My new family: a Heisei Kumi fanfic (7/16)
Author: ryosukekoibito
Pairing: Keito-centric, with some side Ariyama, and more pairings to come
Rating: PG-13, for some scenes of violence ^-^
Genre: A little bit of everything, except smut. No smut, sorry~
Disclaimer: They all own each other. I own nothing~
Summary: Johnny Kitagawa head of the Kitagawa Yakuza Group, dies. Yes, he's dead. Now, Okamoto Kenichi takes over, and forces his son, Okamoto Keito into the Heisei Kumi, a subunit of the group; to learn and make himself a proper yakuza. Poor Keito didn't know what he was getting himself into...
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
"Well, I was kidnapped by the Wakaba group, and kept in a small room by my childhood friend, Kamiki Ryunosuke; or as I used to call him, Kami-chan. Then the Wakaba were raided by these guys, well, not all of them, Kumi-cho and Ryutaro weren't in the Kumi yet. But that's beside the point. They took me from the Wakaba hideout, and brought me here. I explained to them who I was, that I wasn't a yakuza member, and asked them to let me go. They didn't believe me at first; but then Yuto convinced them, and as soon as I saw him I knew...I loved him.
"He was the only one that really took much interest in me, nursing me back to health and teaching me things, playing games, and making a friend out of me. He updated me on the news, and made me feel light hearted and hopeful despite my grim situation, kidnapped once more. He was my star. Then, one day he comes and finds me, and he's crying, and he tells me that my family thought I had died, and had moved away. I didn't believe him at first; I didn't want to. He promised me through his tears that he'd help me find my family.
"That night, he woke me, and dragged me down the stairs, putting a blindfold over my eyes and carrying me out the door, through the night. He set me down by a Sakura tree, and took the blindfold off, and he told me "Go now. Find your family." and he began to cry. His tears brought tears of my own to my eyes, I didn't want to leave him. Yet, I missed my family, I hadn't seen them in over a year. I asked him to come with me. He said he couldn't, and he wiped my tears, and kissed me on the cheek, handing me a small sakura blossom and said.
"Take this, and when you see them, think of me. Don't forget, okay?" And then before I could stop him he ran off. I tried to chase him, I yelled after him; yelled that I loved him. But he was already gone. The next day realized I would probably never be able to find my old family; I decided to make his family my own, and stay by his side, so I searched, and found him, and decided I'd never leave his side again. I'm still in love with him, a little. I think you always are a little in love with your first love." Yamada's voice got steadily quieter as he told the story, until it was a small mumble. Yamada's first love was a bittersweet one, it seemed. Keito felt himself choking up a bit.
His hand traced over the Sakura band around Yamada's arm; it now took on a whole new meaning.
"This..."
"A tribute..." Yamada whispered. "...to my first love, and best friend."
One minute later, Yamada was fast asleep, spread out on the couch.
The next morning, when Keito came downstairs, Yamada was telling the other boys about the massage from the night before.
"It was just like..." Yamada's voice dropped, and he leaned close to Yuto, whispering in his ear. Yuto smiled, and nodded, and Keito's eyes caught on Yamada's tattoo, and the way Yuto looked at Yamada, and he felt uneasy. The poor things had just barely missed each other. He sighed, and hoped this wouldn't end too badly for them.
"Where'd you learn that, Keito?" Yuto asked, and Keito frowned internally. He didn't want to lie, but he couldn't tell them.
"I taught myself...I massaged my mom when I was younger, before the divorce, but I've never done anyone else before..." His fib was plausible, and they accepted it readily. He swallowed the guilt from lying, and went to get breakfast. They spent the rest of the day; and the week; training for their upcoming act of violence as they had the day before; doing one-on-one battles, or sometimes two-on-one, or two-on-two. Yuto and Yamada were amazing partners, making their fights look more like dances than anything else, knowing each other inside out, predicting their partner’s next move, and countering it with a move the other had foreseen. They seemed to be having the most fun with it. Daiki often would brood, in a bad mood, when Yuto and Yamada had these practices; yet he never fought against Yamada. Keito overheard him mumble to his hands "I couldn't stand it..." once, after turning down Yamada's offer to join them, and get Ryutaro, and do a two-on-two match.
Every night Shoon still stopped by, as usual. At first Keito was worried, not sure if things would be awkward after his random display of affection-which he was now extremely embarrassed about. Yet Shoon never mentioned the kiss on the cheek, and soon Keito stopped bothering about it. They still sparred, but the sessions were shorter, and their talks were longer, Keito weary after fighting almost all day. He had grown strong though, his sore, stiff muscles rippling under his skin. Occasionally Shoon would give Keito a massage, smiling and taking quietly as he did so, every time leaving Keito feeling renewed. One of these nights Hikaru asked Keito to massage him, after he had come in. Surprised, Keito did so, a bubble of happiness swelling in his chest as he thought of how he had managed to become friends with Hikaru, despite the older boy’s negative first opinion of him. Hikaru began telling a story, as Yamada had; something about their old Kumi-cho, before Chinen, mumbling something about a tattoo of the rising sun, before falling fast asleep, despite his obvious efforts to stay awake.
The last week before the battle was spent doing other things. That Tuesday they all went and got refitted for suits, the tailor assuring them to have the suits ready within forty-eight hours. He had seemed nervous, jittery, as soon as they had walked through the door, over polite and wary at all times. They terrified him. Poor guy. They were fitted by the unspoken rank they held in the Kumi; Chinen going first, then Hikaru, then Yabu, et cetera, down to Keito. They all had matching black suits with black silk shirts, and differently colored ties, picked out by Yamada for them all. He handed Keito a mint green one, and Hikaru paid for it all with the money they had saved. The next day they did strategic planning, Inoo drew up a blueprint of the Wakaba's main hideout, which was a converted set of warehouses near an abandoned dock. They used little things like buttons and coins as themselves, moving them, setting the strategy. Not that here was much of one, really. It was just mostly who entered where, and where to meet up. The night before they were going to attack, everyone was solemn, not talking to each other much.
"Why?" Keito asked Yuto, who looked just as the others did.
"Because tomorrow's the twenty-first." Yuto said, giving Keito a "duh" look. Keito just stared back blankly.
"No one's told you?!" Yuto was incredulous. Keito just shook his head. Yuto sighed.
"Fine. I'll tell you. Tomorrow we're going to the cemetery, to visit our former member, Ayukawa Taiyo. Taiyo-kun would have been twenty this year. He died in a raid five years ago tomorrow, just after Ryutaro and his brother joined the Kumi." This hit Keito in the chest like a bag of bricks.
"I'm sorry..." The words stumbled out, but he was mulling over what Yuto had said. That's why Ryutaro had protested when Chinen had set the date. It was a day of grief for them all.
"I have a picture, here..." Yuto got his wallet from his pocket, flipping it open, past a picture of a little boy, to another. He was in the kitchen, Keito recognized it. He was very tall, with a big grin on his face; brownish-black hair fell around it, framing the dorkiness that he conveyed. Behind him, in the background, out of focus, was a topless figure at the stove, with a tattoo that was blurred out on his bare back, taking up all of the exposed skin. Keito didn't recognize the figure, but he assumed it was the old Kumi-cho that Hikaru had mentioned. The one with the tattoo of the sun on his back. Sun. Taiyo.
Keito made the connection, and wondered if that was the reason behind the sun tattoo. If it was a symbol of their now lost member. A brother he never met. He stared at the boy in the picture, and wished he could have met him.
"He was our sun...our Taiyo." Yuto said, glancing at the picture, and shutting his wallet swiftly, obviously about to cry.
The next morning, Keito woke with a start, and looked down over the edge of his bunk to see Yuto was already slipping on his nice clothes. Keito hopped out of bed, and they dressed silently, fixing their shirt collars and ties as they went down stairs. They waited as the others joined them, and they all ate a small breakfast of rice and eggs together at the table, barely speaking. Yabu looked awful, distraught.
Hikaru had an arm over his shoulders, silently comforting him. Keito just observed the grief silently, not truly able to take part. Everyone filed out of the house, and turned down a few streets to where a limo was waiting to take them to the cemetery.
On the ride there, Yamada ended up coincidentally next to Yuto, far from Daiki, who was in a front seat. Yamada was looking almost as upset as Yabu, Keito noticed the short boy seemed the worst about hiding his emotions, and Yuto slipped his hand into his brown haired friends own, giving it a comforting squeeze. Yamada rested his head on Yuto's shoulder, shutting his eyes. Keito pretended not to notice the slight look of happiness that lit Yuto's eyes when Yamada did that, and turned his attention to the window, watching gray scenery flash by, until they reached their destination, piling out silently, Chinen, a bouquet in hand, leading the way through the graves to the one they were there to see.
They climbed the last stair, and turned the last corner, and everyone froze. A figure was kneeling at the grave, his back to them. That back was bare; displaying an amazing tattoo of the sun, rising over a small town dwarfed by the colors the sun’s rays sent out. A sun of hope, and joy. The previous Kumi-cho. He stood up, shoes twisting in the gravel, and turned around to face them. Tears ran down his cheeks, from amazing, large doe eyes. Long scars covered his chest, and his black hair fell and framed his young, beautiful face. The face of Yamashita Shoon. Keito's heart stopped in his chest.
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