Mutagawa Group

The **Mutagawa Group** (牟田川組, *Mutagawa-gumi*) is a small yakuza organization based in Fukuoka. With the help of Yamazaki Transportation, they have a hold in the drug and weapons trade in Eastern Asia, smuggling products into the country for their clients in Japan. They are looking to expand their business into human trafficking and begin exporting.

## Members

* Sanjou
* Hiroshi Ishihara
* Yuuta Kase
* Carlos

## Background

Prior to the start of the story, the Mutagawa Group recognized a market for Japanese children overseas. They made arrangements with a client in Korea and agreed to traffic five children to test the route. Sanjou, an executive in the group, threatened someone working in an orphanage who purchased drugs from the organization, and from them, they were able to obtain four children. To get the fifth child, Hiroshi Ishihara's son helped his father abduct Rena Aikawa.

## Synopsis

### Avengers Arc

Sanjou meets with Kunio Yamazaki, his business partner and president of the transportation company, who requests that Sanjou and his subordinates look into the disappearance of his grandson Shota Yamazaki and find the person who killed him. When Sanjou discovers and watches the video of Shota's murder online, his subordinate Kase suggests the idea that an avenger was behind the killing.

After contacting the avenger, Jiro Tanaka, they pretend to be a client and request a meeting at the Mutagawa Group's Nakasu bar Smokin' Hot. They quickly reveal their true intentions when they shoot Jiro in the arm, but their interrogation is interrupted when Méqué wanders into the bar, targeting the group due to their connection to the drug trade. Confronted by Carlos, Méqué quickly kills the hitman and takes out the rest of the Mutagawa subordinates inside, hanging their bodies upside once finished. Jiro escape during the chaos, and by hiding, only Ishihara survives the slaughter inside the bar, and he is shaken when he tells Sanjou and the others what he has witnessed.

The following day, Ishihara learns he has to replace a child who has died from an allergic reaction to food he was given, and he and Kase go to Fukuoka's Houjouya festival, where they each abduct a child. While leaving, they pick up Misaki Tanaka off the street as well, bringing the total number of kidnapped children to seven. With six of his men dead and no more available to help with the secret operation, Sanjou reaches out to a hitman mediator and hires Shunsuke Saruwatari to replace Carlos and protect his men while transporting the children.

Jiro finds Misaki's bag and cell phone on the group where she was kidnapped, and Enokida provides them with the address of the Mutagawa's Group's warehouse. In the warehouse, six of the frightened children locked in large dog cages are loaded onto a truck. Misaki, desperate not to be put on truck, eavesdrops on the yakuza members' conversation and uses her knowledge of their group and activities to unnerve them. Annoyed and desperate for whatever knowledge she possesses, Ishihara brings her to his home.

Jiro, Zenji Banba, and Xianming Lin confront the truck as it pulls away from the warehouse. Saruwatari allows Banba enough time to call Hironobu Shigematsu before they begin fighting, while Jiro shoots Kase in the leg and orders him to open the truck. Lin recognizes Rena, the missing girl he has been searching for, and the children are soon after rescued by the police. The Mutagawa Group is forced to pay off the police in order to have the entire string of kidnappings pinned on Kase and their organization's name kept out of the news. Additionally, they lose trust with both their client in Korea and their business partner Kunio Yamazaki.

In order to attempt to make up for the lost trust, Sanjou suggest to Kunio that he abduct the avenger's daughter to give to Shota's mother, Mieko Yamazaki. Kunio agrees to the idea, and Sanjou and a hostess he knows pose as prospective adoptive parents and meet with Jiro. Jiro selects them as Misaki's foster parents and has Lin bring her to them. Upon meeting Sanjou and Mieko, however, Misaki immediately realizes Mieko is an impostor. When Mieko asks for Jiro's phone number, Misaki gives her Méqué's number instead, asking Méqué for help. For his friend, Méqué is willing to kill Mieko and all of the yakuza subordinates, killing Sanjou as he tries to escape.

### Cartel Arc

Following the deaths of the executive Sanjou and his subordinates, the Mutagawa Group continues dealing drugs and weapons in Japan at a much weaker capacity. José Martínez later breaks into their warehouse to steal a gun, needing a weapon in order to stop a drug deal.