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blackcatruse · 3 months

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𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 𝔞𝔰𝔥𝔢𝔰

«prev. ❃ next» ❃ first chapter ❃ m.list ❃ ao3 pairing: r. haitani/fem!reader ↳ she/her, fem descriptors, nickname ❃ chapter synopsis: i don't need friends, they disappoint me. but wouldn't it be nice to have someone to depend on during the chaos of now? word count: 2.5k chapter cw(s): swearing, possible ooc, implied/mentioned abuse a/n: i love writing the Four Symbols. they're all horrible people :) also sorry for the overload of OCs i'm just yeeting in there, but i guess that happens when you make up a gang.

“Hey, are you with me? Lotus?”

You felt a flick to your forehead and blinked, focusing on the person sitting across from you. You couldn’t hide that you’d been spacier than usual, your brain was a blender, swirling and liquefying all your thoughts. Between the job with Rokuhara and the announcement Suzaku had made at the division meeting and the fact that Genbu asked for you made your barely recovered head spin even more.

You lightly shook your head. “Sorry, just thinking about stuff.”

Nezumi leaned on the table with his chin in his hand. “Clearly, but honestly I don’t blame you. You’ve kind of been through a lot lately.”

“Something like that,” you laughed weakly. “I’m sorry you’re stuck babysitting me.”

“It’s not a big deal. Suzaku said runners were required to work in pairs for the foreseeable future, and honestly, I don’t mind being paired with the best.” Nezumi flashed a genuine smile and you didn’t know how to respond.

Nobody in your division liked you, or at least that’s what you figured based on the stares and whispers. You didn’t let it get to you and you played into the unlikeable persona because people would leave you alone. Unfortunately, after the incident that left you with a concussion, Suzaku declared that no runner was allowed to do a job alone. Top runners had priority, so it would be you, Nezumi, Shika, and probably-Hato. The four of you naturally gravitated towards each other and decided you’d pair up that way. It was going to be inconvenient though.

“You don’t have to lie to me,” you mumbled, pushing your food around your plate.

Nezumi sighed. “You’re weird,” he said. “But you’re not as bad as you make yourself out to be.”

“But I’m still some degree of bad,” you said, accenting your words with a jab of your fork in his direction.

“We all are,” Nezumi pointed out. “None of us are exactly doing clean work. Anyway, stop being so grumpy. You need friends.”

“And you’re offering?” You raised an eyebrow. “I thought we were just supposed to be discussing our usual jobs and how to make things work with our schedules.”

“Stop dodging the question,” Nezumi said, on the verge of whining. “But yeah, we do need to work out when our runs are happening and any other jobs Suzaku gives us.”

“I make my weekly runs to Kabukicho on Sunday,” you told him. “There’s no set time, except for the guy that owns Byakko’s space. Gotta get to him before 5pm.”

“Noted. I run Ōtemachi and Marunouchi on Wednesdays and Fridays. Both during the day, preferably in the morning.”

You nodded, mapping out the locations in your mind. “I can’t say I’m fond of any time before noon, but I’d rather not get my face beat in again. Either by Suzaku or the other guys.”

Nezumi’s face twisted into something uncomfortable. He rubbed his temples. “Can you have a normal conversation with anyone?”

“Nope!” You grinned. “It’s part of my charm.”

“Right,” Nezumi said flatly. “Charm.”

“I’m sensing sarcasm from you.”

“Hmm, I’ll try harder to mask it next time. Anyway, what’s your current burner number? It would be best if we can get into contact outside of division meetings.” Nezumi held out his own burner phone.

“Huh? Oh yeah sure.” You took it from his hand and punched in the number you had just memorized. It would be changed by the end of the month, since it made it a little harder for the cops to sniff out Wuxing’s trail.

Adding a little ‘<3’ to the end of your contact name, you finally handed the phone back to Nezumi. He looked at it, sighed, and looked at you with dull eyes. You just waved like nothing had transpired. He shook his head and stood. “I’ll get in touch soon,” he promised. He gave you a lazy wave before heading out and you put your head down on the table.

It was going to be a little harder to traipse around with the Haitanis like this, but you’d figure it out. Right now you had more pressing problems, like why the hell Genbu needed to see you. You did your part of the operation and you weren’t important enough to be part of the circle that knew.

You couldn’t even think about why these people were so obsessed with you. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, remarkable about you. You spent the first thirteen years of your life raised in an area where nobody would care if you or your family disappeared. Your father wasn’t in the picture. You didn’t know who he was and your mother refused to talk about him. You quickly learned to stop asking about him when she threw a ceramic tea cup at your head. The memories of your mother were fairly fuzzy, thanks to the years working for Wuxing that shaved time from your lifespan. You remembered the day you found your mother dead, and it was something that you could never forget. You didn’t think you ever could.

Of course, after your mother’s death, your brother spiraled deeper and deeper into gambling. He lost his job. He spent all day most days drunk and wasted instead of sober. You were still too young to get a part-time job, but you were certain that your brother would burn any money you brought in.

You were able to keep you and your brother afloat because sometimes he would come home from gambling with cold hard cash. You’d take some from him when he finally blacked out. He never remembered how much he won, so as long as you left something, you could at least get groceries and pay rent and bills. Even when he caught you and beat you within an inch of your life, you still kept stealing from him. You weren’t going to let yourself be thrown onto the streets. Trying times made you consider learning to pickpocket, but before that could come to a head, Wuxing came knocking.

At that point, you weren’t even sure you were human anymore. You had lost weight. You were covered with bruises that could easily be hidden under school uniforms. Anyone who saw you turned a blind eye, because it wasn’t their business what happened in your home. You hated every second of it, and it all culminated when your brother sold you in an attempt to ease his debts. Your brother’s blood was still warm on your face when Genbu’s men grabbed you. They whispered terrible things in your ear, telling you in explicit detail how they planned to make you pay “your” debt.

Your first few years with Wuxing were something you wished you could scrub from your mind. Yet, you would never be clean of the things done to you and what you had done. Even now you felt like there was a disconnect between you and your body. Just a permanent state of detachment that would rear its head if you weren’t cracking jokes or making a conscious effort.

Fuck, you had to get your shit together before you went to Genbu. Throwing a wad of yen on the table, you stood and headed out. Everything around you was a blur as you made your way to the abandoned police station where Genbu did his business.

There was a specific knock you were supposed to use, but you couldn’t be bothered to remember it. You popped a stick of gum in your mouth before loudly banging on the door and yelling. It had the same effect of getting attention and before you could even strike the door a third time, a disgruntled looking Genbu had opened the door.

“You tryna make trouble?” he grunted.

Your smile was devilishly saccharine. “It’s what I do best.”

Genbu snorted before stepping back and letting you walk in. You hadn’t been to this part of Wuxing’s domain. Each of the Four Symbols had their own regions where they conducted business and very rarely did these overlap. You were one of the few that had seen Seiryu’s underground fighting ring and Byakko’s brothels. Now having visited Genbu’s hideout, you were familiar with each of the Four Symbols’ kingdoms. Probably one of the only lower status members, now that you thought about it.

Wuxing’s upper echelons may spit on you, but even they couldn’t argue that you weren’t good at what you do.

“What couldn’t wait until the big meeting that made you call for me now?” you asked as Genbu closed the door.

“Whoever we caught,” Genbu started, “they know who you are.”

You stared at Genbu. “Yeah, I’m Suzaku’s Lot—”

“No, they know your real name.”

What?

“That doesn’t make sense,” you said, stumbling over your words. You couldn’t hide how shaken you were. Any mention of who you were before sent you into a horrifying spiral. “Nobody should know who I am.”

“That’s what we thought too,” Genbu said.

“We?”

“Follow me.” Genbu didn’t wait for a response before he started walking away. You jogged a little to catch up with him and he walked into a room. Stepping inside you saw Suzaku, Byakko, and Seiryu. Your eyes quickly scanned the room for any sign that you were going to be murdered, but they stopped when they landed on the one way mirror to the adjacent room.

There were four men, each handcuffed to a chair and displaying a variety of bruises and bloodied faces.

“What the hell?” you asked, voice barely a whisper.

“They haven’t given us any useful information,” Genbu said. “But they know who you are, who your mother was, and who your brother was. When we asked further, they said nothing. Just laughed. Said they’d only talk if it was to you.”

Fuck, it was exactly like the guy you and Rindou had run into. Almost as if they could tell you were staring at them, their heads snapped up and they looked straight at you. Even the Four Symbols stiffened at the sudden movement.

“Did you bring her?” the one third from the right asked. Maybe he was the leader? He sounded familiar, like the one you had met in that warehouse.

They had been locked up here so long you doubted they were high, unless Genbu drugged them during the interrogation. But the unnerving smiles they wore... This was too much for you.

Genbu moved forward and spoke into an old microphone on the desk. “She’s here.”

“No, let her speak.”

Genbu stepped away and motioned you to come forward. You weren’t entirely sure what to say, but you knew you were close to snapping. “I’m here. What do you want?”

You prayed they didn’t hear the waver of your voice, but if they did they gave no indication. “Do you remember your mother?” the leader asked, using your real name.

You shuddered. “Not really,” you lied.

“I see,” he hummed. “Do you know anything about your family?”

Even though they couldn’t see it, you shrugged. “Just that my sperm donor was a deadbeat, Mom hated when we asked about him, and my brother was a bastard.”

That got a chuckle out of the four men in the interrogation room.

“Would you like to know?”

“What?” Your blood froze. Behind you the Four Symbols exchanged confused glances.

“Everything you need to know,” the man said. “You will learn if you—”

“I’m not interested.”

The man frowned. Was he expecting you to give a shit about the people who made your life go from worse to absolute hell? All you cared about was getting out of Wuxing, maybe even the country, and never coming back.

“Just seems like a lot of trouble,” you drawled. “I don’t particularly care about my family history.”

“Are you loyal to Wuxing? Did he convince you to join them?”

You didn’t ask for clarification because if they knew who you were, then surely they knew your brother got you into this mess. “Something like that,” you said, keeping the answer neutral. The last thing you wanted was any of the Four Symbols to think you were betraying them. Well, you supposed your record wasn’t exactly clean in that aspect, but it didn’t include these sorry bastards in front of you.

“That is unfortunate,” the man hummed. “Well, if you ever want answers, consider seeking Nirvana.”

You looked back at Suzaku and Genbu, avoiding eye contact with Byakko and ignoring Seiryu. They were blank faced and likely as confused as you were. Genbu stepped forward and pulled you away from the mic. “What do you mean?” he demanded. “Who are you people? How do you know these—”

Suzaku jerked Genbu back and the man’s words were cut off. Then, like a switch was flipped, the captives dropped their heads and refused to answer any more questions or demands. You were confused to start with, but now it was even worse. You weren’t anyone of importance. You knew you weren’t.

It seemed like the Four Symbols had an idea of what was going on, but they weren’t going to tell you. Rarely did you ever need to know what was happening, and truthfully you didn’t want to. The less you knew about the situation the better.

Ignorance was bliss and you refused to let go of that. “I don’t know what the hell they want from me,” you said. There wasn’t anything defensive about your tone, just confusion and fear.

Genbu ran a hand down his face. “Yeah, we gathered that.” He sighed. “We’re going to have to report this to Kirin.”

You could almost feel the collective groan they didn’t let out. So they hated reporting to their boss too. You would almost feel sympathy if you hadn’t been tormented by every single one of them.

“You’re not coming,” Suzaku said immediately.

“Huh?!” You were genuinely taken aback at how quickly Suzaku snapped that out. “I didn’t say anything and I don’t want to!”

“That’s a first,” Byakko snorted.

You wanted to turn around and snarl at him but you didn’t. “I don’t want to be tangled up in this shit any more than I have to. I don’t know a goddamn thing about what they were saying. I’m not important. You all know this! The only reason you haven’t killed me yet is because of my stupid brother’s debt and because I’m maybe a good runner.”

You didn’t want to break down in front of the Four Symbols, but they said nothing as tears streamed down your face. If they were kinder, they would have taken pity on your confusion and anxiety, but they didn’t care. They had seen enough that you breaking down wasn’t going to faze them.

“Seiryu, take Lotus home,” Suzaku ordered. “I’m going to get in touch with Kirin and figure out what we’re going to do next. Genbu, keep digging for information. Byakko, keep an eye out in your territory.” Suzaku looked you in your stinging, teary eyes, “And Lotus, you don’t fucking go anywhere alone.”

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#ruse’s ashes #x reader fanfic #rindou haitani x reader #reader insert #tokyo revengers reader insert #tokyo revengers x reader #tokyo revengers ocs #rindou x reader

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