Ryoiki: Demon of Greed (8)

CHAPTER 1: Casino Games

As Tony walked through the staff door, the smell hit him, and even after 6 years he still wasn't used to it.

The smell of cigarette smoke, alcohol, and many types of perfume and cologne hit him at once, but he walked nonetheless, the casino floor was populated by people of all kinds, young and old, gambling and drinking to their hearts content.

Tony wasn't out of the ordinary, he was dressed in standard casino worker attire. A buttoned up black and white two-piece suit, full handed black gloves, dress pants and shoes, and a badge of the family emblem. All standard, minus his size and face. Tony was only 11 after all. He'd been working to pay off his debt for the yakuza since he was 5 years old and a part of that was working at this casino.

He walked up to where he had been assigned for the day, being the dealer at a poker table, and stood as he had been trained to while waiting for people to come and sit at his table.

Tony attempted to watch the crowd, but this vision in his left eye was faltering due to an infection, replacing the normal bright blue of his eyes with a deep grey in his left. Even with this in mind though, he kept observing, seeing a party of nicely dressed women, a small group of friends all together, some larger scale family gatherings, and even a handful of other yakuza members and staff.

But there Tony stood, simply watching.

Until he noticed movement out of the corner of his right eye, a duo was walking towards him.

A purple haired and purple eyed man, who appeared quite strong, and a slightly smaller woman with one black and one purple eye and black hair, both dressed quite casually.

"Ah-! Come to play?" Tony spoke as he began to shuffle the deck of cards.

The man smiled and sat down, as did the woman.

"Sure, why not, we've got some more money to spend." The man's voice was deep and had great power to it, but he quickly put $100 worth of chips down, as did the woman.

"Just make sure not to go too overboard." The woman advised, and the man chuckled. "You know I'm not much of a gambler Marce..."

Tony listened to the two talk as he delt cards, he rationalized that the two were a couple. Here on some kind of vacation.

The conversations between the trio were lively, the Man and Woman were both very polite to Tony, and overall, it was a nice game. Even if Tony did win most of the rounds, he was always good at gambling.

Eventually though, another staff member came and told Tony to deliver some drinks and meals. He left the couple at the table begrudgingly, food and drink deliveries were his least favorite job at the casino, people were always giving him weird looks or nasty comments when he did, and today would be no different.

A platter of drinks and some chasers for a group at a blackjack table, a whole pizza for a man at the slots, a few different deliveries of snacks to people at roulette and poker tables, even some room deliveries of full meals! Which was a first for Tony, maybe Mills had finally expanded his job list again...or this was a mistake.

Tony knocked on the door to the room, it was a lower priced room for people just wanting to stay at the casino for their trips to Arcer, sometimes they could be cheaper than standard hotel rooms.

The man who opened the door was quite fit, which was very clear as he wasn't wearing a shirt. His muscles quite visible.

"Oh! Thanks for the food man, we were getting hungry!"

Tony bowed to the man as he took his food. "I'm sorry about the delay sir, its been quite a busy night, I was the first waiter who could get it to you."

The man chuckled. "Yeah, you can say that again, could barely stand being out on the floor for much longer...but you have a good night kid."

The man shut his door and Tony began to walk back to the kitchen to pick up another delivery, but he heard two sets of heavy, unfamiliar footsteps approaching, and quickly hid behind a corner.

Two people dressed in casual clothes passed by, but it was clear they weren't normal casino goers, they carried a different feeling.

Tony had never been good at magic or sensing auras, but if he could? He would have been afraid.

He waited for the duo to walk past, and then he slipped away.

Tony walked back into the kitchen area and was greeted by Daniel. One of Mills friends who worked at the casino as a supervisor.

"Hey, your off for the night Tony."

Tony looked at Daniel in surprise. "Eh? Why? It's not 8 yet..."

"Mills said so, also he left you a note in your room I think."

Tony let out a small smile and began to walk back to his room.

He hadn't gotten out of work early on a non-holiday in over 3 years, then again, its not like he has anything else to do besides other courier jobs. He hadn't gone to school for several years.

He unlocked his room; it was a permanently rented out penthouse for him to stay in.

Tony walked in quickly and shut the door, beginning to take off his dress coat, when he noticed the note on his side table.

It appeared to be panic scribbled, but the writing was definitely Mills's.

Tony grabbed it and began to read in his head.

"Sorry about not being able to catch you before I had to go, but I got this note to you I hope. I have to go to clan meeting for the next few days. But I need you to watch your back more than usual, I saw some weird looking people snooping about places they shouldn't."

There was a gap between the paragraphs, which was odd, maybe they were written at different times?

"You have a delivery to make to Mark and his Girlfriend, stay with them for dinner. I've already talked to them about it, then make your way home as fast as possible. You'll have some easy days at the casino till I get back, hopefully with a very interesting opportunity for us both."

Tony enjoyed the idea of dinner with Mark and Rein, it had been a while since he and Mills had gone over...but he thought back to those weird looking people he hid from in the hallway...were those the strange people?

He kept thinking to himself as he changed into clothes more fitting for a pre-teen going out, then picked up Marks package from Mills office, and slipped out the employee backdoor into the alleys, making his way to Marks house.