You heard about Furusawa?
Greaves had heard, yes, but it had been a very long time since he had worked with the clan. The handler never really imposed himself in Yakuza clan’s close circler, he prefers to keep them at a working distance, there were exceptions, but in the case of Furusawa, the handler had chosen to get as little involved as possible. The reason lay in one name, one member, the brother, Kaede. Greaves had put his entire past behind when he came back to Tokyo, from his name to the many faces he had encountered. Yet, a name and face came back when the head of the clan had mentioned his brother, Greaves never saw Kaede, but the coincidence implied too many risks.
“I did, yes.” Had replied the handler to Kent, brown furrowed noticing the other was holding a piece of paper. “Why?” The tailor handed him his phone with the note.
“You left this in the car. They called: their new boss wants to meet you.”
Problematic. Yet, it would be insulting and suspicious to refuse such an invitation, and Greaves had no choices but to go. Kent expressed a couple of times that it was a bad idea, but he would let Greaves handle the situation, even if he would be driving him, staying outside and available if things turn out for the worst. The handler was hoping that luck would be on his side, maybe memories of Kendō in high school were long replaced by other things. Yet, if he remembered Kaede so vividly, it was because the man was his biggest challenger at the time, they probably never forget. Then he was counting on the man to respect his choice of secrecy, he was traditional at the time, maybe he still was.
Kent was right, it was a bad idea.
Standing in front of the entrance of the property, Greaves was waiting. He brought a bottle of sake as a present and a box of homemade sweets from a little shop in Nakano. He entered the premise, greeted by some of the underlings, following them until their boss’ office. When the handler stepped into the room, nothing on his face revealed his feelings, baring his usual neutral expression, one of a businessman with manners. He walked up to Kaede, extending his free left hand, all the while crouching himself in a respectful bow.
“Good evening Mr Furusawa, thank you for your invitation and let me express my sincere condolences for the loss of your brother.”
It was not a long wait, after the handler’s announcement had been made and Kaede had carefully planned his words and mentally laid out his inquiries long before this actual meeting. Being unprepared was an accusation, he’d never wished to have cast upon himself, so there was nothing besides the usual tension between his shoulders, that appeared whenever he was trying to get to the bottom of this ungrateful mystery, that was his brother’s death.
However, the second his guest stepped into the room, something was off. There was this certain ting of realization in the back of his mind as he laid eyes on the other. A feeling like an old image trying to claw its way back up his throat from deep within, where he had closed away all of the unwanted baggage that were his memories of better days. Maybe he could have remembered. Maybe he still would, but for now his subconscious did not want to know, why this face in front of him seemed so foreign to him, yet so familiar. He just could not pinpoint it, still fearing that feeling might just as well be a mere part of his oftentimes lively paranoia, festered by the situation he was in…
But while Kaede’s thoughts were racing, the only reaction his face showed was a short furrowing of his brows, gone again within the blink of an eye, only leaving behind the professional mask of a clan head, that was about to do business. There was no sign of a smile on his lips, he was giving Greaves that much honesty, as this was not the carefully choreographed dance of trying to win over one another’s favor, but something quite a bit more direct and severe. Though he still appreciated the man’s knack of following the proper routine an etiquette in such a meeting. Giving a polite nod, he signaled the man to stand straight again and cast a short glance to his underling, who until now had accompanied the guest for observation. But the following talk he wished to have just among the two of them so the other left to discretely wait just outside the door, not without making his presence outside subtly known to Greaves by leaning against the wall with a soft ‘thud’.
Kaede doubted the necessity, as his guest obviously knew their customs well enough to know what the mere attempt of causing trouble would most likely cost him.
The words of condolence were received much like the first impression – almost no visible reaction, but a small tensing and thinning of his lips before raising his voice himself. “Good evening Mr. Matsura Greaves…” he felt the need to speak his full name – feel again the inner dissonance it caused in his ears in combination with the face in front of him. “I accept your words and thank you for following my invitation.” He had not run upon hearing the call to the new head of the Furusawa clan, a good sign, wasn’t it? “Please take a seat. You may wonder, why you were called, as your last service to our family does date quite a while back already.” … and meetings like this were rarely conducted by the clan head alone, if at all… “But I fear it is my unwelcome duty to recall those exact events, as the documents naturally lack a certain amount of detail here and I do not intent to leave any loose ends after my brother’s… unfortunate passing.” To talk so casually about his death – it pained him immensely, making it even harder not to let it show. But it was not publicly known, how Momiji had been murdered, and he needed to hear just how much the handler already knew on his own, judge his reactions. So Kaede’s unblinking glance never once left the other’s form, carefully observing his every move.
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