A swing at the life of a Yakuza

It’s a sunny day at the Hitachi Seaside Park. Children are running around, playing with each other. A cool breeze is brushing past Kiryu and Daisuke, as they slowly swing on the swings. Although they tried to avoid looking at them, the kids at the park all look at Kiryu and Daisuke with judging eyes, attempting to pierce the cold souls of the individuals gently swaying.

Kiryu, in his black coat and pants, turns towards Daisuke, revealing his dark red dress shirt tucked neatly into his pants. His face is long and thin, with short black hair, dark brown eyes, and a slight stubble. His appearance is unremarkable, but people stare nonetheless. His lips part, and only a few simple words exit his mouth.

“Did you do it?” A few birds flutter away, as if they were frightened by this short sentence. The sky turns orange and purple, as the sun begins to set. Daisuke lightly blows cigarette smoke out from his mouth, turning to face Kiryu. His outfit contrasts that of Kiryu’s, with a white coat and pants, and a patterned pink shirt. His hair was black and straight, reaching to his neck. Daisuke’s amber eyes were blocked with a pair of sunglasses. A small goatee dotted his chin. He looked straight up, while taking another pull of the cigarette.

“Well?” Kiryu said impatiently, as he stopped his swinging. Daisuke turns away from Kiryu, continuing to swing and smoke. Kiryu angrily grabs the chain of Daisuke’s swing, abruptly stopping him and dropping his cigarette out of his mouth.

“Answer me!” Daisuke opened his mouth, faltering for a second.

“Yes.” The word fell out of his mouth, seemingly without Daisuke’s consent.

“Good. Now we can go back to hq and-”

“Why,” Daisuke asked himself, taking another cigarette out and lighting it.

“What do you mean why? We need to report the success to hq.” Kiryu is visibly getting irritated at Daisuke now. He’s clenching the chains on his own swing, as he begins to swing. Daisuke begins to swing again, attempting to match the height that Kiryu is reaching. Daisuke turns to look at Kiryu. 

“I mean, why did we have to kill him?”

“Do you really need me to spell everything out for you?” Kiryu exclaimed. “This assassination would be of great benefit to the Yamagushi family. The Sumiyoshi family was getting a bit too confident and began taking out territory, so we needed to put them in their place. Honestly, how do you think that you can be a part of our family if you’re not even able to figure something like that out?” Daisuke stops swinging. He exhales some smoke while Kiryu stops and gets off of his swing.

“He begged for mercy. He was on his knees, crying. He wasn’t going to do anything. He was just a crony who was following orders. We could’ve just told him to leave. But instead I pointed the gun and…” Daisuke motioned with a finger gun towards Kiryu’s head. Kiryu scoffed and turned away.

“You did what had to be done. You may be a bit dumb, but you were able to execute the job well. No one saw you, you got in and got out, plain and simple.” Kiryu calmed down a bit now. He was able to slow down and realize that it’s Daisuke’s first time killing someone, and the pain in Daisuke’s face was clear. Kiryu walked over and sat back down on the swing next to Daisuke. “Look, I get it. The first time I killed someone hurt. It hurt more than anything that I had ever done before. When I saw the life leave their eyes, it was almost impossible to not just stand there and cry.” Daisuke looked at him, with a few tears rolling down his cheeks. “But we have a job to do, and a family to protect. And once you enter this family, you can’t go back.”

Daisuke leaned back in his swing, and wiped away his tears. As he looked to the sky, he began thinking out loud. “No one told me this is the life I was choosing when I wanted to join this. All my life I wanted to be part of the Yakuza. I heard stories about the riches, the fame, the reputation. I just thought that they scared people, beat them up at most. But killing? I could’ve never imagined that.”

Kiryu is somewhat shocked by this thought, but continues to attempt to support his careless comrade. “Nothing you do in life is gonna be just a walk in the park. Challenges that you never would've thought were required for a job. Now for the Yakuza, you should’ve known that you had to kill. But what’s done is done. There’s no use in crying over it now. You’ve committed to this, so you need to follow through.” Kiryu reaches his hand out to Daisuke. He looks at the hand for a moment, considering it.

“I don’t want to walk down this path, man. It’s self-destructive, and it's gonna lead to me being killed or arrested. It’s like this cigarette: the moment I light it up, it slowly burns away until it's all gone.” Daisuke sadly takes another drag.

“Life is like a cigarette, Daisuke. Everyone’s time here is slowly burning away. Me and you are just taking in the smoke and enjoying a bit more than the rest. Give me a cig.” Daisuke hands him a cigarette and lights it up. Kiryu blows an O. “You see that O? When a cigarette is just burning on its own, you’re never gonna get smoke like that. Only those who are able to strive for it will.” Kiryu puts the cigarette in his mouth, and begins to swing again. Daisuke takes a drag from his cigarette, and attempts to blow an O. It’s not fully there, but the shape is more distinct than normal smoke. A slight grin appears on Daisuke’s face. He begins to swing too, as the sun continues to set.