quietplacelogs | (no subject)

(no subject)

Featuring: Goro Majima (

justbeingknife) & Kazuma Kiryu (

countersway)
What's happening?: Timeline shenanigans.
Day: 2/18
content warnings: N/A, probably. not even these two are stupid enough to cause a scene here... I think.

---

As Kiryu switched his device off and silently padded outside, a thousand questions bounced around his mind. He would be lying if he tried to say that he didn't feel apprehensive about seeing a familiar face again after ten long years in prison with no visitors -- not because he felt wounded or bitter (he completely understood why no one would take the risk), but because he had absolutely no idea what other people expected of him now that he was on the other side. Showing up in this town under these circumstances had felt like both a blessing and a curse -- a chance at a new start, though the guilt and burden of having left things unfinished followed him around every step he took in this new home of his.

He needed answers -- just something to ease his mind and let him know that the people he left behind in Kamurocho would be fine without him, no matter how long he stayed away. And while Majima was chaotic and unpredictable even on a good day, he was someone that Kiryu had always known to be true to his word. That was all he expected or hoped for right now, and the fact that Majima knew better than to pick a fight in this place, where they'd both make way too much sound and endanger anyone in a half-mile radius, helped put his mind at ease at least a little bit.

When he came up on Verdrel Square, though, he damn near overlooked the lone person he found standing there. There were certain things about Majima that Kiryu had just come to expect and even take for granted, and the consistency in the way he looked had been one of them. Ten years was long enough for anyone to come out on the other side looking different, but long hair and a clean chin weren't things that Kiryu associated with Majima. This would take some adjustment and getting used to. If not for the eye patch, he wasn't sure that he'd have recognized him at all.

Kiryu instinctively reached for a cigarette as he approached, and he choked back a frustrated hum when he remembered that he wouldn't find any. In the end, he reached for his device instead. A cautious yet bewildered expression slowly crept across his face as he typed.

...Niisan?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Majima looked up from his device. He'd used the spare time to send a few quick messages to the few housemates he hadn't met yet -- an attempt to be considerate to strangers he'd be sharing living space with for the foreseeable future.

What he was not expecting to see was a thirty-seven year old man.

This was his junior? Granted, it wasn't completely unheard of for younger men to rise in the ranks, but... Majima tried not to let the surprise show on his face. ]

Looks like old habits die hard. Startin' to think there ain't a decent pack of smokes left in this whole town.

[There was something oddly comforting in the fact that Majima looked even mildly confused; it was a very muted reflection of what Kiryu himself felt. Maybe he'd been downplaying the length of time he'd been locked up; maybe ten years was a lot longer than he'd given it credit for, and maybe he looked different now, somehow, than the way Majima remembered him in his mind's eye.

There was also some comfort in the fact that Majima seemed to talk to him like no time had passed between them at all, even if it was about something as benign as wanting a cigarette.]

Yeah. If there are any, I haven't found them.

[But that was neither here nor there. Kiryu shook his head and immediately went back to typing, though it really wasn't his strongest skill. At all. Not even a little bit. But he welcomed the distraction all the same -- anything to keep him from staring at Majima's face and trying to figure out what about it just struck him as different aside from the obvious, as well as trying to determine whether or not he cared for the new look.]

I almost didn't recognize you, by the way.

While Kiryu's face practically screamed 'yakuza', his manner also spoke of something else. Something not quite of the streets of Kamurocho, awash as it always was in neon and swaggering, brash louts spoiling for a fight. A cast to the way he held himself, maybe? Like this broad-shouldered man with the intimidating expression somehow came across smaller than he should...

Can't say you were how I was expectin', either.

Majima, at least, seemed much more comfortable typing with his thumbs. Damn kids, with their textinating.

Wait. Of course. He knew where he'd seen that look before, sure -- plenty of ex-cons coming out on the right side of the law and back into the family.

The joint, huh? Must've been a long-ass time for ya.

The question was so surprising that Kiryu momentarily forgot that he was supposed to be shocked by Majima's appearance, and any commentary about his own was quickly discarded. He tried and failed to shake the dazed, perplexed expression from his face and blinked a few times at the screen of his device, double and triple checking to make sure that he hadn't misread the message.

Really? You didn't know?

It didn't make any sense at all. Shimano was too opportunistic to not have immediately wanted to pounce on the vulnerability of Dojima's death paired with Kiryu's own imprisonment. While Kiryu had never been one to pull rank or really think much about his status in the organization, even he was self-aware enough to know that what had happened should have been a much bigger deal than Majima was currently making it seem. The only person who would have been left standing between Shimano and a bigger family at that point would have been Kazama -- but even if Kazama was able to yank the choke chain on him, the idea would've been floated. The talks would've happened. And Majima was too high up in that family to not have been a part of them.

What did the higher-ups tell everyone when I went away, exactly? I can't imagine that Shimano-san stood by quietly and let the Dojima Family sort itself out.

The higher-ups? The higher-ups wouldn't give two shits about some no-name soldier getting put in the slam. Which mean that Kiryu was someone of significantly more stature. The head of his own family, maybe? But Majima would have remembered someone like that... putting Kiryu squarely in the future.

Whattaya know, things had worked out. For Majima, at least.

I think we're gettin' our wires crossed a little here, Kiryu-han.

The honorific slipped out from his fingers as naturally as you please. There wasn't exactly protocol for referring to someone who was sort of your junior, only in the future, but to a 24-year-old, well...

Sorry, Kiryu. You were like... super old.

What year is it where you're from?

Edited 2018-02-22 05:13 (UTC)

At first, Kiryu tried to believe that Majima had simply mis-typed. The idea of Majima showing him any sort of deference at all was so alien as to make him feel like he was speaking a different language all together. Majima was older, more experienced, and outranked him; Kiryu would've been more than happy to be "Kiryu-chan" for the rest of his life. It suited him better that way.

Well, not to mention the fact that literally everyone still connected outranked him at this point, but that was neither here nor there.

Kiryu felt his eyebrows knit together in confusion at the question, not entirely sure how or why it was relevant. He hadn't wholly bought into the whole timefuck thing yet -- there was too much going on in this place that was bizarre enough already. He didn't need something like that just complicating things and making it worse.

2005

Two thousand and fucking five?!, was what Majima wanted to come back with -- only actually saying that out loud would have ended up with both of them dead. Majima put up a hand to rub reflexively at the back of his neck. It was a gesture that Kiryu might have been familiar with.

Well, shit.

Well, shit. I don't know what to tell ya. I'm from 1988.

At that point, Kiryu momentarily ditched his device. He dropped his arm back down to his side in an almost dramatic fashion as he stared over at Majima, suddenly completely unconcerned with how he came off in doing so. While it was true that Majima certainly did look younger, it was also something that could have easily been chalked up to a different hair style and a clean-shaven face.

Kiryu took a step forward. And then another, slowly closing the gap between them. He swore, if this was some kind of stupid prank -- some obnoxious joke at his expense...

It wasn't. It didn't take a genius or a thorough inspection of Majima's features to know that he wasn't lying. The shock quickly subsided from Kiryu's expression, and something that existed in the shades of gray between disappointment and defeat took its place. He wasn't going to get the answers that he needed. He was still going to be left wondering, worrying, and carrying the burdens of guilt and responsibility around with him.

But maybe he could get different kinds of answers instead to questions less pressing. He would've been lying if he ever tried to say that he wasn't curious about who Majima really was or what had caused him to become the man that Kiryu had grown familiar with.

Niisan, let me ask you something. When you formally thanked me earlier... was that the reason?

It made so much more sense now. By the time that Kiryu had met Majima, the Empty Lot business had long since been put behind the both of them. It wasn't something that they ever really talked about beyond a passing acknowledgement that they'd both been involved. In the back of his mind, Kiryu had always been somewhat aware of the fact that he was likely still alive today only because of what Majima had been doing off on the other side of things, but this was the first time he'd been forced to really stop and think about what the other man had been through during that time -- and what that meant.

Edited (shhh i know how conjunctions work) 2018-02-22 06:28 (UTC)

Majima didn't know the particulars of what had happened to Kiryu, but he did recognize the look of defeat on the man's face. On some level, that resonated with him -- even if this wasn't quite the man Majima had been expecting to see.

Even balanced as he was now on that knife's edge between his old life and his new one.

He read the question in silence.

Kiryu was familiar with him, had been comforted by the idea of Majima's presence on some level. And in a very real way, Majima was closer to this stranger than he was to anyone else here. At the same time, it was clear that they weren't -- precisely -- friends. If he'd ever directly told Kiryu about his involvement in the scramble for the Empty Lot, there'd be no reason to ask about it.

Majima studied Kiryu's face for a long moment. He had no real obligation to answer Kiryu's questions. Technically, he didn't even know the man... but.

You helped her.

For a moment, Kiryu had absolutely no idea who the fuck Majima was talking about -- if for no other reason than he'd never really put it together that Majima must have known Makoto, too. He'd certainly never thought that the other man might have developed some sort of sentimental attachment to her; it didn't fit with the image of Majima that he had in his mind's eye. But as soon as it clicked, a truckload of old thoughts and feelings better left forgotten unloaded themselves on him all at the same time; the Empty Lot incident was how Kiryu had learned what loss truly looked and felt like, and Makoto had been at the center of all of it. The memory flashed behind his eyes as clear as day: You lay one goddamn finger on Makoto Makimura, and I'll bury the Tojo Clan.

He'd honestly meant the words when he'd said them -- but then there he was, seven years later, as a Lieutenant Advisor to the man pulling the strings behind her misery. What a hypocrite he was.

In hindsight, it was easy for Kiryu to say that he'd barely known Makoto -- but at the time, it certainly hadn't felt that way. Maybe it'd just been his attachment to Tachibana at work, back then. And maybe it was the same for Majima, too -- maybe that was the reason why they'd never really talked about it. Once the dust had settled and they both returned to their respective Families, there was nothing left to say. The experience had been completely awful for everyone involved, and then it was over. That was just the way things went in the business sometimes.

But the Majima standing in front of him wasn't there yet. It left Kiryu in the somewhat awkward position of wanting to be sympathetic about something that he hadn't had the time or energy to think about in years.

So did you, from what I understand.

Majima hadn't forgotten about Makimura Makoto; he hadn't in '88, and he wouldn't in the years afterward, though with time he'd grow so used to the weight of not knowing that it would seem as though he’d been born with it.

Me? Nah. It was mostly Sera-san’s show.

Nonchalance. Deflection. The beginnings of that shifting, fickle monster.

So the Dojima Family’s finally went down in flames. Yer right – Shimano-no-oyaji, he wouldn’t just sit on his heels after news like that. But he also ain’t stupid. He was originally part of the Dojima Family, just like your old man Kazama.

But if Majima didn't want to talk about himself, Kiryu had already given him the perfect conversational out: business. He couldn't deny that he was curious, too, even if what Sora had said was true. Sure, who didn't want to hear a little about their future?

So you been stewing in prison, wonderin’ what’s been going on on the outside.

I’ll make you a deal. You tell me the situation, and I’ll tell ya what I think. Can’t guarantee how right I’ll be, but I at least know a different side of the family. I figure you must trust me that far, or else you wouldna come askin’ me about it.

Edited 2018-02-22 15:51 (UTC)

It was a lot to take in all at once. Kiryu eyed Majima suspiciously as the other man waved off most of his involvement in the Empty Lot incident, but he didn't push the matter. Whatever the other man was currently going through as he processed everything that'd happened was really none of his business. If Majima wanted to open up about it, he would. If he didn't, he wouldn't. That was all there was to it.

The next few bits made him pause. If he'd been speaking to 2005-era Majima, the questions would be simple. The answers would be simpler. But a lot had happened in the past seventeen years, and Family life was nothing if not complicated. It wasn't so much that Kiryu didn't trust Majima with the full story as it was that he felt loathe to type it all out, especially considering how complicated his feelings still were about the whole situation.

Don't misunderstand. I don't care about the Family. More than anything, I wanted to know if someone close to me who went missing had been found. That's all.

That wasn't entirely true. While he'd become disillusioned with yakuza life to a certain extent, there were still people he'd left behind in the business that he cared about -- still people he wanted to keep tabs on, if only to protect them. And of course, Kiryu was dying to know about Nishiki -- how he was coping, what he was up to, if he'd been able to turn the opportunity that Kiryu had opened for him into something good for himself. But explaining that whole situation to Majima would likely involve revealing the identity of Dojima's true killer. No matter how much Kiryu may have liked, respected, or even trusted Majima, he would take this particular secret with him to his grave.

So, in that sense, a little deflection of his own surely wouldn't hurt.

Majima let out a little breath of air, too quiet to be a laugh. But the look in his eyes said it all:

You and I both know that ain't true.

For better for worse, it was impossible to live the life of a yakuza and not develop attachments -- to your superiors, to your subordinates. Kiryu might not give a shit about the Dojima family itself (god, who would. what a fucking shitshow), but did Majima believe he didn't care about anyone in it? Kazama? Kashiwagi? Nishikiyama? Nah, dawg.

The look in his eye darkened slightly at the mention of someone missing. For how long? A woman? Missing persons cases in the Tojo trended towards unhappy endings.

Can't answer that for ya.

And hey, part of him felt for the guy. Even through the bitterness and frustration of the last two years... because of it, maybe. In the end, his fingers got away from him.

Could've ended Dojima.

The look in Majima's eye was easy to read, but Kiryu made a point of not revealing whether or not he'd noticed at all. The way that he felt about this whole thing didn't ultimately matter anyway -- he'd accepted that the second Shinji had shown up at the prison with his letter of expulsion in hand.

It was Majima's next comment that really caught Kiryu's attention and caused him to cock his head to the side slightly as he stared at his device, trying to make sense of the words on the screen. His eyes flickered back and forth between the device and Majima's face, but it was still too difficult for him to draw a direct line from point A to point B.

? What could have?

Something along the side of the road that went through the Empty Lot incident, surely. After ten years in prison, Kiryu had become a close friend to the concepts of would-haves and could-haves. He wasn't at all shocked to see Majima go through the same thing, though there was something slightly amusing to him about thinking of Majima as being even remotely introspective like this.

Wow, rude. Super rude, the rudest.

You ever heard of this guy, Frank? He runs a 'fight club' outta his garage. Soundproofed, least when the door's closed. It's open for others to use.

(Kiryu probably should have seen this coming.)

Kiryu set his jaw and uncomfortably shifted his weight from foot to foot as things started to click into place in his head. He lowered his device for a bit, his eyes searching Majima's expression for some sort of self-awareness about the situation that they were in right now.

I don't follow.

This was Kiryu giving Majima the benefit of the doubt, though he wasn't sure why he would bother. Maybe he'd been too charmed and lulled into a false sense of security by this younger, calmer Majima -- but really, he definitely should've seen this coming. He just hadn't wanted to.

Majima wasn't smiling. As enjoyable as he found street fighting in general, and trading blows with challenging opponents in particular, this wasn't a pleasure bout. It was disconcerting, talking to someone who knew more of his future self than Majima did himself.

Haven't ya figured it out yet, Majima? I know ya better than ya know your damn self.

In the end, he was caught between his desire to talk and his desire to keep his cards close to his vest. His future self had chosen the latter. But he wasn't that person... yet.

Met a lot of people recently. Heard a lotta pretty speeches. But in the end, all I know about you is what I've heard from other people.

I got a whole lot I'd like to ask you. But I also want to know what kind of man ya are.

I wanna know if you're going to stab me in the fucking back.

There was an earnestness in Majima's messages that caught Kiryu off guard, and he felt his heart sink in his chest. Too often, Kiryu had thought of the Majima that he knew as some chaotic and unpredictable force of nature more than he'd ever really thought of him as being a man shaped by his experiences. That had been a mistake, he saw now. There was some kind of method to his madness, even if Kiryu couldn't quite tell yet what that was.

Still, he didn't like the idea of fighting Majima any more now than he'd liked it back in '95, but at least he saw the merit in it this time. Kiryu offered him a sympathetic glance and turned his attention downwards to the device in his hand.

Yeah. I get it. And if we weren't in a place where our fight could get other people killed, I'd do it. But too many people here have died senselessly already. And we don't know how many second chances we get.

It probably sounded like a cheap cop-out, and Kiryu found himself feeling surprisingly guilty about it. The last thing he wanted was for Majima to feel like he was just blowing him off or disregarding his concerns as invalid, when the truth was that if their roles had been switched in this situation, Kiryu probably would've made the same request.

The corner of his mouth twitched with dismay and frustration aimed at himself, and he immediately went back to typing.

When I first got here, we had a day of peace where we could make noise and not have to worry about it. Let's take a rain check for the next one. I promise I'll fight you then.

Majima scanned this message, looked up at Kiryu, then nodded just once. The motion seemed almost inconsequential, but its meaning was not. His expression smoothed out; something of the tension in his shoulders cleared. It left Majima looking closer to a man in his twenties -- the man who had been there to pull Saejima back to the side of reason.

There's another reason I brought it up. While we were in there, we could talk quietly without riskin' being overheard. I figured it might be a little easier for ya.

But either way, he didn't have a problem with continuing the conversation here, if that was with Kiryu preferred.

There was more than one raid on the Dojima Family Office in '88. Dunno how much you heard about it, but I had a chance to end Dojima Sohei back then. Might have saved everyone some trouble... but Sera-san stepped in.

It's fine. I'd rather not risk other people overhearing us. No one here knows I was in the business.

He wasn't entirely sure why he was keeping it a secret, either. There was a slight worry on hand about being treated as a pariah around here due to it, but considering the wide array of people here, he doubted anyone would really much care. All the same, it wasn't their business, and he'd been expelled by now anyway. There was no sense in advertising something that he wasn't even a part of anymore.

Majima's next message didn't come as a surprise, though. Kiryu was hazy on the full details of everything that went down in the Dojima Family for the time that he was away and working on Tachibana's payroll instead, but he wasn't shocked to hear that it'd practically turned into a full-fledged war, nor was he to learn that Sera had been the one to stamp that fire out. The man was Chairman now for a reason.

Don't beat yourself up over it. I got off easy, all things considered. Killing a direct Tojo associate would have probably cost you your life, back then. And the whole Clan would've been worse off for it. There are too few honest men in there as it is.

It did feel a little odd, being so openly sentimental towards Majima, of all people -- but it wasn't as though it was untrue. Majima was a mystery wrapped in an enigma that traveled the streets of Kamurocho like a hurricane as far as Kiryu was concerned, but he never betrayed his men and he never went back on his word. A rarity in the ranks of the Tojo Clan, and something that Kiryu respected immensely.

Majima looked up at Kiryu in genuine surprise, some complex mixture of emotion warring on his face as he attempted to absorb the meaning of these words. Confusion. Vulnerability.

His own death was never really something Majima had shied away from; step one foot in the criminal underworld, and you accepted it as possibility. He'd made his personal peace long before anyone had ever mentioned the Ueno Seiwa hit. And then he'd spent the last few years in the company of men like Sagawa, for whom the life of a fallen yakuza was less than nothing.

To suddenly be treated as someone of worth – like a person -- brought him right back to Makoto, and the pity he'd seen reflected in those dark eyes.

Majima looked away sharply, realized that a reply was required.

What was Tachibana-han like?

He didn’t know why he was asking about Tachibana, of all people; he’d never met the man. Never even known he existed until Nishikiyama had told him of the connection to Makoto. But the space was there, and this was the question that had risen to fill it.

Majima's reaction was so striking that it nearly knocked Kiryu physically off balance. This normally would've been the point in the conversation where the other man laughed and mocked him for being too soft, but this younger version of Majima seemed to share none of the jaded cynicism that his older counterpart carried around with him almost constantly. It sent Kiryu's head spinning with a thousand thoughts and questions about what the hell could have happened to him to cause such a seismic shift in worldview.

He felt like he should say something or even reach out to him and place a supportive hand on his shoulder, but in the end he said nothing and stayed his touch. Kiryu was all too familiar with the panic and embarrassment that came from appearing openly vulnerable, and he knew that he would've resented anyone who made it worse, even if they were just trying to help. When Majima looked away, Kiryu did too, and even took a step back for good measure in order to give him some space.

It wasn't until his device lit up again that he found himself pulled back into the moment, and Majima's question was nearly as shocking as his initial reaction had been. Swept up in the moment, the other man seemed to have completely missed the fact that Kiryu had just admitted to being Dojima's killer. It was just as well; that was probably a talk for another time, anyway. Right now, Majima seemed to be scrambling to find his footing, and Kiryu wasn't about to go out of his way to trip him up again.

It was a shame, really. If only they'd met each other sooner -- if only this version of Majima was the one that Kiryu had met first -- they could have been a lot closer than what they currently were in 2005. Friends, even.

Tachibana-san? Well...

He was incredibly strong in ways that I didn't realize people could be strong. Probably one of the smartest people I've ever known, too. Gracious and compassionate, though he probably didn't think of himself that way. It was easy to feel invincible when he was around.

But even that didn't seem like enough. Kiryu pursed his lips and thought for half of a second before he went back to typing.

He loved his sister, his men, and the city of Kamurocho more than he ever loved himself. I'm a better man today for having known him. If he was still alive, my decision to return to the Dojima Family after everything was over would've been a lot harder than it was.

But I couldn't save him. I'm sorry.

He wasn't entirely sure why he was apologizing to Majima, of all people -- but when he really thought about it, he was just sorry in general. Sorry to the world for letting this man slip away from it. Kiryu wasn't a person who liked to dwell in regrets, but Tachibana's death was one that he wasn't sure he'd ever get over.

Then they were brother and sister.

Sera had been right. He’d been right.

That ain’t who you are, he’d told her, as much out of desperation as out of real understanding. Can’t imagine that’s who your brother was.

Lee. Tachibana. Even Nishitani. And for what? Some barren spit of land no one sane would ever give a fuck about.

She cared about him so much it almost ruined her.

The flicker in Majima's eye was a blink-and-miss-it affair as he made an effort to collect himself, both inwardly and out. Things had been pretty fucking raw those past few days he’d spent in Kamurocho, but if he was going to get out of this place and back to the Tojo, as Kiryu had claimed he would, he needed to focus.

This time when he regarded Kiryu, his gaze was more measured. Again, it was like something had shifted – but this time, in his estimation of the man in front of him.

You said ‘back then’.

For that, Kiryu had no response. The only thing that he could think of was: I know. I was there. And so he opted to say nothing. How could he tell Majima something like that, when Majima was still clearly in the process of trying to make sense of it all? How could he tell him that he'd held Tachibana's still-warm corpse in his arms while Makoto identified him through touch alone and broke down sobbing while she draped herself over them both?

He couldn't. And unless Majima explicitly asked him, he wouldn't. There were no answers to be found hidden that memory -- no sense to be made of what had happened. It just sat there at the base of Kiryu's skull like a hidden sinkhole of grief and regret, waiting for some sad old fucker to accidentally stumble into it.

He breathed a little easier when Majima's stance shifted, though. And when his device lit up again, he found himself back in the familiar wilderness that was his own inability to follow Majima's thought processes. No matter how long he stared at the words on his screen, Kiryu couldn't quite determine what had prompted this question or what, exactly, Majima was trying to get at with it.

Yeah. I know that this is all still fresh for you, but it was a long time ago now to me.

Maybe not as long-seeming as it could have been, though. The last ten years were kind of a blur -- almost as though they'd been cut out of and dropped from his life completely. Kiryu wasn't entirely certain that he wouldn't be ten years behind for the rest of his life. He sure as hell still felt twenty-seven, at least, even though he logically knew that he very much wasn't anymore.

Majima didn’t need to know, anyway. He’d already heard from Makoto himself what state her brother was in, witnessed on her face and in her voice what effect that loss had on her.

And of all the things he never needed to relive again in his life, it was the way she'd implored him to murder Dojima and his lieutenants in cold blood. Invoking her brother's name.

No, you said ya got off easy. That killing Dojima would’ve ended in me forfeitin’ my life, back then. That what all this is about? The questions about Shimano and everything else? You tryin’ to tell me you capped Dojima, and that’s why ya ended up in prison?

If so, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy -- but what of Sera's claims that Dojima would be a broken power after the retrieval of Lao Gui? Why bother with a man who was already spent?

Oh. That's what this was all about. Kiryu suddenly felt sheepish for having written Majima off earlier as overlooking that little detail, but he kept that embarrassment away from his expression in favor of something a bit more resigned. The most he could do now was hope that he had his story straight in his head. No matter how many times he'd gone over it when he was alone in his cell at night, there still existed the anxiety over letting the truth slip if he tried to talk about it too much.

Yeah. The sentence I served was on a guilty plea for murder, and the letter of expulsion I received was for patricide. I'd just gotten out on parole when I ended up here.

That wasn't good enough, and he knew it. Even that tiny explanation, barren as it was, was likely to raise even more questions than it answered. Expulsion, not banishment. Patricide, not a deadly dispute between two independent patriarchs. But Kiryu didn't have enough confidence in his typing ability to tell the full story in one go -- and even if he did, he wasn't really sure where he'd even start.

One question at a time, Niisan.

He didn't actually have a question. Well... not at first.

I don't buy it.

Additional typing ensued, this time at a more rapid pace:

I don't even know where to start with that fishy-ass story.

Don't get me wrong, I ain't sayin' you couldn't kill someone if ya had to. But there's too much shit that don't add up.

A brief pause.

Not that it matters if I believe ya either way. Far as I can tell, we're the only gokudō here.

The tiniest sound finally escaped from the back of Kiryu's throat -- a quiet, muffled heh as the very edges of his mouth ticked upwards into a smirk. It figured that Majima would call foul on the one part of his story that was actually true. For some reason, it made the whole situation feel a lot more manageable, and the anxiety eased off of Kiryu's shoulders.

You're right. It doesn't matter if you believe me, and I don't care if you do. What I told you just now was the truth, but I have nothing to prove to you.

It was the familiarity of the exchange that Kiryu found comfort in, he realized belatedly. This was the most normal that he'd felt around this younger version of Majima than he had since showing up here, because this was how so many of his conversations with the older Majima usually went. Kiryu would say something to him in earnestness, Majima would mock him or take the piss, and Kiryu would dig his heels in. Same as it ever was.

For whatever reason, Majima felt himself returning the smile. What a weird fucking old guy -- it was hard to believe anyone that hardheaded and earnest could make it in the yakuza, but... maybe that was just it. He maybe sort of reminded Majima of a jailbird of a different color.

(But now wasn't the time to dwell on that. Not if he wanted to keep things on the lighter side.)

You sure know how to say things to piss a guy off. Whatever. So, where you livin'? Anyone onto ya?

Kiryu had to almost physically catch himself from chuckling as Majima's next response came in. That was the Majima that he knew. It might have been a strange reaction to someone telling him that he pissed them off, but Kiryu couldn't stop the fondness that he felt from creeping onto his expression in spite of it.

House five. And no, I don't think so. I keep my ink hidden and my mouth shut. It's nobody's business who or what I was before coming here. Right now, I'm just focused on being a polite roommate and helping everyone find a way out of here.

He hesitated for only half a second before typing up a follow-up message. Surely a little bit of playful ribbing and antagonism on his end couldn't hurt.

I'm sure you've been as open about it as ever, though. I'm not sure if I can be seen with you, Niisan.

Hopefully the joke translated into text. Though, Kiryu also had to wonder if Majima realized, at this age, that he would eventually end up roaming the streets of Kamurocho practically half-naked, with his tattoos and violent demeanor clear on display.

He loosed a silent laugh.

Please. If anything, you'll look even more straight-laced next to me.

Majima knew what he looked like. It didn't matter how he dressed up; he'd always look like a goddamn supervilain with this eyepatch, and nice suits somehow just made it worse.

I don't think the people around here got any idea about the yakuza, though. Mostly. Got a teenaged girl complimentin' me on my style the other day.

It had been nice, but a little strange. Even weirder, the kids around here didn't seem afraid of him. What was this bizarro world.

That mental image was a strong one, and Kiryu already knew that it was going to keep him company for a long time. The thought of Majima interacting with kids was alien enough to begin with, but to imagine some young girl telling him that he looked cool was just too much. Quietly in the back of his mind, Kiryu added watch Majima interface with foreign children to his bucket list.

All the same, he shook the joviality from his head and refocused on the more serious side of the discussion.

Yeah, most of them probably don't, but there are enough people around who would that it doesn't hurt to be cautious. I'm sure that not all of them are like the one guy I met who looked Japanese but was clearly American.

Yeah. Though I also get the impression that plenty people here're keepin' a skeleton in their closet. Maybe a whole bunch. If anyone hears you were with the Tojo, it ain't gonna be from me.

No promises that he wasn't going to tell anyone about himself, though. That was a separate story. He was, however, mildly curious about this secretly-not-Japanese guy.

Ya mean a Nisei?

Kiryu bowed his head in gratitude at Majima's promise to keep his secret -- a gesture that he knew the older Majima would have hated, but one that felt warranted here without the ability to speak. Though, even aside from that, Kiryu probably would have done it anyway. He wouldn't have been able to help himself; he may have been adaptable, but at the end of the day, he was still a creature of habit.

At Majima's next question, though, that simple gesture of respect turned into a somewhat more vigorous nod.

I didn't get that far into it with him to know for sure, but that would be my guess. Oda-san, he said his name was. I don't remember his given name, but it was definitely American.

It felt slightly awkward, but it was clearly something that Kiryu felt was necessary, and Majima could at least respect that this was Kiryu's way of doing things. ...Kiryu seemed to have a lot of those, actually.

Whattaya know. There are some Japanese kids runnin' around, an Akira and another Gorō.

It's a weird feelin'. Back in Sotenbori, all I had to do was take a walk down the street and I'd have guys clocking me right off. Then again, it was the Omi's playground.

Akira and Goro... If Kiryu could have, he might have laughed at that. It was kind of funny, in its own way, how those names kept popping up in his life. Not that he could really remember, exactly, the last time that he'd called Nishiki "Akira" -- if he ever really had -- but it was interesting nonetheless. Almost as interesting as the fact that these kids seemed to introduce themselves to Majima with their given names. It was entirely possible that they were just trying to fit in with all of the Westerners that'd shown up here, but Kiryu wasn't in any position to be making assumptions about two people that he didn't really know.

At Majima's reminiscing about Sotenbori, though, it was all Kiryu could do to nod sympathetically.

Yeah. I definitely look over my shoulder less here, even though there are actual, real monsters in this place.

But then again, that wasn't really saying much. Prison was a beast all of its own, and having a hit called on him for the past ten years made most days a massive pain in the ass. At least here, he didn't have to worry about the people trying to kill him.

Majima had, oddly enough, noticed the same thing. It was frankly weird -- everyone knew you introduced yourself to foreigners with your given name first, but other Japanese? Maybe it was the hip and happening thing to do, he thought like an old man even though he was twenty-four.

I kinda miss it. The noise, the food, the tacky-ass store signs.

The punks he could pull off the street and beat up (although usually it was them picking the fight, not him). He supposed on some level, it was nice to be able to get from Point A to Point B without being hassled, but he'd trade that for normalcy in a heartbeat.

Wonder if decades-old ramen's still good.

Edited (oops format) 2018-02-23 23:44 (UTC)

This, at least, was one big advantage that Kiryu had over Majima at the moment. After ten years in stir, Kiryu was just happy to be the hell out. Happy to pull his own schedules again, happy for the ability to step outside whenever he wanted, happy to just see other people walking around who weren't career bullshit artists, criminals, or guards (or some amalgamation of all three). It was entirely possible and even likely that he'd wind up missing Japan before long, but even with the forced silence and the threat of monster attacks, this place was a welcome retreat.

We'll find a way back home. I'm sure of it.

Not that he was entirely sure what that meant, exactly, with the two of them being from radically different timelines. That kind of thinking was a little bit above Kiryu's pay grade, though, so he decided not to worry about it.

It was only belatedly that he fully registered Majima's ramen comment, though. He briskly shook his head, as though trying to knock some logic or sense into it, and moved to shoot off another message.

Wait, what? Where would you even find decades-old ramen?

Actually... in one of the houses near the new bridge route. I dunno how it survived, but I guess those instant packages are damn near indestructible.

No expiration date, though.

In other words, you pays your money and you takes your chances.

Majima should have just left it where it was -- crinkly packaging made it a bitch to bring back -- but he'd brought it back anyway, and now it was in his room, sandwiched next to a few books he'd brought back from the library. His room, which was now more furnished than the apartment that he'd spent a year in during his stint as the manager of the Grand.

It was all Kiryu could do to shake his head. Leave it to Majima to find an impossible thing in the unlikeliest of places. He would leave that particular brand of homesickness alone, though; hopefully it never got so bad for him that he considered making God-only-knew how old foreign ramen just for a taste of home (because he was sure there was no way it'd been imported).

That's all you. Let me know how it works out.

As soon as he sent that message off, though, the reality of the situation finally hit him for real. Majima really was homesick, and Kiryu was now his senior. It was a strange position that he found himself in, and he found himself wondering if maybe he shouldn't be more supportive than he just was.

It was still Majima, though, and Kiryu had a hard time getting a reading on him even on a good day. And yet...

And if you ever need anything, don't be afraid to stop by the house.

Was that too much?

Maybe not.

Majima had taken the first message as cue for both of them to break it up and start back. He was already mid-turn to head out of the garden, in fact, when Kiryu sent the follow-up text. For a moment, he merely stood there, near-motionless as he looked at the screen.

Then the response came. He looked up, giving Kiryu a brief but entirely genuine smile.

I'll think about it.

(He was still Majima.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(no subject)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

gosh Kiryu-chan that's awful close

:3c

NOW KISS

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Half-naked is half-clothed, broheim, can't nobody can stop these abs

You still don't get to complain that you get cold, though!!

let this children thing happen he will be on his best behavior, sort of

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

God Kiryu, it's called making prison buddies, even Saejima managed to do it

With freakin Hamazaki, tho !

hey, he also had old thief guy and shady ex-detective........