Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens Volume 1 Chapter 1

Seasonal Opening Ceremony

“There is someone you want to kill at any cost. It does not matter the motive behind it. For instance, it could be that person killed your lover, or your objective is that person’s a.s.sets. Either way, you have to kill that person no matter what. Now then, what would you do?”

The job applicants all together were dumbfounded at the interviewer’s wild question. They were clad in new suits without one wrinkle in them and had their backs perfectly straight, but their mouths were wide open in shock.

What did he say just now? Kill someone? I misheard, right? Everyone there thought that.

“If it was you, how would you kill someone?” The interviewer repeated back. It seems they did not mishear him.

How would you kill someone, he says? I can’t think of it. I shouldn’t think of it. If he had seriously thought of doing such an act, right now he would not be at an interview but in prison.

Saitou eagerly forced his non-operating mind to work and thought. What is the purpose of this question? What is being asked?

Is it to test his deliberateness or ethics? What kind of answer is the corporation side looking for from a student? Awkwardly keeping a fake smile on his face, he read deeply into the question desperately.

There were only two questions the interviewers made before this. “What are your strengths and weakness?” and “What did you strive for as a student?” Those were the staple questions that appear in employment interviews.

Even the students curled up in themselves in apprehension were able to manage providing some kind of exemplary answer for those questions they thought of ahead of time even with their voice shaking. Just as they got a breath of relief and the tension able to lessen the “How will you kill a person?” came up. It felt like after proceeding from hitting back two straight b.a.l.l.s thrown from the center to easily return by approximately a hundred kilometers a sudden, irregular non-rotating fork ball was thrown at them.

He had read in a how-to book for job searching that at recent interviews there have been strange questions asked to shake up students. “If you got one billion yen, how would you use it?”, “What seasoning do you think you can compare to?” or “Please give us some kind of interesting story” seems to have been said before. It was to test their tactfulness in the moment. Saitou also made his resolve so he can be like that no matter what questions would come up. Although he came prepared, this was quite unexpected. Rather than shaking him isn’t this like a giant earthquake?

There were three interviewers, and the one who asked the question was the man sitting in the center. In comparison there were five students. Saitou faced the interviewer from the right edge, sitting in the seat closest to the exit. The answers will start from the farthest student on the left side. Saitou’s turn will be last.

If Saitou had even one unofficial offer he would reject it saying “I don’t know” and take his leave. But having sent entry sheets to fifty companies now, that was hopeless. The fiftieth one was the first interview he managed to get. It is tough. He still has time before his turn. He had to find a good answer no matter what in that time frame to give a good impression to the interviewer.

The first student honestly answered, “It is against the law, so I cannot kill a person.”

At that moment a strange feeling swept through the students. It was the kind of atmosphere of relief. “Ah, that’s good.” “So there was no need to think so deeply about it?” They concluded this question pa.s.sed to them was a test of their ethics. After that the other three also addressed drawn-out fastidious, argumentative words of principle that “we cannot commit murder.”

“Even in the case if you don’t kill them, you will be killed?” The one the interviewer questioned back to was the student next to Saitou. His turn was coming up already.

The female student wore a pantsuit with her long hair tied back. She nodded with full confidence. “Yes. Even then, I cannot violate the law.”

Saitou laughed in his mind at the simplicity of it.

They are testing their ethics?

By chance, is that really the case?

Saitou could do not consider that. Are they looking for students with distinction in the ‘must not kill’ aspect? That cannot be it. You cannot kill people; even elementary schoolers know at least that much. The issue is not that. He sensed that the bored face the interviewer was making was telling that.

“Now then, next, Saitou-kun. Please answer.”

His turn had finally come around.

Even if he said the same thing as them that could not leave any sort of impression on the interviewer. And so, Saitou decided to state a different answer from them. Whatever happens, who cares.

“I have almost killed a person before.”

The halfhearted mood drifting among the students froze within a moment. What is this guy saying? Those surprised expressions of the students appeared in his mind.

“Oh?” The interviewer raised his voice and bent forward, intrigued. “What do you mean by that?”

“When I was in high school I belonged to our baseball club. It was a famous veteran school even within the Kantou region, and I was an ace pitcher.” He said it with a bit of pride put in casually. “I even partic.i.p.ated at Koshien.”

“Is that so? But you do not have that written on your entry sheet.”

Just as the interviewer said, ‘baseball’ was not written under hobbies or special skills.

“Even though you were an ace pitcher for a veteran school, you did not enter baseball clubs or baseball circles at university? That’s a shame.”

“I have become unable to pitch a ball.”

“Is it an injury?”

“No.”

After letting out a quiet exhale, he continued.

“When I pitched at Koshien I ended up hitting the batter in the head. He collapsed and stopped moving. He then was carried out on a stretcher and went to the hospital in an ambulance. The place he got hit was severe, and he was in a critical, comatose state.”

The batter miraculously recovered afterwards, but he could not throw a bat for the spring and summer of their third year.

“At that time I was really afraid I could have become a murderer. I was so unbearably afraid I ended up getting the yips. Since then I couldn’t find control and couldn’t throw towards people. I don’t even like to play catch.”

“I see. So you quit baseball.”

“Yes. So I’m not suited to be a murderer.” Saitou smiled in self-torment. “I don’t have the courage or the skill for it, so in the case there is someone I want to kill no matter what I think I’d just pay others and have them kill them.”

It was a cheerful att.i.tude. He did not know what kind of answer the company was looking for or what kind of students they were looking for. Even so, he did what he could. He put out his best. He had no regrets even if it gets rejected. That was what he thought.

Two weeks after that, a notification of an unofficial offer reached Saitou. He was delighted nearly jumping in joy.

Saitou at this time still did not know that the answer he brought forth at the last moment with, ‘in the case there is someone I want to kill no matter what I’d just pay others and have them kill them,’ was in fact the management philosophy of this company.

Top of First Inning

On a Friday night the shop was crowded with people. This pub where small-earning salary men and students gathered had half of the private rooms with all the seats set up as horigotatsu and isolated with grid patterned walls in every direction. Munakata and his group were lead into the pub. Next to them two company employee-like men were gulping down their drinks with a hard expression. The inside of the place was rambunctious, so he could not hear their voices, but surely they were grumbling complaints about their job. I understand the feeling, Munakata bowed his head in sympathy.

Once the drinks were brought over,

“At any rate, good work for this year.”

The eldest of them, Munakata, took the lead for a toast with a hoa.r.s.e voice. Raising the mug of his draft beer, he clanked it against each of the four gla.s.ses gathered at the middle of the table. Three were draft beers, and one was an oolong tea.

Washing down his throat half of the drink in one go with white bubbles caught around his mouth, “Aah, this is good. It’s so refreshing.” Munakata spit out an old-man like phrase. Actually, he was one. He was already forty years old, and wrinkles stood out around the corners of his eyes and mouth. If it were not for the black eye-patch covering his right eye, he would look like any ordinary middle-aged man. Regardless, for a normal middle-aged man what he wore was first-cla.s.s. From the tucked in sleeves of his high quality stripped suit a branded wrist.w.a.tch was peeking out.

“Munakata-san, there are still another two months for this year left.” The one sitting next to him, Shinohara, said as he drank his oolong tea. “Don’t you think it’s too soon to forget the year?”

Shinohara was still a newcomer. He wore the same suit as Munakata, but more than a company employee he looked like a university student who attended a coming-of-age ceremony. Presently, he was still a university student. Paired up with Munakata their age gap was separated enough to not appear to be parent and child.

“It’s fine. We’ll be getting so busy we won’t have time for a year-end party.”

“Ah, please call over the waiter. I would like motsunabe.”

“Listen.”

“Can I order gizzards?” The person sitting in front of Munakata, Reiko, had asked him this time. While pulling her loosely permed, brown hair back in the shape of a pelican’s beak with a hair clip she stared at the front of the shop’s menu. “Blue mackerel is fine too. Is it alright if I order it?”

“Don’t ask me.”

“But you’re treating, right?”

Munakata shut his mouth before he asked, why me. Among the four of them, he was the eldest and their senior. That j.a.panese tendency for elders and seniors to have to treat the ones below was quite annoying. He swiped a hand through his gelled bangs roughly.

“Munakata.” A large, half-Russian man named Ivanov who was sitting next to Reiko said to him in a murmured whisper. “I’ll pay half.”

“You’re generous.” Munakata told him keenly. His face was frightening, but his personality was kind. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. It’s my treat. Eat up.”

After saying that, he cursed himself a little. He was worried by saying ‘eat up’ that he might take everything off the menu; Ivanov was huge. But fortunately the giant that was more than two meters tall arched his back and ate small portions of appetizers. He was also wearing a suit but with no tie. He had a crew cut of light-brown hair with several scars on his face.

“Shino, why are you drinking oolong tea? Drink some beer.”

Munakata pressed since he was over twenty, but Shinohara made an apparent revolted face to his comment. “Munakata-san, that’s hara.s.sment.”

“Shut up.”

“If you’re saying that, then for Ivanov-san,” Shinohara glared at Ivanov. “Why are you drinking beer?”

“Is it wrong?”

“Normally it’s vodka, right? Since you’re Russian, drink vodka.”

“You know, that’s racist.”

“I’m not Russian. I’m from Saitama.” It was a habit for Ivanov to speak in a murmur, unfitting for his large size.

“Now then, let’s get into the main topic.” Around the point their ordered meals were being brought out, Munakata began to speak. “You know there is a mayoral election next month, right?”

“A mayoral election?” The one who asked was Shinohara. “What’s that?”

“Ah, right. Since you just got in you wouldn’t know.”

“It’s the election for the mayor of f.u.kuoka.” Reiko cut in. “There’s one every four years. Our boss was first elected eight years ago. This next one will be his third term.”

“At this time there will be a lot of occasions the boss will go out in front of the public for a.s.semblies, lectures, and speeches.”

“That seems pretty bothersome.”

“Yeah, it is. There may be guys who have a grudge against the boss and pretend to be a supporter aiming to take his life. During this time until the election ends we’ll have someone to watch over the boss. Reiko and Shino, I’d like for you two to alternate.”

“Ehh.” Shinohara frowned. “Right now I have testing going on, so I’ll be busy.”

“Like I said, Ivanov and I can’t wander around near the boss.” If a large man with scars on his face and a man with an eye-patch were near the mayor, it would look nothing but suspicious. “We are killers. We’re not bodyguards. Leave it to the guys in charge of the boss’s safety, while you guys think of killing anyone making an attack on the boss. Got it?”

“Understood.” Reiko said while putting the blue mackerel in her mouth.

Shinohara was still dissatisfied. He muttered a complaint, “My credit is important though.”

Having placed the portable stove in the center of the table, the motsunabe was simmering in it in front of the four of them. Once the flame died down a bit, the conversation continued.

“Our main job is not ensuring the safety of the boss’s well-being. It is to ensure the safety of the boss’s position. Any raising factors in the mayoral election would cause a small scandal to become fatal. Be watchful when around the boss and eliminate any obstacles. Crush any convenient bad information before it gets out.”

“Like always, you mean.” Shinohara said as he fixed his gla.s.ses.

“That’s right. So, the first thing is this guy.” Munakata took out a picture of a man and several doc.u.ments from his bag. “It’s the Hakata police office’s ground. It seems he is secretly looking into the connection between the boss and the crime syndicate.”

“How about I kill him.” Ivanov said and took them. “Can I strangle him?”

“Strangle him and have him hanged. And then there is the case with the boss’s son-”

“It has turned into quite the season for delicious hot pot, hasn’t it.” Shinohara interrupts the conversation and prepares his own motsunabe.

“Listen.”

“What do we do with this dish? For the last part.”

“It’s just miso, right?” Reiko says. It is with an att.i.tude like it could not be anything but miso.

“It’s ojiya.” Ivanov objects.

Either is fine. Munakata let out a sigh. “I guess we’ll just leave work for later and eat for now.”

Translation Notes:

1. Koshien 甲子園 - Koshien stadium is where the j.a.panese National High School Baseball Championship is held. It is located in Nishinomiya City, in Hyogo Prefecture.

2. Horigotatsu - A s.p.a.ce in the floor with a table covering it.

3. Motsunabe - Miso nabe made with offal and vegetables.

4. Ojiya - A rice gruel containing vegetables and fish and seasoned with miso or soy sauce.