Title: Shady Dealings?
Summary: Following his discussion with Fumiko, Kazuo heads to Sumaru to check out the clubs in the area. In the midst of what might have been an altercation, he meets a couple people.
Who: Masahiko Irie, Ryouko Kiribayashi, Kazuo Yuudai Location: Sumaru - Yumezaki Ward


One of the northernmost districts of Sumaru, Yumezaki holds the distinction of being one of the wealthiest areas of the city. Numerous highly successful businesses set up shop here, guaranteeing that the streets remain packed at all times.
Home to many popular stops, Yumezaki is the place to go for having a good time. Dance clubs, casinos, and even a pachinko parlor (if one has the time) are common fare, with more “everyday” places to visit like GOLD Gym or the highly successful Central Avenue. Nonetheless, the area continually expands upward, and it is not uncommon for a place to be perpetually under construction to add some new floor or feature or another. The few residential homes left belong to the very wealthy who refuse to move.
While there is plenty to see and do, some caution is to be advised - more than a few places are open fronts for organized crime. Their hold on some of the more popular entertainment fixtures is so subtle that many people typically do not notice or even think much about it.




The sun has gone down the and lights have gone up. As if the places known for the night life, it seems like some of the strips of the Yumezaki come alive only in the evening. Currently, Masahiko is in one of those strips.
A large meeting of various Yakuza has just just ended, and many people from many different small gangs begin to filter out from the successful night club (not the Club Zodiac) and onto the streets. Alliances require good amounts of communication and criminal ones are no exception. Turf is split, duties given, plans made. The key figure for all of this, Irie-sama, is still unable to be in attendance, currently still in prison for blood that he did not spill. However, there is someone that is able to go in his stead.
Enter Masahiko Irie, a student as Seven Sisters High. While many would not think it possible for a student to have influence within the criminal world, Masahiko somehow manages to do so without throwing around the weight of his grandfather around... Not that he really needs to these days to have the same effect. After all, most in the criminal underworld know the relation, though few would know the true identity the person he leaves with.
While his current company is dressed in a disguise, Masahiko is merely attired in a fitted white suit with a black dress shirt and a light blue tie. Turning to Ryouko, he states, “Now remember, I took you with me. So that means no sneaking into these things on your own unless you clear it with me. Considering the stuff that happened with Takeshi and Odori, these guys are still a little wary.”


Ryouko is presently dressed as a young (if shorter) man in a nice suit, though hers is black to indicate that Masahiko is the main boss guy and she’s just a normal person who only gets black suits. She has carefully placed a little mustachio under her lips and has gelled her hair up and swept it back except for one diagonal dash across her forehead. It’s just easier for her to pretend to be a fellow Yakooza fellow. It’s harder for her to pretend to be a guy but she’s not inexperienced at it. She uses some makeup to ‘roughen up’ the face so she doesn’t look like such a pretty boy.

“Aren’t they both Takeshi?” Ryouko asks, hands in her suit pocket. She talks with a somewhat lower voice to help masculinize her identity. “But nahh—I’m just curious, promise.” Not exactly the most thrilling promise admittedly. Hopefully SHE isn’t the one walking into a deathtrap.


Kazuo finds himself here after a conversation with Fumiko the day before. She’d suggested that he could be a bouncer or security guard when he finished school. Not permanently, no. Just long enough to pay for a college education. Kazuo’s only second-year, but it’s never too early to be planning for one’s future.
But anyway.

That’s what Kazuo’s doing here, he’s checking out clubs from the outside, to see which ones have visible bouncers that work outside. He observes them carefully, trying to see what they do, how they do it, and what’s involved. Assumedly it’s a dangerous job, but probably not all the time. So that’s what he’s trying to do, observe and see for himself.

Kazuo’s dressed pretty casually—blue polo shirt and faded jeans. Though he has a pair of heavy steel-toed boots on, and a black leather jacket with a warm lining of faux fur that’s visible at the neckline.

Standing near a streetlamp, the only thing really missing is a cigarette in his mouth and/or a coin to flip. He’s not really trying to be obvious, but he’s not really hiding, either. It’d be pretty hard to do that anyway, since his breath makes little white puffs of condensation as it leaves his mouth, so he’s not bothering to hide.


“Oh, I meant Ozawa, not Odori... My bad,” Masahiko admits to the girl who is dressed up like a dude. “Well, you know the phrase about curiosity and the cat... And despite what some claim satisfaction rarely brings people back,” he muses simply.

Meanwhile one of the smaller gang leaders, a ne’er do well in his twenties makes his way toward Kazuo. There is a long gaze given as the man dressed in a simple black track suit looks over Kazuo. “So... Who you with kid?” he inquires simply, the Yakuza gang leader figuring that the secret singer was waiting outside for his boss to come out.


“Curiousity got the cat hugs and treats right?” Ryouko asks, intentionally missing the point. She has actually had some interaction with Fumiko but she seems to have forgotten (or as Ryouko suspects ‘forgotten’) all about it despite the exchanges supposedly being heated. Yeah she’s pretty sure it’s a person very good at lying to themselves. She isn’t thinking about this at present though it still kind of bothered her, that exchange. She is not wholly immune to slings or arrows.

She slows as she sees a minor commotion occuring but doesn’t speak up immediately because it may be nothing, but she was taught to keep her eyes open and to think for herself. This is just an extension of that.

“I don’t know them too well.” Ryouko admits. “But I’l do my best, ‘boss’.” Wink.


Kazuo may see Masahiko and Ryouko, but from the outside the pair of them look like they’re just businesspeople talking quietly. Probably about one of those deals they make all the time. The two of them look the type to be more concerned about their suits getting dirty than anything else. Especially the one in white. White suits must be hard to keep clean, Kazuo muses silently.

“Huh?” Kazuo looks to the ne’er-do-well that speaks to him and blinks. “Uh...I’m here by myself. Was just checking out some of the clubs out this way.” Then he stands straight, no longer leaning on the streetlamp. “I’m not from Sumaru,” he admits.

Probably not the best thing to admit to a gang leader—recruiting someone from out of territory could mean an expansion of territory. Or at the very least, eyes in another part of Japan. But Kazuo doesn’t know he’s a gang leader, and he’s the honest type until he has the need to be otherwise. So he’s honest; he’s not from here.


There is a long pause as Ryouko’s comment gets a small frown. She knows what he means and he knows that she knows what he means So he lets the matter slide for the time being. Thankfully, the matter of Fumiko is not mentioned, as he has already had his own interactions with the young woman, most of which were awkward or unpleasant. While Masahiko can play nice with enemies, it does not mean he enjoys it or wishes to.

As for Masahiko’s suits? It’s easy to keep them clean when you constantly have to replace them. His last one was roasted off a few weeks ago, but it doesn’t stop him from continuing to look nice. After all, appearances count in the world of the Yakuza.

As Kazou speaks to the Yakuza, Masahiko gives it a passing glance, but nothing more. Doesn’t seem to concern him for the time being.

The ne’er-do-well hrms as he peers over the man again. “Checking the clubs? Looking for work or something like that? Or you just enjoying the Sumaru night life? Beats the hell out of Lunarvale, that’s for sure!”


Ryouko fitzes with her mustache. Hm hm~. She is okay with a black suit, she doesn’t think she’d look good in white. Grey is fine. Maybe one day she’ll get a nice red one for the fun of it. But white? She doesn’t think white looks good on her.

Masahiko doesn’t spare it a second glance. Ryouko turns her attention to Masahiko and asks, “Are either of them one of yours?” She asks. “He’s not in trouble, is he? I admit despite my occupation, I’m not particularly abreast of criminal ettiquette.” Since a lot of her targets ARE criminals, she’s sort of in an even more isolated aspect of the community than just plain old boring criminals.

“I thought Sumaru was Sumiyoshi territory.” She adds thoughtfully.


Maybe something about the guy sets Kazuo’s danger sense to tingling, who knows? But whatever the reason, Kazuo raises an eyebrow at the man. “Eh...I dunno. Just looking around, I guess. Never hurts to check out your options for the future, right?” He gives a shrug. “Never been to Lunarvale, is there a reason I should avoid it?”

Kazuo is not being overtly rude or disrespectful to the man. In fact, he’s directing his attention to another subject to try and keep the man off-guard, so he can observe more closely. Kazuo may be a high school student, but he’s not as stupid as he plays at being.

He notes Ryouko looking at him, and his gaze raises to meet the gaze for a moment. If Masahiko and Ryouko are close enough, they may just sense his resonance, since he’s not exactly able to hide it. And the accosting is making him a little uncomfortable, truth be told, so his resonance is a little more prevalent than it would be otherwise, to those who can sense it.


“It is for the most part,” Masahiko replies, answering the last comment first. “It’s the NWO’s support that makes that possible. One of the reasons I give the Sumiyoshi so much crap. They get shut down and the NWO themselves have to get their hands dirty. Or at least find a new crony.”

As Ryouko decides that the two are important enough to note, Irie hrms as he looks toward them. If the resonance is noted, Masahiko doesn’t show it. “Almost positive either of them are Yamaguchi-gumi,” he notes simply, able to tell just from their attire and dress. After all, there are always signs. Choice of colors to wear, style of clothing. Masahiko himself doesn’t prescribe to any of those things, but then again, despite his demeanor and connections, he is not officially Yakuza; he’s just a surprisingly civil-minded criminal who knows a lot of important people. As Ryouko shows concern, Masahiko gives a small sigh. He doesn’t think there will be trouble, but for whatever reason, he just nods. “I guess I’ll check it out.” And with that said, he begins to walk over, regardless if Ryouko joins him or not.

“Checking your options? What the hell you mean by that?” the man in the black suit inquires to Kazuo. While not flat out rude, it is clear that the response given is not the sort that the Yakuza was looking for. Thankfully, it seems that the career criminal is more than able to state exactly what he wants from the young man, unaware that company is on the way.


Ryouko doesn’t seem to notice the Resonance. This doesn’t mean she doesn’t notice it, she just is good at pretending so if she did and chose to pretend otherwise, it’s pretty unclear. Her own resonance is typically masked while she’s in disguise. As the talk gets more heated, though, she can’t quite mask the concern she is feeling. Trouble is trouble regardless of whether any mind is paid to it or even if it actually results in a commotion.

Options? Is he hoping to join the Yakuza, Ryouko wonders. He kind of looks like a tough. Do people just ‘join’ the Yakuza anyway? Hm.

She follows along, but lets Masahiko take the lead.

“Ahh, so your involvement is a sort of subtle strike against another enemy...” She murmurs quietly.


Kazuo seems fairly unintimidated thus far, and the rather forceful response from the man talking to him draws a raised eyebrow. “Well, there will be a time I’ll have to find a job, right?” he inquires, a slight touch of something wry in his voice. But either way, it’s pretty clear that he feels zero threat from this older fellow who’s talking to him. He crosses his arms over his chest and turns a flat gaze on the fellow.

He does notice Masahiko and Ryouko heading his way...and he frowns slightly. Now that he can see their faces, he has to wonder. Has he seen the man in the white suit before...?


“Well, whatever, just don’t pretend like you know this place,” the man states, merely giving a shrug and walking off. That was rather quick and sudden. The answer is given is on noticed the swift exchange between Masahiko and the Yakuza, which took nothing more than a glance.

While in mid look to send the unspoken message of ‘please **** off’ to the gang leader, Irie gives a reply toward Ryouko. “It’s a bit more... complicated than that, but yeah.”
Reaching into his pocket, Masahiko withdraws a box of candy cigarettes. It is an odd thing for a teen to pull out, but he lets the sugar treat hand from his mouth as he puts the box away. “Everything alright?” he asks Kazuo with a causal tone.


Ryouko dips her head politely to Kazuo as she observes him. She watches after the young tough as he leaves and then looks back to Kazuo. She hadn’t really thought too deeply of this entirely self invented character she made up just to hang out with Masahiko more whom she is starting to think of something as a ‘bro’, the ‘broness’ factor being something of a vague matter for the moment, odd comment about him benig a good ‘niisan’ notwithstanding.

“Sorry if we interrupted something important.” Ryouko says desipte knowing full well this was probably a welcome interruption.


Kazuo gives a slight ‘hmph’ as the older man walks away. He didn’t remember ever pretending like he knew the place. In fact, he had mentioned he’d never been here before. “...Obviously not a lot of thinking going on here...” he mutters under his breath.

He turns his attention to Masahiko and Ryouko, answering their concerns in turn. First Masahiko, “Yeah...dunno what his problem was.” Actually he had an idea, but...he didn’t want to let anyone else know that. “Wanted to know who I was with, I told him I’m here by myself.” Shrug. He wants to leave the impression that he has no idea what’s really going on. Nope. He knows nathink.

Then to Ryouko, “Nope. Just some guy being a prick, I guess.” He offers a smile, and with a completely serious tone of voice, “Thank you...I didn’t wanna rearrange his face in public. Tends to attract the wrong kind of attention.” From the sounds of it, he’s not just bragging about his strength.


If there was ever one to understand about having the power to do bad things to someone and not doing them, it would be Masahiko. He doesn’t really give much in the way of approval or disapproval of the matter. “Ah well, glad we were able to help out. I’m Masahiko Irie.” The name might be familiar, those that have a good memory of the news a few years back might have heard the name involving a murder case, others involved with crime would know of ‘Irie-sama’ the high ranked Yamaguchi that was recently arrested. Despite the always present chance for recognition, Masahiko is at least using his full name, suggesting at least some comfort with the reputation his name is getting.

Ryouko doesn’t introduced, as Irie has no idea if she does want to be introduced and if so, by what name. After all, as a straight shooter, the last thing the young man in the suit would want to do is get aliases of the cleaver young girl mixed up.


“Don’t worry about it.” Ryouko says. “Name’s...” She thinks about it. “Akira. Nice to meet you.” Ryo is just way too close to her actual name. She doesn’t give her surname either. Hint: It’s also Akira. “You’re right not to worry about it so much. People like to show off. It’s just how they are.”

She rubs the back of her neck quietly. She still seems to be a-pondering, but doesn’t really seem to be thinking TOO deeply, a sort of curious kind of pondering.

“Heh.” She adds. “It’s better to avoid fights if you can. Even if you could rearrange his face, you’d probably be asking for a face rearranging yourself. Violence should always be kept to a minimum, if you can get away with it. Sometimes you can’t, but you should always try for it.”


Kazuo nods to Masahiko’s introduction, offering to both, “Kazuo Yuudai.” He has no real fame—or infamy—connected to his name, unless one has connections amongst Inaba’s biker gangs. Even that’s not much, a couple of the thugs there claim Kazuo’s either a demon or has one serving him. Either way, not much can be attached to the name aside from a face.

Ryouko’s introduction draws a nod, though Kazuo’s already offered his name, so there’s no need to offer it again. Though the other statement draws a smirk. “That and the more your enemies can see how you do what you do, the better the chance they can eventually figure out how to counter it,” he notes. He currently has a half-smile on his face, and he’s standing fairly relaxed.


“Suppose so,” Masahiko replies simply, crunching some of cigerette in his mouth so it is now only half the length. He appears ready to say something else, when suddenly a black sedan pulls up with tinted windows. The fact that Masahiko looks back and is not alarmed suggests that it is his. “Well, it looks like my ride is here... I’m sorry we can’t talk more.” With that, he pull out a buisness card for Empathy for Apathy. “If you’re in Sumaru and need someone to show you the ropes or need someone to talk to, just let me know, Yuudai-san.”

That said, Irie glances over toward ‘Akira’. “You coming with me or would you like to talk to with Yuudai-san some more?”


Akira Akira who is totally not a reference to Akira despite looking nothing like Akira whose last name is not also Akira doesn’t recognize the name. It doesn’t seem to mean anything to her. He’s just a norrrrrrrrrrmal person which clearly means that he’s not worth bothering with! Or so it would be if Akira Akira thought that way. Akira Akira believes everybody is worth talking to, and if it seems like they aren’t saying much—well—it means that you just have to work harder!

And Akira Akira thinks a possible avenue has been spotted.

“Well,” She says. “Fighting isn’t strictly a bunch of special moves. While there may be a trick here and there, if you can only fight so long as someone doesn’t know what to expect, then you might be in trouble. And someone who specializes in Countering generally would prefer to not need to see the trick at all before setting one up. It’s about visualizing what their violent aim is andd reacting rather than wholly anticipation. Anticipation is dangerous if you’re dealing with someone who isn’t really a fully trained fighter—those types of people can be unpredictable, and most people are just like that.”

Akira Akira glances over to Masahiko and says, “Ah, right.” He turns back to Kazuo. “My apologies, looks like we’re heading out. Take care of yourself, okay?” She turns and jogs after Masahiko.


Kazuo looks up at the sedan curiously. But when no one seems to be worried about it, he relaxes. He accepts the business card, looking at it a moment as Masahiko makes the offer. “Thank you,” he offers. He adds as Masahiko begins to leave, “It was nice to meet you, Irie-san.”

Kazuo blinks at ‘Akira’s statment. “Oh. Well, that’s true,” he agrees. His statement’s pretty simple, but it is in response to all that ‘Akira’ has said. and when they’re heading out? He nods, and offers, “Thank you. You too.” He also offers a wave as they drive away.




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