Published at 3rd of September 2019 4:51 pm

Chapter 2

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

There was a library in the hospital with computers, and patients could freely browse the web. When Kyosuke had begun to walk, he started to hang out at the library and research about the Okawa. He had quickly found out that it was a rather large organization. Through an underground website, Kyosuke had found that many of the crimes the Okawa committed had been concealed, since both the police and politicians had ties with the group, so this had made Kyosuke nervous to tell the police about Kanou, so he decided not to do it. The police had covered up the crimes, so it's likely they weren’t going to do anything even if he told them. Because of this issue, Kyosuke had wanted to avoid having the public find out that his older brother had been involved with the yakuza until he himself confirmed the relationship his older brother had with the Okawa.

First, his top priority was to regain his health. Then, when he could move freely, he would head towards Shinjuku. He hadn’t decided how he was going to do it, but he was going to sneak into the Okawa and investigate from within about their connection to his older brother.

Kyosuke prayed to do this as soon as possible. He had gritted his teeth and endured the rehabilitation center, but ever since he had come here, an unexpected obstacle stood in the way.

“Kyosuke-kun, you wanted to become a doctor, didn’t you?” Sahashi, who came here as usual to see him, had made a sudden comment. “I heard from the doctor that hopefully you can be discharged from the hospital soon. I hope it’s okay, but I picked up the documents to re-enroll you into high school. It’s a boarding school in Kansai; a private school and affiliated with a university that has a high level Medical Department and a good reputation.”

“……Umm……….” Kyosuke was left in a daze at this sudden offer.

“News about the incident hasn’t reached Kansai, so I think you can have some peace of mind there. You’re behind the rest of your class, but it seems that at this school, there are plenty of students who have repeated a year in school due to various circumstances. I think this environment will be easy for you to live in.”

“……I’m sorry you had to do all of this for me, but……” Feeling confused, Kyosuke had tried to think of a way to refuse because there was no way he was going to go to Kansai.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for. Your older brother also dreamed of you becoming a doctor. Of course if you go to Kansai, I will continue to support you, so you can rest assured.”

“……….” That ‘support’ is unnecessary, Kyosuke had swallowed these words that had gathered in his throat and wondered if there was any way to get out of this. But he couldn’t think of a single good method. Time had passed and the day for him to be discharged was approaching. Sahashi had not only taken care of the admission procedures, he had also gathered all the information about the kind of classes Kyosuke would take at the school. There wasn’t a single reason to refuse now. If he was going to be forced to do this, he had said that at the very least he wasn’t going to leave Tokyo until the man who had killed his older brother was found, but he was told that he wouldn’t be able to do anything even if he was in Tokyo.

Kyosuke had absolutely no desire to go to the high school in Kansai since he had lost his dream of becoming a doctor. All he wanted to do now was get revenge on the person who had taken the life of his beloved older brother. He also wanted to know what his older brother had been hiding. He had thought about suggesting to Sahashi that he wanted to go to a school in Tokyo, not in Kansai, but when he had proposed this, Sahashi said, “I think it would be best for you if you left Tokyo," and began persuading Kyosuke instead. Because Sahashi was speaking out of concern for him, he had no choice but to agree with him on this.

Finally, it was decided that he was to be discharged on the weekend, but Kyosuke remembered one last strategy. He didn’t know whether the probability of it being a success was high or low, but if he didn’t do it, he would regret it. Kyosuke prepared himself for the worst and got in touch with Sahashi.

“Will I receive immediate money for living expenses?”

Before he was discharged, Kyosuke’s plan was to sneak out of the hospital and hide in Shinjuku. The name ‘Okawa’ had never appeared in the thorough investigation Sahashi was doing, so Kyosuke guessed that Sahashi would not find him right away if he went to Shinjuku in order to get near that group. In the hospital, there was practically no reason to use money, so Kyosuke had only several thousand yen. He didn’t know how long it would be until he could sneak into the Okawa, so naturally, he needed money in order to live on his own. That’s why Kyosuke had asked Sahashi for cash, and Sahashi had immediately complied and had given him one hundred thousand yen1 that same day. Kyosuke had wanted two to three hundred thousand yen, but all of his money had already been transferred to the school to cover the living expenses, and besides, he had already said that he could eat breakfast and dinner at the dorm, so he couldn’t say he wanted more cash.

“Tell me if this isn’t enough. You will receive your uniform tomorrow. And also, I’m not too sure you’re going to like it, but I also prepared some traditional clothes for you. It’s my gift for your admission to the school.”

“……Thank you, you didn’t have to……”

Although he knew that both Sahashi and his family were rich, he still felt bad about Sahashi giving him clothes, so he had initially refused this, but Sahashi won in the end.

“This is a gift, so don’t worry about it.”

After Sahashi left, Kyosuke had wondered for a while whether he should run away that night or the next day. He needed regular clothes, but Sahashi had prepared him traditional clothes, and he was sure he would stand out among the yakuza if he wore them. He now had money, so he wanted to get out of the hospital as soon as possible.

It’s not like I completely don’t have any clothes, Kyosuke had thought, and decided to run away from the hospital that same night. The night nurse did checks at midnight, two o’clock, and four o’clock. After the four o’clock checks, he would quietly slip out of his room and head towards the train station. Soon the first train would be on its way, and he was going to ride it to Shinjuku.

With that plan in mind, Kyosuke spent the rest of the day trying to be as calm as possible. He couldn’t arouse any suspicion. He would be trouble if they mistook it for him becoming ill and increased the number of check-ups on him. For a moment, he had thought about leaving an apology letter for Sahashi, who had helped him out so much, but could only think of writing repetitive things like, ‘Thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’, so he decided against it. He wondered if Sahashi was going to search for him. He probably would, but still, no matter how he looked at it, they were strangers. Sahashi was only helping him out of kindness, and it was not his duty to protect him. He was going to run away on his own, so he wanted Sahashi to let him be. He had thought about putting that into the letter, but had trouble choosing the right words, so in the end, gave up.

When the four o’clock checks were over, Kyosuke quietly slipped out of bed, quickly changed into his jeans and a fleece and snuck out of the hospital with his shoes in his hand. The reason he wasn’t wearing shoes was to avoid having his footsteps heard. Naturally, he couldn’t walk the same as before the incident, but he could walk about the same pace as a healthy person and could easily climb up stairs. Kyosuke found where the emergency exit was, went out, and put on his shoes. He wanted to run, but he thought that would make him stand out, so he walked softly across the hospital vicinity and out the back gate.

Ever since Kyosuke had transferred to this hospital, he had practically never gone outside. He looked-up the way to get to the train station on the Internet, but even though he had drilled the route into his head, he now lost almost all sense of direction, because the road he was on was wide and felt like it didn’t match with what he had seen on the map. But still, he began walking, guessing that this was the way.

Although it was April, the open air before dawn was chilly and Kyosuke’s whole body immediately grew cold. His body grew stiff and walking gradually became difficult. At the rehabilitation center and within the hospital, he could walk as usual, but outside and on what happened to be an uneven road, he couldn’t get accustomed to walking and stumbled many times. The distance to the train station on foot was close to thirty minutes. Unfortunately, even if he wanted to take a taxi, not a single car passed by, and even if he was fortunate enough to encounter an empty taxi, it was wise not to ride in it, because he could be traced that way. Deciding this, Kyosuke gave up and continued to desperately walk forward. If he walked, he would reach the station eventually. He had no choice but to keep going forward. As he repeated this to himself, Kyosuke suddenly realized that he gained strength and smiled wryly. After the incident, when he had lost the desire to live; he didn't care if he died or couldn't walk. He had felt helpless. The shock of losing his older brother had been massive, especially since he had a dependent personality and always relied on his older brother. When Kyosuke had relied on his kind older brother, his older brother had always immediately stretched out a helping hand and had protected Kyosuke from all hardships, and after their parents had passed away, his concern for Kyosuke grew even more. Though they had a five-year age difference, at that time, his older brother had not even turned twenty and was still a ‘child’ himself. As Kyosuke recalled his wretched past, he suddenly realized that the sky was growing light and looked around him. There was still time before daybreak, but gradually it was becoming very bright. When he looked up at the sky, he saw, in the near-darkness, a star faintly twinkling.

“……….Big brother, look.”

The lightened sky made Kyosuke’s uneasiness disappear. As he headed towards the fading star, the words he had muttered began to encourage him. Somehow, he now felt light on his feet, so giving himself a quick nod, Kyosuke decided he should keep what had happened this past year a secret and avenge his older brother. With that, he continued to walk towards the train station.

* * * *

Fortunately, the train was already there, so Kyosuke didn’t have to wait and was able to board safely. He changed trains and rode for about one hour to Shinjuku. But once he got there, how was he going to sneak into the Okawa? He couldn’t think of a single good method. He suspected that the yakuza area was Kabukicho, but Kabukicho was big, so there weren’t only yakuza there. Was there a way to distinguish yakuza members belonging to the Okawa? If he asked, he would probably find out, but was he brave enough to speak to thugs? Kyosuke wasn’t too sure he was. He was prepared to fight with the wakagashira whom he despised – Kanou – but in order to do that, he needed to get to him in one piece. From the information he had looked up on the Internet, he discovered that a ‘wakagashira’ was the second in command of a group and was promised a position to be the next leader of the family. The Okawa was quite a large organization and had several hundred members. When the second and third groups were added, it became several thousand. How could he achieve his revenge against the second in command of such a large organization? No good ideas crossed his mind. For now, he would find a way to sneak into the group and then await his chance. Believing that this was his only way, Kyosuke thought that it would be hard to ‘sneak into the group’ and let out a sigh.

He arrived in Shinjuku and headed towards Kabukicho. Since it was still early in the morning, the whole town was rather deserted. There was a group of people who looked like they had been drinking all night long, and hostesses who tried to invite customers into their stores, but there were no people who looked like thugs. Having no other choice, Kyosuke entered a 4-hour coffee shop and decided he was going to kill some time there while he planned his next move. Actually, there was one thing about Kabukicho that weighed on his mind. The bar that his older brother had worked for in the past was also in Kabukicho. Rather than aimlessly search around Kabukicho for the members of the Okawa, he should start with gathering information about his older brother first. The police had searched everywhere in order to know whether or not there was someone who had a motive for killing his older brother, but had not found anything about the work his older brother had done after he had left the bartender job in Kabukicho. If even the police searched and hadn’t found anything, Kyosuke didn’t think that an amateur like him, who was still a child and not even twenty, would gain any results. Nevertheless, I can’t give up, Kyosuke thought and clenched his fist.

Kyosuke hung around at the coffee shop until around 10 am, after which he guessed that people would be crowding the streets, so he left to go search for the bar his older brother had worked in. He had the map memorized, but when he arrived at the address of the shop, he saw that the name of the shop had changed.

“……….”

It seemed like the shop was still a bar, but because it was before noon it wasn’t open. If the name of the shop had changed then it was the usual case that the employees and the manager had also changed. Naturally, the customers had definitely changed as well. He gave up for now. Instead, he planned on waiting until night to visit this shop again, but it seemed that he would still be wasting his time here. Nevertheless, he didn’t have any other means of searching for clues about his older brother.

Kyosuke stood in front of the shop absentmindedly. He didn’t want to leave. When he peered inside the shop, a voice called out to him from behind, “Hey, what’re you doing!?”

Kyosuke spun around, startled.

“……….”

He lost his voice at the sight before his eyes. Before he knew it, Kyosuke was surrounded by thugs.

“Say something! Hey!”A young thug called out to him. It seemed like it should be easy to talk to the guy wearing a flashy sukajan satin jacket, who seemed to be about the same age as Kyosuke, but to Kyosuke, who had never had any experience with anyone like this until now, he seemed extremely menacing, so Kyosuke stood there stupefied.

“I’m asking you what you’re doing sneaking around here!”

Young thugs weren’t an unusual thing, but when they saw that they were clearly being feared, they put on a false bravado and intimidated him further. The thugs continued to act like being sadistic was their hobby.

“We won’t know if you keep silent!”

They pushed the pale-faced Kyosuke and made him unable to speak even more, but when one of the thugs threatened him, Kyosuke inadvertently exclaimed.

“You know this is the Okawa territory, don’t you?”

“The Okawa!!”

What a coincidence! This was the grace of God! There was no way he could miss this chance. As if he was just going to waste this heaven’s blessing! The moment he thought this, some kind of change happened in Kyosuke.

“What the hell?” The thug frowned and questioned him, since it seemed he became suspicious of Kyosuke when he had exclaimed so suddenly. But without hesitating, Kyosuke kneeled in front of the guy and deeply bowed his head.

“Please! Please let me join the Okawa!”

“Huuuh?!” The thug wildly exclaimed and fell silent. It seemed he was quite surprised at seeing Kyosuke kneel and beg like this.

“Please! I- I heard the Okawa are amazing and I really want you to let me join. That’s why I came here to Shinjuku!”

Usually, Kyosuke referred to himself using ‘boku’, but he thought that the yakuza liked people who referred to themselves as ‘ore’3, so he instantly changed his way of speaking.

“Reaaally?”

The thug looked down at Kyosuke with suspicion. The other young thugs around him also warily gazed down at Kyosuke.

“Yes! When I came to Shinjuku before, you guys had a conflict, right? I saw you guys shooting and instantly thought you were amazing! You guys looked so cool! That’s why I admire you, and……!”

“Shooting in Shinjuku? Ah, you mean last October?”

“Yes!”

Kyosuke immediately nodded enthusiastically at the thug’s words. Last year in October, he saw on television the news that the Okawa had quite an intense gunfight with an opposition group here in Kabukicho. There had been ten or so casualties and twenty people had been arrested. However, only the people from the second and third groups had been arrested, and the opposition group had all its members arrested including the leader. The Okawa, on the other hand, had been left unharmed. Shuddering, Kyosuke had watched the early morning scene of the Kabukicho streets covered with blood, but now, he thought he should make use of that information here and animated his voice even more.

“I admire how cool you guys are! I definitely want to join the Okawa, too! How do I join? Please, please tell me!”

“You idiot, it’s not like anyone can just join,” the young thug said, but Kyosuke could tell from the pleased look on his face that he was in a very good mood now that the group he belonged to was getting praised. “That’s all I’ve gotta say, but I’ll at least hear you out. There’re some things to do first. I’ll introduce you to my aniki4 so you can get a job. So how about it? Wanna give it a shot?”

“Yes! Thank you!”

This was godsend! Was this heaven’s command or his older brother’s guidance? Since meeting these thugs happened upon coming here to the shop where his older brother had worked at, surely it was his older brother helping him from heaven. Kyosuke hadn’t thought that he would be able to get to the Okawa so quickly. I’m so lucky, he thought and secretly clenched his fist.

“Then let’s go get breakfast and collect some money.”

“……Ah, okay!”

Follow me, the thug jerked his chin, and Kyosuke began walking after the thugs.

“What’s your name?”

Being asked this only now, Kyosuke was about to tell him his real name, but thought that false names were surely used here, so he quickly decided on a name.

“Mihara.”

“Your first name.” It’s hard to call each other by last names, isn’t it? The thug said, which didn’t fully make sense to Kyosuke and he stared at him.

“Ka- Kaoru,” he thought about making up a name completely different from his real name, but decided to mix in some ‘truth’ here since he was worried that he was going to be careless and react too slow when they called him by a completely different name.

“Kaoru, huh? You look like a girl and have a girly name too.”

The thug smiled and gently reached out and touched Kyosuke’s cheek.

“……!”

Surprised at this sudden move, Kyosuke jumped despite himself, and seeing this, the other guys walking along with the thug burst out laughing.

“What, Kouta, couldn’t resist, huh?”

“Shut up.”

It seemed that the thug’s name was Kouta. Seeing that the others had made fun of him, it seemed that he was the youngest out of the five thugs.

“I told you I like girls more than guys!” Kouta retorted and then stared at Kyosuke who was unintentionally looking at him.

“You too! Don’t react so weirdly!”

“I- I’m sorry.”

He thought that it was probably not right to apologize, since he had to be liked, but he quickly bowed his head anyway. However, it seemed that Kouta was quite a simple guy. His mood had improved just from that. At the same time, it seemed that he had taken a liking to Kyosuke.

“He’s my subordinate, so don’t mislead him,” he said to his gang and returned his gaze to Kyosuke. “I’m Kouta. You can call me aniki.”

“I understand, aniki.”

When he replied immediately, Kouta’s mood improved even more, and he gave a thin grin and roughly petted Kyosuke on the head.

“Alright! You’re so obedient! Nice to meet you, Kaoru!”

“N- nice to meet you, too.”

Kouta had petted him so powerfully that Kyosuke had almost toppled over. Although Kyosuke definitely didn’t feel like thanking him, he thought that he should show more of how ‘obedient’ he was, so he forced a smile and thanked Kouta. After that, Kouta split up from his gang and took Kyosuke along with him into a small kissaten.

“Welcome.”

“Breakfast, Mama. Him, too.”

There were no customers inside the shop. On the other side of the bar counter stood an older, beautiful, but gloomy, woman.

“I always eat here. My subordinates don’t need to pay. I’ll introduce you to Mama,” Kouta said proudly after they sat down facing each other at a table for four, then he turned around to Mama, who was carrying over water.

“Mama, this is Kaoru, my subordinate as of today. Kaoru, this is Yukiko-Mama, ugly-looking but great at cooking.”

“Well, aren’t you in a good mood? Because of your first subordinate?”

He heard Mama laugh, but when she was near enough, Kyosuke got somewhat a strange feeling and stared hard at her. She was rather tall for a woman.

“Whoops! I forgot something important!” It seemed Kouta had noticed Kyosuke staring and added with a smile, “We call her Mama but she’s actually a man.”

“Huh!?” A man? Kyosuke thought and loudly exclaimed with surprise.

“I don’t have balls or a dick anymore. There’s a hole now instead. If you’d like, I’ll let you fuck me,” Yukiko-Mama narrowed her eyes with a smile, and Kyosuke was at a loss for words, but to his surprise, Kouta was okay with this.

“He’s inexperienced. You’re a virgin, right?”

“Oh, then, how about I’ll be your first?” Yukiko amused herself, but Kyosuke was stunned, not knowing how he should answer, and looked hesitatingly at Kouta.

“When this happens, you say ‘that’s sick’.”

“It’s not sick, it feels good! I hope you will try it too, Kouta.”

“Don’t say such sick things!”

Yukiko and Kouta continued to joke, changing the topic of the conversation.

I’m saved, Kyosuke secretly let out a sigh.

“The morning course, okay? Right?”

“Yeah.”

Yukiko took their orders, looked at Kouta, who had replied cheerfully, and shrugged.

“Just now you said something like, ‘My subordinate doesn’t need to pay me money’, but the one paying is your aniki, isn’t it?”

“Sh- shut up…you tranny!” Kouta angrily exclaimed. It seemed that Yukiko had hit a soft spot.

But perhaps Yukiko was used to this, because she smirked, purposefully dropped her voice and told Kyosuke, “This kid is nothing, but this kid’s aniki is sensational, well, since he’s the wakagashira of the Okawa, after all.”

“The wakagashira!?” Once again, Kyouske loudly exclaimed with surprise, but it seemed that this was not an appropriate situation to be so surprised at, so he received puzzled glances from Yukiko and Kouta.

“What is it? What’s wrong? Why are you so worked up?”

“What, you know the boss?”

“N- no……is that boss the second in command of the group? I just think it’s amazing that such a great man is your aniki, Kouta-san.” As Kyosuke desperately tried to smooth things over, he tried really hard to stop himself from shaking.

“Oh yeah, this guy is a yakuza enthusiast.” Fortunately, it seemed that the simple-minded Kouta believed Kyosuke’s act and began explaining to Yukiko with a proud, knowledgeable look.

“A yakuza enthusiast? What’s that?”

“He said he saw the gun-fight with the Aoshima last year, that’s why he wants to join our group. And he probably did a lot of research. About the wakagashira and stuff.” Isn’t that cute? Kouta laughed in front of him, and Kyouske secretly let out a sigh of relief.

“Really? That’s interesting. A yakuza enthusiast, aren’t you?”

Luckily, it seemed that Yukiko also believed Kouta.

“That’s right – so bring us breakfast for two now.”

“Okay, okay. I’m putting this on Kanou-san’s tab.”

“……!”

Kyosuke was aware that there was only one person who held the position of wakagashira – Kanou – but the moment he heard the name of the man whom he hated so much, his heart beat so violently that he couldn’t suppress it and almost let out a gasp. This was a revelation of God, after all. No. This was his dead older brother’s guidance. He hadn’t thought that he would get to Kanou so quickly! One could say that he was now trembling with excitement.

Kyosuke was trembling slightly, and he was aware that food would not go down his throat right now, but he couldn’t arouse suspicion, so telling himself that he had to try to stay as calm as possible, Kyosuke began to desperately think of how he was going to get his revenge after he got to Kanou.

5. One hundred thousand yen is about $1,000

6. Casual way for boys/men to say ‘I’

7. An informal, casual, used mostly by men, and sometimes seen as tough way to say ‘I’

8. Aniki: a term used for a Yakuza of older age or senior rank within the family; a term of respect.

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