A standoff began to form across the grass street. Most of everyone’s legs were covered up in the sea of tall grass that billowed in the gusts that accented the developing scene. Clouds slowly moved into the sky dulling the sun’s view down below. Shade thickened the mood between Katsu and Haruo’s stare down.

“So his name’s Katsu, Haruo?”

“Yes.” He turned his body to confront the new threat.

“The one from your story you were telling me?”

“The same.”

“So it’s a reunion, huh?” Yuki smirked as he rubbed his hands together looking eager. He was already prepared for whatever they might have to throw at him.

A glancing eye over to Yuki had given Haruo all the clarification he needed. ‘He’s planning on fighting. It’s not going to solve anything. They’re here for revenge because they got beat. They aren’t afraid.’ Haruo stepped out in front of Yuki giving Katsu an intense stare to try to draw them to himself.

Chapter 78 – Breakdown of Words

Yuki leaned around Haruo, becoming confused with Haruo’s action. ‘He’s planning on fighting? There’s an awful lot of them though. Too many, possibly even me and I can’t use my power on normal humans.’ There was some unseen tension that he picked up from the back of Haruo. “There’s too many for you to handle alone, Haruo!”

Haruo lifted his right arm up to stop Yuki from coming forward. “No.”

“Hey, what’s wrong? You want to fight them by yourself?”

“I can see it in your eyes. You want to fight.”

A moment of confusion overcame Yuki. “I’m pretty sure they aren’t here for a social visit. I’m not going to start this, but I’ll finish anything they begin.” Yuki hoped that his determination would get through to Haruo.

“That’s not the point. They’re here because you fought back.”

Yuki thought for a moment to himself looking a bit absentminded in appearance. His eyes blinked when he was finished and focused back on Haruo. “Yeah probably so.”

“It’s revenge that they want.”

“So?”

Haruo closed his eyes to take a breath. Haruo knew it to be an empty act. “They only want revenge because you fought them. If you hadn’t stopped them they wouldn’t be here now.”

Yuki pushed through Haruo and confronted him directly. His finger poked at his chest as he looked straight in Haruo’s eyes. “Listen and listen good! Those people over there were in the wrong!” Yuki threw his free hand back to point towards the gang of teenagers. “You don’t have to keep taking it from them! You’ve got the strength to protect yourself! If you don’t they’ll just keep walking over you again and again!”

He turned back around feeling better having gotten that out of him. Yuki stared over at Katsu, who had been waiting while they were talking. “You said before that you were determined to leave that life behind you right? Well your past is staring you down right now. You going to let your past control you or are you going to control your past!”

There was a long pause from Haruo as he thought over what Yuki had said. ‘…maybe…my past is supposed to be behind me… maybe he’s right and it has been controlling me…’ Some doubt began to fill up inside him as he fell deeper into questioning his motives and actions.

“So what’s it going to be?”

Haruo stepped forward putting himself back out in front of Yuki. “This is my problem. I’ll handle it.” He didn’t look back at Yuki’s smirk, but felt it a little. Katsu’s eyes continued to stare at Haruo intently waiting when Haruo met his gaze.

The silence and surprising patience from their neighbors in the street had Yuki a little confused. He addressed the adult, Katsu, who appeared to be their leader. “You’re being awfully polite to wait until we’re done talking to start fighting.”

Katsu opened his arms, breaking his stoic expression for a very casual feign at innocence. “That’s quite the assumption you’re making there.”

Being a little coy with the man, Yuki played along trying to get a read on him. “So you and your friends over there are just enjoying a relaxing stroll in the afternoon to stretch your legs then.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Exactly! It’s so warm these days for spring. It’d be a shame to waste them trapped inside.” There was a sly grin crawling up on Katsu’s lips as he began to enjoy his banter with Yuki.

“I couldn’t agree more,” laughed Yuki. He was joined in bemused laughter by Katsu shortly after.

Watching the two entertain each other with pointless chatter made Haruo a little annoyed. However, Haruo became bored by their empty talk. “What do you want, Katsu?”

Katsu turned his head back over to look towards Haruo, his eyes a little disappointed. “Same as always, kid. Never able to understand the fine subtlety of foreplay.”

“If you want to talk then I’ll just leave. I have no interest in your talk.”

“My, my, you really are quite the talkative one.” He started to walk forward towards Haruo. There was still a casual step in his movements. He was only warming up. Katsu towered over Haruo’s short stature. A wicked grin still plastered on his face. “No warm greeting to an old friend that you haven’t seen in years?”

Haruo kept his stance not intimidated. There might have been fear in him when he was younger facing Katsu, but not anymore. “You were never a friend. I don’t owe you anything.”

“Such sharp words, kid! You should be glad that your skinny friend over there got me in a good mood.”

“What do you want, Katsu? I’m tired of your indirectness.”

“And you’ve got an attitude to boot. My those years in junior high really must have changed you.” Katsu patted Haruo’s head before roughing up his hair a little rigidly to try to shake him. “I remember when you were just a little brat that feared my very voice.” He could see that he was not getting anything out of Haruo. There was not even a hint of anger for being mocked. ‘He’s just staring back with those defiant eyes. He’s actually making me angry that he’s not doing anything!’

“I’m not the same child you used to know, Katsu. Nor am I the same person your friends saw a short while ago.” Haruo gave him a fierce look standing toe-to-toe with his previous tyrant.

Katsu stared back almost in amazement. ‘That’s not the same defiant look I beat down when he left. That’s not the same eyes that Takaoka gets his practice hits in on. What’s gotten into him?’ The sight of him only made Katsu more confused the longer he thought. It had set a fire to his anger tempting it to become a boil.

The air between the two suddenly changed as though their mere proximity was freezing the air. It was cold and empty leaving no room for anything else. Wind dared not to trespass around them. The casual mood from Katsu had utterly vanished with the intent being clear from Haruo.

Katsu stepped to the side of Haruo like he was sizing up his prey. “Your scrawny friend over there is correct,” opened Katsu. He started his way back toward his gang of boys. “I’ve come here hearing that someone came to rescue you from my boys’ practice. That was something I had to see for myself.”

“What are you getting at? You came for your revenge on the one that beat up your gang.”

“That part is true as I said. However, I can easily send people to deal with a simple matter like that.”

Haruo’s eyes narrowed in growing confusion. Evasiveness wasn’t a usual tactic of his. It had been years since Haruo had seen Katsu so he had to grant the possibility that Katsu had done some changing of his own. “So you didn’t come here to fight?”

Laughter burst from Katsu’s lungs upon hearing Haruo speak. He turned his head back over his shoulder to glance at Haruo. “No, I came to put your face into the ground. That you can be assured of. I wouldn’t come out all this way and not leave without making sure of that. But I have to admit some curiosity to see who this person is that came to your aid. You, the most anti-social, loner and pariah in the entire city, finding a friend.”

Katsu turned around, playing up the motion a little dramatically for everyone. “That!” He had pointed over to Yuki, who had serious eyes now. “I had to see. Just so that I knew what it was that I was going to be taking away from you. So that I might see those beautiful defiant gray eyes of yours finally fall into despair!”

Haruo remained quiet after Katsu finished making his proclamation. Yuki, however, couldn’t remain still listening to the ravings coming from him. “Damn…you really see yourself as the villain don’t you? You’re nearly a cliché!” He stepped forward a little, putting himself barely behind Haruo’s right side.

The comments from Yuki caught Katsu’s attention, making him smirk a little to see some backbone from Yuki. “I know what I want. It’s simple as that, kid.”

Yuki could see that the rest of the teenagers looked antsy. They looked ready to start something with only Katsu’s word to be given. However it seemed that they were even reaching the edge of their patience. The taste for blood was in their eyes like a mad animal. “We have to do something now, Haruo! The guy’s made it pretty clear what he plans on doing!”

“Enough talking.” He took his position directly in front of Yuki to keep him to his back. “You’ve come here because of me. So leave him out of this.”

“I don’t believe there’s ever been a point when you told me what to do, kid! And today isn’t any different!” Katsu motioned to his boys giving them the signal.

The boys that hadn’t been beaten up by Yuki were the first to move. They were fresh and undaunted. Those boys that had been the receiving end of Yuki’s attacks were hesitant in making a move. Their waiting caused two groups to be unintentionally formed. In the attacking group, there were five boys all looking as rough and experienced in street fighting as the rest. They stalked in towards Haruo as he made sure to keep himself at the center of attention.

Haruo steeled himself to prepare for the assault that was coming for him. “Don’t you make a move,” called Haruo over his shoulder to Yuki.

“What?! You can’t be serious, Haruo! There’s too many for you to deal with alone!” Yuki ignored what Haruo asked of him, but for being so large he proved to be agile enough to prevent him from doing anything useful. “Haruo!”

“I don’t need your help. I’m doing this alone.” There was no more time for talk as the five boys broke into a charge once they finished fanning out. Haruo firmly planted his feet into the earth trying to form the strongest position. The number of fights he had been on the wrong side of gave him an eye for judging attacks. However, he knew with Yuki making things difficult for him that dodging wasn’t going to be an option. Haruo lifted up his left arm to deflect the outstretched arm.

The group was forced to space their attacks, giving Haruo the timing to block each swing. Frustrated by failure, the boys kept close to him taking turns with kicks or punches with little success. Haruo managed to keep them from making any progress against him and slowly convinced Yuki to calm down.

Once Yuki backed away a little it gave Haruo even more room to work his defense. He blocked two high kicks coming in together that tried to throw him. While he focused on the two boys in front the other three surrounded him from behind. They came in sequence charging with their fists to his hopeful blindside.

Haruo noticed their absence. He turned to meet the first boy head on grabbing his fist. The boy became surprised and was taken off guard. His body followed forward in shock, jerking his arm at the elbow. The other two came up after crashing into the boy causing more damage to themselves than Haruo.

Unfortunately, a successful block by Haruo wasn't enough momentum. The two boys that he had just stopped before were now behind him. These two took advantage of Haruo’s weakened position to lay into his back attempting to drop him quickly. One of the boys let loose with a flurry of punches to his shoulder blades and backbone while the other jabbed with his feet in the back of his knee.

Haruo’s well built body took the blows and buckled a little under the pain, but remained until he could escape with a well timed side jump. Their failures only further enraged them, forgetting completely that Yuki was still present. These teenage gang members weren’t nearly as used to dealing with someone like Haruo as Takaoka’s group. It gave Haruo the advantage.

Katsu watched in annoyance seeing that Haruo was holding his own against five of his boys. “Hey Taka! Thought you said he never puts up a fight.”

Takaoka jerked his head over to Katsu in surprise. “Yea, I donno what’s goin’ on with ‘em, boss. The most he ev’ does is dodge us. I’ve ne’er seen him defend himself.”

“Hmm…” Katsu looked behind him down towards the end of the grass street. He lifted up his hand and snapped his finger giving a signal to unseen gang members. “Always good to have insurance.” Once they were in motion Katsu whistled to the group of boys trying to fight Haruo. The sharp piercing tune was enough to interrupt everyone bringing a pause to the fighting.

Yuki narrowed his eyes trying to figure out what Katsu’s plan was. In the distance, he could see a few figures walking towards them. He was half expecting some brute of a fighter that was supposed to turn the fight around for them. However, his guess proved to be misplaced when he saw a man in his late twenties or early thirties being escorted by three teenage punks. ‘I’m not liking where this is going…’

Haruo caught a glimpse of the figures walking up to the rear of the mob of boys. His eyes immediately widened the moment he saw the man. “Mr. Asanuma…”

Katsu allowed himself a wicked grin and brief laugh. “Don’t think that I don’t know about you. You might have thought you were free from me, but you never were. And now that weakness in you will be your undoing. I’d suggest stopping your defense if you don’t want to see this man come to harm.”