Excerpt: Yakuza Starfish

Inside the club, the music have died down, everyone’s just standing or sitting there, looking at the newcomers. The tension is palpable, until the young man claps his hands and walks up to the second floor, which has a balcony overlooking the club. Once he’s gone from the main area, the music starts up again, but there seems to be an air of nervousness about everything that happens now. As if everyone that’s there are forcing themselves to have fun, instead of genuinely having fun, like they were just a few minutes ago.

The two other men in the small group clear a few tables – not because they have to, because it’s obvious that the largest table, the one overlooking the dance floor, is reserved for these guys. Or at least the leader, because the two other men look older, cheaper, and far less smart. Frankly, they look like henchmen or bodyguards. Not important.

After a few minutes, the balcony flood with girls; just girls. The two men filter out the ugly ones, only letting the prettiest ones through, though none of them are allowed to sit at the main table. The bartender comes up with a tray filled with alcohol – from the looks of it, it’s the most expensive stuff the club has – and various snacks. “Here you go, Okamoto-san, your usual,” he says nervously, putting the tray down.

“That’s good,” the young man says. “Remember to come up with refills every hour. I plan on being here until dawn.”

The bartender bows so deeply he almost knocks his forehead on the table. “Yes, sir, of course. And just wave if there’s something extra you want, I’ll be paying attention.”

“Of course you will,” the young man says with an ironic smile and waves the bartender off without saying anything else, and the bartender scrambles away, looking relieved when he’s off the balcony.

Okamoto looks around the balcony, then waves a couple of girls to him, making them sit beside him to pour him drinks and feed him snacks. “You know who I am, don’t you, girls?” he asks, but it’s not much of a question.

They both nod, eagerly. “Of course, of course,” one of them says. “You’re Okamoto Ren, the youngest son of…” She trails off with an almost scared glance at the young man, who nods with satisfaction. It seems as if he expected this answer.

“You may call me Ren,” he says, putting an arm around both girls and pulling them closer, giving them both a kiss. “And the three of us are going to have a lot of fun tonight, okay?” Once again, it’s not really a question.

The girls nod after looking at each other, and shift closer to him, almost enough to give him a double lap dance. They’re the chosen ones, and the rest of the group of girls look dejected, but do their best to give the two older men their attention instead. It seems like a game of who can be enough to get the prize, the young man named Okamoto Ren. It’s difficult to understand why they’re so eager; he looks like he’s barely even twenty years old, and yet… There’s something about him.

For the next couple of hours, everything progresses nicely – the girls on the balcony change, but not the main ones, the ones chosen by Ren. He talks to a couple of the others as well and hands them some jewelry, money or just kisses, but they all seem happy to get attention, any attention at all. A couple of times there are some other men coming to the balcony, and Ren waves all the girls away so that he can talk to the men in peace. It almost seems like a business meeting, apart from the fact that business meetings aren’t usually conducted at nearly six AM in an underground nightclub.

Eventually, the crowd starts to thin out until there’s only a handful of people left. Ren sits with the two girls he has chosen, the two older men has one girl each, and down at the bar, Jack and Tetsuys are drinking beer while talking to the bartender. Four girls and a guy are still dancing on the dance floor, but there’s something distinctly exhausted in the way they’re dancing now.

Ren gets to his feet and heads towards the exit, and somehow, that seems to be the signal everyone’s been waiting for. In a couple of minutes, everyone except the bartender, Jack and Tetsuya have cleared out of the club.

The small group of friends head down one street, one of the older men drags his girl down another, while the other man walks over to a luxurious car and opens the door for Ren and his two girls. “Do you want me to come with you today, boss?” he asks, but Ren shakes his head.

“I don’t need anyone to hold my hand, Ninagawa. I can take care of it. I’ll call you when I’m ready later on. Go have fun.”

“Thanks, boss,” Ninagawa says and takes a tighter hold of his girl to pull her down a third street, disappearing around a corner.

Ren pushes his girls into the car, and they snuggle up to each other, just waiting for him to get in as well to tell them what to do. He stands next to the car and looks around, before glancing up at the sky. It’s past seven by now, and it’s almost completely light out, the sun peeking up over the horizon.

The night is over.