Tokyo Noir: The Complete First Season

by J. Scott Matthews

  She shook her head. “In time, perhaps. But you’re not ready now. I see dark days ahead for the next leader. The organization needs someone with experience.”

  Chobei was crushed but tried not to show it. He had learned long ago never to show weakness in front of his mother.

  “Since you have such little faith in me, who is your choice to run the organization?”

  “I’m not sure yet.”

  “You’re not sure yet. You just know it won’t be me.”

  “Yes.”

  “What, are you still reviewing resumes?”

  “I have some candidates in mind. But much will depend on the outcome of our next meeting.”

  “Why? What happens there?”

  “I have something special planned.”

  “Would you care to share it with me, or is it also above my ability to comprehend?”

  She tsked and shook her head. “Don’t be shitty. Do you honestly believe that you’re ready to take the helm of this massive ship?”

  “With your assistance, I think I could grow into the role—”

  “So no, in other words. You’re not ready. I know you probably think this is your best chance to become shacho. But it’s not something you can just be given. It’s a right you have to earn. Someday, if you can master yourself, you may earn the right. But until that day comes, you shouldn’t even dream of being put in charge.”

  “You don’t think I can handle it now?”

  “I know you can’t. And if I did put you in charge, you wouldn’t last long.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because you’re a poodle in a pit of vipers. And these men would eat you alive if given the chance.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Mei watched the neon from the signs on the buildings overhead merge and melt into the puddles of water on the ground. A light rain that afternoon had cleared the air of fog, making it a little easier to see. It would have been pleasant, if not for the sense of creeping dread that pursued her as she walked the streets.

  She circled around Shibuya, heading nowhere but trying to hide the fact that that was what she was doing. She stopped at some of the clothing and accessory shops lined up along the streets of Shibuya, briefly looking through their wares as if that was the whole point of this aimless jaunt. When that got old, she stopped at a bookstore to browse around some. She didn’t go too far inside the shop, in case they were bold enough to make a move right there.

  As she left the bookstore, her phone rang again.

  “Okay, what have you got?” Mei said. “I’ve been dicking around here for close to half an hour.”

  “Yeah, well, this shit’s complicated,” Tengu said. “But I’ve got a plan. I need you to head for Don Quixote up on Dogenzaka, then farther out beyond that. I’ve got a van coming to pick you up while Lee and I distract the cops.”

  She took a right at the next corner to begin heading towards Dogenzaka.

  “Alright, heading there now. What’s this van look like?”

  “Big passenger van, brown and rusted.”

  “Sounds like a piece of shit.”

  “Yeah, that’s what it’s supposed to look like. It’s actually an armored tactical vehicle. It’ll be driven by a giant, jacked-up white dude with a fat little Buddha of a woman riding shotgun.”

  Mei took that in and processed it for a few moments.

  “Are we not overthinking this?” Mei asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “This is getting complicated.” As she said this, Mei glanced at another road mirror to check behind her. Still there. “I’ve got two unknowns on me, sure. But then there are three cops after them, and they’ll come to my aid. Why not duck into an alley, jam everyone up, and sort this out? We’ve got the numbers.”

  She heard Tengu suck in air. “I don’t like it. If these men want you dead, they’ll have you dead before the police realize what’s going on. It’s too risky.”

  “So is your plan,” she said as she waited at a crosswalk for the light to change. “And at least my way solves the problem. Yours just delays it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “So I get away tonight. They’ll be on me tomorrow night. If they don’t already know where I live. But if we force the crisis, we’ll get it sorted out tonight. One way or another.”

  “My orders aren’t to sort this out ‘one way or another,’ they’re to keep you alive. Don’t make my job any harder than it is. Just be at the intersection beyond the Don Quixote and look for the van. Got it?”

  Tengu didn’t give her the chance to reply before he hung up the phone.

  “How’d that go?” Lee asked nonchalantly.

  “Fucking cops, man,” was all Tengu said, shaking his head.

  Mei looked up to see the psychedelic nightmare that was the Don Quixote store at nighttime. She passed by the open storefront crammed with junk and walked beyond into the intersection. She lingered there momentarily, weighing her options. She glanced back, not seeing the men anywhere. Which didn’t surprise her, they were good. If she hadn’t already been aware that she was being tailed, she might have missed them. She mentally ran through her options again.

  Escape in a van? Didn’t solve her problem, and it would most likely alert her pursuers that she was onto them. They’d come at her again, only next time they’d be more careful.

  Force the fight right here out in the open? The idea had its appeal. Mainly there was the element of surprise working in her favor, since they probably didn’t know they had been made. But then, she had been walking in circles for close to an hour, so by now maybe they suspected. She liked the idea, but it was too risky. The area was so crowded that if it were to come down to a gunfight, there was no chance of coming away with zero civilian casualties.

  Her original idea to force the crisis and get the policemen tailing her to come to her aid? No matter how she looked at it, this was her best option. She just needed to find a more secluded area to pull it off.

  She resumed walking towards the intersection up ahead. She pulled out her phone and called Tengu.

  “Sorry, going with my plan. Left at the intersection, then the first left, then left again. Takes you to a back alley that dead-ends in a parking lot.”

  She hung up the phone, cutting off a volley of swearwords and abuse being hurled at her. Then she started walking into the dead end.

  “Where the fuck is she going?” Yakuta asked the others. “I thought she knew she was being followed. Now she’s heading straight into danger.”

  “Maybe she’s coordinating something?” Thing 1 said. “She’s been talking on the phone a lot. Think she called the station?”

  Yakuta shook his head. “I doubt it. Why bring them out here? Why not just head back to the station? I think she’s talking to someone else.”

  “Like her contacts in the Kaisha?” Thing 2 said.

  “Like I keep saying, we don’t know that for sure.”

  “Looks pretty suspicious to me,” Thing 1 said.

  “Yeah, well, cops need something called ‘proof’ before we jump to a conclusion.”

  “No wonder you’re so slow getting anything done.”

  When they turned the corner, Yakuta saw that the two men tailing Mei had her cornered in a back alley with nowhere to go. Mei had turned to face her assailants as they slowly closed in on her. Yakuta and his colleagues were about a hundred yards back.

  “Shit, they’ve got her trapped,” he said, pulling his service weapon. “I want you to follow my lead on this. Stay behind me and don’t … what the fuck are you doing?!”

  Thing 1 and 2 had grabbed him from each side.

  “Sorry about this,” Thing 1 said. He actually sounded contrite. “Orders.”

  “What the fuck?” Yakuta hissed. “We’ve got to help her!”

  “Yeah, sorry,” Thing 2 said. He actually sounded kind of happy. “Major Ozaki gave us orders not to interfere should anything … you know.”

  “We’re to ‘ju
st let nature take its course,’ is how he put it.”

  “Yeah. Not to get in the way.”

  Yakuta struggled, but they had each arm in a tight grip. He tried twisting hard to one side, then the other, but he couldn’t shake free. He wasn’t going to free himself, not this way at least.

  “That’s an officer of the law in danger! If you won’t help me, then at least let me go so I can do my job!”

  “Sorry.”

  “Orders.”

  “To let her die?”

  “To not get involved.”

  “Yeah. Just let nature take its course.”

  “She’s crooked anyway.”

  “Just what the fuck are you people about?” Yakuta hissed.

  “Order.”

  “Justice.”

  “Integrity.”

  “Just let this happen.”

  Yakuta looked up to see Mei’s assailants closing fast.

  Mei reached the end of the alley and came out into the tiny parking lot. It was nestled behind a row of buildings that faced away. Her immediate pursuers came after her. She couldn’t see their faces behind their respirators, but she could tell that this was the opportunity they had been waiting for. At least now she knew where everyone stood.

  She took out her service weapon, more for show than with the intention of actually using it. She unsafetied it and held it off to the side. But instead of comforting her, it made her uneasy. Something felt off.

  “Stop right there!” she shouted.

  They didn’t. The two came at her, each one holding a metal switchblade that came shicking out from their sleeves. She aimed for the closer one’s stomach and pulled the trigger.

  Click.

  The gun was empty.

  The weight should have tipped her off, but she’d failed to realize what the problem with the weapon was. It didn’t have a magazine in it.

  Now the men were practically on top of her. She ducked under an arching slash of metal as the one closer to her sliced at her face. The move unbalanced her, and she went rolling off to the right. The second assailant was on top of her now. She centered herself to deliver a knee to his ribs, then pushed him at the first attacker as he spun around.

  She hazarded a quick glance back to see where the police tailing her were. It looked like they were fighting themselves. She couldn’t let her gaze linger, but it seemed like two of them were wrestling with the other. That wasn’t part of her calculation.

  Shit.

  She tried to calm herself. It was fine. She’d been in worse situations. Tengu and Lee would be here soon.

  Mei kept up the positive self-talk even as the next knife slash came at her from the front. She dodged back, frantically rooting through her overcoat for her spare magazine. It wasn’t there. What the fuck?

  She didn’t have time to figure it out now. For in the next instant, she was body-tackled by the other man. He ran into her with enough force to lift her up and carry her into the concrete wall behind her, then bear-hugged her from behind.

  The other man twirled the knife in his upturned hand around so that it was in position to stab her. She saw an image of herself struggling reflected in the mirror-film visor covering his face as he approached.

  She looked terrified.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Satoshi stood on the balcony to the house nestled in the hills above the coastline. A cool, salty breeze blew in from the ocean. There was nothing but an inky blackness punctuated by the lights from a few ships far out at sea. The air was cleaner here than in Tokyo, and the night cooler. Satoshi closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

  As he stood there, suspended on a wooden balcony above the shore of Zushi, he heard the floorboards creak behind him. He heard labored breathing as the man he had come to see approached. Satoshi didn’t turn around. He just stood there looking into the darkness. Osammy didn’t say a word.

  “How many men have you dangled off this balcony, I wonder?” Satoshi finally said.

  Osammy grunted. “Well, most of them are probably still below. You’re welcome to jump off and count.”

  Satoshi turned around to look at his former boss. The fat man was older, but still as imposing as ever. Osammy regarded him coldly from behind the trail of smoke emanating from his cigar. There was no warmth in his eyes. Not that Satoshi was expecting any.

  “Inside,” Osammy said. “We’ll talk inside.”

  Osammy waddled through the large glass doors, and Satoshi followed.

  “You seem to have landed on your feet after prison,” Satoshi said, admiring the lavish interior.

  “Yeah, well, crime pays. I had some money socked away, which the police were polite enough to not find.”

  “Must be nice to be retired.”

  “Oh, I’m not retired, not by a long shot.”

  Osammy poured himself a drink, then came over to sit across from Satoshi.

  “I figured you wouldn’t be allowed near any … official business, following prison.”

  “The Kaisha isn’t the only game in town. In fact, I’d be surprised if they’re around much longer.”

  “Oh? You working for a rival now? Who? The Taira-kai? The Shinminami-gumi?”

  Osammy smiled and sipped his drink. “Think bigger, Satoshi. Your syndicate and other street hustlers like it are on the way out. But you didn’t come here to talk about me, I’m sure.”

  “No, I didn’t. But I’m guessing you already know why I’m here.”

  “Heard you were looking for Masa.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Getting the old band back together?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Because I heard you were looking for him to give him up to The Rock.”

  Satoshi nodded. Osammy smiled and shook his head.

  “And here I was hoping you two were getting ready to reconcile. You and Masa were always such a good team. Two sides of the same coin.”

  “We’re not as alike as you think.”

  “Yeah, you always used to say that. You say it with such conviction too, like you actually believe it.”

  “We’re not the same at all.”

  “Oh, you’re not, are you? Why? Because you’re a good guy? Because you’re not the one that pulls the trigger? Bullshit.”

  “Whatever. I’m only here—”

  Osammy waved his hand, and Satoshi fell silent. He hated himself for the sway that Osammy apparently still had over him.

  “You hid behind Masa, let him dish out the beatings so you could pretend to be a good guy. You never stopped him. Never reined him in or held him back. You know why?”

  Satoshi didn’t respond.

  “Because at the end of the day, if he wasn’t the one dishing it out, then you would have had to. You know the job. And you don’t think he knew that? He did. He bloodied his hands so you could keep yours clean.”

  Satoshi just shook his head. “Don’t try to blame this on me. You were the one that poisoned him. You turned him into the mad dog you needed him to be.”

  “Did I, now? And just how did I do that?”

  “You corrupted his mind. You saw the hole in him, his need for validation. And you filled it with praise for every dirty deed of his. You promised him respect and renown in exchange for blood. He was always going on about how his name would ring out because Osammy said so.”

  “And why did he need that praise, that validation, so much? Huh? Was it because he wasn’t getting it from somewhere else? Like maybe the man he looked up to like a brother?”

  “I … don’t try to …”

  “Blame you? For what? Turning your back on your brother?”

  Satoshi tried to keep his cool, but internally his mind was reeling. He had only seen the past through his own perspective. But how well did he know the story, if he had only seen it from the one angle?

  Osammy continued. “I nudged him along, sure. But you were the one that set him on that path originally. Now you’re going to pretend to be shocked and scandalized at
what he’s become. Go ahead, pat yourself on the back for bringing this mad dog to heel. Tell yourself you’re the good guy for putting down the monster you helped to create through your own neglect.”

  “I … I tried to pull him back from the brink. I tried to help him …”

  “Did you? Not the way he tells it. It sounds like every time he reached out for help, you slapped his hand away.”

  Satoshi stood up and walked over to the window. He stared out at the darkness beyond.

  “Face it, Satoshi. If I was able to push him over the edge, it’s only because you backed him right up to it.”

  Satoshi shook his head. His mind was racing.

  “I’ll tell you where to find Masa. I’ll tell you exactly where he’s at.”

  Osammy stood up and waddled over to the bar. He scrawled an address on a piece of paper, which he folded and placed in Satoshi’s pocket after lumbering back over.

  “You can find him there. Of course, you know it’s a trap.”

  “Of course.”

  “Yet still you’ll walk into it.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I have no other choice.”

  “Wish you had shown this level of dedication when you worked for me.”

  “You never earned it.”

  Osammy laughed his deep, rumbling laugh.

  “We’ve never liked each other, have we? In fact, I always thought it was you who turned me in a few years back.”

  Satoshi said nothing.

  “You’re not even going to deny it?”

  “If I denied it, would you believe me?”

  “No.”

  “Then why bother?”

  “Fair point.”

  “So if you believe that, why am I still alive?”

  Osammy just smiled his crooked smile. “You know, all those years I was in jail, I honestly fantasized about killing you. But at some point I changed my mind. Decided on a different approach.”

  “Don’t tell me jail softened you.”

  “Oh no, it didn’t make me soft. It’s just that, as I was rotting in that cell, I realized that there are things even worse than death. Far worse.”