[part of it was the alcohol talking. shou was a heavy drinker, pride himself on being able to hold his head when most men pass out, but it does have a way making him sound like he was a fortune cookie. but another part was the other, coming out by shortening his words, giving his accent a sharper edge, making his Rs roll. if skyler had ever hung around street toughs Japan Town way, he would recognize it.

tongs and yakuza intermingle down there and shou's accent matched theirs in spades.]

Think about it. Most of us were normal people, living our normal boring lives and not even knowing much about anything going on. Then one day you can see something not quite normal and then someone dies for mentioning their fears to a cop. Now we're all running around, getting caught up in this mess and when we go to a place where no one asks questions to treat things that would cause us to get institutionalized in other places, there are these toughs making things worse.

You're talking school kids and housewives and working joes and college students. People that never brushed up close to this kinda place before. They're scared, they're acting out and you guys aren't fully human and aren't tuned in on the only safe place they know about.

So you're cataloged as being part of the enemy too.

[that smoke was done for. shou ground out the butt and lit up a new one, thinking and remembering something like a song just on the tip of his tongue.]

I understand the thing about territory and protecting your family, more so now than before. I understand it and hold no grudge even though a group of yours attacked the free clinic. Innocents got caught there and that was a very bad move on your part since half our group sees it as a sign of war. There is also that building going on inside your territory; no one's happy about it cuz how that group funds ways to try to kill us off. But I see no reason to go on a witch hunt when there's more pressing concerns right now.