Honorary Ashigaru

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Buffy/Yakuza AU, follow-up to Finding Their Feet (because really, the order after the introduction doesn't matter as much)
Chapter Summary: They've got branches now.  Xander feels like there should have been a memo.
Word Count: 540
Rating: Teen

        It’s on one of Ria-chan’s days on the town when a pretty lady talks to him.  “U-Um, it’s Xander, right?”
        He vaguely recognizes her face, or he’d be a lot more rude about it.  “Sometimes.  Right now, it’s Ria-chan~.”
        “Oh yeah, I remember.  You had this really pretty dress one of the times at the Bronze…”    She smiles and holds out a card.  Business card, and it’s got her name on it—Holly Charleston—and he finally places her.  She ran for Homecoming Queen, and if Buffy hadn’t decided last minute to run, she would’ve easily had his vote.
        “Lawyer, huh?  Well, you wanted to start that debate club, so I can see that, but you’re so sweet!  How do you psych yourself up to go in for the kill?”
        “It’s easy when you’re thinking about the argument and not about the people,” she responds sheepishly, rubbing at the back of her neck.  “I’m working with Sienna Penshaw.  You might remember her sister…”
        “Dawn’s best friend, Janice.  Yeah, I remember.”  He’s not sure why she seems surprised he does remember, but there it is.
        “Anyway, Buffy’s still fighting the good fight and you’re still helping her, right?” she asks shyly, and smiles when he nods.   “If you ever need lawyers, let us know.  And, if you’re willing—well, Wolfram & Hart aren’t exactly normal lawyers, are they?”
        “No, they’re all demons or have sold their souls.  We’ll help.”  That smile wasn’t exactly a ladylike smile, but at this point he doesn’t care.  “…Want to go shopping?”
        It’s not Holly’s usual scene, but Seiko (yeah, he’s playing around with the synonyms in Japanese in his head) manages to say yes and have fun.
        And they do help each other out.  A lot of Chandi’s missions involve finding or protecting evidence, and there’s more than one occasion where they act as the bodyguards, too.

        Later, when the office has grown to five, including one guy, they take Ria-chan out for a girl’s night out, and at some point he sees the small scales of justice on one of Seiko-chan’s shoulders due to the cut of the shirt.  “Oh, yeah, I have a sword on my other shoulder.”  She turns to pull that sleeve down just far enough for him to see.  “We all do.”
        One of the new girls in a pretty strapless dress turns so he can see, and yeah, it’s true.  This probably means he’s a bad influence.  He’s in the middle of trying to decide if Oton would be proud or not when he gets the very clear smug feeling that he hasn’t felt from the personality imprint of Majima in a long time.  It’s not like he’s leading them into a life of crime, he’s not sure why he’s panicking about this.  “Not as nice as yours, but it’s still a good reminder,” Newton states proudly.
        “We’re like the ashigaru gaijin edition,” Sienna-chan jokes, and, well.  That’s weird to say, given that only a couple of the actual ashigaru are Japanese (though the number is growing given the fact that at least some of the Japanese Slayers prefer to learn on the Island with a vaguely Japanese culture and language), but it’s probably going to stick, isn’t it?