01000100 01100001 01110010 01101011 00100000 01100101 01110010 01100001

Chapter 2 part 4

There is no divide between day and night in the concessions of Yokohama.

Previously a residential area for the garrison area, it has now become a common concession that has survived the influences of foreign consuls. The concession is run jointly by the Japanese military police and consulate in name, but the legal distinction is ambiguous because it contains countless grey areas. Aiming at the holes in the legal system, warlords, plutocrats, and criminals gather here from different countries like moths.

Even the military police cannot act rashly in Yokohama's concession. It is the extraterritorial "Devil's City". This is also a massive area in Yokohama where gifted criminals gather, and one of the reasons why its bad reputation spreads far and wide.

In one corner of Devil's City, there is an underground casino run by the Port Mafia.

The casino is nothing lively or fanciful. No matter how you look at it, it is an inconspicuous, shady casino surreptitiously hidden in the shadows. At least, that is how it looks like from the outside. This is not done without reason, but because the gambling that takes place here is all illegal.

The casino is situated in the basement of a shipyard, guarded by several gangsters. Gamblers who visit this place are first class financiers, political figures, and military officers. Doormen in double breasted coats are in charge of welcoming them in. Inside the basement casino, crystal chandeliers illuminate the brocade walls, wood parquet floors, and long fur carpets. The roulettes, blackjack tables, and jukeboxes playing Prohibition-era jazz music are lined up like silent sentinels. People hold a drink in one hand, squandering their money and enthusiastically engage in secret conversations at the same time. A bartender around forty years of age silently mixes cocktails at the bar in the corner.

Suddenly, soldiers in grey appear silently from the back door armed with assault rifles and sweep the place. Fragments of the walls and crystal chandeliers fly everywhere, landing on the heads of the gamblers.

The gamblers, like herbivores struck by lightning, fall into a state of severe panic. They trample upon each other without hesitation, flee in different directions, at a loss for what to do. This is what the soldiers planned for from the very beginning.

Amidst the chaos, the casino workers swiftly pull out machine guns from their hiding places. But before they can even raise them, they are shot in the chest by the soldiers, crumpling to the ground.

Five soldiers cut across the casino lobby without hesitation, charging into the manager's office. After swiftly killing the manager, they lift up the carpet on the floor.

A large electronic safe is installed beneath the floorboards. One of the soldiers produces a small piece of paper, following the code written on it and punching in the numbers on the keypad. The sound of gears turning can be heard from within the safe. The safe door opens.

The soldiers confirm what is within the safe.

The safe is empty.

The soldiers look bewildered.

At the same moment, the security alarm rings throughout the entire building, and the heavy fire prevention shutters begin to lower. Realising the situation, the soldiers open fire at the shutters leading to the exit, but there is no way to pierce the heavy, bulletproof shutters.

Seconds later, the sprinklers on the ceiling start up, spilling fluids into the room. The fluid sprinkles equally onto the bodies of the soldiers, employees, and the gamblers who couldn't escape in time.

It's not water that's being sprinkled out. It is a white fluid that evaporates upon contact with clothing or any other surfaces, drifting through the air. The gamblers and employees that breathe in this gas start coughing violently. The soldiers immediately cease their breathing, but it is too late.

One by one, the people in the room collapse. Almost no one can do anything, clutching their throats, curling up their bodies and passing out. It is a coma-inducing poisonous gas that affects the respiratory tract, but is not lethal.

One of the soldiers, having understood the current situation, raises his gun and fires towards his head. Fresh blood and brain matter splatter onto the wall, forming the last physical memory of his life. The remaining four soldiers, however, are unable to make a similar judgement calmly. They fall to the ground with the gamblers.

There is one difference between the gamblers and the soldiers.

The soldiers will not be able to hope to die with such ease.