Volume 3 of Yakuza Fiance starts with Yoshino planning when she'll bring Kirishima to Osaka to meet the folks. Writer/artist Asuka Konishi will circle back around to that at the end of the volume, setting up some of the trainwreck we saw unfold in volume 4, but it's what happens in between Yoshino's planning and the actual finalizing of the schedule that's more entertaining.
Starting with Yoshino getting weird vibes off Kirishima. I mean weird for him, not a regular person. He seems more distant, until the moments where his intensity makes Yoshino feel like he's ready to kill her. Turns out, he really doesn't like her mentioning Shouma, but doesn't even realize it's making him jealous until she points it out.
Which is odd because, assuming we take him at his word, he doesn't have a problem with Yoshino cheating on him (even though they aren't officially dating at this point), so as long as he gets to a) watch, and b) kill the guy after. Yowza. He offers to pretend to behave normally, but Yoshino tells him he might as well act like himself, instead of half-assing being "normal." Which does fall in line with her previous comment that she admires how unapologetically himself he is. This seems to settle something in the roiling, deep-sea hydrothermal vent that is Kirishima's mind, and he's back to doting on her.
Just in time, because Yoshino catches a summer cold (normal for her), but it gets really bad. I give Kirishima a lot of grief - because dating him seems roughly as bad an idea as dating Deadpool - but he really does work hard to look after Yoshino. Gets her cold packs, fluids, foods that are easy on the stomach. Checks in regularly via text. When he returns late that evening and she hasn't responded for hours, he at least texts that he's worried and going to pick her lock to check on her before doing it. And he apologizes for taking her to the hospital, because Yoshino hates hospitals for reasons not revealed. Though Konishi also has Yoshino make this absurd noise I think is supposed to be her saying "no" in a groggy or stuffed up state whenever Kirishima suggests it.
The remainder of the volume revolves around Kirishima (and us) meeting Yoshino's friend and cousin(?) Tsubaki. Tsubaki's grandmother was one of Renji's mistresses, with Tsubaki's mother allegedly the result of that affair. Which does not keep Tsubaki from declaring Renji a 'work of art crafted by a god,' and being extremely hot for him.
But Tsubaki might just be saying it to get a rise out of Yoshino. They get along, but Konishi definitely writes Tsubaki as someone who loves drama. If there's none happening organically, she'll stir it up, to the extent of mentioning she thought of sleeping with Kirishima if Yoshino had already done it, so they could be 'lay sisters.' Between Tsubaki saying stuff like that with a coy smile and a giggle, and Kirishima's general, everything, it's amazing Yoshino's hair doesn't go grey from trying to deal with both of them at the same time.
As it turns out, Kirishima came along on this trip specifically to speak with Tsubaki. He figured out she helped arrange the removal of Yoshino's kidney. Except it wasn't actually a kidney, though Yoshino doesn't know it. Kirishima wants some answers, basically.
When I reviewed volume 1, I commented it kind of undercut the power move by Yoshino, but I've reconsidered. Yoshino doesn't know that's what happened, and what she actually lost - 1.5 liters of blood - could have killed her. But as Tsubaki puts it to Kirishima, 'She said she would rather die than let you think she was a joke. So she risked her life. To get even.' That's pretty intense, and speaks to Yoshino's determination, as well as something Kirishima mentions in a phone conversation with Renji (that Yoshino is unaware of) in this volume. He says, rather than flee a dangerous situation, Yoshino would do her best to adapt and live normally. Of course, Kirishima mentions it as something that compromises her ability to judge risk, which is probably true.
The whole story also gives Tsubaki the opportunity to show her loyalty to Yoshino by threatening Kirishima with the prospect of never seeing Yoshino again. Though it's undercut later by her sending him a photo of Yoshino (slurping ramen while in a swimsuit) in exchange for scans of those photos of young Renji and Gaku that were mentioned in volume 2. That girl is always starting shit.
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