Yahiko was not really sure what life would become when he and Kaoru first returned to the dojo, following the Ushijima Kuujo affair.

Kaoru had been adamant about him not leaving the district for a while, and while Yahiko gave her grief for it, he understood her motivations and did little more than snark empty words of defiance and rebellion. She seemed to realize this too, and in a secret appreciation for his hidden understanding, she eventually allowed him to roam free in good faith, arming him with a bokken and a phone for security measures. Yahiko had appreciated the gesture, secretly pleased she thought him capable of fending for himself outside without her.

He supposed any would-be damning consequences of the ordeal were beyond him as long as he steered clear from the low-end divisions of Tokyo. It was a big sector after all. However, seeing that Yahiko had no intentions of breaking his promise to Ton-ton and his brethren in street living, the young student of the Kamiya dojo knew that avoiding the area was not an option.

To his immense relief, but not entirely his surprise, Yahiko's street credibility was far from compromised. It made sense, given that the crime levels in Tokyo were usually low by default and any spike in crime occurred when outsiders came to town. The worst the underworld had to offer were never native to Tokyo and so always had a hard time penetrating the underworld community that did exist in the sector. The likes of the Himura brothers tended to superimpose on local gangs, pick-pocket rackets of different age groups, and the regular homeless people in Tokyo's underbelly. As such they sold their services to these bigger, dangerous criminals - manpower, information networks etcetera - but largely stayed independent and uninvolved in their agendas.

Yahiko had largely worked independently as a pickpocket to preserve his anonymity before his unfortunate encounter with the Hiruma brothers and their mob. He had taxed them a high bill to be employed and they had blackmailed him into serving them for next to nothing. He had worked with a few of the local criminal gangs that were also leased to the mob - but they never tied his identity to the pickpocket that terrorized Tokyo. The Hiruma brothers being arrested had largely resulted in preserving his incognito reputation as a thief, while his dealings with them had merely resulted in him - as Yahiko - making an enemy of some of the local gangs in the sector. It was largely something he could live with, having before even meeting Kaoru long since learned to protect himself.

It was with the relative safety of circumstances that he made his way through old Tokyo - the dingiest, most legally incriminating and least patrolled division in the sector and home to the black market - to meet up with old contacts and find the little kids he had promised to help out. He imagined the rumors of his involvement with the Hiruma brothers and Boss Ikobu clashed with the stories of his being assigned a warden in a dojo would make his presence among society's "finest" anything but inconspicuous.

The owners of kiosks that ran piracy rackets of music releases, holo-films, and trendy gadgets regarded him with a wary eye, jaded by the reality that Yahiko no longer collected compensation money for some local gang or yakuza. Members of local gangs in the marketplace regarded him with a wide range of derision and contempt when they caught sight of him. No doubt they judged him as a sellout of sorts, a weasel for the police force, or a wuss who got his lucky break from the life before he could get too mixed up in it. However, whatever their personal reservations though, they seemed content with keeping their distance. Yahiko chalked it up to the rumors featuring two renowned bounty-hunting personalities across the underworld and a master of ninjutsu.

'Myojin!'

Yahiko looked back, aloof and unbothered by the haste in the voice that called his name, but then smirked at the owner of the said voice. He raised a hand in salute as he slowed to a stop, though Yahiko was smarter than to find them by's presence trustworthy enough to relax in.

'Oi, Biju-san.'

The boy who had called on Yahiko was at least older by 3 years and wore his cotton textured dark orange hair in a puffy man bun. He half-jogged from the narrower paths between kiosks to join Yahiko on the main street. Biju gave Yahiko a once over with a critical eye, taking in the quality cotton of his yellow and green patterned haori and grey-green cargo pants. He glanced down at his own tattered grey samue and then gave Yahiko an oily grim.

'The straight and narrow has certainly kept you looking sharp, twerp,' and with a cackle, a fist embedded itself in Yahiko's head in an aggressive show of camaraderie. 'Ya clean up real nice.' Said younger boy winced and snarled, batting his hand away.

'Cut it out ya dumbass.'

'It's a shame the change hasn't done anything for your manners,' Biju scoffed at him, feigning offense and rolling his mismatched brown and grey eyes. 'Take a cat out of an alley but you can't take the alley out of the damn cat.' He smirked again and Yahiko scoffed, already walking away to Biju's surprise. 'Oi wait up! Why are you here anyway?'

'Sod off pretty boy, it's none of your business.'

'It kinda is lil' dude,' Biju sing-sang, undeterred by Yahiko's attempts to spurn him. 'I run rackets for the Gecko gang now and word is that they're tryna cash in your pretty little hide for a shit-load of bounty.'

Yahiko froze and turned to glare at the older boy, whose eyes glinted with cunning. Biju was the one who first showed him the ropes of Tokyo when he was fresh off the boat. They had run more than one operation together in the very streets of the very market they were walking through now and on more than one occasion had suspected Yahiko of being the mysterious pickpocket that made the rest of society wary of being careless with their things. However, Yahiko had always denied it whenever Biju voiced his suspicions then. Grinding his teeth, Yahiko dragged Biju into the empties alley close to him, glaring daggers.

'I know this game you're playing Biju and you're shit at it. There's no bounty on my head.'

Biju's eyes gleamed intelligently as he gave Yahiko an oily smile.

'Oho, but there's one for a pretty slick pocket thief that used to be popular around town,' he raised a brow as he looked down at Yahiko and eyed his bokken. 'police said reports dropped drastically recently, and I thought "well I'll be a dime and a nickel, but that'd be about the same time Myojin-chan packed up and moved on to high and proper society"!' The golly-gee tone of his voice rang with ingenuity that made Yahiko want to groan. 'And I was like surely "Myojin-chan won't be able to deny it now, would he?"' Biju shrugged, a coy smile on his lips.

Of course he'd be smart enough to piece two and two together and then try to get Yahiko to give the jig up again. Biju batted his eyelids innocently, waiting for Yahiko to take the bait. The younger boy raised a brow back, insulted to be expected to walk right into a trap.

'Biju-san I've gotta run my errands, so stop fooling around and tell me what's really up,' he huffed impatiently, narrowing his eyes, 'did the Gecko sic you on me or something?' His hand touched the hilt of his bokken and felt a flash of satisfaction when Biju apprehensively appraised the weapon with his eyes.

'Nope, none of that lil' dude. They'd want me to bring you in, I'll admit that much,' he smirked smugly, 'but I don't kiss up to anybody's ass. If it's not my job then I don't care,' his smile turned into cunning, 'however, my complacency isn't free, little man.' Yahiko rolled his eyes, having suspected that was all Biju ever wanted at all. He fished through his pockets and pulled out the change he had gotten from buying food on his way to the area. Biju took it, his eyes glinting with greed.

'I'm looking for Ton-ton and the rest of them? I heard he and the older boys picked up a racket for some dude. Whose their boss?'

'Information is expensive Myojin-kun~'

With a curse, Yahiko handed the older boy another note. Biju grinned and counted his small hoard before nodding his head.

'They run streets for Pa Okei's noodle shop these days.' He shrugged as he made to leave. 'It's not too bad for the runts, though we all know Pa's kinda stingy on the meat.' He cooed over his stronger. 'Look at you, playing wealthy onii-from fancy town for those poor suckers.' He snickered as he walked away. 'That's rich.'

Yahiko watched the boy disappear into the crowd and then snorted softly to himself as he looked at the money he had lifted out of the older boy's pocket. Habits were hard to break for people who deserved it.

'Dumbass.'

...

For the more respectable patrons of the usual rabble, Pa Okei's traditional-looking noodle shop was the place to lounge and quickly eat what they could at rush hours of the day, before returning to the rat race of an honest living. For the underbelly communities of Tokyo, the cozy restaurant was a frequent stop for the elites of local gangs to eat at, a haven when it needed to be, the best place for outsiders to contact and acquaint themselves with those on the wrong side of the law, and a notorious hotspot of information - courtesy of Pa Okei himself. He had no loyalties to any organized crime group or the other, insisting on having lived longer than most of them and retiring out of business - mostly. He would sell anyone out to the highest bidder and the last person to tag him a snitch for stitches was never heard from again, so it was foolish for anyone to air any sensitive matter of consequence in the vicinity of his territory. It was wiser to simply exchange contacts to later arrange for a more discreet rendezvous location.

Most especially, the noodle shop was a good way for Pa Okei to launder the money he earned from his other less than lawful business ventures. He taxed "protection brokering fees" off of everyone who owned property on the street where his shop resided, collecting the money they'd have otherwise paid to a local gang or the other and then haggling with them himself. It was precisely one of the main things that let him keep his autonomy from their manipulations. He ran his own rackets and got his own manpower, usually consisting of freelancers who were also insistent on avoiding gang loyalties and commitments. It made sense that Tonton and his band of legally minor misfits would choose to work under his employ, young as they were. Yahiko had run a few arrangements himself with the old geezer back in the day but the young kendo student trusted Pa Okei as far as he could throw him.

Which, naturally, was not far at all.

The smell of pork and lentils told him he was closer to the restaurant, but before he even reached the shop his legs were tackled by mini people, shrieking for excitement at the sight of him.

'Myojin-senpai!'

Yahiko winced at their excited yells, knowing that whatever little inconspicuousness his presence had left was gone, with the declaration of his little friends announcing his reappearance within the vicinity of criminal society. He let out a sigh and grinned helplessly at them, before knocking all of them by the backs of the heads.

'Don't holler my name like that!' He snapped, only half annoyed as he dramatically let out heavy pants. To their credit, they tried not to laugh. 'They can kill me you know!'

'You's not a bigshot yet Myojin senpai, don't worry about it!' For some reason, the declaration didn't quite reassure the boy in any way that mattered. Nevertheless, he led himself to the shop, where the oldest boys were cleaning out the restaurant. It would turn out that business was slow for the day. Pa Okei, the stooped but sprightly white-haired owner of "Okei's Noodle House", was cleaning down the counter, yelling at the kids to get back to work. His eyes narrowed when he caught sight of Yahiko at the door of his restaurant, and he curled his lips into a sneer.

'Myojin-chan, are you lost?'

'Hey! Sod off you old fart! Don't call me that! Yahiko sneered right back and shoved his hands into his pockets, scanning the place with an air of indifference. Not much had changed, which seemed perfectly in character with the geezer's frugal way of life. 'I'm looking for Ton-ton? He can bring me miso noodle soup.'

'Are you placing an order? Or is that house call?' Okei sneered again as he slung the rag over his shoulder. Yahiko stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry, to the old man's indignation. 'Oi Tonton! Get your lazy ass and bring out miso! You've got a ringer!' He turned back to his customer and sneered ago. 'You better not be trying not to weasel information from these runts without paying the rate, or I'll sell your hide for black bounty rewards.'

Yahiko raised a brow but acquiesced the man with a slow nod. The last thing Yahiko wanted was to aggravate Ton-ton's boss.

The wait time to be served was a total of nine minutes and pudgy-faced, missing-toothed Ton-ton summoned all of his willpower to not burst with childish glee at the sight of the older boy.

'Senpai!'

Ton-ton failed.

'Keep it down runt!'

'Sorry!' quickly Ton-ton hurried to served Yahiko at his table, and the older boy couldn't help but smile at the kid's excitement. Yahiko paid for his meal and discreetly slipped the sum of the money he lifted off of Biju, as well as the earnings he had saved up over the past period of doing odd jobs in Kaoru's neighborhood. Ton-ton schooled away any excitement on his face, knowing his boss well enough to know that any behavior out of the ordinary would cost him and his friends the money. Yahiko watched the younger boy's eyes glint with happiness and... greed? Pa Okei worked with younger kids because they were unassuming and unsuspicious to most. Said kids often got away with eavesdropping. And pickpocketing.

Yahiko felt distinctly uncomfortable and started to stretch his hand to call Ton-ton's attention by the shoulder, but he withdrew it and shook his head.

'Oi Ton-ton?'

'Yeah bos-' the words didn't come out as another customer walked in and caught Ton-ton's attention. He quickly ran off to get her order before Pa Okei could start yelling and Yahiko watched him go with mixed feelings. He shrugged to himself and helped himself to his meal. There was little he could do, but he'd do what he can to help them. The littlest ones were bad hands by life and had few options. They were largely dependent on the older ones anyway, and he couldn't exactly force the oldest of them out of a lifestyle they had adapted to for their survival.

No, it was something they'd have to choose on their own.

...

'Traditional ramen, extra spicy.'

Tonto-ton wrote down the mysterious customer's order, which sounded normal enough. However, Pa Okei was watching her intently as she made specifications for her order. He was familiar enough with his own menu to know when it was being used to speak in code.

'Midget!'

'Yes, Okei-jii?' Tonton turned back to his boss, whose eyes were gleaming wickedly as his eyes curled into an oily smirk.

'Take the pretty broad up to a private booth, she's not gonna want to eat all that pepper in public and make a scene.' Ton-ton nodded sagely at the man's words, none the wiser, and asked the customer to kindly follow him. The said customer looked most relieved for the discretion of it all and she thanked him profusely. Okei's grin was a shit-eating one. 'Ma'am that's coming out of your tab. We charge extra for such services y'know?' He lifted a shoulder, the grin not leaving his face. 'Don't thank me yet.'

'Name your price, and if it's as good as it gets or better, I'll tip at the end of it too.'

The satisfaction on the old man's face was hard to miss and he nodded at Ton-ton, who was wise enough to quickly whisk her away to a private booth and out of sight. Yahiko watched with some mild interest, noting that the woman was incredibly attractive. In his opinion, the stranger's looks made Kaoru's beauty look almost childlike. Not that he'd admit that Kaoru was beautiful in the first place.

Despite the woman's cool and in-command expression, Yahiko could tell she looked harried and desperate. She had a gun on her that - though wasn't immediately in public view - nestled comfortably in the holster hooked on the belt of her leather pants and hidden from immediate view by her lavender chiffon double-layered haori. He wisely averted his eyes from the two of them - lingering gazes on people who wanted privacy hardly ever went well - and idly wondered if she'd be able to outbid whoever was looking for her. Pa Okei was a douchebag like that.

He raised his hand to order for a second serving and takeout. Kaoru had been busy with dojo affairs these days and often forgot to eat. The stupid tanuki was well on her way to fainting and being useless to him and everyone else, and as long as he was her student he wasn't gonna let that happen if he could help it. He and Ton-ton made small talk as he made his order, the younger boy excited to hear of Yahiko's new life as a dojo boarder. The idea of Kaoru was also very appealing to the kid. Pretty older women who were homely or kind or even nagging were rare in their world - in their world, pretty women who were lucky enough to have some control over their life didn't have the luxury of being anything but cunning and devious, they deemed it as useless as playing house. So Kaoru as a benevolent - or as Yahiko insisted, annoying - nee-chan who would baby them rather than expect them to act mature was the stuff of legends in Ton-ton's mind.

Yahiko was on his second bowl and waiting for the takeout when everything went to shit.

'Oi Okei-jii!'

The old man blanched and quickly retreated to the kitchen as his new guests roared, storming into the quaint restaurant. It seemed smaller as they all crowded in, the tall imposing men that they were. They cleaned up too nicely to be part of a local gang, telling Yahiko that the woman - whom he figured they were looking for - was probably not from the sector either. They all seemed well acquainted with the place though, which meant they'd been here long enough to know how things worked. After making them wait a little while, the old man returned from the kitchen with a scowl etched onto his face. He glared at the one with both a sword and a gun, presumably the leader.

'Shinomori. What the hell is this?'

'A house call.'

Pa Okei snorted, waving his kitchen knife threateningly at the armed man before him. He squinted and sneered with derision.

'I've got nobody here for you to see. Now get out before you spoil my business for me.'

The man named Shinomori said nothing as he held the older man's gaze for several seconds, before slowly slipping his hand into his back pocket. Neither of them broke eye contact as the man retrieved a thick wad of cash. He counted a little more than half of the bundle and then dropped it on the wicker table between them. Okei narrowed his eyes, unflinching, and Shinomori raised a dubious brow - as if in disbelief, before sighing and dropping the other half of the bundle. Yahiko resisted the urge to whistle and tried to preoccupy himself with playing the role of an oblivious kid. He wondered what the woman was worth that so much money would be dropped to retrieve her.

Okei's hand went for the cash and he started to count it at a speed that would make one wonder how long he had been doing this work. He finally broke eye contact when he was done counting, appreciatively looking at the minty bills. He pursed his lips and raised a brow at the leader of the men in his shop.

'She dropped three times as much Shinomori. You're gonna want to do better than that to get me to give you results.'

Shinomori's expression did not flinch as he gestured to one of his men, though Yahiko was willing to bet that the man found the geezer's demands to be exorbitant. The short man stepped forward, holding a briefcase that was half-closed. With a nod from Shinomori, the briefcase was opened. Whatever was in it was enough to make the old man's eyes nearly bug out of his head. He wiped at his sweaty forehead and then let out a low whistle. Somehow Shinomori managed to be incredibly smug without his face showing any emotion, and the old man sighed.

'As a matter of principle, you'd be paying extra still if you're dragging her away for something I'd kill to protect my daughters from.' He seemed wary then, regarding the group with suspicion. Yahiko rolled his eyes. It was a bluff - the one moral code that Pa Okei lived by was protecting women and children from abuse; he'd never sell out a woman or child if he suspected they were being forced into some slave-trading racket or that the person minding them was harming them in some way. His rates were expensive to have the people looking for them away, and if they called him on his bluff then they'd be hard-pressed to find out how he had survived long enough to retire from the life.

Anything else was fair game though, and unfortunately for the mystery lady, it seemed that this case was not the exception. Shinomori's expression contorted into the slightest hints of disgust.

'None of that.' He assured him, 'I personally may empathize with her reluctance to pay her dues, but she will have to find other ways to free herself from this situation. I'm merely doing my job.'

Pa Okei snorted at that.

'Just business as usual then eh?' He scoffed, turning to lead the men to the woman he had deemed safe enough to sell out. 'Come with me.'

Yahiko watched the scene unfold before him with a morbid intrigue. If he were younger, he would have been seething with indignation and rage and on a good day, he'd do something about it or offer to work off her dues in her stead. But the student of the Kamiya dojo was long hardened to the realities of life, so instead, he watched with grim helplessness as Okei went about ambushing the woman that had trusted him to protect her.

'YOU TWO-FACED BASTARD! THEY TOLD ME YOU WERE A DOUBLE-CROSSER!'

The sound of gunshots whistled through the restaurant and Yahiko was fairly certain two bullets had made their way out as strays. The children could be heard screaming in the kitchen and Ton-ton rushed out, wide-eyed with terror and curiosity. Yahiko's eyes widened with worry.

'Ton-ton! Get back in there! Y'all get down on the floor before a stray bullet hits you!' Yahiko yelled, ducking under his own table for cover as Shinomori and his men started to fire back. The boy vanished back the way he came and Yahiko returned his attention to the shoot-out happening right before him. The woman had made her way out, her eyes blazing as she fired two guns - where had she gotten the second one? She shot with a precision that indicated years of experience behind the trigger and it clearly seemed to help her that no one was trying to kill her - they needed her alive, clearly.

'I have no qualms feeding iron to your men Shinomori, I already have blood on my hands as it is and personally they deserve it,' she seethed, her eyes glinting with feral desperation. 'So if you know what's good for you tell your people to stand down and let me walk.'

Yahiko saw Shinomori lower his gun, and his men followed his lead. The boy let out the breath he didn't know he was holding, grateful that the madness was finally over. Figures that the day he decided to visit that some crazy stuff would go down-

Yahiko interrupted his train of thought with an indignant yell as a hand grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and dragged him from underneath the table.

'Oi, Okei-jii, does this runt work for you?'

'Nah he's just a customer. You're gonna have to pay if you're interested to know who he is though.'

'HEY!' Yahiko snapped furiously and glared at the old man. He shrugged back non-commitally.

'No matter,' Shinomori said softly and shrugged, lifting his gun and pressing the barrel against Yahiko's temple. The metal was still warm from all the shooting. The ten-year-old gulped as Shinomori turned to face the woman again. 'I would like to think that a child is a child to Takani-san, no matter who or what the child may be or does.'

Takani's eyes widened in shock, her resolve melting away for the first time.

'You would never.'

Shinomiri's eyes glinted as he took off the pistol's safety.

'Never say never, Takani-san.' Yahiko bit down on his tongue to keep from roaring and Shinomori regarded him with a modicum of respect for his efforts. His feet were fast on their way to being coated by the blood rushing from the fresh bullet wound he had received. 'You can feed my men bullets and I can give the runt here the opposite of an iron deficiency. Your choice-' Shinomori interrupted himself to intercept what was meant to be Yahiko's sneak attack with a bokken. Shinomori raised a disinterested brow at the boy, the little respect he had for him gone before he turned back to Takani. 'You best save the boy from himself before he gets his scrawny ass killed.'

With visible difficulty, she lowered her hands and then bent low to drop them on the ground. Slowly, she rose back up with her hands in the air and then folded them at the back of her head.

'Just let me patch up the kid before we leave at least.'

Shinomori regarded her coolly and then let out a long-suffering sigh as he let go of Yahiko and let him topple to the floor gracelessly.

'Han'nya, get her weapons.' He lifted his eyes to Pa Okei. 'Get her anything she might need, her money ought to not waste somehow anyway.'

Yahiko focused his attention on what was happening around him to ignore the biting pain in his foot. He watched when Takani wordlessly cleaned away at the blood on his foot and after hissing through the pain of getting his foot cauterized, muttered a sullen apology for not being good enough to defend her. She let out a mirthless chuckle.

'You're a better person than I am, nii-chan,' she murmured softly and pat his head. 'Get that checked every morning till it clears up, and try not to do too much with that foot. You'll be Good enough to work again in about three weeks.'

'That's fine,' he waved her off. 'Tanuki-sensei has enough fancy-schmancy in the dojo's first aid kit to get me back to training in no time. You did the most work here already. Thanks a lot.' His eyes traveled to Shinomori, who was observing them as he and the short guy exchanged quiet words. 'You gonna be okay? Are they trying to... uhm,' he nervously swallowed and lowered his voice, 'hurt you or anything?'

She stopped her task to appraise him with an unreadable expression and then sighed.

'It's nothing like that,' she said finally, returning to her task at hand, 'I'll be fine, regardless of whether I have a right to be,' she said bitterly, to his surprise. 'Now you take care child, alright?' She finished bandaging his foot and nodded at Shinomori without waiting for Yahiko to respond. 'I'm ready to go.'

Shinomori nodded and motioned to his men. Han'nya quickly restrained her hands and led her ahead out, the others following suit quickly. Yahiko was surprised no one had threatened him into keeping his mouth sealed about the occurrence and he watched them go with a sigh, before glaring at Pa Okei.

'You're a real piece of shit you know that, Okei-jii?'

The old man laughed and tutted.

'So were you, several weeks ago,' he sneered at the kid. 'It's just business as usual kid, nothing personal to do with me and all that.' He gave Yahiko a cold smile. 'But you already know that Myohin-chan, don'tcha?'