With the rush of customers dispersing the western bar Dodge City was more laid-back. It had been one hour since Banba and Lin had sneaked into the Wild Bunch Company. They should be finishing up there soon enough. Enokida informed Banba that the Wild Bunch Company had bounties put out for them. No matter if they were a hit-man group, they were no match for those two. Right now everyone should be tied up, Enokida imagined.

Now his next job was waiting for him. Enokida finished relaxing at the end table of the bar and closed his his laptop and put it into his bag.

"I"ll be going. Thank you for the meal." After he gulped down the rest of his gla.s.s he got up from his seat and placed money down onto the table.

"Until the game then." He told Wyatt.

This Sunday they would be having a practice game against his team, the Tokyo Sukiyaki Westerns. "Right, see you then." Wyatt replied with a smile.

Just as he was reaching out to the swinging door, "Hey, Enokida," Wyatt stopped him.

When he turned around Wyatt pointed to the bills on the table.

"If that"s for the liquor I don"t need it. That"s the same amount for the information, right? I"ll have it taken from Tora"s wages to pay for it."

Telling them of the location of the Wild Bunch Group"s hideout in exchange for a free drink was the deal. And as such he had to pay him.

"No."

Enokida shook his head.

"Take it. Otherwise I"d be beating the check."

What do you mean? Wyatt had his head tilted with that expression.

" – Yeah. Also."

Enokida added one more thing.

"Tell those two "sorry" for me."

Enokida picked up Banba"s luggage and left Dodge City with that final statement.

" – So this is the Wild Bunch Group"s hideout, huh."

Tora whispered as he looked up at the building. Ikebukuro 2-Chome 50-Banchi. This address they received from the informant Enokida was at a multi-tenant building on the outskirts of the city. It appeared that the Wild Bunch Group was hiding out in one of the rooms there.

"Listen, alright. Don"t drag your feet."

"That"s my line."

Tora and Rabito got into the elevator while glaring at each other. They arrived to the fourth floor. As they got off the elevatorn the door ahead of them opened. Three ill-bred looking men in business suits came out from inside and walked in their direction. They glanced at Tora and Rabito and frowned, "who are you?"

"Are these the guys?" Rabito smirked.

He then quickly made his move.

"Hey, wait." Rabito ignored Tora trying to stop him and charged at the men with an expression like the predator found his prey. He knocked over one man with a body slam and then punched another man next to him in the face. The men were taken aback by the sudden a.s.sault.

"That"s two down." Rabito stated proudly. "I got a step lead ahead of you."

– s.h.i.t, I was too late.

Tora tutted. They had decided to compete in who could take down as many opponents. He had to catch up.

The third man reached for his pocket. He probably intended to take out his gun, but Tora did not let him. He immediately pulled out his Colt and pulled the trigger while c.o.c.king it with the opposite hand. He fanned out his shots. He shot the man with the handgun, and after he took away his means of attack he closed in and delivered a punch into his solar plexus. That was one down.

"Hey, what"s with all the noise!?"

Another man appeared in the office, having heard the gunshots. After he looked at his fallen comrades and Rabito and Tora the man shouted, "This is your doing?!"

"The great Rabito-sama has come to capture you all!"

Rabito said foolishly next to him in boast.

"Rah-bee-toh?" The man frowned and glared at them. "Which group are you guys from?!"

Group? Tora tilted his head to the side. What does he mean by "group?"

The man then shouted with a devilish look.

"You know this is the Airan Group"s office, don"t ya?! Right!?"

"……Eh?"

"…….Ha?"

Tora and Rabito opened their mouths in shock and fell silent.

The Airan Group"s office? What? What"s the meaning of this? This wasn"t the Wild Bunch Group?

"……Ah, my apologies."

Tora replied in a small voice. "We were mistaken."

"Sorry to bother you."

After they both laughed bitterly they turned on their heel and fled. The next moment the door banged open. Members wearing black clothes rushed inside. And more came in after them. They were hot on Tora and Rabito"s tail.

They would not let them go with a simple, "we were mistaken." They had suddenly picked a fight with them, pointed guns at them and shot three of their men. However, they had no choice but to run.

"H-hey." Rabito spoke up as they rushed down the emergency staircase. "How did it get like this?"

Tora made a call as they ran. The other immediately picked up. "h.e.l.lo, Wyatt? Hand over the phone to that mushroom-head informant."

[If you mean Enokida, he already left. He left a tip for his drink.]

"What did you say!?"

[I don"t know why, but he told me to tell you guys he"s sorry.]

"Wha-"

– What "sorry?" That d.a.m.n mushroom!

Tora cut the call. "s.h.i.t." Tora clicked his tongue. "We were tricked!"

"Ahh? What do you mean we were tricked?"

Why did he give them the Airan Group"s office and not the Wild Bunch Group"s hideout? There was only one reason for it.

"That informant lied!"

With the face of the blond mushroom-haired man came to his mind, Tora scowled resentfully.

"What did you say?!"

They were set up by that man.

"s.h.i.t!" Rabito cursed to the heavens next to him. "Informants are all sc.u.mbags!"

However, they were not in the time or place to worry about that.

"Stop there, you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"

The heard the voices of the yakuza getting closer behind them. The two sped up even more. They managed to rush down four floors and got outside the building, but then another misfortune awaited them. Other members of the Airan Group just got back. There were a few several ahead of them and several behind them. They were trapped.

"Hey! You guys! Catch those two!"

The yakuza men behind them pointed to them and gave that order. The group in front of them seemed confused as to what was transpiring, but they did as they were told and went to close Tora and Rabito off.

– We"re completely surrounded.

Tora grimaced. This had gotten out of hand. They were cornered by all the members, surrounded by a group of more than thirty men in black. They were in a life threatening situation.

"Who were you hired from!?"

"No, we"re-"

"It can"t be you were sent by the Awakusu Group"s Akabayashi, right!!?"

"No, it"s a mis-"

"Seize them and make them talk!"

They were not even granted the opportunity to explain themselves. The yakuza group were now attempting to attack them head on. As things stood right now his compet.i.tion with Rabito did not matter.

"……Hey, I have a suggestion." Amidst the intense atmosphere Tora spoke to Rabito. He gave him a side glance and proposed his idea. "For the moment would you team up with me, Bambino?"

"Okay, Trinity." Rabito nodded in agreement with a bitter smile. "It"s a cease-fire."

The next moment the yakuza group all lunged at them. Tora took out his guns and held them up. Just as Tora was about to c.o.c.k the guns, he suddenly remembered of an event several years ago. Back when he was still in his teens and was the leader of a biker gang, Tora and his group had fought a Saitama team called the Toramaru.

Now thinking about it, I was surrounded by a huge group of people like this and had a huge brawl out. He had fought with fists and weapons in an abandoned warehouse in the city with his comrades.

This brings back memories, he thought to himself. His memories from that time came back to him, and he began to feel exalted. He glanced over to the large man next to him. Rabito was mowing down their enemies one after the other with his monstrous strength. His expression seemed strangely pleasant as though he was enjoying this situation they were in. This man held a high advantage in an all out fist-to-fist fight.

I can"t lose to him, he smirked.

Tora put the guns back into his holster, made a fist and smashed it into the face of the yakuza in front of him with all his might. Settling a huge fist fight like this once in a way may not be all that bad.

– Since I came all this way to Tokyo, I should make a decent amount of money.

Enokida thought up his best measure to easily and effectively earn the most money. The quickest way was to let Lin and Banba capture the wanted men and have them pay a portion of it to him. Fortunately they were already looking for the Wild Bunch Company, so he decided to go with them.

As such, Tora and Rabito who were also targeting the Wild Bunch Company would get in the way. It would be a problem with they b.u.t.ted into them. And just as he was pondering what to do, unsure how to get rid of them, they luckily asked Enokida to help them out – to tell them the location of the Wild Bunch Company. And so Enokida gave them false information.

Although the worst case scenario would be if the Awakusu Group withdrew the bounties. If they did not have any issues where they could go after the Wild Bunch Group themselves, then they would have no use to offer the bounties. For instance, if an opposing organization like the Airan Group got involved that would have been the worst outcome.

So there was Rabito and Tora, and then the Airan Group. To ensure the Awakusu Group kept the bounties up and let Banba and Lin proceed with the job smoothly simultaneously, Enokida decided to take care of the hindrances both at once. He handed over fake information which was the location of the Airan Group"s office to Rabito and Tora. This way they would be preoccupied with the Airan Group until Banba and Lin had enough time to finish the job. That way they could secure the bounty with absolute certainty.

After Enokida left the western bar Dodge City, he got a call on his smartphone while walking around the city of Shinjuku. The caller was Banba.

"How is it going?"

[We caught all of them.]

When he asked Banba provided that in answer. He told him that they caught all twenty members of the Wild Bunch Group (although they were nineteen now) and had bound them with rope.

"As expected of you."

[What should we do next?]

To receive the bounty they had to hand over the people wanted to the NPB, but Banba had no connection to the organization. As circ.u.mstances stood at the moment, they could not receive any reward for the bounties. However, Enokida had one. He had Wyatt as an acquaintance.

"I"ll introduce you to a person from the real NPB. And then I"ll return your lost luggage and wallet to you."

[Eh……Why do ya know "bout my bag?]

"In exchange for that-"

Enokida paid no mind to Banba"s shock and brought up what he really wanted.

"Can you give 50% from the total bounties?"

After he called the number given to him by Enokida, people claiming they were from the NPB arrived in a large car. They seemed to be the bounty hunting organization Enokida talked about. Once they stuffed all the members of the Wild Bunch Group into the paddy wagon, they handed Lin a paper bag. Inside were paper bills. This time they looked to be real.

After they handed over the commissions to the NPB, gave Enokida his share and paid Martinez for a.s.sisting them, Lin and Banba were left with about 900,000 yen. Lin felt that 900,000 was not the right price for capturing twenty weaklings, but either way they managed to obtain easy money without a hitch. And on top of that they got their stolen luggage back from Enokida somehow. Now they could spend their time touring Tokyo freely.

The j.a.panese sword they received from Hugo"s shop was no longer needed. They could not waltz around the city with such a long protruding weapon on their person, so they handed it over to an NPB worker to dispose of it. The American-like man with a beard happily accepted it, telling them, "I"ll give it to a weapons salesperson I know."

Now having finished their job, Lin, Banba and Martinez began wandering around the city of Ikebukuro.

"……Hey, what"s going on over there? Is it a fight?"

Martinez suddenly came to a halt. Ahead of them were a large group of men. There were two young men having a brawl in a crushing situation against an intimidating group of tall men in suits.

"Wait, are those two……"

The two in question were the cowboy and the priest. He was familiar with them. Aren"t they those weirdos fighting in the abandoned warehouse?

"Are they acquaintances of yours?"

Lin shook his head left and right when asked. "No, it"s not quite like that."

"They seem to be in quite the predicament."

"……This city sure seems pretty dangerous."

He shrugged his shoulders and said that.

"Ikebukuro sure is somethin"."

Banba lightly smiled. While they did have a few accidents here and there, Banba seemed to be enjoying the trip to the city.

Lin once again turned his focus to the center of the commotion going on. He did not know the reason why those cosplayers were having a fist fight against a large group out in the open, but it was best to not get involved. They just had fought the bounty hunters earlier. He had no intention of getting into more trouble.

So they would not be noticed, they quietly sneaked past them and left the scene. Banba asked as they were walking down an alleyway. "Mar-san, when did ya get to Tokyo?"

"I arrived today. And I guess Enokida is here too."

"Seriously?"

They did not know.

"What the heck……"

Lin slumped his shoulders, crestfallen. He should have told us that earlier. If we"d known a friend was here, we could have just borrowed money from them. We could have gotten money without going through all that trouble capturing bounties. He felt they did the roundabout way.

"……Bounty hunting sure is a tiresome job."

"Yeah. It"s a tough job."

"I think I"m more suited to be a hitman."

It was easier to kill someone than to catch them, Lin thought wholeheartedly.

They walked further, and just as they were approaching Sunshine 60 Street Banba suggested to them.

"Since we came all the way here, how "bout we eat somethin"? We can invite Enokida too."

Now that he mentioned it, we still haven"t eaten anything.

"Guess we should."

Lin nodded. The game they planned to attend was already in its final session. We wouldn"t be able to make it on time even if we head over to the baseball stadium now, so I guess we can eat out with friends.

"Oh, that"s a good idea. What should we have?" Martinez was also onboard.

"Let"s have ramen! Tonkotsu ramen!"

"No way." Lin kicked Banba and pointed to the direction of the Russian Sushi restaurant. "Let"s go there to that interesting sushi restaurant."

"Ohh, sushi also sounds good."

"Then after we have sushi, let"s have tonkotsu ramen and head back!"

"How about you go ahead and go back to f.u.kuoka."

Lin went to call Enokida. Fortunately he still had not eaten anything for dinner either. They decided they would meet up at Russian Sushi and would get a table ahead of time. After they walked for a bit and were about to turn a corner, Banba suddenly came to a stop.

"Ah."

He suddenly raised his voice and pointed ahead of them.

"That person!"

A tall man in bartender clothes was walking down the large street of Ikebukuro. Seeing the man, Lin was taken aback. He looked familiar. It"s that crazy man that went wild and swung the street sign around.

And then from the opposite side several young thug-like men came by. They laughed in vulgar voices and staggered down the street while chomping on their gum. They were an ill-bred group. The leader-like young man held a cola plastic bottle in his hand. The moment he tried to gulp down the contents as he was walking-

"Oops"

Because he looked away the young man missed pa.s.sing him and b.u.mped into the man in the bartender clothes. The plastic bottle fell from his palm by the force and rolled onto the ground. The cola spilled out from the opening of the bottle, and a black stain was made on the concrete.

"……Wait on a sec, mister."

The young man called out to the bartender who tried to leave wordlessly.

"What are you going to do with my juice? Thanks to you is spilled, but for this. You repaying for it, right?"

A vein popped out on the bartender"s face. "Ah, he"s mad." Lin thought. It could not have been helped. If someone said to apologize or to compensate something just because they ran into you no matter who that person was they would be mad.

The man in the bartender outfit murmured softly.

"……Yeah, that"s fine."

And from there he walked over briskly to the vending machine nearby.

The next moment, Lin was taken aback by the action he took. The bartender man tightly grasped the vending machine and them easily lifted it up.

"Choose what you like from in here……since I"m repaying you!"

The man"s yell resounded throughout the city of Ikebukuro. And then he turned towards the group and threw the vending machine he was holding. "Gyaaaa," while they let out pathetic screams the delinquents ran away in fear.

The pa.s.serby that happened to be present were also shocked. The previously lively street fell silent. Even so, he could not believe it.

"Wh-what is that man……!"

– It was already a shock for him to be able to lift up the vending machine, but then he threw it so easily. What a guy. Isn"t he a monster.

Well, I certainly know the feeling. If I was faced with such an arrogant att.i.tude from those conceited kids, I"d be that p.i.s.sed off too. I wouldn"t want to let them get away free. Even if I was in the bartender"s shoes I would just give a good punch to their faces.

However, I wouldn"t have thought of trying to throw a vending machine, and I wouldn"t be able to. That guys beyond common sense in various ways.

Next to the dumbfounded Lin, Banba"s gaze was shinning. "So neat. That fella, his shoulders are strong too."

"No, that"s not the issue!"

"That"d be a waste right there if he only does pinch-hittin"."

He certainly had that well of a throwing arm. That man could easily pull off standing in with a long throw from the nearby home base of Yahuoku! Dome. Not just for hitting, but he would be good for defending the outfield as well but- As he was just thinking that, Lin shook his head. Not that. What stupid things am I saying? I was corrupted by him too much.

"This stupid baseball-……"

Lin exhaled.

"Whoa, that"s amazing." Martínez said excitingly next to him. "Couldn"t he throw 170 kilometers?"

"Are you also a baseball idiot?"

"He might could, I tell you." Banba chatted with Martínez in interest. "This person makes a fine there swing. He uses his wrists good too, and his bat head speed was fast."

"Though it wasn"t a bat, it was a street sign."

No longer listening to Lin"s words, Banba and Martínez were getting excited on their own.

"You serious? He has insane outstanding talent. Wouldn"t he be good as a two-way player?"

"Right? I"m pitch"n to do some scoutin"!"

"I-idot, wait a sec-"

Shaking off Lin"s attempt to stop him, Banba approached the bartender. "That stupid Ban!" Lin held his head, and Martínez next to him frowned, "Will he be alright?"

Ignoring both their concerns, Banba called out to him joyfully.

"Hey, wait a moment."

And then he placed his hand on his shoulder.

"……Ahh?" He seemed to be in a bad mood. The man in the bartender outfit whispered in an intimidating voice and turned his head with the look of a demon. "……Who the h.e.l.l are you?"

Facing him like that, Banba started talking without a flinch.

"Ain"t you quite somethin" there!"

"……Ha?"

The bartender was taken aback at Banba"s sudden praise uncomprehending.

"That last pitch was down right amazing! You got good reflexes!"

"………Haa, thank you."

The man in the bartender outfit seemed to have completely lost his malice at Banba friendly smiling at him and his use of Hakata dialect. While making the dubious expression of "who is this guy?" he said his thanks honestly.

"- So, I got a little favor to ask of you."

And like that Banba entered the main topic right away.

"Won"t you play some baseball with us?"

At the words said with a wide smile, the bartender man t.i.tled his head further.

Credit to Soutenkyuu on Tumblr for providing the ill.u.s.tration.