The Legacy of GAMBOL

[DJ_Patman]

A beatmaniaIIDX-inspired story I wrote for my story writing class. Enjoy!

The Legacy of GAMBOL
By Patrick L.

There were a lot of thoughts going through Taka’s mind. Many were questions about his future. Some were about his past. However his most prominent thought was “Oh well, here we go again. Let’s get this over with.”

As Taka was thinking, his escorting officer yanked on his handcuffs.

“Come on. Quit dragging your feet!” he grunted.

Taka said nothing. He just gave the officer a cold-hard stare, as if he were saying, “Do you know who you are dealing with, asshole?”

Indeed, the officer had no clue about who Taka was; he was just a rookie. He had absolutely no idea of Taka’s involvement with the Yakuza. He did not hear the stories of Taka’s drug smuggling, money laundering, hired hits and countless sexual assaults. He was utterly clueless that the man he was taking to interrogation was one of the most dangerous men in all of Tokyo, in fact, in all of Japan.

As the door to the interrogation room opened Inspector Slake immediately grabbed Taka by the shoulder and forced him down into the stiff, metal chair prepared for him.

“A little too excited, are we Inspector?” Taka scoffed as he fixed his messed up hair with his handcuffed hands. Inspector Slake said nothing. He didn’t care what Taka said to him. He finally had Taka right where he wanted.

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Inspector Slake had many run-ins with Taka in the past and every one of them led to disappointment. The very first assignment Slake was given dealt with Taka. His task was to investigate an illegal gambling ring that Taka was the boss of. Two weeks of investigation later, the ring went down, but there was not enough evidence to convict Taka. This enraged Inspector Slake immensely.

Every Taka-related assignment afterwards led to the same results. Taka would always get off scot-free, and every time Taka left the courthouse after being released he would look to Inspector Slake and smirk, proud that he was able to once again cover up his involvement.

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[DJ_Patman]

Inspector Slake closed the door behind him and turned on the interrogation light. He immediately pointed the light at Taka, who already, unbeknownst to him, had taken out a cigarette and lighter hidden in his jumpsuit, slowly getting comfortable in his chair.

“So, what have you got on me this time?” Taka puffed.

“Plenty,” Slake replied. “I just wanted to see the look on your face when I tell you that I finally have enough solid evidence to put you away for good.”

Taka shook his head and chuckled.

“Sure, you do,” he said sarcastically.

Slake snickered right back at him. “Does the name ‘roots26’ mean anything to you?”

Taka stared at Slake and took another puff from his cigarette. While he did not look it, he was in shock. He began to think to himself, “How did he find out about roots26?”

Roots26 was a secret association of Japanese businessmen, yakuza leaders, and politicians whose goal was to gain as much power and influence as they possibly could. The head of the organization was none other than Taka. Through roots26, Taka was able to cover up almost every operation he conducted.

Taka still sat there in the chair, not saying a word. Slake continued to speak.

“That’s right,” he said. “Michael told me everything.”

“Michael a la Mode” was one of Taka’s most trusted associates in roots26. In fact, roots26 was named after a clothing store that Michael went to all of the time.

Slake continued, “It’s too late for you now Taka. He’s about to testify before a grand jury as we speak.”

“Is that so?” Taka said uncaringly.

Suddenly an officer burst through the door.

“Inspector Slake!” he exclaimed. “Michael was just shot outside the courthouse as he was being escorted!”

Slake immediately turned his head and looked at Taka, who was now smiling. Slake immediately knew that one of Taka’s assassins must have been keeping an eye on Michael and must have taken him out.

Taka started taking another toke of his cigarette, but before it reached his lips, Slake slapped it out of his hand and began to shake him.

“You bastard!” Slake screamed. Slake had finally snapped.

“Calm down!” the officer said.

Slake couldn’t hear. The one chance he had at putting Taka away was dashed. He shook Taka more and more violently and soon knocked Taka over. As he did this, he knocked out the interrogation light. The officer, who was trying to shed some light in the now pitch black room, cracked open the door. Taka realized that this was his chance to escape. He scrambled toward the door, got to his feet, jammed the door open, and ran down the hall toward the emergency exit. As Slake ran outside the interrogation room, he had lost sight of Taka. Completely distraught, he immediately called for backup.

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[DJ_Patman]

Taka stood watching the convenient store clerk, waiting for the most opportune moment. As soon as the clerk turned around he pocketed a pack of “GOLD” brand cigarettes and started heading for the door.

He was thinking to himself, “Okay, I only have two hours until my boat to America arrives at the meeting point at the river. I need to get my accounts and work in order.”

As he stepped outside the convenience store a man inside a telephone booth watched him as he started heading toward Pink Pong Park.

The man spoke in the phone, “I have visual confirmation. The target has just left the ‘Stop-n-Swop.’ It looks like he is heading to Pink Pong Park.”

Inspector Slake, only six blocks away from the park was already running at full speed toward the park the second he heard “Pink.” He knew this could be his chance to finally get Taka, now that they could charge him for evading arrest.

Taka, with a cigarette in his mouth and his hands in his coat pockets, moved at a brisk pace walking down the stairs to the center of Pink Pong Park. He looked at the trees and the bushes knowing he would never see them again. He watched as families played together. Lovers were holding hands and kissing. Birds were singing. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he began to hear the faint sound of footsteps. Soon they became louder and louder.

As Taka turned his head around, Slake was already on top of him and tackled him to the ground with a large thud. Taka pushed Slake aside as he struggled to get up. As he was just about to regain his balance, Slake grabbed him by the ankles and tripped him, making him come crashing back to the ground.

The innocent civilians, noticing what was happening, began to flee the park, fearing what might happen next. Slake grabbed Taka and threw him against a wall. Upon impact, Taka immediately took a punch to the gut and fell back to the ground. Slake, began to reach into his coat pockets for the handcuffs.

“It’s finally over,” he said.

“Your damn right it is!” Taka replied as he pulled out his pistol.

BANG!

Slake jerked backwards and fell to the ground motionless. Taka, now breathing heavily from the heated exchange, dropped the gun and picked himself up off the ground, leaving Slake there for dead.

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[DJ_Patman]

Taka arrived at the edge of the river with his briefcase clutched to his chest, knowing that his escape from Japan would soon arrive. In a matter of minutes his boat to freedom would appear on the horizon. Now confident of his imminent escape, Taka took out a pack of cigarettes and started to smoke.

Not far away where he was standing, a fairly tall man with short hair, glasses and a dark business suit stood, hiding behind the wall of a nearby building. There he observed Taka as he was pacing slowly back and forth, waiting for the boat. The man took out his wireless communications radio.

“I think I may have found who you are looking for sir,” he said softly as to not be heard.

“Excellent work Officer Naoki,” said the voice on the other end. “Are you sure it’s Taka?”

“Yes, I am positive,” Officer Naoki replied. “He fits the description perfectly.”

“Perfect,” said the voice. “Hold your position. I’m going to call undercover agent ‘Kors K’ to back you up.”

“Yes, sir.”

Not far from there, another business-suited man with long shoulder-length hair was walking down the street and was soon called on his wireless.

“We’ve got him Agent Kors K,” said the voice. “He’s near the river at point B-4-U. You are authorized to pursue. We need to get him now, before he leaves the country.”

“Yes Inspector Slake,” Agent Kors K replied.

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Inspector Slake’s shoulder was still in a great pain. The impact of the bullet penetrated through his bullet-proof vest, but luckily, the bullet itself did not. Despite his pain, Slake was determined to get his man. He called headquarters for back up and he began making his way toward the river. Not long afterwards, he got word from Kors K.

“I’m in pursuit,” he said. “We are heading toward the intersection of Caldera and Teranoid.”

“That’s near here,” Slake said to himself and began to briskly walk toward the said intersection.

He soon saw Taka and Kors K running toward him. Taka looked and recognized Slake’s face.

“Oh, shit!” he shouted to himself as he quickly turned to avoid his pursuers.

Taka’s nerves were beginning to tense. Deep down, he knew the jig was up, even though he was trying to deny it. Slake had survived. The cops were on him. His entire underground empire had collapsed from under him. These thoughts of gloom-and-doom began to grow larger in his mind as he began running up the stairs of the street overpass. The thoughts kept growing and growing. He then realized that one of his pursuers had disappeared from behind him and was now running toward him from the opposite side of the overpass. He was boxed in. There was no way out.

A team of police officers arrived only moments later. Slake descended the stairs of the overpass with Taka in tow who’s spirit was now crushed. Taka could not hear the words his captors were saying to him. All of the sounds around him became muffled. His vision had become blurred. He couldn’t even feel the cuffs being put on him.

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[DJ_Patman]

Patrick looked on as “Taka” was placed in the cop car. He watched as the car started to drive away into the distance. However, as the image faded to black, his attention was drawn back to his side of the screen and he looked at his Groove Gauge. It read “62%.” He had failed the song.

In the years that Patrick has played the DJ Simulation game series beatmania IIDX, he had never once attempted the song titled “GAMBOL” on the hardest difficulty, dubbed “Another.” He had heard all of the stories surrounding the song. GAMBOL had become notorious for having the worst timing in the history of beatmania IIDX. While the note chart looked like players of any skill level could pass it, the timing window for playing those notes was so short, players either got “Just Greats,” which meant the player played it perfectly, or “Bads,” which obviously meant the player screwed up, big-time. Even expert players, who could jackhammer the keys and scratch the turntable with the greatest of ease, have been utterly humiliated by GAMBOL’s deceptively easy-looking note chart.

Despite his failure, Patrick just laughed and shook his head as he entered his DJ Name for the high score. The stories were true. He was tired now. He had been playing for two hours and his ears were beginning to hurt from the rock-concert-level noise coming from all of the machines of the arcade. As he was walking to his car, Patrick began to think back to GAMBOL’s ambiguous music video, where some convict escapes interrogation and somehow gets caught by a man he shoots halfway through the video.

“What were those guys smoking when they came up with that?” he thought to himself.

As Patrick pulled out of the parking lot, he began to picture a rational story behind GAMBOL; a story about a ruthless convict named Taka and an upstanding police inspector named Slake…

THE END

[AceJay in bed]

Epic, needs sticky.

[津軽]

hahaha.
I loved this. 8D

Good job. The details were really good.