Chapter Text
Ume’s perspective
Location: Entertainment District
“Get away from me!!” A young girl with long, dishevelled white hair with messy bangs along with pale lipstick and lapis blue eyes with long lashes yelled out in anger and a bit of terror, shifting about on the ground with a scowl as the rope binding her body stopped her from doing more than rolling across the dirty floor, resulting in both mud and dirt clinging onto her torn, pale pink kimono with an irregular square patterns with a horizontal lines across it and her hair.
“Shut it you little bitch! This is what you get for stabbing me in the eye!” A bald and frankly hideous looking boy yelled out as he threw a kick at the restrained girl’s face, causing Ume to cry out in pain before she got cut off by this same brat stomping down on her head and rubbing her face into the dirt. She didn’t even need to see him to know that this sick bastard was smiling sadistically the whole time.
“All you had to do was be a good little slut and pleasure me, but you just had to defy what was expected of you. A shame that such beauty was wasted on a fool like you.” The boy said before once more stomping on the dirtied girl’s head, making her bleed and tears well up from within Ume’s eyes.
“Onii-Chan…. Please save me.” Ume couldn’t help but mentally beg for her older brother, knowing that he could take care of each of these bullies without issue as one of the boy’s servants walked forward with a flaming torch.
“And what are you all planning on doing to that child?” Suddenly though, before the torch could be lowered and used to burn the poor girl alive, an unfamiliar and highly displeased voice spoke, and thus drew attention to its owner, with even Ume moving her head to look at this newcomer. Because of that, she was greeted with the sight of a frail man with black hair tipped with red, red eyes, a pale skin complexion and what seemed to be a birth mark that could be confused for burnt flesh at a glance, looking very much ill to the point where his figure somewhat reminded Ume of Gyutaro. As for clothing, the man was wearing a pale blue kimono, a black checkered Haori that was orange in colour and a pair of Hanafuda card looking earrings.
“What does it look like you old dumbass? We’re about to burn this bitch alive for stabbing me in the eye!” The boy yelled out angrily, and despite the circumstances, Ume’s stubbornness took over as she cried out.
“You piece of shit liar!! You tried to sexually assault me when I refused your money!!!” The girl yelled out, even though she knew that the servants, the boy, and this sickly man wouldn’t care, and earned a pissed off glare from the one-eyed bastard. And as a result, she missed the look of cold fury from the man.
“Shut it you whore!!!” The boy screamed at her before snatching the torch from one of his servants before raising it into the air and swung down with it, but out of nowhere, the sickly man appeared in front of the boy and grabbed the arm holding the torch and squeezed with a shocking level of strength, making the boy cry out and drop the torch while the man grabbed it with his free hand, twirling it around to put out the flames.
“I would normally suggest that you leave and rethink your actions this night. However, I know that people like you are nothing but cruel and won’t change.” The man said, and when one of the boy’s servants drew out a knife and went to stab him from behind, the sickly-looking man thrusted out with the torch without turning around to look at the one who tried to claim his life, the blow strong enough to knock the air out of the servant’s lungs and making them fall unconscious.
“K-KILL HIM YOU FOOLS!!” The boy cried out to the remainder of his servants, who all appeared to be a bit hesitant, but all 9 of them obeyed the orders of their young boss. Then, faster than Ume could ever hope to react, the sickly man became nothing but a red blur and as soon as his figure solidified, all of the attacking servants fell to the ground face first, completely unconscious.
“H-How….” Ume couldn’t help but whisper with eyes wide in shock, unable to believe what she saw. Not even Gyutaro could move that fast.
“S-STAY AWAY FROM ME YOU MONSTER!!” The boy screamed out in terror, running away into the distance until eventually, Ume lost sight of him in the darkness of the night.
“Now, let’s help you young one.” Snapping out of her shock at the gentle voice directed at her, Ume lifted her head up a bit to see the sickly man bend down and easily untied the rope binding her legs and arms, even helping stand back up.
“There we go. Are you okay though? I can understand what you just experienced must be traumatic after all.” The kind man questioned her, excluding and aura that Ume found herself relaxing despite her desire not to. After all, you could never truly let your guard down when you were born in the lower reaches of the District, which was practically a sex city and even more so when your older brother was unjustly considered an ugly thing and was one of the most well known and young debt collectors. But despite that… this man truly did make her almost feel like Onii-Chan was standing right next to her.
“Y-Yeah. But… why did you help me?” Ume couldn’t help but question, really too stunned to process everything and honestly, who could blame her? She was almost sexually assaulted a few hours ago, some rich brat with 10 adult servants (all of whom were currently unconscious on the ground) just jumped her, she was tied up and beaten and was about to be set on fire before this sick looking man, who looked as if he would fall over from a strong breeze, showed up, beat up everyone and was helping her! That just doesn’t happen in the Entertainment District! Okay, perhaps if you had a high social standing in this place but otherwise, it was a luxury that Ume should have virtually never received and she knew that for a fact!
“All I did was simply something that anyone with morals would do. Though, based on your reaction and the… reputation of this place, I can assume that you have never been treated with kindness simply because it was the right thing to do.” The man answered her, before frowning as he referred to the place they were currently in and its inhabitants, which made Ume scowl and glare at him venomously.
“That’s not true! Onii-Chan has always done his best to look after and protect me, even when everyone treated him like he was worth less than the dirt on the floor!” The young Shabana said, and she was once more taken aback as the man did another thing she wasn’t expecting. And that was smile at her with the smallest bit of relief in his body language (No, this wasn’t right! Where was the anger and slap to the face she had come to know from the parasites in this hellhole!?).
“I’m happy to hear that you had someone to lean on for support. Do you know where he is? I’m sure he and your parents must be anxious to see you are well, and they should know what occurred just now.” The man said before asking of her, which made Ume scowl again. Though this time, it was more out of bitterness towards her parents rather than this man, though a bit of it was still directed at him. Seriously, just who was this guy!?
“It’s just me and Onii-Chan. According to him, mother was simply an alcoholic and suicidal waste of air that tried to kill herself many times, even when she was pregnant with me and my brother and when I was born, she tried to kill us many times until she eventually died because of syphilis. As for father, I know nothing about him except that he used mother as a one-night stand and I was the result.” She informed the man, who frowned with displeasure and a small yet furious aura that caused Ume to flinch and close her eyes, before then slowly opening them when she felt a soft hand rest on her should comfortingly, making her face the man once more.
“I’m sorry to hear that you and your brother’s lives have been filled with so much struggle, suffering and misfortune. But for now, why don’t we seek out your Onii-Chan so that you are safe and around someone you are familiar with once more.” The kind man said, getting on one of his knees to look her in the eyes with his hand outstretched for her to take and honestly… Ume couldn’t help but nod her head when she saw how gentle those dark red eyes were.
“Get away from my sister!” Suddenly though, before Ume could even reach out to take the offered hand, a voice she was very familiar with yelled out in a rage and she barely saw the shine of a light on a metal Kama, but the man easily jumped back without issue while a figure laned in front of Ume protectively.
This figure was one that Ume had known her entire life and she had always felt safe around him, no matter how much the idiots of the District tried shoving the idea that her brother was a Demon down her throat. Because this figure, Gyutaro, was a fairly short boy about 5’0” tall with an unhealthy-looking pale skin tone and a slim looking body with some heavy signs of starvation that has left a lasting mark on the older Shabana. He also had unruly black hair, worn messily styled with uneven bangs and several locks, eyes that were notably bloodshot and were a pale blue colour, with visible veins lining his sclera, a set of missing and uneven teeth and ink-like markings in the form of black spots and a flowing water-like pattern on his face. As for clothing, he was wearing a short-sleeved wide-striped kimono that was mostly clean outside of a few tears and dirt spots on it, though he had no footwear and as a result was barefoot.
“Onii-Chan, wait! This man saved my life and stopped me from being burnt alive by someone that tried to assault me!” Ume quickly yelled out as she leapt forward and hugged Gyutaro’s back, who seemed surprised and while he still glared at the man with suspicion, he shifted most of his attention to hide Ume herself from view with his own body and wrapping an arm around her to provide comfort.
“Ah, so you are her older brother. I’m glad to see how much you both truly care for each other. And thank you little one for trying to diffuse the situation a little.” The kind man spoke, kneeling down to make himself appear less big and to look them in the eyes while still keeping the distance, causing Gyutaro to look this man over suspiciously but relax ever so slightly.
“Who the hell even are you old man?” The debt collector questioned with his words being drawn out a little like normal, which earned a frown from the man. And despite both siblings instinctively thinking that this was a show of anger, something about the smile felt… wrong to associate it with that emotion.
“My name is Tanjuro Kamado, my young friend. But are you okay? You look like you are starved half to death.” The man spoke in concern, making the older Shabana scowl.
“And why the fuck would you care? Bastards like you have never helped without wishing for some favour you could call in.” Gyutaro disdainfully questioned while Ume looked curiously and quickly became lost in thought. After all, there was simply no way this man could be from even the higher parts of the District since she doesn’t recognise him at all and nothing about him is similar to the people that live in this accursed sex city.
“Perhaps… he could be our way out. If he went out of his way to save me and hasn’t even insulted Onii-Chan despite everyone else doing so… then would he save us both like he just did with me again?” The young beauty questioned to herself, before looking up and interrupting the conversation being held by the two sickly looking males.
“Can you get us out of here?” Ume asked the question, causing Tanjuro to raise an eyebrow at her while Gyutaro looked momentarily surprised before getting serious.
“Ya sure about that Ume? We worked hard to give you a reputation in this place that will make your words matter after all, but if you want to leave, then we can try to by ourselves.” Gyutaro asked her in a whisper, making the young teen nod her head in serious confirmation.
“I’m sure! After all, a rich bastard tried to… you know what. And if it wasn’t for Kamado-San, I would be in a ditch and burnt to death for defending myself!” She cried out with tears in her eyes, causing Gyutaro to fully abandon watching over the man that saved her in favour of holding Ume close.
“All right then. I’ll always be here for ya sis.” Onii-Chan told her with a gentle but toothy smile, but both of the Shabana siblings turned their attention as Tanjuro approached them, but still kept a comforting distance.
“Well, given what happened to young one and what I can assume you have been through based on your figure and Kama, I could never refuse children asking for help. So, after you two pick up anything you may need at your home, I would be honoured to get you out of here and if you wish, grant you shelter with my family.” Kamado-San told them, holding out his hand to be taken once more.
“All right old man. But I promise you, if ya hurt Ume in anyway, I won’t hesitate to split open that skull of yours.” Gyutaro warned while holding out his Kama at the sickly man to emphasise his threat, earning a light chuckle and nod of acceptance from the man.
“I understand given the environment you have grown up in. Though, if I can ask, what are your names since you shall be living with my family now.” Tanjuro accepted before asking, which resulted in Gyutaro lowering his weapon before taking the Kamado’s hand with his own empty one.
“The name’s Gyutaro Shabana. And this is my sister, Ume. You better not go back on your word, or else things won’t be pretty for you man.”