A/N: Chapter two is up!
YAY!
This one turned out to be pretty long!
Please R&R!
Chapter Two
"Huff huff-CRAP! This lady is-huff-persistent!" Sora panted as she continued to weave her way through the busy sidewalk of Ikebukuro, her pursuer not far behind.
Risking a glance behind her, the girl saw that the legendary black bike was following her from the street, and that only the masses of people were keeping her from catching Sora.
'I'm going to run out of crowds at some point, then she'll catch me for sure!' The fugitive thought before a smile cracked on her face. 'YOSH! Time to take this tour of the city off the beaten path!'
That said, the youth swerved out of the crowds and down the nearest alleyway. She had just turned the corner into another alley when she heard the horse/bike caterwaul down the previous alleyway, missing the turn.
Sora kept moving and was already down a different alley when the screech of tires sliding on concrete began echoing around her.
Smiling as she rounded another corner, she thought, 'She realizes she missed the turn, but it's too late now!' Sora ran down alleys and around too many corners to count until she ended up in an alley that lead to some major street with a sidewalk full of people.
And between her and the sidewalk was a small group of people; three guys and three girls.
Normally, Sora would have just bounded right through them, but something made her pause.
The three guys had surrounded three girls in some school uniforms; one on either side and one in front, causing the girls to press their backs to the wall.
All of the guys wore a scarf of a steel-ish gray color somewhere on their body-
And two of them had tire irons in their hands.
From where she was standing, Sora could just make out what they were saying.
"Come on girls~! Let's go do karaoke somewhere~!"
"Yeah, and while we're at it, maybe we'll do something else-ha ha ha!"
"If we do, then I call the blond on the left! Bwa ha ha!"
The girls were obviously terrified out of their minds, and could only stand there and hold each other tightly.
The one standing in front of them with a scarf on his head, probably the leader, moved forward. Responding to the guy with a scarf on his arm, he said, "In that case, I take the brunette on the righ-GUGH!"
Out of nowhere, something hit the gangster on the head while he was in mid-step, knocking him down on his side.
"How's about you numbskulls pick on someone who can actually fight back?" A voice called. Turning, the guys finally noticed another girl standing in the alley, with a pissed off look on her face.
Sora had seen enough. Without a second thought, she'd popped the lid from a nearby trashcan and had hurled it at the lead guy like a Frisbee.
The rest of the gang just stood and stared at her as their leader struggled to get up.
On his knees, with blood dripping down the right side of his face from where the lid's rim had hit him, scarf-head growled, "Who da hell just did that?"
The third guy, with a scarf on his neck, pointed at Sora. "It was her, Bro! That chick back there!"
Standing up, scarf-head glared at her and demanded, "Just who da hell are you?"
Putting her hands into her pockets, Sora replied in a calm voice, "Just a passing tourist checking out the backstreets of Ikebukuro-" her voice got harder, "And seeing what kind of scum lives here."
Head-scarf made a face where one side of his lip curled up in disbelief, "Heeeh~! Did you just call us scum~? You did, didn't you!"
Smiling without smiling, Sora said, "Eh? You noticed? Wow! You're actually smarter than I thought you were."
Vein throbbing, the leader bellowed, "THAT'S IT! GET HER!"
His friends, who had just been watching up to now and who were wise enough to be wary of a girl who could throw a trashcan lid so hard, threw caution to the wind and charged at Sora with their tire irons raised.
Watching them racing towards her, Sora quickly but calmly shrugged off her backpack and dashed forward.
Surprised by her fast movement, neck-scarf just froze when she got to him. Before he could move to hit her, he felt rather than saw something driving itself into his stomach, then immediately into his chin, sending his face skyward.
Knowing this one was out, Sora moved to arm-scarf before neck-scarf had even hit the ground.
Spinning in place, the tourist drove her right foot into arm-scarf's stomach and as he buckled over in pain, finished him with a back fist from her right hand.
From where he was, head-scarf could only watch as this total stranger took out his guys in just a few seconds, with moves that he could barely follow.
He stood, rooted to the spot, as she finished his guys and just stood there; staring at him from under her hat. Even though her fighting display would be enough to freak anyone out, what sent this gangster over the edge were her eyes.
He could just barely register in this light that they were different colors but that wasn't it. That wasn't what freaked him out so much.
It was that they were so hard and crystal clear, like she had complete and utter confidence in what she was doing.
And they almost seemed to glow with something akin to rage.
Close to pissing himself as he drew a knife, the wimp of a gangster stammered, "D-da he-hell's your p-problem? Wh-what'd we d-do?"
Sora nodded towards the three girls who were still cowering against the wall.
"You're a bully."
In a face that many would say was the face of a demon, she stated, "I hate bullies!"
That sent the gangster over the edge. Something in him snapped, and he randomly charged at the girl, yelling and slashing his knife through the air.
When he was close enough, Sora grabbed the arm that had the knife at the wrist with her left hand and twisted, snapping his wrist. Before the pain even registered in his head, she grabbed his collar with her free hand, moved so her back was to him and threw him over her shoulder and down on the ground-hard!
His head bounced off the pavement, and just like that he was out.
The three girls watched in stunned silence as their mysterious savior let go of the gangster and walked down the alley to pick up her bag and walk back, deliberately stepping on each gangster on her way to and fro.
When she reached where the trio was, she stopped and turned to them with a genuinely concerned look on her face.
"You girls okay?"
Speechless, the three girls nodded.
The strange tourist broke out into a grin, "Ah, I'm glad! I made it here in time!" She hooked her thumb behind her towards the three unconscious bodies. With a mischievous look she said, "Those numbskulls are going to be out for a while, so if you want to have a go at them, now's the time!"
The girls just stared at her for a second, then looked at eachother before smiles broke out on their faces and they marched down the alleyway towards their harassers.
"Try not to kill them!" Sora called after them. As the girls began to kick the gangsters, she smiled and said out loud, "Ikebukuro is really interesting!"
With that, the girl calmly put her hands back into her pockets and nonchalantly joined the mass of gray. Relaxed, as if nothing at all had just happened.
Celty, on the other hand, was anything but relaxed.
'Damn! I lost her!' The Dullahan thought as she rode down the alleyways in search of her target. Reaching the main road again, the headless woman hung her head (or in this case, her helmet) and cursed.
'Why is it, that every time I get a job from Izaya, that sound sooo easy; it turns out like this!'
Fuming, the urban legend decided to ride around the area, and hope for the best.
Sadly, she didn't realize that she was riding in the opposite direction of her target.
An Hour Later
Walking down the city streets as she took in the sights, Sora's hands clamped onto her stomach as another growl rippled from it.
"Ahhhh, damn it! Between my stupid metabolism and that fight with the even stupider boys I'm starving again!" Twisting her head side to side as she walked, the tourist/fugitive struggled to find something to eat.
Moving along, Sora paused as she heard a horse whinny from a ways behind her.
"WAH! Crap! I forgot all about her!"
Running and looking behind her at the same time, the girl didn't pay any attention to where she was going, and sure enough-
"OOF!"
She ran into something, or rather, someone.
A very big someone.
Rubbing her head from where she had landed on the sidewalk, Sora tilted her head back to apologize to the person she had run into-
And had to tilt it back even more just to see his face.
Before her was a behemoth of a man; not fat, but very tall and muscular. He was black but was wearing the outfit of a Japanese sushi chef. In his left hand was a stack of papers.
'WAH! He's huge!'
The giant black man leaned and with a concerned look asked, "Is you ok?"
Realizing he was talking to her, albeit in broken up Japanese, Sora replied with a smile, "Yeah, I'm ok. Sorry I ran into you!"
The giant broke into a smile. "Is good! Let me help up."
Before Sora could do anything, the giant had grabbed her by her backpack with his right hand and had hoisted her up and onto her feet like she weighed nothing.
"Thanks!"
The man nodded and hit his chest, "My name Simon. Is good to see you again!"
Unperturbed by his way of speaking, she readily replied, "Nice to meet you Simon! I'm-gurgle grumble-ha ha, very hungry!" Sora blushed as her stomach growled again.
Simon eyes sparkled with interest. "Oh! You hungry! This not good! You should eat Russian Sushi, is very good!" He showed Sora one of his flyers and indicated the place behind him.
Holding her stomach, Sora beamed, "Heeeh! That's a restaurant! I've never had Russian Sushi before but I'm willing to try anything at least once! Especially when I'm dying of starvation!"
"Starving bad. Sushi good! Come, I give you half off!"
"Really! Alright let's go!"
With that, Simon led Sora into the restaurant.
The doors had just closed behind them, when Celty came zooming around the corner, just barely missing her target.
After searching for almost an hour, the Dullahan was contemplating what to do next as she skimmed the message board of the Dollars web site when a message caught her attention.
Apparently a Dollars member had witnessed some strange girl in a baseball hat and backpack kick the stuffing out of a group of gangster goons in an alley near where she had lost her target.
'That's gotta be her!' Celty thought as she hopped on her bike and headed back the way she had came.
When she arrived at the alley in question, the headless rider found nothing beside a trashcan lid with a dent on one side, a bit of blood, and a puddle of something she didn't want to fully investigate.
Not knowing what else to do, Celty checked the board again to see if anyone else had seen her. Some responses to the previous message seem to indicate that the girl was last seen heading south-
So that's where Celty went.
The restaurant was very crowded, every bar stool had someone on it and all the tables had people sitting at them.
Simon sighed as he looked around, "Ehhh, this is no good! My friend needs to sit and eat!"
Sora was getting ready to tell him that she didn't mind getting take out when Simon exclaimed something in what sounded like Russian and ushered her over to a table that had four people sitting and talking at it, two on either side.
Waving, Simon said, "Hello friends! How are you today?"
The people stopped talking and all greeted Simon by name.
"My friend need place to sit. Can she join?"
The only girl at the group leaped up and said, "Yeah sure!" before anyone else could say anything, pulled a seat from the end of the table and placed it between her and the boy next to her.
"Is good!" Simon exclaimed as he pushed Sora down into the seat before she could say anything. "You wait here, and I get you food and drink. Tea ok?"
Recovering quickly, the tourist replied, "Yeah, thanks!"
Simon smiled and moved behind the counter to work on her order. While he did so, Sora got a good look at the people whose table she was now sharing.
The girl who had agreed to her joining them seem to be clad with designer clothes from head to foot and seem to constantly smile. The boy on her other wore a similar smile but wore plain clothes and had a face like a fox. Beside him was a large camping backpack. Across to her left was a guy who gave out the feeling of being the leader and had a black hat lying next to his elbow. The last guy had long hair and was wearing a vest.
The girl started talking again.
"Hi there! Nice to meet you! I'm Karisawa!" She points to the fox faced guy, "That's Yumasaki," the guy with the vest, "Togusa," the leader-like guy, "And that's Dotachin!"
Slamming his fist on the table, the guy growled, "For the last time, stop calling me Dotachin!" To Sora he says in a calmer voice, "You can call me Kadota."
"Nice to meet you guys! The name's Shinobu Sora!" The tourist replied.
"You new around here?" The guy named Yumasaki asks.
Nodding, Sora says, "Yup! Just arrived on the train from Kita just an hour ago."
"So, what brings you to Ikebukuro?" Kadota/Dotachin asks.
"A friend of mine recommended it to me. Said it was a great place to find, and I quote, 'Action, adventure, drama, and all the prettiest girls in the world-aside from the prettiest who just happens to be my girlfriend.' Un-quote." Sora recited, making absurd motions and faces as she did.
"Ooooh~! That was very dramatic~!" Yumasaki and Karisawa said at the same time. "Just like Tamaki from Ouran!" they continued.
"Huh?" Sora was lost.
Togusa spoke up for the first time. "Ignore them. The two of them are otakus and half the don't speak coherent Japanese."
Karisawa pouted/glared at Togusa, "Heeeh~! We do too speak coherent Japanese!"
Yumasaki continued, "It's just that half the time people don't understand what we're talking about."
"That's the same thing!" Togusa yelled.
The two otakus cocked their heads and replied, "Eh, it is?"
"Obviously!"
Without warning, Sora leaped up, grabbed a pair of chopsticks from the jar in the middle of the table, and stabbed at the air to the right of Togusa's head. A 'thunk' was heard above their heads.
As the group stared at her, Sora sat back down, looked at the man behind the counter, smiled, and nonchalantly said, "Mister, I don't think it's good for business to throw knives at people."
Knives!
Looking up, the people at the table noticed that imbedded in the ceiling was indeed a large knife, still quivering after impact.
The man behind the counter calmly stated, "Tell loud mouth that if he did not make such loud noises, I would not have to throw knife at his face."
Realizing the danger he was in, Togusa bowed his head and stammered, "So-sorry. I'll try to keep it down."
Seemingly satisfied with that, the man went back to making sushi.
"He he, leave it to Togusa to piss off a former member of the Russian Mafia." Karisawa joked as if this was normal. Togusa sent her a look that said that it was her fault to begin with, but said nothing for fear of invoking the chef's wrath again.
"Heh~! That guy's in the Russian Mafia?" Sora asked, eyes wide and curious.
"We think he is," Yumasaki answered, "I mean, did you see the way he threw that knife!"
"Which reminds me! How'd you block it like that!" Karisawa asked, leaning in close to Sora.
"Yeah, that was awesome! You were like Clare's Quick Sword technique the way you used those chopsticks!" Fox face said.
Leaning in front of Sora, Karisawa retorted, "Are you kidding? She was more like a member of the Hyuuga Clan, the way she deflected the knife!"
"Actually she was more like…" And they went on and on like that, each one comparing her to something or other. Sora vaguely recognized some of the things they were saying. In the end she decided that they were complimenting her.
Finally, they both slammed their fists on the table and said in unison, "This is beside the point! Tell us where you learned how to do that!"
"Huh? Uh..well-"
"Food is done!"
Sora breathed a sigh of relief, as Simon finally arrived, laden with everyone's food, saving her from having to explain. Placing everyone's food in front of them, Simon left and quickly returned with their green tea.
The second her plate landed in front of her, Sora said, "Itadakimasu!" and immediately dug in.
Watching her put away her food so quickly, Kadota had to comment, "When was the last time you ate something? From the way you're eating it's like you're starving."
Swallowing, Sora replied, "The last time I ate was early this morning-" she pauses, "Or…was it yesterday morning? I can never keep it straight."
"Huh? You haven't eaten since this morning? No wonder you're starving!" Togusa said.
Sora waves her hand, "No, the real reason why I'm so hungry is cause I have a fast metabolism."
"That seems a bit contradictory." Togusa commented while a sweat drop appeared on his head.
"You think? It makes sense to me." Karisawa added.
"Yeah, but your logic makes no sense!" Togusa retorted.
"I guess it would make more sense to say that my metabolism itself is weird." Sora said, trying to smooth things over.
"Yes it would, but it's still weird."
"Of course it's weird, she just said it was." Yumasaki entered the conversation, which went back and forth over what were the definitions of a weird metabolism, and at some point what the actual definition of weird was.
Sora listened for a while and tried to understand what they were going on about, but in the end opted to follow Kadota's lead and focused on eating her sushi.
Eventually the discussion ended, although Sora had no clue about the conclusion, and everyone returned to eating. And like that, the food was all gone and it was time to pay.
As Sora pulled out her wallet and opened it up, a thought occurred to her.
"Ah crap!"
Kadota looked at her. "What's wrong? Don't have enough money?"
"Huh? Oh! No, I have enough. Its just that I forgot to take the wallets of those idiots from earlier!"
"Take their wallets?" Togusa said.
Nodding Sora replied, "Yeah, I found three numbskulls harassing some girls in an alley and beat them up. Normally when I do that I take their wallets but I was so pissed off that I forgot. Damn!"
"But why take their wallets?" this from Yumasaki.
Sora held up two fingers, "Two reasons. One; I believe that if you are bad you have to pay for your crimes, in this case literally. And two; I have no job so that's my source of income."
"Heeeh? But isn't that mugging?" Karisawa asks nonchalantly.
"Normally, yeah. But I only do it to criminals, so it's fine."
"That makes sense!"
"How the hell does that make sense!" Togusa yells again.
"Oi, you two aren't going to start that up again are you? The old man's sharping his knives as we speak." Kadota mentions.
At the look on Togusa's face as he quiets down, Sora can't help but laugh.
"You guys are fun!"
Bowing in their seats, Karisawa and Yumasaki stated in unison, "Thank you, we try our best!"
"Oi, Sora-san." Kadota says seriously.
"Yeah?"
"About these guys, what did they look like?"
Scratching her head, Sora replied, "Uhh, couldn't tell ya. Looked like regular gangster idiots to me."
He perks up a little bit. "How did you know they were gangsters?"
"Because each of them had a colored scarf on them somewhere; one had it on his head, another on his neck, and the third on his arm."
"What color?"
"Mmm, sort of a steely gray color. Why? Do you know them?"
"Only by word of mouth. There's a new color gang in town called the Silver Spades, and all of its members wear scarves like the ones you described."
Togusa spoke up, "I've heard of them. They appeared like a month ago. Word is that they're a gang who were forced to leave their original prefecture because of dealings with the police."
"Really," Karisawa added her two cents, "I heard that they're a new subdivision set up by the Yakuza who're looking for new recruits."
Here comes Yumasaki, "Actually, they've been created by the government in order to control everything from the lowest level up."
Putting a stop to the crazy theories, Kadota stepped in, "Whatever or whoever they are, they are bad news and you should stay away from them, Sora-san." He looked her in the eye for emphasis, "Especially now that you've gone and beat up some of their members."
After hearing all the theories, Sora could only sigh and hang her head, "My first day in a new place, and already I've made another bad enemy. Typical."
Yumasaki and Karisawa look at eachother.
"'Another?'"
"'Typical?'"
"That proves it!" They yell in unison. "You are a main character!"
'Oh crap! I've set them off again!' Sora thinks as a sweat drop appears.
"Focus you two. This is serious." Kadota says as he stands up and puts his hat on.
"Now, where are you staying at, Sora-san?" He asks her.
'Thanks for the save!' She thinks, and replies, "I just got here so I haven't found a place yet."
Jumping in, Karisawa says, "Sora-kun can stay with me! I've got room!"
"Heeeh~! Then where will I sleep?" Yumasaki pouts.
Grinning devilishly, Karisawa replies playfully, "One night without me won't kill you!"
Bouncing back quickly, he says, "Ah, ok. Since it's for a good cause!"
"It's decided then." Kadota states, apparently ending the matter before Sora had a chance to say anything.
'Is it just me or are the people of Ikebukuro kind of pushy? Or maybe it's just the people in this group.' Smiling and shrugging to herself she thinks, 'Oh well, when in Rome.'
The arrangements settled, the group split the check, waved good-bye to Simon and the scary chef, and headed outside.
They were getting ready to walk down the street, when an animals' caterwaul suddenly echoed from the other direction.
Karisawa and Yumasaki immediately spun around.
"Wah! It's the black bike!"
"Ah crap! I forgot about her again! That's twice in one night!" Sora exclaimed as she smacked herself on her forehead.
Kadota turned to her, "Eh, you know her?"
Looking down the street, Sora replied, "Sort of, but not in a good wa-crap she spotted me!" Waving to her new friends as she turned away from the sight she said, "Sorry guys, but we'll have to hang out later! Thanks for the food! Bye!"
Before anyone could say anything, Sora was booking it down the street and around the corner, closely followed by the Headless Rider, leaving a slightly stunned group of people behind.
Togusa was the first to recover.
"What just happened?"
"Why was the black bike chasing Sora-kun?" Karisawa asked.
"Should we help her?" This from Yumasaki.
"Who? The black rider or Sora-kun?"
"Sora-kun of course!"
"What do you think, Kadota?" Togusa asked.
After thinking about it, their leader replied, "We'll leave them alone."
The otakus replied simultaneously, "WHAT!"
Before they could get started, Kadota put his hands in his pockets and made his way to Togusa's van, saying, "Look, we know that the black rider is in Dollars and is a decent person, so we know that she won't do anything too bad to Sora-san. And we know that Sora-san can handle herself well in a fight. Besides, whatever is going on is between them, so I say we stay out of it."
With no real argument, the rest of the gang just nodded in agreement, got in the van, and drove off into the night.
'I've got you this time!' Celty thought as she chased Sora through the backstreets of Ikebukuro.
She hadn't been far from Russian Sushi when she checked the message board again and got her next clue.
According to an eavesdropping Dollars member in Russian Sushi, there was a girl sitting at the table behind her who had apparently beaten up three members of some gang called the Silver Spades without a second thought.
When Celty posted a question as Setton about what the girl was wearing and the eavesdropper replied a white shirt, blue button up and a hat, she knew she had found her target again.
Racing back to the restaurant, the Dullahan spotted Sora walking out of it and her steed let out a whinny as she accelerated towards her.
And so the chase began anew.
A/N: Sorry if this turned out to be a little boring.
I hope you liked how i wrote the fight scene.
Please R&R! ^^