A Week Later
I arrived at the casino to pick up the katana I had dropped off with Ryota when I came back to town. I entered through the backdoor as usual and a took a peek at the casino pit on my way to the second floor. All the new game tables, chips, and seats we commissioned were in place and the building looked brand new.
'It looks good.'
I went up to the second floor and barged into Ryota's office as usual.
"Ayo, Ryota, looks like we're ready-" My words stopped when I realized he had an unexpected guest.
I've been in and out of Ryota's office a lot recently and other than his employees giving him reports, I had never run into anyone else. Especially others from his gang, who Ryota had given me the impression weren't interested in the casino.
"You two seem very familiar with each other for him to be walking in here like this, Ryota." Kurata said from where he had been examining Ryota's office, his hands behind his back.
Now I was suddenly face to face with the Yamaguchi-gumi's Headquarters Chief.
'What's he doing here?' I wondered.
"Heh." Ryota could only chuckle nervously in response.
Kurata narrowed his eyes as he studied me. "Where have I seen you before...ah, so that's how it is." Kurata nodded as if he figured something out. "I had been curious who your collaborator was, since I knew you weren't capable of something like this, Ryota. I must admit that no one in our 'family' would have been able to come up with something like this."
Kurata gestured around us.
"I had been expecting someone you had met in prison. It's awfully clever of you to utilize an asset from our old collection route. I wouldn't have thought of something like that, since, well I'm sure you know the type of people we usually dealt with." Kurata said before he turned to me again.
'It's actually the other way around.' Ryota must have been thinking the same thing because he had a strange look on his face.
"If I recall correctly, Umezaki was it?"
I nodded, surprised he remembered me.
"You siblings have done well for yourself since I've last saw you. I was a little surprised when I received a report that one of the buildings on our watchlist had been purchased under your name." Kurata nodded before he gestured at the window with his head and walked over to it. "Which reminds me, it seems what you are doing here has put this place on someone's watchlist."
Ryota followed along and seeing as he was saying all this in front of me, I did as well.
Kurata opened the window so that there was only a slight gap to peek through. "See over there, across the street? That man handing out fliers."
"What about him?" Ryota asked. "I see him."
I peeked through the gap and spotted an unassuming man in regular clothes, handing out fliers to people walking by him.
"It seems that he's a ninja."
"Him? How do you know?" Ryota asked in alarm.
"He's been seen snooping around boss' place too. It was a woman last month. Our friend from Shimamaki City says they've had trouble with people snooping around."
"I've never seen one before, but I thought ninjas would look different, he looks like uhh...just like a normal person."
That was exactly what I had thought. I had two images of ninjas in my mind. One was someone covered up from head-to-toe in all black, sneaking in the shadows, and throwing shurikens, kunais, and smoke bombs. While the other one was a headband wearing ninja-wizard casting magic spells with hand seals.
"Most ninjas will have the same appearance as anyone you can find on the streets, if they are dressed up then it is for a specific reason."
"Like what?"
"Many reasons. For stealth, for battle, or even as misdirection, so that people like you won't realize that there are others like him around." I heard Ryota audibly gulp. "You have more responsibilities now, which means you will also learn more sensitive information, so be very careful of what you say and where you say it. Remember what happened to the Matsumoto-gumi?"
"I thought they were taken down because they crossed the Town Lord."
"They were. But do you think he could take them down so easily on his own? They were bigger than we are currently. He had outside help."
Ryota was now looking around nervously.
"Remember, the walls always has ears listening, especially as we move further up in our line of business. You should watch what you discuss in here from now on." Kurata said as he glanced my way. "Both of you."
"I got it." Ryota said as both of us nodded.
"As for the ninja outside, you don't need to worry about him. Boss says their type are usually the bottom rung who didn't make the cut and are just doing general long-term undercover and surveillance work. You can tell by how we've caught his tail."
"Thank god." Ryota sighed in relief. "But who sent him?"
"We don't know yet. Yamainu Castle? Rivals? Or a third party? it could have been anyone. But you should be mindful of who you hire and who you place your trust in, our influence is starting to spread, and like honey, it will start attracting nosy little bees." Kurata said.
"Is there a way to tell if someone is a ninja or not?"
"I've heard that many of them are trained from childhood, so some of them may be missing a lot of common sense or have developed strange personalities, habits, or obsessions."
Ryota nodded in understanding.
"Or perhaps they might be a little too competent for their station..." Kurata said as he eyed me.
I couldn't help but feel a little pressure under his stare.
"If I hadn't personally known you from the old collection route, I may of suspected something." He added.
My breathing, which I hadn't even realized had stopped, resumed again.
"One last thing, all this attention has also caught the boss' eye, he'll be stopping by tomorrow to see what this casino of yours is about." Kurata said as he turned to leave.
"Thank you very much, Senior Brother Kurata." Ryota bowed.
"I'll be taking my leave then."
'So it wasn't Ryota's gang becoming interested in the casino but others keeping an eye on them. I should be more careful in the future, especially with this time period's equivalent of the FBI keeping tabs on Ryota and the casino. Or maybe it's more like the CIA?'
After Kurata left, Ryota went behind his desk and retrieved something.
"Here you go, my guy got you new handle cording along with changing the guard." Ryota said as he passed me a long bundle wrapped up in cloth. "The former owner shouldn't recognize it now."
"Thanks." I nodded after a quick check inside and wrapped up the katana again.
"The casino should be ready for the grand opening tomorrow."
"I'll drop by to check it out."
Leaving the casino, I returned to the restaurant.
"Someone is here to see you, he's in the office with Miss Azu." Rin said as I walked in. "And a messenger left this note."
"Alright, thanks." I said as I grabbed the note and read through it.
'Sosuke is here in Yamainu and he's inviting me to come watch the new play he wrote.'
I hid the katana in my room upstairs before I stepped into the office to find a cleaned up Gohei sitting at the desk across from Azu.
"You're here, Mister Gohei."
"I just arrived, and I brought tons of ice with me. I was just discussing with your sister here how much I should bring over for today."
He still had his shaggy beard but at least he washed up and didn't completely reek of alcohol.
"I'll show you how much we need." I said as I turned around and led the way to the storage room.
I opened up the door to the basement and lit up a lantern before descending down the stairs. Over the last couple of days, I hired some carpenters to install a divider in the basement to keep the exit hidden. During that time, I made sure to supervise the work being done so that no one would discover the door.
"We want to turn this room into an ice storage." I said after Gohei and Azu entered the empty basement.
"You weren't kidding when you said you needed a lot of ice, and keeping it underground will help as well."
We left the restaurant together with Kin, who tagged along on my shoulder, and Gohei took us to a two-storey building where he set up shop. Inside was a beautiful woman sweeping the floor. She was in her 20s and had long, curly hair.
"You're back." The woman said with a gentle smile. "Are these two our clients?"
"Yes." Gohei nodded. "They are Azu and Zai, the Umezaki siblings. And this is my wife, Kahyou."
"It's nice to meet the two of you." She bowed formally. "I look forward to our families working together in here on."
"Likewise."
"Nice to meet you too."
After the greetings, Gohei led us to the backroom. The temperature dropped as Gohei opened the door and we found man with a large build and a child inside. The man was carrying up large boxes from the basement and loading them onto a wagon just outside the backdoor while the child sat and watched.
Gohei introduced us to the two of them as well.
"This is my son, Hakuhyou."
"Hello." The little boy waved before he spotted Kin and ran up to me excitedly. "What it's name? Can I pet it?"
After introducing them to Kin, Gohei turned to the man.
"And this is my brother-in-law, Kahyou. Other than me, you'll be working with him often in the future."
"I'm just getting your shipment ready." Kahyou said.
"They'll be needing much more than that." Gohei said as he began to help loading up the wagon.
I offered to help but they declined.
"You said you had more clients for us?" Gohei asked just as they were about to finish filling up the wagon.
"Yes."
"Can you introduce Kahyou to them while I deliver the ice?"
"Sure, I can do that."
"You sure you can handle it, Gohei?" Kahyou asked.
"I got it." Gohei waved him off.
"Bye! Come visit again." I felt that Hakuhyou waved at Kin more than me.
Azu went with Gohei back to the restaurant while Kahyou and I left the shop. We went in the direction of Junpei's inn first. We walked in silence for awhile before Kahyou broke it.
"I thought this was a scam at first, but thank you for helping Gohei out."
'I thought the same thing.'
"We're just buying some ice."
"I know. But the thought had never occurred to him until he saw you. It never occurred to us that we can make a living doing peaceful work..." He whispered the last part but I still caught it.
'Dangerous work? We're they mercenaries or ex-gang members? Why do I always seem to run into these types.'
We moved out of the way as an ox-cart came down the street.
"This country is a lot more warm, so it makes sense now why there would be a need for ice here." Kahyou said. "But Gohei was in a bad place until then. We were working horrible jobs before this and our employers had no respect for us at all. That really ate away at Gohei, and he started drinking and drinking. I fear something bad would have happened if it continued on like that."
Kahyou stopped as he turned to face me.
"So thank you very much for this, my sister is especially grateful. You gave us new hope for the future."
I felt my face heating up. "It's nothing, you guys are helping us out too. I'll show you what your ice can do and treat you guys to some good stuff once we make use of it."
"We'll be looking forward to it."
We stopped by Junpei's inn where Junpei's mother was delighted at the chance to purchase some ice, and Kin was delighted to meet his mama. I then took Kahyou to the casino and introduced him to Ryota, who ordered ice to serve with the drinks.
"This will raise the prestige of the casino for the grand opening." Ryota said. "A lot of people will be asking me to introduce to you."
"I'll be waiting for the extra work then." Kahyou smiled.
I split up with Kahyou—who went back to prepare the shipments for the inn and casino, stopped by the market to buy a few things, went back to the restaurant, and got together with Nobu.
"It's about time our restaurant adds a dessert to the menu."
"Is this something else you tried while traveling? What did you have in mind..." Nobu asked as he examined the ingredients I brought out. "With milk, eggs, sugar, ice, and vanilla?"
"I'm not too sure about the recipe and the steps, we'll have to figure that out, but the dessert is called ice cream."
The Next Day
Azu and I walked into the Minami-za theater lobby with our best robes on. We had to dress up since this was a high-end event but our clothes weren't much compared to almost everyone else, who wore clothing that cost more than 1 ryo. I also noticed that there were a few men wearing suits.
"Do you think those three will be fine running the restaurant?" Azu asked.
"They'll be fine for one show, you need to relax, you work too much." I said. "Remember what Gen'en said? Less stress."
'They've had plenty of practice already...the 3 months probationary period hasn't passed yet but I should give them a raise.'
"Ah, it's the young Sir Zai." Someone called out from the side. "I'm glad you received my invitation."
I turned to see the playwright I met at the hot spring.
"Mister Sosuke, good to see you again. This is my older sister, Azu."
"Isn't that Sosuke-sensei?" I heard someone whisper from nearby.
"Who are those two accompanying him?"
'Is this guy a big deal?' I wondered.
After the introductions, Sosuke led us to a private viewing balcony on the second floor. With a capacity for 1000 people the theatre was fully packed. I caught movement in the corner of my eye as I took in the theatre.
A few balconies away, Renji was there waving his arms wildly at me until his mother said something to cut the wind out of his sails and he sat down, but he still sent me a grin. His mother also sent a polite nod and smile. After years of visiting his house, I could guess that she said something like "stop being so uncouth." His older sister was there as well. I also spotted Jiroemon and Choubei on the other side of the theatre.
"You're in for a treat today." Sosuke said proudly. "I feel like this is my best work to date."
As the lights dimmed, a man in shredded clothing and bloodstains all over, using a large branch as a walking stick, suddenly came into the theater in a hurry.
"Wait, wait!" He shouted as he made his way onto stage and was met by a woman on stage.
"Yes?"
"Do you still have any fries left?" He asked as he breathed heavily.
"Of course." The woman smiled. "And we have a brand new item on our menu, the hamburger." The woman took out a burger from behind her and took a bite. "Delicious."
Both the man and woman turned to the crowd.
"Try the new hamburger at Umezaki's in the Isawa district." The spoke together. "It's worth the trouble."
The man and woman bowed before they left the stage.
Azu turned to me. "What was that?"
"Your brother here called in favor." Sosuke said.
The show started soon after as a voice began to narrate in an archaic way of speaking.
"A long time ago in a kingdom far, far away. The Kingdom of Good has been invaded by the Demonic Kingdom and has suffered multiple losses since the start of the invasion. A small force from a fallen town has rallied their soldiers and finally won their first victory against the Demonic Kingdom after striking at a secret base.
In the attack, the soldiers found secret plans to the Demonic Kingdom's ultimate weapon, a MOVING FORTRESS.
Princess Reina races home with the plans while being pursued by the Demonic Kingdom's evil warriors. Plans that can save her people and restore peace to the Kingdom of Good..."
...
"Genzaborou! Tell your uncle if he's getting a magic puppet, make sure it knows how to speak the southern dialect."
...
"Help me, Oji-san Ken'ichi. You're my only hope."
...
"This is your father's katana. This is the weapon of a samurai. An elegant weapon..."
...
"Do not try to frighten us with your samurai's ways, Lord Oto. Your sad devotion to that ancient martial arts..."
...
"These are not the magic puppets you are looking for."
...
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good crossbow, kid."
...
"That's no carriage...that's a moving fortress!"
...
"An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Reina has showed a weakness in the moving fortress...
The window shaft leads directly to the room of the only demonic engineer skilled enough to repair the moving fortress."
...
"You're not using your crossbow, Genzaborou. What's wrong?"
...
"May honor be with you...always."
...
"You will go to the mountains of Dagoba. There you will learn from Sword Saint Yota."
...
"Genzaburou, I am your father. Join me on the demonic side and together we can rule this kingdom as father and son."
...
"You were the Chosen One! You were suppose to destroy the demons, not join them."
...
"Genzaburou, what are you doing!? No! No! Stop! Ahhhhhh!"
...
"Master Genzaburou, there are too many of them. What are we going to do?"
...
The show ended and people gave a standing ovation before they began to chat excitedly.
"That was amazing!"
"The twist was incredible, I didn't expect it at all. I've never seen anything like that."
"I found it somewhat dark."
"A masterpiece!"
"I heard the planet is billions of years old but I happen to be lucky enough to be born in the same period as a genius like Sosuke-sensei."
"I wonder if Genzaburou's sister is going to join them?" Azu said.
Sosuke turned and looked at me expectantly.
"Well? What did you think?"