Chapter 29 - One February Morning

Hanno-gawara riverbank, Hanno City

"Where is this guy?" Hideki is slowly losing his patience.

He has been waiting for almost 30 minutes already at the sandy and icy riverbank.

While he is surrounded by fresh air, and the sound of the small river flowing, he cannot enjoy them as he hated being in nature in the first place. Adding to his irritation is the early morning February winter breeze making him shiver every few minutes.

He would have left long ago had he not been promised fifty thousand yen by the person who sent him a letter asking for the meeting and some money along with the letter which he used to travel from Tokyo.

"I'm here, Hideki." Hideki is almost startled and he turns around to find the person he is least expecting.

"Fumio…" He cannot believe it.

Fumio, wearing an even fancier kimono and hakama than the one he saw Fumio wear last time, is standing just a few steps away from him, looking healthy.

Hideki gets over his surprise however and a mocking smile spread to his face.

"So. The useless dog is more resilient than I thought." He says to Fumio in scorn.

"Useless dog? Heh." Fumio scoffs, before, "Who knew the high and mighty Hideki is willing to travel all the way here just for a few bucks? HAHAHA!", descending into a ridiculing laughter.

"It was you?" Hideki's face crumples at the realization and he is feeling more than slighted.

"I don't know how you lived when I left you for dead, but you should have just stayed in hiding, you vermin." He then charges to Fumio with a kick.

Fumio's ridiculing smirk freezes, but he immediately realizes that he can now see Hideki's movements clearly compared to five months ago. His ridiculing smirk transforms to an excited grin as he dodges Hideki's kick.

Hideki is caught by surprise by how easy Fumio dodged. Him also being unable to recover his footing from the momentum is taken advantage of by Fumio and he receives a kick on the back of his head.

The two are surprised by the exchange. Hideki is surprised because this is the first time Fumio ever landed an impactful hit on him, and Fumio is surprised at how quick he acted and how easy it was to land a hit.

Hideki immediately gets over his aching head and he becomes cautious. Instead of attacking, he is now waiting for Fumio to make the move.

Seeing that Hideki has gone defensive, Fumio charges with calculated steps to initiate the attack. Using the power of his waist and shoulders, he throws a simple, but quick and snappy straight punch to Hideki's face.

"!" Hideki is alarmed at the speed of Fumio and he steps aside in panic.

His dodging is too slow however and *smack* Fumio's punch lands to his face forcing him to take a few steps back. While the force of the punch is considerably cut down due to his attempt of dodging, it is still enough to rock him.

Fumio, instead of continuing to attack, stops in his steps in confusion.

'It's not supposed to be this easy…'

He looks at Hideki who is trying his best to recover.

'Was my punch that strong?'

"F*ck… Who are you?" Hideki takes Fumio out of his thoughts.

"What? You know who I am." Fumio says, finding the question ridiculous.

"No. You're not that useless dog. So, who are you?" Hideki asks again.

This offends Fumio and he charges forward once again.

Before Hideki can react, *smack* *smack* a two-punch combo lands on his gut and his chest.

"Ugh…" Hideki is forced to bend over in the pain of his organs being rocked, and he hastily hops away from Fumio in awkward steps. Fumio then goes in pursuit to maintain his attacking range.

"What? Cousin. Are you that surprised that a 'useless dog' is fighting back that you'd rather not believe it?" Hideki hears Fumio's voice before *thud* receiving a blow on his back, making his body slam to the ground.

"I-it's not possible." He says as he struggles to stand back up.

"This offends me, cousin. I spent five painful months training just for this day. All I receive is your disbelief? It feels unfair." Fumio says.

"It's just not possible! Who are you!" Hideki yells in frustration, feeling that he is being played with.

"Heh-heh… You always stepped on me back in the clan because you hated me being better at the clan's martial arts than you." Fumio bitterly chuckles.

Hideki, hearing Fumio's words, is forced to realize that the man in front of him, while a bit more muscular than the man should be, is indeed Fumio.

The carefully executed Hasegawa footwork 3 Fumio used to charge forward, the Hasegawa style Karate which Fumio used to land three hits on him, reminds him of the old Fumio.

The old Fumio's martial foundation which he looked down on because they were useless in the non-superiori's hands, is now lethal in the hands of the changed Fumio.

"Are you not going to fight back?" Hideki is pulled out from his thoughts by Fumio's question.

Hideki however does not know how to answer, and is not even planning on attacking.

"Come on. Where's that strong Hideki who made the non-superiori members of the clan tremble in fear?" Fumio starts walking in a circle around Hideki. "Where's that mighty Hideki who always made me submit to him?" He continues.

Hideki grits his teeth, his pride taking a hit. As soon as Fumio appears in his vision, he throws out a quick middle kick. A kick which was blocked easily.

"…Or the Hideki who used to flaunt his martial prowess?" He continues to hear Fumio's mocking.

Fumio does not give Hideki another chance to attack and he knees Hideki's gut.

Hideki feels the air knocked out of him and he collapses on his knees.

"It's easy…" Fumio grabs Hideki's hair to force the superioris to face up to him.

"…Taking you down." He continues as he slaps Hideki on the face making Hideki fall face flat once again to the ground.

"It's fun, doing this to you. But I don't imagine doing this to the non-superiori." He then squats by Hideki.

Hideki however does not answer and he does not look like he will get back up anytime soon.

"Hey. Are you pretending to be unconscious?" Fumio frowns as he pats Hideki's head.

Suddenly, Hideki grabs a handful of the icy river sand and pebbles and throws it to Fumio's general direction. The attempt was successful as the sand got in Fumio's eyes and Fumio immediately retreats with eyes closed.

Hideki takes this chance to push himself off the ground and charge Fumio with a flying kick. His kick lands exactly on Fumio's head, and Fumio is sent flying a few feet back, landing on the ground on his back.

Hideki cannot help but smile victoriously seeing that Fumio is not getting up immediately.

"Heh… A dog is still a dog." He says, showing more energy and fight in him than he displayed before he threw sand.

He then jumps up high in the hair intending to stomp Fumio as he lands.

As his feet approach Fumio's head, a sinister grin spreads to his face in anticipation. In a split second however, to his surprise however, he sees Fumio suddenly roll to one side. This action by Fumio is enough to vacate danger.

Hideki has not time to adjust his movements because as soon as he lands, sand is already flying to his eyes and he is too late to react.

"AH!" Hideki can only yelp as the rough sand assaults the surface of his eyes.

The sand stinging his eyes is nothing however as the next moment, he receives a heavy blow to the side of his head. He then feels himself rotate vertically once in the air, before feeling his entire left side slam to the ground.

"UHGHHH" Air is knocked out of him once again, that he cannot even grunt in pain.

"Buddy~ Really? Sand? How many times did you use that in clan sparring?" He hears Fumio's mocking voice once again.

"I wasn't wrong in thinking someone as low as you would resort to something low." Fumio continues.

He has plenty of second-hand experience in preventing such attacks.

He knows that the sand throwing tactic has always been used by Hideki against stronger members of the clan. Such practice is frowned upon in sparring sessions but because Hideki is a member of the main family, his victims can only swallow their grievances.

Fumio also saw in the past five months in Red's fights in the underground arena when Red's opponents would often distract Red with clay pieces of the fighting ring. Fumio, having no experience of being at the receiving end of such attacks, has prepared plenty and imagined himself in the situation countless of times.

"You're not pretending again, are you?" Fumio squats by the downed Hideki once again.

Hideki this time, is down bad for real. While he wants to get back up no matter what, his body seemingly does not want to cooperate with his brain especially after suffering such a huge blow to the head.

Fumio meanwhile, experiencing injuring an opponent this badly for the first time ever, freezes.

"H-hey…" He awkwardly calls out as he pats Hideki's head.

Looking at Hideki's current state reminds him of himself whenever he was bullied by Hideki to the hospital. The memories fuel Fumio's anger, but looking at the powerless Hideki, he does not know what to do next or how to vent his anger.

Hideki, meanwhile regains his vision and looks at the awkward expression on Fumio's face. "What? What are you gonna do now? Heh." He chuckles.

Fumio's mood for fighting is momentarily paused and the memories of Hideki replay in his mind.

"Tell me. Why were you like that to me and the other non-superiori back in the clan?" He asks.

Hideki is taken aback by how non-confrontational Fumio suddenly became. But looking at Fumio not even treating him a threat anymore, he is immediately angered. Despite his anger, he knows he cannot beat Fumio, especially in his current state.

"What's it to you?" He can only say.

"I don't know. How I'll deal with you really depends on your answer." Fumio says.

"How you'll deal with me? Who the f*ck do-" Before Hideki can even finish his sentence, he receives a slap to the face.

"Don't forget that you still owe me for trying to kill me. I'm really trying to decide whether to give what I've been given." Fumio growls.

"I-…" Hideki's eyes widen in realization.

"What? Why else do you think I'm here?" Fumio asks.

Slowly, a very bad feeling dawns on Hideki.

"D-do you even have it in you to kill me?" He asks, hoping that Fumio is still the same soft-hearted lamb.

"If it were anyone else, I couldn't. But you? I don't know. The more I think of what you did to me in the past, the more I want to do it." Fumio says.

Hideki however feels a tinge of uncertainty in Fumio's voice allowing him to sigh a bit of relief.

"Really… huppp." He finally recovers enough to get up to his knees.

"Thinking and doing are two different things… If you're not sure, then it's best that you just let me go. Let me go, and I'll forget everything that happened here today." He says.

Fumio hesitates as there is some truth to Hideki's words. He does not know if he has it in him to take a life. But now that Hideki is helpless and whose fate currently relies on his decision, he does not want to lose this chance for revenge either.

"You didn't answer me earlier. Why did you have to make me and the others suffer?" He asks again to shrug off his hesitance.

"…" The question is simple, but Hideki is stumped and it takes him a few second to really think.

Soon, "Do you really think I didn't notice the stares?", he starts.

"I hate the stares. Looking at me as if I can't get my dick up. If it were clan members who are stronger than me, I get it." His voice trembles in anger.

"But you and the other unevolved trash looking at me like that? I can't tolerate. You all don't have the right to look at me like that. Especially those two whores. They think they're better than me? I-" He is about to continue but he sees Fumio dash forward and in a blink of an eye, he feels himself hanging by the collar, with Fumio lifting him up with it.

Just a few seconds ago, he feels confident in his survival, but the look in Fumio's eyes currently gives him the chills.