13. Terms and Conditions

Day: 5

Morning

Jack POV

"How are you nephew?!"

Kenzo looked at his dad's best friend with a dazzled look.

Clearly getting woken up by a full adult was always going to be jarring for the little guy.

Not that Jack minded doing this, but he could see the look of contempt from Kenzo when the boy was able to comprehend what he was seeing, losing his dreariness.

"Bro...are you like jobless or something?"

Jack chuckled.

It was not far from the truth.

He was trying to start a new business having it flunked back in America, which was basically a corner store which he set up on the street.

He was always living life on the edge, always ignoring his watches little advice on life, marriage, etc...

And it frees him from the shackles of the government.

He is free to be whatever he wants as long as he can do the things he needs.

"Well nephew! Just helping back your family for all the good stuff they do! This includes chores and taking care of trash like you!"

"har har har..." Kenzo mocked Jack, getting himself out of bed and stretching, getting ready to make his way out of his room.

"I also actually wanted to learn more about your updates...how is your love thing going?"

Kenzo rubbed his eyes after a few stretches before making eye contact with Jack, his small smile was a good sign to the older gentlemen.

"Honestly? So far not bad, I have including myself about four members, while they did ask for six, I think if I can at least find one more by Monday, the principal might be willing to give me another week extension to find the last members..." Kenzo trailed off as if he was suddenly reminded of something that happened yesterday, and he went solemn again.

Jack knew that look.

"Bro...you can trust me...I am your All Might and you are my Midoriya, you can rant and tell me all what is bothering you..." Jack decided to sit cross legged on the floor to show that he was willing to hear Kenzo out.

"You mean the second half of the manga All Might? Useless and just drops random pearls of wisdom?" Kenzo said as a joke, obviously deflecting his internal struggle.

Jack chuckled before responding, "Well that is accurate, but this bum will still drop the best pearl of wisdoms that you would hear, and just like Midoriya, you could take those and turn your life around."

Kenzo sighed when he noticed he was not going to get out of this before he went ahead and explained himself.

"Usually I am very chill and supportive of Daiki, he is really the only true friend I have had for years. But since the first time we met, he always felt indebted to me because I sacrificed my social standing to be his friend. It is all water under the bridge and all though, but I think with that being his driving goal throughout his life, it has made him one note. I think I cost him his relationship and I got mad and told him to grow a pair and to live for himself..."

Kenzo shook his head and sighed heavily, before continuing.

"I was a bit harsh to him yesterday and I was not sure if I was able to properly explain to him what I meant. I was more upset with myself for letting myself profit off of his help for so long, but he should detach himself from me and form his own goals, how that looks like and if my pep talk even went through, I have no idea...but I assume if he takes my advice, he can finally stop being handicapped and maybe get with the person he should be with."

Jack listened to all this carefully before he spoke, knowing this scenario too well.

"Take it from someone like me Kenzo, someone who is your dad's best friend and someone who owes his life to your dad..."

Kenzo made eye contact as he suddenly noticed the parallels with his relationship with Daiki and how his father and Jack were, a parallel that Jack wanted to make Kenzo realise. Jack continued.

"Think of me as the Daiki in this scenario. I strived all my life to pay back that debt your dad for me. What your dad told me eventually was in a heat of a moment hurtful comment, but it changed my trajectory for the better. I am sure this was your moment with Daiki, but that sudden realisation of the dependence of the relationship and learning to mature and grow past this is part of the learning process. We went through this, and this was your moment with Daiki this time. In fact I believe you handled it way better than your dad did...and your friend will come around,  just like I am doing now and grow to become their own person..."

Kenzo smiled at the reassurance, nodding his head appreciating the fact that Jack could give him some future insight into that issue, however he still had to state the obvious.

"Wait are you still not super attached to my dad and his family and all? Like you still hang around us like a pet..."

The awkward silence stayed for a second before Jack replied.

"I guess you are as rough as your dad..."

Kenzo chuckled before asking "work in progress?"

Jack sighed before smiling and saying "I think I might be slowly now finding my true path, had a chat with a lovely lady recently, but it is a work in progress...don't worry about your friend though, he will go through it much faster than I could."

"Let's hope... but anyways, I have somewhere to be..."

Jack was surprised that Kenzo already was getting himself ready to head off to somewhere.

"Are you not going to have breakfast?"

Kenzo was prepping, his mind occupied with the task ahead, but he still answered regardless.

"I have to head to the community park, I have spoken to Daiki but not to his ex, I need to understand what exactly went down there and if there is anything that could be done to improve their relationship..."

Jack shook his head seeing his friend's son get ready.

"You are always looking for others, you need someone to have your back."

Kenzo looked back at Jack and smirked before responding "No need, just like my watch says, I was built to be my own back, ain't no one got my ass like me"

Jack nodded slowly. "That is one way to put it..."

*****

Day: 5

Morning

"Soo...you want me to mediate a scuffle?"

"Basically!" Rin was ecstatic, her red and blue hair twin tails were shaking as she was jumping with excitement as her purple eyes glittered with the prospect of their being a huge fight.

Sakura was keeping herself busy with handling the community house. Ever since the little breakup with Daiki she had wanted to keep her mind off of dating and all for a while and so she kept her nose buried in the community, trying to reset and remind herself what her entire purpose was.

Of course she had her want of doing her investigation into the government, but she flopped it so bad she was rethinking her strategy altogether and thought that a connection with the community will help ease her mind.

Well it was going well, but now she is being approached by this girl who she vaguely recognised. She claimed to be from her class in primary school, but Sakura had no awareness of that. She didn't befriend most people at school so it seemed unlikely, but she took the girl as saying the truth.

The problem seems to be that she is now being requested to mediate a potential discussion that might turn into a fight. Sakura herself had some experience in fighting, but she had no idea if this was even a good idea.

The girl in front of her who was literally bursting with excitement was accompanied with a similar looking boy, who was busy mumbling to himself.

"Oh! That is my brother! He is about a year older than me but he acts younger than me most times! He got some grand delusion that he is some main character or something...actually this is not relevant because I am just requesting that you just make sure he and his friends who show up don't cause any trouble! I would do this job myself but my brother wants to make sure everyone here is safe and wants your help! He didn't pick this location so it really is not his fault!"

"Uh-huh..." Sakura was taking this all in with a huge dosage of scepticism. 

She was aware that there was a whole underground delinquent system with the school, she was also aware that some of her classmates were potential members in these gangs. What she heavily disliked, was the idea that any of the drama could leak out onto to other places that might be dangerous for others in the area.

"Why would your brother even bother meeting up with them if he knows this is dangerous, does he not care about the people here?" Sakura posed the question to Rin, before turning to Hiro and asking him "...and are you just going to continue narrate to yourself and let your sister do all your talking for yourself? Or are you going to chime in and be relevant to the discussion?"

Hiro stopped mumbling before he approached Sakura, closing the distance as he had his hands in his pockets as he stood really close to her, appearing to be intimidating. She did not flinch and rather narrowed her eyes and maintained eye contact, to show she was not going to be intimidated.

"Shit would have spilled out if I did not accept his conditions, these guys seem to have an agenda that would be horrible to not only the people in the school, it would be bad for those who are in the community centre here too..." Hiro explained, making sure his seriousness was caught on by Sakura.

"...I know because the Metal Fang leader Epsilon is no joke, he may act like he has a code of moral conduct but he is driven to achieve his goal no matter what. I was totally suspecting that if I did not agree to his terms then there could be unforeseen circumstances. I relied on my sister to make this a smooth introduction but it seems you already assume we are coming to hurt your community, so here is my promise. I will protect your community centre from them so long as you lend me your strength..."

Sakura took all what Hiro said into consideration, the gears in her head figuring out this puzzle piece.

She then reached the conclusion that even if this pair had bad intentions, the fact that they are giving her a chance to stay neutral and also that they are not trying to attack any of her peers, makes it seem that they might be saying the truth.

"Alright, I will mediate this conversation, but only to remain neutral..."

Hiro nodded and just as she finished agreeing, his watch beeped to indicate a new message.

A new message from Epsilon.

"It is time..."

*****

Epsilon POV

Epsilon was patiently leaning against the entrance of the community centre when he had sent the message from his watch. Everything was going smoothly for now and he was enjoying the slow game that was being carried out.

He felt his left eye twitch and his hand instinctively went ahead and ran his finger across the eye patch he now wore over his eye.

An accident they called it, but in life...there are no accidents.

After contemplating on his injury which was hidden behind the patch, he ran his fingers through his maroon mullet hair, as he whistled to pass the time.

"These guys are really taking their sweet ass time..." He mumbled to himself, smiling robotically whenever anyone would walk past him as he continued leaning where he stood.

His target soon appeared as he saw three figures approaching him from the distance, he smiled as he could recognise the Elephant.

"Well this is interesting, did not know you would bring yourself bodyguards..." Epsilon joked when he could see that the Elephant was in earshot.

"Save your breath...tell me your terms and conditions and leave this place, we don't need you ruining this centre. Here is Sakura, she is to be our mediator and to maintain the peace between us..."

Epsilon raised his eyebrows as if to ask if this is a joke.

"You can act all serious if you want Elephant, I only called you out here because I wanted to see your dumbass in person, and you look just as ridiculous as I imagined you to be..."

The Elephant's lookalike female got angry and was apparently approaching Epsilon to punch him, but Sakura immediately held her back.

The Elephant was not impressed at all.

"If you are done acting all macho, tell me your conditions...quick."

"How can I even trust your mediator huh? You literally walked up to the meeting with a mediator that sounds extremely biased, not that I care since I could do whatever the shit I want to all three of you and everyone here and no one could stop me..." 
Epsilon let the threat linger but chuckled when he saw his targets not flinch or get agitated.

Well looks like whatever this is, they are hooked in, so I will now proceed with the next part of the plan.

"Alright I will stop wasting your time...terms has changed to now ask for 3 of your members to fight against 3 of mine...This time this is gang vs gang, not a single person against another. I am aware your gang Hiro, the nameless one, have a pretty shitty reputation despite the fact you all try to be good... so good luck finding people willing to take those spots...I am ready to break the old ass rule of not asking for gang fights and stake 3 people against 3 others."

Epsilon grinned as he let them react to the new terms. The Elephant decided to ask.

"What happens if we refuse?"

Epsilon was waiting for this.

"Then you will be degraded for being cowards and you will never lose that name of yours..."

The Elephant squinted before asking another question.

"Why does this matter so much to you? Thought this was some stupid boyfriend issue, why does this have to happen?"

Epsilon now knew he could not answer that.

He had an inkling that some crazy person was leaking information from his gang, he was not aware who, but someone was feeding the journalism club information about the hacking watch incident.

If they find out the truth his gang will be finished.

He cannot let that happen, and this would be a sure fire way to distract the people and maybe even pin the deed onto The Elephant.

"It doesn't matter, you refuse and I will torment the stupid kids here and the ones at school till they want to give up...make sure you find your 3 fighters by tomorrow and I will see you guys then..."

Epsilon had said his piece and made his way out of there, intentionally letting out a wolf whistle at Sakura, who glared angrily at him as he walked off.

*****

Sakura POV

"What an asshole..." Sakura said, to which Hiro and Rin nodded their heads.

"Listen sis, sorry about my bro and that guy...we just want to..."

Sakura cut off Rin by acknowledging what happened.

"I realise that this is not your guys fault, and I apologise for judging you all, heck I have associated myself with shitty things too to justify good actions. Anyways whatever fight stuff is going down, I want you to know that I am glad you guys are looking out for us over here. Just don't get your ass beat and get some bad ending..." Sakura added the last joke, knowing that Rin told her that Hiro was into that kind of roleplay.

Hiro did an appreciate nod, but before he could say anything, he was tackled to the ground immediately by a black blur.

"What the shit..." Rin exclaimed, before the black blur stood up (turned out the assailant just had black hair) and sheepishly stood there, his hands awkwardly behind his head as he stood there to act apologetic.

"Woah shit...sorry I just dashed and without looking and tackled the man. I thought that was like some dude that was harassing you ladies, it is just the madman Hiro..."

As the conversation around her started to blend into an argument, with Hiro and Rin going at the newcomer who was yelling back swears and apologies... all Sakura could think of was...

"Outcast?"

The newcomer immediately stopped what he was conversing with Rin and Hiro and made immediate eye contact with Sakura, the mood shifted quickly into a much more serious mood.

"Why...do you know that nickname?" Kenzo asked solemnly. 

oh crap.