Prelude
It’s been three years since I moved to Japan. It hasn’t been that bad, for the most part. I’ve been able to grow up like a normal Japanese kid and not be hounded by the immense expectations that await me back home. You know it’s pretty bad when you have to study in Japan of all places to escape tough standards. My dad’s really important where he works, so everybody kind of compares me to him. It’s not really fair, so I went about as far as I could from the critical faces that have been trying to size up my potential since childhood. The move definitely made middle school more bearable, that’s for sure.
Well, I guess it ended up being more tolerable. I moved in with my uncle and cousin right before starting middle school. They’re really big into sports and being extreme and I just end up being left behind with my uncle’s girlfriend. She’s nice, so I don’t mind. Sometimes she talks about when her and my mom were younger, since they were best friends, and what it was like with my dad and uncle and all their crazy friends running around.
Speaking of crazy friends, I’ve got one too. She lives a few blocks over and comes over to hang out a lot. She’s just as nuts as my cousin and I’m often pulled around town by the two of them. Being honest, I don’t believe either of them bother to think before they act—ever. I mean, between my cousin wanting to fight some animals over at the zoo to our friend wanting to go on a dojo-buster spree (with real swords!), I’ve surely had my hands full for the last three years… or so I thought.
See, my family’s business is one of those inherited things and I’m stuck in the position to where I’m eventually going to have to take control of it. I really don’t want to inherit it and I’ve never wanted to from the moment I figured out my position in life. I figured that if I moved to Japan, I could grow up away from that at least and face it all after high school. It’s not right for a kid to grow up in that sort of atmosphere if you ask me, so mom was pretty accepting when I told her I wanted to go live with her brother. Hell, my cousin had been trying to convince me to run away and live under his bed ever since I was five.
…and to think he actually was held back a year in elementary school due to a lack of “problem solving skills”. If I were his first teacher for that year, I should have been glad he never resorted to his usual problem-solving method in school… his fists. The toaster shall never be the same.
So yeah. I’ve got an insane uncle, a troublesome cousin, a handful of a friend and a monkey hanging on my back that brings more issues than I care to admit. Wait a second… why do I have a literal monkey sitting on my shoulder? Oh, wait, yeah… I’m walking by Namimori Jr. High. Osamu must already be in there somewhere, terrorizing other students and sent Osaru out to scout. I don’t know why he chose such an odd name for his pet; must have something to do with his dad owning Hibird. Those two scare me.
I’m a big chicken-shit, of course; I’ve always been and I doubt I’ll ever be anything different. I’m not very good with sports either and I do average in school. My uncle’s girlfriend says that my dad was a lot like I am when he was younger. Honestly, I can’t think of my dad as anything other than the suave, important, savvy, dangerous man that he is today. I can’t tell my might-as-well-be-aunt that I think she’s lying to my face—if I’ve learned anything living in my uncle’s house it is that she is more frightening when she is angry than most of the insane stunts my uncle, cousin and friend pull. I was glad once I graduated middle school, since I’ve been told my dad was introduced to the family business in middle school. I thought I was safe and that dad found someone else to take his place.
That is, until a little suit-clad baby appeared the second I walked into my room after graduation.
“Sawada Kiyohiko, I have come to train you in preparation for becoming a proper Mafia boss. Die now.”
That was when the almost-perfect little world I had created for myself in Japan turned upside down.
