Substitute Toyokawa Shoko, you can become stronger by breathing

"Something more valuable than mere survival."

That night, Ishikawa Shunya followed Kujo Renji into a hidden little restaurant.

That night, the two talked for a long time.

Ishikawa Shunya confessed his past, the setbacks, failures and despair.

Kujo Renji talked about his ambitions and vision.

This is the most fiery person that Shunya Ishikawa has ever met in his forty-plus years of life.

His dying body was also ignited.

"I need someone who is absolutely loyal."

Kujo Renji said: "It's not because of blood, it's not because of money, it's because of recognition."

Looking at the man in front of him who was much younger than himself but extremely dazzling, Ishikawa Shunya felt for the first time a sense of mission that transcended personal life and death.

"I can be that guy," he finally replied.

The next day, Kujo Renji paid off all his debts, and the debt collectors never appeared again.

In the next nearly ten years, Ishikawa Shunya followed Kujo Renji through countless ups and downs.

From the initial small-scale conflicts to the later large-scale organizations; from the management of underground casinos to the operation of legal enterprises.

Kujo Renji taught him not only how to fight, but also how to think, how to plan, and how to look at problems from a higher level.

Ishikawa Shun also witnessed the gradual growth of the Soryukai under the leadership of Kujo Renji, from an ordinary underworld organization to an important force in the Kanto region.

He also grew from a simple thug to one of Kujo Renji's most trusted deputies, responsible for managing the most core part of the organization's business.

An old dog whose spine was broken became the most loyal mad dog in the Canglong Society.

Since then, the name of Ishikawa Shunya has been known throughout the Kanto underground.

“Loyalty is not blind obedience.”

This is what Kujo Renji once said to him:

“True loyalty is understanding my vision and realizing it in your own way.”

He was never able to fully implement this sentence.

A mad dog will only know who to bite when its owner tells it to.

Ishikawa Shunya understood that he had never been a smart person, and he would never be able to become someone like Kujo Renji.

But he could be an ideal knife.

This realization gave him an unprecedented sense of satisfaction and security.

He finally had a meaning in life - no longer just for survival, but for a greater goal, a mission that could transcend personal life and death.

However, just when everything seemed to be going well, disaster suddenly struck.

...

It was an ordinary Thursday afternoon. Shunya Ishikawa was processing some documents in the office when he suddenly received an urgent call.

Ishikawa Shunya's world seemed to stop turning at that moment.

He didn't even have time to pack his things before rushing out of the office and driving to the hospital.

The white light in the hospital corridor hurts your eyes.

Ishikawa Shunya stood outside the intensive care unit, looking through the glass window at Kujo Renji lying on the bed inside.

Various medical devices connected to him emitted regular beeps. The doctor's diagnosis was like a bolt from the blue—severe brain damage, a deep coma, and although his vital signs were stable, the possibility of him waking up was extremely low.

"Was it an accident or premeditated?" Ishikawa Shunya asked his men around him.

"Preliminary investigations indicate it was an accident," the subordinate replied in a low voice. "A truck lost control and crashed into the boss's car. The driver died on the spot and cannot be questioned."

Ishikawa Junya pursed his lips. In their world, there were no real "accidents."

In the following days, he personally led people to investigate the cause of the accident and track down every possible clue.

However, the more we investigate, the more complicated the situation becomes.

The truck did have a brake problem, but the cause of the problem could not be determined to be human or mechanical;

The truck driver had a clean background and no connection to the Canglong Society;

The surveillance on the road where the accident occurred happened to malfunction a few minutes before the accident, and even the security was temporarily transferred away just before the accident happened... All these coincidences combined made him certain of one thing.

There is a traitor in the Canglong Society.

At the same time, the situation within the Canglong Society began to deteriorate rapidly.

The car accident involving Kujo Renji was like a blockbuster bomb, blowing the originally stable structure of the Canglong Society into pieces.

The young leaders of various factions soon began to fight openly and secretly, trying to get a piece of the pie in the chaos.

Ishikawa Shunya clearly remembers the scene of the first Wakashira meeting.

In the meeting room that was originally supposed to be chaired by Kujo Renji, several young leaders each led their confidants to sit on both sides. On the surface, they were discussing management issues during the organization's transition period, but in fact it was a naked power struggle.

Tanaka from Yokohama, a burly, middle-aged man with a fleshy face, publicly proposed that he would temporarily take over the position of team leader on the grounds that the port area under his jurisdiction had the highest profit.

Sato from Kamakura, a thin and sinister old man, advocated that he should take over based on seniority, after all, he was the veteran who had followed the old team leader the longest.

Kimura from Chiba, a seemingly gentle but actually ruthless young talent, proposed to establish a collective leadership system in which several young leaders would make decisions together. In fact, he wanted to win over more people to compete with Tanaka Sato.

The meeting lasted from the afternoon until late at night. The arguments became increasingly heated and almost led to physical fights several times.

Ishikawa Shunya remained silent throughout the entire process and only made a brief speech at the end:

"The boss is still alive."

His voice was low and firm:

"Before he wakes up, each of us should guard our own piece of land instead of rushing to grab others'."

These words temporarily calmed the dispute, but Ishikawa Shunya understood that this was just the calm before the storm.

Sure enough, in the following days, various open and covert struggles continued.

The entire Canglong Society fell into a strange balance - no one was strong enough to dominate the overall situation, but everyone was eyeing the highest position.

Ishikawa Shunya always stayed by Kujo Renji's bedside, praying for a miracle and thinking about how to protect everything that Kujo Renji had worked hard to build in this power vacuum.

He knew very well that if Jiu Tiao Lian Si did not wake up for a long time, Canglong would sooner or later fall apart.

The compatibility between the leaders of each district is extremely poor. Their ideas, methods, and even personalities are completely different, making it impossible for them to cooperate in the long term.

When Kujo Renji was in power, it was his prestige and wisdom that brought these ambitious people together, but now this rope is loosening little by little.

What worries Ishikawa Shunya the most is that once the internal fighting intensifies, it will definitely affect the legitimate business of the Soryukai.

The business empire that Kujo Renji spent nearly a decade building could collapse in just a few months.

As the internal strife intensified, some problems that had been firmly suppressed by Kujo Renji began to surface.

Vortex is a project designed by Renji Kujo himself. On the surface, it is a chain of music venues, but in fact it is a front station for Kujo Real Estate to acquire real estate.

By establishing Livehouses in target areas, local intelligence can be collected while local independent cultural venues can be squeezed out through commercial competition, ultimately lowering land prices to facilitate acquisitions.

Ishikawa Shunya was the direct person in charge of this project. He strictly followed the plan of Kujo Renji - only setting up branches in the core business districts of large cities and resolutely not touching those marginal areas with low value.

However, after Kujo Renji got into trouble, his special assistant Kawashima began to act on his own.

Kawashima is from the Tanaka faction. He took advantage of the opportunity when Ishikawa Shunya was focused on the hospital and internal affairs to arbitrarily modify Vortex's expansion plan to include non-target areas such as Shimokitazawa.

When Ishikawa Shunya discovered this, someone had already gone to STARRY with forged documents to threaten him.

He had intended to handle the matter in a low-key manner. After all, under the current circumstances, any chaos within the organization could become a handle for other leaders to attack him.

But what he didn't expect was that this seemingly small accident led to a bigger mystery.

That day, after being released from the police station, Seiichi Tsuda brought shocking news:

STARRY's new shareholder, a seemingly ordinary blue-haired high school student, not only easily saw through the carefully forged documents, but also knocked down all the thugs with amazing fighting skills. Most importantly, the words she left behind were -

"Tell Ishikawa Shunya that the rule set by the team leader back then...disobedient dogs will have their spines broken."

These words struck Ishikawa Shunya like a bolt of lightning. This was Kujo Renji's catchphrase, a warning he used to teach traitors a lesson, and he only used it in front of his closest confidants.

How could an ordinary high school student know this sentence?

Ishikawa Shunya immediately launched an investigation and sent out his most reliable intelligence personnel to collect all the information about the girl named Toyokawa Shoko.

The findings left him confused and shocked.

Toyokawa Shoko, sixteen years old, is the only daughter of the Toyokawa family and the eldest daughter of the Toyokawa Group.

Why do the people of the Toyokawa family know the internal affairs of the Soryukai?

How could a spoiled young lady spot a carefully forged document at a glance?

How could a student with no combat training background easily subdue several grown men?

Ishikawa Shunya's doubts grew deeper and deeper until he found a way to get the surveillance video of that day.

That was the internal surveillance of STARRY, which captured the entire process of Shoko Toyokawa fighting with those thugs.

Looking at those smooth and precise movements, looking at that calm and calculating look, Ishikawa Shunya felt a familiar shudder.

Those movements, that rhythm, that overwhelming ease...

Everything was so familiar, because he had seen similar scenes countless times - when Kujo Renji personally dealt with the traitor.

But how is this possible?

Toyokawa Shoko is clearly a sixteen-year-old girl, while Kujo Renji is already a vegetable...

unless...

She is the eldest daughter.

This guess directly answered all previous doubts and made Ishikawa Shunya ecstatic.

Sure enough, people like the boss do have a backup plan.

Without anyone knowing, he left behind his offspring and raised her to be so outstanding.

In fact, during this period, he also had another speculation.

That is, Toyokawa Shoko is actually the boss's secret lover.

But he quickly rejected this speculation.

After all, he knew the boss's preference very well - a widow.

A young girl like Toyokawa Shoko can never be the boss's choice of spouse!

Otherwise, he would even prefer to believe that the eldest daughter turned into a female high school student after being hit by a car and became a vegetable.

As for when the boss adopted Ms. Toyokawa as his daughter...

——Perhaps it was during the turbulent period of the Toyokawa Group.

In the dark, unknown to many of them, the boss had already planted his own hidden agents among the major chaebols.

even.

A bold guess flashed through his mind.

The girl in front of me looks about fourteen or fifteen years old.

The boss from fourteen or fifteen years ago... Toyokawa Mizuho's appearance... The boss's hobbies...

The Toyokawa Shoko in front of us might even be the boss's biological daughter!!

..

At the same time, Toyokawa Shoko in Kujo Renji's mind was also shocked.

"How is this going?"

She asked in her mind, her voice filled with barely concealed shock.

"Who is he talking about? Dad? He's actually a gangster boss?"

——Damn, there are still experts!

"...How come your brain is as abnormal as his?" Kujo Renji responded somewhat weakly. "Do you think it's possible?"