsukasa had crashed down onto the ground and was only slow to get up again. His ‘final attack’ had failed. The shadow of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, covered the Skytree and the darkness swallowed it up completely.
“Too naive, Tsukasa. There’s no way something like that would work on me,” Hosoda snorted.
Getting up again, Tsukasa raised his arms and fist again, preparing for a new attack. He couldn’t give up, he knew that but despite everything the other said and did, Tsukasa couldn’t bring himself to get absolutely serious. Hosoda was still his friend. His childhood friend whom he’d created lots of good memories with, with him he’d smiled and laughed. It was just like asking him to fight with Shinichi or Aoi or Yoji, Hisao or Eiji.
Tsukasa charged forward with his mind still troubled but he couldn’t afford to stop fighting right now. It was too late to pull out again.
“I can’t let you make the people here sad. I won’t let you make the people here sad. This city is good just as it is. Everyone’s happy and things are going well. I won’t let you destroy that, even if you’re my friend,” Tsukasa shouted determinedly and then put his all into the next attack. He’d gotten close enough to Hosoda to attack the other from a short range now.
Suddenly he noticed though that he’d left his side undefended and open. Hosoda had of course noticed that as well and was already moving to use that opening for his next attack. Tsukasa stopped and braced himself for the impact , tried to somehow still move out of harms way. It was all he could do right now, it was all he was able to do right now.
He closed his eyes and waited for the blow.
“Tsukasa!” a familiar voice - that wasn’t Hosoda’s - called out to him and he opened his eyes again, only to blink at what he saw when he did.
Hosoda had moved closer of course and had his fist raised and extended still but he was moving slowly and without any intention to hurt Tsukasa. Instead both of their fists met in a gentle bump - although it was still forceful enough to send Tsukasa staggering back a bit.
“Shinya-kun?” Tsukasa looked confused by the other’s actions.
“I’m passing on the torch to you, old friend,” Hosoda smiled. “You’re taking good care of the place I love. The place we all love. So I think I can keep leaving it in your care,” Hosoda straightened up again and looked at the him and Tsukasa’s eyes widened when he recognized the other’s smile. It was the same bright and honest smile he’d remembered seeing on the other’s face when they had talked and played at all those parties. The smile he’d seen on the face of Hosoda Shinya, his friend. “There’s no need for me to fight you anymore. The party’s over now. At least for us.”
“Shinya-kun,” his voice was quiet and then he turned towards the source of the voice that had called out to him just now. “Yo-chan?!”
Yoji jogged over from where he and a male Tsukasa didn’t recognize, had been standing in the door of the abandoned factory. He checked Tsukasa for injuries and then let out a soft huff of air that almost sounded like a sigh. “I guess our top might not be the typical hotheaded one but he sure is a passionate one after all, I give you that.” He was addressing the other male.
Laughing softly, Yazawa stepped over to look at Hosoda. “No worries, Yoji. For all I know, it might not just be his fault. Shinya is good when it comes to drawing out things that people usually keep hidden.” He looked at the top of the Shidokai. “It’s over, huh?”
“Good timing as usual, Nagi,” Hosoda brushed some dirt off his coat. “Yes, we’re done. And I think Hiroshi is almost done as well.” He looked at Yoji then. “You’ve fought your battles?”
“There was a lot less fighting than I would have anticipated,” Yazawa laughed melodiously, “I guess people do change when given some time and after experiencing certain things.” He eyed Yoji as well with a spark of amusement but also a certain fondness in his eyes.
Yoji had been tense after leaving his workplace - earlier than planned. Just like he had thought, Yazawa had been waiting for him. The other motioned for him to follow him somewhere and Yoji had felt compelled to do so.
To his surprise, Yazawa proceeded to lead him closer to the Gokurakucho hang out, to the big bridge that was just down the road and had the team’s logo sprayed on it to mark their territory. It was a place Yoji liked - he often came here to think, usually about matters concerning the team. Not so much now but back in the days, he’d done it quite a lot.
What surprised him even more was that Yazawa didn’t seem to be making any move to fight him. Instead Yazawa leaned against the wall and looked at Yoji.
“I’m glad to see that you’re doing fine. I’d even say you’re doing way better than before when Ishida and I were still around. Kiriki Tsukasa sure has changed you. And in my opinion, he did a pretty good job doing so,” he smiled. “Of course everything you went through has changed you as well but I’d say that the impact of meeting your current top was bigger.”
“I guess so,” Yoji admitted and then averted his eyes. He went to lean against the bridge’s pillar as well. “I was told that I resemble you now. That I started to become more like you after what happened with Keita and then after Tsukasa became the new top. And that I’m very much like you were back then now.”
Laughing softly, Yazawa eyed the other, “Is that so?” Then he crossed his arms. “And do you think that’s a bad thing or a good thing?” He sounded a little amused.
Grumbling, Yoji admitted, “I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”
“The past made us who we are now,” Yazawa closed his eyes. “The present follows the past and here we are who have become. And the future is who we will still turn into.” He opened his eyes again, “Those were the words I told Ishida back then and which I tried to tell you once but you weren’t listening, so I hope you were this time around.”
He laughed when he saw Yoji’s eyebrow twitch a little bit.
“Pass them on as well, will you? To the next generation, to the current generation as well. Along with everything else you already know about Gokurakucho, that is one of the main principles the team is supposed to function after,” Yazawa uncrossed his arms and pushed himself away from the wall a bit to get a better look at Yoji again.
“I went to see Keita before I came here,” Yazawa changed the topic then, his amused grin softening into a warm smile again. “He’s doing great at his job. In a few years, he’ll be a good carpenter. And maybe the father of Nao’s kids.” He laughed softly. “I’m glad you guys worked things out again after he was released.”
“Yeah,” Yoji smiled as well. “I heard he was doing well, too. He messages me sometimes.”
“Keep it up. Maybe you guys can open your own okonomiyaki restaurant someday,” Yazawa grinned. “I’ll be the first one to come and eat.” Then his expression softened. “Ishida-kun owns a restaurant now, did you know? After he stepped down as Gokurakucho’s leader he went to become a fisherman. He sailed the world with some of his friends and now settled down and opened a fish restaurant in Kyushu. I went there not too long ago. He says ‘hi’ and asks whether things are okay and Gokurakucho’s still doing fine. We talked about what happened back in the day and we’ve resolved our issues. We’re different people now than we were back then so we could look at everything from a different point of view now and saw just how stupid we were. We’re friends again. Not that we were ever anything else.”
Yazawa checked his clock, “Ah, I guess we should get going soon. Or we’ll miss the end of the party. And that would probably be uncool.”
“Wait, was that all you wanted? You just wanted to talk to me? You didn’t come to-” Yoji was stopped mid-sentence when Yazawa lifted his hand and motioned for him to stop talking.
“I didn’t come here to fight you. Or at least, I wouldn’t have fought you unless you were the one who attacked me first. I wanted to see who you had become, Kawanaka Yoji. I wanted to make sure that I left Gokurakucho and this city in good hands. And because I think that that is the case, there is no need for me to do anything else,” Yazawa explained.
Yoji frowned, “What about what happened to the members of BEAST? NIGHTS?”
“I do things my way,” Yazawa shrugged, “And the other’s do their own thing. Come on now. Your top is waiting for you. You don’t want to let him wait for too long, do you?”
Hosoda glanced over to where Tokuyama and Danno were still going at it. “I think this will still take a while. That leaves Kazuya.” He checked his phone. “No message, huh.”
Yoji blinked and pulled out his phone as well. His was flashing with a message. “I have a message from Hisa,” he mumbled and then opened it to read it. “Hah?”
Yazawa raised an eyebrow inquiringly, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s from three hours ago. I didn’t check my phone ever since I got to work this morning,” Yoji frowned. “He says Eiji was rushed to the hospital because someone attacked him at the NIGHTS club. They found him knocked unconscious.”
“Did you do that to Eiji-kun?” Tsukasa asked.
Hosoda blinked, “Eiji? No, I didn’t do anything. Nagi?”
Yazawa shook his head, “That wasn’t part of any plans. And I doubt Kazuya would have touched him. That’s what the movie tickets were for.”
“Movie tickets?” Yoji asked.
“We gave Mika movie tickets, so she and Eiji would be at the cinema while things went down,” Yazawa explained and smiled. “Since Eiji is Eiji. He’s good the way he is.”
That actually made Tsukasa smile a bit before his expression turned serious again. “But that means there’s someone else who’s trying to use the confusion you caused for his advantage.”
“If it happened at the NIGHTS club, I’m sure Kazuya will have heard of it from Hisa and Hiro by now and will look into it,” Hosoda furrowed his eyebrows. “Otherwise we’ll have to investigate that.”
Of course the incident with Eiji was the current topic at the NIGHTS club as well. “Did you knock Eiji out when you came into the club? Was he standing in your way?” Hisao asked and glared at Kazuya. “That’s not like you.”
Kazuya raised an eyebrow, “Eiji? I did not see him here when I came in.”
Hiro frowned, “How did you get in anyway? Even if you had forced your way past people, the doors were locked today and only someone who was let in from the inside or someone with a key could have come in. And the only people with keys were either inside, or me.” Apart from Hiro, only Jun and Kenjiro had keys to the club from the team. And-
“I let him in,” Erika appeared behind Kazuya. “And until a few minutes ago, we were still talking here. That is, until Jun, Kenjiro and Yokokawa interrupted us.”
“Why did you do that?” Hiro looked baffled.
Hisao blinked and then stepped forward, “You didn’t come to destroy NIGHTS, did you?” He looked at both Jun and Kenjiro’s unconscious forms. “You came here to give us another one of your lessons. After all this time.”
Smiling, Kazuya looked at Hisao, “That’s just like you, Hisa. You’ve always been a quick one. And I dare say that you’ll know the answer to the question I’m going to ask you. It’s the one you asked me so long ago actually. Do you think Hiro’s found what he was missing in my opinion?” He rose from his seat. “If you can’t come up with a satisfying answer, I will destroy NIGHTS, though and leadership will fall into the hands of the Shidokai.”
“What I’m lacking?” Hiro raised an eyebrow but then he seemed to remember the circumstances under which Kazuya had left the team years ago. “Why I’m unsuited to be the top of NIGHTS?” his eyes narrowed and then he looked at Hisao. “Why would Hisa know?”
“Easy,” Kazuya pointed out, “Because both him and me left the team, didn’t we?”
Feeling all eyes on him, Hisao looked down. “How would I know.” His voice betrayed him though. He knew that Kazuya was referring to but he didn’t want to say it.
“Hisa!” Hiro grabbed him and made him look up. “What is it?”
Kazuya added, “It’s the reason why you left NIGHTS, isn’t it, Hisa?”
“You never told us the reason why you left,” Hiro noted. “Maybe it’s time to do that now.”
“Please don’t make me,” Hisao begged softly and closed his eyes. “Please don’t.”
“Hisa, please,” Erika spoke up this time around. “You’ve been carrying that burden for so long. It’s the reason why you’ve never come back here, isn’t it? Only a drastic situation like the one that Kazuya-san and everyone created recently made you come back here and temporarily made you forget about other things that happened in the past but on your own, you wouldn’t have set foot in here again if it hadn’t been strictly necessary.”
Hiro shook Hisao, “Hisa! Say something!”
“You shouldn’t be so rough, Hiro, this is a delicate matter,” Kazuya scolded. “Well, let’s try and do it this way then. How would YOU feel if I were to defeat both of you and then tear this club down and chance it completely?”
“I would NOT let that happen!” Hiro let go of Hisao and looked at Kazuya instead. “I’ll protect this place.” After all, it held many memories and it held a lot of significance to him, to them. It was their ‘home’ and they - NIGHTS - had put a lot of heart-blood, sweat and tears into it, into making it what it was now.
“I’m just talking hypothetically here. What IF that were to happen and you’d have to stay on the team and settle down in a new environment again? It’d still be the same people but everything around you would be different,” Kazuya continued.
Hiro replied, “It would feel weird. It wouldn’t feel comfortable anymore. Even if I still knew the people, I’d feel out of place.” He blinked. “Are you saying that-”
Hisao had turned away from them and was looking over to the bar counter where the framed pictures were still standing. “I suddenly felt like I didn’t belong here anymore. At first I thought it was me, who changed but I think it was the opposite. I hadn’t changed but everyone else had. And that included you, Hiro.”
“Tell me, Hiro, what were the principles that NIGHTS was build on?” Kazuya asked.
“The number one is the most powerful in the team, that doesn’t have to be in terms of fighting power but it can also in terms of looks and popularity or it can be a matter of cunning and intelligence,” Hiro replied immediately but then slowed down. “He is the one who has the complete trust and loyalty of his group behind him and he is responsible for raising the next generation. The top never stands alone, he always has people covering his back and he can only freely move and do as he pleases because he has absolute trust in the others and that trust must be mutual. There should be respect, there shouldn’t be fear.”
That had been what Kazuya had taught them when they had first started.
Hisao cracked then and he blurted everything out, “Suddenly we felt more like we had become BEAST. Suddenly everything was just about who was the strongest, it wasn’t about doing things together anymore and doing things the way we used to do them. It felt like we’d become part of them without having really been taken over by them.” He paused and swallowed hard. “The NIGHTS I joined and was part of was a closely knit group, where one could rely on another. We stood behind our leader because we thought he was the one who was worthy of being at the top and he led by example and his actions would positively influence the rest of us. Just like back in the host club days.”
Walking over, he picked up one of the pictures, “The top brings in the clients and is the figurehead of the club, the ‘banner’ that people will recognize but once he brings people into the club, he introduces them to the rest of his group and that way, strengthens the group as a whole as well. It’s just like how Kazuya-san took us along when we first joined. He introduced us to the girls. We entertained them and even one one of us screwed up, we’d be able to make up for it again together. The girls then brought others along, who’d designate us, or they’d ask to sit with both of us and Kazuya-san together and in turn, Kazuya-san met more girls as well and the circle repeats. And you know that we never followed Kazuya-san because we were scared of him or anything, because he was stronger or more senior than we were but because he was the one who’d taken care of us, who’d listened to our problems and who’d been there for us when we needed him.”
He clenched his fists. “When it looked like you were going to rise more and more in the ranks, I didn’t follow you because you could kick my ass in a fight. I followed you because you were my friend and I trusted you and because I thought you had the qualities one needed to do this job. You made things fun for all of us at the parties, you brought alone the girls and entertained them but also pushed the rest of us and told people about our appeal. You took care of us and watched over us. You didn’t...’rule’ us.”
He took a shuddering breath, “When everyone around me seemed to distrust each other and the order of everything was dictated by whoever was the strongest, I couldn’t take it anymore. I just couldn’t feel at home any longer. I was no longer among friends but among enemies. It was nothing personal, if you or Erika had ever wondered about that.” If it had been, he wouldn’t have kept in touch with the others after all, wouldn’t have asked Hiro for help when his father had been hospitalized a couple of months ago. “It was just that I couldn’t deal with the whole thing anymore.”
There was a long pause and Hiro continued to look at Hisao’s back. Both he and Erika looked more guilty than surprised right now by Hisao’s outburst.
Neither of them expected Hisao to continue, “But I still believe that deep down, you know all of this, too. And I think ironically after Tsukasa beat some sense back into your brain, things seemed to improve again.” Hisao looked at where Yokokawa was lying. “You took him in because you knew he’d be a good asset and you wanted to support him, support him in finding a new way of life. I know there’s things involved like defeating him and all that but well, nobody expects a complete change from one moment to the next. But I think it’s a first step. I think he’ll be someone who you’ll be able to rely on without having second thoughts. He’ll be there, he’ll stick with you even if you’re defeated by someone in a fight because you gave him something more. You didn’t rule over him with your strength, you were the one who gave him something great, a new life.”
His eyes went back to Jun and Kenjiro. “I think it’s similar with those two. You have Kenjiro a home, a place where he felt he belonged in. You took in Jun because you saw his potential and because you saw how those two would be able to complement each other and create a sense of balance that would be important for the group. They’ll still need some work but I’m sure they’ll come around sooner or later.”
He turned around again slowly and addressed Kazuya again instead of Hiro, “Is that enough of an answer for you? The answer is, I do still believe that he has what it takes.” Then he sighed, “But I think I have to agree with you now that it was too early back then. Right now is a different matter, though. I think Hiro belongs at the top of NIGHTS. He’s the one to do this job. And if I were still a part of the team, I’d support him. Considering that I’m not, though, I don’t get to have a say in this but, I still support him. Even as a member of Gokurakucho.”
Looking at Hiro and Erika, Hisao said earnestly, “A part of me will always be a part of NIGHTS. A part of me will always belong here.” He smiled softly, “Maybe we can all celebrate my 25th birthday here when it rolls around. Just like in the good old times.”
“I’ll make it grander than your 20th and you better get that top of yours pissed drunk, too, then,” Hiro walked over and put both of his hands onto Hisa’s shoulders. “I’m sorry for not noticing, Hisa. I’m sorry I was the one who disconnected you from the place you called home, the people you called your friends. It’s shameful to admit that I was the one who might have brought down the ‘real’ NIGHTS.” Then he smiled. “But I’ll be the one to bring them back again, I swear. I hear that’s what the ladies like about me. I get beaten but I recover again quickly and rise up like a phoenix from the ashes. A nice image, that perfectly fits Hiro-sama of the Hiroshima NIGHTS, don’t you agree?”
Laughing, Hisao punched Hiro’s shoulder gently, “Never change, idiot.”
“You just told me to change and now you’re taking back your words? I don’t get you, seriously,” Hiro tsk-ed but he was laughing as well. Then his expression softened again and he gave Hisao a genuine smile. “Thank you, Hisa.”
“Don’t get all sentimental on me now, please,” Hisao snorted. Then he almost flew forward and against Hiro’s chest when Erika hugged him from behind.
“You’re both idiots. You’re all idiots. Every single one of you! Aaaah! Guys are so complicated!” she sniffed and buried her face in Hisao’s hood. “Idiots, idiots, idiots!”
Danno took a deep breath. He’d listened to what the others had said. So this was the true meaning behind everything that had happened.
“Are you going to give up now that you know the truth?” Tokuyama asked, panting slightly.
“What they did is their thing, what I do is mine. This is our fight. I won’t stop,” he looked at the other. “I’m not going to stop until I figure out what kind of stupid lesson you want to teach me. I also can’t let the defeat of Kazu, Sakuragi and Harada sit on me like that. You trespassed into my territory, I’ll chase you out again.” Danno took off his coat and threw it onto the ground.
All the moving around had him feeling a little hot. It had been a long time since a fight had been this exciting but also challenging.
Yutaka had probably been the last person to make him quite this serious and had been the last really formidable opponent.
Speaking of Yutaka, maybe that was a better strategy. Danno crouched down lower and changed his stance a little bit. He’d watched Yutaka fight - inside and outside the ring - and the other’s ability to spot openings and weaknesses was something Danno could almost admire him for. Maybe that would help him now.
“Oh, looks like we’re finally getting somewhere, Danno-kun,” Tokuyama smiled and then changed his stance as well. To Danno’s surprise he recognized it. He’d fought against someone else using that stance before. One of the former tops of BEAST.
Tokuyama altered the stance though and attacked with a kick. It was similar to an attack that Kazu would use so Danno knew how to block it effectively.
The other came at him again, ever changing his attacking patterns. It should have been irregular and unpredictable - and to someone else it would probably appear as such - but not to Danno. There was no pattern and he couldn’t predict the other’s movements but he knew how to react to all of the attacks because he recognized each of them. Some were his own - he had just used them in the fight - and others were those of people he knew, had known.
“Do you get it, Danno?” Tokuyama smiled at him again. “Or should we continue? I’m afraid we could keep on forever if we did that. Or maybe your youth will win over me.”
“You’re not that much older,” Danno retorted and let out a puff of air. “I think I get what you are trying to tell me, though. Although you really took a roundabout way of doing that.” He made a face and then broke out of his fighting stance to pick up his coat again. “Guess it’s over.”
“The strongest is the one who has the strength of many, “Tokuyama grinned and hopped over to the other. “Each opponent the BEAST devours becomes part of it and its own strength.” He tilted his head over, “There, I said it the easy and straightforward way.” Laughing, Tokuyama skipped forward and towards where Hosoda and Yazawa were.
“Shinya, Nagi! I’m done, too!” he chirped.
“We can see that,” Yazawa snorted.
Hosoda looked over at Danno, “I like your guts, Danno. And I like how terrifying you are.”
“Tsk,” Danno snorted softly. “I should kick your ass for doing what you did.” He looked at Hosoda. “I do not approve of those methods of yours.”
“Kazu and all have regained consciousness. It looked far worse than it was. He doesn’t have any broken bones. Just a lot of bruises,” Yoji reported to Tsukasa and Danno when he got off the phone. “Hisa just left the hospital and is on his way to the station with Kazuya-san.”
Tokuyama cracked his knuckles. “That Kazu guy, he put up a good fight. I just pointed out his weaknesses to him and then send him off to sleep to think about things.” He smiled.
“I don’t ever want you to point out my weaknesses to me,” Tsukasa edged away.
Danno let out a sigh. His shoulders slumped a little as well as the tension was released.
That didn’t go by unnoticed and Hosda smiled quietly to himself before he addressed the group, “Well then, let’s all go to the station as well to meet the rest.”
It took them a bit to get to the station. When they arrived, they found Hisao waiting for them with Kazuya and two more people behind them.
“Kaori,” Danno approached his girlfriend and then raised his eyebrow when he saw what the other was wearing. “This jacket…?”
“I don’t need it anymore,” Inaba smiled. She had removed her piercing and had donned different clothes. “So I gave it to Kaori. Along with some other useful things.” He eyed Danno. “Always remember this, Danno, a man is only as strong as his woman makes him because behind every strong man, there needs to be an even stronger woman. You might be the ones who fight at the frontlines but it’s the women who’re holding the fort while you’re gone and make sure that everything you’re fighting for will still be there for you to return to.”
She looked at the others as well, “That goes for all of you and not just Danno by the way.”
“Yes ma’am,” Hisao saluted and Erika behind him threw a pointed look at Hiro. The two had made their way over from the hospital as well.
Tsukasa addressed Hisao then, “Hisa, what about Eiji? How is he? What happened?”
“Eiji woke up earlier when we went in to check on him. It’s nothing bad, he’ll be back out by tomorrow morning. He also told us who attacked him,” Hisao heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe it.”
“Who was it?” Yoji asked.
“Apparently one of the guys in NIGHTS had been jealous of him ever since Eiji’s and Mika’s relationship became known to the rest of NIGHTS. He’s had a crush on Mika for a long, long time apparently and it totally broke his heart when he heard that she was dating another guy and on top of that a guy from another team. To make matters worse, Eiji and Mika were then allowed to keep dating because of the special agreement Tsukasa and Hiro made. So his feelings of jealousy have been culminating. When he saw Eiji alone at the club, he couldn’t keep everything in anymore and it exploded out of him. He attacked Eiji from behind and caught him off-guard.” Hisao pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Love surely is a scary thing,” the corner of Yoji’s lips twitched.
Hiro straightened up, “I’ll take care of it. So you guys don’t have to worry about it. I’ve already apologized to Eiji on behalf of NIGHTS and he’s accepted it, so there won’t be any bad blood between our teams. Just so you know.”
“Well then, I guess this brings our little party to an end,” Hosoda announced. “It’s time.”
Kazuya stretched, “Ah, it sure was nice to be back here again. To meet everyone.” He grinned at Hisao, Hiro and Erika. “I’m relieved now.”
“Wait, what are you saying-” Hisao was interrupted by Hosoda.
“We did all of this to see whether we could turn our backs on Hiroshima without regrets,” the tall leader of the Shidokai said. “And to tie up some loose ends.” He smiled and looked at the bracelet on his wrist, one that sported the same charms as the one Inaba had been wearing on her chain and was now also wearing as a bracelet around her wrist.
Then he continued his explanation, “Our aim was to change Hiroshima and the teams back when we formed this team. Our goal has been achieved, so we’re no longer needed here and can ‘rest in piece’. This will officially be the end of the Shidokai.”
“So, you’re going to leave Hiroshima again?” Tsukasa asked.
Hosoda nodded. “I’m going to study in Tokyo from now on and do my own thing. I don’t want to be in the shadow of my family for all my life. I’ll prove to them that I can do things on my own without my father’s name.” He looked determined. “And I’m going to take Rena with me.” He smiled at Tsukasa. “You are always welcome to visit if you come up to see Kumi-chan and the others. I’m sure Shinichi and Aoi-chan would like that, too.”
“I’m moving to the countryside to live on a farm and help around there. Probably somewhere in central Japan, Mie or Ise or so, wherever the wind blows me. They need young guys with too much energy, so if you have some people who want to quit the team and work instead, feel free to send them my way if they’re okay with it. They won’t be discriminated against, no matter what their past track record looks like but they better behave from then on, or I will make their life hell,” Tokuyama’s expression was dark and scary for one moment but then he grinned and produced a small bouquet of bright yellow dandelions from somewhere to hand it to Kaor with a flourish. “They’re not gold but well, close enough?”
“I’m running a small shop in Osaka now that specializes in biker and leather jackets,” Yazawa said and then tugged on Yoji’s and Hisao’s jackets. “If those ever need to be replaced or taken care of, come to me. I’ll give you a special discount on everything.” He laughed. “Also, if you’re really in need of a job in the future, I’ll always have work for you, too.”
“I’m not too far away either, just up in Kyoto. I teach at a high school and university cram school,” Kazuya grinned. “You may ask for the charismatic teacher who always comes to work on his bicycle, if you ever decide to give university or vocational school a try.”
Hosoda and Tsukasa bumped their fists together. “I’ll leave it in your and your friends’ hands, Tsukasa. The bright future of this wonderful city.” He grinned and looked at Hiro and Danno as well. “I’ll look forward to what the Holy Trinity of Hiroshima will be able to do.”
“Holy Trinity?” Tsukasa blinked.
Danno rolled his eyes.
Hiro grinned, “That makes me sound like a god or something. I like it! Worship me!”
Inaba laughed, “Well, somebody has to succeed the three generals. And well, making you the second generation of generals just didn’t seem to fit. So we had to come up with something else. I’m glad you seem to like it.” She checked the clock then before she looked at the four males around her, “It’s almost time to go, guys. Or we’ll miss the last shinkansen.”
“Take care everyone,” Hosoda inclined his head and then offered his arm to Inaba. She linked arms with him, waved to Kaori and Erika and then left with Hosoda. The three others followed suit soon, after saying their goodbyes as well.
“See you, Shinya-kun!” Tsukasa called out before the group moved too far away. “I’ll definitely come and visit you! Good luck with everything! And come back here whenever you want! This city will always welcome you back with open arms and a smile! That’s something nobody will ever be able to take away from you, ever!”
Looking back, Hosoda smiled and waved to Tsukasa one last time before he and the others disappeared inside the building on the escalator.
A few weeks later, Hiro stood in a karaoke room and cheered, “Ladies! And gents, welcome to this most fabulous party! We are going to celebrate a new chapter in the history of NIGHTS today and you’ll all be part of it. Are you have fun?”
“Yes!!!” the group cheered.
“Are you ready for more fun?” he asked.
“Yes!!” the group cheered again.
“Alright! Then it’s time for the King’s Game!” he let the cup with the numbers go around.
Again, Yokokawa ended up with the king’s number, “Number 3 and Number 2, Pocky Game!”
Kenjiro got up, “Alright, let’s do this! I’ve got number 3, who has number 2?” He looked at Jun pointedly. “It better not be you again.”
Jun made a face, “Nope.”
“Ah und in that case, who’s got number 2?,” Kenjiro blinked. This was new.
Someone got up and a leather jacket was thrown onto the couch, “Bring it on, Kenjiro.” Hisao lifted up the stick with the number ‘2’ written onto it.
“Urgh, worst case scenario,” Kenjiro groaned but then grabbed a pocky stick anyway. He blinked for a moment as he noticed that it was shorter than usual - courtesy of Kazuya, who’d sent extra short pocky sticks for their party because it would make things all the more entertaining, “If you touch my lips I will kill you, bitch!”
“Not if I kill you first,” Hisao challenged and bit into the other end of the stick.
Hiro cheered and wrapped an arm around the person next to him. Erika crossed her arms and smiled in amusement. “Who’ll win, Hiro? What do you think?”
“This isn’t about winning, this is about the entertainment,” Hiro grinned. “Come on, Hisa! Let’s go Kenjiro! You can do it! Yes! That’s the spirit! One more! Closer!!” he cheered along with the other girls and guys in the room.
“Go Hisa!!” Eiji cheered from where he was sitting with Mika. He looked at his girlfriend and smiled. “I guess your NIGHTS parties can be fun after all.”
Mika was beaming, “I’m so happy you’re here with me! I never would have dreamed that I’d get to go to a party with you!! Ah, this is so nice!!” She hugged him tightly, prompting Eiji to turn a little blue from the lack of air.
“Baka, baka, not so tight!!”
At the BEAST lair, Kaori was looking at a couple of boxes that had been delivered to them - along with the latest newspaper featuring the results of Yutaka’s boxing matches along with another letter that had held two tickets for the title match.
The boxes all contained fresh fruit and vegetables. Smiling, she looked at Danno, “We can make food for everyone!” She looked at the BEAST Ladies. “We could go to the park and have a picnic with everyone when the leaves turn color soon.”
Kazu raised an eyebrow, “BEAST having a picnic?”
Danno leaned back, “If the Ladies want to do it, why not?” Then he mused with a smile, “It’ll also confuse the hell out of everyone else.” Keeping an element of surprise was always a good thing, especially when it came to fights.
Blinking, Kazu looked at Sakuragi and then shook his head. “Alright, if Danno-san says so.”
“Wohoo, picnic!” Harada cheered.
Suddenly the whole room went silent as everyone turned to look at him.
“...what?”
Yoji had received a parcel as well. He’d opened it in the Gokurakucho hangout and had found a letter and a brand new riders leather jacket inside. His old one had admittedly gotten very worn out and especially the fight he’d had with EDEN’s Masato had dealt it some damage - scratches being the less severe, holes and rips being the worst.
‘Time to let the old one retire. It has enough battle scars now. Hope it fits. - Nagi’
When he opened the jacket around, his eyes widened a little bit when he saw a design on the inside. It was stylishly faded but if one looked closely, they’d be able to see the butterfly design there still, along with the ‘Gokurakucho’ kanji.
Putting it on, he went to look into the random full-length mirror they had standing around at the hangout. The jacket fit perfectly and allowed him to move however he wanted - which was important for fights. The jacket was cut in a similar way as his own, so it didn’t feel strange or too new either. A fluid transition from the old to a new generation?
He smiled a little bit at that thought.
When he was about to put the box away, he noticed another layer in it. Opening that as well, he found another jacket there, one that wasn’t made out of leather and another note.
‘If you ever get yourself a girl and take her out, please don’t wear the leather jacket. ;)’
“Hey!”
At the central train station, Tsukasa was carrying Kumi’s suitcase up for the other. When they stood on the platform, he hugged her impulsively. “Good luck, Kumi-chan. I know you can do it,” he smiled at his girlfriend. She was going to Tokyo to take the entrance exams for the universities she wanted to study at. “Call me when you arrive. And if you need help, get in touch with Shinya-kun. He’s a good friend of mine and he’ll help you if needed.”
Kumi nodded, “Un. I’ll do that.”
“Do your best and I’ll be doing my best here as well,” Tsukasa smiled and took Kumi’s hand with his and squeezed it gently. Then he straightened up and took a deep breath. “Can I k-k-k-”
“Tsukasa-kun?” Kumi blinked. “What is it?”
“K-K-Ki-” he kept stuttering. “K-Kiss for good luck?” Tsukasa swallowed and then slowly leaned in just when the shinkansen zoomed into the station behind them and blew Kumi’s skirt up, so of course she yelped and reached to push it down again.
Tsukasa sighed. Maybe he should just give up.
- FIN -
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.