Tokyo Noir: The Complete First Season

by J. Scott Matthews

  The bosses slowly did as they were told. It would be a while before any of them felt comfortable eating again. Or betraying the syndicate. But then, that was the whole point.

  Vasili had been too frightened to think clearly. Now that the suffocating feeling was starting to pass, he looked around. He became aware of Takabe and Nobunaga to either side of him as if for the first time. Both of them kept their eyes down on their plates. But when Vasili took a closer look, he saw their faces were also flushed, their eyes wild and scared. Many of the bosses in the room looked the same way.

  Vasili cleared his throat. “So, it wasn’t just me, then?”

  “Holy shit, I thought my throat was closing up,” Nobunaga said. “I almost confessed to every yen I rounded off my dues to the Kaisha.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Takabe said. “I was about to confess to that time I thought about her when I was jerking off. I just couldn’t figure out how she knew about that.”

  “She poisoned us all,” Vasili said. He chuckled in utter astonishment as the realization hit home. “She poisoned all of us just a little to see who would confess.”

  Takabe’s hands were shaking slightly as he raised his chopsticks. He examined the slice of beef dangling from the end of it carefully before shaking his head and putting it back in the pot.

  “I almost drowned once in a concrete runoff channel by my house during a summer typhoon, back when I was a kid. This was worse. It was like drowning on dry land.”

  “Credit to where credit is due,” Vasili said.

  “Fuck her,” Takabe said quietly. “I mean, I get it. It was clever, and the ruse worked. But still, fuck her.”

  Nobunaga nodded. “Yeah. I think normal people just get cake or something when their boss retires. Not a low-dose of tetrodotoxin and psychological torture.”

  “We are not normal people,” Vasili reminded him.

  “Too true.”

  Takabe was shaken, but that never lasted long for him. His old sense of humor was starting to poke through, and he started smiling.

  “I’m just surprised she only caught one person out with it. I’m sure at least three-quarters of the people here have some punishable offense in their background. Except for me, of course.”

  “Me either,” Vasili said.

  “Same,” Nobunaga chimed in. “But what a catch. A boss going after her son. It could be worse. We could be going through whatever Takeuchi’s got in store for him.”

  Vasili’s skin ran cold.

  “Nobody said the old girl wasn’t clever,” Nobunaga said.

  “Yeah, or fucking vicious,” Takabe agreed.

  The meal continued as plates heaped with delicacies were placed in front of the bosses. Most were then taken away largely uneaten. No wonder. To Vasili, everything tasted like poison. His throat was still tight and he had a headache.

  As the others talked around him, Vasili kept glancing over towards Akiyama. He watched the dying man grow increasingly red-faced across the room. He was clearly growing desperate now. Vasili watched as Akiyama clutched at Yoshii’s sleeve. But Yoshii never looked at him. He pretended as if he wasn’t there, brushing the man off his sleeve lightly, almost tenderly.

  Akiyama turned to Miyagi and tried to get her attention, but she gave him the same treatment. From the way she stared straight ahead and ate, it was almost as if one of her closest companions wasn’t suffocating to death by her side. This pitiful scene went on for a few minutes, until finally Akiyama gasped his last and passed out cold on the table.

  Yoshii pretended not to notice.

  The servers just left him there for the others to see.

  Vasili looked up at Eriko. She was eyeing the room as she sipped from her sake glass. When she noticed Vasili looking her way, she smiled a cruel smile. A victorious smile. Then she raised her sake glass.

  Vasili had to raise his back to her.

  Chapter Two

  “So, Dr. Takasu, is there something you’d like to tell me? Before I release you to the wolves you assure me aren't after you?”

  “You have to promise me you’ll keep me safe. And my family.”

  “Why, whatever from?” Mei asked innocently.

  “Can you promise me?”

  “You deal straight with me and I’ll be straight with you. I can’t promise you immunity or anything if you talk, obviously. But we will keep you and yours safe.”

  “Alright, fair enough. I did it. I removed the organs and performed two of the transplants. Only two, though, the others were sold off. I don’t know where to.”

  “Okay, why don’t you back up and start at the beginning?”

  “They approached me about a month ago, said—”

  “They?”

  “Guy named Kaza, and his people. I mostly dealt with him. I used to sell medication to him. He’s connected, walks the Path. Anyway, he asked if I was looking for some ‘freelance work,’ is how he put it.”

  Mei looked through her files on people with known ties to organized crime. A Hachiro Kaza showed up with arrests for racketeering and aggravated assault, but no known criminal affiliation. Both arrests happened under the jurisdiction of the Shinjuku police station, which covered the Shinjuku/Kabukicho area. That would put him squarely in Yoshii’s territory.

  “And this ‘freelance work’ you speak of involved killing people and removing their organs?”

  “I didn’t kill anyone! I never did the killing, that’s not who I am.”

  “Not even Suga? My predecessor on this case? Because I’m told he was still alive when you went to work.”

  “That was …” The doctor’s expression changed, and he grew pale. “They gutted him, and told me to get to work. I … held off as long as I could. But they got angry at my stalling so I … I had to …”

  Mei shook her head in disgust.

  “Alright. So you removed their organs for, what? Transplant? To sell?”

  “Like I said, I performed transplants on two live patients. The rest they had me prep for shipping. I don’t know where they went.”

  “Who did you perform the surgeries on?”

  “I don’t know. I got the impression that one was a boss in the Kaisha. But I never knew his name. I can describe him, though. He was older, looked like your average, generic accountant type. The other guy was a construction worker or something out in Chiba. Friend of one of the bosses, I think.”

  “Big, sloppy-looking guy?”

  “Yeah.”

  Mei nodded. It was starting to come together.

  “Okay, we’ll come back to them. I want full descriptions and to have you look at some photos. But for now I have to ask: why? Why would a respected doctor get involved with these people? Get involved in this?”

  “I had … debts that needed to be paid. That’s why I started selling medicine. That’s what put me on their radar, I guess. Kaza came to me, said I could make a lot more money. Ten million yen for each ‘surgery.’ I needed the money.”

  “It didn’t bother you that they were killing people?”

  “I told myself that wasn’t my concern. Besides, Kaza said they were going to be killed either way, so I might as well do it.”

  “What do you know about the victims?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Why were those people chosen?”

  “I don’t know. They usually just told me when and where. They didn’t tell me anything beyond that.”

  “So you didn’t know any of the victims.”

  “No.”

  “Because it seems like many of them were close personal friends or acquaintances of Vasili Loginovski. Do you know the name?”

  “I think I heard them mention it. And someone they called Rocky, I think. Other than that, I don’t know.”

  “Vasili’s nickname is The Rock. He’s a high-ranking boss in the Kaisha. And when this comes to light, he’s the most likely candidate to have you killed.”

  The doctor’s eyes widened. “I … I didn’t do anything to him. At least, not inten
tionally, I mean—”

  “Yeah, well, just another reason you shouldn’t kill people.”

  The doctor blubbered for a minute, and Mei let him. When he had calmed down, she continued.

  “Was a man named Masahiro Shiku involved in any way?”

  “Not involved, but I think that’s the guy that fucked up one of the jobs in Tsukishima.”

  “What happened?”

  “We had just set up and had started to … you know, when this guy came in. The others knew him, I didn’t. They called him Masa, started arguing about something.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know, I was busy at the time. And it was nothing to do with me. Anyway, one of the guys I was with tried to stab him, but only sliced his arm. I looked up then to see this Masahiro guy just open him up with his own knife. Nearly sliced him in half.”

  “Who was this man? The one who got killed?”

  “They called him The Kid, even though he was pushing thirty. I think his real name was something like Kasaya.”

  Mei looked through the (admittedly thin) file she had on Yoshii’s organization. There was no mention of him. But maybe she could connect the dots with another dangling thread. One that had been shot in the head.

  “What about a man named Taku Kinashita? Did he have any affiliation with this little project of yours?”

  “He did, for a while. Then he was killed.”

  “Care to elaborate?”

  “We were supposed to do a job in an office building at night. Which was weird, I thought. But by then I was past the point of asking questions.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “Anyway, while we were waiting for the go-ahead, something went wrong. There was a shootout. The other guys in there got away, but he got shot. After that, we were told to pull back.”

  “Pull back?”

  “Back off the killings. I guess Kaza got spooked.”

  “Or the people he worked for did.”

  “Maybe.”

  “And who does Kaza work for?”

  “I don’t know. He made it sound like he was the king of the hill. But I figured he was midlevel at best.”

  “He never talked about his superiors?”

  “Not to me.”

  Mei nodded. These guys were too careful for something that stupid. But Mei still suspected a link with Yoshii. It made sense, if the killings were partially motivated by a desire to gum up the works for Vasili and make it harder for him to operate. And if Yoshii and Vasili hated each other as much as Vasili said they did, that would give him a motive.

  “Kaza and his crew. Where can I find them?”

  “They’re based out of the second story of a bar in Kabukicho.”

  “Address?”

  “I don’t know. But the bar is called the Top Hat.”

  “God fucking dammit!” Mei said at that. She leaned back and rubbed her closed eyes.

  “You know it?”

  “Seedy little shithole with Christmas lights around the bar?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve been there before. I was probably standing right below those guys about two weeks ago. Too stupid to realize it.” Mei silently berated herself for a while longer.

  The doctor shrugged.

  “What’s the upstairs like?” Mei finally asked. “The layout.”

  “I don’t know. I never met them there.”

  “You don’t know anything about it?”

  He shook his head.

  “But if you’re going in there, I’d say go strapped. Bulletproof vests, riot gear, guns blazing, whatever. Because Kaza and his guys, they don’t fuck around.”

  Chapter Three

  The city flew by as Satoshi raced home on his motorcycle.

  But Satoshi barely noticed it.

  The traffic lights of the other vehicles on the road were little more than streaks of light as he dodged through oncoming traffic. He maneuvered the bike as quickly as he dared through the streets. Several times he was nearly taken out by vehicles as he blew through traffic lights and intersections with abandon.

  At one point where road traffic was jammed up, he hopped on the sidewalk. Some creative navigation brought him down a few back alleys and onto another major throughway, where he resumed speeding home. The ride seemed to last forever, with his heart in his throat the entire way. The Dextro-MXE he had already taken helped him to navigate the bike through traffic rapidly, but it also meant that time slowed to a crawl.

  This wasn’t helped by the fear he felt. Fear for Hisoka’s safety, and for that of his unborn child. But Masa wouldn’t hurt them, would he?

  Would he?

  Satoshi honestly didn’t know. Masa was now a far cry from the scared boy Satoshi had known growing up. He was, in fact, fully capable of committing unimaginable violence. Nobody knew that better than Satoshi, who had seen him in action time and again as they walked the Path together. The only question was whether or not Masa could turn that rage and hate on Satoshi, and those he loved.

  Until recently, the question wouldn’t have been worth considering. But given recent events … Satoshi just didn’t know anymore.

  With Masa, anything was possible.

  Finally, he arrived in front of his place. He drifted his bike into the side of his building as he jumped off and sprinted inside. He pressed the button for the elevator, then ran up the stairs when he realized it wasn’t there. Not that he could stand still. Satoshi felt like he had to keep moving forward. He sprinted up four flights of stairs, breathing heavily when he reached their landing. Hands shaking, he removed his gun from the side holster under his overcoat as he tore down the hallway.

  He could see the door to their apartment was slightly ajar. The doorway hadn’t been splintered, which meant that Masa must have picked the lock. Satoshi plunged through the door.

  “Hisoka!”

  He saw nothing in the living room. He looked around, but there was nobody there. Wait—there, out of the corner of his eye. He entered the room and walked toward the center. He thought he saw something in the middle of the floor for a moment, but the image flickered out and was gone.

  “Hisoka!”

  He heard movement in the bedroom and was about to kick the door in when it opened. It was Hisoka. She gave a brief, clipped gasp when she saw he was armed, and shrank back before recognizing him.

  “Satoshi?”

  “Are you okay?” he asked frantically.

  “I’m fine. I’m right here.”

  “What about Masa? Where is he?”

  She turned her head to the side, as if struggling to understand his question. She tilted her head around farther and farther, impossibly far, then held it there. Recognition finally came.

  “Oh, Masa! Of course. No, false alarm. It wasn’t him at all. He’d never come here.”

  “But on the phone—”

  She drew close again and gently laid her hands on his shoulders. Her touch was so light he couldn't feel it through his jacket. “Shhh. I’m fine. You can see I’m fine. I’m right here.”

  “But did you see him, or did he—”

  “Hey! We never finished planning that trip! Let’s do that now!”

  Something didn’t feel right to Satoshi. She was behaving strangely. How could she just mistake Masa? It didn’t seem right. But then, maybe he had her on edge with his talk of what Masa was capable of. That must be it.

  “Come on,” Hisoka said, dragging him into the bedroom. “Get your computer and let’s plan our trip!”

  “Uh … okay.”

  He followed her in and found his laptop on the bedside table.

  “Right here, on the bed!” she said, plopping down.

  “Let’s go sit on the couch, it’s more comfortable there.”

  “No, right here! I’m right here!”

  She tried to grab him, but he kept walking out to the main room. Something caught his eye again, just from the corner of his vision. It was gone in an instant, leaving only an uneasy feeling in him. A sense
that something was terribly wrong.

  Satoshi sat down on the sofa, and Hisoka reluctantly followed and slid in beside him. He flipped open the computer and opened a browser window. He glanced up, again catching a glimpse of something just out of sight. He was about to look closer when Hisoka’s finger shot out towards the screen, directing his gaze.

  “Look here, or here,” she said, pointing to herself, then the computer. “I’m right here. Now come on, type!”

  “Do you want to type?” Satoshi asked. He held the computer out to her.

  “No, you do it. Try typing ‘vacation spots,’ or ‘getaways,’ or something.”

  He nodded, taking another look at her. Her eyes seemed glassy, vacant. Like they were staring through him without seeing him. Her head was still at an awkward, unnatural angle. He looked back to the computer and distractedly started typing something out. He glanced up towards the center of the room as he did. He was starting to see something. A flash of red, then it was gone again.

  “Come on, type! Look here!” Hisoka was saying. This wasn’t like her, she wasn’t this pushy. Something felt off. “What are you typing?”

  He looked down to see he had typed: Where to go?

  “Come on, take this seriously! I want to get away from here, take a trip!”

  Satoshi wasn’t looking at her now. He was looking at the center of the room. On the floor. He started shaking.

  “Satoshi? What’s wrong? Look at me. I’m right here.”

  “I thought I saw something back there.”

  “There’s nothing there. Look here, at me. I’m right here, with you.”

  He heard her voice coming from nearby. But it couldn’t be. Something was wrong. He looked again to the spot on the floor a few feet away. There it was. The image stayed with him now, and he could see what was really there.

  “Come on, Satoshi, let’s get away.”

  He started crying. A few muffled sobs at first, then it came uncontrollably. He covered his face with his hands and began shaking his head in denial.

  He sniffled up the snot trickling from his nose and tried to speak, but it was lost in a fresh wave of sobbing.