“W-What… W-Who…”
That was the real question, wasn’t it? Who, or what, could have done such a thing? And why? Was it the beginning of a long-building gang war? Why did they go to so much trouble to hide who did it? Yakuza always took responsibility for their kills, especially of other gang members. If the other gang didn’t know who did it, then what was the point?
“I don’t know, sir. The door was locked from the inside with no signs of entry.”
“The Toyotomi.” Harada made his way back to his desk, scratching his chin. He laughed. “That asshole has always been too weak to make any real moves, but now that I have the building and not him, he retaliates like this? Well, if he thinks I’m going to sit back and let him butcher one of my boys, he has another thing coming.”
“Sir, I don’t think—”
“If they want a war, then a war is what they’ll get.” His hand trembled as he placed it on the desk. It wasn’t fear; it was excitement. Harada had been waiting for an excuse, any excuse, to let loose and finally take his revenge upon the Toyotomi. All this over one man dating his sister. “Yotchan, get Ren and…” He stopped himself. “Get Daichi and—”
“Sir.”
“What is it?” He snapped. He was annoyed and couldn’t be bothered to hide it.
“I don’t think that would be the best idea, sir.”
“Daichi?”
I nodded.
“Oh, grow up. We all have to work with people we don’t like every now and then, I thought you of all people were above that.” Rich, coming from a man who had a personal vendetta against an entire clan because one man dated his sister. “I don’t give a shit how you feel about him, you’re going to take him and you’re going to personally deliver a message for me.”
Something moved in the corner behind him. I peered over his shoulder, but it was gone. The curtain billowed in the wind.
“Sir, I don’t think this is the work of the Toyotomi,” I continued. I had to diffuse the situation before war was upon us, or Eita would only be the first of many to die.
“Is that so? Then who did it, huh? Tell me, Yotchan, the big and brawny, the illustrious Tiger of Rakucho? Who did it, huh?” I clenched my jaw to keep from snapping back myself. Only one of us appeared invested in keeping everyone alive, and it wasn’t the person it should have been. I shoved the photo in his face again.
“Look at him, sir. There’s no way any of them could have done this.” Harada averted his gaze, but I held the photo steadfast in his face. “He’s twisted in half, sir! In half! No man could do that!”
“Then who did?!” His anger grew by the second.
“I don’t know!” I said, putting the phone down. “But if you give me some time to investigate, then…”
Again, in the corner. A shadow appeared behind the billowing curtain and then disappeared. Darkness slid against the back wall, making its way towards Harada. Long arms stretched out along the floor, reaching towards him. A tendril snaked around his foot, though Harada himself showed no signs that he was aware of it. Another snaked up his leg, making its way towards his neck.
“Then what, Yotchan? If no man could do this, then who? What? He didn’t just up and die all by himself, did he?”
“Look out!” I screamed and dove for Harada, sending the two of us thumping to the ground with a painful, awkward tackle. The tendrils withdrew back to the wall and dissipated. The floor beneath us was cold. Too cold.
“What on earth has gotten into you?” Harada shoved me off and got to his feet. “Are you drunk? Did you shoot up before you came in today? Is this some cry for attention?”
Unable to tear my eyes from the spot the shadow had just lingered, I shook my head. “Y-You didn’t see it?” Of course he didn’t. Or maybe he couldn’t. How did that work?
“See what?”
I got to my feet and dusted myself off. “There was… nothing. Just a trick of the light, I guess.”
“Yotchan.”
“Yes, sir?”
“We just lost Ren. We just lost Eita. I need you to get your shit together because I can’t afford to lose you too right now.”
Ren was his own fault. He could bring him back at any time. A suspension was just that, and what Ren did was stupid as hell, but at the end of the day, it was still a mistake. A stupid, costly mistake, but it wasn’t like Ren was dead and buried. Not like Eita. Eita was the real problem here.
“I’m fine, sir. Just fine.”
The shadow shrank back into the corner, catching my eye for just a moment before disappearing entirely.
“Go,” Harada said. “Get out of my sight. I’ll send somebody to deal with the body. I need time to think.” He sat back down at his desk and picked up a pen, scribbling something on the papers before him once more. I waited, but when he showed no signs of acknowledging my presence any longer, I sighed and turned, my heart beating like crazy.
The room grew unseasonably cold as I exited.
17
The vibrations of my phone woke me early the next morning. Soft moonlight filtered in through the curtains, landing on the boy’s face as he slept on the couch. Kazumi said he barely spoke a word the entire day, but he seemed otherwise fine, all things considered. I’d passed out watching TV, and early morning news buzzed in the background. The sun wasn’t even up yet, but it would be soon.
“What?” I answered.
“Yotchan! You gotta get down here, quick!”
…Again? Really?
“What? Down where? Why?”
“Oh god, Yotchan, I dunno what to do, man. I dunno what to do!”
“Calm down. What’s going on?” It wasn’t Toshiki on the other end this time but Ippei, another of the junior members who had recently joined.
“T-There’s a body, sir. I didn’t know who else to call, but I know your relationship, and…”
My stomach sank. Another body.
“Where are you?”
“The Kamita River, sir. Near the, uh, the Family Cart by the west bridge.”
The west bridge? That was the outskirts of Rakucho.
“Sir, you really should get here right away. I-I dunno what to do. I don’t wanna touch it.”
I rubbed my eyes and stood up, moving away from the sleeping boy. “Yeah, don’t touch anything, I’ll be there shortly.” It would take me about 10-15 minutes max to get there by car, shorter if I ignored a few road rules. But what about the kid? He lay unmoving on the couch, other than the occasional twitch. I couldn’t call Kazumi again, not so early and not after she already spent most of the day with the boy. Kamita River wasn’t too far away. He’d be fine for a while. Could the boy read? He was five, surely he could at least read hiragana?
I grabbed a pen and paper from the table. Back soon. Food in fridge. I left it on the coffee table before the sleeping boy and jumped in the car. At his age I was running around the streets. He was in a safe house with all the food and entertainment he could want. He’d be fine. He had to be. I needed to deal with this first.
I parked at the Family Cart and jumped the fence. Ippei paced up and down the river bank, nervously chewing his fingernails. His eyes lit up when he saw me. “Oh, Yotchan, thank god! I didn’t—”
I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Ren…”
My mind went blank. Nothing made sense. Just a few short days ago we’d been telling ghost stories in Kazumi’s bar, getting into scuffles in the street and having fun. We were breaking the new guys in, together. Then he was suspended and now… he lay on the grass before me, bloated and sickly, a strange blue-green tinge to his skin. I turned to Ippei.
“When…”
“Just before I called you, sir. I go running this way every morning and I saw a body on the bank and I jumped over to see, and…” Ippei’s face was as pale as Ren’s. “Oh god I think I’m gonna be sick.” He ran a few paces away and threw up in the grass.
Ren. My brain refused to comprehend it. It was too sudden. First Eita, now him. It wasn’t suppos
ed to end like this. He was our lieutenant. He fucked up, badly, but that was what we did. We were a bunch of fuck ups who banded together and helped each other through the tough times. Now…
Kneeling before him, I looked for any wounds. Nothing. Just like Eita. Nothing except for his neck, twisted 180 degrees and buried in the mud of the bank while his body greeted the sky above. Eita had been twisted at the torso and the neck as well. The same killer. Not the exact same method of death, but close enough. Whoever it was near twisted his head clean off his body and then threw him into the river. Then he washed up here, where Ippei found him on his morning run. His body was mostly obscured by the weeds and the shadow of the bridge above. It wouldn’t be long until members of the public started to pass by and saw him, however.
“We need to move him.”
“What?” Ippei frowned and held his hands up before his chest, shaking them. “I-I’m not touching that.”
“Ren,” I said. “Not ‘that,’ Ren. Your lieutenant, and if you don’t want to end up feeding the fish just like him, you’ll help me move him.”
He grimaced and took a step closer, gagging as he reached down to grab his pants. He stank of death and the river, neither of which smelt very nice, but we couldn’t leave him there. Not like that.
“W-Where are we taking him?” Ippei fought the urge to gag again, gripping the end of Ren’s pants tightly in his fists. I grabbed his jacket and lifted. He weighed a ton, and his head lolled as he hung in the air.
“Just get him under the bridge for now.” This would need a proper clean-up crew. I couldn’t get him to my car without people seeing him, not to mention the stench of death and river that I’d never get out of the vehicle again. We shuffled the body beneath the bridge and lay him down on top of the weeds. Ippei turned and threw up again.
“Go on, get the fuck outta here. I’ll call Harada.”
Ippei turned green, but he stopped and bowed deeply before me. “Thank you, sir.” Something told me he wouldn’t be coming into work later. I pulled out my phone, and it started to vibrate. I nearly dropped it in surprise. I answered on the third ring.
“Yotchan!”
“Narumi?”
“Long time no see! How’ve you been?”
Not a voice I was expecting to hear at this time of the morning. Narumi was a childhood friend of mine from the streets of Rakucho, but we hadn’t seen each other for a long time. Not that there was a falling out or anything, but life took us in different directions. He made money by pretending to care about women as the number one host of Rakucho, and I made money by other… less than legal means.
“Okay. You?”
“Yeah, okay. I’m sure you can imagine how things have been over here the last few days.” I had no idea what he was talking about. “The murders…”
“Ah.” I’d seen something about that on the news, but with everything else going on, that was the least of my concerns.
“I don’t suppose you know anything about those, do you?”
“Not really. We heard about them, but uh, we’ve had other things on our plate recently. Things have been kinda busy.”
Like the dead lieutenant at my feet. As nice as it was to hear from Narumi again, I had other things to deal with and this was no time for a catch up.
“You okay, Yotchan?”
“Yeah, sure. Just stuff.”
“Sure… stuff. Look, that reminds me, I wanted to ask you something.”
I shifted on my feet. This conversation needed to wrap up so I could deal with the real problem before me. Whatever was going on with Narumi could wait. I opened my mouth to tell him as much, but then he continued.
“I need a gun.”
I shut my mouth again. I wasn’t expecting that. “What do you need a gun for?”
“Because hosts are being murdered.” He said it as though that answered everything.
“So, why do you need a gun?” I repeated. Hosts weren’t the only people being murdered in Rakucho, and, as evidenced by the bloated body of my friend at my feet, a gun didn’t necessarily mean anything.
“Because I’m scared that I’ll be next.”
“I can’t just get you a gun, Narumi.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t even have a gun.”
“And you call yourself a yakuza?” He laughed, but I failed to find it funny. I sighed.
“It’s not that simple. There are a lot of laws now, and the punishments are much harsher than they used to be. If you’re that scared, carry a knife like everyone else.”
This time he fell silent a moment before replying. “Fine. Look, how’s things? The boss has been talking about you. He hasn’t seen you around for a while.”
“Yeah, fine. Been busy. That’s all.” I needed to get off the phone. Now.
“Yotchan?”
“Yeah?”
“You go to the gym, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Next time you go, can you take me?”
That caught me by surprise, and I laughed before I could stop myself. “You want to go to the gym?” It was so out of left field that I didn’t know how else to react.
“What? What’s so funny about that?”
“The gym doesn’t serve alcohol, you know.”
“Very funny, asshole. I… I lost my top spot this month.” He stopped, as though waiting for me to say something, and then continued anyway. “People have been talking about my retirement. I don’t want to retire. I still have years left in me, and besides, I enjoy my work.”
“Sure, whatever. But I hit the gym pretty early.” Today was supposed to be my day off from the gym, but it didn’t look like I’d be getting much rest.
“What’s early to you?”
“4 a.m.”
“Ah, so after work! Great!” After work. Of course. He worked even worse hours than I did.
“You can’t come to the gym drunk, Narumi.”
“I don’t get drunk anymore!”
“No, because you’re always drunk to begin with.”
“I just need to lose some weight and build a little muscle. Yeah, I’m a bit older than these younger guys now so it takes a little more to keep up, but not like I’ve got one foot in the grave. I’m only 36.” As he waffled on, my patience started to run out. The sun was rising in the distance, I didn’t have much time left before Ren’s bloated body became very public.
“Uh huh. Look, 4 a.m. Be there or don’t.”
“You’re a good man, Yotchan.”
“I dunno about that.” I didn’t know a lot about many things anymore, least of all myself.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. Like I said, just work stuff.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll see you at the gym then.”
“Yeah.” I hung up and sighed. There was too much going on, I couldn’t deal with Narumi and his eccentricities right now. I dialled the boss and waited. After a few rings, a grumpy voice answered.
“What is it?”
“Boss, we have another problem.”
18
“I’m going to kill them.” Harada spat the words before hanging up. He wanted me in his office ASAP, and not for a gentle business discussion. One mysterious death, I could have stopped the impending war, sure, but two? Nothing would stop him now. He’d already sent himself hurtling down the warpath, and we were about to get dragged down it with him.
I stopped by home on my way. It would delay matters, but I needed to check on the boy. Make sure he hadn’t burnt the house down or gotten himself in trouble. He sat on the couch watching TV as I walked inside.
“Morning,” I said. “Did you eat?” I didn’t know how to talk to a child. What a child’s routine was. This was out of my realm of expertise. Perhaps I could drop him off at an orphanage somewhere? Get him out of my hair for a while. It wouldn’t be the best living, I knew that firsthand, but it would be something. It would be better than this.
The boy nodded without taking his eyes off the TV. Early
morning cartoons. How did he even find them? Something on the floor beneath him caught my attention. My heart skipped a beat. “Did you… Did you have a bath already?”
The boy shook his head. A puddle formed at his feet, dark and muddy. It stank like the river. I thought I’d brought the stench back with me, but it wasn’t that. It was there, on the ground before the boy.
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to it. The boy looked down and then shrugged. “Mama came to see me.”
My blood ran cold.
“She what now?”
He grabbed a bread roll from the packet sitting beside him on the couch, shoving it into his mouth. “She came to see me,” he mumbled. “She looked sad.”
The temperature of the room seemed to drop in an instant, like stepping into a freezer. Goosebumps broke out on my skin and I swallowed. I couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t sense anything. We were alone, a puddle of muddy river water between us. I stepped around it and knelt before him.
“Listen, I gotta go to work. Something’s come up. Aunt Kazumi’s busy today, do you think you’ll be okay by yourself for a while? There’s food in the fridge, and you can watch TV… I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”
The boy’s eyes never left the TV. He nodded, swinging his legs up and down and munching on another bread roll.
“That’s a good boy.” I stood up and eyed the dark patch on my expensive rug. No time to deal with it now. I’d probably have to throw it out, anyway. A pity. Kazumi liked that rug.
Shadows. Shadows everywhere. They slunk into corners as I walked down the hall. They slipped behind doors as I passed empty rooms. The air weighed heavy with tension. A new guy jumped as I passed him moping the halls before the meeting room. A junior member nearly wet himself when I said good morning in passing. Something crashed upstairs, followed shortly by a loud, angry voice. No wonder everyone was tense. I made my way upstairs and into Harada’s office.
Toshiki, Kame, Ippei, and two other men stood silent as stone while Harada threw another vase against the wall.
“I want them dead!” he screamed. “They’re making a mockery of me! Of us!” He turned, frothing at the mouth, when he saw me enter.
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