Sushi! Sushi! Sushi!

Thwump!

Captain Kondo slumped limply down onto a stool, haggard and deadpan. Patches of his face were covered with bandages and part of his right arm hung in a sling. He stared a thousand kilometers forward, his bloodshot eyes emotionlessly reflecting the flicker of lights upon lights upon even more lights.

He breathed in and out through bruised nostrils. Strands of gray hair rustled from a random gust of air conditioning above him.

Just when it seemed as though he could not remain still-as-a-statue any longer...

...a chiming sound went off. His eyes rolled, but he maintained composure. His good arm fished around what remained of his tattered police jacket. Kondo shifted his weight, wincing heavily as he did so. Ultimately he pulled out a cell phone and flipped it to life beside his ear.

"Yes, hello, Mother. Good evening."

The other line chattered.

"No, Mother. I'm okay. I'm... uh... I'm at home."

More chattering.

"It's okay, Mother. Look... I don't know what you heard from the news, but you have to understand that most of it is hyperbolic hearsay. I'm not..."

The chattering increased in volume. The middle-aged man hunched forward, eyes clenched shut tight as he stifled a groan from deep within his injured body.

"...it's not that simple. Listen, Mother, I'm a Captain in the Tokyo Police Force. I don't care how powerful Tsuragamae thinks he is, but that dog-headed egotist is going to need a lot more sway if he thinks he can simply fire a loyal law enforcement officer such as myself."

There was a pause on the other line, then some chatter, Kondo sighed and spoke:

"Do not fret one bit, Mother. I've been in service of this great country of ours for years. I'm the very paragon of efficiency and responsibility. I know full well how to take care of myself."

He leaned back and took a firm breath.

"Now if you want my advice, turn the television off and go read a good book. Things are going to be wild and crazy on the airwaves for a while, and there's no need to hear any baseless rumors about my competency. Alright? Now, forgive me, but I must retire to bed and get up early in the morning for my regularly scheduled exercise routines. Okay?"

A brief squawk or two. He nodded with the phone to his year.

"I love you too, Mother. Sweet dreams. Talk to you later."

Clap!

Kondo shut the phone off and slid it into his jacket pocket.

"Mrrrrrngh... where would this Town be without me?"

With that said, Kondo slipped cash into the left side of the flashing pachinko machine in front of him. After pressing "Play," he habitually fired several ball bearings into the vertical field, watching with dazed eyes as his luck ran out again.

"Dammit..." He muttered under the echoing noise of the parlor all around him. "...why'd I have to get the fish tits and not the flash fire?"