novelVolume 8, (1)
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Volume 8, Chapter 1
It's said that they aren't clinging onto the bamboo poles, but gliding along them. In any case, living on and doing something wouldn't be as bad as how it was at that moment.
Dragonflies are dragonflies. Every year, they merely glide from the North end of the Street to the South, down the lined bamboo poles
'The Blooming Flowers in the Underpass' Irokawa Butai
I have a blood-related older sister, and an older brother not related by blood. If I told them that, most people would then conclude something like "I see, so your sister is married", but my sister is actually unmarried. In fact, my sister and my brother are not related whatsoever. That man and I ended up becoming sworn brothers through a ritual based on yakuza movies.
It's been a little more than a year since that autumn when I moved to this city. Back then I was just an inconsiderate brat, but I learned many things during all this time. For example, that there are bonds much more stronger than bonds merely formed by blood, but that doesn't mean blood ties are weak, either.
My mother died a long time ago and my father almost never comes home, so I don't quite understand what it means to have a family. When I asked Alice about it, she replied with her usual calm tone:
"Family is the smallest, most unconditional reciprocal union in which everything can be forgiven. For this reason, things like hiding a criminal or destroying the evidence of their crime stops being a sin in their eyes. Something similar to an unscrupulous debt in an unwritten contract, don't you think so?"
What a nonsensical answer, really. On second thought, she had left her family behind and ran away from home, so a sarcastic reply on her part was to be expected. However, she then laughed softly and added, with distant eyes:
"It's this world's most beautiful illusion."
*
In an old building five stories tall next to an alley, pretty far away from the station, there's a ramen shop signaled with a red sign. That place, Ramen Hanamaru, is where we always hang out. The owner is Min-san, a young woman with a 'nice big sister' spirit. I got to know that place because of a classmate named Ayaka, who works there part-time. The only 'good citizens' of the gang are those two, while the rest are NEETs who don't work or study.
"I failed at the Arima Kinen and the Tokyo Daishouten... I lost around 100. 000..."
Squatting on the concrete floor in front of the backdoor with a resigned epression was Tetsu-senpai, the ex-boxer who had became a good-for-nothing gambling addict and had ended the year by wasting a huge amount of money.
"Narumi, you got a lot of New Year money, right?", Tetsu-senpai spoke to me."Lend me some."
"I don't want to. And I didn't receive New Year money from anyone in the first place.", I replied while eating my late lunch. Senpai looked surprised, so I went on:
"If I had parents or relatives to be with I wouldn't be here the second day of the year."
"Well, I'm so sorry that you have to be in this place, huh. You don't have to come if you don't want to."
Upon hearing that voice coming from the kitchen, I got startled without letting go of the bowl. The woman with a ponytail opened the back door.
"Ahh, no, uhm, I didn't mean that--"
"Here, Tetsu, your ramen's ready." Min-san quickly turned her gaze away from Tetsu-senpai to glare at me while giving him a ramen bowl with just soup and noodles, a menu so poor that one could almost cry.
"I can't really say much, but, you guys really don't have parents or relatives to spend time with? Would they go to your funeral if you died? Tetsu, if you're not careful enough you could end up without anyone to tend your grave.", Min-san said, folding her arms and leaning against the door. Tetsu-senpai slurped some soup and shrugged.
"It's not like I care about what happens to me after I die. More important than that, the New Year money--"
"Talk when you can pay your tab, you good-for-nothing!", Min-san pulled Tetsu-senpai's ear.
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow!"
She was wearing a tank top and he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt without a sense of the season. I tilted my head and looked up at the winter sky, cloudless regardless of the cold weather. It didn't feel like New Year at all.
"Happy New Year!"
A refreshing voice was heard and a tall figure approached from the alley. That young man dressed with a cashmere coat and a long beige scarf so refinedly combined that it made him look like a model got closer to the back door. Hiro-san is one of the NEETs that always hang out on that alley. With his handsome appearance and rhetorical abilities, he lives as a gigolo who tricks and leeches off women.
"Oh? Narumi-kun's here too. Don't you spend time with your family to receive New Year money and all that?"
You too? I gave him the same explanation I had given to Tetsu-senpai.
"Aah, I see.", he made an apologetic face for an instant, but his smile quickly returned."Then, this is from me."
To my surprise, he handed me a 10. 000 yen bill.
"Hiro, me too! I want money too!"
"Tetsu, you're the same age as me, aren't you?"
"No, my birthday's three months later, so I'm younger! Give me money!"
Min-san smacked Tetsu-senpai and turned to see Hiro-san.
"Hiro, being a NEET gigolo, are you in position to give money to others?"
"Well, yes. I received quite a lot of money from the ladies. For example, there was this time when we went on a holiday overseas without her husband knowing or--"
Hiro-san was also smacked by Min-san. With a bump on their heads each, they kept eating their first ramen of the year.
"We do the same every year..."
"It's fine that way, isn't it? We have nowhere else to go. When you try to be a good son, your parents are already gone."
"Do you want to be a good son, Hiro?"
"No, not at all."
Both Tetsu-senpai and Hiro-san laughed. I never asked much about their family situations, but apparently Hiro-san didn't grow up on easy circumstances.
In the end, we looked like a parentless bunch. Now that I remembered, Min-san doesn't have a mother either, and Ayaka's parents are divorced.
"What's with you, Narumi? What a gloomy face. If you're not gonna eat that I will.", Tetsu-senpai pointed at the bowl on my knees. I had left my chopsticks still, with the noodles extended.
"N-no, I'm still eating."
"Coming here on the second day of the year, it seems like he's going to completely become one of us. How terrible, Narumi-kun."
Hiro-san's teasing words were quite cruel. Tetsu-senpai knitted his brows.
"He's not going to be one of us. It's too late for him already."
"Well, that's true."
I choked with the soup in my throat.
"I-it's not that!", after wiping my chin and mouth with a napkin, I kept talking."I was just thinking that none of us has parents... Quite the coincidence, isn't it?"
Hiro-san and Tetsu-senpai stopped eating and looked at each other. The first one to open his moth was senpai.
"...Not a coincidence, probably."
"Eh? Ehm...?"
What does that mean? Something like "Birds of a feather flock together?" NEETs end up together? Please, no. I'm still a high school student. My grades are pretty bad, but I still go to class.
"It's not a coincidence.", Hiro nodded."If you don't have a family, you have free time, don't you? And if you have free time, you end up hanging out here 24/7."
True. The main reason why I was in this place in the middle of the New Year celebrations was because I have a lot of time to kill.
Tetsu-senpai suddenly spoke:
"Yondaime does have his parents, doesn't he?"
"Ahh, yes, I think so.", Hiro-san replied.
Yondaime is that person who ended up doing the sake ceremony with me by a twist of fate, becoming my sworn brother. His weird nickname was given to him because he's the son of a family who manages a stall-keepers business in Kansai.
"His parents are in Kansai, so he doesn't see them much, does he?"
"Is he in touch with them?"
I couldn't imagine Yondaime being in contact with his family, since I remember hearing that he had ran away to Tokyo because he didn't want to inherit his family's business.
"I wonder how Yondaime's old man looks like."
"I picture him looking like Aikawa Show."
"Ahh, you think so, Hiro? I imagine him with a more stern look, like Takakura Ken or something like that."
Both of them then started to picture him like different actors, manga characters, Dragon Quest Monsters (Why?), etc. I would get to meet that person later on, and he would be completely different to any of their comparisons.
After finishing my ramen and enduring Tetsu-senpai being annoying with his "Give me cash!" again, I quickly went up the emergency stairs. In the third floor of the same building of the ramen shop there was a room with a sign that read "NEET Detective Office", my employer's shelter.
"Happy New Year..."
I opened the door and greeted in a small voice as I entered. It was colder inside the room than outside.
"What is there to be happy about? Here and there, the new year just brings inconveniences."
I heard the sulky voice of the little girl. Across the kitchenette and the narrow corridor a room with three sides of the wall covered with monitors, computers and cables could be seen; such a cybernetic room. Sitting on a bed in the middle was the girl with long and splendid black honey-colored hair that flowed like a river. She was wearing light-blue pajamas with teddy bear patterns, her stocking-covered legs were worryingly thin and her skin was really pale. No matter how you looked at her, her appearance was worrisome. Shionji Yuuko--AKA Alice. The detective who employes me.
"Observe, Moggadeet's ear has come unstitched."
With teary eyes, Alice thrust her big teddy bear against me. Some thread was hanging from its little ear.
"This happened because I hug him too tightly every day even when I'm sleeping! I wanted to ask Yondaime to repair it but he's busy with the new year and he doesn't answer the phone. Even though he usually answers quickly..."
I was about to tell her that she could just leave the teddy bear alone for one or two days, but I decided not to say anything. That teddy bear with a strange name was her favorite, and apparently she couldn't sleep if she wasn't hugging it.
"Uhmm... Then, how about I take his place?"
When I said that, Alice blushed so hard that she looked like a habanero pepper.
"W-w-what are you saying? Why would I hug you to sleep!? I could never do such a shameless thing--"
"That's not what I meant. I meant to say if you would like me to fix it."
Alice's face was practically emitting steam.
"...You should have said that from the start!"
"You're the one who misunderstood!"
Alice puffed her reddened cheeks and turned to the monitor.
"Can you even sew? You look so clumsy that it wouldn't surprise me if you weren't even capable of tying your own shoelaces. More importantly, there's no more Dr Pepper left."
On the floor at her feet there was a pyramid of purplish-red 350 ml. cans. She doesn't eat properly, and the base of her eccentric diet is actually this carbonated drink. Sadly, my main task as a detective's assistant is taking care of her daily dose of Dokupe.
"Go buy two packs at the convenience store later, since the liquor store is closed and it's not delivering either. I don't see what's so special about the New Year. Isn't just the year changing?"
"Don't you do anything typical of the New Year?", I asked."Like, visiting the shrine, or eating typical foods, or going back to your parents' house... Ahh, no, I'm sorry. That was a stupid question."
Alice glared at me and let out a childish "hmph", then she turned back to the keyboard once again.
"The first two would imply that I return to the Shionji house anyway and that's not likely, even if the house is reduced to ashes and their affiliated business all fall into bankruptcy."
I tilted my head at her tone of voice, as sharp and cold as an icicle.
For some reason, around five years ago, Alice ran away from home. I don't know her exact age, but she looks really young now; five years ago her age probably had a single digit. That's not normal. Because of that, she spends her days shut away in her room, with countless security cameras installed in the whole building out of fear of someone coming to get her.
What could have possibly happen in her parents' house? What kind of person are her parents? Are they alive and in good health? I'd like to ask her all these questions, but it's better if I don't. It must be a delicate situation.
My cellphone's ringtone broke the silence. Upon looking at the screen, I noticed it was a call from Yondaime.
"Happy New Ye--"
'Don't bother with the greeting. ', Yondaime sharply said on the other side of the line. 'I have a job for you. It's urgent, so come right away. Do you know where the mahjong parlor Tenhou Club is?'
"Uh, ah, yes."
'It's about what I told you about at the end of the year. '
*
Mahjong parlors are highly active during the last days of the year and the New Year. It's because of the same reason we hang out at Hanamaru: People with free time. Since there are lots of people who like gambling and don't give a damn about spending New Year with their families, mahjong and pachinko parlors become packed with people.
That mahjong parlor called Tenhou Club is at Shinjuku's Kabuki-cho and it's one of the most popular and successful parlors of the neighborhood.
On the second day of the year, Kabuki-cho's streets were full of noisy barkers promoting bars and host clubs seemingly having a shouting contest.
After bumping into lots of passers-by because I was carrying a huge cardboard box, I finally reached the building. I raised my gaze to the parlor's banner and took a breath.
When the elevator's door opened after reaching the fifth floor, the sounds of tiles clacking against each other could be heard, and a strong tobacco smell was filling the air. The place was quite big, a little bigger than two classrooms, and there were around 10 mahjong tables, all full.
"Welcome!" An employee with an apron turned around cheerfully but his expression became confused when he looked at me, alternating stares between my face and the cardboard box.
"U-uhm... I'm not a client, is Yondaime--Uh, Souichirou-san here?"
The employee widened his eyes, surprised, and worried about the clients' gazes, he quickly guided me to the backroom.
Inside the small office there was two men. One of them was sitting on a pipe chair, had a hoodlum-like appearance and his hair was punch-permed. He was probably part of the staff of the parlor.
The other young man was sitting on the desk, his hair was bleached completely white and a he had a sharp wolf-like gaze--Yondaime. He was wearing a red jacket with an embroidery of a chinese dragon that made him look even more menacing. His real name is Hinamura Souichirou, and he controls quite a lot of the juvenile delinquents of the Yamanote zone. None of the street gangs ignores the existence of the gang he leads, Hirasaka-gumi, and even some legit yakuza organizations acknowledge Hirasaka-gumi's power. Lately, they have been gaining influence in Kabuki-cho little by little, so these kind of mahjong parlors relied on them in case of trouble.
"What's with that box?" Yondaime glared at the cardboard box in my arms.
"Ah, this... A teddy bear. Its ear--"
Yondaime stepped up, shocked, and pulled my collar, grabbing the box that was about to fall from my hands with his own free hand. He whispered onto my ear with a cold, piercing voice:
"Don't talk about that out loud, what if the manager hears?"
He pointed at the guy with the punch-perm with just his gaze and I tilted my head to the side to see him, putting the box down. The manager was looking at us with a confused expression.
Even though he's so aggressive, sewing is Yondaime's hobby, and his skills are top-notch. He has taken care of Alice's stuffed animals many times, but of course, having such a cute hobby doesn't really fit his image, so he would obviously get angry if this was mentioned in front of other people.
"I called you because of work, why did you bring that thing here?", Yondaime said, glaring at the box with the teddy bear. The manager nervously looked at us from behind the desk, without understanding the situation.
"Alice told me to bring it to you immediately... I'm sorry."
"That brat..."
With a defeated expression, Yondaime ruffled his own hair and sat on the desk again.
"Whatever. Let's talk about work."
"Sou-san, err... Who is he...?", the manager behind Yondaime asked. He had been looking at me for a while now, probably because he didn't imagine a brat would be coming.
"He's Fujishima Narumi. You probably heard his name before."
"A-ah, uh... From the detective's office..."
My name being known in this dishonest world made me worry about my future, but I can't refuse when Yondaime asks me a favor.
"Are there bears or something like that?"
Mahjong bear is a term originated in a novel written by Asada Tetsuya, and it refers to the people who earn money tricking inexperienced players at mahjong parlors. At the end of the ear, Shinjuku seemed to be full of people wanting to make easy money.
"There's some suspicious guys, but it's not really clear so I called you. Play on the same tables as them and observe their actions."
I placed my palm on my forehead and sighed. So it was about that.
"Sou-san, excuse me, but, why...? I mean, he's a high school kid, isn't he?"
I made a faint affirmative sound in reply to the manager's anxious voice. It made sense that the mahjong parlor with the highest rates had a reputation to uphold.
Why did he call me? Surely there was something more competent, wasn't it?
Yondaime glared at the manager and me so sternly that it fell like he was hammering a nail with just his gaze, then he grabbed my wrist and pulled me to a shelf nearby. He took just the suited tiles from the piled up mahjong sets, putting them face down and mixing them on the desk, then he picked thirteen of the tiles without turning them over. He lined them up in a straight line and grabbed them with both hands, picking them up and showing them to me just for a short instant, then putting them back as they were before.
"Did you see them?"
"Eh? Ah, yeah, more or less..."
"Was it tenpai?"
"It was isshanten, wasn't it?"
"Which tiles should you draw and which ones should you discard to get the highest tenpai?"
"If I take the 5 and I discard the 9 I'd get 147 and 25 points, I think."
Yondaime showed the thirteen tiles to the manager. The manager then aligned them in numerical order, and upon replacing and ordering them, an expression that said 'I can't believe it' appeared in his face.
"It's correct... H-he just saw them for a short while, didn't he?" The manager sounded nervous. Taken aback, I hurriedly replied:
"E-eh, well, anyone can do this, really..."
Yondaime lightly punched my back.
"Let me tell you something, since it seems you haven't realized it yet.", he said, pushing my body to the back room's exit."From all the people I know, you're the best mahjong player. That's why I called you. Whatever, just go. I'll take care of the betting and the losses money."
*
And just like that, the second half of my winter break succumbed to the sound of the tiles mixing in the automatic mahjong table. Even if I loudly yelled that I was merely a 17-year-old high school student, no one would hear me. In that world, only words such as ron, pon, and reach are listened to.
After spending the whole night and going back home with my whole body smelling like tobacco, I lied down on my bed with the question what am I doing? invading my mind.
What am I doing... Playing mahjong, of course, but I also had to see if some suspicious people were actually cheating or not. Not only I had to do this at Tenhou Club, I was also taken to several other Kabuki-cho's mahjong parlors, joining the tables in which someone was winning big.
"How does it feel to work at a mahjong parlor?", Alice said sarcastically when I showed up at the detective office after being absent for three days.
"Do I look like a regular player that much with this suit and gray hair?"
If they found out I was a high school student they would probably close the place down, so I had made an improvised camouflage.
"Is this how you use the salary I pay you?"
"The money I bet is not even from my own wallet in the first place..."
Yondaime covered 100% of the costs. It didn't matter whether I won or lost, the important thing was observing the suspicious clients playing in the same table as them.
"Even if that's the case, you have won in all the parlors, haven't you? And Yondaime didn't tell you to return the money he gave you if you multiplied it."
"Ahh, yeah... Unexpectedly, in those clubs with high rates the players are pretty bad. A-aah, no, I'm telling you that I'm not playing mahjong to make money."
"Then for what reason did Yondaime include mahjong tiles in Moggadite's box?"
That was the first time I had heard about that, so I was surprised. Alice then took out a black case from below the neatly placed teddy bear. Inside the case there was a set of mahjong tiles. So now I have to see tiles in the office too? I don't even like mahjong that much.
"It's because I owe Yondaime.", Alice sulkily hugged her giant teddy bear."If he asked me to give these to you I couldn't say no, but you never showed up since the beginning of the year..."
"I'm sorry I didn't come to keep you company, really."
"W-what are you saying?"
Alice slapped the case with the palm of her hand, and the tiles inside it fell down, scattering on the blankets.
"Stop saying that like I was feeling lonely! If you don't show up who will bring my Dr Pepper? Who will clean the office and do the laundry? That's what I meant!"
"Oh, well excuse me..."
I picked up the scattered tiles.
"You kept winning on the spur of the moment, but you're still a beginner. You lost ryankan chances every time, and you couldn't see the indications of chitoitsu tenpai at all."
I was bewildered, and the tiles slipped out of my hands.
"...E-eh? Alice, you know how to play mahjong? And you saw me playing? Why?"
"I watched the security cameras' tapes."
I stood there open-mouthed. Yondaime had secretly installed those cameras to observe the suspicious clients' behavior while we played, but there was no reason to show those to Alice. She had probably cracked the cameras.
"E-eh, uhm... W-why? Why have you been watching the matches I was playing in?"
"Mh, hmph... To check on my assistant's work, obviously."
Really? Did she even see the way I played? That's a little embarrassing.
"You're a really bad player and if you lose you'll cause Yondaime trouble, so, from now on I'll be your coach!"
Saying all that, Alice started lining up the tiles on the side table. What's with all this enthusiasm...
Around thirty minutes later the intercom rang and a short-haired girl entered, exclaiming "Happy New Year!"
My classmate, and Hanamaru's employee, Ayaka.
"E-eh?"
Ayaka looked at us, speechless. In that moment, Alice took around 10000 points from me, completely destroying my self-confidence, and I just let my head fall on the mattress.
"T-that's no good, Fujishima-kun!" Ayaka rushed up and pulled me up."Don't make Alice play mahjong! Alice is still a little girl so it's a no-no!"
"W-what's the matter?" Alice blinked as Ayaka was taking the tiles away from her."Mahjong doesn't have anything to do with age, it's just a game."
"But, don't you have to take off your clothes if you lose?"
"Wha-Where did you get that twisted information from!?"
"In the first place, taking your clothes off is my job! Come on, let's take the first bath of the year!"
"Let me go-"
Ayaka pulled Alice, who hated bathing, to the bathroom. That detective incapable of taking care of herself can't bathe alone.
I sighed, looking at the tiles that had fallen to the floor, and exited the office. The evening sun looked like thousands of crystals inlaid on the winter sky.
Yondaime couldn't have possibly known. From all our acquaintances, the best mahjong player is definitely Alice.
*
But it wasn't like I was going to the mahjong parlor everyday to win. I was just doing my job.
Since I went everyday, I could find out some things about the suspicious clients. In the morning, I confirmed it with the security camera's footage at Hirasaka-gumi's office. I cropped and enlarged the pictures of the clients so I could ask the manager his opinion later.
"These three..." At the office, I showed the pictures to Yondaime and started explaining to him. The people on the pictures were all young men.
"Around the end of the year, the three of them have been winning big at different mahjong parlors."
"Together?"
"No. They were never seen entering the same place together."
"Any other reason to be wary of them?" Yondaime asked, fixing his gaze on me.
"There's a weird common trait with the way they all win..."
"Common trait?"
"Frankly, the three of them are unskillful players."
I played on the same tables, but I also observed them from behind. Their abilities were student-level, but they kept playing for a long time without losing. Just when one would think they wouldn't stop playing, they suddenly did, even having the right tiles, and then they left the table.
"Isn't that to pass to their partners?"
Passing is a general term which means secretly exchanging information between swindlers.
"It's possible. The three of them usually sit to play close to the toilet. Whenever they finish playing, they enter the toilet. Maybe they contact their partners via cellphone once they're there... But I don't know from where could they see the tiles. They get winning sprees even when they're on different tables, too."
"In any case, you must keep observing.", Yondaime said."I'll find out where do those guys come from. If we don't have proof that they're cheating I can't move."
That's true, they could just be some clients with insanely good luck. If they were'nt guilty and Yondaime accused them, it would damage the parlor's reputation.
"What does your intuition say? Are they just some lucky fellows, or are they really bears?"
"...Do you trust my intuition?"
"Intuition is important in mahjong after all, isn't it?"
I lowered my gaze to the floor. After some time, I replied:
"My intuition... is dark. There's just something unnatural about the way they play."
*
I met that man for the first time on the last day of my winter break. He showed up when I was playing at Kabuki-Cho's Tenhou Club in broad daylight. I heard the sound of the doorbell, and then a carefree voice.
"Shall I enter now?"
It was a middle-aged man wearing a white down jacket, he had a slight stoop and long limbs, and his droopy eyelids gave off a charm similar to that of comedians such as Akashiya Sanma or Tokoro George.
"Welcome!" The manager's brother rushed up to the man and handed him a wet towel.
There were only two active tables in that moment and I had just finished a round, so the man was guided to the seat on my right.
After around twelve rounds, I drew the Green Dragon tile. The man on my right then spoke:
"'Scuse me, I'm still gettin' used to Kantou's rules, so..."
"Uh?"
"Can you do double and triple Yakuman here?"
"E-err... There are yakuman duplications in this place, yes."
"I see. So both tsuiso and su anko count, huh. Ron."
The man revealed his hand. North, South, East and West wind tiles were neatly aligned, three of each kind.
"96, 000 points."
That was the first time in my life I saw a daisushi. They said it's a hand you only see once in a lifetime, after all.
After two hours, the place fell completely silent and that big winner left, so I immediately got up and brought my palms together as a sign of apology to the manager.
"S-sorry, I'm a little uneasy about him so I'm going to watch him, I'm leaving for today..."
"A-aahh, okay, see you."
The elevator was already going down, so I rushed to the stairs. I ran among Kabuki-Cho's nighttime current of noise and neon lights, looking for that white down jacket among the crowd. He was on a pedestrian crossing at Yasukuni Dori, walking in the direction of Yamada Denki's huge building. So I wouldn't lose sight of him and he wouldn't notice me either, I followed him while keeping a certain distance. Blending into Shinjuku's West Gate's congestion sounded like a good idea.
I didn't know if that man was related to the bears or not. In fact, with such a fancy way of winning it was safe to assume he was unrelated to them, but--I just felt uneasy. I suddenly lost sight of him near a boutique. I difficultly pushed through the crowd, looking for the down jacket. He was really tall, so I couldn't have lost him just like that...
"What's this? Am I that suspicious?"
I heard a voice behind me and I literally jumped. When I turned around, I saw that man with both hands inside his pockets, grinning from ear to ear.
"E-eh, ah, n-no, I'm just..."
So he had noticed me when I was following him. I felt like sweat was dripping even from inside my ears, but the man just slapped my shoulders in a friendly manner.
"Ya make me feel a bit uneasy too, boy. Why is a high schooler doin' this kind of thing?"
I wiped the sweat out of my face.
"Eh, h-high schooler? U-uhm, what are you talking about?"
Even I noticed how bad and desperate my lie was.
"No need to play the fool there. I'm just an expert with the tiles. I also have a young kid... Well, soon you'll understand."
I was already quite worried, but the man's next words made my blood freeze.
"I didn't left evidence of my cheatin'. I noticed the cameras."
"Eh...?"
"Ya wanted to see if I had talent or not, didn't ya? Even letting me see yer hand... Thanks for that. That camera inside the flower vase was pretty well hidden."
My face was probably incredibly pale by then, judging by the looks the passerbies were giving me.
He found out about my observer role and he even noticed the cameras...
Just who is this man?
"Hey, no need to be so tense.", he said, lightly slapping my cheek with the back of his hand."I arrived to Tokyo just today. This man you were frantically chasin' is a good fellow. I just like mahjong. I've been playin' here and there but the most interestin' opponent was you, boy."
"Uhh..."
"This year I came to Tokyo to make a decision that's been quite buggin' me. When these things happen, I use mahjong to read my luck. So, if I got a daisushi, everythin' would work out fine. Well, in the end I got a triple Yakuman. Seems like this year will be packed with good stuff."
The man laughed, and I didn't even know what to reply or what face I should make anymore.
At that moment, I heard the sounds of footsteps approaching us among the crowd.
"Gen-chaaaan!"
I turned around upon hearing the female voice and I saw someone running from the Alta Studio, pushing her way through without caring about the perplexed looks of the passerbies.
She had wavy hair that was slightly bleached and was wearing a mink jacket and a miniskirt regardless of the winter cold. Because of her thick fake eyelashes and lip gloss, she gave off a hostess-like aura, and she looked like she was on her twenties.
For some reason, I felt I had seen her face before.
"Wow... Yer late! They came to flirt with me four times while I was waiting for ya, Tokyo's so hectic it's hard to stand. Aren't we goin' to see Tamori even though we're at the Alta?"
The woman hugged the white down jacket-clad man's arm, and then she noticed me.
"Eh- W-what's this? Gen-chan, ya went flirting while I was waitin' for ya? And with a man? Yer a homo? I can't believe it, let's get separated!"
The woman shut up when the men flicked her forehead.
"Ouch! Be more gentle!"
Ah, no, she didn't shut up.
"I'll be gentle tonight at the hotel. This boy's just a friend I made at a mahjong parlor."
"Ohh... Thanks for takin' care of Gen-chan."
The woman suddenly bowed, and then she furtively stepped closer to me.
"Now that I look at 'im closely, he's quite a cute boy! Gen-chan, this is bad, I'm seriously thinkin' yer a homo."
"Idiot. Yer the only one I like, Rikako. Whatever, let's go. Did ya find out about the place?"
"Can't do, Tokyo's subway's like spaghetti. If we get on the wrong train we could end up at Aomori or Los Angeles."
It was hard for me to keep up with that situation and I could only stand there.
That woman must be her lover or something like that, right? Well, he is good-looking, and as I could see at the mahjong club, his purse is also quite full.
"Ah, boy." The man suddenly talked to me again.
"Y-yes?"
"We wanna make the first visit to the shrine, do ya know where Suitengu shrine is? We're not really familiar with Tokyo..."
"Ah, y-yes."
I took out my cellphone and checked the route from Shinjuku's station to Suitengu-mae station.
"Do you know Soubu line's platform? Entering JR's ticket office from the East gate, uhm... If I remember correctly, the first entrance. Then you switch trains at Kinshi-cho..."
Even me, who had been living in Tokyo for and year and a half still got a little lost at Shinjuku Station, so I explained really carefully.
"Thanks a lot, boy!"
"Really, thanks!"
The weird couple waved goodbye and they walked the pedestrian crossing in front of the Alta, disappearing from my sight among the crowd as they reached the East gate.
With my hands on a railing, I took a deep breath. It felt like suddenly all the pores in my body were emitting tiredness.
Who was that man?
His mahjong abilities were from another dimension, but that wasn't the only thing that made me feel uneasy. The same happened with the woman; even if I had seen her for only five minutes, I felt a weird sensation in my chest. She reminded me of someone, but, who?
When I returned to Tenhou Club, the manager approached me with a gloomy expression and told me in a low voice:
"Uhm... Fujishima-san."
Don't call me 'san', I'm just a high school student...
"That man from before, he has been winning big at several parlors since this morning..."
Yondaime had formed a formidable web of contact between all the parlors he had been taking care of, so the information had spread in a short time. The manager lowered his voice again:
"But he's a new face, from Kansai. Just who was that man?"
"Mnn, I don't know. I'll report to Yondaime, for now."
It was then when I realized what the reason of my uneasiness was. Yondaime. When I saw their faces, for some reason I was reminded of Yondaime.
*
The next day, I went directly to Hirasaka-gumi's office to tell Yondaime about what had happened.
The office of the strongest gang of the zone is on the opposite side of the NEET Detective Agency and the station, across the commercial district. It's a small building; in the fist floor there's a fancy store where they sell various imported goods, and the group's office is on the third floor.
"Aniki, thanks for your hard work!"
"Thanks for your hard work!"
When I entered the office I was greeted with throaty voices from left to right, and the delinquents in black shirts with an emblem on the chest were aligned, bowing. Yondaime was sitting behind the desk across the glass coffee table.
Even after becoming their boss' sworn brother, the members of the group kept calling me Aniki. I'll never get used to that way of greeting, so I wish they'd stop doing it.
"We have to greet Alice-neesan for the New Year, what should we give her as a present?"
"If it's for Ane-san, a plushie would be perfect!"
They also refer to Alice as 'ane-san', a high hierarchy title towards yakuza women surpassed only by 'oyabun'. As for why do they respect the tiny detective so much, I really don't know.
"Let's give her a plushie of this year's animal from the chinese calendar!" "That's perfect!"
"Which animal is it this year?"
Yondaime slapped the desk just once making his followers shut up immediately, and spoke to me as he signaled me to get closer with his hand:
"I just spoke a little with Tenhou Club's manager. I guess I'll see the security camera's pictures soon but, what did that guy look like?"
When I physically described that 'Gen-chan' and told him about his behavior, Yondaime's expression darkened, and when I told him a young woman that looked like his lover or something like that was waiting for him and they called each other 'Gen-chan' and 'Rikako' respectively, Yondaime suddenly grabbed my collar.
"You sure? Did they really called each other that?"
"Eh, a-ah, y-yes..." That hurts... Why is he doing this all of a sudden? Does he know them?
At that moment the steel door cracked open, and one of the lackeys poked his head in.
"Sou-san, some weird guy came here saying that he has business with you--Ah, oi, you bastard!"
Apparently there was someone else behind the steel door, as the lackey looked behind him and then was pushed inside the office. A man in a white down jacket forced his way in.
"What the hell are you doing, you bastard?!"
"Do you even know where you are?!"
The lackeys inside the office suddenly got up upon seeing the intruder. I nearly cried out: It was the man from the day before. He looked around the interior of the office with his sleepy expression caused by his droopy eyes.
"I ain't interested in small fry, I wanna see Souichirou."
Ignoring the man's words, the black shirts went against him at the same time. What happened after that is difficult to explain. One by one, some lackeys were thrown against the wall, while others flew spectacularly, falling face first onto the sofas. I could barely see the man's movements. When I took a deep breath, feeling quite tense, none of the black shirts were left standing.
"...You bastard"
"Son of a..."
They were getting up to attack once again, but Yondaime's sharp voice resounded inside the office:
"Stop. Stay away from him."
The man snorted, stepping over the collapsed group members, and sat down on one of the sofas with his legs together.
"Yer men are rude and the office is dirty... I'm disappointed."
"Why are you here?", Yondaime asked, glaring at him, to which the man responded by pushing his lower lip out in a mocking way.
"Well, I came to see ya, Souichirou."
"Get lost."
"Hey, yer father is--"
"Just go."
With my jaw open, I could just look at Yondaime and the other man again and again, comparing their faces. When he noticed, Yondaime clicked his tongue and asked:
"This was the guy at the mahjong parlor?"
Words wouldn't come out of my mouth, so I just nodded. With a disdainful voice, Yondaime said:
"He's the third generation of the Hinamura family, Genichirou."
All the lackeys were ordered to exit the office, and only I was left in the middle of that strange father-son reunion. I sat next to Yondaime on the sofa and observed Hinamura Genichirou's face once again.
He didn't look like a business person at all, he really looked more like a comedian. But his abilities a while ago had been definitely the real thing, and his enthusiasm for mahjong was also legit as far as I had seen.
"Fujishima Narumi, aren't ya? Souichirou's sworn brother." Genichirou-san suddenly brought up the subject, making me shiver.
"Eh, ah..."
"You know about that?" Yondaime asked, sulking.
"I found out lotsa things about my cute only son. Did ya drink sake with him? Ya said ya hated that all that stuff but ya seem to be caught up on 'em, aren't ya?"
"Shut up. Where's mother? I heard you brought her along."
"Ahh, Rikako's at the hotel's spa. We walked a lot yesterday so she's tired."
...Wait a second. Wait a second! I can't ignore that!
"Yondaime... T-that woman is... y-your mom?"
"Ain't she a beauty? Souichirou looks a lot like his mother."
"H-how old is she?"
"Forty-three.", Yondaime answered.
"Eeeeeeeeeeh!?"
That's impossible. It can't be!
"Every night in bed I tell 'er how cute she is, that's why she keeps lookin' young."
"Please don't flaunt your sexual harassment in front of your own son."
"But if it wasn't for my sexual harassment Souichirou wouldn't have been born."
"The 'harassment' part wasn't needed!"
"Souichirou, this lil' brother of yours is a good tsukkomi. I should take him back home with ya so ya both can become a manzai duo and make yer debut at Yoshimoto."
"We're not a manzai duo! ...I-I mean, e-eeh?"
Take him back home?
I looked at Genichirou-san's face and averted my eyes from Yondaime's gloomy expression.
"Yer gonna have to start studying to inherit the business. Go back to Osaka."
"As if, you idiot."
"Yer room looks the same as ever. Every night, Rikako smells your sheets and cries."
"I don't wanna know about that!"
Yondaime lost his composure and replied violently, putting a regretful expression immediately afterwards.
"I was lyin' though."
"Shut up! Then don't say it!"
"But I was serious about ya returnin' home. Ya've played in Tokyo enough."
"I'm not playing."
"Oh~?"
A smile appeared on Genichirou-san's face, and I shuddered. He had the same look on his face he had that time at the mahjong parlor, when he showed his hand.
"How much was yer taxable income this last year?"
"Just the personal income?"
"Yeah."
"108, 000, 000."
I gasped without letting Yondaime and Genichirou-san hear me; I knew he earned quite a lot but that amount was beyond my imagination.
"See? Yer just playin'."
"So what? You can't take me by force. There's no way I'd lose against a sheetty old man like you."
"I'm an adult. I can't just go punchin' and dodgin' and throwin' people to the floor."
"You did all that just now."
"His tsukkomi timings are perfect! Yer little brother's really somethin'."
I covered my face with one of my hands. I subconsciously rebuked him... Are all people from Osaka really boke?
"Buy ya know..." Genichirou-san resumed his talk."Yer within the reach of my hands now, too, since yer not just playin' yakuza like a brat like ya've been doin' 'til now."
"What do you mean?"
"Ya have a company. Now yer also a part of the financial world."
I could almost hear the sound of my own back freezing. The malicious gaze that appeared on Genichirou-san's face was definitely a wolf gaze.
Like father, like son.
"Money is everythin' in this world. I can easily break into yer territory. Ya know what that means?"
*
At that time I didn't quite understand what he meant, and it wasn't until the next day that everything finally dawned on me.
Because of the third term's opening ceremony we only had classes in the morning, so after school I went to the bank, holding a heavy suitcase. By the end of the year several bills to pay had accumulated in Hirasaka-Gumi's account, so Yondaime asked me to take care of them as usual.
When I was waiting by the bank's box office, a door at my right opened and my breathing stopped for a second when I saw the person that came out.
Genichirou-san.
Behind him there was a suit-clad middle-aged man (most likely the manager), and upon seeing them, the employees of the bank bowed several times.
Genichirou-san noticed I was there, too. With a mysterious smile, he turned to the manager.
"Well, I leave it in yer hands."
"Understood, sir."
A bad feeling rushed up my throat. I stared at Genichirou-san as he crossed the automatic door, leaving. Why was he here? Was it because of something related to Yondaime? This was the main bank Yondaime used to manage his incomes after all.
An uneasiness feeling took over my body, and the words Genichirou-san had said the day before resurfaced in my mind. Money's everything in this world. Being at the reach of his hands.
I hurried back to Hirasaka-Gumi's office and noticed Yondaime was talking on the phone.
"...But! If you don't let me talk about it soon it'll become a problem, no, but... Yes, okay... No, in any case, please let me just ask one thing...What are you talking about? That's not it!"
Apparently the person on the other side of the line hung up, so Yondaime angrily threw the receiver back into the base. The lackeys inside the building passed their worried looks to me.
"...U-uhm, I went to the bank."
"Ah, sorry for the trouble." Saying that even when he was visibly angry, Yondaime rested his whole back on the back of the chair.
"I saw Genichirou-san at the bank. He looked like he was asking something to the manager."
When I said that, Yondaime suddenly stood up, but he sat down again and sighed.
"...I see. So it was indeed that damn bastard's doing."
"Did something happen?"
"They stopped financing me."
I gulped and sat on the back of a sofa.
Yondaime's event coordination company had started just last year and it had already successfully promoted various concerts, but it was still a growing business, so if they stopped financing it, it would go bankrupt.
"...Genichirou-san stopped it? Can he really do that?"
"Hinamura can do that, yes. He's the president of the chamber of commerce and industry, and he also has several branches in Tokyo."
I had completely underestimated the Hinamura family. I has just heard that they had a family stall-keeper business, so I had arbitrarily imagined a chain of small, old stores that had been barely subsisting for a while. But they were actually really far from that, they had a large-scale business company.
Yondaime had already set foot in the financial world when he started his own business, and that was the reason the bank had been providing him funding. And that money with overwhelming liquidity and an anonymous nature was actually connected with a blood relationship.
According to Pascal's theory, wherever a pressure is applied, it will be exerted evenly in all directions. And that had been proven by a phone call just now.
"This is my problem, so it has nothing to do with you. That man is a good-for-nothing so stay away from him. He's not related to the mahjong group either. You just focus on that."
After he said that, Yondaime kicked me out of the office. With my chest still filled with feelings of confusion, I walked to the exit of the building, when I heard the footsteps of a number of people walking down the stairs.
"Aniki! Please wait, Aniki!"
The giants in black T-shirts appeared one by one by the stairs. Between them there were two men even bigger than the rest, the longest standing members of the group, Rocky and Pole.
"Uhm, we don't know what just happened and we can't really ask Sou-san about it, could you please tell us?"
We were obstructing the way and we couldn't talk like that, so I guided them back upstairs.
"The man from yesterday is Yondaime's dad... Did you hear about that?"
"Yes!"
"Sou-san's father could kill us instantly!"
"He was really strong!" "He hit me too!"
"It looks like his dad wants to take him back to Osaka."
"Really!?" "We will expand to Osaka!" "Soon we will conquer the whole country!"
"No, it's not that... The company that Yondaime founded could collapse, do you understand? And if his other source of income disappears, Hirasaka-Gumi will have to be dissolved, too."
"That's impossible!" "We left our lives in Sou-san's hands when we drank sake with him, so nothing can get us apart!" "We have decided to follow him for the rest of our lives!"
The dumb Hirasaka-Gumi's lackeys were really optimistic this time, but reality was crueler than that.
"If the company bankrupts the income will become negative, generating debts. That man has the power to stop his financiation, so if Yondaime goes bankrupt, he'll disband the group so he won't cause trouble to all of you."
"S-sou-san..."
"For our sake, uuuh......"
"He disbanded the gang for our sake..."
Hey, he hasn't done it yet.
"Then--Then, Aniki!" Pole grabbed both of my arms."What shall we do!? We're stupid and don't understand, should we hit his father? We don't have a victory spirit, but we're willing to die."
The other lackeys got closer to me with serious looks on their faces. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed and I gently brushed Denchu's arms off my shoulders.
"I... don't know what to do either."
January's days are short, so when I reached Hanamaru it was already getting dark. The three guys from the NEET Detective Squad were together in the alley in front of the kitchen door.
"Vice-Admiral Fujishima, it's been a while! How about we visit Yasukuni Shrine for the New Year?"
Major was the first one who got up when he saw me, dressed in a military jacket with a camouflage pattern. Because of his short height and child-like face anyone would think he's an elementary schooler, but he's actually a university student who has already repeated a year. Because of his notorious military-mania, he calls me Vice-Admiral for some reason.
"If we're going to go to a military-related shrine, why don't we go to Tougo instead?" Tetsu-senpai interjected."The gods of gambling are there, if I remember correctly."
"Believing that His Excellence Tougou was merely lucky is plain wrong! His Excellence was a unique strategist who was able to miraculously obtain victory and returned alive, an ordinary lucky person would have died a hundred times in the sea--"
"I've had enough with visiting shrines..." Hiro-san interrupted Major's passionate speech."I even went to the shrine at Narita mountain. Each girl picked a different shrine..."
"You could just gather everyone at the same place. Koufuku-ji would be a good pick because of the Ashura statue. It would be a complete bloodbath."
"If I do something so dangerous, they could stab me to death."
The NEETs laugh irresponsibly. Exhausted, I sat on the beer crate we used as a seat, unable to keep up with their sense of humor.
Hiro-san glanced at me.
"What's wrong?"
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, thinking. Should I talk about that with them? And how much should I talk? It was a private matter so I couldn't talk about it easily, but I didn't want to carry all the burden alone either.
I chose my words carefully and started talking.
I told them I had met Yondaime's parents. I didn't tell them about the relationship between him and his dad, I just mentioned that Genichirou-san wanted to take Yondaime back by force, and about Hirasaka-gumi's difficult situation.
When I finished speaking, after a moment of silence, the first one who opened his mouth was Tetsu-senpai.
"...So, Yondaime's mother looks young and pretty, doesn't she?"
I raised my gaze and nodded faintly.
"So if Hiro seduces her..."
"No, even for me, seducing a friend's mother is a bit..."
"If he were to be successful, Hiro-san would become Yondaime's father. That would be incredible." Major added.
"If Yondaime would call me 'dad', I could just die from laughter."
I hid my face on my knees. I was an idiot for trying to consult with them. It was none of my business in the first place, Yondaime had said that himself, this was Hinamura family's problem.
I felt a hand on my back. When I raised my head, I saw Hiro-san smile, then Tetsu-senpai grinning with folded arms, and Major's ironic expression as he pushed his goggles up his forehead.
"...Come on, Narumi-kun, don't let something like this get you down." Hiro-san said.
"Eh...?"
"You don't intend to ignore Yondaime's family situation anyway, do you?"
I gulped, reflecting on Hiro-san's words. Of course, he was right. I didn't want to ignore his situation.
"If you need an excuse, I can give you one." Tetsu-senpai said."You're Yondaime's sworn brother. So, his family problems are your problems too."
I felt those words directly on my chest. I nodded and got up, brushing the dirt off my trousers.
"I'm going to see Alice."
"I'll find his whereabouts immediately." Alice said while incessantly typing on the keyboard."But, what are you going to do when you meet the Hinamuras?"
"I haven't decided yet." I frankly answered."I don't understand Genichirou-san's intentions yet."
"Hmm" Alice turned around."You mean that you don't quite believe Hinamura Genichirou's words about coming to Tokyo to take his son back."
I nodded.
"It's just that, pressuring Hirasaka-gumi and the company to go bankrupt won't make Yondaime want to inherit the family business. Even if he ends up covered in debts, he definitely won't cast his pride aside."
"I agree."
"I don't understand why Genichirou-san came here in the first place. He wanted Yondaime to go back to Osaka from the start, why did he come to Tokyo just now? I think he's hiding something. Maybe he came here to negotiate something in person."
If that was the case, he would want to be in a favorable position beforehand.
Alice shook her shoulders, chuckling.
"The true reason they came to Tokyo just know... I already know that reason, more or less."
"E-eh?"
"He told you about that himself. He came to visit the shrine."
I blinked a few times. Visiting the shrine? He had told me about that, yes, but, what did she mean by saying that was his true reason?
"Forget about that for now. I don't have enough proof so I can't give you that information. About the hotel where they're staying..."
Alice's hands slid over the keyboard, and the monitors around the bed on the upper right side blinked. Data from guests staying at Tokyo's hotels were obtained by cracking.
Alice mentioned a hotel in Akasaka.
"Room number 3301. Do you want me to find out his cellphone number too?"
"Ah, no, it's okay. I'll go there directly without saying anything."
"Hmm. Because the price would be higher if I found out a cellphone number. Wise decision."
Even if it was a favor to her assistant, she mercilessly charged for her investigation.
"My detective work ends here. Do you best for your sworn brother's sake. Yondaime is my favorite client, so if he goes bankrupt it will be a problem."
I opened my mouth, without knowing if I should say it or not.
"No--Alice, I think you can cooperate a bit more."
A hint of perplexity appeared on her big, round eyes.
"Why? I don't have a right to get involved beyond this."
| ← Ch. 55 | Ch. 57 → |