Tying A Yoke to Yamada

Tying A Yoke to Yamada
Date 2084-11-30 GM LHOG Location Puyallup, Seattle Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Seattle Yakuza
Kadō Bunny Hop	Kousuke Yamada

Summary

Bunny Hop's father, Takashi Kurosawa, is calling in the favor that BHop owes him. The rabbit is tasked with getting ahold of blackmail information from the interior of Takashi Yamada's home during one of the latter's networking parties. BHop is given the task alongside Kadō to get ahold of the information without so much as hinting that there's been a break-in at all.

Background

Yamada hosts routine parties in the Lakewood Center area of Tacoma. Every month, various affiliates of the clan are gathered - some runners, but mostly close friends or favored lieutenants of the fixer. Multiple corporate assets are also in attendance - Johnsons, mostly, arranging favors with the local clans. While security at these parties is light, there are a large number of wildcards in attendance at all these parties and it's difficult to predict precisely what sort of OpFor will be in attendance.

Others in the clans see opportunity - a prominent lawyer, Kakei Steve, is interested in the aftermath of whatever's going on. And, of course, he's interested in getting the information for the clan he's loyal to - thus the teamup with Kurosawa.

The Meet

Late one evening, BHop is called to her father's room and given a firm instruction - she will be investigating potential blackmail material that Kanaga fixer Yamada has. Further, she will perpetuate the cover story that this is an audit of the clan's finances. There's little choice offered, and BHop is, of course, required to accept. A shadowrunning style job as her Yakuza persona - horrifying stuff.

Kado, on the other hand, receives a call from a lawyer friend - Kakei Steve, who has a request for her services. It sounds like suitable work, so she takes the job.

At the meet, both Steve and Kurosawa are waiting patiently. Kurosawa quickly opens strong: "It has come to my attention that there are certain discrepancies in the ledgers. I want the two of you to quietly investigate the source of this discrepancy. I will be direct in my request for your approach: I would like you to start at the top of our Gumi, and work down from there. I am concerned that Yamada-san may be allowing dishonesty to slip through in order to avoid shaking the ship which we are all sitting in. If you find such evidence, report it to me directly please." The lie is crystal clear, both to BHop - who knew it beforehand - but also to Kado, who had no knowledge.

It's made clear that violence is regarded as a complete failure - the pair must *ghost* this run, or they will publicly embarrass him. Clan politics are at stake - and with that understanding, Kado negotiates pay and support. Her hints that she's picked up on the subtext are enough to extort more money from Kurosawa - and she's able to get that bit of knowledge across to Steve, quickly earning the courtroom slugger's trust.

The Plan

The pair quickly begin legwork.

BHop handles a good bit of research via the matrix, while Kado shakes down every Yak clan she has fingers in for information on Yamada. Bit by bit, they're able to piece together a thorough picture of what the party will look like and on all the major players.

Security at the party - The search for this finds that security is surprisingly light - not many soldiers are brought in, and BHop's never been a spider for the event. As a cross-clan event, the boys on the ground are a motley bunch - usually just the personal escorts of whoever might be interested in what's going on that week. As Kado feeds her information, this starts making sense - the corpos likely have their own personal security too. While this means that there will be a lot of well trained security personnel on site, this also means that they aren't working together. Beyond that, Bun's able to determine that security at the place in question is very light - lacking even much in the way of cameras. No alarm companies to speak of, here.

Yamada - Yamada himself is an odd case - he moved up to Seattle from San Francisco when the Japanese invasion withdrew from Calfree. Evidently, he found the more liberated city to be distasteful to him. There's evidence of him perpetrating hate crimes upon metahumans in The City by the bay. This is not legally actionable, and it's unfortunately likely that the Oyabun would not care. Someone who's a romantic interest might, though. A couple of domestic dispute reports taken by KE cops, found distributed on a local datahaven, indicate that someone was in a shouting match with Yamada about how he shouldn't be so cruel to orks and dwarves.

Hayashi Shiho - The wife of a fairly useless lieutenant. In most images found on the matrix, Yamada can be found standing nearby to Hayashi Shiho, a yamato-nadeshiko figure who looks on calmly and politely in most of the media that can be found of her. The couple exceptions show her more domineering side. Getting sidetracked, BHop quickly starts noting that there are rumours of an affair there - scandalous stuff, though nothing can be proven of course. From all reports, Shiho is simply a clever, sharp-eyed woman who keeps calm in even intense situations and manages her husband's life for him. Kado gets ahold of a bit more. The affair - images of Yamada and Hayashi Shiho close together can be seen going back for years. Depending on how much she wants to read into it, this could have gone back a very, very long time. It becomes increasingly clear that the woman has been actively trying to seduce Yamada for some time as information is gathered.

Sato Yoshi - Sato Yoshi is the classic samurai in the old school - a middle aged man, hair tied up in a simple ponytail, ornamental Nodachi at his side in every single picture seen. And while the hair's mixing gray and white at this point, he's talented enough to have kept his position on the streets, taking on any comer without flinching. A combat monster in the flesh.

Watanabe Sora - He's well liked because of his connections and his sense of humor, most likely. Any informal picture with him in it features laughter from the men he surrounds himself with.

Ultimately, the runners settle on a plan of social infiltration - swapping bodies via physical masking so that Kado can socially posture in BHop's place, playing a man in Yakuza culture to the fullest extent and using that to get the pair ahead. Meanwhile, the demure, quiet figure of BHop as Kado will have plenty of time for their matrix action.

The Run

A first sweep through the party, Kado chattering more smoothly than BHop has in years, gets the pair important information right away. While the pair of them have access to the first floor provided for them by Kurosawa, the real meetings are upstairs - as are the likely safe locations. The less significant lieutenants - Sato and Watanabe - are here serving both as entertainers and security of a sort. And while the pair are trying to figure out a plan, BHop runs searches on various folks in the party while Kado looks for likely marks.

Eventually, the pair settle on a Johnson that Kado suspects and BHop confirms is from Evo - and they lean on the sleazeball for info. Quickly, they're able to confirm that before they arrived, Yamada was already arranging meetings with functionaries and friends upstairs - and, of course, Shiho is up there with him. Her husband is, of course, downstairs.

While the smell of scandal lingers in the air, the runners elect for a simpler plan - Kado steals the appearance of one of the Johnsons attending the party, sneaking up and bullying her way past the door guard by insisting that a private room is needed for "him" and BHop-disguised-as-Kado.

After a small bribe exchanges hands (as a formality), the pair are upstairs. From there, a spirit pokes around for hollow spaces while a fly spy from the techno flits around. After a couple close calls with guards, they're able to determine the safe locations - and sneak to them cleanly. In the door, Kado attempts to trick the safes into opening with magic.

Only one falls for the trick, so BHop resorts to hacking. Off comes the cover of the first one, and she remembers just in time that these safes probably have a physical failsafe - one that she disables just in time to keep the alarm from going off. Safe one opens - blackmail on datachips. Bingo. Safe two opens - cash, for a nice bonus (from Kurosawa paying out to match whatever they find - an incentive not to leave tracks). And in the third?

Well, the third door is always the gag prize. Yamada maintains a healthy selection of "massage tools" which will make excellent blackmail material for Kurosawa.

The pair are able to get out the way they came in - and with no interest in sticking around, they promptly leave.

Aftermath

A job that gets straight ghosted - Kurosawa's pleased, Steve's pleased, and the runners are a bit richer - in soul, in pocket, and in "having her dad off her fucking back" - at least for BHop.

Rewards

Run Rewards for "Tying a Yoke to Yamada" (High, 14 hour duration, 2.33x RVP cap - not filled, total RVP 28.)

12k Nuyen - Agreed Price - 6 RVP

16k Nuyen - Johnson Matches potential loot - 8 RVP

10 Karma - 10 RVP

10 CDP - 4 RVP, Base included

Blackmail material against multiple Yakuza leaders

This is acceptable as an initiation/submersion ordeal, as running against and around Yakuza is thematically appropriate to both characters.

+1 Yakuza Reputation (All Seattle Clans)

BHop's Chip to Kurosawa is repaid

Optional Qualities:

Kado: Focused Concentration (4 RVP, only one rank permitted). Common Sense (3 RVP).

BHop: Common Sense (3 RVP).

Optional Contacts:

BHop: Kakei Steve (Connection 6 / Loyalty 1) (6 RVP)