A New Clan

Samira averted her eyes in a panic, and Shinjiro's eyesight returned to its normal blurriness. He and Samira both proceeded to glare at the Doormaker, who only relished their agitation.

"Is there anything else you want to add?" Samira asked, brushing glass off her blouse.

"Well, there is one more thing," the Doormaker replied with a wry grin.

Shinjiro sighed. "Well, it can't get worse. Get on with it."

"You two are now contracted to assist me. You see, in exchange for the ability to make doors, I have to sometimes go to other time periods and fix any…um…issues that have arisen thanks to other doors being created. So, I may call on one of you to help with some hard jobs. But don't worry, I like to go sightseeing, so you won't be alone."

Shinjiro sighed. "It got worse."

"Does that mean only one of us can go when you call on us?" Samira asked.

"Correct. It's hard to explain how this works, but the other one will be here to hold the little red string of fate to pull you back to this time. You know, in case anyone tries to do anything funny and stay in the wrong time." He shot a wink back at Shinjiro, whose lips quivered.

"Okay, and if I really wanted to send him back," Samira said, looking over the mess of a room while avoiding Shinjiro's gaze. "I just need to find you once I've made him serve me enough for me to be satisfied?"

"Beyond your heart's content," he replied, smiling. "One or two good deeds won't do. Only you can decide when he's allowed to go back, and you have to mean it. So, Shinjiro Oto." The man turned his smile to a smirk and pointed it at Shinjiro. "I suggest you figure out exactly what Samira desires in her heart. In the meantime, you can find me at one of the bars in town. Of course, I'll probably come calling for you first-tee!"

The door creaked as he strutted outside, Shinjiro's glare in hot pursuit.

"Now what?" Samira asked as she stepped out from behind the bar and tip-toed around the wreckage.

"You tell me," Shinjiro replied. "Whatever's going to make you happy, right? You need to figure that out. You summoned me to help you take over the Nanagumi, right?"

"Well, yeah. I need the muscle."

Shinjiro sighed, looking around the dismantled room. "Doesn't look like that's going to be easy. But I guess we might as well go pay the top brass a visit and end this before they have a chance to respond."

"That's a good idea," she replied, nodding fervently.

"So, where's the headquarters?"

Samira shrugged. "No idea. My father was good at keeping those kinds of things secret."

Shinjiro sighed, but before he could quip, something caught his eye. A single pair of underwear was shuffling through the bodies, it's owner doing his best to crawl slowly through the bodies.

"Hey," Shinjiro said, calmly tossing a butter knife which landed perfectly in the middle of the underwear and stuck straight up. The man yelped, kicking the nearest table which spilled its dishes with a crash onto the man. Before he could cry in pain, Shinjiro was using the knife to pull him up by his underwear. His head throbbed, but he didn't let go, because Samira was holding back from snorting with laughter at the sight of the suspended man.

"Please let me down! If anybody finds out you gave me a wedgie, I'll get kicked out of the yakuza after they take a finger!"

"Then tell us, are you in the Nanagumi?" Samira asked, turning serious.

"What? No, of course not. This bar is run by the Jinta Family of the Yoshifumi Gang."

"Yoshifumi?" Samira cried. "We just killed a bunch of Yoshifumi? That's going to start a war…"

"Did you forget you're being hunted by your own gang?" Shinjiro asked.

"But if they're working with the Yoshifumi to fulfill the hit on me, and a bunch of them just died, their boss might think the whole thing was a set up. Or he'll just be mad that he lost men because they worked with the Nanagumi."

Shinjiro shrugged and nodded. "That actually make sense."

"Can you please let me down?"

"But wait, why do you care when your own gang is trying to kill you?"

"My father worked to maintain peace with our rivals. I don't want to ruin that."

Shinjiro sighed. "I think we should use it to our advantage. But if we just kill this guy, then there's no one to tell his boss what happened."

"I promise I won't tell if you'll just let me go," the man said, pressing his palms together.

Shinjiro pulled him up higher, stretching his underwear. "Where's your allegiance, huh? You spineless man."

"Do you just want to kill me?" he cried. "Look, I'm saying I'll help you. I'll take you to the Nanagumi headquarters, or the Yoshifumi. They don't care about the Jinta Syndicate enough to retaliate, so they might be able to help you."

"That last part sounds like a lie to lure us into a trap," Shinjiro said, lifting him up higher. "I say we have him take us to the Nanagumi headquarters, though. They won't hear about this before the Yoshifumi do."

Samira nodded, deep in thought. She then pulled her phone out, and snapped a picture of the man being suspended by his briefs.

"What was that click? I heard a click! You didn't take a picture, did you?"

"Now you can't turn on us, or I'll post this all over social media."

"Okay, fine! Just please let me down, okay? I can't feel anything down there and it's really starting to worry me for my future."

Shinjiro dropped the knife, letting him fall onto the broken dishes. Samira laughed while the man brushed himself clean and licked his wounds before undressing another body and taking its suit, grumbling all the way.

"Thanks for the clothes, by the way," Shinjiro said, smirking at him. He was almost brought to tears, but found the strength to button his suit up and straighten his mohawk.

"I don't even want to know where you came from or why you were naked. Anyway, I'm Yoppi. I haven't been a yakuza for long, and these guys were all jerks to me, so I won't cry for them, nor do I have any allegiances. I'm just trying to live."

"Okay, Yoppi," Samira said, smiling. "You can join my new clan. I'll keep you safe."

"That would be really nice if you didn't just blackmail me with a picture of my underwear," he replied with a pouty face. "But thanks. You don't seem like a bad person, so I'll follow you."

"That's nice and all, but we might want to get the hell out of here before someone else shows up," Shinjiro said.

"Yeah, like the cops," Samira said. "Come on, Yoppi. Lead the way!"

An hour later, they arrived at the top of a hill, where a gate surrounded a traditional Japanese mansion. To Shinjiro's relief, there were no uzi-toting guards, but there was something he didn't recognize which made Samira and Yoppi gasp. Red and blue lights flashed on top of a dozen white cars in the mansion's circular driveway.