Chapter 3
Rain fell the same way it did that night.
Cold. Endless. Merciless.
Yumi was only fourteen when she first heard the word Yakuza.
At the time, it meant nothing to her.
Her father owned a small restaurant on the edge of Tokyo. It wasn't fancy, but it was warm. The kind of place where neighbors came every evening to eat ramen and laugh loudly.
Yumi used to do her homework at the corner table.
Her mother would bring her tea.
Her father would smile and say,
"Study hard, Yumi. One day you'll leave this place and see the world."
She had believed him.
Back then, the world felt safe.
Until the men in black suits came.
The bell above the restaurant door rang late one night.
Yumi looked up from her notebook.
Three men walked in.
Tall. Silent. Expensive suits.
The restaurant suddenly felt smaller.
Her father's smile disappeared.
"Good evening," he said carefully.
One of the men placed an envelope on the counter.
Yumi didn't understand the conversation.
But she understood fear.
Her father's hands trembled slightly as he pushed the envelope back.
"I told you before," he said quietly. "I'm not paying."
The room went still.
The tallest man smiled.
But there was nothing friendly about it.
"You should reconsider."
"My answer hasn't changed."
The man's eyes darkened.
For a moment, Yumi thought they would leave.
Instead…
The man grabbed her father by the collar.
The chair scraped loudly across the floor as Yumi stood up.
"Stop!" she shouted.
Her mother rushed forward.
"Please! She's just a child!"
One of the other men shoved her mother back.
Yumi had never seen her father look so helpless.
"You think you can run a business in this city without respect?" the man said coldly.
Her father glared at him.
"I won't let criminals control my life."
The man's smile vanished.
And that's when everything changed.
Yumi remembered the sound first.
The gunshot.
Loud.
Sharp.
Her father collapsed.
The bowl in Reina's hand shattered on the floor.
For a moment, she couldn't breathe.
Her mother screamed.
The men turned toward the kitchen.
Someone kicked over a lantern.
Fire spread across the wooden floor like it had been waiting.
The flames grew fast.
Too fast.
Smoke filled the room.
Yumi tried to run to her father.
But her mother grabbed her arm.
"Run!" she cried.
"But—"
"RUN!"
Yumi stumbled outside into the rain.
Behind her, the restaurant burned.
The place that held every happy memory of her childhood…
Turned to ash.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Through the flames, Yumi saw one of the men standing across the street.
Watching.
Calm.
Like the destruction meant nothing.
She would never forget that face.
Never forget those cold eyes.
The symbol on the car door behind him burned into her memory.
The mark of the Takeda Syndicate.
Years later, Yumi learned the truth.
The restaurant hadn't burned by accident.
Her father hadn't died by chance.
The Yakuza had killed him.
All because he refused to pay them.
That night, standing in the rain as the flames devoured her home…
Yumi made a promise.
A promise she had never broken.
One day… I will destroy the Yakuza.
And now fate had brought her directly to the most powerful man in that world.
Ryuji Takeda.
The boss of the very organization she had sworn to destroy.
The man she had spent the night with.
The man who now watched her like she belonged to him.
And the man she was supposed to kill.