"Whoooooooa, this is Tokyo ———— !"
An awestruck man yelled in the middle of the JR Tokyo Station.
His age was just before thirty and his build was tall and muscular like that of an athlete, but his hair was ruffled and unkempt and his clothes were shabby. His whole body had a slack appearance and had an air far from that of the refined city. In those hands of his he was holding a traveling case, making him an apparent outsider.
"Ain't this somethin'?! There's lots of people! It's completely different from Hakata!"
The man – Zenji Banba – frolicked in joy like a child seeing the scenery of Tokyo for the first time in his life.
"…….Hey, Banba."
Next to him the young, cross-dressing male – Xianming Lin was frowning.
"You're annoying; shut up for a second."
"The Tokyo folk sure walk fast! Right?!"
The passerby focus their cold gazed at Banba being so noisy as he looked around the area restlessly.
Lin gradually felt embarrassed. Just as he wanted to do what everyone else was doing, Banba started conversing with him while patting Lin's shoulder.
"Oooooh, Lin-chan! Look at that there! Look!"
"I told you to shut up!"
When he instantly punched him in his large back Banba gave a pathetic "ouch."
"Seriously……You country folk are so embarrassing in public."
Lin glared at him and sighed. Xianming Lin was a killer.
He was trained to become a human weapon in a remote place in China since he was little, but right now he lived in Fukuoka and made a living as a freelance killer taking assassination requests.
This man with the Hakata accent – Zenji Banba – was the head of the Detective Banba Office Lin freeloaded from, a fellow professional in the killer business in Fukuoka, as well as a comrade on the grass-lot baseball team he belonged to. He was a man with many faces, but to Lin he was an existence similar to that of a partner if he had to put a label on him.
There was a reason for these two to leave the city Fukuoka they have grown fond of and came all the way to Tokyo. The excuse was what the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens coach of the Fukuoka grass-lot baseball team they belonged to, Genzo Gouda, said.
'You fellas want to go to a game?'
The Ramens' activities were mostly general practices on Saturdays and a game with local teams. And besides those they had the occasional game at a tournament. They hardly had the chance to go see a game elsewhere.
It seemed that a baseball team Genzo knew was in Tokyo and that this weekend they were going to have a practice match. They left in a hurry for the match in Tokyo. Since the Tonkotsu Nine each had their own jobs, they had an up-in-the-air schedule of meeting up and dispersing. It did not appear to matter what they did besides meeting up on time.
'Since we're gonna go all the way to Tokyo, it'd be rather nice to go the The League as well.' Banba had said. Inevitably, Lin decided to join him. The traveling expenditures were all covered by Banba, so he brought nothing but his cell phone, his beloved knife-pistol, and his baseball gear, and they got on board the shinkansen.
And like this the Lin and Banba combo team have entered the area a few days before the practice game. Their positions in their team were Lin as the short stop and Banba as the second baseman. At first they could not work together smoothly and there were a lot of mishaps in teamwork during game, but they were working excellently together as a vital point in defense.
Today they had the plan to watch a night game at Jinguu baseball stadium. Professional baseball would be educational just by watching. The pitcher's ball would feel farther in person than seeing it on the TV screen, and there was the appeal of even the pass to first base the players would manage like breathing air. The sounds of the ball caught in the mitt or glove would sound different to novices like themselves.
Banba had said he had never seen a game in a baseball stadium other than at Fukuoka Dome. This was his first game at a baseball stadium and his first time visiting Tokyo. It was not like Lin also could not understand Banba's tension of being so elevated. However, he did think he was frolicking over it a bit too much.
The professional baseball game started at 6 o'clock in the evening, and right now it was still just a bit past noon. They had to kill some time until then. Hearing they had an array of well-established baseball shops in Ikebukuro, the two decided they were going to first head for Ikebukuro Station, but –
"……Where's Ikebukuro?"
They both frowned, looking over the route map in front of the ticket gates.
"JR Yamanote Line, Center Line, Marunouchi Line, Ginza Line……There's so many lines; I ain't gettin' it." Banba was also giving up. He was making a fed-up expression.
The two, who realized the Fukuoka subway was far simpler, decided to go with the familiar sounding Yamanote Line.
Afterwards, another test awaited the two having arrived to Ikebukuro safely.
"………Where's the exit?"
Looking up at the guide, he tilted his head again.
"East exit, Seibu east exit, west exit, south exit……there's too much exits; I ain't gettin' it."
The main exits from the Hataka station were the Hakata exit and Chikushi exit. It reminded him that the nearest station in the local area was much more simple.
After the two stared at the map for ten minutes,
"……Let's ask someone."
In the end, they decided to ask for help from the locals.
Banba looked around the area aimlessly,
"Um, excuse me."
Among the passerby dashing by in a fast pace- one of them halted.
"Yes?"
The one Banba called out to was a boy. He was wearing a school uniform. He was probably a high schooler. He looked less sophisticated but more seriously mature. He had the air of someone who would give an honest answer if asked for directions.
Facing the boy who stopped for them, Banba pointed to the map. "We want to get here, but how do y'all get outta here?"
The boy was taken aback by Banba's accent for a moment, but he seemed to have grasped it rather quickly. That the lost tourists were asking for directions.
"Umm……" The boy peeked over, looking at the map, and answered. "If it's here, then it's the east exit."
"The east exit……"
He did not know where the east exit was.
To Banba who had a confused expression,
"If you would like, how about I guide you? I also was about to head for the east exit actually."
The boy smiled sweetly.
Thankful for the proposal, Lin and Banba nodded repeatedly. They decided to let themselves be spoiled over the kind offer.
"It's this way."
The boy suggested and began to walk. Lin and them follow after him on quick feet as to not go astray.
"Are you traveling?"
The boy asked, giving a glance towards the large bag Banba was holding.
"Well, just about. We came from Fukuoka." Lin answered in his stead and gave their names. "I'm Lin. And this guy is Banba. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Mikado Ryuugamine."
"Ryuugamine-kun? Don't that name sound like an air conditioner?"
The boy gave a bitter smile at what Banba said. "I was told the same thing before too."
Heading for the east exit, the three accompanied one another and walked on. Even so, there is an abundance of people. Even if they walked normally they could run into someone.
The Ryuugamine boy spoke as he proceeded through the midst of the station as though he had grown use to it. "Is this your first time in Ikebukuro?"
Banba nodded at his question. "Yeah. It's our first time coming to Tokyo to boot."
"Do you know? In Ikebukuro Tobu is at the west gate and Seibu is at the east gate."
"Really? I didn't know."
"When I also first came to Ikebukuro I was told that from a friend."
"What the heck is that? This is a pretty confusing city."
"Are you also from Tokyo?"
"No." The boy Ryuugamine shook his head. "I have come to Tokyo to transfer to another school."
While they were talking they arrived at the exit. Going up the stairs, they exited the station.
" – Ohh"
Banba promptly raised his voice at the scene of the vast Ikebukuro before their eyes.
"I haven't seen such tall buildings in my life! Is that the infamous Sky Tree?"
"As if the Sky Tree is in Ikebukuro." Lin sighed. "You country folk should shut up."
Since Fukuoka City had an airport in its center the height of the city's buildings were restricted. For someone like Banba who was born and raised in Fukuoka such tall buildings were new to him.
The boy Ryuugamine, after giving a bitter smile towards Banba frolicking about in excitement, pointed down the street.
"Turn there then go down and you'll be there."
"Really?"
"It was unexpectedly close, huh."
"Well then, I'll leave you here."
Banba nodded back towards the boy and lightly bowed his head.
"Yeah. Thank you. Mikado."
"You really helped us."
At the front of the fast food joint past the crossing, Lin and him departed from their guide. They looked back towards the boy's back while waving their hands and began to walk again.
"You were a nice younglin'. Mikado Sakuragamine-kun."
"It's Ryuugamine." Sakuragamine was a shrine in Fukuoka. "Mikado Ryuugamine."
"Ah, was it?"
After walking for a bit there was a wide street. It was not a street for cars, but young people were walking in masses. It felt far more busy than the west street of Tenjin, Fukuoka.
"This is Sunshine 60 Street?"
"It sure is lively here."
As they were walking amidst the crowd of people they heard yelling from a corner of the street. When they looked over there they saw several people of young looking groups glaring at each other. "What is it? A fight?" Lin said and tilted his head curiously.
"Like we're saying! You guys are members of the Dollars, ain't ya?"
"Then you know at least the Black Rider's whereabouts, right? Right?"
"Spit it out already!"
The young kids were saying unknown comments about some Dollars or Black Rider. Though it was more like one side was threatening the other and was inquiring about something. He thought it was just a quarrel with fellow kids, but there were some with even knives. Just out in the open in the city. Lin was stunned.
"……Hey, doesn't this city seem a bit dangerous?"
"They sure are."
Though they may not have the decency to say considering they work as killers in the city Hakata, a place with an abundance of underground work for it to be ridiculed with a population of 3% killers.
Giving the gang-like youngsters with a backwards glance, the two pressed forward.
"Lin-chan, look there! It's a Russia Sushi!"
Banba exclaimed while pointing at the billboard of the sushi shop.
"What an interesting shop. You reckon' they have a Moscow roll or somethin'?"
"No, isn't the chef just Russian and the menu is the same?"
It was a shop they do not see too often in Fukuoka. In front of the shop there was an employee bringing in guests. He was a large black man. When he spotted Lin, he called out to him with broken Japanese.
"Young lady there. Eat sushi? Sushi is good. It good for your beauty too. There's plenty of collagen, vitamin A, and astaxanthin."
– Is he a Russian……?
No matter how he looked at him he was without a doubt a black man. Perhaps there was a trace of Russian somewhere.
As he was wondering this in his mind,
"Lin-chan! There's a ramen shop!"
This time Banba pointed to an old ramen shop. There was a sign hung at the shop's entrance that read Hakata Tonkotsu.
"I'm just a bit hungry, so should we oughta have some Tonkotsu Ramen?"
"Ramen is no good for you. Sushi is better."
Lin agreed with a "probably" at the black man's words.
"Besides, why should we have come all the way out to Tokyo to just have Tonkotsu ramen?" They ate more than a lifetime's worth of it in Fukuoka. Lin shrugged his shoulders. "We came all the way here, so I want to have something you can't have anywhere but in Tokyo."
"You can only get Tokyo Tonkotsu Ramen in Tokyo though?"
"You say that but you're going have it and say 'Tonkotsu is really the best in Hakata!' you know?!" He pointed at Banba's face and stated. "You're that kind of guy."
"I don't know none of that. I won't know 'til I have some."
"No, I know you will."
"What's up with that?" Banba turned sullen and rebutted. "I'll cough up and pay, so shouldn't I be choosin'?"
"Well it'd be better to have something that'll help with our looks than ramen. So let's do sushi."
"Lin-chan you're already quite the looker, so you ain't got no need to look any better. So let's get some ramen."
"Don't say something so tactful and try to put it together to get your way."
"Ohh, no fighting. Fighting is no good. Have some sushi and make up."
The black man from the sushi shop broke in between Lin and Banba's skirmish.
In the end, the two did not move a foot on the matter, so they could not decide on what to eat. "We'll come again later," Lin turned towards the black man inviting in guests and stated this before taking off once again.
Deciding for now to finish their errands first, they headed for their designated baseball goods store. As they were following the suggestions on the map,
"- Ah"
Banba suddenly came to a halt.
"Lin-chan, Lin-chan! There's a batting cage!"
Catching sight of the batting center billboard, Banba's spirits rose up further.
"How 'bout we head yonder for a bit?"
Aren't there batting cages in Fukuoka too? Without lending an ear to Lin's exasperated voice Banba went inside the facility. Reluctantly, Lin followed in after him. This man would surely become unable to not take a few swings of the bat once he found the batting center.
Banba entered the first booth lined up and put in the coin into the machine right away.
"I'm going to go to the restroom."
Leaving Banba at that spot, Lin headed for the men's restroom. He finished his business, brushed his tangled up hair, and then wiped down the powder of foundation lightly and fixed his makeup.
– It was just five minutes.
It was only five minutes since Lin took his sights off of Banba. – Even so, when Lin came back, the situation completely changed.
"……Banba?"
Banba had stopped batting. He was standing blankly with the bat in one hand. He was acting strange.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
Lin called out to the pale Banba dubiously.
At that, he whispered in a small voice. "………our luggage was taken."
"Ah? What did you say?"
He did not hear him.
When he asked again, Banba repeated. " – Our luggage was taken."
"Ha?"
"Wallets, the baseball tickets……..ever'thin' got taken."
"Haaaaa!?"
What do you mean? Banba began to explain the details to Lin sending him that question with his eyes.
According to his story, their traveling bags seemed to have been snatched off by someone while he was immersed in batting for those few minutes. Even though their wallets, game tickets, and change of clothes were all in the bags.
It was the worst case scenario.
"What the hell were you doing, you idiiiiiiooooot!"
Lin yelled and held his head. They first explained the details to the batting center staff, but unfortunately it seemed today they were in the middle of running maintenance on the security cameras today, so they had no footage of the culprit nor of the event itself.
Next the two decided to seek help from the nearest police box.
The plump police man in the police box was in the middle of a receiving call. When he realized their presence he placed the receiver on his shoulder and called out to his co-worker, "Heey, Kuzuhara-san. Help them out here."
A police man called Kuzuhara came out from the police box and greeted them. "What's wrong?"
Banba explained the details at once, "Actually, our luggage was stolen."
"What type of bag was it?"
"It was about this size; they was black traveling bags and…..inside was various things like our wallets and tickets."
"Did you put a hold on your credit cards?"
Police officer Kuzuhara dealt with them kindly. For the two killers such as themselves having ended plenty of targets until now to be in the aid of the police as victims was a predicament they could have never imagined.
When they gave the time of the incident, characteristics of what was stolen, details of the contents, and then their contact information to officer Kuzuhara,
"Now then, please fill these out here," they were given documents.
Having submitted their report, Lin and Banba left the police box. There was probably a thin chance they would find their belongings. Even if they do, there was no way the contents of their wallets would be safe. It was depressing just imaging it. It was a helpless situation. Since they did not have any money they could not waste time at family restaurants or fast food joints, and they could not take the train or bus anywhere.
The two aimlessly wandered through Ikebukuro and stopped by a nearby park.
"…….Tokyo sure is scary."
Banba took a seat on the bench and hung his head.
"I wanna go back to Fukuoka……"
He sniffled. He was as depressed as when the Hawks had thirteen consecutive loses.
"Hey, you."
Lin glared once at the man, half-crying, and sighed.
"This isn't the time to get all home sick now. We're penniless. What are we going to do now?"
Like this they could not watch the baseball game. They could not eat or stop in at a hotel. Lin frowned, I absolutely won't do camping.
No matter what, we got to get some money.
Banba took in a sudden breath and dropped his gaze down. He noticed there was something fallen at his feet. Banba picked it up. It was a sheet of paper.
"How 'bout we borrow from here?" Banba suggested in a weak voice.
Lin took a peek at the paper. It looked like a flyer for consumer credit. There was the segment, 'Financing on the same day! No need for identification! Fund Refill Sand Riverside Financing' and a cell phone number was also listed along with it.
"Just drop it. It's suspicious just from the name."
Lin rolled the paper up and threw it into the trash can next to them.
After spending the time at the park tediously they still had not solved anything. "Hey, let's go," Lin said to Banba.
"…..Whatcha mean? Where to?"
"The culprit may still be in the area, right? How about we look for him in the mean time." He thought it was better to do something than waste time doing nothing.
Banba halfheartedly stood up hearing Lin's suggestion. They wandered the Ikebukuro area for a little less than an hour. They carefully looked around back alleys and parking lots for any suspicious figures, but they had no results – well, they caught glimpses of suspicious figures like a man in white wearing a gas mask or a tall man with his face wrapped up in bandages, but still having found no one who seemed like their culprit it was a fool's errand.
They probably would not get their belongings back. Banba's spirits dropped to the bottom and had been silent since. It was almost unbelievable he was frolicking about at Tokyo station earlier.
As they were walking and wracking his brain for what they should do, a highway came into view. As they were waiting for the sidewalk light under the overhead they heard a sudden ruckus. What is it this time? When Lin squinted there was a black motorcycle that passed at a recklessly high speed in front of them.
"Hold iiit!"
"Stop that biiiiiike!"
Following the rider was a crowd of people. From cars, motorbikes, and bicycles to even people running on foot.
Seeing that the passerby waiting on the light also began to pipe up. "Hey, wasn't that the Black Rider just now?"
"You mean the Black Rider with that ten million bounty?"
"There's no question about it! Let's go after it too!"
He heard such conversations. Two groups of youngsters rush off in a hurry in the direction the rider disappeared to.
– Bounty?
Just now the young people said the word 'bounty.'
Lin suddenly had a thought. "I see, so there was that option."
"…….Eh?"
"I got a good idea."
"What is it now?" Banba peeked at his face. "What is it?"
Taking out his portable phone from his pocket, Lin opened the booked mark page 'Undergroundjobs.com/Fukuoka-Version.' It was an underground site of people working in the underground offering services and applications for illegal jobs and the buying and selling of dangerous goods anonymously.
"Like this we can get money here (Ikebukuro)."
"Eh? Whatcha mean by that there?"
"We're going to look for bounties. Bad guys in this area. If we catch them, we can earn money. In cash."
In the past one of their friends had a bounty put on his head on this underground site, and they had an incident of bounty hunters chasing him down. Perhaps there was the chance there was a bounty put out for someone the same way in Ikebukuro. If they caught the person in question, then even they could earn money right now.
In other words, it was Lin's idea to play at being bounty hunters.
Having arrived to the Fukuoka version of Undergroundjobs.com he then opened the site for the Tokyo version of Undergroundjobs.com. He proceeded to the search form and started looking for posts with hits under any of the keywords for 'recompense,' 'bounty,' and 'reward.'
The search results were more than one hundred. The newest post was "The Black Rider – Reward 10,000,000." I see, that's what they were talking about earlier, Lin nodded in understanding. Right now the people in Ikebukuro are pursuing that bounty. The amount of competitors is high, so we'll pass this. Besides what we want isn't a lot of cash. We just need enough to live comfortably during these next few days in Tokyo.
The next one was, "Looking for information on the Headless Rider – Reward 20,000." 20,000 is too little, and we don't know anything about the Headless Rider. That's also a pass.
The next entry was "Recruiting people willing to die together – Reward 50,000." It was from someone wishing to commit suicide. How would you get the reward? They'd be dead. What an idiot. Lin while cursing in his mind scrolled through the screen.
When he streamed back through past posts,
" – This seems good."
He finally found a valuable one on the eighth entry. The submission date was two days ago. It was accompanied with the man's name and photo of his face. It was a young man named Shinta Kasaoka.
'For those who catch this man we will pay a bounty of three hundred thousand yen. The people to hand him over to is at the NPB.'
– So was the paragraph listed with a cell phone number provided as means for contact.
"……What's NPB?"
"Ain't that the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization?" Banba answered.
"I'm sure it's not that."
Lin slumped his shoulders.
They would not make any progress no matter how much the two discuss over it between themselves. I guess I should ask that guy who knows everything then. Lin called an informant he knows right away, assuming he is cooped up in some internet cafe somewhere in Fukuoka right now.
It was only a few days prior when he received a message from a household servant employed by his father.
– It seems Miyoko-sensei is to be married.
Just from receiving that e-mail Enokida's heart stirred so unlike himself.
When, where, and whom was the woman Miyoko going to marry? The e-mail did not say much. However, for Enokida, who was recognized as a genius hacker by others and being an informant basing his operations in Fukuoka, that one sentence was all he needed. With his specialty hacking skills he could look up the day and time of the wedding ceremony, the place of the ceremony, the address and the place of the after party as well.
The location was a ceremonial site in Ikebukuro and it seemed to be a church wedding that was popular right now. Imagining the form of the woman declaring her love with her partner in front of the minister Enokida gave a faint smile. Miyoko was his past piano teacher. Enokida was taught by her when he was still a middle schooler. She was the daughter of a fairly famous musician in the trade, and at the time she was a student attending music college in the city.
Their parents knew each other, and Enokida's father who took a liking to her had hired her on a whim as his son's instructor as a part time job. He was taught piano by servants before then, but since that day Enokida took lessons from Miyoko. – A few years later he had a gun pointed at him by a servant and was to be erased under orders from his father, but that was another story.
Enokida was born as the eldest son of a politician's family. Amidst the overbearing, harsh schooling environment under his father, the once-a-week piano lessons were what he looked forward to the most for the middle schooler Enokida. Miyoko was extraordinarily beautiful and was inhumanely kind. Her existence was the one solace he had in his life, and the young Enokida grew emotionally attached to her.
Now thinking about it, maybe that was something like a first love. The news that Miyoko-sensei is getting married caused ripples in Enokida's heart. While he felt a sort of loneliness, on the other hand he also got the feeling of wanting to see her as a bride even just once. Even if he could not give his wishes directly, he wanted to watch her ceremony from the shadows.
According to what he researched, after the ceremony there would be a grand garden party put together with the after party. The bride was the daughter of a famous musician. The guests who would be gathering were well-known people, and the sheer number would certainly be large. And so Enokida mixing in among them alone should not cause anyone to notice him. He could watch her being happy at a distance. If he was allowed one wish, even one thing, it would be to give her his words of congratulations though.
And so Enokida headed to Tokyo immediately.
He also had plans to head to Tokyo anyway, so while repeating the excuse of "it was just an opportunity" in his mind he walked through the city of Ikebukuro. Dressed in formal attire with a black suit, a gingham checkered shirt, and a small black bow tie, the platinum blond, mushroom-haired man fairly stood out on the bustling Sunshine 60 street.
Enokida contacted the staff at the ceremony site prior to and bribed them with a large sum of money and had set up hidden cameras and listening devices in the assembly hall. It was almost the time for the wedding ceremony to begin. Enokida entered an internet cafe near the site and decided to observe the ceremony from inside the secluded booth.
Typing on the keyboard briskly, he worked on his laptop right away. On the screen the footage from the cameras he had set up by his helpers was being displayed.
It was a pure white space of a chapel. Long chairs were lined up along the aisle, and in front hung a large cross. The minister was the first to enter the majestic hall. After finishing his greetings, next the groom in a tuxedo appeared.
After that the bride wearing a white mermaid dress was walking down the aisle, hooked arms with her father. – It was Miyoko. As always, she was beautiful. And now the two of them were going to become husband and wife and stand before the minister.
When the singing of the hymnal finished, it moved abruptly to the written vows. Normally they should receive a message or a biblical quote from the minister though. They skipped quite a bit, while tilting his head at that Enokida watched the screen as though eating into it.
'In sickness, and in health.'
The minister holding the ceremony was a large, American-looking man. He was wearing black, stand-up collar clothes, but perhaps they were too small but they were not completely buttoned. His burly pectorals were exposed with a golden cross glinting on top of them. It felt as though he was hired as minister.
The minister continued further in broken Japanese.
'And do you swear to love, respect, and cherish your husband even when he cheats on you, or when you get bored of him and call off talks off marriage?'
At the words of the mad minister, the bride and groom answered in turn, confused.
'Yes, I swear.'
They gave their vows and exchanged rings. Is the kiss next? While he was wondering that he leaned back in his chair when it happened.
A call came in. He picked up his computer and hit the call button. "Hello~?"
[It's me, Lin.]
A voice of a friend came in. Xianming Lin – he was a client of Enokida's and a young male friend of his who was on the grass-lot baseball team he belonged to.
"What's up?"
When he asked him as always,
[I got a guy I want you to look into.] Lin addressed the case concisely. [His name is Shinta Kasaoka. I e-mailed over the guy's facial photo. I want to know where he is right now.]
Xianming Lin was a killer. He often asked him to look up things in this manner to Enokida. He probably got a request for this man's, this Kasaoka's, assassination.
"O-kay~" Enokida nodded. "I'm a bit busy at the moment, so I'll look it up later and contact you then."
[Alright. If you can as soon as possible.]
Talk to you then, as he was about to drop the call there,
[- Ah, wait a second.]
Lin spoke up.
"What is it?"
[Do you know NPB?]
"NPB?"
It was a sudden question, but he did recall it from numerous times before.
Enokida nodded. "Ahh, yeah. More or less."
[What is it? The NPB.]
"Isn't it the Nippon Professional Bounty Hunters Organization?"
[……The Nippon Professional Bounty Hunters Organization?]
"Simply put, they're guys who gather bounty hunters with the qualities of a professional. They're an organization of a famous American bounty hunting company that came to Japan and started up."
When he explained it simply,
[Huh, you're informed about it.]
As expected of you, Lin whispered on the phone.
Naturally he was informed about it. "Well, I have an acquaintance in the NPB."
"Whoooooooa, this is Tokyo ———— !"
An awestruck man yelled in the middle of the JR Tokyo Station.
His age was just before thirty and his build was tall and muscular like that of an athlete, but his hair was ruffled and unkempt and his clothes were shabby. His whole body had a slack appearance and had an air far from that of the refined city. In those hands of his he was holding a traveling case, making him an apparent outsider.
"Ain't this somethin'?! There's lots of people! It's completely different from Hakata!"
The man – Zenji Banba – frolicked in joy like a child seeing the scenery of Tokyo for the first time in his life.
"…….Hey, Banba."
Next to him the young, cross-dressing male – Xianming Lin was frowning.
"You're annoying; shut up for a second."
"The Tokyo folk sure walk fast! Right?!"
The passerby focus their cold gazed at Banba being so noisy as he looked around the area restlessly.
Lin gradually felt embarrassed. Just as he wanted to do what everyone else was doing, Banba started conversing with him while patting Lin's shoulder.
"Oooooh, Lin-chan! Look at that there! Look!"
"I told you to shut up!"
When he instantly punched him in his large back Banba gave a pathetic "ouch."
"Seriously……You country folk are so embarrassing in public."
Lin glared at him and sighed. Xianming Lin was a killer.
He was trained to become a human weapon in a remote place in China since he was little, but right now he lived in Fukuoka and made a living as a freelance killer taking assassination requests.
This man with the Hakata accent – Zenji Banba – was the head of the Detective Banba Office Lin freeloaded from, a fellow professional in the killer business in Fukuoka, as well as a comrade on the grass-lot baseball team he belonged to. He was a man with many faces, but to Lin he was an existence similar to that of a partner if he had to put a label on him.
There was a reason for these two to leave the city Fukuoka they have grown fond of and came all the way to Tokyo. The excuse was what the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens coach of the Fukuoka grass-lot baseball team they belonged to, Genzo Gouda, said.
'You fellas want to go to a game?'
The Ramens' activities were mostly general practices on Saturdays and a game with local teams. And besides those they had the occasional game at a tournament. They hardly had the chance to go see a game elsewhere.
It seemed that a baseball team Genzo knew was in Tokyo and that this weekend they were going to have a practice match. They left in a hurry for the match in Tokyo. Since the Tonkotsu Nine each had their own jobs, they had an up-in-the-air schedule of meeting up and dispersing. It did not appear to matter what they did besides meeting up on time.
'Since we're gonna go all the way to Tokyo, it'd be rather nice to go the The League as well.' Banba had said. Inevitably, Lin decided to join him. The traveling expenditures were all covered by Banba, so he brought nothing but his cell phone, his beloved knife-pistol, and his baseball gear, and they got on board the shinkansen.
And like this the Lin and Banba combo team have entered the area a few days before the practice game. Their positions in their team were Lin as the short stop and Banba as the second baseman. At first they could not work together smoothly and there were a lot of mishaps in teamwork during game, but they were working excellently together as a vital point in defense.
Today they had the plan to watch a night game at Jinguu baseball stadium. Professional baseball would be educational just by watching. The pitcher's ball would feel farther in person than seeing it on the TV screen, and there was the appeal of even the pass to first base the players would manage like breathing air. The sounds of the ball caught in the mitt or glove would sound different to novices like themselves.
Banba had said he had never seen a game in a baseball stadium other than at Fukuoka Dome. This was his first game at a baseball stadium and his first time visiting Tokyo. It was not like Lin also could not understand Banba's tension of being so elevated. However, he did think he was frolicking over it a bit too much.
The professional baseball game started at 6 o'clock in the evening, and right now it was still just a bit past noon. They had to kill some time until then. Hearing they had an array of well-established baseball shops in Ikebukuro, the two decided they were going to first head for Ikebukuro Station, but –
"……Where's Ikebukuro?"
They both frowned, looking over the route map in front of the ticket gates.
"JR Yamanote Line, Center Line, Marunouchi Line, Ginza Line……There's so many lines; I ain't gettin' it." Banba was also giving up. He was making a fed-up expression.
The two, who realized the Fukuoka subway was far simpler, decided to go with the familiar sounding Yamanote Line.
Afterwards, another test awaited the two having arrived to Ikebukuro safely.
"………Where's the exit?"
Looking up at the guide, he tilted his head again.
"East exit, Seibu east exit, west exit, south exit……there's too much exits; I ain't gettin' it."
The main exits from the Hataka station were the Hakata exit and Chikushi exit. It reminded him that the nearest station in the local area was much more simple.
After the two stared at the map for ten minutes,
"……Let's ask someone."
In the end, they decided to ask for help from the locals.
Banba looked around the area aimlessly,
"Um, excuse me."
Among the passerby dashing by in a fast pace- one of them halted.
"Yes?"
The one Banba called out to was a boy. He was wearing a school uniform. He was probably a high schooler. He looked less sophisticated but more seriously mature. He had the air of someone who would give an honest answer if asked for directions.
Facing the boy who stopped for them, Banba pointed to the map. "We want to get here, but how do y'all get outta here?"
The boy was taken aback by Banba's accent for a moment, but he seemed to have grasped it rather quickly. That the lost tourists were asking for directions.
"Umm……" The boy peeked over, looking at the map, and answered. "If it's here, then it's the east exit."
"The east exit……"
He did not know where the east exit was.
To Banba who had a confused expression,
"If you would like, how about I guide you? I also was about to head for the east exit actually."
The boy smiled sweetly.
Thankful for the proposal, Lin and Banba nodded repeatedly. They decided to let themselves be spoiled over the kind offer.
"It's this way."
The boy suggested and began to walk. Lin and them follow after him on quick feet as to not go astray.
"Are you traveling?"
The boy asked, giving a glance towards the large bag Banba was holding.
"Well, just about. We came from Fukuoka." Lin answered in his stead and gave their names. "I'm Lin. And this guy is Banba. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Mikado Ryuugamine."
"Ryuugamine-kun? Don't that name sound like an air conditioner?"
The boy gave a bitter smile at what Banba said. "I was told the same thing before too."
Heading for the east exit, the three accompanied one another and walked on. Even so, there is an abundance of people. Even if they walked normally they could run into someone.
The Ryuugamine boy spoke as he proceeded through the midst of the station as though he had grown use to it. "Is this your first time in Ikebukuro?"
Banba nodded at his question. "Yeah. It's our first time coming to Tokyo to boot."
"Do you know? In Ikebukuro Tobu is at the west gate and Seibu is at the east gate."
"Really? I didn't know."
"When I also first came to Ikebukuro I was told that from a friend."
"What the heck is that? This is a pretty confusing city."
"Are you also from Tokyo?"
"No." The boy Ryuugamine shook his head. "I have come to Tokyo to transfer to another school."
While they were talking they arrived at the exit. Going up the stairs, they exited the station.
" – Ohh"
Banba promptly raised his voice at the scene of the vast Ikebukuro before their eyes.
"I haven't seen such tall buildings in my life! Is that the infamous Sky Tree?"
"As if the Sky Tree is in Ikebukuro." Lin sighed. "You country folk should shut up."
Since Fukuoka City had an airport in its center the height of the city's buildings were restricted. For someone like Banba who was born and raised in Fukuoka such tall buildings were new to him.
The boy Ryuugamine, after giving a bitter smile towards Banba frolicking about in excitement, pointed down the street.
"Turn there then go down and you'll be there."
"Really?"
"It was unexpectedly close, huh."
"Well then, I'll leave you here."
Banba nodded back towards the boy and lightly bowed his head.
"Yeah. Thank you. Mikado."
"You really helped us."
At the front of the fast food joint past the crossing, Lin and him departed from their guide. They looked back towards the boy's back while waving their hands and began to walk again.
"You were a nice younglin'. Mikado Sakuragamine-kun."
"It's Ryuugamine." Sakuragamine was a shrine in Fukuoka. "Mikado Ryuugamine."
"Ah, was it?"
After walking for a bit there was a wide street. It was not a street for cars, but young people were walking in masses. It felt far more busy than the west street of Tenjin, Fukuoka.
"This is Sunshine 60 Street?"
"It sure is lively here."
As they were walking amidst the crowd of people they heard yelling from a corner of the street. When they looked over there they saw several people of young looking groups glaring at each other. "What is it? A fight?" Lin said and tilted his head curiously.
"Like we're saying! You guys are members of the Dollars, ain't ya?"
"Then you know at least the Black Rider's whereabouts, right? Right?"
"Spit it out already!"
The young kids were saying unknown comments about some Dollars or Black Rider. Though it was more like one side was threatening the other and was inquiring about something. He thought it was just a quarrel with fellow kids, but there were some with even knives. Just out in the open in the city. Lin was stunned.
"……Hey, doesn't this city seem a bit dangerous?"
"They sure are."
Though they may not have the decency to say considering they work as killers in the city Hakata, a place with an abundance of underground work for it to be ridiculed with a population of 3% killers.
Giving the gang-like youngsters with a backwards glance, the two pressed forward.
"Lin-chan, look there! It's a Russia Sushi!"
Banba exclaimed while pointing at the billboard of the sushi shop.
"What an interesting shop. You reckon' they have a Moscow roll or somethin'?"
"No, isn't the chef just Russian and the menu is the same?"
It was a shop they do not see too often in Fukuoka. In front of the shop there was an employee bringing in guests. He was a large black man. When he spotted Lin, he called out to him with broken Japanese.
"Young lady there. Eat sushi? Sushi is good. It good for your beauty too. There's plenty of collagen, vitamin A, and astaxanthin."
– Is he a Russian……?
No matter how he looked at him he was without a doubt a black man. Perhaps there was a trace of Russian somewhere.
As he was wondering this in his mind,
"Lin-chan! There's a ramen shop!"
This time Banba pointed to an old ramen shop. There was a sign hung at the shop's entrance that read Hakata Tonkotsu.
"I'm just a bit hungry, so should we oughta have some Tonkotsu Ramen?"
"Ramen is no good for you. Sushi is better."
Lin agreed with a "probably" at the black man's words.
"Besides, why should we have come all the way out to Tokyo to just have Tonkotsu ramen?" They ate more than a lifetime's worth of it in Fukuoka. Lin shrugged his shoulders. "We came all the way here, so I want to have something you can't have anywhere but in Tokyo."
"You can only get Tokyo Tonkotsu Ramen in Tokyo though?"
"You say that but you're going have it and say 'Tonkotsu is really the best in Hakata!' you know?!" He pointed at Banba's face and stated. "You're that kind of guy."
"I don't know none of that. I won't know 'til I have some."
"No, I know you will."
"What's up with that?" Banba turned sullen and rebutted. "I'll cough up and pay, so shouldn't I be choosin'?"
"Well it'd be better to have something that'll help with our looks than ramen. So let's do sushi."
"Lin-chan you're already quite the looker, so you ain't got no need to look any better. So let's get some ramen."
"Don't say something so tactful and try to put it together to get your way."
"Ohh, no fighting. Fighting is no good. Have some sushi and make up."
The black man from the sushi shop broke in between Lin and Banba's skirmish.
In the end, the two did not move a foot on the matter, so they could not decide on what to eat. "We'll come again later," Lin turned towards the black man inviting in guests and stated this before taking off once again.
Deciding for now to finish their errands first, they headed for their designated baseball goods store. As they were following the suggestions on the map,
"- Ah"
Banba suddenly came to a halt.
"Lin-chan, Lin-chan! There's a batting cage!"
Catching sight of the batting center billboard, Banba's spirits rose up further.
"How 'bout we head yonder for a bit?"
Aren't there batting cages in Fukuoka too? Without lending an ear to Lin's exasperated voice Banba went inside the facility. Reluctantly, Lin followed in after him. This man would surely become unable to not take a few swings of the bat once he found the batting center.
Banba entered the first booth lined up and put in the coin into the machine right away.
"I'm going to go to the restroom."
Leaving Banba at that spot, Lin headed for the men's restroom. He finished his business, brushed his tangled up hair, and then wiped down the powder of foundation lightly and fixed his makeup.
– It was just five minutes.
It was only five minutes since Lin took his sights off of Banba. – Even so, when Lin came back, the situation completely changed.
"……Banba?"
Banba had stopped batting. He was standing blankly with the bat in one hand. He was acting strange.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
Lin called out to the pale Banba dubiously.
At that, he whispered in a small voice. "………our luggage was taken."
"Ah? What did you say?"
He did not hear him.
When he asked again, Banba repeated. " – Our luggage was taken."
"Ha?"
"Wallets, the baseball tickets……..ever'thin' got taken."
"Haaaaa!?"
What do you mean? Banba began to explain the details to Lin sending him that question with his eyes.
According to his story, their traveling bags seemed to have been snatched off by someone while he was immersed in batting for those few minutes. Even though their wallets, game tickets, and change of clothes were all in the bags.
It was the worst case scenario.
"What the hell were you doing, you idiiiiiiooooot!"
Lin yelled and held his head. They first explained the details to the batting center staff, but unfortunately it seemed today they were in the middle of running maintenance on the security cameras today, so they had no footage of the culprit nor of the event itself.
Next the two decided to seek help from the nearest police box.
The plump police man in the police box was in the middle of a receiving call. When he realized their presence he placed the receiver on his shoulder and called out to his co-worker, "Heey, Kuzuhara-san. Help them out here."
A police man called Kuzuhara came out from the police box and greeted them. "What's wrong?"
Banba explained the details at once, "Actually, our luggage was stolen."
"What type of bag was it?"
"It was about this size; they was black traveling bags and…..inside was various things like our wallets and tickets."
"Did you put a hold on your credit cards?"
Police officer Kuzuhara dealt with them kindly. For the two killers such as themselves having ended plenty of targets until now to be in the aid of the police as victims was a predicament they could have never imagined.
When they gave the time of the incident, characteristics of what was stolen, details of the contents, and then their contact information to officer Kuzuhara,
"Now then, please fill these out here," they were given documents.
Having submitted their report, Lin and Banba left the police box. There was probably a thin chance they would find their belongings. Even if they do, there was no way the contents of their wallets would be safe. It was depressing just imaging it. It was a helpless situation. Since they did not have any money they could not waste time at family restaurants or fast food joints, and they could not take the train or bus anywhere.
The two aimlessly wandered through Ikebukuro and stopped by a nearby park.
"…….Tokyo sure is scary."
Banba took a seat on the bench and hung his head.
"I wanna go back to Fukuoka……"
He sniffled. He was as depressed as when the Hawks had thirteen consecutive loses.
"Hey, you."
Lin glared once at the man, half-crying, and sighed.
"This isn't the time to get all home sick now. We're penniless. What are we going to do now?"
Like this they could not watch the baseball game. They could not eat or stop in at a hotel. Lin frowned, I absolutely won't do camping.
No matter what, we got to get some money.
Banba took in a sudden breath and dropped his gaze down. He noticed there was something fallen at his feet. Banba picked it up. It was a sheet of paper.
"How 'bout we borrow from here?" Banba suggested in a weak voice.
Lin took a peek at the paper. It looked like a flyer for consumer credit. There was the segment, 'Financing on the same day! No need for identification! Fund Refill Sand Riverside Financing' and a cell phone number was also listed along with it.
"Just drop it. It's suspicious just from the name."
Lin rolled the paper up and threw it into the trash can next to them.
After spending the time at the park tediously they still had not solved anything. "Hey, let's go," Lin said to Banba.
"…..Whatcha mean? Where to?"
"The culprit may still be in the area, right? How about we look for him in the mean time." He thought it was better to do something than waste time doing nothing.
Banba halfheartedly stood up hearing Lin's suggestion. They wandered the Ikebukuro area for a little less than an hour. They carefully looked around back alleys and parking lots for any suspicious figures, but they had no results – well, they caught glimpses of suspicious figures like a man in white wearing a gas mask or a tall man with his face wrapped up in bandages, but still having found no one who seemed like their culprit it was a fool's errand.
They probably would not get their belongings back. Banba's spirits dropped to the bottom and had been silent since. It was almost unbelievable he was frolicking about at Tokyo station earlier.
As they were walking and wracking his brain for what they should do, a highway came into view. As they were waiting for the sidewalk light under the overhead they heard a sudden ruckus. What is it this time? When Lin squinted there was a black motorcycle that passed at a recklessly high speed in front of them.
"Hold iiit!"
"Stop that biiiiiike!"
Following the rider was a crowd of people. From cars, motorbikes, and bicycles to even people running on foot.
Seeing that the passerby waiting on the light also began to pipe up. "Hey, wasn't that the Black Rider just now?"
"You mean the Black Rider with that ten million bounty?"
"There's no question about it! Let's go after it too!"
He heard such conversations. Two groups of youngsters rush off in a hurry in the direction the rider disappeared to.
– Bounty?
Just now the young people said the word 'bounty.'
Lin suddenly had a thought. "I see, so there was that option."
"…….Eh?"
"I got a good idea."
"What is it now?" Banba peeked at his face. "What is it?"
Taking out his portable phone from his pocket, Lin opened the booked mark page 'Undergroundjobs.com/Fukuoka-Version.' It was an underground site of people working in the underground offering services and applications for illegal jobs and the buying and selling of dangerous goods anonymously.
"Like this we can get money here (Ikebukuro)."
"Eh? Whatcha mean by that there?"
"We're going to look for bounties. Bad guys in this area. If we catch them, we can earn money. In cash."
In the past one of their friends had a bounty put on his head on this underground site, and they had an incident of bounty hunters chasing him down. Perhaps there was the chance there was a bounty put out for someone the same way in Ikebukuro. If they caught the person in question, then even they could earn money right now.
In other words, it was Lin's idea to play at being bounty hunters.
Having arrived to the Fukuoka version of Undergroundjobs.com he then opened the site for the Tokyo version of Undergroundjobs.com. He proceeded to the search form and started looking for posts with hits under any of the keywords for 'recompense,' 'bounty,' and 'reward.'
The search results were more than one hundred. The newest post was "The Black Rider – Reward 10,000,000." I see, that's what they were talking about earlier, Lin nodded in understanding. Right now the people in Ikebukuro are pursuing that bounty. The amount of competitors is high, so we'll pass this. Besides what we want isn't a lot of cash. We just need enough to live comfortably during these next few days in Tokyo.
The next one was, "Looking for information on the Headless Rider – Reward 20,000." 20,000 is too little, and we don't know anything about the Headless Rider. That's also a pass.
The next entry was "Recruiting people willing to die together – Reward 50,000." It was from someone wishing to commit suicide. How would you get the reward? They'd be dead. What an idiot. Lin while cursing in his mind scrolled through the screen.
When he streamed back through past posts,
" – This seems good."
He finally found a valuable one on the eighth entry. The submission date was two days ago. It was accompanied with the man's name and photo of his face. It was a young man named Shinta Kasaoka.
'For those who catch this man we will pay a bounty of three hundred thousand yen. The people to hand him over to is at the NPB.'
– So was the paragraph listed with a cell phone number provided as means for contact.
"……What's NPB?"
"Ain't that the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization?" Banba answered.
"I'm sure it's not that."
Lin slumped his shoulders.
They would not make any progress no matter how much the two discuss over it between themselves. I guess I should ask that guy who knows everything then. Lin called an informant he knows right away, assuming he is cooped up in some internet cafe somewhere in Fukuoka right now.
It was only a few days prior when he received a message from a household servant employed by his father.
– It seems Miyoko-sensei is to be married.
Just from receiving that e-mail Enokida's heart stirred so unlike himself.
When, where, and whom was the woman Miyoko going to marry? The e-mail did not say much. However, for Enokida, who was recognized as a genius hacker by others and being an informant basing his operations in Fukuoka, that one sentence was all he needed. With his specialty hacking skills he could look up the day and time of the wedding ceremony, the place of the ceremony, the address and the place of the after party as well.
The location was a ceremonial site in Ikebukuro and it seemed to be a church wedding that was popular right now. Imagining the form of the woman declaring her love with her partner in front of the minister Enokida gave a faint smile. Miyoko was his past piano teacher. Enokida was taught by her when he was still a middle schooler. She was the daughter of a fairly famous musician in the trade, and at the time she was a student attending music college in the city.
Their parents knew each other, and Enokida's father who took a liking to her had hired her on a whim as his son's instructor as a part time job. He was taught piano by servants before then, but since that day Enokida took lessons from Miyoko. – A few years later he had a gun pointed at him by a servant and was to be erased under orders from his father, but that was another story.
Enokida was born as the eldest son of a politician's family. Amidst the overbearing, harsh schooling environment under his father, the once-a-week piano lessons were what he looked forward to the most for the middle schooler Enokida. Miyoko was extraordinarily beautiful and was inhumanely kind. Her existence was the one solace he had in his life, and the young Enokida grew emotionally attached to her.
Now thinking about it, maybe that was something like a first love. The news that Miyoko-sensei is getting married caused ripples in Enokida's heart. While he felt a sort of loneliness, on the other hand he also got the feeling of wanting to see her as a bride even just once. Even if he could not give his wishes directly, he wanted to watch her ceremony from the shadows.
According to what he researched, after the ceremony there would be a grand garden party put together with the after party. The bride was the daughter of a famous musician. The guests who would be gathering were well-known people, and the sheer number would certainly be large. And so Enokida mixing in among them alone should not cause anyone to notice him. He could watch her being happy at a distance. If he was allowed one wish, even one thing, it would be to give her his words of congratulations though.
And so Enokida headed to Tokyo immediately.
He also had plans to head to Tokyo anyway, so while repeating the excuse of "it was just an opportunity" in his mind he walked through the city of Ikebukuro. Dressed in formal attire with a black suit, a gingham checkered shirt, and a small black bow tie, the platinum blond, mushroom-haired man fairly stood out on the bustling Sunshine 60 street.
Enokida contacted the staff at the ceremony site prior to and bribed them with a large sum of money and had set up hidden cameras and listening devices in the assembly hall. It was almost the time for the wedding ceremony to begin. Enokida entered an internet cafe near the site and decided to observe the ceremony from inside the secluded booth.
Typing on the keyboard briskly, he worked on his laptop right away. On the screen the footage from the cameras he had set up by his helpers was being displayed.
It was a pure white space of a chapel. Long chairs were lined up along the aisle, and in front hung a large cross. The minister was the first to enter the majestic hall. After finishing his greetings, next the groom in a tuxedo appeared.
After that the bride wearing a white mermaid dress was walking down the aisle, hooked arms with her father. – It was Miyoko. As always, she was beautiful. And now the two of them were going to become husband and wife and stand before the minister.
When the singing of the hymnal finished, it moved abruptly to the written vows. Normally they should receive a message or a biblical quote from the minister though. They skipped quite a bit, while tilting his head at that Enokida watched the screen as though eating into it.
'In sickness, and in health.'
The minister holding the ceremony was a large, American-looking man. He was wearing black, stand-up collar clothes, but perhaps they were too small but they were not completely buttoned. His burly pectorals were exposed with a golden cross glinting on top of them. It felt as though he was hired as minister.
The minister continued further in broken Japanese.
'And do you swear to love, respect, and cherish your husband even when he cheats on you, or when you get bored of him and call off talks off marriage?'
At the words of the mad minister, the bride and groom answered in turn, confused.
'Yes, I swear.'
They gave their vows and exchanged rings. Is the kiss next? While he was wondering that he leaned back in his chair when it happened.
A call came in. He picked up his computer and hit the call button. "Hello~?"
[It's me, Lin.]
A voice of a friend came in. Xianming Lin – he was a client of Enokida's and a young male friend of his who was on the grass-lot baseball team he belonged to.
"What's up?"
When he asked him as always,
[I got a guy I want you to look into.] Lin addressed the case concisely. [His name is Shinta Kasaoka. I e-mailed over the guy's facial photo. I want to know where he is right now.]
Xianming Lin was a killer. He often asked him to look up things in this manner to Enokida. He probably got a request for this man's, this Kasaoka's, assassination.
"O-kay~" Enokida nodded. "I'm a bit busy at the moment, so I'll look it up later and contact you then."
[Alright. If you can as soon as possible.]
Talk to you then, as he was about to drop the call there,
[- Ah, wait a second.]
Lin spoke up.
"What is it?"
[Do you know NPB?]
"NPB?"
It was a sudden question, but he did recall it from numerous times before.
Enokida nodded. "Ahh, yeah. More or less."
[What is it? The NPB.]
"Isn't it the Nippon Professional Bounty Hunters Organization?"
[……The Nippon Professional Bounty Hunters Organization?]
"Simply put, they're guys who gather bounty hunters with the qualities of a professional. They're an organization of a famous American bounty hunting company that came to Japan and started up."
When he explained it simply,
[Huh, you're informed about it.]
As expected of you, Lin whispered on the phone.
Naturally he was informed about it. "Well, I have an acquaintance in the NPB."
