Striking a Dangerous Deal

WARNING: This chapter contains depictions of transphobia and enjo kosai/compensated dating.

Present Day, October 6, 2023

Ruka awoke in her apartment for another day of school. She got up out of bed and stretched her arms before arching her back. She then looked at the calendar in her room and sighed, telling herself, “I always hate it when October comes around…” She then checked her phone to see if she got any messages overnight. Upon finding she got none, she yawned and took her pajamas off to head into the bathroom and shower.

In the shower, she turned the water on and slowly stepped into the stream when it turned warm. As she began to wash her body, she heard her phone vibrate with a text and sighed. She then turned the shower off and quickly wiped her hands before checking the phone, finding that it was a text from Hana and then texting her back.

HANA: I got a meeting tonight, so I won’t be around if we get something big after about seven.

RUKA: got it ill work it out with arikawa whos the meeting with

HANA: Our new source for weapons.

Ruka sighed and put the phone back before turning the shower back on, saying to herself as she put shampoo in her hair, “She better be careful if Arikawa’s telling the truth…” As she then ran her hair under the shower head, she closed her eyes, but after a minute, they flung wide open as she looked up and stared at the wall before her. She began to breathe heavily as her mind replayed snippets of what had happened to her four years prior, brought on by the thought of Hana doing something with Hideo. “He can’t hurt you anymore, Ruka,” she thought to herself to get her mind off of Aki and his horrific deeds. “You killed him, remember? He can’t hurt you anymore. He can’t hurt you anymore. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

She then turned her gaze towards a small mirror that was hung from the wall in the shower, and as she did, she could hear what Aki had said to her all those years ago in her head. “Quit struggling! Sorry for yelling, but I really can’t have you fighting like that, okay? I’m not here to kill you. You’ll be fine afterwards. Just make sure no one else knows about this, okay?”

Ruka took a deep breath and let out an annoyed sigh, angry that he had found his way into her mind. She looked away from the mirror and said out loud in defiance of Aki’s actions, “You can’t hurt me anymore! Fuck off and go back to Hell where you belong!” She then turned the shower off and grabbed a towel from beyond the shower curtain, drying herself off before stepping out and going to the sink. She looked down at herself before resting her hands on the sink and saying into the mirror, “Hana, don’t do what I think you’re gonna do, please.” She then picked up her phone again and began to text Hana back.

RUKA: oh i see ok

RUKA: has he been weird around u?

HANA: He has not.

RUKA: if he makes u feel uncomfortable lmk ok?

RUKA: ill make him stop

HANA: I appreciate it, but I can handle it on my own, Ruka.

HANA: He won’t force me into anything.

Ruka then set her phone down and expressed in frustration, “Damn it, I can’t get through to her…” As she then began to brush her teeth and do her hair for the day, she wondered how the rest of the day would go.

…

Shortly after school had let out, Ruka and Hana were running down a street together, having gotten a report of a Class Four magical beast that they had answered up for on the call. As they both ran past several people on the sidewalk, the former looked at the latter and thought about what Yoshiro had told her. “Please,” she thought to herself. “Be careful, Hana. Whatever it is that you’re gonna do with that Yakuza boss tonight, please stay safe.”

As they rounded a corner and then ran up to an abandoned house, they found that the front door had already been forced in. Hana, confused, said to Ruka, “Someone must have gotten here before we did.”

“Hang on,” Ruka said as she pulled out her phone and checked the app to see if any other magical huntresses had acknowledged and responded. Sure enough, three more names had popped up. “Ugh, great, looks like three other girls got to it before we did.”

“We might as well cancel,” Hana said to her as she pulled out her own phone. “I doubt they’ll need two more of us to go in and help them.” As they both selected the option to cancel their response and take themselves off of the mission, they both heard running coming out of the house and looked up to find a girl dressed in a red and orange sleeved dress almost fly past them with how fast she ran. She then stopped as she reached the street and turned around, a look of anger on her face and her hair a mess. Hana asked the girl, “Uh… Are you okay?”

Two more girls then emerged from the house and saw Hana and Ruka standing outside. Both of them had similarly-designed two-piece outfits, with the taller girl having a violet outfit and the shorter girl having a golden outfit. The taller of the two turned to Hana and dismissed her with, “You thought you could steal another one, huh?”

Ruka asked the duo about the girl who had run out of the building, “Uh, what’s with your friend over there?”

“She’s no longer working with us,” said the shorter of the two girls. “Or should I say-“

“Shut up,” shouted the girl on the street. “Don’t you fucking dare!”

Ruka thought she could recognize the girl’s voice when she yelled at them, thinking to herself, “I don’t think I’ve seen this girl before, but… I swear, her voice sounds familiar.”

Hana asked the duo, “What’s wrong? Did you guys kick her out of your group?”

“We sure did,” said the taller girl as the two of them walked past Hana and Ruka. “It was just temporary anyway. We don’t want to associate with people like… Well…”

Ruka asked both of them, annoyed by their attitude, “Like what?”

“They kicked me out of their stupid little team because I wasn’t born a girl,” the girl on the sidewalk then confirmed. Instantly, everyone fell silent due to how bluntly she had stated the reason for the commotion. “They…” She then kicked the sidewalk in frustration. “They weren’t supposed to find out!”

“But we did,” said the shorter of the two girls.

The taller of the two girls then turned to Hana and told her, “Don’t tell me you’re already thinking of bringing that creep into your little circus of freaks.”

“Hey,” Ruka yelled at her, resenting her words. “Shut the fuck up! What do you mean by circus of freaks, huh?!”

“I’m surprised they got someone like you to go along with them,” said the taller girl to Ruka. “You always struck me as a loner, Kishio.”

“I got my reasons for fighting with the Fox Knights,” she told her. “Now, answer my question!”

The taller girl, named Shuka Fujimoto, sighed, annoyed by her. “Honestly, the fact you have a boy in your ranks, especially so high up in them, is embarrassing.”

“Oh, I see,” Ruka realized. “So that’s what you’re pissed off about.” She was familiar with this line of thinking. Given that hunting magical beasts in Japan was a female-dominated field, not every magical huntress was willing to accept boys into their ranks. “And I assume you finding out about that other girl’s secret didn’t go over so well, did it?”

“If you take him in,” the shorter girl, named Kaoruko Iwasa, said, blatantly misgendering the girl on the sidewalk. “It won’t be surprising given all the shit your little group gets into. He’s not even that good of a fighter, anyway.”

The girl on the sidewalk, whose ears had perked up when she heard Ruka’s last name, turned away from them, beginning to get upset. “Stop it…” She did not want any of the others to see her start to cry, still wanting to put up a strong front so as to not be seen as weak.

Hana saw her and placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, unhappy with how her former battle partners were treating her. “They may call you a boy,” she told her in a soothing tone. “But I know you’re a girl.”

The girl on the sidewalk, like so many others before, was entranced by Hana’s appearance and her demeanor. She said to her, suddenly struggling to find the words to complete her thoughts, “You… You do…”

Ruka thought to herself, “There she goes again. It seems like every time she does that to someone new, they instantly fall for her.”

The two girls rolled their eyes in annoyance. Shuka told the trio, “If you guys wanna team up, go on ahead. It’ll only drag your reputation down further, Miyashita.”

Ruka demanded of both of them as she pointed at them, “How about you two just get the Hell out of here?”

“Fine,” said Shuka in response. “We got better shit to do than stand here. We got the money, after all.” She told the shorter one, “Let’s go. If these losers wanna embarrass themselves, they can go right ahead for all I care.”

As the two of them walked away, Ruka told both of them, “Yeah, go on ahead and fuck off back to the hole you two came from.”

“Up yours, Kishio,” said Kaoruko as she flashed her middle finger to insult her while walking away.

Once the two of them were gone, Hana asked the girl on the sidewalk, “What’s your name?”

“I’m Murata Kumiko,” she said to her, fading out of the brief trance Hana had unintentionally put her in and bowing.

At that moment, Ruka realized exactly who she was, with her family name being a dead giveaway. “No way,” she said out of disbelief. “No fucking way.” The realization had confirmed what she had been thinking ever since she had heard her talk.

Kumiko replied as she turned around, “Huh?”

“I know who you are,” Ruka said as she approached her. “Or, at least, I know who you were before… This.”

Kumiko gave her a faint smile and told her with a cheery tone of voice, “It took you long enough, Kishio. You knew me as Kosuke when we were in elementary school.”

“I did…” Ruka’s jaw dropped. “I… I thought I’d never see anyone from elementary school ever again after my grandpa died, especially with Himiko-san dead and Shiho-san moving away…”

“Well,” Kumiko said with a shrug. “You got me at least.”

“No shit.” She then asked her, “So, uh, how long… How long have you been like… This?”

“How long I’ve been out of the closet, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

Kumiko smiled and explained to her, “For about a year now. I had always suspected something was up ever since I was young, but I was finally able to come to terms with it last year. It feels good to finally acknowledge who I am and who I’m supposed to be.”

Ruka, curious, asked her as the three of them began to walk down the street together, “What do your parents and Kaede-san think of it?”

Kumiko’s smile faded when she finished asking that question, causing Ruka and Hana to stop as well. “My mom… Was not thrilled by it.”

Ruka, feeling she had caused offense, immediately replied, “Oh shit, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-“

“No, no, no, it’s fine.” Kumiko told her with a somewhat despondent tone, “I can’t really get into a lot of detail now, but, uh… Yeah, my mom wasn’t the most accepting when I came out. My dad did, though, even though it was a factor in their divorce.”

Hana assured her with a soothing tone of voice, “Well the Fox Knights will happily accept you for who you are, Murata-san.”

“Yeah, Murata-ku-“ Ruka immediately stopped herself upon using the -kun honorific with her, one normally, though not exclusively by any means, reserved for boys and men. “Oh, uh… Sorry.”

“I don’t mind,” she assured her. “Murata-kun is okay if it’s you, Kishio. -Kun can be used for girls, too, you know.”

“I knew that, but… Really? Are you sure it’s okay with you?”

“Of course,” Kumiko replied. “Just because I’m finally able to be a girl doesn’t mean I’m completely different, Kishio.” She then de-transformed, revealing her regular clothes to be a red t-shirt with a skirt. “I still have the same interests and hobbies as before when you knew me back then. Anyway, I’m glad you guys found me. I don’t know how much longer I would have lasted before I started beating those two girls up.”

“They would have deserved it,” Ruka assured her. “Believe me, we know they’re both stuck-up bitches. I’m surprised you even ran with them to begin with.”

“I only did it for like two weeks,” Kumiko explained. “I became a magical huntress about two or so months ago, and I was running by myself initially, which kinda sucked. They found me at a rescue mission we both happened to be going to together and offered to take me in since their third girl they usually ran with was hurt.”

Hana asked her, “Hurt? Was her name Ozaki Ayumu by any chance?”

“I think it was, actually,” Kumiko nodded. “Why do you ask?”

“I actually rescued her when she got hurt and Furukawa Ai got killed.”

Surprised, Kumiko said to Hana, “No shit. What a small world, huh?”

Hana nodded. “Indeed, that is a rather peculiar coincidence.”

Kumiko, getting back on topic, then said to them, “I’m sure they wouldn’t have even considered letting me in if they knew the truth about me. I put up with them trashing boys who do this shit the whole time I ran with those two, so I figured they wouldn’t be the most tolerant of a trans girl doing it, either.” She then asked Hana, “Do you guys really have a boy as your second-in-command like they said?”

“Correct,” Hana nodded. “In fact, I trained him to be a swordsman like myself from the very start of his time as a magical huntsman. He was the first member of the Fox Knights I recruited.”

“So he’s been there since the beginning, huh?”

“Indeed. Arikawa Yoshiro is one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen. I’m truly blessed to have someone like him in my ranks.” She then turned to Ruka and added, “And the same goes for you as well, Kishio-san.”

Ruka gave her a faint smile and a chuckle. “I wouldn’t say I’m too special, but…” As the three of them walked down the street together, Ruka looked up at the sky and thought to herself, “Miyashita thinks that highly of me already… Perhaps Arikawa wasn’t kidding when he said that she trusts me a lot, even if I feel like I haven’t truly earned it quite yet. Even so… I’m starting to truly enjoy being a part of something after being on my own for so long. Perhaps the Fox Knights are what I was looking for the whole time in those four years since that fateful month of October 2019…”

With Kumiko being offered a position in the group by Hana, the Fox Knights now had seven magical huntresses and huntsmen to their name, making them a bit larger than most groups of huntresses.

…

Meanwhile, Hideo was getting ready for a night out on the town before his meeting with Hana the day after. As he got out of the shower and shaved his face, he heard his phone vibrate with a text and checked it before resuming shaving. Once he was done, he said to himself as he looked at himself in the mirror, “Here’s hoping she’ll put herself out there soon for me. I’ll need a new partner after Furukawa’s death.”

He then emerged from the bathroom in just a towel, looking around to see if anyone else was around to see him. A young woman was watching the television nearby and heard him come out, turning around to see him. “Oh, you’re done already?”

“Yeah,” he replied with a devious smile. “I think you’re giving me a hard-on.”

“Oh, really?” The young woman then stood up and asked him, “Are you gonna fuck me now or after your little romp around the town?”

“We’ll wait until after,” he replied. “We can fuck as long as we want when I get home, babe.”

“Are you just sad that one high school girl got killed that night you showed her a good time in the old apartment block nearby?”

Hideo admitted, “Yeah, I kinda am, actually. She had a killer body, I’ll tell you that, and her uniform… Man, that was a turn-on.”

“I don’t know where you find these girls,” said the young woman, who herself was barely over the age of twenty.

“I got skills. Trust me.”

…

October 7, 2023

As expected, Hana met up with Hideo around noon. As the two sat down at a table across from each other, the same young woman from before brought out a bottle of wine and two glasses. She then poured both of them red wine from the bottle before asking Hideo, “Do you need anything else, Hideo-sama?”

“No thank you,” he replied to her. As she walked away, he then turned to Hana and asked her, “So, are you curious about what the deal with Furukawa Ai is?”

“Indeed,” Hana replied to him. “What do you know about her death? How do you know her?”

“Come on,” Hideo replied with a chuckle. “You should know me by now.”

“Allow me to guess… Compensated dating?”

Hideo nodded. “You’re God damn right. She was really nice to me. It’s a shame what happened to her.”

“Were you with her the night she died?”

“Yeah.” Hideo then took a sip of wine. “I even saw her in that building you found her in. I’m sure you don’t want to know the details.”

“I do, actually.” Hana then also took a sip of wine. “Tell me everything you know.”

“I need you to make sure you tell no one else, okay?”

“Or else what? Her family deserves to know what happened to her.”

“If you tell anyone the truth,” Hideo threatened. “I won’t give you those weapons you want. How about that?”

Hana was now conflicted. “I mean…” She wanted the weapons badly, and she knew that Ruka especially needed a new sword that was better suited for her fighting style. She thought to herself, “Damn it, he really pulled that card?”

“So, are you gonna keep your pretty little mouth shut?”

“Fine,” Hana replied, agreeing to his demand. “I’ll keep my mouth shut. Just tell me what happened. I can already guess, but I want to hear it from you.”

“I gave her a nice, hard screwing that night. We had been having some fun for a few weeks, and I looked forward to some more, but when I was about to leave, she transformed and battled this weird monster that came from another room. I saw her kill it, and I assumed that was the end of it, so I walked out and said bye. Little did I know that that would be the last time I ever saw her alive.”

“So you had sex with her, she battled the Class Five, and then you left?”

“Correct. I even made the report for that Class Five anonymously. Obviously, her hands were tied with the battle, so I did it. I got an app that spoofs my number and can disguise my voice.” He then pulled out his phone and showed Hana an app on it. “It makes me sound like one of those fucking people with the holes in their necks from smoking.”

“I see…” Hana then took another sip of wine, much larger than the one she took before, and then took a deep breath, preparing herself mentally for what she was about to say to Hideo next. “Before I leave, I want you to know that I will do anything to get the weapons and cash you promised the Fox Knights.”

“Anything?”

“Yes, anything. I know your reputation, too.” She then got up from the table and downed the rest of the wine. “I’ll be taking my leave now. If you got any ideas, I’m only one text away, but just to warn you now…”

Hideo, amused by her warning, asked her, “What is it?”

In a confident and firm voice, she warned him, “If you back out of our deal, I’m gonna expose you for who you are. Everybody will know you like to have sex with teenage girls and sell weapons in the black market, and you’ll get thrown in prison for a very long time. Your entire gang will go under, assuming any of them stick around to be commanded by a pedophile.”

Hideo, much to his shock, found himself almost overwhelmed by the energy Hana gave off when she threatened him. “This energy off of her,” Hideo thought to himself as Hana looked him dead in the eye. “I can feel her almost staring into the depths of my soul. How does a girl her age do that to someone like me?!”

Hana then left the apartment, leaving him with some parting words that hinted at what she was offering to do for him. “If you hold up your end of the bargain, no one will have to know what we do together.”

With Hana gone, Hideo took a deep breath and finished his wine before saying to himself, “Holy fuck…”