What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Harder

Fat tats in my face. I bet you’re wondering how I got in this situation.

What if I told you that a certain someone is getting me killed again? Imagine that. Commence the confusion. Listen on and find out.

Or rather, that’s what I would like to say, but the lack of oxygen is getting to me.

It’s not just that. I’ve got a knife to the thigh, and I’m probably bleeding out as well.

What a way to go. Not the worst. But certainly, it would lead to regrets. Many in fact. But before I sign this off as my last will, I need to breathe.

Sorry, I still need to live to enjoy some of this situation. And then, maybe I can explain.

Akio managed to peel his face from the middle of Misaki’s valleys. The roar of a bike engine made sure that his muffled cries of protest were all but drowned out. He peeked around her chest to see a set of bikers behind them. They were in the middle of a chase.

“GIVE ME BACK MY STELLAAAAA!!!”

Akio ripped the knife in his thigh out and tossed it at a biker, causing him to veer away and crash into a pole.

“FUCK Y’ALL! DID YOU THINK THAT FUCKING SOMEONE’S THIGHS GIVES YOU ANY RIGHT!”

Perhaps, that outburst needed a bit of explaining. It sounded so wrong out of context after he said it.

Several weeks have passed since the incident that sent Akio to the hospital. Things more or less went back to how they were before. Well, before the before.

Misaki had picked back up her mantle as the queen of Yokohama’s streets, but she had roped Akio into the thug life as her king.

That didn’t actually mean a lot of differences in their lives. They still went to school, had dates, and made Yuunagi angry as hell with their inappropriate expressions of love. But occasionally, a random encounter would break up that routine.

“You’re the ruler of the streets! Don’t you think you need a crew? What if those assholes from Kawasaki show up? Are you going to take them all on yourself?”

“Let them come,” Misaki said, arms crossed. “Even if the Tokyo Bombers come looking for me, I’ll take them all on. There’s only one man that can keep up with me.”

“Ehhhh, and who’s that?”

Akio raised his hand.

“It’s me, Akio. The guy that you’ve been ignoring this whole damn time.”

The biker thug eyed him strangely.

“Wait… you’re the one that destroyed my Stella!”

“I’ll fucking do it again, if you keep talking shit about me to my face.”

“Oh yeah, asshole?!”

The thug pulled out a knife and stabbed Akio in the thigh suddenly. Looking down at the slight pain that he had grown accustomed to, Akio shook his head.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

The gang laughed at him, wondering what a chump like him could do against all of them. They had completely neglected that Misaki was in love with said ‘chump’.

Several of them were struck by a flying bike, bowling them over. Several more panicked before another motorbike silenced them.

Akio sighed, and then, he punched the guy that stabbed him, right in the face before he could get wrecked as well. He was surprised when Misaki picked him up and threw him over her shoulder, stealing a bike to take him to the nearest medical care.

He was now nested right into Misaki’s chest as she sped off from the chasing bikers. Looking around, he exhaled a sigh of relief. The chase would soon be over.

As if on cue, Tanimura popped out from a corner with a bat, smashing the driver clean off the vehicle. Kitsune pulled a string taut, clotheslining another set of them.

Misaki skidded to a stop and looked back at the one remaining biker – that one that owned precious Stella.

“Well, you’re on our turf now,” she beamed. “I can’t be bothered with trash like you. I’ll leave it to the others.”

Tanimura and Kitsune encircled him, each carrying a bat. The realization that Misaki already had a crew for herself dawned on him.

“No, I’ll j-just head back to my s-side of town. K-keep the bike. It’s a good one.”

And then, he fled like the mercy offered would betray him the moment he looked back.

“You know, Misaki, sometimes I think your nice act is scarier than if you just stayed yankee-like.”

She turned to Akio, stroking his cheek.

“I’ll murder you, you twat.”

“Hnngghhh.” Akio responded as if that turned him on. He got a smack on the head from Yuunagi as she walked up to him.

“Seriously, the two of you get so into that foreplay that it stops being just that. You’ve been stabbed, and you’re not even bothering to treat it!”

Yuunagi pulled out a first-aid kit, now used to carrying it around. She proceeded to wrap some gauze over the wound.

Akio looked around at the pseudo ‘gang’ that had naturally formed around Misaki.

Kitsune was in it for the cash he could earn to save his friend’s sister. Recording the scuffles that happened around town kept his subscribers happy.

Tanimura fell into a funk after his team just missed its chance at Koshien. He vowed to get tougher and bat harder by joining in on the street fights.

Yuunagi simply could not help but stick her neck to keep everyone in line. Akio knew about her apparent crush on him, but he simply decided it was a bomb best left unearthed. Misaki seemed to enjoy having her around anyways, so he just let things run their course.

“Come to think of it,” Kitsune said, tapping his phone to check the videos he saved. “We never came up with a name for this gang. It’ll be far easier to tag our activities if we had one.”

Everyone looked at Misaki, but she deflected their gazes to Akio.

“Your… looking at me to say the right thing? What are you smoking?” he responded.

“It’s got you this far, hasn’t it? I promise I won’t cringe react,” Kitsune jested.

A name had meaning. That was why Akio didn’t want to half-ass it, if someone else had a better idea. His gaze fell on everyone. They were all here because of the relationship he had with Misaki, as well as him being the butt of everyone’s jokes.

“Wada…Hai-”

“What a high? Man, you are smoking something,” Tanimura laughed.

Akio had apparently thought out loud, saying his name first and then Misaki’s.

“Nah, ‘WadaHai’ is something that works as a tag. They are the king and queen of Yokohama, after all.”

Kitsune added the tag onto the videos like it was a done deal. Once again, Akio had unwillingly started something, but he retracted his hand with a smile.

“I guess we have to commemorate this occasion with a picture.”

A few minutes later, Kitsune stared dumbly at the stupid shot that he was forced to make.

Misaki’s muscular thighs.

Akio’s bare bandaged one.

Kitsune and Tanimura’s slacks.

And Yuunagi’s shapely and cute zettai ryouiki.

“I did say your habits have gotten you this far… but not like this, Wada.” Kitsune sighed.

“Thighs are king.”

Misaki wrapped her arms around a prideful Akio. She whispered into his ear.

“I also want to do something to commemorate the occasion.”

A shiver went down Akio’s spine.

“Smash?”

“Smash.”

“The batting center we went to before?”

Misaki shook her head.

“I feel like a little joyride into the next town. Let’s see if we can find ourselves some challengers.”

“You are so going to get me killed some day.”

Misaki pulled him into a tighter embrace, strong enough to squeeze his beating heart. She kissed him behind the ear.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be there to protect you. Leave everything to me.”

They made their way over to the bike named Stella. With a twist of the handlebar, the engine purred as it went forward. He would be the one driving this time. Misaki was content riding bitch as long as she could rub up against him with her chest. He could live with that.

As they rode out of Yokohama and hit the next city, Akio felt quite content with his life now.

He could talk shit freely and people would understand him. School life was no longer a trial to get the right attention. He had friends and something to look forward to each day.

Most of all, he had a girlfriend he loved wholeheartedly.

Wada love… a ridiculous one that will kill me someday…

“Not today though.” Akio smirked as Misaki purred next to him.

The town ahead of him looked particularly bright.

THE END