A terrible idea with perfect execution

“So you just sit here and wait for us to come by?”

Tori and I were sat on the roof of a small office building, around twice the height of the surrounding small restaurants and konbinis.

“Pretty much. Sound travels surprisingly far in the dead of night, so if you wait somewhere high and remain completely silent you can follow even hushed voices and quiet footsteps.”

After I expressed my willingness to go along with Tori’s (still asinine) plan, we quickly got to planning and decided on an area to watch over. Judging by the routes taken, days with high traffic and amount of product currently being smuggled, Tori had narrowed this area down to be the one with the highest chance of yakuza activity tonight. It amazes me how someone without the slightest inkling of common sense can be so damn intelligent when it comes to random things like this.

In all honesty, me being here really is a bad idea. Tori is simply too good at this to need a partner, and I shouldn’t be risking the exposure of my identity. But her adorably honest plea for help already had me beginning to change my mind, and the incredibly cool outfit flipped me like a switch.

Damn that girl, she knows I’m a sucker for style. She dragged me in: hook, line and sinker.

The two of us wait on the rooftop for around half an hour before we hear a peep. Then all at once the silence starts to break. First it’s a few sets of faint footsteps. Then they start to get louder and louder. And then, they speak.

“Keep a look out for that ‘Masked Judge’ freak, yeah? This liquid love stuff is worth it’s weight in gold, and then some.”

“Alright, alright, aniki, I get it. I’ll be careful.”

Drug smuggling. Looking out for vigilantes. Using the lingo. They’re Yakuza alright.

Tori and I look at each other. She silently nods, beckons me to follow her, and slowly starts climbing down the wall of the office block. Considering how completely silent she is, combined with the near-pitch blackness around us, it’s no surprise we never manage to see her coming.

I try to follow behind her, although I’m far slower. “Office block wall scaling” isn’t exactly one of the skills required of a kickboxer. Eventually, though, I touch down softly on the small exclave on the other side of the building. As soon as my feet touch the ground, Tori listens out for the direction of the voices and jumps to the next roof over, touching down almost silently on the top of the konbini. I hold my breathe and follow her, but make far more noise as I land.

“Fuck wazzat?”

Shit, they heard us. Guess we’re going loud.

Tori hops two more roofs to get in front of the smugglers, while I hope down from the one I’m currently on and confront them from the other side.

“Two of ‘em? Since when are there two a’ these bastards?”

“What is a judge without her jury? I simply employed the help of a fellow crime fighter. Hand over the drugs and you can leave unharmed.”

Despite the cringe-inducing manga hero speak, I’m impressed at how much authority Tori commands. When I confronted her I didn’t feel particularly intimidated, but that was due to my own arrogance. Now that I’m witnessing it from the other side, it’s clear that she knows exactly how to express her power over people.

“Like hell. Futo, busu, keep their attention!”

The man in the middle of the three, holding the package that I assume contains the smuggled drugs, makes a break down a side alley while his two companions confront myself and Tori. We’ll need to deal with this fast if we wanna stop this deal before it happens.

The uglier of the two begins to approach me, while the fat one moves in on Tori. As he gets close to me, I move into my stance. And I keep moving, switching my forward leg every second or so, keeping my arms in motion too. The unusual stance seems to confuse ugly, and I use the confusion to make a brutal first strike.

Putting my right hand to the ground, I slide my left leg and strike the side of his leg with a low kick. As he reels from the sudden pain, I instantly switch my grounded hand and throw my right leg, clipping his chin.

Failing to predict the combo, ugly gets dazed and drops his guard, giving me the perfect opportunity to jump from my re-stanced position and knock him out cleanly with a flying turn kick to the jaw.

As my opponent falls to the ground, I see the fat one giving Tori hassle. Looking at him he must be at least twice as strong as the weakling I just floored.

“Jud-”

“Just go, stop the deal! I can deal with chubbs!”

Shit, she’s right. With a run and as big of a jump as I can manage, I get onto the roof of a nearby liquor store and start roof-hopping in the direction of the courier. Cutting out the corners and turns of walking on the ground allows me to catch up significantly faster than I’d expected, even if I managed to wake up the whole damn city doing it.

As I get to just a single rooftop behind him, he seemingly realises there’s no escape, and instead drops the package in his hand and turns to fight. I drop from the roof and immediately re-engage my moving stance, while he takes up a position more reminiscent of peek-a-boo boxing.

This alley is barely wide enough for me to pull off any of the moves this style uses, but I’ll have to make do with what I’ve got.

Trying to gain an early advantage with surprise, I take a sudden step in and slam a low kick into his right leg, the continued movement allowing me to unleash an excessive amount of force. He almost buckles, but steps back and avoids the follow up armada spinning head kick. That was a risky move, which now means he has a window to punish me.

As I rebalance myself, I narrowly dodge the incoming jab by moving my head right, before rolling under the follow-up cross. I seize the opportunity to slam him with another low kick on the same leg, and he makes a pained yelp as he stumbles backwards. This time, the followup connects, and my heel makes contact with his abdomen as I spin on the spot, planting my hand on the ground behind myself.

Reeling from the two consecutive strikes, he’s unable to bring his guard back in time to block the mighty uppercut I unleash into his chin. Despite the gloves softening the blow, It’s more than enough to take him off his feet, and he lands on his back, knocked completely unconscious.

I walk over and take the white unmarked package from the ground. If what we heard was right, this is the street drug that’s been valued at a price so high it can drive a person to homelessness in a month. I guess I should keep hold of this. I’m not sure what to do with it, but I’m sure To-

Oh shit, Tori!

I climb back onto the roof and begin jumping over all the narrow streets below me, until Tori and the fat lard come back into view. Sure enough, they’re still fighting. Although it looks more like Tori is playing with her food than having any real trouble.

“Jury! Let’s execute him!” she shouts at me as she sees me come into view.

Thankfully she is not asking me to murder a man in the streets with her. “Execution” is a two-person move she came up with to put down troublesome opponents. She’s probably only let the fight last this long so we’d have a chance to try it out. Although I can’t say I’m not kinda enjoying this too.

“On it!”

I hop down from the rooftop and run towards chubbs, and watch as Tori sets up the first part of the move. She ceases striking and instead grapples his right arm, moving her right leg behind his and pushing forwards slightly, tipping his balance. As I get right behind him, I catch his left foot with a foot sweep in the opposite direction, and Tori pushes with all her might. His two legs being dragged in opposite directions, he’s pulled into a split. If his pained yelp tells me anything, it’s that I do not want to be on the receiving end of this move.

“You got the stuff?” Tori asks, as our adversary falls the ground and whines in pain

“Right here.” I show her the unmarked package, and she seems satisfied.

“Then let’s jet, Jury!” She gives me a cute wink, before turning and running full sprint the other direction.

Bastard. I really might be starting to enjoy this.