Jamie and Louis stood in the alleyway, completely surrounded by the group of delinquents, who had blocked off any path of escape.
“What the fuck do you want?”, Jamie growled. “We saw what you did to Mura at lunch today”, Ken said with a smrik.,“Iery impressive, where did you learn to throw a kick like that?”.
Louis piped up, “You’re not friends with that big idiot are you? You after some revenge?”.
Hiroshi’s head tilted back as he cackled with laughter. “Mura? That dipshit? Hell no we’re not friends with him. “Yeah fuck Mura” Shouted Ginji from behind the twins. His voice slightly muffled from his surgical mask..
“Listen I’m gonna cut right to the point”, Ken said as he gestured towards Jamie. “We’ve seen what you can do!”. His gaze slowly turned to Louis. “But what about your brother here?”.
“What the fuck is this?” Jamie said, his face getting red as he stepped towards Ken. Louis stepped forward and put an arm across his brother’s chest holding him back. “It’s okay bro, I’ve got this”. The short haired twin turned his glance to Ken. “I guess there’s no getting out of this without a fight then, so what’s it gonna be? Me and you?”. Ken smirked and nodded at the Australian. “Alright, let’s do this then”.
Louis and Ken both tossed their school jackets to the ground and began to do some stretches, limbering up before their fight. Everyone else stepped back, giving them some room. “You guys better keep this one on one” Jamie said threateningly at the other 3 delinquents. “If I see any of you step so much as an inch towards them I’ll knock your teeth down your throat, you got that?”.
Hiroshi tutted as he lit up another smoke. “Don’t worry, we may be delinquents but we still have at least some honour”. Ginji and Riku chuckled and nodded in agreement.
Louis and Ken stood in the middle of the alleyway, sizing each other up, before Ken raised his fists, assuming position. Louis kept his arms to his side, staring back at him. “You’re not gonna put em up?” questioned Ken. The Aussie shook his head. “Alright, suit yourself”.
Ken stepped in, throwing a jab, which Louis effortlessly sidestepped. Ken kept his gaze locked firmly on his head and quickly followed up the jab with a big overhand right, throwing all his weight behind it. Louis darted to the side, causing Ken to lose his balance. The shaved headed delinquent stumbled forward and Louis darted out of the way, giving him a nudge as he did so, just enough to send him barrelling towards the wall.
Ken put his hands out just in time to stop himself from hitting the hard bricks face first. He regained his composure, pushing himself off the wall and charging at Louis, lining up a punch. Again Louis dodged, but this time he retaliated with a punch of his own. It was quick, tapping ken on the chin and sending his head snapping back.
Ken’s friends looked on at the scene unfolding before them stunned. The brief moment of silence was interrupted by Jamie’s laughing. “Oh yeah I forgot to mention” He said, leaning into Hiroshi. “Your boy’s fucked”.
Ken put a hand on his jaw as he lowered his vision back to Louis who he found staring at him with a devious grin. “I didn’t want to brag or anything”, said Louis, “But back home they used to call me the panther. Something about how quickly and ferociously I could take someone out, or some shit like that”.
Ken cricked his neck. “The panther hey?”, he said stepping forward. “Let’s see what this panther can do”. Ken charged Louis, this time coming in swinging far more aggressively than before. Louis managed to dodge a couple of strikes, feeling pretty confident in his abilities, but Ken managed to get one to connect, landing a pretty hard Jab on his cheek. Louis’ face flung to the side as he briefly lost his footing, stumbling backwards a bit.
Hiroshi smiled as he took another drag of his cig. “Don’t write off Ken, He’s not the 8th gen leader of Hitokiri for nothing you know?”, he said slyly to Jamie. “Fuck him up Ken” Yelled Ginji. “Yeah you show that prick” yelled Riku as he pumped his fist.
Jamie ignored Ken’s delinquent posse. His eyes were locked on the fight, breathing slowly through gritted teeth. “Come on bro, you got this” He thought to himself. “Don’t let this prick show you up”.
Louis and Ken continued to fight, with each landing some solid blows on each other, sending blood spraying from their mouths and noses. No man seemed to be able to get the upper hand, as they each dodged or blocked as many strikes as they landed. This went on for a while, until finally Louis lined up a mean looking right hook. At the same time, Ken was sending a side kick aimed straight for Louis’ rib cage. Each man connected with other at the same time, Ken’s head flinging backwards, sending blood and spit flying, and Louis’ torso crumpling as he stumbled to the side.
They separated, breathing heavily, their gazes locked on each other, neither willing to back down. “Okay” Said Ken as he sucked in air. “That’s enough, I’ve seen everything I need to”.
“What do you mean that’s enough you bald fuck?” Louis shouted back. “We’re not fucking done yet, come back here and take your beating like a man!”.
Ken chuckled as his friends made their way over to him. “Hey, do any of you guys have a pen and some paper?” He asked. After some rustling around a pen and paper were produced and Ken quickly jotted something down on it. “Ginji, give this to them would ya?”.
Ginji walked across to Louis and Jamie, who was now there checking on his brother. “Here” he said, extending his arm out, offering the piece of paper. Jamie snatched it from his hands, quickly opening it up and reading it. “An address?” He yelled. “What the fuck are you giving us an address for?”.
Ken slipped his school jacket back on. “You guys both have what it takes. You’re exactly the type of guys that we could use in Hitokiri. If science and maths and all that other studying bullshit isn’t what floats your boat and you want something more, than meet us here after school tomorrow”.
Ken grabbed a cigarette off of Hiroshi, lighting it and taking a drag as the four delinquents begun to make their way down the alleyway. As he was nearing the end, he turned around. “This was fun, we’ll have to do it again sometime” He pointed at Jamie, “I want a shot with you too topknot”, before throwing his cigarette to the pavement as the group disappeared around the corner.
“You alright bro?”, Asked Jamie as Louis slid his school jacket back on.
“Yeah of course”, Louis replied. “I would have had him if we’d gone a little longer”.
Jamie chuckled, “Yeah, I don’t doubt it.”. He patted his stomach as it grumbled. Damn I want another tea. Mind if we hit the convenience store before we head home?”.
“Nah, I don’t mind”, replied Louis might grab something myself, lead the way”.
The doors of the convenience store slid shut behind the brothers as they made their exit. “That guy behind the counter seemed shocked at a couple of foreigners speaking decent Japanese” Louis said laughing as he tore the plastic from his onigiri.
“They probably don’t meet a whole lot of westerners that speak Japanese around here”. Jamie replied. “How’s the onigiri?”.
Louis took a bite into the rice ball, his lips puckered slightly as he tasted the sourness of the filling. “It’s actually not bad”, he said.
“What’s in the middle?” Jamie asked.
“Something called umeboshi”, replied Louis, “pickled plum or something like that, it’s pretty good. I bought just a plain one too if you want some?”.
Jamie shook his head, “Nah, I’m good with just my tea thanks”, he said as the brothers continued down the road as they headed home.
“Mum! We’re home!” Louis called out as he pushed the front door of their apartment open…. He was met with no response. “She must still be at work” He said, as him and Jamie walked into the apartment, throwing their jackets off and making themselves comfortable on the sofa.
“So that girl I saw you walking with, what’s her name”? Louis asked his brother.
“Kaoru”, replied Jamie.
“So when you two going on a date?” asked Louis.
“Fuck off bro, I just met her” Jamie said laughing as he picked up the remote, flicking on the TV.
“Come on bro, she’s cute”, said Louis.
Jamie nodded with a smirk, “Yeah, she is” He said. “I dunno, we’ll see what happens”.
The brothers turned their attention to the TV. Looks of confusion covered their faces as a group of hosts played games in the middle of interviewing what appeared to be celebrity guests.
“I can’t figure out if this is supposed to be a talk show or a game show”, Louis muttered.
“Fucked if I know”, said Jamie. “Japanese TV is nuts”.
Jamie pulled the hair tie from his hair, untying his topknot and letting it hang down as he removed the piece of paper with the address written on it from his pocket. “What do you reckon bro? Should We go check this place out tomorrow?”.
“I don’t know bro”, replied Louis, “We did promise mum that we wouldn’t get caught up in all this shit again, although I guess that’s kind of gone out the window already. What do you think?”.
“Come on bro, you’re the smart one, you always make the decisions”, Jamie said.
“We’ll I’m leaving this one up to you”, Louis shot back.
Jamie stared at the piece of paper for a little longer. “What even is Hitokiri? They a gang? What’s that even mean”.
"It sounds like it’s their gang yeah, with the way they were talking about generations and stuff like that”, Louis said.
“I wonder if it’s one of those, what do you call it? Bosozoku gangs I think?, you know, the biker ones” Said Jamie.
Louis shrugged, “Dunno, could be”.
Jamie tossed the piece of paper to the side. “Well I reckon it could be a bit of fun, so I say we go check it out”.
“Alright then bro, we’ll see what these guys are all about”, replied Louis.
Louis reached out his hand towards Jamie, and the two brothers fist bumped, before leaning back into the sofa.
