Hanagaki Shiro didn't have a routine. It was hard to make one when you were a Yakuza member. Sometimes she had to go to a meeting at the morning, join a cleanup at noon, patrol around the clubs at night or help keep the boss alive at midnight.
It was one of those days when she slept through the day and woke around 3 p.m. She had to oversee a shipment with Akashi. It was a usual thing what he did today, this weapons trade. The reason she had to join him was because his everyday companion- who was another surprising name: Imaushi Wakasa- had overdosed two days ago thus Shiro was stationed on the port with him. After all she was the to-go person of any of the higher echelon members who needed favors, for she was easy to get along with so long as the pleading party was respectful.
(Everybody knew what happened to those who acted like she was a servant and they could claim her help for free.)
"I heard some disturbing things few weeks prior. Are you ok?" the advisor with a cigarette in his mouth asked.
Shiro scowled at him without looking.
"Mind your own damn business, old man."
"Ouch…" the man mimed hurt in a mocking way, "I'm only in my early thirties."
"That's ancient even for me. And I'm a sucker for older men."
He chuckled, "Sorry, you don't fit in my criteria of a partner."
The woman smirked.
Everything went to hell.
The first explosion happened a few yards away from them. It didn't mean the enemy- whoever that was- would miss a second time.
Akashi started barking orders but by the second explosion, he too was running alongside her.
She was taken down by a man that came from behind a container. A gun was pressed on her stomach while the other hand of the male grasped her face, closed her mouth to keep her silent.
He parted his lips to perhaps say something but a gunshot to the back of his head send him collapsing to the ground; Shiro's face slick with blood.
She averted her eyes from the corpse on her feet to the blonde male who had made the shot.
"I didn't know you were here."
"Information reached us too late." Answered one Haitani Ran. His navy blue suit was too clean that the woman almost envied him.
Reaching down and taking the fallen man's gun was the smart thing to do and that was what Shiro exactly did. She wasn't allowed to have her own gun still, so she remained unarmed.
"Do you know to whom these guys belong to?"
"We have a few assumptions…" he quietened down as she showed him the emblem she found on the man's gun.
Black Dragons' emblem was still a bleeding wound inside her heart. The tattoo was one thing she shared with her best friends. But this wasn't the tattoo she had on her upper back.
The emblem had changed with every generation; the 10th generation's being the most unusual because of the changes Shiro brought it. Both she and Akashi would recognize this emblem that was used by two generations in a row. They would recognize all of them. Black Dragons' knew their past, it was impossible not to- it simply was that kind of a gang-
8th generation, for some reason, seemed angry with their boss.
Ran, to his credit, had reflexively pointed his gun at her upon reaching the conclusion she had.
The sleeping dragon was awake and craved blood.
"What are you playing at Hanagaki?"
"Are you blind?" Shiro gaped at his quick but wrong thinking, "That's 8th generation's emblem. Izana's emblem."
"It's Black Dragons' emblem. In which you belong."
"So does Akashi, Shion, Izana. Hell, two of them used this emblem! Not me!"
The man looked considering but did not take his gun down.
"You're not loyal to us."
"I have better ways of taking you down than to disturb a shipment if I ever decide it."
"Oh? Tell me Hanagaki, how many ways have you thought of to take us down?"
Shiro's eyes- although narrowed- remained unaggressive. She kept both of her hands beside her, didn't raise the gun in her hand. She shook her head.
"We don't have time for this-"
Another explosion went off, the third and biggest one of the day, and both Shiro and Ran crouched down on the ground.
Before they could get back up, a hard blow to the back of his head knocked him out, leaving the woman alone to defend herself.
Ran woke up in a cold and empty room; putting aside him, the chair he was tied to, Hanagaki Shiro and the chair she was tied to.
She seemed like she was still out of it. He couldn't understand why she was wet to the bone or why she had shackles while he was tied by a rope, still he felt his mistrust against her melt away. Side of her head was bleeding and the blood was dripping to the floor from her chin.
He turned his head to observe the rest of the room once more and with the littlest movement of his neck a hard pain shot through his back. He was knocked out rather barbarously.
Shiro's eyes opened in a swift movement and tilted her head to look at him.
"You woke up before anyone came for us." She stated.
"How long have you been pretending?"
"About half an hour. It's too quiet."
"Lovely." He muttered out. He wondered where Rindou was; knowing his brother he must've been looking for him.
He glanced at his fellow captor and mused how many thing they had in common. He wondered if her brother was looking for her too or was he on the run from her? It was hard to tell with their kind of siblings, they were nothing like him and Rindou.
Yet here she was, with him, in this place, bloody… How bloody she was; how bloody clever, how bloody terrifying, how bloody breathtaking…
It had caused his heart to tremble when he thought she was making her move against the gang. When he thought she was behind the bombing it sent chills down from his neck to his back. He thought about being the one to turn her in, bring her to Izana so he could give her a punishment. Would it be death? Would it be something more painful?
Would she break under it?
The woman's cough got him out of his mind and to the present. He was screwed, as much as if not more than the girl. She knew nothing, she was just a hunting dog but he was a damn executive. He was with Izana ever since they were damn kids. He knew about him, about the gang he made the most after the man himself and Kakucho, his most loyal servant.
"What do we do?" he asked the woman, he sure as hell had no idea.
"I don't see anything we can do aside from waiting." Shiro answered. It seemed she had no idea what to do either.
Again, how alike they were.
Two days passed. There was still nothing and no one coming to their rescue; nothing and no one coming to torture them, to try to take answers out of them, no one to bring them water, food…
If they were doing this intentionally, it meant they found one damn good way of tormenting people. He felt ready to crack, to scream at someone anyone to take him away from this place. This place that smelled like shit and sweat and old blood…
Hanagaki wasn't so different compared to him. She, unlike him, kept her eyes closed. He couldn't tell if she was sleeping or awake. He would have assumed she was dead if not for her loud, unnerving breaths.
He felt his eyes closing despite his wishes and didn't resist it any longer. He let the sweet sleep take away his suffering for a little while.
When he woke up again he was out of that room.
'Did I die?' he asked himself before he rose on the bed he had been laid on.
Looking around he understood he was still away from home, Tenjiku's headquarters; the place was unfamiliar and bland. The air of it disturbing.
When he tried to get out of the bed, he found out he could not do such a thing for his hand was handcuffed to the headboard. His nerves tightened even further, he did not like this position he was in.
The door to the place he was resting in opened and an old woman in formal kimono entered the room.
"Good morning." She said with a neutral face, "Someone will come in to inform you of your current situation, till then is there anything I can get you?"
"Water." He croaked out. His mouth, throat and every last part of his body had been crying for that one particular thing.
The woman didn't talk as she walked inside the room, took out a bottle from the small nightstand beside the bed and helped him drink it all, little by little. The coldness left a cutting sensitization on his lips as he drunk it greedily but perhaps he couldn't care less. If not for the old woman he would drown it in seconds, even though he knew it would hurt him to do that. It took a few minutes for the bottle to dry up. He took a deep breath and coughed it out.
The woman had taken a step back and was waiting on the side for any other requests. He didn't have any if not for-
"The woman." he said, "The woman with me- in the room- where is she?"
The attendant looked at him with narrowed eyes,
"I'm not supposed to talk about her."
"Is she alive at least?"
"You can ask the one who will come to answer your questions, boy. Don't ask me anything."
He swore from under his breath and exhaled through his nose. He didn't ask anything else to the hag.
Soon- but not enough for his patience- a man in a suit arrived through the door and gave him an assessing glare.
"Haitani Ran."
The woman bowed before taking her leave. Ran looked towards the unknown man in the eyes before answering.
"Nice to see you know whom you kidnapped."
"You weren't the one we had in mind when we decided to carry out that operation."
"Who were you trying to capture then?"
"That's none of your business. If you value your life more than your companion you will follow the ru-"
"Is she alive?"
The man's glare deepened when Ran cut his sentence.
"Even though her best efforts on the opposite… She is lucky we sent one of our more level headed guys to her room and even he didn't have it in him to leave her unscratched."
He snorted through his nose and grimaced when it hurt. Smell of blood filled his nose once again.
"As I was saying," the man continued, "If you follow the rules through this conversation, you will not be harmed. I will ask two questions and take two answers in exchange for one of your questions. You will not cut me off when I'm talking. Understood?"
"No wonder you had trouble with her…" Ran put up his bored expression, "I promise you will find me more pleasant of a compant compared to her. She tends to bring out the most… angry in others."
"A mild way to put it." The man commented.
So the interrogation started.
"Where are Tenjiku's headquarters?"
"I can't say."
"How many executives does Tenjiku have?"
"More than five, less than twenty. Who are you guys?"
"You don't expect me to answer that, boy."
"Two answers in exchange for one, I thought?"
"You didn't give me two answers. Where is Tenjiku's headquarters?"
"You know I won't answer that even if you torture me."
"Are you loyal to Tenjiku?"
"I am loyal to my gang. Who are you people?"
"Against my better judgment, some of our members started calling us The Ghosts."
"You don't like your name, huh?"
"How long have you been in Tenjiku?"
"From the day it was born."
"When was Tenjiku born?"
"More than ten years ago. Who were your targets on that port?"
"Akashi Takeomi and Imaushi Wakasa. Who is Tenjiku's leader?"
"…two leaders of Tenjiku have different names."
"Who are the two leaders of Tenjiku?"
"I can't say. But don't you already know?"
"Obey the rules, boy. How many shipments Tenjiku has received this month?"
"I don't know."
"Who oversees shipments?"
"As you might have thought, Akashi. Why did you target him and Imaushi?"
"We wanted their prowess for ourselves. Who is the woman we brought here with you?"
"You don't even know that? She could've been anyone."
"Who is that woman?"
"Fetch dog of Tenjiku. A low ranked member."
"What's her name?"
"I'm not sure. Something in the lines of Hana, I think."
"Don't lie."
"I'm telling the truth. It was Hana-something."
"You know that woman."
"I only know what I've heard in work."
"What have you heard about her?"
"That she fucked one of the executives."
"Which-"
"My turn! I answered way too many questions… Obey the rules, old man. Why are you fixated on her? Do you know her?"
"…She was there in state of Imaushi Wakasa. Why was she there in state of him?"
"She fetches for any high ranked member. She's like a house servant."
"The executive she had an affair with… Are they in a relationship?"
"Haha, no. You won't get any ransom for her. What will happen to me now?"
"Depends on your gang. Ask me another; I am done with my questions."
"Where is this place?"
"A hotel in Hachijo."
"Hachijo-!"
"Yes, welcome to our beautiful island."
"Just give up Imaushi and take Haitani back. We can't give Akashi up and Hanagaki is the least of our worries."
Kisaki's words echoed inside the silent room. Akashi and Mikey narrowed their eyes to the young man; Rindou was too invested on his brother's rescue to care about his words.
A group they knew nothing about…
Izana scowled at the current situation. Behind him Kakucho met Kisaki's gaze.
"It isn't about placing and replacing members. This is politics and if we give up any of our loyal members to these people-"
"Loyal?!" The man sounded betrayed, "Hanagaki Shiro would burn this building to the ground in the first given opportunity! She is not loyal to anyone in this building!"
"Everyone thinks she is. She gets along with many members, helps in every way she can… Even some of the executives don't get that much work done. She has somehow become a known figure inside the gang."
Izana smiled annoyedly, he wondered if Shiro had been working her way into the members' minds. She really was a headache to deal with.
"What do we do now?" asked Hanma. He had been silent most of the meeting.
"I recommend proceeding slowly, one by one." Akashi kept his level headed look, "We take Ran, exchange him with someone- it has to be either me or Waka- then we give orders to that person and while we try to find a way to bring them back here; they spy those guys."
"We take them down from the inside?"
"That would take longer. A few years at best and we don't have that kind of members we can put there to-"
"Let Hanagaki do it."
Everyone looked at Hanma who just made the suggestion. Kisaki raised an eyebrow.
"They are trying to get rid of her. Why would they let her-"
"They don't know who she is." Izana stated, nodding towards the lean man, "They don' even know her name."
"How can they not know the name of the person they kidnapped?"
"I think she managed to look like a nobody to give us a chance at bargaining." Kakucho almost smirked.
"If we blow her cover…" Akashi looked thoughtful.
"I don't understand; what does it change if they know her name or who she is?" Mikey asked.
"They were after Imaushi and Akashi here."
He blinked, "Wait…" his eyes widened with discovery.
"They have something against- or for- ex Black Dragons it seems."
"And she is the last commander of them."
The older guys exchanged glances.
"Do you think she figured what they were after and purposefully lead them away from her identity, Akashi?"
"Might be. She's smart enough…"
"Shame we will have to blow away her cover."
"Wait." Mikey rose to his feet, "We still don't know if they are against the Dragons or not. What if they want to hunt them down? They will kill Hanagaki as well as Wakasa."
"What are we supposed to do? Let them have Ran?" asked Kisaki. Rindou looked up at the name of his brother, "Ran is our priority right now. He's an executive. We will see what to do with the rest after we get him out of there."
And Mikey's world trembled a little.
"You're the tenth leader of Black Dragons."
Shiro raised her head to meet the eyes of the male who tried to interrogate her. Her cheek still stung after a week.
"A week, huh? Is that how much they waited to blow my cover?"
"The fucking 10th generation captain, the second biggest generation, the one when the gang was allied with the founders' brother… This bloody girl was the captain."
"That's rude."
"You're rude."
Shiro observed the older man and a bad feeling crept around in her gut.
"What have they done?"
The male looked at her and somehow softened his scowl.
"Haitani will be returned to them; in exchange they won't go into war with us… We will have you as our guarantee that they will not make any moves against us."
"And which one of my… qualities makes me such a good hostage?"
The man shrugged.
"We care that you're a Black Dragons commander but what made them guaranteed to be friendly with us was because you're their boss's partner. Man, 8th and 10th generation together, you could've surpassed the first…"
Shiro smiled like an idiot and wondered whatever the hell Izana had been sprouting around.
-TBC-
