episode_0037

Time flew by, and another five days passed.

Every time I woke up, Kana and Yuki were by my side, and thanks to that, it became a daily routine to receive misunderstood glances from the K.I.T.S.U.N.E members whose ranks had seemingly doubled overnight.

Though I wasn’t thin-skinned enough to care about such things, it was still uncomfortable to receive glances mixed with depression and inferiority, as if to say, ‘But I liked him first…!’

Even though all we did was watch some porn together and I got one handjob.

‘…Is this not normal?’

Then again, it wasn’t like we were in a deep relationship either.

Anyway, it seemed that the routine of going out for deals every other day, like during the first week, was gradually coming to an end. Since that day, I’d only accompanied them on escort once.

Excluding their combat power, K.I.T.S.U.N.E had grown to the point where they could be called a gang of considerable size, so I figured my escort request would soon be over.

“Hyung-nim, did you hear about it?”

“Damn it. Who knows what ‘it’ you’re talking about?”

A K.I.T.S.U.N.E member, now seemingly accustomed to calling me Hyung-nim, approached me more closely.

Among them was a guy who, despite being a man, had quite heavily augmented himself with fox parts; he was more fond of fluffy furballs than people.

That guy, who looked like someone you shouldn’t invite home if you had dog allergies, whispered as if sharing a secret, giving me a heads-up.

“It seems some new guys are trying to imitate our ladies and have decided to hire mercenaries, right? But apparently, there are also those who put out assassination requests on the very people who hired those mercenaries!”

“What?”

Hiring assassins to get past mercenaries hired for escort? That’s ridiculous.

“Guys with balls and guns don’t go themselves, but use mercenaries… The Brutalism guys were proper in comparison.”

At least those guys came directly and opened fire.

Though they all died.

“Hehe. It’s really a mess.”

“Of course, you guys, who started the mercenary meta, shouldn’t be talking.”

“Anyway! I heard that with requests suddenly pouring in like crazy in Japantown, mercenaries, smelling money, are flocking here and there, testing the waters.”

“No wonder the streets were noisy with guys running around with guns; so it was mercenaries.”

Mercenaries who came to Japantown not just for escort, like me, but prepared for assassination or even outright war.

It would depend on how much the employer pays, but these guys would readily commit to quite extreme acts, so I figured I’d have to be careful for a while.

Because Kana and Yuki have incurred the grudges of the street gangs in various ways.

“And conflicts have already started in multiple places, with countless minor gangs collapsing. The useful guys who lose their affiliations there are being picked up by others, repeating the cycle of growing their power—it’s what they call the Sengoku Period!”

“The Sengoku Period… what a load of crap.”

“Hyung-nim, when do you plan to conquer this street! Though I am lacking, I will follow you!”

“Damn it, how many times do I have to tell you I’m not one of your gang members?”

Roughly pushing away this noisy furball, I left the game center and lit a cigarette.

Since it was still morning, no yakuza or mercenaries were visible, only ordinary pedestrians strolling about, having come to enjoy Kabukicho.

Ding.

As I leisurely smoked and watched the passersby, a notification for a private communication channel appeared in the corner of my vision.

Luna Anthony Taylor.

My precious ten-year-long friend, with whom I’d formed a bond as soon as I fell into this world.

I didn’t hesitate to answer the call.

“Oh, Luna. I got it.”

[“John, Japantown has been noisy lately, are you okay there? And why are you on an escort mission for so long?”]

“It just ended up that way. It looks like it’ll take a bit longer, so please take good care of that guy.”

An familiar voice filled with worry immediately came through after I answered the call.

It had been a while since I’d heard it, so I felt quite good, my lips curving into a smile as I walked along Kabukicho’s streets, following the pedestrians.

[“That’s a given… Anyway, tell me how things are going. I need to know when you can come back, don’t I?”]

“Hmm… so.”

I explained Kana and Yuki’s aggressive strategies and resourcefulness to Luna, and then boasted a little about K.I.T.S.U.N.E’s rapid growth.

After all, I couldn’t deny my contribution to their growth.

“So, you see, this is pretty interesting, right? They’ve expanded their territory to stably generate profit, and their intelligence network is quite good, so I’m sure they’ll solve their combat power issues in a bit of time.”

[“…”]

“Luna? Are you listening?”

[“Did you perhaps go there as a babysitter, not an escort?”]

Luna’s chilling voice, which made my spine tingle even though she wasn’t next to me.

They say one’s body stiffens when hearing a tiger’s roar; it was probably something similar.

[“Haa… Anyway, since it’s a per-job commission, just say something came up and come back right away. If you’re not even escorting every day, you probably haven’t earned much.”]

It seemed Luna didn’t like me being stuck here, so she suggested dropping the commission.

But it wasn’t a suggestion I particularly wanted to take.

Of course, I came here to earn money, but I wanted to help them grow enough to survive in the chaotic Japantown.

“Luna, think about it. These guys grew this much in less than two weeks, with just me. You also said that connections are the most important thing for a mercenary. Who knows? These guys might become major players in Japantown. Don’t you think they’d make good connections then?”

[“You… you just want to help them because the K.I.T.S.U.N.E boss is a pretty woman, and you’re all smitten, aren’t you?”]

“…I’m a professional mercenary, so I wouldn’t do that.”

[“Spouting bullshit I wouldn’t even believe… Haa… It seems those damned fox-like women have already enchanted you. Anyway, alright. John, I called to tell you that there are a few assassination requests out for you, so be careful.”]

“What?!”

I was about to refute Luna’s habitual slurs against me, but at the news she uttered afterward, my body stiffened with a jolt.

Assassination? Me? Seriously?

To think there’s someone doing such a devilish deed that nobody would be happy about.

I couldn’t help but be disappointed in this city called Eclipse Point.

[“Should I send Blake?”]

“Hmm… no, it’s fine. I’ll handle it myself.”

I didn’t feel the need to drag other people into what was just a fleeting incident that would disappear once the job was done anyway.

[“Anyway, be careful.”]

“Yeah, yeah. I love you too.”

[“You—!”]

I hung up on Luna, who was shouting something or other, and flicked the completely burnt-out cigarette filter onto the ground.

***

“Jun, it seems tangled here, could you help me a little~”

“Do you need a butler now, not an escort?”

The money accumulating from the Brutalism attack, which had destroyed my beloved ride, seemed substantial, so I was comfortably riding in the back seat of the newly acquired, simply bulletproof-modified pickup truck. Yuki subtly placed her white tail on my lap, and though I complained, her fluttering tail, as if appealing to me, ultimately made me pick up the brush.

“Where on earth is it tangled?”

“A little lower~”

The comb’s teeth slid smoothly through the fluffy fur, following the flow of the hair.

The rich tail, which seemed to be regularly maintained, brushed all the way through without snagging.

Even following Yuki’s prompting and moving the comb there, the only fact that emerged was that it was well-maintained.

“Then I’d like to ask you too.”

“Kana, you don’t look much different from Yuki either.”

“If someone combs it for me, I think I can negotiate better.”

A negotiation power buff – can’t argue with that.

I pulled the black tail that was tapping my arm, urging me to do hers too, and slowly brushed it with the comb.

I felt the gaze of a guy with fox ears, mixed with envy, in the rearview mirror, but I simply raised my middle finger and groomed the strangely close tails of the two girls.

Since that day, the two had become much closer, and the frequency with which they made overtures like this had greatly increased.

The atmosphere had become such that, beyond just inviting me to join K.I.T.S.U.N.E, I was even receiving lukewarm glances from the other gang members.

Who would have thought I’d experience something so romantic in this goddamn city?

The organization we were dealing with today was not a newly formed gang like before, but a yakuza group that had been long-established in Japantown, though they couldn’t be said to dominate it.

Kyojinkai.

They were a yakuza group whose business was dealing in cheap, illegally manufactured firearms and smuggled military-grade weapons, rather than expensive, legitimate guns burdened with heavy taxes. They planned to trade weapons to the still militarily weak K.I.T.S.U.N.E on the condition that K.I.T.S.U.N.E would take over territories that were still difficult for their members to manage.

“If this deal goes through properly, they could be called a proper gang. Though calling a gang ‘proper’ is a bit strange in itself.”

“Eventually, we’ll surpass being a gang and become a corporation that swallows up Japantown, so tell us we’re proper then.”

“And~ our dream is to go up there.”

Yuki pointed to the sky.

And in Eclipse Point, the sky was none other than the Upper City.

It was a world for the truly wealthy, accessible only to emerging powers who had devoured a certain percentage of the market among corporations, or the mega-corps that controlled the world.

“Big dreams are good.”

For me, who had only climbed high enough to barely breathe from the bottom, dreams were still a luxury, so I thought it was presumptuous to evaluate their dreams, but…

The dream of ‘going up’ was simple yet good, I thought.

“Anyway, we’ve arrived. Let’s stay sharp and go.”

“Okay~”

“No matter what happens, Jun will save us, right?”

“Don’t pick a fight on purpose because of that, though.”

Of course, I trusted them to handle it well without me needing to worry, so I chuckled, stepped out first, opened the door, and escorted them.

“We’ve been waiting.”

A woman neatly dressed in a monochrome kimono greeted us and led us into a building that had been converted into a Japanese-style house.

Unlike a normal building, the floor was covered with tatami mats, requiring us to take off our shoes upon entry. In the hall, Kyojinkai yakuza members in black suits wore menacing expressions.

They were definitely old-school yakuza, unlike the riff-raff I’d seen so far; they looked quite formidable and well-organized.

“Wow~ It feels like Grandpa’s house.”

Whispering as she looked around the Kyojinkai building’s interior, Yuki murmured to me.

‘Was her grandpa a yakuza?’

We were guided to a sliding door, covered with white shoji paper.

“Guests have arrived.”

“Come in.”

The woman, having respectfully announced the guests to the Kyojinkai Kaicho who was waiting inside, moved aside and quietly bowed her head.

Creak. And the shoji door slid open automatically, expanding left and right.

Inside was a room centered around a samurai armor set, seemingly centuries old, with expensive-looking katanas displayed on either side, perhaps for collection.

And there, a stubborn old man with white hair sat in seiza, wearing a hakama.

‘Wow. That old geezer looks like someone I wouldn’t even want to talk to.’

For some reason, the ghost I’d met while capturing Bram Stoker came to mind, and my face involuntarily twisted as if I’d bitten into something sour.

Kyojinkai’s Kaicho, Kyokyujin Goro.

“So. You said you wanted to trade with Kyojinkai.”

A hoarse, low voice, as if clogged with phlegm, echoed through the room enclosed by shoji doors.

Kana and Yuki weren’t frightened by such a voice, but they faltered slightly, as if their momentum had been pushed back, before soon settling into seiza on the prepared cushions.

As the deal began, my gaze drifted to the space behind Kyokyujin Goro.

A hulking figure, easily over two meters tall, with a shark’s head seemingly mixed with human features.

Unlike the suit-wearing yakuza, this was a mercenary in nomad-like attire, shouldering not a master-crafted katana, but an incredibly crude chainsaw-sword.

“I’ve found my 30,000 credits.”

“You son of a bitch.”

As if on cue, the massive chainsaw-sword, roaring with an engine sound, swung as if to cleave Kana and Yuki’s necks and my waist.

Grind! Clang! The shotgun’s barrel blocked the chainsaw-sword, sending sparks flying.

“You bastards. You never intended to negotiate in the first place!”

“Correct!”

As the shark-headed figure laughed maniacally, increasing the power of his already spinning chainsaw-sword, the yakuza raised their guns.