Can I ask you a favor?

"Hey, isn't that Takuya?"

A woman with bright red hair, tied in a bun with a few long strands left loose, turned around at once and scanned the busy street ahead. Her gaze quickly darted from one person to the next, but her brown eyes widened as she spotted a familiar face in the lively crowd.

"But who is he with?" Izumi's female friend continued to wonder as the white-haired man stroked another man's teal-colored hair rather lovingly.

The woman with bright red hair clutched her chest and squeezed her floral dress tightly, feeling like her heart was about to burst and shatter to pieces.

"Oh, that is Jiro. What the hell is going on?" she snapped as she squinted her eyes at the pair.

The men were sitting on a patio in a café, quite close to each other, but respectfully separated. The man of her dreams was chatting animatedly, beaming with a wide smile as he gestured with his hands, never taking his eyes off the other man.

"Come, let's get closer!" she whispered to her friend and grabbed her hand.

The women walked to a restaurant next door, finding a table that was close enough to the couple that they could hear them without being noticed. The two quickly picked up the menus and held them up in front of their faces, pretending to be deeply interested in choosing what to eat.

"So, where would you like to go next?" Jiro asked his companion, whose bright blue-green hair shone in the afternoon sun. The teal-haired one shifted in his seat and nervously played with the straw in his glass, clearly uncomfortable about the situation as he muttered a reply.

Izumi and her friend sent away a waiter who had come to take their order, saying they weren't ready to order yet. Her eyes narrowed to lines as she watched Jiro reach out to wipe something off the other person's lips, stroking for longer than it was necessary before pulling away.

"Have you ever been to an amusement park? Why don't we go there just for fun?" Jiro asked, tilting his head to the side curiously. The other man gave him a small, shy smile before nodding his head.

Izumi spotted how Jiro's hand quickly touched his companion's arm under the table so swiftly and subtly that it almost went unnoticed. As they stood up, her past lover gently brushed the second man's black t-shirt from the back as he leaned in to whisper something to his ear.

The two men walked away from the patio, their hands barely apart as if linked by an invisible thread.

"Did you see that? They are totally together!" the friend gasped.

The redhead clutched the printed menu so hard that her knuckles turned white and the list tore under her grip.

"He left me for... that filth?!"

Her voice was too loud, causing customers nearby to turn their heads to see her and look at her confusedly.

Izumi quickly collected herself, painting a fake smile on her face. Even so, inside her head, she swore to get the love of her life back and ensure that kind of filth would never come between them again.

(Later that night)

"You want me to kill the Baron?" the white-haired yakuza repeated, his voice low and skeptical.

The first lieutenant had summoned Jiro Takuya to the brothel and gave him a trusted mission - to get rid of the man known as the Baron, one of Japan's most feared criminals who had evaded the law for years. He was a wealthy man who had made his fortune by smuggling and trafficking illegal goods such as drugs, weapons, and even human beings.

Jiro had heard about the Baron's reputation and had even seen him from afar a few times, but he had never talked to him. The Baron was not involved with any yakuza clans as he mostly operated overseas - however, he had a certain fondness for Kamiwara's brothel, so it was no surprise that he was often seen there during his visits. The man was infamous for picking a prostitute and strangling her to death, leaving her lifeless body in the room after their dirty business.

"He has been warned too many times not to choke girls anymore. He killed another yesterday, so now he will be punished," Mika Kamiwara said as she smoked her long pipe, a determined look in her eyes.

"Your job is to get rid of the Baron, without getting caught, and make sure he never steps foot in this bathhouse again."

Jiro swallowed, feeling his heart thumping in his chest as he stared back at one of his leaders. He had never been asked to take on a task this big and dangerous, so his mind spun with questions and doubts.

"How am I supposed to do that? He has bodyguards all the time."

The waka gashira smiled coyly, her maroon-brown eyes twinkling in the low light in her office.

"You will have to find a way. I'm sure you can think of something."

Jiro was nervous about the outcome of killing an influential figure and worried about the results that would follow him, but at the same time, he was motivated by the thought of bringing justice to the women he had wronged. He let out a shaky breath and bowed his head, knowing this was a mission he could not refuse.

"Currently, the Baron is overseas. We will inform you when he returns to Tokyo, so be sure you are prepared to act quickly when the time comes," Mika Kamiwara said and motioned him to leave, but offered to let him spend the night with a girl of his choice to let his mind rest.

Jiro thanked her for the offer and excused himself from her office, his head racing with thoughts of what he was about to do. As he was leaving the brothel, he noticed how one of the women dropped a bottle of sake at a newly recruited yakuza's feet.

The unclothed woman with black hair bowed her head and apologized repeatedly as she tried to gather the broken pieces.

"You filthy whore!" the male yakuza shouted as he grabbed her arm and pulled her closer, grining sinisterly at her face.

"I think you owe me something for this, you slutty - " he declared tightening his jaw, but the white-haired man stepped in and interrupted the unknown yakuza's sentence.

"No, she doesn't owe you anything. Not a single thing."

The man without tattoos looked up, his face twisted in anger, but he quickly backed off when he saw the seriousness in the other's eyes. The man was a lower rank than him by tattoos alone, so he knew better than to challenge him.

"Please follow me. Let him clean the rest," Jiro said and nodded at the woman, not letting his eyes wander around her naked body, and motioned for her to go to a private room down the hallway.

The woman hurried after him. They entered one of the chambers used for criminal and hidden activities - there was only one futon, which was messy and stained with bodily fluids after being used earlier.

Jiro handed over his jacket and waved for her to cover herself with it. She looked rather astonished since she probably wasn't used to such a gesture from a yakuza, but she thanked him in a trembling voice before wrapping it around herself.

"What is your name?"

The woman blinked, taken aback by the sudden question.

"My name is Kaori," she replied quietly.

"Can I ask you a favor, Kaori?" Jiro asked, making the woman pause for a second before nodding.

"Tell me everything you know about Baron," the yakuza sighed and ran his hand through his white hair with frustration.