Yakuza Tour Guide (18+)

12. Okane, Okane, Okane

As I'm talking with Detective Ryōshi, Tatsu is finishing all the paperwork as he can to placate Megumi before he leaves. He sets a folder down on her desk, explaining that it has everything the underlings should need for the next three days of collections, as well as a short report on any adjustments he made to Yakuza investment portfolios.

"Hey, I'll bring you a souvenir, too. A nice souvenir."

"Where are you even taking her?"

"It's a surprise."

"A surprise for her."

"Maybe I want your souvenir to be a surprise, too."

"You're insufferable, you know that? Get out of here before I really lose my patience with you," she says, shooing Tatsu out of her office. After he's left, Megumi sits back down and can't help but crack a smile. "What has gotten into him?"

He joins Akihiko in his car and grumbles, looking at the text that has been sitting unanswered for the past two hours.

"Something wrong, boss?"

"She's not answering."

"Maybe she decided to sleep in? It's not even noon yet."

"Yeah... maybe," Tatsu replies, drumming his fingers on the windowsill and staring sternly out at the street. "You didn't tell her about... what I really am, did you?"

"What!? Of course not, I'm not crazy! I just told her about what we do. You know, the firm."

"Okay."

"Why?"

"It's not like her to not answer," he replies, clenching and unclenching his fist. "I have a bad feeling."

"I think you're being paranoid."

"Maybe..."

Tatsu calls the hotel. The receptionist picks up and, by now, knows almost immediately who she's talking to by his voice. He asks her if she could send a courtesy call up to Maple's room and is informed that she checked out early and just returned her keycard to the front desk.

Thanking her, Tatsu hangs up and takes a few deep breaths. Akiko glances over and, for the first time, sees what looks like panic on his boss' face. Tatsu doesn't say anything and continues to stare out the window. He lifts the phone again, hesitates, and then makes another call.

"It's Tatsu. I need a favor. A woman is going to be arriving at the Haneda airport soon. I need her intercepted at the gates and brought to the terminal for private flights. Take her passport and bring her somewhere private, but do not make a scene and do not lay a hand on her."

Akihiko's eyes bulge out of their sockets and he turns to Tatsu, his jaw going slack.

"She'll be pretty, twenty-something, with red hair and green eyes. You can't miss her. I'll be there shortly."

 "Take us to the airport," Tatsu says after he hangs up.

"Boss... this is... you're kidnapping her -"

"Aki!" Whipping his head towards his underling, the fiery look in Tatsu's eyes makes Akihiko's blood run cold. He grips the steering wheel and is silent. "Just take me there."

***

The taxi driver politely refuses my tip. I know the customs here, but I'm so anxious that I forget tipping is seen as an insult in Japan. I smile sheepishly, bow, and apologize. Removing my luggage from the trunk, I approach the gate and am stopped dead in my tracks.

Two guys in suits, with sunglasses, wouldn't be unusual at an airport, but it's the man that they're flanking who makes my heart sink like a stone. Asian James Dean.