«» — ALOHA BOOM BOOM — «»
«» Chapter Two «»
«» The Bomb Is Primed «»
o0O¥O0o — A.N — o0O¥O0o
Damn but this chapter and the next are backstory leading to the battle. This here chapter is writ like a film script. You can skip the game if you like but you'll have a rake more fun if you try n play out the film in your mind, as you read along. Okay so, don't fret: Chapter Four etc is all pure high-octane Black Lagoon.
o0O¥O0o — 02 — o0O¥O0o
Lagoon has fallen into a melee between a foolish newcomer and a hotheaded mobster. Only Revy's sharp instincts prevent her and Benny earning a pair of tombstones. Yet so, no instinct in the world could have prevented this firestorm. The roots lie months in the past …
TABLEAU
Close up on a tough, mainframe computer on an anonymous desk in a corner of a room. Plain walls with no distinguishing features. A man's hands are spread over the keyboard. No sleeves or ident signs are visible. Bullets whizz past to thunk into the walls and the edges of the computer. No dialogue apart for text on screen — a message from Roanapur to an unwanted Japan …
To: fujiyamako-kagami
From: mafiamonkey
Nobody here believes in Lazarus. Okajima Rokuro died in the South China Seas. Who'd care to give him a second life?
TABLEAU
P.O.V looking down from ceiling-height over the right shoulder of a young Japanese businesswoman; she wears a heavy white blouse that shows no hint of the bra below. It is part of a business suit; the jacket is draped over the chair she sits in.
We see her torso & face in profile; her black hair hangs to her shoulders in a curling pageboy cut that frames her face. The desk she is working at spreads in front of her and continues at an L to her right; vanishing out of the frame.
The desk holds an ultramodern laptop, files and papers; it is the organised chaos of the intense researcher. Three entirely dissimilar cats lounge about on the desk; it is plain they are all strays, from the various damages they sport.
To the left there is a window with a row of pot-plants. Through it can be seen the skyscrapers of the Modern Tokyo business district; it is clear that she is high up in her own building. The angles of the canyons between the skyscrapers draw the eye to Fujiyama dominant in the distance.
The wall in front of her is covered by notes & pictures of Rock; covering his life to when he vanished. There is also a prominent picture of Rock and Balalaika in Japan. The corporate's well-manicured hands have just finished typing an appeal to Roanapur …
To: mafiamonkey
From: fujiyamako-kagami
Hey, hey, check out the Bentenrai Foundation logo; see how it says "Excellence above Circumstance". Lots, lots of excellent salarymen go to the wall thanks to how hidebound and old-fashioned corporate Japan is. Bentenrai means to give stars a chance to shine. My mission, mine alone is Okajima Rokuro! You say he died in the South China Seas but all, all of the evidence I've got says different. Could be, might be that the identity Okajima Rokuro is dead but not, never the man. Doesn't matter how deep he's buried I won't, will not rest till I've dug him out.
TABLEAUX
The businesslady Kagami is travelling. We see her on a train, then a plane & finally sat at the bows of a ship approaching the Buddha of Roanapur. At every step we see her keep a distinctive briefcase close to her. On plane & boat a runty man is in the background; more of him later. While she sits at the prow & types, two ship's cats are fussed over by her. All the way she is emailing & we see her messages. She is closing in on her quarry Okajima. "Rock" she hasn't heard of. The messages are …
TRAIN —
To: mafiamonkey
From: fujiyamako-kagami
You wonder what I can do for a dead man. With my connections he loses his past; gains an identity; returns to Japan as anyone he wishes with a career and a future.
PLANE — (all cabin decals in Cyrillic) —
To: mafiamonkey
From: fujiyamako-kagami
You'll never, never scare me off by telling me what a warren of demons Roanapur is. I've both a Degree and a Diploma in "Corporate Intelligence Gathering." I know more than anyone, anybody about the gangs that scuttle around Roanapur and their tentacles around the world. I'm smart, I'm prepped, I'm ready. None, not one of your gangs know what's going to hit them; files I've got on them all. I've chips, counters to trade with all of your Changs and Balalaikas.
BOAT —
To: mafiamonkey
From: fujiyamako-kagami
Mafia, my thanks. All the bits, the items you've shared point to Roanapur. I don't, I won't believe it's a half, a quarter as unholy as you say. Whatever, however it's no spot, no home for a man like Okajima. I swear by Fujiyama; on my heart and soul and honour that I will not return to Japan without him.
ROANAPUR TABLEAU
A battered laptop is perched on a round saloon table which is littered with debris, broken glass and one intact & open can of beer. Flames are encroaching menacingly as we see the same bare arms & male hands as before on the keyboard. Text flys across the screen; Roanapur shrugging off Japan …
To: fujiyamako-kagami
From: mafiamonkey
By Fujiyama, don't bring those ideals here; they'll bring a storm down on all our heads. If you aren't gonna believe me take a long hard look at the statue in the bay then turn right around home. Only the lost and broken live in this town that shoots down the Buddha.
TABLEAU
Another shot of the mainframe & the man's hands then the view pulls out to show a Hawaiian shirt and the large hand of a blackman resting on the shirt-shoulder. The next shot has Dutch in the upper corner of the frame, looking down at Benny in the lower corner. Benny has his head turned sideways & up, to reply to Dutch's question.
« Rock isn't gonna be happy, I don't know what I coulda said to give her a proper scare. »
« A hell lot less. Benny-Boy you gotta learn the difference between truth an credibility. Too many layers to your cake so she couldn't swallow it; and do we swallow her story? »
« Unless some ghost is feeding her dirt, her skill's genuine. The junk she's shown me is all top grade; kinda stuff I pull down myself. You know, she almost makes me feel nostalgic; I used to be the same kind of hotshot kid raising a noise. Until the Feds and the Mafia taught me the wisdom of zipping up and keeping my head down. If she goes on this way she's set to drag the world down about her ears. Damn! Hope she has a Revy when she needs one. »
« Fuck that for a sob story Benny; you landed one juicy career with an A1 cool boss. No bitching! So she can walk the walk but who's holding the lead? »
« Well Bentenrai is real an they're in the biz she says. She's sure fanatic enough to work for an outfit like that but there's no way I can tell if she does work there; not with that phoney "Little Mount Fuji" name she's given us. That's not the problem though; I've traced some of her link-ins to offices of Asahi's main rival. »
« Rock's old company! That's troubling. Is she mad enough to come here, do you think? »
« Ah, like I said I couldn't scare her off; but I figure when she spots the buddha an gets a look at the port she'll book a return passage without even getting off the boat. »
« Better hope so; nobody here wants their past dragged up by some crusader. »
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