Author's Notes: I've been planning this story for what feels like forever and I think I finally have enough of the details hammered out to start it! This will probably end up being one of the longest stories I've written so far so I hope you guys are ready!

I think I should let you all know in advance that there isn't going to be any romance for a while; this story starts during Saints Row 2 and continues up through the end of Saints Row 4, so it'll be a while before Matt even makes an appearance. Still, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to hold your interest until then.

I would also like to mention that I'm not going to refer to The Boss with gender-specific pronouns. I figured it'd be more fun to let the reader determine The Boss's gender.

"What's going on?" a Ronin grunt asked Jyunichi as they and a much smaller pre-teen grunt listened to Shogo Akuji speak to his father in Japanese via speakerphone. The head of the Ronin had evidently caught wind of the Saints' raid on their casino and was none too happy about the loss.

"Shogo is explaining our failure to his father," Jyunichi replied.

"Mr. Akuji doesn't sound happy," the grunt observed.

"That's because his son has brought him much shame," Jyunichi explained. "Akuji-san is coming to America to teach Shogo how to lead."

"Is that good or bad?" the grunt asked.

"That depends on who you are," Jyunichi answered as Shogo disconnected the call.

"We need the Saints taken care of before my father arrives," Shogo announced as he stood up from the table.

"What would you have me do?" Jyunichi asked as he and the two grunts made their way closer.

"What do you think I want you to do?! Get some of our boys and kill them!" Shogo ordered. His gaze dropped to the smaller, female grunt, who had remained silent since they entered the room. "Actually...it probably wouldn't hurt to send this one as well. Let's see how well the Saints fair against the Ronin's best-kept secret." He walked over to the small grunt and grabbed a hold of her chin, tilting her head up. "After all, that's why you're here isn't it? You want to wipe out the Saints, don't you? Considering it's all you're good for, after all." He moved his hand up and down, forcing the girl's head to move along with it. The girl made no move to resist and her blank brown eyes betrayed no emotion. "Excellent. Now get out there and don't disappoint me." He turned his gaze to the girl's bandaged hands. "You wouldn't want a repeat of last time, would you?"

Jyunichi turned to face the two grunts. "Go now, both of you. Ride out to the Saints turf with some of the others and see if you can determine where the Saints are hiding." He looked over to the girl. "Once you've found their hideout, you will take out as many as you are able. Do not let us down, Hanabi."

The girl only bowed in response before she and the other grunt exited the room.

"Not that I don't appreciate that Hanabi follows my orders without question, but you'd think she'd at least show a little reaction sometimes," Shogo mused. "It makes threatening her a lot less fun."

"Hanabi's efficiency and focus stem from stripping her of her emotions," Jyunichi replied. "Your father made a wise choice taking her when she was still a child; it's much harder to train an adult to behave in a similar manner."

"Either way, she freaks me the fuck out," Shogo commented.

"Where's Johnny?" the Boss asked Aisha as the two sat in her living room.

"Oh, I sent him out to the store. He should be back-" Aisha was cut off by the sound of the door being thrown open and Johnny walking in with two captive Ronin grunts. He was holding the male grunt's wrists in a vice-like grip and had somehow managed to tuck the child grunt under his arm. "Who the hell are they?!"

"Yo, these are our new houseguests, baby," Johnny explained as he set the young grunt down and shoved the man against the glass coffee table. Surprisingly, the smaller grunt made no move to escape. "Caught these assholes ridin' around our turf."

"You got somethin' you wanna tell me?" the Boss asked as they grabbed onto the man's arm.

The man's only response was to spit in the Boss's face. "Go to hell."

"That wasn't very nice," Johnny quipped as he proceeded to smash the man's head through the coffee table.

"Johnny, I just bought that table!" Aisha protested.

"Sorry 'bout that," Johnny shrugged before propping his foot up on the man's lower back. "Why the fuck are you here?"

"Whatever you do to me is nothing compared to what Mr. Akuji will do to you," the man replied.

Johnny straightened slightly. "The Oyabun? No shit... When's he comin'?"

"I'll die before I tell you," the man replied stubbornly.

"Yup," Johnny agreed before shooting the man in the head.

"Johnny!" Aisha shouted as blood began to pour onto the rug and hardwood.

"It'll wash out," Johnny assured her.

"It better," Aisha huffed as she stood and walked out of the room.

"What the fuck's an 'Akuji'?" the Boss asked.

"Kazuo Akuji's the father of Shogo Akuji, the asshole who's runnin' the Ronin," Johnny explained.

"Okay, so who cares?" the Boss asked.

"This guy's a fucking boogeyman," Johnny elaborated. "When I was in jail, I'd listen to some of the Ronin talk about what the guy did in Japan...it's not pretty."

The Boss spat on the body of the dead grunt before standing. "You think he's all talk?"

"I dunno, but I'm lookin' forward to findin' out," Johnny replied. He turned his attention back to the younger grunt, who had yet to make a move from where they had been placed. "Well shit, kid. I'd half-expected you to try and run off. Not that you'd have gotten very far without your bike."

The Boss strode over and grabbed the grunt's arm. "Unless you wanna end up like your buddy over there-" they nodded toward the corpse. "-I suggest you start talkin'. You wouldn't happen to know when this Akuji douchebag is touching down in the U.S., would you?"

The grunt shrugged, but offered no other response.

"Okay, you got any useful information on the Ronin's operations?" the Boss tried again.

Once again, the grunt merely shrugged in response.

"Well, this is clearly goin' nowhere fast," Johnny commented. "What should we do with the kid?"

"I say we keep 'em captive and see what information we can get from 'em," the Boss replied.

"Yeah, and what if they don't tell us anything?" Johnny asked. "Kid seems to have the silent act down-pat and it's not like we can just let 'em walk away."

"We'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it," the Boss said. "Right now, we gotta take out the rest of the Ronin before the get to the crib."

Aisha cleared her throat as she re-entered the living room with a mop in hand.

"You cool takin' out those fuckers by yourself?" Johnny asked. "I gotta clean up around the house."

"No problem, man. I got this. Once I'm through, I'll focus on puttin' the hurt on the Brotherhood and the Sons of Samedi for a little while. In the meantime, I need you to get what you can out of the kid," the Boss replied, exchanging a quick fist-bump with Johnny before leaving.

"So what are you gonna do about the kid?" Aisha asked.

"Boss wants to try and get some information out of 'em, so we're gonna hold 'em here for now," Johnny replied.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Aisha asked. "We don't know the first thing about this kid. For all we know, he might not even speak English."

"What do you mean?" Johnny asked.

"Well, the Ronin are based in Japan, aren't they? And the kid's clearly Japanese. There's no guarantee he's bilingual," Aisha pointed out.

"Yeah, but he seemed to understand the Boss well enough," Johnny replied.

"He might be able to understand English but that doesn't necessarily mean he can speak it," Aisha retorted.

"Actually, my English is fine," the child piped up, their clearly feminine voice devoid of any emotion. "I imagine I probably have a better grasp of the language than most Americans do, given what I've seen since I got here."

"Wait a minute, you're a girl?" Aisha asked.

The girl nodded as she sat down in one of the chairs.

"So you can fuckin' talk," Johnny said. "Why didn't you open your mouth when the Boss was askin' you about the Ronin? You just saw 'em shoot your partner in crime a few seconds before that; I'd think that'd scare just about anyone into talkin'."

"Well I'm not just anyone...Johnny, was it?" the girl replied. "As for why I didn't answer your Boss, I didn't think it would make a difference if I replied verbally or not. Besides, it's not like I lied to them."

"Is that so?" Johnny asked. "Well, for whatever reason, the Boss has decided to let you live for the time being. That said, we can't let you go runnin' back to the Ronin so I suggest you listen up. I'll be watchin' you and if you step outta line even once, I'm not gonna hesitate to put a bullet in your skull. Ya feel me, Tiny?"

The girl nodded but offered no other response, her face completely devoid of emotion.

"Johnny, quit threatening her and clean up the mess you made before that stain sets," Aisha ordered as she thrust the mop in his hands. She sat down next to the girl as Johnny set about cleaning up the blood. "Hi. My name's Aisha."

The girl bowed her head in greeting.

"Sorry for assuming you were a boy," Aisha apologized. "It's just that with your short hair and-"

"Complete lack of any feminine assets whatsoever," Johnny added.

"Johnny!"

"Don't worry about it," the girl said. "It doesn't really matter to me if you see as a boy or girl."

"Well do you have a name?" Aisha asked.

The girl was silent for a long while. Not many people knew her actual name; the Akujis and Jyunichi were the only Ronin members that knew it and even then, they rarely used it. Aisha's apology had also thrown the girl a bit; she was normally the one apologizing for something whether it was her fault or not. She wasn't sure if telling these people her name was a wise choice, especially since one of them had explicitly threatened her just moments ago, but it had been such a long time since she had been treated like a person. "...Hanabi."

"Hanabi," Aisha repeated. "That's a pretty name."

"Eh, I'm still gonna call ya Tiny," Johnny said.

Aisha let out an exasperated sigh. "Really, Johnny?"

"What? It's gender-neutral," Johnny pointed out.

Ending Notes: Let me tell ya, I did not realize how hard it was going to be to write an effectively emotionless character. Fortunately for me, this isn't going to be permanent.

My goal for next chapter is to expand a bit more on Hanabi's backstory and how she came to be working with the Ronin. Saints Row isn't very big on backstory in general, so it's not going to be an overly-detailed or complicated one.

Please let me know what you think! Feedback and constructive criticism are always welcome! Thank you all so much for reading! Geekinthepink, out!