"Ah shit! That hits the spot. Hey! Who's down for a game of truth or dare?!"
Minji was already having a hard time controlling her balance, but she still persisted that she can still drink.
"Yeah! Let's go play! That seems like a really fun idea. Right Levi?"
Riza, who was surprisingly great at handling her alcohol tolerance, baited the clearly uninterested Levi.
".....Yeah sure....If you say so."
"You guys will play too, riiiight? Joseph? And you Darren! Don't think that I haven't noticed it yet. I know that you'd been spilling the vodka at the pool since your first shot!"
Darren gulped and decided to hesitatingly agree with Minji. I was also curious on how things will play out, so I decided to join in.
Kyle being the team player he was, also joined in along with Ichika.
And we started playing after Minji gulped the contents of a whole bottle of vodka.
"Yeesh. Go easy on your liver doc." Darren commented.
"Shut the hell up you fag. Alright now, the game is simple. I'll spin this bottle and whoever it stopped and pointed at will have the chance to command everyone."
Minji explained as we sat around a circular table near the edge of the infinity pool.
"Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?" Kyle inquired.
"Don't be such a pussy. This is more fun. Now lets spin her up!"
Minji grabbed hold of the bottle and started spinning it.
And after it stopped, the first one it pointed to was Riza.
"Yey! I won! Okay now, I dare all of you to take off your tops. Including you Ichika."
Minji clicked her tongue and commented
"What bullshit. You're going too easy on them. If it were me, I would have dared them to build an ark right now."
"Hey guys. Can we remove Minji out of the game?" Darren asked.
"Its not that I'm going easy on them. I just feel uncomfortable being seen in my bikini while the others hides their skins. It felt unfair to me, so hurry up and take those off already everyone!"
While it might seem easy for those who are not aware of the situation, it proved difficult for everyone who was hiding their bodies.
"I wasn't particularly hiding my body. I just don't like flaunting this scars on my back."
Darren was the first one that took off his rashguard and showed his back to us.
Unsurprisingly, his body was pumped full of muscles. He was really buffed out.
Majority of his back was covered in scars that was probably made with slashes. Some were large, while some are small but deeper.
It wasn't pleasing to look at, so we all understood Darren's sentiments.
"Psh! Big deal. Scars are not ugly! What's ugly is the reasons and history behind it!"
Minji commented on a rough and boorish tone. But in a way, her words sounded more like comforting words.
"What. Caused all of it?" Riza asked.
"Of course, if you feel uncomfortable telling us then you don't need to."
"Nahh, its a'ight.... So long story short, my siblings used to play hunt the rabbit when we were kids in the forest near our home..... Its basically just like a game of tag combined with hide and seek, but much more violent. The rules of the game is that someone would act as the hunter and will use anything inside the forest to tag everyone."
Darren paused for a bit to touch the largest scar in his back.
"Back then we did not mind getting hurt a bit. Since It was the only way we can play, after our parents approved of it as some type of training regime for us. And this particularly large scar was caused by my eldest brother. The shithead whipped me so hard with that thick ass vine and almost opened me up!"
Darren laughed wryly after explaining.
Riza replied
"I'm sorry to hear that.."
"Don't be. You know what they say about what fails to kill, only makes you stronger. In my case, if that experiences of mine did not break me, then what the hell can?! HAHAHAHA"
Joseph suddenly clapped and stood up.
"Well then, I guess I should take this off too."
Joseph then started taking off his diving suit and was soon naked in front of all of us.
"Behold! The holy grail!"
He shouted as he flashed his cock at us.
Unlike Darren's body, Joseph was as clean as a soap. Nothing unexpected for a model.
What did caught our attentions was his size.
"Go and cover yourself up you retard! There are girls in here, and someone that might endanger your life!"
Darren rushed at Joseph and covered his lower body with a towel.
The drunk Riza was laughing really hard while Minji on the other hand was being restrained by Ichika, stopping her from attacking Joseph with a broken bottle of vodka.
After the commotion settled down.
Riza once again brought up the topic of stripping off, and so Ichika, Kyle, and I had no choice but to do it.
"We already know what you two are. No need to hide it already. And I'm pretty sure Darren was aware of it already." The drunk Joseph told Ichika and Kyle.
"Well then. Guess we need to do it huh?"
Kyle looked at Ichika before he took off his rash guard.
His body was covered by tattoos, from his whole back to his shoulders. One particularly eyecatching tattoo of his was the dragon travelling his body.
Ichika also took off her rash guard and showed us her tattoos too.
Unlike Kyle, Ichika had less tattoo on her body. Only a large print on her back.
"What's that Ichika?" Riza asked
"Thats a Koi fish swimming up a waterfalls."
Everyone looked at me after Ichika replied to Riza. So I too took off my rashguard.
"I have a Koi fish in my back too."
---------------------
After the pool party. Everyone went back inside the house to rest.
The girls were obviously on a separate room while the five of us men all shared a room.
"Hey guys. Is it just me or does it feel very heavy in here?" Joseph asked us.
The atmosphere inside the room was very dangerous. Everyone except for the drunk Joseph was very alert like a beast was lurking around us.
"Welp. I'm gonna go take a shit first and hang out with the others. So if you guys are gonna play pillowfight then tell me beforehand so that I don't miss out on all the fun."
Joseph soon left the room after no one answered him.
The room now had a heightened eery silence. But it was soon broken when Kyle asked all of us with the same wide smile he always had.
"I hope all of you had a good time today. Because I personally haven't had mine, yet."
Darren replied sarcastically.
"What a coincidence! I had a lot of fun you see. But I feel like I haven't had enough. So why don't we all play one last game today?"
"And what might that game be?" - Kyle
"Well let's just call it, truth or truth. Let me start it." - Darren
"I haven't given my consent ye-"
"Alright Kyle! Truth or truth?" - Darren
Kyle did not respond and looked at us wryly.
Darren continued
"Truth it is then! Kyle. Would you mind telling us what the supply of high-grade explosives you're hiding beneath this floor are for?"
Kyle sighed in defeat before answering Darren with the same eyes that I saw when I first approached him at the cabin on the woods.
The same ominous predatory eyes.
"As expected of a cop. I invited you, a cop, inside my house, a yakuza's house, because I wanted to build some type of friendship between us. I did not expect you to be the same as those rats."
Darren gritted his teeth and exclaimed.
"I'm built different! Screw your opinions!"
Kyle jokingly replied.
"Careful now. Your attitude may hurt me, but mine can kill you."
Darren then looked at my direction before making another commotion.
"My partner had been killed by explosives on one of the docks of the Misuzuki's territory. The territory of which your family has an ongoing war with!"
"So you're accusing me? Tsk. Vengeance is a dangerous disease my friend. I sure hope you get well soon." Kyle asked with a cold glint in his eyes.
Levi and I were still silent on our beds, looking at each other.
We did not have to exchange words to realize that the other side is hostile. We were just looking for the perfect opportunity to make the first move.
But I did observe something odd about Levi.
He was constantly switching his focus to Darren. As if he was targetting him.
If that's the case then Darren would be in a world of pain. And I wouldn't be able to do anything for him.
This is every man for himself.
"And what if I am? Kyle Kazama? You keep on stalling! Why don't you just fucking tell me what the explosives are for?! So that I could fucking know if you and that blind bitch earlier was the one who killed Jackson!" Darren was fuming with anger now.
After Darren said that, Kyle looked at him menacingly and finally lost his composure and the smile in his face.
"I'll ask the same question, Darren Calante. What if I am? Killing a killer will not diminish the number of killers in this world. And I'm one hell of a killer you see."
Darren smirked and replied
"So you did set that up! Jackson may have murdered a fuck ton of people, but its all because your shitheaded men kept on violating the peace treaty!"
Kyle laughed really hard when he heard Darren's rambling. He was clutching his stomach because of all the laughing like he just heard the most ancient joke.
After a good laugh, Kyle then declared to all of us
"I don't know what you want with us, but we promise that we'll deal with you later. Because right now..."
Kyle paused and looked at me before continuing.
"....I'm gonna have my fun."
He then took out something under his bed and threw it at the center of his large room.
"Lets all be rational right now. We all know already what everyone's aiming for. And its not gonna be a simple tickle party. So why don't we start already?"
Kyle said with his usual benevoloent look before wearing something that looked like goggles.
"Ocho! Its a smoke grenade!"
Darren shouted at me when he realized what Kyle threw.
Before the room got covered in smoke, I saw Kyle pulling a dagger behind a wall painting.
While Levi armed himself with dual brass knuckles that he hid in his pockets.
Darren also took something out. It seemed like he brought a pair of handcuffs. But it had an unusual length of chains. It was at least 4 ft long.
'You might've thought you have the upperhand in here Kyle. But this situation is perfectly tailored for me.'
I quickly thought to myself as I followed the heaviest footstep I could hear inside the room.
Countless noises from clanging metals to sounds of flesh being cut could be heard inside the smoke filled room.
Darren managed to single out Kyle before he lost visibilty and was now constantly defending against Kyle's barrage of knife slashes and stabs.
While Levi and I attacked each other on the opposite side of the room.
The stalemate between the four of us persisted for an hour, up until I finally lost my cool and got annoyed.
Its not my style to drag out a battle for this long.
The smoke did not seem to dissipate any sooner so it added a new layer of annoyance in my head.
"You're mine ATLAS!"
I shouted with the intent to finish everything already.