I take a closer look at the wall with pictures of previous members, and notice one in particular. The image itself is actually a cut out of a newspaper, worn out slightly and only in black and white. It is a picture of a muscular man in his 30s alongside a woman that, in many ways, reminded me of myself. But what stands out the most isn't the picture, it's the plaque below giving the member's name.

Doryoko Tsurai.

I quickly grab the picture and try to pull it down from the wall to get a closer look but...

"OOF!!"

For some reason, it's stuck!

"NNNNNNNnnnnn!!!"

"Um, Sueka?" Ripperu asks. "What are you doing?"

"NNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!"

"AAA!!!" I hear Claire yell. "Please don't...!!!"

SSSSUUUPPPAAAA!!!!!

"AAAA!!!" I scream...

As I rip off the entire wall.

BBBAAATTTAAANNNN!!!!!

A few seconds after they get out from under the fallen wall, I get up and sit down with the removed picture in my hands.

"Wow..." says Ripperu. "That was...SO COOL!!!"

"Cool! Cool!" Seppe repeats. "Do it again!"

"IT'S NOT COOL IF YOU'RE THE ONE WHO HAS TO FIX IT!!" Tamashi yells back.

"Sorry..." I sheepishly apologize.

"Geez. If the picture doesn't come off easily, assume it's connected to the wall!"

"I...didn't think about that..."

(Just how much of an airhead is this girl?) Tamashi thinks.

Tamashi starts to lift the wall by himself while Yuri sweeps up all the fallen debris. As soon as the wall is back in place, Tamashi and Ripperu begin repairs, nailing wooden planks retrieved by Crystal around the edges in order to make it stand. A temporary fix, I know. I helped repair buildings in Terraz in the past. I walk over and start helping by holding the wall in place with one hand with the picture in the other.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Why go to all this trouble?" Claire asks over my shoulder.

"Is this picture...of Doryoko Tsurai of Terraz?"

Tamashi stops hammering.

"You know him?" he asks.

"Do you know my father?"

.....

"WWWWHHHHAAAATTTTT!?!?!?"

?

"Waitwaitwaitwait!!!!" Tamashi begins to ramble. "I know your full name, but I didn't know you were his... Oh, but I should have seen this, you look just like her!"

"Huh?" asks Seppe in confusion, with her ahoge in the shape of a question mark.

"Her?" I say. "You mean this woman in the picture?"

(You'd think she would have put it together by now... Then again...she is her daughter.) Tamashi thinks.

Tamashi lets out a sigh.

"I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. Given the circumstances, I doubt you would have ever known her."

I look at Tamashi with great interest, expecting a story. I can see that I'm making him uncomfortable, but I'm just too curious.

"Alright, where to begin... Before I joined the Keisetsu, I was a professional boxer with a perfect record with the nickname..."

"Please skip your boring life story and get to the good part!" Ripperu blurts out, as if reading my mind.

Tamashi lets out another sigh. He then continues his story while repairing the wall.

"My first loss was actually against your father, Doryoko, who, at the time, was working undercover to defeat one of the contenders in the tournament we were fighting in. The last official fight that day, which wasn't the final round, was actually between him and the woman you see in the picture. I only knew her first name. Dahlia. Before this final round, she beat Doryoko's target with her furious temper and amazing animal tone strength. But before the match officially ended, the target attempted to steal the prize and used Dahlia's coach as a hostage. However, Doryoko planned ahead and managed to foil the target's plan, allowing for him and Dahlia to give the enemy what was coming to them. It was the first time I've seen teamwork so magnificent."

I look back down at the picture. In the background, I can barely see what looks like somebody in a full-body cast.

"I'll go get some more boards." Yuri says, stepping towards the door.

"I then spoke to Doryoko after the match, and was introduced to the Keisetsu alongside Dahlia. Though Dahlia didn't join the Keisetsu as I did, she stuck around, and she and Doryoko became sparring partners. At least, it started off that way. They went from rivals to close friends, friends to lovers, then lovers to spouses."

!!

"Not long after their marriage, Dahlia... I'm sorry, could you please plug Seppe's ears, Crystal."

"Aaahhh..." Seppe whines. "Seppe wants to hear, too."

In spite of this, Crystal puts her hands over Seppe's ears.

"Soon after, Dahlia became pregnant. Those were the months that Doryoko and Dahlia seemed to be the happiest. However, Dahlia died in childbirth, leaving Doryoko to raise his newborn daughter without a mother."

"I can tell by your facial expression that you already know. That child was you, Sueka."

I look to Tamashi, then back to the picture again.

(How come father never told me! I mean, I knew mother died when I was born, but I never knew of anything before then!)

"Doryoko thought that raising you amidst the Keisetsu wouldn't be the best decision, so he soon retired from his position and relocated to Terraz, where he stayed ever since. He thought...it's what Dahlia would've wanted. I assume that he didn't tell you any of this so that you wouldn't get mixed up in the Keisetsu's personal struggles. Even so, he still kept in contact with us on occasion, which is why some of the younger members here knew of him. He was actually quite famous here, as one of the top 10 fighters during his time, when there were about five times as many of us!"

Looking back, father seemed to know a little about the Keisetsu. That Mydrea girl seemed to know him, at least.

"You know, you're the spitting image of your mother." Tamashi continues.

"Really?"

"Mhm. Looking back on it, she did the same thing to this very wall, though not for a family portrait. Though you're younger than she was when I met her, I think you'll grow up to look just like Dahlia. Sure, your hair is longer, but you've got her face, eyes, and hair color, along with her fair skin...ballistics...and...'ballistics'."

(Plus, she wasn't very bright either...) Tamashi thinks. (Not to mention how overly attached she was to Doryoko. And to think this wall was meant to be "Dahlia-proof", yet Sueka ripped it off so easily!)

I look up from the picture and ask, "Why did you become a Keisetsu member?"

...

"Originally, I came for the same reason as Dahlia; to fight Doryoko and get stronger. However, when Doryoko left, I quit boxing because I couldn't find the right motivation anymore. But, by that time, I've done enough missions to put together what made Doryoko fight so well. With every mission, there was something on the line. In tournaments, like real life, there are wins and losses. But in the Keisetsu, I was fighting for more than myself. There was much more at stake. I couldn't afford to lose in either arena, so I chose to stay, even when my idol left. Also, I'm hoping to find something that will give me the same motivation that Dahlia did for Doryoko."

...

"HEY GUYS!!!" Yuri yells rushing back into the room. "Yamiso's fighting Oren!!"