The conference room was mostly quiet, with men in business suits talking pleasantly to one another around a square of tables. Some of them held drinks, others talked into their mobile phones, provided they could get a signal in the Fukushima building. The thick black phones they carried were light years away from the gray bricks they'd had in previous years, but it still had its flaws. The door swung open and a man in a light gray suit came in with his hand over his face.

"What's wrong, Yusaku? Headache?" One of the men of the Shibusawa Family laughed at him but the man in the suit shook his head.

"No. Well, yes, in a way."

"Are you already drunk? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Majima is on his way over."

Everyone in the conference room was suddenly paying attention. They wanted to know how close he was, whether they had time to record themselves as absentees, or how many shots of whiskey they could get in before the man got upstairs. Knowing Majima, there was a decent chance that he would run up the stairs instead of going up the elevator, just because it seemed like more fun to him at the moment. The room was buzzing until Shibusawa came to the front of the room and slammed his hand onto the table.

"Stop acting like idiots! God knows we'll have enough of that once he gets here. Just ignore him and get through this meeting, then we won't have to deal with him again for months."

"Who made that lunatic a Patriarch, anyway?" An Endo lieutenant shook his head. "No one who's known him for more than ten minutes would let him run a convenience store, much less a family."

The door was kicked open by a snakeskin boot with a silver toe and heel, and the lunatic burst through it with a grin.

"Yo," he said, his Osakan accent noticeable in the single word. "You guys haven't started the meeting without me, have ya?"

"How could we?" Shibusawa rubbed his temples. "You'd just come flying through the door spouting nonsense like always. It's better to wait for you and just let you get it out of your system."

"What nonsense?" Majima Goro, patriarch of the Majima Family, also known as the Mad Dog of Shimano, shook his head and put a hand on his hip. He was a slim man, but the lack of a shirt under the snakeskin printed jacket that he wore revealed that he was as well-built as any of the men in the room. Hints of the irezumi on his shoulders peeked around the lapels of the jacket, tight leather pants rounded out the outfit, and the silver tipped snakeskin boots he'd used to kick open the door were the finishing touch. Just like Majima, it was bizarre, eclectic, and light years away from anyone else in the room. The snake eyepatch over his left eye only made him stand out more, but nobody wanted to mess with him.

"Never mind. Let's go ahead and get this meeting started. We're missing one person but I have no doubt they'll be along soon. This meeting is halfway to talk about her anyway." Shibusawa sat down alongside the representative from the Tojo Clan.

"Her?" Majima sat down and crossed one leg over his knee. "What's a woman doing coming to a yakuza meeting?"

Before anyone could answer, a clicking of women's shoes came hurrying down the hallway toward the door. Even though they were quick steps, they sounded businesslike and the men all stopped and turned to the door as if an honored guest was about to be received.

A moment later the door opened and a woman came through the door. Her hair was in an updo, clipped with a tortoiseshell comb, and a streak of green ran up the side and disappeared into the curls the comb held in check. She wore a black business suit whose skirt came above her knees, a red open-throated shirt, and a small gold pin shone on her lapel. When she walked further into the room, they could see that the bottoms of her black heels were a deep red.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice strong as she bowed and apologized. "My cab from the airport got into a wreck and I had to mediate a fight between the drivers." The Endo man laughed.

"Mediate? The Demon Lady of Sonozaki doesn't mediate! My guess is that they're stuck in their own trunks minus a limb or two." The others laughed and she joined them.

"Just a broken leg and some arms." She looked up at the Tojo representative, then bowed. "I'm Sonozaki Izumi. Please excuse my lateness." Before the head of the meeting could reply, Majima stood up, his mouth hanging open as he stared at her.

"Izu-chan?" As soon as he spoke, she looked over at him with wide eyes.

"Oh my God... Goro?"