Jiro managed to dodge the first punch thrown since she telegraphed it long in advance, due to her yelling. However, he had no idea how fast Miyako truly was when the second punch came in a split second later. He was prone on his back before he even realized what happened.

Shigeru and Yasuo jumped in quickly to defend Jiro. But Miyako didn’t even break. Grabbed up each in a separate hand, she dragged them up to the nearby wall and rubbed their faces against the brick before letting them go.

Tilting her head over her shoulder, she locked on the last one, Junichi. He was still recovering from his broken hand. Miyako didn’t even bother to wipe away the blood that dripped over her face. It merely added to her overall menacing presence. Junichi didn’t even recognize the girl. “Who the hell are you?!”

Shadows came down over her eyes leaving only a little white from them to shine through. “…just a normal high school girl…”

Chapter 305 – Identity

Walking out of the alley, Miyako merely looked pissed more than anything now. “Damn, they’re loyal, not giving up their base location. I’ll give them that much credit.” She began to look around for signs of any others that might have been a lookout.

Nothing.

However, she noticed the fearful looks that she was getting from just people passing by. She caught a glimpse of her face in the reflection of a store window to understand what had people so afraid. “I’m not going to get anywhere looking like this.”

Finished washing her face, there was nothing she could do about the rest of her clothes. Between the old blood from the boys and her blood from when she was zoned out, it didn’t look pretty. She took off her jacket, which helped to make it not look so bad, plus it gave her better mobility for the coming trouble.

Miyako stepped back out of the park restroom to pick a direction for her search. “I should have gotten more out of that weakling yesterday. Now I’m going to have to find more of them and pump ‘em for information.” She decided on her random direction and started to move.

The Black Gate gang wasn’t a name that she was familiar with, which meant one of two things. They were positioned outside of the area where she fought or they were too small to have any real presence. ‘I didn’t exactly have an interest in all of the different gangs in the city. Sort of regretting not trying to keep up with all of the politics now. Though that’s probably why we had so many enemies. None of it really mattered to me.’

Her gang, the Blood Lotus, had been a little haphazardly put together when she just started defeating a bunch of local bosses. They tried to hit on her and she took offense to their harassment and dealt out the necessary punishment. Since much of the gang world revolved around strength, people gathered up around her in no time. She had little interest at all in the underworld or the things they got involved in. ‘It all seemed more like a bunch of kids pretending to be Yakuza rather than real gangsters. Some were certainly the real thing, but everyone that came to challenge me were just posers. Pretenders.’

It was all a joke. It was probably the reason her neighborhood had so many “gangs”. They all just wanted to be tough and pretend to be cool, but none of them really had any sense of honor or even purpose. ‘They were closer to just a bunch of tough guys hanging out. It’s not like I even wanted this sort of lifestyle anyway. I just fell into it by mistake, which is why I was able to make the decision to walk away when I did. It was a part of me during my middle school and high school years, but it had to come to an end. Just like them, I was pretending and I was done pretending.’

Her search that day ended with no leads. She didn’t know where to find them. They might have been stepping outside of their territory since she found nothing. She didn’t know what it was. The only thing she could do was return to the hospital to visit the boys.

Most were able to be discharged after being fixed up. Only two had to stay behind because their injuries needed rest. They all gathered up around Miyako bent down at the waist in a deep apologetic bow. “Boss! We’re sorry!”

“Dammit, you guys.” She caught the looks from other patients and the hospital staff. The scene looked like she was some daughter of a Yakuza boss with their men apologizing for their failure. They might start tried to commit ritualistic suicide in the next moment, was other’s fears. “Stop it! This is no more your fault than it is mine.”

“Takayuki wanted to keep you out of it. But because we were so weak…”

“Ugh, enough of the blubbering.” The sight of them helped to improve her mood a little. Entering the hospital reminded her of Takayuki and her failure. ‘This is on me now. I can’t get them anymore involved.’ Miyako looked out to all of them. It was a strange lot, teenagers that put all of their trust and hopes on her, even if they did not say it or want it. “You all keep off the streets and stay out of trouble for a while.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Boss?”

“I’ll handle this matter. I’m the one that they want.”

“You can’t, Boss!” They started to stop her recognizing the look in her eyes. “This is our problem! Like Takayuki said!”

“No, I got this started because I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I finish what I start and you guys won’t stop me!”

“But…Boss!”

“Enough! I’ve decided how things are going to be!” She pulled her arms free from their holds and separated from the group. It was her path to walk now. “Don’t follow me!” she warned, looking back at them. None of them were in any shape for the hell she was about to walk into. She didn’t need to be taking them in with her.

It was a little troublesome, but she did manage to free herself of their stubbornness to hold onto her. A new day arrived and another missed school day. She too quickly lost all of the ground that tried to build up. A week and it was all gone. They could talk all they wanted, but she had things to settle.

Things to settle sounded all good and she had the attitude, but it didn’t change facts. She had no leads on where to find Black Gate. All she could do was rely on others for information. The hole she fell back into had more than its share of trouble she crossed. She was a well-known name in her neighborhood, but it ended about there.

Miyako found herself at one of the few places that still respected her name, even after her declaration. The halls of the Willows, a strange gang that just existed. No others really did anything against them. It was just something that seemed to have been that way since before she formed the Blood Lotus. She never got an explanation for it, just that it was what was expected. They didn’t bother others and no one bothered them. She always felt like there was some sleeping dragon sort of feeling coming off them and everyone was afraid of them, but never found any proof. Even rumors were completely empty on why it was. Everyone just accepted the situation as is.

Which made them the best group for Miyako to turn to, but she wasn’t sure how they would welcome her. Once they knew what she planned on doing, they might just turn her away. She never knew how to read their boss. He was a difficult person to deal with.

The two guards at the boss’ door stared at her. They received the signal to open the door, but waited. One of them moved over to her. “Remember any violence is forbidden.”

“I’ll be peaceful, so long as he is.” Her history with the boss was fairly well known with his guards. They let her in, but still clearly had some reluctance with it.

Inside, she looked around the room on guard. ‘He’s here somewhere. I know he’s got something planned. He always does.’ Just as the doors closed, two arrows shot out at her. The first she caught and the other she batted away. She looked down to see they were as expected, fakes with just suction cups on the end and an annoyingly cheerful welcoming confetti ball tied begging to be opened. Just then, she felt something lightly hit her head.

A white powder fell down around her head as she looked around in confusion. It didn’t hurt, but she knew something happened. In her search, it fell off and she could see that it was just a chalk eraser rarely seen in schools anymore.

Clapping came from a shadowy corner of the room. “The classics are always the best, especially when I get to see that reaction on your face, Miyako.” A young man in his early twenties stepped out from behind a bookshelf, which seemed a little odd in a gang hideout, but this man wasn’t an ordinary gang boss.

“Hideo Nakasato…” Miyako crushed the toy arrow in her hand. His jokes and toy traps were far too annoying to deal with at times. Especially with her mood right now. “You never change…”

“So angry,” he grinned, walking over to his desk. He wore a suit and looked more the part of a company CEO rather than a gang member. Out of all of the gangs she met, he seemed the most like what the Yakuza would be like. However, even she admittedly didn’t know what the Yakuza were truly like. She never met any of them. They never had any interest in a bunch of small fry gangs playing at gangsters. They were all just punks and kids in the eyes of the professionals.

Hideo leaned back in his chair and threw up his hands as a sign of ending the hostilities. “You never were too good about loosening up and I see that hasn’t changed after you went back to just being a girl.”

‘So annoying…’ She had trouble with his type. He easily read into her, while she couldn’t do anything about his nature. It was like dealing with a monkey, random and always looking play. Miyako always had to stay on guard against him.

With a look like he held all of the cards, he stared at her with a wide smile. “So what do I owe the pleasure of your company, Miss Miyako Ikuba?”

“I want information.”

“Information. For what would you come all the way to our little home and seek information?” The annoyingly knowledgeable grin continued to taunt her. “I’m afraid I don’t have the answer sheets for the entrance exams.”

Grinding her teeth, she knew that he knew why she came. It only made it more frustrating that he was forcing her to be more direct than she wanted. He knew the situation and played it to the fullest. “Bastard, you know why I’m here.”

Laughing, he leaned back in his chair until it nearly knocked against the wall. “Such vulgarity from a high school girl. Should you really be talking like that?”

Miyako marched up to his desk and slammed her hands on the hard oak surface. The broken toy arrow slid towards him. “Stop with the games, Hideo. Just tell me what I want to know.”

He seemed to get a little more serious. Pulling forward, Hideo looked into Miyako’s eyes. “You’re just a girl. A few games should be enough entertainment for you. This is a dark seedy place where you don’t belong.”

“I’m not a girl!” Her hand pounded against the wood making it groan a little.

Peaking his brow a bit, Hideo brought his hands up over his mouth in an overlapping style. “Unless you’ve hiding a big secret, I’m pretty sure you are.”

Her patience had a limit. It had already been long reached before she even entered the room. She only kept herself in control out of respect. But he had stopped respecting her. Miyako grabbed him by his collar, tie and all. “Enough with the games!”

“Violence is forbidden, you know.”

“Then get serious and show me the respect I deserve!”

“Respect?” His grin never went away the whole time. It actually got a little wider at the mention of that word. Hideo unwound her fingers from his collar and leaned back into the chair. “That’s a funny word. You come in here asking for information and respect when you’re just a no name girl off the street. What respect do I owe you?”

She ground her teeth more as she retreated her position. It was worse than she thought. The point that he was making made things even harder. He was refusing her on an annoying point. Miyako stayed silent, unable to say anything to him.

Hideo fixed his shirt after getting roughed up. “Or are you someone else? Who are you?”