Vulnerability and Control

[madimpossibledreamer]

Cast of Characters (listed the Japanese way of surname first): Kuroba Raimu (Faith), Chairwoman of the Osato-kai
Natsukawa Renyo (Buffy), Chairwoman of the Amaya-kai
Amaya-kai, the Clan Natsukawa runs based in Tokyo
Oni Alliance, also known as the Osato-kai, rivals to the Amaya-kai
Sanjou Samu (Gwendolyn Post), former Matriarch of the Horino Family, a direct subsidiary of the Osato-kai (deceased)
Horikita Norika (Glory), Matriarch of the Ichiban Association, a direct subsidiary of the Osato-kai
Takamiya Naruki (Eve), Matriarch of the Gekkoutou Consortium, a direct subsidiary of the Osato-kai
Momose Naria (Lilah), Chief of Headquarters of the Osato-kai
Hattori Rinka (Snyder), Matriarch of the Kazami Family, a direct subsidiary of the Amaya-kai

Author's Notes: In this universe, Japan is run by the women. Two relevant stories are The World's Balance and Breaking Tradition.  This is kind of a twin to the first, because both Kuroba and Natsukawa are a good match and understand the balance that the Amaya-kai and Osato-kai are necessary to maintain, and is occurring a little during the second, as Kuroba is musing about this during the ritual, for which I'll include the notes from the other post. 
Before their death, the Chairwoman can leave a document with the people she'd like to try to come retrieve her soul from the Underworld before a different Chairwoman is named.  It is forbidden to destroy the document.  It is forbidden for anyone other than those named to enter and try to help.  It is forbidden for those from either Clan to interfere.  It is tradition for the second-in-command at Headquarters (i.e. Wakabayashi) to stand vigil for the traditional amount of time and not enter along with the others.  Should they come back with the Chairwoman's soul, she is named as her own successor.  It is not usual for it to succeed.
Mostly with this one I was trying to get across the contrast between how the Osato-kai and Amaya-kai operate.  It's partially based on the difference between the Tojo and the Omi.  I also wanted to set up a little of the Osato history and why Faith fits so well as the rival Chairwoman history-wise, where she basically has to look out for herself.
I didn't write her inner thoughts in Kansai-ben though.  Don't ask why; I don't know.
Kuroba couldn't act against Sanjou directly as her Chairwoman...so she set her up.
Terms: Kansai-ben-as mentioned both Kuroba and Miyamoto generally speak with the slangy Kansai-ben accent
chinpira-lower level yakuza (bottom-rung basically)
More author's notes: background notes

Main Points:
Buffy/Yakuza AU (Bloody Petals)
Chapter Summary: Kuroba's world is far harsher than Natsukawa's, but she's coming to learn that doesn't mean her rival Chairwoman is weak.
Word Count: 565
Rating: Teen

        At first, Kuroba thinks Natsukawa has it easy.  Easier than her, anyway.  Sure, she’s got her plotting Matriarchs, and one that already attempted to kill her, but at least she has a few she can trust.  She’d inherited the position of Chairwoman from her mother directly, or so the rumors go.  Kuroba has no one.  The one Matriarch she’d tried to trust had turned around and backstabbed her.  Luckily, she’d been able to draw the Amaya-kai’s attention to former Matriarch Sanjou’s machinations to power, because the woman had tried to upset the balance and as much as the rivalry between the Osato-kai and Amaya-kai existed on paper and small clashes between chinpira happened in the streets and the two certainly fought over power and influence, both had bigger fish to fry.  The Oni Alliance might have a slightly different approach than Chairwoman Natsukawa’s Tokyo lot, but in the grand scheme of things that means shit, because neither want literal outsiders to their plane of existence running the show.
        And sure, that means that she has to manipulate, to get her literal rivals to clean up her messes, because she sure can’t rely on Horikita or Takamiya or even Momose, even if her Chief of Headquarters doesn’t want her position.  But she’s strong, because she’s had to be, to survive.  If her power was any less, she’d have been a former Chairwoman by now.  Just like Natsukawa, really, which just kind of confirmed her theory, she’d thought. 
        So at first she’d thought her fellow Chairwoman was weak on her own, because she hadn’t had to struggle like Kuroba.  But then she watches the woman fight for her life, and well, she’s physically strong.  Which hadn’t been what she’d been expecting from a woman who delegated so much of her day to other people.  She’d pictured a lily-white bureaucrat ordering her subordinates to punish others, not a woman taking charge of her own destiny.
        And she’s not free of controversy or backstabbing.  There are examples.  Hattori, for example.  But she also has inspired real loyalty, somehow.  Kuroba is under no misconceptions.  If she died, her own lieutenants would only do the ceremonial bare minimum to ‘rescue’ her from the underworld, all the while fighting over the ability to become her successor.  She’s not entirely sure who would even volunteer.  Horikita, maybe.  She tends to be fairly confident in her own ability to deal with trouble.
        Here several of Natsukawa’s own lieutenants volunteered, and were trying to actually retrieve her alive, possibly at the cost of their own lives.  Kuroba wouldn’t have volunteered if not for that fact.  She deeply doesn’t want a new Chairwoman of the Amaya-kai, because the status quo is working for her just fine.  She wouldn’t have stuck her neck out without a chance of it working, though.
        For but a brief time, she allows herself longing.  How wonderful would it have that kind of support?  What would it be like if she didn’t have to live in fear?
        But she’s honest to herself.  Practical.  That’s not the world she lives in, and she knows it.  Wishing for anything else won’t change anything, and vulnerability will quickly get her killed.  All she can do is control what she can, and if that includes taking a slight risk with others to help her to keep at least some balance in the world, she’ll take it.