A/N: Early update today...and another on Friday, too.

Game2002: Sorry if I made him a little bit of a drunkard...he's already stressed out as it is and I wanted to show that. And drinking is easy, even if its cliched. Don't worry, he'll get better the next few chapters...but there will be a few other people that will be drinking but that won't be a main point.

10 / Pulling Muscles

"GOOD MORNING, LADIES!"

New day, new mess.

"Slept well, hmm?" Kotaro went on, a hand on his hip, the other in his pocket, a smile on his lips. "Well, that's good!" he said, not bothering to hear a response, which came as no surprise to the others. "It's great! It's wonderful! And you know why!? Because we have a long day ahead of us!" And then, he promptly turned and walked out.

Sakura and Junko glanced at each other, blinking. Ai raised an eyebrow. Yugiri cocked her head to the side in confusion. Lily rolled her eyes and Saki just raised her hands, mouth twisting into a scowl. Tae reacted by just turning her head to the side, ignoring everyone else entirely.

Seconds later, the girls heard a small ding! and Kotaro appeared again, riding a bicycle, with a small basket in the front holding Romero. He began circling the blackboard before stopping a few inches away from the girls, the zombie dog in the basket let out a small yawn.

"...uhm…" Sakura began, eyeing Kotaro and the bicycle, as the manager kept on ringing the bell. "What...what is that for?"

"What do you think it's for, you stupid zombie?!" Kotaro yelled, annoyed. "It's a bike!"

"I mean…" Sakura sighed. A year in, and still, Kotaro's crazy was a force to be reckoned with. A part of her wondered if he was doing this on purpose to mess with them. "I mean...why do you have a bike?"

"To ride it of course."

Sakura just raised an eyebrow of Kotaro, pursing her lips while Saki groaned on the side. "We know what a fucking bike is for, you idiot! What the hell are you doing riding it around here for!?"

"Isn't it obvious!?"

"No." Ai told him, shaking her head. "It's not."

"Well, it should be," Kotaro grumbled before he began to make circles around the blackboard again. "You will be participating in…" the man stopped in front of them, ringing the bell one, two, three times. "...IN A BIKE RACE!"

"Huh?"

"What?"

"A bike...race?"

"Yes!" their manager cried, grinning. "Franchouchou has been invited to participate in a special event! A race! A race for charity!"

"A charity race?" Junko echoed, sounding a bit intrigued, despite her initial misgivings. Everyone else seemed mighty interested as well, minus Tae, who was currently staring at the ceiling.

Kotaro nodded, ringing the bell again. "Yes, yes! Some businessman from Tokyo set up the event to raise funds for a local charity...donations, bike races, food...whatever, whatever!"

"Oh!" Sakura replied, suddenly smiling. "That sounds neat!"

"Isn't it? Isn't it!?" Kotaro asked her with a cheeky grin, chuckling slightly. "The race!" he went on. "The race will be a few miles long...nothing too strenuous...not like you need to know that. You're dead, after all."

"That's...interesting…" Ai said, glancing to the side before raising her eyebrow. "And we were invited?"

"EXACTAMUNDO!" Kotaro cried again, leaning a little closer to the girls and making Junko and Sakura almost fall off of their seats in surprise. He turned to Ai and said, "I got mail." That explained absolutely nothing but Ai didn't feel like asking. He was already fired up as it was.

"...so...it's just an open event, then?" Lily asked him with half lidded eyes. "Anyone can just go and participate?"

Kotaro just answered by ringing the bike's bell over and over again. "ARE YOU READY!? TOMORROW'S THE BIG DAY! SO….SO….SEE YAAA!" And then, he made one circle around the blackboard and left, ringing his little bell as Romero began to bark.

The event had been set up near Karatsu Bay, giving the participants and onlookers a beautiful view of the sea and the Karatsu Castle in the distance.

Franchouchou had arrived just a few hours ago; as they had all figured, their manager had decided to join the race at the last minute and had to make a line to get them all signed up and another half hour to rent the bikes they'll need for the event.

The worst part was that the girls had been forced to wear the ugly Franchouchou shirts once more, Kotaro saying that they needed to advertise and what better way to gain a reputation boost than participating in a charity race! He also figured, privately, that the shirts would finally be sold out in the next event if fans saw them wearing it during the race.

Saki, Yugiri remembers, had scoffed and muttered under her breath, "I should have burned these pieces of shit when I had the chance…" before marching off, following after Sakura, who had volunteered to help Kotaro get the bikes they'll need for the event.

Meanwhile, keeping to themselves as far away from the crowd, the rest of Franchouchou stood. Ai and Lily grumbled about the shirts, Junko tried not to melt with embarrassment, hiding her face with her hands and shaking her head, while Tae sneezed and yawned behind them, oblivious to the world. Yugiri, for her part, kept herself busy by watching the sights.

A beach.

How majestic.

Back when she had been alive, Yugiri had never so much as seen a beach up close before. She rarely was allowed to travel far from the red light district she worked in, and even then, when a rich patron asked for her services for a few days, their time would be spent at the patron's home, talking, writing for him, playing her shamisen, before the inevitable happened and he took her back home. It happened rarely, however. Most contented themselves to just doing their business in the brothel and then leaving.

There had been, however, a peculiar old man that had asked for her services one day.

Instead of the usual, he had asked her if she wanted to take a walk with him and she had agreed. So, they walked and talked.

The man would talk about the silliest of things, stories he heard, the weather, changes in the government, a particularly ugly kimono he saw the other day, the coming of bad omens, anything that struck his fancy that day was motive for conversation. He was also a big spender so when her old manager saw him coming, he always made absolutely sure that Yugiri was free for the day, no matter what.

This man had been one of the rare ones; the ones that sought companionship instead of pleasure. And Yugiri enjoyed her time with the man. He was a sweet man. A gentleman.

He never put his hands on her.

It was...somehow comforting.

Now, looking at the beach in the present, the calmness of the waves, the gentleness of the sand, she was reminded of those walks, of the man who called himself Jofuku, who, like the wind, was gone, just like time.

Yugiri suddenly smiled, a forlorn smile.

(oh, how could time be so unforgiving?)

The courtesan turned away from the waters (and her memories) to stare at the nearby stands; they had been set up neatly in the sand, standing side by side, not too close, their banners floating by the side, all of names she could not recognize. Local businesses, food, trinkets, they were all there, all full to the brim with customers, some eating, some browsing, some laughing. By the end of the line of stands, was a large sign. It reads "Sherry & Gale Advertising" in big block letters, below it, information about the event, times, rentals, etc.

Sakura had spotted the sign first when she followed after Kotaro.

She had frowned, cocking her head to the side before shaking it. It was as if she was trying to figure out the name but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

When Yugiri had inquired, Ai had just shrugged and said, "She probably heard the name somewhere before...before she, uh, you know. The name doesn't ring a bell with me, though. If the company is set in Tokyo, I've never heard of it and believe me, the company that I used to work for dangled with a lot of advertisers and this Sherry and Gale was not one of them."

Eventually, Sakura, Saki and Kotaro finally returned, dragging with them the bikes they'll need for the race. Sakura and Saki had two while their manager struggled with three. Apparently, Kotaro had forgotten to count and instead of calling one of the girls to help out with the extra bike, he had to drag all three bikes by himself. Saki was certainly not going to help him, and the others guessed she had made sure Sakura wouldn't try to help him either.

Once the bikes had been delivered, Kotaro informed them that the event was set to start in half an hour, pointing at the makeshift track that had been made all around the beach, a pair of flags at certain distances. They were to make at least five laps, minimum, but the event was set to last a couple of hours until the time ran out. Kotaro had made it very clear he wanted them to complete the event until those hours were up. It was set to be five hours long.

"You'll be fine! You'll be fine!" he had told them, before nodding, wishing them luck and disappearing into the crowd.

"And there he goes," Ai commented, watching their manager leave.

"Geh...figures he'll leave us with the heavy lifting," Saki remarked, dryly, glaring at where the man had disappeared into. "Bah! Whatever. It's not like we need to be in first place or anything...it's just making circles around the beach."

"For five hours," Lily said, shaking her head.

"We'll have to stop every half hour or so…don't want anyone getting suspicious," Ai told them.

"W-well...we do get tired, don't we?" Junko asked, causing Ai to smirk.

"Yeah, we kinda do...and then our limbs start falling off."

That got a chuckle out of the girls.

Sakura, all smiles and positive, grinned. "I don't think we really have to worry about that, though!" she exclaimed, excitedly. "If we keep our distance we might not have to worry about bumping into anyone at all." The young woman glanced at her bike. "It's been so long since I rode a bike!...well, I don't really think the one we rode in the Gatalympics really counts..."

"You had a bike before?" Saki asked her, as she inspected her own bike, nodding in satisfaction after a bit. Saki didn't care much for run-of-the-mill bikes, the ones with no motors. They were no good for her back then.

"I had a few...I outgrew most of them...but two…" Sakura muttered, adding that last part almost unconsciously before realizing her mistake.

Too late.

Everyone was already interested.

"What do ya mean by that, Egghead?"

"Ah, well…" Sakura was getting nervous now. It was easy to tell, Yugiri realized. Sakura had a tendency to panic most of the time, and how could she not, considering their current situation of being quite literally the living dead. Yugiri did notice, however, that Sakura used to panic a lot more previously before her old memories came back. Now, that nervousness was mainly connected to her past and the usual strangeness that surrounded them once in a while. "...it's...it's a long story."

"We have time, Egghead...the event's like in an hour or so."

"Make that twenty minutes," Ai said, pointing at a man in the distance with a megaphone, already informing people around him to get ready in twenty minutes. "I guess we can manage...let's get ready to go until they say five minutes...wouldn't want to get exposed in this crowd."

"So, so!" Lily began, sounding mighty curious. "Tell us about those two bikes. You said you had many bikes...and then those two, right?" Sakura gave her a slow nod.

"Ah...yes! Umm...well, originally I had five bikes...plus those final two, so really it was just three that I outgrew. The first one I got when I was fourteen. That one I used to get to and from school, go on errands, those sorts of things."

"You fall into a canal with that one?" Saki asked her with good humor; Ai rolled her eyes, Junko shook her head, and Lily and Yugiri offered her a giggle and a smile respectively. Tae was trying not to look too interested.

Sakura smiled, her expression suddenly distant as she got lost in her memories. "No. No. It wasn't a canal...it uh...it was...well…" Sakura let out a small, nervous laugh. Oh dear, Yugiri thought. "That...that one...that one was run over by a truck."

Everyone, including Tae, turned to stare at her.

"...are...are you serious?"

"A...a tr-truck!?"

Saki was already shaking her head. "What the hell you do, Egghead? Park it in the middle of the street, or what?"

Sakura shook her head, laughing nervously again. "N-no! Nothing like that! I...uh...well, I was going up a hill, see...and then, well, I fell. Made a flip. By the time I recorved, I noticed the bike hadn't really fallen with me...it stood upright...for some reason...and well, it rolled down. And down it went until it reached the street. By the time I caught up with it, it was struck by the truck." Sakura was sighing now.

"You...you are…" Saki didn't have the heart to finish that sentence. Sakura's luck was...an odd thing. She had bad days, too. They were rare but they happened. Sure, the mirror back in the studio broke that one time when Sakura had stared at it, so what? Saki had broke it even more with her fist. Luck had nothing to do with that. So, what the hell was it with this now? Sakura's luck couldn't be this bad.

"Oh, it wasn't so bad!" Sakura said, scratching her cheek, sounding every bit as nervous as before. "Well...I got off easy...it was an accident after all." Not to mention the scratches and bruises she got on her arms and legs after that fall. Her childhood friend, Shiro, had fretted over her for a few days after the accident before sighing and saying, "At least it was the bike and not you."

Not like that made any difference in the end, all things considered.

"And what h-happened to the second one?" Junko asked her.

Sakura suddenly stared at nowhere, shook her head once, and said, "That...well...that one, I got a few months after the whole mess with the firs-uhm...the...the truck. So, it was particularly new."

"That one did not get hit by a...ah, truck, I presume?" Yugiri wondered; she blinked in surprise when Sakura suddenly flinched.

"Well...n-no. It...it wasn't a truck this time...or any vehicle for that matter."

"Eh? What was it!? What was it!?" Lily exclaimed, eyes shining with uncontrolled excitement. Behind her, showing mild interest, Tae groaned.

"Uhm...well...how...how do I say this?" Sakura suddenly looked determined and said, "Acrocodileateit."

The girls around her blinked; Sakura had spoke so fast, the girls had a hard time processing what she had said.

"Pardon?" Yugiri began. "What was that?"

"...it...it was eaten."

"Did you say...eaten!?" Ai cried, eyebrows shooting up, while Saki stared wide-eyed at the pink haired girl standing next to her. Junko reacted with a loud gasp, Lily just stared at Sakura and Yugiri's eyes widen slightly. "What do you mean, eaten!?"

Sakura scratched her cheek again, eyes half closed, trying to avoid looking at her friends. "W-well...there was th-this park where I would ride my bike, the previous bikes, anyway...this new bike was already a few days old and I wanted to ride it around the park for a while. There's this...this canal not far from there, it's nearly full all year round. So...eh...well, I run over a small rock and this same rock sends me tumbling down, the bike falling a bit near the canal...and next thing I know, a crocodile just appears and chomps on the tire."

"You...you are kidding me…" Saki whispers, but Sakura just shakes her head, still not looking at them.

"I thought I was dreaming...it just ate the tire and...well...it...it choked on it." Sakura sighs, sounding tired. "...it ate the tire and then it died."

Everyone just kept staring at her; five minutes, five minutes to get to your places, megaphone man cried out.

"I didn't get anymore bikes after that…" Sakura finished, pushing her bike towards the starting line, with the others breaking out of their trance and moving to follow after her.

Lagging behind Sakura, Ai commented to the others, "You know...the more I hear about Sakura's...luck...the less sure I am about the whole thing about us all being unlucky…"

"W-well...we are...all dead," Junko whispered. "We are still pretty unlucky…"

They were silent as they reached the starting line, megaphone man already counting down for them to begin the race.

(how can life be so unforgiving?)

The race ended with no problems in the end.

Tae was the only one the girls had to truly keep an eye on, since the older woman had suddenly decided to take a nap as she was cycling, forcing Sakura and the others to steer her clear of any collisions.

They finished the race, bought a few snacks, and then, Kotaro ushered them out as quickly as possible, van at the ready and in minutes, they were back home.

All in all, it was an enjoyable evening.

(except for that boy...he was there again…)

Yugiri wished they could do it again sometime soon.

Well, so long as Lady Tae didn't try to take a nap every ten minutes. Poor Sakura had almost fallen a few times trying to make sure the older woman didn't crash or fall as she snoozed.

For now, everyone was getting ready for bed. Tae was already on her futon, snoring, dead to the world. Saki was lying on her futon, hands on the back of her head as she and Lily talked. The ex-biker was still going on about burning the shirts and Lily was wondering whether she should help her or not. Ai and Junko were sitting over their blankets, talking about some unknown thing that didn't involve fire damage. Yugiri had finished brushing her hair and was glancing around the room.

Ah.

Sakura was missing.

She probably was gazing at the stars in the balcony.

The young woman had started doing that often but sometimes she'll lose track of time. Sometimes she didn't sleep at all. Not that they needed to sleep, being dead and all but Lady Ai had remarked, somewhat sheepishly, that they still shouldn't miss sleep, no matter how much they could endure. Ai certainly didn't want a repeat of what she went through during the whole Saga Rock deal some months back.

Yugiri had yet to be feel the least bit tired, so she decided to go and look for Sakura and accompany her for the night.

The stars were rather charming this evening, after all. No one had to be alone.

/…..

A few minutes later, Yugiri found Sakura, sitting down on that familiar bench, admiring the sights before her; the sea of trees, the waves in the water, the stars in the sky.

Sakura immediately took notice of her band mate and smiled her way. "Yugiri!"

"Hello," the woman replied, smiling softly. "May I?" Yugiri gestured to bench, Sakura smiled, and scooted a little to the side, allowing the courtesan to take a seat next to her. "Ah, the stars are beautiful tonight," she commented, eyeing the stars lightning up the sky of Karatsu, a few clouds scattered here and there.

"They are pretty," Sakura agreed, smiling.

The two were silent for a bit, just admiring the scenery before them. Nearby, they heard Romero howl at the moon.

"Lady Sakura?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I ask a question?"

"Uh, sure."

"How are you doing?"

"Huh?" Sakura turned to the courtesan. "Eh...wh-what do you mean?"

"I mean, in general...are you well?"

"...uh...well, I guess. I'm dead...so…" Yugiri smiled.

"Ah, that's not exactly what I meant."

"Huh?"

"I noticed you have been a tad bit...tense, I suppose...ever since Lady Saki told that story about crashing."

Sakura stared at her a bit, finally realizing what Yugiri was talking about. She sighed. "I...I guess…"

"You seemed awfully unhappy about that particular story, more so than usual," Yugiri noted.

"Heh...was I too obvious?"

Yugiri shrugged her shoulders. "I'll rather not say."

Sakura laughed. "I guess I was…"

They were silent for a while before the young woman said, "It was my brother."

"Hmm?"

"My brother...he had the umbrella on his hands when the wind blew it away…" Sakura told her, smiling softly. "I'll usually pick him up after school was over...Mom...Mom figured it was going to rain...so she told me to take the umbrella." Sakura stared at the distance. "I...that...that was before my parents separated."

"Separated?"

"I guess it's hard to explain…"

Yugiri shook her head. "No. I think I understand…"

For a while, the two just sat there in silence, each staring at the sky, staring at a world that they could no longer be part of.

Eventually, the courtesan glanced at her quiet companion, and with great dismay, realized that Sakura had begun to cry. Her companion's tears fell silently, down her cheeks, down her neck, down, down, they went. Sakura didn't seem to notice her tears or maybe, she didn't want to notice them. Yugiri moved closer, her fingers brushing against Sakura's cheeks, trying to wipe the tears away.

"Lady Sakura…"

Sakura closed her eyes slowly, trying to trap the tears that wouldn't stop. "I-I'm al-alright…" she hiccupped, a hand trying to wipe the tears away before Yugiri stopped her. Sakura opened her eyes again and stared into Yugiri's own. The tears just wouldn't stop. "I...I just…I...I didn't realize how much I missed my...family until...until I started thinking about them…" And Sakura buried her face into her hands and cried. Yugiri didn't wait for an invitation; she moved closer, taking Sakura's grieving form into her arms, offering her shoulder for her to cry on.

Sakura kept on crying, her anguish louder than the silence that surrounded them.