Live a Little More Freely
What did he want to tell me?
No, he didn't want to talk. He was going to...
Shiraki Uke suddenly realized what was happening.
Ryu stepped back half a pace and assumed a fighting stance, his right fist clenched upward at his waist. His nostrils quivered slightly with each breath, and his gaze was already fixed on Shiraki.
Boom!
Ryu threw a punch straight at Shiraki Uke's face!
It was a truly ferocious punch, plain and unadorned in its execution, yet carrying the force to split mountains and shatter stone. The wind from it made Shiraki Uke's cheeks ripple, and he could barely keep his eyes open.
The tension instantly peaked. It felt as though all the blood in his body was surging, and his body, which had gone five years without exercise, was forced awake at that moment!
Whoosh!
Shiraki Uke dodged to the side, but he was still a fraction too slow. Two of Ryu's knuckles grazed his head, instantly knocking him off balance and sending him tumbling to the ground.
Only then did Shiraki Uke finally come to his senses. His throat caught up with his thoughts, and he let out a startled cry—
"Ah!"
As if waking from a long dream, he saw Ryu drift apart and vanish like ink in water after throwing the punch.
The frozen space around him had also resumed its flow before Shiraki Uke had even begun to dodge.
"..."
Feeling something beneath his nose, Shiraki Uke reached up and touched it. A smear of bright red appeared on his fingertips.
His nose was bleeding.
Everything just came to a standstill—including me. Only my conscious thoughts were still racing, letting me think through so much in an instant...
Did Ryu hit me?
Could I have dodged that punch? Can I spar with Ryu again? What about the other fighters' phantoms?
...Wait, did I just dodge?!
Shiraki Uke's spirits jolted. He scrambled to his feet without caring how he looked, let his arms hang naturally at his sides, kept his weight centered, and bounced on his legs a few times before quickly sliding back and forth.
Whoosh—whoosh!
After several rounds of testing, Shiraki Uke reached a conclusion: there was no longer any trace of the unsteady gait, sluggish movements, or other symptoms caused by his "punch-drunk syndrome."
Could it be... he was cured?!
My head doesn't hurt, I can see clearly, and my fingers are steady. So did a blow to the head—or a punch—really cure me?
I need to go back to the hospital for a checkup! No, I don't have any money. I'll have to wait until Arisa gets back.
Calm down, or Arisa will think I'm seriously ill, in the terminal stage...
"..."
Clang!
As he was thinking, a loud crash from the street interrupted Shiraki Uke's thoughts.
Shiraki Uke looked toward the sound and saw a minor yakuza boss in a striped suit, his blond hair slicked straight back, approaching with two men in black suits and sunglasses.
The noise just now had been the minor boss kicking a railing.
"Hey! You crippled piece of trash, long time no see!"
The minor boss walked over on his own, looked around, and spat in Shiraki Uke's direction. "Where's little Arisa? A dump like this needs the scent of a woman before anyone could stand staying here!"
"Tch, it's like a garbage dump. What a waste of a good piece of land..."
He glanced at the bandage on Shiraki Uke's head and gave a sinister grin, the threat plain to see.
"You're hurt? I told you this neighborhood was dangerous! So, I've brought you some good news. You have a chance to move out of here!"
"..."
Shiraki Uke glanced at the minor boss.
The local yakuza group this minor boss belonged to had a finance company backing it, and together they had tricked Arisa into signing a high-interest loan contract.
Now that they had come knocking, the repayment deadline must be approaching, and they wanted Shiraki Uke to sign over the land to settle the debt so they could get their hands on it as soon as possible.
"See how good I am to your family? You don't even have to leave your front door to sign."
The minor boss introduced the two men in black suits:
"These two are representatives from the Teiai Group. They handle land mortgage transfers. Teiai is a legitimate financial institution, so even if you call the pigs... I mean, the police, you'll still have to honor the debt!"
Shiraki Uke: "..."
He was still thinking of a way to deal with them when he suddenly heard a familiar name.
Meanwhile, the two men in black from the "Teiai Group" each took out a contract.
The minor boss then changed tack and pointed to the other contract.
"Of course, little Arisa is so cute that I'd like to help you out some more, so I've arranged an option for your family to postpone repayment—"
"Your family runs a karate dojo, so you should know how to fight, right?"
"Our Sanjigumi took a commission from the Teiai Group. We've been hired to fight, but we're short on people, so it'd be great if you could lend a hand!"
The minor boss stared at Shiraki Uke and reached out to take the other contract.
"Go fight a combatant from something called a 'Kengan match' and test the waters. Win, and we'll write off part of the debt. Lose, and we'll still give you a few more days. How about it?"
"..."
Shiraki Uke couldn't answer for the moment, because those two terms—two terms that shouldn't have been connected—were churning over and over in his mind.
The Teiai Group? Kengan matches?
Shiraki Uke's consciousness went into overdrive once again.
Chapter 2: Live a Little More Freely
To the minor boss, Shiraki Uke had only frozen for an instant.
For Shiraki Uke, however, those two terms—the Teiai Group and Kengan matches—kept churning through his mind, sending his conscious thoughts into overdrive again.
Countless pieces of information and memories erupted into his mind all at once, like a volcano.
The Teiai Group was one of the largest financial monopolies in the country.
On the surface, its businesses spanned finance, real estate, entertainment, and other fields. In reality, it operated on both sides of the law, secretly controlling loan-sharking, underground casinos, and a slave labor industry.
In that possible future, a good-for-nothing drifter named Kaiji Itou would owe 3.85 million yen after guaranteeing a friend's debt, forcing him to take part in one life-or-death gamble after another.
That was the story called "Gambling Apocalypse."
On Shiraki Uke's side, the high-interest loan Arisa had originally taken out had now ballooned to thirty million yen as interest piled upon interest.
Such an astronomical sum was already far beyond an individual's ability to repay. Even selling the land to pay the debt couldn't possibly fill that black hole!
As for "Kengan matches," they originated in the era of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Major merchants formed an association, and whenever their interests clashed, they would have the association arrange a match, with the result deciding everything.
The method was simple: both sides hired fighters to battle one-on-one!
Entrusting their long-held wishes to the fighters' fists—
Thus the "Kengan Association" was born, and the fighters who took part in Kengan matches were called "combatants."
In another possible future, a fighter named Ohma Tokita would step into the Kengan arena and fight to the death until he had burned through everything.
That story was called "Kengan Ashura."
Now, these two "stories" were interwoven in the same world.
The "people" in those stories might exist in this world too...
Are there other "stories" as well?
"..."
Pressure gradually built inside his head, and Shiraki Uke was running out of time to think, so he turned his attention to some more practical matters.
For an individual, a debt of thirty million is astronomical, but to the Kengan Association, where powerful figures gather, a mere thirty million is nothing more than a side bet for amusement.
Besides, what they just said was "go fight a combatant," not take part in a Kengan match.
So is it possible that the Teiai Group's chairman, Kazutaka Hyōdō, wants to watch a bloody underground fight the way he enjoys watching those twisted gambling matches?
His consciousness settled down.
Shiraki Uke thought for another moment, which looked like a few seconds of silence to the three men across from him.
"Sure."
Shiraki Uke suddenly nodded.
That left the Sanjigumi's minor boss and the two Teiai Group debt collectors stunned. None of them had expected him to agree outright.
"Hey!"
Afraid Shiraki Uke was only brushing them off, one of the debt collectors frowned and explained, "Do you know what a Kengan match is? It's underground fighting in the underworld..."