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He waves at her. Rin follows the leader of a public criminal organization to his room. The desk is bulky and made of wood, behind it is a padded black chair in which the Oyabun takes his sweet time to sit. Many frames hang from the wall, most house to black and white pictures of normal looking men- the founders and previous leaders of their ‘glorious organization’ as they call it themselves.
Oyabun: You can’t join, Rin. There’s no room for you in this world.
Rin nods. This is what she likes about the Oyabun the most: he doesn’t take her for a ride with the way he talks.
Rin: Because yakuza aren’t women.
Oyabun: No, it’s not that. Not only that.
He’s looking at the pictures on the walls. Often, the Japanese would idolize the yakuza as the modern samurai, as fabled heroes who fight for the weak and poor.
Oyabun: We strayed. We got greedy and forgot our place. We got into the stock market, in real estate, in politics, in all that stuff about numbers and statistics. Back then, some of us knew our place. It was the shadow of the law, it was the streets at night, it was punching idiots who took advantage of legal loopholes to screw over their neighbor. We covered the holes, but then we tried to cover it all. We built a place for the rejects and exiles that weren’t born foxes but dogs. Then we ruined it.
From a nameless black bottle, the oyabun serves himself some liquid in a flat cup called sakazuki. It’s sake.
Oyabun: This world is dying, Rin. The five-year yakuza clause won’t let anyone leave, either. So don’t get expelled from school.
Rin just shrugs.
Rin: Nothing in it for me, oyabun. I either work a 12 hour shift in an office or suck a big fat dick so I can wash dishes. I can’t even sit still at my desk.
The oyabun visibly deflates, but he doesn’t seem angry at all.
Rin: What will happen when my luck runs out, Oyabun?
Oyabun: Nothing. It never will. I can make something happen.
Rin: I don’t want money I didn’t earn.
The man smiles to himself. So far, he hasn't managed to get Rin to ask anything from him other than the cheap ramen they share when he has time.
Oyabun: I know. You just want to have fun. I’ll think something up. You’ll see.
He waves for Rin to leave the room, who this time doesn’t forget to bow before she does- who, for the first time in many years, realizes that she’s genuinely sad.
From the very bottom of her heart, Rin Nakamura is just a girl who wants to have fun
who wants everyone to have fun.
>(To be continued!)
