“It’s pretty impressive for just high school students, right? And this isn’t the only one. This is one of the many underground fighting clubs spread through the whole country. Although this is just a small one,” Kai revealed to Gary who was still a bit taken aback at the idea that people his age would gather in secret to watch others duke it out live.
‘If this is considered ‘small’, just how large is big for you?’
Gary found it hard to comprehend since he guessed that there were at least five hundred people present. On closer inspection he noticed another thing, those teens and tweens seemed to be gathered in groups, each wearing their own sort of uniform. It looked like a club meeting from all sorts of different schools were going on.
Kai, having a keen eye, noticed what Gary was looking at.
“Remember what I said about many people from different school groups being here? Those school gangs take this thing here quite seriously. The reason they dress the way they do is so they can make a name for themselves. Just like with the gangs, the idea is for you to see their clothing and instantly know who they belong to. It might sound impressive for a bunch of students to organize all of this… it’s because the ones responsible are the gangs.”
“Gangs?” Gary gulped looking around to see if he could see any well known ones amongst them. “Do you mean like the Underdogs?” Referring to the gang Gary used to work at.
Kai couldn’t help but chuckle seeing Gary acting so nervous.
“Do you think the Underdogs would come down here personally? This here is the VERY minor leagues, basically just a gathering of a bunch of no name schools, or what we refer to as ‘loners’ attempting to join one of the other gangs, proving their strength.”
“Still this is technically a recruitment field and there are scouts from gangs here, but they would be like D-Tier gangs. They either absorb one of these smaller gangs into their own, or look at who they can snatch up and join their gang in the future. You know, since guns are now non-existent, knowing how to use your fists or a weapon is a big deal. At the bigger events there are even those that are Altereds.”
What Kai was referring to was the ‘Harmful Weapons Act’, which came into play a little after they had been born. With how fast and how bad the world had been deteriorating, countries were worried that World War Three could start at any moment and humanity would just end up destroying the planet.
So a pact was agreed between every single country. To get rid of all weapons, nuclear weapons, missiles, tanks, anything of mass destruction. With technology it was nearly impossible to hide anything from other countries, so they couldn’t even build things in secret.
This just made the development of Altered growth between countries, as they strived to create the perfect human being.
What shocked Gary, was there were apparently things like this going all over the place that he didn’t know about. The underworld was certainly another side that people didn’t see unless they were involved in it and more importantly invited.
“So what are we doing here?” Gary asked, as the two of them started to push through the crowd, until they eventually reached the outer edge. The onlookers had formed a natural large rounded ring to not interfere with the fighters. For those that were in a difficult position, the fight was being live streamed and others could watch it on their phones and devices.
“Well, remember what I said about loners not belonging to a gang? It’s easy to see who is part of one and who isn’t by their colours, or more accurately the lack thereof.” Kai pointed out.
Gary could see there were quite a few people that weren’t wearing any obvious colours, like the ones currently in the ring.
“Wait, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying we can’t create a gang with just the two of us! We need more people, and can you think of a more perfect place other than this?”
Gary suddenly understood why Kai had more than one pair of clothing in the bag he had handed him earlier. He intended to give it to the new recruits on the spot!
Gary watched the two as they fought, wanting to get an idea of just how skilled these fighters would be. Both those in the centre looked the same age as him. Around sixteen or fifteen years old.
One was a black boy, with short spiky blonde hair, wearing a sleeveless shirt, his muscles showed quite well and he had a couple of scars on his shoulders.
His opponent was a larger boy who was nearly twice as big as the first one. It wasn’t that the other boy was small, it was just that this one was incredibly large.
The two of them exchanged a few blows, and a few punches from the black boy had hit the larger one in the stomach, but he just laughed it off, as if it was nothing.
“Who will win, Innu the Warrior or Spike the Blob?! Last chance to place your bets, everyone!” One of the students announced walking around with a board showing the odds which were currently in favour of the Blob.
“Interested in placing a bet? If I’m not mistaken you should have received a nice down payment. Although knowing you, you probably didn’t take any along, so want me to lend you some?” Kai offered with a wide grin.
Watching the two exchange a few punches gave Gary a good idea who he thought would win, but placing a bet was out of the question for him. Although he was sure, anything could happen in a fight, especially one like this without any clear rules. He came here to win money, not risk losing it all and he had a premonition that borrowing from Kai would just be him placing a leash on himself.
“Is this what you meant, when you said we could make money?” Gary asked.
“Nah, as I said this is just something for fun. I’m merely curious to know who you think would win? Remember I haven’t finished testing out how useful you are to me yet.”
So far none of the attacks from Innu the Warrior had connected and it looked like Spike the Blob would soon tire him out and beat him. Just then, Innu took a stance, where he bent his knees slightly and raised his hands above his head.
It looked similar to a boxing stance, but Gary knew straight away it wasn’t a boxing stance.
“I don’t gamble, but if I had to place a bet I would place it on Innu,” Gary said, making sure to emphasise his no gambling policy. However Kai was no longer listening. He brought out a wad of cash and waved the person over to register his bet.
“All of this on Innu!” Kai demanded as he put down what Gary estimated to be at least one thousand dollars.
“Wait! I told you I don’t want to borrow any of your money!”
“Who says it’s for you? Don’t worry this is my own bet.”
The fight continued, and this time the Blob got into a downward portion similar to one in American football. He then readied himself and charged forward at a great speed that no one had seen before in the fight.
Those that had bet on the Blob cheered at this sight. Before they had thought it likely for him to win, but seeing this display of his talent they were sure of it. Even the scouts from the gangs seemed to consider giving him an offer after this round.
At that moment though, at the right time, using his knee. Innu struck him in the face, using his own force against him. Blood splattered as his nose was broken, the fighter himself thrown back in the air and dazed. Innu the Warrior didn’t stop there, using the Blob’s thigh, he lept off it, and struck down with his elbow at the top of his opponent’s head. Innu did this three times in a row, and gripped onto his head with both of his thighs.
Falling to the ground, Innu never let go, and once the Blob’s body hit the floor, Innu finally rolled over and there was a clear winner.
The crowd erupted in cheers despite some of them having lost their money, as people always loved seeing a turn around, and Innu had given them quite the spectacle.
After collecting his own fight money, Innu went to rest and Spike the Blob was carried off to the side.
“Just a lucky guess?” Kai asked as he was gleefully counting his winnings, that Gary couldn’t stop eyeing, now wishing he had made the bet.
“His stance, although it looked like boxing, he’s actually a Muay Thai fighter. They focus on using their knees and elbows. One had fighting experience and was calm throughout the match, never looking worried, while the other was just a street fighter, in other words your average bully,” Gary answered.
Kai couldn’t help but let out an appreciating whistle, realising that Gary was more so special than he had realised. He brought out his phones and started to type away, and without looking down asked Gary a question. “So have you thought about an alter ego name for today? Given that the Underdogs still want you to hide using your real name or the fake one you’ve given them, isn’t advisable. What would you want as a stage name?”
“A stage name?” Garry thought about it for a moment. Given his change, he would pick something werewolf related. “Erghh maybe something like Silver Fang, but wh-”
“Silver Fang won’t do, your hair’s green.” Kai interrupted him, as he finished typing and sent out his message.
“Next we have a new fighter, fighting for the first time. He wishes to keep his name a secret but he goes by the name, Green Fang!” The announcer shouted out to the crowd to hype them up, while Gary had still been connecting the dots.
“You wanted to make some money, right? Don’t worry, I will bet on you, and we can share the profits. This is the best way to get our name out here, so it’s time for you to go make us some money, Green Fang.” Kyle said with a smile.
*****
Top 25 golden ticket = 3 Chapters a day
Instagram: jksmanga