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Chapter Text

2019

Ichiban

Ichiban was desperate for a drink, but a particular drink. A drink he was so desperate to find that he had dragged his friends around Ijincho for two hours on foot until he found the specific vending machine that stocked it. It was already around 9pm in the city. 

Zhao looked like he thought the torture was over and they could return back to Survive bar but the gang heard Ichiban crying to Saeko that the drink is stuck and he couldn't get it out. 

"Just shake it?" Zhao suggested to him, but Ichiban kept crying and mumbling about how he couldn't damage the machine or they'll take it away from the street next time. Nanba nodded in agreement and Adachi was googling ideas on his phone. After inserting a few extra coins into the machine, it finally dropped the precious drink into the space below and Ichiban cheered, while the rest of the team sighed in relief. 

They finally made their way back to Survive, the route they took this time passed Sasaki arcade and Zhao gained a chance to peek through the windows at the new arcade machine being installed. He pressed his hands against the glass, peering inside as close as his glasses would let him.

"Oh? Zhao you want to go inside?" Ichiban nudged him with his elbow, looking into the window as well.

"Nah, don't have the time, maybe after all this Bleach Japan shit is over then I might" Zhao huffed, his hands leaving the window. "I need to be in the right mind set for that one, it has VR" he gave one last glance inside. 

"You a big gamer?" Ichiban questioned, walking along side him as the others walked further ahead. Maybe Ichiban can finally rave about Dragon Quest to someone.

"Definitely" Zhao smiled to himself, looking down to the ground with his hands in his jacket pockets. "Hardly got the chance to play any when I was younger, actually nevermind, I still hardly have the time now..." He looked to Ichiban, mouth forming a pout, his eyes rounding as his brows furrowed together. 

Ichiban scratched the back of his neck, "Ahh... since your men depend on you it must be hard to find some personal time". 

Zhao hummed in agreement. "You love Dragon Quest right?"

Finally. "Yeah! Love it so much, it was all I really played when I was younger. All the women in the soap land would watch me play and compete with me too" Ichiban said proudly. "My dad would complain because his staff were taking longer breaks as they were playing video games with me".

"That sounds nice" 

"Definitely, but you said you couldn't play much as a kid? How so?" 

Zhao stopped walking, staring blankly at the ground and then looked at him again. "I could only play an hour on the Dreamcast, and if I went over it, my father would destroy it" he smiled while saying it but Ichiban felt a chill run down his spine. 

What kind of parent is that?!

"That...isn't normal Zhao" Ichiban wasn't sure where Zhao stood on this fact, he heard kids growing up can blame themselves for things not in their control and Zhao didn't seem like the type. But he had to make sure. 

"Oh yeah, I know" Zhao let out a half hearted chuckle, moving his feet again and Ichiban fell into step with him. "My father was obsessed with training me into the next leader of the Yokohama Liumang, and the irony was he thought video games poisoned the minds and made people weak".

"Damn...." Ichiban sighed heavily, taking in what his friend had shared. Imagining a child having his heart, and console, broken because he just wanted to be a child. Then something clicked in his head.

"Wait!" He stepped in front of Zhao to face him, grabbing him by the shoulders and squeezing tight. "Does that mean you've never played Dragon Quest?! This isn't right! I have to fix this!" Ichiban shakes Zhao back and forth by the shoulders, screaming which alerted Nanba and Adachi up ahead who turned around in confusion. 

"Kasuga-kun you're killing me here!" Zhao started to laugh, mainly at Ichiban's face showing a display of horror. 

"Oi Kasuga! You're gonna wake the neighbours!" Adachi shouted back.

"Ichiban come on! Complain inside if you have to!" Nanba says as the Survive Bar door opens, Joongi holding the door open for them, looking confused as well.

Zhao placed his hands over Ichiban's, grabbing them to pry his grip off his own shoulders, still laughing at Ichiban's yelling. "I've already played the games, relax!" 

Ichiban paused "But...no it takes forever to complete! At your pace you wouldn't have finished it! There are sequels too you know! You have to finish them all to understa-"

"I played without my father knowing, I knew how to sneak around and out too dude" 

Ichiban started to laugh then too, although more quietly and apologetic, putting his arm across Zhao's shoulders and making them walk again. 

Maybe Adachi's warning was right because he could already see an elderly woman glaring at him through her apartment window. 

"How did you find the time then?" Ichiban whispered in a more serious tone. 

"The arcade manager let me play in the staff room and he'd hide that fact from my dad. The balls on the guy must of been made of steel" Zhao exclaimed, shaking his head.

"So you finished it all by yourself?!" Ichiban whispered more hoarsly, the volume in his voice started to rise again and Zhao looped his arm behind Ichiban's upper back, making them walk faster since Ichiban's voice had a knock on affect for attracting trouble.

"Nah, I had a friend who played with me, she was good at the dungeons especially that one with the giant puzzle in it" Zhao reached into his left jacket pocket, something jingled inside and he pulled out a set of keys with various keychains on it. One of them Ichiban recognised almost immediantly. Zhao jingled the set and singled out the one Ichiban stared at. "It's Erdrick's sword right? My friend gifted it to me once we completed the first game" Zhao ran his thumb over it a few times, his polished nail catching on a dent that must of appeared from years of wear and tear. 

They were standing outside the bar by now.

"So cool!" Ichiban held out his hands and Zhao gave him the key ring to hold. "Weren't these limited edition?! I remember running to every Poppo store in Kamurocho but they were always sold out" Ichiban held it in two hands, as if just holding it was sacred to him. It was.

"Yeah" Zhao took his glasses off, cleaning the lenses with a hankerchief he pulled out of his other pocket. His brows furrowed together again, lost in thought for a moment until he spoke again. "I never did find out how she got it..." His eyes returned to the key chain, and Ichiban studied his expression.

"Hey, I take it you aren't in contact with her anymore?" Ichiban said slowly. Zhao met his gaze and didn't say anything again and Ichiban started to regret his question. 

"I guess you could say that, anyways I'll tell you another time, maybe over a drink" Zhao put his glasses back on, smacking Ichiban on his back and walked into the bar. 

Ichiban followed him in and hoped his question didn't end on a sour note. But he'll listen to his friend any time, of course.

It just so happens that stories involving death is more common for them.

Chapter Text

Early 2000s

You

"I don't understand why Shadow has to ruin Sonic's image like that" Zhao angrily mumbled through the handful of crisps in his mouth. He was holding onto the game controller so tight that his knuckles were turning white. 

"Just cause you lost the match doesn't mean Shadow is a bad person, I think he's just upset! They killed Maria so of course Shadow is angry!" You retorted, defending your stupid pixel crush, also stuffing yourself with a handful of crisps. "Hand the controller over! You lost and we agreed its my turn now!"

"Honestly Sonic can be really mean as well so I don't think either of them are better right now!" Mabuchi yelled over both of you from where he sat on Zhao's bed, silencing the both of you sitting on the floor in front of him. He grumbled about having to wait for his turn after you had yours so he also tried to convince Zhao to hand the controller over to you. It was the first fight between Sonic and Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2, and Zhao kept misjudging his attacks making Sonic fall out the battle zone and dying in game. 

You had enough and grabbed the controller out of his hands while he protested. Eventually he calmed himself down and the three of you zoned into the game as you tried to finish this boss battle once and for all. Once Shadow's health neared zero, Mabuchi dropped down from the bed and onto the floor to join. He had his arms around both Zhao and you, squishing you both into him as all three of you screamed at every near miss you had of Sonic nearly falling out the battle zone.

Finally, with one final attack, with your face pressed against the left side of Mabuchi's face, and Zhao's face pressed against to the right side of Mabuchi's face, Shadow was defeated and the kids screamed with joy. You felt like crying like you won a war and Zhao was shaking you cheering at your victory. 

The three of you didn't even notice Zhao's father walk in. You all were too busy feeling triumphant over the battle won screen, talking about the near misses in the fight and the last attack and-

And then in an instant, a loud bang was heard in front of you and pieces of the Dreamcast console flew across the room. 

A piece hit your face, grazing your cheek from the sheer speed the pieces flew in your direction. Mabuchi shrieked and fell back behind Zhao and you. You looked at Zhao, he didn't move at all, eyes fixated on his destroyed dreamcast. You then looked up and saw his father towering over you three, staring back at you all. Baseball bat in his hand. 

"Didn't I say, that you shouldn't be wasting your time with this?!" He bellowed, voice booming in your ears which made you cover them quickly. You saw in the corner of your eye that Mabuchi scrambled to his feet and ran out of Zhao's bedroom. You were too stunned to get up too but Zhao wasn't moving at all. His lip was bleeding which must of been from the pieces that were scattered across his legs. 

His father bent down towards you "You're poisoning his mind" He warned, getting closer to you "Your mother should know better than to let you play in enemy territory" He berated. Your eyes widened in fear, throat closing. You moved away from him but he moved closer, that was until Zhao grabbed the hammer out of his father's hand and aimed it at him. 

"It's not her fault! Mom said I was allowed to play! I wanted to play! Me!" Zhao was huffing, his chest heaving from either intimidation or from yelling, or both. 

"You have a limit and you broke that limit!" His father now headed for Zhao, reaching out to grasp his son by the collar. "You have to face the conse-"

"I gave him permission" You snapped your head to the voice and saw Zhao's mother standing in the door way, Mabuchi clutching her side. He must of gone to get her. Zhao's father looked to his wife, somewhat in disbelief. You looked to Zhao again, who was looking at you. He dropped the hammer and went over to you, bringing you to your feet. "Quickly" he whispered as he brought you to his bedroom doorway.

He turned around to his father. "I'll be at the back door for training." He said quietly, his mother then gathered you three together and brought you down the stairs. 

2019

Ichiban

Ichiban stared at Zhao in disbelief himself, while Zhao sipped at his drink. They both sat on the bar stools in Survive while Saeko and Nanba had a conversation about infections in Cabaret clubs or what not. Ichiban was too lost in what Zhao had just explained to him. 

"So you weren't kidding" he stated.

Zhao made his usual pouting face again to him, his voice raising a little "Kasuga-kun I wouldn't lie about my past".

"No, well I didn't mean...I mean that's heavy"

Zhao nodded, sipping his drink again. Ichiban thought what he meant weeks ago in the street was that his father just threw his consoles out in the trash. Not literally smash it in front of him and his friends. 

"How old were you all then?" 

"Hmm...dreamcast...sonic...we were around ten...eleven years old I think? A long time ago" Zhao spoke lowly. He spoke like this sometimes, Ichiban had noted since he got to know the ex-leader more. When things really bothered him, despite his calm demeanour in this moment, a rage boiled inside Zhao, just simmering at the surface. 

"You were just kids, that's so wrong. What was he expecting a ten year old to learn for the Yokohama Liumang?" Ichiban put his glass down a bit harsher than usual and Zhao raised his brow. "I mean I knew how to use a gun at that age so to be honest, a lot" Zhao remarked. 

Ichiban gulped, the most he weilded at that age was a controller.

"Hold on, what did your father mean to your friend?" Ichiban turned to Zhao, facing him completely.

"Hm?" Zhao downed most of his drink and turned to Ichiban as well, a bit of pink tinging his cheeks from the alcohol.

"Enemy territory? What was your friend's background?" 

"Ahh..." Zhao grinned to himself. "Her mother worked for the Seiryu Clan as a doctor" Zhao watched Ichiban as his face reflected the gears turning in his mind. "My father didn't like the Seiryu clan Chairman despite their alliance, so they were still butting heads back then and my father didn't like that someone indirectly involved with the Seiryu clan was hanging out with the heir to the Yokohama Liumang". 

Ichiban didn't click until now that Zhao probably grew up with a lot of people in Ijincho. Yet his father kept a tight leash on him.

"Man...your father was brutal" Ichiban concluded. 

"That wasn't the worst of it" Zhao checked his glass to see if any liquid remained inside, before he stood up from the bar and walked over to one of the booths, falling backwards onto the cushioned chair and laid flat on his back. 

When Ichiban joined him at the booth, Zhao suddenly sat up and slammed his hand on the table. "But that didn't stop me from gaming or meeting my friend of course"

Ichiban nodded, smiling as Zhao continued. "Along with myself and Mabuchi, my friend joined in the evenings in the staff room at the arcade." He propped his head up on his hand, resting an elbow on the table to support it. "We had so much fun then, although my training started to become intense as the years went on, I couldn't meet them often". 

"So she wasn't bothered either? About who you are and what your father said?" Ichiban wondered, since Zhao talked about you as a friend of the past, he must admit he was interested as to what happened between you both. 

"Oh she was, but I think she had seen her fair share of wacko shit in the Seiryu clan, so it turned into something she just avoided whenever she could, as did I, hence playing at the arcade" Zhao nibbled at the sweets placed in the middle of the table, thinking. "The first time I met her was a few months before that Dreamcast incident. I was passing by her mother's clinic, the door was wide open and a Yakuza man was on the floor inside screaming as her mother was trying to safely remove one of those darlac sickles from his leg." Zhao giggled. "Her eyes looked like they'd fall out of her head but she spotted me and ran out the clinic towards me. She gripped my forearm the whole time while she rambled about what she had just saw in more graphic detail."

"She must of been horrified" Ichiban thought back to when Arakawa cut his own finger off with no hesitation for him. Despite the large amounts of gratitude Ichiban had for him at that moment, the image of his boss's finger slicing off didn't leave him for a long time as a kid.

"More so the opposite, her appearance contrasted what she was saying. Her face was shaped like mochi as a kid but she was speaking at a fast speed about how the amount of blood coming out the man's leg was nothing compared to mortal kombat. I knew from then that we had to be friends. I found someone similar to me" Zhao twisted a few of his rings absent-mindedly.

"So she already saw the darker parts of life at a young age too. Kind of lucky in a sense that you gained a friend since she wasn't scared easily." Ichiban grinned. 

"Exactly, you know, as we got older like around our late teens, she even got a tattoo, like a proper Yakuza tattoo, tebori and all" 

"What?!" Ichiban's heart nearly stopped. He knew there were women who had those tattoos as well but he was still back in this story picturing them as kids. Teenagers?! "A full tattoo?! They tattoo kids?!"

Zhao laughed, like really laughed out loud, gripping his chest with one hand and Ichiban anxiously waited. 

"Say Kasuga-kun, when did you get your tattoo?" Zhao quizzed him.

"....nineteen" Ichiban sheepishly admitted. 

"Well its normal at that age isn't it? She was eighteen. Not that normal for her, a civillian at the time, but she did it due to her mother's loyalty being questioned. I think her mother nearly blew a gasket upon seeing it since it reached her wrists" Zhao's smile remained on his face, though his gaze left Ichiban's and drifted off to the side. He wondered what else Zhao was remembering.

Ichiban was about to speak again when a thump was heard, Zhao and himself looking in the direction of the sound. Nanba was on the floor spouting some regrets about being a nurse and Saeko was trying to haul him off the floor.

"Nanba please! I think you need to sleep, we can talk about this tomorrow!" Saeko was tugging at Nanba's arm, trying to pull him up again.

"I swear they tried to screw me over!" He grumbled, words slurring at the end of his sentence.

Saeko threw one of his arms over her, but Nanba lost his footing, slipping backwards and taking Saeko down with him to the floor. Ichiban sprung to his feet and lifted both of them off the floor with ease. "Nanba you had too much to drink, I'm taking you home" Ichiban sat him against the wall and checked if Nanba could tell how many fingers he was holding up. 

"Zhao I really want to hear more about this, tell me on the way to Nanba's?" Ichiban pleaded, but Zhao just waved him off as Adachi charged through the door to the bar and hauled Nanba and Ichiban with him. 

Before Saeko followed suit, she tapped Zhao's upper arm. "Say Zhao-san, you alright by yourself? With you stepping down I mean" 

"I will be, Seonhee has a control on them, plus the bartender said I can lay low here, I'll be fine, thanks Saeko". She smiled at him and headed for the door but Zhao shouted to her just before she left "Kasuga-kun was telling me about how you saw him shirtless" He teased and Saeko's face turned red before she slammed the bar door shut. 

Zhao

Zhao removed his shoes before stepping into the room above the bar, taking off his jacket and placed it folded inside the wardrobe before laying down on the floor, adjusting the pillow below his head. He tucked his hands behind his head, legs stretched out as far as he could and he felt the pain in his body dissipate.

He was free.

Free from the life he didn't choose. Sure it'll still follow him, half of his men still demand him back. The other half hunting him down. 

But its the most he's felt free in a long time. Too long. 

Losing contact with Mabuchi after sending him away and stepping down from the Liumang made him more willing to dredge up old memories today, but he also realised how much of his adolescence and early adulthood involved you. Part of his happier memories. He'd spent so long keeping up his alter ego, a more ruthless and sadistic one. Yet Ichiban was first to bring it down, and he opened up to the rest of Ichiban's group. He was starting to regain a bit of his self back finally after ten years. Not everything, but little by little. Something he remembered he was before you left his life.

Zhao fell asleep in the same position all night, hardly moving from the pain all over, dreaming of a recipe he could start working on tomorrow to pursue his real dream. He also revisited the time you had ran into his room when you were both around the ages of eighteen and nineteen, demanding him to come with you to get a tattoo.

Chapter Text

2008

You

It was 2am and you sat in your bedroom, lights off and the door to your bedroom slightly ajar. You heard your mother speaking with another man in the living room. 

"As a doctor I can't turn away the injured from my door" she whispered.

"As a doctor for us, treating a rival clan member from outside of Ijincho is more of a betrayal to us than your morals" He spoke coldly. 

"I wasn't going to let him bleed to death outside my door step!" You heard her shuffle, most likely standing up from one of the sofas. You heard another shuffle, and a few foot steps.

"Not everyone will see it as how you do, you.. sworn up like every .....za. Your daughter isn't either, there have been ......." his voice started to trail off so you figured they moved rooms. You stepped closer to your door to hear more clearly.

"I would never cut and run who would dare say that?!" Your mother snapped. "There's no reason for me to, the Seiryu Clan took us in when my husband took off, without them we wouldn't have survived!" It sounded like she was speaking venom at this point. Your heart was beating fast, the man was still in your house, but your mother didn't stop. What if things escala-

"While you can be considered a criminal working with us, your daughter isn't. You cut and run, you still save her. Our clinic only has your name down as the owner. Even your daughter could leave you and share what she already knows about the clan. Looks like the captain can't trust that. Not sure how you'll save yourself with this one but the talk is happening in a month. Despite what you think of me, I came to warn you." The man concluded. "You should know by now they only believe in actions". You heard the main door open and then close.

You had quickly settled into your bed before your mother checked in on you on the way to her own room to sleep. Whatever plan you had in your head after hearing all of that, had to wait until the next morning. You were too worried to leave her alone in the house tonight.

The next morning you dressed with determination and headed straight for Zhao's house. Well straight after your morning shift at the clinic; you assisted your mother with her appointments every other day and she rewarded you with a roof over your head and food on your plate. Her words.

He mentioned today would be his rest day from training so it was mainly his down time to recover, but this was urgent and your plan had to be finished within a month, so hopefully he would forgive you for disturbing him.

From a distance, you waited for about half an hour outside his house until you saw his father pull out onto the street in his car and drive away before you rang the door bell. His mother still cared for you since you were a kid so when she answered the door, she greeted you with a hug, and also smacked the back of your head for turning up right after her husband just left. 

"He could of spotted you!" She had her hands on her hips, piercing gaze on you waiting for your answer but you didn't have one. 

"Well Tianyou just came out the shower, he should be dressed so head up now, and don't stay out too long!" She yelled up at you while you ran up the stairs. You rounded the landing at the top, the house is muscle memory to you by now. 

Although the amount of times you met up with your friend started to decrease as the years went on, the few evenings at the arcade nearly every month still continued. Both of you would run to the arcade, the strings on your hoodie pulled harshly to cover most of your face and he wore the baggiest of black clothes along with a random scarf he stole from his mother to tightly wrap around his lower face. 

You both were changing with age and time but the arcade was where time stopped. You both barely got to talk often in person outside of gaming that you couldn't even remember details including if his beard was progressing or not since he was struggling with it a year or so ago. 

Outside Zhao's room you intended to knock roughly on it for a joke, hoping to startle him but his door swung open instead from the impact. Naturally, you automatically looked inside his room as it swung open, and there Zhao was standing in his room half dressed. The right side of his body was facing you, his shirt covering his left side but the right side of his naked upper body was exposed to you. 

Your eyes widened and your breath caught in your throat, staring at his bare upper body, and Zhao was paused in his action too, staring wide eyed back at you. Thousands of thoughts passed around your mind like a washing machine. You grabbed the handle of his door and slammed it closed in front of you. 

You practically sprinted down the stairs into the living room, breathing heavy and sitting down on one of sofas. When did he become so defined? Granted you never saw him naked before, he always wore layers upon layers of clothing, especially at the arcade it was like he was hidden inside of his clothes. Zhao followed soon after, hurried steps into the same room, fully dressed this time, shirt successfully tucked into his trousers. Trousers buttoned. 

You stood up and scratched the back of your head, looking directly at him finally. He still looked a little shocked and awkwardly cleared his throat. "Listen I didn't rea-" you put your hands up in surrender and cut him off.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise your door wasn't locked." You gulped. You wondered in that moment how to wash your brain. Not that what you saw was bad, but if you wanted to try and continue being somewhat normal in this situation, you had to ignore the thoughts you were pulling out from the gutter.

Zhao giggled slightly after you apologised, which made you giggle in return. The charged air started to settle around you both and Zhao let out a sigh, clasping his hands together. "Anyways, I didn't realise you were coming over?" He tilted his head to the side. "Were you desperate to see me?" He gave you a smug look, gaining an eye roll out of you.

"Yeah me either" you sighed then too and began pulling him outside his house. 

Your plan had to start now. 

"A tattoo?!" Zhao stopped in his tracks, looking at you continuing to walk ahead before you realised he stopped and turned back to him. "Like a full on tattoo?! Tebori?!"

"Yeah!" You nodded once. Serious as ever. 

His eyebrows furrowed together, his hands going through his hair, that he started to gel back recently, you noticed. "Zhao listen, I told you the converstion I heard last night, something has to be done." You walked back to him. 

"Once you get this, you're branded for life. It's going to be a bitch to remove and most likely people won't remove it for you from the sheer size of it." He scratched his chin, thinking. 

Your gaze followed his gaze to the floor, processing his words. He was right, its not like he's foreign to this type of ordeal. Your eyes drifted up back to him but stopped at his hand on his chin, distracted. "Hey when did your facial hair start growing in?" You looked at his chin, He shaped it into a goatee. "I swear you had the barest of hairs growing last time I remember"

You stood to the side of him, eyeing his mustache with a puzzled look. You could tell he was eyeing you and you felt in the back of your mind he was going to say something ridiculous.

"Yeah I finally caught up to your mustache" As soon as the words left his mouth, he ducked as your arm swung over his head. You made a mistake telling him you waxed.

"It started to grow in a few months ago, and then rapidly grew faster and next thing I knew I had tons of facial hair" He stood back up slowly, dusting his trousers off. "I see your face lost its mochi look" You watched his eyes drift over your face. "Sharp as a knife now" He indicates to your jawline showing. "But your cheeks still look like mochi." He ducked again for the second swing of your arm. 

A few silent seconds passed and he looked at you again. "They do have a point though I'll admit that, once you're branded like that, you'll less likely run away in their eyes" He ran a hand down his face. Silence fell between you both again, standing in place in the alleyway across from the Rose Blossom Cabaret club. The tattoo parlour hidden away from public eyes was a minute away on foot.

"Hey at least we'll both be criminals now" You laugh half heartedly but his facial expression drops at your comment.

"I knew from years ago I didn't have a choice, but you're still a civillian" his voice lowered. You closed your eyes. "But I don't see another way out of this, I wish I did." He continued.

After taking a deep breath, you open them and he was watching you. "I know" You gave a small smile to him.

"I'm sorry". From time to time he tended to do this thing where he searched your eyes, as if looking for something and it always made you feel exposed. But in this moment, you felt like crying.

You sniffed, laughing again. "Its ok, its gonna hurt so much though oh my god" You gritted your teeth, holding yourself. But he stepped closer and worked his arms past yours and held you against him in his embrace. 

"I won't be able to hug you after you get that big ass tattoo because you'll scream in pain" he laughed too, and hugged you tighter. The sensation of the hug opened the emotional flood gates inside you and you hugged him tighter too, eyes welling. "It really is going to hurt" he mumbled over your shoulder. 

"Oh yeah" You pulled back from him to see his face, ignoring that you felt his breath fanning your face and he probably felt yours too. "What do I get tattooed on me?!" The panic on your face caused Zhao to start complaining again.

A month later and your tattoo had finished up. Your call to start the inking immediantly was right as the tattooist couldn't sit for long and due to the amount of shading, it took many sessions to complete it. The skin had to stop bleeding before she continued so days in between were needed for you to act normal enough around your mother, and for her to not get suspicious as to where you were many mornings. 

Zhao and you hadn't seen each other this often since both of you were around ten/eleven years old. It neared to around three times a week, sometimes Zhao couldn't make it due to a family meeting or an injury. One session he turned up with three slashes down his upper arm, he shrugged it off saying that one of his father's men he was training with started wearing some sort of hand weilding claws as weapons. Your mouth hung open in silence while he continued explaining the situation he was in.

Eventually you felt more at ease to meet alone with the tattoo artist after six or seven sessions were completed, getting used to her intimidating attitude and realised she was just old. Today was your last session and it just so happened to land on a day Zhao couldn't make it. Today was also the day the meeting was going down at the Seiryu Clan headquarters. Your mother said she would be late coming back from work tonight, but Zhao had already found out from overhearing his father on the phone that the meeting was indeed an internal restructing meeting. Your mother wouldn't have been called to the headquarters otherwise. 

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Messages: 1
Tian Shăguā (Heaven's Dumb Melon): 
Pls 4give me 🥺🙏 I'll cook some Dim Sum for you I promise. Good luck in the meeting! I hope your mother doesn't kill you 💀
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"Its done, but to keep it up, you'll have to come back for regular touch ups, whether you come to me or someone else is your choice but if you want a death wish then go to someone else" The tattooist spoke, diverting your attention from you phone. She stood up from her chair, wiping the last excess colour off your back and gave it a good smack with her gloved hand. You yelped in pain instantly turning onto your back and then instantly regretting that too. 

"What was that for?!" You almost screamed.

"Stimulates good blood flow, plus if you can't survive that how will you survive the damn Yakuza, little girl" she sneered and walked out the tattoo room. You gently touched your back but it was still burning hot on the last area she filled in. You couldn't see all of your tattoo due to the pain in between your shoulder blades.

There were striking red and black colours spiraling around both your arms that tapered off at your wrists. You saw the design around your lower back, cherry blossoms decorating around the feet of the Phoenix. Looking at your upper back was much harder but eventually the artist came back with a huff and handed you a smaller mirror for you to hold in front of the tall mirror behind you. You could see the Phoenix's head was filled in with colour to match the wings that extended across your shoulder blades, almost acting as a shield for your back. 

"Here, you know the routine, don't take it off for a few days until it starts to heal" The tattooist sticks on a sterile square pad between your shoulder blades, taping it down to cover the freshly stained area of skin. 

"Yes yes, I understand" You bow to her slighlty but she had already walked out the room again. Usually you heeded her words to the letter, but once night fell on the city, you peeled it off and made your way to the headquarters. 

The doorman let out a gutteral laugh, opening the door for you but leaving you with his remarks that his intentions were only to see you not make it out alive.

The headquarters looked much larger in comparison to its outside appearance. Large hallways, identical doors and mostly men scattered around every corner. You reached the main lobby before one of them eyed you with a narrowed gaze and strided towards you.

"Hey kid, do you even know where you are going?" He spoke, well barked more like. 

You recognised the gruff man, he was usually the one who relayed orders from his captain to your mother. When you didn't reply, he became more agitated. Another man appeared, placing a hand on his agitated colleague's shoulder. "Relax, I know who she is" he gave the man a knowing look. The voice of the second man matched the man who visited your mother that night.

"Yeah? Well I know the brat as well" The gruff man folded his arms and stared down at you. 

"I'm here for my m-" You bit back your words as the coldy spoken man stepped in between you both and guided you away from the other man.

"So kid, what are you planning?" A hint of a smile on the corner of his mouth appeared while he moved you both out of the main lobby into one of the hallways. 

"Nothing really" You stared up at him, a frown forming on your face as he placed his hands in his pockets, leaning against the wall behind him. 

"I know you're here for your mother, but you aren't going to get far acting like you know the place. If that's your plan, I'll let Ando-san continue his rant". He gestured his hand towards the doorway you both passed in previously and the man who was barking at you before was staring intensly through the small door window at you both. 

Unlike his name, he wasn't peaceful at all. 

You weighed your options, and explained to the cold man that was not your intention at all. But you must find your mother. He eventually agreed and walked you around the complex, finding a small room at the corner of a hallway. You weren't sure how to track your way out of this place anymore. He was about to knock on the door, but hesistated and looked at you. You could hear shouting over the other side of the door. 

"That's the captain all right, sounds like your mother is pleading for your lives. What are you going to do?" He looked as calm as ever and it annoyed you that it seemed like a game to him. But his last words to your mother that night said otherwise, so you pushed open the door. 

The meeting was over. 

You were walking fast down the main lobby of the headquarters, your mother shouting after you. 

"What have you done?!" She stormed after you.

You had your jumper bunched up in your fist, only a white tank top covering your upper body. You continued ahead, running out past the main doors into the chill of the night. Your mother caught up to you, grabbing your arm and spinning you around to face her. The rage behind her eyes was immense, you waited for her to yell at you but she instead dropped her gaze to your arm she was gripping in both her hands. Her grip softened, warm, gentle fingertips smoothing over your now coloured skin. 

When she looked at your eyes again, tears blurred her vision. "I'm sorry" was all she said before enveloping you in her arms. 

You had restablished the trust in your mother's loyalty to them, and in return, gave up your freedom to work as a doctor for them as well.

Better than dying, right?

Chapter Text

2008

Zhao

Zhao sat in the hedges at the Seiryu clan headquarters, biding his time. He kept glancing at his watch, wondering when the meeting would end. 

He started to think of worst case scenarios, that you were knocked out by some of the men inside. Maybe your mother found you first and decided to grill you alive. That the captain in charge of your mother decided your dedication wasn't enough and you had to cut off your finger. He felt more sick to his stomach as his thoughts became more gruesome, horrible images conjured from his plagued imagination appearing in his head of what could of happened to you.

He absolutely hated that he couldn't see you before you went to the meeting. You both could of created a game plan; an emergancy exit solution if things went south. You knew how to fight, but bearing weight class in mind and being out numbered would stack against you. It was only in legends that he had heard where one man fought his way through a whole clan. If only he was as strong as Kiryu freaking Kazuma.

He bit down on his lower lip, picking at the nail polish on his nails, wrong time to use gel nail polish, he was losing his mind. If he tried to infiltrate the building and was recognised, it could cause you more trouble than actually saving you.

He had to wait it out for now until he was sure the situation was out of order.

If only his father didn't rope him into an interrogation session with the Liumang.

It was late in the afternoon that his weapon training session had finished. He was sitting in restaurant row after sparring with Tesso, who had finally decided to give his name to him only after Zhao stood his ground against him. Tesso was explaining the reasoning for having the four claws version on his hand held weapons instead of three, and Zhao was losing his patience as the story went on, anxious to haul his ass across town to the tattoo parlour. A group of Liumang men had dragged a man across the concrete ground into the square. The man on the floor clutched his chest, rolling to his side with labored breathing. 

Tesso looked as perplexed as Zhao did, until his father stepped outside into the square as well, signalling the men to bring the man on the ground inside and jerked his head at Zhao to enter inside the building as well. The interrogation turned more into a t-

Zhao broke out of his thoughts at the sound of you bursting through the main doors of the Seiryu Clan building into the main street. Your arms and what he could see of your back appeared as bright as day even in the night, anybody else would think you were a legitimate Yakuza through and through. Damn it looked really good on you though. He noticed specks of blood staining the back of your tank top, hopefully just from the freshness of the tattoo. He nearly stood up out of the hedges until he saw your mother reach you. Instead he watched as your mother weeped into your shoulder while your own eyes watered. Hell, he even felt like crying from the relief that you survived. 

As you walked your mother back home, he kept a good distance behind, unsure of what to do but he didn't want to go home right now. Especially not with what his father put him through earlier today, all the while he was panicking about you. You reached home and he watched you send your mother into your house despite her initially refusing but you seemed to give her an excuse he couldn't hear.

Once you turned around, he stepped out the shadows. He had no idea what to say once you met his eyes, as yours were filled with tears, about to overflow. You looked furious and blinked them away, wiping them off and marched towards him. He put his hands up in surrender thinking it was himself that would die tonight from your rage instead, failing to see you earlier. To his surprise, your arms circled around his neck, one hand clutching the back of his head and the other gripping his shoulder as you pulled him into you tightly. 

"It worked but I thought I was going to fucking die" You laughed and mumbled through your tears. 

His arms encircled your back, moving up to mimic your own against you. He felt ill, the way you sounded in his ear felt like a punch to the throat. He looked up to the stars and blinked away his own tears forming before suggesting you both get something to eat. 

You

"So what kept you back today from meeting me at the tattoo parlour?" You feigned annoyance at him while the server placed your ice cream orders on the table. You weren't mad at all. You fully understood the shackles that held him back to his father but you wanted to know about his wellbeing without letting on that you were worried for him too. You weren't sure what it was about aging or nearing your 20s, but he started to bottle up more of his feelings or issues with his father as soon as he caught wind you were concerned.

You knew to some extent of the physical toll his body was taking as new scars appeared every time you met him. Despite him calmly explaining a few of, you assumed, the many situations he has been in this past month, you couldn't help stressing over how he was taking this mentally. 

"Just the usual" he shrugged. 

"Yeah but you seemed adament at the previous session that you wouldn't miss this one. Did something else happen?" You waited for his answer and you both entered a staring contest until he broke eye contact first.

"Your ice cream is melting, eat it or my money is going down the drain" He groaned, pulling his trouser pockets inside out to demonstrate how broke he is. 

"I thought you meant real food, you promised me dim sum." you mumbled over the huge bite of ice cream you had taken. 

"Well if I went back to cook now, who knows what my father has used my wok for...or will harass me to do next" Zhao grumbled, diving into his matcha ice cream.

You eyed it suspiciously.

"Isn't that supposed to be bitter?" You questioned, looking at the deep green coloured ice cream in his glass bowl across from you, and his facial expression full of glee. The cafe was still open late into the night, offering desserts to tired students and, regarding you both present, criminals of the underworld. It was pretty quiet, only a few other customers in the cafe. Though you still put your jumper back on, you didn't want to flash your tattoo anywhere in public.

"Why? You want a taste?" He scooped out some ice cream on his spoon, catching a few chocolate nibs before offering it to you, hand extended out for you. Were you supposed to grab it from him? He didn't hold the handle to you. Did he expect you to lean over and eat it from him? His face looked nonchalant so surely this isn't odd. You leaned over and ate from his spoon. Before your mouth left it you glanced at him and he had this unreadable grin on his face, making you sit back immediantly, looking off to the side.

"Is it nice?" His tone sounded more playful, diving into his ice cream again, humming at the taste of it. 

"Sort of..." You were right about the bitterness, but it did have some addiction factor to it. Though you were trying to maintain the blush creeping up your neck from the way he looked at you a minute ago. Before returning to your ice cream, you looked to him again and he looked like he was waiting for you to say something else. "I think its ok just th-"

"Can I have a taste of yours?"

You instantly felt bad for not offering before he asked. "Of course!" You moved your own bowl towards him a little and waited for him to move. But he waited. And you waited. 

"Say ___-chan, do you have something against feeding me?" His grin was back, eyes boreing into yours in delight at his own words. "You had no problem letting me feed you"

You huffed harshly in shock, squinting your eyes at him before gathering up your ice cream in your own spoon. He made comments about including some of the strawberry sauce in the bite, and pointed with his hand to include the white chocolate curls in it too. 

You registered his hand in a lot more detail while preparing his bite, black rings adorning his fingers often these days.

You carefully lifted your spoon out of the bowl and extended your hand this time to him, waiting. He placed his hands flat on the table and leaned over to take a bite. What you didn't expect was him raising his right hand to caress your own, steadying it so he could take the bite properly. The cool of his rings tingled your hand and you felt your own shake a little but his grip was steady. He let go of your hand and sat back, humming to himself as he tasted the ice cream, licking his lips. 

"Very sweet, not sure about the sauce but the white chocolate is perfect" He smiled, content with himself.

You weren't sure with what at that moment. 

The walk back to your house was slow, neither of you seemed to want to go home yet. You filled him in on the details of your trip inside the HQ and Zhao nodded along, adding that he too has met Ando-san and agreed the way he acts is very territorial, almost rabid like. You then explained the moment you pulled your jumper off to expose your tattoo in the meeting. It turned out not only the captain, but his men were in the room with your mother too. The man who led you there also stepped in to witness. The captain indeed was satisfied that you couldn't easily run away now. Your mother was horrified. 

You both sighed in unison, warm breaths forming shapes into the cold air. "Well it could of gone way worse" Zhao held his hands together in the form of a prayer. You looked over to join him but your eyes darted to the deep red stain on his shirt collar. He caught your gaze and reached out to it, pulling it forward to have a look himself. "Ahh...its not mine this time" He said nonchalantly.

You followed the stain down his shoulder, and specks of the stain continued onto the skin of his upper arm, disappearing under the short sleeve. Its like he forgot to wipe it off in a hurry.

"What happened to you earlier today?" You glanced between his eyes and the stain, more flecks of the same colour scattered down the side of his shirt, but he avoided your gaze. 

You stopped in front of him and placed your hands on his shoulders. "Zhao what the fuck happened?" 

His hands moved to rest on top of yours, gently sliding his thumbs under your fingers slowly lifting them as he met your gaze while he opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes looked past you at that moment, and his face looked slightly confused. "Hey, what hand cream do you use? Your hands are so soft" He asked while continuing to look past you. He paused mid air still holding your hands, his thumbs rubbing across the palms of your hands, still looking past you and you looked over your shoulder behind you to see what he kept looking at.

You didn't even have time to realise the comment he made about you as someone was running down the street towards you both at a fast speed.

"You both went on a date?!" Mabuchi's voice could be heard loud and clear despite the distance he had to close to reach you. You both dropped your hands quickly when he reached you, bent over with his hands on his knees. "Without me?!"

"Last time I saw you in person Mabuchi, in your words, you said you were training to become the strongest soldier and had no time for childish activities" You turned to him now, folding your arms. "I don't think you have a right to question us two hanging out alone".

He was ignoring your texts for the past year, Zhao's too but it was harder for Mabuchi to avoid him due to them working in the same vicinity. As he seemed to try and regain his stamina back, you briefly glanced at Zhao, who also decided to glance at you and you both looked away immediantly. 

"Yeah" He huffed. "But as soon as I heard what happened at restaurant row" he huffed again. "I had to see you in person!" He huffed for the third time, placing his hands on his sides, bending backwards and inhaling a lot of air. How fast was he running? The guy had legs of steel, why was he so winded.

"What happened at restaurant row?" You asked, looking between him and Zhao. Zhao's eyes indicated something at Mabuchi, but you guessed he didn't get the signal, going by how Mabuchi narrowed his eyes at the other in confusion. "Hey! No-" You moved Zhao back out of Mabuchi's line of sight. "Tell me Mabuchi".

Mabuchi didn't even notice the commotion going on between you and Zhao, gathering his energy back before he spoke. 

"Your father made you torture someone?!" Mabuchi's mouth was hanging open, hands out in front of him in question to Zhao. You slowly turned back to Zhao as well, the colour draining from your friend's face as he looked back at both of you. 

It was dead silent in the street you were in. 

Zhao placed his hands around the back of his neck, rubbing the area and looking down. You saw his fingernails scrape up the back of his head across the shaved undercut. He then started to pace back and forth, still looking away from you both. 

"Zhao w-why didn't you say anything?" You couldn't stop your face from displaying how shocked you were. Logically you knew activites like this were very common, but the fact that he didn't mention it at all was more worrying. Never mind thinking that he was forced to torture someone.

He stopped pacing.

"I wanted to forget the screams he let out as I pulled his teeth out with pliers." He stated. He looked like he was about to throw up. "His screams felt like they made my ears bleed, I couldn't...I just wanted to forget"

He looked to you only this time. "I wasn't sure you- how you would look at me again knowing what I did". 

You stood still, taking everything in yet it wasn't registering in your brain that he was describing what his father made him do. All you could register though was how scared he looked. You saw beads of sweat form on his forehead while his breathing grew irratic. 

He was scared. 

Of himself.

"Dude I'm sure she knows your father is the one who caused this" Mabuchi added. "We know you didn't want to be a part of this" 

"Yeah but I did it with my own hands! I could of denied it, I could of said no?!" Zhao held his hands up to look at them, his face contorted. "Surely I wouldn't of died from saying no? Would I have? But there would be a next time, I would of been called again I-"

"I don't think you had a choice in that moment Zhao" You stepped forward, pulling Mabuchi with you to him, closing the distance he put between himself and you both. Zhao remained silent, still panicking. 

"Zhao" You place your hands over his and lowered them. "I know you don't want anything to do with this, you said you never wanted to"

"Yeah man, fuck this!" Mabuchi exclaimed. "Forget delving into the details, you weren't in charge there man" He gave Zhao's shoulder a strong squeeze, shaking him a little. 

Zhao's shoulders slumped then and his breathing slowed down. You gave Zhao's other shoulder a squeeze too. Meeting his eyes you nodded to him, which Zhao returned in kind. He pulled you both into a bear hug, mumbling thank yous over the tears he couldn't hold back this time.

Chapter Text

2019

Ichiban

Ichiban sat inside the room above Survive, his back against the wardrobe for support. It was after the funeral of Masato and Masumi Arakawa. His stomach had felt cramped since before he went to the funeral. It was true that he felt stronger with his friends, but his stomach wouldn't stop feeling tight. His heart felt heavy and an area deep inside his chest felt like an empty hole. He held his hands together, twisting them over each other as he thought through his last encounter with Masato. 

"Yo, Kasuga-Kun" Zhao popped his head through the door of the room. "You need anything? You've been up here a while"

Ichiban looked at him, he couldn't explain what he needed but he knew Zhao probably figured that.

"Say, you can relax here if you want, theres no pressure to come down stairs." Zhao held a hand around the door handle, neither in or out the room. 

Adachi arrived a minute later and ushured Zhao into the room. "Kasuga I swear Nanba is doing my head in" He let out a hearty laugh. They both sat down in front of Ichiban, crossing their legs. Adachi was about to continue complaining but Zhao nudged him when Ichiban just stared at the older man.

"I don't know how to move past it" Ichiban muttered, a frustrated noise left him while he rubbed his forehead. "It just lingers over everything I think about"

Zhao and Adachi glanced at each other, before Adachi cleared his throat. "Kasuga, It'll linger for a long time, you don't really ever forget it, it just gets easier to live with it"

Ichiban met Adachi's gaze. "He told me to keep living, but all I keep feeling is a cloudy haze in my mind, holding me down"

It was Zhao's turn to interject. "Kasuga-kun, what exactly are you going over in your head?" 

Ichiban stood up at this and paced around the room. "What if I could of stopped the stabbing? Did I see Kume coming from the side? Maybe I didn't run fast enough to the hospital" He felt his chest tightening while the memory of carrying the man he considered his brother replayed again and again. He searched for every way he could redo the situation, his brain was trying to fix something he couldn't.

Adachi stood as well, cornering the man. "Ichiban, we all have those moments in our past that we wish we did differently, but we can't" He brought Ichiban back down to sit with them again. "You did everything you could of in that situation"

Ichiban sat with the thought, a little of the cloudy haze clearing in his mind. 

"Adachi-san! Han-san has Nanba pinned to the ground!" Saeko shouted up the stairs. "Nanba told Seonhee that her shirt doesn't suit her!" 

Adachi jumped to his feet, patting Ichiban on his back and reassured him that he'll be back soon. Zhao stayed with him, stretching his legs out on the floor and Ichiban looked to him. "Zhao, how did you know I was replaying something in my mind?" 

Zhao sat back, hands behind him on the floor to support his leaning. "I've done the same." His head was tilted towards the ceiling. "What if I arrived earlier? What if I said this instead? What if I held them and never let go?" He scratched the side of his face, eyebrows raised. "I thought if I found a solution to solve what had happened, it would change the outcome but thats impossible. We can't time travel"

Ichiban nodded in agreement. Though his chest still felt tight, his logical reasoning finally appeared and held him steady. Maybe there really wasn't anything he could of done different. And if there was, it doesn't bring both of them back. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, easing the tension in his stomach. 

After a minute or so, he opened his eyes again and Zhao was laying flat on his back on the floor. 

"What moment did you keep replaying?" Ichiban wanted to take his mind off his own. 

"Theres a few, one I've been thinking a lot recently since our last chat at Survive" Zhao glanced over to him.

It must be to do with his friend, Ichiban pondered. "I've been wondering what happened...you talk about her as if she isn't, uh, here anymore" he said quietly. His chest feeling tight again, more in sympathy. 

"Well she isn't here in Ijincho that's for sure, but I actually don't know anymore if she's doing ok, or even alive" Zhao sat up, taking off his jacket. "She stopped replying to my texts" He laughed dryly. 

"How long has it been?" 

"8 years"

"Where did she go?"

"Hawai'i" 

2011

You

"Hawai'i" Your mother held your hands in hers, sitting beside you on the couch in the living room. 

"Hawai'i?" You weren't sure where she was going with this. 

"They said it'd be an opportunity to expand services abroad with the Seiryu clan. But I was thinking that you'd be able to work or work towards a career outside of this" She unlocked her phone, showing articles she was viewing on the internet. "Having tattoos there is more common, you might be more hireable there" She continued to swipe through the news articles from Hawai'i. "Maybe while working both jobs, eventually you can just...move on from all of this" She pleaded.

You simply gave her hands a tight squeeze. You asked for tonight to decide as your mother said there is small notice period before the offer goes to another person within the clan. You racked your brain around the decision walking back to your bedroom. Moving there may give you both a chance to have a better life, not so close to headquarters and under different laws. Ijincho carried too much bitter history for your mother. She would never admit it, but you knew she struggled for a long time working with the Yakuza. This may be the only chance to loosen the chains for you both. 

You entered your bedroom and closed the door behind you, locking it. Pulling out your phone, you dialed his number.

"Hey" you whispered.

"Hey~" Zhao chimed.

"I need to discuss something big...can we talk in person?" You bit your lip, hoping he had the time. 

"Ahh well-um" He paused, his voice sounded distant from the phone suddenly as he muttered to himself. You heard footsteps on his end and people swearing at each other in the background. You patiently waited for him as it seemed he was at the main hideout of his crew. It had been three years since you joined up officially with the Seiryu Clan as a trainee doctor. It had also been the same amount of time that Zhao became the leader of the Yokohama Liumang. His father retired and Zhao felt like, in his own words, 'stabbing his own chest' at the news. You were both in your early 20s now, responsibilities endless and personal time limited. 

His quick footsteps were heard descending in a stairwell, his breathing easy but you heard a few grunts. He must of vaulted the last flight of stairs. Eventually you heard a door open and the sound of crowds of people walking by along with car horns. "Ok, I can't meet sadly but I can talk for a good amount." His voice light and airy "Unless its urgent? Are you in danger?" His tone dropped lower in an instant. 

"No, no I'm fine" You started to laugh, waving your hand even though he couldn't see it. He joined in laughing as well, tone changing back to his usual higher one. "Ok good, so what's this 'something big'?" He asked. 

You took a deep breath, before explaining the proposal your mother gave you. There was silence on his end for a long few seconds and you had one of your hands gripping the door as you waited.

"Hawai'i?" He sounded normal thankfully, you could almost picture his head tilted. 

"Yep, Hawai'i" You confirmed.

"Right..." He breathed the word out. "I think its a good opportunity, but it doesn't mean you'll be away from their grasp you know"

"Yeah, I understand that. But it might be good to bring some distance for my mother from Ijincho, and HQ" You reasoned.

There was an elephant in the conversation between you both but you felt a ball in your throat at the thought of addressing it. 

It was Zhao that decided to address it instead. "How do you feel about it? Leaving here" softly, he said. 

You squeezed your eyes shut. Your phone still pressed to your ear while you gathered your words. You listened to his steady breathing, matching your own to his to calm yourself. "I think I have to put my feelings aside for her" You decided. The ball in your throat still present.

You heard him blow out some air after a sharp inhale. "Despite my father being, you know, a mad man, it isn't easy seeing your parents age." 

The elephant still wasn't addressed fully, but even you weren't sure exactly what should be addressed and what was just feelings in your heart that you weren't sure would be reciprocated. Or what you were even feeling at all. You've been so busy the past three years you haven't had time to sit with your thoughts and feelings. The amount of injuries the members of the clan get in to daily was ludicrously huge. In between serving the clan, you also had to carry out normal clinical duties with the citizens of Ijincho. But you knew, of the rare times you managed to see Zhao face to face, your heart felt full of joy and your headaches disappeared with every laugh he gave out. 

Most of the time. 

There were times you had to feign a smile and a laugh with him when he asked you what was wrong. You started to become like him, hiding things from him as he did from you when you asked about his genuine wellbeing. 

The irony. 

Among treating injuries and dealing with the public, there would be nights where a few members of the clan would stalk into your clinic, asking you questions that you reluctantly had to answer:

Which drugs combined would knock someone out for an extended period of time?

If someone was injected with a specific serum, would their heart stop and for how long?

Would you be able to stop someone from dying after they take someone's eyeballs out?

You shuddered.

Leaving behind your life here will be hard still, despite the more sinister acts you unwillingly were an accomplice in; your memories, the food you like, the people, your friends, Zhao. But the duty your mother upholded for so long was breaking away at the seams, visibly present at the wrinkles on her face along with stress lines on her forehead. Your chest felt like it would cave in on itself.

"I know" You mumbled. You sat down on the floor with your back against the bedroom door.

"When do you leave?" 

"In a week, on the Monday" 

Zhao hummed. You heard him counting something under his breath, it wasn't clear enough for you to make out what it was but he spoke up "I don't think I can see you sooner, but I'm sure i'll be able to see you the sunday before. "

The tightness in your chest let up momentarily and you let out a big sigh of relief.

"Thank god" you said before thinking. 

"That eager to see me in person?" Zhao's teasing tone appeared after speaking quietly for so long. 

"I'm going to hang up" You threatened. 

"You called me" He challenged. 

You silently shook your phone, losing the internal battle you had in your mind every time he jokingly flirted with you. You didn't mind it much when you were teens, but now it touched parts of your mind that you weren't willing to admit and you hoped he didn't notice. Moving away from him was already painful, but if you let awkwardness grow between you both before you left because you let on to him that your feelings for him kept you awake at night? That would be the knife in the coffin. 

"Right, I'll see you sunday then, if not before" You regained some of your sanity. 

"Its a date" He giggled before you heard his men shouting for him. He ended the call before you could hear the rest of what the men were yelling about.

Holding your phone in both hands, you pressed it onto your forehead, mourning the loss of the sanity you had just regained. 

You sat staring at the computer screen at the clinic, trying to make sense of an x-ray scan you carried out on a patient's chest. There was a smudge you thought indicated something more disturbing, but comparing it to another scan you realised it was just a computer error. 

"I can't believe you are going, where am I going to hide now?" Mabuchi groaned, swinging around in one of your swivel chairs. His head tilted backwards nearly hanging off the back rest. He visited your clinic often mostly around the evenings, trying to avoid responsibilities he had towards the gang he was part of. 

"Maybe you can finally start helping Zhao out, he's been at his wits end recently" You glared at him as he continued to spin around in your other chair. 

"Yeah and you moving away added more to his stress you know" He retorted.

Your eyebrows knit together while continuing to glare at him. You were leaving tomorrow night and this evening was the last shift you had. You almost came to terms with it but felt pain every time someone else mentioned it. "Well you'll still be here to help him, you better step up!" You stood up, pointing your finger at him. 

You heard a phone beeping and Mabuchi took out his phone from his trouser pocket. The minute he read whatever was on his phone, he stopped spinning in your chair and nearly fell out of it onto the floor, running for the door to your clinic. "Shit something is going down at one of the cabaret clubs, Zhao texted me!" He said as he swung the door open and dived out into the street. 

You sat back in your seat at the computer and twiddled your thumbs. An hour passed and you weren't sure if you should venture out to check up on them or if it was better that you didn't interfere. Selfishly, you thought about Zhao being present at a cabaret club and you shaked the idea out immediantly. You both have had past relationships, you saw him date before and it didn't bother you. You even dated too. Though that was in your mid teens which wasn't much to you at the time, looking back. His dating life didn't look solid too around then. But now as adults, with your emotions unwillingly holding you in a chokehold, you couldn't help wonder if he was seeing anyone. Well if he was it was none of your business, you ingrained into your brain and silenced the thought.

You returned to the scan you were analyzing when your clinic door flung open again and three men tumbled into your clinic. 

Zhao's subordinate, Tesso, had both of his arms looped over the shoulders of Zhao and Mabuchi, both of them carrying him into your clinic and towards the hospital issued bed. "He's been stabbed in the foot, a lot of blood" Zhao says over his own shoulder, lowering Tesso down onto the bed who hissed in pain. 

"I didn't expect them to dive like that!" Tesso exclaimed, hands hovering over his injury. A piece of cloth now soaked in blood was secured around his foot to slow the bleeding. 

You quickly grabbed your first aid kit off the shelf above your desk and manouvered in between the two men staring at Tesso. Untying the cloth, you saw whatever had stabbed his foot luckily didn't go through to the underside of it. "The cut is deep, but your foot will be fine eventually" You reassured the man. 

Tesso layed back onto the bed after hearing your diagnosis. "They caught me off guard" He grabbed the sides of his head. Zhao on the other hand, was very calm. "Everyone can get caught like that don't worry, I didn't expect something to break out between us all either" He patted Tesso's arm, sighing. 

"What happened?" You asked while applying disinfecting spray around the area to clean it. You were so curious, especially now recognising the discarded bloodied cloth was previously one of Zhao's short sleeves on his shirt. While Tesso seemed to have the worst injury out the two, Zhao and Mabuchi's faces had bruising and cuts scattered across them. 

"Some drunk guy from the Seiryu clan had a bone to pick with Tesso, he said Tesso stole his girl" Mabuchi held his chest while laughing too hard. "He was so drunk off his ass, that he threw a bottle at Tesso but it hit Zheng's bald head instead" Mabuchi was on the floor now, his laughter seemingly uncontrollable. "Who was also drunk off his ass".

You glanced to Mabuchi on the floor, eyes widened at his state and then looked up to Zhao who was shaking his head. 

"The fight escalated, with other members joining in. The jealous Seiryu member had a knife on him still when he hit the ground and launched for Tesso immediantly" Zhao explained, running a hand through his hair.

"Zhao-san was too busy chatting to the lady behind the counter" Tesso added and then inhaled sharply when you began adding stitches to his wound. Zhao sucked his teeth at the comment and you pretended what Tesso said didn't reach your ears and into your heart. 

Why on earth should you be jealous?

"Guess you can't contact her now since that other guy smashed your phone" Tesso continued to add fire to the flame rising within his leader. 

Zhao smacked the back of Tesso's head, the latter questioning his leader's actions but backed down easily from his glare. "I was getting information idiot" Zhao said and dug his fingers into his subordinate's arm, the man tapped his hand for mercy. 

Mabuchi managed to gather himself off the floor and moved himself to the couch in your clinic. 

After a while you finished adding the bandage around Tesso's foot, careful to not disturb the sterilised padded cushion underneath. You warned him to take it easy on his foot and attend checkups but Zhao snickered at your comment. His crew were the worst at follow up appointments. Tesso bowed gratefully to you which you returned and Mabuchi escorted him out the clinic.

"Is it ok if I bring Zheng by too? He has this cut on the back of his head from the broken bottle. Even though he might refuse..." Mabuchi asked before leaving. 

"Sure but if he refuses, tell him to buy something over the counter at least. If it gets infected it could leave a nasty scar" You warned after him, watching them down the street from your door as Tesso leaned onto Mabuchi for support. Zhao peered out the door with you, watching them enter a Smile Burger. 

"Of course food is the priority" Zhao turned a little to look at you behind him.

"Rich coming from an aspiring chef" you raised your eyebrows at him. 

Zhao smiled warmly at you, his eyes twinkling with the street lights shining against them. He moved away from the door and back into the clinic. You followed as he sat on the hospital bed with a puff of air and you sat across him on your own chair. "Your late" you said. You couldn't help but return his smile.

"I didn't expect I'd be resolving a drunken fight" He chuckled, scratching the edge of his left ear. His gold earrings glinted when he tilted his head to the side looking at you. "I tried my best"

"According to your men, you seemed to be having a great time getting the number from that woman. She's lovely I've met her before" You said overly sweet, leaning back and tapping one of the arm rests on your chair with your finger. It was Zhao's turn to raise his eyebrows at you. His smile fading. You shifted in your seat under his strong gaze. You had to keep going, surely you could win one of these conversations with him before you had to leave him for good. "Its been a while since you dated, you should get back to it before you lose your touch" You mimicked his famous smirk.

"Like how you crashed and burned asking that guy out at the coffee shop two years ago?" Zhao stated. 

Your face dropped its smirk and you had to look away. Remembering how badly you struck out trying to ask if the barista would like to go on a date with you made you visibly cringe. You looked back at your friend who was now standing beside where you sat, looking at your computer screen with his hands on your desk. "Man that looks odd" He squinted his eyes at the scan. "Whats the smudge?"

You squinted your eyes looking at his face, finally gaining a closer look at his injuries. He had bruising around his cheekbone and blood at the corner of his hairline that left a thin trail down to his eyebrow. The side you could see of his lower lip looked bruised and it started to bleed again. 

"You're bleeding" you reached for his face.

His eyes darted to you and he grasped your hand. "I'm fine don't worry" 

"You're always fine but you can't be bleeding in front of a doctor" You stood up beside him which made him straighten his posture to avoid your head crashing into his. 

"I honestly don't care what you say now you always lie about how you feel in regards to things like this" You gestured your hand around his face and moved him back onto the hospital bed. He sat down and you felt him watch you when you retreated to the back of the clinic, returning with a smaller medical kit. 

You kicked over your stool until it slid between Zhao's feet on the floor and placed a knee on it, leaning over to tackle his face. "Don't move" you ordered. 

He nodded once and dragged his hands down from his thighs to his knees, which were spread apart from each other to keep the space available since you were positioned in between them to get a better look at his face. His movement made you aware of where you stood but if you acknowledged it and stepped back, you were sure the tension within yourself would escape and fill up the entire room. 

As you worked on aiding his injuries, his eyes carried out a scan of their own. They drifted from your eyes, down the bridge of your nose, across your lips and back up to your eyes. "I don't understand why the barista didn't take up your offer, you're pretty as fuck" He said, his voice in a lower tone. His gaze felt like it was burning your skin from how fast your blood pressure was rising. But your need to fix at least some of his injuries held stronger within you. Though his voice was something else, what the hell was that sultry tone?!

"Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder" You muttered, your thumbs smoothing down a wound closure strip at the corner of his forehead. 

"That it is" He seemed to agree with you, and to a thought deep in his mind from the way he said it. 

Once you reached his lower lip, his mouth parted slightly so you could check the wound and you felt his warm breath on your hand and face which made you momentarily pause your movements. He seemed to notice because as soon as you gulped, he did too. 

"When do you leave tomorrow? I forgot." He was still looking at you while you held a piece of tissue to his lower lip, his words slightly muffled from the pressure. 

You met his gaze. 

You were falling down an endless pit of feelings and at the centre was this man in front of you, who was searching your eyes for something you didn't allow yourself to prove you had. You truly and deeply felt he was beautiful inside and out. His dark, soft eyes and a heart of gold. 

"Tomorrow evening" You removed the tissue, the bleeding had stopped. You applied antiseptic cream on the skin just below the busted area of his lip. "I hope you can ma-" your words were halted when he held your hand again, his thumb brushing lightly over the centre of your palm. 

"I'll be there" He reassured you. He held both of your hands in his and stood up from the bed. "I'll definitely be there" 

You felt your eyes watering. Fuck, this is difficult. You squeezed his hands, neither of you speaking.

A loud bang was heard outside the clinic, followed by the sound of shattered glass further down the street. You both dropped each others hands, awkwardly laughing. Zhao opened his mouth as if to say something but Mabuchi's gruff yelling and another sound of glass breaking interrupted him. His eyes shot to the door and then back to you. "I'm so sorry" He squeezed your upper arms and left for the door. "Tomorrow!" He was waving his hand in goodbye while opening the door. 

You spun around in a panic to face him "Wait your phone broke right?! I won't have your new number!" More shouting echoed in the street and Zhao gripped the door handle. 

"I remember yours, don't worry" He winked at you with a grin and left your clinic. You heard his footsteps fall into a sprint. 

You frantically tossed your furniture upside down in your bedroom, searching for your phone. Although having plenty of time before your mother and you had to depart for the airport in the evening since it was only morning, you searched high and low for your phone. Surely it was here right? Though it was your mother who woke you up today, not your alarm. You only noticed when you remembered Zhao would text you his new number. Your last effort was checking your lab coat but no luck. 

You nearly skipped five steps of stairs rushing to the front door of your house. Your mother was on the house phone, bewildered look on her face and pressed the phone to her shoulder to cover the microphone. "-what the hell is going on?!" Your mother called after you while you located the keys to open the door. Once you had the door open, you barreled out it and sprinted for the clinic.

"___ we don't have the time! The flight ti....we......now!" She shouted but you couldn't hear her clearly anymore, nearing closer to the clinic. 

As soon as you stepped inside, you were greeted by a man bearing the Seiryu clan crest on the left lapel of his suit. "Ah, I was looking for you" He held out his hand towards you. "This is yours right? I thought you were here since I found this" 

He held your phone in his extended hand. Your muscles tensed. Why did he have it? Why was he here on his own? You took hold of your phone and unlocked it - searching through your messages and contacts to check if they were still there. Everything looked normal, nothing seemed to be missing. 

So why did you feel as if he stole something from you?

You eyed him warily but he started to usher you out of the clinic. 

"Did your mother not tell you? The flight times have been changed, we're leaving now." He had his arm stretched across your back, his hand curled over your upper arm. He was making you walk with him in the direction of your house. The presence of his hand touching you made you want to wash yourself immediantly. The overall aura of this man felt off. 

Wait.

"What?!" You ducked out of his arm, stepping away from him. 

"We're leaving now" He commanded. 

You had no words to say to him. Zhao was supposed to text you his new number. You checked your phone - no text. You unlocked it, scrolling through your messages in case you missed it - no text. Your breath felt caught in your throat and you looked at the man again. He raised an arm to the right of him and you followed it with your eyes.

Your mother was standing there along the street, sympathy written across her face.

On the plane sitting next to your mother, you unlocked your phone again to check for any texts from him but despite your desperation, there were none. The plane was about to move, you held back your tears and continued staring at your phone screen.

"They said they would tell us the guide we could view for travelling in Hawai'i but I think I lost the link" Your mother grumbled.

You sniffed, tilting your head back to stop the tears pouring out. "Here, I'll send it to you" You told her.

You tapped her text conversation on your phone and sent her the link. 

"Oh"

You turned your head to face her. "What?"

"When did you change your number?" Your mother faced you too. 

You checked your mobile number, your eyes widened as, indeed, it had changed. A pain shot straight through the middle of your chest as you thought back to the Seiryu man. You looked back at your mother, who dropped her phone onto her lap and held your face asking you what was wrong. 

You started to cry as the plane started to move. 

Zhao

Zhao knocked on the front door of your house. The lights weren't on from what he could see in the windows. He knocked again.

And again.

And again.

Nothing.

He checked your clinic too, but it was empty. Did you leave already? It was early afternoon. You still had a few hours before you had to leave. He checked his own phone at the text he sent you, making sure it did deliver to your number. Nothing indicated otherwise that it wasn't delivered. He gave it a few rings but it just continued to ring until the automated voicemail started. 

His heart began to sink. His hands felt cold. He idly stepped around in front of your clinic, thinking. He crouched down to the ground, head in his hands. He felt like ripping his skin off at what his imagination was displaying to him to explain why you suddenly disappeared. 

"Her flight got rescheduled, she left this morning" Zhao jumped to his feet hearing the voice behind him. He met face to face with a tall man bearing the Seiryu clan crest on his suit. The man looked off to the side, sliding his hands in his suit trousers and exhaled loudly. "I heard she got on the plane safe and sound". He said coldly.

"Who the fuck are you?" Zhao gritted his teeth. You wouldn't even reply to his texts nevermind his calls. And now some big shot thinks he can waltz up to him and talk as if he knew you better than him. 

"Excuse me for breaching hierarchy here, but she has your number doesn't she?" He jutted his chin towards Zhao's phone.

"Not after one of your men crushed it last night, had to get a new one" Zhao cracked his knuckles. He was ready to start cracking heads. 

The man's eyes narrowed at him and then looked down at the ground, thinking to himself. It appeared that the man came to some sort of realization as his eyes widened. But he then shook his head and returned to his calm demeanour. "Interesting. Well, I'm sure she's smart enough to survive another country" He glanced once more at Zhao's phone before he turned around, walking away. "If I were you, I'd take the hint" he chuckled. 

Zhao stood in place, hands hanging at his sides, phone in hand. Battered and bruised, he didn't get to say his last goodbye to you.

Chapter Text

2023

Zhao

Zhao sat back on one of the chairs in his restaurant, hands behind his head, blankly staring at the shrimp sizzling in his wok on the cooker. He had taken his shirt off from the heat that had built up inside the building from hours of serving his customers, only in his black tank top and gold and black trousers. It was after hours for his restaurant and his brain was running at 100 mph.

He was, again, revisiting a theory he had locked away at the back of his mind.

The crew in Japan had confirmed with Sawashiro that the Seiryu clan has been working with Palekana in Hawai'i.

That Ebina has an ulterior motive that Sawashiro himself isn't aware of.

Ebina, who recently joined the clan in 2019, wouldn't of been involved with them around the time you departed.

So there wouldn't be any reason for Zhao to be panicking that somehow you fell into the trap that is now being brought to light, right?

Zhao rubbed his hand around the side of his head, scratching the short hairs there. The cool from his rings provided short lived relief to the rage building inside him along with heat in the kitchen clinging to him. Even with the door open, it started to get hotter somehow but he knew he was missing something in his train of thought. His gut told him that.

It was like a mythical entity wrapped around his being, squeezing his body tight as he wracked his brain to find the missing link. In all honesty he should be happy things weren't matching up. Maybe you were living the best time of your life there. Its been twelve years since the night he last saw you, anything could of happened. You could of left Hawai'i for all he knew.

But he recalled the expression of the tall Seiryu man that next morning all those years ago, after Zhao had told him one of his men broke his phone. Zhao had spent a year or two searching for any connections that tied the fight in the cabaret club to the rescheduling of your flight times. At one of the Ijin Three meetings around then, he had even managed to talk with Chairman Hoshino privately to enquire if he knew anything about it. The chairman barely recalled anything to do with the plan other than him agreeing for one of his captains to carry out a business venture overseas.

The chairman didn't think anything of it.

After coming up short every time, Zhao eventually buried it deep inside his mind, never to look at again or he would lose his rationality. And he needed that. After his father passed away a year after your departure, his duties had stacked upon him like the breaking point of a Jenga tower that if he tried to remove any piece of himself that he gave away to support the Yokohama Liumang, everything would collapse.

Well life mocked him and gifted him what he wanted in the end. With a cost.

Beads of sweat trickled down his skin, he reached to take his glasses off since the lenses started to fog from what he guessed was the immense heat around him, when the loud spray of a fire extinguisher brought him back to reality.

"What the fuck?!" Nanba yelled, still spraying over the wok on the cooker. Zhao stood up and wiped his glasses. He saw a fire dying down behind the onslaught of the extinguisher.

"Are you nuts?! Did you want to burn your restaurant down?!" Nanba finished spraying, breathing heavily. He placed the fire extinguisher on the counter once the fire had ceased.

Zhao haphazardly placed his glasses back on and hurried over to the cooker. He took a peek inside his wok now filled to the top with white powder. Shit, he thought, his chili shrimp were burnt to a crisp. "Aw man" Zhao pouted.

He could feel Nanba staring at him.

"What?" He turned to his friend.

Nanba threw his hands up in the air, walked around the counter and sat where Zhao previously sat. "What?! Did you not see the fire?! Smell it?!" He yelled.

Zhao looked between his powdered wok and his friend. Maybe he was losing his mind. He adjusted his glasses, pushing them upwards since they had slipped down the bridge of his nose, and then joined his friend at the table.

"I may be crazy-" Zhao began.

"An understatement" Nanba interjected.

Zhao paused, his hands out on the table as he tried to explain what was in his head but Nanba's comment made him frown at his friend. Nanba didn't back down. He instead gestured to the area of Zhao's cooker.

Point taken.

"Anyways, I think, I might of known someone who could of fallen into Bryce's trap." Zhao clasped his hands together, forming a shape of a cage. He looked at his hands while explaining.

"Are you thinking of her?" Nanba said, quietly all of a sudden.

"Maybe..."

Zhao didn't want to fully admit it somehow. He wasn't sure of himself anymore. "Its been twelve years since I've seen her, but it never sat right with me with how we ended up parting." He continued to look at his own hands, remembering how you looked at him when he said he would be there on the day you left. Your eyes were pleading to him, begging him to follow through.

Surely that meant you wouldn't suddenly cut him out of your life?

Nanba nodded, stroking his stubble.

Nanba became a closer friend to Zhao after everything they went through together with the rest of the gang around 2019. He had a way of entertaining Zhao's out of pocket ideas while also getting riled up about them. When Zhao opened up to him about losing his friends to organized crime, first you and then Mabuchi, Nanba told him about his own loss even outside a world of crime. That although the world can be cruel to people despite the good intentions they have, it doesn't mean they have to succumb to it and give up.

"Kiryu-san did say Bryce must be in his nineties, so he has had reign over Palekana for decades which would cover way over twelve years ago. But up until now, I figured his reach was just in Hawai'i no?" Nanba said as he placed a hand on his chin, mulling over the information.

Zhao hummed in agreement, but his past experiences in the Liumang told him otherwise. "Thing is, I know if I wanted to work with another organisation, I would of done tons of research on them for a long time before working with them on something as big as what Palekana and Seiryu are doing now." Zhao countered.

"Thats true too, it doesn't make sense that Bryce would suddenly trust the Seiryu clan to be an accomplice" Nanba groaned in annoyance.

Both men sat in silence, mentally debating both points. What Nanba had said did make sense, there would be no reason for Bryce to venture out to Japan until now. Unless he was overly ambitious from the start. Zhao raised his eyebrows at the thought.

Unless...he came into contact with someone years ago that had a history with the Yakuza.

"Akane-san" Zhao blurted out.

Nanba's eyes widened and he pointed his finger at Zhao. "Its possible!" He brought his phone out onto the table, flicking through the screen. "She would of mentioned about the Yakuza!"

"Yeah but even if she did, why would Bryce plant someone in the Seiryu clan?" Zhao stated and stood up from the table to pace the restaurant. Akane was from Kamurocho, Ijincho wouldn't be on his radar going by just that. 

As he reached the door, Kiryu stepped into the restaurant.

His nose crinkled as he sniffed a few times."Did someone set your restaurant on fire?" Kiryu made a closed fist in front of his mouth and coughed, his voice filled with concern.

"More like the chef did it" Nanba mumbled to himself, still scrolling on his phone. "Ah, here it is!" Nanba made a noise of delight and held the device to his ear. He was calling someone.

Kiryu's brows knitted together and gave Zhao a knowing look but Zhao sheepishly smiled back at him. "I lost track of time" he reasoned but Kiryu didn't seem to accept it.

"Does Akane-san remember if she had mentioned anything about her life to Bryce?" Nanba questioned Ichiban, who was on the other end of the call. The three men sitting at the table, still in Zhao's now de-smoked restaurant, could hear Ichiban bickering with Yamai while Nanba spoke to him. Nanba thought placing it on hands free mode would be better but the amount of background chatter that came with it was hilarious to Zhao.

"She said its hard to recall exactly what she had said all those years ago but she'll try" Ichiban managed to say in between the background commotion.

"Would she have any idea why Bryce might of taken an interest in the Seiryu clan before they had reached out to him?" Zhao leaned over the table to bring his voice closer to the phone. His thoughts chipping away at him.

Ichiban could be heard relaying the question to the older woman, some comments passing back and forth until Ichiban replied. "She said Bryce had an idea about the Yakuza through her-" He paused to listen to her. "Since at the time she did trust him and explained a little about Arakawa-san, and she's sorry for doing so-" Ichiban let out a gasp and reassured his mother that it was not her fault.

"Bryce's tactics show no mercy, to his enemies or his followers. From what I see, he isn't afraid to see his own followers as expendable. Knowing this, did Bryce ever mention about sending people to Japan?" Kiryu wagered in his opinion.

"He did say that he wanted to reach out to the youths of Japan after hearing what I went through. Since he didn't mention a specific region...I don't think its far off to say he tried to hit the largest clans in the country to understand them more" Akane spoke into the phone this time. "He definitely likes being two steps ahead".

Zhao could hear the fear in her voice. Nobody could blame her, everything he has heard so far paints him as a monster.

"Ichiban, what do you think?" Nanba asked.

"Hmm.."

Zhao continued to lean over the table, his chest resting on top of his clasped hands underneath. The heavy pressure against his hands felt nice, a distraction from his heart racing. This whole conversation had him spiraling again, although this time it felt too real. The sheer possibility that you landed in Bryce's hands made him feel unwell.

"This guy had the whole crime world of Hawai'i out looking for Akane-san and Lani, to kill Lani, no less. A child." He paused a few seconds and then spoke again. "It wouldn't surprise me if he planted people in several clans in Japan just to see which one would stick and become a valuable spy for him, hell if Wong Tou didn't spill the details, he would have never known he had several spies in his gang". Ichiban inhaled sharply "Maybe he wouldn't be dead, along with Hanawa-San..."

Zhao stared at the phone on the table. Nobody spoke a word.

Zhao's head slowly descended until his forehead touched the table he was leaning on. He felt Kiryu's hand pat his back gently while whispering to Nanba about him. Zhao wanted to either crawl into a hole and disappear or rip someone's head off.

"Looks like the possibility of your friend being a victim increased a lot, Zhao" Nanba whispered.

"Once I get Lani back, Yamai said he has a plan to get us safely back to Japan. But I'm heading back here after that, I'm not letting Bryce win" Ichiban said firmly.

Zhao lifted his head slightly to look at the phone again. "Kasuga-kun, she might not even be there, but would I-"

"Of course" Ichiban said without hesitation. "Zhao, if you are up to it to come back with me I wouldn't stop you at all. I'll search for her with you" Zhao could feel the man's smile through the phone.

"I need Han Joongi back here anyways, so a swap is ideal"

The three men looked in the same direction and found Seonhee standing near the table, arms folded across her chest. "He has some explaining to do" She hinted, eyeing the phone.

Han Joongi's panic at the other end of the call could be heard from a mile off as he stammered his words to explain his sudden disappearance from Geomijul to his boss. But Seonhee continued her reprimanding and her subordinate begged for forgiveness.

Kiryu accepted Zhao's request immediantly, explaining that the chance that you were swept up in this mess had to be investigated.

Saeko eventually had joined in on the impromptu meeting in the restaurant too, advising caution to Zhao. Not for him. More so that he won't rain hell down on the whole of Palekana. The comfort his friends brought him matched the comfort he had with you. Mabuchi too, before his betrayal.

His own phone in his trouser pocket vibrated briefly. He sat back and checked the notification.

---------‐------
Messages: 1,368
Unknown
"Do you remember in Sotenbori where we drop-kicked those guys who tried to steal our food? Meet me there tomorrow evening"
----------------

Chapter Text

2023

Zhao

Under the Iwao Bridge, Zhao had his feet dangling above the water. He wore his usual jewellery pieces but slipped on a hoodie underneath his leather jacket and swapped the knee length shorts for longer black cargo trousers. It was cold at night, but the city above and around him was as lively as ever. 

The pockets of his trousers still had his black and gold design swirled into them. Couldn't give up his usual style completly.

He guessed the air of Sotenbori attracted exiled criminals because somehow he received a message from Mabuchi to meet him here. The year 2019 did a number on Zhao, leaving him with a lot more pain mentally than physically, more than he'd like to admit openly. Yet despite all of that, he knew if Mabuchi reached out to him, he would answer. 

And four years later, in the midst of a revelation about you that Zhao had no idea how it would end, he reaches out to him. 

It wasn't black and white. Zhao isn't an innocent citizen by all means. But he valued his friendship with Saeko and Seonhee, and Mabuchi ripped apart the line between where he was and the point of no return.

Zhao heard footsteps approaching him from behind.

"I thought you hated my guts" Zhao scoffed, skipping a few stones into the river as Mabuchi sat down beside him on the edge of it.

"Yeah well I thought you hated mine too but here you are" Mabuchi scoffed too, picking up a few rocks to join in on the silly game. 

Zhao looked at his former friend as the man skipped a stone across the water too, it hopping across a few inches further than his own. The guy had lost a few pounds. Mabuchi's face seemed sunken compared to the last time he saw him, although his memorable rounder shape still somewhat apparent at his stomach and lower body. Though that too had decreased in size. Zhao couldn't believe it with the way he always knew Mabuchi to have a more bulky figure ever since they were kids. His bulkyness also aided his immense strength with how the guy always swung that heavy Guan Dao sword around in fights. 

Maybe the guilt was eating away at the man.

They both continued the game mostly in silence, a few cheers from Mabuchi the times his stones skipped further than Zhao's. When the stones eventually ran out, the heavy tension between them resumed. 

"So why did you come to Sotenbori? Is this where you've been the past four years?" Zhao asked him. Every word that left his mouth felt loaded. If Mabuchi hadn't just, if he had just reached out to him before acting, they both wouldn't be in this situation. Sitting here, so close yet so far away from each other. 

Zhao missed his friend, his brother, but what Mabuchi had done was irreversable. 

"The city has a nice way of hiding things under peoples' noses. You know that the Mad Dog of Shimano used to roam these streets?" Mabuchi turned his head upwards to look at the lights above them. "I only knew when the Cabaret club 'Cabaret Grand' had a photo on the wall of a previous manager wearing an eye patch, must of been years ago"

Zhao tilted his head upwards too. Sotenbori was definitely much brighter compared to Ijincho. 

"Really? He was mental to fight, moved around way more than me and he was only warming up" Zhao said, his voice full of amusement. He felt a shiver run down his spine remembering the blade of the one-eyed man and the many times it came close to a fatal blow. He didn't pull any punches. 

"I didn't think you'd meet me again" Mabuchi mumbled. 

Zhao's hands gripped the stone beneath them. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to calm himself before replying. "I honestly don't know why I'm here"

He really didn't know what he expected from accepting Mabuchi's invite. Zhao rubbed the back of his neck and turned to the man, opening his mouth to say something kinder this time but he was cut off.

"You act like you are so high above me!" Mabuchi exploded in annoyance, facing Zhao.

Zhao raised his brows in shock at his outburst. "Ha?! What the hell do you mean?!" His voice rough. Zhao's face started to twist, his brows furrowed and his mouth formed a scowl. 

The hell?

"Don't act like what I did was above anything you had ever done!" Mabuchi was yelling now. "We're two sides of the same coin yet you were so relaxed with the rest of Ijincho you had no idea how it felt to not be in control!" He grabbed the front of Zhao's hoodie with both hands.

"Being high and mighty on your throne" He seethed. 

Zhao held Mabuchi's gaze. He himself has past regrets of his activities in the Liumang. There are memories that Zhao wishes to forget entirely. Yet he never attacked unprovoked. He never felt the need to expand his crew. When his father retired he had harped on about taking Ijincho for themselves even with the Ijin Three pact but Zhao never had the blood lust in him to take what wasn't his to begin with. 

Mabuchi on the other hand...

"At least I didn't kill people in cold blood! Akira your greed led to killing innocents, putting a hit out on me and tried to bring the Omi into Ijincho! Are you fucking mad!?" Zhao shoved his former friend backwards, to which Mabuchi's hands flew to the ground to steady himself.

Mabuchi glanced to the water below them. They were both still sitting with their feet dangling above the water. Zhao held his breath waiting for another leap from him. 

It never arrived. 

Instead, the man raked his hands through his own hair, bending down until his elbows touched near his knees. 

"I know..." was all he could muster.

Zhao leaned back, placing his hands behind him on the ground.

"I never wanted to rule, I never wanted to be a part of this at all, you!-" Zhao jabbed his hand in the man's direction. "You of all people should know that you piece of shit" Zhao rebuted. 

He felt worse than he did yesterday. He didn't want to fight with him anymore. They're both in their mid thirties now and the body starts to show what it has kept count. They can't go back in to the past and undo everything. But he can't keep fighting with people he cared about. 

Even if he wronged him. 

Betrayed him.

Mabuchi's betrayal lead to Zhao's freedom. At the cost of innocent lives and their brotherhood.

Minutes passed by, silence layed between the two amongst the bustling city around them. Zhao could of sworn he heard the Takoyaki man yelling out his various dishes, making him already miss his restaurant. 

He should be heading back by now. Ichiban and his party are on their way back to Japan and he needed to head back to regroup with everyone. 

"Why did you call me out here?" Zhao asked. He faced the river, not wanting to look at his former friend.

"I saw you on that 'Tatara Channel', looking like you just walked out of a battle at the old Tojo HQ. You involved with that Palekana thing in....in Hawai'i?" Zhao saw from the corner of his eye that Mabuchi glanced at him when he spoke but refused to return it.

"More or less"

"You know, Hawai'i reminds me of _____" 

"Yeah...she might be involved in this thing too..." Zhao said under his breath. Either it was heart burn or he felt sick again. When he didn't hear a response from Mabuchi, he finally glanced over to him and met Mabuchi staring back at him. 

"What?! How?!" Mabuchi grabbed Zhao's hoodie, again with two hands, but shook him instead. All the shaking wasn't really helping the sickness Zhao was feeling and he wanted off this impromptu rollercoaster ride. 

"Its a long story and I don't feel like telling you how after all you've done now let. GO!" Zhao ripped the man's hands off him.

Mabuchi's jaw hanged open in disbelief after letting go of him and Zhao was reminded that underneath the greed, Mabuchi was still the same guy he had known for years. 

"Well you're going to go save her?! right?!" Mabuchi voiced his question almost as a threat but Zhao tried to kick him at his dumb question, uttering an 'of course' to him. There's no question about it that - even Ichiban knew Zhao would be heading with him to Hawai'i. 

Yet he didn't even know if you needed saving, but he had to be sure. Even if he arrived into the state and discovered you had moved away or were living peacefully - he had to do what he could to know. He had to eliminate the possibility that you were in danger. 

Maybe you were happily married to the love of your life, had kids and left the Yakuza life behind.

Maybe you opened the bakery you had dreamed about.

Maybe you died...

...

Silence fell on them again as a small boat passed by and Zhao noticed Mabuchi had a grin plastered on his face.

"Say Tianyou, are you going to confess to her once you bring her back?" Mabuchi said slyly. 

Zhao coughed at the question. Mabuchi tried to nudge his arm but the former yanked his own arm away from the touch.

"Why would I do that?!" Zhao felt extremely warm. As far as he was aware, he never mentioned to anyone about the feelings he had for you.

That was something he kept locked deep within his heart - for only his viewing. He vowed to himself he wouldn't bring you down into his life. Even when you ended up on the underside of this world with him back then, he couldn't allow himself to bring you closer to the dangers around him. 

"Because you like her? You don't have to stress about endangering her now that you're technically a civillian" Mabuchi scoffed. "A chef no less"

"Have you been keeping tabs on me?"

"Its hard not to hear what the former Liumang leader has been up to..." Mabuchi trailed off his sentence looking at his former friend's face, one that questioned what he has just said. "...ok maybe a little" He added sheepishly.

"....How did you know?" Zhao's voiced lowered to nearly a whisper. "...how I felt about her"

"I knew you did as soon as you told me one day that she smelled really nice" Mabuchi wiggled his eyebrows at Zhao. 

Zhao groaned, taking off his glasses and dragging a hand down his face. 

You did always smell amazing.

"I bet she felt the same way"

Not a chance, Zhao thought. "I highly doubt it, plus I made her worry too much, she must of thought I was a burden" Zhao mumbled. 

"I think she thought you were a blessing more like, with the way she went on about you. She was the one who told me to step up and help you" Mabuchi slapped the back of Zhao's upper arm. 

A blessing...

"Blessing is a bit of a stretch no?" Zhao waved the suggestion away, dismissing him.

You would never. 

"Going by what she named you on her phone back then, I know I'm right"

What?!

Zhao's slowly turned towards him, his eyebrows raised and eyes wide open.

"You didn't know?!" Mabuchi laughed loudly. "She named you Tian Shăguā! 

The jewellery adorned man blinked a few times, registering the nickname you supposedly gave him.

"You are a dumb melon sometimes but 'Heaven's' dumb melon is how she saw you!" He continued laughing, tears forming in his eyes from the amount of laughing he did. He fell back onto the ground. "Heaven!" 

Zhao watched his former friend recover from his laughing fit. Mabuchi sat upwards after a while, a few chuckles still escaping him. He then met Zhao's gaze again, his own expression solemn. 

"I hope she's alive" he spoke lowly. 

The world knows Zhao hoped too.

Chapter Text

2023

Zhao

It was the day before everyone would split up and end this conspiracy involving the Seiryu Clan and Palekana.

Akane had given more information during the night at the homeless camp in Ijincho. She explained that there were a few pharmacies and clinics in the Barracuda's control that may know more information about you and your mother. A few of them she visited regularly to get supplies for the Palekana orphanage and recognised some of the employees spoke japanese. Although under gang control, the stores still operated for the public. 

She provided a list of the stores to Zhao and he was forever grateful, bowing to her. 

Ichiban patted Zhao's back, rubbing his hand up and down to provide reassurance to him, though Zhao felt together and apart inside. On one hand, he needed to search for you, in hopes that he will settle this once and for all. On the other hand, the closer he gets to the conclusion, the more scared he felt. It wasn't like he was scared of fighting, never. He was scared that after all this time, the worst could of happened to you. And he couldn't of done anything. 

A third thing in his heart also pained him at the thought that you had just simply moved on. Without him. While he was tied to the underworld, you took your chance to leave, as you should have and he had agreed, but that you didn't look back. 

For him.

Thinking with rationality, he would be happy for you if that is the case. At the end of this, he just wanted you safe above all of his inner turmoil. His heart though, acted like it would combust at the thought of confirming that you just didn't want him in your life anymore. 

He groaned in frustration so suddenly that Ichiban's hand paused and Akane took a hesitant step backwards. 

"Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm really grateful Akane-san" He bowed again, turned 180° degrees and walked towards the stairs of the camp.

He had to get his head straight before he leaves with Ichiban's team for Hawai'i.

He picked a scaffolding beam jutting out of the side of the homeless castle and made his way over effortlessly to sit atop it. 

Around an hour or so later, he saw Ichiban descend the steps from the top and stopped at the level he was on. "Anything you want to talk about?" Ichiban said cooly, hands in his jeans pockets. 

"I don't even know where to start" Zhao tapped the beam underneath him, his rings clinking with the metal. He stared out at the road below him. Oh they're selling Tanghulu. He thought. You liked Tanghulu. Distraction unsuccessful. 

Ichiban teetered across the beam to join him and Zhao worried that he would fall, reaching out to his friend to safely pull him down. Ichiban joked that he wouldn't be able to get back up and Zhao reassured him that if anything he'd get Nanba to catch him below.

"You can't be feeling that bad if you are making jokes" Ichiban muttered, glancing down to see how far the drop is. Guessing by how his eyes widened, he realised it was pretty big. "You worried about what you are going to find once we're there?" He then looked at Zhao. 

"Ha..." Zhao let out with a puff of air, the hot air from his breath forming condensation in the winter air. Ichiban hit the nail on the head again.

"To be honest I was worried too when I got out of jail, it had been years. I didn't see with my eyes how things had changed outside. So I didn't know exactly what to expect. I didn't know what to expect when I met the Boss again" Ichiban stared up at the sky. 

"Yeah but when you met him again, he shot you. Nanba doesn't let me forget it" 

Ichiban laughed. Very loudly. 

"Yeah but he did that to save me, remember?" Ichiban said with a grin. "Are you scared she'll shoot you?"

Zhao hummed. He was right. There isn't a way to tell the future, yet time does pass, with or without them. The world moves on.

"Whatever the outcome, we'll be here for you, Zhao" Ichiban placed his hand on Zhao's shoulder. "You've been through a lot"

Zhao took off his glasses, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. Inhaling deeply, he gave a smile to his friend.

His chest felt heavy, but he was ready now.

They landed in Hawai'i.

Zhao stepped out of the airport and the heat hit him like a warm hug. Even at night, the air was warm. He was overjoyed to finally not be cold, he never did well with the cold.

The team moved quickly to the bar called Revolve and Zhao analysed the white man behind the bar. The way he looked reminded Zhao of someone he saw in a photo...or the news?

"Kiryu is cool with him, so am I" Ichiban said proudly, waving to the bartender who waved back at him. 

Once everyone had unpacked, they had time before they needed to meet Yamai's subordinate at the docks the next night. Zhao sat at one of the booths and scanned over the list that Akane had given him. He didn't recognise some of the names, google translating a few of them and searching the location on his phone. 

"Do you need drugs?" The woman behind the bar that he had noted when he walked in was standing next to him, a jug of water in her hand as she placed a glass down in front of him. Zhao chuckled at her phrasing and sat back against the chair. 

"Why? Do you have some?" He raised a brow. 

She tilted her head, puzzled. "I might, but I don't think thats why you have a list of clinics there" She tapped the piece of paper. 

"I'm looking for someone"

"Oh? If its the clinics I might know, I have to go searching for the bartender's meds all the time and became friends with them" She beamed. 

Zhao debated telling her. He had no idea who she is but Ichiban frequented here many times from what he heard so, the risk was low. 

"Her name is _____ ______" He said slowly. 

The woman's eyes nearly popped out of her head from what Zhao had saw as soon as he uttered your name. She grasped his hand with both of her own, holding it up. "You know her?! Oh you must be Zhao Tianyou! How did I not click ohmygod you do have millions of jewellery on! Your style too is so cool she was right! Your voice is sexy too!" She gripped his hand with such a strong force that Zhao felt the blood stop circulating to it.

She knows you?!

The woman still held his hand and sat across from him at the booth. She introduced herself as Kei and continued to ramble on about what she considered facts about him. "Are you really that great at video gaming?! I could never beat ___-chan." She pouted before speaking again. "She said you were muscular but I didn't expect this much! Still not as much as Kiryu-sama...I wish he was here" She muttered. 

Zhao tugged his hand out of her grasp and massaged it with his other hand. "So you know her?" He had a million questions.

"Of course! She was a great friend of mine!" She smiled.

Was. 

"Do you know...where she is?" He hesitated. A lump in his throat present now.

She looked away from Zhao, eyes down at the list on the table. Then she looked towards Ichiban who was talking to Adachi, Chitose and Tomizawa, and then back to him. 

"I don't know what you all are planning but..." She trailed off and pulled out her phone. A few seconds passed as she scrolled her phone and then turned it towards him. 

It was a picture of her- and you. She had her arm around you, hugging you close to her as you both smiled for the picture. Zhao felt his breath hitch, the lump growing bigger. He gulped with some difficultly. You still looked the same mostly, but with some changes. Your hair was shorter, chopped just above shoulder length. The sparkle in your eyes that he was used to had dimmed a little but that could be just his imagination. 

He reached out for Kei's phone and she let him hold it for a closer look. He zoomed in on the picture and what caught his eye was a scar that curved your jaw near your chin - which definitely was not there years ago. Zooming out, he stared at the photo in silence for a minute longer before handed the phone back to her.

"This was five years ago" She stated, staring at the photo herself and then placed her phone back in her pocket.

"What happened?"

"I don't know" 

Oh. His eyes drifted to the table. His list became plan A again, but thinking about how long it would take made him dejected.

"Her mother has a theory, and I think I believe them, no matter how sad it is" She mumbled. 

His eyes shot up to her. "Her mother?!"

"This is their house, I think she should be home by now" Kei rushed over to the house she pointed at, ringing the door bell. 

Chitose demanded to come along with them as she knew the area too and was wary of people who may follow them since she could recognise the faces of the gangs out of the other two. Ichiban and Tomizawa had some unfinished business with Tomizawa's ex and Adachi had a meeting with a few detectives he knew in Honolulu.

Zhao smoothed his hands down the sides of his trousers. He hadn't felt this nervous in a long time. A lot of situations thrilled Zhao. Fighting, cooking, romance, aliens, meeting with the people he cared for, but meeting your mother again was something else. 

She hated his father. She treated Zhao like family. She fed him every time he was over at your house as kids. Even when he became an adult, she scolded him for not taking care of his injuries while tending to them and damned his father to hell. Maybe he's there. She thanked whatever higher power she believed in that you and him remained in each others lives as you both grew older. 

Zhao has done many acts he can't mention to someone like her. She would probably look at him different. Maybe she didn't want to see him ever again.

Maybe-

"Hi, ____-san!" Kei bowed. 

He couldn't see your mother in front of her, he was standing more so to the side and held his breath. 

"Nice to meet you, ___-san" Chitose bowed to her beyond the door too. 

When Chitose followed Kei into the house, Zhao followed behind. 

And stood face to face with your mother.

She stared at him, eyes piercing through his and into his soul and he felt like a kid again. Tears welled in her eyes but she continued to look at him. And Zhao wasn't sure what to do in that moment and he couldn't speak.

"You've grown so much, Tianyou" She cupped his face in her hands. "Have you been keeping well?" Her hands felt weaker. 

She smiled as her tears escaped her eyes and down her cheeks. She had many more wrinkles compared to twelve years ago. 

"Sit, lets sit" Her hands dropped and she guided him into the house, gesturing to them all to take a seat on the sofas in the living room. 

Once they had settled in and Chitose helped her bring tea from the kitchen - Kei and Zhao offered to help too but she had gotten angry swatting their hands away until Chitose said she's the youngest - they sat in weighted silence. 

"You're stronger" She said, looking at him. Zhao nervously laughed it off, dismissing her comment indicating his shape is all for show. She jokingly scolded him for that. 

"____-san, Zhao-san is here looking for ___-chan" Kei said. 

Your mother reached over to take a sip of the tea in front of her on the coffee table. After placing the cup back down, she placed her hands firmly on her knees. "When we arrived here, all those years ago, we were both working at the clinic just off of Aloha Bridge. The Seiryu captain ordered his men to check in on us occasionally while they carried out their own personal orders elsewhere in the city."

She paused to take another sip of her tea. Zhao noticed that Kei looked between your mother and him, fidgeting with her hands unsure where to look. 

"It went on like that for six years or so, carrying out our usual duties for the public and the Seiryu men weren't as interested in their usual requests from us, which was the silver lining. But then around four years ago, a few Palekana children started to show up with them" She clenched her jaw, her fingers digging in around her knees. "The kids started to have bruises on them, ones that did not look like usual cuts or scrapes"

Zhao felt sick again.

He remained silent, patiently listening to ever detail. 

"Her heart broke for them, the kids complained about the bruising, the fractures, the bleeding and we couldn't do anything. We didn't know the backstory, had no proof of origin and the kids were too scared to say" She cleared her throat, wiping her eyes.

"One evening, I had left the house to attend a call at another home, she told me she had to retrieve paperwork from the clinic and I told her to update me on the way" She paused.

She looked around Zhao and he followed her gaze and looked down at himself, not clear what she was searching for until she stood up. She left the room momentarily and came back in with a phone in her hand. Zhao recognised the cover on the back of it, a small mochi charm with a smiley face on it that he had gifted you, was hanging from the cover.

She handed it to him, much to Zhao's surprise. 

"She wasn't aware that one of the men who was at the clinic in Ijincho the morning we left....had changed her number." She sat back down in her chair slowly. 

Zhao stared down at your phone. She told him to unlock it and he viewed the latest message which was to your mother. 

_________

Messages: 154
You: Nearly there, its quiet on the street but I should be back any minute. I met Alani-chan and she said Palekana is looking for doctors, maybe we could look into it?
_________

"I didn't see her disappear, I didn't see how it happened, but I heard she was taken. Those Barracuda monsters took her into their hideout and nobody heard from her since then. Some say she's not even here in the state anymore, as she isn't in their hideout, as far as a few homeless people told me." Your mother rubbed her hand over her face, breathing shakily. "One of the employees at the clinic found her phone in the alleyway behind it"

Zhao gripped the phone tightly. He closed his eyes, his blood boiling. Chitose let out a gasp and Kei looked like she was nearly crying too, her hands clasped together tightly. 

"The Seiryu men weren't bothered. At all. Just demanded I continued working." Her voice was quivering.

He blinked a few times, and then stood up.

He slowly placed the phone down on the table that all four of them sat around. His rested one of his hands on the center of his chest, inhaling deeply, and then exhaled. 

But that wasn't to calm him. 

It was to tame the blood lust that filled his body by the second.

"I'm leaving for Nele Island tomorrow evening. Not alone, but we have a way to get there now." He said quietly. He saw your mother's eyes begin to water again so he stepped towards her and crouched down near her, holding her hands. 

"Whatever the outcome, I will find out. I promise" He held her gaze firmly and she squeezed his hands.

"I want you to find her, I really do but please don't get yourself killed Tianyou I can-" 

"Its been many years ___-san, you said yourself that I look stronger. Plus you arn't the only one who misses her" He winked at her, patting her hands as she let out a laugh and wiped her tears again.

Once they had left the house, the three of them made their way back to Revolve. Ichiban had texted him to ask how things went but Zhao was preoccupied.

He was on his way back anyways.

...

He was going to kill the ones responsible. 

Or at least torture them.

Whatever comes first.

Chapter Text

2023

Zhao

Zhao heeded Ichiban's words. 

That they all come back alive. 

Zhao heeded Ichiban's warning to him, to not kill even when provoked.

He did not.

But now, as Chitose, Tomizawa and Adachi were shaking Ichiban awake as the team had finished their showdown with the Palekana lieutenants and finally with Bryce Fairchild, and saving Ichiban when he had caught Bryce trying to sacrifice himself, Zhao was about to really lose his sanity.

You weren't at the Barracuda hide out, not even in the depths of it. There were no signs on the way up to this damn cave, not even when they had found Wong Tou's son. 

Not to mention fighting two mythical sized animals straight out of folklore.

He had enough. 

Ichiban was stronger than him mentally in this sense.

Zhao, was not.

He walked over to Bryce, who was coughing up a lung from where he sat on the metal floor, in this cave full of nuclear waste.

"Oi, you must have a medical building on this damn Island don't you?" Zhao stood over the monster, who glared back up at him. 

"I'll destroy everything b-before you even have the chance to see the rest! People still follow me they still-" Bryce managed to say before Zhao's hand gripped around the man's neck and lifted him upwards to him. 

Bryce clawed at the hand around his neck, wheezing. 

"Tell me, where is it" Zhao demanded. 

"I-I wouldn' eve' bother loo'in!" Bryce choked out, his laugh straining against the tight pressure of Zhao's hand. 

Zhao didn't even wait for him to stop laughing, using both hands now to wrap around the man's neck, strangling him. Bryce couldn't find his footing as Zhao lifted him higher, his legs scrambling to stand but he was neither fully on the floor or fully off of it, hanging by his neck. The only thing keeping him alive was his hands hooked over Zhao's, failing to alleviate the vice grip around his neck.

Watching him, Zhao started to laugh uncontrollably. 

More of a manic laugh. 

He saw fear glaze over Bryce's eyes and Zhao could barely hear Chitose yelling to him to stop. "You better tell me where the fuck that building is" His tone dropped low. "Or I'll rip your throat out" He grinned, his eyes wild. 

"T-the b-" Bryce dropped to the floor as Adachi grabbed and hauled Zhao backwards, away from Bryce. 

"The.." The Palekana leader huffed, wheezing as he struggled to regain his breath. "The doors have the caduceus symbol on it. T-two miles from her-re, to the e-east" He managed, before Zhao wrestled out of Adachi's hold and sent a sweeping kick across the cult leader's face, knocking him out. 

Tomizawa turned over an unconcious Bryce and tied his hands behind him with his battery cables. 

Tomizawa

Tomizawa and Adachi had Ichiban's arms hooked over their shoulders, holding him up as they helped him move along with the team. They were closing in on the hospital Bryce had described, weaving in between the open road path and the tall trees to avoid detection of more Palekana foot soldiers. The island was littered with them and they had to reach the building quickly before whatever Bryce had gloated about 'destorying everything' would come into play. There was already a strong smell of smoke in the air, spotting fires in the distance.

Chitose had a keen skill of perception. She had noticed a few of the cultists up ahead and diverted the team off the open road for a while until they had passed by unoticed. 

"Its just up ahead! Not long Ichiban" her voice just above a whisper, waving her hand in a circle to indicate the three men should hurry up. 

"Say, I think I'm fine to walk...like really I'm-" Ichiban said before his legs gave way, nearly dropping to the ground if it wasn't for the two men at his side holding him up. 

"Kasuga its fine we're nearly there! If you didn't save that asshole you wouldn't be feeling like this" Tomizawa complained, looking over his other shoulder behind him. 

Zhao locked eyes with the man, blankly staring at him. Tomizawa quickly turned back to Ichiban. "Who is this friend of yours anyways? He seems different than Adachi-san or Nanba-san". Ichiban let out a chuckle and then groaned in pain. 

"He's a great guy, don't let his earlier shenanigans fool you" Adachi defended. 

Shenanigans?! The guy was choking the monster and laughing.

Tomizawa glanced behind him again and watched Zhao pull along a cart that had Bryce tied to it. The guy insisted on being the one to drag the criminal along. Chitose wrapped a piece of cloth around his face so he couldn't see if he wakes up.

Zhao locked eyes with Tomizawa again and innocently smiled. A shiver ran down his spine remembering the manic laugh the guy had let out in the cave.

Glad he's on our side, he thought.

Yamai's men were on the way, Adachi-san worked with Date-san to pull some strings within the Honolulu PD to investigate Nele Island, something he had prepared them for before they had left for the island. As they couldn't deny any longer after Chitose had gone live on Tatara channel, they had no choice but to follow through with Adachi's plan. Ichiban had called Yamai's right hand man Sakuma, who was already at the docks on the main land waiting to depart. 

"We're he-re" Chitose strained, pushing open the doors of the hospital.

They had to hold out a little longer. 

Maybe this place had some painkillers for this hero on his shoulder. 

Chitose

Chitose pushed the doors closed behind the team with a thud. The sound bounced around the large lobby they were standing in. It definitely had the look of a normal hospital inside, compared to the older looking architecture on the outside. Reflective white walls that looked dull and pale blue due to the lights above not switched on. 

"There has to be supplies somewher-" She was interrupted by shouting coming from further down the lobby. She indicated silently to the rest to head up the stairs to what seemed like the first floor. 

She watched in bewilderment as Zhao quickly unfastened Bryce from the cart with ease. He pulled him up from his collar, threw him over his shoulder and ran up the stairs with them. 

Once there, they rushed towards the closest room that was unlocked and closed the door immediantly. Zhao dumped the heavy body on the floor, which made a thump and Tomizawa and Adachi helped Ichiban down onto a chair. 

They held their breaths as footsteps rushed passed them. 

"-Find those damn kids first, we can't burn it down yet" A gruff voice echoed down the hallway.

"If even one is left here when we burn it, we're done for" Another voice spoke up. 

"Less talk, more searching!" The gruff voice ordered. 

Kids?

"Those kids must be traumatised" Adachi frowned, opening the cabinets in the room. They had lucked out to enter a nurse's office from the looks of it. At least for the time being.

Chitose peeked through the small window on the door, watching as the men passed their room and down the corridor. "It doesn't look like they are circling back, we have some time to recover" She turned towards them. 

Tomizawa had searched the room along with Adachi, pulling open drawers and cupboards for anything that would aid in pain relief. Eventually Tomi held his hand up high, a small white container in his hand and gave them to Ichiban with some water from the sink. Ichiban guzzled down the pills and let out a sigh of satisfaction. 

"Man that hit the spot, whats in that water?" He beamed to Tomi and the latter shook his head. 

They had to wait before leaving the room to search for you, to give Ichiban time to regain his strength. Chitose eyed Zhao, who looked out the larger windows of the room. Despite hearing the tragic story from his friend's mother, she had no idea what type of person he was. 

Only that he fought extremely well, almost frighteningly well. Ichiban had a way of making friends with nearly everyone, she remarked. But the way Zhao carried himself, he didn't seem afraid most of the time. No tattoos visible, eccentric style, strong build. Who the hell was he. 

Almost as if he detected Chitose was thinking about him, he turned around and met her gaze. 

"Are they gone? This place is giving me the chills" He chattered his teeth and rubbed his hands up and down his arms. 

Chitose blinked slowly. Zhao had said this while the head of an unconcious Bryce was nearly touching the side of his foot. 

Frightening indeed, though, she wasn't perfect either. At least something about him didn't scream serial killer to her. 

The sight of his hands around Bryce's neck back in the cave flashed in her mind.

It must of been twenty minutes that had passed by before Ichiban felt his abdomen not feeling as crushed as it had when he was pulling Bryce up from over the railing. They decided to glance in each room they had passed, searching for you. Several floors higher in the building, the team split up - Adachi carried Bryce this time, refusing Zhao insisting again to carry him.

Probably worried he'd end up killing him.

Chitose, Zhao and Adachi took one side of the hallway, Ichiban and Tomi had taken the other. 

"I can't keep...coming up..." Zhao strained, twisting the handle of one of the doors before it gave way, the door swinging open. "...short!" Zhao sighed, scanning the empty room. This room looked similar to an operating room, medical supplies and tools in abundance.

"This building is it Zhao, if she isn't here, I don't know where else she would be" Adachi reasoned, looking towards Zhao who searched the room. 

Tomizawa let out a shriek and Zhao snapped his head around, rushing out the room and towards the sound.

Chitose hanged back behind the two men (including Bryce over Adachi's shoulder) as the three made their way over and saw ahead that Tomi was standing behind Ichiban, who had his hands raised in surrender and in the middle of a doorway to a room at their end of the hallway.

As they got closer, she heard them speaking to whoever they were facing inside the room. 

"Oi oi we aren't them!" Tomi's voice was a higher pitch than normal. 

"That's your name right?" Ichiban said firmly. "You gave him a keyring? Erdrick's sword?"

Chapter Text

2023

You

You were outside with a few of your patients, all children. They hadn't been outside the building in a week and needed fresher air than what their windows were providing. So you let them run around in the open court yard out front, the joy on their faces were infectious, making you smile. 

These kids had come down with a cold, which turned into a chest infection. The infection left them with COPD for a reason you couldn't justify with tests yet but now that they were ill, you feared they were not "needed" by Palekana anymore. Around a week ago, you had begged the head of the medical sector on this cursed island to reconsider, to let them go to the main land to be treated, but they refused. 

You glanced at the kids who were running free, through the water of the sprinklers and giggling with each other. 

This is horrible. 

You massaged your temples and then dragged your hands down the sides of your face. You felt helpless. Day in and day out you had treated the kids on this island for five years, you grew attached to them. 

Yet when fate slams a cruel hand down upon you, you had no means to stop it. You were a hostage as much as the kids, and everyone else on this island, were brainwashed. 

The only person who was not was Bryce. No, he had been doing this for years. Many years. 

You huffed, running your fingers in your hair and looked beyond the court yard and down the island.

Thats when you saw it. 

Palekana foot soldiers torching buildings in the distance. 

You squinted your eyes, focusing. 

What...the fuck. 

You saw them lugging out people from the buildings before lighting the place on fire. They had the Palekana villagers on the concrete with their hands tied behind their backs. 

"Doctor ____! Doctor ____!" One of the kids who you had treated in the past was running up the foot path towards the court yard, fear stricken. 

"Doctor they are looking for us! Th-they- I heard-" She was breathing really fast. "I heard them say t-that the-they're after the kids being treated in the hospital! That's us right?!" She puffed out, bending over herself.

You looked up again into the distance. The amount of torched buildings increased, more villagers on the ground tied up with their backs to each other. You called the kids inside, practically yelling at them to follow you inside the hospital and they heeded the call. 

Crowds of staff were scattered across the lobby, running while holding items ranging from stacks of paper to boxes. You herded the kids up the stairs, ignoring their coughs.

They can make it. 

You all had to hide until you could figure out what to do. You knew they wouldn't torch this building until they found the kids. With what the child had said to you, your suspicions that the lieutenants were worried about the kids in your care developing COPD was accurate. Your tests were inconclusive but you heard rumours. 

Palekana having their nuclear waste initiative ruined by the kids developing radiation poisoning would end their plans. Bryce's plans to have a 'safe' nuclear waste storage.

They wanted to eradicate the evidence. And if the bodies were left behind and burned, forensics would still be able to take samples. 

The higher ups needed to dispose of the bodies without anybody finding DNA. 

Oh how you hoped a few weeks ago to be wrong. 

But now you were rushing the kids up flights of stairs, trying not to lose them within the crowds. The intended destination were the operating rooms, located a few floors above ground floor. They had an abundance of equipment including surgical tools that you could use as weapons. Multiple packs of gauze, sterile liquids and pads for injuries.

Only that when you had arrived on the correct floor, the operating rooms to the left of the hallway were blocked by a crowd of people. Screaming could be heard down below from where you previously were and you rushed the kids to the other end of the hall, trying all the rooms you had passed to check for an unlocked one. 

The door to the room at the end was unlocked and you moved the kids in - but to your surprise, you saw the back of a man with the mark of a Palekana Lieutenant, who was staring at medical papers in his hands. 

You froze. 

One of the kids squeaked and the man looked over his shoulder. Going by the twist of his body language, you raised your leg high as he reached for his gun in his left holster and swiped a kick across him, launching the gun out of his hand and across the floor. 

"Doctor he's g-" one of the kids screamed as the Lieutenant was too quick for you, lurching forward in your direction and you felt a sharp object pierce through skin just above the front of your hip on your left side. Your breath caught in your throat and you couldn't hear, an electric shock sensation passing through you instantly and then extreme heat within seconds. 

You quickly gripped over his hand and the object, detecting it was a dagger and held tight.

You forced your body weight forward into him, wrapping your other arm around the back of him and stepping forward with force and he grunted, trying to hold his ground. The dagger seemed to dig a little deeper as seconds passed with the struggle until the kids pushed into him too, forcing him backwards and towards the window in the room. 

Then time stopped. 

The back of the man hit the window sill. The open window.

The strength from the kids and yourself had caused the man to bend backwards once he had hit the edge. At the exact moment he tilted and lost his footing, you screamed in agony as his hand tugged the dagger out of your wound and fell out the window.

You heard a deft thump from outside. 

You pressed your hand hard against the wound. It hurt. Really hurt. You felt weaker already from the blood loss but you couldn't pass out yet. 

You needed to leave here some point and head to one of those damn operating rooms, fast.

The kids were situated to the side of the room away from the door, huddled on the floor. In comparison, you had placed yourself on an office chair in the direction of the door. Gun in hand, thanks to the man now presumably dead outside the building, you watched the door with your eyes peeled.

All of you within the room had heard yelling, screaming, frantic foot steps and crying in the distance. It had seemed most of the people had cleared out the building. A few sounds were heard occasionally but none near you for an hour or two. 

You had ordered the kids to pile whatever they could find around the room in front of the door to barricade it. If any chance, if someone tried to enter the room, the make shift barricade would give you enough reaction time to hold them at gun point. 

Guess you have the Seiryu Clan to thank for your experience with firearms. 

The kids were great at being silent. Well they were silent since the man had fell out the window but you couldn't begin to address that matter to them, let alone yourself. It was self defence. If he had lived, the kids would have not. Extreme heat spread around your abdomen, blood seeping through your clothes - your white lab coat staining dark red. There wasn't enough medical equipment here, it was a doctor's office and the only thing on hand were tissues and swabs.  

What on earth had kicked this off? If it was only about the kids who were ill, there would be no need to torch the buildings and rally everyone up to prevent them leaving. 

You snapped your eyes to the door as rattling could be heard then. You readied the gun in your right hand, holding your arm as straight as you could and kept the other pressed against your wound. 

Please, please don't let this be it, you prayed. 

The door gradually opened, pushing the tables and medical bed in front of it, the furniture scraping the floor. Two men appeared in the doorway. 

"Don't move or I shoot!" You warned, trying to steady your labored breathing. 

"____-san?!" A man with a perm and a red Hawai'ian shirt spoke with a kind voice. He spoke your name and took a step forward to you.

"I will shoot you if you step any closer" You threatened the permed man, your own voice urgent in contrast to his own. You didn't recognise him, neither the man behind him, also with a Hawai'ian shirt.

What the fuck - are they tourists who got lost at sea?!

"Oi, she's serious" The first man leaned back to whisper, not so silently, to the other while holding his hands up in surrender. 

"Yeah no shit! Are you always like this in front of a stick up?!" The second man complained, holding his hands up too. 

"Hey, you're injured right? ____-san?" The first man reasoned. He knew your name but did not look like any regulars on Nele Island. 

When you hesitated to answer, the second man tried to step forward and say something but you pointed the direction of the gun at him and he shrieked. And then instantly shaked off his reaction as if it didn't happen.

"Oi oi, we aren't them!" The second man whined.

"That's your name, right?" The first man looked into your eyes. His eyes were unwavering in front of the gun. 

You remained silent and narrowed your eyes. Anyone here could easily know your name. He spoke again.

"You gave him a keyring right? Erdrick's sword?"

Your lips parted, a noise escaping you. A memory from long ago had flashed before your eyes and you remembered him again for the millionth time. His dark eyes and a heart of gold. You never forgot, but hearing someone else speak about him after years was like a bright light in a dark tunnel.

"You really did get that tattoo then" He grinned and nodded his head at your arm. The sleeve of your lab coat had slid up the arm you held up with the gun. Your tebori tattoo around your wrist on display. 

"W-who are..." The strength of your arm started to falter. Partially due to the confusion of the two mysterious men who seemed to know you and your past. Mainly due to the pain in your wound becoming almost unbearable. "I don't-"

A hand adorned with familiar rings and black nail polish landed on the second man's shoulder, pulling him back quickly and a third man stepped into view, turning to his side to move past him and in front of the first man. 

It can't...it can't be...

"Found you" he said, smiling. 

Your eyes began to water. His voice was music to your ears. 

Are you dreaming? You must be. There's no way. No way he would-

A shattering sound echoed a floor below, and the third man, with the same dark eyes that you had loved, swiftly moved forward, lowering your arm and gently taking the gun out of your hand. He tucked it into the waistband of the back of his trousers as the first two men and now a woman rushed into the room too. 

"Kids lets go!" An older man with greyish hair said in a rough voice as he stood in the door frame, watching the hallway. You were too occupied with the rapidly changing situation to be aware that he was carrying someone dressed in Palekana colours.

The three people who entered helped the kids to stand. A few looked to you for reassurance and you ordered them to follow the group out of the room. The man in front of you looped your arm around his neck, his other hand circling around your back and hoisting you up to his side as he straightened. 

"Can you walk?" He whispered. 

You said yes, and then groaned as he took a step forward. "Ok maybe not" you breathed shakily, your lungs screaming from shock.

"Keep pressure on that wound" He said before bending and in one quick swoop, his arm that held your hand around his neck had moved down, scooping under your knees and lifting you into the air. You felt the pain worsen from the sudden movement but your body pressed against his solid upper body as he carried you out the room bridal style. 

He followed the rest ahead of him and you directed them to the other end of the hallway, towards the operating rooms. You were not going to get far in this state without stopping the bleeding.

Inside your orignal destination, the man carrying you made his way over to the operating chair and placed you on top of it. You couldn't help the groans you let out from the pain, it was getting worse by the minute. Your vision became hazy, trying to focus on explaining what you needed to seal the wound. The woman moved over to your side, peeling back the bloodied part of the lab coat and lifting your T-shirt. 

"Sorry" She mumbled, pressing a sterile absorbant pad deeply onto your wound to temporarily stop the bleeding while the other two men in the hawai'ian shirts searched for what you asked for. 

The third man who carried you here was peeking outside, scoping the hallway. 

Was he real? Is it really him? 

The man who looked eldest out of the group with the greying hair stood beside him, lifting the back of the man's shirt to look at the gun tucked in his trousers. "It looks special made" He admired as the familiar man took it out to display it. He then held it at his side, his hand moving as he talked to the older one. 

"Its Doctor ____'s you should give it back" One of the younger kids of the group with you spoke and appeared behind the third man, the kid's hand going for the gun - and alarm bells rang in your mind.

You moved forward off the chair, reaching your arm out as the woman tried to hold you back. "Zhao stop her!" You yelled out but once your foot hit the floor, your senses shut off and you felt your body hit the ground before everything turned black.

Chapter Text

2023

You

Some how, some way, you found yourself back in time. Back when you were in your early 20s, not your earlier 30s. When you were with your loved ones and not with monsters. You looked around your surroundings, the night air breeze caressing your skin. Sitting atop the roof of your house, your arms rested on your knees as you looked out to the street below. 

"What're you thinking?" 

You looked to your left, and Zhao was sitting beside you, his head propped up by one of his hands as his elbow rested on his knee. His soft gaze watching you. He had bruising just above his left eyebrow, which he raised for his question. 

"Don't we get to choose?" You raised your brows slightly. 

"What do you mean?"

"Don't we get to choose how to live? What if we just rejected all of this and do what we wanted?" You laughed half heartedly, sniffing. 

"It isn't that easy, you and I both know it" He gave a small smile.

"You a chef" You held out your left hand, tattoo showing on your wrist "Me, a graphic designer" You held out your right hand, tattoo showing on your other wrist. 

Branded. A fantasy.

"I thought you wanted to open a bakery" He furrowed his brows but his smile remained.

"I can do both" You retorted. 

He hummed, staring at your hands. He reached over, bringing your hands together and clasping his hands over yours, holding them together in the warmth of his. 

"Maybe some day, we don't know what tomorrow holds" He said quietly, looking into your eyes again. 

Your eyelids drifted open, blinking lazily as light filled your vision. The sensation of your body returned, feeling the cool ground below your fingertips. Your lab coat was hanging from the medical bed, the blood soaked into it starting to dry, so you were left with your grey short sleeved T-shirt on, your tattoed arms on full display. Why you were on the ground was confusing but the firm cushion underneath your head caught your attention.

Reaching behind you, you felt for the cushion and your hand flattened against something warm. You slid your hand upwards, getting a feel of the fabric when your fingers grasped and hooked on a strap. A belt? You gave it a tug to check but it felt attached to something larger.

You angled your head back to look above you, and met Zhao looking down at you. 

"Having fun~?" His tone full of amusement. His eyes were sparkling even from behind his shades.

You let go of his waistband, blushing rapidly spreading across your cheeks. He smirked, teeth exposed . You realised your head rested on his lap from the angle you saw him at - and that your hand had felt up the upper outer side of his thigh.

Looking around the room you noticed the man with the perm sat on the ground with the kids, playing a rhythm game of hand clapping. Your eyes darted to the door, which was shut with a barricade again. 

The woman held a phone against her ear, smiling and swatting away the other man in the purple Hawai'ian shirt as he tried to grab the phone. 

"Yes, yes, we're all ok Akane-san" She said sweetly, while trying to throw a kick at the man in front of her. 

Relief washed over you. Exhaustion had caught up but your mind felt at ease for once. You closed your eyes, breathing deeply but jolted from the pain near your hip. Zhao's hand grasped your shoulder, holding you down and then brushed over your hair, tucking a few strands behind your ear and out of the way of your face. 

You looked up again, and he was looking at the area of your wound. "If you move, the stitches will open. Help is close by so not long now" He said in a low tone, his eyes roaming back to yours. 

He's real. So very real. You felt the warmth from his hand and underneath you. He's alive and well and breathing right in front of you and you still believed you were dreaming. 

Lifting your hand up to his face, you hesistated once near it and when he didn't shy away, you let the pads of your fingertips touch his cheek. "How..." You breathed out. 

"I want to ask the same to you, but if I find out any more right now, I might burst into flames and kill-" He pursed his lips momentarily before relaxing, shutting himself up. Instead, he generously leaned into your touch. You felt his facial hair graze your skin and then his face dipped more into the curve of your palm. A fleeting touch of the corner of his lips had your heart leaping but the voice from the permed haired man made you snatch your hand back. 

"Oh finally you're awake!" The man in question shuffled himself across the floor over to you, the kids following suit. You put on serene expression to cover up your real reaction just a moment ago. 

"This is Kasuga-kun, a good friend of mine" Zhao said with a lighter tone than earlier. 

"I was beginning to worry we did a shit job patching you up" The man nervously chimed. 

Your peaceful facial expression broke slightly, carefully glancing down at your wound again. It was covered with heavy gauze and taped down onto your skin. It didn't feel terrible at rest, so the bleeding had definitely reduced, but did they stitch it themselves? Did they know how? 

"Nan-chan knew exactly what to do, since he did the same to me" Kasuga tugged the neckline of his white vest down and to the left of his chest , displaying a scar with faded stitch marks. You were naturally curious as to the cause of the injury, staring at it with your eyes narrowed. The recovery appeared decent so you placed your faith in this 'Nan-chan' that your wound was taken care of for now.

"Yeah but he was panicking the whole time, I wanted to cut off the call" The eldest man spoke up, heading over to you too. "I'm Adachi, that's Tomizawa-chan and she's Chitose-chan" He pointed to the purple Hawai'in shirt man and then to the woman who bowed her head to you, speaking into her phone. 

You acknowledged their introductions, nodding along. They had no idea how grateful you were now, laying here on the floor, resting your head on the lap of a person you longed for years to see again. You questioned about their arrival and was quickly brought up to speed despite your puzzled look as Kasuga explained who and what they had fought to get here. 

Half of it didn't seem real. The giant shark you had known about, but the Giant Squid?! The large amounts of squid and other fish that were constantly shuttled into the training grounds made sense now. You kept up with the story from Kasuga until he got to the part with Bryce. 

"Bryce?! You- what!?" You tried to sit up again but Zhao's hands wrapped over your shoulders and brought you back down delicately.

"Where is he now!?" 

"He's there" Adachi said bluntly, pointing to an area behind you. Zhao lifted his right arm for you to angle yourself slowly from where you lay on him to see. Bryce was, indeed, propped up against the wall behind, his eyes closed. 

"He's breathing, unfortunately" Zhao sighed. 

You both reset to the previous position and you were silent for a moment. To be rescued as well, it felt like a miracle. It also explains why Palekana soldiers were trying to torch the whole Island as well as look for the ill children, with his fake storage plan being exposed to the world. Adachi explained that the help that is on the way to them had been spread out the island to gather up the soldiers and shut the whole thing down. It was only a matter of time before they arrived to your location and escorted you all back to Honolulu. 

One of the kids poked your arm and brought you out of your thoughts.

"Doctor ____, your friend is weird, he's was stroking your hair when you were asleep" One of the kids giggled and the others joined in on the giggle fest. Your eyes shot up to Zhao, who had his finger over his lips telling the kids to shush. 

"I've known her longer than you" He stuck his tongue out at them.

"Yeah well she's my doctor!" A younger kid challenged back at him.

"I'm her favourite patient~" He said in an annoying tone, riling up the kids even more. 

A man burst into the door, knocking the barricade and grunting. "Oi Kasuga lets go! The longer I stay 'ere workin' with the feds, the quicker my life span reduces!" The man barked through the narrow opening. 

"That's Sakuma-san, lets get moving!" Kasuga clapped his hands, standing up. 

Zhao supported the back of you as you slowly moved to sit upright, though you had to bend to sit on your leg opposite your injury and then raise yourself. Zhao held his arms around you and you gripped his forearm for support. 

"Ok get on" He said simply once you stood upright, moving to crouch in front of you, his back facing you. 

"What? No no no no no-" you waved your hands "You already carried me here!" You exclaimed.

"Hurry up, its a long trek down you know" He waited, glancing over his shoulder. 

"Zhao I swear stop it or I'll-" 

"I'll let you do anything you want to me when we get back to the main land, but for now you don't have a choice, I'm not risking anything with you" He said in a sly tone. He'll make you have a heart attack at this point.

He shifted backwards and pulled your hands forward until your chest hit his back. He warned for you to hold tight - which you obliged by circling your arms around his neck - and then hooked his hands under your thighs, standing up. You looked to the side and saw Chitose wiggle her eyebrows at Tomizawa, nudging him while they both gaped at you two. 

The trek from the hospital to the docks was long, you didn't deny. You figured you could walk with the rest but your wound was fresh and resting on the strong back and broad shoulders of Zhao Tianyou, who you had not seen in twelve years and appeared out of thin air as if your wish had been granted by the universe, you did not complain.

He carried you with ease. The muscles of his back flexing but he showed no signs of fatigue. He had became broader compared to all those years ago, his body shape was like carved rock. 

His eyes were still the same. Soft, caring, sometimes wild. His dress sense the same too, looser fitting clothes as he wore a longline black shirt with short sleeves and gold and black joggers. The pattern looked very familiar, like it haunted your mind.

The gold chain around his neck was new to you, the gold complimenting his skin tone. You wanted a closer look but you couldn't just feel around his chest for it.

Highly innappropriate. You both are in your mid 30s yet your heart beated rapidly like a teenager at the thought. 

His face was very familiar still. He had many more rings though and different colours, you guessed one for each finger since you felt a lot of them pressed into your thighs as he held you up.

"Are you not tired?" You said quietly. You didn't have to speak louder since your face was next to his ear.

"I could go for a cat nap right now" He whined, his tone lifting high. "Maybe some shrimp too, I saw a couple in a shallow pond earlier" He giggled, you felt the vibrations of it.

His aloofness was still there. It never halted his perception of things, he was tuned into everything usually, he just tended to focus on what he liked.

You turned your head to the side, resting your cheek against the back of his shoulder. If this was a dream, you happily accepted it. Thoughts of your mother and Kei flooded your mind, your chest tightening as a wave of emotions started to hit you, your hands gripping tighter around him. 

"Say, I need to ask" Kasuga walked closer in step with Zhao, eyes shining. "How did you get that keychain? I swear I checked the stores in Kamurocho but it was sold out every time" 

He must be a Dragon Quest Fanatic, you noted.

"Oh that? I just told my classmate who was working that day to keep one aside for me. She owed me after I helped her study for an exam" You explained.

To your surprise, Zhao let out a hearty laugh at this and stopped walking, the laugh shaking himself and you. He bent his knees until his knees touched the sandy pathway, his laughing not stopping, both hands touching the ground to steady himself and you clinged to him to not fall forward and off him.

"What?! I really did!" You protested. When you looked back up to Kasuga, he had closed his eyes, a small smile on his face as he made a noise in agreement. 

The boat ride back to main land was mostly peaceful. Tomizawa had pestered the driver to steer clear of the way they came to the island, the driver losing his patience and pushing him back with a hand so he could do his job. 

The big shark was a threat, but luckily there were no signs for miles across the water that it would appear. You caught a conversation between the driver and Ichiban, where he indicated that bait was placed in a different location than where you all were currently, thanks to the Honolulu PD's helicopter. They couldn't deny anymore what Bryce had done. The devil in question, was handed over to detectives that Adachi had vetted previously. The terror was over. 

Zhao had let you take the step off the docks of Nele Island and onto the boat. The move caused a waterfall of tears to pour down your face and Chitose tried to wipe your tears away. On the boat, he was bent over the railing watching the surface of the water in hopes for fish.

"You think I'll catch any?" Zhao singsonged, eyes locked into the ocean. 

"What type are you hoping to catch?" You eyed the water too, his hand dipped into the ripples of the water. 

"Maybe a baby Ahi, theres a recipe I've been desperate to try" He gleamed. 

You followed his movements as he straightened his hand and dove it into the water in a flash. But no luck. A question at the forefront of the many questions you had for him left you before you could stop yourself.

"Are you still the head of the Liumang, still a part of them?" 

"No, to both"

"Do you...have a restaurant?" You prayed silently.

"Guess what its called" His mouth formed a lopsided grin, looking at you. 

Your mouth parted, he really managed to get one. "Tian...Tian something" You guessed. It could be called the worst name on earth and you'd love it. 

"Definitely not Tian Shăguā" He winked at you and Mabuchi's deep laugh echoed in your mind. 

He must of told him. Idiot.

"How did Mabuchi take it?"

Zhao glanced away, sitting back inside the boat and rested against the railing, arm stretched across it. From his silence, you thought the worst. 

"Is he...."

"Dead?" Zhao scoffed, scratching the back of his head. "Far from it, but I considered him dead to me at one point"

What the fuck did you do Mabuchi?!

"Long story short, he's crossed a line he can't return from...yet..." Zhao held his head and tilted it to the side, cracking his neck. "...I don't know maybe if he repented to the ones he wronged until his knees gave out, he might return"

You saw Kasuga looking back at Zhao from where he stood next to the driver, absent-mindedly scratching across his chest. You turned to look at Chitose and Tomizawa who's eyes seemed to nearly pop out of their heads. 

"Ha! He doesn't bite" Adachi leaned over from his seating position across from Zhao and patted his knee. "Right?" He urged Zhao to agree, from the way he indicated with his eyes for the latter to look at the two next to him.

"Only a bit" Zhao wiggled his brows.

Chapter Text

2023

You

You hugged your mother almost endlessly once you reunited with her. Her embrace was home. When she hugged Zhao, she cursed Palekana, the Seiryu Clan and begged higher power to shower him with glory. Considering the second dissolution of the Yakuza, and Seiryu Clan being at the forefront of it - more accurately the sinister plans of a person called Ebina was foiled by Ichiban and his friends, the only people that held your mother back was Palekana. You could only imagine how worried she had been for the past five years that you were there against your will, away from her. 

You recieved proper treatment at an official hospital for your wound and the pain reduced to a dull ache. During your stay there, Kei visited in the mornings and your mother, Zhao and Nanba visited in the evening. You finally got to thank the person who had the knowledge to patch up your wound, instructing over video call no less.

Nanba mentioned he wanted to verify if the treatments were running smoothly due to past experiences and you were thankful for that. At one of the visits, while Zhao was fetching food for you with your mother at the shops on the ground floor, Nanba talked about Zhao, that he had a theory on your disappearance but didn't have the means to move freely. And at the time, with the tensions between the gangs, all of his attempts came up short. But he had never forgotten, and is the reason he managed to reach you finally. 

Hearing this had made you cry, at the pain of the distance forced between you both. It wouldn't of hurt as much if you could of stayed in contact by phone but the infiltrators within the Seiryu clan didn't want anyone catching any ideas of your fate and their true loyality to Palekana. Zhao returned shortly and swung the plastic bag full of snacks at Nanba, believing he was the reason for your crying. 

When your mother was out of the room one evening, you addressed the incident with the Palekana Lieutenant who had caused your injury, and of his fate. Nanba and Zhao glanced at each other before defending your confession with a passion. Nanba reasoned that the friends and caretakers of the children were so grateful to have them back safe and sound. Zhao written it off as self defence and nothing else. It was him or you. Both must be true. Replaying the moment wouldn't help at all. And the kids were safe to get the treatment they deserved.

Two weeks had passed in Honolulu. Once you were in the clear to leave after the first week, the doctors advised for you to stay off your feet most of the time but knowing you were free to roam the city as you pleased, the temptation won. Especially when the rest of Zhao's friends had flew over to Honolulu to rejoice and recover, the second week was spent sightseeing without restrictions.

Describing the events of your kidnapping was difficult to remember, it had happened quickly when you had stepped out of the clinic on that particular evening to walk back home. But the details were blurred. The one fact you were sure of was if you had not spotted and sprinted over to the young child on the ground with a foot pressed into their face by a Palekana member; your forceful move to Nele Island would have been delayed, maybe prevented. 

"I can see why you nearly killed him" Nanba turned to Zhao, who were both sitting on stools at Revolve. You were behind the bar, helping Kei arrange glasses for the beginning of her shift, ignoring her lecturing for you to take rest. 

You spun around at Nanba's comment. There's so much you didn't know. But equally for him about yourself. The gap between you both was huge, at the same time it was as if you had never left when you reunited with him.

Zhao casually shrugged off Nanba's remark, sipping his mocktail. You insisted to him that it was too earlier in the day to knock back alcohol and he obliged. Approaching the two, you leaned opposite them on the bar. "I still can't believe that's the Dragon of Dojima right there" You stared star-struck at the man.

"You have a crush on him?" Zhao teased.

"Of course not!" 

"Seon hee does though" Nanba added. The women in question joined the conversation, placing her hands around the two and clutched their shoulders. Zhao and Nanba shared a look. 

"I wouldn't dare" She spoke through gritted teeth. "The man is a legend"

Who would of thought that she would be the leader of the Yokohama Liumang and Geomijul at the same time. 

"____-san, would you be able to come to the pool with us today? Its the first time we're getting a chance to go, I bought waterproof covering for your injury. Zhao bought the wrong ones." Saeko questioned you, a hint of annoyance in her voice, directed at Zhao.

"How are you this bad at online shopping?" Nanba nagged him. 

"I have a lot of chopsticks if you need any" Zhao joked. "But anyways, are you joining us?" Both him and Saeko looked at you. 

"I don't have any swimming gear" You said sorrowfully. You never really had time for leisure over the years, the first half you were swamped with the clinic, it was nearly the job day in and day out, and the second half you were living a nightmare. 

"Can't fucking have that!" Kei joined in too, turning you to face her as she looked you up and down. "You can borrow mine, its just your style! I think you'll fit!"

Kei was mostly right. The upper half of the outfit was your style, a fitted long sleeved grey rash top. The bottom half was not. You normally wore full length leggings but the black shorts she had given you clung to your behind and thighs.

"If I bend won't they rip apart?!" You yelled from the swimming pool changing stalls at the hotel.

"You'll be fine! It won't!" Kei tried to reassure you but it didn't work.

"Do you have the protective wrapping on ___-san?" Saeko yelled from another stall. 

You lifted your top to see the wrapping firmly secure around the injury. The tape at the edges created a seal to prevent water entry. "All good!" You replied.

"If anyone tries something funny, call me over I'll set them straight" Seon hee joined in too. 

"Ok!" You held your face in your hand giggling. 

Stepping out of the changing room and into the pool area at the back of the hotel, you gasped. The pool was massive. The pool stretched as wide as the lobby at the back of the hotel, overlooking the beach and the ocean beyond. 

The owners must be rich rich. 

Loads of foreigners and locals were dispersed across the pool, but it was that big that you could enjoy your own privacy no matter where you stood. Seon hee joined Han Joon gi on the sun beds by the edge of the pool, Saeko sat with Adachi and Nanba in the open tents and Kei tugged you towards a ladder leading into the pool. She held on to you as you prepared to descened the ladder, your legs instictively shook a little from the fear of your wound opening. 

You bickered with Kei as you started to back out of entering the pool. You really wanted to but your body thought otherwise. She held the sides of your arms then, turning you to face another direction in the pool. 

"Don't you want to go into the pool and join him?" She said with a teasing tone, almost flirty. You looked ahead and low behold, Zhao was perched up on the edge of the pool at the other end from where you stood, his feet in the water. He seemed to be in deep conversation with Kiryu, Ichiban and Tomizawa. He was dressed in an almost black swimmer jacket, with yellow borders along the seams. His shorts followed the same pattern as his favourite shirt but the colours were inverted. The jacket was unzipped and the middle of his abs and chest were on display.

You gulped, even from this distance you felt your blush grow and blood pressure rise as your mind went to the gutter. "You like him a lot don't you?" She added.

"So what if I do? Its been years" You muttered. 

"Chitose told me you both had a moment back on that island, you caressed his face?!" She shook you back and forth in short bursts. Your blush spread at a fast rate as you remembered how he leaned into your hand, and the memory twisted into a want that had resurfaced from the depths of your mind and body. 

"The guy is hot as fuck I nearly choked when I saw him" Chitose materialised to your side and it was as if there were two mini devils whispering into your ears. "You're telling me that was all platonic? ___-san, I think you owe it to yourself to at least investigate" Chitose adding fuel to the fire. 

You had squeezed your eyes shut at some point during their persuasion. It has been years since you had saw him. It truely feels like a miracle to even see him again let alone have these feelings resurface ten fold. It wasn't like you were afraid he had met someone during the time apart. You yourself had met a few people in a romantic light during the initial couple of years from when you had arrived here. A few dates, a short term relationship. Didn't end well. One night stands were too risky for your liking given that not knowing the person enough would risk sleeping with someone who knew your line of work. Someone out to harm you. You shut it off from you then, no room anymore in your heart for someone else. But he was always on your mind, running circles around in it.

The idea that he could be with someone now, fought the fantasy you had of him as something more with you, and succeeded.

You had stubbornly refused to leave him in Japan with the knowledge that you had romantic feelings for him. Maybe in love with him. And you were scared you would lose everything you had with him. Fate cruelly took care of that for a while. But you cared for him, wanted him to get everything he wanted. It felt wrong to assume that his actions and words that you went over and over in your head back then meant the feelings were mutual. Nah you are definitely in love with him. Maybe you fell too deep in your idea of how he would be with you, as a partner. Just being back in his life was a blessing.

He was a flirty person, your mind said cruelly, erasing the fun emotions that were coursing through your body from the teasing Chitose and Kei had done.

You huffed, rubbing your hands down your face. You opened you eyes. "I told you both it has been year-" 

His face was angled towards Kiryu, but you locked eyes with his. The corner of his mouth tugged into a trace of a smirk and his eyes scanned over you.

Is he checking you out?!

The grasp of your hand broke your eye contact with him, Chitose pulled you along with her around the perimeter of the pool towards his location. 

"Ichiban, Adachi is telling Saeko that you moped the whole time you were in Hawai'i that Saeko rejected you" Chitose said with fake sadness in her voice, and Kasuga panicked, shouting to Adachi that it isn't true and ran across the pool. 

"Tomi, I still owe you for helping me back at the club, lets buy some ice cream" Chitose wrestled Tomizawa's arm out the pool and he complained as he climbed out of it. "Yeah yeah I'm coming" He mumbled. The two walked away from where you were, she looked back at you and winked. 

Zhao and Kiryu were left and you forgot how to speak. 

"I heard your injury is recovering well" Kiryu stated to you, relief in his voice. "When Zhao and Ichiban were on the phone while you were out cold, I figured it would get infected, or it would never seal with the stitches".

The Dragon of Dojima had spoke to you like you were a long term friend. Your mind was reeling. 

"Kiryu-san, that's scary" Zhao pouted.

"Ah, luckily you are ok now" Kiryu added apologetically. 

"How is Chemo going?" You asked him, bending down slowly to sit on the edge like Zhao and dangle your legs in the pool. This was fine. Kiryu was in the middle of you both as he stood in the pool. This is easy to do, you tried to believe, weakly holding down the emotional battle inside you. 

"I think its ok, but I'm losing a lot of muscle now which I'm not used to, so I don't know my strength anymore." He remorsed, holding his hand out the water and making a fist. How much muscle did he actually have previously for him to remain this jacked. 

You were going to continue the lovely conversation you were having but Seon hee called Kiryu over, Nanba waving with her for him to join them.

"Ah sorry, another time?" He made his way over to their side of the pool. 

Zhao and you remained. The tension in the air thickened. Your quicker heart beat made a surprise appearance as you glanced at him only to meet his attention on you. 

You loved him, you loved him, you loved him, you HAD loved him, you now loved the idea of him as lovers, you didn't know if you loved the version of him that lived twelve years apart, hidden from your knowledge. But you wanted to know, you wanted him to tell you all of it. The good and the bad. You would do the same. But did he want that?

"Have you tried-" 

"Are you dating anyone?!" 

You slapped your hands over your mouth. Was that really a question you asked?! Why?! What possessed you to shout that out to him?! Of all the questions you so desperately want to ask, you asked that?!, What was worse was how you had interrupted him too, he was about to ask you something! Now he was staring at you silently, his eyes wide. 

"Now? Nope." He spoke after what had seemed like eternity. "I did, but nothing solid ever stuck. I think the longest was half a year, even that was on and off. That was too long ago. Like before 2019." He shrugged. "Trust issues I guess" 

"What was your question?" You managed to say. Your eyes were peeled back from embarassment.

"Have you tried going into the pool yet?" He raised a brow.

Absolutely mortifying.

"Not yet, but I really want to" You fidgeted with your hands, holding the edge of the pool and moving your feet around the water. You heard a splash then and Zhao had jumped down into the pool from where he sat, his glasses left on the edge. He ran the water through his hair, a few strands falling in front of his forehead probably from the gel dissolving and he stepped closer to you until he stood in front of your line of sight. 

"If you slide in slowly, it won't strain the wound too much from where you are sitting" He tapped your knees, encouraging you. 

You took a deep breath. Pressing your hands firmly on the edge, you moved yourself forward and paused. "I might slip faster than intended if the pain shocks me again" you reasoned. 

"Then I'll catch you" He countered, placing a hand on the edge as well and waited, eyes studying your hands waiting for your next move.
 
It was all or nothing, you thought. Moving further you were nearly off the edge but your right hand slipped a little which caused you to jutt out the left side of your hips to prevent pressure on the inury. You had nearly fallen into the pool catastrophically if it weren't for Zhao's hands securing their place around the sides of your ribs, pulling you against him and your hands grasped his shoulders as your feet touched the pool floor. 

"See? No problem..." He breathed, his hands remaining nestled against your ribs. "Now its only fair you answer your question too-" His voice coated in curiosity as he searched your eyes. Of course the universe didn't let this heart palpitating habit of his die. "-Did you find love?" 

Hypnotised by his naked gaze that was usually obscured by his shaded glasses, you gave up completely. Love? Love was right here. Here was home too. A difference sense of home. Your hands on his shoulders splayed over them, gingerly inching closer towards his neck. Love was when you patch each others wounds, physically and emotionally. Your fingertips brushed against the base of his neck and for the briefest second, his eyes fluttered closed and you whispered a tiny 'Yes' to his question. 

His eyes shot open. "Yes?" His brows furrowed together.

Your eyes matched his own and your hands slipped down his wet chest during your panic. "No! No-I mean yes but not with anyone here well not here here but in Hawai'i!" The words tumbled out of you so fast you couldn't keep up. His expression had looked so sad, you didn't know what to do and the words kept pouring out like how your tears tended to do, head tilted down and your eyes looked off to anywhere but him. What is happening to you?! "I found love in Japan!" You forced out with determination, breathing heavy.

The you in your 20s would be doubled over from laughing hysterically. Did the lack of physical touch like this for many years make you loopy? His hands were warm against you.

"I'm going to need you to spell it out for me, ok?" His tone low, serious. He dipped his head ever so slightly to catch your frantic gaze that darted around him. 

Oh man.

Oh god.

You looked to him, and with every ounce of your being, you tried.

"I found love- I felt love with you in Japan all that time ago." You carefully spoke. 

"As friends?-"

"As lovers" You corrected.

He was silent. His hands remained at your sides and you took that as an indicator to continue. 

"I was scared if I left you after confessing to you, I'd lose all of you. But I longed for you. For so long. And the years kept adding onto each other that now, even though my heart swells until I can't breathe at the thought of just being around you again, I don't know if we have changed so much that I created an idea in my head of you, of how you would be...with me...which is probably not what the reality would be" You ended, your gaze dropping again to anywhere around him.

You bared your heart and he could crush it and throw it into the ocean and you would remain grateful still for everything you both had shared in this life. But a nagging thought in your mind opened your stupid mouth and you began to rant. "But I don't even know if you felt the same in the first place so why am I-"

He placed a finger under your chin, thumb tracing your scar near it and tilting your face up to meet his gaze again. His eyes had a glint of mischief in them.

"Why don't we start dating and then you can compare to the idea in your head that you have about me?" He grinned. "What did that version of me do to you to make you this crazy, hm?" His voice low and playful.

You gaped at him, mind exploding from all the implications he innuendoed with that statement. You realised your hands were planted against his chest, a few fingers touching the bare skin in the middle of his unzipped swimmer jacket. You quickly tried to slide them back up to his shoulders but his hands moved to cover your own and slid them back down, holding both in place and tilted forward. 

"I've been crazy too, about you, for a long time" His voice silky smooth, the glint in his eyes shining brightly.