“And I’m Masa!”
Hisoka smiled and nodded. She turned towards Satoshi. “Friend of yours?”
Satoshi nodded.
“Well … why don’t you join us?” Hisoka said.
“That would be lovely!” Masa said, sliding in beside Satoshi.
Sachiko did the same next to Hisoka, and the four began chatting. Masa smiled at Satoshi, who just shook his head back.
“Come on, man,” Satoshi said to Masa in a low voice. “I don’t get a night off?”
“What, you don’t want to hang out?” Masa said. He looked hurt.
“I told you I was on a date.”
“And now it’s a double date.”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, I’ve got an idea!” Masa said after a while. “Let’s take this party over to Club VICE around the corner!”
“I’m game,” Sachiko said.
“I don’t know, I’m not much of a clubber,” Hisoka said.
“That’s cool,” Masa said. “You can go home and the rest of us will head over—”
“I think I’ll walk her back, actually,” Satoshi said. “Just to make sure she makes it to the station alright.”
“No,” Masa said, his face falling. “But I got those … um, party favors that you like so much.”
Satoshi shot a look at him.
“Party favors?” Hisoka asked.
“Yeah, here, have one.” Masa flicked a white pill across the table to her.
“What is this? Are these drugs?” She turned to Satoshi. “You do drugs?”
He cleared his throat. Not that he wanted to tell her, but there it was. “I sometimes do, yeah. This is ecstasy. It’s relatively safe. But if you want to go back, I’d understand.”
Hisoka considered this for a moment before responding. “You just swallow it?”
“You want to do it?” Satoshi and Masa both asked in surprise.
She looked to Satoshi and shrugged. “Sure. I trust you.”
“Okay,” Satoshi said, relieved. “Maybe start with half.”
She smiled and bit the pill in half.
“Well, let’s go, then,” Masa said, looking disappointed.
They walked out of the restaurant and headed to the club. His younger self walked in the lead, his arm around Hisoka, the two talking and laughing as they went. Masa and Sachiko followed after them, barely speaking. In fact, Masa looked downright angry as he stared at the two of them ahead.
Satoshi followed after the phantoms until they reached the club. When he saw it was still open, he paid the cover and walked inside. He wandered through the dark club. Driving techno music reverberated off every flat surface at a thousand miles an hour, pummeling the people dancing in the middle of the various dance floors throughout.
He caught up to them in a corner of one of the lounges. He and Hisoka were sitting holding hands and talking intently to one another in rushed voices. They were both sweating, and their pupils were huge. Satoshi (barely) remembered this part of the night as coming several hours later, when they were both feeling pretty good. In the present, the corner was empty of people, which just made it easier to mentally replay the scene.
But now Satoshi’s attention turned to another memory from that night, one he had only been dimly aware of at the time. Masa and Sachiko were sitting nearby. Sachiko kept trying to engage him, but Masa was focused intently on Satoshi and Hisoka. The pills had done little to mellow him out, it seemed. Satoshi walked over to watch them now.
“… like we’re not even here!” Masa was saying. “And we came all this way.”
“Well, I didn’t realize he was on a date at the time. We did kind of interrupt them.”
“Still, what’s wrong with us all just hanging out?”
“We can still talk. I mean, you ask me out and all you end up doing is talking about your buddy. It’s almost like you’d rather be dating him.”
“Shut up, it’s not like that. I just—”
“What? Don’t like him dating?”
“No, it’s just … I don’t know.”
“You don’t like his girl?”
“I don’t know. I only saw her briefly, in the hospital. Hell, he only saw her briefly. He probably wouldn’t have even asked her out if he wasn’t hopped up on painkillers.”
“She seems nice. And if not, it’s his mistake to make.”
Masa barely glanced at Sachiko throughout the exchange. Sachiko tried again.
“Come on! Come dance with me!”
“Yeah. Yeah, let’s do that.”
Masa stood up and walked straight over to the other couple.
“Hey, guys, the main DJ should be starting soon. We’re going to go dance. Come on!”
A sweaty, smiling Satoshi and Hisoka looked up at them, then back at one another and laughed.
“I think we’re good,” Satoshi said. “We’re just going to hang back here.”
“Have fun!” Hisoka said and started giggling.
Satoshi joined her. The smile fell away from Masa’s face. His eyes found Sachiko’s and he jerked his head to go, with one last look at Satoshi and Hisoka leaning in close to one another. As he glanced back, Masa bumped into another clubber walking to a group against the other wall. Masa shoved him roughly.
“Watch where you’re fucking going!”
“Hey, man, what’s your fucking problem?”
The other guy was at least a head taller than Masa and seemed to outweigh him by fifty pounds, judging by the muscles visible through his skintight shirt. Masa responded by decking him. The guy was stunned for a minute, then plowed into Masa. His momentum carried them several feet before they ended up rolling on the floor and throwing punches.
Satoshi watched as his younger, higher self sprang up and ran over to separate the two. After some effort, he was able to pull them apart. He held his hands up to ward off the other guy’s friends, who were hovering around, looking unsure about whether to join the fray.
“It’s cool, guys, it’s cool!” Satoshi said to them before turning to Masa. “Let’s get out of here.”
Masa made another lunge for the guy, but Satoshi anticipated it. With one arm in front of Masa, he leaned in just as Masa lunged, counterbalancing the move and keeping them in place.
“Let me go!” Masa roared.
Still restraining him, Satoshi began walking towards the exit. He turned around and motioned for Hisoka and Sachiko to follow, looking apologetic. It wasn’t until they were outside that he released Masa. Finding nothing of interest in the club, Satoshi followed them out and continued to watch the scene play out.
“What was that all about?” Satoshi’s younger self asked.
“That guy … he pushed me … was trying to start shit, and I …”
“What are you always so fucking angry about?”
Satoshi was still high. He asked the question with more concern than he had usually treated Masa with. At least, that he had treated him with by this point in their relationship.
“Maybe I wouldn’t be so angry if you hadn’t been ignoring me all night!” Masa exploded. “I mean, we go out and you barely say a word to me all night!”
“I was on a date. We came to the club and hung out, but I wanted to see Hisoka.”
“She’s more important than me now? We never hang out anymore!”
“We see each other all the time!” Satoshi said.
By now Hisoka and Sachiko had exited the club into the alley with Satoshi and Masa. Satoshi glanced at them, then back at Masa.
“Look, we’ll talk about this more later, okay? Let’s grab a drink this week.”
Masa just nodded, trying to calm himself. He looked embarrassed by his own outburst.
Satoshi forced a smile at the girls. “Breakfast?”
“I think I’m going to go home,” Sachiko said.
“I’ll walk you to the station,” Masa said.
Hisoka was still smiling from the afterglow of the pill.
“I’m not hungry, but I could g
rab a coffee!”
Satoshi smiled, and the two of them began walking away.
“That was fun,” Hisoka said.
“Did you like the music?”
“I wasn’t really listening. But I had a good time hanging out. Only … your friend seems to be pretty tightly wound.”
“Yeah, he’s been like that more and more lately. And he’s really more like a coworker than a friend.”
Chapter Eight
“Vasili, how are you doing with Yukari’s death?”
“Fine, I suppose.”
Strange way to start a conversation. But then, Eriko was never one to pussyfoot around when a direct attack would work. At least she had let him fix himself a drink and sit down before starting in.
“Really? Nothing you want to talk about? Like that speech you gave at the board meeting?”
“I’m fine. Just working through some things is all.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“Seems I already did. What did you want to see me about?”
“I wanted to talk to you about …” She trailed off when her man Kuroda came in. “Yes, what is it?”
“You have another visitor. Takeuchi is here, asking to see you.”
“I’m not scheduled to see him.”
“No, you’re not. But he says it’s urgent. Says he’s begging for a chance to speak with you at once.”
Eriko grunted. “Can’t see him begging for anything,” she said, low enough so that only Vasili could hear. “Send him in.”
Kuroda bowed, then left the room. The door swung open, and Takeuchi walked in with two of his men.
Takeuchi was an old-school gangster, the kind which this century had little use for anymore. He was in his fifties, with jet-black hair (probably dyed) slicked into a pompadour over a grizzled face that looked like it had hardened into a sneer. His poorly cut pinstripe suits, excessive jewelry, and rose-tinted glasses made him look like he had picked the “Old-Timey Yakuza Gangster” Halloween outfit off the rack and decided to wear it as-is.
Vasili had always found him to be small-minded and myopic, and practically allergic to innovation. He couldn’t wait for the day when Takeuchi and other dinosaurs like him finally died off. Of course, he hadn’t failed to consider that half the younger guys probably thought the same way about him.
Takeuchi’s territory largely corresponded to Ota Ward. This gave him control of the docks along the bay there, and thus a hand in the lucrative import/export business.
He bowed deeply when he approached the table. “Shacho, Vasili. Please excuse the intrusion.”
“I’ll wait to hear what the intrusion is about before deciding that.”
“Of course. Would it be possible to speak with you in private? No offense, Vasili.”
Vasili began getting to his feet, but Eriko waved him down.
“Anything you can say to me, you can say in front of Vasili.”
“Very well. It’s about your son and this hornet’s nest he’s stirred up with the Taira-kai. I was hoping to get your counsel, seeing as how the skirmish is spilling over into my territory.”
Takeuchi had to carefully walk a tightrope here, and he knew it. He was criticizing her son, after all.
“I hate to say it, but Chobei is … unpredictable. He can be a bit overhasty—some might even say brash—in his dealings. And sometimes his responses to problems … lack proportionality.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning he can be a bit … quick to resort to violence.”
“Well, coming from you that is certainly damning.”
“Believe me, it brings me no pleasure to say this to you, shacho.”
No shit, Vasili thought as he watched Takeuchi sweating bullets.
“What do you think?” Eriko said, turning to Vasili.
“I think Takeuchi has the measure of it. I don’t see any good coming from starting war with the Taira-kai.”
“And what would you do about Chobei?”
Slit his throat and dump his body in the deepest ocean trench I could find, Vasili thought. He had tried to move against Chobei and failed. And even now, the proof of his treachery was still out there somewhere. He had to step lightly.
“The boy needs guidance. I think his heart is in right place. But he is sometimes too brash. Is common problem with youth. I’m sure he will outgrow it. But for now he needs people to show him the way.”
“Yes, yes, all well and good,” Takeuchi said. “But that doesn’t solve our problem right now. Every day he continues to antagonize them is a day closer to all-out war.”
Eriko nodded. “I will speak with the boy. See if I can’t beat some sense into him.”
“Thank you, shacho,” Takeuchi said with a bow. “But I fear that more drastic measures might need to be taken, if you don’t mind my saying so.”
“I might mind, depending on what these ‘drastic measures’ you speak of include.”
“All I’m saying is that perhaps the boy shouldn’t be in such a powerful position. Kawasaki City is hard territory even for an experienced boss. Maybe it’s too much for him.”
“Remove him from Kawasaki?” Eriko said. She closed her eyes for a few moments. “I will consider it, after I’ve spoken to him about the matter.”
“Shacho, I don’t mean to speak out of turn. But I fear that we must act decisively now. The Taira-kai are enormous. The bulk of their forces are located in Nagoya, but if they were to move men this way, it could be disastrous for us. We need to do something to mollify them.”
Vasili chanced a glance at Eriko. She was all but breathing smoke.
“I pray you’re not talking about what I think you are.”
“No, no!” he said, holding up his hands. “Only … restitution of sorts. We cannot afford warfare with them. Not now.”
“I will decide that, not you. You say the barbarians are at our borders? Well, you are the border. So hold them.”
“I understand your feelings. And ordinarily I wouldn’t shrink from a fight. But I am not prepared right now. It would not be a good time.”
“And why are you unprepared?” Eriko asked.
“Well, because I was focused on earning. I didn’t know I was going to be dragged into a war all of a sudden.”
“Sounds like the problem is you’re unprepared to defend your territory. Which is one of your primary duties as a boss. And if you can’t do that, then what use are you?”
Takeuchi stood there. He appeared to be weighing several options in his mind. Finally, he chose the safe one.
“I understand. I will recruit more soldiers and prepare myself.”
“Good boy,” Eriko said. “Now run along.”
Takeuchi bowed stiffly to both of them, then took his leave.
Eriko grunted as she watched him walk across the long room. “He can dish it out, but he can’t take it. I swear, I think we’ve all gone soft in our old age. Maybe it’s time for some fresh blood around here. Which is what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh?”
“As you know, I’m dying.”
“So you keep saying.”
“And there will be a changing of the guard soon. A new shacho. I wanted to ask you, how would you feel if it was you?”
Vasili blinked and looked away. He honestly didn’t know how he felt about that.
“And while you’re pondering that question, how would you feel if it wasn’t you?”
Vasili sat there quietly sipping his drink as he considered this. He had toiled for so long setting up his finely oiled machine in the heart of Tokyo, for which it had taken years to calibrate everything just right. Getting the right people in place, learning how to supervise them to get the most out of them, setting up a fine mesh of interlocking business interests spanning both the light and dark sides of the economy. It was a monumental effort. One that he wasn’t sure he could do again across the entire city. Not at his age. Not at a time when he was trying to limit his involvement in the organization. When he wanted
to just put the machine on autopilot and reap the rewards. On the other hand …
“Can I ask who the other options are?”
“You may not. You’re either fully committed or you’re not. And I think I can see which way you’re leaning.”
Vasili nodded. “Yeah, me too.”
“But I have to ask. Why? You’re the obvious choice, and this is the next step for you. I’m offering you the keys to the kingdom. Why not take them?”
“Until recently I would have. But now I don’t think I have it in me to take the reins. I’m happy in my little fiefdom.”
Eriko nodded. “I have to say, your little speech at the board meeting gave me pause. I would have liked to reward your loyalty for all these years. But no use giving a man a gift he doesn’t want.”
“Thanks for understanding.”
“Well, then let me repay it in advice. Sharks like us need to stay in constant motion. Otherwise we die. So my advice to you is: keep moving. The only thing fatal to us is slowing down.”
Vasili nodded.
She smiled wanly. “Oh well. Part of me wanted to see you take the job just to see how you deal with the same problems I’ve had to deal with. You know, just to compare and contrast.”
“Well, here’s one for you. What would you do about Soseki and the Taira-kai? There’s a problem I’ve been dealing with, where I’m not sure of my answer.”
Eriko laughed. “Well, you certainly made me regret those words quickly. Well done. Just how badly did Chobei fuck up with them?”
“Since demanding ‘tribute’ and being rebuffed, there was a gunfight. Which Chobei and his men started, and came out the worse for, from what I heard.”
Eriko rubbed her forehead with one wrinkled hand.
“They are not to be trifled with, the Taira-kai. Normally I would mollify them by giving up one of our own, but in this case …”
Vasili nodded. He couldn’t expect her to give up her only son. Even if he was a fuckup.
“Do you know who the boy’s father was?” Eriko asked, then reconsidered. “Of course you don’t. Chobei himself doesn’t even know.”
“I always figured it was Tanuma. You two seemed like you had a thing going back when you got pregnant.”
Eriko shook her head. “Umeki.”
Tokyo Noir: The Complete First Season Page 56