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Ichijiku had heard the news of the Dirty Dawg’s successful formation days before it hit the headlines. Of course, this information had come from a certain fashion designer, who also happened to be the most useful informant of them all.
“Hmph, I see,” she responds as Ramuda finishes telling her the gist of the battle between Mad Comic Dialogue and Kuujaku Posse, but doesn't make a move to leave. “One more thing. Who’s the Dirty Dawg’s leader?”
Ramuda looks up into the sky above the rooftop, holding his chin. “Hmm…” Not that he needed to think. There’s no leader in a coalition of equally skilled rappers, and the Dirty Dawg has more to it than just a formal alliance (or so he wished). He doubts that anyone would want to be or accept having a leader, anyways. A smile appears, although his resting face looked just the same. “Dunno! We didn’t pick one!”
He stops leaning against the railing behind him, skipping around Ichijiku. “Bu~t, the Dirty Dawg is a posse, we don’t really need a leader, don’t we??” If he’s confident, maybe she won’t be as much. That’s the law of conservation of confidence.
Ichijiku keeps her glare, something he half believes helped train his own ability to maintain an expression for extended periods of time. “Decide on a leader by our next conversation. You know what it’s for. Understood?”
“Hey, Ichijiku onee-san doesn’t understand the appeal of not having a leader!” He pouts, but his eyes stay smiling. He doesn’t know where it came from. It’s futile to disagree with her orders; yet, his mouth moves on its own.
“Understood?”
How cold. He wonders if Otome gets the same treatment, even if there’s no chance that’s the case. “Got you!” he finally says, and cheerfully waves his hand to get away from her.
-
Maybe a few weeks later, the Dirty Dawg finally has run out of conversation topics. Ramuda has been busy with building his place in Shibuya and running errands related to the Dirty Dawg or whatever else those women ask of him, so Ichijiku has never gotten the opportunity to speak to him in person.
Even though this is an easy request, something makes him put it off for however long he can put off speaking to Ichijiku. But he can’t spoil the fun of being with his friends anymore by asking such a question now that there’s nothing to spoil, so he decides to drop the spoiler.
“Hey hey, guys, who’s even our leader? Like, in the Dirty Dawg?” Ramuda can’t believe he’s phrasing it like this, but it works.
Jakurai’s the first to react. “Leader?” He repeats, as if it’s a foreign word. “The Dirty Dawg is the product of Mad Comic Dialogue and Kuujaku Posse coming together, so I’ve never considered an existence such as a leader.” Despite his posture, he manages to maintain eye contact with Ramuda sitting just next to him.
A surprisingly predictable answer for Jakurai, the point that Ramuda had not predicted this. It’s kind of nice to hear regardless.
“As well as how I doubt that having people ‘above’ or ‘below’ doesn’t fit with our team.” Ramuda can’t help but nod subtly, keeping it on the same frequency as him kicking his legs.
Ichiro perks up and nods. “Speaking of which, I don’t think Mad Comic Dialogue had a leader either...” He doesn’t seem as fazed by the mention of that name anymore, only looking as if he’s trying to search his memory. Good to know.
“Weren’t you the one always dropping the first verses?” Samatoki comments. He rests his elbows onto his knees, leaning forward, looking at Ichiro, a slight smile.
Ichiro keeps his back upwards, looking downwards at Samatoki, retorting “Yeah? Weren’t you the one in charge of teasing our opponents?”
Samatoki growls, but maintains his expression. “In charge of?” He gets his right arm behind Ichiro’s neck, and pushes him downwards to where he is and stares until he turns back to Ramuda.
“But we don’t have a leader. Isn’t this an alliance?” He lets go of Ichiro to focus. “If we had a fucking leader, it would’ve been me. Even with you guys, I’d never be under someone; I should’ve gotten that straight when we were fighting D4 already.”
Ramuda shapes his mouth into an O. “‘Even’ with you guys, he says~”
“However, you haven’t seen yourself as The Dirty Dawg’s leader, yes?” Ramuda didn’t even sense Jakurai’s gaze going from him to Samatoki, despite his bold presence.
“Of course not. Don’t have the time to do such a stupid job. We aren’t just teammates, are we? We’re friends.” Samatoki’s piercing stare, which was more due to his eyes than his intentions, seemed to intensify.
Ichiro nods at that, adding his own answer. “I haven’t even thought about a team leader. I mean, Ramuda was acting bossy earlier back when we first joined forces, but other than the teams we control, we don’t really have that kind of relationship.”
Ramuda’s about to ask the topic of the day as Ichiro does it for him. “But, if we were to have one, wouldn’t it be you, Ramuda? As the guy who brought up forming The Dirty Dawg.”
“Huhh? Why me? For all you know, Jakurai could’ve been the one to say it first! He stole my lines to invite you, too.” He points at the man, making an angry face to enhance his point.
Ichiro shrugs with a somewhat (but not quite) apologetic smile. “I just thought Jakurai-san wouldn’t say something like that.”
“There’s no way that couldn’t have been Ramuda.” Samatoki adds.
Is that a hint? That Ramuda’s too obvious and pushy about his actions? Is he getting noticed? No, no way. “Haha, but Jakurai sometimes does pretty weird things,” he looks at Jakurai, then hugs his shoulder, “like that one time you two tore your eardrums! He nearly did that too, too bad I stepped in or he would’ve joined you guys.”
“I can’t deny your claim, but it’s not nice to say too bad to maintain your eardrums.” Jakurai leans into him to lessen the pressure. “But yes, it was Ramuda’s idea to join you.”
“Of course,” Samatoki comments, raising both of his eyebrows. “So, why’d you ask? About our leader.” As if his phrasing wasn’t to taste, he narrows his eyes after saying those words.
Ramuda sparkles in response. “About that,” he extends the a, “I was thinking that we should also choose a leader!”
He braces for the fire, but doesn’t wait to speak his next words, which sound like an excuse. “We’ll become more like a team, you know.” He really failed the wording on that, despite being one of Japan’s most literate and spontaneous people.
“And you truly believe that?” Jakurai’s sharp intuition refuses to give Ramuda a break. “You surely understand our relationship, that we aren’t a leader and 3 members.”
At least it was Jakurai to be the first to object. His cooled response gives Ramuda to think of arguments for his (?) cause. “Well, we should have support! And to gain fans, we have to have an easy structure, or someone to remember us by. Then, we’ll get a bunch more people who love us!”
Ichiro’s face is always so honest, having twisted slightly since the mention of having a leader. “To be honest, Ramuda, I kinda don’t want that.” He scratched the back of his head, adding, “We already have fans too…”
“But-“
“Say we have a leader. Who would you put up there, Ramuda?” Ramuda can hear Samatoki’s distaste in his words, but isn’t very affected.
If anything, he’s surprised at how non-aggravated Samatoki was. He was the last to comment, and actually took it in. And Ramuda nearly forgot to respond at the shock, but has enough brains to guess that Jakurai noticed.
“Let me finish my sentence.” he whines, pouting for good measure. “But it’d probably be Ichiro.”
Ichiro perks up slightly more at his mention. No way he’s genuinely surprised? No, that makes sense. He’s a mostly innocent 17-year old.
“Cuz his name has Ichi in it, which means one. Wouldn’t it be weird if the guy with one in his name wasn’t first?” His open-mouth smile thins. “You know, like Samatoki should be a horse, but he’s a scary dog!”
“Are you asking to get beat up?” Samatoki gets up from his seat, and at that, Ichiro looks more content than earlier.
Ramuda runs behind the couch where Jakurai sits. “Samatoki-sama is so scawy~”
Ichiro looks up at Samatoki, his smile back, and pats his back to calm him. Samatoki looks back at Ichiro, question marks floating around his face, but sits back down. Ramuda also vaults over the couch to return to his spot. “But you do give me quite the job for such a small reason,” Ichiro says.
Jakurai, who doesn’t seem to have taken a side yet, opens his mouth. “I do get the idea of having an ordering as a famous team, though I agree with you.” Sometimes Ramuda thinks Jakurai is his self-assigned yes-man, but that thought always gets shattered in seconds. Which isn’t really a bad thing.
“Ahah, uh, really…” Wherever that sheepishness came from, Ichiro sure has it.
Samatoki raises an eyebrow, rubbing his back (must be his careless posture) with his left arm. “If being a leader is a job, wouldn’t Sensei work better?” He doesn’t let anyone say anything as he takes out a cigarette and smokes it between his words. “I could trust him to not make us do stupid things. Let us, sure, make us, I wouldn’t let anyone do that to me.”
Ramuda turns over to Jakurai rather than Samatoki. “Jakurai isn’t a member character? Because he always stands ominously in the back with his big height and they’re all intimidated.” He curls up to emphasize his words.
“Regardless of your reasoning, I really don’t have experience of standing in the front,” Jakurai agrees, meeting his gaze. “But, I don’t mind taking the role.” That challenge-loving glint in his eyes.
“I mean, if we’re judging by height, Ramuda’d be the leader,” Ichiro teases. Ramuda takes that challenge.
“So, tiny adorable Ramuda-chan and three bodyguards?” He places a finger on his chin, his sleeve hiding the rest of his fingers.
“Never mind.”
“Wouldn’t trust Ramuda anyways,” Samatoki smirks at him. He’s probably exasperated at this conversation on the inside.
“But I’m a responsible adult too!” Ramuda argues, putting his hands on his hips. “Then, do you have the confidence of being a better leader than me?”
Ichiro raises his hand. “I can believe in him.”
Ramuda shakes his head. “That’s because you’re Samatoki’s fan,” he claims, honestly.
Jakurai doesn’t bother to politely raise his hand to disagree with Ramuda, though. “As Samatoki does serve as the wakagashira of a yakuza clan, I can imagine he has the experience.”
Samatoki seems slightly taken aback by the belief in him. “Y, yeah…” He seems to have even forgotten his point.
“Then, The Dirty Dawg’s leader is Samatoki! He’s a dog too, it fits~” Ramuda rushes to decide on the answer to his question.
“Hey, first ask the guy in question! I don’t want to fucking do this.” Shit, his normal thought processes came back.
Ramuda recreates the shrug pose without shrugging. “But Jakurai, who you want, doesn’t have that many votes, does he?” He ignores Ichiro looking like he suddenly wants to vote for Jakurai.
“Who said I wanted him, ah?” Samatoki leans forward again, his hands pressing into his knees. “What I want is for there to be no leader!”
Maybe Ichiro is Samatoki’s yes-man. “Samatoki-san, please calm down?” Ichiro’s eyes suddenly sharpen. “But Ramuda, I also don’t really want a guy acting as a leader. We’re equals, yeah?”
‘If we choose a leader, that equality will shatter,’ is probably Ichiro’s next words, but Ramuda doesn’t really listen as he guessed the flow of this conversation.
He listens to Jakurai though, even if he’s just rewording the other two’s arguments. “If we’re going this way, I will also agree. If we decide on a leader, there is a chance that we cannot be like friends as strongly.”
“……” Of course this conversation was going to end in this direction, as expected of the strongest men in Japan. He was, in some part of himself, praying for this to happen. “…I thought so too!” Ah, why is he so easily convinced into agreeing with these three?
“Haha, sorry, I think some of the onee-sans in my fans’ words got to me, oopsies,” He lets his hand go to the side of his head, mimicking those cartoony poses.
“If you get it, you’re fine. It’s whatever.” Did Samatoki also get sweeter to him? No way he needed to add that extra sentence.
Ichiro nods. “Yeah, we’re TDD. If you hold that to heart, it’s okay.” Damn, he’s completely moved on. Probably, Ramuda can’t tell anymore.
Jakurai smiles invitingly. “Yes, let us go take all of Japan like this. Then, we can prove to those who believe that we require a leader that we do not.” He holds his hands in the air as if he’s holding a massive ball.
“You’re right! Now that I think about it, taking Japan isn’t really far anymore!” Despite his worries and the things to think about, he smiles to his heart’s content. “Let’s go!”
-
“So? I haven’t seen any mention of a leader in the news. What’s the meaning of this?” Ichijiku’s cold words are scarier than he’d imagined before, but not enough. She doesn’t even shout, or lean forward in menace.
“Ooh, you’ve been reading the news for us? What a fan.” Ramuda gets out what he wants to say, but hurries before Ichijiku gets to repeat herself. “So I discussed it with everyone, and~” He preemptively goes into an apologetic position, but doesn’t try to apologize yet. “We couldn’t choose one after all! I tried the best I could, I promise!”
Ichijiku presses her hand much strongly against the table, her fingertips curling. “To try hard isn’t to accomplish results. You understand this, yes?”
Ramuda tilts his head. “But~, the fact that we couldn’t pick a leader is also good information for Ichijiku onee-san, right?” His hands cutely curl under his chin. “I finished my job by giving you it,” his voice slightly turns natural involuntarily, “right?”
“There is no word called finished for swine like you.” Ramuda wants to spit at her, or something. “This time, you may get by, but keep yourself in check in the future.” Saying those words, she leaves, just like that.
“Okay!” He smiles his usual, but doesn’t click his tongue immediately after her going out of earshot.