Only a fool would think that was a request.
Everything in me itches to fight, even if the only rebellion is my silence. But the faster I get done with Kurosaki, the faster I can go home.
“I’m not going to mock your culture, the way you mock mine. I’ll get used to the bowing thing.”
He chuckles. “Yourculture? Americans have nothing if not their pride.”
I frown.
He continues walking, still with that amused smirk. “Bowing is not only about culture. As the leader, I serve them and they serve me. We are servants of each other.”
“Then why are they the only ones who bow?” I point out.
“To be a leader is to bear a heavy burden.” He looks out at the horizon. “They are given a task to contribute to the mission. In exchange, I must protect, provide, and enrich each of their lives. They serve one to one. I serve one to many. This is the exchange.”
We pass one of the gnarled, flowerless cherry blossom trees.
He stops beneath it. “I have waited for a long time for you to come to me. Is there anything you would like to know of your past?”
A knifing sensation stabs my gut. Of course I have questions about my past.
“No,” I say stiffly.
“Not even of your mother?”
I bristle. I’ve been training with Kurosaki for a while, but this is the first time he’s spoken about her.
The yakuza boss pauses underneath a dead tree and presses his hand against the trunk. His tone is so soft I have to lean in to hear.
“Your mother is the one who named you.”
My heartbeat picks up.
“Will you not ask?” Kurosaki taunts me, dangling the promise of answers in the air.
I fight it. With everything in me, I struggle to restrain myself.
But I’ve been searching for so long…
“What’s my name?”
“Keiji,” he says with a smile.
“Key-ji?” I pronounce it the way Kurosaki does. It’s clunky on my tongue. The name doesn’t feel like mine. It doesn’t feel like me at all. “What does it mean?”
“To rule with discretion.” The wind picks up and tugs at his beard. “You were born to lead. Even she knew.”
Keiji.
“Do you know the first lesson a leader must learn?”
Based on the training I’ve done so far, it’s how to survive a knife fight without any weapons.
“Vision.” He watches me closely. “You must believe in a world that doesn’t exist so desperately, so passionately, that you will do anything to create that world, to drag it fromnothinginto reality. A leader can do this.” He steps forward. “Youcan do this.”
I step back. “My vision is not the same as yours.”
“We have more in common than you think.”
