Work Text:
“I swear, these motherfuckers choose places just to fucking annoy me.”
Samatoki stood in the entryway to the massive arcade, filled with lights, sounds, kitschy neon, and people of all ages having a general good time.
“This is a perfectly rational location for a deal,” Rio said, standing beside him. “There are several exits, it’s loud enough to not be eavesdropped on, there’s a crowd to disappear in and out of, enough visual confusion to—”
“Yeah, see, I hear you,” Samatoki shot back, “but consider this— it’s fucking annoying. ”
“Once more, I appreciate you both choosing to help me with this,” Jyuto said. “I’m sure you’d rather be doing anything else, Samatoki.”
“Oh can it. You know I have to keep my turf in line. I wasn’t gonna say no no matter where we ended up.”
“True,” Jyuto said, “but all the same, it would be best if we blended it. So at least try to pretend you’re having fun.”
“Jyuto, I really can’t promise that.”
Jyuto sighed, and the three split up.
~~~~
Samatoki did try his best to not look like he was skulking angrily, he really did. Unfortunately, that was about the only expression he ever wore anyway, so he was failing dramatically.
“HAH! THAT’S WHAT YOU GET, LOSER!”
Somehow, there was one kid’s voice that was louder and more annoying than anything else here. Part of him knew he should just go away, find another area to stake out, but unfortunately the rest of him had already walked towards the kid with violent intent.
“Hey, kid!” he snarled at the young boy. “Keep it fucking down, will ya?!”
“Screw you, old man!” the boy yelled back with no fear. “You wanna try me?! I’m a skee-ball god!”
“Skee-ball?” Samatoki muttered, before looking over to the machine the boy was standing by. A track that curved upwards to a series of holes marked with points, visible through a mesh screen. “What the hell is this?”
“You don’t know, gramps?” the kid replied snidely. “It’s the greatest game known to man. And I am the one true master of the sport! Shiro Kishimoto!”
“...So, if I beat you in skee-ball, will you shut up?” Samatoki asked.
“HAH! You, beat me?! Laughable, grandpa!”
“Big talk. I bet I could crush you at this.”
“OHOHO! You’ve got guts, old man! But if you want to face me in HONORABLE SKEE-BALL COMBAT , you must first wait your turn!”
He gestured to a massive line of hopefuls, wanting to test their might against the obnoxious champion. Samamtoki looked back at the line, and glared at all of them. They instantly dispersed.
“Okay, kid,” he said, looking back to the champ. “Let’s do this shit.”
~~~~
Rio found himself tactically assessing every location in the arcade. Partially to spot the drug deal, but mostly out of habit— a man can leave the military, but the military never leaves the man.
He stopped when he saw a group of five young children, all sitting on a bench and crying. He didn’t want to get involved, but unlike Samatoki, Rio was a fundamentally good person, and approached them.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Through tears and sniffles, one of them managed to respond.
“We… we lost… and… and our leader… he left us! Now we don’t even have a full team!”
Rio was instantly incensed. What kind of commanding officer abandons his troops upon defeat?! But before he promised to do something for these children that was almost certainly a federal offense and unspeakably violent, he stopped himself.
“What was it you lost at?”
The kid pointed at the door they were sitting by. ‘Laser Tag’.
“Laser Tag, hm?” Rio said. He looked back at them. “Alright, kids, listen up. If you need a sixth member, I will join your squadron.”
They all perked up.
“Really?” one of them asked in awe. “But you’re an adult! Don’t you have… adult stuff to be doing?”
Did he? Was he forgetting something?
It didn’t matter. Helping these kids was more important, no matter what else he had to do today. He shook his head.
“Not at all. Now come on. I’m going to teach you how to keep cool in a firefight.”
~~~~
As Jyuto walked out of the food court with what was disappointingly the most appetizing thing they had, cheap cup ramen, he continued to scan the area for the suspects. Apparently, they were looking for three teenagers, which didn’t narrow it down much here. The tip said that they would be wearing colorful outfits, and walk with a ‘lot of swagger’. Which, again, didn’t narrow it down much. This was an arcade, every teenager here was wearing a colorful outfit and walking with a lot of swagger.
Still, there was nothing for it. He kept on scanning the crowd, looking for suspicious teenagers. Normally he would leave something like this to other officers, and not even bother Rio and Samatoki… but the tip said that the three had Hypnosis Mics. Which instantly knocked them up from ‘nuisance’ to ‘threat’.
Jyuto sighed and started eating. Maybe the others were having more luck.
~~~~
“Again!” Samatoki yelled.
“Really gramps? This is your fifth time trying, at some point you gotta give it up.”
“I SAID AGAIN!” he yelled, slamming four coins into the machine. His opponent sighed.
“Alright, old man. I’ll kick your ass as many times as I have to to get it through your skull— I AM THE MASTER SKEE-BALLER!”
~~~~
“Okay, now that we’ve completed our scouting rounds,” Rio said as he and his team sat in the food court and gathered around a 3D model of the laser tag arena made using shitty arcade snacks, “let’s analyze the battlefield and figure out the best plan of attack.”
“SIR YES SIR!” the kids all shouted in unison.
~~~~
It was probably fine, Jyuto thought.
In any case, the description was still bugging him a little. It was certainly weirdly specific, even if it wasn’t really helpful in an arcade, but something about it was just… a little familiar, but he couldn’t really place it. If it was important, it would come to him.
As he finished the noodles and threw away the cup, he found himself wandering in the direction of the laser tag.
~~~~
Samatoki had completely lost track of time. He had also lost track of the number of skee-ball games he’s played.
He had also lost. Like, a lot.
“I’ll admit, old man,” the Shiro said snidely, “you’re getting better. But you’ll never be good enough to defeat me.”
“Oh, for your sake, you better hope that’s not true,” he muttered under his breath.
“What was that?!”
“Nothing. Anyway, another game.”
“Hah! Sure thing, old man.”
~~~~
“Another victory!” one of the children shouted.
The five of them celebrated as they left another team of actual grown adults completely in the dust and very confused.
“Man, Captain Rio!” another of the kids said. “You’re way better than our old leader!”
“I told you, I’m not a Captain, I’m a Chief Petty Officer.” He paused. “Actually, tell me about your old leader. The circumstances under which he left, as well.”
“Ugh, Satoshi-san?” she replied. “He was cool, I guess, but he just started being so mean. We were trying our best, and he was just yelling at us. And then we lost a big game against some other kids from our school, and he freaked out, and said he’d get another team that can actually win.”
Rio could tell that this Satoshi had hurt their feelings immensely.
“Hmm. I see.”
He was pulled out of his thoughts by the call for the next game of laser tag. This arcade abided by the most sacred of laws: winner stays on.
Which means that Rio and his crew were up for another match.
“Hah. It’s just a bunch of kids,” one of their adult opponents said as they all got geared up. “And what about you, man? You their babysitter?”
Rio ignored him.
“Alright. Standard battle formation. Private Horie-kun, you advance from the front with the riot shield made out of your shirt to draw their fire.”
“Yes sir!”
“Private Mako-chan, you climb on top of the maze and start calling out enemy positions while laying down suppressive sniper fire.”
“Yes sir!”
“Private Takumi-kun, you guard the rear, call out any flanking attempts you see and cut them off.”
“Yes sir!”
“Private Genji-kun, you stick to the outer edges of the arena, scouting and skirmishing with the enemy to disrupt their formation.”
“Yes sir!”
“Private Izumi-chan, you support Private Horie-kun, advancing behind him and taking advantage of him drawing enemy fire to exploit weaknesses in the enemy formation.”
“Yes sir!”
“Alright… I’ll be running fire support for all of you as much as I can since I have longer legs. Now… Lima Tango Junior Squadron… prepare to move out!”
“YES SIR!” all five of them shouted at once.
The other team looked on in shock.
“Oh my god we’re about to be slaughtered by a bunch of ten year olds,” one of them finally said.
They were.
~~~~
Samatoki stared at the hole. He knew what he wanted. He knew how he wanted to get it. He lined himself up.
And rolled the skee-ball down the track, sinking it into the 50 point bullseye.
“FUCK YEAH!”
And then Shiro effortlessly rolled a ball into one of the 100 point holes in the top corners.
“GODDAMMIT!”
“Hah! You might be good enough to beat a plebian now,” Shiro said, “but you’ve got a long way to go before you’re even close to my level.”
Samatoki briefly considered hitting a child with a skee-ball really hard, but decided against it.
“Your level, huh? How long have you been playing this game, little twerp?”
“My whole life!” he replied proudly.
“So like… four months.”
“10 years, fuck you!”
~~~~
Jyuto passed by a group of four teenagers getting yelled at by a young boy. As he walked by, the boy saw him and pointed at him.
“You! Hey, you!”
Jyuto looked at the child, more than a little confused.
“I need you to join our laser tag team!”
Jyuto looked at him a moment longer, before simply walking away.
“HEY, GET BACK HERE! IF YOU DON’T, I’M GONNA KICK YOUR SHINS UNTIL YOU DO!”
Jyuto looked over at the teenagers he had been accosting.
“What’s with this… sassy lost child?”
“Well, two of our friends had to go home,” one of them said, “so we needed two more people for our laser tag team. He needed a team, so we invited him.”
“And now I'm the leader!” the boy declared proudly.
“He decided that without our input,” one of the other teens said. “Honestly, at this point, I’m considering going home myself.”
“Don’t you dare!” the kid snapped at him. “We are this close to getting a victory that is rightfully mine!”
“Hold that thought for just a moment,” Jyuto said as he noticed a man who should’ve been doing other things and walked away, ignoring the child’s yells of protest.
“Rio, what are you doing?” he asked, more than a little baffled that his friend was clearly gearing up for laser tag with a small team of children.
“Ah, Jyuto. Glad you could make it. I have some plans for this battle, and I wanted to go over them with you.”
“Chief Petty Officer Rio, who’s this?” young Mako asked.
“This is my friend and comrade, Jyuto Iruma. I want you to treat him with the same respect you would me.”
“OFFICER ON DECK!” Mako suddenly yelled, as she and the other children snapped to salute Jyuto.
“At ease,” Jyuto said without missing a beat, sending them back to their preparations. “Rio, we’re here on a stakeout, remember? I know I said to look natural and like you’re having fun, but I think you’re taking it a bit too far.”
“Say what you will, Jyuto. These kids need my tactical knowledge, and I get a break from the crowds. I feel as though it has been a truly beneficial partnership. We all have gained much— a lifetime’s worth of respect and experience.”
“Rio, we’ve only been here for two hours.”
“That’s not important. Besides, I couldn’t leave them alone. They were crushed by their leader abandoning them.”
“...Their leader?” Jyuto asked, glancing back at the sassy lost child.
Rio went on to explain the situation, with Jyuto comparing notes. After a couple minutes of talking, Jyuto doubled back to who he now knew was Satoshi and the teens he was currently corralling.
“I’m in.”
“What?”
“I’m in. I’ll be the sixth member of your team.”
“Great! Now we’re gonna kick my old team to the curb!”
~~~~
It was the closest laser tag match Rio had had by far since he got there.
But that wasn’t saying much.
“We lost…” Satoshi said, holding back tears as they left the arena.
“Yes we did,” Jyuto said, having genuinely given it his all to match Rio, and still been thoroughly outdone.
“This is all your fault!” Satoshi suddenly snapped at Jyuto.
“Is that what you said to your last team?”
That shut Satoshi up real fast.
“Let me give you some advice about leadership if you want to lead that badly,” Jyuto said. “A good leader listens to the people he’s leading. He understands what they’re good at, and shares in their failures just as much as their victories. Isn’t that right, everyone?”
Satoshi looked up and saw Rio and his team standing by them.
“...I’m sorry guys,” Satoshi finally said. “I’ve been a real jerk to you all over a stupid game.”
“Not good enough,” Genji said. “How do we know you’re really sorry, and not just saying that so that we don’t leave out?”
“Well… if you guys want, we can stop playing laser tag,” he said. “We can do something else. I don’t need to win at this stupid game to have fun with you guys.”
The other children turned amongst themselves, and after a brief moment of discussion, decided that that was indeed good enough. Rio looked on proudly as the six of them reunited happily.
“Thank you for that,” Rio said to Jyuto.
“The kid needed a reality check and I was happy to facilitate it. I don’t usually get to play the role model.”
Meanwhile, the kids had come to a conclusion.
“You’ll let me back on to the laser tag team?”
“Yeah,” Izumi replied. “Just so long as you’re okay with losing with us.”
“You’ll do fine,” Rio said, taking off the laser tag gear. “I’ve taught you everything I know. But if you ever want to learn more, here’s how to get in contact with me. I’d be happy to take you all camping.”
“Please don’t feed the children bugs,” Jyuto whispered to him.
“Why not?” Rio asked genuinely as he handed Satoshi a card with a number on it.
“Is this… a phone number?”
“It’s a radio band. But if that doesn’t work, my secondary contact info is on the back.”
“...Smoke signal instructions?”
Rio nodded.
“It’s one of the few methods of long distance communication that can’t be stopped by electronic interference.”
Jyuto was very exasperated by all of this as Rio and the kids said goodbye with a salute.
“Alright, can we now get back to what we’re here for?” Jyuto asked him.
“Of course. Hey, aren’t those the Buster Bros?”
Rio pointed at three teens in the crowd.
“So they are,” Jyuto said. “I wonder what brings them to Yokohama—”
Then it clicked.
Three teens.
Wearing colorful clothing.
Walking with swagger.
With Hypnosis Mics.
“Son of a bitch.”
~~~~
“Prescription drugs!” Ichiro said defensively, holding up the bottle, which clearly was labeled with the intended recipient’s name. “We have a friend up here who gets these delivered from Ikebukuro, but the regular delivery guy was sick, so we decided to do them a favor and meet with them!”
“So this has been…” Rio trailed off.
“A colossal waste of time, yes,” Jyuto finished, nursing a headache.
“Can we go now?” Saburo asked. Well, whined really.
“Yes, you three are free to go.”
“Cool,” Ichiro said as the three brothers made their way to the food court. “Tell Samatoki that he can go fuck himself for me.”
“Will do,” Jyuto replied with a sigh, before pulling out his phone and making a call. “Samatoki, the tip ended up being a false alarm. Sorry about that. I’ll treat everyone to dinner tonight to make up for it. Also, Ichiro Yamada wants you to know that you can go fuck yourself.”
~~~~
“Yeah, well tell him to go fuck himself right back!” Samatoki yelled as he hung up. “Alright, I’m heading home. Let’s finish this.”
“Let’s, old man!” Shiro said back to him. “This is the closest you’ve ever gotten to winning, and you still have to get the 100 point hole with one ball right now! You’ll never beat—”
Samatoki simply lined up his shot, before pitching it like a baseball, punching clean through the metal mesh and into the 100 point hole.
Shiro fell to his knees in defeat.
“This… whole time… you’ve been toying with me…”
“Not really,” Samatoki said. “Let me give you one piece of advice, kid. There’s always gonna be someone better than you, at whatever the hell it is you’re doing. And you are better than me at skee-ball. So if you can’t beat them…”
“Then change the game.”
Samatoki left without another word.
~~~~
Those words had a fundamental effect on Shiro Kishimoto. As he grew older, he found himself stepping into the world of organized crime, and his tenacity allowed him to climb the ranks quickly. By the age of 24, he was patriarch of his own family, and often battled other gangs and criminals alongside the man who inadvertently inspired him. He also regularly clashed with the fascist governmental bodies of japan, and those were foes that he knew he could not beat, not with the Kishimoto Clan.
So he changed the game, and hired outside help. This was often in the form of mercenaries. People who could operate beyond government laws and criminal codes alike. The most dangerous and useful team he ended up hiring was a six person elite specialized wetwork squad. They were efficient, practical, clearly enjoyed their work, and were ambiguously in a polyamorous relationship. He enjoyed a long and fruitful business partnership with them.
Details on their past were scarce, but one of them did once claim that they all gained their discipline, camaraderie, and bloodlust from ‘a weirdo in fatigues and an extremely formative game of laser tag’.