#sanjiro

[rakeisu]

▪ Song Recs For (Anime) Simps ▪

▪ Mano "Mikey" Sanjiro ▪

▪ Genre: Chill R&B ▪

▪ Honorable Mentions: Ken "Draken" Ryuguji, Mitsuya Takashi, Chifuyu Matsuno, Gojo Satoru, Toji Fushiguro, Nanami Kento, Keigo Takami, Shota Aizawa

[am-i-tho]

fighting for my life rn so I don't start watching one piece for a ship that is not even canon

[ichigopanhpff]

Sonata Ch. 5: Sforzando

[Previous Chapter] -- [Masterlist] -- [Next Chapter]

New chapter, go go!! I've been working on Ch. 10 part 3 for "Little Dark Age." So many people have liked the past two posts, but I've been struggling to capture certain scenes and I don't wanna dilute it; it'd be an injustice to @sanzucide 's story.

Warnings: Scenes of sexual nature, sexual harassment, smoking, alcohol consumption, mention of STDs, guns.

Note: If you see any notes messages being responded with ‘amaeichigo’, that’s my primary account name.

sfȯrt-ˈsän-(ˌ)dō: Played with prominent stress or accent —used as a direction in music.

The pregnant silence in the conference room screamed as all eyes were fixated on the USB drive sitting on the table.

“What… is that?” Manjiro spoke slowly to break the silence.

Hesitantly reaching for the object, (Y/N) held her breath in anticipation as she analyzed it. She was reminded of the note she read not too long ago and realized she just royally fucked up all of Igarashi’s efforts.

This was it.

The item that shouldn’t fall into either syndicate’s hands.

Shit.

The pool of apprehension churning in her stomach threatened to come up, the burning sensation already covering her esophagus from the lack of oxygen due to holding her breath.

“Looks like a thumb drive,” Kokonoi remarked and reached his hand out. “Let me see.”

Unable to come up with any kind of excuse, she slowly placed it in the finance admin’s palm with a shaky hand, feeling her heart beat in her throat as her palms got sweaty. The platinum haired man looked at it and eyed it suspiciously.

Was this the end of her rope? Were there any avenues she could peruse to convince them to let her live? There had to be something. Anything.

As if reading her mind, Kokonoi solemnly requested, “Boss, I wanna run some tests on this. Just to be safe.”

“About what?” Takeomi asked with slight impatience, biting lightly on the filter of his cigarette forever found dangling between his lips. “This may be what we’re looking for.”

“It’s because of that we should take caution,” Kokonoi explained. “There could be a virus in here for all we know if we plug this into anything.”

“How long will that take?” Manjiro asked.

“Should be no more than a couple of hours, a day tops.”

“Do what you need to.” The white haired man then turned his cold gaze back to (Y/N). “Did you know this was in there?”

“Don’t you think I would’ve hidden it if I did?” she answered back with a logical question of her own, trying to steady her roaring pulse. “This was the first time I opened that music box in years.”

“What should we do with her now, Mikey?” Sanzu asked with his hand ready to grab his pistol.

“Until we know what’s in that drive, put her under the Haitanis watch,” he ordered.

“Why them? She’d be better with me,” the pink haired man argued.

“Then, could you guarantee us she’d remain physically and mentally intact within the 24 hours she’s under your care then?” his boss shot back.

His right hand man opened his mouth to speak and slowly closed it shut, scratching one of the corners of his scarred lips, averting his gaze. Driving her back to Manjiro’s place, the pink haired man watched her pack up her things; she felt like a foster child being bounced from place to place. Uneasiness gripped her core, not knowing whether or not she’d live to see the sunrise.

“You’re gonna wish I was the one who watched you instead after tonight,” Sanzu passively mentioned by her bedroom door.

“How… do you mean?” (Y/N) warily asked with a suspicious glint in her eyes.

“The brothers aren’t as nice as me.”

“You? Nice?” she turned to him and snickered. “No offense, but you tried to kill me.”

He chuckled loudly at her retort. “You may wish for that after stayin’ a night at the Haitanis, dove,” he snipped back as a matter of factly with a lopsided smirk and crossed his arms. “I’ve know those shitty brothers for a real long time n’ let me tell you, if there’s one thing they love to do, it’s playing with their food.”

“And what exactly does that mean?”

“Oh you’ll see soon enough.”

Having packed up her belongings, she did one more sweep before leaving Manjiro’s place with Sanzu. Even though it shouldn’t bother her, the pink haired man’s words really did. Was this her last night alive after all?

“Oi, woman,” Rindou’s voice drew her out of her thoughts, her head jerking up with a look of panic meeting his analytical violet gaze. “I’ve been calling you for a few minutes now,” he sneered and clicked his tongue. “For someone who used to be a hostess, you’re quite bad at listening.”

“S-Sorry… Just…” she tucked some hair behind her ear and quietly exhaled. “A bit out of sorts. You were saying?”

“I was asking where you wanted to grab a bite,” the younger brother repeated tiredly. “We’re starving.”

“I… have no preference,” she murmured.

“What if it was your last meal?” Ran smoothly chimed in, practically hearing the smirk gracing his lips.

Her breath audibly hitched in the silence of their car as her hands tightly balled up, her teeth fully clenched with quivering, pursed lips. Was this Manjiro’s way in disposing of her?

“O… Omakase…” she weakly blurted out, making Ran lightly chuckle.

“See? Was that so hard now?” the lilac hair streaked man praised in a mocking tone and made a left at the light.

“Aniki,” his baby brother mildly tutted, seeing her reflected form visibly shake from the rear view mirror and sighed. “Our orders were to keep you alive tonight.”

“What of tomorrow then?” she murmured with dejection.

“Who knows~” the older brother playfully drawled out with his easygoing smile that hid his true intentions. “I’m not in the mood for washoku. How ‘bout you, Rindou?”

“I’ve been craving for a home-cooked meal,” the younger Haitani let out and put his hands behind his head, his violet gaze staring up at the moon roof of the car.

“What… do you have in your pantry at home then?” she meekly asked.

“Absolutely nothing,” they both answered earnestly. A tired sigh escaped her and rubbed her nose bridge.

“Will pasta do?” she finally asked. “I can’t make anything fancy, so if you’re okay with that…”

Pulling into a nearby carpark, Rindou accompanied (Y/N) to the market while Ran waited outside smoking his Davidoffs. Grabbing the necessary ingredients for dinner, they headed back to their penthouse in Roppongi Hills. The panoramic city view spanned around greeted the three after exiting the in-residence elevator, with the iconic orange and red glow of Tokyo Tower standing out in a sea of cold, white street lights. Were it not for the copious bags of garbage piled up on the various corners and empty liquor and wine bottles on every possible surface area of their kitchen counter and wooden floor, she’d say their apartment’s lived in with a luxurious but gaudy feel to it.

The recessed lighting automatically turned on upon sensing motion in the living room while she looked around their impressive living quarters. The dark coloured concrete mixed with marbled accented walls decorated the interior with a large L-shape velvet blue couch to flop on. Their furniture consisted of leather chairs and a large marble with gold trimming coffee table littered with dry rings of alcohol bottles. To her left was the kitchen with white cabinets, an island prep station littered with more trash and all the proper hardware for her to cook. From the corner of her eye, she saw a full DJ booth set up in one of the corners with speakers and all. Part of her slowly blinked in disbelief while the other half of her wasn’t surprised at all for some reason. The brothers undid their ties and hung their jackets on their designated hangers before undoing the buttons at the top of their dress shirts and rolled up their sleeves; the Bonten tattoo on their respective necks in full view.

“Oh jeez,” Ran pinched his nose with a sour look. “You forgot to take the trash out again, didn’t you?”

“Last I remember, you live here too,” Rindou flatly replied back while making his way to open their balcony door to air out the place smelling a mix of oily pizza, stale alcohol and something possibly molding.

“How you two managed to survive living like you’re in a landfill like this is beyond me,” she added with both her hands covering her nose and mouth.

The younger brother cocked his head as a gesture for (Y/N) to follow him while his older brother began collecting the empty potato chip bags and glass bottles into separate garbage bags to dispose. Rindou opened the light coloured door to the guest bedroom, consisting of a California king sized bed with dark gray sheets, a night stand, a mini walk-in closet and an en suite. Twinkling lights of red and florescent white at the top of buildings decorated the nightscape from the windows. Quietly thanking him, she set her belongings down before making her way back out to the kitchen. Bagging up all the long necked bottles into a spare plastic bag, she diligently wiped down the kitchen before tending to the ingredients while the brothers took out the trash. Upon returning, they stood stationary at their now sparkling kitchen in absolute shock.

“This is the cleanest I’ve ever seen this area,” Ran noted with a small tone of surprise.

“It’d be cleaner if you actually had a cleaning spray for me to use,” she grunted while scrubbing out some hard to remove wine rings and droplets of pizza grease on the counter top with a disposable paper towel doused in hot water with all her strength. “Take better care of your living space, you slobs!”

“Why would we when we have you doin’ that for us right now?” the younger Haitani quipped with an amused grin and sat down in one of the high chairs on the other side of the kitchen island while Ran flopped himself onto the couch in the living room, scrolling through his phone.

Finally satisfied with the state of the kitchen, she reached into one of their cabinets to pull out a cutting board, with Rindou directing her in where to find the cutlery. She got to dicing up the onion and garlic finely and set it aside before seasoning the meat in a separate bowl.

“You cook a lot?” he asked as he watched her grind some black pepper into the ground pork and massaged the protein.

“When I can.”

Turning to the stove, she heated up the pan and placed a stock pot into the sink to fill with water for the pasta. Drizzling a generous amount of olive oil into the pan to heat up, the ingredients she threw in sizzled with life and left it to cook as she tended to the jar of tomato sauce. Struggling to turn the lid, she huffed a breath of frustration and placed it in front of Rindou.

“A little help?” she huffed and massaged the fleshy parts of her palm with a wince.

“My help doesn’t come free, doll,” he replied with a lazy smirk and a single raised brow.

“And I’m paying for that by cooking,” she shot back with her hands on her hips.

“You were nicer when you still had that debt hanging over you. Even if it was fake.”

“Things change,” she casually disregarded.

Taking the jar off the counter top, the purple haired man grunted with effort as he twisted the lid open successfully before handing it back to (Y/N), where she dumped its contents into the pot before throwing the pasta into the now rolling boiled water into the other pot. Placing the pasta into a large glass baking pan, she layered the meat sauce and a copious amount of cheese before popping it into the oven. Their entire residence was engulfed with the scent of sauce and garlic, making the brothers’ mouths instinctively water.

Ran walked into the kitchen and scanned their temperature regulated wine fridge.

“What do you think, Rindou?” he wondered out loud. “The 2008 cab or 2012 merlot?”

“What about the 2014 red burgundy?” his brother suggested.

“Forgot we had that.” The tall man squatted down and pulled out the aforementioned bottle.

She plated their dinner and served it to them while the older Haitani brother poured each of them a glass of wine on the cleaned counter.

“To your impending survival,” Ran toasted with thin, mocking smile at her that made her want to throw the expensive fermented grape juice all over his face. However, she was taught not to waste good wine by her former clients.

If she was going to die, at least she would’ve had something good to drink.

“Aniki, your meds,” his baby brother reminded him after putting his glass down.

“Right…” the tall handsome man grumbled, reaching for the plastic orange bottle in one of the cabinets and dumped one into his palm. Ran popped it into his mouth with a sour look from the bitterness of the pill and downed it with a bottle of sparkling water he got from the fridge.

(Y/N) quirked a curious brow and caught a glimpse of the label on the bottle; they were antibiotics. The three ate in silence for a beat until Ran spoke.

“This is… surprisingly tasty,” he noted and sipped his wine, tasting the smooth tannins and acid of the drink synergize with the tangy and rich sauce in his mouth.

“Seriously,” Rindou agreed. “When was the last time we had a meal like this?”

The brothers thought long and hard on the answer.

“Neither one of you cook?”

“Rindou used to do it when we were younger. It wasn’t bad but…”

“It wasn’t good either,” the long haired man finished after chewing his food. “We mostly just eat take out, like pizza n’ stuff when on our own.”

“The balanced meal of champions,” she deadpanned and took another bite of food.

“Oh, Kakucho did cook for us a handful of times when we went over to his place,” Ran suddenly remembered and rubbed his chin. “Y’know, you could be our housemaid should Mikey decide to let you live,” he proposed with a sly smile and a mischievous glint in his dark violet gaze. “You’ll get free lodging and be paid a more than livable wage.”

“I respectfully decline,” she hastily answered with dead eyes and sipped her drink. “I’m sure you’d want me to service you in other ways too.”

“I do love that you catch onto things so quickly,” the tall man condescendingly praised and took another swig of wine. “It saves so much time.”

Ran leered at her with much interest and leaned into her ear. “I can make it worth your while, princess, and let you feel pleasure your body’s never known,” he lowly uttered with the bass from his voice sending an uncomfortable chill down her side. His lanky arm snaked around her waist and pulled her body to him with a strong enough tug. “When I’m done with you, all you’ll be craving is me burrowed deep inside as you beg me for your release like a little cock-hungry slut.”

“While you’re treating the UTI you probably got from Mayumi?” she pointed out with a poker face. “No thank you. I don’t take sloppy seconds.”

Rindou slapped his hand over his mouth with a resounding smack so its contents wouldn’t fly out from laughing as he violently slapped his knee, inhaling heavily through his nose. His brother glared daggers at their house guest and gripped his fork tightly, wondering how he could stab her without actually killing her before leaning back into his chair.

“Rindou was right: you were nicer when you had the debt; now you’re just an uptight bitch.”

“Aww, cry me a river,” she rolled her eyes. “If I’m gonna die tomorrow, I may as well act how I please.”

“We’ll leave our room doors open then,” Rindou casually noted and helped himself to another glass of wine.

“Are all the admins of Bonten just constantly horny?” (Y/N) groaned and pinched her nose bridge. Hearing both brothers inhale and ready to answer, she immediately held her free hand up to stop them in their tracks. “It was rhetorical and I do not need to know.”

She finished the remaining wine in her glass and declined a second pour. As good as it tasted, she didn’t want to let her guard down with these two sex-craved siblings. With dinner polished off, she loaded the dishwasher with the used plates and utensils before tending to the used pots and pans by hand. The Haitanis watched her every move, noticing how plump her bottom was while slowly sipping on their respective glasses of wine and imagined how they’d bounce while they ruined her over the sink, her hands bound by one of their neckties, the other gagging her mouth as they had their way with her while tears streamed down her reddened cheeks.

“I can feel your gazes searing into the back of my head,” she noted loudly and set the pan down with a clatter back on the stove, drawing their minds back to reality. “Stop.”

“Not our fault your ass is nice to look at,” Ran pointed out. “If anything, you’re teasing us, baby girl.”

“I’m gonna go shower,” she disengaged from the conversation and made her way back into her room.

“Is that an open invitation?” Rindou asked, only to be answered with a door slam followed with a click of a lock.

It was now she realized what Sanzu meant when they last spoke; being stuck at Manjiro’s penthouse or even Bonten number two’s place was much more preferable compared to the Haitanis. Eating with him that one time was awkward, but at least he wasn’t eyeing her up and down like a walking sex doll. Heaving a heavy, groaning sigh, she soaked her exhausted body into the tub, rubbing her shoulder muscles from overexerting herself during the cleaning spree. Until Kokonoi finds out what’s in the USB, her life was literally hanging in the balance of what its contents were. She never asked for any of this; all she wanted was a simple life.

But at least she now has some reprieve from the chaotic brothers, hoping they would at least give her the decency of some privacy in the bathroom. Having soaked enough, she drained the tub and decided to further de-stress with some skincare items. Walking out with a mud mask adhered to her skin and in her pajamas, she immediately jolted back and nearly screamed her lungs out to see the two men in her room, having changed into a fitted t-shirt and sweatpants. Ran was sitting at the foot of her bed while Rindou fully laid down on it.

“Wh-Wh-HOW did you even get in?!” she sputtered. “I locked the door!”

“Oh, you sweet summer child…” Ran mockingly taunted and deeply chuckled.

“We’ve been picking locks since we were kids. You think one in our apartment’s gonna keep us out?” Rindou added with a bored tone, his half lidded violet gaze not leaving his phone screen. “Cute.”

“Can I help you?” she snipped irritably.

“As a matter of fact, you can.”

The older Haitani strolled over with purpose and picked her up by the waist; she yelped with surprise and felt her breath leave her chest the moment her back hit the plush bed.

“I was expecting some sexy, lacy lingerie to set the mood sans the mask,” he let out with a slight tone of disappointment. His half-open mauve stare raked over her over sized t-shirt and shorts, his lanky body hovering on top of hers. His right knee was wedged in between her thighs kept her legs open for him. “But this has a cute, sexy home appeal, I guess.”

His large hands caressed her exposed thighs and gently pried her legs open further, making her limb jolt from it. (Y/N) tried to push the short haired man off, only to have her wrists grabbed and pinned above her head with one of his large hands while the other slid under her shirt, feeling his palm slide up toward her chest. Her torso flinched from his unwanted contact and lightly gritted her teeth, glaring defiantly.

“Ah, ah,” he tutted with a low voice. “It’d be a shame if something… unfortunate happened to you. So, do be a good girl for us.”

As much as she tried to wiggle free from Ran’s tightening grasp, she knew it was a losing battle and huffed a defeated sigh, feeling him pepper his lips on her now exposed stomach from having her shirt lifted up.

“Just get it over with.” Her head turned to the side, facing the darkened windows reflecting the twilight of Tokyo in a silver glimmer. If they were gonna violate her, at least she had something nice to look at as a distraction. She suddenly felt her wrists being released.

“It’s no fun if you don’t struggle,” Ran pouted and rolled off of her, obstructing her view from the window.

“I didn’t think you’d be the type to get off on someone fighting you,” she noted with surprise and sat back up.

“That’s half the excitement.”

“Someone saying they don’t want to be touched… excites you?” she asked in disbelief. “Does the concept of ‘consent’ mean nothing to you?”

“(Y/N)-chan, I’ve been with a lot of women…” the older Haitani boasted.

“You don’t say.”

“And from the ones I’ve been with, they’ll say no at first because they don’t know what they want. They’ll fight no matter what because it’s something they’ve never experienced until I show it to them…” he explained with a charismatic, saccharine smile.

“So what, you think you’ve liberated them by showing their true desires?” she scoffed.

“Yes,” he easily replied with a matching smirk. “No matter how good someone seem to be on the surface, deep down inside, they’re all just dirty little sluts vying for someone’s time, money, affection, and cock.”

“What about you, Rindou-san?” she turned to the long haired man. “Do you feel the same way as your brother?”

His stern purple gaze slightly widened with surprise. He could count on one hand the amount of times someone’s asked his thoughts on something. “I’d like to think not everyone’s like that,” he answered with small hesitancy. “But given the nature of our business, we’re all covered in the dirt of our greed and desires.”

“So what is it you desire, (Y/N)-chan?” Ran drawled out with a slight amusement in his tone. His arm reached out and ran his finger up and down the back of her arm. “Say the word and daddy can make it happen… for a price.”

She let out a dry chuckle before moving her arm away. “Nothing Bonten can give me.”

“And that is?” the younger brother inquired.

Flashing him a sad smile. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Ran got off of the bed and made his way out. “What a mood killer. I was hoping to get my dick wet. Guess I’ll just watch porn instead,” he dramatically sighed and left.

“Do you need to announce every thing you do?” she irritably asked.

“That’s just how aniki is. It’s an annoying habit of his,” Rindou pointed out and stood up with a soft grunt and followed his brother.

Rinsing off her mud mask, she went through the rest of her skincare ritual in peace. Finally having a moment to herself, she reached into her bag and pulled out the photo album she retrieved from the station to flip through. It wasn’t a thick album in particular, but it looked like her mom took photos of pinnacles of her childhood, from her first steps, school entrance ceremonies to piano lessons and recitals. Some pictures had written annotations of reference, particularly the ones of her performing, to which she found strange. Feeling exhaustion creep up, she turned in for the night in hopes of a good night rest. Just as her eyes fluttered close to drift, they suddenly snapped open, hearing muffled high-pitched moans of a woman’s voice coming from the other side of the wall mixed with a male’s grunts, followed with muffled slaps of skin and excited, overacted moans.

“Y’like it rough, don’t you, slut?” the man’s muffled voice growled over the rhythmic clap of flesh.

“Ahn~♡ Yes, daddy~♡ Ahn~♡ Ahn~♡ Fuck me harder with your thick cock, daddy~♡♡♡” the girl in the video enthusiastically squealed.

Did he actually turn up the volume?! Letting out an audible groan, she grabbed the other pillow and sandwiched it on top of her head, in hopes of drowning out the lewd sounds coming from Ran’s bedroom.

It was at this very moment she understood what Sanzu meant.

This was going to be a very long night.

Dark, heavy bags hung under her eyes just as she made her way into Bonten’s headquarters with the Haitani Brothers in the early afternoon. The three saw Kokonoi waiting for the elevator and exchanged greetings.

“You look like you’ve been up all night,” Kokonoi remarked and sipped his morning coffee. All (Y/N) could muster was an exhausted glare with an arched twitching brow at the finance admin. “What were you doing?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Koko,” Ran’s voiced interjected dreamily not too far from them, practically hearing that shit-eating grin on his face. Rubbing both her temples, she squeezed her eyes close and felt a long, heavy arm draped around her shoulder. “We had a fantastic time together.”

“Don’t. Speak. On my behalf,” she tiredly clipped and heavily sighed.

“Aw, did we keep you up too late, princess?” the short haired man mockingly cooed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and audibly whispered loud enough for Kokonoi to hear. “That’s not what you said last night when you rode me and called me daddy while you creamed ‘round my cock.”

She wasn’t generally a violent person, but (Y/N) suddenly found her index knuckle colliding with the center of Ran’s forehead hard enough to make him jolt up hissing in pain and holding the point of contact. The radiating pain on her joint was worth to see his reaction.

“Welcome to my last nerve, Haitani Ran,” she huffed before walking into the elevator voluntarily as if she was an office worker here.

“She actually hit you…” Rindou said with a tone of surprise and choked back a snicker. “Hilarious.”

“Hah~ I think I’m in love,” his brother drawled out in a daze. “I’ve awoken her fury. How fun~”

The four rode the elevator all the way up to the top floor. The finance admin glanced over at his former employee; she looked like she was ready to keel over and knock out. He suddenly offered his coffee to her.

“Dunno if you take it black…” he offered.

“Ohh, what’s this?” Ran perked up with a small smirk. “Koko, you’re actually being generous.”

“I dunno what you did nor do I care,” he emphasized the last few words in seriousness. “But today’s meeting’s gonna need everyone’s attention.”

The four marched into the conference room, with Takeomi, Kakucho and Mochi looking up without reaction. A few minutes pass and the doors opened as Sanzu and Manjiro entered. An extremely dense and serious aura engulfed the brightly lit room. (Y/N) breathed shallowly as her eyes followed Manjiro carried himself to the head of the table. Kokonoi settled himself across from her and fired up his laptop with the drive in place.

“So?” the platinum haired man finally spoke and rested his head on his right fist. “What did you find, Koko?”

“Good news is the drive had no viruses,” the admin revealed. “Bad news is it’s locked by a password. No matter how many times I tried backdooring, it wouldn’t budge…”

“Phrasing,” Ran muttered to himself and snickered.

“The security on it’s tight,” Koko finished.

The leader’s dark eyes then fell on her frame and lazily analyzed her silently. “Would you happen to know the password, (Y/N)-san?” Manjiro finally asked.

She swallowed thickly while wracking her brain for any possible leads, muttering to herself under her breath. “I have some possible guesses… but I can’t guarantee anything.”

“Just guesses?” Kokonoi repeated with a slight irritation in his tone.

“If you have any other ideas, I’m all ears,” she snapped back with what little energy she had.

Closing his laptop, he slid it across the table to her. Just as she opened it, several weapons were drawn from their respective holsters. Breathing shallowly and completely wide awake now, her eyes nervously glanced up and saw three barrels pointed directly at her head from Sanzu, Mochizuki and Kakucho. The remaining Bonten admins disengaged with the elephant in the room like a daily occurrence in their lives. Steadying her now trembling hands, she stared the screen down with the password prompt box greeting her.

On the bottom of the box, it read “After 3 failed attempts, all contents of this drive will be wiped and unrecoverable.”

Oh, no pressure, she bitterly thought to herself as she felt cold, terror sweat rolling down the small of her neck. Squeezing her eyes close, she tried her best to think of any possible connection she could make as to where she found the drive to the password.

The music box. Using her index fingers, she typed “Music,” only to get an audio error.

Shit. Only two more tries.

“Piano”

Another wrong attempt.

Hearing the release of the safety on each gun and the clicking of their respective hammers, the men’s breaths were steady as they took aim. One more try or she’ll be leaving here as a cadaver if this was wrong.

Come on. Think harder! What else could there be?! Scanning her mind for any possible final leads, her memory went back to the photo album. Those annotations of her piano recitals; and there was one in particular that stood out.

She held her breath as she typed.

“Sonata”

Her trembling hand hovered over the Enter key and sucked in a hard breath the moment she tapped it, squeezing her eyes close.

The only sound that could be heard was the soft humming of Kokonoi’s laptop reading the drive. Snapping one eye open, the password prompt was replaced with a green loading bar. Letting out a shaky exhale, she rested her elbows on the table and hid her face in her hands, trying to steady herself and feeling the nervous body heat and sweat exude from her pores from relief. The sound of withdrawing weapons could be heard as the air slowly cleared. The finance admin walked around to retrieve his machine, seeing how she was still paralyzed by fear. His narrow eyes honed into the documents popping up on his screen.

“Your mom sure did her homework…” he noted and scanned each file as he opened them. “She’s got all of our personal info not even the cops know, including the ones who’re in our pockets. Daruma’s too. If this were to leak out…”

“It’d be the end for either one of you,” she thickly swallowed, trying to get herself to stop physically shaking by squeezing her hands on her biceps. “And the police would be thrown into disarray as public trust wanes.”

“Hm…” He continued scrolling through the file and lightly furrowed his brows. “There’s a building we bought in Shinjuku… to which Daruma somehow also owns.”

He turned his laptop screen to show everyone a copy of the building deed from them and the rival gang.

“How?” Takeomi’s voice perked up as Kokonoi scrolled through the deeds.

“The building manager, Mizunori Daisuke, double dipped.”

“The music producer we met with a few weeks back?” Mochi questioned and clicked his tongue. “That fucker… I’m gonna put a bullet in that asshole’s head.”

“It used to be his production studio before it went belly up two years prior,” Kokonoi read off the screen. “It’s been sitting empty until we scoped it out.”

“How much was the offer?” Manjiro asked.

“… 50 mil from us…” He continued to tap on his keyboard, looking for something. “And 50 mil from Daruma.”

“So Mizunori-san’s trying to use this building to ignite a war between you two?” (Y/N) hypothesized.

“It seems like it…” Manjiro agreed.

“You’re in rare form, Koko,” Takeomi remarked and lit up a cigarette hanging from his mouth. “You’re usually much more careful with things like these.”

“Last time I let my assistant handle anything important like this,” he grumbled and saw the date stamp on the deed. “This was happening when we were negotiating the trade splits with the triads in Hong Kong.”

While the admins discussed their plan of attack, her thoughts went back to the burnt note she read. Muttering to herself, she looked up with widened eyes. “What if someone in your organization knowingly went ahead with this to set you up for failure?” she interrupted their conversation.

The men went silent and stared at her, heavily pondering her words.

“There have been more scum in the mid ranks lately…” Sanzu pointed out and glanced over at his boss before leaving his side. “I’ll go do an investigation.”

“Koko, are there any businesses in operation in that building?” Bonten’s head asked.

“Just one so far: Dynasty.”

“That’s Daruma’s,” Ran informed. “If I remember correctly, it’s a jazz and hostess club. Small 30-seater.”

“(Y/N)-san, we’ll need you to infiltrate Dynasty as a musician to get close with Mizunori and find out his real plans,” Manjiro solemnly requested.

“You sending me there to die?” she asked with a straight face.

The short haired platinum man expressionlessly stared into space, looking deep in thought. She had a point. “What do you want in return?”

“A safe way out of your feud and out of Tokyo,” she bartered. “If you can secure me those two things, I’ll do this. And this goes without saying: I won’t breathe a word about any of this.”

“And what can you give us to guarantee that?” Takeomi proposed.

“If I fail…” She sucked in a hard breath and swallowed. Was she about to strike a deal with the devil?

All for the sake of freedom?

“… Use my life as you please. Do whatever your syndicate does to traitors.”

“Deal,” Manjiro agreed.

“What’s the plan from here, boss?” Kokonoi looked up from his laptop.

“Plant a stakeout in front of Dynasty for a week. Note everything: who goes in, who goes out, who works there, delivery schedules, any points of weaknesses.”

“We’ll get our guys on it.” Ran took his phone out to send a message, with Rindou following suit.

“(Y/N)-san, you’ll be staying with me until the plan’s figured out,” Manjiro finalized.

“I’m getting really tired of being bounced around like a child no one wants,” she complained. “Can’t I just get my own place?”

“No,” the admins collectively answered.

“Of course not.” She threw her arms up in the air out of frustration and rolled her eyes. “Y’all got some serious trust issues.”

“It’s an occupational hazard,” Ran quipped.

With the main state of affairs wrapped up, Manjiro left HQ with her not too far behind him and made his way out. En route, she asked to stop by the supermarket for groceries. Entering the penthouse, she made a beeline to her room to drop off her belongings before coming back out.

“I’m gonna make something to eat,” she announced. “Would you like anything?”

“… Omurice.”

Making her way into the kitchen, she took out the bought ingredients and got to making his omurice first while waiting for the water to boil for her soba noodles. She threw the dry strands of brown sticks once the water came to temperature and swished it around with her chopsticks until it was time to drain and shock it in cold water. Diluting the dipping sauce with water and garnishing the noodles with cut nori seaweed, she timed the plating with the egg’s cooking time on low-medium heat for Manjiro’s dish.

As if by magic, the dish appeared in front of him instantaneously; it was as he remembered when he first made this for her: the drizzle of red ketchup in a diagonal fashion with a makeshift flag sitting right at the center of the omelet. Muttering a thank you, he took a bite of his food; the taste was the same as it was last time. That inescapable warmth that envelops you after a harsh day outside. It was the only thing capable of giving him this feeling he had in his youth before he willingly threw it all away for the sake of his friends’ happiness.

Their bright, shining wonderful futures.

His onyx gaze looked across the kitchen island counter at her lunch.

“… That’s all you’re having?”

“This is enough for me,” she sheepishly remarked before taking another bite of her soba. “And I can’t exactly work at the moment, so I gotta save where I can.”

“Your debt was cleared by us, remember?” he reminded her. “And there’s the payment I gave you for your performance a few weeks ago… Was that not enough?”

“N-No! No!” she stuttered and hastily waved her hand. “That was more than enough! Honestly, I thought the bank made a mistake when I saw my balance…” She set her chopsticks down on her nearly cleared dish. “It’s just hard to break out of that saving habit when the only thing on my mind was the debt,” she calmly confessed. “Financial trauma is a very real thing.”

The short haired man rested his hand on his left knuckles with a neutral gaze.

“It’s okay to be selfish, (Y/N)-san,” he advised. “At the end of the day, you can only rely on yourself.”

“Does this mean you don’t trust your men?” she questioned.

“I trust them enough.”

“But not with your life.”

“… Only two of them.”

Not wanting to push him any more, she picked her utensil back up and finished off her lunch. Just as she collected both their plates, he called for her.

“Why did you turn down my offer?” he asked all of a sudden.

“Want the truth?” she asked back; he gave her a small nod. “I didn’t know what I could do for you what you don’t already have.”

“Except…?” he continued her thought.

She set the dirty dishes down on the sink and turned to Manjiro with a familiar look in her eyes.

“I couldn’t figure out what your real intentions were when you first proposed it. But with what I know now, two things made sense… You wanted to keep me close by in case Daruma got their hands on me first,” she revealed. “You didn’t want to tell me out of precaution I’d run away and you’d lose your only lead on the information my mother found. That was why you and Kokonoi-san also offered to pay off my debt so I’d have a reason stay.”

“Hit the nail on the head with that,” Manjiro praised with a small smirk and looked at her with a devilish glint. “Takeomi advised me to keep you close. The apartment fire ended up being a blessing in disguise for us.”

She gave him a look of disdain mixed with annoyance.

“What of the second thing then?”

“… You’re lonely,” she simply said with a small shrug. “All of you are.”

Manjiro clenched his jaw and swallowed, continuing to listen to her intently.

“You have everything everyone wants: money, power, fear, influence… But the price you paid for this lifestyle was steep… You have no one to share this with but yourselves. Not without consequence, at least.”

It was as if the words that slipped out stabbed him in the chest. This was the first time she saw Bonten’s head react with such an expression. She was beginning to see him as a vulnerable human being with warm blood running in his veins; it scared her. Had Stockholm Syndrome finally taken its hold? He had the look of someone who suddenly remembered everything all at once and it was slowly overwhelming his mind and heart. It was one of conflict, agony and sadness.

A marrying of contradicting mindsets and emotions to the point of being unhinged.

“My apologies,” she stammered and turned her attention back to the sink, feeling her pulse increase with every second from nervousness. “I overstepped my boundaries.”

Just as she turned the water on to soak the dishes, she felt something warm and heavy rest on her shoulder; the foreign feeling made her shoulders jump a little and almost let out a high-pitched yelp.

“… You’re lonely too, aren’t you?” he murmured. “How else would you be able to understand?”

It was the one thing she’d never let herself admit. Growing up the way she did, (Y/N) learned to channel her feelings through music to distract herself from unnecessary thoughts. Even if she complained about it to her mother, would she even take the time to really listen to her? But that incessant “what if” always nagged at the back of her head.

What if she had spoke up about it? Would that have changed Igarashi’s mind in staying instead or take her along? Would her life have been any different?

“All humans have a degree of loneliness; only difference is how we deal with it.”

“If I gave you the same offer to be my companion, no strings attached this time…” Manjiro uttered out. “Would you say ‘no’ again?”

“Don’t have much of a choice there.”

“You do.”

I really don’t,” she firmly assured. “I’m being held hostage until this feud with Daruma’s over. Anything I do now will all be in your favour.”

He rested his pointy chin on her shoulder and could feel his gentle breath on her cheek.

“Do you really see yourself as a hostage?” he softly spoke in her ear as his hands made his way to loosely hug her from behind. The alto bass in his voice was almost hypnotic. Normally, she’d shirk away from any one who tried touching her intimately. But for some reason, she didn’t hate how soft and delicate Manjiro was embracing her, as if she was a fragile crystal.

“I can’t go anywhere on my own, every single thing I do is monitored by either you or one of your admins all under the pretense of ‘security,’” she listed. “Pretty sure that’s the definition of the word.”

The white haired man huffed a dry chuckle and leaned into the curve of her shoulder blade.

“Fair point,” he agreed and closed his eyes, nuzzling his face into the crevice of her neck and firmly tightened his arms around her waist. “What can I do to make you feel less like one then?”

She tilted her head at him with a look of surprise.

“I didn’t think you’d listen to reason,” she said with an amused tone.

“I’ve learned when to compromise.”

“Wasn’t aware you knew the meaning of that word,” she lightly jabbed.

“So?” he asked again with a faint curl from the corner of his lip.

“Since I’m not allowed to have my own place, let me go out when I please,” she requested. She immediately felt his biceps tense around her body. “But, I’ll wear a disguise.”

“What would you need?”

“A wig and hat,” she listed. “Maybe one of those eyeglass frames with no prescription lenses?”

“If I agree to this, where would you go?”

“Mostly for grocery shopping,” she elaborated. “You can’t live off of conbini bentos. It’s not the healthiest diet.” She craned her head a bit more to look at him. “Unless you don’t like my cooking.”

“It’s more than substantial,” he quickly replied and hid his face from her. “I’ll discuss this with everyone and see what they think.”

“Why go through all this to make me comfortable?” she asked.

Manjiro unlatched his body from hers and walked away, saying nothing.

Two days passed after her conversation with Bonten’s top dog and she was left to her devices in his vast penthouse. Other than playing the piano so she wasn’t out of practice, she tended to Manjiro’s housekeeping, feeling like a live-in maid. Walking out of her room, she saw a peek of familiar white hair on the couch. Quietly approaching the living room area, she saw him sprawled out on the couch, sleeping with his arms crossed. Huffing a light breath, she went back into her room and grabbed a thin blanket. Gently draping it on his body, his face lightly winced from the sudden gush of air from the material before burying himself into the warmth. Just as she made her way back, Manjiro muttered something incoherent. (Y/N) carefully leaned in, trying to make sense of what he just said.

“… I’m sorry… Emma…”

He murmured something else but couldn’t make anything else out.

Who was this ‘Emma’?

The man’s furrowed brows twisted his face into one expressing pain, his lips slightly quivering as a lone tear slipped down his porcelain skin. Hesitating for a beat, she knelt down and raised her hand to carefully stroke the side of his face, humming a lullaby-like tune she made up on the spot. Manjiro’s face relaxed to her caresses before falling back into deep asleep. She let out a soft sigh before leaving him to rest.

Even crime bosses have nightmares, huh.

–

The heels of her Christian Louboutins clicked loudly on the pavement, catching the attention of many around the streets of Shinjuku. Her warm blonde hair was done up in a braided updo as she walked with purpose in a red fitted ¾ sleeve Balenciaga shirt dress. The push-up bra she wore made her bosom much more abundant than they usually are, despite being barely breathe through the shapewear constricting her torso in order to make her curves look more hourglass.

Based on what Haitani’s men found out, Dynasty’s an upscale jazz club with a very high profile clientele thanks to Mizunori Daisuke’s connections in the entertainment industry; some of which were investors in the club.

Since they can assume Daruma knew what she looked like, a disguise would rouse too much suspicion. Their intel also learned Mizunori has a thing for light coloured hair girls with bright brown eyes. As much as she’d prefer to wear a wig, it would be troublesome in case the producer wanted to engage in riskier activities with her. (Y/N) was whisked off the salon Kokonoi frequented for his touch-ups; three hours later, her hair was three shades lighter than it was previous. She barely recognized herself with the new color and felt like someone else took over her body.

When she told Manjiro she wanted to go out on her own, she didn’t mean like this. Huffing a short sigh, she continued her way to the jazz club while her mind thought back to their last meeting. Despite that, this was the first time she was allowed to walk around on her own. Considering how paranoid they’ve been with Daruma, she wouldn’t be surprised if they had a small group of their men posted around keeping tabs like they did when she moved to Asakusa; but she was sure it was also to make sure she wouldn’t run away.

“Can I at least have some insurance?” she crossed her arms, not liking the position she was put in. “I’m doing all the work here.”

“(Y/N)-chan’s pretty vital to this plan succeeding,” Ran agreed. “It’d be a shame for someone pretty like her end up as a corpse before I get to tap it.”

“What about pepper spray?” she suggested, ignoring the older Haitani’s last comment.

“Do you really need it?” Kokonoi countered. “You’re only going in asking for a job.”

“Well…” she crossed her arms defensively. “I’d like to have something on me in case Mizunori tries to make a move on me then and there.”

“We can’t risk you carrying anything right now,” Kakucho explained. “Please understand.”

“We’ll table this discussion until you’ve secured a position,” Takeomi finalized and exhaled from his cigarette. “I think that’s fair.”

“Wasn’t aware you knew what the word meant,” she muttered under her breath and rolled her eyes.

“I heard that,” the advisor glared.

“Here goes nothing,” she quietly said to herself before pulling on the heavy door gilded in gold trimmings and dark red velvet. Carefully treading down the dark and narrow hallway, her heels clicked on the brandished wooden floor of the club. “Hello?” she looked around with caution.

“How may I help you?” a new, silky voice addressed her from behind the wall before appearing in front. It was a tall, well dressed man, wearing a black suit jacket with a thin, white lapel and black slacks and dress shirt buttoned all the way to the top. His silver blue hair was gelled up in a side swept traditional cut. A lone black and gold onyx stud decorated his left earlobe as he smiled thinly with a polite gaze. If she were to sum up his appearance, he looked like the next big K-Pop star teenage girls and middle aged women would fawn over.

She straightened her posture and softly inquired, “I was wondering if you had any openings here…”

“Unfortunately, we are currently at full staff, miss,” he neutrally replied with a slow bow. “May I ask how you know about this club?”

“I’m a former hostess and heard from my clientele Dynasty’s where you go to get your name out there for musicians,” she elaborated and sighed dejectedly. “I guess it’s no luck here either. But it’s expected, considering how popular you are…”

The manager looked her up and down, analyzing her appearance. (Y/N) looked back at him and casually batted her fake eyelashes, the spotlight enhancing her hazel coloured circle contacts. Her lips unconsciously letting out a small pout painted with a soft baby pink lip tint.

“Please wait here a moment while I consult with the owner of this establishment.”

Lightly bowing at the man, he disappeared into the back area as she looked around the dimly lit area. Everything was thoroughly soundproofed underneath the black painted walls thanks to the heavy velvet curtains hanging around the doorways. If a gun went off in here, no one outside would even know. She spotted a slight glow of red from the corner of her eye; safe to assume that was the security camera they’re looking at her from. A short beat later, the manager reappeared.

“Please follow me.”

Pushing the plush velvet curtain out of the way, he allowed her entry into the main area of the club. Small intimate booths decorated the amphitheater interior with a moderate sized stage at the center. The hall was gilded with art deco light fixtures in black and gold accents, giving the club a luxurious, members-only vibe. The chill of the air conditioning blew at the nape of her neck, making her body shiver slightly. Their respective dress shoes clacked in the room as they made their way to the front of the club. The manager gestured her to sit in one of the booths, to which she quietly obliged. A short beat later, a new set of muffled footsteps could be heard not too far away.

“Who’s this you’ve brought me then, Chono-kun? I was in the middle of somethin’,” the producer’s familiar voice asked irritably and immediately froze the moment he laid eyes on (Y/N). “Oh… It’s you…”

“Very pleased to meet you again, sir.” She politely bowed and flashed a small smile at him.

“She came in asking if there were any positions available here as a musician and thought you would be a better judge, Mizunori-san,” Chono humbly replied.

“Yes, well…” Mizunori situated himself on the opposite end of the booth and adjusted his pants from the half-erection he had. She could feel his stare eye-fucking her and it made her sick to her stomach. But she had to tolerate the sleazebag and flashed him a charming smile.

“Saori-chan, right?” he asked with a sickly sweet tone. “We meet again.”

“That’s my hostess name,” she timidly replied with a shy smile. “My real name is…”

“Umehara Sachiko?” she flashed a look of confusion after Rindou handed her a document folder consisting of her faked birth certificate, ID, passport and the like. “But… Daruma knows who I am.”

“They know what you look like,” the younger Haitani corrected. “They may be a syndicate like ours, but we know for a fact their intel gathering isn’t as robust and thorough,” he boasted. “The devil’s in the details; something we’re good at.”

“Their admins and upper echelon are arrogant and lack paranoia. And we’ll use that to our advantage,” Ran finished his baby brother’s thought.

“But won’t one of their people be smart enough to do facial recognition with their software?”

“You leave that to my IT team,” Kokonoi confidently assured with a matching smirk. “You’d be surprised at how easy it is to manipulate someone’s personal info online.”

“Chono-kun filled me in with why you’re here,” he began. “May I ask what happened, Sachiko-chan?”

“Kokonoi-san tried to get me to stay by offering me a pianist position to compete with this club, but that got put on the back burner,” she answered with a dejected tone. “You know it is with businesses: last minute urgent things come up and new ideas get tabled.” The producer nodded in agreement and continued to listen to her with intent. “And so I got to thinking about my future: did I want to work as a hostess until they deemed me too old and wrinkly or take a chance now and realize my musician dreams?”

“Do they know you’re here?” the producer asked. “Last thing I need is a feud between the two clubs. It’s bad for business.”

“So funny story…” she let out an awkward chuckle. “I upped and quit the other day.”

“Hmm…” the producer leaned back and put his hands to his chin, deep in thought. She shifted in her seat and purposely squeezed her upper arms into her body to make her cleavage more ample for him to leer at. It was a classic strategy Mayumi and some of the hostesses at La Reverie did for some tight-wallet clientele in order to coax them to order more drinks. Even though they were like oil and water, (Y/N) respected her tactics in getting money out from the stingiest of men.

“There’s really no need to audition you since I remember your angelic voice,” Mizunori drawled out and glanced over at the handsome manager. “But would you mind putting on a show for him?”

“Of course.” Politely bowing, she seamlessly slipped out of the booth, making sure to walk as sultry as possible in her heels to the piano. Situating herself in front of the instrument, she played her piece and glanced over at the two men listening, Chono whispering something into Mizunori’s ear.

They were giving her the look while doing so and knew at that moment, she was in.

Taglist: @xngelsau @shizunxie @mikeysbabygirl @im-a-mf @garlicgarlicgirl

[lo-55]

When does suzume's dads sentance end ? When does he get released from prison ?

waaaaay back in chapter 4 I said 5 years. So by present time, it’ll be a little over 2 more years before he’s release. The exact paragraph was right at the beginning. It was “It’s light, all things considered. The charges are heavy. Murder in the first degree, conspiracy to commit murder, and a bunch of other things. He should go away for life, for sure, but there’s some kind of clerical error that no one tells her the full length of. Missing evidence, and a breach in his miranda rights. Instead of life in prison he gets five years. Suzume is relieved, but the family of his supposed victim is furious.”

[flyby303]

Mikey-kun ❤️

[wiltingretrospect]

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww when did sanjiro get so pretty?!!! wwwwww cant have that my minions are supposed to fall for me?!!!!

[adrayellinaeth]

The Villain’s Mark

(( BOLD always or almost always applies  | |   italics are situational or occasional ))

aggressive | arrogant | authoritarian | bitter | brutal | callous | cannibal | careless | cold / cold-hearted | compulsive | controlling | corrects others constantly | cowardly | critical | cruel | delusional | demanding | disillusioned | domineering | envious | emotionally stunted | greedy | grim | guarded | hard | harsh | hypocritical | impatient | impolite | intimidating | irritable | kidnapper | lazy | liar | lustful | materialistic | mean | merciless | messianic | mistrusting | murderer | narrow-minded | obsessive | opinionated | over-bearing | over-critical | over-emotional | over-thinking | patronizing | proud | remote | repressed | rigid | rules with an iron fist | ruthless | sarcastic | self-righteous | self-indulgent | serial killer | taciturn | torturer | touchy | traitorous | unsympathetic | unpredictable | uptight | vain | vengeful

Thank you to @spiral-cut for the prompt. It's been a long time since I've made one ahah. I almost forgot to answer :'D because I have a bad memory, and because Adrayel is nothing else than a Hero DD: But I have a lots of other OC ehehehe. And here come Sanjiro. Tada. He's not a Hero.. more like... Anti-hero? He's not a bad guy or a real villain... But he's difficult to live with and has a shitty character :'D

[ota-division]

Birds of Prey Drama Track 1 - The Future Is Now

Pt. 5

— Ōta City Police Station, Kira's Office —

[Kira slowly exhaled as she rubbed her forehead while consuming her second cup of coffee. There was no beating around the bush; she was tired. No, tired was too weak a word. She was completely worn out. Fatigued, burnt, exhausted, depleted, on her last legs. Call it whatever you want. But she was all of those things and more. The last time she felt this drained was after a week long march she and her men were forced to endure back during her days serving in the JDSF.]

[Just why was the young woman so exhausted, you wonder? Was it the constant workload from both this job, and her secret one at Chuohku? Was it the consistent training sessions she and Taria had with Chinami over the Hypnosis Microphones? No, though those things did have something to do with it. No, the real reason Kira was tired... was due to the relentless attention she had received since the news broke out about her and her sisters entering the D.R.B.]

[Somehow or other, Akemi had gotten wind that the city's own Chinen Sisters were entering the Division Rap Battle. And once she had gotten wind of it, you knew that the local town gossip was going to put it in her papers. And even though, most people in town took what the infamous news reporter said with a grain of salt, the rumor, itself, was too good for anyone not to believe. And as soon people heard it, the sisters' household was filled with nearly half of the city's population, asking if the rumor was true. It took Kira the better part of hour to clear the people away from their household.]

[Unfortunately, the problem with fame is that it never goes away, especially if the news is still fresh. As a result, all three sisters had been questioned relentlessly throughout the day. Taria, a lover of fame, didn't mind the newfound attention. Chinami, having been a famous rapper in the past, was used to the attention, though that didn't mean she liked it. Kira, however, she hated the newfound fame. All she wanted was some peace and quiet, but that was too much to ask, even at her place of work.]

[That was the main reason why she was hiding out in her office right now with the door locked and the curtains drawn. It was meant to be a barrier between her and the well-meaning but overwhelming congratulations from her colleagues. The investigator sighed once more as she completely downed her cup of caffeine, hoping it would put some pep in her step. As she did, she looked as some of the liquid fell on today's issue of "The Ōta City's Early Bird", written by none other than the Iseri Akemi, herself, the woman purposely responsible for Kira's newfound fame.]

Kira: *Glares at the name on the newspaper* I swear, Kimmy, when I get my hands on you for this...

[The middle sister is knocked out of her thoughts as she hears a buzzing and a ringing coming from her coat pocket, letting her know she has a call on her cell phone. Looking at the caller ID, the investigator frowns as it reads 'The Mayor' on the screen.]

Kira: *Irritated* Not today, Sanjiro.

[Hitting the 'Ignore' button on the screen, she ends the call and shuts her phone off, not in the mood to receive any more unexpected calls. This was another reason she hated her newfound fame. Ever since it was announced she was entering the D.R.B., the mayor of Ōta, Nishikawa Sanjiro, was obviously planning to use Kira's publicity as a footnote to not usurp control of the police, but also to help him when he decides to run for another term as mayor. The thought that she would be used for something so juvenile made Kira shake her head in disbelief.]

[Sighing, Kira leaned back in her chair. Her thoughts on the mayor soon had her shifting her thoughts toward Chuohku, and the conversation she had with the Deputy Prime Minister just a few days ago...]

A few days ago...

— Deputy Prime Minister's Office, Chuohku HQ —

[Upon arriving at Chuohku, Kira was notified that the Deputy Prime Minister, Ichijiku Kadenokoji, needed to see her immediately. The Vice Chief of the Administrative Inspection Bureau sighed as she already knew what this conversation was going to entail. Taking the elevator to the office of the "second-most powerful woman in Japan", Kira stepped through the doorway where Ichijiku was already waiting for her, one hand on her hip, while the other one was on her signature cane.]

Ichijiku: Chinen.

Kira: Kadenokoji.

Ichijiku: *Frowns* The proper term is "Deputy Prime Minister". Or did your time in the JSDF not teach you how to address your superiors?

Kira: *Frowns back with her arms crossed* It did, but I was always taught that in order to get respect, one must first show respect. If you aren't going to address me by my title, I see no reason to address you by yours.

Ichijiku: You would do well to curb your attitude, Inspector Chinen. I am already quite cross with you as it is.

Kira: *Raises eyebrows* Oh? And for what reason, Deputy Prime Minister? As far as I know, I'm not behind on any work. I've completed all of my assignments. And there have been no complaints against me. So what exactly have I done to make you so upset with me?

Ichijiku: *Coldly* Do not play coy with me, Inspector. I am referring to the matter with your elder sister, Chinami Chinen.

Kira: *Scowls* And what about my elder sister, Deputy Prime Minister?

Ichijiku: You know exactly what I refer to, Chinen. You were supposed to convince your sister to join Chuohku, not join her team when she decided to participate in the Division Rap Battle.

Kira: I don't recall you or anyone else ordering me to do any such assignment. And even if you did, I wouldn't have accepted. You've no business going after either of my sisters. I am already working for you here in Chuohku. You don't need either of them here.

Ichijiku: Otome-sama, herself, requested your sister's presence here in Chuohku! She would have been handsomely rewarded for her service. And even if she wasn't, she should have been honored that the Prime Minister asked for her specifically. Anyone else would have gladly have taken this opportunity to work for her, let alone Chuohku!

Kira: *Scoffs* That's what you think...

Ichijiku: What was that?

Kira: *Sarcastically* I said there's nothing that can be done. Chinami won't join Chuohku no matter what you or Otome-sama say or do. So my advice is to be glad that she's even participating in the D.R.B., and move on.

[At this, the two women locked eyes, disdain for one another, clearly simmering between them.]

Ichijiku: Chuohku will let you do as you please—for now. But I advise you to perform well in the tournament, Inspector. Your career—and perhaps much more—is on the line.

[Understanding exactly what the Deputy Prime Minister was saying, the woman in question was shocked to see Kira quickly close the gap between them, a dangerous glint in her eyes.]

Kira: *Glares* I take you to be a very smart woman, Kadenokoji. After all, you have to be smart to have risen as far as you are in the government. ...But even smart people can make errors every now and then. So that's how I'll interpret what you just said right now: nothing more than an error. Errors are fine to make, so long as you don't make them again. Which is why I'm telling you this for future reference...

[The Deputy Prime Minister looks in surprise as the former JSDF officer leaned in close, getting within kissing distance to her face, the dangerous glint still in her eyes.]

Kira: *Speaks low and dangerous* ...ever threaten my family again, and the Prime Minister will be searching for a new right-hand woman.

[With her statement said, the Vice Chief of Chuohku's Administrative Inspection Bureau moved out of the Deputy Prime Minister's space, with the woman in question still looking at her shocked, as if she had trouble processing what had just occurred.]

Kira: Now then, if there's nothing else, I'll be taking my leave. Give the Prime Minister my regards, please.

[With nothing else, Kira turned on her heel and exited the room, leaving the second-woman in charge behind, not looking back at her.]

Current time...

[Kira sighed as memories of what had transpired played in her mind. She knew that Kadenokoji was going to do something to make her pay for her words. Truthfully, Kira was surprised at herself. She had always believed and prided herself on having very good control of her emotions. But when someone threatens or attacks someone the investigator cared for, she lost all sense of logic and reasoning.]

[She wouldn't attack the person; she wasn't a barbarian after all. But she would let them know what would occur if they continued their actions. More often than not, the individual got the hint not to push their luck, less they incur Kira's wrath. It worked for her numerous times in the past, and she wasn't disappointed to see it still proved effective.]

[The investigator sighed once more before her thoughts drifted to the final round to determine who would be the team to represent the city of Ōta. So far, she and Taria had done well to assist Chinami. But Kira knew it was only due to her elder sister that the three of them had made it this far.]

Kira: *Resolutely* I've got to pull my weight in this next match. I don't want Chinami to have to worry about me and Taria forever.

[Seeing as her work was almost over, she began to gather her things. The final round wouldn't wait, and neither would she.]

A week later...

— Senzokuike Park, Ōta City —

[In one of the largest parks in Tokyo next to a beautiful pond, a large crowd of people were gathered as the sun set in the night sky. Why? Because this was the final round to determine just which team would go on to represent Ōta in the Division Rap Battle. The stage was set under the open sky, the crowd's energy palpable as the announcer took center stage, his voice booming through the speakers.]

Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final showdown of Ōta Division! Tonight, we decide who will represent the city of Ōta in the Division Rap Battle! Will it be the team of...

[Pointing to his left, a group of young teenagers stood off to the side of stage, cocky looks on their faces.]

Announcer: ...the Ōta Guardians? Or will it be the team of...

[Now pointing to his right, the recognizable team of Chinami, Kira, and Taria stood off, all with various expressions on their faces.]

Announcer: ...the Birds of Prey?!

[The crowd erupted into cheers, a sea of divided colors waving banners for either the 'Ōta Guardians' or the 'Birds of Prey'. The BoP watched from the wings, the crowd's roar reaching them even where they were.]

Taria: *Scowls with her arms crossed* I hate how Chuohku's just using this to boost their popularity. It's all just a show to them.

Chinami: *Places a hand on Taria's shoulder* It's more than that for us. This is our chance to make a statement, on our own terms.

[Back on stage, a coin glinted in the spotlight as it was tossed into the air. The announcer caught it, his smile wide as he announced the result.]

Announcer: The Ōta Guardians will take the stage first!

[At his announcement, the crowd cheered as the teenagers took the stage, commanding the crowd's attention as they began their song. As they were rapping, the Chinen sisters all huddled together, listening to the distant verses of their opponents.]

Chinami: We'll perform the song we've been perfecting these past weeks. It's time to trust our practice.

Kira: *Fidgets* But we haven't finalized everything. Are we really ready?

Taria: *Grins* Ready? I was born ready! Let's show them what we've got!

[As the Ōta Guardians finished their set, the crowd's applause was thunderous. The stage was now set for the 'Birds of Prey'. The sisters stepped onto the stage, the spotlight embracing them. They each exchanged a nod, the music cueing up as they prepared to unleash their song, the culmination of weeks of hard work and passion.]

Bring the Beat!

[Chinami:]

Here comes this town's top runners

Time for Birds of Prey to take the stage

Sisters that clean out the wackos

[Birds of Prey:]

Birds! Birds!

[Chinami:]

We run this city

[Birds of Prey:]

We run this city!

[Chinami:]

Don't stop your feet, step forward

Those who strike back will go down

This is our district, Ōta City

Run through

[Birds of Prey:]

We run this city!

[Kira:]

I'm the Huntress in the night, in the truth I trust

Through the city's darkest alleys, I chase the unjust

With every case I crack, I'm protecting our nest

Against all foes, I'll put my skills to the test

In the rap battle's blaze, I stand with my kin

My resolve is iron, we're determined to win!

For justice, for honor, we'll fight till the end

With the mic in my hand, I will not bend!

[Chinami:]

Call me Oracle, with foresight I lead

Through time's tangled web, I see where paths lead

For my sisters, I stand, a shield against fate

In the rap battle's fury, I'll demonstrate our weight

The future's a riddle, wrapped in a rhyme

I'll unravel the enigma, beat by beat, line by line

With visions of victory, clear in my sight

We'll claim our triumph, in the heart of the night

[Taria:]

Oh, look at these Guardians, thinking they're so slick

But against Misfit's rhymes, their words, they just will not stick

I dance in the shadows, where the wild things play

In the rap game's jungle, I'll lead the fray

Don't underestimate the power that I wield

In the battle of verses, I'll never yield!

[Chinami:]

Here comes this town's top runners

Time for Birds of Prey to take the stage

[Taria:]

Sisters that clean out the wackos

[Birds of Prey:]

Birds! Birds!

[Kira:]

We run this city

[Birds of Prey:]

We run this city!

[Chinami:]

Don't stop your feet, step forward

Those who strike back will go down

[Taria:]

This is our district, Ōta City

[Chinami:]

Run through

[Birds of Prey:]

We run this city!

[Chinami:]

Here comes this town's top runners

Time for Birds of Prey to take the stage

[Taria:]

Sisters that clean out the wackos

[Birds of Prey:]

Birds! Birds!

[Kira:]

We run this city

[Birds of Prey:]

We run this city!

[Chinami:]

Don't stop your feet, step forward

Those who strike back will go down

[Taria:]

This is our district, Ōta City

[Chinami:]

Run through

[Birds of Prey:]

We run this city!

[The final notes of the Birds of Prey performance linger in the air as the crowd erupts into a thunderous applause. The announcer steps back onto the stage, his eyes wide with excitement.]

Announcer: What an electrifying performance! Now, it's time to decide. Who do you all want to be the ones to represent Ōta? Will it be the 'Ōta Guardians' or the 'Birds of Prey'?

[The crowd's response is immediate and overwhelming, a chorus of voices rising in unison.]

Crowd: Birds of Prey! Birds of Prey!

[The sisters exchange a look of disbelief, joy, and pride. They've done it. They've won.]

Chinami: We really did it. We're going to represent Ōta.

Kira: It's more than I could have hoped for. We stood together and we conquered.

Taria: Let's show the rest of the world what we're made of!

[As the cheers continue, a chant begins to build among the crowd, growing louder and more insistent.]

Crowd: Encore! Encore! Encore!

[The sisters smile at each other, a silent agreement passing between them. They step back up to the microphones, the crowd's anticipation palpable.]

Chinami: For our fans and for Ōta, let's give them one more.

[The beat drops, and the Birds of Prey launch into their encore, a victory lap for the new champions of Ōta.]

The End

[luvvchiitose]

Harry Potter and nintama rantarou crossover i–

Do you think those students will enter which dorm?

『Hogwarts dorm headcanon !』

Summary: which one of the character will enter Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and ravenclaw! (🍡+🌻)

[Author note: i add the kunoichi too because there's a lack of content of them :(. It's hard to divide them when they all seem to fit into Gryffindor. many may feel that what I put here may not suit some of them but this is what I think is most suitable for the headcanon I wrote for them ]

⌗ Gʀʏғғɪɴᴅᴏʀ

𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• rantarou

• shinbei

• kirimaru

• danzo

• torawaka

• denshichi

• tsurumachi

• heita

𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• saburouji

• sakon

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• sakubei

• sannosuke

𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• takiyashamaru

• ayabe

• takamaru

• mikiemon

𝐅𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• saburou

𝐒𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• kema

𝐊𝐮𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦

• yuki

• ukko

• mika

• oshige

⌗ Sʟʏᴛʜᴇʀɪɴ

𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• heidayuu

• sakichi

• hatsushima

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• magohei

𝐅𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• heisuke

𝐊𝐮𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦

• ayaka

• naomi

• iiko/inoko

⌗ Hᴜғғʟᴇᴘᴜғғ

𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• isuke

• kisanta

• kingo

• sanjiro

• ippei

𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• shirobei

• haniwa

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• kazuma

• samon

𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• hama

𝐅𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• takeya

• raizou

𝐒𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• isaku

• koheita

𝐊𝐮𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦

• souko

• akko

• eeko

⌗ ʀᴀᴠᴇɴᴄʟᴀᴡ

𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• shouzaemon

• hikoshirou

• ayakashimaru

𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• kyuusaku

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• tounai

𝐅𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• ohama

𝐒𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

• monjirou

• senzou

• chouji

𝐊𝐮𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦

• tomomi

• shiori

[ask-thsc-blog]

?: o-okay

???: Sanjiro has been stabbed right there

There was a stab wound on his stomach

??: I thought you were on vacation!

Alex: It was cut short Rengoku!

BURT: "hm...hold on-"

He bandaged him up

[randomthefox]

SANJIRO?

See something like this is a scenario where you could believably get Sonic helping to support a monarchy. The fact that they're not actually natives to this land, don't really have that much investment in what'll happen after they leave, and are honestly primarily motivated by wanting to defeat the evil empire and get their maguffin back first and foremost also helps with this.

Making a good first impression with your brother in law, Enrique =P

pfft game made the same joke that I did

this kind of thing is cute x3 the "everyone can see it" type ship teasing from the rest of the cast.

[rakeisu]

ᵕ̈♡︎Song Recs For (Anime) Simps ᵕ̈♡︎

*Credit to the artists for the art used. I'm only responsible for the edit.

3-Way w/: Nanami Kento, Toji Fushiguro, and Sukuna Ryomen

Genre: R&B, Sensual

Honorable Mentions: Mano Sanjiro (Mikey), Izana Kurokawa, Baji Keisuke, Ken Ryuguji (Draken), Geto Suguru, Toya Todoroki (Dabi), Tenko Shimura (Shigaraki), Uzui Tengen...

But there's a downfall... (Fuck...) That boy like me, but he don't like my friends... And he can't see me with nobody better than he... Got a problem with me taking authority... He like control... (He like control...~) That's my control freak...~ (That's my control freak...~)

[caotixxs]

✎ Meet our extravagant characters!!

Class of 76:

Orochi Kazuchiyo

Kohana Yua

Youta Hasahito

Mori Haruka

Atsuko Ren

Mime

Daiki Shin

Taishi Taro

Noboyuki Taro

Honoka Tomichi

Yoko Jin

Etsu Akari

Hikaru Toshiro

Ruri Misako

Atsushi Sanjiro

Enmei Tadashii

Hizashi Hiro

Saeko Asumi

Tomiko Sadashi

Yumi Kiaria

Ichika Ume

Leiko

Tora

Others:

Zuri

[ichigopanhpff]

Sonata Ch. 3: Poco a poco

[Previous Chapter] -- [Masterlist] -- [Next Chapter]

I finally got the Tokyo Rev Exhibition pamphlet and it's so freaking good! There's interviews with Shin Yuuki (Takemichi JP VA), Hayashi Yu (Mikey JP VA) and Wakui-sensei. If you're interested in reading a translation of it, lmk in the comments which one you'd like to read. These are long interviews, so it'll take some time to translate.

Warnings: Gang violence, blood, tobacco use, nonconsensual drugging, panic attack, suggestive sexual dialogue.

Note: If you see any notes messages being responded with ‘amaeichigo’, that’s my primary account name.

(pō-kō-(ˌ)ä-ˈpō-(ˌ)kō): Italian musical term meaning "little by little."

“They’re asking for how much?!” (Y/N)’s eyes practically popped out of their sockets when she saw the price of a studio the size of a shoe box 20 minutes from Shibuya. The amount of zeros attached to the monthly rent sent her soul halfway out her body.

“You knew this going in,” Kokonoi remarked with a knowing tone while tapping away on the keyboard of his laptop. The finance admin happened to come by with a spare one after hearing from his boss she wanted to go to an internet cafe to start apartment hunting.

“Tell me it’s inflation without saying inflation,” she blurted out tiredly and clicked on another link on the website using the track pad. Another indignant scoff escaped her lips, making her abruptly stand from sitting so long and stretched her neck left and right to relieve some tension.

“I need some air.”

“Use the veranda,” the silver haired man noted.

“Why am I being held here like a prisoner?” she turned to Kokonoi and finally snapped exasperatingly. The man sighed and looked up his screen with dark, tired eyes that reflected a mix of annoyance and fatigue.

“We can’t have you wanderin’ out n’ about when you still owe us money,” he frankly answered. "N' you're a security risk havin' been in such close contact with us."

(Y/N) wryly chuckled aloud and slowly paced in a small half circle. “What I’m hearing is none of you trust me,” she translated with a bitter tone.

“That’s also true.”

“What’s really going on, Kokonoi-san?” she got straight to the point and placed her hands on her hips. “You, Sano-san and Kakucho-san have been on edge these past few days.”

“You heard something?” he asked with a suspiciously arched brow.

“Hello? I’m a hostess? It’s my job to read people and the room,” she stated the obvious. “Your eyes have been glaring at your computer screen like it insulted your whole family and you’re sitting like you have needles stuck on your butt cheeks.”

“Look, it’s…” he sighed through his nose, holding his tongue. “It’s nothing you need to be involved in.”

“So Bonten business,” she concluded with a vexed tone and crossed her arms. “Got it.”

Making her way to the veranda, she switched her slippers for the outdoor wooden ones before sliding the door open. Walking the span of the terrace, she took out a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and placed one to her lips. Sheltering the lighter from the wind, she lid it up and took a long drag before exhaling while adjusting her irises to the natural light coming from the sky than from an artificial one she’d been in front of for the past two hours.

(Y/N) normally didn’t smoke and only did when she was extremely stressed. Taking another pull, she glanced around the afternoon cityscape and blew out the smoke from her lips. As much as she hated her situation, she could reclaim her freedom and put some distance between herself and Bonten if she agreed to pay out the butt for a closet sized space, leaving her with hardly anything to survive on. While she could negotiate her payment plan with Kokonoi to give herself a bit more in living expenses, she rather not; the sooner she was done with the debt, the better.

Then there was the offer Sano Manjiro gave her.

Her remaining 25 million yen debt wiped clean in exchange to being his personal… whatever.

There were so many questions she wanted to ask if she chose to go with their 2-week trial period, nearly all of them being the morality kind. Finishing her cigarette, she placed the butt in her portable ashtray before heading back inside. Just as she headed back to the dining island counter, she saw new tabs opened on her browser.

“Kakucho just sent those over to me,” Kokonoi answered.

Scanning the pages, she was surprised to see the results: 1-LDKs for almost the same price of a studio she saw not too long ago? And the neighborhoods were relatively safe, too; the only issue was that they were a little further outside of Shibuya than she liked.

“Wow, he really came through,” she mumbled in astonishment as she looked through the list and fumbled for a pen on the table to scribble down notes on each place on a pad. “There’s gotta be a catch.”

“How do you mean?” the silver haired man asked and took a sip of coffee from his cup before setting it back down on its designated saucer.

“These prices are way too cheap for apartments like these,” she pointed out. “Is the building haunted? Is it right next to an industrial area with bad air? Was it built on top of a cemetery?”

Kokonoi grabbed his phone off the table and tapped on the screen before holding the receiver up to his ear. “Kakucho. (Y/N)-chan wants to talk.”

He handed his mobile phone over to her, to which she nervously took.

“K-Kakucho-san?” she nervously greeted and lightly cleared her throat. “Otsukare-sama desu. Thank you for looking into these places for me.”

“I told you I would. Are they not to your liking?”

“About this place in Akasaka…” she began and went into her grocery list of questions.

The finance admin’s dark eyes followed her figure while she chatted away with Kakucho nearby the baby grand, facing the window as he took another sip of coffee. Part of him felt bad for keeping her stuck in Mikey’s apartment, but if their intel was right, a turf war was starting to brew with some young bloods.

Even though Bonten had manpower, money and influence, the opposing gang’s sudden rise to notoriety was not something they could comfortably sit back and ignore. Reports of turf scuffles have been heard from the Haitanis, Kakucho and Mochizuki in Roppongi, Ikebukuro, and Meguro, respectively. While their group managed to put them in their place, their retaliation in numbers exponentially grew and overwhelmed Bonten in their last confrontation.

Who was backing them?

Then, there was that seemingly innocent incident at Omotesando Hills with Kakucho and (Y/N). Thanks to the number three’s quick thinking, he snapped a photo of the two and sent it to him for some quick digging; it turns out the two men were undercover officers for the rival gang and they happened to be there “by chance.” Worst thing was they knew what she looked like; he wouldn’t be surprised if they took pictures for their records and were planning something around her for some sort of leverage.

Kokonoi wasn’t lying when he said she was a security risk; any one from the opposing gang could snag her up at any given moment in trying to extract any kind of information from her. Until their threat is eliminated, she had to be kept close by.

“Here you go.”

He looked up to see (Y/N) handing his phone back. “He answer your concerns?”

She nodded. “Turns out two of the units on this list is owned by an old acquaintance of his, which is why the rent is low,” she revealed. “The others turned out to be like that by sheer chance.”

“They’re worth taking a look then?”

“I think so,” she confirmed.

“I’ll let him know so he can schedule a walk through,” Kokonoi remarked and tapped away on his phone.

“Wait, he’s coming with?”

��It’s only fair,” the silver haired man logically stated with a light shrug. “The building’s owned by his acquaintance, after all.”

“God, do I need one of you to watch me use the bathroom too?!” she tiredly barked out.

“We’re not monsters, (Y/N)-chan. Jeez. Well…” He paused for a beat and rubbed his chin with a fleeting thought. “Maybe Sanzu and Ran… But the rest of us are sane.”

“All of you are taking this ‘security risk’ thing a bit too far,” she huffed and went into her room with a slam of the door.

Much to her chagrin, she vacated the private car with Kakucho in front of the building to see one of the units he helped her find. The three walked up to the top floor of the three story building and marched down the outdoor hallway and entered into the corner unit.

“Here you are, (Y/LN)-san,” the owner welcomed her in. “Take your time looking around. I’ll answer any questions you may have.”

Leaving Kakucho to catch up with his friend, she wandered around the 1-LDK by herself. It was a much bigger space than she was used to, having lived in mostly rundown studios with a barely working stove. The porch was small, but wide enough to hang laundry to dry and maybe even some plants to take care of. The living area and bedroom looked to be about the same size, both with ample storage closets. Kitchen appliances looked to have been recently replaced, so she wouldn’t have to worry about anything short circuiting and the bathroom was immaculate with a new fixtures and an energy saving water heater. What she loved best about the place was the amount of natural light coming in, something she never had at her old place.

All this for slightly higher price than what she was paying before. Budget-wise, she had to be realistic. Could she really afford to live here? Even though the walk to the train station wasn’t far, she still had to consider other expenses, like utilities, food and the debt. Not wanting to make a decision on the spot, (Y/N) decided to scope out the other two places before finalizing. Not long after, Kakucho’s acquaintance left after showing them the two units. The two decided to grab a bite at a nearby ramen restaurant.

“This is on me today,” she immediately said with a stern glare at the scarred man. “For helping with the house hunting.”

“You’re as stubborn as they come, huh,” he gave in and sighed, tugging at his tie to loosen it a little from the heat. The two ordered the house tsukemen and devoured it like they hadn’t eaten in days. Chasing it down with a cool glass of mugicha, (Y/N) let out a contented sigh and placed the cup down.

“So have you decided?” her companion asked.

“You’re too good at this,” she lamented and let out a breath, glancing at her half-drunk glass of cold tea. “All three places were really nice… They’re a lot bigger than I thought.”

“Whenever I have trouble deciding on something, I go with my gut instincts.”

“Gut instincts huh…” She thought for a short beat and tilted her head sideways, ruminating her thoughts. “I’d say the first two then. Both had really good natural light, appliances are up to date…”

“But?”

She let out a worried hum from her throat, with the corners of her lips slightly frowning. “The rent’s kinda high for my budget, honestly. And the first one in Itabashi really left an impression,” she noted positively. “The fact that utilities are included with the rent almost made me faint! Factoring that in, the price alone makes it worth getting… and it is pretty close to the station… I guess I’ve made my choice then.”

“I’ll give him a call so he can draft up the paperwork.” Kakucho stood from his seat and made his way out of the restaurant while she asked for the check.

“Kakucho,”his friend greeted warmly. “Wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon.”

“She decided on the first place.”

“Great. I should have the lease agreement drawn up in half an hour.”

“About our arrangement then…”

“Don’t worry ‘bout it,” his acquaintance reassured, practically hearing the toothy grin from the other side of the call. “As long as I get the cash, everythin’ll go as planned.”

“I’ll have Koko wire you the agreed amount.”

“Sorry for making you worry,” Saori bowed at her client. “There were a lot of things out of my control.”

“It’s okay. As long as you’re back, I’m happy,” the middle aged man beamed a smile. “Glad to hear you finally have a roof over your head again.”

“You and me both,” she lightly chuckled.

It’d been about three weeks since she left Manjiro’s lofty penthouse in Shirokane. In the end, she turned down his offer and all he said was, “… I see. That’s a shame.”

She had to put some distance between herself and the head of Bonten. The night she saw him cry over the food she made had her wondering how he came to be how he is now. He couldn’t have been a ruthless man his whole life.

However, the thought of humanizing a crime boss scared her and made her question her conscience.

Her day at La Reverie ended without incident and made her way home on the first train of the day. As tired as she was, there was something gnawing at the back of her head.

Something felt off.

It’s been bothering her for a week now and she couldn’t pinpoint it exactly. As much as she wanted to write it off as an adjustment period to her new neighborhood, her gut was telling her otherwise; something lurked around the corner and it wasn’t friendly. Some call it a well-honed survival instinct, others a “sixth sense.” Whatever it was, all signs were telling her to be on her guard and reminded herself to buy a pepper spray next time she was near a Don Quixote.

The sudden vibration of her phone made her jump with a small, stifled yelp at the dawning twilight and huffed a sigh after splaying her hand on top of her pounding heart. Rummaging in her bag to grab it, she picked up and scowled the moment she saw who it was on the caller ID.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your voice?” she flatly answered, keeping a mental reminder to not say his name out loud in public out of sheer paranoia.

“Wow, what a greeting,” Kokonoi’s voice spoke over the other line. “And here I was, trying to be kind to check up on you.”

“Alive, kicking and keeping your business successful.”

“You know I have other interests than money, right?” he pointed out.

“Like what, you trying to constantly get into my pants?” (Y/N) jabbed unapologetically as he remained tight-lipped on the other end. “Aww, did I hit a sore spot, pumpkin?” she mocked.

“Oh we’ve moved onto pet names in our relationship already?” he quipped. “How sweet of you, cupcake.”

“Miss me that much already?” she sneered.

“Always,” he drawled out and lowered his voice. “I wanted to see how you looked in that lace bodice my assistant got you and run my hands all over it.” He deeply inhaled before continuing. “I’m still thinking about how ravishing you looked in that Vivienne dress.”

“Yeah, we’re not doing this,” she immediately shut down in the direction of where this conversation was going and rolled her eyes. “Seriously.” Her tone soon dropped. “What do you want?”

“Wanted to see how you like your new place.”

She huffed a breath before ascending the staircase to her building. Kokonoi could hear the metal clack against the soles of her shoes.

“Commute takes a bit getting used to, but overall fine,” she replied, immediately understanding the underlying question he hinted. “Certainly a lot quieter than my old place.” Putting her key into the lock, she turned and let herself in before resetting it. Setting her bag down on top of her shoe rack, she changed into her slippers and walked further into her apartment before talking again.

“And no one’s been following me,” she revealed.

“I knew you were clever,” he commended, hearing his Cheshire grin over the line. “Nothing out of the ordinary?”

“Not that I can see…” She briefly peered out the window before pulling her curtains shut from the rising sun and wondered if she should tell him about what she’d been sensing. “Kokonoi-san… do you trust your gut?”

“I trust what I can see and feel in front of me.”

“As expected,” she sighed and decided against it. “We done with this check-in call? I’m tired.”

“I’ll let you rest. Otsukare.”

After hanging up, she slumped her shoulders and got ready to wash up before going to sleep. Maybe this tenseness was just her imagination, given everything that’s happened recently; it was reasonable for her to feel on edge.

The next few days passed with nothing out of the ordinary happening. The unsettling peace was starting to get on her nerves, like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe the quiet, suburban life was what’s making her anxious, having grown up with the cacophony of sounds from Shibuya as her white noise. Making her way home like any other night, she felt someone tailing her not too far behind. Letting out a shaky, uneasy exhale, she tightly clutched her bag and sped up her walking pace. Not wanting to lead whoever was behind her to where she lived, she took a quick detour in hopes of losing the potential stalker. Just as she thought she succeeded, she came to meet three men emerging out of nowhere in the darkness.

“Hello, gorgeous,” one greeted with a menacing toothy grin.

Backing away step by step, she immediately turned and saw two more behind her; she was surrounded.

Shit. This was a bad play.

“Do we… know each other?” she guardedly replied, clutching tightly to her bag.

“You don’t, but we know all ‘bout you.”

“Damn, she looks better in person,” one remarked and hungrily licked his lips. “I call dibs.”

“Please leave me be. I have nothing of value to you,” she tried to convince the group.

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong: you are highly valuable, princess.” The muscular man sauntered up to her, making her take another two hasty steps back.

“I assure you, I have nothing you want.”

“You hear that, boys?” one of them taunted with a chuckle, his eyes narrowing into a glare. “She assures us.”

“Pretty big vocabulary for someone who’s just a hostess,” another sneered and took a few steps forward.

Just as the small group of thugs closed in, she breathed shallowly and cowered into herself, trying to figure out what to do; she shook violently from their leering gazes as her fight or flight senses went into overdrive. Her eyeballs darted left and right as her field of view narrowed from the looming threat. All she could hear were the sounds of her hyperventilating breath and the rush of blood to her head.

Should she try to fight? Scream?

She was immediately drawn out of her thoughts when the man in front of her roughly grabbed her arm, trying to tug her toward him. Letting out a gasp, she resisted as much as she could by pulling the opposite direction, slowly feeling the soles of her shoes slipping under concrete from the assailant's brute force. His hold on her forearm tightened, making her choke out a painful whimper between her gritted teeth; it felt like he was ready to snap her limb in two with the amount of strength he used.

“One more step and the pavement’ll be painted with your brain,” a new voice broke the tense silence. The men around her abruptly stopped and slowly rose their hands up with caution.

“Let’s take it easy now,” the man bartered. “We’re in a quiet area. Gunshot’s gonna be—”

A sudden sound of a suppressed bullet cut through the air. She suddenly felt warm liquid splatter on her face and top. His body immediately slumped down with a thud as sticky crimson liquid pooled on the concrete pouring from his head. (Y/N) tightly clasped her mouth to muffle her bloodcurdling scream and felt her legs lose all its strength and stumbled backwards onto the floor, breathing roughly.

“Did you have to do that in front of her?” she heard Kakucho’s voice sternly scold.

“My finger slipped,” the pink haired man casually shrugged and flashed a cold-blooded grin.

“You lot have a choice,” Rindou chimed in. “Die here or die later.”

“Fuck you, Bonten,” one spat out and hawked a thick loogie at Ran’s face. Next thing he knew, his throat was slashed open with blood dyeing the collar of his shirt by the older Haitani; the younger brother stealthily stabbing the two under their armpits from behind, with Kakucho sighing and snapping the neck of the last one with a sickening crunch.

“Girl, you’re coming with us,” Sanzu commanded with a glower from his glowing blue eyes. “Now.”

Her vision was blurry as her eyes tried to stay in focus with petrifying tears stinging her orbs. Her body continued shaking with no way of controlling her nerves as she saw nothing but blood pouring out the now corpses, staining the soles of her shoes and part of her calves; the scent of warm iron and gunpowder invaded her sense of smell as she desperately gasped for air like a fish out of water, feeling the burning sensation spread through her lungs and throat like a viral infection. Her forearm throbbed with a dark bruise forming on her skin from the man grabbing her beforehand.

“This is exactly why I didn’t wanna take that dumbass along,” Rindou jeered, looking at (Y/N) cower at the sight of them covered in their enemy’s blood splatter. His older brother took out a handkerchief and wiped the spit off his face along with some residual blood left on him before throwing it over to his younger brother to wipe his hands and weapon. Kakucho slowly made his way and knelt down in front of her with a stern look in his brownish-red and milky white orbs, in hopes of a familiar face would calm her down.

“(Y/N)-san. It’s not safe here,” he softly spoke as she looked at him like he was some kind of monster, whimpering. “You need to come with us.”

Just as she was about to find her voice, she immediately turned and wretched out her stomach contents, coughing uncontrollably. The admins of Bonten groaned out loud and looked away.

“And there it is,” Ran pinched his nose from the stench of vomit and made a disgusted face. “Gotta love the smell of fresh vomit at the break of dawn.”

“Well, I think we can say this mission was a half fail,” Rindou stated and rested one hand on his jutted hip, glaring at the cause of it who stood in the form of a pinstripe suit and bubblegum pink hair.

“Or half success, depending on how you see it,” Sanzu countered.

“Oh suddenly you’re the optimist?” Kakucho scoffed.

“How’re we gonna get her to come with us now? She can’t even fuckin’ move!” the younger Haitani argued in a hushed voice.

The pink-haired man strolled up behind (Y/N)’s huddled form and squatted down. Holstering his gun, he took a syringe out from the breast pocket of his vest and pulled the plastic covering on the needle off with his teeth.

“Everything’ll be all right, angel,” he soothingly cooed out in an almost mocking manner and injected the substance into her neck. She let out a light gasp and looked up into his deep cerulean orbs. Seconds later, her body went limp, with Sanzu catching her in his broad chest, completely knocked out.

“Honestly? Literally the smartest thing you did tonight,” Ran stated, with Bonten’s number two flipping him off.

“Sanzu…” Kakucho spoke up warily. “Was that actually a sedative?”

The man’s blue eyes darted back and forth suspiciously with nervous beads of sweat forming at his hairline. His scarred lips puckered like he ate an extremely sour candy. “… Maybe,” he sheepishly answered. “Or it could’ve been heroin.”

“Fucking hell…” Bonten’s number three facepalmed.

“Sanzu, I think you may have a drug problem,” Ran off-handedly commented with a condescending shit-eating grin. “You should get some help.”

“Help this,” the pink haired man flipped off the older brother again, with him returning the gesture. Rindou then joined in and it was now a flip-off, both hands up in the air with their middle fingers at various angles.

“… I’m actually working with a bunch of murderous children. Jesus Christ,” Kakucho huffed out and looked at her unconscious form.

Tonight was gonna be another long night, he lamented to himself and pinched his nose bridge.

—

Muffled voices could be heard around, some louder than others. Her eyelids flickered, only seeing blurry shapes of people and things; her head throbbed like someone bludgeoned her with a bat repeatedly. Every part of her body ached for some reason and she couldn’t move a single inch. A high pitch ring stung her eardrums as she only managed to make out bits and pieces of a conversation. The light scent of a freshly lit cigarette invaded her olfactory with a strong whiff of alcohol.

“—Can’t wait…Ask now. She’s gotta—”

A soft groan escaped her throat, catching the room’s attention. (Y/N) slowly propped her heavy elbows up on whatever she was sleeping on and huffed labored breaths, squeezing her eyes tightly close the moment the light bulbs above seared her retinas. She buried her face in her arms, feeling strong vertigo discombobulate her senses when she tried to sit upright. The last thing she remembered seeing was Sanzu’s blue eyes before blacking out after feeling something prick her neck.

“Wh..at…” She felt the heaviness of her lazy tongue as she tried forming coherent words. “Didyou…”

“Sanzu injected you with a cocktail of a sedative and muscle relaxer,” she heard Kokonoi's low, muffled voice calmly explain. “Can’t exactly tell you the dosage…”

“Hurray. Sanzu didn’t kill her,” Rindou unceremoniously cheered.

“I told you she’d be fine, fucker!” the former shouted across the room. She whimpered and weakly covered her ears with her hands, her mind teetering between states of consciousness. No matter how much she tried putting what energy she had in staying awake and refocusing her eyes to see where she was, her efforts were futile.

“She’s of no use to us tonight,” another man groaned and turned to the pink-haired man. “Did you have to drug her?! We don’t have time for this!”

“Mochi, calm down,” another spoke with a deep voice. “The important thing is they didn’t get to her first.”

Suddenly feeling all the strength left her arms, (Y/N) felt her cheek softly roll on a plush surface and blacked out again. All she could feel was someone picking her up, unable to lift her heavy eyelids to see who. Settling into something soft like a cocoon, she drifted into a deep sleep.

—

Her eyes lazily fluttered open and slowly blinked a few times. (Y/N) looked around the room in confusion and inhaled deeply. Where was she? What time was it? How long was she out? Making more of an effort this time, she finally put enough energy in her eyes and finally opened them in success.

Wait… this room looked familiar.

She was in the guest room at Manjiro’s penthouse. Back in the den of devils.

A sudden click of the door made her jump as a head of familiar short, white hair illuminated the darkness of her room.

“You’re finally awake.” Closing the door softly, he walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, making her unconsciously scoot away.

“Why am I here?” she abruptly asked with a shaky breath.

Manjiro stayed quiet for a beat, carefully crafting his words. “What do you remember?”

She looked down at a random spot on the floor, trying to recall with lightly furrowed brows.

“There were… some men I didn’t know who came up to me and wanted something…” she hurriedly murmured out. “And then… a gunshot and… blood… on my face… So much blood on the floor.” She clasped a shaky hand to her mouth, breathing in and out harshly as her pupils constricted. “Oh God…”

“(Y/N)-san…” the white haired man calmly called her, trying his best to draw her attention back to no avail. She was starting to panic again as he saw her rocking back and forth, her hand still over her mouth. She was shutting down as a mental defense mechanism. Thinking fast, the lithe man pulled her into his embrace and squeezed her tight.

“You’re safe,” he whispered into the shell of her ear with reassurance. “No one can hurt you here.”

“Sa-Sano-sa—”

“Manjiro’s fine,” he softly replied and rubbed soothing circles on her back. Feeling her ease into his hold, her breath gradually regulated and breathed in his scent of linen and musky cedar wood mixed with a light sweetness of azuki beans before slowly pushing herself off. “Feeling better?”

She quietly nodded in confirmation and softly gripped the blanket pooled around her thighs, noticing the dark hand-shaped discoloration on her right forearm. “How…” she swallowed thickly before continuing. “How long have I been asleep?”

“A bit over 17 hours,” the white haired man answered. “We thought Sanzu killed you with his sedative.”

“So… why am I here?”

“You’ll know soon. We’ll be heading out in a bit. Do you think you can move?”

“I…” She looked down and wiggled her toes before slowly flexing her hands. “I think so.”

“Good.” He got off of the bed and headed toward the door. “Koko brought you some clothes to change into. I’ll give you some time to wash up.”

Leaving her for privacy, (Y/N) let out a heavy sigh and rested her head in her right palm, trying her best to digest everything. How did she go from moving into her new apartment to seeing five men murdered right in front of her? What did they mean by her being highly valuable?

She threw the blanket off her body and carefully rose from the bed. Feeling her feet ground her body onto the cool wooden floor, she took a deep inhale and grabbed the lone bag Manjiro pointed out.

The head of Bonten said they had answers for her.

She’ll play their game. For now.

Taglist: @xngelsau @shizunxie

[queenofanimefanfic]

Mugen Train Remake Pt.3

**(full credit to the creator of Rengoku's wife Image, I do not own rights!)

After Tanjiro finished speaking to Sanjiro, he followed his crow to Mukumi's home that she shared with her fallen husband. He arrived at the home, wind was blowing and cherry blossom petals was falling.

Mukumi was already standing outside looking up in the sky. Tanjiro took a few steps to her. He was about to speak until she beat him to it.

He sent you didn't he? She questioned without looking at the boy. He's no longer here is he? Tanjiro noded slightly. Mukumi fell to her knees. Who is responsible for this? With rage in her voice.

[wiltingretrospect]

SANJIRO IS SO DUMB WWWQWWWWWWWWWWW