Mafioso? I don’t think so! Mafia AU 1

In the darkness of near midnight, a lone woman is walking throw a relatively quiet area, on her way home from work. She was happy to have a job that didn’t have uniforms, as the night breeze was refreshing in a fitted shirt and short-shorts. She knew this would be one of her favorite outfits after she got her new tattoos. She didn’t enjoy smelling in pizza all the time, but the pay was decent, and she was pretty frugal about her spending anyway. You might be able to tell by how she looks, but that’s what happens when you know how to go to thrift stores and clothing closets.

With Daft Punk blasting in the earbuds, the group of dubious characters that just pasted went unnoticed until one of them grabbed her arm. Of course, it was the arm that was still sort of the birth control injects. She winced as she turned around and grabbed the person’s wrist to yank away. “Whoa! Alright We got a live one!” the jerk commented as she took out her ear buds to give them her attention. “Just keep walking, assholes!” she yelled at them, and the 6 of them seemed like they were more invested in giving her a hard time. One of them pulled out a smart phone and started recording the others.

“Oh, great. Big kids, huh?” she commented at the action, but the other 5 started surrounding and closing in on her. She flipped out a black and rainbow knife from her pearl backpack, and took a fighting stance. “Well, are you something els--” one started then, a change of facial expression, and fell over… bleeding from a head wound. “what the fuck…?” came from her, and the one with the phone got closer, putting the phone away and looking at the body in terror. “I’m not sticking around for this!” she said putting her knife away, and turned to make a run for it, but the one behind her grabbing her, and pulled her into a headlock. She back swing punched the person in the crotch, and successfully got away! She hopped on top of a low wall and ran on top on a roof to get on the other side of the street and dashed away as she heard disturbing noises coming from the offending group.

She was happy to run into her shitty, cheap apartment and quickly look the door behind her. The backpack hit the floor as she ran to the bathroom to make sure no blood was on the clothes. A sigh of relief followed, while she checked to see if the landlord fixed the shower, yet. Not yet… This would usually be annoying, but coming alive after what happened was more important. She unfolded her couch into a bed, and laid down without bothering to pull out the sheets. The feeling of being watched was unshakable, and made it difficult to sleep.

The unit renter’s eyes suddenly opened to keys jiggling in the early morning to a… maintain person. “Good morning!” the person said walking in with a big smile. “I’m here to fix your shower!” the person said brightly. “Oh… thank you...” she said while thinking “what time is it?” The sun wasn’t fully up yet. It was odd that the maintain person was where before 8am. There was also no notice, which was required… But, it’s been almost a week, and if this person had keys, tools, and was going to fix the shower, then fuck it. Admittedly, this person’s clothes were kinda of professional and clean for a maintain person for an area like this. But, maybe this person is new?

She peeked in to look at the person while for a bit. “Nice shades” she commented without thinking. “Thank you!” the person replied, just as brightly as before. She went to the kitchen to start breakfast and saw on the table clock that it was just now turning 8 am. “Oh… it’s only a little early...” She pulled out some left other pizza for herself, but made veggie stir-fry with beets for the maintain person so not assume a meat eating diet – as she usually puts chicken in stir-fry for herself and friends. A lot was made for leftovers for lunch.

It took about an hour before “Alright!” and turning on the shower, to show it was working perfectly, now. “Oh, that’s great Thank you so much!” she said and handing the person a decompostable-plastic container with the food. “Oh! Thank you!” the person said before leaving. She looked into the bathroom to see the person left the shades, so she grabbed them and walked outside, but no one was there. “That was fast. Maybe that person does parkour, too. I’ll just hang on to them.”

She pulled her phone from the backpack and took some pictures wearing the shades and posted them to Instagram. After a few cute poses, she called the landlord:

“Hello” a grumpy voice answered.

“Yeah, thanks for FINALLY fixing my shower! But, the person you send left their shades, so tell ‘em to come back when they have time.”

“...What?”

“Someone was just here to fix my thing… It’s fixed. But, I have this person’s shades.”

“Oh… ok...”

“Why do you sound you don’t know what I’m talking about?”

Call ended. Not call dropped. Call ended. If the call had dropped the phone would have read so.

She walked back out the door and looked around, not knowing what else to do. Someone knows where she lives, and what to do and say to get in her apartment at anytime. And, all she had was shades… and a fixed shower… Her mind raced for a few hours, despite wanted to take a nap from being woken up so early. The person did come fix her shower for free… if this were meant to be an attack it would have happened. But, how did they know it was broken, if they weren’t maintenance?

“Maybe I should move… But, where?” she said as she paced. After a shower and hygiene stuff, maybe a short walk would help with the thinking process. For some reason, she felt like keeping the shades on as a good idea. If the person was that bold, maybe they would confront her and ask for them back, no matter what was going on. She walked around the plaza for a little while, and nothing happened. She went back and was finally able to take a nap before work, while leaving the shades on the kitchen table. When she woke up…

...They were still there.

It was already time to get ready for work, having over slept. She took the shades on exiting, and was tense, but nothing seemed to go wrong during the shift. Nothing out of place, everyone as jovial as usual. Places that let employees express themselves are always better. She was the only one with pierces, tattoos, or dyed hair – but they all dressed in the same punk/ counter-culture/ radical style. She was the weird one of the day. Someone pointed out the jumpiness, and asked if everything was ok. Of course, she played it off, and forced herself to relax afterwards. She knows all this is a problem, but would any of them even believe it if she told them?

When the day was done, the manager walked up to her laughing about a joke another staff just told. “Hey, Jack! Are you ok...” the manager asked while still laughing a little. “Sorry. Peanut just said something really stupid. But, seriously, you’ve been tense all shift.” the manager said, looking concerned, and covered a smile trying to form a serious face. “Just some really weird shit, Sam,” she suddenly admitted. “Huh?” Sam replied and 2 others got closer to them.

“Last night, some idiots were going to jump me. I got ready to fight, but then one fell over… dead. I think he was shoot.” Everyone within ear shoot stopped what they were doing and walked over to Jack and Sam, as Sam’s expression changed. “I know that sounds crazy! I know, but I ran away before I could see anything else. I don’t know what happened to those other fools, but I heard noises, as I ran.” She put her hands behind her and sat on a bar stood. “And, this morning someone came to fix my shower. I really clean looking something… The person left their shades and I still have them.”

There was a pause before someone else said “I would ask if you feel safe, but...” they said, and she nodded at them. “All I can do is see what happens. If whomever wanted me dead, I would be dead by now.” “And, your shower got fixed, right?” a different person asked. They all looked at the person grudgingly, but they turned to her surprised when she answered “yeah”. “Someone trying to kill me wouldn’t fix my stuff, right? I’m just trying to figure out how much of a problem this is.” “Why don’t you sleep over at my home, tonight?” one offered. “I appreciate where that’s coming from, but I don’t want to run the risk of pulling anyone else into this. But, thank you, Capri.” “It might be too late for that, since we’re your co-workers,” Capri followed up. “Then, it doesn’t matter where I sleep, does it?” Jack retorted. “There’s a clear of concerns between going with someone else or going alone, but would going to someone else put you more as ease, at least?” a different person asked. “Come on, Jack. How about you come with me. I have a car, and I live with my family. My folks are great, and we can at least help you relax. You don’t don’t have to stay any longer than you want to, but maybe more eyes on the situation will be a deterrent for any trouble.” a different person said. “Jack...” Sam finally said “That sounds like a good idea...”

Jack looked at the co-worker that offered and nodded. “Alright. Thanks, Can-can.” They all finished cleaning and closed up the joint. Sam made a note to bring up a schedule change and some days off, later, but they didn’t want to overwhelm Jack with too make subjects. Can-can and Jack got into the car, and Can-can didn’t turn on the music in case Jack was stressed, but Jack went for the radio herself. The speakers suddenly blasted loud punk rock yelled and they were both scared by it, but laughed out loud, and changed the song to some classic alt-rock. The sang along in the car, and Can-can was all about Jack being relaxed and chilling out! “Oh, shit… What the fuck?!” Can-can yelled as they pulled up to a burned down house that was still smoking.

Can-can jumped out of the car without turned it off as they let out gasps. A older person ran over to Can-can hugged them. “mom! What happened to Mizu’s house?!” “We don’t know yet!” she answered, still hanging her offspring. “Are they ok?!” “No, Yami died in the fire...” Can-can didn’t saying anything and just hugged mom tighter. A child ran up to them and yelled “Who’s that?” at them. They both looked at the child, then in the car, here Jack was still sitting, glad it wasn’t Can-can’s house, while understand that they lost someone they knew.

“Oh, come on out Jack!!” Can-can said waving her over. “Jack’s one of my co-worker’s… Spending the night. Jack can stay in my room in everyone else is going through stuff, right now.” “No, no, it’s fine! Come in!” the mom said to Jack, and they all went into their house. Everyone in the house was ok, and they were still mostly happy. Some of them didn’t know the neighbors as well, so it was sad what happened, but they didn’t know them well enough to personally care. The neighbors went to go stay with other family while they figured things, out already, so there was no aftermath for Can-can’s family.

Being at Can-can’s house was fun! They all made great food, sang, and told Jack stories! She almost forgot why she was there. Completely forgot when the drinking started! Everyone was up considerably late, but for all that was going on, it was fine. Jack went to sleep buzzed on a very comfortable couch in the living room with soft plush blankets.

Waking up to afternoon rain, Jack’s first though was her relationship with her family. She wished they were more like this, but she couldn’t even trust them. She washed up as best she could, and thanked the family before taking the bus back to her side of town – for Can-can was still asleep. She had to go past her apartment for the nearest drop off location to her place. She walked in, hoping there were no surprised, and it was quiet. She pulled out the shades and put the on the kitchen table and stared at them for a a while.

After changing clothes and doing to hygiene, she put the shades on a went for a walk. Maybe something would happen this time. Nothing. It was the same as yesterday. Her shift went normally aside from Sam discussing a schedule change with her. She said they would have to get back to it, as her current situation was best for everyone. She liked being able to enjoy the day, and it was hard to find people to work at night. After work, they let Jack leave early without being apart of the clean up. She thanked them and heading home, by bike this time. Jack usually left the bike at home for work, because it was a 15 minute walk, but getting too and from faster became a priority.

She did notice a new car sitting outside the apartment building, but their was someone in it so she didn’t stare. As she looked, she saw that the person was looking at her and she ran for it. She locked her bike on the fence in front of her door, instead of the makeshift bike racks that everyone pressured the landlord to give them. As soon as she got in the door, a text message popped up on her phone:

“Thanks for the food. How about you come live with me?”

“I want my shades back, by the way.”

She looked at her phone shocked and tried to call, but their was no answer.

She texted back:

“Who are you? Why are you doing this?”

“Come outside and I’ll tell you.”

“Bring my shades.”

She mustered up all her courage for this one. She didn’t have time to call anyone or the police. And, what would they even do? Jack just walked outside accepting death.

Someone got out of the new car, as she walked out the door, and she walked up to him, not even asking and handed him the shades. “Good girl,” he said in a handsome voice. She glared at him, but a comeback wasn’t important, right now. “So, what’s all this about?” “Straight to the point…,” the person commented with a smirk. “I’m Karamatsu Matsuno, and you belong to me, now. I was planning on introducing myself the night before last, but those low lives decided to be a nauseous,” he explained with a frown at the end. “Matsuno… “ she repeated. “The Matsuno sextuplets I went to middle school with!?” she said in disbelief and back away. He chuckled a little, not remembering much of middle school, as he didn’t talk to a lot of people back then. “You little trouble maker!” she yelled in frustration. “Aren’t you a too old for pranks!?” “Now, that’s no way to talk to someone who went out of there way to check on you to see if you were ok so early in the morning. And, fixed your shower,” retorted, causally.

“Yeah, thank you for that, but still!” she said becoming flustered. She suddenly looked around. “Where are the others? You roll as a unit, right? A well oiled fiasco of the likes I’ve never seen before or since,” she said then crossed her arms. “They’re busy. And, if you keep up with those insults, I’m going to put you over my knee...” he commented slyly, but he was already becoming annoyed by her attitude. She glared at him again and shook her head. “Bye, Katsumatsu,” she said before turning to leave. “Hate to see you go; love to watch you leave,” he said behind her with a big smirk. She stopped in her tracks and turned around. “What happened to you? Aside, from that whatever you and were brothers were, or, ARE, you were a pretty sweet kid on your own! I think… Maybe that is… what was his name?” “Jyushimatsu?” “Yeah, him! I kept calling him Choromatsu and he never corrected me!” “Hmm...” ”Don’t give me that look! I figured it out! In fact, don’t give me any looks! Leave me alone!” she yelled because going to back in her apartment and slammed the book behind her.

“Hmm… Fun,” he commented about the interaction before getting in the car to leave. Jack ate the leftovers cooked earlier, and laid down on the futon. “Was that a Tulsa… What the fuck does Karamatsu do now? And, what happened to Jyushimatsu? I hope he’s not one of them.” She tried to at least listen to metal thrash music, while thinking about the boys she use to know. And, really, she only knew Jyushimatsu. She remembered:

A football almost hit a teen girl wearing a pink and white dress in the head. She turned around to the kids playing ball. Why did they have to play near her usual lunch spot, today? She was annoyed but unbothered, until one of the identical boys ran over to her looking apologetic. “Sorry about that!” he said with a rough voice. “It’s ok. It didn’t hit me.” she responded, and didn’t bother him while he got the ball. “Wanna come play with us?” he suddenly asked, and another bother yelled “Jyushi, come back! What are you doing?” He ignored them, and she looked at him, “No, but thank you. Jyushi?” “Yeah, my name’s Jyushimatsu! Bye!”

Later, she went to the library to see who sextuplets happen in birth. Someone passed by her, and stopped when they saw what was on the screen. She noticed someone behind her, and turned around and the sextuplet glared at her and huffed and walked away as if insulted. “Well, that’s what you get for not minding your own business!” she yelled after him, and was shh’d by the librarian.

~

3 the sextuplets were talking about something as she walked by. They all because quiet and stared at her awkwardly. She wanted to stop, but she felt bad because she wanted to be Jyushi’s friend, but maybe that was him from earlier, or the one it was told her what he saw. Around the corner she heard one of them yell “Choromatsu, and the one that sounded like the voice she heard answered.

~

A lone sextuplet was sitting on the hill between school at the neighborhood and she called out to him “Umm… Choromatsu?” The boy turned around on que and answered “Yeah!” and they talked for a well, and set up a date to hang out.

When the day came she walked into their house to see if he was ready. “Umm.. Choromatsu?” “No, I’m Todomatsu. Hang on.” He turned and called up the stairs. “Choromatsu!” After a few second a boy came down and glared at her. “What do YOU want?” he scoffed, remembering her from the library. Another boy came down and waved. “Oh hi!” with a big grin. “You’re early!”

“Wait, what?” “Jyushimatsu?” Todo said confused. “Yeah...” “Wait, did you let me call you Choromatsu that whole, and you didn’t correct me?” she asked annoyed. “Yeah… I didn’t wanna be rude...” he said rubbing the back of his head, with a shy smile. “It’s not rude to make sure I’m call you the right name!” she said and grabbed him and lightly shook by the shoulders. Choromatsu rolled his eyes, and went back upstairs. She was openly annoyed as they went out to play. They walked around town and played at the park, for the most part. They got ice cream on the way back to the Matsuno house.

~

Jyushi walked up to her as she was sitting alone and noticed she was sad. “Hey, what wrong? It’s almost graduation!” he said all excited. “I’m moving...” she whimpered. “Oh...” he frowned. “I’m going to go to a different school… I’m glad we finally found a place to live, but I wanted to stay with you, Jyushimatsu...” “A pace to live?” he asked, having never heard anything like that before. “Yeah… We were homeless. They got a house for us, and I’m happy for that… but I’ll miss all my friends. I wanted to stay with all of you.” “Well, maybe we’ll see each other again!” he said happily to try to care her up. “Maybe...” she hopefully responded… She moved to a different town. They hadn’t seen each other since.

Karamatsu hit the highway and called Jyushimatsu from his car. “Wasup, bro!?” the excitable one answer. “I need to your help with someone,” he answered in a serious tone. “Oh? What’s the job?” “It’s not a job. Remember those people that gave us their daughter that they don’t even talk to?” “Gave YOU their daughter. You know I’m not into that type of business.” “Politics aside, she remembers us from high sch-- Middle school, I mean. And, she remembers you. You hung out?” “I think so… Aww, man...” he said disappointed. “Yeah, that’s sad. That girl was homeless. I’m glad she’s ok! I don’t remember her name, though.” “She remembers you. And, I think I might need to to pick her up for me.” “No way, Kara. I’m not in that business. You should have thought that we would run into someone we know around here.” There was a pause. “I’m gonna to guess that she has no respect for you remembering how turbulent we were back in the day,” Jyushi said smugly. Karamatsu groaned just loud enough for it to be heard in the car speakers, and Jyushi let out a hardy laugh. “Man, that’s what’chu get! Bye!” Jyushi ended the call on that.

The following week was uneventful with that, but Pride month was always a blast! Jack’s schedule was changed so they wouldn’t get off so later at night. Now, Jack was working the afternoons, and they were able to switch with someone who also needed a schedule change, so it worked out well. And, the hours where about to make there seasonal change, so there was a lot going on, anyway.

Most of the people in the shop knew how to do everything around the place, so Jack accepted a shift on her usual day off for someone called out sick. An hour into the shift, a familiar face walked in and looked around the place. The person walked up to the counter, and said “Hello!” very happily. At it caught Jack off guard, but the voice wasn’t Karamatsu’s… “Jyushi!?” she said surprised. “Hey! I’m sorry, I forgot your name! It’s good to see you, again, though!” he said and she pulled into a happy hug. “Yay!” he yelled picking her up and spinning her around, which made her giggle. “It’s so good to see you” - in spite of everything.

“We’re not busy! Let’s sit!” she offered and they did so. “Well, I’m going to go ahead and ask – You’re not here for Karamatsu, are you?” “No way! I don’t do that stuff! Todo and Ichi won’t, either. It’s Oso, Kara, and Choro in that business,” he said reassuringly. They talked until business picked up, “It was good to see you!” she said as he walked out. “Hey, let’s talk about that thing later. I want to know how I can resolve it, ya know?” “Sure!” he said before leaving. She watched him walk down the street to see if he would get into a car, but he didn’t.

Kara was waiting for him at a good distance out of sight, and Jyushi leaned up against his own red car mini cooper. Kara’s Tulsa was candy paint blue/ purple/ pink, because Karamatsu. “Have fun catching up?” “Yeah, she wants to resolve the debt.” he said brightly. Karamatsu frowned and looked at Jyushi over his shades. “Well, she belongs to me, so it’s up for me to decide how she can pay it,” he replied with a smirk. “Business is business, bro. She should have the opportunity to pay it,” now with his usual smile turned to a frown. “I know… I know…,” he sighed in defeat of the facts of the situation.

A few days after seeing her friend again, she met with Jyushi in the park on her day off. “Hey, Jyushi!” Jack said greeting him with a big smile. “Hey!” he replied with a big smile and they hugged. They took a seat on a park bench. “So, you wanna repay your debt yourself?” “I would rather have options.” “Understandable,” came from a different voice coming from behind the tree where thy were. She wanted to be surprised but the nature of things probably called for this. “This is Choromatsu,” Jyushi said with a nervous smile. “We’ve met,” she said looking annoyed. “He’s knows more about your debt than I do, but don’t worry! I’m here to advice for you!” he said reassuringly, but she didn’t know if they were about to do a good cop/ bad cop bit on her. “Let’s get down to business. I don’t have much time,” Choro said and looked at his watch. “I’m sure casual day at the office calls for it,” she replied, more commenting on how he was a mafia wearing a plain white hoodie and jeans.

He rolled his eyes “It was your dad who accumulated the debt, but your mom was into that whole “marriage means we share” thing. They racked up almost 4 million yen worth debt.” “Fuck...” she sighed. “Alright… umm, what are my payment options,” she asked without becoming discouraged. “Well, you could just live with Karamatsu. That’s really to easiest thing to do. If you try to pay money, our payment come with high interest,” he answered. “But, why? She’s not the one who made the debt?” Jyushi asked. “Because, Karamatsu’s a fuckin’ werido, alright?!” he yelled at Jyushi. “What?!” she said confused to him. “If none of us were interested in you we would let you pay the debt, since you offered. And, we wouldn’t even take you to the brothel since you already have a job. But Karamatsu’s into punks, goth, rebellious whatevers, so you drew the unlucky straw.” but he though “What’s so punk about you? You don’t have any piercings or tattoos. Not even weird hair. How boring.”

“Well… can you just kill me or something? Damn!” Jack said annoyed by the whole situation. Choro playfully smirked, “Nah, we don’t just kill people. And, we don’t kill someone one of us is interested in. Kara’s annoying, but he’s not that bad.” “Well, what were you going to do to my-- Mimiku and Tatsu?” “That was for Osomatsu and Karamatsu to decide, because they made the deal with them.” “Come on, Choromatsu. There’s gotta be a reasonable way out of this!” Jyushimatasu said, but Choro shook his head. “Kara’s the only one that wanted her. You gotta talk to him. I’m just here to tell you what the debt is.” “Alright… at least I know what my options are. Thanks,” she said. Jyushi started to say something but Jack took his arm and shook her head. “See ya later,” and Choro left them.

“I know how much I owe. I know what I can do to pay it. It’s fine,” she said. “Are you sure? You’re not gonna do anything crazy are ya?” he asked, concerned. “Define crazy.” “Try to kill yourself to get out of debt.” “It’s on the docket of options, but it’s the far last one.” Jyushi frowned at the ground. “But, what’s this brothel? Do y’all own a brothel?” “Yeah, but we also run a smoke shop and a bar!” he said happily jumping up. “You don’t have to go to the brothel, because you know me!” he grinned big pointing his thumbs to himself. That was the silver lining, indeed. “Do you wanna go to the bar or the smoke shop?” he said holding out his hand.