The Strongest Little Brother’s Commonplace Encounters with the Bizarre?!
Page 12
“But why gather a thousand armed men? A civil war? Terrorism?”
Not even the yakuza would muster this many people in one place for a war — nor could they, most likely. Perhaps it was because they were fools not thinking of the consequences that they could do something so drastic.
“But we’re in luck!” Mutsuko declared. “There are so many of them all united in purpose! You don’t usually see enemies raring to go that often!”
“And you’re sure they’ll swarm our house if we just let them go?” The thought of it made Yuichi feel exhausted.
“It really does give you chills... I never thought it would lead to something like this...” Yoriko said in a low voice. She’d never imagined her momentary loss of temper would result in trouble this serious.
“I don’t think anyone could have ever imagined this...” Yuichi muttered.
Mutsuko had deduced in advance that they would gather here like this. He wasn’t sure how she’d done it, but maybe she had sources of some kind.
“Obviously, when a group like this starts marching through the streets, it’s gonna start a little chaos!” Mutsuko declared.
“Just a little? Hey... I don’t suppose we could sic some yokai or monster on them?” Yuichi was starting to think he’d rather resort to drastic measures than deal with all of this himself.
“That would be interesting, but people might also die... Not that I would mind, personally,” Mutsuko said.
Yuichi sighed and scratched his head. “Yeah, I guess...” They might be criminals — and really bad ones, if they would attack someone’s innocent family members — but that didn’t mean they deserved to die. “But I really don’t think they need to send this many people...”
Yuichi didn’t know how well-respected this boss of theirs was, but he couldn’t imagine it would be easy to bring this many people together. He had a feeling that he wouldn’t be able to control them in the end, and they’d probably run wild.
“I bet he doesn’t care what happens in the end,” Yuichi said. “He wants to make it clear what he’s capable of.”
“That’s true,” said Yoriko. “If a crowd this huge came by, you’d know right away, which would make it easier for me to escape.”
“It’s crazy... well, if this is all of them, then I know what you’re going to say, but... any orders?” Yuichi asked.
“Beat down every single one of them!” Mutsuko announced.
“Roger. But after I beat a certain number, won’t they start to run?” That had been Yuichi’s experience; no matter how big a force he was facing, if he defeated about half, their ranks would collapse, and they’d split up and flee.
“Don’t worry about that,” said Mutsuko. “That King guy’s got real leadership qualities. It’s almost in the realm of brainwashing. So they’ll come after you to the last man, all ready to die for their cause. Good luck!”
“Big Brother, do your best for me!” Yoriko cried.
It was hard to tell in the darkness around them, but he was pretty sure the eyes of both girls were sparkling.
“Easy for you guys to say...” Yuichi picked up the staff lying at his feet and stood up. It was a spear made from the wood of the white wax tree, 3.2 meters long in total, and about five centimeters in diameter around the grip. Of course, since he wasn’t trying to kill anyone, it didn’t have a spear tip.
“I’ve gotta say, taking out a thousand people barehanded would be a lot more appealing...” Mutsuko said lamentatively.
“Why should I have to do that?” Yuichi didn’t have any reason to fight to start with. If they reported it to the police, they could get them all rounded up on charges of assembling with dangerous weapons.
The only reason they hadn’t was because of Mutsuko’s philosophy: She had a rule about letting things develop on their own until it became necessary to do otherwise. She probably thought this would be useful for Yuichi’s training. As usual, she was utterly reckless.
“Well, okay. I’ll let you have a weapon this time!” Mutsuko said.
“This time, huh?” Yuichi was hoping he wouldn’t have to face a thousand enemies a second time. But he set aside thoughts of the future and leaped from the seats with the spear in hand.
He then slung it over his shoulder and started heading for the middle of the field.
Part of King’s army must have been handling lookout duties, because a few of them noticed him immediately. But the knowledge of his arrival didn’t immediately carry to all of thousand of them.
“Good evening! I’m Yuichi Sakaki!” Yuichi screamed with a slight air of desperation.
Now the thousand men noticed him, and turned their eyes to him en masse.
For this fight, Mutsuko had given him two conditions. One was to give them his name. He had thought it might end up sounding stupid if he did it in the traditional warrior way she’d intended, so he’d tried just introducing himself like he normally would, but that had just ended up making it sound more stupid.
“I heard you were gonna come to my house, so I came to you instead!” Yuichi shouted. “Bring it, okay?!”
The second condition had been not to be the one to initiate the fight. The ideal strategy would have been to try to shave down their numbers as much as possible before they realized what was going on; even better would have been to search out King and pick him off first. That, however, would not be permitted.
They didn’t move immediately. It seemed they weren’t going to rise to simple provocations. King’s hold over them must be a strong one.
They all had intercoms on their heads. Maybe King was giving them orders through those — indeed, such a system would be necessary in order to unite and control a thousand men at once.
How serious is he about this? Yuichi wondered. Is he trying to start a war? If he was giving his orders through such high-tech means, that meant King would know the minute Yuichi arrived.
After a minute, a murmur raced through the thousand men. It lasted only for a second before calm fell on them again.
Kill Yuichi Sakaki... Was that the order that they had been given?
With an angry roar, the thousand men moved into action as one. They charged at him like berserkers, each hoping to be the first in line.
Yuichi remained calm, picking off each man as he got within range of his spear. Aiming for the solar plexus of each charging man, he struck out again and again, disabling one after another.
The spear’s range was incredible; the men with pipes and nail-bats were no competition, while those with crossbows and handguns were easy to dodge, since he already knew where they were.
Those who realized they couldn’t make progress from the front tried to moved around behind Yuichi, or attack him from the side. Without turning to look, Yuichi swung his spear behind him, and smacked away the enemies he felt were there. When Yuichi was focused on combat, he had no blind spots; as long as the enemies were in the range of his spear, he could easily tell where they were.
The fact that they had Yuichi surrounded actually worked to his benefit. It made it harder for them to use their projectile weapons, and even made friendly fire a likelihood.
Yuichi whipped his spear around and around, striking and thrusting at whoever got in range.
Even though he was surrounded, only about five or six of them could actually attack at once. That fundamental principle wouldn’t change even with a thousand men around him. He just had to be able to deal with them efficiently as they came.
Yuichi had established a defense line with about a four-meter radius. No one who entered that zone could ever make it out unharmed. Past that, it was just an issue of stamina, which also wasn’t a problem for Yuichi. Fighting a thousand men was well within the scope of what his sister had trained him for.
There were screams and shouts. Bones were broken, flesh rent, and blood sprayed as man after man fell.
“Bloodbath” was the only way to describe what had just occurred. But from Yuichi’s point of view, it had all been boring,
dispassionate work.
Yuichi now walked, illuminated by the early morning sun. He approached the last man standing, King himself. There was no question of who he was, since the label above his head read “King.”
King turned his gun to Yuichi and fired it without hesitation.
Yuichi dodged the three rapid shots without slowing down, then whacked the gun away the moment it was in the spear’s range. “It’s easy to rely on violence because it’s simple and efficient, but its simplicity means it can be surpassed through greater violence. We’re civilized people, aren’t we? We have more intelligent ways of doing things. Can’t we find some sort of compromise?”
“That’s rich, coming from you, Yuichi Sakaki,” King said, rubbing his hand. He didn’t seem to be carrying any other firearms.
“Yeah, I’m aware I’m in no position to talk,” Yuichi agreed. “I had to make it clear that using any more violence against my little sister wouldn’t do you any good.”
Yuichi was covered in a light sheen of sweat. Against opponents as minor as these, he could still go a while longer.
“So you’ve realized that you can’t possibly get revenge at this point, right?” he asked. “Anything you try will just lead to greater tragedy.”
King laughed. “Greater tragedy? I don’t even want to think about that... I’ll keep away. You’ve made it clear that anything I try is pointless. Painfully clear.”
King was gazing at his fallen subordinates. After losing all of his pawns, he would know there was no point of honor or pride that would make continuing these attacks have any meaning.
“I’m getting pretty sick of it all myself,” said Yuichi. “I’m glad to hear you’re ready to back off.”
“But this right here is a different matter,” King told him. “You know I can’t just walk away from this, right?”
King took a step forward. He widened his stance, put up his arms, and leaned forward. He probably knew he couldn’t win now, yet still he had his pride.
Yuichi tossed his spear away.
“What’s the matter? Why not just whack me over the head with that thing?” King demanded.
“The spear’s on its last legs,” said Yuichi. “I guess I still need more training...”
The spear’s white wax wood composition made it extremely flexible and pliant, but even it couldn’t hold up against a thousand men. It was cracked, warped, and on the verge of breaking. Pacing out your weapon’s endurance was a necessary technique when fighting a large number of opponents. It seemed he still had a lot to learn.
“Incredible,” King muttered. “You plan to get even stronger?”
“Yeah. Just beating up a thousand baddies won’t be enough to satisfy my sister. She says it’s not good for a person to decide their limits for themselves.”
“Just a thousand?” King let out a sigh. He could probably tell that Yuichi was serious.
Then King emptied his lungs, took in a deep breath, and held it. Reeling his fist back, he flew towards Yuichi.
Yuichi moved to match him. He made it into his personal space before King could lash out, grabbed his arm, and threw him.
King hit the ground on his back and lay still, the wind knocked out of him.
Yuichi was the last man standing on the exercise course. He had completely dominated the field.
Mutsuko and Yoriko picked that moment to run up to him, probably after determining that it was safe.
“Hmm, it may be traditional, but white wax wood is a bit lacking in endurance! I guess we really oughta go with carbon fiber, huh?” Mutsuko said with a frown as she looked at the splintered spear. She didn’t offer up a word of praise to Yuichi, as if she had taken it for granted that he would win.
“Ah... my big brother took on a thousand men, and beat them all, for me!” Yoriko’s eyes were dewy with emotion.
It was indeed technically true that he had done it for her, but something about the line seemed a bit off. It was as if she hadn’t been worried about Yuichi at all, either.
“It’s all over now, right?” he asked, then suddenly remembered something. “Hey, that’s right. What happened to the guy who started all this?”
That meant Subaru, the boy who had started all this by going after Yoriko. Of course, Yuichi hadn’t been able to check the face of every man he’d beaten that morning, but he couldn’t remember seeing him among them.
Maybe he was too minor to matter after things had reached this scale, yet Yuichi couldn’t fully dismiss his concern.
✽✽✽✽✽
Subaru quietly watched Yuichi fight. He had been in the spectator seats opposite the ones Mutsuko and Yoriko were sitting in, with neither noticing the other’s presence.
The trend of the fight had been clear the minute it had begun.
Yuichi Sakaki was a monster.
The ones who had sworn loyalty to King, in their fervor, might not have realized it, but from the sidelines, the outcome had been plain to see from the start. It was hard to believe Yuichi Sakaki was in high school like him. That he was even human like him.
Not a single attack on him had landed. They’d attacked from the side, or behind, but it had all been the same. It was as if he could see everything before it happened.
No matter how many men you threw against him, you couldn’t possibly win.
Subaru left the field behind.
If he couldn’t beat Yuichi Sakaki in a fight, that just meant he shouldn’t fight. There were plenty of other ways to get at him.
Subaru didn’t care about Yoriko Sakaki any longer; he just had to find some way to expel the darkness that coiled around inside him.
As the sun rose, Subaru headed for the Sakaki home.
This would be very simple. Yuichi wouldn’t be there right now. He was carried a plastic bottle full of gasoline in one hand and a lighter in the other.
If he couldn’t beat him in a fight, he’d could still make him miserable, Subaru thought. It didn’t matter if arson was a serious crime.
Subaru was the one responsible for driving King’s gang to the verge of destruction, so it was possible that one of King’s gang might want to eliminate him. Even if the gang was destroyed, King was a beloved leader, and the remnants of the gang might come after Subaru for revenge.
In other words, Subaru was at the end of his rope. He was dead no matter what. One more crime wouldn’t make a difference.
After a while, Subaru arrived at the Sakaki home. He passed through the gate into the yard. Even though it was early in the morning, there was a woman at work there, gaily watering the plants.
She was the mother of the Sakaki siblings, a young-looking, beautiful woman who resembled Yoriko in some aspects.
Subaru had gone mad by this point. He would usually never think of anything like what he was thinking now. The bestial, swirling dark desire inside of him awakened, and he surrendered his body to it.
If he was finished either way, there was nothing he couldn’t do.
Subaru took a step forward to attack the Sakaki siblings’ mother.
✽✽✽✽✽
Tamako Sakaki was known as a beautiful woman with a laid-back personality and an always-gentle air about her.
She was warm and gregarious, so everyone loved her, and she got along well with the neighbors. If anyone in town asked her for a favor, she accepted it without question, no matter how imposing, which meant people relied on her often.
She was deeply knowledgeable in both interior and exterior design, and even made house decorating a hobby of hers. This extended to the Sakaki home itself, about which she was quite fastidious, to the point that she had imported many things from overseas.
Handicrafts was another of her hobbies, and she excelled in this field, as well. The interior of their house was casually littered with handmade ornaments.
She was also obsessed with gardening, meaning that her house received praise by the neighbors for its exterior as well as interior. When Christmas arrived, she even set up light displays.
She seemed to be the kind of person who didn’t have a care in the world. But in truth, she did have worries.
One was that her children didn’t seem to care much about the house. Her eldest son and daughter often played rough, even inside, and frequently broke things when they did. When that happened, she always admonished them, but not too strongly. She didn’t want her children to stagnate, either; she wanted them to grow up comfortable with who they were. That was Tamako’s parenting philosophy.
She had a nagging suspicion that they were growing up a bit oddly as a result, but that was better than them growing up always concerned about what others thought about them.
Yuichi was especially inconsiderate when it came to the lawn. Once he had even completely trampled down the whole lawn doing some kind of martial arts training, killing all the grass and prevented new growth. But rather than being angry, she had been sad. Even Yuichi must have felt sorry about that, and afterwards, they had more or less kept their horseplay out of the yard.
It was early in the morning. Tamako was the only one home. All three of her children had gone off somewhere, it seemed, but they were all responsible young people, so she wasn’t tremendously concerned about them.
Her husband was spending the night at work, due to the release of a new system, or something like that. Her husband worked in IT, so he was often busy with such things.
It wasn’t unusual for her to find herself all alone, so for now, she was simply watering her lawn, as she usually did.
She heard a rustle behind her.
Another feline visitor? Those had left her in quite a bind, because the local cats had been messing up the garden lately, but she also felt bad just driving them off.
She just had to make sure to scold them thoroughly. Even a cat would be reasonable if you talked to it properly. Tamako turned around, ready to do just that, only to find nothing there at all.