CHAPTER 1: Liberation

He felt bruised all over but on his face was a smug smile, and walking arrogantly with wide strides and hands in his pockets, he felt pride brewing inside. The Sunekugumi group of the Minato district thought it fit to trespass the borders of their territory. He and Naoki, along with the other members of the 5th Division under the Takagumi drove to the said border and stopped them. A brawl was inevitable, of course, but Shinoda Isamu was satisfied that they won.

"Oi! Isamu!"

The loud running footsteps were soon beside him and Isamu was greeted with Naoki's grin.

"What?"

"My arm's aching and my fingers feel as if a wheel went over them. What do you say we go to the Red Lights District and chill?"

Isamu shrugged. Akane wouldn't mind it, he knew. It was not as if she was disturbed by their practices. After all, even she was raised under the Yakuza . Naoki, still standing beside him, waited for an answer.

Isamu nodded. "Let's go."

- - - - - - - - - -

Naoki's arm was too strained to play panchiko so they opted to eat at one of Ginza's clubs. The women didn't interest him. Nothing did, really. Why many businessmen spent their forty thousand yen every night -- or at least, every time they were free -- over these fawning women, he'd never understand. Fortunately, Naoki was just as uninterested as he was. The guy was too loyal to his wife to do anything and as far as he knew, Naoki's loyalty and honor buried deep into his soul and nobody would be able to break it. Not even women whose bust size was cup D.

Osamu Naoki was reliable, intelligent, and quick on his feet. He and Naoki worked together ever since the Takagumi adopted him. An abandoned child of his former family, Naoki swore loyalty even until death to the Takagumi.

In his peripheral vision, he saw red and black right across their table. He was having a nice drink and found it unnecessary to further direct his attention to that haze of colors until a womanly voice said, "Shinoda Isamu, leader of the Makushirou Clan, right-hand man of Igarashi Daiki, and kumicho of the Takagumi, can I ask why you are here?"

Startled at the sudden narration of his position, save two, Isamu and Naoki lifted their heads and silently stared at the women. The three looked identical: each had long dark hair, shining under the dim yellow lights of the room that fell over their shoulders until they ended at the waist. Their eyes were deep-set and brown, their lips pale pink. They wore fishnet stockings, short red skirts, and wore tops of fit white blouses. He was taken aback by their knowledge about his position and clan name under the Yakuza that was usually undisclosed to the public and known only to the members of the group.

It was Naoki who spoke first. "How did you know that? Who are you?" His voice was low and his eyes narrowed. "Are you spies? Trespassers from the Sunekugumi?"

The women merely smiled and said, "We assure you, our nature is not a threat to you or to him," the referred to Isamu. The women sat down uninvited, one in between them and the other two at their vacant sides. They placed five glasses of wine on the table and urged them to drink. Naoki and Isamu regarded them with distrust but if the women knew that much about them, then suffice it to say they were in no position to start a fight. Reluctantly, they gulped down the wine.

"You know, you're more fit to be head of the Takagumi," one of the women said.

Isamu did not know what to answer to that. Beside him, Naoki laughed. "Do you even know what you're talking about?"

The three women smiled knowingly, mischiefs glowing in their eyes. "But we've heard about Isamu. We know the Drug Deal Incident and how Isamu defended Takagumi's Oyabun. In our opinion, he'd fit the position of kumicho better."

Naoki waited some sort of response from Isamu but his companion merely sat silent. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

Isamu shrugged. "That's what they think. What do you want me to do?"

Naoki stared at Isamu in disbelief. The three women laughed. "They? Surely you've heard the wakashu talk about it!" one of them cried out in amusement.

Naoki was indignant. "That can't be true! The kumicho is a good leader -- no, he's more than that!"

"Well, this is a free world, boy. Does it matter if our opinions differ from yours?" the woman beside Isamu retorted.

"Leave the table now," Isamu threatened. A growing discomfort suddenly gripped him and as far as he was concerned, the absence of the three women would drive it away.

"Temper, temper!" one of them teased.

Isamu and Naoki were alone once again, each lost in the recent intrusion of the three identical-looking women. Silence, uncomfortable and deafening, threatened to overpower their sanity.

- - - - - - - - - -

Hours later, Isamu and Naoki found themselves rushing in line inside the Takagumi Main House to greet their Oyabun who just came from a business deal with one of Japan's top businessmen. The doors opened and a man entered, dressed in a smart black suit with nearly gray hair combed neatly backwards. Everyone in the Takagumi bowed together in respect. "Welcome home, Oyabun!" they addressed their 'father'.

The man nodded in affirmation and headed towards his office. He stopped where Isamu stood, back bent forward, an outward bow as a symbol of submission, and said, "Come with me." There was a gentle kindness in the tone that Isamu did not have to fear any unfortunate news spilling from their leader. "As you wish, Daiki-sama ." he replied.

They soon disappeared at the east wing of the house.

- - - - - - - - - -

"How was the meeting in Shinjuku, kumicho?" Isamu inquired.

Daiki-sama smiled. "Well. At least, for us. Watasabi & Corp. won't reject any offers from the Takagumi, for protection or otherwise. As long as we keep his secrets for him and as long as he sells us some stocks then there's nothing to worry about."

"That's good news then," Isamu said, proud.

"Ah, it is. But -- I have better news for you!" The kumicho sounded enthusiastic that Isamu failed to suppress his curiosity.

"What do you mean, kumicho?"

"I'm willing to make you waka-gashira."

Isamu stood, frozen, and shock barely repressed from making itself known to the man who requested his presence.

"Shinoda Isamu, leader of the Makushirou Clan, right-hand man of Igarashi Daiki, and kumicho of the Takagumi, can I ask why you are here?" A woman's voice reverberated throughout his soul, snapping both consciousness and something else from their dormant passiveness. Something else...

Why was he there?

- - - - - - - - - -

"I've heard you were made saiko komon?" Akane asked him while she was crouched on the floor, hands tapping the floor covered with tatami mat.

"Well, yeah." Isamu regarded her with puzzlement. "What are you looking for?"

"My contacts. It fell somewhere."

Noticing something shine in a mere two seconds, he crouched down beside her and picked it up. "I suppose this was it?"

Akane stood up and grinned. She looked over to see the round, thin, transparent object he held in his hand and said, "Well, why am I not surprised you saw it?"

"I wonder," he said good-naturedly.

"So, about being the senior advisor of Oyabun, how do you feel?"

He dragged his feet to the table and sat down on the floor. "Disturbed? Uncomfortable? Discontent?"

Akane furrowed her eyebrows and gazed at him with concern. "What are you saying?"

"Naoki and I went to the Red Lights District."

"You mean Ginza? You and Naoki still call it the Red Lights District?" she laughed.

Ignoring her question, Isamu continued, "And there were three women who sat next to us."

She arched an eyebrow. "Oh, I see."

"No, you don't! They said something about me. That I was more fit to be the kumicho of the Takagumi."

"Then just tonight you were made senior advisor?"

He nodded.

"Sluts are not fortunetellers, Isamu."

"I know."

Akane sat beside him and let his head lie down on her shoulder. "If you want to be kumicho, that's easy."

He stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. "Don't you dare suggest that."

"All of the Takagumi, from the wakashu to the shatei to the regional bosses, like you. Loyalty, the very foundation in which the yakuza are standing, will be easy for you to acquire. Koji-sama is nineteen. He's too young to have established strong-standing ties. You earned their respect and admiration for years – you've been in the Takagumi even before Koiji-sama started to learn to fight."

"But I am his kobun!"

"And die as his human shield? With no other purpose than to block bullets from harming his body? I'd rather have you as the kumicho."

"You don't know what you're asking from me," he pleaded. "Besides, as saiko komori, I'd have my own subordinates, my own district, my own rules to play."

"But as kumicho, you'll get hold of most of the assets, the stocks, and the tiny little treasure of control the Takagumi holds. You don't have to do the fighting, join the brawls, and be obliged to take it upon yourself to shield the Oyabun from any malice-dipped bullets," Akane reasoned.

Isamu turned his head away, partly in shame, partly in diffidence. What face must he wear at the brink of breaking loyalties?

"You'd stand, head high, while everybody bows down before you, calling you ‘kumicho' and ‘Oyabun'. Don't you see?"

"No, it's impossible--"

"Isamu."

He turned his gaze back at her. He was tired. He was exhausted. All he wanted was to sleep, to lay his bruised body down a soft futon, and rest in dreamland.

"You don't need to come home bruised anymore," she continued to insist.

"Then what do I do?"

next chapter: chapter two

1. Yakuza - Japanese Mafia. Read the cultural notes for a more comprehensive write-up.
2. Panchiko - a slot machine game that is popular in Japan.
3. Oyabun - translated as "father". He is the highest in the hierarchical structure of the Japanese Yakuza.
4. Kumicho - supreme leader.
5. wakashu - junior leaders.
6. -sama - used as a honorific to address men of very high esteem.
7. Waka-gashira - second in command. He stands directly under the boss with the other yakuza members beneath him.
8. Shatei - "younger brothers". They make up the general population of the yakuza. They belong in one of the second-to-the-last part of the yakuza hierarchy.
9. Kobun - everyone under the Oyabun is considered kobun or "child" of the Oyabun (father).