3
Ryo Saeba raised his Colt Python .357 Magnum nickel-plated revolver with a six-inch barrel. Laying the front and rear sight on the target, he squeezed the trigger. The revolver roared, the recoil of the powerful round bucked the gun on his hand. Downrange, the steel round plate flew backwards and disappeared. Ryo fired five more times and all six targets were down in seconds. He opened the chamber and dumped the empty shells.
"Hey Ryo," Kaori Makimura, his "partner and manager" called out. The tomboyish girl wears her usual short hair loose. "You've been target practicing since morning."
Ryo removed his ear muffs and safety goggles. Standing at near 6 feet tall, the ruggedly handsome private detective or sweeper was known as the City Hunter. He is dressed in the usual red shirt and white suit. Despite his Japanese name, he has Hispanic features that suggested his origins. He is known for his prowess with guns, and not just on the range. There are many criminals that did not live to tell the tale of how good he is.
"That's the last one," he assured Kaori. He took out a speed loader from his shoulder holster. But one of the bullets fell on the floor and he dropped down to get it. Then he saw Kaori's legs…
"Well can we eat our lunch now?" Kaori asked, and then she looked down. Her face blushed as she saw Ryo smiling lecherously while staring at her legs. "You bastard!" she shouted, her knee smacking on Ryo's face.
A few minutes later Ryo is driving his Ferrari with one hand, his left hand holding his bleeding nose. "Jesus, Kaori. I think you broke my nose," he grunted in disbelief.
"Serve's you right," Kaori answered with no trace of regret. "I'm studying Muay Thai, you know."
"Do you have to practice your skills on me?" Ryo said sarcastically.
The two kept on arguing until they reached the Shinjuku Station. "I'll check the board," Kaori said, dismounting from the Ferrari.
"I'll wait here." Of course, this is another perfect time for Ryo to hit on pretty girls around the station.
The City Hunter business is an underground enterprise. And the only way to contact Ryo is to leave a coded message on the blackboard at Shinjuku Station. The code is "XYZ". Kaori went straight to the blackboard and saw the code. "We have another one," she said excitedly. She took the chalk and wrote a coded message. Then she enters the train and went to Akihabara Station, the famous electronics and otaku capital of Japan.
Besides a big building that contains many anime stores, there is a specific landmark, a bronze statue of the world-famous Astroboy. Near here are three public telephone boxes. Only Kaori knows which one is needed for this job. She went inside the third booth. Sure enough, the pay phone started ringing.
Kaori raised the phone and placed it back on the receiver. It rang again and she did it again. When the phone rang for a third time, she answered the phone. "City Hunter here."
"I want to speak to Ryo Saeba," a distinctly female voice said on the other line.
"You have to speak with me first," Kaori insisted.
"Very well. Tell Saeba to see me tonight at Lamborghini Bar in Roppongi. I will be wearing a white hat." The line went dead.
Kaori replaced the phone on the receiver. "Strange," she muttered as she exited the booth.
Ryo pulled up his car beside her. Kaori opened the door and sat on the passenger seat. "It's a girl. She said she'll meet you at Lamborghini Bar in Roppongi tonight."
"Any more?" Ryo asked.
"She said she'll be wearing a white hat."
"That's it?"
"Yeah. No more. I think she'll tell you the mission in the bar."
"No shit," Ryo muttered and drove the Ferrari forward.
Turns out, Lamborghini Bar is quite a chic place. The bar is quite impressive, with a shiny yellow Lamborghini Gallardo displayed on the lobby. Ryo clucked his tongue, he doesn't agree on using high performance super cars as decoration. The restaurant/bar is obviously car themed, with yellow walls and lights.
"I'll be seeing yellow for a week," Ryo said as he dismounted from his Ferrari. He is still dressed on his trademark off-white suit and pants. His Colt Python resting on his shoulder holster under the left armpit, under the right are three speed loaders containing six .357 Magnum jack hollow points each. The shoulder rig disappeared under his jacket. He's also packing a backup revolver on his left ankle, a .357 Smith and Wesson snubnose with an internal hammer.
On his left hand, he is carrying a black briefcase. It was an additional hardware that Ryo thinks he won't need but his friend Umibozu insisted on it. Ryo dropped by Umibozu's house before going to Roppongi.
"What the hell is that?" Ryo asked Umibozu as the fellow sweeper brought out the briefcase.
Umibozu opened it and showed a futuristic-looking submachine gun that looks like an old Uzi but sleeker. The briefcase has a trigger on the handle, allowing the shooter to fire the weapon without opening the case. Ryo's eyes lit up. "Oh shit!" he exclaimed. "Is that the Heckler and Koch MP7?"
"Yes it is," Umibozu confirmed. "This is one of the first owned by a civilian in Japan. Of course, it's illegal." Umibozu smiled on his own joke. "Four point six millimeter armor-piercing rounds firing at 800 rounds per minute. You got the option of 20-round flush fitting magazines of 40-round banana-type magazine."
Ryo, a lover of Magnums and other high-powered firearms, didn't think the tiny 4.6mm rounds the MP7 fire would be substantial, but at least he had a rifle-like weapon in a tiny package.
Carrying the case, Ryo entered the bar. The attendant greeted him which he returned with a smile. His eyes wandered on the tables, and sure enough, a pretty girl wearing red sat on the far corner. A white hat perched on her head. Ryo approached her. "Hello pretty lady, I'm the City Hunter."
"Sit," the lady ordered. Her right hand is under the table. Ryo quickly assumes she's holding a gun, and he has no choice but to follow.
Ryo sat on the chair in front of the woman. A waiter approached and Ryo ordered beer. "So, let's talk business," he said. Damn, she's way to pretty for words, Ryo thought.
"Put that case on the side, and put both your hands on top of the table," the woman said. Ryo followed the instructions. "Make a wrong move and I'll blow your testicles off."
"I'm sure," Ryo said nervously. The prospect of getting castrated with bullets is not appealing to him.
The woman removed her hat, exposing her beautiful features more. Ryo couldn't keep his eyes off her, especially those big brown eyes. They are…captivating. The beer arrived and Ryo took a sip to calm his nerves.
"You can call me Yuu," the woman said. "I'm a former member of the Servants of Death."
Ryo nearly spit the beer, he swallowed it hard. "What? Are you serious?"
"I need your help. My former comrades are certainly going to eliminate me."
"You need protection? Or a passage out of here?"
Yuu shook her head. "No. I want you to help me stop them from killing again. They have more targets, and unless we stop them, Tokyo will be littered with dead bodies."
Ryo sat silent.
"My former comrades are skilled killers," Yuu continued. "I'll tell you everything you need to know. Help me take them down, and if we can, we'll get them alive."
"You said they are skilled killers," Ryo commented. "I don't think we can take them without a fight."
Yuu nodded. "I agree. They will go down hard. But I want to save Minami. She's like a sister to me."
The door of the bar opened and men entered the restaurant. Ryo tensed as the men walked in a formation, obviously searching the restaurant. "Looks like we got company," Ryo remarked, taking his briefcase.
"Akizuki and his men," growled Yuu. "Yakuza goons, armed with guns." Her Berettas on both her hands are cocked and their safeties off under the table.
A waiter approached the group, but one of the goons backhanded him on the face. The other patrons quickly sensed trouble and evacuated the restaurant. The goons saw Ryo and Yuu and they whispered to themselves that their found their target.
Takeshi Akizuki, the yakuza boss, yelled as he pulled his pistol out. "Kill them both!"
.