The Field of Ice and Blood — Part 2
A short story with rival gangs in Japan amid the beauty of Hokkaido
Five minutes after he entered his room, and just as he was about to sleep, he heard a knock on the door. He was alone, having taken no bodyguards at all. He was worried about offending the Sapporo yakuza and oyabun Hideyo in particular, who might have interpreted bringing his own muscle as a sign of mistrust.
“Who is it?” he asked from behind the door.
“Daisuke-san we need to talk” a man with a Russian accent said in respectable Japanese.
“Who are you? What do you want?” he asked though he knew. Bratva sent this man either to recruit him or kill him.
“Aaahh… the age-old questions! Shall we continue our chat from behind this door or are you going to invite me in?”
“What if I don’t? What are you going to do?” Daisuke asked the man while covertly sending a text to oyabun Hideyo asking for help.
“Well… I’ll have to be less kind if you don’t. Step away from the door please, I’d hate to kill you by accident,” he told Daisuke, who understood and moved quickly out of the door’s line of sight. He heard two ‘pow pow!’ as the man shot the door’s lock. The text to the city’s oyabun was just received.
A tall Russian looking man entered his room holding a SIG Sauer P320 with a silencer and an Inforce light attached. He had blond hair and a face like radish; he was quite stout and was smiling as if he knew the answer to all of life’s big questions.
“Greetings Daisuke-dono, nice to meet you.” he bowed slightly. “I’ve heard a lot about you; I heard you were a legend during the ’90s and ’00s. That you have killed more than 30 men, some with your bare hands. You don’t look so.. lethal now but I guess time gets us all eventually,” he winked.
“I’ll ask again: What do you want? And you’d better hurry because the local yakuza are on their way. I’d rather not have my room dyed blood red.”
“I’m just a humble broker Daisuke-dono, and I’ll be out of your hair before you can say ‘vodka is better than sake.’ My name is Alexei Ivanov Nikolaevitch and I’m here to broker a meeting. We know why you came here from Tokyo and this meeting is meant to reassure you and the heads of the yakuza clans.
To explain that we are not a threat and we just want to do business with you. I can say no more right now; since I’m running out of time, just tell your bosses to be at these coordinates themselves or send men they trust tomorrow at midnight. I will serve as the interpreter of the meeting. So, off I go!”
The Russian hid his gun and dashed out of the room, while Daisuke Ono was left looking at a business card with a printed set of coordinates. A couple of minutes later three yakuza men with katanas stormed his room looking for the threat to their guest.
“It’s OK guys, he left a while ago. Thank oyabun Hideyo for me but I was not placed in any danger after all; only my door was,” Daisuke nodded toward his room’s door.
Then a fourth unarmed man entered the room. Daisuke recognized him as Hideyo’s right hand man and most likely heir. His name was Hisoka Izanagi and he was said to be a smart and skillful man, both in the martial and the mental arts. He bowed deeply.
“Daisuke-dono please forgive us for placing your life at risk on our own soil. Since this hotel is under our protection our shame is doubled. I personally picked two of my best men to guard your room discreetly, so that we do not bother you; I just found both in a slumber. The Russian tranquilized both with a hypnotic dart, like a coward; it would have been more honorable if he tried to kill…” Daisuke interrupted him.
“Raise your head Hisoka-san, and look me in the eyes.” Hisoka slowly unbowed.
“Listen to me please. You have nothing to be ashamed for. I’m glad your men are fine. Please do not be too hard on them when they wake up. That guy was a bratva captain or higher; he even spoke Japanese, decently too. His body language and words suggested that he was quite self-confident but not overconfident, and very well-trained.
The Russians sent one of their best for this. And all that just to set up a meeting. I don’t know, they either want to impress us as if we are their freaking bride or declare war on us; that remains to be seen.”
Daisuke showed Hisoka the card with the coordinates. Hisoka took a picture with his smartphone and looked up the location.
“That’s right in the middle of the Tokachi wheat fields, roughly 160 miles due East! Why there and not here? That’s in the middle of nowhere. There are only wheat fields and barns there. I smell a trap. What time did he say?”
“Tomorrow at midnight. Even the time they chose is foreboding. I think it could be a trap as well, but for what purpose? He didn’t declare war on us, he just said his colleagues would explain why they arrived en masse in Hokkaido. That’s it. Though that might be just a pretext.” Daisuke said.
“Look, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so I’ll leave these two men with you. Takai-kun! You’re coming back with me, we’re going to report to the oyabun!”
“Yes bosu,” Takai said. Hisoka turned toward Daisuke and started bowing repeatedly as he was walking backwards.
“I apologize again profusely, Daisuke-dono, and vow to indemnify you for this shameful night. Our honor -my honor- demands this. I’m going now to report to the oyabun, and let you report to your own. I doubt you’ll fly to Tokyo in the morning so I guess I’ll see you again in the morning. Good night.”
“Yeah, I doubt that too. Good night Hisoka-san.”
Hisoka Izanagi placed his two men right outside the room of Daisuke Ono, muttered and gestured some inaudible commands to them and then swiftly left along with young Takai.
Daisuke Ono then called the oyabun of Yamaguchi-gumi, Tokyo’s and Japan’s largest and most powerful yakuza syndicate.
“I apologize for the late phone call oyabun Shinoda, but this couldn’t wait until the morning.”
“What’s the matter Daisuke-san? You sound alarmed,” oyabun Shinoda said.
“We have a major problem with the Russians.”
The next morning the sky cleared. There was not even a tiny cloud in sight. It was as if the sky emptied all its snow reserves the previous week and was now running on fumes. Daisuke Ono wondered if that was a good sign for tonight.
He was not a man who believed in signs, portents, omens, prejudices, any other supernatural BS or even luck, but right now he could use all the help he could get. His talk with oyabun Shinoda appeared to have inflamed the situation further.
“They did what? They shot through the door of your room and put to sleep with fracking tranquilizer darts two of oyabun Hideyo’s men?” oyabun Shinoda sounded furious. Daisuke tried to calm him down.
“Well, now that you say it out loud it does sound bad oyabun Shinoda but it wasn’t that bad. I mean, it could have been much worse if the Russian had killed those men. Now we would be in open war. On the other hand I’m sure Hisoka-san has already sent men to comb the city for the Russian as we speak.”
“This is not a trivial matter Daisuke-san. The audacity of the Russians cannot be tolerated. If that man was a bratva captain he was following orders from a bratva general; who in turn was probably instructed to provoke us by you-know-who. I’m sure you must have already made the connection.
The Russians think they can ridicule us on our own soil, in a hotel under the yakuza’s protection too. That cannot stand! Business-my-ass! In the middle of nowhere with just one day’s notice and on top of that they asked for the oyabuns to be there. The shamelessness of the Russians is bottomless!” oyabun Shinoda was fuming.
“So? What are you going to do oyabun Shinoda-dono?”
“I’ll talk with the other oyabuns right after we hang up and will decide together. I will suggest we send not a small delegation of high ranking yakuza officers but at least 40 men. I think they will be enough. As you said earlier oyabun Hideyo just got reinforcements from the smaller clans, so if we send more it will be like we don’t trust them to secure their own land.”
“40 men sounds good along with the 200 men oyabun Hideyo will have tomorrow oyabun Shinoda.” Daisuke said.
“As you know from past such meetings each side brings many more men than originally agreed. Even if the Russians bring all 100 of their men I think we could take them. But, since they will have guns, we will need guns as well.
I’ll send a few crates of Heckler & Koch MG4 machine guns with the usual method in the morning, via the Shinkansen. A solid, lethal weapon. 40 of them should suffice. I know Hideyo-dono will not touch them, they will be just for our men.”
“Very good oyabun Shinoda, I’ll be on call in the morning to pick up our men from the airport. We will get the guns later together. Would you like me to clarify anything else about the Russian and my meeting with oyabun Hideyo?”
“No I’m good Daisuke-san, have a good night’s rest. I hope you’re safe up there. The silver lining in all this is that we’re sending our men to Hokkaido after all. I will instruct them personally to show all due respect to the yakuza men of the island and not act like cocky men from the capital. I will make clear that they are guests there and, above all, do not dare make fun of their accent.”
“Good night oyabun Shinoda.”
“Good night Daisuke-san.”
