twenty two

brand new numb

It was surprisingly calm outside the S.W.O.R.D District as I surpassed the speed limit on my way to Rasen. Hiroomi's words kept ringing in my head like a bad pop song. I probably shouldn't even have been driving, but I wasn't about to wait for Nakakuki to come back.

"Midori," Murayama warned from the passenger seat. "maybe you should slow down and tell me what the hell is happening?"

I shook my head "They went too fucking far this time."

"Who went too far?"

"Ice and his fucking lackeys!" I shouted "They trashed the site, god damn it!"

Murayama went quiet, likely letting me stew in my anger.

Two years of my life. The reason I came back to this godforsaken town, all gone now.

I swerved to a harsh stop in front of the site, barely braking the pickup truck as I jumped out of the cab and ran towards Daichi, who was aggressively kicking a scrap of drywall away from the front door of the townhouse. I'd never seen Daichi this angry before.

"I swear to god, next time I see that prick Pearl, he's dead!" The boy roared before kicking the tire on his car

"Daichi!" I shouted, running over to him "What happened?"

"Look for yourself." He sighed, slumping to the lawn "There's no way we'll get back on track before the end of term."

Hiroomi was fuming when he came out of the house, screaming into the receiver of his phone. "It was your goddamn security system, Sakyo! What do you mean 'the camera's are dummys', I thought this was the same shit you use to protect the gambling den!"

Around this time, Murayama had caught up with me, out of breath from all the running. Daichi raised an eyebrow at me, and Hiroomi sighed, telling Sakyo he'd call back later.

"We're screwed." The older boy proclaimed, throwing his phone on the grass instead of back in the pocket of his tie-dye sweater. "You don't want to go in there, Midori."

I shook my head at the former Daruma member. "Not happening, Hiroomi. You called me here at one in the morning, and now you don't want me anywhere near the carnage? I'm going in the damn house."

"Listen to Hiroomi, Dori-chan." Daichi sighed "It's not great in there. There's no way we're finishing this by the time term ends. There's nothing we can do."

"I'm going inside." I said sternly, pushing past Hiroomi and heading up the steps to the broken-in door. It looked like the Mighty Warriors had kicked it in.

I knew one thing for sure: I was Oya, Hiroomi was Daruma and Daichi, though he claimed not to be involved with the Hoodlum Squad was from Sannoh. This could easily become a S.W.O.R.D matter now, if it wasn't already.

The first floor was a wreck. The kitchen we'd spent the last week working on had been completely destroyed, stripped down to the plumbing fixtures. The dividing wall between the dining and living room had been all bu smashed, wires and pieces of insulation lying all over the floor. The Mighty Warriors had branded the one untouched wall. We hadn't painted the living room yet, so that could be an easy fix, but it still felt like a sucker punch to the gut seeing their crudely drawn logo staring back at me.

I wanted to think this was Hiroomi's fault. He had been at the container fight, he'd faced these guys head on. But I knew it was because of the bordertown. I knew they'd be back, not ready to take their defeat.

I couldn't help myself as I started to cry. Hiroomi and Murayama came up behind me, Daichi trailing behind, likely feeling like this wasn't his place. I was too scared to even go to the other floors, see what other wreckage Ice and Pearl and Bernie and the other assholes who followed them around had done.

"Two years of my life. Two goddamn years, gone like that." I said quietly, my voice cracking as I truly took in the carnage. "They went too goddamn far!" I screamed, lashing out and ramming my elbow through the already torn drywall behind me.

Daichi visibly flinched, Hiroomi casting his eyes at the floor. They had never seen me like this. I had always been a beacon of calm reasoning.

"They can't get away with this."

Hiroomi shook his head "They already have. The only half-decent cop in S.W.O.R.D is on their payroll, the security cameras Sakyo installed are decoys and nobody is going to believe an ex-Daruma Ikka member, a former world champion with insomnia and anxiety and a twenty-five year old who... actually, they'd probably believe Daichi, but not the two of us."

"So it's over? We fail the goddamn class because some hip-hop punks from the coast decided to mess with us?" Daichi seethed, kicking at the wall

Murayama shook his head "You don't know anything, kid. They'll do anything if you pay them enough. They're ruthless."

"I'm not letting them do this." I shook my head, wiping at the salty tears still running down my face. "It's not fucking fair."

I stalked outside, frowning at the city lights in the distance, wishing I was back in Okinawa. I don't think I'd ever missed Kazuma's bad jokes and his weird friends this much, or that kindly Australian man who made the best haddock fish and chips on the entire coast, or even just the view of the stars, clear as day if I sat on the roof of my grandparents' house.

Down by my foot, the security system Sakyo and Ukyo had installed blinked at me, the motion detector on the silent alarm not enjoying being disturbed. I scoffed before I looked at the small off-white box, the Daruma Ikka logo embossed in the corner, like knowing Daruma protected the area was enough to scare people away.

Clearly threats like that don't work for people who are on the Kuryu group's payroll.

With a grunt, I kicked the sensor, driving the steel toe of my boots as far into it as I could, watching sparks fly as the system short circuited. Fat lot of good the system did for us in the first place.

I slumped down on the grass, next to the drywall chunk that Daichi was kicking, and I began to cry. When did my life become such a wreck? Where did people like the Mighty Warriors get off ruining the lives of innocent people?

"You alright?" Murayama said quietly, taking a seat next to me and putting his arm around my shoulder

"What do Ice and his lackeys get out of this?" I sniffled, wiping at my eyes

"A commission." The Oya leader answered truthfully "I'm so sorry, Midori, if your involvement with us in any way made things worse with Doubt and the Warriors."

I shook my head "No, I think they would have done this anyways, Hiroomi being ex-Daruma and everything. But what's the goddamn point?"

I curled into myself, pulling my knees up to my chest and picking numbly at the loose threads where the rips in the fabric of the knees was and turning to rest my head on Murayama's shoulder. "I was having a great time until this bullshit."

Murayama sighed, wrapping his bomber jacket around my shoulders. "The night doesn't have to end. We can still save this. Wanna go back to yours and eat leftovers, watch a crappy movie or something?"

I smiled. "I have the entire series of Sugarless on DVD."

"Let's do it."

NOTES!

poor dori-chan... anyways, i love them.