Tokyo Noir: The Complete First Season

by J. Scott Matthews

  “I know you’re unhappy now because you didn’t get the crown you wanted. But trust me, I did you a favor by giving it to someone else. Now I’ve got more time to teach you. I can mold you, make you a leader, so that when the next change of power comes, you’ll be ready.”

  “Oh, somehow I doubt that will happen.”

  “Why do you—”

  “Did you know that Vasili tried to have me killed?”

  She looked taken aback. “What? No, can’t be. Vasili wouldn’t—”

  “Oh, but he did. I wouldn’t have believed it—considering his loyalty to you—but I heard the recording myself.”

  “Let me hear this. If what you say is true …”

  “It is, I assure you. But don’t worry, I’ll handle it myself.”

  “Don’t do anything … until I say …”

  Eriko was struggling to breathe now. She looked up at her son. He was smirking.

  “What have you done?” Her voice had turned to gravel.

  “Oh, just a little trick I learned from you. The bottom of the glass was lined with tetrodotoxin left over from tonight’s dinner.”

  “Why?” she gasped.

  “Well, simply put, you’re worth more to me dead than alive. I’ll say it was Vasili, or perhaps lay it on Uchida. Hmm, yes, I’ll have to think about that. Her reign might be rather short indeed.”

  “Un … ungrateful …” Eriko pressed the button on the side of her chair.

  Chobei shook his head. “Afraid Kuroda won’t be coming.”

  She sat there, struggling to breathe and glaring daggers at her only son.

  “Oh, don’t look at me like that, Mother. Where do you think I learned all this from?”

  “You haven’t learned … anything … from me.”

  “I learned to be ruthless. Hell, you poisoned me not two hours ago. Me, your own son.”

  “You’re ruthless … but don't know why, or when … you should be. Careless.”

  She was gasping harder now, her breathing more labored.

  “I should … have killed you … myself, like I … planned …”

  Now Chobei smiled. A sad, rueful smile.

  “With a mother like you …,” he said, shaking his head.

  He began pacing around the room, admiring the skin suits of her conquered foes. Some of them were more wrinkled than others, depending on how recently they had been taken. The intricate tattoo work, preserved as works of art, was still beautiful even now. Skin canvasses containing art etched in flesh and blood.

  Eriko was clutching her throat now, unable to breathe. Chobei watched her as she suffered through her final moments. He waited until she was still before walking away, turning around when he reached the door to the vault, which he slowly closed on her.

  “With a mother like you, what chance did I ever have?”

  Chapter Six

  Mei’s debriefing of Dr. Takasu was followed by a frenzy of phone calls. She ran the info up the chain of command as fast as she could. When she reached her superiors at home, they were initially sleepy and irritable at being woken. Then, when she told them the news, the sleep fell away from their voices and excitement rushed in. Nomura and Endo both began making calls of their own. Soon they told Mei that the groundwork had been laid for a raid the same day.

  By the time the preparations had been made, it was nearly four in the morning. Mei considered going home to get some sleep, but decided against it. The stakeout would begin first thing in the morning, and she wanted to be there for it. Needed to be there for it. They were finally going to get the bastards responsible for this.

  Instead of going home, she took a walk through the deserted streets of Shibuya. The air was cool and bracing after the stuffy inside of the interrogation room. It had rained recently, clearing the air and giving the streets a damp chill despite the early summer season.

  She walked for a while, just enjoying the silence. The calm before the storm. It wasn’t just the arrest she was concerned about, though that could potentially turn into a dicey situation. Armed confrontations with dangerous men who had everything to lose usually did. She was also nervous about what came after that.

  Not just the media circus. But where did she go from here? She had always been a company woman, climbing through the ranks as fast as she could and as high as she could. It had been what she’d always wanted, to prove herself. Now, she wasn’t so sure. Probably just nerves before the big day, she told herself. They would make the arrests, then she’d see where things went from there.

  She took out her phone and made a call. She didn’t expect an answer and was surprised to get one.

  “You’re still up? … Are you at your office now? … Mind if I …? Okay, on my way.”

  Vasili met her downstairs and let her inside the building, then locked the door after them. They took the elevator up to his office in the now-empty club.

  “Drink?” he asked, pouring himself a glass of vodka.

  “I shouldn’t. We’re moving on the killers soon.”

  “Oh?”

  She told him all she had just learned from the doctor about who the killers were. He nodded throughout but didn’t look particularly surprised by any of it. He looked out the window at the breaking dawn.

  “Come,” he said, motioning for her to follow.

  He walked out of his office and through the club to a door. He unlocked this and led her upstairs to the rooftop. The view was breathtaking. The sky was filled with dark clouds, but off in the distance glimpses of the sun poked through. Massive, angry-looking clouds tinged with deep purple and crimson linings hung heavy in the air.

  “I come here sometimes, when is clear.”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “Is easy to forget that this city can be beautiful.”

  “Do you know these men? The ones we’re going after today?”

  “I have heard of Kaza, and know he works for Yoshii. But that’s it.”

  “Seems like you were right. Looks like it was partially designed to throw suspicion on you.”

  He nodded. “I’m guessing I have Yoshii and Matsuo to thank for that. I already paid Matsuo back for his kindness. I’ll have to find some way to do the same for Yoshii.”

  “What are you still doing up?” Mei asked, changing the subject.

  “I had a dinner tonight. We found out who the Kaisha’s new leader is.”

  “Not you?”

  “No.”

  “I’m sorry.” As soon as she said it she was taken aback by the sentiment, but realized it was true. The syndicates would exist either way. At least better that they be run by someone like Vasili.

  He waved it off. “I didn’t want it. I’ve climbed high enough. I don’t need to see the very top.” He gestured out at the expanse of city stretched out before them.

  “When you were a kid, did you ever think this is where you’d wind up?”

  “No. When I was child, I never expected anything. I wasn’t born with a lot of options.”

  Mei felt guilty, all of a sudden, as she recalled a similar conversation she had had. She brushed it off.

  “But look how far you’ve come. How high.”

  “Yeah. It is still surprising to me sometimes. The paths we take lead us in unexpected directions. Only way to explain how shy Russian boy can end up in place like this.”

  He paused for a moment to survey the city beyond. The lights from the buildings were still shining bright in the predawn gloom.

  “What about you, Kimura-san? This what you thought you’d be doing as a child?”

  “Well, I kind of thought I’d be higher up. But basically, yeah.”

  “What kind of child were you?”

  “I don’t know. The usual kind, I guess.”

  “No, you were little jerk, weren’t you? Let me guess, tattling on other kids, reminding teacher when recess was over. Right?”

  Mei looked upset momentarily, then started laughing. “I was such an ass.”

  Vasili smiled. “I knew i
t.”

  “I’ve gotten better. But still working on it.”

  “Aren’t we all?”

  “Believe it or not, I actually went through sort of a rebellious phase in college.”

  “I do not believe it.”

  “Yeah. Well, it was right around the time that Mom was sick. Then when she passed away, I didn’t handle it well. Not for a long time.”

  Vasili nodded. “What did you do?”

  “I was mostly just shitty to my dad, I guess. Took it out on him, even though he was going through the same thing. It just didn’t seem fair to me, though. So meaningless. That she would die when so many other people—terrible people, in some cases—just got to skate by.”

  “Fair? Is nothing fair about it. It just is.”

  “I think that’s part of why I wanted to be a cop. So I could right wrongs!” she said, adopting a self-mocking tone and striking a superhero pose. “See evil punished! Let good prevail! Help a new day dawn over our fair city for the good people of Tokyo!”

  She dropped the false bravado and stared off into the distance.

  “So I could turn back the tide,” she said softly.

  Vasili shook his head. “You cannot turn back the tide. It is endless. It will break you before you break it. You can only move with it. Try to influence where it comes crashing down.”

  Mei didn’t respond.

  “And it was not meaningless.”

  “What?”

  “Her death. You said it was meaningless. That is not true. She made you, her death shaped who you are. Made you, you. There is meaning in that. Do not say there was not.”

  Mei nodded. A tear rolled down her cheek. Vasili put one massive hand on her shoulder, and she dissolved in tears. He held her tight.

  “Thank you,” she said through the tears.

  “You know, my mother, she used to say, ‘There is light even in the darkness.’”

  “She sounded like a wise person.”

  “She was. Kind, too.”

  “She’s passed?”

  Vasili nodded slowly. “The kind ones never last long. But that’s why I believe we honor our blood, our fallen, by the paths we take. Their lives, their deaths, have meaning in themselves. But also in how we react. We carry their blood, their legacy, with us. Is something we must always think about.”

  “And you? You’re trying to do right by your mother’s memory?”

  “Now I am starting. I haven’t always.” He looked off in the distance. “The path I’ve taken—the Path itself—is not straight. Is twisted, is dangerous and difficult to walk straight. But is path I’ve chosen. And now I must tread it. For better or worse. After all, gokudo shika nai.”

  “Is it, though? Does it have to be that way?”

  “For me it does. There is now no other way.”

  Mei sighed. She knew it to be true. But she didn't have to like it.

  “At least you don’t have to walk it alone.”

  Vasili looked at her. He smiled.

  Up ahead, the black clouds were ringed with brilliant colors as the dawn broke.

  The new day had begun.

  Chapter Seven

  “It’s just … I don’t know … I mean … just … wow!” Lee said.

  “Yeah, it’s nice,” Tengu agreed.

  They were standing out in the docks of the Port of Guangzhou, waiting for Vasili’s contact, Wu Lin, to meet them. They had been told not to return until they had sorted out this sabotage business. But when they last had spoken on the phone, Wu Lin had made it sound like everything had been sorted. Tengu guessed they’d just have to find out.

  Tengu hated being away from home, but even he had to admit it was nice seeing the sun again. The two of them had had to buy sunglasses when they landed, having forgotten about that particular problem in Tokyo.

  Tengu looked around. Giant yellow cranes moved red and blue shipping containers from a white container vessel onto the ground. Out beyond the ship, the sea glistened blue and white where the water caught the sun. The colors were so bright, they were almost too real—at least to someone coming from the thousand shades of gray of Tokyo.

  “It’s so colorful here,” Tengu said. “Beautiful.”

  “No. Tokyo is just that colorless. This is what real life is supposed to look like.”

  “You grew up here?”

  Lee nodded. “Till I was about fifteen. Then my father moved us to Tokyo.”

  “For work?”

  “Sort of. He was supposed to do a job for this triad boss. Ended up robbing the guy of a lot of money, so he took my family and fled to Japan.”

  “Interesting. So you joined the family business, then.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Why Japan, of all places?”

  “No triads there. At least, not back then. My dad said it was a chance to start over. Clean break from a life of crime.”

  “Yeah? And how’d that work out for your family?”

  “There you are.”

  At the sound of Wu Lin’s nasal voice, they looked up to see the man approaching. He was an older man, maybe midfifties. His greasy, thinning hair and stooped back made him appear older than he probably was. He looked like the kind of guy who would have the police called on him for getting anywhere near an elementary school.

  “Here we are,” Tengu said. “And just where the fuck have you been?”

  “Right here,” Wu Lin said flatly.

  “No, I mean on this matter. We’ve lost two major shipments. How do you plan to make that right?”

  “Follow me.”

  Wu Lin waved them on and began walking without waiting for a response. Tengu and Lee exchanged a glance, but then walked after him.

  They followed him across the port and into a building that looked like an airplane hangar. Here they walked down aisles filled with shipping containers and loose cargo that was being unpacked. Their guide took them to a door set in a far wall, which he unlocked and ushered them through.

  They came out into a smaller storage room set within the building. The contraband room. In the center was a man who had been tied to a chair and beaten. He glanced up at them with his one unswollen eye, then back down at the ground.

  “We laid a trap to catch our rat,” Wu Lin explained. “Set up a fake order to Tokyo with the kind of stuff you normally purchase. Then we scanned everyone who helped to load it. This asshole tried to sneak a homemade explosive with a timer on board.”

  “Dammit,” Tengu said. “He one of yours?”

  “One of yours. So to speak. He’s originally Japanese. Working here maybe six months.”

  “You don’t check your guys?” Lee asked.

  “Not when they’re vouched for.”

  “Who vouched for him?”

  “Some of our boys in Osaka.”

  “Triads?”

  Wu Lin nodded.

  “Why?” Tengu asked.

  “He wouldn’t tell us. Despite our … persuasiveness.”

  Tengu leaned down in front of the battered man. He began speaking to him in Japanese.

  “So … you’ve been blowing up our shipments, huh?”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Uh-huh. You know, you killed a lot of people with that stunt. You very nearly killed a good friend of mine.”

  No response.

  “He’s a tough one,” Wu Lin said. “Wouldn’t tell us shit.”

  Tengu noticed that the man was inked up. He lifted his shirt.

  “Tough. But stupid. Look at this.”

  He pointed at a tattoo on the man’s upper right chest.

  玄軍

  “I can’t read that bastardized kanji shit,” Wu Lin said. “What does it say?”

  “Dark Army,” Lee said, wide-eyed. “This man’s with the Dark Army.”

  “Mei? What time is it?”

  “Hi, Dad, sorry for calling so early.”

  “Everything alright?”

  Her father sounded groggy but seemed to be waking up quickly. He knew what an
early-morning call from her meant. It was something of a tradition between them.

  When he was a cop, he used to wake her early in the morning some days. He would say goodbye, then tell her he loved her and that he was proud of her, ending in an awkward hug. These incidents always confused her, until she realized what they meant.

  Because on one of these days, he didn’t come home for dinner, showing up later with two of his men helping him through the door. He had been stabbed on an arrest that had gone wrong. For the first time, Mei realized he was saying goodbye in case he didn’t come back.

  When Mei had become a cop, she’d continued the tradition. Even throughout the years of their strained relationship, she would call on mornings when she had to make an arrest, or take part in a raid or some other dangerous assignment. She didn’t like the idea of going out to them without saying goodbye first. Just in case. It was a strange ritual to outsiders, but to cop families, it made perfect sense.

  “Fine, Dad, fine. I just wanted to say we’ve got arrest warrants for the men we’ve been tracking. We’ll be heading out to begin surveillance soon.”

  “Oh … oh! That’s great news! Congratulations on cracking it, I knew you would.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “I mean it. You were given a pretty thankless assignment with not much in the way of leads. Yet you still managed to crack it open.”

  Mei thanked her dad again. But her mind was elsewhere. She hadn’t cracked this case. At least, not on her own. Kameko deserved much of the credit, not to mention the tips she had gotten indirectly from Satoshi. In fact, without Vasili and his organization aiding her, she’d still be scratching around, frantically trying to find a cold trail. She felt bad now that she had ever doubted them. They had been instrumental in stopping these killers, and no one would ever know. No one could ever know.

  “Today … will it be … dangerous?”

  “I don’t know. We’re setting up early, hoping to catch them unaware. So hopefully it won’t be too bad.”

  “Okay, honey. Be safe. Call me first chance you get.”

  “I will, Dad.”

  “And Mei?”

  “Yeah, Dad?”

  “I’m proud of you.”