The World's Strongest Little Brother

by Tsuyoshi Fujitaka

  “Huh?” Aiko was confused, but just clung to him tighter.

  Yuichi began running along the top of his fence at full speed.

  “Hey! What are you doing?”

  “Jumping. Hold on tight!”

  “Huh?” They were on the roof of a four-story building. A fall from here would hurt them badly, if not kill them outright. Aiko’s hesitance was understandable, but Yuichi had a chance for success.

  Feeling more kunai whiz past him, Yuichi picked up speed. It was the buildup to a long jump.

  As he approached the edge of the fence, he steeled himself, planted his feet...

  ...and sprang off the roof.

  The fall was brief. It took only a few seconds before they struck the ground.

  “Huh? Huh? Huh?” Aiko was shouting in confusion.

  Yuichi let his body go limp as he hit the ground, starting with the tips of his toes. He bent his knees and twisted to lessen the force of impact as he hit his back, rolled, and then sprang back to his feet.

  “Uhhh?” A disoriented groan escaped Aiko’s lips.

  Yuichi looked down to check on her. She looked dazed, but she wasn’t injured.

  “I never thought I’d have the chance to use a five-point roll at school...” Yuichi breathed out the words, relieved and slightly awed.

  The proper name for the technique was the Parachute Landing Fall. It was usually employed by paratroopers. Naturally, it was his big sister who had gleefully pushed him to learn it, having read about it in battle manga once.

  Yuichi cast a glance back up at the roof. He had a feeling the serial killer was looking down and laughing at him.

  ✽✽✽✽✽

  Aiko was so tense, she couldn’t convince herself to let go. Seeming to realize this, Yuichi set her gently on the ground.

  She was still dizzy, and her footing was unsteady. She staggered, but before she could fall, Yuichi reached out to support her.

  Her heart was beating like a kettledrum. She couldn’t catch her breath, and her throat was raw from anxiety.

  “I-I-I-I-I-I...”

  “You...?”

  “I thought we were going to die! What the hell was that?!” Aiko was in no condition to be screaming right now, but she couldn’t stop herself.

  “Yeah, it was a little reckless. I’m sorry.”

  “A little?! You call that a little?!” One minute, he had been running along the top of the fence. The next, he was diving off of it. She still couldn’t believe it.

  She started to feel lightheaded, and would have collapsed if Yuichi hadn’t continued to hold her up. Not only was she short of breath, she was starting to hyperventilate.

  “Hey, calm down. Deep, slow breaths.” Yuichi said soothingly.

  His words helped to calm her, but it was then that she realized how she had been clinging to him. Her face turned red, and her heart began to race.

  No one saw us, right? Aiko cast her eyes around fervently. She was so out of sorts, she wasn’t even considering that being seen jumping off a roof would be much worse than being seen in the arms of a boy.

  “Are you okay? I know you’re probably frazzled, but we can’t afford to just stand here,” Yuichi said. He grabbed her hand and began running.

  The old school building where the survival club met was still some distance away. He was right: There was no time to lose.

  “Hey... we’re still going... to see your sister, right?” Aiko asked between gasps for breath. “Though I doubt... she can do anything...”

  “I don’t know how, but she’ll probably be able to help us with a situation like this!” The baselessness of his words was not filling Aiko with confidence.

  ✽✽✽✽✽

  The boy was laughing. He looked down at the ground through the chain-link fence, and he laughed. What else could he do? It was absolutely absurd. It defied all imagination.

  His initial volley had been dodged. He’d thrown his kunai, wordlessly, the instant the door opened. Yet Yuichi had dodged them. It was impossible. Yuichi should have been dead on the spot before he even knew what was happening.

  Then, his wave of kunai had been dodged. Sidestepping the dozens of projectiles he had thrown in pursuit, Yuichi had broken the glass in a classroom window to jump in, and then, without losing momentum, he had flown out the outdoor window to the next classroom over.

  But the real feat was the way he’d escaped. Climbing the fence, rushing along the top of the shaky rail at full speed — while dodging even more kunai — and then jumping off the roof...

  “I mean, are you kidding me? Is he even human?” He never even considered that Yuichi would jump off the roof. Not only that, Yuichi had gotten up again, unharmed, and resumed running.

  It was impossible. So what could he do but laugh?

  Once his laughter died down, the boy remembered his priorities. Yuichi had gotten away while he was laughing. He couldn’t just let him go.

  He leaped over the fence in a single bound. There was a terrible noise as he hit the ground, landing on his side.

  “Ow!”

  He slowly picked himself up. It hurt a lot, but the damage was minor... within the realm of expectation.

  But trying the jump for himself just confirmed to him how hard it was to control your posture in midair. Arranging a neat landing, feet first, would be close to impossible. What kind of training must Yuichi have gone through to survive a fall from that height?

  “I know what they’re thinking. ‘And so they escaped the killer successfully, and all lived happily ever after.’ But then it wouldn’t be much of a thriller, would it?” He began running in the direction the two had gone.

  ✽✽✽✽✽

  On the way to their destination, Yuichi and Aiko ran behind the gym, so that even if the killer attacked them again, it would reduce collateral damage.

  After passing the gym, the old school building was just a little further.

  “If it’s too hard to keep running, I can carry you, okay?” Yuichi said worriedly, upon noticing that Aiko was out of breath.

  “I-I’m fine, so knock it off!” Aiko’s face was flushed as she responded.

  “Hey, do you know Takeuchi’s cell number?” The question had suddenly occurred to him while they ran.

  “What?” Aiko panted. “Yeah, we traded numbers. Why?”

  “If he’s called Serial Killer II, they could be connected. Which means maybe she could help us...”

  Natsuki had said she wouldn’t kill at school, which meant she was probably not responsible for this. That being the case, it was a matter of mutual interest: Natsuki wouldn’t want killings to happen at school, and Yuichi didn’t want to be killed.

  Aiko pulled her cell phone out of her blazer pocket. Yuichi snatched it away and opened up her address book, getting ready to place the call.

  “Wait! You’re just gonna call her with my phone?”

  “Huh? Oh, right... That would be a problem, huh?”

  Natsuki had threatened to kill everyone if he told anyone. He couldn’t let her know that Aiko knew. So instead, Yuichi called her with his own cell phone.

  She answered immediately.

  “This is Sakaki,” he said. “What’s going on here?”

  “Sakaki? I don’t recall trading numbers with you. And I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t play dumb with me,” he shot back. “A serial killer’s after me! Don’t try to pretend you don’t know something about it!”

  “Where are you now, Sakaki?” she asked.

  “The school.”

  “That idiot...” She clicked her tongue in annoyance.

  “So you do have something to do with it!”

  “Yeah. He wanted to use my hunting grounds, so I offered him a trade if he would finish off someone who knew my identity.”

  “Hey!”

  “I thought it would be fine as long as I had an airtight alibi. I can’t believe he went after you at school.”

  “What the hell kind of res
ponse is that? Call it off already!”

  “Hmm. But I can’t. He’s kind of the never-gives-up-on-his-prey, follows-you-to-the-ends-of-the-earth type.”

  “Oh, come on!” That was about all the argument he could manage, though. Nothing more effective was coming to him.

  “I’m heading over now. I can’t have murders happening at my school. Don’t die, okay? Just keep running.” Then she hung up.

  “Takeuchi says she’s coming... but I think she might be against us, too...”

  “Wh-What do we do?!”

  “Well, I’m sure my sister can handle it... at least, I hope she can...” Yuichi tried to hide his anxiety.

  They had been running the entire time he was on the phone. Now they arrived at the entrance to the old school building.

  They dashed up the first staircase they saw inside, heading for the survival club’s meeting room. It was at the end of the hall on the second floor.

  Yuichi bolted towards it with all his might. Just as he reached the door, it opened.

  Mutsuko stepped out, looking a little surprised at the sight of Yuichi. “Yu? What’s wrong? I said you didn’t have to come today. You really wanna climb under an escalator, huh?”

  “No!” he shouted.

  Locking the door to the club room behind her, she must have been the last one out. Perhaps the others had already gone off on their field trip.

  “What about you, Noro? You really wanna go survival training with us, huh? I’ll get you a submission form...” Mutsuko began searching through her bag.

  “We don’t have time for that! There’s a serial killer after me!”

  “Huh?!” Mutsuko’s face lit up with delight. “No way! That’s awesome!”

  “Sure, that’s the word I’d use for it...”

  “Hmm, but having the killer appear after school isn’t the coolest. He ought to show up in the middle of class, like the Shorty Alien, or Shimada covered in acid!”

  “That would be a disaster! A traumatized-for-life level disaster!”

  “So, what’s the big deal? Just take him out already,” Mutsuko said flippantly.

  “Just take him out?! I don’t think he’s even human! There’s no way I can beat him!”

  “Hold it! Did you just say he’s not human?!” Mutsuko grabbed Yuichi’s shoulders and shook him.

  “Don’t get excited! He’s got horns, and he slapped aside a pile of desks with one hand. That’s way past human level!”

  “Horns... how many?”

  “Just one.”

  “Oh, you’ll be fine!”

  “How?!”

  “Just one horn means he’s probably weak!”

  He couldn’t imagine what she was basing that on. A chill was starting to spread throughout his body.

  “What should I do?” he shouted.

  “I guess you just have to beat him,” she said.

  It was exactly what he had feared. He was going to be forced to fight.

  “See? We found your sister, but it hasn’t changed anything!” Aiko said fiercely. But behind her recrimination, her expression was nervous.

  “Don’t rub it in... I was just thinking that myself...”

  “Hey! Is that the serial killer?” Mutsuko pointed to the far end of the hallway, where a boy stood, blond, wearing a high-collared uniform.

  They were cornered. Yuichi looked around in panic.

  The stairwell nearest them was closed off due to deterioration. It would be dangerous to use it.

  The boy strode toward them as leisurely as ever. He was smiling, as if he was looking forward to whatever Yuichi might show him next.

  “Hmm, I’ve gotta say...” Mutsuko peered at the serial killer boy, her gaze unusually focused. “There’s something off-kilter about the way he walks. I don’t think he knows his center of gravity. Typical all-brawn, no-brains type. And he’s taken damage on his right side. I don’t think he’s aware of it, but the way he’s compensating suggests damage to the internal organs. In other words, a good sucker punch could probably do a lot of damage. Why did you think you couldn’t beat him, again?”

  “Are you kidding me?!”

  “Yu, you’ve gotta start sizing these guys up on your own.”

  “I didn’t have time! He ambushed me!” he shouted.

  But she was right. Now that he was calming down, he could more or less take the killer’s measure. If without his sister’s level of precision...

  “Right. Okay! Yu, it’s time to pop your cherry!” she exclaimed.

  “M-My cherry?” he stammered.

  The abrupt, inappropriate reference caused Aiko’s face to turn scarlet.

  “I don’t want to kill people!” he added.

  “Don’t worry, he’s not people! Just a handy prop for you to pop your cherry,” Mutsuko asserted, repeating the embarrassing metaphor. It must refer to the act of killing someone, a term soldiers used to refer to their first kill. Of course, Mutsuko’s knowledge of it came from manga.

  “Oh, forget it! What matters is, I can beat him, right? So you take care of the rest!”

  “Got it! If you end up as a twitching heap on the ground, I’ll carry you home on my shoulder!”

  “Not over the shoulder, please. That would be a little too pathetic.” Yuichi turned to the serial killer and began walking. The killer noticed he was coming, but didn’t alter his pace.

  They were right on the verge of melee range when they both stopped.

  “What? I was looking forward to seeing how you’d get away this time. Thought maybe you’d take another dive through a window.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m through with running away. It’s time to stop you.”

  Unable to decide what to do against the killer, Yuichi had just been fleeing. After all, this wasn’t just some high school brawl. To fight a serial killer, you had to be prepared for certain things. There was no way to win if you held back. It was kill or be killed.

  He hadn’t been able to commit to that before, but now, his big sister had said he could beat him.

  That meant that he could. She also said she’d handle the aftermath, so whatever happened, they’d get out all right.

  Yuichi made up his mind.

  “Furukami,” he whispered.

  He kicked off with his left foot, straining the muscles in that leg past their limits. His left leg was now useless.

  He bounded off the wall to the killer’s right, flying higher into the air, then instantly reoriented himself across the short distance to face the killer and bring down his heel.

  To the killer, Yuichi would seem to vanish, before reappearing as a heel screaming down on him from midair.

  The killer barely had time to react. He just managed to dodge the left heel coming down at him. But he couldn’t dodge the right heel that followed just after. It cracked him on the top of his head, and that was that.

  Yuichi landed, pressed further into the killer’s personal space, and struck him hard in the back with his fist. A low cracking sound echoed through the hallway.

  In an instant, the fight was over.

  ✽✽✽✽✽

  “Gwuh?” Aiko yelped.

  Yuichi had stopped, and the next thing she knew, the killer was on the ground. She had no idea what had just happened.

  “That’s furukami! It’s a technique you see a lot in old martial arts! It lets you temporarily exceed human limitations! Dopamine secretion, pain perception inhibiting, limiter release, et cetera et cetera. Yu pushed the muscles of his left leg past their limits, propelling him faster than his opponent’s eye could perceive. Then he used a double axe kick! If the left one had hit, it would just cause him pain, so he used that as a decoy for the real axe, the right leg!”

  “A-Ah.” Aiko wasn’t following a word of it. But Mutsuko didn’t seem to notice, and she just kept chattering on.

  “The next part is even simpler. He concentrated all the power in his body into his fist, then released it! It’s similar to, though not quite like, the Chinese ma
rtial art concept of fa jin! I had Yu practice it until he could one-inch punch through the futons while they were out drying on the line! Oh, how he used to cry! So cute!”

  “U-Um... Just what have you been doing to Sakaki?”

  “Training him! A man should be strong!” Mutsuko beamed with pride.

  Aiko felt very sorry for Yuichi.

  Chapter 6: When You Borrow Money, You’ve Got to Return It

  If the human body came with natural limiters, that meant there were things it wasn’t meant to do. So what would happen if you broke through those limits?

  The answer was what Yuichi’s body was now experiencing.

  He was curled up in a corner of the hallway, his face screwed up in pain. His shredded muscles were swollen from their self-healing process. Put simply, his body was screaming in agony. His left leg was especially bad. He wouldn’t be walking for a while.

  “It’s hard to train the top of the head! It’s a weak point! See, Yu said the guy was superhuman, so I knew he couldn’t beat him in a fair fight. That’s why you’ve gotta strike ’em where they’re vulnerable! He’d probably won at that point, but you’ve always gotta hit them again just to be sure. Thus, a good blow to the kidney! I thought his oni muscles might be strong enough to keep it from going through, but I guess it wasn’t an issue!”

  She seemed to have just assumed that the horned attacker was an oni.

  “Um... Mutsuko? Is Sakaki okay?” Aiko ventured.

  Mutsuko had just been chattering on, paying little heed to her brother’s condition, so Aiko had gone to check on him.

  “He’s fine! He’s tough! Yeah, he’s as tough as the mother and daughter from Shatun: Higuma no Mori!” she declared.

  “I don’t even know what that means!”

  “Oh? Well, how about this: He’s tough enough to take a hit from a 750cc Nanahan and say ‘Don’t worry, I’m good!’”

  “Um... By Nanahan, you mean the motorcycle? Has he been hit by a motorcycle before?”

  “Yeah! And he was still kicking afterwards. Furukami takes a toll, but he’s fine! Last time, he just needed a full day’s rest to recover!”

  Aiko looked like she wasn’t sure whether to be worried or relieved.

  Yuichi had used the furukami knowing it would take him a day to recover. He probably wouldn’t have been able to keep the fight going for long, yet he’d known that if anything happened, his sister would take over. That was why he’d gone forward.