Hey, it's the next installment! Cool.

First, a note about Tavish's accent, which I tried my best to imitate because it seems like an important part of his character. (I also did this for the medic, so there's that one to look forward to as well). Here's the basics of how I tried to imitate it: if the word ends in a t, I replaced it with a ' (so don't become don', that becomes tha', etc.), and "of" become "o'". There might be more, but I hope it's at least consistent and understandable.

In any case, I hope you like it!

Tavish DeGroot, known to his teammates as the Demoman, came to, his head aching. This was not, in and of itself, new to Tavish, but was normally the result of a hangover, not having been sucked through a magical portal and crashing through what seemed to be several layers of rock before landing on solid stone and passing out. He groaned and attempted to sit up, but the sudden pain in his back made him lie back down before he got halfway up. "Medic…" he croaked, attempting to take a swig of his scrumpy. Unfortunately, the bottle had broken in the crash, and all that was left were a few drops on the rim. He propped his eye open, saw the broken bottle, groaned again, and closed his eye. "Booze…" he croaked.

"Someone say booze?" a voice said.

Tavish opened his eye again, looking for the voice. "I said booze. Y'got any?"

A woman swam into view, carrying a bottle and a large saucer, out of which some liquid splashed whenever she took a step. She seemed to have a horn on her forehead, but Tavish chalked that up to him probably having a concussion or some brain injury the Medic would have talked about for hours. "Oh, you're finally up," she said, offering him the bottle. He reached out to grab it, missing a couple times until she grabbed his hand and placed the bottle in it. Her skin felt rougher than normal, he noticed hazily. "Must have been some party if it sent you crashing through my house."

Tavish paused, bottle halfway to his lips. "S'your house? Sorry."

"Eh, no big deal," she said, shrugging. "People destroy it all the time. Hell, sometimes I do when I'm drunk. Or bored."

Tavish put the bottle to his lips and threw it back. It tasted strange, almost completely unlike his scrumpy or rum, but it had the lovely, familiar taste of alcohol, and that was all that mattered to him. As he drank, he felt the pain in his body begin to fade away, and his mind return to the peaceful drunken haze it was normally in.

"Wow, you can really drink for a human," the woman laughed when Tavish had downed the bottle. "I mean, it was already half empty, but still!" She reached down with one hand and lifted Tavish back on his feet by one of his grenade bandoliers.

"Och, tha' was nothing," Tavish said, recovered, "once, I had Engie set up a –hic - a teleporter between this rum dispenser and my bottle, and I chugged for ten minutes straigh'. Tha' was the best day o' my life." He sniffed as a tear dropped from his eye.

The woman smiled as if recalling something. "It's the best, isn't it?" Tavish nodded. The woman's smile turned back into a friendly grin, and she slapped him on the back, causing him to fall on his face "I like the way you drink." She picked him up again, turning him around so he was facing her, "And that's something I say about very few humans."

Now that he wasn't sober or in extreme pain, he noticed she really did have a horn protruding out of her forehead, and a broken manacle around one of her wrists. Also, something in those last few sentences nagged at him. "Wai' wai' a minute…" he said thinking, "you said 'it's the bes',' so does tha' mean –hic- does tha' mean you've chugged for that long too?"

The woman blinked, then roared in laughter, spilling a few drops from her dish, "Hahaha oh man, that's the first thing you ask? You're the first human I've ever met to care more about how much I've drunk than how I look." She wiped a tear of mirth from her eye. Tavish was slightly confused, but still looked at her questioningly. "Yes, yes I did. Suika lent me her gourd once, and it's bottomless you see, uses Oni magic, so I just chugged for like hours."

"Infinite booze," he said, awed.

"I know," the woman said, nodding understandingly. "I know." She sighed and shook her head. "But she doesn't lend it out anymore. It's a tragedy." Tavish's face fell. The woman smiled and patted him on the back, gently this time. "Cheer up! There's still tons of alcohol to drink around here. And besides, drinking the exact same booze all the time would get dull, wouldn't it? That's what I think anyway."

Tavish nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I guess you're righ'." He stuck out his hand. "Me name's Tavish DeGroot, by the way. An' thanks for the booze earlier. I needed it."

"Yuugi Hoshiguma," the woman said, shaking his hand in a tight grip. "Always happy to spread the booze around."

"Now tha's something I can get behind," Tavish said, laughing. "By th' way," he said, looking around, "where th' bloody hell am I?"

"You're in the underground," Yuugi said, spreading her arms wide. "Home of Oni, banished youkai, and evil cursed spirits!"

"The booze is CURSED?!" Tavish yelled, blanching.

"No no no," Yuugi said, shaking her head, "spirits as in ghosts."

"Don't scare me like tha'" Tavish said, color returning to his face. "I bloody HATE curses." He paused and put a hand on his chin. "Though come ta think of it, I don't like ghosts much either."

"Well, me neither, but Lady Satori and her pets do a good job of keeping 'em under control. Unless you go looking for 'em, you're not gonna see 'em."

"Tha's a relief." Then he frowned, his brow furrowing, "Wai' a mo'" he paused for a second, "wha's an Oni?"

Yuugi spluttered, spraying a fine mist of sake into Tavish's face. "What do you mean 'What's an Oni?' We haven't been gone so long that you'd forget all about us! Besides, we're not even really banished anymore, after that whole, that whole" she broke off, snapping her fingers, as if trying to remember something. A look of recognition dawned on her face, "Subterranean Animism Incident! That's what they were calling it in the village anyway."

Tavish looked at her blankly. "I don' remember hearin' about any o' that. An' Kong King's not a village, lass, it's a bloody giant city. Though maybe the drink ha' something to do with me no' rememberin'."

"Kong King? I've never heard of a place called that in Gensokyou."

"Kong King's not in wherever the hell Gen-sock-yo is, it's in China or Japan or somethin'."

Yuugi's eyes opened wide. "You're an outsider!"

"Wha's that supposed ta mean?"

"It means you're not from Gensokyou." Yuugi sucked in a breath, thinking. "I better take you to the village. Someone there can probably explain better than I can. If necessary, Lady Satori could definitely explain it, but she's," she paused, "a bit difficult to deal with."

"Look lass, I'm fine with going with you for a bit, but this won' take long will it? I need to find the rest of the team too."

"Oh heaven, there's more of you?" She grabbed his arm and started dragging him towards her front door, "We better find them, fast."

"Why?" Tavish asked, trying not to get dragged along the floor.

"Let's just say not everyone here's as nice as me," Yuugi said, as they cleared the doorway

"So tha team's in danger?"

"Well, they could be. Some of the oni down here are…well, they don't remember humans very fondly. If they find your friends, they might get in serious trouble."

"Well, they can take care o' themselves." He thought of Scout. "Most of 'em can, anyway."

"They can't take on a mob of angry Oni, no matter how prepared they are," Yuugi said grimly.

"Well, if ya say so, I guess. Where're we going then," he asked, realizing that they'd somehow already traveled far enough that he couldn't see Yuugi's house anymore.

"First I'm taking you to stay with a friend of mine, someplace safe. Then I'm gonna go look for your friends throughout the city. If they're with me, they're not likely to be attacked, I'm pretty well-respected around here."

"Wha'? But then why can't I come with ya? I wanna find 'em too…"

"If I have to worry about protecting you and looking for your teammates I can't go as fast."

"I don' like sittin' around doin' nothing ta help," Tavish said.

Yuugi looked over at him to see a frustrated look on his face. She skidded to a halt, and against her better judgment, spoke up. "Hmm…tell you what, if you promise to stay only in crowded areas, you can search the market district. It's unlikely anyone would attack you in a crowd of Oni, and the Merchant Oni won't attack you, since humans make up a large portion of their business now."

"Alrigh'," Tavish said, nodding.

"Good, I'll take you there, then I'll start looking down the alleys. I'll meet you at the center plaza of the marketplace after I've checked everywhere I can." Tavish nodded. They rounded the corner to find the Oni marketplace, already packed with people. "Alright," she said. "I'll be back as soon as I can. The center plaza's right over there," she said, pointing to a large raised square, around which were clustered a number of stalls. "See you shortly, I hope," she said, then leapt over a building and was gone, leaving Tavish staring in disbelief.

"Bloody hell," he said, awestruck. He tried jumping and only reached his normal height. "She mus' have a helluva kick." He shook his head and looked around. Most of those in the marketplace looked similar to Yuugi, or had a pair of horns instead, but there were a few who had no horns at all, and seemed, save their odd choice in clothing, to be normal humans. He decided to first approach a short woman who was dressed in black shirt covered up by a large brown sleeveless dress, wrapped with yellow ribbon. "Excuse me, lass," he said, reaching out. She turned to look at him, her face the picture of curiosity. "'Ave you seen anyone about who looks like me?"

"Eh? Like you? How so?"

"Ah. Righ', well, they've got the same color red as me on, an'," he trailed off.

"And?"

"Umm…hmm. Well we're mostly different after that, I suppose."

The woman frowned. "Sorry, but that's not a lot to go on."

"Yeah, I know, I know. Well, I'll just describe them separately then. One's skinny an' annoying, one's go' a helmet an's insane, one can only speak in mumbles, one's very large an' yells abou' sandviches a lo', one's go' a mechanical hand an' a hardhat, one's go' these small glasses an' walks around doin' experiments all tha time, one's looks like a vampire hunter an's go' a cut on his cheek, an' tha last one's go' one o' them ski masks on all the time."

"Hold on, hold on, give me some time to think, willya," the woman said, holding up her hand.

"Righ', righ', sorry," Tavish said. "I'm just worried s'all."

The woman nodded. "I get that. I'd be worried too if any of my human friends got lost down here."

"Eh? 'Human friends?'"

The woman looked at him, surprised. "You didn't know?" He shook his head. "Oh. I'm a youkai."

"But ya don' look any differen' from a human."

"Ha, well, not all youkai do." She held out a hand. "I'm Yamame Kurodani, an earth spider. Pleased t'meet ya."

"Uh, righ'," Tavish said, reaching out and shaking her hand. "I'm Tavish."

"Tavish, huh? That's a weird name."

"An' Yamame isn't?"

"Fair point, I suppose." She frowned and shook her head. "I'm sorry though, I haven't seen anyone like the people you've described recently."

Tavish sighed. "Well, I guess it was too much ta hope ya had."

"Tell you what though," she said, "I'll ask around. I'm more well known in this place than you, so maybe some people will be willing to talk to me."

"Ya'd do tha'?"

"Sure," she said, grinning. "Happy to help."

"Thanks," Tavish said, relieved. "Yuugi was helping me, but she wen' ta check the alleys."

"You met Yuugi?" Yamame asked. Tavish nodded. "That's good. She's pretty powerful around here, so if anyone knows where they are, she should be able to get it out of them. Ok, I'll go ask around there," she said, pointing to the opposite half of the market, which was seemingly filled with Oni. "You should be safer on this side, since this is more artisans and less pubs."

"Wai' there're pubs over there?" Demo asked longingly.

"Well yes, but they're filled with Oni. Drunk Oni. That's not a good place for a human to be."

"But…but…booze!"

Yamame gave him an amused look. "Like alcohol that much, huh?" He nodded. "Tell you what, I'll bring you one when I'm done, ok?"

"Now you're talkin'! Le's get goin'," he said, excitedly, and ran off towards his half of the market. Yamame chuckled and walked towards her half.

Tavish ran around his half of the market, to the bemused stares of those around him, asking everyone he found if they'd seen his teammates. Most of those around simply shook their heads and apologized, but a few simply glared at him and left without saying anything. Eventually, he came upon a woman sitting by herself. She was dressed in a purple dress with white lines on it and had on a scarf, even though it seemed fairly hot to Tavish. "Excuse me, lass, but-" he said, before getting cut off.

"I haven't seen 'em, so go away."

"But I haven' even told ya who I'm looking for."

She gave him a withering look. "You've been asking everyone in the vicinity about it. I overheard a while back. And I noticed how long it took you to ask me," she said, glaring.

"Well, it's no' like I was goin' in any order," he said. He grinned. "Did ya want ta talk to me sooner for some reason?" he said, leaning in.

She snorted. "Don't flatter yourself. It seemed interesting, so I wanted to be a part of it. But now that you've revealed yourself to be an idiot, I wish I could be like everyone else and not talking to you right now."

Tavish frowned. "Tha's a bit harsh, lass. Though I guess I don't really wanna talk to ya either, if you're like this," he began to turn away.

"What was that?" he heard her say behind him.

"I said I don' wanna be around ya if you're like this." He turned to face her. "I may be a drunk, and a wee bit violent, but at leas' I've got basic manners."

The woman smiled vindictively. "Oh, you're going to regret that." She stared into his eye, and he felt himself getting more and more thirsty, and getting more and more angry at all the Oni walking around with drinks in their hands. To an outside observer, his eye would have seemed to flash green for a second before fading back to its normal color.

He frowned. "I have ta go." He walked off towards the nearest Oni with a drink, one who'd glared at him earlier. "Where'd ya get tha'?" he asked.

"Why the heaven should I tell you?" the Oni growled. "You're a damn human, no way you'd appreciate it."

"Because if you don', I'm gonna do this," Tavish said, feeling light-headed, and reached his hand out, grabbing the bottle the Oni was holding and downing it one long, drawn out guzzle.

The Oni was too stunned to do anything at first, but as soon as Tavish was finished, his face stiffened into an expression of pure rage. "I hope that tasted good, cause it's gonna be the last drink you ever have!" He lunged at Tavish, who spun out of the way, still looking for more alcohol. He turned and saw one of the many bars in the plaza, and ran off towards it as fast as he could, the Oni still chasing after him. As he ran, he narrowly avoided colliding with someone carrying a large crate, who turned to yell at him, and as such, didn't notice the enraged Oni coming up behind him until he was bowled over. Crate forgotten, he began to chase after the first angry Oni, screaming threats. He, in turn crashed into somebody else, until the whole plaza was filled with fighting Oni.

Parsee looked on, feeling a sense of impeding blame, and rested her forehead in her hand. "Ah, crap," she said, then ran after the departing Tavish, doing her best to avoid the fighting Oni.