"Yes?"
"Forgive me, ma'am," Ryou smiles as he gazes on the elderly woman before him. "This is where Kiyomi Saeba lives, correct?"
"Yes, who...?" the woman, in her early fifties, blinks, then her eyes widen as a stab of haunting familiarity crosses her. "Oh, Lord, it can't be...!" she covers her mouth. "Ryou-chan!!"
The sweeper gasps as she nearly kills him with a vize-like embrace. "Dear, what is it?" a man's voice wonders from inside.
"Honey, look, look who it is!!" she grabs Ryou and drags him into the house. "Look who's come back!!!"
In the living room, an elderly man of fifty-five gazes at the taller man before him, then gapes. "God, is it...?!"
"It is, it is!!" his wife nods.
"Who are you?!!" Ryou wonders.
They stare at him, then beam. "Ryou, we're your parents!" the wife points to herself, then her husband. "I'm Ikuko Saeba and this is your father, Yoshihide."
Ryou turns to a wedding photograph, from over thirty years ago, sitting on a nearby mantlepiece. The man in the couple was a lighter-haired version of himself, the woman equal in stature to her groom, possessing a confidant air alien to most Japanese women of the time. Shuddering as pain arcs through his skull, he gasps, a torrent of questions he had inwardly asked for years flooding back to him. Nearly collapsing, he trembles on feeling his mother's comforting touch on his shoulder.
"I never knew...I never thought...I never once wondered...!"
"Ryou-chan," Ikuko sighs, then embraces him...
* * *
"Cityhunter - Grand Finale"
by Fred Herriot
fherriot@yahoo.com
**** **** ****
Parts 1-3 edited by E.B. Kushnir
**** **** ****
Based on "Cityhunter," created by Tsukasa Hojo
**** **** ****
PART TWO - LOST CHANCES
"This, I do NOT believe!!" Miki gasps.
"Believe it!" Kaori sighs while nursing her coffee at Cat's Eye as night began to fall. Ren was now busy getting things moved into the apartment, including her own assistant. "I mean, I never thought that Ryou even had any living relatives, never though to persuade him to investigate..."
"He was afraid," Umibozu sighs.
"Of what?!" Kasumi Asou muses.
"Of losing any relatives he may have left here like he lost his adopted parents in South America," the large warrior sighs, gazing at Kaori. "Not to mention several of his past partners."
Kaori shudders as what always bothered her about Ryou's emotional remoteness began making sense. The man's personal life was edged in the blood of loved ones and good friends, her brother's being the latest. It was a wonder he wasn't committed from being overwhelmed in grief. "I thought you once said that he wanted me to be his 'partner of partners.'"
"I did. I meant it," Umibozu sighs.
"No wonder Ren wants to beef up my training," Kaori stares at her coffee. "I suppose Ryou's got a point, though. Try as I might, I still make a mess of things whenever it hits the fan."
"But you are getting better," Umibozu gazes at her, a rare smile twitching his lips. "Ren is obviously more open to the idea of you being Ryou's partner than Ryou himself, which is why she wants you to improve your skills. You'll have a good teacher, Kaori. You listen to everything she tells you."
"What makes you think she's that good, Umibozu-san?" Kasumi gazes quizzically at him.
"She's Sakuko."
Miki pales. Kasumi and Kaori blink. "What are the Sakuko?" the latter wonders. "I know the Sakuko in history were the laws the Tokugawas passed to keep Western ideology out of Japan, but..."
"They're Japan's version of the KGB's or the DGSE's 'black' intelligence operations," Miki hisses. "They're assassins."
"Masaka!!" Kasumi gapes.
"Not that dark," Umibozu chuckles morbidly. "The Sakuko were an outgrowth of the liberalization movement in the Taisho era. When the leaders of that group were done away with in the 1930s, the others went underground, forming a silent rebellion against the war in China, then against the Americans. After the war, forward- thinking elements in the CIA learned of them and transformed them into an organization that would keep watch over the zaibatsu as the post-war liberalization lost steam as we tried to protect ourselves against Communism." He stares at his wife. "They're the bottom line. If the Sakuko get on your case, you did something VERY bad."
"You ever wondered what happened to that fringe element of the Aum group in Kyoto after the gas attacks?" Miki muses. "Most likely, it was your new employer who did that."
"But they said it was a mass suicide..." Kasumi gasps.
"That's what you were meant to believe," Miki warns.
Kasumi and Kaori exchange looks. "She's THAT good?" the former gapes at her employer.
"Hai, that she is," Miki nods. "Especially if she's been copying knowledge from Ryou."
Kaori shudders. Ren had that steel-like quality, the same icy determination Ryou demonstrated when innocents were hurt or killed. And if she was artistic enough to dress the execution of a dozen Aum cult members look like a mass suicide and made it plausible for the police, she was near or at Umibozu's level! "Wow!!"
"Strange that we've never heard of them before," Kasumi muses.
"You wouldn't," Miki sighs. "The Sakuko are practically a law unto themselves. They answer to the Imperial Palace Agency..."
"To the Emperor himself, you mean," Kaori hums.
"Exactly," Miki nods. "General MacArthur was one smart man when he realized what could happen if the drive to bring to justice those who instigated Nanking, the comfort women problem and other things was ended. So he and Emperor Showa arranged to have the Sakuko be made a branch of the Imperial Palace Agency. They do not report to the Cabinet or the Prime Minister, only to the Emperor. And even with our looking on the Emperor as a normal man instead of a living deity these days, do we question what the Emperor does?"
"Would the zaibatsu question it?" Umibozu adds.
"Whoa!!" Kaori whistles admiringly. "Talk about a blow from the blindside! Who'd ever see it?!"
And that was very true. Even now, with the current Emperor having grown up with the idea of being the "living symbol of all that is Japan," few in the Land of the Rising Sun would pry into the goings on within the Palace. This WASN'T Great Britain and the Imperial Family WEREN'T the House of Windsor. And it obviously worked; Kaori had never heard of the Sakuko before meeting Ren.
The door chimes ring as a young woman in her late twenties with square-cut dark brown hair and glasses over brown eyes, now in a relaxed business suit, walks in. "Good evening, Makimura-san," she smiles at Kaori. "Everything's all set up and ready to go."
"Great!" Kaori stands, then turns to the others. "You folks want to come meet everyone?"
Everyone nods...
* * *
"Who got the press to believe that I leaked the information?!" Commissioner Nogami glares at his top deputies.
"From what we could tell, there's someone new living at the Saeba residence," the chief of the Shinjuku branch sighs. "We're having people look into the files at the property office and the Chamber of Commerce right now."
"That will not be necessary, gentlemen."
Eyes turn to see a wizened sixty year old with balding silver hair and a beaver-tail goatee, sharp black eyes piercing his lined face, step into the office. "Aramaki!" Nogami nearly gags.
"Surprised, Commissioner?" the older man hums, then stares at the other police officers. "Leave us."
They awkwardly withdraw. Aramaki sighs as Nogami sinks into his chair. "What is the Sakuko doing now?" the police officer demands.
Aramaki smiles. Officially, he was His Imperial Majesty's Special Inspector of Public Safety, a respected and legal "spy" for the Emperor whose presence was given the highest level of courtesy by lesser officials. No one in positions of real power who could, with a slip of the tongue, embarrass the Sakuko, knew Aramaki's real story. "We were not impressed when you tried to put the onus on Ryou Saeba for the New Harbour Centre raid, Commissioner. I thought you knew better than that. You were rid of the weapons and dealt a serious blow to fifteen separate groups. Why instigate revenge against someone who seriously undermined those groups' abilities to cause future harm? His Majesty is very displeased."
Nogami sits still, impaled by Aramaki's stare. Even though he was safe from direct repercussions, a whispered word in the Interior Minister's ear by His Majesty would ruin his career. "What makes you think your ninjas can do something about them?"
"We WILL do something about them," Aramaki rises. "Do not press the matter of who now lives in Ryou Saeba's house further, for your sake, Nogami-kun. The matter will be resolved."
With that, the special inspector leaves. Nogami shudders, then deflates in his chair...
* * *
"Well, I did it, Hideyuki-kun," Saeko tearfully gazes at the grave marker before her. "I really fouled things up this time. Damn, why couldn't I've tried to talk to Ryou instead of always playing that game with him? Why...?"
The inspector lowers her eyes. It was getting dark, the kanji for MAKIMURA barely visible from nearby street lamps. It had been so long since she last visited Hideyuki's resting place. Saeko never came when Kaori and Ryou visited the grave, never wanting the younger Makimura to know the depths of feelings she had for her brother. Always keep people guessing your true feelings, an inner voice repeated again and again. Never let them see your heart. Never let them see you vulnerable. Emotions were a fatal weakness, easily exploited by others. Don't let them see YOU.
They were rules Saeko lived by, had lived by for years. Vicious, painful as they were to her heart and spirit, they had helped in a male-dominated world where a woman's place after high school and university was still seen as the home, and certainly not beating the streets hunting Yakuza. She had tried to earn a place in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police on terms of merit, earning the respect of her comrades in arms as she did her job.
It never worked.
"She's the chief's daughter," they said in the locker rooms. She got there thanks to special favours the old man called in.
"She's no REAL cop!" they sneered behind her back.
And never would be.
Saeko spent times alone in her apartment at nights, fighting her heart's desire to rail at the injustice of it all. Many times she failed, weeping herself to sleep, but when the alarm went off the next morning, she regained the strength to deal with the veiled insults and barely hidden disgust.
It was partially because of that she liked working with Ryou. Cityhunter was a man who had seen women fight for their lives in a place where the only rule was survive or die, accepting Saeko on merit, her word on any problem as sacrosanct. It made their game seem more silly especially now, but probably Ryou was, in his own unique way, trying to help Saeko lighten up, feel better about herself. She cared for him all the more because of it.
Saeko feels her mouth twitch in a wry grin. Hideyuki would find it ironic, the way Saeko looked on Ryou. Hideyuki had been told about Ren by Ryou sometime prior to his death, showing him the level of trust Cityhunter gave his partner. Hideyuki had passed it on to Saeko when they were on an infrequent date. It had been a splash of cold water to her, to realize that the man she relied on to handle the special problems...
...was the brother of Saeko's partner and lover in the Sakuko.
Saeko rises, turning back to her car.
It had been seven years since Saeko last called Ren "Angel."
Seven years since she last heard Ren call her "Sparkles."
Seven years too long...
* * *
"***CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATS!!!!!!***"
Everyone turns to see Umibozu collapsed on the floor, passed out after a half-dozen of Ren's brood of fifteen had swarmed the giant warrior when he stepped into the living room. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Ren's assistant Shizuka Nakimura gapes. "I didn't realize Ijuuin-san suffered from ailurophobia."
"He's been slowly trying to overcome it, especially after the problem with that robber at the Cat's Eye," Miki smiles, happy to see how human her husband still was even under his stony exterior.
"Well, we might as well help him out of it," Ren sighs, shooing the loveable scamps away, then kneels beside Umibozu. "Hey, Hayato-kun, Ryou-chan's trying to mokkori Maki-chan again!"
"***WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!***" Umibozu bolts to his feet, his eyes darting left and right, then he clicks back in. "Eh?! Wait a sec'; Maki's with...!!"
Laughter tickles his ears as the cats warily prowl around this giant in their domain, many growling at his rudely throwing them off him. "That got him back up in no time at all!" Miki beams.
"You really are a white knight, aren't you?!" Shizuka sighs, a light flush in her cheeks telling everyone how she thought deep down of such noble men.
"Never mind!" Ren sighs, waving everyone to sit down, shooing the cats away. "Well, now that we're here, let's get something to eat! I'm starved and I haven't eaten anything since before leaving home this morning. It's no wonder I'm so light-headed."
Umibozu tippy-toes through the fifteen balls of mewling fur, sweating as if caught in the middle of a mine field as Kaori calls for take out. Relaxing in a chair, he breathes easy...then jerks fearfully as a white Turkish Angora lands on his shoulder, sniffing his cheeks before rubbing her body over him to claim the giant as her territory. Another, a tabby Maine Coon male, hops into his lap, causing the Angora to spit out, swiping at the tomcat with a paw. The Maine Coon growls, then trudges off Umibozu to relax by a comfortable pillow, leaving the giant in the Angora's "hands" as she assumes the tomcat's place, snuggling herself in the folds of his uniform. *Just my luck!!* Umibozu shudders as he tries to stay upright. *Ryou's sister HAS to be a cat lover!*
Miki steps in from the kitchen, a pot of tea and several cups in hand. She blinks on seeing the cat in her husband's lap, then after placing the tray down by Kaori, marches over. "And who are YOU to flirt with MY husband, young lady?" she hums haughtily.
The Angora growls as the Maine Coon leaps onto her shoulder, purring almost seductively as he wraps his tail around Miki's neck. "Cityhunter, stop being such a flirt!" Ren notices the goings on. "Sparkles, off him. You're making him hyper-ventilate."
"'Cityhunter?!'" Miki blinks.
"'Sparkles?!'" Umibozu feels a wave of calm overcome him.
"Hai," Ren walks over to drag the Maine Coon off Miki. "This one's just like Ryou-chan; a horny stud that always flirts with the girls. As for the one you have, Hayato-kun," she nods to the Angora, "she's like my old action team partner. Ready to paw up to every guy who crosses her path, milk him for all he's worth."
Umibozu then relaxes as Miki lifts Sparkles from him, placing her in her own. A resentful snort blows out Sparkles's nose as she lies in Miki's lap. Ren mounts Cityhunter on her shoulder as she relaxes in a chair. "You named that one after Ryou?" Kaori blinks, then yelps as a calico Japanese bobtail lands hard on her shoulder, then licks her. "Hey!! Cut it out!"
"That's Hammers," Ren points.
"'Hammers?'" Kaori blinks.
"Yeah, she always bops you with her body when you least want it," Ren snickers.
Kaori flushes as everyone laughs, even Umibozu. At that moment, a very stocky Russian Blue plods into the room, then plants himself in a free chair. "And that one?" Miki points.
"Falcon," Ren smiles at Umibozu. "My oldest...but still the best mouser around."
Umibozu harrumphs, trying not to show his embarrassment too much. Falcon is then joined by a slender calico shorthair female. "And that's Cherry Blossom, his steady," Ren smiles at Miki. "After all, what more beautiful tree is there in Japan?"
Miki flushes as Ren introduces the rest: Nurse (in honour of Reika), Black Rose (Kasumi), Cedar (Hideyuki), Sharon (Kikunosuke Fubuki), The Bruce (Robert Harrison), Princess (Angela), Wanderer (Sara Nishikujou), Rose (Bloody Mary), Dancer (Maiko Tsugihara) and Dreamer (Sonia Field). The others are amazed. "That's how much you've been able to sense from Ryou?" Miki wonders.
"Hai," Ren nods. "In fact, it's because of that, I became such a good Crusader in the Sakuko."
"Crusader?" Kasumi wonders.
"In a perverted sort of revenge against those who hunted them over the years, most of the Sakuko's founders were Christians," Ren chuckles. "Catholics for the most part, but Protestants like Shizuka-chan are there, too. It's a good thing; we possess close ties to the Vatican, which, thanks to their own intelligentsia, gives us a very long reach in certain areas. We've always used old Church terms to codify our mission tasks."
"Wow!!" Kaori whistles, then jolts as Hammers bops her cheek. "Learn something new every day. Who've ever think of it?"
"Especially here in Japan?" Miki smiles. "Then again, Ryou is Catholic, isn't he?"
"He was baptised as such when he was in South America. I know he's not a regular church-goer," Kaori nods, no longer feeling lost when speaking of her partner's past. She then gazes at Ren. "Ren, could you tell me what other relatives you have...?"
* * *
"You mean it was my uncle and aunt who were with me?"
"Hai," Ikuko nods as the doctor takes a look at Ryou in the living room of the Saeba home. With the shock of discovering his parents alive awakening his jarred memory, Cityhunter consented to have a doctor examine him...in secrecy and at home; Yoshihide had to drive down to find the doctor in case the phones were bugged. Mami Takagi, a member of the Sakuko's medical wing ("Monks/Nuns" in the group's parlance), was happy to come; she had healed Ren many times and was one of the few in the organization privy to Ren's dreams of her brother. Word was being funnelled back to Tokyo by messenger. "They were missionaries to spread the faith in South America. We've always assumed you were lost with them."
"Until your sister started having visions of seeing you in the jungle fighting that war," Yoshihide sighs. "What was it like?"
*Filthy, boring, hungry, terrifying past any nightmare,* Ryou bites his lips. "Another time, Dad."
"Understandable," Mami sighs. "There are times Ren had nightmares of what she experienced...and she wasn't as active for as long as you were, nor did she experience it at as young an age. I don't blame you for not wanting to speak of it."
"She told you her stories?" Ryou gazes at her.
"Many times. After her lover left to join the Tokyo police, Ren needed someone to be her confidant, the person she could use to de-brief herself, wind down. I stepped into that place."
"You mean Sparkles?"
"Hai...oh, you know her!" Mami blinks, then smiles.
"I've heard of her, felt Ren-chan dream of her a lot," Ryou nods, grinning mischievously. "Most beautiful set of legs there ever was attached to a dynamite body and matched to a razor-sharp mind. That's Ren-chan's usual way of thinking of her."
The doctor laughs, then blinks as a reticent look crosses the sweeper's face. "What is it?"
"I got her into the Sakuko," Ryou bites his lips.
"Ryou!!" Ikuko gasps. "Ren-chan got herself into..."
"No, Mom, I did!!" Ryou sighs, staring at his hands. "When I was in the jungle, the only time I really felt at peace with myself was when I thought of Ren-chan. I told her what I experienced from when I lost my adopted parents, then I learned how to fight...it rubbed off on her!" He then looks at Mami. "Ren-chan was inducted into the Sakuko because she fit the right sort of psychological profile to be an assassin, right?"
"That's right," the doctor nods. "But don't consume yourself with guilt, man. What you experienced is what anyone experiences when their homes and families are ripped away. That's what you and your friends were really fighting for, Ryou...and despite what outside propaganda said at the time, that was a good fight. That's why Ren made herself into something we'd want to fight for us. She wanted to fight for the good things, too. You didn't MAKE her be one of us, Ryou, you INSPIRED her to be one of us. And we, from Director Aramaki down, have always been grateful."
Ryou blinks, then sighs. "Not the gratitude I'd want."
"I know," Mami nods. "But there is one thing all the people know, all the people say, about Cityhunter. He always fights for the little folk, the ones who can't fight themselves. Yeah, he's a would-be Casanova and all that, but when the chips are down, he's there for you a hundred and ten percent. And Ren has done her upmost to be the same, even from her veil of secrecy."
Ryou hums, then gazes out the window at the small farm his parents owned. Simple country farmers, his mother had told him; the family had moved up from Nagasaki, the birthplace of Japanese Christianity, over the last century seeking better land, a place to feel at home. They had held onto their faith throughout centuries of persecution, from the rabid xenophobia of the Tokugawas to the hectic years of the Restoration to the anti-Westernism of the militarists in the early decades of the Showa Age. Many relatives had migrated abroad during those years, mostly to South America, where the faith was strong and allowed them to be accepted. His uncle and aunt had wanted to go there too, keep the links with relatives intact. And they died for their devotion to family.
Ryou sometimes wondered how he was able to learn Spanish AND Japanese in the jungles, how many nisei had been with his rebel battalion fighting the junta that had swept his adopted homeland. He dimly remembered his adopted father, Juan-Antonio Saeba...was he a second or third-generation relative?...telling him that their ancestors had come to see peace and God in America. They found death. A thousand in his village. Five others like it destroyed in a space of several years by a laughing monster many now said was dead, killed in a plane crash when he was caught five years ago.
A monster Ryou now knew was still alive.
"Ryou-chan...?"
"Son, are you alright?"
Ryou gazes at his parents. He'd always known deep in his heart that his relatives were alive; he just never admitted it in public. It was too much a risk for them...and his own peace of mind. Too much death and destruction followed him like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It had all stemmed from that one day, then augmented the day he had fled with the last survivors of his unit to America before the dragnet closed in on him.
He fled. He had run away. And had kept on running.
From Sonia when she lost her dad...
From Mary when she wanted to get out of the game...
From Kaori when she wanted more than just being partners...
"Excuse me," Ryou sighs, rising to head onto the back porch...
...only to have a smaller man in a trench coat waiting for him, a light smile on his face. Two burly men stood behind him, both nearly Umibozu's size and clearly well-trained. "Hello, Ryou," he smiles. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last."
"Oh, Shuntarou-kun!" Yoshihide smiles. "How nice to see you again. C'mon in. Some tea?"
"Please," the director of the Sakuko nods...
* * *
With night having fallen on Japan, it was morning in New York City, the sun shining brightly on a glass-enclosed skyscraper in mid-Manhattan near the Empire State Building. Standing in his office, the chief executive officer of Phelstas-Field Enterprises stares at the teeming masses far below. Somewhere out there, the movie once said, a crime was happening. It was a sorry statement on American society that people could actually take humour at such words, but a nation that prided itself on guaranteeing the personal liberties of its citizens was bound to pay the price for such open-mindedness sooner or later.
Of course, the price could easily be deferred if the right sort of problem solver was around to help, Marcius Phelstas had concluded years ago when he and Kenny Field founded their private investigations firm...and created the concept of the sweeper. Both ex-Special Forces...Marcius a Navy SEAL lieutenant-commander, Kenny an Army Ranger captain...they had worked in many trouble spots, both as military officers and later with the CIA. Having seen the ugly side of humanity for years, they knew if the right sort of force was unleashed at the right place, it would pay off handsomely for society later. Their company, whom they founded with the help of their teammates and warriors from around the world, existed to provide that force to the needy and desperate. It was a costly venture as witness what happened to Kenny, but a worthwhile one.
The door opens to reveal his secretary. "Mr. Phelstas, there's a Mr. Ijuuin calling in from Japan on Line Two."
Marcius blinks, his good eye widening with surprise...he had lost his left eye in his final op for the Company, wearing a patch over it and earning his street name One-Eyed Marcius...then nods. "I'll take it here," he stabs the control on his desk, then looks out the window. "Falcon, it's been a while! How's the missus?!"
"Better than normal," Umibozu's voice echoes over the speaker. "Did you know Ryou had a sister?"
"Kenny told me once about that. Kiyomi's her name."
"'Ren' as her friends know her," Umibozu confirms. "She's a part of the Sakuko, a Crusader. Did you hear what happened at the New Harbour Centre here in town?"
"Came over CNN last night," Marcius sits down. "Did you scope the wreckage after Tokyo's finest screwed up the job? How's Ryou?"
"Don't know where he is, but I know he's still among the breathing; he's way too tough to cash it in so soon. Scoped the place out when Saeko Nogami got me the chance. It appears an old 'friend' of mine might not be with his compadres in Hell."
Marcius' eye narrow. "Our old friend Simon, you mean?"
"Hai," Umibozu growls.
The American chuckles. "Do you think Ryou found out?"
"Probably, which is why he went to take the place down even after doing the initial recce and seeing the size of the OPFOR. If the characters running the place have friends among the breathing, things'll get pretty hectic very quick. You can bet the Sakuko'll be in on it. Want a piece of the action?"
"You're on," Marcius grins. "See you in a day. Looking forward to meetings Mrs. Falcon. Ja nai!"
He stabs the control to cut the line, then turns to see Sonia Field standing there before him, a grim look on the blonde's face. "I take it you want in on this," Marcius gazes at his goddaughter.
"Yeah, I want in," Sonia nods.
"Okay," he sighs. "Call Mary in L.A. and ask if she wants a part. And call Francois in Brussels and see if he can get that extra P80 I wanted to get for Ryou's partner."
"Got it," Sonia runs out...
* * *
"Something bothering you, son?"
Ryou looks up to see Shuntarou Aramaki gazing at him. The two now relax on the back porch of the Saeba home. The director's guards, who both turned out to be pretty smart fellows, and Mami were inside enjoying tea and a late meal with his parents. His parents! They were alive, living a quiet life in Japan with his sister while he was fighting for his life and others, then blazing his own trail. "A lot's bothering me," he sighs. "I wonder if coming here was a smart thing, especially for Mom and Dad."
"You're worried you'll lose them like you've lost many of your other friends and loved ones," Aramaki smiles, sitting down beside the sweeper. "Understandable fear, son. You're caught between trying to form a link with your past and the fear of seeing that bridge burned by the slimebags you've fought since you were a kid. You didn't run away from anyone, Ryou. You were protecting people. You win some and lose some. It's the nature of this game."
"I did run from people I cared for," Ryou sighs. "My first partner, Kenny Field. He was part of the CIA team that got what was left of my unit out of the jungle. I left his daughter in New York orphaned..."
"Not totally; Marcius Phelstas was there. 'Sides, she blamed you for her father's death."
"It wasn't enough," Ryou shakes his head. "Yeah, she hated me. I wanted to give her the chance to resolve it on her own. What she really needed was help in resolving her grief. I wasn't there for her and I should've been. Some way to repay her father for saving my ass from that hellhole."
He then gazes at his hands. "My second partner, Rosemary Moses...Bloody Mary. She got to hate this job, so she wanted out. I wanted her to stay in and I nearly got her killed. Some partner I turned out to be for her. My third partner, Robert Harrison. We parted amicably, but later came together to protect Princess Angela...and he died in my arms. Same thing with my fourth, Hideyuki Makimura; that's after I came to Japan. He died in my arms. I let him die. Now I have his sister Kaori as my fifth partner. Will she die, too?"
"Risk of the job, son," Aramaki smiles. "Stop being so hard on yourself, Ryou. Field knew the risks of the game. He died fighting for what he believed in. Yes, his daughter got the wrong story, but that's life. Moses knew it too and wanted out. You paid her back for your mistake when you helped her husband escape Craip. Makimura and Harrison understood it, too. You can't be a white knight to everyone. Your sister had to learn that, too. It hurt her just as bad. But now, you want to come in from the dark, have something more to your lives than just fighting for the right thing. You have the chance to regain what you've lost, Ryou. Take it before it's really too late."
Ryou gazes at the older man. "Even with Simon Hector Alonzo De Perez still alive?" he mutters, his voice ashes.
Aramaki pales. "Son, if that's a joke, it's not funny."
"I wish it was."
The two exchange a knowing look, then Aramaki rises. "Shun! Takao!!" he barks at the men inside.
"Yessir?!!" they rise.
"Have a moving team up here on the double," the director barks. "I want everything here moved out and shipped to Ryou's apartment in Shinjuku ASAP. You're coming with us, too, Mami-kun. Then I want a Castle team to go to that place and scope it out, make it tighter than Fort Knox!! Move!"
"Hai!!" both men snap, then race off to make calls.
"Oh, dear, another potential hostage situation?" Ikuko yawns.
"Possibly," Aramaki smiles.
"Mom, how can you be so calm about this?!" Ryou wonders, stunned at the cavalier attitude his parents were showing.
"We've been in five crash moves like this because of Ren's work, son," Yoshihide chuckles. "Don't worry; houses and all that can be rebuilt in case the worst happens. Now, who did you get so angry to light the fire under Shuntarou-kun like that?"
Ryou sighs. "The man who ordered the deaths of my adopted parents and the slaughter of my village."
* * *
Umibozu gazes out the window of the Cat's Eye at the growing night, sipping coffee as he pieces his way through a photo album that seemingly had survived more fighting than himself. Damn, he WAS getting old if he was concerned enough..."scared" wasn't the right word...to call Marcius in. But Simon De Perez, known to many in Latin America as Mad Simon, was enough to bring out a lot of concern. If Ryou knew the butcher was still alive, it probably explained why he charged into the New Harbour Centre all alone.
To avenge his adopted parents and settle a score.
Despite his many words on the matter in the past, there did come times when one's morals and emotions did get in the way of the job. When revenge and justice became a viable motive to jump ship and hop to the other side. Umibozu had done that once, when De Perez's forces had unleashed a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the mountain villages, concentrating on the native tribes and the Asian farmers who had migrated to America since the last century.
As a mercenary, Umibozu should've concentrated on getting the job done and ignored bystanders. He couldn't, not with De Perez in charge of his nation's internal security. The man was a mix of a perverted bloodthirsty xenophobe and rabid nationalist, a Spanish- speaking Nazi in the South American jungle. Yet as long as his government was rabidly anti-Communist, they won favour from the idiots in Washington...and won a legitimacy that permitted them to ravage the poor folk virtually unopposed by the rest of the world.
Hayato Ijuuin had gone to America under the umbrella of the Sakuko to train in special weapons skills with the Army's Rangers and the Navy's SEALs. Doing time in Vietnam in the early part of that war, he made a good accounting of himself on five tours with the CIA under the Phoenix Program. He also fought with the large contingent of Korean troops sent there by Park Chung-hee in payback for the American work in the Korean War. They, once they got over their understandable distrust of anything Japanese, gave the big man the Korean version of his nickname, Haebangju. After his time, he took his leave from the Sakuko...this was way before Aramaki's time as Director...and put his services on the open market.
Simon De Perez was his first employer. At first, Umibozu was impressed by the man, an army officer who had trained at a dozen schools across Europe, was fluent in a half-dozen languages and seemed determined to keep the disciples of Marx, Lenin and Mao out of his country. However, Umibozu realized right away that De Perez was far worse for his country than the rebels he fought. In the years he was there, Umibozu encountered real Communists only once. Other times, he was busy fighting armed civilians simply trying to defend their homes and property from being pillaged and destroyed by the government. Among those civilians was a young Ryou Saeba.
When he worked with his company of mercenaries, operations went well, resulting in little casualties with them or with the folks caught in the crossfire. But there were six times when he was tagged with government troops, animals who had no compunction in destroying villages and slaughtering defenceless civilians on a whim. And in those times, Umibozu made very sure they never lived to boast about it in their barracks.
His friends were aware of what Umibozu did and egged him on. They had their morals, too. However, the mysterious disappearances of his best troops was attracting the general's unwanted attention, which soon exposed Umibozu. He would've bought it himself hadn't Ryou's fragmented battalion of rebels and a black ops team from the CIA under Marcius Phelstas and Kenny Field stepped in. His friends tragically paid the price thanks to De Perez's troops right after. But a measure of revenge came later when Washington turned its back on De Perez's government, allowing a reborn rebel army to overthrow him and drive him into hiding, eventually tracking him down and ending his life once and for all...
...or so the world now believed.
Slipping off his glasses, he rubs his eyes, then gazes at the street. He was forty-six right now, married with no kids save a ward in Maki Himuro and an informal ward in Kasumi Asou. Miki wanted to start a family soon; she was thirty-four and sooner or later, her biological clock would tick out. Women were so damn unlucky that way, he had long mused. His eyesight was shot, not getting better; in that fiasco with Kenny's daughter, he nearly killed Kaori with a shot he meant for Ryou. He was still atop his game, but he had to admit, he was mortal. Marcius, someone Umibozu long counted as friend and equal, knew when to quit. Maybe it was time to lay up the gun and allow others to take the field.
The door opens, revealing Saeko. Umibozu gazes at her, noting a determined glint in her eyes. She must have visited Hideyuki's grave sometime earlier. She always seemed much better when she had the chance to be with him. "Hi," she smiles, then blinks.
"What is it?" he wonders.
"I...oh, excuse me!" she gasps, then laughs. "I've never seen you with your glasses off before."
Umibozu blinks confusedly, then chuckles, waving her to a chair. "Coffee?"
"No thanks," Saeko sighs. "I need to get some sleep tonight. Someone barked at Dad's door to get the hounds off Ryou, so it might get interesting sooner or later."
"It will," Umibozu grimaces. "Ever hear of Simon De Perez?"
Saeko blinks. "Mad Simon?! The one you once fought for...and later stabbed in the back," she added diplomatically.
"I was more than happy to do that," he smiles. "He's alive."
Silence. "Here? In Japan?"
"Possibly. That's why Ryou took your job without caring who he was up against. Twenty years ago, De Perez's men killed Ryou's adopted parents and slaughtered his village. I was there."
"And you killed those men in return," she muses. "You saved Ryou's life, probably. No wonder he likes you."
"He paid the favour back when I got caught and was set up to take a fall," he chuckles. "That's when Ryou and I met Kenny Field and his partner. Ever hear of Marcius Phelstas?"
"One-Eyed Marcius? Hai. He's coming here?"
"With friends: probably Sonia Field and Bloody Mary. We'll have to get the Sakuko into this as soon as we can; they're the only ones with the clout necessary to keep the Internal Ministry off our backs and sweep this under the rug," he sighs, then stares at her. "You ever knew Ryou had a sister?"
Saeko pales, then blinks. "She's here?"
"In Ryou's apartment. Before he went into the New Harbour Centre, he transferred his property and company to her...what is it?" he stares at the shocked inspector.
Saeko reaches into her pocket to draw a small wallet. Inside is a picture of a twenty year old Saeko with Ren beside her, looking very much like the working partners and lovers they were in such innocent times. "Angel..."
Umibozu blinks, then grins. "So...you're Sparkles."
"Hai," Saeko smiles, holding up one of her throwing knives. "She called me that because of my ability to use these. 'Very dangerous jewellery,' she said!"
"I admire her taste," he smiles. "Saeko, can I offer some advice to you?"
"What?"
"You're what; thirty right now?"
"Hai."
"Then go be with your Angel," Umibozu stands, slipping on his glasses. "I'm not saying settle down and be a homemaker like your father would want. I'm saying give your life to something other than your job. Just like I should be doing now."
With that, he moves to close things down. Saeko blinks, then stands. "Good night, Hayato," she smiles, then heads off...
* * *
To be continued...
"Forgive me, ma'am," Ryou smiles as he gazes on the elderly woman before him. "This is where Kiyomi Saeba lives, correct?"
"Yes, who...?" the woman, in her early fifties, blinks, then her eyes widen as a stab of haunting familiarity crosses her. "Oh, Lord, it can't be...!" she covers her mouth. "Ryou-chan!!"
The sweeper gasps as she nearly kills him with a vize-like embrace. "Dear, what is it?" a man's voice wonders from inside.
"Honey, look, look who it is!!" she grabs Ryou and drags him into the house. "Look who's come back!!!"
In the living room, an elderly man of fifty-five gazes at the taller man before him, then gapes. "God, is it...?!"
"It is, it is!!" his wife nods.
"Who are you?!!" Ryou wonders.
They stare at him, then beam. "Ryou, we're your parents!" the wife points to herself, then her husband. "I'm Ikuko Saeba and this is your father, Yoshihide."
Ryou turns to a wedding photograph, from over thirty years ago, sitting on a nearby mantlepiece. The man in the couple was a lighter-haired version of himself, the woman equal in stature to her groom, possessing a confidant air alien to most Japanese women of the time. Shuddering as pain arcs through his skull, he gasps, a torrent of questions he had inwardly asked for years flooding back to him. Nearly collapsing, he trembles on feeling his mother's comforting touch on his shoulder.
"I never knew...I never thought...I never once wondered...!"
"Ryou-chan," Ikuko sighs, then embraces him...
* * *
"Cityhunter - Grand Finale"
by Fred Herriot
fherriot@yahoo.com
**** **** ****
Parts 1-3 edited by E.B. Kushnir
**** **** ****
Based on "Cityhunter," created by Tsukasa Hojo
**** **** ****
PART TWO - LOST CHANCES
"This, I do NOT believe!!" Miki gasps.
"Believe it!" Kaori sighs while nursing her coffee at Cat's Eye as night began to fall. Ren was now busy getting things moved into the apartment, including her own assistant. "I mean, I never thought that Ryou even had any living relatives, never though to persuade him to investigate..."
"He was afraid," Umibozu sighs.
"Of what?!" Kasumi Asou muses.
"Of losing any relatives he may have left here like he lost his adopted parents in South America," the large warrior sighs, gazing at Kaori. "Not to mention several of his past partners."
Kaori shudders as what always bothered her about Ryou's emotional remoteness began making sense. The man's personal life was edged in the blood of loved ones and good friends, her brother's being the latest. It was a wonder he wasn't committed from being overwhelmed in grief. "I thought you once said that he wanted me to be his 'partner of partners.'"
"I did. I meant it," Umibozu sighs.
"No wonder Ren wants to beef up my training," Kaori stares at her coffee. "I suppose Ryou's got a point, though. Try as I might, I still make a mess of things whenever it hits the fan."
"But you are getting better," Umibozu gazes at her, a rare smile twitching his lips. "Ren is obviously more open to the idea of you being Ryou's partner than Ryou himself, which is why she wants you to improve your skills. You'll have a good teacher, Kaori. You listen to everything she tells you."
"What makes you think she's that good, Umibozu-san?" Kasumi gazes quizzically at him.
"She's Sakuko."
Miki pales. Kasumi and Kaori blink. "What are the Sakuko?" the latter wonders. "I know the Sakuko in history were the laws the Tokugawas passed to keep Western ideology out of Japan, but..."
"They're Japan's version of the KGB's or the DGSE's 'black' intelligence operations," Miki hisses. "They're assassins."
"Masaka!!" Kasumi gapes.
"Not that dark," Umibozu chuckles morbidly. "The Sakuko were an outgrowth of the liberalization movement in the Taisho era. When the leaders of that group were done away with in the 1930s, the others went underground, forming a silent rebellion against the war in China, then against the Americans. After the war, forward- thinking elements in the CIA learned of them and transformed them into an organization that would keep watch over the zaibatsu as the post-war liberalization lost steam as we tried to protect ourselves against Communism." He stares at his wife. "They're the bottom line. If the Sakuko get on your case, you did something VERY bad."
"You ever wondered what happened to that fringe element of the Aum group in Kyoto after the gas attacks?" Miki muses. "Most likely, it was your new employer who did that."
"But they said it was a mass suicide..." Kasumi gasps.
"That's what you were meant to believe," Miki warns.
Kasumi and Kaori exchange looks. "She's THAT good?" the former gapes at her employer.
"Hai, that she is," Miki nods. "Especially if she's been copying knowledge from Ryou."
Kaori shudders. Ren had that steel-like quality, the same icy determination Ryou demonstrated when innocents were hurt or killed. And if she was artistic enough to dress the execution of a dozen Aum cult members look like a mass suicide and made it plausible for the police, she was near or at Umibozu's level! "Wow!!"
"Strange that we've never heard of them before," Kasumi muses.
"You wouldn't," Miki sighs. "The Sakuko are practically a law unto themselves. They answer to the Imperial Palace Agency..."
"To the Emperor himself, you mean," Kaori hums.
"Exactly," Miki nods. "General MacArthur was one smart man when he realized what could happen if the drive to bring to justice those who instigated Nanking, the comfort women problem and other things was ended. So he and Emperor Showa arranged to have the Sakuko be made a branch of the Imperial Palace Agency. They do not report to the Cabinet or the Prime Minister, only to the Emperor. And even with our looking on the Emperor as a normal man instead of a living deity these days, do we question what the Emperor does?"
"Would the zaibatsu question it?" Umibozu adds.
"Whoa!!" Kaori whistles admiringly. "Talk about a blow from the blindside! Who'd ever see it?!"
And that was very true. Even now, with the current Emperor having grown up with the idea of being the "living symbol of all that is Japan," few in the Land of the Rising Sun would pry into the goings on within the Palace. This WASN'T Great Britain and the Imperial Family WEREN'T the House of Windsor. And it obviously worked; Kaori had never heard of the Sakuko before meeting Ren.
The door chimes ring as a young woman in her late twenties with square-cut dark brown hair and glasses over brown eyes, now in a relaxed business suit, walks in. "Good evening, Makimura-san," she smiles at Kaori. "Everything's all set up and ready to go."
"Great!" Kaori stands, then turns to the others. "You folks want to come meet everyone?"
Everyone nods...
* * *
"Who got the press to believe that I leaked the information?!" Commissioner Nogami glares at his top deputies.
"From what we could tell, there's someone new living at the Saeba residence," the chief of the Shinjuku branch sighs. "We're having people look into the files at the property office and the Chamber of Commerce right now."
"That will not be necessary, gentlemen."
Eyes turn to see a wizened sixty year old with balding silver hair and a beaver-tail goatee, sharp black eyes piercing his lined face, step into the office. "Aramaki!" Nogami nearly gags.
"Surprised, Commissioner?" the older man hums, then stares at the other police officers. "Leave us."
They awkwardly withdraw. Aramaki sighs as Nogami sinks into his chair. "What is the Sakuko doing now?" the police officer demands.
Aramaki smiles. Officially, he was His Imperial Majesty's Special Inspector of Public Safety, a respected and legal "spy" for the Emperor whose presence was given the highest level of courtesy by lesser officials. No one in positions of real power who could, with a slip of the tongue, embarrass the Sakuko, knew Aramaki's real story. "We were not impressed when you tried to put the onus on Ryou Saeba for the New Harbour Centre raid, Commissioner. I thought you knew better than that. You were rid of the weapons and dealt a serious blow to fifteen separate groups. Why instigate revenge against someone who seriously undermined those groups' abilities to cause future harm? His Majesty is very displeased."
Nogami sits still, impaled by Aramaki's stare. Even though he was safe from direct repercussions, a whispered word in the Interior Minister's ear by His Majesty would ruin his career. "What makes you think your ninjas can do something about them?"
"We WILL do something about them," Aramaki rises. "Do not press the matter of who now lives in Ryou Saeba's house further, for your sake, Nogami-kun. The matter will be resolved."
With that, the special inspector leaves. Nogami shudders, then deflates in his chair...
* * *
"Well, I did it, Hideyuki-kun," Saeko tearfully gazes at the grave marker before her. "I really fouled things up this time. Damn, why couldn't I've tried to talk to Ryou instead of always playing that game with him? Why...?"
The inspector lowers her eyes. It was getting dark, the kanji for MAKIMURA barely visible from nearby street lamps. It had been so long since she last visited Hideyuki's resting place. Saeko never came when Kaori and Ryou visited the grave, never wanting the younger Makimura to know the depths of feelings she had for her brother. Always keep people guessing your true feelings, an inner voice repeated again and again. Never let them see your heart. Never let them see you vulnerable. Emotions were a fatal weakness, easily exploited by others. Don't let them see YOU.
They were rules Saeko lived by, had lived by for years. Vicious, painful as they were to her heart and spirit, they had helped in a male-dominated world where a woman's place after high school and university was still seen as the home, and certainly not beating the streets hunting Yakuza. She had tried to earn a place in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police on terms of merit, earning the respect of her comrades in arms as she did her job.
It never worked.
"She's the chief's daughter," they said in the locker rooms. She got there thanks to special favours the old man called in.
"She's no REAL cop!" they sneered behind her back.
And never would be.
Saeko spent times alone in her apartment at nights, fighting her heart's desire to rail at the injustice of it all. Many times she failed, weeping herself to sleep, but when the alarm went off the next morning, she regained the strength to deal with the veiled insults and barely hidden disgust.
It was partially because of that she liked working with Ryou. Cityhunter was a man who had seen women fight for their lives in a place where the only rule was survive or die, accepting Saeko on merit, her word on any problem as sacrosanct. It made their game seem more silly especially now, but probably Ryou was, in his own unique way, trying to help Saeko lighten up, feel better about herself. She cared for him all the more because of it.
Saeko feels her mouth twitch in a wry grin. Hideyuki would find it ironic, the way Saeko looked on Ryou. Hideyuki had been told about Ren by Ryou sometime prior to his death, showing him the level of trust Cityhunter gave his partner. Hideyuki had passed it on to Saeko when they were on an infrequent date. It had been a splash of cold water to her, to realize that the man she relied on to handle the special problems...
...was the brother of Saeko's partner and lover in the Sakuko.
Saeko rises, turning back to her car.
It had been seven years since Saeko last called Ren "Angel."
Seven years since she last heard Ren call her "Sparkles."
Seven years too long...
* * *
"***CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATS!!!!!!***"
Everyone turns to see Umibozu collapsed on the floor, passed out after a half-dozen of Ren's brood of fifteen had swarmed the giant warrior when he stepped into the living room. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Ren's assistant Shizuka Nakimura gapes. "I didn't realize Ijuuin-san suffered from ailurophobia."
"He's been slowly trying to overcome it, especially after the problem with that robber at the Cat's Eye," Miki smiles, happy to see how human her husband still was even under his stony exterior.
"Well, we might as well help him out of it," Ren sighs, shooing the loveable scamps away, then kneels beside Umibozu. "Hey, Hayato-kun, Ryou-chan's trying to mokkori Maki-chan again!"
"***WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!***" Umibozu bolts to his feet, his eyes darting left and right, then he clicks back in. "Eh?! Wait a sec'; Maki's with...!!"
Laughter tickles his ears as the cats warily prowl around this giant in their domain, many growling at his rudely throwing them off him. "That got him back up in no time at all!" Miki beams.
"You really are a white knight, aren't you?!" Shizuka sighs, a light flush in her cheeks telling everyone how she thought deep down of such noble men.
"Never mind!" Ren sighs, waving everyone to sit down, shooing the cats away. "Well, now that we're here, let's get something to eat! I'm starved and I haven't eaten anything since before leaving home this morning. It's no wonder I'm so light-headed."
Umibozu tippy-toes through the fifteen balls of mewling fur, sweating as if caught in the middle of a mine field as Kaori calls for take out. Relaxing in a chair, he breathes easy...then jerks fearfully as a white Turkish Angora lands on his shoulder, sniffing his cheeks before rubbing her body over him to claim the giant as her territory. Another, a tabby Maine Coon male, hops into his lap, causing the Angora to spit out, swiping at the tomcat with a paw. The Maine Coon growls, then trudges off Umibozu to relax by a comfortable pillow, leaving the giant in the Angora's "hands" as she assumes the tomcat's place, snuggling herself in the folds of his uniform. *Just my luck!!* Umibozu shudders as he tries to stay upright. *Ryou's sister HAS to be a cat lover!*
Miki steps in from the kitchen, a pot of tea and several cups in hand. She blinks on seeing the cat in her husband's lap, then after placing the tray down by Kaori, marches over. "And who are YOU to flirt with MY husband, young lady?" she hums haughtily.
The Angora growls as the Maine Coon leaps onto her shoulder, purring almost seductively as he wraps his tail around Miki's neck. "Cityhunter, stop being such a flirt!" Ren notices the goings on. "Sparkles, off him. You're making him hyper-ventilate."
"'Cityhunter?!'" Miki blinks.
"'Sparkles?!'" Umibozu feels a wave of calm overcome him.
"Hai," Ren walks over to drag the Maine Coon off Miki. "This one's just like Ryou-chan; a horny stud that always flirts with the girls. As for the one you have, Hayato-kun," she nods to the Angora, "she's like my old action team partner. Ready to paw up to every guy who crosses her path, milk him for all he's worth."
Umibozu then relaxes as Miki lifts Sparkles from him, placing her in her own. A resentful snort blows out Sparkles's nose as she lies in Miki's lap. Ren mounts Cityhunter on her shoulder as she relaxes in a chair. "You named that one after Ryou?" Kaori blinks, then yelps as a calico Japanese bobtail lands hard on her shoulder, then licks her. "Hey!! Cut it out!"
"That's Hammers," Ren points.
"'Hammers?'" Kaori blinks.
"Yeah, she always bops you with her body when you least want it," Ren snickers.
Kaori flushes as everyone laughs, even Umibozu. At that moment, a very stocky Russian Blue plods into the room, then plants himself in a free chair. "And that one?" Miki points.
"Falcon," Ren smiles at Umibozu. "My oldest...but still the best mouser around."
Umibozu harrumphs, trying not to show his embarrassment too much. Falcon is then joined by a slender calico shorthair female. "And that's Cherry Blossom, his steady," Ren smiles at Miki. "After all, what more beautiful tree is there in Japan?"
Miki flushes as Ren introduces the rest: Nurse (in honour of Reika), Black Rose (Kasumi), Cedar (Hideyuki), Sharon (Kikunosuke Fubuki), The Bruce (Robert Harrison), Princess (Angela), Wanderer (Sara Nishikujou), Rose (Bloody Mary), Dancer (Maiko Tsugihara) and Dreamer (Sonia Field). The others are amazed. "That's how much you've been able to sense from Ryou?" Miki wonders.
"Hai," Ren nods. "In fact, it's because of that, I became such a good Crusader in the Sakuko."
"Crusader?" Kasumi wonders.
"In a perverted sort of revenge against those who hunted them over the years, most of the Sakuko's founders were Christians," Ren chuckles. "Catholics for the most part, but Protestants like Shizuka-chan are there, too. It's a good thing; we possess close ties to the Vatican, which, thanks to their own intelligentsia, gives us a very long reach in certain areas. We've always used old Church terms to codify our mission tasks."
"Wow!!" Kaori whistles, then jolts as Hammers bops her cheek. "Learn something new every day. Who've ever think of it?"
"Especially here in Japan?" Miki smiles. "Then again, Ryou is Catholic, isn't he?"
"He was baptised as such when he was in South America. I know he's not a regular church-goer," Kaori nods, no longer feeling lost when speaking of her partner's past. She then gazes at Ren. "Ren, could you tell me what other relatives you have...?"
* * *
"You mean it was my uncle and aunt who were with me?"
"Hai," Ikuko nods as the doctor takes a look at Ryou in the living room of the Saeba home. With the shock of discovering his parents alive awakening his jarred memory, Cityhunter consented to have a doctor examine him...in secrecy and at home; Yoshihide had to drive down to find the doctor in case the phones were bugged. Mami Takagi, a member of the Sakuko's medical wing ("Monks/Nuns" in the group's parlance), was happy to come; she had healed Ren many times and was one of the few in the organization privy to Ren's dreams of her brother. Word was being funnelled back to Tokyo by messenger. "They were missionaries to spread the faith in South America. We've always assumed you were lost with them."
"Until your sister started having visions of seeing you in the jungle fighting that war," Yoshihide sighs. "What was it like?"
*Filthy, boring, hungry, terrifying past any nightmare,* Ryou bites his lips. "Another time, Dad."
"Understandable," Mami sighs. "There are times Ren had nightmares of what she experienced...and she wasn't as active for as long as you were, nor did she experience it at as young an age. I don't blame you for not wanting to speak of it."
"She told you her stories?" Ryou gazes at her.
"Many times. After her lover left to join the Tokyo police, Ren needed someone to be her confidant, the person she could use to de-brief herself, wind down. I stepped into that place."
"You mean Sparkles?"
"Hai...oh, you know her!" Mami blinks, then smiles.
"I've heard of her, felt Ren-chan dream of her a lot," Ryou nods, grinning mischievously. "Most beautiful set of legs there ever was attached to a dynamite body and matched to a razor-sharp mind. That's Ren-chan's usual way of thinking of her."
The doctor laughs, then blinks as a reticent look crosses the sweeper's face. "What is it?"
"I got her into the Sakuko," Ryou bites his lips.
"Ryou!!" Ikuko gasps. "Ren-chan got herself into..."
"No, Mom, I did!!" Ryou sighs, staring at his hands. "When I was in the jungle, the only time I really felt at peace with myself was when I thought of Ren-chan. I told her what I experienced from when I lost my adopted parents, then I learned how to fight...it rubbed off on her!" He then looks at Mami. "Ren-chan was inducted into the Sakuko because she fit the right sort of psychological profile to be an assassin, right?"
"That's right," the doctor nods. "But don't consume yourself with guilt, man. What you experienced is what anyone experiences when their homes and families are ripped away. That's what you and your friends were really fighting for, Ryou...and despite what outside propaganda said at the time, that was a good fight. That's why Ren made herself into something we'd want to fight for us. She wanted to fight for the good things, too. You didn't MAKE her be one of us, Ryou, you INSPIRED her to be one of us. And we, from Director Aramaki down, have always been grateful."
Ryou blinks, then sighs. "Not the gratitude I'd want."
"I know," Mami nods. "But there is one thing all the people know, all the people say, about Cityhunter. He always fights for the little folk, the ones who can't fight themselves. Yeah, he's a would-be Casanova and all that, but when the chips are down, he's there for you a hundred and ten percent. And Ren has done her upmost to be the same, even from her veil of secrecy."
Ryou hums, then gazes out the window at the small farm his parents owned. Simple country farmers, his mother had told him; the family had moved up from Nagasaki, the birthplace of Japanese Christianity, over the last century seeking better land, a place to feel at home. They had held onto their faith throughout centuries of persecution, from the rabid xenophobia of the Tokugawas to the hectic years of the Restoration to the anti-Westernism of the militarists in the early decades of the Showa Age. Many relatives had migrated abroad during those years, mostly to South America, where the faith was strong and allowed them to be accepted. His uncle and aunt had wanted to go there too, keep the links with relatives intact. And they died for their devotion to family.
Ryou sometimes wondered how he was able to learn Spanish AND Japanese in the jungles, how many nisei had been with his rebel battalion fighting the junta that had swept his adopted homeland. He dimly remembered his adopted father, Juan-Antonio Saeba...was he a second or third-generation relative?...telling him that their ancestors had come to see peace and God in America. They found death. A thousand in his village. Five others like it destroyed in a space of several years by a laughing monster many now said was dead, killed in a plane crash when he was caught five years ago.
A monster Ryou now knew was still alive.
"Ryou-chan...?"
"Son, are you alright?"
Ryou gazes at his parents. He'd always known deep in his heart that his relatives were alive; he just never admitted it in public. It was too much a risk for them...and his own peace of mind. Too much death and destruction followed him like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It had all stemmed from that one day, then augmented the day he had fled with the last survivors of his unit to America before the dragnet closed in on him.
He fled. He had run away. And had kept on running.
From Sonia when she lost her dad...
From Mary when she wanted to get out of the game...
From Kaori when she wanted more than just being partners...
"Excuse me," Ryou sighs, rising to head onto the back porch...
...only to have a smaller man in a trench coat waiting for him, a light smile on his face. Two burly men stood behind him, both nearly Umibozu's size and clearly well-trained. "Hello, Ryou," he smiles. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last."
"Oh, Shuntarou-kun!" Yoshihide smiles. "How nice to see you again. C'mon in. Some tea?"
"Please," the director of the Sakuko nods...
* * *
With night having fallen on Japan, it was morning in New York City, the sun shining brightly on a glass-enclosed skyscraper in mid-Manhattan near the Empire State Building. Standing in his office, the chief executive officer of Phelstas-Field Enterprises stares at the teeming masses far below. Somewhere out there, the movie once said, a crime was happening. It was a sorry statement on American society that people could actually take humour at such words, but a nation that prided itself on guaranteeing the personal liberties of its citizens was bound to pay the price for such open-mindedness sooner or later.
Of course, the price could easily be deferred if the right sort of problem solver was around to help, Marcius Phelstas had concluded years ago when he and Kenny Field founded their private investigations firm...and created the concept of the sweeper. Both ex-Special Forces...Marcius a Navy SEAL lieutenant-commander, Kenny an Army Ranger captain...they had worked in many trouble spots, both as military officers and later with the CIA. Having seen the ugly side of humanity for years, they knew if the right sort of force was unleashed at the right place, it would pay off handsomely for society later. Their company, whom they founded with the help of their teammates and warriors from around the world, existed to provide that force to the needy and desperate. It was a costly venture as witness what happened to Kenny, but a worthwhile one.
The door opens to reveal his secretary. "Mr. Phelstas, there's a Mr. Ijuuin calling in from Japan on Line Two."
Marcius blinks, his good eye widening with surprise...he had lost his left eye in his final op for the Company, wearing a patch over it and earning his street name One-Eyed Marcius...then nods. "I'll take it here," he stabs the control on his desk, then looks out the window. "Falcon, it's been a while! How's the missus?!"
"Better than normal," Umibozu's voice echoes over the speaker. "Did you know Ryou had a sister?"
"Kenny told me once about that. Kiyomi's her name."
"'Ren' as her friends know her," Umibozu confirms. "She's a part of the Sakuko, a Crusader. Did you hear what happened at the New Harbour Centre here in town?"
"Came over CNN last night," Marcius sits down. "Did you scope the wreckage after Tokyo's finest screwed up the job? How's Ryou?"
"Don't know where he is, but I know he's still among the breathing; he's way too tough to cash it in so soon. Scoped the place out when Saeko Nogami got me the chance. It appears an old 'friend' of mine might not be with his compadres in Hell."
Marcius' eye narrow. "Our old friend Simon, you mean?"
"Hai," Umibozu growls.
The American chuckles. "Do you think Ryou found out?"
"Probably, which is why he went to take the place down even after doing the initial recce and seeing the size of the OPFOR. If the characters running the place have friends among the breathing, things'll get pretty hectic very quick. You can bet the Sakuko'll be in on it. Want a piece of the action?"
"You're on," Marcius grins. "See you in a day. Looking forward to meetings Mrs. Falcon. Ja nai!"
He stabs the control to cut the line, then turns to see Sonia Field standing there before him, a grim look on the blonde's face. "I take it you want in on this," Marcius gazes at his goddaughter.
"Yeah, I want in," Sonia nods.
"Okay," he sighs. "Call Mary in L.A. and ask if she wants a part. And call Francois in Brussels and see if he can get that extra P80 I wanted to get for Ryou's partner."
"Got it," Sonia runs out...
* * *
"Something bothering you, son?"
Ryou looks up to see Shuntarou Aramaki gazing at him. The two now relax on the back porch of the Saeba home. The director's guards, who both turned out to be pretty smart fellows, and Mami were inside enjoying tea and a late meal with his parents. His parents! They were alive, living a quiet life in Japan with his sister while he was fighting for his life and others, then blazing his own trail. "A lot's bothering me," he sighs. "I wonder if coming here was a smart thing, especially for Mom and Dad."
"You're worried you'll lose them like you've lost many of your other friends and loved ones," Aramaki smiles, sitting down beside the sweeper. "Understandable fear, son. You're caught between trying to form a link with your past and the fear of seeing that bridge burned by the slimebags you've fought since you were a kid. You didn't run away from anyone, Ryou. You were protecting people. You win some and lose some. It's the nature of this game."
"I did run from people I cared for," Ryou sighs. "My first partner, Kenny Field. He was part of the CIA team that got what was left of my unit out of the jungle. I left his daughter in New York orphaned..."
"Not totally; Marcius Phelstas was there. 'Sides, she blamed you for her father's death."
"It wasn't enough," Ryou shakes his head. "Yeah, she hated me. I wanted to give her the chance to resolve it on her own. What she really needed was help in resolving her grief. I wasn't there for her and I should've been. Some way to repay her father for saving my ass from that hellhole."
He then gazes at his hands. "My second partner, Rosemary Moses...Bloody Mary. She got to hate this job, so she wanted out. I wanted her to stay in and I nearly got her killed. Some partner I turned out to be for her. My third partner, Robert Harrison. We parted amicably, but later came together to protect Princess Angela...and he died in my arms. Same thing with my fourth, Hideyuki Makimura; that's after I came to Japan. He died in my arms. I let him die. Now I have his sister Kaori as my fifth partner. Will she die, too?"
"Risk of the job, son," Aramaki smiles. "Stop being so hard on yourself, Ryou. Field knew the risks of the game. He died fighting for what he believed in. Yes, his daughter got the wrong story, but that's life. Moses knew it too and wanted out. You paid her back for your mistake when you helped her husband escape Craip. Makimura and Harrison understood it, too. You can't be a white knight to everyone. Your sister had to learn that, too. It hurt her just as bad. But now, you want to come in from the dark, have something more to your lives than just fighting for the right thing. You have the chance to regain what you've lost, Ryou. Take it before it's really too late."
Ryou gazes at the older man. "Even with Simon Hector Alonzo De Perez still alive?" he mutters, his voice ashes.
Aramaki pales. "Son, if that's a joke, it's not funny."
"I wish it was."
The two exchange a knowing look, then Aramaki rises. "Shun! Takao!!" he barks at the men inside.
"Yessir?!!" they rise.
"Have a moving team up here on the double," the director barks. "I want everything here moved out and shipped to Ryou's apartment in Shinjuku ASAP. You're coming with us, too, Mami-kun. Then I want a Castle team to go to that place and scope it out, make it tighter than Fort Knox!! Move!"
"Hai!!" both men snap, then race off to make calls.
"Oh, dear, another potential hostage situation?" Ikuko yawns.
"Possibly," Aramaki smiles.
"Mom, how can you be so calm about this?!" Ryou wonders, stunned at the cavalier attitude his parents were showing.
"We've been in five crash moves like this because of Ren's work, son," Yoshihide chuckles. "Don't worry; houses and all that can be rebuilt in case the worst happens. Now, who did you get so angry to light the fire under Shuntarou-kun like that?"
Ryou sighs. "The man who ordered the deaths of my adopted parents and the slaughter of my village."
* * *
Umibozu gazes out the window of the Cat's Eye at the growing night, sipping coffee as he pieces his way through a photo album that seemingly had survived more fighting than himself. Damn, he WAS getting old if he was concerned enough..."scared" wasn't the right word...to call Marcius in. But Simon De Perez, known to many in Latin America as Mad Simon, was enough to bring out a lot of concern. If Ryou knew the butcher was still alive, it probably explained why he charged into the New Harbour Centre all alone.
To avenge his adopted parents and settle a score.
Despite his many words on the matter in the past, there did come times when one's morals and emotions did get in the way of the job. When revenge and justice became a viable motive to jump ship and hop to the other side. Umibozu had done that once, when De Perez's forces had unleashed a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the mountain villages, concentrating on the native tribes and the Asian farmers who had migrated to America since the last century.
As a mercenary, Umibozu should've concentrated on getting the job done and ignored bystanders. He couldn't, not with De Perez in charge of his nation's internal security. The man was a mix of a perverted bloodthirsty xenophobe and rabid nationalist, a Spanish- speaking Nazi in the South American jungle. Yet as long as his government was rabidly anti-Communist, they won favour from the idiots in Washington...and won a legitimacy that permitted them to ravage the poor folk virtually unopposed by the rest of the world.
Hayato Ijuuin had gone to America under the umbrella of the Sakuko to train in special weapons skills with the Army's Rangers and the Navy's SEALs. Doing time in Vietnam in the early part of that war, he made a good accounting of himself on five tours with the CIA under the Phoenix Program. He also fought with the large contingent of Korean troops sent there by Park Chung-hee in payback for the American work in the Korean War. They, once they got over their understandable distrust of anything Japanese, gave the big man the Korean version of his nickname, Haebangju. After his time, he took his leave from the Sakuko...this was way before Aramaki's time as Director...and put his services on the open market.
Simon De Perez was his first employer. At first, Umibozu was impressed by the man, an army officer who had trained at a dozen schools across Europe, was fluent in a half-dozen languages and seemed determined to keep the disciples of Marx, Lenin and Mao out of his country. However, Umibozu realized right away that De Perez was far worse for his country than the rebels he fought. In the years he was there, Umibozu encountered real Communists only once. Other times, he was busy fighting armed civilians simply trying to defend their homes and property from being pillaged and destroyed by the government. Among those civilians was a young Ryou Saeba.
When he worked with his company of mercenaries, operations went well, resulting in little casualties with them or with the folks caught in the crossfire. But there were six times when he was tagged with government troops, animals who had no compunction in destroying villages and slaughtering defenceless civilians on a whim. And in those times, Umibozu made very sure they never lived to boast about it in their barracks.
His friends were aware of what Umibozu did and egged him on. They had their morals, too. However, the mysterious disappearances of his best troops was attracting the general's unwanted attention, which soon exposed Umibozu. He would've bought it himself hadn't Ryou's fragmented battalion of rebels and a black ops team from the CIA under Marcius Phelstas and Kenny Field stepped in. His friends tragically paid the price thanks to De Perez's troops right after. But a measure of revenge came later when Washington turned its back on De Perez's government, allowing a reborn rebel army to overthrow him and drive him into hiding, eventually tracking him down and ending his life once and for all...
...or so the world now believed.
Slipping off his glasses, he rubs his eyes, then gazes at the street. He was forty-six right now, married with no kids save a ward in Maki Himuro and an informal ward in Kasumi Asou. Miki wanted to start a family soon; she was thirty-four and sooner or later, her biological clock would tick out. Women were so damn unlucky that way, he had long mused. His eyesight was shot, not getting better; in that fiasco with Kenny's daughter, he nearly killed Kaori with a shot he meant for Ryou. He was still atop his game, but he had to admit, he was mortal. Marcius, someone Umibozu long counted as friend and equal, knew when to quit. Maybe it was time to lay up the gun and allow others to take the field.
The door opens, revealing Saeko. Umibozu gazes at her, noting a determined glint in her eyes. She must have visited Hideyuki's grave sometime earlier. She always seemed much better when she had the chance to be with him. "Hi," she smiles, then blinks.
"What is it?" he wonders.
"I...oh, excuse me!" she gasps, then laughs. "I've never seen you with your glasses off before."
Umibozu blinks confusedly, then chuckles, waving her to a chair. "Coffee?"
"No thanks," Saeko sighs. "I need to get some sleep tonight. Someone barked at Dad's door to get the hounds off Ryou, so it might get interesting sooner or later."
"It will," Umibozu grimaces. "Ever hear of Simon De Perez?"
Saeko blinks. "Mad Simon?! The one you once fought for...and later stabbed in the back," she added diplomatically.
"I was more than happy to do that," he smiles. "He's alive."
Silence. "Here? In Japan?"
"Possibly. That's why Ryou took your job without caring who he was up against. Twenty years ago, De Perez's men killed Ryou's adopted parents and slaughtered his village. I was there."
"And you killed those men in return," she muses. "You saved Ryou's life, probably. No wonder he likes you."
"He paid the favour back when I got caught and was set up to take a fall," he chuckles. "That's when Ryou and I met Kenny Field and his partner. Ever hear of Marcius Phelstas?"
"One-Eyed Marcius? Hai. He's coming here?"
"With friends: probably Sonia Field and Bloody Mary. We'll have to get the Sakuko into this as soon as we can; they're the only ones with the clout necessary to keep the Internal Ministry off our backs and sweep this under the rug," he sighs, then stares at her. "You ever knew Ryou had a sister?"
Saeko pales, then blinks. "She's here?"
"In Ryou's apartment. Before he went into the New Harbour Centre, he transferred his property and company to her...what is it?" he stares at the shocked inspector.
Saeko reaches into her pocket to draw a small wallet. Inside is a picture of a twenty year old Saeko with Ren beside her, looking very much like the working partners and lovers they were in such innocent times. "Angel..."
Umibozu blinks, then grins. "So...you're Sparkles."
"Hai," Saeko smiles, holding up one of her throwing knives. "She called me that because of my ability to use these. 'Very dangerous jewellery,' she said!"
"I admire her taste," he smiles. "Saeko, can I offer some advice to you?"
"What?"
"You're what; thirty right now?"
"Hai."
"Then go be with your Angel," Umibozu stands, slipping on his glasses. "I'm not saying settle down and be a homemaker like your father would want. I'm saying give your life to something other than your job. Just like I should be doing now."
With that, he moves to close things down. Saeko blinks, then stands. "Good night, Hayato," she smiles, then heads off...
* * *
To be continued...