The evening air carried a chill as Kazama made his way home from Tokyo Super High. His arms were a bit tired from all the mopping and cleaning of the second year building. It was around 4:30 PM. He and his friends just got off from the punishment.
The first year and third year buildings are always so clean and well maintained. Why was the second year building so dirty ? We also missed a lot of classes. I might have to collect notes later on, Kazama thought with a frowned look as he walked towards his home with hands in his pockets still thinking about the punishment which he and his friends received from the principal.
He reached home but it was empty this time. There was slight uneasiness on his face. A bead of sweat on his head, a sudden rise in pulse and a tingling cold sensation all over his body. He was scared. He quickly examined every room and then left a message for Hana.
Kazama: Hey! Where are you ? Where is Takahashi-san ?
Kazama: Why is the house empty ?
Kazama: Did something happen ?
Kazama sent three quick messages with a minute's interval between the messages. The typing indicator showed up from Hana's side. Kazama felt a bit of relief but waited till the message arrived.
Hana: I am at Yuriko-chan's place. We are having a little after-school party!!!
Kazama: And Takahashi-san ?
Hana: He went to the market. That's what he told me at least. There is an open packet of chips on my desk. You can have it if you are hungry.
Kazama: Okay.
The house being silent scares me these days. Hana-nee went to her friend's place and Master Takahashi went to the market. What did I get myself into ? Is this the fear that the Kurotsuki Mafia instills into the people that look for them ? Is this what my parents were going through ? Kazama thought as he read the message from Hana and got an update about her and their guardian's whereabouts.
Kazama sighed and went to his room. He picks up the Kurotsuki Mafia badge instinctively while thinking about the mafia.
This is what I have right now. The only connection. The only proof of their existence. I can't take this to the police or even the Hero Association. Anyone could be working for them. After Shirai Takeru, I am sure of it. If I want to know more about them I will have to do my own field work, Kazama thought while he flipped the badge to examine it properly with a determined look on his face.
This badge tells me that this Kawasaki Hiro is from Yokohama. But what was he doing in Tokyo ? That too in a random alley, Kazama thought as he passed current through the badge once again to confirm the location. I think it points to the exact location. These co-ordinates. Let me look them up.
Kazama opens up his laptop and enters the co-ordinates.
The map shows some kind of abandoned area. And the search images. They are showing some kind of abandoned warehouse. Could it be a hideout ? I need to prepare for this. If I really want to know more about the Kurotsuki Mafia, I need to put in more effort. Today is 9th August. Let's start from tonight. I am going to station myself there from 10:30 PM. For that I would have to leave early. I just hope I find something.
10th August 12:01 AM
Kazama lay flat on his stomach atop a three-story abandoned factory building which was one of the few decaying structures left in this forgotten industrial pocket. The area wasn't a dead city, just a neglected corner on the outskirts of Yokohama where a handful of old factories and storage units sat scattered across uneven ground.
The abandoned warehouse sat there, lifeless. Empty. No movement, no lights, no signs of activity whatsoever. He was in his vigilante gear. But this time his attire was a bit more bulkier on his limbs.
This is the right place. The coordinates match perfectly. So where is everyone? Did I get it wrong? Maybe the badge doesn't point to a hideout at all. Maybe it's just... nothing.
He waited for hours. His legs cramped. His arms grew tired from holding the binoculars.
What am I even doing here? This could be a complete waste of time. What if Kawasaki Hiro doesn't even use this place anymore? What if I'm chasing ghosts? I could be out on the streets looking out for thugs from other places but I am stuck with this….
He packed up and headed home at 2 AM, disappointment written across his face.
11th August 12:05 AM
Kazama changed his position, finding a different rooftop with a better angle on the warehouse entrance. He had brought water this time and some snacks. He was more prepared.
Still nothing.
The warehouse remained as dead as the day before. A few cars passed by on the distant road, but none stopped. No one came. No one left. This time he covered the distance from the abandoned building till the warehouse by crouching and running. He sneaked inside the warehouse. Empty.
The warehouse is empty as well. My initial assumption of this being a regular hideout is not the case. Tchh. What if I'm wasting my time when I should be studying or training instead?
Then his parents' faces flashed in his mind. Their absence. The empty house that now scared him. The badge in his pocket that represented his only lead.
He waited till 2:30 AM this time. But ultimately went home again feeling defeated but not broken.
11th August 10:06 PM
Rain.
Gods are not on my side I guess. This could be a perfect day for them to mask their operations. But I can't confront or fight them in the rain. One more day. I will be there again tomorrow. If nothing happens I will quit. I have been running on faith alone but I need a sign at this point.
Kazama didn't go that night and stayed at home and started studying instead.
13th August
Kazama was back on the rooftop. It was darker than any other day. His determination was fading. He had bags under his eyes along with dark circles. His watch showed 1 AM.
This has to be the last day. This is really taking a toll on my health. The evening nap recharges me a bit but I get behind on other things. The qualifiers. House chores. I don't think I can keep this up.
A dark green truck arrived outside the warehouse. The doors opened. And Kawasaki Hiro stepped out along with another guy whose face Kazama recognized from the alley.
Finally! So there's Hiro. And that other guy was definitely there that night. They are…. They are going inside the warehouse? So it's not abandoned? Or maybe it was stocked in the morning or afternoon when I wasn't here. They are probably creating a large interval between their movements. That's smart. They could cover for each other.
The two started loading multiple boxes and climbed back into the small truck and drove off. Kazama stood and started moving across the rooftops. Jumping, flipping, vaulting over gaps. When the truck picked up speed and Kazama ran out of buildings to jump onto, he used the electrical wires running between buildings, his body converting to electricity for brief bursts of speed.
I've been calling this "Conductor Travel." It lets me move through anything that conducts electricity for short periods, but I can cover a serious distance since electricity moves fast. I have to pop back into physical form every so often though, both to recharge and to keep track of where the truck's going.
The truck wound through the city streets, taking turn after turn until they were well outside the urban areas. It finally stopped in an isolated spot just outside Tokyo. Kazama found cover and watched as the two men stayed in the vehicle, talking.
"Oof. What a long drive," the short heighted partner said, stretching and relieved.
"Yeah, whatever," Hiro replied while looking the other way. There was irritation and a lack of interest on his face.
"Bro, you are still mad about not getting a gun?"
"No. I mean a bit maybe? I lost my badge and I didn't get a gun. Tchh" , Hiro said with an annoyed tone and punched the inside of the car's door with annoyance.
"You got powers, man! Have you ever seen Shirai-san with a gun?", his partner said in a joking manner.
"He is different. He is like a different level, you know. Like take that night as an example. A random vigilante beat our ass. Five people and all of us were down. And to be honest, I don't think that vigilante was even trying. Something like that would never happen with Shirai-san. He can put up a good fight with anyone in the top 10 in Japan right now. And we? We lost miserably", Hiro replied with frustration as he clenched his fist.
"That's some self-reflection there."
"Yeah. I think he could have done much worse to us. You guys were jumping on him altogether. I tried one v one. I know the difference" , Hiro again with frustration in his eyes.
"I heard you guys even went after a high school student. Can't believe that, man. Like alright, that guy didn't have the best or peak male form build, but come on. A student?", his partner said with a bit of disgust while rubbing his forehead.
"Yeah, maybe it was stupid. But he checked the boxes, you know. You never know what's out there. Whoever that vigilante is. He is dangerous", Hiro said with a serious tone and directly staring at his partner. He laid out a warning.
"Do you think he can beat Shirai-san?", his partner just threw in a good question.
"Only one way to find out. Oh look, the other truck is here!", Hiro said as he pointed out the arrival of the second truck.
Another truck with light blue color appeared in the distance. Kazama shifted his position for a better view.
Multiple trucks. They're splitting up their operation to avoid detection. Smart approach again. Makes it harder to track a single source. But what's in those boxes? Drugs? Weapons? Something else? Kazama thought to himself while adjusting his binoculars.
Three men got out of the empty truck. The five men who were involved in the alley incident had now reunited outside the two trucks for the shipment job. Hiro and his partner got out of the truck as well.
"That's it?" Buzzcut asked after opening up the dark green truck.
"Yeah bro. Seems pretty expensive", the short heighted gangster replied.
"It's a million yen as per Shirai-san. So yeah", Hiro said with his hands on his waist as he knew the price after talking to Takeru earlier.
"Damn, that's like four months of my pay right here", Buzzcut chuckled as he rubbed his head.
"Yeah, so be careful. Hey. Gotta pee. I have been holding it for like an hour. Just load all the boxes and be alert. I am gonna be right back," Hiro announced, walking towards the warehouse.
"Yeah yeah, we got this," the short heighted partner replied.
Kazama studied their positions. All of them had their hands full. Their attention was divided.They were unloading and loading the boxes one by one.
Perfect timing. They're busy unloading. Their hands are occupied. This should go smoother than last time.
He moved in quickly and quietly. The first gang member went down with a rear naked choke hold, just enough pressure to make him pass out. Kazama lowered him to the ground before launching a dropkick at the second one.
"Hey! Who the fuck is that?" Buzzcut shouted, dropping his box.
He spotted Kazama and charged at him. Kazama hit him with two quick punches, then drove his knee into the guy's face. He crumpled.
But the short heighted gang member had drawn a gun. "Hey! Stand right there. You make a move and I will blow your brains out."
Shit. He's armed. This changes things.
"You are gonna take two steps, you piece of shit. And you are gonna slowly take your mask off."
Kazama raised his hands, but moved as slowly as possible. Stalling. The other gang members were starting to recover.
A third one scrambled up and pulled his weapon. Now two guns were pointed at him.
Kazama slowly moved his hands towards his mask.
"Hey! Not that slow! Take your mask off right now! I am not kidding, I will do it", the short member continued to press with a loud, alarming tone.
"Hey, what are you waiting for, man! Shoot him down!" Buzzcut said out loud.
"I wanna see the face of the asshole who beat us last time. He can't run now", the short member said while looking at Buzzcut.
"I won't be so sure about that," Kazama said, his voice muffled behind the mask.
"What?"
Kazama channeled electricity through his body, feeling it flow into the copper coils wrapped around his arms. He raised both hands. The magnetic field kicked in, and both guns were ripped from the gang members' grips, flying straight to him. He caught them easily.
"What the fuck! He can move things?" Buzzcut said as his eyes widened with shock. The other members had the same reaction.
"I thought he had electricity based powers!", another member said out loud.
Kazama swung both guns in a wide arc, using them as blunt weapons. They connected with each gang member's head in succession with one, two, three quick impacts.
"Ouch, that hurt", Buzzcut said as he held his head. He and the short member also lost balance and fell to the ground on their butts.
The first gang member yanked out a metal baton and swung at him. Kazama ducked under it, sidestepped the follow-up, then blocked the man's arm and slapped him across the face.
"You bastard!"
The gang member threw his baton towards Kazama in frustration. Kazama stopped it mid-flight with his magnetic field. It just hung there in the air. He made it spin and smack into the gang members before finishing with a single-legged dropkick, something he had learned from watching Haruto. The first gang member finally stayed down.
The third one tried rushing him. Kazama delivered a sharp chop, then used his magnetism to yank the metal chain off the guy's neck.
"What the... How did you...?"
Kazama wrapped the chain around his fist and threw a punch. The gang member went down hard.
Hiro came walking back, zipping up his pants. "The boxes are probably unloaded by now. Finally, I'm gonna get a good night's sleep. Wait, why is there pin drop silence?"
The metal baton came flying at him. Hiro barely dodged it by sidestepping and ducking at the same time.
"What was that?" Hiro's eyes widened as he didn't see that coming.
Kazama closed the distance fast, swinging his forearm. Hiro blocked it, then had to block a knee strike that pushed him back.
"Oh it's you. How did you get here? Well. It doesn't matter. You are in so much trouble today. My boys have got some serious ammunition tonight."
"What boys?" Kazama asked with sarcasm, his voice muffled.
Hiro looked around. All his guys were on the ground, not moving.
"What the hell? They had guns! This can't be" Hiro said out loud and was shocked as he placed his hands on his head.
Kazama pulled the baton back to his hand using magnetism. It flew through the air and landed in his palm with a solid smack.
"What the fuck was that? Where are your sparks of electricity?" Hiro asked as he observed Kazama by squinting his eyes.
Kazama didn't answer. He swung the baton. Hiro ducked under it and blocked Kazama's follow-up chop. Hiro flipped open his lighter and ignited his fists, flames wrapping around his knuckles. He threw two flame-enhanced punches. Kazama quickly assembled a shield from scattered metal scraps nearby and jumped back to create distance.
"What! How are you even doing this? You look like the same person who attacked us that night, but you got no signs of those sparky electric thingies!?"
Kazama stayed silent again. He extended his magnetic field to the discarded guns, ejecting their magazines remotely. Bullets clattered to the ground as the empty weapons floated on either side of him.
Hiro slammed his fists together, the flames intensifying. "I don't know what you are. But ever since that faceoff, I have only been thinking about a fair one v one rematch. No interference. Clean fight. It's time to get really serious".
He blasted flames into the ground, using the explosion to launch himself high into the air. His fist pulled back, fire building around it.
"FLAME FIST!"
Kazama raised his scrap shield, but Hiro's superheated fist started melting straight through it. Kazama dropped the shield and created space, but Hiro was already on him, throwing rapid flame-wrapped punches. Kazama dodged and weaved, using the floating guns as additional weapons to keep Hiro off-balance.
"Enough!" Hiro shouted with a loud, angry tone.
He slammed both hands into the ground. Flames erupted outward in a wave. Kazama overcharged the coils and used the electromagnetic force to launch himself into the air briefly, redirecting towards the metal trucks the gang had arrived in. The boxes were still scattered around it.
Kazama landed behind the vehicle and called out, "That's all you got?"
Hiro's face twisted with rage. He extended both arms like flamethrowers and unleashed everything he had, fire consuming everything in its path.
"Get a taste of this, you bastard! You think you are some hot shit? I was holding back, now take this and die! Burn you loser! Hahahaha" Hiro said out loud and started laughing like a madman.
The flames from his arms finally stopped. Hiro stood there panting.
"You like that? Why are you not talking now? I won! I beat you! It's 1-1 now. Hahaha" Hiro continued to boast his so-called victory as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Then he looked around. Both trucks were on fire. All the boxes were burning. A spark of realization hit him. Suddenly, his pulse quickened. His legs started shivering.
"Aaarghggghh! Noooo!!!! What did I do? Oh my god! I am gonna get fired. No. I will be executed for this. Oh shit. Oh man. The boxes! The trucks! Oh my god!!!"
Kazama stepped out from behind the truck. He had created a makeshift shield from multiple layers of scrap metal and loose parts from the truck, leaving air gaps between them to prevent the heat from reaching him. His clothes were singed but he was fine.
"You sure have talent and abilities. Why waste it here?" Kazama asked while walking towards Hiro and dusting off the soot from his clothes.
"What!! You are... alive? How?" Hiro was shocked as he placed his hands on his head. His eyes widened and his pulse rose even further.
"Doesn't answer my question."
"You have no idea who I am and who I work for. Even if you are somehow alive now, you cannot escape us", Hiro said with a deeper and more menacing tone. He clenched his fists. The quickened pulse reasoning changed from fear and guilt to pure rage and adrenaline.
"I don't care who you are. I am just interested in who you work for", Kazama replied with a cold tone.
"You will know who I am when I burn the shit out of you. You want to know about us? I will show you now!", Hiro said out loud with a threatening growl as he took out his lighter again. His gaze became sharper.
Hiro reignited his flames. Kazama made the metallic parts around him float. The standoff continued. Neither of them backed down.