Chapter 8
[15]
Detective Naoto Shirogane watched from the crowd full of spectators garbed in their Spider-Man memorabilia as Rise Narukami gave her speech to the crowd. Naoto could tell her friend was barely holding it together as the speech came to its closing statement.
“Yu always said that it could’ve been anyone under the mask, he was just the kid who happened to get bit. My favorite thing about Yu was that he made us each feel powerful.We all have powers of one kind or another, but in our own way, we are all Spider-Man. And we’re all counting on you.”
Rise bowed and was escorted offstage by security.
Naoto looked out over the crowd of masked faces, she was less than optimistic about Tokyo’s future. In the 4 days since the attack, crime had already risen 5%. Without Spider-Man, the city’s criminals were becoming more bold. Gang violence was becoming more commonplace and rumors of more superpowered criminals were spreading like wildfire.
Naoto knew Rise saw the best in people and truly believed that the citizens of Tokyo could rise to the occasion and help one another. But Naoto was a cop, she’d seen the worst this city had to offer and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t bring herself to believe in the people.
With the vigil concluded the crowds began to disperse. The detective let out a sigh of relief as she had been worried with a crowd this large, there could be another, even more devastating act of terrorism.
With her worries aside for now, she approached her friend who was being hounded by the media.
“Risette, is it true that Spider-Man helped boost your career from behind the scenes?”
“Did you know who Yu Narukami really was before you got married?”
“Is it true that you and Narukami were in a three-way relationship with the Black Cat?”
Naoto pulled out her badge and flashed it to the paparazzi. “Official police business, I need you all to leave!”
With some whines of resistance the paparazzi finally left the two of them alone. Rise turned to her friend with a grateful expression.
“Thanks for that, I had to resist the urge to slap those dumb cameras right out of there hands. Can’t they see there’s more important things going on right now than celebrity gossip? Honestly.”
“They’re just doing their jobs, as little as it actually helps, people want a bit of normalcy to reassure them that things will be okay.” Naoto offered on the paparazzi’s behalf.
“Still, I could do without media attention right now. This speech was just to give the city hope, my manager was actually against this. Apparently he wanted me to play up the ‘grieving widow’ angle for a big comeback. I actually did slap him for that.”
“Rise…” Naoto paused for a moment. “I’m so sorry that I haven’t been there for you these past few days. I’ve been so busy with the investigation on the attack that I’ve forced you to grieve alone. You don’t deserve that, no one does.”
“Have you found out anything about who’s responsible?” Rise had a fierce expression on her face.
“I’m sorry Rise, I’m not at liberty to discuss the details of ongoing investigations with the public.”
Rise did not appreciate that answer. “So I’m just ‘the public’ now? Naoto, my husband was murdered! I want to find the son of a bitch who did it! We both know it wasn’t Adachi who was behind the terrorist attack, that’s way too smart for him, someone broke him out of prison and used him to make Yu vulnerable.”
Naoto was pained by her friend’s reaction, however everything she’d just said had been correct. Unfortunately what Rise had just said basically summed up everything the police knew. Whoever was behind the Shibuya terrorist attack had covered all their tracks. The former Detective Prince was ashamed at her inability to solve what may be the most important case in her life.
“I promise you Rise, we will bring the perpetrator to justice. You have my word.”
Rise’s stern expression didn’t change as she turned and walked into her waiting limousine without another word.
[16]
Kamoshida, dressed in a dark green tracksuit with his hood pulled over his head, approached an elderly homeless man in an alleyway in Roppongi. The night sky thundered and lightning flashed as the homeless man uttered nonsense to himself sitting on a milk crate next to a dumpster.
“I need to speak with the Kingpin.”
The man didn’t even acknowledge Kamoshida as he continued his mad ramblings. Kamoshida sighed in annoyance.
“Mementos.”
With the password spoken, the homeless man immediately ceased all noise. Standing up, his posture was that of a distinguished businessman, he strode over to the wall at the end of the alley and spoke into what was presumably a hidden microphone.
A few seconds later, the ground at the end of the alley parted and revealed a concrete staircase. The homeless man from before returned to his post and resumed his racket. Kamoshida stepped down the staircase which went surprisingly far down only to come to a stop at a steel door.
A small sleek speaker and high tech camera were attached to the wall next to him. The camera seemed to follow Kamoshida’s movements from the moment he stepped into view.
“State your name and purpose.” Were the only words to come out of the speaker.
“Suguru Kamoshida, I have some interesting tech and a proposition for the Kingpin.”
There was a long silence following his sentence and Kamoshida was almost tempted to ask if they’d heard him. Maybe there was a button he was supposed to press before talking?
As he attempted to clear his throat, the heavy door swung open with incredible speed revealing a low violet light illuminating the room before him, the surprising speed caused Kamoshida to choke on his own saliva. Gathering himself, he stepped into the room only for the door to slam behind him with a weighty clang of steel, Kamoshida flinched at the sudden noise.
In front of him stood a man well above Kamoshida’s already considerable height. Easily 8 feet tall and with ash gray skin and white hair that greatly contrasted Kamoshida’s own, the man was portly but undoubtedly strong enough to easily crush anyone who got in his way.
Back in his criminal days Kamoshida had heard horror stories from his gang about this man, Junya Kaneshiro, more commonly known as Tombstone, was the right hand man of the Kingpin. Exposure to some chemical had turned him into a brick wall of a man with unbreakable skin and incredible strength. Kamoshida had thought that those stories were myths or highly exaggerated, but standing directly in front of the man, he immediately came to believe every one of them.
“Watchu got for us?” Tombstone spoke, revealing his horrible yellow misshapen teeth that for some reason reminded Kamoshida of a shark’s.
Kamoshida gulped audibly, hands sweaty from his nerves. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the device he’d stolen from his jacket pocket.
“A battery with enough juice to light up the Skytree for weeks and small enough to fit in your pocket.” It wasn’t word for word what Usami had told him but he figured it’d be better to embellish a little.
The enforcer seemed satisfied, Kamoshida ventured to guess based on the fact that he still had all of his limbs attached. Tombstone placed his finger to his earpiece and listened for a second before gesturing down a hallway.
Kamoshida didn’t need to be told twice as he quickly began walking towards the door at the end of the hall. Tombstone followed closely behind him, one of his steps taking him as far as four of Kamoshida’s.
The two of them stepped into a small office containing a large mahogany desk, sitting behind that desk, in an office chair that seemed more like a throne, was a morbidly obese man, in a suit he was nearly bursting out of, without a trace of hair on his head or face. This man was the kingpin of crime in Tokyo, no crime big or small happened without his okay, no gang didn’t pay him a hefty percent of their earnings. He appeared to be organizing a stack of papers on his desk when the pair first came into the office.
“So, you appear to be in possession of something that could be of use to me. I hear that you have a proposition prepared?” The Kingpin spoke first as Kamoshida sat in a small desk chair before the immense desk before him. Kamoshida couldn’t help but notice that the Kingpin’s office was set up so that he was always looking down on you. Tombstone opted to stand directly behind Kamoshida which made him incredibly uneasy.
Kamoshida cleared his throat once again before speaking. “Yes Kingpin sir, I’m offering you this bleeding edge technology in hopes that I may receive something in return. I’ve heard that you deal in special weapons and equipment, you know the kind of stuff used by them.” If the Kingpin understood his meaning, he didn’t show it as he continued to stare at Kamoshida expectantly.
“R-right, anyways I was hoping that in exchange for this I could get my hands on some tech of my own, in order to get some payback on the bastards who’ve wronged me.” Kamoshida stopped his proposal there and waited for a response, sweat poured from his brow down his face.
Kingpin stood up from his chair without a word, walked to the front of his desk and leaned against it, his weight making the desk creak beneath him. Kamoshida, scared out of his wits now, attempted to stand up but was stopped by a forceful pair of gray hands pushing him back into his seat.
The crime boss finally spoke. “Normally, when someone comes in here, waving a shiny new toy, demanding something of me, I have Tombstone break their necks.” Kamoshida flinched as Tombstone began tapping his beefy fingers on Kamoshida’s shoulders.
“However, recently I have cause for celebration! The biggest thorn in my side for years has finally been removed. And that opens up new opportunities in my business, I’m looking for men like you, who have the resolve to take what they want in the world. I have jobs that need to be done and I think you’re the man to do them.”
Kamoshida felt pure bliss hearing those words, he wasn’t going to die, he was going to get a job!
“Here’s what I have in mind,” Kingpin continued. “We’ll take your device to our specialist, he’ll reverse engineer it and keep the schematics. And in exchange you may commission him for your own specialized tech, when it’s completed you’ll begin your employment under Tombstone who will assign you your jobs and supervise your work ethic.”
Kamoshida gulped and turned his head around to the man behind him. Tombstone smiled down on Kamoshida with his sickening teeth.
“Excited to work with ya.”