Night had settled over the city, the lights of Tokyo twinkling like artificial stars. In a small café away from the hustle and bustle, Taro and Yuri sat across from each other.

The silence between them stretched out. The revelation Taro had just made still hung in the air.

“So…” Yuri murmured, frowning. “Is all this true? Is your family really part of the yakuza?”

Taro didn’t look away. There was no point in hiding it anymore.

“Yes.”

Yuri clenched her fists. Part of her already suspected it, but hearing it from her own mouth made it more real.

“Since when did you know?”

Taro looked out the window, looking out at the dark street.

“Since always. There’s no choice when you’re born into this.”

Yuri felt a chill.

“So… you too…?”

Taro exhaled heavily.

“I’ve done things I’m not proud of.” He looked back at her, his expression serious, but there was something else in his eyes… something that looked like guilt. “But I’m not like them.”

Yuri’s heart was pounding. Everything she’d researched about the Matsumoto family fit with what Taro was telling her. But there was something she didn’t understand.

“If you’re not like them… why are you still here? Why didn’t you leave sooner?”

Taro smiled bitterly.

“Because it’s not that easy.”

Yuri felt her frustration growing.

“There’s always a way out, Taro. If you really want to leave this, you can.”

“And you think they’ll let me?” Taro leaned forward, his dark eyes boring into Yuri’s. “You don’t understand how this world works. If you leave, you become a problem. And problems in the yakuza are solved in only one way.”

Yuri felt a knot in her stomach.

“Death?”

Taro nodded slowly.

Silence filled the cafe again. Yuri looked down at her hands, processing everything. Then, she looked up determinedly.

“Still… I don’t think you should stay.”

Taro let out a short, humorless laugh.

“Why do you care so much?”

Yuri opened her mouth, but she didn’t have a clear answer. Why did she care? She barely knew him, and yet… something about him made her want to know more.

“Because I think… you don’t want to be there either.”

Taro stared at her, as if trying to read her. Then he looked away.

“That doesn’t change anything.”

Yuri sighed.

“So, what will you do?”

Taro didn’t answer right away. In her mind, she remembered the news about James Kitsune’s death and the slaughter of innocents. Something big was stirring in the yakuza world. And now, Yuri was involved.

He finally looked up and looked at her seriously.

“I’m going to find a way out.”

Yuri’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.

“Are you serious?”

Taro leaned back in his chair.

“I don’t know. But if I stay here, I’ll end up like them. And I don’t want that.”

Yuri felt something inside her soften.

“So…” she hesitated for a moment. “Will you let me help you?”

Taro looked at her with a mix of disbelief and amusement.

“You’re a stubborn girl, aren’t you?”

“So they say,” she replied with a slight smile.

Taro let out a sigh and looked out at the street again.

“Fine. But if at any point this gets dangerous for you, I want you to stay away.”

Yuri crossed her arms.

“That’s not for you to decide.”

Taro looked at her and, for the first time that night, smiled.

At that moment, neither of them knew what they were getting into.

But fate had already decided.

End of chapter