[LNH/ACRA/WRIMO] Anal-Retentive Archive Kid: A Judicious Use Of Overkill #7

[Saxon Brenton]

Anal-Retentive Archive Kid: A Judicious Use Of Overkill - part 7
     
A Legion of Net.Heroes miniseries for the RaccoWriMo writing month 
Written by and copyright 2010 Saxon Brenton
     
     
     After dispatching the ninja, Anal-Retentive Archive Kid paused again 
to think.  He had to decide what he would do about the late Oyabun Sukoyoza.
     The Yakuza themselves were not a problem.  They had thought to set 
themselves up outside the reach of the law, and ARAK intended to 
demonstrate that while that may have been so that they were not beyond 
the reach of either justice or retribution.
     The crime family's oyabun was a different type of problem.  The man 
was dead and was expected to be coming back soon.  Certainly the sorcerer 
Mr Tokufuja was working to the tradition that the spirits of the deceased 
resided in the netherworld for 49 days before moving on to a final reward.  
Depending on whether you used the actual moment of biological death, the 
signing of the death certificate, or of the funeral rites those 49 days 
had either already passed or would be running out this evening.  If the 
shade of Sukoyoza was not already free and lingering with malicious intent 
then he could be expected to arrive at the climax of the ceremony.
     Normally this would not be a big deal.  Whether it be elevation to 
one of the numerous Shinto heavens or relegation to one of the even more 
numerous Shinto hells, reincarnation in the mortal world, or even 
apotheosis to the position of a guardian family spirit, it would all have 
worked out in the end.
     However what ARAK had found in Mr Tokufuja's memories was a plan for 
something quite different.  Oyabun Sukoyoza wanted to continue in death 
what he had worked to build in life:  Heading a crime syndicate.  He 
intended to use the supernatural equivalent of standover tactics and 
gangsterism to build a crime syndicate among the Japanese after world and 
then continue outwards into other cultural spirit spaces for as far as 
his reach could stretch.
     The starting point would be to have Sukoyoza raised as an ancestral 
spirit for his clan.  That at least wasn't unusual or even particularly 
difficult.
     Nor would the accumulation of awe and therefore at least some 
additional power.  In the Shinto mindset things were kami because they 
were awe inspiring and therefore had spiritual power.  Once ARAK grasped 
the idea he found it terrifyingly plausible to have mythopoaeic 
monsters wandering around using standover tactics to increase the fear 
and awe of the Oyabun Sukoyoza and thereby raise his standing as a kami.
     There were questions of course.  Would he be able to leverage enough 
power?  And if he did, would it be the right sort?  Shinto was big on 
purity, and kami power derived from standover might be too dark to gain 
much traction.
     Then again that whole question was probably moot, since as ARAK had 
already recognised the scheme relied on the fallacy in the symbolism of 
the superiority of the man-made over the natural world.  Oyabun Sukoyoza 
wanted to harness the concept of crime dominating society dominating 
the world?  That was nice.  Anal-Retentive Archive Kid was sure that a 
thunder god like Susano-o-No-Mikoto would take great pleasure in pointing 
out the error of his assumptions in the most destructive manner possible.
     So in the end the problem of the crime lord would probably be self-
correcting.  However, he would likely take offense at ARAK's activities, 
in which case it was in the LNHer's best interests to nip Sukoyoza's 
apotheosis at the bud before he became too powerful.
     Which led inevitably to the next question.  Should Anal-Retentive 
Archive Kid kill off all the Yakuza members first, thereby preventing 
key parts of the ritual that Mr Tokufuja had constructed from happening?  
Or should he wait for the ceremony to go ahead, and then use the holistic 
decreator to unmake the oyabun when he arrived here?
     The former had the advantage that Sukoyoza would never became 
anything more than (at most!) an ancestral guardian spirit, and was more 
likely to be a wandering ghost.  The downside was that ARAK might not get 
the chance to destroy the spirit if it didn't turn up at this building 
at all.
     The latter had the advantage of definitely having the oyabun arrive 
here, in ARAK's line of sight.  Moreover, Sukoyoza would be momentarily 
distracted in the inevitable few seconds of gloating at his elevation to 
minor godhood.  Villains always were.  The downside was that at that 
point ARAK would have to handle the destruction of both Oyabun Sukoyoza 
and his Yakuza hordes.
     When you put it that way there really was only one sensible option.
     
     
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Character credits: 
     Everyone here created by me.
     
     
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Saxon Brenton   University of Technology, city library, Sydney Australia
     saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au     saxonbrenton at hotmail.com
"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex
world of jet-powered apes and time-travel." - Superman, JLA Classified #3