Page 119 of The Dragon 2
Her eyes glistened but I didn’t think it was tears. It might have been joy.
She nodded. “Tomorrow night, you may have my entire club. All levels. Staff included. I will personally assist you with making your beast kneel.”
“Thank you,” I gave her a slight bow. “And then next week, we will beginyourmemoir.”
I’d come to Tokyo chasing one story.
The underworld.
The shadows.
The unspoken truth of power and pleasure.
Specifically, the kind carved by men. Bought by men. Brutalized by men.
My pitch had been clear: “Expose Tokyo’s underground sex industry through the lens of the Yakuza—the men who built it, bought it, and burned anyone who dared look too long.”
That had been my angle.
But now, as I stared across the table at a woman like Ms. Hiroko—who could command a room without ever raising her voice, who could make billionaires kneel with a glance—I realized I’d been wrong.
There was another story pulsing beneath the one I’d come for.
One even more dangerous.
One even more necessary.
This wasn’t just about men and what they did in the dark.
This was about women.
The ones who dared to take the whip in hand.
The ones who built sanctuaries in neon-lit cities and taught gods how to fall to their knees.
This was a story of women unearthing a power the world told them to bury.
And suddenly, I knew.
This wasthebook.
Not just some exposé on gang-controlled pleasure markets. This would be about the women who ruled the empire behind the curtain. The real architects of desire. The queens of the underground.
Ms. Hiroko took a slow sip of tea and looked at me.
Damn. We’re about to make a lot of money.
We talked more about the book plans, then the date’s steps, and finished lots of tea. Once she left, all I could think about was the fact that I was really going to do this with Kenji, and it terrified me.
Can I really make him kneel? And is this fucking crazy?
Chapter twenty-two
The Dragon Above It All
Kenji
War, when done right, wasn’t a brawl. It was flight. A hunt from above. The spread of wings—hungry, slow, spiraling.
