Crystal Rain
Chapter 17 - 5 Years Later
Five years had passed, but it felt like a life time for Crystal. Sometimes random visions or familiar feelings would come back to her at the sight of things she only could assume were once part of her old life. What ever her old life had been like, her new life with Rocky was more than she could have asked for and about as great as being the adopted sister of a gang leader could be.
Rocky's personality hadn't changed, but she'd learned to deal with his stoic personality and along with Koo was probably one of the only ones to understand his minute expressions best. When she had fully recovered, she was finally able to attend the club while it was opened, however she still wasn't allowed to enjoy the club to its full extent like amusing costumers, performing, and drinking. It didn't stop men from trying to hit on her, only the regulars knew of her relationship to Rockys and those that didn't were quick to find out as soon as they approached her.
She still didn't know her age but based on what the doctor had said five years ago she was now in her early twenties and while appreciative of the safety that Club Heaven had given her, found herself longing for a little more freedom. The only people she ever talked to was the members of the White Rascals and the girls that hosted the club. As soon as she had fully recovered the girls had taken her out shopping and to the salon. Instead of her old skrillex hair style she'd worn as her stitches had been healing, she now wore her long hair most often in four french braids that collected into a high ponytail fading from black to white. Her favorite outfit was a pair of white ripped jeans, a white criss-cross wrap halter cut outcrop top and white black laced compact boots. At the beginning of the night she could be seen wearing a long zebra printed coat Rocky had gifted her. He wasn't one to give gifts but each year on her birthday would find something practical to give her, most often an article of clothing or jewelry. Since they didn't know her birthday, the day Koo found her became her new birth date.
While Rocky had told her to consider herself to be his sister, she also felt a strong sisterhood with the other girl hostesses of the club, especially those who had been taking in after she moved in. Many of the girls, young and old considered her the big sister type and more of the club manager to them that looked after them, although in reality this was Koo's job.
One night some rowdy costumers would not leave one of the new hostesses alone after she had tried to polity deny their increasingly forward advances. Crystal, who had been sitting at the bar, watched the interaction closely as the girl again jerked her hand away for a third time. Looking around she saw none of the Rascals had taken noticed so decide to go over herself. By the time she made her way through the heavy crowd, the man had pinned the girl up against the wall.
Crystal grabbed hold of his wrist as it was just inches away from once again trying to cradle the girls face towards his own."She said no," she firmly held the mans hand with her stiletto nails digging into his skin as he tried to wretch it away, her gaze challenging his own. "Let me go!" she threw his hand away, "Are you going to leave now?" "What makes you think you have any say here, you witch?" The man took another strike towards her and before she knew it her body was moving on its own. She dodged to the left and again grabbed his hand, took hold of his shoulder, flipped his arm, ducked behind him and pinned it behind his back pushing him against the wall. His friend quickly tried to come to his friends aid. However it was pointless, she saw him coming and turning her head in his direction and without letting go of the first guy sent a kick in his direction. Her heel making contact with his stomach sending him backwards tripping over a sofa.
At this point the commotion had caught Rocky's attention, who with one point of his cane had Aizawa and Enari take the man from Crystals hands and forcibly removed the two men from the club, but not before hitting the second man who was standing up from the coach with his cane. Once the man had been removed from her clutches Crystal embraced the girl and checked on her, "Asami, are you ok?" "yeah, I think so." Asami had put on a strong front when confronting the man alone but Crystal could still see she was a little shaken up. She knew Asami's background and why Bito brought her to the club the few weeks before, so thought she had been very brave to face what she had just been through with such steadfastness.
"Where did you learn those moves?" Crystal hadn't thought about it until Asami had asked the question, "I, I don't know? it almost felt like second nature." Rocky had come to stand next to the two, "She's fine" Crystal answered for the both of them. Rocky just nodded, "Bito, take Asami to compose herself" and all he said to Crystal was, "follow me." Crystal was well aware that Rocky didn't like her getting near costumers that weren't trusted regulars and disapproved even more of her trying to solve problems like this on her own. In spite of that rule it never stopped her from trying to confront club goers when they made her friends uncomfortable, but this was the first time she had taken such physical action.
They entered one of the upper mezzanines, reserved for only White Rascal members. "What was that" Rocky turned to face Crystal catching her off guard as she almost walked right into him. "I don't know, something just came over me. It felt...natural like it was second nature, like I had been doing that stuff all my life." "Probably something you knew how to do in your past" she nodded and after a pause Rocky continued, "Still," he walked even closer to her, " you are not allowed to take action like that again" and with that walked passed her back down the stairs.
"Humph, will see" Crystal whispered under her breath as she watched her adoptive brother disappear back down the stairs. She had gotten a taste for action and actually kind of liked it, a notion that scared and excited her. For the first time in a long time she felt the need to let off some steam and go for a run. At this hour that was impossible so the itch to find more action would have to wait. Maybe she could try and get some of the White Rascals to train with her, although she knew it would be difficult as the Rascals followed Rocky's orders to a tee and wouldn't risk putting her or any other women in danger. Their ideals were to protect women after all. She let out a sigh and sat down on the leather ottoman, her hands wresting on her knees as she thought maybe it was time to really start trying to learn about her past.
At the bottom of the stairs Rocky was joined by Koo and the two of them continued to walk across the stage in front of a large LED screen, "There have been a lot of strange men visiting the club lately" Koo commented, Rocky just sneered before popping another lollypop into his mouth and continued down to the dance floor, but Koo could tell this was a great concern to him.
In the five years that passed Smoky never gave up hope that one day they might find signs of Rain, P made sure everyone who had known her never forgot her, and Lala guaranteed that all the new children who entered the streets knew about her. The name she had so jokingly called them, Rude Boys, was now a name everyone referred to the gang of boys that protected the Nameless Street. Her flag still flown where she first created it along with many other flag and tags the boys had placed around the city.
For the next couple of weeks after she'd gone missing Smoky sent out boys to look for any signs or clues to where she might have been taken but over the years the search parties got smaller and less frequent as the boys had to protect the Nameless Street from more ill mannered visitors that were reoccurring more often than ever before. P still would periodically take a ride out to look around the neighboring streets for any sign of her, but of course never came back with anything. Smoky would have also been there with him, if not for his duties on the Street and the recent discovery at the quarry.
The boys had begun a mining operation once a young boy had discovered a diamond like crystal in the deepest foundations of the outskirts of the buildings. Little did they know that that by unearthing said gems that they had also released a chemical pollutants, some particles even looking identical to what they were mining.
Not that the risk would have stopped them if they had known, the money that came from their new resource gave everyone hope that the Nameless Street would one day prosper and the ambition to achieve that dream. At first Smoky had dedicated most of his time to starting up the mining operation, doing a lot of the physical work with the boys, but soon found himself being effected by the atmosphere. With the boys and Lala being concerned for his health, they had convinced him to lay off such physical labor that deep underground. P knew that if Rain would have been there she would have felt the same way. Smoky still wore the coat she had so often stitched up for him, including the white fur liner she added around the hood just days before she was taken.
Two years passed and Cain, now Nikaido, secretly returned to the Nameless Street looking for Shion. The mystery as to where he had been still remained clouded but one look at him and Shion knew that he wasn't the older brother figure he once knew, something had changed his personality and views on the world. At first Nikaido was unsuccessful getting Shion to listen to him, but with Smoky declining health, he was able to use it to coarse Shion into helping him with his new project, a redrum factory.
Even without Rain, Lala continued to sneak out of the Nameless Street. When Shion had finally agreed to Nikaido's project, he knew he was going to need others support and eventually recruited Lala to help him smuggle product and information out of the Nameless Street. At the thought of helping her brother financially, in the end she agreed to the act as well as keeping it a secret. It took around a year but the factory was soon running successfully right under Smoky and the Rude Boys noses.
A/N: Little note - If you look at maps from the show and movies, the Rude Boy territory and White Rascal territory border each other. So Rocky must have done a really good job of keeping her from finding out about the Rude Boys.