Hi everybody! Writing's still erratic, but I think it's getting better. Anyway, new chapter time, hope you like it. As always, thanks for reading!

Previously on The Nine Red Men Incident: Demo Chapters. Tavish DeGroot (a.k.a. the Demoman) found himself regaining consciousness in some rubble. After being given some booze by Yuugi, whose house he had crashed in to, they went off to search for his teammates, with Yuugi taking the alleyways and Tavish taking the main plaza. After meeting Yamame, who said she'd get him a beer from one of the many bars in the plaza, Tavish talked to Parsee, who, angry after being insulted by him, made him jealous of all the alcohol the Oni in the plaza had. As a result, Tavish stole a beer from an Oni, who, enraged, chased after him only to crash into another, starting a riot. Tavish headed for a random bar in the plaza.

We now return you to The Nine Red Men Incident: Demo Chapters

Tavish had made it to the door of the bar he'd been running to. Without stopping, he burst open the door and yelled "Give me all your booze!"

Yamame, who'd been talking to a patron over at the bar, turned and looked at Tavish in astonishment. Sensing the mood of the bar turning sour, she ran over to him and hissed, "What the hell do you think you're doing! I was going to bring you one when I was done here."

"One isn't enough," he roared, causing her to cover her ears. "All y'lucky bastards with your infinite booze and eyeballs, while poor little one-eyed me gets stuck outside with nothin'! It's no' fair I tell ya." He sniffed, wiping a tear from his eye. "So," he said, turning to glare at each bar patron in turn, "each of ya give me a drink for every eyeball in your pretty little heads."

"What if we ain't got any," said a voice from the back.

"Drinks?"

"No, eyeballs," said an Oni as he stood up. He had scars across his face, and his eyelids were closed. He opened them to reveal only empty sockets. He was gritting his teeth in anger.

"Well then ya don' got ta give me any," Tavish said, which didn't seem to calm the Oni down at all.

Behind him, Yamame groaned, her face in her hands.

"While that's a generous offer," the blind Oni said, "Here's our counter-offer: get him!" As one, all the Oni in the bar stood up and ran at Tavish. The majority of them had some sort of scar or injury, some superficial, some fairly serious. Tavish, though jealousy-laden, was not suicidal, and turned to open the door behind him, Yamame following behind. As he opened the door however, he ran right into Parsee, who'd managed to stealthily make it to the front door of the bar. They fell over, and Yamame, who had been right behind Tavish, tripped and fell on top of them.

"Aargh you stupid idiot," Parsee said, yelling to be heard over the din of fighting Oni. "Why'd you have to leave right then?" She looked behind him to see a crowd of Oni rushing towards them, and began to struggle harder, eyes widening in fear. "Get off get off get off get off!" She pushed Tavish to the side and hurried up. "No way in heaven I'm taking it back now!" She ran off.

"Taking it back?" Yamame muttered to herself. Then her eyes lit up and she struggled to her feet. "Parseee! Get back here," she yelled, running after her.

Tavish got to his feet saw the chaos in the square, and heard the crowd of Oni approaching behind him. "I still want me drink," he muttered to himself, and ran off into the chaos. He also got out his sticky launcher and attempted to shoot back into the crowd. Instead of the small spiky balls he was used to, however, he instead shot a small glowing ball that floated in midair where he'd shot it. He nearly stopped, but managed to force himself to keep going. "What the bloody hell happened to my sticky launcher," he thought, affronted.

The Oni running after him shouted, "he's using danmaku," and ran around the ball. "But he sucks at it!" They laughed. Tavish looked behind him as he ran, dodging through the chaos. When he saw a lot of Oni clustered around the ball, he pulled the detonation trigger on the launcher, and the ball exploded into a bunch of tiny, glowing pellets. The ones closest to the blast yelled in surprise and fell down, causing some of those running behind to trip over them. "Those things explode!" one of those still following yelled. Tavish grinned and began shooting them behind him and detonating them at random. He was rewarded with screams of surprise and some thuds and grunts of people falling over. He continued this, dodging most of the chaos of the fight and knocking out as many of the Oni chasing him as he could, though he did get hit by a stray bullet occasionally. Surprisingly, they didn't hurt much, only stung a bit. He ended up making a giant circle and heading back into the bar that he had emptied, planning to take some of the booze that was lying around. As he entered, however, he found that the bar wasn't empty, as he had thought. The blind Oni stood in the middle of it, facing the entranceway as he came in.

"Hmph," he said, hearing the Demoman's (relatively quiet) footsteps enter, then took a swig of his bottle. "You're pretty good, I'll admit. Didn't think those guys would fail so miserably."

Tavish scoffed. "They were no better than wee kiddies. I coulda taken them on with me eyepatch over me good eye!" He walked past tables, picking up bottles and drinking whatever booze was left in them.

The Oni frowned. "I suppose you might have been able to, especially with that fight going on outside. Crossfire makes a great cover, doesn't it? Especially against those too drunk to dodge properly."

"Ach, well," Tavish said, rubbing his head awkwardly, "ya use all the advantages ya can get, righ'?" He took a swig of a half-empty sake bottle he'd found lying around.

"I suppose that is what you humans do. Take advantage of our trusting nature, lie to our faces, and then do things like this," he said, pointing to his face. "Is that right?"

"Wha'? Hold on, hold on, I'd never do something like tha'. Unless ya were trying ta kill me, maybe. An' even then I'd probably just break your arms an' legs or somethin'." He finished the bottle and threw it behind him, picking up a new one off the floor.

"I don't believe you," the Oni said. "And I think this conversation has gone on long enough," he threw the bottle he'd been drinking from at Tavish with pinpoint accuracy. Tavish dodged it, then watched in horror as it broke on a wall behind him.

"What tha hell do ya think you're doin'? That was perfectly good alcohol, you bloody idiot," he yelled, turning to see the Oni charging at him.

The Oni looked affronted. "What kind of Oni do you take me for? It was empty already, you fool."

Tavish was relieved. "Oh. Well alrigh' then." He finished up his bottle and threw it towards the Oni, who swatted it out of the air before punching Tavish. Tavish flew through the air, landed on a stone table, then slid off the end of it. The Oni grinned vindictively before he heard a telltale gulping noise, followed by a loud belch. Tavish stood, arms full of bottles, and yelled, "Cheers, mate," before taking another swig of one of them. The Oni, though slightly impressed, growled and began to run after Tavish, who began running around the table, tossing empty bottles back at the Oni as he ran. Most he either dodged or swatted out of the air, but one hit him in the leg, causing him to limp. Tavish seized the opportunity to stop and attempt to turn and use his sticky launcher, but slipped on a bottle and fell down on his back. He attempted to stand back up, but he was so drunk at this point that standing was a rather complex process, and by the time he managed to get back to his feet the Oni was right next to him, waiting. As soon as Tavish was back on his feet, the Oni grabbed him by the head and threw him all the way over to the other wall, which he hit was a crunching noise. Though he couldn't feel it, he guessed he'd broken something, and a quick glance at his right foot told him that he probably shouldn't try moving on it any time soon. Since he was immobilized, he shot as many sticky bombs as he could to make a perimeter around himself, hoping to keep the approaching Oni at bay. The Oni limped slowly over to where Tavish had fallen, picking up a miraculously unshattered bottle along the way and taking a swig.

As he approached, he began speaking. "You humans haven't changed at all, have you? Still preying on our willingness to believe anything. Still acting so entitled, acting like we're stupid, drunken louts, huh?" Tavish frowned at this.

"Wai', wha'? I'm the stupid, drunken lout. Tha's my job! Tha's mine an' ya can't have it!"

The Oni looked confused for a second, then shook his head. "Your trickery won't work on me. I've experienced it too much to be fooled again. Never again." He took a step into Tavish's perimeter. Tavish detonated the stickies, sending tons of danmaku shrapnel at the Oni. Since he was unable to dodge, the danmaku hit the Oni all over his body, causing him to collapse in pain.

"Argh, damn it, damn it, damn it." He tried to move his arms to crawl towards Tavish, but could barely move his arms. "I'm so close. My revenge…just…a few more steps." He managed to grab an empty mug from the ground, and with a monumental amount of effort sat up. He pulled his arm back, ready to throw, when Tavish, who'd been drinking from a miraculously unbroken saucer he'd found on the ground, held up a hand.

"Hold-hic-hold on. I got a question. Why-why didn' ya attack me while I was-I was-hic-down back there. Ya had a-hic-a perfect chance."

The Oni, who at this point looked like a blurry red blob to Tavish, snorted. "I'd never stoop to you human's level. If I can't-rrrgh-if I can't beat a human in a fair fight, with equal footing, then I don't deserve to call myself an Oni. But now," he said, sounding pleased, "we're still on equal footing. And I can finally kill one of you goddamned humans." He drew his arm back, preparing to throw the mug at Tavish hard enough to crush his skull.

"I don't think you'll get the chance," Tavish said, taking a swig and emptying another bottle. "Not if those three blobs behind ya have anything to say about it."

The Oni felt a hand grab his arm, and looked back to see Yuugi staring down at him.

"That's enough, Urami," she said, taking the mug out of the blind Oni's hand, as Yamame dragged an annoyed-looking Parsee over towards Tavish.

"Let go, Yuugi! Let me kill him!"

"He's not them," she said, sadly.

"He's close enough! He's a goddamn human, Yuugi! You know what they're like! You were there!"

She nodded. "Yes, yes I was there. I know what they did to you, to us. But I also know what they're like now. And they're nothing like their forefathers. They're coexisting with youkai now, with creatures like us."

"I don't care! No matter how much they change, they're still humans. He's still a human," Urami said, pointing towards Tavish, who was staring into Parsee's eyes again as the bridge princess removed her jealousy charm from him.

"Did you know," Yuugi said, after a pause. "That he's not even from here? He's an outsider. Not even from Japan, I think."

Urami paused for a second, but then shook his head. "So what? He still acts like they did, coming in here and thinking he's entitled to what we have, thinking he could trick us just like they did!"

"That," Yuugi said, frowning, "wasn't really his fault."

"How could it not be his fault? They're his own actions, damn it!"

Yuugi sighed. "Yes and no." She glanced over at Parsee, who was rolling her eyes while Yamame lectured her and Tavish looked on, confused. "You ever meet Parsee before?"

"Huh? Of course I have. Who hasn't?"

"Well, he hadn't, and as such, didn't know about her ability."

"What, that jealousy thing? How's that explain," he began, before pausing, realization dawning. "Oh."

"Yeah," Yuugi said, frowning. "Apparently he said something to piss her off, and in retaliation, she made him jealous of all the booze we had. To be honest, I'm surprised he kept enough sense not to just try and steal from everyone with alcohol at once."

Urami grimaced, then, slowly lowered his arm to his side. "Damn it." A few tears rolled down his face, dropping to the floor. "Damn it. Then get him out of here, ok? Just…just get out."

"Urami," Yuugi began, before he cut her off.

"What did I say, huh? GET OUT OF HERE," he roared. Yamame, who'd put Tavish over her shoulder, tensed with shock briefly, before following Parsee out the door.

"Alright, Urami," Yuugi said, standing up. "For what it's worth," she said, turning towards the door, "I'm sorry we never got them back for what they did."

Urami snorted. "Not as much as I am."

Yuugi left the bar, shutting the door behind her. Outside was a scene of chaos, with Oni and some youkai sprawled all over the courtyard, most groaning in pain, but a fair number were unconscious. Yamame, still supporting Tavish, was waiting for her just outside the door. "Parsee ran off," she said. "Basically saying 'I fixed him, so what more do you want?'"

Yuugi frowned, then sighed. "I guess I should've expected that." She scratched the back of her head. "This is my fault," she said, looking at Tavish. "I never should have let you walk around here unattended."

"It's no'-hic-no' your fault, Yuugi," Tavish said, looking at the ground. "I'm tha one tha' insisted. 'Sides, I'm no' a baby. I can take care o' meself. Or I thought I-hic-I could, anyway."

"Well, there's not much you can do to protect against Parsee. Especially if you don't know about her power." Yuugi sighed. "I guess we're all kind at fault here."

"What'd I do tha' made tha' guy," Tavish said, pointing at the bar, "so angry?"

Yuugi frowned. "It's not really my story to tell. But suffice to say, it has to do with how he lost his eyes."

"Oh. Alrigh' then." An uncomfortable silence fell, broken only by the groans of people on the ground. Tavish looked around, then spoke up. "How'd ya know where I was, by the way?"

"Oh, that was me," Yamame said. "As I was chasing after Parsee, I ran into Yuugi coming back towards the square to investigate all the shouting. I told her what was going on, and she helped me catch Parsee and convinced her to come back. Then we ran back here as fast as we could."

"An' ya said Parsee had-hic-had made me super jealous or somethin'?"

"Yeah," Yamame said, nodding. "That's her power. I guess she made you really jealous of all the drinks the Oni had in the marketplace."

"Tha's weird. Does everybody here have some weird power?"

"Pretty much," Yamame said, matter-of-factly.

"Is it conta-contagious? Cause me sticky launcher," he said, waving it around, "'s actin' all weird."

Yamame looked at Yuugi, who seemed like she was lost in thought, and answered, "No, our powers aren't contagious. But what do you mean it's acting weird?"

"Well when I was-hic-was running from those Oni, I tried using it to slow them down, just blow up stuff aroun' 'em a bit, scare 'em off, ya know? But it fired these-hic-these floaty, glowin' orb things that they called dawn-mock-you or somethin', I dunno. And when they blew up, they became a whole bunch a' little flyin' glowy things that stung when they hit ya."

"Hold on, you mean that thing," Yamame said, pointing to the launcher, "shot danmaku?"

"Yeah, tha's what they called it," Tavish said, turning his head towards Yamame, who wrinkled her nose at his alcohol breath. "Wha's that?"

Yamame frowned, puzzled. "Well, it's what we usually use to solve disputes here, it's basically a whole bunch of non-lethal bullets that the two parties send at each other until one collapses. It's basically to prevent the constant back and forth killings between humans and youkai that used to happen."

"But-hic-but why's me sticky launcher shootin' it now? Where'd me explosions go?" he said, looking distraught. "I need me explosions!"

"I-I don't know," Yamame said, holding up her free hand placatingly. "I really have no idea! Maybe Lady Satori would know but-" she began.

"No, I have no idea why that would happen," said a voice from Yamame's side, causing Yamame to jump into the air, which in turn caused her to yank Tavish's arm into the air, dragging the rest of him along with it.

"L-l-lady Satori," Yamame stammered out, while Tavish grumbled about probably having a dislocated shoulder now. "Are you taking lessons from your sister?"

Satori gave a small smile. "Unfortunately, my sister is rarely in the mood to teach anything. And her style of sneaking is unteachable, anyway. But I still know the traditional sneaking methods back from, well, from the outside," she said, her smile turning sad for a second.

"Ah…right," Yamame said, looking down. "I'm-"

"It's alright, it's alright," Satori said, waving her hand dismissively. "The past is the past, after all."

Yuugi, who had been startled out of her thoughts by the sudden arrival of Satori, spoke up. "Hi, Satori," she said, giving a small smile. "What brings you here?"

"Hello, Ms. Yuugi," Satori said, nodding her head slightly. "Some of my pets told me there was a large fight happening in the marketplace, all centered around a human, so I thought I'd come and try to put a stop to it, but," she gestured at the large mass of groaning bodies in the marketplace, "it seems I was too late. And I guess this must be the human who caused it all," she said, standing in front of Tavish. "You must be the Demoman."

Tavish started. "Wha'? How the bloody hell do ya know tha'?" His eye narrowed. "Are ya-"

Satori laughed. "No, I'm not the one behind this." Tavish opened his mouth again. "And no, I'm not a witch. And I know because I'm reading your mind. Yes, it is kind of like Parsee's jealousy manipulation. Oh," she said, frowning. "Sorry. When I really want to solve a problem, I can forget how off-putting it is if you're not used to it." Tavish looked at her, seeming annoyed.

"Well, at least let me speak, will ya?"

"Right," Satori said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Anyway, the reason I know who you are is because I believe I found one of your teammates."

"Ya did? Which one?" Tavish asked, excitement overtaking his drunkenness.

"Well, let me put it this way," she said, "he attacked one of my subordinates for not knowing what America was."

Tavish slammed his forehead into his palm. "Ah, damn it Soldier…"

Yuugi and Yamame looked slightly confused. "Wait, he attacked someone? Are they alright?" Yuugi asked.

"What's America?" Yamame asked.

Satori sighed. "Well, Okuu should recover pretty soon, she was just caught by a rather large amount of danmaku at once. And apparently, America's a country in the outside world."

"I'm sorry 'bout him," Tavish said. "He's kinda-hic-kinda crazy."

"Well, it's not you fault," Satori said. "Besides, he may turn out to be kind of fun," she said, grinning slyly.

Tavish recoiled. "Tha' just don't sound righ' coming from a young girl like-"

Satori held up her hand and sighed. "That's absolutely not what I was talking about. Though I'm a lot older than I look, but I meant something else entirely."

"Well tha's a relief," Tavish said, shuddering. "Anyway, can I go and pick 'im up?"

Satori frowned and shook her head. "No, not yet, I think."

Tavish and Yuugi narrowed their eyes at her, while Yamame just looked somewhat lost. "Why keep them separated?" Yuugi asked, thinking back to some times in the old days.

"Yeah, why no'?"

"Because he still owes me for hurting my subordinate," Satori said. "But," she said, raising a hand to stem off the objections, "I will let you see him. However, there's something you should know."

"And wha's that?" Tavish asked.

"He thinks he's died and entered purgatory."

Tavish looked at her blankly. "Wha'?" was all he managed to get out.