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JOSEF
Artyom slaps my face. He knows I could have killed him instead of breaking his fingers. He really shouldn't take it so personally. Now that the deal will end with Mari being safe, I’m not taking it personally. I could just let it happen. I’ll be gone along with only one of the Yumikos, but her father’s death, because she got involved with me, might destroy her. I can’t let Mari blame herself. I look over and see her standing there, crying.Trust me, I try to convey my thought to her.
“Here’s what we will do,” the Siren says to Artyom and tells him about her plan to have me kill Yuuto and make me the scapegoat for all the shit around us. Then Artyom will kill me. It’s not a bad plan. Artyom probably agrees since he would wind up in control of the Bratva.
“Good plan,” Artyom says.
I look over and see Katana with two men at his side. I still don’t know if I can trust him. He signaled that he’s with me, but was he just playing with me? If he goes along with the Siren’s plan, he’ll be running his own faction, with the support of her and Artyom, to take out his boss, Matsu Bushida, later. Bushida, the Yakuza faction boss, made a deal with my boss, Ivan, to attempt to keep Sagawa from getting too powerful. That deal seems to be experiencing a few kinks right now.
“So, Yosef, “ Artyom says, “I will give you a gun. If you do anything but use it to shoot Yuuto Yumiko in his heart, your girl will die after she watches her sister and her annoying uncle die very slowly. Just breathe, and it will all be over soon.”
“The tide is coming in,” Katana says, “We could go to the Yokai and get the men out of the water.”
“We should take care of business first,” the Siren argues.
“Nyet, he’s right,” Artyom says and radios up to his pilot to head to Katana’s boat.
“Fine,” the Siren sighs. “I do have some good people back there.”
The boat is underway. I look over to see Mari and her uncle, Maresuke Yumiko, holding who must be her sister, throwing up over the side. Mari would be better off without me around.
“Help! Help!” men are yelling as we get closer to the ship that’s just about under the water.
After a few minutes, the men are pulled onto the boat. Most of them are coughing and spitting out water. One of them comes over and talks to the Siren.
“Ma’am, thank you. I radioed to the studio to send another Tentacle ship, but it would have never made it in time to save us. Thank you, Ma’am.”
“Of course,” the Siren says. “I wouldn’t leave my people to drown if I could help it.” I notice her smirk slightly and glance over at Katana.
“You can radio the other boat and tell them we don’t need them. We don’t need that many witnesses, right?” Katana asks.
“Nonsense,” she answers. “The more, the merrier. They won’t make it here until after we finish this anyway.”
I know what Katana is thinking. She could take him out with more of her men when they get here, and then she would control the whole Yakuza.
“Alright, let’s get started,” she says, “but first, what’s the combination for my new smack, Blondie?”
“One zero one seven,” I say slowly. Now she’ll be able to take over the Southside territory as well.
“Here,” Artyom takes a pistol from his waistband and starts to hand it to me. A Glock, model twenty-two, forty caliber. Not a bad gun.
“Wait,” the Siren says and snatches the gun. She pulls out the magazine so there’s only one bullet in the chamber that will fire and hands it back to Artyom.
“Let the man say goodbye to his family, at least, Artyom,” I say. “I need to just breathe a little first before I kill an innocent man. Alright?”
“Da, I will allow this. Watch him closely, please, Sonomi,” Artyom says.
He guides Yuuto over to his family. The girls and Maresuke are all crying now.
“Blondie,” The Siren says, looking at me, “Such a shame, but you are taking this like a man. I appreciate that and will keep my word. I won’t even keep them in the Depths if you don’t try anything stupid.”
“I understand business. So I’m sure you’ll understand that you and your studio will go up in flames if Marika doesn’t signal my man once a week.”
“An insurance plan,” she says. “Impressive yet again. I will keep my end of the bargain.”
Artyom turns Maresuke, and the girls to face away and leaves some of his men around them. He returns with Yuuto Yumiko and hands me the Glock.
“This way,” Artyom says. He leads us to the port corner of my boat, opens the gate, and positions Yuuto, turning him to face me and taps the center of the man’s torso, letting me know where to shoot him.
