"Catch him slip up. Catch him doing something against me or the gang and I will let you have his head. Better yet, anyone in this room is your point of objective. You want our heads? You can have them, extemptions being me and my Mikey of course. From now on you're my hunting dog."
The woman slipped the cuffs off of her hands before giving a not so eloquent bow.
"As you wish, King of big talks."
"That was too dramatic even for you."
"You're one to talk kid."
The woman sat on the bed inside Mikey's room. It was too clean to be being used by anyone. It wasn't hard to see the dark circles under the blonde's eyes. Other than those and his shorter and messier hair the kid didn't seem to meet adulthood yet. In his early twenties he looked like a kid even under such pressure on his shoulders.
"Don't forget your promise in the name of vengeance."
"I'm not stupid like you."
"I'm serious." The male stated, "I've had to learn how to kill, it's as easy as breathing and I will make it hurt if you don't hold onto your promise."
It didn't seem like he was having it easy but Shiro didn't point that out. She was going to let him fool himself if that was what had been keeping him alive.
"I told you kid." She glared, "You held your part of the deal. I will hold mine. Just make sure to bring Takemichi with you. As long as he's alive this might end well."
"You don't need to tell me what to do with my friends. You don't so much see him as a brother who are you to tell me what to do with him?"
"Sassy little brat. I saw you smirking in that room just before."
"Thank Sanzu for that. The story could go in a very different way if not for him."
"I can't help you." Shiro mimicked.
"Well, he was helping me, not you."
"It's not help if he's just doing whatever you tell him to, it's obeying commands."
"He's unnecessarily loyal, for a long while he was keeping me sane."
"Don't talk to me about your gay awakening. I had mine when dicks started looking like the most disgusting things on the earth."
"Fuck off you mad hag."
"Right after you, you dumb brat."
"I am 22!"
"Yet still like a kid!"
Days then weeks and even months passed. Shiro was given some jobs in night clubs; she oversaw a few cleanups and assisted on the fall of a rival club that had been becoming a headache for a while now.
Tonight she had the job of observing a deal between Tenjiku and another cooperation. She needed to act like Izana's partner, sitting there and making sure he wouldn't get killed.
It started out normal, greetings, a few jokes, brought in goods, some drinks…
Pieces of shits.
Shiro was getting restless from the looks she had been getting. Kakucho kept signaling her to stand down from the other side of Izana but she was about to lash out, damning all the guys inside the VIP room.
She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and observed the deal. It was a damn good deal for Tenjiku; those guys seemed fucking desperate for the corporation. She wasn't going to be the one to ruin it. She had to do whatever she could to stand on Izana's good graces.
The plan depended on it.
"Would you get another drink, lady?" asked the no two of the cooperation they were about to make a deal with. Shiro observed the already made drink and all her insight screamed at her not to drink it. She was ninety percent sure that something was in that drink. She either needed to find a way to seem like drinking it but no light plays would cut it for these many men. A reason, a good reason to decline it… Something polite…The most understandable and impossible to counter reason…
Oh shit, she had seen this in another book.
"That's kind of you and I totally would," she smiled as she said it, "If it wasn't for the baby."
The men across from her spluttered and reddened before a disgusted look took place on their faces.
Rest of the meeting flied. When the signatures were given and hands were shook Kakucho, Izana and Shiro got into a black car. The man who drove them there wasn't inside and Kakucho was on the wheel. The youngest in the car had only started to drive when Izana grasped Shiro's arm and shook her.
"What baby?"
His face looked calm but he had asked the question through gritted teeth and his hand was bruising her shoulder.
"There's no baby. It was a lie. There was something on that drink. I had to find a reason not to- Are you okay? Did they give something to you too?"
The man looked at her like she was the one sprouting nonsense out of nowhere. She thought it was obvious that what she said inside was a lie, at least for someone who practically lived with her. She glanced at Kakucho and saw him focused on the road. That was good, the driver was supposed to look ahead. She turned back at the older man and he suddenly let her go.
"You're too good at lying. What else are you lying about?" he asked.
Shiro blinked a few times and opened her mouth to answer but no words came out. It was suddenly too warm, she felt light-headed. She settled on shaking her head at the male and hoping he would understand.
There was something inside that first drink.
- TRIGGER WARNING -
The woman was trashing around on the floor of her room. Her pain was agonizing, or so it seemed. The male with hand tattoos sighed as he started taking off his tie.
"Izana left her alone. He would've done something already if he wanted to."
"Izana is stupid enough to leave her alone in her most desperate moment. Send one of our guys to her room or better yet, go there yourself. You two have history after all. Hit her where it hurts."
Hanma could've sent someone in his stead but whoever he sent would do something to the bloody woman. If he was playing he wasn't going to cheat. It was no fun that way. It was no fun at all to do that to a woman- to this person. It was all he had been living for: fun. Even Kisaki could not order him to let everything get dull.
When he was left only with his underwear –his clothes messily resting on a chair- he peeled the dress off of the girl. She had to be naked for the act to be believable for her and Kisaki both, not her underwear nor her hair was going to be left untouched; he was not going to focus on her body either way. She was reeking of sweat and gasping for air. Her face was red from pain or maybe from breathlessness.
Hanma put her in her bed and pulled a sheet on top of them. The girl was too warm- she had a fever, was it a side effect of the drug?- and it became suffocating in a few seconds, the position they were in. Hanma didn't pull off the sheet, if someone came in –and someone would come in- Kisaki would want to make sure Hanma was obeying his orders- it had to seem like he was actually doing something to the girl. He laid on top of her, unmoving. He pinned her hands on top of her to stop her from scratching him or herself.
The door to the girl's room did open. Only then he moved to rub himself against the girl's stomach, and biting her to get a few louder gasps. When Kisaki's bondsman left he fell beside her but kept his hand which was holding hers' above her head. This wasn't enough at all. The place he bit wasn't bruising yet but Hanma needed it had to be more believable.
"See, what I have to deal with? I wonder if Kisaki will actually be fooled. That depends on you too; if I knew you would act to save my skin I wouldn't be doing all these, just so you know." He bit the girl's neck hard and went far enough to draw blood. The girl hissed and wriggled but she was weak. Hanma didn't think it was the influence of the drug alone; the woman looked weak to start with. The prison didn't make her any justice. She looked underweight and all the meat on her bones seemed to be some muscles which was unhealthy.
(Hanma wasn't an expert but he had seen naked women before and none of them looked like the one beside him now. Shiro was a piece of poor art.)
"Sorry but will you forgive me for this? This isn't for my amusement, promise. It's for your future and then you may pay me back by being amusing, yeah?" he whispered. When the girls breaths evened out, he put his clothes back on and left the room.
-SAFE-
The day after the deal with R Cooperation was made, it rained blood.
The red rain was seen in India previously; in 2001, 2006, 2007, 2008 and at the start of this year, 2012. The red rain or Blood rain was caused by a certain algae's spores. It was a weird coincidence but not an impossible event. All news talked about global warming and the odd phenomenon that morning.
Hanma only saw it in the news; it had rained in Nagasaki and Kumamoto as well as east coast of Korea and he was in Tokyo, thus he had no way of observing the weird rain.
Though, it could rain blood in the Tenjiku headquarters soon, literally this time, if Hanagaki Shiro's glare was anything to go by.
She approached him with quick steps- some lesser members staring at her neck, the bruises he left the previous night- before she grabbed his collar and dragged him to her eye level.
"Shall we talk, Hanma?"
The man put on his bored façade but he was smiling internally.
'Ah, you're not broken.'
Shiro was breathing fire when she woke up. Her memory of last night was blurry at best but she knew Izana and Kakucho were the only ones who were aware of her state last night. Kakucho had nothing against her so it had to be Izana who gave the order to Hanma. Then again it made no sense; Hanma was Kisaki's right hand man and wouldn't do anything without talking with Kisaki first. Not that Kisaki would turn down an opportunity to hurt her, to 'remind' her 'her place'. Izana knew who Hanma's loyalty belonged to so he would not order him. He might have ordered Kisaki to do something but why not just order one of his servants to do it?
Then there was the fact nothing happened last night, aside from the obvious marks on her neck. (Why was she getting nostalgic?) Hanma either saved her or- or maybe Kisaki had wanted to remind her, what he could do to her. She needed to cook her own food from now on; she didn't trust that bastard as far as she could move the pinky finger on her left foot.
"Which one of them ordered you to do what happened last night?"
"What happened last night?" the man asked like he had no idea what she was talking about. He had lighted a cigarette on their way to a silent corner of the building.
"Nothing but that only makes everything more complicated." She crossed her arms, "What's your game here Hanma? Or better yet, what did Kisaki tell you to do with me?"
The man leaned forward and tilted his head to the side, "What makes you think nothing happened? I remember a few things myself."
"You can't tell? A woman's body is a little different than yours. We know when something happens; the pain stays with us a little longer."
Hanma leaned back and took a puff from his cigar.
"So it's like that. You don't remember anything?"
"Nothing worth mentioning to you. If it makes you feel better, nothing is clear. If you sang your secrets to me, I don't know."
"Good." He reached a hand to touch her neck, "Izana had left you alone in your room and Kisaki had been snooping. I didn't feel like losing a playmate so I let you off the hook easily. Don't thank me, I'll collect the debt when I want to." Glancing at someone from his shoulder made him take a step back from her, "You won't blow all I've done to spare you, will you?"
The woman's eyes were hooded and her lips a thin line one would think she was holding herself back from lashing out or crying. Hanma smirked and exhaled smoke before leaving. She knew how to play.
"Good girl."
The Haitani Brothers were running an errand for Mochi, walking around in places they normally wouldn't be, when they came across Hanma of all people.
Rindou stopped and nudged Ran before nodding towards the man. His back was turned against them and he looked like he was talking to the wall. After he turned his head towards the two older men, he took a swig from his cigar and said something they couldn't make up before he walked towards the other side of the hallway.
That's when Ran saw Hanagaki against the wall Hanma had been talking to. There were bruises on her neck and she was biting her lip-
The moment she noticed the two brothers she turned pathetic look on her face was into a glare and scowled. (Still, she could not fake the redness of her eyes.) She raised an eyebrow as if questioning their interest and dared them to say something.
"This is the best you can do?" Rindou asked.
She spit to the ground before turning her back and leaving the scene.
"Something happened." Ran stated.
"No shit."
"She's an important player if you still want to take out Kisaki. She literally has the blessing of Izana on the matter."
"I don't believe she can do it."
"She has before."
"Before, it was a child's game." Rindou stated the obvious, "She can't do anything inside this big of a plot. She seemed like she could but see? Something happened to her, something open for everyone to see. It was made to show everyone not to play against Kisaki. Do you still believe she can do something?"
Ran shook his head without much thought. He didn't care whether or not his fellow older sibling would take down Kisaki.
"But it will be amusing to watch her try."
"I heard something happened last night." Izana eyed the two males in front of him.
Kisaki scowled and brought up his defenses.
"What is it to you, Izana?"
"Kisaki, I like you, truly. Your revenge interests me and your wickedness amuses me. Still, if you cause a stir inside the gang, if the equilibrium collapses because of you… You will face consequences."
"What does that have to do with how we play this game?"
"Hanagaki Shiro is a piece like any other, her weight on the scale is obvious but- I don't know if it's because you're younger or you forget how other's act on their feelings- you forget Hanagaki Shiro has got the power to move other pieces as well as herself. If you keep pestering her, she will do something which will hurt both her and us. Mikey has already changed his course… Do you want a coup to happen?"
"I am trying to keep her down so she won't cause shit!"
"Well, your idea of how to do it is wrong. You're adding fuel to the flames and we will have to kill her, such a useful piece, if she gets out of control. That's not what we want is it?"
The younger male glared before getting out of the room without saying anything more. Hanma followed him closely.
"We can take them out, easily, if we add Shiro to the equation which she will want to be included in."
"We don't want Kisaki dead from the same reason we're letting Shiro run a little wild. They're useful."
"Should I do something, Izana?"
"Put someone on their tail. They've been acting like a separate gang; you know what that causes?"
Kakucho nodded and left the room after bowing his head respectfully.
'She's becoming more trouble than she's worth.' Thought the white haired man, 'That liar…'
"Hanagaki…?"
Shiro glanced at the strangely friendly voice and widened her eyes at the male.
"Kazutora…"
He was grown up. His hair back to its original hair color and cut short… The dark circles under his eyes making him look older than he was but not taking away his appealing looks. Yes he looked absolutely beautiful. Shiro wanted to take a bite from his cheek.
"It's been a while." The boy- man nodded. She grinned at her old friend.
"Yeah. Did Mikey send you?"
"He was worried, there are some rumors that you and Hanma-" he grimaced.
"Don't worry about it. Tell me, how are you guys?" she asked and started walking.
"Well enough I suppose. It's been harder since Draken left with Emma- we're not blaming him! We're happy they got away; it was meant to happen- and Mikey is trying his best to make it easier for us."
He glanced around as if to make sure no one heard him. The woman shook her head and opened the door to her room, giving a silent invite to the male. He slowly stepped inside the room and the woman shut the door.
"Don't worry." She whispered to his ear where an earpiece was located. She was holding the man against the door and making sure no listening device was recording what she was saying, "I'll free you guys soon, I just need you to do a few things first. Now, start by spreading the word." She caressed the brunette's hair.
"There will be many tests of loyalty happening inside the gang and people will die; all because of Kisaki Tetta's trust issues."
Keisuke grinned as he threw a hand across Chifuyu's shoulders.
"You got it, girl."
A chuckle was heard through the mic and Toman executives nodded towards each other. Angry got as far as hugging his brother. A little longer… A little longer…
They were setting free.