* * * * *
"FOREWORD"
"On 25 April, 1185, two naval fleets fought the Battle of Dan-no-ura, in Shimonoseki Strait, off the southern coast of Honshu-jima, Japan. With victory going to the one representing the Minamoto Clan. To avoid the disgrace of live capture, the samurai of the defeated Taira Clan chose to commit suicide through drowning. As did their ruler, the boy emperor Antoku, and his grandmother."
"To this day, local fishermen of the strait occasionally capture one or two crabs with strange markings on their underbellies. Markings that are said to resemble an angrily scowling face. Referred to, in Japanese, as 'heikegani' (after the once-dominant family line of the Taira Clan), these crabs are immediately thrown back, every single time. For the fishermen believe them to be reincarnations of the dead samurai!"
"Not all Japanese are so reverent, however. Indeed, there are some Japanese who are said to deliberately capture and eat these crabs...in order to assimilate their supposed magical powers! For this reason, they call themselves 'the Heikegani-ryu.' "
"Within these pages, you will read how their secret society became the most feared cult of assassins in Japanese history. And, how their actions have shaped history throughout the rest of the world."
"Most often, with no one else the wiser."
"------The Author."
The elderly ninja master smiled to himself as he finished scanning the Braille copy of the book that one of his genin had brought him from Tokyo.
"Whatever else we may think about him, this gaijin cannot be said to have lacked a gift for words."
"Forgive my rudeness, Jonin-sama," replied his second-in-command: "But, even dead, he has still managed to expose our secrets! How can this not disturb you?"
"Fear not, my kohai.* The majority of those who read this book will disbelieve his claims. Thinking him no more legitimate than any other proponent of outlandish conspiracy theories."
"And, those who believe otherwise...?"
"...will be obstructed by those who not only know of our existence, for certain," finished the jonin: "But, who also make use of it! Speaking of which; I believe you have a message for me?"
He smiled as he asked this. Consequently, the kohai's eyes widened to the point where he would have resembled a manga character (to anyone not visually impaired)!
"Forgive me again, Jonin-sama. I bring a written request from Fukien Yu, of the Earth Tiger Tong, in the Canadian city of Vancouver."
* * * * *
SOMEWHERE OFF THE EAST COAST OF THE U.S.
"Welcome to Miniscule Operations Command, Miss Finster. I'm Dr. Ezra Long; head of re-orientation."
Cecilia Finster looked at the middle-aged white man with his ever-balding scalp and wire-rimmed eyeglasses.
"Re-orientation? Sounds like a euphemism for brainwashing! And, why do you call this place 'miniscule?' That usually implies something petty and unimportant. But, anyplace this big, and with this much activity, has got to have a pretty heavy bag. As in; top secret? Maybe even...illegal?"
Dr. Long half-smiled: "Very astute, Miss Finster. Although, you might want to drop the hippie slang. The Sixties are over, and so is your part in them. Unless, of course, you would prefer returning to British Columbia?"
Shortly after their arrival in Vancouver, Cecilia and her draft-dodging boyfriend had taken to selling marijuana for the local Chinatown's ruling tong. When the two were arrested for it, by an undercover Mountie (and linguistically determined to be Americans), their fingerprints were telefaxed southward, to the FBI. The latter identified them as being identical to those found at the scene of a Midwestern college ROTC arson fire, five years earlier.
Initially reluctant to be deported, Cecilia quickly changed her mind after her boyfriend was killed by a tong henchman, in an attempt to silence both of them!
"As for us 'brainwashing' you?" Dr. Long continued: "Hardly! What we really do here is expand the parameters of what you believe to be possible and impossible. For example..."
He snapped his fingers, and an MP brought over a snack tray containing a bowl of potato chips, a bottle of ginger ale, two tumblers, a shot glass, and...
Cecilia had to shake her head and rub her eyes, to make sure she was not imagining things.
"Miss Finster? Meet your new partner; Mr. Oisin Fogarty."
The little man waved up at her and smiled.
"Just call me 'Buck.' "
To Be Continued
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
APRIL 2, 1974 (SOMEWHERE IN THE RYUKYU ISLANDS)