FicWad

Kei still freaked a bit when Sho went out on dates, but it was now a more common occurrence. Mika left for Suki, and Suki faded out to Nala, and so on. Sho was also pushing for bigger hauls on their little heists, leaving Kei feeling that they were pushing too fast, too much. But Sho would shrug off any talk of slowing down.

They were sitting outside of Toshi's Happy Pizza, discussing their next job, and Kei was getting a bit upset. "Look, we can't hit everyone, or they'll eventually figure out that we're the ones robbing everyone blind. You know we've already got people looking for us, Sho. Maybe it's time to take a break, take a vacation and chill out."

"Nope. I want to be someone, a big someone. I need the money to do that, to be a man about town. That's been my dream since the day you showed up with the pistols in that abandoned bakery. I will be a someone, not a street punk that happens to have a large cash roll to buy stuff he can't steal." Sho leaned back, and took a drag on his cigarette. He needed a moment to put the words together.

"We've had a good run, no one's been hurt in a long time. But we're still small change hoods. No one knows my name, no one listens to me when I speak. I want my name to be known, to be a someone, an important person in this city. But I don't want to climb through up the ladder in someone else's group. I want my own place in the world."

"And that takes money we don't have, and more people we can't trust," answered Kei. "That takes more than drugged pizza and a happy trigger finger. We would have to build something like that over time. Yeah, the money's good as we are going, but what you want is going to take a lot more money, time and people. It's just too risky at this point."

Sho squared his shoulders. "Then we need more jobs, not less. We need the cash, to build what I want. And I want it all."

Before Kei could continue berating Sho, Toshi arrived at their table. "Hey guys, I found us a sweet deal. There's a gang that's running American goods through a warehouse near here. Do you think they'd care for some free pizza?"

Sho smiled. "Sounds like a good idea. Tomorrow night, we'll hit them hard, and no one will be the wiser."

Kei was a bit reluctant. "It's one thing to 'borrow' from other punks, but we're really going to hit a major gang?"

"What's the problem, Kei? With my special pizza, no one will know we were even there. Relax, we'll be fine." Toshi smiled. "What could possibly go wrong?"

~Finis~