Saturday, the dawn of the weekend. The sky was covered with clusters of grey clouds which drifted rapidly over a sky of blue hidden behind them. The sun periodically broke between the clouds, a constant cycle of sun and shadow which the world switched between with the rolling of the clouds making their pace. A windy, beautiful summer's Saturday, the quiet before the rain set to fill the coming week.
Anna stared longingly out at the countless thousands of buildings stretching out all the way into Tokyo from behind the glass, that she was not able to enjoy such a day. Her family, before the rain came, decided to spend today hiking in the nearby mountainous regions. But Anna had to stay behind. She stared up at the ever changing skies from behind the glass of Mr. Ahiru's window, behind his pitiful intern's desk. She yawned deeply, body tired and min irritated as if hours and hours had passed in the day. But when she craned her neck all the way around to look at the clock on the wall, she dismayed as she found that only an hour and a half had passed after all, and she'd started her internship shift today at nine o'clock in the morning. Oh the misery...

Of course, Baki's detention was sometime later today. Anna sighed to herself, staring out the window as she remembered the way their session had gone the night before..

Anna had finished explaining the very basics of algebra to Baki. "x plus y = n", If x = 10 and y = 20, calculate n. Stuff they give elementary schoolers. Baki struggled at first, but to Anna's surprise, he quickly got a hang of it.
"Anna," Baki said, after staring at the page for a short while, "a week ago, I'd have looked at this and not been able to tell what the hell's happening. Now, thanks to your explanations, I can understand more than half of it!"
"Baki, I'm happy to hear that."
"Yeah, yeah, now let me get on with it."
What a sore winner.

"You idiot..." Anna whispered.
She looked down at her watch.
"What time is it?"
"Almost six thirty. Nayagi-san will be here for me soon." Anna replied. Baki hummed quietly to himself as he watched her begin to gather her things and prepare her bookbag. She looked up at him again, "Baki, I need to ask you something. About tomorrow."
"You can't convince me to stop my fight with Kitizawa. Nothing you do can get me to give up." The memory of Baki agreeing to the fight with Kitizawa was fresh in Anna's mind.
"...It's not about Kitizawa. It's about your detention."
"Detention? Tomorrow?" He asked cluelessly.
"Yes! Tomorrow! You didn't forget, did you?"
"Of course not." He lied.
"You better be there." Anna warned playfully, smiling, "or I'll be cross."
"Sure.." Baki replied slowly. The high pitched beep of a car horn suddenly came from outside, muffled by the walls of Baki's house.
"That'll be for me.. See you soon, Baki."
"You too, Anna."

"Miss Takeyama!" Ahiru barked, "get your head out the clouds. I need you to file this stack of paperwork."
"Paperwork!?" Anna exclaimed, as the fat teacher slammed down a heavy, overspilling stack of papers, with a count of at least hundred files high. It towered far above Anna's head as it teetered there, threatening to collapse all over the floor at any second. Mr. Ahiru didn't respond, and marched around the back of Anna's chair, where he returned to his own desk and flipped his laptop lid up.
"Mr. Ahiru. This busywork isn't doing anything for me, it's not helping me increase my grades, potential or learn anything! It'-"
"It will increase your student credit, young lady, now stop disturbing my Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende time! The new episode is out."
He turned to his laptop and began to put his headphones on.
"Mr. Ahiru!"
"What!?" He exclaimed, frowning at Anna as he slammed his finger on the space bar.
"..When is Baki due in for his detention?"
"Anna, Anna, Anna," Ahiru chuckled, "do you really think he's actually going to show up? That's nice.. Now the Downtown duo are about to brave a treacherous wall of bubbles, so leave me alone."
"I asked you a question." Anna replied, slowly rising from her chair, glaring at the fat teacher's pig-eyes.
"Lunch time. Now sit down, Miss Takeyama, or do you want to risk your internship?"
Anna sat, her anger simmering down as she took the first paper.
'What does a teacher like him need so much paperwork for anyway?' She thought, slipping her glasses on as she slipped the first paper onto the desk.

"Kanto Regional Tax Division - Personal Income Tax files." She mumbled, reading it to herself. The sound of Mr. Ahiru's fat-compressed, witch-like cackling echoed about the room and Anna fought the urge to just slump hopelessly down to the desk.
Without a lick of enthusiasm, she flicked her stainless steel ballpoint pen to the paper and began to work away at the tax returns of her teacher, scouring through all of the supplemental files such as income streams and transactions, whilst trying not to look at the names of the services Ahiru had subscribed to...

...

..

It had been hours. Anna could almost feel her eyes slipping from her head, but Ahiru's returns were almost fully filed. Only... About ten centimetres worth of stacked paper from the year passed to slog through... Piles of scrap paper lay scattered across the table, their once plain and empty backsides covered in rows and rows of scribbled and scrawled equations and calculations, all bringing together Ahiru's combined expenses of the entire year. She glanced again back at Ahiru's wall mounted clock as each second ticked away. It was five minutes to twelve. Baki still hadn't shown up yet. Ahiru was still totally absorbed by that comedy show he'd been watching all day. Anna's pleading gaze flicked between uncaring clock and ignorant teacher. She tapped her foot anxiously on the ground. Twelve o'clock passed. Ahiru snorted at something that happened on his laptop screen, munching on the cheesy balls he had claimed from the vending machine downstairs, his fingers covered in disgusting, congealed cheese dust that he was constantly licking from his greasy, pudgy digits. Anna struggled to not gag, and she quickly looked away.
Ahiru wiped his nose and sniffed, tapping the spacebar again, discarding his headphones to the desk and clapping his hands together.
"Well, Anna, that's lunchtime. I can't legally have you stay anymore so, get running now. We'll finish that paperwork on Monday evening."
"No, I'm tutoring Baki on Monday evening.." Anna replied, "there's not much left Mr. Ahiru."
The teacher stood, yawning and groaning from his stooped over position, showers of cheese dust falling from his shirt and tie which he tried to brush off with his hands, leaving only a smeared smudge of dull orange across his bulging shirt. He peered over his glasses at Anna.
"Well, you'll just have to take some time out of lesson to do it, then won't you?"
Anna huffed in frustration and packed her bags away. The day had grown even cloudier, the sun was given no chances to escape the suffocation of the grey which covered the sky outside the windows.

Still, Baki was not here yet.

"Baki's not here.."
"I told you so." Ahiru said mockingly, before lowering his voice to a modicum of understanding, "it's okay, Anna. We all make mistakes in the people we put our trust in. It was worth a shot, right?"
"See you on Monday." Anna shot back, gathering her things into her bookbag and booking it out of there, wildly and confused.

But amidst it, she knew what she had to do.
She flipped her phone out, drew out Kuriyagawa's business card and held them next to each other as she punched in the number of the Akezawa group's chief Secretary into her number pad, before dialing it with a thumb. The dialtone played and she held the handset up to her ear, her shoes clacking loudly across the empty halls of Kita High School as she stormed towards the foyer.
Kuriyagawa answered in the middle of the third ring.
"Hitoshi!" Anna yelled.
"Oh, Miss Takeyama. What seems to be the matter?"
"Where is Baki? He's meant to be at detention, in about... ten minutes ago!"
"Baki?" Kuriyagawa hummed slowly, "ah, he's training today, Miss Takeyama."
"Training!? He told me he'd be at detention today! So he lied?"
"I am sorry, Madam. But if you should want to bring this problem up to Baki himself, I'd be glad to arrange Mr. Nayagi to take you to his house."
"That would be great. Thank you," Anna fumed, "I'm at Kita High School."
"I humbly apologize for his neglect of your tutorship, Miss Takeyama. I'll make sure to bring this consideration into your bonus you will receive on Wednesday."
Before Anna could respond, Hitoshi had closed with a 'Thank-you', and hung up. She was alone in the main foyer of the school, staring down at her phone incredulously.
'How could he show me up like this? I understand his absence yesterday.. But he said... He told me he'd be here...'

She moaned in anger, pulled at her hair and at once left the school building, marching across the courtyard to the front gates, where she'd wait for Nayagi-san to arrive.
The wind was firm, flipping Anna's hair wildly and buffeting her bookbag against her leg as he skirt flapped this way and that. The grey skies raced rapidly overhead, the nearby trees swaying in the wind, blossoms falling like a pink shower of rain from the dancing branches which gave them life.
She leaned back against the wall, taking her glasses off as she began to fidget with the arms, flipping them in and out repeatedly.
"Damn it. I should've taken my MP3 player back!" She cursed.
All she wanted to do right then was just take her sketchbook from her bag and tear up that stupid doodle of him. She didn't even want to see him right now, just the pure cheek of him to cast her aside like that.. She felt as if she had put all this faith into this boy for nothing.
'Yet I'm still going to his house to try and talk some sense into him, despite this..' She thought, 'It's Baki this, Baki that, where's Baki, Baki why aren't you here? Why aren't you there? It was overloading her thinking about it. And sullenly, she felt guilty that it might've been overloading him too..'
But her spiraling contemplation didn't last long, as Nayagi-san arrived in his iconic black limousine within about twenty minutes of waiting. He honked the horn, indicating for her to get in.
Anna bowed towards the general direction of the driver's cabin as she took up her bookbag and clambered inside like a little brown-haired scampering mouse.
"To Baki's, I assume."
"Yes, Nayagi-san." Anna replied, "I've got business to settle with that punk."
"I understand, Miss Takeyama. We'll get there in about ten minutes, since the roads are much quieter."
"Good."
And with that, the chauffer kicked the car into gear and sped away, sensing the sudden seriousness his passenger had taken this day. He was almost totally silent the entire way there, and he sped over the now mostly empty highway bridge over the grey, dull river far below.

.

Upon arriving to the little alleyway leading up towards Baki's house, Anna gave a curt bow to Nayagi as she exited the vehicle.
"Thank you, Nayagi-san. I hope this wasn't much trouble for you."
"That's okay, Miss Takeyama. I get paid very well by Kuriyagawa-san.. Now, I must get back to my house, me and the wife have a film to finish watching together." He gave a crow's feet creasing warm smile before rolling the tinted window back up and driving away. The grumble of the limo's engine slowly faded away into the hum of the city at work and the whistle of the wind blowing between the countless buildings all around. It blew right through the alleyway like a wind-tunnel, pushing her back, blowing her hair wildly behind her like a messy brown flag; almost as if Baki's house itself were telling her to "go away!"

But she didn't listen to it. She kept marching forward, arm in front of her face to protect her from the dust as she crossed the length of the alleyway until finally reaching the low cinder-block wall at bordering Baki's neglected front yard, covered in so much tags of slanderous graffiti that all the insults had begun to overlap. She went right up to Baki's front door.. And she stood there. Staring at the shoji. Her hair was fuzzed and messed up all around her head and her uniform now sprinkled with grey dust. It was a gateway to another world. Baki's world.
She raised her fist and rapped on the shoji with as much strength as she had.
"Baki Hanma! It's Takeyama! You have some explaining to do-"
The Shoji suddenly slid open as her hand hovered over to knock it furiously once more, but instead, she knocked on the grey-haired Detective Kido's face as he answered, causing him to yell out in shock and pain before backing away whilst clutching his nose.
"-mister..?" She finished, eyebrows furrowed in great confusion.
"That hurt!" Kido exclaimed, gritting his teeth, "no wonder Baki's hanging around you, you're a maniac!"
"Oh my gosh, Detective, I'm so sorry!" Anna yelped, dashing to the short older man's side, "are you okay? Is it bleeding?"
"Get away, young lady! I'm fine! I just don't expect to be punched in the face upon answering a door, that's all.."
She stepped away and clutched her forehead in worry, placing her bookbag on the floor next to where the table still lay strewn with mathematics papers of messy looking equations drawn up by Baki the night before.
"I didn't know you would be here, officer.." Anna said, continuing to tarry around Kido, "if Baki had opened the door, I'd have socked him right in the face too!"
"Don't sweat it kid," Kido replied, pinching his nose and clenching his eyes shut as he rode out the last of the pain, "besides, if Baki were here, you might've broken your hand by punchin' him." The old detective chuckled gently.
Anna looked around the room. There was no sign of Baki, but the detective had certainly left his own mark on the place, almost as if it were him who lived here instead. His long coat was hung on a hook in the wall, his shoes taken off and left by the door and his packet of cigarettes was left on top of one of Baki's little home gym machines to the side of the room.

A closer inspection of the detective revealed he probably wasn't too physically active, but wasn't unhealthy either. He carried some fat on him, the beginnings of the droopy neck of an old man hung shallow beneath his chin and his face was wrinkled and weary. His hair, still quite thick for his late middle age, was pushed back and grey. His eyes were light brown, and his skin had an old tan to it. Anna figured he must've been in his mid fifties.
"What're you so mad for anyway, kid? Shouldn'tcha be out enjoying the weekend?"
"I was interning with my teacher." Anna replied quietly, "and Baki didn't show up to detention today!"
Detective Kido put his finger up to his mouth in confused contemplation.
"Detention? On a weekend? Does it really matter that much?"
"Of course it does!" Anna fumed.
"Well aren't you a stick in the mud.. O... I guess it can't be helped. If you knew Baki a little better, it should've been pretty clear that he'd skip something like detention, he never does things he thinks are a waste of his time, unless he-"
"Gave his word that he'd do it? But he did give his word!"
"Hmm.." Kido replied, tongue in cheek as he began to slip his long coat over his shoulders, "I guess it makes sense why he was so stressed out before he left earlier.."
"He left earlier?" Anna asked, "what time?"
"Well, around half twelve."
Kido shrugged, slipping a cigarette from the packet as he trudged back out through the shoji door. Anna followed, shutting the door behind her. The detective struck a match over his lapel, cupping his hand over the flame as he lit the cigarette, extinguishing the match with a flick of his wrist afterwards.
A newspaper skipped up the street, an urban tumbleweed among an empty howling which raced between the derelict houses rising up all around.
The two stood there like that in silence for some time. Kido half turned to Anna, reaching into his coat.
"Smoke?" He asked.
Anna blinked a couple times, clearing her throat with a little cough.
"Um, no thank you.. Ahem."
"Hm.. Alright.."

"Did he tell you why he left?"
"He didn't, but I suppose I'm confusing you a little, kid, so I'll start from the start," He blew out a puff of cigarette smoke, "do you know anything about that punk, Kitizawa?"
Anna nodded quickly.
"Yeah, he's in my class at school.. When he feels like it, at least."
"Well I'm not sure what the deal is, but all the mooks and low-lives around town have been chattering about something big that kid's been organizing. Some kinda punch up, and I'm sure Baki's involved somehow."
"He is," Anna nodded again, "he agreed to fight Kitizawa and his gang tonight at seven o'clock."
Kido hummed in thought again, taking a long drag from his cigarette before blowing it all out in a single, choking cloud. He tutted a couple times, quietly to himself.
"Anna, were you there when he made this agreement with Hanma?"
"Yes."
He looked down at her slowly, his right eyebrow raised a tad when he met her eyes with searching curiosity.
"And how many did you count who were with him?"
Anna hesitated.
"There must've been about... Eight? Yeah, but half of them split and ran away. And this was on Thursday night."
"Ah. Well, I should let you know that somehow, within the last day that's gone by since, Kitizawa's crew has grown by," Kido mock counted on his fingers, "a hundred."
"Eh?" Anna's expression did not change. She did not even register the number. Kido cleared his throat.
"I said a hundred. Baki will have to fight Kitizawa and his gang of one hundred people at seven o'clock tonight."
"A hundred!? You're joking, right? You're kidding! You silly little guy!" Anna laughed nervously. Kido did not. His face was straight and lacked any kind of humour. He blew another cloud of smoke into the wind, ash falling to the concrete from the end of the cigarette.
"I'm not joking, Miss Takeyama." He looked up slightly at her, and coughed, "Baki will fight an army tonight."
Anna's eyes widened, she remembered her first lesson with him.

"So what you're saying is, a hundred people are only as strong as four guys?" The boy had asked.
"That idiot! I didn't think he'd actively go out of his way to fight a hundred people!" She looked at Kido, eyes wide and hands gripping his shoulders slightly, "Why did he CHOOSE to fight a hundred people? To prove a point?"
"Hey, calm down there, kid," Kido urged gently, pushing her hands from his shoulders as the cigarette teetered precariously between his teeth, "he had no idea he was fightin' a hundred men until I told him earlier today. If you had something planned with that boy, he's thrown it to the wayside so he could go and prepare to face such a huge force of people."
"Oh no..." Anna said, stepping back, a feeling of sadness taking her over, "I can't believe I was so mad with him.. His life's in danger, Kido! Why didn't you stop him? You could've stopped this tragedy from happening!"
"Anna," He snapped, "he must face those hundred guys, otherwise they'll come here and kill him for sure," the detective flicked his cigarette butt on the ground and his grumbling voice became gentler, "they're likely to be more merciful, if the brawl goes as planned.. I've already made plans for me and another Officer to go and make sure he comes to no harm - so don't worry yourself about that."
Anna nodded, clutching her right arm with worry.
"You're worried about him?"

She nodded again, hair fluttering around her as she stared down at the ground at her feet. Kido's firm, solid hand patted her reassuringly on the back.
"You underestimate him, y'know. Baki Hanma is feared by all the local punks for a good reason," he gestured at the graffiti all around, the only way criminals could think of to hurt Baki in any way, "if he couldn't handle himself in a big brawl, what would keep these people from coming to his house and beating him all at once, instead of painting all of this?"
Anna's eyes widened.. Was she really underestimating Baki so much? She saw his muscular form in her mind's eye. Landing thirty feet from a highway overpass, with her on his back, barely even grunting from the exertion before charging onwards.. She remembered the weight that she struggled with all her strength, not even able to feel it budging as if she were trying to push a mountain away from herself, but the same weight Baki could move as if it were a mere paperweight.
'Maybe... Just maybe... He can win..'
"Make no mistake, Miss Takeyama.." Kido sighed, turning around to walk back inside. Anna caught the flash of a firearm in a holster on his coat lining as he went, "Baki is still in danger. He's only a thirteen-year old boy.. Whatever fate's set him up against a hundred men.. Is truly an evil one."
"Kitizawa..." Anna muttered under her breath, a voice laced with venomous anger. She looked up at the grey sky and followed the detective inside, shutting the door firmly behind her as the wind managed to blow several leaves inside with a great gust that whistled up the alleyway. And then, the cold grip of the wind was shut out.

..

.

"When the fight is scheduled to begin," Kido began, taking a sip of the Jasmine tea he had sat before him on the table, "I will drive you there, with the rookie who's gonna be joining me."
"Rookie? Won't we need more to deal with a hundred men?" Anna asked, her head resting sullenly on the tabletop.
"No, I don't think so. Most of them will be young men and teenagers, with moms and beds to go home to. Classic army of delinquents. It'll take just the threat of arrest to scatter 'em," Kido produced a shiny, silver whistle from inside his coat, "when I blow this, they'll know I'm here and they'll run away. But only after Baki's roughed them up a little bit."
"So they won't run unless they're spooked by Baki."
"Exactly. You're clever, kid."
Anna smiled meekly back at the detective, before staring up at the lamp on the ceiling.
"Are you always hanging around here, detective?" She asked.
"Just call me Kido..." He leaned his arm in the cupped palm of his hand, sighing as a few flies buzzed around the lamplight above, the wind swooshing gently outside, "don't give me that look, I was getting around to answering your question! Jeez... Anyway, yeah, that's right. I've been around since the kid first moved in on his own. To make a long story short, I was on a special case and burst into this house," He grinned widely, opening his jaw to reveal all his teeth. He pointed to one of the tooth directly to the right of his upper right canine tooth, "that's where I lost my first tooth - and how I got my first filling from the dentist. Kid kicked me in the face when I interrupted his training session." Kido chuckled, "guess I've been calling in here all the time ever since."
"So you must know a lot about Baki," Anna whispered, "he's still a mystery to me.."
"Any questions you got, fire away. Unless it's about him."
"Him? Him who?"
Kido shook his head slowly.
"It's a shame really. You tell a kid not to ask questions about something and in the next breath they take it's to ask a question about it.."
"Oh forgive me won't you, I'm curious, and it's killing me..!"
"Whatever, kid.. Look, I've been hanging around Baki long enough to know that, while he's good at hiding it, his life is one big misery.. Kid's parents haven't showed up once since he moved in, all he does is live here alone, classes on the backburner as he trains for one thing and one thing alone.."
Anna slowly rose from her position, eyes locking with Kido's as she saw mass amounts of regret in the old man's eyes. He sighed, "and that, is to become good enough to face the strongest man in the world and win... Or die trying.."
There was a thick silence, thick enough to suffocate you.
"...die..?" Takeyama whispered under her breath, eyes wide as she felt herself drifting from her body, disassociating from the shock of such a premonition.
Kido nodded gravely.
"A boy brought up by two parents who don't love him, meant for one purpose. To fight and hurt people through untamable strength.. I saw this boy, this kid who's never had the luxury of a real childhood.. I just felt as though someone should do something , and I just wanted to be there for the kid... He's a thirteen-year old boy, not a cold blooded fighter, but he still forces himself to be that.."

Anna stuttered, no words came out. She had no words to say.
"I... had no idea." She said, her voice breaking from the rumbling emotions she felt inside herself. This is what Baki always carried on his own.
"It's a miracle that boy isn't despicable and heartless.." Kido said, "you might see differently, but I can tell you that this boy Hanma has a heart of gold, a will of steel and honour of platinum. I'm lucky to have found him, truly."

...

..

.

Six thirty PM came swiftly. Kido, who had his eyes closed as if sleeping, suddenly shot open, irises narrowing as he peered over at Anna.
"What time is it, Anna?"
"Oh," She blinked a couple times and glanced up at the clock on the wall above, "it's six thirty three, Kido-san."
"Just Kido will do." He smiled, rising up to his feet as he swung his coat over his shoulders to don it again, "let's get going. I'm sure Cadet Officer Yanase will be waiting patiently for me to pick him up."
"Alright." Anna replied, standing up also, clutching her bookbag to her chest as the two of them burst out into the alleyway, Kido switching the lamp off as they left the house together. It was suddenly quite dim outside, the sky had cleared somewhat, the dark grey clouds drifting lazily across a sky of deepening dark blue. The air was crisp and sharp, the wind had died down.
"Where's your coat, kid?"
"It's not all that cold to need a coat.. Kido." She nodded.
"If you say so. My car's this way." He gestured to the left, where the alleyway turned and narrowed, where at the end, the faint amber glow of a streetlight could be seen. The alleyways were very dim, and Anna could just barely see the way forward. She followed the flowing coat of the detective as he marched ahead, into the cramped little alleyway and out into the street.
The street was quiet, empty of people and vehicles of the city. An overfull dumpster lay still in the middle of the road and a lone car was parked up on the adjacent pavement. It was a blocky, silver, old thing. A two doored something from the Eighties, and it showed.
"Climb into the back." Kido ordered as he jammed his car key into the door and unlocked the car doors from inside. Anna pulled the door open, threw her bookbag inside and scrambled over into the backseats. The seats were old and leathery, the seatbelts frayed yet tough.

Meanwhile, Kido clambered into the car, slamming the door as he flicked the key into the wheel. The clutch struggled, but when it kicked in, the engine roared to life.
"We're goin'. Get tight. We'll be making a stop to pick up Cadet Officer Yanase along the way."

Without another word, the car roared again, bore them both away down the road and into the gathering dusk.

The engine growled and fired like an angry, dashing gun, tires screeching and the smell of rushing air filled the vehicle as Kido pressed on the accelerator; a grand, mad dash across the bridge and into town.
"Don't worry," Kido announced calmly, smiling into the rearview mirror, "our young friend Yanase lives in Hino, around the corner from the Metropolitan University."
Anna, on the other hand, had shrunk all the way back in her seat, face white and eyes wide with terror as she stared ahead at a fixed point in the rushing white lines blurring by on the road.
He screeched into a tight corner, throwing Anna hard left where she spluttered as she slammed into the seatbelt. Then, after a miraculously close encounter with incoming traffic, Kido managed to merge into the correct lane, before making another abrupt left turn. The detective streaked down the long, open road; alongside no traffic until coming to a screaming halt at the opposite side of the road from a big University Campus, with a plaque outside reading "TOKYO METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY."
Anna gasped for air, blinking rapidly as her heart pounded in her chest. When she finally got her senses back, she reached forward and shook Kido roughly by the shoulder.
"What the hell was that!? You could have killed some innocent person, alongside both of us! You should have your driver's license revoked, you senile old man!"
"Hey! Watch it! I didn't know your were so.. So rude, kid!" Kido protested, shoving her hand off of himself.
Anna sat back and drew her feet towards herself, taking slow breaths.
"I'm sorry, Kido, but I just got a shock, okay?"
The front passenger's side door opened, and a tall guy entered the car, his hair was buzzed and his face clean shaven. He wore a black tracksuit jacket and a grey polo shirt beneath it. He was breathing heavily as he got in.
"Cadet." Kido greeted.
"Detective." The newcomer bowed, "who's the schoolgirl?" He jabbed a thumb at Anna as if she weren't even there with them.
"One of Baki's friends, stop givin' me that look Yanase and let's get moving. I told you I'd come pick you up before seven o'clock and here I am."
Without a second word of explanation, Kido slammed his foot back on the accelerator and the car screeched as he span it in a wide arc and brought it right back the way it came. Anna fought with considerable effort for her face to not slam into the window as Kido performed such a maneuver, awestruck at the casual relaxation the officers in the front of the car seemed to share, despite the car ride having about as much stability as a ship in stormy seas.
"Can you just take it easy, please, Kido-san!?"
"She's never been on a tall order before, don't worry about her." Kido chuckled from the front seat as he flipped the headlights on and careered right back over the highway bridge, the night deepening overhead as stars and clouds soared by.
Eventually, Kido screamed down slopes, deeper below the city as terraced residential areas rose high above them on either side, and after a right turn, the rickety old car flew into a dingy looking car park covered in pieces of trash and dirt, pieces of grass growing from cracks in the asphalt long-neglected.

Even as the car stopped moving, Anna did not notice. She just sat there, staring ahead as the world suddenly still, rushed by her eyes and her heart was still stuck in her throat. The vague sounds of speaking came from in front of her.
"Five minutes to seven.. Just on time." Kido remarked.
"Eh, Kido? The kid doin' alright?"
"Don't worry about her, Yanase, she'll be right as rain," Kido turned around in his seat, gently shaking Anna, "Wakey wakey, kid, we're here.."

Anna groaned as she blinked the tears of shock from her eyes, glancing around at the little parking area around the car. Two beams of light poured forth from the car's headlights, illuminating the concrete and the boarded up fronts of buildings which bordered the tiny open space. The dark highway passed overhead, and somewhere to the left was a dark passageway, where dim amber light seemed to glow from the end of it. Anna knew that this would be where Kitizawa's fenced court would be - where Baki would go to fight eight men and instead face one hundred. She took a deep breath of fear and stress.
"Hey, you're not fighting the hundred guys, so I'm not sure what you're so worked up about.." Yanase prodded.
"Yanase, do try to retain some kind of class.. Baki and her are very close with each other. Try and think what she feels."
Yanase avoided Kido's stern glance.
"..Sorry, Kido-san," he half-turned to Anna in the back, "and my apologies to you too."

Kido clapped his hands together.
"Let's go, shall we?"
"Aye." Yanase agreed.
The detective cut out the engine and the headlights vanished, plunging the yard into darkness. Utter darkness except for the weak light which now filtered through the grainy darkness..
"Don't we have a flashlight or something?" Anna asked, blundering forward after the general shape of the two cops striding ahead of her. The shorter one, which was definitely Kido, stopped and turned to face her.
"Shhh... We don't wanna spook the delinquents waiting out there.."
Anna nodded, before quickly stumbling after Kid and Yanase, who had taken a sudden left turn into the little alleyway. The light was stronger here, and Anna found herself actually able to see more than a few feet in front of herself.
Finally, at the other side, the source of the light was visible. The four big floodlights over the basketball court shone out into the darkness. The three were quite well hidden in the shadow, though. Hidden enough to not be noticed by the crowd clamouring within the fences. They were restless, they chatters and whoops echoing from the overpasses above, like an army waiting to strike. Anna's eyes widened in shock as she saw each punk had come wielding weapons. Clubs, bats, knives, knuckledusters, metal pipes, quarter staffs, even small swords were being brandished. She clapped her hand to her gaping mouth, unable to believe it.
"Well I never.." Whispered Kido.
"Call this off, now!" Hissed Anna, tugging at Kido's coat, "please! Baki's life is in danger!"
"I can't say I don't agree with the girl, detective. You've gotta chase these punks away."
Kido's glare steels, and he brushes his coat open. The glint of his pistol's barrel is visible, beside the glint of his whistle hanging from his neck.

Baki was walking forward through the darkness, the grass rustling gently under his footfall. He found that his hands had become chilly in the night's crisp air, so he had plunged them into the warmth of his pockets. He was still wearing his school uniform. From earlier that day.
You see, he had entirely planned on attending detention just like he agreed to.. Until Kido told him Kitizawa was basically raising an army against him.
'Kitizawa, you punk! You'll pay for being such a coward!'

The lights of that basketball court were now visible. Shining over the heads of a hundred men who hadn't seen the young boy strolling closer and closer to them. The softness of the swaying grasses had been left behind for the old, dark concrete. Baki felt his face, worn in a tough scowl. This whole situation had really pissed him off, to no end.
But, he decided, he'd have a hundred guys plus Kitizawa to take that out on.
AND.. He'd get to test the theory.
He smirked as the first few men noticed his arrival.
"Hey! There's a kid walking over to us! Looks a bit younger than you, Kitizawa-san."
"That's Baki Hanma, that's the target!" The shriek of Kitizawa called out, rallying his troops as he brandished a katana from a wooden scabbard.
A tall man with smooth, dark skin stepped out, wearing a red baseball cap, his hands bare of weapons unlike the rest of the scum who surrounded him.
"Are you serious? He's just a kid, Kitizawa."
Kitizawa held his arms out in defense of himself, babbling as his army murmured in unease with each other.
"He might look like just a kid, but you've gotta trust me," He pointed at Baki, "he's no ordinary boy. He's extraordinarily strong, and he's the one who's been beating up all your gangs, right?"
"Yeah! Never too young to learn a little lesson!" One of the punks yelled, rallying the rest very quickly.
Baki, hands still in his pockets, took a sudden leap. He hopped all the way onto the fence, at least six feet up, before jumping back down into the court as if it were nothing, and then without a single moment lost, the boy burst across the courtyard with tremendous speed, heading straight for the big guy next to Kitizawa. He leapt up, withdrawing his hands from his pockets in bunched fists as he landed right on the big man's shoulders. Then, he began to whale away, right into his face. Slam after slam of Baki's fists send spatters of blood in all directions as the man's baseball cap flew away. Baki hopped away as his victim came crashing to the ground, his hat floating down beside his prone body.
"Niko.. You'll pay for that!" Kitizawa turned towards Baki, his sword pointed right towards the boy, "you think you're so hot, but let's see how you stand against my blade!"
Baki grinned sardonically, without a word in return to this heckling, he stepped forward, pressing his own throat against the point of Kitizawa's blade.
The lanky delinquent yelped, eyes wide and teeth gritted, dropping the katana where he stood as he took a terrified little step back.
"Agh! Just kidding!"
But Baki, not one for negotiation any longer, made short work of him with a one-two kick to the groin and then to the face. Kitizawa fell by Niko's side.

Anna was pale with shock. The two cops just stood by and watched as if commentating on a sports match.
"He's good.." Yanase whispered, "he took down the group leaders like they were nothing!"
"Mentally, he's got more going on than those who'd resort to things like knives and swords," Kido grinned knowingly, "and here's the kicker.. Half of those chumps are ready to split, while the other half still aren't sure..."
Anna glanced up at Kido, then back at the army still there, where it had formed a vicious half-circle around Baki.
"I don't believe you."

"You don't scare us, carrot-top!" A mohawked brute yelled, assuming leadership, "if you haven't noticed, there're a hundred of us!"
Baki began to chuckle to himself, mocking the entire army present. The sounds of men rising to anger filled the make-shift thunderdome and weapons came up in the air.
Anna just couldn't sit by idly, waiting for Baki to be jumped on and dogpiled, before being killed by these bloodthirsty men. She broke from the darkness where she and the two officers were hiding, and sprinted across the concrete where the men had Baki almost totally surrounded.
"Four." Baki announced, just seconds before Anna reached him.
"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Mohawk yelled.
"You're only as strong as four people!" Baki replied.
"Baki!" Anna skidded in front of Baki, grabbing him and shaking him around by the front of his uniform, cutting through the noisy chatter of the men all around from sheer shock, "stop this stupidity right now!"
"Takeyama? What are you doing?" Baki hissed, "I'm handling it here!"
"I can't take it anymore, Baki, You're gonna get beaten to death! There's a hundred crooks here and they've all got weapons!"

"Only ninety-eight now," he gloated, nodding down at Niko and Kitizawa who're knocked out on the ground, twitching and giving little sobs.

"Don't joke with me, Hanma! You'll get thrashed by all these men! They won't stop until you're dead!"

"Anna.. Anna!" She quietened down, staring up at him. The wine red of his eyes sparkled in the light of the lamps all around, staring deep into hers with a warm reassurance, "I thought you were my tutor. You already forgot the lesson you taught me in maths.."

"Lesson?" Anna asks, dumbfounded.

"There's a hundred of you here tonight! So, you're all only as strong as four men." He yells out to the crowd, smirking at Anna, "I can do this Anna... You have to trust me."
"But Baki.."
"Anna! You're in more danger here than I am!" Baki's eye suddenly widened in shock, his hands springing up as the flash of a blade fell towards Anna's shoulder. Within a fraction of a second, Baki clapped his hands around the blade, catching it just a few inches away from Anna's head.
"Okay, that's it!" Baki roared, using the sword to throw the attacker off of his balance, before delivering a swift arcing kick into the delinquent's right, right into his waist. The force blew the opponent away, crying out in pain as his machete clattered to the ground. Anna yelped in surprise, spinning around to see what happened, but for Baki, the battle was too late to end now, it was just beginning.
Anna sprinted away to the edge of the arena, dodging a thrown brick, as the hundred men roared and charged right over to Baki, swarming him within an instant. The boy disappeared within the cacaphony of shouting men and weapons shaking up and down above their heads like the spears of a medieval armed force.
The sounds of punching, kicking, yells of pain and cracks of bones breaking and cluttering weapons falling to the ground filled the air.

Baki was surrounded on all sides, weapons falling on him from every angle. It didn't matter how many times he'd get hit, he just needed to beat as many of these men as possible!
He dropped to the floor, spinning around as he swept five men's feet from under them, yet more came to replace them. On his way back up to his feet he punched deep into one's stomach, making them vomit on another, who accidentally hit two of his comrades in the back of their heads. Yet still they came on. After being hit over the head by a baseball bat, Baki felt his world spin slightly and his ears began to ring. He grit his teeth.
"Time to make my own maths.. Geometry.. Lessen the surface area..." He broke free from grasping hands and sprinted across towards the opposite fence from where Anna had ran to. The mob followed, leaving in its wake a pile of sprawled out, unconscious men; groaning, writhing and whining on the floor. A quick count showed there must've been about thirty there.
"Wow..." Anna glanced up to where white lights shone from the highway ramp overlooking the make-shift thunderdome. Anyone driving over would see this calamity, and it's a wonder they haven't...
But then... She squinted. A dark shadow was visible against the glow of the light. A silhouette and their dark car parked behind them. A stranger.. Just watching. He was short, very short and he stood with a firm sense of business.

Meanwhile, Baki cried out as the men kicked and beat and slapped him. He was just barely hanging on, slugging kicks and punches as he was pounded against the chainlink.
Suddenly, a whistle screamed from the darkness, and a gun shot echoed across the court. Everything stopped.
"Alright, everyone, Scram!" Kido yelled, him and Yanase charging into the court.
"It's Kido! We gotta get outta here!" Exclaimed one of the thugs. Weapons dropped and footsteps charged, Anna was pushed aside to the ground as the remainder of the thug army barged from the basketball court.
"Ow!" She wept, her elbows and the side of her hip stinging from the scrape she took on the concrete.
"You okay kid?" Detective Kido asked as he offered her a helping hand.
"I... It hurts.." Anna groaned, blood beginning to ooze from her wounds.
"Yanase, get her fixed up. I'm going to see Baki." Kido jabbed across the emptied court, over the piles of sprawled bodies to where the prone schoolkid was lying there, prone and knocked out.
"Is he okay?" Anna asked.
"Don't worry about it, Kido has it sorted. C'mon, there's band-aids and sanitizing alcohol back in the car."
"..Right.." Anna replied, slowly shivering to her feet as he helped haul her back up again. The shadowy man from the highway junction ahead was gone, probably in his car again after seeing the results of the fight.

Detective Kido ambled across the battlefield. It had ended in a draw, but hopefully his intervention might stop gangsters from, well, ganging up like this again. Not on Baki at the very least.
Some of the punks were just a few years younger than the detective. Some of them could've hardly been much older than Baki and Kitizawa's age. He nudged them with his boot, bringing them back to consciousness.
"Go home, kid," he ordered, "your momma's worried about ya."
The younger ones didn't need much more convincing.
However, Baki was not so easy to wake up.
"Baki?" His ginger hair was ruffled and messed up. Blood was smudged under his nose and fresh grazes, cuts and bruises covered his face, fists and forearms.
He gave the kid a little nudge with his foot.
Baki's red eyes sprang open and with one swift movement he bounced from his position on the floor, his jump-up dropkick slamming right into Kido's face as he jumped up back to his feet. The detective flew to the floor, spittle flying from his mouth.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that, Detective.." Baki said, voice groggy and tired as he helped the old man back up.
"Oh my.." Kido swished something around in his mouth before spitting out a handful of blood.. and a loose tooth, "looks like another trip to the dentist's for me.. That bloodsucker's gonna bleed me dry.." He chuckled.
Baki looked around at the field. Most of the punks had woken up, seeing that their fellows had abandoned them and decided to flee as quickly as possible.
"I must've gotten at least sixty, right Kido?"
Kido shook his head.

...

..

.

"Fourty-eight." Kuriyagawa said, hands flexing tentatively on the steering wheel, "Baki successfully took out fourty-eight men out of one hundred, before the Police intervened."
"Unsatisfactory." The sly voice of Emi Akezawa replied from the other end.
"I have one more thing to report, Madam. It's quite interesting."
"Hm?"
"His tutor was there. Tried to break it up."
"A fight between Baki and a hundred men?"
"Indeed." Kuriyagawa pushed his sunglasses up.
"This tutor.. It's that Takeyama girl, right?"
"The very same one, Miss Akezawa."
"That is interesting... I'll have to meet this one.. Return swiftly, Kuriyagawa. I have other business for you to settle for Baki's training."
"Yes madam." But Emi had already hung up the phone.
Kuriyagawa peered down at the once chaotic courtyard, now stained and scattered with drops of blood, torn fabric and discarded weapons. He kicks the car into gear and drives away quickly along the highway.

...

..

.

"Is this the place, kid?" Kido asked, his little car a perfect fit for the little lane her Godparents' house was on. Anna nodded. The ride back home was, thankfully, much more calm and gentle. Takeyama was relieved Kido drove normally most of the time..
"Will Baki be okay?" She asked.
"Don't worry about the kid.. I asked if he wanted an escort home but he declined.." The detective smiled warmly to himself, "I'll be back to see him later tonight, though."
"What time is it, Kido-san? I left my phone in my bookbag here in the car," She held her phone between thumb and forefinger, the screen dark and cold, "it must've died for some reason. I think my Mama and Papa tried to call me.
"Hm." Kido checked his little digital watch, "It's seven thirty."
"I'm totally late.. I'm sorry, I've got to run!"
"I'll come with you. I'm a cop after all, I'll clear things up with the folks."
Anna hesitated as she motioned to rush out from the front seat of the car. She glanced feverishly at the old man, before nodding slowly a few times.
The two exited the car. The air was cool, the sky empty and full of stars. A couple lights glowed from inside of the Okamoto household. They must've arrived home from their hike hours ago.
Kido marched confidently up to the front door and gave it a swift three-times rap with the back of his knuckles. He went to light up a cigarette, but the door was answered within a few minutes. Chizuko Okamoto was the answerer.
"Ah.. Anna? Who is this man you're with?" He asked, looking Kido up and down with an expression of confusion and unease.
"I'm Special Detective Kido, at your service," Kido answered, offering his hand. Chizuko shook it in return somewhat meekly, "I patrol the area of town near where Baki Hanma lives. There was some trouble and I escorted your daughter home..." He glanced between Anna and Chizuko.
'Don't see much resemblance...' He thought to himself, but bit his tongue.
"Oh, what happened? May I see a badge?"
Kido swiftly flicked his worn out, old, sunbleached bade, flicking the leather wallet open as the scratched little thing glinted in the lamplight from inside the house.

"Special Detective Inspector Akazeru Kido. Loc, Hachioji Cho Ward, Tokyo Metropolitan Police." Said the badge's ID.

The photo showed Kido in a much younger day, yet he was still puffing on a cigarette in the picture, the little thing hanging from the corner of his bored looking mouth.
"Hm.. Oh.." Chizuko glanced between the badge and the real deal, seemingly a little disappointed but satisfied with the explanation. He nodded.
"Alright, Officer. As long as the situation is seen to and our Anna isn't in any trouble or danger..?"
"Nope, we've got this under wraps. It'll be sorted before it hits the smallest of college newsletters." Kido gave a slight bow.
And with that, Anna went inside, running straight upstairs and shutting her door firmly.
The two men turned back to look into the house.
"She's got a lot to process from today, sir." Kido said, his voice filled with a deep sympathy, "you should try and have a talk with her about it sooner rather than later."
Kido exchanged his business card to Mr. Okamoto (which was really a piece of torn out notebook paper with a phone number and a name scrawled over it.)
"Make sure to call me in case there's any trouble."
"Thank you for bringing her back safe, Akazeru-san.. I don't know what she's getting into with all this Baki Hanma business. It's a little strange, I think."
Kido smiled knowingly, and nodded.
"Please. Just call me Kido. Goodbye, Mr. Okamoto."

Chizuko watched the detective step back into his little old car before kicking the grumbling engine into gear and powering away into the dark, the amber floodlights like a wave of fiery, warm light streaking down the long road between houses, before ultimately disappearing as another twinkle of the city. He breathed out a cloud of condensed air which drifted slowly away like wisps of smoke in the wind.

"Oh Anna..." Chizuko murmured to himself, "Please don't get mixed up in that boy's world..."

TO BE CONTINUED.