Chapter 9:

As Takenaga predicted, Kyouhei excelled amongst the mafiaso ranks like lightening. He was just below the second in command within half a year. And as he continued to please the Boss, the others were filled with unease. Even more so when the Boss ended up with cancer and decided to have Kyouhei take over the group.

It was almost August when Kyouhei was attacked by his "family." He was able to kill quite a few of them, but one of them were able to scar his face pretty badly.

Most of the scars from that day healed, Takenaga told Sunako, but the ones that remain…well…I don't know if they'll ever go away.

Kyouhei blocked the ones he could and injured or killed as many as he was able to get. When one guy cut him, twice, he was able to readjust his position to break the guys neck, despite the blood that dripped into his eyes. Once that happened, no one approached him.

"Well?" Kyouhei shouted. "Are you satisfied? If you're with me, I might let you live when I' m Boss, but don't count on it!"

His assailants fled, and Kyouhei walked on towards who knows where. Takenaga and Ranmaru just so happened to find him and called an ambulance. Takenaga, Ranmaru, and Yuki took turns waiting for him to wake up from the blood loss.

When Kyouhei did wake up, all three of them were trying to decide who would watch over him next. They rushed over to the bed.

"Kyouhei no baka!"

"What happened?"

"We thought you were gonna die!"

Kyouhei waited patiently for them to calm down. Something was wrong and they could tell. "I'm fine, right?"

"Not really. You're pretty banged up and you have a number of stitches in. You're face…well…it has two very bad cuts. The doctors said that the possibility of you dying was high, so we were pretty scared."

Kyouhei groaned, partly in pain, partly in frustration. He winced when his fingers traced the stitches on his right cheek and over his left eye. "I feel like Frankenstein."

"You look like Frankenstein right now, but…you know, this could actually raise your sex-appeal," Ranmaru said.

"Great," Kyouhei said, flinging up his hands in frustration. "More flocks of girls bombarding me wherever I go. It's a miracle I'm even able to do my job!"

"Yes," Takenaga said, his voice resonating the displeasure. "Now, why of all things would you become a Yakuza?"

The silence filled the room. Kyouhei sighed. "It's what I wanted to do, it's what I'm comfortable doing. You don't see me harping about you're career choice, do you?"

"That's not my point, Kyouhei. Yuki filled us in that you're a Yakuza—"

"Soon to be a Yakuza Boss; my boss caught cancer and they don't think there's any hope so he chose me to take over the business."

"You call what you do business!?"

"Stuff it," Kyouhei said, leaning against the pillow. Which hospital are we at?"

"Tokyo Central Hospital."

"When I'm able to move around on my own, I'll go talk to my Boss."

"He's here?"

"Yeah."

"But Kyouhei!"

"I need to rest, guys. Just leave me alone, ok?"