Jiro mao dodge the first punch thrown since she telegraphed it long in advance, due to her yelling. However, he had no idea how fast Miyako truly was when the sed punch came in a split sed ter. He rone on his back before he even realized what happened.

  Shigeru and Yasuo jumped in quickly to defend Jiro. But Miyako didn’t even break. Grabbed up ea a separate hand, she dragged them up to the nearby wall and rubbed their faces against the brick before letting them go.

  Tilting her head over her shoulder, she locked o one, Junichi. He was still rec from his broken hand. Miyako didn’t even bother to wipe away the blood that dripped over her fabsp; It merely added to her overall menag presenbsp; Junichi didn’t even reize the girl. “Who the hell are you?!”

  Shadows came down over her eyes leaving only a little white from them to shihrough. “…just a normal high school girl…”

  Chapter 305 – Identity

  Walking out of the alley, Miyako merely looked pissed more than anything now. “Damn, they’re loyal, not giving up their base location. I’ll give them that much credit.” She began to look around fns of any others that might have been a lookout.

  Nothing.

  However, she noticed the fearful looks that she was getting from just people passing by. She caught a glimpse of her fa the refle of a store window to uand what had people so afraid. “I’m not going to get anywhere looking like this.”

  Finished washing her face, there was nothing she could do about the rest of her clothes. Between the old blood from the boys and her blood from when she was zoned out, it didn’t look pretty. She took off her jacket, which helped to make it not look so bad, plus it gave her better mobility for the ing trouble.

  Miyako stepped back out of the park restroom to pick a dire for her searbsp; “I should have gotten more out of that weaklierday. Now I’m going to have to find more of them and pump ‘em for information.” She decided on her random dire and started to move.

  The Bck Gate gang wasn’t a hat she was familiar with, which meant one of two things. They were positioned outside of the area where she fought or they were too small to have any real presenbsp; ‘I didly have an i in all of the different gangs iy. Sort retting n to keep up with all of the politiow. Though that’s probably why we had so many enemies. None of it really mattered to me.’

  Her gang, the Blood Lotus, had been a little haphazardly put together when she just started defeating a bunch of local bosses. They tried to hit on her and she took offeo their harassment a out the necessary punishment. Since much of the gang world revolved around strength, people gathered up around her in no time. She had little i at all in the underworld or the things they got involved in. ‘It all seemed more like a bunch of kids pretending to be Yakuza rather than real gangsters. Some were certainly the real thing, but everyohat came to challenge me were just posers. Pretenders.’

  It was all a joke. It robably the reason her neighborhood had so many “gangs”. They all just wao be tough and pretend to be cool, but none of them really had any sense of honor or even purpose. ‘They were closer to just a bunch of tough guys hanging out. It’s not like I even wahis sort of lifestyle anyway. I just fell into it by mistake, which is why I was able to make the decision to walk away when I did. It art of me during my middle school and high school years, but it had to e to an end. Just like them, I retending and I was done pretending.’

  Her search that day ended with no leads. She didn’t know where to find them. They might have been stepping outside of their territory since she found nothing. She didn’t know what it was. The only thing she could do was return to the hospital to visit the boys.

  Most were able to be discharged after being fixed up. Only two had to stay behind because their injuries needed rest. They all gathered up around Miyako bent down at the waist in a deep apologetic bow. “Boss! We’re sorry!”

  “Dammit, you guys.” She caught the looks from other patients and the hospital staff. The se looked like she was some daughter of a Yakuza boss with their men apologizing for their failure. They might start tried to it ritualistic suicide in the moment, was other’s fears. “Stop it! This is no more your fault than it is mine.”

  “Takayuki wao keep you out of it. But because we were so weak…”

  “Ugh, enough of the blubbering.” The sight of them helped to improve her mood a little. Entering the hospital reminded her of Takayuki and her failure. ‘This is on me now. I ’t get them anymore involved.’ Miyako looked out to all of them. It was a stra, teehat put all of their trust and hopes on her, even if they did not say it or want it. “You all keep off the streets and stay out of trouble for a while.”

  “Boss?”

  “I’ll hahis matter. I’m the ohat they want.”

  “You ’t, Boss!” They started to stop her reizing the look in her eyes. “This is our problem! Like Takayuki said!”

  “No, I got this started because I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I finish what I start and you guys won’t stop me!”

  “But…Boss!”

  “Enough! I’ve decided how things are going to be!” She pulled her arms free from their holds and separated from the group. It was her path to walk now. “Don’t follow me!” she warned, looking back at them. None of them were in any shape for the hell she was about to walk into. She didn’t o be taking them in with her.

  It was a little troublesome, but she did mao free herself of their stubboro hold onto her. A new day arrived and another missed school day. She too quickly lost all of the ground that tried to build up. A week and it was all gone. They could talk all they wanted, but she had things to settle.

  Things to settle sounded all good and she had the attitude, but it didn’t ge facts. She had no leads oo find Bck Gate. All she could do was rely on others for information. The hole she fell bato had more than its share of trouble she crossed. She was a well-known name in her neighborhood, but it ended about there.

  Miyako found herself at one of the few pces that still respected her name, even after her decration. The halls of the Willows, a strange gang that just existed. No others really did anything against them. It was just something that seemed to have been that way since before she formed the Blood Lotus. She never got an expnation for it, just that it was what was expected. They didn’t bother others and no ohered them. She always felt like there was some sleeping dragon sort of feeling ing off them and everyone was afraid of them, but never found any proof. Even rumors were pletely empty on why it was. Everyone just accepted the situation as is.

  Which made them the best group for Miyako to turn to, but she wasn’t sure how they would wele her. Ohey knew what she pnned on doing, they might just turn her away. She never knew how to read their boss. He was a difficult person to deal with.

  The two guards at the boss’ door stared at her. They received the signal to open the door, but waited. One of them moved over to her. “Remember any violence is forbidden.”

  “I’ll be peaceful, so long as he is.” Her history with the boss was fairly well known with his guards. They let her in, but still clearly had some reluce with it.

  Inside, she looked around the room on guard. ‘He’s here somewhere. I know he’s got something pnned. He always does.’ Just as the doors closed, two arrows shot out at her. The first she caught and the other she batted away. She looked down to see they were as expected, fakes with just su cups on the end and an annoyingly cheerful weling fetti ball tied begging to be opened. Just then, she felt something lightly hit her head.

  A white powder fell down around her head as she looked around in fusion. It didn’t hurt, but she knew something happened. In her search, it fell off and she could see that it was just a chalk eraser rarely seen in schools anymore.

  g came from a shadowy er of the room. “The cssics are always the best, especially when I get to see that rea on your face, Miyako.” A young man in his early tweepped out from behind a bookshelf, which seemed a little odd in a gang hideout, but this man wasn’t an ordinary gang boss.

  “Hideo Nakasato…” Miyako crushed the toy arrow in her hand. His jokes and toy traps were far too annoying to deal with at times. Especially with her mht now. “You never ge…”

  “So angry,” he grinned, walking over to his desk. He wore a suit and looked more the part of a pany CEO rather than a gang member. Out of all of the gangs she met, he seemed the most like what the Yakuza would be like. However, even she admittedly didn’t know what the Yakuza were truly like. She never met any of them. They never had any i in a bunall fry gangs pying at gangsters. They were all just punks and kids in the eyes of the professionals.

  Hideo leaned ba his chair and threw up his hands as a sign of ending the hostilities. “You never were too good about loosening up and I see that hasn’t ged after you went back to just being a girl.”

  ‘So annoying…’ She had trouble with his type. He easily read into her, while she couldn’t do anything about his nature. It was like dealing with a monkey, random and always looking py. Miyako always had to stay on guard against him.

  With a look like he held all of the cards, he stared at her with a wide smile. “So what do I owe the pleasure of your pany, Miss Miyako Ikuba?”

  “I want information.”

  “Information. For what would you e all the way to our little home and seek information?” The annoyingly knowledgeable grin tio taunt her. “I’m afraid I don’t have the answer sheets for the entrance exams.”

  Grindieeth, she khat he knew why she came. It only made it more frustrating that he was f her to be more direct than she wanted. He khe situation and pyed it to the fullest. “Bastard, you know why I’m here.”

  Laughing, he leaned ba his chair until it nearly knocked against the wall. “Such vulgarity from a high school girl. Should you really be talking like that?”

  Miyako marched up to his desk and smmed her hands on the hard oak surfabsp; The broken toy arrow slid towards him. “Stop with the games, Hideo. Just tell me what I want to know.”

  He seemed to get a little more serious. Pulling forward, Hideo looked into Miyako’s eyes. “You’re just a girl. A few games should be enough eai for you. This is a dark seedy pce where you don’t belong.”

  “I’m not a girl!” Her hand pounded against the wood making it groan a little.

  Peaking his brow a bit, Hideht his hands up over his mouth in an overpping style. “Unless you’ve hiding a big secret, I’m pretty sure you are.”

  Her patience had a limit. It had already been long reached before she eveered the room. She only kept herself in trol out of respebsp; But he had stopped respeg her. Miyako grabbed him by his colr, tie and all. “Enough with the games!”

  “Violence is forbidden, you know.”

  “The serious and show me the respect I deserve!”

  “Respect?” His grin never went away the whole time. It actually got a little wider at the mention of that word. Hideo unwound her fingers from his colr and leaned bato the chair. “That’s a funny word. You e in here asking for information and respect when you’re just a no name girl off the street. What respect do I owe you?”

  She groueeth more as she retreated her position. It was worse thahought. The point that he was making made things even harder. He was refusing her on an annoying point. Miyako stayed silent, uo say anything to him.

  Hideo fixed his shirt after getting roughed up. “Or are you someone else? Who are you?”