A late night package delivery was one of the least subtle attempts at striking back Takasugi had ever seen. The label was honest enough, and bore the Aso family crest in plain view. It wasn't large, the size of a shoe box, at most, and wrapped in thick brown paper topped with a twine bow and green decorative tape that may have been disarming to the untrained eye.
Nobody was fooled.
"Matako." Takasugi motioned to the woman standing on the porch behind him, and she wordlessly nodded. Gun outstretched, the woman aimed across the yard, and the sound of her shot was smothered in a louder, brighter display. Flames licked at the sky, and the ground shook as burning scraps of paper wafted back to the ground.
They would relocate after this. The Shinsengumi would be hot on their trails, no doubt trying to sniff out the source of the disturbance like the good dogs they were, and they would be too late. Like they always had been.
"So what's the plan, Shinsuke?" Arms folded in front of himself, Kawakami leaned against the wooden support beam of the stairs.
"This is getting old." He turned on his heel, and Takechi stepped aside as he pulled the door open. There wasn't a question as to where he was headed. Sirens blared in the distance, and the foursome walked from the hideout, not rushed in the slightest.
Aso, being one of the leading fractions of the city wasn't particularly hard to find. Any random bug on the pavement would have at least heard of him, the lucky ones would know him personally. Rather, in this case, they would be unlucky. It would have been a few hours of walking, or a train ride at most. On the way, Takasugi's boat would be a convenient place to regroup and to get there. A convenient way to leave after what he was going to do to them.
And he was going to do a lot.
They thought they had the upper hand, knowing where one hide out of many was located, and equipped with the knowledge of the Kiheitai's notoriety. Common gangsters were even less interesting than spoiled rich men looking to buy young brides.
Night school. Specifically, make-up tests and presenting the latest interpretation of assigned attributes into a functioning machine. Kinu detested both of those things, but grit her teeth and forced herself to the front of her class as she displayed her creations. Two hovering assistant drones with thin arms fitting with claws that were able to lift a reasonably delicate tea cup without crushing the handle.
The class stared up at her as she wordlessly filled a cup with water, and the drones demonstrated moving and passing the cup between one another, steady enough to not spill the drink.
"How is it helpful, though?" The teacher, Ishii, glanced up at her from the paperwork she'd handed him, detailing the construction of the drones and main performing tasks. She could already tell by the way he grimaced at her materials sheet that he was off put by the idea of using scrapped materials.
She really didn't have a choice.
"People like service bots. They're versatile." She took the teacup from their clamps, and set it back on the podium, as he turned another page.
"Your boundary detection code is sloppy. Have you fully tested them?"
"Well… Sort of…" Not one bit, she practically threw paperclips in as a brain and said fly, my children, because she hadn't had enough time. She'd been up, working on things, and she'd been juggling school and work, sure, but the time she'd spent laying in bed trying to fall asleep by sheer will power alone had drastically cut into her actually making the project.
She'd thought about it plenty while she'd laid in bed. Even laid out all her parts and drew up little blue prints but when she'd tried to make them, they didn't really make sense anymore. So she powered through and called it finished.
"Sort of?" The man stood, and rolled his white sleeves over his forearms. He signaled the drones to come to his side. Only one responded. "Did you organize your wiring this time? Color coded?"
No.
"Uh… sort of…" Wide eyed, Kinu watched as the man grabbed the drone that obeyed him, and pulled at the hatch over its side. He tucked a lock of chocolate hair behind his ear, and frowned to himself as he reached for a flashlight to peer inside.
Kinu wasn't sure why the other had stayed by her. She glanced at it, hoping to mentally push it forward. That was when she realized it was doing something weird. One arm kept extending, rotating, and retreating back into its spherical body. Why?
That wasn't a command.
The flashlight clicked on, and Ishii started to duck under and peek into the chaos of her sloppy work. That was when the drone beside her registered his command.
It shot forward, and Kinu gaped at the soccer ball sized bot as it slammed into its brethren and subsequently, her unsuspecting teacher. He fell back, crying out as his chair rolled away, and the drone he'd been examining dropped like a dead fly in a wash of sparks and twisted metal.
Hands clutched over her mouth, Kinu went rigid.
That made no sense! They were programmed the same! They were identical in every single way, why on earth had one gone rogue?! She saw Ishii's look long before she heard the ensuing onslaught of words. He was on his feet at a moment's notice, defective drone in hand.
"Unacceptable! Inoue, how hard is one simple task?! All you had to do was spend five extra minutes on an assessment! Five minutes!"
Every single pair of eyes in the classroom was fixed on her quickly heating face. The projection light was blinding, but behind it, she could see the shadowy forms of her peers, some bespectacled and glinting back at her as she glanced over them.
"It's not rocket science! A simple bot, and a simple program, and you can't even get that right! What if I'd lost my arm?!" The drone was heaved into her stomach and she stepped back as she caught it, eyes still low. "What are you even good for? Why are you here? I knew they shouldn't have accepted a student like you the second I saw your paperwork."
Her throat was starting to hurt.
Ishii turned back to his desk, and righted his chair. He took the papers from it, and tossed them at Kinu, and they danced through the air around her as he took a seat.
"Go home, and stop wasting our time. I've got real students, that have actually put an ounce of thought into their projects. You're dismissed."
Drone in hand, Kinu looked down at the dented body that had once been a perfect sphere. Her thumb pressed into the jagged gash and felt the sharp spokes of metal poking out. She left.
Didn't really have a choice.
If she had stood there for another second, she didn't know what she would have done. All of the oxygen had been sucked out of the classroom, and though being outside, made it slightly easier to breath, it wasn't enough. She'd come all this way. Been up for nearly three days trying to manage everything, and now it was too late to catch a train back. Walking would have taken hours, and she didn't know if she had the energy.
So she sat on a bench under a streetlight, a block away from the school, and stared down at her traitorous creation.
It wasn't the bot's fault. He hadn't needed to be so rough with it.
Kinu turned the device over in her hands, and met its dim green eyes, and the little green smile on the display screen.
They were pretty much the same. Her fingers pressed into the flayed metal again, and a sharp prick drew her hand away. She stared at the bead of blood collecting on her skin.
Even it didn't want to be lumped in with her.
Reaching into her skirt pocket, she pulled out her wallet. It was as pathetic as she felt. Maybe enough to get a room at a sleazy love motel for a few hours, but not long enough until the trains were running again.
She failed, and now she was stranded. Perfect.
Unwilling to part with the last bit of money she had on her, Kinu pulled out her phone. She'd find a new game. Pass the time. She thumbed through the screens, scanning each new release until she halted on a single one claiming to have lewd content. The Wolfish Yakuza: Five Nights in Paris. Was this legal?
It wasn't like anybody would know…
Since there were no prospective real relationships in her future, Otome games would be the perfect supplement. Who needed a real person when there were perfect ones living inside her phone?
Sure, they called her things like princess, or darling, and she didn't like that, but it was a small price to pay.
After pulling her legs up onto the bench, Kinu clicked through the pink screens of the game. Apparently, if she bought a new outfit for her avatar, she'd get date points with her guy, and unlock secret scenes.
She debated whether five hundred yen was worth it. Probably not. After about ten minutes she was out of things to do. Everything was on a timer, and she had to wait an hour for more love points to go to the secret Yakuza hideout. So she started to walk. Anywhere.
Gintoki didn't have a cellphone, so it was no use calling him. If he was home, he was drunk and passed out by now. Her mom didn't have a car, so that was equally pointless, and there was nobody else that she could think of to help her, so she resigned herself to back alleys and low bridges.
Anything to pass the time.
Walking an entire highway in the dead of night didn't have a particularly nice ring to it.
Dark water rushed under the bridge she was crossing and she peered over the rail. It was further than it had sounded. The post light only illuminated one patch of blue, and wind rushed up, blowing her hair back as she spotted a leaf, darting through the light for a split second. She wished she could swim.
Then maybe she'd go the same route as that leaf, and drift away. Find a place she liked, that actually liked her back.
Bot in hand, Kinu climbed onto the rail. Not like anybody was out at this hour, or watching her. The water looked even further from there, and her heels scraped down the wood, unable to find stable purchase.
No particular feeling came aside from a dull thrum in her chest as she tucked her project under one arm and stretched the other, swaying for balance. Kinu walked from the edge of the light and to the opposite side of the bridge, then back.
She wondered how deep it was. Not scary at all, she decided.
In the years Kinu had been going to the same school, she'd never walked this far. Had never known there was such a pretty bridge, with warm lights, and what she assumed would be a nice view once the sun came up.
She did another pass of the rail, less careful with her footing this time, and the scrape of her left heel sent another jolt through her stomach as a gust of wind shot towards her, forcing her to raise a hand to shield her eyes from the assault of her own hair. Deemed that more important than her skirt; it was tight enough to only puff, and catch at her thighs.
It really was perfect timing, in a way. Kinu sat for a moment, drone in lap, transfixed by the idea. Then she threw her legs back over the rail, lowered herself to the bridge, and continued walking.
That was when she heard it.
A firework. Then a crack of thunder that shook the ground, and nearly knocked her feet from under her. She leaned into the red post of the bridge, hanging onto it as another boom, more violent than the last echoed under foot. Even the crickets went silent.
It couldn't have been an earthquake.
She wasn't entirely sure which direction it had come from, but when the fireworks returned, Kinu decided that they weren't fireworks. Especially when a man's voice sounded and a troupe of footsteps pounded through the streets.
What was going on?!
Kinu didn't want to go forward, but the walk to the bridge had been a straight shot with no buildings or structures to duck into.
The steps were closer, she was sure that she was right where they were headed or at least in their path, and the same pang of fear she had felt on the rail returned full force.
Was it cannibals?
Why were they in the city? It was an ungodly hour to be hunting tender young prey! And Kinu was eighteen, still towards the young side of the age spectrum. She glanced over the street searching for a convenient child to throw in their path, but there were none. Nothing to appease the human craving overlords.
Before they could reach her, and turn her into a sandwich, Kinu rushed into the nearest alley, scooping her dropped drone up as she went. Her foot slapped into something firm but yielding, and she stumbled over it, only to find another.
And another.
A familiar heavy scent hung around her, like spirals of tin scraps, still warm off a drill press, and Kinu stared down at the thing her foot had gotten caught on. The person. Just laying there. All of them were just laying there, fixed in unnatural positions, eyes bulging.
They had been gotten. By the cannibals.
Just as Kinu decided to run to the adjacent alley, the group that had been approaching rushed by the mouth of the alley she had come from; yukata clad men of varying ages, swords in hand, a dozen or so strong. She hugged herself against the wall, unable to move, and covering her own mouth and nose to mask the deafening sound of her own breaths.
That didn't mean they weren't still cannibals. She didn't know their lives. There was probably at least one, and that's who was going to come after Kinu because he smelled the sweet supple flesh of a young lady in office clothes wandering the streets alone at night.
She couldn't stay there and let him sniff her out.
It had started with an overhead view of the Aso faction, tearing up their local bar as suspected. They came out as a single unit, all grins and laughs with Aso at the head of them, as gaudy as ever. In an unfortunate decision to consider himself royalty, he had been draped in a vibrant, turquoise kimono with unsightly orange and green layers underneath, and as Takasugi look on from the rooftop he felt his mouth curving.
"One of these tunes is wonky…"
Behind him, Kawakami spoke up for the umpteenth time about the same thing he'd been saying when they started their stake out.
"I don't see why we couldn't have dinner first. We could have at least brought snacks, Shinsuke."
A dull glare was cast over Takasugi's shoulder, but Kawakami's slight frown didn't budge. There was no time for food. They could have all the dinner they wanted after this. At his side, Matako leaned over the edge of the building, knee propped onto the low barrier, and gun already drawn.
"I could probably get a clean shot from here, Shinsuke-sama."
Without breaking his gaze from the small crowd below, the one eyed man raised his pipe to his lips.
"And let the cockroaches scatter?" They were already branching off into groups, possibly headed for different paths. His eye was on the prize. As Takasugi turned towards the fire escape, Kawakami took his hands from his pockets. The woman beside him lowered her aim.
"What do we want, then?"
"An extra large bowl of donburi, and a side portion of miso."
Ignoring Kawakami, Takasugi waited to see which direction Aso was going to go. Matako glanced back at the deaf man.
"Is that all you're thinking about? I'll make it when we get back, stop talking about food!"
"No. I think I'll make it."
"What are you trying to say? Senpai, that's mean!" Their hushed voices weren't enough to give away the group's position. Takasugi looked back, only for a brief second, and the odd feeling that something had changed crossed him. Nothing major, and nothing dangerous, but there was a glaring difference in the scenery.
His eye scanned the horizon, checking each streetlight, and the mixed dirt and asphalt roadways leading across the patch of town he could see. Movement drew his attention and his scan halted on the bridge. A form standing on the rail, cradling an overly round belly. It was a fine night for suicide.
"Anyway, what if Shinsuke-sama wants something else?" Matako was still in the middle of entertaining Kawakami's poor, empty stomach.
Takasugi cut into the conversation, and reached into his yukata. They were taking too long. Aso's group wasn't making a move any time soon, and the longer he listened to their grating laughs the more irritated and angry he grew.
"Let's get started."
"I'll head out, then. Want anything special for dinner, Shinsuke? Donburi? Yakitori?"
"Peacock." Murmuring back, the one eyed man pulled a package of his own from his yukata. As Kawakami started down the fire escape, he tossed it into the middle of the group, and multiple men caught sight of it, looking down at the brown box, then up to the rooftop. He caught Aso's eye, and his smirk widened as he motioned to Matako.
Her aim was perfect, as usual. The cloud of smoke and flames that washed over the startled group was beyond satisfying and hot air rushed up the building side as Takasugi tossed the next explosive into the inferno below. The third didn't seem necessary.
The only thing more entertaining than bugs running to save themselves was flaming bugs running to save themselves. In the blink of an eye, Takasugi was among them, sword drawn. He connected with metal and stomped on the toes of the smoke obscured form, breaking his guard, and stealing the perfect opportunity to strike.
Eye burning from the smoke, Takasugi turned towards the whine of air behind him, and before he could so much as meet the sword, a pop sounded. A man lurched forward, and landed on the ground at his feet.
"Shinsuke-sama, I've got this!" Matako's voice broke through the chaos as he burst through the smoke, and caught the tail end of a bright blue kimono trailing around the corner. A flash of silver caught his eye and he swiveled around to catch it. His speed failed him, and Takasugi retreated a step as a blade whizzed past him.
Aso wasn't about to get away. The figure that had approached him was hidden in the dark wall of smoke he had barely escaped, but as he looked back, a blade jabbed straight for him and he hopped back, parrying the blow.
She was eye level with him, with her dark hair pulled back into a vaguely top knot like fixture. He didn't have time for some woman with a top knot fetish. Takasugi wasted no time in starting after Aso. He didn't know where the man had gone, but it was too easy to slip away into a building and hide the fight out.
He trailed after the man, looking down each alley as he passed, well aware of the dismantled corpses sprinkled across the walkways. Kawakami had been hard at work keeping the paths clear, from what he could see.
And that woman had given chase. She rounded the corner, skidding behind him, sword out and poised to strike. Seeing no option, the one eyed man dug his foot into the dirt and slid around, sparks washed over the ground as the woman slashed upwards, and her yellow eyes clashed with his.
"Yer not harmin' a hair on So-san's head!"
"Worry about your own head, would you?" Swiping at the woman's neck, Takasugi was annoyed to find that she had anticipated the strike. She easily moved out of the way, and Takasugi saw the turquoise kimono from before fluttering away behind her. The woman raised her sword, and he caught it overhead, turning a full circle around her. She cried out in surprise, trying to keep pace, but his sword jabbed behind him, straight through her stomach. He didn't have time for her. A sharp pain ached through his thigh, and he looked down at the offending gash in his yukata.
At the dagger in her hand, opposite of her sword. But she didn't move as he walked away.
On the edges of his attention he heard a low conversation.
"They brought a girl with 'em. Maybe if we could catch 'er"
"What? They're all crazy-"
"Nah, she's harmless. Only cut Oda, but don't got a real weapon."
Unrelated nonsense. The thrill of the chase set in, adorned with a rain of gunfire. Aso wasn't far ahead of him. He didn't even try to fight back. Openly ran like the coward Takasugi had known him to be.
Five men, zigzagged throughout the narrow pathway were transformed into eight halves of men, and one whole man with a bullet in his eye socket, courtesy of Matako. All the while, Aso was tearing to get away. Haphazardly ducking into alleyways, as if leading Takasugi on a connect the dot adventure with his sword.
A sharp whine whizzed past his ear, and he ducked aside as a form tripped past him and skidded to a stop. Takasugi was forced to duck back. Didn't have the time to go on the offensive as the blade from before hacked by him. Another round of pops broke through his focus. The form at the mouth of the alley kept her sword drawn, light eyes flashing in delight, as she ducked from side to side. Narrowly avoided being hit. Matako fired off another round, and the one eyed man crouched, fingertips digging into the dirt under him.
That damned woman again!
Now that he looked at her, he realized she was wearing the same gaudy robe as Aso. No layers, but that eye sore of a blue that irritated him to no end.
"I ain't that easy to bring down, ya vermin!"
"Shinsuke-sama, I can get her!" Matako called out behind him. He didn't respond. Didn't think that was the case. He needed to kill her. More thoroughly. She rushed aside as the woman behind him fired, then forward, aimed straight for the one eyed man, while just behind her, Aso had finally paused, grinning.
"You thought I'd be out unattended?! I got men coming out of my ass, and you expect to take me down with just three?!"
"I brought what I needed." He said.
The woman's sword crashed into his, and he rolled aside, as another wave of men surged around Aso's sides. This wasn't nearly as easy as he'd expected. The woman, taken by the hand of his target, rushed from the alley, and Takasugi carved a path to his feet, acutely aware of the sudden rush of adrenaline that came with being among a sea of men out for blood.
That was when Kawakami made his appearance. He slid down the fire escape and hopped the last stretch of stairs to immerse himself in the fight, full force.
"Shinsuke, you go!"
Straightening himself, Takasugi took a step forward, overly aware of the quickly growing numbers. He agreed, they could take it. Especially at the sight of his own men rushing the opposite side of the alley.
He cut his way, and then some, to the opposite side of the wall and proceeded up the fire escape Kawakami had descended. On the rooftops, Takasugi caught sight of the blue robes, dancing in the moonlight, and got a running start to his way across the tops of the buildings. This was going to end now. While the sun was still down in this trashed half of town, and before more men could be called in.
Seeing his chance for an easy landing, the one eyed man aimed for a tree jutting beside the building he was atop. He lept onto it, grasping the nearest branch to stabilize his drop to a low hanging window cover, then the ground. The impact sent a jolt of resistance through his left thigh, but this was his best chance. They were in his sights now. Headed for a dead concrete slab of an end.
He reached into his yukata, no longer running. This was his moment. He had them. His thumb pressed into the ball he'd stashed in his pocket, and he rolled it forward. Right into them. They turned, hands still linked, and the woman's grip on her sword tightened.
"Ya don't give up, do y-" That was when it detonated. A deafening explosion ripped through the end of the alley, and the ground shook under his feet as a tiny squeak sounded.
Takasugi frowned. What an odd noise. His eye jumped to the adjacent alley, but nothing was to be seen. He honed in on the quickly clearing smoke as he approached, and his fingers pressed the woodgrain handle of his sword into his palm. Before he could take more than five steps, a blade shot from the depths of the cloud and he swept his sword up, blocking the blow, but she tried to pull the same dirty trick as before.
He saw the dagger coming. Raised his forearm, and caught the blade in his flesh. Hissing in pain, Takasugi turned the woman to the side and kneed her off himself. She merely stumbled. Came back with a blow that knocked him back a step, gritting her teeth.
"Bastard!"
Pushed back with another swipe of her sword, Takasugi nearly tripped with his attempt at blocking her. What was with her?! He could hardly predict her strikes, and even though he was managing to block, he needed a better way to incapacitate her.
Behind her, Aso was laying on the ground. Unmoving.
With another defensive raise of his blade, Takasugi planted his feet in the ground.
"It's pointless. If you haven't noticed, he's already dead."
"What?" The woman's face contorted, but her eyes stayed on him.
"This fight is over. I've already won." Shoving her back by the contact of their blades, Takasugi peered past her. The woman went still. As still as him.
"That's not true. I just saw him, he's… So-San! So-san say something!"
A grin spread across Takasugi's face. When no sound met his opponent, she turned. Caught sight of the man stretched out over the ground. Takasugi didn't move as she retreated, and the sword in her hand dragged along the ground.
"No… No, that's not possible… He was just…"
Silent, the one eyed man watched as she took a step towards his target. Then another. She started to break into a run and that was when he struck. The woman was on the ground in a single breath, and as Takasugi pressed his blade into the back of her neck, one foot plastered dead center of her back, he grinned.
"You're not so strong after all, are you?"
Her head turned, eyes wide, and then it rolled away. With one swift cut, her blood flung from his blade, into the dirt, and he made his way to the man that had been far more trouble than he was worth. He was barely starting to move when Takasugi rammed his blade into the back of his palm and pinned him to the ground.
A pained cry rang through the night, and the man jolted awake. His eyes washed over the corpse, then up to the man standing over him. With a shrill call for help, he tried to move. Didn't make it far.
"Please- please don't kill me! Don't do it! You can have anything! I'll give you whatever you want! I'm sorry!" He begged. Far longer and louder than necessary as Takasugi smiled down at him. He had to have known that wasn't an option, after all the trouble he'd been.
"It's too late for apologies. I told you when we met…" Tipping his sword toward himself, Takasugi watched as the man jolted forward, then back, and writhed in place, screaming for all he was worth. "I love people like you..." Another turn of his sword elicited a fresh agonized cry. "The ones that get drunk of a single drop of power, and give me a reason to hunt them down. Satiate this bloodlust. Pity you can't defend yourself though. Hiding behind a woman." Tears were starting to well in Aso's eyes. Each word drew him closer to the brink of desperation, and Takasugi could almost see him racking his mind for bargaining chips. "I don't go back on deals. So let's make this quick." Yanking his sword out of the man's hand, Takasugi did just that. Aso raised his hand. Tried to say more, as if he'd convince Takasugi otherwise. He didn't. The one eyed man swiped his blade through Aso's wrist and neck with a satisfying rush of victory.
He turned back the way he came, and movement at the edge of the closest alleyway caught his eye. Gripping his sword, Takasugi carefully started forward.
What was one more?
Takasugi walked past the mouth of the walkway, and the moonlight caught on a bright strip of something behind a dumpster. Hair? The form tucked itself further back, into the shadows and out of sight.