Chapter 30: The Devil Wears A Suit And Tie

Once Lagoon Company collected the equipment from Praiyachat and Torchy, Rock went over the list provided by the Coterie to make sure everything was in order. When he was satisfied everything was above board, they returned to the boathouse and loaded everything onto the Lagoon. Usagi appeared shortly after and made her way aboard with two of her people and no more. Either she trusted Lagoon enough to not see the need for a proper entourage or she was being careless. Nevertheless, Dutch took them out onto open water and made for the coordinates that had been provided.

Usagi made her way into the command centre once they had gotten underway to go through things with Dutch.

"The man's name is Sying," Usagi explained. "He's one of only a few smugglers operating in the city."

"I hope he has room for all this hardware we're carrying."

"He will. Sying specialises in weapon smuggling. He should have a large cargo hold to store everything."

"I don't remember you ordering any paperwork. Does this guy plan on just showing up at the port of Hong Kong with enough firepower to wipe out a small army and hoping they let him through?"

"He'll be taking care of that himself," Usagi elaborated. "For a small fee, he organises sufficient paperwork to deter any inspections. But as a precaution, he'll have the equipment deposited near a river on the mainland, south of the city. A third party will meet him and take the equipment into Hong Kong by truck." That was surprisingly cautious. The last time Lagoon Company made a delivery to Hong Kong by themselves, they had to provide paperwork and have one of Hotel Moscow's enforcers pose as a member of the Russian embassy just to keep the harbourmaster from having the boat searched.

"You must be pissing cash these days, little miss," Revy grumbled, her back against the wall and her arms folded. "Hope you ain't cheaping out on us."

"No, of course not," Usagi responded as calmly as she could.

"I trust everything was to your satisfaction?" Dutch asked.

"I'll have to run through the paperwork with Rock when I get a chance," Usagi responded, but she couldn't seem to take her eyes off of Revy. The gunslinger's stomach and face were clearly bruised. She must have gotten herself into trouble last night.

"You got some kind of staring problem?!" Revy snapped all of a sudden. Usagi immediately took her eyes away from her and faced forward.

"No! Sorry…"

"Don't worry about her," Dutch advised. "She tends to get cranky when she's been drinking all night. And I'm sure getting beaten around the bar didn't help her mood, either."

"Pfft. I gave as good as I got, in case you were wondering."

"I wasn't," Dutch told her flatly. "Who was it this time?"

"That bitch we rescued from the cruise ship."

"Heh. I should have known. The second she set foot on my boat, I knew you two were going to butt heads."

"I would have had her if Rock had kept his fucking mouth shut!"

After she took the right hook, Revy fell on her behind near the bar and her rage reached a whole new level. She was on her feet like a cornered puma and Lexi had been tackled to the ground before any of the others in the bar even saw what happened. That was when Revy started wailing on her opponent, launching a flurry of relentless punches to the blonde woman's face. For the first few seconds, it seemed like Lexi had no move to make and she was forced to just take the assault. But it would become clear that she was merely letting her foe have her moment. She very swiftly lifted her leg and sent her knee into the small of Revy's back, immediately halting the gunslinger's attacks. After that, she landed an uppercut into Revy's jaw and sent her sprawling. She then took the opportunity to come to her feet.

"Tagged you bag!" she called excitedly. Though her demeanour never seemed to crack and she kept up the appearance of being chipper and jolly all the time, there was an edge to her ever since she had been punched. Clearly, Revy's surprise attack managed to anger her.

The fight continued to descend into chaos after that as Revy ran in without pause and the two women exchanged punches with one another. Lexi took a few body shots, then Revy was kneed and kicked in the stomach. Revy managed to get hooked in the face again, then Lexi was elbowed and backhanded. This continued on for a good long while, but neither of the two women backed down, nor did they seem to tire. It was quite the sight to watch. Even Bao apparently decided not to worry about them anymore and just watched the anarchy unfold. Of course, his mood turned sour again when he realised his bar would be the first victim of this brawl. When Revy went in for a weighted punch to Lexi's abdomen, the blonde woman used her attack against her and dodged to the side, bringing her own arm into her body hard and catching Revy's in a restraint. Once she had her opponent caught, she put one hand beneath her thigh and lifted her into the air, turning around as she did so and smashing her into a table. Revy ended up in a pile on the floor, pieces of wood and glass scattered around her.

"What did I say?!" Bao screamed, the first thing he had said since the fight really got going. "Take it outside!" Lexi had taken the advantage with that move, but she had also done something incredibly foolish by making it clear that it was okay to fight dirty. While Revy was no stranger to that, she had been keeping it fair enough up until now. But that attack changed the rules. She snatched up a half-broken glass on the ground and threw it at Lexi with as much force as she could behind it. It smashed to pieces against the side of Lexi's face, a substantial stream of blood now rolling down her skin. All of a sudden, the last of her happy persona was gone and she went into a rage. Kicking her heels into the ground, she started charging at Revy with the plan to take her out with one swift kick. Revy, on the other hand, took the leg of the broken table in her hand and tore it through the air like a baseball bat. It caught Lexi across the face, less than an inch from the wound inflicted by the glass. Lexi was tough enough to stay on her feet, but a few more of those would put her in a comatose state. Revy brought the table leg back around and hit her opponent on the other side of the face. And again. And again. Lexi took a step back every time until she was up against a table at the other side of the room.

"Alright, Revy, that's enough!"

"You keep your nose out of this, Rock!" Revy growled. "This is between me and the desert queen!"

"You won't be able for the job tomorrow if you wear yourself out tonight. Dutch is already going to-!" He was cut off suddenly by the sound of Lexi's fist hitting Revy's jaw and he decided not to even bother finishing his sentence. Once again, they continued to trade blows with one another, but it was clear to the onlookers that their energy was waning dramatically and they were no longer capable of doing any real damage to one another.

Before both of them looked like they were about to collapse, they made some room between them and Revy put her feet flat on the ground, one behind the other as if she was going to charge.

"I'm gonna…put you…out of…your fucking…misery, ya dumb…bitch," she said with some effort in between heavy breaths. Seeing what Revy was going to try, Lexi adopted the same position.

"Bring…it…on!" she wheezed. Then, the two of them ran forward and jumped at one another, headfirst. What could have been an impressive move ended up disastrously as both of them headbutted one another at the same time and then crumbled to their knees, somehow still conscious. Rock dramatically clapped his hands together in mockery.

"I hope that was worth it," he said. "Now, I think it's time we got going."

"Sarcastic little shit," Revy grumbled.

"Looks like we're almost there," Dutch told them. "You may want to find Rock and let him know."

"Where is he?" Usagi asked.

"Probably down in the cargo hold," Revy told her. "Spends most of his time on this boat down there, now." Dutch took the Lagoon up alongside Sying's vessel, a q-boat about eighty feet in length. Q-boats were used in both world wars to lure submarines into surfacing so they could be attacked due to the fact that q-boats were modelled as simple merchant vessels but designed to both conceal and carry large amounts of weaponry.

Once Usagi retrieved Rock, they made their way up top and Dutch came out to meet with Sying. The Chinese smuggler waved down to them but did not leave his own boat. He did throw across a walkway for Usagi to board, however. She was busy going over the paperwork in her hand to make sure she was happy with everything. The two Coterie enforcers that accompanied her went below to start bringing the goods topside.

"Hey, Dutch," said Revy, having emerged from the command centre as well. Her voice was low so as not to alert Sying. "You seeing what I'm seeing?" Dutch ran his eyes along the length of the q-boat. Sying was not the only one aboard, and four visible armed guards were watching the Lagoon at this moment.

"Yeah. But I wouldn't worry too much. If I had to guess, I'd say Usagi's isn't the only cargo he's gonna be carrying. Makes sense he'd want to keep it all well-guarded." While the q-boat wasn't that much bigger in length than the Lagoon, it was significantly higher up from the waterline and would have quite a large cargo hold below deck. While the Coterie enforcers were carrying the cargo over, Dutch waved back at Sying.

"Not even a 'hello?'" he mumbled to himself under his breath. "Real friendly, aren't you? You sorry bastard."

"Everything seems to be in order," Usagi said, folding the paperwork neatly in her hands once her people were finished. "Would you accompany me over, Rock?" The Japanese man hesitated at first, but he supposed he had no reason to decline. He nodded and the two of them made their way across the walkway and down below the deck of the q-boat. As they walked along the corridor towards the door into the cargo hold, Usagi handed the paperwork back to Rock.

"The dealers didn't give you any trouble when you went to collect?" she asked.

"They're both acquainted with us so our business was concluded quickly. Praiyachat is always a professional. And Torchy…well, I wouldn't be surprised if he soils himself every time he sees Revy."

"That's…good," Usagi said uncertainly.

"Everything is in order, you've got nothing to worry about. I went over the list twice before we even went to pick up the goods and again when we were there. Both of them pulled through. You've got everything you asked for."

"You can never be too careful," Usagi insisted. At least she was taking this seriously. It was better to be overcautious than underprepared.

Rock stuffed the paperwork into his shirt pocket and they continued towards the end of the corridor.

"I should think you would be alarmed."

"How so?" asked Rock, anticipating where this was going.

"What I'm doing is dangerous. Despite what you might think, I know that. I was under the impression you did not approve of my choices. Was I mistaken?"

"We've been over this already," Rock told her shortly, effectively shutting down her line of inquiry immediately. She was not content to leave it be, though.

"I don't believe we have," she retorted. "What I mean is, I don't believe you. The things you said…I think it's an act to avoid confronting your feelings. It will make it easier for you to sleep at night." Rock stopped in his tracks.

"What did you say?"

"An act," Usagi repeated, coming to a halt with him. "A façade. I know you, Rock, and I know you're too afraid to face the truth. Pretending not to care will only eat you alive. Trust me, you can't keep your true feelings locked away forever. Sooner or later, you're going to have to be a man and face your fears. It's not that hard." She started walking again, leaving him where he was to digest what she had said. She had perhaps been unnecessarily brazen and harsh in a bid to crack the Japanese man's outer shell and reach the light she knew-or hoped-still lived inside deep down.

Suddenly, she heard hurried footsteps behind her and Rock grabbed her shoulder, turning her around on the spot. His arm whizzed passed her, blowing her hair to the side, and the palm of his hand slammed against the wall. She jumped, startled, and backed up as much as she could only to find herself pinned against the wall.

"You don't know me!" he spat, leaning in closer to her as he spoke. Clearly, she had hit a nerve. She had never seen him so enraged. "You don't get to judge me! Must be a hard pill to swallow, the fact that I really don't care what happens to you or your damned Coterie! You know what I think? I think you're scared. You've reached the point of no return and you haven't got anyone to tell you how badly you screwed up your only chance at a normal life. You think I'm putting on an act? That's rich coming from you." The Chinese girl raised her hands to her mouth in shock of what she was hearing, but Rock wasn't done with her. "When Roanapur finally does chew you up and spit you out, I won't be there to tell you I told you so because I won't need to be. You're going to regret ever coming back here. And I won't say a damn thing, because I couldn't care less." He took his hand away from the wall and went back the way they came to return topside, leaving Usagi there to think on what he had said.