Where Have All The Good Men Gone

It didn’t feel like waking up, or even like fading into a dream. It was like I’d already been here for a while, fully aware—until I wasn’t. I was just… here now, with no clue how.

There was nothing but emptiness, and… A pair of shōji? In the distance they stood almost closed, forming a small crack that let in (or out?) a silver light. It was not very bright nor was it that dim– Soft. That’s what Naomi (直美) would have described it as. A soft light. She always found the right words.

I began walking towards them, hearing the shouts and noise from battle. Cries and clanks, as metal clashed against metal, and then–

‘Kazuya (和也)…’ the voice called out to me from beyond the shōji. It was him. It had to be. ‘Kazuya…’

My heart raced as I sprinted towards the voice, towards him. I had to catch him. I had to. “Noa (ノア)!” I shouted, desperately. “Noa—”

But as I took another step, something caught my leg. A grip on my ankle, yanking me backward. I turned, watching in horror as skeletal hands emerged from the darkness, grabbing me.

‘Noa, wait for me!’

I tried yanking my leg away from them, but soon they were clutching at the other one as well. Despite their lack of muscles their grip was impossibly strong, and soon they began dragging me down with them into the darkness.

‘Don’t leave me! Please, come back!’ I cried for him, but his voice drew further and further away, as the abyss swallowed me.

It was useless, and then there was nothing left of me to cry for him. But then… the light.

I’m so damn tired… A pounding, echoing through my head accompanied a nauseous feeling making its way up from my stomach. My blurry vision tried to make sense of the figures in black shaking and chanting around me. Their shouts were muffled out by my headache, but every now and again I recognised one word repeated, Kazuya–

‘Kazuya!’ A voice called through the muffled haze. I turned around, searching for the owner of the voice in the black crowd. I shook my head and it all blurred back into existence.

I was sitting on the harsh cement ground. Trying to stand up again, as I looked around, scanning the crowd, I stumbled backward and was caught by a few arms from the black crowd. Oh, I remember…

– 18th of April, 1986 –

‘Kazuya!’ Takashi (高志) shouted as I saw him pushing through the crowd before standing above me. He froze for a moment, his chestnut eyes growing wide as he stared at me. ‘Holy shit…’ He gulped. ‘Your nose…’

‘Takashi? What the hell is going on?’ I asked him, slurring my words as I was beginning to fall out of consciousness again. ‘What’s wrong with my nose?’

‘Nothing! Nothing! Don’t worry about it’ was the half-hearted reply.

Takashi looked up, away from me, and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He must have readied himself mentally for a moment later he returned his gaze to me, and said. ‘He’s nearly done! Just get back in there–’

I attempted to reach for my nose, but Takashi grabbed my hand. ‘I wanna know what’s wrong with my nose–!’ I shouted but cut myself short when I reaffirmed my blood covered hand. A warm feeling began to make its way up through my arm… Pain.

‘Why the hell am I bleeding?’

‘That’s not important right now. Get off the ground, walk over there and kick his ass!’ He shouted as he lifted me back up again, and pushed me back into the small open area that the crowd encircled.

There a tall guy, with a square jaw stood. His face didn’t look to be as badly beaten as mine - as badly beaten as it felt - yet, he had still taken a few hits.

‘Do I know you?’ I asked stupidly. I seem to remember his name was Naka-something. I really wasn’t that good with names, with or without a headache.

One thing was for sure: he wasn’t smiling. It did not look like he was enjoying this fight at all, actually. I couldn’t even begin to guess what I might have done to piss him off this much.

‘Shut the fuck up, Kabane’ He replied, with much aggression.

‘Look, honestly… My head is hurting. Can we call this a draw–’

‘I told you to shut up!’ He said as he rushed at me, hands raised, curled into fists. I might have been able to react in time to block it if not for the massive headache. But in any case, I did not block it. Instead I took it straight to the face, the heat dispersing through my skull as I was tipped out of balance once again, falling onto the ground.

My head knocked against the cement, and a new source of heat spread from the contact point.

I lay there on the ground surrounded by the crowd who had now gone silent. I suppose they were all holding their breaths, thinking that I was dead or something. That might have been a first for everyone. Well, except for me.

There was no will to get back up, even after he punched me. Like I told him, my head was hurting, and I had no interest in fighting him. Instead, I took the fall and showed the ultimate humility.

‘Yeah I’m done’ I admitted, reaching my hand up towards him, expecting him to accept my concession.

Lowering his fists, he frowned at me, looking at the hand. He opened his mouth, as if beginning to say something and then–

He spat in my face. ‘Next time, bring that fucker Kenji (健二), Kabane’ He gnarled, before turning around making his way out of the crowd.