#melon text

The family itself

The Murakami family is still a well-known yakuza family, but I've relocated them. that said, they now live near the border of Namimori, so a full "move" isn't really necessary in the traditional sense. Their oyabun is a shrewd leader, he knows Vongola is the dominant force in the underworld, and their reluctant heir, Sawada Tsunayoshi, is right there in Namimori. What better way to secure an unshakable alliance than through friendship between the next generations?

The biggest change I made is removing the blood inheritance factor. The oyabun is not obligated to choose a blood relative as his successor. Biological sons still carry weight, sure, but the sons in this family are almost always adopted. The most sacred principle of the Murakami family isn't blood, it's the oyabun's absolute authority to choose his heir. But that choice follows a specific cultural path: he officially adopts the chosen successor, making them his "son" in the eyes of both the family and the underworld's laws.

Succession isn't something they wait to think about until the oyabun is old or dying. It's a continuous process. High-ranking members especially the oyabun himself and his wakagashira (underboss) are always on the lookout for promising young men to bring into the family and raise as future "sons."

The overall vibe of the Murakami family is that they're a found family more than a blood one. People who had nowhere else to go, who found each other. That said, for obvious reasons, it's still not the most wholesome place to be.

The oyabun

I actually came up with a name for him at some point, but I just keep calling him Oyabun because it cracks me up. He's a completely new character (not the siblings' grandfather from earlier concepts). He'll have a moderately active role, but he's objectively busy with family matters unlike the previous character, he actually shows up on page pretty often.

He's one of those jovial types. At first glance, he looks like a stern yakuza boss, but he genuinely loves throwing parties and drinking a lot. He's very much "one of the guys" to many people. Do not mistake his demeanor for stupidity, though.

The siblings have a genuinely good relationship with him not perfect, not sunshine and rainbows, but they're attached to him despite everything. He gave a lot to these lost kids.

The siblings: Ichiro, Nadeko, and Itsuki

They are brother and sister, but not by blood. All three are "children" of the current oyabun, who adopted them. Among the three, Ichiro is the direct candidate to inherit the position.

The core of their dynamic is that they found each other. Each of them was a broken child when they entered the Murakami family. Being taken in made their lives better in many ways, but also worse in others. The oyabun isn't a perfect parent, but he gave these lost kids a place to belong, and they're all attached to him despite the ups and downs.

Ichiro

Ichiro came from a deeply unstable family like financial ruin, debt collectors and parents who fought constantly and neglected him. He was aggressive even as a child because aggression was the only way he knew to survive. His family eventually lost him to the system, and he ended up in an orphanage that was, ironically, run by yakuza-connected people. The orphanage wasn't a gentle place. Ichiro was already feral by the time he arrived, and he kept fighting because that was the only language he spoke.

Now, as a teenager, Ichiro is trying to be the friendly good guy. He's not naive about it, he can be pretty snarky, and he's not going to patronize anyone. But he's working on being better. He's ready to accept the title of oyabun because he loves his siblings, he loves this place, and he wants to protect this family. Underneath it all, he's terrified of being thrown away again, of ending up with nothing.

Nadeko (Nadeshiko)

Nadeko was the daughter of one of the oyabun's close associates, a high-ranking member of the Murakami family. Her father died when she was young, and Oyabun took her in. Her mother passed away even earlier, so she doesn't remember her at all. She was largely raised as a "lady" because of her position as the girl in the family. Her entire female upbringing was handled by the "older sisters", the senior women of the Murakami family. They taught her etiquette, how to present herself, how to read a room, how to be indispensable without being a target.

Nadeko is fully aware of her limited role in the inheritance question. As much as she loves her father and her brothers, she can feel the difference in how she's treated versus how Ichiro is treated as the future boss.

Itsuki

Itsuki joined the family a bit later than the other two. His father was imprisoned for killing a man, and Itsuki ended up in the same orphanage where Ichiro had been (they overlapped briefly, though they weren't close at the time, Ichiro was in his "fight everyone" phase, and Itsuki was the quiet new kid). The stigma followed him. Everyone knew his father was a murderer. He never wanted to be like his father, but sometimes, when the bullying got too much, he fought back. And those moments scared him, he'd see flashes of anger that felt too familiar and wonder if it was in his blood. Oyabun adopting him was the first time Itsuki wasn't judged for his father's crime. In the Murakami family, being the son of a killer isn't a mark of shame, it's just another story. That acceptance means everything to him.

Itsuki's core desire is for things to stay as they are. He wants them all to keep living as one family, never losing each other. He's on the more "moral" side of things compared to Ichiro, but family comes first. He'd do terrible things to protect them and hate himself afterward.

Because they're not blood-related, the fact that they chose each other, that they found family in each other despite everything, makes their bond even stronger in my eyes. They're three kids who survived different kinds of hell and came out the other side as siblings. They don't share every detail of their pasts. The specifics of the trauma aren't always spoken aloud. But they understand without needing to ask.

Women in the Murakami family

This is a topic with a lot to unpack. The position of women in the yakuza is best described as "informally powerful but formally powerless." They're essential to the family's functioning acting as mothers, bankers, diplomats, and covert operators within the clan.

In the Murakami family specifically, there are "older sisters" senior women who take on roles involving cover operations, diplomacy, accounting, and sometimes even covert assassination. They're not swinging swords in the open, but they're absolutely dangerous.

I think that's everything? finally. this has been cooking for way too long, but I'm happy with where they've landed. if anyone actually reads all this, you're a real one. if I remember something else I'll make another post, but for now here they are.