21 The White Ghost

Tokyo, Japan,

Shibuya Ward,

Samuel POV,

On a certain street in the Shibuya Ward of Tokyo, two young men could be seen staring at each other. One was grinning while the other was looking at him in barely concealed anger, several veins popping out on his forehead.

One thing to be noted though, was that Samuel had yet to take off the gloves he seemed to be wearing. His hands were clenched into fists, certainly strange considering the martial arts he excelled in.

A few seconds later, he moved forward at speed that would seem impossible to a normal man, pulled his fist back and punched forward, not quite holding back and yet, his opponent didn't quite seem bothered. Gun pushed his fist to the side and slammed his own into the teenager's face.

"This is it!" He grinned widely looking at Samuel who had hit his fist with his forehead before it could be delivered elsewhere, dialling down the force and momentum it carried by a considerable amount. Samuel punched the man in his guts only for him to lock his hands together and slam them into his back, nearly knocking the wind out of him.

Still though, moving his hands forward, he grabbed Gun's legs lifting him into the air before ".....?!", a move commonly seen on television..... a Suplex. He twisted his back slamming Gun into the ground head first.... or that was his original goal. Gun placed his hands to the front, stopping himself and opened his legs wide, breaking out of Samuel's grip and spun them around, kicking the teenager in the face twice before jumping to his feet with a grin.

Capoeira.

"Good, but.... I doubt you can earn a title such as that with no technique." Gun said somewhat seriously, the boy had immense physical strength but he seemed to be fighting without technique relying solely on his physical prowess. Samuel remained silent, true he was genuinely angry at Gun but not nearly enough to lose his sense of self...... the reason for not using martial arts was quite stupid.

This time, Gun was the first to move, rushing forward he placed a straight hand right next to Samuel's chest and before the teenager could attack him, he punched forward, the force behind his attack making itself known as a sound similar to a cannon rang out blowing Samuel backwards.

The 3 Inch Punch.

The teenager crashed into the wall, the infrastructure shattering to some extent as cement flew around. "Is this really all?" Gun asked tilting his head, this time... he was incredibly disappointed, certainly the boy didn't lack in strength.... maybe around himself actually but this was useless in front of a trained martial artist.

Samuel coughed a bit falling to his knees, blood coming from his mouth. It wasn't that his body was weak or anything, far from it. The body built up for the Uechi Ryu had one glaring weakness, the ability to tank even sword blows but, they were weaker to blunt force in exchange. One could do more damage to them with blunt force than actual piercing and slashing weapons.

It was a matter of affinity.

Samuel got to his feet again, silent again, he was somewhat ashamed that his sister would see him in such a state... but there was no other way around it. He somewhat lowered himself, raised his right forearm vertically and the left horizontally.

"That's......" Gun grinned widely, the kid was trying to copy his own stance! It may seem simple, memorise your opponents movement and replicate it but, it was not so, it was incredibly hard to get the movements right..... or they could be a genius, a genius capable of doing something so inhuman!

In an instant, Samuel was in front of Gun, his hand held out like Gun from earlier and punched forward even if he himself received a punch to the face in the process. Gun was blown backwards, his eyes wide in shock and surprise..... "You fucking....... did it!" He declared loudly, grinning as he pulled himself out of the cracked wall.

"...." Samuel moved again, this time lunging at Gun who had a look of disappointment on his face for a but a moment before he raised his right leg vertically upwards, his hands in his pockets and brought it down, slamming the heel of his boots into Samuel's head and subsequently, slamming the teenager into the ground... The asphalt concrete breaking as the head was embedded inside blood flowing out into the street.

"Hmm." Gun stared down at him curiously and as he expected, Samuel pushed himself up....no, he stood up on his hands, locking Gun's head with his feet before...... in a superhuman show of strength, he lifted the man off the ground slamming him down behind himself.

Samuel hurriedly jumped to his feet, looking at Rin who seemed to be crying for a few seconds before turning back just in time to block a fist headed towards his fist. "You..... are amazing." Gun's voice was somewhat distorted, his forehead had a few cuts running down it right now but..... Samuel himself was way more 'injured', his head was bleeding freely and his face was bruised.

One of his arms, the one he had used to block a few blows was swollen..... BUT! This was it, grabbing the punch he had just blocked he pulled it towards himself, slamming his other elbow into cleanly shattering it as Gun grunted in pain. Before the man could reorient himself, he put both his hands around the man's head and kneed him in the face a good number of times.

Though Gun grabbed his knee with both hands and threw him away, it wouldn't be so easy to bring down a man like him. Samuel managed to reorient himself mid air..... but that wasn't enough, he understood that Gun was a monster.... without going all out. There was no way he could win.

Before his feet could touch the ground, Gun was under him, his fist pulled back in the Kyokushin stance, with a grin he punched Samuel in the stomach, blowing him upwards and as the teenager came down, he spun around and kicked him in the head, flinging him towards the wall. Blood seeped from Samuel's face, Gun really wasn't pulling any punches.

Fucking Kyoukushin....

Kyokushin Karate, the strongest form of Karate currently known to man, with emphasis on powerful blows packing immense amounts of force and momentum. In other words, it could be said to be a literal Anti-Samuel. Blunt Trauma being his one and only weakness, no, the weakness of the Uechi Ryu Karate as a whole.

No way, he could possibly even hope to fight him off without utilising any and all martial arts.

Lying with his back to the wall, Samuel slightly smiled, his anger having dissipated after getting beaten. He also seemed to have misunderstood what Zombieman's Constitution meant, he thought it came with the supernatural strength but that was his misconception. The Constitution means composition, in this case it meant the genetic structure. All humans have more or less the same genetic structure so long as classing them as a species is concerned, yet one has difficulty breaking a stick while another can break through the bark of a tree with relative ease....... He did have the regeneration and stamina but that was it.

Nonetheless, Gun seemed to be unmoving, staring at him with wide eyes as Samuel once more got to his feet, staggering slightly, the force behind the man's attacks was more than enough to kill a normal man.... It was a miracle he was standing....... or it wasn't, not really. But to Gun, who didn't know of his body it was a shock.

Even with one of his arms limp, he looked at the teenager in shock, previously, when he had punched him he could feel the boy's bones shattering. Then next, he increased the force behind his attacks as they fought, yet the effect seemed to be less and less each time they clashed. The boy was clearly injured, his arms were hanging to his sides, swollen and possibly broken yet he still moved. If that wasn't enough, he had also copied his technique as they fought, his body also seemingly improving as they continued........ "This....." Gun..... was speechless, this was like... perfect software and perfect hardware.

A human born to fight and reign supreme..

Grinning widely, he once more shot towards Samuel who pulled back his head and slammed it down at Gun's, throwing the wide eyed man to the ground.

-x-X-x-

Gun stood over Samuel with a cigarette in his mouth, one of his arms was hanging limp and his chest now had two new cuts (soon to be scars) running over it, he huffed out smoke and leaned down next to Samuel's face. Samuel himself was lying with his back to a wall, staring up at Gun but unmoving, his anger long having died down.

"You were amazing, kid... Out of respect for how you managed to last longer than any man or woman I've been with, I'll do you a favour and leave. Come to Korea though..... or I'll drag you there myself." He said blowing smoke into the teenager's face, the sun had begun to set and there seemed to be a small crowd around them.

Samuel only coughed in response, seemingly not having the ability to fight any longer..... a thing to note though, he was still wearing his gloves.

Scaring the crowd away with a look, Gun walked away putting on his glasses with his coat draped over his shoulders as he smoked looking at the sky.

Samuel looked at the small girl who was shaking him incessantly and lightly chuckled, raising the hand which was supposed to be broken, he ruffled her silver hair. "I'm alright." Samuel smiled, looking at Gun leaving from the corner of his eye and when he was sure the man had left, he got himself into a more comfortable position as Rin looked at him in shock.

He seemed to have blood all over his body and yet he was......smiling? "It's all good." Samuel reassured, still not having removed his hand from the girl's head. "Well..... that happened." He remarked looking at the setting Sun.

"I-I.....w-why?" Rin stuttered out looking down at the ground, her brother's state was clearly dire. He was greatly injured and his arms were broken yet he was smiling..... Why did something like this have to happen?

"You know, I'm actually pretty fine." Samuel grinned cheekily.

Maybe this could have gone differently if he chose to take off his gloves, if he chose to employ what he had learnt but he had refused to. Samuel refused to do so...

"I'm fine cause you're here." He smiled widely as Rin looked him over worriedly, checking to see if he had any major injuries. She was scared, terrified even but more than that, despite her age, she was worried about her brother.

Why? Why had he held back? Why had he not used what he had learnt? Why had he let himself lose and this badly?

The walls around them were ruined, the asphalt concrete used to make the street had many places where it was cracked and straight up blown apart. A good amount of blood was splatter all over the area.

So then..... why? He stood a good chance at winning but he let that victory go. Why? Because he was dumb, because he was stupid and unethical. Sure all those who see his actions might think so, but he didn't care. Victory wasn't something he valued anyway. The answer to why he had refused to fight with all he could was that.

Rin was there.

...."Ah man..." It was a really stupid reason wasn't it?

He had gotten himself injured, put himself through this much pain and for what? Simply so his sister wouldn't see him being violent, simply because he didn't want his sister to see him slice apart a man's limbs... Simply because he didn't want the little child to have the experience of seeing something like that.

He refused to use it because..... Rin was there.

Losing wasn't important, him getting beaten was something someone like him deserved but the child had done absolutely nothing to have to witness something so gory.

So... be angry if you want..

He refused it for such a simple and stupid reason.

That was him, that was the man known as Samuel Hayes.

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Right, Gun isn't a random thing. He's a character from Lookism and has shown enough power to smash through concrete with relative ease, that makes him stronger than Samuel in terms of physical prowess as Samuel can 'slash' it apart rather than 'blow' it apart.

Aside from that, Samuel seems to have misunderstood what having Zombieman's composition implied. Wonder what else he misunderstood about it.