Taro stands in a dark alley, lighting a cigarette as he ponders.

 “This all feels… inevitable.”

Flashback to Taro and Kenji training together as teenagers. 

“Kenji was always the one who understood my dilemma.”

Kenji appears in the present, stopping Taro with a hand on his shoulder. “We need to talk.”

In an abandoned warehouse, Kenji and Taro converse. Kenji: “You know you can’t just disappear. The family won’t let you.”

Taro lowers his gaze. “I don’t expect them to let me go, but I don’t want to go on like this either.”

Kenji sighs, lighting a cigarette. “I can’t help you escape, but I don’t want to see you dead either.”

Elsewhere in the city, Yuri continues to investigate the Matsumoto family in their apartment. He finds an old police report with a photo of Taro in his teens. "How deep is he in this...?"

Someone watches her from the window, an unfamiliar shadow.

Her phone rings. It's an anonymous message:

"Stop investigating."

At the Matsumoto mansion, Kenji's father and Taro's uncle, Daigo Matsumoto, converses with a subordinate.

"My nephew thinks he can defy his fate."

The subordinate nods.

"He wants to run away. Do you want us to stop him for good?"

Daigo Matsumoto smiles coldly. "I just want him to learn not to defy family."

Back with Taro and Kenji, Taro walks away.

"I don't want to lose you too, Kenji."

Kenji tosses him a pack of cigarettes.

"Then stop acting like you're already dead."

Taro clenches his fists as the city glows under neon lights.

"Time's running out."