Hong Kong variety show: The mastermind behind the scenes is emerging.

May, Kobe.

Watari stood at the second-floor window of the Ichiwakai headquarters, looking down at the idle young team members in the courtyard below, his face grim.

As the battle unfolded, the First Alliance gradually fell into a disadvantageous position.

As of now, berth number three has been lost, the casino in Amagasaki has been raided by the Yamaguchi-gumi, and the shipment of weapons from Busan to Osaka's Nishinari Ward was intercepted by Eguchi's men at the highway exit.

To make matters worse, a few days earlier, his two lieutenants were ambushed in the streets of Kobe by members of the Yamaguchi-gumi; one had his ribs broken, and the other surrendered immediately.

"This can't go on," Taras said, sitting on the sofa, trimming his nails with a folding knife. His tone was still flat and emotionless. "Your men are dwindling, while Jiangkou's men are increasing. In another month, without him even having to fight, your own men will have all run away."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Watari turned around and said through gritted teeth.

"Kill Eguchi. He's not Muranishi anymore. Once he's gone, no one can take his place."

"But we failed last time."

"That was you, this time—" Taras closed the folding knife, stuffed it into his coat pocket, his eyes cold. "It was me."

……

May 3rd, Beibang.

Eguchi's apartment is on the top floor of a twelve-story luxury apartment building in Kitahama, Osaka. It has three bedrooms and two living rooms, with the living room window facing the green space of Nakanoshima Park.

He's rarely been home this past month, spending most of his time sleeping at headquarters. But this weekend is his son's birthday, and he promised his wife he'd come home to have cake with the child.

At eight o'clock in the evening, Jiang Kou sat on the sofa in the living room, his son sitting on his lap, holding a yellow crayon, drawing doodles on a piece of white paper on the coffee table.

Jiang Kou was well aware that the current situation was not peaceful, so he specially transferred three elite teams from headquarters to work in three shifts to be responsible for the safety of his wife and children.

This level of security is more than sufficient to handle typical gang assassinations.

Unfortunately, the killer who came tonight was no ordinary assassin.

At 9:40, two military-grade tear gas canisters were suddenly thrown into the ventilation ducts of the apartment's underground parking garage. Thick smoke billowed up the duct shafts and poured out from the air conditioning vents on each floor.

Soon, the fire alarm blared throughout the entire building, and panicked residents rushed towards the emergency exits to evacuate. Jiang Kou picked up his son in one arm and held his wife's hand with the other, quickly escaping downstairs amidst the crowd.

However, as they rushed to the first-floor evacuation exit, two unlicensed gray vans screeched to a halt at the entrance.

The car door swung open with a bang, and seven or eight gunmen wearing black masks jumped out one after another, each carrying a pistol and a shotgun with its barrel cut off.

Jiang Gu knew he had fallen for a trap, but there was no way he could go back upstairs now. He decisively shoved his son into his wife's arms and pushed them towards the small storage room next to the stairwell.

"Get inside! Don't come out!"

After saying that, he drew his sidearm and ran wildly in the opposite direction with his henchman, trying to attract the gunman's attention and then find an opportunity to kill him.

However, the next second, a gunshot rang out.

The good news is that the shot wasn't fired at Eguchi.

The bad news is that Jiang Kou's wife and children were shot.

A gunman wearing a black mask saw a light blue dress peeking out from the doorway of the storage room. Without hesitation, he fired four shots at the wooden door of the storage room.

As Jiang Kou turned around, the door to the storage room was pushed open a crack from the inside. His wife slid out through the crack, two bullet holes in her back, her light blue pajamas soaked black with blood, and his son slipped from her arms.

The ambulance arrived quickly, and the wife was taken to the ICU, but her child stopped breathing before the ambulance arrived.

Jiang Kou stood downstairs at the apartment building, surrounded by flashing police lights and officers setting up a cordon. A young nurse pushed a stretcher past him, the wheels crushing a yellow crayon lying on the ground in two.

Jiang Kou squatted down, picked up the broken crayon, and put it in the inside pocket of his suit.

The younger brother came over, wanting to say something to him. He stood up, pressed down on the other man's shoulder with his right hand, and swallowed the man's report.

"No need to say anything more, pass on the order—I will make those who have done this pay with their blood."

……

In the following week, eight cadres of Watakawa's party were executed in succession.

The first to die was Watari's junior assistant.

He had just come out of a ryokan (traditional Japanese restaurant) in Kobe when a motorcycle passed by him. The person on the back raised his hand and fired a shot. The bullet entered his left eye socket, and his body fell at the entrance of the ryokan. The lanterns on the door were splattered with blood and turned dark red.

The next day, the head of the accounting department of the Ichiwa-kai was found strangled to death with a steel cable in the parking lot, his body hanging from the steering wheel. A few words printed on white paper were pasted on the car window: "Watakawa, you're next."

On the third day, the leader of the Ichiwakai branch in Kyoto drowned in his own bathroom. When his wife found him, the water in the bathtub was still warm, but his face had turned bluish-purple.

Day 4, Day 5, Day 6...

The Yamaguchi-gumi mobilized its entire force, and in addition to its personnel, they also destroyed four warehouses, two underground banks, and a smuggling route from Kobe Port to the inland areas under the name of the Ichiwa-kai.

Throughout May, the Kansai region saw more than 100 shootings, explosions, and street chases.

Later on, even the police gave up on mediation, simply shrinking their patrols to the outskirts of civilian residential areas to prevent stray bullets from flying into ordinary people's living rooms.

As for the infighting between yakuza members, the Metropolitan Police Department's attitude is clear—let them kill each other first.

Finally, the One Society completely collapsed.

The young members began to flee en masse. Some took advantage of the night to remove the white cloth strips from their arms and throw them into the river. The next day, they changed back into the Yamaguchi-gumi's diamond-shaped emblem and reappeared at the dock loading and unloading area, pretending that they had never left. Some fled the country overnight, flying directly to Southeast Asia and never returning home. Several veterans of the Watari faction, in order to save their lives, secretly offered up all their territory and groveled before Eguchi, begging for mercy.

At the same time, political pressure is also tightening.

Watari's biggest political backer—a veteran member of the Liberal Democratic Party who had served two terms as Minister of Transport—suddenly announced his complete retirement from politics at the end of May, citing "health reasons."

On the same day, the Osaka Prefectural Police Headquarters held a press conference, publicly designating the Ichiwakai as a "designated violent group" and freezing all of its bank accounts, real estate, and dock leases.

Watakawa made one last attempt to fight back, personally going to the old senator's residence, but when he stepped out the door again, he was ashen-faced.

As for Taras, the mobilization team he sent out hastily withdrew on the very night the freeze order was issued.

However, when the convoy passed under the elevated bridge of Shin-Kobe Station, it unfortunately encountered an ambush set by Takamagahara, and the entire mobile unit was wiped out.

However, they did not find Taras – the old fox had quietly left Kansai the day before.

……

On the first night of June, it drizzled in Kobe.

Watari locked himself in the remaining office of the Ichiwakai headquarters, went through the last account sheet, and then took out a dissolution statement that had been printed long ago from his desk drawer, stamping his personal seal at the bottom.

He folded the statement, put it in the inside pocket of his suit, put on a dark gray overcoat, and went downstairs alone.

The youth team members downstairs had all left, leaving only a coffee table with smashed glass and cigarette butts scattered all over the lobby.

He drove alone to the Kobe Police Station.

When the young patrolman on duty saw Watakawa, soaking wet, walk in, he instinctively placed his hand on the holster buckle at his waist. Watakawa didn't look at him, but respectfully handed over the disbandment statement with both hands.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Watakawa arrived at the Yamaguchi-gumi headquarters.

He knelt on the stone path outside the entrance hall, his knees pressed against a bronze plaque bearing a diamond-shaped emblem, rainwater running down the back of his neck and into his collar.

He lowered his head deeply, his forehead pressed against the cold ground, and with all his might, shouted out his apology to Eguchi Toshinari, who stood inside the door looking down at him:

"I, Watakawa Taro, have committed grave crimes including embezzlement of public funds, collusion with foreign enemies, and murder of a fellow disciple... I hereby bow and apologize to Lord Eguchi Toshinari, the fifth-generation leader of the sect!"

Thus, the bloody and turbulent chaos in Kansai officially came to an end.

……

Mid-June, Yamaguchi-gumi headquarters.

Amidst deafening shouts and applause, Eguchi Toshinari officially held his enthronement ceremony, succeeding as the fifth leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi.

The large meeting hall was packed, with all seventeen branch leaders present.

Eguchi sat upright in the main seat, dressed in a dark gray formal kimono, with a faint bandage still visible on his right arm. He picked up his teacup, took a small sip, and slowly scanned everyone present with his gaze.

"Gentlemen, Watari has been killed, but the Grim Reaper Group—"

Just then, the former branch chief of Osaka Minato Ward, sitting to his right, cautiously raised his hand to interrupt him: "Chief, the police have been speaking to us privately. They want us to keep a low profile for a while and give the public an explanation, otherwise..."

Jiang Kou remained silent for a few seconds.

He slowly placed the teacup back on the tea table, reopened the territorial register in front of him, and expressionlessly moved on to the next topic.

The old branch manager of Osaka Port Ward breathed a sigh of relief and drank the already cold tea in one gulp.

The meeting proceeded smoothly and in accordance with procedures and the tacit understanding among all parties—debt settlement, branch merger, redistribution of income from gray industries…

After all the agenda items were discussed, Eguchi got up and left the council chamber, walking down the corridor back to his study on the second floor and closing the door.

He was alone in the study.

He walked to the desk. At the bottom of the drawer was a photo album, a personal item he had brought with him when he moved in.

He turned to the last page, where a photo taken last autumn in Nara Park showed him holding his son amidst a herd of deer, the little guy reaching out to touch the antlers with his mouth wide open.

He carefully pulled the photo out of the album and laid it flat in the center of the map on the table that marked all the strategic locations in Kansai.

"I will avenge you, I promise."