A/N: I'm going to apologize right now.
This chapter did not come out very well.
I'm sorry.
Please R&R anyway.
Sorry. TT^TT
Chapter Four
Weaving up and down the alleys of Ikebukuro, Celty and her faithful steed were gaining ground on their target quickly-
But not quickly enough for Celty's liking.
'What is with this girl?' The Dullahan thought as she tried to keep pace with Sora without outrunning her. 'I would have caught up with anybody else by now-hell! I could have caught someone, let them go, and caught them all over again!'
Turning down yet another backstreet, Celty internally cried 'ENOUGH!' and prepared to call forth her last resort.
'What was that?' The strange tourist thought, 'Did somebody just yell?'
While sprinting down the street, Sora glanced back to see who had spoken and instead saw the Black Rider gaining on her and doing something strange.
The headless rider was holding her right arm off to the side, and as Sora watched, something moved down her arm from under her helmet to her hand, where it almost seemed to pool together into a sort of ball shape.
The girl didn't even have time to wonder what it was she was seeing before Celty jabbed her arm forward, launching whatever it was out of her hand-
And straight towards Sora!
Reacting instinctively, the fugitive ducked left down another alleyway. Looking back, she saw a line of black across the mouth of the alley, and watched as the shadow ball returned to the rider like a paddleball on an elastic string.
Chasing her down, the headless rider sent a few more volleys of her shadow ball. Sora watched one that she had just dodged hit a trashcan, wrap itself around the can, and yank it back towards the rider.
'I see…she doesn't want to hurt me, just catch me.' Sora thought as she dodged a few more volleys. 'Seeing as she waited until now to do this, it's a safe bet that she's really serious now.'
While she had been running, the girl had unknowingly run herself into a dead end alley. At the end was a brick wall, easily ten feet tall if not taller.
Upon seeing the wall, she begins grinning impishly.
'If she's this serious about catching me, then I can get serious about running away!'
Out loud, Sora yells, "Neat trick, Rider-san! Let me show you one of mine!"
Picking up speed, the girl ran straight for the wall. Without stopping, she planted her right foot on it and with all her strength-jumped up! Shooting her arms up, her hands just barely grasped the edge, but it was enough that she could re-plant her feet and heave herself up and over the wall.
Skidding sideways, Celty stopped a few feet from the wall, stopping just in time to hear Sora's landing on the other side.
Her voice echoes in the alley, "Hey! Rider-san! Did you know that I'm a free runner? Cool, right?"
The Dullahan cursed as the voice went on. "Sorry to have to ditch you like this, but I'm pretty sure the person you want me to meet is not nice."
'Bulls-eye,' Celty thought wryly.
"Still, it was nice meeting you! Sorry if you get in trouble! Bye!" With that, the sounds of running footsteps could be heard before they slowly faded away.
Cursing in the dead-end, Celty briefly contemplated going over the wall herself but soon dismissed the idea; the space was too narrow for her steed to ride up the walls and she could never just abandon it.
Resigned, the headless rider turned her bike around and sought for another way around the wall.
Running down the street, Sora couldn't help but laugh out loud at her predicament.
"Ha ha ha! This has got to be the most interesting chase I've ever been in!" Hearing the disgruntled whinny of a horse a ways behind her, Sora smiled and said, "Sorry, Rider-san, but as interesting as this is, it needs to stop. Otherwise, you really will catch me and that would be very bad!"
Turning down the next alley she sees, the girl finds yet another dead-end. However, unlike the last one, this one ended-not in a brick wall-but with a building as tall as the ones along the sides of the alley.
Pausing to catch her breath, Sora looked the alley over and was getting ready to try a different one when she spotted the window.
It was an old window, about three feet wide and four feet tall. Whatever glass or frame that had been in it had long since fallen away, leaving it bare and the room beyond it open to the elements.
It seemed like the perfect place for the fugitive to escape from her pursuer, but there was just one problem.
It was almost twenty feet off the ground, with nothing below it but a smooth concrete wall.
'I need a place to hide,' Sora thought, 'And this is the first opening I've since I got to this part of town.'
Scratching her head, she tries to think.
'I could try the other buildings. Most of them have doors on street level. But I'd have to either find one that was open or break one of them down. It'd take too long to find an open door and that black rider would know where I was if I just knocked a door down. That window's my only hope.'
Backing up out of the alley, Sora looks for anything she can use. Seeing nothing the way she came, the girl looks ahead and sees a dumpster. Running over to take a look, she realizes it's a bit smaller than the one she saw earlier, this one only coming to her chin and only slightly longer. It's half the size of the other one, although it's twice as rusted. On top is a hard plastic lid.
Lifting the lid, Sora is relieved to find that it only has a smattering of beer cans and paper cartons inside along the bottom. Running around the dumpster, she unlocks all of the wheels, noticing that the one on the front left corner is missing.
Moving so that she had the dumpster in front of her, facing the alley with the window, Sora put her hands against its side and pushed.
It didn't budge at first, but when Sora slammed her shoulder against it the rust that had caked onto the remaining wheels cracked apart and with a metallic groan the dumpster began to move.
It was awkward at first; even when nearly empty the dumpster weighed a considerable amount, but eventually it gained enough momentum that Sora could maneuver it in front of the alley. Once it was at the alley's mouth, the girl moved to the dumpster's front and began to back it up all the way down the alley, until it nearly hit the wall.
With about five inches of space between it and the wall, Sora opened the lid all the way until it was leaning against the wall and was right below the window. Between the height of the dumpster itself plus the height of the lid, the distance to the window was halved.
Satisfied that the dumpster was stable, the fugitive moved back to the entrance of the alley. Reaching it, she turned and took up a runner's stance, with her knees bent and her hands on the ground.
In the distance, the black rider's bike could be heard.
"It's now or never," Sora said to herself. Closing her eyes and bowing her head, she could almost feel the rider getting closer.
"On your mark…" she whispers as she crouches even lower.
"Get set…" her body tenses.
"GO!"
Springing forward like a bat out of hell, Sora pounds down the alleyway as hard as she can.
Just before she reaches the dumpster-she leaps!
Her left foot lands on the edge.
She steps again.
Her right foot is on the very top of the lid.
She bends her knees and the lid bends with her weight.
She uncoils like a spring and leaps up, the un-bending lid acting like a springboard to shoot her into the air.
The window looms closer.
Her hands shoot out and-
She makes it!
Her feet scrabbling against the smooth concrete wall, she eventually gets purchase and hoists herself onto the windowsill.
Below her, the lid falls down onto the dumpster, causing a loud booming sound to reverberate throughout the alley.
Catching her breath, Sora briefly wonders if the headless rider heard that, but soon decides it doesn't matter because she won't be here when she arrives.
Getting off the windowsill, the girl finds herself in a blank room with a floor that is covered with bird droppings and a lone doorway opening up to a hallway that goes a few yards before turning left.
Curious, Sora begins to walk out the door, down the hallway, and around the corner.
Not a second later, an animal's caterwaul is heard outside.
Celty had nearly given up hope of finding Sora again when she heard a strange booming sound coming from a ways just north of her.
'I'll bet anything that that's her!' the Dullahan thinks as she turns her bike around and heads north.
Walking down hallway after hallway, Sora was just beginning to think she was lost when she heard something.
It was faint, but there was definitely a rumble, almost a roar, coming from the hallway she was in. Moving along cautiously, Sora followed the sound until she came to a door. Putting her ear to it, she confirmed that the sound, which was much louder now, was just on the other side of this door and had a slight echo to it.
Throwing caution to the wind, Sora opens the door and finds herself on a wooden catwalk that hangs in the middle of a huge space.
Closing the door gently, she moves along the catwalk in a crouch, taking in her surroundings.
It's a huge room, with skylights. On her left are some docks for trucks and to her right is a wall mostly taken up by a giant corrugated door.
'Must have been some sort of delivery company back in the day, but it's shut down now.' The fugitive thinks.
'However,' she looks below the catwalk, 'That doesn't explain what these guys are doing here.'
Twenty feet below the catwalk is a crowd of people; the cause of the roar Sora had been following.
There was about fifty of them, if not more, and they were all crowding around the truck docks, looking up at a smaller group of people.
On the dock itself were three couches, forming an open square facing the crowd. Although there was enough room for at least a dozen people to sit, only one guy was seated, right in the middle of the center couch.
In front of the couches, with their backs to the crowd, were three guys; each one bloody and bruised. Looking at them, Sora got the oddest feeling that she had seem them before, although it was hard to tell at the angle she was at.
The three guys were obviously talking to the guy on the couch, and were all talking at the same time. Between the distance and the roar of the crowd, Sora had no clue what they were saying.
After listening to their babbling, couch guy suddenly yelled, "SHUT UP!"
The guys instantly became silent, along with the rest of the room.
Still seated, but obviously pissed off, the couch guy, whom Sora decided was the leader, said, "Let me get this straight! You three were in a fight with some random chick, were armed with tire irons and a knife, outnumbered her three to one AND YOU STILL LOST! WHAT KIND OF SHIT IS THIS!"
'WAH! It's those numbskulls from earlier!' Sora thought, finally recognizing them.
Head-scarf moved forward. "Bu-but Boss! It wasn't our fault! She jumped us!"
'Like hell I did!' The girl cursed as she leaned over the railing to get a better look.
Boss stood up and backslapped head-scarf as soon as he was in range.
"YOU GOT YOR ASS HANDED TO YOU BY ONE CHICK AND YOU HAVE THE BALLS TO COME TO A SILVER SPADES MEETING!"
'Silver Spades? That's the gang Kadota was talking about!' Looking through the crowd again, Sora realized that everybody, including the Boss, had on a steely colored scarf.
'This can't be good,' she thought as she continued to listen to the Boss yell at the three numbskulls.
"YOU SHOULD BE OUT HUNTING HER DOWN!"
Crying a little, head-scarf pleaded with the Boss, "We-we're sorry Boss! But as soon as we woke up, dat crazy bitch was long gone!"
'There's nothing crazy about kicking the butts of some idiotic bullies!' Sora mentally cried as she leaned out farther. Suddenly, her hat fell off of her head.
Grabbing at it quickly, she had just gotten it when the old railing decided to give way and she fell forward.
Reacting faster than humanly possible, the girl grabbed the railing with one hand while the other clutched at her hat, causing her to hang in midair right over the gang meeting. Amazingly, no one had noticed.
Sighing with relief, Sora replaced her hat and grabbed the railing with both hands. She was just about to pull herself up when-
CRACK!
The railing snapped, causing the fugitive to lose her grip and plummet twenty feet!
Which led to good news and bad news.
The good news was that Sora somehow managed to fall onto one of the sofas below and, although a bit winded, was none the worse for wear.
The bad news was that it was the Boss man's lap, who had just sat back down, that had broken her fall-
And nearly his legs!
Bouncing onto the floor after landing, Sora did a quick check and found that she was fine. Hearing a groan, she looked behind her and discovered the Boss clutching his legs.
"Hey, are you ok?" she tentatively asked.
Head shooting up, Boss screamed, "OF COURSE I'M NOT OK! YOU JUST FUCKING FELL ON ME!
Hearing a gasp from her other side, the girl turned and saw that head-scarf was pointing his finger at her.
"BOSS! THAT'S HER! THAT THE CHICK!"
"WHAT!"
"Uh oh," the girl said, "Time to go!"
Sora stood up and tried to leave, but found herself facing a mini sea of steel scarves, and with all the doors behind her barred off, she was trapped.
"Not good," she mumbles.
Hobbling onto his feet, Boss points at her and bellows "GET HER!"
The sea comes to life, as each member of the Silver Spades draws out a weapon of some kind. The tourist sees tire irons, crowbars, bats, even a golf club, and knives.
Lots and lots of knives.
Any normal person getting ready to be swarmed by fifty weapon wielding gangsters probably would've broken down and cried at this point, but Sora was far from normal.
Instead of freaking out, she simply took in what was going on and contemplated it. Eventually she sighed and scratched her head as she smiled.
"A-cha! Guess there's no avoiding it. If I don't use them, I'm gonna die." Her smile is still there, but her green and blue eyes harden, "And I don't want to die just yet."
Her expression causes the three idiots in front of her to scamper off and let the rest of the gang deal with her, who also pause when they see her.
Sliding her bag off her shoulder nonchalantly and placing it in front of her, Sora zips it open and reaches inside with both arms. The sound of Velcro can be heard from the bag.
Taking her hat off, the strange girl puts it in the bag, before grabbing something and pulling it out.
Standing erect, Sora slides her backpack over to the side and faces the crowd again. They can now see what it is she has.
In each of her hands is a tonfa, each as long as her forearm and a brown so dark it was nearly black.
Spinning the one in her left hand lazily, Sora says to the crowd, "It's been a while since I last used these, so I'll apologize in advanced for any and all broken bones or deaths."
"What was that, you little brat?" A random voice calls out.
"You think you can beat us by yourself?"
The sea of Silver Spades boiled in anger, but before they can charge the dock again, Sora has dashed forward to the edge and leap up above the crowd.
After the fight, the gangsters would argue about what happened during those first few moments before the fight began. Many would say that as she came back down to earth, she had the face of a demon with a snake for a tongue. Others claimed that her eyes started to glow with a supernatural power that held them in place.
But every single one of the gangsters agrees that as she fell into the crowd, someone yelled, "YOU'RE GONNA DIE!" and she responded;
"Like hell I will!"
A/N: Told you it wasn't good.
Anyway, for those of you who do not know, a tonfa is a wooden weapon, usually wielded in pairs, that originated from Asia.
A tonfa is made from two pieces of wood; a long one and a short on. The short one is inserted perpendicular to the long one, a hands-breadth from one end, forming the handle.
The batons that the police used to use are a similar shape but how they are used is different.
It is a good weapon for both offense and defense.
For more information, check out wikipedia/youtube.