The Succession Plan

“That was quite the show you put on, Ryuji.”

A whiskey glass was set down on the table before him, the ice in it clattering and settling as something was poured.

“I had a little help, Shiroyan,” Ryuji said, looking up at his friend while tapping the device around his head.

“Didn’t take you for the kind to adopt fancy, new trinkets. But I have to say, that’s the smoothest I’ve ever seen you move. I had thought you were getting a bit rusty, but maybe, you’re on to something. Anyways, drink up. A toast to the presumptive next Chairman of the Tenjou Clan.”

Shirokawa poured himself a glass before lifting it up for a cheer.

Ryuji stared at him for a moment before grabbing his own glass, letting the scent of the liquor reach his nose.

“Yamazaki, huh.”

“Hey, don’t tell me that the ‘18’ ain’t good enough. We’ll bust out a ‘25’ once it’s official!”

Ryuji clinked glasses with Shirokawa, taking the tiniest sip of it before setting the glass down. He looked around the room. They were alone in the large meeting room where officers gathered. Shirokawa gleefully gulped down his glass before slamming it down.

“What’s wrong? Has it not sunk in yet? Come on, I’ve been rooting for you from the beginning! Clan Chairman, it’s a big deal!”

“How long have you been doing this?” Ryuji said flatly.

They locked eyes for a moment, Shirokawa frozen on the spot in confusion before turning away.

“Didn’t you hear me? From the beginning! You’ve always been the one to lead!”

“I don’t mean that, kyoudai.”

Ryuji rose from his chair, an imposing aura brooding as he stepped forward.

“Since when have you been lying to me?”

The air around them suddenly got several degrees colder as a chill struck Shirokawa. Ryuji stepped forward again, prompting his long-time friend to instinctively go for his pocket.

“Are you going to shoot me again, Shiroyan?”

As if he had been found out, Shirokawa hesitantly pulled out a handgun and aimed it forward, a look of utter shock on his face.

“H-How? How did you realize it was me?”

“Even in the chaos of all the yelling and gunfire, it’s not hard to pick out a second, silenced gunshot up close. Not to mention, I could feel clearly enough that where I was struck didn’t perfectly line up with Takashima’s aim.”

Ryuji had held suspicions from the very beginning, but his relationship with Shirokawa made it hard to doubt him. For that reason, he avoided contacting him for the time being, choosing to understand more of his surroundings before the confrontation.

He stepped forward once again, pressing his temple right up against the barrel of the gun. There was no way he would be able to dodge fast enough if the trigger was pulled.

“Well then, are you going to finish the job?”

Shirokawa gritted his teeth, his hand trembling for a moment before pulling back the gun.

“A bluff then. Don’t think that I couldn’t see you trying to punch the guilt out of you, Shiroyan. How long have we fought together?”

Shirokawa sighed and sank into a chair, letting the gun in his hand idly drop to the ground.

“Dammit, Ryuji. Why are you so quick on the times when I don’t want you to be.”

“It’s hard not to care when you wake up in the hospital, wondering why your best friend sent you there. I’m not the smart type that understands much else unless you tell me so start explaining.”

Ryuji pointed to the wound on his stomach, which had only started to heal. All the fighting hadn’t exactly been good for it, but he persevered regardless. He continued to stare at Shirokawa, who was unsure what to say.

“Don’t be too harsh on Lieutenant Shirokawa. It was Chairman Honjou’s wish.” A new voice entered the room.

Ryuji and Shirokawa turned to see Rentaro Samukawa, Chairman Honjou’s personal secretary.

“The Chairman had high hopes for Yamaoka Ryuji as the next head, and given how stubborn your recent history has been, certain measures were done by us to ensure that a smooth succession was possible.”

“There would undoubtedly be opposition, some more vocal than others. Part of becoming the next Chairman meant quelling such concerns,” Shirokawa added. “Yes, I did what was needed to create the right opportunity for the Yama Ryu’s ascension.”

“The short distance made it easy for you to miss my vitals. It was a clean shot that must have looked far worse,” Ryuji joked before his face turned serious. “But I could feel it, those tears of regret in your eyes were real.”

“The Chairman believed that it was essential for you to ‘encounter’ the dream tech that he had pushed for so earnestly. And from your fight with Lieutenant Arabaki, it appears to have given you the edge.”

“Kyoudai, you had many competitors vying for the head. Shindou with his army. Arabaki with capitalizing on new technology. We wanted to make sure you were in a position to be stronger than ever, while luring out those who were waiting for their chance to pounce.”

“Heh, I had my suspicions when you said that you’d take charge of investigating the strange medical devices I confiscated from the Azumito Alliance. And then, getting captured right after. The wrath of the ‘White Death’ would have made most people flee in terror. And I didn’t exactly see anyone tough enough to cause you trouble during my rescue.”

Takashima’s crew was hardly a challenge without a hostage. They made short work of them, so it was strange to Ryuji that Shirokawa had been beaten so easily. Particularly since he still had the blades in his shoes. He was the type of fighter that ambushed others, rather than being on the receiving end.

“Well, well. Looks like Mr. Dragon’s got it all figured out. Guess it’s time that I stop hiding.”

From behind a decorative screen, Godo Takashima stepped out. A high-level officer from the Azumito Alliance, the Tenjou Clan’s rival, had no reason to be there alone, unless…

“Shirokawa put you up to the task of this whole farce, didn’t he?”

“What can I say? Even us Kansai men see the Yama Ryu as a legend. More than a decade’s passed since our clans have clashed. The only ones that still carry those embers are old men like me who hold onto their anger. But I can put that behind me if the argument is good enough. Still, I thought my acting was pretty convincing. What gave me away?”

“For someone with so much sway in the Azumito Alliance, the way your men tried to creep into our turf wasn’t too smart. You may be a rival group, but I expected more from you. Still, I will admit that the wool was over my eyes until I realized how easy it was for me to find your tracks. A certain black market info dealer would put a high price for drama between rival groups, so I find it hard to believe that someone didn’t pay to either hide it or have it blow up. Seemed like a mutual transaction at play.”

Ryuji looked over to Shirokawa, who put up his hands like the guilty verdict had sunk in. It really surprised him how his friend could negotiate across the table like that, but that was part of why he had risen to become a lieutenant on his own merit.

“A lot of change has occurred for the Gokudo in the past decade, things that impact everyone, regardless of the pins we wear. The Chairman may not forgive the Azumito Alliance for his daughter’s death, but he also didn’t want that hatred to extend beyond him. I had to start bridging that gap somehow.”

Ryuji stared at Shirokawa with softened eyes. It was something that he would never think to do. The bitterness of losing Miyabi was still in his heart, but ever since he met Grace, that feeling had started to dull. In that way, he was grateful to Shirokawa.

“Guess you have my kyoudai to thank for not getting punched in the face as soon as you stepped out, Takashima.”

“That’s an experience I only want once. I’ll make my escape before any other Tenjou beasts sniff me out.” Takashima waved before exiting the room. As the door clicked shut, Ryuji felt his grudge of many years closing with it.

The people of the present had paved a road for his future, expectations placed squarely on his shoulders. That made it hard for him to continue living in the past.

Ryuji moved to get up as well, but before he could, Shirokawa placed a hand on his shoulder.

“There’s one place we should visit before you go on your way.”

“Please don’t tell me that I have another challenger to subdue.”

“No, the boss wants to see you.”

“Chairman Honjou? He’s conscious?”

“Not exactly, but with that nifty tech that he’s responsible for, it can still happen.”

At first, Ryuji felt ecstatic. The Chairman had been bedridden for months, drifting in and out of consciousness. It was hard for him to even speak coherently at times.

But then, he spied a flash of pink hair from the girl sitting idly by the window. The current embodiment of the Chairman’s former daughter had no idea who she used to be. A mountain of questions entered his head at the potential reunion.

“Excuse me, gotta hit the stalls before we do.”

Ryuji left the room and looked around for someplace quiet before calling out to Grace.

“Hey, if you had a father, would you want to meet him again?”

Grace looked at him with an arched brow, bemusement on her face as she floated upside down above him.

“If your life before this was bad, would you still wish to know about it?”

Grace floated down, a gentle smile on her lips.

“Tell me, Ryuji. How do you see me now?”

“Annoying.”

He received a mental slap for that.

“But genuinely caring and helpful. I would go so far as to say that meeting you has changed my life.”

“If I’m able to move a ‘mountain’ such as you, then it would be silly to not have that courage pointed at myself. I was merely told not to worry about it before.”

“Right, I shouldn’t treat you like a child anymore then.”

“Is that how you see me?!”

Ryuji chuckled as he shrugged off the flurry of slaps that Grace sent at him. A projection could hardly do more than tickle his senses.

“Then, allow me to re-introduce myself.” Ryuji knelt before Grace. “I, Yamaoka Ryuji, am the protector of you, Honjou Miyabi, the daughter of the current Chairman of the Tenjou Clan. Please follow me.”

“Very well, my knight.” Grace extended the back of her hand to him for a kiss, giggling at the childish play of princess and knight that felt familiar for some reason. Ryuji recalled the silly declaration he made all those years back. His feelings had never died down.

Standing up, he walked back towards the meeting room. The door opened, Shirokawa and Samukawa exiting.

“Oh, there you are, kyoudai. Ready to go?”

“Of course.”