Chapter 44: Yakuza POV - The Hitsune-kai

The office of the Hitsune-kai is not a fortress. It is not a compound. It is the top three floors of a sterile, glass-and-steel skyscraper in Shinjuku. The carpets are grey. The walls are white. The only art is a single, massive, minimalist logo of a "fox" (kitsune).

In the corner office, the one with the floor-to-ceiling glass view of the entire city, Kageyama stands. He is the Region Leader, the man who bested Ayako at the port. He is in a sharp, modern, Italian suit. His wrist, the one Ayako's flunky (Kenichi) corrected at the Oasis, is in a simple, black medical brace.

He is on a video call. The screen is massive, taking up an entire wall, but the man on the screen is in shadow. Only a voice is audible.

"The report, Kageyama." The voice is smooth, unaccented, and cold.

Kageyama bows, his head low, to the screen. "Kaichou. Phase One was a success. We have tested the Bokumuchi-kai's defenses. The Oasis is, as you predicted, their primary face. The Dragon's Daughter, Ayako Katsumi, responded personally."

"And?"

"She is exactly as the file said: traditional, arrogant, brutal," Kageyama says, his voice a low sneer. "She is a creature of her father's kata. She corrected my men. She sent the leader back to me, beaten, as a message. She thinks this is a 'go' game, a war of territory."

"And at the port?" the voice asks.

Kageyama allows himself a small, smug smile. "She was bested. She is fast, Kaichou, but she is predictable. She fights like a machine. A machine that can be jammed."

"She is a child, pretending to be her father," Kageyama says with disgust. "And her father, Ryouji Katsumi, he is a dinosaur. He deals in 'honor' and 'territory'. This is not 1980. This city is not about turf. It is about flow. It is about access."

The shadow-Kaichou is silent.

"Ryouji is a dragon, guarding a treasure that is no longer valuable," Kageyama presses on, his confidence growing. "We are the fox. We do not guard. We flow. We under-bid. We out-source. We co-opt. This city belongs to us. Not them."

"And the anomaly?" the voice finally asks. "The boy. The 'pet'."

Kageyama scoffs. "Minatawa. He is nothing. A delinquent. A bodyguard. He is her cover, to maintain her 'schoolgirl' facade. He is irrelevant. He is a messy variable she thinks she can control. He is her hobby."

"A 'hobby'," the voice repeats. "How inefficient of her."

"Exactly," Kageyama says. "She is a child, distracted by toys. While we... we are professionals."

"Then proceed to Phase Two," the voice commands. "The Oasis was a test. Now, we correct their foundation. We attack their blood. The logistics."

"At once, Kaichou," Kageyama says, bowing.

"This is not a war, Kageyama," the voice says. "War is messy. It is inefficient. This is a corporate takeover. And the Bokumuchi-kai is ripe for a hostile one."

The screen goes blank. Kageyama stands, looking out over the city. His city. He flexes his fingers in the brace.

"You are just a child, Ojou-sama," he whispers, a cold smile on his face. "And school is out."