Akira Mabuchi, also known as Lao Ma, was a Chinese-Japanese crime lord who served as second-in-command of the Yokohama Liumang triad syndicate under Tianyou Zhao. In 2019, he attempted to seize control of the triad and the rest of Yokohama with the help of the Omi Alliance, but his rebellion was suppressed.
Biography[]
Mabuchi in 2019
Akira Mabuchi, known as Lao Ma in Chinese, was born in Yokohama to a family of Chinese citizens. Despite coming from humble origins, he rose in the ranks of the Yokohama Liumang crime syndicate and graduated from a reputable college, where he learned how to speak Chinese, English, and Korean in addition to Japanese. He went on to found the Yokohama Trading Company as a means of getting revenge against his community's marginalization by the wealthier businesspeople of Chinatown, importing high-quality goods at low prices and driving several Chinatown importers out of business. Chinatown became dependent on Mabuchi's operation, and he began manufacturing counterfeit yuan which would be exchanged through private money traders, making Mabuchi increasingly wealthy and powerful. Mabuchi was able to buy out the entire Organized Crime Division of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police by funding their big events, and he was able to access each member's personal information and thus cow them into dropping any investigations against him.
Mabuchi carrying a Guan Dao
In 2019, the ambitious Mabuchi plotted to upset the Ijin Three's oligarchical control over Isezakicho by instigating a gang war between the Liumang and the Seiryu-kai. Mabuchi allied himself with the Bleach Japan grassroots anti-corruption movement and its Omi Alliance backers, hoping to follow in the footsteps of Tojo-kai officer Masumi Arakawa in betraying a city over to the Omi and rising in the alliance's ranks. Bleach Japan's former leader, Omi ally, and Tokyo governor Ryo Aoki sent Bleach Japan director Hajime Ogasawara to collude with Mabuchi to take over Yokohama, and Aoki approved Mabuchi's plan to murder soapland owner Isao Nonomiya on Seiryu-kai turf and provoke a response.
Sure enough, Nonomiya's tenant Ichiban Kasuga, who had only briefly interacted with the Seiryu Clan, investigated the death of his former employer and infiltrated the Yokohama Trading Company, whose warehouse went up in flames after a fuel truck exploded. Mabuchi's henchmen captured Kasuga and his friends and interrogated them in an underground dungeon, filming Kasuga's responses to his questions and doctoring the footage to make it appear as if Kasuga was a Seiryu Clan henchman who had attacked the Liumang. Mabuchi proceeded to publicly gun down two young Seiryu-kai yakuza to bait Seiryu Clan captain Mamoru Takabe into declaring war.
Mabuchi went into hiding as Liumang leader Tianyou Zhao braced for Takabe's response, but Kasuga was able to intercede before Takabe could assault Zhao's Qing Jin restaurant. Kasuga beat down the yakuza assailants, and Zhao proceeded to take Takabe prisoner. Kasuga attempted to persuade Zhao that Mabuchi had manufactured the war for his own gain, but Zhao refused to release Takabe until Kasuga could present solid proof of Mabuchi's treason. With the help of the Geomijul, Kasuga acquired video footage proving that Mabuchi had murdered Nonomiya at his restaurant. However, Mabuchi and Ogasawara learned of the Ijin Three's counterfeiting operation from Kasuga's friend Yu Nanba, who rejected Kasuga's alliance with the Geomijul. As Bleach Japan shut down the Geomijul's operations, Mabuchi allied with the Omi lieutenants Reiji Ishioda and Yosuke Tendo and attacked Tianyou Zhao, whom they took prisoner and tortured at Qing Jin. Kasuga and his friends stormed the restaurant, defeated Mabuchi's henchmen and the boss himself, and persuaded the Omi to retreat now that their ally's coup had been defeated. Zhao, rescued from Mabuchi's captivity, banished Mabuchi from Yokohama, warning him that Seonhee and the Geomijul would otherwise attempt to hunt him down.
Mabuchi later attempted to return to Yokohama for supposed reconciliation talks with Zhao, only to lure Zhao, Kasuga, and their friends into a trap. Kasuga defeated Mabuchi for a final time, and Mabuchi left Isezakicho for good.