Onimaru Ken

“I wasn’t expecting you to join a club like this, Izumi-san.” Onimaru comments in a polite tone which contrasted heavily with his appearance.

He also had quite the soft-spoken voice, to the surprise of, mostly, just Hiroto.

“Well, I had my reasons.” The silver-haired girl replied with a mischievous little smile on her lips, followed by a wink. “Also, it’s a pretty good excuse to do some exercise! This li'l body of mine won’t keep its shape by itself, you know!”

“Heh. Touché.” His purple eyes then move to the only other member he hadn’t acknowledged yet. “And who would you be?”

“Kanzaki Hiroto, a-“ The shorter boy replies with a very noticeable uncertainty in his voice. “-temporary member of the dueling club.”

“… temporary?” Asks the taller teen, before shaking his head. “Eh, whatever.” He turns to face Umiko. “Let’s not waste any time. My hands were already aching for a brawl.” Onimaru then looks at a group of three boys with brightly colored hair and a blonde girl, clearly the leader, standing just by the door. “Kim, I’ll be using the back. Don’t let anyone interfere, okay?”

The blond girls nod, with her goons following suit. “You got it boss!” She replied in a surprisingly cute voice.

Giving her a thumbs up for acknowledgment, the black-haired boy then turns to the trio. “Follow me.” Before any of them could say anything, he was already on his way to the back of the building.

Without any real choice, the three followed the delinquent king deeper into the arcade.

***

The path to the back was a short, but incredibly awkward walk. No matter where they looked, the Yumehara students would see many pairs of eyes in the dark, glaring them down.

The place felt hostile, and it almost felt like the group would get ambushed just as soon as they lowered their guard. Thankfully Onimaru’s presence seemed to be the thing that kept those delinquents in check, the ones that tried to make a move would stop dead in their tracks the moment they saw the ‘king’ walking by.

After that tense walk, the dueling club found themselves at what seemed to be an abandoned parking lot, with even a couple of rusted and broken down cars.

While the trio took in the sight, the delinquent turned around. “So-“ He smiled. “-Who’s first?”

The tall boy naturally exuded a threatening aura, but the combination of the thick fog, soft-spoken voice, and the serene expression on his face, somehow made him look even more dreadful.

The brunet felt a pit for in his stomach. He looked to the side where his eyes met with Umiko’s. “You can do it!' She whispers and gives him a thumbs up.

Gulping, the star-eyed boy thinks. ‘If only it were that easy…’ Without much choice, he steps up to the plate. “I-I am.”

“Nice.” The delinquent chuckles to himself. “Try to give me a good one, alright?” While his tone was very polite, the brunet could feel that he wasn’t joking. “It would be a shame if you broke too easily.”

Hiroto feels a shiver run down his spine and alongside it, a tinge of excitement. “S-Sure. I’ll try.”

With one last friendly tap on the shoulder, the two girls make their way to one of the many broken cars, this one being just off to the side where it was, probably, safe to watch the fight from.

“Ready?” Umiko asks with a shout.

The shorter boy takes a deep breath, while the taller chuckles with confidence.

“START!”

Hiroto barely has the time to register that the battle had begun and Onimaru is already making his way towards the shorter teen.

Clasping his fist, the black-haired boy throws a powerful punch at the end of his dash, forcing his opponent to pull a quick sidestep to the side.

While the star-eyed  boy tries to catch his footing after the dodge, Onimaru plants his feet into the ground and swings his arm around, going for a clean hit at the brunet’s ribs. With his quick reflexes, the shorter male was able to defend the strike, but in a very awkward way that didn’t fully absorb the damage.

“Good reflexes.” Smirking, the tall boy notes. “But you lost a good opportunity to counter.”

Indeed, for an opening move, what Onimaru did was incredibly risky, a little too risky in fact.

Almost as if he wanted to be contested.

Taking advantage of the brunet’s failure to counter him, the taller teen wraps his arms around Hiroto’s. While the star-eyed teen couldn’t use arms to block the lower torso, Onimaru brings his knee to the other boy’s stomach in two consecutive strikes. “Hah!” He shouts while doing a third and last strike, more powerful  than the other two, finally letting his opponent free.

As the shorter male groans in pain while holding his stomach, the delinquent simply kicks him once again at the exact same place, but this time with enough force to send his opponent flying into the concrete on the other side of this makeshift battlefield.

***

“Onimaru-kun is still ruthless as ever I see.” Kayoko comments as the taller boy makes his way towards his downed opponent.

Once he reached the groaning teenager, Onimaru wastes no time in grabbing Hiroto by the hair and pulling him up, forcing the other boy to stand up.

“Yeah, if Kanzaki-kun doesn’t switch his strategy soon, he is gonna be going home in way more bruises than when he fought you.” Umiko replies biting her lip. ‘Onimaru is known for his brutality in combat. If things get too bad, I should-‘

“Ahhhhh!” Hiroto’s sharp, pained screams snap the bluenette out of her thoughts.

***

Having grabbed the shorter teen’s head with both of his hands, the delinquent holds him in place before bringing his own noggin towards his opponent in a powerful headbutt.

“Gaah!”

“We’re not over yet!”

Letting go of his dome, Onimaru grabs the stunned brunet by the right arm and lifts him up, before slamming Hiroto back on the ground right behind himself.

As he was lying there, still stunned by the attacks he received, the delinquent goes in to grab the shorter boy’s head again in order to repeat that same combo, but this time the star-eyed boy breaks out of his daze earlier and catches the taller teen by surprise with a headbutt of his own.

“Gah!” The black-haired boy steps back and that gives the shorter teen enough time to roll away from his opponent and jump back up.

“Hah, ah, hah.” Hiroto breaths in and out as the sharp pain in his forehead and back slowly subside. He takes this small window to quickly go over his first impressions of Onimaru’s combat style.

First thing to note, the delinquent boy didn’t hold back, like at all. The star-eyed boy was certain that if any other student got hit with that combo, they would have blacked out instantly.

Next there are his moves. The black-haired boy had a style of movement that was completely opposite to Kayoko’s, with his attacks feeling more like the unpredictable movements of an unrefined but powerful beast, while the fashionista’s felt more like calculated and elegant strikes.

Last thing to keep in mind were his attacks. They are a mix of simple strikes, grabs, and throws with no rhyme or rhythm to them.

Basically how a street fighter would attack, prioritizing damage over covering their weak points, and yet, his moves didn’t feel anywhere close to amateurish. In fact, the brunet was sure that the openings he was seeing were left there fully on purpose.

“Good, I almost thought you had passed out back there.” Onimaru completely shakes off any damage Hiroto’s headbutt might have caused. “At the very least you seem pretty durable, Kanzaki-san!” He  shouts while once again rushes forward.

This time however, the delinquent king goes for an uppercut out of his dash.

‘Even if that is his intention, I’ve got no other choice!' The brunet makes up his mind and quickly twirls his body around the uppercut from his opponent while at the same time grabbing Onimaru’s arm and positioning his leg right behind his opponent’s. “Hah!” Pulling a similar maneuver to what he did to Kayoko, the shorter teen puts his strength into trying to flip the taller boy over.

However, to his surprise, the black-haired boy managed to hold his own by simply using his superior strength to not get tripped over by Hiroto’s leg. “Good try.” He smiled, knowing that the two were now in a stalemate.

Without any other options, the star-eyed boy was forced to let go of the other boy’s arm and swiftly untangle their legs before jumping away from him.

Taking a deep breath, the brunet stares at his smiling opponent. ‘Just as I thought, he-‘

***

Back at the entrance, Kim and her goons found themselves in quite a precarious situation.

Two of the boys with brightly colored hair were on the floor unconscious, the third one with red hair was shaking while standing in front of a stunned Kim.

“I didn’t want to use violence-“ The blond man that bumped into Hiroto earlier stood there, with a tired expression resting on his face. “-but you lowlifes don’t seem to understand that.”

“W-What are you thinking, old man!?” Yells the redhead while preparing to throw a punch with his shaking hand. “Y-You can’t just barge in and-“

“You can’t just skip school because you feel like it, yet here you idiots are.” Retorts the blond without even looking at the boy.

‘Who the heck is this guy?' The blonde girl asks herself, before getting up and baring her fangs. “Listen here, you old fart! We’re gonna mur-“ She freezes in place as the man sends her a glare.

“I may be a teacher, but if you think that is going to stop me from defending myself, then you’re dead wrong.” He walks closer to the girl, her goon was too paralyzed in fear to stop him. “So I shall say once again. Get out of my sight.” His crimson eyes were so intense that the girl felt her knees give up, and she fell to the ground.

As no one else dared to move, the blond took that as a sign to proceed.

“Now if you excuse me.” He puts his hands back into the pockets of his lab coat. “I have a duel to watch.”