Kirins judgement: the mad dog stray
Dogs tend to have the habit of staring their owners in the eyes to figure out their emotions
It’s something common for most animals, but especially with canines
They can receive humans in various factors
But sight is still an equally important one to their smell
You learned that when the Shiba Inu by gramps’s old clinic named cheesecake began to go blind
He could still figure out it was you through the distinct scent of herbs and sanitizer
And yet he couldn’t tell your mounting sadness for him as he laid down in your lap
Unable to sense your sadness as he used to when staring up at you
Sight was equally important to dogs as it was humans
So perhaps it’s a cruel irony the “mad dog” has only one eye anymore
A singular eye to glare with
A singular eye to see the world with in a dampened perspective
And yet as you tend to him he stares at you
Eye widened and gloved hands clutching a towel you gave as you stitched him up
One of his men sitting in a corner watching the entire ordeal go on
All the while the once rabid “dog” for once went silent
A deathly sort of silent that permeated in your makeshift clinic especially when you compare it to his later visits
It sticks with you then when he stares at you with a widened eye in total and utter quiet
And it sticks with you later when he loudly comes to your clinic to annoy you
And it sticks out just as he does with his mannerisms and appearanc
Because when a rabid dog stares you in the eyes, it shouldn’t hold that level of fondness in them to a stranger
As if recognizing an old friend in your eyes
The man known as “the mad dog” after his first appearance at your clinic drops in randomly one day
You were simply crushing up herbs
Making some simple herbal remedies when he came in like a whirlwind
He kicked opens the door and walked in with a certain swagger belonging only to a man who’s either overconfident or has stared death in the face and didn’t blink
His Voice is loud and boisterous much like his nickname implies
Like a mutts rabid bark as the man cackled at your confused expression
It became even more loud when you grimaced at the nickname he gave you
Quite frankly it’s a bad nickname on many levels, on one it’s cause it’s factually wrong
You don’t have a medical degree nor will you probably ever be able to get one
So you can’t exactly be a “doctor” even with all of gramps’s teaching’s
But secondly the “chan” part is plain weird
Especially when he then affectionately messes up your hair and then lounges around your clinic like he owned the place
Propping his feet up on a nearby table and watching you work while filling the silence with his chatter
Not even seeming to mind when you didn’t answer besides a few teasing jabs sent your way
But to be fair, what did you expect with someone with a title like him?
He’s just a weirdo plain and simple
Though perhaps not the worst one you’d run into in kamurocho
That would have to be saved for a select few you’d had the misfortune of running into
Particularly the grown men who were half naked on the street doing weird gyration dancing
Some of which Majima insists on beating the crap out of for your sake and cause “you’d be gettin a two fer one. I beat em up to a pulp and you get their money when I drag em to yer clinic”
As if that were an ethical way of going about it
But yet again what else did you expect?
Ryuji would’ve said the same
Despite his oddity Majima goro is a weirdo you grow to not mind with time
Even if it’s begrudging at first
Much like gramps your unsure of what to think of the yakuza man
He’s loud, abrasive, has a short fuse and sticks around unprompted
But beyond all that there’s an odd warmth that lingers with him
Like an old stray taking a liking to you despite being beaten and battered by the world
But like with all strays becoming attached you remain cautious
Even with favour they still can turn tail at the slightest of things baring their teeth and claws
And he’s a prime example of that
he has certain things that set him off
That make his brow furrow before he starts swinging fists
Like someone stepping on his steel toed shoes
Starring too intensely at his eyepatch
People’s hushed whispering behind their palms
At these actions (plus many more) he becomes his epithet
A mad dog barking and growling out curses while pulling out his knife
But even with all that he remains oddly docile with you
You’d seen him yell at his men before
Hit a few of them a couple of times
But he doesn’t do that to you, even when you unintentionally push his buttons
He just grumbles but ultimately lets it go
But you’d never been one to abandon someone in need (Ryuji’s face appears in your mind and you burry it away with a wince)
You’d helped a dragon and you’ll help a stray
A kirin’s kindness is both its greatest strength and weakness
He tags along with you on your weekly trips to various markets in kamurocho
He just one day starts tagging along with you much to your chagrin
But at heart you don’t really mind
Not when it scared off various unsavoury types as you took backs alley passages and entered shady areas
Not to mention your not upcharged quite as much
He seemed to know just like you when they were trying to squeeze you dry
And unlike you he had the intimidation to make them back down with their tail between their legs
But a win nonetheless when you need to pay bills and pay people not to ask questions as to why your running a back alley clinic alone at such a young age
Yet another one of your strengths
And Majima helps you carry back various herbs that you then organize in various jars
With that though he doesn’t leave like you initially thought
He insists on helping you further,so you end teaching him on what herb is which
And he helps you organize the batches each time
A small moment of calm that becomes a tradition
He sits with you at a fold up chair and table separating herbs, looking at leaves and stems for minute details
He grumbles they all look the same but ends up identifying them with pinpoint analysis that’s almost scary
You suppose that with one eye he’s gotten used to it and sharpened it like a blade to make up for the other being gone
Even if his depth perception was occasionally off he made up with his attention to detail
The radio plays old 80’s tunes that he sometimes hums to with a warm familiarity
Eye glazing over with a nostalgia that’s infectious
Their the same songs your aunties and big sis’s from back in your moms day used to listen to in the dressing rooms as you helped them with makeup
The songs they used to entertain to at the Grand in sotenbori in its golden age
City pop hits that weren’t popular to your generation anymore
Songs left to play only in the dressing rooms of the older women
Songs you learned from them with a fondness that you now seemed to share with Majima
He has a small smile as he hums along but it turns melancholy each time at the end
Moments of brief joy and overshadowed by a gut wrenching depression that settles In
You Just let him hum, and pass new things over for him to organize and make tea
He drinks it even if he complains half heartedly that he prefers beer
He still drinks from the old china set you’d been gifted by an elder woman a few houses down after you make her medicine for a low price
You both drink and simmer in the peace together
And for the first time his shoulders fall
He truly relaxes even if it’s in a fold up chair in the back of your shop that barley has proper ac
It takes a lot for a mad dog to trust
And for some reason this is enough for him to truly settle in
You miss him a lot quite actually
You mourn for him likes he’s dead some nights
Crying and sobbing into your lonely little bed that was a repurposed hospital bed
And to be fair that could be a possibility knowing his rashness
But with how Majima complains about the omi being up in arms about something lately you doubt that he’s dead
The mad dog grumbling while organizing your eucalyptus and ginger pots
When he tries to light a cigarette you stop him, pointing to a no smoking sign that he pouts at but complies to
Your perhaps the only person he’s listened to
Your unsure what to think of it but your thankful at the very least
His men whom you’d met time to time practically look at you like your the Buddha incarnate for being able to make their stubborn boss heel for once in his life
In particular his second in command Nishida looks like he’d aged 50 years when you told his boss to stop smoking cause you didn’t like the smell
And the yakuza with a grumble stamped out the bud
It makes you raise an eyebrow
But you don’t question it
You learn that not questioning things is for the better in most scenarios when it comes to yakuza or any sort of crime family
Just keep your head down and doesn’t think too much about it
You employ that tactic here just as you did with Ryuji and the Omi
You don’t question how they got the wounds they did
Just patch them up and tell them when to apply your handmade salve at night
Never going past the what of the wound
You slept easier not knowing how or why some men would turn up to your clinic with a knife still in their gut
Or a bullet still in their side
Made things easier to accept
Just as it’s easier to just accept than question as to why Majima cares for you the way he does
Why he suddenly stopped like seeing a ghost when he first saw you
Why he guards you like a dog would his master
Why you see a certain kind of regret and hope shine in his remaining eye
Why he looks at you with a familiarity you can’t place
Why he looks at you Ryuji did, as family
You shake the thoughts away as he grumbles about the cigarette but nether the less complies with your rule
“Addiction like that bleeds you dry anyways with the cigarette prices” you mumble handing him a cup of tea you’d freshly brewed “besides, I’d rather not have you die of lung cancer before you finish organizing my herbs”. It’s said as a joke but has a bit of truth to them.
It makes him cackle kinda like how Ryuji would cough out a laugh behind his hand
In a lot of ways Majima is similar to Ryuji
But similar enough that you sometimes feel yourself slip into the same comfortability you gave Ryuji
The type where you truly relaxed
The type where you actually laughed after a long day at a well timed joke
The type where you opened up a smidge
Never enough to hint at your…”job” and title as “Kirin of Kansai” before all this
You weren’t stupid enough to tell him you technically worked for the Tojo clans enemy even if you weren’t on the front lines
You were still involved enough to have that cause you trouble
But you tell him enough to tell the story of a child who grew up too fast
Raised by the kindness of others on a dead woman’s wish
One that despite it all survived and thrived in this underworld of death and misfortune
Like a flower growing between the ribcage of a corpse
Given kindness by the scavengers who found those lovely bones
They never needed to raise you
Never had to Do their best to ensure you lived
But they did because it was the right thing to do
For the sister in arms your older aunties lost
For the woman your gramps wasn’t able to help in time
For the woman who helped your older sisters learn the ropes when starting off as hostesses
For the child of a man they all mourned the loss of
The right thing to do wasn’t an easy one
It was filled with sacrifice on many levels
And it goes for most right decisions in life
You know that from experience
It’s easy to not do the moral thing
It’s easy to ignore Ryuji muttering about dealing with some “issues” at dinner when he lightly teases you then about having your head stuck in your potted plants all day
Easy to turn a blind eye when you patch up wounds, helping perpetuate the cycle of this conflict whether you meant it or not
Easy to say nothing and leave Ryuji when you know the better thing would’ve been to try and stop him head on by telling Jin or the higher ups
It’s perhaps hard to chose the difficult road when an easy one is there
Trying to now do the right thing
Trying to do better even if you still have a bit of hypocrisy in how you let a “mad dog” into your humble clinic as you once did a golden dragon
But it’s not like you’d be able to kick him out anyways
Not when the old one eyed “mutt” had seemingly claimed this place as a second home
Something you now don’t really mind besides some occasional complaining about him tracking in mud
He never drags you into yakuza business
Never talks about his exploits as Ryuji did
He just exists in your space sometimes
And your grateful for that
It at least makes the hard road a little less difficult to travel
Especially as you spend most of your time in solitude besides the occasional patient
It’s why on new years you let him in
his men go out to drink but Majima sits in your little clinic with you
A bottle of champagne in hand whilst the other sets up a table of mahjong
But one filled with a familial type of warmth as you would with ryuji that your sorely missed
You take a shot for the blond dragon you’d run away from to take the treacherous path of trying to stop him and do the right thing
And another for the troubled man you find before you
Both of whom you believe deserved better than to be the men they are perceived to be on an outer viewing
Yet both of whom drowned in a sea of loneliness behind it all
Majima says he pours one out for the past and its many many mistakes
But drinks one out for the present and not fucking up for once
You don’t inquire what he means in his drunken stupor
You just let him win mahjong instead
He smiles in a way you think he hasn’t earnestly done in years
It’s 2003 and by that point it’s known that the mad dog of shimano practically laid claim to your clinic
Not as territory but as a sort of protectorate within kamurocho
Anyone who started shit with you had shit with him
Which meant obvious trouble when he had no clear trouble barking up whatever tree he wanted without any hesitation
Especially when it came to you
A patient once refused to pay and he nearly lost a gasket over it
You had to cool him down and deal with said patient yourself with a sharp glare
But that experience quickly taught people that they couldn’t swindle you without him hot on their trail
And that you were one of the few to talk him out of bashing a head open
Something you think other yakuza are either grateful of or wary about since you’d seen many go out of their way to keep your good side
Instead just continue about your days in kamurocho with relative ease
Helping patients, particularly those in the poorer areas
Offering discounts to older customers and teaching younger ones how to take care of themselves properly if they get a nasty scrape or cut
All the while the so called mad dog of the streets stays by your side
Loyally in ways his bosses have never received
Calmly in a fashion he hasn’t been in years
He still has a temper, you’ve seen him enough to know that
But, you see he’s content
Maybe genuinely happy for the first time in years
It’s something noticeable
Something Nishida thanks you for as the list of men he snapped at whittles down a bit
But along with that perceivable difference is also the difference in how kamurocho now accepts you
Your initial appearance was met with caution
Apprehension from many of its veterans and locals
Majima perhaps didn’t initially help with that
But slowly they began to trust
Began to place their health in your hands
You were the little doctor who didn’t ask questions but offered care
The apothecary that made medicinal salves for low prices
The person who checked in on their patients because you genuinely cared
For each person that came to your clinic you memorized their names
You remembered their preferences towards certain medicines
Could recall what they came in for last
Slowly kamurocho began to trust you
And that trust offered protection
It offered an odd sort of love
The clerk at M store slips in a few sweets because you helped his grandmother with affordable medicine for her lung condition
The women on pink street whom you treat with respect as you did your aunties and big sis’s teach you what people to be careful with
Many of your older clients living in little Asia insist on making you homemade food as an extra treat for their medicine you insist is for free despite their protests
They also teach you to master Mahjong
In the winter you offered spare blankets to the homeless and gave them what little you had to make sure they could stay warm
In return without prompt they gave you heads up of anyone dicey looking for you
As a whole kamurocho slowly and silently accepted your presence like you’d always been there
They give silent thank you’s cause they know you don’t like grand loud gestures
Instead a container of soup is placed on your hands
Instead you get gentle nods across the street and restaurants giving extra food on the side they think you won’t notice
And each time you try to shove away the warmth in your heart
You didn’t deserve their acceptance
But you hesitantly take it anyways
“If you can’t find the mad dog, then Majima is likely at the clinic”becomes a common saying between Tojo clan
As does “the little doctor tamed the mad dog”
He pays it no mind and neither do you
People can say what they want and it doesn’t really get to you anymore
Not after the years of scorned eyes you used to get back in sotenbori before Ryuji came along to stop it
But you suppose this is less mocking and more teasing
Especially from your regulars and from Nishida who now knows 80 out of 100 times where his boss might be after suddenly disappearing
It’s not like their really wrong either
The oddly dressed yakuza could be found at your clinic most times
Whether for better or for worse sometimes
And he stays when he’s needed most
Technically you knew that working while with a fever wasn’t a good option, but you were partially raised by a stubborn old man and then by an even more stubborn dragon
You reasoned your body could handle worse
So you decided to organize and do stuff around your office anyways
You wouldn’t risk getting patients sick
But you also wouldn’t waste productivity in any sense
So you trudged on despite how your body felt like it was turned to stone
When Majima arrived at his usual time saying he got bored of “the usual shit those big wigs yap about” he quickly stopped at seeing your state
And before you knew it your dragged to bed despite protests
You can’t exactly blame him
Gramps and Ryuji would’ve done the same
But still you make it his problem to deal with as you keep attempting to sneak out of bed to do small tasks even when you knew you probably shouldn’t while being sick
He very quickly drags you back to bed with a deadly expression that would’ve scared anyone but you
After all this time you’d known him too well to not take his death glares seriously
Not when the most he’d do is grumble to you and maybe scowl
It’s not like with his men where he threatened to crack their head open or bark orders in their face
But still, after a few attempts that went unsuccessful you settled down into the bed
The fever fully catching up to you as he placed a cold wet cloth on your burning forehead
The cold feels nice against your sweat covered skin
It’s feels odd trusting someone to look out for you again
But at the same time it feels natural with Majima as it did gramps and Ryuji
A lot of things also feel natural in the way he cares for you
The way he breaks the persona he puts up as he calmly makes soup and sits at your side
Eye taking precise detail of how your hands shake at holding a spoon
So instead he helps you with it
Not once complaining in the usual gruff tone
Instead his voice is uncharacteristically clear and lacking the odd kansai accent and slang he typically used
He uses the knowledge you’d taught him about making herbal remedies and knowing what medicine helps with what to make sure you get a proper dose
Like your gramps despite being sick as a dog your stubborn in saying that your ok
In which a singular sharp look from his eye makes you back down with a annoyed sigh
And so he looks after you as the fever rages on
Holds hair back when you throw up in a bin and waits outside the door when you go to the washroom listening in case you fall
He texts Nishida seemingly telling him to tell everyone to as he put it “fuck off” cause he was busy
And when you lay back again in bed he holds your hand and talks to you of all sorts of things
Your not really sure if half of what he said was from some fever induced dream or if it was real but as he holds your sweaty hand in his gloved one he opens up
He tells you of regrets in his life
So Many regrets pilled atop of one another
He said it started with an eye
The imprisonment of a man he considered a brother
Continued on from there and hasn’t stopped
He tells of a woman named Makoto who’s life he saved, yet now knows is out there wondering if he’s alive but he can’t face cause he doesn’t want to drag her into his shit
Of people he left behind in a life that seemed so distant from now, that they probably thought he was dead and that was probably for the better
He tells of a woman he married but it didn’t work out in the end because of his own hand
A child he lost and mourned even if he doubted he’d be a good father anyways
And in your feverish state he talks about a woman he cared for deeply, maybe it wasn’t love on either of their ends but it was something
One who was the closest to ever truly understanding him, the two of them trapped in circumstance in a prison made to seem like freedom
He says he mourns the fact that until recently he didn’t even know she’d died
That she’d died and he couldn’t even be there for her
But he says he’d do his best to make up for it now as he squeezed your hand
And he whispers out a name with a misty eye
Due to your feverish state your brush off the fact he says your mothers name (you later on excuse it as your sick mind filling in a blank with a name you knew)
Instead you drift to sleep with him at your bedside
Like a dog guarding his master
(Or rather…a dog protecting his own flesh and blood)
By 2005 you hear whispers or rather Majima excitedly mumbling about “Kiryu-chan coming back from the slammer!”
You can’t say your not at least a little intrigued…and worried since the name had been ingrained in your mind since Ryuji’s similar mutterings
The dragon of dojima, Kiryu Kazuma
You’d heard about him both here in kamurocho and in sotenbori
Though both had glaringly different opinions on the Man
sotenbori’s was expectedly negative
Something more akin to a force of nature rather than a living breathing person
Ryuji’s bitterness and the hostility for the Tojo clan seeping into how they talked on him
When you patched up the older high ranking officers from the 80’s and 90’s they particularly had chipped shoulders about him
Some being at the brunt end of his violence
Some even proudly pointing out to old scars they swore were from him before you scolded them for being happy about scars
However In kamurocho there’s a much more complicated nuance to how they speak of him
Some seem to still at heart call him a brother even if they cannot say it aloud for various yakuza political reasons
Others talk of getting their shit kicked in by him for being rowdy assholes back in the day
But some like the old lady who gives you homemade miso soup says he used to help her carry her groceries and chase off petty street thugs
Hearing about someone in such a contrasting light
But in that light also shows something you caught on with him
And perhaps more importantly he was human with a moral code
He never killed before Sohei Dojima
An incident some mentioned in hushed tones beneath their breath all the while Majima told you about it one day like a high school girl telling gossip drama
And from what he said you can’t blame Kiryu if he did kill the man
A man like that would make the world a lot better of a place gone
Though you did feel pity for his son and wife
But not enough to not feel bad about him getting what he apparently deserved
Yet despite him Kiryu had never killed
From how others spoke of him he could’ve easily killed many
And that spoke volumes in a world of hushed secrecy and contradictory rhetoric
Maybe more honour than you’d like to admit ryuji had
(A hard thought you have to swallow down as you busy yourself with organizing jars)
But either way he was polarizing
And a placing figure you’d likely not encounter or maybe see in passing-
“Doctor-chan! I got you a customer!” The little bell above your door rings as it’s kicked open by a gratingly familiar voice
Majima drags in an injured looking man in a white suit and red button up….this is him isn’t it-
Turns out the rumours of the dragon of dojima being released was true
And now he was currently being dragged in, bruised and still bloodied, by a manically grinning Majima
Turns out when he was released from jail Majima had been waiting for him
…specifically to basically jump him on sight to see if he was still as strong as before
And while he put up a good fight
It’s obvious years in prison did something on him
And while he didn’t have the same strength he still had the same spirit
Which was enough for Majima to decide to drag him to your clinic to be patched up and sent on his way
Because apparently Majima had an idea to whip him into dragon of kamurocho state again by randomly jumping him till he was back to his former glory
Though you couldn’t expect less from Majima
But the injured dragon in front of you looks confused as you sigh and usher him and majima over
The mad dog grinning wildly as he patted the man’ already injured shoulder
“Careful Kiryu-chan! The little doctor has claws to cause some real damage! not to mention their under my protection, so if anything happens cause of you, yer gonna have your guts spilling out your chest” with that he disappears off to wherever as the legend he blatantly threatened just looks puzzled.
“That’s…the first time he sounded genuine about killing me” he mumbles turning to you as you pulled out a few things of medical equipment.
You look the dragon in the eyes, a man who’s been in jail for a decade and seen who knows what over his infamous years as a yakuza. To be honest he’s intimidating but also allot different to what you’d expected “Believe me, I don’t get it either. Now let’s get this check up over with.“
(Kiryu does not comment the fact that though your eyes remain calm they have the same eerie sharpness of the mad dog he fought less than 25 minutes ago)
