Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens Volume 3 Chapter 9

Top of Ninth Inning

"Old man, I got a favor to ask of ya."

Banba gave him a friendly smile as usual.

"A favor? What kind?"

"In the one in a million chance that somethin' was to happen to us, I want ya to come save us."

Banba told them he was going to go get Lin now. And he expressed that he wanted to take an extra measure of caution just in case.

"You're fixin' to make this old retired man work? It's gonna cost you."

Banba gave him a smile in reply. "Fine by me."

I guess there's no helping it, Genzo shrugged his shoulders and consented. "I'll pitch in and help my cute junior."

"What's this?" Enokida leaned forward as he finished his ramen. "This sounds like an intriguing conversation. Let me in on it."

"Of course." Banba nodded. "I'll put a transmitter on me, so Enokida-kun can track my movements."

Understood, Enokida had nodded.

"Ah, that's right." Enokida took out a black object from his bag. "Put this on you. Use it in emergency situations."

"……What is this?"

"A redback spider communicator."

"A communicator? You made somethin' weird again…" Genzo smiled bitterly.

"It's an exceptional item that allows you to make contact handsfree. If you put it in your ear you'll be able to hear the other's voice, and it'll also pick up your own voice too."

Genzo and Banba both took their own communicator.

"……I just put this thing here into my ear, right?" He seemed a bit uncomfortable with it. "This feels creepy, I tell ya. It would be better if it wasn't in this spider shape."

"But it's cool." Enokida pouted before taking something else out of his bag. "I have other items we can use too. I have a redback spider grenade and a redback spider plastic bomb."

Enokida placed the large spider shaped bomb next to his bowl of ramen.

"I also have a keyholder, but would you need it?"

"Don't need it."

"Anyway, I'm gonna call you as soon as I meet up with Lin-chan safely." From there it was a twenty minute drive by car. "If you don't hear back from me in thirty minutes-"

Then that meant some unexpected event occurred. And in that instance, Enokida had to track Banba's whereabouts provided from the transmitter device and go save him. That was their plan.

In the end, there was no call from Banba even after thirty minutes. Since Genzo could not make contact with him, it meant Banba was not stuck in traffic from the large fireworks festival. Apparently something had happened to him.

Genzo quickly closed the shop and headed home. He pulled out items he used in the past from the drawer: clothes, sungla.s.ses and various kinds of weapons. As he put on his suit and beige coat, he felt nostalgia wash over him. It had been quite some time since he had last worn this.

Finis.h.i.+ng his preparations, Genzo got into his car. He picked up Enokida on the way, who sat on the pa.s.senger's side. "So where are they now?"

"I've been watching Banba-san's movement until this point. There's been sudden movement. From the speed of the marker, I'd guess he's in a car, but it's going in the opposite direction he was heading from earlier."

That would mean Banba did not get into his own car. "……He was kidnapped?"

"Probably," Enokida opened up his laptop and pointed at the screen. "Right now, he's right here."

The screen displayed the map of f.u.kuoka. The red mark indicated Banba's current location.

"What's this building here?"

"The Kakyuu Group's main base."

The Kakyuu Group – Genzo was taken aback when he heard that name. "This has become something fierce."

It seemed like this would be a tough job. Genzo sighed at himself for accepting to help so readily, but started the car nonetheless.

They arrived at the Kakyuu Group's main office roughly twenty minutes later. They parked a bit of ways from the building and examined the map shown on the laptop screen. The blinking red marker suddenly disappeared.

"They must have noticed it." The enemy may have found the transmitter device on Banba's person and crushed it.

"Or perhaps it just stopped working. It's not good in heat and water."

Genzo had an unpleasant image pa.s.s his mind at Enokida's words. Perhaps they were being submerged under water and tortured. In the worst case scenario, they could have been reduced to burnt corpses.

Genzo immediately put the redback spider communicator into his right ear and attempted to call Banba. "Banba, can you hear me now? Give me a reply."

However, there was no response. He did not hear anything.

He didn't hand me over a dub, right? Genzo frowned and looked over to the mushroom-headed man. He called out to Banba again, but this time in a slightly louder voice.

"Can you hear me? Banba. Do you hear?"

'……Yeah. I hear you.'

He finally received a reply.

"Thank heavens."

He managed to make contact. Banba was thankfully alive.

'The enemy may be watchin' us.' Genzo heard his voice clearly. Their connection was good. 'We can't talk carelessly.'

"Is that right?" Genzo nodded at Banba's words. The enemy may not be with them presently, but there was the high chance they were being watched. That was what Genzo took away from what Banba told him.

"Tell me your situation as much as you can. Are you injured?"

After a few seconds he heard his voice in reply.

'Lin-chan, how's your leg?'

Apparently Lin was near him as well.

'That so? Good. I can also walk more or less.'

They were both injured? It did not seem to be that bad, but there was still room to worry.

"Banba, listen to me well now. You guys are currently in the Kakyuu Group's main base."

'……We seem to have been taken to the Kakyuu Group hideout.' Banba repeated. He probably did so to inform Lin of their predicament.

"And looks like the GPS got broke, so the tracker is gone now." They were unable to locate Banba and Lin now. "Do ya know where you are right now?"

'What place is this? Looks like a cell, but there's strange bars.'

"Cell? Bars?"

Were they locked into a prison cell?

'……The execution room?'

Genzo repeated Banba's whisper. "The execution room?"

Enokida exclaimed next to him.

"Ah, I may know where they're at."

He began to type on the keyboard and brought up the layout of the main office on his laptop screen. He pointed to a certain spot on the map. "It's probably here. I've heard about it before. They have an execution room in the Kakyuu Group's main office. I guess it was used as a small room to keep a tiger in before."

Genzo nodded in understanding and addressed Banba again.

"We know where you're at. We're headin' over now to get you. Today's the fireworks show, so there ain't gonna be no issue with firing off guns."

The gunshots would be blown away by the sound of the fireworks going off.

'That's right. Today is the Ohori fireworks show.'

"It's been a good ten years since I've last gone out onto the battlefield, so I'm gonna go all out." Genzo took the explosives in hand and grinned.

'I'm lookin' forward to them.' Banba smiled as well.

Genzo turned the car around and parked alongside the fence. He stepped out of the window and climbed onto the roof of the car to inspect the inside of the place. He did not sense anyone's presence. There were not even anyone on lookout. Now was his chance. Genzo jumped down from the vehicle and landed into the estate; infiltration was a success.

He concealed himself as he headed further in carefully with the j.a.panese sword Banba entrusted him with in hand. After a while he saw the white walls of a building. It looked like the outside of a warehouse.

I found it. That's the execution room. Banba and Lin are locked up in there.

And suddenly people rushed out of the building. A man in black was carrying an injured young man. He locked the door and left the execution room behind him.

"Hey, what are you going to do to the guys inside?"

"Kill them with gas."

Genzo heard part of a frightening conversation. After he saw the men disappear out of sight, he called Banba again. "Banba, you alright?"

After a few moments –

'I'm a bit tuckered out, so I thought to rest up a bit.'

He heard Banba's comment. He seemed to be talking to Lin.

"Those guys said they was gonna kill you with gas. You two."

'Then what you're sayin' is that this here smoke is poisoned gas?'

It seemed they did not have much time left. Genzo had to get them outside quickly.

'They got quite the likin' to execute people by poisoned gas.'

Banba whispered cheerfully when there was a large booming sound. Vivid colored fireworks shot up into the night sky. The time was around eight o'clock. The Ohori fireworks show had begun.

Genzo set up the explosives on the building's wall. They were the redback spider plastic bombs Enokida gave them. "I completed my preparations for launch."

'Oh, the fireworks have started.'

"I set up bombs near the entrance, so head to the opposite side."

'Okay, got it.'

"Alrighty then, I'll do a countdown."

Genzo smirked mischievously.

"Three."

'Two.' Banba replied back.

"One."

'Boom.' The two whispered at the same time.

Genzo pressed the detonation switch. There was the thundering sound of an explosion. The wall collapsed, creating a large hole in it. Two men leapt through it.

"Hey, you guys! You alright?" Genzo turned towards them and called out to them.

Bottom of Ninth Inning

What on earth just happened? Lin's eyes were wide in shock. There was a sudden explosion and the execution room was blasted open. The metal bars were also broken, and a large hole was made in the wall.

"Lin!" Banba exclaimed and was pus.h.i.+ng him to move faster. "We gotta hurry out of here!"

Banba and Lin pa.s.sed through the hole in the wall, escaping from the poisoned gas. Once they get outside and breathe in its fresh air, they find themselves in a courtyard with a magnificent and s.p.a.cious j.a.panese garden. There were pine trees, garden lanterns and even a bridge suspended over a pond. A large mansion stood before them. It was a familiar building to Lin. They were at the Kakyuu Group's headquarters. He was brought here once by Zhang in the past.

A man appeared from the shadow of a pine tree. Even though it was summer, the man was wearing a beige coat. He wore sungla.s.ses and held a submachine gun that was resting against his shoulder. He was in a strange and gaudy outfit. Who is he? Is he an enemy? Lin braced himself at once.

"Hey, you guys! You alright?"

The man yelled and walked over to them. He lowered his sungla.s.ses a bit and grinned. Lin saw the familiar wrinkles and facial features – it was Genzo.

"Gramps, why are you-"

Lin's eyes widened. Why is Genzo here?

"I asked him to be here." Banba was the one to answer for the unexpected and surprising appearance of reinforcements next to him. He turned towards Genzo and smiled. "Thank you, old man. You saved us."

"It's all good." Genzo told him and lightly waved his hand.

"When did you ask for backup……" Lin did not know.

"Before I went to get you."

Before he went to get me – then he means before we were caught by Feilang? Did Banba know I was followed? Or did he prepare for any unexpected outcome? But if so, how did he make contact with Genzo? Several questions came to Lin's mind. "What do you mean?" He ended up asking him, but Banba was interrupted before he could answer.

A few men dashed out of the manor when they heard the explosion. Genzo immediately took out an explosive like object from his pocket. It was a redback spider grenade. He pulled out the pin and threw it towards their enemies. The grenade exploded, blasting the men away.

They had handguns. The remaining men who managed to escape from the explosion took them out. Seeing that, Genzo sprinted. He kept his posture low and pointed his submachine gun at them and fired as he slid. Dadadada. Genzo cleaned up the rest of the men, raining them down with gunshots in quick succession.

"He still got it," Banba was awed by Genzo's fluid mobility, despite his age.

"……Even so, there wasn't much of them."

Genzo muttered as he looked at the pile of bodies. For such a loud noise, they should have been surrounded by a crowd of men. And yet only five or six men appeared. The lackeys must have underestimated them.

Or were the others out elsewhere? In either case, this was lucky for us.

"Leave the rest of the smallfry to me." Genzo tossed over Banba's j.a.panese sword. "Go an' finish your job."

"Gotcha." Banba took it in one hand and nodded in agreement.

Banba and Lin went off on their own and would be picked up by Genzo later by car. They infiltrated the estate from the garden by breaking through the gla.s.s doors. There were hallways that stretched down on either side.

"I'll leave the killing of the executives to you." Lin turned away from Banba. "I'll find Feilang."

"Hold your horses." Lin was grabbed by his shoulder just as he took a step forward. "Whatcha gonna do when you find him?"

"Naturally, I'm going to kill him."

"Is that really alright with you?"

Lin's words caught in his throat at the question.

"You was friends, right?"

"……But I can't let him live."

Feilang looked through his cell phone. If he let Feilang escape as it was now, the same event would happen again. This time was Banba, but Lin had no idea who he would target next. It could be Enokida or Genzo. Lin did not want everyone to get involved.

"……Should I do it in your place?" Banba suggested. Should I kill Feilang instead? Is there any need for me to chase down my once best friend and finish him off? If I do not want this to weigh down on me, I could task it to someone else. That was what Banba implied.

Lin shook his head.

"I'll do it." I have to. I have to settle this with my own hands. That was what he felt. "Please let me do it."

Lin brushed off Banba's hand and began walking off when they heard another man's voice.

"We meet again, stupid face."

They turned around, startled. At the end of the hallway stood a familiar man. He wore a hoodie and black sarouel pants, and he had a kerchief covering his mouth. In his right hand, he held a ninja sword.

"Geh."

Lin grimaced. It was him – the Submarine Ninja. Out of all places, why is this guy here? And at this timing.

"Whoaa……The troublesome fella is here." Banba made an apparent, displeased expression. "Did ya come all the way here to see me?"

"h.e.l.l no."

The ninja held a man with his left arm. He must have been a lackey for the Kakyuu Group. He was gravely injured; blood poured freely over his body and he was gasping.

"I have business with a redheaded hitman called Zhao. I asked this guy here, and he said he'd be in this manor. When I looked around I found you guys."

This guy is targeting Feilang?

Lin could not avoid colliding with him then if they were pursuing the same man. However, Lin was painfully aware of his true strength. He was not someone he could easily get away from. Lin frowned.

"Hurry up and go, Lin-chan."

Banba suddenly whispered. He placed a hand on Lin's shoulder as he pa.s.sed by him. "Leave it to me to hold back this fella."

Lin nodded and turned on his heel.

"There's no way I'm letting you kill that hitman."

After Banba watched Lin take off, he faced back towards the man in front of him.

"Then walk away."

"Wha? No way in h.e.l.l." Saruwatari spat.

I reckon' you wouldn't, Banba smiled bitterly. This man was not someone he could reach a compromise with.

"If you're gonna be in the way, then I'm gonna go all out to stop you."

Banba withdrew his j.a.panese sword and got into position.

"You're the one in the way!" Saruwatari took off into a sprint and leapt high into the air. He took out his sword and swung it down at Banba.

The j.a.panese sword and ninja sword clashed against each other. Due to the different in length of their weapons, Banba was the one at a disadvantage in the narrow hallway. He could not swing his sword as easily as he needed to.

"As always, you're a bloodthirsty guy……!"

Once Banba blocked the attack with his sword, he swung to his left, causing Saruwatari to collide with the sliding screen. The sliding door was unable to sustain his weight and it broke from the force. Saruwatari dropped into the room unceremoniously.

"……That's my line." Saruwatari tutted and quickly got to his feet.

Banba followed after him, stepping inside the room. It was a s.p.a.cious and vacant j.a.panese style room, which must have been used as a sleeping area for the lackeys that lived here. In this s.p.a.ce, Banba had enough room to fight properly in.

He re-adjusted the grip on his sword and observed his opponent. Saruwatari was already fixing his posture, preparing himself for their fight with his ninja sword in his right hand and his scabbard in his left.

Just as Banba was about to make his next attack, a sharp pain spiked from his side. The wound he received when Feilang shot him stung. The painkiller must have worn off. Banba feigned normalcy and faced off his opponent. The more he drew this fight out, the more slow he would get. He had to finish this as soon as possible.

Banba was the first to move. He pointed the tip of his blade at the other and thrust forward. Saruwatari rolled over in a dodge, resulting in Banba's sword getting stuck in the sliding door.

"What's up with you? You're in such a rush."

Saruwatari moved behind Banba while he pulled out his weapon from there. Banba blocked the blow aimed for his head.

However, Saruwatari was fast. He made another attack immediately after the other one, landing a swing kick into Banba's side. Banba wobbled from the impact and dropped down to his knees. Normally he would be able to dodge the attack, but his body was not listening to him as he would want it to at the moment.

"……I want to hurry up and see the fireworks."

"Uh-huh."

The intensity of his wound spiked. The pain increased every time he moved. An uncomfortable sweat began to form on his brow from it – not from the heat of the summer night.

This could get serious.

He separated himself from Saruwatari in retreat and quietly took in repeated breaths. His breathing was getting ragid.

"Don't you run away."

Banba had tried to get away from his enemy, but Saruwatari did not lighten up on his attacks. He took out a black shaped object from his pocket.

It was a shuriken.

Saruwatari went to throw the shuriken, raising up his left leg before dropping it down swiftly. It was a quick motion. His body weight s.h.i.+fted from his right leg to his left, and his arm snapped forward behind it. It was a unique form that Banba could not forget after seeing it once.

Banba changed the grip on his sword so he held it with both hands. He antic.i.p.ated for the other to release the shuriken, and in turn he would hit it back.

The shuriken came flying directly at him. Banba saw its trajectory; all he had to do was match the timing. He pressed his left foot down hard so his swing would not be slow. He rotated his hips and swung his sword.

He thought he had it.

"Wha-"

However, there was no resistance. Banba's eyes widened in shock.

His j.a.panese sword had swung in air; he had missed. The shuriken, however, lodged itself into Banba's side. Banba suddenly realized. That trajectory was a curved ball.

The next moment, a sharp pan ran up his leg. A shuriken had sunk into it. Banba wavered and bent over. He lost his footing and collapsed onto the ground. Banba immediately looked up to see Saruwatari standing before him. His ninja sword was pointed at the tip of Banba's nose, and the man smirked.

The previous pitch from earlier had a trajectory in which it curved downward toward the batter's feet.

"A sinker?"

Banba muttered and smiled. I sure didn't expect him to improve the amount of pitches he could make. "……This is my loss then."

"This time." Saruwatari gave him a satisfied smile back. "This makes one victory and one loss."

Saruwatari snorted and sheathed his sword.

"I leave you with just this much for today. ……You're not at top form anyway."

He said, glancing at Banba's condition. From what he could see, the bandages around his torso were dyed red. Banba's wound most have opened.

"……I give you my thanks."

Banba smiled bitterly while applying pressure to his stomach.

"Huh? Where're you going?" He called out to Saruwatari who had turned on his heel.

"I'm going back to Kokura. I'm satisfied for beating you."

I don't care about that Zhao now, he said while stifling a yawn.

Banba seemed to have succeeded in stopping Saruwatari. But he was unsatisfied how he achieved that even though he had boasted to Lin to leave it to him.

"……I'll hit that pitch next time."

Banba stated with a mix of resentment as he faced the other as he walked away.

"Ha!" Saruwatari turned around and laughed. "I'll strike you out with three pitches."

Although Lin looked around the entire office, he could not find Feilang. There was not even a single person from the Kakyuu Group. Did someone else get to him already? Like Genzo or that ninja guy?

He ran through the manor, and when he finally spotted a member of the group he had demanded for his whereabouts and was told, "he went out of the back door."

Lin immediately rushed out of the mansion. He cut through the garden laid out with gravel and crossed over to the back end of the mansion. There was a small gate there. The door was open, and the ground was stained with blood. It was still fresh – it had to be Feilang's blood. He must have gone through here.

The trail of blood stretched over the concrete, indicating as to where Feilang went. When Lin followed it, he was brought down a path closed in by trees.

Feilang was there.

The dim street lights illuminated his form faintly. He held a hand to his stomach and pressed on, sometimes faltering as though he would collapse.

"Feilang!"

Feilang halted at Lin's shout. Although he was inflicted with a severe wound, there was the possibility he could still attack. Lin held his weapon, ready. He approached him while remaining vigilant.

"……Mao," Once he had closed the distance, Feilang turned around to face him. "You can't kill me."

Blood poured from his mouth. He grinned, showing his b.l.o.o.d.y teeth. His visage from back then flashed through his mind for a moment – the same, carefree smile like in the past.

At once, Lin stopped his approach. The memories from five years ago rushed through his mind like a flood. Feilang's yet innocent face. The kindness he gave him. The generosity he provided. And the times he spent with him, encouraging, reprimanding, and extolling each other. They all came to him, as clear as day in his mind.

There was a spot for him at his side. There was always this smile when he was in front of him. This blindingly brilliant smile had saved him numerous times over; it shone a path that had been shut off from him.

'When we get out of here, how about we work together? Let's team up and live happily together.'

That promise was his sole hope. It was the first dream he ever had since he had been born. He had been bound by that the whole time.

"See?"

Feilang smiled, seeing the Lin immobilized. You can't kill me, right? He laughed at him. That it was the same as back then.

Lin shook his head slowly.

"……No, I can kill you."

He could do it now.

"I'm not the same as back then."

He nodded firmly. That's right. I'm not like I was six years ago. So I can kill you now.

It had been a long six years for him to regain what he had discarded back then once more. He could not let that be taken from him again.

Lin hardened his resolve and gripped his knife.

'A moment's hesitation will end with you losing your life. That is the world you'll be living in from now on.'

Lin smiled instantly upon recalling what the instructor had told him from that time. Shut the h.e.l.l up, you d.a.m.n instructor.

"……Goodbye, Fei."

Lin thrust down his knife perpendicularly into the man's heart and then twisted it to the right strongly. He felt the sensation of a living being made of flesh and blood eerily under his palm.

"U-gwah….ngh."

Feilang's eyes widened, and he spat out blood. He slumped down to his knees and fell down face first.

"……Mao." He called his name.

Feilang faintly smiled while taking in repeated ragged breaths.

"I was……envious of you."

He continued without restraint, his blood stained lips shaking.

"You have a kind mother……have a family……and you have talent……You always had better grades than me."

I guess so, Lin muttered back. However, it was different now. His family was dead.

"You have friends too……You always……had everything I lacked……"

He coughed out blood.

"Up until the very end……I've always been envious of you-"

His words cut off. Feilang had stopped moving. Lin reached out and touched his wrist, checking for a pulse. Feilang was dead. For certain this time.

Lin placed his hand over Feilang's eyes and closed them. Even closed, his face looked no different than six years ago.

Feilang is dead; I killed him.

Yet strangely there were no tears. There was not even that hollowness like back then either. Somehow, he felt relieved.

"……It really was our fate for only one of us to live."

This man was also a part of him from that time. And now Feilang's ghost that was born in his past had finally been vanquished. Lin was released from him.

He gave a deep and long sigh. He looked up at the sky and saw fireworks.

"Lin-chan! Lin-chaan!"

He heard Banba's voice through the sound of the fireworks. Banba was calling for him. He was waving at him from the other side of the path.

"Lin-chan, you alright?"

Lin nodded back as Banba ran up to him, breathless.

"……I'm alright. It's over."

He glanced down at Feilang's body, turning away from him. Banba did not ask anything else on the matter.

"Actually, are you alright?" Lin looked over to him and was taken aback. He pointed to Banba's leg. "You have a shuriken in your leg."

"Ahh, this? I'm alright."

"What about that ninja b.a.s.t.a.r.d? Did you kill him?"

"No," he shook his head with a bitter smile. "He let me go."

Both of them were covered in wounds. They walked together on unsteady feet to the old car parked in front of the back exit. Genzo was in the driver's seat, and Enokida was in the pa.s.senger's seat.

Hurry and get in, Genzo signaled to them.

"Now then, let's go home."

Suddenly Lin's consciousness wavered and strength was pulled away from his body.

"……Lin-chan?"

He heard Banba's voice oddly from far away. Before he could think more of it, Lin stumbled and collapsed.

Notes:

Thank you Voissane for editing as usual! I greatly appreciate it.