#tbh before knowing all that much about kiryu and by association his closeness with nishiki and all that I can see them getting close enough

[designernishiki]

GOD I wish we had like. Any canon content of Nishiki bearing witness to Kiryu and Majima's whole Thing

Like, in yakuza 1 it seemed like Majima knew Kiryu before he went to prison, and not just cause he learned his name in yakuza 0. They seemed to have had a rapport and Majima knew that Kiryu was "rusty" from his time in jail. So they clearly were doing their psychosexual fight shenanigans back in the 90s. And Nishiki HAD to have witnessed or at least known about it

No this doesn't keep me up at night I'm normal

SO true bestie I CONSTANTLY wonder what the hell was going on in that 89-95’ window with them,,, and the completely unexplored dynamic with nishiki as part of that especially– I mean, nishiki’s the one who initially says he’s gonna make it his duty to welcome kiryu back from prison with open arms and all that, and when that falls through majima swoops in without anyone asking (quite the opposite- he definitely isn’t supposed to be welcoming back The Guy Convicted Of Killing Dojima) and becomes somewhat of a replacement pillar in kiryu’s life where nishiki used to be. which is a pretty huge hole to fill. and suggests their relationship had to have not totally come out of nowhere.

it makes me seriously wonder like. what kind of relationship did majima have with kiryu prior to prison in which majima could become so attached to him that he goes out of his way to help or save him whenever possible? or did it become that way more delayed, ramping up the moment nishiki was out of the picture so to speak? like you said, they were already seemingly pretty well acquainted before shit went down, but with nishiki still around… hm. it’s an important factor to consider for sure.

my thought is that nishiki would’ve been protective over kiryu and would try, to the best of his ability, to keep him at a distance from The Mad Dog of Shimano (understandable, honestly), half out of genuine concern and half out of the fear of someone attempting to lure kiryu away from him and leave him alone and, by consequentially, worthless– considering he’s a very insecure guy and he and kiryu were quite codependent at the time. and knowing majima, he likely would’ve gotten the message loud and clear and perhaps kept his distance emotionally speaking (to the best of his ability, but let’s be real i think majima caught feelings for kiryu pretty early and wouldn’t be able to TOTALLY stop them from manifesting in one way or another), but I don’t doubt kiryu still ended up in various ordeals and play-fights with him– maybe even a bit more than that. I can see majima getting a kick out of annoying nishiki and by no means would majima be intimidated by him whatsoever (he can’t beat the shit out of nishiki and nishiki knows that from experience)– but majima’s, secretly, a very selfless, oddly self-disciplined person and I doubt he’d purposefully take his teasing too far. in fact, I think he’d try pretty actively to avoid approaching kiryu if nishiki’s around, knowing nishiki’s not a fan of him, not wanting to create any distance between the two, and not wanting to inject himself too deep into kiryu’s life to turn back when he needs to.

I feel like nishiki wouldn’t genuinely feel threatened by majima’s mad dog reputation; he’d feel threatened by whatever enigmatic thing majima is beneath the mad dog persona. whatever he is that allowed him to run the most prestigious cabaret in sotembori (and probably one of the best in all of Japan) and get it to such a status in only two years, all while only 22-24 years old, and all while recovering from an entire year in the hole (which, as we know, nishiki has been informed about the horrors of). so, while he’d be insecure and concerned about kiryu getting drawn away from him by someone more competent than himself, he’d also be distrusting due to the lingering feeling that whatever majima’s interests were with kiryu, they’d have an ulterior motive or two that could get kiryu hurt or worse. majima was shimano’s dog at the time, after all– who knows what he could’ve been ordered to do with kiryu in the long run? what kind of guy would voluntarily pledge his allegiance to shimano after being tortured by him for so long? you get the picture.

side note: interesting to consider that he would’ve been right to be threatened by majima’s competence to some degree, considering majima’s the one who jumps in to fill the gap nishiki leaves in kiryu’s life after he’s released, AND he ends up taking nishiki’s place as top earner in the tojo clan only a year after his downfall. where he’d be wrong is that any of that was malicious.