Disclaimer: I don't own a thing, besides Ciri. She's an original character, so she's all mine.
Elves' Note: I took a well deserved break, not writing anything, this past month. Now I'm back and ready to write! Hopefully I can get at least another chapter of this story up before school starts. I had to do this chapter twice because I lost the original, but I think I like this one better. Thanks for reading! Flames will promptly be used to dry my wet laundry.
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Ciri Avarcci slammed on the breaks in front of Atsuka Kassen's condo, gripping the leather steering wheel of the Mafia Sentinel with white knuckles beneath her leather gloves. This was her first real job given to her by the new Don; even the mugs could tell she was nervous. Slowly, she put the car in park and exited the vehicle. She nodded to the salamis in the car, and they slowly began to get out as well, holding their rifle shotguns closely to their chests. Ciri herself had an Uzi, favored for its quick response time and even quicker reloading time.
The two thugs, Marcantonio and Menucci, went to duck below the garden wall behind the stairwell. They looked comical against the red fence, wearing their black tuxedos and shiny boots. The hit woman was sporting a tight black top, a leather jacket with matching leather pants, dark sunglasses, knee high boots with hardly any heel, and a black wig that covered her blonde locks.
She stepped out of the car, glancing at the handsome brick Condo. Ciri started walking towards the back entrance of Kassen's apartment. With intelligence, she had learned that Atsuka stupidly had no guards in the back, believing that her hideout was a secret. A recently murdered 'reporter' that was actually one of Joey's assassins had managed to relay the information before he was killed.
She reached the opening. Stone steps, with small brick walls for handholds, lead to the awning of the brick wall. Motioning for the two thugs to stand by the entrance and stop anyone from escaping, Ciri gripped her new Uzi (compliments from AmmuNation) and lunged into the Condo's back yard.
Inside. She was inside.
With a quick sweeping glance, Ciri saw that no one was in the backyard. She lowered her weapon, and began to inspect her surroundings. A covered pool was to her right, while some beach chairs were laid out to her right on a porch. Crouching in her outfit, Ciri slipped over to the windows. Silence.
Breaking the fragile silence was a gun shot from a handgun, and Ciri felt a pain skin her equipped arm. Blood blossomed on the lower sleeve, and she clutched it with a white hand. Ciri fought the urge to scream and swear, but instead turned to find Asuka Kassen, holding a raised Browning in her left hand. Her prim face was taut with rage, and her stature showed that she was ready to attack.
"Foolish, foolish woman. You come here all alone? You must know who I am, and what my reputation is." Asuka proclaimed, her Asian accent slicing through the air. Ciri said nothing in response, but lowered her Uzi. Asuka raised a heavily penciled eyebrow, and lowered her weapon as well. "Who are you? Are you looking for Maria?"
"I'm not looking for Maria," Ciri snapped, walking closer to the seemingly unarmed woman. "I'm looking for a certain Jeremy Yielding." She snapped and did a handless cartwheel, knocking the Browning from Atsuka's hands. The gun skid to the entrance of the Condo.
Atsuka Kassen walked up, her pale hands in the air. "I know where he is. No need for violence." Ciri was almost close enough to touch the woman, but she stopped where she was, aiming her Uzi at her chest. Atsuka, however, kept moving towards her. The Mafia assassin got a feeling of what she was doing a second before she did it- Atsuka pulled a small dagger from a concealed scabbard and thrust, barely missing Ciri in the stomach. The former recovered quickly from her assault and diving roll to avoid the rainfall of bullets that came her way. Asuka had recovered the Browning.
The spray ended up spraying Atsuka's side-window screen, breaking the fragile combination of glass and papyrus specially made. It also unsettled the large lawnchairs positioned on the patio. Ciri recovered and reloaded her gun before having to side step yet another lunge from Atsuka. For a few minutes they exchanged gunfire, missing each other by inches. Finally, Asuka was out. Ciri stopped firing. Asuka looked defeated as she spoke.
"I don't know where he is. And if I did, I wouldn't tell you. Now, please leave." Ciri looked stonily at her opponent for a second from the ground, before getting up and turning towards the exit as if to leave. Suddenly, a chill wind picked up as Ciri whipped around and fired her Uzi at the lower part of Asuka's body. The woman fell to the floor as her wounded legs gave away, and the Browning she held in her hand was tossed across the ground.
The two thugs stationed at the entrance stepped inside, their suits pressed and clean. They walked over to Asuka and stood over her menacingly; their sunglasses reflecting a thin light that turned on somewhere above them in the gloom of the murky afternoon. Ciri sauntered over as well, no longer clutching her wounded arm.
"You Mafia BITCH!" Asuka screamed. Immediately one of the thugs swept down and struck her across the face with the butt of his shotgun. She fell back in a dead faint, a trickle of blood falling from her hairline. Ciri nodded to her companions and they lifted the woman up, blood dripping from her soaked pants.
Once back in the parking lot, The two thugs took Asuka over to an orange parked van, opened it and shoved her inside. Ciri opened the driver's door to the van and started it as one of them got in the passenger side, while the remaining thug got in the Mafia Sentinel. They didn't want to get the seats of their Sentinel bloody.