All Rurouni Kenshin characters belong to
Nobohiro Watsuki. All others belong to
me.
Killing is Our Business... And Business is Good
The crime scene was painted in blood
as was to be expected. You can't shoot
people with a pulse rifle and not expect
the results to be messy. Although
while looking at the scene before him
Sagara Sannosuke couldn't help, but
think that this was just ridiculous.
The blood seemed to cover the entire
sidewalk, which of course meant
every moron had to try to sneak a
peek at a corpse. A muscular thug
was laying on the ground and probably
wouldn't get up because of the huge hole in his head.
The Medical Bots had come to the
conclusion that he had been shot from
behind the back. The pulse rifle had made
a hole so big in the thug's head that there
would be no way in hell to do a picture I.D.
or a dental, which left them with DNA and fingerprints.
All of the DNA checking equipment had
been on the fritz the past week living
up to its craptacular manufacture design
and data files on fingerprints hadn't been
used in nearly ten years. So unless the DNA
equipment started working again they had
a John Doe on their hands.
"This job really fucking sucks," Sannosuke said to himself.
He turned to look at the second victim
which was about as bad. A rather tall woman
in what might have been a green business suit.
The gaping wound in her back pretty much
changed the die job though. 'At least we have
a face to work with there', he thought while turning to
look back at the mystery man on the ground.
"Who the Hell is this shcmuck?" Sannosuke whispered to himself.
"Oboro Raijin," a cheerful voice from behind him said.
Sannosuke turned his head around to look
at a smiling young female street cop. He raised
and eyebrow and said, "How exactly did you
know his name?"
"Oh, his killer told us," she said not missing a beat.
"What the Hell do you mean his killer told us?!"
Sannosuke shouted not missing a beat as well.
She backed up from him and
stuttered out, "It was a bounty kill. The guy he
shot was a rapist."
Sannosuke pointed towards the other
victim lying on the ground, "And I'll assume she was a rapist too."
"No, but look at that," the woman said while
pointing at a large hole in one of the walls of
the buildings. Judging from its size and the markings
made by it he felt that it was caused by a pulse rifle
shot at eye level...
"Shit."
The street cop nodded her head. "The bounty hunter
killed both of them with a single shot. Since the shot
was intended for the bounty it falls into-"
"-the friendly fire clause," he finished for her, "Well, let's wrap this
thing up. Get these idiots out of here!"
As the street cop began to push people
away from the bodies Sannosuke looked
down at the recently deceased miscreant.
'Oboro Raijin. Where have I heard that
name before?' he thought to himself. Stepping
around the blood that splayed across the
sidewalk Sannosuke walked towards his car.
The old 2040 was an antique pile of crap by
today's standards, but as was usual
per case in the department it was police issued.
"Open." The door to the left side of the car
opened slowly and Sannosuke sat down in the vehicle.
Punching in a few buttons on the dashboard computer
Sannosuke waited for it to get into the
police database.
After a few seconds there was a bing and Sannosuke
began to type. Quickly searching through the files
and putting in the right access codes, Sannosuke
finally found what he was looking for.
Oboro Raijin had been working at a
nightclub as a bouncer and felt that one
of the dancers liked him. He raped and beat
her to near death outside of the club in an
alley and left her for dead.
Sannosuke thought that he had heard the name
before. He had been one of the primaries
on the case and had interviewed the girl.
Oboro had managed to turn himself in for the rape
before anyone could collect on the bounty
on his head. Spent fourteen years in prison
and was released last week.
'Last week?' Sannosuke looked over from
his car to body of Oboro Raijin who was
presently being carted off into the ambulance
as much good it would do. He narrowed
his eyes at the body and looked over at the
street cop who was still pushing people back from
the scene.
"Hey you!" he shouted at her upon which she turned to look at him.
"Where did this bounty hunter live?"
---
"You've got to be kidding me. I went over this crap already."
Sannosuke narrowed his eyes. He really
didn't like dealing with bounty hunters, especially
this kind. Jen Kairo was among the top bounty
hunters in the entire city and he made sure that Sannosuke
knew it the second he stepped into his apartment.
Their was no specific room for Kairo's trophies,
because as he put it,'no room could hold that
many prizes.' True enough, there were a lot of
awards scattered throughout the apartment for
various acts of violence, like best sharp shooter
and best kill record. The fact that the man was so proud of these
achievements led Sannosuke to one unescapable
conclusion: 'This guy is a real asshole.'
Kairo also interestingly enough looked like one.
His chin stuck out almost in an overbite with a
three day beard growth masking it. His
hair was a brilliant yellow, which contrasted well
with his nearly pure black eyes. What annoyed
Sannosuke most of all was the permanent
half smile attached to his face made it clear
who was the superior person in the room.
When he had broached the topic of Kairo's
latest kill the bounty hunter stopped treating
Sannosuke so nicely. The bounty hunter had allowed
him in because as he said he was really
glad that someone was going to finally do
something about his loud neighbors.
Of course when he found out the reason
Sannosuke was really there his attitude became a lot
more unpleasant.
"What a bunch of shitters you guys are! Here I
am doing my job and all you want to do is
bust my balls!" Kairo shouted as he walked away from
Sannosuke to the bar at the end of the room.
Controlling himself Sannosuke said,"Well, it's just that the man you
killed was released from prison just a week ago."
Kairo took out a bottle of liquor and poured himself a drink as he
said,"Yeah, and what is your god damn point?"
"Bounties are released to the public at
least four weeks after the criminal has been
released from prison. How exactly did you obtain
this information so far ahead in advance?" Sannosuke said.
Kairo turned around and gave another half smile."Lucky, I guess."
Sannosuke repressed the urge to scowl
and said,"Yeah, in the past four years you've
bagged quite a few bounties that had
just got out of prison. Any reason to account
for the lucky streak?"
"Mr. Sagara, was it? I have to say, Mr. Sagara
that there are ways to gain information other
than through the public bulletins," Kairo
finished by chugging down the rest of his drink.
"I just want to make it clear that breaking
into police records is extremely illegal," Sannosuke
said this time deciding to just growl out the words.
Kairo smiled at that and said,"Ah... Mr. Sagara,
the thought never crossed my mind."
---
Sannosuke chewed on an old fishbone as
he tried to wait patiently for the meeting to end.
He looked around at the empty office and
at the cute holographic secretary who was
typing at the computer. It always seemed
strange to him why holograms would do stuff like
that seeing as how they were part of the
system making it totally pointless. 'Guess
they just want to look more human,' he thought
and then saw the secretary wink at him.
'Maybe more than just look human.'
The waiting room was obviously more opulent
than most of the government buildings that
Sannosuke had stepped into and had
nicer furniture and nicer holographic secretaries.
The only thing he didn't like about the
District Attorney's office was the people.
"I'm sorry, but the meeting is going to run
a little late, Mr. Sagara,"
the secretary said in a sad tone.
Sannosuke sighed and decided that he
could wait a little more. Five minutes later
Sannosuke decided that was long enough.
He stood up from the soft couch and started
to walk towards the office door.
"Mr. Sagara! You can't go in there!" the
secretary shouted, but Sannosuke waved
his hand at her and opened the doors.
As he suspected there was no meeting.
There was just one man sitting at his desk
lazily looking over the information on his
computer. Sannosuke swore under his
breath as he walked up to the long desk
that occupied an otherwise empty room.
"What the Hell are you doing telling me
you've got a meeting in here?!"
The man promptly ignored Sannosuke
and started to type in some buttons.
Growling out some more obscenities proved
to gather just as much a response. The man
was not going to acknowledge Sannosuke's
existence anytime soon so he decided to leave.
Just as he turned around Sannosuke
heard it. "Ahou."
Sannosuke looked back and almost leapt
over the desk to wring the bastard's neck.
No matter how long they knew another
Saitoh Hajime could always find a way to piss
Sannosuke off. The Shinsengumi captain
had not changed much over the years.
His hair was still long, his eyes were
still sharp and he was still a total bastard.
"What did you say?" Sannosuke slowly said.
"Ahou. You come in here to demand that
I listen to you and then you leave." Saitoh
said in an even voice.
"Because you weren't going to listen to
me you prick!"
"Whatever," Saitoh then looked up at Sannosuke and
said,"... What do you want?"
Sannosuke shook himself out of his rage and said,"Oh, I
got this case. Oboro Raijin-"
"-killed by a bounty hunter. Do you have anything that isn't
total garbage to report to me?" Saitoh said.
His eyebrow rising Sannosuke took in a
breath and continued,"Oboro's records
hadn't been released to the public.
The Bounty Hunter that killed him has had ten hits
where the bounties had been released either a few days
or up to a week from prison."
Saitoh looked at Sannosuke for a
long time and neither said anything.
That is until Saitoh said,"So what?"
"'So what?!' That's all you have to say?! The guy's
breaking into the police system and all you can
say is so what?!" Sannosuke burst out.
"Yes, why don't you get some evidence and then you
can bring him in for me to prosecute," Saitoh said
as if he were explaining it to a child which from his
perspective very much felt like it.
"Well, we could try and get a search warrant for his
computer records and see if he has cracked in, but
the Protection Acts won't let us do that to Bounty
Hunters with the evidence we've got."
Saitoh leaned back in his chair and thought for a second.
A smile crossed his face.
---
Jen Kairo looked at the schmuck he
was supposed to kill and thought that
this job was becoming too easy.
The puny little man sitting across from
him was supposed to have brutally killed
two people, but because of some
technicality he had to be released.
The man sneezed and his glasses
nearly came off his nose making Kairo groan.
Reaching inside his pocket for his sonic
machete Kairo thought that this was practically
a mercy killing.
Looking at Kairo the man froze in place. He
must have realized who he was. Oh, well.
Maybe he'd convert to Christianity before he
got a knife stabbed through his skull.
Turning on the blade Kairo swung it
straight for the man's face and was most
surprised to find that he no longer
held the knife in his hand. The sonic
knife came back into Kairo's field of vision
as another hand twirled it around in
front of his face. Looking up the hand
Kairo saw who it belonged to. Sannosuke
gave a half smile to Kairo and
said, "Not so lucky after all."
---
"Nothing."
Sannosuke screamed out obscenities
as Saitoh remained emotionally detached
from the disappointing search. They
had gone through all of Kairo's computer
records from his home, work, car, and watch.
All of them showed no entry into any classified
records. They had even gone so far
as to see if any of the money from his
checking account had gone to anyone
who had tried to go through any
classified reports.
"All that work to make a dummy
record for nothing!!!"
Saitoh thought of saying some choice
words to the raving moron, but felt that it
would just make him shout louder.
A little grey robot ran into the room
and said,"Saitoh Hajime. You have to
meet with Judge 1042 on the case of Jen Kairo."
Saitoh looked over at the cursing
Sannosuke and said,"Tell
her I'm on my way."
---
Saitoh looked at his opponent. He
wasn't much to look at. Probably weighed
260 pounds, had a horrible comb over
and a ten thousand dollar suit. He was
twice married due to the slightly different
indentions Saitoh saw on his fingers.
Looking at the only ring on his fingers, Saitoh
thought that his third wife would be really
mad when she found out her husband was
sleeping with another woman during lunches.
The Judge's offices differed based on the judge's
taste. If the judge had good taste and happened
to take items from forfeitures for himself than you
could expect an impressive room. If the judge was
honest, like the one sitting across from Saitoh,
than all you can expect is a reasonable
amount of moth balls.
Judge 1042 looked up from her desk towards
Saitoh's opponent. The signal given, the
games began.
"The Tokyo police department unlawfully invaded the property-"
"We had a warrant for the search."
"One that was obtained by illegal and immoral means."
Saitoh smiled and said,"I don't know anything
about it being immoral, but we used a legal
means of obtaining our warrant."
"By planting evidence!"
"It was part of a training exercise-"
"What kind of training exercise was it?! It
was entrapment pure and simple!"
Saitoh looked at the man and said,"Entrapment
involves us offering illegal services to a person.
If we had gone and told Mr. Kairo that our agent
was a criminal than that would be entrapment.
Your client broke into police files
to obtain this information."
The obese man said,"Which leads me to my
next point. Has the Tokyo police department
found any evidence that my client broke into police files?"
Saitoh could find nothing to say back to that,
which of course gained the attention of the
silent judiciary. Judge 1042 was considered one
of the finest members of her class in law school,
but most people said that was because she was
an android. Saitoh knew better than that. 1042 was
a rather early model android and functioned
almost exactly like a human especially in the
way her brain operated. She couldn't access thousands of
files in an instant, she couldn't run
faster than a car, she couldn't see a speck
of grain from half a mile away. If it weren't for her pupiless
eyes no one would have ever guessed that
she was totally synthasized.
She blinked her grey eyes and said,"Mr. Hajime,
do you have any evidence?"
Looking at his now smiling opponent,
Saitoh said,"As of now no evidence was
found that Mr. Kairo broke into our files."
1042 crossed her hands and pushed in a
few keys at her desk. A small holographic
image of a circle appeared that stated,"Awaiting
judgement on case 132042842042-4242."
"Judgement: All men will be removed from
Mr. Kario's residence and Mr. Kairo will be
released from custody. End."
The little holographic image disappeared
and Saitoh's opponent gave him a huge
grin. "I guess you can't win them all, Mr. Hajime."
"Yes, and I'm sure you'll be telling your
secretary that after you have sex with her," Saitoh
said as he smiled at his bewildered opponent.
"H-how did you know?" he stuttered out.
"That you were cheating with your secretary?
Lucky guess. For all I know it could have been
a prostitute. What with perfume that cheap."
That of course proved to be the last insult for
the overweight lawyer, who would have swung a
punch at Saitoh if it weren't for what 1042 said,"As
interesting as this all is gentlemen I have work to do."
"Yes, your honor," and with that Saitoh's
opponent left. Before he could stand up from
his chair 1042 said,"I'm not done with you
Mr. Hajime. You come in here with cheap
insults and no proof. And you don't even bother to
learn the name's of the defense lawyers you face."
"I'll learn their names when they prove that their
worth knowing," Saitoh finished the statement
by taking out a ciggarette from his pocket.
"What do you think you're doing Mr. Hajime?"
1042 said sternly as Saitoh had put the ciggarette
to his lips.
"Smoking. Very few offices allow for it and yours
happens to be one of them," Saitoh said.
"No, I mean what are you doing smoking in
MY office without first asking for MY
permission?" 1042 said.
Saitoh looked at the stern expression on her
face and realized she was serious. He sighed
and he said,"May I please smoke in your chambers?"
"Hell no you arrogant piece of excrement," 1042
stated with a shining smile on her face. "I can't
allow losers to get whatever they want in this office
after all."
"A good policy to live by," Saitoh said as
he got up to leave the office.
---
Opening the door to his apartment Saitoh
could feel the presence of another person.
Saitoh looked at the door and at the windows
finding no forced entry leading to the inevitable
conclusion as to who was sitting on his living
room couch.
"Could you close the door." the low voice from
the couch said. In doing so the whole room
was engulfed in darkness which was all the
better considering the other person's appearance.
Saitoh said,"There's a bag in the freezer."
Saitoh thought he heard a thanks as the man
briskly walked towards the refrigerator at the
end of the room. The brief light from the refrigerator
showed the man's blue skin and white hair, but
he was once again covered in darkness as he
closed the door to refrigerator. It had been
rather annoying to Saitoh having to help the man
out, but it was necessary to keep his best police
officer in good health.
"I looked through all the files and found
nothing. Either this guy is a real smooth operator
or he's just a lucky son of a bitch."
Saitoh took out a cigarette and as he lit
it said,"No man can be that lucky. He probably
has a network of people and at the end of
the line is our fish."
"I don't think so. We ran checks on everyone
he knew and everyone that they knew. None of
them broke into the system,"after that was said
Saitoh could hear some slurping noises.
Turning the lit end of the cigarette so as to
illuminate the face of the blue skinned man
who said,"I didn't want to think it, but I think
someone in the Tokyo police force is being
paid off to give out this information."
Saitoh took a drag from the cigarette and
said,"You're a police officer, ahou. You always
have to think the worst thing possible. Go find me
some evidence that isn't worthless and don't
come here unless you're really hungry."
There was a low growl, but Saitoh knew that it
meant nothing. Sagara Sannosuke had after
all calmed down considerably over the years.
"If only he got smarter," Saitoh said after the
blue skinned Seikihouta left.
---
"Saitoh Hajime, you have to meet Judge 1042
on the case of Jen Kairo."
Raising a single eyebrow Saitoh asked the
robot,"Do you have any idea what it's about?"
"No data available," the robot chimed.
"Of course. Of course."Saitoh said as he put
down he stood up and turned off his desk top computer.
---
"You should look happier for a man who's won, Mr. Hajime."
"That depends. What exactly did I win?" Saitoh
said as he looked at the two men in the office.
One was his opponent from yesterday whose
name he didn't know while he knew the name of
the other man. Rai Hsein the C.E.O. of
Biotechnical Industries Limited, which coincidentally
happened to be the same company that employed
by Mr. Kairo. 'Coincidence my ass,' Saitoh
thought as he waited for their response and
was surprised when he heard it.
"We found out that our employee Mr. Kairo
was paying off an officer at your department, a
Mr. Shinji Kanden, through a third party. This has
been going on for quite a long time." Rai Hsein
said calmly.
Judge 1042 said,"I have looked over the evidence
that Biotech has produced and found it sufficient
to issue a warrant on said charges, Mr. Hajime. As he
stated the crime had been carried out for long enough
that the information had to be released publically."
"Your honor I would have liked some time to search
for the two suspects before you issued that warrant,"
Saitoh said through clinched teeth.
"Nothing's stopping you from finding them now,
Mr. Hajime." she said with a smile forming on her lips.
Saitoh got up from his chair and said to his
opponent,"What the Hell are you doing here? You
sure did a shitty job of representing your client."
Smiling his opponent said,"I never worked for
Mr. Kairo. I am employeed by Biotechnical Industries
Limited as their lawyer. At the time of our last
meeting it was in the corporation's best interests
to defend him. Now it has become obvious that it is
in the corporation's best interest to turn him
in."
"Yeah, right. You just wanted to kill the man," Saitoh
said as he left the office. And he could hear his
opponent say,"You're forgetting that it's all legal, Mr. Hajime."
Walking down the halls the former Shinsengumi
captain avoided the temptation to smoke a cigarette
and settled for cursing under his breath.
Saitoh didn't like this. It was too neat. And in
matters like this it would have to be dirty unless
someone with a mop came along to wash it up. 'Maybe
the ahou can find some left over dirt,' he thought
as he walked towards the elevator.
---
"I hope that you've broken into my apartment
to tell me some good news," Saitoh said as
he closed the door.
It was daylight so Sannosuke had neither
white hair nor blue skin. His white outfit made
him look ridiculous either way. 'Seriously, the
ahou should wear a shirt once in a while,' Saitoh
thought to himself. Sannosuke was lounging
on Saitoh's sofa and didn't bother to get up
as he said,"Jen Kairo and Shinji Kanden
were both killed by bounty hunters. Get this
they were both from biotech."
"That is just a coincidence moron. Bitoech
employes 65% of the bounty hunters in the
country," Saitoh said as he searched his
pockets for a cigarette.
Sannosuke tossed Saitoh a pack of cigarettes
from across the room and said,"Maybe. Or maybe
not. The payoff records seemed to really prove that
Shinji Kanden was guilty."
"Of course, ahou. How else do you think they got a warrant?"
"I said seems. I ran the records through some..."
Sannosuke stopped and searched for a word and
decided to go with,"friends. The records have a
strange encryption code. There are too many numbers
here, too few letters here. Something was planted
in those records."
Saitoh lit up his cigarette and said,"I thought as
such. But none of that will work before a judge."
"Of course, but you have to think about why the
anyone would plant evidence. Shinji was only last
week promoted to a position where he
would actually have access to the files. Who would
profit from this case being shelved?" Sannosuke
finished by taking out a disk and throwing it to
Saitoh.
"What's this?" Saitoh said as he looked at
the almost prehistoric disk.
"Your evidence, ahou."
---
"My, my Mr. Hajime you're looking very
satisfied today!" 1042 quipped at Mibu's wolf
who was grinning so broadly it almost hurt.
"Oh, I'll be much happier once my prey
arrive," he said and as if on cue in walked
Rai Haishen and his opponent. Looking
rather frustrated at having been woken up
so early in the morning.
"Your honor what is the meaning of this-" his
opponent began, but was silenced as 1042
said,"Quiet! Mr. Hajime here has some very
interesting evidence that I thought you two
would like to know about."
Both Haishen and his opponent blinked.
"I received a very old disk that shows that
Tomugurin National made an investment nearly
fifteen years ago into a computer firm which
developed the older systems for our police
department. Tomugirin was consequentially taken
over by another company called Rand Industries
which in turn was taken over by Biotechnical Industries
Limited. Tomugurin was later dissolved and no one
thought much of it. Strangely enough the
computer systems used by the police
departments of today differ very little from
those made fifteen years ago.
So anyone who had extensive records on the
older system could in all likelihood access
the newer system. Which incidentally Biotech has," Saitoh
finished by giving his most insincere smile to the
now uncomortable men.
His opponent said from where he was
standing," I know what you're implying Mr. Hajime
and I know for a fact that what evidence you have
can't prove that Biotech went into police files
for their bounty hunters."
"That's not what I was implying at all. Your
company is guilty of acting both as a private and
public agent of the law by just owning the company.
Since Tomugurin has been owned for a sufficient
amount of time I would say that issuing a bounty for
every employee in Biotech wouldn't be prudent."
Saitoh finished by looking at the judge who
said,"Not at all. Would you like a light, Mr. Hajime?"
Smiling Saitoh took out a cigarrette which 1042
lit with an elegant lighter. "That's monstrous. You
would kill so many-" His opponent continued, but
Saitoh cut him off,"Shut up! I will however compromise."
Heshen stepped forward and said,"What is your
proposition, Mr. Hajime?"
"Well, it's actually for the company lawyer, but you
might as well hear it too. I want a warrant and a
bounty placed on the heads of every executive of
Biotech industries and that includes the C.E.O.
And of course all of your records on Tomugurin
International erased from your files."
Saitoh smiled as he saw Heshen shake.
"I really only want to see a few policy changes
and the best way to do that is for some heads
to roll." Saitoh raised and eyebrow at Heshen
and said,"In your case it's a little bit more literal."
Turning to his opponent Heshen said,"If you
do that you're fired."
"If you don't than the whole company will be gone.
If you do this you can simply be rehired by a
new C.E.O." Saitoh said and was happy to hear his
opponent say,"Alright."
"What?!" Heshen shouted to which Saitoh
said,"Shouldn't have gone with the
company lawyer."
---
"Biotech's stock dropped by a hundred points today."
"They'll recover."
"Yes, heard Rai Heshen got shot in the head
by three separate bounty hunters. They're still
trying to figure out which one of them made the
actual kill."
"Feh. There is consideration of expanding the
vigilante laws into drug violations in the congress."
"Should probably give up smoking, ne?"
"Shut up, ahou."