The Korinto-kai — The Black Signal

Today I watched raccoons destroy an ancient temple. Everyone in Japan wanted a pet raccoon in the 80s. Those adorable scamps. Those mischievous ro-ro-rogues. Always cute, but never tame. People just let them go. Clever, they can survive anywhere. Invasive, they infected the land like a plaque. They infest temples, temples monks have protected for thousands of years. The monks are powerless! No matter what they try, the masked rats destroy the edifice of their cosmic belief with scratching and gnawing and urine and feces.

A monk sheds a tear and, with a sniffer full of hit-funk, understands the futility of all his beliefs. He gets the joke.

“Knock-knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“The inevitable heat death of the universe.”

Wait for it!

What was that, Chuck? What did the buzz-buzz-buzzard voices say? The Korinto-kai? That band of merry men. The honourable thieves. Those scamps! Those rogues! They aren’t immoral, they’re amoral. They are lovable anti-heroes. Their audacity is going to save us all from the outer dark.

And their leader! Oh, that gambling yakuza Robin Hood. That charming crazed cool. Daimon Kiyota.

Let me tell you about Daimon Kiyota. His desk draws are crammed with severed fingers. He takes digits instead of apologies. He lets die rolls decide murder. I’ve got a lot of eyes, Chuck. Do you know what I saw? The Korinto-kai are involved in all occult shipments in Tokyo. How could they not know about the Filth bomb? Yeah, I know about that. Intimately.

Did they ignore it? Were they paid to look the other way? Did Daimon’s crazy pinball machine tell him to do it? It’s hard to hear, Chuck…but they let it happen. Ask him why.

Oh, it’s a downer, Chuck. When you find out that Robin Hood is Bluebeard.

I know, Chuck. But the buzzing voices say-say-say! That’s got to be distracting. All those alien voices pretending to be one thing- like a two hundred pounds of crickets piling into a man’s suit and waving at you. That static’s got to put you off balance something fierce, Chuck. Hard to get a bead on morality.

There is no such thing as morality.

I know, Chuck. You try. You try so hard. It ain’t easy being human. I know.

But THEY don’t.

See you, Chuck …