From: "Sakka-chan" I'm posting this for Bogue, minna-san... if you have comments, please direct them to bogue@negia.net Enjoy! --------------------- All Rurouni Kenshin characters belong to Nobuhiro 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 names 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 Seikihoutai 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." --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- Get great offers on top-notch products that match your interests! Sign up for eLerts at: Click Here ------------------------------------------------------------------------