Father noticed my scars, my bruises when I walked home from school. "Did you win?" He asked, before going for a cabinet to clean the dried blood and pain away.

I stammered. "Y-Yeah. There were two of them, but I made them run away."

"Did they take any product?"

"Maybe...I didn't check."

Father hummed. He looked annoyed, disappointed. "Son. You're gonna be the best. There's no time for losing. I don't care if there were fifty men. You take them all out. Don't make them run. crush them. Crush the competition, by any means, got it?"

"Yes, father."

"Say it again."

"Crush the competition."

By any means.

Gisei and I ran in Chinatown. The streets were tight and compact, to the point where about a small group of people could fit in these alleyways and small paths to anywhere you need to go. I could compare it to something like a maze or a rat hole. It was small and nasty for the most part. We saw about six of the triad underlings pour out of some restaurant with smoked windows. They saw us and screamed Chinese before they charged at us. I look at Gisei for a second, then we charged as well. I got ahead and grabbed one of the first men I saw, pushing his head toward the welcoming fist of my partner. It knocked him out.

Three of the rats teamed up to beat on me as the remaining two jumped Gisei. I was speared to the wall by one, while the two strike me in the jaw. After four clean hits, and busting open my nose, I rammed my knee in the one pinning me to the wall. I blocked a punch and counter-punched the man to my right, causing him to hit the floor. The triad on the ground recovered from my knee tried again to pin me to the brick behind while the left enemy wanted to grab my arm. I once again had him meet my knee as I drove it up to his jaw. At the same time, I gripped the left triad and knocked his head against the wall repeatedly until he stopped struggling, making a nice blood print on the old brick. I looked to see one more get to his feet. I did a front kick to knock him out completely.

As I rubbed my jaw and rubbed my bloody nose, I see Gisei clean house.

Gisei was a massive man, standing at 187 centimeters. One was jumping at his back while the other was taking clean shots to his stomach. Gisei hopped back and made a dent in the wall as he drove the poor triad in the wall. Gisei also kicked the free man in the chest so strongly he reached the opposite wall. Gisei could now put all of his attention on the man on his back. He proceeded to keep on his quest to send the human through this solid brick wall. The triad had the strength to keep holding on, even though his face was marked with the outline of the brick and bloodied. He was breathing hard after each attempt. Eventually, he lets go, collapsing on the concrete floor. Gisei leaves the other triad still stirring as he moves on to the restaurant. I fix that mistake and put my shoe on the side of his head.

We made our way into the restaurant to see a clean, spotless, Chinese establishment. Fit with a red dragon décor, a bunch of untouched tables with plates and utensils. There was also a massive fish tank that takes over a wall. We see eight men march down the steps standing in attendance for the big boss: An old man with a long ponytail, arms folded. He had some fancy garb on him. He had a smile on his face, looking proud of something. It looked like he was just in a fight, with a bruise on his cheek and a cut over his eyebrow. "Ah." He says. He starts to speak Japanese. "Tonight, I can have three dead bodies on my doorstep." With the snap of fingers, the eight men flip down at the same time and leap across the tables to get to us. Four at me, four at Gisei.

Gisei makes the first move by grabbing one of the smaller men and tossing him across the room. He gets a kick in the face, causing him to step back. Gisei gets on one of the tables and taunts them. "Come on, I'm right here!" He says, smiling. The three charge at the same time. Gisei simply shrugs off the first to touch him, making him fall into one of the tables. He punches the second one to make it, also making him hit the wooden floor below. The final one just speared him, making them both crash into the table nearby.

Meanwhile, I had my own problems. The other four fighters were charging at me. I kick the table leg while one of them stood on them. He falls, busting his ass on the wooden floor. I made a run for it near the fish tank, quickly grabbing a fork at the same time. The other three were in hot pursuit, table-hopping like cats. As soon as I made it out of the table jungle, one of the triads leaped at me. I quickly turned and stabbed him in the neck with my fork. He screamed and gushed blood as the others looked at me, angry. I smirked and put my fists up. The duo fought me one at a time. The first one went for a kick, but I blocked and pushed him towards the fish tank, cracking the glass. The second one was quickly behind him, punching me right in the nose, exposing more blood. I staggered, but I dodged the second punch and hit him right in the gut. The first guy was back up, kicking me in the leg and going for a chokehold. I backed up as hard as I could, making us both hit the tank, causing a crack that made some water leak onto the floor. The second man was lined up to hit me again, but I grabbed him before he could react. I drove his shoulder into the tank. This time, all that water came crashing down on top of us, flooding the restaurant.

Gisei's wet, cold hand woke me up from my water-induced sleep. I was soaked, of course. So was he. The restaurant had a nice coat of water and exotic fish for it's troubles, and if I were in any other situation, I would've laughed at how ridiculous it all was. But for now, here I am, having to shake the water out of my clothes and hair. After realizing I was ok, Gisei chuckled a bit. "You killed the fish, dumbass."

I shrugged, not really caring about anybody except for him and the boss. "Who gives a shit? We still don't know where Gota is." I lead the way, walking upstairs to see a large red door, with a golden circle around it. Gisei was to my side, and at the same time, we kick in the door. The boss was conversating with his rather tall bodyguard when we let ourselves in leaving wet prints on the floor. The room was gold and red, with very expensive Chinese imports around he had to obtain illegally. The large window overlooking Chinatown was broken, with a small print of blood at the end. There was a fight here, I knew it. He looked at us and frowned. "You two gorillas broke my fish tank, didn't you?"

Gisei spoke up. "That's racist, asshole."

He rolled his eyes and stepped up. The bodyguard followed. She was abnormally tall, like as tall as Gisei even. I made a face. "The hell do you feed her?" I joked.

The triad boss scoffed. "She is the greatest fighter the Chinese Triads have to offer. Better then your weak, feeble Japanese women, of course." The bodyguard cracked her knuckles and made no attempt to taunt us. She just stared at Gisei.

"Where's Gota?" I asked, sick of the banter.

He simply pointed to the window. "He was high. It was pretty easy to kick his ass. He jumped out the window to save his own skin."

Gisei had enough as well. "Well, once we knock your teeth in, I'm sure we'll get the full story."

With those words, the triad boss got in a Kung-Fu stance. He was going to attack, but the bodyguard stopped him. "Lee, sir. May I request to fight the taller one?"

Lee considered it for a quick second before swapping places with her. "Have at it, Gory."

After we moved into our own spaces of the large room, I circled Lee for a moment, looking at his strange stance. He had his fist out, with the other arm behind his back. After a bit of waiting, we go into full combat. We punch at the same time, going fist-to-fist. It was a test of strength, seeing who was going to back down after locking fists. It was a draw when we both recoiled, staring at each other. I was pissed. No way this old fart was on the same level as me. I put that mindset to the test when went for a heavy kick. Lee ducked under it and attempted to trip me. I rolled through and lead in with a left hook that catches him in the jaw. I followed in with a right, and finally a spinning kick to the dome. He fell over but quickly recovered. This was gonna be a fight, that's for sure.

Gisei had his fists up ready to brawl Gory. She was a scary-looking woman, with one of her eyes barely open, her face tattooed with the triad symbol, a triangle with a dragon encircling it. She still had that look, like she couldn't stop looking at him, she wanted something from him. Gisei noticed it. "Do I know you...?" He asked, confused. That was all it took. Gory imposed her will early with heavy-handed blows that were easy to dodge, but they took a toll on him. Gisei blocked a harsh shot to the gut and parried it with his own brand of heavy hands. She took them all well and punched him in the nose. From then on, it was just a battle to see who was going to back down from the blows first. It was Gisei who won, with one last right uppercut to the face to send Gory down. He still saw her moving but granted her mercy.

I was blocking and giving kicks to Lee when Gota ran into the room. He had a katana, was covered in blood, and had no shirt on in the middle of January. He was still high off his ass, must've had a leftover stash. Gota ran in screaming and gunned for Lee, who was still preoccupied with me. I saw Gota out the corner of my eye and pushed Lee back. He saw Gota swing the sword, and lobed off his left arm with one swipe, letting loose a fountain of blood from his arm. Gota was going for the kill, but Gory punched him in the back of the head. I came in for a kick, but she blocked it and took me out with a slam. She did the same to Gisei when he came in for the save. Gory picked up the bleeding Lee and ran out the window. I came to and helped Gota up. That punch must've knocked the high outa of him because he was tired. "Kunshu...Gisei...How about you boys get a raise. You did me a huge favor. Looks like those Chinamen won't step to us anymore."

It didn't matter, I'd crush them anyway.