Sasha shook his head, a little smile on his face, endeared by the curiosity.
"I've never had to." He admitted. "My cousin, the one who was with us, she also doesn't partake. But she's never been afraid to tear someone's throat out if need be." _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“And there’s just a whole pack of you, literally?” Sayuri asked for clarification. In general, the idea of having more family members than fingers to count on, was pretty foreign already to Sayuri. It only enhanced her wonder by it being a family of werewolves. “Is there anyone in your family who isn’t a werewolf?” She asked then.
“My brother-in-law is human, an uncle as well. They both married into the family and haven’t gotten the bite. Everyone else is like us though.” Sasha explained. “Were you born into it? Like me?” _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Sayuri and Sasha camped out on that rooftop for the rest of the night. It was necessary, as Sayuri watched from over the ledge of the rooftop, Yakuza patrolling the streets below, well into the wee hours of the night. Sayuri couldn’t help but giggle to herself still, watching them pool in the street below like ants, no one had the good sense to look up once. When Sayuri was still a girl, she would try to runaway all the time, she could never hide long enough or well enough before to not get caught. She lived in their city, she could spit on her headquarters they were so close. More than that, Joe had so little and the one thing he possessed happened to be sometimes useful; Sayuri was his prized hog so to speak. But she was emboldened by Sasha’s presence. She believed in her ability to get away this time; she would get Sasha to the Tokyo embassy, she would escape Joe and become apart of a real pack with someone like her. When the sun came up again, Sayuri blinked her two black eyes and rubbed the sleep from them before observing the streets below.
They were empty, or so it appeared. No foot soldiers, no slow passing cars with tinted windows. They would be mostly on foot, or so their plan was originally. So Sayuri was concerned about being recognized along the way, Sasha with his distinguished appearance and blue eyes, Sayuri with her short little dress and tall heels. So she crawled over to the other ledge, the part of the roof that faced someone’s balcony. She peeked over the edge and looked down, if she looked into the sliding glass door of the patio, she didn’t see movement or hear any noise with her superior hearing. She dropped down then and landed on her heels before looking around. There was a clothesline with mostly fresh bedding clipped up. There were sunglasses and a bucket hat resting on a glass end table between two reclining lounge chairs. She popped the sunglasses on first before admiring herself in the reflection of the sliding glass door before calling back up to Sasha.
“Come on down, I found a cute little disguise for you.” Sayuri called out to him before removing the sunglasses.
Remarkably, Sayuri was less concerned about herself. Even given the hand she had been dealt in life, she was largely an unwavering optimist. She undid the straps on her heels and kicked them off first before ripping the straps off the shoes entirely. Who would miss a pair of strapy club heels? They weren’t even Sayuri’s if she was being honest, they belonged to one of the other girls at the cabaret. Once pulled off, she used the strings to tie her hair up. Sayuri hadn’t had a proper haircut probably since before she was taken by the Yakuza. It was long, stopped just at her tailbone. Her bangs were a little choppy because she trimmed them herself, but she did like having some hair in her face to conceal whatever punishment she had previously endured. Being on the run and short on resources didn’t stop Sayuri from pulling her hair into two effortless buns; heart shaped, like she had originally planned to wear it for the sit down. Had Joe not whooped her unconscious the night before, she would’ve presented herself differently. She might’ve even brought a cute little purse with her if she had the time to prepare.
She was still wearing her little satin dress with Sasha’s coat over top. It had been warm, even at night, but she still kept it on with the middle button done. It made her feel safe somehow, even if she did look a little bit ridiculous in it. It almost sat at the same length as her little cocktail dress, and the sleeves were longer on her than Sasha; reaching her fingertips. It almost looked like she wasn’t wearing anything under it, and now she had cast away her heels as trash. Sayuri was a girl who could handle herself in heels, a kurabu-zuki on her mothers side, even so she was not going to walk to Tokyo in them, she would rather walk barefoot.
She turned then and started rifling through the laundry on the clothesline. There was a heavy quilt and a fitted sheet, but between the flat sheet and pillowcases on the outside line, were several t shirts. Sayuri had already decided she was not abandoning the jacket, so she decided Sasha could have his choice in shirts though she wasn’t positive if they would fit. Sasha was not a Japanese man, he was tall and while more on the slender side, he did appear muscular under his button down. She could see the width of his biceps under the thin cotton, stretching the fabric when he moved his arms a certain way. She did try to look preoccupied after tossing the shirts to him, pretending like she wasn’t looking between blankets for any more garments. But she still hoped to sneak a peek out of her peripheral vision.
——
Once properly ‘disguised’ and ‘freshened up’ for the journey, Sayuri dropped from the balcony with purpose. Kobe was a bustling city, heavy with salarymen, students and tourists alike. But Sayuri moved through them with ease, cutting through the crowds like a cleaver and leading Sasha down quiet side streets and residential neighborhoods. She knew her way around more than well. But as they were getting further from Kobe’s city center, it became apparent that Sayuri knew more than well. She may not have the same superhuman healing that Sasha did, she wouldn’t know this is the term for it, but she seemed to have some sort of synesthesia. She seemed to have an eidetic memory, spatial sequence synesthesia. She knew effortlessly where they were going, even when needing to take shortcuts. If there was a quicker way that cut through a cul-de-sac by hopping a fence, she knew it and took them.
“This is a senior center now, but this used to be a strip mall like ten years ago.” She would explain, leading them down a one way behind the building. “But if we follow this way, it should still lead here-“
And following the the pavement around, it showed an open area that had a creek and water reserve on one side, and train tracks closest to the parking lot on the outside. Sandwiched in the middle, was a little dirt trail.
“These tracks aren’t for the bullet train, or civilian transportation. It’s just for freight, so no passengers to spot us. And it’s all water on the other side until Higashinada! So, semi safe traveling.” Sayuri said with a pleased grin and offering Sasha a thumbs up.
She was right of course, they didn’t see another person the whole walk. Sayuri was an inquisitive person by nature, and being that Sasha was the first werewolf she had ever met outside of herself, the walk was full of conversation. Sayuri explained to Sasha that her mother was a werewolf, after her mother before her. But she never got to know her mom that way. Never saw her change and she never spoke about it, she didn’t have a talk with Sayuri about what her first time might be like if she were to change too. Instead, Sayuri went through her own change by herself, locked in the apartment bathroom. Her mom was long gone by then and her dad was just plainly not home. Originally Sayuri thought someone had spiked her drink when she was at the club earlier, she felt hot and like her skin was peeling off. The first shift for werewolves seemed to always be hard, their whole biological makeup changing in an excruciating process. The pain was so much, Sayuri passed out. When she awoke, she thought she had died And been reborn. Jacked into the consciousness of something else. The bathroom was destroyed, like a wild animal had been trapped there. She remembered what she noticed next was her own scent, the smell of a werewolf was something distinct. It wasn’t stinky, but it was strong and only detectable between werewolves and other supernaturals. She couldn’t recognize it then, but she could now, she smelled like her mom.
Her father would confirm it for her later, she wouldn’t have anyone else to ask. He explained what he did know, which was not much. He knew that Sayuri’s mom and grandma were ones and there was a chance she would be too. He said he had only seen Sayur’s mother, Sayaka, change into a wolf a couple of times. The first time, was of course to show him that it was the truth. He described her as being big and beautiful, her coat was thick and deep; he could sink his whole hand into it before reaching the actual body. She was a tawny color under a layer of charcoal grey and she had a black stripe that went down the length of her back to her tail. The other times after that were on his birthday and for special occiasions because he thought it was cool. But he explained she never changed again after they left Gifu, and when she became pregnant with Sayuri they weren’t sure what it would do to the baby. So Sayaka decided to live as a human from then on and didn’t even acknowledge that part of herself.
“Except for my grandma, if she’s still alive somewhere, there are no more wolves in Japan.” Sayuri explained, sounding sad but only on the edge of her voice. Even living at the cabaret, being surrounded by people all the time, there was still something so isolating in being the only one of her kind. To herself with this knowledge she couldn’t share with anyone else, she wondered if it was because wolves are pack animals. That’s how she explained her instant gravitation to Sasha as well, sensing that ‘otherness’ in him and rushing to towards it. “I guess there’s a legend about a samurai who wiped them all out like a hundred years ago. It’s just me now, I think.” She finished explaining this as a freight train barreled by. She stopped speaking then because the sound of the train was blaring, but she didn’t startle at all as it blew past them. The ties in her hair waved in the wind and blustered through her bangs. She turned to admire the sunset then, the rosy orange sky reflected in the reservoir. Sayuri didn’t get to see many sunsets like this, the sun still set in the city of course. But she never saw the sun so close to the horizon, not being crowded by tightly packed buildings. This was purely sky, and sun and earth; no smog or street lights to interfere. Sayuri was a city girl at heart of course, she loved things that were loud and busy and colorful. But this was nice too; her first uninterrupted sunset since she was a girl. Even on the run with a Russian mobster, she felt at peace.
——
They followed that line all night into the morning. There was a crossing for the tracks, and Sayuri warned Sasha that they were going to be in a populated area again. She pointed out the university in the distance, and where the freight train tracks crossed with the JR Kobe line that carried passengers.
“It won’t be like in the city, a little more suburban.” Sayuri explained, but she used suburban like she wasn’t positive that was the best choice of description but its the one she landed on. She was right though, it wasn’t as crowded as the inner city, and there weren’t many people out and about yet since it was still early. They passed quiet little apartments with covered gardens, there were advertisements in Japanese plastered over the glass; they were for hair plugs and other cosmetic things. There were lots of soda machines lining the street as well, Sayuri checked a few for any loose or forgotten treats; they had been walking all night. So when rounding an alley corner, Sayuri spotted a little onsen and got an idea.
“How do you feel about taking a soak?” Sayuri asked as she sort of jogged up to the building in her bare feet still.
The building front was mostly painted red, the lettering was in varying colors though, pink, blue, lilac and green. It wasn’t open yet, but she was mulling over possible opportunities for when it was.
Sasha hadn't slept much during the night. He'd dozed off here and there, but was never asleep for long as the lively city sounds below, as well as the yelling from the scrambling yakuza members, kept him up. Normally this would have annoyed him, but it was hard to feel annoyed as he watched Saiyuri's giddy expression taking in the sight of the mess they'd caused below. It was clear she was pleased as peaches to have pulled one over on her longtime captors and that pleasure became Sasha's pleasure when he saw her smile. At one point, he'd moved from his spot further back on the roof and laid out by her side, arms folded to form a perch for his chin to watch the chaos below, though he'd be a liar of he said he also didn't watch Saiyuri as well, even as she dozed off to sleep.
When the morning came, Saiyuri awoke and took all of ten seconds it seemed to jump into action. She hopped down to a balcony below with a practiced ease and left Sasha to wait above until she called him down. Not one for acrobatics like his cousins and uncle, he moved with a little less grace, but made it down easy enough. Saiyuri quickly and cheekily plopped a hat atop his head and slide a pair of sunglasses onto his face before giving him several options of shirts to give him a "proper disguise". The shirts weren't designer or even particularly trendy, but Sasha chose the most inoffensive of the lot and changed out. He did not miss the way Saiyuri watched him and admittedly he enjoyed it.
----
They talked quite a bit on their journey, filling the silence rather than letting it settle between them. Sasha didn't mind, in fact, he rather enjoyed hearing the tales Sayuri told him.
When Sayuri told him about perhaps being the only one of their kind left in Japan, it made him ache a little for her. Being a werewolf already meant he was seen as "other" by mainstream society, a monster even by some, but that had hardly bothered him as he came from a pack of monsters.
He wondered how lonely it must have been for her all those years, but then that thought was quickly followed with the thought of how resilient it must have made her. He had only known her for such a short time, but he could tell that despite having been alone and dealt a rough lot in life that her spirit had remained unbroken. He didn't think he would have been that strong and he admired her for that all the more.
"Well, come to New York some time, my family would welcome you." He offered with a smile and a soft nudge of his elbow as they walked along the tracks.
----
Sasha was no stranger to pulling all-nighters. During his time at NYU, he spent long hours sequestered in the Law Library doing studying and doing general research for his degree, but when they closed up, he often migrated over to Bobst and continued his studies there until the early hours of the morning. The law program at NYU was already rigorous, but Sasha was determined to outshine his peers wherever feasible and his efforts proved fruitful when he graduated top of his class and passed the bar with a breezy sort of ease that left some in awe and others in annoyed jealousy.
Though mob work was his main job, he still played the role of lawyer often. He mostly worked behind the scenes on behalf of his family, figuring out legal loopholes and finessing documents, but sometimes he represented family affiliates and foot soldiers in court whenever the law caught up to them. Determined to win all of his cases and keep said associates out of jail, he would sometimes stay up all night before a case prepping everything to a T. Even if the charges were minimal, Sasha was never someone who half-assed anything in his life.
That being said, walking all night had definitely taken a toll on him and he was grateful when they came upon the modest onsen. He'd welcome any sort of rest and he'd be even happier to soak on a hot bath. His feet ached something fierce and though he was sure they were fine, he felt like the soles of his dress shoes had practically worn through.
"That would be amazing." He said before quickly remembering his lost wallet and phone. He tipped his sunglasses down at her and quirked a brow. "But...how do we plan to pay for it?" He asked. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
The present conundrum of not having money was not lost on Sayuri, she had not forgotten. But Sayuri had been poor her whole life, so she was accustomed to figuring things out without money, in fact, that was one hundred percent of her transactions. She always stole, be it money or things, purloining was a side effect of her resourcefulness. She did feel some remorse, taking advantage of a small business, but she often did with the yakuza. It was no secret that the yakuza maintained local authority by way of extorting small businesses. It was a fact of life and if she did it for Joe she would sure as hell do it for Sasha. Her brown eyes flittered over the building, the red brick walls and the multicolored sign, the morning sun glistening against the polycarbonate signage. She couldn’t see the inside from her place on the street but you wouldn’t know it by her gaze, she was sizing it up; from the outside it seemed like Sayuri was solving some sort of equation. And when a sideways smirk broke on her pink lips, it was clear she had solved it.
“I’ll handle it.” Sayuri began, finally turning to Sasha with a confident grin. Sayuri smiled a lot, especially for someone who was constantly getting abused. It was just in her nature, and she knew that smiling in the face of her offenders was the one thing she could do to spite them. Sayuri was cute of course, and whatever she lacked in appearance or wardrobe, she compensated with charisma. But she was not necessarily beautiful by traditional Japanese standards. Never mind her halved pinky, her back tattoo or the regular black and blue bruising she sported. Her face was round, and her eyes were a bit large though they maintained their traditional eastern shape. The inner corners were still downturned and her eyelids were monoloid made to look more interesting with glitter eyeshadow. She had her zigzag beauty marks, splotchy and alternating in size from small to large. Her lips were naturally more full, her cupids bow was not so pronounced, weak in fact. But when she smiled, her upper lip still curled cutely where her cupids bow should be. “You just follow my lead, enjoy a nice soak while I do what I do. I’ll come find you later.” Sayuri finished, grinning still.
—
The onsen wasn’t open yet, as Sayuri observed when they initially walked up. But there were a couple of cars in the small attached parking lot already, telling Sayuri that the owners or workers were already inside. It was a weekend, so they were set to open soon at peak lunch hours. People, locals and tourists alike would be getting off the nearby station and looking for a quick soak. Sayuri would prey on their carelessness as she had been known to do. Sayuri explained to Sasha, that they would wait until after the next train came. They would wait and watch not too close by for a good handful of people to go in first. Not too many though, than it’s too crowded and Sayuri would have too many eyes on her. But enough people trying to politely avoid eye contact while waiting to get into the onsen. While they waited, Sayuri explained onsen etiquette to Sasha, as he would have to go on without her when they got into the bath. After some time had passed, Sayuri made her move and nodded for Sasha to follow behind her.
The inside entryway had a machine to purchase you onsen ticket. This ticket would be exchanged with the clerk for a key. This key was for the lockers, as well as the onsen door. Sayuri recalled coming to onsen with Joe and the gang, of course they weren’t technically allowed in to soak because of their tattoos and crime affiliation. But it’s not like you could really keep them out, if the Yakuza wanted to be somewhere, they would. Joe and everyone would huddle around the ticket dispenser, there were often a combination or number of times you could press the buttons to activate an automatic disbursement of tickets. She would have to make an educated guess since they were all different. She peeked ahead of the people in front of them and again at the front clerk, nonchalantly of course. When it was hers and Sasha’s turn, she approached and turned her body to the side to somewhat hide what she was doing. She picked the pockets of Sasha’s coat, fishing out a business card and pretended to insert it like a credit card before hitting buttons like normal.
“Ah jeez, the ticket is stuck I think.” Sayuri said aloud with a chuckle, looking around for help. She repeated it in Japanese, smiling sheepishly, trying to look helpless and inconspicuous. Nobody piped up to offer assistance, which is what Sayuri had hoped for before jamming a button repeatedly until it spit out a ticket. She smiled, triumphant as she handed the ticket to Sasha with a wink. She tried to do it again, but nothing came out. Sayuri’s lips pursed; she wasn’t defeated though. There was a plan B for this, she already knew what she needed to do.
She waved for Sasha to follow her up to the clerk at the front counter. It was a young girl, perhaps a relative of the owners that needed a job while off from school. She was petite, shorter than Sayuri who was considered tall by Japanese standards. The girl had a black, blunt cut bob and big circle frame glasses that made her eyes look four times larger behind the lenses. Sayuri smiled at her, she didn’t mention not getting a ticket from the machine but instead pointed to Sasha. In Japanese, she explained that this was her foreign friend who needed help navigating the onsen. It seemed an easy thing, taking advantage of Sasha’s good looks. He was sort of exotic looking by Japanese caliber, being so tall and lean with his bright blue eyes. The girl smiled at the notion of walking him through the onsen, her cheeks pushing up her glasses when she smiled and nodded politely. She took Sasha’s ticket and held up an onsen key before coming around the counter and gestured for Sasha to follow after her.
Sayuri waited for the girl and Sasha to disappear the big double doors that led into the main locker room. The glass was frosted, obscuring the view on either side. Once their shapeless figures weren’t decernable by the naked eye, she reached over the counter with ease and plucked an plastic onsen key. These things were mass produced and generally a universal fit across the board for lockers. Before the girl came back from the men’s locker room, Sayuri took the plastic key and let herself into the women’s locker room. There were still some bodies in there, Sayuri chose to look busy, like she was going to take a soak. Which she did plan too, they had walked all this way and Sayuri did it in bare feet no less. While she wouldn’t say it bothered her per say, it didn’t feet great and her feet were badly abused from it still. She did what everyone else did, she disrobed and rinsed herself, she put her hair up in a towel and waited until everyone else had filed into the room with the open air baths.
Once they were gone, Sayuri got to work. She took her little plastic onsen key and went back into the locker room. She began opening lockers and rifling through belongings. She didn’t bother to take cards because they could be reported stolen quickly enough, it did not benefit her to take plastic just to swipe it and be declined as she tried to use it. Plus people were less likely to realize they’re missing cash, most people think they miscounted or misremembered how much they had on them. Any physical yen she collected from purses, wallets and pockets, she stole away and put back in the inside breast pocket of Sasha’s jacket that Sayuri took ownership of. All together she had about 7000 yen; she felt pretty pleased with herself and after her own locker was secured, she went to reward herself with a warm soak in the bath.
Sasha's eyebrows rose high and he blinked at the teenaged worker that had been manning the desk as Saiyuri sent her his way. Japanese was lost on him unfortunately, so he didn't quite understand what was exchanged between the two, but he got the gist when the girl touched his elbow and gestured for him to walk with her. He politely dipped his head in thanks for her "guidance" before throwing one last glance over his shoulder at Saiyuri at the desk. He understood that bath houses were generally separated by gender, however, part of him had hoped they could at least enjoy the hot water and relaxation together, though that thought quickly made the tips of his ears burn when he realized that situation would require both of them being naked and, as it was, he found Saiyuri very attractive. He quickly looked away from her and followed the teenage girl behind a cloth curtain that partitioned the entryway from the room beyond.
Being Slavic, bath house culture was something Sasha was familiar enough with. When he and his family did work in Russia, they were often invited out to banya after successful business dealings with other crime families and the like. Banya was mostly seen as a neutral zone where skirmishes were frowned upon (though there were certainly a few incients) as it spoiled the experience. That being said, most banya didn't mind heavily tattooed thugs nearly as much as he knew the Japanese did.
"Ah, um...excuse me? Uh...sumimasen?" Sasha said, unsure of his Japanese as he attempted to get the girl's attention. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
The teen girl paused and turned, she smiled when she looked to Sasha, with a little flush in her cheeks even as she looked back at him.
She said something in Japanese first before pausing and speaking again, probably realizing he might not speak Japanese. “Question?” She asked once, pushing her glassed up her nose with her index finger. They were close enough to the open air baths, steam and heat could reach them; causing the teens glasses to fog up a bit. This young girl didn’t speak English, but she was going to take every opportunity to talk with this handsome foreigner.
Sasha, much like his father, was known for his silver tongue and charm. They both had an innate ability to win others over when they so chose and guide a conversation any which way they wanted which was very useful in their sphere of work. However, that hardly seemed to matter at the moment, as it was clear to Sasha that there was going to be some sort of language barrier. Still, he turned on his charm (not like that) and showed the girl a polite and almost apologetic smile. Even with their language barrier, he hoped that he could act the bashful tourist as to perhaps endear the girl enough to him so he wouldn't get kicked out.
"I'm sorry, it's just that...I have tattoos? You know...tattoos?" He said before feigning an embarrassed look around before grabbing the collar of his shirt just enough to reveal the black ink of a cathedral spire that made up just a miniscule part of his tattooed torso. Much like the other working members of the Nikitin crime family, his entire torso was covered with various crime tattoos and the occasional design dedicated to loved ones. Due to his "official" line of work, he kept his hands and arms entirely bare, but he was otherwise littered with ink. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
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