It looked like rain so Furyo decided to ditch the stolen bike and take the Acura Legend he won in the Thrasher contest. His Bōsōzoku homies modified it some more with a raised drag slick back wheel, blacked out head lights, round after market tail lights like a Ferrari and engine mods that made it double the horse power. Riding shotgun was Mr Ghost Lantern who turned out to love modern music and told him the esoteric lore of Yokai, Demons, Ghosts, Giants and Beasts. Turns out he knows Furyo’s missing father “The Black Wolf” of the Beast Clan who are now his sworn enemies. Likely stalking him for purposes of murder if he has become aware of Furyo’s presence in this country. Furyo remembers the growling in the bathroom stall where he met Mr Ghost Lantern. It sends a chill down his spine he was so close to death.
According to Mr Ghost Lantern the breakdown of these Yakuza groups are the Cannibal Giants control abandoned mines, shunned caves and meat production. The Beast Clan controls accident scenes, eating the dead of battlefields and political corruption. The Possessed Men Cult like the Akuryō-kai are former Shinto Priests who control suicides, gambling and acts of terrorism. The Vampire Clan that has become heads of the police and Government control war profiteering, sexual blackmail and malicious investments in foreign markets. Meanwhile the Devil Clan controls prostitution, organ harvest, pornography and has a hand in grave robbing to feed the Vampire Clan and lesser Yokai. Keeping all of the groups out of each others markets.
Furyo had no idea about the secret masters of crime being ancient cults of angry spirits, monsters and ghouls. Makes sense but still feels like he is sleeping with Unsolved Mysteries on full blast in the back ground. Furyo talked the Bōsōzoku into rolling with him as backup. They were happy for the gas money and to get away from the Tokyo cops for a couple weeks. Passing through the central mountains of Honshu was magical. They tore though little farming villages and mountain hideouts. Coming to Kyoto to spend the night checking out its gambling dens and vice houses. Every town Furyo tried to clear his head and relax, the shadow of the coming war and his involvement weights heavy.
This led to some bullshit as several of the Bōsōzoku punched out a couple local Yakuza, this got them chased out of town and into a big brawl in Kure City outside the Osaka city limits. No one died and they kept pushing west towards the island of Kyushu. They spend a foggy morning in Hiroshima to eat and find some cough medicine since the Osaka hookers likely gave them all mononucleosis. Moving into the end of the world, the bridge into Kitakyushu from Shimonoseki by dusk. Flying over the bridge like a pack of pregnant termites, they blaze a trail deep into the wilds towards Nagasaki where they will meet an emissary of the other clan. During the trip Furyo had heard bizarre stories about 人食い巨人 Cannibal Giants riding giant Centipedes into battle and being descended from ancient mythical emperors of Japan.
They were set to meet at a funeral home in Nagasaki which was far too large and ornate to be a mere civilian facility. The building which was the Giants embassy in the human realm was the source of their human organs where they were able to eat with out hunting and killing human beings. They were served organs from autopsies and accident scenes to satiate their diet of human flesh but maintain an air of civility. Furyo waved his Bōsōzoku escort back, as it would be unwise to insist uninvited humans join the meeting. Furyo is starting to realize not only are the Yakuza groups all meeting in similarly themed castles, but also his grandmothers care home followed the same design and presentation. Could these things be linked? Arranged on the map to the four cardinal directions on Japans land mass as if each group dominates a spiritual direction of the islands, owning some significance he is yet to understand?
Inside he sees no giants, only the Possessed Men who might be even more ghoulish to look at. Furyo is ushered to an upstairs meeting hall where a stage is set up with traditional Noh actors sitting, waiting for the dignitaries and representatives to fill in the seats against the walls. Furyo recognizes Rooster and The Master who are sitting with their captains and honored guests. Furyo deeply bows but only Rooster gives him a smile and a nudge as he sits beside him and tries to fit in despite feeling like a cat on a hot tin roof. Masks are handed out to the Devil Clan members like the ones worn the day he was stabbed. A Noh mask of a tortured spirit with golden eyes and an anguished mans expression. Across from them the Possessed Men Cult look sickly like corpses who decomposed in their pressed business suits until their eyes turned red and bulged out of their bluish sockets.
Food and drinks are placed before them and with some ceremony of clacking sticks and lowering the lights the Noh play begins. On the stage actors have arranged in silence and a slowly rising gold light is the only source of light in the room. Furyo is watching from a skewed angle as his Yakuza group is arranged to one wall and others fan out in a semi circle around the stage. The food is delicious and traditionally dressed women slink around to refill sake jugs and bring more food. Furyo’s instincts tell him something is off. He looks at the walls of stained wood and waxed paper, hung with scenes of historical battles, the ceiling decorated in plaster decorations of birds taking flight in gold leaf. He cant quite place the source of his discomfort so he tries to focus on the Noh play where it looks like rival generals and their women sing about a coming conflict. The voices are not peaceful or calming either, the tone of each actor is like a howling spirit from hell trying to replay the final moments of its gravest mistake before the judges of hell.
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He can’t sit still, he wants to get out of this place and run far away. Excusing him self to the bathroom, he goes outside and checks in with the Bōsōzoku who seem half asleep on their bikes, ready to leave. He checks on the Paper Lantern Ghost who has lured on other spirit into the car and appears to be having his way with a female spirit of a traditional bamboo umbrella. He looks around the castle, and sees a path up a small mountain where there is a Tori gate and a pile of broken stones beside a massive dead tree. The winds is peaceful as he looks at the lights of Nagasaki bay bellow. The wind is warm and carries smells of good food, drink and song. This sets Furyo at ease and waves off the biker gangs to pursue their own fun for the evening and walks around the corridors of the facility. Feeling the staff uncomfortable with his patrol he returns to his seat in time to see the Noh actors carry out a stabbing and bloody death scene. Subtle movements of a group of grey ninja with funeral shrouds written with the zodiac sign of their birth year written in blood stalk the halls. Fertively lowering them selves from the roof into the parking lot. Their funeral shroud face covering has no holes for eyes, showing a distinct skeletal shape thought the grey cloth.
Rooster leans in and describes the story of the original gangs alliance, “The Ghost Clan is the oldest, ruling the north of Japan. The Giant Clan’s domain to the west, The disbanded Ten no-Tsukai to the East and the Plague Clan to the south. The Japanese invasion of Korea 500 years ago provided a chance for supernatural forces to aid humanity but it ended up damning most of the old guard. The Yokai refused the call so all petty criminals and lower spirits are condemned to be abused by the ruling houses. A dispute among the supernatural warlords led to defeat in Korea and the warring states period, also the Christians coming into the territory of the West further destroyed the old world order of Japan. The Ten no-Tsukai Tengu were betrayed by their vassals The Beasts, The Plague Clan was betrayed an assimilated by the Ghost Clan, The Giants were almost killed until they sued for peace, destroying their once fearsome standing. The Plague Clan and Ten no-Tsukai Tengu were replaced by our clan, The Devil Clan and the Possessed Men who owe allegiance to the Ghosts. This held the balance. Clans who fought in these wars and lost like the Fox Spirits, Poisoners Guild, Sting of Heaven Ninja Clan, Monstrosities and Vampire Tribe all faded away into human society. Proud linages removed from history books, castles burned, graves dug up and only survivors are the bastard sons, married off daughters and dishonored captains banished forever.”
Furyo thought about the idea of Cursed names blotted out from history, fallen clans damned to be prayed against by the ancestors of the victors. Ten no-Tsukai Tengu, Plague Family, Poisoners Guild, Monstrosities, Beast Clan, Possessed Men… all descended from wars lost 500 years ago. Several eras in human scale, but a blink of an eye for immortal spirits. The Ghost Clan must be truly cunning to defeat the Cannibal Giants and install puppet regimes to rule in their eves. Furyo tries to figure out the difference between Oni, Yokai, Evil Spirit, Ghost, Devil, Beast, Cannibal Giant. They all seem similar but the iconography is as different as a masked Noh play and Kabuki, similar to the outsider but light years apart in tone, dress and ritual presentation. Like samurai and ninja, effortless Bushido against slinking around in darkness to spy or assassinated. Armor in combat verses knives in the back and concubines trained in assassination.
As these thoughts take Furyo’s mind off the Noh play, he starts to feel uneasy. Subtle movements in the corners of the room, grey shadows peaking from paper screens or ghostly white courtesans almost translucent walking among the groups of men. As he tries to convince him self that if something was wrong sentries would raise the alarm, a coordinated attack of simultaneous stabbings and wrenching from poisoned drinks overtakes the audience. Rooster and the Devil Tribe vanguard take The Master out a side vestibule as the shooting starts. The Ghost clan has launched a sneak attack, drawing overt violence from the Possessed Men. Gunshots ring out, dignitaries flee and Furyo can only cower behind crumpled bodies of the dead and dying to scurry from one pile of corpses to the next to make it out of the room.
The snaking hallways outside are just as gruesome as women in guise of servants stab unsuspecting dignitaries to death, ghostly shinto priests use poisoned darts and arrows to fell their targets. Furyo has luck on his side has he passes in silence just as the assassins turn their back and attention to other victims. Crashing through paper walls into a vestibule with an open inward, he drops 10 feet into a pool of shadow in the bushes. He watches as cars flee and the Bōsōzoku long gone have left only his Acura Legend in the parking lot. Diving beneath the car and fumbling for his keys, Furyo opens the door just in time to miss a volley of bullets where he just was lying beside the car. Turning the engine over and kicking the clutch into gear, he peels out and tries to catch up with the Devil Clan who have fled with The Master.
Furyo hits a dark shape in the road, sending his car into the path of a road crew repaving the road who follow him over a cliff. Climbing back to the road with the Ghost Lantern, he sees the shape he hit is the Swiss cheesed body of The Master, whose last act is handing over his famed Oni Mask before dying. Furyo barely knew the man, but feels a deep sense of loss. Looking bellow he sees his prized car burning next to the exploded shape of the asphalt mixer that forced him over the edge. Feeling exhausted he sits down next to a giant tree to sleep. Nothing is the way he understands the world. Only thing that is real is cuts, bruises and burns that remind him despite the odds he has fooled the reaper again. In the first rays of dawn he sees headlights and despite knowing they likely mean imminent death, he is too tired to move his aching body. As he steels his nerves for what is to be the final confrontation with assassins of the Ghost Clan, he is puzzled to see Rikki and Machiko pull up in his car! They pull him into the back and he falls into the blackest sleep of his life, clutching the ancient red lion manned Oni Mask that symbolizes leadership of the Devil Clan. The car still smokes from being engulfed in fire before its ghostly inhabitants manifested on the road.