Chapter 7 – The Scales of a Dragon
Kaze and his crew believe they can finally rest and begin the next chapter of their lives. However, despite his death, the shadow of Rai still looms over the city. A man known as Haijo was once the deputy leader of the Eternity Dragons. Even with Rai dead, he will not rest.
As Kaze and his friends head home, Haijo sits in a now abandoned flat and looks down at the busy streets outside his window. Haijo is proudly wearing his Eternity Dragons jacket and smoking a cigarette.
Haijo picks out an innocent man walking down the street. Haijo proceeds to make gun fingers with his hand. He then points it out of the window and at the innocent man. Haijo begins pushing his thumb up and down while counting. After a few seconds he reaches twelve.
“12…13…14.”
“Bang!”
Haijo then proceeds to make a shooting motion and lifts his gun fingers up so that they face the ceiling. Suddenly, the innocent man collapses to the ground and grabs his head while beginning to scream. People in the streets notice the commotion.
“Aghhhhh my head!”
“What’s wrong?”
“My head feels like it’s going to explode!”
“Aghhhhhhhhhh!”
Haijo watches the innocent man suffer and smiles. Haijo then proceeds to walks away from the window.
Meanwhile, Kaze and his group walk around town and enjoy a day of relaxation. Chikaku is talking to Shokku.
“I’m just glad I got to know you guys.”
“Likewise.”
Yuma finds the comment heart-warming.
“Aww isn’t that sweet.”
Kaze then stops walking and is frozen in place. Everyone else stops walking and wonders why Kaze is frozen. Kaze’s eyes are drawn to two figures standing across the road.
“Why are they here?”
Kaze is drawn to the two figures because they are both brandishing Eternity Dragons jackets. Kaze crosses the road and decides to confront them.
“Oi!”
“What are you doing here?”
One of the thugs looks down on Kaze.
“It’s a free country, isn’t it?”
Kaze is visibly enraged.
“Don’t you get the message?”
“Rai’s dead!”
The two Eternity Dragons find this comment amusing.
“The vice president is leading us now.”
“And who might that be?”
“None off your damn business.”
Kaze thinks of a plan to lure out the Eternity Dragons new leader.
“Then I challenge your gang to a fight.”
The thugs look at each other and then looks back at Kaze.
“Is that so?”
“Why don’t you start with us then huh?”
In a few quick punches and kicks, Kaze swiftly deals with the two thugs. They now lay on the ground, beaten and bruised.
“Ok ok.”
“I’ll get the gang to meet you here at five in the afternoon.”
“Good.”
Kaze walks back over to Shokku and the rest of his group. Shokku is concerned about Kaze’s plan.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Trust me.”
After a while they all head back to Kaze’s house. It’s almost time for the fight and Shokku wants to make sure that Kaze is sure about this.
“The fight is soon.”
“Are you sure you’re ready?”
Kaze is confident in his ability and knows that a group of Eternity Dragons could not possibly beat him.
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go.”
Kaze puts his arm in the way as Shokku is about to open the door.
“No.”
“I have to do this one alone.”
“Besides, Chikaku and Yuma can’t exactly fight.”
“You’re in charge of protecting them.”
Shokku is unhappy about not being able to fight but understands his duty to protect Yuma and Chikaku.
“Of course.”
“If you are sure.”
Shokku looks back at an undecided Kaze who is determined to face this fight on his own.
“Absolutely.”
Kaze then heads to the street where he agreed to fight, alone. Kaze walks down this now empty road as the clock strikes five. A van with the Eternity Dragons insignia blocks the road and a group of around fifty Eternity Dragons are hanging around it. One of the thugs from earlier notices Kaze.
“That’s the guy!”
Suddenly a man walks out of the crowd and towards Kaze.
“You’re the guy giving the gang trouble?”
Kaze has no time for small talk and begins to look around for the leader but doesn’t notice anyone out of the ordinary.
“Who is your leader?”
The man who walked out of the crowd looks annoyed.
“Me.”
“I’m the leader.”
I don’t believe that, there’s no way he’s the leader, Kaze thinks. Kaze knows that this character is a fake and knows that the real leader will eventually show himself. Kaze prepares to fight.
“So be it.”
The fake leader orders the rest of the Eternity Dragons to attack Kaze.
“Get him!”
The Eternity Dragons begin to charge towards Kaze. Kaze jumps back and fires his leafcutter ants at the first row of Eternity Dragons. All of the front row fall to the ground and start screaming. The rest of the gang freeze in place.
Haijo is in a window watching the streets below, where Kaze is facing off against the gang. Haijo takes a sip of alcohol and puts the bottle on the floor.
“Interesting.”
“I estimate it will take about 30 clicks to kill someone.”
“Let’s try 20 clicks and knock him out.”
Haijo points his gun fingers at Kaze and begins moving his thumb up and down while counting.
Back down on the streets below, the fake leader is in fear.
“This guy’s crazy.”
“We don’t stand a chance.”
Kaze decides to begin interrogating the fake leader.
“Who’s your real leader.”
“I’m not saying anything.”
“Get em boys!”
The rest of the Eternity Dragons are too scared to move. Kaze is certain that he can’t possibly lose. Suddenly Kaze begins seeing double and drops to his knees. Kaze is suffering from an immense pain in his head.
“Aghh!”
“What’s happening to my head?”
Kaze falls on his side and is now laying on the ground. While Kaze is seeing double, he notices something out of the ordinary. Kaze sees a figure standing in a window overlooking the street.
“Gotcha.”
The pain eventually becomes too much to bear and Kaze blacks out. Some time passes and Kaze hears Chikaku’s voice.
“Kaze!”
“Kaze!”
Kaze opens his eyes and begins to gain consciousness. Kaze notices that he is currently inside of a dumpster in an alleyway.
“Kaze, what happened?”
“I found the guy.”
“Let’s go home now.”
Chikaku then pulls Kaze out of the dumpster and carries Kaze away.
When they make it home, they decide to have a group meeting. Kaze, Shokku, Chikaku and Yuma are sitting around a table as Kaze is informing the group about what he has discovered. Kaze has already prepared a plan and decides to go over it with the group.
“So, he appears at the window.”
“When I challenge them again it’s up to you guys to catch him!”
Yuma yawns and decides to voice her opinion.
“I’m super tired so can we do this another time?”
The other three of them all look at Yuma.
“Sorry.”
Everyone then returns to looking at Kaze.
“Alright then.”
The next day, Kaze begins his plan. Kaze turns up at the bar where the Eternity Dragons frequently hang out. The Eternity Dragons notice Kaze instantly.
“Look who’s back for more.”
The fake leader notices and goes over to Kaze.
“You’re gonna get a thrashing now.”
“Yeah.”
Kaze decides to speak up.
“Let’s go again.”
“Tomorrow at 6 in the afternoon.”
“We already beat you.”
“We don’t have to prove anything.”
Kaze knows he needs to persuade them to fight him again so that he can identify their true leader.
“Let’s up the ante.”
The Eternity Dragons seem interested by this.
“Go on.”
“If you lose then you disband.”
“And if we win?”
Kaze pauses for a moment knowing that he must choose his next words carefully.
“I will join the Eternity Dragons.”
“Anything you desire shall be done by me.”
The fake leader smiles at these terms.
“You’re on!”
At the arranged time, Kaze turns up at the same place where they last fought. However, Kaze now has a plan. Kaze is sure he can win this time. The Eternity Dragons notice Kaze’s arrival. The fake leader looks to Kaze.
“Are you ready to fight my gang, punk?”
Kaze prepares to fight the Eternity Dragons. The fake leader can’t contain his excitement.
“Don’t forget our deal.”
“If we beat you then you become our servant.”
Kaze begins looking around. Just as expected, the real leader of the Eternity Dragons is standing in the same place as before. Kaze knows that the real leader has some kind of ranged attack which he will use from the window. Kaze is certain that this attack needs to charge up and has come up with a strategy to try and counter it. Kaze knows he must start fighting now.
“Let’s do this.”
However, the fake leader is also trying to buy some time.
“Hold on now!”
“Give us a second to warm up.”
He’s buying time so that their leader can charge his attack I presume, Kaze thought. Kaze begins to act.
“Enough.”
“Let’s do this!”
Kaze begins jumping from left to right while throwing insects at the dragons. Kaze is incredibly fast on his feet and is constantly moving.
Up in the window, Haijo notices this and is unable to keep his gun fingers pointed directly at Kaze.
“What is he doing?”
“I can’t keep up with him like this.”
Meanwhile, Shokku is sneakily heading up the stairs of the building and is on his way to Haijo’s location, just like Kaze instructed. Back down in the street, Kaze is more focused on movement then fighting the Eternity Dragons.
“I don’t need to win this.”
“I just need to buy Shokku some time.”
Kaze is still swiftly and easily defeating any Eternity Dragon that approaches him. Shokku suddenly reaches the room that Haijo is inside of. Shokku is wielding his electrified baton.
“This is not a fair challenge.”
Haijo notices that someone is in the room and quickly turns around. Shokku looks at Haijo and makes direct eye contact. The two are locked in vision.
“You engage in foul play.”
Shokku then charges at Haijo and they engage in combat. Shokku’s electric baton gives him the upper hand. Haijo puts up a good fight but Shokku is relentless and Haijo is constantly hit with attacks. Shokku ends up knocking Haijo to the ground. Shokku stands over Haijo. Haijo then sweeps Shokku’s legs, causing him to fall over. Haijo quickly gets up and begins to run out of the building.
Kaze looks up at the window and notices that the man in the window is gone.
“Leafcutter ants!”
Kaze throws his leafcutter ants at the remaining Eternity Dragons who all begin falling over. The fake leader then looks at the window and notices that Haijo is not there. The fake leader’s tone immediately changes as he is now in a state of fear.
“Woah.”
“I don’t want any trouble.”
“Let’s get outta here boys.”
The fake leader and a small amount of Eternity Dragons begin to run away. Kaze issues them some parting words.
“Remember our deal!”
“If I see any Eternity Dragons then I’ll finish them on the spot!”
Kaze notices Haijo running out of the building. Haijo stops for a moment as Haijo and Kaze then look at each other. Haijo then points his gun fingers at Kaze.
“Bang.”
Kaze suddenly gets a headache and grabs his head, allowing Haijo to escape. Shokku shortly exits the building in pursuit of Haijo however Haijo is already gone at this point.
“Where did he go?”
Shokku then notices Kaze, who is grabbing his head.
“Kaze, are you ok?”
“I’m fine.”
Kaze looks around and notices that Haijo is gone.
“We lost him.”
“But I won the bet.”
Shokku is having doubts that the Eternity Dragons will stick to their promise. They say that eyes are the window to the soul and Shokku had a direct look at Haijo’s.
“Do you really think those thugs will keep their word?”
“Not until their leader is dealt with.”
Later on, at the Eternity Dragons hideout, a group meeting has been called. All members are present. All members are standing and looking at Haijo who is sitting on a throne-like chair and drinking strong alcohol.
“You let me down.”
All the Eternity Dragons are immensely scared. It is clear that Haijo evokes great fear in people, even his subordinates. It is no surprise that Rai took a liking to him.
“Am I the only useful one here?”
“I don’t know what Rai saw in any of you.”
Haijo then thinks of something which annoys him and stands up and then throws his alcohol bottle at the opposing wall which causes glass shards to fly around the room.
“Who’s the coward that ordered a retreat?”
The Eternity Dragons push the fake leader forward. The fake leader now stands in front of Haijo.
“I’m sorry boss.”
Haijo puts his arm in front of him and does gun fingers and then begins doing the thumb motion to generate power. The fake leader is sweating immensely and incredibly scared.
“Give me a good reason why you should live.”
The fake leader has no idea what to say.
“I uhhhhhh.”
“I’m loyal to the crew.”
“I’m so so so loyal.”
Haijo appears uninterested in this response and is still generating power with his thumb motion.
“A loyal man wouldn’t have retreated.”
The fake leader notices that Haijo has now done the thumb motion over twenty times. It’s currently on roughly thirty clicks. He wouldn’t possibly shoot it at thirty clicks, thought the fake leader. The fake leader resorts to pleading out of fear.
“Please Haijo.”
“Times up.”
“35 CLICKS!!!”
Haijo lifts his gun fingers up in the air and suddenly the fake leaders head explodes as his brains splatter across the room and his corpse drops to the ground.
The thugs are very scared at this. They had never thought that Haijo would really kill them. Haijo just sits back down like nothing had happened.
“I can’t believe Rai left me in charge of this failing organisation.”
“Kill this Kaze guy.”
“I’ll kill anyone who refuses myself.”
Back at Kaze’s home, Kaze and Shokku are having a conversation in the living room. Kaze is annoyed that Haijo escaped.
“I can’t believe he got away.”
“We’ll find him.”
“After that last display he will probably come to us.”
“Yeah, your right.”
Kaze and Shokku hear shouting coming from outside the house.
“Get out here.”
“Yeah, get on out here.”
Kaze signals for Shokku to stand back and then goes to look out the window. Kaze notices that a bunch of Eternity Dragons are standing outside the house.
“Already?”
Kaze turns to Shokku.
“Do you fancy a fight Shokku?”
“I always do.”
Kaze and Shokku nod to each other. Kaze then opens the window. Shokku jumps out of the window and then Kaze transforms his body into insects which flying out of the window and reassemble on the ground. Upon confrontation, the Eternity Dragons all look scared. Shokku pulls his baton out.
“Bring it!”
A fight then ensues. This is undoubtedly one of the easiest fights that Shokku and Kaze will face. Kaze and Shokku quickly knock out many of the thugs and the rest retreat. Kaze and Shokku barely got hit. Kaze looks at the retreating Eternity Dragons.
“It’s over.”
Kaze and Shokku head back inside and continue their nights as if nothing had happened. Things were not so simple for the Eternity Dragons though.
The Eternity Dragons are now all back at the base. They are all in fear as they have just informed Haijo of their defeat. Haijo looks very angry.
“All of you are useless.”
“I’ll deal with this myself.”
“Come with me.”
The thugs look at each other with reluctance. They know Haijo is marching them into a fight they can’t win. However, none of them have the courage or strength to stand up to Haijo.
One of the Eternity Dragons standing near the exit begins running away. They run out of the base while screaming what the room was thinking.
“I don’t wanna be an Eternity Dragon anymore.”
Haijo looks on in anger as the traitor leaves.
“Pathetic coward!”
Haijo then looks at the rest of the Eternity Dragons.
“The rest of you should heed this warning.”
“Come with me or die.”
Haijo then begins to leave the building as the remainder of the Eternity Dragons follow him.
Back at his home, Kaze is standing by the window drinking tea. Kaze looks out of the window and notices a shadowy figure standing in the street below. Kaze then takes a closer look and notices that the shadowy figure is doing Haijo’s gun finger motion. Kaze is instantly alert.
“Oh no.”
Kaze dives down to the ground. Yuma happens to be nearby and notices this.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
Yuma begins walking toward the window to check on Kaze but Kaze suddenly pushes her away from the window.
“Don’t go near the window.”
“I can end this now.”
“I can’t let him get away.”
Kaze stands up and quickly opens the window. Kaze then transforms into insects and flies out of the window and then proceeds to reassemble himself on the street below. As Kaze reassembles, Haijo shouts a command.
“Now!”
The Eternity Dragons suddenly come out of a bunch of different hiding spots. They then ambush and charge at Kaze.
A massive fight ensues between the Eternity Dragon grunts and Kaze. Kaze manages to take out a large number of them but it’s a difficult task for him to do alone.
“This is bad.”
“I don’t know how many more of these I can take on.”
Kaze notices Haijo standing back pointing his gun fingers at him. For a moment, Kaze forgot about Haijo and his ability. Unnoticed to Kaze, Haijo has charged up his gun fingers.
“Let’s make this more interesting.”
“15 clicks!”
Haijo lifts his guns fingers in the air. Kaze suddenly get a ringing in his ears and begins to get dizzy while fighting the Eternity Dragon grunts. After a few seconds, double vision begins to kick in and Kaze is struggling to see.
Kaze is still fighting but struggling to stand. Kaze knows that at this rate he is surely going to lose. However, Kaze suddenly has flashbacks of his time on Genso’s island. He remembers the lessons that Genso taught him.
“I remember Genso.”
“Adapt or die!”
Kaze’s fighting spirit kicks in and despite the odds being stacked against him, he is continuously knocking down and beating all the Eternity Dragon grunts.
“How’s he still goin?”
“He should be out cold.”
The Eternity Dragon grunts notice the fierce expression on Kaze’s face and begin to run away. Haijo notices them all fleeing the battlefield.
“Where are you going?”
“You cowards!”
Haijo is the only person standing other than Kaze. Haijo and Kaze now stand face to face.
“Leafcutter ants!”
Kaze throws his ants at Haijo which begin tearing through Haijo’s skin and biting his flesh. Haijo drops down to the floor really injured and grunting in pain.
Kaze looks down at Haijo. Kaze has no interest in killing Haijo and so he releases his ants. Haijo then looks up at Kaze whilst in extreme pain.
“Aren’t you gonna kill me?”
Kaze then looks at Haijo with a cold expression.
“Your suffering is payment enough.”
“I have a feeling this is the last we’ll see each other.”
“Unless you want to repeat today.”
For the first time in a long while, Haijo is feeling genuine fear. The same kind of fear that his Eternity Dragon grunts felt. Haijo accepts this proposal.
“Alright.”
“You tough son of a bitch.”
Haijo then falls unconscious. Kaze smiles as he goes back indoors. For the first time since his adventure began, Kaze is free of enemies.
