The Yakuza's flower

Broken home

??? Pov

A couple of months had gone by since I arrived lin Japan.

Most of my time had been spent training, gathering intel, and trying to find my sister again after losing track of her. I wasn't just here for her—I had my own goals. The fighting tournament was in two months, and I was determined to prove myself.

But no matter how much time I spent training, I couldn't shake the dreams.

Some nights, I'd wake up in a cold sweat, heart hammering in my chest, as memories of our parents' deaths clawed their way into my subconscious. Other nights, it was my sister I saw—Flor, not Ume—trapped in the past, her cries echoing in my head.

She was different now.

Her posture was more confident. The way she laughed—soft and easy—was nothing like the broken girl I remembered.

But she wasn't Flor anymore.

She was Ume now.

A name that didn't belong to the sister I knew. A name that felt foreign on my tongue, like something that had been forced onto her.

Like a part of her had been erased.

And that didn't sit right with me.

in the hotel room, sitting on the edge of the bed, wrapping my knuckles with tape when my phone rang.

I glanced at the screen.

The boss.

I exhaled sharply before answering.

"What the fuck are you up to?" His voice was sharp, already laced with irritation. "I haven't gotten a single update from you since you've been there."

I rolled my shoulders, staying calm. "I'm handling it."

"That's not what I asked." His voice dropped lower, more dangerous. "I sent you there for a reason, Dog. Not so you could sit around playing tourist."

I clenched my jaw, staring at the wall.

"I'm doing what I need to do," I said evenly.

Silence stretched on the other end before he spoke again, slower this time. "Then why the fuck haven't I heard anything?"

I flexed my fingers, my patience thinning. "Because I don't report back unless there's something worth reporting."

Another pause.

Then, a dark chuckle. "Careful, Dog. You're only useful as long as you stay obedient."

I didn't say anything.

"Listen to me," he continued. "I don't care what personal shit you're caught up in. You're there for business first. I want an update, and I want it soon."

The line clicked dead.

I exhaled, lowering the phone from my ear, my grip tight.

have time to waste on distractions or dead ends. My sister was still out there somewhere, but I'd learned one thing in my life: if you needed to find someone, sometimes the best way was to track down the person they lived with.

And that person was my grandmother.

I had no idea where she'd been hiding or what she was doing all these years, but if I could find her, maybe she would lead me to Ume. After all, she'd been the one to take her in, so there had to be some connection.

The search wasn't going to be easy, though. It never was.

I needed to find her first. She might have been hiding or simply living a quiet life, but people like her—old, isolated—were always hard to find. I didn't have many clues, but I knew that my grandmother was a stubborn woman, and she wouldn't have just disappeared without leaving some kind of mark behind.