The point of the overall story is to end the Psychic Samurai's dependence on her criminal underworld connections.  It's one of those situations where they've served her well so far but you knew sooner or later there would be a conflict.  Well here it is.

A secondary point is that after Hatman took down the Lynchpin and the streets were left in disarray by that, and by the Parody War, there's a lot of opportunity for crime families.  The best spoils go to the most aggressive, and there are new players like the Zoot Suit Gang gaining fast.  It can be supposed, then, that Akiko has had to become more aggressive to protect her territory and expand.  And while she's friends with the Psychic Samurai, Chiaki's association with the Lair Legion makes her less than reliable for help.

Meanwhile though because the reaction to Part 1 seemed to be neutral, and Part 2 negative so far, I'm going to be watching for further opinions.  If it's turned off too many readers, and I get the overwhelming impression that nobody cares what part 3 is like after reading part 2, I may scrap part 3 and consider removing part 1 and 2 as well.  If I do that it'll be the first time I've ever had to axe an entire multi-part story, and I hope it's the last time I have to.

I guess this goes back to a problem I talked to Ian about in a reply thread once - that I have a very small personal cast, and whenever I write a multi-part story it usually involves outside characters.  If that becomes increasingly hazardous (either because I take too many risks or because other characters become too wrapped in other stories) I may have to avoid writing anything "integrated" for a while until I can come up with my own complete cast first.