Chapter 29: And on the Seventh Day... Party!
“So, I could give you guys about 8% each in exchange for some of your goods.” Risa was saying to Reina and Koharu as the three gathered around a large table in the gunner’s newly christened war room. Scattered in front of them were papers vaguely detailing their underground activities; they were using these as a reference guide to drawing up a business agreement between them.
“That would be about equal to 5% of my stuff.” Reina mused, “Should we be writing this down?” Behind her, Sayu cleared her throat and help up a notepad, gaining grateful smiles from the gangsters.
“I guess I could just give you guys whatever vehicles you needed, within reason.” The youngest nodded thoughtfully, “Up to, let’s say, 60 total?”
“And if we find that this agreement isn’t working on any end, we’ll meet again to discuss it some more?” Risa was quick to clarify, looking to the others for agreement. When they nodded, she smiled in satisfaction, “Was there anything else that we needed to talk about?” They had been in this meeting for about two hours now, throwing questions and concerns back and forth; Risa had even told them about her worries with the government.
“I think that’s it.” Reina yawned, “We can probably go, I’m already sick of looking at your mugs.” she joked, earning herself a cuff on the shoulder by the gunner.
Sayu joined them with a laugh, “Let’s go out to eat!” she suggested, swinging the door open, “Ai-chan~!” she called down the hall loudly, waiting a moment for the older girl to poke her head from one of rooms down the hall, “Let’s go~! Where’s Eri? Let’s make a party out of it.”
“Oh god.” Reina and Risa exchanged an eye roll, “Keep a tighter leash on your girl, why don’t you?”
“Ha! I’d have an easier time herding cats.” The yankii replied, hurrying to catch up with the con.
Giggling, Risa linked arms with Ai as she came closer, leading the older girl after the others. They were all enjoying the peace of the last few weeks, thankful to not have to plan another assassination or battle; not having to look over their shoulders all the time. Sure there was still that one big problem with the officials, but they were certain to be more direct in their confrontation.
For now, they would make merry and paint the town red however they wanted; they owned the city and the power made them all a little light headed. It was even to the point that certain underground bars and clubs recognized them by sight. It was exciting, Risa thought, it was exhilarating, they could do anything. They could handle anything.
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Groaning, the gunner opened her eyes slowly and tried to stretch, once again hung over. She became aware of a lot of weight pressing down on top of her and focused her gaze on the two bodies sprawled against her. Neither were her lover, though she doubted she’d done anything untoward with Aika and Lin.
The world began to come into more focus, they were in her bathroom, in the bathtub, shower curtains pulled around them, empty beer bottles scattered around them. They were all fully clothed, with the exception of Aika missing her pants. Shaking her head, Risa began to extract herself from underneath these two.
After a bit of a struggle, she finally made her way out into the bedroom, pausing to take it the sight there; Sayu, Reina and Eri were curled up together, laying sideways on her bed, the three cocooned in blankets with Eri in the middle. The girl she was looking for, though, was nowhere in sight, so she continued on her trek, stumbling out of the room and into the hallway. She was greeted by several half naked people covered in various colors of paint laying in piles on the floor. Somehow, she though this wasn’t the oddest thing she’d seen, so after a moment of trying to figure how to navigate over the sleeping bodies, Risa moved on.
She headed to her lover’s study and peered inside, instantly closing the door back when she registered what she was seeing. Cheeks colored with a faint blush she quietly walked away; that was really more of Jun’s bare skin than she wanted to look at, though the handsome guy she was with certainly seemed happy enough, even in his dreams.
Deciding to head to the kitchen for some nourishment, the gunner continued on down the hallway, listening to the relative silence in the manor. Rounding the corner after what seemed like ages, Risa laid eyes on the one person she had really wanted to see, the demo expert looking up from her cereal and newspaper with big, round eyes, “Good morning.” she greeted in a low tone, trying to be respectful of any potential sound sensitivity.
“Gurgh mornfdr.” Risa grumbled, tripping over her dry tongue. She immediately headed for the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, taking a small, cautious sip to whet her whistle, “I mean, good morning to you too.” she finally said properly, under her lover’s amused gaze, “Been up long?”
Ai’s eyes followed her as she made herself comfortable across the table from her, “Not too long. I’m surprised to see you up at all at this hour.”
Risa had no idea what the time was. Come to think of it, she also had no idea the date, either, “Hey, what day is it? Thursday?”
The older woman gave her a strange look, “No, it’s Tuesday.”
“Tuesday?!” Risa cried out, then clutched her pounding head, “But it was just Tuesday two days ago.”
Shaking her head, Ai clarified, “It’s the 14th.”
Blinking incredulously, the gunner breathed out a strangled, “What? You mean, we’ve been drinking for more than two weeks!?” She let out a loud groan, “What the hell, how?!
“Well, the first week was because someone said that the best way to fight off a hangover was with more alcohol.” Ai rolled her eyes, “But I’m afraid the second week was my fault.”
“Your…?” Risa struggled to remember anything, coming up with only bits and pieces, “How come you’re so unaffected?”
“Ah, I guess you don’t remember, huh?” Ai gave a tired grin, “I quit drinking.”
“You did?” The gunner felt her eyes widen at this surprising news. Granted, she hadn’t seen her lover drinking as much since they really started getting into this gang business, but that was only because they’d needed to be mostly clear headed to avoid dying in many cases. Still, there had been some nights recently where the woman would down almost an entire bottle like it was nothing.
“Yeah, after the whole incident on the roof, we decided that maybe it would be a good idea to quit. That it would be safer in more ways than one… And ever since then, you’ve done your best to keep me from temptation. Ever time a cup was shoved into my hand, you would take it and drink it yourself.” Ai explained, with a pained smile “It’s worked, though, I haven’t had a drink in eight days. Eight long days…”
The more she thought about it, the more delighted Risa became. She hated what the drink did to her lover, hated how she became so different and even when they made love it was still good, still amazing really, but the woman was rougher and always left marks. Risa had fallen in love with Ai’s gentle soul, so anything that hid that away made her a bit uncomfortable.
Smiling widely, Risa clasped Ai’s hands on the table and twined their fingers together, “I know it sucks now, but I’m proud of you.” she said and the two locked eyes meaningfully.
Before anymore words could be spoken, though, they were drawn to a cabinet in the corner by a rustling noise. After a moment, the door popped open and a light colored head of long hair came into view, slowly crawling out of the pile of food inside. When she stood up, Risa lit up in a smile of recognition, “KonKon!” she exclaimed happily, standing to greet her friend.
“Ah, Gaki-san~” the chubby cheeked girl returned airily, “Glad to see you back in the land of the living.”
“When did you get here?” the gunner questioned, going over to throw her arms around the older woman, “I haven’t seen you for ages! Come, have you met Ai-chan yet?”
“Actually, we met yesterday,” Ai revealed, “She had said she wanted to speak with you, but I didn’t know she’s stayed for the party.”
“More likely, she stayed for the pantry.” Risa joked, “KonKon doesn’t drink, but sweets are another story.”
“Ah, I’m sorry, I was just going to come back later, but then I found a cake… And some donuts and then some cookies.” She sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, “I couldn’t help myself.”
“Ah, you know I don’t mind.” The gunner waved off her semi apology easily, “My home is your home. Oh, what does bring you here, though?”
“Well, I had a present for you. One of my new designs that I though you might be interested in.” Asami headed back to the cabinet and began to dig around in it for something.
“I guess I should explain,” Risa turned to Ai, “KonKon is the person who supplies me with all of my gadgets and various weapon like things. A lot of it, she makes herself and since we’ve been friends since we were teenagers, she usually gives me previews of anything new she comes up with.”
“Ah, here it is.” Asami placed a small case on the table in front of them, gesturing for Risa to open it, which the younger did eagerly.
Inside was a series of black elastic straps connected to a slim, plastic box. The box was attached to a long, thick piece and on either end the elastic were in loops. When she settled her eyes on the straight dagger resting above the straps, Risa gasped, “Is this…?”
Grinning eagerly, Asami nodded, “Yup, it’s your design after all, so you should have the first successful one.” She motioned to the contraption, “Try it on.”
Reverently, the gunner picked it up and slipped her left hand through the straps, securing the box to her forearm. “Does it have the sensors on the wrist, too?”
“Yup.” Asami confirmed, “It has the safety, the hammer, the trigger and an override button. To lock and unlock it, you have to touch the front sensor twice.” She grabbed Risa’s hand and moved it back so that her wrist connected more firmly with the elastic until a tiny click was heard. “To engage the spring, touch the sensor under the base of your thumb twice.” She demonstrated on the gunner again, “Then to fire, tilt your hand to the other side and either let fly, or be ready to catch.” Again, she moved the younger woman’s hand and there was the sound of the spring releasing. “The override is this little button, here.” she clicked something a little further down.
Risa looked delighted, “You are an amazing genius, a wonderful person and an all around great friend.” she threw her arms around the inventor and hugged her tightly, “Thank you, really really thank you.”
Chuckling and returning the embrace with a friendly pat, Asami responded easily, “Well, it was your idea, after all, I just built it.” They separated, still grinning at each other, “I have to leave, though, I have another appointment to get to.”
“Of course, I’ll see you out.” The gunner turned to where her woman was watching them silently at the table, “Ai-chan.” she called affectionately, holding out her hand.
The older woman shook off her jealousy and made her way to them, accepting the bean’s offered appendage in a tight grip. The three made their way from the room, unaware of eyes following after them from a crack in the door.
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Eventually, the manor got back into some kind of working order and Risa found herself holding a meeting with the drug brothers and a few of their associates in her study. “So, I’ve been looking at Takashi’s original plan and thinking that it’s incredibly inefficient. Having two suppliers is fine, but there are way too many dealers in the city and the distributors serve no purpose except redundancy, so it’s time for a change. I’ve put a lot of thought in the changes that I’m going to make, so listen up.”
She looked around the room at the five intent faces that met her’s. Since she had rescued the drug brothers from their impending jail sentence, an operation that had been done without anybody’s knowledge except Ai’s, Yasuyuki and Kenjiro had proven themselves loyal to her and amicable in their dealings with her. They came to her with reports every two weeks and often stayed after business had concluded to chat and smoke and offer her some. It seemed they were determined to get her to take even a tiny hit of weed, at least, and she wondered if the two had some kind of completion between them.
Their three foremen she’d never met personally, but Risa liked to know who was working for her and she kept tabs on all the people in her employment. All three were young, a little older than she was, with clothing, demeanors and faces that just screamed ‘thug.’ Though, recently, one of them had been up to some very interesting activities.
“I’m doing away with the distributors all together.” She dropped, after a dramatic pause, “That alone will increase our profit margins by twenty percent. Then, I’m slimming our dealers down to nine total, two of which will be new meat.” She watched the shock pass over their faces with a bit of satisfaction, “And finally, I want to expand our advertising to a wider range of consumers.”
“That’s certainly ambitious.” One of the foremen said quietly, “I don’t think you’ll be making any friends, though.”
“Maybe not with a select few, but with my plan, we’ll be able to increase our own profits and lower the prices on the street products too.” Risa waved her hands excitably, “So, right now, it’s impossible for anybody to make a big profit because we’d have to sell stuff at exorbitant prices and no one would buy them then.”
“If the suppliers wanted to make a 200% profit, the distributors wanted to make a 100% profit and the dealers wanted to make a 75% profit, they couldn’t. I mean, right now the profits sit at about 100, 100 and 50%, right? With each group giving up 75% to me. If we cut out the distributors, the suppliers can sell to the dealers for three times what was put into the product and the dealers can sell to the clients and make about 75%. Then, I can ask for 55% from the suppliers and 20% from the dealers.”
“Now,” Risa waved her finger, “It might sound like I’m making less of a cut, but that’s where the last part of my plan comes in. Expand our clientele. Currently, we’re targeting the 20 to 35 aged demographic, but I want to get older and younger people into what we sell.” She tossed a picture on the desk in front of her, watching the men lean over to get a better look, “This is Hiroki, one of our dealers in Ginza, he’s the middle of two brothers, the youngest is 14, the oldest 42. I want to put them under my employment.”
Leaning back in her seat, Risa crossed her hands behind her head and smiled in satisfaction, “Actually, I already have taken them in. They just won’t start until I clean up the mess Takashi left behind. And that’s where you all come in.” She knew she had their attention without having to look, “Someone needs to deal with the people I’m firing, after all.”
“You want us to?” Yasuyuki exclaimed in surprise.
“Not by yourselves, of course, I’ll send men with you, but you know these guys better than I do. You know how to best break bad news to them.” She locked eyes with all of them in turn.
“How do you want us to deal with them?” the foreman that had spoken up earlier chipped in.
Rolling her eyes, the gunner responded sarcastically, “I want you to ask them nicely to leave my city, of course.”
“And if they don’t want to go?” he hesitantly pushed.
“I know you’re not stupid,” Risa said, pulling her gun out from underneath her desk and leveling it at him, “So they must have you wearing a wire today.”
Instantly, the other men had their own weapons out and trained on the foreman, obviously in on the same information the gunner was privy to. “W-Wire? I don’t-” He cut himself off with a whimper when Yasu’s fist drove itself into his gut. The same hand then lifted his shirt up enough to expose the black microphone taped to his chest.
“You see, I’m not stupid either, in fact, I’m very well informed by my own moles at the various precincts.” She paused to consider, “Also, I’m a bit paranoid, so even had I not known you had a deal going with the cops weeks ago, I also have the whole manor electronically scrambled. Haven’t you ever wondered why your cell phones don’t work, why there’s no wifi? The only way information travels in this house is through landlines and Ethernet cables.”
“And don’t think you’ll have back up, either,” Risa interrupted as the man went to speak, “Your friends in the van down the street are about to meet an explosive end. I’m not the only one that wants them out of the picture, you see.” About that time, an explosion sounded from somewhere outside. Risa grinned wickedly, taking in the man’s terrified expression, “Now the question is what to do with you…” She gestured to the men around her, “Take him to the basement, it’s quieter there. Besides, would hate to get his blood on my new carpet.”
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Quite a few hours later, she waved to the two remaining foremen as they drove off with some squishy trash bags in a pickup truck. Turning to look at Yasu and Kenji, she shared a grin, “Well, didn’t you guys have fun?” She hadn’t actually done any of the punishing, much preferring to let the guys work off some steam.
“Yeah, boss, it was a blast.” Yasu, ever the excitable talker, answered her with wild eyes. Kenji chuckled and clapped his brother’s shoulder amicably.
“Hey, now that I have you two alone, I have something I want to discuss.” Risa began seriously, gaining their apt attention, “You guys seemed a bit confused as to why I would leave you to handle my business with the distributors, so I wanted to clarify. It’s a test for you two.” They raised their eyebrows, now even more confused, “You see, I seem to find myself in need of some more lieutenants and I figured, if you two handled this job well enough, it would prove that you are ready for the position.”
The brothers looked excited by the prospect, “We won’t let you down, boss.” Kenji promised, since it seemed even Yasu couldn’t come up with the right words.
“Good, now I think I’ve kept you guys long enough. I expect another report in two weeks.” She dismissed them with a smile, watching them go before heading back inside the house to find her lover. Ai was in her study, pouring over some papers with furrowed eyebrows.
She didn’t look up when Risa entered, but did greet her quietly, the gunner going around to sit by her side, trying not to read over the other’s shoulder, since she knew it annoyed her. The sat in companionable silence for a few moments before Risa began to speak up.
She never got the chance; a small canister smashed through the window and rolled to a stop in front of the desk. Before either woman could register what was about to happen, it exploded with a bang, a bright light filling the room and blinding them. Then, their whole world descended into chaos.
Topic: Black and Blue (Ch 34 6/4 The End!) (Read 153163 times)