Jiga Boryoku/The Little B*****d’s BumperA Story by Brian C. AlexanderYatsu Tachinowarui stood beneath a street lamp one chilly Fukuoka night alongside his close friends and business partners, Kuruna Otoko, Kurin & Kita Sentoki, as well as the mysterious Senshi. “Such is the life of an everyday criminal.” Yatsu looks up at the cold night sky and begins to take a cigarette out of his coat. Senshi lights a match and holds out his arm to light Yatsu’s cigarette. “The hardest part isn’t the fear of capture, nor the complexity of the job.” Yatsu takes a deep breath before putting the unlit cigarette back in his pocket, too bored to smoke. “The hardest part is the waiting.” Hito Hiretsuna, with the roar of a read Nissan 350Z, comes up fast and with a flawless turn parks almost instantly, just inches from where Yatsu and his buddies linger. Hito jumps out of a pre-opened sunroof with loud excitement. “Well here she is boys! Straight off the presses. You wouldn’t believe what the guys over at the docks had to do to sneak this baby past storage and inspection.” All of the men are amazed and get fixed in fits of utter euphoria. All except for Yatsu and Kurin who keep their wits about themselves. Yatsu steps forward with a level head. “And if you’d of gotten caught speeding here, this whole damn transportation job would have all been blown to hell. Think a little next time.” Hito shrugs it off as harmless fun, and Yatsu continues. “You all know the drill. I’ll take the care to the drop point. Kurin and Kita will follow me close behind on bikes while Hito and Kuruna listen in on the radio and serve as backup incase we end up getting stopped by authorities for any reason.” Hito smirks in the hopes of something going amiss, just for the sake of action. “Hito is a wild child and the abruptly titled ‘Scumbag’ of the group.” Kuruna nods silently and heads over to their black van, preparing the headsets and microphones. “Let’s roll out!” After a clean and successful car delivery job, the team collects their cut and parts ways for the night. All of them not even thinking about what their next job will entail, but content with the momentary success of tonight. The next day Yatsu and Kuruna meet up with Kurin and Kita in Ko’s Garage, located across the street from Wun’s Bar. Hito treats the gang to the sight of a new drifting vehicle he’s acquired. Pulling back the cover cloth and unveiling a black and orange beauty. The men stand before a customized Nissan Skyline before the confident Hito heads into a speech. “Fantastic ain’t it? Just picked it up today, by those guys down at the dock, of course.” Over at Wun’s Bar, a patron waiting for the doors to open, for a quick early morning pint, hears the commotion and excitement Hito is stirring up. This biker’s name, Gesu. He heads over to the garage to investigate. As he walks up to the group, Hito continues. “See that bumper? That bumper there was actually part of an old racing cart called the Little B*****d, or something like that. The guys I got it from shaped it to fit perfectly onto my drifter, here. And would you believe they did it for free?! Guess they were allergic the epic style of classic race car nostalgia piece. I bet the original owner has no idea where it ended up.” Gesu stumbles into the garage and up to Hito. He stands tall and with a stern foreshadowing in his voice. “Ain’t you ever heard of James Dean?” Hito proves his worth in words. “Nope.” Gesu proceeds. “Idiot. James Dean was an American movie star who died in a racing car accident. The name of that car, The Little B*****d.” The group responds in a dumbfounded unison. “The car was eventually dismantled and the pieces were distributed to various garages, car manufacturers and dealerships around the world.” Hito stares blankly, fixed on the fact that the bumper was property of a movie star at one point. “That was until people began noticing that every single car using a piece or component of Dean’s car would always end up getting into an accident, which in turn always resulted in the death of the driver.” Not a negative thought crosses Hito’s mind as Gesu continues talking. “After the cars using those pieces got totaled, the specific pieces used in Dean’s original car, The Little B*****d, had been dealt more damage than the car itself and became unusable. This continued as more and more pieces were destroyed, as drifter after drifter died along with them.” Gesu finishes strong. “Some folks figured this out when there was only a hand full of the Little B*****d’s original pieces still left in circulation, floating around, and…” Hito snaps out of his trance and back into his twisted, self absorbed reality. “…And I’ve got the B*****d’s bumper!” Hito jumps for joy, hearing only the jovial and ignoring the morbid. Gesu glances across the street to see the bar’s doors are now open. He silently excuses himself from the group, walks away and slowly disappears into the darkness of the bar’s interior. Yatsu, Kuruna, Hito, Kurin and Kita are all left speechless as an unwelcome presence fills the garage. A smalltime gang consisting of six teenage punks enters the garage and waltz on up to Hito. The gang’s leader, Mashio Hara, gets in Hito’s face and begins doing what he does best. That is, running his mouth. “Well, well, well, Hito Hiretsuna. playing with the packrats as usual? tell me, how’d you acquire this hunk of s**t?” Hito makes a jump for Mashio, but Yatsu and Kuruna hold him back. “Temper, temper, Hito. You do see my men practically lining up outside the door, don’t you? We could torch this place to the ground and leave you for the crows, but… I tend to try and keep myself from wallowing with the weak. It taints my graces.” Hito begins to imagine an unbelievable number of centuries in which he could kill Mashio. Mashio turns his sight’s on Hito’s Nissan Skyline. “My, my, my, my, my. What a strange bumper you have there, Hito.” Hito looks up with a face so stone cold, god did a double-take. Hito responds. “Like it? Got it custom made. Cooled and hardened right from the crotch of your mother.” Hito inhales deeply. “Smell that? That’s the smell of your mom’s box on my car.” Mashio’s eyes hide a concealed outburst as he closes his eyes and turns to smirk ever so slightly. “Funny. If I wasn’t here on business I’d take you outside and drive blades so far into you, your granddaughter would feel it. But, I come bearing a challenge. Though we are rival districts, you know as well as I do that Corporate hates it when us street boys begin throwing stones at one another from across the schoolyard.” Mashio continues. “So, we are here to welcome you to a friendly little race. Your car against mine. It’d be a little display of civil equality and respect. Show the guys up at Corporate that their little street thugs can play nice and still keep a tight grip on things here in Fukuoka and Kyushu. What do you say, Hito?” Hito and the gang stand in anger before bursting out of encouraged silence. “I’ll take your car on and I’ll slam you into the f*****g side streets, you jerk! Hope you like the back lights of a Nissan blasting so far in front of you, your f*****g brains will fly out of your eye sockets, you jackass!” Mashio scoffs, turns and slowly calls his men to follow him out the door. “Tomorrow night, Hito. bring your game face. Come on boys. leave the filth to float in their ilk.” Hito goes into a frenzy as soon as the goons all vacate the garage. “I can’t believe that son of a b***h! Coming in here with his smug grim and grimy mug! First chance I get I’m gonna tear his b*****d head off!” While Hito fumes, Kurin inquires. “A race? Tomorrow? Should we go? Could we actually win?” Yatsu ponders for a moment before speaking. “Well you heard him. Obviously Corporate doesn’t think our districts can get along, so Mashio planned to throw down this shindig to appease them. Still, it was Mashio’s idea. That’s the only part that doesn’t sit right with me.” Yatsu continues as Kuruna nods. “The last thing we need is any higher powers breathing down our necks on every job and screwing up the way we do things.” Hito responds in an instant. “Damn straight!” Yatsu finishes. “We’ll race tomorrow. Just to set Corporate’s minds at ease.” And with the light of the sun matching the blinding gleam of the moon, the gang slumbers as a window to Ko’s Garage is broken. In pours the Kyushu district’s best. Stealing pieces and taking car part, they grab the bumper of Hito’s car as they make their way out the window again. “Kill me. Just kill me.” The next morning, the gang is devastated to find Ko’s Garage broken into and Hito’s car torn to shreds. Hito turns red as the fire within his eyes grow hotter than the bluest flame. “I’m gonna kill that worm! I’m gonna drive his skull into the Earth and fossilize that ingrate!! Without the gangs fearing us, they’d of never made a name for themselves out here! Those fuckers!! I’m gonna crush each and every one of them!! No one screws with my car and lives to brag about it…” The gang lets Hito fume. “…we should of known they’d do something like this! How could I be so stupid to leave her here last night!? And they took my f*****g movie star bumper!!” Kurin jumps in. “That thing was cursed, man.” As Hito refers to the car, Yatsu ponders their next corse of action, and speaking it firmly. “We have to start working on the car.” Hito responds rationally, for once. “Are you crazy?” Kita jumps in. “The race is tonight!” Yatsu takes a breath to explain. “I know we can do it. When we attend the race tonight I’ll confront Corporate maturely about the antics that Mashio and the Kyushu district are up to.” Yatsu wins over his friends with confidence and an honorable speech. Kurin and Kuruna agree as the gang gets to working on Hito’s car. Day falls to night as the gang piles into Hito’s Nissan and speeds away to the race’s meeting point. They pull up alongside Mashio a few minutes later, in his custom Mazda RX-7, sporting a black jacket and lucky rabbits foot hanging from his rearview mirror. A s**t-eating grin fills Mashio's face as Hito holds back some heavy language. From where Yatsu and the gang is standing, it is clear to see the Little B*****d’s bumper resprayed and attached to the front of Mashio’s car. No words are exchanged as both men ready heir engines. Both districts stand on the sidelines as rubber begins to burn. Just before they go off, Hito calls over to Mashio. Yatsu signals to Hito for a clean race as Hito revs up his car, pulling it up close, alongside Hito starts. “You had to take the bumper didn’t you.” Mashio smugly denies raiding the garage and lets out a cocky chuckle. “No clue what you’re talking about.” Hito nods, assuming. “Figured you wouldn’t. Don’t you worry. We’ll talk about it after the race.” Mashio responds. “Sure thing, old man.” In an attempt to scare Mashio, Hito drops some speculation. “You know that bumper is cursed right?” The egotistical Mashio turns to Hito and responds before the flag is waved and both men speed off. “Come on, old man. You don’t really believe in curses, do you?” Both men shoot off and their cars seem almost in sync as they tear up the roadway. Their speed is unbelievable as they make smoke with every second they inch further and further ahead. The race ends quite quickly as both men approach their first turn and Mashio finds he has no control of the wheel. With the car execrating Mashio rams directly into a brick wall, being flown through the window shield and violently being slapped against the wall, killing him instantaneously and totaling the bumper, beyond repair. Hito halts in shock as the crowd witnesses this disaster. “Holy s**t. The curse was… real?!” News of Mashio Hara’s death soon spread all across the criminal underworld, and ended in everyone forgetting about him in a matter of months. © 2017 Brian C. Alexander |
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Added on March 7, 2017 Last Updated on March 7, 2017 Author
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