Chapter Two: A Test of Honor
"The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die."
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
"Nothing of real worth can ever be bought. Love, friendship, honour, valour, respect. All these things have to be earned."
― David Gemmell, Shield of Thunder
"Well, what's going on?" I ask my father as I sit in the car. I watch as the car pulls away from the curb and the syndicate member kept his eyes forward.
"I think Vito might tell you better," my father says, half mumbling. I hear a voice protesting on the other side and the phone was filled with static. I wait, fiddling with my lip ring as I hear someone finally breathing on the other side.
"Are you going to tell me or do I have to reach through the phone Vito?" I ask, fed up. The breathing is heavy and I could almost hear the wheels turning in his stupid head. Both I and the voice on the other side sigh at the same time.
"Well, boss, you see—" Vito starts in a heavy Italian accent.
"I am not your boss. You're boss of Vario Crew now. I'm boss of Dojin-Kai now. So don't call me boss. We're," I sigh and rub my eyes, "associates."
"Yah, yah. Sorry, boss," Vito says, quickly swearing in Italian after his mistake. "I mean Suzanna."
"Vito, I don't have all day!" I practically yell in the small car. Vito using his nickname for me hit a cord. It was a tender cord in my heart. It was homesickness. I was missing the rude behavior of New Yorkers. I actually missed sounds of cars honking and subway trains. I missed my family—that included stupid Vito also.
"Sorry. Sorry. Uh, I have been having trouble with the crew. They don't wanna play in a death-" he starts but I interrupt him.
"A death match? Seriously Vito? I told you to wait for a month. You can't just become boss and then make them play in a death match," I say angrily. Vito sure is stupid. Sometimes I wonder why he became boss after me. It was my father's decision. He made it solely on the fact that he can manipulate him.
"Yah, I know. I know. It's just that some of our territory has been taken by that new ragtag group," Vito mutters on the other side.
"Just keep your borders straight then. You don't need to play a death match. You are far too new at this to actually win and the boys won't follow you. In addition, if they don't have all their faith in you, they won't be confident in the whole game. Don't you dare play a death match right now," I tell him exasperatedly.
"You sure about that Suzanna?" Vito asks. I could literally feel my father looking at him like he was an idiot. I could also feel Vito shrinking away and heard the phone being passed back to my father.
"Well, glad you straightened that out," my father says chuckling. I hear grumbling on the other side and my father yells, "Shut up and get out of here Vito. I told you she wouldn't approve of the game."
"I'm glad to hear that you're checking up on Vito. I was worried when you made him boss."
"Well, I've been thinking that I should have just sent him with you," my father grumbles unhappily. He didn't want to admit that I was right.
"Yah right," I snort, "I don't want him. He's more effort to me than he's worth."
"I better let you get back to your yakuza. Lord knows you need all the time you got," my father says. I can feel his proud smile from the other side of the line. I smile also, and look out the window. I can feel the car start to pull into the syndicate.
"Yah. I need a lot of help," I mutter to him. The car finally comes to a stop and is in front of my new home. The driver gets out of the car, holding the door open for me. Grabbing my backpack and longboard, I climb out.
"I love you Susan. I hope you know that," my father whispers on the other side. His sadness is apparent in his voice. I feel myself frown as I stand in front of my massive house.
"Love you too, Pa," I whisper back as he hangs up. I put my phone in my pocket and sigh. It was a sigh filled with sadness.
"Susan-sama do you want me to help you with your bag?" the syndicate member asks me.
"No," I tell him and then ask, "What's your name again?"
"Fu, Susan-sama," the member replies. I take a good look at the man. His head is shaven and our emblem is on the right side of his neck. The daimon is a circle of a black sakura blossom with a sakura cutout in the middle. He wears a black yukata and has what most would say was a scary face. I was used to it, so I wasn't worried.
"Fu, I've seen you somewhere else in the syndicate. What's your duty?" I ask. I felt bad that I didn't know who he was, but there were so many faces in the move. I couldn't tell who was who any more.
"I cook the meals in the main house, Susan-sama," he replies. He gives me what would have been a terrifying smile, but it is somehow sweet.
"Oh. Thank you for picking me up Fu," I reply with a small smile.
"It is my duty, Susan-sama," Fu says blankly. He was surprised I thanked him for doing this small thing. Just because I was boss, didn't mean that I wasn't grateful. I appreciate my members. I see them as family.
"Thank you anyway," I tell him, going to walk up the stairs to the house.
The house was vast and divided into separate parts. I lived in the main house, which was the smallest in size. It was a traditional Japanese style and had a square courtyard in the middle. There was a passage which led to syndicate member's house. That house sat to the right of the property. Their house was huge with over five hundred rooms. They had no courtyard and it was almost like a maze. It was built recently to my surprise and was to be another yakuza's house. I believe the Kasanoda-gumi's took half of them out along with the police who finished them off.
Getting at the top of the stairs, I find my syndicate members lining the path to the door.
"Welcome home Susan-sama," they say together. I smile as they all bow. I couldn't get over how they actually wore formal clothing.
"Thank you. It's good to be home," I reply to them all. They stand up and I smile at them as I walk to the front door.
"Aiko," I call out, opening the door.
"Yes, Susan-sama," suddenly a man in a dark blue yukata is at my side. He is younger than most, probably in his late twenties. His black hair is gathered into a ponytail. His most defining feature is the scar over his right milky eye. I have yet to ask him how he had gotten it.
"I need to speak with you about some things. Meet me in the conference room with your brother in ten minutes," I tell him softly, entering the door.
"Understood," he replies and hurries away. I turn around and face all the men still lining the path.
"Thank you for greeting me. I hope we all have a good sleep and I will see you all tomorrow morning," I say in a stern, but almost motherly voice.
"Hai," they reply and I close the door. I sigh and breathe deeply. Kicking off my shoes and putting my house slippers on, I grab the vans and take them with me.
"Kou!" I yell when I walk down the left hall towards my room. When I almost reached the room, the room next to mine opens and a head pops through.
"Susan-sama, you're home already!" a young man says. The boy was only fifteen—or like how he tells me, nearly sixteen—and is a surprising blond.
"Kou, what did you do to your hair?" I ask, trying to contain my surprise.
"I bleached it. I wanted to make it blue, but the directions said I had to bleach it first," the boy says coming out. He wears a white—now stained with dye—shirt and black gym shorts. The boy is my personal servant in a way. He has been with the syndicate after he was dropped on their doorstep. He is too young to take over as boss and didn't want to be boss. He is much too happy and is a free spirit.
"What kind of blue?" I ask him. He went back into the room and came back a second later with a dye box in hand. I look at the color and find it a dark blue with the undertones of a weird purple.
"You like it?" he asks with a childish grin. I smile at him and ruffle his dry bleached hair.
"I think what's done is done. We can always dye it black if you hate it."
"Did you need me?" he asks looking back to his dye with a frown. He didn't like my very political answer. I smile at him and wonder how I could be so comfortable with all of these people but terrible at school.
"Yah, I need you to get me a uniform for school," I tell the boy. Kou doesn't go to school. Instead he takes care of all the house needs. He cleans the main house and runs errands. He is capable of fighting and knew how to defend himself—or so I was told.
"Is it that ugly yellow dress?" he asks. I nod and then went to my room. I drop my shoes by the side of my door and walk in. Tossing my bag onto the bed and leaning my board against the wall, I hear Kou come in.
"I'll give you some money and you'll go get some. Do you need my measurements or anything?" I ask looking at my room. It is painted a soft orange color. Against the wall across from the door sits my bed, a large queen with a dark red comforter. Along the sides of the room sits bookcases. Most are filled with crime and fantasy novels. My dresser is next to the door and a large closet is at the foot of my bed. It would be considered large to a normal person, but it isn't a huge room.
"I am not buying you that ugly dress," Kou says pointedly. I look at him and then lay on the bed.
"Alright, but I have to find a uniform," I say looking at the ceiling. The high ceiling is a crème color and I count the beams quietly.
"Was school bad?" Kou asks quickly. He sits on a shag rug in the middle of the room. It is a dark red color like my comforter and sat on cherry wooden floors.
"It was," I say bluntly. I could hear the snickers and taunts in my head. Then I remember what laid behind music room 3 and start laughing.
"Are you okay Susan-sama?" Kou asks concerned. I continue to laugh and then look at the boy.
"I think I found a bunch of male hookers today," I tell the boy.
"Hookers?" he asks in his awkward English. "What's a hooker?"
"How do I say it in Japanese," I say out loud and then find the word and tell him in Japanese, "baishunpu."
"Really?" Kou asks. His dark inky eyes are as wide as saucers and he is blatantly surprised.
"Yes, really," I laugh. Kou looks at me and just stares. Then he bursts out in laughter. For a couple of seconds, only our giggling could be heard.
"That's crazy," he says after he recovered.
"Yah. I know." There was a moment of silence before I jumped out of bed. "Shit, I have to go meet Akio in the conference room."
"Well you better hurry. I'm gonna finish dyeing my hair. When you come back, we'll have dinner," Kou says excitedly.
I leave my house slippers at the foot of my bed, choosing to just run down the halls with my socks. Exiting my room, I take a right turn and run down the hall. Seeing the hall end, I make a fast right turn again, slipping on the newly washed floors. Going another five doors down, I find the conference room. Pausing and taking a deep breath in front of the door, I calm myself. After finding my inner peace, I slide open the door. 'See, slidy doors aren't so scary are they, Susan', I think to myself. Inside Aiko is sitting along with his twin brother. They are my second hand men.
Surprisingly, Hideo is exactly like his brother in every respect except for the scar. Hideo has a scar running along his left milky eye. He wears a dark red yukata with his black hair gathered into a ponytail. It was funny to me, that each of their names were kinda similar. Aiko meaning 'glorious man' and Hideo meaning 'splendid man'. It really does crack me up.
"Susan-sama," they say bowing their heads while they sat. The first time they didn't sit down until I got there. I told them it wasn't necessary to get up for me. Really, in this room I wanted them to tell me problems straight up. I wanted to feel like I was one of them in this room.
"Boys," I say and then sit down. I cross my legs and look across the table from them. "Status report."
"Sendo-kai has made movement in the southern region. They haven't been strong in Kanto since they lost their heir. But it appears that he may have left for Kasanoda-gumi," Hideo says. I nod and then wonder why their heir left. In this day and age, many leave for more honorable reasons like changes in mindset. A hundred years ago, you only left if you were being bribed. There is no honor in leaving you syndicate. I would never leave these guys.
"Is Sendo aligned with Yamaguchi?" I ask the men in front of me.
"Yes. They are the next powerful after Kasanoda," Hideo confirms. I purse my lips into a straight line. Great. If we go after them, we just might have Yamaguchi down our throats. We're going to have to run them out of the Kanto region if we want to survive. I sigh, knowing we're going to have to play a life or death game to fully eradicate them.
"What about Kasanoda?" I ask calmly. My face shows no emotion at this point. I can't let anything fall through, or else it would just freak these guys out.
"They have been crossing the lines into our district lately. They plan on eradicating us like the yakuza before us. Not only have they been stopping our drug exchanges, but they have been getting into skirmishes with our men," Aiko says gruffly. I bring my hand to my face and tuck a strand of hair behind my ear.
We can't survive if we have two rivals trying to push us out. We have to deal with the one with the least experience. If we eradicate Sendo, we'll have more land to do the drug trades. Besides, the area that Sendo occupies is a really poor area. They're probably driving the neighborhood into the dirt. We can't have Kanto turned into a ghetto. For now, we have to call a truce with Kasanoda. My men aren't strong enough to play in two life and death matches. I'm lucky if I have them ready in a month's time. I'm going to have to go ask that damn Kasanoda heir for a truce—only temporary, of course. If he says no, then we're going to have to start running arms trade to survive while taking out Sendo.
"Alright. I have to go pay a visit to the Kasanoda syndicate at the end of this week. We'll start by taking out Sendo. I don't want anyone to cross over into Kasanoda territory. We have to get some more land and money before we can move onto Kasanoda," I tell the two men. They tense at me saying I need to see another yakuza, but they don't say anything. I sigh and say, "Out with it then. If you have concerns, you can voice them. That's why we have these meetings."
"I don't think we should make a truce with Kasanoda," Aiko says angrily. I look at him and wait for the veins in his head to disappear.
"Why not?" I ask.
"Because we have never needed to ask for truces before. Our men are strong and you should lead us with death matches," Hideo said softly. He was the more level-headed of the two brothers.
"I need time to train you guys for death matches. I need time to observe who I can put with who, how I can set the game up to our advantage, and time to gain your trust," I tell them.
"We do trust you. We do not need to train either!" Aiko whispers angrily. I stare at him with a bold look.
"You don't need to train?" I ask him calmly.
"No."
"Have you ever used a gun? Or are you planning on playing the games with your katanas?" I ask him slightly peaved. But I brought this on myself, asking them to be truthful with me.
"Yes, I have used a gun," he snorted out, like I was an idiot.
"Killed a man with it?" I asked him. "They aren't just to wave around civilians."
"Of course I've killed a man with a gun before," he huffed.
"At what distance? Five meters? Ten meters? Or were you right next to him where you would have to be blind and stupid not to hit him?"
"Well," he says a little unsure of himself now.
"Hideo? How about you? Have you ever killed someone with a gun?" I asked the quieter brother. He looks at me with steely eyes for humiliating his brother.
"No, Susan-sama," Hideo replies, his tone with a little bit of anger in it.
"How about martial arts? Surely everyone knows that."
"We are the best in Kanto," Aiko says, angry that I was now checking all their skills.
"Really? So if I were to fight your best fighter, he wouldn't lose," I ask a little cheeky.
"No of course not. If he does, I'll perform yubitsume for you."
I look at Aiko now with new eyes; he was willing to give up a piece of his finger because he didn't think I was strong enough. They didn't think I could really fight. I had told them before that I had killed people in the games with my bare hands. They doubted that I had the strength. I turned my chin upwards in pure disgust.
"Very well. Fetch him. Meet me at the courtyard and we'll see if your words hold," I reply, my words like knives.
When both men look at me with surprised faces, I growl. They get up quickly and run out the door. I sigh and brush a piece of hair behind my ear. Now I have to fight a large man—surely this man would be huge. God, me and my temper when people don't believe what I tell them. Did they think I was just arrogant? I get up and take off my cardigan. Going to my room, I find no one there. Grabbing a hair tie from a bookshelf, I pull my hair into a pony tail. Putting the sweater in the closet, I head out to the courtyard. Removing my socks on the patio, I find the whole syndicate there, minus Kou.
"Which one is he Aiko?" I ask the large man. Another man steps forward and I measure him to be about six feet in height and about two hundred pounds. He has a shaved head and scars are on his arms. He wears a black yukata and no shoes.
"Susan-sama, you don't have to do this," Hideo tries to reason with me. I give him a glare.
"Do you think I'm not capable? You still doubt me? I'll have your finger with your brother's for your comment." I turn to the rest of my syndicate, all their eyes staring in curiosity. I then yell out to the crowd of almost four hundred, "I am going to prove my worth to you by sparring with this man. It seems like some of you might not believe everything I have told you about myself. Therefore, let me put your minds at ease. I will show you that I am perfectly capable of leading this yakuza."
The crowd was silent for a long time after that. I turn to the twin brothers and see them worried. Their worry only angers me further. I hate when people doubt my skills. If I knew that I couldn't beat the man before me, I would have backed out already. I turn to my opponent and see him square off against me. Looking at his legs, I see he favors the right. His stance is perfect, but he protects his left side a little better than the right. That means he is faulty there, but tries to cover it up. Seeing that he's bulky I have to hit the weak spot under his chin. I'm short enough to get under there with a palm fist.
The man stares back at me and waits for my signal. I'm ready and I give him a nod of approval. The man comes at me. He's normal speed, actually a little fast for his height. I step to the side and watch at how he turns around in a second. He tries to hit me with a high kick with his left leg. I deflect and watch as he perfectly balances on the right. This left leg is the bad one. I need to get to the other side. He kicks me again, but with my analysis I was left open. I take a foot to the eye. There is definitely going to be a black eye under there. His leg is still up, not wanting to reposition with me dazed. He kicks me again, but I pass under his still raised leg and send him a jab to the gut.
He's barely fazed and I avoid his hands which go out to get me. Now on his left side, I watch as he is going to go for another kick. I kick his left leg back down. Time to hit him where it will matter, I think. I crunch my fingers and give him a hit under his chin. Dazed slightly, he tries to balance himself. I kick him on the left side he was defending so preciously earlier. He lunges forward, while I crouch down and side sweep his bad left leg. Unbalanced, he goes down. I quickly put my knee to his back and wrap my arm around his neck. With a chokehold, I watch him flail until he stops. He's unconscious and I know I have won. The crowd watches on in silence as I walk away from my opponent. I turn to Hideo and Aiko to see them with wide eyes.
"Do you have your knife?" I ask them. They look at me blankly and I turn to the crowd, "Does anyone have a knife? These men promised me their fingers."
"Here you are Susan-sama," an older man says as he brings me a knife. It looks like a ritual tanto and I take it with a smile. My right eye is already closing and I realize I have to go to school like that.
"Thank you," I say. Turning back to the twins I look at them angrily. I hand the blade to Hideo. He takes it with a worried look. "For both of your insolence, you will do penance. Know that when I say I can do something, I can do it. In addition, your men are not ready to do the things which you want them to do. If under your command, they would have been sent to their deaths a long time ago."
"We are sorry Susan-sama," Hideo says. He looks at me pleadingly one last time before taking the blade to his hand. I turn around to the crowd and let him and his brother cut off the tips of their pinky fingers.
"I say things and give orders because I don't want you to suffer," I tell the silent crowd, my accent heavy with my slight anger. I see that they took my opponent away and I continue on. "When I say that we must train, it is not because I doubt anyone's abilities. It is because I don't want you to go out there and die. Death matches will be coming. I want all of you to be prepared. For that reason, we are going to train. First we shall hone our bodies with hand to hand combat, then we shall hone our eyes with gun practice and lastly we shall hone our minds with sword fighting. Each of these activities will be supervised by both of my seconds. In addition, no one is to step on Kasanoda territory. If you have questions, you may bring your concerns to Hideo or Aiko."
"Here Susan-sama," I heard Aiko say. Turning back around, I see the bloodied blade and was handed two fingers. I look to the man and see what I should have seen in the conference room: trust. It took him giving me part of a finger for him to trust me. Looking to his brother, Hideo has the same look. I nod at each of them and then turn back to the crowd.
"If you doubt my abilities, you will meet the same fate as my seconds. Know this my syndicate, I will never lie to you. If you believe that I cannot do what I say, you may leave. Because I will always follow through with my words," I said this darkly. The men for a second looked scared, but that emotion was replaced with trust. I smiled at them and then went inside. Going to my room, Kou finally showed up.
"Susan-sama, why do you have bloody fingers in this jar? And when did you get the black eye?" he asked. I looked at him from my place on the bed.
"I like your hair," I replied. The boy's eyes glistened with joy and I watched as he ran his hands through his now blue hair. What an exciting day.
The next day when I went to school, the rumors weren't any better. Like I had thought, the black eye I had only made things worse for me. But let's face it, I had to fight. I knew I would win, but I never thought that I would have gotten hurt.
Listening to the teacher at the board, I hear the bell ring. Finally I get to eat something. I was starving. Fu had wanted me to eat breakfast, but I was too much in a hurry for that. Fu also said if he drove me I would have had time to eat. But as usual, I rode my longboard the twenty minutes to school.
Looking in my bag, I find the bento Fu packed me. I open it to find little hotdogs in the shapes of squid and plenty of rice. I'm gonna get tired of rice living here. Kids around me shuffle outside, but I stay in my seat. I wasn't one to go outside and eat, and everyone was avoiding me like the plague. So, I might as well stay here.
"Excuse me," a voice says from my side. It was sickeningly sweet. Wait, I heard that voice before. I shut my eyes and pray it wasn't the blond from yesterday. I pray and pray, but when I turn my head, my heart dropped.
"Um," I mumble looking at the blond-haired boy. He was too close for me to handle and I nearly punched him. He suddenly stepped away and looked at me concerned.
"What happened to your eye?" he asked. I had my bangs over most of it, but I was surprised he didn't hear about the rumors. Suddenly I saw in my line of vision, another boy. This one was the black haired boy with glasses from yesterday. I could feel my heart beat faster and my throat was choking up. This was a little too sudden. People were popping out of nowhere and they were people who were weird.
"Um, I-I-I," I stutter. The blond haired boy put his face in mine and I could feel my blood rise to my face.
"It seems like it really hurts," he says, inches away from my face. My non-black eye was wide and I gently put down the chopsticks I had in my right hand. Making it into a fist, I readied myself to hit him. A second later, he was yanked back by the brunette.
"Tamaki, you shouldn't do that to her," the brunette says to his friend. The boy then turns to me and offers a smile, "I am Kyoya Ootori. We met briefly yesterday when you stumbled into Music Room 3."
"Ah. Yah. About that brothel you're running, I swear I'll keep my mouth closed," I tell the boy hurriedly and with my extremely thick accent. I just want them to leave already.
"What!?" the blond—Tamaki I suppose—yells, "How dare you call our club a house of ill-repute! You should be ashamed of yourself."
"What is it then? It sure looked like something fishy was going on in there," I try to say calmly but it just comes out hysterical.
"It's a host club," Kyoya tells me. I look at him with what I would suppose was a dumb look. What the hell is a host club?
"Ok. I won't tell about your, urm, host club then? Okay? Now can I just eat my lunch in silence?" I ask the boys, looking down.
"But I—" the blond starts.
"Just leave me alone. Please." I keep my head down, my face red with embarrassment as I notice people are watching us. I can hear the whispers from the other students and I just pray that they leave. Somehow god hears my prayers and they walk away. I lift my head and sigh. I hope I never have to deal with them ever again.
Hey everybody. Second chapter is up faster than I had thought it would be. I finished my other story's chapter yesterday so I got this one done right away. Thank you to Hunny-Chan17 and justasislinn for the reviews. justasislinn, you sound so excited and it makes me excited. Anyway, the historical context in this applies to most things except Sendo-kai. I made Sendo-kai because (spoiler alert if you haven't finished) of Tetsuya who left to be at Kasanoda-gumi. It said that he was the next boss, but he left, so logically I made the other yakuza after his name. I plan on making Susan really close with Kou and Fu. I apologize if you guys want more Host club. They will be coming soon. In addition, when Hideo and Aiko cut off their fingers, it's only the tips of their pinkies. This is historically accurate as a form of penance for going against the boss. Susan loves her family, but she recognizes that she is boss and has to have loyalty. She doesn't want them to get hurt, but she has to have order and trust. (man was this long)
I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. Most of the things are historically accurate. My OCs are Susan, Hideo, Aiko, Fu and Kou.