Fly Away

Chapter 10: Toshi vs Serizawa

"Souji, you don't have be an asshole every waking moment of your existence. And don't putting so much seasoning in the soup" They were making supper, arguing over the the blue haired boy Souji had decided was the perfect target to bully.

"I'm not an asshole!"

"Yes, you are! Name one reason the kid gave you to push him to the ground."

"He was taking too long."

"He'd just gotten to the well!"

"His very presence there was annoying!"

"Stop making excuses, you're an asshole so shut your trap."

"Whatever you say, wifey..." Souji's face had an impromptu encounter with a wooden spoon. Turning back to her work she mumbled about dumb motherfuckers. Not long after they heard a clamor from the entrance.

"Any bets?"

"Toshi and Serizawa, no doubt about it. Wanna go watch?"

"Hell yeah."

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"Would you care to repeat what you just said?" Toshi was staring down the drunk Serizawa. Had those eyes been fixed on her, Rin would have been a puddle of blubbering gooey apologies, but Serizawa either didn't know how eerily horrifying Toshi could be, or was too wasted to register the expression. "What arrogance ... What the hell did you just say to me, boy? "

"I'll say it as many times as it takes, we're new in Kyoto and need to make a good impression so keep your visits to the redlight district within reason." Toshi was using the voice he did when dealing with petulant children, a tone Rin hear on many occasions, mostly on the receive end. "You aren't the only ones who've decided to stay here." One of Serizawa's snivelling buffoons, Nimii, spoke up:

"How dare you talk to Serizawa-san like that!?" Leaning over to Souji, Rin said:

"Watch these morons crash and burn." The corner of her lip curled up into a sneer, and she could almost feel the same grin on Souji's face.

"I see how it is, and here we were setting ground work for the future of this organization ... you dare call that fooling around in the redlight district!?"An icy cold settled in the grey-eyed man's voice and his hand drifted to the steel fan at his belt.

"You were out lay the ground work, huh? I would love to hear what type of groundwork you were laying in Shimabara."Rin snickered. She could see that Toshi was also fighting down a smile."I don't give a rat's ass if you're from the Mito Tenguto, if you're going to throw around your status a samurai, don't give us reason to complain." Serizawa's eyes narrowed and he drew the fan up over his head then brought it crashing down on Toshi's head. The man didn't so much as flinch, the fan hovering a millimeter from his skull. Rin forced her muscles to relax and ordered her instincts to come out of danger mode. No brain goo, no murder.

"Why didn't you dodge? Did you stupidly assume that I would just stop? "

"Why would I have dodged? I didn't say anything wrong, so why would I?"Giving Toshi a dark glare, Serizawa walked past him, then growling over his shoulder:

"It wouldn't bother us if your little group were to break off from us. If you don't like my methods, you're free to return to Edo whenever you like. Let's go Nimii." The entirety of the group followed.

"Good riddance! "