Uhh I know it seems like I'm apologising every single chapter, and I am, this time the lack of updates is due to computer errors, which is to say, my PC has been so far up the wall that it is crawling along the ceiling. Sorry, nothing I can really do about it, hey I can't even install word onto this thing so this chapter is going to be written without the help of a grammar or spellings checker. May god have mercy upon the english language!
Alice sat in the ready room nervously running a brush through her hair. The act was utterly pointless as all tangles had been eliminated more than 20 minutes ago. But this was going to be her first time on TV, she had to look her absolute best. Eventually Kyou tired of her constant hairdressing and took the brush off of her, storing it away in its seemingly infinite storeroom that it contained. With a lack of anything else to do Alice began twiddling with her fingers, she got so caught up in it that the arrival of her opponent made her jump. After she recovered from the shock she got to her feet and smoothed down her dress.
"Hello, I'm Alice Arke, I'm your opponent." She extended one hand.
"I'm Acarius, and I'm the person you will be losing to." There was a hint of sibilance to his speech. He took Alice's hand, but did not shake it, instead he raised it to shoulder height and sniffed politely. "Ahh you have a force's hand I see, but you have recently been handling a saber, interesting." Alice took her hand back, this Acarius was certainly a strange person. She sniffed him back. He smelled strongly of the forest, perhaps he had been training there recently? He also smelled a little of alcohol, but that didn't cover up the other scent, it was a strange smell, but not one that Alice hadn't encountered before, he had the smell of a reptile.
"You're a snake." She said bluntly, then immediately realized how rude that was.
"Quite right my little bunny rabbit, and we all know who here comes highest on the food chain don't we?"
"Little bunny rabbits don't throw fireballs around do they?" Alice said as threateningly as she could manage.
"Well that may be so, bunny rabbit, but you have yet to see what snakes can do." Acarius fell silent, seemingly content to wait for the match to begin without any idle chatter. This suited Alice just fine, the less Acarius talked the better. Bunny rabbit, she'd show him.
"See Crimson? It's a perfectly nice place?"
"I dunno Tatsu, it looks pretty busy, by law of numbers there must be at least one person in there who we won't get along with."
"So we just don't talk to them! Stop being so difficult, people are starting to give us funny looks, we have to either go in now or leave." It was true, several passersby we now standing still and watching the two hunters argue.
"Hmm, you promise that we're just going to eat here? No trying to socialize?"
"I promise, now lets go! I'm so hungry my stomach is starting to think my throats been cut."
The pair walked through the door to the bar and the small crowd of people quickly dissipated, returning to whatever tasks they had originally left their rooms for. What a disappointment, why would a pair of hunters argue for so long and not even fight?
Tatsu guided Crimson over to a small out of the way table, this way there was less chance of any troublemakers approaching them, unfortunately it also reduced the chance of them being noticed by any of the serving staff. After the third failed attempt to flag down a waitress Crimson was getting impatient.
He called out to the nearest waitress "Hey, if you'd wake up, some people want to order!"
"Oh I'm sorry sir" The girl bowed "I didn't notice you there" another bow "You'll have to forgive me, it's my first day." A third bow. It was quite apparent that she was new to this job, looking past her Tatsu could see a number of men watching the movement of her short skirt as she bowed.
"That's quite alright, miss?"
"Akimoto, Ayaka Akimoto." Another bow, and a few more lecherous stares.
"Miss Akimoto. I should be the one apologizing, my friend doesn't mean to be so rude, he's just hungry, isn't that right Crimson?" Tatsu's tone made it clear that Crimson's opinion in this was completely irrelevant.
"Uhh, of course, can we place our order now?" Crimson was rapidly flicking through the menu.
"Right" Ayaka nodded "So what will it be?"
Crimson looked up from his menu "I'll have the miso soup please."
"Umm that's not really a lunch type of meal sir." Ayaka said nervously.
"Miso soup." Crimson repeated.
"Erm of course sir, miso soup it is then." The waitress scribbled it down. "And you'll have?" She turned to Tatsu.
"Umm chicken terayaki I guess."
"Okay then, one miso soup and one chicken terayaki! Drinks?"
"None for me thank you, soup is wet enough." Crimson said dryly.
Tatsu thought about it for a moment "Uhh just water please."
"Okay! Your meal will be ready in about ten to fifteen minutes, I'll be right back!" Ayaka started to walk away, got about five paces and then tripped over her own feet knocking into someone and spilling his drink. "Oh sorry sir! It was a complete accident! I'll get you a refill, free of charge."
"Why are you being so awkward?" Tatsu whispered to Crimson "I thought you were trying to avoid being noticed."
"I couldn't help it" Crimson grinned behind his mask "We got a cute waitress, I just wanted to make sure she'd remember me."
"First, of course she would remember you, most other people here don't have MAGs floating behind them and we both ordered off of the Japanese menu, and second, of course we got a cute waitress, just look around and try and spot an ugly one."
Crimson scanned the room, the only people he saw wearing waitress outfits were young and pretty.
"I don't see any."
"That's because there aren't any, job interviews here must be more like beauty pageants. This place was made to cater to all types of people, and who would want to be served by a fat hairy woman called Brenda?"
"Looks like they're assuming that only guys would come here to eat."
"Nope, look over on the far side of the room there, they hire guys as well."
"Are you sure that's a guy? I mean sure they dress like one but they look like they should be sparkling."
"Huh?"
"Never mind. But I guess this place isn't so bad, can't say that the differently themed areas really do much for the place, but I suppose it makes the place unique."
It definitely didn't seem like any bar Crimson had been in before, It was a classy establishment and Tatsu was right, it did cater to a wide range of people. He and Tatsu had chosen the oriental themed area, obviously, but there were areas for people of almost any nationality. He thought it somewhat strange that there was nobody in the English area of the room. It seemed they were all in the Japanese area ogling the waitresses.
The two hunters sat in silence for a moment until Crimson spoke again "I give up, you win."
"What do you mean I win?"
"There is nothing wrong with this bar."
"I had to get it right one day, and it looks like today is that day." Tatsu congratulated himself, perhaps a little prematurely.
"Hey, bar wench! I ordered my drink over twenty minutes ago, how hard can it be to get some damned vodka." An obnoxious voice bellowed.
The 'bar wench' being yelled at was none other than Ayaka.
"I'm really sorry Mr. Nuclear, I'll get right on it sir." She turned to walk away and promptly tripped and landed flat on her face "oww."
"Get up you idiot, if my drink isn't here in the next three minutes then I'm reporting you to the manager."
"Man, I hate that guy." Tatsu fumed "I mean who does he think he is?"
"You know him?" Crimson asked
"Yeah, fought with him a couple of times, he's a complete and utter bastard."
"Right" Crimson turned round in his seat "Hey Nuclear!! What do you think you're doing talking to the waitresses like that?"
"Oh no." Tatsu groaned and attempted to shrink himself into invisibility.
"I'll talk to waitresses however I damn well like, now if you'll shut the hell up I'm trying to get drunk."
Crimson got out of his chair and helped Ayaka to her feet. "Either you apologize to this young lady, or I will make you apologize."
"Hah, you and who else?"
"Me and my buddy Tatsu. C'mon Tatsu, you're up to correcting this guys attitude. right?
"Tatsu?" Chimpus blinked "Hey it is you." He walked straight past Crimson ignoring him completely. "Hey Tatsu, why aren't you here with Alice?"
"If you must know, Alice is in a match and I'm just here for lunch, now kindly go the hell away."
"Touchy little midget aren't we? What's the matter? Alice not giving you any?"
Tatsu stood up fast, red in the face. But Crimson moved even faster. In the time it took to blink he had spun Chimpus round and had an autogun pointed at his face.
"You never, ever say things like that about either of my friends ever again. Are we clear?"
"Hmph, if I'd have know that there was a meeting of the Alice Arke fan club I would have brought my hat and badge."
"I asked you a damn question. Are we clear?" Crimson repeated.
"Yeah we're clear." Crimson put away the autogun and Chimpus straightened his collar. "Next time tell me when it's your time of the month."
Tatsu grabbed Crimson's arm "Come on, just ignore it, let's not get into a fight for once."
"That's right Tatsu, back down, you coward."
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"
Crimson suddenly realized he was still holding onto Ayaka "I suggest you go and get security or something, this won't end quietly." He whispered before letting her go. Ayaka nodded and hurried away.
"I called you a coward, what's the matter? Couldn't you hear me down there?" Chimpus continued his taunting.
"One more word out of you and they'll have to identify you by your dental records." Tatsu was getting pretty angry and Rudra was preparing itself for a fight.
"You couldn't even touch me if you tried." Chimpus drew his weapon and Tatsu summoned his in response.
"Tatsu, whatever you do, don't fight back, security guards are going to be here soon." Crimson hissed then drew a saber and stood by Tatsu's side. If Tatsu had heard his warning he gave no sign. But at least he waited for Chimpus to swing first.
There was a buzz of photon upon photon as Tatsu parried Chimpus' hasty lunge. The two circled each other like vultures, each waiting for the other to make a move. Several patrons had gathered round, this was a much more entertaining spectacle than scantily clad waitresses. Crimson had taken a place amongst the small crowd and was taking bets.
There was another flash and another buzz. This time Tatsu had been the one to attack. Chimpus almost stumbled attempting to block using his unwieldy gigush. He switched it for a brand and the match soon became a display of fencing technique.
Lunge, parry, riposte, and disengage. It was a familiar pattern for Tatsu and he was slowly gaining an advantage due to his experience with the fighting style. As Crimson had often commented, fencing was a lot like dancing, except your dance partner usually isn't trying to kill you.
Just as Tatsu was finding his rhythm and was about to press the attack, Chimpus made an unexpected move. He made a downward slash with his brand, which Tatsu moved to block, but a split second before the blow landed Chimpus switched back to using his gigush. The extra weigh behind the blow numbed Tatsu's arm to the shoulder. He neatly flicked his buster to his other arm.
"Ha, lets see if you're any good with that cybernetic limb of yours."
Tatsu fervently hoped he was, a little slip in concentration would reduce response time and maybe even prove fatal. Chimpus sliced across, Tatsu ducked and responded with an upwards slash which Chimpus avoided quite easily by stepping backwards.
"Haha, thought so, using that robot arm has made you slow."
Tatsu attacked furiously but Chimpus blocked each of his wild slashes, albeit with some difficulty, he then dropped to the floor and with a vicious sweep he knocked Tatsu off his feet. He missed his next blow by a wide margin as Tatsu rolled to his left instead of his right as Chimpus had anticipated.
Suddenly both combatants were immobile. It seemed that a force by the door had struck them both with a Rimit technique. Crimson was impressed, very few people knew how to do Rimit, he'd have to ask Alice if she knew it.
"I am tournament security officer Ryodo!" The force shouted "I demand to know what is going on here."
Crimson stepped forwards "My friend and I were sitting here waiting for our lunch when this hunter" He gestured to indicate Chimpus "attacked my friend, I believe that he is somebody my friend defeated in the arena."
The force cast anti on Chimpus and Tatsu. "Is what this ranger says true?" He addressed Chimpus
"Well yes, it is true, but-"
"No buts, you're under arrest."
"What about him?" Chimpus pointed at Tatsu, "he was fighting too!"
Ryodo shook his head "It appears he was acting in self defense, he is free to go." He turned to address Tatsu "But any more reports of you fighting outside of the arena and action will be taken against you."
"But that's not fair!" Chimpus complained as he was dragged away.
People began to return to their meals now that the action was over, Crimson however was still standing and even behind his mask it was obvious he was grinning like an idiot.
"What?" Tatsu asked suspiciously
"This is the first time I've been to a bar with you and someone else got arrested when we didn't."
Tatsu also broke into a smile "That's not true, we ran away once or twice."
"Umm misters Tatsu and Crimson?" A small voice asked "Your food is ready." Ayaka was standing by their table, their tray of food already set down..
"Thanks miss Akimoto." Crimson sat back down "How much is it?"
"Thirty meseta sir" Ayaka bowed.
Tatsu shot Crimson a look, at any other place Crimson would be more than a little upset about the cost.
"Okay, here's the money, and some for yourself." Crimson handed over the money cheerfully. Ayaka accepted it with a bow and then hurried off, blushing deeply.
Tatsu stared at Crimson in disbelief "Crimson, you just tipped her fifteen meseta."
"I know." Crimson responded "But she did help us out by getting that security guy."
"You gave her fifteen meseta just for that?"
"No, for that I gave her ten, the other five was because she is young, pretty and she remembered my name."
"You know Crimson, sometimes you are a kind, generous and all round likeable guy."
"I know, my father would have been ashamed of me."
"Are we there yet?" Kilili complained for what seemed like the twentieth time.
"No we are not damn well there, you'll know when we're there because we'll bloody well be there!" After her brief burst of niceness the other night Psilo had quickly reverted to being grumpy and irritable.
"We should be getting close, I think that's the greenhouse up ahead." Kinami informed them.
"That's still there?" Ryzada asked
"Oh of course, Asrith likes gardening, he says its good for stress"
"I can still remember that greenhouse from when I was little, there were always such interesting things in there, lots of bright colors and exotic smells." Ryzada said with a wistful sigh.
"Its still like that now, and I believe the strawberry plants should have ripened by now."
"I love strawberries" Kilili squealed and ran off ahead "Last one there doesn't get any strawberries!"
"Kilili get back here! This is not a safe place to be running off on your own." Psilo called after her "Dammit" she muttered under her breath and took off after her friend. Kinami and Ryzada looked at each other and shrugged, then ran in pursuit of the other two party members.
They finally caught up, but only because Kilili had stopped running, Kinami was a little out of breath.
"C'mon Kinami." Kilili complained "We didn't run that far."
"Well, I'm not, a hunter, I'm just, a scientist." Kinami wheezed.
"Yes you are a hunter." Ryzada observed, "You move like somebody who is familiar with fighting."
"Not all fighters are hunters you know." Kinami replyed, after he took another few gulps of air the party continued moving.
"Asrith calls this a green house?" Psilo said "It looks more like a jungle."
"It's like home." Ryzada sighed happily and trailed a finger along a vine.
"You are a very strange person Ryzada, anyone would think that you liked living here."
"Oh come on now Psilo, that's not being fair, everyone misses the place they were born don't they Ryzada?" Kilili was also quite happy amongst the plants.
"No, Psilo's right." Ryzada replied "I did like living here, it's a wonderful place."
"Then why'd you leave? Kilili asked.
"Because I couldn't stand being around Asrith, he was very strange back then." Ryzada rubbed her arm uncomfortably "I was kind of a daughter to him and kind of a test subject."
"A test subject?" Kilili echoed "That's awful."
"Not really, I can see why he was interested, the very first Newman was half cat, and until me there weren't any cat newmans on pioneer 2."
"I see." Kilili nodded, but still thought it was terrible, then something caught her eye. "Hey that's a dragon flower! I've only seen them in documentaries.
Psilo looked at it "Why's it called a dragon flower?" She prodded the stem, the flower bud opened and spat a gob of fire at her. "What the hell is this nutter doing planting fire breathing plants?!?"
"Actually I planted it." Ryzada wrapped her fingers fondly round the plants bright orange petals. "I planted it here when I was only four months old, I was so sad that I didn't get to see it flower for the first time, I can't believe Asrith kept it alive all this time."
"You planted a flower when you were four months old? Kilili said dubiously "Pretty smart baby."
Ryzada shrugged "It's a newman thing, accelerated growth and enhanced learning abilities during the first few years of life. I'm normal now though."
"As normal as a person who plants fire breathing flowers can be." Psilo muttered "It's been lovely reminiscing about your childhood, really it has, but can we get a move on?"
"I really don't think that would be a good idea." Kinami said.
"Oh? And why not?" Psilo demanded "Got more lethal plants to see have we?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, if you'd care to look down, there is a venomous tendril wrapping itself around your leg right now, I'd suggest you don't move."
Psilo looked down and suddenly became very very still. There was a vine as thick as her wrist curling itself around her ankle. "Someone? Please? GET THIS DAMNED THING OFF OF ME!"
"Just a moment, we cant just set fire to it or hack it off, It would sting you, and then you would have all of forty seconds to live." Kinami said calmly "Does anyone have any ideas?"
"Umm I might" Kilili volunteered.
"Well please hurry up before this stupid plant throttles me" Psilo was starting to panic, the vine had reached her knees.
"It should let go if we tickle it." Kilili's tone made it apparent that she wasn't entirely certain.
"Tickle it? That's your idea? Tickle the evil plant?"
"Well its either that or we just let it kill you."
"Please, be my guest, tickle away."
Kilili brushed the length of the vine with her fingertips and it fell limply from Psilo's leg .
"How the hell did you know that it would let go if you tickled it?" Psilo asked.
Kilili shrugged "where do I learn anything? The TV of course."
Psilo rolled her eyes "Of course, now if its alright with everyone, can we get out of here?"
"I think it would be best that we did" replied Kinami "God alone knows what else is in here."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Okay, I have taken forever and ever with this update, I know, please don't kill me, there are major problems with my PC, the other one can't even access the net, and this one is prone to closing word while I'm in the middle of writing, needless to say, I'm not impressed with it.
Post AN, Yeah, there is a lot of Japanese things in this fic... this is because It's actually easier for me to make up Japanese names and think of Japanese food than it is for me to use English stuff. Besides "John the force" really doesn't sound all too cool. What the hell do English restaurants serve for lunch anyway?
Alice sat in the ready room nervously running a brush through her hair. The act was utterly pointless as all tangles had been eliminated more than 20 minutes ago. But this was going to be her first time on TV, she had to look her absolute best. Eventually Kyou tired of her constant hairdressing and took the brush off of her, storing it away in its seemingly infinite storeroom that it contained. With a lack of anything else to do Alice began twiddling with her fingers, she got so caught up in it that the arrival of her opponent made her jump. After she recovered from the shock she got to her feet and smoothed down her dress.
"Hello, I'm Alice Arke, I'm your opponent." She extended one hand.
"I'm Acarius, and I'm the person you will be losing to." There was a hint of sibilance to his speech. He took Alice's hand, but did not shake it, instead he raised it to shoulder height and sniffed politely. "Ahh you have a force's hand I see, but you have recently been handling a saber, interesting." Alice took her hand back, this Acarius was certainly a strange person. She sniffed him back. He smelled strongly of the forest, perhaps he had been training there recently? He also smelled a little of alcohol, but that didn't cover up the other scent, it was a strange smell, but not one that Alice hadn't encountered before, he had the smell of a reptile.
"You're a snake." She said bluntly, then immediately realized how rude that was.
"Quite right my little bunny rabbit, and we all know who here comes highest on the food chain don't we?"
"Little bunny rabbits don't throw fireballs around do they?" Alice said as threateningly as she could manage.
"Well that may be so, bunny rabbit, but you have yet to see what snakes can do." Acarius fell silent, seemingly content to wait for the match to begin without any idle chatter. This suited Alice just fine, the less Acarius talked the better. Bunny rabbit, she'd show him.
"See Crimson? It's a perfectly nice place?"
"I dunno Tatsu, it looks pretty busy, by law of numbers there must be at least one person in there who we won't get along with."
"So we just don't talk to them! Stop being so difficult, people are starting to give us funny looks, we have to either go in now or leave." It was true, several passersby we now standing still and watching the two hunters argue.
"Hmm, you promise that we're just going to eat here? No trying to socialize?"
"I promise, now lets go! I'm so hungry my stomach is starting to think my throats been cut."
The pair walked through the door to the bar and the small crowd of people quickly dissipated, returning to whatever tasks they had originally left their rooms for. What a disappointment, why would a pair of hunters argue for so long and not even fight?
Tatsu guided Crimson over to a small out of the way table, this way there was less chance of any troublemakers approaching them, unfortunately it also reduced the chance of them being noticed by any of the serving staff. After the third failed attempt to flag down a waitress Crimson was getting impatient.
He called out to the nearest waitress "Hey, if you'd wake up, some people want to order!"
"Oh I'm sorry sir" The girl bowed "I didn't notice you there" another bow "You'll have to forgive me, it's my first day." A third bow. It was quite apparent that she was new to this job, looking past her Tatsu could see a number of men watching the movement of her short skirt as she bowed.
"That's quite alright, miss?"
"Akimoto, Ayaka Akimoto." Another bow, and a few more lecherous stares.
"Miss Akimoto. I should be the one apologizing, my friend doesn't mean to be so rude, he's just hungry, isn't that right Crimson?" Tatsu's tone made it clear that Crimson's opinion in this was completely irrelevant.
"Uhh, of course, can we place our order now?" Crimson was rapidly flicking through the menu.
"Right" Ayaka nodded "So what will it be?"
Crimson looked up from his menu "I'll have the miso soup please."
"Umm that's not really a lunch type of meal sir." Ayaka said nervously.
"Miso soup." Crimson repeated.
"Erm of course sir, miso soup it is then." The waitress scribbled it down. "And you'll have?" She turned to Tatsu.
"Umm chicken terayaki I guess."
"Okay then, one miso soup and one chicken terayaki! Drinks?"
"None for me thank you, soup is wet enough." Crimson said dryly.
Tatsu thought about it for a moment "Uhh just water please."
"Okay! Your meal will be ready in about ten to fifteen minutes, I'll be right back!" Ayaka started to walk away, got about five paces and then tripped over her own feet knocking into someone and spilling his drink. "Oh sorry sir! It was a complete accident! I'll get you a refill, free of charge."
"Why are you being so awkward?" Tatsu whispered to Crimson "I thought you were trying to avoid being noticed."
"I couldn't help it" Crimson grinned behind his mask "We got a cute waitress, I just wanted to make sure she'd remember me."
"First, of course she would remember you, most other people here don't have MAGs floating behind them and we both ordered off of the Japanese menu, and second, of course we got a cute waitress, just look around and try and spot an ugly one."
Crimson scanned the room, the only people he saw wearing waitress outfits were young and pretty.
"I don't see any."
"That's because there aren't any, job interviews here must be more like beauty pageants. This place was made to cater to all types of people, and who would want to be served by a fat hairy woman called Brenda?"
"Looks like they're assuming that only guys would come here to eat."
"Nope, look over on the far side of the room there, they hire guys as well."
"Are you sure that's a guy? I mean sure they dress like one but they look like they should be sparkling."
"Huh?"
"Never mind. But I guess this place isn't so bad, can't say that the differently themed areas really do much for the place, but I suppose it makes the place unique."
It definitely didn't seem like any bar Crimson had been in before, It was a classy establishment and Tatsu was right, it did cater to a wide range of people. He and Tatsu had chosen the oriental themed area, obviously, but there were areas for people of almost any nationality. He thought it somewhat strange that there was nobody in the English area of the room. It seemed they were all in the Japanese area ogling the waitresses.
The two hunters sat in silence for a moment until Crimson spoke again "I give up, you win."
"What do you mean I win?"
"There is nothing wrong with this bar."
"I had to get it right one day, and it looks like today is that day." Tatsu congratulated himself, perhaps a little prematurely.
"Hey, bar wench! I ordered my drink over twenty minutes ago, how hard can it be to get some damned vodka." An obnoxious voice bellowed.
The 'bar wench' being yelled at was none other than Ayaka.
"I'm really sorry Mr. Nuclear, I'll get right on it sir." She turned to walk away and promptly tripped and landed flat on her face "oww."
"Get up you idiot, if my drink isn't here in the next three minutes then I'm reporting you to the manager."
"Man, I hate that guy." Tatsu fumed "I mean who does he think he is?"
"You know him?" Crimson asked
"Yeah, fought with him a couple of times, he's a complete and utter bastard."
"Right" Crimson turned round in his seat "Hey Nuclear!! What do you think you're doing talking to the waitresses like that?"
"Oh no." Tatsu groaned and attempted to shrink himself into invisibility.
"I'll talk to waitresses however I damn well like, now if you'll shut the hell up I'm trying to get drunk."
Crimson got out of his chair and helped Ayaka to her feet. "Either you apologize to this young lady, or I will make you apologize."
"Hah, you and who else?"
"Me and my buddy Tatsu. C'mon Tatsu, you're up to correcting this guys attitude. right?
"Tatsu?" Chimpus blinked "Hey it is you." He walked straight past Crimson ignoring him completely. "Hey Tatsu, why aren't you here with Alice?"
"If you must know, Alice is in a match and I'm just here for lunch, now kindly go the hell away."
"Touchy little midget aren't we? What's the matter? Alice not giving you any?"
Tatsu stood up fast, red in the face. But Crimson moved even faster. In the time it took to blink he had spun Chimpus round and had an autogun pointed at his face.
"You never, ever say things like that about either of my friends ever again. Are we clear?"
"Hmph, if I'd have know that there was a meeting of the Alice Arke fan club I would have brought my hat and badge."
"I asked you a damn question. Are we clear?" Crimson repeated.
"Yeah we're clear." Crimson put away the autogun and Chimpus straightened his collar. "Next time tell me when it's your time of the month."
Tatsu grabbed Crimson's arm "Come on, just ignore it, let's not get into a fight for once."
"That's right Tatsu, back down, you coward."
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"
Crimson suddenly realized he was still holding onto Ayaka "I suggest you go and get security or something, this won't end quietly." He whispered before letting her go. Ayaka nodded and hurried away.
"I called you a coward, what's the matter? Couldn't you hear me down there?" Chimpus continued his taunting.
"One more word out of you and they'll have to identify you by your dental records." Tatsu was getting pretty angry and Rudra was preparing itself for a fight.
"You couldn't even touch me if you tried." Chimpus drew his weapon and Tatsu summoned his in response.
"Tatsu, whatever you do, don't fight back, security guards are going to be here soon." Crimson hissed then drew a saber and stood by Tatsu's side. If Tatsu had heard his warning he gave no sign. But at least he waited for Chimpus to swing first.
There was a buzz of photon upon photon as Tatsu parried Chimpus' hasty lunge. The two circled each other like vultures, each waiting for the other to make a move. Several patrons had gathered round, this was a much more entertaining spectacle than scantily clad waitresses. Crimson had taken a place amongst the small crowd and was taking bets.
There was another flash and another buzz. This time Tatsu had been the one to attack. Chimpus almost stumbled attempting to block using his unwieldy gigush. He switched it for a brand and the match soon became a display of fencing technique.
Lunge, parry, riposte, and disengage. It was a familiar pattern for Tatsu and he was slowly gaining an advantage due to his experience with the fighting style. As Crimson had often commented, fencing was a lot like dancing, except your dance partner usually isn't trying to kill you.
Just as Tatsu was finding his rhythm and was about to press the attack, Chimpus made an unexpected move. He made a downward slash with his brand, which Tatsu moved to block, but a split second before the blow landed Chimpus switched back to using his gigush. The extra weigh behind the blow numbed Tatsu's arm to the shoulder. He neatly flicked his buster to his other arm.
"Ha, lets see if you're any good with that cybernetic limb of yours."
Tatsu fervently hoped he was, a little slip in concentration would reduce response time and maybe even prove fatal. Chimpus sliced across, Tatsu ducked and responded with an upwards slash which Chimpus avoided quite easily by stepping backwards.
"Haha, thought so, using that robot arm has made you slow."
Tatsu attacked furiously but Chimpus blocked each of his wild slashes, albeit with some difficulty, he then dropped to the floor and with a vicious sweep he knocked Tatsu off his feet. He missed his next blow by a wide margin as Tatsu rolled to his left instead of his right as Chimpus had anticipated.
Suddenly both combatants were immobile. It seemed that a force by the door had struck them both with a Rimit technique. Crimson was impressed, very few people knew how to do Rimit, he'd have to ask Alice if she knew it.
"I am tournament security officer Ryodo!" The force shouted "I demand to know what is going on here."
Crimson stepped forwards "My friend and I were sitting here waiting for our lunch when this hunter" He gestured to indicate Chimpus "attacked my friend, I believe that he is somebody my friend defeated in the arena."
The force cast anti on Chimpus and Tatsu. "Is what this ranger says true?" He addressed Chimpus
"Well yes, it is true, but-"
"No buts, you're under arrest."
"What about him?" Chimpus pointed at Tatsu, "he was fighting too!"
Ryodo shook his head "It appears he was acting in self defense, he is free to go." He turned to address Tatsu "But any more reports of you fighting outside of the arena and action will be taken against you."
"But that's not fair!" Chimpus complained as he was dragged away.
People began to return to their meals now that the action was over, Crimson however was still standing and even behind his mask it was obvious he was grinning like an idiot.
"What?" Tatsu asked suspiciously
"This is the first time I've been to a bar with you and someone else got arrested when we didn't."
Tatsu also broke into a smile "That's not true, we ran away once or twice."
"Umm misters Tatsu and Crimson?" A small voice asked "Your food is ready." Ayaka was standing by their table, their tray of food already set down..
"Thanks miss Akimoto." Crimson sat back down "How much is it?"
"Thirty meseta sir" Ayaka bowed.
Tatsu shot Crimson a look, at any other place Crimson would be more than a little upset about the cost.
"Okay, here's the money, and some for yourself." Crimson handed over the money cheerfully. Ayaka accepted it with a bow and then hurried off, blushing deeply.
Tatsu stared at Crimson in disbelief "Crimson, you just tipped her fifteen meseta."
"I know." Crimson responded "But she did help us out by getting that security guy."
"You gave her fifteen meseta just for that?"
"No, for that I gave her ten, the other five was because she is young, pretty and she remembered my name."
"You know Crimson, sometimes you are a kind, generous and all round likeable guy."
"I know, my father would have been ashamed of me."
"Are we there yet?" Kilili complained for what seemed like the twentieth time.
"No we are not damn well there, you'll know when we're there because we'll bloody well be there!" After her brief burst of niceness the other night Psilo had quickly reverted to being grumpy and irritable.
"We should be getting close, I think that's the greenhouse up ahead." Kinami informed them.
"That's still there?" Ryzada asked
"Oh of course, Asrith likes gardening, he says its good for stress"
"I can still remember that greenhouse from when I was little, there were always such interesting things in there, lots of bright colors and exotic smells." Ryzada said with a wistful sigh.
"Its still like that now, and I believe the strawberry plants should have ripened by now."
"I love strawberries" Kilili squealed and ran off ahead "Last one there doesn't get any strawberries!"
"Kilili get back here! This is not a safe place to be running off on your own." Psilo called after her "Dammit" she muttered under her breath and took off after her friend. Kinami and Ryzada looked at each other and shrugged, then ran in pursuit of the other two party members.
They finally caught up, but only because Kilili had stopped running, Kinami was a little out of breath.
"C'mon Kinami." Kilili complained "We didn't run that far."
"Well, I'm not, a hunter, I'm just, a scientist." Kinami wheezed.
"Yes you are a hunter." Ryzada observed, "You move like somebody who is familiar with fighting."
"Not all fighters are hunters you know." Kinami replyed, after he took another few gulps of air the party continued moving.
"Asrith calls this a green house?" Psilo said "It looks more like a jungle."
"It's like home." Ryzada sighed happily and trailed a finger along a vine.
"You are a very strange person Ryzada, anyone would think that you liked living here."
"Oh come on now Psilo, that's not being fair, everyone misses the place they were born don't they Ryzada?" Kilili was also quite happy amongst the plants.
"No, Psilo's right." Ryzada replied "I did like living here, it's a wonderful place."
"Then why'd you leave? Kilili asked.
"Because I couldn't stand being around Asrith, he was very strange back then." Ryzada rubbed her arm uncomfortably "I was kind of a daughter to him and kind of a test subject."
"A test subject?" Kilili echoed "That's awful."
"Not really, I can see why he was interested, the very first Newman was half cat, and until me there weren't any cat newmans on pioneer 2."
"I see." Kilili nodded, but still thought it was terrible, then something caught her eye. "Hey that's a dragon flower! I've only seen them in documentaries.
Psilo looked at it "Why's it called a dragon flower?" She prodded the stem, the flower bud opened and spat a gob of fire at her. "What the hell is this nutter doing planting fire breathing plants?!?"
"Actually I planted it." Ryzada wrapped her fingers fondly round the plants bright orange petals. "I planted it here when I was only four months old, I was so sad that I didn't get to see it flower for the first time, I can't believe Asrith kept it alive all this time."
"You planted a flower when you were four months old? Kilili said dubiously "Pretty smart baby."
Ryzada shrugged "It's a newman thing, accelerated growth and enhanced learning abilities during the first few years of life. I'm normal now though."
"As normal as a person who plants fire breathing flowers can be." Psilo muttered "It's been lovely reminiscing about your childhood, really it has, but can we get a move on?"
"I really don't think that would be a good idea." Kinami said.
"Oh? And why not?" Psilo demanded "Got more lethal plants to see have we?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, if you'd care to look down, there is a venomous tendril wrapping itself around your leg right now, I'd suggest you don't move."
Psilo looked down and suddenly became very very still. There was a vine as thick as her wrist curling itself around her ankle. "Someone? Please? GET THIS DAMNED THING OFF OF ME!"
"Just a moment, we cant just set fire to it or hack it off, It would sting you, and then you would have all of forty seconds to live." Kinami said calmly "Does anyone have any ideas?"
"Umm I might" Kilili volunteered.
"Well please hurry up before this stupid plant throttles me" Psilo was starting to panic, the vine had reached her knees.
"It should let go if we tickle it." Kilili's tone made it apparent that she wasn't entirely certain.
"Tickle it? That's your idea? Tickle the evil plant?"
"Well its either that or we just let it kill you."
"Please, be my guest, tickle away."
Kilili brushed the length of the vine with her fingertips and it fell limply from Psilo's leg .
"How the hell did you know that it would let go if you tickled it?" Psilo asked.
Kilili shrugged "where do I learn anything? The TV of course."
Psilo rolled her eyes "Of course, now if its alright with everyone, can we get out of here?"
"I think it would be best that we did" replied Kinami "God alone knows what else is in here."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Okay, I have taken forever and ever with this update, I know, please don't kill me, there are major problems with my PC, the other one can't even access the net, and this one is prone to closing word while I'm in the middle of writing, needless to say, I'm not impressed with it.
Post AN, Yeah, there is a lot of Japanese things in this fic... this is because It's actually easier for me to make up Japanese names and think of Japanese food than it is for me to use English stuff. Besides "John the force" really doesn't sound all too cool. What the hell do English restaurants serve for lunch anyway?