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Neo-Tokyo. A place of violence and chaos. A place filled to the brim with rowdy gangs, vicious protests, sleazy bars and street thugs. Biker gangs rule the streets, participating in acts one wouldn’t ever wish to be caught between. Assaults, beatings, vandalism, larceny, kidnappings. Rival gangs threaten one another on a daily basis, utilising these acts as a way to provoke opposing members and manipulate others. There’s one gang, The Capsules. And their contender, The Clowns. Almost once a week, the latter gang tries to exacerbate the former in any way they can. Whether that be by vandalising a hideout, assaulting a members loved one, or getting their hands on secret information. However, today they’ve committed an act that shakes The Capsules to their core. Kidnapping a member.
The leader of The Capsules, a boy by the name of Kaneda Shotaro, drives his motorbike around the city streets. He glimpses about, moving in an almost steady and leisurely manner, trying his absolute best to carefully observe the surroundings around him. He had heard through the grapevine that The Clowns were planning something sinister. After all, being their rival gang, it wasn’t that outlandish of an assumption. They have already brutally assaulted many close relatives and partners of The Capsules kin, so the fact that they have an evil scheme going underway doesn’t seem feigned.
After riding his bike down an empty alleyway, Kaneda sighs and begins to steer headlong toward the Old-City, an area of Neo-Tokyo where the crime is even more damaging. He keeps his pace steady and sedated, just incase any additional gangs were to jump him without warning. The last thing the teenager needs is a second group to form more unsung conflicts with. One is already enough of a hassle. And if any rowdy gangsters were to pounce out from the shadows and defile his bike, then they’d most certainly be decimated in a heartbeat.
With one more begrudging huff of breath, Kaneda makes a turn and starts moseying his path through the underside of an abandoned apartment complex. He doesn’t hear nor see much once entering, despite the location appearing to be the perfect breeding ground for gangs to set up camp.
Just as everything seems as mundane as can be, Kaneda catches another motorcycle speeding toward him. Grinding to a halt, Kaneda allows the bike to ride into his view. A small bout of apprehension builds within the boys chest, anticipating for the rider to be the malicious leader of The Clowns, Joker. However, once Kaneda notices a slim physique and a head of messy dark hair, he knows well and truly that this is not the bulky and bald gang leader he’s accustomed to. Kaneda greets the motorcyclist as they skid across the pavement, kicking dust into the night air and coming to a complete rest.
“Hey, Kai,” He begins, waving nonchalantly “You look like you’re in a hurry. What’s up?”
Once Kai’s motorcycle has come to a pause, the fellow boy doubles over his bike handles and releases a panicked wheeze. Something is most certainly troubling him. This doesn’t shake Kaneda at first, as Kai is usually a meek kind of individual, and is often brisk to experience debilitating anxiety. Though, this time it doesn’t feel like an overreaction. This time, it feels genuine. The fellow boy raises his head to look up at his leader, face stricken with fear.
“Promise you won’t get mad, okay?” Kai says with a frown “But Tetsuo has been kidnapped.”
Kaneda almost jolts out of his motorcycle seat. Trying his best not to devolve into a furious mess, the teenager leans forward and attempts to release a calm sentiment into the open. Though, his voice does shake slightly, as what usually happens when Kaneda is required to hold back anger. Chest racing and nerves screaming out, Kaneda speaks to his fear-troubled comrade.
“Are you sure that wasn’t just a rumour?” Kaneda tries to reassure not just Kai, but himself, as a way to cool down the fury dwelling deep within him. “Did you see him get taken?”
Kai nods. “Yes. We were at the bar and I left to use the restroom, and when I came back I saw some clowns exiting the bar and he was gone. It’s safe to say, the clown bastards were the ones who captured him.”
Kaneda tightens his grip on his motorcycle handles, nearly imprinting the black surface with deep nail marks through his biker gloves. A scowl marks the boys face, teeth gritting and flesh scorching as hot as the neon lights. Kaneda cannot express through words alone how much vexation and hostility the thought of his closest ally being torn away from the group brings him. For a moment, the boy simply sits stagnant on his bike and shudders all over with burning fury. He’s incapable of manoeuvring, as he believes that if he moves even an inch, he just might lash out and accidentally harm Kai. He’s always been the sort of boy to experience anger whenever his intimate comrades (especially Tetsuo) are being pushed around. And tonight is no exception.
Following what feels like an eternity of remaining frozen in place, Kaneda starts up the engine on his motorcycle and makes a turn out of the Old-City. He knows he needs to head straight for The Clowns base. He needs to find them. He needs to find Tetsuo.
Leaving his other companion out in the cold, Kaneda doesn’t even bid as much as a farewell before he’s miles up the street, and deep into the depths of sleazy bars, glaring lights and bustling nightclubs. The trip from one edge of the city to the other hardly feels like a chore before the boy has made his path toward a worn-out warehouse. He’s brisk to assume that this is the location of his friend and unruly captors. The Clowns tend to jump between bases, never usually sticking to one hideout for more than two months. However, Kaneda knows that the building of broken sandstone, iron bars, and boarded windows must be their current place of residence. After all, their last gang fight took place in this exact same location. And if they’re not here, then Kaneda might as well leave and collect his allies dead body on a later date.
Parking his bike beside a gutter, Kaneda tiptoes toward a rusted iron door and carefully observes through a keyhole. At first, he doesn’t detect much. There’s so little commotion and movement resonating from the other side that he’s almost certain that he must’ve arrived at the wrong location. Kaneda is left assuming this until he hears a voice, however. And it’s one he knows all too well. From the opposite side of the hefty entrance, he can hear Tetsuo protesting.
“Get your filthy hands off of me, you bloated bastard!” The fellow boy barks “I already told you, I don’t know where Kaneda is! Now, just leave me alone, you freaks!”
Even though the other male isn’t presently in his peripheral eye of view, Kaneda can clearly tell that the Clowns have his comrade deep in their grasp. More importantly, he is now aware that they are trying to extrude information out of him. Swallowing his fury, Kaneda takes a step inward and lightly pushes the door open. He peeks through the created gap and attempts to gain a closer glimpse of the rival gang.
Tied securely to a chair is his long-sought after comrade. The fellow boy is kicking and thrashing in his restraints, sending the commotion of rickety chair legs and slamming biker boots echoing across the warehouse. Surrounding him is a group of four men dressed in the clown-based garb Kaneda is unfortunately used to. Amongst the gang stands the towering and distended body that is the groups leader, Joker. At first, Kaneda assumes his rivals are simply coercing information out of Tetsuo by shouting at him and begging with demands. Woefully though, Kaneda’s nerves nearly explode into overdrive when he detects a small handgun between a scrawny members fingers, and a switchblade in the grasp of a man in a wig and face-paint. It’s not until Kaneda locates the lengthy crowbar in Jokers clutch that his nerves push beyond their breaking point.
Without any rational thought nor a second to back out, Kaneda kicks the door with his boot, sending the wooden entry flying off its hinges and to the floor with a distinct crash. This immediately jolts the opposing men into action, making each one turn on their heels and draw all focus to Kaneda and Kaneda alone. The boy, light on his toes, leaps in the gangs vicinity and swings a fist at one of the smaller group members. This instantaneously causes the man to go soaring across the room and spine-first into a nearby boarded window.
Once a wooden plank collides with the linoleum flooring, the remaining men brandish their weapons with patent anger and apprehension. Without as much as a word, the individual dressed in face-paint uplifts his small switchblade and rushes toward the still furiously palpitating Kaneda. With less than a second to lose, Kaneda grabs a tight hold of the mans shoulders and bashes their foreheads together in a raging collision of flesh against flesh. The knife-wielder propels to the ground almost instantaneously upon contact, writhing in pain and cradling his now bruised cranium with gloved hands. The knife glides through the air, landing just adjacent to Kaneda’s boots. Once the two men appear slain, Kaneda kneels down and uplifts the blade. The boy pauses for a moment and admires its glistening, razor-edged form.
Looking up, the teenager gives Joker and the final clown-themed goon a piercing glare. There’s a dead look in Kaneda’s eyes. A look that shakes the opposing gang members to their core, and causes a feeling of dread to brew within Tetsuo. He’s never seen such a deadly expression on his fellow comrades face before, and that image, paired with the sharpened weapon in his grasp only makes matters all the more lethal. With nerves shaken by fury, Kaneda begins to slowly approach his final opponents, death stare and all.
Once the smaller male has made his path into Jokers general vicinity, the burly gang leader raises his crowbar high above his head and swings it down. A sharp cackle emits from Jokers lungs as the bar stops in place, assuming that he has thoroughly bashed Kaneda across the skull. However, that essence of pride is briskly transformed into sickening fear once his eyes meet with a red, gloved hand. In one motion, the boy roughly throws his grasp downward, sending Joker toppling onto the ground with the deafening crash of face encountering dense linoleum. Blood seeps onto the pale flooring in a stream of crimson ichor, sudden screams echoing throughout the warehouse like the squawk of an agonised fowl.
Kaneda raises his boot and impels down on the back of Jokers skull, pushing the man’s now broken nose and maw further into the flooring. The other gang member lets out a noisy shriek. He drops his weapons almost instantly and waves his hands out in front of him, pleading with a mess of pathetic, wordless stammers. Cold sweat gushing down his brow, the man stumbles out of Kaneda’s view and clammers toward the entrance. But before he can reach the damaged doorway, the gang member stumbles to the floor, scurrying on his backside as a response to the deadly echo of Kaneda’s stiltedly approaching footsteps.
“Wh…what are you go…going to do to me?” The man blubbers. He elevates a hand to his face and yanks the synthetic clown-nose from his features and wipes the makeup from his cheeks. “See? I’m just like you. I…I was only following orders.”
Kaneda points the switchblade at the crying man’s face and sternly lets out three words. His voice borders on a state of cold and catatonic apathy “I don’t care.”
“What k…kind of demon are you…?”
“The worst kind.”
Without another word, Kaneda swings his hand down and sinks the blade right into the man skull, transforming the unnatural green hue of his enemies hair into a gruesome mass of crimson. There’s no screams. There’s no further discharge of tears. Within seconds, The man goes from pathetically squirming and squalling like an injured puppy, to limp and doused in a waterfall of red. The ichor life-fluid runs from the wound in the goons cranium, flowing down his neck and pooling in a puddle upon the floor. Once the man ceases all possible motions, Kaneda immediately yanks the blade out from the gangsters skull with the distinct crack of flesh and bone. It’s only now when Kaneda can smell the stench of copper and realise the sheer amount of blood he’s squirted onto himself. The red that saturates his facial features perfectly matches that of his biker jacket.
Dropping the knife, Kaneda collapses to his knees. He remains motionless upon the ground for a moment. The boy wrenches, attempting to catch his breath again. His body strains like a broken steam-engine. It’s as if he had just come down from an immense high. The kind that causes one’s heart to race and lungs to work overtime. His screaming nerves take some time to ease, eventually dissipating and becoming replaced by a sense of weightlessness. Kaneda let’s out a heave before raising himself to standing and releasing his comrade from the bonds that tie him down. Once the ropes have been removed from Tetsuo, Kaneda begins to stumble. Losing his balance, the boy falls to the ground and collapses onto his rear, suddenly becoming unable to move.
“Kaneda!” Tetsuo cries, diving forward in a fruitless attempt to catch his gang leader “You okay?”
Kaneda’s throat wheezes. The boy grabs onto Tetsuo’s forearm and tries to elevate himself from the cold linoleum once more. However, After two or three attempts, Kaneda is still incapable of standing. His nerves appear to have shut down. And with yet another strained heave, sweat begins to pour down his brow, as a burning redness (akin to that of a fever) dwells upon his forehead. The teenager finds himself plummeting onto his back following the fourth attempt, only causing anxiety and apprehension to brew within his newly rescued companion. In an act of sheer concern, Tetsuo grasps his allies shoulders and lightly shakes him. When the boys body won’t comply, Tetsuo’s fingers inches toward Kaneda’s face and he proceeds to shout.
“Kaneda! Kaneda! Are you alright? What’s wrong? Are you sick?”
Replying, Kaneda’s eyes waver, vision flickering around the edges like an ageing lightbulb. He attempts to move his left arm, but the most his spaced-out mind can commit to is a slight twitch of the fingers. Feeling his pulse thumping in his skull, Kaneda does eventually manage to abide by a single motion. With a weighted breath, the teenager hoists his heavy head in his friends direction, steadily progressing closer and closer until the pairs noses are touching. Tetsuo doesn’t even make an endeavour to move away once Kaneda’s lips are no more than a centimetre apart from his own. And without as much as uttering a word, Kaneda gently presses himself and his comrades lips together in a brief, but tender and bittersweet kiss.
Following that motion, Kaneda immediately pulls away. His comrade hardly has enough time to translate the abundantly short lip-lock before the boy in his arms falls limp and slips into unconsciousness. Understandably so, Tetsuo is left in a state of shock. His body freezes upon the cold warehouse floor, holding his unmoving ally and still recovering from the fear, shock and stupefaction from the prior half hour. The boy raises a hand to his lips and wipes them. Even though the kiss was rather short lived, the sensation is something that dwells upon his senses more than any stab or injury ever could. Before Tetsuo gains the ability to lean inward and relive the lock on lips again, a crash meets his ears.
Turning, Tetsuo finds two of his fellow gang members busting through the door and bounding their way into the now abnormally quiet warehouse. Upon initial eye contact with the display placed before him, Kai cringes and wretches into his fist at the sight of the numerous dead and bloodied bodies. Though, his action of disgust is quickly transformed into apprehension at the image of his beloved gang leader unmoving in Tetsuo’s arms. Kai rushes toward the two and bends down to analyse Kaneda. As for the second member, Yamagata, he had zero prior knowledge to the current state of affairs, thus the situation renders him still and only slightly uneasy. As if copying his comrades, the taller teenager reaches downward and places the back of his hand on Kaneda’s forehead. And as expected, it’s scorching to the touch.
“This isn’t good, man,” Yamagata exhales “Kaneda is burning up.”
“What exactly happened?” Kai adds, scanning his surroundings with quivering pupils “I can see several dead clowns and there’s blood all over the place.”
Tetsuo sighs. “Let’s just say, a serious scuffle broke out while he was saving me from that bastard Joker and his goons. Kaneda eventually took the restraints off of me, and then he just kinda passed out. He was almost like a completely different person. Scary in a way.”
Upon those words contacting their ears, the two newcomers both pulls faces until they nearly recoil into the steel walls behind them. These motions of obvious unease only cause questions for brew within Tetsuo. It’s clear that his fellow gang members are holding onto something that haven’t yet addressed with him. Tetsuo gently places Kaneda back on the linoleum and raises himself to standing. The boy crosses his arms over his chest and releases a shaken sigh. He has the hunch that something is not right. That being, the assumption that this isn’t uncommon, and Kaneda has more than likely done this before. When that would’ve been is a whole other ordeal.
“He’s done this before, hasn’t he?” Tetsuo says, stern “You need to tell me when and why.”
Kai contorts his face and let’s out a tiny whimper. “He’s had these uncharacteristic meltdowns in the past, typically when one of us is being attacked or provoked by a rival gang. When these occur, he becomes ruthlessly violent and usually passes out afterward.”
“The last time he did this, he ended up breaking a guys skull and stabbing another through the eye with a stray icepick,” Yamagata says with slight trepidation in his vocals “If we weren’t around, I’m certain he would’ve murdered the whole gang and not just the two that were at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I guess I’m lucky I haven’t witness this kind of conduct from him,” Tetsuo huffs “It’s easy to say, I’m definitely not as accustomed to his behaviour patterns as you guys are.”
Yamagata lifts himself away from the floor and gestures toward the warehouse entrance. “We need to get him out of here before he wakes up.”
“Hey, guys?” Comes Tetsuo’s voice once again. His tone immediately drops into something almost akin to a whisper, vocals seeping out in a delivery one could describe as hush and saddened.
The two boys turn to their ally and address his query in unison. “What?”
“Is it possible that Kaneda does this less out of rage and more out of love?” Tetsuo murmurs, raising his boot to lightly kick the discarded, bloodied blade across the floor. It slides with a distinct clatter “After all, he did…well, actually…he…”
The young man finds it difficult to complete his statement. A redness begins to build upon the surface of his face and a sweat gushes down his brow. The thought of informing his fellow companions of the brief lip-on-lip contact he had recently abided to with Kaneda only causes butterflies to burst forth within his gut. Stumbling on his words, Tetsuo places his head in his hands and groans. This motion forces the other two individuals to let out sounds of bewilderment, confused gasps emanating across the relatively noiseless building like the chirp of cicadas.
“He…I think he…he kissed me.”
Tetsuo wholeheartedly expects the two boys before him to give an ill reaction. He anticipates laughs, disgust or concern to emit from his comrades, the kind of behaviour one always presumes young men to have given the current circumstances. However, rather than have any sort of negative response, the pair of boys both wander up to their companion and each place a hand on his shoulders. Tetsuo becomes even more bewildered when Yamagata shoots him with a smirk and Kai begins to caress his tensed muscles. In a way, it’s almost as if the news is no shock to them. This only causes further confusion to dwell within Tetsuo. Looking down at his still unconscious gang leader, the boy forces a smile and releases a single phrase into the open.
“You guys knew, didn’t you?” Tetsuo says “You knew he had some kind of crush on me. No surprises there, I suppose.”
“For a long while we’ve been expecting him to have one of those episodes around you, since he does do this out of a labour of love,” Kai hums “I was rather anxious when he ran off to save you, as I’ve been trying to keep him away so his inner demons don’t run wild. I’ve known for several months now how much he likes you. So the fact that his episode resulted in a kiss between you two is no shocker to me.”
In reply to his friends words, Tetsuo leans down and scoops up Kaneda in his arms. He gazes below at his leaders empty, gaunt expression with anxious eyes. Brushing the fellow young man’s dark hair out of his face, Tetsuo finds his vision lingering, eyeing his comrades lips as if they were an enticing relic. Without much to say, he inches inward and gives Kaneda a brisk peck. This garners a cheeky giggle from Yamagata and an encouraging, but faint ‘yeah’ from Kai. Noticing the two boys expressions of acknowledgment, Tetsuo let’s out a brief hum, before turning back to Kaneda. “Alright, Let’s go.”