Urusei Yatsura 2
Episode 31 - Br0KEN_One...
All original cast and characters of Urusei Yatsura belong to Rumiko Takahashi, I own only the OCs
Enjoy if you will.
Arriving at the Fushimi ward in Kyoto - Outskirts of Senbu - Nightime...
Senbu: a relatively small but lively city in Kyoto, like most of the prefecture, you could see the architectural history in many of the buildings in this part of the prefecture. Overlooking a hill, a lone white motorcycle [with a black sidecar attached to it] arrived to overlook the deceptively sleepy town of Senbu. The bike slowed just outside of town and it was ridden down to a river bank, right under a bridge.
"Here's good..." The rider spoke, as he descended from the bike.
"...?" While the passenger with him looked at him curious and confused...
Or he would have, had he not been wearing a very obscuring helmet.
Ken and Shou were still donning the motorcycle helmets, which effectively hid their identities...to some extent...
"Do we really need to keep wearing these helmets?" Shou asked.
Ken gave an exasperated sigh. "*SIGH~*...YES. Dude, if word of me being back in town reaches the Kitsune-ryu, escaping Senbu again will be much more difficult..." Ken explained. "Also..."
Shou realized instantly what Ken was about to say. "Yeah...your gang...the "Garden of Roses"..."
"SHSHSHHHHHHHHHHHUSH!" Ken hurriedly shushed the other boy. "We may be outside of town but we don't know who's listening! *KON!*"
Shou through his helmet shot Ken a flat, annoyed look. "It's nighttime...I doubt any of our old friends and acquaintances are out in the streets right now...or outside of town like this..."
"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" Ken quietly yelled
"Then use your clairvoyance...or better yet, the Akashic Records to find if anyone's around." Shou retorted.
"I...I'm afraid to use my powers right now~...*kon*" Ken admitted.
"HUH?! WHY?!" Shou asked in shock.
Ken through his helmet took a look at his surroundings. "I'm afraid I'll be detected the moment I use my powers..."
"Whaddya mean 'detected'?!"
"...maybe it's me being paranoid, but lately I feel like the difficulty setting in my existence has been gradually going from EASY to VERY HARD and shooting right into EXTREME these days." Ken sidestepped the question.
Shou actually had to stop to mentally translate what Ken had just blurted out, his face betraying confusion...as hard as it was to tell from the helmet, Ken could still tell his old friend was having trouble deciphering that sentence just now.
Ken shrugged. "Dude, you know why I moved over to Tomo-...err...where I live now?"
Shou blinked. "...I dunno."
"Because THAT PLACE was supposed to be EASY!" Ken explained. "I could sense something weird, but it was a place with no threats to me. Somewhere I could take control of my life back...that is until I met Emi and the difficulty was slammed to HARD MODE in an instant..."
"And everythin' we have faced till now...I'm starting to see what you mean..." Shou started to understand. "Then...how do you see Senbu?"
Ken remained silent for a moment. "...If I had to compare...it's on NORMAL MODE..."
"R-Really?!" Shou said surprised, but looked at his own hands...he couldn't deny that his stay in Tomobiki, albeit short, had made great changes in him. "But then...there's nothing to worry about, home's gonna be a breeze~."
Even through the helmet, Shou felt Ken's piercing golden glare. "DON'T. DROP. YOUR GUARD." Ken warned. "...We know...there are a few enemies here that are relentless...and a couple that even with our newfound skills, are still impossible to defeat for us as we are right now."
Shou flinched. He knew too well who Ken meant. "...Benkei of the Bridge... " Shou said in a serious tone.
Ken nodded. "...And my gramps...the GrandMaster of the Kitsune-ryu..." Ken said, his tone somber. "Fortunately my parents are searchin' for me all the way in Sapporo...so they won't be a threat. I checked before coming here..."
Shou nodded at that...but that got him thinking. "Ken...if you know all this...then why in the world do you want to come back here?!"
Ken stared off into the distance, looking in what seemed a very specific direction, before he started to cross to the other side of the river in a single bound. Shou didn't miss a step and followed him...still waiting for an answer...
"...I got an appointment..." Ken answered cryptically, as he started to walk into town...
...into a town...where luck would always arrive too late...
"...You know that answers absolutely nothing, right?"
"No one cares~." "OI!"
Streets of Senbu
Ken and Shou had both wandered through these streets countless times, they knew every nook and cranny of their hometown...and even now they saw how little things have changed in the few months they had left.
"Wow...it's like we never left, huh?" Shou whispered in wonder, as the two traveled the familiar streets of their hometown.
"Yeah, but we did so on your guard, dude." Ken warned quietly, as they walked the streets.
The two made their way through the familiar neighborhoods, as the street lights shined their light, people were at their homes, the idle sound of crickets chirping and the night watchman's whistle were the only sounds on the streets that night.
"So...are you gonna tell me where we're goin'?" Shou asked impatient
"Hmm~...naaaaah~" Ken answered lackadaisically, much to Shou's frustration. Shou glared at Ken in anger, but realized he could do little else to try and extract more information out of Ken.
The two walked further down the streets, Shou following Ken's steps, he idly looked around, a strong pang of nostalgia in his chest.
"H-hey..." Shou started. "It's kind of nice to be back here after so much time, huh?" Shou attempted to make small talk.
"I wouldn't know." Ken answered curtly. "I don't really care much for this town."
"Of course you wouldn't..." Shou muttered annoyed. "But, don't you miss your family?" Shou asked.
"Not really." Ken answered sharply. "I like the independence I got these days~."
Shou leveled a flat glare at Ken. "...Well...I miss MY family..." Shou said, just as sharply.
"Oh~?" Ken side-glanced at Shou through the helmet. "Then you use this chance and drop by and visit them...actually why don't you do that right now?" Ken asked, leadingly.
"Because you're just tryin' to distract me and ditch me while you go heaven-knows-where!" Shou shot back, already distrusting Ken's suggestion.
"Tch!" Ken snapped annoyed.
"DID YOU JUST SNAP YOUR TONGUE AT ME?! YOU TOTALLY WERE PLANNIN' ON DITCHIN' ME, WERE YOU?!" Shou yelled irately.
"A little louder next time, I think they didn't hear you all the way in Neptune, dude..." Ken said sarcastically.
"This is exactly what I hate about you! It's always lies, tricks, double entendres whenever you talk! Is being truthful like some language you can't speak or something?!" Shou retorted.
"That sounds about right..." Ken answered.
"FOR REAL?!"
"You two!"
"!?" Another voice had called out, making both Ken and Shou stop sharply from the unexpected speaker, the two slowly turned to see-
"INU-*stomp!*-YEOW?!" Shou almost yelled out before Ken reacted and stomped on Shou's foot as forcefully as he could.
"Hm?" The fellow asked curious, as before the concealed duo was another teenager, but this one with sharp, stony features, grey eyes and short whitish, grey hair, styled in an orderly slicked back fashion to match. The teen stood taller than even Ken himself, wearing a very neat white uniform, the armband that proudly proclaimed "DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE" was worn on his right arm, demonstrating he was a member of some school's discipline committee...
Actually both Ken and Shou knew exactly WHO this person was...
"C-craaaaaaaaaaaaap~!" Ken muttered in a low voice. "It's the Prez's WatchDog!" Ken muttered lowly, low enough only he himself heard it, as he ignored the angry glares no doubt Shou was shooting under his helmet right now.
(Riku Inugami, AKA: The Prez's WatchDog...crap! Of all the people we could find!) Ken thought angrily.
(T-the Head of the Disciplinary Committee back in the Academy~! The right-hand man of the StuCo President! This is bad!) Shou though nervously.
(The guy always was always a pain in my back, ever since I became a delinquent...always a stickler for rules and so dead set on keeping order it was so annoying how he always kept hounding me for every little thing, this mutt!) Ken continued remembering all how this particular person annoyed him constantly.
(He's a fighter, a martial artist like us, and a very skilled one at that! Every time Ken was up to his usual tricks, the two would get into a fight, a big one at that! T-the two never fought a complete fight due to Ken's trickstery nature but, dammit he could keep up!) Shou remembered cautiously this fellow's skills. (I can't drop my guard around this guy!)
(Nowadays I could take him on...but if my memory serves right, ALL fights with this guy would end up in a massive scale! I can't afford that right now!) Ken made mental notes of his tactical position. (Let's hope this guy's straight-laced personality hasn't changed at all!)
"Uh...e-evening~!" Ken greeted with a masked accent. "Nice night tonight, eh?"
Riku stared at the two, his eyes narrowing as he studied the two helmet wearing strangers. "Hmmmmm..."
"I-is there a problem, sir~?" Shou tried to mask his voice as well.
"...Hmph!" Riku scoffed. "It is very late for any self respecting high school students to be out late at this hour!" Riku pointed at the two.
(...seriously?!) Both Ken and Shou thought in unison
"HOWEVER!..." Riku then smiled. "Allow me to commend you both!" Riku praised.
"?" "?"
"To wear safety gear, even when not doing anything particularly dangerous, ALLOW ME TO PRAISE YOU BOTH!" Riku praised.
Both Ken and Shou shot flat glares. "This guy..." "...Eyup..."
(He's STILL an idiot!) Both Ken and Shou thought, relieved somewhat.
"If that's all, we'll be going." Ken decided to politely leave and put some distance from the annoying disciplinarian, Shou following Ken's tactic.
"PLEASE WAIT!" Riku barked making the helmet wearing duo jump slightly. "As a matter of fact, there is something I would like to ask of you, if I may."
Ken turned to look at the Discipline Committee's President suspiciously. "A-and that would be...?"
"The Senbu Academy's Discipline Committee is searching for a truant student." Riku declared in a clear voice.
"!" Both Ken and Shou flinched when they heard that. "W-what's that got to do with us, dude?" Ken asked more than a bit nervous.
"Well, you see..." Riku started, as he started to produce a neatly folded piece of paper from his breast pocket, and carefully proceeded to unfold it...the suspense was nerve-wracking for the duo. "We are searching for the whereabouts of one Shou Inoue, have either of you seen him? I am currently patrolling our fair town for any information or sightings..."
****CRASH!****
Both Ken and Shou slipped and crashed on their helmetted-heads on the ground upon hearing that.
Shou recovered first and pointed to himself. "WAIT A MINUTE?! YOU MEAN M-?!"
***SMASH!***
Before Shou could finish, Ken reacted with incredible reflexes and smashed Shou's helmetted face into a concrete wall, before he turned to talk to the order-obsessed teen. "Excuse me, but...I...had the impression you were gonna say a different name, dude." Ken said bluntly.
Riku blinked and sighed tiredly. "Gentlemen...how long have you been in our fair town?"
Ken took a pensive pose as he heard the question...while Shou emerged from the wall and glared angrily at Ken, in his mind's eye Ken could already see some possible responses to that question.
*"We just arrived to town today." [Half-truth]
*"We've been here for a few days..." [Lie]
*"Actually, we've lived here for the majority of our lives..." [Truth]
Since this was Ken we were talking about however, of course it was obvious which answer he would choose:
"A few days, give or take...why?" Ken lied, while under his helmet a sole piercing eye opened to study warily this potential threat.
"Then no doubt you've heard of the uneasy truce between the delinquent gangs in this town." Riku explained.
"Truce?" Ken parroted confused, while Shou asked: "Gang's'? PLURAL?!" in a panic.
Riku nodded. "Yes, there are several gangs in town...all of them with a truce of non-aggression. These gangs all used to be part of one single delinquent gang...one that seemed only to invite Anarchy and Chaos to our fair town!" Riku complained outraged. "This gang was under the leadership of a former student of our school who had gone rogue, his name: Kenichi Aoki!"
"*GULP!*" Ken gulped loudly, he didn't like where this conversation was headed.
"Once their leader dissappeared from town, the gangs disbanded: separating into several groups that maintain a truce between themselves...the 'why' escapes me however..." Riku followed his explanation.
"THEN WHY AREN'T YOU LOOKING FOR HIM INSTEAD?!" Shou berated in anger, ignoring the annoyed side-glance of his equally helmeted friend [likely because he couldn't even see through the polarized material].
"Because as of a few months ago, he was no longer a student in Senbu Academy..." Riku explained, keeping a stoic attitude in the face of Shou's freak out. "He transferred legally out of our Academy, meaning he is, unfortunately, outside my jurisdiction...My sole regret is not having been able to reform him into an upstanding student, if I knew where he had gone, I would continue my mission and transfer to his current school, but for the time being I will look after the rest of the students in our Academy!" Riku proclaimed proudly, puffing his chest out as he saluted.
"HUH?!" Shou retorted in shock, but then side-glanced at his...cohort. "...Legally, huh?..." Shou remarked, knowing something was up.
"..." Ken kept silent for a while. "...as far as you know..." Ken muttered.
"I KNEW I-!" *WHAM!* Ken once again smashed Shou into the concrete wall [right in the exact same spot actually]
"A-are you okay?" Riku asked, witnessing the decidedly odd act not once, but twice now.
"..." Ken waited a beat of silence before answering. "...I saw a bug...twice now..." Ken answered in deadpan, ignoring a muffled "Liar!", before he changed the subject. "So...what's the deal with this Inoue dude?"
Riku blinked, but he had no reason to doubt the helmet-wearing strangers, so he continued. "He's been missing for several weeks now, and has been a truant student of our Academy!" Riku explained. "And this cannot be tolerated, as long as he is a student at our Academy, he must follow the Academy's rules!"
Shou managed to pry himself off the concrete wall to hear that explanation...and realized one very critical detail: even now, he was still registered as a Senbu Academy student! And no one, not even his own family was aware of the boy's whereabouts!
"For shame~!" Ken reproached at his rival's misfortune, smiling beneath his helmet. ***SMASH!***
"YOU STAY OUTTA THIS!" Shou yelled, smashing his rival this time into the opposite wall.
Riku had been observing the two helmeted individuals for a while now, and the gears in his brain started to turn...albeit slowly. "Hmm~..."
The youth had observed the tall, lean individual being smashed into the concrete wall, and Riku noticed a particularly long ponytail descending from beneath his helmet...an extremely familiar one at that. The other individual was shorter, but much stockier and muscle-bounded, not to mention that through brief glances through the helmet's visor, he could see some sort of mask around the shorter fellow's eyes, but perhaps even this was probably a trick of the light? It wasn't until he noticed a couple of very familiar blue and red magatama hanging of the boys' neck and wrist respectively, that gave Riku a warning sign about these two.
"Pardon..." Riku started slowly. "I know this is an odd request but,...could you two remove your helmets?"
"...Hah?" Both Ken and Shou asked, as if they hadn't heard correctly.
"You will have to pardon me, but I wish to see who I am talking to, face to face..." Riku explained, stepping toward the duo, his instincts warning him something was off.
Both Ken and Shou found themselves in trouble! If Riku discovered their identities now, a catastrophe would occur! "O-oi! W-what do we do now?!" Shou whispered in panic.
Ken had briefly been sweating as the danger was threatening the duo, but then glanced at Shou with a flat expression...as underneath his helmet he gave a toothy, decidedly malevolent grin.
"I have a better idea." Ken suggested, and without a second thought, he shoved Shou right unto the questioning Riku.
*CRASH!*
"OOF-!" "WHOA!"
The two collided and fell one on top of the other, while Ken jumped unto a stone fence and ran away, yelling: "THIS GUY MIGHT know where your truant guy is~!..." his voice becoming smaller as he put more distance by jumping to the rooftops and effectively escaping.
"T-That bastard!" Shou yelled, as he got up and was about to chase after his rival, however...
"JUST A MOMENT!" Riku grabbed at the neck of Shou's jacket, with no intention of letting go. "Just now, your friend said you had some information about Shou Inoue! I cannot ignore thi-!"
"OH PUT A SOCK IN IT!" Shou barked back in anger. "HOW?! How is that bastard my friend?! HE'S ANYTHIN' BUT!"
"I got no time for this!" Shou said resolute, as his body was surrounded by the somber miasma that was his ki. "MAYONAKA BUNSHIN!" [Midnight Clone] Shou's body was completely engulfed by a towering black flame of ki.
Instantly before Riku's eyes several dark figures emerged from the black flames, as his grip went slack, to reveal a discarded jacket. "W-what sort of treachery is this?!" Riku said, as he looked at the jacket in his hand, and saw the smoky dark figures run away from him. "W-wait! I cannot let you escape!" Riku yelled as he gave chase to obsidian figures, throwing the jacket to the side, as he figured the stranger he was pursuing was among them.
...
"...Good grief~..." Shou said, once he saw Riku was long gone, he dissipated the tower of flames around him, in truth, Shou merely took his jacket off, and used one of his newly conceived techniques to trick him into thinking he had escaped, while he really just stood still the whole time.
Shou grabbed the discarded jacket and donned it once more, and gave chase in the direction he had last seen Ken escape...
Rooftops of Senbu
"Victory~!" Ken chanted with a wide grin, as he had taken off his helmet and felt the night air in his face. Ken was now jumping from rooftop to rooftop silently, like many martial artists of his caliber, in order to get away from the annoying disciplinarian and his own scatter-brained rival.
"Now I can get to Doc's place easy~!" Ken said to himself confident in the fact that he left any annoying straggler behi-
"You wouldn't happen to have any snacks with you, right?" Cherry, who SOMEHOW popped up from the side of a bath house chimney blurted as Ken tripped and-
**SMASH!**
...smashed his face in said bath house's roof...
Cherry nonchalantly descended and crouched facing a prone and shocked Ken. "If you did not bring any food for this trip, then perhaps you can show this old monk around to any of the local restaurants?"
"...C...ChErRyyyYYyyYYyYyYYYY~..." Ken raised his face from the smashed roof tiles, and growled in pure anger, his eyes shinning like a demon's!
In an instant, Ken's hand shot and grabbed the old monk from the neck of his outfit. "Why...WHY are YOU here?!" Ken interrogated, his face in a panicky/angry/disturbed sneer.
Cherry faced Ken and stared deep into the boy's face. "Kyoto is as you know, the old capital of our country, and as such it is a place rich in culture, history, and spirituality...I was making a pilgrimage here..."
Ken pulled Cherry away from his face [apparently threatening him face to face had a very adverse effect] and considered what Cherry said. After 5 seconds Ken looked flatly and snapped his fingers on his free hand, as he had deciphered the monk's true intentions.
"You saw me leave, you hitched a ride with us, and you were hoping to mooch off any food involved in this trip, right?" Ken accused knowing the idiotic monk too well.
"If you suspect of everybody like that you won't make many friends." Cherry snarked.
"EXCEPT NO ONE WANTS TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOU!" Ken roared as he drop-kicked Cherry into orbit... ***SMAAAASH!***
...or so he thought.
"I believe you young ones are fond of this type of phrases: y u so mad?" Cherry said, as he popped from behind Ken, making the tall teen stumble.
"DON'T EVEN TRY TO GET MEME-Y ON ME! You're annoyin' enough as is!" Ken recovered and yelled in anger, but soon closed his eyes as he placed his pointer finger on his forehead. "...Were you followed?" Ken asked sharply.
Cherry, his face still inmutable, answered. "No...but you were."
"Huh?" Ken had to ask, momentarily confused.
"FOUND YOU!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Shou had suddenly roared right from behind Ken, making the tall teen scream in sudden terror...
****SMAAAAAASH!****
...and react accordingly by insta-attacking Shou with a meteor smash hit and burying him into the intact remainders of the roof tiles atop the bath house.
"*KON!* DON'T DO THAT! *KON!*" Ken barked, gasping for breath, as in a severely rare instance, he was genuinely surprised.
"Bastard! You actually tried to ditch me back there!" Shou accussed, as he emerged from the hole in the roof.
"Well, clearly I failed at that..." Ken muttered under his breath, when something snapped him to attention. "Yo, how'd you ditch the WatchDog?" Ken asked, as Cherry tilted his head confused at the odd nickname.
Shou dusted his shoulders of debris. "Hmph! I used a newly developed technique in order to escape: Mayonaka Bunshin [Midnight Doppelgänger], I used ki clones to escape Inugami-san easily."
"Ho~..." Ken said mildly impressed. "Not bad...though that tech is gonna be useless against me, you know that, right?" "No one asked you!"
"Inoue-kun could you be...?" Cherry started to ask.
"...a NINJA?!" Both Ken and Cherry asked, as the two mimicked a ninja jutsu pose, Cherry donning a ninja hood, while Ken had attained a metal head guard with a fox symbol carved on it.
"O-Of course I'm not!" Shou retorted, and noticed Cherry. "Ah, Cherry-san! What're you doin' here?"
"Pilgrimage."
"For exotic foods..."
"Ah..."
Ken sighed tired, it looked like getting rid of his rival and the annoying monk would too difficult and time consuming and...
*"Anuhza successful procedure!..."* A digitized [and curiously german sounding] voice-clip warned Ken of a text message, he tiredly flipped his cell phone open and read the message...
...
...He was out of time...
"Grrawddammit!" Ken cursed under his breath, and looked at his two annoyances, and flipped his cell closed. "C'mon... you might as well follow us..." Ken said tiredly.
Shou looked confused for a moment and was about to speak, but-
"In exchange for your silence on anythin' that happens tonight, I'll make sure you get fed some delicious food, deal?" Ken directed this to the bottomless pit of a monk.
"Hmmm~...Deal." Cherry agreed, and followed Ken.
Shou had lost his chance to speak, so he decided to follow in silence...to where Ken was directing the two.
A while later...
Dr. Yumi Ono's _+_orNgoeylu_+_ Clinic
What welcomed Shou and Cherry after a long trek, was a clinic.
"...Huh?" Shou asked confused.
"...we're here..." Ken muttered, his eyes somber as he walked towards the entrance of the clinic.
The clinic loomed above the trio as Ken walked up the steps, a modern building, painted in white, with a sign that pointed to it's medical specialty. Once Shou read the sign, he recalled something...
"B-but this is...?" Shou asked, as a flash crossed his memories...
...ERROR!...
...FILE REGARDING KEN'S KNOWLEDGE CORRUPTED/ UNDER REPAIR...
Shou shook his head...what was this feeling of dread?! He looked at Cherry to see if it was just his imagination.
"C-Cherry, oi, what do you-...?!" Only to see a somber expression on the monk himself!
"Shou Inoue...if you call yourself someone worthy of Kenichi Aoki's respect, then I beseech you: do not take lightly what you learn today!" Cherry warned, his voice no longer holding the light-hearted tone it always held.
Another flash of memory crossed his mind...
..."C'mon you Game Brained Kitsune! Figure it out!" Shou yelled at Ken frustrated he was unable to free himself...
...But then a flash of pain coursed through Ken's brain the moment Shou said that exact combination of words. "AGH!" The yankee had to clutch the right side of his head...
Shou was piecing everything...he was close to the truth...but...
What would he discover? Did he truly want to discover this secret?
"W-wait, Kitsu-...KEN!" Shou called out to his friend, using his name instead of his nickname. "Why are we-no... why are YOU here?!" Shou demanded to know.
Ken placed his hand on the door handle. "..."
"Tell me!" Shou demanded, almost scared...of what he would learn and what would this entail. "You were summoned here, by who?!"
"...ten years ago..." Ken said slowly.
"Huh?" Shou asked once more, but like a bullet, another flash of memory...
...DATA FROM 10 YEARS AGO - SENBU PARK ACCIDENT SITE...
...Aproximately 1O years prior to today, Kenichi Aoki was found in-...
Shou tightened his fist.
Maybe this secret...it had been staring at him all along?
Maybe he just pretended not to see?
"Say..." Ken started. "...ten years ago...on October...didn't you sense somethin' weird when we talked?" Ken asked, glancing at Shou.
Shou eyes grew wider, it was true, even when he asked about their childhood friend, Ken had always feigned ignorance...
...or...did he really fake it?...
Another flash of memory...
..."You're talking about her?" Ken asked, his voice a very slight, almost imperceptible sad overtone, as his hand clutched the right side of his head "It doesn't matter anymore..." Ken said. "It was a long time ago..."...
...Shou only glared with a serious expression. "...you act as if she didn't exist...even when she cared for you the most...the only memory of her we have..."...
Shou gritted his teeth. "H-hey...s-stop fucking with me!" He commanded.
If that was true...then...
Ken turned to face his rival, his eyes fully open.
"If this is a trick...or another one of your pranks...!" Shou warned.
"I ain't playin' today, Shou..." Ken said serious. "...and it looks like you figured it out..."
If this was true then...
then...
"DON'T FUCK WITH ME!" Shou yelled. "Y-you're tellin' me...all this time..."
"Heh..." Ken gave a tired chuckle. "I can't really speak much...about the 'me' you met before October 14..."
"But as for 'ME' ...I know I'm a completely different person..."
As he said that, Shou saw several flashes of memory...
..."For the past DECADE nothing, I repeat, NOTHING has gone my way!..."
..."Oh go to hell! You think I WANTED that kind of responsibility?! ...
"...I have no reason to take over that damn school!..."
...It changed everything...
...absolutely everything...
Shou fell to his knees, what had he been doing these past ten years? His rivalry? What did it amount to? The boy he had challenged hundreds of times, for the hand of their mutual crush...
...had been gone for over ten years...
"C'mon..." Ken said with a tired gaze. "The Doc can explain what happened better than I can..."
Ken pushed the glass door open. "Gomen kudasai..." Ken said as he entered, Cherry stepped over to Shou.
Shou looked at Cherry, his expression was a horrified one...horrified with himself..."C-Cherry..." Shou said in a small voice.
Cherry placed a hand on Shou's shoulder. "Come...you need to see this through to the end..." Cherry encouraged. "Whatever you may think right now, I can safely say Kenichi Aoki does not feel the same...neither this one or the one that is lost..."
Cherry gave a pat to Shou's back, and walked up the steps towards the clinic.
"..." Shou looked at the clinic's doors, and stood up.
He was right...he needed to see this to the end...
Inside the Clinic...
Dr. Yumi Ono... the good doctor had come from a background of martial artists, though like her brother she had focused herself in the practice of medicine, in a very unique field of medicine as a matter of fact. The doctor doned a white lab coat, atop of some long dress pants and a white t-shirt, with a pixel art image of a brain, like the kind you would find in an old video game. Her hair was tied in a pony-tail much in the same fashion as Ken's was, but much shorter in length, she examined the tall youth through her round rimmed glasses...
"I swear..." Dr. Yumi as she examined his head. "You only have to make a control visit once a year, and even then I nearly have to go and drag you here myself!" She chided.
"Sorry Doc...I guess you haven't heard I don't live here in Senbu anymore?" Ken asked meekly.
"Oh I know...hm...your scar looks much better, it's almost gone..." Dr. Yumi commented. "But since I also know you won't go anywhere near any other doctors wherever you are now, I gotta make sure your condition remains stable."
"Hrmm..." Ken grumbled, he couldn't deny it.
"Uh...umm..." Shou started to ask, awkwardly, as he and Cherry were both in the room patiently observing the examination.
"Just a minute...So, have you been taking the medication?" The doctor asked.
"Yes~." Ken rolled his eyes as he answered the repetitive question.
"Any noteworthy injuries?" The doctor continued to interrogate.
"No~...wait, electrocution should be noteworthy right?" Ken asked.
"Electrocution? Of course it is!" The doctor said in mild shock. "...Though you don't look any worse for wear...when did you get electrocuted?"
"Lessee...a couple of times on Monday...three times on Tuesday...only once on Wednesday, that one was a slow day...and once earlier today." Ken said as a matter of fact.
Dr. Yumi stared nonplussed. "Uhhhhhh..."
"My fiancée uses electric ki...and she happens to be extremely jealous...so there." Ken complained.
"Oh WOW~! Hahaha~!" The doctor laughed good-naturedly. " You're engaged?! What's the world coming to?!" She said in mock shock.
"Yes, laugh at my pain...what kinda doctor are you?!" Ken shot with irk.
"One with a sense of humor, anyway time for some scans." The doctor said with a smile. "You know the drill."
"Yeah yeah~..." Ken walked up to CT scan machine in the next room, as the doctor, Shou and Cherry looked through the window and saw the enormous machine and Ken laying in the bed right about to enter it.
"So...you two..." Dr. Yumi looked at the two who had arrived with him. "..." After a beat of silence, she opened the door to the CT Scanner room and asked. "Hey Ken-chan, uhm...I take it they know?"
"They don't, you can explain everythin' ok?" Ken was heard answering. "This isn't a case of doc-patient confidentiality so go full disclosure, Doc!"
"Ok...if you say so..." The doctor closed the door once more, as she sat down at a desk with a laptop and started up a program to begin the CT scan.
"So, I'm gonna go ahead and guess that Ken's basically said nothing about his condition, am I right?" The Doctor said as she examined the monitor.
"Uhm...y-yeah...but...I think I know what he has..." Shou said uncertain. "...It's...It's amnesia isn't it?"
The doctor nodded. "Retrograde Amnesia, to be precise, in other words, Ken won't quite remember any event before ten years ago, but fortunately he can still make new long-term and short-term memories. Ken-chan was diagnosed this ten years ago after he was brought in from the hospital after receiving a serious head trauma."
"Hmm..." Cherry hummed, deep in thought.
"T-Trauma?" Shou said, somewhat unfamiliar with the medical lingo.
"A head injury." Dr. Yumi explained. "When I read his chart, he was lucky to only have suffered amnesia, and that his white matter wasn't as damaged as it should've been...not for an injury of that scale..."
"What do you mean?" Shou asked.
"The report stated that Ken may have fallen an altitude of about eight stories high. Which is weird since he was located right at Senbu Park, bleeding profusely... and this should've been, by all means, impossible..."
"There aren't any structures in Senbu Park that are THAT tall..." The Doctor explained. "So no one has a clue of how Ken could've gotten that injury."
Shou was aghast as he heard this, then he thought of something. "W-wait...then...why doesn't he use the Akashic Records to... fix his missing memories?!"
Dr. Yumi blinked in wide-eyed surprised, and turned to look at Shou. "You know of the Records?!" She asked surprised.
Shou shrugged meekly. "Umh...yeah...you see..." Shou gestured to his right wrist, where a red magatama was hanging.
The doctor 'ahh'd in understanding. "Ahh~NOW everything makes sense~!" The doctor nodded to herself, as she turned to watch the monitor much more carefully. "...Hmm?..."
Dr. Yumi examined the scan with care, a small smile forming on her lips, but soon her expression turned serious. "It's true...Ken-chan could easily use the Akashic Records to fill in the gaps of his memory...unfortunately, the Records themselves are in a state of heavy disrepair..."
Shou was surprised to hear this, and Cherry opened his eyes to attention.
The doctor continued. "There are several files that have been broken, the how and why only the Keeper of the Records himself knows...but this much I know, the Records have sworn their loyalty to Ken-chan, and they are doing their best to repair the damage in Ken's own memory, so much so it has taken the most priority of the Records themselves...even if Ken-chan is fine with never restoring his own memory..."
"Wait, what?!" Shou asked shocked.
Dr. Yumi nodded. "Just as you heard: Ken-chan isn't in any hurry to restore his own memory...he doesn't care, and any ties he had with the past, no longer matter to him right now, he only cares about the present..." Dr. Yumi finished explaining. "OK, Ken-chan you can come in now~!"
"'Bout time~..." Ken complained as he entered the main room once more.
Shou glared at Ken in disbelief. "...why didn't you tell me about this?"
Ken shrugged. "Couple a' reasons: A) Nunya' beeswax..."
"OI!" Shou stood up to confront Ken...
"...And B)...same reason why I kept my inability to swim a secret..." Ken said somberly. "...I hate the look of pity people give me when they hear about it..."
Shou relented once he heard that, yeah...this one was a heavier reason.
"So, NOW you know: my brain is a mess~." Ken said lackadaisically. "I can't trust any memories before ten years ago, and my mental age is basically ten...and also: I'm not the same guy you became a rival with all those years ago." Ken said in a serious tone.
"I have no memory of Momonga, I got no clue who she was to me, was she my crush? Was she my girlfriend? Who knows? Not me~!" Ken said in a deadpan snark.
Shou glared, his own emotions were conflicting within him.
Ken opened one eye to look at his rival. "POP QUIZ~!" Ken said cheerily. "Now that you know all this, answer this question: What does this ACTUALLY change?" Ken said, a mocking smirk plastered in his face.
Shou blinked surprised, and then chuckled. "Heh...What does it change?"
"Absolutely NOTHING! You damn trickster!" Shou answered determined
"And the local moron gets it right~!" Ken said, a wide smile in his face. "But seriously dude, keep it a secret ok?" Ken added, a bit nervous.
"Well...Emi-chan should know..." Shou considered.
"OH NONONONONONONONONONONO, N-to-the-OPE, times infinity!" Ken yelled. "You tell her, and everyone will learn what your mom does for a living!"
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Try me~!"
As the two once again stared each other down, itching for a fight, Dr. Yumi shook her head.
"Are these two always like this?" She asked the monk.
To which Cherry looked at the familiar scene, and smiled. "No...today they look happier..."
"Now that that's done with..." Ken started. "Let's crash at your place, Tanuki!"
"HUH?! WHY?!" Shou retorted.
"Because I know your mom must've missed me~!" Ken said with a grin.
"You stay away from my mom!" Shou berated.
"Yeah...like I'm not gonna put the moves on a gravure mod-"
"FINISH THAT SENTENCE AND I WILL FINISH YOU!" Shou cut off with fury.
"KAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!" Ken cackled, as he made a dash out of the clinic, with Shou and Cherry following in tow. "Try and stop me!" Ken yelled, as the full moon shined in that night sky...
To Be Continued...