NaNoWriMo 2010
Title: Inugami-kai: Battle of the Dog Gods
Author: noir_shiroi
Part: 1
Rating: Will probably be T or M
Summary: The Inugami-kai is a small Yakuza family based in Tokyo. The youngest son of the Godfather has been in a coma for the last five months and on the day that he awakens it is discovered that his personality and the way he sees the world has changed. As the members struggle to reacquaint Saburo with reality his older brothers plan separate coups to overthrow their father. When the battle for the head of the family begins who will be victorious: Keiichi, the oldest son with the heart of steel, Yuji, the second son with the soul of a trickster, or Saburo, the youngest son with an altered perception of himself and his world?
Notes: This is just the first chunk that I have written so it leaves off in a weird place. Sorry about that.
The day that Saburo, the youngest son of the Inugami-kai’s boss, opened his eyes after being in a coma for five months was a day when rain pelted the windows and the sky was the color of gun metal. No one thought much of the weather, it rained frequently during this season in Tokyo, but from that day forward the atmosphere within the Inugami-kai head quarters would have the same stormy feeling. His bodyguard, Mamoru, was the only one in the room at the time and his attention was focused on a book in his lap until he felt the gaze of the other man on him, the man in the bed had never seen his bodyguard caught so off guard. Saburo had been in a coma for the last five months, the result of an unfortunate accident which had not been gang related, and the doctors had been losing hope of him ever waking up. The boss had spent the week making pain staking plans for his youngest son’s funeral but as Saburo blinked in confusion Mamoru smiled inwardly that they wouldn’t have to call the undertaker that day.
“Tsukino-sama, you’re awake,” Mamoru had observed in his matter of fact tone of voice as he deposited his book onto the bed side table. Saburo’s family was quite wealthy so when he had fallen into a coma they had moved his bed from the regular ward hospital into a private room in their mansion. The boss had paid for private doctors as well as machines and equipment so that his son’s condition could be monitored in the comfort of his own room, where his father could keep a watchful eye on him when he wasn’t working and so that Mamoru could always be with him. Saburo was seventeen and Mamoru had been his bodyguard since the age of five. The other man was more like his brother than his actual older brothers who could care less about him.
“Where the hell am I?” were the first words that were rasped out of the man in the bed’s mouth. Mamoru’s eyes widened slightly at the question, he had never heard his charge use any language other than the most polite. Something has happened to Saburo was the only thought running though his mind right then.
“You’re at home,” he replied, turning around to face Saburo fully. Saburo blinked a few times like he was trying to process the information through his thickly clouded brain and once that process had been completed he groaned loudly and replied in the most un-Saburo like way Mamoru had ever heard.
“Fuck.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“So he remembers everyone’s names but he doesn’t remember what his life is like?” Mamoru stood; head bowed, in front of Mr.Tsukino, the Godfather of the Inugami-kai and Saburo’s father. He was flanked on either side by Saburo’s older brothers, Yuji and Keiichi, neither of which looked pleased that their younger brother had chosen then to awake from his coma. Mamoru suspected that they would have been happier if he had died so that they wouldn’t have another person to contend with when it came time to pick a successor to the family. Keiichi was the first son born which made him his father’s pride and joy when he was a child. He had been the favorite, much doted upon and babied until Yuji had been born. Both had been trained and taught the skills needed to someday succeed their father and the rivalry between them had sparked on day one. They competed in class, during shooting practice and martial arts matches to the point that they would try to break bones and incapacitate the other using any method that they could. Keiichi was a stickler for method and order which made him a natural leader, thorough and efficient he made sure everything ran smoothly and that it was done right. The members of the family liked to call him the android behind his back because they rarely, if ever, saw a smile on his face or his hands without a stack of papers to be completed. Yuji was considered the personality that Keiichi lacked. He was loud, boisterous and a troublemaker to his very core. He had caused his father and the older members of the family nothing but grief as a child, playing pranks and getting into fights. He was suspended at least four times a year from school but despite his rambunctious personality he had a sly tongue and knew how to use it to get whatever he wanted. He was a daring businessman and the perfect smooth talker, two traits that made him a quite capable choice for head of the family.
“He was having a coma dream. The dream was so real to him that he has forgotten reality and only remembers what happened while he was in the coma,” Mamoru explained, repeating the words that the doctor had told him as he checked out Saburo. “He’s different, his personality, it’s not the same as before. He’s still acting how he did in his coma dream.”
“How can you tell?” Keiichi asked; his voice as deadpanned as his face was blank. Mamoru had never understood how Keiichi could be so emotionless, he almost wondered if his nickname of the android was that far from the truth.
“He swore at me at five minutes after waking up. I don’t know if anyone of you have ever noticed but Saburo has never said a dirty word as long as I’ve been protecting him and that’s been a very long time. He’s a different person.” Mr. Tsukino sighed and stood from his desk before walking out from behind it and towards his office door, Keiichi and Yuji in tow.
“Mamoru, please cancel the funeral plans that I have made, there is a list on my desk. I have to go and see my son now,” Mr. Tsukino announced as he exited his office, his other two sons following a feet behind him.
They found Saburo surrounded by doctors, each one checking something different, from his eyes, to throat, to his heart beat. One was crouched on his knees checking reflexes while another was shining a light in his ear and a nurse was checking the pulse in his arm.
“How is he doctors?” At the sound of the boss’s voices the fleet of doctors dropped whichever body part of Saburo’s they had been testing and lined up single file in front of him, bowed at the waist giving the group an unobstructed view of the newly awakened third Tsukino son. His hair had grown longer than it had ever been before, a sight which drew disapproving looks from Keiichi and Yuji, and his face had even sprouted sparse amounts of stubble which gave him a little more of a masculine look, despite the fact that he was still quite pretty for a boy. Mr. Tsukino smiled at the sight of his youngest son, he had been his favorite since he had been born, and made his way over to the hospital bed where he still sat so he could have a better look. “Mamoru tells me that you have forgotten some aspects of your life. Tell me, do you remember your own father?” Saburo looked back at him with a face that showed that he was trying to formulate an appropriate answer to the question. What came out surprised everyone in the room, even Keiichi, whose unflinching face relaxed into an expression of shock.
“My father died a long time ago.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mamoru was entrusted with the task of telling the other members of the family that Saburo had finally woken up. The first two people on his list were Junichi and Eiji, two men that had practically grown up with Saburo. Their mothers were prostitutes that worked in a club that was owned by the Inugami-kai, so when the children had been born it was expected that they would join the family when they were old enough. The three had first met at the age of five during a routine tribute collecting visit. Mamoru had just been assigned to Saburo as his bodyguard, he was still young and had only been part of the family for a year at that point which meant his duties included collecting tributes from various bars, clubs and other businesses that the family owned as well as looking after the boss’ youngest son. Mamoru was meeting with the manager of the club, checking how he conducted his business and collecting the money that was owed, when the three children started playing together. By the time the meeting had been completed the three boys had become best friends and Mamoru had to practically wrench Saburo away from his two new friends, only getting the child to go if he promised to take him to buy a new toy.
Mamoru found Eiji and Junichi in the main office of the Inugami-kai, a chess board spread out on one of their desks, the deeply concentrating on the game in front of them. Neither noticed as the other man slowly walked up behind them and as Junichi reached out to move his queen Mamoru quickly plucked it off the board before he could clasp his fingers around the top.
“Hey, give that back,” Junichi exclaimed, holding out his hand for the stolen chess piece. Mamoru gave him a playful smile as he rolled the piece between his thumb, pointer and middle fingers.
“Guys, you’re supposed to be paying attention just in case there is any business you have to take care of. What if I was a rival gang's guy? You didn’t even hear me coming.” He made the shape of a gun with his hand and said, “You guys would have been dead before you even knew I was here.” Junichi pouted up at him and quietly demanded the return of his chess piece once again while Eiji just looked up at the older man with a bored expression.
“You know damn well that no one’s going to try anything as long as Saburo’s still asleep. Their too afraid of what the boss might do if anyone messed him up,” Eiji said as Mamoru finally handed the queen back to Junichi who stuck his tongue out at him before finally making his move.
“Well, that is what I’m here about. Saburo has woken up,” Mamoru told them, watching as their faces changed from expressions of boredom to relief and happiness.
“He’s awake, really?” Junichi asked; a large grin plastered on his face. “Oh thank God. The longer he stayed asleep the more afraid I was that he was never going to recover.”
“About that,” Mamoru didn’t quite know how to tell them that their friend might not be the person that they remembered him as, he wondered if he even remembered them at all. “While he was in the coma he had an intensely detailed dream that he has taken as reality. He remembers names and faces but if you weren’t in his dream he doesn’t know you anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Eiji asked.
“In the dream his father had died when he was seven. He doesn’t know who the boss is and refuses to believe that he is his father. He thinks that his father is dead. Let’s hope that he still knows you guys, right?” Mamoru explained. Eiji sat back in his chair, his teeth biting his finger in thought as Junichi idly played with a chess piece.
“So he might not remember us,” he sighed, spinning the white plastic piece around a few times on the desk top. “That’ll be hard. He’s back but not the him that we all know and love. How is the boss taking it?”
“Not well. He’s already trying to find someone to bring back Saburo’s memories. He said the same thing that you just did; I have my son back but not really. He doesn’t even remember his own father.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Next were the older members of the Inugami-kai who didn’t care as much about Saburo’s well being as they did their boss, they were worried what would happen to the syndicate and them if he never woke up. He found the majority of them hanging around in the lounge, the television playing the sumo match of the day. Some of the guys were crowded around the television intently, betting on each match, Mamoru saw that there was a good 50,000 yen on the table.
He first found the senior most members in the room, these were the boss’ was most trusted men because they had been around the longest, some even had small groups of their own men that they controlled on behalf of the entire syndicate. He told them what had happened and asked them to relay the information to as many people as they could before asking where he might find Hisao. Hisao was one of the few members that had garnered respect and admiration from just about everyone in the family, despite only being in his forties. He refused to give anyone an exact age and wouldn’t tell anyone just how old he had been when he had joined in the first place. Unlike Keiichi and Yuji, Saburo had never seemed interested in vying for the position of boss someday; he was more prone to hobbies and activities that he could engage other people in, unlike his brothers who preferred solitary activities that they could compete with. While Mr. Tsukino had encouraged all of his sons to participate in whatever activities they wanted, he had worried that Saburo would be manipulated by his brothers who knew that he had no interest in syndicate activities. He wanted his youngest son to at least be able to protect himself if it was ever called for so he had called upon Hisao to mentor the youngest Tsukino son, in hopes that it would raise his self confidence and make it impossible for his brothers to trample him. Hisao had always seemed like a loner but when the boss asked you to do something that involved his family you did not refuse.
Mamoru found Hisao alone in the library; only senior member had access to it, sitting in one of the comfortable winged chairs, a thick book sitting in his lap. The rain still pelted the windows of the Tsukino family mansion and Mamoru wondered if the guys that didn’t live in the mansion would be able to get home that night. Hisao and him didn’t have to worry, because they were entrusted with Saburo’s welfare they both had their own quarters in the mansion, Mamoru’s right next door to Saburo’s while Hisao’s was in a different part of the mansion. The older man didn’t even raise his head as he took the chair next to him, just turned the pages of the book in his lap.
“Have they pulled the plug yet?” Hisao finally asked. His eyes were still trained to the book but Mamoru heard the emotion in his voice. Even though he had always seemed like the loner type, after spending years with Saburo as his mentor Hisao had grown fond of the boy and in a way he blamed himself for what had happened to him. Of course Mamoru blamed himself just as much for the accident as his bodyguard he was supposed to be there to protect him but he had failed in his duties that night.
“They don’t have to,” Mamoru told him, “he woke up.” Hisao’s eyes rose from the page but they were partially hidden the curtain of his long salt and pepper colored hair.
“When?”
“An hour or two ago.”
“Is he okay?”
“Well, that is still to be determined I think.”
“What do you mean? Does he have amnesia?”
“No, he remembers who he is but it’s if he remembers you that is the question.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Saburo had changed his clothes, from hospital grade pajamas to black dress pants, a red button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and a black tie, and had shaved, even though he hadn’t let them touch his hair, by the time that Mamoru and Hisao found him. He had moved from the hospital room and was now in the main meeting hall along with all the other members of the syndicate that was currently present in the mansion. The meeting hall looked like something from a medieval European castle, dark wood and light stone. None of the members were quite sure why Mr. Tsukino had decided on the style for the meeting hall but none of them cared enough to ask him also. The boss was eccentric in his own right so whenever they found something unexplainable within the mansion or in the way he acted they chalked it up to his eccentricity. Mamoru figured that Keiichi and Yuji had gotten the same eccentricity from their father but hadn’t gotten any of his good nature. They stood in the back of the room and looked up to where Mr. Tsukino stood, his arm around a visibly uncomfortable Saburo. Keiichi and Yuji stood off by themselves to the right of them, neither looking particularly pleased with the current situation.
“Well, he doesn’t look that different, other than, you know; his hair. I bet Keiichi and Yuji love that,” Hisao observed. Mamoru smirked at the mention of the two unenthusiastic males.
“I bet their pissed that he’s awake,” he scoffed.
“Me too, Saburo gets to go back to being daddy’s favorite and they get to go back to striving for recognition. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were planning something,” Hisao commented. At that time neither of them knew how right Hisao’s comment had been but they would soon figure out that something not quite right was going on in the Inugami-kai.
“Brothers, today is a glorious day indeed. Five months ago my youngest son Saburo was involved in an unexpected accident which left him in a coma until now. But today, he woke up and put an end to the uncertainty that I have been feeling recently. I know some of you have been worried as well but now we can rest assured and things will return to normal. Expect business to return to how they once were and your jobs to start up once again. I’m sure you will be as loyal as ever now that the youngest master has rejoined us. You are dismissed.” Mr. Tsukino concluded his little speech with a bow, his arm Saburo’s shoulders forcing him to bow to everyone as well. The men in front of them bowed in return before leaving the meeting hall.
Author: noir_shiroi
Part: 1
Rating: Will probably be T or M
Summary: The Inugami-kai is a small Yakuza family based in Tokyo. The youngest son of the Godfather has been in a coma for the last five months and on the day that he awakens it is discovered that his personality and the way he sees the world has changed. As the members struggle to reacquaint Saburo with reality his older brothers plan separate coups to overthrow their father. When the battle for the head of the family begins who will be victorious: Keiichi, the oldest son with the heart of steel, Yuji, the second son with the soul of a trickster, or Saburo, the youngest son with an altered perception of himself and his world?
Notes: This is just the first chunk that I have written so it leaves off in a weird place. Sorry about that.
The day that Saburo, the youngest son of the Inugami-kai’s boss, opened his eyes after being in a coma for five months was a day when rain pelted the windows and the sky was the color of gun metal. No one thought much of the weather, it rained frequently during this season in Tokyo, but from that day forward the atmosphere within the Inugami-kai head quarters would have the same stormy feeling. His bodyguard, Mamoru, was the only one in the room at the time and his attention was focused on a book in his lap until he felt the gaze of the other man on him, the man in the bed had never seen his bodyguard caught so off guard. Saburo had been in a coma for the last five months, the result of an unfortunate accident which had not been gang related, and the doctors had been losing hope of him ever waking up. The boss had spent the week making pain staking plans for his youngest son’s funeral but as Saburo blinked in confusion Mamoru smiled inwardly that they wouldn’t have to call the undertaker that day.
“Tsukino-sama, you’re awake,” Mamoru had observed in his matter of fact tone of voice as he deposited his book onto the bed side table. Saburo’s family was quite wealthy so when he had fallen into a coma they had moved his bed from the regular ward hospital into a private room in their mansion. The boss had paid for private doctors as well as machines and equipment so that his son’s condition could be monitored in the comfort of his own room, where his father could keep a watchful eye on him when he wasn’t working and so that Mamoru could always be with him. Saburo was seventeen and Mamoru had been his bodyguard since the age of five. The other man was more like his brother than his actual older brothers who could care less about him.
“Where the hell am I?” were the first words that were rasped out of the man in the bed’s mouth. Mamoru’s eyes widened slightly at the question, he had never heard his charge use any language other than the most polite. Something has happened to Saburo was the only thought running though his mind right then.
“You’re at home,” he replied, turning around to face Saburo fully. Saburo blinked a few times like he was trying to process the information through his thickly clouded brain and once that process had been completed he groaned loudly and replied in the most un-Saburo like way Mamoru had ever heard.
“Fuck.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“So he remembers everyone’s names but he doesn’t remember what his life is like?” Mamoru stood; head bowed, in front of Mr.Tsukino, the Godfather of the Inugami-kai and Saburo’s father. He was flanked on either side by Saburo’s older brothers, Yuji and Keiichi, neither of which looked pleased that their younger brother had chosen then to awake from his coma. Mamoru suspected that they would have been happier if he had died so that they wouldn’t have another person to contend with when it came time to pick a successor to the family. Keiichi was the first son born which made him his father’s pride and joy when he was a child. He had been the favorite, much doted upon and babied until Yuji had been born. Both had been trained and taught the skills needed to someday succeed their father and the rivalry between them had sparked on day one. They competed in class, during shooting practice and martial arts matches to the point that they would try to break bones and incapacitate the other using any method that they could. Keiichi was a stickler for method and order which made him a natural leader, thorough and efficient he made sure everything ran smoothly and that it was done right. The members of the family liked to call him the android behind his back because they rarely, if ever, saw a smile on his face or his hands without a stack of papers to be completed. Yuji was considered the personality that Keiichi lacked. He was loud, boisterous and a troublemaker to his very core. He had caused his father and the older members of the family nothing but grief as a child, playing pranks and getting into fights. He was suspended at least four times a year from school but despite his rambunctious personality he had a sly tongue and knew how to use it to get whatever he wanted. He was a daring businessman and the perfect smooth talker, two traits that made him a quite capable choice for head of the family.
“He was having a coma dream. The dream was so real to him that he has forgotten reality and only remembers what happened while he was in the coma,” Mamoru explained, repeating the words that the doctor had told him as he checked out Saburo. “He’s different, his personality, it’s not the same as before. He’s still acting how he did in his coma dream.”
“How can you tell?” Keiichi asked; his voice as deadpanned as his face was blank. Mamoru had never understood how Keiichi could be so emotionless, he almost wondered if his nickname of the android was that far from the truth.
“He swore at me at five minutes after waking up. I don’t know if anyone of you have ever noticed but Saburo has never said a dirty word as long as I’ve been protecting him and that’s been a very long time. He’s a different person.” Mr. Tsukino sighed and stood from his desk before walking out from behind it and towards his office door, Keiichi and Yuji in tow.
“Mamoru, please cancel the funeral plans that I have made, there is a list on my desk. I have to go and see my son now,” Mr. Tsukino announced as he exited his office, his other two sons following a feet behind him.
They found Saburo surrounded by doctors, each one checking something different, from his eyes, to throat, to his heart beat. One was crouched on his knees checking reflexes while another was shining a light in his ear and a nurse was checking the pulse in his arm.
“How is he doctors?” At the sound of the boss’s voices the fleet of doctors dropped whichever body part of Saburo’s they had been testing and lined up single file in front of him, bowed at the waist giving the group an unobstructed view of the newly awakened third Tsukino son. His hair had grown longer than it had ever been before, a sight which drew disapproving looks from Keiichi and Yuji, and his face had even sprouted sparse amounts of stubble which gave him a little more of a masculine look, despite the fact that he was still quite pretty for a boy. Mr. Tsukino smiled at the sight of his youngest son, he had been his favorite since he had been born, and made his way over to the hospital bed where he still sat so he could have a better look. “Mamoru tells me that you have forgotten some aspects of your life. Tell me, do you remember your own father?” Saburo looked back at him with a face that showed that he was trying to formulate an appropriate answer to the question. What came out surprised everyone in the room, even Keiichi, whose unflinching face relaxed into an expression of shock.
“My father died a long time ago.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mamoru was entrusted with the task of telling the other members of the family that Saburo had finally woken up. The first two people on his list were Junichi and Eiji, two men that had practically grown up with Saburo. Their mothers were prostitutes that worked in a club that was owned by the Inugami-kai, so when the children had been born it was expected that they would join the family when they were old enough. The three had first met at the age of five during a routine tribute collecting visit. Mamoru had just been assigned to Saburo as his bodyguard, he was still young and had only been part of the family for a year at that point which meant his duties included collecting tributes from various bars, clubs and other businesses that the family owned as well as looking after the boss’ youngest son. Mamoru was meeting with the manager of the club, checking how he conducted his business and collecting the money that was owed, when the three children started playing together. By the time the meeting had been completed the three boys had become best friends and Mamoru had to practically wrench Saburo away from his two new friends, only getting the child to go if he promised to take him to buy a new toy.
Mamoru found Eiji and Junichi in the main office of the Inugami-kai, a chess board spread out on one of their desks, the deeply concentrating on the game in front of them. Neither noticed as the other man slowly walked up behind them and as Junichi reached out to move his queen Mamoru quickly plucked it off the board before he could clasp his fingers around the top.
“Hey, give that back,” Junichi exclaimed, holding out his hand for the stolen chess piece. Mamoru gave him a playful smile as he rolled the piece between his thumb, pointer and middle fingers.
“Guys, you’re supposed to be paying attention just in case there is any business you have to take care of. What if I was a rival gang's guy? You didn’t even hear me coming.” He made the shape of a gun with his hand and said, “You guys would have been dead before you even knew I was here.” Junichi pouted up at him and quietly demanded the return of his chess piece once again while Eiji just looked up at the older man with a bored expression.
“You know damn well that no one’s going to try anything as long as Saburo’s still asleep. Their too afraid of what the boss might do if anyone messed him up,” Eiji said as Mamoru finally handed the queen back to Junichi who stuck his tongue out at him before finally making his move.
“Well, that is what I’m here about. Saburo has woken up,” Mamoru told them, watching as their faces changed from expressions of boredom to relief and happiness.
“He’s awake, really?” Junichi asked; a large grin plastered on his face. “Oh thank God. The longer he stayed asleep the more afraid I was that he was never going to recover.”
“About that,” Mamoru didn’t quite know how to tell them that their friend might not be the person that they remembered him as, he wondered if he even remembered them at all. “While he was in the coma he had an intensely detailed dream that he has taken as reality. He remembers names and faces but if you weren’t in his dream he doesn’t know you anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Eiji asked.
“In the dream his father had died when he was seven. He doesn’t know who the boss is and refuses to believe that he is his father. He thinks that his father is dead. Let’s hope that he still knows you guys, right?” Mamoru explained. Eiji sat back in his chair, his teeth biting his finger in thought as Junichi idly played with a chess piece.
“So he might not remember us,” he sighed, spinning the white plastic piece around a few times on the desk top. “That’ll be hard. He’s back but not the him that we all know and love. How is the boss taking it?”
“Not well. He’s already trying to find someone to bring back Saburo’s memories. He said the same thing that you just did; I have my son back but not really. He doesn’t even remember his own father.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Next were the older members of the Inugami-kai who didn’t care as much about Saburo’s well being as they did their boss, they were worried what would happen to the syndicate and them if he never woke up. He found the majority of them hanging around in the lounge, the television playing the sumo match of the day. Some of the guys were crowded around the television intently, betting on each match, Mamoru saw that there was a good 50,000 yen on the table.
He first found the senior most members in the room, these were the boss’ was most trusted men because they had been around the longest, some even had small groups of their own men that they controlled on behalf of the entire syndicate. He told them what had happened and asked them to relay the information to as many people as they could before asking where he might find Hisao. Hisao was one of the few members that had garnered respect and admiration from just about everyone in the family, despite only being in his forties. He refused to give anyone an exact age and wouldn’t tell anyone just how old he had been when he had joined in the first place. Unlike Keiichi and Yuji, Saburo had never seemed interested in vying for the position of boss someday; he was more prone to hobbies and activities that he could engage other people in, unlike his brothers who preferred solitary activities that they could compete with. While Mr. Tsukino had encouraged all of his sons to participate in whatever activities they wanted, he had worried that Saburo would be manipulated by his brothers who knew that he had no interest in syndicate activities. He wanted his youngest son to at least be able to protect himself if it was ever called for so he had called upon Hisao to mentor the youngest Tsukino son, in hopes that it would raise his self confidence and make it impossible for his brothers to trample him. Hisao had always seemed like a loner but when the boss asked you to do something that involved his family you did not refuse.
Mamoru found Hisao alone in the library; only senior member had access to it, sitting in one of the comfortable winged chairs, a thick book sitting in his lap. The rain still pelted the windows of the Tsukino family mansion and Mamoru wondered if the guys that didn’t live in the mansion would be able to get home that night. Hisao and him didn’t have to worry, because they were entrusted with Saburo’s welfare they both had their own quarters in the mansion, Mamoru’s right next door to Saburo’s while Hisao’s was in a different part of the mansion. The older man didn’t even raise his head as he took the chair next to him, just turned the pages of the book in his lap.
“Have they pulled the plug yet?” Hisao finally asked. His eyes were still trained to the book but Mamoru heard the emotion in his voice. Even though he had always seemed like the loner type, after spending years with Saburo as his mentor Hisao had grown fond of the boy and in a way he blamed himself for what had happened to him. Of course Mamoru blamed himself just as much for the accident as his bodyguard he was supposed to be there to protect him but he had failed in his duties that night.
“They don’t have to,” Mamoru told him, “he woke up.” Hisao’s eyes rose from the page but they were partially hidden the curtain of his long salt and pepper colored hair.
“When?”
“An hour or two ago.”
“Is he okay?”
“Well, that is still to be determined I think.”
“What do you mean? Does he have amnesia?”
“No, he remembers who he is but it’s if he remembers you that is the question.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Saburo had changed his clothes, from hospital grade pajamas to black dress pants, a red button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and a black tie, and had shaved, even though he hadn’t let them touch his hair, by the time that Mamoru and Hisao found him. He had moved from the hospital room and was now in the main meeting hall along with all the other members of the syndicate that was currently present in the mansion. The meeting hall looked like something from a medieval European castle, dark wood and light stone. None of the members were quite sure why Mr. Tsukino had decided on the style for the meeting hall but none of them cared enough to ask him also. The boss was eccentric in his own right so whenever they found something unexplainable within the mansion or in the way he acted they chalked it up to his eccentricity. Mamoru figured that Keiichi and Yuji had gotten the same eccentricity from their father but hadn’t gotten any of his good nature. They stood in the back of the room and looked up to where Mr. Tsukino stood, his arm around a visibly uncomfortable Saburo. Keiichi and Yuji stood off by themselves to the right of them, neither looking particularly pleased with the current situation.
“Well, he doesn’t look that different, other than, you know; his hair. I bet Keiichi and Yuji love that,” Hisao observed. Mamoru smirked at the mention of the two unenthusiastic males.
“I bet their pissed that he’s awake,” he scoffed.
“Me too, Saburo gets to go back to being daddy’s favorite and they get to go back to striving for recognition. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were planning something,” Hisao commented. At that time neither of them knew how right Hisao’s comment had been but they would soon figure out that something not quite right was going on in the Inugami-kai.
“Brothers, today is a glorious day indeed. Five months ago my youngest son Saburo was involved in an unexpected accident which left him in a coma until now. But today, he woke up and put an end to the uncertainty that I have been feeling recently. I know some of you have been worried as well but now we can rest assured and things will return to normal. Expect business to return to how they once were and your jobs to start up once again. I’m sure you will be as loyal as ever now that the youngest master has rejoined us. You are dismissed.” Mr. Tsukino concluded his little speech with a bow, his arm Saburo’s shoulders forcing him to bow to everyone as well. The men in front of them bowed in return before leaving the meeting hall.