Wind and Flower

Ando’s head which he propped up with his hands, fell to the table by slipping down and he startled. First he rubbed his head which he hit the table, then he rubbed his eyes. He realized that his sleep beat him. He looked at his watch and then his cold coffee. A voice in his mind told him to give up and go to the bed. He shook his hand as if he wanted to send away that voice and his eyes caught the leather jacket hanged on the wall. He watched that jacket for a while. Then he had a stretch and focused on his lessons.

Suddenly his door was knocked. He asked who it was. A voice of a servant was heard behind the sliding door. “Ando-sama! Master is calling for you. He ordered me to say to you that it’s an emergency.”

Ando asked permission to enter the room. When he took permission, he opened the door and saw his grandfather and two old members of his family while sitting on the corner of the traditional designed room. Ando got closer and saluted them. When he got the permission, he sat.

Since he was called at this hour, he was worried for his grandfather’s health condition. Then he relaxed as he saw his grandfather was alright. However he could guess from his grandfather’s face that there was a serious situation.

“It took long to come here, Ando,” said his grandfather. Ando bowed his head as if he wanted to apologize and replied “I didn’t want to appear with my pajamas in front of you, Master.”. The old member who sat right side of his grandfather said cheerfully “It is so proud that we have such a respectful young master, isn’t it Ryunosuke-sama?” by forgetting the serious situation.

Master of the family ignored the question and began to talk. “We have a problem, Ando. Even though i don’t want to obstacle your lessons but you have to role in solution phase of this problem.”

Ando was looking at her grandfather without an answer. His grandfather continued to talk. “A few hours ago a call came from Kobe-dono. At a region of Fumikaze Family, two members of that family got attacked. As they got the information from eyewitnesses, there was a necklace symbolizes our family on one of attackers.” The elder who learnt this issue right now like Ando did said by surprise “There’s no way!”. Other elder replied, “As the information we got from Kobe-sama, our two members who suit attackers have been taken hostages. They haven’t seen in bars and places they wander around tonight. Besides we cannot reach them by phone.”

After a few minutes Ryunosuke turned to his grandchild and called him, “Ando.” Ando replied immediately by trying not to show how he clenched his fists, “Yes, Sir!”. When Ryunosuke saw his grandchild’s cute and respectful behavior, he sighed and said “Ando, i prefer you to call me ‘grandfather’ instead of ‘sir.’”. Ando bowed his head again and said “Yes, grandfather.”.

“Fumikaze Family doesn’t tolerance an incident like that and i guess the first thing they will do is to eliminate our men. However thank God, the current leader of Fumikaze Family is my old friend and he called Kobe-dono and wanted him to be a mediator. He let us to explain the situation.”

“Hey! Isn’t this such an arrogant behavior? None of Sakurai Family members don’t attack someone. They should know that. They should kill the attackers instead of disrespecting Ryunosuke-sama!” said one of elders. The other one replied to him with a calm voice, “Stop saying nonsense! Fumikaze Family is the biggest yakuza group in Tokyo. Eliminating two dogs whose owners are believed as us is not a solution. Because the friendship between two family will be broken and we don’t want to be in bad terms with a family like that.”

Ryunosuke turned to his grandchild as if he wasn’t listening to them and said “Ando, i don’t want to give a task to you when you have an important time about your student life but my old friend Yuu wants two young masters to solve this problem. We have to learn the truth and explain it at Kobe-dono’s place until tomorrow evening.”

As soon as Ando understood that his grandfather finished his sentences, he replied “Yes, S… grandfather! I ask permission to investigate the situation right now.” One of elders got surprised and said “At this hour? At least take a few men with you.” Ando replied him “Yes, sir.” and left the room.

Other elder looked at the door for a while and said “Shizuku-sama is such a great educationalist, really. She gave a wonderful orphan as a gift to Ryunosuke-sama who helped her orphanage in past.” Other one turned to him suddenly and shouted, “How do you dare to talk about young master as if he is a gift stuff?”. Then they began to argue. After Ryunosuke warned them by shouting “Silence!” they calmed down and apologized.

“I believe that young ones find out beneficial and different solutions for problems. Both of them are walking on their own different roads. I hope that they will come to terms without harming both families,” continued Ryunosuke.

…

The cool weather of outside stroke to Eita’s face as if it wanted to remind him how it’s suffocating inside the hall. But fresh air made Eita’s dizziness worse because of alcohol. He walked to tip of the terrace slowly. On the way he was taking out his cigarettes of his pocket. As he was getting far away from hall, laughing voices and music sounds were being reduced. When he felt cold weather he thought it was good he took his jacket on his shoulders.

While Eita was searching for his lighter in his pocket, he turned to the voice that was coming from his behind. Owner of the voice showed that he was cold by his trembling voice. He said “It’s May already but the weather is still cold.” and came closer to Eita. Eita both was looking at him and still searching for his lighter. He said “You should take your jacket with you, dude.” Yamato who was closing his eyes and rubbing his own arms as if he wouldn’t be cold when he did them, was about to say “At least give a cigarette…” but as soon as he opened his eyes he looked at Eita in surprised.

After Eita found his lighter and lit his cigarette, he gave them to Yamato. At the same time he was looking at Yamato by wondering why Yamato looked surprised. Yamato narrowed his eyes and said “Man, how could you be on loose yourself in a Bachelorette party?”. He didn’t wait a reply from Eita and continued “ Look at yourself! Your dickey is open. Hey dude! There are lipstick marks on your lips and neck!” Eita took his hand to his lip corner which didn’t take the cigarette and he rubbed there. When he saw pink color on his finger, he smiled and said, “If i go home like that, our geezer doesn’t let me enter to home.”

After Yamato lit his cigarette, he returned them to Eita and replied “I wish you can go home tonight. If this goes on, you won’t be able to.” He smoked once and continued “God knows how many women gave their phone numbers to you.”

Eita smiled again. He turned his face to hall and showed a place with his chin. “Look at the right side. Can you see that chick who wears a yellow dress?” he asked.

“Even if i can’t see well as you, i know a girl who sticks you all night. You’re gonna go with her, aren’t you?” replied Yamato. “I wonder…” muttered Eita cheerfully.

Even if he would like to be center of the attractions, he used to avoid from women who died for going bed with him. He used to let women to do whatever they liked in these parties but he never let them more. He used to have regular bed affairs with regular women. He showed that to other women but he got surprised that women came to him knowing this. He thought himself “If i bring one of them with me as a bride, I’m sure my geezer will kill me.” So that chick with yellow dress was going to fail to response her efforts.

He stopped this thoughts by Yamato’s startle. Yamato suddenly remembered something and said “By the way you better go home tonight early, dude.” He smoked again and continued “We had an incident at our fifth region.” Eita looked at Yamato seriously and asked “Fifth region?”.

“Yeah, they say two members of Sakurai Family beat our men up. Others caught them and kept them in a store,” replied Yamato. Eita smoked last time and asked “Why don’t they obliterate them?”.

“Don’t talk as if you don’t know! Yuu-sama has deep relationship with the leader of Sakurai Family. He believes that they haven’t done that,” replied Yamato angrily.

“So?” asked Eita.

Yamato sighed and said “He gave them ten hours for an explaining. This evening you have a meeting with Sakurai Ryunosuke-sama’s grandchild in Kobe-sama’s house.”

“Why us? Aren’t two old farts going to handle this? Why meeting? At least we can cut a few fingers and let those guys,” said Eita angrily.

“These are Yuu-sama’s orders,” replied Yamato.

Eita sighed unhappily. He straightened himself and threw his cigarette to ash can. His succeed of hitting couldn’t make him happy. He planned to return the hall. Yamato who still smoked watched him and called behind him “Go home.”

“Okay,” said Eita.

“Visit a toilet before you go,” said Yamato.

“Okay,” replied Eita laxly. While he was trying to leave the hall without attention he said himself “Let’s see how Young Sakurai is going to solve this situation.”

…

Eita headed towards the car while yawning. Yamato who would drive him to Kobe’s house, got out of the car while sighing for the view he saw. Before Eita got in to the car, Yamato came closer to him and took off his kimono which was not worn properly. The female servants who wanted to send their young master, saw him naked and screamed with embarrassment. Eita didn’t pay attention to them and being naked. He continued to yawn while Yamato was making him wearing his kimono properly. One of the bodyguards sent the servants away.

After Yamato tidied Eita’s kimono he said “I’m depressed that you waste your handsome face with this horrible fashion.” One of old bodyguards laughed and said “Our young master is handsome whatever he wears.”

Yamato muttered “We’re late because of your laziness!” when he run the car. Eita leaned on his chin with his hand and replied “How nice we are! We gave more time for Sakurai Family.” Yamato shouted him by saying “But it's disrespectful to Kobe-sama!”.

“Don’t worry. I took a few nice games for him. I bet he will forgive me. I’m planning to spend the night there and beat that geezer. But I can let him beat me for his forgiveness,” replied Eita calmly.

Yamato sighed and said “I can’t believe future of our family is in your hands.”

…

“I don’t think that Eita-sama will be late so much. But I’m sure he is about to arrive here. We apologize for making you wait,” said Kobe’s butler.

One of Ando’s bodyguards turned to him and said angrily “You don’t have to take responsibility for this. They are mocking us apparently!”. Then he saw Ando’s glance and shut his mouth.

Ando turned to butler and said “I apologize on my bodyguard’s behalf. There is no problem for us. We’re waiting.” Then he turned to his bodyguards and continued “Maybe Fumikaze-dono wanted to give us more time and he’s late knowingly.” His men couldn’t deny this pure thoughts and loved their young master much more.

Ando was welcome by Kobe-san as soon as he arrived his house. But Kobe-san had to do something and asked permission to leave him alone here for a while. Time passed away but other side hadn’t showed up yet. Ando remembered that Kobe-san said him to look around if he wanted to. And he asked permission to look around in the garden. He didn’t take his bodyguards with him because he wanted a little silence in that beautiful garden.

Kobe was a famous city thug when he was young. He helped a lot of yakuza groups and had earned respect by each mafia group in Tokyo. Nowadays he was playing a role as a referee when an incident was happening between groups. His house was at south of the Tokyo and far away from the city center. The house was actually a vineyard house.

While Ando was wandering around the garden, he liked this traditional house and big garden. There was even a little lake in the garden. A little bridge was laying on the lake and opening to another garden full of cherry trees. Ando headed to that side.

Ando’s bodyguards realized that their hostile arrived when they heard the noises on the door. One of them took his gun and got up. But other one stopped him and looked at him as if he wanted to ask what he was doing. Finally he could manage to sit him down again.

Then the door had been opened. Eita entered to the room and looked at men sitting down. The bodyguard who took his gun before, looked at Eita. When their eyes met, he suddenly bowed his head. He saluted him with afraid. He thought to himself “Is this guy young master of Fumikaze Family? He doesn’t seem a nice person. It’s hard to believe our young master and him are peers.”

Eita made his glance softer and said “One of you two must be young master of Sakurai Family. It’s nice to meet you. I’m impressed that you came here with only one bodyguard. Let’s talk about the situation!” by smiling. Bodyguards tried to ignore his mocking and continued to smile.

Tension was broken by Kobe’s butler. “Eita-sama, Ando-sama had been waiting for you for a long time. He got bored and went to look around the garden.” When Eita heard it, his glance became serious. “Is that so?” he asked.

He touched his chin and began to think. At the same time butler was saying that Kobe-san would be late.

Eita had been in the situations like that. Misunderstandings or something… if there was a wrong guy in sides, they often used to ask more time to explain the situation. Thing could be more complicated than it seem. But young master of Sakurai Family did not only want more time also he came here right on time. He was a fool like he would say ridiculous excuses or he was cruel like he would let his men die or he found out a solution about it.

Eita put his hands on his waist and said “Since I’m late for meeting and made Sakurai-dono wait, I should see him and apologize.” Then he headed to the garden. Ando’s bodyguards prepared to get up to escort him but Eita’s bodyguards don’t let them to do it. Eita sensed that without looking at them and said “Do not worry. I won’t eat your young master.” Then he continued to walk. At the same time he put his hands higher and said “I have no guns, either.”

Eita went out to the backyard. A tiny wind met him. He looked at sky. There was a beautiful full moon. Then he looked around but he couldn’t see anybody. He walked to the bridge slowly.

Sakura flowers which had falling down came to the bridge from farther away. They were swimming even on the lake.

After Eita crossed the bridge, he realized a silhouette under the further cherry trees. As he came closer, he could saw clearly a person in the moonlight. A man who was the same height with Eita, was watching the falling sakura flowers with a beautiful face. He seemed he was admiring the view. Even though his hairs closed his forehead his eyes were shining and moonlight was dancing on his smooth skin.

The flowers on his shoulder and head showed that he was standing there for a while. He was wearing an elegant kimono so tightly that his wide shoulders, waist and hip were seen clearly. Eita’s heartbeats got quicker. He realized that he watched a man’s body like that and he thought what he was doing. He put his hand on his own face with embarrassment.

Ando startled with the movement behind him and jumped out. He put his hand on his chest and looked at the thing that made him scared. He saw a man who was the same height with him. He got surprised and scared a little.

When Eita backed of his hands from his face, Ando and Eita looked at each other for a while. At first Ando couldn’t recognize who was in front of him with a messy kimono and hair. Then he remembered him and his researches. He got even more scared. He had a lot of meeting with a lot of yakuza boss before but he was not alone. His grandfather was sitting with him. For the first time he was alone with a yakuza boss who Ando heard dangerous things about him. However last night Ando realized that he and Fumikaze Eita were not going to meet here for the first time. Ando remembered how he met him and got more excited. His excitement reduced his fear.

Eita broke the silence first. Since he wanted to make air softer, he said “A yakuza boss shouldn’t be scared that easily.”. But his voice came up in a sarcastic tone and made Ando more nervous.

Ando was not waiting such a sarcastic tone. Eita’s voice was not like he remembered. Ando thought that they were almost the same age but Eita was more virile with his behavior, face and glance. However Eita’s little effort for making air softer worked. Ando smiled candidly and said “Good evening.”. Eita greeted him too, and he said to himself in his mind “A yakuza boss shouldn’t smile like that, either.”.

…

There was no information from garden for an hour. The bodyguards of both sides began to worry about their bosses. Yamato was waiting in the car. He lit one more cigarette and wished Eita didn’t kill other man or something.

Kobe’s butler broke the silence and said “It’s better I shall go and ask if they need anything.”. Before he went out the room, both of yakuza bosses got in the room. Eita was holding a file in his hand. Nobody made a voice for a while and this time Kobe’s voice which was saying “It looks like I don’t need to be referee for this incident,” broke the silence.

…

While on the back road one of Ando’s bodyguards hugged Ando and cried. “Young Master! I was scared to death that man would kill you!” he said. Ando tried to cool him down and said “He only listened to me. Nothing bad happened.” He thought for a while and muttered “He was more prudent than I thought.”.

His phone rang. His grandfather was calling. He rescued himself from his bodyguard and answered the phone. He told him what happened and said they were on the way back home. After the phone call ended, Ryunosuke gave a deep breath. He was in Ando’s room. He was looking at Ando’s table. Ando had worked hard for some documents so Ryunosuke saw a picture of Fumikaze Eita in the file. Ryunosuke smiled with a proud and muttered “My grandchild is more handsome than you.”.

…

When the clock was showing 2.00 am, Eita was heading the room he would stayed the night. He took a shower so he was trying to dry his hair with a towel. Suddenly he got a kick from his behind. That was Kobe.

“You bad boy! Did you think I would forgive your being late?” he asked. Eita who fell down, got up and sat while he was rubbing his hurt places. “I apologized, didn’t i? Besides the things went smoothly. You’re waking people up by your shouting!” he answered.

Kobe attempted one more kick but Eita dodged that kick. Kobe got back his leg and cooled himself. He said “I gave you wonderful martial art and sword education but couldn’t teach manners.”. Then he changed his attitude by smiling. “So? What did you bring with you today?” he asked.

Eita left his towel a corner and showed a bag. “Let’s start what you chose first,” he said. Kobe headed to the bag and chose a game. He run the game and sat on the ground. Eita sat next to him and they began to play the game.

“So? How did you solve this problem?” Kobe asked.

“Don’t you really know that?” answered Eita with a question. Kobe didn’t answer. At the same time he had to defense his character in the game. Eita continued to talk.

“I know you hold yourself to mock me. You can go on. My heart has been broken already by learning that drugs have being sold in my regions without my knowledge,” he said.

Eita’s game character attacked with a rage skill and Kobe tried to hit him for revenge but Eita dodged that. Kobe realized that Eita’s attack was getting weak. Kobe was about to get the match.

Eita was in thoughts and muttered “They have disguised other yakuza groups and attacked on our members. They were planning to make us weaker by drifting us in a war between other groups. Since we would be busy, they could do whatever they like in our regions. Think about it Pop! He collected a file includes who they are, whose their family are, where they are living even with addresses. Everything is written in that file.”

As soon as he heard these, Kobe laughed so hard and said “And I heard that he made that file in a night.” Eita smiled too. “Nobody can tell he is a yakuza boss with that face,” he said.

He fell on his thoughts again and stopped to play the game. At the same time Kobe was preparing a final attack but since Eita gave up the game, Eita’s character had been killed with a weak touch. Kobe screamed angrily. He couldn’t be happy on his victory.

As a revenge he hit Eita’s head and shouted “Do not say “pop” to your teacher!” Eita ignored that hit and warning and continued to talk.

“Tell me Pop! I heard that Sakurai Ryunosuke never had a child. Where did that guy come from?” he asked.

Kobe got surprised by Eita’s wonder. “That’s not an unbelievable information. He didn’t came from the sky. He is just his adopted child,” he answered. He looked at Eita’s face for a while and added “Thank God, he wanted only his men from you. To collecting those informations would take two weeks even for me. He gave them to you almost for free.”. After he got up and took off another game from the bag, he continued to talk. “In fact, the most important mistake of the people who have planned this, is choosing the wrong family at first. If they chose another yakuza group instead of Sakurai Family and if you didn’t trust in them, you could make a big mistake like extrajudicial executions, boy.”

Eita leaned on the bed behind him. He bended his knees and leaned his elbows on his knees. He said “You’re right,” thoughtfully. He was feeling owe to Young Sakurai. Besides he was wondering how he could do this. He recalled Sakurai Ando’s face and thought that he saw him somewhere before.