Kobe (1)
Tatsuya thought at first that he had misheard.
It was something he had never experienced in his life.
Back in school, there had been boys who bad-mouthed him behind his back, calling him a pig.
But after he tracked those bastards down and beat them within an inch of their lives, even that stopped reaching his ears.
Tatsuya fell silent, lost in thought.
Then he stared hard at Kanghae’s face and wondered if maybe he was some boss from a group he didn’t know.
But no matter how he racked his memory, it was a face he was seeing for the first time today.
Before he knew it, Kanghae was standing directly in front of him.
Tatsuya looked down at Kanghae, who had to tilt his head up to meet his gaze.
He had pale skin and eyes that held no trace of fear.
Tatsuya disliked everything about him.
Especially those strange, unreadable eyes.
He decided he would half-kill Kanghae if that was what it took.
He reached out to strangle him.
But before his hand could even close around Kanghae’s throat—
Thwack—
Kanghae drove a knee up into Tatsuya’s groin.
“Aaaahhh!”
Tatsuya screamed and dropped to his knees.
Then Kanghae yanked him by the ear and said, “Bring your boss here.”
After that, Kanghae walked into the pachinko parlor without a word.
Ten minutes later, a dozen-odd yakuza stormed into the place, baseball bats in hand.
The customers who had been playing at the machines fled outside in terror, and before long Kanghae and the yakuza were the only ones left inside.
From where he stood, Kanghae watched as Tatsuya pointed at him with a finger while standing beside another man.
Kanghae’s eyes shifted to the man next to Tatsuya.
He looked to be in his mid-thirties, with a mustache.
At a glance, it was obvious he was the leader of the pack.
Kanghae looked at him and asked, “Are you Lee Gangwoo?”
It was Korean, not Japanese.
And when Kanghae saw the man’s eyes flicker, he knew he was Lee Gangwoo.
Before coming here, Kanghae had gotten his information from the twin sisters at the jazz bar.
It was intelligence the twins had gathered in advance before Kanghae ever came to Japan.
The criminal groups under the Yamaguchi-gumi operating in Kobe that sold drugs, and the ethnic Korean Japanese who worked within those groups.
Lee Gangwoo, a third-generation Korean Japanese, was the deputy commander of the assault unit in the Okamoto-gumi, one of the groups under the Yamaguchi-gumi.
And Kanghae had learned that he handled pachinko parlors, adult entertainment businesses, and drug distribution.
Kanghae had assumed that if he was a Korean Japanese, he would be connected to Korean organizations.
That was why he had come to the pachinko business Lee Gangwoo managed.
Lee Gangwoo said nothing.
Then he raised his hand.
It was the signal to attack.
At the cue, the yakuza gripping baseball bats shouted and charged at Kanghae.
In that instant, Kanghae remembered his first day in Tianjin.
The Intelligence Command seniors who had picked a fight with him to test his skills.
This was no different.
He needed to make Lee Gangwoo understand exactly what kind of man he was dealing with.
More than anything, seizing the initiative mattered.
So he didn’t hesitate.
He didn’t hold back at all.
Whoosh—
Kanghae dodged a bat flying toward his head, and without hesitation he drove the sole of his foot into the knee of the yakuza who had swung first.
It was an oblique kick.
Crack—
One yakuza screamed as the ligament in his knee shattered.
“Aghhh!”
But before that cry had even faded, a groan tore from the mouth of the man standing behind him.
“Ghk……”
The yakuza behind the one whose knee had been destroyed saw something flying toward his face, but he never realized it was a fist.
Kanghae’s punch moved faster than his ability to process the situation.
The moment the fist slammed into his face, the yakuza crumpled to the floor.
He felt something wrong inside his mouth.
He ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek, and only then did he realize several of his teeth had been shattered.
It took less than ten seconds to neutralize two yakuza.
And the one standing closest to Kanghae was trembling with fear before he even knew it.
The moment Kanghae saw that, he seized the back of the man’s neck with one hand.
That yakuza was no different from the others who had fallen.
He couldn’t react at all; he could only move his body as Kanghae dragged him along.
Smash—
Kanghae rammed his head into a pachinko machine.
Before the man had even collapsed, Kanghae kicked another yakuza.
Thud—
His shin struck the second man’s temple with perfect precision.
The frightened yakuza dropped their bats and drew sashimi knives from their waists.
“Hyah!”
One of them shouted something incomprehensible and charged Kanghae, stabbing with his blade.
The others rushed in behind him.
They knew from experience that no matter how strong an opponent was, if enough people came at him, he would eventually go down.
But after joining the yakuza, they learned for the first time that their experience did not apply to every situation.
Even if they attacked together, there would still be a time gap.
And in that split second, Kanghae dodged the first knife coming at him while catching the wrist holding it and shoving it into the path of the next blade.
Clang—
The blades struck each other.
Even then, Kanghae kept moving without pause, his feet snapping out to kick the yakuza in the knees and abdomen.
Thud—
Thud, thud—
Thud, thud, thud—
Then he rolled across the floor, snatched up a sashimi knife someone had dropped, and immediately drove it into the yakuza’s Achilles tendons and thighs.
Shhk—
Shhk, shhk—
Blood splattered across the floor wherever Kanghae’s blade passed, and screams followed close behind.
“Aaaagh!”
“Aaaahhh!”
And just like that, Kanghae had dropped all dozen-odd yakuza in an instant.
Lee Gangwoo stood there quietly, staring at Kanghae as he approached, covered in blood.
It looked like a scene from a movie.
It was unreal.
And the moment Kanghae stood before him, his instincts screamed.
I have to run……!
But he couldn’t leave his fallen men behind and flee.
He was a yakuza.
If this got out—
It would not end with yubitsume, the cutting off of a finger.
It could mean hamon.
No, maybe even the most feared punishment in the yakuza world: zezen, complete severance.
In the yakuza world, zezen was no different from death.
That said, he could no longer live as anything but a yakuza now.
He had already gone too far for that.
And then, from very far away, he heard the wail of sirens.
At first he thought it was an auditory hallucination.
But it wasn’t.
Faintly at first, the sirens grew closer and closer.
Someone must have called the police.
“Let’s see each other again.”
Kanghae said that and passed Lee Gangwoo by at an unhurried pace.
He moved slowly enough to dare him to try something if he could.
But Lee Gangwoo couldn’t move a single step until Kanghae had passed him and he heard the pachinko parlor door close.
Only after he no longer felt a trace of movement behind him did he force his body to move.
The police would be here any moment.
For now, he had to prepare.
Lee Gangwoo quickly locked the shop door and moved the more seriously injured men into the storage room.
Bang, bang, bang—
A short while later, the police who had been dispatched after the report pounded on the pachinko parlor door.
Lee Gangwoo opened it.
The officers filed inside, and the moment he saw them, Lee Gangwoo let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Among the patrol officers was Nakamura Shota.
Nakamura Shota was a sergeant stationed at Sannomiya Police Box, and he was the highest-ranking officer among the patrol unit.
He was also one of the corrupt cops under Okamoto-gumi’s influence, and he knew Lee Gangwoo personally.
Of course, neither man acknowledged the other.
“What seems to be the matter?”
Lee Gangwoo asked politely.
“We got a report.”
“I was just giving my men a talking-to. I guess there was some misunderstanding.”
Nakamura Shota looked around the pachinko parlor.
Four or five badly shaken yakuza stood there with their eyes lowered like dumb animals.
Then Nakamura Shota saw the shattered pachinko machines and the blood splashed across the floor.
It was suspicious for this to be called merely a talking-to.
But Nakamura Shota pretended not to notice.
Then he deliberately raised his voice and said, “A bunch of yakuza like you are a crime just by gathering in one place.”
“We’ll be more careful.”
“If we get one more report, I’ll bring in the riot police immediately.”
“Understood.”
After saying that, Nakamura Shota led the officers out of the pachinko parlor.
Before getting into the car, one of the sergeants who had come on the patrol looked worried and said, “Sergeant.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“There was too much blood on the floor for that to be just a talking-to. And the machines were broken too. Shouldn’t we call in the riot police?”
“Listen, Takuya.”
“Yes?”
“When did you become a cop?”
“It’s been just over three months.”
“Then this was your first time seeing yakuza?”
“Since becoming a police officer, yes.”
“Those cockroach bastards are always faster and busier than you think. If we call in the riot police right now, do you really think we can throw those bastards in prison?”
“……”
“We need to hit them with solid evidence and do it properly. If we call in the riot police for something this half-baked and the yakuza bastards slip away, we’re the ones who’ll get chewed out.”
“I see……”
“I’ve got my eye on those cockroach bastards too. So let’s clean them out all at once when the time is right.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m hungry. Let’s go get some gyudon somewhere.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that, Nakamura Shota talked his men around and led the younger officers to a nearby twenty-four-hour restaurant.
After the police left, Lee Gangwoo called in the rest of his organization.
He assigned a few men to clean up the shop, and ordered the others to take the injured men to the hospital.
Aside from himself, everyone needed medical treatment.
Then Lee Gangwoo headed for his office.
It was a ten-minute walk away.
He had walked to the pachinko parlor too, but his legs had already gone weak.
In the end, he rode there in a car driven by one of his men.
Even after getting out, his legs still trembled, but seeing the men guarding the office door calmed him a little.
There were a dozen-odd members waiting for him outside the office.
They were among the fastest and most skilled knife fighters in the Okamoto-gumi.
The moment they saw Lee Gangwoo, they bowed at the waist in unison and greeted him in loud voices.
Lee Gangwoo walked past them and went into the office.
Then he took the elevator up to his room on the third floor.
“Haa……”
Lee Gangwoo opened the office door and let out a long breath of relief, but then he spotted a black shadow draped across the sofa.
“Huh…….”
Before he knew it, a short groan escaped his throat.
The owner of that shadow on the sofa was the same Korean-speaking demon he had seen earlier at the pachinko parlor.
And Kanghae, watching Lee Gangwoo as if he were about to stop breathing from shock, said, “I told you earlier. We’d see each other again.”