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Kirari Momobami watched as Rei Batsubami opened the door for her cousins. The Momobamis were a large clan made up of many branch families so the number of people lining up for an attempt to claim her title of clan leader was predictable.
Infighting and competition had always been high within the family however things had gotten steadily worse since she was a child. Particularly among the younger members who were exiling and killing each other like their lives depended on it. Not everyone was like them however and it seemed as if the issue was a need to know affair.
“Now introducing the members of each clan…” Kirari zoned out from Rei’s words, they were boring to her. Only the members caught up in this secret dispute were of interest to her at the moment.
“Miroslava and Yulian Honebami,”.
Miroslava was of no concern to her, however Yulian was. Both were expert assassins as was the nature of the Honebami family, but Yulian was always bizarre in how he carried it out. She heard about his aversion to violence under most circumstances and preference for letting Miroslava do most of the dirty work, however in times he was forced to take out someone himself…
Well, nobody exactly knew, but he was able to kill discreetly and spontaneously without any visible or medical damage done to his victims, something she found intriguing.
“Miri and Sakurako Yobami,”.
Sakurako was the interesting one in this duo. She had always been strange. Kirari heard rumors about Miyo and Miri, they were sisters separated during childhood due to family in fighting. Both were hurt by this event however things only got better for them over time, they went back to how everything was before…
And that, she suspected, was thanks to Sakurako. Fooling everyone and helping them meet in secret. According to the game of telephone, Miyo’s aunt had become suspicious of her activities and began to investigate. Three days later she was found dead from a fatal dose of cyanide, and the house servant was found to blame. An Inbami wouldn’t choke on their own poison, nor could she believe that a mere servant had a reason to do such a thing. This happened to anyone who dared to question Miyo or Miri too much, and neither had the skill in stealth to pull this off.
Sakurako, however, was responsible for exiling five younger clan members into the Batsubamis and had plausible connection to the deaths of two others, she was clearly competitive.
“But why?” Was the biggest question. The constant fighting interested Kirari as she didn’t understand why it was happening. Sakurako and many others obviously had some kind of goal they wanted to reach at the expense of everyone else, but she didn’t know what it was.
“Yury Sensoubami,”.
Yury was strange as well. The Sensoubamis are historically subservient to the Honebamis and lived in eastern europe. Yury had known Yulian since childhood and he had a younger sister who died when she was young, he was known for being formal at all times.
The Senoubamis are arms dealers who worked as brokers for whatever side paid the most, so there was no reason for Yury to know what he did. Allegedly, After Yulian’s trainer died on a mission, Yury stood up to the challenge to mentor Yulian. Both their parents laughed at first, but changed their tunes once he decided to take a ‘job’ as proof. He accomplished the task with excellency and efficiency seen only in experts.
“Bizou, Erimi, and Naruhito Mushibami,”
Erimi was the one she didn’t care about. Bizou and Naruhito seemed to be natural born enemies, both having the same fierce competitiveness as Sakurako. They constantly fought in either deadly matches or high stakes games, but neither fell to the other. She knew that both had exiled people and had something to gain.
Bizou was known as the ‘Mushibami Sadist’. Sado-Masochist was a better term to describe him, as he welcomed his pain as much as the pain of others. He was also known for having an extremely dark sense of humor and for being generally unhinged. It reminded her of Midari, who was seated only a few feet from her. Seeing them Gamble would be interesting.
Naruhito was cunning and manipulative. When Bizou’s behavior drove Erimi into a state of paranoia, he was there to comfort her, but only to turn the girl against his brother. He was opportunistic and always tried to gain allies, but wasn’t afraid to make someone his enemy. Naruhito could control and convince others into trusting him with a few words and sometimes lies. There was no reason for him to be this manipulative, as the Mushibamis were just torturers, but he still was.
“Sumika and Airi Warakubami”
The Warakubamis had worked as actors for generations, Sumika and Airi were no exception. Both had identities they used while performing to separate their public and private lives. For Sumika, this was Natari Kawaru, and for Airi, it was Airisu Kawaru. Sumika was a world renowned actress but Kirari had seen many of those… Airi was more confusing however.
Her acting was decent but nothing akin to her sister’s. The Warakubami clan mostly cared about Sumika because of her talent and somewhat neglected Airi, but this didn’t seem to bother her. She handwaved things fairly often and was generally unbothered by even troubling things. At the same time, Kirari could tell from what she heard that love was the easiest thing for Airi to act out, yet her personal life seemed almost devoid of it, her family was neglectful of her in favor of her older sister and she had no significant relationships outside her job. It also didn’t help how nervous she seemed to be around the rest of the family, undoubtedly related to the ongoing conflict however she seemed even more so around the Sensoubamis or the Totobamis.
The Totobamis made sense as they were dispute settlers, and therefore held a large amount of power over the other branch families. The Sensoubamis on the other hand were arms dealers who lived on the other side of the world and few branch families had heard of them. Kirari had heard that Yury was only here to accompany Yulian, so it was suspicious that Airi would even know about them.
And yet there was another thing that both the Sensoubamis and Totobamis shared, one that was quite specific on its own…
“Inosuke and Eruku Wazabami,”
Oh. Kirari was snapped out of her thoughts, both of them were quite interesting.The Wazabamis were traditional painters which is where Inosuke excelled. He was energetic and excitable yet had periods of time where he was completely unresponsive, not physically but rather that he just wouldn't respond. He would vanish soon after and would go traveling to remote regions of the world, returning with a new piece better than the last. He had a fascination with art and technique, mixing different ones with excellence.
According to police reports there were several missing persons cases in the places Inosuke visited, some were even found as corpses…
Eruku was Inosuke’s exact opposite, he hated the family tradition and wasn’t skilled in painting. He was a loner who preferred to destroy what his brother created instead of adding onto it. This caused a rift to form between him and the rest of his family, minus Inosuke himself. Inosuke seemed… used to it, whenever Eruku destroyed one of his creations in a fit of rage or annoyance, he just shrugged and went back to what he was doing, or he remade the piece if he had to.
Even though he wasn’t fond of the family tradition, Eruku still had a lot of artistic talent. He preferred to use it for knitting and puppeteering and Kirari could understand his desire to do what he wanted as opposed to his family tradition.
“Nozomi and Keiko Komabami,”
There was one other who accompanied them, the other half of the duo she found fascinating.
Naoki Batsubami and Keiko Komabami.
Keiko was relatively normal, if it weren't for her skill with the piano and relationship woth Naoki. Despite having never been trained, she could hold her own against professionals and was considered on part if not above her competition.
And this was something Kirari didn't understand, how she had such natural talent. It interested her, and Kirari wasn't the only one.
Naoki's family had served the Komabamis for centuries after a devastating loss in the 1800s, so his presence was expected. What wasn’t would be his… eccentric personality. Naoki was insane, and that was putting it simply. He practically worshiped Keiko for her talent and would be willing to sacrifice anything for her. It wasn’t love but merely admiration.
“Terano, Yumi, and Jurou Totobami,”
Out of all those Kirari found interesting, Jurou was the least of such. He was the heroic type, but had the ability to handle complicated situations. It was as if he was a traditional hero pulled into reality, and he was mature and kind. That was all she knew about him, aside from the fact that his younger sister had been killed years ago by a masked assassin.
He was kind of boring, actually, but had still been caught up in the chaos of her family’s competition.
“My sole purpose here is to serve them during their time at the academy,”
“I am Rei Batsubami,”
Kirari smiled at that. Finally, Rei Batsubami herself. An unknown variable in all of this, she seemed so interested in reclaiming a spot in the Momobami clan, but was also invested in their struggles. Batsubamis weren’t supposed to participate in games against clan members but she did so anyway, covertly of course. Rei had a silver tongue, capable of lying or goading others into bets where the odds were entirely against them or to partake in scenarios that she would typically be excluded from. Just like all the others, Rei was trying to win against them.
This would be a very fun election indeed.