“You need a new name… The Boss, it’s simply unbefitting a man such as you.”
“I’ll have a Sprite, thank you…” I looked away from the stewardess and back to Erica who sat on the row seat. “Why’s that? I like it... its got panache. Besides, I didn’t even choose it. It kinda just, happened, somehow.”
“It makes you sound like a real asshole, if you ask me.”
“I didn’t ask you, did I Raiha.” My eyes didn’t leave Erica.
“Watch who you speak to in that tone…”
“Well what would you suggest?” I followed the stewardess’ behind with my eyes as she moved in her tight uniform to the back storage area.
“Well, your style seems so… simple. You’re a very minimalist man from what I’ve observed.”
“From what you observed? Last I checked, all you did was drop a bomb in my hospital room and jet.”
“We’ve been watching your movements a lot closer than you realize, mister…. ‘ahem’, Boss.”
“Yeah, I see where you are coming from with the name thing now…”
“…Well as I was saying. You are very simple in your approach, yet effective. In eastern culture, things of simple beauty are often referred to as Zen. I believe that name may be more… suitable. If you asked me, that is.”
“Hah, simple beauty my Chinese ass. There isn’t anything beautiful about his style. He’s just lucky. I don’t see why James doesn’t just let us handle the target.”
“From what I gather, James just wants the job done right.” The stewardess made her way back down the isle in her tight powder-blue uniform, carrying a can of Sprite for me.
She reached across Erica and handed it to me as Raiha whispered something along the lines of killing me in my sleep.
“Regardless, the name change was just a suggestion. Just an idle comment.”
“No, I like it. Zen… I think I’ll stick to it.” A groan of frustration rose from my left, out of Raiha’s body.
A chime went off over the plane’s intercom, and a relaxed man’s voice spoke elegantly in Japanese. Then he began in English, “Good Evening, Passengers. I’d like to say to you all, Welcome to Japan. We shall be landing shortly, please fasten your seat belts and enjoy your stay in the land of the Rising Sun.”
“Cool… So where did you guys stow my sword at again?”
***********************************
The Hit 2
We must’ve been some strange site, walking through the Japanese airport terminal as a pair. Two business like, and beautiful, asian women tailing a single red-haired Greek fellow dressed in an old track suit. The people around us must’ve thought I was a rapper or something and they were my agents. Funny thing is that one had tried to kill me not two weeks ago, and the other wanted to chop off my dick and feed it to a pack of dogs.
Erica quickened her pace, signaling me and Raiha to follow. “Baggage claim is this way, or luggage should be rolling in soon. We must be quick…”
“What’s the rush?”
“The rush is that we’re smuggling a small personal armory into the country.” Raiha’s sarcasm went unnoticed when I realized what she’d said.
“W-what?!”
“Quiet your ass down!” Raiha screamed in a hushed voice.
My voice lowered to a whisper, “What kind of morons smuggle guns on a commercial airline?”
Raiha turned directly to my face and growled, “The kind of morons who can’t afford to search the criminal underworld for firearms because our target OWNS the underworld!”
“Ah…
************************************
Tokyo was bustling with human bodies. I’d been to Japan before, but that was many years ago when I was just a kid. A lot of memories were tied to the mountain side village that I was trained in. But I had very little experience in the city, and it had only grown in my time away. I lugged two extremely heavy, metal filled suitcases on my back as the young ladies ahead of me guided us to our hotel. Carrying bags full of weapons through a city this crowded was more than a little nerve-racking. I could only hope the hotel was nice.
Erica handled the talking at the front desk, and soon we were off up the elevator towards our lodging. “I got us an entire room to ourselves. You should feel lucky.”
“Is that supposed to be something special?”
“In Tokyo? Well, to explain it in terms you’ll understand, I just spent four hundred dollars on one hotel room for one night. Tomorrow we’ll have to stay somewhere else.”
“This better be a nice ass room.”
“Just shut up and be happy with what you get.” Raiha’s shortness with me was becoming hard to put up with.
The elevator stopped and we stepped out. The hallway was extremely thin, and claustrophobia suddenly became an understandable ailment to me. We stopped at the end of the hallway and Erica opened the door to a room that might have been the size of a walk-in closet. On each side of the room were two holes in the walls the size of a man and a window facing the door.
“Welcome home, Zen. Atleast for the night.”
“You gotta be shitting me.”
“I wish we were. Lay the bags down in the spare bed.” Raiha stepped up and sat down on the bottom hole in the wall, bending over on her knees.
“Bed? You mean those are beds?”
“What’d I tell you about complaining…”
***************************
Raiha and Erica said that they had to go check in with a contact within the city, and make a call to James. I decided to stay back and sleep off my jet-lag. As I lay there I remembered the weeks prior to when I’d arrived in Japan. After handling my deal with James, I left the now destroyed Vigor. Gavin, The Riot, and every other life form had completely disappeared from the premises. Less for me to deal with luckily.
After I let Sakura and DW know about what the deal was, I told them to not get involved. I didn’t want to put them in danger ever again, or at least, not in the kind of danger a job such as this would put them in. Sakura tried to put up a fight, but I wouldn’t let her. I told her to work on her own career for a bit, earn some money, let me do my job. DW on the other hand had no qualms at all. With a warning and a good luck, he said good bye to me. James kept in close contact with me for the week leading up to my flight. He offered me all the ammunition and weaponry I could want, but I refused, telling him my odachi was all I needed.
That was when he decided to send Erica and Raiha along with me, though I’m pretty certain he had planned to have them watch me anyways. They’re the ones who told me who my target was supposed to be. Head of the Black Hand Yakuza, a mysterious man without a name or face to identify. He was apparently a highly guarded and secretive individual whose criminal activities often rivaled those of James himself. James entailed me with the information that he was guarded by some of the most dangerous body guards in the underworld, and had a vast amount of human resources at his disposal.
James also let me know the little legend behind the Black Hand’s leader. Apparently the Black Hand was formerly run by five members, all of whom had equal power. It was the current leader who walked into one of their meetings one day, an apparent outsider, and single handedly murdered every one of the heads himself. Some say with his bare hands. Others say with some dark magic behind him. Personally I don’t believe that mumbo jumbo, but what is clear is that he won his power by force, and the guy is dangerous. I told James that’d I’d take care of myself.
Sleep was growing close when I heard a knock at the door. I’d hoped it was room service. Opening the door myself, I stepped out and looked to my right down the empty, narrow hallway, and then to my left.
No one.
Turning around, my eyes fell on a loomingly tall figure dressed in all black. A large cross laying on the window seal.
“Interesting…. Most interesting.”
