Hattori

I stalk across a snow-covered roof in the middle of a blizzard dressed in a white ski mask, white snow boots, white sweatpants, and a white sweatshirt. I stop at the edge of it for a moment before swinging over it to face an empty room. I try reaching for the window sill with my hand but it’s too far away.

“Why did he come to someplace like this?” I sigh looking down at the ground four stories below.

As I look back into the room the door begins to open. I pull back to fast, the icy slope takes me and I fall off. I reach for the window sill as I pass, missing with my left hand but grab it with my right. The storm thankfully covers my mistake as two Americans walk into the room. I grab the sill with both hands and pull myself up to see who. They were big men in black suits. They looked like type of men that would just be used to intimidate others by powerful men. But these people were the powerful men, and one of them was the reason I had come to this place

“Perfect its, Bill. But this is useless, I can’t even hear them.”

I let myself hang and look around trying to find a way to get down. My only options were falling four stories or going through the window. I opted to wait for the men to leave. While waiting my mind drifted back to what brought me to this desolate place.

It was an early November morning as Kenji Hattori walked into a training facility hidden under the enormous Sanada-Kuri business in Osaka, Japan. He was slightly under five-three with ear length black hair spiked straight up and intense coal black eyes. The only thing he wore was black sweat pants. He breathed in slowly as he began a warm up kata. He kept repeating it, bringing up the speed each time. About an hour later he started his real training on the other side of the room where a circle of wooden dummies were set up. A few hours later his training was interrupted by his best friend Shinji Matsudaira.

Shinji was dressed in a blue suit, and red tie. He was five-seven, and a wall of muscle. His bleach blond hair hung loosely down to his shoulder, and his eyes had contacts in them turning them green. He shook his head as Kenji looked over at him,

“We’ve been summoned. Get cleaned up fast we have to get to, Tokyo,” said Shinji almost laughing.

“Please say it’s not to see the head of the, Sanada,” said Kenji with a sigh.

“It’s your lucky day. It is, and we get to take, Satori Sanada, with us.”

“That kid finally gets to meet the main branch of the family? What a disappointment he’ll be in for. I’ll be up as soon as I can.”

Shinji left as Kenji disappeared into a back room. About twenty minutes later Kenji was in a black suit, with his hair lying flat, standing next to Satori and Shinji on a helipad on top of the building. Satori was barley seventeen, ten years younger than Shinji and seven than Kenji. He had a goatee, and a small mustache. He was in a white suit, wearing dark sunglasses, and standing as straight as he could trying to look taller than his five-foot frame allowed. His muscles visibly tensed under the suit as he heard the sound of the helicopter approach. He nervously ran his fingers through his spikey, few inch length brown hair.

“Relax,” said Kenji.

“Relax? How can he relax? It’s his first time leaving Osaka on this type of errand. And it’s to meet the head of his family, which he’s barely connected to since his great-grandfather decided to split away from the main family so long ago.”

Kenji noticed Satori tense even more, and laughed out loud. He slapped Satori on the back as the helicopter landed.

“Satori-kun, don’t let, Shinji, get to you. You will be fine. And when you get done with this you will be able to do anything.”

“Mostly anything. It’ll be a while before you do anything as hard Kenji, and I do.”

“I don’t know if I will ever be that good. I’m no good at my training,” Satori said climbing into the helicopter.

“You just need a challenge. I wasn’t good either until, Shinji, decided to make everything a contest.”

“Nobody will challenge me since I am the heir to the Sanada.”

“They don’t have to, just push yourself when training, and the rest will fall into place,” said Shinji.