The Thief
Fuminori Nakamura
Nishimura’s friend Ishikawa had a simple philosophy. ‘If you steal a hundred thousand from someone who’s worth a billion, it’s almost like you’ve taken nothing.’ This was the man who was so adept that he could lift a wallet from a mark’s pocket, take out some of the money and then return the wallet to the same pocket. Nishimura knew it was wrong but pick pocketing was what his life was destined to be about. He made it his profession, and he made sure he was one of the best – a skill he too could someday pass on.
Ishikawa had had to leave Tokyo to avoid arrest on fraud charges. Skipped to the Philippines, found a new identity in Pakistan and came back. But he got in deep with some seriously heavy gentlemen. Then deeper still. They were after big fish and not just the money. He had a choice to make and it involved his friend. A big money job, a serious enterprise. No way back to a simple life for either of them after that.
Pick a pocket or two
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They say show me the boy till he’s seven and I will show you the man. For Nishimura how his life was going to be became clear when he was still at school. Someone had boasted about his wonderful watch – Nishimura wasn’t sure he deserved to hang on to it much longer. No, he helped get the balance in life right. He didn’t even expect to borrow it– instead he just took it. Of course he got found out but …it told him what he could make of life.
Relieving the wealthy of money and things they would barely miss. For him, that was the difference between getting by and abject poverty. In the commuter trains he would stand behind his mark, a newspaper folded and held to shield his hands. His right index and middle finger slipped into the man’s coat pocket drew out a wallet, and then sandwiched it into the newspaper. It wasn’t only the angle of the dip that counted but speed as well. He became one of the best.
Get rich quick
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Ishikawa found the ideal mark. A man wanted to show off in a private club, to pay for pleasure for himself and his male staff – except it wasn’t actually his own money. Director of a religious organisation, the money in the kitty had become too tempting. The dip was simplicity itself. As they came into the club, a bump, a knock. One bag of paper exchanged for the bag of money. Ten million yen.
Life too was simplicity itself for Nishimura. Ishikawa had shown him what was possible. Then, like any other hard working man he prospered. He honed his skills and they paid for the things in his life. That is until Ishikawa came back to Tokyo and back into his life. Now though his friend was caught up in a larger game – working for one of the big players in the game of moving money out of people's pockets. Moving it out of deep pockets. And he offers to deal Nishimura into the game. A chance to make an absolute fortune.
Joining in the ‘big boy’s’ game
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It takes one to know one. On the streets and in the shops a young boy is stealing food. One way of holding back hunger – but not to be advised when Nishimura can see that the store detective has him under watch. Maybe this is going to be his way of putting something back – helping someone, helping them avoid the path in life he has chosen. The boy’s mother makes her living on the streets, and between the sheets, so in her world there is no such thing as a free lunch. She offers to pay for his help with the only currency she believes men understand.
On his own account, Nishimura has been noticed by Kizaki; a gangster whose mantra is that he ‘appreciates everything life has to offer.’ He has a special assignment for Ishikawa and that’s the task he wants Nishimura to be part of. They are driven to a house, have a job to do…and only later does the full enormity of what happened register. Working for Kizaki, according to his rules, is no bed of roses. Too much at stake and a serious price to pay for stepping up into the first division of villainy. Ishikawa could wish he had stayed in the Philippines, or Pakistan or Kenya. Nishimura, with his own assignments for Kizaki, could have wished he had too.
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