A trip to Japan, Shadow style (867 hits)
Category: GeneralLabels: Fiction
Rating: 2 on 6 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by shadow (View user info) at 2006-01-27 16:26:56 EST
I've been dreaming of Japan. The black sky of night breaks open with a rush of wind and light. Colors flood into my mind like blossoms carried on the winding breezes of spring. I've been dreaming of a great golden field spotting with small ponds that stretches beyond the reach of my eye. I heard the sweet cluttered chat of a passing crowd on the streets of Itako and felt my spirit lift in the warm light of the sun, that glorious star who sees this land first and smiles on the people therein, such that the sun is deified and kept sacred.
Ah, the time draws nigh!
I was but a child when last I visited Japan, a novice to the language and alien to the culture. My wide blue eyes searched hungrily from sight to sight, greedily taking in the beautiful strangeness of this place, where a kimono is as common as a buisness suit, where history is held high in the minds of natives and pours out at the seams of buildings and shops. In Mito I walked through gardens of barren plum trees in the dead of January, in Shinjuku I traversed the myriad of vendors selling tasty food and kitschy suveniers, tossing coins at the temple and clapping my hands loudly to alert the gods to my presence just as Hiroko-san had showed me.
Years have passed since those priceless days and now I am ready to return to this place with age, experience, and a mission.
The target is Yakuza kingpin Mogi Mitsuo, a ruthless and cut-throat boss who has taken a huge piece of Kyoto's underground pie. He is reportedly responsible for the deaths of over twenty-five men and women either by his orders, or his own hand. Rarely seen in public, but widely feared by the inhabitants (and other gangsters) in his native city, Mr. Mogi made himself an international target when his men killed a pair of British tourists, who were in reality members of Interpol. My mission is obvious: he is to be eliminated.
My flight leaves in two hours.
----------------------------------------------
"Watashi-wa namae o 'Shadow' desu" the language comes to me uneasy at first, long removed from practice but I am relearning quickly. If I want to acquire weapons here, I must speak confidently and with respect. Grammar is key, intonation crucial. I won't even bother to practice accent since my hair and eye color are a dead give-away that I am no native, and I won't be here long enough for it to matter... a shame really, I do miss this place, but I am here for buisness and distractions could compromise my goal.
Moving north to Hokaido, I have a contact there to confirm, then south to Kyoto. I have 72 hours and every moment counts.
The contact proves highly usefull, he's a coward, scared to death of Mogi, but my methods of interogation bring forth the information I need. Mogi is returning to Kyoto from Ibarakiken, where he was on holiday with his young wife. The purpose of said holiday was to procure the rights to a small shipment of Luger handguns, smuggled in and held mainland for sale. Mogi wanted the entire shipment, but was out bid by a rival, Anai Tomiko. She is now missing. One day until he returns to his little mansion, bringing with him a small amry of bodygaurds. Apparantly he has grown paranoid as of late. My best bet is to get in now while security is at a minimum in the empty house, and wait.
Approximately 14 hours to contact.
----------------------------------------------
I entered during the black of night. The pollution from Kyoto's many factories created a thin haze in the sky, enough to block out any extrainious light from the pale stars above. The gate opened to allow a large sedan through, probably part of Mogi's entourage, preparing to welcome their leader home. Rarely does anyone have the resources not only to buy a large two-story home, but also a private bit of land for it to sit on and a fence to protect it. Land is just too valuable in this area for a multitide of single-family homes like back in the states, but this guy had been lining his pocket with blood money for long enough to acquire this lovely place, a real rarity.
I went around back, slipping in over the fence and making my way very slowly through the garden of sculptured plants and water features. Time was on my side and I had no reason to rush and make a mistake. Careful pained progression finally led me to the house's rear entrance, a quick pick of the lock and I was in. I made my way to his bedroom taking note of the various cameras, being careful not to fall into their view. Once in place, I waited.
I hate Waiting. It's my least favorite part of the job but any good hunter will tell you, patience is key to any big-game hunt. A frontal assault would have been suicide, and sneaking in after he had returned would prove nearly impossible with the heightened security, I was confident that I had chosen the best plan, although visits to the restroom prove very tricky in a spot like this. I'll skip the rather boring details of my wait, as I not only had to stay there until he returned but also a further six and a half hours until he settled in for bed. Moving on...
He dressed in western style silk pajammas, and sent his men out of the room. Kicking off his slippers he walked over to his low bed and layed himself down. Slowly he leaned his head back into the oversized pillow of his futon, and began to snore loudly. His young bride was in the next room, her crying whispered softly through the walls. I had been hidden out of sight in corner of his room against the ceiling, suspended lightly but rather uncomfortably by a black nylon harness, his own dark blue silk wall hangings had provided my concealment. I almost fell from my perch in shock when he first turned on the light, thinking I had chosen a too obvious place but he had apparantly been too preoccupied with his head of worries to notice. Luck was in my favor it would seem.
In perfect silence I lowered myself, mulling over my weapon of choice; the gun with silencer might still alert his bride in the next room if his should twitch violently in rigormortis, the needle would require me covering his mouth to prevent the scream as I drove the steel point home, to strangle him meant overpowering him, and he was quite a bit larger than me in girth. All choices would be problematic alone, but if I strangled him while injecting the potasium solution... he would die of a heart attack as soon as he swung at me. That would do.
Still hiding behind the blue silk, I decided to test how heavy a sleeper he was, tossing a small piece of plaster onto his cheek. The piece had broken away from the ceiling when first I had rigged my harness, the noise of which had almost given me away. He continued snoozing without even a twitch. I readied myself, he was lying on his side, so the best approach would be to take him from behind, injecting him in the throat or chest while the other hand choked away his air.
I don't really like to talk about the moment of death... it is something very personal and should be treated with respect. I do not believe it is a thing to boast about, so I will only say that Mr. Mogi accepted his fate like a man, without much noise at all.
Now was the time for speed, my mission finished I had only to escape without being seen and I could go home. I used the small thread of steel from the syringe to bypass the security system on the window. opening it just enough to slide through then closing it behind me. I perched on the small window ledge for a moment to plan my best route of escape when it came to me, a leap to the ground would put me in the line of camera sight from the wall to my left, and there was a new problem... dogs.
I slowly crouched down and using a small mirror, peered into the room below. It was vacant and dark, but the widow would undoubtedly have been wired to the security system, I might as well jump down and wave my arms as the gaurds would likey find me in seconds. Drawing a deep breath, I decided to make a break for it, straight to the fence, up two branches of the plum tree and over. I would have to run... very fast.
I waited until the dogs found something in the far corner of the yard to investigate, then I sprang into action. I leapt down with a combat roll to break the fall and tore off toward the fence. The dogs were on me immediately and I noticed a terrible pain in my shoulder. I had fractured it in a badly placed roll.
After all those hours of waiting I hadn't bothered to limber up before my arial feat which proved to be a near-fatal mistake as the dogs, great black beasts whose breed I couldn't guess, were bearing down on me. I bit into my lip to fight back the crippling pain and picked up my pace. Using only my right arm, unfortunately my weaker arm, I pulled myself up the tree. One of the dogs caught the back of my left leg and sunk his teeth in, growling deeply while the others (two or three?) barked loudly. I had no choice; I drew my pistol in terrible pain and I shot the dog.
Clambering and now more seriouly injured, i overtook the fence and ran. The sidestreets provided a great maze-like cover for my tracks and as the house's gaurds began to file out of the gate in pursuit, I had just enough time to field-dress my leg, which was bleeding but not deeply cut, and get moving again. I don't know when they finally gave up, but I didn't stop running until I reached the outskirts of Kyoto where I had stowed a small cache of clothing in a few locations. Changing quickly in the growing light of dawn, I made my way to the train station and left for Tokyo.
Tokyo is an enormous and vast city, it was easy to find a doctor willing to treat my injuries with the odd explanation that I had been drunk at a club the night before, and attacked by the owner's dog. The fracture wasn't serious, but I took a painful round of medication for rabies, just in case.
The mission finished, I waited until quarantine was lifted and returned home. I think next time, I'd like to go for vacation instead.
User Reviews
Submitted by ess-arr (user info) at 2006-06-07 14:14:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I love the slanted eyes people
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2006-04-10 22:40:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is really late to be reviewing this but I thought this was really good. You should think about writing another one.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2006-03-03 13:59:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I can't believe how few people saw this?!
I get more responses on shit-posts written during my lunch break!
Submitted by williamson (user info) at 2006-01-28 02:03:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 'cause I just went and got my ticket for Japan about 2 hours ago. I'll be there for 11 months in 28 days.
I usually +2 odd uber coincidences like that.
Submitted by firefly (user info) at 2006-01-27 17:10:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-01-27 16:31:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
very nice...a few typos, but good pacing.
Plus, ANYTHING about Japan gets good around here.