Banana Fish, Akimi Yoshida, v14
Sing drops by to see Yut Lung. Blanca looms over his shoulder, which Sing finds slightly unnerving, as there’s an awful lot of him to loom and smiling doesn’t help. They both arrive just in time for one of Yut Lung’s cooks to try to assassinate him and suicide via poison pill when they capture him. While I understand that there are a lot of people who want to kill Yut Lung (Sing is very helpful in summarising the possibilities) the timing seems suspicious, especially when Blanca then agrees to enter into a contrat with Yut-Lung - but only as his bodyguard, not as a hired killer.
Eiji is shooting at a practice target, but while he looks dedicated he’s still hitting the wall next to it. Sing drops by, thinking about how Blanca fits in with everything. Ash’s adoption is completed, and a bunch of guys who all sound rather stuffy in a middle European manner congratulate Dino. Ash, however, is quietly wasting away. Dino tells Blanca that he’ll kill Ash himself if he doesn’t improve, and Blanca tells Dino that he’s taken a contract with Yut-Lung, although not what sort of contract it is.
Sing briefs Ash’s gang, and Cain - obviously expected by Sing, if no-one else - shows up, saying that he owes Sing (for bailing him and his gang out post-Coney Island). Eiji and some of Ash’s gang have gotten jobs as busboys for the party.
Ash is back in a tux with his eyes drugged (okay, pupils dilated), and in a wheelchair. Blanca and Yut Lung arrive. Ash hits Blanca in the face when Blanca tries to look at his eyes, but Dino explains the gimmick. Eiji and Bones get dressed up as waiters, including guns, and Sing briefs his gang despite mild irritation expressed by a subordinate who doesn’t see why they’re doing all this for Ash anyway.
Eiji spots Ash. Blanca spots Eiji, but says nothing about that, although he does tell Ash he’s signed a contract with Yut-Lung, letting him think that he's agreed to kill Eiji. Cain and Sing’s gangs move in. Yut-Lung tells Blanca about the adoption, saying that this makes Ash into a worthy rival, cold and dispassionate; Blanca inwardly disagrees. Ash, trying to get some control back, stands up, and offers to have Dino introduce him to his guests. Sing’s guys burst into the kitchen, heavily armed. Blanca tells Yut-Lung to do exactly as he says, and then drags him into cover when the first of the gang burst in. Eiji pulls a gun on Dino, ordering him to freeze, Blanca refuses to kill Eiji for Yut-Lung, as he’s only threatening Dino, and then pulls Yut-Lung back (by his hair) when he tries to intervene. Dino gets a knife to Ash’s throat, and Eiji doesn’t act at all, paralysed; Ash elbows himself free, and Eiji finally shoots, but it just gets Dino in the shoulder (very similar to Eiji’s injury from Blanca earlier), and Sing yelling at Eiji to shoot gets him recognised by Yut-Lung. Eiji and Bones grab Ash and get out, helped by Ash shooting someone by hearing alone. Yut-Lung apologises to Dino for his gang’s involvement, and promises to deal with it.
The gangs get out and into the sewers, via a trapdoor in the back of a truck that acts as a decoy. Ash has collapsed, but soon he wakes up, thanks Cain and Sing and then manages to actually eat some of the soup Eiji’s cooked up (this is very understated, actually - Eiji’s just giving Ash food because it’s what he does, and Ash doesn’t mention that he hasn’t be able to eat for a month) before falling asleep again. Above ground Blanca works out Ash’s location and plans a counterattack, advising Dino and Yut-Lung. Below ground, everyone arrives and Ash starts to panic, realising they’re trapped. Cuts between above and below, with a lot of shouting and some uncomfortable visual parallels between Ash and Dino, and then they’re off, although Ash collapses almost immediately and then hands Eiji his gun. Dino’s men attack, armed and with infra-red goggles, and Ash’s group react in exactly the way Blanca has predicted. Ash finally tells Eiji how ill he’s been, and how few resources he has left.
They reach a tunnel junction and there’s an ambush, with tear gas; Sing and Alex end up jumping into the sewer, the others retreat down another manhole. Ash tries to offer himself as a distraction but Eiji shoves him back, grabs an automatic weapon from one of Cain’s guys and takes off himself, and Cain knocks Ash out when he tries to follow. Bones takes off after Eiji, which is just as well as Eiji’s not all that great with guns and doesn’t really have a plan, although I admire him a lot for tryiing.
Sing, Alex and Lao (guy who objected to helping Ash earlier) regroup, still lost. Cain’s guys get out through a manhole, much to the inconvenience of a bunch of sewer workers. Blanca advises guards at all exits and Ash wakes up to find himself tied to a bed in one of Cain’s hideouts, as Cain explains that he needs Ash alive and functioning for the street war with the Corsican mafia that’s coming up. Ash is not all that taken with that idea and starts breaking loose.
Eiji, with Bones and Kong (who I can now find in the background of the earlier scenes), decide to head downstream in the hope of finding a route out, while Blanca points out that this is exactly what anyone trapped down there would do. Yut-Lung sends his forces there to capture them alive, but doesn’t tell Dino, wanting to gain some power over him. And then reports come in of Ash, seen running desperately through the streets towards the hotel where Dino was - which, Blanca deduces, means that Eiji is still trapped underground…