Unveiled Pursuit

Arata kept walking in the alley, where there was no sign of life. During the day, the alley would receive the least amount of sunlight, but during night it was really awful. The buildings on each side had windows, but nothing could be seen inside of them. You could say they looked like decorations.

And so, he kept walking, and walking, and walking. Without stopping once. He must have walked for 10 minutes already, and it seemed that there was no end to the alleyway.

(What is going on? Where did they go?)

He was expecting to catch up to them sooner or later, but even after all that wandering, he didn't find them. He started looking behind his back, his eyes darting all over the place, trying to make out something, anything. But to no avail.

Even if his eyes got used to the darkness, if there was nothing there, he wouldn't really see anything. But still, he looked.

Taking a few steps forward, he started hearing sounds. Some were far away, some were close by. He stopped walking for a second, and covered his ears.

(I stopped hearing the sounds… Does that mean that I wasn't hallucinating them, and I was really hearing something?)

Taking his hands off his ears, he started to hear the sounds again. All this made Arata certain this wasn't an auditory hallucination at all. But, what was making those sounds?

Arata thought for a little while, but he didn't arrive at any conclusion. Deciding it was pointless to think about it, he started walking again.

After a little while, he started seeing faint light in the distance.

(Finally… I was getting tired of walking in this darkness.)

He began running slightly. Arriving closer to the light, he could hear two people speaking to each other.

"We did as Boss ordered, but what should we do with that bastard?" asked the buff man.

"I mean, didn't he tell us to bring the kid to him? Isn't that what we should do?"

"Right. That's what he commanded us, however where's the fun in that? Just doing whatever he tells us, like we're his fucking slaves."

"I get you bro, but do we have a choice? We don't. If we don't do as he asks, our families are done for and you know that."

"I AM AWARE OF THAT BUT I WANT TO HAVE SOME FUN"

The tall and big man screamed, throwing the can of beer he had in his hand, the contents falling all over the place. The short man tried to calm him down, and in the end he succeeded.

(Okay… I found them, now what? I could try to attack them, but my chances are looking slim.)

Looking over this scene, Arata could feel anger starting to rise up in him, while at the same uneasiness washing over him. He found the people who are involved with his brother's kidnapping, but he's pretty much powerless.

The men continued talking to each other, and Arata kept looking, as he couldn't do anything else.

Until it happened. Arata's phone started ringing loudly, and the men were made aware of his presence, their guards raised up even more.

He looked at the phone, quickly saw it was Arisu and he declined the call.

(Holy shit, I'm done for. Now they know that an outsider is present and has been listening over their conversation.)

"WHO'S THERE!?"

The hooligan screamed in my direction, and stood up. The other crook took up his phone and quickly made a call. He said a few words and hung up.

"Show us your face and I promise we won't do anything to you."

The thug spoke up, and started walking over where Arata was currently standing. He quickly started thinking of some ways out of this situation, but it was futile.

Arata's instincts were basically screaming: "Run! Run!" As the mobster was getting closer, Arata gave in to his human instincts and started running.

However, even that was in vain. Because a minute later, a person in a hoodie was standing in front of him and made eye contact with Arata. Not a second even passed, and the person was already in front of Arata, trying to kick him in the stomach.

And it almost worked out, but Arata managed to raise his arm to defend from the kick. While he did manage to weaken the impact, he still suffered great knockback due to the difference in power between the two of them.

Realised he got knocked back, Arata tried to soften his landing, but it was all too sudden he reacted a little too late. He bounced a few times on the alley's concrete and ended up crashing into a building.

"FUCK THAT HURT!"

Suffering a great amount of damage because of the kick, he couldn't move, but he still tried anyway, however it was fruitless.

"Hahahhaha, you really thought you could escape from us after everything you've done? We know you've got your hacker friend to track us, and that you came here. But it was all for nothing."

The hooded man was standing in front of the light-headed Arata, and was taunting him.

(This scoundrel is really enjoying himself, isn't he? If he hadn't caught me off-guard I could've defended myself from his kick.)

"..."

"Instead of coming here, tailing us, you should've done everything you could to get us the money your father is indebted with. But no, you had to do this. So let me ask you, how does this make you feel? Angry? Afraid? Do you want to leave, go home, and cry in your big sister's arms?"

The man was clearly trying to get a reaction out of Arata, and so he did.

"SHUT UP! WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY FAMILY?" he screamed, "You can make fun of my useless father for all I care, but don't talk about my sister like that!"

Feeling the adrenaline rush, he tried to get up one more time, this time with success. However, when he thought this situation couldn't get any worse, the mobster from before who was chasing him finally caught up to him. He was surrounded.