It's been a week and a half since Niko visited Anteiku. The reason why is because he recently received a call from none other than Vlad, telling him in order to pay off Roman's debts, he must do jobs for him so Roman doesn't have to with Mikhail Faustin's anger. His first job with Vlad was to force a chinaman to pay up Vlad's debts by smashing his window of his vase shop to convince him. He then next had to get money off of a dry cleaner owner, which resulted in a car chase, but the owner gave up after Niko hit his van many times. The latest job from Vlad was to kill his man, Ivan, as he supposedly angered Mikhail and tries to blame Roman. Niko went to his garage as Ivan tries to make a run. He was later stopped by construction at a incomplete building. As the two both climbed through the building, jumping off and onto rooftops and ledges. It all came to an end as Ivan fell off the edge of a dead end but grabbed the edge of the ledge, hanging on to his dear life. Niko, surprisingly, spared Ivan's life and told him to get away from Hove Beach. Has Niko was getting to sea level, he called and lied that Ivan is dead. As Vlad was pleased, he over spoken that he was also getting pleased by Roman's girlfriend Mallorie. Niko threaten him that if he says that to him again, he'll break him.
As for Kaneki, he was also called by Vlad as he said that if you want to keep his business safe from any harassers in the shop, he would have to do some jobs for him. Kaneki however declined that he would never trust him because he might do some harm to Touka and the rest of the employees there. One day as Kaneki was out shopping for goods, Vlad came in Anteiku and started flirting with Touka.
"So, beautiful..." Vlad says at the bar where Touka was.
"What?!" She said angrily.
"I came here to say I'm sorry for what happened a week ago."
Touka stopped what she was doing then looked at him with her anger expressed eyes. "Are you really sorry? If you are here to hit on me, then you have no business here. Now, either pay up what you owe a week ago, or you can get the hell out of my sight!"
"I will if you do one thing for me," Vlad asking her then grabbing her arm. "Will you just one time spend the night at my place, and I'll let you and your boyfriend alone? I promise I will be gentle. If you know what I mean." He snickers. "And this isn't an offer," he adds.
"And what's this thing about you and Mr. Roman Bellic's girlfriend, huh?" Touka continued. "You know his cousin won't be very happy and you know what he'll do if you mess with her again." The reason she know this is because the cab driver Mohammad, came in Anteiku to spend the coupons she gave to him, and starts talking about Mallorie being forced to have sex with Vlad in order to pay off Roman's debts.
"That is none of your concern, now you either come with me or I will burn this to the ground with your friends in it!" Vlad threatening at her as he squeezes her arm tighter.
Touka shouldn't be reminded of the time the original Anteiku was burned down back in Tokyo during the 20th ward raid before she and the rest of her friends fled to America.
Touka, ready to hurt Vlad- not kill him-, turned around away from Vlad's perverted face. "You know all those big, bad ghouls in Tokyo that binge eat everyday on people?"
Vlad then gets serious for a minute, lets go of her arm, and leans back a little. "Where you getting at, sweetie?"
Touka turns her head, showing one of her ghoul eyes. Then she growled, "WELL I'M ONE OF THEM!" She then releases one of her Kagune wings at Vlad as he fell off the stool he was sitting. Vlad then took out his gun and aimed at her.
"FUCKING GHOUL BITCH!" Vlad yelled. Before he could shoot, Touka then releases two crystalized flaming spikes as one hit a wall and the other into Vlad's gun chamber as it flew out his hand. He then flees out of the store, running into the bar across the street. Touka turns around then calms down and says to herself that it's all over, but she thinks for a second and realizes what she's done.
"Touka, what happened?" A familiar voice behind her was Kaneki's has he just came inside as Vlad came out of the shop.
"Oh, Kaneki!" Touka then proceeds to run at him. She wanted to hug him, but it wasn't the right time to her. "That dick Vlad put his dirty hands on me and tried to force me to have sex with him in order to keep this place from people like him. So I got angry and gave him a 'message' to leave us alone, but I'm afraid that it won't change his mind and that he'll have us killed."
Kaneki was shocked at what she just said and the mark that Vlad left behind on Touka's arm. He feels the anger building up in him that he wasn't there to protect her as he was getting supplies.
He wants to get his anger out, but forcefully held it in as he told her, "Stay here, I will deal with Vlad."
He went upstairs into his bedroom to go to his bag. He looked into his bag and found what he was looking for: his signature black, zip-smiling, eye patch mask. He puts it on and flees out of the window. By the time Touka followed him back, he was gone as she sees an open window.
Oh no, she thought as she had the idea that Kaneki was going to kill Vlad. She took out her phone and tries to call Niko. As the phone rings five times, a male person that sounds like Niko says "Hello."
"Niko," Touka said. "We got a problem. It's Vlad."
Niko comes by the cab office to how Roman's doing. When he entered, he sees Roman sitting on one of the visitor chairs with a beer in his hand.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Niko saying to Roman.
"Hey, cousin. Bullshit." Roman cursing in depression.
"What's bullshit?"
"Mallorie."
Niko already knows what Vlad was doing to Mallorie, so he started questioning him to make sure he knows. "Oh. What about her?"
"I like her... I really like her..." Roman desperately says to Niko.
"But you keep messing around with other women," Niko adds.
"Yeah..." Then Roman gets serious for real. "...no. I think she's messing around with Vlad. I saw his car parked outside her place the other day."
"Yeah," Niko responds as he gets a cup of water, but Roman thinks of what he said.
"You knew?" Roman says to Niko.
"I had suspicions," Niko answers.
Roman's tone increases as he gets up from the chair. "You fucking knew?"
"What was I going to say?"
"You knew my woman was banging this warthog and you didn't do anything?"
Niko stutters, "I-I didn't know..."
Roman goes quiet for a second then shouts out to Niko, "YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE, NIKO BELLIC! A DISLOYAL USER! AFTER WHAT I DID FOR YOU, YOU DICK! YOU FUCKING DICK!"
"I'M SORRY!" Niko shouts to Roman.
"Screw you!"
Niko knows that now Vlad has to be dealt with. "Ok, do you want to deal with it, right now?"
Roman slowly answers, "No... Sit down."
"NO!" Niko shouts. "I will not stand here and have you calling me disloyal. You might let some Russian asswipe bang your woman, but I won't."
"But you fucking did!" Roman correcting him.
"That is before I knew you cared! You always were a hypocrite."
Niko then heads for the door as Roman follows him. "Niko... wait. Don't do anything stupid. Wait for me!"
They both head into one of Roman's cabs. "Tell me you're just blowing off some steam... You're going for a little drive... you're going to leave Vlad alone, right?" Roman said as Niko started to look at his phone and sees that Touka was calling.
"Hello?" Niko said.
"Niko, we got problem," Touka saying over the phone. "It's Vlad."
"Don't tell me, he messed with you again?" Niko responed.
"Yes, but I really screwed up this time. He hurt me, but I hurt him back and I think he has the thought to kill us. Kaneki knows about the situation and I think he's going to kill him."
"Funny, I was just going to Vlad for a little visit," Niko telling Touka.
"Wait, your going to kill Vlad too?" Touka with a shocked voice.
"He messed with Roman's girlfriend and now you, so I'm going to mess with him."
Touka know that if Niko and Kaneki kill Vlad, his boss's goons will come after them. However, she was getting confident in her mind that the rest of Anteiku can take care of themselves. "Well, you know what?" Touka stated. "I don't care anymore. Do what you and Kaneki have to do."
"It'll be my pleasure," Niko ended as he hung up and started to drive to the bar on Mohawk ave.
"Don't do anything stupid, cousin," Roman calming down Niko.
"Nothing as stupid as letting that fat swine give it to Mallorie and nearly giving it to Touka," Niko added.
"Hey, it happens to everyone. I mean me and Mallorie have an open relationship. I do my thing, she does hers. Maybe next time I might watch them at it... urgh... to watch his fat, hairy, sweaty back going up and down. I can't take it. How could she do this?" Roman in discuss.
"I knew you cared. Me and Kaneki, we have to do this." They finally reached the bar and stopped. "Where is he?" Niko mumbled to himself as he searched the area for Kaneki.
"Wait Niko, you have to think this through," Roman still calming down Niko.
"Stay out here, let the big boys have their conversation inside." Niko got out of the car and headed inside the bar. On top of the side edge of the subway tracks above, Kaneki, with his mask on and his left ghoul eye red and black, waits on Vlad to come out of the bar to ambush him.
"Then I was there, holding the bitch waitress's arm..." Vlad telling his bodyguards what happened at the coffee shop down the corner. "...and all of a sudden, her eyes turned red and black as she turns out be a ghoul. So I fell back and reached for my gun and her reactor started shooting crystals at me and knock my gun out of my hand, then I started running from the shop."
His bodyguards started to talk to each other on how they will deal with Antekiu down the street then all of a sudden, Niko comes from the door in a rage. "Hey. Vlady boy! I'd like a word with you."
Vlad then turns his head to Niko. "What are you doing here? Did I summon you... boy?"
"I told you to stay away from Mallorie," Niko reminded Vlad.
Vlad mumbles in a foreign language, turns to his drink and says, "Go away!"
"And now Roman is upset, and I heard that you started to get your hands on Touka."
Vlad then turns his head to Niko again. "Oh, Roman is upset. Excuse me. Do you think I give a fuck, peasant?" He then sees Roman entering the bar. "Oh, there he is. Hey fatty, I'm sorry you're so upset. Boo fucking hoo." He then starts laughing.
Roman starts to worry and fakes a smile. "Hey, Vlad, can't we just talk about this?"
Niko puts his hand up at Roman saying ,"Hold on," points at Vlad and threatens him although he wants to kill him out of anger and for Roman's, Kaneki's, and Touka's sake. "You stay way from Mallorie and Touka."
Vlad then sarcastically gasps. "I must be hearing things... I could have sworn for a minute this ratty little yokel told me what to do. Did you hear that boys?" The bodyguards agree. "Now... get them out of here!" Vlad ordered and runs to the back door of the bar.
"Get back outside, Roman," yelling to Roman as he heads straight towards the car.
Niko then grabbed the bodyguard's knife out of his hand and stabbed him in the gut and fell forward. He then threw the knife into the other bodyguards's eye that pierced through his brain and fell backwards. Niko then heads to the backdoor and and sees that Vlad drove off. Niko went around to the car he parked to catch him and drove off.
As Vlad drives off, Kaneki then ran a short distance and jumped of the railway onto Vlad's car and held on as the car turned left and right.
"Who the hell is that?!" Roman shouts as he sees someone on top of Vlad's car.
"I don't know, we'll find out once Vlad's car stops," Niko answered.
"But it's finished, he's running. We can let that dude do whatever he wants to do to Vlad."
"This person is having trouble getting his hands on him, so we'll assist him as well."
"But Niko, we can forget about this and Mallorie, Ok?" Roman desperately convincing to Niko. "I'm getting tired of her anyway-"
"Enough about Mallorie, this has to be done, here and now," Niko stated.
"Shit, I don't like this. Fuck... fuck." Roman cursed.
As they chased Vlad and the unknown assailant on top of the car, two tentacles come out of the person's back and started to stab though the car.
"Holy shit, that dude's a ghoul, cousin!" Roman shockingly cursed.
Vlad's car finally crashes into a truck carrying pipes. Vlad flees from his car in horror of what he experienced but ends up in a dead end near the river. The ghoul then hides itself from the scene as Niko and Roman pulls up, Niko getting out of the car, and confronting Vlad.
"Fucking yokel, you think you can get away with killing me?" Vlad yells.
"I guess I'll find out," Niko answers.
"You think this is worth it? You're throwing you and your fatty cousin's lives away for that bit of Puerto Rican chocha-AHHHHHHHH!" Vlad screams as the unknown person with some sort of mask on, covering his mouth and right eye, stabs him with his Kagune through the stomach. Niko raises his gun at the masked person and looks at him. He begins to wonder, he looks so familiar, then it hits him.
"...Kaneki?" Niko saying to the person as he lowered his gun.
"You guessed right," Kaneki saying in a dark tone through his mask. "Surprised? You should be. Now finished the job."
Niko nodded his head and raises his gun at bloody Vlad's head. "H-Hove Beach is a small p-place," Vlad struggling to say has he coughs up blood. "M-my friends will find you both." Niko's gun then touches his eyeball has he holds it with one hand as his other covered his face. Kaneki's Kagune retracts out of Vlad's stomach and into his body as Niko finally pulls the trigger, firing a bullet into Vlad's skull, and ending him as his eye squirts out blood.
"You were the stupid one, Vladdy boy," Niko as he looks into Vlad's lifeless body. "Nobody fucks with my family and my friends." His head turns to Kaneki's as he looked at his. "So, you and your friends were ghouls and you didn't tell me and my cousin this?"
Kaneki takes off his mask, revealing the rest of his face to Niko. "It was the only way for you and Roman to not know who we are and what we did in order to stay alive."
Niko walks up to him, looking into his human and ghoul eyes. "What are you, really?
Roman starts running towards the two. "Niko?" He then looks towards the person on his right. "Kaneki? Your a ghoul?" Kaneki nodded. "So you were-" Roman was interrupted by looking at dead Vlad. "Oh shit, what have you done?"
"What does it look like?" Niko said.
"We're dead."
"No, he's dead. We're fine." Niko correcting Roman.
Roman starts walking up to Niko. "He has serious people, powerful friends." He then grabs Niko's shoulders. "I told you TO BE CALM, YOU HOT-HEADED CHUMP!"
"I am calm. We both are." Niko adds. "He tried to kill us. He screwed your girlfriend. What do you expect, give him a massage?"
"Shit! Shit! Shit," Roman constantly repeats.
Niko walks off a bit before squatting to the ground. Kaneki's eyes starts following at him. "When I was in the army..." Niko starts as Roman's and Kaneki's attention draws to him. "we were going on a mission... to ambush a squad who had killed a lot of innocent people. They were our enemies... but we never did it. There were fifteen of us. All boys from the village. But one of us betrayed the group. It was a setup... for money! Twelve people died, three escaped. I know the traitor was not me... So for ten years I've been searching for the other two." He finally stands up. "One of them lives here."
Kaneki's mind starts wondering. "So that's why you're in Liberty," he says.
"Why are you telling me this now?" Roman begins with. "Do you always get sentimental after you kill people?"
"You kept asking..." Niko answers.
"Wonderful!" Roman sarcastically says. "You're here on some revenge mission for something that happened ten years age. And you don't care whose life you ruin on the way?"
"No..." Niko unthinkably says.
"Well what?" Roman questions forcefully.
"Roman!" Kaneki shouts before Niko's hand raises at him.
Niko continues. "I don't know... I just want to know why they did it."
"Right now I don't think you're going to find out," Roman says before suggesting, "Let's hide the body, at least for a while."
"Lets put him in the river," Niko suggests. The three then grabs Vlad's body and drags him to the river. "Eeeh, you're a big boy Vladdy."
"Eeeh, you tell me," Kaneki jokingly mumbles out loud as they drag Vlad.
"Mikhail Faustin is going to kill us." Roman says. "Hey, Kaneki," He turns to Kaneki. "If your a ghoul, why can't you eat Vlad's body and just be over with?"
"I heard that America's ghoul identifying system is more advanced than the CCGs, Roman," Kaneki begins. "I'm not taking the risk of getting identified by enforcement and have police knocking down Anteiku's door."
"I don't know any thing about that, but you do know that stores and restaurants here have stuff for ghouls like you, ri-," before Roman finished his sentence, he starts to hear police sirens and stops dragging Vlad. "Shit. We should get out of here."
"You go. We'll catch up with you later." Niko says to Roman as Roman leaves while Niko and Kaneki finally drags Vlad to the edge and roll him into the water.
"Well, that takes care of that," Kaneki stated. "Now, lets head back to Antekiu."
As Niko and Kaneki finally reaches Antekiu, they head inside and find an angry Nishiki walking towards them.
"YOU BASTERD!" Nishio yells at Niko as he releases his Kagune at him, but Niko kicks him in the gut, rolls over him, grabs him, and starts to choke him with a sleeper lock.
"I just did you and your friends a favor," Niko shouts at him. "You should be grateful that he didn't start to fuck every employee here," referring to Touka and the rest of the female employee in the shop.
"Guys, calm down," Touka from behind says to the fighting group. They both break up the fight. "It's time we tell Mr. Bellic who we are."
Kaneki starts to walk up in front of Niko. "As you can see, every employee here is a ghoul."
"I can see that," Niko says "But what about you? You look different from all the other."
Kaneki sighs briefly. "I'm a half ghoul."
"That means that your parents were human and ghoul, right?" Niko questions.
"No," Kaneki answers. "I was actually made into one. I started asking a girl named Rize out for a date one day and she agreed to start dating me. But on that same night, she tried to kill and eat me. I then realized that she was a ghoul. She bit me right in the shoulder and her Kagune stabbed right through my spleen. I thought I was done at first, but all of a sudden, a carrier full of pipes was unhooked and began to fall down on Rize and killed her. I was unconscious and was losing a lot a blood. I then wake up in a hospital with a big scar where my spleen was." Kaneki then raises his shirt up to show where the scar was.
"Jesus, man," Niko reacts.
"I then realize that the doctors did an organ transplant with Rize's. As of that, I become half-human, half-ghoul." Kaneki then puts his shirt down. "And I did a lot of bad things later in my life. I got kidnapped by a ghoul gang named Aogiri and was tortured by the boss Jason Yamori, and that's why my nails are black in case you're wondering. I managed to escape and helped out my friends who were trying to save me during the CCG raid before the 20th ward. I had to leave Antekiu and to join Aogiri because I was a valuable to the CCG and other ghouls who want me dead and other around me, but I came back since everyone here is a danger as well. So that's why we ran away from Tokyo."
"Well, I feel sorry for all of you," Niko apologizes. "That's seems too similar to where I came from, but I believe of what you said. Don't you worry. Me and my cousin, and his friends... we'll help you all."
"Thanks," Kaneki pleased. "I appreciate that."
"Your welcome. Hey I like to ask you something?"
"What's that?"
Niko turns to Hinami. "What REALLY happen to her parents?"
Kaneki didn't know that Niko would find out what he told about Hinami's parents was a lie. "They were killed by CCG investigators. They took their Kagunes and used them againt us. We managed to kill one of them but the other one lived. Big mistake I made."
As Kaneki finished, Niko finally gets a phone call from Roman.
"Niko, Niko. Are you there cousin?" Roman whispers over the phone.
"Roman, I'm here. What are you doing? Why do you whisper?"
"I am on Tulsa Street, near Perestroika. Come Niko, quick."
Roman then hangs up immediately. This has Niko concerned. "Shit, I got to get to Roman. I feel that he got spooked over nothing."
"You think this has to do something with killing Vlad?" Touka questions
"Maybe," Niko Answers. "Maybe he's just being paranoid."
"Well, whatever it is, it sounds like he's in trouble," Kaneki says. "Come on, Touka. We need to get to Roman."
Niko then halts Kaneki and Touka. "Hold on. I can take care of this myself. You need to stay here and watch the shop."
"No," Kaneki protests. "I feel like this is just more than Roman being paranoid. He might be into trouble."
"He's right," Touka begins to say. "If you two killed Vlad, his people might have already heard that he's dead."
Niko then sighs and begins to agree. "Alright, then lets go."
The three then heads out to the door and into Niko's parked vehicle and start to head to Perestroika, a talent/stage club.
As they arrived near Perestroika, they found no sign of Roman. "He's not here," Touka says.
"Where is he at," Kaneki says. "He sould be here."
Niko's mind began to wonder. "Where are you, Roman?" He says out loud.
"Psst, Niko," a voice in the dumpster behind the three is heard, as a head pops out. It was Roman. The three then turns to Roman.
"There he is," Touka points out.
Niko begins to laugh. "Roman! What are you doing in the dumpster, man?"
"Are they there?" Roman worriedly says.
"What are you talking about... get out of there, man." Niko tells Roman. Roman then opens the dumpster doors.
"I'm freaking out, man. I'm being followed... I saw them..." Roman still scared.
"Don't be ridiculous. You're being paranoid." Niko turns to Kaneki and Touka. "See? Just paranoid." His head then turns back to Roman.
"I'm being? Fuck you. Fuck you... all of you... everything was fine, and then you and you two showed up... and now we're dead... because Faustin is a psychopath... he's going to kill us... because we killed Vlad. Vlad was his man... that's how it works... you kill their guy, they kill you!" Roman slams the dumpster doors shut.
"Roman," Niko then opens the door at Roman, "get out of there, man. Listen to me, Vlad was a piece of trash. They don't care about him. All they care about is making money. So, we say we work for them."
"You know, you should listen to him," Touka points out. "That can actually work."
"You see? She agrees. And even Kaneki agrees. Now get out of there, you smell like cabbage."
"I don't want to, man. I'm shitting myself." As Roman says, someone behind knocks both Kaneki and Touka out with an AK's butt, without Niko noticing. Roman then shouts, "ohhh," as Niko turns to see what the problem before the armed person knocks him out and falls to the ground, unconscious.
"Get out of the dumpster, Mr. fat man." The armed person with a russian accent shouts out to Roman, hiding. The person then hits the dumpster with his AK as Roman comes out slowly with his hands raised . "Come on, fatty, the boss wants a little chat."
Things got a little more complicated here in Liberty.