Triad

Daitaro immediately flared his nose and widened his eyes when he heard this. He grabbed Hikaru's collar in fury.

"The gym is still OURS! How dare you step over here with your sh*t stained shoes!."

There is a rumour saying that before the "Triad" was formed in Japan. The founders were Taiwanese illegal immigrants who came on a boat and started working illegally in the sewers for a rip off pay.

Daitaro drew back his arm to punch Hikaru in the face until he felt someone grab his shoulder.

"Well, it's a bit too soon to give them a warm welcome. Sorry, my little brother's just excited that someone from the Triad came over so quickly."

The owner of the TankTop gym pulled Daitaro back and stood in front of Hikaru. He was a small-time Yakuza boss in charge of Midori Ward and Daitaro's older brother, Gorou.

"Brother!"

"Lil bro, you know you don't make a move without me. Don't you?" Gorou said as he smiled back at Daitaro with narrowed eyes.

A third person might feel a light-hearted vibe coming from Gorou but Daitaro can feel a death sentence weighing his shoulders down.

He knew that starting a fight with Hikaru could spark a war between the Triad and Yakuza.

So he backed off.

Gorou brought his attention back to Hikaru.

"The name's Gorou."

A moment of silence went by when Hikaru said nothing. Since he didn't give his name, they consider it an insult.

"Oi!" Daitaro grunted.

Gorou raised his hand, his smile still on his face.

Daitaro reigned in his anger.

"So, what are you doing here?" Gorou said casually as if nothing happened.

"Nothing in particular. I just wanted to see how strong I was."

"Pft" spat Daitaro from the back.

Gorou thought that maybe the Triad sent Hikaru to rattle them up before taking ownership of the gym, but it was unnecessary. It was likely that he came on his own just to mess with him.

A Taiwanese crime syndicate has established itself in Japan nearly a decade ago. They have quickly grown in power but were still weaker than the three main Yakuza families.

They first called themselves the Chow Group, which is currently the name of their legitimate companies but the name Triad quickly got on.

Not to be confused with the Triad from mainland China. Although perhaps they may seek an alliance or merge with other Triads down the line.

The Triad has been growing every year but the Yakuza, Japanese gangsters have yet to express their stance towards them. However, things have been rocky recently.

As the Triad grew in power, so did their operations affect the market and the turf borders were getting tight. Recently, they had copied the semi-legitimate business-making of the Yakuza and one thing they took over were the gyms.

Gorou who had started his new gym was finally targeted by them.

They bought all the gyms across the towns and made the expensive gyms more affordable while they made the cheaper gyms more expensive so that the prices were consistent. Then they introduced a loyalty program with discounts and points.

Initially, this sort of action made the customers upset, but where could they go? However, soon the brand stuck. There were more benefits in the changes and customers loved it.

Since the Triad did their businesses legitimately, the Yakuza couldn't do anything. There wasn't any value in keeping this gym anymore but Gorou wanted to keep it. This sparked an argument between the two crime syndicates but was settled by a shogi match AKA Japanese chess or Game of Generals.

The Yakuza thought the Taiwanese group, who were skilled at Mahjong would lose on their home game, but unexpectedly a young genius from the Triad learnt the rules and beat them.

The Yakuza who competed in shogi was the second lieutenant of Kanagawa prefecture. His underboss is the direct superior of Gorou.

Gorou had no choice but to transfer the ownership of the TankTop gym to the Triad with no fees.

He had spent 250k on this gym. It was a top-notch place, with the best equipment, lighting, building materials, facilities, legal fees, marketing and advertising costs.

He didn't have a retirement plan. Maybe the gym was his retirement plan.

Gorou wanted to be the best bodybuilder in Japan. That was his dream.

It annoyed him he lost the gym without an actual fight but to sneaky Chinese business and marketing tactics.

Today at midnight was when TankTop gym would officially become Triad property.

"Well then, I'll leave you to it."

Gorou headed out while Daitaro gave him a death stare before following suit.

Hikaru's ability to grow muscles made him think about what other things he could do. His parasite's memories flashed through his mind. The parasite had once mimicked a baby bird after consuming it and so gave him some inspiration.

The flesh around his round ears started dancing and rippling around until it grew tall at one end. His ears became pointy and looked like that of a cat's.

He quickly adjusted to the higher pitches he was receiving. It almost was like listening to a seashell. After he got used to it, he could pick up conversations that would otherwise not be heard.

***

"It's fake." One man declared while waving a weight plate in the air.

One of his friends walked up and took the weight from him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah! Don't you feel it? It's lighter."

The guy holding the weight bobbed the 20 kg plate up and down.

"Maybe five kg less I guess?"

"Right, I bet I can lift this."

"It could still be heavy even though he reduced the weights." His friend said with a worried look.

"I can bench press 150 kg no problem."

The current weight was 200 kg. Since there were 8 weight plates which were assumed to be fake and weighed 5 kg less. Then the total weight was 160 kg. While he couldn't do a complete set with 160, it didn't mean he couldn't do one or two reps to expose the trick.

The barbell itself might even weigh less too.

The man laid down on the bench and placed his hands on the barbell.

"Hmph!"

The barbell didn't budge. It was heavier than he thought.

He should have stopped right there.

"Hah! CAAHHH-"

The barbell came off with a push and crushed his throat.