“So you turned up after all”
“I wouldn’t run away from you cowards who need 5 against 1!” the boy said, only to be rushed.
‘Stupid! No one told you to show up alone.”
“It’s so tragic those guys don’t give a rats a** about you!”
“T-The guys have better things to do than to toy with the likes of you!” That remark from the boy earned him a punch across the face as cars continued to pass on the bridge. The boys phone fell aside as Heisuke walked over to pick it up.
“Sada, yeah that’s it. This is the kid from online.” Heisuke checked his phone and the app, seeing the same username that had written comments against him in defense of the Veltros basketball team. Heisuke went about feverishly deleting the comments the boy had made against him with a snickering grin.
“Okay, now to have you write how much you love our team!” Miyoshi clapped as Heisuke walked over to the boy. “How about it, Jumi boy? That's your name?”
“Give the boss what he wants”
“Hell no! You can write whatever you want I’ll just delete it when you let me go!”
“Let you go?” The thugs all exchanged confused glances.
“That’s not how this’ll work… Jumi boy.”
“But then again, he knows we’re not gonna kill em, so what the hell boss?”
“Heisuke” The thugs waited for Heisuke to respond. He checked through Jumi’s gallery.
“Roughing you up should pass the message fine, but what do we have here, huh? A girl that goes to Yamago with you”
“Nooo!” the boy shouted reaching for his phone only for his hand to be stepped on.
“Leave her out of this!”
“Isn’t that the captain’s cute sister?”
"Now tell us where the Veltros captain is gonna be this Friday" Sada chuckled, swinging his punch quickly aimed at his chin.
"Ple- Ahrt-"
"Couldn't hear you so say where Soujiro is"
"Or else, we throw your bag into the river"
Sada leaned back holding the kids' bag over a railing. The teen raised a hand.
"There's valuable stuff! Please don't!"
"Ah, valuable stuff? Maybe information on that loud mouth Soujiro!"
Miyoshi went over and they started to check the bag, finding binders, school supplies and a golden basketball trinect, all that was soon thrown into the river causing the teen to scream, only to get kicked repeatedly by Heisuke.
“You can throw away everything else but please give me the necklace!” Jumi pleaded.
“So, the underground clan spots… where is it most heavily guarded? If you map it for us, then we’ll spare you some more minutes with your valuable stuff."
“That sort of information, is expensive… we can make some money for-”
“Heisuke! You won’t believe it! This little dweeb has a grenade in here! Wait, grenades!”
“What?!” Heisuke grabbed the bag, noticing grenades.
“What do you think you’re doing with that crap around here?”
“Were you planning on hitting us with that?!”
The five exchanged smiles that Jumi struggled to see through his cracked glasses. “Then go and hand me over to the Yori!” Jumi shouted as a flock of birds passed over him as if watching.
“Those are monitor birds…” Birds with small helmets placed onto their heads used to surveillance, local Yori using that preferred technology as a method of patrolling more easily.
Marco kept a close eye to the flock as Heisuke laughed.
“Hand you over to the Yori?!”
“Letting you get caught would be far too easy, tell that captain of yours Soujiro that we have hell for him, courtesy of his stubborn ass holding back on those routes.”
“What routes?!” Shouted Jumi only for Heisuke to laugh. “The one’s he stole from my gang sh**face” Heisuke grabbed one of the grenades, unclipping it, he left the grenade in the bag and tossed the bag out to the river as the bag plunged into the river and exploded successively causing rainfall to wash past them from the giant explosion of water.
“Great boss! We all got drenched!”
“Did you really have to blow that bag up, we could have blackmailed him into helping us put those Veltros high punks in a set up-”
“Aw shut it, it was pretty cool and besides a stuck up worm like the shrimp here wouldn’t turn on his friends”
“If there’s one thing about that Soujiro, is the undying loyalty his guys have, I at least respect that about such a guy”
“Respect the enemy?”
“That’s what I learned from Marco. If you can turn an enemy to an ally, it’s a matter of time and interest… find an agreement and it can work.” Heisuke folded his arms in thought as Marco smiled at what he heard and the group continued into the Minami town’s gaming district. Their usual spot being the Dotonbori game bar.
“Yeah and where was that when we were recruiting girls for our club!”
“Well, you guys do remember I offered them photos with me, but those ungrateful clads! How could they not want photos with the heir of the Yataro, I’m Dengai’s grandson after all!”
“That counts for something!” Heisuke shouted though the other guys only grumbled as he shouted “It counts for something!”
“Ah to hell with that start”
“About that… you can always make an exception. If you can’t find a common line then you crush them!” Heisuke raised his fists as the others did. “YEAH!”
Jumi winces as the Hirazawa thugs walk off to the Ten Ten district to play arcade games.
“We should try the new installation the place put, the latest mecha game.”
“Aw yeah! I’ve been wanting to experience what it’s like to be in a mecha like the ones in the military, that the military’s have” Miyoshi commented causing them all to laugh.
“You wanna join the military?”
“Maybe! What if I do?”
“It’s a little to late for that do’t you think? You haven’t even gotten into the Ikigai Academy”
“Actually… I earned credits to get in and go to a specific field when we graduate”
'Woah so it’s actually true guys, they recently put the new 'Full Metal Jammit game!” Sada showed the Hirazawa thugs his phone.
Thinking back to the last thing he’d told Heisuke, Jumi remained on the bridge pressed to the wall as the sun shone past. Someone he recognized soon stopped by but he only heard whoever it was through what the person said in a panic, clearly worried at the state the person had found Jumi in.
“Jumi! Who did this to you?!”
“Your phone!” The phone was beside Jumi, smashed so it couldn’t be used.
“What’s it worth? To put others in trouble because of your crap huh?”
“That’s what that punk captain of theirs gets for using an instrumental to sh*t on our school and even take one of our spots. You wanna go do karaoke or a studio to drop a diss back to that prick?!”
“After the mecha gaming sure-”
“Its better to vent like that than to get into a tyrade destroying anyone with that bastards school uniform, those damn birds, there’s more of them in this area today”
“I wonder why…” Marco thought to himself as the Hirazawa thugs continued their rambling.
“That’s a good idea, but what instrumental?” Miyoshi asked as Marco supervised the group and glanced at mall security that seemed to recognize them though a person approached forcing them to focus on what the civilian wanted as Marco pointed to the studio they’d soon pass by. “If you guys are going to do that first then that’s a good studio”
The group went about enjoying themselves. Heisuke brought out his phone to make a video of his friends all enjoying the day...
"Isuda’s pack reporting, we retrieved more intel from the Yori ma’am."
'What happened? We’re in the middle of a meeting. Continue the video if it isn’t urgent...'
Fuchizaki said behind her were the group of Ikigai called upon, specifically tasked with finding who'd taken Heisuke.
“A message has been sent to the Yataro clan to collaborate in figuring out what is going on”
“Without their request for assistance, I’m afraid we may not be able to overstep what has happened at one of their turfs but Shousa Isuda tasked with working alongside the Yataro to supervise Mr.Hiroyuki will have to answer.”
“Permission to speak ma’am”
“Permission granted.”
“I’m afraid Mr.Hiroyuki has fallen ill… just this evening, he’d been staying at the yamagata inn but was poisoned.”
“Isuda supplied D-Rank Stray Slayers to protect his life, but they never noticed when he was poisoned”
“What! Who was he with?! How could this have not reached us sooner!” Shouted a subordinate as Fuchizaki narrowed her sights in caution. “Sohno” At Fuchizaki saying his name, the lieutenant silenced himself along with the other Ikigai in the room.
“We’ll go over that momentarily, let us finish viewing these videos first.”
"Which one should we play?"
"The one shortly after the one we’d viewed please, after the first one we watched"
The video continued to play. In it, each of the students were identified.
"Uda Ryoko, Miyoshi and the other three are Sada, Asa, Marco, 11th graders of the Hirazawa Private Highschool Institution. The typical delinquent teenagers of Dotonbori mainly. That's the area those hooligans frequent."
"Well? Track the four and find out what they know. It's apparent they split from Heisuke and his bodyguard Marco at 5pm so the video for that time, find it and play that so we can get a lead into what happened"
"The reports is one thing but seeing it visually is another. Have the Vasco pack receive a copy of this. Those that viewed this first said some seconds were caught where the attacker was shown."
“Forward it to that moment…” Fuchizaki kept a close eye on the screen as they all did and saw the camera fall. Heisuke had dropped it and ran in to fight. In the angle of the screen, they saw someone who wore a metallic helmet and pink dreads that swayed about in the evening breeze.
“A Stray…”
“We’d caught footage of that same one at the factory”
“It’s apparent the bodyguard whose name is Marco, engaged that enemy but fell leading Heisuke to run in and most likely be used as a hostage”
“Shousa Vasco, send only four capable bloodhounds. Choose them from your pack and each is to be given 8 newbloods. They are to track that one down.”
“Very well”
“Fare warning… Keichi’s Setsu’s had fought against that enemy. At the factory. Many of the Ikigai had their camera’s to their uniforms so we have footage of when they were slain, if your group would like to go over the footage of that particular Stray. Your comrades may have died, but their deaths will not be in vain. If it can help extend the lives of the new bloods by even a fraction of a second… consider it a parting gift from their late Ikigai. They captured enough footage of whoever that Stray is and it’s fighting mannerisms. We will give it a warmed fiery welcoming of war upon capture” Fuchizaki turned over, folding her hands behind her back firmly. The Ikigai in the room all swiftly brought both of their hands slammed to the center of their chests.
“Ma’am”
“You’re all dismissed”
Fuchizaki adjusted her cap, going to a bending machine deep in the Ikigai’s headquarters. She passed through a bright corridor and checked for her favorite vending machine that had her favorite fruit drink. Scanning her ID card, she punched in the corresponding numbers with her finger and got the orange fruit drink that she opened for a well deserved drink.
“The days work isn’t over yet” She brought out a napkin to tap her slightly parted lips that revealed her fangs.
Deeper in a separated section of the Ikigai HQ, Fuchizaki took a trip over to Kamino. The lab’s door opened with her stepping in to observe what he was checking in a microscope.
"Hmm… Fuchizaki, what is it?” Kamino did not glance back to who’d arrived. Fuchizaki only watched his silky black ponytail sway as he grabbed two jars with green and blue glowing substances. Just when the door automatically slid aside he knew based on the vibe, who it was.
