CAUTION: CUSSING IN THIS CHAPTER
The pitter patter of heavy rain drenched the dirt roads alternated into heaps of mud; noiselessness blanketed the area since shops were closed for business during eve. A vast of empty streets; there was no trace of humans exceptional of unearthly beady red eyes in the deep shadows of the alleyway that reek of urinal and wastrel. A streak of lightning bolt momentarily tinge in a flutter of of ominous glare of white beam followed by a clap of thunder.
Situated at Yoshiwara district; prostitutes and drunkards made up the boisterous vicinity. Even though, the downpour affected the flesh business yet in several brothels, merry voices sung infused by the intoxication and the lilt of female vocals abreast with their male counterpart. Sake sploshed generously while the geisha entertained their customers under the chilly weather.
Hidden in the depths of inky blackness, flurry of footsteps bounced in agility and slush of puddles soaked their hakama. Their feet encased in straw sandals.
Neither of the men whose expression wrought tremor to any being were affected by the bitter draft. There wasn't a hint of disconcerted due to the wet condition as their kimonos clung to their bodies like second skin. The band of men were out for blood and these particular group had their diligent target on a teahouse. The ominous ringing as their blades expertly glide put of the scabbard. Dutifully, the gangsters abide by the rules and awaited for the signal to attack from their captain.
The alleged figure assumed as the superior gave a slight nod and the faceless ronins haired forward in measured steps instead darted blindly headlong.
A juvenile attired in tattered kimono sheltered the emaciated frame, she trudged on the open streets undeterred of her safeness. Habituated in the style of living as a street rat, she tracked for handout set aside as rubbish.
Tonight, she reciprocated as every other day in anticipation for leftover morsels to ease her hunger pang. Even when the thunder rumbled in ferocity, an indication the lightning had struck a sapling nearby but the female continued on her nightly routine under the bad weather. A tabby mewled in acknowledgement as the stray feline gnawed on a fish skeleton in which garnered the human's attention; she gamely squatted and the cloth slipped a little to reveal a tender knee. In a blink of an eye, the snatched at the remainder bones of her only dinner in sight.
The startled cat scattered away in fits of yowl and hissed toward the newcomer before it moved on to another part of the town. she suckled on the skeletal with aftertaste from the cat's saliva in which tingled on the girl's tongue; albeit grateful for the scavenge.
Just then, a distant cry alerted the scraggly girl, she twisted on her bare feet to jerk a blonde head upward to acknowledge the moonless sky. Since she was somewhat close to the red light section. An unlikely place for an orphan to casually roamed about and her directly below a wide window of a brothel house.
Every night, as a voyeuristic figure, she was entertained by the jovial patrons and surreptitiously peeked at the wild camaraderies of either singing or dancing geisha as a form of distractions. The girl eavesdropped on adult conversations although she had no clue whatsoever.
At her heart's desire, the street rat would impersonate a geisha's dance sequence away from bird's-eye view from any drunkard customers. Thankfully, the young women of the Yoshiwara section had taken a liking to the pitiful orphan. Occasionally, they provided cooked meals without the consent of their strict superiors.
On unfortunate event, the madam of a brothel who was the least fond of the stray, attacked with a switch that would mark red welts on the frail body. Since there was no medicine at hand, dried blood stuck on the cloth and she would yelp in agony. The dangerous street was her only home; the idea that she could be raped never flitted in her childish mindset.
She trotted in alacrity toward the source of sound when the fragile being came across a gruesome sight; the torrential downpour had ceased just as a familiar figure in a elaborated kimono was hurtled in the middle of the road. Ear-splitting scream followed by a few grown men ringed a loose circle around the maiko whose torn cry fell on deaf ears. Just beyond her, a body laid on the ground covered in scarlet liquid with sporadic movement, it struggled valiantly to escape.
The girl was rooted on the ground to witnessed in time the whistle of a blade and that man's head rolled on the ground. The body had ceased mobility, he was not able to free himself from the people. The young spectator honed in on the countenance of that headless figure as blood sprayed from the open wound to bath his murderer, a crazed expression settled on the ronin's face. The unlucky maiko whom accidentally stumbled upon the massacre had been taken and brought to the killing avenue.
The body that was spread on the ground in the warm pool of his blood twitched slightly, the petrified maiko in process trembled in dread. Her ghostly pale face resemblance to a tortured spirit trapped in a shell of a body. The woman grieved aloud, she pleaded for mercy at the same time attempted to claw at the hand wrapped in her thick mane.
"PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! L-LET ME LIVE!" she stuttered as bile threatened to discharge.
The captor half dragged the maiko on her knees, when the female's blurry gaze from the onslaught of tears stake out the dead man's body short of limbs. Finally, the psychotic killer mosey forward in a nonchalant gait that of which contradict his action. He fueled on the woman's caterwaul as she pleaded for her life. The sharp tip of the katana trailed on the dirt to the astonishment of that quiet onlooker, sparks of flame ignited on cue the maiko thrashed in the hurtful grasped of the other. The bewail attained in high pitch decibels.
"L-L-LET ME L-LIVE!" her chokeful cries drifted toward the lone figure ensconced in the darkness of the alley. "I-I PROMISE N-NOT TO TELL ANYONE!"
The man grinned manically when he crouched eye to eye with the blustered maiko, "you think I care?"
The low voice rendered the woman to pipe down, just as she came to realization the cold blooded murderer whose soulless gaze mirrors her mournful expression, voided of any emotions in him.
At last, he got upright in a steady stance, without breaking the connected gaze of the conceded prey. He raised a hand that clutched onto the sword and wield the blade downward to cleave his victim's head without any concern.
The blonde haired juvenile locked wide gaze on her friend's head which plummet between the man's shoulder width apart feet. Instead of waterworks, the girl remained firm on her bare feet whereas the vulgar scene reiterated in her chaotic brain.
"Hey!" a man's voice reeled the mute female back to present. "Look another bitch wanting to die tonight!"
For a second both the crazed male's and her eyes collided before she fled from the area, from behind heavy footfalls build up their momentum in hot pursue. The girl short on breath embark on a merry race, for the first time she experienced cold sweat as her little heart pumped behind her breastbone.
They managed to corral the panicked girl their mocked laughter for short existence when a man with pot bellied waddled forward and frightened the captive just as his blade struck on her bodice. A startled gasped floated from her mouth, rather than an open wound across the flat chest she displayed a naked form for everyone to ogle.
The piece of rag formerly worn to hide her modesty disposed on the floor; masculine guffaws ensued as a few dare to stare with evident lust. Even though the blonde haired female resembled a young child, she had blossomed into puberty stage. The ronins foamed from the crude images that included her.
"I think we should bring this one back to our place," the thinly male announced in noticeable hunger.
"And what?" the fat man kneaded a hand between his thighs. "You think Raiku sama will approve of it?"
"If Raiku sama doesn't want it we can still fuck this piece before we get rid of it," the first man who suggested the twisted idea retorted. "I want to try with young girls, older women are not tight between their legs."
Before the orphan could flee from impending death, the hilt of the sword struck on the side of her head when she lose conscious.
The victim flinched as her senses awaken from lacerated ache between her throbbing temples, she stare in dumbfounded at the span of inky black sky. Rain continued to drizzle in light shower, she was sprawled in nude on the moistened grass.
Her body wracked in shiver when a draft of breeze caressed her frame, the whistle calls from men jostled the girl's memory. In precise action, she wavered on feet to view in blurry daze at the encompassed camp grounds.
"She's awake," someone spoke up from amidst the reclined group. "What do you guys see in her? That pathetic creature is nothing but wasted bones and will probably stab one of you fuckers by the sharp end of that rib cage."
"What is your name?" a deep voice beckoned her attention from behind.
The street rat carefully shifted around to come up close with a fiercesome man, adrenaline pumped in her system as mortal trepidation overturned for survival.
Ashimoto Raiku disdainful gaze flickered over the scraggly child at the same time, cursed his men to kidnap a drowned rat back to their campsites.
The fools were a bunch of blind motherfuckers bewitched for flesh, Raiku scrutinized her; blonde locks chopped in uneven layers, emerald eyes peered from under the wet strands clung to her profile. A pair of flat breasts with rigid pink nipples from the cold. She was an eyesore, with a grunt he glared at the culprits.
"I don't need her here," Raiku waved his fist across the air. "Do whatever you please but if I spy this creature roaming in my camp tomorrow, I will make sure to gut whoever that person conjured this stupid idea."
The girl apperceive a ronin when rough fingers touched her spine, either she was possessed by a spirit or born in the cruel streets taught her a valuable lesson in persistence for enduration as a bastard. In split seconds, the blonde haired interchanged from prey into hunter when her hand shot backward to wrapped fingers on the hilt of the katana and pulled out in one act of spur from it's scabbard; the owner of the sword gawked in stunned surprise at the quick about. In less movements, the naked female snuffed out the bastard's life and entrails spilled unceremoniously, she slit his guts open.
After a moment of pregnant silence, shouts echoed throughout the campground, even Ashimoto Raiku-their reputed leader; his body an epitome of muscles and intricate patterns of a demoness incorporated with mythical creatures tattooed on his broad back. His foreboding presence was a force to be reckoned with, the gangster had earned unflinching respect from other secret society with his apathetic acts.
"YOU STUPID BITCH!" the crazed man who delivered both her friend and the man to heaven came forth in helter skelter as he clutched onto a sword. "HOW DARE YOU KILLED MY BROTHER! YOU FUCKING WHORE!"
As the blade cut across the air to inflict damage on the girl but she was able to block out the attack with an uncanny accuracy. She fought naked, undeterred by the pack of dogs. The atmosphere became electrically charged by the exchange blow of blades, similar to her attacker jade-green eyes exhibited no remorse even as the sword was a bulky excessive compared to her weight.
Before the enraged ronin planted the final kill, she executed a swift pivot on bare feet as the demon in the shape of a child dropped on one knee to drive the metal into her opponent's stomach. The girl managed to evade the sharp edge of his blade; a flutter of blonde strands floated to her feet.
The wet gurgle noise emanated from the gangster greeted everyone's ears and he spat thick liquid from open mouth to wet the front of his kimono as he collapsed on one knee. He blindly covered the wound with a hand, because just as she tugged bits of entrail came away.
His body trembled in recognition when the girl reenacted a scene at the front of a teahouse where he had killed off two innocent people. The tip of the blade dragged on the grass-blade but no sparked evident from the contact.
He flailed to stand upright because pride hung in tatters in front of his boss and the rest, lose of blood drained him of strength..
"Mercy."
His sweat dotted head shot up to gawked in stupor at the girl, she was able to talk yet in a whisper. A surge of anger overwhelmed the male because a rotten being ridiculed him. He eventually gathered enough strength to support his mobility; the last view of a pair of murderous eyes glared at him when the blade severed his neck and plopped like a rotten fruit near her feet.
Tangy blood painted her face in scarlet, a distinctive metallic odor hung in the air whilst blonde hair plastered to her sunken features. She brandish a name for herself, the group of men ill at ease.
"H-how did she.." the words trailed off.
Raiku was amazed by her ability to make use of a hefty katana, he brush off the low murmurs to venture toward the captivated being. If the girl was disciplined under good hands, she would be an remarkable swordsmanship. The head honcho had a difficult time to perceive the turnabout of the event whereas the measly victim became the attacker. She deceived her assailants by her outlook. He came to standstill in her peripheral vision.
"What is your name, girl?" Raiku interrogated the blondie.
"... Haruka."
NOTE: I write and publish chapters without a editor, so you will definitely spot mistakes. Grammar is not my best. I am very fascinated in the backgrounds of secret society especially Yakuza. Even though I thoroughly research about the histories, theres bound to have inaccurate details. But I hope that the first chapter got your interest and willing to read more. Thank you.