Hiroyuki Nomura

Andrij Zip

January 2006

Hiroyuki frowned and then smiled. "That's right. I'm so busy I totally forgot. Please, have a seat." he said motioning to one of the plush leather chairs in front of his desk.

She smiled and strode across the Persian carpet to the chair and had a seat. She arched her back as she looked at her notes, a pair of spectacular breasts straining against her white blouse. Hiroyuki wet his lips as he pulled out a cigarette. Lindsay looked up from her notes.

"Oh! Allow me." she got up, and reached over his desk. Hiroyuki put the cigarette in his mouth and stared at the naked curves of Lindsay's breasts as she leaned over. She lit his cigarette and he blew out a cloud of smoke. Lindsay sat back in her seat. "I'd like to start off by saying, you speak excellent English."

"Yes. Before I went to Harvard Business school, I spoke very little. By the time I graduated I was fully fluent. Many people tell me I speak better English than most native speakers."

"Do you need English as President of the Nomura Group?"

"Yes, I do. I have several companies under my belt. Toyota, Sony, NTT to name just a few. I have to speak to our overseas managers, some of whom for one reason or another are not Japanese. Foreigners can't speak Japanese at all, so we must converse in English."

"Mr. Nomura, you're the wealthiest man on Earth and you control the world's largest and most successful privately owned company. How did you accomplish this?"

"Hard work. This is my typical daily schedule: I wake up at six-thirty, get dressed, and eat a traditional Japanese breakfast. The helicopter picks me up and flies me to my office here by eight. I eat my lunch at my desk and finish work at ten. The helicopter flies me home, where I eat dinner, have a bath and do a bit of work before going to bed at midnight. I do this Monday to Saturday."

"Don't you take holidays?"

"Only Sunday, which I spend golfing." Hiroyuki said before putting out his half smoked cigarette in a Cartier ashtray.

"That's it?"

"Yes. In your culture, people are lazy, but in Japan we work hard. Especially me! Once I retire, I'll finally be able to find the time to travel abroad. Maybe to Hawaii or Paris where I own homes, but I've never set foot in them because I'm much too busy."

"I love a hard-working man, Mr. Nomura." she breathed, just as the train lurched. Hiroyuki stumbled into the foreign lady beside him. Their eyes met.

"So-lee." he spit out.

"That's ok. These things happen." she said with a laugh.

Blushing, Hiroyuki looked away and grabbed the handle hanging from the ceiling above him. He looked around the train. In front of him, he saw a man reading the sports page of a newspaper. There was a large colour photo of Tiger Woods grinning. The crowd clapped and cheered amidst flashing cameras as Tiger held the green jacket for Hiroyuki to slip his arms through. Once Hiroyuki was wearing the jacket, Tiger leaned in and whispered into his ear.

"You're the greatest. I thought it was me, but it's you. I'm in awe." Tiger stepped back and bowed. Hiroyuki waved him off. Tiger bowed again and backed away until he disappeared into the ecstatic crowd. Hiroyuki forced back a smile and raised his fist into the air.

"There is no question that Hiroyuki Nomura of Japan is the greatest golfer in the history of the game." an announcer gushed. " He dominated this final round of the Masters with fifteen eagles, 2 birdies and a hole-in-one on the final hole. All in all, a vintage performance by Nomura."

Hiroyuki bowed to the crowd. Kate Winslet came bouncing along, wearing a ridiculous red hat.

"And here's his beautiful wife...Rose!"

The train lurched again. Hiroyuki's grip tightened on the handle he was clutching.

"What did you want to do for dinner?" the mother asked her son.

"There's a good sushi restaurant in the station. Would you like to go there?"

"I don't know if I want to eat raw fish."

"Mom, if I can eat it, you can eat it."

"I don't know about that."

Hiroyuki looked out the window and briefly glanced at two men clad in black, one tall, the other short, walking across a parking lot towards a pachinko parlour. Hiroyuki moved his rifle so that the red dot at the center of his crosshair was directly on the back of the tall man's head. Hiroyuki squeezed the trigger. The tall man's head exploded. Hiroyuki swung his rifle at the short man and fired. His shot went wide. The short man disappeared into the pachinko parlour. Hiroyuki stood up. He covered his face with a black ninja mask before leaping off of the roof. He did a summersault in the air before gently landing on the pavement of the parking lot. Hiroyuki pulled out a long samurai sword from the sheath on his back and ran into the smoky pachinko parlour. Customers looked at him in horror as he stalked the aisles of flashing pachinko machines. He finally spotted the short man in the corner by a bank of vending machines. In his left hand, the short man was holding a cell phone which he was barking instructions into. In his right hand, he held a pistol which he had trained on Hiroyuki. He fired. Hiroyuki spinned and turned, dodging the bullets as the patrons around them screamed and fled. A bullet hit his sword, shattering the end of it. Hiroyuki dropped his sword and dove into the air amidst the gunfire. He flung a throwing star at the short man. It lodged into his Adam's apple. The short man fell to his knees, clutching the bloody mess of his neck. Hiroyuki landed behind him and whipped out a second samurai sword. In one fluid slice, he chopped the short man in half at the waist. His trunk fell off as a column of blood erupted from his belt line.

"Oi!"

Hiroyuki spun around. A small army of black clad men were gathered at the entrance. They all had machine guns pointed at him. He dove into the air...

"Mamonaku, Gifu. Gifu, desu."

"This is our stop, right?" the lady asked her son.

"Yes, it is. So...what's the verdict on going for sushi?"

"Is there a Denny's or something nearby?"

"Mom, your first meal in Japan isn't going to be at Denny's."

"All right. Let's the give the sushi restaurant a try."

The train came to a halt. The doors opened and everyone aboard swamped the train platform. Hiroyuki watched as the son lugged his mother's suitcase out of the train. He walked past them, down an escalator, down a set of stairs and through the turnstile. A beautiful woman holding a sleeping baby smiled at him. A little girl ran up to Hiroyuki with her arms spread like wings.

"Papa!" She cried as she jumped into his open arms. Hiroyuki watched as the mother and son from the train strolled by him chatting. The mother turned to Hiroyuki and met his eyes. He looked away and reached for his cigarettes inside his jacket before hurrying out of the station.

Andrij Zip lives in Gifu, Japan with his wife and son.

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