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Neon Twilight (Princess Pittoey and I)

B

Broomhandle45

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There was a time in Shiraga Jin's life all settled together in some weird moment of spiritual, physical and emotional understanding with his surroundings, Maybe living in San Francisco had gotten to him, maybe being surrounded by a war zone when the smell of gunpowder and the uncomfortable twitch of magic had done something to him.

Maybe he was just getting soft in his old age. Maybe his first reaction to hearing a gunshot shouldn't have been running to it, but with the way everything was going back then, there wasn't a lot of options for him. His life had been one of a gravedigger, one that made him far too contemplative at times as the Trideo in the back drone on the local news in Japanese and English.

San Francisco had changed when the war finally dialed down. There was no real divide of the rich or the poor, greedy corps grabbed up destroyed lots and made state of the art complexes for the rich and the influential while everyone else was pushed to the side. It wasn't uncommon to see incredible testaments to engineering and construction next to a blown out building, hidden safely behind a modern wall. Jin let out a heavy exhale, taking a long swig of his drink. It tasted terrible, like paint thinner.

You can't just quit. Ah. The memories always came back. We're family, you're giving up family?

Guess I'm just getting soft these days, maybe I should retire. He could see the looks of betrayal on their faces, even now. He could see it when he went to sleep and when he woke up in the morning and felt the weight of his choice. Then he remembered the terrified look of that little girl; and the fear that she had from just seeing Jin walk closer. He wished somewhere that he could have explained to his old family that he just had a gut feeling, but that feeling would come and go with the bodies.

All of this over that girl and her family? He glanced at his glass, watching the ice sink deeper into his drink as he swirled the glass around. He remembered hearing the sound of drawn blades, his golden eyes narrowing thoughtfully at the wall. The racking of slides, the silent orders, the shifting of feet.

If you don't like it, you can try to stop me from leaving. He wondered if he honestly did feel guilty when it came right down to it, did he really miss those men and women? Did he miss Sazaki? Yuruno? He didn't know, but he did know that the girl that he was sharing some crappy one room apartment in the Marina District made him feel something worthwhile, and that was an easy sacrifice for him to make.

Today, he decided that it was the time they finally talked about everything. He had raised her from a shaken little girl to a formidable runner, someone he could trust and rely on. He didn't think it was a feeling of shame that stopped him, but maybe he knew what the response would be and he wanted to make sure she was ready for it. Soon as she was out of the shower, and soon as he was done with his drink.

Maybe then he'd know what to tell her.
 
The shower had already gone cold, and yet she still stood there, staring coldly at the water circling the drain, like every night for the past few years. The longer she went without finding her brother and sister, the more years past without avenging her father and mother, the more bitter she got. The feelings of resentment and anger only built up over the course of nearly six years. Her eighteenth birthday had just past, but it had meant nothing considering it was the anniversary of the moment her life went to hell.

She thought running would get her closer to finding her parents murderer, some Japanese shit head with a tattoo of a snake on the side of his face. However, she had gotten no where closer to finding him, only dead leads. It was frustrating, infuriating even, but she could do little without knowing a mans name. All she knew about him was that her father had done business with him once, and took a loan to keep his business afloat. He was paying them back slowly, gradually, but they were impatient. They decided that they would settle the debt by taking her older brother and sister, and when he refused to give them up, the man with the snake tattoo blew his brains out right in front of their entire family.

Her mother tried to save them all, she tried and failed and was shot down like an animal. The bullet went through her body and grazed her side, and the pain made her knees buckle.

The twins did not want to leave her behind to die, so they surrendered and let those men take her. She couldn't do anything but watch under the body of her lifeless mother. Maybe she should have tried to call the police back then, but she was too scared. She fainted, and by the time she came to, they were gone. That didn't stop her from grabbing her fathers gun from his safe and running into the night to chase after them.

That night...flashed through her mind at least once every single day, and she always thought about it before she closed her eyes to go to sleep. She no longer felt sadness from the memories, just anger and numbness. The only good thing in her life was Jin, and sometimes she wondered why he decided to take her in the night he found her, holding her fathers gun and pointing it right at him after shooting some creep who tried to snatch her up when she was wandering around.

She didn't know why he did what he did, but she did know that he was the only thing she could look at without feeling hatred, or sadness. Maybe that's why she bonded with him so hard, or maybe it was because he taught her how to survive and be strong. She didn't know, but...It was time to get out of the shower.

She sighed softly before shutting the water off and drawing the curtain back. She took one of the towels from the rack and wrapped it around her fit, slightly muscular body. Not even bothering to dry her hair, she came out of the shower only to find Jin drinking that gross stuff that always made him smell bad. Alcohol was disgusting, she didn't get why adults drank it.

"Smells like you've had enough." She grumbled as she walked by him, going into the closet to find some clothes to throw on.
 
"Smells like you have too," Jin replied dryly, sitting down his glass to regard her. She had grown up in a lot of ways, but there was still a lot of anger to work through...he supposed she wasn't exactly in an emotionally nurturing environment, and god knew he wasn't exactly the best person to learn from. "You ever hear about drowning in your own thoughts, Adrian? You look like you were about to stop coming up for air."

This was one of the reasons he was going to tell her today, every year she got older; the more frustrated she looked. Despite that anger, she had become a capable Runner on her own. So, he'd better stop worrying about what it'd do and instead work on what they could fix about it.
 
"That's nothing new." Adrian replied, grabbing a pair of sweat pants and a black tank top. He knew that, but of course he wanted to pick at her for it. She couldn't say she blamed him, but it was nothing she could really help. She pulled the towel off her body and wrapped it around her hair, not caring whether or not he was looking. They had a close relationship, he had seen her naked plenty of times, especially when dressing her wounds when she got hurt running. "Then again, neither is your drinking. So maybe we should both stop bringing it up." She said passively as she slipped into her tank top.
 
"Maybe," Jin mused, pursing his lips in thought as he regarded her. He was always told his eyes were unsettling, or he was unsettling...somehow this little brat of a girl was unphased by him. She was growing up into a beautiful woman that would probably die in a gutter in three or four years. Such was life, you grew attached and then they died. But there was one thing that could help with that, really...the one thing that Jin could do that would help her. Later, however.

"We've got another job, you interested?" Jin murmured faintly. "Something against the Yakuza."
 
"Always," Adrian answered as she slipped her sweat pants on. She always jumped on jobs involving a Yak. It was another opportunity that she could discover information of what happened to her brother and sister, even though there were multiple clans in the area. "What's the job? Some Johnson asking for us to take out the garbage?"
 
"Not exactly," Jin mused. "Extraction, someone from the Hebi Clan took an important person from our Johnson. He has a rough estimate of a location, but I'd say his guess is right," he said, taking a sip of his glass. "Get in, get out, make an example...pretty simple, but this is still Yakuza we're talking about." So that meant anything in this town, pissing off the Hebi Clan meant pissing off everyone they were friends with too.
 
"Ugh, that sounds boring." Adrian grumbled as she folded her arms. "What, did they take some poor damsel away from her rich family so they could get a ransom out of her? I didn't become a runner just to save princesses, you know. If this didn't involve those filthy yaks, I would have turned it down." Fucking hell, she hated missions where she couldn't put a bullet in some thugs head unless she had to. She especially hated saving people, because it burned at her. She was out there saving other people when she couldn't even save her own family.
 
"Down girl," Jin said in amusement. "You barely know what we're doing and you're already making assumptions, besides, you don't get a choice in going or not, they contacted me. Not you," he smirked. "For your information, someone from Mitsuhama got taken for not playing fair with the Hebi clan, the company would like to punish him on their own, and not give them the pleasure of doing so themselves."
 
"So we're saving the Princess and then giving her back to her original captors," Adrian muttered with a shrug. "Still sounds boring, but whatever. I'm in." She still had to play it safe, she still couldn't just do what she wanted. It was...well, it was what it was. Not all of her missions could be exciting, and there was still some small chance she could find out useful information. Maybe.
 
"You gonna be like that, huh?" Jin said dryly. "Fine, Addy, we do this right and I'll tell you something interesting, don't give me that bored look, I need you on your game, we clear?" Sometimes it was like herding cats with her, she was more interested in digging up every inch of dirt she could on her past, and he couldn't blame her, but it wasn't going to get her anywhere if she lost sight of what was ahead of her.
 
"I'm always on my game, Jin. What about you?" Adrian asked with a matter of fact tone. Sometimes, during missions, she felt like he was holding back. She knew he was an amazing fighter, he had taught her everything she knew. He just seemed...way above the people they usually fought. "And what do you mean you'll tell me something interesting? How is that going to excite me for this?"
 
"What if I told you the Hebi clan has something to do with your siblings' disappearance?" Jin said casually, deflecting her question entirely. "And that if we play our cards right, we could find something out?" Adrian had a good head on her shoulders, but she hadn't let go, ever. Like most things with Adrian, Jin had no idea how to really quantify how he felt or what they did together as anything more than a means to an end for her to figure it out eventually.

He supposed that time was nearing an end, and this job was just the beginning of it.
 
Her expression darkened when he said that, but it was clear that she was suddenly interested from the way her body language changed entirely. "How do you know that? Did you get a tip from someone?" She asked him, more so out of curiosity than suspicion. Did they finally have a solid lead?
 
"I did some digging around," Jin said casually. "It's not much, but it's more than we've had before...so what do you say, are you with me now?" He figured that'd work, it usually did. But at least now, he had something to give her.
 
"Yes, absolutely." Adrian answered simply. Of course she was with him, even if this was just another dead end. She would go after any clue, any possibility. It was the only thing she could do. "When are we leaving? I'll start making preparations now."
 
"Soon," Jin sighed, rising up as he rolled his shoulders slowly. "Been a while since I tangled with Hebi, you be careful, little girl," he smirked. "They eat pretty things like you and put them on the street, so dress like you're a professional, eh?" he said, heading to his closet. Yes, yes they certainly did...he would know from personal experience. "I don't want them getting the wrong idea about you, I get touchy about that."

He was probably a fool, hoping that one day she'd be normal. Maybe he should just hope for long-lived at this point.
 
"Oh yeah? Why is that?" Adrian questioned casually as she moved to the closet to start packing, though her motives were far from innocent. She knew he was...older, and for a long time she hoped he would notice her in 'that way', but it was sort of hard when he knew what she looked like naked in a platonic way. She doubted his touchiness would be based off some territorial mate thing, but a girl could dream, couldn't she?
 
"Because I don't like guys looking at you like that," Jin said dryly as he fit on his jacket "Especially ones I know you're better than, you need to have some standards, girl...just because you hang out with scumbags and thieves doesn't mean you need to fuck one." he murmured, smoothing the collar out as he checked the chamber on his Predator pistol out of habit before loading a magazine in, and then reaching for his katana. It looked as old and shitty as he did, but the blade was still perfectly capable of cutting through anything he needed.

Mostly due to a few 'enhancements' or two.
 
"What if I want to fuck a scumbag thief?" Adrian asked unapologetically as she pulled a black duffel bag out of the closet. His response wasn't entirely disappointing, but she knew better than to read into it more than she needed to. Last thing she needed was to fool herself into thinking he was interested in her like that. "Those are the best kind. Aren't you one of those?"
 
"Are you insinuating that you want to fuck me?" Jin replied flatly, adjusting the cuffs to his suit. "Because I don't think you'll be able to find anyone as good as I am at being a scumbag thief anyway," he smirked. She had quite a mouth on her, wonder where she learned that?
 
"Bah, you're old." Adrian growled in response as she pulled out her two Ares Crusaders and placed them in their respective holsters. Fuck, she was stupid as hell. Why couldn't she just say yes? Maybe she was just afraid of rejection or something, so she did it first out of habit. "Besides, I don't want to fuck anyone. Shit's gross."
 
"Astute eyes, girl," Jin smirked, ruffling her hair mockingly in passing. "No wonder you're such a good shot, I guess I don't have to worry about you bringing home some asshole to sleep with, huh?" She was a little prickly today, more so than usual. Wonder what got her fired up, other than the obvious.
 
Adrian swatted his hands away from her hair before going back into her cloet and pulling out a mediums sized chest that she used to keep her ammunition in. Ugh, she hated when he did that. He had been doing it since as long as they had been together, and she wasn't a kid anymore. "Guess not," She said stiffly. "I'm bringing the Remington. Might need the scope to find the package through a window or some dumb spy shit.." She muttered, attempting to change the subject. She didn't want to talk about sex anymore, not that she ever had it or had interest in it with anyone other than him. Even then, she wasn't quite sure if she really wanted to fuck him, or if she just wanted intimacy of some kind. A kiss, a touch, she just wanted to know he felt attracted to her.
 
"Sure," Jin said, glancing at her with a faint arch of his brow. "Addy, is something up?" he said, scratching his chin. "You're being a little more charming than usual, all of that scathing wit is razor sharp tonight," he smirked. "What's wrong? I don't want you having some weird thought in your head when we're trying to work."
 
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