Yakuza 0: オーストラリア人 狼 (Australian Wolf)
He was nervous. And why wouldn’t he be? He was about to talk to someone who he knew for a fact was dangerous. It’s not that Aiden hadn’t been around these types before. In fact, when he was in Japan he had dealt with them many times. Unknown to him, the wrestling company he was working for was being run by them. But this was different. They were in America and working with Dickie.
So he would be safe, right? Aiden swallowed heavily and opened the door stepping into the small office. It was decorated in different pieces of artwork, some of them recreations of paintings from the Edo period. Aiden studied them and smiled. He always loved Japanese art. Then a voice startled him. It was Yoshiro Hamada.
”Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The man who would help revolutionise everything that happened in Japan. Edo became Tokyo and Tokyo became the centre of the Asian world. No matter what people will tell you. It all started there.” Yoshiro stood next to Aiden, who simply nodded and looked over at Yoshiro, understanding the weight of the past. ”Please..sit..”
Aiden moved over to the desk, lightly pulling out a chair and sitting down. Yoshiro took his place across from Aiden, sitting down. Before they could start speaking, however, Yoshiro pulled out a small ledger and started to flick through the pages. His finger moving across and down as if he was speed reading all of the information and taking it in.
Yoshiro closed the ledger, slid it to the side and clasped his hands together. “Mr. Reynolds, I am sure you are here to discuss our mutual friend, Mr. Watson. I am sure you have certain questions about what he does and questions about what we do, but rest assured that he is a part of this by his own free will. I do not know how much you know about Mr. Watson‘s past with us, but he is not in any danger.”
Aiden shook his head and sighed. He knew that that wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t exactly true. Half truths and veiled motivations that typical Yakuza bullshit. “I’m not here to grill you about Dickie and what he does and ask you to take care of him or let him go or some other bullshit. I know why Dickie is doing this and I know that he’s a part of this. I’m here to say that I want to be a part of it too, to take care of Dickie and have his back.”
There was a moment of silence, as if Yoshiro was processing this information. He looked the Australian up-and-down, one of his eyes tilting upward as he wondered just what his game was. “This is not a world you simply walk into. And I am sure you have already talked to Mr. Watson about this. I simply do not know what it is that you think you can offer us.”
Before he could answer, the door opened. A man stepped in wearing a black suit. He was younger, wavy black hair. He had a small pen on his lapel showing that he is a member of the family. He moved toward the desk and then slowly bowed before handing him a note. Yoshiro took it and read. The foot soldier looked over at Aiden and spoke softly “あの白人の少年は誰ですか?” (Who is the white boy?)
Yoshiro handed the note back and answered with authority in his voice. ”彼はモロトフの友人だ、我々には役に立たないから、排除してやる.”(He is a friend of The Molotov, he is of no use to us, I’ll get rid of him)
”外国人を採用し続ける必要がないのは良いことだ”(Good, we don’t need to keep recruiting foreigners)
Aiden slowly looked up at them both and shook his head before speaking. ”あなたが思っている以上に私は役に立ちます.”(I’m more helpful than you think.)
Both men looked at each other, shocked and surprised that Aiden spoke Japanese. Yoshiro dismissed the younger man and clasps his hands together again, switching back to English ”All right, maybe we do have a use for you after all.”
Aiden couldn’t help but smile. Just a small one. He proved his point. Yoshiro turned to his laptop, flipping it open and looking through a few things. The printer nearby clicked on. He got to his feet, grabbing the papers before sitting back down across from Aiden. He then slipped the papers across the table. It was an address and a picture of a restaurant.
Yoshiro sat back and smiled. ”That restaurant is a front. Behind it is an operation that we wish to take control of, but we need to know certain things about the running of it from the inside. You would be able to go there, order some food, sit down and observe everything. Observe anyone who looks out of place, anyone who looks to be just guarding something. Any specific doors that lead to places that you don’t understand. Gather as much information as you can no matter how little or how insignificant and bring it back to us.”
”Seems simple enough… why haven’t you sent someone before?”
Yoshiro smirked and leaned forward. ”You will be able to sit down and eat without being looked at suspiciously. Any of my men would be looked at with suspicion and watched carefully. You will fly under the radar. This is your shot, Aiden…” He looked down and started writing in the ledger. Aiden got to his feet, taking the pieces of paper and leaving the office. He let out a deep breath as the door closed behind him. There was no turning back now.
Bury me softly
”Sometimes you can’t just sit around and wait for something to change. You have to change. The truth is, I didn’t want to. I wanted to stay the same guy that I’ve always been. Laughing and joking and making fun of people in a way that still makes them laugh themselves. but apparently I can’t do that any more. Because when you do that the company itself looks at you as a joke. They start to laugh at you instead of with you. And I’m done with that shit right now.”
Aiden sighs heavily. His wakey light brown hair was slicked back away from his face that had a five o’clock shadow and bags under his eyes.
”I lost. It happens. Logan Hunter was able to beat me and take the Roulette Championship from me. What can I say? Anyone can beat anyone in the professional wrestling world, just depends on the circumstance. And I congratulate Logan for becoming the roulette champion, but he’s the problem. I held that championship proudly, I defended it against everyone they threw at me. I tried to make it worth something and then after losing it, I come to find out that I didn't get my rematch. Instead, some douchebag who won the King for a Day swoops in in a fatal four-way match that he booked as a mystery opponent to take the championship.”
“Ok fine. The King for a Day stipulation is there to cause chaos and it’s there for people to get a little through out of the fact that the control for the show is being handed to someone who doesn’t really have the ability to understand what’s going on in the company and make a card that follows it accordingly. But what did we really expect? The briefcase was won by a guy who walks around wearing face paint, can’t speak English, who only turns up to work every couple of weeks because that’s kind of who he is.”
“Guy won the Roulette Championship. And it’s weird because last week Logan Hunter got a rematch for that championship after he had not defended it or done anything with it. He won the title and ended up in the four-way. He lost the title, then he gets a goddamn rematch right away.”
“Am I the only one seeing this stupid shit?”
“But hey, I should just smile and take it right? I should just be a team player and let all of this play out and I’m sure everything will be fine. I’m sure I’ll get taken care of in the future, right? Highly doubtful. Because Logan didn’t want to face me, Guy sure as shit doesn’t want to face me because I will slam that clown’s head into the mat so fucking hard that it’s going to leave a shit smear of his make up all the way down to the corner post. So I’m not holding out hope that I’m gonna get a rematch for that championship any time soon, despite the fact I’d like to think I’ve earned one. But hey, you do you SCW. Stay classy with your shitty booking and shitty decision-making on who you like to put all your weight behind. I’m sure putting all of your eggs in the clown basket is going to play out real well in the future.”
Aiden shakes his head, his jaw clenching as he is clearly trying to keep his emotions in check. Sitting behind, a little off to the side, is Dickie Watson. He has remained silent to this point, but has been reacting to each thing that his best friend and partner has said.
”So, as I reached a breaking point, I did something I wasn’t very proud of and went all over Twitter, or X, as it’s now known because Elon Musk is a fucking idiot. And I voiced my displeasure. Every single thing I said was true. There was no hyperbole in what I said. There was no lying. There was no bullshit. It was my truth, and I put it out there for the world to see. And I’m not going to apologise, despite the fact that it was a very public blowup. Then on climax control, I turned up to work while other people who don’t sit on their arses and I ran my mouth again. And again – I’m not going to apologise.”
“But now, I’ve been rewarded with a match against two guys who I do respect who also need wins to get their careers back on track. Miles Kasey and Eddie Lyons.”
“Miles, mate. You know I like you. Hell, I was one of the ones who campaigned to get you back into the gym after you decided to walk off. And how did that go? Well, you attacked Finn and made us all look like a bunch of fucking idiots. Thanks for that, buddy. I really appreciate it. But despite all of that, I do like you as a human being. You’re a good guy. You found love and you have a great life. However,, your career is not something that you should really be proud of. And I don’t want to sound like a complete dick when it comes to this, but you have not been able to reach your level of potential that we all know that you have.”
“You should have been the World Champion by now. But you didn’t. Instead, your husband reached that level first.”
“I could be a dick about that, but let’s face it: Carter is an incredible athlete and he deserves to be the World Champion. But something that I’m sure grinds your gears is that I’ve been able to reach a level of success in SCW that you haven’t, and I haven’t even taken my career seriously at this point. The entire time I’ve been here, I’ve been joking around, enjoying my time, just living my life but now…now I’m pissed off and now I’m looking to take heads. And even though you and I are friends, Miles, that’s not gonna stop me from doing what I need to do. I like you, buddy, and I respect you, but you keep banging your head against the glass ceiling above you because you’re not strong enough to break through it and I’m not going to end up like you. Just spinning my wheels and treading water because I don’t have the balls to do what needs to be done. That's the difference between us. You don’t have the balls to do what needs to be done, whereas I do.”
Dickies’s eyes slightly widen and as he goes to say something but instead thinks better of it, nodding a bit in the background with a “hm, okay” face as Aiden continues.
”So, get ready Miles, because I’m about to smack you around and make you bite the pillow because I’m gonna push your shit in and not in the way that you actually like”
Behind him Dickies’s jaw drops, his eyes widen again and he goes to say something else but Aiden is on a roll.
”Oh man, you know what? I was about to leave it there but then I remembered I forgot one of my opponents. Eddie, buddy, I’m sorry. I forgot you, just like how most of the wrestling world has forgotten you because you haven’t been able to do shit since I beat you. And this one is kind of personal to me. So back when we faced for the Roulette Championship, I told you straight up that it was time for you to move on and go for the World Title. Much like Miles, you have the potential to be a world champion, but you’ve pissed it all away. That seems to be a running theme here. You could’ve gone on to break through the same glass ceiling that Miles is currently whacking his head on every single week, but you didn’t. You failed. And you failed miserably.”
“You got lit up and exposed by Finn, you went through the Blast from the Past tournament and got to the final only to stumble at the last moment and be defeated by J2H.”
“You have had all of these opportunities and each and every one of them you stumbled over and fucked up. I held you in such a high regard that I was cheering for you. I wanted you to go to that next level, Eddie, because I respect you. Vincent and Victoria are members of your family that are going to make sure the name Lyons lives on while you seem to be the one who is putting a whole bunch of tarnish on it. And that pains me, because you’re the only one out of the three of you that are in this company that I respect as a human being. Don’t take this the wrong way, but your family are kind of a bunch of arseholes.”
“But at least they succeed despite themselves.”
“But hey, I can’t talk right? I lost to Logan Hunter, who is a bigger joke than both of you combined. Here’s the problem. I know that I lost to Logan. I accept that I lost to Logan and I wanted to have an opportunity against him again, but instead that got robbed from me. My opportunity to regain that championship got taken from me and I don’t appreciate it and I really really don’t appreciate that. I’ve been thrown in a match with you two instead of getting my rightful shot. So unfortunately, you’re gonna see a different side of me. Yeah, I’m still a good guy, I love my wife. I love my friends. I joke around, but now when I get in that ring what I’m gonna be looking for is blood. I’m gonna take your blood, Eddie, I’m gonna take your blood Miles. I'm going to take my pound of flesh and I’m gonna do everything I can until the higher ups in this company realise what they’ve unleashed. I’ll see you both at Climax Control.”