The Other Side

[Levi DAmico]

The Japanese man’s phone was on vibrate, so when it went off, only he was aware of the unnatural pulsing in his breast pocket. Shiro looked over his company – his guardians – each one dressed in the same uniform of black suits, white shirts and sunglasses. It was hardly ever sunny in Canada, but, the men wore sunglasses without a fault. It was only when they noticed that Shiro was looking at them that their heads began to turn and Shiro smiled innocently, ducking his head and informing them that he had to leave the carriage for a moment. Obviously they wouldn’t be pleased with his declaration, but, their faces – starched and unemotional – would never express such. Shiro stood and crept for the door in plain sight, but was quick to discover that his actions were being mirrored by two of his guards. Shiro halted, turned and frowned. He didn’t need these men following him and gave them instructions to remain where they were. The two men looked to each other, looked to their companions as if to question their own hearing, but ultimately, they had no choice but to abide by the man’s wishes. As precious cargo as Shirosame was, he was not vulnerable.

Ultimately, Shiro left the carriage alone and slid the door closed behind him as swiftly as was possible on these trains. Being somewhat desperate for privacy and with the windows on the carriage’s door not being particularly accommodating, Shiro was forced to walk down the long, narrow corridor to find a quiet spot in which to answer the call. The cabin he was walking in shuddered softly, although by now the train was in fact travelling at great speed. Being miles from its next stop, it was only natural that the train would pursue a course that was proficient, leading the instructors to maintain a smooth yet rapid pace. All of the passengers on board didn’t seem to mind the faint jostling or the speed; they appeared happy to be keeping to themselves at any rate. Stuffed away in their seats beside the solid metal walls, their concentrations fixed upon the idol tasks that they were doing, they sat with a lonesome sense of satisfaction; feeling safe within the knowledge that their journey would proceed as scheduled and that nothing on God’s great Earth could either derail their plans or their train.

Shiro probably gave them all a half-second glance as he walked, gaining enough distance from his guardians so that he could answer the phone in peace. The call was probably on its ninth chirrup by the time Shiro had hit the accept button and put the phone to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Finally! ******* hell, Jaws. It sure took you long enough to answer the ******* phone!”

“Uh… Levi…”

Shiro felt his heart jump. He tried not to voice his surprise, but he wasn’t an effective multi-tasker. Instinct made him check the time and look out the window because he was sure it was only midday and he hardly ever heard from Levi until the evening.

“You busy or something?” Levi asked.

The low voice sounded serious and suspicious, as it often did, but Shiro shook his head even though the other man couldn’t see it. His eyes were focused on the window by now, watching the city blur into a grey smear across the white sky.

“No, not too busy. Just… had to escape the parasites is all,” Shiro said quietly. “Why are you calling me?”

“Just checking in.”

The frankness of that comment made Shiro frown. He tried to concentrate on the terrible floral wallpaper on the inside of the corridor around the window, or on the crumbling green paint on the window pane itself; anything but that heavy voice and how Levi managed to make him feel about as important as a drop of rain in a thunderstorm.

“So, where are ya right now?” Levi asked.

“I’m on a train headed for the airport.”

“Oh, so you’re shipping out again, huh.”

“That’s right.”

“No way I could convince you to stay another night is there?”

Although Shiro’s heart was beating faster at this point, he kept himself in check, his voice faint and apathetic as usual.

“Well that depends, doesn’t it.”

“Oh ******* does it now?” Levi growled, sounding amused and a little sceptical.

“Well if you’re expecting me to stay in this **** hole of a town just so I can nurse your hangover, then no. I won’t be staying another night.”

At this point there was silence between the two men. Shiro wasn’t entirely sure what Levi wanted from him, and even though the idea of hanging around just to see the angry Italian was exactly what Shiro wanted, he couldn’t just accept his fate as nurse. As much as he was devoted to this man, Shiro was repelled by him. Their tug-of-war relationship was exhausting, where Levi would take as much ground as he could and give little to nothing without Shiro fighting tooth and nail for the tiniest of scraps. But even then, when it looked like defeat was imminent, Levi wouldn’t let the game end. For whatever reason, he wanted Shiro around and the Japanese man had certainly acknowledged the sacrifice that went into throwing Shiro a bone now and again, just to keep him on side. Levi had pushed his luck a lot of the time and there had been points where Shiro had been determined to cancel their agreement and bid each other good day. Still, Shiro always ended up changing his mind either because of something Levi had said or done. In the end, he always ended up forgiving him.

Shiro suspected that he was probably in love with Levi. While he didn’t truly understood what it meant to love someone, he was sure he felt that way for this man. What he felt for his family, his parents, that wasn’t love, it was duty. He was obliged to think about their well-being because he was their only child. They had brought him into the world, fed him and clothed him and provided shelter; he was in their debt unto death. Since his family were the Yamaguchi, if Shiro ever disobeyed, he would find his death would come swiftly. What he felt for Levi on the other hand, was a true willingness to serve and protect and dote on. Of course Levi was fierce and brutal and harsh, but Shiro was never afraid of him. They could fight and bicker over anything and it wasn’t uncommon for their petty squabbles to mount into full-on brawls. Levi pulled his hair and teased him, often insulting him in full view of others, but it was when those words turned genuine, turned into gentle praises and affections – things no one ever knew about – that was when Shiro’s heart melted. He understood then, without really understanding it, that he couldn’t help but love this man.

“Well,” Levi ground out. “I ain’t really got anyone else to talk to.”

Shiro stilled for a moment, feeling a twinge of sincerity in the other man’s voice before he began to laugh.

“That’s probably because you treat people like ****,” he said viciously. “How do you expect to make any friends if you can’t play nice?”

“I don’t want friends,” Levi growled.

“Well obviously.”

“I just need you. To do what I tell you.”

Shiro frowned; obsidian eyes were on the floor. Without that pause, that declaration might have sounded like ordinary dick-headed Levi behaviour, but that pause was there. What did he mean by that, that he just needed Shiro? Did it mean anything at all or was it just a matter of needing to breathe at the wrong God damn time?

“Look,” Levi sighed. “Just meet me tonight, alright?”

Shiro sighed as well. “Fine. Where to? What time?”

“I’ve got a lot of work on, so, let’s call it 7pm. Meet me at the office.”

“Fine.”

“Ciao.”

“Mmhmm,” Shiro said dully, but he quickly found himself conversing with the end-of-call tone.

Aggravated, Shiro stabbed at the screen with his finger to hang up as well and was half-tempted to launch the phone through the window if it didn’t stop that horrendous beeping. This was one of those times where Levi had feet of rope to spare and Shiro was struggling to hold onto a couple of inches. Now he had to get off this train and get on another heading in the opposite direction. He also had to get rid of his guardians because Levi – sure as **** – wouldn’t talk with them around. He had to make the necessary calls to his contacts in Japan to explain why he wasn’t coming home as planned. And, finally, Shiro also had to find something to do to occupy himself for the remaining six hours or so before Levi would be willing to receive him – if he was going to be punctual, that was. Shiro gritted his teeth, cursing to himself, convinced that he’d make Levi pay for wasting his time like this, but all the while knowing that the ****** would probably get away with it like all the other times… Shiro’s cursing slowly turned into a sigh of regret and he put his phone away, straightened up and returned to his carriage. He couldn’t wait to tell his guardians the good news.

[Levi DAmico]

When 7 o’clock came and passed with all the propensity of life withering into ash, Shiro had decided that he had been patient enough. The Japanese man was always punctual. In fact, he was so determined to never be late that he was willing to be ten minutes early – at least – for every appointment he held. With Levi, however, that trait seemed to be little more than a venture into insanity. It was as though the more Shiro obsessed about time-keeping, the more complacent Levi became; like the man had nothing better to do than push Shiro’s buttons and see how long it would take until he snapped. Levi was a childish prick and Shiro was done playing with him. After that gut-wrenchingly heart-felt request to delay his return to Japan too, Shiro felt that the least Levi could do would be to stick to his own damn word and be on time. What was the Italian expecting? Was Shiro supposed to be grateful that the man was even at the location he’d said? That arrogant ********! Shiro felt the urge to draw his sword and go into that room swinging. He didn’t, but he did prepare to go in verbally swinging. When he barged into Levi’s office with not even a knock at 7:30pm, he felt wholly justified to rant, rage and list off the 101 ways that Levi was an arrogant jack-***. What he found, however, was that fiery breath due to flicker across an acid tongue got caught in his throat as he came eyes to chest with the source of his aggression.

“Uh… You’re late again…”

Was all Shiro could manage at that point and the flames of his rage seemed to leak out of his lungs and rise into his face. Shiro wasn’t aware that he was about as red as a stop sign – his skin being so thin and pale that he could easily go from milky-white to blood-red – but Shiro had noticed that Levi wasn’t giving any ground again. Their bodies were too close, hot and breathing hard. Someone needed to do something. Shiro stepped back so that he was standing in the doorway. From this distance he could finally make out Levi’s face, the insistence and urge to break and destroy shining clearly in his umber eyes. Something was wrong and someone had fucked up, and Shiro wasn’t sure he wanted to learn the details exactly. He’d tied his long, jet hair into a high pony tail, but that didn’t mean he was safe from having it yanked. His fists curled instinctively into fists, hidden beneath the long sleeves of his navy blazer. Shiro was not one to back down from a challenge, but the eerie look of stress on Levi's face made him stray.

“I told you I had a lot of work on,” Levi grumbled, his low voice sounding heavier than earlier.

Shiro nodded, but resisted the urge to avert his gaze; it wasn’t wise to take your eyes off of an angry beast.

“If you got here by 7, what stopped you from just coming in anyway?” Levi asked as he made his way back to his throne-like chair.

It was only then that Shiro breathed and felt safe enough to step inside that room which felt so much like a cage now. He gingerly closed the door behind him, his eyes not once having left the other man.

“Like you said, you had work on,” Shiro spoke cautiously. “I didn’t want to intrude.”

Levi made a sound that sort of expressed approval, but it was clear that he was still in a sour mood. Shiro tip-toed into the room to stand before the man’s desk; obsidian eyes losing their focus on the scarred Italian and moving onto the Newton’s cradle that, to Shiro’s surprise, had become a permanent fixture. A small smile crept into his pink lips, but it was gone the moment his attention switched back to Levi. The man had picked up a bunch of papers and was reading through them, Shiro wasn’t sure what he was meant to do in this situation.

“You’re still working then?” Shiro asked, still being cautious.

Umber eyes glared up at him, holding him in a moment of breathless uncertainty before they dropped back to the papers. Shiro let go of a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. He wasn’t afraid of Levi – not in the least – but he knew better than to poke a bear when it was already probably doing what it could not to bite your head off. Shiro really didn’t like standing around pointlessly, however, so he eyed the Newton’s cradle again and carefully perched himself on the edge of Levi’s desk beside it.

“I can’t believe you haven’t broken it yet,” Shiro remarked casually.

The remark caused Levi to hum and look at him, asking what the other man had said or expecting some kind of explanation. Shiro shrugged his shoulders.

“I expected you to throw it somewhere.”

“Why?” Levi asked with a frown.

Shiro shrugged his shoulders again, drawing a single slender finger along the metal bar from which the balls were suspended.

“You’re so weird,” Levi grumbled.

“How am I weird?”

“How are you not weird?”

Shiro’s eyes narrowed and Levi was quite amused by it, enough to set the papers down and give him his full attention.

“You like cartoons,” Levi started, umber eyes setting a challenge.

“It’s not cartoons, you prick. It’s Anime. And it’s an art form in my country, you uncultured little ****.”

“Uncultured my ***. It’s Japan’s version of comics.”

“Comic books!” Shiro corrected. “Comics are comedians.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Just because you don’t understand something, doesn’t mean it’s crap, Levi.”

“Say what you like, you’re still a ******* nerd.”

“I’m happy to be a nerd,” Shiro said, straightening up and putting his nose in the air.

“That’s just embarrassing,” Levi sniggered.

“It’s about as weird as your old book fetish,” Shiro challenged.

Levi quirked a brow. “Excuse me?”

“It’s not particularly healthy for you to surround yourself with old, musty books. It’s like you’re some crusty hoarder. I can see you sneaking into your own personal book dungeon to get your fix with a quick sniff every now and again.”

Levi growled under his breath. “You’re lucky I don’t kick you off your ******* high horse. You’re hardly one to talk about hoarding. How many apartments do you have exactly?”

Shiro laughed. “That’s out of need, not want. It hardly counts.”

“It’s more about your movie collections than your actual apartments though, Shiro. I’ve been to your place in Boston. That was bad enough. Don’t tell me you keep everything there because I know you’ll be flat-out lying.”

Shiro stilled for a moment considering what Levi had said and looking into that hard, accusing stare. Annoyingly, Levi wasn’t wrong, but Shiro didn’t want to admit that. In terms of movies, Shiro loved everything he could get his hands on; from film noir classics like The Killers to low-budget shockers like Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Levi thought it was all trash of course, so Shiro decided it would be better to change the subject than to let the ******** know he was – once again – right.

“So anyway,” Shiro said none-too-subtly and crossed one leg over the other. “Do you mind telling me why I’m not on a plane right now?”

Levi’s eyes narrowed, a small smile playing on his lips. Shiro couldn’t help the grin that broke over him like a fever as he watched the other man; that warm expression like sun rays breaking through the gloom.

“Well,” Levi drawled, sitting back. “It’s like I said. I ain’t got anyone else to talk to.”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “Oh, lucky me.”

While it might have been nice to consider what Levi had said to be a compliment, it certainly didn’t sound like one. Shiro understood how closed off to the world the Italian was, and that if he bothered to even spare you his attention for longer than a five minutes then you were probably something of importance to him. Levi didn’t keep people around who outlived their usefulness though, so the fact that Shiro was still in the man’s life didn’t really mean much. It just meant that there was a lot more to be squeezed out him before Levi had decided that Shiro was dried up. At that point there was only one other thing to do: chuck him in the trash like so many other spent husks of fruit. In this case, Shiro was useful because he was the only one Levi trusted enough to listen. Although Levi didn’t talk much about his personal life, when he did it was usually because something had been eating at him for months and he was lost on how best to deal with it. He needed a second opinion and Shiro supposed that it was because he'd never said no that Levi always chose him as a sounding board. After all, Levi might ask for advice, but that didn’t mean he would accept it.

[Levi DAmico]

When Shiro sighed and didn’t say anything, Levi seemed to look around the room for some sort of distraction. The act just made Shiro angrier so he turned on a frown, obsidian eyes blazing at the man before him, who, was doing anything but looking back.

“Well go on then,” Shiro growled. Catching the Italian’s attention and subsequent glare. “You dragged me all the way here so you can talk and now you’re just sitting there. ******* spit it out already!”

Shiro watched the man carefully. Levi watched Shiro carefully. The Japanese man was expecting to get shouted at, to be kicked off his perch, to find a heavy object had been thrown at his head, but Levi just averted his gaze and breathed heavily. Confusion came over Shiro quickly and his mouth dropped, expelling a breath of disbelief. He’d never seen Levi this way and he didn’t like it. Levi looked… defeated.

“I—”

“I’ve done something stupid,” Levi said, cutting Shiro off.

Shiro blinked, but his surprise was his own because Levi wasn’t ready to look at him yet.

“Uh…” Shiro mumbled.

He could point out a lot of things that Levi had done which would be considered stupid; he rather needed that giant list to be whittled down. He was going to wait until the man came out with it on his own, but Levi seemed reluctant and just huffed angrily. This awkward situation clearly called for humour, Shiro thought.

“You are definitely going to have to narrow it down,” he smirked.

“There’s a… girl,” Levi mumbled.

Shiro’s brow felt very heavy all of a sudden. “What do you mean there’s a girl?”

Levi sighed again, choosing his words carefully. “There’s just a girl. In my life right now.”

“Oh,” Shiro said immediately, though the reality of it hadn’t sunken in immediately. When it did, his tone dropped an octave and those obsidian eyes turned fierce. “Oh.”

“Yeah…”

Shiro felt like he was suddenly sixteen again. That unusual declaration had transported him back in time and place to his high school years where a classmate might replace him for a piece of tail. Only, Shiro hadn’t had any friends in high school and these assumptions came straight from his fascination with films. Besides that, it felt a lot worse than just a fractured friendship. Although Shiro always told himself that he never expected anything from the other man and never would, as they grew closer Shiro found himself wanting and expecting more. More of what exactly, he wasn’t sure, but the sense of loss he felt when they weren’t together was more than he could take at times. The fact that he was being pushed out of the picture by some woman – some woman that Levi had kept hidden from him for some time apparently – made Shiro return to that feeling of insignificance. He let out an angry breath and took one of the steel balls of the Newton’s cradle in hand before letting it fall and watching it crash into its companions. He didn’t notice Levi’s eyes were on him all the while.

“So who is she?” Shiro questioned quietly, keeping his eyes on the cradle.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Which was Levi’s go-to comment whenever he couldn’t be bothered to answer your question. Shiro had to roll his eyes.

“I take it she doesn’t know what you are, then.”

Levi grumbled.

“I suppose that’s part of the problem?”

“We haven’t really discussed it. She knows I work a lot and have enemies. Some of Gino’s men decided to use her as bait, ya know. So there’s that problem too.”

Shiro wasn’t sure which part of that shocked and irritated him more: the fact that Gino knew about this girl before Shiro did, the fact that they’d kidnapped her to get to Levi, or just the fact that Gino Valachi had been confirmed as digging into their business. If he had been following Levi long enough to know that this girl was important to Levi, that spelt trouble both personally and professionally for them all. Shiro had to step away from his personal issues, though. He couldn’t express jealously because that would be suspicious.

“How did you deal with Gino?” Shiro asked, turning his eyes on him at last.

Levi gave him a side-ways glance. “Easily. He knows something’s up. But we’ve agreed to keep quiet on each other’s ****-ups. So, for now, everything’s alright. Right up until Gino has the upper hand on us, we’re floating.”

“Well great,” Shiro said dully, crossing his arms over this chest. “I can’t wait to sink.”

“What do you care, sharks can breathe underwater.”

Levi must have thought he was funny because he was smirking. Shiro kept a straight face, his eyes regarding the other man impatiently.

“You’ll be fine, don’t worry about it,” Levi said offhandedly, returning someway to the realms of seriousness. “You’ve always known that going into this **** with me wasn’t going to touch you. So I dunno why you’re pouting at me like that.”

Shiro wasn’t aware that he was pouting and the insinuation made his rage boil over.

“I’m not ******* pouting,” he hissed. “I just think you could stand to take this **** a little more seriously than you are.”

“Why?”

“Because it could get you killed!”

Levi shrugged his shoulders and Shiro was about ready to throttle him. They were both quiet for a while though. Levi began staring at the wall to his left again while Shiro watched his features, recognizing the subtle movements of his eyes and the softest twitches in his facial muscles as he slipped ever deeper into thought. In moments like these, Shiro felt at most in awe of him. No matter how dire things looked, Levi was able to be calm and decisive. He had this innovative mind that saw past the kinds of obstacles that would have others wallowing. It was more than thinking outside the box, it was about making one’s own destiny. Whenever he was faced with an ultimatum, he wouldn’t automatically pick option A or option B, he would pick option C – all of the above, neither, the thing that you’d least expect. And it was when Levi let go and focused introspectively that his mind, heart, and soul became apparent; contrasted to his usual dogmatic hatefulness. He wasn’t a lucky brute that crashed his way through life; he was an opportunist using your assumptions, laziness and ineptitude against you just because he wanted it that way. After a few moments more of silence, Shiro decided that he couldn’t take it any longer. Even at the risk of ruining a perfectly beautiful moment, he had to get things off his chest.

“So… what now?” came the voice of a mouse out of the jaws of a shark.

Levi looked at him, expressions coarse. “I need to go back to Boston and see my father.”

“What? Why?”

“Because he knows Gino better than I do. And I’ll need that knowledge to get one over on the ******.”

Shiro glanced at the floor, considering the proposal. It wasn’t a bad idea if Levi could get William to talk, but, Shiro rather doubted Levi could get him to talk. When Levi clashed with Shiro it was like two superpowers going at it – a tornado meeting a volcano – but when he clashed with his own father, they just collided as one giant mass of hot gas and lava. Neither one of them gained too much ground on the other and the stalemate often left them both smarting and resentful. Shiro wondered if there was anything he could do to help, but Levi probably wouldn’t let him do anything. Levi was very mindful of how far he would let people in and even after four years of knowing one another, Shiro still felt very much out in the cold with this man. He’d known wild animals that were more accommodating than this Leviathan.

“And if you need anything,” Shiro said. “You’ll let me know?”

“Yep. And then you’ll complain and moan and ***** about it before doing it anyways. That’s how it goes.”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “Life is far too short to have this conversation with you for the millionth time.”

“It is for you,” Levi mumbled.

Shiro quirked a brow to question the strange comment, but Levi didn’t saying anything further. It was almost as if he hadn’t realised he’d said those words, but Shiro couldn’t fathom why Levi wouldn’t say it. If it was a threat to kill him, an insult based on Shiro’s capacity to fall into mortal danger or something like that, then it wasn’t like Levi to keep it to himself.

“Have you determined a date for your venture back to Boston?” Shiro asked.

“The sooner the better, I figure. Just get it over and done with.”

Shiro nodded.

“I’m hoping it won’t take much more than a day, but it’s going to be difficult to get in there…”

As Levi trailed off into his thoughts, Shiro stared at him, head cocked to the side like a curious rabbit.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because they won’t exactly allow visitors at night,” Levi seemed to say without thinking.

“And you can’t go in the day because…”

“Maybe I’ll just call,” Levi said bluntly. “I ain’t got time to waste going all the way down there anyhow.”

Shiro frowned, but didn’t say anything and Levi was quick to change the subject again.

“Have you eaten yet?”

[Levi DAmico]

The pair agreed to go to dinner and Levi found an Italian restaurant with little effort. They talked – about nothing in particular – and when the night hazed with too much drinking, fighting and smoking, the pair went their separate ways. Levi didn’t say where he was going, eluding to business that needed to be taken care of, and Shiro didn’t bother to question him on it. He was tired and he had a lot to think about. The Japanese man nodded and smiled to his companion, bowed his head in farewell and took to the train station where he could – twelve hours too late – continue with his plans. It wasn’t until he was seated in the airport lounge, alone and waiting for his plane, that Shiro started to think about all the strange things that had happened tonight. He also remembered that this was not the first string of unusual events either. Levi had been acting very strangely since he had arrived here and although Shiro hadn’t done too much to question the man outright, any small enquiries were quickly deflected or evaded. These actions gave Shiro an insight into how a forthright conversation would play out, but obviously all this deflection and evasion highlighted the fact that Levi had something to hide. Shiro smelt blood and sharks always investigate blood.

While Levi had been the one to suggest they go out to eat tonight, he hadn’t actually ordered anything. It would have been impossible not to notice the change in the other man’s eating habits and Shiro wasn’t sure just how much of it could be put down to stress. Levi was justifiably stressed lately with this issue with Gino Valachi hanging over them both, thus Shiro decided not to make a mention of it again over dinner at the risk of angering the Italian. Nevertheless, that didn’t mean he was wholly convinced that things were just how Levi had said they were. Levi was also strangely inactive in the daylight hours. In fact, today was the first time since Levi had come to Canada in July that Shiro had heard from him before evening. Levi had also changed his mind about going to visit his father in prison because they wouldn’t provide visiting hours at night. This behaviour just begged the question of why. Why couldn’t Levi stand the daylight all of a sudden? Also, why didn’t he eat anymore? Why was he always busy and sometimes unable to be contacted? Why did he seem to disappear off the edge of the world sometimes too? And, who the hell was this girl and how had he met her?

There wasn’t much Shiro could do about his questions for now, however. There was a lot of business to take care of in Japan and he wouldn’t be back in the country for a few weeks at the earliest. Second lieutenant Denjiro of the Yamaguchi-gumi Family – Shiro’s family – had been killed last night. A meeting had been arranged to discuss the Yamaguchi’s options and suspicions and there was nothing Shiro could do to get out of it. There was talk of jealousy in Denjiro’s death, but no Family in Japan would claim liability. The Sumiyoshi-kai, the Yamaguchi’s main rivals, pointed toward Denjiro’s mistress, but the woman was untraceable. Being just a common whore, her disappearance would only surmount to further unhanded actions. It was for this, among many other reasons, that Hebi Kiyoshi, Kobe’s leading investigator and contract killer, had been summoned to their meeting too. While Hebi held no contractual obligation to any one Yakuza family, he was frequently summoned by the Yamaguchi-gumi. His discretion and notoriety were equally remarkable; everyone knew who he was and what he was capable of, but no one could ever prove it. Hebi was commonly referred to as ‘The Snake’ for the kanji of his surname. Due to his affiliation with handguns and rifles, he was also nicknamed ‘The Sniper Viper’ – just never to his face. In many ways he was more a spectre than a snake, but Shiro would always remember him as his high school rival.

As a boy, Shiro had been enrolled into many private academies across Japan and it was in the Azuba High School in Tokyo that he met Hebi. They were high achievers in their academic studies as well as in gym and martial arts; they competed against one another right up until graduation. Despite this great rivalry, there was little in the way of animosity between them; one might have even thought they were friends if not for the strict doctrines that each man followed. Shiro prided himself on the fact that he didn’t make friends, he made allies and he networked. Life was too short to deal in the trivialities of friendships and much like the angrier Italian, he told himself that he only kept people around for as long as they were useful to him. The fact of the matter was, however, that Shiro had a soft side and as much as he tried to hide it from the world, he couldn’t hide it from himself. He made attachments to people that he found to be particularly special, there weren’t many people in the world that made the sharp and furious shark stop and take notice, but when they did, he was determined to keep them in his life forever. Levi, Hebi and his underling, Yamamoto, were these few special people in his life.

It wasn’t ideal to juggle these people, especially when these men were all so different to one another and Shiro cared for each one with individual affection and admiration. Hebi was perhaps the most aloof, and their interactions were reserved for business. Despite the man’s subdued and careful nature and the professional conditions under which they met, Shiro always looked forward to seeing him. The underling, Yamamoto Makoto, was a unique case. It is rare that Yakuza accept strangers into their business, but, Shiro made a great exception for Yamamoto and Shiro’s family made a great exception for him. Yamamoto was made an orphan at the age of six and took to the streets and the rampant gang lifestyle there that he needed to survive. It was through these small acts of vandalism and thievery that Yamamoto ran into the Yakuza. He would have lost his fingers and toes from stealing business from under them, but Shiro took pity on the boy and let him shelter under his wing as a personal assistant. Yamamoto was always grateful for what Shiro had done for him and vowed his unceasing loyalty. Yamamoto and Shiro were pretty much always together as a result. In the middle then, was Levi.

Shiro met Levi around almost five years ago via a mutual third party. Shiro had heard nothing about the so-called Leviathan, but Levi had apparently learned everything there was to know about Shiro. He knew who he was, what he was, what names he was known by, and what he was capable of, and yet, the Italian came in running his mouth. Shiro found it as hilarious as he found it infuriating. He drew his fists to teach the obnoxious little **** a lesson, but he sound found his thrown punches were wide off their mark. Shiro had been the obnoxious one in this and his aim was lazy, making it easy for anyone who knew anything about fighting to dodge. Levi was very proud of himself in that moment, but Shiro didn’t miss the second time. What began as posturing and warring, ended with profound, but mutual respect. The pair quickly realised that they had a lot to gain in one another and so began their tempestuous relationship. Shiro supposed that the weight of gain was probably in Levi’s favour from the very beginning, but, he told himself he didn’t mind. Because Levi was aloof to everyone, Shiro assumed that his confidence with the man was some kind of privilege that nobody else would ever have. And now, there was that girl, that nameless female that could force Levi to take up arms against Gino Valachi, of all people!

Shiro did not like the feelings whirring within him, somewhere between being punched in the stomach and having one’s heart ripped out of their chest just for it to be set on fire and shoved back into the cavity. There was so much distance between them now; he had been pushed far out of the picture. Shiro knew that Levi would never tell him everything, that there would always be things that were kept secret, but the fact that there was someone else Levi was sharing his secrets with just made it hurt all the more. Shiro broke into a rage, resolved to uncover whatever it was that Levi wouldn’t tell him. Shiro had business in Japan and he would be engaged in that for some time to come, but he would be back and he would be ready to ask his questions. Levi would just have to face it and see what it was like living on the other side.