Ryūji Yamazaki

In the bustling city of Chicago, a young couple found themselves expecting a child.

Katashi Yamazaki and Evelyn Ishida were not ready to be parents. But faced with pressure from both their families and peers, they decided to keep the child and married shortly after.

A few months later, Ryūji was born.

Both parents remained dedicated to their jobs- so much so that they spent little time with him. While they attempted to be supportive of their son, they never got particularly close. Homelife was lonely, and Ryūji came to resent that as years went by. Even now, he bitterly remembers their absence.

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He struggled to connect with… anyone, really. Not that he was difficult to talk to. It was just that they didn’t want to. And he quickly came to understand why. The words he’d hear as they shuffled away from him, “foreign, alien, inferior”. Even though he was born here, he was treated like an outsider.

Ryūji faced the brunt of it at school.

His schoolmates were relentless. They'd often imitate his accent in mockery. Whenever he let slip and spoke Japanese, he was met with disgust. Slurs and insults constantly thrown his way. A terrifying kaleidoscope of whispers and stares accompanied by vast loneliness. And then the torment turned physical. Shoves and trips that left bruises. They would snatch and rip his belongings out of his hands, tear up his papers and books. Sneers and taunts that always told him, “You don’t belong here.”

The teachers would turn a blind eye to it, or offer the ever-helpful advice of “Try asking them to stop.” His parents weren’t of much help either. He quickly realised his tears and pleas did little. So he learned to internalise his pain and feelings, allowing the torment to continue without complaint.

Then he met Amanda Young.

It was a lonely recess when she decided to sit next to him and introduce herself. Ryūji was rattled at first, but she kept gently pushing on- asking about the book he was reading, then segueing into interests and hobbies. There was no malice in her words, only a genuine interest in what he was talking about. Eventually, recess came to an end; they parted on amicable terms but met again tomorrow. And again, and again. Amanda didn’t just tolerate him, she actually enjoyed his company. Naturally, a friendship between them bloomed.

Even when the whispers and stares would turn to her, she continued to hang out with him. He remembers asking why- his young mind couldn’t quite understand. She simply laughed in response and said she wasn’t popular to begin with. She was too loud, too crude, too tomboyish for the other kids’ tastes. But Ryūji never understood that. With the warmest smile and hand outstretched, her presence always made his days brighter. She helped him in classes he struggled with, stood up against the other kids targeting them, and filled up the lonely afterschool void. She also encouraged him to embrace his roots- his ethnicity and culture that others would snivel at in disgust. Slowly but surely, Ryūji came out of his shell.

Even though it felt like the whole world was against them, they stuck by each other’s side, through and through.

Eventually, those feelings developed into much more. Ryūji couldn’t quite understand at first. Slowly, the epiphany dawned on him and came closer to figuring out what it was. This was love, wasn’t it? For a while, he agonised over what he should do. He feared ruining his friendship with Amanda, yet those feelings refused to fade. In senior year, he finally mustered up the courage to confess to her.

Well, Amanda confessed first. Said that she felt this way for a long time. With intertwined hands, they saw only a bright future together.

The decision to become a detective was one born out of idealism.

Amanda always talked about helping those in need with a fiery passion that inspired Ryūji. While she decided to go into teaching, he decided to go a different route. After high school, he went on to attend a police academy and majored in Criminal Justice in university, managing to graduate at the top of his classes. On his first day at work on the police force at the age of 22, he came in with naive enthusiasm- ready to make the world a better place.

He was met with a familiar loneliness. Even if his colleagues weren’t upfront about it, he could tell. The passive-aggressive tone. The condescending attitude. Hurtful words and implications carelessly thrown into conversations. Rejection from just about every social circle. He kept his head up and soldiered on. After all, he was used to it.

---

As soon as he and Amanda saved up enough money, they moved into a small apartment together, eager to leave behind their unhappy home lives. And then life continued. Through ups and downs, in spite of their demanding jobs, they stuck by each other’s side, providing solace for the other. It took a few years before the question was popped.

The sun was setting when Ryūji proposed to Amanda. Then came the “Yes”, and next, the tears of joy. They had so much hope for their future. They made plans to move out of the smog-ridden city and start a family. After much research and debate, they decided on a small town in Colorado- a new home for them after being wed. So they diligently work in preparation for that day.

Then Amanda got sick. Really sick. When the symptoms persisted to a worrying degree, they went to see a doctor-

Leukaemia.

Just like that, the bright future they had planned together was torn down. She remained optimistic and cheerful throughout her extensive treatment, but it began taking a toll on Ryūji, no matter how hard he tried to cling to hope. The fear of losing her was now very real. But she’s strong! She'll pull through it! After a while, she did! She recovered and was discharged from the hospital. But it was not meant to be. The joy was short-lived. Her cancer recurred, and this time she wasn’t recovering. On her deathbed, she smiled through her tears and poured her heart out, thanking Ryūji for everything.

On a lonely evening on 4th February 2003, Amanda passed on.

Her death left a void in Ryūji’s life. The one person who always supported him, who made him feel loved. Gone just like that. In an effort to drown out his grief, he buried himself deep into his job- imposing an extremely heavy workload upon himself. Clearing case after case, he rose through the ranks. At the same time, he became rather aloof and stoic. The friends he hadn’t lost already would find interacting with him increasingly difficult.

Then it all came to a grinding halt with a case. He had insisted on apprehending the perpetrator on his own- and that became his undoing. Caught off-guard in the ensuing fight, he was bloody and unconscious by the time his team caught up with him. With severe injuries, he was put out of commission.

Now without work to distract him, he was left to wallow in the emotional wreckage he refused to acknowledge. Digging through memories in desperation to cling onto, he uncovered the plans they made all those years ago. Although a part of him screamed at him not to, he flipped through the dust-covered notes. Words scribbled down by a young couple hopelessly in love, intending to spend the rest of their lives together.

A few words stood out to him, however. Namely, Deadwood Township, where he and his fiancee planned to move into. Maybe he wanted to start a new life, or cling onto anything that reminded him of Amanda, or a simple lapse in judgement, or maybe all of the above- that he decided to leave for Colorado. Handed in a letter of resignation, packed his stuff, left a note for his friends and family telling them not to bother, and then he was gone.

It was a gloomy day when he first arrived in Deadwood. A quaint family home- one that fits perfectly with what he and Amanda had in mind. It felt deathly empty, accompanied by a lonely silence. For the first time in a long while, he cried. Here, they were supposed to begin a new life, to start a family, to grow old together.

That life will never be a reality.

---

Considering his past 20 years in Chicago’s police force, it was only natural that he applied to Deadwood’s. While hesitant at first, he quickly accepted the town’s oddities as his new reality. But it was not until various run-ins with the more dangerous monster folk that he began to adapt. He was only human, after all- thus he took on a more pragmatic approach for his work. 6 years in, he’s still diligent as ever. Some might think he’s a tad paranoid, but he believes he’s just doing his job of keeping the town safe.