Fujino: Have I Become a Stand-In?

"Just as expected, he took the bait."

Fujino's eyes flashed with a sharp glint. He was not surprised by the man's answer as he murmured to himself.

Before coming here, he had already investigated the guy thoroughly based on Old Man Terai's intelligence.

The man before him was Tsuchida Hitoshi, the owner of this billiard hall and the gang boss on the side.

Tsuchida Hitoshi was of Japanese-American descent. His mother had been a comfort woman after the war, while his father had been an American serviceman stationed in Japan. Before Tsuchida was even born, his father had fled back to America—growing up in that environment, Tsuchida had successfully begun his legendary life, just like every ruthless man from Tongliao.

As the child of a postwar comfort woman, he had been physically "looked after" by his classmates throughout his childhood during the nuclear age. He dropped out midway through middle school and, armed with an education comparable to "burning books and burying scholars," joined the yakuza as a small-time thug who guarded venues.

Under their day-and-night influence, he naturally became a compulsive gambler. In the end, he gambled away even his underwear and was thrown into prison.

After two and a half years of advanced study in prison, Tsuchida, like every ruthless man from Tongliao, attained enlightenment at Longchang. After getting out, he used the gambling techniques he had studied in prison to earn his first pot of gold. He opened a billiards bar called American, then founded the American Gang.

During the booming economic era, the American Gang flourished in Tokyo. They opened shops on the surface while trafficking drugs behind the scenes. Later, thanks to Tsuchida's identity as the descendant of an American soldier, they connected with the U.S. forces stationed in Japan and successfully took on arms-smuggling