Kin and Tonic

Chapter 4 - Rejection


     His name's Kenta Eigen.Or as he introduced himself to me a few years ago, Kenta Kassidy-Eigen. He claims ta be my half-brother, which I never doubted, knowin' dad. He's the product of one of dad's trips to Japan when the stupid old man got mixed up in the mob. For whatever reason, he became the go between guy between the United States' mob in Nevada and the yakuza in Japan. On one of th' trips, dear ol' dad had a one nighter with one of the locals, yielding my one and only sibling.

     Both of my parents were killed by the mob when things went bad between the mob and the yakuza, and I ended up in Charleston to avoid gettin' killed by the mob myself. Halfway round the world, Kenta's mom died of cancer, and since he was the product of an out of wedlock romance, he was shunned.

     Well, unfortunately he got the idea that comin' to see me would be a good idea at this point. It took him two years and God knows what kinda lengths, but he finally made it to me, and I.turned him away. I was barely eighteen and livin' on the streets- I couldn't take up the responsibility of takin' in a fourteen year old that didn't know much English.

     Yeah.That was a pretty cowardly thing ta do to him. I won't try to defend myself, but I was just a scared kid at th' time. There wasn't much I coulda done for him, anyways. I was havin' a hard enough time takin' care of myself as it was.

     I imagine he went back home after that. He didn't seem ta take rejection very well. Like I said.In retrospect, I'da done things way differently. I don't blame him if he's here ta settle the score here today, but I ain't goin' to go down without swingin', brother or no brother. I've still got things to do myself, like finish off the mob.

     "I don't blame ya for wantin' ta kill me, Kenta.But I've still got things to do before I die."

     He starts pacin' again, makin' me nervous. Revenge is a powerful motivator. It can make you go beyond your limits to reach it. I know for myself, since that's pretty much what keeps me alive today.

     "Things to do.Very responsible, Rich-kun. It is truly a shame you couldn't have possessed that feeling back then. Things would have been much different.", he says in a flat tone while

    "Unfortunately, whatever you have yet to accomplish will just have to go unfinished. Your time for rest has come to an end, and we start again."

     Kenta, ignorin' whatever pain might be in his hands, raises them up for the fight and runs at me. He takes a shallow leap and plants his feet on my chest for an instant, then.I guess you could say "explodes" his power through them, sending us both back. He lands after a nice, graceful backflip, while I get smashed into the rubble again, skull-first.

     As soon as he lands, Kenta starts summonin' large amounts of metal debris from the buildings that were crushed, collects them right above me, and tries to smash me flat with a few tons of twisted iron. I use this as an openin' for an attack of my own by blowin' myself up to help me dodge the crush faster. I'm dashin' right towards him as he realizes I'm not gonna be caught by his trick and catches a nasty boot right to the gut at about a hundred miles and hour, give or take, thanks to the explosion.

     As he doubles over, I whip around as fast as I can and nail him in the back of the head with another brutal kick. Sorry bro, but like I said- things to finish, namely catchin' up with Hardy and Smiley. It's been a long time since I've pulled off my ol' "Desperado Destroyer" move, but it's a fight ender almost every time. Emphasis on the "almost".

     Yeah.Revenge is a powerful motivator. Kenta's on the ground, clutchin' the back of his head and screamin', but he's not done yet. He's mad as hell now, and shoots a few more of those nasty missiles into my gut as a receipt for the Destroyer. A kick of his own to my jaw sends me down again, and I'm not able to get up as quick, thanks to my new bellybuttons.

     Kenta charges me again, eyes fulla hate, ignorin' the pain in his face. Well, can't say he's able to ignore it for long, since I catch him with a crouched lariat, smashin' my forearm into his collar-bone. The kid does a three-quarters turn backflip and lands on his teeth in the metal wreckage. I'm on my

     He's hurtin', now. He doesn't pop up as fast, and he stays down for a few seconds before climbin' back to his feet. No more banter, now. No more talkin', no more promises. No more blood between us. Its two men. Two fighters. We're both on our feet, tired, injured, hurtin'.

     No more tricks, or powers to rely on. We have a silent agreement now, that we're doin' this the right way.

     Kenta goes for another one of his high kicks, and this time, I don't try to block it. I duck it and wait for the sweep. He whirls back for it, but before I can catch his leg, he leaps up, spins around again, and clocks me with a discus-like punch. It takes a lot more than that to make me go down, even in th' state a' bein' I'm in, so when he goes for a follow-up left hook, I catch it and headbutt him square in the nose. Somethin' cracks.

     He backs off, not really acknowledgin' the fluid pourin' from his nostrils and mouth. He reels back for another one of those nasty kicks, though, but I'm done takin' those. I rush in close, grab the back of his head, and just slam him to the ground with all my might. It's another brutal crackin' noise.

     I start layin' in the boots to his chest. I figure if he intends ta' kill me, then regardless a' what I did to him that I'm not goin' down and takin' whats comin' to me just yet. If I cripple him, even only til he can get fixed up, I'll buy myself some time to go after th' mob and claim revenge for both of us.

     Somethin' inside of Kenta disagrees with my plan, and he takes only three or so stomps before punchin' me in the knee, takin' me down while he rolls back to his feet.

     No more fancy techniques for Kenta, who's just plain stompin' and kickin' me while I lay there. He just won't let up, not even for an instant. I'm startin' to wonder if there's somethin' else behind all of this. Then I see Hardy again.

     The big man's in a bad way, lookin' almost as bad as me and Kenta. Smiley's there with him, holdin' that big ass sword of his, as well as some chick in a white dress that looks to be on Smiley's side. Hard's gettin' beat from all sides by these two as he tries screamin' at me, yellin' something to me about "brother" and "stop".

     Yeah, I'm way ahead of you there, Hard. Tell that to Kenta, who's still goin' to town on my skull. You'd think he'd have a heart attack or somethin' by now, cause he's movin' like The Flash on a speed binge.

     Then, somethin' weird happens. Yeah.Way weirder than anything I've seen tonight so far, so you know its pretty friggin' strange. How can I describe it.Okay, think of it like an upside down earthquake. Instead of th' ground shakin', the sky starts jitterin’ before crackin’ open just overhead.

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