Long ago the four major crime families of the Yakuza crime syndicate lived in a fragile peace. It was a peace forced out of years of bloody conflict, that left men and women on all sides dead. A peace that was out of survival more than chivalry.

However this peace was shattered by a disease that was simply called "The Flame". It killed almost all that it affected, with only childbearing-aged women being susceptible to its ravages. They would be healthy in the morning, engulfed in a high fever by the afternoon, and dead before dark. Thousands of women were killed before a cure was found, leaving behind countless widowers and motherless children.

Two of these such families, were the most powerful of crime families.

The Watari family was the largest of the families, and were known for their overwhelming influence in politics and banking. They were as wealthy as they were brutal. Their leader, Hakoda lost his wife Kya in The Flame, leaving him with two children to raise with the help of his mother, the family matriarch Kanna. The children, a boy and a girl, were versed in the same lifestyle as their father.

The daughter, Katara was a waterbender, and worked as a healer, helping the wounded men of the war between the families. However her dark side had become lore among the underworld. Rumor had it that she was a bloodbender, and that she was not to be taken lightly.

Sokka, the son, was the main enforcer for the family. He was heavily covered in tattoos like his father, the tip of his both of his pinkies cut off from punishments that he'd received. He was known for being brutal, and was rumored to have killed a man for simply stepping on his foot in an elevator.

Hakoda had mourned the loss of his wife, for both him and his children. He felt that Kya was his only tether to what was good in life and in him. She was his saving grace. But he hadn't let it affect other parts of his life. Hadn't let it affect the peace.

However the Kasai family, and it's head Ozai, did more than enough of that for everyone. He mourned the loss of his wife Ursa with the fury and rage that his entire influence could muster. The family, while smaller, was powerful and could trace their linage back to the days of the Samurai. Meaning that their power could really influence the balance of peace.

Ozai was left with his own children, a boy and girl the same ages as Hakoda's children. He had had another child that had died along with its mother in the womb. Like the Watari family, the children were brought up in a mix of violence and honor that infiltrated their lives.

The daughter, Azula, was a skilled marksman and fighter by her teenage years, and was the main muscle for her family, and had old fashioned tattoos adorning her body. She boasted more kills to her name than even her father.

The son, Zuko, was a fighter and warrior in his own way. The left side of his face was covered in a deep tissue scar that he'd gotten from his father as a means of punishment for a transgression. He was better at the managing end than his sister, and ran the family's lucrative pornography and prostitution rings. He also had cultivated deep relationships with members of the police force, the NPA. The NPA helped the Kasai family with their endeavors, and made them nearly invisible to law enforcement.

Ozai was behind the escalation of violence after The Flame. Grief mixed with pain and a longing for something, and there was much bloodshed as a result.

No one was immune to the actions of the warring families. Even though it started between the Kasai and Watari families, the others were affected as well.

The Khiéu family was from China, and had long held majority sway over the large country. They had expanded their workings to Japan in recent years, and were already making a mark. Their focus was in drugs, and their massive success in China bankrolled their start up in the new country.

The last, and smallest family were the Aihara's. Instead of dealing in flesh or goods or politicians like the other families did, the Aihara dealt in death. They were a group of highly trained assassins, and for the right price would kill anyone. Anyone the client asked for would be eliminated, from a dead-beat father to a Prime Minister, anyone was fair game, and everyone was dead. There was one rule; no killing between families. They set this rule to maintain order, to maintain a status quo.

However two decades after The Flame, and two decades of killing and deaths on all sides, the Aihara took the violence to a climax, and beheaded Ozai Kasai. Bringing the conflict, and the entire underworld to a stand still.

A meeting was called by the children of the slain man, the new heads of the powerful family that he so brutally ran. A meeting that would change the lives of everyone; not only in the families, but those of anyone even slightly connected to this world.