(Author’s note: Read after Part 0)

Boss Spoilers for Yakuza Kiwami

December 2005



Floating… darkness… mind is filled with blue… lungs filled with water… “My my… seems you’re in some trouble, and it’s much too early for that.” Majima hears in his head, voice sounding… familiar.

An image flashes in Majima’s mind, bloodshot eyes, and a long nose… And yet another flash in his mind, as if it’s storming within his brain, a closeup of an image he’s all too familiar with…





yet… it was moving… he feels… something move around him, and he lifts his hand, and sees a blue, fire-like energy swirling around him… “Must be… hallucinating…”

Majima floats near lifelessly in the ocean blue, regretting his life choices, and leaving his son, Kazuma, with no parents, Kiryu… without an opponent… and Saejima… he has no idea… A stabbing pain suddenly pierces Majima’s mind, and that jolt is enough for him to wake up and swim back to the surface… a bit too fast actually, as he launches himself out of the water like a Marlin, and lands back on the pier, in standard superhero landing pose. All of a sudden, Majima coughs and seawater erupts from his lungs and stomach. It’s damn near sunset now. After several minutes of purging the sea water from his system, Majima stumbles his way into a nearby warehouse, and breaks into a first aid box on the wall, stitching up the gun wound, and bandaging up, giggling the whole time. “How long was I out?” was a thought that passed through Majima’s mind at one point, but left in barely a second, as he has some important business to take care of. He’s never felt more alive than right at this moment in time and he’s not wasting this opportunity now.

Majima grabs some keys off the table, and calls up his men to tell them what to do and find out where Kiryu is. “Shangri-La? Bah, whatever the setting, I will give Kiryu the fight of his life!” and similar thoughts pass through Majima’s mind as he calls up a cab and heads for his HQ, giggling like a god damned maniac. “This is going to be FUN!”

A couple hours pass

Majima is in a giant truck, a staple vehicle in the Yakuza, perfect for ramming into shit and carrying your men! It’s only been a couple hours since he crawled out of the ocean, but he was raring to go, loud pop music blaring on the truck’s radio, Majima singing along to it on his way to Shangri-La, an exclusive hotel in Kamurocho. He turns off the radio as they’re pulling closer, he yells “Let’s make some sweet noise!”

CRASH

He rams the truck through the front doors of the building. the men on the truck start running inside to help create some chaos and wear down Kiryu before he gets to Majima. Majima slowly lifts up his head, reeling a bit from the impact but perfectly fine. He sees Kiryu walking down the stairs… and a lady off to the side. Majima gets a devilish grin. ‘Perfect.’ Majima jumps out of the truck and grabs the lady by the shoulder. “Yo, Kazzy! Been lookin’ for ya!” he yells to Kiryu.

“Majima… I’m… surprised you’re still alive.” Kiryu responds to him, a shocked expression on his face. Majima then starts trolling Kiryu a little bit. Threatening to kill the girl he grabbed, or forcibly make her his bitch. Course, he wasn’t serious about it. He’s just trying to rile up Kazzy so he’ll really go all out. The girl says she’s already in love with someone, and he’s gotta admire her honesty. Majima steps away from her. “Tellin’ it like it is. No prob. It’s cool.” Majima smiles slyly. “C’mon. It’s dangerous here! On your way now.” He pats the lady lightly on the shoulder and she runs off. “I can never get a read on you…” Kiryu says to him. “I just appreciate honest people! They ain’t fakin’ it for someone else’s sake. I’m the same way y’know.” Majima retorted, a twang of depression goes through his mind but he keeps on his crazy face. “Things were going good last time, before we got rudely interrupted. Let’s settle this once and for all! Bring it, KAZZY!”

And the fight begins. It’s a whirl of fists, feets, knife slashes, and potted plants. Kiryu’s getting in some good hits, dashing around just fast enough to get out of range of Majima’s knife, and to get within range after he misses and punch him a few times. Kiryu dashes away to a large knocked over potted plant and picks it up. While Kiryu is doing that, Majima comes in and slashes him a couple times, making him drop the plant, and he dashes away and laughing like a madman as Kiryu stumbles a little. Majima spins around in a circle but tires himself while doing so, trying to hit him. Kiryu rushes in and tries punching him a few times but he blocks with his knife. Kiryu backs away and Majima tries doing his special knife combo at him, unfortunately Kiryu dodges every slash, and Majima’s knife bounces back into his hand when he misses the throw and it hits the wall. Majima spins again and hit’s Kiryu this time, slamming him into the wall, where he bounces off and falls to the floor. While he down Majima stabs him and backs up, but he misses slightly, only delivering a slight slash, not penetrating the ribs or lungs. Kiryu gets up like nothing happened, adrenaline pumping through his veins, despite the blood pooling around both of them. Kiryu rushes in for another flurry of punches but Majima dodges to the side and kicks him in the kidneys, he dashes away again and laughs his laugh. Bad choice, as Kiryu rushes in yet again and delivers another burst of punches to Majima’s face, and he has step back and rest for a moment. As Kiryu wails on him, Majima’s catching his breath, the many light punches barely flinching him for the moment. But suddenly, Kiryu uppercuts him right in the jaw, hard enough to launch him into the air about a two feet. Suddenly Majima feels a bout of punches to his midsection, expelling all the air from his lungs, and he doesn’t even feel his feet touch the floor yet. He lands on his feet, and Kiryu lands one last charged punch to Majima’s face as he’s sent flying backwards, onto his front.

Kiryu pauses for a moment, out of breath, as Majima gets up, feeling more alive than ever. They stare at each other from across the lobby.

Suddenly the ground shakes yet again, catching Kiryu off guard, but Majima remains perfectly still almost. “NOW I’M REALLY FEELING IT!” Majima feels a sudden rush come on as he dashes at Kiryu, hitting him in the chest with both his knees, and straddles him. Majima attempts to punch him right in the face, but Kiryu moves his head to the side and Majima’s fist meets marble floor. Right before it hits the marble floor though, Majima can almost see himself glowing blue as the whole building shakes, another vision of his Hannya mask tattoo flutters through his mind, but actually sort of 3D instead of just his tattoo. The vision ends and his fist meets floor. He must be too high on adrenaline, as he can almost see another fist above his on the floor as well, but it’s ghostly white and has blood red nails. Abruptly, the floor beneath himself and Kiryu crumbles and they tumble into the basement of Shangri-La. Kiryu rolls onto the floor safely while Majima does the same, though he loses his knife in the process.

Good thing he’s got other fighting styles besides his knife. He switches to his Thug style, smiling like a psycho! He doesn’t even question how the floor beneath them just collapsed from a single punch, rebar and all. The fight continues. Kiryu starts kicking pieces of rubble at Majima, stunning him for a moment, but he keeps trying to get at Kiryu. Unfortunately, Kiryu picks up a sturdy piece of rubble and just bashing Majima repeatedly with it. Majima counters soon enough, hitting him 3 times, poking him in the eyes on the final hit, causing him to turn around. Majima uses this chance to kick him to the floor, and does a flipping knee to the stomach, time slowing for a moment while Majima does it, a stupid grin on this face, and he continues laughing at Kiryu one he stands back up.

Bad choice yet again as Kiryu rushes at Majima and delivers a eruption of blows, enough to stun Majima for a moment. While stunned, Majima thinks he sees a blue aura around Kiryu, with a much taller dragon floating behind him. Majima laughs, thinking it’s his brain playing tricks on him. Kiryu winds up a punch and hits Majima so hard in the ribs it sends him flying across the room, right under the hole he created with that punch. Majima looks up, leaning on one arm, dizzy as hell. “Kiryu… You’re really… amazing.” He draws a haggard breath, the air gone from his bruised lungs. “You’re… Really…” Aaaand he faints. Kiryu leaves the scene and Majima to sleep on the ground. “ZZzzzzz…” Another flash of blue goes through his mind.

“My my. You haven’t even been within the Meta-Verse and you’ve already unlocked your Persona. Convenient that it’s your tattoo as well. The Hannya. Quite a pick, considering her insane appearance.” The old man said to Majima, who is back in the Velvet Room after a 17 year absence. Strangely, Majima remembers this dream from long ago, but only slightly, the opera music chiming in his ears causing a nostalgic reaction. He looks around, looking at the scene before him. It’s a blue version of Club Sunshine, the cabaret club he ran to make some side cash while still running the Grand… It doesn’t quite feel like a prison anymore, in his mind.

“But being bereft of sanity seems to be your way of doing things, isn’t it, Mr. Majima?” Majima is startled once again by the man sitting next to him in the Hostess Booth. He looks him over again, as if trying to remember his name, but none coming to mind. Since Majima is having this dream again, he decides to look at the man more closely this time. On closer inspection he’s dressed more like a host, in a overly fancy dark blue pinstripe suit, a pure black buttoned undershirt, and an officer’s hat, though the man is spinning it on his finger now, which lets his long platinum blonde hair down around his head, lazily.

“The name’s Alphonse, dum dum, remember?” Majima shakes his head in confusion, raising his eyebrow at the pale man sitting next to him, his bright yellow irises scanning Majima. Majima looks back to the old man… Igor, Majima remembers. “And you’ve just signed a contract with The Chariot. That man… he seemed to have his own Persona has well… though it seems he doesn’t know it yet. A pity. But I seem to of made the right choice in who raises the child…” Majima raises an eyebrow at Igor this time. “Ah… yes. The child, he will save the world one day, and I fear I will be of no help, considering the opponent… But nevertheless, you are a worthy man, Goro Majima. Raise the child well. Remember to use those you’ve foraged contracts with to help raise the boy, into the Trickster he was meant to be.”

Igor starts shuffling tarot cards yet again.

He places several down. Majima decides to get up and get a better look. He jumps onto the stage and looks down on Igor’s table. The Fool, it has a pictures of Majima’s Hannya Mask on it. The Chariot, showing a white dragon pulling a chariot with a man in a white suit inside of it. “Kazzy.” Majima thinks to himself. It’s got a star in the lower left corner. Suddenly Alphonse roughly pats Majima on the back and he looks at him, now standing close to Majima’s side. “Man you’re in for a ride. You haven’t even got all the Arcana yet. I hope whoever you meet will be as interesting as you are! Just make sure you don’t raise the kid to be as wacky as you are.” Igor continues placing Tarot cards on the table in front of him. Strength, with a muscular man with long hair wrestling a tiger “Saejima?” Majima thinks. It’s got 3 stars in the bottom left. High Priestess, with a woman sitting on a throne, clutching a walking stick and looking at a document. Her eyes are pure white, she got short hair, she has a worried expression on her face. “Makoto?” He actually says out loud. It’s got a full 10 stars across the bottom of the card. And so on, the cards keep falling. Shimano, Majima’s boss, is a man sitting on a throne smoking a big honking cigar, The Emperor, 5 stars. Club Sunshine itself, what seems to be a landscape portrait of all the ladies there, Majima in his 80’s outfit standing in the center, The Empress, 6 stars. The Tojo Clan symbol, The Hierophant, 3 stars. A woman in an idol outfit, with a man in a… snakeskin jacket looking away from each other in shame. Majima puts that image out his head and notes that that one has like… 3 stars, The Lovers, it’s also upside down for some reason. Among other Tarot cards include… A Clown as Wheel of Fortune… “Weird.” is a thought that passes through Majima’s mind. A Pair of sunglasses in a bullfighting ring, Death, 2 stars… “Also weird.” The Millenium Tower is the Star Arcana, while the Tower Arcana remains blank for now. “…hey why isn’t the Millenium The Tower card?” Majima doesn’t totally get the whole meaning behind the cards other than just the names.

Igor ignores him and continues placing cards.

A man in a piss brown suit with grey hair overlooking Sotenbori, 8 stars. “Sagawa?” blows through Majima’s mind as he continues looking at the cards, That little girl Majima kidnapped as another ploy to fight Kiryu is one of them, with her looking over a vast field, sun in the sky, a worried look on her face, The Sun, 2 stars. “Hm…” And finally, the final card, Kazuma Majima, a child, sitting next to his father on the couch, as the father looks decidedly depressed… Judgement… Majima scowls at that card, considering the name of it, but ignores it. He overlooks all the the cards, many of which are missing. “What’s the deal? I thought these things could say the future. Why are most of them blank?” Majima feels a hand pat his head. “It’s like I said, Dum Dum, you gotta forage the contracts so you know who’s going to be important! Sometimes you gotta find them yourself, other times they’ll fall right into your lap! See look.” Alphonse points at the Temperance Card, it has an old man that looks incredibly familiar to him on it, in a Martial Arts fighting pose. “It’s that old man you met back then. You haven’t spoken to him in years. You only got like… rank 4 on it. Why don’t you get your cute ass outta here and connect with him again?” Majima considers Alphonse’s words. He DID see Kiryu go into Purgatory a lot… In fact he remembers seeing Kiryu speak to that old man a few times as well. He could probably use this as a way to fight Kazzy again! Majima nods at Alphonse. Majima steps down from the stage. “Good luck, trickster. Raise the child into what he was meant to be.” Igor says as a final goodbye, as Majima steps to the back of the Cabaret Club and exits out the door into a darkness, he feels himself fall asleep within his own dream again, and reality is blurred once more as Majima falls into the darkness, eyes blurring.

“…Boss…” Majima hears someone say something fuzzily, but his mind isn’t totally back yet, as it’s muffled in his ears. “…Boooossss… Hey, Boss!” Majima’s head is swirling as his head swings around as he looks up. He sees one of his men, Munehisa Iwai, squatting next to him, tapping his head with the butt of a pistol. Iwai offers his hand to Majima as he tries to regain his cognizance. Majima grabs his hand and Iwai pulls him up. Majima is still dizzy, so Iwai decides to put Majima’s arm around his shoulder so he doesn’t fall over again. “Man boss what happened here? Where’d that giant hole come from?” “Iwai, ugh, my faithful family man…” Majima coughs. “That was the result of one of the best fights I’ve had in ages. I was so fired up…” Majima coughs again, his head spinning. “Right, right, well, I think tonight’s had enough fights. We have to get outta here before the cops know what’s going on.” Iwai leads Majima out of Shangri-La’s and into his car. “Besides, your kid’s been calling the office non-stop tonight, asking where you are, so I’m taking you home so he can shut the hell up.” Majima giggles at what Kazuma’s been doing, and just lies back in the passenger seat in Iwai’s car as he starts driving. “Kazuma is a good kid, Iwai…” “Whatever you say, boss.”

As Majima takes another small nap on his way back home, he feels something tingle in his mind.

I Am Thou, Thou art I…

Thou hast found a new vow.





These wings of responsibility shall help you on your journey.





With the foundation of the Hermit Persona

I have gained the ability to shape the future

Which will help lead to freedom and new power





(Credit to @arktoons for the Alphonse art)