Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hebihara Yayoi rested her chin on her hand, elbow propped up on her desk and half-listened to the gossip around her. She had just started her second year at Shibuya High School after her mother moved her into an apartment so she could resume her life in Roppongi and for the most part, her experience at being isekai’d via Truck-kun wasn’t half bad.

She had already been living in Japan as an English tutor, so the transition was more or less the same. Except being born in the 80s instead of the 90s so watching technology evolve all over again was her only source of entertainment for the time being. Well, that and participating in illegal fighting rings for extra cash but with an absent parent who was gonna judge her for it?

Honestly this had to be the easiest isekai she’d ever seen because there wasn’t anything different? No major life events that she could see causing any issues besides her Mom declaring she was independent enough as a student; out of all the anime and manhwa series she’d read or seen nothing was pinging any alarm bells.

Well.

Up until she learned which anime alternate universe she became a part of.

“Uwaa! Hebihara-san, your hair is so pretty! Did you get it professionally done?”

One of her classmates tugged at the ends of one of the strands hanging off the desk and gazed at her with stars in their eyes.

“Nah. My mom did it for me before she left for her business trip,” she said.

It was nice to be at a school that either didn’t care or didn’t bother to enforce rules about hair. From what she noticed, as long as a student wore the uniform everything else was fair game. That and she was definitely in an anime because the hair and eye colors were varied enough that she honestly wouldn’t be able to tell if it was real unless she got up close and personal to find out.

“Isn’t that pretty much the same thing for you?”

Yayoi shrugged and closed her eyes, opting to drift into a light doze rather than give her classmates more fuel for the gossip wheel. Her mom, Hebihara Izayoi, was a renowned hair stylist for models and celebrities who was planning on retiring to raise her new family. Yayoi just didn’t…fit with that new lifestyle.

She got along well with her half-siblings and still saw them on weekends, but after nearly reaching adulthood a second time, she craved her independence. It didn’t take much to convince her mom that she could make it on her own as long as her mother paid the rent for her apartment until she finished school. It helped that her mom taught her some tips and tricks for dyeing/styling hair so if she wasn’t in the mood to scrap for money, she had some gang acquaintances in her back pocket who were always willing to shell out yen for a dye job.

Gotta love delinquents.

The lunch bell rang and she sighed in relief at being able to get up and stretch. She grabbed her blazer and shrugged it on over her hoodie before heading out of class and up to the roof. She could hear sounds of a scuffle so someone was probably brawling, but that wasn’t going to stop her from her nap in the sun’s rays.

“Look out!”

“Excuse me,” she mumbled and stepped to the side so that the body that was thrown at the door tripped inside.

The silence that followed would have been awkward as hell if she cared, but she had a routine to follow. As long as she could have her midday nap, they could beat each other to death for all she cared.

“Watch your back, Sano! Come on, guys. Let’s get something to eat.”

The latest pack of assholes that decided they didn’t like him left with one last kick to his ribs. Shinichiro grunted in pain and waited for their footsteps down the stairs faded away before crawling back outside and took a seat on the bench next to the girl he almost collided with.

“You have some quick reflexes, you know?”

He hadn’t seen her in any of his classes or in passing until now so it was safe to assume she was most likely a second year student.

…who was completely ignoring him.

“Ne Second year-chan, are you sleeping?”

“Mm…trying to.”

He tugged at the ends of her platinum blonde hair that fell over the side of the bench.

“You’re like a cat napping in the sun.”

Shinichiro chuckled when her face scrunched up and she turned onto her side. One amber eye opened to squint at him while she halfheartedly batted his hand away.

“Neko-chan is cute.”

If neither of them were ditching school, they met on the roof at each other’s preferred hangout at lunch for some comfortable chatter.

“Stupid.”

“What is?”

“You don’t know how to fight and your second doesn’t even go to the same school as you.”

“But I have Neko-chan.”

“Stupid.”

Yayoi scolded him and slapped a plaster on his cheek on a scratch that he had been picking at. She only had them on her because some cocky little fuck tried to knife her the night before, so she had brought her mini First Aid kit with her to school today.

Shinichiro ruffled her hair and grinned when she snapped her teeth at him.

He never asked how she knew about his gang and he never pried for more details. It was a comfortable friendship.

“Ah Neko-chan, you shouldn’t smoke on the roof. You’re wasting away your youth.”

“So? Hey! Sano-senpai!”

“Here, we’ll share.”

“Ne Senpai, if you wanted a kiss you should just say so.”

“HAH?!”

There was a rumor going around the school that they were more than just senpai and kouhai. It didn’t help that they had been seen leaving each other’s homes at random hours of the day–he would need to crash after a fight or she would need to crash because she would be having a victory drink nearby.

“How an idiot like you has any respect from anyone always confuses me.”

“But you call me senpai.”

“Hmm…guess I can just call you Sano from now on.”

“Mou, Neko-chan is so cruel!”

How this man didn’t have boys and girls throwing themselves at him was mind boggling. He was disgustingly charming because she was seventy percent sure it was unintentional. Best guess was the other thirty percent went into convincing members of his gang and others that his indomitable spirit is what drew them in like moths to a flame.

She supposed she could be included as one of those moths with how much time they spent together at his grandpa’s house.

“Back again, Ya-chan?”

“Yo, Sano-ji! I promised a Girls Only Day with Emma-chan. Let me know when she’s ready!”

While she had a baby sister, Yayoi didn’t have very many female friends. More than half the girls in their school either talked shit behind her back and/or went out of their way to avoid her. Sure, Emma-chan was ten years her junior, but it was fun having a little kōhai to dote on.

“Ya-neechan!” Emma shouted and jumped into her arms from the stairs. “Can we meet your baby sister today?”

“Hai, hai. We’re taking the train to visit Kaa-chan and Rio-chan for lunch and then we’ll have a sleepover while my brothers and stepdad are out camping.”

Yayoi lazily spun the giggling 6-year old girl before setting the child on her hip.

“You’ll have to teach her how to be the best little sister! She still confuses me with Kaa-chan when I see her.”

Sano-ji brought Emma her overnight bag and affectionately ruffled both hers and Yayoi’s hair.

“Shinichiro-chan is working right now, but one of his friends is here. I’ll ask him to walk you two to the station.”

“Un!” Yayoi grinned and headed for the entryway to help Emma with her shoes. She was just the sweetest little thing! Her Rio-chan was only a year old; she couldn’t wait for her baby sister to be old enough to talk and play like Emma could.

“...Rio-chan have eyes like yours or like her Papa?”

Emma was asking her while they sat together.

“Definitely more like her Papa! She has light purple eyes just like her brothers, but she’s way more cute!” She leaned in and pressed a finger to her lips, “But don’t tell them I said that! Rin-chan would be very upset with me if he found out!”

“Promise!”

Emma linked pinkies with her.

“Ahhh you’re so cute, Emma-chan!”

Chapter Text

“Ne, Arashi-kun,” Yayoi prodded while he escorted her to the train. “You do know I’ve been walking by myself like this since middle school right?”

“Neko-chan, please call me Benkei.”

Her cheeks puffed out in a pout as she side-eyed him. Ever since that first time he escorted her and Emma to the train a few months back, he would escort her every time she had to leave town to visit her family.

Frankly, it was ridiculous.

She literally lived less than a 15 minute walk from Shibuya Station! She kind of could see why Shinichiro was suddenly extra paranoid about her safety, but this was also the same idiot that didn’t bother to learn her name until he asked his grandpa ‘who the heck is Ya-chan?’.

She seriously pitied whoever ended up married to that idiot.

“You can never be too careful, Neko-chan. Rumor has it that the Golden Wolves have become active in this area.”

Yayoi snorted.

Such a bullshit name for the cream of the crop of the most ruthless fighters in the Underground Fighting Rings. Just because their eye colors were just one shade off from each other didn’t mean they were ‘golden’. 

“I thought you didn’t believe rumors like that, Arashi-kun. ” She said with a roll of her eyes. “I didn’t realize that a group of decent fighters made them a threat and it’s not like they stray from their turf anyway.”

“They don’t stray yet, Neko-chan! We gotta stay on our guard! You included.”

“...Arashi-kun, you do know that I’m not one of Sano-senpai’s underlings for the Black Dragons, right?” 

They were stopped just outside of the station. Yayoi had her arms crossed as she stared up with a brow raised at the suddenly sheepish Benkei.

She had been sitting alone for roughly twenty minutes before she was joined by a familiar waft of cloves and tobacco.

“I thought we agreed to not meet outside the Rings,” she said, one eye opening to glance at her side.

Tch.

Of all the assholes she had to bump into during one of her weekends off, it had to be the one who resembled a wolf the most.

Koyonagi Kyoichi.

If she hadn’t known she was isekai’d into an anime, she would have gawked at him when they first met right before she kicked the smirk off his face. He had a shoulder length mane of dark gray and black hair with eyes like bourbon. He was a couple years older than her and just gave off an aura of “douchebag only child”.

She made it a goal to try and break his face in every time they got paired for a match. That lasted up until she hit her growth spurt after her first year in high school. Yeah, she was still shorter than him but seeing him flinch whenever they got paired together pleased her.

“Haven’t you heard, Ya-kun? We’re a gang now,” he chortled in his usual way that made her want to break in his face with hers. 

Platonically, of course.

“Such a stupid name. What fanboy came up with it?” Yayoi groused, both amused and annoyed at the idea.

“Ahaha, I know right? Probably one of Hi-kun’s groupies that tagged along during last season’s tournament. Gen-kun broke one of the tables when he found out.” He slumped in his seat, casually throwing an arm over Yayoi’s shoulder.

She gave in and cuddled into his loose hold.

“Ah. That’s gonna cut into Hido-kun’s budget. Is he gonna be good for rent next month?” She was so full of it. 

They all were. 

You don’t fight the same people for years without butting into each other’s personal business during rest times or calling them in the middle of night because you had a nightmare because you went to bed drunk the night before. 

Genzo-san could deny it as much as he wanted; he was an emotional drunk and everyone in their crew knew it.

“Call me when you’re heading back to town. We can ride back together in our snazzy new jackets.”

Oh hell no.

“Kyo-kun…please tell me you didn’t commission matching jackets for our fake gang.”

“Fine. I won’t tell you.”

The intense urge to elbow him in the throat was very hard to suppress, but since they were still on the train she managed to resist.

All bets were off once the doors opened. After all, they were in her hometown and he really was asking for it.

“Gen-chan really got his own club, ne? Good for him. That brat owes me a drink next time he wants his hair done!” Hebihara Izayoi laughed and wrapped her arms around her eldest child from behind. 

“Assuming he has any hair left next time you see him, Kaa-chan. He has his hands full with trying to keep Hi-kun and Ryo-chan in school instead of fighting every week,” Yayoi said, leaning back into her mother’s embrace.

“It’ll definitely put him off having kids of his own anytime soon after he already helped raise you and Gekko-chan.”

They both chuckled at the memories. 

Amabuki Genzo was an assistant instructor for a MMA dojo in Shibuya where he taught the basic forms of a handful of martial art styles to kids. His dad would train them up once they hit their teens and help them once they decided if they were going to stay on as instructors or pursue other things.

After Izayoi split from Yayoi’s dad, she made sure that her daughter would be able to defend herself fast enough to run and find help. Or rather, her exact words to the then-fifteen year old Genzo was “Make sure my baby puts them down hard enough that they stay down,” while her fist was wrapped in the collar of his gi hard enough to nearly strangle him with it.

Genzo really wasn’t about to say “no” to a woman seven years his senior with a grip like that. Definitely didn’t help that his old man Gentaro had the hots for her either so Genzo also doubled as a babysitter for the six year old Yayoi.

“Gen-tan, I wan’ learn how to break their faces in.”

“Gen-tan! My arm feels weird!”

“Ne Gen-tan, a boy at school kissed me and I got suspended for kicking him through a window.”

Izayoi smiled fondly at the memories of how poor Genzo-chan ended up being the one who the school called whenever Yayoi got in trouble. Honestly, bless whoever ended up marrying him since that kid developed the patience of a saint. It was only fair she did the kid’s hair for free after he found an outlet for her daughter.

Conversely, she also pitied whoever married him because they would be put through the ringer with the amount of shovel talk that would be coming their way via Genzo-chan’s kids

“Tadaima! I’ve brought home a guest!”

“Okaeri!” Izayoi yelled back and pulled her daughter up to stand. “Come on, Ya-chan.”

Yayoi leaned into her mother’s touch and happily snuggled into her warmth. As much as she craved and valued her independence, being able to be close to her mom in this life was something she would never take for granted.