The Rolling Bootlegs/Epilogue...1

Synopsis
In the summer of 2002, a Japanese wildlife photographer is mugged by a group of boys on Manhattan Island. As they rob him of his expensive camera, he recalls the events that led to this situation, including the ticket for a five-day, three-night trip to New York he had won in a lottery and how the boys had lured him into an alleyway.

With a minimal Japanese-speaking hotel employee acting as an intermediary, the photographer gets in contact with the police. The police give him paperwork but otherwise are not very helpful, save for a sympathetic Sergeant Paul Noah who arranges a meeting with someone on the the photographer's behalf.

The 'someone' turns out to be a mild-looking brunet with glasses, who happens to speak old-fashioned fluent Japanese. The man says that the photographer was likely mugged by Bobby's gang and offers – for a fee equal to ten percent of the camera's value – to negotiate for the camera's return. Though the man is likely in cahoots with the boys, the photographer decides to accept.

The brunet leads the photographer to a honey-themed restaurant, where he asks a man to reclaim the camera on their behalf. Once the man leaves, the photographer asks the brunet why he can speak Japanese so well; the brunet explains that one 'Yaguruma-san' of his organization taught him, while he picked up a fair bit from Japanese movies and comics as well.

His organization, he says, is not the Mafia that the photographer guesses it is: it is a Camorra, a type of organization which has its foundings in Naples rather than Sicily – though his Camorra was founded in America and has no direct ties to Naples. He introduces himself as the current contaiuolo, or 'bookkeeper', of his Camorra, and talks of the presence of both the Mafia and the Camorra in America for a little while.

At the photographer's lack of fear and full belief in what he is saying, the contaiuolo remarks that – based on what Paul had said – he had assumed the photographer would be just another "stereotypical Japanese pidgeon." The photographer chastises him for not saying Paul-san and treating his elders with courtesy, and there is a long pause before the contaiuolo responds that he is older than Paul. As the photographer puzzles this over, the contaiuolo remarks that he has told about a hundred or so people that he is Camorra over the past sixty years, and then states that he is immortal. So saying, he stabs his hand with a knife. The wound heals once he withdraws the blade, after which point the photographer asks if the man will kill him.

This surprises the contaiuolo, who claims that no one has ever reacted that way before and asks why the photographer would ask such a thing. The photographer replies that he thought the man was a monster, for which he apologizes while simultaneously reprimanding the man for doing something so shocking. The contaiuolo comments on the photographer's unusual calm in the face of something so abnormal, but the photographer explains that his sense of fear has been numbed ever since a close shave with a bear back in Japan.

Intrigued, the contaiuolo decides to tell the photographer the story of how he became immortal and the circumstances surrounding the incident. Setting the stage as 'Prohibition-era New York', he proceeds to relate the main plot of The Rolling Bootlegs.

Trivia

 * Though there is an illustration of him, the mild-looking brunet – who is in fact Firo – serves as a red herring for Maiza Avaro, the true contaiuolo of the family.

Cultural References

 * Street Wizard

Unanswered Questions

 * What is the identity of the contaiuolo?
 * How did the contaiuolo become immortal?

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Unnamed Photographer
 * Bobby Splot, Troy, Tall, Humpty (illustrated)
 * Paul Noah
 * Unnamed Martillo