Original Love

Episode Seventeen

Nobody has ever seen it coming.

Nobody would have even thought that it will really happen.

Aoi Chiba coughs out blood from where she lays down on the cemented ground in the arms of Jin Sasai who is horrendously shaking while spouting incessant commands and angry curses through his phone. He keeps shouting and cursing so violently but his loud noises have already been slowly fading into a blur as Aoi Chiba continues to stare up towards the blinding view of the sunny sky on this day.

She has once felt this kind of pain and numbness before. When she had tried to stab herself that night right in front of Kenji Yanagi. She had even expected herself to die and that it was going to end everything else. But for some reason, Kenji did not let it happened. Eventually, she had been saved after all. However, at this point, with the bleeding wound near her chest, Aoi has already started struggling to breathe. She cannot keep her eyes open any much longer, even when she does not want that to happen. She is gradually feeling all of her entire body losing its total control.

In this coldness and the feeling of death slowly overtaking her, she could only murmur one thing.

"Kenichi..."

Her soft gasp comes out utterly hoarse and cracked. Jin Sasai does not even notice her speaking as he keeps himself occupied by commanding the other person that he is talking to over the phone.

Is this now the real goodbye for her? She tries to think to herself.

Is this how it all really ends?

How pitiful, it is. This entire time, she has already been planning to set everything right again. And even up to the last second after figuring out and learning about the whole truth, she still could not achieve a better close to her promise. It is just too unfortunate and this was how it is all just going to end for her.

She did not even get the chance to at least make up for her mistakes.

"You gotta stay with me, Aoi," she suddenly hears Jin's deep and shaky voice interrupting her in the middle of her thoughts. She winces slightly even when she does not really feel any pain anymore. She tries not to succumb to the weakening of her body. She has to stay calm. She has to stay alive...

She has to...

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FIFTY-FIVE MINUTES AGO...

"He might marry her."

Ito Yamazaki sits on the backseat of his limousine together with a very lowkey traitor and another Dojima clan member who is apparently known to have a deeper knowledge of the whole skeleton of the Yakuza organization. This old Yakuza boss has been in the business for five decades and he seems to think Ito Yamazaki might finally change the whole reputation of the Yakuza back to how he thinks it should be.

A scary part of society.

Nowadays, people have often forgotten the political and economical influence brought by Yakuza to the country that even the citizens do not feel intimidated by their gangs anymore. The government has completely stripped off the whole organization out of its true purpose and real agenda. And even the Oyabun himself, who has been such a sucker to those politicians since the day he has seated on the throne, kept throwing out the whole clan into a clowning group of overrated syndicate members who no longer even tries to protect their reputation righteously. It sickened the old Yakuza traitor and he feels that it is about time someone must take over and rule the whole clan with how it should be.

And he sees the potential in Yamazaki... for some inexplicable reason. He just sees it in him.

"I've been hearing a lot of rumors from the other bosses. And it seemed like, so many of them have been favoring for that younger wannabe," the old Yakuza boss tells Ito Yamazaki while inhaling a long drag of his Tabacco. He looks out of the tinted window and squints his eyes, the smoke filling up space between the two men as the older one continues to talk.

"I don't feel like supporting that," the older man speaks more, "I don't see any promising leadership from him. You have to take your spot. I will seal off the vacant seat for you. But you need to do the end of the bargain."

This deal would go very better on both ends. And Ito Yamazaki would raise anything as long as someone powerful is behind his back. He is lucky enough to even pique this older boss's interest despite his newness to the scene. And even with just a little push, Ito already knew it is going to be a risk but he is all set to do just about everything to take that Yanagi down from the ladder.

"I'm up for it," Ito immediately agrees, his face looking placid and strong as he stares back towards the older man, "What do you have in mind?"

He already expects all of the possible favors but none of it matches the one that the older man tells him afterward.

"Kill that woman he keeps with him."

The order has been abrupt and very straightforward that it even took Ito a moment to finally decipher what the older man meant. Kill Aoi Chiba? Not that it would matter... But why is he asking him that? Ito Yamazaki does not really get the sense of killing the woman with Yanagi's falling down.

"I don't mind doing it," Ito eventually says with a straight face, "But may I also know what does it have to do with the plan?"

"Because she is Yanagi's key," the older and wiser Yakuza boss responds right away, and with one more inhale from his cigar he continues, "She will be his asset to get the Oyabun's approval for his next successor. So either we try to eliminate and take that chance put of his reach while we could still do it or just kill him right away. It's up to you. I'm just saying what I think is best. And that woman has to go."

Very frank and concise. And it all meant business, all right. The only thing here is the popping question inside Yamazaki's head.

Is this really for the best?

Is killing that woman would really make any improvement?

Aoi Chiba is such a very unlucky woman, it seems to be. 'Being tied up in this world, how pitiful', Yamazaki has thought to himself. But he has no choice anymore. He has to do it. He has to finish what he started and he needs to get rid of what hinders him from getting what he wants.

Aoi Chiba has to go... Unfortunately.

She has to be the sacrificial lamb. Because no one is going to be better fitting to it than what she already is.

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