TsunDelinquents Chapter 62

Chapter 62 - Silver Is For Losers

Katsuro watched as his old friend, Naoto Kido, had arrived in the diner, interfering in the battle against Defenz Silver.

"Did you come here just to steal my spotlight?", he asked, his biggest priority being how good he looked in any given chapter.

"I'll explain in detail after this, but I'm gonna say this much; I have reason to believe that the gang that attacked you earlier has connections with a certain Jou Ecchikyou.", Naoto said cryptically, leaving out enough detail to intrigue Katsuro.

"I have no solid proof, but as it turns out, Jou's network is rather expansive. There's more than one group on this island allied to him." Naoto was going to divulge more, but the sound of Defenz Silver clearing his throat interrupted him.

"Lawbreakers, stop talking. I'd like to get my job over and done with.", the spandexed warrior angrily growled. "Hold your horses, you second placer.", Naoto scoffed, appearing behind Silver to grab his knife lodged in the wall.

"H-How'd you get behind me? And what do you mean, 'second placer'?"

"Hmm, what should I answer first? Well, I suppose you're more interested in how fast I was. It's a common technique used to make a good first impression in a fight. I do a little teleporting, you dramatically think, 'too fast!', and then I start to look more threatening than before...Am I right?", Naoto chuckled, the stunned posture of Defenz Silver's proving him correct.

"But, if you were asking about the whole second place thing, then you can just chalk it up to me trying out a witty one liner."

"Nothing witty about that, lawbreaker."

"Says you. Second place gets the silver medal, which happens to be your color. I'd say it was enough to get a tiny laugh out of anyone. C'mon, guys, back me up.", Naoto turned to the other delinquents, who all expressed various levels of disinterest in his not-so-subtle joke. He took out his tiny notebook and jotted down, "Don't make color-based puns."

In a fit of blind rage, Silver unhooked his spear from the wall, dropping Jin to the ground.

"I'll show you who's second place!", he lunged his weapon at Naoto, who could only snicker at how silly his opponent sounded.

"What a cliched thing to say. Try again, second placer.", he said, leaping onto the spear's tip ever so gracefully.

"Hmm, so it seems spears are more durable than humans.", he mused, writing in an addendum to his notebook.

"He just referenced that time he stood on my arm, didn't he?", Katsuro mumbled, remembering the last time he fought Naoto. Defenz Silver swung his spear upwards to throw Naoto off, but the eternally nonchalant author flipped backwards and performed a vertical slash, cutting down from Silver's helmet to his feet.

Silver reeled from the pain of the attack, stumbling backwards.

"Did it hurt? Because that WAS the intention, y'know.", Naoto said, emphasizing how much he was trying to kill the man in front of him.

"You don't need to announce everything you do, lawbreaker."

"Ah, but I do! How else is the reader supposed to understand what's being shown right in front of them? You lack an author's tact.", Naoto grinned, slicing right past Defenz Silver.

"This guy's full of surprises, isn't he?", Daisuke commented on ToDo, watching as the man toyed with his prey, so to speak.

"Yeah, he's always been a bit of a wild card. He's quiet one moment, crazy the next. It's best to not expect anything from him. He's himself when he's confusing the shit out of everyone.", Katsuro said, one half of him frustrated with his old friend's flippant attitude on just about everything, the other half nostalgic about how the man before him acted.

"Come back here, lawbreaker!", Silver roared, attempting to skewer Naoto, but the manga artist was too agile to be struck. Each time the spear was lunged, he would slink around the tables, effortlessly dodging the attacks, taking extra time to think of suitable insults.

"Try a little harder, second placer. You really shouldn't be surprised with your lot in life. If you keep livin' the second place life, you're never gonna go big.", Naoto chided his opponent, still refusing to take him the slightest bit seriously.

"That's it! I'm through playing games!"

"Oh, really? That's a shame, because I'm not." As Defenz Silver struck forward with all his might, Naoto simply adjusted the position of his knife, blocking the incoming attack with minimal movement.

"It's like when he fought me...He's a completely different person.", Chiharu noted, seeing some fire in the retired delinquent's eyes.

"Just because he said he was retired, doesn't mean he's not a delinquent anymore. Once a punk, always a punk.", Katsuro explained, to which Naoto just smiled.

"I suppose you could say it's something like that. The entire Black Knight affair got my blood boiling again. I couldn't just let all that inspiration go to waste, now could I?", Naoto asked with a coy grin.

"Well, well, you just admitted to your lawbreaking ways, lawbreaker!", Silver growled angrily, swinging his spear at Naoto.

"Boy, you need a better catchphrase.", Naoto replied, leaping on top of Silver's helmet, balancing precariously on one foot.

"Might I suggest a couple? I'd imagine something along the lines of 'I'm the man who will be second place!' or 'It's not Defenz Silver, it's Defenz Second Place!'. Sounds much better than randomly yelling 'lawbreaker', am I right?", Naoto chuckled, relishing in Silver's obvious anguish.

"Y'know what, silver medalist? I've been working on this ninja story rather recently. You may have heard of it. It's called Kamaboko, top selling manga this week. Go buy volume three, out in stores this Saturday.", Naoto advertised, his monologue going off on a tanget already.

"The main character's got this really fancy looking attack...I call it Hyakuman Kobore.", he said, a devilish grin emerging from his lips. Defenz Silver armed himself with his spear, still unwilling to back down, no matter how much he was getting beaten into the ground.

"You're gonna scratch him to death?", Chiharu asked, understanding that the attack roughly translated to one million nicks.

"Don't let the name fool you. This is definitely finishing move material. Trust me, I even wrote it down in this section of notes.", Naoto argued, showing off the specific page inside his tiny book.

"You think that sort of thing's gonna scare me?", Silver asked, completely in over his head by this point in the battle. Even the other delinquents were starting to pity the poor man. He was unable to see just how outclassed he was, but Naoto was dead set on making the gap in skill plain as day.

"You really say the most cliched things. You're like everything NOT to put in a character. You're as flat as an underage girl, with the originality of a pirated movie."

"Wh-What are you saying, lawbreaker?"

"Let me make this clear. You're about the worst type of person for someone like me to deal with. Try to be a little more interesting the next time I see you.", Naoto grinned, disappearing from Defenz Silver's line of sight. Suddenly, the man in spandex was lacerated from head to toe, his whole body suffering miniscule cuts that ripped his outfit in various areas.

"I-Impossible...", Silver muttered, his consciousness fading just that moment.

"See? This is what I'm talking about. Zero originality." Naoto walked up to the near-dead Defenzer and poked the helmet with his knife, uttering a final "Bloop", to seal the deal. The Sentai collapsed, leaving Naoto a new chair to sit on. Resting his ass on the silly looking policeman, he let out a long yawn.

"You went a little too far there, Naoto.", Katsuro said, feeling a microscopic amount of sympathy for the defeated law enforcer.

"Don't lie, you were totally impressed.", Naoto chuckled, having not had that much fun in a fight for quite some time.

"I-I'll admit, it wasn't the worst thing I've seen...Work on your attack names, I guess. That Hyakuman Ko-whatever wasn't the coolest thing I've heard...All day...", Katsuro blushed, unable to deny how much he enjoyed the Hyakuman Kobore.

Just then, the doors to Kenny's, the once family-friendly restaurant, opened up, the rest of the Defenzers entering this time.

"I see you guys hazed the new recruit for us...As well as a BUNCH of other guys, it seems.", Defenz Red laughed heartily, not the slightest bit worried for the rookie's well-being. He was more interested by the nameless delinquents from earlier that night than one of his own men.

"You guys should keep a tighter leash on that pain in the ass. He had the nerve to get on our case just because it was past curfew.", Daisuke scowled, though in a more casual way. After all, he and the Defenzers, along with most of the other delinquents, were rather acquainted with each other by the time they dropped by Mousoujima.

"So, why are you guys here, in the first place?", Junichi asked, still preparing for another fight in the back of his mind.

"We're chaperones here, too. Your principal assigned us to guard the hotel and make sure people come back ON TIME.", Red explained, speaking for the rest of his team.

"Is that the ONLY reason we got you guys in charge of us?", Izaya asked, already having figured out the other objective behind the simply making sure people didn't come back late.

"Well, you got us. Apparently, no place is safe with you guys around.", Red said, and the worst part of it all was how none of the delinquents could even argue against it.

"Geez...We HAVE done a lot of bad shit not even three months ago...", Izaya mumbled, realizing just how destructive the crew had been in the recent past.

"Well, enough chit-chat, we should probably take back the newbie to HQ. He's an overzealous brat, but he means well...Probably.", Red said, ordering Green and Blue to haul the unconscious Defenz Silver. Yellow and Pink handled the rest of the delinquents, dragging them out the restaurant without a single care for the battered bodies.

"Nice seeing you guys again!", Chiaki yelled as the spandexed taskforce left the broken diner.

"Stop being so friendly. It makes us look bad.", Daisuke and Chiharu said to the younger delinquent, both of them elbowing the boy at the temple. Now that the distractions were all taken care of, however, Katsuro turned to Naoto, ready to hear the truth.

"Okay, Naoto, explain yourself. What do you know about Jou?"

"Well, as you can already tell, I got some information from none other than my colleague, Akinori Hojo. He knows a thing or two about Jou, and I wanted to know what happened to our old fearless leader."

"Ah, so THAT'S why you joined up with Assman in the first place.", Katsuro said, finally piecing everything together.

"As I wanted to say before everything went to hell, rumor has it that Jou's been keeping a relatively low profile as of late. Everyone knows of the groups under him, but few have actually had to deal with that monster himself. Now, from what I know, he's not on Mousoujima, but there are some people that are working for him here. Akinori tipped me in this direction. He said that by virtue of you and Yuriko being here, there was a high chance one of Jou's underlings would target you. I'm sure you're well aware that the gang that came in here wasn't just some sort of coincidence. I think you're being targeted.", Naoto explained.

"By Jou?", Katsuro asked. "I can't say for sure if it's actually him calling the shots, but it's safe to assume that something's up. They wouldn't
send in those minor character thugs without reason. More importantly, there IS one delinquent gang that I'm fairly familiar with. I hear they have some connections to Jou himself. They're known as Reverse Harem, an all-female group notorious for ruling the Mousoujima delinquent scene."

"Then, what you're saying is...Sexy Delinquent Ladies!?", Katsuro blurted out, his immaturity shining through this somewhat tense moment.

"Aren't you the least bit worried about how your boyfriend acts?", Suzume asked Yuriko, who simply grinned and said, "Oh, of course not! He thinks I could erase him from existence if he so much as flirted with another woman."

"I-Is that true?"

"Silly Suzume...You're damn right it is!", Yuriko smiled, though her words left a different expression.

"Ignoring the side chat over there, this Ecchikyou guy might be trying to ally himself with Reverse Harem...But for what?", Chiharu asked.

"I'll explain my theory...Next time, on TsunDelinquents!", Naoto announced, closing out the chapter with his strange sense of fourth wall breaking humor.