A/N: I'm back again with a new story, but with all the angst. Seriously, all of it. Be warned that this is going to cover some really deep stuff, so if you don't want to deal with that then don't read it. I'll try my absolute best to tag as many things as possible and actually use the tagging system properly for you guys that need warnings. Ships will be added as they become apparent, maybe not official in the au but obvious enough to warrant the tag. Some of these are my secondary ships, cause I'm a multishipping piece of crap.

Please note that all the characters for this fic have been aged up to adults and are legally able to drink. Yes, I will be putting recipes down for my very obviously bandori referenced drink names, but they're all theoretical and are variants based on actual cocktails so I can't be certain they'll taste decent if actually attempted. If you do drink, please drink responsibly and know your limitations.

Anyways, I've been wanting to write a heavier fic since things can't always be fluffy. The idea obviously came from the game/visual novel Va-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action. Just started it recently, and I love it to pieces. Other influences come from the anime called Bartender and my own love for alcoholic drinks. All the characters will be in the fic in some way or another. Some will only be mentioned, but a good portion of them will have their own story arcs. I'm writing this very freeform, so it might be a jumbled mess since things are going to overlap like hell. Like it's too the point that I might need to rewrite all my notes into a spreadsheet cause it's all over the place on my word document. Updates will also be much more sporadic since writing this stuff takes a lot more out of me than the fluffy shippy stuff. There will be some fluffy shippy stuff in here too, but most of it is just straight up angst for those that like to suffer, like me!

[Chapter 1]

Circle City, 207X A.D

A city that shouldn't exist. A tax haven where corporations and criminal empires reign supreme. In this place, all human life has been infected with nanomachines to keep them in check. Over them stand the White Knights, who ensure that a corrupt government laws are obeyed. Here, brutality in all its forms is an everyday reality. The quality of life for the non-powerful decreases at an alarming rate. For many, this can be overwhelming. Some devote themselves to their jobs, their families, or even their studies. Some look for ways to escape this place, and others... just give up. But for many of them, the answer lies at the bottom of a glass.

On a small road just seconds away from Main Street, somewhere near the slums, you can find Door-1 of the BTC-certified bar coded B-4n...but that's a mouthful, so many just refer to the place as the "BanG Dream." A small oasis in the middle of the concrete desert. A fountain of spirits waiting for tired souls.

And it's here where this story unfolds.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The winter chill breathes against the back of Misaki's neck and she can't help but shiver as she draws her jacket tighter.

"Gods, who thought it'd come so early this year?" she mumbles to herself, holding her hood up to prevent the wind from reaching her head. "I hope Kokoro remembered to pay the heating bill."

Misaki turns off Main Street onto the narrower Bushy Road. She already feels just a little warmer as the tall concrete buildings looming above offer some protection against the harsh weather. She would definitely need to have a cup of tea before her shift starts. Anything to keep her body temperature up.

The bartender was so desensitized by the monotony of her daily route to work that it was easy to spot a lone figure arbitrarily out of place. It was that of a woman slumped against one of the building walls. Misaki's eyes grew wide, her frantic footsteps echoing in the cement valley she traversed as she ran up and knelt next to the unconscious woman's body. She was still warm and had a pulse, so Misaki was relieved to not have found her already dead.

"Must have passed out before the evening chill came in." Misaki inferred, taking note of the light jacket the woman wore—the color of it striking similar to the blueness of her hair. It wasn't uncommon to see a person passed out in the streets, may it be from exhaustion or intoxication. Misaki certainly was not a stranger to both those things. In any other case, she would have ignored them and walked right on past them, but with how cold that night was, Misaki couldn't find it in her to leave the woman out in the open. It was probably a bad idea, but Misaki decided it'd be better off that she deal with the panic once the other woman awakened rather than have the thought of her freezing to death linger in the back of her mind.

Despite her size, Misaki was surprisingly strong and had no issues carrying the woman on her back. They weren't very far off from the bar she worked at, and the cold would probably keep her from even breaking a sweat. As she arrived, she was lucky enough to find the door to the establishment wide open.

"Kokoro, you're going to let the chill in," Misaki called out as she entered, immediately seeing Kokoro behind the bar taking inventory of their liquor.

The blonde would have smiled at the arrival of her employee had she not first noticed the woman passed out on Misaki's back, "I had a feeling I needed to leave the door propped open for something. Glad to see my intuition was right."

"Your intuition is a lot of things," Misaki commented as she gently laid the woman down at one of the booths before heading back to close the door.

"Want to tell me why you showed up to work with a girl on your back?" Kokoro asked with a curious smile.

"Found her passed out on the street." Misaki explained, "I couldn't just leave her there with the cold front sweeping in. Don't worry, I'll deal with her when she wakes up."

"I knew you had goodness in you, Misaki!" Kokoro praised.

Misaki only grumbled at the overly bubbly compliment. Had it been anyone else, Misaki would have thought it was sarcasm, but knowing Kokoro, she knew that her boss meant every word of it. "Anybody else in yet?"

"Nope! Though Saaya's the only other one I asked to come in today. I know you can manage the bar on your own."

Misaki hummed in response as she went to deposit her coat in the break room. Tuesdays were certainly slow for them, that much was no surprise, but what Misaki was surprised at was the fact that both Sayo and Tsugumi weren't scheduled to work today. Everyone on staff was full-time, but Sayo and Tsugumi were always trying to go above and beyond what was expected of them. They even took on more hours without caring whether or not they would get compensated for overtime. No matter, Misaki was more than capable of handling the bar on her own, so it wouldn't be a problem. Even if things did get a little busy, she'd just try to pull Kokoro or Saaya out to help if they didn't have other work to be focusing on.

"How'd you get those two to take a day off?" Misaki couldn't help but ask as she returned to the bar.

"The past weekend was extremely draining for them. So I told them that if they came in today, I'd take away their holiday bonus," Kokoro returned with a smile.

"I didn't know you could be so harsh…"

"They deserve the rest. Sayo especially. I think she may have been traumatized by the amount of carrot cake that was ordered over the course of it all."

"Carrot cake?"

Last time Misaki remembered, they didn't serve carrot cake. Only your typical bar food: fries, burgers, those sorts of things. She had only called off work over the weekend so that she could take her guinea pig, Michelle, to the vet. She doubted that they'd change the menu over the course of a single weekend.

"What the hell happened while I was gone?"

"Rabbits, Misaki. So. Many. Rabbits." Saaya deadpanned, having overheard Misaki's question as she entered the vicinity. She looked as if remembering the events of the weekend had given her some sort of PTSD.

"Pardon?" Misaki asked, beyond confused.

"The Amami Toy Company booked the entire weekend last minute for the company's anniversary celebration," Kokoro explained.

"Isn't that…" Misaki began.

"The company that's nearly staffed entirely by talking rabbits?" Saaya finished before answering the question herself, "Yes."

"Not what I was going to ask," Misaki said dryly. She knew they didn't usually book the bar for private events, so why start now? Also, did she hear correctly? A company staffed by talking rabbits? "You know what, I don't want to know."

"Better if you didn't." Saaya laughed, making her way back toward the kitchen. "If you need backup out front, just call me."

The night started out slow as usual, with the occasional guest buying a drink and leaving to sit at one of the tables away from the bar. She wasn't the most sociable bartender, but Misaki bored out of her mind without a bit of company to distract her from the overall emptiness of the bar. Even when Sayo was around, her presence itself was soothing enough despite them barely conversing to one another. But that was also because on occasion, Sayo would start talking to herself. Rather, to someone named Hina, despite there being nobody on the other side of the bar. Tsugumi reassured her that it was probably just some sort of coping mechanism, but Misaki was afraid to ask what had happened to cause her to be that way. Crazy talk aside, Sayo was a pretty decent person when she wasn't being so spiteful of everything around her. Though it did seem that she's been improving in that regard ever since she started babbling into the empty air.

Another hour or two passed until a person with shoulder-length ivory hair dragged her way into the bar.

"Welcome to the BanG Dream."

Misaki said the greeting out of custom, though she could easily tell by the body language and dead look in the person's eyes that she wasn't going to be much of a talker.

"Gimme something heavy," she said in a bone-dry tone as she took a seat on the stool, refusing to make eye contact.

Misaki could hear just how tired and defeated she was. She lifted a curious eyebrow, saying, "Heavy… taste wise? Or?"

"Alcohol wise," the customer clarified, "Need it. Lots of it. Whatever's dry and burns and numbs the pain. Otherwise, I don't care."

Misaki pondered on the request momentarily before stepping off to prepare a drink. "I think I know what you need."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Moca double checked the address on her phone before stuffing it back in her packet before her hand froze off.

B-4n Door-1 Bushy Road
Circle City, GBP 31617

This certainly was the place, but when Moca heard that it was a hole-in-the-wall dive bar, she wasn't expecting the description to be so literal. It certainly looked like someone had tried to blow a hole into the concrete, though maybe it only seemed that way for the aesthetic. Moca sighed dejectedly in spite of it, her breath visible in the air as she exhaled. Maybe try not to get banned from this bar too, Moca. Though, Ran probably wouldn't have liked me going to so many in the first place.

Moca clenched her teeth. Dammit, why couldn't she even stop herself from thinking about her? Ran Ran Ran Ran Ran. That's all that's been in her head for over two years now. Moca just wanted her silence her thoughts; her memories. Maybe she'll booze herself up enough tonight to finally die of alcohol poisoning.

She stood there disoriented for a while longer before finally making her way toward the entrance. It felt like she had to force her body to move, barely able to drag herself into the establishment. Even in the safety of these walls, it wasn't much warmer inside than it was out, but at this point everything felt cold to Moca. She probably hadn't felt warmth since that morning before Ran left.

"Raaaan~ come back. The bed's so much colder now without you," Moca whined as Ran stood up to get ready for the day.

"You know I have work today," Ran replied, trying to pry Moca from her waist.

"But Moca has the day off. Call off work, please?"

Moca gave her best attempt at puppy dog eyes and Ran was half tempted to indulge the both of them. But she couldn't, not when rent was due next week.

"Moca, you work from home."

"But what if Moca gets lonely?"

"If you let me get to work on time, I'll get you the throwaway bread from that bakery near work when they close."

"Ran drives a hard bargain," Moca said as she hesitantly released Ran from her grip. "All that bread going to waste."

Ran laughed, momentarily running her hand through the ivory locks as Moca looked as if she were mourning all the wasted bread. "You know they don't actually throw it out. They send that to the food kitchen across town. Sometimes they'll give the shop some to make compost for the plants."

"I know," Moca answered, a lazy smile etching on her face as Ran went through her hair. "I'll make some bisque tonight to go with it. You better come home before it gets cold."

"Promise," Ran spoke barely above a whisper before planting a light kiss on her drowsy fiancée's forehead.

Moca stared blankly at the polished wood of the bar, head hung low as the memory replayed in her mind. Ran's a liar.

Of course she didn't mean that. It wasn't Ran's fault. No, Moca knew at the end of the day she couldn't blame Ran. She blamed everything else in the world. She blamed the inflation of this cursed city, overpriced rent, and horrible wages making hard for anyone to take off work. She blamed herself for coaxing Ran to stop by the bakery on the way back rather than heading straight home. She blamed the gangs and mafias that crawled in the shadows of the city; their turf wars; their guns. It was a stray bullet that found its way into Ran's side, died from bleed out before the White Knight that came to help could get her to the hospital in time. Looking back on that day, there were so many things she found that she could place the blame on. If one small variable had been changed, maybe Ran wouldn't have been caught in the unlucky situation that led to her untimely death.

"Try this," Moca heard a nonchalant voice say.

Lifting her head up slightly, Moca caught the figure of the bartender through the strands of her hair.

"What is it?" Moca asked, not that she cared what it was. She'd drink it regardless, but she at least wanted to know what she was poisoning her body with.

"We call it a Bandori Bijou, one of our house cocktails. Dry and bitter; people usually only get it if they're drinking to forget."

[Bandori Bijou]
Dash of Bitter Melon Bitters
1 part Green Chartreuse
1 part London Dry Gin
1 part Dry Vermouth

Moca said her thanks and took a sip. It was certainly dry, taste was nearly all just alcohol burn. Extremely bitter too—Ran would have loved it. Moca sighed. While the drink smoothed out the edge she felt in her body, the memory of her parted beloved still hung heavy in her mind. She cursed under her breath as she started to feel the stinging in her eyes.

Misaki, as she looked on at her patron's internal struggle, decided it was better that she didn't probe. "You probably want to be alone, but if you want to talk or order another drink, just call me over."

"I will, thanks."

Maybe once I've had enough booze to kill me, Moca thought as she took another swig of her drink.

A/N: Yup, right out of the gate with the heavy stuff. I think Moca has the heaviest baggage of them all. Eh, maybe Sayo actually. Who knows? I'm not exactly following the progression of the game's storyline, though there will be quite a few parallels here and there. I think all of you can guess who our unconscious blue-haired friend is, she'll be coming around next chapter along with a few other lost souls.

I've had so much extra time to write, since it's now winter recess for me. I wouldn't get my hopes up yet though about constant updates. Regardless, I do hope you guys enjoy this new AU. I know it's pretty far left field compared to some other things that are written for this fandom.