seventeen

kingdom of cards

The Itokan Diner was one of my favorite places in S.W.O.R.D. It was well away from the glamour of the White Rascals and their club, and far enough from the chaos of Oya High to become a beacon of calm energy in Sannoh.

I had watched Naomi and her brother build the diner form the ground up during our junior year at Sato, about a year and a half before Mugen collapsed and S.W.O.R.D took over. When Tatsuya had died, Naomi was devastated. I had helped her keep the diner afloat for the first few months before I left for Okinawa again, so in a way, Itokan was my baby as well.

Murayama was standing outside the green metal-and-glass doors, staring intently at his phone. I chuckled softly to myself, noting that all of the other leaders were already inside the diner and had likely been wondering what Murayama was doing, standing outside on his own.

Chuckling to myself, I came up behind the boy, quickly putting the palms of my hands over his eyes. "Guess who."

Murayama jumped before spinning around and playfully hitting me in the shoulder. "I knew it was you."

"Sure you did." I laughed, pulling him in for a kiss. "So is there a reason that you're standing out here like a loser while the rest of S.W.O.R.D is inside Itokan already?"

"I was waiting for you." Murayama shrugged "Thought it was only right that we both went in there together. Besides, they already think I'm a loser anyways."

Chuckling, I interlocked my fingers with his and we headed inside the diner. Instantly, all the heads in the diner came swiveling over to us. A guy in a red kimono, who I assumed was Hyuga Norihisa, chuckled under his breath.

"So he's finally decided to stop standing in the cold like a loser."

Murayama rolled his eyes. "Piss off, Hyuga-chan."

In a corner seat, a blond in a white plush trench coat raised his eyebrows. "Out of all of us, you're the one that has a girlfriend?"

In the opposite corner of Itokan, a scruffy looking guy in a winter jacket "Where's the gorilla that usually comes with you."

I snorted "Seki? He got demoted."

"Midori is way smarter." Murayama boasted on my behalf "She has like eight degrees."

I rolled my eyes, taking a seat in one of the booths by the main windows before correcting him. "I have three, working on my fourth. Fine arts, Red Cross and I did a year to become a legal assistant before I realized I hated the idea of having a desk job. Right now I'm working on construction engineering."

"If you're that smart," Hyuga started "why are you dating him?"

Yamato snickered, choking slightly on the omurice he was eating. Murayama flashed his middle finger at the man in red, and I tried to diffuse whatever tension exited by introducing myself to everybody.

"Midori Yamada." I said, shaking the hand of the man in white

"Rocky, leader of the White Rascals."

"Smokey, leader of the Rude Boys." The scruffy one said

I was heading back the the booth when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around, a huge smile blooming on my face as I met eyes with arguably my favourite person on the planet.

"Naomi!" I shouted, rushing across the floor to give her a hug.

"Midori, oh my goodness, how are you?" Naomi laughed, wrapping her arms around me "The usual?"

I nodded "And a hot chocolate, if it's not too much to ask. We should go for lunch again this week, one of the kids at Oya gave me the name of this noodle place."

Naomi looked to Murayama "And you can tell me all about you and him."

When Naomi vanished to prepare another plate, it seemed like Cobra was finally ready to call the meeting to order. The stoic blond showed little emotion as he got up to stand in the middle of the diner, only to be cut off by the windchimes in front of the diner's entrance.

"Welcome to the first official meeting of the 'let's kill Dan club'" A very familiar voice called out.

I turned in my seat, a small smile blossoming across my face. He'd gotten taller, and his dreadlocks were longer, but he was still the same Tetsu I knew in high school. "As somebody who kicked Dan down a flight of stairs in sophomore year, I don't think killing him would be too hard."

"Midori Yamada?" Tetsu's face brightened in recognition "Is that you? How long has it been, six years or so, right?"

I nodded "'Round about."

Cobra rolled his eyes. "What did Dan do now?"

"Does it matter?" Hyuga snorted "He was annoying anyways." He turned to me "Also, do you have video footage of Dan getting kicked down a flight of stairs?"

Inhaling sharply, Tetsu began a very detailed story about how he was giving his spare room to a Canadian tourist named Gillian, who's step-father was connected to Mugen, while she tried to figure out more about him. Apparently Tetz was trying to be a good host and did Gillian's laundry for her while she went with Cobra to talk to Kohaku and Tsukomo, and then Dan showed up while he was trying to figure out how to wash the bras. Long story short, a very expensive bra got thrown out a window.

Rocky rolled his eyes. "And you Sannoh boys wonder why you don't have girlfriends."

Yamato snickered "You should see the way Tetsu looks at Gillian. He's known her three days and he's already in love."

"Shut up, Yamato." Tetsu snapped

Cobra stood up, an exasperated expression on his face "Tetz, this is really important. We can mediate whatever the hell this is later, just go take Gillian out for a drink or something."

Rolling his eyes and mumbling under his breath, Tetsu turned to leave, the door chiming as it closed behind him.

Murayama looked at me as Naomi came back, a curious expression on his face. "You kicked Dan down a flight of stairs?"

I shrugged "It was an accident. I also pushed a guy through a second storey window. It was a different time then."

"Y-you did what?" A kid sitting next to Smokey stammered. I noticed that Smokey was actually rather quiet, and just seemed to get his point across by brooding.

"She's bluffing." Hyuga said "There's no way, look at her. She's a twig."

I scoffed "Excuse you, I happen to have the best right hook at Oya."

"It's true." Murayama agreed "She almost broke Nakabyashi's nose the other day."

I rolled my eyes with a smile "I wouldn't go that far. But I am a four time national champion."

"And you're slumming it with them?" Smokey said in disbelief.

I stood up from my chair, tightening the laces on my Vans. "Hyuga, you and me, right now. I'll show you exactly how strong my right hook is."

Rocky pulled off his sunglasses with a grin, giving us all a good look at his silver teeth. "This is going to be good."

"I think we've all forgotten that there's a reason we're here." cobra said, trying to restore order to the diner

"It can wait five minutes while I put Murayama's girl on the floor." Hyuga grinned, getting up to meet me in the middle of the diner

I smirked "Not if I put you on the floor first."

We both moved fast, fists flying and bodies ducking out of the way. Hyuga was good, but I had a feeling I was better as I dodged another one of his fists, landing a punch to the side of his head before grabbing his collar and pulling off perhaps the best tomoe-nage I had ever done outside of my competition days, throwing Hyuga across the floor and rendering the entire diner speechless before Murayama lead the leaders in a round of applause.

"Enough!" Cobra shouted, slamming his hand down on a table to quiet us. "We called this meeting for a reason. You've had your fun, but now we need to get serious."

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Smokey agreed as Hyuga and I headed back to our respective tables, heads hung low.

"Where are we on the missing heiress?" Yamato said, effectively cutting out any kind of fun we still could have had "We need to find her before Kuryu does, there has to be a reason she ran away from home. She could be a threat to us, or she could be our greatest asset."

"A threat?" Hyuga blanched. "No, I've known Himari since we were five years old, and she's hated her family since the day she knew what they were. But the last couple times she ran away she came to find me, or she stayed with Ryu. I paid the asshole a visit the other day, and he said he had no idea where she is."

"Have you looked in the Nameless City?" Cobra suggested "What about Little Asia, there's no S.W.O.R.D affiliation there."

"She's not in the City." Smokey said stoically. "Nobody new in days, and even if she snuck in, it sounds like she's so good at hiding that we'd never find her."

While the rest of S.W.O.R.D continued to talk about Himari Iemura, my little bordertown problem with the Mighty Warriors suddenly seemed so small compared to what a missing heiress or a tourist looking for the truth about her father meant for the other gangs. I picked nervously at my food as Hyuga and Cobra got into a shouting match about Himari's morals. As if he could sense my nerves, Murayama reached out and squeezed my hand.

"You can do this, Dori. Don't let them win." The boy said softly before pressing his lips to my knuckles.

"Enough of this arguing, please!" Smokey snapped "I'm exhausted and if I cough up any more blood because of you lot, Naomi's gonna have to close this place and deep clean it!"

"Fine." Hyuga huffed, sitting back down "Let Midori talk then. There has to be reason she's here, right? I mean, other than introducing herself and kicking my ass."

Looking to Murayama for reassurance, I took a deep breath and started talking, telling the story from the very beginning. Starting at the night the Mighty Warriors trashed our street, and the sheer terror I had felt, then segwaying into Doubt trying to kidnap me as I left the building site just outside of Rasen. I touched briefly on the three days I spent with the Amamiya brothers, and judging by the expression's on the leaders faces, it the Amamiya's usually only got involved if it was serious.

"I spent most of my life outside of school trying to avoid this. Yeah, when I was at Sato I made mistakes. I was angry, I was spiteful and agressive. I got into fights and I slacked off. But I was one of the few kids there who had a future, and when I realised that and I tried to put all of that fighting and chaos behind me, I thought I had gotten out of the metaphorical woods." I said, fighting back tears "I had to sit and watch as kids I knew got picked up by the yakuza, or joined Mugen- no offense, Cobra, Yamato and Naomi -and then when that collapsed they went off the rails. A few kids from my year got picked up by Kuryu families, and that was the last we heard of them. A few kids joined Oya, a few joined Daruma. More than a couple ended up in that big prison in Rasen. But I got out, I made something of myself. I'm still making something of myself, and it was all gone in an instant!" My voice broke as the first tear slid down my face. "And now I can't get out, and it's left me wondering what the hell I did to deserve this."

The diner was silent. Nobody quite had the words to describe how they felt about everything that I had just said, but the shock and awe was written on their faces.

"I need some air." I managed to choke out, grabbing my hot chocolate and ducking outside, unable to look at the horror on Smokey's face, reflecting how he felt when Doubt took his sister, or the regret on Rocky's face for not extending the Rascals' patrols out towards the bordertown.

NOTES

another long one! i've done some rethinking on how to streamline all my current plots, and i've decided to narrow some aspects of this one down a little, but we'll be getting into the non-stop ass kicking very soon.

also, i don't understand how they get anything done at s.w.o.r.d meetings. let's be real, the first little bit is probably just all of them fucking around before cobra makes them smarten up.