novelraw Chapter 88: Punishment Party Part 2
Chapter 88: Punishment Party Part 2
I should have seen this coming. Remembered it coming. She had been the first to let me know about the damn party in the first place. Of course she would come.
And yet it had completely slipped my mind. My mind, already transformed into a flesh computer by a swarm of nanomachines—
What else had I missed?
Did it matter? This was now happening. And Fei was making a bee-line for Lucy, having already somehow identified her as the host.
I turned to Jin, and—
Just as I was about to grab him by his stupid haori, something manifested before me, and hugged me around my waist.
Dark brown hair in an undercut, a red and white high-vis jacket.
[Relax… it’s fine.]
The world had frozen. She had activated my Sandevistan.
“I’m… so fucking tired,” I said. Or really, I mouthed the words. With the Sandevistan on, I wasn’t really breathing. Didn’t need to. Nanny could already hear my thoughts, so it didn’t matter.
[I know.]
This was just a dumb party. And Lucy had already cleaned the house of incriminating stuff. I wasn’t in any real danger. And yet…
This really was too much.
[Let it go. Jin isn’t worth getting in more trouble.]
“Just accept that I’m powerless?! That he can just come into my house and—”
[You’re not powerless. Restraint is powerful.]
“Fuck this…”
[Don’t make me do your job for you. The social aspect is supposed to be your responsibility.]
“I fucking hate this.”
[One hour. Just give it one more hour. Once you’ve stabilized things, you can just disappear, right?] She pulled back from me, took up a boxing stance, and started ‘punching’ Jin. [In the meanwhile, just deal with him with kiddie gloves, alright? Brother?]
Brother. The utterance was enough to make me smile.
In losing my mother, I had quickly gained a sister. A weird, socially awkward machine-person, but human where it counted. My companion. My friend.
I still hadn’t reckoned with the fact that she might decide to leave me someday, based on what we had discussed after the race. I didn’t want to think about it, truth be told.
At least, for now, I could take solace in the fact that she was on my team.
[Nannie.]
“Huh?”
[IE, not Y. Nannie. I’m not your babysitter. And your naming sense is terrible.]
I rolled my eyes. “Fine.”
[Say it.]
“Nannie.”
[Thank you. Dick.]
“For naming you Nanny?”
[Yes. You’re a terrible person for that, but I’ll forgive you.]
I chuckled. I couldn’t even blame her—that had been terrible of me.
“Alright, Nannie. I think I’m ready.”
She disappeared, time resumed, and I returned to look at Jin’s shit-eating grin. He knew there was nothing I could do.
He was bullying me. And I was helpless.
Kill him—
No.
“What, bro?”
Bro?! Who the fuck is this gonk’s brother? “This was a good punishment,” I whispered to him. “Because, Jin? I’m fucking pissed now.”
He giggled. “Alright then—”
“She’s the love of my life,” I continued whispering. “And if this gets fucked up because of you? Then I no longer have a life. You get that?”
He clicked his tongue at me, still smirking. “Get off my dick, you henpecked bitch, and deal with it”
I sighed. “There’s more to my life than money and influence, Jin.”
“Yeah!” he frowned. “There’s being a little bitch too, clearly!”
[He’s not your friend, David.]
D: Huh?
[Showing your displeasure will not move him, because he is not your friend. Moreover, showing your displeasure would sooner put you in a bad position.]
D: I’m tired of letting people like him fuck with me. He fucked with my personal life.
[And he will burn for that. One day. I know that today was a long day, alright? You worked hard, today. I understand that. You’re tired.]
D: I’m always fucking tired.
“Enjoy the party, Jin,” I growled. “My girlfriend worked hard to fix it.”
He scoffed, and walked away.
[You might be overreacting due to tiredness.]
D: You might need to get off my dick.
[Alright. I shall command my nanite swarm to evacuate from your penis.]
I went down the stairs, approaching the inevitable meltdown that was Lucy meeting with Fei.
Once I quickly rounded down the stairs and met them, seemingly trading grins and kind words with one another, I… meant to throw an arm around Lucy and put on a grin, but I was too exhausted to do so.
Instead, I just slinked next to Lucy pathetically, and tried to grin at Fei. “Hey. Welcome to our humble abode.”
Fei looked at me slightly confused, then consideringly, and then she grinned back. “It feels nice to be here. And to meet your girlfriend, Stacy!”
Stacy? Right, that’s the name she picked for herself.
“I’m… really tired,” I told her.
“Yes, of course,” Lucy, or ‘Stacy’ said, hip-checking me away. “Why don’t I entertain Fei while you rest?” she asked, her tone icy and… mean.
I reached for her wrist. She dodged away. I looked at her in shock. What the hell, Luce?
Her eyes were utterly unsympathetic.
“No,” I said. “I think I have enough energy to—”
“To go to our room and rest,” Lucy insisted.
I breathed in.
Then out.
Fuck that.
“How about a word?” I asked.
“Is it urgent?”
I called her.
She blocked me.
Ah. That’s how she wants to do it.
“It’s fucking urgent,” I said plainly. Fei gasped. Lucy’s eyes widened.
I tilted my head and walked away. She finally followed me as I took her up the stairs and towards a deserted area of our apartment.
Once we reached the dead end in the mezzanine, I turned around and glared at Lucy. “Give me a break. Just. Give me a break. I’m tired. I’ve… I’ve worked. I’m fucking tired.”
Finally, her eyes seemed to slightly soften, and open up to how I was feeling. But it was too late. I was too tired.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” I said. “But it happened. And I’m sorry. Jesus Christ, I probably hate this more than you.”
“David,” Lucy sighed. “I’m sorry—”
I would have preferred that she fight me, rather than apologize. “I’m sorry,” I growled. “Me! I’m sorry, because I somehow fucked up. I didn’t get the rules right, and now this shit is happening, and there’s fuckall that I can do about it. And you won’t give me the time of day because you’re pissed and that somehow means more than anything else!”
“I am pissed,” Lucy hissed. “But that doesn’t mean that I think that you are wrong, David.”
“Then why’re you playing games?!”
“I want you to rest!”
Rest? Under these circumstances?
“David,” she cupped my cheeks. “Please. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just want you to lay down. Let me handle this. Please. I promise—“
“You hate corpos,” I whispered. “And moreover… this is my responsibility.”
“I would never sabotage you,” she said. “Or do you actually believe—“
I looked at her in shock. “You fucking hate Arasaka.”
“Don’t put this on me,” she whispered. “I’m trying—“
“I’m trying!
”“I know that!” she almost shouted. “Don’t you think I see that?” The corners of her eyes grew wet. Oh no. “You work… so hard. That’s all you know to do. I’m sorry for pushing you away, but I need you to go rest and let me handle this, David. Please.”
“You think I’m just a fuck-up,” I murmured. “Like my mom thought. You think—“
She hugged me. “Lie down. Please. I beg you.”
[She’s got a point, though. Inconceivable as it is to you.]
Inconceivable to think that maybe, I should have one good night of rest?
“Just,” I whispered, “treat Fei nicely.”
“Please,” Lucy pulled back, grinning. “You think I’m jealous or something?”
“She’s my friend.”
“Fine!” she laughed. “Then she’s my friend, too!”
I didn’t want to try and unpack that. Whether or not she was lying to me, I just didn’t care anymore.
[Fifty-three consecutive hours of consciousness, David. Lie down.]
Fuck!
000
“Are you… alright?” Fei asked as Stacy finally returned to the party, looking slightly discomfited.
The first thing that Fei had noticed about David’s girlfriend was ice. It was in her veins, and it surrounded her in an aura of cold. It made her wonder how any man could fall for someone this unwelcoming and harsh—especially someone like David, the only person she had met in her ‘world’ with even a shred of heart.
Maybe he had a big enough heart for the both of them.
To Fei-Fei, that seemed exploitative. How old is she, anyway? And she doesn’t even look that pretty to begin with. What’s—
Fei-Fei tried to look harder, but she couldn’t find it: the draw.
She could only locate ‘push’.
Fei was standing on the separation point between the dancing area and the dining area, where people were milling about, having drinks instead of gyrating to the beats of… David’s favorite EDM artist, now that she thought about it. And where was David?
“Me?” Stacy asked, her expression resolidifying back into ice and nothing else. “I’m perfectly fine. David, however, won’t be joining us for the time being.”
What?! “May I ask why? He seemed in such a hurry—“
“He’s exhausted,” she murmured, almost whispered, her eyes downcast. “He’s been… busy the past few days. Hasn’t had much sleep. And this… soirée came as a surprise to him. To the both of us.” She then looked up at Fei, her eyes taking on a harsher glint. “So pardon us both if we’re not currently at our most welcoming.”
It occurred to her then, that David had been at the forefront of every mess in the city for the past few days, yet he had found time to work on QianT’s affairs non-stop since morning.
Of course he’d be tired.
Fei-Fei looked up at the mezzanine, at Jin wearing a self-satisfied smirk as a bunch of lesser corp students flocked around him obsequiously. “This has Jin written all over it.”
No one else could conceivably push David around like this.
“I take it you’re not a fan, either,” Stacy said quietly.
“Jin doesn’t have fans,” Fei said. “He has followers. Occasionally, he’ll whip them to keep everyone in line.”
“Now it’s finally David’s turn,” Stacy said, her voice so cold that it could freeze a lake with but a breath.
Nevertheless, without David around, Fei-Fei found no reason to stay. The company wasn’t exactly her speed anymore, either.
Once again, she remembered that she didn’t really have any friends, these days. Only David.
“I suppose I can get out of your hair, then,” Fei-Fei grinned. “Unless there’s something I can do to help.” Unlikely. Stacy would dismiss her now, and she could just go home and—
“I don’t really go in for corpo events,” Stacy said, looking over at the dancing floor next to Fei-Fei. “I’m not really sure about what I’m meant to do, and David is counting on me to make sure that things don’t get worse for him,” she then turned to Fei-Fei with an unimpressed look. “Then again, I know you weren’t really offering to help. If you want to go home, there’s the door,” she nodded at the exit.
Fei-Fei felt her face flush at the blatant call-out. Then a spike of guilt that she had made such an empty offer in the first place.
In her defense, she didn’t know there was a way to help in the first place. It did seem like Stacy had everything well under hand. Her chilly aura certainly hadn’t clued Fei-Fei in that she was floundering.
…maybe that was just what she wanted people to think?
Everyone wore masks. Fei-Fei had just made the classical mistake of thinking that Stacy’s was her real face.
“I’m sorry,” Fei-Fei said. “I’m happy to help you with this.” She didn’t wait for permission to begin, instead, awkwardly siddling closer to Stacy, both of them now facing the direction of the dancers. “Okay, so, in an official party, there’s a lot more that goes into this kind of thing when you’re the host. You identify all the major players—David’s peers—and you try to make them feel welcome. Uh…”
“David’s only got the one,” Stacy said, nodding up at the mezzanine.
“That’s true,” Fei-Fei said. “Plus, he’s… no longer just a student. He’s a real shareholder. Strictly speaking: you don’t have to entertain any of these people because it would be beneath you anyway. They’re… children.” Left unsaid was the fact that Fei-Fei, too, was a child, and therefore not worth entertaining. She hoped that Stacy wouldn’t catch onto that. “You’d be within your rights to toss anyone out on their ass if they tried something. You do have security, right?” She looked around. She couldn’t find any.
“Security?” Stacy asked.
Then, she did something that Fei-Fei would never have expected from her. Her mouth split into a grin and she started laughing. She covered her mouth, suppressing the giggles.
“What’s… so funny?”
Stacy regained her composure and shook her head. “No, it’s nothing. I simply neglected to hire security is all.”
“Oh! Well, that’s fine. No one here would really try anything, but it’s just for when you need someone escorted out. Doing it yourself is kinda…”
“Beneath me,” Stacy completed. “Well, I prefer to get close and personal to whoever’s ass I’m kicking.”
Fei-Fei chuckled. “You fight, too?”
Stacy shrugged, shaking her head. “I know how to survive is all. I can handle myself.”
Bet she didn’t have a cannon for an arm, though. “That’s preem.”
She felt a twinge of annoyance at the compliment. She wasn’t supposed to like this girl. In fact, she bet she didn’t like Fei-Fei, either. She was all surly and blunt and—
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“Thank you,” she said. “I heard about your PLS. I think that’s really preem. Nothing like an anti-material railgun grafted onto your body to shut down all arguments,” she nodded respectfully.
Oh!
“Alright,” Stacy continued. “So the main gist is I can just go away and drink for a bit and tell anyone that bothers me to fuck off unless it’s Jin. I think I get it, now. Thanks for the help.”
“Don’t mention it. Really.”
“Do you want to drink?” Stacy asked.
“Uh—”
“It’s not heaven-shelf liquor imported straight from orbit, but it gets you wasted enough, and the kids seem to like it,” she gestured with her head at the crowd. “Alternatively, you can just go home and leave me to this… bizarre rich-people punishment ritual.”
Fei-Fei gaped in indignation. “Guilting me around will only take you so far, you know. You could have just asked.”
Stacy took half a step towards Fei-Fei, their faces only a foot away from one another. “Truth be told, I didn’t expect you to want to help. David told me that you’re good people, but that’s David. People tend to have reasons to be good around him.”
Fei-Fei’s breath caught in her throat.
“Either you’re just a really good actor, or it’s not an act at all,” she said. “I, myself, am curious to find out. If you’re up for the challenge of drinking with me. Fair warning, though: I am half-Russian.”
Fei-Fei giggled nervously, a split-second later chiding herself for the sudden reaction. Dangerous. This girl was dangerous.
There was a menace to her that reminded her of Ruomei. Hers was less quiet. Ruomei was deadly poison. This girl was a gun. And I’m the one with the arm-cannon here, so what gives?!
She met Stacy’s eyes and schooled her expression. “I look forward to meetings with David because he’s the only person in my life that doesn’t expect me to jump through hoops to meet his standards. I find that to be quite refreshing.”
“Do you, now?”
“In other words, I didn’t expect to come here and be tested.”
“Life is a test.”
“Indeed, it is.”
Stacy smirked. “Vodka or moutai?”
“Hmmm. Why don’t we go with both and see from there?”
000
Parties were parties, Lucy had observed over the course of the hour that the party had been on, whether you were a lowdown street rat without two ennies to rub together, or the child of some corpo bigshot.
Everyone got drunk the same, listening to the same music. The poors just couldn’t listen to it live, and their swill just tasted worse.
As a personal rule to herself, informed by Kiwi’s many lectures about not getting hooked on pricey things, she tended not to buy liquor of an unreasonable price. A fifty-eddie bottle of vodka was usually good enough for her. Better than the ten-eurobuck battery acid, and the flavor profile was indistinct from the ones worth a hundred, or even two-hundred.
Of course, this dumb party had necessitated that she spend… far, far too much on the sort of stuff that she normally would never touch.
Lucy found her and Fei a table in the back of the dining room that went unused. A waiter carrying a tray with one bottle of Maotai and another of vodka followed after them. She had sent the staff the request through the localnet, and they had been quick to oblige her with what she needed.
Lucy sat down, waited for the drinks and glass to hit the table, and didn’t wait to be poured her shot, instead taking the vodka and pouring it herself.
She took the glass and the threw it back into her gullet.
One down.
Again.
Then again.
As usual, it felt like trying to scoop water on top of a house fire, one handful at a time. At least at first. Eventually, she suspected that the ever-present tension in her jaw and shoulders would ease out.
Either that, or the presence of all these corpo-rats would finally have her go out Johnny Silverhand-style.
Unlikely. She wasn’t that stupid. Corpo-genocide was more David’s speed.
“You seem… thirsty,” Fei remarked, grinning, but looking slightly bewildered.
Such a normal girl.
A soft girl.
Sweet, too. Sweet and soft, like soft-serve vanilla ice cream—so fucking boring. Only interesting part of her was that arm she kept lugging around, and from the looks of things, she was handling it like a seasoned soldier, too. Lucy had seen grown men that were less able to handle their chrome.
Then again, most grown men didn’t have access to company ripperdoctors—doctors, not docs—and bespoke software work.
Even the ICE was solid. Too bad for her, she had logged into the localnet upon arriving, and Lucy had spent all of five seconds skullfucking her flimsy cybersecurity, before then absently coding a generalized decryption key just for shits. It would take hours of focused work, but she had a pretty good idea of where to go.
Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t just activate a Sandevistan and get it done in two milliseconds, so she had to also act like she was in the moment.
Talking to this bitch.
Rather than answer her question, Lucy tried for a friendly grin. Fei-Fei looked taken aback by it, her head actually backing away slightly.
Too much acid in her grin, no doubt. Less Lunacy, more… Stacy.
“You don’t… have to match my pace,” Lucy said carefully. “I just feel rather out of it is all. Was hoping I could drink up a winning attitude and face the rest of the evening without… freaking out.”
Fei-Fei snorted. She poured herself a measure of Maotai, the floral liquor leaving the red-ribbon tied bottle with a clumsy splash. She clearly wasn’t used to serving herself.
She put the bottle down and threw back a shot.
Then, she poured again, this time more carefully, having learned her lesson the last time.
While she threw it back, Lucy took the bottle of Maotai.
Fei-Fei gaped at her. “I—“
Lucy poured it for her, gently, with coordination that actually befit a grown adult.
“Oh. Thank you.”
She then looked at her tiny glass, grimaced in disgust and what looked like nausea, from the bulge of her lower chin. She took the tiny glass—
“It helps to pinch your nose,” Lucy smirked.
Fei-Fei took three quick breaths through her nose, and threw the third shot back.
Lucy clapped a little. “Good job.”
“Fuck you,” Fei-Fei groaned. Then her eyes widened and she slapped a hand over her mouth.
Lucy looked at her for a moment, before chuckling quietly, shaking her head. For an outcast, she seemed all too shy about her own behavior.
It was almost endearing. Almost.
She found herself having to stop that sentiment in its tracks. She was nothing but human livestock, reared for the benefit that it could bring to the farmer. David’s pet sheep, currently being sheared for wool, but eventually she’d grow big and fat enough to be worth slaughtering.
Whether or not David wanted to admit it to himself.
“I am, in fact, growing a little thirsty,” Lucy said, ordering some non-alcoholic refreshments through the localnet. “I’ll take a NiCola. You?”
“Uh, NiCola?” She looked unsure.
Lucy stared at her for a second. “Was that a question?”
“What?! No! I mean, yes, I’ll take a NiCola. I wasn’t asking—I just don’t know what I should get, and NiCola sounds fine. I promise.”
“You’re too good for NiCola, Fei-Fei? Is that it?”
“No! I promise, I wasn’t—“
Lucy giggled again. She was so easy to rile up. “Yes, here in brokie-land, we drink NiCola. I didn’t think that was going to be a problem, really. My caterer—“
“It’s not a problem, Stacy!” Who the fuck was Stacy—oh, right. “I promise. Okay?! Seriously. I didn’t mean to offend.”
Lucy didn’t know if she actually even believed in this little conflict that she, herself had pitched, but it was fun to watch Fei-Fei squirm. Soft-serve bitch deserved a little stirring. “Alright, alright. Fine.”
“I want to get to know you, Stacy,” Fei-Fei said. “I do. If you can give me a chance at least, and prove that I’m not as bad as you think I am—”
Lucy held up a hand. “Relax, okay? I was just having fun.”
“At my expense.”
“At mine, actually,” Lucy corrected. “I bought the drinks.” Well, David did. “Isn’t that how you people think? As long as you’ve got the eddies, you make the rules. And you get to say whatever you want.”
Fei frowned at her. “It’s the truth if you believe it is. So go ahead. Make the rules. Treat me like shit. It’s your right now, isn’t it?”
Lucy sighed. “Fine. Sorry. You don’t… deserve that.” A waiter arrived with two glass bottles of NiCola, and two glasses as well. As he uncorked the caps, Lucy continued. “I had a feeling that this day would come one day.”
“What day? Us meeting?”
Lucy tilted her head unsurely. “…Yeah, that. But also this whole thing. No offense, really, but—I can’t stand your kind.”
“Asians?” Fei-Fei asked in shock.
The fuck? Lucy gaped in surprise at the vehemence of her words before her mind caught up to herself.
Ah, that was a joke. Lucy giggled. Fei-Fei did as well, a moment after. “No, of course not. I mean the Taiwanese specifically.”
Fei-Fei stopped laughing and gaped.
“Hahahahahaha!”
“I deserved that, I guess,” she muttered.
She kind of did, having started them off on the jokes and all. “I mean corpos. Obviously. But it’s like—of course, who doesn’t?” Lucy deflected. “Not in a: ‘I have a blood feud with everyone that owns stocks’ kind of way.” It absolutely was, but she needed to blend in with the general antipathy towards corpos that everyone in the city had, and not the sort that people who followed D were starting to develop.
“What’s there to like, anyway?” Fei-Fei asked. “I don’t think you’re wrong for feeling that way at all, Stacy. I just don’t think you should lump me in with everyone else, you know?”
Sweet as soft-serve.
“Of course,” Lucy said. “I understand what you mean. And, yeah, I’m sorry for giving you a hard time. As I told you, it’s been a hard day, and I’m not in a great mood, so I’m finding it hard not to lash out, or say things that I don’t mean. And you’ve been helpful. I appreciate that.”
“Then what else do I need to do?”
She clearly hadn’t bought Lucy’s placating words.
And the desperation in her voice made Lucy reconsider trying to deflect or placate her further. Really, what could Fei-Fei conceivably do to win Lucy over?
Fuckall, really. Boo hoo, so sad. Lucy wouldn’t lose any sleep over that.
“Maybe we should also fuck?” Lucy joked absently. “Seemed to work for David.”
Fei-Fei gaped.
Ah. That was… wrong to say. “Sorry again,” Lucy said. “You know, where I’m from, we like to talk shit, and don’t expect every word to strike such a chord, you know?” Grow some thicker skin, girl. The hell is wrong with you?
Fei-Fei blinked a couple of times. Then, she narrowed her eyes.
She then shook her head.
“What?” Lucy asked.
“You’re just not my type is all,” Fei-Fei said. “I mean, I’m sorry. Maybe if you wore a paper-bag over your head?”
Huh?
Lucy laughed. “You bitch.”
And Lucy was plenty pretty! She had specifically chosen this meady-ass prosthetic face-cover to look less so.
“Oh? Is the truth hurting you?” Fei-Fei asked, tilting her head. Lucy laughed harder. “I am sorry, you know.”
“Don’t be,” Lucy said. “I bet I could still charm your panties off without getting you drunk, soft-serve.”
“Soft serve?”
“Yeah. Because you’re soft, sweet, and just a little bit cold. Nothing a little tongue-action wouldn’t solve in time, though.”
Fei-Fei seemed to reach for the Maotai in panic. Lucy was faster, taking it and sliding it towards herself. “That’s—that’s mine,” Fei-Fei said.
Lucy brought the bottle to her lips, and drank straight out from it, while keeping eye-contact. Fei-Fei looked away, blushing furiously.
Once done, Lucy groaned, wiping her lips with the back of her hand and sliding the bottle back towards her. “Here’s your drink.” She lifted it off the table again and poured it gently into her waiting glass. “What do you say, princess?”
“Heh,” Fei-Fei giggled nervously as she looked at the bottle, and the glass. “Th-that’s gross. Who’d wanna drink from anything that you drank from?”
Lucy smiled at her. “Alternatively, I could ask for a new bottle, and a new glass. No problem at all, but it would be a shame to throw out this perfectly good—“
“Alright,” she hissed, reaching for her glass, and throwing it back. She let out a groan. “Whatever makes it easier to charm me, I guess,” Fei-Fei grinned sweetly. “We both know you need the handicap, Stacy.”
Her face was entirely red now.
“Hope you liked the taste of my lip-gloss, soft serve.”
“I’m calling the police,” she said, looking away and grinning nervously.
Lucy giggled. She was fun.
000
“I ain’t your average sicko. I’m dead just like disco. My bank account is zero, zero, zero, oh no!”
Jin laughed as he danced to the tunes played by RATBOY, the DJ with the big-ass cartoon rat-mask on.
This was gutter-trash music, but all the best music was. Something about their suffering that made their shit so much nicer to listen to. Suffering was the salt of all good art. Without it, you got bland, weird shit like Lizzy Wizzy and those three bitches with those weird eyes.
He’d never spoken of this to anyone, but he quite enjoyed Johnny Silverhand’s music. Anyone that had dealt such a blow to Arasaka was worth listening to. Samurai had it all: technical prowess and this preternatural ability to stir emotion, mostly rage and longing.
It was a shame about David, though.
Unlike popular belief, Jin didn’t actually like hurting people.
For the most part.
Most of the time, he really only did it as a matter of course. Something his father had taught him to do to instill loyalty and fear in those below him. It was a way to survive. Nothing more, nothing less.
David, however… he was different. He was, for one, truly fucking exceptional in what he was able to bring to the table. Winning a fucking world-renowned GT race on his first goddamned try—
Was good. Better than good, it showed initiative, to a truly
ludicrous extent. It was the sort of initiative that would be worthy of a seat at whatever table that old Saburo sat his ass in. Thankfully, Jin’s old man had already formally laid his claim to David. Now, even if the old fossil wanted David, Arasaka would have to pay a steep cost to get him. Either way, the Ryuzakis benefitted.Though Jin personally doubted that his father would sell him off to the Arasakas. Masaru Ryuzaki was an ambitious motherfucker that had his eyes glued to the CEO’s chair, like most of the board members worth their salt already did.
David wasn’t exactly a fucking ticket to the chair at the head of the table, but he was a valuable asset to have, rather than just trade away off to Japan.
Besides that, he was also just interesting. More so than anyone else Jin had met his age. It therefore pained him to have to punish him.
But needs must, really. He needed to learn not to fuck around, and Jin had been bored anyway, and this?
This was a fun way to break up the monotony of a Sunday evening.
…Where the fuck was David, though?
Jin broke away from his own self-made mosh of dancers in the mezzanine floor, looking over the railings into the ground floor.
No one. Not even that asshole’s girlfriend, or Fei.
He went to the other side of the mezzanine, leaning over the railings there as well.
Right in the dining wing, they both were.
The sidepiece, and Fei-Fei.
And no David in sight.
Where the fuck was he?
He tried to call David.
No dice. He was either asleep, or…
He had blocked him.
For Jin’s own peace of mind, he had to assume that his boy had picked the less retarded option.
He was curious, however, to figure out why David would just… go to sleep like that.
Right now, right here. In his new shiny home.
The same home that Jin had helped him afford!
Dick.
Jin walked away from the mosh of dancers in the mezzanine, pushing through them and making a beeline towards the staircase down. Once he reached the ground floor, he rounded the stairs and approached the two bitches, putting on a smile.
Fei-Fei was… just a bitch. Nothing worth spilling iced tea over if he were to flatline her.
This Stacy whore was… something different. A distraction. Moreover, one that had David in something of a headlock. Irritating. He should know, by now, that females weren’t worth anything but what they could give you. And if Stacy came with conditions… then clearly, she wasn’t worth anything at all.
They were tittering and giggling together as well, like two girls that were so obviously closeted lesbians. Goodness, gracious. David really knew how to pick the worst of them. Did this ugly-ass bitch Stacy even like David?
Doubtfully. She was just probably in it for the money. Loyal to the man that she so sought to bind into some kind of marriage or something.
Given what David had revealed to him, then that was probably the case.
The motherfucker had already wifed her without even a contract. Pitiful.
David’s main weakness seemed to be women, it seemed. His future wife and his current mistress.
So many women. So many… liabilities.
Day in and day out, Jin had women falling over themselves in order to try and get with him. This one bitch, Misaki, kept trying to win his favor by way of putting out her pussy, as if that mattered to Jin.
Pussy was cheap. The mind… yes, that was far more expensive.
As he finally reached the bottom floor, a pair of servants approached him with shot-glasses full of a variety of drinks. Three servers, with three shot-glasses each. One clear—vodka. One amber, whiskey, most likely. And another with a blueish tint to it. Hmmm…
“Absinthe, sir,” the waiter holding the tray with the blueish shot glass of liquor on it. The strongest liquor.
Jin’s lips split into a wide grin, and he looked into the waiter’s eyes—the worm tried to meet his grin with his own, but he was too chickenshit to spread those ugly, chapped lips of his—and he took the glass.
Then he paid the worm a tidy tip of five hundred.
Jin enjoyed the glee that lit up in his features as he, himself, downed the glass of harsh liquor.
Hmph! That hits the spot!
The waiter stopped himself from doing his brokie dance of glee, long enough to wait for Jin to place his glass on the tray and wait.
That’s it, boy. Wait.
Doggie wants his cookie? Doggie wants his cookie?
“Can you…”
“Anything, sir,” the waiter immediately said.
HAHAHAH!
“Can you… balance this glass on your head? For ten times your tip?”
“Yes!”
He didn’t skip a beat as he assented, either. Jin found himself having to at least try.
He put the glass on top of the waiter’s head.
The waiter tried to adjust it—“No,” Jin commanded. “Like this.”
He kept his neck in an awkward position, fighting to keep the glass on top of his head.
Jin pointed his hand at a nearby kitchen counter. “There. That’s, what, thirty feet? Go over there, put the glass down, and I’ll tip you even more.”
The waiter’s eyes widened. He turned around, and slowly walked away awkwardly, trying his best to balance the glass. In the meanwhile, Jin grabbed both glasses of whiskey and vodka from the waiters that lingered, downing them both in one go. Both of them were watching the third waiter as he walked carefully, empty shot glass on his head, as he approached the kitchen counter step by step.
At this rate, he was really going to do it.
Not on my fucking watch.
“Yo!” Jin roared. The waiter didn’t so much as stir.
“Shake your head if you want a thousand eddies!”
The waiter, the greedy bitch that he was, didn’t so much as tremor as he continued walking towards the counter.
Jin scanned him, reading through his file and quickly finding some dirt on him. His mother’s name.
Jin’s lips split into a grin as he considered an idea. “Welcome to the orgy, Barbara Williams!”
Finally, he stirred. The shot glass fell from his head and shattered on the ground.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Ah… As he calmed from his raucous laughter, watching the waiter whine and moan at how he had fucked up the little challenge, Jin wiped his forehead and grinned widely. “Tough luck, brother.” He didn’t so much as look at the asshole’s face as he proceeded onwards towards his task.
And what was that again? Right. Stacy and Fei-Fei.
They were on the far end of the dining room, giggling together like a pair of fucking lesbians, when he approached.
“Heyyyy!” Jin grinned. “What is up with my two favorite girls in the world?!”
They both stirred from their conversation, and then looked up at him in something that was likely fright and disgust. Of course.
A split-second afterwards, they realized their places, and smiled at him instead.
“Hey, Jin!” David’s ugly girlfriend stood up to greet him, as was proper. “I hope you’re having a good time!”
“It’s alright,” he said. “Your place is okay, as far as these things go.” The décor was so fucking uninspired, though.
“Why, thank you!” A waiter approached them with a third chair to put on the table, which Jin sat on with a satisfied sigh.
“So. Where the fuck is David?” Jin grinned.
“Ah, David?” Fei asked.
“He’s… away,” Stacy said.
Away?!
“Where?”
“Away. Jin,” Stacy said, grinning widely.
Jin’s grin fell.
What, the, actual, fuck?!
Was she… talking back to him?!
“Where. Stacy?”
Stacy scooted her chair over to him, and beckoned him closer. “Come, come.”
Jin leaned closer.
She wrapped her hand around his head, pulled it closer, and whispered. “Away.”
This fucking bitch.
Just as he was about to pull his head back to give her a piece of his mind, her fucking witch fingers stiffened into talons that dug into the back of his head, and she continued hissing. “Asleep. And you aren’t to fucking bother him, you little bitch, or else.”
Jin’s heart skipped a beat in a moment of sheer fucking terror.
He felt his throat tighten somehow, like something thin wrapped around his neck, ready to decapitate him in a split second, before suddenly…
It disappeared.
He breathed quickly as she finally let go of his head, and still, he couldn’t shake the fact that he had been near to dying somehow.
No. That… that couldn’t be true. He was just drunk.
Before he could even say a word, Stacy proffered a shot-glass of vodka towards him. He took it, grin shakily, and downed it.
Right. That… had to be a mistake. He was just drunk, was all.