Little Red

Bio Extract: Tsumugi Rune

Tsumugi Rune, born into a branch of the Miyazaki family on the 19th of May 1995 at 9:38pm. Her mother is Tsumugi Mikoto, previously Miyazaki Mikoto, her father, Tsumugi Daigo. The Tsumugi family serves the Miyazaki family as bodyguards and protectors, hired muscle for the more valuable main family members. Tsumugi Rune, being born in the same year as Miyazaki Rei of the head family was chosen as her bodyguard. Rune has been raised to fight, with her body and with weapons: guns, knives, chemicals and explosives, in order to protect her master. It was not until age thirteen that Rune was deemed suitable for her purpose and took over guardianship of Miyazaki Rei. Rune has been nicknamed "Little Red Riding Hood" by other members of the clan, due to her constant wearing of a bright red hooded jumper, Rune is usually referred to as "Little Red" by everyone else apart from Rei.

~Four years ago~

The alley was dank and seedy and stank of old rubbish, mould, wet rats - the decay of the human spirit, industrialized and broken. But it was out of the way and saved time as a detour. Efficiency trumped aesthetics in the mind of Miyazaki Rei. You only needed to look good when people were watching, but the truth is always unpleasant. And always smelled of rats and mould and decay, an ode to progress - incomplete. Being Yakuza meant learning to live in the shadows, the seedy, swampy space between civilization and crime.

Knowing the alleys in a city like Tokyo was a skill, one that a lifetime could not master. Rei was only thirteen and knew nothing of the streets and alleys, but she liked them. She trod through the alley, childishly stepping around puddles of stagnant water and over trash and rats, alive and dead. Rei knew how the underworld worked and grinded and spat you back out. But she was comfortable, having been raised into the life and that gave her confidence.

A young man turned into the alley, with ripped, faded jeans and a slashed black leather jacket, flung open to show what would have been his chest, if it had not been covered in a bright red dragon's head tattoo. He spotted Rei dodging puddles, long white hair, knee length plaid skirt, blazer, bow-tie and his eyes lit up. Schoolgirl. Virgin. Easy.

"Hey! Sweetheart! What are you doing around here?" He called out.

Rei looked up from her game of dodge the puddles and took a look at the voice that had called out to her. She saw the clothes, the tattoo, the way he walked, cigarettes in his pocket and gun at his waist. Her eyes went blank and she turned her head down and back to her game.

Having been ignored the man gritted his teeth and produced a snarl, that turned to a smile.
"Oi! It isn't safe for you to be out here alone. Let me take you somewhere safe." he invited, a mocking gleam in his eyes.

"Maybe not for you" Rei answered, without stopping her game or looking up.

He swore under his breath, but his smile only widened. This was looking to be more fun than he expected. Breaking them was always the best part about women, especially young ones who were so innocent. He would be her first and he would break her, to the point where he was all she would ever have. The man pulled out a switchblade and flicked it, out, click, and then in, click, click, click, click. Rei stopped her game and looked up.

"Ah, finally got your attention, you little slut."

Rei waved, leaving him puzzled as a blur of red slipped past the corner of his eye. It was a girl. Another one. Same age, but wearing a red hooded jumper and those same faded, ripped jeans. A symbol of the streets. She looked like she belonged here, not like the other. The two girls in front of him appeared to be ignoring him, they faced each other and exchanged whispers, casually, though the one in red seemed worried. If they were going to give him two for the price of one and then put themselves on a silver platter, who was he to refuse? Fate was starting to give back some of what it had taken. It must be fate. Just as the man raised his hand and readied the knife to threaten and subdue the girls there was a voice.

"Stop"

And he stopped. It was not a human sound. The girl with the white hair has spoken the words, but that could not have been her voice. He lowered his hand and let the knife rest at his side obediently, without thinking. Something made him feel uneasy. It was only when Rei switched her gaze and looked into his eyes that he knew why. White eyes, white hair, white devil.

"You should be nicer to others. It might just save your life, one day."

An unexplained impulse of fear shot through the young man as Rei finished speaking, he heard the sound of gunfire ringing in his ears and a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest. But when he slammed a hand down on the pain, expecting to find blood, or a bullet wound, there was nothing but skin and flesh, the red dragon. His shock turned to fear which morphed into anger.

Anger at his own weakness, feeling threatened by a girl who couldn't have been more than fifteen years old. He noted the one with the red hood putting her hand inside her jumper, was it a gun, a knife, a taser, pepper spray or was it just a bluff? Part of him didn't want to find out. But the other part told him to go with experience, that teenage girls couldn't be worse than others he had beaten.

"Run along now, I'm sure you are very busy and don't have any time to waste on someone like me." Rei commanded.

He couldn't help it, what she said was true. The anger made no difference. He still wanted to hit her, to prove that he wasn't scared, that she wasn't a threat to him. But in the back of his mind, his body knew better and Rei's words, so full of condescension weighed his arms down. He did not raise a fist.

The young man sauntered away, hands in the pockets of his jeans, elbows held out at awkward angles, feeling and looking and moving with seething aggression. Rune brought her hand out of her jacket, off her knife and relaxed. Rei slouched and sighed. The man clipped an elderly lady not too far down the street where the girls could not see him. Fruit and vegetables sprawled across the pavement. He started picking them up and putting them back in their bag without thinking. When he was finished he handed them to the old lady who was standing rooted to the spot in fear that she was being robbed, said 'Watch where you're going. You old hag' and kept walking.

"Why did you do that Aneue? Rune asked, mystified.

"Because It was easier than destroying him, and less messy. Also, you are forgetting something important."

She lifted her finger for emphasis and quoted.

" 'Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.' "

"Niccolo Machiavelli." Rune answered, causing Rei to lift an eyebrow.

"Who have you bullied into teaching you?"

"Nobody, your uncle Taro helped me a bit to get set up, but I've learnt everything by myself" Rune said proudly.

"Hmm." Rei slipped a hand under Rune's red hood to rest on top of her head, running her fingers through her hair absentmindedly.

"You should drop the hood for school."

Rei flicked the hood back onto Rune's shoulders herself.

"Why?" Rune gasped, flustered.

"Because it makes you look like Yakuza."

"But I am!"

"Do other children scare you that much that you need to intimidate them?"

"No..."

"Then drop the hood, you look much prettier without it."

Rune didn't say anything, she simply stared at the ground, trying to hide her face, now flushed bright red. Rei smiled and began to head off to class, forcing Rune to move.

"If you really wanted to intimidate them, why not get some tattoos. Or you could just show them your knife or gun."

"But, I don't have a gun." Rune avoided adding in the fact that she didn't have one because she wasn't any good at using it.

"What!?"

Rei un-slung her bag and began to search through it mumbling.

"...Ah."

Rei pulled out a sleek, silver, automatic pistol, cocked it with a click and looked down the barrel and then offered it to Rune.

"Here. You know how to use it I hope?"

Rune didn't take it, she twisted and played with her hair.

"Of course..."

"Then tell your parents to get you one, a good one. Hurry up and take it."

Rei stretched out her arm, shoving the handle underneath Rune's chin."

"But if I take it you won't have a weapon!"

"Huh? This is just a back-up. I'm useless with pistols, can't aim for shit. That's why I have this."

Rei recoiled and lifted the front of her skirt revealing her thighs and choice of underwear. A polished black machine pistol, appearing unused was holstered outside of her right thigh with strips of ammunition circumventing her left, each held in place with a soft, black, elastic garter.
Rune stared until she dropped her skirt again and remained silent for a short while after.

"Is that also why you only wear long dresses and skirts?"

"Hm? I suppose so."

"I think they suit you, you look beautiful Aneue."

Rei's eyes widened at the compliment but she refused to let herself stumble over it.

"Yes. Now hurry up and take the gun!"

Rei thrust the pistol onto Rune's chest, making her take responsibility for holding it.

"Yes Aneue. Thankyou Aneue."

They turned to keep walking to school.

"And stop calling me Aneue"

"As you wish Aneue"

"Rei! My name is Rei, Rune! Use it!"

Rei hit Rune on the head playfully and both girls smiled.