Volume 3 Chapter 4 (1/2)

t.i.tle: Koushounin series 03

Koushounin wa Furikaeru [交渉人は振り返る]

Chapter: 4

Page: 107 – 136

Author: Eda Yuuri [榎田 尤利]

Ill.u.s.trator: Nara Chiharu [奈良 千春]

Publisher: Taiyō Tos...o...b..>

Year of Release: 2009

Disclaimer:

Eda Yuuri is the original author of this work, and this is a fan translation. Feel free to re-post this elsewhere if you like but please credit this site. I did buy the original copy of this book, along with the rest of the series, so it'll be great if you can support her by buying her books.

By the way, this work contains BL, or h.o.m.o-eroticism.

Oh, bad language, too. Two off F-words. Do I really need to type this warning all the time?

Note:

As I have no formal training in translation theory nor am I an expert in j.a.panese (nor English, for the matter), I cannot guarantee the quality of this translation work, but I promise I did my best.

I have been a big fan of the Koushounin series by Eda Yuuri ever since I got my hands on the BLCDs for the first and second instalments of the series, and have been waiting patiently for the BLCDs for the third instalment onward… to no avail. It has been 8 years since the sensei published Koushounin wa Furikaeru, and I am beginning to accept that there might be no BLCD after all.

Nevertheless, the fujos.h.i.+ doesn't give up. The following is my attempt at the English translation of the rest of the series.

Chapter 4

The changing room curtains opened with a soft swish.

”How is it? Cute? Isn't it cute?”

In the fitting room, Ayaka c.o.c.ked a hip and struck up a pose. Being peppered with questions like that, I could only stammer an answer: ”I-It is.” Although, actually, she it really did look cute on her. She was pretty and had a good figure, so anything would look good on her, but…

”Erm. But, don't you think it opens too much around the collar?”

What Ayaka was wearing was a black knit top that was tight enough to follow all the curves on her body. Knitted flower motifs decorated the V-neck collar and the hems.

”Eh—, you think so?” said Ayaka. She stood there thinking as she pulled on her collar with sharp tw.a.n.g. Uwa, if she pulls on her collar like that you could almost see her bra.s.siere! That was what the middle aged uncle was busily thinking to himself, but nothing of that sort happened. What I meant to say was, you know, something like a flash of lace was something I was hoping for… no, afraid of, but I wasn’t able to see anything at all. And as to why I wasn't able to see anything, perhaps it was because she wasn't wearing a bra.s.siere in the first place… As I entertained that thought and tried to see if she was indeed wearing one, I realized that every time she moved they would wobble about with an amazing elasticity… No, this won't do. I shouldn't be looking at things like that.

”This is an imported product, that's why… Over there, they wear it with it wi-de open like that. It looks cuter that way, anyway. Look, look, don't you think so?”

Ayaka threw out her chest in my direction, and dropped her hips. Those who know, know that pose to be the nostalgic 90's comedy duo Pirates' signature Dacchuuno pose. I tried very hard to look at Ayaka without looking at them as I answered ”Un un, I guess you are right. Perhaps you should get this one.”

I want to look. But I shouldn't look. You s.h.i.+thead, I cursed myself for not being able to completely become a lecherous middle aged uncle.

Over two weeks had pa.s.sed since that hittsumi hotpot session, and the calendar now showed November. The wind had also completely changed into a chilly autumn one, and today I wore a high neck top for the first time this fall, along with a pair of fitted pants and a brand new jacket. We’re going on a date so come all dressed up okay, was what Ayaka had requested of me, so I sucked up my lecherous tendencies and came all the way to Roppongi with her.

To call this a date will be inaccurate. I was not a dating partner, but a sponsor.

I thought that I should do something to atone for the trouble I created for Ayaka during that hotpot episode, and when I asked Ayaka for her opinion, she had said, ”Buy me clothes, then.”

”This is cute, isn't it? I'm really into this design as well. Shall we decide on this, then?”

”Un. You can pick anything you want.” I said, as I made my gaze wander about the room. The salesgirl also told her: ”It looks good on you, you know.”

Ayaka then said, ”Okay, I'll take this off.” and once again disappeared into the changing room.

The curtains opened about three minutes later. Ayaka, who was back in her original tunic and skinny denim jeans, said with a tilt of her head: ”I guess I won't get this after all.”

”Eh, didn't you like it?”

”Mm, but I think it was lacking punch, somehow.”

I wonder where her high spirits went to. Ayaka handed the salesgirl the knit top after putting on her boots, and the salesgirl looked rather disappointed.

It was then that I saw it. It was just a brief look… but I caught sight of the price tag. I instinctively doubted my own eyes as I saw that it said eighty four thousand yen. One knit top for eighty thousand yen? What apartment is that the rent for? That aside, did this boutique carry clothes that costed that much? Their line-up was casual, so I thought it would have been easier on my wallet, but…

Female clothing is indeed a mystery.

Ayaka and I left the shop, and as we walked with Ayaka hanging off my arm, Ayaka laughed as she said: ”All that choosing of clothes sure made me tired. Come to think of it, I already have a lot of clothing anyway. Why don't you just treat me to dessert? I would like to eat at least five slices of cake.”

”… Ayaka-chan, um, you really don't need to hold back.”

”Hold back?”

”It is true that I'm just a poor, humble negotiator, but I intend to keep my promises. That top just now really suited you. Well, it was expensive, but I can manage somehow… in some way or another…” I stammered awkwardly, and Ayaka laughed in reply.

”So you did see the price tag,” she said. ”I also saw it in the fitting room, and was a little surprised by how much it costed… That wouldn't do. If Mebuki-san was my boyfriend, or an old man I was going out on a date with for his money, then I would pester him to buy it for me. However that is something too expensive for a friend of mine to buy for me.”

”A friend?”

Un, Ayaka affirmed with a nod, and then turned her face up to look at me. ”No? Do you not want a friend who is a s.e.x worker?”

”What are you saying? I would never think that way.”

”I'm also a bit slow in the head, and didn't attend much of high school.”

”That doesn't matter.” I a.s.serted flatly. ”You won't put out your resume in order to make friends with a person, right? I might even want to ask you if you were okay with befriending a middle aged man like me.”

”Age shouldn’t matter too.” Ayaka said, as she fluttered her heavy mascara-ed lashes. ”Sayuri-san is a friend of mine that is wa-ay older than I am. Friends are about whether or not you trust them, isn't it? When you have a job like mine, it's hard to make friends with anyone not in the same profession. When I meet people I know from my hometown, It’s difficult to tell them what work I am doing now, too.”

”I see…”

”And my male friends are hopeless. It's so obvious that they all have ulterior motives.”

My heart ached a little when I heard that. No, I don't have any ulterior motives. Absolutely none. I don’t look to Ayaka and think of this and that. I would like to think that it was simply conditioned reflexes at play when my eyes occasionally stray to her chest and her a.s.s. Like the kind when you tap a knee and your leg goes up with a sproink.

”Right now, the only two men I trust are Hyoudou-san and Mebuki-san.”

”Ah, so Hyoudou made the mark, too.”

”Well, of course. The girls who come from another shops all get surprised by how properly run our place is.”

”And it's because Hyoudou is in charge?”

As always, Hyoudou is on the receiving end of a great deal of trust from his employees. Well, even I know that he is very diligent when it comes to his work. Though it got me thinking whether that is a good thing or a bad thing when you are yakuza, but at least it appears that he doesn't bother honest, upright citizens. Or, maybe it is just that I haven't caught wind of anything like that… I try not to think about things like that. If I think too much I would find myself in a loss what to do.

Perhaps it is because it difficult for Hyoudou and I to understand each other. Our lifestyles and our mind-sets are very different, so it is to be expected. The fact that we do not understand each other and yet still sleep with each other perplexes me even up to now, and it is perfectly natural that s.h.i.+meno would worry.

”Ah, someone said that this café was good. I read about it in a magazine!”

Ayaka decided to pull me towards the café, and we went in. It was an adorable little shop filled with female patrons, and I had a feeling that a middle-aged man like me was more or less out of place, but I didn't mind. I ate two, while Ayaka ate three slices of cake, and we both indulged in a second portion of royal milk tea.

In the end, Ayaka didn't get her clothes. I had fun for about half a day so that'll do, she laughed as she said. ”It was my first time on a date with someone as smart and gentle as Mebuki-san, you know. I had a really good time.”

She said many other things like that, and I could feel tears p.r.i.c.king at my eyes. She really was a very good girl. She probably became popular enough to be ranked number one not only because of her physique but because of that personality of hers.

After a light hearted dinner at a yakitori restaurant at past nine in the evening, I had Ayaka put on a taxi and I saw her off. It had been a long time since I had gone to Roppongi at night. As I didn't have any plans to return to work, I decided to wander aimlessly about the city. It might be necessary to once in a while, walk on your own two feet through a city that changes at a frenzied pace.

Without a destination in mind, I walked from Gaien Higas.h.i.+ Street to the pleasure quarters a street away. Club touts caught my eye, but they were not as pushy as the ones in Kabuki-chō. They approached me, but I smiled at them as I step around them. I don't like to drink enough to go into that sort of place alone.

Out of the blue, I felt a presence behind my back.

There were other people walking in the same direction as I was, but this person was walking strangely close-by. He was so close that if I were to stop suddenly in my tracks he would have b.u.mped into me. I wonder who it was, but I decided to ignore him. Yet he continued to follow me, and he was far too close to be tailing me in secret.

It was creepy.

There was a non-zero probability that I may get stabbed from the back, but I didn't feel any malicious intent. It was almost as if the person was keeping such a distance between us because he hoped that I would notice him… and was waiting for me to stop walking.

”—Mebuki-sensei,” the man finally called out to me. Perhaps he had gotten exasperated with the fact that I didn't seem to want to stop. ”It has been a long time. You don't seem to have changed at all.” His voice was high-pitched for a man, and it was a  voice that grows on you after a while.

I immediately knew, as I would never forget that voice.

”—Asahina-kun.”

”Oh? You do remember me.”

A ghost of a smile touched his lips as Asahina looked at me. The sides of his mouth were turned upwards, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. He was in a jacket that was simple, but of a good material, and slim cut jeans. His light-colored hair was somewhat longer than mine. He didn’t look untidy but he would give you the impression that he was not doing a stable, secure job. Behind him stood a well-built young man.

”I'm surprised. You give off different vibes now,” I said as I faked a smile, but I was unable to dispel the cloud of anxiety that hung around me.

”Really?”

When I nodded, he tilted his head slightly, a quirk of his which hadn't changed. However, his face, which still had a child-like quality at twenty-two, had completely changed to a virile, intense one. He was thinner than before, with sunken cheeks. His complexion was rather sallow, too. Above all, his eyes were different. At that time, they reflected self-absorption and foolishness that is characteristic of youth. At the same time, however, they also held an honest regret for his mistakes. He accepted that he was in the wrong, and apologized, while crying, to his deceased lover and her family from the bottom of his heart.

Compared to those eyes which were then overflowing with tears—how very dry Asahina would seem, now. He only smiled with his mouth, and his eyes, drained of emotion, fixed themselves intently on me.

”Five years have pa.s.sed. Anyone would have changed, too.”

”I guess you are right. You've become really good looking. You're probably popular with girls, aren't you?” I said inanely.

”I wonder.” said Asahina with a curl of his upper lip and a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. ”If it's bedding partners, I guess I do have a quite few… Hey, care to go for a drink? I'd like to thank you for that time, albeit after five years. I am grateful to you, Mebuki-sensei, since I managed to get off that time without going into jail.”

Asahina was behaving as if he was on good terms with me, but at the same time I could sense the air between us crackling with tension. It felt as if Asahina was appraising me.

”It's nothing. I simply did what my job as a lawyer warranted.” I said.

”Let's reminisce about the past, then? I know of a good place that has a line-up of cute girls.”

”Thanks for the offer, but I'll pa.s.s tonight.” I ventured, cheerfully.

He was clearly following me. Tailing someone is not something you do with good intentions, and I did not know how long he had been following me. I only just recently heard Saitou mentioning his name, and for the very person to suddenly show up after five years—shouldn't be a positive sign.

”What, how unfriendly of you, sensei.”

”I've already quit being a lawyer so I am no longer a sensei.”

”I know. You've become a negotiator, haven't you?”

Without asking how he knew that, I answered ”That's right,” without dropping the smile on my face. It appears that Asahina had run a check on me. I wonder why he had to do something like that.

”Just one hour would do. Hang out with me.”

”No…”

Asahina moved closer, and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. He had grown in height and was somewhat taller than I was. Like a drunkard fooling around, he leaned into me and said, ”I would like to talk to you about Saitou, too.”

At that hoa.r.s.e whisper of his, my smile disappeared. I turned to look at Asahina as he took a drag from the cigarette he had in between his fingers. White smoke billowed out in front of us.

”Asahina-kun, you…”

”This is not a place to talk about things like that, yes? Look, let's go. Tos.h.i.+, call up the usual place and get them to open up a room for us.”

At Asahina’s command, the man whom he called Tos.h.i.+ wordlessly took out a hand phone out from his pocket. I braced myself for the worst. If I were to firmly turn him down here, there was a possibility that he might never make contact with me again. He mentioned Saitou, which means he was a.s.sociated with the scam group.

No, he might be one of the central figures in the group.

Yet, I am not the police. I am nothing more than a negotiator, and I do not intend to go after the scam group. Nevertheless, Asahina was a young man whom I had once appealed a case for, and I cannot leave him as he was.

I acquiesced, and was brought to a sw.a.n.ky club which would charge you a couple ten thousands of yen just for a seat. Asahina, Tos.h.i.+ and I were shown to a VIP room, which was a room with a deep-pile carpet and a leather corner-sofa. A number of women of exceptional good looks immediately took their seats with us. Flanked by two beauties waiting on him, Asahina smirked, watching me as I sat facing him.

”How do you find this place, Mebuki-sen… no, Mebuki-san?”

”Oh, it's great. The women are pretty, too.” Seated beside me was a lovely woman in a resplendent blue dress with slits at the side.

”They have more cla.s.s than the ones in Kabuki-chō, don't you think? When you go to Ginza you'll only find old hags everywhere. Roppongi sits well with me.”

”You're doing well, I see.”

”I am. Look,” he answered easily, and showed me the watch on his left wrist.

”This is Jacob Skull. Brands like Breguet stinks of old man.”

”Oh? Is that, diamond?”

”Of course.”

Judging from the diamonds that glittered on its dial, the price of the watch couldn't have been below three million yen. This wasn't a watch that a decent man in his twenties can afford, yet Asahina took pleasure in the sounds of excitement that the girls made around him.

”That is amazing. Asahina-san, didn't you recently buy a car?”

”That's right, that's right. It was a Porsche, wasn't it?”

”It was a red and it was stunning. I would like to ride on it, just once!”

While tossing off expensive champagne, Asahina said: ”Then, shall we all go on a joyride next time?”, and the girls became even more excited. Tos.h.i.+ remained silent, and did not drink very much. He acted like Asahina's bodyguard instead of his friend.

After Asahina had finished bragging about his riches, Tos.h.i.+ made all the girls leave. There were only three of us in the room now. I had chosen to drink Oolong tea after one gla.s.s of champagne, but Asahina seemed a little drunk. He looked at me vacantly with eyes that were slightly bleary.

”…You're a handsome one as always, aren't you, Mebuki-san.”

”Why, thank you,” I answered, simply.

Asahina put out a cigarette which had burnt down short, and attempted to take another out of his box.

”You're smart, you seem eloquent, and champion of justice is clearly written all over your face. Why did you quit being a lawyer?”

”I realised that I wasn't cut out for the job.”

”Hmmm. And? What do you do as a negotiator?”

Anything, I answered. ”As long as there is something to be negotiated, I take on almost all requests.”

”Then, won't you take on my request as well? …Tsk, it's empty.”