Omikami no Isan: Conspiracy

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

Garrison confers with Scott and Shiro regarding news of brutal mutant murders in Japan.


Shiro had gotten used to his role in the X-Men as brute force, the one they call upon when property damage and searing pain are necessary to save the day. It was a fine and rewarding existence, in Shiro's opinion, and one he'd be pleased to maintain as is. So he was a little troubled when Cyclops asked him to the war room to discuss some impending investigation. What could he possibly contribute that his superiors didn't already know?

He paused before the metal doors, took a deep calming breath, and silently repeated a mantra to stabilize himself. The doors slid open with their trademark hush and he entered. Scott was there already, of course, reading through some printouts while Garrison sat across from him. Shiro was more than a little surprised to see him here. He supposed that if he'd been nearly slain and then put back together by a psychotic freak, he'd want more time away from the personifications of morality and ethics (however dubious they may be at times). He recovered from his shock quickly, though, and nodded to each man before silently taking a seat between them.

"Hey Shiro." Kane said offhandedly, organizing some information in front of him. He was very tan from his time away, but otherwise, he looked unchanged from the experiences of that last several months. Quieter perhaps, his body language more subdued, but not to any remarkable degree.

"Like I was telling Scott, we've got something a bit odd going on in Japan, and while I speak the language, I'm thinking there's some kind of cultural element involved that I'm not going to get." Garrison slid a file folder across the table to him. "Take a look."

Shiro flipped open the folder and screwed up his face in disgust at the pictures it contained. "I see dead people," he said after a moment's study. A young Japanese man, probably around his age, lay on his back in a pool of blood staring up emptily at him. Next was a salaryman, his suit ruffled but otherwise clean, his face however covered in black and blue. Shiro couldn't even look at the next picture of a housewife. "This is vile. What happened?"

"Good question. According to some sources in the Tokyo Metro Police, the first victim was a student who happened to be a mutant. Very limited fire generation, like, about the level of your average zippo. This one was also a mutant, again, minimal powers of metamorphosis abilities. An officer in the Osaka prefectural CIB thought there was a connection, but other than them both being mutants, there's no links between the two mutants; region, age, lifestyle, hobbies, nothing's come up. Some of the braintrusts in the NPA have been in touch with Quantico, asking for FBI assistance from our Behavioural Science division thinking this is a serial killer, but-- I don't know." Garrison tapped his fingers on the papers. "The pathology for a serial killer doesn't make any sense in this case. Also, one of Dad's contacts came up with a half dozen disappearances over the last eight months, all over the country, all mutants of limited abilities. If it's a serial killer, he's been remarkably effective in hiding his victims, which is very uncommon."

Garrison leaned forward, gesturing with his hands to punctuate his points as he spoke. "About ten years ago, down in Miami, a couple of tortured and mutilated bodies showed up, each one having a gloved red handprint slapped on the front of their faces. The press jumped on it, calling the killer the Mano Rojo. The FBI came down, spent a year on the case, trying to put together the methodology for this guy. They got a victim every three months or so, no real connection beyond the general area. Finally, during the bust of a local loan shark who decided to take a few pounds of flesh from some poor bastard who couldn't pay, one of the beats noticed the names of two of the victims in his 'account' book. They flipped the guy, found out he was working for a criminal Cartel called the Hermaniez family. Turns out that the capo's son had spent a couple of years in university taking criminology classes, and realized that if they faked some of the deadlier family business as serial killings, the bulk of the resources would go into that direction, and muddy any normal homicide investigation. This feels like something similar, like we're supposed to see this to draw an intended conclusion, rather than digging further. Problem is, I've never lived in Japan or really been immersed in the day to day culture, so I don't know where to start looking."

"We do not commit violent crimes often," Shiro said, mulling over Garrison's words. "Japan has a very low homicide rate compared to the West. But our serial killers are as insane as yours, and if you say it does not fit the pattern . . . Maybe this was a cult slaying? Like a bloodier Aum Shinrikyo. Or Aleph. Whatever they call themselves now."

"Do you know of any of these cults that are either anti-mutant, or whose ideology could have developed that way while we weren't looking?" Scott asked, then shrugged, looking vaguely dissatisfied by something. "There's only so much monitoring of these groups we can do in-house, especially on the international level."

"I cannot think of any," Shiro replied. "There is The Hand, but they do not wantonly kill people. They always have a purpose. What is the English phrase? A method to their madness?" He spread out the three photos, keeping down the urge to expel his breakfast on the table, and looked carefully at them. "I suppose that the other possibility, given that they are from all over Japan, is that they are Yakuza slayings. Not Harada's, I do not think, because he clearly marks his victims with a circle, but maybe another clan. Did any of the victims owe money or otherwise have any connection to the underground?"

"They haven't found any, but that doesn't mean that they don't exist." Garrison sighed, and scrubbed his hands through his hair. "I was kind of hoping this had something that would be more obvious to someone who knew the culture, but..."

He paused, chewing slightly on the end of his pen. "There's nothing we're going to be able to dig up just from files from here. The question is, do we want to try and get to the bottom of this. With mutants being the connecting factor, it could be something that we might end up having to face down the road. Might be worth looking into it now."

"I don't think there's any 'might' about it," Scott said, with a brief, wry twist of a smile. "Contrary to popular belief, we don't always have to sit around and wait for situations to start exploding before we jump in. Worse-case scenario, we find nothing and we're out jet fuel." Well, there were considerably worse worse-case scenarios than that, but it didn't really need saying aloud. Besides, he was trying not to be quite so pessimistic these days. "Shiro, can I presume you'd be up for coming along on this?"

There was no hesitation in Shiro's affirmative response. "Of course. I should speak with Harada. He would know if it is Yakuza, and likely which clan, too. And even if it is not, then I am sure that he knows something anyhow." He spared another look at the victims and frowned. Something was rotten in the state of Japan, and he could not allow it.