The Yakuza’s Mute Bride novel Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Chapter 47

The moment the gunshot rang through the shattered remains of the car. Tadashi moved with a speed I had never imagined a human body could possess.

He pulled me against him, shielding my head with his arm, and in one violent motion he kicked the door open despite its twisted frame. The metal screeched in protest, sparks scattering, and cold air rushed in like a slap.

“Naomi, keep your eyes on me,” he whispered, breath ragged but steady. “Do not look anywhere else. Do not panic.”

But panic was already climbing up my throat like a scream trying to force its way out.

The night fractured around us like a dying star.

Gunfire sliced through the air, metal screamed under the weight of violence, and smoke curled upward like the breath of something ancient and merciless. I had never imagined the world could switch so quickly from safety to chaos, from calm to carnage, from life to a place so close to death.

And at the center of it all stood Tadashi.

He is bleeding, breathing hard and unmoving unless it was to kill.

This is the first time I saw him fight – truly fight – the world around him ceased to resemble anything human. His body was trained ruthlessly, sculpted by years of discipline, sharpened by cruelty, and forced into a shape that could survive a world without mercy.

His movements were as fluid as they were brutal, a terrifying dance carved from muscle memory and desperation.

He shielded me so completely that his silhouette became the only horizon I saw.

“Tadashi-” I whispered, my voice cracking painfully through torn vocal cords.

He did not turn this time. No, he could not. Every angle around us carried threats, shifting like wolves in the dark.

He stood with his body low, his breaths steady despite the blood running down his arm. Even in the dark, the color glistened like molten ruby – too vivid, too real.

I watched him crush a man’s wrist until bone snapped under his hand. I watched him drive another attacker to the ground with a strike so violent it silenced the man instantly. I watched him pivot and lock his elbow across someone’s throat with practiced efficiency, suffocating him within seconds.

It was monstrous and beautiful yet horrifying.

This was not a scene from a television drama. No, this was death

–

raw, unmasked, immediate.

Tadashi’s life… The life he never wanted me to see.

More men circled us, a half-moon of shadows closing in. Flames from the burning barricade flickered across their masks, making them look like demons summoned from the inferno itself. Their guns gleamed like polished nightmares.

My breath caught as one stepped forward with a knife, aiming for Tadashi’s back.

1

“Tadashi!!” My cry tore out, shredding what remained of my voice.

He moved with impossible speed, spinning with a motion so smooth it felt rehearsed, and struck the attacker with a blow so violent the man collapsed instantly, the knife clattering across the asphalt.

Another lunged, swinging a metal pipe toward Tadashi’s head. Tadashi ducked, grabbed the man’s leg, and swept him off his

12:48 Mon, Jan 12 TO G

Chapter 17

feet before delivering a crushing blow to the ribs.

The sound of bones breaking echoed through the night. I flinched, my hand flying to my mouth.

This was not the man who fed me soup with gentle patience when I could not lift a spoon, not the man whose voice softened only for me, whose hands warmed whenever they rested on my back, whose embrace sent the world into silence.

This was the man the world feared, the monster they whispered about.

This was the heir of a Yakuza empire. And he was killing for me. Bleeding for me. Damning himself further for me.

“Tadashi-sama, hold on-!!” Yukito’s voice pierced the chaos. He sounded almost frantic.

I glanced past the burning barricade and saw him trying to break through, his face twisted in panic. Ai clung to the dashboard, screaming Tadashi’s name. Ota fired shots from the window, desperate to break the wall of flame holding them

back.

But the fire was too high. The heat kept them from reaching us. They could not help.

Tadashi was alone.

And because he refused to leave me

―

he was vulnerable.

One attacker sensed it.

He rushed forward with another knife, silent, deadly, striking at Tadashi’s exposed side. Tadashi reacted, but not fast enough to avoid the blade entirely.

The steel plunged into his shoulder, deep enough to make his body jolt.

Blood spurted.

My vision blurred with horror.

“TADASHI!!” I screamed – or what pitiful remains of a scream I could force through ruined vocal cords.

My throat burned. The pain shot through my entire head, but I did not care. All I saw was the blade. All I saw was Tadashi bleeding again.

He staggered only for a heartbeat.

–

Then the monster woke.

He grabbed the assailant’s arm, twisted violently enough to tear muscle, and slammed the man to the ground with such force the pavement cracked under the impact. The attacker’s scream echoed for only a moment before Tadashi silenced him with a brutal kick.

I covered my mouth, tears streaming down my cheeks, my body trembling uncontrollably.

This was not Tadashi losing control.

No, it looks like Tadashi was in control.

This was what control looked like in the world he ruled.

My heart shattered further as I realized: He lived like this. Every day, every night with blood, death, enemies who waited in every shadow and betrayal always around the corner.

And he had tried so hard

–

–

so painfully hard — to shield me from all of this.

Chapere 47

But now I was drowing in th

Another wave of attackers advanced the gassed This pulled me this him prewing my beads his

Close your eyes Love be wheqered to your was guter dad Dold”

But I did look because could not look a

Because I finally understood the truth that broke me The world dish protected me on, was dowly dying him

“Thodabrao to chord “We are consig

And then a car engine roused.

A wild mollow sand Credded through the night

The shaming wall shoka etichetached through a sens design is not Heat rippled violently through the air as the car burst onto the street and dadded to a hot douters away from

Yukito man behind the wheel is the white wh fry and four Ota climbed out through the broken sanost, Bring at the ATraders. A stand my nam my ng down Arche

The attackers turned toward the arriving car-startled unprepurad-Gudre cregod in a new direction

Chaos split apurt

Smoke filled my kings I coughed, the pain ing through my throat. I grabbed adichik cu unable to see chadaige

“Tadashi- please 7ahigeral though my voice was nothing but ain

But he was bleeding again. His breath came heavier. The ground breath us and with rol

And still- he fought.

Because I was behind him, he refused to let anyone touch me and he would rather blod out in the street than move a sitele step away from where I was hiding

This was his world. A world where love made you a target. A world where loyalty was paid for in boost. A world where death was not a surprise-only timing

A cruel, monstrous world.

And Tadashi lived in it every day.

Alone.

Until me.

“Stay low,” he murmured. “Do not move unless I tell you?”

My hands clutched his coat, knuckles white.

They had planned this.

They had waited for the moment I would be vulnerable.

Tadashi could have run. Yes, he could have used the distraction to escape and fought his way toward Yukito. But he did not

12:48 Mon, Jan 12 G

Chapter 47

He stayed with me. He did not move from my side, even as bullets struck the metal inches from his head.

Is this what Yukito feared?

That Tadashi would choose to protect me over his own safety?

Over strategy? Over escape?

My heart cracked with a sickening mixture of love and guilt.

“Tadashi-” I whisper, but the words are blurred with shaking fingers.

He glanced back at me, and the look in his eyes was absolute. “I am okay, my love and you’re going to be okay. I will not leave you.”

Those words made my breath break in my chest.

My body trembled uncontrollably.

For the first time in my life, I saw the truth behind the mask: ‘Tadashi was not feared because he was violent. He was feared because he chose violence only to protect what he loved.’

—

And tonight he loved me enough to bleed.

Enough to fight alone.

Enough to die, if he had to.

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