Worthy Adversary - Part 1

“That unfinished building; is that were I’m supposed to look for him?” Glen Remus was on the phone with his partner, Adam. He hunted down dangerous criminals that the police needed help with. Glen had been hired to track someone down, and he was currently driving to the last place that someone had seen this person. He drove up to a multi storied building that looked like it was close to being finished; but the only machinery around it was a few old trucks.

“Yeah that’s the place.” Adam replied, “They stopped working on it when many of the workers reported seeing a monster or something. Probably the guy we’re looking for.” Glen got out of the car and looked up at the building; it was maybe four or five stories high. He had remembered reading something about this building, that several cops had been brutally killed. One was been shot, another died of blood loss, and another seemed to have been thrown around so much that many of his bones had been broken.

“I’m going in; I’ll call you back if something happens.”  Glen hung up and put his phone away. Just to refresh his memory he took out a file from the car that was about the person that he was looking for. He flipped through the file until he got to the description; black hoodie, black and white scarf, white gloves, black pants, and a dynamic mask that was half black and half white.

Still carrying the file, Glen walked into the building. The area that seemed to be the lobby was, as expected, empty. He looked around for any sign of life or of someone living there. Glen saw nothing of the sort, and crossed his arms; still searching. Then he realized that the file that he was holding was gone. He gasped and turned around; they weren’t on the ground either. Looking around, he saw no sign of them.

“ケケケー！ I didn’t know I had a file on me!” (-Laughter-)

Glen looked up at the ceiling; someone was there. They seemed to be clinging on to the ceiling by claws on their feet. They had the file in their hands and was looking through it. Glen recognized him as the one that he was looking for.

“There’s not much information in here; つまらない, to think they’d have at least a little bit more, considering all that I’ve done in this area.” (Disappointing) He dropped the file and it fell to the floor. Then he looked at Glen, a grin showing on the black side of the mask. He hadn’t really expected someone like Glen to show up; he had expected someone like a normal cop or possibly more workers to finish the building. Instead he got this man, who was dressed in a red suit and held a file on him.

“あ、おまえは面白いように見える.” (Ah, you seem interesting.) He jumped down from the ceiling and stood in front of Glen. “You seem more interesting than most others; with your fancy files and suit. So I’ll go ahead and introduce myself. I am Kagekao. I assume you’ve come here to play?”

Glen stared at him, unsure of what to do. He couldn’t understand the Japanese that Kagekao was speaking, so he was a little bit confused; but he decided to play along.

“Well then, I am Glen Remus. But enough with these formalities;” Glen reached into his jacket and produced two pistols. “Put your hands up; you’re coming with me.”

“ケケケー！What fun would that be?”(-Laughter-) Kage remained in his position; refusing to put his hands up.

“I mean it!” Glen pointed both guns at his head “I don’t have to bring you in alive; I could easily settle for your cold dead body!”

“So this is how you want to play huh? Just a fighting game? え、面白くない. But if you insist.”(Eh, boring.) The face on the mask changed from a happy grin on the black side to a sinister one on the white. He jumped to the side quickly; in the shock of it Glen fired a bullet that hit the ground. Kage pulled something out from behind some rubble.

“How unlucky for me, huh? A gun fight and I only have this knife!” He burst out laughing and sprang towards glen, jumping from all fours. Glen fired a few shots, barely missing Kage. He in return attacked with the knife a few times, cutting Glen’s jacket but only sometimes cutting skin. Their attacks and dodges continued for a short time; when at last Glen managed to have the barrel of the gun pressed right up on Kage’s forehead. They both stopped.

“I’ll give you another chance; stop fighting and come with me or I kill you right here.” Glen stared at him, waiting for a response. He expected him to give in, but instead Kage laughed.

“Oh, so you think you win this little game huh? Maybe, maybe. But I get to choose the next one!” Kage shot his hand upward quickly, pushing away the gun. Glen still pulled the trigger and the bullet grazed Kage’s arm. Kage gave off a sound of pain, but quickly hid that he felt it. He jumped to the wall, and his large black claws appeared on his hands, clinging to the wall.

“You know what; because I’m nice I’ll let you choose with me. なにがおまえ遊びたい? 隠れん坊?” (What do you want to play? Hide and seek?)

Glen aimed and shot again, but Kage jumped to the ceiling.

“おにごっこ？” (Tag?)

Glen shot again, but Kage flipped to the side.

“What DO you want to play then? Truth or Dare? ケケケー！” (-Laughter-) Kage climbed quickly along the ceiling, dodging another shot and now above Glen. “Well if you’re going to be a bore and not help me decide, then I’ll just choose on my own; hide and seek it is!” Kage jumped down and grabbed one of Glen’s guns in midair. “I’ll just take this, for fairness!”

Then Kage jumped to the wall, dropping the knife and holding the gun under his mask in his mouth, and then to the ceiling. He crawled away in a zigzagged path to avoid bullets, leaving a small trail of dripping blood from the gash on his arm. He disappeared through a door.

“I guess I’ll have to play along and go find that son of a bitch.” Glen murmured to himself “But I know in the end I’ll win this game.” He followed after Kagekao.

* * *

After wandering up to the fourth floor; Glen finally found Kagekao again. He had reached the end of a hall that led to the middle of another hall, and saw Kage sitting on the ground. Kage had his injured arm’s sleeve pulled up, and was wrapping a bandage around it; he hadn’t noticed Glen. It was dark, but the darkness was illuminated by two candles on the floor. In the darkness he did not notice that the black half and white half of Kage’s mask were switched. Glen took aim with his gun, and pointed it directly at Kage’s head.

“You won’t be hurting anyone anymore.” Glen shot the gun. The bullet hitting Kage right on the side of the head and spattering the wall with blood is what he expected; but instead he got something else. When the bullet hit Kage, the entire space there seemed to crack and shatter into a wall of shards. These shards fell; one extinguished the candle, which was now just a lone candle. Behind the shards revealed the rest of the hallway.

“I can’t believe you fell for that! I was hesitant at first to set it up, but it worked!” Glen heard laughter to his side; standing on the other side of the hallway was Kagekao; he had finished dressing his wound and had covered it again by his sleeve.

“I thought the candle would give the mirror away; but you shot it!” Kage laughter harder, Glen grew enraged. Kage grinned at him in the darkness. “That was amusing; but the game is still on!” He ran and jumped over the broken mirror, and then ran down the hall into the darkness. Glen followed; trying to get a good shot at him but couldn’t.

Glen lost sight of Kage, so he randomly started checking rooms. Most of the rooms were bare and empty, but one of them made him stop. It seemed like the other rooms; but the walls had stains on them. Old stains of blood, as if someone had been slammed into the wall repeatedly. Glen stared; what could have done this?

“Ah hell, you’re lucky the one who did this isn’t here right now; he would have f*cked you up!”  Glen turned around and saw Kagekao standing in the doorway. He pointed his gun at him.

“Enough of these games! You come with me or you die!”

“Do you honestly think you could beat me? Sure, you scraped my arm, big deal. I’ve defeated worse opponents then you.” Kage was inspecting the gun he held in his hand. “And if you were to somehow defeat me and capture me; do you really think you could keep me contained long? Ha! I think not!”

“Don’t be so arrogant, I could take you down!”

“Well fine then; but let’s fight in a better area than this shall we?” Kagekao slipped out of the doorway, Glen ran after him. He saw Kage go into a doorway, and when he got to them they were stairs. He ran up the stairs to a door, but when he tried to open it, it seemed to be jammed. He started trying to force it open; and then he heard laughter on the other side.  

“You think you can defeat me; and you can’t even get past a door?” Kagekao scoffed. “へたくそ！” (Not well done)

“Open this! What are you, scared!?” Glen shouted and hit he door some more.

“Oh you think that’ll work huh? Trying to make me want to show off machismo? Ha! That won’t work with me buddy!” Kage laughed “Trying to be manipulative? I have a tape recorder with me; maybe I should record it so you can hear how stupid you sound!”

Glen continued to slam into the door; and after a few minutes of hitting it and listening to Kage’s laughter, the door finally busted open.

They were on the roof; the night sky stretching out filled with shadowy clouds and the bright moon. Glen looked around but he did not see Kagekao.

“はい,　スタート！” (Yes, start!) Kage was suddenly behind him, he kicked Glen in the back, causing him to stumble forward. Kage went beside him and then kicked him in the side. Then he kicked him in the legs, causing him to fall.

“Well that’s three points for me and zero for you; still feeling tough!?” Kage laughed as Glen got up and tried to shoot him. Kage dodged them easily. “That all you got Mr. One-trick-pony? I’ve got plenty more!”

Kagekao ran in a different direction, and stooped down to pick something up off of the ground; a metal chain.

“Well, this is more of a friend of mine’s move, but I’ll use it anyway!” Kage ran forward and swung the chain like a whip; Glen dodged it, looking for another weapon to use. He thought he saw something, like a wrench or a pipe. He started towards it, but did the big mistake of turning his back towards Kage. Kage kicked him yet again, causing him to fall forward.

Kagekao then put the chain underneath Glen’s neck, and then pulled upwards. Glen gasped and choked for air; the chain straining against his neck. Deranged laughter came from Kagekao, and a light rain began to fall from the sky.  

Frantically Glen tried to aim his gun, but failed due to his strength leaving him. Just as his vision began to go blurry; Kage let the chain fall slack.

“That would be too simple; it’ll be more fun if I gave you another chance.” Kage pulled up the chain and then threw it to the side. Then he stepped back a little and retrieved the gun that he had previously placed on the floor near the door.

Glen coughed and gasped, still on the floor. He rubbed his neck, but the light headedness was going away slowly. Kagekao watched, waiting.

Glen finally regained his strength to get up. He slowly got to his feet and faced Kagekao. Kage aimed the gun at him, and Glen aimed his gun at Kage. But due to the still fading weakness that Kage had caused Glen; Kage shot first. He hit not Glen, but Glen’s gun; causing it to fly out of his hand and send him stumbling backwards.

In the split second of the gun flying out of his hand, Glen remembered something that he wished he had remembered a while ago; that he always kept an extra third gun in his jacket. Like he had practiced so many times before to prepare for emergencies like this; Glen briskly reached into his jacket and pulled out the third gun. Just as he did this, Kagekao shot again. The bullet flew right past Glens face, causing Glen to turn his head in sudden confusion, faced away from Kage. But even faced away, Glen shot the extra gun, and Kage shot no more bullets. Silence from both of them.

“Nice . . . shot . . .” The sound of Kage’s gun dropping to the floor was heard.

Glen turned to look at Kage. Kage was clutching his chest as if in great pain. He stumbled back, gasping. His hands pulsed violently. He slowly looked up at Glen, his face showing on the white side. The face showed amusement, but at the same time agony. He stumbled back some more, still staring at Glen.

“お前は . . .じよず . . .” (You’re . . . good . . .)

Suddenly the face of amusement and agony disappeared, but another face did not appear on the black side. The mask was now blank, just half black and half white. Kage was now standing on the edge of the building, still swaying.

“お前は . . . ケケ . . . ケ . . .” (You’re . . . –broken laughter-) He stumbled again, but his foot stepped on only empty air, and he fell off the building.

Glen was silent. He walked over to the edge of the building and looked down.

“Well then; I guess I won.”