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"Help! Please let me in!"
The side of my right fist was red and aching from the excessive strength I used while banging at the meat store's front door. I couldn't care less, though. This too important to quit over a temporary bruise.
The air was cold, and the heavy rain made it even worse that I wore nothing but a red silk dress, already soaked by the storm falling over me.
I must be an odd sight taken out of context. Luckily, or maybe not so lucky of me, everyone in a three miles radius had closed up shop and went home. A street that had hints of life from some other time, held no more than a stray cat or two and, of course, me.
Naturally, after so much time spent in front of a standard meat store without any sign of my sister, I thought that maybe I had the wrong place.
I must have checked the piece of paper she left me a million times before finally concluding, this was the exact address she wrote down. This had to be it.
So I kept on banging on the transparent doors, praying Saya hadn't moved, travelled or been out for the night.
Every once in a while, my head snapped to whatever sound I thought I heard that time. In my fertile -but often hazardous- imagination, the low thump of a tree branch falling to the ground or the simple hum of the wind, transformed into an alarming foot step behind me.
I startle again as another noise finds its way into my ear.
As much as I wish to mindlessly dismiss this one into the same bin as the other hundred, I realize this time is different. This particular sound didn't come from the pavement behind me, but from the room I have been trying to get into for the past hours.
I distance my hand from the glass and barely acknowledge the pain over the immense relief I feel when a figure emerges from the back of the store.
I straighten up as much as I can, which is not much at all at the moment, but it's force of habit. Chin up, shoulders back, that is what he always said.
A tiny woman walks towards me in an uneven rhythm, a slight limp on her left leg. She comes closer and the dim light of the night reveals the details of her face. Skin wrinkled with age, thin lips sternly pursed, and narrow, observing eyes.
"What is it?" The lady questioned with a thick accent as she eyes me up and down with disdain. "What do you want?"
"Please let me in, I need to speak to my sister." My voice sounds more exhausted than I would have wished.
"We are closed." She points to the sign hanging from the door separating us. "Only tomorrow. Nine in morning."
"No, no, no. It can't wait until tomorrow." I beg.
"Go away!" She gestures for me to scatter off, starting to seem annoyed with my insistence. "Only tomorrow!"
She has a valid point. It must be at least three in the morning. No shop is open for a reason. But I can't put this on pause for another five hours. I might not be alive to see the sun come up.
"Just hear me out." I place both hands in the air, a sybolic white flag. "I am not here to rob you or anything. I am a goo-"
A word hitches in my throat. I'm not a good person. If anything, I am the worst kind there is.
"My sister said I could find her here if I ever were in trouble."
Saying it aloud right now makes me realize: this is an unusual place for her to be. I dismiss any doubt in my mind as quickly as they came. Of course she would want to be somewhere far and borderline untraceable.
My sister is a lot of things, but dumb she is not.
"That is why I am here, I need her help."
She doesn't speak for a moment and I begin to think my desperation might have surpassed our clear language barrier. But the lady just voices another string of angry dismissals.
The air entering and leaving my lungs seems to get denser with each irritated word the woman throws my way. She isn't going to let me in.
I don't need to look at them to know that my hands are shaking. "Please, I need to see her. Her name is Saya, do you know her." Dear Sun, please know her.
Her small body freezes for the tiniest second. The eyes that have been shooting glares at me this whole interaction, shifted with a suspicious furrow of brows.
My knees are about to give out, when she analyzes me one last time, before turning her back and walking away.
My soul shatters.
Sitting on the dirty sidewalk, I allow myself to drop my head for the first time.
Deep, even breaths. There is nothing I can do now.
They know where I am and are probably coming to get me this instant.
I start to imagine what he would do when he sees me again. To him, I was nothing more than a disgrace, the most repugnant scum. Proved him right, I guess.
Perhaps this is a sign. A message from the universe telling me that shivering in the most unforgiving weather, waiting for my death is what I deserve.
"What is your name, girl?"
For a moment, I think I've heard that voice before. It didn't have the high-pitched tone of the woman's from moments ago, this one belonged to a man.
In a reflex, I use my arms to shield my face.
A big hand touches the side of my arm with a steady grip.
"Jun Kuroki!" I say, keeping my eyes tightly shut. "I'm just looking for my sister, I swear!"
"Jun Kuroki, sister to Saya Kuroki, I've been told." The voice is calm. "You can be at ease now, Jun. I can bring you to her."
'Can' not 'will', I would only notice later.
With my shoulders still tense, I slowly open my eyes. I was so convinced, but at last, I don't recognize him.
He stands above me -a black umbrella in one hand and a cane in the other- looking down. A big man that looked much politer than the woman before him, but I can tell he can be very menacing if called for.
"I am Master Lin." Gradually, I hear my heart slow down and push myself up from the ground. "And I'm very interested to know why such an esteemed member of the Yakuza mob is doing at my front door."
***
A/N:
Hey my dudes, welcome to my new story!!!
I just wanted to write a disclaimer so lets get started:
This is a Marcus fanfiction based on the show deadly class. I have not read the comics and i am writing with the information i have from the episodes that are out. Pls dont be mad if i take some creative liberties in this fanfic.
A/N 2: i am editing this right now (march 18th, 2021) and I just realized how bad I was at writing. I'm so sorry for this awful storytelling you had to endure.
