Reiji had a genuine urge to deal with those two buffoons. If this was a cultivation novel, killing intent would be radiating from him, hovering death claws over Baldy and Beardy.
He had specifically asked them not to come anywhere near his school, in an effort to pull away from his Yakuza background as much as possible, and they couldn't even give him a full week.
"BOOSSS! WE MISSED YOU <3!"
Beardy just waved happily as Baldy kept yelling at the top of his lungs. Shivers ran up Reiji's spine in disgust as he turned to his two new friends with a stiff expression.
"Well...I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow?"
"O-Oh, yeah take care Reiji-kun," Airi responded while Greeny just nodded. But they were both trembling, trying to hold in their laughter as best as they could.
Reiji just ran off quickly, ignoring their teasing looks and rushed to shut the bears up. They stopped calling for him as they saw him get closer, and chuckled as Reiji practically shoved them into the classy Mercedes they were leaning against.
"WHHHYYYY??? I ASKED YOU GUYS TO DO ONE THING AND YOU COULDN'T EVEN DO THAT?" He lashed out as he hopped into the back seat. The two just looked at each other and sighed.
"I'm really sorry Boss, we wouldn't have done this if it wasn't urgent. It was Boss Daichi's orders..."
Reiji clammed up at their response, his brows furrowing in contemplation. What could his Dad possibly want? Since the game was from Riku's perspective, there wasn't much information about Reiji's personal life aside from when he showed up to cause trouble.
Considering their 'falling out' wasn't too long ago, he couldn't think of a plausible reason.
"When we told the Big Boss about how you had matured, he was ecstatic! I swear, I think I almost saw a smile on his face, no joke!" Baldy babbled in excitement.
"Yeah, he's even giving you a chance to show it by assigning you a protection job today. We'll come along and show you how it's done Boss, no need to worry," Beardy added, a blissful smile cutting right through Reiji's heart.
'Of course, what did I expect from these two chatterboxes...'
He flopped back on the seat with a weary look as they drove off, his mind racing as he thought about what he should do. Since he obviously wanted to cut ties with the syndicate, it would make sense to avoid this ridiculous job no matter what.
But would that really work? Even if he could miss out on this one, with Daichi's personality that would only lead to worse assignments and even more monitoring. He wouldn't find it surprising if Baldy and Beardy were assigned to him again like three years ago.
In OG Reiji's memories, he was only thirteen at the time. He'd caused numerous tantrums when he was brought on some lighter jobs simply because he thought it was boring. Daichi had asked these two dunderheads to bring him on more jobs as a result, to 'try and show him the fun parts' of the jobs.
So backing out wasn't much of an option, because that stubborn leader would simply force him to take on many more tasks to get through to him.
Which is why Reiji thought of a plan. One that he had no idea if it would work, but was worth a shot.
Doing these protection jobs well were important for many reasons.
First: If not done right, could lead to their clients' business suffering massive losses.
Second: One failure sets a precedent that encourages the 'evildoers' to keep trying.
Third: Probably the most important one. It tarnishes the Yagami name which affects other businesses.
So, let's just fail!
Of course he would do it carefully, he didn't want an innocent business to suffer because of his stubbornness. So he'll just act impulsively, make some wrong decisions on purpose, and do things in a way that would harm their reputation.
This way, if he keeps this up on other tasks, Daichi might concede and wait until he graduates to 'mature more', giving him some leeway.
'Hehe, not bad. I'm pretty damn smart heehee,' Reiji snickered evilly.
***
"Boss we're here. This is Ichihara Ramen, their owner asked for a meeting today."
'Ichihara?....Nah, no way.'
Reiji looked up at the store's sign with a grim face, an ominous feeling taking over him. It was a pretty small store, tucked in between two large office buildings and had a homely look to it. Wooden walls, calligraphy sign boards, and simple decorations in the interior.
But on the walk in, Reiji sniffed and curled his face in disgust. There was a foul smell around the store, but he had no idea where it was coming from.
As they entered, Reiji looked around and saw that it was very empty, with not even a single customer in sight. This was odd even though it wasn't rush hour, given the prime location they had.
There were many commercial stores around, a couple of offices, and even a cinema nearby. With only a few other food places around, the ramen shop should be doing decently well even at this hour.
A middle-aged man and a grandpa walked out of the open-air kitchen area, and Reiji's face hardened as they approached.
Green hair. They both had green hair, though the grandpa's was almost completely gray.
Now what? His suspicion was all but confirmed, so should he still act like a brat or consider his options? As he was thinking hard, the conversation between the two parties began.
"Thank you so much for coming, I'm sorry for the short notice but we truly had no other option," the old man said heavily.
"Those bastards have gone too far! They've pushed us to the edge," the middle-aged guy added furiously, pushing his glasses up in indignation.
"Calm down, give us more details so that we can understand the situation," Beardy remarked and had them sit down. The grandpa looked forlorn as he explained what had happened so far.
"As you know, the Tassle Company bought out the two office building on either side of our restaurant, and they planned to buy us out so that they can merge them and make a large entertainment center. With the stores and the cinema around us, they planned to include arcades, food courts, and indoor activity sports to draw in the large crowd."
"The problem is, they completely lowballed us with the offer, and when we refused they started taking actions that cross the line so that we'd go out of business and have no choice but to agree!"
Reiji simply listened from the side, and nodded internally as the picture became clearer.
"Things like delaying our food suppliers from coming on time and redirecting customers with ridiculously low offers from other restaurants that they partnered with. We could somewhat handle that, because our food is genuinely good. But in the past few days we found our food supplies were contaminated and someone had dug up the sewage piping that goes down behind the store."
Tears threatened to fall from the Grandpa's eyes as he continued, his whole body trembling.
"We called the police, contacted lawyers, but nothing came out of it. The Police found no evidence and even if they did, they were paid off. A legal battle against that giant company would also take ages, and would also bankrupt us."
Beardy and Baldy both listened carefully, and Reiji was a little surprised to see their focus because he was used to their carefree behavior.
'Seems like they take their work seriously.'
"Hmmm, the Tassle Company.... That'll be troublesome." Beardy muttered. This made the two greenheads stiffen as they asked worriedly.
"I-Is it hopeless after all?...."
"Huh? Oh no, we can do it but it'll just take time. They're a big foreign business, so negotiating with them will be complicated. We can't do the normal thing and just beat them up or threaten them because they have connections to the police as well."
They calmed down a little as Beardy reassured them, but the worry didn't lessen at all. Because the longer it took to resolve this, the more business they would lose in the short-term.
Just as they started to plan out what they could do, the bell tinkled as the door opened again. A group of 5 burly guys stepped in, following a short, pudgy man with a greasy smile on his face and a cigar in his mouth. His blonde hair was balding, and he looked like a Westerner, which indicated his identity.
"Hey, Ramen Idiots, have you made your choice? I think our little presents should have made you think twice, huh?" He giggled in broken Japanese as he sauntered in with the confidence of a King.
'Wooooow.... That's screaming villain cannon fodder, just how cliche can you be?' Reiji stroked his chin with a bemused look.
Things had just gotten a lot more interesting...