Part 7

Juste Belmont made the last terrific leap to the platform and brandished his whip as the skeleton launched the bomb. He destroyed the undead soldier but not in time to stop the bomb striking him, sending him flying off the platform and back to the floor hundreds of metres below.

A full moon appeared with the legend "Game Over"1

"Goddamnit." Nagi swore throwing the controller away. "I can normally finish this room with no problem, but a stupid skeleton bomber, a minion so weak a glare normally kills him, killed me."

"Nagi-kun," Omi said sweetly, "it's just a game."

Still annoyed at the game Nagi glared at him. Omi just smiled, "You know," he said, "that's well on its way to becoming a Shi-ne glare all on it's own." He stretched the distance between the two twin beds and kissed Nagi on the nose, "you're like a mini Abyssinian, except he's not nearly as good at this." He kissed him on the mouth.

"Hey kids," Naru said opening the door, they pulled back a little guiltily. "Crawford sent this over." Behind him Tim stood with a tray in his hands.

"Kawaii," Omi said, "a servant."

"No," Naru said taking the tray from Tim, "a guest, this is Tim."

"Oh of course." Nagi said sitting back against the pillows, "the American boy, Dim, wasn't it?"

"Tim." Naru corrected with a small glare, "now be nice, I'm going down stairs to watch "Days of our existence" Midori has just found out that Dr Tanakawa is actually her father but she thinks she might be pregnant with his child."

"Soaps," Nagi said, "you'd think that someone of your calibre would watch something a little more intelligent than "Days of our existence"."

Naru nodded, "I'm just killing time until "The Young and the Hopeless" and then we have "Iron Chef," and it's a kelp special."

Nagi just shook his head.

"Hello, Dim," Omi said brightly, "I'm Omi and this is Nagi, what brings you to Japan?"

"Mr Wayne," Tim said carefully, choosing his words, "My Japan not good and I try, came for Mr Wayne, my," he looked at Naru trying to remember the right word, "shotakon," Naru shook his head.

"Shotakon?" Nagi asked, incredulous, "and you admit it, it's true, the American's are far less repressed."

"He means Shacho." Naru corrected. "Hirofumi Takatori thought it would be funny to tell him the wrong word."

Nagi was obviously stifling a laugh, "he's right." He managed. "It is."

"Word what does mean?" Tim asked.

"Never mind." Omi said, "so you came to Japan with Mr Wayne."

"Assistant I am, help with night work." Tim said, sitting on the end of his bed and frowning.

Nagi burst out laughing again, Omi frowned at him. "Would it be easier for you if we spoke in English?" Omi asked in English, "We're both fluent."

"No," Tim said firmly, "use Japan to better get, perfect makes practise."

"That's true," Omi said, "Say, Dim, have you ever had pocky?"

"Tim," Tim corrected, "not Dim."

"Sorry," Omi said and reached across the bed for the long thin red box that Yohji had left on his bedside cabinet. "Let's start again, I'm Omi Tsukiyono and this is Nagi Naoe, and you are."

"Tim Drake." He said happily.

"Hajimemashite.2" Omi said with a slight bow.

"Hajimemashite." Nagi repeated with the same bow.

"Pleased to meet you too." Tim answered. "Is this Harmony of Dissonance?" He asked, with no problem using his Japanese for the complicated game name. "Not in Gotham to be released all. Play can I? fan girl of series am I."

"Fan girl?" Nagi asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Leave it," Omi hissed, "he's getting better." He turned to Tim, "help yourself."

Scythe was one of the strangest bars in Tokyo Aya thought as he went inside, the bouncers, who were taking payment from nearly everyone that entered, didn't raise an eyebrow at the five men in skin tight kevlar and masks that tried to enter, nor did they charge them.

It was tightly packed with people in vinyl and leather. In fact it looked like the kind of place where a super-hero could be himself, costume be damned. The music was pumping and the lights were flashing, and best of all, the liquor was cheap.

The five of them had escaped and left the defence of Tokyo to the only one of them that seemed eager to be out in that outfit, and settled down in a booth. The waiter was wearing a pair of jeans shorts that appeared to have been sprayed on, and were that tight that they had split in several places, a pair of leather chaps, a waist coat and a cowboy hat that hung down his back. "So, what can I get you gents?" He asked with a bit of a wink and a leer. Everyone looked at Yohji.

"What day is it?" Yohji asked, adjusting his mask.

"Thursday," the barman said, with just a little moue between his eyes, he looked slightly baffled, but pleasantly amused by the question.

"Then it's tequila all round." He said, "Thursday is Tequila night."

The barman gave a shrug that was almost laughter and walked back to the bar, through the crowd of dancers, in a way that made his pert ass wiggle for their attention.

"Where did you find this place?" Yuushi shouted over the music.

Yohji just spread his hands and grinned.

"I'd say that it's the place that spawned him." Reiichi answered, pushing the ashtray between Masato and Yohji with a firm hand, "but it's a bit clean really."

Masato mock punched him in the arm. They wore identical suits with different coloured tabards to tell them apart. "You wouldn't know a good bar if it came up and bit you in the ass." He said, "this place has a good vibe."

"Yeah, it's just purple." Aya said with wide eyes to show complete innocence.

"Aya!" Yohji said, mock offended. "I didn't know you had it in you."

"I borrowed it from Ken." Aya said.

Speaking of Ken.

He crouched on the rooftop watching the two men conduct their business and hoped the others had been even slightly as productive as he was. So far had stopped three pimps, two drug deals, and one car jacking. All in all, it was going quite well, but he was sure he should have run across at least one of the others by now.

A woman walked down the alley, it was a really stupid thing to do, Ken thought, walking down an alley in the middle of Tokyo at night!

The two men turned to her, and then there was a flash of streetlight on metal. It seemed a superhero's work was never done.

Tim sat cross legged on the edge of Omi's bed in a position that spoke of Zen, it spoke of long hours practising meditation, however he was waving about a bright pink can of soda as he spoke at some length in broken Japanese. "I don't think that that grape soda was such a good idea." Nagi said in German, hoping that Tim couldn't understand the language, but knowing that Omi could, that Aya had taught him. "He's gone mad."

"The sugar's just gone to his head." Omi answered in pitch perfect German, "he'll be fine once he comes down."

"You see," Tim ranted, "Bruce thinks everything is about Dick, it's Dick this and Dick that and I can't live up to Dick, I mean I bend over backwards, I do everything he tells me to and more, and yet it's all about Dick, you know what I mean." Omi and Nagi just nodded a little warily, "I've given up everything, I lie to my father, so Bruce can tell me he doesn't have this problem with Dick, well, between you and me, Dick sucks,"

Nagi looked at Omi, "maybe Hirofumi was right, and the word was Shotakon."

"I mean, I'm his assistant, but Dick was his assistant first so everything I do gets compared to Dick."

"Dick's a person?" Nagi asked, wonderstruck.

"Yeah." Tim answered, fuelled by grape soda he had lost his nervousness with Japanese and was managing quite well.

"I thought you had the wrong word." Omi said lowering his eyes.

Tim burst out laughing.

Ken swung down from the rooftop with the handy hoookshot that Kritiker had given each of them for that exact purpose, although because it was spring loaded it made a handy weapon, giving a solid blow to the abdomen when used that way, and it could, though only Yohji seemed to have figured out how, be used as a bola as well. He landed silently on both feet, in his normal persona as Ken Hidaka he was clumsy, but for some reason as either the "white tiger" or Siberian he was as graceful as his namesake. A roundhouse kick took out the first of the thugs, and a one two combo took out the second. The woman looked at him, and Ken thought for a moment that she looked awfully familiar and came to the conclusion that she must have frequented the shop. "My hero," she said launching herself at him and as he opened his mouth in shock, and possibly to protest, she took the opportunity to stick her tongue in his mouth. He recognised her now, it was the woman from the plastic surgery hospital, Kazumi.

Aya was drunk, and couldn't get the taste of salt off his lips. He was fast learning the reason that Mexicans always seemed startled by life in general. He had never had tequila before, in Kyoto he always drank what his patron drank so he had had vodka and bourbon and brandy and a thousand other things, but never tequila, and certainly not the patrona variety that Yohji ordered that looked like liquid moonlight in the glass and burned like fire before being washed away with a flash of salt and a twist of lime.

"Ne, Aya," Yohji said leaning in to him, in a way that someone else was as drunk as he was. In fact the five of them were pretty wrecked. Perhaps next time they went drinking they'd take Ken with them, Ken was really funny when he was drunk. And Crawford, he liked having Crawford around. "Isn't that your sweetheart by the door?" Yohji pointed out a rather familiar dark head.

"Snot my sweetheart." Aya protested because in truth Crawford wasn't his sweetheart, he was his boyfriend which was much better in Aya's opinion.

"Well, I'll give you two thousand yen if you go up and kiss him." Yohji said.

"I'll match it." Yuushi said pulling out his wallet.

"And me." Reiichi said putting the notes down on the table.

"Me too." Masato added stacking the pile. "and another two if you grope his butt."

"That's despiabable." Aya said mangling the word.

"Oh he's scared." Yuushi said sitting back. "He won't do it, he hasn't got the bottle."

"Oh, haven't I?" Aya said and stood up. He crossed the dance floor quickly and walked up to the man by the door in the black jacket, put his hand on his arm and spun him around, pinning him to the wall with his hips and kissed him thoroughly.

"Umm," Yohji said quietly as the man put his hands on Aya and kissed him back. "That's not Crawford."

Author's Note

1 They're playing Castlevania don'cha know.

2 Hajimemashite. Pleased to meet you

Scythe is the bar in Trixie's Jaded Trade which features Duo Maxwell as a bartender, I adore Trixie's work so I thought I'd borrow the club. She won't mind. So go find her work and let her know how much you adore her too, you won't be disappointed. Tell her I sent you.