Oh yes, this is becoming a proper clusterfrick now. It reminds me of how an explosive gas like methane is only explosive when at just the right percent of the air – Kojima is the one who got the mix to explosive levels. Everything was pretty stable, considering this was the story of the best  hitman in Japan and the yakuza. Once Kojima arrived all bets were off. And then when his aniki went into this hospital,  the match was well and truly struck.

Honestly, though, Youko might be the scariest one of the bunch. She’s a total sadist, and maybe the most dangerous thing in Osaka is a bored Youko. At least looking after Fable was a full-time distraction – now she’s desperate to fill her time and he offers no help. That leaves her to troll for guys to torture. And Youko seems to have no pride in this respect – the easier the mark, the more fun it is for her. It’s not about something as pedestrian as money – she just likes twisting the knife.

Yuuki (played by Kaji Yuuki) certainly fits the bill. There’s low-hanging fruit, and then there’s root vegetables. Youko already has the next three months planned after less than five minutes working Yuuki. Given that there seem to be no coincidences in this story I imagine he probably has some mob connection, but for the moment he’s just a shallow, preening side of meat Youko is prepping for the spit. She does everything but stick an apple in his mouth.

Kojima continues to stir up trouble at a rate I have to imagine is going to catch the boss’ attention sooner than later. He has absolutely no qualms about lying to his brother either. Kojima’s feelings about Ebihara are hard to read – is his superficial politeness a total act, or does he see his lies as basically harmless? There’s no question Kojima sees the mob in a very different way than what seems to be the prevailing mindset here – for him the violence and conflict is the whole point rather than something to be avoided unless necessary.

As for Fable, he seems to be genuinely embracing the “ordinary” life in a manner that his boss would be proud of, but trouble keeps finding him. He even gets a “raise” at work (to ¥900 an hour) when his childish scribbles catch the eye of Misaki and Prez (and the ire of Kainuma). I think a confrontation between Kainuma and Fable is inevitable, but not because Fable is doing anything ro provoke one. Kainuma is just that much of a dirtbag,  and his machinations with Misaki are going to prompt Fable to defend her at some point.

Mind you, Misaki has plenty of other problems brewing. Despite Ebihara making him promise not to get into the call girl racket, the domain of Sanagawa-san, Kojima plows ahead anyway. And in his search for “talent” he’s pointed towards Misaki, whose desire to escape her past puts her in an extremely vulnerable position. Now that Sanagawa has found out Kojima probably killed his partner, there’s big trouble brewing on that front too. Fable may be thinking that knife he’s buying is just for survival games in the mountains, but he might be about to get the opportunity or imperative to use it in unintended ways.