CHAPTER TWO: THE FIRST TO BREAK
The thing about Chifuyu Matsuno was that he loved that cat more than he loved most people.
Peke J was a small, ridiculous creature with a flat face and an attitude that suggested he owned the pet shop, the street, and possibly all of Tokyo. Chifuyu had raised him from a kitten, had spent countless nights nursing him through a respiratory infection when he was barely old enough to open his eyes, had built an entire bond with Baji over the simple act of sharing responsibility for something fragile.
So when Peke J stopped eating on a Thursday morning and spent the afternoon listless and wheezing, Chifuyu felt his chest tighten with a familiar, helpless fear.
The vet was closed. The emergency animal hospital was across the city. And the nearest clinic that could see him wouldn't open until morning.
Chifuyu sat on the floor of the pet shop at eleven at night, Peke J wrapped in a towel in his lap, the cat's breathing shallow and too fast. He'd called everyone he could think of. Baji wasn't answering. Takemitchi was unreachable. The other Toman members he might have asked for help either didn't know anything about cats or were too far away to be useful.
He could wait until morning. He should wait until morning.
Peke J made a small, unhappy sound, and Chifuyu's heart cracked.
There was one person he hadn't called.
The slip of paper was still in his wallet. Auriella had pressed it into his hand as everyone left the apartment that first day, a quick brush of fingers and a smile. In case of emergencies, she'd said. Actual emergencies, not boyfriend emergencies. He'd almost thrown it away a dozen times. He'd never thrown it away.
He didn't know what made him dial. Desperation, maybe. Or the memory of how she'd set the table with exactly the right food for everyone, how she'd known things about him without being told. If she knew that much, maybe she knew something about cats. Maybe she knew someone who did.
The phone rang twice before she picked up.
"Chifuyu." Her voice was warm even through the speaker, not surprised, like she'd been expecting him. "What's wrong?"
He didn't have to explain further. She gave him an address and told him to come immediately.
The address wasn't the apartment where they'd all gathered before. It was different. Smaller. A ground-floor unit in a quiet residential block. He barely noticed the details. He just rode through the dark streets with Peke J cradled inside his jacket, the cat's small body a fragile weight against his chest.
Auriella was waiting at the door when he arrived. No questions. No demands for explanation. She just took one look at his face, at the bundle in his jacket, and stepped aside.
"Come in. I've got the spare room set up."
The apartment was small but warm. Soft lighting. Books stacked on every surface. A half-finished meal on the kitchen counter, pushed aside. She'd been in the middle of something and dropped it the moment he called.
In the spare room, she'd laid out towels on a low table, a heating pad humming softly beneath them. A small box of veterinary supplies sat nearby. Basic things. Emergency things.
"You know about cats," Chifuyu said, and it wasn't a question.
"I know about a lot of things." She was already reaching for Peke J with gentle, confident hands. "Tell me what happened."
He told her. The not eating. The listlessness. The wheezing. He heard his own voice shaking and couldn't stop it. Auriella listened while her hands moved, checking Peke J's gums, feeling his abdomen, listening to his breathing with a small stethoscope she'd produced from somewhere.
"This morning. He was fine yesterday."
"Any changes in food? New treats? Something he might have gotten into at the shop?"
"No, nothing. I keep everything locked up."
She nodded, her fingers gentle on Peke J's belly. The cat, who usually hated strangers, was remarkably calm. Maybe he was too tired to protest. Maybe he sensed something Chifuyu couldn't name.
"It's not a blockage," she said after a moment. "His stomach feels normal. And the wheezing suggests respiratory. Has he had infections before?"
"When he was a kitten. The vet said his lungs were weak."
"Then it's probably that. An infection. Not immediately life-threatening, but he needs antibiotics soon." She looked up at him. "There's a twenty-four-hour animal pharmacy two stations away. I can go. You stay with him."
"I'll go. You've already done enough."
"You're exhausted and you won't leave him. I can see it." She was already standing, pulling on a jacket. "Stay. There's tea in the kitchen. The heating pad will keep him comfortable. I'll be back in forty minutes."
She was gone before he could argue.
Chifuyu sat in the quiet room, Peke J resting on the warm towels, the cat's breathing still labored but no worse than before. The tea sat untouched on the table beside him. He didn't remember making it. Auriella must have set it there before she left.
The apartment hummed with small, living sounds. A clock ticking somewhere. The soft buzz of the heating pad. Outside, the city murmured in its sleep.
He didn't know why he felt like crying.
Maybe it was the relief. Maybe it was the fact that she hadn't asked for anything. Hadn't made him explain why he'd called her instead of someone else. Hadn't made him feel like a burden for needing help at eleven o'clock at night.
Or maybe it was the fact that someone had dropped everything for him without being asked, and he didn't know what to do with that.
Auriella returned in thirty-eight minutes with a small paper bag and a syringe of antibiotics. She showed him how to administer it, her hands steady and patient. Peke J took the medicine with minimal fuss, as if he understood this was help.
"He'll need another dose in twelve hours," she said. "You can stay here tonight. The spare room is yours."
"You're not imposing. I offered." She smiled, and it was the same smile she'd worn when she set the table for a dozen dangerous men. Warm. Genuine. Like taking care of people was the most natural thing in the world. "Besides, I make excellent breakfast."
He woke the next morning to Peke J purring on his chest, the cat's breathing noticeably improved. The smell of miso soup drifted from the kitchen. When he emerged, Auriella was humming at the stove, sunlight catching the pale patches on her hands.
"Morning. How's the patient?"
"Better." He sat at her small table, Peke J still cradled in his arms. "He's breathing easier."
"Good." She set a bowl of soup in front of him, then a smaller dish of plain shredded chicken for the cat. "For the hero."
Chifuyu ate. The soup was perfect. He didn't know why he expected anything else.
"You knew I'd call," he said eventually.
Auriella sat across from him with her own bowl. "I hoped you would."
"Isn't it?" She smiled into her soup. "I told you. Emergencies. That's what I'm here for."
"You're here to be a wife to people you barely know."
"I'm here to be a safe place." She looked up at him, and her eyes were softer than he remembered. "You needed one last night. So I was one. That's all."
That's all. Like it was simple. Like it was nothing. Like she hadn't just done more for him in one night than most people had done in years.
"You're really strange," Chifuyu said.
"I know." She didn't sound offended. She sounded pleased.
He didn't leave until after lunch. Peke J was almost back to normal, demanding attention and trying to steal Chifuyu's food. Auriella sent them off with a small container of homemade cat treats and a note: For next time. There will be a next time.
Chifuyu didn't tell anyone he'd gone to her first. But when Baji noticed the cat treats and asked where they came from, Chifuyu's hesitation was answer enough.
"No way," Baji said, grinning. "You went to the wife apartment?"
"You went to the wife apartment!"
Baji's laughter echoed down the street. But he didn't mock. Not really. And when he asked for the address, Chifuyu gave it to him without a second thought.
The word spread after that. Not quickly. Not publicly. But among the men who'd sat at that long table and eaten food made for them specifically, the knowledge passed quietly: there was a place you could go. A person who would answer the door at any hour. No questions. No demands. Just soup and bandages and a smile that asked nothing in return.
Baji showed up three days later with a split knuckle and a sheepish grin. Auriella patched him up without comment, fed him yakisoba, and sent him home with a container of extra.
Mitsuya came after a long night of sewing, his fingers cramped and his eyes burning. He fell asleep on her couch and woke to a blanket tucked around him and fresh coffee on the table.
Hakkai showed up once, terrified and barely able to speak, and she didn't ask him to. She just made tea and sat with him in silence until his hands stopped shaking.
Kazutora came in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, expecting to be turned away. She opened the door in pajamas, took one look at his face, and pulled him inside without a word.
The apartment became something none of them had words for. A waypoint. A refuge. A place where the violence outside couldn't reach.
And Auriella, with her constellation skin and her impossible sincerity, became something equally unnameable.
She never asked for anything in return. Never held it over their heads. Never used the things they told her in vulnerable moments as leverage.
But she remembered everything.
She remembered that Chifuyu took his coffee with exactly one sugar. That Baji's knuckles healed better with a specific kind of wrap. That Mitsuya talked in his sleep about fabric patterns and his sisters. That Hakkai preferred chamomile tea and would drink anything else to be polite without complaining. That Kazutora needed the light on in the hallway when he stayed over, even though he never asked for it.
She remembered, and she prepared, and she welcomed them back every time.
Takeomi Akashi and Sanzu Haruchiyo did not come to the apartment together. This was not a coincidence.
Auriella had noticed the tension the very first day. The way Takeomi's eyes tracked Sanzu across the room with something too sharp to be casual. The way Sanzu positioned himself with his back to a wall whenever Takeomi was in his peripheral vision. It wasn't open hostility. It was worse. It was the kind of tension that came from history. From things unresolved and festering. From wounds that had never been allowed to close.
She didn't know the details. She didn't ask. But she noticed.
So she made sure they never arrived at the same time.
Takeomi came on Tuesday evenings, regular as clockwork, always with a bottle of something mid-range and a tired expression he didn't bother to hide. He'd sit at her kitchen table and drink and talk about nothing important. The weather. A funny thing Benkei said. The way Brahman's territory was shifting. He never mentioned Sanzu. He never mentioned the first generation. He never mentioned the things that kept him up at night.
Auriella let him talk. She poured his drinks and made small plates of food that went well with alcohol and asked the kind of gentle questions that let him fill the silence without ever pushing too hard.
On Wednesdays, Sanzu came. Sometimes in the afternoon. Sometimes very late. He never announced himself. He just appeared in her doorway like a ghost, and she always opened the door before he knocked, as if she could sense him waiting there.
He didn't talk much. He didn't need to. She'd set out cheesecake and something non-spicy and let him exist in her space without demanding anything. Sometimes he'd sit for an hour without speaking. Sometimes he'd ask her strange, sharp questions. Do you ever get tired of being nice? Do you ever want to hurt someone just to see what it feels like? Why don't you lock your door?
She answered honestly. Yes. Sometimes. Because locking doors doesn't stop the people I'd actually need to worry about.
That last answer made him laugh. A short, surprised sound, like he hadn't meant to make it.
She never told Takeomi about Wednesdays. She never told Sanzu about Tuesdays. She just kept the schedule in her head and made sure their paths didn't cross.
Then, on a Thursday, Takeomi showed up unexpectedly.
"I know it's not Tuesday," he said, already halfway through the door. "I just needed somewhere that wasn't my apartment."
Auriella glanced at the clock. Six forty-five. Sanzu usually came on Wednesdays. But he'd missed yesterday. He'd never missed before.
"Of course," she said, stepping aside. "Come in."
She made tea and tried to calculate the odds. Sanzu missing a Wednesday was unusual. Sanzu showing up on a Thursday was possible. The two of them colliding was something she'd been carefully preventing for weeks.
Twenty minutes later, the door opened.
Sanzu walked in like he owned the place. He did this sometimes. A strange confidence that came and went. Today it was present, along with a fresh bruise on his jaw and a wild energy that made Auriella's instincts prickle.
Then he saw Takeomi at the kitchen table.
The temperature in the room dropped.
"Akashi." Sanzu's voice was flat. His hand, still on the doorknob, tightened.
"Haruchiyo." Takeomi's expression didn't change, but his shoulders went rigid. "Didn't expect to see you here."
"Didn't expect to see you either."
They stared at each other. Neither moved. Neither spoke.
Auriella stepped between them with the practiced ease of someone who'd been expecting this for weeks. "Sanzu. You missed yesterday. I saved your cheesecake."
His eyes flicked to her. The wild energy didn't diminish, but it redirected. "You saved it?"
"Of course. I know you like the strawberry ones best." She moved toward the kitchen, putting her body between them and the table where Takeomi sat. "Sit. I'll get it. Takeomi, more tea?"
Takeomi blinked at her. The tension in his jaw was still visible, but her refusal to acknowledge it had thrown him off balance. "Sure."
"Cake," Sanzu said, still staring at Takeomi. "I want cake."
He sat. Not at the table. At the counter, where he could see both her and Takeomi at the same time. She didn't comment on it. She just set a plate in front of him and poured Takeomi's tea.
The silence was heavy but not hostile. Sanzu ate his cheesecake in small, precise bites. Takeomi sipped his tea and stared at the wall. Auriella moved between them, refilling drinks, offering small comments about nothing, keeping the air from solidifying into something dangerous.
After thirty minutes, Sanzu stood. "I'm leaving."
"Take some cheesecake for later." She was already wrapping it. "You didn't finish."
He took the package. His eyes flicked to Takeomi, then back to her. Something unreadable passed across his face. "Thursday next week. Maybe."
He left without acknowledging Takeomi again.
Takeomi exhaled like he'd been holding his breath. "You didn't tell me he comes here."
"A while." She sat across from him. "Do you want to talk about it?"
He stared at her. She stared back. The clock ticked on the wall.
"You're really strange," Takeomi said finally.
He left an hour later, quieter than he'd arrived. At the door, he paused. "Does he come on Wednesdays?"
"I'll stick to Tuesdays, then."
He nodded. Then, so quietly she almost missed it: "Thank you."
She didn't ask what for. She didn't need to.
The apartment settled back into its quiet rhythm. Auriella washed the dishes and put away the leftover cheesecake and didn't think about the fact that she was now managing the emotional schedules of half the Tokyo underworld.
Her phone buzzed. A message from Mikey, who had apparently figured out how to text and was now sending her pictures of dorayaki he'd found at various convenience stores with ratings attached. This one is 7/10. Too dry. The filling is sad.
She texted back: Bring me one next time. I'll fix the filling.
His response was immediate: Next time when
She set the phone down and smiled at the ceiling.
Outside, the city hummed. Inside, the apartment was warm.
Somewhere in the distance, a cat was purring, a split knuckle was healing, and a girl with constellation skin was becoming the safest place any of them had ever known.
And she hadn't even asked for anything in return.
The news reached Senju Kawaragi on a Tuesday morning, during what was supposed to be a routine strategy meeting.
Brahman's headquarters was a converted warehouse on the edge of their territory, all concrete floors and fluorescent lights and maps pinned to walls. Senju stood at the head of the table, arms crossed, waiting for her executives to arrive so they could discuss the shifting power dynamics in the Kantou region. Kanto Manji was making moves. Mikey was getting more unpredictable. They needed a plan.
Takeomi walked in fifteen minutes late, holding a paper cup of tea that Senju definitely hadn't provided.
"Sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all. "Got held up."
Senju narrowed her eyes. Takeomi had been weird for weeks. Distracted. Showing up to meetings with food he hadn't brought from home. Once, she'd caught him smiling at his phone. Takeomi didn't smile at his phone. Takeomi barely smiled at anything.
Benkei arrived five minutes after Takeomi, which was unusual. Benkei was never late. He walked in carrying a small paper bag that smelled like fresh pastries.
"Are those for the meeting?" Senju asked.
Benkei looked at the bag like he'd forgotten he was holding it. "No. They're mine."
"You don't eat pastries."
Wakasa came in last. He didn't offer an explanation for his lateness. He just draped himself across a chair and stared at the ceiling with an expression Senju couldn't read. Not his usual detachment. Something softer. Almost content.
Senju looked at her three executives. Her three legendary, feared, battle-hardened executives. Takeomi, the strategist who'd survived the first generation. Benkei, the brute force who'd ruled the west. Wakasa, the living legend whose speed rivaled Mikey's.
All of them looked like they'd just come from a spa.
"Okay," Senju said. "What is going on."
"Nothing," all three of them said at the same time.
The meeting was a disaster.
Not because they didn't have good intel. They did. Not because Senju wasn't prepared. She was. But every time she tried to steer the conversation toward Kanto Manji's movements, Takeomi would drift off, Benkei would check his phone, and Wakasa would close his eyes like he was remembering something pleasant.
Midway through a discussion about territorial boundaries, Takeomi pulled out a small container of homemade pickles and started eating them.
"Where did you get those?" Senju demanded.
"You don't have friends."
Benkei, unprompted, said: "She's really good at organizing shelves."
Wakasa, eyes still closed, murmured: "Best dango in Tokyo."
Senju slammed her hands on the table. "WHO ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"
They exchanged glances. The kind of glances people exchange when they're keeping a secret and they know it's about to come out.
"Her name is Auriella," Takeomi said finally. "She has an apartment. People go there."
Takeomi took a bite of pickle. "Mikey Sano. Izana Kurokawa. Sanzu Haruchiyo. The Haitani brothers. Kokonoi. Inupi. South Terano. Basically everyone."
"Everyone as in EVERYONE everyone? Rival gang leaders? People who've tried to kill us?"
"She doesn't allow fighting in the apartment," Benkei said, like this was a reasonable explanation.
"It's neutral ground," Wakasa added. "House rules."
Senju stared at them. She waited for someone to laugh, to admit it was a joke, to say they were messing with her. No one did.
"A girl," she said slowly, "has an apartment. Where Tokyo's most dangerous gang leaders go to eat snacks and not fight each other. And you three have been going there. Regularly. Instead of coming to meetings on time."
"It's not like that," Takeomi said.
He didn't have an answer. Neither did Benkei. Neither did Wakasa.
Senju stood up. "Take me there."
"Take. Me. There. I want to see this apartment. I want to meet this girl. I want to understand how my three best fighters got domesticated by a stranger."
"She's not a stranger," Benkei muttered.
"She's hard to explain," Takeomi said finally. "You have to meet her."
"Great." Senju grabbed her jacket. "Let's go."
Auriella's apartment was not what Senju expected.
She'd prepared herself for something sinister. A lair. A trap. Maybe a secret base disguised as a normal apartment. She'd imagined a femme fatale, a manipulator, someone who'd clearly worked some kind of spell on her men.
What she found was a warm, sunlit space that smelled like fresh bread. Books on every surface. Plants near the windows. A cat bed in the corner that definitely hadn't been there the first time anyone visited. Soft music playing from somewhere. And a girl with skin like scattered constellations, standing at the kitchen counter with flour on her hands, humming.
The girl looked up when they entered and smiled. Not a calculating smile. Not a seductive smile. Just a genuine, warm, slightly flour-dusted smile.
"Takeomi! You're early for Tuesday. Benkei, Wakasa." Her eyes landed on Senju. "Oh! You brought a guest."
Senju opened her mouth to introduce herself as the leader of Brahman, to demand answers, to assert her authority.
What came out was: "You have galaxy skin."
Auriella laughed. It was a nice laugh. "I've never heard it called that before. I like it." She wiped her hands on a towel and extended one toward Senju. "I'm Auriella. You must be Senju. Takeomi's mentioned you."
"Only good things. Mostly."
Senju took the offered hand. The handshake was warm and firm and entirely non-threatening. This was not how interrogations were supposed to go.
"I came here to figure out what's going on," Senju said, trying to reclaim her momentum. "My executives have been distracted for weeks. I walk in here and find out they've been spending their time in some girl's apartment with half the Tokyo underworld."
"Not half," Auriella said. "More like a third. Some of them haven't visited yet."
Senju stared at her. Auriella smiled back, unbothered.
"You used my brother's name to scare off thugs," Senju said.
"I did. It was very effective."
"You used Mikey's name too."
"And Izana's. And Sanzu's. And basically everyone."
"That's why I'm still alive."
Senju crossed her arms. "You don't look like someone who needs protection."
"I don't look like someone who can fight, either. That's the problem." Auriella gestured toward the kitchen. "I'm making cookies. Do you want to stay for cookies? This conversation might go better with cookies."
Senju did not want cookies. Senju wanted answers. Senju wanted to understand why Wakasa was already settling onto the couch like he lived there, why Benkei was checking the kettle like he was about to make tea, why Takeomi had gravitated toward his usual chair without being asked.
"Fine," she said. "Cookies."
The cookies were incredible.
Senju ate three before she remembered she was supposed to be interrogating someone. They were warm and buttery and somehow exactly the right amount of sweet without being overwhelming. She didn't want to admit they were the best cookies she'd ever had.
"These are good," she said, because she was an honest person.
"Thank you. It's a new recipe."
"How do you make them this soft?"
"Brown butter and an extra egg yolk."
Senju ate another cookie. "Okay. You're a good baker. That doesn't explain why my executives are acting like they've joined a cult."
"It's not a cult," Auriella said. "Cults ask for things. I don't."
"Then what do you get out of this?"
Auriella considered the question. "Company. Entertainment. The satisfaction of knowing dangerous people have a place to be not-dangerous for a while."
Senju didn't believe her. She'd spent too long in the underworld to believe anyone did anything without an angle. But as she sat in Auriella's warm kitchen, eating her fourth cookie, watching Wakasa doze on the couch and Benkei organize her spice rack unprompted, she couldn't find the angle.
"Okay," Senju said. "New question. Why didn't you use my name?"
Auriella blinked. "What?"
"When you were cornered by thugs. When you needed names to scare them off. You used Mikey's. You used Izana's. You even used Takeomi's, which is honestly a weird choice because no one's scared of Takeomi."
"Hey," Takeomi said from his chair.
"You didn't use mine," Senju continued. "Why?"
Auriella tilted her head. "Honestly? I didn't think of it at the time. I was running through names I knew would carry weight, and yours didn't come to mind immediately. But also..." She paused. "You're the leader of Brahman. Using your name felt... different. Bigger. Like it would cause more problems than it solved."
"I'm not bigger than Mikey."
"You're different. Mikey's reputation is chaos. Yours is conviction. People fear Mikey because they don't know what he'll do. People fear you because they know exactly what you'll do."
Senju had never heard herself described that way before. She didn't know how to feel about it.
"Also," Auriella added, "I kind of wanted to meet you properly before I started claiming to be your girlfriend. That feels like something you should consent to."
Senju felt her face heat up. "I'm notâ I didn't sayâ girlfriend?"
"Wife? Partner? Best friend? I'm flexible with terminology." Auriella was grinning now, a mischievous spark in her eyes. "Whatever you prefer."
"I prefer you stop smiling at me like that."
"Like you know something I don't."
Auriella's grin widened. "That's just my face."
It was not just her face. Senju could see it now, the thing that had drawn her executives in. Auriella was disarmingly genuine, but she was also sharp. She said exactly what she meant in ways that sounded like jokes but weren't. She paid attention to everything. She remembered everything. And she wielded that attention like a weapon without ever making it feel like one.
Senju had walked in expecting a manipulator. What she'd found was someone who genuinely, sincerely cared about people she had no reason to care about.
It was also, she was starting to realize, deeply appealing.
"You should use my name," Senju blurted out.
Auriella raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Next time you're in trouble. Next time someone's threatening you. Tell them you're protected by Senju Kawaragi." She crossed her arms. "I'm way cooler than Mikey. And I'll actually show up if you need me."
"He sent me a dorayaki review this morning. Seven out of ten. The filling was disappointing."
"That's not showing up. That's texting about snacks."
Senju stood up. She pointed at Auriella. "From now on, I'm your protector. Not Takeomi. Not Benkei. Not Wakasa. Not any of these other guys who've been sneaking in here without telling anyone. Me."
"I don't think that's how protection works," Auriella said.
"I'm the leader of Brahman. I'll make it how it works."
Behind her, Takeomi sighed heavily. "Here we go."
"Shut up, Takeomi. You've been hiding this place from me for weeks. You don't get to have opinions."
"I wasn't hiding it. I just didn't mention it."
Auriella watched them argue with an expression of deep, genuine amusement. When Senju turned back to her, she was still smiling.
"Okay," Auriella said. "You can be my protector."
Senju narrowed her eyes. "What condition?"
"You have to actually come over sometimes. Not just when you're protecting me. For cookies. For company. For the neutral ground thing."
Senju hesitated. She'd come here to investigate, not to join. She'd come here to drag her executives back to work, not to fall into the same trap they'd fallen into.
But the apartment was warm. The cookies were good. And Auriella was looking at her with those sharp, knowing eyes that somehow still managed to be kind.
"Fine," Senju said. "I'll come over sometimes."
"Good." Auriella held out a cookie. "Welcome to the wife apartment."
Senju took the cookie. She didn't know why she was blushing. "You're really strange."
Two days later, Senju returned.
She didn't tell anyone she was coming. She didn't have a reason. She just found herself walking toward the apartment after a long meeting, her feet carrying her there before her brain caught up.
Auriella opened the door before she knocked.
"I brought snacks," Senju said, holding up a convenience store bag. "The good kind."
"Senju Kawaragi, are you trying to impress me?"
"No. I'm trying to prove I'm a better visitor than my executives."
Auriella laughed and stepped aside. "Come in. I just made tea."
The apartment was quieter than last time. No Takeomi. No Benkei. No Wakasa. Just Auriella, standing in her sunlit kitchen, waiting for Senju to take off her shoes.
It felt different without the others. Smaller. More personal. Senju sat on the couch and Auriella sat across from her, and they talked about nothing important. Brahman. The weather. The cookies from last time. Whether Mikey had sent any more dorayaki reviews. He had. Today's was a 9/10. The filling was almost perfect.
"He's so weird," Senju said.
"He's lonely," Auriella said. "Most of them are. That's why they come here."
Senju looked around the apartment. The books. The plants. The cat bed in the corner that was currently occupied by a very content-looking Peke J, who Chifuyu had dropped off earlier for "babysitting." The soft lighting. The smell of tea and fresh bread.
"You're lonely too," Senju said quietly. "Aren't you?"
Auriella's smile flickered. Just for a second. "Maybe a little. But less than I used to be."
Senju didn't know what to say to that. So she didn't say anything. She just sat on the couch, drinking her tea, watching the girl with galaxy skin move around her kitchen, and thought about how strange it was to find a place like this in the middle of everything ugly.
She came back the next day.
By the end of the week, she'd become something she never expected: a regular.
She showed up with snacks and stories and demands to know if anyone had caused trouble in the apartment. She bossed around her executives when they were there, telling Benkei to stop reorganizing Auriella's cabinets and Wakasa to stop napping on the good couch and Takeomi to stop drinking all the tea. She inserted herself into the dynamic with the energy of someone who'd been there from the beginning.
When she found out Sanzu came on Wednesdays, she started coming on Wednesdays too, positioning herself between him and Takeomi with a determined expression that made Auriella hide a smile.
When Mikey showed up unannounced one afternoon, Senju was already there, and they spent twenty minutes arguing about who was cooler while Auriella made snacks.
"I'm literally the leader of Brahman," Senju said.
"I'm literally Invincible Mikey," Mikey replied.
"That's one nickname. I have ten."
"Your nickname is a child's toy."
"Your nickname is a Buddhist deity. That's not cooler. That's just religious."
Auriella set a plate of cookies between them. "You're both very impressive. Eat."
They ate. The argument subsided.
Senju realized, somewhere in the second week, that she regretted not finding this place sooner.
She'd heard the rumors, of course. Everyone had. A girl with spotted skin dropping gang leaders' names like currency. A ghost apartment where enemies ate at the same table. A wife who wasn't really a wife but somehow was. Senju had dismissed it as gossip, as exaggeration, as something that didn't concern Brahman.
She watched Auriella move through her apartment, refilling drinks, asking gentle questions, remembering everyone's preferences without being told. She watched the way dangerous men softened around her. The way Sanzu's sharp edges dulled. The way Takeomi's exhaustion lifted. The way Mikey stopped pretending to be untouchable.
This girl had done something no one else in Tokyo had managed. She'd created a place where the violence stopped. Where the walls came down. Where people who spent their lives being terrifying could just be tired, and hungry, and human.
And she'd done it with nothing but sincerity and good food and the absolute refusal to be afraid.
Senju Kawaragi had spent her whole life building Brahman into a force that could challenge Kanto Manji. She'd trained. She'd fought. She'd sacrificed. She'd become one of the most feared leaders in the city.
But watching Auriella, she realized something.
She'd never thought to build something like this.
"You know," Senju said one evening, sitting at the kitchen counter while Auriella washed dishes, "I spent months preparing for war with Mikey. Months. Strategies. Alliances. Training. And you just... made him your snack buddy."
"He's a very enthusiastic snack buddy."
Auriella turned off the water and dried her hands. "What's the point?"
"The point is I thought strength was the only way to change things. Violence. Power. Territory. That's how the underworld works. That's how it's always worked." Senju gestured at the apartment around them. "And then you come along and change things with cookies and cheesecake and a couch no one's allowed to fight on."
"I also use emotional manipulation," Auriella said cheerfully. "But mostly cookies."
Auriella's expression softened. "So am I." She sat across from Senju, her galaxy hands folded on the counter. "I can't fight. I'm not strong. I'm not a leader like you or Mikey or Izana. But I pay attention. And I care. And sometimes that's enough to remind people they're still human."
"It's not a strategy," Auriella continued. "It's not a power play. It's just... I saw a bunch of dangerous men who were hurting, and I thought, someone should do something about that. And I was the someone available."
"You're not afraid of them at all, are you?"
Auriella smiled. "They're not scary once you know what they're afraid of."
"And what are they afraid of?"
"The same things everyone's afraid of. Being alone. Being unwanted. Being the worst version of themselves forever." She shrugged. "I can't fix any of that. But I can make dinner."
Senju didn't know what to say. She'd spent her whole life around strength. Cultivating it. Respecting it. Fearing it. This was something else entirely. This was a different kind of power. The power to make people feel safe without making them feel weak.
"I wish I'd met you sooner," Senju said quietly.
Auriella's smile widened. "You're here now. That's what matters."
Senju looked around the apartment. At the cat bed. At the books. At the kitchen that had fed half the Tokyo underworld. At the girl with galaxy skin who'd somehow become the most protected person in the city without ever throwing a punch.
"When this is all over," Senju said, "when the gang wars are done and everything settles down, what are you going to do?"
Auriella considered the question. "Open a restaurant, maybe. Or a cat cafĂŠ. Something with good food and no fighting." She grinned. "You can be my first investor."
"Absolutely not. I'm not giving you money."
"I'll name a cookie after you."
"The Senju Special. Extra sweet. A little intimidating at first. Surprisingly soft on the inside."
"That's a terrible description."
"It's an accurate description."
Senju threw a napkin at her. Auriella caught it, laughing. The sound filled the apartment, warm and bright, and Senju found herself laughing too.
Outside, the city churned on. Gang territories shifted. Alliances fractured. Violence simmered in alleyways and warehouses.
Inside, the apartment was peaceful.
And Senju Kawaragi, leader of Brahman, one of the Three Deities, the girl who'd been preparing for war her whole life, sat at a kitchen counter and ate cookies with her new best friend.
She'd come here to investigate. She'd stayed for the snacks.
And if anyone asked, she'd deny both.
