Jōji Akutsu, a low-ranking Kaeda yakuza member in his mid-30s, navigates a life marred by humiliation and defeat. His trajectory shifts decisively in 1983 after a street fight against university students ends in cowardly surrender, triggering a decade-long collapse. Betrayed by subordinates during a botched hit job, he dies fleeing the scene—a disgraceful end overturned when he inexplicably revives at the same fateful brawl. Armed with memories of future betrayals and failures, he intimidates the students to avoid humiliation, exploiting his yakuza ties for momentary advantage.

Yet ingrained flaws—chronic cowardice, tactical ineptitude, and self-destructive habits—stymie lasting change. He remains shackled to superiors destined to conspire against him and rekindles a volatile marriage with his clingy future wife. Desperate maneuvers to outpace destiny include pawning his gang’s emblem to fund a horse-racing venture, exploiting foreknowledge for quick profit. Though this temporarily alleviates his faction’s debts, it sparks hostilities when rivals seize the emblem.

Amid escalating gang wars, Jōji sporadically asserts agency, notably aiding his faction’s victory over the Akashi-gumi in Chiba. Yet each hard-won gain unravels as cyclical conflicts and hierarchical entanglements resurface. His attempts to rewrite his legacy falter against self-sabotage and the yakuza’s unyielding power structures, leaving redemption perpetually out of reach—a ghost forever circling the same failures, haunted by the life he cannot escape.