HIS AND HER CLAN
Sicily grinned widely after seeing JD and Ted heading on her way. She knew that something was up and that means the grumpy kid will be away and when he was somewhere away, there will be surely no class. XD!!!!!!!!
“Hey, going somewhere…far?” she asked him tugging along with the two. Ted gave her a slight bow while maintaining his austere facade. JD on the other hand was looking straight ahead. “That means we will have no class, neh?” She giggled. “That’s fine for me. Please take your time...don’t rush in going back really.” She said still smiling.
JD halted his steps which made her headbang on his back. He turned to her. “We will still have our class tomorrow and be sure to be in the Dojo early or I’ll make carry books for two straight hours.” He glared at her which startled her.
“We still have our class?” she mumbled. “Hmph! Really… must you push yourself too hard kid?…have fun-ahhhhh!!!!” she gasped and practically ran away from him when he reached maybe to strangle her. She almost forgot that calling him a kid will make him go ballistic. “Fine, 3 am! Sheesh! Kids here really! I was just joking!”
“Get inside your room and read some books!” he ordered pointing to her room. She complied mumbling something in Korean.
Ted was amused. 'Did she just call him a kid? O boy…' he chuckled but cleared his throat upon seeing the boss frowning at him.
***
Sicily sneaked out to the Oyabun’s room. She went into his study area and found some reading materials carefully placed on his well-furnished wooden desk. Those were issued exclusively for all members of the clan, the Yamaguchi Gumi yakuza mag. Sicily began to read and was awed by the fact that JD’s clan was the most powerful yakuza society among the other yakuza domination worldwide. On the first page, it was shown in a diagram that JD is the family boss of 1500 clans.
“Wow, they are indeed organized.... members of Yakuza gangs cut their family ties and transfer their loyalty to the gang boss. Wow really?” she continued reading. She glanced back at the hierarchical order in the diagram. She understands now why Renei was always mad at her when she made fun of the boss. JD indeed, despite his young age achieved a lot for the clan. 'Very talented kiddo…' Elder Tahil was the administrator, Jared was the law adviser and the very hot Arvin Daclan was the clan’s accountant. She was amused that this Yamaguchi was led mostly by professionals. Well maybe except for JD who was yet to finish his degree. 'I wonder what kind of school he is attending. Secret school perhaps? dunno…'
Sicily immersed herself more in reading the newsletters with facts written on them. “Three dominant yakuza society?" She mumbled as she flipped onto the next page.
So she belonged to the most dominant yakuza family in Japan? Her interest sparked more as she turned from page to pages.
The young Oyabun of Yamaguchi Gumi was able to establish brotherhood on the third most influential yakuza clan, the Inagawa-Kai but failed to have a bond to the Sumiyoshi- Kai, the second-largest yakuza family in Japan. As a result, Somiyoshi always ended up having bloody encounters with the Kyodai and Shatei (brothers in the family of Yamaguchi- Gumi clans). The two clans were still fighting in dominions in Tokyo as their capital territory. Shatei (little brothers) were mostly being targeted by these people thus older brothers were always up protecting their families.
“Sumiyoshi-kai…” Sicily mumbled as her eyes landed on the corresponding mon crest of the second largest group syndicate in Japan. She wondered why they have to fight for territories when they can establish brotherhood or a contract between them. She turned to another page and continued reading until the last page of the fifth newsletter. At the back of it was a family name imprinted as the family in charge of the details in prisons, weddings, funerals, and even murders in connection with the yakuza society.
Azuma-Gumi Family.
Sicily put down all those newsletters and stretched her arms widely. She seemed tired but her mind was still on the things she had read. She stared back at those reading materials which changed her perspective on the clan in which she was recently involved.
Yamaguchi Gumi was one of the renowned most powerful black societies in Japan who managed to act as the pacifier when there was a yakuza family war. J-dragon played the role so well that he even imposed prohibitions on his clan from engaging in any drug trafficking and any criminal acts.
Sicily had this first impression that all yakuza clans were involved in harassing small business investors to finance them but her clan, the Yamaguchi Gumi, was the one acting to stop this kind of practice and be involved in making large investments in legitimate, mainstream companies. This had begun when the former Oyabun, Thunder, bought US$350 million worth of stock in Transportation System and Facility. The government knew those companies which have an affiliation with the organized crime group and tended to expel those yakuza people in the company but Thunder was able to fix the problem. Until now, half of the family clan in the Yamaguchi Gumi was in charge of the operation in those affiliated companies.
J-dragon, the youngest Oyabun in recent times, has a mission in reuniting other Yakuza clans into the Yamaguchi Gumi under his leadership. So far, according to the newsletters, he had successfully got the trust of some notable clans of boryokudan in Japan and he is still working to get the other violent yakuza clans to be subjected under his administration.
The government and the people recognized the clan, the Yamaguchi-Gumi, to be the sole semi-legitimate organization in the country after the Kobe earthquake in which JD with his trusted Kyodai and Lieutenants, having his headquarters in the area, provided disaster relief aid and services to the victims. This was widely reported by the media nationwide which shows the contrast on the much slower response of the Japanese government in helping the victims. The event of providing help to the people even repeated after the earthquake and tsunami in which the families of the clan opened a place for the refugees and offered dozens of trucks of relief goods to the affected areas.
The event was very historical noting that the considered misfits, useless people of the society were helping those ordinary citizens of the country in bad times. J-dragon garnished a lot of praises both from the other Yakuza clans and from the other ordinary citizens of the country. He was well known but he remained the mysterious Oyabun since he refused to show his face on media.
Somehow Sicily felt her heart fluttered in admiration for the kid. He wasn't a simple grumpy teenager but he achieved those marvelous deeds at a young age. True to the statement of Jake Adelstein that the Yakuza tend to be gentler and are not generally involved in theft, burglary, armed robbery, or other street crimes.
'But he’s not a gentle person.' Sicily pouted, however, she knew well that the kid may be only showing his true self to the person he value- maybe Jandie Kim knew about his characters more than she was. She paused for a while after remembering that the kiddo has a girlfriend. She wondered how that girl felt about her as J-dragon's fiancee.
“Maybe she’s expecting me to quit like the other Nee-san.” She mumbled, staring at the rack of books. She tilted her head with the thought. Why did they quit anyway? It’s not so bad in here.
In a moment, she decided to get out of the room with three CDs in her hand. She got those under JD’s desk drawer and was intrigued by the covers of each. Certainly, those were some kind of a music album of some unknown artists. What she was doing was wrong but she called it borrowing and she will return it to his drawer unnoticed. Carefully, Sicily closed the door behind and silently went to her room. She hadn’t spotted anyone outside, no mistresses and even the guards. She made it to her room and searched for her bag to hide those CDs.
“Now what to do, ” Sicily tapped her chin. Her eyes lit up and walked towards the door. It suddenly fluttered open with both of her mistresses coming in.
“Oh, there she is!” Kiko sighed in relief behind Renei.
"Where have you been?"
“You both came just in time. Come, I have some favor to ask,” she motioned them inside ignoring Renei’s query.
***
JD handed the HK MP5 to Koshe after their encounters with the Vietnamese gangs and some of their alliances in Chinese triads. The air was filled with a faint smell of gun powder and blood from the dead bodies.
The Vietnamese and Triads went chaotic because of some disagreement and the only way to truce the groups was by stopping them with guns. There were some dead Vietnamese on the encounter and so as the triads. J-dragon having established his strong brotherhood on the two groups, needed to fix the problem or they will rage war between them and will be spiraling more troubles to the local people which will then catch the attention of those bugs- the FBI or even the police.
“Now… we can talk.” JD calmly said rather in pure rage in his eyes. The remaining Triads and Vietnamese gang followed him as he headed towards the already ruined venue, an old warehouse for rubber in Japan that was intended for the business deal. Ted and Koshe were done giving orders to their men as they followed the boss.
JD’s intense stares were sending chills to the Triads and the Vietnamese gangsters; they knew that the Oyabun in front of them was one hell of an uptight person when it comes to following his rules. And what just happened- the shootouts, was going contrary to his set of codes.
“I was informed about this matter,” JD faced the leader of the Chinese Triads assigned in Hawaii then to the Vietnamese boss.
“Someone leaked information about our business transactions to Oregon and Denver and someone tipped us that this gang instigated it. .” The leader of the Triad started.
“We are highly offended and degraded with all those false claims. We value our ought to our brothers but we can't stand still when our gang's honor was mopped around the society as a traitor. ” The Vietnamese refuted.
“And so you fake this whole business deal just to lure the Triads?!”One of the Triads, hissed. JD clenched his jaw when the two groups began to have heated words in his presence again. He silently went to Ted, snatched his gun, and fired warning shots which startled everyone.
“How about you shut all your f*****g mouths and let me talk." his eyes blazed before throwing the gun, bouncing on the pavement floor, and facing the Chinese triads. “We will try to investigate who leaked out the information in fairness to the other party. And you, my brothers,” he faced the Vietnamese gangsters. “Your group will be restricted with any activities until I say so. Fair enough?”
The Vietnamese gang agreed on the punishment while the Chinese Triads were forced to shake hands on them since they agreed to follow his code, they must as well obey him.
***
“Where did you get this?” Renei asked Sicily.
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s listen to this.” Sicily operated the radio set and loud beats began to embrace the whole room. She began to drum her fingers on her lap as she listened to the one rapping. He got a very sexy voice which jived well on the beat. Then another deep-voiced followed the first one.
“Whoa…this must be the latest music here?” Sicily faced Kiko and Renei who were intently listening to the music.
“It’s the Oyabun and Jared,” Kiko said in disbelief.
“J-dragon rapping? And Jared ?” it was Sicily’s turn to be shocked.“They must be very popular here? They even have these recordings!”
” It’s their mixtapes.” Renei stated. She looked at Sicily and then at Kiko. “The Oyabun and Jared was formerly an underground rapper and they made lots of mixtapes since the boss was junior high and Jared in Senior high. But they were not releasing it for entertainment.”
“You know a lot,” Sicily commented still gaping at the radio. The music was a turn and it was making her slightly bobbed her head up and down. She wondered what was behind those Japanese words in their music.
They tuned in to the next tracks And to be honest Sicily's heart skipped a beat when she heard JD’s voice gliding carelessly on those soft Japanese words. He was singing solo this time without collaborating with CL, J-Kim, and Jared.
Sicily caught Renei smiling at the current song. “What’s the title of this track?” she asked her.
Kiko looked at her too. She too was becoming attached to every track that was playing so far.
“Butterfly,” Renei answered. “It’s one of my favorite.”She smiled gently as she sang along in Japanese words. “Rumor says that he made this out of his fantasy over his first love…”
Sicily wanted to laugh like a lion upon knowing that the most respected Oyabun fantasied over his girlfriend now…his first love. She turned to Renei and rested her chin to her bended knees.
Kiko translated carefully some of the words and looked up to Sicily who spoke.
“You got a very romantic boss, neh?” she compliment rather sincerely.
'Jandie has very cute innocent large eyes…eyes that glimmer, eyes that smile. Precisely describing her very perfectly,' She thought.
Then the next song played accompanied by some drum beats and another unfamiliar voice singing the chorus first. Renei was frozen for a moment.
“I think I’m hearing Koshe singing?” Kiko scratched her head facing Renei. Well, certainly Sicily too can’t assure if it’s Koshe or what. She didn’t know that the clan had bunches of talented people here not to mention the leader of the clan itself. She will not be surprised if Elder Tahil can do the break dancing. It will be a sight then…a very hilarious sight with a grandpa grooving to the modern music! Yikes!
Sicily let a small laugh from her lips amused with her thoughts but was instantly wiped out after seeing Renei was strikingly silent on the track playing.
“What’s the matter, Renei-chan?” she looked up to Kiko. “What was the message of that song?”
Kiko ended with some words left not translated because of the fast pace of the song. I quizzically glanced at Renei and Kiko.
“Jandie left JD once? Perhaps their first break up?” Sicily asked, Renei in particular.
There was silence. Renei didn’t answer. Kiko tentatively glanced at the other mistress and then to the Nee-san.
“I think they never broke up…” Kiko politely answered.
“But why is the song,” Sicily tilted her head.
' She’s gone yeah…'
“He sounded so devastated-“
“Devastated yes…” Renei broke in. “I saw him once. He sang it… but wasn't able to finish the whole song on the stage during our school intramural.” She bitterly looked at the two. “I don’t know what happen but he cried that night in front of many students while performing that song.