Author's Notes! Hello everyone! Since it was never really touched upon in the game, I decided to write a little story on how Juji could've met Billy and about how Billy became a ghost. They're such interesting characters, though I wish they'd had more backstory in the game. But that's what fan fiction is for, isn't it? ;)

Thanks to the very awesome TwilightStar7 for proofreading and giving me ideas when I got stuck! :D

If you were wondering about the title and chapter names, I was listening to a lot of music by the pillows when I wrote this. The titles mysteriously became names of their songs… O.O

I hope you enjoy this story!


LAST HOLIDAY

A Gungrave: Overdose Fan Fiction

CHAPTER IBorderline Case

It was night. Or was it daytime, or sunset, or twilight time? Juji didn't know at this point. Without eyesight, he had no clue at times. All he knew is the SEED he unwillingly shared his body with had once again tried to take control. It was just out of nowhere. That was happening more and more lately, it seemed.

He blindly scuffed down an alleyway, concentrating solely on his breathing as he tried to regain control. That feeling was scary as hell, when the SEED overpowered him like that. Someday, he wondered, would he be unable to stop it? Would he go on a terrible rampage as a deformed SEED-monster and kill anything in his way?

Shit, don't think about that, Juji told himself.

As he focused on rhythmically forcing air in and out of his lungs, he was completely unaware to his surroundings. Perhaps it would've been better if he'd stopped for a moment to do this, since Juji suddenly tripped and fell face-first.

"Goddammit!" the blind deadman snarled around his mouthful of pavement. He angrily scrounged around for what had the nerve to trip him like that.

Much to his surprise, his hands met what seemed to be an electric guitar.

Juji made the decision not to smash it, like he'd been planning to do with whatever had tripped him. He was so perplexed that he'd changed his mind. Who the hell left a guitar in an alleyway, anyways? The question was mind-boggling.

Juji carefully lifted it up and tried to hold it like he remembered how the rock stars on TV did it. The guitar felt awkward in his hands. He decided it was because he'd never actually held a guitar before, but he then noticed a long, rod-like structure beneath the neck. No wonder it feels weird, Juji thought, this guitar is freakin' weird as it is.

Out of the blue, a strange, almost ludicrous idea occurred to Juji.

Maybe I can learn to play this, he thought. Get my mind off of SEED and shit.

Awkwardly, the blind deadman managed to balance the instrument on his knee and attempted to play it. The resulting sound was horrible. So horrible, in fact, that Juji himself cringed and nearly dropped the guitar. He even heard the sound of a panicked cat's claws scraping against the pavement as it ran away.

"Shit! This is too damn hard!" Juji growled. How did guitarists do this, anyways? Angrily bewildered, he pounded against the strings some more in an attempt to make music. More terrible, vaguely musical sounding noise filled the alleyway. The frustrated yet determined Juji continued his futile attempts to play a rock ballad when suddenly a gunshot cracked and a bullet whizzed past his ear.

Juji whirled around. "Am I really playing that badly?" he bellowed.

"Hell yeah!" a sneering voice returned.

Juji inhaled quickly to see who his critics were. The awful scent of thugs filled his nose. Even worse, they carried hints of SEED—they must be dealers, not users, he concluded quickly. Better dealers than users. Dealers didn't morph into awful monsters like the users did.

"Hey. Wannabe musician. Hand over dat guitar and we won't shoot ya through da head," one of the thugs said. Juji could hear them getting closer and surrounding him. He wrinkled his nose. They smelled awful.

"Hell no. I found it, it's mine now," Juji retorted.

"Ya must be deaf from yer awful playing," the head thug jeered. "I don't think ya heard what I said. Hand over dat guitar."

Juji scowled and wrapped his right hand around his gunblade's hilt. "Haven't you ever heard of finders keepers, losers weepers?" he said, possessively tightening his grip on the guitar's neck. "I found this, so it's mine. You lost it, so you're a loser. It's that simple," Juji explained like the thug was stupid (which he probably was, anyway).

There was shocked silence from the thugs. Their leader huffed disgustedly and leaned uncomfortably close to Juji's face.

"What did ya say to me?" he growled.

"You're a loser," Juji repeated, slowly and deliberately. "Now get out of my face, you smell like shit."

"Yer gonna regret saying dat to me, ya sonuvabitch!" the thug exploded. The blind deadman heard him pulling out a gun.

Before the thug could fire, though, Juji stuck him through with the gunblade Tsumuji. The thug coughed, sputtered up some blood, and cursed before collapsing to the ground.

"Oh shit, he just killed the boss!" one of the others exclaimed in disbelief.

Gunshots were suddenly angrily ricocheting off of the brick walls all around Juji. The deadman felt the fiery pain of SEED suddenly coursing throughout his veins and a burning sensation on his right shoulder and back as uncontrollable anger took hold of him.

"Oh, damn, goddamn! He's a user!" a thug barked in shock.

Juji's teeth forcefully clashed together in a rage when he heard those words. Before he knew it, the deadman was bringing his gunblade down upon the man.

"Do you think I wanted to be injected full of SEED against my will? Huh?" Juji screamed as he hacked at the thug. "I'm not a user and I never would be! They're all freakin' damned bastards who should all burn in hell!" The unfortunate dealer was dead at this point, but Juji had lost control. "This wasn't my choice! Never compare them to me!"

The other thugs shrank back as Juji took out his terrible wrath upon their comrade. They regained composure quickly, though—as dealers, they were quite used to seeing those under the influence of SEED going berserk. They opened fire on the attacker.

However, they'd never faced someone quite like Juji. The deadman turned about quicker than expected and emptied Tsumuji's gun. Being blind, his aim was less than decent, but some of the haphazardly fired bullets hit home. With a feral battlecry, Juji flung himself at the SEED-dealing thugs with his blade poised for killing.


Exhausted and splattered with blood, Juji slumped against a wall. He'd ran from the alleyway where he'd found the guitar and fought the SEED dealers, mainly because it smelled terrible with their blood all over. There was a lot of it on his coat, too. I've got to find somewhere to wash it, Juji thought absently.

The SEED in him had almost taken control again, but Juji had no intention of letting that damn drug turn him into a complete monster. The deadman clenched his teeth. Not ever. Never. Damn, Garino was going to pay for experimenting on him!

The flame finally had died down on his shoulder and back. The last of the SEED-induced pain was pretty much gone by this point. However, several of the thugs had managed to shoot him. The bullets had gone right through, but the resulting pain was almost as terrible as anything SEED ever did to him. It was wrong. The dead weren't supposed to feel any pain.

The guitar was still in his hand. Juji still wasn't quite sure why he'd even kept it. Probably because it'd pissed of the lead thug so much. As the angry haze in his mind slowly dispersed, Juji realized something: that guitar must be pretty damned important to warrant that sort of reaction from lowlife SEED dealers.

"I'll deal with you in the morning, ya damn troublemaker," he grumbled to the instrument.

Oh great, I'm talking to inanimate objects now, the deadman thought drowsily as he searched for somewhere to rest. He found himself a secluded corner to lie down in. I'm definitely losing it.

With that unenthusiastic thought, Juji fell into an uneasy sleep.


"'scuse me, sir…"

The first Juji heard upon waking up was an unfamiliar voice. In fact, that voice had woken him from the first decent sleep he'd gotten in a while.

"What the hell do you want," he replied groggily, remaining unmoving on the ground. "I was having a nice sleep there!"

"Sorry to wake ya like that, sir, but that's my guitar you've got there," the voice said. He—Juji assumed it to be a male—had a slight southern twang to it.

"So?"

"May I have it back, please?" he asked politely. "I'd really appreciate it."

The deadman readjusted himself into a sitting position, but didn't loosen his grip on the guitar. Something seemed… off. Usually, Juji was able to sense if someone was standing right in front of him. That, and he'd be able to smell them. But there was no scent besides the crappy alleyway and the SEED dealer blood dried on his coat, and there was definitely no other living, human being in that alleyway.

"Whoever you are, you're not alive, are you," Juji said, tilting his head skeptically.

The voice grew silent for a moment.

"Well, looks like it's not as easy to fool the blind as they say it is," the disembodied voice finally responded. "Yer right, I ain't alive."

Goddamn, don't tell me the freakin' guitar is talking to me now! Juji groaned inwardly. He wasn't ready to go bat-shit crazy!

"Then who the hell are you?" the blind deadman demanded.

"My name's Rocketbilly Redcadillac," the voice introduced himself as. "I'm a ghost now, and my spirit's tied to that there guitar you've got."

"What the hell kind of name is that?" Juji exclaimed. For some reason, he was more shocked by the bizarre name than the fact that the guitar was housing a spirit.

"Why, it's mine!" Rocketbilly replied, sounding slightly insulted.

"It's weird," Juji said.

"Well, that kinda name do you go by?"

"Juji Kabane."

"Hell, that's a weird name too."

The deadman snorted. "Not half as weird as yours."

The ghost laughed, sounding amused. "Yer something." He paused for a moment. "You ain't alive either."

"No," Juji confirmed.

"Thought so. You've got a tortured spirit in that body, I can sense it."

"I'm a deadman."

"Ah." Rocketbilly went quiet for a moment. Juji assumed he was nodding in affirmation. "Hey, d'you mind giving me my guitar back?"

"Uh… okay. Don't go running off," Juji warned, letting go of the instrument. He felt it float right out of his hands—it was definitely haunted.

"Thanks, man," Rocketbilly replied cheerfully. "I ain't gonna run off. You seem pretty lonely."

"Me? Lonely? Tch," Juji scoffed. But as much as he hated to admit it, the deadman was pretty damned lonely.

"I've never met another dead guy like me before," the ghost said happily. "Pretty exciting, huh?"

This guy is too damn cheery, Juji thought. "Sure it is. Hey. Tell me, uh… Rocke-aw, damn," The deadman stumbled over the name. "…RB—"

"If my name's too much, you can just call me Billy," the ghost offered.

"RB, Billy, whatever. Why did those shitty thugs want your guitar yesterday?"

"Aw, those guys," Billy sighed. "They're SEED dealers, you probably already knew that. Well, a deal was going down in that old warehouse right next near that alleyway. I interfered and destroyed their entire supply of drugs and the customers' money, too. They were pret-ty pissed off at me." The ghost paused to chuckle. "It ain't the first time I've stopped their deals. They knew me pretty well and had been tryin' to capture me for weeks now.

"Anyways, I was goin' down that alleyway when suddenly somethin' ran right into me and knocked me down. And then that somethin' picked me up and started tryin' to play a tune!" Billy started laughing hysterically like it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard.

Juji tensed, feeling slightly embarrassed. "Was I really that bad!"

Billy didn't respond to that question, instead, he continued his narrative. "So those SEED-dealing thugs heard my guitar, so they found me. I woulda helped out with 'em but it seemed you had things under control. Yer some fighter, Juji. I can safely say I've never seen anythin' like that before." The ghost was quiet for a minute. "You really hate SEED, don't ya," he asked quietly.

A sudden flare of anger pierced Juji. The blind deadman ground his teeth and nodded sharply. "Like hell, I do. More than anything."

"Looks like we've got somethin' in common."

"Do we, now," Juji replied, trying to sound uninterested.

"Well, yeah! I'm dead, yer dead. I hate SEED, you hate SEED. I like screwin' with the dealers, you like screwin' with the dealers," Billy explained while ticking off each point on his fingers. "I barely know ya, Juji, but I have the feelin' we'd make one hell of a team."

Juji was taken aback. "Are you serious?"

"Sure am!" the Billy said enthusiastically. "With our power combined, I bet we'd be able to kick so much SEED-dealer ass. So, whaddya say?" There was an eager silence from the ghost. Somehow, Juji just knew the guitar-haunting spirit was grinning hugely.

And the deadman just couldn't find in him to say no. Maybe it was the loneliness, or the fact that he could use someone with a working pair of eyes. Yet somehow, he still surprised himself with his answer.

"Hm. Sounds good," Juji said while at the same time thinking Oh shit, what the hell am I getting in to? He honestly didn't know what had possessed him to say yes.

"Alright! Awesome!" Billy exclaimed happily. "Pleased to be workin' with you, Mr. Kabane!"

"Ah, shit, you're weird," Juji groaned.

"You'll learn to love it, I promise," the ghost snickered.

The deadman sighed heavily. He definitely had picked up the strangest companion possible. "Hey, think you can help me find a stream or something? My coat is freakin' covered in dealer-blood. It smells damned awful."

"Sure thing!" the ghost replied. "Hey, if it ain't too much a trouble for ya, can you carry my Blue Lightning?"

"Your what?"

"That's my guitar's name, silly. It'll look a bit odd to see a guitar floatin' around next to you, dontcha think?"

Did he just say "see"? Juji angrily thought. "Whatever," he replied and slung the instrument over his shoulder. He really didn't care about appearances, but he didn't want to look weirder than he imagined himself to be. "Let's go. This smell's driving me crazy, I can barely think. Bet that's why I agreed to team up with you."

"Some temper you've got there," Billy remarked.

"Shut up."

"Sorry, man."

"You'd better be."

Juji trudged along with his newfound acquisition of both a guitar and a ghost, who he quickly found out was very talkative. The constant chatter about whatever the hell was on his mind wasn't helping with his nasty mood, which was a result of the smelly shitty SEED dealer blood all over his coat. Damn, what was I thinking? Saying yes to team up with this random ghost I just met? What the hell's wrong with me? the deadman thought, exasperated. Maybe he was already going bat-shit crazy after all…

Soon, Billy was running out of random crap to talk about. At first, Juji was glad when the voice stopped. Then it became an awkward silence.

"So, uh… what's yer favorite color?" Billy asked, trying to start a conversation with the deadman.

"….I'm blind. I can't see color," Juji snapped.

"Oh yeah… sorry…" the ghost apologized awkwardly. "So, uh, what's your favorite animal?

"Goddamn, RB. Are we there yet?"

"Almost, almost. Hey, look, I can see it now!"

Juji's shoulders stiffened. He'd never noticed before how much it bothered him to hear someone talking about being able to see!

"Oh, shit. Sorry," Billy cursed and apologized again. "I'll shut up now."

"Good. About ti—"

"Aw, wait!"

"Hey, you said you'd sh—"

Splash!

"Uh… we're here."

The angry and now soaking wet Juji scowled. "Thank you, Captain Obvious," he snarled as he clawed himself ashore. Fuming, he tugged off his sodden coat. At least he actually got me to the stream, Juji thought as he viciously scrubbed the blood-stained garment.

"Oh… oh God, Juji, I'm so sorry! I just hadn't talked to anyone in so long and I just wanted to chat a little and I didn't mean to overboard like that and make ya faceplant into the stream like that!" Billy apologized frantically. "Oh my god! I'm so sorry!"

Juji felt the corners of his mouth starting to curl into a smile. The apology from the ghost was just so sincere that it became freakin' hilarious. Billy continued to emphasize how sorry he was for another thirty seconds straight before Juji burst out in hysterical laughter.

"What's so funny?" the ghost asked in the tone of voice someone would use when pouting.

"You, RB! You…" Juji broke off into more hysteric laughter. If he'd still had eyes, there would've been tears streaming down his face. "Oh god, you're too much." Damn, I haven't laughed like this in a long time, the deadman realized.

"Ya think so?" Billy asked. He actually sounded genuinely surprised.

Juji snorted, trying to hold back another bout of laughter. Maybe being dead won't be so bad if I've got a friend, the deadman thought. Then he froze. Hell, I'm already thinking of him as a friend? Am I crazy?

He contemplated that for a moment.

Yeah, I guess I am.