Kei descended the stairs cautiously; the house was in deep silence, only the creaking of the wood could catch any sound's attention. There was nobody around, just a note from his mother about today's meal. It was, once again, rice with seaweed and fish. Kei had been eating rice with seaweed and fish his whole life. Only on special occasions did he enjoy eggs, meat, or chicken.
He grabbed the two hundred yen and stashed them in his backpack.
The journey to school, as always, was long, very long. He saw his school in the distance; the Kazama family lived in the lawless district of Tokyo city. Nothing like the countryside, which is a place of madness. It wasn't dangerous for ordinary civilians to live there, but it was full of gangs, drug dealers, and killers on street corners. But it wasn't strange at all. Once you're born among the trash, nobody will bother you, for they know each other among themselves. The first thing his brother taught him was always to be careful of the dangers lurking; the small dagger in his pocket said a lot about Kei's attitude. It's the life of the marginalized, similar to that of prisoners who can detect each other as members of a similar community.
He walked as far as he could until he saw his school. He reached the entrance and could see his reflection; a swollen purple eye, the purple ball circulating on his face was almost the size of a baseball. He had green lines around his face almost like cobwebs. The guy who punched him surely went overboard.
He approached the school infirmary; they would help him with something. Fortunately, they did; they applied a disinfectant to his face and cream, along with a cotton patch on his eye. It was enough; the blow he received hurt a lot.
It was the first time he received a beating in his life, but not the first beating Kei had received. He had never been beaten by someone with such force in his life; his brothers surely hit him, but they held back a bit in the end. As Kei Kazama was about to enter the classroom, he met someone who caught his attention, of his funny hairstyle and the name of the guy, Nijima.
The bell rang, undoing his thoughts.
Classes were more of the same; he paid more attention as much as he could. He only had these hours to dedicate himself to his studies, with the situations at home, with the behavior of his older brothers who only cared about business; he knew he had to excel in his studies as much as possible, get a scholarship to a distant university that wasn't in Tokyo, and rebuild his life elsewhere.
-Mr. Shirahama, come to the front to solve the fraction sum on the board, - the teacher said.
Kei lazily observed this Kenichi guy; his subconscious clicked, but his logic dismissed those absurd patterns, which couldn't be anything other than the ramblings of a madman. Kenichi had brown hair with some spikes; he stood out for his shyness more than anything else.
Kenichi's name continued to haunt him; during the break, he saw Kenichi being beaten up by Nijima, while the latter laughed. The serpent's tongue evoked multiple thoughts that he couldn't fully understand. He was in Kenichi's manga; he was part of Kenichi's manga. A world focused on martial arts, a world focused on martial arts fighting, where the strong have prominence in the main story.
If that's the case, then the Kure clan member is also part of this parallel world, where martial arts are more important than the money in your pockets.
-Hey alien, what's your name? - said Kei Kazama from the swings where he was sitting, the school bully, with an aggressive streak, so people tend to stay as far away from him as possible.
-I, oh hohoho, am Haruo Nijima, - he said. In every sense, he had already devised two escape routes to escape Kei Kazama's hands, who in another time would have been expelled from school yesterday for attacking the teacher in a fit of rage. His previous personality was hot, just as Kei confirmed, by the anger he felt at seeing the teacher.
-I heard you're good with computers and information, - Kei said.
Nijima's lips curled upwards; they needed his help. -Of course, you won't find a better informant than Haruo Nijima, - he said eagerly. If Kei Kazama, the one who could beat all the kids in the senior year class, owed him a favor, there would only be gains for him.
-Come, it's something nobody can know; leave that weakling alone, - said Kei Kazama.
-Alright hahahahahahaha, see you later loser, - Nijima said, delivering another blow to Kenichi on the ground, while his crazy tongue traveled in all directions.
-My dear friend Kazama? What can Nijima do for you? - said the alien, more in tune, rubbing his hands in a gesture of mischief for the business he could get involved in.
Kei felt a bit repulsed, but he knew Haruo Nijima's tactics; it could be beneficial for him if he trained enough. Studies could go to hell.
-I need information about great martial arts masters, but before you go, I want the true martial arts masters hidden in the world. These are people who push their bodies to the limit to surpass human strength. Let me give you an example: in underground boxing, there's someone they call the Hell Boxer or something like that; his name is James Shiba, a real combat monster. There's also another one called Akira Hongo; they say he has 30 dans in karate, - Kei Kazama said.
Nijima was a bit surprised, but he quickly composed himself, devising plans in his head to help him deal with the contingencies he had.
-Very well, I have everything noted down. I'll look for it as soon as I have the information, - Nijima said thoughtfully, happy and fervent to discover the information about these individuals mentioned by Kei Kazama.
Kei could only nod his head firmly; he needed a lot of practice to excel in the world of martial arts. He knew that for now, he was just a small ten-year-old boy whom any normal bully could overcome. That was undoubtedly a stupid way to fix things. The only way he found to improve himself was by breaking his thought barriers, which led him to call his damn brother, Hiroshi Kazama.
-Brother, your boss said that for fulfilling the orders, he would reward me. I want a prize, - Kei Kazama said from the phone in the teachers' lounge.
-A prize? Don't be ridiculous, Kei, you won't get any reward. Go play with your friends or buy sweets with the money I gave you, - Hiroshi said.
-Just tell him! - Kei said.
-They'll beat you until you're ragged, - Hiroshi said.
You'd be surprised; I want them to beat me up, Kei thought.
-Just tell him, I don't give a damn, - Kei said.
He heard his brother take a deep breath; sure he had angered him.
-I'll do it, just don't blame me for your foolishness, - Hiroshi said.
Kei Kazama hung up the phone and looked around; there was nobody around. He left the teachers' lounge, heading to the Japanese class that his teacher was currently teaching.
He entered the classroom and saw Kenichi glance at him, only to turn away in fear. Kei Kazama, the strongest fighter in fifth grade. The classes were as ridiculous as they could be, although Japanese was difficult for him; it was one of the few subjects he wouldn't understand, but if it were Italian, he could agree that he wouldn't need to review it.
The bell rang, and Kei got up from the classroom. He left the classroom as fast as he could; he would have to start his training. From now on, the first step was to run from his school to his house, barefoot; most fighters fought barefoot, and he needed to protect his feet. He bought four rolls of bandages for 20 yen each, which was a godsend for how cheap they were.
-I sold myself as best I could. According to my incipient knowledge from when I played soccer, - he said, taking off his shoes. He ran as fast as he could with the weight of the backpack on his back; it took three brisk runs, but in half an hour, he was at his doorstep, seeing Hiroshi, sitting closer in the chair, his brothers Iji and Niji were not there.
-I see you're here, brother, - Kei said, leaving the backpack on the floor.
-I am. Come on, let's go. Don't talk to Hiyo about absolutely anything. You should tell him yourself; I'm just doing the favor as brothers, - Hiroshi said, leading him through the alleys to the underground building.
The place was less crowded than yesterday afternoon. They knocked on the door, and Kei saw Hiyo Kure, only when he found Kenichi and Nijima did he make his observations. Kure knew that last name, from the Kengan Ashura series; if that was the case, there would be other fighters from different worlds, boxers, or from the Baki world. For now, he could only work with what he had in his hands. He knew that the Kure clan would kill without mercy and only cared about their clan, so all he had to do was keep going with what he had and improvise.
The room had four people, three playing cards at the table, and the big guy standing by the window, almost like a bodyguard.
-That brat from last time, - said the bald giant, who might measure about two meters. - We don't have any work for you. Leave. -
-Mr. Hiyo said he would do me a favor if I completed the task well, - Kei said.
Hiyo Kuro raised his head from the table. "Hiroshi."
-I tried to warn you, boss, but you didn't listen to me, - Hiroshi said, quite nervous.
-A greedy boy; your brother should have told you, - Hiyo Kuro said.
-He did, but you haven't heard my request yet, - Kei said, praying he wouldn't be beaten before he finished speaking.
Hiyo Kuro stood up from the table, his black eyes staring deeply into Kei's appearance. "Speak," he ordered imperiously.
-You're from the Kure clan, a clan of expert fighters, - Kei said.
-I won't do it; we don't teach outsiders so easily, - Hiyo said, guessing what Kei wanted to ask.
-I don't want you to teach me; I want something else, a fight between you and me, - Kei said.
Even the big bald guy opened his eyes and looked at the audacious kid who asked his boss for a fight. But he remembered the day before when he was beaten for the sake of the mission and shed only normal tears after a blow that went straight to his eye. He looked closely at the kid.
-Hahahahahahaha, he's crazier than all of you guys, - said Hiyo Kure, relaxing his posture, believing that the kid would blackmail him; it wasn't the first time it had happened.
He kept laughing like a madman. But there was no turning back now.
-I want to fight you, with two conditions. You can't kill me or seriously injure me because I want to keep fighting in the future. Just one fight; you can hit me as much as you want, without the two conditions above, for two minutes. As long as the time doesn't run out, we can keep fighting, - Kei said.
-Why would I do that? - Hiyo said, more curious about the boy, who had guts.
-Because you said you would do me a favor for helping you. If you're an expert in fights, you can hit me without hurting me but giving me a lot of pain in the process. Two minutes are nothing, - Kei said.
Hiyo thought carefully about it.
-We'll do it, - said Hiyo Kuro, with a demonic smile.
-Bokuba, count the time, - Hiyo said, leading Kei Kazama to a room with a boxing ring. As a member of the Kure clan, he always came to practice when his time was free; after all, the clan leaders would force him to fight, and meet the clan's standards.
He stumbled onto the ring. Some people followed their boss to the ring. Hiyo assumed a low fighting stance.
Bokuba, the bald giant, rang the bell, and in less than a blink, Kei had already received three blows, in the abdomen, ribs, and neck, strong enough to take his breath away. A gang member put the black chair for him to sit on.
Kei Kazama could see the world in a different color now, a color of red and purple intertwined by the lights that illuminated the room. He felt drool escaping from his mouth, writhing on the floor. But he remembered that this world was the world of the great fighters of his dreams; it was a shounen. He tried to stand up as best as he could. The moment he lifted his head, he received a low kick on the foot that completely destabilized him, then received a punch in the air that made him bounce off the ring floor and jump onto the ropes. He managed to grab onto the ropes, but his head was elsewhere.
Now he had a horrible dizziness; the world looked like a roulette wheel of movements at maximum speed. He couldn't distinguish his hands enough. He tried to stand up again, but received two combos again; this time, he lost consciousness altogether from the extremely strong blow, which shook his whole being. He felt like crying; the pain was so much that his body decided to shut down as a self-protection mechanism, entering into a combustion process to recover faster.
Hiyo Kure saw the boy who was still in elementary school pass out completely; he believed he had fulfilled the mission. - Come on, Hiroshi, leave him there; I fulfilled the conditions the kid asked me for, - said Hiyo, looking at Hiroshi Kazama's concerned face.
An hour passed, and Kei got up in excruciating pain; it was dark. The beating he had received was deadly, very deadly. His skin burned; his whole body burned as if it were being burned, crushed as if thousands of cars had run over him; his blood boiled. He needed some time to rest and recover from the injuries. He got used to the darkness and tried to find the door somewhere; he stumbled upon the stairs and climbed step by step. His back hurt a lot.
He reached the exit, and the hideout was more crowded now; he could count about twenty thugs. Among them all, he saw his brother chatting with two fat guys who looked big but had nothing remarkable about them.
His brother saw him and got up from his seat.
-Come on; I'll take you to your next task, - his brother said. The boss wasn't in the little room this morning; he was drinking in a shop across the street. Kei could see him better now; he was big and strong.
Bokuba was serving drinks to Kuro, who was talking to a muscular guy, very muscular; his back was so wide that the chair he was sitting on looked like a decoration.
-Ah, look, this will be our messenger, - Hiyo said to a guy with his back to Kei; he had black pupils and white eyes.
-I see; he's a bit battered, - said the Kure clan member.
-He is, but he knows how to follow the rules, - said Hiyo. –
Fine, when you need to send him, let me know, - said Rogo Kure, Kure Clan investigator, tasked with investigating potential Kure Clan threats and linking intelligence to Clan associates.
-You're lucky, Boy - Rogo said, putting his hand on his shoulder, which made his grimace in pain. – We'll see you later Hiyo, visit the town if you can, Mako keeps asking about you, you should go see your sister. –
-clear! – Hiyo said. – Well brat, you can go, I'll call you when I need you. –
So, Kei left, for his house, slowly until he reached his house, applying some ice to his face, his whole body hurt. But she saw this as necessary, only by resisting could she become stronger.
...