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[Rei]

"Rei, wake up,"

I stir awake from my slumber to see my grandmother kneeling next to my futon. My eyes fluttered tiredly, "What's wrong?"

The woman before me looked as calm as a day, yet, her voice sounded weary. "Your grandfather has returned from Kyoto. He needed everyone to assemble in the dining hall, now."

I groaned. Even though I was dead tired from all the strenuous training I was put through, I got up eventually. My class isn’t starting for the next 6 hours and I had just fallen asleep not too long ago! Just what could it be so important for the old man to gather all of us at 3 in the morning?

Following my grandmother into the dining hall, I remembered that my grandfather had gone to Kyoto for 2 weeks’ worth of a trip, to check on the progress – business, I supposed.

Right after my parents died – yes, I’m an orphan. But my grandparents from my father’s side took full guardianship on me while I see my mother’s side of grandparents on winter holidays.

Let’s just call my father’s side of the family, the Yakuza grandparents. They were willing enough to move half of their base to this side of the country.

The question that lingers in everyone’s mind is how I became an orphan. Well, it's a long story, but the simple version that my grandparents told me was that my parents died in a car accident, a tragic one that I shall not disclose at this moment. And all I can say is that their funeral was a closed casket ceremony

If it was up to the old man, he would've taken me back to Kyoto after my parents’ funeral. But, I stood my ground into staying here – home – plus, I think my parents had mentioned this before to them that I will not be moving anywhere until I was old enough to make my own decisions. I'm 22 years old now, and I am more than capable of making a simple decision, yet we're still here.

I stood tiredly beside my grandmother while everyone looked as if they had a stick up their asses. Not a moment later, my grandfather walked in, sending chills down everyone's spine except for grandmother’s and mine.

It doesn't affect me it as much as I used to since I've been through the worse than receiving a glare from him. My grandma, well, she's the queen of Kawaguchi's household. I have the inkling that she knew what happened to me while she was away at Kyoto that one time. If she had witnessed what had been done to me, she would have everyone's head on a silver platter, including my grandfather, but then she'd take her own life for the sake of the Kawaguchi's code.

They have these sets of rules. For one, if you kill one of your family members, in a way to repent or be punished is by scarring your own body. Otherwise, you have to dismember one of your toes or fingers or ears. It's horrible! So, imagine what you have to do if you kill the entire family of yakuza – you take your own life. Overall, it’s a stupid rule.

I look at everyone with a bored expression. The second the old man took a seat, I took mine. All he could do was glare at me.

"What have I missed?" He asked his right-hand man, Mr. Okinawa, for the reports.

"About 20 men from the Black Python are dead," Mr. Okinawa said.

I rolled my eyes – If I was awakened for this, I would rather go back to sleep and welcome my nightmare. On my feet, I was already challenging the old man, "This doesn't concern me, and so, can I go now?" I didn't wait for his answer nor did I spare him a second glance.

But the next thing I heard was the slicing sound in the air, my quick reflex made me shift my left footing – almost making me fall backward. The Aikuchi dagger was now stuck on the pillar of the fusuma, wobbling – if I hadn't moved that fast, the dagger would've pierced the back of my left head; instead, it only grazed the skin of my left cheekbone.

The estimation of the distance I could give from where he was sitting to the door is about 30 feet apart and I stood only a couple feet away from the exit. I glowered at the dagger and to him. The temperature and atmosphere of the room changed drastically cold.

"Why don't you just carve my face as well, Ojichan?" I knew the second those words left my lips; I had just ripped open an old wound on everyone and myself. My eyes fixed on my grandmother, "Repent?" I wiped the excess of blood on my cheek "Repent, my ." I rolled my eyes and left th