Being back in Destiny City was something of a relief, honestly. Taiki had spent far too long back home in Yokohama, dealing with his father’s affairs. He’d been called back forcibly at first, with Masao insisting that Taiki return to help with his business, especially since Megumi had taken the time to move to the US as well. That had left only Keiichi of his legitimate children, and of course Keiichi couldn’t be trusted with a jigsaw puzzle for children, much less the complexities of pseudo-legal accounting. So, as the good son he was required to be, Taiki said goodbye to Phillipe and Trinity and returned home, though he kept in regular contact through phone and email.

It had been stressful, auditing his father’s work and picking up where he left off. There was so much of it, and Masao Himura was not, on the whole, particularly organized. Taiki was sure the impenetrable system had to make sense to his father, but it was deeply unhelpful for someone else trying to suss out what in the hell he was doing. Folders were filed in ways Taiki couldn’t interpret for the life of him, papers were in places they shouldn't be, and tons and tons of records were kept by hand, rather than electronically, which was absurd even for illegal business in 2020. Never mind the layers of code Masao used to describe the accounts he was controlling and what each piece of money in and out was for. Certainly Taiki could have asked for help, but the first time he did, Masao had shrugged and said that if Taiki couldn’t figure it out on his own, perhaps Masao ought not to have placed his faith in him to take over the family business.

The insult had rankled, and Taiki resolved to untangle the web on his own.

It wasn’t until later that he properly understood why Masao’s organization was so strange. Taiki was deep into the accounts when he began to notice discrepancies—a few hundred here, a few hundred there. Never much individually, and barely noticeable when dealing with the kinds of sums that Masao dealt with regularly. Practically a rounding error. But as Taiki tracked the shifts and changes, the little bits began to grow and accumulate. Tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars, mysteriously vanishing from multiple accounts, with no explanation.

That was when he’d started digging further. He tracked down the accounts the monies were being transferred to, followed them through shell corporations and fake charities, and finally, he came to the inevitable conclusion: Masao Himura was an objective idiot, because Masao Himura was embezzling from the Yakuza. There had been no other conclusion to draw. It was why he was so circumspect about his accounts, why he kept handwritten records, why he worked in a code only he understood. So that no one else would be able to discover what he’d done.

Taiki suspected that setting him loose on these files was a test of loyalty and skill. Unless his father thought he was an absolute idiot, he must have expected that Taiki would uncover what he had done, so Taiki suspected Masao intended to see what his son would do with the knowledge that he was a traitor to the organization.

He had agonized over what to do about it, but ultimately the choice was clear. His father had destroyed any reason for Taiki to feel any kind of filial piety by betraying his mother, over and over again. By mistreating his children and his wife and his mistresses. By being a loathsome slug of a human being, in practically every way it was possible to be such. So Taiki had passed the evidence to the oyabun, discreetly, and sat back and waited.

Not two weeks later, Masao Himura’s body was fished out of Yokohama Harbor.

It was, in Taiki’s opinion, justice. Justice the youngest ones needed to be shielded from, but justice nonetheless. It had also meant his visit was extended, and Megumi and their mother joined him so they could sort out their father’s affairs.

Finally, though, he was back home in Destiny City. Strange, that this felt more like “home” than Yokohama, and that powering up to become Aokigahara felt even moreso.

There was, of course, something absolutely critical he had to do, now that he was back in Destiny City and could power up.

A breath passed his lips, and he curled the hand bearing his signet ring into a fist over his heart, closing his eyes.

“I pledge my life and loyalty to Saturn, and to Aokigahara. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.”

When he opened them, he stood in the midst of the temple complex. There was a rush of cold wind, and somewhere in the distance, Aokigahara swore he heard a strange, ominous rattling.

Troubling.

Fortunately, it looked as if things hadn’t degraded too much in his absence. A wander around the complex showed that there wasn’t too much new damage--though as he walked, he swore the temperature dropped, and the ominous rattling got louder.

Aokigahara inhaled tensely.

He didn’t like this, at all.

The atmosphere felt dark and oppressive, in a way he wasn’t used to. There was something dangerous lurking here--more dangerous than before.

He completed his circuit of the temple complex, making sure everything seemed in the working order he’d restored it to, and that the graveyard hadn't suddenly become re-overgrown in his absence.

Aokigahara had never felt particularly welcome at his Wonder, but now he felt even less so. He wasn’t fond of running, he never had been, but it seemed the most prudent course of action. Especially since the longer he lingered, the more he felt not as if he was being watched, but that it was something much worse.

He felt as if he was being hunted.

With a breath, he returned to Earth, leaving him to ponder what in the hells he had encountered up there.