Tanaka didn't know why his luck was turning out so bad these past couple of weeks. It was once all looking bright for him and his team. Stocks in their military arm were going up, and public perception viewed them as protectors for the first time in literal years, with a marked forty-seven percent approval rating, a number only seen previously in the 2000s before the advent of anti-corporation actors like those detestable "music" groups of the 2020s. Those rockers had caused PR to drop somewhere in the twenty percent range, and it stayed that way for an extended period of time. Until recently that is.
Yes, things were looking up, until one fateful day, a request dropped from up on high. A lead executive from counter-intel, and not just a lead executive, but THE lead executive was supposedly taking a vacation from his duties for a few months. As such, some duties fell down to him and his batch of workers. As CounterIntelligence was essentially the special forces of Arasaka, they usually kept to themselves and transported their own weapons and equipment using their own resources. And yet this…Sparda requested that the regular military asset branch be the ones to deliver their equipment to their many cells in and out of the city. It was a strange request, but Tanaka could not refuse the order given by the enigmatic head of the CI branch.
Two years ago, he'd heard reports of how as soon as Vergil Sparda was positioned as a vice-captain, the previous director and long-time colleague and friend Tsubashi Ken was found dead, killed in a truly gruesome manner, alongside ten others. Not to mention Susan Abernathy, another person who was incumbent to the vice director seat, was found with her throat slit and disemboweled, and left out to die in a ditch off of the main highway in Watson. And that was merely the start.
More months followed and many branches of Arasaka in Night City found fewer and fewer employees in their roster, from the lowly hospitality branch to even the diplomacy and foreign affairs branch. Members were found dead in their homes, kidnapped, or given to mercs to do whatever they pleased. Many suits now looked behind themselves, wondering if the Arasaka ninjas were to flatline them next. Complaints were sent, some straight to the Arasaka's themselves, but the response… was bone-chilling, to say the least.
"Sometimes, one has to trim the fat." was basically the response given by the emperor himself. And it seemed as if Sparda was the knife to do so. Looking into their deaths, one only found corruption and shady backdoor deals dotting their careers, and the complaints fizzled into the air like flies to an electric trap. A great purge, one akin to the purges in the 1920s and 1930s was happening in Arasaka's own backyard.
Sparda's reputation as a cold-blooded killer and master assassin sent whispers through the city. Some even regarded the mysterious figure with numerous nicknames. One such being was "the Dark Slayer." Sparda didn't stop there. After "trimming the fat", he had set his sights onto the streets. The areas under Arasaka's jurisdiction were essentially crime free. No one saw how, but all drug and gang-related violence were wiped straight off the map in areas like Corpo Plaza. Even other corporations such as Militech and Biotechnica had to bend to Arasaka's will when it came to establishing law and order in the city.
In short, the new regime was ruthless. And as such, Tanaka endeavored to do his task to the best of his abilities. Not one step out of line, all military assets accounted for. Things were going well… the shipments of counter-intel grade equipment were safely shipped to and from caches around the city. Until…weeks later, the gang wars and senseless violence erupted once more.
The lack of the so-called "Dark Slayer" of Night City was felt. Rampant violence was renewed in the city, two weeks after the reclusive man had left. And all hell broke loose. The shadow that had the crooks and rogues shaking in fear had disappeared into the night. And right with him left law and order.
To be fair, it wasn't all bad. The first few weeks of escalating violence were handled well, with Sparda's underlings in counter intel and Arasaka ninjas in his employ deployed in key locations to assist in the transfer of equipment. That was until his attention became divided.
That damn brat struck his son. That David Martinez boy, came into class armed with a military-grade implant and assaulted his son right in front of his entire class. He not only embarrassed his son Katsuo, but his name and house Tanaka. The insult could not go unpunished. Contacting the research and development branch of Arasaka, he painted a target onto the back of the young man. But with his attention suddenly divided, his concentration slipped. Assets began to slip from his grasp, one by one. Caches were suddenly hit, and convoys of equipment were ambushed before they even left the warehouses. Was it interference from other corporations, looking to take down Arasaka a peg or two? Were inside agents leaking information now that the Dark Slayer had vanished? He didn't know, but one thing was certain. Vergil had returned. And he was not pleased.
The reaper had come for their souls. Tanaka could feel the palpable tension in that meeting room. How the walls seemed to enclose upon them, looming over their heads like a prison. It was eight minutes past the scheduled meeting time, and each minute felt like a dam of pressure washing over them. The chamber was silent, with only the sound of rustling clothing, clearing throats, and the droning clack…clack…clack… of the mounted clock.
Tanaka watched each of his colleagues slowly crack under the invisible pressure, their eyes darting back and forth, licking their lips. The assistant who came in earlier had merely stated that her boss would momentarily meet them and was standing in silence in the corner, datapad held in front of her. Was she enjoying their nervousness? Drinking in their despair? Tanaka didn't know. Taking the glass of water set in front of him, he looked to parch his thirst, but found that his glass was already empty from previous sips.
Suddenly, the door swung open, and most of the board members jumped in their seats, clutching the sides of their chairs. All of the attendants immediately stood, head raised but eyes pointed down at the table, as if to avoid looking at the reaper himself. Vergil walked in, gaze immediately fixed on Tanaka. He walked in front of the table, each light but firm step sending echoes down their souls. This was the man who had set Arasaka in Night City up to be a feared entity, even more than before. This was the new boogeyman the many gangs of Night City feared and whispered to each other in stories. And everyone in that room knew that they had failed him.
It was only a matter of time until they were judged and cast down straight to hell.
The man was wearing a rather stylish trench coat, colored jet black with midnight blue accents. The inside vest was of a lighter tone of blue, but one still faded and blended with black. His pants were also of a midnight blue tone, and his boots were of an obsidian color. Platinum buttons dotted his attire, completing the look as a menacing but cool and collected individual. One could say the outfit was rather outdated for 2075 standards, but on a man like this, it fit him perfectly.
Vergil glanced at everyone's faces, mentally making a count of who was present. He noted two vacant seats and signaled Itane to come over.
"The 22nd seat and 54th seat of the military asset board are tardy for this meeting. I want someone to find them and enact liquidation of personnel protocol." He ordered, almost whispering, but due to the acoustics of the room, the order was heard from the back, and all the Corpo's within shuddered. "Liquidation of personnel protocol" was Counter Intel lingo for "I need them dead" and it seemed as if the rest of the suits in that room were to follow. Itane nodded and stepped back, jotting down notes in her datapad before her eyes glowed a dull yellow, indicating she was already contacting hit squads.
One man was already shedding tears, fat drops rolling down his face. Some were clenching their fists so tight, their knuckles were stark white.
"With that nasty business out the way, we can begin the meeting. Sit." He ordered, and all sat down, still boring holes into the table with their eyes. Vergil began to walk to the right of the room, hand touching each of their chair's rim before touching the next, gauging everyone's response. Some jumped in fear when he came up behind them, and others slunk deeper into their seat, their bodies involuntarily distancing themselves from the silver-haired man as a form of self-preservation.
"I assume you all know why you are here?" he asked a question, now fully behind Tanaka's chair, both hands on the top of his seat. He looked around and was greeted with the taste of palpable fear in the air. After ten seconds of letting the question stew in the air, he continued on the offensive.
"Nelson? Atrice? Yaminika? Borus?" Vergil listed some names off, noting how their body stiffened in absolute fear, as if addressing these people directly had stabbed deep within their flesh.
"Yuron? Atwood?...Anyone?"
"..."
Vergil leaned down beside Tanaka.
"What say you, Tanaka? Have you anything to say for your team?
Despite his fear, Tanaka licked his lips and found the courage to clear his throat, which was still parched, and answered.
"Y..you've called the disciplinary meeting t...to inform us of our recent blunders, sir." Tanaka croaked out, and Vergil allowed the answer to ring through the heads of everyone present, before continuing to walk around the table, like a predator hunting its quarry.
"You've the gist of it. But let's be a little more specific. What did I need you all to do for me?" A beat of silence, before a man who Vergil recalled was Nelson, spoke up.
"T…to ferry Counter Intel equipment throughout the c…city sir."
"To ferry Counter intel equipment throughout the city." Vergil parroted, and walked around the room, ending up at Nelson's seat.
"And what, pray tell, was the result of your task?" A moment of silence, before Vergil slammed the butt of his sheathe into the floor below, sinking it 2 inches into the concrete, and causing a large thud to reverberate through the room. Many of the board members jumped in fear at the sudden motion. Nelson himself nearly fainted, being right by the epicenter of the action.
"Forty. Forty percent of monthly assets lost." He hissed. All of the members were shaking like leaves at this point, eyes missing with the glint of life. At this point, Vergil knew that they were desperate. Yet he could not kill any of them, not yet at least. They all had mostly clean records, and he could not justify murdering them in cold blood. That would certainly not look professional in the report that was to be typed up later.
…Unless he could gather confessions. Make a case for their heads. Or at least, some of their heads. Make them snitch on each other. He had already isolated each of them with intimidation, now it was time to divide and conquer. Pulling back slightly, he walked around to the other front of the table, where his empty vacant seat was, and sat down.
"I, of course, will graciously give you all a chance to explain yourselves. This is a disciplinary meeting, not a backstreet assassination. If I like what you have to hear, maybe you'll keep your jobs." …and not lose your lives, was the hidden threat that everyone noticed hidden in his words. Tapping the pommel of his sword with his finger, Vergil waited for the inner snakes in these men to emerge. And soon enough, one struck out.
"It was Tanaka sir! He was the primary allocator of Military and Counter intel assets during the transfers! I was merely an accountant for the numbers sir!" The one Vergil identified as Borus shouted out. He regarded the man with a steely look, before looking around at the others.
"Can anyone corroborate that statement?"
"Yes sir. Tanaka was the one who took responsibility at the start of the operations." Yuron called out, and suddenly everyone but Tanaka began talking at once.
"He was in charge!"
"We were just the collateral sir!"
"Me and Atwood were working on vehicle acquisitions! We had nothing to do with the main transportation of goods, it was all Tanaka's doing!"
As the meeting gradually devolved into chaos, Vergil inwardly chuckled. " They were shaking like leaves earlier, but give them a chance to escape, and now they can't stop talking. I could care less about this farce of a meeting, but watching them cannibalize each other… It's just like the demons back home." Vergil was truly focused on returning home, but progress was slow. No leads, with only a gut feeling that the Yamato was somewhere in Night City. Still, making an appearance that he truly cared about Arasaka would hopefully bear fruit in the form of better resources to comb for his lost possession.
"Enough." and silence reigned once more. Vergil lifted his sword up and laid in on the table, a dull thud sounding through the room. It was time to let the rats go, he decided. Standing up from his seat, he walked to the middle of the table with his arms crossed behind his back, and turned to face them.
"I will confess. I already knew that Tanaka was already in charge. My informants told me as much. Most of you were noncomplicent in the dealings, and as such will be released with a warning. So…consider this your first and final warning." A combination of sheer disbelief and relief met his words.
"Your following wages will be garnished as well, until the assets owed to counter-intel have either been recovered, or paid back. Any other step out of line, and you will be liquidated like your two compatriots at the start of this meeting." Vergil finished, and returned to his seat.
"You may leave. And have a good rest of your day." At these words, all of the military asset board members shot up like rockets and blitzed their way to the exit, tripping up after themselves. They had just met the reaper, and he had decided that it was not yet their time.
"Hmmm… Except Tanaka. You stay." Tanaka was almost out of the door but froze up just like he was struck by a lightning bolt. The feeling of elation, of sheer joy at escaping with his life, was soon snatched from behind by a specter of death. He turned around, and sweat began to pour anew, once again feeling the cold grasp of death. Vergil sat on the other side of the table, his mere presence like cold ice creeping up his legs, and the atmosphere around the silver-haired man was akin to a demonic aura surging around him, suffocating the room. The last of the board members ran out, and the room was left with just Vergil, Tanaka, and Itane.
"I'd like to clear up some of our topics today, if you don't mind. Sit." And Tanaka's body moved like it was on autopilot, before taking a seat directly across from the head of Counter Intel.
"A…about what sir?" he said, licking his dry lips. Vergil shifted in his seat and leaned back, resting his head against his fist.
"Senjuro Tanaka. Your reputation precedes you. Promoted to head of your own division at twenty-four, then to head of the military asset branch at thirty. Not only that, but you're a bit of a noble yourself, no? Your family can trace their lineage all the way back to Feudal Japan, working as vassals for the Shogun himself." Vergil leaned forward, placing his gloved hand on his sword.
"And now, you find yourself working for Saburo Arasaka. Trading one master to another. Ever the little servant, hmm?" Tanaka remained quiet at the jab, eyes intently fixed on Vergil's sword. He'd never seen it, but he'd heard tales of teams of gangs being wiped out by a single strike from the man. How easy would it be for me to die here, he wondered. He wouldn't dare look anywhere else, so as not to offend the cold-blooded monster in front of him.
"Your team threw you to the wolves. Not much for cultivating loyalty?" Vergil cooly questioned, getting up once more and walking to the window, looking out to the plaza below. The digital Koi fish was always a fascinating sight for Vergil, who appreciated the tiny bit of artistic beauty in the rather ugly jungles of steel and concrete.
"Sparda-san… allow me to explain myself."
"That is why you are here, and why I made you stay behind, no? Out with it." Vergil turned back towards his victim and began to pace toward Tanaka, who stood up and bowed.
"Transportation was going well for the first few weeks. And then the gang wars began to resurge after your absence...we could not be there everywhere at on..."
Vergil immediately grabbed Tanaka by the scruff of his neck and hoisted him up.
"Are you blaming your incompetence on me? " Vergil threatened, his power spilling over into his words, and Tanaka's mind blew into overdrive.
"N…no, I would never! I was merely setting up the background for my story! Please!" Vergil considered his words, then threw him clear across the room, right into the wall, which shattered the clock that was mounted there on impact.
"I care not for your stories. Explain why a man with your resume let this affront to business, my business, happen." Vergil collected his blade and walked up to the aging Japanese man, who was still recovering from being thrown, pulling himself up by using a chair as a support.
"My son… who is in the academy…was attacked…" Tanaka wheezed out, and Vergil paused, an incredulous look on his face.
"Your son. What does he have to do with the missing assets?" Using his foot to kick him down and roll over Tanaka, he loomed over him, promising death if he didn't like the old man's answer.
"A boy…his classmate…some street rat attacked him! In the middle of class, no less! Using military-grade enhancements!" Tanaka scurried away from Vergil, and found his back against a wall. Vergil was close to ending him there and then, sword slightly drawn from his sheathe, but paused as he considered the situation.
"Military grade, you say?"
"Yes… a heavy-duty Sandevistan model! And he didn't immediately fry his brain or go insane after using it!" At this, Vergil was surprised. He became intimately familiar with almost every kind of implant usage after his many years working as both a hotshot merc and a director of special forces. He'd seen firsthand how implants could alter one's perception of themselves, the people around them, and indeed reality.
At least twenty percent of cases that actually fell onto his desk were "cyber psychos" who "chromed up" past their breaking points. Reading both medical accounts and philosophical discussions, Vergil surmised that the root cause was both a separation of mind and body from one's own soul. The more one stacked on their metaphorical plate, the heavier the burden. The dissociation of the flesh leads to the mind wandering far from its prison of flesh and bone, and sanity soon follows after. The fact that this boy could use such a taxing implant like the Sandevistan, which affected the entire nervous system, and a military-grade one no less, was rather interesting.
Cyberpsychosis was ever prevalent in this society of circuitry and steel, and Vergil could not help but view the phenomenon as a mirror to his own decisions. The decision to gain power…to forsake parts of yourself to gain abilities… to believe that you are the most powerful thing alive, and throw yourself at the world, only to be shattered and broken into pieces.
" Mundus…" A horrid memory resurfaced, and Vergil pushed it back down. Refocusing on his interrogation, he pulled up Tanaka by his collar and slammed him against the wall.
"That's very interesting, but how does that have anything to do with the situation at hand?"
"I…my attention became divided in finding out more about the boy!" Tanaka blurted out, struggling against Vergil's iron grip. The silver-haired man raised an eyebrow, before throwing him once again, right into the table. On impact, the table broke into two, and the old Corpo slumped down. Tanaka's right arm was short-circuiting, and his neural net was now jittering with warning signs. Vergil walked forward and drew his sword, blade hissing with active electricity.
"Do you mean to tell me that your little feud with a teenage boy cost Arasaka valuable assets for field operatives in the counter-intel division?" Vergil stood over him, sword at the ready, his face expressionless. His eyes glared so intensely, it was like he was boring a hole in the Japanese man's skull. Tanaka, who knew he was at death's door, decided to play his final card.
"S..top! I can help you! I know y..you've been trying to gain access to the R and D's restricted files!" The sword tip embedded itself into the ground to the right of his head, and for a split second Tanaka saw his maker. Breathing heavily, he wiped his forehead of sweat and looked back at Vergil.
The Son of Sparda regarded him with a look of curiosity, and leaned in closer.
"...Speak. How many others know of this?"
"J..just me. As head of the most mobile Arasaka branch, I a..am privy to the ongoings of other d...divisions, and I am r..rather close with the R and D division, seeing as some of them are f..family." Tanaka sputtered out. "Even the spec ops are not immune to c…careless talking."
"...That is true," Vergil admitted after a spell of silence, and withdrew his blade from the ground, before sheathing it in a swift motion. "Very well. You will be more useful to me alive." The director of military assets laid there, breathing hard and elated at the fact that he had managed to escape death twice in a single day. The silver-haired man merely scoffed and signaled Itane over, who had viewed the proceedings with an empty expression.
"You will also keep me informed about this boy. As a matter of fact, show me what you have about him. Jack in." Vergil ordered, taking the data pad from his assistant and handing it over to Tanaka. The old businessman was thoroughly beaten, and would acquiesce at anything to stop the pain at this point.
He wordlessly jacked in using a wire from his wrist, and began to play back the security camera feed from the academy on the pad.
" Check it out, getta load of this guy…" A young blond teen spoke, a sneer present on his face. Another student approached out of the camera's angle and on the screen, and Vergil's eyes opened momentarily when he caught a glimpse of what jacket he was wearing. "An EMT jacket. Not standard wear for Arasaka academy students, is it?" He thought. He'd seen his fair share of EMT responders to many violent altercations and situations, but one woman who wore the jacket stood out to him. Shaking his head at the memory and refocusing, he noticed that the boy's jacket was rather bloody.
"Looks to be like fresh blood… and the pattern around the spine area could indicate improper recovery or installation of the implant. Impressive how he's even standing." The blond was suddenly kicked from his seat, and stood up, enraged at the other teen.
" You gonked Martinez? We're at school! The cameras are right…" and the one he assumed was Katsuo Tanaka as he was the one currently being assaulted, was silenced with a swift punch to the face. "And Martinez… no, it couldn't be" . Vergil thought, and once again shook away a memory from before. As a city in California, there could be literally thousands of Martinez's running around.
Martinez shed his jacket and revealed his implant, a military-grade Sandevistan that was still bleeding from the connections indicating that while fitted properly, the recovery and cleaning procedures did not happen correctly.
" What, you afraid of being caught? Cuz I know I sure as shit aint! Cmon! Well?" Martinez taunted, and Katsuo got up, before activating his fist implants and performing some form of faux martial arts.
" Ridiculous…" Vergil commentated to himself. The Sandevistan on Martinez's back began to glow a turquoise color and in the next second, he appeared on the left side of Katsuo. The boy reared his fist back and delivered a sucker punch to Katsuo's face, sending the Tanaka boy flying into the glass walls of the classroom.
"...Impressive," Vergil spoke after the recording ended. To be able to utilize the implant in combat and still keep standing… despite the lack of experience and still healing from the surgery...spoke to this individual's motivation to prove something.
"D..did you need to see the recording again?" Tanaka offered. Vergil glanced at the datapad, but shook his head.
"No need, I saw everything I needed to see." The Dark Slayer began walking to the exit, but stopped and turned back. "I will contact you when I need the information about the files R and D have tucked near their bosom. For now, I have other matters to attend to." He continued walking, but stopped right at the door.
"Oh… and attend to your wounds. That was a rather nasty fall you took at the stairs earlier, wouldn't you agree?"
Vergil exited the conference room with a swish to his coattails, and Itane followed, leaving Tanaka alone in the trashed conference room.
"... That man, how could he have followed Martinez's movements?" Tanaka thought, shuddering at the sheer inhumanity that the head of counter-intel radiated. " Even I had to slow down the recording to get a good look at what happened, but he…" Tanaka decided to cease thinking about that walking demon. Indeed, it was probably wise for him to get his wounds checked.
—-
Vergil walked back to the bar and sat down, Itane in tow.
"Miyashiki. How much longer till the higher ranking exec meeting?"
"Two hours, sir," Itane answered, pushing up her glasses. Glancing at his neural clock, he mentally calculated how long the previous high council meetings went.
"Send an encrypted message to JW. Be there at nine instead, the meeting might go longer." He ordered. She nodded and moved to jot down the order on her datapad, but it slipped from her grasp, clattering on the floor. Taking a closer look at Itane he noticed her baggy eyes and haggard appearance. It appears that she was also affected by him releasing pulses of his demonic power. Vergil sighed and took the edge off his voice.
"And take a break. I have no need for you for now. Rendezvous at the high council conference hall five minutes before we start." he added, before sitting down in a reclining chair and closing his eyes. Nodding with a small smile, she picked up the datapad, bowed, and left him to his devices, the only sound again being the distant elevator chimes and the sound of Vergil's own breathing.
Alone in his thoughts, he could not help but think of earlier, of that EMT jacket, and of when he first saw a certain woman wearing such a jacket