How the Manji clan got its grove
By Joseph Astana, Contributor
They needed a place where they wouldn’t get caught or kicked out of, and it had to be somewhere so unlikely that the place would forever be remembered in connection to them.
The King of the Iron Fist tournament had become legendary in the fighting world. As the Mishima Zaibatsu had hosted it, they were enjoying the most prominent windfalls. However, all of the fighters who participate were enjoying various gains as well. For the Manji clan and their leader, Yoshimitsu, this meant a temporary reprieve from the life of international thievery. But the clan didn’t rest, instead, they quickly found themselves engaged in debauchery and chicanery.
What had become a favorite party trick of the leader—drunkenly flying around using the high rotation speed of his robotic hand—quickly became a problem when he began to use it to escape bar tabs and ferry away other intoxicated members. A couple crashes through apartment windows and several tickets made it so that few bars would even seat the clan, let alone serve them drinks. Yoshimitsu and the Manji clan needed a new way to party.
So as any good band of thieves would do, they began hatching a plan. They needed a place where they wouldn’t get caught or kicked out of, and it had to be somewhere so unlikely that the place would forever be remembered in connection to them. They settled on the ruins of the Mishima Dojo after much deliberation; who could expect such a place would be desecrated by the Manji’s?
But they had to do something about Heihachi who, paranoid at both his son and his grandson’s attempts to kill him, had taken to sleeping there. And so, the plot thickened; Heihachi, would have to be removed, but how? He would not rise to a bump in the night without preparing for a fight, and he wouldn’t likely be lured out using a honeypot either. It would take both cunning and ingenuity.
So, drawing on their decades of experience breaking into the most tightly guarded places, a plan was hatched. A hole was cut in the roof above his bed and the missing pieces were carefully reassembled so that they could quickly and quietly removed by the ninja group. Also, his tatami mat was laid over a net; when the hour struck, the Manji’s would lift the roof out of the way, close the net, and hand it to Yoshimitsu who would fly off with the struggling Zaibatsu head before depositing him in the bed of a truck to be driven even further still.
The greatest party heist was about to be made.
To be continued…
