Chapter 7:
The girl woke up in a strange bed in a strange apartment. "Where the hell…" she stopped her sentence once she saw a picture of the man she tried to kill The last thing she remembered was the pain of her knife in her thigh. She looked and her wound and eyed the gauze over it. Once she tried to stand a pain a great pain hit her leg and she fell back onto the bed. "Shit it must have gone into the bone." Whatever had happened it made it hurt like hell to stand. She got back up again ready for the pain and slowly walked around looking for a door. She took a quick look at the few framed pictures on a nearby dresser. One was a picture of a young teenage Deuce in what looked like the bar she attacked him in and he was wearing an apron. Another had a beautiful bride and her new husband standing in front of a large wooden cross. She looked at the final picture; there was a girl who looked like an older female version of him hugging an emberrased Deuce who looked like he was around twelve years-old.
She set the picture down and walked into what appeared to be the living room and kept going until she heard a voice. "You know I'm surprised you can walk." She turned to find her enemy sitting on his couch watching her, "I'm stronger then I look you sadistic bastard."
Wincing with every step she made her way to the door. "I wouldn't leave if I were you."
"And why is that?"
"Well that knife went in pretty deep so you can hardly walk, and this is Hepburn Heights, no exactly the safest neighborhood."
"So?"
"So, you're a young girl in a dangerous neighborhood, oh and you're not wearing pants." The young girl looked down and realized that she was in fact not wearing any pants.
"I knew that." She lied.
"Just head back to bed kid you're not going anywhere."
"And stay here with you, why?"
"Because I'm one of the closest things to a nice guy this city has. You go out there alone and unarmed, and… without pants, and you won't last long."
"So?"
"So sit down." Deuce pointed to an unoccupied chair.
"Fine, I'll stay." She sat down on the chair looking at Deuce who was eying her mysteriously. "What do you want?"
"What's your name girl?"
"Yuka, Yuka Kasen."
"Kasen huh, you connected to the Yakuza or something?" Asked jokingly
"Not ever since Toji Ikari took over." Deuce was honestly surprised; he thought the all of the prestigious Kasen family was wiped out when Ikari took over.
"So what exactly do you plan to do about it?"
"I plan to slit his fucking throat." Deuce just stared at her for the longest time until he started to laugh. "What's so funny?"
"You're what kid like sixteen?"
"Yeah what's your point?"
"Girls your age should be at school talking to her friends at school about boys and the prom and shit, and not planning on assassinating a fucking Yakuza boss, especially when you can't even take me on."
"Yeah well I never really got to have a normal life. I figured if I took you down I'd get some respect and those loyal to family would reveal themselves."
"With the family you were born into I'm not really surprised."
"You don't know anything about my family. So don't even think you can talk about them like that."
"Yeah well right now you're not exactly someone who has the right to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do. Anyway right now I have to figure out what to do with you."
"Just let me go."
"Were you not listening? This ain't Shoreside Vale, you're in Hepburn Heights. I ain't just gonna let out on the streets. Where were you staying before all this?"
"I was staying with my cousin in Shoreside Vale, but I can't go back."
"Why can't you go back?"
"I said some things before I left, really mean things."
"Trust me kid if you apologize she'll take you back.
"Why can't I just stay with you?"
"Because you're sixteen and I'm trying to keep you out of trouble. If you stick around here you might not make it. I got enough to worry about in my life; I don't need a teenage girl thrown into the mix. Also you tried to kill me earlier. How would killing me doing you any good anyway."
"You've got a bigger reputation then you think Deuce, A lot of people know about what you did back when you were locked up." There was a long silence between the two of them that was broken by a knocking at the door.
"Hey Deuce open up man it's me 8-ball." Deuce got up to open the door all the while keeping an eye on Yuka. As he opened the door Yuka left the chair and looked over to see who this 8-ball was.
"How's it goin 8-ball?"
"Good, especially in comparison to you Mr. Leone hitman." 8-ball looked around the room but once he saw Yuka his eyes shot back to Deuce. "Would you mind explaining to me why you got a young Asian girl wearing nothing but panties and a t-shirt?"
"That isn't a girl that's a giant pain in my ass." Deuce turned back to look at Yuka. "Go get your pants and jacket we're taking you back home."
"Man, please tell me you didn't do what it looks like you did."
"Relax nothing happened, well something did just not that, anyway what are you driving?"
"I'm driving a '98 Landstalker."
"That'll work just fine."
"Wait why are we taking my car?"
"Because I'm really tired and I don't feel like driving, so for tight now you're my chauffer."
"I knew visiting you was going to be a pain in the ass." Just then Yuka walked out of Deuce's room fully-dressed.
"I'm ready to go, I guess." With that the three of them were off. Once they were outside Deuce sat in the front passenger seat and Yuka in the backseat. The Whole ride was silent except for the directions Yuka gave to 8-ball. They approached a nice mansion in some part of Shoreside Vale that Deuce couldn't see any joy in living there, a bunch of housewives with nothing to do but spy on their neighbors didn't sound so serene, Hepburn heights may have been hell on earth but at least Deuce got privacy. When Yuka got out of the car Deuce thought she would just leave but when she got out she walked over to his side where he had his window open. She kissed Deuce softly on the cheek, "I'm sorry Joseph." With that she was gone limping away and disappearing into the house blending back in with the false serenity that was provided by the world known as suburbia.
"Damn man I didn't know you liked them that young."
"Shut up 8-ball." Was all Deuce could say he had thrown a knife into a young girl who had apparently formed a crush on the hustler/mafia associate after he had killed a Triad dealer. As the car began to drive off 8-ball started looking over at Deuce.
"Where we going now Joseph?" 8-ball hardly managed to get this out between his fits of laughter.
"Home man, I've had a long day and I just want to go home drink some beer and then go to sleep."
"Sounds like a plan." The car drove off and as they reached Staunton Island the sun began to set
Deuce squirmed in his seat for a few seconds trying to relax and took a long hard look at the setting sun. "So how's my car coming along?"
"Better then expected man, we should have it ready for you by tomorrow."
"Have you fired that asshole yet?"
"Yeah I know he was being an asshole but business has been booming lately and I can't really afford to fire anyone."
"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Questioned deuce with a tone that showed he was a little annoyed
"My bad man, anyway I think you get the point."
"Yeah and the point is you got a fucking bad sense of humor."
"All right, relax man." The two men sat in silence for a while Deuce kept himself occupied by watching the pedestrians on the street.
"Hey 8-ball you ever wondered what we did that lead us to this point in our lives?"
"What point of our lives?"
"This whole career criminal bullshit we're living through."
"Not really, I mean everybody in Liberty has some skeletons in their closet, we were born here man were pretty much destined to become the assholes we are now."
"Yeah I guess, but sometimes it feels like I could have done something to keep out of trouble."
"Yeah well right now you pretty much don't have a chance of leaving now." Deuce knew 8-ball had a point there wasn't much either of them could do about their professions at this point in their lives. Deuce was never really one to believe in fate, he believed in god it always seemed to make sense to him, but fate was something he just didn't even acknowledge. He was the one controlling his life but lately it felt more like drunk driving making decisions that ended in disasters. He just wished someone would take the wheel for him. "Deuce we're here man." Deuce opened his eyes to see the apartment complex with and the usual people running around the streets.
"Thanks man, I'll give you a call sometime."
"All right watch your back man."
"Thanks 8-ball." The lobby was empty as usual except for Misty who just left the janitor's closet, followed by the janitor.
"Hey Deuce."
"Hey Misty."
"So where you been all day?"
"I've been around the whole fucking city. So is the janitor a good tipper?"
"That's what I like about you, you're always so funny." Misty said as she began to stroke his arm. "What do you say we go up to your place for a freebie?"
"No thanks."
"You know one of these days you're gonna realize what you're turning down, and then you'll be sorry."
"Of course a burning sensation every time I take a piss really sounds like a treat, now if you don't mind I'm going to go drink myself to sleep." The elevator was a testament to the building weathered, worn-down, and covered in graffiti. "Fucking toys." Once inside his home he headed straight for the nearest bottle of booze. "Nothing like a visit from my old buddy Jack Daniels," He mused as he poured himself a glass. His bed had seemed to become more comfortable over these last few days. The pillows that his head sank into seemed a better cure for his headache than any other pill. He closed his eyes hoping and relaxed that he would wake up.
------
AN: You can probably guess who the three mystery people in the pictures hopefully I'll be able to include them in some flashbacks later. Yuka Kasen is an actual GTA character she's from GTA advance and is a neice to Asuka i'm not sure who her father is it'd have to either be Kenji or another Kasen that wasn't mentioned they didn't reveal her age either from what I remember so i'm just gonna say she's sixteen. Soon enough you'll find out what Deuce did in jail that earned him that rep, and just who are the Phantoms? Special thanks to allof the people who reviewed what I put out so far even the Resident Evil fanfic, I really like hearing peoples oppion on my writing.
