Worthy Adversary - Part 2

Glen looked down in the direction where Kagekao had fallen. He didn’t see him; all he saw were the thick bushes that were growing down there. He put his gun away, and then retrieved the other two. Glen was a bit surprised that he had actually won, and he was proud of himself.

“Big mistake giving me a second chance.” He said mockingly. “And now you’re dead.”

Glen walked calmly towards the door leading to inside the building. As he walked down the stairs he took out his phone to call Adam. Before he called, he just admired the scenery of the events that had taken place a little while ago; the broken mirror, the room with the blood, the small trail of blood that had fallen from Kage’s arm, things like that.

Reaching the first floor and entering the lobby, Glen called Adam to tell him the news. While he waited for Adam to pick up, Glen walked outside and towards the area where he assumed Kagekao had landed. Then Adam picked up, and he began talking to him.

“Glen? What happened?”

“I got him; told you I would. A shame I couldn’t have gotten him alive though.”

“That’s good news! You’re sure he’s dead though?”

“I don’t think he could have survived that fall, but I still need to find the body.” Glen looked around; he didn’t see the body anywhere.

“Oh damn . . . that son of a bitch couldn’t have survived . . . right?” Glen said to himself quietly. A noise was heard in the background, like a click of a button being pressed. Glen turned around, drawing one of his guns out quickly. No one was there. His heart beat fast, Kage could be anywhere.

“Show yourself!” Glen shouted, he could have sworn he heard laughing, but it was faint and could have been his imagination mixed with paranoia.

“Glen what’s going on!?” Adam said frantically. Glen looked around rapidly, searching for the crazed demon. Then he saw him; Glen gave a sigh of relief and withdrew his gun. Yeah that was him alright.

Out of the bushes he saw a white gloved hand jutting out. It was in a still pose of looking like it had tried to grab something; the large black claws still unsheathed. As he got closer he could only see part of the body, as it was mostly covered by the leaves and branches of the bushes around it. One of the legs was angled at a far angle that it shouldn’t normally go, but the other hand was covered. The mask was still blank.

“Oh I found it; the body is over here. Thank God!” Glen kicked the clawed hand; it didn’t move or respond. “I can say with confidence that he’s dead, a job well done on my part.” Glen inspected the area around the body, some of the bushes were broken, and there were claw marks on the side of the building above it.

“How’d you do it?” Adam asked curiously.

“Well first he attacked, and then fled. But then we fought again on the roof. He gave a pretty good fight but I still beat him. Shot him right in the chest and he fell off the building. He even had a chance to kill me, but he didn’t!”

“Well you got lucky, that’s good! Probably saved a lot of people.”

“Yeah, you think you could come down here and help me with a few things?”

“Alright then.” Adam hung up, and Glen put his phone away. Yes, he got lucky. He was thankful for that. Glen laughed to himself, looking at the night sky. Rain still fell, but only lightly.

“Heh, you were pretty damn stupid to let me live; and to think, if you hadn’t given me that second chance then you wouldn’t be dead, and I wouldn’t be standing here looking at your cold, dead-!” Glen turned and stared at the bushes in horror. The body was gone.

Glen’s heart started beating faster; he stared at the place where the body had been. It was just . . . gone! He kicked aside some of the leaves and branches to make sure that it hadn’t just been hidden by the wind. It was truly gone. Glen panicked and reached into his jacket for his gun, and then someone tapped on his shoulder.

“Are you familiar with the act of ‘playing possum’?”

Something bashed him in the head; and he fell unconscious.

* * *

Adam arrived at the building. He stepped out of his car and looked around; he saw Glen’s car there, but he didn’t see Glen. He expected to meet him in front of the building, but then he remembered him saying that their target had fallen off of the building. So Adam went around the side of the building, looking for Glen. He found a spot on the building with claw marks on it, but he still didn’t see Glen. So he went out front and entered the building.

“Glen? Are you in here?” Adam called out to the darkness. He waited for a reply. After a minute or two, a reply finally came.

“Yeah” It was Glen’s voice, but Adam couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

“Good, where are you?” Adam waited for a response; this one came faster, but still kind of slow.

“Over here”

Adam could tell where it was coming from now, so he walked in that direction.

“Where’s the body?”

“The body is over here” Glen’s response was still slow, but Adam just brushed that fact away and continued walking.

“We fought again . . . He gave a pretty good fight but I still beat him.” Glen said, and Adam continued in that direction, still not seeing him.

“He was still alive!? But he’s dead now! R-right?”

“He’s dead . . . he’s dead.” Adam was relieved, he was more of a paperwork guy; Glen did most of the tough stuff. He wasn’t ready to fight someone; especially a dangerous killer. Adam saw some blood on the ground; this must have been from the body or the fight. He followed it, and it lead behind a pile of rubble. He saw legs sticking out from behind it, the trail of blood leading to it. Odd . . . those shoes looked like . . . Adam ran towards the pile of rubble and to the body. He gasped. It was Glen.

“Glen!” Adam shook Glen’s shoulders. He was bleeding from his head, but he didn’t look that injured besides that. Glen coughed, and slowly opened his eyes.

“Glen what happened!? Did something fall on you when you were talking to me?”

“Huh? I was fine when I was talking to you on the phone.”

“No, when you were talking to me here, about the body and how he’s dead!”

“I just woke up! I wasn’t talking to you!” Adam stopped and stared at him; who had been talking then? The voice was Glen’s voice, but Glen had been passed out.

“Yeah” It was Glen’s voice again, but this time it came from the shadows behind them. Adam looked towards the shadows suspiciously; maybe it was some sort of fun prank that Glen was pulling. Slowly, Adam began walking towards the voice.

“Adam! Wait! Don’t!” Glen shouted after him, but it was too late. Someone shot out of the shadows and grabbed Adam. They put their arm around his neck and held him like that.

Glen stumbled to get up and glared at him. “H-how are you still alive!?”

Mask now not blank, but showing a malicious smile on the white side, Kagekao smiled at him. He tightened his grip with his arm, and held something up with the other. It was a tape recorder. He clicked a button on it.

“A job well done on my part” It played in Glen’s voice from when he was on the phone with Adam. Kage was silent; still smiling that evil smile.

“Let him go!” Glen shouted; he reached into his jacket. He paused, confused; he searched his jacket, but all three of his guns were gone.

“Looking for those?” Kage said, pointing towards something behind him. Near the wall on the ground were the three guns, a half full glass of wine and an empty wine bottle with a spatter of blood on the side. Without thinking Glen stepped towards the guns.

“ストップ!” (Stop!) Kage shouted; the face on his mask changing to anger “Or I slice his neck!” Kage dropped the tape recorder to the ground and put his hand on Adam’s neck, the claws pressed harshly against his skin. Glen stopped. The face on Kage’s mask went to one of amusement.

“Don’t you want to know how I survived?” Kage laughed, Glen stared at him angrily.

“I shot you in the chest! You should be dead or dying right now!” Glen shouted; Kage smirked. Stepping back and taking Adam with him, Kage reached the guns. He stooped down and picked up the glass of wine. Glen glared at him, waiting for an answer. Kage lifted his mask a little and took a sip of wine.

“Yes, that’s what I should be right now; if you had actually shot me.” Kage laughed, moving Adam by the neck, he pointed at his chest with the wine glass.

“Do you see a bullet hole?” Kage took another sip of wine; there was not bullet hole. “You couldn’t hit me when you actually aimed; do you honestly think that you could have hit me with a blind shot? Yeah, that bullet missed me by a few feet!”

“I should just start referring to myself as’カゲ様’ ‘cause I’m so awesome! ケケケー！”(Kage-sama* -laughter- [‘Sama’ adds authority, like ‘sir’]) Kage laughed and took another sip of wine. “And you fell for it! オレは良いアクター午前ね?” (I’m a good actor, ne?)

“I’ve fallen off plenty of buildings in my line of work; most of them were on purpose, but some were accident. I’ve learned how to grab the side.” Kage stretched his fingers; the claws digging into Adam’s neck. “But even with how calm and collected I am; I enjoy revenge as much as the next悪魔.”(Demon)

“I think I know the perfect way to get it too; I know how much it hurts to see someone you care for get hurt because of you.” Kage finished his wine and set the glass on the floor.

“No! Don’t you dare!” Glen shouted angrily.

“くそ、オレの爪” (Dammit, my claws) Kage was inspecting the claws on his free hand. “Grabbing that building on the way down worn them a bit, don’t know if they’re as sharp as before. What do you think, Adam?” Kage put his claws up to Adam’s face.

“Big brother, help me!” Adam shouted; Kage stopped.

“兄さん? でもベター!” (Big brother? Even better!) Kage’s voice radiated pure malice.

“NO!!!” Glen shouted at him again.

“This is for injuring my arm, Glen!” Kage sunk his claws into Adam’s face, and slowly dragged them across it; Adam screamed. Blood soaked into Kage’s white gloves and Glen screamed with rage. He ran towards Kage and threw a punch, but Kage stepped to the side and dodged it.

“This is for kicking my hand!” Kage let go of Adam’s neck and grabbed his forearm. He raised it, and then brought it down hard on his knee, causing it to snap. Adam screamed again, and Glen threw another punch. Kage dodged it yet again.

“And this!” Kage reached back and grabbed the empty wine bottle. “This is for calling me stupid!” Kage swung the bottle and slammed it on Adam’s head. It shattered, and Adam fell to the floor motionless. Glen paused and watching in horror as he saw his little brother fall to the floor.

Kagekao’s deranged laughter filled the room. He shook with laughter as he stared at the motionless Glen.

“Would you look at that!? Using someone’s voice to trick people and breaking bones!? I’m turning into Zehnder!”  Kage laughed harder; his hands shaking with insanity. Glen stared at Adam on the floor who was slowly being surrounded by a pool of blood.

“Adam . . . no . . !”

“Revenge is a bitch; isn’t it Glen!?”

“YOU MOTHER F*CKER!!!” Glen ran towards Kage with pure hate. He grabbed Kage’s neck and pushed him against the wall. “I’ll kill you!” Kage lifted his hands to Glen’s arms and plunged his claws into them. Glen cried out in pain and let go of him.

“I’ll kill you! I swear to God I’ll kill you!” Glen shouted at him as blood poured from his arms.

“ケケケー, また？” (-laughter-, again?) Kage picked up the tape recorder off of the ground and fast forwarded it a little “But didn’t you already-” he pressed the play button and it played audio from before: “Shot him right in the chest and he fell off the building.” Kage burst out laughing again, sounding more insane than happy.

“I’m going to f*cking kill you!!!” Glen screamed and ran towards him, Kage put his arm forward. When Glen reached him he stopped and yelled in pain; he began to cough up blood. Kage had held the broken wine bottle in front of him, and in his rage Glen had ran right into it.

Kage turned around and now had Glen against the wall. He pushed the sharp glass harder into Glen’s abdomen; his gloves were now stained with both of the brothers’ blood.

“You really thought that you could beat me hmm? ほんとに？ ばか.” (Really? Idiot.) Kage slowly began to twist the bottle, Glen screamed and more blood came from his mouth.

“No one, I repeat; NO ONE beats me.” Kage began twisting the bottle the other way. Glen gasped and choked for breath. “But you’re lucky, oh yes, so very lucky. You amuse me Glen. I look forward to playing with you again. But for now, it’s game over.” Suddenly Kage yanked the broken bottle out of him, and Glen cried out once more. He fell to the ground, twitched a few times, and then slipped into unconsciousness.

Kage dropped the broken bottle to the ground and walked over to Glen. He reached into his jacket and took out his phone. He dialed 911, before the person on the other line could ask what the emergency was, Kage spoke.

“オイ, こっちにきて.” (Hey, come here.) Then he hung up. Kage tossed the phone to the ground, it landed in a small pile of blood.

“No one beats me.”

* * *

Glen woke up in a hospital. He was confused and disoriented, but was overjoyed when he learned that Adam had survived, although heavily injured. He had to stay at the hospital while he recovered. One night he woke up when everyone else was asleep, someone had knocked on his window. When he looked over he saw a note had been taped to it. Glen got up and retrieved it, and it said this:

‘ゲーム 業績
勝者：カゲカオ’

(Game results
Winner: Kagekao)