Post by The Circle Television Network on Jul 18, 2014 4:13:18 GMT -5
“I’m going out for a run…I’ll be back in an hour, then maybe we can catch up?”
I nod in answer to Nyako’s offer, glad that there is no mention of my late night visit into her room. I yawn then give an exaggerated stretch as she heads out the door. As soon as I hear the lock engage, I scramble to my feet and creep to the window to watch as she exits the building, checks her watch, then…
I stumble back, nearly falling over as she peers up at the window. Damn her! Its almost like she has a sixth sense…but I guess that is better than seeing dead people…
After a moment, I peer back over, just in time to see her running down the block at an impressive pace. I still think that I can beat her…but…another day for that…
I spend the next few minutes wandering through her tiny flat, picking through her belongings and lingering in her closet. The fabric of her clothes brushing against me makes me feel like she is here…and I am undeniably comforted. As I brush my hands through he wardrobe, my foot brushes against a small box tucked away in the corner. As I bend down, I see that it is filled with mementos…remembrances of times long since pass.
My heart hitches when I see a picture of our family…all of us together…dirt poor, but happy. I look at everyone in the picture…everyone accept my brother…I don’t want to feel sad…
…or angry…
I run my finger over the picture of my father…so strong and proud. He was a man’s man…even before we ventured to Japan and he became something more. Strong and proud like his daughter Nyako…at least the man in the photo was. Later…he was vile…he was vindictive. I was now molded in our new father’s image…liar…gangster…killer…
After fleeing Korea with Senji and Oni in tow, he made his way to Japan seeking a new life…but not an ordinary one. Thier father became a member of the Tao Yuai Jigyo Kumiai…or as most would better know it, the Yakuza…or Japanese mafia for lack of a better term. Despite the fact that he was not Japanese and was looked down upon, he fought and clawed his way up the ranks…eventually becoming a Boss Shinsuzuki, a Boss of Bosses. His lineage made this no small feat…but that is not important to the story…at least not yet.
A life of violence and vise is no place for children, but Boss Shinsuzuki was not a coddler of children…he was a builder of clans. He was a criminal and there was no way that he could ever wash the blood from his hands…no matter how hard he tried…not that he ever did. He and the Tao Yuai Jigyo Kumiai were as one…his dream for his children was that they would one day take his place.
He spared no expense in his children’s education. He felt that they would be at a greater advantage as his successor if their education went beyond the streets. No one had any illusions, he did not do it for their benefit, his true motive was to make it easier for them to expand the clan’s endeavors into foreign interests. Senji was thankful for the lessons…only because he was oblivious to the real reason for them. Oni learned only because her father wished her to.
While much of the twins early life was spent in education and learning the ways of the Tao Yuai Jigyo Kumiai…Senji dreamed of other things. A life that was normal and filled with friends and normalcy, all the things that he would certainly be denied. In time, Senji would make a friend, Shin Ryu-Sung…the son of one of their father’s main lieutenants. Ryu came from the same background as the twins, born of Korean heritage and thrown into the crazy life of the Yakuza. Senji and Ryu shared the same views of the Tao Yuai Jigyo Kumiai, but Senji’s ties to the group ran far deeper than Ryu’s. His father was the head of the group…Boss of Bosses. Any hint of dissention on Senji’s part would have led to harsher repercussions than his friend would have ever faced.
Despite these unfortunate ties, Senji and Ryu became the closest of friends, sharing in a reasonably happy childhood…with only one notable exception, Kymiku…
When Senji and Ryu would play together, they would have to hide or play somewhere in secret to avoid Kymiku. She would hit them, spit on them, or tell lies that would get the two of them into a world of trouble…just for the fun of seeing them be beaten.
Once…only once, they decided to give her a dose of her own medicine. Senji and Ryu broke one of Boss Shinsuzuki’s prized vases and blamed it on Kymiku. The two boys rubbed their hands together in eager anticipation of her pleas of innocence and the screams of pain they would hear as she was beaten bloody for the offense. Imagine their surprise when instead of denying it, she accepted the blame with a merry smile that was directed knowingly at the two. Their blood ran cold as they watched her beaten in utter and complete silence. Her face betrayed not even a hint of emotion…good, bad, or indifferent despite the brutal beating she was given.
After it was over, Kymiku bowed to her father, apologized for the offense, and promised that she would make amends. Senji and Ryu had no illusions about the true meaning behind her words. She would make them pay for what we had done…and she was going to enjoy every moment of their torment as she did.
For days and weeks the two boys avoided her, and on those occasions when they couldn’t, she hardly paid them much attention. The waiting was agony, and after a while they began to seek her out, in the hopes that she would take her vengeance and be done with it…but nothing would move her to action. In time, the boys foolishly believed that all had been forgotten…but nothing could have been further from the truth.
Kymiku slowly worked her way into their confidence, and they were eager to have her with them…thinking that they would be spared her wrath so long as they remained on friendly terms. It started off innocently enough, they would play games and Senji and Ryu would end up at odds over the smallest disagreements…where Kymiku always seemed to be just a spectator. Eventually it escalated to all out warfare between them and she was the mediator…though she was far from neutral.
Kymiku cultivated a rift between Senji and Ryu that nearly destroyed their friendship forever. She played her part perfectly. She was the understanding sister to Senji and to Ryu…she became a close friend, then a confidant…and later, something even more. However…all along, she continued to sew the seeds of discontent and mistrust between her brother and Ryu. The two boys were no longer friends, in fact, they had become the most bitter of rivals and she stood between them…holding the balance and playing them against one another.
The day when all became revealed was a very cruel one. Kymiku came to Ryu in a frightful state, hysterical over an altercation with her brother, insisting that he had struck her. Ryu was blinded by rage and intent on making his former best friend pay for his dishonorable actions. Kymiku told him where Senji had gone and he blindly rushed over to confront her brother, foolishly paying little attention to his surroundings.
Ryu found Senji, right where Kymiku said he would be…and of course, he was just as angry with his former friend…insisting that Kymiku had told him that Ryu had attacked her. Both of them suspected that the other was lying and they tore into each other with reckless abandon. The sounds of thier fists pounding each other, their cries of pain and anger, and the sounds of their feet shuffling over what sounded like broken glass beneath their feet. It wasn’t until Ryu hit the ground with Senji that they realized that it wasn’t glass at all…but the broken shards of Boss Shinsuzuki’s vase.
Senji and Ryu were struck dumb at first…not realizing what they were seeing and why. It all came rushing back to them at once…they had been fools to believe that they would get away with what they had done to Kymiku. She had destroyed their friendship and set them against one another…yet she still wasn’t done.
They had both foolishly paid no attention to where they were and it was only then that they both realized that they were in another Family’s territory…a rival that wouldn’t take kindly to their presence. Their feud forgotten, they hastily attempted to make a quiet exit…but that was not to be. The Inagawa-kaï was there watching from the shadows.
There was no sense in trying to explain their presence in their rival’s territory, they were in the wrong. All they could do was fight…and that they did. They did their best to make an honorable accounting of themselves, but in the end, it was a forgone conclusion that they wouldn’t be walking away.
Senji and Ryu were beaten unmercifully. Kymiku had gotten her revenge 10 times over as they suffered indignities that neither would ever speak of ever again.
The Inagawa-kaï dumped them on the edge of their territory, beaten bloody and stripped naked as the day they were born. Senji’s father flew into a rage over the treatment the two had received. There were heated meeting between the Families, but cooler heads did not prevail…nor did Kymiku step forward to accept her blame for what had happened. It was all out war in the streets and more blood was spilled than any cared to remember.
No one knows how many died because of that incident. Senji and Ryu were horrified by it all and wore it as a stain upon their soul that Kymiku etched there. Blood on their hands…blood on her hands as well. As for her, she felt nothing. The two boys never mentioned it…they never told anyone, but they could see the fact that Kymiku didn’t care…in fact they could see that she was…at least in their mind, what passed for happy…
Kymiku put down the picture when she heard the key enter the lock at the front door. She glanced down at the picture one last time, before closing the closet door and going off to greet her sister…
…happy again…at least for the moment…
I nod in answer to Nyako’s offer, glad that there is no mention of my late night visit into her room. I yawn then give an exaggerated stretch as she heads out the door. As soon as I hear the lock engage, I scramble to my feet and creep to the window to watch as she exits the building, checks her watch, then…
I stumble back, nearly falling over as she peers up at the window. Damn her! Its almost like she has a sixth sense…but I guess that is better than seeing dead people…
After a moment, I peer back over, just in time to see her running down the block at an impressive pace. I still think that I can beat her…but…another day for that…
I spend the next few minutes wandering through her tiny flat, picking through her belongings and lingering in her closet. The fabric of her clothes brushing against me makes me feel like she is here…and I am undeniably comforted. As I brush my hands through he wardrobe, my foot brushes against a small box tucked away in the corner. As I bend down, I see that it is filled with mementos…remembrances of times long since pass.
My heart hitches when I see a picture of our family…all of us together…dirt poor, but happy. I look at everyone in the picture…everyone accept my brother…I don’t want to feel sad…
…or angry…
I run my finger over the picture of my father…so strong and proud. He was a man’s man…even before we ventured to Japan and he became something more. Strong and proud like his daughter Nyako…at least the man in the photo was. Later…he was vile…he was vindictive. I was now molded in our new father’s image…liar…gangster…killer…
After fleeing Korea with Senji and Oni in tow, he made his way to Japan seeking a new life…but not an ordinary one. Thier father became a member of the Tao Yuai Jigyo Kumiai…or as most would better know it, the Yakuza…or Japanese mafia for lack of a better term. Despite the fact that he was not Japanese and was looked down upon, he fought and clawed his way up the ranks…eventually becoming a Boss Shinsuzuki, a Boss of Bosses. His lineage made this no small feat…but that is not important to the story…at least not yet.
A life of violence and vise is no place for children, but Boss Shinsuzuki was not a coddler of children…he was a builder of clans. He was a criminal and there was no way that he could ever wash the blood from his hands…no matter how hard he tried…not that he ever did. He and the Tao Yuai Jigyo Kumiai were as one…his dream for his children was that they would one day take his place.
He spared no expense in his children’s education. He felt that they would be at a greater advantage as his successor if their education went beyond the streets. No one had any illusions, he did not do it for their benefit, his true motive was to make it easier for them to expand the clan’s endeavors into foreign interests. Senji was thankful for the lessons…only because he was oblivious to the real reason for them. Oni learned only because her father wished her to.
While much of the twins early life was spent in education and learning the ways of the Tao Yuai Jigyo Kumiai…Senji dreamed of other things. A life that was normal and filled with friends and normalcy, all the things that he would certainly be denied. In time, Senji would make a friend, Shin Ryu-Sung…the son of one of their father’s main lieutenants. Ryu came from the same background as the twins, born of Korean heritage and thrown into the crazy life of the Yakuza. Senji and Ryu shared the same views of the Tao Yuai Jigyo Kumiai, but Senji’s ties to the group ran far deeper than Ryu’s. His father was the head of the group…Boss of Bosses. Any hint of dissention on Senji’s part would have led to harsher repercussions than his friend would have ever faced.
Despite these unfortunate ties, Senji and Ryu became the closest of friends, sharing in a reasonably happy childhood…with only one notable exception, Kymiku…
When Senji and Ryu would play together, they would have to hide or play somewhere in secret to avoid Kymiku. She would hit them, spit on them, or tell lies that would get the two of them into a world of trouble…just for the fun of seeing them be beaten.
Once…only once, they decided to give her a dose of her own medicine. Senji and Ryu broke one of Boss Shinsuzuki’s prized vases and blamed it on Kymiku. The two boys rubbed their hands together in eager anticipation of her pleas of innocence and the screams of pain they would hear as she was beaten bloody for the offense. Imagine their surprise when instead of denying it, she accepted the blame with a merry smile that was directed knowingly at the two. Their blood ran cold as they watched her beaten in utter and complete silence. Her face betrayed not even a hint of emotion…good, bad, or indifferent despite the brutal beating she was given.
After it was over, Kymiku bowed to her father, apologized for the offense, and promised that she would make amends. Senji and Ryu had no illusions about the true meaning behind her words. She would make them pay for what we had done…and she was going to enjoy every moment of their torment as she did.
For days and weeks the two boys avoided her, and on those occasions when they couldn’t, she hardly paid them much attention. The waiting was agony, and after a while they began to seek her out, in the hopes that she would take her vengeance and be done with it…but nothing would move her to action. In time, the boys foolishly believed that all had been forgotten…but nothing could have been further from the truth.
Kymiku slowly worked her way into their confidence, and they were eager to have her with them…thinking that they would be spared her wrath so long as they remained on friendly terms. It started off innocently enough, they would play games and Senji and Ryu would end up at odds over the smallest disagreements…where Kymiku always seemed to be just a spectator. Eventually it escalated to all out warfare between them and she was the mediator…though she was far from neutral.
Kymiku cultivated a rift between Senji and Ryu that nearly destroyed their friendship forever. She played her part perfectly. She was the understanding sister to Senji and to Ryu…she became a close friend, then a confidant…and later, something even more. However…all along, she continued to sew the seeds of discontent and mistrust between her brother and Ryu. The two boys were no longer friends, in fact, they had become the most bitter of rivals and she stood between them…holding the balance and playing them against one another.
The day when all became revealed was a very cruel one. Kymiku came to Ryu in a frightful state, hysterical over an altercation with her brother, insisting that he had struck her. Ryu was blinded by rage and intent on making his former best friend pay for his dishonorable actions. Kymiku told him where Senji had gone and he blindly rushed over to confront her brother, foolishly paying little attention to his surroundings.
Ryu found Senji, right where Kymiku said he would be…and of course, he was just as angry with his former friend…insisting that Kymiku had told him that Ryu had attacked her. Both of them suspected that the other was lying and they tore into each other with reckless abandon. The sounds of thier fists pounding each other, their cries of pain and anger, and the sounds of their feet shuffling over what sounded like broken glass beneath their feet. It wasn’t until Ryu hit the ground with Senji that they realized that it wasn’t glass at all…but the broken shards of Boss Shinsuzuki’s vase.
Senji and Ryu were struck dumb at first…not realizing what they were seeing and why. It all came rushing back to them at once…they had been fools to believe that they would get away with what they had done to Kymiku. She had destroyed their friendship and set them against one another…yet she still wasn’t done.
They had both foolishly paid no attention to where they were and it was only then that they both realized that they were in another Family’s territory…a rival that wouldn’t take kindly to their presence. Their feud forgotten, they hastily attempted to make a quiet exit…but that was not to be. The Inagawa-kaï was there watching from the shadows.
There was no sense in trying to explain their presence in their rival’s territory, they were in the wrong. All they could do was fight…and that they did. They did their best to make an honorable accounting of themselves, but in the end, it was a forgone conclusion that they wouldn’t be walking away.
Senji and Ryu were beaten unmercifully. Kymiku had gotten her revenge 10 times over as they suffered indignities that neither would ever speak of ever again.
The Inagawa-kaï dumped them on the edge of their territory, beaten bloody and stripped naked as the day they were born. Senji’s father flew into a rage over the treatment the two had received. There were heated meeting between the Families, but cooler heads did not prevail…nor did Kymiku step forward to accept her blame for what had happened. It was all out war in the streets and more blood was spilled than any cared to remember.
No one knows how many died because of that incident. Senji and Ryu were horrified by it all and wore it as a stain upon their soul that Kymiku etched there. Blood on their hands…blood on her hands as well. As for her, she felt nothing. The two boys never mentioned it…they never told anyone, but they could see the fact that Kymiku didn’t care…in fact they could see that she was…at least in their mind, what passed for happy…
Kymiku put down the picture when she heard the key enter the lock at the front door. She glanced down at the picture one last time, before closing the closet door and going off to greet her sister…
…happy again…at least for the moment…