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chapter twenty
broken heart of gold
"Yuki Morizono killed my brother in law."
I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest. "Fat chance, Hyuga. Yuki was already long gone from Sannoh before you were old enough to even realize your family was a bunch of criminals."
Hyuga rolled his eyes. "Fine then, don't believe me. You're the one who wanted to know who Yuki Morizono really was!"
"And you're the one who's been threatening me!" I yelled
"Because of Yuki Morizono, my nephew doesn't even know what his father looks like!" Hyuga boomed, his voice carrying over the clearing. It went deathly silent, someone had even turned the music off.
"Norihisa." A burly man in a red haori and a baseball cap warned, spitting out the toothpick he was chewing on. "Not here. Not where we have an audience."
Hyuga chewed on the inside of his cheek as he looked around the courtyard. "Don't' fucking call me that, Sakyo. We'll go inside, but Sannoh Rengokai stays out here."
Tetsu's eyes widened with concern. "Wherever Gillian goes, I go."
Sakyo scoffed. "How sweet of you."
"This is a matter that concerns a former Sannoh resident, and a member of Mugen." Cobra declared. "Therefore, whatever you have to say about Yuki Morizono concerns me as well."
Hyuga rolled his eyes. "So be it. Ukyo, Sakyo, Shu. Lead the way."
Tetsu hurried over, locking his hand with mine as we followed Hyuga into the temple, flanked on either side by Sakyo and Ukyo. My pulse was racing as I attempted to avoid the stares doled out by the other, less important members of Daruma Ikka. Tetsu ran his thumb over my knuckles in an attempt to make me feel better, a nervous expression and a sad smile matching the one on his face was the best I could manage.
There was no way my stepfather had killed a man. It just wasn't possible.
We kept walking until we came to the end of a hallway, cordoned off by a paper shoji screen. Ukyo pulled it open, nodding his head slightly as Hyuga passed him to enter the room, me following meekly behind him. The room was incredible: lit red paper lanterns dangling from a graland across the ceiling, wood floors so polished that they shined, and open paper screen doors that looked out over the most picturesque part of the Daruma's territory in S.W.O.R.D.
Shu Kato, Hyuga's advisor, and the only member of the seemingly most important foursome in the gang who hadn't said something yet, gestured for us to take a seat at a traditional Japanese table setup: a low sitting coffee table surrounded by ornate embroidered pillows.
I sat on one of the throw pillows nervously, resisting the urge to run as I positioned myself in what a kindergarten teacher had once referred to as 'criss-cross applesauce'. Hyuga popped the cork on a bottle of sake, pouring one glass for him, one for Tetsu and one for me. Shu and Sakyo stood by the door we had just come through, Ukyo waiting on the other side. Cobra stood on the other side of the room, near the large windows.
