Sliced arm and back again

I'm now three days post-surgery and it feels good now that the anesthetic has worn off with all my arm's numbness alleviated. Still hurts, but not as much as before and now I can move my fingers again. Big thanks to Dr. Young and co. of the orthopedic dept here in Michigan and of course Dondon, my physical therapist. He's a crazy Naruto and Bleach fan like me, so we get along well.

I'm making this blog via mobile phone by the way. But hey, I can hold my phone again with my right but with the metal still attached to my bone, still lots of recovering to do. Thank God the big thorny road has been passed by. Will take me a long time to go back to basketball and PS2 but I'm pretty excited to go back to writing... not in a few more days, but getting there.

Regarding the unposted chapter 57, sorry for not posting it in the day promised. It's because Meia is in Florida right now. She hadn't dropped by to Bayback so she hasn't gotten hold of my laptop with the Chapter 57 word .doc yet. Things are pretty crazy right now, so thank you very much for your patience. Life's getting in the brain-frying way too much hehe.

Thank you for all the get well soon messages and prayers. I'm getting well and doing good. Just a little bit of rest and I'd be back with Vena Cava and Fists and Lipsticks soon. Again, thanks for your care and patience.

I miss hoops

For a series of physical therapy sessions for my radial nerve injury, I had to go to Detroit. The hospital here is a lot better in terms of PT facilities. Pretty cool that I had a Filipino PT because I hadn't practiced speaking Tagalog in a long time. I could only access the internet via mobile phone (which sucks, but goes well with my one-handedness hehe). Couldn't fully use my arm yet, but the pain's half gone. Improving, getting there... couldn't wait to go back to Boston and see my pals and of course Meia. Haven't seen her in... three weeks. Life sucks that way.

I realized that it has been a year since I posted Book 2 of Fists and Lipsticks 2: The Silver Crescent. Wow, it has been a long journey. Thanks for the messages and emails, especially those notifying me of errors and those unending get well soon messages. I'd have them fixed once I get back to Fictionpress/Soompi. I could only access Yahoo! and Blogspot through my mobile phone with a page that loads and looks 'normal'.

Meia's going to my place later and I asked her to bring my laptop along with her so that she can be the one to upload the next chapter while I'm not yet around. Most probably, Chapter 57 will be up late in the evening of June 27 or early dawn of June 28. Sorry for the errors that you might see spreading doom in Chapter 57. I haven't edited it and I don't want to post unedited chapters as much as possible, so please bear with me. I'd have the errors fixed when I get back after two more weeks.

I'd say that Chapter 57 will show a 'different' side of Crosse. Also, it would include the narration of what transpired right after the events in Book 1. Remember how Crosse disappeared mysteriously in Book 1? Chapter 57 will be the much-awaited narration of how he was able to escape from the Spectra Gang in Book 1. Aside from this, more revelations about Kaoru Hiro and Kaoru Saori will be 'hinted' in this chapter, so stay tuned.

As warning also, Chapter 57 will have an 'adult' scene. To Soompi readers, please refer to the Fictionpress version if you wish to read the uncut version.

Once again, THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR THE PATIENCE AND THE AMAZING SUPPORT.

^ Where am I? Hehe.

Being sick is stressful. Ah, I miss playing hoops.

At last non-hospital FRESH air in my lungs...

I just came out of the hospital today and the doctor told me that I'd be getting the results sometime tomorrow. I may be able to update three days from now (F&L and VC) but I don't want to make definite promises. I'm not really sure but the chapter's ready and I just have to do the [TAG]s stuff.

Thanks for the endless e-mails and PMs. I really appreciate it.

-Hiro

Update about Delayed Updates

To readers of F&L and VC:

I've updated Vena Cava recently and for those who have read it, thanks for dropping by. Hope you liked the little glimpse I gave you about Sue's 'special ability'. I've read very intelligent guesses from Soompi Forums and I'm glad some had actually hit the jackpot. But that's just a little taste of her 'powers'. The plot itself will be a bit crazier than that, hehe.

Regarding F&L2, I'm suppose to post an update within the week but I don't think I would be able to do so. With this, I apologize to the readers who are anticipating Chapter 56. I made this blog entry with Meia's help because my whole arm is numb. I had a CT scan yesterday to see if the numbness has anything to do with my past injury or if it neurological (I'm praying its not). Because of this, I'm taking a temporary one week (or two) break from gradschool and the computer so I apologize if I can't put up the chapter this week as expected.

But Chapter 56 is going to be cool. I'll post it up as soon as I can get by ass back to work up the final edits. Not this week though... hopefully next week.

Thank you for the patience and continued support :)

Chapter 55: Camera

Chapter 55 was originally 50 pages long, but after about three rounds of editing, I made a decision to cut the chapter to 6,000+ words, keeping it as 'less brain-frying' as it could be. My decision to place Chapter 55: Camera where it should be is to keep the plot sequence at balance. So many puzzles, revelations, and bombs have been launched in the past couple of chapters. Because of this, I believe that this is the best time to insert a 'lighter' chapter and at the same time re-enforce, mend, and strengthen relationships between the characters. I hope it worked, hehe.

Don't ask where I got the jokes. (But if you want more, I can tell you MORE. E-mail me? Haha.)

From here on, I'm going to intensify things a bit. Hold on to your seats. It's going to be one hell of a ride. I'm pretty excited about it.

Thanks for the amazing support.


-The Author

For Hiro's Fried Friends, hehe...

(This post was copy-pasted from Soompi Forums)

Hey there, F&L reader. Hope your brain is still okay, hehe.

We’re getting to the end… slowly and bombing and frying, but getting there. As early as now, I wanna bow down to you guys to thank you for your amazing support.

I thought that it would be good if I post these replies first before releasing the next chapter. This would help to ease the confusion you may have in mind. If you have any more questions or if there is something I missed, feel free to post/PM/email me and I’d be more than happy to reply.

Plot-related questions

[nganrinat0r]
The inside story about chris shocked crosse, is he just playing along or does he not really know about chris. So, crosse knows that the vault is empty and wasn’t it revealed in the previous chapter that the other vault was in China, so why is he still questioning ayane about the whereabouts. Unless ayane transfer the rest of the money somewhere else as well as the stuff in the china vault.

x3_b3b3
The place where Kosuke's mother trained at...did Crosse train there too? Since in the other chapter, Yuken told Ayane that he met Crosse in China. && Crosse was Spectra's assassin right?

Remember that during those eight years between Book 1 and Book 2, Crosse and Ayane were away from each other. Crosse was in China (as revealed in the chapter ‘Wits, Words, Weapons, and Wine’ – now can it be possible that this will answer miss x3_b3b3’s question above?), while Ayane stayed with Yoshifumi Rei in Switzerland. Although it has already been revealed that Crosse planned a ‘grand revenge plan’ (which are now being revealed in the past few chapters, mostly in Sessions Part 8), Crosse has NOT been aware of several things regarding the Silver Crescent Gang – Chris Glasgow’s identity and the Silver Crescent Vault’s partitioning, for instance.

About the money transfer, it has been revealed in Chapter 51 too that Ayane partitioned the wealth inside the Silver Crescent Vault in Switzerland. For purpose of recall about the Vault, you may read my old author note (Anti-confusion for the Brain-Fried – see my blog http://hiro-0911.blogspot.com).

The China/Great Wall Vault (Golden Crescent Vault) is different from the Swiss Vault (Silver Crescent Vault) and is also different from the Japan/Tsuzuya Academy Vault (Crescent Vault).

The Vault that Hiro and Kosuke visited in the previous chapter in China is the Golden Crescent Vault.

The one owned by Ayane in Switzerland is the Silver Crescent Vault.

The Vault in Japan underneath Tsuzuya Academy is the Crescent Vault, which is also the one that Yamazaki Daisuke (Kosuke’s prime minister father) seized several years ago when he took over the Crescent and established the Spectra.

Now this leads us to this question:

fuuko-chan
If the Golden Crescent necklace that Daisuke have obtained when he "killed" Gendou is fake, how did he access the vault in Tsuzuya? What's weirder is that, he didn't have the Silver Crescent necklace nor the Silver Disk, right? So... how did he...D: And that was also the necklace given to Kosuke, that he gave to Ayane when they were in high school. So, she also managed to open the Swiss (and probably China too) Vault with a fake Golden Crescent necklace? The fake ones aren't supposed to work, right? @__@ Or they function the same as the original?

This is a very good question, but if you look more closely, the answer is also very simple. I’ll give some clues, but I won’t spill it out because it’s cooler if you guys figure it out on your own, hehe.

For the first question: If the necklace Daisuke got from the ‘killed’ Gendou is fake, how did he access the Crescent Vault in Japan/Tsuzuya 25 years ago?

To give clues for this question, let me ask you this:

Who are the ‘authorized’ people that can access the Vault again?

Okay, now that you’ve answered that question in your mind, what if that person ‘accompanied’ Daisuke to the Vault? Now by answering that question, I give you the biggest clue as to how Daisuke was able to access the Vault.

The other question is: If Ayane got the ‘fake’ necklace from Kosuke, how did she open the Vault in Switzerland then?

To answer this question, I’ll ask you the same question: Who are the ‘authorized’ people that can access the Vault again? And I’ll ask you another question along with this: How do you access the Silver Crescent Vault from the upper floor?

Look back to the chapter when Rei went there to acquire it himself (the chapter entitled ‘Foxed’). What if Ayane was ‘assisted’ by a Vault keeper too?

Hehe, see? It’s cooler if you’re the one figuring it out.

Okay, now let’s go to the common question:

fuuko-chan
But how the heck did Gendou live... Didn't Daisuke point the gun to his heart? And it bang-ed for like six times. Either he was wearing a bulletproof vest or he's immortal, etc. >__>
redbutterflytree
But...I'm a little confused by that, since Zakuro/Daisuke shot him so many times and slashed his face, but I believe that you have a good explanation for that...however, it's still very confusing and disorienting.
1shinhwa
but how did he survive?? i thought he was dead cuz there was plenty of bullets and plenty of scars on his face??? and so much blood??
pearllovestop
But then how did Gendou survive? Zakuro clearly shot him several times in the heart:
shar0nsaurus
But that's impossible, how did he escape all the gunshots? the BANG BANG BANG.
fairy~dream
How did he survive those gunshots then? Shouldn't he be dead?
kc_chua
how was Gendou able to survive the gunshots?
linnienguyen
gendou is one lucky guy.. with all of those bang bang bangs i thought he would have died for sure

I see that a lot of people are questioning Gendou’s mysterious resurrection. I won’t answer this yet, but I promise to give you sensible and shocking reasons behind this survival.

However, believe me when I say that the clues to answer this big question is already scattered all over the past chapters. If you’re keen enough to link them altogether, you’ll get it, hehe.

Now, let’s go the other common questions:

mangoes-dbsk
Then... since Aya's Keiko's fake daughter... she'll considered to be Hiro's fake daughter as well... so why didn't Hiro try to save her that time she was in the hospital unconscious? I mean... it is his fake daughter. Why wouldn't he try saving her, just for Keiko's sake?
emfkrx
then where the hell has gendou been for 25 years?!?
stalking lilly? planning the demise of the Spectra Gang?
lady_luv
where has gendou been hiding all these years?
benchi101
How did they know that Ayane was still alive though?
fuuko-chan
this makes Saori's identity a mystery. Is she really Gendou's sister?
babiiphatt
If they were all part of spectra, doesnt it make them ayane and kosuke enemy?
sentuhmentalfo0l
i feel like people keep peeling off masks in this story haha

I’m glad that the readers have pointed these out, especially Gendou’s disappearance and the relevance of the ‘masks’. I see the heightening speculations regarding Kaoru Saori’s identity too.

I won’t answer these questions YET. I have chapters that would answer these questions. For now, just remember these questions WELL, because the answers to these questions comprise the ‘bigger’ bombs I was talking about.

Now I’ll answer some questions that have been posted in the past. Sorry for the late replies.

Here are questions about Ayane’s pregnancy:

morphine99
Somebody correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know (because my younger sister takes drugs for obsessive-compulsive disorder which quite similar to the ones prescribed for PTSD), those types of drugs cause malformations in the baby. In the leaflet of her medicines, the drug is contraindicated in pregnant women. It says that it could cause the baby to have soft nails and end up with no arms...?

So maybe that is why Yuken said he was going to prescribe new drugs for Ayane.

Yes, exactly. That’s the reason why Yuken withdrew the drugs Shizuki previously prescribed for Ayane. Drugs used to cure post traumatic stress disorder may harm a baby inside the womb.

I read another post (I believe it is by miss Denied) saying why Shizuki didn’t know about Ayane’s condition right away – it’s because Ayane still wasn’t symptomatic during Sessions Part 7.

jusplainmeh
What?! She's pregnant and still kicking butt?

At six weeks of pregnancy (according to my research by the way, not Meia’s personal experience, hehe…), the baby inside the womb is no more than an inch big. It’s about a size of a pea, so you can still move around like Jackie Chan pretty much.

tusoo
wait...so who is on who's side?
Team 1: crosse, hiro, saori, the architect(i'm bad with names), the doctor, the manager
Team 2: aya full stop
ahahah...ahh....gosh...i think i am totally lost..ahaha

Don’t worry, it’s okay to be lost at this point. You’ll get the answers on the next chapters. Welcome back to our thread by the way, hehe. For Fictionpress readers, I put the replies in my Blogspot page instead because I wanted the word count there to count the total for chapters excluding the author notes.

redbutterflytree
So now Rei knows about the picture, huh? Oh, goodness. He's really mad now...seems like he's going to go on a rampage. Or not. I'm not sure. Somehow, I feel like he's rather unpredictable. But, I find it very possible that Rei will NOT hesitate to get his revenge on Ayane (whatever that may mean), especially since it's VERY likely that the baby isn't his...then again, that all depends on if he finds out.

Rei will be up for a nasty comeback soon.

mangoes-dbsk
And by the way, where has Stream gone to? I think I asked this question before... but I forgot if you replied / mentioned it in one of the chapters. I mean, there are so many chapters, so much studying, for my occasionally good but mostly bad memory, I don't think I'd be able to remember. Is he planning some tricks or something? -.-

I guess I won’t be spoiling anything by saying now that Stream Williams (Crosse’s older brother) died in that airport bombing in Book 1 with Kato Saburo – for real.

benchi101
To be honest, Kosuke's the slowest character in the story now. He's so behind while everybody knows this and that.
kawaii999
Im sad to say this Hiro.. I think Ayane has lost her touch. She was the reason
I started reading Fists And Lipsticks.. but now that shes ill,pregnant, head over heals
in love, prisioner to Crosse, and finding out that so many people fooled the Empress
.. I don't see Ayane the same anymore. I really wish this story goes back with the old
Ayane. But now that shes pregnant I doubt that huh?

I’d have to say that this is one of the best observations so far spanning the entire Book 2 because this is precisely the reason why I chose to break Fists and Lipsticks into two parts.

In Book 1, the themes included perfection, innocence, cliché, cheesiness, immature love…

In Book 2, however, you saw Ayane at her weakest, Kosuke at his weakest, and Crosse at his weakest. Book 2 is about flaws, brokenness, passionate love, jealousy, and transcending the threshold of sanity.

If there would be a ‘reversal’ to these weaknesses, the remaining unposted chapters would answer that.

Random stuff

Silent Serenity
What about you, Hiro? Are you gonna have eleven Chinese kids too?
Meia, get your womb ready! Lol
Hey Mr. Brain Fryer, I saw that your birthday's near!

Hey Meia, hear that? -#-evil grin-#-

ronicabeee
It's bigger than my shock with Ricky Hatton's 2nd round knock down by Manny Pacquiao! Hahahaha.

I saw that match! Man, Hatton was 7-minute pawned by Pacquiao!

anniiepoo
Hehe Feb 13th!!! That's my birthday tooooo !!! Yay!!! Valentines Eve ^^
Silent Serenity
Hey Meia, isn't your birthday February 13?

The reason why I made Ayane’s birthday Feb 13.

jaycee725
i just finished reading fists and lipsticks 1
now im starting my first chapter now....though its long story.
but i cant just stopped reading....im enjoying myself.

Welcome to F&L miss jaycee725. Welcome to the other new readers too, both signed and silent. Thank you for your support.

loveme100x
I wish you'd update faster... like 2x a week perhaps? XD Once per week is killing me.

Hehe, that was my plan but the [TAG] stuff here in Soompi takes me a lot of time to do. Don’t worry though because updates will be regular, although I would avoid posting warnings/update schedules from now on because every I do, the updates get delayed so yeah… just expect regular surprise updates as usual.

Right now, I am struggling to cut down the length of Chapter 55. It is 50 pages long (20,000+ words -- sigh, yeah I know…), so I’m still editing it to cut it down.

If I can’t cut it down, well, F&L 2 may extend to Chapter 70.

Either way, expect an update very soon.

Vena Cava has been posted too, so if you have time to spare, I invite you to check it out. The link is on my signature. It's something different from F&L, but I'm excited about it myself.

Again, THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR THE SUPPORT.

-The Author

Anti-Confusion for the Brain-Fried

Anti-confusion for the Brain-Fried
by Hiro, the Brain Fryer

Hello F&L Readers!

Fists and Lipsticks is mainly a mystery story, and so it was intentionally made to be ‘confusing’. However, after reading the feedback both from Soompi, Fictionpress, even including Meia herself, I realized that I might have gone a little overboard regarding the manner by which I narrated the events for the past few chapters.

I apologize to the readers if F&L became a little TOO confusing for you lately. I appreciate everyone’s honesty in pointing out their feelings about the story.

It is for this reason that instead of posting a new chapter, I decided to write this Author note first to clarify the events that have transpired so far. I hope that by doing so, you, readers, would be properly guided and at least lessen whatever confusion you have in mind.

I also posted this author note in my blog – http://hiro-0911.blogspot.com so that readers from Fictionpress.com can read it too.

**SPOILERS AHEAD!
If you haven’t read Book 1 and the posted chapters for Book 2,
DO NOT continue reading this author note**

Firstly, let’s have a recap of the cast of characters. Watching the F&L Book1+Book2 trailer made by Pamie (in YouTube) may help you recall them too. Regarding the requests for a character chart, we couldn’t provide you with one because it isn’t allowed here in Soompi (as far as stories listed under the original fiction section are concerned – thanks to the forum mod, miss iridescent, for clarifying this rule for us).

Of course, who wouldn’t know Yoshida Ayane. In Book 1, Ayane decided to act as Miyazawa Aya’s decoy to save her life (Chapter 61: Backseat) after she apparently fell into a coma after a bullet hit her head as told in Chapter 60: Reminiscence – Dénouement. As a ‘decoy’, Ayane had to move around a lot, and so as told by rumors (Chapter 1: Transfer Student), she had enrolled in many schools to ‘lure around’ the Spectra. One of these schools is the Tsuzuya Academy, where she coincidentally met Yamazaki Kosuke, the son of the renowned Justice Yamazaki Daisuke (who becomes the prime minister later in Book 2).

To cut the long story short, the cliché happens: Kosuke, who once thought of Ayane as his ‘rival’, eventually falls madly in-love with her.

We all know who Kosuke is, of course, so let’s skip him. Let’s get to know his ‘gang’.

Sato Yuken is Kosuke’s best friend – a computer genius, son of a renowned physician and hospital owner, Okamoto Shizuki’s biggest crush in Book 1 and “boyfriend” in Book 2, becomes a photographer in Book 2. After a series of events, we learn that he’s not just a photographer but actually a physician (Chapter 44 of Book 2: Solution), specifically a neurotoxicologist (an expert on the effects of drugs to the human nervous system). In the same chapter, it was revealed that he has a certain ‘link’ to a female hacker only known by the codename ‘Black Widow’. This mystery is still yet to be revealed. Also in the same chapter, it was revealed that Yuken was the one responsible for everyone’s apparent immunity to the Oblivion Vapor’s amnesic (memory erasing – “amnesia”) effects through the Silver Laudanum (a chemical substance disguised as ‘tea’ Yuken gave to everyone as a Christmas gift). I will explain again the Silver Laudanum later in this author note.

Tomohiko Kagure or simply Tomo is a band vocalist from Book 1 and a popular rock star in Book 2. He is Nagahara Makiko’s boyfriend in Book 2. So far, no detailed explanation had to be done for him at this point of the story, so let’s just leave him first in this author note for now... again, for now.

Suzuki Akio! I doubt it if anyone has forgotten who this crazy dude is. He’s the weird one. Yeah, you know him of course. His stupidity is natural, in-born, innate, and self-explanatory. He’s the one who found the battered and gas-shackled Lin Chen/Siren floating around a lake in Kyoto. He brought her to the hospital and while he examined Lin’s shackles out of curiosity, he passes out in the hospital because of the amnesic gas emitted by the shackles. Good thing Yuken and Shizuki came just in time to save both him and Lin.

Yamada Hidemi had a couple of important appearances lately. Again, he’s the owner of the coffee shop, the Concorde, where Kosuke’s high school gang usually hangs-out in. We remember him as the sports prodigy in Book 1 and he has already wrecked 2 cars in the story – a one in book 1 and another in book 2 (courtesy of Yuken’s Gundam Wing driving skills, hehe.)

Ayanami Fuuko suddenly came out in the story and began showing interest not only in Hidemi but on Lin Chen’s gas-shackles. Ayanami Fuuko, again, is Tsuzuya Academy’s female bully we met in the very first chapter of Book 1. She stopped being a brat (or at least became a lesser brat) when her mother was indirectly killed by the Spectra during the hospital power failure incident in Yuken’s family hospital, which cost Miyazawa Aya’s life as well (Chapter 66: Aftermath). Take note that she also gave a video tape of the attempted murder of her mother to Ayane (also in Chapter 66). She came back to the story in Book 2 as an architect.

Okamoto Shizuki is Ayane’s nerdy female classmate in Book 1. She wears thick-framed glasses (which Fuuko slammed a bag on) and is in-love with Sato Yuken. In Book 2, her role is very important – as Yoshida Ayane’s psychiatrist. Chapters written with the title ‘Sessions’ are told by Shizuki in first person, narrating Ayane’s condition.

Nagahara Makiko is Tomo’s girlfriend and manager. We remember Makiko as the ‘money thief’ in Book 1, where she stole the money the students made during the school festival to pay for her tuition fee. Ayane helped her with her financial problem by joining a motorcycle race, where she won 250 grand in the bets (Chapter 30: Speed for Need). Also, when Ayane and Kosuke went out for their first REAL date (Chapter 63: Real Gangster Date), Makiko and Tomo were the ones left in the hospital to watch over Miyazawa Aya.

Now, for clarifications of the other essential characters and facts:

To remind everyone who Yamazaki Daisuke is – he is Kosuke’s father, who turns out to be the Grand Lord of the Spectra Gang (Chapter 71: Slaughter).

When I say 'Grand Lord' or Kumichō (in Japanese), it means that the person referred to is the ‘Big Boss’ or the ‘Primary Leader’ of the mafia organization. The Grand Lord controls ALL affiliates all over the world. Remember that the Spectra isn’t just a rival bike ‘gang’ or a random street ‘gang’. It’s a ‘mafia’ organization or a ‘Yakuza’, meaning it is run by a family for generations.

When it was told in the beginning of Book 2 that Kosuke was the ‘new leader’ of the Spectra, it meant that he was in charge of only the Spectra Gang faction in Japan. Daisuke, his father, remains as the Grand Lord, although his identity is kept top-secret, especially now that he is the current prime minister of Japan.

Kosuke’s position as the Spectra leader of the Japan faction tantamount to being Daisuke’s ‘right hand’, but he was ousted (Chapter 24 of Book 2: Locked Doors and Promises) and replaced by Dmitri Williams, Crosse’s father.

Now, as we go forward to the latter chapters (Chapter 50 of Book 2: Fixed), we read a scene where Crosse is asking for the position of his father in the Spectra Gang as ‘right hand’ in exchange for the Vault keys. The reason will be explained later in the story. The explanation about the Vaults will come later in this author note.

Going back to the explanation for the gang titles – we recall that the men in pink suits referred to Yoshifumi Rei as the 'Grand Lord' when he proclaimed himself as the new leader of the Silver Crescent Gang in Book 2 (Chapter 42 of Book 2: Probabilities and Commandments). Same principle applies as the Spectra Gang. Before Rei’s self-proclamation, however, Ayane was the leader of the Silver Crescent Gang.

In the Silver Crescent Gang, a female leader isn’t called a ‘Grand Lord’ but rather as ‘Empress.’

To remind everyone again, the new Silver Crescent Gang is Yoshida Ayane’s newly-formed gang during her mysterious disappearance for eight years. She came back to Japan with a new identity as the rich and glamorous Chinese hotelier, Lady Nu Huang. The old Silver Crescent Gang was the one led by Lily Akiyama thirty years ago (or in Book 2, make that 38 years ago). Lily Akiyama (as revealed in Chapter 73: Keiko’s Secret) is no other than Miyazawa Keiko, Miyazawa Aya’s blind stepmother, who coincidentally turned out to be Kosuke’s ‘biological mother’.

You can think about the Crescent Gang as the ‘Father organization’ – the original mafia organization that has run for generations. The last known leader of the Crescent Gang before it separated into two factions (for a reason that would be explained in detail later in the story) is a man named Yanagisawa Gendou, who is actually Kosuke’s biological father. In Book 1, Miyazawa Keiko mentioned that Daisuke killed Gendou and took over the Crescent Gang – changing the gang’s name to Spectra (Chapter 74: Bloodstains).

An allegoric (symbolic) narration of the story behind the tragedy that befell the Crescent Gang was told by Ayane in Chapter 38: Fairy Tale – the story of how the “Emperor ran away with the Empress”. The tale in Chapter 38 may be vague for you at this point in time, but if you’re vigilant for clues, you can get what the allegories mean for sure. Again, a more understandable narration about the original Crescent Gang will be told later.

For now, I made a table of the factions of the Crescent Gang below.

If you’re not really in the mood for some clue hunting, all you needed to know and remember for now to be properly guided is just this table above. ^


Also, there’s confusion about the real names of who is who so here are some clarifications:

(name they are known) = (their real name) (description/alias)

Miyazawa Keiko = Lily Akiyama (Empress)
Yamazaki Daisuke = Toriyama Zakuro (Kosuke’s stepfather, current Japanese prime minister, and Grand Lord of the Spectra Gang)
Yoshida Akira = Hoshiyomi Taka (Ayane’s genius father)
Chris Glasgow = Dwayne Lindstrom (Spider)
Kim Yoon Jae = Choi Woo Seok (Smoke)


Let’s get to know the new Silver Crescent Gang members again:

QUOTE

Quote from Chapter 43:

“Choi Woo Seok – 21 years old from Seoul, Korea – Codename: Smoke; bomb expert,” she started. “Originally coming from a poor family in South Gyeongsang Province, he changed his name to Kim Yoon Jae after murdering hundreds of people, including the Korean godfather himself – Han Ji Won, with a self-made time-bomb. He disguises himself as a transfer student in Fuyu University majoring in Physics and works part-time as a bar tender in a club called The Decks.”

“Lin Chen – 26 years old from Beijing, China – Codename: Siren; poison sniper. She came from a family of cultural performers. She’s the daughter of a famous pipa manufacturer that was involved in smuggling and importing illegal drugs in and out of the country. She killed the Chinese godfather Yang Zhou with a bullet aimed on the center of his forehead. She disguises herself as a concierge in the Empire Hotel.”

“Chris Glasgow – 31 years old from the New York, United States of America – Codename: Spider; hacker. We tried looking for other information about him but found nothing.”

“Why is that so?” Dmitri Williams spoke from the crowd.

“It seems that information regarding him have been obliterated for some unknown reason,” the spokesperson replied.

“I’ve already ordered an investigating team to see through this further,” Crosse added.

“Ah,” Dmitri was pleased with his son’s enthusiasm. “Well done. Well done.”

“We are currently in the process of investigating why his details are missing in the data bank. Rest assured that the intelligence team will report any new information found ASAP,” the spokesperson said.

“Proceed,” Dmitri gestured.

“Yoshifumi Rei – 29 years old from Zürich, Switzerland – Codename: Sting; katana wielder. He’s the son of Yoshifumi Shigeo, member of the original Silver Crescent Gang led by Lily Akiyama. Originally from Tokyo, he and his father left Japan after his mother’s brutal death. He disguises himself as a hotel chef in the Empire Hotel.”

“The leader of the Silver Crescent – Lady Nu Huang – 25 years old from…”

Of course, we all know who Lady Nu Huang is, so let’s skip her.

Yoshifumi Rei / “Sting” is the son of Yoshifumi Shigeo. Remember that Yoshifumi Shigeo was the plane pilot who brought Ayane from Japan to Switzerland to escape from the Spectra during the airport bombing incident 8 years ago (Chapter 75: The Escape). Rei, his son, is a culinary student in Switzerland when Ayane first met him. He was the one who trained Ayane to use weapons (Chapter 15 of Book 2: Sessions (Part 3)). Lately, he took over Ayane as Grand Lord of the Silver Crescent Gang (Chapter 42 of Book 2: Probabilities and Commandments). Now, he’s stuck in Switzerland with his father after the Japanese prime minister’s suspension of all flights from Europe to Japan (Chapter 50 of Book 2: Fixed).

Kim Yoon Jae / “Smoke” is that Korean guy who always smiles, remember? He joined the Silver Crescent to get revenge for his slaughtered family back in Korea. His side story was told in Chapter 36 of Book 2: Lullaby, where he was sexually-abused by the pedophile Spectra leader of the Korean faction. He’s a bomb expert and works as a part-time bartender in the Decks. Also, remember that he was the one who took that scandalous picture of Yuken and drunken Ayane kissing.

Lin Chen / “Siren” is the Chinese girl Akio became obsessed with after he found her floating on the lake and shackled in Kyoto. She uses the melting darts as weapon. She was the one who threw a dart towards Kosuke while he was on the Concorde café with Saori – and she ended up being chased by Saori (Chapter 6 of Book 2: Champagne). She played the pipa during the Cultural Festival in the scene where Kosuke first saw Ayane in Book 2 (Chapter 19 of Book 2: Perfection). She was also that girl who rescued Kosuke in the Empire Hotel (Chapter 40 of Book 2: Save the Queen). Now, after she was nearly killed by Rei for treachery by injecting a drug on her (Chapter 42 of Book 2: Probabilities and Commandments) and thrown to the lake unconscious, she was saved by Suzuki Akio, who was there in Kyoto coincidentally for a girl-hunting escapade.

Because of the injected drug, Lin has lost her ability to feel emotions – a “zombie-like state”. Later in Chapter 44 of Book 2: Solutions, Yuken revealed himself to be a doctor and presented a cure to this zombie-like state in the form of the Silver Laudanum.

The Silver Laudanum is a drug in tisane/powder form. That’s why Yuken managed to guise it as a tea, which he gave to almost everyone during the Christmas season (Chapter 32 of Book 2: Christmas Presents). If given as tea, it renders immunity to the ‘zombiefying’ effect of the Oblivion Vapors.

*The Oblivion Vapors is a more detrimental variety of the Lethal Lily Vapors. These two are both smoke bombs (used primarily by Yoon) – but they also come in liquid form and can be injected to produce more adverse effect, just like what happened to Lin.

The Lethal Lily Vapors can erase one’s short term memory. It was used by Yoon on Yuken when he stole his camera to erase Ayane’s picture (Chapter 8 of Book 2: Bomb Out), used by Ayane on Kosuke during the Nakashima Business Tower scene (Chapter 14 of Book 2: Lost Memories), and used by Kaoru Hiro lately on Rei (Chapter 49 of Book 2: Foxed) . The extent of the amnesic effect of this drug only reaches up to one’s last sleep. So for example, I last woke up from sleep at 3pm and I inhaled the drug at 6pm. When the drug wears off and I wake up, I would remember everything except for those events that happened between 3-6pm.

The Oblivion Vapors can erase one’s emotions. This was the drug injected into Lin, that’s why she would ‘phase out’ and act as though she can’t see, hear, or feel anything. This same drug, this time in gaseous form, is incorporated inside Lin’s shackles. This is why when Akio snooped around and accidentally pushed a button on the shackle, it emitted gas.

But because Akio drank the ‘tea’ Yuken gave before he inhaled the gas from the shackle, he was immune to its effects. Now, this leads us back to the explanation regarding the Silver Laudanum.

To explain the mechanism of action of this antidote in layman’s terms, the Silver Laudanum is a “drug to make someone depressed become not depressed”. The drug Rei injected into Lin’s neck was a depressive drug – the only way to counter it is by administering a euphoric drug. The problem is that the Silver Laudanum has a side effect – and that side effect is excessive euphoria.

However, for this substance to work as a CURE (and not like a vaccine for prevention as the ‘tea’ is per se), it had to be ‘amplified’ to increase its effect 100 fold. This is done by mixing the powder form of the Silver Laudanum to an alcohol – specifically to champagne. This is the reason why Lin has become one champagne addict too and ended up having weird Akio-like behavior.

Like Lin, Kaoru Saori is a Silver Laudanum-dependent person too. The next chapters would explain more about the mystery behind Kaoru Saori’s past.

Chris Glasgow (not Chris Brown, hehe) / “Spider” is the Silver Crescent Gang’s African-American computer hacker. He is the guy manning the Spider Web, the supercomputer/hacking program created by Yoshida Akira (Ayane’s father).

I have received feedback from readers expressing confusion about who Chris is, especially after Chapter 51. It’s like this: Chris’ real name is Dwayne Lindstrom. He is actually a prisoner. He was imprisoned in New York when he was 15 years old because he hacked a big time international bank. He is good at hacking because he was actually Yoshida Akira’s apprentice. So, he spent 9 years in jail and when he was 24 years old, Ayane and Rei came to visit him in jail, asking for his help to fix the Silver Disk.

Readers still are confused about the Silver Disk, so let me explain once again. If you would look at it, there is only ONE Silver Disk, but it has two parts: 1) Disk; 2) Reader. The disk doesn’t work without the reader, meaning the ‘real’ Silver Disk is the disk + reader.

The one under Ayane’s possession in Book 1 which was in constant pursuit by the Spectra is the disk. It was only later in Book 1 when Ayane found out that the reader was actually there inside her Circa Constellation all along (Chapter 68: Silver Secrets).

The Silver Disk is a silver device that looks pretty much like an external hard drive of a PC. No, it’s not a CD. Aside from the important data inside of it, the Silver Disk also is a key to the Vault.

Now, about the Vault – As told in the chapters that have been written so far, we have heard not just one but TWO Vaults. One Vault is actually the Silver Crescent Vault, which is hidden in Switzerland (Chapter 49 of Book 2: Foxed). Now, if you would read Chapter 50: Fixed, Yamazaki Daisuke (Kosuke’s prime minister stepfather and Grand Lord of the Spectra Gang) mentions a second Vault, the Golden Crescent Vault in China.

Now, Crosse is offering Daisuke the Keys in exchange for being his new ‘right hand’ in the Spectra Gang. Meaning, Crosse is offering to give Daisuke the keys to open the Golden Crescent Vault, NOT the Silver Crescent Vault, which is now empty.

Is the Golden Crescent Vault empty too? If not, what is inside the Golden Crescent Vault in China? Why is Crosse giving Daisuke this suspicious offer? These questions are still bound to be answered in the next chapters.

Also, there’s confusion that arose regarding Chapter 51 about Ayane opening the Vault in Switzerland. To re-explain it, it’s like this:

Ayane attempted to open the Vault three times.

FIRST ATTEMPT TO OPEN THE SWISS VAULT: The attempt failed because the Silver Disk didn’t work. Remember that part in Book 1 where Yuken and Shizuki cracked the Silver Disk open in Tsuzuya Academy (Chapter 68: Silver Secrets)?

To understand it better, look at it this way: the Silver Disk works like a cellular phone where you need to input a code to unlock it. If you input the code incorrectly for a certain number of times, the cellular phone with lock automatically.

Now, what happened to the Silver Disk that time is that Yuken and Shizuki used a conventional unlocking device used by the police – but Yoshida Akira’s inventions just couldn’t be cracked by an ordinary means that easily, right? It’s Yoshida Akira after all. They may access the information inside the disk, but the disk’s ability to open the Vault had been locked the moment Yuken and Shizuki cracked it. It’s the Silver Disk’s security mechanism.

Now, in order to access the Vault, the Silver Disk had to be restored/reformatted back to its original, uncracked state. Only one person can do this – that’s the reason why Ayane and Rei sought Chris Glasgow’s (Spider) help.

SECOND ATTEMPT TO OPEN THE SWISS VAULT: The attempt was successful and happened 1 year after the first attempt (Ayane was 18 years old that time. Remember that she left Japan at 17 years old and stayed with the Yoshifumis for a couple of months before the first attempt to access the Vault). Ayane was able to open the Vault. However, Chris stopped Ayane from reporting to Rei about it. While Ayane was accessing the Vault, Chris overheard Rei and Shigeo’s (his father) conversation where they are actually plotting to seize the Vault from Ayane.

THIRD ATTEMPT TO OPEN THE SWISS VAULT: Another successful attempt, but this time Ayane didn’t let anyone know about this visit. This is when she partitioned the wealth inside the Vault, informing Rei about only half of the Vault contents (¼ of the wealth allocated for re-establishing the Silver Crescent and ¼ deposited in Japan, which she used later to purchase hotels and businesses as Lady Nu Huang).

The other half of the wealth – Ayane hid them somewhere. We are only reaching this part of the story so far. This is where the latest chapter, Chapter 51 ,ends.

If you have any more questions regarding the Vaults or about anything just in case I missed explaining something, feel free to send me an e-mail.

Regarding the peculiar conversation between Fuuko and Kaoru Hiro in the start of Chapter 51, the next chapters would explain why they acted as such. For now, the important thing to take note of is that Fuuko admitted that she is a part of the Spectra Gang. Kaoru Hiro, based on his communication with Crosse in Chapter 49 of Book 2: Foxed, hints to us that Hiro is also part of the Spectra Gang. So the common question as to why they had to ‘stage an act’ at the first part of Chapter 51 would be revealed in the next chapters. These explanations would also include why Fuuko needed those hotel blueprints.

Now, if you want me to give a clue regarding the relevance of the blueprints, I’ll give you one BIG clue - Read Chapter 17 of Book 2: Cookies - Just read the first part of the chapter. The clue is very obvious and you’d probably be so surprised why you didn’t catch it early on, hehe.

Yeah, that’s it. Told ya.

Now, link what you discovered to Fuuko. What was she again? An architect? Good at floor plans?

Floor plans look cool on paper, but they look cooler when they’re on something more hi-tech, eh?

Now you’re grinning.

Hehe. Welcome to the hyena club.

See, the clues scattered around F&L can be hidden discreetly (like the ‘tea’) or can be as bright as day… you just have to have the eye to catch them, hehe.

Now, if you want more clues, this is my suggestion: read the posts of the readers in our thread, especially those with analysis. Who knows, some, if not most of them, have hit the jackpot?

Again, I apologize to the readers if the information I have given off for the past chapters overloaded you. This is the reason why I am controlling the chapter lengths to the best I could and updating as often as possible (in addition to placing Akio scenes to balance out the chapters). I hope that this author note at least helped you one way or another into putting the fact fragments together to reconstruct the story in your mind fittingly.

The next chapter wouldn’t have so much ‘brain frying’ by the way, but it would be… crazy.

Also, expect me to post a side-story chapter starring Hidemi-Fuuko, Yuken-Shizuki, Tomo-Makiko, and Akio-Lin. These side stories won’t be listed in the index as one of the numbered chapters and reading them will be completely OPTIONAL. For Fictionpress, I would be posting them as a separate story (thus, not included in the chapter list of the F&L2 thread). I’m posting these side stories to fill in plot holes, but the events in the side stories WILL NOT contain clues to the mysteries in the main story, thus they are optional reads.

I am flying to the Philippines 6 hours from now for my annual Holy Week vacation in my grandma’s place in Makati. Then, I’d be on Hongkong and Macau on Sunday till Tuesday. I would be away until Tuesday just to let you guys know. I’m not so sure if I would be able to answer your emails once I’m there because we’re going to the beach (where I’d flaunt my non-existent abs replaced by adiposity. Boston hamburgers are triglyceride builders!).

I’d be back NEXT WEEK with an update plus the first few chapters of my new story, Vena Cava.

I’ve said this a million times but THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT NOT ONLY FOR THIS STORY, FISTS AND LIPSTICKS, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY TO MEIA, AND I. The support we’ve been getting, the thousands of posts, the numerous emails I’ve been receiving everyday showing their respect and support, EVERYTHING down to the littlest gestures of encouragement that drive this story to where it is today (more than 100 chapters and ongoing) – thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Just a few more chapters and brain-frying and we’re getting there to the finish line. Actually, I have finished writing Fists and Lipsticks 2: The Silver Crescent last night and when I typed in the last word, I couldn’t explain what I felt. It was like running a marathon for almost 3 years that seemed to never end but on my last turn, I finally saw that finish line. Lots of revisions to be done, though – including Book 1, which I am in the process of re-writing. I have to re-read everything I’ve written from the start to edit out inconsistencies and add to the story parts that I’ve missed explaining or scenes that have plot holes.

Again, there would be no Book 3, but I’d be hanging around longer in Soompi for Vena Cava. It has a lighter plot in terms of the mystery/brain-frying aspect but it’s gonna be fun and different.

Regarding translations requests, again I would give you guys the go signal AFTER I finish the revisions. Thank you so much for the offers (Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean) and thank you for the courtesy you showed by asking my permission first before taking this story out of Soompi and Fictionpress. I really appreciate it.

After I come back from my Holy Week vacation, expect faster updates (it would depend on my revision time, though). If not twice a week, expect an update at least once a week.

Sincerely,
Your official Hyena-Grinning-Brain-Frier,
Mark

P.S. I realized that this Author note is about a chapter long! Hehe.

PS again – to Miss Alice: Meia made me read your PM about the Baby Names! Hehe. Now you made me realize that it’s about time to think about baby names, right Meia?

I want to have Chinese babies like Akio