Renegades: Battlegrounds.-Chapter 33: Saturday Morning

April 9, 2005 - Day 2 of the 3-Day Deadline,

Kaito’s Apartment,

8:47 AM.

No alarm.

For the first time in weeks, Ren woke naturally. No blaring phone, no panic about being late, no jolt of adrenaline. Just slow consciousness. The weight of blankets. Sunlight filtering through thin curtains, painting his room gold.

Saturday morning.

For a few still seconds, he simply lay there, breathing, listening.

His ribs still ached but it was duller now, healing but far from healed. His jaw was tender on the left side, the scar on his eyebrow pulled whenever he raised his eyebrows. His knuckles were purple and black, scabs forming where skin had split.

But it was manageable, bearable at the very least.

"Two days since the fight with Yuto. " Ren thought, easing himself up. "Feels like a lifetime ago. "

He sat up slowly and swung his legs off the futon and planted his bare feet on the cold floor. The apartment was quiet except for the muffled sounds of the city waking up outside, the distant traffic, a neighbor’s TV watching a show and someone’s dog barking three floors down.

On the small table beside his futon, his phone sat face-down. He picked it up, checked notifications. Three missed messages from Shiinchiro glowed on the screen.

Shiinchiro - 8:12 AM: "Yooo you up?"

Shiinchiro - 8:15 AM: "Wanna hit the bowling alley? Hana and Fubuki might come too"

Shiinchiro - 8:23 AM: "Come onnnn don’t leave me hanging"

Ren stared at the messages. Bowling. Normal teenage Saturday activity. Hanging out with friends. Laughing, eating junk food, living a regular high school life.

Tempting but not today.

"Can’t today. Got something to do. " He typed back.

Shiin’s reply came instantly, a string of dots, then "Mysterious! Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Just need to take care of something. "

"Sure thing! Stay safe man."

Ren set the phone down. "Something to do. Truth is, I need to understand this world. The world Kaito lived in... the world that put him in a coma. "

He stood and crossed the room to the map he’d taped to the wall earlier in the week. A detailed printout of the street map of Yugen City, each district marked in different colors.

Hanasakura District (Yellow) - Traditional, cherry blossoms, Sakuratei territory. His home base.

Downtown District (Red) - Neon, nightlife, gritty. Crimson Dragons’ domain.

Suburban Districts (Purple) - Residential, wealthy.

Akihabara District (Green) - Electronics, otaku culture. Neutral zone.

Roppongi District (Gold) - Elite, luxury, adult world. Yakuza control.

Shibuya District (Orange) - Fashion, crowds, transitional. Border between territories.

Each district had notes scribbled in margins:

"Hanasakura: Safe during day, Sakuratei patrols at night. "

"Downtown: Crimson Dragons everywhere, protection rackets. "

"Akihabara: No fighting allowed (all gangs agree). "

"Roppongi: OFF LIMITS (yakuza). "

Ren’s eyes settled on the red-highlighted section. Downtown District. Crimson Dragons territory.

He grabbed a pen, drew a circle around it.

"If I’m going to understand this gang war, I need to see what Sakuratei is up against. See their operation. Figure out why Kaito was investigating them... and what he found that put him in a hospital bed. "

He traced the train line from Hanasakura Station to Downtown Station with his finger. It was a twenty-minute ride if he took the direct route.

Ren pondered within himself. "Mr. Tanaka said Kaito was investigating Crimson Dragons and he found something that made powerful people nervous. What was it? "

"What could be worth putting someone in a coma? "

On a nearby shelf sat Kaito’s belongings. Ren reached for the small box there, lifting the lid . Among the manga volumes and philosophy books, there was a small box. Ren opened it and inside laid Kaito’s broken watch.

The crystal was cracked, spiderwebbing across the face. The hands frozen at 11:47.

Ren had found it the other day while cleaning. Hadn’t touched it since that strange vision and the flash of images, the nosebleed, the feeling of being there when Kaito was attacked.

He picked it up carefully. No visions. No flash of déjà vu.

"Maybe I imagined all of it. "He told himself. "Maybe it was exhaustion. Grief. "

But he wrapped it in a soft cloth and tucked it into his jacket anyway.

"Just in case. "

Ren pulled on his jacket, just a plain black hoodie, nothing distinctive. Checked his wallet to make sure enough cash for train fare and food and grabbed his phone and left.

Hanasakura Train Station,

9:20 AM.

Hanasakura Station on a Saturday morning felt nothing like the weekday crush. Families instead of salarymen. Tourists instead of tired students. A slow-moving crowd with no urgency, moving beneath signs and station announcements.

Ren kept his hood up as he boarded the train and found a window seat. The city blurred past traditional Hanasakura rooftops giving way to taller structures, then factories, then the rising spires of Downtown.

"Normal people. " He thought, watching a family laugh together on the opposite platform as the train slowed. "Normal lives. Nobody is thinking about territory, gang wars, or brothers lying comatose in hospital beds. "

The train hissed to a stop. "Now arriving at Downtown Station. "the announcement chimed.

Ren stepped out and stepped into another different world.

The noise hit him first. Downtown was loud in a way Hanasakura never was, machines blasting metallic melodies, karaoke ads shouting from mounted speakers, engines revving, people yelling to be heard over everything else.

Neon signs covered every building, battling daylight, there were casinos, host clubs, arcades, bars, shops with names painted in red and gold. The air smelled of street food, cigarette smoke, and something bad.

"Crimson Dragons territory. "

Even the students looked different here. Black gakuran uniforms with red trim. Red accessories. Red armbands. Clusters of Hanami Academy teens owning sidewalks with loud confidence shoving each other, smoking openly, laughing too hard.

Ren kept his head down as he passed a group of six third-years lounging outside an arcade.

"I’m telling you. " one shouted, "the Mad Dog would get destroyed if he came here!"

"Bullshit. " another barked. "Yuto’s undefeated!"

"Only cause he fights in Sakura High where they have rules. "

Laughter erupted between the group.

Ren just kept walking not saying a word. "Don’t react. Blend in. You’re alone here. "

But then the eyes came on him.

One of the smokers paused mid-inhale, staring at Ren long and hard. A little nudge and a silent whisper to his friend.

Ren’s pulse climbed, he quickly forced himself to keep moving.

A block later, he risked a quick look back.

The group was still there, wrapped up in their argument.

He exhaled a huge sigh of relief.

"Too paranoid. " He told himself. "They don’t know who I am. "

He turned off the crowded main street and slipped into a narrower side street.