Characters: Older Yachiru, Mystery Person, Matsumoto, Ikkaku, Kenpachi and random cameos.
I quite like the idea of Yachiru getting older and getting into the drinking, fighting, gambling and with her girlish charm. Yachiru is supposed to be around 19 here, so this is wa-ay past the current storyline. Which is probably like 1000 years into the future...would they really still be playing poker then? I guess so, I'm only a beginner, so bare with me if you know how to play :) Thanks for all the reviews!
Bleach (c) Kubo Tite
Misfortune
"Yachiru Fukutaicho." Rangiku Matsumoto chimed, appearing around the door suddenly, smiling happily at the teenager. Yachiru turned and smiled at the older woman.
"I'm off duty now, no need to call me that Rangiku-chan." Yachiru said, shrugging off her lieutenant's badge, "Although, I suppose that's why you're here, isn't it?" She eyed the buxom woman warily.
"Certainly," Matsumoto smiled, "it's not every day that we get days off together." She wore a pretty, though largely informal yukata. The weather was sweltering and around them cicadas shrieked in the afternoon heat.
"Shogun's Palace again?" Yachiru asked, disappearing into her room as Matsumoto waited beside the door.
"Nah, I was thinking The Last Stop, we really don't have much of a reputation there." She replied as Yachiru walked out in sandals and a yukata simular to her friend's.
"You're right…but it's further away. Is anyone coming with us?" She asked as she jotted down a message for Ken-chan that she probably wouldn't be home until later that night. Matsumoto stroked her chin.
"Ikkaku said he's coming; so's Hisagi and Renji. I dunno about Kira and Iba though, they might tag around later." She said. Yachiru nodded.
"Alright! What's for dinner?" She asked as the pair walked out of the building, ready for the rest of the night.
"Teppan-yaki!" she said, swinging her arms in front of her, accentuating the bounce of her bosom.
"Eh? Rangiku, did you get a raise?" Yachiru asked, feeling whether or not she had enough money to pay for herself for dinner. Rangiku nodded. Ah, Yachiru thought, no wonder she's in such a happy mood.
"Don't worry, Yachiru-chan, I'll pay for you. Right, lets go out there and have fun!"
……
The Last Stop was well named, as it was the last stop anyone would ever crawl to. The bar was seedy, there were dirty dealers and sleazy men oozing out of all corners of the room. Matsumoto and Yachiru creating an instant interest across the bar, turning heads and inducing oily smiles. But most of them were put off by the large and formidable men that accompanied them. Matsumoto immediately hit the sake. Yachiru bought her own, out of learning for the hard way that Matsumoto loves getting other people drunk. There was a live band, playing drums and already drunk people were dancing and having a good time.
Yachiru's interest turned into a game of western poker hidden in a corner of the bar. The game had only recently become popular in the gambling circles. Yachiru knew how to play, and play well, because 11th division had most of the gambling circles employed.
"Yo, can I play?" she asked smiling, her rosy cheeks glowing. The men looked up, some looked at her with a look that immediately told her that they were money hungry and looking for fresh meat.
"Sure. You got money?" One of the men said. She nodded, hauling up a chair beside a huge bulking man with 'love' shaved into the back of his head and a man with curtains of long black hair and bandages shielding most of his face.
Boy, did she have something in store for them. Ikkaku walked by carrying sake for his friends, whispered in her ear.
"Play fair. And if there is a fight, leave some of the good ones for me."
"Sure thing, Pachinko." She smirked. For the first few deals, she acted like an amateur, smiling when she got a good hand and betting inappropriately. This gave her and opportunity to see what the other men were up to. They gave her sake and she accepted it, pretending to get more and more drunk, losing half her money. Then after fifteen deals, she became more serious and began to play. Within ten rounds, she managed to get back her money and double her original price. Within another twenty, she had cleaned out two of the people around her, leaving behind three people, including herself and the man with the bandages and the original dealer.
The sake was beginning to warm her up. She could hold in more sake than the average male, but even she had her limits. There was now a small crowd watching the small contingent of players.
"You're pretty good," said the man with the bandages. He had a deep familiar voice, but she couldn't place it.
"Why thank you, I learnt from the best." She said, tipping back other dish of sake between deals. The smile she could see of the man was a small one.
"Who would that be?" He asked, picking up his deal.
"Y'know Takahiro Miyasaka? He taught me everything." She boasted, discarding two cards. God, she thought, the sake must be really getting to me.
"Him? Of 11th division? I cleaned him out last week." He said, discarding three. She blanched; Taka-baka was the ultimate master as far as poker went. Yet, she didn't here of him being cleaned out. She looked at him carefully, he could be bluffing and after all, poker is a bluffing game. A cold eye fixed on her.
He won that hand, and took half her money. She began to sweat: she was either losing her touch, she was too drunk, he was cheating or he really was very good. The next draw he cleaned out the other player except for one last piece. The air was getting tense and finally the sake was beginning to hit. She didn't pace herself out enough, expecting to clean out the others before this.
Just her and the bandaged man left; she looked at what may be her last hand of the night. She had a good hand, which ruled out the idea of quitting. He kept raising her, and she kept raising him. Finally, she saw him and had no money left to her.
"I call." She said. Simultaneously they threw their cards down. She thunked her head down on the table in dismay. The coins slid his way and he pocketed him as the surrounding crowd clapped, impressed by his performance.
"What misfortune, Yachiru Kusajishi-san." He said, standing up and stretching. Yachiru looked up at the bandaged man that seemed so familiar.
"Eh? Who told you my name?" She asked as the hazy curtain of drink began to cloud her eyes. Damn that sake is strong.
"You told me." He said. She cocked her head to look at the man in the tattered clothes more closely.
CRASH!
A random male crashed on top of the table, discarded cards flying up in the air. The crowd split into two and there was Ikkaku, looking very much like Moses after parting the Red Sea.
"I am NOT BALD!" He roared, leaping on top of the perpetrator. Immediately the entire bar became a battlefield. Yachiru, still sore from losing, leapt herself into the throng of it in an effort to lose the memory of losing so badly. With several professional shinigami in the room, the place was quiet, except for the occasional groan of pain and the huffing of the victors. The innkeeper peered over a table in which he was cowering for safety.
"Who's going to pay for this?" He screamed, pointing at the destruction. In normal circumstances Yachiru would've kept her eyes open, but instead she dropped to the ground.
Damn, the damn sake was drugged was the last thing that entered her mind before she passed out.
…….
The next morning, even the sound of the damn wind pissed her off. She looked out of her futon, recollecting her thoughts of the previous evening, the drug painfully throbbing in her temple as it wore off and the bitter sensation of losing her week's pay in two hours sitting in her stomach. She briefly wondered how she managed to get home.
She trudged into the kitchen, her cheeks less rosy than usual. She chugged down a pitcher of water before she realised Kenpachi was in the room, looking slightly more grumpy than usual.
"I see y'had a pleasant evening last night." He muttered, rifling through paperwork. She winced.
"Sorry." She replied.
"Kuchiki-taicho visited you earlier today, but I told him you were fighting."
"Fighting? And what would he want with me?" She asked, slightly confused.
"Yer fightin' a hangover, that's what," He replied, then jerking a finger to the office desk, "he left yer a note and a parcel. Beats me what he wants with ya."
Curious, she looked at the parcel before looking at the note; inside was the amount of money she had lost the night before. Blaching even more, she read the note:
To Yachiru Kusajishi Fukutaicho
Regarding The Last Stop
I have your money from last night, I do not need it.
I enjoyed game last night, but I am surprised that you did not recognise me, so I did not reveal myself. Next time, watch what people put into your drinks; it was the other man beside you after he bought you a drink.
Yours truly, Byakuya Kuchiki Taicho
Yachiru looked at the card with the look of utmost contempt. Her eyelid twitched with the verges of typical 11th division murderous rage.
"What?" Kenpachi asked as murderous tendrils of riatsu curled around the room.
"Let's just say I had the misfortune of being duped by a man with the world's best poker face." She muttered, grinding her teeth then hissing out as the drug's aftermath stabbed her temple. It was not a good day.
I had this idea after my boyfriend pointed out that Bya-bo would be really good at poker becaus of his really good poker-face. And I like the fact that Bya would go out and disguise himself to have some fun. How else would he have been able to meet Hisana? Oh, and I reckon Yachiru would eventually drop most of her nicknames as she got older. I apologise for the really bad spelling.
Oh, and for some trivia: didya know that Byakuya and Shigure from Fruits Basket have the same voice actor? --dies with fangirly happiness---Ah, the love.