Chapter Text
Ichiban felt right to call Yokohama his new home as things began to slow down after the funerals. People were left to pick up what was lost and organizations began to rebuild. Everyone was suddenly busy, but he was glad most of them found time to spend at Survive Bar around once a week.
He met with Adachi down the street and the two of them entered the bar to find Saeko and Joon-gi chatting with Iroha. However, the old bartender is nowhere to be seen.
“Eh? Did the bartender finally take a day off today?” he finds himself asking,
“Oh, he got dragged off by a woman who came in earlier.” Iroha says from behind the bar, “I think it might have been his wife by the way he was acting!”
“His... wife?!” Adachi gapes,
“Y’know I never thought about the guy’s private life,” Saeko says, “But he must have seriously messed up if his wife dragged him out of here.”
Joon-gi shakes his head, “While I’m suspicious of that claim, the way they interacted...they must have not seen each other in quite a while.”
“You were there!?” Ichiban asks, Joon-gi nodding as he leans back on his stool,
“I was waiting for everyone when the woman came in…”
Joon-gi looks up when the door opens, expecting Saeko or Ichiban. Those two usually come on time while Adachi either arrives with one of them or comes in late due to his job. But instead, an older woman in a light blouse and loose fitting pants walks in. She takes off her sunglasses and puts them in her purse, looking at the bartender expectantly,
“Miss me?” she says, walking towards the bar with confident strides.
He looks over to the bartender, perhaps a laugh and a slight smirk would be on his face—but no, instead his eyes are wide and caught off guard. It’s a look he hasn’t observed the man to have... curious.
“You—!” the bartender sputters out as the woman grows closer to the bar, “What are you doing here?”
The woman looks over to Iroha who’s perked up from her position from behind the bar and gives her a small smile,
“You must be Yanagi-san...apologies for the intrusion, I have to borrow this one for a bit.”
The bartender regains his composure, his brow furrowing, “You can’t just—“
“Well,” she interrupts, “I know my son is protective of me, but the years get rather boring in the shadows. Spare me the indulgence?”
The bartender looks rather annoyed but sighs, “...Fine.”
Joon-gi didn’t expect the bartender to give in, but it’s the same leniency he shows Adachi every time the detective gets on his nerves. The bartender apologizes to Iroha for leaving the bar to her and loosens his tie as he heads up the stairs. Does he leave extra clothing up there? He hadn’t noticed in the time he and Ichiban’s party had spent nights in the room.
Though, that woman...something feels like he should be on high alert.
“Wait, Iroha-chan you didn’t recognize the woman either?”
“Nope. Boss doesn’t like to dwell on personal stuff, I mean I get a tid bit here and there but he sure hasn’t mentioned a woman other than the phony Legend Malt story…”
“Sooo, was she pretty though?” Saeko inches closer to Joon-gi drink in hand,
“Excuse me?”
“I’m asking if she was hot, Han-chan! The bartender’s like...a mysterious silverfox—and this woman comes in and wraps him around her finger? She’s gotta be like those femme fatatle types in spy movies.”
Ichiban swears he saw Adachi flinch at the silverfox comment.
“Well...she was on the older side. I would probably place her perhaps around the age of our bartender. She did mention about a son as well.”
Saeko takes a gulp of her drink and slams it on the bar, “Eh? You not into MILFs, Han-chan?”
“H-huh?!”
...Ichiban swears he’s never seen Joon-gi so caught off guard and flustered before either. Saeko lets out a bark of a laugh, slapping the hitman’s shoulder with great force.
“I—“ Joon-gi takes a second to regain his cool, “She just got on my nerves when she tried to chat me up that’s all.”
“She got on your nerves, hm?” Saeko jabs, “That’s a surprise.”
“Well…”
Joon-gi stays quiet as to not alert his presence to the woman, but it’s a pointless effort as he’s already seated at the bar. The woman sits down near him and he sighs internally as he awaits whatever small talk he’s going to be dragged into.
“Are you a regular around here?” She asks with a slight smile,
“You could say that.” He replies,
“Wonderful establishment he has here, no? I’m rather surprised that he managed to make this place more lived in than his old apartment.”
“That’s a surprise.”
She lets out a small laugh, before her demeanor seems to change. A same sort of facade he’s seen Seong-hui use while in the field,
“Say, do I know you from somewhere?” she asks,
“Hm. I can’t say, I don’t remember faces too well.” he easily lies, “Though maybe you remember my hair style, dyeing it has become quite popular amongst my age group.”
“Oh, perhaps it was at that one popular host club back in Kamurocho...too bad I heard their manager had died a while back, it must be hard to keep them going these days without leadership to fight against the stricter laws.”
He feels his fist tighten as it gets harder to force his polite expression.
(This lady is purposely getting on his nerves, isn’t she? But...she must have an idea of underworld affairs if she’s mentioning Joon-gi Han. Who is she to an ex-Tojo captain?)
“I don’t think I’ve been there, though I don’t think I would have made a good host either.”
“Ah. Must be a coincidence then.” she says as she lets the subject go, “Well I haven’t been to the city in forever, do you have any recommendations of some places to go?”
(Perhaps an old lover?)
“Well...I believe Seagull Cinema has some good films today, and Hamakita Park is very nice this time of year—“
“Wait wait wait, those are popular date spots! Why did you send them there?!” Saeko interrupts,
“Doesn’t Kasuga-san bring us there all the time?” Joon-gi says, “But I think our bartender could handle showing her around if my suggestions didn’t work.”
“Hey, shouldn’t we be more worried that she’s aware of the last Joon-gi Han’s death?” Adachi brings up, “That should have been on the down low for you guys, right?”
“Perhaps in the underground circles it’s a bit foggy, given it’s suddenness. Our revival of the Jingweon at the time suddenly collapsed without him and it must have caught on with the groups within Kamurocho.”
“So she must be aware of what’s going on in the underworld back in Kamurocho then.” Ichiban concluded, “What if she’s like...a wife of a yakuza then? Though I don’t remember anyone in the Tojo Clan that can match that description…”
“Seriously Kasuga?” Adachi says, “Well...you were in prison at the time.” The detective turns to Joon-gi with a certain look he can’t read, the man however returns with an amused expression.
“Hey, me and Iro-chan are kinda out of the loop here, care to fill us in boys?” Saeko interrupts, “I just wanna know if she’s gonna be trouble for our bartender that’s all.”
Adachi grumbles, “It’s probably not related, the bartender can handle himself for all I care.” He turns on a dime and sees himself out before another word is said. It’s quiet for a second before Iroha sighs,
“He’s going after him, isn’t he?”
“Huh? What do you mean? I thought he was going to get a drink somewhere else or something.” Ichiban asks in confusion, receiving an grin from the barmaid instead,
“Seriously? He can be quite the perv with women sometimes but he’s got it especially bad for the guy.” Saeko says, grabbing another drink from Iroha, “Though if that woman’s the bartender’s wife I think we’re gonna have a problem coming up soon.”
“Wait wait, Adachi’s got a crush? On the bartender? ” he finds himself spouting, turning to several amused faces, “How the hell do all of you guys know?!”
“I’ve known the two of them for a quite a while.” Iroha says leaning on the bar, “Adachi-san also gets easier to read when he’s drunk.”
“And I help Iro-chan sometimes, we like to gossip.” Saeko answers,
Joon-gi shrugs, “It’s pretty obvious, Kasuga-san.”
“Not to me!” he yells, “But if what Sa-chan’s saying is true, I don’t want Adachi to get let down. Y’know?”
Joon-gi sits up from the barstool, “Heh, Kasuga-san you’re a good friend. I’ll go and make sure he doesn’t do anything egregious then.”
The man rushes out the bar as fast as Adachi had earlier and Ichiban resigns himself to sitting on one of the barstools. Man, he sure misses a lot of things huh.
“Hey Ichiban, how about you and me do some investigating on our own?” Saeko suggests, “Can’t let those two just leave us here and not do anything.”
“Well—I want to...but it doesn’t feel right getting in the bartender’s privacy, you get me?”
“You have a point...but hey, we’re doing this for Adachi’s sake. That’s something, right?”
“I suppose...alright then, let’s head out!”
Kashiwagi gets greeted at the entrance of the small restaurant he leads his old friend into. The owner gives him a warm greeting as he settles down at a table. He takes off his coat and rolls his sleeves a little, as much as his tattoo allows anyway. Yayoi sets her purse down on the side of the table and sits back in her chair,
“Of course you take me to a soba place.”
“What? They make ‘em pretty good here. Well, not—“
“—Not as good as the stuff in your hometown, you’ve said it a million times.” She scoffs, “You sure you’re not just hyping up your old memories again?”
“Nope.” he says, “Nothing I’ve eaten over the years can compare to it.”
“Really."
He feels the corner of his mouth twitch upward, however his phone buzzes in his pocket and he checks to see a text notification.
Yanagi Iroha 9:07 PM
Hey boss! Just letting you know everything is going fine :)
Yanagi Iroha 9:07 PM
Though, Adachi-san came in asking where you were. He just left after I told him you had something to do tonight.
Yanagi Iroha 9:08 PM
Oh, make sure you’re careful tonight boss! Kasuga-san keeps telling me the streets are filled with enemies, which I think means he just gets mugged a lot. It’s probably the hair?
Anyways, have fun with your date! ;)
Kashiwagi feels his brain cells diminishing by the second. He takes his glasses off just to rub the bridge of his nose while the possibilities of what Iroha actually told Adachi spur off in his head. If she thought this was a date of all things...
Yayoi gives him a concerned look, “Something wrong?”
He sighs, “I have a feeling something stupid is going go happen.”
“Is it that problem customer you used to tell me about? I thought you’d ban him by now.”
“Well—I…”
“You haven’t kicked the man out yet? It’s been 3 years!”
“It’s—uh…” He rubs the nape of his neck,
She sighs and crosses her arms on the table, “For fucks sake. You took a liking to him, didn’t you?”
“...Not at first.”
Yayoi pinches her nose, “From how much you complained about him when he became a regular, I half expected you’d pound his face in before you kicked him out.”
“To be honest I came close to doing that once.” He admits, “Though, it wasn’t until—well.”
“Oh?”
“He started digging into my past one day. He didn’t find anything connected to, you know. But he certainly knew I had a fake identity.”
“I thought Ibuki-san did a pretty good cover up.”
“You did corner him in his restaurant and forced him to tell you my location.”
“Don’t forget I was still a benefactor, plus I had a feeling something wasn’t right.”
“Did you have to threaten him with your blade though?” He sees Yayoi’s slight closed-lipped smile and sighs, “Of course you had to."
He should get back on topic however, “I got tipped off by one of his detective friends, you know Kiryu’s man? I still can’t believe they know each other."
“Since when did he know your location?”
“Adachi introduced us on accident—long story.” He says, “But I ended up confronting him over it...and it didn’t go well. It took several weeks and Yanagi-san to reach a compromise.”
“And then?”
“He promised not to look into it more, and I decided to trust him on that.”
Yayoi looks at him dumbfounded, "Really?”
“I don’t know why. But I did.” (Enough nights around the bar go a long way for bringing down his walls) “I finally got around to telling him everything one night while everyone was asleep, after they came back from Sotenbori.”
“The disbandment huh.”
“...Yeah. It seemed like the right time.”
He feels like an idiot though.
Their meal comes out and interrupts the conversation, even then the feeling lingered while they ate. He remembers the moment he stopped speaking that night, looking away from the man in front of him and scared to turn back. Why the hell was he scared? He shouldn’t think this would ruin the friendship he’s managed to make. But the thought still plagued him.
Adachi had finished his drink and gave him a pat on the shoulder, the same stupid grin he’s always had on his face. The detective had thanked him and retired for the night upstairs. The days afterwards were busy, and they didn’t have a chance to follow up on what he had revealed that night.
Now that more than a few weeks had passed by, it was getting awkward as ever.
“Oi, stop looking so glum.” Yayoi chastises before pausing, “Don’t tell me you’re still worried about the man.”
He looks away and takes a sip of his drink in response, but then Yayoi gets that look on her face that he knows he’s going to have to brace himself on what she’s about to say,
“I see. You like him, don’t you?”
That didn’t stop the spit take however.
…
Shit.