Fic: (HnG) Season of Black Chrysanthemums: Spring - Part 3/4
Title: Season of Black Chrysanthemums: Spring
Author: corbeaun
Fandom: Hikaru no Go
Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go belongs to Obata Takeshi and Hotta Yumi.
Summary: Years after his life fell apart, Hikaru is finally making his way back to the world of the pros. But there are some figures from his past he cannot ignore. Yakuza AU. (Sequel to "Winter")
Much thanks to therhoda for reading over the old Part 3.
Spring
Part 3
* * *
"What the hell?"
Hikaru stared in shock as he took in the mess that was his corner of the dorm. His heavy work-boots thumped to a stop before his bed. He had just gotten off the job.
Grid-lined papers had been tossed aside onto the bed, and the backpack at the foot of the mattress was open - empty. He dashed to it, throwing open the zipper the rest of the way and looked inside. But it was no use; his first impression had been correct. The goban that his grandfather had given him all those years ago and that he had stored in between old recorded matches with Sai...was indeed gone. And worst of all, the thieves had also found the hidden pocket.
Touya Akira's cell phone was also missing.
A hand landed heavily on his shoulder. "Shindo. What's all this?"
"They took everything," he heard himself say, dully. He didn't look up from the empty backpack.
The hand tightened around his arm and shook him, hard. "Hey. Hang in there, kid. I'm getting the manager, alright?"
Hikaru shook off Tsubaki's hand, and sat down on the edge of his bed. Other men were entering the dormitory now, and he heard the sudden drop in conversation as they saw his ransacked corner. Unable to deal with their pity or, worse, their derision, he resolutely began to pick up the tossed aside kifu and stuff them into the backpack. There was also some socks flung about, but the duffle bag at the head of the mattress had been mostly left alone once the thieves had discovered it only contained old clothes.
Then suddenly, from behind, he heard the sounds of violent swearing and of someone being dragged against their will. Hikaru paused, then turned away from his bed and towards the dormitory entrance. It was old Nose, not at all wearing his usual apathy as Tsubaki twisted his arms behind him and he was frog-marched towards Hikaru. One of Tsubaki's friends followed close behind, a black trash bag dangling from his hand.
Tsubaki tossed Nose onto the floor at Hikaru's feet. "Didn't see the manager. But look what I found instead."
The large, burly friend opened the bag and spilled its contents onto the floor beside Itoh's usually silent partner. Straight-back razors, a watch, a few mid-priced cologne bottles, a pair of cufflinks.
And a cell phone. Hikaru picked it up. It was his.
A hard, tense knot at the base of his stomach abruptly unclenched.
Only then did he notice the low, angry rumbling that had begun to sound from the on-looking men. "I thought I lost my watch," someone growled. Others commented on articles they had also thought misplaced. The crowd around old Nase closed in. Nose had stopped swearing and was starting to look extremely nervous.
"Hey," he raised his hands pleadingly, "it wasn't me. Itoh tricked me too, you guys. He's cut out and palmed all this on me."
Tsubaki blocked the man's path to the door. "Shindo must have pissed you off good, huh. And you got careless. You and that weasel Itoh both. Come on, Shindo," he gestured to Hikaru. "Let the other guys talk to Nose for a while." He pulled Hikaru away from the crowd and out the dorm.
On the stairs, Hikaru suddenly grabbed Tsubaki by the arm. He couldn't believe he had momentarily forgotten. "The goban!" he said. "Did you find the goban?"
The large man frowned. "What was there was in the bag. Itoh might have already pawned it." At the misery Hikaru couldn't help but show on his face when he heard those words, Tsubaki grunted, "But we can ask around the nearby shops and see if it's there."
But in the end, after hours of looking into numerous pawnshops, there was nothing.
They were coming out of yet another dead end, and the night sky was getting progressively lighter. They would need to be at work in a few hours. Hikaru put a hand on the seat of Tsubaki's motorcycle, stopping the man's terse explanation of where they were headed next. "Hey, Tsubaki," he said quietly. "Let's stop now." The large man looked uncomfortable, obviously wanting to end the search but not wanting to admit it. "Hey, it's okay," Hikaru assured him, and grinned to show he meant it.
The other man only looked at him, then patted him brusquely on the back. Then he drove them both back to the company dorms, not saying a word the entire route.
And it really was okay, Hikaru finally decided in the days that followed. Itoh had never been found, but old Nose had had to answer for his mistakes. At the least, neither was going to be bothering Hikaru for a while.
Then only a few mornings after the incident, Hikaru found a black go stone wedged between his mattress and the wall. It was of good, heavyweight glass. The slick, familiar curve of it between his fingers brought back all the times he had played against Sai. "It's just an object," he told himself fiercely. He remembered all the games Sai had played, was fighting hard to be a professional go player again, and that was what was important.
Yet somehow, he still found himself carrying that stone in his pocket wherever he went.
The cell phone he had rolled inside a tube of socks and hidden in the duffle bag.
Of the two, the cell phone bothered him more. And in a different way.
Hikaru would be the first to admit reflection was not his strong point - Akari would gladly attest to that all the way north in Sapporo. But he couldn't ignore that devastating drop in his gut when he had discovered that the only way to contact his one-time rival in go was gone. And when he finally had that cell phone back in his hands again, how the relief had nearly overwhelmed him and he had nearly forgotten that the goban he had played Sai on was still missing.
Hikaru had to be honest to himself.
There was no point of keeping the cell phone unless he intended to call Touya with it. And Hikaru realized that at the very least, he needed to tell the other man that everything was on track and that he was on the definite road to being a pro again. He had also promised Touya a few games.
Playing against Yashiro almost every other afternoon was, lately, making Hikaru unaccountably antsy.
So now, all Hikaru was looking for was an excuse to call Touya and make good on that promise.
The chance came sooner than expected.
*
Tsubaki looked up from the card game when Hikaru came in and sat down on a nearby bunk bed.
After that debacle with old Nose, the other man had insisted Hikaru switch to an empty spot closer to his own in the company dormitory. Hikaru, not really caring one way or another, had complied. He usually only slept a few hours in the dorms anyway - most of his after-work hours were spent in Osaka's downtown go salons. And he now knew to hide his valuables better.
"Hey," Tsubaki frowned, "Shouldn't you be thrashing Kiyoko around this time?" Tsubaki had been uncommonly gleeful ever since Hikaru had started to play Yashiro regularly, and beat him just as often.
Hikaru shrugged. "He said he couldn't stay long. Some exam tomorrow or something." He crawled onto his bunk bed and reached for the duffle bag he used as a pillow. From behind him he heard Tsubaki snort derisively: Hikaru had since learned that Tsubaki didn't exactly hold Yashiro's decision to continue college in high esteem. Then the rest of the men in the card game called impatiently for Tsubaki to put his mind back to the cards, and there was no further response from that corner.
Left to himself finally, Hikaru unzipped the duffle bag and, after hesitating only briefly, reached inside a roll of socks and took out the small, slim cell phone. His fingers clenched involuntarily around the slick plastic, before he quickly palmed it. Hikaru glanced around the crowded dormitory, but it seemed no one was paying him any attention. He climbed out from his bunk bed and walked out of the room. A shout went up behind him as someone folded in the card game. The noise became muffled and then faded altogether as Hikaru descended the stairs and exited the building. Outside, the nighttime air still stung with the chill of Osaka in springtime. There was no one on the deserted streets, the company dormitory being based on the far-off fringes of the ever-expanding city.
Hikaru walked into a small, nearby alley. Only then did he take his hand out of his jacket pocket and flip open the cell phone. He wasn't at all surprised to see it was still in service, but he was relieved nonetheless.
Actually, that excuse about Yashiro had only been a half-truth. Despite his upcoming exam, the other man had offered to stay for another game, been eager to, in matter of fact. But Hikaru had declined. His mind hadn't been on the game, not since he'd caught a news report from Tokyo when he'd passed some televisions in the front of an electronics store while on his way to the go salon.
He had been late to the match with Yashiro, because he had stayed, pressed against the store's showcase window as - from the screens of a row of brand-new TVs - the perfectly-coiffed reporter accounted the recent events in Tokyo, while police in riot gear lined up behind her. Opposite the police, grim-faced and dark-suited men stood stoically as they waited to attend the funeral of a suddenly slain prominent yakuza boss. The white ribbons pinned to their suit jackets defiantly told the world of their grieving. Hikaru had looked; he didn't see Touya Akira.
Now huddled against the alley wall, he waited.
The cell phone rang twice before he heard it picked up. "Touya," he said instantly.
A woman's voice answered. "Who is this?"
For a moment, Hikaru gaped wordlessly. He felt a strange sensation in his stomach, as if he'd eaten one too many bowls of ramen. He swallowed. "I...It's Shindo. Touya - he gave me this number."
There was a pause. Then the woman said coolly, "Please hold."
In the background, Hikaru heard the rustling of cloth, and a few low, indecipherable murmurs. Standing there in the tiny alley, huddled against the nighttime chill, Hikaru felt unaccountably flushed. It was obvious that he had interrupted a night-time rendezvous between Touya and this...woman.
It made his head ache. Really, Touya? he thought incredulously. It didn't seem...possible.
But just then, Touya's voice came to the phone. "Shindo?" That was his voice alright.
"Hey, Touya," he said stiffly.
There was an awkward silence on the phone. Then -
"How've you -"
"Where are you -"
They both stopped. Then Touya's voice came politely from the speaker. "You go first, Shindo."
"Yeah, well, it's nothing really." Even though he knew Touya couldn't see him, he shrugged. He forced his voice to be casual. "Just saw a report over where you are, thought I'd see if you're okay."
"You mean the...funeral?" When Hikaru grunted an affirmative, Touya answered, "The men that were involved are not part of my...federation." His voice sounded slightly amused. "Although the event may give me and my business friends an advantage." But he didn't elucidate, sensing perhaps that Hikaru really did not want to know. There was a short pause. "Where are you now, Shindo?"
"Somewhere in Osaka."
"I see." He knew Touya was thinking of the Kansai Go Institute, just as he was. "And...everything is going well?"
"Fine. Found someone to play against." Hikaru wasn't exactly sure why he was speaking about Yashiro to Touya, but he continued anyway. He heard the small satisfaction in his own voice. "He's strong, and he's helping me prepare for the insei exam."
"That's...good." The hesitation in Touya's voice was unlike him, like he couldn't decide on the right word.
"Yeah," Hikaru said determinedly. He glanced down at his wristwatch, saw it was a quarter past eleven. He needed to get up at five the next morning. "Look," he said, feeling unaccountably relieved, "I gotta go."
"Shindo, wait!"
"...what?" he answered reluctantly.
"Tell me where you are. You still owe me some games."
Hikaru felt his heart stutter. "You're coming to Osaka?"
"I have business to take care of there. I'll be in Osaka in a few days. So just give me a meeting place."
For a moment, Hikaru was silent as he considered. He was reluctant to bring a yakuza-connected Touya Akira into Yoshikawa-sensei's go salon. He owed the old man too much to do that to him. 'Business', yeah, right; Hikaru really didn't want to know what 'business' Touya was involved in now.
"Let's meet at the Kani Doraku Crab," he said finally. The six and a half meter mechanical crab in front of the seafood restaurant was one of the most famous landmarks in Osaka, and was hard to miss. Besides, Hikaru figured he might as well get another free meal out of the other man.
Touya seemed to know his thoughts. "I take it that crab will be on the menu?" Hikaru heard the slight smile in his voice. "Though I'd expected you to go for the Kinryu Ramen."
"Nah," Hikaru grinned. Though he had been tempted. "Crab is more expensive."
"And I'm paying," Touya rightly concluded.
Hikaru replied brightly, "Hey, thanks for offering."
He heard an exasperated exhale on the other side of the phone. Then, quietly, "Shindo, I'm glad you called."
"Yeah." He cleared his throat, feeling uncomfortable. "Look, I really gotta go. You have my number. Talk to you later." And he quickly cut off the connection before Touya could say anything else.
He almost expected the phone to ring back immediately. But the bit of plastic remained quiet in his hand. For a brief moment, Hikaru felt irrationally disappointed. Then he shrugged, turned the cell phone off and forced it back into his jacket pocket. When he climbed back up the stairs to the dormitory, he found the card game still going on riotously. No one, not even Tsubaki, seemed to have noticed his brief absence. He climbed onto his bunk bed and slipped the cell phone back into the tube of socks in the duffle bag.
With everything safely put away, Hikaru lay down on the mattress and fell fast asleep.
* * *
Ichikawa Harumi studied Akira as he spoke on the phone. Looking at him, she was suddenly reminded of how young he was. When she was his age, she had been working for his father for just under a year. In contrast, in a few months' time, Touya Akira would have nominally been the head of the 800-member Touya-gumi for exactly seven years.
"You have business in Osaka in a few days?" she said, when the phone conversation ended. She kept her voice casual. "I didn't know that." Which she should, being his secretary and, for all practical purposes, his second-in-command.
Akira's voice was firm and unashamed. "Yes."
She didn't look at him, and instead started dressing. This was not a conversation she wanted to have while still naked and in bed with her young boss.
"This is an interesting development." She snagged her bra from the top of the mussed coverlets. "In a few days you're supposed to meet with Ohba to renegotiate the Nagasaki deal." She calmly fastened her undergarment and put on her blouse. "He'll have bigger expectations, now that one of the Yamaguchi is dead." Nothing she was saying should be any surprise to Akira.
In fact, 'bigger expectations' was an understatement - Ohba would certainly be looking to renege on the deal altogether.
Thanks to that surprising little show on New Year's Eve, Akira had secured the other oyabun's promise to return to him a certain property in Macau in exchange for simply introducing Ohba to some friends in Korea. Under the leadership of Akira's late father, the Touya-gumi had been slowly establishing connections outside Japan. The casino in Macau had been one of the prizes that had been split to the other Sumiyoshi oyabun in the brief period of confusion between Touya Kouyo's murder and Touya Akira's succession. From what rumors had reached her at the top of the Touya-gumi, however, it seemed that the place was bringing more trouble than its worth to Ohba: the local Chinese Triad had allowed the casino to Touya Kouyo and did not appreciate the new foreign interloper. But Ohba was not a man to give away anything that was remotely of value.
Ichikawa Harumi had counted on that.
But somehow, at the very last minute, Akira had ducked out of having to arrange the complete transfer of narcotics for Ohba.
Ohba had been tricked into parting with the casino for a mere pittance - the names of certain movers in the Korean underworld. And the other oyabun had had to settle for that: no other group in the Sumiyoshi federation had the extensive foreign contacts that the Touya-gumi had cultivated as a legacy of Akira's late father. And at any other time, a Sumiyoshi oyabun going outside the Sumiyoshi federation for contacts would have been foolish and useless to the extreme. Most Japanese crime syndicates were not known for their cooperative nature.
But now that one of the four top shatei - or "younger brothers" - to the Yamaguchi godfather was dead, the tight, pyramidal hierarchy of Japan's largest crime organization would prove its weakness. It was an unfortunate limitation of the Yamaguchi-gumi that came to light whenever something happened to anyone high enough in its rigid, feudal hierarchy. In the current case, the murdered shatei had been the prime mover of the drug trade in that organization; with him gone so suddenly, it would take a while for the Yamaguchi godfather to appoint someone new. In the meantime, there would be certain chaos on the streets among the petty dealers. Enough for an ambitious oyabun from a more modern and less hierarchical organization to take advantage of. And Ohba had always looked to make a name for himself.
"In any case," she concluded, getting out of bed and tugging on her skirt, "I still say we should move the drugs for him, and take a share of the profits. Expansion is a good idea, after all."
When she turned around fully dressed, she caught Akira looking thoughtfully at her. The cell phone he still cradled in his hand. "If you're worried about the negotiations tomorrow, Ichikawa-san," he replied, "you shouldn't be. I already made agreements with the other Sumiyoshi oyabun: no one wants a potential turf war between the Yamaguchi and us. If it becomes a problem -" Akira's eyes were clear and straightforward, "we will eliminate it." He paused, and then he smiled slightly. "So whatever happens tomorrow, the result will be in my favor."
She stared at the boy. He looked guileless as usual, even as for the first time he spoke of cold, premeditated murder.
She had forgotten how ruthless all the Touya men could get, especially when they truly wanted something. The Macau casino had been a sore point of contention between Akira and Ohba ever since Akira took over the Touya-gumi. And since that party at New Year's Eve, Akira seemed to have developed an even greater enmity for the other man. She almost felt sorry for Ohba.
But there was another pressing concern on her mind.
"When did you and the others come to this agreement?" she asked slowly. She should not have had to ask.
Naked, and with only a bed sheet covering his lap, Akira somehow managed to look both composed and professional. "I apologize, Ichikawa-san, I meant to tell you tonight." The tone was not at all pointed, but she flushed nonetheless: it was she who had grabbed him as soon as the bedroom door closed. "The conference was brief and over the phone."
Standing in the darkness of the bedroom, she looked at him closely. He spoke as if he never intended to hide any of his doings from her.
Lately, it had been disturbing her how easily Akira was managing the affairs of the Touya-gumi on his own. Before, he often left things to her. In the heavily male-dominated world of the yakuza, whatever power a woman like her amassed had to be cloaked in the more traditional feminine roles of prostitute, mistress, or wife. There were certainly some women oyabun, but they never openly showed their hands; in her position as secretary, Ichikawa Harumi had been as blatant as possible. It helped that the nominal successor of the Touya-gumi had, until now, hung back from handling the ostentatiously criminal aspects of his role. But ever since winter - ever since she'd started sleeping with him in fact - Akira hadn't really relied on her.
And bedding him had seemed like such a good idea at the time.
Akira was regarding her now with a concerned frown on his face. His cheeks were still unshadowed and boyishly smooth, even at this late hour of the night. He had inherited his mother's fair skin and dark, heavy eyelashes. Harumi had always had a weakness for a pretty face.
It was too bad that lovely, gentle-spoken Touya Akiko had been with her husband when the assassination occurred.
"Ichikawa-san?" he asked cautiously.
Moving swiftly, she crossed over to his side of the bed and took his chin in her hand. She kept the kiss short and almost chaste. "You have an early morning tomorrow, Akira-kun," she smiled. "I’ll let you rest."
Akira didn't protest, and seemed almost relieved to let her go. As she walked out and closed the bedroom door behind her, Harumi brooded over this continual ambivalence of Akira's towards sex. If she could only figure out why...
Their current arrangement was extremely unbeneficial to her. So far, the only exploitable sentimentality from the arrangement was...hers.
She truly liked Akira and, if circumstances had been different, she suspected she would have gladly played the role of the adoring older sister - who occasionally had more than sisterly thoughts.
But she had a position to secure, and, apparently now, not enough time to do it. It won't be long before Akira tried to go over her head again, like he had today. And she would lose her authority all too easily, once that started. Ichikawa Harumi had no intention of being reduced to being only a yakuza's mistress - no matter how pretty the face.
As her chauffeured car took her out of the sprawling Meijiro mansion that Akira had kept after the death of his father, she suddenly recalled where she had heard the name Shindo before.
"Of course," she murmured to herself.
Shindo Hikaru? she had greeted that young man with at the New Year's Eve party.
It had been disturbing how much trust Akira had placed in him. After that surprising upset for Ohba, she had even sent a few of her loyal and, more importantly, discrete men to follow Shindo Hikaru after he left the hotel. At first meeting him, though, she had been nearly certain of Ohba's victory in his little bet. The young man had looked more like a busboy than someone who knew how to handle a goban; she hadn't even heard Akira speak of him before that night. But it made sense, if Akira and Shindo had known each other beforehand - most likely from Akira's days as a young professional go player.
And hadn't Akira and Shindo vanished together, right before midnight? In fact, now that she considered it, that night was also the first and only time Akira had grabbed her and initiated the sex.
It certainly cast a new light on Akira's ambivalence of his relationship with her.
You should have considered this sooner, she told herself. But she hadn't, not until she heard Akira's tone of voice over the phone as he spoke to his...friend.
Well, at least this was a development she could work with.
"Is something the matter, boss?" her driver asked.
She realized she was chuckling quietly, and stopped. "No," she assured the burly man in front. "Everything is fine."
Indeed, everything needed only a few necessary adjustments.
Outside the darkened car windows, the city of neon-lit Tokyo flashed by. Ichikawa Harumi leaned into the back seat and enjoyed the ride back to her private, penthouse apartment.
* * *
Part 4
Index
Author: corbeaun
Fandom: Hikaru no Go
Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go belongs to Obata Takeshi and Hotta Yumi.
Summary: Years after his life fell apart, Hikaru is finally making his way back to the world of the pros. But there are some figures from his past he cannot ignore. Yakuza AU. (Sequel to "Winter")
Much thanks to therhoda for reading over the old Part 3.
Spring
Part 3
* * *
"What the hell?"
Hikaru stared in shock as he took in the mess that was his corner of the dorm. His heavy work-boots thumped to a stop before his bed. He had just gotten off the job.
Grid-lined papers had been tossed aside onto the bed, and the backpack at the foot of the mattress was open - empty. He dashed to it, throwing open the zipper the rest of the way and looked inside. But it was no use; his first impression had been correct. The goban that his grandfather had given him all those years ago and that he had stored in between old recorded matches with Sai...was indeed gone. And worst of all, the thieves had also found the hidden pocket.
Touya Akira's cell phone was also missing.
A hand landed heavily on his shoulder. "Shindo. What's all this?"
"They took everything," he heard himself say, dully. He didn't look up from the empty backpack.
The hand tightened around his arm and shook him, hard. "Hey. Hang in there, kid. I'm getting the manager, alright?"
Hikaru shook off Tsubaki's hand, and sat down on the edge of his bed. Other men were entering the dormitory now, and he heard the sudden drop in conversation as they saw his ransacked corner. Unable to deal with their pity or, worse, their derision, he resolutely began to pick up the tossed aside kifu and stuff them into the backpack. There was also some socks flung about, but the duffle bag at the head of the mattress had been mostly left alone once the thieves had discovered it only contained old clothes.
Then suddenly, from behind, he heard the sounds of violent swearing and of someone being dragged against their will. Hikaru paused, then turned away from his bed and towards the dormitory entrance. It was old Nose, not at all wearing his usual apathy as Tsubaki twisted his arms behind him and he was frog-marched towards Hikaru. One of Tsubaki's friends followed close behind, a black trash bag dangling from his hand.
Tsubaki tossed Nose onto the floor at Hikaru's feet. "Didn't see the manager. But look what I found instead."
The large, burly friend opened the bag and spilled its contents onto the floor beside Itoh's usually silent partner. Straight-back razors, a watch, a few mid-priced cologne bottles, a pair of cufflinks.
And a cell phone. Hikaru picked it up. It was his.
A hard, tense knot at the base of his stomach abruptly unclenched.
Only then did he notice the low, angry rumbling that had begun to sound from the on-looking men. "I thought I lost my watch," someone growled. Others commented on articles they had also thought misplaced. The crowd around old Nase closed in. Nose had stopped swearing and was starting to look extremely nervous.
"Hey," he raised his hands pleadingly, "it wasn't me. Itoh tricked me too, you guys. He's cut out and palmed all this on me."
Tsubaki blocked the man's path to the door. "Shindo must have pissed you off good, huh. And you got careless. You and that weasel Itoh both. Come on, Shindo," he gestured to Hikaru. "Let the other guys talk to Nose for a while." He pulled Hikaru away from the crowd and out the dorm.
On the stairs, Hikaru suddenly grabbed Tsubaki by the arm. He couldn't believe he had momentarily forgotten. "The goban!" he said. "Did you find the goban?"
The large man frowned. "What was there was in the bag. Itoh might have already pawned it." At the misery Hikaru couldn't help but show on his face when he heard those words, Tsubaki grunted, "But we can ask around the nearby shops and see if it's there."
But in the end, after hours of looking into numerous pawnshops, there was nothing.
They were coming out of yet another dead end, and the night sky was getting progressively lighter. They would need to be at work in a few hours. Hikaru put a hand on the seat of Tsubaki's motorcycle, stopping the man's terse explanation of where they were headed next. "Hey, Tsubaki," he said quietly. "Let's stop now." The large man looked uncomfortable, obviously wanting to end the search but not wanting to admit it. "Hey, it's okay," Hikaru assured him, and grinned to show he meant it.
The other man only looked at him, then patted him brusquely on the back. Then he drove them both back to the company dorms, not saying a word the entire route.
And it really was okay, Hikaru finally decided in the days that followed. Itoh had never been found, but old Nose had had to answer for his mistakes. At the least, neither was going to be bothering Hikaru for a while.
Then only a few mornings after the incident, Hikaru found a black go stone wedged between his mattress and the wall. It was of good, heavyweight glass. The slick, familiar curve of it between his fingers brought back all the times he had played against Sai. "It's just an object," he told himself fiercely. He remembered all the games Sai had played, was fighting hard to be a professional go player again, and that was what was important.
Yet somehow, he still found himself carrying that stone in his pocket wherever he went.
The cell phone he had rolled inside a tube of socks and hidden in the duffle bag.
Of the two, the cell phone bothered him more. And in a different way.
Hikaru would be the first to admit reflection was not his strong point - Akari would gladly attest to that all the way north in Sapporo. But he couldn't ignore that devastating drop in his gut when he had discovered that the only way to contact his one-time rival in go was gone. And when he finally had that cell phone back in his hands again, how the relief had nearly overwhelmed him and he had nearly forgotten that the goban he had played Sai on was still missing.
Hikaru had to be honest to himself.
There was no point of keeping the cell phone unless he intended to call Touya with it. And Hikaru realized that at the very least, he needed to tell the other man that everything was on track and that he was on the definite road to being a pro again. He had also promised Touya a few games.
Playing against Yashiro almost every other afternoon was, lately, making Hikaru unaccountably antsy.
So now, all Hikaru was looking for was an excuse to call Touya and make good on that promise.
The chance came sooner than expected.
*
Tsubaki looked up from the card game when Hikaru came in and sat down on a nearby bunk bed.
After that debacle with old Nose, the other man had insisted Hikaru switch to an empty spot closer to his own in the company dormitory. Hikaru, not really caring one way or another, had complied. He usually only slept a few hours in the dorms anyway - most of his after-work hours were spent in Osaka's downtown go salons. And he now knew to hide his valuables better.
"Hey," Tsubaki frowned, "Shouldn't you be thrashing Kiyoko around this time?" Tsubaki had been uncommonly gleeful ever since Hikaru had started to play Yashiro regularly, and beat him just as often.
Hikaru shrugged. "He said he couldn't stay long. Some exam tomorrow or something." He crawled onto his bunk bed and reached for the duffle bag he used as a pillow. From behind him he heard Tsubaki snort derisively: Hikaru had since learned that Tsubaki didn't exactly hold Yashiro's decision to continue college in high esteem. Then the rest of the men in the card game called impatiently for Tsubaki to put his mind back to the cards, and there was no further response from that corner.
Left to himself finally, Hikaru unzipped the duffle bag and, after hesitating only briefly, reached inside a roll of socks and took out the small, slim cell phone. His fingers clenched involuntarily around the slick plastic, before he quickly palmed it. Hikaru glanced around the crowded dormitory, but it seemed no one was paying him any attention. He climbed out from his bunk bed and walked out of the room. A shout went up behind him as someone folded in the card game. The noise became muffled and then faded altogether as Hikaru descended the stairs and exited the building. Outside, the nighttime air still stung with the chill of Osaka in springtime. There was no one on the deserted streets, the company dormitory being based on the far-off fringes of the ever-expanding city.
Hikaru walked into a small, nearby alley. Only then did he take his hand out of his jacket pocket and flip open the cell phone. He wasn't at all surprised to see it was still in service, but he was relieved nonetheless.
Actually, that excuse about Yashiro had only been a half-truth. Despite his upcoming exam, the other man had offered to stay for another game, been eager to, in matter of fact. But Hikaru had declined. His mind hadn't been on the game, not since he'd caught a news report from Tokyo when he'd passed some televisions in the front of an electronics store while on his way to the go salon.
He had been late to the match with Yashiro, because he had stayed, pressed against the store's showcase window as - from the screens of a row of brand-new TVs - the perfectly-coiffed reporter accounted the recent events in Tokyo, while police in riot gear lined up behind her. Opposite the police, grim-faced and dark-suited men stood stoically as they waited to attend the funeral of a suddenly slain prominent yakuza boss. The white ribbons pinned to their suit jackets defiantly told the world of their grieving. Hikaru had looked; he didn't see Touya Akira.
Now huddled against the alley wall, he waited.
The cell phone rang twice before he heard it picked up. "Touya," he said instantly.
A woman's voice answered. "Who is this?"
For a moment, Hikaru gaped wordlessly. He felt a strange sensation in his stomach, as if he'd eaten one too many bowls of ramen. He swallowed. "I...It's Shindo. Touya - he gave me this number."
There was a pause. Then the woman said coolly, "Please hold."
In the background, Hikaru heard the rustling of cloth, and a few low, indecipherable murmurs. Standing there in the tiny alley, huddled against the nighttime chill, Hikaru felt unaccountably flushed. It was obvious that he had interrupted a night-time rendezvous between Touya and this...woman.
It made his head ache. Really, Touya? he thought incredulously. It didn't seem...possible.
But just then, Touya's voice came to the phone. "Shindo?" That was his voice alright.
"Hey, Touya," he said stiffly.
There was an awkward silence on the phone. Then -
"How've you -"
"Where are you -"
They both stopped. Then Touya's voice came politely from the speaker. "You go first, Shindo."
"Yeah, well, it's nothing really." Even though he knew Touya couldn't see him, he shrugged. He forced his voice to be casual. "Just saw a report over where you are, thought I'd see if you're okay."
"You mean the...funeral?" When Hikaru grunted an affirmative, Touya answered, "The men that were involved are not part of my...federation." His voice sounded slightly amused. "Although the event may give me and my business friends an advantage." But he didn't elucidate, sensing perhaps that Hikaru really did not want to know. There was a short pause. "Where are you now, Shindo?"
"Somewhere in Osaka."
"I see." He knew Touya was thinking of the Kansai Go Institute, just as he was. "And...everything is going well?"
"Fine. Found someone to play against." Hikaru wasn't exactly sure why he was speaking about Yashiro to Touya, but he continued anyway. He heard the small satisfaction in his own voice. "He's strong, and he's helping me prepare for the insei exam."
"That's...good." The hesitation in Touya's voice was unlike him, like he couldn't decide on the right word.
"Yeah," Hikaru said determinedly. He glanced down at his wristwatch, saw it was a quarter past eleven. He needed to get up at five the next morning. "Look," he said, feeling unaccountably relieved, "I gotta go."
"Shindo, wait!"
"...what?" he answered reluctantly.
"Tell me where you are. You still owe me some games."
Hikaru felt his heart stutter. "You're coming to Osaka?"
"I have business to take care of there. I'll be in Osaka in a few days. So just give me a meeting place."
For a moment, Hikaru was silent as he considered. He was reluctant to bring a yakuza-connected Touya Akira into Yoshikawa-sensei's go salon. He owed the old man too much to do that to him. 'Business', yeah, right; Hikaru really didn't want to know what 'business' Touya was involved in now.
"Let's meet at the Kani Doraku Crab," he said finally. The six and a half meter mechanical crab in front of the seafood restaurant was one of the most famous landmarks in Osaka, and was hard to miss. Besides, Hikaru figured he might as well get another free meal out of the other man.
Touya seemed to know his thoughts. "I take it that crab will be on the menu?" Hikaru heard the slight smile in his voice. "Though I'd expected you to go for the Kinryu Ramen."
"Nah," Hikaru grinned. Though he had been tempted. "Crab is more expensive."
"And I'm paying," Touya rightly concluded.
Hikaru replied brightly, "Hey, thanks for offering."
He heard an exasperated exhale on the other side of the phone. Then, quietly, "Shindo, I'm glad you called."
"Yeah." He cleared his throat, feeling uncomfortable. "Look, I really gotta go. You have my number. Talk to you later." And he quickly cut off the connection before Touya could say anything else.
He almost expected the phone to ring back immediately. But the bit of plastic remained quiet in his hand. For a brief moment, Hikaru felt irrationally disappointed. Then he shrugged, turned the cell phone off and forced it back into his jacket pocket. When he climbed back up the stairs to the dormitory, he found the card game still going on riotously. No one, not even Tsubaki, seemed to have noticed his brief absence. He climbed onto his bunk bed and slipped the cell phone back into the tube of socks in the duffle bag.
With everything safely put away, Hikaru lay down on the mattress and fell fast asleep.
* * *
Ichikawa Harumi studied Akira as he spoke on the phone. Looking at him, she was suddenly reminded of how young he was. When she was his age, she had been working for his father for just under a year. In contrast, in a few months' time, Touya Akira would have nominally been the head of the 800-member Touya-gumi for exactly seven years.
"You have business in Osaka in a few days?" she said, when the phone conversation ended. She kept her voice casual. "I didn't know that." Which she should, being his secretary and, for all practical purposes, his second-in-command.
Akira's voice was firm and unashamed. "Yes."
She didn't look at him, and instead started dressing. This was not a conversation she wanted to have while still naked and in bed with her young boss.
"This is an interesting development." She snagged her bra from the top of the mussed coverlets. "In a few days you're supposed to meet with Ohba to renegotiate the Nagasaki deal." She calmly fastened her undergarment and put on her blouse. "He'll have bigger expectations, now that one of the Yamaguchi is dead." Nothing she was saying should be any surprise to Akira.
In fact, 'bigger expectations' was an understatement - Ohba would certainly be looking to renege on the deal altogether.
Thanks to that surprising little show on New Year's Eve, Akira had secured the other oyabun's promise to return to him a certain property in Macau in exchange for simply introducing Ohba to some friends in Korea. Under the leadership of Akira's late father, the Touya-gumi had been slowly establishing connections outside Japan. The casino in Macau had been one of the prizes that had been split to the other Sumiyoshi oyabun in the brief period of confusion between Touya Kouyo's murder and Touya Akira's succession. From what rumors had reached her at the top of the Touya-gumi, however, it seemed that the place was bringing more trouble than its worth to Ohba: the local Chinese Triad had allowed the casino to Touya Kouyo and did not appreciate the new foreign interloper. But Ohba was not a man to give away anything that was remotely of value.
Ichikawa Harumi had counted on that.
But somehow, at the very last minute, Akira had ducked out of having to arrange the complete transfer of narcotics for Ohba.
Ohba had been tricked into parting with the casino for a mere pittance - the names of certain movers in the Korean underworld. And the other oyabun had had to settle for that: no other group in the Sumiyoshi federation had the extensive foreign contacts that the Touya-gumi had cultivated as a legacy of Akira's late father. And at any other time, a Sumiyoshi oyabun going outside the Sumiyoshi federation for contacts would have been foolish and useless to the extreme. Most Japanese crime syndicates were not known for their cooperative nature.
But now that one of the four top shatei - or "younger brothers" - to the Yamaguchi godfather was dead, the tight, pyramidal hierarchy of Japan's largest crime organization would prove its weakness. It was an unfortunate limitation of the Yamaguchi-gumi that came to light whenever something happened to anyone high enough in its rigid, feudal hierarchy. In the current case, the murdered shatei had been the prime mover of the drug trade in that organization; with him gone so suddenly, it would take a while for the Yamaguchi godfather to appoint someone new. In the meantime, there would be certain chaos on the streets among the petty dealers. Enough for an ambitious oyabun from a more modern and less hierarchical organization to take advantage of. And Ohba had always looked to make a name for himself.
"In any case," she concluded, getting out of bed and tugging on her skirt, "I still say we should move the drugs for him, and take a share of the profits. Expansion is a good idea, after all."
When she turned around fully dressed, she caught Akira looking thoughtfully at her. The cell phone he still cradled in his hand. "If you're worried about the negotiations tomorrow, Ichikawa-san," he replied, "you shouldn't be. I already made agreements with the other Sumiyoshi oyabun: no one wants a potential turf war between the Yamaguchi and us. If it becomes a problem -" Akira's eyes were clear and straightforward, "we will eliminate it." He paused, and then he smiled slightly. "So whatever happens tomorrow, the result will be in my favor."
She stared at the boy. He looked guileless as usual, even as for the first time he spoke of cold, premeditated murder.
She had forgotten how ruthless all the Touya men could get, especially when they truly wanted something. The Macau casino had been a sore point of contention between Akira and Ohba ever since Akira took over the Touya-gumi. And since that party at New Year's Eve, Akira seemed to have developed an even greater enmity for the other man. She almost felt sorry for Ohba.
But there was another pressing concern on her mind.
"When did you and the others come to this agreement?" she asked slowly. She should not have had to ask.
Naked, and with only a bed sheet covering his lap, Akira somehow managed to look both composed and professional. "I apologize, Ichikawa-san, I meant to tell you tonight." The tone was not at all pointed, but she flushed nonetheless: it was she who had grabbed him as soon as the bedroom door closed. "The conference was brief and over the phone."
Standing in the darkness of the bedroom, she looked at him closely. He spoke as if he never intended to hide any of his doings from her.
Lately, it had been disturbing her how easily Akira was managing the affairs of the Touya-gumi on his own. Before, he often left things to her. In the heavily male-dominated world of the yakuza, whatever power a woman like her amassed had to be cloaked in the more traditional feminine roles of prostitute, mistress, or wife. There were certainly some women oyabun, but they never openly showed their hands; in her position as secretary, Ichikawa Harumi had been as blatant as possible. It helped that the nominal successor of the Touya-gumi had, until now, hung back from handling the ostentatiously criminal aspects of his role. But ever since winter - ever since she'd started sleeping with him in fact - Akira hadn't really relied on her.
And bedding him had seemed like such a good idea at the time.
Akira was regarding her now with a concerned frown on his face. His cheeks were still unshadowed and boyishly smooth, even at this late hour of the night. He had inherited his mother's fair skin and dark, heavy eyelashes. Harumi had always had a weakness for a pretty face.
It was too bad that lovely, gentle-spoken Touya Akiko had been with her husband when the assassination occurred.
"Ichikawa-san?" he asked cautiously.
Moving swiftly, she crossed over to his side of the bed and took his chin in her hand. She kept the kiss short and almost chaste. "You have an early morning tomorrow, Akira-kun," she smiled. "I’ll let you rest."
Akira didn't protest, and seemed almost relieved to let her go. As she walked out and closed the bedroom door behind her, Harumi brooded over this continual ambivalence of Akira's towards sex. If she could only figure out why...
Their current arrangement was extremely unbeneficial to her. So far, the only exploitable sentimentality from the arrangement was...hers.
She truly liked Akira and, if circumstances had been different, she suspected she would have gladly played the role of the adoring older sister - who occasionally had more than sisterly thoughts.
But she had a position to secure, and, apparently now, not enough time to do it. It won't be long before Akira tried to go over her head again, like he had today. And she would lose her authority all too easily, once that started. Ichikawa Harumi had no intention of being reduced to being only a yakuza's mistress - no matter how pretty the face.
As her chauffeured car took her out of the sprawling Meijiro mansion that Akira had kept after the death of his father, she suddenly recalled where she had heard the name Shindo before.
"Of course," she murmured to herself.
Shindo Hikaru? she had greeted that young man with at the New Year's Eve party.
It had been disturbing how much trust Akira had placed in him. After that surprising upset for Ohba, she had even sent a few of her loyal and, more importantly, discrete men to follow Shindo Hikaru after he left the hotel. At first meeting him, though, she had been nearly certain of Ohba's victory in his little bet. The young man had looked more like a busboy than someone who knew how to handle a goban; she hadn't even heard Akira speak of him before that night. But it made sense, if Akira and Shindo had known each other beforehand - most likely from Akira's days as a young professional go player.
And hadn't Akira and Shindo vanished together, right before midnight? In fact, now that she considered it, that night was also the first and only time Akira had grabbed her and initiated the sex.
It certainly cast a new light on Akira's ambivalence of his relationship with her.
You should have considered this sooner, she told herself. But she hadn't, not until she heard Akira's tone of voice over the phone as he spoke to his...friend.
Well, at least this was a development she could work with.
"Is something the matter, boss?" her driver asked.
She realized she was chuckling quietly, and stopped. "No," she assured the burly man in front. "Everything is fine."
Indeed, everything needed only a few necessary adjustments.
Outside the darkened car windows, the city of neon-lit Tokyo flashed by. Ichikawa Harumi leaned into the back seat and enjoyed the ride back to her private, penthouse apartment.
* * *
Part 4
Index