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It was just another day on the run from the Dojima Family for Kazuma Kiryu.
He was heading for the Champion District, in the hopes of dodging any of the Dojima goons so he could get a drink
Yet he found himself stopping outside the soapland of Shangri La, after spotting a boy near the front door kicking stones as if bored.
The boy looked around Daigo’s age, dark hair flat on his head with startling grey eyes. His outfit was plain and worn, as if picked up second hand.
“Hey,” Kiryu greeted him. The boy looked up, finally stopping his game with the stone.
“Hi,” he spoke confidently, like he was used to speaking to strangers.
“You okay, kid?”
“Yeah…” the child shrugged casually. “Just bored.”
“I’d expect so, being alone, here.” Kiryu eyed the soapland.
The boy frowned, noting Kiryu’s gaze.
“That’s my home,” he said, a little defensive. Kiryu looked back to the boy, confused.
“The soapland?”
“Yeah,” he said softly, a wistful yet sad smile on his face. “My foster father is the owner.”
Kiryu could find no words, all he could feel was a surge of sympathy for this boy. Not only did he clearly have no parents, like himself, but he had been raised alone - in a soapland of all places. Not exactly the ideal place to raise a child.
“What’s your name, kid?”
“Ichiban, Kasuga Ichiban,” the boy said. For a second, Kiryu questioned the choice of the child's name, but dismissed it upon seeing the look on the earnest boy’s face. “What’s yours, mister?”
“Kiryu,”
“Kiryu-san,” Ichiban spoke more cheerfully now, his voice seeming to be exceptionally loud for someone his size. “Do you like video games?”
“Uhhh,” Kiryu was taken off guard. “Like at the arcade?”
“Uh huh,” the boy nodded, excitement in his eyes. “I was playing this game in the basement. I just got to this boss, a massive dragon. Then my dad ruined my fun, and told me to go outside and play.”
Ichiban sighed in irritation. “What am I supposed to do in the streets? There aren’t any dragons to fight out here.”
Kiryu twitched uncomfortably, thinking of the dragon on his back and the title he’d been hearing from the shadows, one that could apply to him or any number of people in the family… 'the Dragon of Dojima'.
If only you knew, kid. He thought to himself.
“Don’t you have any friends to be with?” Kiryu suggested.
Ichiban laughed, but there was a dark edge to his laughter. “With Soapy Ichi? Nope. No one wants anything to do with the kid from a soapland.”
Kiryu felt that surge of sympathy again. He tried to think of where he could send this kid so he wouldn’t have to be alone, there was the Pocket Circuit stadium across Kamurocho, but there was no way of knowing if this kid even liked Pocket Circuit.
The boy looked a similar age to Daigo, he tried to reason with himself. Maybe they’d get along. He took another glance at the kid, Ichiban looked the type to pick a fight - the scuff marks on his trousers and faded bruises on his knuckles told Kiryu that much. If this kid met Daigo they’d either be good friends or would get into a fistfight, and given Daigo’s attitude recently, Kiryu feared Dojima’s kid would get Ichiban into some serious trouble.
“You okay?” The boy chirped. “You seemed kinda distant there.”
“Hm,” he grunted quietly in agreement, focusing on Ichiban's face again before speaking carefully. “Couldn’t you go to the arcade?”
“THERE HE IS!” Kiryu heard a voice boom, and he turned spotting three Dojima goons down Senryo Avenue. “KIRYU!”
Kiryu held back a curse, they’d found him again. He turned and looked down to Ichiban, the boy didn’t seem scared, just annoyed.
“I gotta go,” he spoke quickly. “Get out here, kid.”
Ichiban looked up at him and shook his head.
“You go, I’ll slow them down.” He saw the worried look on Kiryu’s face. “It’s not the first time I’ve seen a Yakuza, they don’t scare me.”
“They should,” Kiryu warned. “I owe you one, Kasuga.”
Kiryu backed off heading toward the fortune teller, hoping he could lose them in the alleys of the Champion District, and heard the kid yell back.
“Call me Ichiban!”
The last he saw before he turned the corner, was the confused looks on the Dojima Family members faces as an eleven year old kid came up to them with a loud voice going on about how he swore he’d seen the man they were looking for going in the soapland.
Over a month passed and Kiryu was back in the Dojima family. It wasn’t easy, but he never thought it would be.
Here he was once again, going from bar to loan shark office across all of Kamurocho collecting for a financial target that to almost anyone would seem impossible.
As he passed the karaoke bar down North Senryo Avenue, he felt a tapping against his leg and quickly turned around. It had become instinct to react to every little thing, even as a member of the family there were still some that would try and ambush him for his part in taking down Dojima’s three lieutenants.
Kiryu took a fighting stance, and noted there was no one behind him. He almost dismissed it as a prank until he looked down.
It was the boy, Ichiban.
“I knew it was you!” Ichiban grinned. “You’re wearing a new suit. It’s cool!”
“Don’t tell my kyoudai that.” Kiryu said, suppressing a chuckle at the thought of what Nishiki would say to this kid over his choice in fashion.
The kid frowned. “Eh?”
Kiryu shook his head. “Never mind. What do you need, kid?”
Ichiban looked down, shifting himself from leg to leg. “Oh, nothing,”
“I’ll leave then,” Kiryu began to turn, calling the boy’s bluff.
“No, wait.” The kid called, and he turned. “I…”
Kiryu raised his eyebrows, slightly impatient, he needed to get back to collecting or he’d probably have Kashiwagi would punch him into a wall, again.
“You’re a Dragon, right?” Ichiban said, a strange light in his eyes.
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.” The boy said, his voice getting faster with excitement. “I’ve been hearing all the Dojima guys talking about you. They were talking about the guy in a white and orange suit, and how he took on their boss and won. Now, he’s back in the family even though everyone hates him. But he’s the best in the family, maybe all the Tojo Clan. That’s you, right? You’re the Dragon of Dojima.”
“Stupid name,” Kiryu grumbled.
Ichiban’s grin only grew wider, but his eyes widened slightly with surprise. “Is it you?”
“Hm, I suppose so, but you can forget the nickname,”
“But that’s the thing. I can’t!” Ichiban continued brightly. “My Dad is always on my back for playing video games all the time, and not playing outside. But the outside is boring, people are jerks, and I haven’t seen a single dragon. Until I met you.”
“I’m not like those dragons, kid. I’m yakuza.” Kiryu emphasised. “What has this got to do with anything?”
“Wel,l I was thinking… I could be the hero and you’d be the dragon.”
A game, the kid wants to play a game. Kiryu realised. He didn’t want to let Ichiban down, but he’d already put the kid at risk once. He wouldn’t repeat that mistake.
“Sorry,” he said softly. “I don’t have the time, I need to get back.”
“When will you have time?”
“I don’t know,” Kiryu admitted. The way his life was currently, he suspected it may be years before he could go a day without doing collections to appease Dojima.
Ichiban looked crestfallen.
“Okay,” he spoke quietly now. “I’ll see you around.”
The boy walked away, head hung in disappointment.
Kiryu couldn’t help the shame he felt, but he was a Yakuza first, and didn’t have time to be helping people on every street corner anymore.
That’s what he tried to tell himself.
It was over a month before Kiryu saw Ichiban again, and even then it was only from the corner of his eye. Then the boy seemed to vanish.
It happened again, a week later. Then the next day, and the next and the one after that. Until Kiryu finally managed to grab the kid before he took off.
“Oi,” Ichiban grumbled, struggling to get out of the vice-like grip Kiryu had on the back of his shirt. “Lemme go.”
Kiryu gritted his teeth, this kid was getting on his nerves. He slowly walked around so Ichiban could see him properly and loosened his grip just enough so it wouldn’t hurt the boy.
“Are you going to run again?”
Ichiban grumbled, seeming frustrated.
“No," he mumbled and Kiryu let him go.
“Explain,” he demanded firmly.
“What?” Ichiban said stubbornly, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Why are you following me?” He stated clearly, trying to keep himself in check. “I warned you, being around me could get you in trouble.”
“I was just…” the boy sighed, an innocent look now on his face. “Doing reconnaissance.”
“Reconnaissance?”
“Yeah,” Ichiban immediately perked up. “I know you said you don’t have time to be my dragon, but you will eventually. So I thought I’d check out what I’m facing. Figure out your stats and weaknesses.”
Kiryu looked down on the kid curiously. Since he had quit the Dojima family and then returned, one of the most valuable lessons he had learned was to exploit the weakness of an enemy. It appeared Ichiban was well on his way to learning the same lesson.
“What did you learn?”
“You are strong, stronger than anyone I’ve seen. Yet, you don’t rely on it, you are always moving and change strategies frequently. It makes you hard to predict, and why your opponents never seem to catch up with you.”
The Dragon raised his eyebrows in surprise, he really had been watching. He had taken to implementing the various styles, and changing them to avoid hits and be unpredictable to rivals.
“I get it though, I’m not ready to face you,” Ichiban said, casually placing his hands in his pockets.
“Hm,” Kiryu chuckled quietly, the thought of this kid trying to fight him was amusing. “I think it’ll be at least ten years before you're ready to face me, kid.”
Ichiban rolled his eyes. “I didn’t mean in an actual fight. I mean a game - you’re the dragon and I’m the hero. The hero has to fight the dragon to save the world.”
“I’m too old for games,”
Ichiban gave him a strange look, a mix of disbelief and disgust.
“Really? Because I’ve seen you come out of Club Sega…”
There it was again, Kiryu noticed. He was not even twenty one and he was playing at being a man. He was making excuses, rather than just being honest.
The kid wasn’t really doing anything wrong, he just wanted to play a game. In honesty, Kiryu was kind of embarrassed by how much Ichiban seemed to admire him, and liked how carefree he was - he wished he could be like that.
He sighed longingly.
“I see your point, but if you’ve been watching as much as I think you have - you know I’m busy.”
Ichiban nodded, a small understanding smile on his face. “I know.”
“Okay,” Kiryu spoke carefully, reluctant to speak the next few words. “I’ll see you around, Ichiban.”
As he walked away, Ichiban couldn’t help but smile - he knew he was going to face his dragon.
Weeks continued to pass, and then one day Kiryu was walking down around the Hotel District, heading to West Park to meet one of the homeless there.
There he was again, the kid.
Ichiban was walking casually, holding a silver metal bat over his right shoulder.
“Hey kid,” Kiryu said.
Ichiban came to a halt and grinned. “Hi Kiryu-san,”
“What’s with the bat?”
“Huh? Oh, I was going to the batting centre to try the Home Run course,” the kid admitted.
“Hm,” the Dragon spoke quietly, surprised by Ichiban’s relatively normal reply.
“I wasn’t expecting to run into you,” Ichi explained. “I haven’t looked for you in a while.”
“I noticed,” Kiryu agreed, it had been over two weeks since he last saw the kid. On the one hand, he was glad he was no longer putting himself in danger, but part of him missed seeing that cheerful face - in his line of work you never got to see someone smile, not unless that someone was trying to intimidate you.
“I wanted you to find me. It wouldn’t be much of a boss fight if I was the only one who wanted to fight, y’know?”
Kiryu nodded solemnly, his mind elsewhere. Surely he could leave his meet up with the homeless guy a little longer...
“Do you mind if I join you?”
“At the batting cages?” Ichi asked, astonished. “Hell yeah, I’d love that.”
Kiryu didn’t know what it was, but even when he was up against a kid, he was competitive. He struck home run after home run.
Ichiban didn't do half bad, he mostly got singles and doubles but he managed a few home runs. He wasn’t bad, he just lacked experience. Time would fix that.
When Kiryu got out of the cages, he immediately spotted Ichiban at the UFO Machines trying to get a Buko chan.
By some miracle, not only did Ichi manage to grab one of the larger toya but also knock another one over, thus winning himself two cute animals.
“YES,” the kid smacked the glass enthusiastically, and bent down to grab his prizes.
He turned and gave Kiryu a massive grin.
“Here,” he handed over the larger plushie. “I’ve got that one.”
Kiryu was taken aback by the gift, but took the stuffed toy from him.
“Thank you,”
The dragon then gestured for Ichi to follow him, and they walked out of the batting centre side by side.
“Hey, race ya,” Ichiban took off running as soon as they hit the steps, leaving Kiryu in the dust.
Kiryu shook his head at the boy’s enthusiasm, but went after him, telling himself he was doing it to keep him safe and it had nothing to do with the joy and freedom of just doing what he wanted.
Kiryu didn’t find it difficult to keep pace, and was led up several flights of stairs to the roof ofone of the neighbouring buildings.
The Dragon scanned the area, he was pretty sure that Ichiban was hiding somewhere.
He felt two arms wrap around his waist, and try and hoist him up, but to no avail.
“Gotcha,” he heard Ichiban say cheekily, and then let him go.
Kiryu turned to face the kid. He was beaming with pride, but panting a little. The strain of trying to pick up a man over three times physical weight was showing.
“Content you beat me yet?”
“Yep,” he smiler brightly. "I wanted to take you off guard, I knew i couldn't win head on."
“What move you trying to do?” Kiryu quizzed, no one had ever tried to pick him up like that before.
Ichi walked over to where he had left his bat against a vent and swung it over his shoulder. “Huh? Oh, it’s a kind of surplex I learnt about where you pick up your opponent and dump them on the ground. I wanted to try it.”
“I see,” he paused, and a strange urge overcame him.
Kiryu rushed over picking up the kid with one arm and putting him over his shoulder.
“Is this what you were trying to do?” he chuckled.
“Uh,” Ichiban finally sounded a little afraid. “… No. Can you let me down, please?”
Kiryu let him down gently, suppressing his amusement at Ichiban’s stunned face.
“What was that about?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It was what I used to do with another kid… a long time ago.”
Not that long ago, he reminded himself. It had only been just over a year since he had gone out of his way to play with Daigo. Things had changed so much since then, he forgot how much he enjoyed spending time with kids, being like a kid himself.
“Oh,” Ichi shifted from leg to leg, suddenly feeling awkward at the comparison and looking down.
Kiryu put his hands on the kid’s shoulders, staring into his grey eyes.
“That doesn’t make you some kind of replacement, you are still you,” he paused, struggling with his words. He never voiced his emotions, yet there was something so open about this kid that made him want to. "Now you've beaten your dragon, so what will you?”
“I don’t know,” Ichi looked down again. “I spent a long time planning this, and then it just didn’t happen how I imagined in my head.”
“Hm,” Kiryu agreed. “That’s life, it never goes as planned.”
“Like when you’re in a dungeon, and take the wrong turn and bump into a mini-boss I guess,” Ichi shrugged.
“You’re a little too young for mini-bosses in the real world, kid.”
“Where’s the fun if there’s a chance I could win? It’s more fun if I win when the odds are against me.”
“Hm,” the Dragon pondered that he had been in plenty of those type of situations and could remember the sense of pride he got from beating the odds over and over. It was literally what had earned him the title of Dragon.
“I guess it's time to say goodbye,” he said sadly, to which Kiryu couldn’t bring himself to answer. “You have a family to look after, and I guess I should actually do some schoolwork, heh.”
Ichiban gave him a lopsided grin, one that didn’t quite meet his eyes.
Kiryu approached him, placing a hand on his head, noting how soft Ichiban’s hair felt, and brushed the kid’s forehead with his thumb.
“Take care, Ichi,” he spoke softly, and let his hand drop to his side.
The boy edged back, reluctant to turn away but eventually took off, leaving Kiryu alone with his thoughts.
The kid may have his quirks, but he definitely had potential.
Kiryu shook his head, a second flew by where he understood why Kazama had given him and Nishiki such a hard time about joining the Yakuza.
Now he understood.
Ichiban had the potential to go down the Yakuza path, and even be good at it. But, was that really the right path, given how much you put on the line and risked losing?
Kiryu knew he couldn't answer that. It wasn’t his decision to make. Everyone had their own path, and Ichiban had to make his own. He wouldn’t change that, but he would like to be part of it, even if it was only once.