Minase sat there weakly.
Perhaps it was the despair of knowing everything was over,
or perhaps the sight of the blazing incinerator had frightened him.
Whatever the reason, the Minase before me now was nothing more and nothing less than a powerless old man.
There was no need to tie him up.
He had no strength, so he couldn’t run,
and he had no ability to subdue anyone here.
Even so, Minase’s eyes alone were still alive.
Stubbornness and hatred remained in them like the last embers of a fire.
“By the way, old man. There’s something I want to ask you.”
“Could you stop calling him old man?”
The words suddenly popped out.
Not from Minase, but from Kurokawa.
“Why?”
“You keep saying old man, old man. It feels like you’re calling me. I keep flinching every time.”
Kurokawa stood there awkwardly.
“Hahaha. Is that so? Fine, then. What should I call him? Chairman? That sounds good. I can call you that, right?”
Minase did not answer.
But I didn’t care.
“Chairman. There’s something I’m curious about. Why is Japan so interested in us? Why does it keep poking at us? I’ve always wondered about that.”
Minase’s expression changed.
He looked as if he had plenty to say, but was forcing himself to hold it in.
“I mean, can’t neighboring countries just live well together? Give help, receive help, that sort of thing? Is that so hard?”
At my words, Minase’s eyes flashed.
A chilling madness settled in them.
“Hmph. Help is something exchanged between those of equal standing. You people are not on the same level as us. You are nothing more than a barbaric vassal state that ought to receive our teachings.”
Minase spoke boldly.
“Oh-ho. Really? That’s the freshest load of bullshit I’ve heard lately. Interesting.”
Listening to Minase, I found myself intrigued.
I had never imagined there would actually be someone who said things like that in real life.
“After all we did for you Koreans, to think you would betray us like this. As expected, the blood of filthy Chōsenjin does not change no matter how much time passes.”
Minase spoke as if lamenting.
“Ahaha. This is fun. But may I ask specifically what we betrayed? What exactly did we betray you on?”
I asked with a face full of curiosity.
“You betrayed trust. You destroyed the great order the Great Japanese Empire established for the peace of Asia. If we gave you modern civilization, you should have lived forever in gratitude to us. How dare you shake the pillars of the economy we built and talk back to the history we created?”
Minase’s voice grew louder.
The louder his voice became, the more his eyes filled with twisted superiority.
His words would not stop.
How had he held back when he’d clearly been dying to talk?
“You are not an independent nation. You are merely slaves who ran away from home during a brief lapse in our management. When the master raises the whip again, you are meant to kneel. That is law, and that is order. The Seiwakai merely tried to set that order right.”
“I have a question. That order you’re talking about is rule by force, correct?”
“That’s right. It’s only natural for a nation with power to rule over other nations.”
“Then if we’re stronger, Japan crawling under us would be order too, wouldn’t it?”
“What?”
“If the order of that barbaric era, the era when borders were drawn with lines on a map and everything was decided by strength, suits our dear Chairman, then we should treat him to a customized course that fits it.”
“What?”
Minase’s expression turned shocked.
“Our Chairman says he wants to adapt to the new order. Show him a bit of the order of the new age.”
“Yes, sir.”
At my reply, the Obsidian Unit stepped forward.
“Our Chairman likes retro things, so you know, Japanese occupation style. Let him experience what happened at Seodaemun Prison. So our Chairman can adapt to the new order. Understood?”
“Don’t worry.”
“Absolutely do not kill him. He has to live a long, long time so we can show him just how far Japan can fall, and just how much the Seiwakai wasn’t advancing Japan, but hindering its development.”
“Yes. We will make sure he can never commit suicide.”
Allen answered from the side.
That was when Kurokawa cut in.
“Now this makes me feel left out. I’ll be the one to deal with this bastard.”
“Why you, old man?”
I asked, slightly flustered.
“Thinking about it, it disgusts me that a bastard like this has been making important decisions for Japan all this time. It’s dizzying to think I’ve been living inside the framework bastards like this created. I’m glad I realized it now, at least.”
“You’re both Japanese. Are you sure that’s okay?”
“I told you. I’m sick and tired of this damn country. They arrested us when we hadn’t done anything wrong. Of course, bastards like this were probably the ones who ordered it. And I don’t like the ones who blindly followed those orders either.”
Minase’s complexion turned ashen in an instant.
The bluster he had shown just moments ago vanished without a trace.
Because even if the Chōsenjin were one thing, he had never imagined that a fellow Japanese person would betray him too.
His body trembled finely as he screamed.
He began to throw a fit.
“You vermin. How dare you betray the Great Japanese Empire? The only thing waiting after betrayal is death.”
Minase threatened us.
But his threat was hollow.
No, it was almost pitiful.
“Whether we betray you or not, death is the same either way. And I think you should worry about yourself first, Chairman.”
Kurokawa replied.
“I am an elder of this nation. A symbol of history! Do you think you can do anything to me?”
Minase shouted.
“Keke. An elder? A symbol of history? You’re nothing but a bad custom and entrenched corruption that needs to disappear. Still, you’ve got spirit. I’ll give you credit for that. As a special favor, I’ll let you experience the suffering our independence activists endured. Consider it an honor. Bring it.”
At my words, Allen brought over a wooden box.
A wooden box slightly smaller than a person.
“This is something you Japanese used. They called it a wall coffin, because it’s a coffin standing against a wall. Once you go inside, you can’t sit, and you can’t move. And maddening darkness and silence will be waiting for you. That’s right. You’ll be trapped in a coffin while you’re still alive. Unable to lie down, forced to stand.”
Minase’s face turned deathly pale.
“Your Great Japanese Empire made it, so you should test it out too. I hear the standard was about two nights and three days, but for you, we’ll do just one night and two days. You can’t die, after all. There’s still a lot left for you to do. You need to have plenty of glorious experiences.”
“...Don’t do this. Please.”
Minase trembled as he looked at the wooden box.
“Think of it as the order of the new age and accept it.”
“I’ll give you money. I have secret accounts. I’ll give them to you. Do you need anything else? I’ll give it to you.”
Minase grew desperate.
“If it’s money, I have so much it’s rotting, so I’m not really tempted. Old man. You can take it if you want.”
I said, looking at Kurokawa.
“My waste business is doing well, so I don’t need money either. And I don’t even want to touch filthy money.”
Kurokawa said with a laugh.
“You came all the way out from home for once, so think of it as a picnic and relax. You should enjoy it. The order of the new age. See you tomorrow.”
“No. No. Spare me!”
“This won’t kill you. You’ll just be lonely enough to die, isolated, and in pain.”
The yakuza put Minase into the small wooden box.
Minase resisted desperately, but that resistance was pitifully weak.
It was no obstacle at all.
The wooden box looked a little too small even for Minase.
They shoved him in as if crumpling him up and closed the door.
“No. Spare me.”
“It’s too dark in here.”
“It’s suffocating. I can’t breathe.”
“Please. I’ll do anything you tell me.”
“Please, I’m begging you to let me out. Please~~”
His wails could be heard from inside the wall coffin.
But nothing changed.
The firmly shut little door would not open until tomorrow.
A soundless space.
A posture in which he could not move.
A suffocating space where only the sound of his own breathing repeated.
All manner of imagination encroaching upon reality,
and silence tearing his mind apart.
The cruelty of being unable to move even amid the suffocation of his entire body twisting.
The choking oppression closing in on him.
Inside that narrow coffin without a single ray of light,
he would taste a hellish time longer than eternity.
******
After locking Minase in the wall coffin, we came outside.
A cold wind brushed past.
My heart felt empty.
Revenge is always like that.
Once it’s over, the feeling of emptiness is greater than any sense of relief.
Compared to the cost and effort put into it, revenge is extremely inefficient.
It makes you wonder what even remains afterward.
Even so, I couldn’t just let bastards who touched my family go.
If you let it slide once, they think it’s fine and keep doing it.
They keep poking little by little, testing the waters, waiting for the right moment to bite into your throat.
That’s why you have to make it clear.
This is not something you can touch. You have to carve it firmly into their bones.
When you crush someone, you have to crush them down to the roots so they can’t spout nonsense afterward.
The Seiwakai is the same.
If we crush them like this, they’ll be a little more careful next time.
And if nothing changes?
If they lack even that much ability to learn, then it’s better for them to be struck down and disappear.
My family is growing larger and larger.
That means there are more things I have to protect.
My thoughts grew heavy.
Kurokawa quietly held out a cigarette beside me.
When I put the cigarette in my mouth, Kurokawa lit it for me.
Then he put one in his own mouth as well.
“Thanks.”
Kurokawa expressed his feelings in a husky, calm voice.
“For what?”
“For getting us out this time. How did you do it?”
“It was nothing. I just wrote one prank letter.”
“No way. Do you know what kind of bastards they are? You’re telling me they let us go because of one letter?”
Kurokawa stared at me with startled eyes.
The police he had dealt with for so long were absolutely not the kind of people who would act like that.
They were organizations that would never admit they were wrong, no matter what happened.
“I told them I’d blow up Haneda Airport if they didn’t release you.”
“What?”
Kurokawa stared blankly at me, then soon clutched his stomach and started laughing.
“Kuk. Kuk. Kuhahaha. Hahahahaha. Those bastards really stepped in it. Serves them right.”
“And it didn’t matter even if they didn’t release you.”
“What?”
“Then I was going to blow up Narita too, and Kansai, and Fukuoka. Then they’d release you.”
Kurokawa clicked his tongue in disbelief.
“Hah. Incredible. Truly incredible. Looks like I got myself one hell of a boss.”
“Boss? Don’t try to subtly lump us together like that. I hate that kind of thing. Let’s just leave it at being acquaintances.”
“But still...”
Kurokawa said, sounding a little disappointed.
“Instead, if something happens like this time, I’ll come.”
“Hm?”
“We may not be boss and subordinate, or above and below, but we’re family, aren’t we? Family should help each other when things get hard.”
Kurokawa froze.
The cantankerous old man seemed slightly moved.
The tip of his nose turned red, and a faint sheen of moisture appeared around his eyes.
Perhaps embarrassed, Kurokawa hurriedly changed the subject.
“What are you going to do about those investigation headquarters bastards? Are you going to leave them alone?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t like that they messed with you, old man, but other than that, they haven’t really done anything wrong. Incompetence isn’t a crime. At least not in Japan.”
“That’s true. Then hand them over to us.”
“Why?”
“Going through this made me think of the old days. I want to have a proper bit of fun this time. We need to show them the yakuza are still alive.”
“You already made a big move this time. You blocked the roads and dumped waste in the streets to stop Minase from getting away.”
“We weren’t the ones who handled Minase. You planned everything, and we just dipped our feet in.”
“That was enough.”
“It’s not enough for us. We’re thirsty.”
“Keke. Just how grand are you planning to make it?”
“This time, we’ll do it properly. I learned a lot from you. Before, we always went for the blade first, but that’s not what should come first. We’re going to use our heads too. We’ll make them walk into hell on their own feet.”
“Do your best. If you get caught, contact me. I’ll come again then.”
“We won’t get caught.”
Kurokawa answered confidently.
We talked like that as we watched the setting sun.
In the middle of it, Scott spoke.
“Sir, you need to head to the Philippines tonight.”
“Why?”
“Patrick’s presidential election is tomorrow. You need to go to the Philippines and vote. So do I, and so does the Obsidian Unit.”
Ah— the election.
I had forgotten.
I had been too immersed in the Seiwakai.
“Got it.”
“Patrick says to come as quickly as possible. Apparently he’s waiting desperately.”
“Why?”
“He says he’s anxious because his good-luck totem isn’t there, or something like that.”
Scott said with a sly smile.
“Hasn’t he already won? I heard his approval rating is over sixty percent.”
“He says he still needs his good-luck totem.”
“Fine, I get it. Let’s eat and then leave.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Find a restaurant where not just us, but the yakuza can all eat together too. Let’s at least have a meal together.”
“Yes, sir.”
We rented out a restaurant and all ate together.
Obsidian, the Unit, and the yakuza too.
We all mingled and ate together.
Like one family, without ranks above or below.
We shared food and filled one another’s cups.
And just like that, my family grew.
When I said I was leaving, Kurokawa looked regretful.
“Come visit Korea sometime.”
“I will.”
“There’s someone I want to introduce you to, and we can grill some meat together.”
“Let’s do that.”
The hellish night of Tokyo was drawing to a close.
I didn’t know how Japan would change because of what happened today,
but that was not my concern.
That was a job for politicians.
I merely lived through each day.
Together with my family.