My name is Yokohama Ryusei ¹. I'm 32. On the surface, I'm just a programmer. In reality... I'm yakuza ². And for the record, don't bring up the fact that my name is just one character off from a certain A-list celebrity. I'm not in the mood.
When I was 18, I chose this life - the kind of underworld business you don't talk about in polite company. 14 years later, I spend my days handling debt collection, tracking down debtors who've bolted, and cleaning up the resulting messes.
Usually, when a debtor skips town, the standard play is to squeeze the guarantor. But we do things differently. Unlike your run-of-the-mill loan sharks, our "clients" are all from the underworld. More often than not, there is no guarantor. These are the kinds of guys who think they're tough enough to borrow from the yakuza - each one of them is a bigger pain in the ass than the last. They're fine as long as they're making payments, but then they suddenly get it into their heads to plot an escape.
Some hop a flight overseas, some bounce from city to city across the country, some go to ground in the sticks, and others hide out with a mistress. I'm the one who follows the breadcrumbs, hunts them down, and gets our money back. Just the other day, I caught a professional hitman right as he was trying to flee the country. I seized every asset he had and tossed him onto a deep-sea fishing boat to work off the rest.
This time, however, I was working on direct orders from the Boss. He'd tasked me with collecting from a specific man. The problem? The guy was a katagi ³ - a civilian. Normally, I'd never take a job like that, but you don't say no when the Boss asks personally.
I found the guy and hauled him in easily enough. During the interrogation, he started rambling about some "groundbreaking research" that was supposedly worth a fortune. He called it a "Reincarnation Magic Circle" ⁴ or something equally ridiculous. It sounded like total bullshit, but the man was an alum of the prestigious Imperial University ⁵. He claimed he'd hidden a USB drive containing his results inside a teddy bear in the university's Occult Research clubroom.
My gut told me he was 99% full of it. But if there's even a 1% chance of a payday, I'm the type who has to see it through. I don't leave a single yen on the table.
I waited for nightfall and snuck into Imperial University.
* * *
- Imperial University, Occult Research Clubroom -
A few days ago, a student reportedly died a mysterious death in this room. "Do Not Enter" tape was plastered everywhere. The scene was supposedly being preserved, so nothing had been cleared out yet. A tape outline of a body marked the center of the floor.
Right next to it sat the teddy bear.
That had to be it. I checked the stuffed animal, and sure enough, there was a USB drive tucked inside. To see what was on it, I powered up a PC in the room and plugged it in.
A folder popped up. I clicked it, and an image of what looked like a magic circle appeared on the screen. I guess he really had been researching this "Reincarnation" crap.
"Might as well see if this is worth anything," I muttered.
I started drawing the circle on the floor, mimicking the diagram on the screen.
Once I was finished, I checked the instructions again. Apparently, I had to chant an incantation. He'd written that down, too. I started reading the words, stumbling over the nonsensical syllables as I mumbled through the chant.
...
"Nothing," I sighed. "Figures. I actually let myself believe this kid stuff for a second."
I pulled the USB drive out of the PC and shoved it into my pocket. I'd take it with me, just in case.
"Now, how am I going to squeeze that debt out of him?" I wondered aloud. "I guess I'll have to toss him on a fishing boat too."
But the moment I stepped onto the circle I'd drawn, the floor erupted in a blinding light.
"What?! It actually worked?!" I yelled, shielding my eyes.
The next thing I knew, my consciousness was fading. I slumped to the floor, the world turning black.
* * *
In a small diner nearby, the news played on a wall-mounted TV.
"- Following an incident just days ago, another body has been discovered in a clubroom at Imperial University. Authorities are baffled by the string of mysterious deaths. As the deceased was not a student or faculty member, police are investigating the motive for the break-in while treating the case as both a potential crime and an accident. The identity of the man has not yet been released."
"Wait, wasn't a student found dead there just a few days back?" a man in work clothes asked his colleague between bites of his meal.
"Oh yeah, I remember that," the coworker replied. "The kid's name was Sato Taro. I remember laughing because it was such a generic, old-school name. I almost choked on my soup."
"Right, that was the one."
The incident caused a stir for a few days, but with no leads and no explanation for the deaths, the case was eventually filed away as a cold case - a mystery that would never be solved.
Trivia:
- Ryusei is actually 32, which is older than the typical isekai protagonist.
- The 'deep-sea fishing boat' is a common Japanese euphemism for making someone disappear to pay off debts through forced labor.
- The student who died before Ryusei was named Sato Taro, emphasizing his 'ordinariness' contrasted with the occult nature of his death.
- Ryusei is a programmer as his day job, which might be relevant to how he interacts with magic systems later
Character Insight:
Ryusei shows a mix of extreme pragmatism and a lingering sense of curiosity. Despite being a hardened criminal, his willingness to follow a '1% chance' of magic shows he's looking for something more than just money, even if he won't admit it.
Behind the Scenes:
The name 'Yokohama Ryusei' is a direct nod to the famous Japanese actor. In the original text, the protagonist's name uses slightly different kanji but the same reading.
TL Notes:
1 ↩ Yokohama Ryusei: Written as 横浜竜星. A pun on the famous Japanese actor Ryusei Yokohama (横浜流星).
2 ↩ Yakuza: Members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan.
3 ↩ Katagi: A term used by yakuza to refer to honest citizens or people outside the underworld.
4 ↩ Tensei Mahoujin: Literal translation for 'Reincarnation Magic Circle.'
5 ↩ Imperial University: Referring to Teikoku University, often modeled after the prestigious University of Tokyo.
Notes:
• Yokohama Ryusei - A 32-year-old yakuza operative whose public front is a programmer. He specializes in debt collection and skip-tracing. He is cynical and meticulous, noted for having a name nearly identical to a famous celebrity.
• Ryu - Formerly Yokohama Ryusei, a yakuza. Reincarnated as the third son of the Landmark family. Has red hair and blue eyes. Possesses memories of his previous life and the ability to see names of objects.
• Sato Taro - A student at Imperial University who recently died a mysterious death in the Occult Research clubroom. Described as having a very generic, old-school name.