My Enigmatic Life

   We're still looking for a place to get some food from. So far everywhere that we've checked out is packed. 

"Geez, why is everyone eating out today?"

Takai complains about the current situation. 

"Maybe we ought to go to Teru's place.", Gege suggests, "I mean, we always get a discount when we eat there anyway."

Teru's, eh? It's a bit of a long walk, though. But the rice bowls there are second to none. 

"Oi! Daisuke!"

"Hm?"

Someone's calling out to me. The five of us turn in the direction of the voice to see a bloke with a mohawk. Who the hell is that? 

"I've been looking for you! Boss wants to see you!"

Boss? What's he waffling about? 

"Daisuke, do you know that guy?", Akai asks.

"No. This is the first time I've seen him."

"Right, let's ignore him then.", Naoya adds.

"Alright."

Disregarding the stranger, we continue on our way to Teru's. Or at least, we attempted to. Because the mohawk bloke grabs me firmly by the shoulder and turns me around. 

"Oi! Don't ignore me da- GUH!?!?"

Before he could finish, Takai promptly gives him a sock to the jaw. Ouch.

"Oi, oi. You tryin' to start a fight, dumbass?", Takai asks threateningly.

I hope not. I've been getting into too many scuffles recently, and I'm already fed-up with it. 

"Just because we're from a well to do school doesn't mean we can't throw hands.", Naoya smirks, cracking his knuckles. 

Let's take it easy, now. The five of us have a clean slate at school as well behaved students, let's not soil it for one idiot. Speaking of idiot, the mohawk finally recovers from Takai's punch and begins to yell even louder than he was before. 

"COME ON! DON'T YOU REMEMBER?! IT'S ME, YOSHI!"

"Who?!", Takai retorts.

"YOU WANNA GO PUNK?!"

That's pretty tough talk coming from the fellah who just got punched in the face. 

"Hold on, I remember you now! You're one of that bastard Saito's goons!"

Akai seems to recognize him...Ah! He was one of the hooligans the I fought with that started this whole mess. I don't see how I could forget that very audible voice of his.

"About time you figured it out! Now follow me, Daisuke!"

"Heck no.", Naoya says abruptly. 

"What?! Why not?!"

"What does he want to see Govvy here for?"

"He wants to talk with him, of course!"

Talk? Whatever for? Does he want a re-match or something? 

"I don't trust it, I'm coming along."

"Like hell!"

Gege gets in-between Yoshi and I, yawning. 

"You all are probably trying to lure Daisuke into a trap. If so, we're not going to allow it to happen."

"That's right. We'd be stupid to leave him in your care after what happened before." , Akai agrees.

"Yeah. If Daisuke is going, then we're going too.", Takai nods. 

Huh. Despite them taking the piss out of me earlier, this lot is ready to stand up for me this quickly. I guess that how it is when you have true friends. 

"Well, Yoshi, you heard them." , I say finally, "If I go, they go. What will it be?"

Yoshi stews in his thoughts for a while, grumbling to himself. 

"Alright, damn it! The Boss saw something like this coming, anyway!"

"So why did you argue with us then?", I say in exasperation.

 

   Yoshi leads us to a shabby looking building all the way on the other side of town, and it was a long walk at that. Whatever it is that Saito wants to talk about, it had better be important. 

"The Boss is in here!", Yoshi yells unnecessarily.

"Holy shit, man! Do you ever stop shouting?!", Takai angrily retorts.

"HOW CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT SHOUTING WHEN YOU'RE DOING IT AS WELL?!?!"

"I'M ONLY SHOUTING BECAUSE YOU'RE PISSING ME OFF!!!"

"WILL THE BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP?!?!", Naoya bellows. 

"May we please go in now? My ears are getting sore."

Gege's plea breaks up the tiff between Takai and Yoshi, the latter of the two leading us into the building. Now inside, I can see that this place is a restaurant. I'm surprised that I could discern that, though. It's almost pitch black in here. 

"Yo, Daisuke. It's nice to see ya again. Come this way and have a seat."

That's Saito's voice. Peering through the darkness, I can just make out his figure. Doing as he says, we make our way to the back of the restaurant where he was sat.

"So, how are ya? Is school going well?"

"We didn't come here for small talk, idiot. What do you want?", Naoya replies shortly. 

Saito folds his arms and shrugs.

"Geez, so rude. I'll be getting to that. But first, do ya want to something to eat? We sell burgers here."

"I'm sorry, but why would anyone take food from you?", I ask curiously.

Saito leans back into the booth.

"Come on, Daisuke. I'm aware that ya don't know me all that well, but do ya really think that I would resort to under-handed tactics?"

That's a fair point. Our quintet exchange glances, and nod at each other in agreement. 

"Alright, how much is it?"

We decide to take up his offer. After all, we are hungry. 

"It's on the house. It would be in bad taste to make ya pay when I'm about to give you some bad news."

That's comforting. I need more of that in my life right now. 

"You're too kind. Naoya doesn't eat meat like that, so you'll have to make him something else."

Saito snaps his fingers, and immediately a clamouring starts up in the kitchens.

"Firstly, do you happen to be familiar with the name Ren, Daisuke?"

"Ren? No, not at all."

Saito nods. All of a sudden, he's gotten rather serious, he's even begun to speak differently. 

"Alright, let me re-phrase my question. Did you ever have run in with a shady looking dude wearing a hoodie?"

My interest is suddenly piqued at that question. How does he know about that?

"Yeah..I met someone that fits that delineation. Why do you ask?"

Saito now leans forward, he's almost unseated at this point. 

"Ren was found dead the other day, in an absolutely grisly state. I hope that you had nothing to do with it."

Beside me, I can feel Akai fidgeting. Of course, he feels nervous about what was just said. I don't blame him, I'm starting to feel more apprehensive as this conversation continues. The rest of our quintet stare at us, obviously taken aback by Saito's claim. 

"Not directly, no. He and I did get into a scuffle, but the one who so viciously murdered him was Akane."

"WHAT?!?"

Naoya, Gege and Takai exclaim their collective shock, meanwhile, Saito simply seems confused. 

"Akane? Who's that?"

Akai, who was entirely silent up to this point, barks furiously at him.

"She's my sister! The one who you and your goons used to capture Yoko!"

Saito's eyes widen in surprise. 

"Her? There's no way.", he says in disbelief.

"You bet there is. She could probably beat most of us here."

Saito muses on my words for a moment, then he continues where he left off. 

"Well, whatever. The one who your girlfriend killed was a member of a gang under the head of a guy called Shade. It seems like he found out about our fight and took interest in you."

"Interest in Govvy? What for?", Naoya asks.

"He probably considers Daisuke here as a possible threat. But now he's certainly going to come after him now that one of his men is dead."

Fantastic. Now I have someone else who wants to fight me. Or maybe even worse, wants to kill me. 

"Gege, have you ever heard about this bloke before?", I query.

"Not at all.", Gege replies, shaking his head. 

That's surprising, Gege usually knows a lot about criminal activity in the area. This Shade person must be rather low-key. 

"Here you go."

Our burgers are here, and Lord have mercy, they are huge. We definitely won't be hungry after these. And they actually listened to me and got Naoya a veggie burger.

"Listen to me, Daisuke. Your best course of action is to leave Japan and never come back. Shade's crew is ten times bigger than mine, and I've heard that a majority of them have magical abilities like yourself."

My mouth is too full for me to reply, but people with magic are on his side? That's great. 

"His power is overwhelming. I can recall when I first encountered him a few years ago, even before his gang was as large as it is now. It was a humbling, no, frightening experience. I didn't stand a chance..... I couldn't even touch the bastard! And when he finally finished thoroughly smacking me about, he told me that I wasn't even worth killing....."

Even now that I swallowed my food, I still couldn't bring myself to talk. As a matter of fact, the entirety of the restaurant fell  eerily silent. Saito's attitude was one that unfamiliar to me up to now, and that alone was enough to instill some trepidation in me. 

"No offense meant, Daisuke, but you don't stand a chance in hell against him. You need to run, before it's too late.", he says quietly. 

After Saito finished his monologue, I lean back and fold my arms. Closing my eyes, ruminating for a bit, and I finally make my decision.

"Nah, I'll pass on that."

"EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH?!?!?"

After being as silent as lamb, the restaurant unanimously breaks the silence. It's rather impressive sounding, frankly. 

"Oi, Govvy. Did you get hit in bloody head again?", Naoya asks incredulously. 

"You have to be joking, right?!", Takai asks. 

"Daisuke, you really need to think this through, buddy.", Akai suggests.

"Yeah, this isn't something to take lightly.", Gege adds.

I'm glad that they're all so concerned, but I'm sticking with my choice. 

"Hear me out, you lot, running away fixes nothing. Because what's stopping him from attacking you guys and everyone else I care about who lives here."

Silence befell the restaurant once again. They seemingly have nothing to say in return. 

"So my only choice is to fight back. Not to just protect myself, but you all as well.", I say, determined.

Naoya recovers first.

"Right! Then I'll be there to help you, Govvy!"

"Me too, Daisuke", Akai joins in.

"Takai and I aren't anywhere near you guy's levels in terms of fighting ability, but we'll help out however we can as well."

"Yeah!"

I know I said this already, but it feels good to have such true friends. Although, Naoya is my cousin, but never mind the little details now.

Saito snaps out of his reverie, and begins to laugh refreshingly. It seems like he's back to his usual self again. 

"Ya guys are hella strange! I like it! I wish you luck on this suicide mission, you're going to need it."

Yeah, I'm sure we will. 

(Yoko's POV)

In absolute silence, I stare off into open space, waiting patiently for the skeet thrower to launch the clay pigeons. In a moment's notice, it fires off a volley of them at high speed. Swiftly, I withdraw my shurikens from my weapons bag and hurl them at the clay pigeons, successfully making contact with all five of them.

"That's good enough for now."

Besides, the machine has already run out anyway. I put it away in the storage shed, and leave. 

So far, I've completely mastered throwing my weapons, thanks in part to my late Grandpa's teachings. When Aniki, Naoya-nii and I used to go spear fishing with him, he told us that we should always aim slightly ahead of a moving target. And it seems as though that advice of his was accurate. 

"Eheheheh....Accurate."

I'm so weird, why am I laughing all to myself? Anyway, it's strange to not see master around at his house, I wonder where he went?

Having returned home, and taking a shower, I'm now helping mum set the table for dinner, whlist everyone else preoccupied themselves with something.

"That's odd, Naoya and Govvy-chan aren't here yet."

Mum voices her surprise at Aniki's and Naoya-nii's unusual behaviour. 

"Don't fret too much, love. They're young boys, after all. They're probably just larking about with their mates.", Dad replies dismissively.

That's true. I'm not going to be one of those girls who doesn't want to their boyfriend to hang out with his friends. I'm willing to wager that Ms.Chikara is like that, though. The crazy broad. Although, I don't have the right to talk about being a bit loony.

"Yeah, but the fact that they'd even slightly close to being late for dinner is a shock.", Aoi-nee mutters, her nose burying in a copy of The History Of Art.

"But I made my special French Onion soup with garlic bread..."

Mum pouts like a spoiled child. It's honestly quite cute. Dad can only laugh at her indignation, and Yuno and Yuuma join in.

.....They're almost here. I can sense Aniki's and Naoya-nii's mana. And sure enough, in just a couple minutes-

"We're back."

"Talk of the devil! We were just talking about you two!", Dad exclaims. 

"Sorry for being late. We lost track of the time.", Aniki apologises.

"Yeah, sorry about that. What are you cooking up, mum?"

"French Onion soup, Nao-chan~~~!"

"WOOOOOOO!!!!"

Naoya-nii and Aniki simultaneously yell in jubilation, making all of us jump.

"Oi, let's get ready quickly, Govvy!"

"Right!"

The both of them dash off to the bathroom. 

"Those two are absolute prats...", Aoi-nee grumbles, picking up her book from off the floor. 

"I like it!", Yuuma grins.

"Me too!", Yuno agrees.

Dad, once again, erupts into laughter. 

"Yoko, come here for a tick."

Aniki calls me over to him. I go to the guest room and he closes the door behind me. He suddenly leans into me and gets close. Really, really close. 

*BA-DUMP*

My heart-beat steadily increases, and my face gets hot.

"Aniki.... I love this assertiveness, but this isn't the time right now...", I say shyly. 

Aniki whispers in his usual deep, low voice. 

"I need a favour, see. I want you to introduce Naoya and I to your teacher."

At first, I couldn't say anything... then I finally make my reply. 

"Eh?"

Although, it really wasn't that articulate.