Chapter 15 : The Calm after the Storm

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Surprises are usually not that bad, except this one. This one seems especially bad. Sure the house becomes livelier and whatnot, but why is SHE HERE?

"Nami-neechan, Let's continue playing !"

"Maa, don't run around the house, that's not proper for a lady."

It seems that nanako is really attached to her right now.

"I'm Back"

Yu! My savior, save me from this wretched goddess.

"Welcome back onii-chan!"

"I'm back nanako!"

"Welcome back Yu-san"

"I'm back nee-san"

Wait what? Don't tell me?

"Fu fu fu, no I didn't do anything, it's just natural after all"

Yu! You traitor. But more importantly.

Romulus, has he awakened?

[That remains to be seen, I don't sense anything within him that's like me.]

{That's a given, you're an anomaly after all, but you can rest assured he has awakened to his power.}

So even my own mind isn't safe anymore huh?

I immediately head towards the kitchen to help Nanako and surprisingly Nami in making dinner. Hmmm I thought that goddesses have someone to do chores for them, and even take care of them. Now I just hope that the food's eligible for human consumption.

{Hey! Even without our Link I knew you were thinking of something rude.}

Today's dinner is a simple curry, can't go wrong with curry right? While preparing I noticed that sometimes Nami would use a bit of mana. I wonder why. But checking out her work, her cutting technique is on point, I guess living for a long time has it's own set of perks.

Now all that's left to do is to stir fry the meat while adding the rest of the ingredients slowly to evenly cook them. At this point, I'm just auto piloting the work, while my eyes are just observing nami teaching nanako how to cook. But somehow i can feel someone's stare on my back, taking a glance towards my back, I can see Yu begin showing signs of what? Jealousy? Seriously? Well if you're that jealous i can always just teach you how to cook, wait. That would be a great idea actually. Why is he jealous in the first place? Someone taking your role as a beloved onii-san or is this a rivalry between the best onii-san vs onee-san.

I'm cheering on Yu! I'm rooting for Yu. But deep down i know, a lvl 4 izanagi can't beat a lvl 99 Izanami. But bro's before ho's right.

As we're just about done, I heard footsteps in the front door.

"I'm back."

"Welcome back papa!"

"Welcome back Uncle / Ryo"

This somehow becomes a big family huh. I guess all that's well ends well. And how the hell is Nami blending in quite well with them or am I missing something.

"Sorry i got caught up in work. It must have been awkward for you huh to wait for me in my house. I hope this dumb niece of mine haven't do anything outrageous while I'm out."

As he sat down in one of the chairs surrounding the dining table, he took out a form.

"Here's the form that you requested. All you need is your signature."

"Thank you very much for this Uncle Ryo!"

"Don't worry about the rest! I'll take care of it. I may look like this but I'm still the local police chief you know, my words still have some weight."

I took a peek at the form that Uncle Ryo gave to Nami and from my shock, it's a marriage form! So before anything else. I reached out my hand towards it in an attempt to rip it apart.

Before even reaching the paper, I suddenly froze as I felt myself getting restrained by something. I felt that my clothes momentarily betrayed me as it held me in position. I feel like if I move even a bit forcefully, it would rip my clothes apart.

"Don't even think about it Akira! What you've done, I've told your mother about it. You'll have a long conversation with me about it after dinner."

Shit. but then and there I saw Nami giving me a grin, a shit eating grin. You've won this time.

We had dinner regularly. Nanako ends up talking about her day in elementary school, and while on their way back she incidentally met nanako. Yeah right. And then she spent her time learning about mannerism and tea ceremony from Nami. before we came back. Yu also had something to say to uncle Ryo, it seems that it's about her friend Yukiko's stalker and how to deal with it.

"Kids these days don't have mannerism. Having someone to like is good, but when it becomes an obsession, it's gonna end badly for both of them."

Yeah tell her about it.

"From what you said, it's not enough to warrant an arrest, but I can contact their school, tell them about this undesirable behaviour or even call their parents out if you can get me his name / description."

So stalking is not a crime punishable by the system huh?

"But to do that I'll need a testimony from the victim and proof of it happening"

Figures, not everything can be solved by the Law, that's why us who're living in the grey spots of law exist. We provide a more … applicable solutions.

"Oh yeah, before I forget, Tonight we're heading towards Tokyo. I have something to do there, so I'll take Nanako along. Yu, are you going to come with us?"

"Of course"

"Good."

"We'll be staying for the night at Tokyo, so prepare an extra set of clothes."

After he dismissed the rest, he asked me to stay behind. So i guess this is it huh. The 'talk'.

"Akira, I know you're an adult, and grew up in those kinds of environments, and sometimes I know you had impulses, but pushing a woman down is not the way. I thought you're better than this but I guess you're still a horny teenager in heart huh."

Wait. what. How did it turn out that way?

"And this" pointing towards the marriage paper, "Is what i called growing up and taking responsibility, even though you're still young and people make mistakes. You know better than anyone that people like us cannot make even a tiny mistake, that's why I'm fixing it up before it becomes a big problem. The Tojo Clan cannot make another public stunt like this. Especially the Dojima Family."

So now, I'm forced to marry her huh, the price for keeping her silent. I can't even do anything to her at this point. Even when she's down at her weakest I don't have the strength to end her. So be it. Being married doesn't seem so bad.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to head towards Tokyo's National Police Headquarters for a yearly national security meeting. I'm planning to have Nanako go to a theme park with Yu. And catching up with them there."

So you're essentially bribing nanako with Yu. understandable. He didn't mention me going anywhere tho.

"You and Nami-chan are going to Tojo Clan HQ. your mother requests your presence. Kiryu-san will be there along with Daigo. This cannot be a coincidence. I've told your mother about it. The gathering of the Tojo clan along with the recall of most police forces on the same day is not normal no matter how you look at it."

You have no idea how right you are.

"As for Nami-chan, Your mother wants to see her in-law. I know that her story is a tragic one."

Wait what does Nami tell uncle Ryo.

"I know I don't have any right to meddle in your relationship but, I know deep down you'll choose the best path for both of you."

"How are we going to reach Tokyo?"

"As it's an emergency summon, We'll be using an overnight train, as the meeting is tomorrow 6.00 AM sharp. Now hurry up and pack up."

I Look at the clock. Right now it's 8:00 pm. So if all goes according to plan we'll arrive tomorrow by dawn.

I don't like how things are progressing right now. Tonight, the Omi Alliance would hit the Tojo Clan. The Omi Alliance is a Yakuza Clan situated in Osaka with over 120 families and 35,000 people under their leadership. They're a force to be reckoned with. But over the years the Omi Alliance has had a lot of internal conflict. Surprisingly, Inaba doesn't seem to have any Yakuza family nor is it under any families influence. This is worrying. There's only 2 possibilities, either Inaba doesn't have a strategic resource worth fighting over, or worse, we're under a clan but it's hidden.

"Uncle Ryo, about Inaba, I don't seem to recall it being in the influence of any Families from both Omi Alliance, nor Tojo Clan, except for you I didn't see any more people having any connection to either side."

"You're right, but you know that's not how things always are. *sigh* I knew you would ask this question sooner or later. But let me tell you something, there's close to 20 families here in Inaba waiting for something. 10 of them are from the Omi Alliance. 5 are the JingWeon mafia, and 3 are from the chinese triad. I have no idea what the rest are, but that's the reason why i told you not to go out at night."

The JingWeon Mafia, is a korean mafia clan that got a foothold in japan. Same with the chinese triads. Even us Tojo Clan have a lot of footholds in other countries. But that's not something to worry about right now.

Those foreign powers are the one who caused uncle Kaz the most pain, but removing them requires a huge effort on it's own.

"Our police force situated in Inaba is also uncharacteristically over equipped. I hate to break it to you but something big is going to happen."

I need to find out what they're after first. Waging war against the unknown will lead to a sure loss. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

So be it. I'll take care of it once I come back. But for now, I'll need to focus a lot more on the things at hand.

Everyone seems to be ready to leave after a few minutes of packing.

"Alright let's go"

As we open the door we are greeted by police cruisers, which surprises me.

"We'll be taking this to the train station, as a few of my subordinates also need to come along. And where is ADACHI!"

I can see from a distance a klutz police officer still yawning, startling, looking around then finally running towards us.

This is adachi, a young adult, with grey lazy eyes and brown unkempt hair. Another player in our little game. He's the one who chooses to live in an illusion where everything can be as he wanted.

"Yes Sir!"

"Get ready to move! Don't just stand around."

And so we depart towards Inaba train station, which is a 30 minutes drive from Uncle Ryo's house. As we were about to board the train, I counted around 10 additional police officers who are as I quote "unnecessarily over equipped". These 10 officers plus adachi are going to Tokyo with us. Well tokyo itself is another beast of its own.

While thinking about nonchalant things we finally boarded the train after inspections were done. And with that said, the sleeper train only had 2 passenger cars, one being the luxurious suite which we will use, the other one seems to be a more police focused car. Needless to say we are boarding the luxurious suite.

The train itself is simple as the car is divided into 2 parts, a living space and in the end of the hallway, a few assortment of food and beverages along with a table and other office equipment, the other part is the sleeping capsules. The sleeping capsules themselves are huge, it seems that there's an upper bed which is my head height and a lower bed, now that's what I call effient with space. Besides that is the toilet.

As we have all boarded the train, the train starts moving immediately. So next up Tokyo huh.