Chapter Text
"Listen, I'm the most successful yakuza leader in all of Inkopolis Square. I don't have time to listen to you complain about how my minions won't collect your neighborhood's protection fees. Just threaten them! I'm your older sister, they know what'll happen if they don't do what you say."
Marina sighed as Pearl continued talking to her little brother Emperor about the protection fees in his neighborhood that he runs. Although Marina strongly disagreed with her girlfriend's actions, she stayed quiet. She didn't want to upset her girlfriend. She heard an audible "Ugh!" coming from Pearl's phone. Was everyone in her family as immature as her? Marina knew that Pearl was at least responsible enough to keep the yakuza running even after her father had died, she admired how the small inkling got so much people to respect and work for her. There was a lot of things she admired about Pearl, from her bright golden eyes, to her cute nasally tone. Marina loved when Pearl showed her sweet side, it was different from her normal annoyed self. Pearl rarely treated someone as nicely as she did Marina, except her youngest brother, Prince. It made Marina feel special. She glanced at Pearl, still yelling at her brother. She just wished the love of her life wasn't the literal Oyabun of Inkopolis's yakuza.
Pearl angrily hung up on her brother, putting down her phone. "I'm so sorry about that. What were you saying?" Pearl asked. Marina was slightly startled, and tried to remember what she was talking about. "Oh, well. I kinda like the idea of becoming a singer." Pearl smiled at the thought. "Well, your singing sure knows how to put me to sleep at night, Reena." Pearl complimented. "I like the idea. Want me to make it happen? I could get you on the radio station, maybe even on televi-" Marina smiled, and cut her girlfriend off. "I would appreciate it, Pearlie. But I think I should work for this. I want to feel the satisfaction of earning popularity. Not to mention, I'm not doing it for the popularity, I'm doing it because I love it."
Pearl looked at Marina. "You're beautiful." Marina blushed and looked out on Inkopolis, the city lights reflecting in her green eyes. The two were sitting on the balcony of Pearl's massive penthouse. Although the 21-year-old was very immature and bared such a measly height, she ruled over the square and it showed. Even with all of Inkopolis right in front of her, she chose to stare at her girlfriend's distant gaze. What was she always so deep in thought about? Pearl loved Marina, she really did. But she struggled to understand how Marina, a quiet and kind girl, put up with the bullshit Pearl threw at her. She knew it must be stressful on her.
Because she was so successful, she believed it wasn't necessary for the public to know about her relationship with Marina.
"Listen, Reena. You're great. And I'd love to start dating you, you've been my best friend for a while, after all. But y'know, with my whole yakuza situation, I think it's best if we keep our relationship away from the public. Like, y'know, a secret? I hope you understand."
Marina had completely understood her, and never pressed on the subject, and Pearl assumed she didn't mind. But she did.
At first, she thought Pearl was protecting her from the whole "violent crime gang" situation. But as the months went by, Marina realized Pearl was only protecting her reputation. And unfortunately for her, Marina also realized she was in love with Pearl, so she never mentioned it.
She got it though. The Oyabun of Inkopolis's most successful Yakuza with a normal octoling would anger some. Despite the growing number of octolings, and those accepting them, there was a growing number of those who hated them as well. Marina avoided going out late at night because of this.
Pearl's phone started ringing again. She sighed. "So much for alone time," she said, standing up. "I think I should start heading home," Marina got up, ready to leave. "W-Wait! Are you sure? I can come with you if you want?" Pearl asked, grabbing a hold of the younger but taller girl's wrist gently. "It's okay, I have to apply for a job somewhere later today anyway. It's only 5" Marina said with a reassuring smile. Pearl let go of Marina's wrist. "Yeah, you go do that then." Marina bent down to kiss Pearl's cheek. The Inkling blushed and grabbed Marina's face, kissing her tall girlfriend on her lips.
Marina kissed her back before grabbing her bag and leaving with a small "love you". Pearl sighed. "Love you too."
•
It was getting dark. Marina just finished her interview for a job at a small night club, and was riding home on her motorcycle. She wasn't too fond of it, but it was something. The club reeked of cigarettes and alcohol but it wasn't the worst. It was just a place sleazy men go with their prostitute girlfriends to get drunk and stupid. Sometimes facing reality was just too much for Marina, and even though it was getting late, she thought she would take her bike around the town to get some air. She didn't want to think about her situation.
She did this often when she had too much on her mind. So she took a detour from her route home and decided to explore the city. She took a breath, and relished the smoke free air.
She knew she could take up Pearl's offer instead of working at a gross night club, but she hated relying on Pearl for everything. Depending on how you saw their relationship, Pearl was practically Marina's sugar daddy. The octoling wasn't very financially stable before she met Pearl, but now? She could say Pearl was keeping her alive at this point. It had been hard for her to find a job until now; a recent law was passed making it illegal not to hire octolings for the sole reason of them being octolings. Marina was grateful for this, as nice as it was having your sweet girlfriend pay for everything, it felt patronizing too. She didn't really think she was much, especially compared to her girlfriend.
Despite Pearl's attempts to reassure her that she was in fact, "fucking beautiful! and amazing, and talented!" She had a hard time believing it. Up until a couple minutes ago, only Pearl had heard her sing, and Pearl thought everything she did was great. While that was nice, Marina knew she couldn't just rely on Pearl to judge her singing. Marina audibly sighed when she heard a snicker from an alleyway, pulling her out of her thoughts. Turning the corner she parked her motorcycle in the alley. "What is it this time?" She asked in disgust. "Oh I'm sure you already know." She grumbled. "Let me rephrase that then. How much?" she asked, turning to the blonde boy. "Same amount as last time," he informed with a smirk, his hazel green eyes reflecting in the city lights. "When's my due date?" Marina asked as the boy stepped into the light.
It was the least menacing person in the Yellow Gang besides Prince. His dark skin complimenting his glimmering hazel eyes made Marina feel somewhat comfortable around him. Although he didn't necessarily give off asshole vibes, he was still perfectly capable of doing horrible things. His yellow hair was buzzed short and his scarred eyebrows were always furrowed, making him seem pretty aggressive. He had told Marina he got the scar in a knife fight once.
"Next week, this exact time, and right at this spot." Marina scoffed. "You expect me to make 1,500 dollars in one week? I'm sure we both know that's impossible, Eging," she said, attempting to reason with him. "Oh, I know. But the oyabun needs it. And I don't think I have to remind you about what we'll do to your friends and family if you don't give us our desired payment by the deadline." Eging Jr. laughed as Marina made a somber face.
"Yeah. Yeah, I will. I'll see you in a week," Marina said. "Pleasure doing business with you," Eging Jr. said sarcastically and turned back into the dark alleyway, disappearing into the night. Marina sighed, "That night club better let me entertain, and fast." Marina grabbed her bike and headed home.
The Yellow Gang is one of Pearl's gangs. As the leader of the greatest yakuza in Inkopolis, she had a huge amount of people working for her. Pearl had allies, smaller gangs of her own, and just groups of people doing the dirty work for her. The reason the Yellow gang always threatened money out of her was because Pearl never actually told even her brothers about their relationship. Meaning they didn't know they weren't supposed to fuck around with her. Marina never bothered mentioning it with Pearl, but it was starting to get worse. She's been in debt 3 times every month, and the amount has been getting higher.
She parked her motorcycle in an empty spot, and climbed the stairs to her apartment. She was somewhat lucky she had at least the 3rd floor, as it was likely to find stalkers staring through your window if you were a girl living alone on the first few floors. She took out her keys and unlocked the door, closing it behind her as she walked in. She went to her living room, kicked off her heels and fell back into her old couch. She didn't want to think about her rising amount of issues, so she took out her phone and dialed one of the only other people she knew. The phone rang. "Hey Marina? What's up?" a high pitched voice answered.
"Hi Callie, you busy?"
"Not at all!"
"How's the business?" Marina hated asking this question. "It's going great, in fact I think you know one of our employees!" Marina went wide eyed.
"What?" She gripped the phone tightly. Who was running so low on money they had to resort to that?
"Yeah, uh lemme think... Agent 8 was her name I believe?"
Marina dropped the phone.