The Black Snow
By Icha
Rated: K+
Chapter 2. A Missing Godfather
Bruce grinned to Diana. "Surprised to see me?" He carried a big backpack and wore a set of white jinbei (modern adaptation of wrap-around kimono) and blue jeans.
Hades, yes! "Umm... yeah... I thought you're on the..."
"The meeting in Tokyo finished earlier yesterday." He dropped his backpack and stretched his arms over his head. "But I had to check the Nikkei stock exchange until late last night. This morning, I thought I'd rather give you a surprise."
"Well...indeed you managed to surprise me. Wha-"
"Wait – " Bruce turned to Shizuka, who was obviously enjoying Diana's surprise. He bowed to the nun. "Arigato gozaimashita, Shizuka-san."
"Domo, domo, Burusu-san." Shizuka bowed back.
"Would you care to speak to Fugen-san about the matter?" he spoke in fluent Japanese.
"Hai. I will do my best." She replied, then walked away.
As Shizuka left, Diana turned to Bruce. Putting her hands on her hips, she asked, "What is this all about?"
"What? Can't I have a break after a hard day of meetings?" Bruce grinned again, sitting down on the grass, legs stretched out.
"I don't believe you." Diana grimaced. She sat as well, taking the half-lotus pose. "Seriously. What happened, Bruce? Aren't you supposed to have a meeting with Lucius, or doing something with the Outsiders?"
"Actually..." Bruce lay down on the grass, supporting his head with his hands. "...I'm here for the business."
"Lucius?"
"No, the other one."
"Outsiders? Titans?" Diana looked around, then added. "Come on, Bruce, there's no one around to hear. Like these monks care anyway about the Dark Knight. What happened?"
Bruce didn't answer right away. He closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun on his face. Then he murmured, "I'm hungry. Left Gotham two hours ago; not eating since this morning. Well, Gotham's morning." He then opened his eyes, rolled to his side facing Diana, supporting his body with one hand. "Got something to eat?"
"You flew directly from Gotham just now?" So Bruce made up the Tokyo Nikkei story for Shizuka. Diana looked into the dark hue under Bruce's eyes. "How long did you sleep last night?"
"This morning, you mean?" Bruce yawned. "Three hours. Analyzed Nightwing's data. But I slept in the Batwing during the flight here."
"Come on then," Diana got up, grabbing Bruce's hand, "...I'll feed you. I suppose the nun already brought me breakfast. Then you can tell me what the business is, and then you can sleep."
They went to Diana's hut, leaving their footwear at the entrance. Every visitor in Junboku no koya had his/her own bungalow, small and simple but very artistic, all covered with tatami (Japanese rice straw) mats. The hut had one common room that served as the living room and dining room, one bedroom, and one semi-open bathroom, all in Japanese style. Diana especially loved the bathroom, semi-open air with arrays of rocks and plants inside to freshen the view. From the hut they could hear the sprinkling sound of the nearby small river running.
She sat at one of the pillows arranged surrounding a short Japanese table. On top of the table there were some Japanese cakes and a pot of green tea. During high seasons, the visitors usually gathered together in the common hall for meals. However, during her visit this time, Diana was the only visitor in addition to a couple of elderly Europeans, thus she could enjoy her meals alone in her hut. Yesterday,however,Diana brought her meals to the nuns' quarters and ate with them in an attempt to know them better.
"Try the dora yaki," she pushed some sweet bean pancakes to Bruce. "...or this kabocha squash cake. I love them." She poured Bruce a cup of hot green tea. "But I'm sure you've had them when you were in Japan years ago."
Bruce just nodded, busily munching the pancake. "...Idid. But this one is good too." He ate in silence for a while. Diana took some cake and ate as well. She had not had the breakfast, it was not there yet when she woke up and freshened herself for the morning yoga session. Apparently another nun had come in when she was doing her yoga, and left the breakfast at the table.
Bruce suddenly stopped eating. "Is this food enough for both of us? I'musually not this hungry, but perhaps we should ask for more?"
Diana grinned. "Actually, they always give me large portions. One of the reasons I would like to join them for daily meals was that I don't want to waste too much food. But of course, I also want to talk with them, just have some conversation."
"They talked during the meals?" Bruce frowned, his hand reaching the ohagi, a sticky rice cake. "I thought that Zen monks and nuns don't talk during meals."
"Well, they usually eat in silence," Diana admitted. "They said it is part of 'present moment', that you should eat in silence and enjoy the food. It'sa bit different from the western culture but in between they also talked to me; and afterwards as well." She sipped her hot tea. "Now, are you ready to tell me what's going on?"
"There was this series of illegal drug operations in Gotham, New York City, and San Francisco," Bruce shifted into a better sitting position. "They both distributed a new kind of narcotics called 'Black Snow'. Targeting underage users, this drug had been found in the bodies of some teenagers in the three cities. Apparently, the Black Snow is a mixture of heroin, cocaine, and some new substances, and can have lethal effects in less than twelve hours of continuous use.
At first,I didn't know that those operations actually were connected until Nightwing contacted me to identify some of the crooks involved. Some of them are old 'friends', but some of them are new. There was this link between the three gangs; they both have frequent contacts with Yakuza in Japan."
Diana arched her eyebrow. "I thought the Japanese government had eliminated Yakuza."
"You think that annihilating mobsters like that is easy? Look at the Mafia in Italy, at the Triad in Hong Kong. Look at Gotham. These folks still exist and operate, no matter what I and the others try to do."
Diana understood that Batman's fight against crime was endless, similar to her own mission of eliminating hatred and bringing peace to the world. Sometimes she wondered why she, Batman, and the others still kept on going in spite of the continuous crime and hatred in the world.
Because we have to do what we can to stop them. The result does not matter, as long as we keep on trying.
"Then, why do you have to go to Japan yourself? I mean, can't you just contact...Kimiyo and ask her to deal with the problem?" Kimiyo Hoshi a.k.a. Dr. Light II was the famous Japanese heroine, also a reserve member of the Justice League. She chose Japan, especially Tokyo as her base of operation.
"Her expertise was not stalking mobsters and detecting underground movements. She was not the ... 'Japanese Batwoman' as she told me. She needed extra hands for this case."
Diana smiled to hear the 'Japanese Batwoman'. She admired Dr. Light and her work in Japan, as she was practically the only metahuman actively working to protect Japan at the moment. Katana, the other Japanese heroine, had chosen the United States and the Outsiders as her work place. Diana could imagine that Dr. Light would have her hands full handling Japan; not to mention that her two children.
"Have you talked to Tatsu?" Tatsu Yamashiro a.k.a. Katana was a former member of the Outsiders.
"Katana was the first person I consulted for this case," Bruce replied. "We both have talked to Dr. Light, and came to the same conclusion. We need to go to Japan to help her. At least by showing the evidence to the Japanese policemen that the Black Snow has entered the U.S., and tracking down the headquarter."
"Are these guys so secretive in their movements?" Diana mused, supporting her chin with one hand. "I mean, wouldn't the Tokyo police squad have detected anything by now?"
"They moved in separate cells, very hard to detect. They mostly export the Black Snow to other countries, like Europe, the U.S., Thailand and some other Asian countries. I could only detect their patterns after working for more than two weeks. And because these guys also operated in New York City and San Francisco, we then realized that we were actually dealing with the same organization."
"But you came alone here, and involved yourself in an international affair without Japan's formal invitation. That would not be wise."
"I don't want to use my international Justice League authority to talk with the government. Not yet – it's too early. Not enough evidence, despite the exposure of the operation in the U.S. I have Katana with me for the mission. She already arrived three days ago in Tokyo, and together with Dr. Light, has been communicating with their contacts at the national police headquarters and Interpol."
Diana nodded in agreement. Being members of the Justice League, she and Batman had the influence to negotiate with many national governments, should any events require them to. Being fluent in Japanese himself, Batman would not have any trouble communicating with Tokyo, despite the possibility that they would resent his appearance. However, because of Batman's appearance, it would be best to have a native Japanese approach the police about this case. In this case, Katana and Dr. Light would be the best choice.
"So...what actually brought you here? You don't actually come here to rest and monitor them from such a remote place? You could do that in your hotel room in Tokyo while at the same time monitoring your stock at the Nikkei stock exchange."
Bruce drank his green tea, leaning back against the bamboo wall. "The Yakuza gang used to be led by Iwamura Masahiro, their godfather for almost forty years. Masahiro retired three years ago, and left for a place no one knew of. Now his son, Suijiro, took his place as the new godfather. Although he was more ruthless than his father, the real power was actually still in Masahiro's hands. Katana's contact in Tokyo believed that if we could reach the former godfather and ask for his help in this case, the problem is 50 solved."
"Wait... wait... you said that the previous godfather retired? Or that he was gone? Disappeared? And no one knows of his whereabouts?"
"No one. Well, perhaps Suijiro knew. But we could not ask him about that, of course. Suijiro is an eel, very hard to catch. He has many methods of money laundering. His formal business is clean, of course, so the police could not sue him."
"Perhaps he killed his father? That happens often in such a world."
"No. It was positive. The underground news we had was clear; if Masahiro had been murdered by his own son, we would have known. This is not the case."
Diana studied Bruce's handsome but tired face. "I suppose you know where Masahiro is now, and you decided to track him."
Their conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door. Shizuka's head popped into the living room.
"Sumimasen, Diana-san." She bowed to Diana, then to Bruce. "Burusu-san, Fugen-san asked if you could have chanoyu with him this afternoon?" Chanoyu is the Japanese tea ceremony.
"Yes, that would be fine," Bruce replied in Japanese, bowing back to Shizuka. "Would I be able to take Diana-san as well?"
"Yes, of course. I will inform him that you and Diana-san will have tea with him at 3 o'clock this afternoon."
"Domo arigato gozaimashita." Bruce bowed again.
"Thank you, Shizuka-san." Diana also replied in Japanese. "And could you please bring a double lunch for us today? The normal portion, please, not the big lunch."
"I will surely do so," Shizuka bowed. She bade them good morning and excused herself.
"Who is this Fugen-san?" Shifting to English, Diana asked briefly.
"A monk who occasionally came here to have some time on his own. He doesn't stay permanently in one place; he's always traveling. I'm lucky to have him here this time."
"Why do you want to see him?"
"Let's just say... I have a hunch that he might be able to help me find Masahiro."
Diana studied Bruce; his expression was the Batman's.
"Your Fugen-san is Masahiro," she concluded.