"So... you think I'm part of this family?"

We're back at Kasanoda's... house? Complex? Whatever. I'm sitting on some super comfy blue-and-gold futon in a large room overflowing with books. Shelves everywhere, books falling off and stacked in piles and hanging off of windowsills and in baskets and over tables and literally EVERYWHERE. Kasanoda sat next to me, and in front of me was a really old guy librarian dude with this HUGE handlebar mustache that touched the floor when he sat down. What's the deal with long hair here? One of his eyes was so droopy I couldn't even see it anymore. He held some sort of family tree up, half of it laying on the thick plush carpet beneath us, and on it were names I was completely unfamiliar with- except my last name on one extension.

"Yes," the old man- Torunasan, Kasanoda said. He pointed a long, bony, very arthritic finger to the second-to last generation leaf on the page, decorated in cherry-blossom pink and a deep red tinged with illuminated gold. "This is your mother, Sayoma Kato. I understand you take her last name." He talks too slow, I thought, trying real hard to stay focused. I wonder why they didn't draw pictures, or take photos when the technology was available. "This leaf-" he pointed to the leaf beside my mother's, "-is your father's, Ryuu Inoue. All members of this family have the tattoo of the Burning Dragon around a body part, usually their neck or arm. Their line is believed to be dead. If what you say about your memory is true, then this is incorrect."

"But why are they dead?" I asked, suddenly a bit curious, trying to ignore the slow, heavy breathing of the bookkeeper. "What happened?"

"The Inoue family had very deep roots," Kasanoda interrupted. He had a sort of pained, sympathetic look on his face, and he tapped nervously on the carpet. Uh oh. This can't be good. "Their wealth was enormous from their development in first farming cocoa beans, and then for painting crazy good pictures as well as selling others' beautiful art. They were assassinated, along with their two children. But it turns out one of them has proved that wrong."

"This here is your leaf," Torunasan pointed to the next to last leaf on the page. "And beside it is your brother's, Hayato."

Well this is news. I'm not really sure what to make of it. I mean, all that's changed is that now I know who my parents were, and that they didn't leave me because they wanted to, I guess. I think the most difficult part of this is knowing I had a brother. Hayato. I already knew I had parents, but I didn't know about another person who's connected to me in such a strong way...

"I know it's a lot to take in." I felt a hand on my shoulder, and realized then that I'd been silent for a while. "But it gets harder... I've trusted Torunasan to keep this conversation a secret shared only between us. But you're now the heir to a whole company, a scattered clan, someone that people will look to follow and others will want to cut down."

I didn't like the way he said that. When I looked up at him, his whole expression was one of worry and anxiety. Wow, is it this serious? "So the hard part is choosing whether or not to accept the authority. There will be other clans who will want to destroy you, murder you, hurt you or those close to you. But there are so many people who should be under your supervision and protection, who would follow you to death, who are lost and starving in the streets and hunting for jobs, who've been living like this for years since the death of your parents. If you ignore them, they'll continue on like this, when they would gladly dedicate their lives to you."

I chuckled a little, relieving the tension from my body. "Geez, Kasanoda, when you say it like that I can't say no." At my smile he relaxed, and smiled happily back. "So what do I have to do to save all these people?"

He laughed and stood up, pulling me gently with him. "First I send out men to find your clan. Then you get a tattoo."

...wait what?