Work Text:
Yui looked at the clock on the wall, and breathed a sigh of relief. Almost closing time.
"Alright everyone, almost time to lock up," she announced, untying her apron. "Make sure we get everything sorted. This place has to be spotless for tomorrow--I want us to be able to open up as soon as we get back in the morning!"
Her coworkers all cheered back in agreement and she grinned.
This place was Yui's pride and joy, and she took care of it: just a little stop-and-shop market in a bad neighborhood, but she made sure that it was the best thing on this block.
She stretched and sighed as the last customer walked out, then turned to the other workers. "I think we can afford to close a few minutes early--"
The store bell chimed and announced the arrival of a new customer. Yui turned and was met with a group of young men, all dressed in dark clothing, and masks covering their mouths. She didn’t miss the way one of them--the leader, possibly?--had snakelike slits for eyes that flitted around the store, a deep hunger evident in them.
She cleared her throat and tried to put on her most welcoming smile. “Hi, welcome to Michimiya Mart, is there anything we can do for you all this evening?”
The leader eyed her with the same starving expression as he’d had looking at the rest of the store, and she felt her heart sink to her stomach. He pulled off the hood of his jacket to reveal dark hair parted to the side, and slowly slid down the mask covering the lower portion of his face. “We’re just looking, thanks.”
Yui hesitated for a moment, then nodded with another smile. “Please, let us know if there’s anything we can do for you.”
He nodded, then turned to keep looking around. Yui turned to find all of her coworkers staring at her with panicked expressions. Hitoka, a long-time worker and friend of Yui, slowly nodded her head in the direction of the group. Yui turned and saw the stylized snake on the back of their jackets.
Her blood ran cold when she realized they must be another gang. One that definitely didn't belong in these parts, and definitely meant trouble.
Hitoka looked at Yui with wide, fearful eyes, and Yui slowly started to walk to the back room. The other workers stood at their posts, all trembling slightly. As Yui was about to slip away, she accidentally stepped on a crumpled flyer on the ground that hadn’t been sweeped away yet. The entire room froze, and the leader sighed.
"This was going so well, too," he said, disappointment etched on his face when he turned to Yui. He unceremoniously pulled a gun and added, "We were going to buy something first before robbing you--sure, we'd get the money back anyway, but we had to establish trust first."
Yui chewed her lower lip, feeling her entire body grow tenser than it already had been. The gang leader pouted at her, sighing again. "You. You're the manager, right?"
She nodded, trying to keep her body as still as possible everywhere other than her head. Nohebi's leader smiled, and raised his gun to point it squarely at Yui. No one missed the audible click when he removed the safety.
"If anyone makes any sudden movements, your cute manager gets her brain blown out. Is that clear with everyone?" When no one replied, he laughed, "You're better listeners than I expected. You can nod or shake your heads to respond to me. Now, is that clear?"
This time, the workers nodded.
The gang leader pursed his lips, and looked at the rest of the gang members. "Kuguri, Akama, Tachiho, you're in charge of watching these workers. Everyone else, you'll be taking whatever you want with me."
They silently did as they were told, with the workers remaining as statues and the gang members grabbing anything that interested them. The cheery pop tune playing on the overhead speakers unsettled Yui even more, who couldn't believe that her store was being robbed like this, and she couldn't even will herself to move. What kind of the manager did she think she was?
When she was later asked about the events of that evening, Yui always said that the first thing she remembered was the sound of screeching tires, and the unmistakable hum of a collection of motorcycles. Then it was the looks of terror on the gang members' faces.
"Shit.. Daishou?" one of the members asked, voice muffled by the mask covering his mouth. "We better leave, before--"
Their leader, Daishou, barked out a laugh. "I don't really give a fuck if that group tries to stop us, if I'm being completely honest. Let's see them try. There's a reason Nohebi is so successful, and we might as well make an example of them."
Yui wasn't sure what she did to deserve the arrival of a second gang this evening, and whether she was grateful or terrified that they seemed to intimidate this crew, Nohebi. Her workers looked just as afraid as she felt, and all she wanted to do was tell them, It'll be okay! We can make it through! But her heart stayed lodged in her throat and she couldn't make a sound.
The bells chimed as the first person arrived, and Yui fought he instinct to check; thankfully her employees fought it, too, remembering their earlier threat. Yui could barely contain her surprise when it was a cool, feminine voice that spoke.
"I heard you were here this evening, Daishou."
Yui felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on edge when the Nohebi gang leader barked out a raspy humorless laugh. “Shimizu. What a surprise.”
The woman--Shimizu--walked into Yui’s line of sight, and she was taken aback by her immense beauty. Although it seemed like this newcomer was generally just gorgeous, the most striking thing about her were her light blue eyes, deepset and piercing. Those eyes were framed by a pair of dark glasses, which was surprising somehow; Yui didn’t know yakuza members could also wear glasses.
“This isn’t Nohebi territory, Daishou. You know this is in the overlapping area of Karasuno and those of us in Lily.” ‘Lily’ was spoken in English, Yui recognized, and she thought this must be whichever gang Shimizu led. This was both intimidating and attractive, and Yui didn’t know which of the two she felt more.
“We could always share,” Daishou said, reaching a hand over to brush Shimizu’s cheek. He chuckled slightly at her completely deadpan reaction, until she grabbed his hand and twisted it around--to which he responded by choking in pain and keeling over. The Nohebi gang members all immediately moved their guns from pointing at the store members to targetting Shimizu direcetly.
“It's fine,” he gasped, getting up. “Kiyoko means us no harm.”
This got another rise out of the female leader, who tightened her already-narrow eyes into slits; evidently, she wasn’t fond of her given name, and Daishou knew.
“You’re right, Suguru,” she replied, spitting out his name, “I mean no harm. As long as you leave this neighborhood and don’t return.”
Daishou scoffed. “Oh please, do you think you can actually put up a fight against us?”
Shimizu smiled. “Not alone.”
The doors burst open, and Yui and her coworker completely disregarded their previous order to stay still; they all screamed and took cover as a new gang entered, wielding a variety of weapons.
Nohebi’s gang members cursed, trying to retaliate with their own weapons as Shimizu and her group, Lily, began attacking them. Yui shook in the safety of the back room, trying to fight back tears as she watched through the cracked door. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out when she saw Hitoka jump up and join the female gang, pulling out a craft knife from her apron to slash wildly at one of the Nohebi members. Slowly, different coworkers of hers began to jump up and join the fray, and Yui was shocked when she realized that the Lily members seemed to know them--no, not just know them, but know them as one of their own. How many members had Yui employed and not known?
Yukie. Mai. Runa. Kaori. These girls had jumped up and fought to protect their store, while others looked just as confused as Yui felt and continued to hide. While she wanted to join too, she was too scared and too defenseless; some of the people out there had guns, and what was she to use, a mop?
That could work.
Before she could even register her own actions, Yui grabbed a nearby mop and dashed out, and began to beat the first Nohebi member she found. He groaned in pain as she twirled the handle directly into his nose, and she heard a loud crack on contact.
Maybe spending all that time practicing twirling sticks in place of batons in her childhood had paid off.
Yui continued weaving her way through Nohebi members, listening to the shouted advice and support of the different Lily members--a shout here telling her to duck, or to aim for someone’s knee. Soon enough she was in the center of the fight, back pressed against a stranger’s.
“You’re new to this, right?” said a cool voice that she recognized as Shimizu’s. “I can tell, since you're using that thing. But you’re pretty good.”
That made Yui’s heart flutter slightly, and she determined that she was definitely more attracted to than intimated by Shimizu.
“You’re pretty great yourself,” Yui replied, beating off any members that came too close to her or her counterpart. “You’ve probably dealt with worse things than this, huh?”
“This?” She heard another painful crunch as someone else was warded off and Shimizu barked out a laugh--causing Yui’s heartrate to speed up once more. “This is nothing.”
They continued fighting pressed against each other, and Yui watched with slight horror as her coworkers fought off more Nohebi members and injured themselves in the process. There was a cacophony of shouting and gunfire as everyone pushed back against their opponents, scratching and kicking and shoving and fighting with every fiber in their body.
After a while, she couldn’t tell to whom the yells belonged to.
Yui felt someone elbow her in the side, and all the wind was knocked out of her as she fell over. From somewhere in front of her, Hitoka screamed her name, but she couldn’t tell where admist the forest of people. Her stomach lurched as she felt a dull pain in her hand, hearing the snap of bones more than feeling it when someone stepped on it.
Other areas of her body were sending her brain the same agonized signal: pain, pain, pain. Yui slowly realized she was being kicked from all sides, from so many parts, that she couldn’t distingush one feeling from the other. She curled herself up with a groan, and pulled her mangled hand closer to her, cradling it as gently as she could in her sorry state.
Another yell above her, and she was being lifted. Strong arms wrapped around her in a fierce embrace of sorts while she was pulled out of the fray and safely deposited behind a checkout stand, just underneath the register.
“Stay here.” Shimizu’s husky voice sounded close to her, but Yui wasn’t sure since her eyes were screwed shut. They flew open once she heard this statement though, mouth hanging limpily in shock.
“I want to help,” she wheezed, still holding her pained hand tightly. “I can’t... I have to...”
“You have to stay safe.” Shimizu’s hand reached up and gently ruffled Yui’s hair, a smile tugging at the edges of her lips. “We can’t let you get hurt in this mess.”
Before Yui could continue to protest, Shimizu hopped over the counter, picking up the register as she did and heaving it at the crowd of Nohebi members moving closer to them. While she wanted to be upset at the large amount of property damage that was surely caused by the fight, Yui was really just impressed by the beautiful gang leader’s strength.
She stayed hidden behind the countertop, listening to the grunts and shouts as fighting continued; the gunfire had ceased, but now items were being destroyed all over the store. While she tried to focus on not getting caught, she inspected the hand that had been stepped on, only to quickly look away for fear of getting sick. Her whole body ached from the kicks, and she let out a shuddering breath as another wave of pain crashed over her.
“Psst, Yui-senpai!” Yui turned her head to the voice, and saw Hitoka crawling towards her as discreetly as possible. “Are you okay? I noticed Shimizu-senpai carrying you over here after you fell--“
"Hitoka-chan, I’m fine, I promise,” she replied, willing herself to smile. It must have seemed more like a grimace, though, since Hitoka furrowed her brows in concern and frowned.
“You don’t have to lie to me, Yu--oh, what happened to your hand?” She reached over, taking Yui’s hand in her own, inspecting her crumpled fingers. “Oh no, it looks broken... We’ll have to get you to a medical center as soon as possible. This whole fight will be over soon, I promise.”
Hitoka’s timing was impeccable. The bell announcing the opening of the door chimed, and several members grunted and shouted. She peeked over the counter and gasped, “Yui-senpai, those Nohebi guys! They’re being pushed out, it’s over!”
“It’s over,” Yui repeated, feeling lightheaded. She shut her eyes, suddenly feeling naseous, and let out a slow breath through her parted lips. All she could focus on was the way she ached all over.
“Um, Shimizu-senpai? I think you need to come over here..!”
That’s the last thing Yui heard before she felt herself falling again,
slowly
i n t o
d a r k n e s s .
--
“Can you hear me?”
“... Y-yeah.”
“What’s your name?”
“Michimiya... Yui. Michimiya Yui.”
“How old are you?”
“Um... 24?”
“When’s your birthday, Michimiya?”
“The first of August.”
“Do you know where you work?”
“Yeah, it’s, uh... Michimiya Mart.”
“Yep, she’s still with us.”
Yui saw everything slightly blurred. All the was in front of her was a figure with cropped dirty blonde hair and sharklike grin, teeth filed to make them appear animalistic.
Maybe this was some weird hallucination.
“Tanaka-senpai, I think you’re scaring her,” whispered Hitoka, whom Yui only recognized because of her unsure posture and the familiarity of her voice.
“Am I?” the first figure responded, looking geniunely puzzled for a minute, before breaking back into the same wild smirk. “She shouldn’t worry, I don’t bite!”
Yui blinked and tried to sit up, but felt naseous again and had to set her head back down. “What happened?”
“You fainted from dehydration,” Shimizu explained, appearing behind the person named Tanaka. “It was after we got rid of the Nohebi gang members, thankfully, but we weren’t sure if we should take you to the hospital or not. We still need to get your hand checked out, but there was a general consesus that it’d be better if a large, rather noisy gang entered the same hospital all at once.”
“So we decided that Shimizu-senpai and I would be the ones to take you!” Hitoka smiled down at Yui, and she tried to return the grin. Unlike before, though, this attempt seemed successful, as Hitoka reached down and squeezed her hand in a friendly gesture of comfort.
Hearing that Shimizu would be one of the people to take her made Yui’s heart race again despite herself. Even if they had just met, their was something about the leader that made all of Yui’s hairs stand on end.
“Anyway, the others will be leaving now, but they wanted to say goodbye before they go,” Hitoka continued, handing Yui a water bottle that another Lily member passed off to her. “Then, we’ll be checking you in to make sure you’re okay!”
“What about the others? Are they okay?” Yui croaked, noticing how dry her throat felt after not drinking water in such a long time.
“Nothing we can’t handle!” Tanaka barked, puffing her chest out proudly. “Us Lily members are tough, y’know? Cracked ribs, burst appendixes--all a part of our daily lives!”
“Saeko-san, there’s no need to exaggerate,” Shimizu said, that sly smile gracing her features again. “Michimiya-san was worried about us, not doubting our... ‘Ferocity’. But yes, we are alright.”
Yui nodded, sipping from the water bottle. She waved as the Lily members all began to gather their things and shout goodbyes--some of her own collegues included, joking and laughing with their fellow gang members.
She didn’t know how someone who prided herself on being the “all-knowing manager” could really be so clueless about her own staff.
Even so, Yui somehow felt safer knowing that there were people working at that store who aimed to protect her and their neighborhood.
Shimizu leaned down and picked Yui up again, and she instinctively wrapped her arms around the other’s neck.
“We better hurry, before those injuries get any worse,” Hitoka said, following the Lily leader as she exited the store. Yui noticed her fumble with some keys and lock up as they exited, and felt proud that she was still so concerned about the shop despite the fact that they had just fended off the attack of some Nohebi members.
--
It was just a fracture, the doctor told Yui, and the bruises would heal soon. If anything, her dehydration spell was probably worse. That didn’t mean she didn’t feel the same throbbing pain as before, though.
The clock in the small doctor’s office the hospital staff provided for Yui read 2:03 AM, a time by which she’d normally be asleep; tonight she just felt electric, too tired and nervous from the earlier events to feel sleepy. Hitoka was slumped in her chair next to her, evidently not suffering from this same state.
The only sounds in the room were the soft breathing of a sleeping Hitoka and the ticking hands of the clock, painfully loud in the uncomfortable silence.
“So,” Yui said, trying to ease through the tension, “how long have you had members of Lily amongst my staff?”
More silence.
Maybe that wasn’t the best way to phrase it.
“S-sorry, um, that’s not what I meant... I guess I’m not used to having pretty girls like you accompany me to hospital visits...”
Yui wanted to punch herself. Everything was coming out wrong--maybe she was more exhausted than she thought--
“... think I’m pretty?”
She looked up and saw Shimizu’s face slightly flushed, looking down at her in surprise.
“Oh? Y-yeah, of course I do! You’re super pretty, like, gorgeous--... Um, sorry, I guess I’m pretty nervous...”
Shimizu’s face turned a brighter shade of pink with each compliment, and she turned away after staring at Yui for a few seconds. “Y-you shouldn’t be nervous. You’re strong, you can handle a fracture...”
“That’s not what I’m nervous about, though...”
A pause.
“U-um. Right. Lily members in your staff?”
“Yeah! Yes. How long?”
“About two years, I think... Everyone needs a job, right? So we figured, why not get them at the market, to protect the owner and the area?”
“Oh. That makes sense. You’re pretty smart, Shimizu-san.”
“A-ah. Thank you.”
With every passing moment, Yui could feel her heart beating faster and faster. Had she ever been this nervous to talk to anyone before? How did Shimizu manage to make her feel this way in such a short amount of time. Was she in--
Hitoka’s loud snore cut through the silence, causing her fleeting thoughts to flutter away. Yui and Shimizu both turned their attention to the other, and laughed silently as she continued sleeping soundly.
“... How did Hitoka-chan join you all? Was she a member of Lily first, or did she apply first?”
“Ah, she joined Lily first. Very enthusiastic and bright... You two had been friends before you opened your store, right?”
Yui and Hitoka had been friends before then--since high school, actually. Hitoka was in the year below her, but the two quickly became friends after signing up to tutor their peers after school. Yui had always marvelled at how Hitoka managed to stay near the top of percent of her class, never at #1 but never below #15.
“She joined us after things started getting rougher in her neighborhood. Said she wanted to find a way to prevent all the senseless violence that’s been stirring from the inside. In fact, when you were beginning to prepare to re-open up Michimiya Mart, she was the one who told us about it, and how the area needed protection. Even though I was the one to suggest actually working in the store, she mentioned it.”
“... Oh. Wow.”
“Yes, Yachi-san cares about her friends quite a bit. Many of us in Lily are quite fond of her.” Shimizu laughed again, looking over at the resting Hitoka. “She’s lucky to have such a wonderful friend like you.”
Yui blinked. “M-me? No, not at all--I’m lucky to have her. And she must be grateful to have such a strong, powerful leader--“
The doctor stepped in, interrupting the conversation. She was looking down at some paperwork in her hands, flipping through the scans they had taken of Yui’s hand. Hitoka’s head snapped back up when the door slammed behind the doctor, and she quickly dried away any drool on her cheek.
“Michimiya-san? You’ll definitely need a splint, but I don’t think surgery will be necessary at all. It’s not a bad fracture at all and should heal pretty quickly.” The doctor looked up and smiled at Yui. “As long as you stay safe, I think you’ll be just fine.”
Yui stood and bowed, saying, “Thank you so much for seeing us at such a late hour.”
She laughed and waved her hand. “Not at all, it’s my job. Like I said, just watch out for yourself and you’ll be fine. The nurse will be in here in just a moment and we’ll get your hand ready to go.”
The doctor turned and set her paperwork done, then washed her hands and pulled on rubber gloves in preparation. The room fell into another round of silence, but this time, it felt more comfortable and easy.
The nurse walked in soon after with a cart full of medical utensils Yui couldn’t name if she tried; but she didn’t fail to notice the abundance of sharp metal objects on it.
“Ready for your splint, Michimiya-san?”
--
The procedure was an simple one, thankfully. It took almost no time to apply, and Yui didn’t find it horribly uncomfortable--at least, not yet.
Hitoka and Shimizu insisted on taking her back home in the same means of teleportation they used to get to the hospital: Hitoka’s small Toyota Prius, driven by Shimizu. During the trip to the hospital, the two had insisted that Yui lay down in the back while Hitoka sit up front, but now Hitoka remained sleeping in the backseat and Yui sat next to the silent-but-deadly beauty Shimizu.
The two continued making small talk on the drive to Yui’s apartment, not too far from the store.
“How did you all arrive so quickly?”
“I had panic buttons secretly installed under all of the cash registers, and special surveillance cameras that could be viewed from the Lily hideout. Suzumeda-san pressed the panic button as soon as the Nohebi members walked in, because she had recognized them before--she’d been at one of their other attempted raids.”
“... Who are the Nohebi?”
Shimizu hesitated to respond, and Yui bit her lip, wondering if she’d asked the wrong question. She finally answered, “They’re an up-and-coming gang, actually; their first appearance was about a year ago. No one seems to know anything about them, other than the fact that they’re ruthless and violent, and have no respect for the boundaries us bigger gangs have set up. The members seem to be from all parts of the city.”
Yui furrowed her brows as she stared at the road ahead, watching other cars drive by. “No wonder they’re the snakes... They’re spineless, arrogant creatures.”
Shimizu hummed in agreement. “Where did you live again, Michimiya-san?”
“Ah, it’s just another right turn, then a left. I’ll tell you when.” A small part of Yui wondered how she could trust an actual gang leader with her address, but Shimizu seemed trustworthy. If Hitoka believed in her, then Yui would undoubtedly do the same.
“... May I ask you a question, Michimiya-san?”
“M-me? Sure.”
“Why did you re-open Michimiya Mart?”
“Oh! That’s because it was my grandparents’ old store. It had been our family business for generations, but we had to shut it down when I was in middle school because of the new gang rivalries and my parents’ finacial troubles... I promised them that I’d find a way to ‘bring it back to its former glory’. Now I’m trying to do just that.”
"That's very noble, Michimiya-san."
"Aha, you think so? I don't know..." Yui smiled to herself at the compliment and felt her face flush at the idea that someone like Shimizu thought she was noble. "The right turn is here."
They continued sitting in silence as they drove, until Yui piped up again and asked: "How long has Lily been a gang? I know about some like Seijou and Karasuno, but not Lily..."
"We're 'new' too, in a sense. Lily was actually one of the first gangs ever started in this district, but in the 90's it sort of declined... It was revived a few years ago, but it's still rather unknown."
"Wow... So you're bringing back a legacy of your own, huh? How long have you been the leader?"
Shimizu glanced over at her and smirked. "That's a question I'lll have to answer at another time."
Yui wasn't sure if she had ever felt this enchanted by someone before, but she didn't think she has been. Shimizu seemed like she was from another galaxy, some higher being that descended from the stars to bless Japan with her presence, and Yui was very ready to praise her.
This was a rather foreign feeling to Yui, but not altogether unpleasant.
"You said a left, right?"
"Ah, yes, sorry... It's here. Thank you for driving me, Shimizu-san."
"Of course. Let me walk you to your door."
This felt like almost too much, but Yui didn't mind; she found Shimizu's quiet presence calming.
"Um... Shimizu-san? May I ask one last question?"
"I hope that wasn't the question."
"... Oh! No, no! I, uh... Could we meet up again sometime? For, um, maybe... A date? Coffee?"
Shimizu blinked down at Yui, clearly taken aback. "A... date?"
"... Yes?"
Her face turned bright pink. "Y-you want to go out on a date. With me."
"If... If that'd be okay...?"
"Yes. That's... I believe that would be okay with me. I like coffee."
Yui grinned. "Great! Perfect. Uh. How should I contact you?"
Shimizu blinked again, clearly still flustered feom being asked out. "I... I actually don't have a phone. Um. You could tell Yachi-san? And we can coordinate it like that..."
Yui nodded. "I like that. I hope to see you soon."
Shimizu smiled, and Yui thought she could almost see a look of nervous excitement on her face. "Yes, I hope so, too."
----
Hitoka was more than excited when she found out about Yui asking the gang leader, Shimizu ("Kiyoko-san! Call her Kiyoko-san!") on a date. Somehow, she'd managed to convince her to go to the local library to send email messages to Yui. The mental image of the intimidating woman sitting at an ancient computer monitor and typing messages for Yui made her heart melt.
Now, Yui was picking out a cute outfit for their long-awaited date, with Hitoka's assistance.
"You'll look great no matter what!" she yelled from Yui's laptop monitor, wearing a cheap face mask they sold at Michimiya Mart. The video call connection wasn't perfect, but the enthusiasm in Hitoka's voice was conveyed perfectly.
"Are you sure? I don't know, I feel like I'll look like a slob with a splint next to her... She's so perfect, Hitoka-chan--"
"Oh, please not this again. I already know her, Yui-senpai, you don't have to tell me!"
Yui smiled sheepishly at the monitor, and Hitoka laughed.
"Isn't it funny this all started because of those pesky snakes?"
Yui grinned to herself. "Yeah, I guess it is."