“It’s dark early.” Light rain fell and trickled down the front window of the black SUV. A storm had blown in unexpectedly, putting the city under the cloak of a false night. The driver looked tense. “They probably wouldn’t see us coming even if we moved now.” He was clearly nervous. He began tapping his fingers on the wheel. “Sir, if-“
“If you’re afraid, you can get out of the car.” The voice was deep and unwavering. He leaned forward, revealing a hardened face weathered by experience and age. His hair was graying and tied into a bun, with it falling long on the right side of his face and short on the other. While his face lacked the scars one may have expected to see, he had a minimalistic circular tattoo of a devil on his neck – the sign of the Yuzai crime family. The driver gulped, his stomach churning.
“I’m not afraid, it’s just…” His sweat betrayed his true feelings. The man in the backseat leaned farther forward.
“Yes?”
“…Did you have to bring the girl?” The man looked to his left. There sat a little girl, with graceful black hair that fell to just above her waist. She had her face up against the window, paying no attention to the conversation.
“Why do you think we’re doing this?” The man leaned back in his chair. “Can I give you some advice?”
“Umm, sure?” The driver said it as a question and immediately regretted it.
“In this business, chain of command is absolute. Don’t ask questions. You don’t want anybody getting the idea that you don’t have faith in the organization. I’ll let this one slide because you’re new, but it’s a mistake you should not repeat.” His voice was commanding. The driver immediately began regretting his decision to try and earn some quick money. He figured he would just drive out of town after earning some quick cash. The man in the back had turned to the little girl. “Takara, are you ready to go?”
“Where are we going?” The girl seemed innocent to her father’s occupation. She was only 10, after all. 10 and a half and mature for her age, if you asked her.
“I’m going to show you what our family does for work. This may be confusing at first, but you will understand when you’re older.”
She steeled her face into something she thought looked serious. “I’ll understand. I’m top of the class after all!” The man’s face twisted into a smile. He patted her on the head and chuckled.
“I knew you could handle it.” He whispered it, contrasting against his comforting tone. Then they got out of the car. The driver as they walked towards what appeared to be a run-down warehouse. Several other cars had pulled up next to them and began walking behind them. The driver could tell they were all carrying guns. In the front, Takara skipped with her father. The driver sat there contemplating his options. He had become overcome with fear. He considered driving off right then, a mad dash for freedom, but there were too many people around and he wouldn’t get far. If he tried to leave the day after, what about his mother? They could get revenge on him through her. He didn’t want to risk it. He would have to find a way to get all of them out. Yes! A plan began to form in his head. He would save himself and his mother! Determination filled his veins. The Yuzai family’s reach couldn’t be that far, but he would have to outsmart them, outthink them, maybe even embarrass them. Maybe people would look back on him like a folk hero who managed to outmaneuver the evil crime family against all odds. These thoughts filled his head until the two came back. He wasn’t even paying enough attention to his passengers to notice the change in dynamic that had occured. The hero’s story had begun.
A few weeks later, his mother stood in front of his grave. She received a “care package” from the Yuzai family, but none of them showed up to the funeral. Except one, a little girl with long black hair and glasses. She had only driven with him once. She had heard that the driver had been hit by a stray bullet while waiting to drive a few enforcers away. The driver’s mother couldn’t stop crying, so the little girl held her hand.
“I told him…not to get involved…with you FUCKING…FUCKERS!” She screamed at the child through her sobs. Takara’s blue eye’s hurt from stopping herself from crying. She wanted to more than anything, but didn’t feel like it was her right. This woman’s son had just died. Her pain did not compare. The woman was crying enough for both of them, Takara thought. “This BUSINESS…I told him…NOBODY is different…everyone… EVERYONE is swallowed up and chewed and spit out into a FUCKING GRAVEYARD!” She let out a defiant screech, but failed to hold it, letting it spiral downwards into a pained wail. Takara’s eyes had glassed over as she looked over at the open grave. All she could think was that she was being buried, too.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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The city of Gorudenhon was a strange place. While to outsiders it seemed like a perfectly normal city, the residents knew that the city was ran by two competing crime families: the Yuzai family and the Hagetaka family. However, after decades of competition between the two families, the city had settled into a quiet era. The two families saw no need to compete, as they had already carved out their territory and thought they could prosper more working together. Still, bouts of chaos still arose, as upstarts often tried to disrupt the status quo and grab power. Most are easily destroyed. Inside the city, something even more unique lies: Soshiki Academy. Soshiki is a prestigious academy that is run by the crime families that boasts not only an excellent traditional education system, but a criminal preparation program. The program promises to teach any future higher-ups the necessary skills to survive and prosper in the world of organized crime including self-defense, networking, and a myriad of other useful skills. In fact, many in the upper class send their children there as many of the skills are useful in running a business. While it is a relatively well-known secret, it remains a secret nonetheless. It produces enough actual graduates to cover up the illegitimate and is well-known as incredibly exclusive but high-quality academy. As it just so happens, the new school year was about to start at Soshiki.
Eikou Sasaki stood in front of the gate to Soshiki academy, looking at the sign. It was an almost surreal feeling for him. He had spent two years trying to get to this place, so while others may have seen a simple black gate, he saw the fruits of years of effort. Still, it wasn’t just a good feeling for Eikou. He was plagued by the anxiety that came with anything that truly excites someone. As he looked around, he saw students meeting up outside the gate, happy that they were seeing their friends again. He was in his 11th year, but he had just transferred to Soshiki. While most people had already met the friends they would have for their high school lives, he was alone. One of his friends went to this school, but they hadn’t actually seen each other for years. Whatever, he thought. He had never had many friends. That wasn’t the important part about school. As long as he had his one friend, he was fine. But if he knew this to be true, why did he feel so hollow? He knew he couldn’t change the feeling, so he stepped through the gate on his own.
Soshiki did not look sinister on the outside. It didn’t look sinister on the inside, either. It looked like a normal high school, but much nicer. There were large modern buildings that housed the classrooms and another to house the auditorium. It wasn’t anything crazy. The classes of the underground were actually underground. Eikou had prepared. He knew where the classes were and where he had to go. He would not be embarrassed. Eikou didn’t want to have to transfer out of Soshiki when he just got there.
He got to his classroom a couple of minutes before the bell. His friend wasn’t in the class, so he wasn’t sure where to sit. There were only three seats left. None of them had an open spot next to them, so Eikou had to go to the next step in the algorithm. He eliminated one because it was in the middle rows, and he didn’t want to be in the center of attention or caught between conversations. Plus, if he wanted to slack off in class, he wanted the least number of people seeing. The other two seats were against the wall with the windows on it. Eikou preferred to get a seat against the wall, so he could lay against it and could be on his phone without anyone seeing. He ended up going with the one farther back. However, he failed to notice that those three seats had only one space in between them. A more astute observer could have possibly noticed it and came to the conclusion that the others in the class were avoiding the person in the center. As he sat down, the class collectively made a hissing sound like air escaping from a balloon. Eikou looked around, wondering why they made the noise. All of his classmates’ eyes looked back at him, but he chalked it up to being the new guy in school. He sat down and averted his eyes from the rest of the class, trying to blend into the rest of the class. The guy sitting next to him leaned over and whispered, “That sucks, bro.” Eikou’s neighbor had black hair that fell to his shoulders and bangs that almost covered his eyes. He wore many necklaces and bracelets that looked mostly handmade. Eikou thought he looked a bit like an airhead, but that could have partially been because Eikou had no idea what he was talking about.
“Why?”
“You don’t know?”
“I’m new.” This distracted Eikou’s neighbor.
“Oh, sick. My name’s Jiyu Arakawa. You?”
“Eikou Sasaki. Wait, why did you say ‘that sucks, bro’?”
“Well…” Arakawa went into deep thought.
“Just tell me. I can take it.”
“Well, I would, but I honestly don’t know if you want to know. Like, ‘ignorance is bliss’, and shit?”
“Just-“ Eikou was cut off as the teacher announced that class was starting. Eikou looked at Arakawa, who circled his finger around the back of his head to signal Eikou to look at somewhere similar. Then he furiously pointed at the girl sitting in front of Eikou until she looked back and he promptly dropped his arms and acted like a model student. Eikou caught a glimpse of her face when she turned around. She had a refined face, undeniably pretty, and carried herself with inhuman grace. Her blue eyes locked with his for a split-second, but he thought they pierced him to his core. He did not see any humanity in those eyes. Her hair was pulled into a simple ponytail, but some hair was left out and fell over slightly over her shoulders. Oddly, she had a single braid that fell next to her stray hair on her right side, causing the perfect sculpture to become asymmetrical. As she turned back around, Eikou noticed what he assumed Arakawa was talking about. Her ponytail was held together by an extravagant hair tie that had a large black and gold emblem on it. It was circular and had a simple painting of a devil on it.
The girl sitting in front of him was Takara Yuzai.