It was a beautiful Monday afternoon in the sleepy little town of Moonglow, Ireland. Children played in the streets as their mothers kept a watchful eye on them while doing laundry. Men sat outside in the late afternoon sun, smoking their pipes. All in all it was a peaceful day… that is until you entered the Pigs Eye pub.
Now mind you the pub itself, was relatively peaceful. One of the older buildings in the town, it was painted a fading blue, with an old sign stating the nature of the building. But today the proprietors of this establishment were the real problem.
Farfarello and his gang had decided to come to town for the day. Now these guys were the deadliest bunch of poker rustlers in all Ireland. They would travel from town to town looking for suckers to play poker against. If you were caught cheating against them… well you wouldn't be playing ANYTING, let alone poker, for a long, long time.
The particular day Farfarello's boys had found what they thought was an unsuspecting victim. The man they had chosen was tall and pretty quick when he wanted to be, he had a cheser cat grin and fiery red hair that was pulled back in a yellow bandana. From his clothing and mannerism they guessed he was from the Deutschland, despite the lack of an accent.
"This one looks like a good enough sucker for the Boss." Ran whispered to his gang-mates.
Ken snickered "Defiantly. Just look at his clothes!"
It was true, the Deutschlander's clothes were rather flamboyant. With a deep blue shirt, white cowhide vest, brown pants, black boots and of course the ridiculous yellow headband to hold back his mane of fiery hair. He defiantly stood out of a crowd with those clothes and that height.
"So?" Ran eyed the group. "Who wants to get this one for the Boss?" he turned and looked at the youngest of the group.
Omi sighed, he usually got stuck as the bait. "Fine! I'll do it this time… but you guys owe me!"
"Sure kid." Yohji winked at Omi. "Whatever you say."
Omi just glared at him and stalked off in the direction of the target.
Yohji closed his eyes and gave a lazy yawn. He slowly opened one emerald eye. "So how long ya think he'll take?"
Ken rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Probably not long… He's getting really good at this."
"Yeah, he learns quick. Well we better go inform the Boss that we found him a target."
With that they turned their back on their "bait" and headed back towards Pigs Eye pub.
"Mister! Oi Mister!" Omi ran down the street after foreigner. Once he finally slowed down, Omi stopped to catch his breath.
"Yeah kid? What do you want?" He glared at Omi.
"Well sir. Since your arrival here in Moonglow your reputation of being wealthy and a fantastic poker player has spread." Omi grinned wider as the man arched a eyebrow and smiled. "My employer has sent me to request a game of poker against you." Omi leaned closer and told him in a whisper. "Please sir, if you accept… go easy on him, he's not very good."
At this last statement the man's eyes flashed and a broad grin appeared on his lips. "Well boy I accept. Now where will we be starting the game?"
"Well sir we'l--"
"Schuldich." The foreigner cut him off. "Call me Schuldich."
Omi stared at him for a second. "Well… Schuldich. If you come with me we can start now." With that Omi grabbed Schu's arm and pulled him in the direction of the Pigs Eye pub.
"We're here!" Omi proclaimed as they entered the pub. Omi let go of Schu's arm and walked towards the others.
Schuldich looked around the dimly lit pub. Other then the bartender and himself there were only five other people in the pub. There was the kid who was short, with brown hair, large blue eyes and couldn't be over sixteen. Next to him stood another kid that that looked about two-three years older, he had on a cowhide jacket, strange bulky looking gloves, he had dark brown hair and turquoise eyes. Standing next to him, positively glaring at Schuldich, was a man with fire red hair, wearing a long black coat and had the most unusual grayish-purple eyes. Lounging peacefully on a barstool sat the oldest of the four. He had shoulder length dirty blonde hair and emerald green eyes so bright they rivaled Schu's own. He wore a plain white shirt, jeans and an unervingly peaceful smile. There was one thing about him that struck Schu as odd, he wore a bulky bracelet for seemingly no reason what so ever.
There was one last person in the bar. He had been sitting in a shadowy corner of the bar. Schuldich probably wouldn't have even noticed him, if he hadn't sensed his mind before even entering the building that is.
The mysterious man slowly got up and walked towards Schuldich. As he came closer you could more easily make out his appearance. He had white hair and very pale skin with many scars. One eye was a piercing gold and a black leather eye patch covered the other. He wore a black leather vest with no shirt, black leather pants and black boots. He walked right up to Schuldich and stopped. He looked him up and down.
"Are you the one I'm playing?" he asked more the air then Schu.
Omi spoke before Schuldich could answer "Yup Boss. He's your opponent today."
The man turned and headed towards a table that had already been setup with poker chips and cards. He sat down in the chair facing Schu and motioned for him to sit down.
"Well…" Schuldich stated waiting for a name.
"Farfarello." The man said.
"Schuldich." He grinned. This was gonna be fun. "Well Farfarello. Let's play." With that he picked up the cards lying on the table and started to deal.
~*~*Later*~*~
A few hours later Farfarello and Schuldich were still playing poker, with Farfarello's boys watching intently.
"Raise you twenty." Farfarello stated and pushed forward the last of his chips.
"I'll match that and raise you thirty." Schu also pushed the last of his chips into the large pile. "Now whatcha got in your hand?"
Farfarello laid his hand on the table. "Two pair."
Schu grinned and put his hand down. "Royal flush. I guess I'll just be taking these…" Schu slide his hands towards the chips. But he was suddenly stopped by a dagger plunged deep into the table. He looked up into Farfarello's angry face.
"I don't know how but you cheated." He growled. "We don't like cheaters, now do we boys?"
With that the redhead pulled out a katana, the kid a small cross bow, the kid with the bulky glove made a fist and four spikes popped out of the back of the glove and the man with the strange thick bracelet pulled out a harigane from it. The three older men closed in on Schu as the kid loaded a dart. Luckily for Schuldich they were interrupted before anyone could make a move.
Suddenly the pubs burst open and the sheriff Crawford and his deputy Nagi barged in. Crawford trained his weapon on Farfarello, while Nagi tried best he could to cover the other four.
"Freeze Farfarello!" Crawford yelled. "We have the pub surrounded!"
Deputy Nagi kept switching his aim between Ran, Ken, Yohji and Omi. Because of that Nagi missed the fact that Omi had taken a small vial. While Nagi was covering the smiling Yohji, Omi threw the vial to the ground and a cloud of smoke filled the room. Schuldich figured this was as good a time as any to try and run. So he turned to towards the door and was about to run when he felt a strong hand griping his shoulder.
"Ah, ah, ah…" Farfarello scolded. "We're not done with you yet." He turned and called to Omi. "Omi if you'd be so kind…"
With that Omi nodded and took a dart out of his jacket and threw it at Schuldich. Schu tried to pull it out the dart before it could affect him, but it was to late, he blacked out.