To Lyger 0: Fortunately (for them) it's only Eiji's company that they took over; Tsurugi is still firmly under Tomoe's control!
To Butterfly: Each of them got out in 1 piece independently is what Kagami meant, lol.
To yellow 14: That bit was actually inspired by my sister's relationship with my wife!
Silent as a breath, a stealthy figure slipped through dark alleyways, always staying in the shadows. The streets around him were quiet and deserted at this time of night, well after midnight. Near his foot a stray dog growled as he approached the box where it was sleeping, and he moved to the far side of the alley. A man appeared at the far end of the alley, lit a cigarette, and leaned against the wall, casually blowing out a ring of smoke. He slowly turned in both directions, taking in his surroundings.
Before the interloper could spot him, the figure in the alley drew in a breath, whipped out his tessen, and exhaled, flicking his tessen down the alley. A sudden gust of wind blew past the man, extinguishing his cigarette and blowing it out of his mouth and out into the middle of the street. The man shivered and stepped back out of the alley. The interloper returned the tessen to its place on his belt, letting out a relieved breath.
Kamikaze had been on the run from everyone for almost two weeks now – two weeks since the neat little world he had constructed for himself had been upended in a moment.
As a child, he had been an outcast. His parents were chugoku-zanryukoji who had returned to Japan only to be treated as outcasts in what they had thought to be their home country. And as if that wasn't enough, they had died when he was young, leaving him an orphan twice over. Bereft of family, living on the streets, the Yakuza had appeared to be fate intervening to spare his life. They had taken him in, clothed, fed, and sheltered him, and become his family. With them he had been an outcast at home with other outcasts. Kamisenshi had taken him in as kobun, adopting him and helping him to hone his Chikara. And in return, he had accepted the invitation to join the Kami-gumi. In gratitude to them for having saved his life and given him purpose, for the last 15 years he had served the Yakuza, never questioning that he was doing the right thing.
Not until now.
Kamikaze slipped across the street and into the shadow of another alley. Okamura-san was dead; Kamisenshi had disappeared. His Kami-gumi family was gone – Kamiyama and Kamikangae were both in prison. For that matter, the police were still hunting for him. The Yakuza on the other hand hadn't tried to look for him, but at the same time he wasn't sure if he wanted them to.
Suddenly everything was placed in a completely different context. No longer was he an outcast at home with other outcasts. No longer was he doing good for the people of Japan whom the rest of society had forgotten. No longer could he pretend that he had been receiving dues from people whom he and the other Kami-gumi had a responsibility to protect. No longer was he providing relief and aid to victims of natural disasters to which the government was far too slow to respond. No, he had been forced to take a cold, hard look at himself in the mirror, and he wasn't quite sure he recognized the man looking back at him.
With the Kami-gumi, had he been an outcast protecting people like his parents, or had he become an outlaw harassing innocent shop owners like his parents?
His destination appeared in front of him: a gambling house that served as the headquarters of Okamura-san's oyabun, a man he had only met once: Ishii-san.
His eyes narrowed.
A shadow separated from the wall near the alley's entrance and stepped out to block his path. In the light from the lamp illuminating the sidewalk along the street opposite the gambling house, Kamikaze saw the reflected glint of a katana, partially-drawn from its sheath.
"What are you doing here?" a familiar voice demanded, one foot shifting back into a defensive posture.
"I could ask you the same thing," Kamikaze responded, drawing both tessen from his belt, flicking them open, and adopting a wide stance.
His interrogator drew his katana fully and dropped into a crouch. "Kamikaze!"
Kamikaze's eyes widened in recognition. "Kamiken."
With a shout, Kamiken raced toward him, bringing his sword down in a slashing strike. Kamikaze sidestepped to avoid the attack before sending a wind slice at Kamiken, aiming to blow him out of the alley. Kamiken, however, spun around the wind gust and went almost vertical to avoid a follow-up strike as snow and detritus billowed around them. "I no longer use that name," he retorted, swinging for Kamikaze's head again. "I am Ronin now."
Kamikaze ducked under the katana blade, flicked one tessen shut, and jabbed it into his opponent's gut, pushing him away to gain distance. "'Ronin'," he repeated dubiously. Ronin lunged forward, and Kamikake caught his blade on the metal outer rib of his closed tessen, pushing it off course. Sweeping in with his other tessen he blew Ronin's legs out from under him as he landed. "Answer me!" Kamikaze shouted.
Ronin stumbled and fell backward, catching himself with one hand against the alley wall and pushing off, swinging his katana around at Kamikaze from the opposite direction. "Ishii-san is dragging my family's name and company through the mud!" Ronin's blade moved almost faster than thought. "He must be held to account for his crimes!"
Kamikaze blocked the strike and twisted his wrist, breaking Ronin's grip on the katana. His own tessen flew out of his hand as Ronin caught his katana with two fingers. Kamikaze kicked out at Ronin's knee, sending a tiny wind gust at him and throwing him off balance. The katana clattered to the ground. Ronin sprang toward him, a wakizashi appearing from nowhere. Kamikaze held up his remaining tessen, blocking the wakizashi a hand's breadth from his throat.
"Wait!" Kamizake shouted, holding out his hand. "I'm not here to fight you."
Ronin straightened up, his grip on his wakizashi not loosening, and stared hard at Kamikaze. His mouth set in a tight line
"I want out, too." There; he'd said it.
Ronin narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"I–I didn't see a way out," Kamikaze confessed. "Not before now. When I joined, I wanted to help people – I'd heard the stories about how the Yakuza would help people. They helped me, too, for that matter. But it wasn't really what I thought it was. I wasn't helping people, not really. Instead I was hurting innocent people, people no different from my own parents. But I didn't know it was possible to leave the life until you did it."
"You want out of the Yakuza?"
Kamikaze nodded silently.
Ronin stared at him for a minute, a calculating look in his eyes. Finally he sheathed his wakizashi and held out his hand. "Welcome to the Nihon Hiro Chimu."
AN: This is the conclusion of "Tokyo: Time and Again," but all of these characters will return during the upcoming event, "The Colossus Saga" – in fact, two of the first three stories of the event will be "Lukagami"-centric.
As an aside, if any readers are actually a geisha or have firsthand knowledge to help me with a new character , let me know!