"He stole something from us," Natasha said, her polite smile vanishing into a look of cold, unyielding authority. "Something extremely dangerous."
Her expression sent an unambiguous message: the Avengers were not asking for permission, and they certainly didn't care whether the thief was a Yakuza asset or an independent contractor. They wanted results, and Tokyo was currently their designated grid. Until the target was secured, these foreign capes were not leaving Japan.
'Unlucky bastard,' Chisei Gen cursed internally, his jaw clenching behind a stoic mask.
The Shadow Eight Families was sitting on a powder keg of forbidden secrets—Hybrid bloodlines, dragon biology, and the lingering horrors of Dr. Herzog's dark legacy. The last thing the Execution Bureau needed was a squad of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives poking around their turf. If their Hybrid nature was exposed to international eyes, the disaster in New York would instantly be pinned on their bloodline. Ever since Cassell College had escalated its global surveillance, the Japanese Branch had been walking on eggshells.
"Understood," Chisei Gen said, his voice dripping with icy disdain as he snatched the file from Natasha's hand. "I will deploy our networks to locate this man in the shortest time possible. But the exact second he is found... you take your business and leave Tokyo immediately."
"Farewell, Patriarch!" the black-suited Yakuza guards boomed in unison, bowing ninety degrees as Chisei turned on his heel. Several of the hulking enforcers cast dark, promises-of-violence glares at the seated Avengers before marching out the doors.
"Well," Natasha remarked, watching Chisei's retreating back with an amused tilt of her head, "it seems our young friend really is the prince of a local crime syndicate."
"He's far more than a simple mob boss," Tony Stark countered, his expression unusually grim as he tapped his smart-watch interface.
While Chisei was walking out, Tony had instructed JARVIS to run a deep-net background sweep on the young executive. Public records had yielded surface-level data smoothly enough: Chisei Gen, Head of the Gen Family, 74th High Patriarch of the Shadow Eight Families.
To a team that dealt with extraterrestrial invasions, an alliance of traditional Yakuza clans was barely worth a footnote. But when JARVIS attempted to penetrate the private servers of their corporate headquarters, the AI encountered a sudden, brutal counter-offensive.
"An artificial intelligence," Tony muttered, showing his screen to the group. "He's running a dark, military-grade AI. That level of cyber-defense isn't something a mere crime syndicate possesses."
Since digital surveillance was blocked by the local supercomputer, the Avengers defaulted to old-school physical espionage. After all, they had two of the world's most elite S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives sitting at the table.
Outside the club, Chisei Gen slid into the leather interior of his private executive sedan.
"To the Yanliu Research Institute," Chisei ordered coldly.
The driver nodded, starting the engine. Chisei leaned back against the headrest, staring down at the voiceprint files.
'The Avengers,' he thought, rubbing his temples. 'What an insufferable pain in the ass.'
Ten minutes later, the sedan pulled into the underground garage of the Yanliu Research Institute—the technological backbone of the Execution Bureau. Waiting near the glass elevators were two of Chisei's most trusted enforcers.
"How'd it go, Master Chisei?" Yasha barked, cracking his knuckles as his hideous face contorted in anger. "Did those foreign cape-wearers give you trouble? Say the word and I'll go slice them into sashimi!"
"Simmer down, Yasha," Crow muttered, lighting a cigarette. "Let's hear what Chisei has to say first."
Crow knew better than to pick a fight with New York's primary defense force. Killing Avengers was easy enough in theory, but the fallout from S.H.I.E.L.D. would obliterate the branch.
"Calm down," Chisei commanded, handing the file to Crow. "Their objective is to locate this thief. Run his voiceprint and facial recognition through Kaguya-Hime. I want to know who he is, what he's moving, and where he's hiding."
Crow took the documents and headed straight into the main server vault. A short while later, the glass doors slid open, and Crow walked back out with a wide, incredulous grin.
"Chisei, you're not gonna believe this," Crow said, tossing a freshly printed file onto the table. "This low-level broker actually managed to pull off a heist against S.H.I.E.L.D. in New York. He stole the Bone Reliquary Jar. Kaguya-Hime breached their localized vault logs and pulled the manifest."
Crow's eyes gleamed with excitement. "Looks like the Japanese Branch gets to hunt a Dragon King on home soil!"
"No," Chisei snapped, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the report. "This makes things exponentially more dangerous. Send the telemetry report directly to Cassell College. This is beyond our branch's clearance."
Chisei understood the terrifying weight of a Dragon King better than anyone. He held zero ambition for divine power; all he wanted was to protect his sister, Erii, and preserve the peace of the Eight Families.
"This thief is no ordinary black-market broker," Chisei instructed, his tone dropping to a whisper. "Issue a silent hunt across the city. Find him, but keep it off the public grid. The second he's located, bring him directly to the Gen Family vault. Under no circumstances are the Avengers to learn of his capture."
"Understood," Crow nodded, turning to dispatch the Execution Bureau.
Meanwhile, across town, Natasha and Clint were standing atop a high-rise rooftop overlooking Tokyo's skyline, reviewing the map provided by Tony's hardware.
"Let me split the targets," Natasha said, tapping the screen. "I'll take the Eight Families' Ancient Shrine Manor. You take Genji Heavy Industries."
Clint looked at the schematic of the Shrine, his brow furrowing in concern. "Are you sure you don't want to swap, Nat? The security perimeter around that ancient manor looks like a fortified fortress."
"When it comes to high-stakes stealth infiltration, Barton," Natasha smirked, checking her grapple gun, "you're still an archer in a tactical vest. Don't worry about me. We've got full backup on standby."