He awoke on a bed that wasn't his own. His skin was still clammy from the nightmare he had only just escaped. Swirling visions of Chihiro melting into a beast as he watched powerlessly, held to a chair by Ōni. Sango was there, weeping in the corner, her stomach ripped open as if something had clawed its way out.
Kill...
He thought as he forced himself up to his elbows.
Kill them...
He swung his feet off the overly plush bed.
Kill them all...!
He stood but stumbled and fell to his knees.
"Toshiro!" It was Ryusuke, he heard his partner run over and felt his hands pick him up. "It's ok, be careful, you had one helluva fall."
"No...it's not." Toshiro sobbed. "I spent years looking for her...they took her, they have to pay..."
"They will, believe me, we're not letting this go. We'll get the bastards but we'll only go after them when we're at one hundred percent."
Toshiro sat on the bed again and looked at the glow from the other side of the room. Makoto was typing away at the keyboard so fast that her fingers were a blur.
"Oi, you....get anything?" He asked.
"Close." She said, barely there, "Think I almost found their secret facility. There are forty-two Kageyama buildings around Japan, mostly warehouses where materials and products are stored. But, I found a couple of emails in the drive, like four, that reference Site A2-B. It's not listed on official ledgers, and I can't find any reference to that site outside of those four instances. I think that's where they have the children." Makoto explained
"Good. Ryusuke, when she finds it, we'll put on those masks and pay them a visit." Toshiro said to his friend.
Ryu just nodded, affirming what Toshiro already knew: his partner was a good friend and cop who would follow him through the gates of hell. The roiling in Toshiro's stomach turned to a fire, his eyes no longer stung with tears, but with the fury of a father. He stood up, and this time, he didn't stumble. They would need guns, they would need access, and they couldn't get any of it through official channels
Toshiro knew just the man to go to.
They left Makoto to work and loaded up into Toshiro's sedan.
The Yakuza owned a tavern closer to Toshiro's house than the old cop would have liked. He busted it a few times, but was transferred away from narcotics and into homicide within a year of being there. He had always thought that his quick transfer was suspicious, but as long as he got to fight crime, it didn't matter what avenue he was put in, that and his senior officer at the time, an old man named Noguchi, told him to drop it.
The tavern was as suspect as they come, with none of the ornamentation one would expect from a bar trying to get customers. There wasn't even an 'open' sign, because everyone that belonged in there knew when it was open. The building was tucked between a nail salon and a noodle restaurant in the lower end of the Hiroshima business sector. Toshiro walked through the door without an ounce of fear in his heart, and he walked across the old stained wooden floor as if he were the bar's owner.
You're lost if you show fear in the face of the yakuza.
The small rabble created by the few and scattered patrons, some old burly men with scars and others young punks with stupid haircuts and just as many tattoos. All of them public school rejects with more anger than brains.
"Oi, Oi, Oi! Where's Aito?!" Toshiro demanded.
A bald man with tattoos in place of hair stood up, he was around the same height as Toshiro, but nearly twice as wide with one eye pale as milk. Toshiro saw the bartender, a female punk with tattoos and gauges, pick up a phone behind the bar.
Good...
"Who's askin', ya old bastard?" The man's face was so close to Toshiro's that the detective could smell the stale scent of beer coming from his mouth. The bald man bared his teeth like a dog, but Toshiro didn't back down.
"Toshiro Nakagawa, the 'Old bastard' that threw him in jail." Toshiro spoke with clarity and a boisterous tone. It brought all the punks and gangsters to their feet, pulling out various chains, brass knuckles, and switchblades.
"You ain't got nothin. Not even a policeman anymore. We threw a party when they took the badge and gun off you, and you come here, unarmed, with only this pretty boy as backup?" The bald man smirked, gesturing to Ryusuke.
He was right, it was two against too many to count, and the detectives had no weapons to speak of. But Toshiro kept his face stone and his chest puffed, he just had to lay long enough to get what he wanted.
"You're goddamn right! Who needs a badge and a gun to walk into this place, or any certification, for that matter? I bet most of you sorry bums never even finished high school." Toshiro smirked back.
"Who do you think you're talking to, old man!? I oughta—!" The bald man bristled with anger, before being cut off.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen! Is that any way to treat our guests?"
Finally...
Toshiro looked over at Aito, the twenty-six-year-old gangster was tall and lean, his muscular physique covered in the tattoos the Yakuza used to identify one another. His smile was bright and dimpled, teeth as white as the towel wrapped around his waist.
"Put your weapons away, I'll talk with Detective Nakagawa." He said as steam rose from his skin. "This way, gentlemen." The gangster gestured down to the trap door he had emerged from.
All the gangsters and punks did as they were told, then sat back down, grumbling.
Toshiro and Ryusuke walked across the bar, now unimpeded by the armed gangsters. They followed Aito down the trap door, through an underground corridor, and past a heavy iron door that hung leading into a well-lit, steamy spa. The floor and walls were all white marble, with half a dozen steaming baths, each one containing either a heavily tattooed gangster or a well-to-do man that Toshiro could've sworn he recognized from TV, most had both. Toshiro also saw about five naked women with serving trays covered in cocktails busying around the room.
"How'd you get the permit for this?" Ryusuke said to Aito.
"What do you care?" The gangster laughed. "From what I hear, you've been fired and he's been suspended. You're not police today, just men who want something." Aito mused.
Right to business, that's just like him. You don't become the leader of the biggest crime family in Japan without knowing how to spot a deal...
"Who says we want anything?" Ryusuke asked.
There's no point! He knows, let's just get this over with.
"Your actions." Aito explained, laying back by a spa in a heavily cushioned white chair that looked more like a modern art piece than furniture. "Two suspended officers come to a Yakuza bar, it's happened before, but sadly, I'm not looking to hire."
"That's where you're wrong," Toshiro said, "we aren't looking for jobs. We want equipment."
"Oh?" Aito said, taking a glass of red wine from a server "Exactly what kind of equipment?"
"Guns, Body armor, And..." Toshiro looked at Ryusuke.
"And a Vahlt V12 PDA." Ryusuke finished.
Makoto requested the device once Toshiro had revealed the plan.
"Wow, that's some heavy-duty equipment, you boys plan on robbing a bank? Even then, I don't think you'd be able to afford it." Aito laughed.
"No, we wouldn't. That's why you're going to give them to us." Toshiro responded.
The gangster did his best to hide his rising temper, but Toshiro saw right through it.
"And why would I do something like that?" The gangster asked, his eyes narrowing, sensing a scheme.
"We're going after the Kageyama Medical group. Word on the street is that the Hashima family gets their opium from them. You help us succeed, and your biggest competitor's supply chain gets disrupted. I'm sure you already got the serial numbers off the guns and vests, if we fail, there will be no way to trace what we did back to you and you'll get two of the best cops off the streets permanently. It's a no-lose situation." Toshiro explained. Aito pretended to think for a moment, but Toshiro didn't need to be a mind reader to know the man's answer before he said it.
"What the hell? You got it. I'll have my boys drop it all off at your house. Think of it as a retirement gift." Aito smiled. Toshiro swallowed his pride and bowed to the cretin before turning on his heel and walking out of the misty room.
That night, Toshiro made sure to bring flowers home, he ordered food from Sango's favorite restaurant and kissed her as though he would never see her again, knowing that was likely. He didn't tell her about the video, if he did, she would demand to see it, and there was no way of knowing how she would react.
She fell asleep after dinner in his arms, the video of their family beach day playing. Toshiro carefully laid her head down as he stood up, kissing her forehead before he went out to meet Ryusuke in the car outside. Makoto was sitting in the back seat.
"Did you make that file?" Toshiro asked her.
"Yes. Here." The girl handed him a flash drive and Toshiro put it in the Manila envelope that already had a statement inside, signed by himself and Ryusuke. It was to act as an explanation, and in the worst-case scenario, their epitaphs. They dropped the file at The Hiroshima Daily, addressed to Goro Kikuchi, the reporter Toshiro slugged.
Best way to apologize is to make this kid's career.
They drove in silence, the three-hour trip to the dock where Makoto deduced the Kageyama black site would be flew by as Toshiro was so lost in his singular thought, Kill, that he almost didn't hear Ryusuke say
"We're here."
The old detective nodded and armed himself from the duffel bag that had been dropped off at Makoto's house by a bald tattooed man. The Vahlt armor was more difficult to put on than the Titan Enterprise Armor the police were issued, but only because of the addition of grieves, vambraces, and thigh plates. In any case, the group made quick work of it together. The armor was thin but stronger than any Kevlar or Teflon, and it easily fit underneath their clothes. Aito had also provided earpiece communicators and three pistols outfitted with Vahlt A&A silencers, guaranteed to reduce the blast of a firearm to the chirp of a bird.
"Wait, why three?" Ryusuke asked.
"Because I need a gun too, idiot." Makoto answered.
"No way! I'm not letting you carry a gun! Uncle would never forgive me!"
"Oh? He's fine with you taking me on this little adventure so long as I'm unarmed?" Makoto quipped.
Ryusuke didn't protest further, but he still didn't look happy.
The dock looked like any other, with various ships under all manner of flags with a shipping yard covered in crates and warehouses. Ryusuke's car was parked on the side of the road that led to the dock, the detectives surveyed the fenced-in area from above on the road.
"The Kageyama warehouse is G-7, it's registered under the name Oito Nibushi, a rich man who owns stock in Kageyama. I think the facility is underground, there's no way they were doing those tests in the warehouse proper." Makoto explained.
"How do we get into the underground facility?" Ryusuke asked.
"I don't know, the files didn't have a list of all the secret buttons and trap doors." Makoto sassed.
"We'll know when we're inside. There will have to be guards in the warehouse, I'll be able to read at least one of their minds. We go in, find the children, and get out. Let's go." Toshiro made a move to leave, but Ryusuke stopped him.
"Here, no hero is complete without a mask." Ryusuke said, handing Toshiro a mask.
The gold mask was like the one used by professional wrestlers, with holes cut out for the mouth and eyes reinforced with an emerald fabric and, above the two eye holes in the center of the forehead, a third eye done in the same shimmering emerald color with a fake emerald shimmering in the center as a pupil. Toshiro smirked at the gaudy fabric.
"If I get shot to death wearing this, I'll never forgive you." Toshiro said with a grim chuckle.
"Then let's hope you're bulletproof too." His partner joked, pulling out two more masks, one was a wrestling mask like Toshiro's, red with the gold features of a dragon, and a white plastic Noh kitsune mask which he gave to Makoto.
They all donned their masks, Toshiro felt the smooth interior of his slide down his face, it fit like an old boot. He tied the laces in the back and made sure his gun was loaded.
The trio exited the car and eased themselves down the side of the hill the road sat upon. They reached the flat, muddy land below that connected to the dirty beach. Toshiro hoped that the sound of the waves would muffle their sucking footsteps. They reached a fence stuck into a concrete platform that marked the beginning of the shipping yard. Toshiro gently lifted the bottom of the fence, creating an opening that Makoto and Ryusuke shimmied under, and then the old detective contorted to roll himself under while holding it up with the aid of his companions.
The fence rattled back into place and they were in, Toshiro looked around for any evidence of guards patrolling in their area and saw none, his vision populated only by rusted and faded shipping containers, stacked higher than houses, and the stained concrete floor beneath his feet, all of it illuminated by tall lights spaced about eight meters apart.
Plenty of shadows. Still, we should move quickly.
The detective motioned for his companions to follow him before marking out a path, walking in a crouch that reminded his knees of their age. Still, he moved low and fast at a speed that even the younger Ryusuke and Makoto had an issue keeping up with. Toshi didn't care about the pain in his joints or the burning of his thigh muscles, because somewhere in this shipping yard, he'd find vengeance, he'd find peace. He only stopped when he saw a yellow light emerge from around the corner of a container stack, scanning the floor. Toshi stopped and signaled for his companions to back up.
"Yeah, they got me working graveyard again, my wife threw a fit when I told her. So, I can't come see you for a while." The security guard passed by, heading down the hallway, created by the stacks of containers that were ahead of them.
Toshiro waited until the guard rounded the far corner before moving out again. The trio didn't have to wait long to find the end of the shipping containers and at the beginning of the warehouses, there was a road about four meters across that separated them that Toshiro hesitated to cross, as three masked individuals running across a road would no doubt draw suspicion.
"Listen," Toshiro whispered, pulling his accomplices close, "we go one by one, Ryusuke first, dash across as fast as you can, and signal us if the coast is clear, then I send Makoto, then I go." He finished.
The other two nodded, and Ryusuke positioned himself at the edge of the containers, Toshiro saw his friend check both sides of the road before running across the road in a dead sprint. The younger detective made it across with little difficulty, Toshiro saw him check around the surrounding buildings before signaling with a thumbs-up.
Next, Makoto did the same thing, going as fast as her legs would carry her to the other side and signaling after a check. Ryusuke was about to make his way over when he saw headlights approaching. The car began to slow down and so Toshiro retreated into the containers, he heard footsteps approaching.
Won't kill them. But I can't knock them out either, no telling when they'll wake up....
The detective thought fast and removed his mask, stowing it in his coat pocket before casually walking out from behind the containers into full view of the two men in coveralls.
"Hey! What are you two doing here?" Toshiro barked in a voice he heard the chief use when talking to lower-ranking officers, as they turned around. The old detective made a point of straightening his tie as they looked at him.
"Uhh...what?" One of the men asked.
You, it is, then.
Toshiro focused on the man who had spoken, easily finding the waves emanating from the man's head.
Shit, I hope he's not the inspector...
"I'm an inspector! You can't be here while I'm working!" Toshiro said, hands on his hips in feigned indignation.
"Oh, sorry...sir...we didn't—"
"Sorry is right! Get your asses outta here before I write you both up! Pray I don't mention your names when I talk with your boss later, understand?" Toshiro threatened.
"Yes, sir!" Both men said, before bowing and running back to their car, and driving off in the other direction. Toshiro stared at their car until it was out of sight, then he ran across the street, faster than he had ever run.
He made it to the other side and took a knee, gulping down air as he put the mask back on.
"That was awesome! I thought you were dead for sure!" Makoto gasped, in whispered excitement.
"Thanks, kid, you know where the warehouse is? That won't hold them forever." Toshiro asked.
"Yep, while cousin Ryu was quaking in his boots, I saw this on the side of the building." She pointed at the nearest warehouse and Toshiro read 'A-7' painted on the side. "And that one over there is 'B-7', I'm sure if we go down this row, G-7 will show up soon." She explained.
Toshiro nodded at Ryusuke, who nodded back, and the trio began moving once again down the row, ducking down behind C-7 and D-7, checking every which way before making their next move. E, then F, and finally, warehouse G-7.
It looks like all the rest, same paint, same windows, same door. Those sons of bitches are more evil than any standard corporation could ever be and yet they look the same as any other. Evil looks like everything else...
"How do we get in? That padlock looks pretty sturdy." Ryusuke asked.
Damn...maybe a vent? A window? The damn thing looks pretty smooth all over....
"There!" Makoto whispered in excitement. "The electronic keypad on this side door!" The girl rushed over like the door was a Christmas tree and she pulled out the Vahlt V12 PDA, a device that, to Toshiro, looked like a misshapen touch-screen cell phone with various connectors that he couldn't name to save his life sticking out of the top.
Makoto got to work quickly producing a rolled-up leather pouch from which she produced metal implements, and as soon as they came out, the faceplate of the keypad was off, revealing the dark green circuit board that was the keypad's guts. Makoto pulled one of the connector tips from the PDA and it came out on a wire, plugging into a small hole in the interior panel.
"What the hell are you doing?" Toshiro asked.
"Easy, gramps," the girl said, tapping away at the screen of the PDA with a stylus,"PDAs are handheld computers these days, I plug it into the keypad and it tells the lock that it's a maintenance tool that needs to override the password aaaaaand..." the lock clicked open. Makoto pushed the door in, "after you, gentlemen."
Huh, I suppose kids and their damned handheld devices aren't all that bad...
Toshiro closed the door behind them once they were all inside, all of them instinctively crouching. The warehouse air was cool and stale, the near-empty building was filled with only the sound of the industrial fan and a sprinkling of storage containers. To his left and right there was a door on each wall, the one on the right was marked 'Broom', and the one on his left was unmarked. Toshiro waddled over to the ajar door on his left and pushed it open, inside was a man in a Vahlt combat suit, leaning back in a chair watching TV on a small monitor, his feet resting on top of the masked helmet of his suit he'd placed on the table. Toshiro found the waves of the man's mind and he tried to latch onto them, but his mind was thrown back like a child getting knocked over by the incoming tide.
What...?
He tried again, but to the same result, the intangible muscle of his mind felt like it was trying to lift a weight too strong for it.
Damn...old fashioned way it is, then.
Toshiro gently rose to his feet and signaled for Ryu to draw his gun. His partner nodded and produced his silenced pistol. Toshiro pounced on the man, wrapping one arm around his neck and a hand over his mouth. The guard jerked in surprise, but it was too late, Toshiro wrapped his legs around the man's torso and faced him towards an armed Ryusuke.
"Hands up! You make any noise and we put one through your skull!" Toshiro hissed into the man's ear.
The guard removed his hands from Toshiro's arm and held them up.
"Good, you got some sense in you. I'm going to remove my hand now, and you're going to tell me where the entrance to the lab is. Understand?"
The man nodded in Toshiro's grip.
The old detective removed his hand from the guard's mouth.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The guard droned.
Toshiro put his hand back on the man's mouth.
"Then I guess you're no use to us. Drop him." A chirp sounded, like a small dog's sneeze, and the guard's head lolled back into Toshiro's shoulder, getting blood all over the detective's coat. The sight of the red mess gave Toshiro a rush of savage pleasure.
Not enough, need to kill them all
"What the hell?!" Makoto whispered in horror. Ryusuke pulled her into the room and closed the door. "Why'd you shoot him?! We don't know where to go!"
"I couldn't read his mind. He wasn't going to tell us anything. He was just a liability." Toshiro explained.
He looked over at Ryusuke and nodded his approval which his partner returned. Toshiro knew Ryu wouldn't question the move, that's why they had been partners this long, both men knew that the other would follow him through the gates of hell if asked.
"Well what do we do now?" Makoto whined, her eyes keenly focused on the ceiling, away from the red mess.
Toshiro picked up the dead guard's Vahlt A&A helmet, an ugly thing with gas vents on either side of the mouth and smoke-grey armor plating studding the black graphene fabric stretched over the hard core structure. Toshi looked into its eyes and felt his stomach turn.
Damn ugly thing.
But there was nothing of value upon inspection of the helmet, so he set it aside and searched the guard. There, he found something they could use, it was a hard plastic keycard with a picture of the guard's face and name, Izaya Nasukawa. Toshiro showed Ryu the keycard.
"Now we just need the door." Toshi explained.
The trio left the guard room and skulked around the storage containers, looking through the gaps for any indication of a trap door. It was then Toshiro saw two guards, both wandering around the building, one on the catwalk above and one patrolling the floor. He tried both of their minds, but they both threw back his advances.
What the hell, all three of them? What is this...
Toshiro would've called for him and Ryusuke to take shots at them, but they were covered head to toe in Vahlt combat suits, making them bulletproof.
"Anything on the mind reading front?" Ryu asked when they stopped behind a container. Toshiro just shook his head. "Makoto, any ideas on how to get past these two?"
"Well, one. But we'd need to find the building's control panel." The two men nodded and began searching, walking along the concrete walls of the warehouse in search of a panel.
On the southernmost wall near the largest door, they found a metal panel behind a container. Makoto plugged in and began working her magic.
"I'm in, what should I do? I can set off the fire alarms, activate sprinklers, turn off the lights, or mess around with the service doors." Toshiro and Ryu shared a look, thinking about the best course of action. Toshiro felt the waves of the guards' minds and knew instantly what to do.
"You both take cover, then turn out the lights. I'll handle this." The two youngsters obliged and the lights were out in an instant, turning the warehouse into a solid wall of darkness. Toshiro knew that the Vahlt helmets had no night vision capabilities and that both of the guards were likely non-superhuman.
I'd have to be the dumbest bastard alive or the most self-absorbed snob to think I was the only one, but the gamble makes sense here.
"Bravo one speaking, all units report: Who turned out the lights?" Toshiro heard muffled static coming from one man. "Bravo two and three report!"
"Bravo three, checking in. Wasn't me. Bravo two, report." Came static from the catwalk above.
No reply.
"Bravo two? Bravo two, report."
No answer.
"Izaya, if you've passed out again I swear I'll kill you!" The first man said.
Toshiro couldn't see a thing, so a smile crept over his face, because neither could they. He reached out to the waves of the man on the ground and plotted towards them. When they were at their strongest, he reached out and grabbed with one hand, finding the man's neck and lifting the helmet. Toshiro pressed the gun to the guard's face and let it chirp away.
The guard fell to the ground with a thud.
"Bravo one?!" The man above panicked.
Toshiro aimed in the darkness as he felt the man come running down the steps, he fired where the man's feet should be and heard him cry out.
Not much armor on the shoes... Toshi chuckled to himself. He moved in on the guard who was scrambling to his feet and then repeated the process. Helmet off, chirp chirp.
"Lights up." Toshi commanded.
All three guards were down and not a single one had gotten a shot off.
Rage does funny things to a man....
"Toshi! That's amazing! How'd you see them?" Ryusuke asked.
"I didn't, I felt them." Toshiro corrected.
"Just like Luke Skywalker and the training droid!"
"...sure." Toshiro agreed in ignorance.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I think I found our way in." Makoto butted in.
The two officers walked over to where the girl stood, she was pointing at a small slit in the panel.
"The panel is telling my PDA that this slot doesn't exist. Go check the other panels." The two men followed their orders diligently and found two more service panels with identical slots.
"Three slots, three guards, I'm willing to bet each of them has a keycard or something. If we put them in at the same time, we'll probably find the entrance to the lab!" Ryusuke deduced.
The trio set about their work, each of them finding a key card on all of the deceased bodyguards. Then, they each manned a panel, and on Makoto's count of three, inserted the cards. A small light on Toshiro's panel went green and he heard a rumbling noise coming from below, he followed the sound to one of the shipping crates in the facility.
This door was not ajar earlier.
The detective opened the door the rest of the way and found inside a concealed lift, the size of the container.
"Over here!" Toshiro called, and his two companions came running.
"Woah, ready to infiltrate the Death Star?" Ryusuke asked.