Chapter 2—The Lone Samurai

"Mr. Endoh?" Our homeroom teacher called out from behind his desk. The class turned almost in unison to the guy's seat."Oh, he's not here. Has anyone seen Mr. Endoh?"

More and more attention was brought up about our missing classmate, and it riled up the class into an idle talk frenzy.

"Maybe he got sick of dissing people off all the time?"

"Yeah, he's always so quiet. He doesn't even try to talk to the rest of us."

"It could be a Japanese thing. God only knows what he's thinking though, skipping school like this."

Then, the door threw itself open. A guy with buzzcut hair and his arm in a sling stomped in. "I'm here!" He leaned against the side of the open door, catching his breath. "Phew, I made it."

"Whoa, what happened to you, Mr. Endoh?" Mr Russo said as he put down his clipboard and moved to the Endoh's side, extending his hand to help.

Endoh wiped away his sweat before shaking his head and bowing. "I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine. It was an accident, I just… fell down the stairs."

"What are you, an idiot?"

"That's enough out of you, Tafani!" Mr. Russo shot the guy a glare. "I know you have your differences but keep your comments to yourself." His eyes swept across the room. "That applies to the rest of you as well." After torturing us with his scowl for a whole minute Mr. Russo turned back to Endoh. "You can go sit down. Just holler if you any help, alright?"

"I'm late, aren't I?" Endoh pulled himself off the wall.

"No, you're not. Don't worry about it."

"I should be." Endoh said, before making his way to his seat.

Beyond that, nothing eventful happened, and the morning went by in the blink of an eye. There were a number of times when my eyes drifted to the side, past the window and out into the streets. The same question kept popping up in the back of my head:

What's the point of studying when I'm already don?

Of course, a part of me already knew the answer. It was because of something Kiera liked to call 'Noblesse Oblige.'

Mafiosi, for all their ruthlessness and secrecy, were not savages. As a price to all the power they hoard, they held certain responsibilities, be it through ensuring stability or offering opportunities to those who were bold enough to demand it. Even after all the black money were laundered it behooved them to give back to society in some way, shape or form.

So as Kiera explained, I had to complete my studies in order to achieve the necessary status to do all of that. The higher, the better. With that mental reminder I turned back to class.

"The Divine Comedy is a three-part epic poetry by Dante Alighieri," Endoh said, standing. His desk was right in front of mine so I couldn't see his face or anything. All I could do was listen to the sound of his booming voice. "It tells of his vision of the afterlife, helped established the Tuscan language as a standardized Italian language, and is considered one of the greatest works in world literature.

"Each cantica consists of thirty-three cantos; an additional opening cantos serves as introduction. With the first two cantos serving as prologue to the canticas themselves, Inferno opens with Dante midway in the journey of life itself, lost in the dark woods on the night of Maundy Thursday. When he tried to climb up a small mountain he found himself blocked by three beasts of sin: a leopard, a lion and a she-wolf."

Oh god, he's losing me already.

"And can you tell us what sins each of them represent?" Mr. Russo said.

"The leopard represents fraud and malice; the lion, violence and bestiality; the she-wolf, incontinence."

"Well done, Endoh. Your initiative is especially refreshing."

Suddenly, as if to free us from actually taking in that dry chunk of information, the bell rang. A collective sigh of relief spilled out as ricreazione drew close.

"Before I go, a reminder," Mr. Russo said. "As of today you're all to read the entirety of The Divine Comedy. It will be the main focus for my class for the coming weeks."

As per our usual routine, Kiera moved her chair to my table. "Here you go, Amato." Kiera handed me my lunchbox. "I hope this is to your liking."

The box contained an assortment of bruttiboni and apple slices. The sweet, buttery biscuits melted in my mouth while the green apple's sharp, tangy taste perked me right up. "Ooh, these are great."

"I'm glad to hear that," Kiera said, nibbling away at her canoli.

Tossing another bruttiboni into my mouth, I noticed Endoh had disappeared. He must have left when ricreazione started. The rest of the class were enjoying their snacks or simply talking to one another, oblivious to the fact. His injury barely incited any reaction from the class at all, when we should have been more concerned.

"When did we start pushing him away?" I muttered.

"Hm?" Kiera turned to the empty desk. "Ah. I suppose Endoh's outspoken attitude combined with a strong moral compass earned him the ire of many of our classmates. They rallied the onlookers against him and there had been a rift between us ever since."

"Well, maybe it's time for that to change."

After exchanging a few glances between Kiera and the desk I got up from my seat and made my way towards the door.

We found Endoh outside the school building, by the vending machine. He was staring out into the canals with a furrowed brow. The sling fastened around his arm had been loosened, and he was moving the arm ever slightly amid pained grunts.

"Ciao Endoh, you okay there?"

Endoh bit down on his lip before giving out a sigh. "I'm fine, D'Luciano." His eyes shifted towards Kiera. "What do you people want? You here to make fun of me?"

"No, of course not." I raised both hands. "We just want to help."

"Oh? And how exactly do you propose to do that?"

I pointed to his injured arm. "Maybe we could start by talking about that? You didn't seriously think anyone would believe you when you said you fell, right?"

"No, I simply thought that no one would care," Endoh said, his eyes fell to the ground.

"I admit, the class's behavior has been disgraceful," Kiera said. "But you're one of us, Endoh. You're a part of 2-C, and that's a fact. It breaks our heart to see you hurt."

Shaking his head, he touched the cast. "Talking about it won't make this go away."

"Yeah… but it might make you feel better. You know, cause it always hurts a lot more when you go through it alone?"

The phrase brought back memories. I couldn't help but turn towards Kiera. Despite the wondering eyes, she nodded with her usual smile.

Now it's my turn to do the same for Endoh.

"You see, when Dad… died it was so painful. I kept crying my eyes out, and I didn't even know why. It wasn't until someone came to me and showered me with warmth did I realize… that I just needed someone to be there for me. Someone to listen and share my pain with. Someone to stay with me and help me power through."

"Wow. That must have taken a lot of guts." Endoh turned to me, wide-eyed and smiling. "I suppose it takes certain kind of courage to tell the truth, huh?"

"So does this mean…?"

"Yeah, I'll talk. But first, let me thank you for your story." Endoh bowed. "You're right, I didn't fall and break my arm." Endoh grit his teeth. "The place I was working at got raided by mafia thugs. This guy in a pinstriped suit smashed my arm against the counter."

The word caught us by surprise, so much so that Kiera and I exchanged wary looks. "M-mafia? That's insane. Where and when did this happen? And why? Did anybody else got hurt?"

"It was a bar up in San Polo, near Rialto bridge. It was just past midnight, near closing." Endoh hung his head again. "Lia got hurt. A few of the customers as well. Worst of all, those bastards were shouting, cheering and laughing as they shot up the place." Endoh started moving his arms. "The attack was nothing more than some twisted form of entertainment—ack!" Endoh recoiled, clutching down on his injured arm. He must have moved it without realizing.

I can't say I blame him. I could almost imagine the gunshots, the smell of gunpowder lingering in the air, seeping out into the atmosphere of the bar itself. They would kick on the chairs and topple tables, firing off another round when someone protested. Maybe even into an arm or a leg.

I clenched my fists, chafing from the cruel reality. The entire district of San Polo was under our jurisdiction. How could we let this happen?

Endoh called them mafia, but that meant they were men of honor, and there were none of that in his report. No, they were more demons than anything.

Suddenly, a gentle touch curbed my trembling. "Calm down, Amato. There's no need to be afraid."

"I'm not afraid, I'm—!"

I turned and saw Kiera's disapproving gaze. She then leaned close and whispered, "steel your heart, I'm afraid I have some more bad news. Joshua's platoon were the ones patrolling San Polo last night. These might be the same hoodlums who ambushed him."

"What!" I nearly jumped before clasping down on my mouth. Even Endoh got startled. "I mean, this Lia… what happened to her? Is she okay?"

Endoh hesitated for a few seconds. "I… I don't know." He pulled up his phone. "I still can't get a hold of her."

Then, as if whatever possessed him vanished, Endoh turned away with a sigh, staring out into the waters looking all crestfallen. He was no longer angry, just despondent.

"God, she must seriously hate me right now. Not only did I failed to stop them from harassing her last night, but I got overpowered and broke my arm in the resulting scuffle." Endoh hid his face, burying it with his hand. "The last thing I remember was seeing Lia being dragged away before they stomped my face into the ground."

I clicked my tongue. "Forcing themselves onto a lady like that, they really are scum of the earth."

"I'm glad we agree," Endoh said. "When I woke up I was in the hospital, and it was already morning. I had no way of checking on the aftermath of what happened. After a lot of begging, I was finally allowed to checkout. Of course, the first thing I did was head for the bar."

"What were the doctors thinking?" Kiera shook her head. "You need rest!"

"What I need is make sure Lia is okay!"—Endoh staggered to one side before he widened his stance to regain balance—"And apologize for what happened."

"Apologize?" I tilted my head slightly. "Why? You did all you could, Endoh. It's over, and you were lucky to come out of that horrible incident alive."

"I know. The smarter thing to do would be to move on but… I just can't."

Endoh's tenacity took me by surprise, as if it came way out of left field. We were talking about armed criminals after all. Did my pep talk egged him in the wrong direction? "You're just one man, Endoh. What are you going to do?"

"I'll find some way to back at them," Endoh said. "Anything to stave off this… helplessness." Endoh grimaced at the sight of his hand shaking before brushing it off. "In any case, I'd like to thank you again for the talk, D'Luciano. De Luca." With a smile, Endoh gave us a bow before he turned around. "It really did make me feel better," he said, waving as he headed back into the school.

Kiera and I were left utterly distraught as Endoh left. Was this the start of Endoh's one-man crusade against those mafiosi invaders, or would Endoh's body be found floating down the canals sometime in the future?

"What do you think, Kiera?"

With furrowed brows, she closed her eyes and shook her head

"Yeah, I thought so."