Chapter 7: And the General sat
Reina awoke the next morning to a warm body pressed on either side of her, each poking her sides. Since she knew she went to bed alone, this was a little strange to her and she opened her eyes slowly. Two grinning faces looked down at her and she instinctively pulled the covers up to her face so that only her wide eyes were visible.
“Good morning sleepyhead~~!” Sayumi exclaimed, reaching down to ruffle her messy hair.
“Ah, Tanaka-san is so cute~!” Aika cried from her other side, clasping her hands together in front of her.
Glancing around the room, Reina saw the rest of the lawless girls scattered around the room, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Ai and Risa shared the chair in the corner, the older on the younger’s lap. Jun sat next to an awakened Eri chatting comfortably and Lin was at the foot of the bed, flipping through channels on TV.
Obviously, this little party had been going on for a while and Reina was the last to join. She turned an acidic look on her partner, “Eri, what the hell?”
The turtle girl gave an apologetic glance that was tinged with amusement. “They’ve been here for almost an hour. I didn’t know you were such a heavy sleeper, Reina!”
“An hour?!” Reina dove under the covers, eliciting laughter around the room. She couldn’t believe this, “Did you let them in Eri?” she cried, muffled under the thick blanket.
“No, they were here when I woke up. Apparently, Gaki-san called another meeting.” Eri gestured to the slightly older girl who was quietly conversing with Ai on her lap.
“Ah, yes.” Risa opened a thick file on the table beside her, “I got most of the information we needed. That includes a list of suspected gang members and their addresses, as well as drug connections. Now all we need to do is follow the trails back to the suppliers, which will be Lin’s job, I’ll need Sayu to stay with her and help with whatever she needs and the rest of us will go out and start taking out these men.”
“What? You mean kill them?” Ai asked in surprise, turning to face her. Risa nodded, “I don’t think I’m okay with that.”
“Well how else did you think we were going to get rid of them, Ai? Send them to jail?” She saw in her face that’s exactly what she was thinking, “Honey, why else would they send in criminals to do this?”
“I’ve never killed anyone before.” Aika admitted quietly, Lin and Sayu nodded as well.
Risa and Jun looked at each other, “Then I guess it’s just you and me. Unless you have any objections to it?”
“Well, I don’t mind, I guess.” It’s not like Jun felt guilty for the death she was responsible for, just that she’d only killed one person.
“No.” Ai said firmly, “We’ll find another way.” She cut Risa off before she could protest, “You wanted me in charge, right? You wanted me to have the final say, and I say no killing.”
“What else are we supposed to do? Just sit on our hands until we can find the drug connection? And after we find it, what then?” Risa exclaimed, throwing her arms up into the air.
“No killing.” Ai repeated, “I won’t let you do that.”
“If its because you have some image of wanting to protect my innocence, let me just clear that up for you. I’ve killed before, Ai-chan, and I’m totally capable of doing it again. With no regrets!”
The rest of the room looked a little uncomfortable to be witnessing the lover’s quarrel. “I’m putting my foot down, Risa.”
“Ai-chan, please.” Risa tried not to glare, but she just couldn’t help but be annoyed.
“Absolutely not.” Ai would not budge and the younger girl finally sighed, acquiescing for the moment.
“Well, then.” Eri said rising from her bed, still in pajamas, “Now that that’s settled, sort of, Reina, can you give me a hand?”
Reina quickly hopped up, wanting to be away from the awkward atmosphere, and followed her partner into the bathroom, “What did you need?”
“Can you help me change my bandages?” Eri asked timidly.
“Uh sure, what do I need to do?” When Eri handed her a small piece of gauze and some tape, Reina couldn’t help but remember the last time she had help patch up a bullet wound.
She had been sixteen at the time, her father had come home bleeding profusely and she had rushed out worried, gauze in one hand and needle and thread in the other. He had laughed as she patched him up, telling her about how many men he’d killed that day and how he’d let the one who shot him get away with his life intact. According to her father the younger man had earned it, but Reina didn’t understand his complex code of honor.
After that day, she’d swore she’d never stitch up another man. She’d swore she’d never become her father.
“Reina?” Eri poked her shoulder and the younger girl snapped back to reality, her partner was leaning back against the counter, shirt lifted to reveal the square bandage that was taped to her lower left side. Reina didn’t see it, but she knew there was an identical one on Eri’s back.
“Sorry.” She murmured and set about her task. She none too gently ripped the gauze off her partner’s skin, eliciting a yelp, “Don’t be such a baby.” she scolded when Eri whined at her, back to her old self after her trip through memory lane.
“Don’t be so mean.” Eri shot back. In response, Reina reached around behind her and ripped the bandage off her back, her partner yelped again.
About five minutes later Eri stomped out of the bathroom, holding her belly protectively, Reina called out after her laughingly, “Don’t be like that Eri! I apologized, you know it would just hurt worse if I didn’t do it quickly.” When the older girl refused to speak to her, Reina laughed again, “Can you at least bring me some clothes? I’m going to take a shower.” The lawless girls watched the show in amusement. Reina shook her head and went back into the bathroom.
She turned the shower on and stripped down, kicking her clothes into a neat pile. Finally, she felt like she could take a breath. Reina climbed into the warm stream and relaxed, shaking out her aching muscles and her tense shoulders. She reminded herself yet again, not to get too attached to her charges, after all, they were criminals, like her father, and she was a cop, who arrested criminals, like her father.
She was almost done with her routine when she heard the door open and saw a shadow come over to the toilet and set down what she assumed was her clothes for the day, “Thanks Eri.” she called, relieved that the crazy girl wasn’t still mad at her.
“Your welcome, Tanakacchi.” the familiar voice responded, and Reina jumped. That wasn’t her partner.
“What are you doing in here?” she cried, irrationally feeling like covering herself, even though she knew that the older girl couldn’t see through the shower curtains.
“I wanted to talk to you.” Risa said, sitting down on the closed toilet lid, “It’s been a long time since we last saw one another. Back then you were only knee high to a grasshopper, but I guess that hasn’t changed much.”
Reina concentrated on washing the conditioner out of her hair, trying to ignore the other’s words, “You’re not old enough to call me knee high to anything.” she failed, unable to not respond to something like that.
“Still, you were just planning your first tattoo. Did you ever get it?” Risa asked curiously and Reina could tell by her voice that she was giving the shower a questioning look.
“…” The younger girl reached behind her to touch her inked back. Her father had been so excited when it came time for her to get her first tattoo. He had wanted her to get the female variation of the God of Death figure that marked his own back.
Reina was startled when the shower curtain was ripped open by Risa, but before she could cover herself, the older girl had grabbed her shoulders and turned her around. Reina felt her protests die on her lips as Risa tersely examined her tattoo. At first glance, the tat looked like a horribly warped figure, so badly disfigured that it was impossible to tell if it was a man or woman. Upon closer examination, though, the warped places turned out to be cleverly disguised kanji.
“Hope, justice, and law?” Risa read and the younger girl was impressed that she caught the nuances so quickly. Then she remembered to be mad. “What would your father say if he saw you now?”
“I don’t care what he has to say.” Reina turned and swiftly closed the curtain on Risa.
“That can’t be true, I know you love your father.” The older girl scolded gently, but Reina only got more upset.
“You don’t know anything about me!” she cried, clutching her arms to her chest, “We weren’t even friends back then!”
“Well I know your father loves you.” Risa responded without missing a beat, “Whenever I was in town he would always tell me about you. About how proud he was that you were taking over his mantle. Tell me, are you really okay with us having to kill him?”
“Takahashi-san won’t let you kill.” Reina reminded desperately, ignoring the question.
“Not yet, she won’t, but sooner or later, she’ll have to understand that it’s kill or be killed. Hopefully before someone gets hurt and that’s when we’ll have to go through with it. Takashi-dono I think is a prick, even Kusumi-dono I don’t feel too bad about killing, but I honestly like your father. Tanaka-dono was always good to me, whenever we met he always had a present, he said I was what he hoped you would be like when you finally came to power.” Sinking to her knees, Reina covered her ears. She didn’t want to hear about this!
“I’m not my father, I hate him! I’m not a criminal and I won’t be one ever! I went to the academy to put men like daddy away! And I haven’t spoken to him since I explained my reasons so why would I feel bad about doing away someone who deserves it?!” The curtain was opened again and Risa sat on the edge of the tub, gently stroking Reina’s hair and helping her finish washing it.
“Now, you don’t really mean that, do you?” Reina stubbornly nodded, “We don’t have to kill him, you know? If you can convince him to give up.”
“He’ll never go back to jail, he always said it would be better to die and rot than to live and rot.” Reina allowed the older girl to wrap a towel around her and pull her up.
“Maybe you should go talk to him then. Before we meet in combat.” Risa suggested gently, tilting her head down to look into Reina’s eyes.
“I’ll….Think about it.” The younger girl finally conceded and a sad smile spread across Risa’s face.
“For however much you hate what your father stands for, you’ve always been his princess.” Risa’s parting shot was almost too much for the now emotionally drained Reina.
The towel clad girl sat heavily on the vacated toilet top, when the captain gave her this assignment, she just knew it was going to end badly. It had seemed like she had known Risa from forever ago, to see her unmistakable face in those folders had been almost like a shock to the system.
When the big three had sent out feelers into the surrounding cities, Yokohama had been one of the first to fall under their command. Takashi-dono had sent his second in command, a man nicknamed Doro-san, to strike up deals with the local gangs. Risa’s brother had been one of the go-to guys for arms deals between the two groups and when the three bosses wanted to meet him, Risa had, of course, tagged along.
And Tanaka-dono had brought his precious daughter along to watch and learn as well. Both sides had been a little surprised at the addition of the two youngest little gangsters, but over all, Tanaka-dono had been pleased. Takashi-dono had not been.
The two girls had been sent to the corner to watch silently while the adults talked things out and Reina remembered feeling awkward around the slightly older girl. She had been seven at the time, and Risa nine, but it seemed like there was decades between their ages. Reina recalled the attentiveness that the older girl had shown to the meeting while Reina had only felt bored.
Her young mind had unconsciously realized that Risa was very much intent on following in her brother’s footsteps, while Reina wanted to get as far away from the violence as possible. Reina was obviously bored and Risa obviously fascinated.
So she had tried to distance herself from the older girl, but as soon as she shifted away, Risa took notice of her. “Hi, what’s your name? I’m Risa, I’m nine, how old are you?”
Reina hadn’t wanted to answer her but her father had instilled in her that she had to be polite to people she didn’t know. Yet another lesson she had unconsciously strayed away from. She replied to the older girl quietly.
The older girl had laughed, “I like your dress, your daddy must love you very much to buy you something so pretty.”
“He does.” Reina repeated her answer from the past out loud, snapping back to the present, “He does love Reina very much.”
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Risa leaned back against the bathroom door with a sad smile still on her face. She really hoped Reina would do the right thing and go out to see her father. She caught Ai’s curious look across the room and shook her head silently, nobody needed to know that Reina and she had met before.
“Anyway! Continuing with the meeting, if we can’t kill anyone, we should at least go reek some havoc. I know a few dealers we can shake down.” she said in a sing song, “Who’s up for it?”
Jun immediately raised her hand, every inch the eager student, but Ai looked less then thrilled and Aika just looked bored. To her surprise, though, Eri raised her hand as well, “Well,” the younger girl explained to her questioning look, “At least if I go, I can keep you out of trouble. And maybe hit someone.” she shrugged nonchalantly and Risa laughed.
“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, kid.”
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This one is another short chapter, it's more set up than anything. I'm running out of pre-written chapters fast because I keep making some of them so long, so it will be another week before I get the next one out.
Topic: Black and Blue (Ch 34 6/4 The End!) (Read 153158 times)