Wild Adapter3 dice 13 & 14
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Frontispiece
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Table of contents
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Dice: 13
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('o-mochi-kaeri' lit: 'take and go home stuff' ie take-out, as in take-out food)
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"We find innumerable reasons to revile God"
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(various anonymous voices)
'Yes, I'm on my way there now.'
'Owww- that hurts a bit-'
'Oh? This is what's in right now?'
'I'm Mr. Ueda from Maruyama. Thank you for your kind patronage.'
'It's just over there--'
'Wanna get something to eat?'
'Oh my, fancy meeting you here! Out shopping?'
'No no, Yuuta! Spit it out!'
'HAHAHA!! That's dumb!!!'
'Excuse me--'
(page)
"But--"
Sect member: Do you mind?
Tokitoh: Huh? Me?
Sect member: Will you let me pray for your health and happiness?
Tokitoh: HUNH? Whazzat?
"Even when unhappy--"
Sect member: I mean, I'll pray to God to make you happy.
Tokitoh: Like, if you pray something good'll happen?
Sect member: May the protection of God be upon you...
"the Japanese don't believe enough in an all-powerful God"
(page)
Tokitoh: Is this some kind of joke?
"to make it worth cursing him in the first place" (Akutagawa, The Words of a Dwarf)
Takizawa: (chuckle) Nice approach.
Maybe I should go say Hi to God too.
(page)
Tokitoh: Man that was rude.
Bag: Silver octopus (ie octopus deep-fried in batter)
Tokitoh: It's like I have an unlucky face or something
Kubota: No, no- they say that to everyone. With a recession like this they'll get a lot of people who're out of luck
Tokitoh, you've got sauce here.
Koh: The recession's been kind to organized religion. They get more people coming to them, for one thing.
And religious organizations don't have to pay taxes.
Tokitoh: Really?
(page)
Tokitoh: What about you? Do you follow some religion?
Koh: Do I look it?
Tokitoh: Henh. No way.
Koh: Oh yes- here's your pay for today. Thanks.
Kubota: Welcome.
Tokitoh: Hey, quack- you want some kindako?
Koh: Yes please.
Kubota: (thinks) Koh-san and deepfried octopus...
Tokitoh: (thinks) ...don't go together at all
Tokitoh: Uhn.
(page)
Tokitoh: It's hot
F/X collapse
Tokitoh: It's hot even with the AC on.
This is useless. The air's heavy during the day, just cause it's summer
Hey, Kubo-chan, what're you doing?
Kubota: Mmhh?
F/X unscrewing something
Kubota: Looking for something.
Tokitoh: What?
Kubota: Mm--
F/X removes outlet cover
(page)
Kubota: My glasses.
Any idea where they've gone?
Tokitoh: .... Kubo-chan, if you want your glasses
they're on top of your head
Kubota: Ahh- you're right.
Tokitoh: You're crazy, Kubo-chan. Getting like an old man
Kubota: (laughs) You got me there. I must be getting old
(page)
Kubota's voice: Tokitoh
Come here
Tokitoh's voice: Come *on*, Kubo-chan, it's the middle of the day
Tokitoh's voice: Ah--
F/X body landing heavily
Tokitoh's voice: Nh- Cut it out, Kubo-cha---
Kubota's voice: Cut it out? When you're worked up like this?
Tokitoh's voice: Ass-ho--- ngh-- ahhh--
Kubota: Yell if you like, Tokitoh. No-one's listening
Tokitoh's voice: Kubo-chan you're crazy-- Not there-- Nh!!
Yakuza 1: Sheesh
Kubota's voice: There? You mean here?
Yakuza 2: These faggot kids...
(page)
Tokitoh: Aaa- nh-- I said *no*, Kubo-chan
Kubota: You're so honest
Tell me what you want me to do.
Tokitoh: No- ohh- ahhh- AH!!
F/X crushes the listening device
Tokitoh's voice: Gahh!
Yakuza 2: What're they playing at?
Yakuza 1: ...dumb, aren't you? They figured it out.
(page)
Tokitoh: So tell me, why were you looking for a bug?
Kubota: Well cause- those two old guys've been following us for a week, so I figured there had to be one around.
Tokitoh: Kidding. I never even noticed.
Kubota: Either the Tohjou or the Izumo- or maybe both...
Well, who cares. Bit of a pain if the Izumo's showing up again though...
Tokitoh: Hey--
Kubota: Mh?
Tokitoh: Look--
(page)
Tokitoh: It's cause of me you're involved in this
Kubota: Why's that bothering you after all this time?
Tokitoh: Watcha mean 'after all this time'?
Kubota: (laughs) Don't look like that.
Besides--
Tokitoh: Hm?
F/X phone rings
(page)
F/X phone rings
Kubota: I'm sorry, OK?
Tokitoh: Huh?
Tokitoh: (thinks) What's he sorry about?
Kubota: Hello? Oh- Kasai-san
Kasai: Hello again
(page)
Kasai: I promised I'd tell you so I am.
We got another one- another corpse that was turning into an animal
This time we got an identification right away. And another thing-
It was in the headquarters of 'Fortune's Fang.
'
Kubota: Fortune's Fang?
Kasai: Huh? You mean you haven't heard of them? It's a new religious group that's been talked about a lot lately. Their center is in Yokohama.
Seems they worship animals as divine beings
(page)
Kubota: ...So there's another one.
Kasai: ...the cops're investigating Fortune's Fang cause of this connection to WA.
So don't go doing anything dumb, hear?
Kubota: I hear you.
F/X Kubota hangs up phone.
Kasai: (thinks) I don't trust him...
Tokitoh: Kubo-chan...
Kubota: Yeah. 'It's too late to turn back now', right?
We gotta see this through to the end, don't we.
Tokitoh: Yeah
Kubota: (thinks) Sorry.
(page)
Kubota: (thinks) The fact is, I don't really care about finding out who you were before
Kubota: ...wow
Tokitoh: Yuck
(page)
Sign: Fortune's Fang- Lecture and Get-together
Tokitoh: There's a lotta people here. You mean they all want to join this society?
Kubota: Probably. You don't come to a place out of this unless you're serious
Member: Please take your seats from the front back. Cameras and tape recorders are not permitted
Kubota: (thinks) ...cautious bunch
Tokitoh: Hey, don't we kind of stick out here?
F/X door opening violently
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Takizawa: Ahh, made it, made it!
Places like this, you're a little bit late and they close the doors on you. Thank god I made it!
Ah, thanks. Hope you don't mind me sitting next to you
Kubota: (thinks) There's always someone...
Tokitoh: (thinks) Sticks out more than us...
Takizawa: Oh--
Aren't you two---
Tokitoh: Hm?
(page)
Takizawa: (big grin) --ohh my mistake
Really, really, it's nothing, don't let it bother you. Boy it's hot today, huh?
(pant)
Tokitoh: (thinks) ...weird guy... (and he talks too much)
Member 1: I'm afraid reporters aren't permitted inside. Please leave.
Reporter: Oh come on, it's just a little--
Member 2: I'm sorry. That's the rule
Takizawa: Ahh, idiots.
(page)
Speaker: Thank you for waiting. The lecture will now begin.
Takizawa: Tell me, do you guys believe in God?
My God died- just a year ago, in fact.
(page)
'It's a religious sect that thinks animals are divine and worships them'
'Story is, the latest victim of WA
came from their headquarters'
Speaker: You who have come here today
What is it you're all looking for?
Takizawa: My God died- just a year ago, in fact
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Wild Adapter Dice 14
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Reporter 1: Jeez- nice place to be turned away from
Reporter 2: Guys like that- they can smell us
'Weird tales! That minor cult you've all heard about- here's the truth!!!!
Right now the public would jump at a story like that.
(Imagined headlines: I saw it all! The truth about this cult! Occult ceremonies! A look behind the scenes!!)
Reporter 1: But that guy I saw at the entry
I could swear it was Takizawa from the Asanichi
Speaker: All of you here-
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Speaker: What do you want as you go through your daily lives?
Is it love? Money?
Or to make your dreams come true?
But whenever you get hold of these things they all turn out to be small and meaningless
Reality is exhausting, an unreal round of day after day, with a few transient and minor happinesses
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Speaker: And what frightens you more than anything else, small and foolish as you are, is the awareness of your own spotless and pure spirit, weeping aloud deep in your hearts.
Why is life so bitter? Why is it so empty and burdensome?
Tokitoh: (mutters) ...I'm falling asleep...
F/X drifting off
Kubota: (mutters) That's why I told you to stay home
Speaker: There's one answer, and that is that we--
F/X Takizawa pokes Tokitoh
Speaker: are 'human beings'
(page)
Speaker: You must all be aware of this by now
F/X poke
Speaker: As long as we are 'human' we cannot achieve true release
F/X poke
Speaker: As long as we do not break open the shell of 'humanity' and cast it away
we will never achieve true freedom of the soul
Tokitoh: --bo-chan...
Kubota: Mh?
Tokitoh: I think... I'm going to be sick
(page)
Tokitoh: (vomiting noises)
F/X water running
Kubota: You OK?
Tokitoh: Yeah, now. Couldn't breathe back there...
There was some funny smell mixed up with the incense
Kubota: That smell kind of like melons that've gone off?
Takizawa: That was probably
what they used to introduce the barbital into the air in. It'd be a bit too strong if you weren't used to drugs at all
Kubota: You're that guy... back before...
Takizawa: Yo. The yawn-a-thon lecture's over
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Takizawa: Anyway, today was just to get new people signed up so the lecture was only what's in the pamphlet anyway. You get the feeling that the real stuff comes later?
Sign: Reception
Table signs: Preliminary procedures; Information about Joining
Tokitoh: Who are you? Why are trying to get in with us?
Takizawa: Ahh c'mon- young guys like you who get approached by these groups round town that push religion
you'd only come to a lecture like this if you were attracted by the subject, right?
(page)
Kubota: You passed by us five days ago down in Yokohama, and you still remember our faces?
Takizawa: It's my job.
If you help out an old guy like me, I'll treat you to anything you like!
Tokitoh: ...Asanichi Journal?
Kubota: Ahh, *that's* where you're from
Takizawa: 'Takizawa Ryouji'
(page)
Takizawa: Call me Takki!
Tokitoh: No way
Sect employee's voice: You must be tired.
Mitsuhashi: I'm getting sick of this!
It's so *hot* in there, can't you do something about those lights!?
Employee: But it's part of the production...
Mitsuhashi: All right, all right!
Employee: Mitsuhashi-sama, telephone
Mitsuhashi: Ohh, Chairman...
(page)
Mitsuhashi: How nice to hear from you again.... No, everything's fine this end...
Hm? ...oh, Furuta, yes... Yes...
He acted off his own bat. It's my men's fault for not being able to dispose of the body properly.
...the police?
Oh now- what can the police do?
Takizawa: Mitsuhashi Kayo
Vice-director of the main centre of Fortune's Fang
(page)
Takizawa: This sect has no official 'founder' so I expect she's effectively the Number One
Tokitoh: She's that girl that looked like a bar hostess?
Takizawa: Tokitoh-kun, did you say? You know how to use your eyes
When Mitsuhashi Kayo was 26, she quit her office job in a big company and went to work in a Shinjuku club for five years
Then there's a blank of four years. Two years ago all of a sudden she became very important in making this cult popular
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Kubota: Two years ago?
Takizawa: Fortune's Fang bought out a religious group in Nagasaki and started it again with this new name. It's gotten pretty big in just two years, which means there's a lot of mystery and funny things about it.
Anyway, what do you think this Mitsuhashi Kayo was doing all those years she worked the clubs?
She was the mistress of the head of a certain yakuza organization
Kubota: Ohh...
Takizawa: So what d'you say? Interested? Feel like helping me out?
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Kubota/ Tokitoh: Thanks-for-the-meal. Gotta go...
F/X noises of getting up
Takizawa: NOOOOooo!! What kind of guys are you, eating and running like that?
Tokitoh: ...this whole thing smells. What do you want us to help you with?
Takizawa: Well, not to beat around the bush...
I want someone to get inside the sect and check it out for me. And more important, I want someone who won't get sucked in by it
I have a thing about not trusting the people I work with, but this is too big for me to investigate on my own.
Kubota: So the essential requirement is someone with strong nerves who won't fall for these religious ideas and be brainwashed by them?
(page)
Kubota: And why do you think we're OK for that? We didn't say why we'd approached the sect in the first place.
Takizawa: I'd really like to know that too, but aren't our interests in this the same?
*You* must understand how it is-
since you're someone who has his very own God.
(page)
Takizawa: Hey, another coffee please!
Sign on police box: Look out for accidents happening!
Kasai: Ah, Makoto? It's me. I got the details on that Takizawa you asked me about.
Kubota: Thanks, as ever.
Kasai: Yeah, as ever. This time you're gonna pay me for it.
Takizawa Ryouji, 28. What it said on that business card you gave me is all correct
(page)
Kasai: Went to a very good university. Parents are divorced. He's got an older sister and a younger one. Takizawa is his mother's maiden name.
A year ago the younger sister died of some illness, then his mother killed herself
What I don't understand is this- Takizawa's an entertainment reporter. Invesitigating a cult organization is right out of his field
Kubota: Kasai-san, for the time being we're going to look a bit more into this cult
Kasai: Look...
...is there any line that ties up to WA?
(page)
Kubota: I don't know about drugs, but there's certainly a connection to organized crime.
Kasai: ...listen...
Kubota: Well, I'll be careful to keep in touch...
F/X hanging up
Tokitoh: Aiiee! It's like a steambath out there.
Huh? You're in here? On the net?
Kubota: Yeah. Looking at the webpage for new members
(page)
Kuboita: There's a meeting in five days for people who've just joined.
Best chance we'll get for investigating the group, so we ought to go.
Tokitoh: Wonder if that Takizawa's coming too.
F/X sitting down
Kubota: I imagine he will
Tokitoh: We don't know the first thing about him. I don't think he's just getting material for an article.
...how are we supposed to be helping him out?
F/X Kubota subsiding onto bed
Kubota: Ahn, I wonder. Depends on circumstances I guess.
(page)
Tokitoh: And why's he keep going on about God?
There's no god. Who needs one?
Kubota: ...well, *that*
is because you're strong yourself.
Tokitoh: What's that supposed to mean?
-so tell me
what God do *you* have?
(page)
Kubota: ...gee, I wonder.
Which reminds me- I've thought up a background for us so we don't seem suspicious
Tokitoh: Background?
Kubota: For why we're joining this religion, and also a reason why they should keep us together when we're going through training
(page)
Kubota: 'We're a gay couple-- and we're also incurable sex maniacs'
'We're also half brothers by different women, suffering the pangs of a forbidden love and torn apart by our family, who have eloped here together.'
That's our background. OK, repeat that for me.
Tokitoh: ....wha'- What-- WHAT---
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT??!!!
Kubota: Well, what else can we say? That's the easiest thing for them to understand
Tokitoh: **That's not the point!!** (and anyway, what's being a sex maniac got to do with it??)
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F/X miiiin miin miin miin miiiin (shrilling of Japanese cicadas, which is deeper and louder than western ones'; sign of high summer)
F/X Takizawa's footsteps
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F/X cicadas
F/X sound of chopsticks split apart
Araki: ...Kasai-san, aren't you eating?
It'll get cold
Kasai: Huh? Ah.
Araki: What's that you were reading just now?
(page)
Kasai: Some stuff about 'Fortune's Fang.' There's *got* to be a connection between them and WA.
Araki: ---would you cut it out??!! Talking about WA when I'm eating-- just remembering it, my appetite---
TV: And now the news
There was a seminar for members of the religious organization 'Fortune's Fang' today at three o'clock in the main building in Yokohama
Besides the religious members there were a number of meetings of reporters and victims.
For the last two years the area of activities of 'Fortune's Fang' has broadened rapidly.
Ostensibly this is a religious body that venerates animals and so urges the protection of natural resources and so on. But there is another aspect that isn't shown openly
There are many questions as to the true nature of the organization and where the worshippers' contributions actually go
Araki: --seems there's a lot---
(page)
Araki: of housewives who've been betrayed by this organization and committed suicide.
Kasai: Suicide, huh?
Araki: What's the matter?
Kasai: Mitsuhashi Kayo, maiden name
'Takizawa Kayo'??