CHAPTER 5: Denoument

Isamu sat on his chair, back resting on the black leather of it and elbow on the armrest. He propped his chin on his hand and tried to think. The two young men he sent a few days ago to kill Naoki had already called him. One of them was badly wounded but they were able to kill the man, they said. The body was thrown into one of Tokyo's ports. It would probably be a day or so before the body will be found.

At least he had one less problem.

He was snapped out of his reverie when he heard a sudden shouting and commotion just outside his room. Within a few minutes of the initial outbreak of the noise, Takehiko barged in the room, urgency evident in his features.

"Isamu! Koji-sama has come back!"

Isamu tried to find his voice but realized he could not. His mouth hung, suspended and open, waiting for words to flow.

"And," Takehiko continued, "he is looking for you, Isamu-sama. There is something wrong - he has members of the Kitsugumi with him. There are more than a hundred surrounding the main house!"

Isamu stood up and walked stiffly to the door. "Call all clans. I am going to meet him."

Every step Isamu took was heavier than the next. When at first there was only fear, the next step carried determination, and the next with stubbornness. Koji was resolute in his decision to fight and to revenge his father, Isamu thought, but so was he. He will not back down against a nineteen year-old.

The Takagumi was already gathering outside, most of which were armed with guns. Isamu reassured himself that the Takagumi would be able to stand against the Kitsugumi. But one fact stood: the late Oyabun refrained from any war against the Kitsugumi. Even Isamu had never fought against them. There had been disputes but both parties never resolved to use physical violence. In truth, both of them made great efforts to avoid it. The issue over the territory was never resolved but not once did the two parties point guns at each other. Until today.

Koji stood at the gates of the Takagumi's private lot. The large wooden gates were wide open and behind him were a hundred men, all armed. "Kyoudai!" Koji smiled at him but the smile was cold and bitter, not too different from his own blood.

"Koji."

"A fine way to greet the morning, isn't it?"

Isamu refrained from replying.

"I will open my proposal to you again: confess here and now and I shall not do anything drastic. If you fire at me, then we shall fire as well."

Everybody's attention was focused on the two. Confess? What was their young Koji-sama asking of Isamu?

"I said I do not understand what you are talking about."

"Everyone! This man before you killed my father! The legendary Isamu killed Takagumi's Oyabun! He was the last man with him! I saw him enter my father's car with my father and saw them drive in the direction of Shibuya, where you all know the 'accident' supposedly happened!"

Whispers erupted like a threatening wave of tsunami.

Isamu's fists clenched. "What evidence do you have to give this allegation?"

"If seeing you doing the act is not enough, then will this be?" Koji nodded to one of his companions and a pair of them dragged a drenched corpse into the gates of the Takagumi estate.

The body caused some to stare at it in silence. Others spoke in louder voices. Others cried out in anger.

"This body is the body of Naoki! I am sure you know him. He is a partner of Isamu and his body was found with thirteen stabs on the waters near the port of Tokyo. We are fortunate that it was the Kitsugumi, who owned a shipping business, who found the body. They graciously returned us the body. Naoki was found dead - stabbed and none of it an accident. Who is the man he was closest to? Is it not Isamu?"

The attention of everyone shifted to Isamu. They waited for an answer.

"It is true that he and I were partners but that does not mean I killed him!"

"But Naoki was close enough - close enough to know your secrets. You were afraid that he would spill the story and you would be found guilty."

Most of the men felt disbelief at the unfolding truth presented to them. It was like Pandora's box opened suddenly and all the good things that Isamu was made of vanished, blown by the wind like ashes and dust. What remained was an ugly cocoon that housed all of man's evil.

"He does not speak the truth!" Isamu addressed everyone in the Takagumi. "I saved Oyabun two years ago! I risked my life for him!"

"But men change," challenged Koji. "Two years is long enough to corrupt you, Isamu."

"Your 'proofs' are not valid!"

"Then if we bring forth two witnesses, will that change?" Koji smiled yet again; a smile eerie and evil, a smile that nearly made Isamu retreat. Isamu felt his stomach lurch; his heart beat thrice its normal rate.

Intuition told him the worst was only next to come.

Two men stepped forward. They were the young men Isamu ordered to have Naoki killed.

"Now, confess your crimes," Koji said, with a voice dangerously low.

"Shinoda Isamu of the Takagumi ordered us to kill a man named Naoki," the two said unanimously. "He gave us a picture," one of them continued as he pulled the picture from his pocket, "and told us to kill the 'traitor'."

It was as if an epidemic drowned the land in which the Takagumi stood. They turned into basilisks whose glares, all directed at Isamu, threatened to kill him.

Isamu understood. He understood he had but one fate. There was no other road open for him, now that the two young men spoke out loud the truth. Koji wanted to kill him. For that, he will pay for another's life he took away. But he will never let Koji win. He would at least deprive Koji of the pleasure of killing his father's murderer.

Koji will not have everything.

Isamu took out his gun and pulled the trigger.

next chapter: chapter six