Getting off of my bike, I was greeted by two men that work for my Yakuza.
"Boss! Good morning. "
"Good morning, guys. Where's the old man?"
"Lee-san is talking with his brother on the phone, boss."
"Thanks for telling me, see you later guys."
Leaving the two guys to their biddings, I walk upstairs towards the apartment where Lee-san was currently living, but as I was about to knock on the door, my heightened senses managed to pick up his conversation with his brother.
"Brother, how can you fall so low? Even then you shouldn't have become the slave of a teenager."
"Don't worry, brother, this old brother of yours isn't dumb and I'm sure that my new boss found out about you. I don't want to see as our enemy, brother, but my boss is in the first place and then my family. Same thing as you, brother."
"Do whatever you want, Lee, but please don't put your life on the line for your new boss. He didn't earn your respect, I can see that, but you still think highly about him."
"Of course I do, brother. Yoshida-sama relocates us to a new town where we don't have any rival clans to fight over territory and business and not to mention that he even bought the business that was supplying us the clothes that we were sent to you to sell. Now that we don't have to fight over the business, the production almost tripled in just two days and by the end of the month, we would send the quota for three months to you. Your job will be to sell it in a month, brother."
"That may bring unwanted attention to us brother, but you know better than me those political things, and before I forgot, the special delivery has left the waters. I need to leave and deal with some matters, I'll call you later."
When he ended the call, I finally knocked on the door, and immediately after I knocked, Lee-san opened the door.
"Boss, good to see you. I presume you heard my conversation, no?"
To be honest, I didn't expect to hear this question as soon as he greeted me, but then again, he lived his whole yakuza life in Kyoto so I'm sure that he had his fair share of supernatural meetings and maybe even takedowns.
"What makes you think that Lee-san?"
"Boss, I have killed black angels and humans with animal features in Kyoto and in my younger days in China. I know that we, humans aren't the only ones on this planet that can create cities and civilizations and I'm pretty sure you have your secrets related to those things."
"You caught me, old man. So what was that about?"
"Ah, my brother is kind of skeptic about you taking control over the clan and he thinks that you are too young to lead or make any good call about business and underground politics."
"And you defended me thus ending into a fight, am I right?"
"Right on spot, boss. While both of us are quite old, we both know when someone has a mind for making dirty money and taking care of his rivals. You, boss, on the other hand, I don't even think someone can rival you, at least not a human in our line of business."
"Tell me, Lee-san, what do you suggest I can do to expand our production and at the same time increase our profit?"
"Find new sources that will buy our products or send someone loyal to create it and if possible annex other clans, preferably clans that have supernatural monsters in them. They will be a good addition, of course, if you will be able to make them loyal."
"I see, I'll think about it and if I managed to find a clan that I can take over, I'll let you know so that you could prepare our people."
"As you wish, boss."
"See you later, Lee-san, and don't forget about our second operation."
"The first cargo will arrive in a week, sir and it will have fifty pieces."
"That's better than I expected. Your brother really went all out with this first cargo. Well then, once again see you later and be careful, old man."
"Youngsters these days…"
After I was done speaking with the old man, I had my ghosts look around the whole country for our not so friendly dragon wannabe, and thankfully after one hour, one of my ghosts have found him in Tokyo.
When I switched with my ghost, I saw Vali and his group waiting for someone near a cookie shop. While the way they are waiting for that person may seem suspicious, not too many people actually paid any kind of attention to them, most likely thanks to the almighty power of illusion. After all, it isn't an everyday occurrence to see a humanoid monkey, a woman with cattails, a dude with a huge sword and a better version of Sasuke, and a cute girl talking among themselves while waiting.
So like any good guy, I decided to accidentally walk towards their location, but at the same time, I won't talk to them or even look at them, because my main objective is to meet Ophis, not his group, at least for now.
As I was walking towards the shop, I felt a pair of eyes looking towards and thanks to my ghosts I could clearly see the Cat Youkai studying me while asking Vali about me. And to be fair, I didn't expect him to make that face. A worried Vali was scarier than a normal Odin.
Thank God my ghosts can't be detected by anyone alive, at least until now, no one alive managed to feel or see them, so I presume only the undead or the gods that govern over the dead may be able to feel them.
Before I could open the door to the shop, the monkey Youkai grabbed my hand.
"Don't do, friend. Just walk away or it could get bloody."
"Monkey boy, don't try your luck. You should know my name and how strange I am from Vali so don't get yourself killed."
While I didn't actually have any plans to hurt them or kill them over something so simple and idiotic, I didn't want to be seen and known as someone weak, because if people get their hands on this information, they will bother me and I will have to eradicate quite a few clans and groups.
"I can't do that, friend. Inside the shop is someone that will get angry if we disturb her while picking cookies, so I can't let you enter."
"Then, I'll let myself in."