Nogitsune (8 page)

But he never turned his back or took his eyes off of the more deceptive Sagawa. Even presently, as Sagawa spoke his peace.

"News is all over the place about your former underboss," Sagawa said. "I thought you had a handle on this."

"What can I say? I underestimate Inato's drive," Fukushima said. "Of course, it's mostly one of them that's causing all this mess. I'm sure that Inato has no control over him."

Sagawa smiled. "Something tells me that you want this to continue?"

"Inato won't last long on his throne," Fukushima responded. "Trust me on that. Even if that wasn't the case, he and his family won't interfere with what we have. It never had. Rest assured. We're good!"

"Well, I'm pleased to hear that. I guess we have to discuss the other thing."

Fukushima nodded. "Ah, yes! The wedding!"

"My son will be coming back from Singapore at the end of the month after finishing what he needs to do. Meanwhile, how’s your daughter?"

"My daughter is fine," Fukushima answered. "And she'll be ready to take her place along with your son in unifying the families."

Sagawa grinned. He couldn't have received better news.

It had been years in the making: the unification of the Fukushima and Sagawa crime families. At first, it was never close. Then came the death of Fukushima's son and heir that changed everything. Seeing power slipping and his over-mighty underbosses looking to take the mantle, he knew that unifying with his greatest rival was the most significant move he could ever make.

Both men got up from their seat and shook hands.

"I hope for our children's sake, this works out," Sagawa said.

"I hope so as well, old friend," Fukushima agreed.

Then, the men took their traditional bow to one another, neither one lowering for the other as a sign of respect and that some things will never change...

****

Secretly, Yuki Williams ruled the small port town of Yokosuka. Everyone near the Yokosuka Naval Base and around the main shopping area, Blue Street, catered to Yuki and her small circle of friends. Besides having a tattoo parlor to call her own, she also held stock in some clubs in the area known among the U.S. Navy as the "Honch" area.

Being half-Japanese, she could navigate among the Japanese because she knew the language and customs. Being half-African-American, she had the street smarts not to cater to the usual Japanese female stereotype of the submissive. Also, her beauty was unmatched and unchallenged by any Japanese or American woman.

More importantly, she had the Navy connection thanks to her father, which meant more respect among the ranks.

She connected dues from the different Filipina and Chinese madams trying to persuade sailors to journey into their establishments and cough up money when they got paid. If there was a problem, they would see the twenty-five year old Yuki at her shop and she would fix the issue right then and there. Some say that she did this to cater more to the Americans than to the Japanese. However, one thing they couldn't dispute was that there was peace in Yokosuka, the other Yoko as Yuki would say, as long as everyone played their part.

Unfortunately, Yuki had to play her part as well by catering to her boss.

On this day, she had to make the trip all the way to Narita International Airport to pick her up from one of her vacations she would take often to rebel against her father.

When she got there, she stood by the arrival gate waiting for her. Already, she had to deal with the eyes from older Japanese men who either like her because of her beauty or don't because of her brown-colored skin.

A few minutes into the wait, she saw her boss coming out with two suitcases. Right away, she made her customary bow. Then, they smiled and gave each other a hug.

In Keiko Fukushima's world, being the daughter of a mob boss, she would never associate herself with Yuki Williams in her particular circles. On the other hand, Keiko was a part of the new Japanese woman movement: young, ambitious, loves spending money, had lots of sex, and never wanted to be married or have kids.

All the things that connected her and Yuki.

As well as their love of hip-hop.

Right away, as they went into Keiko's red Lamborghini, and when they were on the road, Yuki catered to Keiko's hip-hop fascination by playing her what was hot and on the streets. From Narita all the way to Keiko's home in Yokohama, it was hip-hop and rhythm and blues from Yuki's personal collection with the thirty-year-old Keiko trying to be hip and speak the lingo.

When they ended up in Yokohama, it was here that Keiko blurted out what had been on her mind for the entire time.

"I'm getting married!"

This made Yuki lowered the music down. "Are...are you serious?"

"Serious enough according to my father," Keiko responded. "For all I know, the wedding might as well have happened already."

"When do we celebrate?"

"I don't know. I don't even want the marriage. If I married him, my father might as well give up the family."

"What you mean?"

Keiko explained the intricacies of her family dynamic. "My father has been planning to unify with his rival, Shintaro Sagawa. At first, it was supposed to be my brother marrying his daughter Chisato. They were supposed to unify the families. Then he had to go and get himself killed for some reason." She took a breath, thinking about her deceased older brother. "Anyway, now it falls on me to fix my father's business. So I'm marrying Sagawa's oldest son Shinji."

"Sounds complicated," Yuki commented after hearing the story.

"Just be lucky you're not in my family." Keiko cleared her throat. "What about you? How's business?"

"Good! Better now the fleet's back."

Keiko played at pleading. "I'm afraid you're going to be my saving grace. Continue to make money for me. Save me from a life of marital misery. Even better, I'll tell my father that I like women and you and I can elope. I'll cook and clean for you. I'll give you love every night."

Both women laughed.

****

When they arrived in Keiko's American-style home, Yuki put her luggage away and Keiko just lied back on her couch exhausted from her long trip. She turned on the television to see what was on. Then, she managed to catch the news where a reporter named Cionne Li was reporting on the Sakuragichō shoot out in Yokohama.

"Police are still on the lookout for the gunman responsible for the murder of one Iyaka Ioka. Some speculate that the killer responsible might be none other than Kento Karahawa, renowned member of the Inato crime family who are in dispute with the long-reigning Fukushima crime family..."

Keiko couldn't help but to stare at the screen as Yuki entered into her dining room.

"We need to stock up your refrigerator. I'll get one of the girls to do some shopping tomorrow." Then, she caught Keiko watching the news on the sudden death of Iyaka Ioka.

“Shit,” whispered Yuki.

Keiko took a deep breath and then exploded in anger. “This is the last thing I need right now. Iyaka Ioka’s dead and that thug Kento is on the loose. My father should have killed him a long time ago. If he did that, none of this would be happening and my father wouldn’t be rushing me to get married.”

Yuki grabbed the remote and turned off the television. “Getting angry is not going to solve anything because at the end of the day we are women, which means in a man’s eyes we are nothing but fuck holes, servants and babysitters subjected to live powerless in a man’s world.”

Keiko turned around unable to believe what she was hearing.

“The Inato killed Iyaka Ioka and there was nothing done. Even you play a part in this. Your father is selling you off in a business merger and making you marry to a man that disgust you and there’s nothing you can do.”

Soon the truth of life’s reality had set in and the only thing Keiko could do was lower her head in shame of what she had become:  her own mother.

“How long will it be before you’re the one that’s gunned down ruthlessly by your adversaries because your future husband is the future oyabun?” Yuki asked.

Yuki could tell that her words were piercing into Keiko’s soul. She knew that more than anything, Keiko wanted to be free from her father’s shadow and free from the world of the yakuza.

“There’s a way out of all of this, to keep from marrying Shinji and to free yourself of your father’s control.”

Keiko looked up and even though she knew that Yuki might have been selling her a pipe dream, she had Yuki’s undivided attention.

Yuki sat down to compose herself, mixing being a good friend but under someone who was yakuza royalty. “Me, Ayame, and another good friend have been discussing a plan to make Kento and the rest of the Inato pay and get you out of your little arrangement. All of the yakuza’s are going to pay.”

“Hold on! What about my father?” Keiko asked.

Yuki stood up and went close to Keiko. From there, a spark of red appeared in Yuki’s eyes that froze Keiko. “Do you trust me?”

Keiko nodded and blew a slight breath. “Yeah, I trust you.”

“Then believe me when I say that your father won’t be harmed.”

“What do you need from me?” said Keiko.

Yuki smiled, “We need to find some assassins. Preferably women with some true muscle.”

Keiko nodded. “Then what?”

Yuki chuckled. “Then we’re going to incite a war.”

SPARKING THE FLAME
(
炎の火
花
)

A dirty, wrinkled and grizzle-bearded Robert Martin woke the next morning with Kento’s men dressed in all black three-piece suits in his room staring at him as if they were anticipating him waking up.

“What the fuck?” said Robert.

“Time’s up Mr. Martin,” said Daigo, one of Kento’s assassins.

Robert tried to get up, but he nearly slipped. Luckily, his men were right there to grab him before he fell.

“Look, look! Tell Kento to give me a little more time,” Robert panicked. “I’m waiting for my partners to come here with the money. He’ll get his money. I promise!”

Daigo smirked. “Mr. Karahawa has already informed us that if you do not have the money then dispose of you in the most violent way possible. Truthfully, if you had the money he was going to kill you but you for running from him, it’s nothing personal it’s just the principle of the thing, you know.”

Kento’s men grabbed Robert and dragged him from the bed. “Wait, hold on!”

Robert knew that there was no more talking. Kento didn’t come himself, which meant they were the clean-up crew there to
clean up
Kento’s messes once and for all. Kento’s men put Robert on his knees and held his arms as Daigo walked toward him with his razor blade. Daigo raised the blade to strike Robert.

Before he could, someone appeared on the bed, moaning seductively.

When Daigo and his men turned around, Robert’s new friend, the stripper Illicit, was lying naked on the bed with her hands between her legs. Daigo and the rest of the men stared in awe as Illicit’s fingers pillaged and ravaged her body in-between the sheets.

“Who the hell is that?” Daigo acquired.

Before anyone could answer, Illicit disappeared and the edges of the white sheet came dashing toward one of the assassins holding Robert’s arm. After the sheet passed him, the Inato men stood still and suddenly, his head rolled off his neck and fell to the floor next to Robert.

“Shit!” said Robert.

“What the fuck?” said Daigo.

The other two Inato assassins brought out their guns, circling around each other as the sheet headed towards the next assassin standing by the door. He raised his gun and began firing at it, but it was no use. The sheet wrapped him entirely inside of it. When the sheet unwrapped itself, the only thing left of the assassin was his bones charred and broken apart when they hit the ground.

Daigo immediately took out his gun and prepared to shoot. A gentle wind blew past Daigo’s ear. He quickly turned and began firing. Robert ducked for cover.

When Daigo turned back around, he saw his partner wrapped in the white sheet. Daigo aimed and fired at the sheet and his partner. The sheet turned crimson red and evaporated into a red vapor as Daigo’s partner fell to the ground, his body full of bullet holes.

Daigo grabbed Robert by the arm, stood him to his feet and aimed the gun at his temple.

“You have three seconds to show yourself bitch before I kill him,” said Daigo. “One…… Two…..”

“Three!” whispered Illicit.

Daigo gasped for air and dropped the gun. When he looked down, he saw Illicit’s arm sticking out through the front of his chest, holding his heart. Illicit crushed Daigo’s heart and dropped it and his body on the floor.

Robert fell to the floor and crawled backwards. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?”

Illicit smiled and walked toward Robert in nothing but the blood of the assassins she took pleasure in killing. 

“Who are you?” Robert asked again.

Illicit bent down to Robert and gently rubbed his face as her eyes began to glow.

“Remember!”

Instantly, visions of the crimson moon, falling from the roof, and making love to Illicit, and seeing Daiki’s death through the eyes of Illicit came flashing back to his mind.

“Illicit!” said Robert. “It was you? You killed Daiki?”

Illicit smiled. “And it will be me that kill Kento along with all of the rest of your enemies.”

“When? When are you going to kill Kento?”

“In due time,” said Illicit.

“That fuckin’ maniac could be coming to my door right now looking for his money and you’re picking out a timeframe to kill him? Are you FUCKIN crazy?”

“Kento’s not going to kill you. He may get someone else to do it, but he’s not going to personally risk killing an American military man on Japanese soil and bring all that attention on himself.”

“But he killed my brother!”

“Your brother was not military. He’s just another criminal in their eyes. You’re a decorated captain, even though you’re out of the military. Only you and they know what a scumbag you really are. Trust me, if Kento wanted to kill you, he would have done it on the roof with your brother. The money means nothing to him.”

“So what now?”

“Now the Queen positions itself to take the king,” said Illicit.

****

Ryu Korashi loaded the clip in the AR-15 in Kento's office in downtown Shinjuku. “So how do you want to handle this Fukushima problem?”

Kento stood looking out at the city from the stretched-out window. "If it's a war they want, then I'll give it to them. I'll bury them, their children and everything that’s associated with them.”

“What do you think Mr. Inato will say about this?”

“I’m beginning to lose my patience with him,” Kento responded abruptly. “My brother's dead because of these Fukushimas and he's telling me to be cool and patient? Fuck being cool.”

Chion entered the office with a delivery man entered the door with a box.

“Where do you want me to put this, sir?" Chion asked.

“Asoko,” said Ryu as he pointed to Kento’s desk.

Moments later, Kento’s phone rang with unknown caller on the screen.

“Hello!"

“Did you get the package that I sent you?"

Kento snapped his finger at Chion and pointed to the package on his desk. Chion took out his metal detector to recheck and see if there were any explosives in the package. When he was finished, Chion shook his head.

“Who is this?"

“You don’t recognize my voice?”

Chion opened the package and jumped back. “It’s Daigo.”

When Kento walked over he saw the head of Daigo, the leader of his clean-up crew.

“Robert!"

“Surprise to hear from me?”

Kento balled up his fist, “Indeed! I expected you to be reunited with your brother. It would appear I underestimated you.”

“It would seem so."

“It won’t happen again."

“If you send any more of your men after me, you can rest assured they’ll be sent back to you in small packages."

Kento burst out in laughter. “When I find you, God himself won’t be able to protect you. This was strictly business. Now, it's personal. The 10 million that you owe me? I’m going to spend twice that much just to have you killed.”

"FUCK YOU, DO YOU THINK I’M AFRAID OF YOU? I’LL KILL YOU AND THE WHOLE FUCKIN’ INATO FA--”

Kento hung up the phone.

“I want Robert Martin found and brought to me NOW,” said Kento.

Kento answered the phone and calmly put Robert yelling like a banshee on speaker phone.

“YOU HEAR ME, MUTHAFUCKA! I’LL KILL ALL OF YOU BITCHES. I’M GOING TO BURY YOU BITCHES WITH THAT BITCH DAIKI!”

At those words, Kento slammed his hands on the desk of his new office. In a calm voice, trying to not sink to Robert's screeching level, he said calmly, “You...are dead. You? Your family? All...dead!”

“WHAT THE FUCK CAN YOU DO TO ME? YOU FORGOT BITCH I’M AMERICAN.”

Kento hung up the phone. “Ryu, find everything that you can on this
gajin
. His family, his friends? Anything that he values and holds dear! If he has a child, I want you to find him or her and put a bullet in their head and make sure he knows that it was me that did it.”

Ryu nodded and quickly walked out the door.

Kento turned to another assassin. “Chion, I want you to find this piece of gajin shit and bring him to me alive. Hire the best assassins that you need to and inform them of the yen placed on his head. An example needs to be made of him to the Fukushimas to show them what happens when you oppose us. The longer he lives, the more it makes us look weak.”

“Don’t worry! We'll find him,” said Chion. “There aren’t too many places he can hide that the Inato family can’t find him.”

Chion turned and began to walk out of Kento’s office.

“Chion, if you don’t find him, everything that I was going to do to him, I'll just have to do to you. Do not fail me.”

Chion bowed. "I won’t fail you, Mr. Karahawa!"

****

Susumu Ohba
had earned a reputation for himself as man who could dodge danger. As a young hood, he clocked up various convictions for assault, firearm possession, abduction, armed robbery and escape. When he grew older he moved into the drug industry, dealing in cocaine and heroin using Southeast Asian pipelines. He was rumored to be in some famous hits and was said to be a clear rival of Daiki Fukai, the more celebrated Inato assassin.

Luck hadn’t been kind to Ohba since then. He was ousted from Inato’s rivals, the Fukushimas, but because he stayed loyal, he was given a chance to make a family of his own as long as he remained loyal to the Fukushimas.

He was trying to escape with his girlfriend on a well-earned vacation, but only ended up getting punched in the face by Detective David Hamada as he bust the door down and slapped the handcuffs on him.

From there, he was brought into Hamada’s precinct in Yokohama.

David put him into the interrogation room himself as he spoke to him alone.

“Where is he?”

Ohba looked left to right and back. “Where’s who?”

David slapped him clean in the face. “Don’t start that. Where’s Hideyoshi Ioka?”

“Like I talk to him anymore. I don’t talk to anyone since I left the family.”

A back hand slap from David came across Ohba’s face. “You deal drugs for the Fukushimas. Don’t tell me you don’t. We’ve been following you.”

“Then why the hell am I here?”

David took a breath. “To send a message. Just tell Ioka him to let us deal with finding his wife’s killer. If he gets involved, I won’t have any choice but to arrest him.”

Susumu Ohba smirked.

“Fuck that!” he whispered.

“What was that? What the hell did you say?”

David stood right to his shoulder. “You think you special or something? Think you can’t be touched?”

Then, in a flash, David raised
Susumu by his shirt collar and roughed him up against the wall, punching him in the kidneys. Two blows to the midsection paralyzed Susumu to the point where he went into a cradle position. However, David kept kicking him and three of his men had to stop him.