Kei had lived in Tokyo for his entire life, thirty years, and in those thirty years he'd seen A LOT of shit….

But this took the cake.

This took the cake, the pie, the thing with the fruit on top, and the entire goddamned bakery too.

"Hi? You're Shimazaki's friend, right? The one that sells him drugs and does his tattoos?" asked a very small little girl. She had to have been about five or six or something…or maybe older. He didn't know how to age kids. He just knew that there was one standing right there on his doorstep….well outside of his apartment. He didn't have a doorstep, obviously, because this was Tokyo and who the hell could afford a house in Tokyo. He had an apartment and he lived here and worked here and, yes, occasionally entertained the company of one Shimazaki Ryou….

That crazy bastard.

That fucking insane…completely insane….Shimazaki!

"Shimazaki here?" asked Kei. He leaned in his doorframe and looked around. Just the stairs behind her. He couldn't see anyone but that didn't mean that she hadn't been followed…and he was a dead, or at least fingerless, man if people knew that he was still talking to that bastard…that bastard who had obviously learned nothing if this kid was anything to go off of. God fucking damn it….how old even was this kid?!

"No, he's not with me. I came on my own." said the kid. She played with the straps of her little blue purse thing…and he remembered her. That was coke girl, well the girl that Shimazaki had coked up back around last Christmas….and she was looking to buy again? This was…how old even was this kid? She was at least…well he had no idea….but she was too young for this and she was too young for Shimazaki….but here she was….

He was a dead man.

He was a dead man if anyone figured out that he still spoke to Shimazaki. He was a dead man if anyone found out he sold to a kid. He was a dead man if anyone found out that this kid was even here! Like her parents. This little girl had come to him last year with more money in her little purse than any kid had a right to carry and, apparently, her father was high up in some organization or something that was all people like Shimazaki…and Kei was going to die if he didn't get this kid out of here right now.

Like, right fucking now.

"Well then, little girl, I'm going to need you to go out the way you came…and make sure that you aren't seen." Said Kei. The kid made no move to leave…of course she didn't. She was Shimazaki's…he didn't even know what….so of course she didn't take orders. He hoped that this was one of Shimazaki's kids, and he did have kids, instead of…well the other reason he hung around kids. Not usually kids her age but…yeah. Hopefully this was another one of those kids that he had no idea was his or something and not the latest reasons he got banished.

And hopefully this wasn't going to be the reason that Kei's life ended.

He knew powerful men, he had been living and working around them for his entire life, and he knew how they were about their daughters. Mainly that they didn't want their daughters anywhere near someone like him…but especially Shimazaki. You don't touch the Father's daughter, the lieutenant's daughter, the enforcer's daughter….you basically did not touch anyone's daughter for any reason. Shimazaki…was an idiot and it looked like he was still an idiot….

Another in a long string of daughters.

"Wait, I have money. See? I have a lot of it and I just want to buy some of the stuff Shimazaki likes. It's almost his birthday." Said the kid. Kei sighed and got out of the doorway. He knew her type, well he knew her type when they grew up. She seemed way too young to be trying to piss off her parents by doing…whatever…with Shimazaki. Hopefully nothing…because he did have his limits…and that was a KID. That wasn't a teenager, which he could look the other way about, that was an actual kid. He knew what he was, he knew who he worked for, and he knew how people saw them.

But, really, they weren't the monsters people made them out to be.

They served a need in the community. The people needed their pick-me-ups. The people needed their gambling. The people needed a cheap and safe place to have consensual adult relations…God, he sounded like an old lady…the people had their needs and the family fulfilled them and made their money, too, because a man had to eat. They weren't the monsters people made them out to be. Case and point, they did not mess with kids. KID kids, like this one. She wasn't in the grey area yet, this little girl, she was…well she wasn't five or six…but she wasn't even middle school aged yet…

Fucking Shimazaki.

Kei stepped out of the doorway and motioned for the little girl to follow. She wasn't going to leave and, obviously, he wasn't going to chase her away. The best thing to do was just to give her what she needed and then send her on her way…and then pray that his door wasn't going to get kicked in and the wasn't going to end up with fewer fingers…and he needed all of his fingers. They knew that he needed all of his fingers to work…and without them he was useless….and this had better not have been the day he died. Shimazaki had better not have just signed his death warrant….

Because if he had then he was coming back to haunt him….and not in the fun way.

"Your house is much cleaner than the last time I was here." Said the kid. He motioned towards his couch and she sat down. She sat down and just looked around…and she seemed bored. Maybe he had her all wrong. Maybe she wasn't the younger version of one of those girls who did whatever they could to piss off mom and dad. Maybe she was just the younger version of one of those girls who were literally unshockable. Those girls who could see you gun a man down in front of them and all they did was tell you off for getting blood on their new fur coat. Those girls….so this was what they started off as.

Kind of creepy.

She just looked around and sat there with her ankles crossed and her little purse in her lap…and she would have been adorable if she hadn't been so damn creepy. She was in this little suit thing, blue blazer and all, and that would have been adorable if she hadn't been so damn bored looking….or not even bored. Just…flat looking. She was staring at him, now, and her eyes were so blank….he looked away. He took a step away, too, because there was that static electricity feel to her, the same one that Shimazaki had, and…well Shimazaki had told him that she was like him…back when they'd shown up in his home unannounced at one in the morning…

He really needed to move.

"So, what are you looking for today Miss-" said Kei

"Suzuki. Suzuki Shigeko but people call me Mob…and I'm looking for some of those cartridge things that Shimazaki likes…and whatever else he likes, too. I figured you would know because you're his friend." Said the kid. She already had a name? You didn't just get a name, you had to do something to earn a name, either that or you gave yourself a name like a try hard bastard and hoped that it stuck…but he got the feeling that she had earned her name. Mob. Nameless and faceless background character. He could see that. She looked…well she looked like everyone else. Very Japanese. Aside from her face, her eyes, the way she took in everything and seemed to find it…lacking.

Or maybe she had just done that before.

She wasn't nervous at all. She talked like she had no idea what she wanted but…well she knew what she was doing. He'd dealt with first timers before. The kids of powerful men that were looking to take a walk on the wild side. Kids years older than her. Kids sitting and squirming, just about pissing their pants out of nerves worried about being found out….worried that they were making a mistake. Indecisive. This little girl…

She was very decisive.

"Yeah, I've got carts. You want anything specific or just whatever?" asked Kei

"Whatever you have…and however much I can get for all of this." said the kid. She opened up her little purse and shook out her money all over his coffee table. That was….a hell of a lot of very big bills…and he was not going to rip her off. First of all Shimazaki would fuck him up if he ripped off…whatever this kid was to him…and second of all this was the daughter of someone obviously very powerful…and he was going to get his ass kicked if it came out that he sold to her…but it would be extra kicked if he ripped her off.

Also it was just bad form to rip off kids.

"How much even is that?" asked Kei

"Um…I don't know. I stopped counting when I got to five million." Said the kid. Kei…did not want to know what these people were doing if they could just give a kid over five million yen. He didn't want to know or need to know….and he needed to get her out of here as fast as possible.

"You know what? You can clean me out when it comes to carts. Flower, too, plenty of flower if you're interested." Said Kei

"You mean from the actual plant?" asked the kid

"Yeah, it's good shit too. I can get you….I have about three ounces of that hybrid he likes left…you can have it all." said Kei. She was looking at him now…and that was a good deal! What?! Did she seriously think that he was cheating her?

"Is that a lot? Because that doesn't sound like a lot." Said the kid. Kei…she was not trying to negotiate. She couldn't have been. She just dumped over five million yen on his table and she was trying to negotiate…someone had taught her…not well but…well someone had made some attempt at teaching her…not Shimazaki. He couldn't negotiate for shit. If he could then maybe he wouldn't have gotten banished from the city.

"That's all I have, well all I have from the hybrid he likes….and it's lucky that you even caught me when I had it. You know how it is in Tokyo, you get what you can get. It's good shit, too, and that's plenty even for Shimazaki.

"Well….alright…if it's good and he likes it." Said the kid. Kei reached over and passed her a pipe. There was still some in there…and yeah, he knew that dipping in to what he had was stupid…but life was stressful and other such excuses. He handed her his pipe and lighter just like she was anyone else…because manners were a thing…and also he wanted to see if she actually knew what she was doing.

She did.

Which was…well he knew that he didn't have a soapbox to stand on. He had been doing the same thing when he had been about her age, late elementary school probably, and he wasn't going to slap the pipe out of her hand…but maybe….this was not the time in his life to start reflecting on the man he'd become. This was not the low point in his life, selling to a kid, because he was sure that there were much lower points coming. There were always lower points coming.

And as far as low points went this wasn't that low, really, in the grand scheme of things. Shimazaki had done much lower.

"You're right, that's good…Shimazaki would like that. Do you have anything else he'd like?" asked the kid. She had taken a VERY long drag off of that….and she seemed fine. Well it wouldn't have hit her immediately….but still. She had bought, well paid, last time he had seen her…and he was curious as to what her tolerance even was. She was too young…and he was not going to start moralizing….this was not the time to moralize and he was not a moralizing man either.

"I've got some coke, some shrooms, some-" said Kei

"Are you talking about food or drugs?" asked the kid. She…well either she didn't get it…no, she had been coked up last he saw her…was she messing with him? He…had no idea.

"What do you think I'm talking about?" Said Kei

"I…think drugs? Drugs that sound like food but aren't? I mean I know what coke is, it's great, but mushrooms sound more like the food." Said the kid. Kei…well if it wasn't bad form he would have laughed. This was still a kid. She didn't…well maybe it was good that she didn't know what everything was just yet. He didn't know. He wasn't paid to be philosophical or whatever.

"The kind that make hallucinate. You interested?" asked Kei

"Oh, like acid…alright. Shimazaki likes that stuff. Can I have as many of those as I can get too? And as much coke as I can get, he likes coke." Said the kid. Kei…was going to treat her like any other customer. He was going to get her what she wanted and then he was going to kick her out…ask her nicely to leave….because he liked being alive. Maybe he was getting old. Was thirty old? Well maybe. He had been about to tell that kid that she needed to slow the fuck down with all of this…and that was such an old man thought to have. She was just another customer and he wasn't supposed to sit there on his soapbox and moralize. This was Shimazaki's…hopefully his secret kid or something…..and he was going to do what she asked because he did not need Shimazaki popping into his life telling him off for not serving…whatever that girl was to him…

Kei did not want to know.

But he also did. He also really did. You couldn't know a guy for most of your life without knowing, well, the worst parts of him. The parts that made him do stupid shit with people's wives and nieces and daughters. The parts of him that made him do A LOT of stupid shit with people's daughters….and now he had to know. He had to know what was up with that kid…the kid who had just bought a backpack full of shit that could get him a life sentence…if not outright executed….

Maybe he needed to reevaluate his life.

"If you get stopped by any cops DO NOT let them see what's in this backpack, alright?" said Kei as he handed her one of his spare backpacks. She turned around and…oh. She expected him to put it on her….yeah, whoever her father was he was high ranking if she expected that. Like…a Father maybe. Shimazaki was such an idiot…maybe even a soon to be dead idiot.

"I know that this is illegal, I'm not a baby." Said the kid as he finished putting the backpack on her.

"Just checking." Said Kei

"Oh…ok. Um…when do you want me to bring this back to you? Because my lunch break is almost over but I can bring this back tomorrow if you need it back." Said the kid. Kei took a step back. She…lunch break? He checked the time…and he got the feeling that she wasn't talking about school. Well no, of course she wasn't talking about school, the powerful types were also the paranoid types and they didn't send their kids to school…so she was talking about work then…but she was a kid…

"You can keep it or just have Shimazaki bring it back to me whenever he feels like popping back into my life. Anyway you just have Shimazaki come here next time you need something, people are less likely to see him coming in and out, and just have a good day at…work?" said Kei. He was fishing for information…and he knew that bad things happened to people who fished for information in this business….but he just…needed to make sense of what had just happened here.

"Work. I'm filling in for my dad since he's not feeling well. Thank you very much for everything." Said the kid. That…just raised further questions…a lot of them. Like who in the hell put a little girl in charge and also…also just what in the hell had just happened…well she had just come in and spent millions of yen getting Shimazaki a birthday present…and that was just…why? He…knew that now he was just looking for information that he didn't need once he got it but…well he was curious. He had no idea what he would do when he figured out what she was to Shimazaki…but he did want to know….for his own morbid curiosity.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" asked Kei as she turned to leave. She took her phone out of her pocket, checked it, and nodded.

"Alright, but I don't have a lot of time right now." Said the kid

"Just…can I ask you…what are you to Shimazaki? Your relationship….I mean. You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Said Kei

"Why wouldn't I want to? I'm his friend and I don't feel bad that we're friends. Even if he does act like a crazy person sometimes we're still friends." Said the kid. Kei knew when he needed to stop prying. So he did stop prying. He stopped prying and he sent her out of his apartment before he got shot. She was Shimazaki's friend and…that was all that he needed to know….not that any of that was even on a need to know basis…

It wasn't.

He didn't need to know anything. He just needed to post up by his window and know that she had made it out safely…she was getting back into a car…and someone opened the door open for her…and she ranked that highly in…whatever she did…and Kei…did not need to know what she did. He sold drugs, he did tattoos, and he was going to stick with that.

He was not going to look into any of the fucked up shit that he'd just seen…and done.