CHAPTER 5: THE TRAITOR AND THE SWEET POISON
The terrifying sound of Akuro Yoshibe's open-handed
'Kudo strike' (SMACK!) was still echoing in the stagnant air of the canteen. Right after that came a heavy,
blood-curdling sound—THUD.
100-kilogram Renjiro Hoshino crashed to the ground like a chopped tree.
The floor shook so hard that the plates on the nearby tables began to rattle.
Renjiro's body didn't move an inch.
His eyes had rolled back, showing only the whites.
"From his brutally swollen jaw and busted lips, a thick, dark red pool of blood began to spread across the white tiles of the canteen."
A graveyard-like, suffocating silence fell over the hundreds of students standing there.
Not even the sound of anyone breathing could be heard.
The canteen, which was full of noise just moments ago,
had turned into a morgue in a single second.
But just then,
from right behind Akuro's white leather jacket,
someone ripped through that deathly silence.
"HAHAHA! Boss! What a hit!"
Kenchon—Akuro's most brutal enforcer,
who had scars on his face—stepped forward. He rubbed his heavy hands together while clapping.
His voice was piercing, like shattering glass.
"You put this fat pig to sleep in just one hit! Flawless,
bro, absolutely flawless!"
Akuro slowly turned towards him.
His movement was as slow as a ticking bomb.
The smile was still on his face; in fact, that smile had grown even wider.
"Really?"
Akuro's voice was completely soft,
but it carried the weight of death.
"You liked it that much?
So, do you want to eat a slap too, Kenchon?"
Kenchon's psycho laugh got stuck in his throat.
His blood seemingly dried up and his face turned pale as a ghost.
He suddenly realized that he had made a huge mistake by breaking the silence.
Nobody knew the Smiling Monster's mood.
"N-No Boss! I didn't mean that!
I was just—" Kenchon pleaded while backing away,
his heavy boots making a weird scraping sound on the floor.
Akuro looked deep into his terrified eyes for three seconds,
and then suddenly let out a sweet laugh.
"You idiot,
I was joking!"
Akuro said casually,
waving his hand in the air.
"Why did you get so serious?
Look at him, trembling like a leaf."
Kenchon took a deep breath and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
"Ah... y-you're right Boss. You really scared me."
The canteen's tension dropped slightly for a second.
Some kids exhaled their held breaths.
But the Black Blazers' game of psychological torture wasn't over yet.
Daizen Mori—
the gang's tallest and skinniest fighter—
stepped forward from the shadows, gnawing on his thumbnail.
He had a predator's hunger in his eyes.
"Boss,"
Daizen pointed at the unconscious Renjiro,
"This fat guy stood in the sun to get an ice cream for Meiko-san.
We should feed him something too,
shouldn't we?
Out of politeness."
Meiko Fujiwara, sitting at the corner table, laughed softly.
There was pure venom in her red eyes.
For her, this wasn't a tragedy;
this was her entertainment movie,
and she was the lead actress.
"Well said,"
Meiko smoothly crossed her legs.
"He was very fond of eating ice cream,
wasn't he?
Kaito Arashima! Go quickly and bring an ice cream.
Don't make our guest wait any longer."
"Yes, Lady Boss!"
Kaito shouted, pushing past the terror-frozen kids as he sprinted toward the counter.
By then,
Akuro walked over to Renjiro lying on the ground and said theatrically,
"Oh, what's this?
He fainted from just one little slap?
I didn't even close my fist properly.
Now so many people are watching our show,
who is going to refund their money?"
Akuro crouched down and began slapping the unconscious Renjiro's face with full force, without stopping.
Smack. Smack. Smack.
The horrifying sound of slaps hitting bone and skin echoed throughout the entire canteen.
He was hitting him like a machine,
but the sweet smile on his face didn't budge an inch.
He wasn't even out of breath.
Toma Kagetsu,
who was standing like a stone statue,
spoke with his 'dead eyes':
"Boss, he should be beaten more.
He dared to touch the Lady boss.
His hands should be broken."
"Yeah man,"
Akuro said,
delivering the final slap and shaking his hands off as if he had touched some garbage.
"But his brain has completely shut off. He isn't waking up at all."
"Boss! The ice cream is here!"
Daizen Mori yelled,
snatching the ice cream from Kaito's hand and raising it in the air.
Kenchon quickly held out his heavy hands so he could get back in the Boss's good books.
"Bring it here, bastard! I'll feed it to this fat guy!
I'll shove it right up his nose,
Boss!"
Akuro slowly turned completely toward Kenchon.
In a millisecond... in just a single millisecond,
that cheerful smile vanished from Akuro's face.
His face became so cold,
it was as if death itself was standing there instead of a human.
"Oh?" Akuro's voice was like a whispering,
venomous snake.
"You want to feed him?"
Kenchon didn't realize the atmosphere had changed;
he was still laughing,
"Yes Boss!
Your wish is my command!
Just give the order!"
Akuro took a slow step toward him.
"You know... an interesting thought just came to my mind,
Kenchon."
Akuro said, looking dead into his eyes as if clawing at his soul.
"It was you, wasn't it?
The one who leaked our territory details to the Thunder Bulls gang last week."
Hearing these words, a deathly silence filled the canteen's air.
But Toma, Daizen, and Kaito, standing behind him, weren't surprised.
A wicked, creepy smile appeared on all their faces.
They already knew!
This wasn't all for Renjiro... this entire act was staged to set up an 'Execution'.
Kenchon's face turned pale as a ghost.
His legs began to shake violently.
"B-Boss!" Kenchon whimpered, his eyes wide with fear.
"You... you have a huge misunderstanding!
Who lied to you?!
I don't know any Thunder Bulls!
I swear on my mother, Boss!"
Toma Kagetsu took a step forward, his monolithic body casting a shadow over Kenchon.
"Oh, really?
Then who were you talking to exactly at 6 PM last evening outside the school?
Who was that guy with the leather jacket and bull tattoo, Kenchon?"
Kenchon's remaining pride crumbled into dust.
He realized his game was over.
He collapsed to his knees right there in front of everyone,
crying his eyes out.
"Boss! Please forgive me!"
Kenchon begged, rubbing his forehead on the floor,
snot running from his nose.
"They threatened me!
I won't tell any secrets from now on!
I swear Boss, have mercy!"
"Forgive you?"
Akuro tilted his head slightly,
his smile returning.
"No. I'm going to clean you up right along with this fat guy."
Without giving any warning, without pulling his shoulder back, Akuro spun from his spot and delivered a lightning-fast spinning backfist straight to Kenchon's face.
CRUNCH!The horrifying sound of nasal bone and cartilage breaking echoed. Kenchon flew backward through the air.
A fountain of blood sprayed from his mouth.
Before his massive body could hit the floor,
Toma and Daizen caught him mid-air like starving dogs and slammed him against the wall with all their might.
Kenchon slumped down covered in blood,
crying and screaming, right next to the unconscious Renjiro.
Akuro casually adjusted his white jacket.
"I was thinking..."
Akuro said in a smooth voice,
"Since you were so eager to feed this fat guy ice cream...
why don't I feed it to you?
Tell me Kenchon,
which flavor will you eat?
Strawberry?
Chocolate?
Or Blueberry?"
"Boss please! Have mercy! I am sorry!"
Kenchon cried, holding his broken nose, blood dripping through his fingers onto his black uniform.
"Come on, feed him the ice cream,"
Akuro signaled to his gang.
"Sweeten his mouth, he has done a lot of great work for us over the years."
The Terror of Kenta's Gang
Just 10 feet away, a naked dance of pure terror was happening at Kenta Ishida and his friends' table.
All four of them were trembling violently.
They had gripped their table so tightly that their fingers had turned white.
Just minutes ago,
they were laughing and putting false accusations on Renjiro to become Akuro's lackeys.
But seeing Kenchon's condition, their very souls shuddered.
Kenta covered his mouth with both hands,
scared shitless.
"Oh my god...
what have I done?"
Kenta's heart was about to tear through his chest.
"I lied to this demon.
If Akuro finds out
I made up that entire story about Renjiro...
he won't just break my nose.
He will slice me alive.
I have to take this secret with me to the grave!"
Beside him, Ryo Takeda was drenched in sweat and was glaring angrily at Kenta.
"You bastard Kenta!"
Ryo thought in his mind.
"Where have you brought us to die?!
Why did you drag us into that story?
He broke his own most loyal dog like this... if our truth comes out, we will all be buried right here!"
Akuro walked back and stood in front of the crying,
broken Kenchon.
"Listen to me carefully..."
Akuro's whispering voice reached Kenchon's crying ears.
"If you don't want me to break your remaining bones...
and if you want to walk out of this school alive on your own feet...
then you'll have to do a small job for me.
Right here, right in front of everyone."
The badly swollen eyes of Renjiro,
lying on the ground, opened slightly.
He was crushed with pain,
his brain had gone numb, but in the dim light he could understand what was going on there.
"W-What do I have to do Boss?"
Kenchon whimpered, spitting blood.
Akuro pointed his finger toward Renjiro's face.
"You have to fart on this fat guy's face.
Right now.
In front of the entire school."
For a second, a deathly silence fell over the place.
And then... the tension suddenly exploded.
The breaths of the kids standing in the crowd returned.
They realized that the Boss's anger had now shifted onto Kenchon.
So suddenly the entire crowd started laughing at that broken Black Blazer!
The thug everyone feared,
today the crowd was treating him like a 'Clown' and pointing at him.
The sound of the crowd's laughter echoed throughout the canteen.
Seeing this, Meiko Fujiwara gleefully rested her face on her hands and laughed.
"Oh, Akuro, you are simply brilliant,"
there was pure sadistic joy in Meiko's voice.
"What could be a better perfume for a disgusting pig than this?
Kenchon, make him smell it properly, not a single breath should go to waste."
Hearing this, Renjiro's half-remaining mind also broke.
The girl for whom he had endured all this, was laughing at his humiliation today.
His hope had died completely.
"If you don't do it," Akuro stepped back smiling,
"Then I will do things to you that I didn't even do to this fat guy. And you know very well how merciful I am."
Kenchon's face started burning with shame and humiliation.
This humiliation was more painful than his broken nose.
"O-
Okay Boss... I'll do it."
Kenchon's self-respect had become zero.
Trembling, Kenchon crawled crying on his knees near Renjiro's face.
His massive hands were shaking terribly.
He unbuckled his leather belt and, dying of shame,
slid his black pants down slightly.
What nightmare am I trapped in!*
Kenchon thought crying in his mind.
If I had known,
I would have brought the Thunder Bulls for support!
Today my worth has become zero!
The crowd's laughter increased even more.
Everyone took out their phones and started making videos.
The Ultimate Humiliation of both Renjiro and Kenchon was now about to become history.
But at that exact moment, just when Kenchon was about to commit that disgusting act...
BANG!!!
The canteen's heavy oak doors were kicked open so violently that a blast-like sound echoed on the walls.
"BOSS! BOSS!"
A lower-rank Black Blazer member collapsed panting into the canteen.
His black uniform was torn,
there were fresh blood marks on his face,
and he was gasping for air.
The crowd's laughter turned into a deathly silence in a single second.
Smartphones dropped down.
Kenchon froze and immediately pulled his pants up out of fear.
"Boss!" that beaten gang member pointed crying and panicking toward the exit.
"There is a guy outside brutally breaking all our gang members!"
Akuro slowly stood up.
His smile had completely vanished, and a pure shock had taken its place.
"Kenchon! Did you really call the Thunder Bulls here?!"
"No Boss!"
the member fallen on the ground screamed crying.
"It's not the Thunder Bulls!
It's a lone guy!
He has stark white hair...
he's wearing a bright red hoodie...
and he's destroying everyone!"