Kiryu Kazuma was born as an only child in a small town in the Hokkaido region of Japan. At some point in his early childhood his birth parents ended up moving to the big city of Kamurocho. It was there, where tragedy would strike. His parents would die in a house fire that would later be ruled as an unsolved arson. Kiryu was not home that day so he would survive, but he would become an orphan nonetheless.

After the loss of his parents, Kiryu was sent to an orphanage as there was no next of kin available to take him in. In a very short span of time The Sunshine Orphanage became Kiryu's new home. It was a small orphanage that surprisingly had a low adoption rate. That may have had something to do with the person who ran the orphanage. Kazama Shintaro, who also sometimes went by the name Fuma Shintaro, was the head of The Sunshine Orphanage. While on the outside he seemed like a docile and calm old man, those who lived in Kamurocho knew that the old man owning the Sunshine Orphanage was more than met the eye.

In the underworld, Kazama Shintaro was known by the moniker of The Peacekeeper of Dojima. To be associated with The Dojima family one had to be apart of the underworld. Shintaro was a full fledged Yakuza and not only had ties to The Dojima Family, but was the right hand to Dojima himself which made him the lieutenant of the Dojima Family.

When he wasn't around helping to run the Dojima family or taking care of his own business, he was around the orphanage. He always took a special interest in Kiryu ever since he had first met him. There were even rumors that he pulled strings in order to get Kiryu into the orphanage that he ran specifically. Add to that the suspicions that he was around more ever since Kiryu arrived, and people found those rumors to be very believable.
 

For Kiryu, the attention helped him to get used to his new surroundings and helped him to deal with how fast things had changed for him. He was saddened by the loss of his parents for awhile, but what he gained in place kept him away from focusing on the negative things for too long. He quickly made friends with a few of the kids at the orphanage. He became close friends with a young boy named Akira Nishkiyama who was called Nishki for short, he also made friends with Nishki's sister Yuko, and her friend Yumi.

The four of them grew up close together with the two girls becoming best friends and the two guys doing the same, and due to Shintaro's interest in Kiryu all 4 of them grew up under his personal care and close watch. For many years while he was growing up, Shintaro's influence could subtly be seen in Kiryu. When he was younger he was much more short tempered. For much of his youth his serious face and often never smiling face would give him the look of a delinquent or a trouble maker. Him being a mostly quiet kid and keeping to himself would not help this much.

He was constantly being hindered and provoked by the other troublemakers and actual delinquents. The reason being they would want to fight him because they saw him as a target, or an obstacle to overcome, to prove who was tougher. During his younger years, Kiryu would always react to these provocations with violence, responding to and fighting each and every one. This continued for awhile until Shintaro got involved. One day after feeling that enough was enough, he took Kiryu and Nishki to a martial arts instructor. On the surface, it would look like Shintaro was teaching Kiryu and Nishki how to fight and defend themselves. For Nishki learning to fight was all he cared about, but Kiryu realized that there was something else to what Shintaro was doing.

The Sensei, that Shintaro had brought them to, was a master at martial arts. But the thing that he always stressed the most was discipline. Kiryu quickly picked up on that fact and used this more in his day to day encounters. Nishki would use what he learned to try and become one of those troublemakers, until Kiryu would knock some sense into him and incidentally take the spot as the toughest of their age much to both close friends dissatisfaction.

Kiryu would stick with the Sensei, being trained personally, and master all of his advanced techniques. He would also learn how to better control his temper. This would come in handy once he and Nishki were in high school, as even though he was provoked much more, he rarely ever fought those who did it. After a time of being unsuccessful, most of the young delinquents gave up on trying to get Kiryu to fight. However, there were other problems.

Due to Shintaro keeping a close watch on the children, he noticed quickly when both Kiryu and Nishki's grades began to slip and then tank completely, in their academic subjects. Yumi and Yuko faced no such troubles but then again they had always been exemplary in their studies. Shintaro also knew that the decline in academic performance from the boys wasn't due to inability, but was due to disinterest. And he had a bad feeling that he knew why.

Shintaro never hid what he was to anybody, though he didn't go around broadcasting his Yakuza status. Regardless of that if one paid enough attention to him, you would be able to tell that he wasn't just your ordinary businessman. The girls were the first to realize as much and Kiryu wasn't too far behind them. They had all made the silent observation. Nishki however had made sure to tell everyone around him just what his pseudo foster father was. Though he wasn't surprised, he was disappointed. Just as he was disappointed when he had asked the boys about their failing grades in school, and received the responses he did.

"School's pointless anyway! I wanna be a Yakuza just like you." Nishki declared proudly.

Shintaro had to stop himself from dropping his face into his palm. He knew this was coming from the day Nishki started to pick fights for no good reason other than because he could. The way Nishki looked at him wasn't in a fatherly way, at least not all the time. Most of the time he had this look of admiration when he looked at him. And now Shintaro finally had to admit to himself that he knew why. Nishki was enamored with the life he believed Shintaro led.He looked to Kiryu and was slightly pleased to see that at least Kiryu looked a bit ashamed at both himself and Nishki's declaration. Kiryu always did assume the role of older brother toward Nishki so, he would usually take responsibility for Nishki's actions as well.

He studied the look on Kiryu's face before raising his eyebrow and asking "Kazuma, is that how you feel as well?"

Kiryu Kazuma's eyes could not meet those of his foster father's. He knew the answer that he wanted to give would disappoint the man. He had never controlled them growing up. Never tried to make big decisions for them. He believed that every man must find his own path on his own. But with the morals he instilled in him, Kiryu knew that he shouldn't and couldn't lie to the man.
With that in mind, he answered "Yeah. I wanna help you out in your business."

Shintaro looked at Kiryu again for a minute. Kiryu could feel those scrutinizing eyes burning a hole through him trying to see down to his very soul. He was going to interrogate them like he did his men when they failed to do something they were ordered. He could feel Nishki shifting from where he was sitting even though Shintaro's gaze was not directed at him. He couldn't decide if it was because he understood the seriousness of the conversation they were about to have, or if he was getting annoyed because he was feeling ignored, but was just smart enough to know that having Shintaro's attention wasn't a good thing right now.

After a minute Shintaro asked "Oh? You wanna help out in my business huh? What am I supposed to do with one who's greed and hunger for status shines through him like a spot light, and another who can't declare his intentions while looking me in the eyes."

The way he said it was harsh but it was needed to get the point across. Kiryu looked Shintaro in the eyes for the first time during the conversation. Nishki was just barely holding back his anger at the insult thrown his way. Only thing holding him back was his fear of letting his mouth mess up this opportunity. At least he was aware enough to realize that, that was a possible outcome here.

Shintaro sighed. "Look, you two could be anything in the world that you wanna be. Yumi, Yuko, all of you, I always tried to give you every opportunity to be whatever you wanted to be. Yet you come and tell me you want to be Yakuza." He turned to look at Nishki. "Nishki, you wanna be Yakuza because you see the money, you see the status and perks. But to be Yakuza means to be a criminal. To be a criminal means to walk with death always close by, it only takes one bad moment. Be a little late, be a too slow, and that's it for you. You'll never get a break, and you must live life constantly looking over your shoulder. Money and fame won't just fall in your lap, you'll have to earn it. You'll spend years doing menial tasks and even then nothing is promised. It's not just fun and games and living a lavish life. And it's not something you just walk away from either."

He then looked to Kiryu. "And Kazuma, you've always tried to be honorable and do everything with honor. There are Yakuza who respect that and live by that. But there are a lot of Yakuza who are not honorable. The deeper in you get and the higher you rise the more you begin to see and realize this. But by then it will be too late. I know you look at Nishki as a brother, and I know you wish to support Nishki and myself, but I've always taught you that you had to become your own man and follow your own path. This has never been more important than right now."

Shintaro took a minute and then continued "I want the two of you to think over what you're saying and what you wish to do. Decisions about your life and future, are not something you rush in to or make rashly. Both of you, I implore you to think over everything that was said here tonight. And forget about becoming Yakuza. This life would eat the both of you alive." With that Shintaro raised out his seat and took a few steps heading to his room.

He was stopped when he heard someone stand up quickly behind him. He turned his head expecting to see Nishki finally lose his temper. He almost did a double take when he saw that it was Kiryu who had shot up out of his seat. Shintaro turned around completely to face him keeping the shock he felt from his face through force of habit.

Kiryu stared his foster father square in the eye and said "I have already thought it over, many times in fact. I'm not doing this for Nishki, and I'm not doing it because I feel like I have to do it for you. I've been preparing and thinking about this since the day I found out what it was that you do. I've been thinking about this long before the day Nishki blurted it out to everyone. From the day I found out I decided that my path was to help you and to carry on your will. And I don't want to be a Yakuza..... I am Yakuza!" Kiryu said with as much force and conviction as he possibly could.

Shintaro had never seen Kiryu talk to him with a raised voice. He had also never seen so much conviction in Kiryu's eyes. There was a fire there that even he had to admit was impressive to see in someone so young. It took him a moment to realize that his eyes had widened at Kiryu's statement. After another second of collecting himself he closed his eyes and chuckled to himself. There was a small smirk on his face.

"So I see, then you have already resolved to do this no matter what I say?" Shintaro asked, the smirk never leaving his face though his face showed amusement, you could see the pride in his eyes. Kiryu gave a stiff nod to the question asked of him.

Shintaro then looked over to Nishki and his smirk grew a bit at the shock all over Nishki's face. Kiryu had learned how to keep his emotions hidden but Nishki was a lost cause when it came to doing that. If this moment wasn't serious he would take a picture of the bewildered look on Nishki's face, but as it stood he had to finish this up. "I take it you feel the same way too then, huh Nishki?" Shintaro asked unable to hide the humor in his voice.

Nishki was almost floored by Kiryu's display and to see it actually humor the old man was almost too much for him to handle. It almost made him completely forget what his goal of this conversation was completely. Kiryu hadn't shown such emotion since they had last fought when they were kids. And Shintaro hadn't genuinely laughed in quite some time even if it was just a small one. Realizing he had been asked a question he had to force his observations of all this strangeness from his mind
"Ahhh, uhh, yeah. No matter what you say old man, Kiryu and I will join you one way or another." Nishki said as he stood up to stand beside Kiryu. Inside he was a bit upset that his delivery wasn't as strong or as convincing as Kiryu's. If he was honest he felt a little jealous that he had been upstaged by the show of emotion from his best friend. But in the end it didn't matter as long as he got what he wanted in the end.

Shintaro gave each of them a look before he got serious again. All traces of amusement had been wiped from his face as he gave them both a serious look.

"Alright then. I needed to see your resolve if you planned on being Yakuza. Kazuma you seem to have it in excess, and Nishki you have enough confidence to carry you through. As men there will be times where you must be able to question and be questioned, but you must not back down. However, if the two of you want to be Yakuza you will work for it. You will start off working for me directly, Kazama Shintaro, lieutenant of the Dojima Family. You will be held to even higher standards and expectations than those around you." Shintaro said with the most authoritative voice they had ever heard.

This was no longer a foster father talking to his children, there was no more familiarity between these two young men and the older man in the room. It was simply a boss talking to his subordinates. He then gave them a look that was close to but not quite a glare.

"Also know this, failure will not be acceptable from either of you, in anything that you do from now on. Am I understood?" Shintaro asked

Shintaro was again slightly surprised when neither one of them flinched at the seriousness of this condition.

They didn't even blink as they immediately responded  "Understood!" in exact unison with each other.

Shintaro nodded as he and Kiryu exchanged looks one more time before Shintaro turned around and headed to his room without being stopped this time. There was a hint of sadness in his eyes Kiryu noticed. It wasn't sadness at them, but for them instead. It didn't take Kiryu long to know that the older man never wanted this for them. And the sadness was due to knowing that their innocence would be lost from this night on. Kiryu looked at Nishki before heading off to his room as well, the look on his face showing the he too understood full well that things were about to change and that nothing would ever be the same from this moment on. But for better or worse there was no going back, this was his decision and this was his path, and he would not stray from it because that was his way.