Chapter 90: Thirteen Guns and the Seven Star Gang

Sakura, Aoi, and Tsubaki held three guns; Yamagami Takashi’s subordinates held three guns; and Takada Toru’s subordinates held seven guns—a total of thirteen guns in a standoff.

The attendees at the funeral dared not even breathe too loudly.

They feared that a single superfluous sound, such as an accidental sneeze, would cause a misunderstanding, and in the next moment, the entire Hattori household would be flowing with rivers of blood.

Kitano Takeshi was also among the crowd, and he was terrified by the sudden situation before him.

But amidst his terror, a sense of excitement grew in Kitano Takeshi’s heart; it seemed as if a certain imagination from his childhood was appearing right before his eyes.

Seiko, situated at the center of the conflict, was not as nervous as the bystanders.

having stayed in the Yakuza for a long time, it was easy to understand that the more the Yakuza barked and blustered, the less likely they were to actually strike.

The situation before her was exactly that; Seiko could tell at a glance that Takada Toru bringing such a large group of people barging in was absolutely not to kill anyone, but merely to display his power and intimidate the Yamagami-gumi.

Last time, Takada Toru had suffered a huge loss in Urawa City; his subordinates suffered heavy casualties, and he himself was arrested by the Urawa police.

In the end, he had to rely on the Yamagami-gumi’s connections to be bailed out of the detention center, effectively losing every shred of his dignity.

Seiko could understand his desire to regain some face.

But understanding it did not mean Seiko was willing to let Takada Toru regain that face at her expense.

“I remember that quite a few of your subordinates are still locked up in the Urawa police cells,” Seiko smiled and said. “It has only been a few months; have you already raised a new team? That is truly worthy of congratulations.”

Takada Toru’s face instantly turned dark; most of his original core crew, aside from those who died on the spot at the Pachinko parlor, were locked inside Urawa Prison.

Takada Yamakiyo could go all out to bail out Takada Toru, but it was impossible to bail out all of his subordinates as well; not only could they not be bailed out, but they also had to take the fall for Takada Toru’s crimes.

For Takada Toru, that core team meant more than just capable subordinates; they were the foundation of his roots within the Takada-gumi, and even his capital for inheriting the position of Kumicho (Boss) of the Takada-gumi in the future.

The Yakuza that Takada Toru brought today were subordinates lent to him by his father and other high-ranking members of the Takada-gumi who were on good terms with him.

Although their numbers were significant, they were a completely different matter from his own original crew.

Thinking of his trusted aides still locked in Urawa Prison, right under the nose of the person before him, Takada Toru’s confidence instantly weakened by thirty percent.

After gritting his teeth repeatedly, Takada Toru waved his hand.

Seeing this, the Yakuza behind him one by one put away their handguns.

Seiko also cast a glance at Takashi and the others, and her people followed suit, holstering their weapons.

The moment the guns were put away, a collective sound of “phew”—a sigh of relief—seemed to emerge from both inside and outside the mourning hall.

“I didn’t come here today to bicker with you; the Takada-gumi has important matters to discuss with the Yamagami-gumi,” Takada Toru turned his head to look at Otake Shinobu. “Otake-san, is there a quieter room where I can speak a few words with Miss Yamagami?”

Although Takada Toru tried his best to make his tone sound casual, it couldn’t change the fact that he had actively backed down.

Otake Shinobu glanced at Seiko, and when Seiko nodded, Otake Shinobu led Seiko and Takada Toru to the room where she had just been facing off against the two mothers.

After Seiko sat down, she didn’t waste any words and asked directly, “What matter does the Takada-gumi need to discuss with us?”

Takada Toru also didn’t want to exchange a single extra word with anyone named Yamagami.

“The Korean mafia has come to Japan.”

“The Korean mafia has come to Japan?” Seiko asked in confusion. “Are you talking about the Zainichi Koreans?”

“Uh…”

“No, not the Zainichi,” Takada Toru shook his head, his expression serious. “I am talking about South Koreans, a South Korean mafia—the Busan Seven Star Gang!”

“The Seven Star Gang?”

Seiko couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow; this name was also quite illustrious.

Audiences who enjoy Korean gangster movies should not be unfamiliar with the Seven Star Gang (Chilseong-pa).

From The Yellow Sea to Friend to New World, these movies all more or less involve material related to the Seven Star Gang, because the Seven Star Gang is undoubtedly the number one mafia in South Korea.

Since the era of Park Chung-hee, South Korean politics had gradually formed a triangular structure of “Power—Money—Violence.”

Power naturally referred to the politicians, Money was the Chaebols, and Violence was the gangs.

Although there was no evidence to suggest that the current South Korean President, Chun Doo-hwan, had any direct connection with the Seven Star Gang, according to materials that would be made public by Koreans in the future, one of Chun’s confidants had clear business dealings with the Seven Star Gang.

This confidant was the Commander of the 9th Division in The Fifth Republic, the current chairman of the Democratic Justice Party, and the future President of South Korea, Roh Tae-woo.

“How do you know the Seven Star Gang has come to Saitama Prefecture?” Seiko asked. “Has the Takada-gumi made contact with them?”

“That’s right. Just a few days ago, people from the Seven Star Gang suddenly found my father and said they wanted to do ‘precursor’ business with us, at a price forty percent lower than the market rate for finished products, but we refused,” Takada Toru said with a dark face. “Then, my father was attacked by the Koreans.”

“Was Boss Takada injured?”

“He suffered some injuries to his leg and is currently receiving treatment in the hospital.”

“Oh…”

No wonder Takada Yamakiyo sounded in such a bad mood when Yamagami Nobuo called him yesterday; it turned out he was hospitalized.

Seiko then asked with interest, “Forty percent lower than the finished product price… that sounds like a significant profit margin. Why didn’t you do the precursor business with them?”

The “precursors” Takada Toru mentioned, also known as “drug precursor chemicals,” refer to chemical substances that are not drugs themselves but can be turned into drugs with slight processing.

Decades later, these chemical substances would still be a gray area.

Takada Toru gave her a look as if she were an idiot.

“Above our Takada-gumi is the Inagawa-kai! Do you think we get to decide where the stock comes from?”

Seiko suddenly realized; she had overlooked that drug trafficking was also one of the core businesses of the Inagawa-kai.

As a subordinate organization of the Inagawa-kai, the Takada-gumi was essentially a distributor for the Inagawa-kai’s drugs.

Therefore, the Takada-gumi could only help the Inagawa-kai sell their goods; the source, pricing, and stock volume were not things the Takada-gumi could decide.

After her realization, Seiko asked again, “Then what does this have to do with our Yamagami-gumi? What does the Takada-gumi want to discuss with us?”

“Of course it’s related, and very much so,” Takada Toru said grimly. “The person in charge dispatched by the Seven Star Gang to Japan this time is named Kwon Se-hoon. You are young, so perhaps you haven’t heard his name. This man was a former lieutenant of the Changxing Society.”

“More than ten years ago, when the Changxing Society was destroyed, he briefly served as the acting boss for a short period, leading the remnants of the Changxing Society to flee back to the Korean Peninsula.”

“Among the contributions to the destruction of the Changxing Society back then, our Takada-gumi played a part, but didn’t your Yamagami-gumi also play a part?”

“Tsk… So he borrowed soldiers and came back to avenge the destruction of his clan?”

Seiko hadn’t expected such a connection involved.

Was she encountering a contemporary Wu Zixu?

Or perhaps the return of the Wry-Mouthed Dragon King?