Chapter Sixteen

Moe had never told Kaede about her real father. There was not much to tell. Moe was sixteen. He was a little older than she was, and was a local hood. A lesser member of one of the minor Yakuza factions. She had started dating him even though her parents objected profusely. One thing Moe always knew about herself. She was her own woman. No one was ever going to tell her what to do. She was going to make it in this world regardless of what anyone or anything that stood in her way. His name was Tastuya, though he was known as Tatsu, 'the dragon'. He had several dragon tattoos on his body and made Moe get one as well. It was a large one, and it took up all of her back. It meant that she was seldom to be seen with a low backed dress when business was concerned. Her father was an important business man. He almost disowned her when he found out about the tattoo. She was fortunate, as her mother stepped in. Being an only child, Moe was often able to get away with a lot of things most children would not get away with. She was the apple of her father's eye, and no matter how upset he got, he somehow always found it in his heart to forgive her. Rumour had it, that her father was worth many millions. Moe ran wild. She had caught the eye of Tatsuya at school. By the time they were going steady, he owned a motorcycle and dressed well. After he had left school, he had lost a finger in a Yakuza ritual, and had gained a scar across his face, supposedly due to a knife fight. To Tatsu, it was all part of business. If you want an omelette, you will break eggs. Breaking things was business to Tatsuya. If they told him to beat someone up, he would. If they told him to burn down a house, he would. They told him to start dating Moe. She was young and pretty, and it seemed a good match. He treated her well, with gifts and very gentle. There was one problem with the relationship though. She was a possession. If he told her to meet him at a place and time, she was expected to be there. No ifs, not buts. Be there! Being spoilt like she had been, she never considered herself a possession of any one. Not Tastuya, not her father, no one. Still, when Tatsuya asked her to get the dragon tattoo, she did. When he told her to meet him somewhere, she turned up. She knew that when you run with the Yakuza, you never cross them. At seventeen she gave birth to Kaede. The neighbours were aghast, but they dare not say it to her face. They were too scared of Tatsuya and his Yakuza friends. Then came the night of Tatsuya's call. Moe was feeding Kaede, when the telephone rang. It was Tatsuya. He told her to get out of her parents house. No reason, no explanation. Just get out! Moe dressed Kaede in some warm clothes and wrapped her in a blanket. 'Where are you going?' demanded Moe's father. 'Eh! Tatsuya has told me to wait for him out the front.' 'He is scum. I don't like you seeing that man. He hasn't even married you! Look at yourself!' 'I must go.' Moe just turned and left, stopping at the door to put on a pair of wooden sandals. She went out the front and waited by the road. She wondered what the problem was. Tatsuya had seemed agitated. What could it be? A black limousine drove down the road towards her. Then, two more pulled around the corner. The first one stopped and Tatsuya got out. He told her to get in. So she did, cradling Kaede to her. As the limousine pulled out from the curb, Moe looked over her shoulder. The other two limousines stopped where they had just been parked. A group of Yakuza youths got out of the cars and started to set fire to her fathers house. She wasn't sure what was happening, but she heard two shots fired and jumped. She became extremely worried about what was happening. Even though she had never been the best child to her parents, she still loved them dearly. A Yakuza dressed in a suit to one side of her with a brief case on her lap handed her a pen. 'Eh?' 'Sign this form,' he said to her. 'What is it? What am I signing?' 'Everything you own, now belongs to me,' said Tatsuya. 'What? What do I own?' It dawned on her. Her father was a wealthy business man worth millions, and Tatsuya had handed him over to be assassinated by his Yakuza buddies. As the only heir, Tatsuya was now forcing her to sign over everything she was due to inherit. A part of her wanted to resist and make him put a bullet in her head as well. At least he would get nothing. It was Kaede though. She could not bring herself to have her daughter killed. She had no doubt Tatsuya would do it too. He would do it to prove his loyalty to the Yakuza clan. She decided not to cry. There would be time for mourning later. Now, however, she must bite her tongue, control her will, and do what needed to be done. She signed the papers. She was surprised to see that they were completely in order. What she signed claimed that she owed Tatsuya the equivalent of what she was about to inherit. The Yakuza accountants had been very thorough. Every yen in her parents bank accounts were accounted for, everything the insurance would pay on the house, which was now burning to the ground. Ever investment her father owned. Everything. It was all accounted for, and she was signing it over to her parents killer. The car pulled over to the curb. Tatsuya helped her and Kaede get out of the car. He bowed to her and said, 'We are now over. You can not see me again.' Moe just bowed slightly, and stood there. She did not want to answer him. As she stood facing him, her plan formed in her mind, and she knew what she was going to do next. Tatsuya got back in the car, and it drove off. Moe was now completely broke. Everything she owned, everything she stood to inherit was now the possession of that man. She only had the clothes Kaede and she were now dressed in. It was not even worth going to the police over. That would just make her and Kaede another Yakuza target. She went to a nearby house and asked to borrow the telephone. The people were very obliging and allowed her to make a call. She telephoned her paternal Grandfather and asked him to pick her up. She told him where she would be waiting. As her Grandfather drove her back to his house, she explained the everything that had happened that night. She told him what she thought had happened to her parents and all about Tatsuya. Her grandfather was deeply saddened by the tale. 'What do you plan to do now?' he asked her, the tears evident in his old eyes. 'I wish to borrow some money from you. I am going to go to America.' 'America? And do what?' 'I need to be out of reach of Tatsuya and the Yakuza. I will repay every yen I borrow Grandfather.' 'Are you crazy? You have a child. Stay and live with me. Who will look after your daughter?' 'I will do it all.' 'You're crazy I tell you. I will come to America with you.' 'You can't. You don't know how to speak English.' 'I don't have to. You can do that for me. Besides, how do you know they won't come looking for me? I have money too you know, and then they'll just make you sign over what you would inherit from me. You and I are the only members of the family left. If they had all your fathers investments down to the last yen, don't you think they'd have looked into mine?' So it was decided then and there that all three of them would go to America. Moe's Grandfather did not even bother to return home, drove to another friends house and they stayed there for a few weeks. He had an old friend whose son worked in real estate sell his home and possessions. He also had an old friend get them passports and visas to the United States. As soon as the passports arrived in the mail, they got into his car and drove to Narita airport and took the first available flight. They did not nook in advance for fear that Tatsuya might find out through some of his Yakuza connections. Moe's Grandfather only lived for another four years. It was long enough to see Moe complete a business degree, and Kaede's fourth birthday. Unfortunately, he had contracted an aggressive form of lung cancer, due to his habit of chain smoking. In her time in the United States, Moe worked on one thing and one thing only. Business. She studied hard. She passed her business degree with first class honors. She then worked hard and did her masters and doctorate part time. She had no social life. She only did two things. She worked and she looked after her daughter Kaede. Moe was lucky. Some of her father's business smarts rubbed off on her, and she became a master deal maker. By the time she was thirty, she had become a multi-millionaires. She had learned something from Tatsuya that he would regret. She learned, that to get to the top, you did whatever you had to. When others balked at something, you waded in and you did it. Ruthless, unemotional and uncompromising. Then came the day she had longed for ever since the death of her father. Her investigator informed her that he had located a suitable assassin. She flew immediately to Tokyo and they met. His eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw the amount of money Moe had passed across the table to him. He had taken the briefcase from her and opened it. 'This is more than I asked for.' 'Yes, it is. Do you have a problem with that?' 'Not at all. What makes you so sure I won't kill you here and now and take your money?' 'The dragon on my back says you won't.' He had seen the tattoo when she had walked in. She had deliberately worn a low backed dress so that he would see it. he assumed she was someone higher up in the Yakuza than he was. She had the markings of a Yakuza woman, and more money than he'd made in a lifetime. He assumed correctly she had even more money than he would ever see in his life. She was someone important. 'How will you know I have done the job? Do you want me to send photographs?' 'I'll know, as it will be on the front page of every newspaper in this country. You will do it, and you will do it so that there is no mistaking the message that is being sent.' The assassin wasn't sure what Tatsuya had done to bring down the wrath of the Yakuza upon himself, but he was not going to make the same mistake. He was being paid exceptionally, and he was going to make this assassination was so gruesome that it could not be ignored by any reporter anywhere in any part of Japan. This was going on page one, and possibly page two, page three and a centrefold spread asking how someone could do something so bizarre. Sure enough, the next day, on every major paper through out Japan. The story of some ritual style killing. Tatsuya, his wife, his three mistresses, their children, all slain. The only person on the planet still carrying his genes as Kaede, and Moe would protect her for the rest of her life. Tatsuya had taken everything from Moe. he loving family, her inheritance, her money. The only things he had left her were her Grandfather, Kaede and the clothes they were in. Now, she had taken even more from him. She had taken everything he had owned, everything he had ever been and the Yakuza world were shocked into the belief that it had happened as he had somehow crossed the Yakuza. His name had been soiled, his reputation destroyed. The rumours of a rich Yakuza woman paying abounded and his disgrace became legendary. No one knew what he did wrong, but whatever it was, he had crossed the wrong person and had paid dearly. Moe returned to America, and whenever Kaede asked about her father, Moe was now able to reply with all honestly, that he had died.