As another child of Ubuyashiki, you were considered a constant target. Your father had inherited a long-running empire, commanding many families and having influence over even more cities. Two of your sisters had already been married to families farther away, but Ubuyashiki had other plans with you.

The Rengoku family, one of your fathers most trusted subordinate families. They were skilled within the gang, and even the women held immense status. And you had just been cordially engaged to the first son, Kyojuro.

He was a handsome man, brought up with dignity and pride. Though, for you, it was like all the men were from the same womb. The fiery hair, the red eyes, even down to the way they carried themselves. You stuck out like a crayon in a toolbox.

Kyojuro was kind, if a bit distant. Extremely distant. The assumption at first was that he must've been giving you space to get used to the arrangement. But the spacious bed you shared with him quickly became cold, the silent breakfasts less comfortable. After two months of the cold shoulder, you resigned yourself to believing he hated you and the idea of being married to you. The thoughts were solidified when no one of either family brought up an actual wedding date or plans.

It was mid-December, the chilly weather and gray clouds, somehow perfectly catching your inner turmoil as you hid in a hot shower from the cold. It all seemed like too much. Being married off to stay protected, the cold shoulder from your fiance, and now no one was even talking about a wedding?

As your thoughts wandered, you barely heard the door open and close. The only thing that snapped you out of your thoughts was a pained hiss, masculine in nature, but higher pitched as if the person hadn't expected the pain.

Peaking around the curtain showed Kyojuro peeling off his shirt, his back littered in knife scars and two distinct bullet wounds. None were fresh, all years old at this point. "Is there something wrong?" Kyojuro made eye contact with you in the big mirror over the sink, his left eye seemingly perminantly shut with the scar from his eyebrow to cheekbone.