Chapter 9: Flower District and Scum

To ordinary people, women with dual lives are indeed rare, but what is the Yamagami family?
Yakuza!

Although the bubble economy hadn’t truly begun yet, Japanese people, in an period of economic growth, had already developed habits of excessive consumption.
To wear beautiful clothes, to buy luxurious bags and jewelry, to travel abroad for holidays, or even just for a refined afternoon tea…
Many Japanese “salarymen” would choose to overspend.
Bank credit cards sometimes weren’t enough for them, so small loan companies emerged.
“Small loans” was merely a refined and legal term; in reality, they were usurious loans, and most of these companies were backed by Yakuza or Yakuza associates.
Naturally, when one borrows too much from loan sharks, there comes a day when they can’t repay.
Unable to repay, they would naturally do anything, such as selling off family assets, committing suicide by jumping or lying on train tracks, or even selling their bodies…
Urawa was Tokyo’s large dormitory city, where the most prevalent residents were “salarymen” from various well-known companies.
Thus, the Yamagami-gumi was also one of the earliest Yakuza organizations in Japan to establish small loan companies.

At Seiko’s request, the Yamagami-gumi quickly found a suitable inspiration—a female employee named Kobayashi Miki.
Kobayashi Miki worked for a well-known Japanese company, Nomura Securities.
She was thirty-nine years old at the time of her death, married, and had one child.
Before her death, she had borrowed over twenty small loans from just the Yamagami-gumi’s small loan company, and perhaps more from other institutions.
To repay her debts, she worked desperately at Nomura Securities in Tokyo during the day, and at night, returning to Urawa, she became a streetwalker in the flower district.
As Kobayashi Miki was nearly forty, and competing with girls in their teens and twenties, her business wasn’t particularly good.
Only customers with rather specific preferences would frequent her, so her income was merely decent.
Later, to repay her debts, she even filmed some AVs and photobooks for specialized demands.
Last summer, Kobayashi Miki was suddenly found dead, nude, in a love hotel room.
Police determined the cause of death to be mechanical asphyxiation.
Some speculated she died accidentally during an S&M session with a client.
Others believed she was strangled by her husband after he discovered the truth.
There were also theories that she had emotional disputes with several regular clients…
In any case, the Japanese police, as incompetent as ever, had yet to catch the killer.

Having found a perfect inspiration, Seiko immediately took Yamagami Takashi, who was as strong as a bear, to visit Kobayashi Miki’s family that same day.
She expressed her desire to make a film about Kobayashi Miki, offering to waive all of Kobayashi Miki’s debts to the Yamagami-gumi as payment.
Kobayashi Miki’s husband was ecstatic upon hearing this and agreed on the spot.
He was nearly driven mad by the enormous debts Kobayashi Miki had left behind.
The Yakuza didn’t care about “personal debt” or “marital communal debt”; in short, they would find every possible way to collect the money they lent.
Before Seiko’s visit, Kobayashi Miki’s husband had been contemplating whether to commit suicide by lying on train tracks, leaving his child with the grandparents, or to commit suicide with his child.
With the family’s permission, Guilty of Romance could officially enter the filming process.

Near Urawa Station, there was a recently opened Isetan department store.
Behind Isetan was a bustling, brightly lit street.
This street was officially registered as “Izakaya Street” in the traffic police manual, but in reality, both Urawa’s office workers and local police ordinarily referred to it by a simpler name—the Flower District.
The Flower District had relatively legitimate establishments like restaurants, bars, izakayas, movie theaters, and karaoke, but also less reputable places like bubble bath parlors, love hotels, strip clubs, and “Joshi Gakuen” (Girls’ Academy).
Seiko, Saori, Yamagami Takashi, along with the Inoshikachō trio, walked through the Flower District, attracting considerable attention from passersby.

“Woah woah… What kind of place is that? A ho-hospital?”

“Woah, that lady, she feels, she feels…”

“So fierce!”

“Exactly.”

“…”
The Inoshikachō trio, having their eyes opened, chattered excitedly, pointing at a nearby billboard.
On the billboard, a mature woman, not wearing panties, was dressed in a white nurse’s uniform and cap, straddling a naked man, her hand covering his groin.
On the right side of the billboard, the shop’s name—”Jibao Nurse”—was written in oversized font, along with a string of advertising slogans:
“30 minutes, 6000 yen. Our nurses will care for your lower body until it’s perfectly healthy. These well-trained nurses will examine every corner of your body…”

“Alright, stop shouting!”
Yamagami Takashi reprimanded the trio.
The trio immediately shut up and looked straight ahead.
Seiko had told the trio to follow Yamagami Takashi and learn how to become proper Yakuza.
The Inoshikachō were very convinced by Yamagami Takashi, who looked quite formidable.
However, Yamagami Takashi disliked these three new underlings; they were either too fat, too thin, or too effeminate, and their current unworldly appearance made Yamagami Takashi feel quite embarrassed.

“Miss Yamagami! Welcome! Welcome!”
Bubble Witch’s office was on the second floor of an izakaya storefront.
When Seiko arrived, Ōmori Ryō, who had been notified in advance, was already lined up with all the staff at the company entrance to welcome her.
Upon seeing Seiko and the others appear, Ōmori Ryō immediately greeted them with a fawning smile, bowing deeply, practically ready to perform a sliding bow on the spot.
Entering the company’s reception room, Ōmori Ryō personally served tea and water to Seiko and the others, all while continuing his flattery: “I have already had the honor of reading Miss Yamagami’s great work. It is truly brilliant, astounding, and thought-provoking. I am humbled by it. Last night, I read it countless times throughout the night and even copied it by hand before I could finally fall asleep peacefully. Merely reading it has already benefited me immensely. If Miss Yamagami could also be so kind as to impart further wisdom…”
As he spoke, Ōmori Ryō actually produced a handwritten copy of the Guilty of Romance script.
Seiko and Saori exchanged glances, both with peculiar expressions.
They had previously speculated about what kind of person the head of Bubble Witch, the Yamagami-gumi’s only professional director, might be.
Yet, they never would have guessed that Ōmori Ryō was this kind of sycophant.

“Alright, alright,” Seiko rubbed her temples, feeling a bit of a headache, and quickly cut off Ōmori Ryō’s endless flattery, “Let’s get to the point. I asked you to prepare for filming; how are your preparations coming along?”
“We can start filming at any time,” Ōmori Ryō immediately vouched, “I’ve already reported to the Urawa Film Commission. And these, please see, are your chosen three lead actresses: Haruka, Anna, and Ryōko.”
The three mature actresses, who had been standing silently nearby and looked quite “fierce,” quickly bowed to Seiko, their ample bosoms indeed quite eye-catching.
“However…” Ōmori Ryō said, then hesitantly rubbed his hands, smiling, “Before filming begins, there are two issues for which I need your instructions.”

“What issues?”

“The first issue is that you requested a legitimate film that can be screened in cinemas. For that, we might need to use 35mm film. As you know, what Bubble Witch filmed before only needed to be playable on television, so insufficient clarity didn’t matter. Therefore, we primarily used 16mm, and even 8mm film. Using 35mm film would likely increase the cost significantly.”

“How much is ‘significantly’?”

Ōmori Ryō thought for a long time, then gritted his teeth and said, “It might require three million yen!”
Seiko’s mouth slightly agape.
Seeing Ōmori Ryō’s conflicted expression, she had thought he was about to quote an astronomical figure, only to find it was just three million yen.
‘This is truly… a lion asking for a small sum.’
Last year, Toho reportedly spent one billion yen to make Godzilla!
However, considering that Bubble Witch previously made low-budget AVs costing between one million and one and a half million yen, Seiko had to admit that three million yen was indeed a significant cost increase.
Seeing Seiko’s lack of response, Ōmori Ryō quickly added, “Actually, we can spend a little less; it doesn’t necessarily have to be three million…”
‘Good heavens, you can still cut costs further.’

“No, no,” Seiko quickly waved her hand, “There’s no need to be too frugal. How much liquid capital does Bubble Witch have left?”

“There’s approximately five and a half million yen in the account.”

“Then proceed with filming using five million yen first. Later, I’ll bring you more money so everyone can eat a bit better. In short, try to keep the budget within twenty million yen.”
In her previous life, media speculated that Sion Sono’s Guilty of Romance only cost about fifty million yen, which was considered a low-budget film.
As long as it didn’t exceed that line, Seiko could accept it.
Of course, if Ōmori Ryō could truly make it with twenty million yen, that would be even better.
Seiko wouldn’t mind having a “Money-Saving Expert” banner custom-made and hung in Ōmori Ryō’s office.
Ōmori Ryō’s eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this.
Having filmed AVs for so many years, he had never fought such a financially abundant battle.
Twenty million yen! How could he possibly spend it all?
“The second matter is the issue of the shooting scale…” Ōmori Ryō stammered, bringing up a more sensitive topic.
Mainly, these words were indeed difficult to say in front of a girl like Seiko.
Seiko immediately understood: “Just no direct penetration shots; those won’t pass censorship. For everything else, shoot it at AV scale.”
“Shoot at AV scale? But if we do that, some cinemas might put our film on late at night, or not screen it at all.”
“That’s fine. As long as the cinema box office recovers the costs. Our main profit point is video rental and sales. Do you really think audiences buying our videos are doing so to watch some art film?”
“Then there’s no problem,” Ōmori Ryō thumped his chest, “Don’t worry, I will personally direct this film and make it beautiful for you.”
“You have no more problems, but I do have a question I’d like to ask,” Seiko said, smiling instead.
“Please ask, no matter the question, I will answer without reservation.”
“I’ve seen your resume, Ōmori-san. You were originally a top student at Musashino Art University and even interned at Shochiku Films. So why did you come to Bubble Witch to make AVs? The income from making AVs couldn’t possibly be higher than making films at Shochiku, could it?” Seiko asked curiously.
“Well…” Ōmori Ryō deliberated his words, “I joined Bubble Witch, partly out of admiration for Mr. Yamagami Nobuo…”
“Pah,” Yamagami Takashi, knowing the inside story, interrupted Ōmori Ryō’s habitual flattery, saying with disdain, “Admiration? He’s just a rotten gambler who accumulated a mountain of gambling debts. He even forced his wife to sell herself to repay them, but it still wasn’t enough, and loan shark Yakuza cut off his finger. Terrified, he fled to Urawa and pledged allegiance to our Yamagami-gumi.”
Seiko looked down at Ōmori Ryō’s hand; indeed, his left pinky finger was half-missing.
She couldn’t help but sigh in her heart:
‘Indeed, the Yakuza truly are a gathering place for human scum.’