Living A Dead Dream (Baji x OC)

13

"Hm? I broke their legs yesterday," he nonchalantly answered as he started walking, Take and I reluctantly followed.

"Huh? They're your most-trusted people, right?" he asked, stopping.

"You got a problem with Kazutora?" one of them asked.

"No..."

What the fuck is actually going on? He definitely fits the insane category though.

"Hurry up, Hanagakis!" he called back to us. "Don't worry. I'll introduce you guys to everyone."

I sighed as Take began following him. "Take a rain check on the arcade, Sayu?" I asked as I looked back at her and the boys.

"Yep, just don't kill anyone, okay?" she asked with a thumbs-up.

"Yep," I chuckled, returning the thumbs-up before following Take. I'm too damn old for this...

~ 

We followed them for a while without saying much of anything, or at least nothing that I caught because I was trying to remember the layout of the area in case of an emergency.

"I was in juvie," Kazutora said, catching my attention.

"No offense, but you do have that look," I said. Fuck. Why does my filter disappear when I'm distracted?

"Yeah," he slightly chuckled. "It was because of him," he said in a darker tone. "Hey, we're almost there," he said with his usual tone as he pointed up ahead.

Oh, yeah, I remember this place, I thought to myself as I saw the "game center" sign.

"Huh? This is it?" Take questioned.

"Yup."

"An arcade?"

"It went under ages ago," he replied before stepping over the no-trespassing sign.

Before I met Sayu, the boys I played with and I would sneak in here and play hide and seek. It had a dark atmosphere and things echoed like crazy, so it was the perfect place for some five-year-olds.

After they opened the doors, we followed. I mentally prepared myself in case something would happen. After all, some of Mobius' guys are here, and I wasn't merciful with my attacks back in August...

The place was as dark as I remembered it, albeit a lot livelier and smokier. As we walked, I evaluated everyone I saw and, most of them looked to be stronger than the Mobius guys I went against. Quite of few of them even gave me glares. Not the usual hateful glares, but murderous ones. As we got closer to a group of guys, the sound of skin on skin became more audible. My eyes widened as I saw Baji beating Chifuyu. He wasn't pulling his punches either.

"Kazutora... What's going on here?"

"What's it look like? It's a test of faith."

"A test of faith?"

"It's to test Baji's belief in our group."  Yeah, that sounded familiar. With the more hardcore gangs, if the person joined from another group, they'd make him beat his most trusted friend to join. Even for complete newcomers, that would happen. It was sickening. "Going from Toman to Valhalla is like changing religions. You need to show resolve. The guy Baji's beating on right now is Toman's 1st Division Vice Captain. He's Baji's most trusted retainer."

"The 1st Division's Vice Captain?!"

"Toman is Valhalla's enemy. If he's going to betray his old god Mikey, he's gotta stomp out his old beliefs."

Finally, he stopped punching Chifuyu with heavy breaths, and blood splattered on his face. "Well? That good enough for you, Hanma?" he asked as he turned to the guy in question. "You gonna let me into Valhalla now?"