Koichi Takasugi was a Japanese loan shark who lived in Nagoya during the 2010s. He became a successful lender through making empty, yet violent threats, falsely claiming to be affiliated with the Nagoya-gumi. In 2012, he helped his debtor and baseball idol Tatsuo Shinada investigate the circumstances surrounding his expulsion from professional baseball fifteen years earlier, and Shinada used Daigo Dojima's reward of 20 million yen to settle his debt with Takasugi.
Biography[]
Takasugi in 1997
Koichi Takasugi was born in Nagoya, Japan, and he came from a working-class family. He became a lover of baseball at a young age, supporting the Nagoya Wyverns. In 1997, he asked for Tatsuo Shinada's autograph after he scored a surprise home run with Tokyo Gigants pitcher Yuki Sawada's fastball, and Sawada signed his baseball moments before being arrested after being falsely accused of sign-stealing and match-fixing.
Takasugi in 2012
In 2011, Takasugi moved to Sakae and started a loan business after failing in his other career paths. The jaded and sarcastic Takasugi frequently made deadpan jokes about harming his debtors if they failed to pay him back, and he also lied about having connections to the Nagoya-gumi, which, in reality, was a largely invisible criminal organization composed of average citizens. Not long after he started his loansharking business, he became reacquainted with Shinada, who became one of his debtors while struggling as an adult entertainment writer. Shinada came to owe Takasugi over a million yen, forcing Takasugi to take whatever money he earned to cover the debt repayment. When Shinada started to slow down on the repayments, Takasugi offered to get him a job at a metal working plant, where he could get a couple of his fingers cut off in order to claim worker's compensation and pay Takasugi off for good.
Takasugi threatening Shinada with an employment certificate
However, in December 2012, a masked Daigo Dojima approached Shinada and offered him 20 million yen if he could find who was responsible for Shinada's framing. Takasugi pressured Shinada to take the job, especially after giving Shinada an employment certificate that would fast-track him on his way to lose his fingers. Takasugi teamed up with Shinada and the massage parlor owner Tetsuo Uno to investigate Shinada's expulsion, meeting with Shinada's former teammate Kanji Manabe at his restaurant and witnessing Atsushi Sakai's murder before he could tell Shinada about why the Wyverns had set him up. Takasugi later rescued Shinada after he was kidnapped by the Nagoya-gumi, driving a forklift into a warehouse at the docks and chasing off the Nagoya-gumi kidnappers. Takasugi then encouraged Shinada to continue his investigation, revealing that he was the fan who asked for his autograph on the baseball he hit 15 years earlier. The next day, Shinada left town and left Daigo's 20 million yen and his baseball to Takasugi, leaving him a note telling him to get his children something nice with whatever was left over (despite Takasugi not being married). Sometime later, Takausgi gave Shinada a call while the latter was in Kabukicho and encouraged him to come back to Nagoya, as everyone missed him. An emotionally moved Shinada cried silently, confusing Takasugi, who believed that he had lost connection; however, Shinada ultimately returned to his friends in Sakae.