"We can just watch anyway," he sighs. "The higher-ups don't let us participate in the Deathmatches once we join up. If I'd known that when they scouted me I wouldn't'a joined."

"But you could fight to your little heart's content! It makes me so jealous and you just waste yourself like that."

"You still get to beat people up when you're out debt-collecting," he points out.

"Well, that's work. It's different."

"You two sure love chasing them up and down the street, though. I'd be too scared."

That is a complete lie, of course. Eiji is probably what they call a "high-functioning sociopath" or something adjacent. He doesn't chase people around but he loves to dig up all of the dirt on them he can find, and he can find a lot. And when someone's debt mounts too high he finds them and sics people like Mayu and Kotarō on them so that they can rough the debtors up and implant chips in them that surveillance towers all over Shinkōmi can track. Those people are forbidden to step foot outside the city until they fully repay their debt, and if they try anyway... Eiji will find them, and the Takasato Group will kill them, end of story.

Also bombs. Eiji really, really likes bombs. Towa thinks he probably feels like he doesn't get as much opportunity to set bombs off as he'd like to.

"Less chatting, more walking, come on, you're wasting time."

"It's 'cause Towa's such a deadweight."

Yeah, no argument there.

The Deathmatch Area is a special section of town located in District A at the center of Shinkōmi. It was once ground zero for a lot of yakuza infighting, and as a result the whole district was torn apart, and residents were barred entry. Naturally, this attracted all sorts of unsavoury types, and eventually it became known as a place for fistfights, with people starting to use it as a battlefield to test their strength. Nowadays anyone who wants to fight can meet up in District A to take part in what is now referred to as a "Deathmatch".

Of course, the Takasato Group noticed this, but they choose not to interfere. It's a way for people to vent their stress, and so long as no one tries to live there or start a business, they don't get involved. In fact, as Kotarō mentioned, their employees are explicitly prohibited from doing so, even ones that were originall scouted from Deathmatches like Kotarō and Mayu themselves.

"Oh, nice and peaceful today," Mayu observes.

The place is filled with the people who show up at night for those matches, and even now it's busy and chaotic, the sounds of scuffing and jeering getting mixed with the smell of dust and copper and the multicoloured Smoke to create a shrill cacophony assaulting all senses at the same time.

"Huh? Oh, you mean the guy who was goin' around firing his gun the other day? Yeah, they strung him up good."

"Are guns banned now?"

"Not explicitly, but nothing's explicit here, is it? It's all unspoken rules. And people have been getting a bit too upset over losing and trying to get revenge, so everyone else's started to crack down on them really hard and make an example of people who try bringing weapons, so it might as well be an official rule, now."

"Hell, we tried to save the poor bastard, but then he turned the gun on us. He was just begging to get his shit fucked up, and he got what he asked for."

"Why'd you try to help?"

"Keepin' the peace's part of our job. If people start shooting each other up and killin' each other over here, it's all going to blow up in the Takasato Group's face and they'll be blamed for it." He shrugs. "Nothing we can do if the bastard's too stupid to live, though."

"Shinkōmi's balance is very delicate. We need to work hard to keep it the way it is."

Eiji sure has a way of saying things that makes him sound like a psychopath. Ironically, it makes Towa like him more.

Anyway, he's not going to fight no matter what Kotarō tries—he'd rather just lie down on the floor passively and wait for his opponent to kick his ass—so they'll probably just hang out watching the fights while the three gangsters make sure to "keep the peace".

He lights a new cigarette.

After he leaves the Deathmatch Area Towa makes his way to some random bar to get drunk, but he's not even into his second cup when his phone buzzes with a message from the group chat between him, Rei, and Taku.

Got a call about a critical patient

Come over ASAP

Well, alright. He hadn't really been planning on staying long anyway, so he just pays his tab and walks out.

Rei shows up at the clinic a couple of minutes after Towa does, and they both join Taku in waiting for the patient to arrive.