“Let’s wait for a minute,” Yuichi said. “If he’s just sniffing us out, he might ignore us for today.”
And if he’s even more dangerous, he might already know where our house is, and our usual route to school...
In that case, their stalker might have already realized they had strayed from their path. How would he react, then?
Just as Yuichi was wondering, their pursuer appeared before them.
He wasn’t alone. Another two men came from the direction opposite the one they had arrived from.
The main person tailing them was probably Subaru, the man whom Yoriko had humiliated. He was wearing a blazer uniform, as were the two men with him. The uniforms suggested they were from a local prep school, but all three had “Delinquent” written over their heads. Their uniforms looked fairly rumpled, but not enough that you would assume they were thugs at a glance.
There’s something odd about this... Yuichi thought.
If they had had the foresight to tail them and prepare force of numbers, why would they wear uniforms that would make it easy to uncover their identities? Then again, maybe they really hadn’t thought it through.
“You’re Yuichi Sakaki, right?” one of the men said. “Lucky you, having all these girls around, huh?”
“Huh? Why me? And how do you even know me?” Yuichi asked. He hadn’t expected the subject to turn to himself so abruptly. But if they were delinquents, there was a chance they knew him. He just wasn’t sure which route they knew him by.
“Huh? You think pretty highly of yourself, huh?” the man demanded. “We don’t care about you. We found out about you when we were researching Yoriko.”
It was hard to deal with sudden belligerence like this.
Subaru stood at the head of the group, with the other two behind him. By contrast, the girls with Yuichi moved to hide behind him. But of course, all three couldn’t hide at once, which resulted in a rather strange image.
“Look, I’m sorry my sister went overboard on you,” said Yuichi. “She should apologize for that. But I’m pretty sure she’s not gonna go out with you at this point. Besides, she’s in middle school. She’s still a kid. Why are high school students threatening her? It’s bizarre.” Yuichi had been solving a lot of problems with violence lately, but he’d still rather talk things out where possible.
“Huh? Why should I apologize?!” Yori exclaimed.
“Quiet down for a few minutes, Yori,” Yuichi reprimanded.
“Do you not understand the situation you’re in?” Subaru asked smugly.
“What situation?” Yuichi genuinely didn’t understand what the man meant. His only opinion about the situation was that they looked pretty foolish.
“We have three guys on our side who know how to fight,” said Subaru. “You’re all alone.”
He didn’t seem to be counting the girls. Maybe he had forgotten what Yoriko had done to him, or he was pretending like it had never happened.
He seemed like he’d be a hard person to deal with; the kind of guy who’d gotten his way for a long time based on being “pretty tough.” The degree to which he underestimated Yuichi suggested he was unlikely to listen to reason.
“Um, listen. Let’s say, hypothetically, that you three beat me up,” Yuichi said. “What would you do then? Kidnap the three girls? This isn’t manga, you know. Doing that in real life causes huge problems. Even if you’re protected by juvenile laws, the world takes a harsh view of that kind of thing nowadays. There’s not going to be a lot of leniency for your crime. You’re in a prep school, right? Don’t you realize it would ruin your lives?”
Yuichi was hoping that reasoning would convince them. But instead, they seemed to interpret it as mockery.
Subaru was furious. He stepped out with his left leg and threw a straight punch at Yuichi’s face with his right fist. This must be what he’d been talking about when he’d said he knew how to fight — that he wasn’t just a newbie flailing around with his arms. But to Yuichi, the motion looked slow as molasses.
Famous martial artists often had anecdotes about times when they’d managed to talk their way around fighting completely. Yuichi’s attempt at talking had angered his opponent and gotten him to lash out, which suggested that he still needed more training. The fact that Yuichi was capable of reflecting on that idea in full was a sign of how slow Subaru’s attack was.
Yuichi batted the hand away, without even bothering to dodge, then struck Subaru’s chin with his extended finger. Though he’d attacked second, his blow landed first, and Subaru dropped like a sack of potatoes.
“Um, look, that was a reflex, okay?” Yuichi said, flustered. “I was honestly trying to talk things out.”
“Sakaki, who are you trying to make excuses to?” Aiko asked. Her voice pulled Yuichi back to earth.
Subaru’s two cronies ran off, leaving their leader a heap on the ground. Yuichi dragged him to a corner of the abandoned lot and left him there.
“Okay!” Yuichi said.
“What’s ‘okay’? After all your big talk about ‘teaching Yori that cyclical violence solves nothing’...” Aiko said, sounding honestly disappointed.
“Your brother really is something...” Karen said, impressed, as if she’d only just realized what had happened.
“That’s my magnificent elder brother! Magni-brother!” Yoriko said, complimenting Yuichi with a term he’d never heard her use before.
But Yuichi suspected that his actions would end up making things even worse than before. He had finished Subaru off too easily. Subaru wouldn’t feel like he had lost. If Yuichi had really wanted to settle things, he should have beaten him badly enough that he would never think of opposing him again.
But while it was easy to bring force against armed yakuza, Yuichi was hesitant to go that far against a mere high school student.
So instead, he’d just have to deal with things as they happened.
✽✽✽✽✽
The man was known as “King.”
It was a nickname that could be used for mockery, but in his case, it was a sign of respect. Since there was no ridiculing intent in it, King himself accepted it.
Subaru never thought he’d get to speak to King face to face.
King was a legend.
No one knew his age for sure, but Subaru had heard he was a young man. There were even rumors that he was still in high school. Yet despite his youth, he commanded over a thousand men, and had even gone toe-to-toe with the yakuza. He had his hand in many shady activities, and by investing his accumulated savings, he had built quite a fortune.
That same legend stood in front of Subaru right now. They were in a room in a new, modern building: an office building with all the latest facilities. King was sitting cross-legged on an expensive-looking desk.
As the rumors said, King looked like a young man. He seemed to be about Subaru’s age, and was a bit on the short side, but the aura of violence that hung around him mitigated any difference in their heights.
King was surrounded by men standing at attention. They were all dressed differently: some were in suits, while others were dressed in sleeveless shirts despite the season. The pockets of the suits looked strangely swollen, and any visibly exposed skin was covered in tattoos.
Subaru found himself bowing instinctively. The man in front of him seemed to be a natural-born leader. It was clear just looking at him that he was someone special.
How had things turned out like this?
Even after everything, Subaru hadn’t been able to give up on Yoriko Sakaki. But he knew that if he tried to go after the Sakaki siblings without a plan, he’d probably end up the same way as before.
He needed a plan, so he’d decided to talk to one of the older boys he used to hang out with in middle school. Rather than going to high school, this one had joined the criminal underworld.
If given the choice, Subaru would have preferred to sever ties with this man. Subaru’s delinquent appearance was merely fashion; it was a handy way to give h
im mystique at his prep school, but it didn’t mean he really wanted to get involved with the criminal underworld.
Nevertheless, Subaru had decided to ask this guy for help. He’d told him all about what had happened, and even shown him a picture of Yoriko.
That picture had made the rounds until apparently, at last, it had reached King. Then, for some reason, King had called Subaru to see him.
Silence hung over the room.
Subaru’s body remained locked in its bow as he wondered what he should do. Surely, in a situation like this, it would be inappropriate for him to speak first. His friend had made sure he understood that if he made King unhappy, he’d be dead (literally) on the spot. He had a feeling that was true. He absolutely could not afford to say the wrong thing.
“Subaru Wakei, was it?” King asked. The young man’s voice was higher pitched and reedier than he had imagined. “Well, stand up straight. You’re making it hard to talk to you.”
“Y-Yes, sir!” Subaru snapped back upright.
“The reason I called you here... well, I wanted to go through the proper channels,” said King.
“The... proper channels?” Subaru echoed, not understanding.
“Yoriko Sakaki. I like her. I really like her. I want her, and I’ll have her, but since you’re the one who brought her to my attention, I figured I owed you a thank you.”
Subaru had had a vague idea that this might be the case when he had been called. This absolutely wasn’t what he wanted, but it was out of his hands now. King would do everything in his power to get what he wanted, and there was nothing Subaru could do to stand in his way.
“Of course, words are a pretty poor way of expressing gratitude. Let’s see... how about if you get her fifth? You’ll still get some decent enjoyment out of her then.” King nodded to himself, as if feeling he had offered him a very generous deal.
Subaru couldn’t possibly object, and to be honest, he mainly felt relieved that King wasn’t going to do anything to him. At the same time, a dark, vulgar feeling like joy began to rear its head inside him. A terribly selfish, self-serving thought ran through his mind.
You brought this on yourself, Yoriko Sakaki...
✽✽✽✽✽
A white van screeched to a halt, blocking Yuichi’s way.
Yuichi didn’t want to have to punch out every single attacker who came after him, so instead he raced up to the van in an instant and kicked the sliding door in the back.
The door caved inwards, which was enough to keep it from opening. That was the only way in or out of the back seat, which meant the four or five guys there were trapped inside. They could still try to come out the window, but they’d be slowed down enough that Yuichi could just punch them as they came.
He suspected the driver would stay in the car, in the interest of a quick getaway, so he also hit the passenger side door. That left only the driver’s side door capable of opening.
Yuichi waited a few moments, and then the van squealed off, just as he had expected it would.
Yoriko’s path to school went through a quiet residential district. Knowing now that their enemies were getting organized, he’d asked Karen and Aiko to take other routes, which left brother and sister alone together.
“Big Brother... I’m sorry,” Yoriko said. “I, um... not that I think they’ll ever beat you, but I handled the initial confrontation wrong. I regret what I did.”
Usually when they were all alone together, Yoriko always seemed to be enjoying herself for some reason, but here, she apologized to him with a genuinely repentant air.
“Well, I handled things badly, too.” Yuichi patted her head softly. “Don’t worry about it, okay?”
The people who were after Yoriko had been acting in this organized manner for a while now. Yuichi didn’t know why this was happening, but he had more or less identified the group he was dealing with. That was the reason he had let the van go. He’d affixed it with a transmitter just in case, but they were likely from the same organization.
It was a nasty gang of delinquents. They were made up primarily of young people, and apparently criminals who were willing to kill had joined their ranks, too.
“I wasn’t expecting them to organize to this degree.” Yuichi couldn’t understand why they would go this far for a single middle school girl.
“But what should we do?” his sister pleaded.
“You don’t have to worry, Yori. I can just beat them all if I have to, and Sis is taking moves, too.”
“Okay! I won’t worry!” Seeming genuinely not worried at all, Yoriko latched on to Yuichi, returning to her usual attitude.
Even so... what’s going on here? Yuichi wondered.
The people he was dealing with didn’t seem to think twice about resorting to criminal activity. He had managed to work things out so far, but he hadn’t really settled anything. They might still send more.
If they realized they couldn’t do anything to Yuichi, they might start going after the people in his life.
Yuichi was starting to think he’d better take measures of his own, and quickly.
✽✽✽✽✽
King hadn’t expected a single girl in middle school to be giving him this much trouble. He’d thought that he could just send a few men after her, shove her into the back of a car, and that would be that.
At first, he had thought his subordinates’ reports were a joke, but he also knew that they were aware of what would happen if they joked around with him. His subordinates had reported that all their attack squads had been defeated. They had all been repelled by the big brother, Yuichi, who was always at Yoriko’s side.
The men he’d sent had had no martial arts experience, of course, but they were accustomed to fighting. They’d have no hesitation to employ violence, and they were sufficiently expert in that. It was unthinkable that they could lose to a single high school student.
Still, it was the truth, and questioning it wouldn’t get him anywhere. So King called on more powerful subordinates.
On the way to school, on the way back, at home...
Even if they were strong, they were just kids. They had to let their guard down at some point. And yet, each time, the attacks were repelled. It made no sense.
Every attack they had mounted on their way to school had failed.
The squad he had sent to attack the Sakaki household had been completely wiped out en route to their destination.
Success was looking unlikely. He’d had the failed subordinates executed, but even when their successors knew they were fighting for their lives, it didn’t change the results.
Like the yakuza, for them, reputation was everything. They couldn’t let anyone underestimate them. People knew they’d happily break the law or kill if they had to. That knowledge inspired fear, and that fear was a tool that they could use. The Sakaki siblings weren’t afraid, though; to the contrary, they apparently weren’t bothered in the slightest.
It was as if they had kicked mud in King’s face.
Things had now escalated to the point that there could be no turning back.
King’s inability to kidnap one young girl would be seen by the denizens of the underworld as a crack in his iron foundation. He had to get Yoriko Sakaki, no matter what it took. For King, it was now a matter of life or death.
There could be no more half-measures.
It would be the height of idiocy to just keep sending men after them. But because King underestimated the Sakaki siblings, he acted like an idiot.
He had to use everything he had. Small teams weren’t getting the job done. It wasn’t enough to reassure himself that things would work out.
He had to send out the entire army.
✽✽✽✽✽
Seishin City had a large, centralized exercise park that had been designated an evacuation site in case of natural disaster.
When Yuichi and Monika had been attacked by the truck, Yuichi had sent Aiko there to safety. In other words, if one had to consider the most wide open
space in Seishin, this park was the first thing that would come to mind.
The largest open space in the park was the running track. It served a dual purpose, with a 400 meter track ringed around two soccer fields. In other words, it was huge.
Despite the late hour, the track was currently lit up and lined with people. There must have been a thousand of them, all of them King’s personal henchmen.
It was said that King could mobilize a thousand men with one word, and it seemed the rumors were true. They were all dressed in different outfits, and held a variety of weapons in hand: from wooden swords, metal pipes, bats with nails in them, and other easily improvised weapons to katanas, crossbows, and pistols.
They had all assembled in this park at the same time, with weapons in hand. Unbelievably, their goal was a raid on a residential home owned by the Sakaki family.
Yuichi sat in the spectator seats, watching them. Beside him sat his big sister Mutsuko, and his little sister Yoriko.
It was hard to know what might happen against an enemy force of this size, so he had told Yoriko not to come along, but she had grumbled about it until he’d finally brought her.
The lights in the stands were out, so as long as they remained where they were, they probably wouldn’t be seen. He could likely ensure the safety of his sisters.
“I’m impressed they all came out here at this time of day,” Yuichi commented.
It was so late at night that it was almost time for sunrise. It was Saturday, so maybe it didn’t matter, but if it had been a weekday, it surely would have been impossible.
“Raids have always been a break-of-dawn thing!” Mutsuko declared. “But if he’s gonna stop with the little raids and go for the big gathering, you think he’s not much of a strategist?”
“Strategist or not, he’s really gone too far...” Yuichi wasn’t sure what the man thought of him, but a force of this size could easily take over a city. “And how’d they get those spotlights on?” Yuichi wondered, even though it didn’t matter.
“Good question,” said Mutsuko. “Maybe they took over the control room? There’d probably be security there in the middle of the night, but they probably just took them out?”
The Strongest Little Brother’s Commonplace Encounters with the Bizarre?! Page 11