So started their life together. Jun continued to go to the University, and got used to his two shadows. He went home to get his belongings escorted by the two inevitable bodyguards. His mother cried but didn't try to stop him.
When they said farewell and he asked her to greet his father and his brothers, she only asked, "Are you sure, Jun?"
"Yes, mum, sure and happy."
"Is he a good person?"
"He is the right person for me."
"I'll pray for you, Jun."
"And I for you all. Sayonara."
Yes, Jun was even more convinced that Kazunari was the right person for him. The young man, under his toughness, was unbelievably sweet and gentle. And he was good hearted. Kazunari didn't talk with him about his "work" and Jun was grateful for that. But Kazunari did care about him, his studies, what Jun thought and felt. They were talking a lot. And Kazunari started to tell him, little by little, about his life.
He told him about when he was seventeen. At that point not only those at home, but also the men in his group knew he was gay.
During a party with a group of boys his age, the sons of various family men, one of the boys said to him with contempt, "Why is your mother waiting to chase you from the family? How can she believe that the family will a day accept a queen as a boss?"
The other boys looked at him amazed, but didn't intervene. Kazunari understood that his reputation was at stake: the fact that not one of the boys had spoken in his defence was a bad symptom.
So he grasped the other boy by his jacket collar and hissed, "Try to say again what you just said!"
"You don't scare me at all. You are just a weak little queen!"
Kazunari suddenly let go him and giving him a strong push, said: "Come behind the garages, where the others can't see us, and I'll show you who's the weak little queen!"
"A challenge?" the boy toughly asked.
"Sure. And I want you all to be there."
The group went behind the garages, where normally the laundry was hung out to dry.
Kazunari pulled out his knife: "Now I will make you lower your trousers and I will fuck your ass here, in front of everybody." Kazunari said looking him straight in his eyes, tough and resolute.
The other boy pulled out his knife and said in a scoffing tone: "Try it. I will not put this in your ass, but straight in your heart. You know I'm the best with a knife, don't you?" and sprung forward with a dangerous thrust.
But Kazunari dodged him with ease and elegant deftness. They continued, without either making so much as a scratch on the other. Shortly it was evident that Kazunari didn't aim to wound his opponent, that he had in mind something quite different. Little by little, with strokes exact to the millimetre, he cut the other's jacket in pieces, until the boy, so as not to be hampered in his movements, pulled off the tattered jacket. Then Kazunari with a bold thrust, sheared the boy's belt and his trousers begun to shift down, amongst all the boys laughter, putting the boy in a position where movement was difficult.
Kazunari put his dagger between his teeth, jumped on him and with a sharp stroke, made the boy's blade fly away. Then with a swift move made the boy's trousers drop below his knees and, turning his shirt on his shoulders, blocked his arms. Then, with a skilled judo hold, Kazunari immobilized the boy on the grass, folded in half, his ass well up. Amongst the laughter and the scurrilous remarks of the other boys, he very slowly cut off the boy's underpants, until his ass was completely uncovered, then took his dagger and pointed it on the boy's anus. The boy tangibly shivered.
"So, which would you like to have in your ass, my dagger or my cock? I give you the choice." he dryly said while the others, now all silent, attentively watched the scene.
"I've lost, OK, you are the boss." the boy said with broken voice.
Kazunari didn't withdraw the scabbard tip from the boy hole, on the contrary he pushed it down a little, making it slowly rotate so to not wound him but make him clearly feel the cold blade and repeated his question in a louder voice:
"I've asked you with what are you longing to be fucked in your ass hole, my dagger or my cock?" he icily said.
"Shit, stop it!" the boy trembling begged.
"For the last time: my dagger or my cock? To me it is exactly the same, make your choice!" he said pushing down slightly more the iron tip.
"Shit, no! Pull out that scabbard!" the boy said in despair, feeling in a cold sweat, "Pull it out, fuck my ass with your cock!" he sobbed.
"Repeat it aloud, everybody has to hear you."
"I want your cock in my ass hole, shit!" the boy screamed.
"You want it?"
"Yes... yes... I want it... fuck me, boss!" the boy cried.
Kazunari stood up, leaving him. The boy remained still on the grass, waiting, his ass up. Kazunari folded his dagger and put it in his pocket. Then, calm, with a loud voice, he said, "But I don't like your ass. Stand up and let's put an end to that. But remember, all of you, if I want I'll fuck your assholes, one after the other as I please, and not only him. Now it's up to you to make your choice. Give me your oath of obedience, or I'll fuck your assholes, and for real. Down, on your knees! Who's your boss?"
All the boys at once knelt and swore him complete obedience. And after that day they feared and respected him. That story was known only to the direct witnesses, and now also by Jun.
"You really would have stabbed your dagger in his hole?" Jun shivering asked.
Kazunari laughed: "I knew it wouldn't be necessary. I know very well that kind of people these braggarts are. They are just strong with the weaker ones. I had already read the fear in his eyes while I was shredding his clothes on his body, without marking him with even a single little scratch. I just was playing a part up to the last act. And even if I didn't fuck his asshole in front of the other boys, it is not that I wouldn't have enjoyed it, or that I was ashamed in front the others, I just didn't want to humiliate him too much and uselessly. He understood that, and appreciated it.. Now he is still most faithful to me."
"You mean... Soda?" Jun amazed asked.
"Yes, him." Kazunari smiling confirmed. Then, seriously he added, "But don't tell him you know, please."
"Of course. But, tell me, have you ever fucked somebody in front of other people? I mean, like you threatened to do to Soda?"
"Well, yes, that has happened. I was twenty two years old. Now I will never do it again, for that's for sure. Do you want to know how it happened?
We were in Osaka with my mother to make an agreement with a local family. I had heard that in Osaka there was a little hotel, the "Takenoya", with very beautiful boys available for clients and I felt like trying it. As we were just coming from a party, we all were really dressed in elegant clothes. It was night and we were walking in the bad side of town. We were trying to single out the place, when a group of chimpira, the local hoodlums, barred our way and their leader said: 'I bet you are looking for the Takenoya, right, sweethearts?'
We moved forward, but they blocked us again: 'But where do you think you're going, fags? If you are looking for somebody to fuck your sweet asses, here we are, and for a reasonable price.' and sneering they all pull out their knives.
Soda curtly said: 'Go on your way. He is a Yamaguchi, you had best not to fool around. You're playing with fire.' But those boys, evidently, didn't really know about yakuzas. At the most they knew the names of one or two local families, so they burst out laughing and menacingly come forward, feeling safe and strong since they were about twenty to our four. I uttered just one order: 'I want them, intact!'. My men understood and did the most simple thing in all the world, something that those big boys hadn't foreseen -- three small machine guns with mufflers suddenly appeared in their hands.
The boys widened their eyes and became pale. A couple fled, but the others, at the clicking noise of the safety catches and at Soda order, "Down, on your knees!" obeyed at once, really scared. They realized they had met something too big for them.
I then asked: "Are you their boss?'"
"'Yes," the boy answered. He didn't appeal to me very much but one of the other boys interested me very much.
So I asked boys' leader, "Who is he? What's his name?"
"He is my younger brother. His name is Nokichi."
"Very nice," I said, "Now you undress Nokichi completely and hold him while I fuck his ass hole. Understand?"
The leader tried to protest but shut up as he felt a gun machine barrel against his temple. So, like a good boy, he approached his brother and started to undress him, then sat on the street and made his brother kneel in front of him and pushed his brother's head into his lap and held his waist firmly and looked at me.
I ordered the other boys to sit down in a double row, so that they could see clearly. Then I ordered one of them to open my fly, to pull out my dick and to wet it abundantly with his saliva, if he didn't want his friend to suffer too much. The boy trembling obeyed and licked and sucked my hard rod. After a while, I pushed him away, knelt on the road on Nokichi's clothes, so as not to dirty my trousers, I grabbed the boy and spread his small buttocks and angrily smashed into his asshole. The boy screamed, tossed about and tried to escape, but his brother kept him still all the time I energetically fucked him, until I finally came. Still I was not yet satisfied. I stood up and pointed at another two boys and ordered: 'Now you two lick my cock clean!'. They obeyed in terror.
I put my cock back in my trousers and shouted, 'Now go away, disappear, before I order to my men to fuck each one of you in the ass!' The boys dashed off, just Nokichi remained on the ground, naked, sobbing, and his brother, who was picking up his clothes and managing to cover him in some ways and then forcefully led him away.
My rage subsided, I was not happy with myself and told my men I wanted to go back to my hotel. That boy's sobs, instead of giving me satisfaction had troubled me. So, right then, I promised myself that I would never again rape anybody. Soda must have understood I was upset and so was telling me they had deserved it, and that in that way I had punished the hoodlums boss even more than his younger brother. The sobs of that sixteen-year-old boy didn't give me any sense of pride... So, you see with which type of bad chaps you have put yourself?" Kazunari bitterly concluded.
Jun loved him for the bitterness his man was feeling in just remembering that episode.
Little by little Jun got used to his new life style, to the omnipresent shadows and to the fact he always had to alert them of any of his movements. He got used to the days he had to be alone when Kazunari had to go somewhere and could not take Jun with him. He found that rather hard, but felt compensated because his Kazu-chan filled him with lots of care and tenderness. The more intimately he came to knew his man, the more he asked himself why such a kind and good man had to be a yakuza. Why Kazunari had had the rotten luck to be born right into a boss family. But as he had intended, he never said a word about those thoughts to his lover. He had accepted him as he was, so he for sure couldn't pester him now with his reflections or his worries.
At times Jun felt some doubt and asked himself if he had been right to surrender to Kazunari that way. Those thoughts came to him especially when he was alone, but it was enough for him to be at his man's side when he did not have any doubts.
Kazunari never did take him to his family home, so Jun only knew his man's family from pictures, except for Tomoya, who had told his brother that he wanted to meet Jun and therefore at times they visited him. The two young men who were almost of the same age, did take a liking to each other, so at times the three of them went together skiing, or to play tennis, or horseback riding, or simply to relax somewhere.
Once when Tomoya was alone with Jun, he said to him: "You seem happy with Kazu. Are you?"
"I couldn't be more happy."
"Is the life you are leading a big burden?"
"No more than for you, I assume."
"No, it's different for us. We are born in that way of life. We are used to it. You just fell into it at nineteen. I don't think you have managed to become hardened to that just in one year. It is heavy, isn't it?"
"Not too much. Kazunari makes me happy. But is he happy with me? Do I make him happy?"
"Surely you have no reason to doubt that. Since he has been living with you he is a different man. He is always cheerful, serene and happy. He really needed someone like you, and I'm happy I contributed, at least a little, to making you decide to stay together. Before meeting you, Kazunari often played the carefree man, but there was always a background of sadness in him. You dissipated that sadness. When I ask him news of you, he brightens up. At times he reproaches himself for neglecting you. Ah, if there is one man in love, it is my brother."
Jun nodded happily on hearing those words. It is not that he had any doubts, but hearing confirmation that he was loved, is something one never gets tired of hearing. Especially if it come from someone who like Tomoya was, Kazunari's confidant. At times he had the feeling that Kazunari felt protective or possessive towards Tomoya, but undoubtedly there was a deep and sincere love, and therefore that fact didn't really bother him.
Then Tomoya asked him: "But... are you really happy with my brother?"
"Yes, very much."
"And... is he a good love maker?" the boy asked with a cunning smile.
"Wonderful. But believe me, it is not just for that that I'm in love with him, Anyway, it is true, when I am in his arms I feel like I am in paradise..."
"Great! I'm happy for you two..."
Jun's days were spent part at the University and part at home studying and to waiting for Kazunari. Normally he preferred not to go out, both because he preferred to be at home if Kazunari arrived, and because he preferred to go out with his lover. So he had lot of time to study and he passed all his texts with high marks. Anyway, he loved to study and Kazunari bought him all the books he could possibly need.
He was in his third year at the university when Kazunari proposed taking him to Tokyo. Kazunari would have to stay there for more than one month and he didn't want to go that long away from him. Jun was very happy with that request.
"But we would not be able to be together every single day. I will have several important meetings. They are doing a redistribution of the territories between the families and for us it is the chance to widen our territory remarkably with the consent of the other families and without useless wars. I have a suite booked for us at the Hyatt. On the days I cannot be with you, my men will take you where you want to go. Anything you want to do at all."
"But we will also have time for us, won't we?"
"Certainly, Love. That's why I want you with me. At the most, I can skip some nights, but I'll find time for you, for us, be sure of that."
"Are some other members of your family coming too?"
"No. My mother wants me to deal for the Yamaguchis, because she intends in three years for me to be entrusted as the family leader."
They went to Tokyo in the family plane. It was the first time in his life that Jun had flown. He was excited as a little kid. He had the opportunity to go into the cabin and the pilot explained the navigational system to him while Kazunari made several telephone calls in the passengers section.
After landing in Tokyo and being met with the usual big cars with obscured windows, they were taken to the Hyatt. The luxuries of the suite impressed Jun. They had dinner in their suite and retired as the following morning Kazunari had to arise early. Kazunari embraced him, starting to tenderly caress him, "Do you like our trip so far?"
"I feel like I am in a movie." Jun said with a smile.
"But are you happy?" the young man asked.
"With you, Kazu-chan, always. Even if we were in a hut or under a tent. It's two years we have been together, and yet each time we make love it seems me more beautiful than the time before. Tell me, how can that be possible?"
"Uh... this is a mystery for me too. Perhaps, you know, I'm starting to think that it is because of the fact that we are in love with each other." Kazunari jokingly said.
"Then... show me how much you love me!" Jun begged as he kissed his man, and Kazunari certainly didn't need to be asked twice.
Kazunari caressed his lover's perfect body as if he was modelling it with his fingers, admiring it with love and desire filled eyes, underlining the gentle and sound curves of his muscles with his tongue tip and with his soft lips, awakening in his beloved the most intense sensations. Jun was not less attentive than Kazunari in taking care of the handsome, virile body of his stalwart lover, lingering quite instinctively on the most erogenous points. It was almost as they were outdoing each other in giving pleasure one to the other. Each of them just desired to give to the other the maximum enjoyment. They knew how to bring the other to the limit of orgasmic acme and to then withdraw in a kind of very sweet torture, alternating moments of intense avidity with movements of gentle tenderness. They enjoyed the reciprocal virility that they offered each other and tasted without stopping, in an erotic interlacing of their strong limbs, so that were no longer conscious of where the body of one ended and the other's began. They gave themselves and took the other in thousands ways, incessantly, uniting, parting, melting in a kind of dance, full of sensual beauty until they reached the point where the flames of their passion were uncontainable and the fire of their senses burst out and they joyfully let themselves go to the mutual, final acute enjoyment. As usual, they fell asleep, intertwined, tenderly caressing each other, content, each of them, to have made the other happy.
Very beautiful intense days passed. Jun was slightly stunned by the congested, crowded metropolis, with so many people always on the run, but he was also fascinated. With his guardian angels he had visited, Nikko, Disneyland, Kamakura and Yokohama. He had gone shopping at Ginza and spent dreamlike hours with his Kazu-chan, whose passion for him seemed never to subside. On the contrary, it seemed to become stronger and deeper than ever. Both were aware that their love was fully sensual and deeply spiritual at the same time. It was clear they enjoyed their lover's body, but also they enjoyed simple proximity, chatting together, knowing and having known their most hidden thoughts, feelings and their most intimate emotions.
Only in one subject did Kazunari seemed to have an instinctive reserve and that was speaking to Jun: about his yakuza affairs. But this didn't seem to bother Jun, who on the contrary, preferred not to be kept informed about the details of those activities. It is not that the boy was like the ostrich, hiding his head so as not to see the danger, but he knew he wouldn't be able to not show his beloved his disapproval of many of the things Kazunari had to do. But in the main, this part of his life that he didn't share with his lover was a growing burden. Not enough, anyway, to make the decision to abandon it. In his heart he was grateful to Jun for never asking questions about what he was not saying. He felt he would never be able to lie to him, but at the same time he would not have been able to tell him without feeling judged, and this would have been to difficult for him. So, almost as if in a reciprocal agreement not expressed in words Kazunari never told him about his "businesses" and Jun never asked.
They had been in Tokyo for sixteen days, and Jun was just back to the hotel with his escorts after visiting two Museums, when there was a telephone call. It was Soda:
"Jun-san?"
"Soda! What's up?"
"Well... Jun-san. Kazunari... there was an accident."
"An accident? What accident? Where is he? How is he?"
"Not well... he is in the hospital, the doctors are examining him."
"What happened? What hospital?"
"A gun shot."
"Is he alive, no?"
"Yes, yes, sure... even though he has lost consciousness."
"What hospital? I want to see him!"
"I'll tell Jutaro to take you here."
Jun rushed to the hospital. There were two men he didn't know who wouldn't allow him to enter Kazunari's room and a quarrel started to burst out, until Soda came out and told the two men that Jun could come and go when he pleased. Then Soda took him into a room. Empty. Jun at once asked him, upset:
"But he isn't here? Where is he? Take me to him! How is he?"
"Now he is in the operating room, we have to wait. The doctors hope to save him." Soda said, tensely in a low voice.
"They hope? They hope, Soda? Where did they hit him? Who?"
"The bullet grazed his heart. At a red light in the heavy traffic, there were five who came out from God knows where. I was in the car behind. The driver and the bodyguard were killed. They ran away when we came out of our car and started to shoot. I've no idea who they could be. In full light, in full traffic. It's quite incredible."
"Did he lose much blood?"
"Yes, but they gave him a transfusion. That's not the problem. They have to repair the aorta They are doing that, now. His heart seems untouched, happily. But, you know, complications could set in."
Jun sat and a voice inside him screamed, "It happened, it happened, it happened...."
Soda sat near him and murmured with a hoarse voice, trying to hide the coming tears, "They will save him, you'll see. They have to save him."
"You were to protect him, Soda!" Jun said with bitter hardness.
The man threw himself at Jun feet and with a voice contracted in grief. "Forgive me. I would have given my life for him! Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me." and sobbed aloud.
Jun addressed him with some harshness, taking him by his shoulder and making him stand up. "It's completely useless, at this point, Soda. Just pray to the gods and Buddha he will not die and that he will not have after effects. Did you call his mother and his family."
"Yes. They are coming."
"They? Who?"
"Madam Michiko and Tomoya-san."
"And Hiroshi?"
"He has to stay there. Somebody has to continue to take care of the family affairs."
"Sure, the family before all, right? Before a member's life, no? What a nice family, for sure!"
"Don't say that, Jun-san. That is not fair..."
"It is not fair? You say it is not fair? Does it have more value -- money and power than a man's life to you? But, are you humans? What are you? I hate you! I hate you all! I hate you!" the boy shouted.
"Don't say so. Do you hate also Kazunari? And yet he too is..."
"He... if he dies..."
"They will save him..."
"They hope, you said. They hope... Perhaps he is dying right now, are you aware of that? And we are here, and we can do nothing, are you aware of that? Why didn't they kill me, instead?"
"Or rather me." Soda said bitterly, starting again to silently cry.
Jun walked up and down in the room, tense as a bowstring, incoherent thoughts in his head.
"How long is it taking? How long has he been under the doctors' surgical instruments?" he asked at one point, in despair.
Soda looked at his watch, drying his tears to be able to focus it: "Thirty six minutes. They will alert me when they are ready to take him to his room. Then you can see him. We can see him. Jun. You love him, but, believe me, in another way, I too I love him. He is not just my boss, he is my father, my brother, he is everything to me. Kazunari is the most extraordinary man I ever met. I really would give my life for him. Believe me, Jun." the man said, sorrowful.
Jun looked at him and read in his eyes an immense pain and then he felt the man close to him, and regretted having treated him so badly. He held out his hand to him:
"Yes, Soda, I believe you. I'm sorry for before. But I am so upset, so completely scared..."
Soda, on impulse, embraced him and held him tight against his chest. Then, almost brusquely, he parted stepping back from the boy:
"Sorry... I don't know what happened to me. Sorry, Jun-san, I didn't intend to be disrespectful to you." he murmured, in confusion.
"What's up, Soda? You didn't anything wrong."
"Yes, you are the boss boy. I was about... I was near to... kiss you, Jun-san. Forgive me." the man murmured looking ashamed at his shoes tip.
"You, Soda? You... I don't understand. Do you... desire me?"
"No. I never desired a boy. But your grief for Kazunari, your fear, your love for him... I wanted to show you, to tell you that I understand those feelings, and in that moment it seemed to me that a kiss could tell you better than words... Forgive me, please."
"Oh, Soda, silly man! You are trying to tell me that you love me as much as you love Kazunari? You can love somebody without feeling sexual desire. And, if you love me, don't you think this gives me joy? What reason is there to feel ashamed?"
"I never said to a man I love him, not even to the boss. And no man ever said that to me. It seems it is not virile... perhaps. That's why I am ashamed. But that embrace I gave you, that kiss I didn't give you, had no sexual meaning, for sure."
"All right, Soda. Anyway, I too I love you, because I know that you love Kazunari. But if they don't save him... How long is it taking? Can't we ask for news?"
"We can try to if somebody comes out from the operating room..."
"Yes, please, let's go. I'm dying, in here."
They went out and Soda guided him towards surgery. Just as they were approaching, the door opened and a stretcher came out. On it there was Kazunari, unconscious, pale white as death, a blood bottle held high over him, and he was circled by doctors and nurses. Soda asked one of the doctors, "So, doctor?"
"All is okay, for now. We have succeeded in repairing the damage. Let's just hope that complications will not follow. But Yamaguchi-san has a strong physique, he can come out of it fine."
"Without consequences?" Jun asked, full of anxiety.
"Without consequences, but only if he convalescences correctly. The head physician will give you all the information and directions."
"Did he lose much blood? He is so pale!" Jun insisted.
"Yes, but this is not a problem, we have enough reserves of his blood type and we were able to give him back all the blood he lost. Don't worry."
Kazunari was set in the private room reserved for him and they were left alone.
"Do you think I can kiss him?" Jun asked Soda.
The man nodded yes. Jun approached the bed and bent to place a light kiss on his man's lips. They were soft, warm, and sweet. Soda pushed a chair nearer to the bed and made a sign to Jun to sit down.
"I have to go out a moment to talk with the men and to make some calls. You remain near him, okay?"
"Sure. Can I sleep here? Can I?" Jun asked pointing with his head to the other empty bed in one corner of the room.
"Yes... I will warn the staff that you will watch him. There isn't any problem, for the moment. At least until Madam Michiko comes. Then... she will decide. Perhaps it will be better if she doesn't see you here... I don't know..." Soda said evidently embarrassed.
"But Kazunari's mother... doesn't she know about us?" Jun asked in surprise, looking Soda in his eyes.
"She knows that the boss has a boyfriend, sure. But I don't know how much and what the boss has told her about you. I don't know how she considers you, you see? And anyway, it's she who decides. Not I."
"When will she be here?"
"I think before tonight. She will call me on the way, to inform me of her exact arrival time. I'll tell you... I'll warn you."
"But I... I don't want to go back to the hotel. If I have to go out from this room, I'll go in the room we went into before, and I'll wait there. I can stay there, can't I? At least in there."
"Yes, there is OK. I'm sorry, Jun-san, I understand what you are feeling."
"Oh, Soda, it is a nightmare, you know?"