Suzuki (進来, Suzuki) is the bodyguard, personal driver, and right-hand man of Ruixi Li, the temporary head of the Kakyuu Association. He is one of the primary antagonists of the Shou Wang Arc.
Characteristics[]
Appearance[]
Suzuki is a large, broad-shouldered, well-built man. He keeps his dark hair trimmed short and usually sports a serious expression. He is always seen wearing a business suit.
Personality[]
Suzuki is a serious, hard-working assistant who is devoted to his boss. As Li's subordinate, he is more than a chauffeur; his responsibilities extend to carrying out Li's orders in the inner-workings of the association, including gathering information and torturing enemies. He obeys Li unquestioningly and will even give his employer orders if it is to keep him safe. He is Li's advisor of sorts and becomes a proactive leader in the organization, particularly after the targeting of Kakyuu Group executives forces Li and the other higher-ups to go into hiding. Despite his position in the Kakyuu Association, Suzuki actually cares little about the other executives in the organization; his priorities lie first and foremost with Li.
Five years before the start of the series, Suzuki's former employer was shot and killed in front of him, and his death has had a strong effect on Suzuki. As he still carries guilt from watching his boss and mentor die, he is extremely protective of his current employer, Li, and will not allow him to perform simple routine tasks himself, especially buying cigarettes. Suzuki himself has also become a heavy smoker, and the smell of the smoke is nostalgic to him.
It can be assumed Suzuki had a relatively normal childhood, as he is shocked and horrified when he listens to Yang's tale of Feilang's hellish upbringing and is unable to compare the younger man's experiences to his own. It is also implied that he had few accomplishments of his own as a younger man, as he describes himself is a "nobody." He seems to have skill and has learned from Li, however, as he negotiates deals in the interest of the Kakyuu Assocation and has a number of subordinates who trust his orders.
Background[]
Before the start of the series, Suzuki was the bodyguard and personal driver for Li's older brother, Renyi Li. As he had been a nobody who was taken under the man's wing, Suzuki was particularly devoted to him. One time when Renyi went to buy cigarettes, a routine action, he was shot through the heart in the parking lot by a killer from an opposing organization. Suzuki could only hold his employer as he bled out. Suzuki was beaten by Renyi's other subordinates, and his punishment was supposed to be cutting off his pinky finger, an action he would have gone through without hesitation, until Li stopped him. Impressed by his older brother's opinion of Suzuki, Li offered him employment as his own personal driver on the spot, and Suzuki has felt nothing but gratitude and loyalty to Li since.
It is implied that Li and Suzuki have been with the Kakyuu Association fewer than five years, as since joining the organization, Suzuki has noted the additional stress place on Li and how much the man has aged in a short time.
Just prior to the start of the third light novel, Suzuki was ordered to torture a traitor for information and throw his body into Hakata Bay. The body was found by the police and the story has been in the papers.
Synopsis[]
Shou Wang Arc[]
Li wants to stop for cigarettes, and Suzuki has him wait in the locked, bulletproof car while he goes into the store to purchase them. As buying cigarettes always reminds him of his former employer, he is unable to relax, and his stress bothers Li. Li informs him that there is another rat in their organization and instructs him to find and execute anyone suspected of being a traitor.
Immediately after bringing Li home that day, Suzuki receives the news of Byeong-Hee Kim's murder and the massacre at Takashi Unoyama's office. When he arrives at the office, he identifies a shuriken and recognizes the work of the Submarine Ninja. Realizing that someone is targeting the higher-ups in the organization, he has all of the Kakyuu Group's executives moved into hiding and hires hitmen from Murder, Inc. to stake out the executives' vacated homes. The following morning, he and his men visit the home of the executive Kubota, where a Murder, Inc. hitman's body is found. Surveillance camera footage shows that the Submarine Ninja had come looking for Kubota and had easily overpowered the gun-wielding hitman with only his short sword. Amazed by the killer's strength and realizing that the local professionals and Murder, Inc. employees are useless against him, Suzuki begins searching for a killer skilled enough to take on the ninja. Having already made an enemy out of the Niwaka Samurai, and without anyone else in the the country able to take on the Submarine Ninja, he makes plans to search for a killer abroad. As Suzuki is openly making decisions for the organization while the executives stay out of sight, Zenji Banba begins tailing him.
At the most perfect timing, the Chinese mediator Yang reaches out to Suzuki and offers the services of his killer, Zhao. When they meet at a shot bar in Nakasu, Yang speaks to Zhao's abilities and fills Suzuki in on the training Zhao had to endure in order to become so strong. While Suzuki is bothered by Yang's stories of the boy-weapon training facility, he agrees to test Zhao's abilities and give the young killer a chance. They meet at a cafe in Tenjin, where Suzuki is underwhelmed by the young man's appearance and unsettled by the expressionless eyes behind his outgoing attitude. Though he does not recognize Zhao's photo of Xianming Lin, Suzuki agrees to find him within the organization in exchange for Zhao's help in stopping the killer working within their rival organization, the Shou Wang.
To test Zhao's abilities, Suzuki drives him to the Shou Wang's drug storage warehouse at the killer's request. As they watch a truck arrive and five men begin to unload the contents, Zhao enters the warehouse alone and dispatches three of the men, knocking the other two unconscious and loading them into the van. Suzuki worries about retaliation as he surveys the bloody scene and anxiously waits in the car as the carefree killer pilfers through the dead men's wallets.
When the Submarine Ninja arrives at the warehouse to fight Zhao, Suzuki attempts to shoot the man for revenge. Thinking the bullet hit him before he fell into the sea, they take the two Shou Wang subordinates to the Kakyuu Group headquarters before any more enemies appear. Zhao requests a cell for the men, and Suzuki has them carried into the cage in the Kakyuu Group offices that had formerly held Long Fang Wang's pet tiger. He is shocked and disturbed by Zhao's orders for the two men to fight each other to the death, and by Zhao's insane excitement, but Zhao ultimately kills one man, puts an expensive-looking ring into his mouth, and gives the survivor his colleague's head to carry back to the warehouse.
Two hours later, the Shou Wang reaches out, proposing a time and place for peace talks. Suzuki is suspicious of how well Zhao's plan has gone, but Zhao informs him that the ring was taken from another Shou Wang executive, and the organization now believes that the Kakyuu Association has an even bigger international syndicate backing them. Suzuki is pleased with the results and the fearsome reputation Zhao has cultivated, hoping that they can use him further. When he gives Zhao the information his subordinates uncovered on Lin, Zhao is displeased by the lack of intel. Yang calls at that moment with evidence that Lin may still be in Fukuoka, and Zhao asks Suzuki to grant another favor and give him as much personal information on individuals as he can.
Suzuki attends the peace talks with the Shou Wang as Li's right-hand man, where the two organizations agree to exchange hitmen and forbid the killing of the other group's members. After the meeting, Li compliments him on his work, and they express some regret over the need to kill their skilled killer. After dropping Li off at home, Suzuki meets Zhao to give him the personal information Takashi Unoyama's office had collected, and he invites Zhao to a nice dinner the following day, where Li intends to thank him personally.
At a traditional Japanese restaurant the next day, Li thanks Zhao and offers a celebratory toast. Suzuki is shocked when Zhao detects the poison in his glass, and when he dodges the glass thrown at him, Zhao gets to Li and injects him with liquid from a syringe. Suzuki holds Zhao at gunpoint as the killer explains that Li only has a week to receive the antivirus or die, and Suzuki is filled with anxiety and hatred as he unwillingly remembers losing his former boss. The bodyguard is unable to look at Li lying on a hospital bed, as the sight would remind him of Renyi, and he instructs his subordinates to stand watch. For his employer's sake, he allows himself to be ordered around by Zhao.
Suzuki drives the assassin to Hakozaki and back to the Kakyuu Group headquarters in Suzaki City with Banba and Lin in tow. He locks them in the cage and provides them with medical assistance and weapons at Zhao's command. Through combined efforts, Lin and Banba are able to gain the upper hand on Zhao through the cage bars, but despite his resentment, Suzuki cannot let Zhao die without receiving the antivirus for Li. He steps in front of Zhao to shield him from a bullet that strikes Suzuki in the heart. He orders his subordinate to remove his heavily injured enemy from the room as his lungs collapse and he bleeds out. Suzuki smiles while coughing up blood, thinking of Renyi and deciding that it is fine to die in the same way.
Gallery[]
