Chapter Text
Research Memo-Rough Draft 9/8/12
They call it the Shinjuku Incident. For several weeks in the summer of 1988, the city-state of Tokyo was apparently under attack by an otherworldly army. Eyewitness accounts describe the civilian population disappearing, armored beings attacking those who remained, and a complete power blackout that gradually spread beyond the Shinjuku district as the army of what could only be described as dead samurai advanced. While the JSDF and the US military intervened, they were ultimately unable to stop them. Technology failed to work. Tanks turned on themselves and exploded, and helicopters fell from the sky. Several battalions were stranded in the massive city, and most of them ultimately vanished without a trace. Those that survived, however, were in no shape to fight.
Even outside of the city, people were reporting strange events. The offices of a scholar from a local university collapsed, subsequent investigations showing that the building had somehow melted. Landmarks across the country were either damaged or destroyed, in a trail that led out from Tokyo before slowly looping back to the city. The damage to the city alone has been argued to be a cause for the subsequent economic collapse that followed, let alone the regional effects. Fishing in the Naruto Strait didn't recover for several years, and the Akiyoshido caves were closed to tourists until they were deemed safe for entry.
The problem with the eyewitness accounts, however, is that they don't include many from the people of Tokyo. At one point, the citizens of the city reappeared, with no memory of whatever had happened to them. A great many of the accounts seem to be memories resurfacing as nightmares, or half remembered feelings of terror and pain, with the knowledge that these were being siphoned somehow. One account recalls the inability to sit through their child's school recital, as the sound of the flute solo filled them with 'sheer terror, and the feeling of being surrounded'. The narrator went on to note that several other people in the crowd looked to be having similar feelings, and more than a few had to leave for air.
What makes this worse? Several months later, this happened AGAIN, if not on as large of a scale as before. Once again, all attempts to intervene by the JDSF and the US military failed. More people were evacuated this time around, though. It ended as quickly as it began. Just as before, anything technological failed to work within the effected area. Cameras and radios taken inside the Zone were rendered useless, only to act as normal when removed. This was tested with devices that were both powered off and turned on during entry.
In 1991, the UN held a conference on the subject. Closed office, no press. It took three months for the report to be released to the public. If it wasn't for the fact that the events had played out in the public eye, it would have been considered a hoax. Magic was real. Japan had essentially come under attack by its own past, and mystic defenders rose to the occasion. Their names were redacted, though it was suspected that they came from old families with samurai lineage. The forums had a field day playing detective, until someone brought up the strange case of the New York Samurai Murders. Between the infamous response by the NYPD involving the use of armed helicopters on armored figures, the trail of bodies, an armed invasion of a Chinatown restaurant by ninjas, and the fact that the person who took the only photographs of the killer ended up dead himself, the summer of '89 was pretty eventful for New York City. Add the crash of Sunrise Airlines 88 in New York Harbor, and you had a series of events that was quickly connected to the Shinjuku Incident. Here's an account from a Usenet group that focused on the Shinjuku Incident:
I used to live in Harlem when I was little, the post read. It wasn't always easy, but I have nothing but fond memories of my family's apartment there. I had a crush on a girl from the neighborhood. I can't remember her last name, but she was named Luna. She was the neighborhood big sister, who helped us kids when we needed money for snacks, or walked us home from the bus stop. Once, she kept one of my friends from being mugged. I don't know what her family was like, other than that she looked up to her brother, who didn't live with her. He was in one of the gangs back then, and New York back then was dangerous. This was back when Times Square was full of porn theaters and at least one place that sold kung fu stuff. We weren't allowed out after dark because of this.
Anyway, summer of 89. People suddenly start getting offed. Initially, cops don't give a shit, since it's mostly homeless people and gangbangers. Addicts. In short, people who they really don't see as people. But then there's a mass killing. One night, a whole crowd of people gets killed. And someone gets a picture of the perp. Someone in green samurai armor, with the victims in hand. That was the night Luna's brother and his friends were killed. Luna got harder after that. A few days later, we had the Sunrise Airlines crash, which in retrospect is where shit starts getting really fucking weird, even for New York. The photographer that captured the Samurai Killer on film was found dead in his apartment. Apparently several people went to see him that day. A young Japanese man who didn't give his name (and conveniently disappeared afterwards), and a young woman that sounded an awful lot like Luna. That's when the NYPD responded to the Samurai Killer being sighted (and knocking down a building, seriously) by sending out armed helicopters. Only in New York, man. They tried to gun down the guy and his friends in fucking public. Of course, later we found out that the guy in charge of flying that day was discharged from the Marines after the Shinjuku Incident. Apparently the guy was having flashbacks. Guy got kicked off the force afterwards, for obvious reasons. Given what we know now, this was actually an understandable response... Anyway, there were ninjas in Chinatown after that. Supposedly they kidnapped a restaurant owner and two tourists. Tourists that came in or alongside Sunrise Airlines Flight 88 and asked about the dead photographer. Yeah. That's when everything just....stopped. The killings, the ninjas. The news suddenly stopped talking about it. Luna also disappeared after this. Never saw her again. Given how she was hellbent on finding out who killed her brother, she probably ended up dead. You know how many people die unnoticed and unmourned in New York, especially back then? A lot. It's almost too much to comprehend, especially with so many people in one place. I still wonder what happened to her... probably ended up somewhere on Hart Island.
The Japanese government remains tight lipped on the identities of those involved in the above incidents. Further research is required to find out more about who, or what was involved in the New York spree.
From the files of Lt. Richard Williams