A Brother's Sacrifice

I was angry. Really angry when I heard the contents that flowed out of Kinoshita's... Ken's mouth.

An assault by some delinquents from another school was the cause of the bandage around his forehead. On each cheek were bruises from punches. I know that he was hit by punches as I myself have had those injuries.

Since he said that he did not know why his assailants would do that, I turned my attention towards Tenma because I expected that it is his fault. Even though he says he does not remember, I cannot decline that I was ensured that he was 100% the cause of it.

In the afternoon, a gang of delinquents who were from Chiba High School, waited for us, especially for Ken outside by the school gates. Tenma discussed with them about their visit to this school and they replied by pointing the finger to Ken.

Furiousness and the willingness to beat the shit out of this group was filling my head. It was confirmed that they were the ones who ambushed Ken.

A group of 10 or 11 people, I could deal with them effortlessly, but Tenma stopped me and he tried to calm me down.

I was not happy with his decision and I was about to disobey him until I saw that creepy smile on his visage. I could tell that he was angry, but grinning in this mood?

Something was definitely cooking in his twisted mind. So, I backed off a bit to see if he really wanted to teach them a lesson as he said so.

I tried to barge into his little lesson by offering a hand. He only gave me one job.

"Make sure that he does not run away."

The 'he' that he referred to was the one responsible for those injuries on Ken's face. I anticipated that he would deal with him lastly so I kept an eye on him the whole time while Tenma was sabotaging this group vilely with his, as I already mentioned, 'despicable' fighting.

Below half of what that group had, remained standing on their feet, either too scared to approach Tenma or too cautious around him.

The 2 guys, who were with the group that aggressed Tenma, looked at each other. Through some wordless understanding between the two of them, they redirected their attention towards a fearful existence.

Tenma watched them as they agreed on something with some unspoken gestures. So, he waited for them to initiate an attack on him.

But the tense atmosphere kept on increasing as time also followed suit. They were at a stalemate.

Then, Tenma sighed as he awaited them.

"If you are not making a move, then I guess....."

He sprinted in their direction as he declared something while trying to contain his excitement, which was seeping out from his not so uninterested face expression.

"I'm coming for ya!!"

They flinched a bit but soon regained their composure from the dashing bloodthirsty creature.

Tenma leapt forward and tried a flying kick on one of those guys but it only missed by a hair's breadth. The evasion skill on that guy was pretty decent.

Now they had Tenma cornered. The guy who dodged his flying kick was behind him while the other one was in front of him, not taking his eyes off of the predator.

The 2 nervous preys seemed to have started to conduct their plan which they have presumably hatched just seconds ago. The guy in front of Tenma's sight began the assault as he closed in on Tenma very quickly.

Tenma was prepared to counter any attacks from him, only to find out that his line of sight was abruptly changed. From a calm gaze to an inclined and distorted view of his target ahead of him.

As we could see afar from the battlefield, the guy behind him made a low sweeping kick which connected nicely to Tenma's heels. A good part on the body that could make you unstable very fast if enough force is used.

Then, the guy who was face to face to Tenma, was trying to knee him as Tenma's head was almost on the same level of his t.h.i.g.hs.

I don't know how he could get out of this as I did not get into such a difficult situation and I did not want to. Having thought that Tenma was guaranteed to get hit on his face, I was prepared for this rare sight.

But just in time, he was able to protect his head with his elbow. That guy's knee struck at his elbow dead on. I have to admit that he had an insane reflex to be able to prevent such a blow to his face from that fast attack. While he used his elbow to not only protect himself but also an attempt to injure the guy responsible for it.

It turned out well as that guy retreated back whilst putting his hand around his knee, the left one to be precise. Although Tenma managed to overturn the situation unexpectedly, he sacrificed a smooth landing of his body on the asphalt.

He fell by the left shoulder and hip but he did not let out any groans or screams.

He sat up after hitting the hard ground pretty badly and praised those two who succeeded in hurting him.

"Not bad..."

He darted a look at the one responsible for making him fall over, then to the other guy who almost knocked him out or even at least hurt him severely.

Tenma was about to stand up when he froze for a moment, then proceeded to do what he was intending on doing in the first place.

"Did his fall really hurt that badly?..." I murmured as I stared at the scene.

"It might be so...He did not protect his shoulder or even break his fall."

Ken supported the idea that he really did hurt himself. But Tenma did not show much signs so I guess he'll continue the onslaught while shrugging off this matter. I'm sure the adrenaline would hide his pain and enhance the exhilaration that he is currently feeling right now.

Again, Tenma waited for the initiation of their second assault as the other guy was holding his knee in pain. This time, the boy who did the low sweeping kick, tried to assail him first by getting into his reach and throwing a jab.

It was thoughtlessly done because it lacked the accuracy to hit Tenma. Maybe it was to bide time for the other guy to fully get right back on fighting against the frantic predator. Nevertheless, it was a bad idea and he was caught in Tenma's jaws. The hand that was used for the jab got dragged in by Tenma's, leading to him getting another prisoner.

He used this chance to get both his hands behind his back, enabling him to counter or even escape from his grasp. Headbutting Tenma or trying to kick him was futile. He was nicely trapped.

I saw Tenma glancing at the other dude, who is limping towards him for a supposedly surprise attack. He was pretty close but it was just a question of about how fast could Tenma beat the trapped guy. It could've gone the other way round if the now trapped guy could've still bought 3 more seconds. It's a shame.

He limply stepped back but was caught by Tenma tightly. He grabbed both of these boys by the head, then proceeded to slam each other's head. Both fainted despite their good attempt of bringing down Tenma.

Now only 4 remained. The red-haired guy as the leader, fixated his eyes onto the now sneering Tenma, who had a lot of 'fun' with his friends.

"You play really unfairly from the very start."

"It was not fair to begin with, so I just blended in with your methods."

The reply that contained a tinge of arrogance and 'helplessness', was carried and delivered to the pissed off leader. The staredown between those two again took part. In this case, the number of people supporting the opposite side has lessened by almost half.

One of the supporters near the leader tried to run away, not bothering to even at least go out without getting a fight. But oh well, since those did not even do anything to stop him, I took the role.

The runaway escaped through the bodies of his beaten friends. I ran near him and tripped him with my leg. He fell down and I kicked him in his crotch, knocking him out of commission. We could say that was the most lenient punishment in this case.

The 2 leaders were not concerned with the screech of the victim but instead, they prepared themselves. Tenma made the first move.

Closing in and positioning himself in his range was his priority. Tenma threw an elbow towards his head. The red-haired guy ducked it effortlessly and threw a simple punch into Tenma's stomach. Tenma reacted by making a 'Gah!!' noise and retreated back a step behind.

He was strong, stronger than Tenma. Tenma himself was pondering over that but he had a greater obligation that made him ignore that fact.

He needs to teach them a lesson, so that's why he again got in his reach but got beaten instead. His other two supporters were relieved at this scene.

He closed in and got beaten in many ways, and retreated. Many times, it happened like that and many times you could see him on the floor. Strangely enough, Tenma did not get a hit to his head after all these attacks.

The leader got too bored and too ahead of himself, that instead of parrying or avoiding his punches, he blocked them with his own hands.

'Wow, he really is toying with Tenma. Should I step in? If I step in then he will be angry but the way things are going...'

As soon as I thought of that, the red-haired leader declared his boredness.

"I thought that you were strong but did I get ahead of myself?"

That did not affect Tenma, who was already on the floor with his head hung down, as he was already getting up for another round. He leapt forward and used his right hand to throw the same exact punch.

"Hey, could you stop this now? I'm starting to get t-GAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!"

An unexpected reaction from the strong leader. He did block Tenma's punch but...blood was oozing from the palm of his hand. A confused and pained expression looked down on the face of Tenma.

"Hey, did you think I was going to be playing it fair? What did I say? I'm just blending in with your unfair methods so don't hate me for this."

The evilest smile that I have seen up to date was definitely this moment that I'm witnessing. Tenma used his other hand to push his opponent forward until his back hit a wall.

He turned his own fist in an anticlockwise manner and the pained scream increased exponentially in volume as he continued to turn it sideways.

As Tenma stopped turning his hand around, he retracted it, and what could be seen would clear our doubts. A piece of glass, probably from a glass bottle, was positioned between his index finger and his middle finger. It was not concealed well but it did a great deal of damage.

Tenma kicked the red-haired boy in the leg to make fall down. He was in a sitting position now, his back was resting on the wall while he looked at his bloodied hand painfully. He was irritated and glared upward furiously, where Tenma's irritating smiling face was.

"You were really strong you know, even stronger than me. But it's a shame that you were fighting against me. Nevertheless, you will eventually beat me in the near future, just don't rush it. Now, time to sleep big guy."

He threw his knee onto his face, making his head slam against the concrete wall.

The result?

He was unconscious as he fell down to his stomach. The two of the leader's followers were trembling now, wondering what is he going to do with them.

The guy who made Ken into his current state was one of these guys. They tried to make a run for it but I remembered my job as I saw them.

"Make sure that he does not run away."

Those instructions echoed in my head and I followed it exactly. I stood in those two's path and they came to a stop abruptly. They fearfully stepped back and away from me. But that way was more dangerous than in my directions.

"Where do you think you are running to? You are the main dish for today."

They both stopped and did not know what to do as they looked from me to Tenma. As I observed those two, I made eye contact with Tenma. He smiled like any kind-hearted guy would do, and simply expressed his gratitude,

"Thank you, Aki."

I felt chills for a second as I could see the images of Tenma's evil sneering expression flickering over his generous smile. This day, I was really glad about one thing.

Glad that I am on his side.....