The Dark Path : The Start of Darkness, The Beginning of True Struggles

Chapter Nine

- Chapter Nine -

“That sums up how my friends and I got here.” I said to Silver Mantis who still had one of his hands stabbed into the table with one of my daggers.

Silver Mantis eventually managed to pull out the dagger from his hand, screaming in pain as he did so. “You bloody brat! I couldn’t care less about your fairy tales of super-soldiers and elemental nonsense. I’m going to make you pay for messing with me!” As he raged at me, he clenched his fists. I could see a gap going through the middle of his hand where I stabbed his hand with my dagger.

He swung the fist of his uninjured hand at me which managed to dodge at the last second. I could feel a slight wind hit my face as the thug’s fist passes in front of my face. With one hand, I grabbed his wrist and placed a firm grip on it. With my other hand, I pushed an open palm underneath his elbow upwards causing a significant amount of pain to Silver Mantis’ arm causing him to shriek in pain.

“Keiji, get over here! Stay away from them!” Kimiko cried from behind the counter. Her brother quickly scrambled over to his sister’s side while bringing his bowl of food with him. After he did so, he continued eating his food and watched us as if he was watching a show.

The door next to the counter revolved open. In it stood Cathy who was only wearing a shirt. Fortunately, she was wearing panties. Her slender legs exposed themselves out from the bottom of her shirt. Her long blonde hair was frazzled and she had eye bags underneath her eyes. She grumbled as she made her way to where the drinks and grabbed a bottle of mineral water. Kimiko immediately covered her brother’s eyes while giving Cathy an intense glare with one eye. You see, Kimiko has an eye patch over one eye due to an infection and was currently on medication. Thus, we could only ever see one of her eyes.

“Catherine! What do you think you’re doing?! Put on some pants! Have you no shame? I don’t care if you’re naked in your own room or house but when you’re in public, have the decency to cover up!”

Sitting at one of the stools in front of the bar, Cathy mumbled something and proceeded to nurse what seemed like a headache. She must be starting to recover from her latest hangover. This hangover wasn’t from the night we arrived in Japan and it probably wouldn’t be her last. I’ve started to notice that she had a tendency to drown her problems with alcohol which definitely wasn’t the healthiest of habits.

Silver Mantis was still nursing his arm, kneeling on one knee on the floor. He looked up at me with a redness due to rage in his face. “Screw this, you’re not worth my time!” He walked over to his partner, Reborn Blade who was starting to regain consciousness, and kicked him in the side. “Come on, we’re leaving. This is worth too much trouble.” The two of them got in their car outside. Before driving off, Silver Mantis waved his fist at me. “This isn’t over, Kimiko! I will have the payment! The boss always gets his payment!” Keiji, Kimiko, Cathy and I stood at the entrance as we watched the car drive off until it could no longer be seen.

“You really made quick work of them. I should hire you to watch over my father’s restaurant.” Kimiko said to me, being the first to break the silence between the four of us.

“Thanks for the offer but I’m going to have to decline it. I have other obligations to attend to.”

Keiji shrugged his shoulders and turned around, walking back into the restaurant. “Looks like the show is over. Time to go clean up, I guess.”

“Regardless, I still think I need to thank you, Archer. Those two have been bothering us for a while. I really…can’t do anything about it.” Kimiko seemed as though she hesitated at the last sentence. Could she be lying? I was too tired to care.