Hi everyone! Sorry this took so long, I had a lot of trouble with this chapter, and I just never ended up satisfied with it. But at this point, I figured I'd delayed long enough (I don't want to have another month-or-more-long delay).

In response to New Universe Returns: Nope! Can't say I've ever watched those shows, probably due to the fact I never had cable growing up.

In any case, I hope you enjoy it, at least. As always, thanks for reading, and especially for reviewing/following/favoriting!

Previously on The Nine Red Men Incident: Demo and Soldier Chapters - After being led to the Palace of the Earth Spirits by Lady Satori, Tavish and the Soldier were reunited. Due to the Soldier's gullibility, and a bit of manipulation by Satori, the Soldier was led to believe that he was in purgatory, and Tavish and the other mercenaries are aspects of his personality, and as such, the things they do are linked to what he feels. Since Tavish had been drinking, the Soldier ended up feeling drunk, eventually causing him to collapse. After thanking Satori, Tavish dragged the Soldier back out to where Yuugi and Yamame were waiting.

We now return you to The Nine Red Men Incident

"Bloody hell, you're heavy," Tavish said, dragging the Soldier out the door. The Soldier's only response was a snore. "An' now you're asleep. Bloody wonderful."

"Here, let me," Yuugi said, grabbing the Soldier with one hand and throwing him over her shoulder.

"Ah, cheers, mate," Tavish said, stretching his shoulders "So, we've go' ta get to the surface."

"I can show you the way," Yamame said. "I live right near the exit, anyway."

"Thanks," Tavish said. Yamame smiled and began leading the way out of the Earth Palace.

Catching Tavish's attention, Yuugi pointed to the Soldier. "Are all of your teammates such lightweights?" she asked.

Tavish laughed. "Ha, well none o' 'em can compare ta me, at leas'. But he's usually able ta take more'n tha'," his smile turning into a puzzled frown. "Though I don' know how tha' works with the whole 'placy-bow' effect or whatever. An' I mean, I did have a lot o' booze before gettin' to 'im, so if it's like he drank tha' much," he said, before trailing off.

Yuugi shrugged. "It's really a shame. He didn't even get to drink anything and now he's gonna have a hangover when he wakes up."

Tavish's face fell. "Tha's like me wors' nightmare," he said, shaking his head. Yuugi nodded, solemnly, while Yamame rolled her eyes.

The conversation flowed steadily as they left the Earth Palace (Miki met them at the entrance, handing over the Soldier's rocket launcher, which Tavish strapped to his back), and headed back into town. Eventually, they reached the town plaza, where a few Oni were beginning to recover and start repairing the damage that had been caused. A few called out to Yuugi as she passed, asking when she'd be available to help out. She said she'd be back after helping escort the Soldier and Tavish to the surface, which caused a few Oni to cast an irritated look at Tavish, who studiously ignored them. Passing Urami's bar, they caught a glimpse of him barking orders to those of his patrons who had recovered while he got some of his spare sake from his storage. The patrons were finishing cleaning up the broken glass and putting back together some of the tables and chairs that had broken in the fracas.

"Should I try ta help?" Tavish said. "It was kinda my faul'."

Yuugi shook her head, causing the Soldier to grunt slightly in his sleep before getting back to snoring. "He wouldn't accept it. He'd think you were making fun of him, making it seem like he couldn't fix the bar himself. 'Sides, this isn't so bad, as far as destruction goes. It's about the same level as a typical Tuesday night."

Tavish let out a sigh. "Alrigh' then."

They continued past the marketplace, walking further into the town, passing stone house after stone house. There were a few Oni here and there, some ferrying supplies to the plaza, others working at forges and distilleries, and still others simply drinking and talking in groups. It seemed right to Tavish, like this was the way the world should be. He took a deep breath, letting the smell of alcohol and iron waft over him before letting out a sigh. "I'm gonna miss this place," he said, soberly. Yamame smiled, while Yuugi patted him on the back hard enough to make him wobble forward.

"Well, you're welcome back any time," she said. "Well, you're welcome with us, anyway," she continued. "Some others might be a bit harder to convince."

"Ha, thanks mate," Tavish said. "I'll bring some o' me family's rum an' scrumpy nex' time," he said. "No offense to your sake, but it can' compare to me scrumpy."

"I take it back, you're no longer welcome," Yuugi said, looking away from Tavish, while Yamame snickered.

"Wha'? Oh come on," Tavish said. "Don' be like tha'. It's no' like I said the sake was bad, it's just no' as good as- scrumpy. You'll agree when I bring ya a bottle."

"We'll see," Yuugi said, adopting an expression of mock anger.

"Oh, we'll see alrigh'," Tavish said. "If I bring ya some o' me scrumpy an' you don' like it, I won' drink for a-" he paused, thinking, "a week?" He blanched. "No, no tha' won' work. A day? Naaah, an hour, an hour, tha's 'ow long."

"That's some confidence, there," Yuugi said, nodding her head. "I'll take that deal. And if I like it, I'll drink only it for an hour." She held out her free hand.

Tavish shook it, laughing, "You're on." Then he paused, thinking, "Hey, wai' a minute, tha's no' a downside, is it?"

Yuugi laughed. "No, I suppose it isn't."

"As much as I hate to interrupt," Yamame said, "we're almost there." She pointed to a flickering light up ahead. "Though from the sound of it, we may have a bit of trouble getting past the bridge princess."

"Oh, don't give me that look, Kisume," a familiar voice was saying. "They were trying to cross the bridge, it's my job to stop them.

"Ah bloody hell, no' her again," Tavish said. Rounding the crest of the hill, they came upon a bridge with a few familiar figures standing there. A smile formed on Tavish's face, growing wider as he approached. "Ahahaha, pallies! Ya found us!" As he approached, he saw that they were all bickering amongst themselves, with the Heavy chasing around some girl with wings he didn't know, who was throwing icicles back at him, while the Engie and a girl in a green hat seemed to be attempting to each build their own version of a turret, criticizing the other's work at every opportunity. The Spy was looking on in a combination of amusement and annoyance, while another winged girl flittered about frantically trying to calm everyone down. Meanwhile Parsee was apparently talking to a bucket that was attached to the ceiling with a rope. "What the devil is going on here?"

"Ah, mon ami," the Spy said, noticing them. "And you have made acquaintances as well," he said, turning towards Yuugi and Yamame. "Enchanté," he said, bowing slightly. "Little Kisume," he said, pointing towards the bucket that was hanging from the ceiling, "was leading us towards where Engie's map said you were, when that lovely lady," he said, gesturing to Parsee over his shoulder, "stopped us from crossing the bridge." He took out a cigarette and lit it. "We were going to simply ignore her, but when we tried to get past, everyone started going a bit mad, it seems."

"Ach, again?" Tavish said. "Does she ever stop gettin' people jealous?" he asked, turning to Yuugi.

Yuugi shook her head. "No, not really. I'll go talk to her," she said, laying the Soldier on the ground.

"What happened to him?" the Spy asked.

"Ya wouldn' believe me if I tol' ya," Tavish said, shaking his head. "But when he wakes up, he's going ta think you're part o' his mind or summat." The Spy raised an eyebrow. "I did say ya wouldn' believe me," Tavish replied. The Spy seemed to be about to reply when he was interrupted by a cry from Parsee.

"Fine!" she said, throwing her arms in the air. "I actually get a chance to do my job for once and you take that away from me as well. You don't have people coming around and telling you to stop drinking, do you?"

"Parsee," Yuugi began in a placating tone.

"No!" Parsee said. "I know you want me to calm down, but this is ridiculous. You," she said, jabbing her finger at Yuugi, "need to stop telling me what I can and can't do. No one else has you coming around and nagging them all the time, the lucky jerks."

Yuugi flinched back, looking hurt, but then stepped forward. "Parsee, they were just here to pick up their friends, then leave, and since their friends are here-" she said, before Parsee laughed.

"Friends? What friends do-" she started, before her eyes settled on Tavish. "Oh. I guess I should have known." She walked over to Tavish, who narrowed his eye. "You've just been causing me problem after problem today, haven't you?"

Tavish blinked, dumbstruck for a second. "I've been causing you problems? I've been causing you problems?" he said, his voice rising. "Now see here lass, I think you've caused more problems for me than I have for you. Ya nearly got me killed back there, ya know."

"To be fair, you almost get killed every day," the Spy said.

"Well, yeah," Tavish said, faltering a bit. "But tha's just part o' the job. I don' expect it when I'm no' at work."

"Oh, to be so lucky," the Spy mumbled under his breath.

Parsee waved a hand dismissively. "They wouldn't have killed you and risked starting an incident. They might've beaten you half to death, but not actually killed you."

"Oh tha's much better," Tavish said, rolling his eye. "Look, tha point is, ya weren' in danger, I was. Now would ya jus' let me an my friends leave withou' us havin' ta fight?"

Parsee bit her thumb, seemingly trying to hold back a response.

"Look, Parsee," Yamame said, walking over with Kisume. "I know you don't particularly like new people, but Tavish isn't so bad. And from what Kisume said, these new guys seem decent too. Can't you just let them through?"

"Ha, thanks lass," Tavish said, smiling.

Parsee snorted, muttering something under her breath.

"Wha' was tha'?" Tavish said turning towards her.

"I said it's not normal. You've been here for all of a few hours and everyone immediately trusts you. Heaven, Yuugi seems to actually think of you as a friend," Parsee said, sparing a glance at the Oni.

Tavish frowned. "An' wha's wrong with tha'? Tha team go' along grea' the firs' time we all met!" The Spy doubled over in uncontrolled laughter, and even Dell and the Heavy, distracted as they were, let out a couple snorts. "Wha'? Wha's so funny abou' tha'?"

"Oh, mon ami," the Spy said, patting him on the back. "You were drunk through our first meeting, weren't you? But please, don't let me ruin your memories, continue, continue." Tavish looked at him, puzzled.

"Already getting people to laugh," Parsee muttered under her breath. "It's just not fair that everyone accepts all you outsiders right away! I mean just a little bit after you get here, you're all best friends with someone. It's ridiculous! Especially considering your kind nearly forced us to extinction," she said, glaring at Tavish. "And that it took months for me when I first got banished here," she whispered.

"It wasn' us who nearly made ya extinct," Tavish said, not having heard what she whispered. "An' while I think it's a righ' shame that ya were, ya can' blame all o' us for tha'. S'not like we had anything to do with it."

She clenched and unclenched her fists. "I hate you," she said, simply.

"Tha's a bit harsh, lass," Tavish said, scowling. "I mean, I kinda dislike ya, but wha' have I done to make ya hate me?"

"I believe she is jealous," the Spy said.

"Of course I'm jealous!" Parsee yelled. "It's in my nature, it's who I am," she said, dropping back into a normal speaking voice.

"Yes, but it's what you're jealous of that interests me, mon cherie," he continued. Parsee stopped in place and glared at him.

"You are jealous at how quickly we, especially the Demoman here, were able to make friends, because you-" the Spy began, before Parsee cut him off by yelling.

"Fine! You want to leave, huh?" she said, snapping her fingers and drawing the attention of the Heavy, the Engineer, Nitori and Cirno, and staring into their eyes. A brief second later, and they looked around, startled and embarrassed. "They're all fixed up again. Now leave," she said, pointing towards the other side of the bridge.

"My appreciation," the Spy said, bowing and grinning at her. She gave him a look of pure rage before turning and walking towards her house, which was only a few feet from the bridge.

"Wha' was tha' all abou'?" Tavish said.

"I am not the sort to reveal a lady's secrets," the Spy said, shrugging.

"I'll go talk to her," Yuugi said, sighing. "Are you fine with taking him with you by yourself?" she asked Tavish, poking the Soldier with her foot.

"Heavy will carry him," the Heavy said, lifting the Soldier and draping him over his back, ignoring the Soldier's mumbling (which sounded suspiciously like "dirty commie").

"Thank you," she said. "Hope to see you again," she said turning to Tavish. "We've got a lot more drinking to do!"

Tavish, still a bit confused, perked up at that. "Ha, yeah, tha' we do! I'll bring ya some o' me Scrumpy, as promised."

"I'll look forward to it," Yuugi said, laughing. "You good to take them back, Yamame, Kisume?"

"Yep," Yamame said, jokingly saluting.

"See you all later," Yuugi said, waving, as she walked up to the door and entered, not bothering to knock.

"Well, that was an intriguing distraction," the Spy said. "Might I recommend we talk on the way out? I'd rather not be around for the fireworks." As if to punctuate his point, a shout came from Parsee's house, and there was the sound of something shattering, causing the majority of the group to flinch.

"That's probably for the best," Yamame said, sighing. "Well, follow us, everyone!" She began walking across the bridge, the group following her.

Along the way, Tavish introduced the Heavy, Spy, and Engineer to Yamame, and was introduced in turn to Kisume, Nitori, Cirno, and Dai. At the Spy's insistence, Tavish attempted to explain what had happened to the Soldier.

"You mean he's currently unconscious because he believes he should be?" the Spy said, raising an eyebrow.

"Tha's righ', at leas' as I understand it," Tavish said.

"That's ridiculous," the Spy said.

"No, is right," the Heavy said, as Cirno rested on his head and poking at the Soldier. "Belief powerful here, yes? And Soldier has strongest beliefs among group. So what he believe become true, to him at least."

Tavish and the Spy stared at the Heavy in astonishment for a second, while Dell simply scratched his head. "Makes sense to me, at least," Dell said. "Though you'd probably have a better idea of how accurate that is than me," he said, turning to Nitori.

"H-huh? Oh, yeah, I guess that could be it," Nitori said. She'd been looking at her feet ever since recovering from Parsee's powers.

Dell smiled and patted her on the back. "You're not still upset about back there, are you?"

"Huh? Oh, no, not really," she said. "It was actually kinda interesting, looking back at it now. I think I learned a lot from your technique, to try and compress an entire turret into one small box. I might try that too, just using magic. I just, um, wanted to say sorry for those things I said about it, calling it 'hacksmanship' and stuff," she said, poking her pointer fingers together.

"Ah yeah," Dell said. "It's alright. I said some pretty rude things as well back there. And it's not like we meant any of them."

"I guess," Nitori said.

Before Dell could respond, Tavish's hands landed on his shoulder. "Ya blew up a wall withou' me?" he said, looking betrayed. Dell looked over at Cirno and the Heavy, who shrugged.

"It was an- well, I thought it was an emergency situation, at least," Dell said. "I'll let you blow up the next one, pardner." Dell said, clapping a hand on Tavish's back

Tavish grunted. "Ya better," he said. A few seconds later, his scowl faded, and he asked, "How'd ya do it?"

Dell chuckled. "Well, see, I'd fixed my PDA with some help from Nitori's supplies, and I still had a couple spare wires left over, and Nitori here was carrying a pocket-size generator, what did you call it again?" he asked, turning to Nitori, whose expression brightened immediately.

"Oh, that was a prototype mini-hakkero. Not nearly as effecient or powerful as Marisa's, but it gets the job done," she said. "But in this case-"

"We intentionally overloaded it!" Dell finished.

"Hey," Nitori said, annoyed, "I was still talking!"

Dell looked away, embarrassed. "Ah, right, sorry," he said.

Tavish laughed. "He starts talkin' a lot when it's about somethin' he's interested in, don' he lass?"

"Ha, apparently," Nitori said. "It's like a kid with a secret."

Tavish nodded knowingly. "Ya know, this one time, I was talkin' to 'im abou' me bombs, an' he started finishin' me own explanations before I could."

Nitori giggled. "Really?"

"Yeah," Tavish said, before launching into an explanation of what had happened.

Dell looked on, smiling, until the Spy patted him on the back. "You are more attentive to others' feelings than I would have thought, my hardhatted friend," he said. He held up a hand before Dell could respond. "Don't try to deny it. You helped our shy little friend find common ground rather easily, non?" he whispered.

"Don't know what you're talkin' about," Dell muttered, looking away. The Spy gave a knowing smile and went off to talk to Yamame.

Eventually, after a bit of trouble where the Heavy and Dai had to stop Cirno from trying to freeze the Soldier's helmet onto his head, they reached the cave entrance that marked the beginning of the underground. "Well, here you are," Yamame said. "Back to the surface, just as advertised!"

"Ah, thanks, Yamame," Tavish said. "We'd a' been los' withou' ya an' Kisume."

"Indeed mademoiselle, you have my sincerest thanks," the Spy said, bowing.

Yamame waved a hand dismissively. "Hey, I'm happy to help out. And I'm sure Kisume was too, right Kisume?" The bucket shook up and down slightly, causing Yamame to give a beaming smile and pat the mop of green hair that stuck out of it fondly. "Come back when you've got the chance!" she said, as they began to depart.

"But of course," the Spy said, Tavish nodding agreement, while the Heavy and Dell simply smiled.

After they'd made a bit of progress, Tavish asked "So, wha's tha plan? An' where're we goin'? An' do any o' you have some more booze? This one's run ou'." He shook the sake bottle sadly.

"Well," Dell said, pulling up his holographic projection. "It looks like Scout met up with whoever he was heading towards, so he'll get them to meet us back at Nitori's. Hopefully Aya's met up with our friend on the mountain, and it looks like the one in the bamboo forest's heading out of it, finally, so we could start heading that way, but we have no way of predicting their movement. We should probably regroup, first," he finished, looking at Nitori, who nodded. "With regards to the alcohol situation though, I think you're out of luck," he said, flashing a sympathetic smile at Tavish.

"Bah," Tavish said, throwing the bottle behind him, causing it to shatter loudly, waking the Soldier.

"Reporting for duty, Mr. President Sir!" he said, attempting to snap to attention on the Heavy's shoulder, causing him to tip backwards off the Heavy's shoulder and crash into the ground with a thud. He groaned. The Heavy grabbed him and pulled him back to his feet. "Thanks, soldier," the Soldier said. "Wait," he said, looking up at Heavy and smiling widely. Looking around, he saw the Spy, Dell, and Tavish looking at him. "Ha ha!" he said. "Three more already! At this rate mental Merasmus won't stand a chance! Nice work," he said, giving Tavish a thumbs-up. Tavish shook his head and groaned. "Now, let's go!" he said, beginning to hobble forward, before his brain caught up with the fact that he was supposed to be hungover and he collapsed to the floor with a groan. He clutched his head with both hands, moaning about it hurting worse than the brain maggot.

The Spy put a comforting hand on the Soldier's shoulder. "All the drink catching up to you? Would you like a hangover cure?"

"Spy if you have a cure I will give you half of my heads when we get back," the Soldier said, gripping the Spy's lapels.

The Spy blinked, then delicately began to remove the Soldier's hands. "That won't be necessary," he said. "But, since I'm feeling so generous, I shall tell you it anyway. That," he coughed into his hand, turning to face Cirno, "lady there can create ice that helps relieve the symptoms of a hangover."

"She can?" the Soldier asked.

"I can?" Cirno asked, looking at her hands.

"Indeed," the Spy said. "So if you would be so kind?" he said to Cirno.

"Um, ok," Cirno said, shrugging. She began to focus, generating some ice around herself, before sending it to slam into the Soldier. After a few seconds of this, the Soldier jumped up and shouted, banging his chest.

"Hangover! This is my head! You are not welcome in my head!" the Soldier said. "Thanks, soldier," he said turning to Cirno, who was looking at him in surprise. She began to grin.

"It was no problem for the strongest!" she said, recovering.

"You're sure there's no booze aroun'?" Tavish whispered to Dell. Dell simply gave him a reassuring pat on the back and began following the Soldier (who had started charging off in a random direction again), attempting to steer him in the right direction.