The Lion’s Den (2)

"YOU SHITTY YAKUZA HOW DARE YOU!!!"

Haruna's eyes which were initially filled with confusion shifted to utter rage as she grabbed the umbrella next to the door and lunged at Reiji with a war cry.

"H-Haruna? W-Wait! It's not what you think!" Reiji yelled as he took multiple steps back in surprise.

Of course, the gyaru didn't listen as she started swinging the umbrella with a crazed look, shifting her position so that her beloved grandmother was behind her for protection.

Reiji didn't know what to do. Catching the umbrella would be ridiculously easy for him, but with her current state of mind it was more than likely that it would just set her off even more and look for a different weapon instead.

So he chose the dumbest possible option, but one that would definitely let her simmer down. He stood there and took it like a man.

An idiotic man, but a man nonetheless.

*WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK*

Reiji just looked at Granny with exasperation as the umbrella continued to rain down hellfire, with Haruna completely focused on trying to do some damage, though it barely tickled him because of her lack of strength and the umbrella's flimsy quality.

But what he saw made him almost pop a vein on his forehead, because that twisted old hag was almost bent over with laughter, clutching her stomach as she tried to hold it back.

"HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, WHAT THE FUCK, HAHAHAHAHA YOU TWO LOOK LIKE COMPLETE IDIOTS," She roared with glee at the comical sight, tears pouring down her eyes and past her glasses.

Haruna who had completely ignored the expressions of her grandmother in her horror, had failed to see the amused look that she thought would be fear, so hearing her Granny laugh like this shook her out of her focused daze as her hits slowed down.

"What are you laughing at you old bat!!?? Are you just going to stand there and watch the show?" Reiji snapped in frustration, nursing his body when Haruna finally stopped.

"Yes, of course I am hahaha, I haven't seen something that funny in a long time!" she kept giggling even though the 'show' was over.

"Long time? With your age, is that like a 100 years ago?" he muttered, still a little miffed about the situation. This earned him a glare from the old woman, who turned to Haruna.

"Haruna, give him a few more hits," she ordered.

The poor girl, who was now completely confused, tilted her head in response. Reiji could practically see the smoke flowing out of her head, as if she had overheated.

"Can someone tell me what is going on? Do you know him Grandma?" she finally asked hesitantly, still keeping a cautious distance away from him.

"Umm... Kind of? He's..... Wait I don't even know your name," Granny replied, turning to Reiji with astonishment.

"You keep calling me 'brat' and 'little shit', of course you don't know my name," he retorted with a wronged expression.

"Hey that's not fair! You don't know my name either because you keep calling me 'hag' and 'old bat'!"

"Don't forget 'fossil', and yeah that's true. That makes us even I guess."

Though Reiji obviously knew who she was, he couldn't possibly reveal that.

"STOP TALKING, YOU TWO! I NEED SOME ANSWERS, A LITTLE CONTEXT PLEASE!!" Haruna couldn't take it anymore and lost it, begging for a revelation.

"Ok, ok sweetie, calm down. I'll tell you what happened, take a seat first. This dumbass has a toilet mouth but he's not dangerous, ok?" the old woman soothed, pulling her to the sofa.

"Not dangerous?? Don't you know he's part of the Yakuza?" Haruna questioned a little worriedly. She could see that her Grandmother clearly had a soft spot for that man, but she had heard nothing but bad things about him.

"Eh? Yakuza?" the old woman blinked at Reiji, asking for clarification.

Reiji who had been silent for now, scratched his head in irritation.

'This shitty identity, I can't decide if it's good or bad, fun or annoying,' he thought internally.

"Gah, my dad is the one who's a Yakuza, it's not like I specifically asked God to send me to a gangster family," he said bitterly.

"A Yakuza? Isn't your dad the l-leader of the Yagami Syndicate? How can you just call him a simple Yakuza?" Haruna added with a hint of fear.

"What does that change? If anything it's even more unfair because I don't even have the option to stay out of all the affairs," Reiji massaged his temples and answered her.

Granny, who had simply been observing till now, finally interjected.

"Aha, so that's why you knew those guys were imposters! Everything makes sense now!"

"That's what you're focusing on?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Then tell me, are you going to hurt me or my granddaughter?" she asked.

"Of course not, I'm more worried about my safety here! One of you slaps people's backs with a skill level honed through centuries of practice, and the other starts attacking people with an umbrella on the first meeting!" Reiji was truly aggrieved.

The two women's faces turned a little red because they knew he was right.

"Y-You can't blame me Y-Yagami-san, with your background, your terrible reputation, your delinquent looks, and the scene that I walked in on.... Anyone would have done the same!" Haruna stammered.

"Thank you, for summing it up so perfectly," Reiji snorted sarcastically.

"Alright that's enough you two. Haruna, have you personally seen him do bad things?" Granny asked in a slightly angry tone.

"Errr.... No? But everyone talks about it!" she shrunk away a little because she knew a lecture was coming.

"I thought I raised you to judge people from your own experiences, not from other people's words. I'm disappointed in you," the old woman whispered sadly.

"Granny....I...." Haruna looked crestfallen, which made Reiji sigh.

"Don't blame her, the rumors are mostly true..... I used to be a little.... hot-headed. But I'm trying to change."

"Change? I haven't seen any change you foul-mouthed brat," the Granny snapped with a smile.

Reiji just twitched his mouth and turned to the door.

"Well, I guess I'll just leave now. Don't want to make Haruna uncomfortable."

"Ah? Who said you can leave? You cooked the food so you can leave only after you eat it," she added fumingly. "We can explain everything to Haruna at the same time."

"Yagami-san cooked?" Haruna asked in a daze. Nothing was making sense to her.

Seeing that Granny had no intention of letting him leave, he resigned to his fate and went to the kitchen.

***

Meanwhile a few blocks away, a slim high school student with a normal-looking but unassuming face was walking through the streets alone.

"Gehehehe, today was pretty nice! Yuzuki-san looked so hot, and she even shared her lunch with me! Hina looked a little jealous too!" he said with a slightly perverted smirk.

"That teacher also got mad at the Yakuza fucker because he skipped class, I wonder if he'll get into trouble again? I can't wait for that!"

He strolled to the Game Center a few minutes away from school to meet his friends for an outing, which meant that Hina had gone home by herself today. His hands in his pockets, whistling without a care in the world, Kazama Riku looked happy and excited.

But suddenly his steps faltered as an odd expression adorned his face, turning to look at a deserted sidewalk across the road from him.

"Hmmm..... that's strange...."

He scratched his spiky brown hair quizzically.

"I feel like something's missing..... Whatever, if I can't remember it, it can't be important!"

Riku skipped away, swinging his arms in joy.

***

"Wait, so Yagami-kun helped you out and you brought him home to treat him to food?"

The old woman started explaining everything while Reiji served the food onto three plates, starting from how the three man haggled with her and threatened her with a fake Yakuza identity, ending with Reiji carrying the clothes home and cooking the food.

Haruna listened with wide eyes the entire time, because everything that was said completely subverted her thoughts about the man that the entire school was scared of.

Seeing how easily and closely her grandmother had interacted with him, she was expecting that they had known each other for a while at least. But it turns that they had met only an hour ago?

"Don't take things too seriously, I just happened to be there. Here have some chicken and lemonade. Granny, you drink a lot of it, the walk in the sun must have dehydrated you," Reiji cut in as he placed the plates on the coffee table.

Haruna stared blankly at both Reiji and the plates, alternating between the two. She didn't know how many more surprises she could handle today. His evidently good cooking skills and his care for the old woman was more than a little shocking.

"Yeah yeah, make sure you eat some too," Granny responded, lifting her chopsticks and taking a bite.

Haruna followed suit, digging into the food in front of her.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"Hmmm, not bad kid. It's pretty good."

They both looked stunned, but Granny looked like she was trying to hold it in because of her pride.

"Ha, holding back a compliment is like holding back your shit. It'll give you constipation," Reiji sneered as he ate some as well, nodding happily at the fruit of his efforts.

"PHHROO HAHAHAHAHA"

Haruna spat out the food unintentionally and started laughing, while the old woman gave him a death stare.

"I really need to wash your mouth like I washed the clothes, should've done it at the same time!"

The meal went fairly smoothly after that, as they had some small talk about random topics and laughed about the morning's incident.

Haruna looked a little distant at first but she slowly warmed up a little, but they still avoided anything to do with Reiji's identity or school life in general.

It seemed like she was thinking about something but he couldn't quite tell, so Reiji brushed it off. Soon enough, they finished the meal and Reiji stood up to leave, he had stayed here long enough and was dying to go back home to digest everything that had happened.

"Thanks for having me over you two, and sorry for scaring you even though it wasn't on purpose," Reiji said as he put on his shoes.

"You better visit sometimes, I know where you go to school!" the old woman scowled with her arms crossed, but her eyes betrayed her affection.

"Can you stop with the threats for fuck's sake?"

Haruna, who had been standing to the side, stepped forward.

"Granny, I'm going to go do down to see him off. I'll also apologize at the same time for my.... attack."

The woman tilted her head slightly but then shrugged and walked off, leaving Reiji in his confusion as to what Haruna was thinking.

He didn't stop her though, and they closed the door behind them, walking down the stairs in silence.

'Fuck, this is going to be nerve-wracking!'