Club Land

By: Pooka Neko

Notes: Don't kill me for setting it in alternate universe… And I don't own the series. If I did… then I wouldn't be writing this. And yes, the title is a song by Elvis Costello. The story's kind of a… Sci-Fi/Horror/Dark Humor/Romance/Fantasy story… so stick with me. Another thing is that the first chapter goes a little too fast for my liking. But I'll try to really slow things down by the second chapter.

1 Chapter 1

Beginning….?

The long windows reflected vast images of the men inside the bar, swishing their cups around and looking for a woman to hit on. Laughter and the sound of slaps resonated throughout the commodious house, without a whisper of poison among the drinks. How was this possible, some wondered that a place with so many rowdy men and crazy women could actually seem peaceful for a minute and a half?

The men would not talk loudly about what it could possibly be; everybody could see it in plain sight, actually: The girl looked innocent from a view far away. But everybody could see her jeweled blade in the sheath at her hip. They all recognized the necklace she wore around her neck as the mark of one who deals with death. Her necklace also could have just frightened them because the chain was made out of bones, with a little skull hanging at the bottom.

The girl pushed some of her shoulder length blond hair out of her face, and fingered the blood splotches that had never been cleaned on the counter. She never understood why woman would actually want to be hired as a barmaid to take care of the filthy men. And that's what they all were, filthy men who had no lives and had no woman to go home to once the day was done.

Her partner, sitting across from her, had hidden her blade upon entering, with a brown riding cloaking that served no purpose except to keep her head dry and to look cool. She twirled a strand of dark brown hair on her finger while the girl with blond hair grounded her teeth. Sometimes her partner could really get on her case…

But at least she was helpful. Many male partners who died upon accidentally interfering with her necromancer spells had accompanied her. But, this girl, this Miaka, had never really bothered her when she was on a job. And it was also custom rule that a necromancer should be followed by a healer, just in case something terrible and ungodly happened.

Miaka flashed her necklace made out of soapstone with the lapis lazuli attached to it, hoping to grab a barmaid's attention. "Yui…" she muttered in her pathetic tone, "Couldn't we have gone somewhere where the barmaids actually pay attention to their female customers and the men aren't such pigs?"

"No…" she muttered with a grin. "You give up so easily. Once you've lived past a year with me, you'll understand what patience is like. Soon, you'll wait for hours, trying to spot out the demon…"

"Yui… You're scaring me again. Wipe that stupid grin off your face! And why can't they serve us right now? I'm starving!" She fingered the hilt of her jeweled blade, hoping to deter the men from her pathway. "If I have to be closer then ten inches to any of these men, I'm just going to find a fast food restaurant…"

"Fast food restaurant?" Yui asked, brushing some of her hair out of her face.

"Yui! Don't tempt me! I swear I'm going to die of starvation!" She chuckled out. When the other girl started to chuckle, Miaka patted her shoulder in victory. "That's it! I'm going to go see what is wrong with the barmaid…"

Miaka jumped up from her seat and stormed away to find one of the "available" barmaids. Good luck there…Yui thought to herself as she straightened out her school uniform. No matter what they were, high school was always on top of their heels, knocking them down.

She always pondered on if being a necromancer bounty hunter was more important then keeping her grades up. If she ever wanted to live a better life then this… If she ever wanted to work as one of the scientists for Hotohori… Then she would have to do both. Unfortunately, she had been cursed with the ability to bring the dead and the dead spirits back up to attack those who she was sent after. And she couldn't help it if she carried her jeweled blade. That was the only way to get business. Only bounty hunters carried blades with jewels as precious as those melded on them…

Yui had been caught in her thoughts, wondering if her contractor had actually given her enough yen to actually be motivated to catch this demon, that she didn't notice the flash of fire behind her. But a starving young girl who had been bitching at a barmaid noticed the sign.

"Oh no… Oh no…" She squeaked out. "Yui… Yui…" Miaka had never faced a demon before… But now… Now, when she actually had the chance to claim victory over having defeated one of the most feared creatures in the galaxy, all she could muster up were squeaks and the dawning sickness of fear.

Now she could see it forming into the curvaceous worm of death that had a taste for human brains. "Yui… Yui!" she finally screeched out.

Miaka had just enough time to create a barrier around herself before the demon could lash one of its thousand fingered claws at her. She ripped her blade out of her sheath, and held it with a quivering hand. Didn't Yui hear me? Maybe she left me to die… Oh, Yui! I never did anything wrong to you!

Miaka winced when the ear piercing sound of swords clashing upon each other reached her eardrums. She fell back upon the tables like a dizzy ballerina in Swan Lake, to open her eyes and see, with such relief, Yui standing exactly where she had been.

"Yui… Please be careful…" she whispered, not trying to distract her friend.

Yui flashed the blade, letting the demon know her purpose for tracking it. But before she could even take a swing at the demon, it locked its jaws on her elbow. Miaka winced harder, this time actually feeling emotion pain to hear her friend give out a blood-curdling scream. That's it then… I just have to do it.

There was still time for her to back out of this… Let Yui get herself killed and she could run away and forget all of this. Run away… Run away… Yes, I could do that!

It took quite a big force to send Miaka into a running stance. She looked back at Yui, her one true friend who actually made jokes that she could get, who had already taken her on so many adventures in the past. "How dare you!" she squeaked out, and ran with a loud battle cry.

The blade fell on the demon's lips, turning into water and falling on the floor without a splash. The puddle of water swished away to the back of the bar, but Miaka didn't notice. Her first concern was her friend.

"Yui… Yui…" she whispered protectively.

Yui, on the other hand, had already felt the drunken stage of too much blood out of her system. I've failed? No! Hongo Yui does not fail! She thought, trying to keep herself awake. But the insides of her eyelids were so pretty, with the swaying colors of yellow, green, blue, and most importantly, black.

"You ruined my dress!" was the last thing she heard before finally letting the darkness take over her young body.

**

"Now, students, I told you that you had exactly two weeks to write that report! How could seventy-five percent of you forget it? I talked about it every day! Now, let me show you a good student! Yui, present your report! Now!"

Yui had never liked the evil teacher. He was her opponent, and she thought the only way to get rid of him was through attacking his assignments with such ferocity that he would completely forget her. And she wasn't the only one he yacked to day in and day out. The boy behind her was also victim to his assignments and "compliments". But for now… she would obey.

She walked discretely to the front of the class, her weapon of choice, a report, in her hand. The boy who sat behind her always stared at her with total attention, and for once, she felt like she was actually going to be respected for giving this report.

"What has happened to the world of yesterday?" she began. "Sure, we see the movies of the fifties and laugh at their ideas. People going to the moon? We destroyed the moon millions of years ago. Save the endangered animals? You ask anybody what the word 'animal' means, and they will surely give you a confused look." Now it was getting annoying… How could the boy have eyes that blue? Never once did his eyes falter from her emerald green gaze.

"Although, there are some advantages of today. People now can be born with abilities that surpass the human's own strength. Forget traveling. As we all know, elevators can take you from Konan to Kutou. And", she added with a glint in her eyes, "necromancers can bring loved ones who have been dead for more then five years to the living world."

The blue eyes still retained their non-human look, and became a texture she had seen somewhere before. What was it called again? Miaka had always told her that clothes made out of it were the best… Cotton!

Cotton blue eyes? There's no such thing… Wait… it's wet… Wet cotton blue eyes… Very strange.

"Yui!"

"Wha… Wha da ya want…" she slurred finally feeling the grip of the burning sun in her direction. "…Miaka?" she asked, trying to finger out her friend's face.

"Of course it's me! Who else had to save you from that pretty demon? I swear if I were paid every time I had to heal you, I would be swimming in the riches right now! You are as reckless as an insane cat", she muttered, patting Yui's arm.

"Look who's talking. If you couldn't make a barrier in time, you would have been a new demon sandwich, complete with the meat."

"Meat? I like meat!"

Yui pulled herself up at the voice. Only Miaka and I live here… If that wasn't Miaka… then… that must be-

"Oh, Yui! I just um… forgot to tell you that… Well, you know when you see a cute little dog on the street and you just have to take it home? Well…" she stopped in mid sentence, watching the anger on Yui's face grow to a burning inferno. "The… um… demon… Isn't really a demon… Maybe if you just calmed down a little, then your arm would heal faster, Yui…"

"Where is it?" she snarled, forgetting that her friend had actually helped her this time.

"Well… It's in the kitchen. But please, don't hurt it. It's very nice, and it even helped you! Can we keep it, please oh please can we keep it?" Innocent pathetic brown eyes that could always, always change her mind attacked Yui.

Yui shoved her friend with her good arm and stormed over to the kitchen. Now she was going to show whom was boss… Now she was going kick whatever it was out of her house! Do you hear me? She wanted to scream. You are going to be out of here in one second!

The door slammed open with strength and a pissed off Hongo Yui stomped inside, to see her prey. It shrieked, and stared at her with alarming fear. The eyes grew wider, and Yui could feel the innocence of this thing getting to her. It had a very pretty mix of sand and roses for a complexion, with pretty eyes and a strange color of hair to match. Well… Almost everybody dyes their hair nowadays…

"What was the point of scaring me half to death when I, yes I shall have to repeat this, I saved your life?" it asked, pushing the violet braid out to it's back.

Yui's eyes fell upon the package it had in its hands, complete with fruit, drinks, meat, and even a little carrot. "You are not getting away with our things!" she shouted, lunging forward at it.

"No! Don't touch it!" it wailed, defending Yui's attack with great strength. "You are going to spoil my good food! Do not touch, you hear me?" it snapped, slapping her hands away from it.

Yui growled lowly, hoping this creature would learn the word rules in her home… but it simply sat on her couch, with her food, propped it's feet up on her coffee table, and turned on her television set.

"You should appreciate me being here. The master of sleight hand has decided to grace his presence upon you, and you won't even let him have a few snacks… Really. But if you dare to anger Nuriko of the sleight-hand… you shall find yourself in a deep fix, lady…" he murmured while getting comfortable.