Payment where dues are paid

It had been a slow month for Veronica Gannon, sticking in the shadows of the AFW facility in her black leather long coat and sunglassed. After curb-stomping one brat she was stuck with nothing to do but lay low until something caught her eye for once. Or more specifically, someone.

The Japanese women in the white coat would probably notice she was being followed by someone if she was who Veronica thought she was. If not then they probably wouldn't block a lead pipe shot.

Naoko walked calmly down the street, heading for the back entrance of the AFW building. She didn´t like using the main entrance, too much attention and too much people. It was also too noisy and made her an easy target for anyone trying to eliminate her like 'they' had eliminated her father. On the back alley on the other hand the situation was much more controllable, although there was fewer places to run there was also much easier to spot anyone trying to ambush her.... Like the head-shaved and heavy tattooed girl that had been following and was trying to hit her with a lead pipe.

The Japanese woman took a step to the side right about when the pipe was about to hit her head, moving with such speed but at the same time so little effort that it barely seemed as if she had changed position. She stopped and stood there, her back still turned to her assailant and her hands inside the pockets of her white trench-coat.

"Veronica" Naoko said coldly without bothering to turn around to face her. "What are YOU doing here?"

"So it is you. Thought it was some other bitch who thought it be fun to dress up as a White Dead around here." Veronica said, unfazed by how effortlessly Naoko dodged the blow, calmly placing the lead pipe to one side before leaning up against a wall.

"Why am I here?" She responded to the Yakuza's question "Why am I anywhere in this country?" she asked back rhetorically, if Naoko could remember her name then she should be able to answer that for herself "But I could ask the same question about you, why the heir to the Shinoda clan's sulking around the back alleys of this dump?"

Naoko grinned but kept her posture, standing with her hands in her pockets with her back turned to Veronica while still talking to her in a casual way. She knew why Veronica was here, to avoid the law. Naoko had though the AFW to be nothing but a silly TV show, but now that she had investigated the organization a little more closely she knew better. It was not only one of the most popular entertainments in Japan, all of Asia and a good part of the world; it was also a quite shaddy organization who spend a lot of money in bribes and dirty business to keep in her roster some of the toughess women in the world. Women that would surely be jailed if it wasn't for the AFW protection. Just like Veronica.

"Personal business." Naoko answered coldly. But then she raised an eyebrow as a suspicion started to sneak in her mind. 'The Shinoda heir', Veronica had said. Did this punk knew anything about the dead of her father.

Naoko slowly turned aroun to take a look at Veronica's face trying to read her. "You know my father is dead, don't you?

"Pfft everything's fucking personal with Yakuza..." veronica snorted as she took out a cigarette "The old man died? Shit, the only guy who'd hire a fucking gaijin merc and now he's dead." she growled lighting it up, taking a heavy drag. While she had worked freelance in her home country she found the Japanese organized crime syndicates a lot harder to penetrate.

They were always off talking about honor and pride, which is ironic considering most of their dealings with people involved them beating a lot of them up for protection money and shooting anyone who said no. Still they just weren't interested in outside help, especially not from a foreigner and a woman. Shinoda had given her a few jobs but they were never anything highly valued, dealing with some crazy bastard with a shotgun who had holed up outside Tokyo and didn't trust anyone with slanted eyes for one. Still,not enough to get by with how infrequent they were and now that was gone. "How'd he go?" she asked taking a long drag from her cigarette.

Naoko mouth curved almost impercetibly into a sort of smile. Obviously Veronica knew nothing. She was just a punk.

Naoko could feel little more than despise for the gaijin, even though she had an inusual high tolerance for them, going so far as to consider one her best friend. But Stephanie was different, she wasn't like other gaijins at all.

Veronica on the other hand was everything that could be expected from a gaijin, stupid, ugly, disrespectful, honorless and just plain disgusting. A brute. But a very effective brute. She was not worth trusting, but she still could be useful, Naoko thought as she turned around fully to face Veronica.

"Someone slit his throat and cut off his hands" Naoko said with an incredibly calm tone considering she was talking about her father. The Japanese girl seriously doubted the gaijin would understand the significance of being killed like that, she understood nothing. But then again Veronica's ignorance may be an advantage after all.

"Are you working for someone?" Naoko asked without changing the tone in her voice.

"huh, now isn't that interesting." Veronica said to herself, thankful that her glasses were concealing her eye movements "kinda light tone when considering it was your dad and all." She commented, watching the Yakuza's eyes. Typical, she thought that the Brit knew nothing and that she knew everything, always a bad assumption to make in the underworld, yet it was surprising how many did.

"Depends on how much you're offering." She said finally, flicking the last of her cigarette down and grinding it with her boot.

Naoko frowned slightly at Veronica's comment about her father and for a second felt offended and cosidered correcting the gaijin... in a violent way. But she stopped herself for doing any movement. Veronica wasn't worth it and it would surely ruin any possible business relationship between them.

"How much did my father paid you? And what exactly you did for him?" Naoko asked.

"What I did?" She repeated "Confidential between me and your dear old dad." She said with a sick smile, fully expecting Naoko to jump at any moment. "He paid me enough to get by, I told him he was cutting me short, he disagreed, I beat up a few of those guys he always keeps around him after I insisted, we re-negotiated, and I agreed, now he's dead before his last cheque cleared. Funny story." She said with a smile, no doubt Naoko would want all the details, that meant she'd keep her alive to find out what the clan head was keeping from her own daughter but that wasn't a good thing necessarily, The White Deads had ways of keeping someone alive beyond what a human could physically take.

"The punchline is the clans still owe me 2 million yen for services provided, and since your the one who inherited a lot of his stuff, it also means you inherit his debt too, but that can wait for another time. After all, if I kill you before I get my money who am I gonna get it from?"

Naoko frowned now more clearly and took a step towards Veronica, even if she didn't took seriously those childish death threats she certainly didn't liked them. Her posture and the tone of her voice barely changed and yet Naoko managed to look clearly more menacing in attitude. "I seriously doubt you are worth that much. But if you expect to receive any kind money from me, you better tell me what I want to know. I'm not going to pay you for keeping me in the dark."

Naoko took a second to look at Veronica and then smiled. "...or you can go with the clans and ask them to hire you." she said and then turned around to continue walking to the back entrance of the building. "It is your choice."