2013-02-17 Shinjuku Shindig part 2

It's a crazy idea.
It's a -stupid- idea.
It's crazy enough that it just..might..work.
With some clear reluctance Domino led Arsenal to one of her safehouses within the city, left untouched for months. Inside the small, crowded cement-slabbed room, space is at a premium but everything is exactly as she had left it. Exactly as she wanted it. Being in Tokyo, this is also one of the only safehouses she owns that comes complete with a decent stock of Oriental blades from the simple tanto straight up to a full-blown lajatang.
And the guns. Oh, the -guns.- If there's one thing she has in abundance, it's money. Then booze. Then firepower. Dom wasted no time in opening up various containers, rearming herself for the road ahead.
Her instruction had been clear: "Take whatever you think you'll need."
Later...
It's a bright, sunny afternoon. The outskirts of Tokyo are picture-perfect, blue skies and rolling hills of green. Three very peculiar individuals approach Akira Tsukasa's domicile, set around a lush and very well groomed garden that gives the property a sense of peace and tranquility.
Exactly the opposite of what these three are bringing to his doorstep.
"Got a little something for you, Tsukasa!" Domino calls out, kicking the back of Ken's knees out from under him while leveling a pistol at the back of his head. "It's about five feet seven inches and a hundred and eighty pounds. Care to conclude this?"
Ken Kobayashi ends up kneeling on the ground, hands held up behind his head. His calm demeanor belies the sweat trickling down the sides of his head, as he does his best not to look at the two people holding pistols to his head. Especially -not- at the tall sunglassed redheaded male dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and a red tie.
Tsukasa's sliding door, set in a very traditional old-style Japanese home complete with wood frames covered by paper, moves to the left, revealing a large stocky heavyset Yakuza, heavily tattooed. Barking a quick command to his left at the men who'd escorted the trio into the courtyard, Tsukasa glares at Domino, and says something in Japanese.
"He said that you haven't done your job," Roy translates, after a slight bit of deciphering. "You were supposed to kill him, he says." Keeping his face solemn, Roy does his best to act like he were Domino's subordinate, which is why he's respectfully a few steps behind her. "He wants to know why you've brought him here, alive."
A slow grin spreads across Domino's face when Roy translates their words. "I brought him here for proof."
-BLAM!-
There's a splorch of red that comes from the back of Ken's head. His eyes roll back as the rest of him pitches forward, dropping onto the wooden plank walkway then lying still.
Dead and done for.
The female mercenary lowers her gun arm, already reminded of how stupid it was to have dragged Ken all the way -here- to do the deed. The perfectly trimmed foliage, the air of tranquility, and she brought violence and murder into his sanctuary. That alone is a proverbial slap to the face, a complete disrespect of the other man. Toes are stepped on, face is spat into. And she's got the balls to stand there and wait for three hundred thousand dollars for the very poor placement of a single bullet.
Roy had better be right about this one... If he hadn't been right before, he's probably about to be now. How far can she play the Ignorant American card around a bunch of oldguard Yakuza?
Probably not very far.
As Ken Kobayashi falls, Roy pulls his gun back, placing it back in his holster to indicate that his task was done.
Tsukasa twiches, regarding the body, before a scowl crosses his jowly face. A torrent of Japanese flows, followed by a great shout of -something- in Japanese.
"He said... he's talking damned fast, something about taking over his territory, saving the way of life, and uh... damned gaijin influences." Pause. "I think he doesn't like gaijins - that's uh, foreigners."
More yakuza begin flowing into the courtyard, surrounding. A large number of them have swords. There's a barked order, which Roy dutifully translates as "... He just said something about not damaging his gardens." And then Tsukasa barks another thing... and Roy doesn't -even- bother to translate that, as he immediately kicks up a piece of rock, grabs it in mid-air, and -flings- it hard at Tsukasa, before immediately spinning to face the charging swordsmen.
"I know what a gaijin is, Arsenal" Domino promptly replies in a low tone.
There's a subtle tensing in the back of her shoulders. A tightening of half-gloved fingers around the grip of her one drawn pistol. With her head bowed she never once breaks eye contact with the furious Yakuza boss. She came here expecting a fight. She even set up the pieces in order to -spur- a fight. Either Tsukasa would have paid her then told her to get the hell out and never return, or he would snap and show his true motives. "Keeping his grass green wasn't in the contract."
Hook, line, sinker.
Left flank, seven o'clock. Sharpshooter at four. Tsukasa at twelve. Countless others still choosing their targets. Tsukasa wants this done quick and clean, he doesn't want to make a further mess of the place. Tough for him.
Domino spins and leaps over Kobayashi's body, snapping an armored boot out to catch the flat of the sword that was coming in from behind her. Still airborne her pistol snaps around and fires once, catching the sharpshooter square in the chest. She lands, rolls, then comes back up with another pistol in her other hand. Targets are chosen and engaged almost faster than her eyes can follow, blades singing through the air as they try to dice her to pieces. And miss.
"Told you he wouldn't pay you," Roy replies, almost too cheerfully, as he follows in Domino's wake, grabbing in mid-air a katana from one of the yakuza sword-wielder that the mercenary had shot. "He hates gaijin too much..." Sticking close to Ken's body, Roy spins around and...
... intercepts a sword coming down at him with his katana, while bringing his fist to punch the swordsman in the face, while Domino faced a small squad of swordsmen all trying to skewer her with their swords. One after another, they ... 
... discover how hard it is to hit something that doesn't move in any predictable pattern. A bullet here, a foot there, a disappearing act that leaves another swordman laid out from a leg sweep, a prompt bash of an elbow to force one Yakuza hitman's blade to intercept the swing of another, and suddenly Domino comes back to back with Arsenal. She ducks, turns, sweeps an arm out around his side and gut-shoots another about to take a swing at his neck, ducking the blow of another attempting to engage her ... 
... while Arsenal borrows a pistol off Domino's holstered hip, and in a smooth motion tries to aim at Tsukasa. The hand is yanked back -swiftly- before it's loped off by another katana, and then Roy swings the pistol around, gun blazing to shoot a sword-wielding hand off of the swordsman trying to engage Domino.
Blades flash in the air, swinging high, swiping low, and generally pressing ... 
... and distracting the melee fighters while the range-centric albino redefines close-quarters combat with her pistols. Flash-burns start to appear on more than one fighter as her arms twist and weave in a chaotic motion. Out to the sides, over both of their shoulders in a blind underhand shot to the face, down to a knee only to club the man's skull with the base of the other gun's grip...
"Forget Tsukasa!" Domino yells, dropping her smoking pistols only to reach both hands back and grab another pair holstered at Roy's sides. An overhead sword gets deflected, a lone bullet striking the edge of the blade, rebounding up over both of their heads and right back down ... 
... and avoided as Roy nudges Domino forward with his shoulder, dropping his still-loaded pistol next to Ken Kobayashi's body. A foot digs into the soil of the rock garden, and then kicks up into the air, followed by a sweeping swipe of his sword, sending dust flying all about, temporarily blinding them...
"If we can get -to- him..." Roy begins, as the duo start finding themselves backed up towards the little bridge crossing the koi pond in the middle of the stone garden, as what looked like a small flock of kyudo archers start gathering in the background ... 
... which narrowly miss the white-skinned woman that suddenly rolls across the bridge beside Arsenal, pistols coming around her ally to riddle a swordman each as they press the attack. Spots of blood rain through the air, falling into the pond where they dissipate like food coloring amongst the koi. One man stumbles and falls in with a splash, not emerging. Domino comes back up at Roy's side and hooks an arm around the back of his neck, guiding him into a forward somersault without any warning as she twists about and snaps a gun out toward an archer that already loosed an arrow toward the base of his neck ... 
... and while the archer is flung backwards from Domino's shot, Roy comes up on the other end of the somersault, the end of the katana thrown to another archer's head.
Tsukasa shouts -something- again in sheer outrage, whether due to the flying bullets puncturing his once-pristine paper walls, or the blood splattering starting to seep into the pure white rocks and sands... but Roy is beyond caring at the moment, as he dives forward into a tumble, and picking up a katana in the process. When he comes up at the end of the tumble, he pulls Domino back into a spin from where she'd been facing, intercepting the sword-blow that'd been coming towards her back with his katana while ... 
... Domino spins with the momentum and slams an elbow into the gut of another man, dropping one empty pistol to pull the sword from his numbed fingers as the other gun spends its last round punching a hole through his skull. A nearby row of pure white flowers are sprayed by the fine mist, dotting the powdery canvases with a galaxy of crimson pinpoints. The sword gets thrown through the air, blade and hilt windmilling about before cleaving down the shaft of a notched arrow, through a bow, and into the archer's jugular beyond, spreading the carnage across green shoots of bamboo. She comes back around with a grenade in hand, the pin pulled, tossing it underhanded up towards Roy with a -Twing!- of the spoon flipping into the lawn ... 
... and in exchange for the grenade, Roy tosses Domino the katana he has so that he has a hand clear in order to swing around at it and redirect it towards the bridge with the swordsmen starting to try to flock across it.
The Yakuza in the vicinity immediately dive off the bridge, just in time for the bridge to explode, sending bits of lacquered wood, water, and some unfortunate flopping koi flying into the air...
Not that Roy is sticking around for this, as he ignores the splinters in the air nicking him, causing little trickles of blood to start flowing, as he bumps back towards Domino ...
... as she catches the offered sword and brings it around in a two-handed grasp, blocking an incoming attack with a sharp -clang!- as drops of blood and sweat leap clear of her form. An instant later a dislodged koi sails through the air, right in front of their faces on its way toward Roy. As the man comes back for another hit a splintered chunk of the wooden bridge slams into the side of his head, causing him to hesitate then fall into a rock garden. Before he has a chance to land Domino springboards off the back of Roy's shoulder, throwing both armored feet toward the face of another while tossing the sword right back to him ... 
... and the large koi is snatched out of mid-air, used to slap someone -hard- across the face, and then immediately flung back into the pond, as blood and scales go flying through the air. And after Domino leaps off him, Roy grabs the proffered katana, and is already running towards the same direction that Domino has leapt towards, falling back in back-to-back as soon as she lands, delivering a swipe of the sword to send back the sword-wielding yakuza, just as, out of the corner of their eyes, the yakuza next to Tsukasa, at the bark of their master's voice, begin to pull out their own guns ... 
... at the same instant that Domino tears a pump-action shotgun free from behind her shoulder, unloading a handful of double-ought into the house where Tsukasa stands, scattering his forces, pulverizing flowerpots, shredding the side of his house in a spray of finely decorated rice paper and splintered wood.
'Adversity is the foundation of virtue.'
With a dodge and a twist the same shotgun comes up to deflect a glancing blow from another sword, the base of the receiver smashing into the attacker's jaw and casting two bloodied teeth out onto the wooden walkway. An instant later and he takes a bullet to the back from a poorly aimed enemy attack, Domino smacking the blade from his hand in time to drive it into the chest of another. Once more places are switched, the shotgun brought around in both hands to catch another attack coming for Roy ... 
... and Roy ducks as the shotgun is brought around, shifting to cover Domino's rear. Withdrawing the pistol tucked into his suit, Roy kneels next to Domino, facing the opposite way of where she is, and makes his shots count, shooting -every- single hand he could that was holding a gun... coming up from behind them.
"Got your rear covered," Roy comments, albeit with a -smirk- in his voice indicative of having entirely too much fun with that comment. And then he twists, his pistol aiming as Domino brings her shotgun around ... 
BLAM-BLAM!
... Domino's shotgun and Roy's pistol issue forth their voices amongst the carnage, carbon-burnt plastic and brass glistening under the sunlight as they flip through the air.
'Virtue is not knowing but doing.'
The albino spins the twelve gauge around until it's upside down, held flat against the bottom of her forearm while she unholsters a machine pistol from the small of your back. The garden is suddenly filled with the deafening tear of nine millimeter bullets peppering around the pair in a wide arc, punching craters into statues, turning masonry into dust, spraying up clumps of grass and dirt, drilling some men and forcing others to cover ... 
-BLAMdingBLAMdingBLAMding-... and the sharpshooting Arsenal proceeds to shoot out the guns out of each of Tsukasa's bodyguards' hands, followed by a slow rise to his feet, pistol aimed directly and coolly at Tsukasa. 
Roy speaks, now, coolly and dispassionately in Japanese, his cocky half-grin now forming on his face as he glances back at the carnage.
Multiple holes in the mansion, blown up bridge, flopping slowly-dying fishes, exploded masonry... was there -anything- that wasn't left damaged? Well, maybe that bonsai tree in the corner...
A branch falls slowly off the tree...
... maybe not.
Amino acids grate on my tired muscles. Mouth is drying out from dehydration. I can feel the heat radiating off of my body, feel exhaustion starting to close in. Harper's starting to feel it, too. I don't know how many more guys Tsukasa has to throw our way but I get the feeling it's more than we've got bullets and trick shots for. We're both losing blood from more points than I can track. We need to pull the plug on this.
Akira Tsukasa knows when things aren't going his way. With his gunmen suddenly finding themselves disarmed he makes his retreat by running through the house behind them.
'Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.'
Domino drops the guns from her hands and unholsters a scoped Thompson pistol.
Sometimes, it takes more than being lucky.
The single shot Contender gets leveled at arm's length, crosshairs sweeping across the damaged home of Akira Tsukasa.
Moving target. Poor visibility. Numerous obstructions. Countless distractions. Heavy respiration. Blood loss. One bullet.
Odds of kill shot: 1 in 81,334.
-BLAM!-
A single flash and the jacketed slug is gone from the six-inch barrel, clearing the garden, snapping past a disarmed shooter's neck, threading through a bonsai tree, punching through rice paper, sailing through an opening of a marble statue, exploding through ornate, dark lacquered woodwork--
Finding its mark. Tsukasa's arms fly out in front of him as the rifle caliber slug takes him through the temple, spraying blood and gore across the inside of an otherwise flawlessly cleaned home as he trips and collapses upon the hardwood floor.
Sometimes, I'm just that good.
And just for good good measure, Roy repeats what he says in Japanese, followed by the English translation, as he lets out a low whistle. "Man, you've accomplished -something- in life. You've made a woman -really pissed off-."
Crossing the gardens to check on Ken, Roy checks the pulse, then taps his head. "Hey, wake up. Play-acting is over. I gotta say, I'm impressed. How you were able to stay calm with all the bullets flying..."
And Ken gets up slowly, wincing. "That -hurt-," he says in acented English, and looking up towards Domino.
The garden lies in absolute ruin, as does the house that it surrounds. Blood, brass, bodies, and bits of debris litter the grounds and defile a formerly tranquil place of serenity. Domino's arms hang heavy at her sides, shoulders rising and falling as she catches her breath. If there's anyone left here capable of holding a weapon she can be assured that they won't raise it toward either of them.
The lone woman slowly walks back, retrieving and stowing weapons as she goes. One particularly nice sword gets kicked up out of the fallen wielder's hand, catching it out of the air then inspecting the edge. Not bad... This one's a keeper.
"Yeah, I don't want to hear it," she says back to Ken. Trying to find a spot anywhere upon her that isn't covered in blood is not a task easily completed. "Plan worked. Your mark's clear."
Hopefully she won't come to regret this later.
All that's left is to pick through Tsukasa's home for her money then book a flight back to New York.
And naturally, Roy's helping Kobayashi up, and glancing at Domino. "Hey, live it up a little... have some fun. I mean, it's -Tokyo-! Let's hit town and I'll buy you some sake. Or you can buy me some... after we get Kobayashi back home. Dommie? Dom? Hey, are you...?"
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