"You have no right to expel me! This should be Inuyama Family territory, and all of this is Inuyama Family business. I am A-Ga of the Inuyama Family, and you have no qualification to expel a man of the Inuyama Family!"
The eighteen-year-old boy shouted stubbornly amidst sticks and insults. He was knocked down into the mud, the sleeves of his kimono torn into shreds, and rotting, foul-smelling fish were hurled at his body. The sharp, mocking taunts pierced his self-esteem like razor-sharp knives.
The mob's beating was interrupted by a loud blast of a ship's horn. Even in Tokyo Bay, the largest port in Japan, such a deafening horn was rare—it sounded like the personal battle horn of an emperor taking the field in person, carrying an overwhelming majesty.
Chapter 266