Inclining his head to show a slight attention to the man in front of him did betray the fact that he was not merely a work of art. "How certain can we be that this is true."
"Completely. The guy who gave us the information is reliable and wouldn't lie to us at all," answered the underling, swaggering just a bit to show his confidence.
"And yet he is betraying his comrades."
"Yes, well... uh...."
"That is besides the point. Our concern is how reliable this information is," the composed man murmured, decidedly ignoring the ribbing his subordinate was getting from the other thugs in the room. "Not that I have reason to doubt his word. This rings too true for that."
"Then you believe him."
"My 'belief' has nothing to with this. I can't call for an action either way."
"Then that means...."
"What do you think, sir? Shall we go on in and return favors done to us."
Lounging on the sofa was a man in a suit who hadn't spoken before, but it didn't seem that he needed to, as one got the distinct impression that he was glancing over in their direction from behind his sunglasses. "Are you kidding? There's no way that would be the right way to fly."
"I understand, sir."
"But, Boss! This is our chance to pay back those jerks and maybe get property back out of the deal!" the reporting thug protested.
"Don't be so hasty... or dumb. Or maybe your just looking to die," the boss said as he slid around to a proper sitting position.
"Huh? What?"
"Think about it. If those idiots in the Yakuza are going to be interested in something, then so are the cops. And as much as a lot of those guys can be greedy sons of bitches, there's plenty of them who do have a lick of sense. Which means that it's more than likely that the Anti-Yakuza Task Force is going to be keeping a close on it too."
"Which means...." the thug began and then turned a bit pale as he began to realize what that could do to his life span.
"Well, if you want to see how many holes can be put into your corpse, go right ahead. I'm sure that they'll have plenty of snipers around that area that'll be thankful for the practice."
As several of the other underlings began to wince as they imagine the 'welcome' that the cops would give them, the boss got to his feet and went to look out the window.
"Since that would be the case, then what do you want us to do?" the second in command asked. "Wait on it?"
"In a way. We'll hit them, but not head on. Suicide doesn't really do it for me. But getting them where it will hurt does," the boss drawled, a smirk lightening his face.
"Go around them then."
"That would be pretty much it. We can't strike him head on, but then again, that might be for the best. Saotome did do us a favor in what he did to those Yakuza punks. Besides, he hasn't gone directly for us, which is a favor that I'd like to return."
"Where would you like us to aim for?" the second in command asked.
"Those around him. Guys like him tend to get all uptight if 'innocent people' are involved in business like this. We go after friends, family... neighbors if we have to, and it makes us all the better off. People get afraid of being around him, and he gets afraid of who might get hurt because of him."
"Understandable."
"But to make it even better, we'll make things more useful for us. Just think of the possibilities. There might be something good for us to take from there, and it'll be interesting to see if we can't... 'convince' someone to betray Saotome. Imagine what it would be like when they have one of their friends lead them right into our hands. Now that would be worth the work in 'caring' for that person. What was that school's name again?"
Pushing his glasses up on his nose, the underboss peered at the papers. "Furinkan."
"Furinkan, eh? Let's just go pay a visit on that school and see what we can get out of it," the boss commented, taking out a cigarette, lighting it, and take a long drag, while:
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:17)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.