I'm still high from the anesthesia, and I still can't believe what just happened to me. I was brought to this traditional house and a doctor came to me and put me on the operating bed, then he stitched my wound. I don't remember the rest of it because of the anesthesia, I don't know who put me here and where Ren is at right now, and now I'm laying on the bed with my face down staring at the garden outside the house.
I hear someone is sliding the door open and I can hear a footstep is coming toward me, I'm too lazy to move my body and I'm still very weak from the anesthesia. The person is dragging a chair and sitting down next to me, I move my head to see who is it and turns out it's Ren, he looks at me while holding a book. He scoffs and shakes his head then opens the book in his hand and starts reading it. It's just silence and all I can hear is the sound of water running down to the pond outside the room and a paper is getting flipped.
I don't for how long I have been staring at the garden but I feel comfortable right now, but then Ren closes the book and crosses his legs while leaning on the chair, he looks at me and tilts his head.
"Your foot is on fire, put it down, Norl-kun."
I'm humming while trying to move my foot in panic, Ren is chuckling softly and shaking his head.
"Yeah, you're still high. I guess it can wait a little bit more."
Then someone is sliding the door and walks toward me hurriedly, it's Aiko and she looks so worried, she's holding my cheek while looking at me then she looks at the wound on my back.
"Who did this to him?"
Ren sighs and crosses his arms.
"Our own men."
Aiko is squinting her eyes with disbelief.
"What? How? and Why?"
Ren shrugs and puts the book on the table.
"They dragged him into the alley and it seemed that Norl-kun fought them and then one of them stabbed him on the back when he tried to run away from them, and of the reason why they did this to him is still unknown. Kouji is still with them right now, he will tell me when he got the information. Norl-kun is fine, he just get scratched by the knife and only needs three stitches."
Ren's phone is ringing, and he looks at his phone.
"Speaking of the devil..."
Ren picks up his phone while leaving the room, Aiko is following him to hear the details of it.
I'm starting to sober up and I can feel the sting on my back, Aiko and Ren are having a conversation right next to me. I look at them and groan in pain while grimacing. They both look at me and Ren raises his eyebrows.
"You're awake?"
I scoff and raise my eyebrows.
"What do you mean by that? I am awake."
Ren is humming and nodding.
"Seems like you have sobered up, I heard about the details on what happened to you. You're lucky that I was there right on time or you would have been beaten to death."
I look at him and roll my eyes.
"You can't even control your own men, why do I even have to thank you for helping me out?"
Ren smiles and nods with understanding.
"You're right, that's why I already gave them the right punishment for what they did."
I'm furrowing my forehead.
"Oh yeah? What kind of punishment?"
Ren is showing his right pinky finger and he pretends to cut off his pinky finger with his thumb.
"They cut off their pinky fingers for that."
I thought it was just a myth, but it seems that it's true that Yakuza cut off their fingers if they made a mistake. I look at him and raise my eyebrows.
"What's the point of doing that? Can you just beat them up?"
Ren smirks and raises his eyebrow.
"If you're brave enough to play with a knife, you should prepare to get cut by it, right? It will teach them a lesson to not mess around with a sharp object from now on. I'm not doing it for you, I'm doing it for my men so they don't dare to use the Hasegawa Clan's name for their own problem, and to warn the others."
I'm humming with understanding then try to sit up, but my back is killing me. Aiko is helping me out and she's carefully holding my body while I'm trying to sit. I sigh and look at Ren.
"Why do you guys do such a thing? I mean, why a pinky finger?"
Ren is humming while leaning on the chair.
"It happened a few centuries ago, the reason why they do this kind of ritual is to atone for their wrongdoings, it's an act to show a sincere apology and remorse to another, or to pay a debt that they can't fulfill. So a finger is enough to pay their debt. Well, there's a philosophy behind this ritual because when a samurai lost a pinky finger, they can't hold their sword properly and they're pretty much useless in a sword fight, they can't do anything but ask for protection, so when a person lost a pinky finger they are worthless and can do nothing but to depend on someone else. It's become a tradition until now, and that's somehow beautiful and terrifying at the same time."
I scoff and shake my head.
"You guys are crazy..."
Ren sighs and stands up.
"Alright, I guess it's time for us to have a talk."
I nod and Aiko stands up and is about to leave the room, I look at her and Ren shakes his head.
"I don't want Aiko to be a part of this, I don't want anything to happen to her and I believe you're agreeing with that as well, right?"
I nod without hesitation, then Aiko leaves the room and slides close the door. Ren stands up and slides open the door to the garden, he looks back at me and tilts his head.
"Let's go outside, I don't want Aiko to overhear us from outside the room."
I nod and slowly get up from the bed and follow him to the garden. I look at so many plants in pots and a huge apple tree with a gazebo near it. We both walk toward the gazebo and sit down, Ren is looking around to make sure that nobody is here other than both of us. Ren opens the book that he brings with him from earlier, he opens it and there's a piece of paper in the book then he shows it to me. I read it and there are a bunch of names written on the paper and I don't know who they are and why Ren shows it to me.
Ren is pointing at the paper.
"These are the names that were involved in the accident when both of your parents died. They were the ones who helped put out the flames. My intel told me that most of these people were there during and before the accident happened, and the rest could be there as well since they live close to your restaurant."
I immediately look at their names and remember them deep into my head because this is might be a lead to find out the culprit behind my parents' death, but then there are a few names that have been crossed out. I look at Ren and point my finger at those names.
"Why are their names crossed out?"
Ren is looking at the apple tree and raises his eyebrows.
"They kept their mouth shut, and a few of them are dead because of an accident."
Dead? That doesn't sound like a coincidence at all, were they threatened but still want to tell the truth so they killed them because of it? I look at the names that are crossed out and maybe those who kept their mouth shut can tell me something about the accident if I do it myself. Ren looks at my finger and he shakes his head.
"I know what you're thinking, Norl-kun. It's not that easy, you're planning to ask the names that are crossed out, don't you?"
I look at him and nod.
"Why? I can do it myself if you can't."
Ren shakes his head.
"Didn't you hear me? It's not that easy. If you go out there and ask these people, you're going to get them killed do you understand that? If that happens, you killed them. I crossed them out because of their own safety, I don't want people to get killed because of our problem. This isn't a normal job where you can do whatever you want, this is a work between life and death. A few policemen get fired after they tried to interrogate them, and you know what that means? We can't approach these people without a plan."
I sigh and look at him.
"So basically we can do nothing?"
Ren shakes his head.
"No, we can."
Ren is pointing at one of the names.
"This one will be our target, his name is Ichihara Iesada. He has a son around our age, we will approach him and we will ask for his help to get something from his father. I know that sounds unreasonable for him to do it for us, so we will get to know him and help his problems first then we can ask for him to pay us back."
I'm humming with understanding.
"Okay, I can do that, so what's his son's name?"
Ren looks at me.
"His name is Arata Iesada, he's a college student from Akimoto University and we are going to see him tomorrow, how about that?"
I nod with understanding.
"Okay, let's meet him tomorrow."