A/N: Ffff, I hope this author's note isn't too long, now. ._. Anyway, I have a few things to say before you start your "desperate struggling." Okay, let me stop being lame. XD No one is going to get that. What I meant to say is... Hi, this is my entry to sakuuya's contest. I'm very nervous about it. XD
Um, yes, this is about The Mafia. The Sicilian Mafia. Cosa Nostra. So just know that all of those things mean the same thing, okay? There's also something else I want to say. The Ten Commandments were made for men to follow, which is why they'll read kind of weird when you start reading this story. XD So when you do read it and start thinking to yourself "What is Chiharu writing...?" just know that I'm not writing anything sketchy. Now, if you'd be a good reader, you'll pretend that back in the day, Cosa Nostra let women join the group.
Oh, and pretend that the rules are meant for women to follow as well... But they're still like they are now because The Mafia is lazy. XD Um, um, um. XD That's pretty much it. I'd rant about how no one else in the fandom has written Deep Blue in first person, therefore making my work harder for me, but I'll keep that to myself. XD
Um, another thing. All the Ten Commandments weren't used in this. So don't count and yell at me. XD Wait no, I'm still not done explaining things. Yes, there's a clan system. You've got your boss, then your underboss, then your three caporegimes, who are the underboss' subordinates. Each caporegime have a handful of soldiers, and then under the soliders is one big group of associates.
No matter what the lie-face site says, this story is about 3600 words.
The title is a Mafia saying... And before I end this long A/N, the tortures in this are Mafia tortures. True facts, people. True facts.
-: The Liar Cries Best Of All :-
"Ichigo Momomiya. What a pleasant surprise," I greet, my hands still in the pockets of my pin-striped trench-coat. Even if the person standing in front of me is my enemy, it is my duty to stay calm and collected. The feeble and weak red-haired woman does not look happy to see me. Ah, am I supposed to care about her? Obviously I do not. Ichigo Momomiya clenches her fists, giving me a look of absolute disdain. "You look grey today." I quirk my nose, expecting something from the idiot traitor, but she sucks her teeth, placing her suitcase on the table like the good girl that she is.
Adjusting her hat, her chocolate eyes stay glued to the floor. "Boss Deep Blue," she mutters, taking a seat at the table. I do not sit down with her. Her actions are extremely amusing to me; at each waking second I am waiting to see her next move. How much more foolish can the little girl get, making herself vulnerable in front of me? Eventually I take a seat at the table, sitting in front of her and watching the sweat drip from her brow. My expression remains the same—blank.
There is nothing to be happy about.
There is nothing to be sad about.
There is nothing to be angry about.
But the face of Ichigo Momomiya? It is one of pure pain. She is conflicted about something and she will not tell me what it is. Is that not something she should want to confide in her superior? If she is not going to make anything come out of her mouth, I will gladly start the conversation. My hair trails down my back as I fold my hands on top of the table. I glance around my room, appreciating everything that I see.
Crack cocaine.
Stacks of fresh cocaine tower high, almost hitting the ceiling. In the middle of the room sits a small table; this table has plants sitting on it. Tart grows cannabis plants and I sell what he makes.
I admire my work. I am a king pin. I am a drug lord. Many people know my name but few people actually live to speak it. I have the entire world under my pale fingertips. No one can stop me, and everyone that has tried to?
I glance up at the nervous woman. She flinches. "Ichigo Momomiya." Her name slips off my tongue as if it is made of poison. I had a hunch her name leaving my lips would burn me, but I said it anyway. What do I have to lose in saying her name? I have everything. Ichigo Momomiya? She has nothing. "You do remember what the Ten Commandments are, correct?" She perks up, fidgeting with her pathetic bell necklace. I do not want to hear any of its incessant ringing. "Take it off," I command, giving the strawberry girl a dismissive hand wave. I never look away from her. She lets out a slight yelp, unclasping the necklace and sitting it on the table.
"I..."
"Recite them to me." I fold my arms on the desk, tilting my head. "I want all ten in order, word for word." The idiot sitting here before me knows how important saying the Ten Commandments is. She has been punished for making mistakes in the past severely. It will not be in her best interests to get them wrong now.
"I see, Boss Deep Blue," she murmurs, still intimidated by me. "No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person, to, uh, do it." I raise my hand in the air and she snaps her sniveling mouth shut. The sound of her voice sends rage rippling up and down my spine. I sigh silently to myself, my eyes still glued on the woman. Getting nervous, the red-haired idiot starts to twitch in her seat. "But Boss Deep Blue, I didn't mean to—!"
"Tell me, Ichigo Momomiya," I say, arching a brow. "Why did you break the first rule? The Ten Commandments are the guidelines on how to be a good, respectful and honorable mafioso." I tap my fingers on the table, getting restless. Impatience is not something I handle well. "When you introduced yourself to Minto Aizawa, you did not have a third person with you. Did it ever cross your mind that you were putting this clan in danger? You are not supposed to introduce yourself to another mafioso. If you wanted to have friends that badly, you should have asked a third, mutually-known mafioso to introduce the two of you."
"Um... I... Um..."
Idiot. Forever the idiot. "This way the third person can say that neither one of you is an imposter." I look at her with my cold eyes and I see her shutter underneath my gaze. She knows that she will be punished for her dire mistake. "As such, I have taken the initiative; Minto Aizawa is alive no longer." I reach for my wine glass, watching Ichigo Momomiya's jaw drop. She gives me a look of confusion, silently begging for mercy. "I could have killed you instead, but you are my caporegime. Minto Aizawa was nothing but an associate. Something that would have been cast aside anyway." I pause, glancing at her through the corner of my eyes.
"Is there something wrong, Ichigo Momomiya?"
She looks at her pin-striped pants, griping her legs. "N—no, Boss Deep Blue," she says, her voice cracking. "I was just thinking of Mint. That's all I was doing. She seemed like a nice person and I... And I just wanted to get to know her. My apologizes..." Her voice is brought down to a mere whisper. "My apologies if I was the cause of her death..." Sadness? Sorrow? What is this she is displaying? As amusing as her sudden display of emotions are, I simply nod my head.
"You did cause her death," I mention, reassuring her of her great deed. "Resume."
Ichigo Momomiya musters up the strength to resume the Ten Commandments. "Never look at the wives of others."
"Correct," I praise, putting my wine glass down. I resist the temptation of snarling at her. "Please, Ichigo Momomiya. Tell me about Lettuce Midorikawa." I have had just about enough of her squirming. I want her to answer my questions as soon as I ask them. I want her to look me in the eyes and answer me with a straight face. I want Ichigo Momomiya to fear me, just like all of her little traitorous friends do. "The green-haired woman. Lettuce Midorikawa was one of your soldiers. She fought on your team, correct?"
"Y-yes Boss Deep Blue..." I do not expect to get a straight answer out of her. She knows what she has done wrong. I am starting to wonder why she is letting me explain the cause and effects of her actions. No matter, I cannot get inside of this woman's head and neither do I desire to. If she will not admit to her transactions, then I will remind her what happens when you cross me. Ichigo Momomiya's eyes start to water, something that makes my eye twitch.
"Do not get any tears on my desk," I demand in a harsh voice. Though angry I may be, I never let it show on my face. Ichigo Momomiya quickly wipes her eyes and tries to get rid of the tears. Tears from a traitor? Now this is new. Tears are a plead for sympathy. She alone should know that. "Tell me, what is your relationship with Lettuce Midorikawa?" This time she answers me without fail—without hesitating.
"We went to the same school together," she says, her eyes wandering around the room. "Lettuce and I did almost all of our assignments together, and she introduced me to the Cosa Nostra before I even thought about joining. But I... But I... Please Boss Deep Blue!" she pleads. "Don't hurt Lettuce!" Ichigo Momomiya knows how I feel about people pleading to me. Heh. Her pleads fall on deaf ears. "I-I didn't know that what I did... It wasn't... Boss Deep Blue, I, um, I'll take her punishment!" Ah. Oh really. She perks up, pointing a dainty index-finger in the air. Realizing what she has just done, she slouches back down in her seat.
"So you are willing to take Lettuce Midorikawa's punishment as well?" I ask, intrigued by her newly found heroism. "However, you do know that she has been dealt with, correct?" The look of horror on Ichigo Momomiya's face—there is no way to describe it. It is pure, unadulterated shock. It makes me appreciate having her around me. What would happen if I did not get to have her shocked, horror-stricken face around me? Who would amuse me then? Surely not Kish, Pai, and Taruto. Ichigo Momomiya knows she has been defeated, and shows it well.
After hearing the death of Minto Aziawa, she should have anticipated that more deaths would follow.
"No..." she murmurs.
"It is as I have said," I answer, taking a small sip of my wine. "She is gone. Dead. And so is her husband that you thought was too good for her—"
"That's not true, Boss Deep Blue!" she insists, her chocolate eyes widening at me. "Shirogane was only teasing me I—"
"Is he always only teasing you?"
"I—"
"You broke one of the Ten Commandments, Ichigo Momomiya. That is three punishments. If I am not mistaken, Ryou Shirogane is Lettuce's Midorikawa's husband. Shall we go on?" She chokes at that. Maybe she is starting to feel sorry for betraying the family? Soon it will be her turn to face her punishments. "I had my subordinate Pai kill her earlier this morning." I stood up, folding my arms behind my back. "He broke her spinal cord with a screw driver, rending her paralyzed. She could only watch as he tore her body apart." Abruptly I look at her and her face turns a nice shade of green. No, she cannot imagine such a fate as the one Lettuce Midorikawa was sentenced to.
I will not put it past her silly brain to understand it. "And as for Ryou Shirogane, I had my subordinate Kish beat him half to death. He threw him in a room full of rats. I think he is undergoing the torture right now..."
"Stop it," she pleads, hyperventilating. "Please Boss Deep Blue—!" Her trembling words mean nothing to me.
"The rats smell his blood and are eating through his body as we speak. See, we are family, Ichigo. We uphold our honor. We family members will do everything we can to make sure everything goes according to plan. They paid the ultimate price for being traitors." She grabs onto the end of the wooden desk, blinking a few meaningless tears away. Does she not know that I can see her tears? "Ah, yet another punishment you will have to endure for crying," I mutter. I want her to know what she has to look forward to.
"How could you?" she says, through incoherent sobs. "Why hurt them...? Why hurt them when it's me that broke the rules? You say that I broke the Commandments, so why are you..?" I did not need to answer Ichigo Momomiya. She does not have any power over me. I can tell that all of this pressure is weighing on her mind. If this is pushing her to the brink of insanity, perhaps she is not fit to help rule my family.
"You are mentally incapable of being in this family?" I inquire. "You amuse me a great deal, Ichigo Momomiya. You have had many of your comrades slain in the past and you have never shed a tear for them. Now you are crying over the loss of three of them?" She turns her hand into fists and they are shaking on top of my desk. She grits her teeth, but musters up the strength to look at me again. "Ah. I have your attention. Now please, go on with reciting the commandments." And she doesn't dare defy me. She can call me what she will, but I know I will get what I want.
"Never be seen with cops." She sniffs, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt.
"You do not know how right you are, Ichigo Momomiya. Do you know how many men work in this family? There are a total of 4,000 members. We are always watching you. We are your family. And yet I have gotten reports of you talking to the authorities." I look at her and she does not regret a thing. Instead, Ichigo reaches out to me like a wounded animal.
"I will... I will take that punishment also."
"Good," I answer back. "Omertà: the code of silence. It forbids mafiosi from betraying their comrades to the authorities. Yet, you told on your own family. Do you have no mercy, Ichigo Momomiya? No shame? Luckily, we disposed of the nuisances, but if you had a problem with the way things are being run, you should have come to me." I pause. "The penalty for transgression is death. And the relatives may also be murdered."
"S-Sakura and S-Shintaro..." she stutters. Her face is stained with tears. This must be hard on her. I think I should continue.
"Go on. Keep going. I never told you to stop, Ichigo Momomiya." For a second it looks as if she does not have the strength to go on. She had better find it, fast. She swallows once more, breaking out in a cold sweat. Now not only does she have her life to worry about, but her dear parent's lives as well. I love messing with this single, red-haired girl's mind. Now I can only watch it shatter before me.
"Don't go to pubs."
"You reek of alcohol," I chide, quirking my nose. "You must have forgotten about my strong sense of smell, Ichigo Momomiya. It may have been weeks ago, but I have learned to keep tabs on you. I have witnesses who have witnesses that have seen you at a pub in particular. Speaking to a... Keiichiro Akasaka, is it? Well Ichigo Momomiya, you should already know what has happened to him."
"Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty—even if your wife is about to give birth."
Ah, so now she is reciting them without me telling her to? How delightful. Perhaps she is getting all of this through her head. I let off a faint smirk in appreciation, one that Ichigo Momomiya does not see. "Clearly you have been missing your missions for the past couple of weeks. First the pubs, now your missions? It seems like you are not fit to be my caporegime after all. Should I have you replaced?"
"N-no Boss Deep B-Blue," she stutters. She is trying to appear calm and collected, but I can only see her ditsy-ness and idiocy. "Appointments must absolutely be respected."
"That they should," I agree. "So why do you bad mouth them?" I think she has well past realized that there is no way around me. She cannot hide from me. I know where the key to her heart resides. She can only sit and take this interrogation silently, for if she rebels out against me... "Once more you stop in the reciting of the Ten Commandments. You shall be given another punishment for that transaction as well."
"Wives must be treated with respect."
I pause, tilting my head. I fold my hands back on the table. "How surprising. That is one rule you have not broken, Ichigo Momomiya." Her eyes soften, as if she has just gotten a break. She does not understand how fast I can break her world in two, does she? "I shall be punishing you for the glimmer of hope that just shined in your eyes, however." I want to see her frown. I want to see her unhappy and I want to see her cry. She did this to herself, the fool.
"W-why are you being so cruel, Boss Deep Blue...?" Her fingers are trembling and her face is completely white, matching the color of the blocks of cocain next to her.
"Keep going," I say in a low growl.
"When asked for... When asked for any i-information, the answer must always be the truth."
I stand up, walking over to the distressed red-haired woman. I make sure she is intimidated by me, peering over her through the bottom of my eyes. A faint scowl finds its way on my face. "If that is the case, let me ask you something," I say, instructing her to look at me in the eyes. Disdainfully she does. As said before, she can hate me as much as she wants. I will always end up getting what I so desire. "You love that Aoyama Masaya fool, correct?" She does not answer me. "You deliberately broke all of the Ten Commandments in order to get you and that idiot out of Cosa Nostra. Out of my family."
There is no hope for her. Her hope dies. She puts her hands on the table, bowing her head. She does not look at me, but she proceeds on answering my question. With no eye contact? Does she take me for a fool? A lie is about to flutter from her unworthy lips. The fiend. "I-I can't answer your question, Boss Deep Blue." She pauses, her voice being brought to a whisper. "I just can't. I-I... I-I'm sorry..."
"Treason, Ichigo Momomiya, is not something I tend to overlook. The liar cries best of all."
With no hesitation, Ichigo Momomiya produces a colt 1911 pistol from under her seat, glaring dangerously at me. I show no fear and continue to stare at her like I have always been doing. What Ichigo Momomiya fails to realize is that I have her controlled by the strings of her fear. She will not dare shoot the boss of Cosa Nostra, especially with such an old piece of machinery. She cannot kill a fly with such a toy.
"Where is Masaya!" she asks in a strong voice tainted with fear. "I came here because he went missing a few weeks ago and I—" She looks down at the table, but her grip tightens on the gun. "He is the underboss, Boss Deep Blue! Your right-hand man! Please, I will take any punishment you want... Just tell me where I can find Masaya. The last thing I want to do is see him hurt..." She stands up, walking behind her seat. She holds the gun firmly, not letting her grip slip.
Being in my family, she knows how to shoot a gun. That does not mean she knows how to shoot me, however. The feeble wretch falls down on her knees, her body shaking. "Please... I don't think I can... Please, Boss Deep Blue..."
"Answer the question," I command. "Do you love that fool?"
"If I—if I answer yes, you'll—" She looks in different directions, perhaps looking for some sort of a sanctuary; some place she can escape to. The room flashes white, powder and smoke filling the air. She took a shot at me and horribly missed. Now she's standing up straight, her eyes widening. "I-I don't want to do this anymore, Deep Blue." Traitor until the end. I grab her wrist and she immediately drops the gun, taken by surprise.
"Once you are in the family, there is no getting out, Ichigo Momomiya," I say, bearing my fangs. "You are mine, and mine alone. You are a prize that I have won. No simple-minded man will take you away from me, not even my underboss. As useful as he is, I refuse to let you hang from his arm. He does not deserve your fear. The look of terror on your face as I inhale your trepidation..."
"You... You killed him didn't you?" That came out as an incoherent whisper. I merely quirk a brow. She wishes she still has the gun in her hands. The sudden burst of anger on her face... It is something new, and I admiring her for being able to show that side of her to me. It's actually very admirable, if I say so myself.
"Trying to kill the boss of Cosa Nostra," I declare, my grip tightening on her wrist. "That is the biggest transaction of them all."
I let off a faint smirk, basking in the glory of my prize. "Ichigo Momomiya, you do not understand where I am coming from. Allow me to enlighten you. These two emotions. Hatred and love. They are useless. Nothing good can come from either of them. There is one thing that you fail to realize, however. Hate goes much faster than love. Hate triumphs over love. Hate obliterates love and turns it into the gravel that I walk across. Do you not see? Because you hate me, you admire me. I am wildly proud of my work..." I pause, gazing into her confused and angry chocolate eyes. "Just the fact that I was able to manipulate an idiotic, ditsy girl into the ruthless mafioso that you are now..."
I believe she is all out of words for me. "You are free to continue hating me, Ichigo Momomiya. Try to kill me over and over again. I have never been one to stop personal growth. Your hatred for me will evolve into something better. You will know what power is." I pause, arching a brow. She is taking this better than I initially expected. "And in that insolent heart of yours, you love me for it." Her eyes widen at the accusation, but before I give her a chance to speak, I wave my hand across the air, smirking.
"Let the punishments begin."
