Sasaki and Creeps

“KO!”

The victory echo of a fighting game cabinet shot through the arcade before a round of cheers erupted. Several pats on the back were given to the victor as he smugly grinned at how easy it was.

“Yo, that was tight!”

“As expected of Kanto’s ‘King of the Iron Foot’!”

For Douran Sasaki, this was his ultimate guilty pleasure. As the owner of an arcade, he had the simple task of looking cool by using his gaming skills to attract young blood. Hotheaded teenagers were straightforward to rope in, opening the door to them joining the family on a whim. It was all an elaborate ruse to bolster the number of foot soldiers in the Shindou Family.

“Alright, alright. Who’s next? Anyone that dares to challenge the great master of Tessoku 8 can form a line. But be warned that those who lose owe me a little favor.”

Youngsters couldn’t turn down competitiveness and a certain pride after losing, so he could get them to take care of simple errands – a handoff here, some sticky fingers there. These requests started off simple and clean, but with each round of losses, Sasaki gave these children more and more risky tasks.

Sometimes, the delivery contents contained illegal drugs. Other times, he flat out asked them to steal from a ‘troubled shopkeeper’. It was a way to gradually build up one’s insensitivity to crime. After creating a rap sheet under his bookkeeping, they would no longer see yakuza activities with moral lenses.

Sasaki didn’t care what happened to them afterwards. He was recruited to play games all day. It was his dream job.

“Here comes a challenger!”

That line of text suddenly jumped out, prompting Sasaki to crack his knuckles, ready for another close win to make the other player feel a bit better about losing.

As the word “FIGHT!” popped on the screen, he sat there waiting for his opponent to open himself up with the first move… only, neither one committed to going.

Fine, I’ll go first then!

Sasaki walked up and threw a simple punch… and was promptly countered. Quickly, he pulled back his character, redirecting his focus to size up his opponent, who continued to stand there like a statue.

Sasaki pulled a feint, going high and then low, but a foot was right there waiting for him with another counter.

“Heh, someone actually decent!” Sasaki smirked as he now became fully invested.

He moved back and forth, circled around his opponent, and threw out fake attacks that didn’t quite reach – all to goad his opponent into slipping up. When he did, a 42-hit air juggle combo that would essentially wipe out an entire health bar was waiting. It was his sure-fire comeback tactic.

Somehow, his opponent refused to take the bait, continuing to stand around like a statue. When Sasaki finally decided to move in for the starting combo, a sudden knee to the face smashed him right out of the setup, a surprise given how tuned his Tessoku instincts were. The round ended with time running out, much to his annoyance that he hadn’t gotten a single hit in. A win for his mystery opponent.

“Round 2 – Fight!”

Sasaki shot forward this time, letting loose a flurry of strikes. But suddenly, he found himself caught in a stream of continuous kicks that cut him off. His jaw dropped as he watched his opponent send out the simplest combo of all – a string of same button presses devoid of any skill at all.

Worse yet, every time Sasaki tried to slip in an attack, he was interrupted perfectly in the same way, no matter how Sasaki tried to change his button timing. Frustration dotted his brow as he watched his health bar gradually shaved off.

“KO! Perfect!”

The arcade was dead silent as Sasaki was handed the ultimate takedown of his best character, not to mention a serious jab at his championship abilities.

“No way, no fucking way! Who the hell-”

Sasaki threw his head around the cabinet to see his opponent, only for his heart to freeze.

“Ya-Ya-Ya Yama Ryu!”

“Hey there, Captain Sasaki. I heard you ran the place and decided to drop by for a few rounds. You see, your boss decided to rough up my captains, so I thought it was only appropriate to return the favor. Now, I know you’re not the physical type, so I decided to give this a try.”

Leaping to his feet, Sasaki snatched the stool he was sitting on and swung it forward, only for a single kick to send him flying back into a different set of cabinets. It was the first time that Sasaki suffered a double ‘Perfect’ loss in a row.

“Changing up the rules mid-match, heh? And for a moment, I was going to let you off easy. But if you’re going to make the first swing, then I’m game.”

The kids around them stood dumbly at the entire exchange, unable to speak until the winner turned in their direction.

“You know, old man Sasaki isn’t a very nice guy. He takes strange pleasure in making you think you’re going to win, only to cackle as he snatches victory away. I’m sure some of you were convinced to run some of his ‘errands’ just to get another crack at winning against him, am I right?”

A few of the kids nodded silently.

“Remember, you don’t have to play on his terms to get good at something. Go play amongst yourselves. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to teach this bully a lesson.”

The kids stared as Sasaki was picked up with one arm and dragged toward the back room, but before they exited, the man punched a token exchange machine, causing it to spill out its contents. Free play for the kids, courtesy of the Yamaoka Family.

“Yo, that was tight!”

“Yama Ryu, was it? That was awesome!”

v

Ryuji dusted his hands off after giving Sasaki a good pummeling. He deserved it for roping young kids into shady yakuza business and leaving them high and dry if they were caught. Those that were successful had been recruited into the Shindou Family, using their past misdeeds as blackmail to coerce them into taking the vow.

Ryuji sneered at Shindou’s so-called ‘captains’. For someone building up an army, the chain of command valued recruitment over anything else, Sasaki being a prime example. The resulting number of gang members on paper felt strong, but as Ryuji suspected, they were nothing more than toy soldiers.

After leaving the Road of Gold, Ryuji decided to take revenge on the Shindou Family. He had nothing to fear after hearing that Takashima was backing him. The snake of the Azumito Alliance would hardly come to his aid if things went sour. More likely, he had sown seeds of discord to drive a wedge into the Tenjou Clan, making it weaker in the end.

Since his captains were targeted, Shindou could expect the very same to happen in return. Only, Shindou had over 40 captains to control the bloated roster under him. And by the time he took down half of them, he was honestly getting a bit bored.

That was why he decided to give Sasaki a chance through an arcade match, something that Ryuji barely had any experience in. Unfortunately for Sasaki, Grace had all the match data for Tessoku 8 downloaded into her archive, so she could easily predict what attack was being launched. Combined with Ryuji’s superb reaction time, all he had to do was mash attack until his opponent buckled.

“See! Look how useful I am! You should praise me more for doing a good job!” Grace crossed her arms, acting like a virtual queen sitting atop a throne of trash bins.

Her augmented skills came in handy quite often, much to Ryuji’s surprise. Gambling was a cinch because she could tap into the vision of those around him, revealing the hands that they possessed. It became quite useful when one captain wouldn’t come out of the back room of his mahjong parlor until he soundly emptied the pockets of his minions.

Being able to see everyone’s hand made it so that Ryuji would never deal into their hands, all the while racking up the score through his own luck. It was cheating, but then again, this mahjong parlor was notorious for having the Shindou Family work together to gang up on unsuspecting gamblers. It was an eye for an eye. Or rather, a captain for a captain.

The same went for blackjack and poker at the casinos, where he found out that the house used a hidden camera to see the next cards in the deck, occasionally shuffling them through slight of hand as needed. Being able to see what they saw exposed the lies of ‘fairness’, so none of the patrons minded when the owner was taken out with the trash in the name of justice.

“Yes, you are wonderful, my lady. Simply the best out there. Grace, the all-seeing fairy that will let none be taken advantage of.” Ryuji added a bow to his monotone lip service.

Grace smacked him for his charades but giggled heartily, nonetheless. She was finding more and more ways to help Ryuji out. And it seemed that some of her goofiness was starting to rub off on him.

They passed by the window of an electronics shop, Ryuji stopping as he saw Grace plaster her face in front of a television playing a show. A catchy tune pricked his ears as he wondered just what it reminded him of.

“Ah, it’s Pretty Cute! I can’t believe they’re on their 20th season already!”

The gears clicked in Ryuji’s head.

“That’s what Ojou…”

He recalled arriving with treats to Miyabi’s room one afternoon, catching her in the middle of a dance routine with colorful magical girls on the screen. She stumbled in surprise at his sudden entrance, a bashful red spreading across her cheeks. Ryuji hadn’t seen her dance outside of her ballroom training before, so of course, he had to tease her about it.

“Do you dance that bad when you don’t have instructors to show you the way?”

“No, of course not, I-”

“I don’t believe you unless you show me.”

Miyabi fidgeted meekly, just like every time she was unsure of what to do. She could command a room when it came to music and dance that were ingrained in her heart. But when it was something not technically trained, her upbringing cast a doubt on her actions.

“Okay, how about if I start first.”

Ryuji crudely mimicked the motions, hardly knowing what to do at all. He was purposefully doing a horrible job at following the characters on the screen. But seeing that Ryuji dove right in, Miyabi gave in and joined as well.

“No, this is how you do it!”

Just like how Miyabi had inspired Ryuji to be better, Ryuji wanted to return the favor of allowing her to have fun when she wanted. In the end, they collapsed in a fit of giggles, mostly over how bad Ryuji’s dancing was.

Ryuji woke up from memory lane as he suddenly felt his body moving on its own. He looked over to see Grace mimicking the dances perfectly. Somehow, she was so focused that it spilled over to manipulating him swaying to the rhythm as well. Only, he was about as graceful as stepping on glass while carrying a giant billboard.

There were times when he felt Grace override his instincts, such as helping him dodge incoming attacks, but this was on a completely different level. He fought to keep himself from falling flat on his face as he twirled around like an unstable top while pulling control back from her.

“Dammit, Grace. Hold for a-”

Ryuji’s growl stopped as he saw the look of bliss on her face. It was the same innocent grin of fun that Miyabi wore at those times. Seeing that, he decided to stop fighting, letting himself move along with her instead.

His motions became more fluid and aligned with hers. He stopped looking like a dog had bit his ass. Even the twirls were no issue as he followed along with the music. For a moment, the two of them crossed paths, in perfect tandem. When the song ended, he sighed, half in relief and half disappointed. When was the last time he played like that with Ojou? It felt almost bittersweet to think about it.

“Hey mommy, that man is a creep. He likes girly cartoons.”

Ryuji froze and nearly cracked at the jab made by some kid. He stiffly turned around to see an audience had formed, with Grace rolling on the ground laughing.

He slowly backed away and ducked into an alley, red in the face at what had happened. Grace caught up to him, her fit of giggles still uncontained as she pointed to his head.

“If you didn’t want that to happen, why didn’t you take off the headgear? We would desync if you did.”

Because I forgot!

That had to be it. There was no way he would have fun dancing to magical girl songs at his age. It didn’t matter if doing so felt rather nostalgic. He was a grown ass adult!

Ryuji stared at the setting sun falling behind the city skyline. He had taken out another five captains. Another day or two more, and he could settle the score. But for now, all he wanted to do was crawl into his bed and hide in the comfort of darkness, somewhere that he wouldn’t be seen.