Vineland

Prairie is taken to DL’s mountain retreat. The retreat is home to “a sort of Esalen Institute for lady asskickers” named the Sisterhood of the Kunoichi Attentives (107). There, Prairie meets Sister Rochelle. The head ninja convinces Prairie to stay at the retreat as the chef, a role which they are desperate to fill as most people who come to the retreat have a false impression of themselves as excellent chefs. Prairie’s cream of mushroom soup is successful enough to satisfy Sister Rochelle. In private, Rochelle tells Prairie that the retreat makes use of “outside data services” as well as their own computer files (112). They have an extensive file on Frenesi.

That night, Prairie searches through her mother’s file. Inside, she finds documents from the FBI, the federal government, the legal system, and the news media. Many of the clippings reference Frenesi’s film collective, 24fps. Prairie also finds a photograph of her mother and DL, seemingly when they were both in college. Prairie learns that, at the time, DL was a rebellious youth who hung around biker gangs. Frenesi was a film student, collecting footage of police paramilitary units breaking up protests. DL rescued Frenesi from a violent incident; Frenesi’s face reminded DL of her father.

DL’s father Moody was a troubled young man. After yet another run-in with the law, he was issued an ultimatum by a sheriff: join the Army or go to prison. Moody chose the Army, as going to war would allow him to kill without the usual “legal problems” associated with such actions. During the war, he used a cold and detached killing machine. After the war, he ditched his weapons and became interested in hand-to-hand combat, such as the “judo and jujitsu” of the defeated Japanese (119). When the Vietnam War started, Moody moved his family (including the young DL) to Japan. During this time, DL ditched school and sought out martial arts instructors. She rarely found any, however, so spent most of her time meeting suspicious characters in pachinko parlors. One of these suspicious characters, Noboru, introduced her to a martial arts instructor named Inoshiro. He gave her a “modernized crash course” in hand-to-hand combat (123).

One day, DL ran away from her family. When she sought out Inoshiro, however, she discovered that his house was filled with Yakuza, the Japanese organized crime group. Inoshiro trained Yakuza members, she learned, so she demanded that he teach her the same techniques. DL trained in ninjitsu, including techniques that were considered “forbidden steps.” These unspoken methods included techniques for inducing heart attacks in enemies or making them commit ritual death by suicide.

DL became so skilled that her abusive, cruel father became scared of her. Some years later, DL discovered the Sisterhood of Kunoichi Attentives. Previously, the group was composed of idealists. Now, the idealists have grown old, and they are more concerned with pension plans and insurance. With Frenesi, DL waits for her partner Takeshi to return.

Some years before 1984, DL meets Ralph Wayvone Sr. They talk about Brock Vond, whom Wayvone’s research suggests has become increasingly important in the government’s War on Drugs, making him a threat to the Wayvone family business. Wayvone suggests that DL kill Vond. She delays, worried that this may be a trap, but explains that her martial arts techniques are not to be used on just anyone. DL changes her name and leaves Los Angeles.

DL travels east, stopping in Columbus and Ohio. Deciding to settle in Ohio, her plans are disrupted when she is kidnapped from outside a Pizza Hut by a gang of sex traffickers. They take her to Japan to be enslaved. As she is helped through the auction by a transgender woman named Lobelia, DL tries to tell herself to “just relax and have fun” (137). The man who buys her is Ralph Wayvone Sr. Wayvone tries again to convince DL to kill Vond. This time, DL agrees to do so. Vond will travel to Japan to attend a symposium of prosecutors, where he will stay at a Hilton hotel. From there, they can lure him to a sex club. DL can wait in the club to ambush him.

During this time, Takeshi is also in Tokyo. He is visiting the city on business, an unspecified business that concerns “the mysterious obliteration of a research complex belonging to the shadowy world conglomerate Chipco” (142). Takeshi travels with his mentor and fellow insurance investigator, Professor Wawazume. The complex, they discover, was destroyed by a giant reptilian creature (which resembles Godzilla). Chipco happens to have an insurance policy against this exact eventuality. Furthermore, the attack happened at the same time as a preplanned evacuation drill. Takeshi meets with a bomb squad expert and government employee named Minoru.

As they swap stories and discuss the incident, Minoru receives a telephone call. He rushes to the Hilton hotel to talk to the people at the symposium, who may have seen the fragment of a bomb at the Chipco complex. Separated from Minoru, Takeshi happens to meet Vond and Vond’s partner, Roscoe. Unbeknownst to Takeshi, he is enlisted by Vond and Roscoe to act as a decoy during the raid of the sex club.

Takeshi is given a business card by Vond. When he shows it, a group of young women leads him to an elevator which carries him to a room with velvet walls. Inside, DL is already waiting for Vond. She is wearing a disguise which interferes with her vision and, mistaking Takeshi for Vond, she leaps out and attacks. She uses the Death Touch against Takeshi and, when she realizes that he is not Vond, she runs away. Outside the room, Wayvone sees Takeshi and orders Two-Ton Carmine Topidini to help the stricken man.

DL returns to California and signs up for the Kunoichi Retreat, where Sister Rochelle praises the retreat’s medical unit as being capable of treating a man who has been stricken by the Death Touch. DL is a “sleepless wreck,” consumed by guilt. Takeshi is sent to the Kunoichi Retreat for treatment. While he travels, he thinks about Michiko, his ex-wife who works as an actor in Los Angeles, where she lives with their children. He arrives at the Kunoichi Retreat and Sister Rochelle assigns DL to be Takeshi’s carer, as this will balance her “karmic account” and repair the damage that she has done. She will serve in this position for a year and agrees on the condition that there will be no sex.

Under DL’s supervision, Takeshi is treated by the Puncutron Machine. When he is healed, he leaves the retreat with DL and they dine at a BBQ restaurant named Your Mama Eats. When Takeshi calls his work, he learns that Dr. Wawazume is missing, presumed kidnapped. Takeshi is warned that he may be next. Feeling a presence behind him, Takeshi hangs up the phone. He turns to see Ortho Bob Dulang, a Thanatoid. A Thanatoid, Ortho Bob explains, is “like death, only different” (170). They are a collective who are obsessed with the television, spending at least some of every hour watching the screen. There is a Thanatoid village in Vineland, Ortho Bob says, and he offers Takeshi somewhere to stay in exchange for a ride. DL agrees that this would be a good place to hide out.

Takeshi and DL meet the Thanatoids. They learn about the past injustices that are still very prevalent, especially with regard to how they affect the Thanatoids. Takeshi and DL set up a temporary store in the Woodbine Motel, offering karmic balancing services to the Thanatoids. They name their office The Karmology Clinic. Vato and Blood (owners and operators of V&T’s Towing) have made good money from towing Thanatoid cars. Their partner is Thi Ahn Tran, a Vietnamese woman adopted by the pair who helps them to run the more criminal side of their business: stealing expensive cars and extorting the owners when they try to retrieve them from the impound. Any time an owner does not claim their vehicle, V&T sells it on the illegal market.

In Vineland, V&T recovers a Toyota which is owned by a Thanatoid. The owner, Weed Atman, abandoned the Toyota in an apple orchard while heading to the Karmology Clinic to meet DL, with whom he shares a past. Weed is still bitter about DL’s friendship with Frenesi who, together with Brock Vond, led a doomed bust on a college campus which resulted in someone being killed.

In 1984, Prairie is overwhelmed by the stories about Frenesi. She switches subjects, mentioning the Variety Loaf in the freezer which is covered in mold. She hears approaching helicopters from outside. Fearing a raid, Prairie, DL, and Takeshi steal the alcohol from the kitchen and escape in a Trans Am that is parked in the bushes outside.