Gorai sat in his Hyatt hotel room looking out the window at the Tokyo city lights. He'd been drinking rather heavily that night so his vision was somewhat obscured. He pressed his hot forehead upon the window, his breath fogging the glass.

Gorai clenched his fists and in a slurred voice mumbled to himself, "Coward... you're gonna pay for deserting your fellow Yakuza... and for deserting me... Kino Yubari..."

From outside the door a young womans voice called, "Gomen Kudasai"

Hai, hai... you can come in!" Gorai groaned.

Through the window's glass he saw the reflection of Mutsuki enter the room.

"Keh! You look like a bookworm..." he scoffed.

"I'm supposed to be undercover as a librarian, remember?" she sighed, "Don't tell me you've forgotten..."

"At least take off those stupid glasses..."

"Fine." She took them off and placed them in her skirt pocket. "Boss Gorai, you sent me in here for a favor...?"

Gorai turned around to face 'Mutsuki', "I need one of your body guards, O-Ren."

O-Ren turned her head slightly to the side, "For what, may I ask?" she inquired.

"I'm your boss! If I tell you to eat shit, you eat shit! No 'ifs', 'ands', 'or 'buts'!" he roared.

"I haven't said any 'ifs', 'ands', 'or 'buts' all day. I was just asking so that I could choose the one best suitable for the job. Jeez... you can get so cranky when you're drunk..."

"It doesn't matter anyone will do. Don't really see why you even have that many bodyguards anyway, it's not like you're a Yakuza Boss or something."

O-Ren smiled her signature 'what is she really thinking?' smile. "Oh, but Boss Gorai-sama, one day I hope to be!"

Gorai hiccupped, "Yeah well... if a fisherman's daughter can become a geisha then I guess anything's possible..."

O-Ren let out a very out-of-character, almost girlish giggle, "Wow Boss Gorai, I had no idea that you, off all people, have read Memoirs of a Geisha! And here you are calling me the bookworm!"

"Have you chosen any one yet!" he barked.

"Hm? Oh, hai, you can have Roi."

"Arigatou."

"Great, now I need to find a replacement. Can't have them be called the Crazy 87..." she sighed.

"Why do you even need that many?"

"It's not really the amount, but the number itself."

"I'm drunk and I can still tell that doesn't make sense..."

Truth be told, only O-Ren could find significance out of the number eighty-eight. To first uncover its meaning you need to first slice it in half. Now you've got a pair of the number forty-four. One group of forty-four is Chinese, the other, Japanese. She does this because she's half Chinese, half Japanese as we all know. Also the number four in both Chinese and Japanese sounds almost identical to the word 'death'. So the number forty-four would mean 'double-death'. Put it all together and you've got a group that's half Chinese, half Japanese that spells out 'doom to all'.

"Yeah well it takes to long to explain. I'll be on my way, I have to wake up early to go to work tomorrow, so I'll need a good night's rest." She headed out the door.

"Sayonara."

O-Ren turned around, smiled, and with her best Ko-Gal impression squealed in fake, Japanese accented, English, "Bye-Bye!" and with that she shut the door behind her.

Gorai's eye twitched in anger, "Sometimes I think she does this only to annoy me..."

Glossary of Terms

Gomen kudasai - In Japan, people hardly ever lock their doors, so people can usually barge right in! However, the more courteous people say 'gomen kudasai' which means 'Hello anyone home', 'I'm here', or 'can I come in?'

Hai – yes

Arigatou – thank you

Sayonara – good-bye

Ko-Gal – 'ko' comes from the first syllable of 'kotogakko' meaning high school, and 'gal' comes from English slang. Ko-Gals all seem to wear the same clothes, wear lipstick and other heavy cosmetics, have hair that is bleached light-brown, and talk only of boys and fashion. In fact, they are believed to be the source of the 'loose socks' fad in Japan (sock that many of us Westerners think are leg warmers at first glance). The only reason the socks don't fall off is because the Ko-Gals glue (literally, glue) them to their bare legs! A 2- for- the- price- of- one deal, they get to look fashionable AND get a good leg waxing!

Me: Oops... this ended up being a short chapter anyways... I'd better start writing my will now... (hard at work writing both a will and the next chapter...)