//File 2.1 - Eunbyeol, Jack//

Eunbyeol could not believe her handler permitted her to have an opportunity to hit the streets on her own. The past two days were a whirlwind of change in her life, one that freed her from her responsibilities of the past, as a bouncer back in Vegas, but in some ways gave her a chance to start life afresh, with conditions. Her mark, Daniel Wu, from whom she had to collect a debt, turned out to be a middleman the National Security Branch had been surveilling. She had inconveniently barged in just before an illegal trade for some highly irregular cybernetic neural chips was about to take place, and this had spooked the dealer back to Japan. An illegal immigrant herself, she faced either jail or deportation, when some fast talking on her part convinced agent Crenn to give her an opportunity to redeem herself: make good on her mistake by posing as Wu’s partner and go after the dealer and his goods in Japan. Eunbyeol agreed, and found herself on a plane to Tokyo with her handler, Jenwild, the Lone Star marshal she tangled with at the hotel. The marshal had needed to run her search at Lone Star neo-Tokyo, and Eunbyeol decided to look up one of the two contacts she knew in all of Tokyo, and that was how she found her way to Jersey Joe’s Jin Joint.

The locals had gotten used to the large troll in the neighbourhood. Oni was the word used to describe the mythical yokai in Japanese folklore. It certainly suited Jack, who worked as an enforcer at Jersey Joe’s. He had turned up in Tokyo three weeks ago, and with his family killed by rival crime families, preventing him from ever returning to UCAS, he found himself with no funds, and had pitched out at the bar until Joe took him in and gave him a job. The Jin Joint was an interesting theme bar in the Asakusa district of old town Tokyo, frequented by gaijin looking for a taste of home compared to the endless sake bars of the drinking district. This in turn often brought unwanted attention from the Watada-gumi, a yakuza syndicate, and the go gangs that sometimes work for them. So far they had left Jin Joint alone, after one particular confrontation Jack had with the bikers, but now word had gotten to the Watada-gumi of a certain UCASian oni who bore a striking resemblance to a scion of the late MacDonald crime family of Prince Edward island.

Jack was in the middle of a hand in a two-man game with Miyashi, when a lithe woman of Asian descent walked into the bar. It was still early, so the joint hadn’t quite filled up with pub crawlers; only a handful of regulars were present. The woman moved with an light-footed grace, and paused in the middle of the main room when Joe’s booming voice called out, "Silver Rain! What the drek are you doin in Tokyo, of all places?"

Jack looks up to see who came in. He doesn't recognize her or read her as a threat, so he goes back to his game.

Joe saw that his men were earning their keep. Both Jack and Weasel had instinctively turned to look at Eunbyeol when she entered, although none of the other patrons did. It was a laid-back affair, was Jersey Joe's, but also a safe haven. What did surprise Jack though, was that Joe had greeted Eunbyeol in Korean, not in Japanese nor in English, a language he hadn't heard Joe use before. "Come here Jack, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. She used to work for me when I ran one of my earlier drinking hole investments to the ground. It was probably the bug spirits that did it, but all the same, she was handy in a fight. Eunbyeol Seung, this is Jack MacDonald." Joe spoke that last introduction in clear Japanese.

Jack very carefully offers a hand to shake, if she wants.

Nice to meet you. Any friends Joe's is a friend of mine.

Something tweaks his mind.

Bug spirits? That sounds like a story. I hope they don't follow you.

Eubyeol doesn't really shake hands. She does give him a slight deferential bow, though, with a smile. "Good evening, Joe." She said in Korean, then slipped flawlessly through to Japanese. "Pleased to meet you, Jack."

She glanced back to Joe, and murmured in Korean. "I am on a leash. You may need to cut it for me. What would I need to do?" The 'you may need to' is more an idiom of Korean than a command. Had it been English it would most likely have been 'I need you to cut it'.

"That was a long time ago Jack. Don't think the bugs followed us across the water. Silver Rain here, or at least that's what I used to know her as, picked one of them right off my back when I was trying to gun down the rest." Joe's easy reminiscing of the past immediately switched the atmosphere setting to 'laid back'. "Jack here is a helluva bouncer. Keeps the Yaks off the doormat, let's the paying customers in. I haven't had to lift a finger. Eats a bit too much though, but he's a growing boy." Joe ribbed good naturedly by way of introducing his troll to Eunbyeol.

"You in trouble? Who's pulling your strings?" Joe slid a drink across the counter exactly to where Eunbyeol's hand rested. "Consider it done. I don't have the clout in these parts, but I know who does and owes me a favour. They're also Yaks, but at least they have some honour, unlike the trash gangs Jack here has been helping me with."

Joe has been good to me, I would be happy to help you out...if he can spare me.

"Shirata?" Joe repeated the name Eunbyeol provided. "Can't say I heard of him before. But if you want to sniff around for leads ahead of the NSB, I know who supplies the chipheads and controls the BTLs." Better-Than-Life, otherwise known as 'beetles', or 'zombie chips', the most addictive neural experience one can buy. Essentially a simsense chip, but without regulatory limits, it directly stimulates the limbic centre of the brain, and modifies the brain's biochemistry, sometimes fatally. But not without giving the user the greatest high they ever experienced. "The neural chips you described sound like a weaponised version of that.

What you're not going to llke is what I'm going to tell you next. The Yaks control the trade, and more specifically the Watada-gumi have a pipeline with some megacorp research backing to churn them beetles out. My bet is that's where your dealer is from." Joe looked at the huge troll next to him. "Jack will know where to find them. Fancy going up against them again Jack? This time, instead of them invading our turf, you can take the fight to them."

Jack, in fact, does not relish going after the gangs, but Joe has been one of the few people who have accepted him with no strings attached. Strangely, that kind of acceptance creates it's own strings.

Sure thing Joe. I would be happy to show her around all the fun spots.

He looks at Joe and drops his joking demeanor.

I will watch her six. You have my word.

"Matsuyo Pachinko parlour, Shinjuku." Even in the Sixth World, the Japanese passion for pachinko outweighed many other forms of legalised gambling, watching little metal balls go round and round, giving it its distinctive onomatopoeic name, 'pachinko'. Sure, the machines now were louder, the neon lights flashier, even the balls were now holographic, but profits from these gambling parlours were through the roof. Many of them were fronts for other dealings in the back room, run by syndicates. And in Japan, there was only one kind of crime syndicate. "You want Tetsuo, dwarf, built like a small barrel-sized gopher. He'll have the low down on the chips trade. You'll have to throw your weight around a little to get to see him. No guns, the cops frown on those. But there are ways around that. And the law of the sprawl still applies." The ownership of firearms in Japan was legal, but possession and use were not. The street samurai of course had the perfect solution around the restriction, of course. The sword.

I hate to leave my guns behind, but I will for this job.

He flexes his hands and his razors extend and then retract

But with those, and my axe...I won't be defenseless.

"It's alright to pack 'em. Don't think the cops will find them on the huge meat sack that you are. Just don't whip them out unless you really have to."

Jack's feelings are a little hurt.

Come on Joe...have you ever known me to be bad at my job.

Eunbyeol, lost in thought, simply nodded, grateful at the fact that Joe had offered her help straightaway, with no questions asked. She had just arrived, and was clueless at where to begin, much less how to shake off her handler. She had filled Joe in on the details, and in this matter she deferred to Joe, and by association, to Jack as well.

"Alright Jack, no time like the present. Best get it sorted before this girl's leash gets yanked."

They hopped into a cab to Shinjuku. Moving from Asakusa to Shinjuku was like seeing the older, more run-down quarters of Tokyo gradually speed up and coverge into an arcology of endless streets and buildings, which began to tower over them, sometimes blotting out the night sky completely. Glittering neon down its main thoroughfare, darker ambience along the smaller streets, the traffic was challenging, the pedestrians equally intense.

The pachinko parlour wasn't difficult to find at all. It was one of the larger establishments occupying the main block along one of the five or six streets dedicated to leisure, entertainment and other such services. Brightly lit entrances led to VIP bars, darker ones to adult venues. Simsense virtual reality cinemas interspersed them. The stretch of bars alone, bustling in frenetic activity, was a total contrast to Joe's. The cab dropped them off exactly outside Matsuyo.

Jack tries to keep his eyes open for any danger, but the lights and sounds from the machines are meant to dazzle.

He asks the inevitable bouncer at the door...
We have business with Tetsuo, take us to him.

If the guard refuses, Jack flexes his claws and asks for the guy to call someone who can help him. Rinse repeat up the chain.

The more open front entrances of the pachinko parlour allowed members of the public to freely enter and leave. The whirr of the machines, the flashing lights, the rows of glassy-eyed players sitting compliantly, memerised by the spinning balls and levers, were like flames drawing in moths from the street. Jack and Eunbyeol ignored the bustle of the gaming floor, and headed inside, towards the back, where the private areas and the offices were. Sure enough, apart from the security that inconspiciously kept watch on the gamblers on the floor, right at the back stood a bouncer who was obviously a bouncer, in a gaudy blazer and photochromatic shades jacked into his temple.

"What do you want?" He was just a run-of-the-mill guard, and clearly intimidated by the towering figure of the troll, but he tried not to show it. Two others appeared through the door, but still no luck until Jack popped his claws. Suddenly the atmosphere turned tense. The guards were ready to reach for their weapons as well, when a fourth man entered, more chrome than the previous three, who stepped back as he spoke "If you have come seeking trouble you are in the right place. State your business."