2002 (Side A): Bullet Garden/Prologue 1—The Movie-Loving Businessmen

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Synopsis
In August 2002, somewhere in South America, a group of businessmen are dining in a destroyed restaurant and discussing various films, nonchalant despite the bloody corpses littering the floor around them. Their digressive conversation soon focuses on their intention to hijack a luxury cruise liner (which they compare to the movie Speed 2). One businessman mentions that they are in total a family of thirty, of which thirteen members are currently present.

During the conversation, a businessman casually turns around and asks for the opinion of a tall, dark-skinned man standing behind him on what film the situation invokes. Accompanying the man are forty-odd men armed with guns, knives and hand axes, implied to be members of a local criminal organization. The tall man asks if the businessmen killed the people in the restaurant; the businessman replies that their mission was to only kill the group's boss, but they ending up going overboard. His eventual casual request for the tall men's companions to lower their guns sends his companions into a fit of laughter.

The armed man tells the businessmen to surrender or else face death, as it would be too difficult to capture them alive. The businessman wonders why the group didn't use a sniper or a bomb, to which the tall man replies that their sniper and Demolisher are taking a siesta. The businessman concludes that the tall man is likely not the leader of the local organization due to his presence in a dangerous place. When threatened again, the businessman casually admits that the businessmen did not kill the people in the restaurant, and orders Illness and Death to intervene.

Illness and Death, who were hiding in the corners of the ceiling, descend and shoot the entire mob. They are wearing black combat suits with masks and goggles. Illness, disliking the smell of blood and gunsmoke, requests permission to throw up, then promptly does just that. The unsympathetic businessmen berate her for this, complaining that she ruined the 'coolness' of their victory and that her mental state does not match her fighting ability. Illness retorts that their ability to kill people so calmly and eat as normal near the corpses makes them the weird ones.

In response to the businessmen's continuous insult of her character, Illness pranks them by claiming that she saw insects and rats around the restaurant, causing several to spit out their drinks. Death watches silently all the while; the businessmen consequently praise Death's skill and professionalism, describing him as the strongest of the "Four Great Weapons" (the others being Life and Aging), and Illness as the weakest. Ignoring Illness' unhappiness, one of the businessmen suggests that they either leave before the police arrive, or wait and ask the police for the boss' location. Several seconds later, a bullet rips through Death's mouth and into the back of his skull, killing him instantly.

Cultural References

 * The following movies: Speed; Speed 2: Cruise Control; The Boondock Saints; Spider-Man(2002); Platoon; Shadow of the Vampire; Nosferatu (1922); Reservoir Dogs; and Tomb Raider (2001).
 * "Willem Dafoe" (American actor)
 * "Sandra Bullock" (American actress)
 * "Nicholas Cage" (American actor)
 * "Dennis Hopper" (American actor)
 * "Christopher Walken" (American actor)
 * "Steve Buscemi" (American actor)
 * "Japanese Sentai shows": Sentai refers to military unit(s). In the prologue, one of the Businesswomen refers to Steve Buscemi's performance as "Mr. Pink" in Reservoir Dogs, and her colleague asks if she is thinking of "one of those Japanese sentai shows." In this case, the colleague is referring to various Super Sentai series in which color-coded superheroes battle forces of evil.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * The Businessmen
 * Illness
 * Death