Head in her hands, Tora shakes her head. "I just can't believe it."
In their rushed get away from the meeting, the driver informed Tanaka of the situation before he dropped the three off at Fujimara and Tora's house to re-coop. Luckily the final martial arts class for the evening was just coming to an end as they arrived back and the three were able to catch Fujimara straight away to tell him of the latest development.
Clearing away the sets of nunchucks from his weapons class, Fujimara glances over at Tora sitting on the staircase. "Yuri, daijōbu. Ochitsuite kudasai."
"Calm down? How can I be calm, Sensei?" She questions, looking up at him and pulling at the collar of her white shirt feeling herself become clammy. "This is all too crazy to be true."
"I don't even know what to say, Tora." Blanca sighs. "This is a complete shock. I mean, your uncle of all people..."
"Betraying your parents like that —betraying his own brother." Ash crosses his arms.
Despite throwing up earlier in shock at the news of her Uncle now being the leader of the Daikoku-Kai syndicate, a heavy feeling remains in her stomach that she can't shift.
"I think I'm going to be sick again." She wipes the sweat from her forehead.
Blanca pulls a chair out from the side of the hall, sitting in front of Tora and resting his forearms on his thighs. He surveys her face. "Tora, I know this is all a shock. So, let's go back to the beginning."
His demeanour calming her down, she looks up from the floor, remaining in her hunched position as she nods at him. "Okay."
"What do you know about your Uncle?" He asks.
Sighing, Tora runs a hand through her hair, unbuttoning her blazer. "I don't remember much, to be honest."
Ash grabs another chair from the side and places it next to Blanca, sitting backwards on it. "Anything you're able to remember will be helpful."
Kicking her heels off, Tora hugs her knees into her chest. "I don't remember much about it but I know what my father said about him. They grew up sons of the yakuza boss, my father was the next successor of the title. They never got too much of a childhood. From what I understand, his brother couldn't handle it and ran away as a teen, leaving my father with all the work. He spent his late teens without his younger brother."
"Do you really think he ran away?" Ash asks.
Tora shrugs. "I always thought so. But it didn't matter anyway because my parents married at 26, had me at 28 and my father became the boss. When I was seven, my grandfather suddenly became ill. The bastard never liked me, telling my father that they needed to have a son as the next successor and I could never run the syndicate. When he passed away, my father assured me I was fit to become the boss when I grew up and that I was going to change history, or something like that."
"You told Yut-Lung you never wanted to be the successor." Ash reminds her and she nods.
"No one would've taken me seriously, and anyway, I wasn't interested. My father was well-liked and it would've caused an upset if I'd taken the title. Well, it seemed that way when he was alive..."
Blanca scratches his head. "Is that the end of it when it comes to Koji?"
Tora shakes her head. "A year or so into running the syndicate himself, my father got wind of his brother's death. He'd been in a small jet flying back to Tokyo to see my grandfather on his death bed when the pilot lost control, crashing into the Pacific Ocean. It was a big story on the news and it seemed like my Uncle really had died in the crash."
"But now it doesn't look that way." Ash huffs. "Who knows if he was even on the plane or if that's a lie."
Walking over to them, hands behind his back, Fujimara reveals a black and white photograph, handing it to Tora. "Hai, dōzo."
Taking it from his hand, she looks up at him. "Sensei, nani?"
Fujimara points to the photo and motions for her to flip it. "Daikoku-Kai yakuza."
Flipping it over, she reads the writing on the back. Blanca and Ash peer over, unable to read what it says.
"What is it?" Ash asks.
"Left to right: Hina, Akio, Boss Hiroshi, Koji. The Daikoku-Kai syndicate." Tora reads, turning it back over to look at the photo. "It's definitely them. Sensei, dō yatte?"
"Fire," Fujimara says in his broken English. "Sono yoru."
"I had it with me that night of the fire?" She repeats.
Blanca furrows his brows. "I'm confused. There's a photo of your mother with your uncle. But he ran away as a teen, so there's no way that they could've met if he had died in the crash. If that story is true, your uncle died returning before your grandfather passed —your parents were married and running the syndicate before he returned."
Tora squints at the photo. "This doesn't add up..."
"Can I?" Ash holds his hand out, Tora handing him the photo. He studies it carefully, eyebrows creasing as he glances between the figures in the photo.
"What is it?" Tora asks.
"I recognise Koji, he's the far right? He knew Dino." Ash tells her.
She nods. "He's part of the Foundation now since he's the yakuza boss."
He shakes his head, pointing at the photo. "No, I mean he'd known Dino for years. Okay, so Dino found me when I was eight, right? Once he kept me as his pet and I started living at his mansion, that's when Blanca taught me too. Dino would always have guests over; this Koji guy, he was one of them."
"You're sure? How do you know they knew each other for years?" Tora questions.
Ash huffs. "Because Dino told me. Even when he came to the mansion, Dino introduced him as an old friend. He'd been to visit a few years before which is what started their work together. Koji definitely knew Dino when your parents were alive."
Blanca raises a finger. "Where did you say Koji's supposed plane crash was?"
"The Pacific Ocean," She tells him. "Why?"
Blanca clicks his fingers. "The Ocean between the US and Japan is the—"
"—Pacific Ocean." Tora and Ash both look at one another.
"That means," Tora stands up from the staircase. "His return home to see my grandfather was a flight from New York to Tokyo. He'd just met Golzine. That must be when his connections with Golzine and others to do with Banana Fish began."
"When I met him years later, your parents must have been dead five years or so and their connection remained because of Banana Fish and the Foundation." Ash runs a hand through his hair. "Surviving the plane crash means that he must be the one who betrayed your parents and became the syndicate leader."
"But what about Narita Kenji?" Blanca asks. "He must have been the boss for a while before Koji took over."
Tora rubs her temples. "I don't know... I remember that night —there was someone else. Someone barged in, threatened my mother and then someone else came in. I remember because my mother's reaction to the second walking in was that of utter horror."
"Narita maybe?" Blanca suggests.
"No, I don't think so," Ash interjects. "Remember, Narita is a Puppet Leader. Yut-Lung told us that Narita was a follower of their old boss, Tora's dad, and wasn't happy to betray him. Someone gave him Banana Fish so he'd go along with it all."
Blanca nods. "He's simply the figurehead of the operation. Had Koji become the face of the syndicate and used his real name of Koji Daikoku, it would seem too much of a coincidence that his older brother was killed."
"I really might be sick again." Tora squeezes her eyes shut as her head spins.
"What about the briefcase?"
Ash furrows his brows at Blanca. "What briefcase?"
"There was a briefcase at the meeting today," Tora squints at the pair. "A Doctor who worked with my parents was there and she was taken away by a bodyguard who had a silver briefcase in hand."
Eyes widening, Ash turns to Blanca. "The briefcase from that night?"
Blanca shrugs. "I couldn't tell. It was your typical silver briefcase."
"What's this about?" Tora asks.
"That night when Dino and Foxx died, there was a briefcase," Ash explains. "This briefcase had all the research on Banana Fish, including everything that Max and I had found out but had to turn over to keep Eiji and everyone safe. Sing grabbed it but dropped it into the fire when I saved him. It can't be the same briefcase, it would've burned, right?"
"That's what I would've thought, it's probably nothing then." Blanca rubs the back of his neck. "This is all too mad."
"But we've figured it out, right?" Tora looks between the pair. "Koji fled, met Golzine and survived his plane crash, only to betray my parents."
Ash shrugs. "That's the general story, a few corners cut."
Removing his faded pink belt from his waist and untying the strings of his martial arts gi, Fujimara turns to Tora. "Rikai shita, Yuri?"
"Figured it out?" Tora purses her lips, realising he's been unaware of anything they've been saying. "Gomen, Sensei. Hai, rikai shita."
From her pocket, Tora's phone starts to ring and she picks it up. "Tanaka? Another one? Send it over email and we'll figure it out. Thank you, and yes, I do mean it."
Once she's hung up, Ash nods at her. "Your handler?"
Tora lets out a deep exhale. "There's another meeting at Koji's residence tomorrow night. Tanaka says the top syndicate executives are there."
"That's our chance," Ash says. "We know he's who we're after, so let's do it."
Looking between the three of them, Tora's chest tightens and she nods in disbelief. "I think this is it."
Blanca sends her a pained smile. "I know this isn't how you wanted it to be, with your uncle and everything, but at least you've got answers. Both of you are going to get closure."
Wiping her hands on her suit trousers, Tora tugs her heels back on and grabs her cigarette packet and lighter from her bag. "I just need a break."
They watch as she walks out of the dojo and onto the decking area outside, a sudden cloud over her head.
"Dō shita no?" Fujimara asks Blanca. "Daijōbudesuka?"
"He's asking what's going on and if she's okay," Blanca tells Ash, turning to Fujimara to explain.
Lips pursed, Ash stands up from his chair and walks away as Blanca talks to Fujimara in Japanese. Ash pulls the hood up of his red hoodie as he walks out onto the decking in the evening air.
Sat underneath a sun umbrella as it shields her from the pouring rain, Tora leans forwards on the bench, her elbows resting on her knees with one hand occupied by a cigarette. She inhales deeply as Ash sits on the wooden chair opposite her, hands tucked into his hoodie pocket.
He studies her face in the dim lighting, the loose strand of damp hair over her cheek as she exhales smoke. Her fingers tremble slightly in the cold and her heeled foot taps quietly against the decking, rain hammering down around them.
"I'm fine, if that's what you're going to ask."
He huffs a laugh, shaking his head at her. "That's exactly what someone who's not fine says."
"What a day to find out about your family betraying one another." She flashes a fake smile in his direction, one that he can see right through.
Her expression returns serious and her eyes gloss over, a drop of water running down her cheek and jaw. It's then that he realises it's a single tear, disguised in the rain.
"You're scaring me, Tora," Ash tells her, leaning closer to her.
She inhales more smoke, her breath rattling as she exhales. "I'm scary, am I?"
"That's not what I said. If this hard exterior is how you're dealing with the situation, then that's fine," Ash begins. "But you're going to crack if you let it bubble under the surface for too long. Don't let that happen."
A cold laugh escapes her quivering lip and she taps the spent ashes of her cigarette into the ashy tray. "It feels like everything I never want to lose is already lost."
As Ash opens his mouth to answer, Tora stubs out the end of her cigarette, turning back to Ash, a stern look on her face as she looks him in the eyes intensely.
"Tomorrow, we're going to finish this. We're going to leave Koji for dead —in cold blood."
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"and if there's anybody left in here
that doesn't want to be out there
I predict a riot" - Kaiser Chiefs