Blitz adjusted her ear piece and stared dumbly down at her plate of sushi, shoving it weakly with her chopsticks every now and again to give the illusion that she was eating. The other members of Rapid 99 were too busy making a scene to realize that their leader was completely out of it, the youngest of the crew barking along with the music playing over the radio. Her singing voice lacked much to be desired and, considering the fact it wasn't proper etiquette anyway, nobody seemed amused. Their poor chef seemed insulted enough that he was ready to turn them out.
Not that any of them cared. Rudies don't abide by common etiquette, and nobody in the joint had the balls to give the boot to the Queens of 99th Street on their Saturday night out. That much the girls knew, and that much they would abuse.
It was funny. Here they were, partying on the weekend like nothing had happened, when, not even a week ago, there had been a tower that was moved from the skeleton of the Rokkaku Expo Stadium that almost wiped Tokyo of whatever spirit it had left. A tower, Blitz thought with a sigh, that she had watched be extracted, yet she never had the time to warn the other Rudies before the freaky broadcasts began. She couldn't help but feel as though she had let the others down, even if she hated half of them and only tolerated the rest.
In the end, when it came down to it, Professor K had been right during his victory broadcast: They were just one giant radio brotherhood. Sure, siblings didn't always get along and sometimes they fought and spat and mopped the floor with one another.
However, you look out for them. Blitz had failed in that regard. She could have said something, she should have said something. The second she noticed that tower being built, she should have slipped some info to DJ K and had him spread the word. Maybe, if they had acted in time, Rokkaku wouldn't have even had the opportunity to set up shop.
But then, wouldn't she have ended up like a certain other gang leader? She shuddered at the thought, remembering the day that the Immortals went from "quiet neighbors" to "criminal masterminds" overnight. Sometimes, it was better to just keep your head down and your mouth shut.
"Wasabi!" one her girls called, raising her hand and smiling at the chef. "Could I get some more wasabi? My, uh, sister kinda..."
"I ate it all!" a second Rapid 99er taunted, leaning in close enough to the first that one could have sworn they would kiss. "Delicious wasabi, and it's all mine. Watch your plate, or I'll get your ginger, too."
"Twister, you are a criminal mastermind. I'm surprised Gouji didn't abduct you to be his Adviser of Evil and play Risk with him on Sunday afternoons."
"He was scared of how villainous I was," Twister responded, plucking what was left of her sister's ginger from her plate. She sighed, raised her hand once more, and sweetly requested of the chef, "Could I get some more ginger too, please? Thank-you."
Blitz smiled, though it faded quick. She supposed it was time for celebration, to be "free" once again. The Rokkaku police were gone, the Golden Rhinos were gone. There weren't snipers on every corner and she didn't have to worry about a flock of Noise Tanks storming down the highway again. The only thing she really had to worry about were the rival gangs.
And boy, did every gang in Tokyo find a new rival or what? She had no idea who they were or where they came from. She just remembered hearing a Jet Set Radio broadcast detailing some "bone headed bikers" who were drowning Tokyo-to in aerosol, then found the entirety of 99th Street doused in paint. Her girls had done the best that they could to cover it, though some of the distant corners probably still hid that nasty "artwork" of the mysterious gang.
She had even taken her right-hand-woman, Tornado, to assess the damage in other areas of the city. The skyscraper district was blazing with red and yellow, there were tags in Sky Dinosaurian that she didn't even think people were capable of making, graffiti lined the streets of Dogenzaka, and even the furthest reaches of Kibogaoka Hill had found themselves trashed. Whoever it was had went so far as to claim the sewers, something that Poison Jam hated almost as much as the fact that Rapid 99 dared to show their faces in their territory.
There was no rest, not for Rudies. One problem always inevitably led to another. As much as she wanted to celebrate, a mixture of guilt and pessimism-inspired stress kept her from it. Beyond letting down the Rudies and having a gang more ambitious than even the GGs walking all over her toes...
"What's wrong, chick?"
She looked up to see that the sister of the wasabi bandit had cared to join her, probably in an effort to dodge her sibling's food stealing prowess. Blitz shook her head and offered a weak smile, mumbling, "Eh, it's nothing, Tornado. I'm just thinking."
"Is the food bad?"
"No. I think the food's great. Maybe? I haven't really eaten any of it."
"You probably should. It's an insult not to."
Blitz looked up at the chef, noticed his cold stare, and in an effort to appease both him and her underling, popped a piece and got to chewing. She nodded approvingly, plucking up a second.
"So," Tornado coughed, gagged on a piece of rice, "is this about that fuckin' tower thing? Are you still moping about that? 'Cause, you know, it ain't no biggie. They fixed everything, and Gouji is now singing show tunes with the worms. Besides, you know what happened when the leader of the Immortals tried to warn people, yeah? I hear they still haven't found that guy."
Blitz's stomach twisted into a knot.
"You know," her subordinate continued, gesturing with her chopsticks, "I bet you money that the Golden Rhinos dragged him out to some out-of-the-way place and shot him. I bet you in a month or two, they find his remains floating in the reservoir or some shit. Half-buried in a ditch in Kogane-cho. Or, oh! Wasn't he related to the guy who built Pharaoh Park? Some rich Egyptian dude gets his nephew's head in a box. Holy shit. That would be some Godfather stuff right there!"
And there went her appetite.
It wasn't that Blitz liked the Immortals; they trespassed often, were pretty hard to get along with, and the way they had presented themselves had always creeped her out. However, somehow, the idea of one of them getting killed stung like salt in an open wound. Maybe it was the fact that they had actually showcased themselves as immortal and behaved as though they were impervious to everything the streets threw at them. That made the idea of their leader being murdered all the more sobering because it felt like, if it could happen to him, it could have happened to anybody.
"Or maybe it ain't that," Tornado drawled with her mouth full. "There's only one other thing I can guess that'd be irkin' you so bad. You still mad about the Doom Riders?"
Blitz perked up a bit, smirking as she chuckled, "Wait. That's their name?"
"Yup. Doom Riders."
"Geez, and I thought that Poison Jam was terrible. 'Doom Riders' just strikes me as screaming, 'Hi, we're trying way too hard.'"
Tornado shrugged, struggling to stifle a giggle as she responded, "Always sounded borderline rated X to me. Like they're gettin' it on with the Grim Reaper on weekends. You know: 'Oh baby, I'mma ride Doom all night long.'"
"Wasn't 'Doom' the name of one Poison Jam's ilk?" a voice piped from behind Blitz. She turned slowly to see the youngest, Zephyr, standing there with a grin on her face. Her question was answered by Twister from the other end of the bar, who snorted and replied, "I think so, but I'm pretty sure she quit the gang and moved back to Grind City."
"Oh, so that's why these new guys are throwing a tantrum," Tornado whimpered, pouting. "Poor widdle guys. Their girly-friend broke up wiff them."
There was a moment of silence as they all tried to mimic her faux sympathy, though their attempts ended when Zephyr began choking on her laughter. Before long, the entire group was in hysterics, an act that had every normal patron in the bar utterly disturbed. Tornado climbed from her seat and stretched, shaking her head and happily sighing, "That is my new favorite conspiracy theory and there's not a damn thing anyone can do to change that."
Murmurs of agreement answered, and soon Blitz found her worry drowned in a sea of trash talk, laughter, and babbling about how it probably wasn't the best idea for Twister to eat an entire glob of wasabi without anything to go with it. Their chef groaned and mumbled something about having them kicked out regardless of the consequences, only to have a worried coworker whisper back something about the last time they denied them service. A few customers got up and left as Tornado stood up and loudly toasted the brave Doom Riders for going where "no man has gone before," leading to witch-like cackling from the rest of the group.
Then, as quickly as her mood was raised, it was killed. It started as a hiss, a fizzle in Blitz's earpiece that interrupted the sound of music and replaced it with a sudden, unexpected announcement from a familiar, booming voice. Her brows furrowed and her smile fell; Professor K didn't usually cut off a song, unless it was something big.
"Blastin' the music that fuels the streets, and the news those streets create! This ain't yo' momma's golden oldies! This is Jet Set Radioooo!"
"News?" Tornado echoed, picking up a pair of headphones from around her neck and lifting them to her ears. Blitz herself fiddled with the volume on her own radio, adjusting her earphone so that she could decently hear. Zephyr and Twister fell silent, watching Blitz and Tornado with a mixture of curiosity and concern.
"Yo, my people! Put down them forks and listen up, 'cause I got a tale that'll make you lose your lunch."
Almost on cue, every member of Rapid 99 dropped their chopsticks.
"No rest for the wicked, so it seems. Just last week, Gouji went down in a blaze of ugly, and before we even had a chance to blink, them bone-headed bikers, the Doom Riders, started a Tokyo-wide tag war that landed 'em at the top of everyone's hit list. Boys need to take an art class, you know what I'm sayin', 'cause havin' to look at that mess was more painful than gettin' roughed up by the Rhinos. I mean, puh-lease!"
The girls clustered together, Zephyr and Twister leaning in as close as they could to make sure they did not miss a word. Blitz, as per usual, seemed troubled by whatever was going to be said before it was said, though Tornado only rolled her hand in the air in boredom. She had heard this all before, lived through it, and spent three days trying to fix 99th Street. She didn't need a news bulletin that the Doom Riders were talentless jerks.
"Now, you'd think when the common trait of all of the Rudies is hatin' these guys, the Doom Riders would know they've worn out their welcome, and it seemed they picked up the hint after the GGs whipped 'em at Dogenzaka. However, it looks like they were just taking a few days off to regroup, 'cause now they're back on the streets to finish what they started. And their first direct target? It seems the first gang who fell to the Noise Tanks in act one of this drama is getting a second dose of hurt from their toadies-left-behind. Hopefully, the Immortals will continue to live up to their name. Ha ha!"
Tornado pouted as she took off her headphones, rolling her eyes as the newest single started up on the station. Blitz knew exactly what was wrong: She was disappointed that the Doom Riders were after the scrawny jerks next door instead of picking a fight with them. No police crackdowns and no gang battles had left her pretty bored, as Rapid 99 even seemed to have gotten slighted when it came to Rokkaku's reign of crazy.
She sat down and picked up a piece of sushi between her fingers, loudly announcing that the Doom Riders' choice of targets was shit, before popping it in her mouth and continuing on in an incoherent tirade with her mouth full. Zephyr shrugged and sat down next to her, plucking a slice of ginger off of her plate and spinning around in her stool.
Twister only shifted her weight uncomfortably. With a sniff, she glanced at her disappointed sister, her indifferent leader, and the chick infringing on her ginger-stealing position. She cleared her throat once, but when nobody paid any attention to her, she blurted, "Let's go anyway."
The only person who didn't look at her like she was crazy was Tornado, whose eyes lit up at the prospect of having something interesting happen for a change. Zephyr only chewed her lip, a quizzical look dawning on her. However, she didn't even have the chance to ask what she was obviously thinking before Blitz blurted it for her: "Why the hell would we do that?"
"Well," Twister drawled, "we share a border with the skyscraper district, so if the Doom Riders are there, who is to say they won't be here pretty soon?"
"Twister," Blitz snapped, head slowly tilting to the side, "the skyscraper district is fucking huge, and the Immortals run three different sects in Benten-cho. For all we know, the Doom Riders could be trashing Highway Zero and are nowhere near us."
Zephyr nodded in firm agreement, crunching happily on the remainder of Tornado's ginger. Just before she snatched the last piece, Tornado slapped her hand and scooted her plate away, while protesting, "But they could be right next door. Besides, who cares if they aren't? Aren't you still kinda reeling about not doing anything about Rokkaku when you had the chance? Not helping out?"
"You could help out," Twister suggested, grinning. Blitz turned away and sighed, grumbling, "Uh, problem with that being it would be trespassing. And we would be in deep shit. Or do you just casually forget the code of the street?"
"But, Blitz..."
"No! Shut it!"
Twister and Tornado rolled their eyes at one another, but quieted. Still, their sulking did nothing to help Blitz, whose mood was further soured by the idea of her girls being mad at her. Resting her forehead in her palm, she pushed around what was left of her food once more.
Zephyr, however, happily hummed and continuing spinning around in her stool. Kicking her feet, she giggled, "Well, you know, we could always go to The Border and see if we can catch sight of the fight. If we can't be a part of it, we can at least make it a matinee experience."
Tornado's head shot up, and she turned to face Blitz with renewed hope. Hot pink lips slowly widened into a smile as, with a dreamy sigh, Blitz looked up to her underling and finally relented: "Okay, fine. But we stay on our side."
"Fucking sweet!" Tornado yelped, jumping up and tousling Zephyr's hair. The youngest Rapid 99er squeaked in alarm and then fretted with her pigtails in an attempt to put them back in place, as Tornado skipped past Blitz to her sister and gave her a victory high-five. Slowly, Blitz pushed herself from her seat and tossed a handful of bills on the counter.
Throwing her thumb over her shoulder and turning toward the door, she called, "C'mon. Before I change my mind."