Reiji Fujio (レイジ フジオ Rei-ji Fu-ji-o)

Reiji Fujio grew up in a violent household with his mother, father, and uncle. His father’s abuse toward his mother was relentless, and only his uncle’s interventions spared them the worst. Over time, Reiji came to regard his uncle as the true father he never had. At fifteen, desperate to protect others and earn his uncle’s approval, Reiji covertly joined the Tojo Clan’s Arakawa family against his uncle’s warnings. He sought not power, but a way to transcend the violence that defined him.   At fifteen, desperate to protect others the way his uncle once protected him, Reiji defied his uncle’s warnings and secretly joined the Tojo Clan’s Arakawa Family. He didn’t seek power, only purpose believing, naively, that proximity to violence might teach him how to rise above it. There he met Genda, an eighteen year old security guard with a chipped tooth and an unwavering moral compass. Genda treated Reiji like an equal, like someone worth trusting. They shared smokes behind vending machines and trained together after hours. Genda taught him how to hold his fists, and more importantly, when not to use them. Although Genda was still the better talker, Reiji the better fighter.   One night changed everything. Sent on a mission above Reiji’s clearance, the two stumbled upon a wounded figure his uncle staggering through a warehouse door, bloodied and disoriented. Ignoring orders, Reiji rushed in. Two shots rang out. Genda collapsed instantly. Reiji hit the ground seconds later. It was his uncle panicked, thinking they were assassins, reacting to the blood already on his hands. He had survived an ambush, only to mistake his family for the enemy. Guilt-stricken and fearing reprisal, his uncle fled. Reiji survived. Genda did not.
  The Arakawa Family dismissed Reiji quietly too young, too unauthorized, too close to scandal. They shaved his head in shame, never growing back due to possible stress. He was left with no title, no goodbye, and no answers. His uncle disappeared. His mother, long ill, passed soon after. A custom wig of her hair made to fit Reiji he now wears. His father remained a bitter, broken ghost in a home that no longer felt like one. In the years that followed, Reiji was homeless drifting between part-time jobs: bouncer, night clerk, dishwasher. He kept to himself, but never forgot Genda’s grin or the weight of his bullet he still has in his chest, inches from his heart a constant reminder of someone who treated him well that he never got to thank. He keeps his head bald to remind himself of the pain and suffering being the only thing that will be brought to him, and that he will ever cause for others.   At twenty, with no credentials and no criminal record only scars Reiji still believed in something better. Not redemption, but usefulness. He wanted to protect someone again, maybe just once. One cold afternoon, while sweeping outside a convenience store, a flyer fluttered to his feet.   “Hidora Security Company. No Experience Needed. Ex-Yakuza Welcome. Change Starts Here.”   He stared at it, the paper crumpling in his hand. Maybe this was it. Not salvation, but a second beginning. He clutched his chest, imagining the bullet between his flesh. Could they help find his uncle? Could he finally take control of his own life again? And maybe, just maybe, this is a place he could finally call his own.