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Item №: XXXX

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: [ABSENT DUE TO ANOMALOUS INTERFERENCE]

Description:

EXT - TOKYO - NIGHT

Rain pours, neon lights filtering through it, reflecting it off the puddles on the street. A MAN, dressed in a dripping trenchcoat is seen in silhouette. He walks through a door, with the words "Koyozaki Kaiseki" in English and Japanese above it. We read a subtitle …

CHAPTER ONE

ONCE UPON A TIME IN …

THE ANOMALOUS WORLD

The subtitle is replaced by another one;

2021, Tokyo, Japan

The MAN keeps walking, removing his coat and shoes in the foyer. A WAITRESS walks up to him, speaking to him in SUBTITLED JAPANESE

WAITRESS

Good evening sir. I assume you're booked with Mr Belanger?

MAN

So I am.

WAITRESS

And then you must be James Mandel?

The MAN nods. He doesn't like the name, MANDEL. Too … posh.

Would you like me to take your briefcase, sir?

She gestures to the leather briefcase in his hands. The briefcase is black and ornately patterned. The initials "C.M" are seen on one side.

MANDEL

Oh no, I'm fine, thank you. Just show me to my seat.

She obliges. We see the inside of the restaurant - a Kaiseki place, considered high-end in Japan. The owner appears to have forgone a more modern style of decoration in exchange for a wall lined with old hunting rifles and swords. The kitchen can be seen from within the restaurant, several guns hung over the wall above the oven. The establishment is filled with guards … new to the place, based on their expressions. Otherwise, the place is empty. MANDEL is lead to a small private room off one side of the restaurant.

The private room is separated from the rest of the establishment by a sliding screen door and contains a POSH MAN and his BUTLER. The POSH MAN speaks to MANDEL, in SUBTITLED FRENCH.

POSH MAN

Ah … you are James Mandel, no? Please, sit down. Would you prefer we converse in English? Japanese?

MANDEL sits down. He replies in ENGLISH.

MANDEL

I'll speak the kings if I could.

POSH MAN

You do a better job as a posh brit than me.

MANDEL stares at him before the POSH MAN laughs. MANDEL laughs, unsure of himself

Ah! Je suis desole! I have yet to formally introduce myself in person. I am Eugene Belanger - as you know, and you are of course the lovely James Mandel. I believe you were here to discuss a proposition?

MANDEL

That is correct. I hear that you are implicated in the trade of … the magical, the unusual, the anomalous - Whatever you wish to call it.

BELANGER

Precisely so! I represent a company known as Marshall, Carter, and Dark Ltd. I'm sure you'd know who they are, given your implication in a previous scandal involving them - don't you think?

MANDEL shifts in his seat. BELANGER tries to catch his eye, but he looks at the floor.

MANDEL

Yes … ahem … I was falsely accused of being a member of the Ermin Eight. As a socialite like you, I naturally appear at a variety of events. The Eight were so prevalent back around '98 and '99 it's inevitable that I would have crossed into one of their shenanigans eventually. Eventually, the numbskull who put the charges in dropped them - no evidence, you know the deal.

BELANGER

I do. I saw an article on the whole affair while looking into you - basic background checks, the like. My methods … have been, er … how do I put it, unpopular with some people. I could not of course sell my lovely products if one poor soul came to me with a bomb or a gun and killed me. Perhaps I could figure out a way, even then, but it would be a massive inconvenience nonetheless. So I don't let that happen - no, I check and I look into everyone I meet - everyone.

MANDEL is silent.

Do you understand why I look for these things?