Part 1 Story 3: Chains and Yakuza
Translator: Ririi Rain
"What is a protection fee?"
"Simply put, it's like a store opening permit fee. In order to do business in that place, you have to give a certain amount of money every month to the one managing the territory."
After finishing the business meeting with the hostess bar manager, Secret, who had just called someone with her phone, started walking elsewhere in a good mood.
"It is called shinogi, which is also what the yakuza do as their source of income. This time, the shop manager was somewhat prepared to pay the protection fee to the yakuza, but the people who came to the shop were only the guys who looked like the underlings of an underling."
"Shinogi, yakuza ..."
"In addition, they charged the shop more than 10 times than what the shop manager paid back in Tokyo. That's why it's strange."
"The underlings were wielding the name of the group without permission, so does it mean that the underlings are filling their own pocket by taking advantage of their position?"
"Right, right, as expected, the top student of a prestigious high school is different, huh."
Being teased, Ringo was miffed, but he kept it in his mouth.
"But, shouldn't the shop side inquire directly to the group which the underlings belong to?"
After he asked while tilting his head in contemplation, Secret raised both of her hands and took a ‘giving in’ posture.
"In that case, if the underlings are really instructed by a great man of the group, then that shop manager along with the shop will be crushed. That's why a management consultant like me is asked!"
This woman called herself a management consultant.
Identifying the management issues of the
associate as per the received request and providing new solutions.
There were many things to complain about, but Ringo, who had accompanied her on two or three jobs in the past week, understood it.
"... So, you’re going to do something about it with force again, right?"
The reality was, it was a job like Jack of all trades that preyed on the problems in the underworld and solved the rough affairs on their behalf.
"That's unpleasant, Ringo-kun! This time I'm just doing a little illegal intermediary business."
Secret, who was angry at Ringo and had her cheeks puffed up, stopped in her track. They were in front of a certain pachinko parlor.
The time was just before 4 p.m.
The sun was going down, and the multi-tenant buildings around this place were also tinged with maroon red color. There were no people in sight, and the smell of exhaust fumes, car’s running noise, along with the vibration from the running cars on the main street were distant.
Two boorish-looking men came out of the pachinko1 parlor as if they had been waiting for Ringo and Secret to arrive.
"Hey! Big brothers, are you from the Terada Group?"
The woman rushed up to them in a chirpy manner and get to the main subject right away with casualness as if she was talking to her friends.
"Hah? What's with you?”
Terrified, the boy, who was an ordinary
person until just last week, involuntarily backed off.
He had no weapons, no experience in martial arts, and also no muscular body.
"I have something to ask your father2, so could you take me to the headquarters?"
"Hah, who will bring in an amateur-looking person like you?"
"Hmーm, in other words, you guys admitted that you are members of the Terada Group, right?"
"Whut?"
Tattoos were peeking out from the sleeves of those men’s clothes. The picture of two big and brawny guys facing one delicate woman in the city at dusk was funny. Even in this situation, Secret kept her lovely smile.
"Come on, take me there."
When Secret got closer, one man was
irritated and stuck out his hand to shove her.
But in the next moment, his body leaned forward and he greeted the ground with his forehead.
Ringo's eyes caught sight of the dull-colored
chain in Secret's hands.
In an instant, she wrapped it around the man's wrist and pulled him with it, breaking his center of gravity.
Perhaps noticing Ringo's gaze, Secret swung the chain over her back and said,
"Ah, this is called manrikigusari3, one kind of hidden weapons. It's very convenient."
"You son of a bitch, what the hell are you doing! Who do u think you are!"
The remaining one swung down his fist to
hit her.
The woman calmly avoided it, and using an
opening, she kicked his torso with a roundhouse kick.
It beautifully struck his solar plexus, which was enough to make the man lose his fighting spirit. Ringo, who was anxious, finally felt relieved after he witnessed the spectacle.
"Shit!!"
A short moment later, the man who had been
beaten at the start got up and headed towards the boy.
It was a wise decision to aim for a companion who seemed to be weak first rather than facing Secret's skill head-on like before.
"Uwaaagh!"
Ringo covered his face. But no matter how long he waited, he felt no pain
"I won't let you touch my cute subordinate."
On Secret's long chain, there was a heavy
weight on each of its endpoints.
She unleashed one of the blunt weapons and
hit the man’s back head in front of her splendidly.
Brawny men with tough looks were lining up in a row. At the Terada Group’s headquarters, where you could be shot dead by their gaze if you made eye contact, Ringo was trembling even more than before.
"I see that you went through a lot of hassle. I'm sorry for what our youngsters did."
"No, no, after all, Father wasn't involved."
At first glance, the leader of the group, Domon Terada, was an ordinary middle-aged man with a beefy build, but the air he was clad in was anything but ordinary.
"I'm not proud of it, but our group has a rule that we shouldn't take money from ordinary people unreasonably."
Terada looked sideways.
On that side, there were some pathetic men who got disciplined by their big brothers as their punishment until just a while ago.
They were beaten with ashtrays and had their bones broken with metal bats, so, at first Ringo was worried that they might die.
In addition to the group leader, as many as five gangsters fixed their gaze at the two visitors in the office. It felt too awkward and really uncomfortable to make even the smallest movement.
"So, how much did these guys take?"
"Ehh, how much was it again?"
When Secret tilted her neck, Domon Terada glared momentarily at the two of them.
"You guys, did you accuse our cute youngsters without any clear evidence?"
"It, it's 507,400 yen4!"
He shouted in panic, so he stuttered his words. The gazes in the room gathered at Ringo, and he gulped down his saliva.
" That's the total amount of damage? You remember it in detail, don't you, brother? You're sure about that, aren't you?"
There was so much pressure.
However, if he lost his backbone here, he would be subjected to the same fate as those who were half-dead on the floor. Ringo faced the group leader.
"I had Yokohama Grand Lou’s manager show me the list of the damages. These people came to the shop to take the protection fee twice in total. On the first visit, they took black suits that are worth 150,000 yen5, and for the second visit, they took 300,000 yen6 directly from the cash register. "
"...The number doesn't seem to add up, though.”
"When they came to the shop for the second time, they got angry at the shop manager who previously refused to pay and they rampaged. They broke a 25,000 yen7 bottle of wine that was carried by a waiter at that time, and then they ran away with a bottle of champagne which costs 32,400 yen8 including the consumption tax that was placed on a nearby table."
"Ha! It surely fits."
The boss who was using a calculator raised his face.
"The two of them first visited the shop at 10:53 p.m. on April 2nd and stayed for about 15 minutes. The next one was at 09:45 p.m. on April 11th and they stayed in the shop for 30 minutes. On both days, their means of transportation was a two-seater motorcycle. The license plate number was Yokohama C, 40-23. The model was a blue Suzuki GSX-R600."
As soon as the boy finished speaking, the man standing at the group leader's side whispered something to him.
"Certainly, that guy's bike seems to match that model."
"My subordinate is amazing, isn't he?"
Secret boasted happily, but there were pricking gazes that seemed like they were going to pierce their backs much more than before.
(I want to leave this place as soon as possible.)
" I'll send these guys to the shop to apologize when they can move. But girlie, giving in to the city's cute younglings will make our group's men lose face. Image is very important in our business. What will you do about this debt?"
"No way! Even though they were the ones who laid their hands on us as they like first!"
Ringo shouted unintentionally. It can be
seen that the beast-like men, including the group leader, had set their sights
on him.
Ringo froze and he held his mouth shut. He felt as if his back was being poured with cold water.
It was Secret who broke the tension. She gently put her hand on his shoulder, which was tense and stiff.
"I'm sorry for what my subordinate said. But, I didn't hit your members for free either, because I’ve got some delicious news for you, Terada-san."
When Ringo looked at Secret with a fearful
sideways glance, he saw that a fearless smile with overflowing confidence was
carved on her cheek.
***
1 Pachinko: a type of mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as a form of recreational arcade game, and much more frequently as a gambling device.↩
2 Not the biological father, she means their group leader. That nickname is a form of respect in the yakuza.↩
3 Ninja weighted chain weapon.↩
4 About 4600 USD↩
5 Around 1300 USD↩
6 Around 2600 USD↩
7 Around 220 USD↩
8 Around 285 USD↩
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Ririi Rain: I'm sorry I can't show you how Secret's weapon looked like here. But I can show you on patreon!
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