Yuuri was given the usual warm greeting by his mom when he walked through the front doors of the Yutopia Resort.
"Hey, mom. I'm back early today." Yuuri smiled.
He went to go put his brief case away in his room before joining her in the lounge area. His dad and sister were there as well.
"Yuuri! You're just in time for dinner, quite a rare occasion," Toshio said, patting Yuuri on the back.
"Th-thanks, dad," Yuuri chirped, trying to be as chipper as possible. "Um, actually, before we have dinner. There's something I need to tell you guys. It's something with work."
"How about you tell us about it over some hot food? Would you like a katsudon?" Hiroko asked, already heading out to the kitchen.
"Sure, mom. That'd be great." He nodded and settled back down.
It was in the middle of all of them eating that Yuuri cleared his throat and looked up from his food. He had to tell them, though obviously not the whole truth.
"Um, so, they want me to go over to Tokyo for a case. I'm not exactly sure how long I'll be gone, but I'll let you know when I find out. I promise I'll keep in touch every day." He finally managed to say, looking to the three of them.
They were silent for a moment before grinning and applauding Yuuri's achievement. Yuuri breathed a sigh of relief at the reaction, at least he had their support even though he was leaving out a very important piece of the reason why he had to go to Tokyo.
"Tokyo! My, you'll have to take lots of pictures, Yuuri. Congratulations!" Hiroko patted his back and encouraged him to keep eating his katsudon.
Yuuri tried his best to hide the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes as he continued to eat. He couldn't stop thinking about how he didn't know how long he was going to be undercover. He savored looking at all their faces, not knowing when he'd see them again.
That night, sleep didn't come easily. He silently cried into the pillow and clutched at the sheets. He was going to be walking among Yakuza and calling wherever they lived his home for the next who knows how long? Sometime during the night, he managed to fall asleep, only to be woken up by his alarm, opening his puffy, red eyes to turn it off. Soon after, he got a call from the chief, telling him what to pack and where to meet them.
"Alright, I'll be there soon."
With a heavy heart, he said goodbye to his family, giving them all tight hugs and savoring that moment and how being hugged by loved ones felt. On the train, he held his head in his arms and just let the tears fall. He didn't care at this point if people stared at the blatant red eyes and pouty lip. This was difficult after all. He was just glad he'd still be going by his first name.
Phichit was there with the chief, waiting by a car for Yuuri. He gave Yuuri a sympathetic smile.
"We may be apart for this, but I'll always be in constant contact with you, Yuuri. It's going to be okay."
"Thanks, Phichit." He managed to give him a little smile as he climbed into the backseat with him. "So, where are we going first?" He directed it to the chief.
"Tattoo parlor. Don't worry, Katsuki. You're not getting any real tattoos. They're a new kind of temporary, airbrush tattoos of sorts. They should stay looking good for two weeks or so, then you'll have to come back for touch ups, then a wardrobe change, getting you contacts, change of hair style, nothing drastic just some hair gel, and getting your new personality down. Then I'll have you meet with the Yakuza leader."
Yuuri took a deep breath and nodded, knowing that from now on, he'd have to be calm, cool, and collected, not the jumpy, shy twenty-four-year-old he usually was.
He was quite surprised as he looked in the mirror once the artist was done with the temporary tattoos. They covered his torso up to his chest then went down his shoulders to the middle of his forearms. They were intricate patterns of dragons on his torso and flowers along his arms.
"W-wow! This looks great! I'm looking more Yakuza already."
He prayed that they'd hold up for a good amount of time. He wouldn't want to be questioned as to why his tattoos looked like they were fading away. Of course, he could always run over here if he needed a quick touch up.
As for clothes, it was decided that he should keep things simple. The leader already had a tie picked out for him, so Yuuri went with simple black pants that fit to his legs rather well, a belt, and a white button up. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and the top two buttons left undone to show off his collar bones and the tattoos that showed along with the ones on his arms. Next, he was given a supply of contacts, putting his glasses away in a case for safe keeping while he wore the contacts. His hair was slicked back with hair gel, giving him a sleeker look.
"There, you already look like a Yakuza." The chief nodded and patted Yuuri on the shoulders. "Next is meeting the boss. You ready? After this, there's no turning back."
"I-I'm ready. I can do this," Yuuri said firmly, trying to exude as much confidence as possible, even though he was shaking and felt like crying on the inside.
"Remember, you can always call your partner or me. We'll do nightly checkups where you call us and let us know what's happening, okay?"
"Okay."
Yuuri was brought to a huge apartment complex in the middle of Tokyo. Only the chief accompanied him inside. The place was definitely luxurious with huge ceilings and expensive looking everything. They took the elevator up to the top floor and walked over to the penthouse apartment and were met at the door by two huge guys.
"I have my detective who will be going undercover in your group. Your boss was expecting him." He pushed the small suitcase towards Yuuri. "This is where I have to leave you, Katsuki, or I should say Amori now. Good luck."
Yuuri almost wanted to reach out and stop him from leaving, but just stood there, twiddling his thumbs and waiting for someone to point him in the right direction. He looked at the two large men with wide eyes and followed when they motioned for him to do so. The pent house apartment was just as luxurious as the lobby. There were several people inside, all staring Yuuri down. He kept his eyes forward, trying to look as confident as possible, but he didn't like being stared at. He didn't like being the center of attention.
"Boss, the detective's here," one of them said.
They ushered Yuuri inside what looked to be the master bedroom, then left him alone with the boss, closing the door behind them, which made Yuuri jump a bit. The boss had a piercing gaze and took his time in studying Yuuri.
"You're trembling, which is understandable. You've been thrust from a life you've always known, but we'll have to fix that. A Yakuza doesn't tremble even if they're afraid. You'll have to have a calm demeanor in order for the Bratvas to believe you are Yakuza. Two are rather young, but the older one will know something is up if he sees you trembling like that." He stood up and walked closer to Yuuri so he could inspect him. "You excel in appearance. Your face shape is perfect. No one would question that you're related to me. You look the part now you must learn to act the part. I want you to learn one of my most trusted members on a job before you even come close to the Bratva leaders. Think of it as a crash course. You'll spend today doing that. The Russians arrive tomorrow, so we don't have much time to prepare you, and I apologize for that, but I can't help the circumstances."
"I understand, sir. I promise I'll learn as fast as I can," Yuuri said calmly with a bow.
The Yakuza looked rather impressed, giving him an interested smile. "Now, that was quite good. You changed your demeanor just like that," he said, snapping his fingers. "Perhaps it won't take you very long to be able to gain a Yakuza persona." He looked Yuuri up and down once more before dismissing him. "He'll be waiting outside the door for you. Once he thinks you're mostly ready, you'll be shown to the apartment where you'll be staying. We do own this apartment complex after all."
An hour went by until Yuuri was released and brought to an apartment which would serve as his home for as long as he was undercover. He was surprised by how fast his Yakuza demeanor had been approved by the other member. Of course, there were things to work out like the trembling he did from time to time, but he was a bit more confident in that he could keep his insecurities and anxiety on the inside while somewhat maintaining a cool and confident outside.
"You at least look like a stone-cold killer," the Yakuza remarked before sending Yuuri on his way.
As soon as he was inside and by himself again, Yuuri collapsed onto the bed, taking much needed deep breaths and just unwinding there from having to bottle up most of his emotions from meeting the boss up until now.
How am I going to keep this up?
Just from pure emotional exhaustion, Yuuri passed out right there, snoring softly after a while. The Russian mafia leaders were to arrive tomorrow, and Yuuri was still nowhere near prepared, but he supposed that didn't matter to the Yakuza working with him. If anything, they probably wanted to meet these "Bratvas" as soon as possible. From now on when he wasn't in the privacy of this apartment, Yuuri would have to be a confident Yakuza, and he was still having a hard time believing he could.
"Victor! Yuri! Would you two slow down? We'll have plenty of time to see Japan. There's no need to rush through the airport," Yakov called after the other two.
He was getting on in years after all, and having to keep up with those two youngsters was going to put him in the grave soon.
"Let's wait for Yakov, Yuri. He is much older than us after all," Victor said, holding onto the younger one's shoulder.
"Yakov's still a Bratva. He's just gonna have to keep up somehow," Yuri whined, glaring back at Victor. "I've never been to Japan before!"
"And like he said, we'll have plenty of time to see all the sights, but business comes first."
Yuri grumbled something under his breath but nodded with a "let go of me," and stood by Victor's side. When together, the three spoke mainly in Russian, not wanting any eavesdroppers to hear what they were talking about, and they were relatively safe doing this in Japan since hardly anyone spoke Russian there.
"We're meeting with a Yakuza group in the center of Tokyo at a bar. It has some private rooms where we can have some privacy. Yuri, you be on your best behavior, and Vitya, you keep Yuri in line, and try to keep flirting with the foreign men down to a minimum at least during the meeting."
"I can't make any promises, but I'll try my best," Victor said, with a little smirk.
"And Yuri! Will you tie your tie for once? I don't care if you think it's 'cooler' to have it hang there. When we meet with the leaders, you're going to be proper and tie it."
"Ugh, fine," Yuri sighed, not in the mood for another lecture on proper ways to tie a tie again.
With that, the Russians had arrived in Japan and were swift to head for their hotel and prepare for the meeting tomorrow, a rather important one since it would first establish relations and maybe a possible alliance, which could only further their power.