Chapter 29: The Prisoner

More than a day later, Yoshida Shoichi called again.
In the call, he solemnly relayed Mayor Kiuchi Shigezawa’s exact words: he was willing to cooperate with the Yamagami-gumi and do whatever it took to take down the Urawa Police Department, but the prerequisite was that the Yamagami-gumi had to act quickly.

It seemed Mayor Kiuchi was indeed in a hurry…

Seiko had originally planned to PUA Kiban Naoya for a while before letting him out, but now that her ally was so anxious, she had no choice but to bail Kiban Naoya out ahead of schedule.

After walking out of the detention center, before Kiban Naoya could even find a stable place to stay, he received another “gift” from Seiko—a “letter of severance” signed by almost all the former Takeuchi-gumi members who were still with the Yamagami-gumi.

A “letter of severance,” as the name implied, was originally a document for Yakuza to sever ties.
Nowadays, it was mostly used to signify the expulsion of someone from a Yakuza organization.
When Yamamoto Hiro left the Yamaguchi-gumi to create the Ichiwa-kai, the Yamaguchi-gumi had sent him a “letter of severance.”

But Kiban Naoya’s “letter of severance” clearly carried more of its original meaning.
Those remnants of the Takeuchi-gumi all expressed their desire to sever ties with him.
For Kiban Naoya, who had always prided himself on being a die-hard loyalist willing to shed his blood for the Takeuchi-gumi, this was undoubtedly the cruelest blow.

Urawa City, Southeast District, in a smoke-filled room.

Disheveled and haggard, Kiban Naoya leaned against a window that couldn’t be opened because it was blocked by a billboard.
He smoked a cigarette while listening to the clamor from upstairs.

This small room was located in the garage of a pachinko parlor.
The garage was half above ground and half below, and because it was obscured by a billboard, it was difficult to spot from the outside.

As a local snake in Urawa, Kiban Naoya knew of this pachinko parlor’s existence and had even patronized it before.
But he had always thought it was the property of some Zainichi Korean group.
He never expected it to be a stronghold planted in Urawa by the Takada-gumi.

‘As expected… it was premeditated.’

Kiban Naoya was now certain that the Takada-gumi had long harbored ill intentions towards the Yamagami-gumi.

On the desk right behind Kiban Naoya, there was a newspaper.
The front page reported on the conflict between the two major Yakuza organizations in Saitama Prefecture, the Takada-gumi and the Yamagami-gumi.
The words “Great Invasion” used in the headline were particularly glaring.

This report was clearly highly subjective.
It portrayed the Takada-gumi as an ambitious invader wanting to expand its influence and the Yamagami-gumi as the weaker party, forced to defend its own territory and in a precarious situation.
Of course, on the surface, this was indeed the case.

The Takada-gumi members read it with delight, feeling very impressive.
The more Kiban Naoya read, the more he gritted his teeth, his eyes spitting fire.
He felt he had found the source of all the wrongs.

Ordinary Yakuza usually didn’t care much about their image in the media, but Seiko was different.
She had Murakami Eishi buy many tabloid press releases.
There had been many similar media reports recently, all aimed at painting the Takada-gumi as a great demon king and the Yamagami-gumi as weak and helpless.
This wasn’t specifically written for Kiban Naoya to see, but as groundwork for the Yamagami-gumi’s transformation.

If the Yamagami-gumi wanted to do legitimate business, they couldn’t always be seen as untouchable social dregs.
Even if they were social dregs, they had to be the kind that were bullied and forced to fight back.

“Hey, Naoya, Naoya…”

A voice came from behind.

Kiban Naoya looked up and saw a group of people walking into the room.

Seeing the short man in the lead, Kiban Naoya felt a nameless anger rise.
This person was his old acquaintance in the Takada-gumi, Koma Tsukasa.
He was the one who had told Kiban Naoya that Yamagami Nobuo had killed Takeuchi Toshio, and who had also found the shotgun for him.

Although Kiban Naoya had asked Koma Tsukasa to find the shotgun himself, and had been the first to complain about Yamagami Nobuo in front of him, after more than a month of conversations with Doi Chuji, Kiban Naoya gradually “understood.”
Everything was Koma Tsukasa’s deliberate guidance.
The Takada-gumi had used him, treating him as a pawn to disrupt the Yamagami-gumi, as the vanguard for their invasion of Urawa, turning him into a “publicly recognized” traitor of the Yamagami-gumi.

Kiban Naoya recalled what Doi Chuji had said when he delivered the “letter of severance”: “Your friends in the Takada-gumi will surely look for you again.
At that time, you’d better watch yourself.”
It was as if he was certain that Kiban Naoya was one of the Takada-gumi.

And indeed, that very afternoon, Koma Tsukasa had found him.

At that moment, Kiban Naoya himself felt like a clown—a clown that everyone had seen through, but who still insisted on pretending he wasn’t a traitor.

Following closely behind Koma Tsukasa was a young man with red hair.
His name was Takada Toru, a cadre of the Takada-gumi and the main person in charge of the Takada-gumi’s Urawa flag-planting operation this time.
In addition, Takada Toru had another special identity—he was the son of the Takada-gumi’s Kumicho, Takada Yamakiyo.

Although he was the Kumicho’s son, because Takada Yamakiyo had had him late in life, Takada Toru was too young and lacked prestige, so he was currently just an ordinary cadre, not the Wakagashira.

“How are you resting, Kiban-san?”

Takada Toru asked Kiban Naoya with a smile.

“Not bad…”

Kiban Naoya said in a hoarse voice.
He didn’t look like he was doing well at all, but the people from the Takada-gumi could understand.
After all, his assassination attempt had failed, and he had just been released from the detention center.

“Right now, I just want to get revenge on Yamagami Nobuo.”

“Of course I know that.”
Takada Toru waved his hand, signaling the tall subordinate behind him to bring up a handbag.
“We’ve already prepared it for you.
It’s the shotgun you like to use.”

The subordinate opened the handbag, and inside lay a semi-new shotgun.

Kiban Naoya, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, picked up the shotgun with slightly trembling fingers.
Click. He opened the magazine to inspect it.
There were no bullets in the gun, which didn’t surprise Kiban Naoya.

“Instead of a gun, I think you should bring a knife.”
The subordinate smiled and pulled out a short knife from behind him, tossing it on the table.
Kiban Naoya noticed he also had a pistol at his waist.
“So you won’t have trouble finding a knife next time you want to chop off your finger.”

“Hahaha…”

Some of the men behind Takada Toru laughed along, but stopped when Takada Toru glared at them.

Although Kiban Naoya claimed that the despicable Yamagami Nobuo had colluded with the police to set him up, which led to his failed assassination, the Yakuza within the Takada-gumi still secretly ridiculed his incompetence.

“Is this knife sharp?”
Kiban Naoya picked up the knife, caressed the blade, and asked.

“Of course it’s sharp,” the subordinate smiled.
“I just used it to kill a Yamagami-gumi scumbag a few days ago.”

‘A Yamagami-gumi scumbag who died a few days ago?’

‘That must be Masa, right?’

Kiban Naoya thought to himself.
He rolled his tongue, put the half-smoked, still-lit cigarette into his mouth, and while chewing, he raised his hand and slashed the subordinate’s neck with the knife.

The sudden turn of events shocked the Takada-gumi members, and they failed to react in time.

“Ahhh…”

The subordinate clutched his gushing neck and let out a miserable scream.

Kiban Naoya fumbled in the subordinate’s clothes, found his pistol, skillfully loaded it, and pointed it at Takada Toru.

Bang!

“Watch out…”

Koma Tsukasa desperately pushed Takada Toru away, but was hit by the bullet himself.

“Naoya! Are you crazy?”

Koma Tsukasa looked at Kiban Naoya in horror.

Bang!

Kiban Naoya shot Koma Tsukasa in the head and muttered, “I’m not a traitor, I’m not a traitor…”

Bang! Bang!

Kiban Naoya shot at anyone he saw, starting a massacre in the basement.

The members of the Takada-gumi retreated from the room in a panic.
Kiban Naoya found shotgun shells in another handbag and pursued them.

After exiting the room, the members of the Takada-gumi gradually came to their senses, took out their weapons, and started a firefight with Kiban Naoya in the underground garage.

The intense gunfire alarmed the gamblers playing pachinko upstairs.
The gamblers who came to their senses began to flee in panic towards the exit.
During the escape, there was inevitable crowding, falling, and trampling.

Kiban Naoya had lost count of how many Takada-gumi members he had killed.
He himself had been shot three times and was losing blood fast.
He felt it was unlikely he would survive.

Kiban Naoya felt a little regretful that he hadn’t killed Takada Toru at the first opportunity.
If Takada Toru didn’t die, could he really clear his name of being a traitor?

He thought it over and over.
To be on the safe side, he took out a lighter, wanting to start a fire, but before he could press it, he suddenly smelled a pungent smell of smoke.

‘Where is the fire?’

This was Kiban Naoya’s last hazy thought.

Most of the space in this underground garage was not used for parking, but was filled with various sundries from the pachinko parlor.
Thick smoke and fire quickly spread and rose upwards.

Takada Toru was indeed not dead.
He was covered by two of his subordinates and escaped from the underground garage.
But after escaping to safety, he turned his head and saw with bloodshot eyes the small building behind him rapidly turning into a blazing torch.

Police, firefighters, ambulances, and the media were constantly rushing towards this direction, the sound of sirens echoing through several streets…

At that moment, Takada Toru felt that he might as well be dead.