I'm certainly glad to see Regret again. Relieved, in fact. Although I'm pretty sure that Tom needs to die for having sex with a pretend version of Asil just on the principle of things. I mean, sure... maybe plenty of people have had sex with someone who looks just like Asil before, but... Um... I'm sure there's a reason this is different and means he needs to die.

Those little light shows of his are fairly versatile. Don't really like the sound of what all they can do, but then I may just know too many computers. I don't really object to what they did to the Heckfire people, though.

I really should have seen Regret coming much sooner, especially since she's in the title of the story and all. Still, I was wondering when she'd pop up again, and it seems she's found herself an ally to wile away her time on Earth with. Good for her. Shame he's got to die horribly.

Just not nearly as horribly as that Lionel bastard.

How much of Akiko Masamune's business empire is actually criminal? Is she more a corrupt businessperson type ala Post Crisis Luthor, or does she and her people engage in more traditional forms of organized crime (drugs, protection, gambling, etc)?

I'm not sure exactly how they portrayed Luthor, but most of Akiko's activities are relatively above board, with diverse financial holdings. Her involvement in Mangatown would likely be considered a protection racket, but not in the traditional "Chicago" way. I see it much as Wikipedia describes the Yakuza influence in parts of Japan:

"Until recently, the majority of yakuza income came from protection rackets in shopping, entertainment and red-light districts within their territory. This is mainly due to the reluctance of such businesses to seek help from the police. The Japanese police are also reluctant to interfere in internal matters in recognized communities such as shopping arcades, schools/universities, night districts and so on. In this sense, yakuza are still regarded as semi-legitimate organizations. For example, immediately after the Kobe earthquake, the Yamaguchi-gumi, whose headquarters are in Kobe, mobilised itself to provide disaster relief services (including the use of a helicopter), and this was widely reported by the media as a contrast to the much slower response by the Japanese government. For this reason, many yakuza regard their income and hustle (shinogi) as a collection of a feudal tax."

So it's not simply a one-way street, and the citizens of Mangatown aren't paying for protection *from* Akiko's people. She doesn't tend to target the little guy... she definitely thinks big. If someone in Mangatown doesn't want to pay, I doubt there are direct reprisals... more likely the other merchants and residents are encouraged not to do business with said person. Akiko likely directly or indirectly owns much of the shops and properties in that section of the city, so one doesn't really want to piss off the landlady. Narratively, this side of her operation is more for the local color of Mangatown than an important part of her empire.

She's not much for violent crime when it's not necessary, and abhors the drug trade (that's Camellia's racket.) I would say she's likely involved in some large scale hijacking of international shipments from time to time, money laundering, insider trading, black marketeering, and so on, usually not just as goals in and of themselves, but as part of a larger strategy against a government, corporation or market segment.

Her main method of operation includes gathering all the information she can about everything, which suggests that extortion would play a large role in her criminal operations. Again, from Wikipedia:

"Yakuza frequently engage in a uniquely Japanese form of extortion, known as sōkaiya (総会屋). In essence, this is a specialized form of protection racket. Instead of harassing small businesses, the yakuza harasses a stockholders' meeting of a larger corporation. They simply scare the ordinary stockholder with the presence of yakuza operatives, who obtain the right to attend the meeting by a small purchase of stock. They also engage in simple blackmail, obtaining incriminating or embarrassing information about a company's practices or leaders. Once the yakuza gain a foothold in these companies, they will work for them to protect the company from having such internal scandals exposed to the public. Some companies still include payoffs as part of their annual budget."

Now, when dealing with other criminals, she can get rough. I'm sure there's more blood on her hands than some people might guess.

Another of my characters appears!
Black is developing into an interesting "third way" character.
And just watch Ian McNeice in Dune and you should do fine with Lodestone.

Lodestone better hope Yuki finds him before Liu Xi does.  At least if Yuki sets fire to him he might survive it.

It's not like I didn't tip you off to prevent your heart attack.

Although I'm pretty sure that Tom needs to die for having sex with a pretend version of Asil just on the principle of things. I mean, sure... maybe plenty of people have had sex with someone who looks just like Asil before, but... Um... I'm sure there's a reason this is different and means he needs to die.

What else could he have done? He had to maintain his cover.


More on his kaos globes next time.


I was worried that people would work it out too soon. After all, the narration went of of its way to avoid saying that the girl in Tom's bed was Asil. And then there was the Nats/Uhuna comment.


Noted.

He seemed like a likely candidate to say "No need to erase the little girl yet, is there? I'm sure I could find a few uses for her first."


That was the plan.


I just imagine him as one of my business associates.

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!

I was very glad to find out that wasn't Asil with Tom. And at first I was horrified at the last sentence, but I suspect that Asil wasn't raped, as I think the Heckfire Club is smart enough to realize if the Legion found out that would provoke a full out assault with everything they had.

You pulled the switcheroo with Asil and Regret earlier, so I'm guessing that Asil was in fact rendered unconscious and is "merely" tied up, and wasn't Lodestone's plaything. Or at least I hope so.

~Hat~

I even went so far as to send Vizh a reassurance in advance to make sure he wasn't too disturbed.


The Hell-fire Club's reasoning is that whatever happens to Asil doesn't matter, since once the Hero Feeders have erased her the Legion won't even remember her, let alone try to avenge her.

That said, Asil remains unharmed at the moment, and tougher than she looks.


More on this next time, of course.

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!

The feature that blocks bad HTML from being displayed in posts (to keep spammers from embedding viruses/spyware and such in a post) sometimes chokes on a bad tag and then won't display the rest of the post.

I have it on my list to replace that function with a newer and smarter one, I just never got to it.