Tsubasa Matsuya tapped at her tooth. She was sitting awkwardly on top of a fallen adversary and had an odd look on her face. “I fink I ma’ hav’ chipped a toofth” she muttered. Xianying rolled her eyes as if this was a common complaint. This made sense to me as hitting things with her face was sort of her trademark. Xianying looked at the broken glass where she’d slammed the queen into my mother’s shop. “I’ll send someone to take care of the window. I apologize.” I nodded before shrugging. “It's alright. My mother just kicked me out, anyway.” She looked less than surprised. “I understand. All the same, it was a result of my lapse in discipline. I will have it taken care of.” Xianying bowed to me quickly before pulling out her phone and putting it to her ear.

“Let’s go” Xianying motioned to Tsubasa who climbed into the back of the ice cream van with her. Mako climbed in the driver's side and within moments, they were peeling away.

Blast and I stood amongst the fallen Cobras. A few of them were conscious and groaning in pain. However, none of them attempted to stand up. “I miss going to the kids dentist.” Blast stretched her arms above her head.

“They always let me choose the flavor of toothpaste they’d give me.”

My nose wrinkled.

“Not me. It was always banana and it was always horrible.”

Blast recoiled and made a face. “Ewuwick.”

“I confess, it’s been a while since I’ve brought a girl home.” Blast mused giving me a not so terribly wholesome look. I could not tell if her attempts to hit on me were genuine or if she only did it to get a rise out of me. I admit I’d been kind of pushing the whole ‘do I like girls?’ question to the back of my mind. There was a lot to unpack there but the answer was probably yes. I wasn’t shooting her down because I wasn’t interested. She was kinda cute in her own way. I just didn’t have room for it. I still had to decide if I wanted to bother graduating. The answer was probably yes. I had about six months of school left give or take. I may as well get my highschool diploma even if I never use it. I put up with school for the better part of 12 years. I may as well finish it.

The yakuza thing did make things easier for the short term. No point in studying for the college entrance exams, no need to apply to the National Defense Academy. I could focus on just finishing high school and trying to survive the yakuza lifestyle with as many functional limbs as I can manage. I really hoped my mom was going to be okay. I was sure me being there would only aggravate her condition and I really hoped she’d understand and maybe wouldn’t worry about me too much. Long shot, I know.

A thought occurred to me.

“Hey, Why didn’t you warn me we were gonna get jumped?”

The biker looked kinda dopey.

“I figured you knew.”

I put my hands on my hips in a way I hoped looked authoritative.

“How the hell was I supposed to, if you didn’t tell me?”

The asshole shrugged like she was getting scolded.

“You have eyes right? These dipshits were not exactly hiding. Why didn’t you check out the window?” I started dripping venom into my tone.

“Why would I have done that if I wasn’t expecting to get jumped?” Blast rolled her head to look at me.

“Because we’re yakuza. We should always be expecting to get jumped wherever we are.” Crap. She had a point. I was the one who let my guard down because I was at home. I was an idiot for thinking we were safe just because we were on home turf. I slapped my forehead.

“I got it, you’re right… can we just get going please?”

Blast’s apartment was cleaner than I was expecting and it only had one futon- because of course it did. Naturally, my internship with the Dragon was unpaid, so there was no way in hell I could afford to buy my own. No two ways about it, this sucked. She had a small kitchen that did not look recently used. A few take out and convenience store containers in the fridge- no surprise there. The freezer had an almost full container of rum raisin that looked like it had iced up really bad. I showed it to Blast.

“You can have it… turns out raisins are terrible.”

I nodded.

“I agree.” I didn’t hesitate in dumping it in the trash.

“Hey we might eat that...” Blast protested but quickly lost steam as she realized that was never going to happen.

“Are you done going through my stuff now? You want to ransack my panty drawer next?” Her tone was sarcastic but there was a twinkle in her eye.

“That’s not the worst idea.” I pushed past her and started flipping through her closet. I know you’ll be surprised to hear that it was almost entirely black.

“You are operating on a very limited color palette.” She brushed at some crumbs on her black tank top.

“Ya think? I spill coffee on myself all the time and nobody can tell.” I gave her a dirty look.

“So long as they lack a sense of smell. You smell like day old coffee all the time. Do you ever wash any of this...” I answered my own question by sniffing one of the shirts hanging. I was expecting the old coffee smell, but instead it was dried sweat and vinegar.

The stench sent me into a full-on hacking fit, I glared at Blast with eyes reddened and tearing.

“By Freyja woman, do your freaking laundry!” Blast looked… surprisingly sheepish. I was expecting her to come back with something. Instead, she looked downright embarrassed. She was more self conscious than I thought. I guess being called out on your bad hygiene habits was something that would be embarrassing for anyone. Dammit, I was feeling bad for her.

I inhaled sharply, not near anything that could send me into another hacking fit.

“If you give me money for the machines I will wash all of this.”

Blast’s face lit up.

“Two conditions. One, I want fried chicken for dinner. Two, you’ll let me borrow what I need from here while I’m staying.”

Blast beamed “Deal!”

She tossed a few crumpled bills at my head and bolted out the door.

“I’m gonna get dinner. Byeeee!”

Given how easily she’d said yes, I felt like maybe I should have asked for more. Well, in a week or so I’d be able to leverage this again. There weren’t that many articles of clothing here. Gathering them up, I quickly realized I could do this in a single wash load. The underwear was either just as black as everything else or so heavily stained it wouldn’t really make a difference. A few pieces were so full of holes they were beyond saving even if I knew how to stitch them up.

Her building’s laundry room was a pain to find, but I was able to locate it through the ancient ninjitsu art of asking the first person I saw in the hallway. Well, if it's not in the ninja handbook it damn well should be. Moving into a new apartment building is really like visiting a new country for the first time. When in doubt, pester the locals. Swallowing my pride and allowing myself to look like a complete fool going around asking stupid or obvious questions has helped me so much. You’d be shocked what having zero self esteem can do for you if you know how to use it. So what if I look like an idiot? I can’t think any less of myself than I already do.

I should call it “Kairi-” no “Edge’s guide to no longer giving a shit.” If this yakuza thing doesn’t work out, maybe I should try being a self-help guru. I just need something like one of those buddhist monk robes. I was just finishing the outline for my third book ‘Get over yourself and just admit you’re lost dumbass.’ when the dryer dinged. I grabbed up everything and hauled it back to the apartment. I made a mental note that we really needed a laundry basket or a bag or something.

When I got back, Blast was waiting and she did indeed have chicken.

“What the hell is this?” I asked picking up a chicken leg. She looked annoyed.

“Sorry, I just don’t really like chicken with the bones in.” I tried to de-escalate by explaining.

She rolled her eyes. “Well you shoulda said something.”

I fired back without hesitation.

“Well you shoulda asked me what I wanted before you ran off.” She shifted in her seat.

“It's chicken, what does it matter?”

I did my best to look incredulous.

“It matters because I have to eat around the bones and it's a hassle.” She just looked at me weird. I couldn’t muster any further argument. It was warm and I was damn hungry.