Mikoto's Legacy

Summary: Genderswap. As his Sword of Damocles continues to deteriorate Mikoto thinks on what he wants to leave behind besides a giant crater. To this end he asks his loyal vanguard to perform one last service for him.

When Kusanagi sat down to read what amounted to Mikoto's last will and testament, he'd been pretty sure what it would say. Mikoto wouldn't lie to Anna, but Kusanagi couldn't believe he would leave Homra's volatile and immature vanguard with sole custody of their princess. Kusanagi guessed that there would be some sort of joint custody between himself and Yata. Give Anna the traditional household with a mother and father—and if Kusanagi ever had to imagine Yata as his wife again he would gouge his own eyes out with a corkscrew, might as well save Fushimi the trouble— and a sense of stability.

What Kusanagi found, however, was something different. Mikoto had left Yata everything. He'd left her Anna, a bank account with all of 40,000 yen in it—more than Kusanagi thought Mikoto had but still what was Yata going to do, buy groceries for a couple weeks?—, and his rooms above Homra—which were Kusanagi's to begin with thank you very much, just because he let Mikoto use them rent free didn't give him the right to will them away.

Kusanagi sighed. He'd been planning on having Yata stay at the bar for awhile anyway. He didn't want to give special treatment to anyone, they were all grieving Mikoto, but Yata had a history of not taking loss well. He didn't want a repeat of what happened after Fushimi left. Especially since with Mikoto gone, he'd be the one bailing her out of jail or putting the fear of Homra into whoever thought she would make a nice punching bag after she'd worn herself down past being able to fight anyone off.

Still, last night Yata had looked genuinely terrified at the prospect of being responsible for Anna. Yata was only nineteen and utterly terrified of committing to something other than Homra. And her idea of age appropriate entertainment was taking Anna to the arcade to play first person shooters while screaming expletives at the enemy avatars on screen.

Oh god, Yata was going to be Anna's new role model. What was Mikoto thinking?

His inner turmoil was interrupted by the clunk of sneakers on the stairs. Kusanagi drew a fortifying breath, expecting Yata to finally make an appearance. Instead, Anna was tromping down the stairs in a horrible imitation of Yata's gait.

Apparently Yata had already had too much influence on Anna.

"Anna, why are you wearing those clothes?"

Anna blinked up at him from under the brim of a baseball cap he was sure belonged to Shouhei. "They're comfy."

"So, your dresses aren't comfortable?"

"They're nice but I think I like these better right now."

"Right now?" Oh. Mikoto had bought her those dresses, back when she first came to stay with him. He'd spoiled her, buying her anything she'd wanted, including custom made dresses to replace those godawful blue ones she'd worn when she first came to Homra.

"Besides, Yata always dresses like this."

"Yata's been known to burn her clothes right off her back, nice clothes would be a waste," Kusanagi pointed out. And hadn't that been a day? Chitose realized that Yata was a girl— previously mistaking her for a twelve year old boy—, Fushimi had threatened to cut out everyone's eyes if they didn't stop staring at his Misaki that instant, and Yata—at that point clad only in Kamamoto's jacket—broke Chitose's nose after he made a pass at her while trying to get another look at her breasts. To date, Yata remained the only member of Homra to burn through an entire set of clothes while they were still on her body. Chitose had burnt his shirt off once, but considering he got a date out of it Kusanagi suspected it was intentional.

"And Yata's clothes are more practical."

"Practical how?" Kusanagi didn't like where this was going. Best case was Anna was about to announce she wanted to take up skateboarding everywhere and come home every day with new and interesting scars. Worst case...

"When she has to fight," Anna said, climbing on to one of the stool with some difficulty. Another glance at her shoes told Kusanagi they were at least a size too big.

"You want to learn how to fight?" Worst case scenario, it was always the worst case scenario.

Anna nodded. "Mikoto showed me how to throw a punch without breaking my thumb but he didn't have time to teach me anything else."

Damnit Mikoto. "And why did Mikoto think you needed to learn how to fight?"

"So I can protect Yata."

Oh good god. "Don't… say that in front of Yata, okay?"

"Okay."

"Now, how about some breakfast?"

There was already a group gathered at the bar when Yata made her way down. It looked like no one had bothered to go home last night after Mikoto's sendoff party.

"The sleeping beast finally awakes," Chitose greeted.

"I think you're mixing up your fairytales." Kamamoto wasn't wearing his sunglasses, and his eyes were bloodshot, though Yata knew he hadn't touched a drop of alcohol last night. She guessed he just hadn't slept well.

"She's not exactly a beauty though."

"The beast turns into a handsome prince at the end," Anna, wearing one of Yata's missing shirts, spoke up.

"Well she's not one of those either."

"Is there any breakfast left, or can I throw Chitose out the window now?" Yata asked.

"That window is worth more than you are," said Kusanagi.

"I saved you some food, Yata," Anna offered up a plate stack high with a variety of Yata's favorites.

"Good girl," Yata muttered, taking the plate and patting Anna on the head. "Is that Shouhei's hat?"

Shouhei gave a little moan in the corner, clutching his bare head. Huh.

"Since Yata's here now, I guess you all want to know what Mikoto's will said." Kusanagi asked.

"Not particularly," Yata said.

"Too bad. You now have sole custody of Anna."

And suddenly Yata didn't feel liked eating anymore. "What?"

"Mikoto named you as Anna's sole guardian, left you his rooms and maybe enough money to buy her some new clothes."

Anna blinked up at him while her hands continued to fiddle with the belt that was the only thing keeping her shorts firmly at waist level. "What's wrong with these clothes?"

"I hope you have a job, because despite her size, Anna does eat quite a bit."

Yata stared. Sole custody? Job? Clothes and food? "What?"

"A job, Yata. Where you perform a service and receive monetary compensation in return. Shut up, Chitose."

Chitose closed his mouth.

"Miss Kaho pays me a little bit to keep an ear open when I'm at home," Yata said. "Shut up, Chitose"

"I wasn't going to say anything."

Kusanagi sighed. "I'd rather you not be working in a brothel in any capacity. I'd offer to let you wait tables here, but business is always slow in the winter and you spend more time chasing off Kamamoto's fangirls in the summer than you do actual work."

"The café on 8th is hiring," Kousuke offered.

"So is the Naughty Neko," said Chitose.

"Yata's not going to work at a strip club," Kusanagi sighed.

"I'm not a stripper!" Yata growled.

"Seriously, you could do that thing where you set your clothes on fire. It's really a turn on," Chitose continued. A disbelieving silence followed. "What?"

Kusanagi dropped his head in his hands. "Please tell me you haven't actually been fantasizing about that."

"What, I said she wasn't a beauty, not that she wasn't sexy."

"Dewa," Kusanagi said.

"I'll shove this teacup down your throat if you don't shut up, Chitose," Dewa threatened dutifully.

"The delivery place a few blocks over is offering good hourly wages with no experience required," said Eric. "If Yata can find a bike and make a good impression on the manager, she shouldn't have a problem getting the job."

Kusanagi nodded. "At least someone has something useful to contribute. Yata, I have a bike in storage. You can go over this afternoon and talk to the manager."

"Don't forget the helmet," Anna said.

"Do I get any say in this?" Yata asked.

"No."

A few hours later Yata had a job delivering packages four days a week. By the time she made it back to the bar most of her things had been moved into her new room at Homra thanks to the guys. After yelling at Kusanagi for awhile she hauled Kamamoto—the only one of her clansmen she trusted around Miss Kaho—back to her apartment and made him take over her lease so someone was there to look out for Miss Kaho and her girls, and also to keep those dealers from coming back.

As a tacit apology for helping Kusanagi uproot her entire life while she was out, Kamamoto didn't complain too much about having to move himself. Or maybe he was just happy his girlfriend/stalker would have to walk all the way across town if she wanted to bring him lunch now. Hm…

"You're buying me lunch," Yata decided, after she'd finished introducing Kamamoto to Miss Kaho.

"Why?"

"Because I'm hungry. And broke. And I still have to get Anna new clothes so she'll stop stealing everyone else's."

Kamamoto sighed. "What do you want?"

"Did you really need three burgers?" Kamamoto asked.

Probably not. Yata was only halfway through her second burger and already full. Usually she could eat more. Maybe her appetite was just gone. It had disappeared for awhile after Mr. Totsuka died. Then again, that was mostly because she could still feel his blood soaking into her skin and remember the way his body went cold in her arms. The effect the memory had on her had lessened over time, and her appetite had since returned.

"Here," she said, handing over her last burger and her untouched fries.

Kamamoto took them warily. "Are you alright?"

"Fine. Still full from breakfast I guess," Yata replied with a shrug. Anyone else would have believed her, but Kamamoto knew her too well. He also knew her well enough not to push it.

While Kamamoto dug into her leftovers, Yata leaned back in her seat and stared out the window. Out of habit she did a cursory search of the crowd for the white hair of Mr. Totsuka's murderer before reminding herself that one way or another, the Colorless King was dead. The crowds passing by held no familiar faces. She saw a few figures in Scepter 4 blue, but thankfully, if Saru was around, he was staying out sight.

"Goddamn Homra."

Yata was on her feet before she even bothered to see who had spoken. Kamamoto's hand caught her arm in a deathgrip before she could turn to face whatever bastard she was about to layout. She turned anyway, dragging him out of his chair.

A pair of Scepter 4 agents were seated a few tables over. She didn't recognize either of them and immediately classified them as peons, not worthy of the vanguard of Homra's notice outside a token bat to the head in the midst of battle. If she was going to bother learning faces, much less names, they needed to present a credible threat, like Saru and, occasionally, Awashima.

They seemed to agree with her assessment, judging by the way their faces paled when they got a good look at her face.

"Yatagarasu," one of them whimpered.

"What did you say about Homra?" Yata growled.

Kamamoto put himself between her and her intended targets, making a show of putting a calming hand on her shoulder. He was good about not startling her after that time he'd grabbed a hold of her from behind, attempting to hold her back from laying into a group of idiot who had been hassling her. She'd ended up using him as a club in place of her favorite bat. "Yata, Anna's expecting us for dinner, remember?"

Anna was doing no such thing and nobody at the bar ate dinner before sundown during the winter months anyway. So Anna wouldn't—Anna. Crap. If Scepter 4 put a warrant out on her she couldn't just disappear until Kusanagi got it all sorted out with his coldhearted woman. If she ran off and left Anna, odds were that Kusanagi would help Scepter 4 find her and see to it that they kept her locked up.

Yata reined in her aura, which had been thrumming just beneath her skin. She could see the glow of her eyes reflected in Kamamoto's sunglasses. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and when she opened them again they had faded back to their usual color. "Let's go. The arcade down the street has a first person shooter that I want to try."

Yata pushed past him and shot one last glare at the Scepter 4 stooges as she headed for the door, letting the red fill her eyes again for an instant. She heard Kamamoto advise the idiots not to mention that they'd even seen them, saying something about Saru that she didn't even bother listening to.

Once she was clear of the door she found a wall to lean against, noticing that she was short of breath. A few minutes later Kamamoto joined her.

"You're pale," he said.

"It's winter," Yata grumbled. They were all losing their summer tans.

"Are you sure you feel okay?"

"I'm just tired. None of us got that much sleep last night." That's probably why she was out breath. No sleep and then getting so ticked off. It made sense.

Kamamoto nodded. "We should head back to the bar. I'm sure they're wondering what's taking us so long."

Not seeing any reason to argue, she followed along.