Chapter 02 – The First Mission
Inside the discipline master's office…
"Look at this, Kitahara-kun." The disciplinary head showed Takeshi pictures of students from different levels.
"These are the blacklisted people who have committed offences like bribery and bullying. Look carefully." He described the details of the students in the blacklist. And one particular student catches his eye.
He then asks the discipline master: "How did this person get blacklisted?"
"He was blacklisted for extorting protection money from the first year students." is the reply from the head himself. "But I just can't get evidence to put him to justice, so I need you first to get evidence of his wrongdoing for me so that I can expose him."
Time shifts to the afternoon where it's lunch break. Takeshi went to the male toilet to relieve himself, but as soon as he goes into the cubicle and locks the door, he hears some sounds coming from outside the cubicle.
"Footsteps…" was the thought that ran in Takeshi's mind when he hear those sounds.
He starts to take out his camera phone and sets it to video recording mode, but did not record anything immediately. Instead, he uses his arms to pull himself up above the height of the cubicle door. There he sees a young student standing outside the cubicle next to him. He looks to his right and saw the door of that cubicle is open.
"He must've waited for someone… but I have a weird feeling about this…!" thought Takeshi, and lowered himself down. But soon after, he heard the sound of the toilet flush and the opening of the door heard more clearly with his left ear.
Afterwards Takeshi heard a conversation ongoing which made him suspicious, so he raised his head over the door and saw a big-sized person talking to the young student that was outside the same cubicle before.
As he listens on, he start to realize that the big-sized person is forcing the young student to give 3000 yen to him. Takeshi immediately stands on the covered toilet bowl and started filming the conversation secretly until the big-sized guy walked out of the male toilet.
Takeshi then quickly came out of the cubicle after hiding his camera phone and approached the young student.
"Are you a first-year student?" Takeshi asked the young student.
The student nodded his head.
"I would never thought that I would meet such a bad person!" he said sadly with an angry tone.
"Is his surname Fujiyama? That guy who forced you to give him money?" Takeshi asked again to the new student.
The student nodded once again. Then Takeshi put his hand on the student's shoulder.
"I hope you can help me identify that person when we have the evidence to catch him." He told the young student, asking for the student's cooperation.
Later at the discipline master's office, Takeshi showed him the video clip which depicted Fujiyama extorting the young student's money.
"Without a doubt, that's him all right." The disciplinary head said after watching the video. "No wonder we can't get any evidence of his wrongdoing. I think we are ready to catch him…"
"…and teach him a lesson he'll never forget!" Takeshi completed what the discipline master said. "But we need to get that student in the video to help point out the culprit."
The next day, the disciplinary head caught Fujiyama trying to extort more money from a female first-year student, but Fujiyama showed his strength to him by showing his muscles, however…
"…is that all you've got, Fujiyama?" a student walked up the stairs to reach where the discipline master is, with the previous victim following him. That person is Takeshi.
"We have evidence that you're forcing people to give you money, is that right?" Takeshi questioned Fujiyama sternly. "And we have now caught you red-handed!"
"Did you ate guts or something!" Fujiyama sneered at Takeshi's size. "Don't you know who you're up against? Huh?"
But Takeshi didn't care about what he said at all!
"I think you don't know who you're dealing with…" Takeshi replied calmly but seriously.
"Hah! Even the discipline master is afraid of me now, and you don't?" Fujiyama tries to make Takeshi retreat, but Takeshi just walked a few steps towards him.
"You're nothing but a giant load of trash that needs to be thoroughly cleaned up!" Takeshi declared.
And this really makes Fujiyama angry.
"And now I'll show you who's the load of trash!" Fujiyama declared to Takeshi, and charged with his punch aiming at his face. Meanwhile, Takeshi gets ready to draw his two knives for a counter-attack. In a flash, he was dashing right towards Fujiyama and immediately draws his knives to fight back.
"Phantom Cutter!"
(effect: monotone screen with two long horizontal knife cuts)
The scene is frozen for five seconds while Takeshi reappears behind where Fujiyama stopped (and in front of the girl who just got her money extorted). After the five seconds, Fujiyama fell to the ground motionless and Takeshi begins withdrawing his knives back to their holders. This amazed not only the discipline master and the young student, but everyone who has looked at the scene were speechless at how powerful Takeshi can be at taking down that school bully.
Meanwhile, a young girl with hair down to her shoulders was also amazed at how it happened.
"So that's Kitahara… nicknamed the Modern Battousai…" this young girl thought to herself.
"No way…! That speed and attack power…" her friend was equally amazed at his skills.
"This can't be…" the disciplinary head went towards Fujiyama. "…will he die…?"
Takeshi shook his head, and said: "That bully will wake up in about ten minutes' time."
During the ten minutes, the three of them brought the unconscious bully to the discipline room. And when he woke up, his neck was near the sharp edge of Takeshi's big knife which scared the hell out of him.
"Speak!" Takeshi looked very furious. "Who asked you to extort money from the juniors! Where does the money you got from them go to?"
Initially, he wouldn't speak, but over time he revealed that he gave most of the money to a gang of high school dropouts loitering in the town area and he kept the little amount remaining himself.
"Darn! When did this area become infested with gangsters…!" Takeshi growled at Fujiyama's relevation. "What exactly happened? Wasn't this place safe here before?"
"Actually…" the discipline master explained to Takeshi what happened to Izimizaka High some time before.
Three years ago, Izumizaka High is one of the most respected schools in the area because of the Film Club and the Literature Club brought glory to the high school (the Film Club produced a award-winning film-maker and photographer Junpei Manaka; while the Literature Club produced another award-winning novelist Aya Toujou), but ever since a armed gang moved their base near this school, both Izumizaka High and the nearby Oumi High faced falling enrolment rates because students there might face dangers posed by the gangsters such as extortion and molestation. The gang themselves have weapons that they carry around (without any licences to own them): One has a machete, another has a sub-machine gun, and three others have metal bats.
"So there are five members in the gang… and all are high school dropouts?" Takeshi probed further.
"Each of them are dropouts from one of the high schools in the area, and that includes Izumizaka High and Oumi High." The discipline master replied his query.
"So there's a female in this gang too, since Oumi High is an all-girls high school…" Takeshi concluded.
"And they usually move around seperately or in twos so that they can disperse quickly even if they're outnumbered, and even if one or two of the members are caught, the rest are still able to get their members out of the police station. That's why we fear them so much that we have little control over the discipline in our school…" The disciplinary head explained further worriedly.
But by then Takeshi's fists had already been tightened to the fullest extent, and the discipline master noticed that the knife holders on his belt are vibrating very vigourously.
"What happened to your weapons…?" the discipline master asked Takeshi.
Takeshi sighed, and explained: "These KaiXuan Double Blades have a life of its own. When they sense something unjust, they vibrate very vigourously; the more unjust the incident is, the harder they vibrate. In addition, they are connected to my soul and mind, so the blades' vibrations reflect what I'm thinking right now."
The discipline master looked on as the knives vibrated continuously.
After that, Takeshi went out of the disciplinary room and returned to class.
"If I don't uproot this gang of terror, many schools in this area will suffer…!" He thought as he went back to class.
End of Chapter 02