Chapter Text
Summer of 1990 May 10th was chaotic. The cries of a newborn echoed through the walls of a brothel located in the middle of the red light district of shibuya. A child of a prostitute was born that day, a ‘brothel sprout’, they called the boy. It didn’t take long before another came along. Two years later on June 25th, the same girl would give birth to a child in the janitor closet of the very same brothel she worked at. But before anyone even found out, the girl fled. Taking only the money she made, she left the brothel where her two children resided. Only when the newborn girl’s cries caught the attention of the brothel manager doing patrol did people finally realise what had happened. No one questioned, no one tried to find the missing girl. Unfortunately, such occurrences were normal in the industry. Unwanted children were born because the girls were too young to get an abortion and had no guardian to approve to it, so they give birth and flee as soon as they could.
Only after the brothel manager brought the newborn girl to the hospital for a checkup did he pass her to her older brother of two years of age. The boy was confused, he cried for his mother, but she was gone. For a long time, the boy wouldn’t even look at his younger sister and left her alone, ignoring her needs. The adults would be the ones taking care of her until the boy was finally calm enough to even meet his sister properly.The brothel manager took pity on the two children and let them continue to live in the abandoned room on the top floor where they had resided with their mother for the past five years. A meager allowance was provided to the two, barely enough to buy them necessities. Sometimes the girls of the brothel and the manager would give the two children snacks and extra items they no longer needed, and the older of the two kids would accept it with gratitude. He wanted to cry, through a fit over his mother’s disappearance, but he knew that it’ll all be pointless after everyone ignored his cries when his mother first left.
The brothel manager watched the two children grow up, giving them aid when they needed it and was even kind enough to send them to school. He remembers the day when Ryuguji Reiya,the mother of the children, first stepped into the brothel and begged him for a job for a whole week. She was only 14 at the time, far too young to be doing anything at the red light district. But eventually, the manager gave in. Reiya was an orphan abandoned by her parents after their divorce, with nowhere else to go and no proper education, she had no choice left but to come to the brothel. She wasn’t stupid, she knew the things that went on in such places, but it wasn’t like she had a choice. By right, an underaged child working in a brothel is illegal, but Reiya’s body was more mature than the girls her age, and with the promise to not say her age out, the manager gave her the job. He still feels guilty about it whenever he looks at reiya’s two children, if he just declined, maybe her fate would’ve been better. But guilt didn’t matter anymore as the children were already born.
Grabbing the bag of candy he bought, he headed for the two children’s room to pass it to them. It was normal for him to be giving them small treats now and then, the children were adorable and he just couldn’t say no to them especially when the younger sister looks at him with her big watery doll eyes. His heart just melts and gives in to whatever request the children had. it‘s never anything big, just requests for candy or a few extra dollars to buy necessities. As he approached their door, he could hear the children’s muffled conversation
“Michi, stop moving! I’m trying to do your hair!”
“But you’re pulling too tight ken-nii!”
Their bickering stopped the moment the manager knocked their door and stepped in. immediately, the younger of the two jumped up from her stool and ran towards him. “Masawei san!” the girl exclaimed as she hugged his legs, looking at him with her crystal blue eyes that would put the stars to shame with how much they shined. The older brother would approach him as well, but with a lot less enthusiasm and an annoyed look on his face as the braid on the girl’s long raven hair seperated before he could tie them in place. “Michi, stop hugging that old geezer!” Ryuguji Ken called. He is the older brother to Ryuguji Takemichi. The two siblings were close to the hip, but their personalities were completely different. While the sister is bright and full of energy, the brother on the other hand seems to be always brooding and stoic around other people. Perhaps it’s because he had to take the role of the adult at only five years old or because of the environment he grew up in, but Ryuguji Ken never lets his guard down.
Takemichi would let go of Masawei, who took an arrow to his heart for being called an old geezer despite only being forty, and skipped back to stand beside her brother. It was cute to see the girl stick to her brother no matter what was going on, and even cuter when Ken’s face would go red whenever one of the brothel girls teased him for being so protective of takemichi.
Masawei didn’t stay long, passing the bag of candy to Takemichi and leaving soon after. He could see how annoyed ken was and it’s not like he was scared or anything, but Masawei hates to deal with an annoyed ken as the young boy’s attitude would be through the roof. He secretly hoped that one day the boy could be as sweet as his sister, it would make his life 100x easier.
Seeing as Masawei had left, ken pulled takemichi back onto her stool in front of a dirty mirror that was still covered with makeup stains from when their mother would still use it. Takemichi sat quietly as she kicked her legs, patiently waiting for her brother to be done tying her braids. It wouldn’t take long, ken was an expert at doing hair now after facing a whining and crying two year old michi after he had messed up her ponytail. He still remembers how mad michi was and how she didn’t even talk to him all day! The girl couldn’t live without her big brother and a day without bothering him was like hell for both siblings. Ken would never admit it but he loved takemichi way too much. He never lets her go anywhere alone, even if it is just to find one of the girls living in the room downstairs. A brothel was a far too dangerous place for a girl like takemichi to be roaming in. He knew what went on in the brothel and what happened with their mother, he wouldn’t risk anything happening to his baby sister. He cooed over takemichi’s smallest actions, treasured the smallest of gifts that she gave him even if it was just a weird looking rock she found on the road. He would save every cent that he had just so that he could buy her pretty dresses and make sure that she would never feel jealous of the other girls her age. But no one would know that, ever. His ego would be damned if someone were to find out how much he dotes on his adorable sister, it was his secret to know.
Takemichi is pure, naive, a walking ball of positivity. She can steal anyone’s favour by just smiling at them. But that was a problem for her big brother. Too many girls in the brothel wanted to steal takemichi for themselves, and it was up to ken to fend them off. Takemichi would be oblivious to her brother’s death stares that were directed to the pretty sisters that were offering her all sorts of things to get some alone time (it never works, even if they convince takemichi to come, ken would be in the room as well to ensure her safety). By the end of the day when they returned to their own room, draken would be carrying bags of chips and sweets gifted to them. He hated how popular takemichi was, he wanted all her attention to be on him and show her how awesome of a big brother he was. But he will forever be grateful for those annoying girls no matter how much they pastered them.
The jobs the girls have are… well, physically demanding, and their bodies would be sore after a long day of work. And they would ask ken to give them messages in return for money. Ken declined at first, he had no interest in spending time with any other girl other than takemichi, but when he heard that he’ll get money, he accepted it immediately. It was tiring to be honest, there were so many clients and by the time ken was done with the messages, it would be midnight already, and he had to continue his work in the morning before he went to school as some of them worked overnight. But ultimately, it was all worth it. With the money he earned from the girls, he would have more money to spend on takemichi. Ken knew that the monthly allowance they received was out of courtesy of the Masawei san, and it was just enough to get their necessities. And if both siblings were boys, ken wouldn’t have minded it at all. But the problem was that takemichi was a girl. He observed the other girls at school, and all they talked about were pretty dresses, new desert stores and all that girly stuff, and ken wanted to get them for his sister. The problem was that if he bought it for her, they wouldn’t have enough money to make it through the month even if they ate one meal per day(not that he’ll let takemichi go through that). So when an opportunity for him to make money was presented in front of him, he took it without complain, and it was cute to see takemichi cheering him from the side during the message sessions, how she’ll pass him a glass of water when he was taking breaks, and how she frets over him when he gets too tired to even move when there was high demand for his service that day.
Another reason why he is “indebted” to the girls is because they are the ones taking care of takemichi when he is in school. The brothel have hundreds of customers roaming about everyday, and the level the siblings stayed was half opened to normal operations, and it wasn’t uncommon for one of the customers to go into the wrong rooms. Most people would leave immediately, but there were still some creeps, and ken hated them. They made the girls uncomfortable and scared, and often had to be dragged out by masawei san when they start being unreasonable. Ken saw those situations too often, and he worries that one day takemichi would be stuck in a situation like that. So he made sure that takemichi is with one of the girls or masawei san whenever he leaves for school, and always have takemichi in his view when he was back. ken wouldn’t let a single creep lay their hands on takemichi, he swears it.
Ryuguji ken was a selfish person and he accepted that fact long ago when takemichi’s first word was his name. He swore to take care of takemichi for as long as he is alive and make sure that no matter what happens, takemichi is happy. So he’ll ignore the teasing remarks of the girls whenever they made fun of his overprotectiveness towards takemichi if it means that he gets to bask in the presence of his sister for one day more.