CHAPTER 1: WILD NIGHT, PART 1
The song faded out and the oh so familiar tune started up. JSR's main theme. It could only mean some comments from Professor K.
"JET SET RADIO!" the familiar voice howled. Gum bobbed her head to the music as she painted, chewing on her namesake. "That was Sweet Soul Brother by Hideki Naganuma! Gotta love that guy!" Gum stopped spraying and set her spray can on the ground. She picked up her backpack and dug around.
"We got the latest word out there on the street for all you suckas! The Rokokku Group has just made a substantial donation to the police department, for increasing their anti-vandalism campaign budget!" Gum found what she was looking for, her can of burnt sienna.
"At this point the keisatsu might as well just stamp 'Rokokku' on the back of their uniforms! Dispel any lack of clarity on who owns them!" Gum picked up the can of indigo she set down and put it back in her bag.
"Captain Onishima says that they're gonna keep increasing the severity of their anti-rudie actions until they start seeing results." Gum placed her stencil to the wall and went back to spraying.
"We're gonna see who's a poser and who's hard-core in the future. Y'all can't give up. Freedom of expression is at stake!" Gum removed her stencil and placed it elsewhere.
"Let's make a deal! You all keep painting those phat lines and I'll keep cranking out the phat tunes!" Gum went back to digging through her pack.
"The litigation to ban magnetic netrium grinding skates is making progress, so all you rudies out there better go buy some while you still can! Stock up on spray paint while you're at it, cause that's probably next on the hit list!" Gum was careful with her spraying as she added a swoosh with fine detail. Gum backed up to look at her work. She was down to finishing touches now. She was doing some moderately detailed stuff tonight. And moderately detailed for her meant extremely detailed for the average rudie. Not that she couldn't grind and bust tricks like a pro, Gum was a painter more than a skater, far and away the best in GG (also the slowest though). A true artist. She loved her gang, but sometimes she needed to get out and do some serious self expression, and on those nights, any company was a distraction. The Noise Tanks had been encroaching on Shibuya-cho lately. All the GGs were busy painting over the tags the Tanks had painted over their tags over the last few days. The others were going for speed, but it'd all be fixed soon enough, so Gum was taking her time. They'd probably end up painting over the quick-fix tags with more detailed murals in the near future anyway, so this was more practical in the long run. The GGs didn't have their own consistent mark, though they'd all go with one thing for short bursts of time. A lot of the time, they just did their own thing, their handle or whatever, as Gum was doing now.
"Heads up all you rudies, cause here's the news!" Gum picked up her paint and skated away down the subway platform.
"In the city of the setting sun, Poison Jam is still cleaning up the mess the GGs made of their pad." Gum smiled as she jumped onto the turnstile and locked her magnetic skates to the bar, carefully balancing as she removed a can of paint from her pack. It was always great to get mentioned on Jet Set Radio. It was the hottest thing in town. Gum chuckled as she thought of that day in Kogane. That'd teach Poison Jam to fill the GGs garage with frogs. Gum began to spray a quick GG tag onto the wall. The mechanized turnstile repeatedly asked for a token over and over, having locked into place and refusing to turn forward, unwittingly making it easier for Gum to balance on it.
"But what're the GGs gonna do about the Love Shockers muscling in on their turf, the city of the day?" Gum finished the final line. She backed up again to admire her work. She was pretty happy with it. She was getting tired, but she managed to keep herself together to finish without getting sloppy. It was late though... time to head home. Gum frowned. What were they going to do to get the love shockers out of Shibuya-cho?
"All right, I'm gonna hit you all with some more from our man Hideki, this is Moody Shuffle. Enjoy y'all, and I'll keep you posted if anyone needs a heads up." As she pondered, she leapt onto the stair railing and decreased the friction on her skates to grind uphill easier. Less than a second later, she heard the familiar sound of netrium skates rail-grinding echoing hers; and as they turned their respective corners, Gum and another rudie found themselves on a collision course.
In the fraction of a second she had to react, Gum came out of her Royal grind and went into a low Roc Mac, trying to get as parallel to the rail as she could. The male rudie unlocked the magnets guiding his skates and jumped, doing a sloppy, crouched forward flip over Gum, planting a hand on her helmet as he went, then landing on the rail on the other side. They both hopped down from the rail and turned to face each other.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" Gum spat at the strange guy.
He closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck, making an embarrassed laugh, "Yeah sorry..." He opened his eyes and snapped his fingers as he had an epiphany. "Oh yeah... you watch where you're going too!"
Gum looked him over. His hair was dyed brown and very wild and spiky. It was mostly covered though by a brown fedora. He had classic earphones with the smaller pads, with a cord and everything leading down to a Walkman on his hip. He was wearing brown dress pants that were all torn up with a white T-shirt with a white long sleeved overshirt unbuttoned over it. The cuffs were unbuttoned and the collar up, and it was torn all the way down one side.. Written all over it were romanji she guessed was probably English. She guessed song lyrics maybe, as they were organized in what looked like verses with an underlined title above each group. Written in bigger letters was "The Weakerthans" on the back, not that she knew what that meant other than that it was probably the band name. There were scrawling lines she recognized as cursive signatures underneath the big letters. The letters were black and all over the shirt, covering it completely, sleeves, collar, everything, giving it a sort of zebra-look. His skates were appropriately black and white. Black fingerless gloves adorned his hand. He was of an average build but very toned, with handsome features. Though it was the furthest thing in her mind at the time, he was quite attractive.
Perhaps realizing what she was doing, she noticed after a minute that he was looking her up and down. She was used to guys doing it, but it still pissed her off. He smiled at her. He was trying to look charming... the fucking nerve of this guy...
"That was a nice move, busting that low grind so I could jump over you. Very slick, you must be quite skilled. Lucky thing you did that. Maybe we have a repor-" he continued.
"I was TRYING to TRIP you," Gum scowled. She couldn't stand this guy objectifying her, and being used for a handplant made her even madder.
"Better me than you, eh?" he did the same embarrassed laugh, closing his eyes and rubbing the back of his neck again. "You're a GG aren't you? I've seen you around."
Gum nodded, "I haven't seen you though. You aren't in a gang, are you?"
"Nope," he confirmed. "I was a Noise Tank and a founding Love Shocker at respective points, but right now this rudie is flying solo. I thought about joining GG, but your art sucks. Your name is stupid too."
Gum grit her teeth, "We all chose our own art, for your information, smartass. And I'll have you know that GG is a fine name." She was even more insulted now, the name GG was partially her idea.
"Is that so?" the boy did his embarrassed laugh again. "This is actually convenient, I was feeling kinda lonely."
"Well good luck with that," Gum grumbled as she ascended the stairs.
"Suit yourself..." the boy called after her. As Gum neared the top of the stairs, she heard the unmistakable rattling of a paint can being shook, and subsequent hissing. She clamored down the stairs quickly and turned the corner. She narrowed her eyes. She gritted her teeth. He was painting over her tag. It had taken her two hours to paint that tag... The paint on it probably hadn't even dried yet. And he was painting over it. He wasn't even doing a particularly good job of it. He'd made a big, boring, white blotch covering everything up, and was now drawing some sort of simplistic, child-level doodle in dull old black. Gum balled up her fist. The hair on the back of her neck was standing on end. She started skating over slowly.
"Hey you!" she yelled.
"Just a second..." the boy reached his arm back and held up an index finger. He didn't stop painting. Gum stopped a few yards away and tapped her foot. After what really was only a couple seconds, he backed away to look at the finished product. Gum looked at it too, with him out of the way. It was the face of a cat. A infantile sketch, two dots for eyes, two angles above for ears, three crossed lines for whiskers. No skill present whatsoever... But while she would never say it given the circumstances, the truth was Gum had to admit it did have a strong charm to it. What was more impressive was how fast he'd painted it. It was there in a flash, Gum wasn't sure she'd ever seen someone do a tag so quickly, even relative to the simplicity of it. She'd seen a lot of these around before on their turf. She'd seen them in Kogane and Benten too, he didn't seem to have any turf of his own. She knew from his tags that his handle was "Fink", but this was the first time she'd been able to put a face to the name. It wasn't surprising that they never caught him in the middle of tagging, now seeing how fast he apparently was. The boy turned a little and looked at Gum over his shoulder and beamed. "So?" he asked. "What do you think?"
"You painted over my tag," Gum growled.
"Oh... was that yours?" he scratched his sideburns with the hand not holding his can.
"You painted over my tag," Gum repeated herself.
"Heh heh... Sorry miss, um, Gum, was it?" he tried to remember what the tag had said before he painted over it. "It was just such a primo canvas, I couldn't resist..." He did his embarrassed laugh again.
"You painted over my tag."
"It is kinda a shame I guess... you really had done a nice job..." he laughed nervously.
Gum sized him up. She was trying to decide if she could take him. She was only average in a fight, but she was mad enough that she was tempted to start something regardless of the odds. If he was like most guys, he'd have qualms about hitting a girl, so maybe she could beat on him without worrying about a reprisal. Then again... rudies weren't like most guys.
She took out a can and started shaking it. She'd tag him... put a big "G" on him, that'd teach him... Tagging was the preferred way that rudies "fought". It often involved getting physical to pull it off. But that wasn't the hard part. The hard part was...
Fink grimaced, "Hey now, let's not be hasty..." he held up his hands defensively. Gum leapt forward, attempting to tackle him, and was startled as Fink slid out of the way. He was like a mirage... he was there one moment, then the next, he was gone. He slid around to the side and rotated and Gum was suddenly lurching at thin air. The movement was so fast and fluid it seemed unreal. Gum started tilting as she began to fall forward. She was even more surprised as she felt hands grab her and lift her back up. Suddenly she was back on her feet and spinning. She stumbled as she tried to stop sliding and turn around. Fink was standing behind her still positioned as he had been. He'd caught her... he'd stopped her from falling.
Gum's shoulders got tense. Her fist and grip on her can tightened. She roared and leapt forward swiping, spraying. Again, Fink moved like a mirage. He leaned way back and grabbed her spray can wrist and pulled. She was suddenly falling forward again... then she was stopped again. Fink was now holding her as though they were dancing and he was leaning her back in a big dip. Fink tried to put her back on her feet, but as soon as she was righted, she tried to lower her arm to spray down at him. Everything shifted as she was lifted up into the air. She was thrown over his shoulder. Fink's foot came back to kick the spray can out of her hand. Lacking anything else to do, Gum started pounding on his back feebly with her fists. Fink grabbed her behind the shoulders with one arm and across the front of her thighs. Her world span as he flipped her over and she was back on her feet rolling forward away from him. Gum turned around and took off her backpack, snarling.
"Do we really have to do this?" Fink whined as Gum took out a can of spraypaint in each hand and put her pack back on. "If I keep swinging you around like this, you might get hurt..."
"There's no way I'm going to let you go unpunished..." Gum sneered as she shook both cans up.
Fink took a deep breath and closed his eyes, then sighed, "Ok then..." he said, shaking himself, loosening up. "We'll do it this way." He was still for an extended moment before he opened his eyes, turned, and bolted.
"Get back here!" Gum cried as she took off after him.
Fink blazed up the ramp, jumping to kick off a bonito cart (much to the fish-monger's chagrin) and landing to grind across a 3 foot stone wall with a nice flat top, all while Gum followed behind him by a couple seconds. At the end of the wall, he jumped through a window that was already broken, Gum suspected (correctly) by Fink victimizing it like this frequently. He took out a bit of the glass remaining as he went through it. Gum balled up and tried to jump through as centered as she could. Finding herself in an apartment lobby, Gum saw Fink in a nearby elevator.
"Top floor, going up!" Fink chirped. "Bye bye!" he waved as he hit the close door button just before Gum could reach him. Seeing stairs nearby, Gum started to climb furiously. At the top, she heard the elevator ding and saw Fink skate out. She followed him up a short flight of stairs and a very short hallway, leading to a fire door. Fink jumped to grind the handle, pushing the door open, falling off it to land grinding on the fire escape. A quick hop put them over the small gap between the nearby water tower. Gum followed Fink halfway around the catwalk to his destination; the powerlines encased in a metal vent, winding down around the tower in a spiral. Gum felt a moment of apprehension before leaping onto the vent to follow Fink, already grinding his way down it.
After going about 20 feet down, the vent veered off the tower above the street, leading to a roof. Noticing Fink crouching to gain speed, she did the same. At the vent's end, Fink did a leap over the landing, doing a flying kite, landing on a vent on the other side of the roof. Gum made the leap, but while she hated being outdone, did not do a trick so as to reserve speed. The vent went across another street, the lights of the skyline sparkling below them. Fink leapt off the vent to grind across a balcony rail, Gum nervously following.
He jumped onto a street lamp, then from there to jump to land and grind on one foot across a telephone wire. The wire shook and Fink visibly wavered a bit as Gum landed on the wire, clearly he was not used to two people being on the wire at the same time. Disembarking onto a fire escape, they followed it down, a tight squeeze on the inside, next to the wall. Fink jumped and kicked off a Ramen cart to land on top of a parked van, then took a great jump to do kick off a wall to make a dangerous vault over a high barbed wire fence. Gum's eyes clenched shut during the risky move. She was ill prepared for the impact with bushes on the ground. She luckily put her hands in front of her face just before she ran into a waist high fence to flip over it and land on her face.
"Oh, sorry. I guess you couldn't have expected that..." Fink offered a hand to help her up. Gum made like she was going to grab his hand, then lurched forward and tried to punch him in the crotch. He seemed ready for this and backed away quickly, her fist barely grazing him before falling flat on her face again. Gum growled as she got to her feet, then froze as a strange realization came over her.
She looked at her knuckle, then at Fink, "Are you wearing a cup?"
Fink did his embarrassed laugh again, "Yeah, you'd be surprised how often people try to hit me there."
"Not likely..." Gum grumbled. She looked around, they had come all the way to the Gekijomayin area.
"FIIINNNK!" an angry muffled voice bellowed from above them. The two looked up to see three Noise Tanks standing on a movie theater awning. They looked very angry, particularly the one in the middle, who had a fist raised and was shaking with rage.
"Uh-oh..." Fink looked nervous as he glanced around, looking for the best escape route.
"I thought you knew these guys?" Gum leaned to Fink's ear and whispered.
"I do, and that's the problem..." Fink whispered back. "Hey guys!" he called up hopefully. "What's up?"
"I thought you were with the Love Shockers?" the left tank stated coldly, his arms crossed in front of him.
"Well, uh, that didn't work out..." Fink laughed nervously.
"So now you're with the GGs?" the boy demanded.
"Er, uh, no, not really..." Fink stammered.
"Who cares!" the right one shouted, cracking his knuckles. "You're a traitor. How dare you come back to Benten-cho and show your face. What did we tell you? The city of the night is OUR turf, and you aren't allowed here any more. It's bad enough that you brought a GG with you, but that you'd dare to come back after everything you've done and antagonize us, trying to start trouble!" Mr. Right pointed across the courtyard to a billboard. Gum looked to see a Noise Tank's tag covered by one of Fink's.
Fink had another one of his trademark laughs, "Yeah, about that..."
"Shut up!" the angry center one finally exploded. "I'm gonna kill you for what you did to Claudi, Nova!"
"Hey Manual, be fair! Claudi wanted it, I just gave her the suggestion!" Fink showed his palms defensively.
"I know! Your deflowering my little sister turned her into a nympho slut!" the Tank shook a fist.
"Come on guys... don't be like this... Bynairi, we go way back..." he turned to lefty.
"You're dead to me man," the boy turned his head away.
"Forget it Fink!" Manual waved his hand. "We're gonna beat the Hell out of your dirty GG whore girlfriend!"
Gum blinked as she realized they meant her, "Hey! Wait, I-"
"Go ahead and try then!" Fink pointed dramatically as he slung his arm around Gum and pulled her close. "If we go down, we go down together!" he grasped her hand.
"Why you-" Gum fumed.
"We'll send you home to Shibuya-cho crying!" the right Tank challenged.
"Hey, wait a minute! I don't even know this guy!" Gum tried to pull away from Fink.
"Yeah right! Like we're gonna believe that!" the Tank waved dismissingly.
"I think it's too late for that sweety, we're gonna have to make a break for it together! But just one thing more first..." Fink trailed off. The Noise Tanks gazed intently, waiting. "Ha!" Fink yelled as he suddenly turned and kicked a nearby spotlight, which swiveled to beam right at the Noise Tanks. The Tanks screamed and cursed as their night vision goggles assaulted them with a flash of violently amplified light. "Run!" Fink commanded as he dragged Gum off by the arm to skate away.
"How did I get into this?" Gum sighed. They leapt onto a nearby curb to grind. "Oh wait, I remember, you being an ASSHOLE!"
"Less talking, more fleeing," Fink requested. They leapt from the curb onto a bike rack, following it to the adjoining rack, then jumped onto the service platform of a nearby billboard. Gum looked behind her to see that the Tanks were in pursuit. They did a wallie off the billboard to land on a single story roof.
"This is going to be hard, so time and execute this just like I do," Fink commanded. Gum tried to ask what he meant, but he broke away before she could finish. She watched him do what looked like the greatest running (well, skating) leap he could muster off the edge of the building. Next door on top of a department store was a giant mechanical octopus, which constantly recited that its prices could not be beaten. Fink landed on a tentacle, slid down it, leapt over the head to land on the tentacle on the other side. The tip curled upward and it raised just as he reached the end and jumped off. The effect was massive, he flew over a three story building and the continuation of that same barbed wire fence.
Gum looked behind her. Those Noise Tanks looked really mad... Gum built up as much speed as she could and mimicked Fink's trick awkwardly. Gum barely cleared the roof and the jump had left her nearly horizontal. She quickly righted herself by turning it into a backflip. She knew her landing, wherever that would be (for she had not seen where Fink's leap had put him) was going to be very shaky.
Thankfully, Fink was waiting for her on the gravel single story roof. As she came down, he bent on one knee and let her flow into his left arm, grabbing her at the left elbow with his right hand and stumbled with her as he braced her. Gum was confused and indecisive as to whether or not she should thank him as he got up.
"No time!" he yelled, as though he had figured out what she was thinking. They ran across the roof, then jumped down onto the windshield of a car to use it as a ramp, cracking it and denting the hood as they did. They leapt off the hood to land in the very crowded street. "That was good for your first try. Much better than my first attempt." Fink had to yell to be heard over the screaming pedestrians upset by having their stuff displaced by the two rudies skating side by side. The two leapt one after the other to land on a metal embankment, making small rabbit hops between sections. Gum looked behind her to see the Noise Tanks were still in pursuit. The first two had hopped down onto another car, cracking its windshield. As the last one, Manual, landed on it it dislocated and one foot fell into the car, making him faceplant on the hood.
"I say it's time for some Noise reduction. Let's split up," Fink pointed up ahead at the route he wanted her to take.
"What makes you think I won't just stop and explain to them that I don't know you and then the four of us can beat you senseless together?" Gum suggested.
"What makes you think they won't slap you around for being a GG in their territory anyway?" Fink responded.
"Damn you and your being right," Gum sighed.
Three bridges went across the train rails below. Fink first jumped onto the rail and ground the first one and Gum the third, both followed by one Noise Tank. Fink jumped the gap to the second, middle, bridge going straight from his, just before the first veered to the right, Noise Tank in tow. Gum and co. stayed the course and went left. The straggling Noise Tank showed up after everyone was out of sight, taking the first bridge he had seen one of his brothers initially enter.
Gum skated furiously through the streets, grinding off of whatever she could, trying desperately to think of how to lose her tail. At an intersection, Fink came rolling in from the side to shoulder ram Gum's pursuer. Before he could get up, Fink grabbed his leg and dragged him over to the side of the road. A second later, Fink's pursuer turned the corner to find his prey gone, but seeing Gum in the distance he went after her. With a flourish, Fink lashed his downed opponent with a spray of black paint, then took off after Gum and her new assailant.
Gum lead her aggressor into a circular alcove, hoping that Fink had more plans in store. As they ground around the circle, Fink rolled up behind the Tank, painting a line down his back without stopping as he went. The Noise Tank whirled and followed him going clockwise around the outlet. Fink jumped to grind high up on a ledge, then leapt across the alley to grind across a curb leading off to the side, then jumped to the side off of it to make an effective 305 degree turn and land behind his enemy, painting another line across his back. The startled man tried to turn to see where Fink was, but Gum came around and pushed him down from behind. Looking down the street, they saw the straggler was on his way.
"Leave this to me..." Fink said. Gum nodded and took off skating into a tunnel going under the block that came out the other side. Fink waited for Manual to catch up, then followed her in. Fink skated to the tunnel's side. The floor curved upward to make an effective half pipe, allowing him to skate up it, busting a method 180 backflip as he did. Manual followed suit. They skated to the other side and repeated this. Skating across again, Fink dashed at the last second and made a sharp turn and did a 560 in the opposite direction and landed right behind the unsuspecting techno-phile. As he came down, he stomped his one foot down on Manual's heel, throwing his victim to the ground. The skater heard consecutive spray can hisses, then laughing as he looked up to see Fink and Gum skating away.
"Later Manual!" Fink called back after him as he and Gum went out of sight. "Give Claudia my regards!"
"Fuck!" Manual pounded his fist against the ground. His friends skated up and helped him up.
"You ok Manny?"
"I'm fine, Basic, just... get off me!" Manual brushed his fellows off of him.
"I think he sprayed me..." Basic turned around.
"Yeah me too," the Bynairi said. "He got you too Manny..." he leaned over to the side to look at his friends back. "What did he paint on me?"
"Looks like a 'G'. Manual, you've got a 'A'. What's on my back?"
"I think it's an T-"
"God damnit!"
"They must be furious right now..." Gum wondered after Fink had explained what he had done.
"We can only hope..." Fink sighed wistfully.
"You've got a lot of nerve..." Gum said following Fink as they skated away at a leisurely pace.
"But everything turned out ok, you're no worse for the wear," Fink smirked and looked at her out the corner of his eyes. "And I saved you, didn't I?" Over the radio, a police scanner cut into the music. Professor K broadcasted policeband radio when it involved rudies, give the vandals a heads up.
"Repeat, reports of rudie activity in Shibuya-cho..."
"It's your fault I needed saving in the first place. And you still ruined my tag," Gum caught up so she was skating next to him.
"Police blockade underway..."
"Oh come on... tell me that wasn't fun..." Fink dared her. Gum couldn't help but smile herself.
"All officers report to the scene..."
"Well, aside from a ruined tag, you had an exciting night, and now you can-" Fink turned the corner and came to a stop, both in movement and his speech. A few yards down the street was a police blockade. Dozens of officers were waiting, brandishing truncheons. Standing on top of the nearest car was a little man with big hair and manly stubble in a tan trenchcoat. He held a buntline special in his right hand, letting the barrel rest on his shoulder as he held his other arm out. Dangling from his hand was a pair of handcuffs.
"...Relax..." Fink finished his thought as he grimaced.
"The two suspects are at 552nd and Lotus..."
"Welcome to the party," Captain Onishima welcomed him warmly.
