Prolouge: The Duel

The story began as thing usually do in the Wild West, with a duel at high noon…

The stranger came into town on a black horse which was breathing heavily in exhaustion as if it had been pushed on for many days.

His patched up top hat, his brown hair, clothes, boots and yellow bandana wrapped around his mouth were covered in the thick, red dust of the desert.

The people of the town had already barred their doors and windows and were either looking through the cracks of their defenses in bated breath or were cowering in the far back of their homes.

The town was a appeared like ghost town saves for the one youth standing near the clock tower in the center of town, facing the stranger on the horse almost defiantly.

He was about the same age as the stranger, with black hair, a bowler hat, and a badge in the shape of a star on his chest.

The stranger got off his horse, his spurs clanked when his feet hit the ground.

He pushed up his top hat and his eyes squinted, looking intently at the badge worn by the youth.

He finally spoke.

"You Sheriff Izaya of this town?" It was a simple question but his voice had a threatening edge to it.

The youth shook his head.

"I'm not. I'm the deputy, people here call me Mikado." he said eyeing the stranger wearily.

The stranger cocked his head quizzically for a second, straightened out and said,

"I don't have any business with you. Bring out the Sheriff."

The deputy who called Mikado, shook his head.

"I'm sorry but I can't do that." his hand lowered toward his holster where the hammer of a colt flashed, reflecting the rays of the sun high above their heads.

"You challenging me to duel deputy?" said the stranger. It seemed as though he was smiling though it was impossible to tell for sure do to the bandana around his mouth.

Even so, his hand too was naturally going for his holster.

"I don't want any trouble but I have a duty to protect the peace of this town and its people." His eyes were ablaze with strong intent.

"It's your grave deputy." the stranger said, he looked up at the clock, "how about we draw when the bell tolls?"

The two adversaries stared at each other, their eyes unblinking as they flexed their fingers in anticipation.

Bong,

The town's clock rang to mark the coming of 12 o clock.

High noon.

At once the two youths' hands were a blur of motion.

Bang.

Mikado clutched his hand.

The pistol he had held up a heartbeat ago was now spinning in an arch toward the clock tower.

Bong.

It was all over before even the second toll of the bell.

The stranger lifted his smoking gun at his hip parallel to the helpless deputy's head.

"You gotta shoot from the hip." he said, "Not that that advice is gonna help you now."

He smiled.

"It was a real shame Deputy you might have had some promise but now," he shot off the deputies boulder hat clean off his head, "your just cannon fodder, huh?" He continued cocking his gun again, "Biding time so that Sheriff can escape or something? Very noble of you. To bad the one your trying to protect isn't worth all that."

He fired another shot grazing Mikado's cheek. Mikado felt a trickle of blood flowing down his face.

"Now what should I do?"

Without waiting for a reply he threw his head back and shouted filling the entire town with his voice., "Izaya you coward! Bring out Saki or I'll blast your deputy's head off!"

He turned toward Mikado, "Let's see how much your boss cares about you, aye?"

With his gun still level with Mikado's head his eyes darted around the town.

A few thing felt strange to him. The sheriff, a man called Izaya Orihara had called him to this town in a note. "Be there by High noon or I cant guarantee you'll ever see your love again." He was expecting the man Izaya to be the one standing in the center of town brandishing a revolver. Instead the deputy was the one in the center of town and the sheriff was no where to be seen.

Where could he be.

He looked up at the clock tower to see how much time had passed

From the top a glint of metal caught his eyes.

"Shi…"

Before he could raise his gun or even finish his curse a bullet went straight through his gut.

His gun fell from his hands. And he collapsed.

Lying face down on the ground he swore to himself.

How could he be so stupid?! It was all a set up!

He struggled to get back up when another went through his right leg.

He let out a shout of pain.

As his vision started to cloud he thought he saw the deputy running toward him.

Guess this is the end of the line, he thought.

Sorry Saki...

And then everything went black.

From the top of the clock tower the gunman lowered the scope of his rifle from his eye after seeing that the stranger had collapsed.

He looked down on the stranger, now being propped up by the deputy.

The gunman let out a smirk.

His sheriff's badge glinted in the sun.

"Welcome to Baggerstown Mr. Masaomi."

So against my better judgement I have started another fanfic. Personally I blame playing to much red dead redemption but I've decided to make it a Western. Ikebokuro has become Baggerstown mostly because i just took the "bukuro" from Ikebukuro meaning "bag" and just incorporated it in the name (Meh sometimes unoriginality works). I hope you guys enjoy this fanfic as much as i hope to enjoy writing it XD. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Thanks for reading the beginning of this long tale!