Yasuko Saejima

Yasuko Saejima (1975-13 March 2010) was a Japanese serial killer and hostess who lived in Tokyo during the 2000s. In 2010, she murdered several officers of the Shibata-gumi yakuza family at the behest of Uenoseiwa-kai captain Isao Katsuragi, who promised the release of her brother Taiga Saejima from prison as a reward. She eventually backed down, disgusted with her actions, and obtained a ¥100 million loan from Shun Akiyama to pay off Katsuragi. However, Katsuragi went on to betray his promise to Yasuko, and the two ultimately killed each other not long after Yasuko's reunion with her escaped brother.

Biography[]

Yasuko Saejima was born in Osaka, Japan in 1975, the daughter of a low-level yakuza in the Omi Alliance. At a young age, her father left, and her mother remarried to the father of Taiga Saejima. The two siblings were taken in by distant relatives after their mother's death, only to run away after growing worried about becoming financial burdens on their adoptive family. When Yasuko came to be in need of a living-donor kidney transplant, Saejima tracked down her father, who shared Yasuko's rare blood type. Her father demanded ¥30 million for the kidney, forcing Saejima to drop out of school and join the yakuza. He ultimately provided her with the kidney after Sasai-gumi boss Hideki Sasai paid for it, saving her life and joining the Sasai-gumi.

In 1985, her brother was arrested after being convicted of 18 counts of murder for the "Ueno Seiwa hit", for which he was framed; while he had indeed shot the 18 victims, it was with rubber bullets, and Isao Katsuragi of the Uenoseiwa-kai was the true killer as part of a scheme to earn his boss Yoshiharu Ueno's gratitude (for "protecting" him from the hit) and a promotion. Yasuko tried to visit him in prison every day after he was arrested, but she was denied visitation every time.

Yasuko came to live in Chiba, where, in 2009, she was contacted by Katsuragi, who posed as a TMPD detective and claimed that he could save Taiga from prison. Katsuragi then revealed his true identity and told Yasuko that he could prove Saejima's innocence since he was at the scene of the crime, on the condition that she either gathered ¥100 million or agreed to murder. Unable to afford the payment, Yasuko chose murder, and she was sent to eliminate several Shibata-gumi officers who knew about Katsuragi's role in the Ueno Seiwa hit; this would erase TMPD deputy commissioner Seishiro Munakata's leverage over Katsuragi.

In late February 2010, Yasuko first killed Ichirō Yamamoto, the manager of the Drama Queen okama bar and a Shibata associate. On the night of 1-2 March, she also seduced and killed Hiroshi Kanemura, boss of the Shibata Family's Kanemura Enterprises branch. However, she soon grew disgusted with violence and decided to seek a ¥100 million loan from Shun Akiyama, a famously generous lender. Yasuko was shy and terse, and she claimed to have worked at Drama Queen after Akiyama noticed that she had a lighter from that bar. Akiyama agreed on the condition that Yasuko earn ¥3 million for him as a hostess at his club Elise over the course of three days. She passed the test with ease, and, while Akiyama trained her, the two developed the start of a romance and even kissed. Akiyama also defended Yasuko from Shibata-gumi thugs who were sent to kidnap her. However, Akiyama also investigated Drama Queen while doing a collection run in the Champion District, and he discovered that it was an okama bar and that its owner had been murdered. When he delivered the ¥100 million to Yasuko on the roof of the Millennium Tower, he asked why she had murdered the Shibata lieutenants, but she refused to answer the question, even when Akiyama offered to gift her the money if she told him the reason. Instead, she determined to earn back every cent, and she went into hiding and worked at the Midori Korean salon.

On 8 March, Yasuko was kidnapped from Midori by Shibata goons shortly after the detective Masayoshi Tanimura attempted to talk with her about his late father, who had died while investigating the Ueno Seiwa case. Tanimura tracked her down to the docks, where Kazuo Shibata and Hiroaki Arai held her captive. Arai killed Shibata before the latter could violate her, and Arai escaped before Tanimura could arrest him. Tanimura then took Yasuko back to the Homeland restaurant in Little Asia, where he persuaded Yasuko to help his investigation. She then revealed the reasons for the murders and said that her suitcase of ¥100 million was in a car trunk, giving the location to Tanimura and asking him to return it to Akiyama. Meanwhile, she traveled to Okinawa in an attempt to see her brother before his execution. There, she met Kazuma Kiryu and Goh Hamazaki, who told her that her brother had escaped, and offered their help with finding him. Hamazaki sacrificed himself to fight off prison guards who were after him and Taiga Saejima, and Kiryu and Yasuko continued on to Tokyo.

There, Kiryu persuaded Yasuko to stay with his associate Makoto Date at New Serena as he conducted the search for Taiga alone, fearing that Yasuko's passion might cause her danger. However, while Kiru was gone, Yasuko drugged Date and escaped, joining Akiyama and Tanimura in fleeing into the sewers. There, she was kidnapped by Katsuragi's henchmen while attempting to reach Purgatory, but, in captivity, she reunited with her brother after 25 years, and they were finally able to talk.

On 13 March, Kiryu set up a deal with Katsuragi; Kiryu would give Katsuragi an incriminating ledger tying the police to the Ueno Seiwa in exchange for Katsuragi handing over the Saejima siblings and Akiyama's ¥100 billion, which had been stolen for Katsuragi by Takeshi Kido. Katsuragi agreed, but the deal was sabotaged when Kido shot Katsuragi and handed over the ledger to Araki. Araki then shot Kido, who had been spying for Daigo Dojima, and he fled with the ledger, leaving Kido and Katsuragi to die. Katsuragi survived due to his bulletproof vest, and he proceeded to ambush Taiga Saejima with his gun, shooting him in the shoulder. Yasuko shielded her brother from a second bullet, and a dying Yasuko decided that, as her brother was not a killer, she would deal with Katsuragi. She proceeded to shoot Katsuragi in the head before collapsing, dying in her brother's arms.