2 Hirayama Yukiko

~8 years later, in Yasumi Miyuki's small family home~

"Yukiko!" yelled Yasumi Miyuki as she filled a small bowl with rice. "You'll be late!"

"I'm coming!" Hirayama Yukiko yelled back, fiercely pulling her brush through her long black hair. She glanced once more in the mirror, satisfied with the effect of her blue-almost-gray eyes she inherited from her grandmother on her Yakuza father's side. They especially went well with her porcelain white skin. She bared her teeth in a wolfish smile before smiling normally into the mirror.

"Yukiko!"

Glancing once more around the bathroom to make sure she didn't miss anything, Yukiko quickly left, answering her Okaa-san[1] with a loud, "Hai!"[2]

Yukiko skidded to a stop before the table that her Okaa-san had finished setting. Flashing a smile, she sat down in a seiza[3] before she placed her hands together. After properly saying, 'Itadakimasu,'[4] Yukiko quickly picked up her chopsticks.

"Baka[5]!" Miyuki karate-chopped her daughter's head. "Wait for me at least!"

"Sorry," Yukiko pouted, covering her head with both her hands.

"Honestly." Miyuki shook her head and glanced over her daughter once again. "You're becoming more and more like your father."

"That's what you always say."

"Because you get all your bad traits from him."

"He says the same thing about you."

"Be quiet and eat your food!"

"You're only avoiding the subject because I'm right," Yukiko muttered into her bowl of rice.

"What did you say?!"

"Nothing!"

Miyuki nodded satisfied before settled back down. Clapping her hands together and saying 'Itadakimasu' herself, she began eating.

After a full ten minutes, Yukiko clapped her hands together and said 'Gochiso-sama deshita'[6] before she scrambled to her feet and rushed towards the door.

"Be careful!" Miyuki called out to her daughter. "And don't forget you're going to Otou-san's in the afternoon."

Yukiko raised her left hand, signaling to her mom that she understood. Miyuki shook her head with a hand on her cheek. "Are, are. This girl is getting more and more unrestrained each day."

....

~In Hiyamaya Togai's Estate~

"Welcome back, Ojou-san[7]!"

An equal amount of men wearing Western black suits lined up on either side of Yukiko, their synchronized shout echoing in the large compound. Yukiko sighed, blowing away a strand of hair from her face. She placed her hands on her hips and stood before the men.

"What do you all think you're doing?" she accused.

The men glanced at each other, their faces blanched. They all glanced towards one of the men in particular, the most striking feature being his bald head. "Ojou-san," the man said, taking a step forward, breaking the uniform line.

"Kenji-san," Yukiko's voice was sharper than a knife and the older man flinched. "What did I say before?"

"Ojou-san dislikes 'Ojou-san'."

"Exactly. My damn father decided that. It has nothing to do with me."

"Ojou-san!" Kenji took another step forward, a bead of sweat on his forehead.

"Kenji." Quirking a brow, Yukiko's lips bloomed into a mesmerizing smile, "What did you just say?"

Shivering, Kenji had no choice but to comply, the young girl's aura mimicking her father's to a T. "O-of course, Yukiko-san."

With a satisfied smile, Yukiko walked through the line of men, her shoes making crisp clacking sounds with every step she took. Kenji had returned to his previous position in the line, allowing for Yukiko to be flanked on either side by her father's Ninkyou Dantai[8].

After quickly walking to her spacious room, Yukiko's smiling expression fell of her face. She looked up, her eyes quickly finding the mirror she had purposefully placed at an area where she could easily see once she enters her room. Her ice blue eyes met their opposite, and- if she felt emotions- even she would have shivered at the cold indifference reflected in her pupils.

Even now, she couldn't scrounge up an iota of care at her predicament- in fact, if she didn't place mirrors everywhere, she was sure that she wouldn't have been able to keep up her katagi[9] act.

It had started when she turned twelve years old.

Yukiko had wanted to play with Kenji, so she stole away from her room, sneaking her way into the living room.

She found the bald man standing threateningly before a kneeling- and bleeding- man.

The 12-year-old Yukiko had watched as Kenji killed the man in an excruciating way; the man had to suffer through two hundred cuts from a small knife before a mixture of hot spices and salt was kneaded into his wounds. Furthermore, the man wasn't allowed the reprieve of losing consciousness, instead, a cold bucket of water was poured onto him every single time, while the men from the Kawamura-kai syndicate laughed as the man bled to death.

It was then that Yukiko learned that the living room doubled as a torture chamber.

Instead of horror, or even more apt, fear, Yukiko had felt nothing. In fact, the next morning she sat to watch TV at the very same spot the man had bled to death, the wooden floors shiny due to their polished surface.

It was as if she saw the man as nothing but an insect.

Yes, she did see him as an insect.

Sighing, Yukiko leaned on the door, lifting her head up so that her eyes could gaze at the light-up stars her Otou-san had glued onto her room's ceiling once she told him she was afraid of the dark.

Of course, that was a well-calculated lie.

A fear was a natural human response. Furthermore, a fear of the dark was a common phobia for children. In fact, her friend, 'Kiyoko-chan[10]', was 'also' afraid of the dark.

Therefore, Yukiko constructed her fear, created it from the ground up, just so her old man didn't suspect the growing abnormality within her.

Although she knew she could hide it from her mother, her father was a different story- he was sharper than a thumb tack.

In contrast to the cold cruelty Yukiko kept deep within her, she let loose her temper- a temper that was as fiery as Mount Aso, the largest active volcano in Japan.

Considering the different sides of her personality and how she alternated between indifference, anger, and calculated normalcy, Yukiko knew that she was a mess. Even she had no idea whether what she was feeling was real.

But did she care?

Chuckling, Yukiko crossed the room, reaching the wardrobe. In it was her futon which she immediately began to pull out and unravel.

She didn't care.

The only thing she cared about right now was to make her futon so that she could sleep.

.....

[1] Okaa-san = Mother

[2] Hai= yes

[3] Seiza = a way of sitting down where a person places their knees on the floor and rests their butt on top of their feet. It hurts if you aren't used to it.

[4] Itadakimasu = something that is said before every meal. It means something along the lines of 'I received this food' or is kind of like 'Let's eat!' (but more polite) in American terms.

[5] Baka = stupid, idiot, etc. Depending on inflection, it can taken as a joke or as an insult. Or something in-between.

[6] Gochiso-sama deshita = is what is said after a meal. It means 'It was quite a feast', but can be loosely translated to mean (in American culture) as 'Thanks for this meal'.

[7] Ojou-san = typically means (rich) young lady in anime.

[8] Ninkyou Dantai = What the yakuza call themselves. Means 'chivalrous organization'.

[9] Katagi = in this usage, means "sturdy spirit", thus a regular person that lives an upright, honest life.

[10] -chan = a suffix that is less formal than -san and even displays closeness. Used for children, lovers, close friends, etc. Can also be considered 'cutesy'.