Steel Fist Teaser Trailer

Hagane opened his eyes, feeling the gentle caress of the wind near his cheeks up his nose, he looked at the blue sky laying motionlessly on top of what felt like a thick layer of grass that had a distinct earthy smell to it and felt nice to the touch.

Inside Hagane’s head everything felt slow and sluggish, his thoughts could only move at a snails pace as he looked at the sky with a peaceful look on his face.

Laying like this made Hagane feel as if all the stress he had piled up was slowly evaporating away from his body, all the troublesome thoughts and issues becoming minor and negligible as they fluttered away with the wind becoming nothing but mere wisps.

Hagane felt tempted to continue laying and maybe even sleep, the temptation was so great in fact that he was overcome with drowsiness making his eyelids feel heavy as they, little by little, descended down wanting to shut and let him rest.

But just as they were about to do so a intense sense of danger overcame Hagane as he felt that sleeping wasn’t the thing he should be doing right now, it wasn’t his brain rationalizing this belief but rather his instinct driving him into this conclusion.

Hagane being the man he was trusted this instinct more then anything as he had relied on it for the past 18 years to get by in life, his intuition had more then once saved him enormous losses and sometimes even saved his life and those he cared about which is why he didn’t think too much before he kicked off the ground and got up looking around as he tried to remember where he was.

Unfortunately things weren’t that easy as he soon discovered.

“Where am I ?”

He asked himself, slightly surprised the moment he viewed his surroundings as he instantly realized that he had arrived at a completely different place then he was at before, it wasn’t even a slight difference but rather a complete overhaul as the familiar streets, paved roads, famous shops and sky high buildings were nowhere to be seen all replaced by either tall grass, wide fields and a sea of trees as far as the eye could see.

The amount of nature that was present overwhelmed Hagane as he had never seen so much of it for all his life in person being a complete city dweller through and through, the only ever time he had seen nature up this close and personal was through a picture behind a computer monitor, at this point he wasn’t even sure what to think anymore.

Fortunately Hagane wasn’t one to panic when met with unexpected situations, in fact Hagane was extremely calm even though he did feel a bit of surprise, it quickly subsided the more he took in everything he saw, this ability to stay calm at all times was very signature of Hagane, so much so that his brothers and sisters back in his orphanage would usually always joke around and tease Hagane saying that Hagane would still keep the same stoic expression even if the world suddenly exploded.

Back in the gang he belonged. Hagane was also always very well respected for his character by his fellow gang members as they always felt like Hagane was in complete control of everything no matter what and felt safe by it.

There were multiple reasons for this as his calm expression adding to his natural herculean strength, hulking muscular body that stood at 190 cms tall coupled with his harsh and refined facial features, sharp clear cut hair, deep brown eyes made him look like a extremely reliable guy but dyed with a slight tinge of cruelty that could make your skin crawl even though in reality he wasn’t such a guy at all.

Overall Hagane was a person who garnered respect from his presence alone, he wasn’t aware of it as he was still too young to understand properly, but in a sense that also added to his charm.

Currently Hagane couldn’t quite recall how he ended up in such a place no matter how much he thought, it bothered him very much but not so much as to make him nervous, he simply continued to observe some more thinking that maybe he would remember something if he looked hard enough.

“Hmm…this smell, the air here is very salty ? Is the sea nearby or something ? Whats going on ?”

He wondered, noticing the salt carried by the wind as he followed the direction from where it came from turning around.

But as soon as he did so he once again felt a slight surge of surprise coming over him as he came face to face with a enormous ocean with nothing but sea in his sights from which the salt had stemmed from.

On further analysis he also came to realize that the entire time he has been here, he had been standing near a cliff which overlooked this particular sea, near him was a huge tree all by itself on the edge of this cliff just like him casting a shadow, he hadn’t noticed this tree until he turned around but when he did Hagane couldn’t help but admire how majestic the tree looked, so tall and full of leaves rustling in the wind making a beautiful sound, perfect to lean on.

Other then this tree there was nothing else but tall grass surrounding this particular part of the cliff from which the tall grass grows far but suddenly stops and becomes a forest, instead creating a semi circle of tall grows which surrounds the one tree on the cliff.

From a certain perspective Hagane couldn’t help but think that the tree near the cliff was quite pitiful for being all alone even though it was so magnificent, it was as if the other trees of the forest alienated this one tree alone for some unknown reason letting it root in the most dangerous but also the most showiest location of the terrain where one strong gust of wind, one slight earthquake could get the tree uprooted and make it fall down the cliff to its demise.

Why Hagane was thinking about something as ridiculous as a tree being alienated by other trees was unknown since Hagane wasn’t a deep thinker at least not with his age, but regardless he felt a strange connection to the tree which is why he came close and touched it with his palm trying to feel its bark out of curiosity.

Unbeknownst to him this action was enough to finally trigger his memories.

The moment he touched the bark bright light flashed before Hagane’s eyes as he recalled everything that has happened in his life up to this moment.

Re-experiencing the things from the past both good and bad, he watched scenes from his life like some sort of movie.

“Yuuji, Kotori, Zhang…and Director”

These 4 people were the core individuals that made up Hagane’s family.

None of them were related by blood by they were even tighter then blood relatives as they had all lived together inside a orphanage and supported each other for all their lives.

Yuuji, a energetic boy who loved sports and played baseball everyday, always optimistic and smiling, wearing his signature baseball cap while proclaiming his dream of becoming a professional baseball athlete when he grows up and get into the big leagues.

Kotori, a kind girl who loved literature the most and spend all day reading while also taking care of the younger kids and educating them as the big sister, she didn’t have a particular dream and always cared about others more then she cared about herself which made her loved by everyone.

Zhang, a somewhat gloomy and quiet boy, but very smart and intelligent, originally Hagane, Yuuji and Kotori didn’t stick with Zhang as he was a bit too distant to converse with, but in reality it was just that he didn’t know how to speak with others that made him look anti-social, one time Hagane and Kotori had spoken with him and asked with whether or not he wanted to play and from there on forth he became a part of their little group learning more and more on how to be social, his thinking was a bit pragmatic and sometimes even ruthless but no one minded that side of him as they understood that Zhang still meant well in the end even if his methods could be perceived as dark.

Finally there was the Director.

The proprietor of the orphanage Hagane used to live in and also the eternal father figure for all the children who used to live there.

What his real name was nobody knew as everyone simply called him the Director since he never stated his name and asked the children to call him as such without any explanation as to why, he wasn’t like any other director or proprietor they knew, in a sense that he didn’t treat them like nuisances or things to be sold, he was essentially always like a father, talking, playing and generally teaching the kids on how to behave sometimes bringing gifts and telling stories.

If there was one minus then it was the fact that the Director looked a bit frightening since he didn’t have the most handsome of all faces, but once the children got to really know him such thing didn’t bother anyone anymore

Everyone adored the Director, and Hagane even admired him, no, he idolized him.

There was a reason for why Hagane idolized the Director, at first he was just like the other kids when it came to adoring him, but one time when it was time for the Director to leave for business he had forgotten his umbrella when it was clear that it was going to rain soon.

Hagane took it upon himself to deliver the umbrella to the Director before he was gone.

Luckily Hagane knew the Director’s usually route since he had seen him before taking the same path whenever he met him occasionally going through town, thinking about it he figured that he would go the same way and Hagane was right the Director did indeed go the same way.

The only thing was, the moment Hagane had found the Director he saw him surrounded by a group of punks giving the Director annoyed and angry looks almost as if they wanted to bash him which was likely what they wanted to do, but even amongst those dozens of punks the Director stood tall and composed like a swan within a herd of ducks making the display quite fascinating.

Upon closer inspection, Hagane also saw a woman hiding behind the Director who looked like she had been crying but before he could look further he noticed someone else.

A guy with a mohawk wearing shades standing in the very front of those punks clearly the leader of those rough bunch suddenly spoke up in a ill-wanted manner.

“Oi ! Old man ! What the fuck you think you doin ! Aren’t you too old to be playing hero ?”

“Whether I am playing or not does not matter young man, what does matter is your conduct towards this lady, whatever it is you want from her don’t you think surrounding her with your little goons is a bit too much ? Not even a savage would do this, much less a man !”

“You say what you stinking geezer ! You wanna die !”

The leader of those punks roared clearly mad as he had gone red with anger, followed by his goons who were equally as insulted.

Hagane understood everything that was going on, those punks had bothered that poor woman and the Director had stepped in to protect her, Hagane himself would have done the same if he saw something like that which is why he gripped the umbrella even tighter about to help out the Director as Hagane was naturally very strong and also good in fights.

But just as Hagane was about to let himself known the director suddenly gazed at him and met his eyes, even to this day Hagane remembered the intense look in the Director’s eyes that he had never before, the image of the Director was also gentle, kind and caring, but with that look Hagane started to morph the image into something more imposing, no words were needed to understand what he wanted to convey as that look spoke for itself.

“Do not involve yourself in this”

Hagane gripped the umbrella tighter almost breaking it with his grip as it creaked underneath his fingers but quickly getting himself under control, having been born with herculean strength like no other, Hagane had to learn his entire life on how to control his strength as to not bother people and accidental hurt the individuals around him, him losing control was a extremely rare occurrence as Hagane always made sure he was under control which is likely how his stoic personality came to be as he always suppressed himself.

Thinking about it Hagane only ever loses control when it involved the people dear to him, any other time it wasn’t difficult to condition himself, but that was beside the point.

Not being able to do anything even though he wanted to, Hagane was beyond anguished and frustrated, but in the end he still didn’t do anything and simply watched as the powerful gaze the Director had shown him proved to him how serious he was and he didn’t want to go against it.

Fortunately to this day, Hagane was glad that he didn’t involve himself in that fight, if he had involved himself Hagane wouldn’t have ever seen that amazing side of the Director and come to idolize him as much as he did, the fight itself wasn’t anything spectacular at least not on the side of the punks who numbered between 10 to 15, ordinarily a person would find it even difficult to face 2 people at the same time much less 15, even Hagane who had herculean strength could at most take on only 8 of those punks by himself since he didn’t have herculean stamina along with his strength, but the Director was undaunted by the overwhelming numbers and simply took off his coat revealing the neat suit underneath before putting the coat on the woman telling her to wait for a bit.

After that, the fight quickly revolved into a overwhelming display of power.

Hagane doesn’t remember how the fight actually went as the only person who he was looking at that time was the Director who was making his fists fly as he launched the punks into the air like rag dolls, it was simply amazing how he fought, being already a experienced fighter since young because of his scary statue which caused a lot of misunderstandings with other delinquents in his school and surrounding area plus sometimes helping out kids who couldn’t defend themselves from bullies, Hagane immediately knew how powerful the Director was, at the very least he was far more stronger then Hagane himself and overall one of the strongest people he had ever seen, the punks didn’t even stand a chance as they flew left and right, falling like domino pieces unable to stand up.

If Hagane had merely seen this alone, the Director’s prowess, then maybe his adoration would have merely stayed at the admiring levels, but such was not the case, just as the Director was about to finish up the leader of those punks suddenly pulled a pistol from his pocket and pointed it towards the Director his hands shaking.

The sudden display of a firearm surprised everyone even the goons as the atmosphere had suddenly turned cold with the advent of a actual gun present, the fighting also stopped as everyone jumped to the ground not wanting to get shot, only the Director kept on standing still undaunted even with the gun pointing at almost point blank range.

He even went further to show that he wasn’t scared started to approach the punk leader who shakily aimed his gun at him as the Director approached one step at a time.

Ultimately the Director started to get too close making the punk even more nervous as he shouted out in desperation.

“S-STOP! I-IF YOU DON’T STOP I’LL SHOOT !”

“Then shoot you COWARD ! How can you call yourself a man if you don’t even go through with your words !”

“EEEhhhhh!”

At that moment, something had touched Hagane as he heard those words, that a man always goes through with his word, how fearless and driven the Director was when he said those words even in front of a gun and how the punk understood none of that and dropped his gun from fear, afterwards he immediately turned around and ran as fast as he could not even picking the gun back up, the goons were dumbfounded seeing their leader run with his tail between his legs, but afterwards looking back at the menacing Director they also followed their leader as they shouted “Boss !” “Wait up Boss !” “Don’t leave us with him !”, the scene was quite pathetic but at least Hagane was glad that things had ended well without anyone getting seriously hurt.

“Hagane ! Come here !”

The Director soon called Hagane over after all the punks had left, he also pocketed the pistol into his breast pocket but Hagane didn’t comment on it and simply came forward holding the umbrella he wanted to originally deliver to him.

The woman who had been protected this entire time had also finally get the strength to stand up, she still had tears in her eyes but from the way she looked it was clear that she was very thankful to the Director looking at him like he was her savior was true.

“Director…I..this..”

“You don’t have to explain, I understand why you came, in fact after walking for a bit I also noticed that I had forgotten my umbrella, unfortunately I had the displeasure to meet with this mess, but thank you for bringing it to me Hagane”

The Director smiled kindly, Hagane was still a bit shaken by the earlier side of the Director he didn’t know of but after seeing him smile Hagane felt that the Director was still the same old Director he knew and that nothing had really changed.

Rather it was Hagane who had changed, in one part of his heart Hagane started to want to know more about the Director, unfortunately it simply was not the time then.

Returning back to the woman who was the entire reason for this, Hagane quickly came to know that her name was Midori and that she was a teacher that used to live on a farm not too far from here together with her parents, that farm was something her parents bought on a loan, the money coming from a loan shark instead of a official source, the parents at first thought that farming was going to be easy but soon enough they realized how mistaken they were when they failed in making any decent produce for the next 3 years.

This failure to make good produce to sell soon stacked up as the dept started to racking up over the years, finally the loan sharks also started to come and demand money, the parents did well to hide it from their daughter as it was only recently that Midori found out that the farm was bought on a loan, the way she found out was also extremely unpleasant as it was through her parents who had left a apology note in their house explaining the situation and that they had ran away leaving their daughter behind to deal with the aftermath.

Midori obviously despaired getting betrayed by her own parents and didn’t intent to pay the dept as it wasn’t her who had caused it, unfortunately the loan sharks weren’t having none of it and continued to demand money from her intimidating her and threatening her until she had no other choice but to declare bankruptcy as she couldn’t even pay for even 1/10 of the dept.

All of her belongings were claimed by this, starting from her house, her electronic’s to even her clothes until finally she only had the clothes on her back and nothing else on her name.

Even worse, somehow the news of the dept had even reached the school she was teaching at and she was soon jobless as the school didn’t want such negative rumors floating around and tarnish their reputation.

But it gets even worse, just as Midori was walking around thinking about what to do the punks show up demanding she continue paying the dept even though she was bankrupt, when she said she didn’t have money they demanded she pay with her body which finally brought us to here with the Director stumbling upon them and dealing with them himself.

The story was sad, Hagane felt extremely bad and angry at the same time, he would have liked to help her by all means but even Hagane recognized at the time that he was young and nothing but a orphan, the only difference between her and him at the time was that he had a house to live in while she didn’t which was sad.

Fortunately the Director immediately gave a helping hand when he finished listening to her story.

“How about you work for me ? Since you are a teacher I’d pay you if you taught at my orphanage and took care of the children for me. how about it ?”

“Heh ?! A Orphanage ! You really want to hire me ?!”

And just like that Midori had become a teacher/caretaker of our orphanage, we did have a caretaker but since we only had one the kids would always need to help along as well to do all the work to finish in time, the Director had long since been looking for a ideal second caretaker but never found the ideal person until he found Midori.

Hagane and the other children were delighted as well as Midori was the perfect person for the job and quite suited at that as she liked children a lot and was a competent teacher to boot, Midori also didn’t have to worry about housing as she could stay for free inside the orphanage while she worked there.

Life was good for the kids, but just like all things it had to come to an end, since the main purpose of a orphanage was adoption the kids were bound to get adopted each month.

Yuuji, Kotori and even Zhang were adopted by good people, in the end it was only Hagane who was left behind as none of the adults coming for adoptions wanted to adopt Hagane because of his history of getting into fights in and outside school, plus his sharp and fierce looks that were akin to a beasts, adding to his unnatural strength the adults simply couldn’t believe that they would be able to control a kid like that and somewhat feared him because of it.

Since everyone in the orphanage knew what kind of person Hagane really was and that all the rumors about him were false, it couldn’t be helped that they all felt sorry for him, Yuuji, Kotori and Wang especially took care to regularly contact or meet with Hagane to not let him feel lonely or depressed.

Midori who also was able to find a job as teacher again at a even better school then before, through the help of the Director, was going to adopt Hagane herself since not only did she feel sorry for him but was also very fond of Hagane who had a kind heart and a strong will.

Hagane was at first very happy that Midori wanted to adopt him but in the end he shook his head before telling her that he couldn’t go with her.

“B-But why ? Don’t you want a parent ? I don’t think its healthy to be alone Hagane”

“Maybe in the past I would have agreed with you, but right now there is something else I want to do and I don’t know yet how its going to go, but don’t worry, I am not alone after all I still have Yuuji, Kotori, Zhang and you Miss Midori so thank you”

“You..ahh”

Seeing Hagane’s sincere smiling face made Midori lost for words as she couldn’t figure out what to say to such face, on one side she wanted Hagane to be happy while on the other she didn’t want him to be alone, but as she looked at him some more she could feel his powerful determination for whatever the goal was he wanted to to chief, knowing Hagane and how stubborn he was never he decided on something she could only give up giving Hagane her new address before leaving the orphanage to make sure he always had a place to return to no matter what.

Unlike what everyone thought Hagane he wasn’t bothered at all about not being adopted by anyone, from the very beginning Hagane recognized the fact that he was somewhat scary looking which made people avoid him, he had long since come to accept through fights with others and how the world looked at him that he could only ever rely on himself to become the person he wanted to be.

And after witnessing the fierce side of the Director, Hagane knew exactly who he wanted to be, he wanted to be just like the Director, a true man.

And for this goal Hagane didn’t sit still either he researched, learned and practiced what a true man was all about and from it he compiled 8 things that made up a true man just like the Director which were.

1.Righteous.

2.Courageous.

3.Merciful.

4.Polite.

5.Sincere.

6.Honorable.

7.Loyal.

8.Moral.

Luckily it came very easily for Hagane to actually follow these standards as some of these were in his nature already, he made a lot of mistakes but over all Hagane learned that those mistakes were necessary for him to move forward, helping others was not just about up holding public morals but your own sense of morals as well which were the most important.

Time passed, the orphanage operated like always with many kids coming and going, Hagane had at some point become a symbol to the orphanage the kids recognizing him as the elder brother of the bunch and someone to be relied on, but still there was no one there to adopt him as Hagane had already started to become too old for adoption getting close to 15, Yuuji, Kotori, Zhang and Midori became regular visitors to the orphanage to see Hagane and how he was doing, they weren’t worried about him anymore as Hagane didn’t look dismayed even once since the visited him.

Getting close to 15, Hagane was soon going to graduate from the orphanage as he was getting too old, Yuuji, Kotori, Zhang and Midori together with the other children were all preparing for a big birthday party to send off Hagane, what he was going to do after leaving the orphanage was still a mystery to everyone, they tried to ask him but Hagane wouldn’t reveal his plan no matter what, Midori was still open to the idea of taking Hagane in but Hagane still refused.

Finally at the day of the party everything went well, even the Director who lately couldn’t come to the orphanage as much as he used to attended without any delay, Hagane was the most glad about the Director being there because after the party finished and Hagane had packed his meager belongings he asked the Director for a meeting.

“Director…please let me follow you !”

Hagane bowed his head begging the Director with his somewhat selfish demand.

The Director at the time had already had an idea as to why Hagane wanted to meet him, ever since the day the Director had shown his other side to Hagane and knowing his personality he could have predict something like this happening, but he still asked.

“Hagane…why do you want to follow me ? You should have understood by now right ? I am not the person you are imagining me to be, for all you know I could be a extremely immoral guy, are you still willing to follow a guy like that ?”

“Sir ! You are right I am not sure about your entire character, but what I am sure of is the fact that you will handle yourself like a true man ! There is so much I want to learn and for me to complete my training as a man you are the most qualified figure I can imagine to learn from so please ! I will do anything so let me follow you !”

The Director put his hand lightly on Hagane’s shoulder, Hagane was still bowing his head unable to see the Director’s face but he could feel the atmosphere around the Director which was heavy and full of pressure, Hagane had never seen a man like this before and even though he hadn’t yet become the Director’s official follower he was still learning a lot.

“Hagane..look me into the eye”

He did as the Director asked him to, slowly raising his head he looked into the Director directly into his head, but when he did Hagane immediately felt a intense fear.

A fear so powerful that it was akin to meeting the grim reaper face to face, Hagane had already by this point met a lot of dangerous situations sometimes even at the risk of his life, but at no point of his life did he ever experience such overwhelming fear for death, it was like needles one by one jamming into his body and twisting around, sweat pouring out of his skin on a bucket load and those eyes, the eyes of the Director were so dark that he couldn’t even see the depth.

And then it stopped.

“Good, from today on you are my subordinate, you can follow me as much as you like but aware, if you mess up you will pay, because thats what it means to be a man, to keep your word no matter what”

“Yes ! Thank you sir !”

It was at his 15 birthday right before he was about to graduate from the orphanage that Hagane had finally been adopted and by none other then the Director.

And with it a whole new world opened up to Hagane a world where the fist spoke louder then a hundred words, unfortunately it was also a world where Hagane wouldn’t be able to survive long enough to see its end.