She finally pushed against my chest to release herself from my grip. "Don't touch me." She said. "I'm going home." She walked a few paces, then stopped to look over her shoulder. "Were you actually going to call? If I had gotten out?"

"Just continue thinking I'm some kind of monster." I told her. "It's better if you cut ties with me."

"You said you were going to help me get to safety."

"Then let me come with you." I shrugged as I said it, unsure of what she wanted me to say, unsure of why she seemed to be testing me, but I took it as permission to test her as well. I could tell she still wanted something from me, but after what she witnessed me do, I couldn't imagine what that something might have been.

"I don't want to walk alone. Any of those people could still be out here, and I'm still dressed in my work clothes. I might be recognized." She continued to make excuses for requesting my presence, like she thought she still had to convince me.

"I'll walk you to your building, okay?" I removed my jacket and draped it over her shoulders. She looked at me with just her eyes in a way that told me she hoped I didn't see her steal a glance. "Just think of it like you're using me for my power, instead of me being nice to you."

The problem was that she lived in Kabuki-cho. I also kept a place there, but it wasn't my main residence, it was just for convenience. Her living in Kabuki-cho was out of necessity to be close to work and school, and keep her cost of living low. No one wanted to live in Kabuki-cho. It was fine for a night out, it was fine for passing through, but the lights never went out. It never slept. Neither did the people who lived there.

I had walked Ito to her apartment from a bar before, but the circumstance was intensely different then. We had been chatting lightheartedly, and I had been half expecting an invitation in that night. Of course, I went home alone, thankful to have avoided such a situation before my rational mind had started working to deny any invitation she might have given. She was off limits, I had told myself. Yet there I was again at the door to her building.

She shrugged the jacket off and held it at arm's length to me. "Thank you, Obata-san."

"I would have called." I said, taking the jacket from her and putting it back on. "It's just that you saw a lot of things happen, and I figured you wanted nothing to do with me after that."

She looked as if she was about to cry all over again, having refilled her reserves. "You said you were going to help me get to safety after." She covered her mouth with her hand, suddenly looking shy about the expression she made when she cried. There were no tears yet though, I still had time to soothe her.

"It was over by the time I walked out. I knew you would be safe." I sighed, resigning myself to the fact that she wasn't going to understand. She was still on high alert, and nothing that came out of my mouth was going to appease her distrust for me. "Why were you still in there? I told you to get out as soon as we came in."

"I was training a new girl. She was the one with me under the desk. I couldn't leave her there alone and she wouldn't come with me when I tried to run." Tears overtook her by the end of the sentence, just as I expected.

I put an arm around her shoulder. "Come on, let's get inside."

I told her to get in the shower, said I would be right back, took her keys, locked her inside, and made the trek a few blocks to my apartment as fast as I could go. I discarded my suit on the floor in my bedroom and pulled on gray sweat pants, a sleeveless gym shirt, zippered hooded sweater, and tossed some essential items into an overnight bag. I acknowledged that I was in the process of making some big assumptions, but I told myself I was just protecting a friend, adhering to Yakuza code. I could barely even call her a friend, and I knew she was severely angry with me, but I needed an excuse to have the chance to explain myself, and I told myself I would cut off the tip of my pinky finger if I manipulated the situation to take advantage of it. I was satisfied enough with that.

When I returned to Ito's building, I used the keys I had taken from her to let myself in through the main doors, then quieted myself as I unlocked the apartment door. As I stepped inside, I could see steam coming from a half open door which I assumed was the bathroom. I didn't hear water running, and I assumed that she was at the 'finishing touches' stage of the shower I ordered her to take. "Ito-san, it's just me." I called into the room, just loud enough that I thought she would be able to hear me, but not become startled by a sudden shout.

"I'll be out in a minute." I heard her voice, but the bathroom door shut fully after it.

I peeled my sweater off, and remembered that I probably had a wound that needed tending from getting grazed by a bullet shortly after my initial announcement to the club. I examined my arm, finding the graze to be nothing more than a scratch, not even a drop of blood. The skin was black from the heat of the bullet, held together quite nicely from the cauterization. I reached into the bag I had packed, and applied a sticky gauze pad, which I knew I had tossed in out of a habit that came from making quick getaways. I would have to call Suzu to cover the scar later.

"Do you want to use the shower?" Ito had approached me unnoticed. She had dressed herself in much the same way I had, loose fitting sweat pants and a baggy t-shirt that slid off one shoulder. Her hair was wet, but neatly combed, her face clean, but her eyes red and swollen.

"That might be a good idea, thank you." I said. "But first we need to talk." It occurred to me that she hadn't asked me to stay, hadn't asked me to come back after I had made sure she got home safely. "Also, I can just shower at home. My apartment that I keep here is only a few blocks away." It was a saving-face sort of comment.

"I'll make some tea." She motioned to the kitchen table, offering for me to sit down. "Is your arm okay?"

"It's fine. Just a graze. It didn't even bleed." I tried to make my voice sound upbeat, but I was getting exhausted. I didn't give her any more room to ask questions. "Listen, I just want to make sure you're okay. Maybe you'll give me a chance to explain myself and all that won't be so scary anymore."

"You shot a man in front of me." She said flatly, putting a mug down on the table in front of me. "Did you kill him?"

"Probably. He shot me first." I motioned to the wound on my arm, but her expression told me that wasn't the answer she wanted. "Ito-san, I told you up front who I am and what I do. I warned you ahead of time that the raid was going to happen, I gave you instructions on how to stay safe, and I took care of you as best I could. I had a job to do, that's all."

"Why did you grab me, at the club?"

"You spoke out of turn, and I had to make it look like I didn't know you. I'm sorry." She looked away from me, into her mug, as she listened, nodding like she understood. I knew better. She didn't understand anything. "It was just an act, I promise. I'm only dangerous to people who threaten me." She didn't know the extent of just how dangerous I was, and I wasn't going to try to prove it to her sitting at her kitchen table.

I switched gears from trying to make her understand me to trying to offer her closure. "You picked a dangerous profession in a dangerous part of town when you got the job at Club Diamond. I think you knew that, but it's so easy to just tell yourself that nothing bad will happen. I want you to remember that. You workplace is now under Yakuza control. My control, specifically. So go back to work like nothing happened, and I'm going to do my best to keep everyone safe and make sure the club makes a lot of money." I stood up from the table. "I just came back to make sure you were okay, so I'm going to go now. You won't see me again. I won't come to club when you're working. Delete my number from your phone, just forget we ever met, okay?"

I could see her eyes glossed over, and she was trying hard to hold back tears. I saw so much strength in her, but I also saw so much fear, and I knew she was battling with them both. Her life had taken a sudden turn, and I could tell she was mourning the loss of a life she tiptoed through, knowing that come morning, she would have to get out of bed stomping her feet.

"Wait." She said. "I'm scared. I don't want to be alone."