Alright. Sorry it took me so long to update- I've been really busy with nursing school. Please let me know if you want me to continue writing! :)
Bunta Fujiwara stared up at the ceiling, pulling the cigarette from his mouth and exhaling a breath of smoke. He watched it fade away lazily, turning to look over at the alarm clock to his left.
in a few minutes, he'd have to get up and do the tofu delivery. He still couldn't quell the ache in his chest- it'd dulled, but it was still excruciating. The shop seemed empty- he hadn't realized how quiet it was, how silent it was without the purr of the 86 going in and out on a daily basis, or the sound of his son stumbling around upstairs in the morning...
Wherever you are- you'd better get home soon, kid. Bunta thought, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, careful not to disturb the covers of Takumi's bed, which he'd been laying on. The room hadn't been touched since his son left. The bed was still sloppily made up, a wrinkled t-shirt still on the floor...
Bunta found himself coming into the room more often- when the silence of the house would get to him, he'd walk around, running his fingers over the dresser or the headboard, thinking about what his life had been like when the room was still occupied.
Somedays, though, he kept the door shut and started drinking earlier in the morning, right after the deliveries, so he could do his best to forget. Yuuichi came by sometimes, to have a smoke, and a few old friends stopped by. But the house was still empty, and Bunta was still hollow.
Still, the man trudged down the stairs, filling the cup with water and slogging over to the 86. The car was in impeccable condition- he'd changed the oil and washed the car several times since Takumi had gone missing, nearly five days ago. It was probably stupid, but some part of his mind wanted the car to be in good condition for when his son came home.
He turned the key in the ignition and started his daily trek up the hill. Life went on for Bunta Fujiwara, one hollow breath at a time.
"Tak, hey-" Kai spoke quietly, and Takumi grunted, eyes fluttering open.
"Brought you this." Kai said simply, handing him a rice ball.
"Huh- thanks." Takumi sat up slowly, careful to avoid aggravating his sore body and bad shoulder, fumbling to munch on the rice ball with his left hand.
"No problem." Kai sat down gingerly on his own bed, stifling a wince successfully and munching on a roll he'd grabbed for himself.
"Something's going to go down. I saw a newspaper today- the police commissioner of Kananzawa vowed to do something about the string of bank robberies. I saw it in the paper. Everyone seemed pretty subdued today."
Takumi scrubbed at his eyes, blinking. Whatever that meant, it didn't sound like they were in for anything good.
"They've nearly fixed the GTR, too." Kai said calmly.
"Great." Takumi muttered sarcastically, finishing off his rice ball and staring into space for a moment. He had a bad feeling about this.
That afternoon, as they sat and chatted idly, the door of the room was thrown open, a rather intense looking Saiko-komon standing in the door way. "Both of you- with me."
Kai uncertainly got to his feet with Takumi following, as they followed the brisk-walking, dark haired man.
Once they'd reached the garage, they were surprised to see a black four-door civic before them...
Takumi was shoved forward a moment later by an antsy looking Saiko-komon. "You. You're driving."
Before Takumi could mutter any protest, Saiko-komon was in the car, and Takumi pursed his lips and got in the driver's seat to spare himself the consequences.
Kai was dragged into the back seat by a man with a red bandanna tied around his wrist- Kai recognized him as one of the gangsters he'd been fighting last night.
"Drive." was all Saiko-komon said curtly.
Takumi nodded, listening to each instruction carefully and turning.
The atmosphere in the car was tense and oppressive- dangerous, almost.
Kai swallowed- he found himself confused and a little more than apprehensive, especially when he saw the black pistol laying in Saiko-komon's lap.
Were they planning on disposing of him and Takumi?
Saiko-komon spit out another clipped direction, and they turned, stopping by the sidewalk just outside a high school...
A single girl in a sailor's uniform was walking down the street, phone in hand.
"Stop the car." Saiko-komon threw his arm across the seat, and Takumi slammed on the breaks.
The gangster in the back seat threw the door of the car open.
The girl, hearing the car slam on the breaks, looked up, mocha brown eyes wide like a doe's in surprise...
Her expression morphed from one of surprise to terror as the man threw a black cloth bag over her head, muffling the screaming as he grabbed the girl and dragging her, kicking and screaming, towards the civic.
He threw her fighting form into the civic, and the girl's head landed in Kai's lap as she kicked and screamed for help.
The gangster was jumping in a moment later, slamming the door behind him.
"Hold her down!" the gangster barked at Kai, looking unamused by the girl's attempts to struggle.
"What? I don't want to..." Kai looked down at the girl, who's stopped screaming but was still lashing out blindly.
"Do as he says." Saiko-komon's solid voice echoed from the back seat as he cocked his gun, placing it against Takumi's temple. "Or he gets it."
Kai inhaled sharply, looking down at the girl sadly. Her struggles had died down, though she still kicked out blindly at the gangster who was grabbing at her legs...
Kai swallowed, before he was holding the girl's wrists together.
Saiko-komon hadn't lowered his gun. "And you." he said to Takumi severely, his uncertainty showing in the way his voice shook. "Had best drive like your life depends upon it."
Takumi re-opened the bullet wound in his shoulder on the way back to the house, driving at a pace that would've been suicidal, had he not been Takumi.
The girl's struggles in the back had died down- her hands and feet had been tied, and all that could be heard was muffled sobbing.
Everything felt wrong- this whole thing was a perverted mess, but it was a runaway train, now, and for Kai, Takumi, and now the girl- there was no safe way to get off.
As they pulled back into the garage and the girl was being pulled from the car, Takumi turned to look at Saiko-komon, eyes wide. "Why are you doing this?" he asked shakily.
"She's important." Saiko-komon snapped, before he was leaving the car and nodding to the others. "Tie her and tell Kumicho it's done." he said, turning to look away.
A loud whimper came from the girl as she was forced to the cement, her skirt pooling at her knees, head still covered, bound hands tied to the solid leg of the workbench.
"You disgusting pervert." Kai muttered.
Saiko-komon whirled, backhanding Kai. "It's not like that, you sick fuck! it was an order, direct from Kumicho! The police commissioner of Kanazawa took notice of our activities. Holding his daughter should strike a significant blow in his willingness to chance after us. Nothing perverted is going to happen to her!"
"She's chained to the wall in a house full of men." Takumi stated duly, looking at Saiko-komon with an expression saying he didn't believe a word the man was saying.
Saiko-komon threw up his hands, frustrated. "Get your asses back to your room." was all he growled, though he looked significantly troubled.
As the door to their room shut behind them, Kai flopped down on his bed, putting his face in his hands. "This is too much. I can risk being a get away driver for them, but letting them keep a girl like that..."
Takumi simply nodded, sitting on the edge of his bed and touching the blood stain on his t-shirt, frown deepening.
"I mean, us, yes, but she's so young..."
"I'm going to let her out tonight."
"You what!?" Kai spoke, sounding shocked.
Takumi shrugged, wincing slightly as the move tugged his wounded shoulder. "She doesn't belong here. So I figured I'll untie her and help her out the window. She's the police commissioner's daughter, people will be looking for her, so if she can make it to the road, she's bound to be able to find help..."
Kai blinked. "That's... a pretty good idea."
Takumi nodded. "I thought so too. You don;t have to help out, though. If I'm caught..." Takumi fell silent, remembering the last time they'd defied the gang in trying to escape.
Kai shook his head. "No, I'm with you. You'll need a lookout. And besides- I wouldn't be able to live with myself if we didn't help her. She's about my sister's age." Kai admitted.
Takumi nodded. "So it's a plan, then."
"It's a plan."
That night, they stole down to the garage.
Takumi peered in the doorway, noticing the girl was under guard. A rlugh looking man was standing beside her slumped form, laughing slightly. "C'mon, darling, just a lick..."
The man's pants were unzipped, and even though the black cloth bag was still over the girl's head, she turned away, whimpering slightly...
Before Takumi could stop him, Kai had darted forward, snatching a wrench from the work bench and slammed it into the man;s temple- the man fell to the floor, still exposed.
Kai stood, breathing heavily. "Fucking pervert..." he hissed.
Takumi hurriedly moved past him, pulling the cloth bag off the girl;s head to reveal long blonde hair and alarmed mocha eyes.
She looked from Takumi to Kai, still looking rather afraid... Takumi covered her mouth with his hand, and his eyes widened.
"We're trying to help you, alright? You have to trust us for a minute. Can you do that?" Takumi looked into her eyes seriously.
The girl paused for a moment, taking in Takumi's serious expression, before she nodded, and Takumi removed his hand from her mouth, dropping to his knees and beginning to fumble with the ropes tying her hands.
"I'm sorry this happened to you." Kai spoke up, running a hand through his hair and walking over to sit beside the girl. "And I'm even more sorry we had to help. They forced us to, they've been making us do all sorts of shit for them..." Kai frowned, realizing he was rambling on. "I didn't get your name."
"M-Miyumi." the girl spoke up quietly.
Kai nodded, smiling. She looks about as old as Hiriko. he thought, remembering his little sister. She can't be more than 14 years old.
"We can get you out of here, but we can't leave." Takumi spoke up. "You'll have to get to the road by yourself. From there, you should be able to flag down a car for help... Do you think you can do that?"
Miyumi nodded. "Y-yes. I think so."
"Hmm." Takumi nodded approvingly, finishing untying the rope on her wrists and moving to the ones on her legs.
Kai frowned, looking for something sharp to cut the bindings.
"W-why are you helping me?" Miyumi asked quietly, lowering her eyes.
"We don't like these guys anymore than you do, Miyumi." Takumi murmered quietly.
"Who are you?"
"Kogashiwa. I'm Kogashiwa Kai. And this is Fujiwara Takumi. But forget about that- right now we have to get you out of here."
Takumi finished untying the last few knots and helped Miyumi to her feet, nodding to her. "Let's go."
The three stole through the hallways, finding a window and throwing it open.
After giving her brief directions as to the road, Miyumi had disappeared into the night.
Takumi closed the window hurriedly, turning and running upstairs.
Hopefully, when the gangster they's knocked out woke up, he wouldn't remember being knocked out. If they played their cards right, they could avoid punishment.
Miyumi stole through the night, running frantically for the road. Her knees were scraped, her face bruised, but she hadn't lost her virtue, which was something. Her breath came in short pants- her feet bled, stones and sticks assaulting her as she did so. She was running along the road, now, desperate to put as much distance between her and the hated house as possible.
She might be missed soon, and who knew if they'd chase after her. She's already been lucky once- she couldn't trust fate to help her again.
She tripped, toes scraping on the pavement, and fell to her knees on the road. She was left gasping for a brief moment, and for a second she was blinded by headlights and squealing brakes...
A moment later a car door was slamming. She found herself looking into the wide eyes of a woman who would turn into her savior.
The door of the room slammed open in the middle of the night. Unintelligible shouting was all that could be heard for a moment, as both teens were dragged from bed hurriedly, pushed and dragged down the stairs and dragged into the garage.
"You had something to do with this!" Saiko-komon shouted, voice borderline cracking.
A rather dazed thug sat in the corner, his temple bruised.
"Kill the bastards!"
"We can still find her if we hurry..."
"...police will be here soon..."
""...bail while we still have time..."
"QUIET!"
All at once, the garage was silent.
Takumi and Kai looked up from where they knelt on the cement floor, both slightly cowed at the expression on Kumicho's face.
"We've been doing well these past few days thanks to the efforts of these two." he said calmly. "However, they;ve clearly failed to fall in line. We've given them every opportunity to join our little family, and yet they continue to rebel."
"This is the end of one chapter, and the beginning of another. It ends with fear- with abandoning the place we;ve come to know as home. But it begins a new era- a new prefecture, a new operation. Unfortunately, however- some will have to be left behind. The police will be here soon- so let them find the bodies of two insubordinate teenagers." Kumicho looked down at Kai and Takumi coldly, with thinly veiled disgust. He was met with cheers and shouts.
Kumicho looked away from the boys. "Do what you want with them."
The mob of retribution seekers closed in on them, everything snapping shut in a moment like a snare.
Nose bloodied, head slammed into the cement, a bottle smashed over his side- the blows rained down, over and over, feet sinking into his chest in kicks and blows and pain flaring.
Every new flair of pain was like a fire burst, a match struck for a second, only to burn out. And he was quickly running out of consciousness. The beating could've lasted hours or minutes. He;d hear Kai shouting over the noise of the crowd at one point, but now, he was simply clinging to the thread of consciousness with all he had.
Eventually, he simply laid in the ground, copper in his mouth, vision blurry, each breath of air burning. At some point, the shouting grew even louder. Over the mob mentality and screaming, shouts for more bloodshed, were voices.
"...police!"
"Hands where I can see them!"
"...on the ground!"
The swinging light bulb illuminated the gun barrels as mass panic descended. Bodies slammed against the cement,m people being cuffed, Takumi let his eyes fall closed and let out a breath, coughing somewhere between and tasting blood.
He was pretty sure someone was shaking him. "...over here! He's bleeding... Kid, hey kid! Stay awake!"
His entire body was numb. That was all he could really hear over the ringing of his own ears. The police were here.
Finally. It's over. was his last thought before he descended into oblivion.