Title: Akai Tonbo
Authoress: Aria DC al fine
Disclaimer (I forgot to put this in the prologue): Yakitate!! Japan and its characters are sadly not mine…though Yakuza!Kanmuri is mine! Mwahahaha…er…
Chapter 1: Chance Meeting
"So that people can change, all that's needed is a meeting."
- Ichihara Yuuko, XXXHolic -
Azusagawa Yukino took a deep, deep breath. "So?" Her nearly nonexistent patience was running thin. Her gaudy red nails tapped on her armchair, the rhythm quickening as seconds ticked away. "Do you accept the proposal or not? Do I have to spell it to you one by one for you to understand?" Fumes were ejected off her nostrils after she took a drag out of her cigarette.
"B-but," a bald brawny man in a bright-coloured Hawaiian T-shirt replied, "If Bocchan finds out…" he looked around at a dozen similarly dressed thugs in the room, who nodded in unison at their leader.
A vein popped on Yukino's temple. "I have to make use of this one in a million chance. If I don't attack now, when that mendoukusai tenchou (annoying manager) is not around…" she muttered to herself, "There's no other choice!" She threw a sum of money on the table, her gaudy red lips curling to a smirk as she let the gang 'ooh'-ed and 'whoa'-ed at the thick wad of yen. "Soo?" Yukino asked again, and propped her feet, which was clad in similarly gaudy red stilettos, up on the table next to the money.
"We'll take the proposal!" The baldy replied and bowed, the other gang members following after him.
"Hmph!" Yukino kicked the money to the baldy's feet, "You'd better do it well, you hear me?"
"HAI!" they chorused.
"Leave!" Yukino ordered, and the men left immediately, their hands twitching around the money, eyes filled with lust and greed.
As soon as they left, Azusagawa Yukino tossed her head back, crushed the cigarette in her hand and laughed gleefully. "Jama miro, Gokiburi-domo me (You'll see, cockroaches)!" She managed as she clutched her stomach, "Zettai tataki subusero (I'll definitely crush you)! Hahaha!"
One fine morning at Minami (Southern) Tokyo Pantasia Branch…
"IEE (NO)!" Tsukino shrieked in a high-pitched, damsel-in-distress voice, "Yamete kudasai (please stop)!"
Kawachi Kyousuke, Kinoshita and Azuma Kazuma, who were baking batches of more bread to be sold that day, rushed out of the kitchen into the store. "Tsukino! Nan ya de (What happens)?" Kawachi exclaimed as he opened the door with a bang.
The sight that greeted the three (two?) bakers were, at the very least, shocking. A dozen burly, muscular, grubby men with horrible fashion sense were littered all over the store, turning baskets of breads upside down, crushing the ashes of their cigarettes over the breads, sitting on the counters, snatching the breads, breaking them into pieces and trampling on the crumbs. Two men were flirting with Tsukino, putting their hands on her and looping their arms around her shoulders with typical middle-aged-uncle perverted looks on their faces. "Jo-chan (girl), play with uncles!" one of them said in an attempted husky voice which only sounded ridiculous.
Kinoshita was pissed. "You filthy scum! Lay your hands off Tsukino-sama!" he multiplied himself with his Bunshin (Copy) technique and charged at the two men.
"What did you say we are?" The two men were even more pissed. They left Tsukino and punched the stick-thin mushroom-headed men, each one of them, on the faces, sending them sprawling all over the place, wreaking more havoc as more breads fall. Tsukino seemed distressed. "The breads!" she moaned, completely disregarding Kinoshita's wellbeing. Heartbroken, all the Kinoshitas said, in a pitiful voice, "Oka-san (Mother), it seems that I have been abandoned…again," before they collapsed, and all the copies disappeared, leaving the original one lying out cold at the corner.
"What are you doing here? We have nothing! Leave the store!" Kawachi shouted, his body tensing to a fighting stance. You must bear in mind that at that time he hadn't acquired the Solar Gauntlet, and was little better than Kinoshita in terms of muscle mass. (Yes, the timeline of this fanfiction is before the Newcomer's Battle.)
One of the men snorted at him. "Look at him! Does he even think that he can lay a punch on us? Huh! Juu-nen hayai dazo (It's ten years too early)!" he stated mockingly, and a few others laughed at the blonde.
The mockery only served to provoke Kawachi even further. The Kansai boy raised his fists. "Don't belittle me! Come here and fight, you cowards!" he challenged.
"Cowards?" Oops, it was a wrong word to use. Scratch that, it was a wrong move altogether. Every yakuza in the store turned their head towards him and approached him, trapping him in a corner and closing in on him. Kawachi realized that he was in a difficult situation and changed his attitudes altogether. "Who said that? Whoa, that bicep muscle is big! You are so strong!" He sang praises in an attempt to lick their arses, but failed. The men knocked him down to the floor and kicked his writhing body.
"Tsukino," Azuma whispered in a small voice, "Tenchou wa doko ja (where's the manager)? Kare nara kitto…(he can surely solve the problem)."
Tsukino shook her head. "The manager is not here; he's with Ryuu-san in China. Said he had a debt he owed to a long-time friend…"
Tsukino and Azuma turned to take one look at Kawachi, who was trying to dodge the kicks, and sighed.
Hashiguchi Kanmuri Shigeru was royally pissed.
The amethyst-eyed yakuza had low blood pressure, and was not definitely a morning person. Yet Harumi, the only person who could wake Kanmuri up and leave his bedroom unscathed, disturbed his sleep, and the worst of all was that he couldn't take his irritation out on the girl. Kanmuri hurried through the motion of washing his face, brushing his teeth and changing out of his pajama with a dark cloud of pent up frustration the size of the cloud from the Hiroshima atomic bomb incident looming over his pink-haired head, and minced Aoyagi (the long-haired man in black suit I mentioned in the prologue. I just found out his name after reading the manga) with his glare when the man was going to tell Kanmuri the reason why he had to be woken up at the wee hours of the morning. (Duh, it's only 9 a.m. Kanmuri is such a drama queen.)
"Aoyagi," Kanmuri's voice was so low it went beyond normal human voice's decibels, "what you're going to say next will determine your life and death."
"Shigeru-Bocchama," Aoyagi trembled and bowed, not brave enough to look at Kanmuri's narrowed amethyst eyes, which were shadowed by a curtain of pink fringe. Whoever said that pink and purple couldn't look scary was dead wrong. "One of the gangs launched a self-initiated attack on a bread store in Southern Tokyo," Aoyagi explained.
The temperature of the room decreased by ten degrees. Kanmuri's pink hair rose like Medusa's. "You dare bother my sleep for something like this? Can't you settle it on your own?" the tone of his voice was murderous.
Aoyagi dropped on his knees and knocked his head on the floor. "We found out that it's not as self-initiated as we thought," he rushed out in one breath, "It seems that they had accepted bribery."
The temperature turned back to normal. So did Kanmuri's hair. "Corruption, huh?" Kanmuri stated, his fingers rubbing his chin in contemplation, "So they have breached the rules of the Hashiguchi group…"
After a moment, Kanmuri nodded. "Very well. Prepare my car," he smirked. "At last, I can vent my frustrations out," he murmured under his breath.
Meanwhile…
"Minna," Kawachi extended his hand to reach out for Azuma and Tsukino, who were trying to make themselves as small as possible behind the cashier counter, "Why don't you help me?" He cried anime-style. "Meanie! Aren't we friends?"
Outside, a posh red car pulled over an small and dingy-looking bread store. Kanmuri stepped down from the car. "Pantasia," he read the sign above the doors, the gears in his brain working, "Masa ka…(can it be)?" he thought as Aoyagi opened the doors for him, and he entered the store.
Inside was, as expected, chaotic. Overturned baskets, pieces of breads, cigarette butts, dirt and ashes were strewn all over the floor. The thugs were beating someone into a pulp at the back of the store. A skinny man with a weird hairstyle was lying prone on the floor. Kanmuri sighed at the all-too-familiar sight. "Yamete kure (Stop)!" He ordered.
None of his men obeyed his command. In fact, one of them growled over the heads of his gang members, "Omae wa dare datou omou (who do you think you are), huh?"
A vein popped on Kanmuri's temple. The vein had popped so many times it was a wonder the vein hadn't burst. "I'm someone who can change your fates, you ARSEHOLES!" he bellowed with all the air in his lungs.
Everyone turned his or her head towards him, their full attention on him. The gang members squeaked. "Shigeru-Bocchama!" They kowtowed to Kanmuri. "We're sorry!"
"Sumanai dake wa TARINAI DESU YO (Sorry is not enough)!" Kanmuri barked, took a few steps into the store and placed his foot, clad in a heavy Japanese sandal, on the back of one of the men crouching and cowering on the floor. His pale, lithe arms were crossed over his chest. "Tell me," one violet eye twitched, "do you think I'm dumb?"
The thugs looked at each other, uncertain of what game their boss was playing at, before one responded meekly, "No, Shigeru-Bocchama, you're a genius-"
"Then, why did you think that I won't discover that you have breached one of the brotherhood's codes?" he hollered, jabbing the person's spine with his foot at each emphasized word. "Are you even aware you've breached the codes? Or are you too stupid to read the large piece of paper you see when you pass the Hall everyday?" Kanmuri hissed; he was so angry his whole body turned red. This was another reason he was called Akai Tonbo (other than his tattoo, of course). "If you are, let me read it to you now! Rule number 5: don't launch an attack without the boss' permission!"
Thunders roared anime-style.
"Shigeru-Bocchama-" the men begged, through chattering teeth.
"That's not the only thing, is it?" Kanmuri interrupted, and paused, letting the fear, solid as a rock sink into the thug's stomachs. "Apparently, you have accepted bribery as well!"
There was absolute silence now. Everyone was so afraid, nobody dared to move even an inch. One of the men even pissed in his pants. Tsukino, Azuma and Kawachi covered their noses. "Kusai (Stinks)!"
Kanmuri scrunched his nose as well as he bent down and yanked the person up by the hair. "Who is that person?" he interrogated in low, murderous voice.
"I-I don't k-know-" he stuttered.
"How does that person look like?" Kanmuri grilled relentlessly.
"It was a woman, 20-somethin', fair, tall, slim and curvy, has long black hair, gaudy red nails…"
Tsukino was struck silent. 'The description fits…'
"Azusagawa Yukino," Kanmuri voiced the name in Tsukino's mind, and the brown-haired girl shot up to look at the pink-haired boy, whose amethyst eyes were already staring at her. "Dou yara ano waza wa hontou mitai desu ne (the rumour seems to be true after all)…" he remarked calmly.
Tsukino's mind was reeling. Who is this boy? How much did he know? A thousand questions bubbled on the tip of her tongue, waiting to be let loose. "You-"
But the boy had already averted his attention back to the man whose hair was still pulled tautly in his grasp. "Where is the money now?"
The person didn't answer. He tried to avoid looking at Kanmuri's eyes by turning his head sideways. "A-ano…" he stalled.
"You've spent it all, don't you?" Kanmuri said flatly, "On women, pachinko, drugs, alcohol, gambling, and all that ROT, haven't you, KUZU (trash). You've done it. You've really done it to yourselves," he spat with an air of finality, and let go of his hold on the man's hair.
The man scrambled to grab Kanmuri's foot and kissed it repeatedly. "Kamben shite kure! Yurushite kure (Please forgive us)!" he pleaded with tear-filled face, "Don't expel us from the Hashiguchi yakuza group. PLEASE! We promise we'll do anything to repent our mistakes!" He turned to the other thugs, who nodded furiously with him and got up on their feet.
"Stop!" Kanmuri shouted before all twelve thugs raced to kiss his foot. "You'll do anything?" he pondered, and tilted his head, pretending to give the notion a second thought.
"HAI!" They chorused.
"Nara…(Then)" an extremely evil expression passed over his innocent boyish face. It was not human, it was positively demonic, "Kakugo shi ne (prepare yourselves)…jigoku e (for hell)…"
The thugs froze, asked themselves 'what have I done?' in their heads and regretted their decisions when Aoyagi and other men in black suits lugged them out of the store, hitting, whipping and treating them badly.
"Enjoy your punishments!" Kanmuri said cheerfully as he waved at their disappearing figures.
Kawachi, who had gotten up from the floor, Azuma, and Tsukino stared at the scene unblinkingly. Tsukino started. "That was…"
Kawachi nodded. "You don't have to say it. I understand. He's…"
What the Kansai boy was about to say was lost when Kanmuri turned to Tsukino and bowed. "Moshiwake gozai masen, ne (I apologise)," he smiled, "Boku wa Hashiguchi Kanmuri Shigeru desu, son of the Hashiguchi yakuza boss. My men are so troublesome," he gave her an apologetic look. "It seems that they have caused you some problems as well. Here," he pulled a brown envelope out of the sleeve of his kimono and offered it to Tsukino, "It's for compensation. I hope you'll forget this incident…" His smile disappeared abruptly. "And I wish you luck, Azusagawa Tsukino," his tone was serious.
The two teenagers engaged in silence for a while. Tsukino extended her hand, took the envelope and was about to say thank you when suddenly, a loud, echoing rumble originated from the pink-haired boy's stomach.
"Ie…Komata ne…(it's troublesome)" Kanmuri blushed, "Jitsu wa boku asa gohan mada tabenai desu (to be honest, I haven't eaten breakfast yet)." He laughed to cover his embarrassment. "And whose fault is that?" he muttered under his breath and cursed the stupid thugs.
Tsukino chuckled. "It's okay Hashiguchi-"
"Please, call me Kanmuri," the pink-haired boy interjected.
Tsukino perceived that the boy had something he hid. She filed her curiosity to the growing number of questions she would like to ask the amethyst-eyed boy, but she would stay silent, for now. "Kanmuri-kun, then," she smiled. "As thank you, why don't you eat our bread for free?"
Kanmuri turned his head and looked around the store. Most of the breads had been trampled, stepped on, etc, not fit for consumption. "Er…"
"Not those breads, of course!" Tsukino said quickly, "We still have more bread inside. You should try them, they're fresh baked from the oven!" She put her hand around Kanmuri's wrist and led him to the kitchen. "Come!"
The kitchen was pristine, in great contrast to the store. And true enough, there were breads baking in the oven. Kanmuri had his doubts about the breads, but the aroma that wafted to his nose was enough to entice his salivary glands.
After the timer rang, Tsukino opened the uppermost oven and presented him with a French bread. "Sa, Douzo!"
Kanmuri stared at the bread, gulped, and stretched out his hand to take it. "Well," he commented, "the Parisian does look delicious."
Tsukino was surprised that Kanmuri had some knowledge of varieties of breads. "You know that it's a Parisian?"
"Well, there was a senior in my school who really loves bread," the pink-haired boy replied, "He used to tell me bits and pieces of information about breads here and there." Kanmuri turned to the bread, and gulped again. "Well, then, itadakimasu…" he brought the bread closer to his lips and took a bite.
As soon as the food was in his mouth, Kanmuri felt as though he had flown to the outer space, and sped through many different star constellations, until he saw-
"SAGITARIUS!" Kanmuri gasped, his eyes wide. "Nan te migoto na Parisian desu (What a wonderful Parisian)! The crust is really crispy and the insides soft. You used goat milk, didn't you?" He inquired Tsukino.
"Ara-ara…Kono pan tsukuta no wa watashi jyanai desu wa (the one who made this bread isn't me). If you want to ask questions, ask him," the brunette pointed at a young, tanned and slender baker, whose shoulder-length brown hair was kept away from his face with a pink hair band. The boy smiled widely at Kanmuri and introduced himself. "Yo! Ore wa Azuma Kazuma ja (I'm Azuma Kazuma) ! Hajime mashite (Nice to meet you)!"
Kanmuri wondered how on earth he did not notice this boy beforehand. He was larger than life, full of spirit and energy. He did look a little stupid, which was why Kanmuri might have mistaken him as one of the thugs in the Hashiguchi group. Nevertheless, he found the boy's caramel eyes most…distinctive.
"You!" Kanmuri grabbed the boy's shoulder with the hand that wasn't holding on to the Parisian, "Teach me how to bake this bread!"
"Huh?" Azuma's jaw dropped, his eyes widening, "Why?"
"I just want to! I want to be able to bake a bread!" Kanmuri insisted, his grip on Azuma tightening, his face nearing that of the other baker.
Azuma stared at him for a while before grinning and retorted, "Okay, I'll teach you how to make the Parisian you ate! But then you may have to change to my spare uniform, because you won't want to stain that expensive kimono with flour. I guess we should be of the same size…"
Kanmuri was surprised at the boy's easygoingness. Kanmuri knew he asked for it, but he was pretty much prepared to fight dirty for it. Wasn't he afraid that Kanmuri was going to steal his recipe?
"Yes, Azuma, you should be afraid that he's going to steal your recipe!" Kawachi yelled, annoyed that he had been ignored, that no one was tending to his wound. Kanmuri realized that he had been saying his question out loud and blushed.
"Why should I?" Azuma countered and grinned again, "I'm glad whenever anyone wants to learn how to bake bread!" He said passionately.
His passion attracted as well as confused Kanmuri.
"But, I don't think it is okay with Tsukino! It's Pantasia bread, after all!" Kawachi argued
Azuma turned to his employer, the manager-proxy, Tsukino. "Ii no (Is it okay)?"
Truthfully, Tsukino didn't know Kanmuri's intention, but she wasn't about to make enemies with this boy who, from what she had witnessed, could wield such a power, could control so many men. This boy who was the son of the No.1 Yakuza group in Japan. "Ii yo (It's okay)," She answered her employee. "After all, we have to bake many breads to replace those rendered inedible…and any extra help is welcome."
So, Kanmuri was shown the way to the locker room to change into Azuma's spare uniform and pants. The boy must have sucked at household chores, because Kanmuri could still detect a faint whiff of sweat, yeast, baking flour, and something unique from the spare uniform, something that must be Azuma's own scent, something like a particular brand of soap or detergent the boy had been using for a long time that stuck to him. Kanmuri knew this because of Harumi, who always smelled of citrus even though she wasn't wearing a perfume, because she had been using this brand of citrus-scented shampoo for years.
"Flour, water, a bit of salt, butter, milk, eggs and sugar are basic ingredients for making bread," Azuma explained as he taught Kanmuri how to bake bread, his hands mixing the ingredients as he spoke. "To make specific types of bread, usually we add or change the ingredients at this stage. For example, we can replace the cow milk with soy milk, or goat's milk. For now, knead the bread like this…" he demonstrated the movements: up, down, clockwise, anticlockwise. "It's a bit hard at first, but the flour will mix with other ingredients into dough, and as we knead, the dough will ferment and rise…"
Kanmuri tuned the explanation out after a while; they were common sense. He concentrated more on copying the boy's hand movements and ensuring that the dough they kneaded were similar.
"Don't take it too seriously, Kanmuri-han," Kawachi said, "Azuma here has Taiyo no Te (Solar Hands), so his dough will most probably rise faster than yours-"
"No, look!" Tsukino, who had been watching them, pointed at Kanmuri's dough and Azuma's dough. They had both risen to a large size.
Kawachi's eyes bulged. "Don't you say," he gasped.
Tsukino grabbed Kanmuri's hand. Kanmuri, whose focus had been solely on kneading the dough, was shocked. "What are you trying to-"
"Yappari (I knew it)," Tsukino exclaimed as she was pressing Kanmuri's right hand between her own two hands, "Kanmuri-kun also has Taiyo no Te!"
The amethyst-eyed boy frowned. "Solar Hands? What does that absurd term mean?" he asked, cynicism lacing his tone.
"It means you have inherently warm hands, which are good things to have as a baker, since-"
"Warm hands make the fermentation process faster, and the bread will turn out softer," Kanmuri finished Tsukino's rationalization and stared at his hands. "Tashikani (now that I think about it)… my hands are always warm…but I thought many people have warm hands."
"Not as warm as Solar Hands. They're hereditary gifts. Less than a hundred families in the world have them," Tsukino remarked, "You should be grateful! They can do miracles!"
"Khh!" Kawachi made a woe-is-me sound through gritting his teeth, "why does Kanmuri-han have it but not me?" He whined. "Kami!"
Kanmuri still looked at his hands in distrust. "Are you sure just warm hands can make miracles?"
"If you don't believe me, you can try the bread you bake later," Tsukino sounded very sure of herself.
Roughly an hour afterwards, when the dough had undergone 2nd fermentation and been baked in the oven, Kanmuri was staring at the product of his so-called Solar Hands. 'Well, this Parisian looks and smelled similar to Azuma's…' he thought, before he cut it into four pieces and gave Azuma, Tsukino, Kawachi and himself one each. "Itadakimasu…"
"UMA-II!!" Kawachi neighed like a horse, and gazed at the piece of Parisian in disbelief. "You don't tell me…this is the first time you bake bread?"
Distraught by the unexpectedly appetizing taste of his bread, Kanmuri took a moment to realise he was being addressed. "Huh?" the yakuza turned to the blonde, "Yes. It is."
"Nan te migoto na Parisian desu," Tsukino sighed dreamily, before she put both her hands around Kanmuri's hands and raised them up to their chin level. "Kanmuri-kun! Anata wa saino ga aru desu (You have talent)!"
"Boku ga (me)?" Kanmuri blinked. He was still in a trance.
"Ou (Yes)!" Azuma slapped Kanmuri's back friendlily and grinned at him, "If this is your first time baking…I can't wait to see how much you can improve! Then you can help me make Japan!"
"Japan?" the fairer sixteen-year-old repeated, puzzled.
"Yes, Japan!" There it was, a passionate look took over Azuma's face. "It's-"
"Moshiwake gozai masen, Shigeru-san," a female voice disrupted the beginning of Azuma's monologue. Everyone turned to its source, and Kanmuri found Harumi, in a red kimono, standing by the door to the kitchen. "Shigeru-san," Harumi bowed, "Hashiguchi-sama requests for your presence in the meeting."
When Harumi was sent to get him, not Aoyagi, it meant his father was serious. "Very well," Kanmuri replied, a freezing look crossing his face, "You shall wait in the car. I'll be there after I change into my kimono."
Harumi, the girl who had been trained to obey most of his commands, bowed again and left. Kanmuri disappeared into the locker rooms to change his clothes, and when he was only steps away from the door of the store, turned to Azuma, Tsukino and Kawachi and smiled. "It seems that we have to part now…"
Kawachi and Tsukino fell silent. They seemed to understand no matter how talented as a baker Kanmuri was, he could never be one, because someone else had laid a path, in concrete, for him.
Azuma, though, didn't seem to get it. He clasped Kanmuri's hands with his own warm ones. "Visit us sometimes, okay? I'll teach you how to make Japans!" the caramel-eyed boy smiled.
The smile warmed Kanmuri's heart, making him smile back instead of shouting, 'it'll never work, Baka!' "I will," he said as he extracted his hands from his new friend's and waved. "Mata ne (see you)!"
"Ou (yes)!" Azuma waved back, continued waving until the car turned over the corner. "Now…" Tsukino looked at the mess her store was in, and sighed, "Don't slack! Let's get back to work!"
"OU!" Azuma shouted, just as Kawachi asked, "Tokoro de (by the way), how much money did Kanmuri-han give us?"
Tsukino appeared to be thinking before giving a kawaii pose. "Hi-mi-tsu (secret)!"
"Kechi (stingy)!" Kawachi scowled, "Come on, I was hurt too! I want compensation!"
"It's your own fault!"
"Tsukino!"
And yes, before anyone asks, Kinoshita was still unconscious on the floor.
TBC
A/N: This chapter is so FUN to write! I hope you don't mind Kanmuri's…"OOCness". I figure if Kanmuri has been raised differently his character will be different as well. He's still a genius but he's not as tactful as he is in the anime…Hashiguchi Kanmuri Shigeru is used to being worshipped and feared. It was him most people have to please; he doesn't really need to pick his words carefully or put on acts to appease others…except his father may be.
A/N2: Scratch that. This chapter was originally fun to write, until the computer had to crash on me! I lost 7 pages of what I've written! Thankfully I still remember most of the earlier parts…and managed to rewrite them with 60 accuracy, even improved them. But boy, was I pissed. And the scene I loved most, the scene about Kanmuri going berserk in the store…I lost about 50 accuracy in that! I'm so sad T.T