The Red Butterfly

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Note: I may have gotten some facts wrong, and if I did, and you notice, please tell me and I will try to change it asap. ' and ' are for thoughts, " and " are for speaking. I'm not sure what Uo's height is so I just placed it around 5' 6-9ish".

Warning: Contains swearing, mild bloodshed, and some sexual innuendos.

Chapter 2: Uo's Old Gang

The spun a corner and Haru held on tightly, he looked down and gave Uo a once over. Her legs were spread wide and her waist was thin – she was curvaceous - Haru grinned. He kept on hand firmly on her shoulder and took the other hand and ran it down her side. He felt her quiver and then shake. He knew the effect he could have, but Uo was also Uo.

She let go of one of the bike handles and hit him in the face with her elbow. Haru did not try anything for a while after that. The turned a corner and stopped, dead end.

Haru leaned forward and whispered in her ear, "Hey, how 'bout we go someplace quiet and dark?"

Uo turned around and screamed right in his face, "What the hell is with you?"

Haru grinned and shrugged.

Uo turned around and kicking the bike back off, she turned them around just in time to see the van turn the corner. The van stopped and the doors flew open again.

Uo swore and turned off the bike. She jabbed her leg out jerking down the kickstand and got off. She took off her helmet and put it gently on the seat. Haru followed.

The two stood and faced the line of burly guys. At a shouted word from the gang leader - a burly guy who had a tank top on and had two deadly looking knives in each hand, the gang leapt on them. The fight was quickly joined. Haru immediately was fighting. At one point, he looked over at Uo and was surprised.

She lighter than him, but she could still pack a punch. She was also quicker and liked to dodge, twist, and run. Many of the gang members hit each other instead of her or were tripped or fell from her fast feet. But thrown in here and there was a worthy punch.

Haru himself pretty much stayed his ground and hit and kicked anyone who came in reach, and that was a lot. It was hard to imagine how that many people could fit in that tiny van.

Suddenly they realized, they were outnumbered; and while they were the better fighters, there was still to many. Uo shouted at Haru across the din they were making, "The bike! Now!"

Haru saw Uo run to the bike. She jammed on her helmet and yanked up the kickstand with a swift jab of her heel. Then the motor was going and with a quick parting punch, Haru leapt away from his attackers and towards Uo. But one guy caught his foot. "Let go you bastard!" Haru snarled and hit the guy square in the face. He ran for Uo and jumped on as she slowed down going past him.

He grabbed her waist, making sure his arms were far enough away that he would not hug her, and they were off. Uo dodged between men and was past the van in a quick second.

They started down another street and Haru let one hand slip down her leg. Uo shivered and Haru grinned. Beneath her helmet, Uo gave a nasty smile. Haru slipped the other hand across her butt until he was only hanging on with his knees. Then Uo turned down a corner.

She took the corner as fast as she dared, faster even. Haru went flying - literally. He hit the ground and skidded about seven feet. Uo immediately stopped and drove over to him. She hopped off and stood over him and told him in a rough voice that "If you EVER try to hit on me again, much less while we have a gang chasing after us! I will personally skin you alive and boil you in oil!"

Haru groaned and sat up. "Wha-?"

Uo grabbed his arm and yanked him up and to the bike, "Come on, I know a place where we can go." She got on the bike and Haru got on behind her, holding her shoulders.

White Haru had returned and was a little befuddled. "What's going on?" he shouted to Uo.

"What do you mean, what's going on? You yell at me to stop, calling me the Red Butterfly, I come back, you're in a fight with some gang, we escape, we just fight them again, then you hit on me and your asking me what's going on!" Uo was a little bit peeved and Haru was a little bit confused.

"Hold on, we're going to turn a bunch!" Uo decided to warn him this time. She was more tolerant of Haru now. Haru seemed to have returned to the implacable person he was at school, and not the perv that he had been back there.

"Where are we going!" Haru shouted into the wind again.

"Home," Uo whispered.

"What!"

"Home!" and Uo sped up.

They spun down a series of side streets and alleys, many of whom looked like a dead end at first but turned out to have a side street hidden behind a pile of orange crates or something similar.

The alleys became narrower and dirtier. Graffiti was on the walls and Haru was noticing one symbol that was coming up more and more frequently, a large F and A surrounded by four colored rings. Beside it in Big white and black letters were SS.

Suddenly a person stepped in front of them and said, "Halt!"

Uo slammed on the brakes and halted an inch form the persons hand, "Damn it yasha-chan! What if I hadn't stepped on the friggin' brake in time? You dirty bitch!"

Haru was surprised to see the girls face crack into a smile. Uo was off the bike in an instant and hugging the girl who was crying. The girl was short, she only came up to midway of Uo's upper arm. Her hair was black, and her skin tanned. She wore a leather jacket with the graffiti symbol of FA and the rings on the back of it. On the front was the black and white SS. She also wore dirty jeans that looked very grease spattered.

"Ouen Kurohyou! I've missed you so much!" Haru sat shell-shocked on the bike. Uo had barely missed hitting a girl, insulted her and then the girl seemed to know who she was and missed her on top of that. He was confused.

"Yasha-chan, I need you to call Ryo, tell her to get as many are at the core out here in full regalia now!"

The girl looked scared, "But Kuro, Ryo, she, she said-"

"Please yasha, just ask her, for the sake of the Red Butterfly!"

Haru started up at that, the girl bit her lip and then with a quick nod turned to her bike that Haru could now see was hidden in a niche in the alley. Yasha leaned over her bike and picked up a walkie talkie and spoke into it for a while.

Then she came back out and said carefully to Uo, "Ryo said to tell you these exact words, 'You idiotic bitch, if you think you can walk your freakin' ass up to my doorstep and just fuck your way through, go ahead, I'll have a pair of knives ready for you. But for the sake of her, I will help you just this once, you bitch. And you will have to pay for that.'"

Uo laughed, Haru just stared with his mouth hanging open. "That means the good ol' chief hasn't changed then!" she chortled.

The girl nodded her head, then jabbed a finger towards him, "Who's he?"

"A friend," was all that Uo would answer her laughter dying quickly.

Uo leaned against the wall and talked to the girl for a while, waiting. Haru tuned them out and listened for the sound for the approaching van. Uo's explanation had brought forth a fuzzy memory of the past half hour. He climbed off and leaned against the bike, his arms crossed across his chest.

Then he heard motors, the motorcycles! Haru started up and Uo stopped talking to the girl.

The motorcycles pulled around a corner and he quickly counted them to see there was about 15, and all of them were girls. In the lead was a girl who wore a black trench coat just like Uos, but hers was very worn down. On top of her head was a black helmet with flames on it. Her long hair from beneath the helmet flowed out like a larger flame – it was the exact same color of the flames on her helmet.

They stopped and the girl moved so fast, her helmet was off and she was yelling in the face of Uo, who had also moved fast and was halfway to the bike. The two stood a foot apart, yelling insults at each other.

While the girl and Uo were yelling at each other, Haru looked the unknown girl over. Her hair was down to the middle of her back and had red roots that went into orange than had yellow tips.

Her black trench coat had a design on the back- it was of a black butterfly exactly like Uo's but outlined in thin streaks of white. The coat was open to reveal a black tank top that revealed her tanned skin well. He could see the top of a sports bra as well as many necklaces at her neck and shoulders.

She looked like she had just come out from underneath her bike. Her short, black tank top was shiny where grease had gotten on it and had many rips in it. Her dark gray cargo pants were skin-tight and also had many grease stains and rips and patches in them. They hugged her hips and rode low; her belly button was halfway between the top of her pants and the bottom of her shirt. Haru had to yank his gaze back up to her face.

Her eyes were narrowed and purple, at least that was what they looked like from a distance. He could not see much of her nose or mouth since she wore a doctor's mask that hid her lower nose and mouth. All of the skin that showed was tanned, but it was no tanning booth tan, there were lines that were darker and lighter at her neck and stomach from the necklaces and many differing shirts and pants.

Then finally, for some odd reason, the girl and Uo stopped and glared at each other. The terse silence was broken by the van roaring around the corner and coming to a screeching halt. Haru was glad it showed up.

Haru spun and immediately fell into a defensive position from his training with Kazuma, his karate master. The van doors popped open and the gang again spilled out, Haru thought he was suffering from a severe sense of de ja vu for a second before he remembered what had happened to Black Haru.

One big burly guy came forward and yelled, "We just want the two! The girl and the guy." He must have realized how stupid he sounded because he immediately clarified, "The girl in the black coat with the red butterfly on the back." Haru still thought he sounded idiotic and apparently Uo and the girl did too because they both just stared at him.

Haru wondered why the gang did not just attack and quickly glanced over his shoulder. All of the girls from the bikes either had a weapon out or clearly implied they had some on them. He saw girls with knives, with pipes, with chains, and even with guns. He was surprised to see that even Uo had a knife out.

Clearly the gang did not want to go bare-fisted into a pack of armed females, Haru was sure he sure as hell did not want to. All of the girls had a dangerous look on their faces and the way they held their weapons clearly showed they knew how to use them.

The girl Haru had been studying earlier walked slowly past her gang and around Haru to step in front of the guy. "And who are you?" her rough low voice was measured and calm.

The guy stood up straighter and said proudly, "I am Sei, head of the Iron Thorns!" he pointed to his tattoo of barbed wire, he obviously thought himself very smart for the gang title. "Who are you and why are you protecting these two?"

"I am Ryoko, Sixth Generation leader of the Suicide Squad," his eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly in surprise, but she was not done, "Southern Alliance," His eyes were wide open and staring at this point. His eyes scoured her coat and he read the black and white SS. "Femina Animalis Division." At the bewildered look on his face she said, "It's Latin." He still looked confused - she sighed, "It's Female Animals in a different language." His confused expression cleared. Hary stared at the FA and the four rings suddenly understanding.

The Suicide Squad was a large organization gang. It had different directional alliances, which in turn split into different divisions that could be large or small gang sized. Since Ryoko was head of the Suicide Squad she called the shots and pulled rank on any and all other leaders in any other Suicide Squad gang. She had beat all of the other Suicide leaders before she had become The Leader. IT proved she had brains, brawn, and speed in order to defeat all of the leaders, either in or out of a fight.

"Plus, the girl you want was part of my gang and the boy is with her," Haru felt his back stiffen at being called boy in that tone by the girl in front of him. "I am sorry, but you cannot have them – they are mine and in my territory."

She turned and started to walk away when a glob of spit landed at her feet and she stopped.

"Bitch," Sei spat. Sei knew all about the Suicide Squad, or at least enough to scare him, but pride is a big thing to swallow, especially for a gang leader.

Ryoko slowly turned around and walked back to him, "Thank you. A bitch is actually a compliment, because if you think about it; a bitch is what? A mother dog. Mothers are very protective and strong as well as having a high level of pain tolerance due to giving birth. On top of that she is a dog, a noble creature and one who is strong, predatory, and a good hunter and does well in a fight."

Sei just stared at her. She grinned, her teeth flashing in the light. Haru understood why Yasha hadn't been offended by Uo and Uo had laughed at Ryo's message.

Sei roared and yanked out a switchblade knife. With a quick finger the blade was out and a five inch blade was pointed at Ryoko's covered nose. She only said, "A knife fight? How primitive. How about we race for them." She leaisurely pushed his knife aside and stared at him. "You win - I hand them over and no more is said. I win and we get to beat the crap out of you and your gang while we kick you out of our territory, I'll be kind and won't bet your territory. Plus bets can be placed on the race. You and me, our own bikes." Suddenly she stopped and asked, "You do have a bike don't you?" as if no person could possibly be a leader and not know how to bike or have their own bike.

"'Course I do!" he growled.

Ryoko's grin was back, "Good! Three days then? Saturday, 11 pm, the ravine." Sei nodded and turned and yelled at his gang to get back in the van.

Royko stood there with her feet spread apart, her hands on her hips and her head tilted and a wicked grin played across her face. She waited until the gang had gone before spinning around. Her black trench coat flew out behind her as she strode back to Uo. She stood facing Uo again. Haru noticed that Uo was taller than Ryoko by about five inches. Ryoko must be about 5' 3" or 4".

"You know the rules Uo. Come on. Your little boyfriend can take your bike - that is, if he can ride-"

Uo said quietly, "He can ride."

"Good, get on." Ryoko leapt lightly onto her bike fitting her helmet on in one smooth old motion. Uo scooped up her helmet and got on behind Ryoko.

Haru was a bit lost, so he turned to the one girl he knew, well, sorta. "Yasha?" "Yeah? What?" Yasha was leaning against her bike, a toothpick sticking out of her mouth.

"What's going on?"

Yasha sighed, "Uo isn't part of the gang any more, and she is asking for help from the gang. That's tricky business, means she and the Cheiftess gotta negotiate it out."

"Negotiate?"

Yasha grinned the toothpick nearly falling out of her mouth, "Yep, Ryoko's way – a fight."

Well, hope that is a bit more interesting to you people. I wasn't sure if Haru could ride a bike, so he can - ok? And Uo knows it. And Uo's height, I dunno, I guessed. She seems tall in the anime so yeah… whatever. Review please!

Preview of Chap 3: The fight (obviously) and Haru starts to see into Uo's past.

Kit ;)

Pebbled Sky: word. Thanks! I am working on continuing so we shall see. Hana's cool, but Uo is just WICKED!