#Prepping for the streets! 👌👌👌

[bubblegumbi-tch]

...

[dragon-business]

Goromi dates (yes, plural)

First date with Goromi was Majima overcompensating after bowling with Kiryu. Nishida simply offered to find a setting that would be more comfortable for Majima and a little less comfortable for Kiryu, and Majima went all out.

Nishida: So what's gonna be comfortable for you, boss? Majima: I catch your drift, yeah, let's order a dress!

Here you can read the rggo story, where Majima worked in SHINE as Goromi for a while before the first date!

Here is the comic prequel to the second date.

And let's roll~

- So, for the second date Majima should wear a short slim black dress with an open back and long blond hair loose, so it covers the tattoo, but can be swept over the shoulder at the right time. Considering that we only see yakuza back tattoos before veeeery serious fights this is a bit of playing with danger there. Majima can put the hair over his shoulder when it's time.

Also he has a silver chain on his neck. Maybe gloves can stay on, too! The dress is black or dark blue, velvety to the touch, turtleneck top, sleeves to the elbow. Makeup is very subdued, just an evening look with a touch of red lipstick.

Kiryu will have so many compliments, Goromi better hold on to the couch and her champagne.

- Judging by the glasses Goromi ordered something very strong on the first date. All of it was prep for the fight, so yeah, it was no champagne. But this new meeting is classy, so gotta go all out. Bringing out champagne, cheesecake and idk. They have pretty trashy snacks at this club. Majima will have to look into that afterwards.

Clientele is not so sophisticated there, usually. Kiryu isn't that sophisticated either. But it's the principle! Also it's a special occasion, because it's Kiryu visiting. Again. So Majima might be overpreparing now.

(Remembering the fact that Kiryu thought Majima doesn't eat fast food, only stuff from fancy restaurants)

And while Majima waits for Kiryu, the manager of SHINE is somewhere out there in Kamurocho, sweating on the quest to find vinegar. It's tradition. All managers go through vinegar baptism. And also Majima mumbling "oh, back in my time…" is very endearing.

Majima, tipping wine glass, trying to play it cool in front of Kiryu: Manager, still sweating: *stands on one knee to put freshly made onigiri and curry on the table*

All of this because Kiryu said he wants to learn more about running a cabare club. So here's a trip to the past, so interesting. And Goromi can talk about it for ages.

(And yes, Majima brought his own vinegar. He knew the manager (oh, the poor manager) will not find it.)

- (The date itself includes the love meter boss fight. Both of them have this meters and each is half of monitor in length.)

- "What's your fun opening story to break the ice on dates, Kiryu-chan?" asks Majima not realising yet what he's about to bring on himself.

Kiryu, scratching his head, trying to quickly remember any fun stories: Logic (medium: failure): the ones you shared on the radio back in the day must be safe.

So Kiryu spins the tale about the dominatrix sidestory, finishing with a kiler: -and then I watched their session, hahah. Goromi: …and how, pray tell, you gained all this BDSM knowledge? Kiryu: it's just common sense?

He's full of mysteries. And likes to watch. Goromi is bluescreening hard. This whole thing is already backfiring. On everyone in a mile radius (yes, of course all of SHINE personnel is listening in).

Honestly, talks with Mana prepared Majima for this. But just imagine Kiryu asking Goromi with a straight (hehe) face if he's an S or an M. Or, more likely, if Goromi would rather work at a BDSM club or visit it. Or is she more of a casual street session enjoyer?

Logic (heroic: failure) in the voice of Baccus: you are nailing the casual conversation here, my boy 👌👌👌👌👉👉 Empathy (formidable: success): he will be impressed with your knowledge 😌😌😌

(Dang, Mana. She managed to catch Majima by surprise and he answered honestly. Oh, Kiryu's big honest eyes with one braincell shining through)

Goromi has 3 options:

X attack by attack Y answer honestly B "no you" card

Asking Kiryu about his preferences puts him in deep and serious thought. If he'll answer honestly… about figuring it out by trying, and learning through observation, and having a good feeling when it's clear that the other person is enjoying themselves… Murder. It will be straight up murder. 

"Goromi-san, you must really like this champagne! You just downed a whole bottle in one go."

- Kiryu: Are you enjoying our fights, Goromi-san? Logic: you gotta make sure 👌

Majima-san always made sure to ask for consent in their fights! Kiryu should also be responsible. What if he can do better?

It was already straight up murder when on the first date after Majima's rant about strong men and fighting Kiryu asked (in a suave gentleman voice): "Want me to fight you?"

"You like strong men? I'm a strong man. Just saying."

But yeah, back to the point, this was actually bothering Kiryu, he even ranted to Tanaka about it. Clear communication is the key, so if Goromi-san thinks there are things Kiryu can do differently or try harder with… does he know enough moves, what if the same routine gets boring?

Majima enjoys fights with strong men >> logic happening >> Majima's enjoyment is the goal.

Kiryu is clearly getting stronger from the Majima Everywhere system. And Majima is doing it, because he enjoys it. So they both should get equal benefits from what's going on.

Kiryu is a good learner. Maybe he should do more leg over the shoulder throws? Should he still grab Majima's collar from the front? He breaks free from it so easy, but what if it's about trying, about the resistance?

All of this is happening directly after BDSM talk, of course. Kiryu finally found a good segway to talk about it all, he's on the roll.

He's winning this social interaction 👏👏

More champagne for the lady, please. This is a serious topic, Kiryu is willing to pay. It's a second extension too, Kiryu is gonna be here for a while.

- And yeah, Kiryu is talking with Goromi without thinking much, just talking.

Majima accidentally did a lot for him there, by coming up with this date idea (for himself too, but that's another story). Still thinking about Goromi jokingly telling Kiryu "Just don't fall for me", and Kiryu looking at him intensely and going "I dunno. Love can be unpredictable."

Kiryu, apart from being autistic, was raised in an orphanage and in the hyper masculine world of yakuza, with two extremely emotionally repressed men as father figures. He clearly has a lot of trouble admitting his feelings out loud, and knowing the appropriate time to do so. It seems that his way of masking (and generally surviving) is seeing different human interactions as a set of scenarios with set rules and decorations. Like, "the date", "talk with a passerby", "at the bar" and so on. And they help Kiryu with social interactions, sure, but also are quite rigid sometimes, and lock him in a sad and lonely place where he can't really connect to people, because there's not enough nuance in the script and no tolerance for sentimentality in the world Kiryu's building this scripts from.

So, coming from this angle, you can see how on a date with Goromi the scenarios clash.

According to the rules, two men can't really be super open or emotional with each other, or admit interest in each other. But now this is "just a man and a hostess, enjoying drinks together". And normally Kiryu would have 0 interest in being open or flirty with a hostess, he just goes through the motions that you're supposed to do, and is a bit clueless even. But now it's Goromi. It's Majima. It's someone he knows and cares about. Someone with whom he can say all the right things he's supposed to say and it will be true! Incredible. Mind-blowing.

(Later Rina will blow Kiryu's mind even more with "you know you can date men, when you're a man, right")

Majima, putting on stockings: heheheh, yeah, this will immediately prompt a fight :3c Kiryu, sitting with Goromi, moved to the core: this is the best moment of my life, feeling so good right now, can we do this forever please-

- And a note for Majima's POV: on the first date he was ready to go right away, but then Kiryu said with no-objection tone "No. We're just a man and a hostess, enjoying drinks together." And I bet Majima went along with it partially because his little BDSM tendencies rose up to the direct order.

It's one thing to defy or follow orders of your yakuza superiors, which are frankly very tiresome and are mostly bullshit power plays. As we've seen in the Majima saga he is really tired of it all. But an order put in unexpectedly (very expectedly) queer conditions, by a person he's attracted to? Ohwell.

So he complied. On his terms, sure, but he did. Unexpectedly locked on the route of exploring the Goromi side of himself too.

So there's a lot going on on this little date. So many things. And the second one were all of this is hammered home even more is very close to our hearts.

Majima: Pew, hope he will never find out about my sudden dirty thoughts. Almost embarrassed myself there. You're walking a dangerous line there, Goro. Thankfully, Kiryu-chan is not a person to dwell on kink topics. Kiryu: So, about BDSM… Majima: Well! Too bad Kiryu is straight! Ha ha. Ha.

Majima has his own fun little mini-game of finding explanations.

But what is an explanation, when the second date the tiny clasp on the Goromi's heels comes undone. And it sits at an awkward angle, making it hard for her to fix. And Kiryu steps around the table, goes on one knee like "Allow me to help, please", and waits for an answer.

Ambulance needed, person injured themselves with mental gymnastics.

And after fixing the clasp Kiryu holds Goromi's ankle carefully for a just fraction of a second longer than needed. 

Explanation for all this will need some serious thought. And this specific moment? Well it's going in the box. And the box is going in the vault. And then under the safety hat.

There's a serious turnaround about this whole thing in Majima's head, he's comparing Kiryu's behavior towards Goromi with how he got along with cabare girls himself.

Majima was more or less gallant with them, too, and often helped them with clothes, makeup, shoes and whatnot. So, obviously Kiryu feels okay helping with the shoes, because he's not attracted to Goromi/Majima! Case solved.

Meanwhile, Kiryu, when random girls flirt with him: let's not go there. Kiryu when Goromi: I will absolutely go there the first chance I have.

Blunt as a rock.

Cabare girls are sideeyeing Kiryu working on Goromi's clasp, holding their breath. Better than any tv show.

- Goromi, clinking her glass on the bottle: Where's my champagne? Your quite slow today, Kiryu-chan, what about being a gentleman. Kiryu, staring at Goromi's sholderblade where the tattoo is barely visible through the cascade of hair: Uhuh.

There's something about the tattoo being partially covered but still visible. Also it's quite a beautiful tattoo. Kiryu has only seen glimpses of it by that point, and not from this close. And even later, after their "final" fight, it's still not the same as looking at it up close in calm circumstances. Can't really stare during fights, or, after seeing Hannya Man's smile, you'll immediately see the ceiling. 

This is actually an additional difficulty level for their battles. Kiryu is a curious creature, he wants to see the snakes up close.

– before / navigation / next