Author's note: Sorry for the delay, school's been getting in the way of things lately. Anyway, in this chapter we have some more action. So far Azumi Kiribyashi hasn't been in this fic for a while, so we'll give her a bit of screen time in this chapter. Well then, let's get to the story now.



Chapter 7: Truths and Lies



The docks were deserted that evening, there wasn't a sign of life anywhere. Winds whistled as the waves crashed against the harbor, carrying small clouds of dust and leaves with them. The entire area was dark, not a flicker of light; even the glimmer of the stars could not be seen. A loud revving noise soon echoed in the area, and a beam of light appeared from the road. It was Shizuma Kusanagi, riding on his motorcycle, and in the side car was his loyal follower and admirer, Sarah.

"Nagi, are you sure this is the place?" Sarah asked as the street fighter got off his bike. "There doesn't seem to be anyone around."

"I'm sure this is it, warehouse number twenty-six," Shizuma approached the closest building.

Sure enough, there was a loud rumbling coming from inside the structure. There was a lot of cheering going on from inside, as well as cries and a few swear words between the cheers. This was the place all right. Shizuma walked over to the warehouse's entrance after. The door leading inside was barely hinged to the building, only one screw held it in place. The window on it was filled with a web of cracks, and sure enough, you could see what was going on inside through the door, well, part of what was going on anyway.

"You want something?" a pair of raven black eyes soon filled the window.

"I'm here to fight," Shizuma answered, "a guy named Hiroyuki Watanabe told me about this place."

"All right, come on in," the door swung open.

Shizuma took little time to enter the new arena. This place was completely different from Ikeburo, there were no benches for the spectators to sit on, only large crates. The crates didn't look very sturdy either, most of them looked like there were going to break in any second. The walls of the warehouse were painted with grim and dry blood, the floors were covered in dirt and broken teeth. The noise inside was much louder than it was outside, it was as loud as having your ear right next to an airplane engine. This place scared Sarah, she was too afraid to even watch the fight that was going on in the center of the area.

"Hey kid, you made it," a familiar voice echoed from the side.

"So when can I get into a match huh?" Shizuma asked his former opponent. "I wanna get this over with quick, this place is too intimidating for my friend here," Shizuma pointed to Sarah as she clung onto his arm.

"All right, I'll put you in the next fight," Hiroyuki told Shizuma, "in the meantime, come with me."

Hiroyuki lead Shizuma to the office in the building. It was totally different from the arena outside. The walls were a milky white color, the floor was carpeted, and there were several chairs in the room. There was a desk at the north end of the office, it had Hiroyuki's name on it, along with three piles of papers that were neatly stacked.

"Take a seat," Hiroyuki ordered Shizuma. "Take this, kid," the man handed Shizuma a picture-less ID card, "just show the guy at the door this card if you ever want to get back in here. You might also want to put an old picture on there if you want to use this as some kind of fake ID."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," Shizuma said as he pocketed the card.

"Hiroyuki," a man suddenly entered the office, "the winner of the match has been decided. Kaun was the winner of the match and right now we don't have anyone in the crowd who's willing to fight him, what should we do?"

"I got someone in here who's been looking for a fight," Hiroyuki pointed to Shizuma.

"This kid, I dunno, boss, he looks pretty scrawny to me," the man said after taking a glance of Shizuma.

"Scrawny?!" Shizuma shot up from his chair. "I'll have you know I'm the number one undefeated fighter of Ikeburo! I dare ya to call me scrawny again!"

"Whatever, kid, just get out there," the man sighed.

Meanwhile, outside in the docking area, another beam of light entered the area. Accompanied by this light was not a motorcycle, but a car. Inside this car was another top fighter, though her title was only known in Daimon High. It was Azumi Kiribyashi who occupied the vehicle, along with her new driver.

"Oh bother, I told you that you should've made a right on the street light five minutes ago!" Azumi yelled at her driver.

"I'm sorry, Miss Kiribyashi, I'll get you home before curfew, I promise," the driver said nervously.

"Curfew was two hours ago, it's already midnight, do you know how much trouble I'll be in once I get home!" Azumi yelled once more.

"I'm sorry, I'll get you home as soon as possible. Don't worry, I've got a map, see," the driver nervously took out a folded piece of paper from the glove box. "Let's see, we turned right here," the driver began recalling their steps, "and then we went straight down here, no wait, did we make a right, I thought it was a left..."

"I'm going to take a walk around, okay?" Azumi sighed as she left the car.

Azumi was pretty ticked off, she wasn't one to get mad very easily, but this new driver just frustrated her. The man was incompetent, he had no sense of direction whatsoever. If Azumi had her license, she could easily drive herself home no problem, but unfortunately, this area was strange to her. Just walking down these docks began to cool her off a bit, but that anger was really slowly melting into fear. It was rather scary to wander down a dark area like this, even a small flicker of light from the stars would ease her fears. Her steps became slower as she drifted further into the darkness, her arms slowly wrapped around chest, rubbing a sudden chill climbing up her body. As she wandered further, a small chatter began to echo in her ear. The chatter grew louder with her next step, growing louder once more as she took another. It was coming from a structure just a few feet in front of her. Where there's noise, there has to be people, Azumi was sure that whoever was in that warehouse would know where she was, and she would be able to get directions home from one of those guys in there as well.

"Hello?" Azumi knocked at the entrance of the building. "Is anyone there?"

"You want something?" a pair of dark eyes suddenly filled the doorway.

"Ah!" Azumi jumped a bit after catching a glimpse of the man behind it. "I'm sorry to trouble you sir, but I'm lost and..."

"This isn't a place for little girls!" the man spat and walked away from the door way after.

"Hey, I was just going to ask for directions," Azumi called to the man, "come on, it's not that difficult to tell me where I am, is it?! Sheesh, what bad manners...," Azumi mumbled as she left the doorway. "Hm," her eyes drifted to the side after to catch a glimpse of a red motorcycle. "Doesn't this bike belong to Shizuma Kusanagi?" Azumi asked herself as her eyes drifted along the machine. "It does," Azumi concluded a second later, "so he must be inside that building or something."

Azumi hurried back to the warehouse door after, knocking on the nearly unhinged lumber repeatedly. Much to her disgust, those same black eyes greeted her from the other side of the doorway.

"Now what do you want?" the man on the other side asked.

"Is Shizuma Kusanagi in there?" Azumi asked. "I'd like to ask him something."

"There's no one in here by that name," the man answered rudely, "now get out of here and don't let me see your face again or I'll throw you into the ocean!"

"Hey, I don't deserve to be spoken to that way!" Azumi yelled at the man. "Just what is your problem, Mister!"

"Get lost, melon tits!" the man mumbled as he walked away from the door.

"Melon tits!" Azumi stomped. "Why that stupid...!"

"OOOHHHH!!!!!" the chatter echoed from inside.

"Just what is going on in there?" Azumi asked herself.

She peaked in through the window, but she could see nothing but the backs of individuals and a few crates. From what she could see from the interior, it didn't look very well kept. She could hear thuds and cracks coming from inside between the cheers of it's occupants. Curiosity was getting the best of her, she had to know what was going on in there. She couldn't just go through the front door, that man seemed like he was one to keep his word by throwing her into the ocean and Azumi was definitely not up for a swim that evening. She turned to the side of the building, and sure enough, there was a stack of crates that were piled against the window, that would be the best bet to find out what was going on in there. Azumi took little time to start climbing, climbing those boxes was no problem for the current K-Fight champion. Before she knew it, she was at the top of the mountain of boxes. The window was fairly dusty, but she was still able to see what was going on from the other side.

"Akai Kiba!" a familiar battle cry echoed from within.

"That voice,' Azumi thought to herself, 'that's Shizuma Kusanagi all right."

And sure enough, it was Shizuma. The street fighter came into full view a second later, is fist planted against the cheek of another man. His foot struck against his opponent's abdomen after, followed by several more punches. The man fell to the floor, his face floating in a puddle of ruby and his body black and blue all over. He didn't seem to be in the best condition, and neither was Shizuma. Cuts were all over his arms and clothing, his hairy was even more mussy than usual. There were a few scarlet rivers traveling down his face, something Azumi had never seen on Shizuma before. From what she's seen before, nobody was ever able to make Shizuma bleed, not even Ryoko when the two fought numerous times for the K-Fight championship.

'What are you up to, Mr. Kusanagi?' Azumi asked herself.

Just as she had thought her words, fingers had suddenly clutched her shoulder. Azumi froze for a mere second, only to break out of it by curling her fingers into a fist. Without even hesitating, Azumi planted the back of her fist against what was supposed to be the assailant's face.

"OW!" the person behind her screamed.

It wasn't the same voice that told her to get out of the area, it was the voice of her driver. Azumi quickly turned around to find her servant with both of his hands over his nose, and few tears traveling down his cheeks.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry," Azumi apologized.

"It's okay, Miss Kiribyashi," the driver assured with his hands still over his nose, "I found a way home."

"All right then, let's go," Azumi told her driver.

The driver was the first to leave the mountain of crates, Azumi followed behind closely. As soon as she sat in the car, her eyes drifted back to the warehouse.

"Mr. Kusanagi, why do I have a feeling that what had seen tonight is something I shouldn't have?"



"I can never get used to this," Ryoko told herself.

As usual, Ryoko was standing over the toilet hunched over. Morning sickness always greeted her other than the sun whenever she woke up now, she still hadn't gotten used to it. It was Saturday, which meant it would be a half day at school luckily.

"Ryoko, are you okay?" Madoka asked on the other side of the door.

"Yeah," Ryoko answered, "I think I'm done."

'Damn that boy, Shizuma,' Madoka thought to herself, 'it's his fault my Ryoko's in this in the first place! If the two of them hadn't been drinking that evening then...!'

"Um, Aunt Madoka," Ryoko tapped her on the shoulder, "why are you getting angry all of a sudden?"

"Huh, oh, it's nothing," Madoka quickly put on her best smile. "Have a good day," Madoka called as her niece left the doorway.

The day went by as it usually did, the bell had just barely rung when Ryoko got to her first period class. Ever since retiring from her K-Fight career, Ryoko decided to focus more on her studies, well, at least she tried to. It was always hard for her to pay attention in class, in fact, she found herself falling asleep in at least one of her classes each day. Lunch was probably the only time she would be wide awake, after all, that's when she was able to hang out with her friends.

"Ryoko, wake up, Ryoko," Hitomi nudged her friend as her face lay on the desk.

"Huh?" Ryoko yawned. "Is it lunch already?"

"You fell asleep again, Ryoko," Hitomi pointed out, "this is the third time this week I've found you asleep at your desk."

"I can't help it," Ryoko told Hitomi as the two walked out the door, "the teacher's just so boring."

"I know, but still...," Hitomi tried to lecture only to be interrupted by a sudden rhonchus.

The two looked into the room to the left of them. In the center of that room was Shizuma, his head planted on his desk and arms folded underneath.

"Shizuma," Ryoko approached the sleeping street fighter, "wake up."

"Zzz...," the navy-haired fighter snored.

"He was like this in Geometry too," Hitomi pointed out, "he didn't even get up when the bell rang."

"He must've had a long night at work," Ryoko concluded.

She planted her eyes on the image of her child's father. He looked so calm and relaxed as he slept there, almost like a child, minus the loud snoring of course. Ryoko couldn't help but smile at the sight of her boyfriend, perhaps their child would probably grow up to be like him. Her arms soon wrapped around the street fighter, her cheek nestling against his for a second, sliding it to the side so that her lips could be placed on his face.

"Sleep well," Ryoko whispered into his ear.

Just as she began to leave the room, her eyes drifted toward his arms. A bandage was wrapped around the wound he had from falling off his bike yesterday, but there was something strange. There were more bandages wrapped around his arm, some on his other arm as well.

"Ryoko, what is it?" Hitomi asked her friend as she returned to Shizuma's side.

Upon closer inspection, there were more bandages wrapped around the street fighter's body, she could even see some on his chest through the collar of his shirt. Scratches were also abundant on his arms, and there was even some dry blood on his new bandages. There's no way he could've gotten all these from work, is there?

"Huh?" Shizuma yawned. "Hm, oh hey, beautiful," Shizuma greeted the samurai girl.

"Hey yourself," Ryoko said with her arms crossed.

"Uh oh, I know that tone of voice," Shizuma said as he pushed himself out of his seat, "something's going on, isn't it?"

"Shizuma, just how did you get those wounds?" Ryoko asked in a demanding voice.

"I told you, I got them from falling off my bike yesterday," Shizuma explained.

"All of them? Shizuma, you only had one cut when you picked me up from school yesterday," Ryoko pointed out.

"I got the rest of these from work," Shizuma quickly thought of an excuse.

"And just how did that happen?" Ryoko asked almost yelling.

"I was piling some crates up like a tower and I fell off from the top," Shizuma lied.

"Don't lie to me!" Ryoko ordered. "You were out fighting, weren't you?! How else could you have gotten those cuts all over your body, I seriously doubt that you would be able to get all those wounds just from falling down!"

"You can call my supervisor," Shizuma pulled out the ID he received yesterday, "he was there when it happened."

"Give me that!" Ryoko swiped the card from Shizuma's hand. "Warehouse number twenty-six," Ryoko read from the card, "I'm going to call them up and see if you're lying about this to me!"

"By all means, go ahead," Shizuma said.

"You can eat lunch by yourself today, you jerk!" Ryoko yelled before she stomped out of the room.

"Wait, Ryoko!" Hitomi chased after her friend.

"...I'm sorry, Ryoko," Shizuma apologized seconds later, "but I did lie. There's no other way I can make a living for our child."



The first thing Ryoko did as soon as she got out of the building was find a pay phone. Luckily there was one just outside in the quad area. Without wasting anytime, Ryoko placed her one hundred yen into the phone and began dialing the number on Shizuma's ID. The phone rang immediately after she punched in the number, and it took about two rings until someone picked up.

"Hello?" a man on the other end answered.

"May I speak to Hiroyuki Watanabe please?" Ryoko asked as she read the supervisor's name off the ID card.

"This is him," the man on the other line answered.

"Hi, I'm just calling to clarify that one of your workers, Shizuma Kusanagi, had an accident last night when he was at work," Ryoko told the man.

"Oh yeah, the blue-haired kid. Yeah, he fell off some boxes the other night, he got cut up pretty bad from the fall unfortunately. So is he doing well?"

"Yeah, he's fine," Ryoko answered, relieved. "Well, thanks for your time," Ryoko hung up soon after.

"Well, was he lying?" Hitomi asked after.

"No, he was telling the truth," Ryoko answered.



Shizuma was walking down the halls toward the cafeteria now. His eyes were locked to the floor, drifting toward each speck he could find. The floor wasn't interesting to look at, it's just that the weight of Shizuma's thoughts were getting to him. He felt bad about breaking his promise to Ryoko, but he felt even worse breaking his promise to her. But what else could he do, he didn't know any other way to make any descent cash. He was a high school student, the only jobs he could get were being a cashier at some restaurant or store, where's the money in that? He couldn't ask his sister for money, a teacher's salary can just barely pay the rent for the two of them. Heck, he didn't even tell his sister, Tomoe, about what happened between Ryoko and him that evening.

"Mr. Kusanagi," a voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Huh, what do you want, Azumi?" Shizuma asked.

It was weird that the current K-Fight champion wanted to talk with him. The two of them never really spoke to each other. The only really spoke once and a while, but the conversations usually ended up going nowhere. Most of the time when they did talk, it was during a K-Fight, but even those were rare between the two.

"There's something I wish to discuss with you, Mr. Kusanagi," Azumi told Shizuma.

"Look, if you want to challenge me to a K-Fight then I gotta refuse," Shizuma began to turn his back on her.

"It's not that, Mr. Kusanagi," Azumi replied, "it's about what you were doing at the docks last night."

"You were there?" Shizuma asked.

"I saw what happened there last night," Azumi told Shizuma, "you were fighting with a man. I don't know the details, but I know you were in some kind of street fight. If I can recall, didn't you tell Miss Mitsurugi that you would stop fighting for the sake of your child?"

"Just how do you know about that?!" Shizuma asked, practically yelling.

"I told her," Daisaku suddenly appeared.

"I keep my tabs on the former K-Fight champion through Daisaku," Azumi explained.

"And why are you confronting me about this, Princess?" Shizuma spat. "You gonna blackmail me or something?"

"As much as I dislike the former champion, I would appreciate it if you kept your word," Azumi told Shizuma.

"I would keep my word, but there's no way to make descent money for students, you know," Shizuma explained.

"True, but aren't you worried that something may happen to you before that child is born?" Azumi asked.

"Nothing'll happen to me!" Shizuma boasted. "I'm the invincible Shizuma Kusanagi, the strongest man in the world!"

"If you are invincible, then why did you lose to Nagumo a while back?" Azumi asked.

"That didn't count, he was able to use Solvania's powers whenever he please, so that wasn't a fair fight," Shizuma defended himself.

"Just stop fighting for your girlfriend's sake," Azumi ordered once more.

"You can't make me."

"I can tell her what you've been doing."

"Don't get caught up in my affairs, rich girl!" Shizuma spat.

"I'll get caught up in your affairs if I wish to do so," Azumi sneered, "and if my threats still aren't enough, then I'll have to be the one to send you into your retirement."

"Azumi Kiribyashi-senpai, Mr. Shizuma, please stop this," Daisaku began pleading.

"Bring it on, Princess," Shizuma taunted, ignoring Daisaku. "I'll kick your ass, keep your mouth shut, and steal that K-Fight championship away from you."

"Oh really?" Azumi said as she drew her naginata. "In that case, let's take this to the ring!"

'I better tell Miss Ryoko about this...," Daisaku thought to himself as he began tip-toeing out of the area.

"Don't you dare tell Ryoko about this!" Shizuma snarled at her loyal follower.

"You're coming with us!" Azumi grabbed him by the collar.



Author's Note: I guess I'll leave at that for now. So how was it, it felt kinda slow to me, but eh, whatever. So why don't you leave me a review, and as usual, no flames (the more positive reviews, the faster I'll update). I promise I'll make the Shizuma and Azumi fight pretty good for the next chapter. I couldn't fit the fight in this chapter because I plan on making it pretty long, longer than Shizuma's fight with Hiroyuki. So in the meantime, this is it, later people.