Hototogisu
The Hototogisu is named after a breed of cuckoo. Rumor suggests that it’s a reference to the cuckoo’s practice of laying her eggs in other birds’ nests. When Inoue Akio formed the Hototogisu, his plan was to use his awareness of vampire activity and the Masquerade as a leveraging tool to wrest power away from the Kindred. Now, his organization competes with the three largest Kindred groups in Tokyo.
At its core, the Hototogisu looks like a small business conglomerate. The board consists of representatives from numerous, otherwise unrelated businesses from food manufacturing to taxi services and fashion houses. They meet in the Cerulean Tower in Shibuya Ward every Friday at lunch time. Lesser officers in the organization refer to the board as the Friday Club. Friday Club meetings address basic operational logistics, and govern inter-company deals. As well, each executive is expected to speak on their company’s status in the five-year plan.
Inoue himself sits in the back of each meeting and gives a thumbs down or a thumbs up to each presentation, telling the executives whether they’re advancing quickly enough on the timeline or otherwise being ambitious enough. After three thumbs down in a year, the executive is replaced by her most senior subordinate. Removed executives often expatriate or commit suicide: This is less as a show of honor, but more for fear of what might happen when vampires discover a former rival no longer has Hototogisu protection.
Each member company operates independently outside the five-year plan. Only ranking officers in each company receive initiation into the Hototogisu, even though every employee is at least aware of the conglomerate by name.
Each company maintains access to the private organizational library, hidden near the Tokyo International Forum in Shinjuku Ward, which includes dedicated mentors on various topics both mundane and supernatural. Employees have varying degrees of access, called The Five Circles. Each Circle reflects a degree of trust and respect within the conglomerate. Greater circles include deeply protected information, such as defensive magics, and rosters of known vampires and their havens. Friday Club members can delegate employees to receive trinkets and artifacts of varying mystical potency, but never weapons. Inoue’s directive includes a prohibition against wielding unnatural weaponry.
Employees operate with general guidance from their leadership, but by and large, the expectation is for acquisition. The Hototogisu must acquire business arrangements, both on the books and off. If a criminal enterprise moves in on one of their territories, they’re tasked with pulling the necessary strings and making an effort to conquer or destroy the threat. Employees may request assistance from any other employee, but this right is a double-edged sword: If superiors view the request as extraneous, it makes the employee look weak; yet if a foolish employee neglected to request help and failed as a result, he faces censure.
The Hototogisu hires “contractors,” or private citizens not affiliated with conglomerate industries. Usually, this means police officers. Many times, it means criminals. Sometimes, it’s just a private attorney, zoning officer, or other specialist. Unless the contractor desires, these contracts are always under the table, with no tax records behind them. These contractors extend the Hototogisu’s fingers deeper into Tokyo’s infrastructure. While it’d be exaggeration to say that nothing happens without Hototogisu attention, it’s not unrealistic to say that very few important things happen without the cuckoo’s eye.
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