Tokyo Noir: The Complete First Season

by J. Scott Matthews

  “I know, Dad. Thanks.”

  Chapter Eight

  Satoshi flew through traffic on his motorcycle. His overcoat flapped behind him, slapping against the other vehicles as he tore through the city towards Sengaku Temple. Towards Masa. After seeing the message, he had quickly changed out of his bloody clothes and armored up. He had his normal revolver, as well as a backup affixed to his leg. A sawed-off shotgun was strapped to his back, while his various pockets were stuffed with as many spare shells and magazines as he could reasonably carry. He had a light bulletproof vest over his torso. Not heavy enough to stop most caliber weapons, but it would deflect a glancing blow or shots from a distance.

  He didn’t know what to expect when he got to the meeting point. But he was prepared to kill an army if that was what it took to get to Masa. If anyone noticed the heavily armed man tearing through traffic on his motorcycle, they didn’t mention it. Which was probably wise on their part.

  The traffic whipping by him barely registered. He was oblivious to the danger of how he was riding. It was as if the world around him were quieter somehow. Grayer, farther away, less real. The only sensations that penetrated his brain at this point were the vibrations from the motor beneath him, the wind whipping over him, the acrid taste in his mouth as he chewed the capsule of Dextro-MXE. He channeled his rage and hurt into the throttle of the bike as he tore through the early-morning traffic.

  As he approached, he saw the bright red temple rising through the fog and mist. Once he was in front of the main gate, he cut the engine and jumped off. The motorcycle crashed to the curb as he headed for the entrance. He strode through the gate, removed his handgun, and slapped a magazine in place. He pushed his mask and respirator behind his head.

  The fog was heavy this time of day. It was almost as if it abhorred the vacuum of the clear morning air and had rolled back in to fill it.

  The temple was nearly deserted. His feet crunched over the gravel. Time was beginning to slow as he felt the Dextro-MXE working its way back into his senses after its brief absence. The amped-up feeling of the drug combined with the adrenaline took his mind off his grief momentarily, and put it squarely on the task at hand. The wind picked up, blowing thick, roiling clouds away to expose the temple grounds.

  They were empty. Save for a single man, down on his knees amidst the graves of the Ronin.

  Masa.

  Satoshi approached with his gun drawn and ready. He came right up and put it on Masa’s forehead. His hand shook, but the gun never strayed from from the center of Masa’s head.

  Masa looked up at him and smiled.

  “Do it. I’m ready.”

  Satoshi’s hand vibrated as if of its own accord. He said nothing for a long time. It was a while before he could spit out a question.

  “Why?”

  “We’re even now.”

  “Why her? Why not me?”

  “Because the coin was out of balance. Now we’re even again.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Satoshi screamed.

  Masa just kept smiling. “There’s a kind of brutal symmetry to it. Poetry, even. Now we’re—”

  “Stop saying that!”

  “It’s true.”

  “What the fuck are you even talking about?”

  “Like you don’t know.”

  Satoshi’s breathing was labored, heavy. He regarded Masa warily, not sure what to make of him. Masa was the one to break the silence.

  “I want you to kill me here, among the graves of the Ronin.”

  Satoshi hesitated.

  “But then, I know you won’t. Even now, all I want is death from you, by your hand, here and now. But you won’t give it to me.”

  Satoshi flipped the gun around until it was in his fist. Then he bashed it against Masa’s face. Masa went down to the side. He spat blood over the gravel at his knees. When he righted himself, he came back grinning, looking down the barrel of the gun again.

  “Come on, Satoshi. Don’t fuck up the symmetry. Are you afraid?”

  Satoshi closed his eyes. The gun never left Masa’s forehead. “Of what?”

  “Of what will happen to you when you kill me? I’m curious too. Can just one side of the coin carry on once it’s killed the other side?”

  “Shut up!” Satoshi yelled. “Stop saying we’re the same. We’re not!”

  “Oh, but we are. Face it, Satoshi, I know you too well. Like right now. I can’t help but notice you haven’t killed me yet, despite what I did to Hisoka. Why do you suppose that is?”

  “Fuck you!” Satoshi’s finger flexed against the trigger, then stopped.

  “Can’t do it, can you? Here, hand me the gun. You always needed me to do your killing for you. Even now, with your girlfriend and child painted all over the walls, you can’t kill me.”

  Satoshi hit him with the gun again, this time on the forehead. Masa went down. He pushed himself back to his knees, feeling the fresh cut on his forehead. Then he snapped his hand to flick the blood off it.

  “We just going to do this all day?”

  “No. On your feet.”

  “You want to pose me before killing me? Is that it?”

  Satoshi reached down and yanked Masa to his feet. Then tripped him and sent him to the ground, landing on top of him. He roughly yanked Masa’s hands behind him and handcuffed them together. Then he pulled Masa to his feet again.

  “You know, you really should switch to zip ties. The new ones are almost impossible to get out of. But then, you’re a traditionalist. Work up the nerve to kill me yet?”

  “I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to take you to Vasili.”

  “Ho-ho! Even now you can’t bring yourself to do it. The good soldier to the end, is that it?”

  “This isn’t about following orders.”

  “No, then what is it about?”

  “Vasili’s going to work you over worse than I would. He can hurt you more than I ever could.”

  The smile dropped from Masa’s face and he got up close. He was several inches shorter, but glared up at Satoshi. “No, brother. That’s where you’re wrong. Nothing he could possibly do to me could hurt me more than you have.”

  “We’ll see, then, won’t we?”

  Chapter Nine

  Vasili peered at the dim reflection in the glass elevator as it took him and Kameko back up to the club.

  “So, do you feel the way you look?” Kameko asked with a side glance.

  “Dashing? Charming? Irrepressible?”

  “No, babe, you look like shit. Doesn’t look like you got any sleep at all.”

  “Not really.”

  Vasili had caught a cab home after talking with Mei. He had tried to sleep, but it was no use, so instead he’d settled for just showering and changing before heading back to the club. No rest for the wicked.

  “Big night at the dinner?”

  “You could say that.”

  “Oooohhhh! Tell me!”

  Vasili pointed up. “Wait till we’re upstairs. Jun’ll want to hear this too.”

  “Why not just take the day off?”

  “Eh, what else would I do?”

  “No imagination,” Kameko said with a wicked grin. “Come on, play hooky with me today.”

  “Well … maybe we can cut out early. Come on, Jun’s waiting up there.”

  They exited the elevator and began walking upstairs to his office, nodding to the club manager on the way in. He was seated by the front entrance, tallying the numbers for the club.

  “Morning. Jun’s already upstairs.”

  “Thanks, Karubo. How we doing?”

  “We’re making money. As usual.”

  “That’s what I want to hear.”

  They walked upstairs and nodded to the bouncer, who was sweeping up last night’s glitter, empty cups, and pill bags. Vasili thought he saw an unwrapped condom in the pile of sweepings. He just hoped it hadn’t been used.

  Jun was reading the newspaper when they arrived.

  “O
kay, we’re both here now,” Kameko said. “Tell us how the dinner went.”

  “He hasn’t told you yet?” Jun asked.

  “He was waiting until we were all together. The suspense is killing me!”

  Vasili told them about Eriko’s final dinner party as acting shacho.

  “She poisoned all of you?”

  “A little bit. She’s clever like that.”

  Jun just shook his head.

  “That’s fucking twisted,” Kameko said. “At least you didn’t crack.”

  “I almost did, to be honest. I don’t think even my relationship with her would have saved me then. She’d have had my skin for trying to off her son.”

  “Had your skin metaphorically?” Kameko asked.

  Vasili shook his head no.

  “Well, seems like you dodged the bullet on that whole issue.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Well, she’s no longer boss. She can’t have you killed for it now.”

  “No, but Chobei wouldn’t take it well.”

  “At least he’s not the boss,” Jun said. “That’s something.”

  “Yeah, how do you feel about Uchida?” Kameko asked. “I really don’t know much about her.”

  “She’s smart, and savvy. Whether she will be good boss or not is open question.”

  “How did Yoshii take the news?” Kameko asked.

  “Better than Akiyama did.”

  “Or Matsuo!” Jun added.

  “Ah! It feels good to laugh … about their deaths,” Kameko said with a grin.

  “But we have to be on guard,” Vasili reminded them. “Yoshii may try to come after us. Attack could come at any time and from any …”

  He trailed off when his phone began ringing. “Oh, fuck me,” he said, before answering. “Hi, Chobei, how are you?”

  “Vasili? Where are you?”

  “I’m at the club. Why?”

  “Can I come see you now? Something urgent has come up.”

  Vasili sighed. “Sure, sure. Everything alright?”

  “Just something important I need to discuss with you.”

  “I’ll be here.” He hung up. “Fucking Chobei.”

  “What new failure did he manage to pull off this time?”

  “I don’t know, but we’re about to find out.”

  Chobei whistled as he and his men rode the elevator up.

  “The view from this place never ceases to amaze me. We’ll have to look into taking it over. When the dust settles and Vasili and his people are dead, of course.”

  Tamazaki looked out at the view as well. He was less sanguine than his boss. Mostly because he didn’t know if they could survive this frontal assault or not.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” he tried, one last time. “Vasili isn’t just going to roll over.”

  “There’s a dozen of us. Armed to the teeth. With enough explosives to blast our way into his office, should it come to that. I’m not too worried.”

  “What will your mother say when—”

  “Nothing. The bitch is dead.”

  That took Tamazaki by surprise—and maybe one or two of the others as well. But Tamazaki found it strange that it wasn’t a surprise to more of them. Were they in on it? It wasn’t a good sign that Chobei had kept it from him. Tamazaki had been added to his team by Eriko herself. And now that she was gone, Chobei might try to clean house to get rid of the last of her influence.

  The doors opened and Chobei and his men strode confidently into the club. A man sitting at a folding table by the entrance looked up, only to catch a hail of bullets for his trouble. He went sprawling, leaving a red smear on the wall behind him.

  “So much for his security.”

  They began walking through the heavy black curtains. Almost as an afterthought, Chobei paused and pointed at two of his men.

  “You two—stay here. Kill anyone that comes off the elevator.”

  “What about Masa? He should be on his way up soon.”

  “If he’s part of ‘anyone that comes off the elevator,’ then he’s to be killed,” Chobei said without turning around. “Don’t make me repeat myself again.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “I do not want to be interrupted!”

  “What was that?”

  Jun shouted the words as he leapt to his feet at the sound of the dull report echoing through the empty club.

  Vasili turned to look at the bank of monitors on his desk. “Shit. Chobei and about a dozen of his men. They just shot the manager.”

  Jun sprang up and closed the heavy metal door to the office, locking it from the inside. Soon the barbarians were at the gate. The only thing separating the two parties was the thick metal door and concrete wall between his office and the club at large.

  When Chobei’s faction reached the door, it looked smaller than the group that had stormed the club at the entrance on the monitors. Some of them must have split off. Vasili turned on the intercom system wired to the front of the door.

  “Hi, Chobei. Something I can help you with, maybe?”

  “Sure is, Vasili, old buddy. How about you open this door so we can talk?”

  “We’re talking now.”

  “Face-to-face. I really prefer to do this face-to-face. Because when a coward puts a hit on me—but doesn’t have the decency, or the balls, to do it himself—then I want to look that fucker straight in the face when I kill him.”

  Vasili turned to the Twins.

  “He knows,” Kameko said.

  She and Jun both began checking their weapons. They knew where this was going. Vasili wasn’t even going to bother to deny it. He clearly knew. Chobei wouldn’t have mobilized his entire crew for a full-frontal assault on Vasili without a damn good reason.

  “I want to know why!” Chobei shouted.

  “You know why!” Vasili shouted.

  “I want to hear you say it!”

  Vasili looked at the Twins. Jun shook his head. Kameko made a wanking motion.

  “I hate to be the one to tell you this,” Vasili said into the intercom, “but you’re a little impulsive. You tend to go off half-cocked. Pick fights you can’t win.”

  Chobei smiled on the closed-circuit image. “Oh, but not this time. I’ve got the numbers. And all the time in the world.”

  “I’ve got people racing over here as we speak,” Vasili said into the mic. He turned to Kameko and mouthed, “Right?”

  She was on the phone with someone that sounded like Chieko. She looked up and nodded.

  “Besides,” Vasili said into the mic again, “you’re on the wrong side of that wall.”

  “Not for long,” Chobei said, beaming.

  Vasili watched as his men began taking plastic explosives out of their bags and setting them along the wall.

  Chapter Ten

  “You think they know we’re here?” Kentaro said.

  Mei peered through the binoculars again, sweeping them over the façade of the bar across the street. She was in the third-floor stairwell of a six-story building. Every landing of the staircase was filled with cops staring out the windows on each floor, keeping tabs on the Top Hat bar across the alley.

  “We only grabbed the good doctor last night. So there’s a chance we’ve still got the drop on them. But these guys are quick.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Kentaro said. “Any movement?”

  “Nothing. Not since those last two walked in around ten. The last hour’s been quiet.”

  “What’s that put us at?”

  “Four total. Kaza and another guy arrived earlier.”

  “No one still in there from last night?”

  “Could be. Hard to tell.”

  The building didn’t offer much in the way of visibility. The front window was dirty, with thick burglar bars over it. There were two windows on the second floor, but the blinds were closed tight over them. Figured.

  Mei scanned the periphery. To the left of the bar was a narrow alley, with a four-story building next
to it. She saw a sharpshooter setting up on top of it. She knew there was one other sharpshooter on the roof of the building they were in now. She didn’t like it.

  “Where’s Endo?” she asked Kentaro.

  “Up a floor or two.”

  She found him upstairs, standing on the landing in front of an arcade that had closed down. He nodded when he saw her.

  “What’s with the snipers?” she said.

  He rolled his eyes. “Fucking Ueda. I told him it was overkill, but he insisted. He’s got to justify all the military hardware he puts in the budget. Which means he has to trot it out every chance he gets. See those vans down there? They’re full of riot police sweating through their bulletproof vests right now. Just in case.”

  “They’re police, though, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you’re sure about that?”

  Mei remembered how deferential Ueda had been to Ozaki at their first briefing. She wanted to make sure she knew who they’d be aiming for before she stepped in front of their sights.

  “Don’t worry,” Endo said. “They’re police. I selected them. He wanted to have volunteers from the Dark Army on standby, ‘just in case.’ But I argued him down.”

  “Good man.”

  “When do you want to move, Kimura?”

  She turned to look at him. “Let’s do it now.”

  He smiled.

  She spoke into her headset. “Alright, team, we’re getting ready to move.”

  “Roger that,” came the response.

  Endo bowed to her. “Good work, Kimura. And good luck in there.”

  She bowed back, then began making her way down.

  The entry team began filtering down the stairwell. They hustled across the street and lined up by the building to either side. She and Watanabe were on one side, with Kentaro, Ina, and Kato on the other side. She pressed the button to speak on the headset so she wouldn’t have to shout.

  “Alright, everyone. We’ve got four people inside that we know of. Potentially more if there are any remaining bar staff. I want to see these men stand trial for their crimes, which means we take them alive. So no gunplay. Now—”

  “What if we’re fired on first?” Kato asked.