The troop of Chinese Mafiosi realized that apart from the one who was slowly suffocating on his own blood, all their other comrades have been killed by me. Disbelieving they stared at my wretched self and I could see a strange mix of anger, fear and respect in their eyes.

“You fight like a Japanese samurai!”, one of them said in a heavy Chinese accent. They really seemed to be very impressed by the fact that I managed to take down four man on my own.

“White Samurai, you have my respect as a man and warrior, but I will still have to kill you.”, he said and pointed his gun at me.

I don’t know why, but I suddenly had to laugh. I did not know if it was because of the ridiculous nickname I received this shortly before my death or because I realized that I was going to die even after killing these three men.

“Kill me. I killed these men, so in the end I have no one to blame but myself and my own incompetence.”, I did not know where those words came from, but I truly meant them. I had killed to survive, now I was going to be killed. Who could I blame but myself?

A shimmer of respect flashed through the Mafiosi’s eyes.

“I show my respect to you by spreading your last word!”, with this he was about to pull the trigger.

Suddenly I heard the sound of a machine gun firing. Hell broke loose as a rain of bullets rained down onto the group of Chinese mafia men surrounding me.

“Ryan-sama!”, ten men of the yamaka-yakuza suddenly appeared. It had taken them long enough after all finding me with all this commotion and the repeated gun shots wasn’t that hard!

Unlike the Chinese men who had only simple guns, three of the yakuza had half automatic machine guns. Due to this the fight was quickly decided and only one of the Chinese Mafiosi was able to escape.

My men wanted to chase him, but I stopped them, saying that he would inform the Chinese that their plan had failed. The blow to their moral it would deal them was far more valuable than the life of one man.

“D-did you do this?”, when the ten arrived at my location they realized that aside from the men they had killed there were four more man laying around me of which one was still barely alive. Shojiro, one of the younger members of the yakuza couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.

“A…lot of luck… and…. Some skill I guess. “, I managed to press out while being on the brink of unconsciousness.

It was only now that Shojiro realized the shape my body was in. His pace paled, and he quickly dialed a number on his phone while telling the other men to provide first aid to me. A few minutes later my body was patched up to a point where I wasn’t in mortal danger anymore. Sure, I was still weak enough to fall over if I tried to stand on my own, but at least I didn’t feel like dying any moment.

“Water.”, I said with a low voice. I had to somehow compensate the blood loss otherwise it wouldn’t end well for me.

One of the yakuza quickly sprinted to a nearby shop and got me a bottle of water, which I instantly emptied.

“Prepare a few blood infusions for me… they should be portal… We have to bring this to an end right now!

Phone Mr. Hawatabe… tell him to corner the Chinese and then wait for my arrival. But tell him not to attack! If possible, I want to solve the situation without any further corpses!”, Shojiro nodded and quickly went on to execute my orders.

Despite the pitiable state my body was in this whole matter also had its merits.

Before they might have respected me for my plan that led to the destruction of the Chinese and Russian mafia. Now they respected me as a man who managed to kill four men on his own. The difference in treatment was obvious!

Suddenly the one Chinese Mafiosi with the bullet in the lung groaned. He was still laying on the ground and struggling on the brink of death.

Shojiro looked at him in disdain and kicked him once. Then he turned to the other men.

“Kick him till he’s dead.”

“No.”, before they could move at all I stopped them.

“Give me your gun.”, I said to Shojiro. He hesitated for a moment, unsure whether it was a good idea to give a nearly dead person a gun, but in the end, he gave it to me.

My legs almost gave in as I took a step forward and Shojiro had to catch me, otherwise I would have crashed on the ground.

“Death is the final payment for any amount of sin. Our last destination. That is why, if you want to kill someone… kill him quick and painless. Kill him with respect, so that once your time has come, you will also be killed with respect.”, I lifted the barrel of the gun and pulled the trigger.

A bullet pierced the skull of the man and made an end to his miserable struggle.

I gave the gun back to Shojiro and looked into his eyes.

“If you kill, kill with the same respect you want when it is your time to part from this world.”

My words made him shiver, but inside his eyes I could see that he understood what I meant.

“May he rest in peace.”, with this I turned away from the quickly cooling corpse.

“Let’s go and get me those damn infusions!”, leaning on Shojiro I limped out of the valley.

Twenty-five minutes later me and my group of ten yakuza arrived at a remote street in the outskirts of the city. An infusion bag full of blood (my third one), was attached to my arm while another man carefully held it in his hands. The other ten men had their guns in their hands, ready to defend themselves against any ambush.

“Ryan-sama, are you ok?”, I suddenly heard Mr. Tanaka’s voice. The old man came running towards us, surrounded by two young, armed yakuza. He immediately mustered my body and flinched at the sight of the bandages that wrapped up most of my body.

“Shisho-sama has killed four armed men on his own.”, Shojiro stepped forward and explained everything to Mr. Tanaka. His wrinkled face twitched in disbelieve and his gaze on me turned even more respectful.

(Shisho-sama can be translated as Master or Boss)

“I wish Ryan-sama could rest now, but if we do not resolve this situation soon there will be bloodshed with the Chinese!”

I nodded. “Lead the way.”

Mr. Tanaka did as I told him, and we quickly arrived at a small clearing.

On one side stood about a hundred of the yamaka-yakuza members while on the other side was a small group of Chinese. The two dozen men remaining of the Chinese mafia were taking cover behind a few tree’s, coldly surveying the Japanese men on the other side. With every minute this stalemate continued their patience lessened while their nervousness became stronger.

When my group arrived at the clearing both parties instantly noticed our arrival.

The Chinese men remained more or less calm except for an old man in their center and another man who appeared to be the Mafioso that managed to escape earlier. On the Japanese side however, they were shocked about my wretched state and angry mumbling soon filled their ranks. They couldn’t accept that their boss had been harmed in such a way. It was even worse since they did not know how I got injured.

This changed soon though.

Mr. Tanaka stepped forward and shouted on the clearing.

“Ryan-sama risked his life in a fight with five of these Chinese thugs and killed four of them without even carrying a weapon!”

Oh, ok. His choice of word was quite effective.

The moral on our side instantly skyrocketed while the Chinese men became even more wary towards us.

“So, you are the ‘White Samurai’?!”, it was the old Chinese man, presumably their leader who asked that.

I had to grin. This nickname was quite hilarious.

“It appears I am.”, I replied calmly.

The old man looked at me for some time, seeming to think about something.

“I respect you as a man.”, he said.

“I hope you can give me and my men a respectful death.”, it seems he already have up any hopes of surviving through this day.

I was silent for some time. Finally, I nodded.

“Respect is important.”, I lifted my hand and the hundred or so yakuza lifted their weapons and aimed at the Chinese.

“I really hoped to solve this without any more corpses.”, sadly it had become obvious to me that this was completely impossible. I was about to give the command to shoot, when suddenly something unexpected happened.

“STOP!”, a female voice echoed through the forest.

The old Chinese man’s expression fell.

“I will become Ryan Lekish’s slave and hostage if in turn you spare my father and his men!”, a beautiful young woman came running onto the clearing. To my shock Shiina was following right behind her!