I was having a bowl of ramen at a small stand in the market street with a junior of mine. Across the street from where we were at were two other of our guys checking out a toy store for their wife and kids. Each of us were armed with bamboo short-swords. Usually a beat down would require more than just four guys to enact but coordinating an escape with five or eight people meant that at least a couple of us would get caught so I opted to only bring three with me. Two were my senpai, and I thought my kohai needed the training.

A band of seven men walked down the market street led by a man in crisp white suits wearing sunglasses. A gaudy sort of affair straight out the seventies. Old-fashioned for some but us gokudo were always behind the time so I'd say he was dressed appropriate for the era he was in.

There was a nightclub that my captain was interested in. It wasn't anything special but it would for sure increase his earnings. He was late though, for some out-of-towners had beaten him to the punch and purchased the place. Any other time it would've been all right. But the club was in our area and they came unannounced. What else should we take it as other than a declaration of war?

The seven men came into our ambush. I bounded off my seat and cracked the hard bamboo sword against one of the soldier's kneecap and he fell and screamed until his lungs were empty and all he could do was to gurgle wetly in his throat.

The rest of them turned to me with wide-eyed looks. I lashed a blow across another's chin and he stumbled to the side and tripped and stayed on the ground.

"What the-?" the underboss let out in surprise. My senpais and kohai were none the better and had gotten a moment too long for them to rush out with bamboo swords in hand. A bedlam of pained cries and dry cracks and dry snapping of bones sounded in our little fight. Somebody's skull cracked and he fell and screamed and rolled around. Another's forearm was broken and fell and stumbled away and ran. Some didn't give much of a fight at all and had yielded to the beatings or had ran away. We gave it hard to the underboss. We cracked our swords upon his ribs until one of us felt them yielded and said dumbly: "I think we might've broken his ribs."

We flee the scene quickly, leaving the beaten men half-conscious, half-alive and dove into a car that had finished a lap around one block and then was driven east towards the many abandoned buildings. We wiped down our weapons and disposed of them and switched cars and headed west towards Miyama.

We walked around Miyama district like a band of merry men looking for a night of fun. We hit a bar and drank a few and swapped stories with some and I declared "Drinks are on me!" for everybody to hear. The people cheered and went on. We stayed there for an hour. I wanted to play billiard so I invited my kohai along and we played eightball. I hit stripes and he hit solids. From the mounted speakers on the walls were the vocals of Claudia Mori.

We hit the streets late in the night and there were barely any taxi to be seen. We walked as a band of idiots through Miyama Town and crossed the bridge singing the national anthem. Over at Shinto, we caught a cab at last and boarded it. First destination was for my two senpais. They lived pretty close to each other so it wasn't a problem. One with his wife and the other with a girl. Second destination was my kohai's. I went with him to his house and was driven away by his mom as she bolted out of the door hysterically, cursing me and yelling obscene things about how much of bad influence I was on her son. I couldn't argue with any of it.

I ran out of money for the cab so I decided to walk towards my apartment instead. It took a while but there was little trouble in my way. I picked up a letter that was said to have arrived earlier this afternoon and placed it on my bed and I took off my jacket and trousers and opened the window and looked outside to the city. I got to my bed and picked up the gun underneath my pillow. It was Colt .38 Super Match. I sat by the edge of the bed and took out the magazine and placed it by my hip. I pulled the slide to the rear and pushed the slide-catcher up. I looked into the chamber and down the barrel and into the floor. I loaded the magazine and unlatch the slide and walked to the window.

Something moved in the shadow in an alley. I aligned my irons straight down at it and look into the dark. I stood there for a long time. I pressed down the hammer with a thumb and pulled the trigger just by a little and pushed the hammer up all the way and released the trigger. I closed the window and replaced my gun underneath my pillow and opened the letter and read it and discarded it into a waste bin at the foot of the bed and turned off all the lights and then slept.

I went to Miyama by morning after breakfast and three cups of coffee. Headed south and then westward, reaching the park. It was a sunny sort of summer that day, the wind was cool and refreshing, the park was packed and lively and filled with cheers. Tohsaka Tokiomi was sitting on a wheelchair next to a bench, watching peacefully ahead. I followed his gaze towards a woman and two girls. I recognized one as Tohsaka Sakura. She seemed to be better, but… better doesn't mean anything. I walked to Tokiomi and stood by his side and joined him.

"You got my letter."

"It's why I'm here."

"Sit, why don't you?" he gestured to the bench beside him.

I sat on the bench. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

Tokiomi smiled somberly and looked down and away, he breathed in and sighed heavily and gazed at his family and then was back to me. "Risei died."

"Ah."

"The mud affected him the most. Two months ago. And Kirei… he wouldn't make it as well. I have no one else to turn to for this."

I sat hunched forward, rubbing my fingertips together.

"My daughters, both Rin and Sakura are gifted and holds great promises in magecraft. You… you know what this means if they were to left without protectors, right?"

I know exactly what he meant. "Hmm."

"So… I don't even know if I should be asking this of you. Not only on the account of what I—"

I raised a hand and something of a smile rose on my lips to say something of the sort like 'It's okay.'

"I probably don't have the right to it," he said. "It would be hard on you. Especially since the Magus Association is now also interested in you. I don't know if you know it, but they have sent scouts already to look you over. God knows what they'll do next."

"I can handle them."

"That's reassuring to hear, but…" he looked to his daughters and his wife and sighed heavily in defeat.

"How much time do you got left?"

"A month… maybe, maybe not even that."

"I'll be around. For your family."

He smiled painfully. "Thank you."

"It's only right."

We sat there for a moment together and said nothing, just enjoying the day. I stood up and wiped my hands on my trouser's legs and offered a hand. He accepted and we shook on it.

"See you," I said.

"Mmm, farewell... and, God be with you."

End note: I got the idea for this story sometime around 2018 after reading Craxnor King's King of Soul. It was murky at first but as the days go by, it started to become something more tangible. Why is Makoto a yakuza member? Well, with him starting homeless, broke and with no proof of identity, I honestly thought it would natural for him to eventually align himself with such people. Most people become yakuza members because they are losers in normal society after all. Why use real, live guns to summon Persona? I don't like that you could just think of a Persona and then summon it, it's not very cool, and I want Makoto to start with basically nothing of help to him in this new world he's in, so no Evoker. Does that make sense lore-wise? Probably not.

After all of the above were thought out, it was then the decision of which faction to have him work with. Originally it was Waver, then I realized that Makoto wouldn't be able to meet with them early enough to establish any kind of working relationship. Then, it was either the Tohsaka or Einzbern faction. I picked Tohsaka because with Tokiomi's Assassins, they would know about Makoto the most, and would felt more assuring with the idea of working with him just by what they know of him. Which is not a lot, but it's enough.

Next, the length of this story. Originally planned to be twenty-one chapters, each would have about four-thousand words max. That went out the window as I began to write though. Some chapters I decided to be unnecessary and uninteresting to the readers, because none of it would have anything to do about the Grail War. But after reading TeIos' review and his PM later, I realized that this story is a little too fast-paced. But by then, it was a little late to start prolonging the story.

Finally, I want to say thank you for giving this story a chance. It's not the best and could've been a lot better, but thank you for even giving it a glance. And a special thank you to everybody who reviewed this story, I read them all and always look forward to them everytime before posting an update. Thank you.