Young Katsumi opened the letter eager to learn what contents were inside, opening it up he read "Hello young Katsumi this is from your aunt Kira, I have learned that your mother and father have passed away recently as you should already, I am sure you have many questions as to who I am, or how do I relate to you and your parents, I am your fathers sister and I have wrote this letter to you as you are the last surviving oldest son to become the heir of the Takamori clan, as you know is your fathers family name. Starting from the beginning I'm sure your father never told you much about your ancestry as if he did I would not have to write this to you and you would naturally would have come to me after his death without me having to get through the trouble of finding you and sending you this letter.... Your clan has been around for hundreds of years, and in decline sadly since the Tokugawa shogunate as a measly swordsmanship school in which your father and I were the last inheritors and surviving members as most grew old or fell ill or left to other powerful families in this country disgracing their ancestors.... As the last heir, you have the duty to report to our family dojo to claim the inheritance, I will answer all other questions about the clan and other situations in person once you reach the address written on the back."
Once he finished reading the letter he had a shocked face as he contemplated the information written, "I HAVE A CLAN!? That old man never told me anything.... Every time I tried to ask what happened to my grandparents or any of my relatives he would say "That's not your responsibility Katsumi." and whoop me if I ever pressed him! That old fogie has been hiding my history for decades and now of all times when I'm doing a crappy job at a factory that barely pays enough to keep this run-down apartment and bills on top of me when I'm overqualified and a certified engineer of all things this shows up now?!" Katsumi thought to himself in a shocked expression
"This might be the chance I have to finally get out of this crappy situation in this cutthroat economic market!" Thinking about no longer having to be limited by his location and the prices of housing he steeled himself with great ambition to finally get somewhere!
He turned the letter around to memorize the address and said to himself "Yosh! the next week on Monday as its Thursday ill call sick and go to the dojo to claim my birthright!" putting the letter and manual on his kitchen table he got undressed as he was dead tired and climbed into bed dreaming of what was to come...
He dreamed of talking to a Buddhist priest about his future to seek good fortune and wisdom on his situation "The future you seek is not as it seems, only through the righteous spirit and blood of others will you achieve enlightenment, but do heed my word's my son, always seek out for your true self, only by self-acceptance and seeing the truth and profundities of the world yourself and the heavens will you find your answers...." by the time the priest stopped speaking a bright light hit the room and he woke up sweating all over "What did the priest mean!?" He asked himself, getting out of bed and getting ready in his routine for work he put the dream at the back of his mind... He then strode out of his apartment and locked the door, took the stairs to the first floor and walked out of the lobby to his motorcycle, put the keys in started it and drove it to the pump a few blocks away to fill it up before doing his daily commute across the city to the factory he worked at and parked his motorcycle at the entrance, walking in he saw his boss Kyosuke while clocking in,
Kyosuke was a 6-foot burly hairy man with black hair and a small goatee who was the manager of all workers in the factory who really liked to shout at his workers and drink on the job although never to the point where he was drunk as it would get him fired... "Katsumi go get on the lathes they need more people boring the barrels today!" He shouted at Katsumi who then replied: "Yes boss..."
Work at the factory was a hazardous thing as they were almost always working with metal so one mistake could spell health hazards from steel chips and fragments from the metal being worked as well as the sparks and fumes which came from doing so, Katsumi typically was in charge of helping bore the barrels or making the stamped receivers for the rifles their factory produced, being a licensed gun manufacturer in japan they had tight security and had close ties to the government, however, Katsumi was at the bottom of the ladder despite being qualified, as other people with better connections typically snatched the engineering jobs before he could get them..
For the past 2 years, he wallowed in despair at the fact that despite everyone else thriving no one had any place in their company's for orphans who had little connections to anyone for his specialty of engineering... He could only bow his head at his superiors and work diligently for what little money he was paid.
-To Be Continued