The entire field ran still for a moment when Yuki revealed himself out of the shadows. The three boys that had been taken out moaned about in the grass. Mr. Asanuma ran away from everything. The stunning reversal of the situation left everyone confused.
Takaoka looked across the grass field utterly confused. He could see Yuki smirking a few steps away from Katsu. However, there was Yuki at his feet, bruised and beaten in the dirt. The other teens with him looked around at each other trying to figure out the two Yukis that were present. “Which one’s the real one?”
One of the boys kicked the Yuki lying on the ground. There was a groan from Yuki as he took the blow and coughed from the pain. “Uh, this one, boss?”
“He must be real!”
“Yea, he screams when hurt!”
“And we can kick ‘im!”
Doubt built in Takaoka as he stared longer. “Then how’d he take out our boys?” He stared over at the other Yuki seeing their hostage disappearing out of sight. “It doesn’t make any sense!”
“Maybe he has a twin?” one of the punks suggested.
Takaoka reached out and whacked him in the head for such a stupid idea. “Idiot!”
“Maybe they’re both real, boss!”
“It’s a trick…I know it!” Takaoka clenched his fist in frustration for being made a fool of. He became so distracted in his questions that he didn’t immediately hear a punch being thrown behind him. It took him till the second punch and a groan from one of his boys to alert him. Takaoka turned around quickly. “What the—“ Yuki’s fist interrupted him before he could finish his stupid question forcing him back a few steps to catch his balance.
The Yuki that had been on the ground took the time spared to him to recover enough to return to the fight. And since he was no longer restrained by the hostage there was no holding back. “You should talk less and fight more! It makes you look stupid!”
“Bastard!” Takaoka charged back into the fray with Yuki. The remaining members of his gang regrouped to assist him.
Chapter 80 – Tricks Revealed
The standoff with Katsu and Yuki held with Katsu’s smug look having disappeared with his hostage. The kid was making a fool of him and his gang. A fact that started a slow burn in his body. Mounting frustration at his plan falling apart tightening his hands. He was very much beginning to hate the cocky arrogance of Yuki. “What sort of mockery is this?”
“Oh! Mockery, huh? Pulling out the big vocabulary for me.” Yuki carefully watched the scene and the surroundings, specifically Haruo. It seemed that once Haruo realized that his teacher was safe the beating stopped. The fight had evened out. “Guess that’s why you make the big bucks as the villain, huh?”
Katsu ground his teeth together, shifting his jaw in anger. “You’ve got quite the mouth on yourself…kid…”
Yuki grinned, looking like he was enjoying the moment. “I seem to remember you enjoying a lively banter!”
“So what are you?” Katsu demanded, trying to steer the conversation back. He narrowed his eyes trying to find any hint of what might be the truth behind what he did.
“Me? I’m complicated.”
“That was more than a simple illusion.”
“You’re right there.” Yuki raised up his hand with his index finger extended like he was checking the man a correct answer. “Do you want to know?”
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It made Katsu think for a moment as he got a piece of the puzzle to Yuki. There was only one answer. “Are you one of those people with special powers that I’ve been hearing about?”
The clapping of Yuki’s hands punctuated the tension building in the air. “You’re close. But if you think I’ve just gained my powers recently like everyone else then you’re mistaken.”
“Now you’re lying kid! It wasn’t until this city got turned into hell along with the country that people got powers.”
Yuki shook his head back and forth slowly like he was disappointed in the man. “You shouldn’t be calling people’s liars when you don’t understand everything.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Let’s just say I was carrying the hand basket.”
“Huh?”
Yuki’s hand waved dismissively at Katsu. “It’s of little importance to you.” He might have been making light of the situation, but Yuki struggled with the words. A snap of his thoughts redirected his concentration to get his mind off the subject. “You wanted to know how I did that little trick, right?” Yuki read the grinding of teeth from Katsu to see that had the tension wound tightly. “How about I do it in the form of a flashback!”
Katsu's eyes had widened in surprise. He was taken off guard by the sudden change in mood from Yuki. “No! Anything but that!” There was a moment of Katsu having broken out of his character looking unusually ridiculous, but he corrected himself. “Besides…it’d be a little strange to have a flashback of a minute ago.”
Pretending to be absent minded, Yuki had looked up to the sky to think about what Katsu said. He turned back down, pulling away his hand that he was using to think from his face. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Who’d do a flashback of a minute ago, that is pretty silly. Well then guess we’ll just have to talk it out.” Yuki grinned at Katsu.
Yuki pointed across the grass street at Takaoka and his gang that tried to fight the other Yuki. “It was because of your gang over there, you should thank them. You see, they were really easy to provoke.” He recalled the beating that he took from Takaoka before. “I had a plan, but in order for it to work I needed to create a lot of confusion so they weren’t concentrating too hard. I wanted to swap myself out with a fake, but doing it while being held down would have been very difficult to pull off unnoticed.
“It happened when I was kicked by your villain wannabe over there. So while I hit the grass and they thought I was just tumbling about I activated my power. I put a stand in for myself while I turned invisible.”
Katsu wasn’t like the story time by Yuki. He had figured Yuki for being an idiot kid with talent in fighting. He didn’t like hearing that he was able to conceive a plan and execute it perfectly while being attacked. There was one problem though he had with the story. “Even if you’re invisible I would have seen the grass moving as you approached! It doesn’t add up!”
Another disappointing, doubting click came from Yuki. He let out a small sigh. “How disappointing, thinking so flat. Bet you’re used to fighting in dark alleys and large fields. So cliché…” Yuki moved his hand to point over towards the property walls that bordered the street. “It’s pretty simple to avoid being seen if you’re not on the ground.
“Can’t see things behind you very well. After that it was pretty easy to do the rest, especially with the good timing by the old man. Figured I was just going to have to take them out myself, didn’t think I’d be able to use you to take out your own men. But thanks for the hand!”
His self control was the only thing keeping him from launching into a full rage-charged attack. “I don’t care if you make a fool of my boys, but making a fool out of me…”
“Is pretty easy to do!” finished Yuki, not letting up from his taunting of the gang boss. He adjusted himself a little for his footing and got into a fighting stance once more. Yuki wanted to finish this off and end their reign. “Done with the Q&A! It’s time to see if you’re any good with someone that fights back!” He charged forward quickly on Katsu over taking him to land a clean hit in the cheek.
The gang members in the street paused for a moment in shock to see their boss being knocked down by the kid. The reversal in the situation shook their resolve. Haruo wasn’t making it any easier to land any further hits. Takaoka’s group continued in confused frustration in their own uncertainty of who it was that they were dealing with.
Katsu began to recover from the blow he had taken. He sat in the grass, but wiped away the little blood from his split lip that Yuki gave him. A healthy bruise started to be colored on his cheek from Yuki’s fist. “That the best you got kid?” He started to rise up getting to his feet to dust himself off. The punch seemed to cool off some of the steam.
Yuki narrowed his eyes, beginning to read the situation for his next move. “I see you’ve got your talk back. I’d be a little disappointed if that was all a big gang boss had in him.” He shifted his weight and moved his position keeping an eye on his target. “But don’t worry. That was only a warm-up. I haven’t even gotten serious yet!”
“Oh? I guess I’ll treat that as my good fortune.” His eyes darted to his sides quickly examining the surroundings. “But you really shouldn’t have.”
“Why’s that?”
Shadows from behind Yuki had burst out from the grass, taking hold of his arms and applied pressure to his neck. It was the three boys that had been holding Mr. Asanuma hostage. They looked a little worse for wear, but still had plenty of fight in them. “Because that’s why. You shouldn’t hold anything back in a fight. You should go straight for the kill immediately without hesitation, kid!”
Yuki struggled against his captors, but it was the tight hold of the arm wrapped around his neck firmly that made it nearly impossible. Every move he attempted to make only caused him to cough and choke. “And only a coward needs to hold down their opponent to fight.”
Katsu laughed heartily at Yuki for his spirit. “It makes sure cowards don’t run away.”
“You shouldn’t talk so badly about yourself.”
“Hrmph, still got that cocky attitude, kid. You need a lesson in knowing fear!”
A dark grin pulled up on Yuki’s face as he thought back to his past three weeks. “Let’s just say compared to what I’ve experienced this is a summer afternoon stroll on the beach.” He connected his eyes with Katsu feeding him the honest deep gaze that read volumes of what he had been through. They only needed one look to see how serious he was.
“You talk a good game, kid,” the adult bluffed, trying not to be unsettled by the glare. “However, I’ve got something to show you. My own secret.”
‘I’m not sure if I like the sound of that…’ Yuki worked on his arms to try to free them from the hold of the two boys. He had to prepare for whatever Katsu could be planning. They were past the point of boasting with empty threats. Yuki could tell that he had something serious planned.
Katsu took a step forward, closing the distance between them. “You see I wasn’t entirely honest about something before.”
“I’m crushed…”
“When I said I had heard about those people with special powers…” Suddenly the wind picked up around Katsu and the area around him. All of the grass rolled over waving in the gusts that were coming out of him. A distortion in the air began to appear around Katsu almost like a haze from heat. “I forgot to mention that I happen to be one of them!”
Yuki could only widen his eyes in shock as he felt a pain in his left shoulder burst. Soon a spray of blood arched into the air from the wound despite nothing having touched him.