Tokyo in the Shadows, The story of Kambei Options

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0556

He looks at Keru and jerks his head towards Kouki, "I saved your friend's life. If it weren't for me he'd either be dead or a drooling idiot for the rest of his life."

I'm really starting to get tired of dealing with these fucks.

Kambei begins to walk slowly getting into an optimal position to fight the three of them, if necessary, "On top of that he is responsible for kidnapping the girl I'm looking for, and you were going to help him hack into her commlink, which makes you an accessory." He stops once he finds his spot and shifts his stance to allow a fast draw without looking overly aggressive, "Not to mention the fact that I had to use 100 yen of my own money to pay the Doc to fix him up. So I figure you could help pay the debt I'm owed and we can all call it even and go home."

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0557

Keru snorts at Kambei's words.

"First, Kouki's not my friend. Not that he hasn't wished otherwise too often, but I didn't deal with him, I dealt with Ryu of the Falcons. And he already was both drooling when girls were around as well as being an idiot all the time."

Kouki starts to protest this assessement, but falls silent when, for once, his survival instinct overrrules his ego. Keru continues without ackowledging him.

"Second, I didn't help kidnap anyone. I did some digging about a Mr. Tanaka, and they wanted me to hack a stolen commlink.

So, whatever is between you and him is between you and him. It's not my debt to pay."

Keru shifts her stance a bit, hands on her hip. The mage behind her seems to focus his attention on Kambei now.

"Now... you want information I got. I want a favor, to be collected at a later date, for it. Backup during a meet, or somethin similar."

The hacker crosses her arms and looks at Kambei.

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0557

Kambei considers his options for a moment. It is a lot better to work with a willing participant than a hostage at gun point. And there's no way I could keep three of them in check with one of them being a mage without something going wrong.

"Alright, if you give me accurate information on the people that they sold Ahiko to that leads me to Ahiko, and what I need to know about the clinics they got their ware at, and I'll back you up one time."

He turns to the mage with a bit of a glare, "and you, stop staring at me like that or I'm liable to do something about it."

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0557

Keru specifies the deal.

"I give you what I know. If you need more than that to find your girl, that's not my problem."

Then she briefly turns to the Mage, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Hiro, stop staring. Do we have a deal, mister?"

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0557

If it weren't for that mage...

"Yeah, we got a deal," he says, "now tell me what you know."

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0557

Keru nods, and starts explaining.

"On Ryu's request I looked into the "Mr. Tanaka" that contacted the Falcons a few weeks ago, and dug around a bit. I had no success at first, all throw-away commlinks and disguises. And the money offered up front was laundered as well. However, the cybernetic implants the Falcons got were the key - the clinic they got the cyber at, the Henshin Clinic, is paying protection to athe Sarenzen-gumi, part of the Wanibuchi-Rengo. The clinic's systems were not as protected, and I found the link to the Kumi."

Keru transmits the adresses of both the Henshin Clinic and the Sarenzen-gumi's offices - situated at the edge of a restaurant district a bit away from the korean quarter - to Kambei.

"Anything else?"

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0600

"And what about the security at both locations? Do you have any idea what they are like?" Kambei questions. If they really are the Yakuza it's going to be a real pain in the ass to get Ahiko out. What did she get herself into...

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0557

Keru shrugs.

"The clinic doesn't have much security. The Yakuza get protection money, but that's taking most of their security budget. A few guards to handle drunks and junkies trying to steal drugs.

The yakuza offices I don't know about in detail, but their ilk usually has a number of guards, and good computer security."

Hiro pipes up. "They are lousy at astral security."

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0558

Kambei looks at Hiro, "interesting." He turns to Kouki, "and where did you hand over Ahiko to them? Was it at their offices - which is unlikely - or did you pick some discreet location? Did they come with a lot of men or just one car? Anything you haven't told me yet would be good to know. No detail is too minor."

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0600

Hiro smiles too, but Keru rolls her eyes, muttering something about peeping toms.

Kouki, who has held his tongue with some difficulty only, seems glad to show he too has some valuable information - or so he thinks.

"We met them at an older parking lot, in the outskirts of Neo-Toyko. The exchange was smooth as silk - they drove up, opened the car door of the nightsky they were riding in, we dropped the girl in, and they transmitted us the reward. Didn't take longer than 2 minutes!"

The young man looks proud, even though he hasn't given any real information.

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0601

"Okay, that's good," and Kambei turns back to Hiro, "and did you ever get a good look at Ahiko? Did you get a good enough read on her where you'd be able to identify her again if she's been modified?"

[ Spoiler ]

Just a roll for knowing how the basics of magic work if necessary.
Kambei makes a Magic Background roll: (6d6.hits(5)=3)

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0601

Hiro has a blank look on his face, blinking.

"Ahiko? I am not sure, where does she live?"

Keru rolls her eyes, then looks at Hiro, annoyed again.

"Did you attend that meeting?"

Kouki shakes his head before Hiro can answer, again acting to make hismelf more important and useful. Sucking up, in other words.

"He wasn't around... not that I have seen him anyway."

Hiro looks a bit puzzled, then seems to understand.

"Ah, I wasn't sure... I askenned a lot of girls, you know."

Keru grinds her teeth, muttering something about peeping again.

It doesn't look like Hiro will be of any help, although Kambei got the girls DNA so he can check suspects.

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0601

Kambei sighs, great lot of use these two were. It's like I'm back at square one, except I have the commlink. At least that's something.

Then suddenly, he remembers something, "Kouki, when you were at Fortune, somebody made a crack about how some other girl at the club looked like Ahiko. You remember that? She didn't look anything like her at all either. What was that about?"

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0601

Kouki smiles, remembering the scene.

"Oh, her - she just acted like Ahiko, you know, trying so hard to get a boyfriend. Probably would have done anything to keep a boyfriend too."

The zoku laughs, probably remembering the strip clips Ahiko did for him. Keru sneers at him, her face showing her distaste. Hiro looks a bit confused, as if he doesn't know if he should ask what was so funny, then reconsiders once he spots Keru's expression.

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0602

Kambei nods, "I guess I should have expected that."

He turns back to the other two, "if that's all you know then you'd better get going." He looks out at the light begining to break through the perpetual haze of Neo-Tokyo's sky, "Me and Kouki aren't done for the night yet."

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0605

Keru nods at Kambei, and cuts off Hiro when he's trying to explain that the night is actually over soon.

"We're done here, Hiro. They're not interested in arcane mechanics as related to the day/night cycle."

Keru exchanges comm numbers with Kambei, sends a last thinly-diguised glare at Kouki, and heads down to her bike, followed by Hiro, who waves to Kambei and Kouki. Soon afterwards the engine of their bike is heard, and they drive away under the first rays of the rising sun. Almost a sight for a movie ending, with the barren surroundings and the reddish light.

Kouki watches them go, muttering something impolite and probably untrue about Keru's morals - but only once she's so far away that even Kambei's enhanced ears would have had trouble picking it up - then turns to Kambei with a smile on his face.

"So, what do we do next?"

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0605

He paces a few steps looking out the window, “Next we go do a drive-by of your warehouse, see if it’s clear or swarmed by cops – its only been a few hours and it was in a shady spot – and if it’s all clear you’ll look for a usable bike so we don’t have to ride like this.�

Kambei pauses by the door, “mind you, I’m assuming you aren’t going to try to pull some shit on me. Cause if you do, our recent understanding on how we are proceeding is null and void and I’ll have to find you and not be so pleasant when I do.�

He motions for Kouki to exit the building, “if we are all set then, after you.�

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0615

[ Spoiler ]

Intimidation Check (6d6.hits(5)=2)

Kouki swallows, paling a bit, and his smile is a bit forced, although he assures Kambei that he'll not cross him.

[ Spoiler ]

Judge Intention Check (8d6.hits(5)=1)

The zoku seems to be cowed indeed, and not planning to stab Kambei into the back. The two drive by the warehouse, after checking the area's traffic from afar, and looking out for police patrol drones, or other signs that there's already a presence of the cops.

Seeing nothing, they approach the warehouse. The corpses haven't yet started to smell that bad, but the sight of the dead is chilling - made worse by the signs of looting, a number of the zokus have been stripped bare. There are still bikes around though. As Kouki explains - after mourning over the remains of his Scorpion, whose loss seems to hit him far worse than the death of his friends - they must not have been able to crack the codes to start the bikes.

That would make the scavengers rather unskilled, or not connected to people who can handle such codes - or they simply are still contacting those kind of people. All the more a reason not to linger long. Kouki doesn't take long to pick a bike anyway - he knows what bike he wants, even though it wasn't as good as his old, as he complains.

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0620

Once they are some distance away, Kambei signals to pull over and pulls over on the side of some out of the way stretch of road. Once they are on the road he asks, "alright, tell me about the clinic. What was it like inside? Was it hard to get into?

"And did you see any girls getting cut up like they were getting rigged for pfixes or anything like that when you went in for your cyber?"

Kambei is getting a little frustrated with the lack of natural sleep, the day coming on, and Ahiko looking no closer than last night and it shows.

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0620

Kouki ponders this a bit, then shakes his head.

"I didn't see any girl, but the clinic didn't seem very well protected. A guard or two at the entrance, probably a patrol. And a chain-link Fence around the staff parking area. It was a cheap clinic, old furniture in the waiting room. And the cars the staff uses were not the best either. And the nurses were foreigners. Kind of cute though."

Kouki has a slightly leering expression as he remembers his trip. His assessement, crude as it is, shows his way of thinking - probably the only reason the Falcons didn't boost a few cars or drugs there is that the clinic does have the yakuza's protection, if only as a threat of retaliation.

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0622

�What about the Yakuza’s office?� Kambei asks, “did you ever go there or Keru just looked into it and you stayed away? And they ever give you any indication of why they did with Ahiko? I want to know even though any reason they’d have give you would probably be a lie.�

[ Spoiler ]

Wanted to roll my Yakuza Hangouts knowledge skill to see if I have heard anything in the past about what kind of work they do out of that office.
Kambei makes a Yakuza Hangouts Knowledge roll: (5d6.hits(5)=1)

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0622

As Kouki explains - although reluctantly, and trying to downplay the importance - he didn't really go to the yakuza office, since they were supposed not to know it was the yakuza hiring them; only Keru found that out. He also has nothing but speculation to offer about possible reasons - most of his thoughts seem to center on carnal matters, and the idea that the yakuza would not kidnap a daughter of a rich family just to restock a bunraku parlor if there are the poor and the illegal immigrants to pick from seems to escape him.

As far as Kambei knows the yakuzza ofices are mostly used for business - internal meetings, hanging out, showing presence, as well as meetings with outsiders of lesser importance, mainly those who don't have much to lose by being seen there, or no choice.

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0625

Kambei nods his head, expecting as little as he was given, “okay, lets go scout the place out then. Not much of a chance we’ll find anything but I can’t leave a stone unturned.�

He steadies his bike as he retracts the kickstand, “if you are still awake, lead the way?�

[Fuchs]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0626

Kouki stiffles a yawn, then pops a pill, and a bit later his eyes are wide and he's speaking a bit faster than usual. Kambei didn't see what the zoku took, but it's not Long Haul - the symptoms are different. Probably some cheap and dangerous stim.

The trip to the Henshin clinic takes longer now, with the early rush hour starting. It feels longer too, with a hyper Kouki talking again. Nothing useful, only girl stories, and more or less veiled flattery.

The closer they get to the clinic, the worse the streets become too - not as bad as in other countries, but more litter on the streets, and more uneven pavement. Then Kambei sees the clinic. It's a drab, functional building surrounded by an old chain-link fence. The signs of a stretched budget catch his attention - chipped paint on the walls, some not yet repaired damage where a car scraped at a pillar, cheap furniture in the entrance hall visible through glass doors. The entrance is guarded by a bored man in an overall.

[Tabula Rasa]

Neo-Tokyo - 04/22/2008 – 0630

Kambei doesn’t stop or stay around long enough for the bored man to pay notice and changes directions to head towards the Yakuza’s joint for a quick drive-by to get the lay of the land around there too.

Aoi and Ayaka should be waking up already… what wouldn’t I give not to be out on the streets right now and in a warm bed instead.