辻のお嫁さん

It surely was a sight to die for – having Ishigaki all timid, blushy and twitchy over something as minuscule as being face-to-face with a scary looking bastard such as himself. Surely, he knew someone whom he used to work with closely who’d probably give his left, useless, limping leg to switch positions with Arakita right now – and that made it all more worth the while to stick around for now and rub it in deeply, like salt into an gushing wound. Truth be told: Yasutomo did not have a big interest in Koutarou. She looked nice, she was well-mannered and really naive. His boss kept dropping hints here and there how he could see him suited as her future-husband —- and as flattering as it was, he just could not feel a deep, passionate love connection to her. It was somehow tragic… while there was someone there who’d do anything and more in order to be a good person for her, the boss simply couldn’t stand the man. But if Arakita was supposed to marry her, he would not say no. It was just more of a fraud-marriage than anything else. Girls like her were too… perfect for his taste. He liked oddballs, people like himself, who just did not fit in perfectly as much. As harsh as it may sound, she was bland to him, unseasoned, unspiced, just boring. But she did not have to know.

Looking down to the hem of his sleeve, before he looked at her face, a neutral expression bearing his face at all time. He did not like being touched unasked, so he pulled his arm away for her to stop doing that. It was not embarrassing him – he just loved being in charge of the situation and he would make it clear to anyone; even the boss’s daughter. “Say, I’ll grab you a glass of water. Say, I’ll bring you upstairs safely – will you rat me out for staying in your room a little while?” This was just too exciting to do – piss off Tooji – rub him the wrong way until his hair stands on end and he could do nothing but accept it. A filthy smirk appeared on his face as he leaned down a little.

“Give a little, get a little, Ishigaki-san. What do you say?”

reading the mood with arakita was almost impossible. his expression hardly changed from it’s usual irritation, whether he was happy or not. ishigaki wasn’t sure what the man’s feelings were towards her, but she could assume that he wasn’t as fond of her as most. many of the men would openly flirt with her & try to make other’s jealous, but he would do none of that. occasionally, they would have a normal conversation here and there, but that was the extent of their relationship. even if her father constantly hinted that he wanted there to be something between the two of them, she hardly knew a single thing about arakita. it seemed as if it were intentional, he seemed to never show any sort of vulnerable side around her, meanwhile she was easier to see through than glass. something about that attitude made him all the more alluring -- when it came to people that would throw themselves on her, she was quick to try & avoid that sort of thing. it simply showed that they didn’t care about her past her physical appearance. 

gloomykid → gore-y gloomyprince

➜ Play with mine’s hair

      Akihisa didn’t know why he was deciding on sitting on the floor instead of the bed while they were watching a movie – perhaps because he was eating a bowl of ramen and did not want it to spill on his mattress, or perhaps because he didn’t mind being a little closer to the TV than Ishigaki.

                 Though what did surprise him was the feeling of the other’s hand in his hair, stopping mid-movements as he thought about it for a moment, blinking to look up at the other then. Tsuji was a bit ashamed whenever people touched his hair – he thought it wasn’t nearly as smooth and healthy as Koutarou’s, and neither was it anything special. The best thing he did was to wash it, and he was so happy he did not skip said task today because he didn’t want to seem disgusting to the other.

    of course, he was quick to note the other tensing up as he began to openly toy with the other’s hair. ishigaki knew just how the other could get nervous over silly little affections such as this. instead of stopping, he moved at a soft rhythmic pace, as if he were petting an animal rather than a man. with such soothing gestures, he aimed at relaxing the man into it, rather than just stopping at the smallest sign of discomfort. when tsuji spoke up, it was not a request for him to stop the gesture -- it was a joke about how he was touching the other as if he were a puppy. smiling, ishigaki laughed. it was an interesting way to look at it, but if joking around about the whole situation is what made it less awkward, he would joke around till the other was sick of him.

SEND A SYMBOL FOR MY MUSE’S REACTION TO YOURS – ▼kissing them

      At first, Tsuji was merely caught off guard and being surprised by that firm and quick, yet loving kiss he had received from Ishigaki. But once his counterpart moved inches away and realisation washed over him, the taller just felt his face heat up and he could only guess just how reddened it must’ve been till now.

Upon the news that Koutarou had been captured by some Yakuza men outside of their own circles, Tooji felt as if his heart sunk into his stomach and stopped beating altogether. There was talking among the men about how to proceed with this, how to get her back —- he may have been physically there, but certainly not mentally. The look on his face said it all: he was frightened to death. That coming from a man who dealt with death as a business, it was wild. A pale complexion that seemed as lifeless as a white wall, he wasn’t even able to move or blink, he felt as if he was dying from the pain emitting from the core of his chest — what if she was dead, what if she was dead, what if she was hurt severely, what if they raped her——?!?! All these questions and no answer, and all they did was sitting around a table, talking about money value and options how to save her. The question of her whereabouts had long been answered —- a warehouse not far away. It would be reachable within 15 minutes if one ran fast enough, and time was running through his hands like sand, while nobody actually did something.

Standing up from the table, he rammed his fists on the table, an angry look on his face as he stared at their boss. “She is your only daughter, goddammit! WHY ARE WE SITTING HERE? Why don’t you go out and LOOK for her? Don’t you love her?!” Naruko instantly grabbed his shoulder and meant to push him back into his seat, he said something, but Kanzaki would not even be able to listen to him, when his mind was racing 200 miles per hour. “DON’T TOUCH ME!! We can’t just SIT here??? WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING??? SHE MAY BE HURT!!!” Even Tsuji and Arakita hissed and barked towards him to be quiet, but the boss merely looked at him unfazed. None of their words sunk into him, not one sound, it was as if he had gotten deaf and all he could do was read their lips, but the blood boiling so severely in his veins, nothing could get to him anymore.

“You do your thing, I DON’T CARE. I’ll do what I do best – my own thing…” 

With that he just moved in a manner that his chair fell back onto the ground, rushing towards the door and quickly getting into his shoes, not even bothering to tying the laces as he rushed out of the Ishigaki residency.

Tooji didn’t care if he fall flat on his face running with his shoes not even tied up properly, he ran and ran as far as his legs could carry him – checking if he had his weapons on him, and even so, he would go in and fight all the men with his bare hands, if they shoot him, so be it – he would die as someone with dignity – and if meant giving his in order to save hers, he’d be absolutely fine with it. She was an innocent!! She hardly understood anything about that business – it was not fair, it was not fair!! Ishigaki was only a middle-man, she only had the same name as her cruel father, she only lived under the same roof as him, him and her were two individuals that couldn’t have been any more extreme. Surely, she must’ve been 100 % after her mother – and he never thought about it up until now. She must’ve been after her mother, so gentle and kind, so warm and sweet, golden hues as if they were made of 24 karat, raven hair worn with a fragile bow, almost too coy to show her hair in full volume and length to anyone but herself and perhaps the most intimate person she could have in her life… it was not fair…! Why her?! 

Panting like an animal, he arrived at the warehouse and busted in without thinking twice – he spotted the man quickly one level below him as he ran down the iron staircase, “STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER! I SWEAR, IF YOU TOUCHED HER, I WILL KILL YOU!!!” he urged out, still catching his breath as he moved to grab one of his firearms, though as soon as he was on their level, one of the guys used a bat to disarm him. F u c k .

“What do we have here? A rookie? A small fry? Did they send you to trade with her, huh? Funny… you seem really inexperienced.” Those words stung, but he didn’t care – he sure seemed inexperienced just rushing in all by himself, holding his wrist after someone smacked the shit out of it, along with his gun. It was pathetic. But when he spotted Koutarou and saw that she was still moving and alive, it was as if he gained new-found strength, believing that not all hope was lost despite the fact that he was in the lion’s den all by himself. “Rookie, hah?” He chuckled at the guys, clicking his tongue. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with… gamble master numero dos… sure, I’ve seen a few of your faces at the poker table with me once or twice.” Taunting, he was full-on taunting them now! What a risky way – but he didn’t care. He was angry – and so worried – what if they hurt her?! He wanted to check up on her, but he also knew that he had to take care of these guys first.

It took him his entire body’s strength to muscle through this. Beaten and bleeding, he heaved as he tried to collect himself, trying to catch his breath; picking up his gun and putting it back to its holder, he moved over to Koutarou, untying her blindfold carefully, though being as gentle and slow as he could be when he noticed her flinching. “Shhh, it’s ok, it’s me…” The man reassured her, not minding to show her his black-eye and bleeding nose, alongside with any part of his face being messed up. He only got lucky to get a hand of the bat and beating the shit out of these people before they could kill him. Surely, he had gotten a broken rib or two, but that didn’t matter now. Using his knife to undo the rope around her torso and arms, sweat was dripping down his face, smiling oddly even though he was in so much pain. “Did they touch you, love? Did they hurt you?” Kanzaki asked as if it had been natural to ask the person who looked the least hurt while he was in no normal condition at all. The taste of iron really made him sick, but he barely noticed it with his heart racing so insanely against his ribs, he couldn’t help himself but hugging her tightly against his chest despite the pain from the broken bones, he merely wanted to feel her warmth and feel the comfort that she was alive and well… it almost made him cry, but he had to be strong now and get them out of there before any of the men gained consciousness again. “よかた．．．よかた．．．” The blondhead whimpered, as he rocked back and forth with the girl in her arms, pressing his lips against her head in a semi-kiss, though being quick to get up on his shaky legs, pulling her along. “Let’s… let’s go… let’s get out of here, fast… can you walk?” It was outrageous, but despite his body’s state, he’d still be willing to carry her on his back right back to her father’s house, even though anyone would tell him to go to the hospital instead.

she wasn’t sure how her father would react to such a situation -- knowing him, he wouldn’t be fazed by the news that his daughter had been taken in by an enemy family. his worry usually did not show or his face, nor his actions. if he acted as if the capture of his daughter was the end of the world, it was only more likely that they would kill her. and if he didn’t hurry? they might kill her just the same. in these sort of situations, she could only really trust her father to make the right decisions for her. blindly, she would place her trust in the man -- the same way that she always had. as a civilian, she knew that it was not in her power to make decisions. her job was to sit still & wait for someone to come and save her. in every way, she was a princess. she was locked up in her house . . . and every time that she was put in a situation that she couldn’t control, she had to sit back and wait for someone to come save her. ishigaki wouldn’t try to save herself either . . . she knew that she was weaker, dumber, & not armed. she didn’t have the sly brain that it took to be a criminal. not to mention, she wasn’t built very big -- the woman was lucky if she measured up to 5’3”, and weighed half as much as any of her father’s men. as terrible as it sounded, she was a ‘kidnappable size’, anyone could pick the woman up, throw her over their shoulder & she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

so far, no one had touched her aside from transporting her to the building & tying her up. for that she was thankful -- she didn’t know what usually went on during these times . . . but something told her that she was lucky to be left to sit in the corner and not face any terror, aside from the mental terror that she was going through. at this point, there was nothing she could do with her phone. all she could hope was that the men noticed she was missing by now & cared enough to check her location.

she was finally coming to peace with the situation, sitting there with her eyes still covered. however -- the blissful silence was broken by the sound of someone yelling. it startled her so badly that she wasn’t even able to comprehend the yelling. if she wasn’t so afraid maybe she would have recognized the tone of voice as a man from her father’s men. it seemed unreal. she never thought that her father would actually send someone to save her -- she expected her father to make a deal from a safe distance away & make the men who captured her bring her to a specific meeting place, far from the safety of his own home. ishigaki knew that her father would be the absolute last man to come and save her . . . he had appearances to keep & his own safety to worry about. it made her thoughts wander -- was arakita-san worried about her? tsuji-san? kuroda-san? tooji-kun? yasu-kun? naruko-san? they all were kind to her face, but how deep did their worry for her really go? were they worried if the man who was blood - related to her wasn’t even choking up over the disappearance of his own daughter?

once she was able to listen to the voices in the room, she listened to the banter, trying to decipher who was there -- hoping that whoever it was, came there in order to bring her back home with them. the voice was certainly not that of naruko-san or arakita-san, they both had easily recognizable voices. tsuji-san and kuroda-san had too deep of a voice for this one to be them. lastly, it wasn’t as airy & playful as yasu-kun. it had to be tooji, from the way that he spoke with a cool - head, to the way he cracked remarks easily to the men. he was always one to be slick with his tongue -- it was amazing to know that the man who teased her so kindly, telling her soft words of affection could be so cold when speaking to other criminals.

the rest of what she heard, ishigaki tried to tune out. the terrible sounds of fighting, grunts of pain from both sides. because of the blindfold, she was unable to see what was going on -- whether or not tooji was okay & if he was on the winning side of the fight.

once the sounds died down, she heard someone walking over towards her cowering place. with her hands tied up, there wasn’t much that she could do but huddle up to the wall behind her. when the footsteps stopped in front of her, she was unsure of whether she should try her best to crawl away from the person -- even if it looked so pathetic, she was fearing for her own life. when the unknown figure began to untie the blindfold, she flinched out of pure fear -- “n --” she began to mumble, wanting to plead the person not to touch her, that she didn’t know anything. her crying was met with the sound of tooji’s voice. he sounded reassuring, calm still. it sounded childish, but in that moment she was so incredibly happy to have someone that could remain calm in such a situation -- especially considering that the woman had been practically hysterical at that point. the moment that her bounds were removed, she was clinging to the man, completely forgetting her manners. she would bury her face into the other’s chest, tears flowing freely from her eyes at that point. she was choking up on her tears trying to talk. “y -- you really weren’t kidding when you said you’d protect me . . . i was so scared that no one would come for me ---- my dad . . . did he even care?” ishigaki knew that it was a lot to ask of him, in that moment it probably wasn’t even relevant. what was more important was that they got out before any more of the men’s allies came to their aid.

“Don’t mind, don’t mind…” Retorting playfully as he lifted his hands up and showed her that no harm was done, he knew that it was her job to keep up a pretty little facade full of lies for her father – one reason more to hate that guy – but in no way, shape or form was he blaming her. All he offered was his kindness and openness so she could bond with someone. Hell, that girl hardly had any friends, he never saw anyone visiting her, he never saw anyone talking to her, calling her (and it may have been creepy just how attentive he was about Koutarou, but still) – it worried him that she was rotting away like a singing bird in a golden cage. Surely, someone had to reach out a hand to her and be a good friend, right? As much as he loved her in a more romantic sense, he would not turn down the idea to be her best friend in dire times, even if it meant watching her go with another man by her side…

It changed the whole atmosphere once she called him ‘Tooji’ as he asked her to. An honest smile appeared on his face, not one that simply was curling the lips up to a more friendly look, no, one that would brighten up your eyes and make them shine as if they had seen the most beautiful thing they could imagine. It made his heart feel so light whenever she was able to call him just Tooji – no honorifics, no respectful distance, just two people being buddy-buddy with each other. He loved it. He really loved it. “There you go… and your father didn’t magically appear in the kitchen after you dropped the honorific on me either, now did he?” It was in his nature to tease her more and more, though he moved his hand to push against her shoulder playfully, trying to show her that he was merely kidding around. “Would it be too daring to call you Koutarou? Mhm… though… Koutarou-chan has a nice ring to it – it points out just how cute you are. Gotta show a little more respect to you than you to me after all.” 

Rolling his eyes upon her comment, he sighed deeply, “Love, I know you don’t drink. Don’t make me explain my joke.” Tooji added then, gesturing with his hand. “Your dad would cut my tongue out if he heard the word ‘sex’ being mentioned around you, so I’d rather not go into detail about my stupid pun there, heh…” Of course, he was aware that she had gotten the gist of it —- but sometimes he just loved to push the limits a little further and test the waters. As much as she tried to be unreachable and a mystery, he could read her expressions like a book – and each and every single time the story was thrilling him anew. 

“Ah-ah… I was not wandering off… I excused myself to get a smoke… I mean… it’s a long smoke now, isn’t it…” Looking at his wrist-watch, he snickered to himself. “I wouldn’t wander off, your old man has some beef with me…” Smacking his flat hand on his damaged knee, he looked down at it before he’d keep talking. “If it wasn’t for Naruko… I guess… he would’ve gotten rid of me. A slow, limping Yakuza is a useless Yakuza… don’t you think so too?” Of course, it was a rhetorical question altogether – he knew that she had barely an idea of what was going on behind closed doors, when his father called in the man to talk business with them. And as much as Kanzaki wanted to protect her, too, he guessed it would only be fair to let her in on some facts so she would not believe every single lie like a naive child. But he also respected that she did not want to know all of it —- if he had a choice, he would back out, too. It was far too late now, anyway.

“HA-HAH!” Pressing his chest out victoriously as the smaller agreed upon wanting to see his tricks. “You’ll be mesmerised, guaranteed. Too bad I didn’t bring my cards with me tonight…” The man added with regret in his voice, looking a little gloomy about it —- it would’ve been a perfect chance to spend more time with her, really. But who would’ve thought that he was able to have some one-on-one with that adorable girl?! It must’ve been fate. More so, he was unaware of the girl’s attentive nature towards him as well —- surely, he knew how he felt about her father, his boss – about the situation – if it was not for Naruko, how he’d be dead already. Tooji was not welcome, and neither would he welcome them, except for a few people… he really was unaware that his face bore a certain expression when he had to listen to her father —- though it would not surprise him. What would surprise him however is that Koutarou would notice and comprehend so much; if anything, he considered himself way out of her league… it was no secret that her dad wanted her to marry a Yakuza of high rank, someone who’d ensure her a good life without her needing to move a finger herself… Tooji certainly would not be the one, especially not after his beef with the old man. Arakita had a good chance – so did Naruko… perhaps even Tsuji, if it wasn’t for the fact that he handled the prostitutes… and Kanzaki? He was just a handicapped man who was a thorn in their eyes with his aloof nature and his rebellious heart. Even when looking at her face, aside from their personalities and how kind and gentle she was compared to the man and his past jobs he had done… he was no match next to her. Not nearly as good-looking as Shoukichi…! She really was way out of his league… so, why would she notice him or his quirks at all?!

The moment her eyes looked more terrified than before, he felt his heart sink right into his guts, gulping hard; it was true, he was no saint – nobody was at the Yakuza. While right now, he was gambling with criminals and civilians in order to make money for the organisation, he had a more sinister past behind him. That knee of his was no accident per se. It was a lesson learnt to the guy. His department was under Arakita’s supervision – he used to kidnap people, no matter the age or gender – chloroform ready to knock them out, pull them into a van and bring them into a warehouse before they were sold. Human trafficking. Sometimes even blackmailing families and friends, pressing for money or debts that were needed to be paid to the Yakuza. While Kuroda had been in charge of a hitman, Tooji was in charge of being that creep who abducted humans. Some were random picks, such as young females, who’d be good enough to be sold into prostitution, even handing them over to Tsuji sometimes, if they were good enough (or old enough, for the man really didn’t want anything to do with minors, which he honoured him for), sometimes they were sold to criminals and organisations to further the girls outside of Japan for whatever intention, really. But he also targeted criminals alike to knock them out and torture them in order to gain access to information for the Yakuza – and that fateful night, he had to be vis-à-vis with one of these criminals.

He was not fast enough with his actions, thus getting caught and chased down by that person; Tooji never wore weapons on him back in the days, which he drastically changed thanks to the lesson learnt – but all he could’ve done was running for his life, all the while the van with the other men was driven away to save their own asses. Great team play! But that’s exactly what struck him that night —- there was no brotherhood or team play among Yakuza, just yourself and your own damn life. Luckily (if you could say so), he was shot in his knee and if it was not for Arakita on high-alert, gunning down the opposing criminal, it would’ve been Tooji dead instead. But of course, Yasutomo never let the other live down that experience —- the fact that they had access to important information, and the chance being gone now with the target dead on the ground, it was a big losing streak for their organisation… and a bigger losing streak for Arakita as the head of that department. He never forgave Tooji for that mishap, announced proudly “I will never again work with this mess; he was a useless fuck-up, he is a useless fuck-up and now he will always be a handicapped useless fuck-up!” —- words stung worse than any pain that his destroyed kneecap could’ve given him… and hardly anyone stuck up to him… if Yasuhiro had more of a saying, he had asked for the man to work under his wing… but it was only thanks to Naruko’s influence that he’d still be well and alive. A bad guy? Sure… Tooji was that. He was a bad guy… but he did his time, he got punished for his crime, he felt the remorse each and every single time he looked at Koutarou’s face, the innocent golden hues that would stare at him full of wonder and curiosity, it… it broke his heart. He was a monster trying to make up for his mistakes, and it hurt him to see that fear on her face when he was merely joking around. 

Therefore, he dropped that topic — sometimes it was best to bury certain facts and let them rest in peace.

Though, the torture was not over; the moment she grabbed his wrist and looked at him with such naive eyes, he felt a pain strike right into his chest, knotting and furrowing his brows in anguish. He was undeserving of her, really. Not struggling much when she let go of his hand, he felt it sink down, though catching himself mid-thought and reaching out to caress her porcelain cheek gingerly with mere fingertips, as if he was scared to break her if he touched her any more than that. “I’ll protect you from anyone and anything. You have my word on that. You may not trust us Yakuzas which is a smart thing… but I give you my word as Kanzaki Tooji… not as some beat-up push-over of your father’s.” Combing strands of hair and tucking it behind her ear, he gave her a weak smile before taking the offer of the snack. Perhaps he should keep that instead of eating it? Keeping it in his pocket and remembering that night when she had actually offered him a snack with a bright smile on her face, that night she called him ‘Tooji’ – would that be too much? While looking at the snack, it felt as if sadness was washing over him… gulping hard, he really did not want to get sentimental now, it was foolish. Looking at her golden eyes, he tried his best to smile at her. “You should go to your room. I don’t want you to get into trouble, love.”

it was true that ishigaki was incredibly lonely -- she wasn’t necessarily allowed to have any friends, they would only be put in danger unless they were already tied up in her father’s business in one way or another. however,  it was very rare for any women to be bothered with these things . . . much less the daughters of men that held no weight in the world. if anything, she was a rarity; a single daughter of a yakuza boss, one who had no other children aside from her. of course, she would be his only daughter for all of time too -- ishigaki’s mother was long out of the picture. she hadn’t been given a detailed explanation on the disappearance of her mother, but she knew that it wa best not to ask questions on the matter. she was content with any little knowledge that her father decided to give her. asking for more would have been seen as ungrateful & unfortunately, her father was her biggest ally at the moment. as harsh as he could be, he was ultimately trying to protect her -- he put a house over her head and fed her. what more could a daughter ask of her father? he may not have been the loving father that most children had, but unlike most children she had an entire barrage of her father’s men ready to die for her at a moment’s notice. if that wasn’t what love felt like, then she didn’t know any other. these men cared about her father’s respect & his daughter’s safety so much that they would be willing to throw their entire life on the line for either one of them. it was more brave than ishigaki would ever be. despite being surrounded by death, the woman was terrified of dying. she’d never been scared of the monsters under her bed or in her closet, but rather the men out for her blood with a vengeance to pay her father.

she couldn’t help but laugh just a bit at tooji’s comment. he was just joking around with her, but she really did think that her father was everywhere. when you had a parent that controlled an entire sub-section of the country, it was hard to believe that he didn’t have control of every single word uttered in his own house. “aaaa, knock it off.” ishigaki said, laughing as she spoke. she gave the man a playful shove, though it didn’t move him far -- if at all. when he brought up dropping the honorific on her name, she wanted to warn him about getting in trouble . . . though, he really did just point out that her dad would not just randomly appear in the kitchen in the first instance. she really didn’t know when to lighten up -- it was somewhat embarrassing. even after his jokes, she still was tense in the shoulders. “i think koutarou-chan is cuter.” she agreed with the man, wanting to help settle his decision. it wasn’t necessarily about the respect for her, it was more that ‘chan’ was often an honorific dropped by close friends. that’s the kind of feeling that she wanted to get from them, that they were close friends.

blinking, ishigaki knew that she shouldn’t have been surprised by the affectionate names that she was called . . . but each time that tooji used them, she found her heart skipping a beat. “oh --” of course she had picked up on generally what he was going for, though she thought that it was merely the name of a drink rather than an innuendo. the smaller didn’t want to ask further into it, since she found saying such a lewd word out loud a bit too scandalous for her tastes. if anything, she avoided talking about such instances at all, she was an unwed woman & didn’t want to be caught speaking of such things with a man she wasn’t even promised to.

huffing at the man’s explanation, she scolded. “you know those are bad for you.” tapping her foot in place of yelling, she placed a light smack to the other’s cheek -- certainly not nearly enough to hurt the man, considering that she wasn’t the strongest of them all. “i thought that you were trying to quit.” despite the fact that she was acting like a mother scolding her child for doing something out of line, she continued to listen to him. ishigaki didn’t know the details -- per usual -- on just what happened to kanzaki, but she could blatantly see that he walked with a limp on the one - side. that damage was easily traced back to something to do with her father, but what exactly it was, she was unaware. “why would you say that?” her big eyes were back to looking him directly in the eye -- instead of looking fearful or anxious, they now looked upset. it hurt her to know that tooji would say such terrible things about himself. “you know, not everything has to be a fight. there is no reason that injury should mean that you are useless.” it felt weird to be lecturing him on this when she truly did know nothing about what the other had to do, or the things that he was involved with. “i know that it’s not my place to speak for you . . . i really don’t know a lot, but you’re still more useful than me. n -- not that it’s hard to be that.“ her brows furrowed in obvious frustration, knowing that there was nothing that she could necessarily say that would hold any weight for tooji. she was like a young child trying to lecture a school teacher on the material.

she figured that the man was trying to buy some time with her by doing card tricks, so she understood the gloomy look that she gave him. but of course, they would be able to see each other other times . . . though, maybe not in such a private situation as this. they were lucky to have a few moments to talk to each other without anyone else around them to monitor the way that they spoke, searching for a reason to be suspicious of their words. “if you come over sometime . . . just stop up and visit me, you’ll know where i am.” she would be hidden up in her room like usual. if he snuck off quietly enough, no one would even know that he was upstairs with the girl rather than loitering around the house for a cigarette, doing nothing. it felt risque to ask the man to visit her in her personal bedroom. hopefully, he wouldn’t take the invitation as an innuendo for inappropriate things -- she truly had the most innocent intent in her invitation. “just please make sure that no one sees you. y -- you know why.” ishigaki’s face turned slightly red as she explained it to him. tooji was not a man that she necessarily had to tell that to, but . . . she felt as if sharing it in order to look out for him & for her was best.

the girl could see it in his eyes, the way that he noticed her own fear -- the way that his face faded into disappointment. it was wrong of her to take a joke and not simply just laugh it off . . . but she couldn’t help but have her mind wander. “sorry.” she said, assuming that tooji knew just why she was apologizing for.

                  Of course there was more to the movie than he had explained; but there was one thing Tsuji disliked, and that something was to spoil a movie for other people. He himself wouldn’t hold back slapping a person laying down the entire movie plot or surprising twists to him, when the reason to watch a movie was to have some ‘woah’-effect after all, right? It wasn’t his intention however to scare the living hell out of the smaller. Well, not primarily, that is.

            Though, Akishia couldn’t help but smile at the tiny flinch he noticed, tending his head with a somewhat kind smile, though it was barely moving his facial muscles, but still it felt as if he did so. The only disappointment he felt was when Koutarou decided to press himself against the corner of the couch instead of against the taller male. Clearly, he wouldn’t mind – and perhaps he could make him ease up, despite he himself not believing such all too much, with a face like his own it was more likely he’d be another jumpscare for his boyfriend, sadly so. But there were good thoughts, and he wanted to help the other.

      “You don’t look so fine all tensed up in that corner. Reminds me of your pet turtle hiding in its shell, to be honest. So much for hero in a half shell, I guess…” Akihisa then mocked the other playfully, giving as much as a smirk to somehow manifest that this wasn’t serious talk there. Slowly, he reached out his hand and grabbed the man by the sleeve of his shirt, pulling him closer before he used the same arm to wrap around the other and pull him close and tightly against his chest and shoulder before leaning his head on top of Ishigaki’s.

            For him that movie was old news; he knew it by heart already and all it did to him was making his eye lids feel heavy and droopy. Yes, he even went as far as to close them and relax with his counterpart so close by his side, merely listening to the tensed up, eerie music, the noises and people having conversations. Honestly, he could fall asleep like that, but he also knew he’d get woken up the moment anything spooky was happening and therefore it wasn’t worth the while. “We can stop watching if you can’t handle it. Or we can pick another one. As long as we stay close like this, I am not too picky about the background noises.” He then commented, degrading the movie to nothing more than noise in the background, though that was exactly how he felt about it right now.

                  “A cartoon would be more your thing?” Tsuji then asked as he peeked down onto the other with one eye, unaware that this might’ve come off as a challenge for his partner to stick with this movie instead, due to the somewhat childish label he was giving him unintentionally.

unfortunately for ishigaki, he assumed that his boyfriend would have tol dhim the outline of the movie, nothing left out -- only because that would calm him down. but it seemed that he was putting far too much faith in the man, especially since the other wanted to see him jump & cringe at the scares in the movie for entertainment. he would get to see so too, considering that anything small was enough to make ishigaki twitched out of fear. 

   his idea to hide in the corner was not doing him any good either, considering that he couldn’t exactly hide from pictures on a screen. instead, he just told himself; 我慢や我慢や、光太郎. it was the best kind of reassurance that he could give himself in that moment. of course, his knowledge on horror movies was very limited, so he wasn’t going to be calling the man out on his rather mean prank anytime soon. he would just have to endure the movie with a look of horror painted on his features through the majority of it. as long as tsuji was enjoying himself, he would be happy to get himself scared witless. 

for a bit, his thoughts were dragged off the movie as tsuji teased him about the resemblance he had in that moment to his pet turtle. what a jerk!! of course, he was joking as well. there was no point in taking anything personal. “it’s not my fault.” he huffed as he was pulled into the other’s grasp. ishigaki’s position on the end of the couch had not been personal, it just seemed less pathetic than him clinging to the other out of fear.

now he was able to freely cling to the man, considering that the other had been the one to encourage him closer. this way, he was sure that he could endure the movie -- if he had to, he would bury his face into the other. tsuji would likely laugh at him for it, but it was better to give him some kind of entertainment. all that he cared about was his boyfriend enjoying himself. they could watch a movie that he would have enjoyed more any other time . . . he really didn’t want to be the kind of person that midousuji was to onoda. ishigaki was far better at being open than that lizard. 

A huge smile adorned his face as she greeted him back cold as ever; it was expected of her after all, but he felt like a broken record when he instructed her over and over, “Please, I told you to drop the ‘-san’, Koutarou-chan. Just Tooji.” though he would be lying if he denied that his heart was fluttering with excitement over the fact that she stopped referring to him as Kanzaki-san, and instead used his given name as he told her to. Slowly, but steadily, this would move the right direction, or so he thought. Maybe it was just inside his head, but he could tell himself over and over yet again that she was merely shy and actually liked him… wishful thinking, but he really hoped it to be true.

“A drink, hah? So, what did you want: a glass of red wine? Gin Tonic? A can of beer? Or maybe… sex on the beach?” Winking at her despite the fact that she had turned to look away in her natural coy state, she couldn’t help that flirtatious personality of his – mostly not when he was around Ishigaki of all women. “Just kidding…” He added with a snort, seeing the glass of water and making sure she’d take the joke properly – he was not here to get her drunk, if anything, he was here to shoo her back to her room before her father saw her.

Standing up tall again, he sighed and nodded, “Yupp, a whole bunch’a people. They talk numbers and finances… Yasuhiro is better at this than me…” Kanzaki retorted with a purr, smirking at her – of course, the guy responsible for the money laundering was the best pick for the finances, again, he just attempted to be oh-so funny and crack her to smile or giggle. Nothing was cuter than to see her happy, really. “I’m better with card tricks than numbers… oh! I learnt a new trick… should I show you sometime? You liked my last card trick, didn’t you?” He failed to mention that Shoukichi was the one teaching him all these tricks – but then again, he also did not want her to start falling for the redhead. Being the person who taught him all these tricks, he’d surely sound more impressive than good ol’Tooji with the limp, right? Though, he was not even insecure about that limp – among gangsters it was a real trait, a sign of a real man… but sometimes, he couldn’t help but to wonder how Koutarou was thinking about him and if she considered him handicapped and pitied him for that… that’s the least he wanted!

“Pfff–” He breathed out as he meant to stop himself, though cackling eventually. “Me? Ratting you out. Oh yeah, sure thing, honey. I get off being the bad guy and being mean to cute girls…” Joking around, he shook his head then, “Nah. We all have a promise made to each other never to tell your father if we saw you walking around. It ain’t fair to you. And I don’t like your old man too much, so I wouldn’t start kissing up his butthole. I leave that to the others, I do my thing and hope that Naruko gives his vote for me so I won’t sleep with the fishes, haha…” It did concern him when she said that her own father would kill her – truth be told, if anything, that guy had to be scared of the poker man #2. Surely, he wouldn’t hesitate to blow his brains out if he were to threaten that one girl he had set his heart on. “He won’t kill you. He’s your father. No father would do any harm to their offspring, and even so…” Moving his hand to poke her button nose, he smiled, “…I’d protect you from him.” pointing towards one of the snacks. “Spare me one? I’ve got the munchies, too…”

despite the fact that he asked her to drop the honorific with him, she couldn’t help but think that it was far too intimate to call him by his first name without anything after it. it couldn't have caused much harm when the two of them were alone, but she really had to watch her steps carefully in front of others. if they went back to her father saying that she was having strange relationships with one of his men -- while an unwed virgin, they would certainly be accused of things that while they may not have been guilty of . . . her father would have been paranoid of. “sorry, tooji.” she said, feeling awkward about being so informal. even if he said it was fine . . . it was still strange. he may had been close to her for a yakuza member, but he still wasn’t entirely close. just more - so than the rest. 

“i don’t drink alcohol.” she reminded him, even though she wasn’t completely naive to the implications of his joke. she saw right through what the other was saying -- but she couldn’t allow herself to react strongly or else he would know that it got to her. it was her job to be sure that she was a prude towards men . . . and if she wasn’t, her father would be truly angry with her. it was bad enough that she was out when she wasn’t supposed to be, but now she was there with a man she was certainly not allowed to be seen with. 

finally, she allowed herself to face him -- though his petty flirting was far from over, at least now they were talking about something that would somewhat deter him from dirty talk. as long as he wasn’t being entirely lewd, she could handle the things that he was saying. smiling at his statement, she said. “well it’s not wonder that you’re off wandering.” while she knew that tooji was a similar kind of man to the others, he would much rather run off than deal with the details of things. numbers & the likes were not his style to worry about. “i’d love to see it sometime.” the way he offered to show her card tricks reminded ishigaki of a child desperately trying to impress his mother. it was adorable when he would come to her with these sort of things . . . it made her able to forget the terrible things that her father had told her of him . . . even if just a little bit. watching him play around with cards was far better than seeing him looking depressed in front of her father -- it was amazing how the company could change one man’s mood so drastically. 

of course, his words were meant to be a joke -- but ishigaki couldn’t help but think back to the things her father said once again. sometimes, she wasn’t sure if she was being manipulated by him, or if these men were just skilled in playing around like civilians. the whole time that he laughed it off, there was a certain look of fear in the woman’s eyes at the mention of being a bad guy. it almost made her want to excuse herself & run straight to her room -- just like her father would have wanted. it didn’t help the he mentioned not being all too loyal towards her father . . . maybe, as her father’s daughter he wanted to take that hatred out on her. it was all silly little paranoid thoughts running through her head. 

@ishiyxn

Being semi-involved in this usually was a bad thing; that applied for the Yakuza as well. 

Yasuhiro was not in charge of any department, really – he could’ve been if he wanted to, but he meant to be humble about it, therefore stayed in the shadows. The easiest work to do was to take care of the money laundering. Though, their boss made sure that he wasn’t actually doing anything, merely giving orders here and there for some low-end criminals. Figuratively speaking, he could’ve put himself on the same level as Tsuji or Arakita… but he refrained from doing so. It was a dangerous game to play. Everyone was competitive of one another. While he had seen the fair share of family-bonding among the Mafia that had paid them a visit, that was nowhere near the case with the Japanese men. They were out for blood on each other, really. And Kazu just didn’t have it in him to compete under such circumstances. 

Though, it would not stop him from feeling somewhat anxious – especially when the boss’s daughter was paying him a visit in his apartment.

“Ishigaki—- san…!?!?!” 

Was she sent out to spy on him? Was she sent out to kill him? No, no, she wouldn’t do the dirty work – there must’ve been some assassin in the vicinity. Kuroda?!?! Closing the door a little bit, he merely peeked out with one eye, trying to smile at her though seeming nervous.

“How come such a pretty girl is paying me a visit this late? D-Did your dad send you?”

exiting the car, she asked the men if they were at the correct house . . . considering that she didn’t recognize the exterior. when the men nodded, she was dropped off & left in the dust by the two men. it left her all on her own to go up and ring the doorbell -- she didn’t even know who would answer!!　怖いですね.

the man that answered the door was someone that she recognized very easily, someone a bit more familiar than the rest. “yasuhiro-san . . .” she said quietly, a sigh of relief escaping her. it seemed that her father had given the man even less of a warning that she had. in her hands, she held a note from her father explaining the reasoning behind his daughter’s sudden appearance at his doorstep. “i apologize for knocking on your door so late.” she said, holding the note out for him to take. during these meetings, the only men allowed in the household were her father’s two closest men -- arakita yasutomo & tsuji akihisa. she wasn’t sure why of all people, she was taken to yasu-chan’s house to spend the remainder of the night . . . but she could easily see why tooji-kun was far out of question. 

These meetings sucked; they were boring. That’s all that Arakita could tell himself over and over inside his head. While he was there reporting to his boss alongside with Kuroda, Tsuji, Naruko, Kanzaki, Kazu and some other men, they were all sitting around a table in the kitchen. It was serious and he was probably supposed to give his two cents into this – but instead he gave Kuroda a side-glance, “Excuse me for a moment.” he mentioned towards the boss who waved him off merely, getting up to head towards the restroom. Yasutomo didn’t even have to pee, he just wanted to wash his face with cold water first. Tonight (luckily) was a meeting of only the bigger heads of their organisation —- sure, a few were still lacking, but at least it wasn’t any drunkards or low-end criminals. He’d suppose the boss rarely would even talk to them —- that’s why he got underling heads like Arakita, who took it upon himself to keep the lower guys in check. But technically, he put Kuroda in charge of that, because he had gotten sick of talking to street rats. 

After he moved out of the restroom, he saw a shadow sneaking around in the hallway, squinting his eyes towards the small frame – as he snuck behind them, he soon realised it was Koutarou. With long strides, he grabbed her shoulder a little rougher than he intended to, pulling her back before she would’ve walked into the trap that was the kitchen. “The fuck you’re doing here…” He hissed towards her, letting her collect herself after the scare and such, though hushing her as he pressed his flat hand on her mouth. When they were quiet, one could hear the chit-chatting from the kitchen, so he nodded towards the kitchen’s direction as if he wanted to say ‘You hear that, you idiot?’ pushing her away by her shoulders to get some distance between the round in the kitchen and the two of them.

“What are you doing down here anyway? You need something from the kitchen? I won’t tell your dad, but if you’re gonna walk in there, you rat yourself out, just saying…”

for that one moment, she was more terrified than she had ever been in her entire life. she was pretty protected by her father & never had to worry much about danger -- there was a few slip ups that put her into pretty bad situations . . . but for a yakuza princess, her life had gone pretty normally. that was her father’s intention after all -- she was to marry a man already in the business that her father deemed worthy of leading his gang in his place, rather than teaching ishigaki how things worked. she was far too kind, & far too rabbit -  hearted to put up with the bloodshed that her father could orchestrate without batting an eyelash. he knew this, that’s why he went through so much to keep his daughter as far from all of it as he possible could. 

it was startling to be pulled back, but the gesture was done with ease -- leaving her staring up at a rather pissed off - looking arakita. of course he would be angry with her!! she was blatantly breaking her father’s rules. the look of fear faded from her face once she fully understood the situation, quite grateful that the other covered her mouth since she knew herself that she probably would have screamed. ishigaki allowed the man to push her around with ease, knowing that he was doing it to protect her, rather than to bully her. of course, they knew each other by name -- but by no means were they familiar with each other. while tsuji was the left hand of her father, arakita was the right. meaning that he was someone very, very well liked by his boss. that alone made her grateful for his help, considering that he was the exact man that was supposed to report this kind of behavior.