by Unknown
To his right, on a hillside path under Kofuku Temple, tourists were walking around peeking at the houses for sale. There were a lot of people coming down the path to Sarusawa and they were casting shadows on to the surface of the water. The young man from before was standing a few meters away from Bunshichi. He had been following Bunshichi for almost four hours. The young man had been trying to talk to Bunshichi the whole time. Bunshichi had ignored him, but that didn't stop the young man from following him.
“How long are you planning on following me?” said Bunshichi, his gaze still fixed on the reflections in the water. The young man lifted his head. He had his hands in his pockets, of course. His jacket had a cut-mark on the upper left shoulder. The young man took his hands out of his pockets and took a step towards Bunshichi.
He had a shallow stab wound on his left wrist. It was from when he wrapped his jacket around it and the guy wearing sunglasses came at him with a knife. That's also where the tear on the shoulder of his jacket came from.
“At last he speaks!” said the young man, still around three meters away from Bunshichi.
“How how much longer are you going to follow me around?” Bunshichi asked in a low voice.
“How long...?”
“I haven't got any money. If that's what you needed I would have given it to you.”
“Bro, I can tell if people have money just by looking at them.”
“What about me?”
“Do you think that I thought you had any money, bro?” said the young man, his voice showing no fear.
[030]
A small, wry grin began to form on Bunshichi's thick lips.
“Probably not.”
“That's right.”
“So go bother someone else.”
“Why?”
“...” Bunshichi didn't answer.
“Make me your student.”
“Student?” without thinking Bunshichi turned and looked at the young man. He never thought the words “student” would ever come out of his mouth.
“You're learning Karate or something right? Well, teach me that.”
“Teach you?”
“Yeah, this kind of stuff,” the young man said before balling his hand up into a tight fist and thrusting it in front of himself. It was a pretty good punch in it's own kind of way. He had welts on his fists from over-training.
“You seem to know a little bit already.”
“Well, yeah,” said the young man, nodding his head.
“So keep doing it and get stronger.”
“Nah, it's hopeless, that damn Dojo...”
“...” Bunshichi kept listening.
“All they ever do is boast about how awesome they are. There are so many rules and they don't let us do anything. They are always wasting time with their bullshit.”
“Huh.”
“They are so stuck up they would probably turn you away if you challenged them without even throwing a single punch.”
“Challenge them...” Bunshichi muttered, “...people still do that.”
[031]
“Yeah, they do. I'm not saying you should take the Dojo on by yourself, but at least just go and ask to observe. Go in looking like you wouldn't hurt a fly. But of course have no intention of just observing the class and going straight home. At some point you ask them that you want them to teach you something...”
“Hmm...”
“It never happens when the seniors are there, but once someone did it when the seniors were gone, and I took them on.”
“...”
“We really went at it. Me and him. I think he was a university student. Naturally he was a little more skilled than me. But fights really boil down courage. I was worse than him, but I managed to give him a few surprises. I didn't care about getting hit. I wanted him to hit me. I only hit him once for every three times he hit me. But even then I didn't tap out. My style wasn't half bad either. We were exchanging blows, getting splattered in blood when our instructor came back and started giving us a lecture.”
“...”
“'The Dojo is for training, not for fighting.', 'Follow the rules'.”
“Rules?”
“There is no rule that says we have to hold back,” Ryoji grumbled.
Normally in a Karate match, each fighter tries to avoid hitting their opponent with their fists and feet. This means that one stops their attack when they are on the verge of making a hit to the body. The judges watch this and award victories and losses accordingly. It's a special rule that was implemented as Karate attacks can be very dangerous. This is what the young man is talking about when he says 'holding back'.
In other martial arts, like boxing or fencing, attacks are allowed to hit your opponents body.
[032]
However martial arts equipment, like padding, bamboo swords and ropes are used to lessen the impact the attacks have on the body.
“Full contact Karate is getting more popular,” said Bunshichi.
“Yeah, that's true.”
“Why don't you just train at a full contact Karate Dojo?”
“...” the young man fell silent.
“Just give it a go,” said Bunshichi.
“You've got to be kidding.”
“......”
“It's pain in the ass, I'll have to take my student ID, get permission from my parents, they'll ask me where I live and all that. I'm sure they will let me have a full contact match, but they won't let me have a real fight.”
“You're not from around here, are you?” Bunshichi asked. The young man spoke with an unmistakable Kanto accent and they were in the Kansai region.
[033]
He spoke like an adult, but was still a bit childish, which made Bunshichi smile a little. He looked up into the night sky. It had gotten completely dark. A cold breeze began to blow through. Bunshichi took a step away. The young man followed. He walked away from the bank of the lake and into the bustling business which surrounded it. He was headed in the direction of Nara station. Bunshichi talked back over his shoulder, somehow aware that he was being followed.
“Why do you want to be my student?”
“Because you're strong,” the young man replied to Bunshichi's massive back.
“I may be strong...” Bunshichi shot back. He wasn't worked up or anything, he just spoke those words as if they were a matter of fact,“but there are plenty of people who are stronger than me.”
“Bullshit there are.”
“It's true.”
“Yeah, but you laid those thugs out in no time flat, didn't you?”
“One of them had some experience with boxing. But I guess he was just an amateur after all. It took way too long.”
“No, I mean, I just said you laid them out. But it's not that it took to long or was too quick. Although that is a thing as well. But that's not what I'm trying to say.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Bro, you're not just strong.”
“I'm...?”
“You're serious. You take this stuff seriously.”
“I'm serious?”
[034]
“That's what makes you strong. You took out three street thugs one by one. That was you wasn't it?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, it was mesmerizing.”
“It's a good idea to get serious when people are coming at you with knives.” A bitter smile flashed across Bunshichi's face as he spoke. He looked like he had just remembered something. “But I was taking it easy on them.”
“...”
“You couldn't tell?” Bunshichi asked. The young man knew exactly what Bunshichi was saying, but it looked like the he was having trouble comprehending what he was really trying to say. The young man fell silent for a second before speaking.
“So you're telling me,” the young man started, now standing to the left of Bunshichi, “That you went easy on them so as not beat them to death, but didn't hold back so as to give them a thrashing?”
“More or less
.” Bunshichi said quietly. The young man somehow seemed to understand what Bunshichi was trying to tell him. “You know, for better of worse, thieves are nothing but trouble.”
“...”
“Nothing decent can come from hanging around a kid who stole money from some guys who were clearly gang members.”
“Dude, you knew I slipped the money into your pocket and you were going to run off with it.”
“I wasn't really going to steal it, but what you stuffed into my pocket was not the kind of thing I could hand in to the lost and found, either.”
“Stealing or not, you were going to make that money your own.”
[035]
“Well, a every thief has to take their cut.”
“Shit...” the young man said, spitting on the ground. The spit fell on the asphalt just in front of a woman in jeans who was walking towards him, causing her to wince and pull away.
“What did you do with the money?” Bunshichi asked.
“I left it there.”
“Why?”
“It's well and good to swipe cash from some guys who are acting tough, but you can't take money from a bunch of guys lying face down on the ground.”
“You're not as nasty as you look,” said Bunshichi.
The young man let out a chuckle as he nodded his head and grinned.
“What is it?”
“This...” said the young man as he pulled something out of his jacket pocket. There was a small bundle of 10,000 yen notes wedged between his fingertips.
“You took some as well...” said Bunshichi.
“What do you mean as well? Did you....”
“Just a little bit,” Bunshichi said as he puled his bulky hand from his jacket pocket. He too had a bundle of notes between his fingers. It was more than the young man had taken.
“You're even worse than me,” said the young man.
“It's because they came at me with a knife, even though I was just a bystander.”
“Wait, wouldn't you have had to pocket the cash before they came at you with knives?”
“I don't seem to remember,” said Bunshichi, pretending to not know the answer.
“You're a dog after all.”
“Is that bad?”
[036]
“Oh, it's bad.”
“I didn't really have a choice.”
“...”
“I need to get myself a decent meal and get a good night sleep for tomorrow. This cash is for expenses. If I ever run into those guys again, and I do happen to have some cash on hand, I can pay them back,” the way Bunshichi spoke made it difficult to tell if he was serious or just joking. He was hard man to read. His eyes were staring off into the distance.
Chapter III
It was still dark when Bunshichi woke up, but not the middle of the night. Dawn was approaching. Dull light flowed through the window, illuminating the room with a soft white glow. He sat bolt upright in his bed, naked from the waist up. He sprang up with the force of raw rubber. His body wasn't disproportionately brawny like a bodybuilder. It was more like he had thick bones with fat muscle wrapped around them. His muscles weren't lumped on to his body, but it was more like his skin clung tightly to his flesh. His chest and abdomen were about the same width, but there was no sagging in the slightest. The thickness of his neck put it in a class of it's own. It was not easily noticeable when he was wearing a shirt, but it was really something. It was almost thicker and stuck out further than his head.
Bunshichi unloaded himself from the bed, causing the springs to make a creaking as if the mattress was about to give way. The floor boards took the weight of his body without making a sound. All he had on was a pair of briefs.
[037]
Bunshichi had scars running all over his chest. Some were old, others fresh. Some of the scars were obviously made by blades, while others were unmistakably burn marks. He had two large scars, one on his abdomen and another on his back. The one on his back was a single mark that stretched from his right shoulder over to the armpit on the other side in a straight line. It looked like someone had slashed his back with a samurai sword. The scar on his abdomen was even more unusual. It was as if someone had tried to gouge out the left side of his navel. But even though it looked like a gouge mark, that didn't mean that sticking out by a few centimeters. The skin had been pulled and turned. It's the kind of scar that a blade would leave if it had punctured his flesh and been twisted in place.
The young man was asleep on the other bed next to him. Ryoji Kubori. That was his name. Last night after he and Ryoji had gotten a bite eat, they got their things from the coin locker at the train station and booked a room at the hotel. Bunshichi pulled a pair of black sweat pants and a sweat shirt from his bag that lay on the floor. He put them on slowly. They were pretty worn out. They appeared to be more ash colored than pure black, but that depended on which angle you looked at them from. His clothes were covered in stains. They looked like blood stains, though it was difficult to tell how old they were. His arms and legs were like logs, but when they were hidden by his clothing it was only his neck that stood out. You could see the line from his neck to the bottoms of his ears as his hair was so short.
He put his socks on. He simply pulled them over his feet not caring if they were the right way around or not. He pulled out his sneakers and slipped them over his feet.
[038]
He slowly tied his laces. Ryoji awoke as he tied them.
“What the...” Ryoji mumbled, his voice still hoarse from having just woken up. His hair was a mess.
“You're awake,” said Bunshichi. Ryoji sat upright in bed. He was also naked from the waist up. He was bit thinner than Bunshichi, but his upper body muscles were still well defined. The skin on his body was as smooth as his face. His body was supple, as if hiding strong natural reflexes.
“Where are you going at this hour of the morning?”
“There's no such thing as heaven, is there?” Bunshichi replied as he tied his laces. He wasn't looking at Ryoji.
“What...?” said Ryoji as he pulled himself up and sat on the edge of the bed.
“But there probably is a hell,” he said as he finished tightening his laces.
“Hold up...” said Ryoji as Bunshichi silently put the shirt and pants he had changed out of the night before and thrown on the floor into his travel bag. Ryoji scrambled to get dressed. He had just managed to ram his feet into his shoes by the time Bunshichi had his hand on the door knob. Ryoji didn't have any luggage.
“So, where are you going?” asked Ryoji as he ran his fingers through his hair like a comb. Bunshichi didn't say anything. They went to reception, handed back the key and paid the bill. It was Bunshichi who paid.
[039]
“That's cold, man. If I hadn't have woken up when I did, you would have just left me there,” Ryoji said to Bunshichi's back as he walked. Bunshichi didn't reply. They exited the hotel.
“Hey man...” Ryoji started. Bunshichi turned and threw his bag at him. Ryoji caught it against his chest.
“Stop talking so much,” he said to Ryoji in a quiet voice. His expression hadn't changed from the day before, but it was almost like it was a different personality was coming out from inside of him.
“B-” Ryoji was about to open with 'bro' but his lips froze in place. There was a kind of intensity coming from Bunshichi which stopped him before he could muster single word. Bunshichi bent his shoulders and knees in front of the hotel. He was stretching. Bending over and touching the asphalt with the tips of his fingers and rotating his ankles. He rotated his neck as well. He twisted his entire body and reached over his back. It was like he was warming up for something. Bunshichi's huge body suddenly started moving across the asphalt. It was a rhythmical movement that hid the weight of his huge body. Ryoji followed after him, still clutching the travel bag.
Bunshichi was jogging in the direction of Nara park. He slowly increased his pace as he pushed forward. His shoulders leisurely moved up and down. Ryoji also inc
reased his pace. Eventually Ryoji was unable to keep up with Bunshichi as he was carrying his luggage.
“Shit! God damn...”
[040]
Ryoji yelled out as he followed after Bunshichi, still holding on to his bag.