Creature in the Viewfinder - Chapter 15
Title: Creature in the Viewfinder
Author: paranoia_woman
Character(s): All the Yamane regulars with only slight differences.
Rating: Varies per chapter PG - XXX You are warned!!!
Warning: None
Summary: A combination of Viewfinder and Frankenstein. Creating life and the results thereof with Yamane's characters.
Disclaimer: Ownership of the Viewfinder series and all characters therein belongs to Yamane Ayano, In perpetuity. Frankenstein is not mine either or I'd be rich.
Creature in the Viewfinder
Chapter 15
Fresh out of jail, the men of the Jōa-kai group stood milling around in the center of the living room, wondering what they'd gotten themselves into. After the farce of last night's events, they went to jail, where they expected that they'd never be able to see the outside of a prison for years. Instead, they were released and brought back to the scene of the crime. Well, sort of, they were actually several stories above it, in the luxurious surrounds of this hotel suite.
They stood, awaiting notice from the man who had helped them get released. They could see him from where they stood, but the atmosphere in the room darkened the first time one of them tried to speak to him. The man, who had been introduced as their benefactor, didn't even look up at that time. Only the men standing behind him did, and they looked so cold and unsympathetic at them, they didn't dare say another word.
They decided to wait and quietly talk amongst themselves, trying to figure out why they'd been brought there, but talking wasn't their forte. These men weren't part of the brain trust of the Jōa-kai, they were the brawn, picked for their job on behalf of their ruthlessness. They would have felt better if they had their weapons, but the police had taken them and refused to return them, saying they were evidence. So armless, ignored, and unable to leave, they stood there, becoming increasingly agitated while waiting for answers.
Yan purposely ignored his guests until he finished his morning breakfast. Even though he wanted, no, needed the information from them, he needed to make sure they knew their place first. At least, he found this meal more palatable than the one from the evening before, but it still wasn't as good as he was used too. He would make sure to make a complaint later. He put his napkin in his plate to signal he was done and turned to eye the group of men, asking "Which one of you is the leader?"
They looked around at each other, like they were wondering what they should do. Yan decided to try another tact, saying, "I can see you're confused about why I brought you here."
With that, finally, a dark haired, medium size man with a knife tattoo on his wrist spoke up. "We won't do anything against our boss."
Amused at the reaction, Yan said, "Well I didn't expect you to do anything like that. I just need some questions about someone you met up with last night."
Bowing down the man asked, "Please, let us speak with our boss first. We won't be able to do anything until then."
This being just what he wanted, Yan agreed, saying, "That's fine, I wanted to meet with him as well. What's your name?"
Realizing how far he was out of his element, he was nervous, but as calmly as he could, he answered, "Jiro, sir."
Yan sat down on the couch and said, "Get Jiro a phone." He stared hard at the outspoken man who had decided to be the leader of this little group, appraising him, and then said, "Tell your boss to come here, I'll allow you, and you alone, to go down to the lobby and meet up with him. The rest will stay here. I promise I won't do anything to harm any of them or your boss. As a matter of fact I have a proposition that may interest him."
It took 45 minutes for his new guest to arrive and be brought up to the room. Even though his man had told him the name of the person who'd asked for him, he didn't believe it. He was shocked when he saw him, in the flesh, actually sitting in the room across from him. The leader of the Jōa-kai, Ogata Daiki, had been in this business long enough to of heard of him, Liu Yan, the head of Baishe Laboratories. It was supposedly a prominent pharmaceutical company, but unknown to most, not all the drugs made were of the helping nature. Many of the drugs trafficked through the Orient came from his place of business, and there was even shadier tales being told lately of him working for the government making biological weapons of warfare. The underground talk of him was brutal. It was said, any man who interfered in his business, disappeared. He normally never traveled, so for him to be there himself, in Japan, something big had to be going down and with the varied types of business he ran there was no telling what it could be.
Being no fool, Ogata knew he had to keep calm and do whatever he could to keep on the good side of that man. He went over and bowed, turning and indicating for his men to do the same and said, "Liu-sama, I am Ogata Daiki of the Jōa-kai. If my men have bothered you in any way, I apologize. They're a bit slow, but they're good people."
It seemed his new guest knew of him. 'That will make this a lot easier then,' Yan thought to himself, saying aloud, "I have no problem with you or your men. Actually I just needed some information on what occurred last night.”
"You mean downstairs."
"Of course, I do," he said gruffly, becoming a little irritated, but calmed down quickly before continuing. "On TV there was some footage shown that was of interest to me." He pointed over behind them to where a TV sat and pulled out a remote control from his pocket, pressing play.
On the screen ran the cell phone footage that'd been playing all morning. "Right there," Yan said, pausing the image on the screen.
"That's the guy that hit me," One of the men said.
"Me too," said another, rubbing his shoulder.
Pulling a picture from his breast pocket, Yan asked, "And is this the same man? Take your time. Look at it carefully." The men stared at the last photograph taken of Fei en-long from over four years ago at his Father's funeral and they all agreed, yes, it was the same man.
Yan smiled, not a happy looking smile, but a predatory one, saying, "I need your groups help in finding this man. He is of… special interest to me.”
"I want a piece of him too," one of the men said, plowing a balled fist into the palm of his hand.
Enraged, Yan turned to the man who'd spoken, yelling, "No, he is not to be damaged. If anyone… anyone," he spoke, pointedly looking back and forth between his guests, "hurts him, they will answer to me."
"Understood, sir. My men know how to follow orders. Don't you worry," Ogata said immediately, thwacking the subordinate who'd spoken last on the back of the head with an open fist.
Consoled, Yan sat back and asked, "Now, tell me what you know about him."
No one said anything for a moment, so the leader, worried about angering Yan again elbowed the man beside him.
"Uh, I don't know. He seemed to come out of nowhere."
The others began speaking then too.
"Yeah, It was just Boom," indicating the explosion, "then the smoke and then bang, I was down. Next thing I knew the cops had me."
"Me too, last thing I remember, I was heading towards the kid's position, like I was told to, and then thwack."
"Hey!" Ogata asked, "What kid? You were supposed to be after Asami," looking angry at his men for the first time that evening.
"Well, sir, what happened was…"
"I don't want excuses," he said to his men, and then turned to Yan, saying apologetically, "I'm sorry sir. It'll be easiest just to have them give a complete report from the beginning."
"Proceed," Yan said, beginning to realize he'd fallen in with a bunch of idiots.
"Jiro, you tell 'em," said one of the men, and the other men quickly nodded in agreement.
Jiro sighed, in triumph or defeat, no one but he could say, as he began, "The job was to take out Asami upstairs, but we got word of a change in plans soon after we arrived and were told to move downstairs and get new orders. There, we were told to spread out, seven of us inside and five outside. I was one of the ones inside along with the others here. We waited for Asami's group, just like we were directed to. We were told to expect a distraction that would send everyone rushing for the exits, and when that occurred, we were to move in and take out all of Asami's bodyguards, same as we did on a previous job.
He showed up, but suddenly, some young guy appeared out of no where and warned him he was walking into a trap and then it really got bad. The bomb someone," he paused, looking at his boss, trying to get across that it wasn't his or the other men there's fault, "set was too large and it blew everyone off their feet. By the time I got up again, a fire had started and the smoke got so thick, so quick, we couldn't see our target anymore. We knew we wouldn't get a second chance at Asami after he found out about the trap, but a few of us thought that if we picked up that squealer we could make him tell us just how he found out about our plan. Maybe there's a leak somewhere," he said, the others nodding in agreement as Yan listened bored.
"So we decided get him and take him back with us to headquarters, but with the people running to escape, and the heavy smoke, it was harder than we thought it would be to get back to where we saw him fall."
"Fall?" their leader asked.
"Yeah, he was closer to the blast than us so we didn't think he'd be up as fast as we were. We all moved in on his position, keeping low, because of all the smoke, and we expected we'd run across him at any moment," Jiro paused, seemingly to be lost in the memory of the moment.
He was elbowed at the same time the question, "And did you?" was ask him.
"No, instead we met the person you saw on the TV. He moved fast," the others agreed with their heads continuous nodding, looking like a bunch of Yakuza head bobbers. "We didn’t even get a chance to react. In less than a minute we suddenly found ourselves all flat on our backs. All of us were hit at least once by him and then he disappeared, without a trace. The police arrived right after that and arrested us."
"What about Asami?" the Jōa-kai boss asked.
"Didn't see him again at all sir."
"And the boy?"
"None of us saw him again either."
Yan interrupted, "The man who fought you, you're implying he was with that Asami character."
"Well, I'm not sure, but why else would a complete stranger attack us?"
The others watched Yan, as he sat, animatedly talking to himself. He spoke so low they could only he could hear snippets of the conversation, "Impossible, he wouldn't be doing such work as that… menial grunt work… did he fall so low…" and then he seemed to focus as he jumped up and in a clear loud voice asked, "And who is this, Asami?" causing a few of the men to jump as well."
Ogata asked, "Do you have a newspaper here?"
Someone brought one over and he opened it to page 3, back to where the governor's event had been pushed due to the attack taking the front page. He pointed to a black and white photo of a tall powerful looking man shaking the governor's hand.
This is Asami. He showed up just a few years ago, but in that time he secured his power base by either destroying or merging with any group he comes into contact. He now controls most every illegal deal occurring in Tokyo. No ones been able to touch him. He's even got the police by the balls and now he's trying to take over my business. I've already lost over half my men to him and his people. He's ruthless. The only way to survive in this town is to join him or take him down and I'm trying for the latter."
The feral grin on Yan's face didn't make him look as cheery as he sounded, as he said, "Looks like I might have finally found my dragon's camouflage." Not quite understanding what he meant, the men of the Joa-kai could only nod in agreement. "I'll tell you what I'll do for you and your group. Help me find this man and I'll provide all the support you'll need to take this Asami down. Money, guns, ammo, I've got them all and more, but if he's harmed in any way, you better pray that Asami gets to you before I do.
Author: paranoia_woman
Character(s): All the Yamane regulars with only slight differences.
Rating: Varies per chapter PG - XXX You are warned!!!
Warning: None
Summary: A combination of Viewfinder and Frankenstein. Creating life and the results thereof with Yamane's characters.
Disclaimer: Ownership of the Viewfinder series and all characters therein belongs to Yamane Ayano, In perpetuity. Frankenstein is not mine either or I'd be rich.
Creature in the Viewfinder
Chapter 15
Fresh out of jail, the men of the Jōa-kai group stood milling around in the center of the living room, wondering what they'd gotten themselves into. After the farce of last night's events, they went to jail, where they expected that they'd never be able to see the outside of a prison for years. Instead, they were released and brought back to the scene of the crime. Well, sort of, they were actually several stories above it, in the luxurious surrounds of this hotel suite.
They stood, awaiting notice from the man who had helped them get released. They could see him from where they stood, but the atmosphere in the room darkened the first time one of them tried to speak to him. The man, who had been introduced as their benefactor, didn't even look up at that time. Only the men standing behind him did, and they looked so cold and unsympathetic at them, they didn't dare say another word.
They decided to wait and quietly talk amongst themselves, trying to figure out why they'd been brought there, but talking wasn't their forte. These men weren't part of the brain trust of the Jōa-kai, they were the brawn, picked for their job on behalf of their ruthlessness. They would have felt better if they had their weapons, but the police had taken them and refused to return them, saying they were evidence. So armless, ignored, and unable to leave, they stood there, becoming increasingly agitated while waiting for answers.
Yan purposely ignored his guests until he finished his morning breakfast. Even though he wanted, no, needed the information from them, he needed to make sure they knew their place first. At least, he found this meal more palatable than the one from the evening before, but it still wasn't as good as he was used too. He would make sure to make a complaint later. He put his napkin in his plate to signal he was done and turned to eye the group of men, asking "Which one of you is the leader?"
They looked around at each other, like they were wondering what they should do. Yan decided to try another tact, saying, "I can see you're confused about why I brought you here."
With that, finally, a dark haired, medium size man with a knife tattoo on his wrist spoke up. "We won't do anything against our boss."
Amused at the reaction, Yan said, "Well I didn't expect you to do anything like that. I just need some questions about someone you met up with last night."
Bowing down the man asked, "Please, let us speak with our boss first. We won't be able to do anything until then."
This being just what he wanted, Yan agreed, saying, "That's fine, I wanted to meet with him as well. What's your name?"
Realizing how far he was out of his element, he was nervous, but as calmly as he could, he answered, "Jiro, sir."
Yan sat down on the couch and said, "Get Jiro a phone." He stared hard at the outspoken man who had decided to be the leader of this little group, appraising him, and then said, "Tell your boss to come here, I'll allow you, and you alone, to go down to the lobby and meet up with him. The rest will stay here. I promise I won't do anything to harm any of them or your boss. As a matter of fact I have a proposition that may interest him."
It took 45 minutes for his new guest to arrive and be brought up to the room. Even though his man had told him the name of the person who'd asked for him, he didn't believe it. He was shocked when he saw him, in the flesh, actually sitting in the room across from him. The leader of the Jōa-kai, Ogata Daiki, had been in this business long enough to of heard of him, Liu Yan, the head of Baishe Laboratories. It was supposedly a prominent pharmaceutical company, but unknown to most, not all the drugs made were of the helping nature. Many of the drugs trafficked through the Orient came from his place of business, and there was even shadier tales being told lately of him working for the government making biological weapons of warfare. The underground talk of him was brutal. It was said, any man who interfered in his business, disappeared. He normally never traveled, so for him to be there himself, in Japan, something big had to be going down and with the varied types of business he ran there was no telling what it could be.
Being no fool, Ogata knew he had to keep calm and do whatever he could to keep on the good side of that man. He went over and bowed, turning and indicating for his men to do the same and said, "Liu-sama, I am Ogata Daiki of the Jōa-kai. If my men have bothered you in any way, I apologize. They're a bit slow, but they're good people."
It seemed his new guest knew of him. 'That will make this a lot easier then,' Yan thought to himself, saying aloud, "I have no problem with you or your men. Actually I just needed some information on what occurred last night.”
"You mean downstairs."
"Of course, I do," he said gruffly, becoming a little irritated, but calmed down quickly before continuing. "On TV there was some footage shown that was of interest to me." He pointed over behind them to where a TV sat and pulled out a remote control from his pocket, pressing play.
On the screen ran the cell phone footage that'd been playing all morning. "Right there," Yan said, pausing the image on the screen.
"That's the guy that hit me," One of the men said.
"Me too," said another, rubbing his shoulder.
Pulling a picture from his breast pocket, Yan asked, "And is this the same man? Take your time. Look at it carefully." The men stared at the last photograph taken of Fei en-long from over four years ago at his Father's funeral and they all agreed, yes, it was the same man.
Yan smiled, not a happy looking smile, but a predatory one, saying, "I need your groups help in finding this man. He is of… special interest to me.”
"I want a piece of him too," one of the men said, plowing a balled fist into the palm of his hand.
Enraged, Yan turned to the man who'd spoken, yelling, "No, he is not to be damaged. If anyone… anyone," he spoke, pointedly looking back and forth between his guests, "hurts him, they will answer to me."
"Understood, sir. My men know how to follow orders. Don't you worry," Ogata said immediately, thwacking the subordinate who'd spoken last on the back of the head with an open fist.
Consoled, Yan sat back and asked, "Now, tell me what you know about him."
No one said anything for a moment, so the leader, worried about angering Yan again elbowed the man beside him.
"Uh, I don't know. He seemed to come out of nowhere."
The others began speaking then too.
"Yeah, It was just Boom," indicating the explosion, "then the smoke and then bang, I was down. Next thing I knew the cops had me."
"Me too, last thing I remember, I was heading towards the kid's position, like I was told to, and then thwack."
"Hey!" Ogata asked, "What kid? You were supposed to be after Asami," looking angry at his men for the first time that evening.
"Well, sir, what happened was…"
"I don't want excuses," he said to his men, and then turned to Yan, saying apologetically, "I'm sorry sir. It'll be easiest just to have them give a complete report from the beginning."
"Proceed," Yan said, beginning to realize he'd fallen in with a bunch of idiots.
"Jiro, you tell 'em," said one of the men, and the other men quickly nodded in agreement.
Jiro sighed, in triumph or defeat, no one but he could say, as he began, "The job was to take out Asami upstairs, but we got word of a change in plans soon after we arrived and were told to move downstairs and get new orders. There, we were told to spread out, seven of us inside and five outside. I was one of the ones inside along with the others here. We waited for Asami's group, just like we were directed to. We were told to expect a distraction that would send everyone rushing for the exits, and when that occurred, we were to move in and take out all of Asami's bodyguards, same as we did on a previous job.
He showed up, but suddenly, some young guy appeared out of no where and warned him he was walking into a trap and then it really got bad. The bomb someone," he paused, looking at his boss, trying to get across that it wasn't his or the other men there's fault, "set was too large and it blew everyone off their feet. By the time I got up again, a fire had started and the smoke got so thick, so quick, we couldn't see our target anymore. We knew we wouldn't get a second chance at Asami after he found out about the trap, but a few of us thought that if we picked up that squealer we could make him tell us just how he found out about our plan. Maybe there's a leak somewhere," he said, the others nodding in agreement as Yan listened bored.
"So we decided get him and take him back with us to headquarters, but with the people running to escape, and the heavy smoke, it was harder than we thought it would be to get back to where we saw him fall."
"Fall?" their leader asked.
"Yeah, he was closer to the blast than us so we didn't think he'd be up as fast as we were. We all moved in on his position, keeping low, because of all the smoke, and we expected we'd run across him at any moment," Jiro paused, seemingly to be lost in the memory of the moment.
He was elbowed at the same time the question, "And did you?" was ask him.
"No, instead we met the person you saw on the TV. He moved fast," the others agreed with their heads continuous nodding, looking like a bunch of Yakuza head bobbers. "We didn’t even get a chance to react. In less than a minute we suddenly found ourselves all flat on our backs. All of us were hit at least once by him and then he disappeared, without a trace. The police arrived right after that and arrested us."
"What about Asami?" the Jōa-kai boss asked.
"Didn't see him again at all sir."
"And the boy?"
"None of us saw him again either."
Yan interrupted, "The man who fought you, you're implying he was with that Asami character."
"Well, I'm not sure, but why else would a complete stranger attack us?"
The others watched Yan, as he sat, animatedly talking to himself. He spoke so low they could only he could hear snippets of the conversation, "Impossible, he wouldn't be doing such work as that… menial grunt work… did he fall so low…" and then he seemed to focus as he jumped up and in a clear loud voice asked, "And who is this, Asami?" causing a few of the men to jump as well."
Ogata asked, "Do you have a newspaper here?"
Someone brought one over and he opened it to page 3, back to where the governor's event had been pushed due to the attack taking the front page. He pointed to a black and white photo of a tall powerful looking man shaking the governor's hand.
This is Asami. He showed up just a few years ago, but in that time he secured his power base by either destroying or merging with any group he comes into contact. He now controls most every illegal deal occurring in Tokyo. No ones been able to touch him. He's even got the police by the balls and now he's trying to take over my business. I've already lost over half my men to him and his people. He's ruthless. The only way to survive in this town is to join him or take him down and I'm trying for the latter."
The feral grin on Yan's face didn't make him look as cheery as he sounded, as he said, "Looks like I might have finally found my dragon's camouflage." Not quite understanding what he meant, the men of the Joa-kai could only nod in agreement. "I'll tell you what I'll do for you and your group. Help me find this man and I'll provide all the support you'll need to take this Asami down. Money, guns, ammo, I've got them all and more, but if he's harmed in any way, you better pray that Asami gets to you before I do.