The Mafia Boss's Secretary

What the Hell?

    I woke up again in my room with mom and dad standing over me. Dad looked angry and mom had a disappointed kind of look on her face. I turned my head so I wasn't looking at either of them. It was hard not to notice the distinctive hand print on mom's cheek. My hand print. I just laid there waiting on the lecture that I knew I was going to get.

    "Why did you run away?" Dad asked.

    "I don't know." I mumbled. "It seemed like the only logical thing to do."

    "It's the middle of the night." He stated. "That was a ridiculously reckless thing for you to do." My arm was pulled away from my face roughly. "Not to mention the fact that you wondered into another territory,and of all the people that you could have gotten caught by you got caught by Shota, the boss." 

    "How did you know about that?" I asked which made him glare at me.

    "He called me." He stated. "You also got in a fight with fellow clan members and broke your brother's nose." I closed my eyes just wishing I could disappear at this point. "What has gotten into you?" He snapped. "This isn't like you at all."

    "I didn't mean to." I mumbled. "It just happened, and I couldn't believe that I did it, and I knew that you'd be just as disappointed in me, if not more than I am because it happened, so I ran." I rushed out. "I was so ashamed that I couldn't bring myself to come back and face any of you, and I was prepared to do anything to avoid coming back; even if that meant getting into fights."

    "Your brother's broken nose?" He asked. "What about that?"

    "My ribs got hurt in the fight and he was squeezing them so hard that I couldn't breathe so I panicked." I stated. "I'm not sorry about that one." I added. "He was causing me pain, so it's fair."

    "Fair point, but you can't go around beating people up because they get in your way or hurt you." Dad said turning my head so I was looking at him. "If this ever happens again you will face the same punishment your brothers all received." He sat on the bed next to me. "Everyone can tell how you feel about what happened, hell Takashi could even tell just from your short run in with him."

    "Is it that obvious?"

    "Honey, you ran away so distraught that you ran over a mile to the Sage territory without even noticing." Mom said making me look over at her before looking away again. "Shota told us the condition you were in when he sent you on your way back to us." She sighed. "You were in such a state that you told him Jieroshi would kill you if you came back because you crossed territories; just to bring you back, and do it again because of the incident that happened." She sighed again. "It's kind of obvious how you feel about today."

    "I'm a coward." I stated trying to roll away from them both again.

    Dad turned me to face him before pulling me awkwardly into a hug. It was probably one of the biggest 'what the hell' moments I've ever seen. I didn't know if I should hug him back or not so I just sat there. Dad sighed before pushing me away enough to make eye contact with me.

    "Why do you say that?"

    "I ran away." I stated. "Only cowards run away; you taught me that."

    "Honey, why don't you just get some rest?" Mom asked and turned to leave my room.

    I don't know what possessed me to ask what I asked next, and to this day I still have no idea. "That's it?" Both of them looked at me confused. "A minor interrogation; no yelling, screaming, or hitting?"

    "If you could see yourself right now you'd understand why." Was mom's simple answer. "Just get some sleep because you are going to the doctor tomorrow."

    "Do I have to?" I whined, totally sounding my age.

    "Raise your arms." Dad ordered. When I got my left arm about halfway up and winced putting it back down he just gave me his no nonsense look. "Yes."

I sighed and laid back down trying not to show any signs of pain as I did so. Of course, leave it to mom to notice. Because she noticed; her and dad are now discussing whether or not to take me to the doctor now instead. I'm pretty sure we're about to go to the doctor.

    After spending almost four hours at the hospital just to find out that two of my ribs were cracked, being prescribed pain medicine, and having the doctor show mom and dad how to properly wrap them; we were finally on our way back home. The wrap around my chest made breathing that much more difficult. To say I was uncomfortable would be a gross understatement. When we did finally get back home; mom helped me up to my room because of how stiffly I was walking while dad went to pick up my prescription.

    "Try to get some sleep." She told me when we stopped at my door. "That means sleep, not just laying in your bed."

    "I'll try." I answered her before going in. I slowly made my way to my bed. I sighed as I sat down. I'm exhausted beyond belief. I quickly realized that I can't take my shoes off like I normally do. Once I finally managed to get my shoes off I laid down and tried to get as comfortable as I could. It wasn't easy, and if you've ever broken your ribs; you'd know exactly why it was so difficult for me to get comfortable enough to be able to fall asleep. I did however manage to fall asleep for a few hours. When I woke up again it was because Kaminae was shaking me.

    "What happened?" He asked confusing me.

    "You were there." I stated confused.

    "I meant why did you go to the hospital?" He asked. "What'd they tell you?"

    "I have two cracked ribs and they gave me some pain medication." I explained. I didn't know if I wanted to tell him the information I over heard the doctor telling mom and dad after my x-rays came back. He gave me a look like he knew that I wasn't telling him everything. "If you want anymore information you'll have to ask mom or dad."

    "They didn't tell you anything?" He asked making me sigh. "What is it?"

    "They didn't tell me anything." I stated. "Like I said if you want details ask mom or dad."

    "I already tried but they won't tell me anything other than you have two cracked ribs." He huffed. "What I want to know is what they're hiding."

    "God! Okay!" I said loudly. "The way that my ribs are cracked could be a result of blunt forced trauma stress or a combination of both." I sighed. "That means that there's no real way to tell who screwed them up."

    "So it could have been Takashi or the guard?" He asked.

    "Yeah."

    "How bad is it?" He asked gesturing to my side. "Like how much damage is there?"

    "Mom has the copies of the scans." I stated. "I didn't want to see them, so I actually don't know."

    "I guess i'll have to ask to see them." He stated before holding a bottle and a glass out to me. "Mom told me to give these to you." I didn't even notice them; did he have them this whole time?

    He left after making sure that I took the medicine. I decided to just go back to sleep. The sooner Monday comes the sooner I can leave. It's not like I hate it here or anything, but I'm tired of this life of loneliness and deceit. I want to be somewhere that I can at least feel like I belong. Even if it's somewhere that I can't actually physically fit in. At least I'll be in a place with people my own age. We'll all have the same goal in mind; making it to graduation. At least this time with the pain medicine I was able to fall asleep significantly easier; once it actually kicked in anyway. It also gave me an excuse to sleep a lot since it had the side effect of making me drowsy. Thank god for good pain medicine. I somehow managed to sleep the whole day away. 

    It was around eight when I finally left my room. Mom stopped me on my way to take a shower. I sighed noticing that most of the red mark on her face had went away but she now has a slightly swollen black eye. I looked down at the clothes in my hand trying to avoid seeing what i'd done. Yeah, i'm probably being a little over dramatic about this, but in the neko community a male hitting a female for any reason is highly frowned upon. In some communities it's even grounds for banishment. Here what we do is dad makes whoever the offender is and our top warrior duke it out until the point has been made. It usually means a near death duel, or in some cases a duel to the death. This is why I didn't want to come back last night. I definitely didn't want to come back after I was told everyone knew what had happened. That means that they are going to be expecting an announcement declaring a time, place, and opponent for my own duel. It is unavoidable too; because if I'm not made to duel then questions will be raised, a petition will be started, or in a worse case scenario; an uprising could occur. I'm not being dramatic here, I've seen this happen with other clans before.

    "You do know a duel is unavoidable, right?" I asked still staring at the clothes in my hand. "I'm not going to be the reason for an uprising."

    "You are in no condition to duel." She said firmly. "We have the scans to prove it."

    "You do know that the clan won't care; they will want justice, apparently everyone knows what happened last night." I remarked.

    "They can take it up with the cabinet." She stated. "I'm not putting you in a duel."

    "It's not really up to you." I sighed. "Ultimately it's up to the clan, it's always been like that."

    "I know, but I can be persuasive when I need to be." She shrugged. "By the way-" She was interrupted by Kaminae and Niero running towards us calling for her. "Oh, now what?" She mumbled.

    "Oh, you're here too." Niero stated looking over at me. "Great, dad's looking for you."

    "Is that what you were screaming like banshees about? You were looking for me?" I asked. "You could have just checked my room."

    "We did that's why we were looking for mom to ask where you were." Kaminae shrugged. "You're here so it just made it easier."

    "Like I said dad's looking for you, and he sounds angry, so I wouldn't keep him waiting if I were you." Niero stated grabbing my free hand and pulling me away from mom. "It shouldn't take to long." He called to mom as he pulled me along. I just wanted to take a shower. I sighed as Niero continued to pull me along. "It can't be to bad, you technically already had your duel, so stop stressing about it."

    "Not I didn't that fight wasn't official." I stated. "The clan has to be present for it to be classed as an official duel."

    "I forgot about that." He mumbled.

    "You aren't fit for a duel, Hatchiko." Kaminae pointed out.

    "Not fit?" Niero asked looking back at me. "You look fine."

    "Two cracked ribs?" Kaminae asked. "You didn't tell me the whole truth."

    "I told you what I knew." I stated. "I told you I never looked at the scans."

    "Come on, dad's waiting you should go on in." Niero said pushing me through the door to dad's office.

    Dad looked up when I stumbled in nearly tripping over my own feet. He sighed and shook his head when he saw the clothes still in my hand. I made my way over to his desk and stood there waiting for him to finish with the phone call he was having. He gestured for me to sit down as it sounded like his call was ending. I sat down, and laid my clothes in my lap just waiting for him to tell me what was so important that I'm not currently taking a shower. I sighed as he hung up the phone.

    "You have to duel." He simply said.

    "What the hell?" I nearly shouted. 

    "The cabinet doesn't care about your condition."

    "Mom is going to fight this." I stated. "She already told me that she would."

    "You're duel will have to be tomorrow, you leave on Monday." He stated. "Your opponent is Tokiyame, you should prepare yourself."

    "I will do what I can." I stated. "Can I go shower now?"

    "Go on, your duel will be at eleven tomorrow morning." He sighed. "Do try to be careful tomorrow."

    "I will." I stated leaving his office.

    Niero and Kaminae were still waiting for me when I left dad's office. they kept trying to find out what we talked about, but i didn't need the distraction. I didn't need to psych myself out either. I just wanted to take a shower and relax I need to make sure that I have the energy to fight tomorrow.

    "Guys I'm going to take a shower." I stated turning to face them. "You can't follow me in there."

    "Are you really not going to tell us what happened in there?" Niero asked.

    "No."

    "What? Why not?" He whined.

    "She just did." Kaminae stated and glared. "I don't agree." He growled before patting my shoulder and pulling Niero in the opposite direction. "Good night Hatchiko."

    I mumbled a good night back at him before going to take my shower. Once that was done I made my way back to my room. I was happy to see that someone had brought food for me; that meant that I didn't have to go to the kitchen to eat. Once I ate I decided to try and sleep before my duel. Tomorrow can very well change the rest of my life.