[1] finishing business the painful way

Somewhere in the dark street corners of Tokyo, blood spill painted the ground.

An indigo-haired girl wearing a black sweater and dark jeans marvelled at the persistence of her target.

'He must be reeking of desperation if he managed this far, these bastards never cease to make things interesting for me.'

The sound of the bloodied bat she held dragging against the rough cement echoed in the darkness.

Not another sound could be heard, as in this area, the sounds of the city seemed to fade.

After chasing behind the man silently, she scoffed at how weak his body had gotten; the pace of his footsteps gradually slowed.

She gripped the hold around her bat tightly and swung at the back of his legs, "are you really the person who injured one of my members?" she sneered.

'Quite surprising how he caught one of the most dangerous people off-guard.'

He cried out as he fell.

'Doubt he'll run away this time.'

The man carefully looked back, a glint of fear clouding his eyes—a sight which she seemed to never get tired of.

His lip quivered, "p-please, I-I didn't mean to!"

She had seen countless men have their pride shatter in front of her, and she reveled at how they turned into cowards with a single peek of her tattoo.

'only stubborn idiots disregard the rumor's she thought, '..but they always find out why they shouldn't.'

She knelt down and tilted his chin up, his bottom lip was cut, smudges of dried blood were smeared under it.

The bruises around his eye and cheek had swelled beautifully from when she sent a high ranked member to do this—'he escaped the first time, if he hadn't, this would've been quick.'

Now that the man encountered the Red Reaper, there was not a god in heaven that could spare him of her wrath.

Outside her face was unreadable, yet every inch inside of her wanted to cause him a slow death for what he had done.

She stood up, held the bat to his face, and with parted lips spoke, "men like you will never outrun me"

She held the bat up high and swung it down—only for it to be stopped halfway.

"Jia" a voice spoke.

Agitated, the girl rolled her eyes as she saw the impact of her bat stopped by a hand,

"I'm finishing business" she stated, "what are you doing, Jericho?"

Out of all the people who stopped her, it was her 'personal body guard' curtesy of her own father.

He wore a black waistcoat with a white collared shirt that paired with his dress pants and shoes.

He had a clean undercut, but the top of his hair was long and kept in a man-bun; when he did let it down, it would part in the middle of his forehead.

And openly visible, was a sleeve of tattoos along his right arm which reached to the top of his collarbone.

The girl held the bat to her side and spat on the ground, "and I thought I ditched you"

Jericho bowed and met her gaze, "you're still easy to track - anyway.. you have a visitor"

Before she could reply, she caught her unfinished business trying to crawl away and reflexively kicked him down, "move again and I'll dig my shoe into your lung"

Jia turned back to Jericho while smashing her foot against the young mans broken rib cage, 'punishment for thinking I wouldn't notice.'

"So who is it?" she inquired, ignoring the screams.

Jericho's posture stiffened as he cleared his throat, "heiress of the Yua-Li Clan, Jinx"

With the sound of footsteps, another voice followed, "seriously, was the 'princess-treatment' really necessary?"

Jia's plain expression quickly turned into a grin as she turned around, "you're back!" she exclaimed.

A girl with long brown hair tied half-up half-down smiled back at her.

She wore a black and blue windbreaker with black ripped jeans cuffed right above white sneakers.

"surprising, you turned boss mode off" she commented.

The relationship between these two was strong due to their fathers being close—on nights like these they would be doing acts of payback together.

Jia recalled it had been two weeks since their expulsion from their previous private school.

After the principal had called, Jinx's father grounded her; during those two weeks, the two weren't allowed to meet.

'I guess time's up' she thought.

Like Jinx, Jia was also an heiress.

The girl was born as the only daughter of Chian Yen Shui, the Dragon Head (leader) of the East Triad's Yen Clan.

He had become the first to create a Traditional based Chinese-Japanese Triad Syndicate, mixing both Yakuza and Triad members—the two organizations were brothers in crime after all. Although, to outsiders, Chian Shui was one of the most successful multimillionaires in Japan; all while there were no speculations of the real business he was in charge of.

The punishment Chian gave his daughter was something he knew she would dread—assigning Jericho as a personal body guard.

Jia's independency complex was something her father teased her about, and thought it would be a suitable punishment since Jericho would always be by her side—especially when she didn't want him to be.

She despised it, complaining that her father demoted her right hand man into a punching bag even when she was more than capable of dealing with fights herself.

And since he was her bodyguard, only Chian could give him the order to stop.

Jia lifted her foot from the unfortunate man and glared at him, "you have ten seconds to get out of my sight, if you attempt to murder one of my members again, your severed head will be thrown at your leaders face"

With repeated bowing and nervous hyperventilating, the man slowly got up and limped his way out of the alley.

'He won't make it through the night anyway, might as well give him a slower death.'

Jinx's eyes widened as she tilted her head, "what did he even do?"

Jia placed the bat on both her shoulders and draped her arms over it, "he tried to murder Hart!" she shouted, "you know I hate when idiots from small groups think they're all high and mighty, I couldn't just forgive the fact he tried to murder one of our friends"

Her best friend stepped back with a creased eyebrow, "and you didn't kill him?"

'I guess I should've.. oh well,' she thought, 'if i don't kill him, internal bleeding will.'

Hart was in the Vanguard rank, but recently he had also been helping in one her fathers more important ranks—Red Pole; he was now reporting to Chian daily.

Despite these changes, he was still one of her best friends, and she was taught that any harm to them, or anyone in her clan was not to be tolerated.

Jericho hung his head low and sighed, "Jinx.. Jia left me in the store"

'The past two weeks I've had a babysitter on my ass 24/7, of course I left him' she thought.

Her best friend gasped dramatically, "how dare you, Jer's been nothing but a faithful henchman!" she then smirked and smacked Jia's arm lightly with the gun she was holding.

"Ow!" she yelped, rubbing the stinging sensation.

"In my defense" she started, "two hours ago, some random idiot tried to kill Hart while Jericho and I were still inside the grocery store! I went to help, but he saw my tattoo and ran" she paused and pinched the bridge of her nose, "I got so pissed that I sent some others to go after him.. but they idiotically lost him so of course I went after him myself"

"How did I not notice that.." Jericho furrowed his eye brows together, "wait - where is Hart? he wasn't outside when I paid"

The three began walking out of the alley, "after I left, I ordered someone to take him to the hospital.." Jia answered, "by now he should be in the estate resting"

"Jeez for Hart of all people to be caught off guard.. I hope he's okay" Jinx said, "also wasn't he the one you had a weird crush on back then?"

Jia looked away, "no.. and I don't recall telling you something that ridiculous, REMEMBER?"

Jinx mouthed an 'o' and nodded, "right right"

"and I was not told this because?" Jericho crossed his arms.

Jia face palmed.

Jinx waved her hand dismissively, "don't worry bout' it"

"Tell father to send us a car" the girl ordered Jericho; he nodded and with a few taps on his phone, a limo was sent on its way.