A Drink with destructive Results

Ryo sat there at the bar of one of his favorite little bars in the port of Hargeon. He had just finished with his latest adventure and now all he needed was time to sit back, down a drink, and unwind. He was hearing some weird chatter lately however. Some chatter of someone claiming to be from Sabertooth but not actually being from it. He didn't care for this kind of thing, and he was more than happy to find them, then kill them in that order. Still he wasn't going to waste his time right now. He had done far too much and his body was in desperate need of rest so he was simply going to relax.

He ordered another round of his favorite whiskey and simply took a sip from it smiling ever so softly "Ah. I love a good whiskey." he smirked and took his hat off fanning himself with it nodding his head ever so softly "yep. A good whiskey is always what everyone needs in a time like this." He leaned back in his chair slightly with a smile nodding his head once more. He was completely relaxed at this point not sure what was going to happen in this particular day.

Kiku, pondering whether she had been clear enough with the directions she gave to Haru, steps into the local dive that she heard about from a shop keep she had conversed with earlier. This place suits me just fine, men and women in their pulpy prime, slurping down their remedies for worldly woes She spins a pedestal before hoping up on-top of it, barely able to rest her arms on the counter. "Garson! Double jameson, clean, and a pendleton on the rocks with the smallest straw you have, and by rocks I mean whiskey rocks, if you don't have them don't bother." Kiku maintains eye contact for a moment before awkwardly looking straight up at the blank, flat ceiling. The barkeep, previously annoyed by a loud couple at the bar was now twitching from Kiku's request. Though, this town is hard, and so are the citizens. This particular bar keep had dealt with far too many annoyances for one little girl to send him off the deep end. "In an instant." He replied with a dry, raspy, monotone voice. Kiku smiles as he sets down her drink on-top of a coaster. She takes a sip, and scans the room. A man in a black hat catches her eye. A couple of cards are slotted into a band around the hat, and as she leans in, she notices that they are jokers, one red, one black. Without realizing, Kiku has been staring at this man for quite some time, and has just realized that he is now staring back. She turns back to her drink, with both now set on the bar. Kiku grips the jameson and slams it back in one gulp. With courage in her stomach, she turns back to the man and confidently asks “You don't look like a funny man, so why the jokers?”

Haru, gazing down at the chicken scratch that Kiku calls handwriting, screams into the sky. "How can you even hand me this and tell me to follow them. How am I supposed to know where this is. Geez..." Wandering around the streets Haruhi takes Kikus directions and throws them away. She decides to go to her usual tavern and get a drink before she continues her search. She walked into the building and say a short tiny girl at the front counter. She hopped off her stool and made her way to a man in a dark hat with playing cards on it. She notices them talk and see it's Kiku. She makes her way to the table.
Dramatically she bends and props her face in the mans. She gives him the evil eye and slowly whispers in his ear. "You're in my spot."

Ryo's eyes snap open as he hears the voice of a little girl to his left. He looks at her and then up at his hat. Without missing another beat he smiles and nods "True, but the jokers are always full of surpsies, and love a bit of mischeif. It seems that you are quite the funny girl yourself. Walking into a bar at your age." he noticed the bartender getting her a drink and he added "And drinking inside of one. I have to say that is the most interesting thing i've seen in a long time."

He was going to say more when another girl put her face in his. Ryo looked at her with a neutral expression that showed no fear, no surprise, and certainly no desire to do as he was bid. Instead he simply leaned back putting his face away from the girl's face and picked up a playing card that was in front of him on the table "There are plenty of seats in the bar. You can have any of them. Why do you want the one I am sitting in?" he asked holding the card a bit tighter as he finished speaking.

"Haru!" Kiku shouts after almost spitting out a mouth full of pendleton. "What took you so long? I was very particular in my directions, you know how important punctuality is to me..." Kiku huffs at Haru, crossing her arms, making a pout-y face and turning away. Contrary to her words, Kiku slyly pats the empty seat on her left with the palm of her hand "This one's empty, don't be so picky." Suddenly Kiku remembers that she was having a conversation with the man on her right, and so she replies to their recently sidelined conversation with "Age doesn't matter, if you're mind and body are accustomed to alcohol, then there's nothing to argue about. If this bartender had refused me my drink just now-" The bartender turns to her, still polishing glasses as he glares "-I would have-" Haru tugs on Kiku's dress, and she remembers the stigma that comes with an indifference to violence. "Anyways, I've been through too much to be denied a drink simply because I've only been alive for eleven years. More has happened to me in the last three years than the majority of schmucks in this dive... Present company possibly excluded that is." Kiku notices she's been rambling, opening up too much. She turns back to her drink, reaching her chin up to the counter and slightly tilting the glass so she can reach the straw. The cubed rocks shuffle as she sips, making the whiskey refract the light emanating from the nearby lacrima.

Haruhi walks back to the man sitting at the table and continues her glare. Kiku looks at them, sipping her drink.
A small rustling started in Haruhis small bag she was carrying. Before the man could ask, a small rabbit hopped out of Haru's bag and sat on her shoulder. "You heard her, mister. You're in her spot."
The mans jaw dropped. He looked at both Haru and the rabbit. From the two phrases they have made he saw how similar they were.
The rabbit jumped off of Harus shoulder and started tugging on his leg. "Let's go. You're going to move." The rabbit said.
"And what's your name, little thing?" He asked.
"I'm Ruby!" She replied. "And you're a spot stealer."
Ruby fell to the ground and sat at his feet, unimpressed.
"Fine, take this!" Ruby retorted. Ruby hopped onto his lap then to the table. She proceeded to hop onto the mans head and laughed.
"Haru! High-5!" She screamed holding out her little paw.

Ryo was a bit taken aback by Ruby as he had never seen a talking rabbit before. Granted he had spent time with an exceed but that was an entirely different matter. The matter at present hand was the fact that this rabbit and girl were both very adamate in their desire for the spot that Ryo happened to be sitting in. Ryo was a gentleman, but he had his limits. as Ruby hopped onto his head and stomped on his hat Ryo's paitence was now reaching a breaking point. He politely plucked Ruby off of his head holding her by her ears setting her on the table in front of him "Now then. I shall forgive the rudeness of animals, but my paitence is thin enough." without another word he moved his chair a bit and put another chair in the spot where his had once stood "Sit and talk reasonably, and you shall find me pleasant company."

He turned his attention back to Kiku with a smile "Well I suppose I shall conceed your point my dear. After all I was drinking even younger than you were. So tell me what are your names. I think Haru might be short for something, but as for you I haven't heard either of them identify you by a name or nickname." he realized something and shook his head "Oh forgive my rudeness. My name is Ryo."

Kiku is enthralled by her drink, and finishes just as Ryo asks for her name. My name... Kiku thinks and begins to speak. "My name, naaame... My name, KiiiiiiiiiikuuuuuuUUUUUU! I need a, no, no no nooooo I don't... My name is, Kiiiiiiiiiikuuuuuuuchiiiiiiiiyoooooo... Mifuuuuuuneeeeeee..." that should get me out of this conversation for the time being. Kiku sways back and forth on her bar stool, trying to sell her inebriated state.

Haruhi took the chair Ryo had grabbed and put it next to his. As close as possible. She sat in the chair, with Ruby on her lap, and starred at Ryo menacingly.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"You're kind of in my spot....!" She sneered.
Haru gazed Ryo up and down and saw his cards. "What are those?" She asked.
Before Ryo could respond Haru exclaimed "Wait! Let's play cards! Go fish? Poker? 21? Come on old guy! Let's play! Here, lets do teams!" Haru made her way to Kiku and dragged her across from Ryo and sat next to her. "Okay, teams are made. Me and Kiku versus you and.... ummm ummmm well.. Oh I got it! Ruby. Ryo and Ruby!"

Ryo rolled his eyes as Haru made mention of her spot once more. He couldn't understand why such a little girl was so particular. He even thought it was down right psychotic simply because of the fact that she should be used to not getting her way. She was a child after all and he couldn't imagine many situations she would get her way all the time without a question.

When cards were purposed he almost did a double take not sure if she was serious or not. He wasn't going to reject the idea. It would at least give him a bit of a distraction. He pulled out a deck of playing cards and shuffled them up and down. Laid them out on the table accordian style flipped them stacked them shuffled them, cut them, and finally delt out the cards seven to each of them "Go Fish it is. I don't feel like taking money from children. Besides I'm pretty sure underage gambling is illegal." he pulled his cards up and looked at Ruby "Seems we are going to have to work together." he looked to the girls with a tip of his hat "Ladies first."

Ruby held her card's up and made a huge grin. She peered over the top of them at Haru, who was leaning back in her chair nonchalantly. Ruby looked over into Ryo's hand and held of 8 little toes under the table. Haru leaned back enough to get a glimpse. She looked into her own hand and saw 2 eight's.
"Do you have any eights?" Haru asked. Ryo handed both of his over. Ruby had a grin that was completely obvious at this point.
"Hey , are you cheating?" Ryo asked. Ruby quickly dropped her head and made no notice to Ryos question.
Haru and Kiku ended up having to hand over several pairs to Ryo, who was obviously better suited for card games.
"Looks like I might win this one." He said.
Haru, starting to get angry, crash kicked the bottom of the table sending shards of wood flying and teh card game to come to a screeching halt.

"Haru!" Kiku screamed at Haru. "I was going to win! I already counted the cards in hand, in deck, and already played! I knew his, your, and Ruby's cards. I could've gone ten turns without gaining a card!" Kiku walks outside the bar, kicking the door open on the way out. While in a fit of childish rage Kiku runs directly into a random person walking in the street. "Watch where you're going!" Kiku shouts at the stranger. As she looks up, her parting hair reveals an eight foot tall behemoth of a man. "You're big aren't you?" Kiku asks hesitantly.
"You should watch what you say little girl, or maybe someone ought to teach some snobby little brat like you what manners are." The man reaches down and picks Kiku up with one hand, lifting her onto his back.
"Let go!" Kiku demands as she bites a pint sized hole in the man's neck.
"Jesus! She's rabid!" The man screeches dazed from the sudden attack. Kiku takes a stance ready to fight as the man unsheathes a claymore from the leather scabbard on his back and slams it onto the ground making a dent in the cobblestone.

Ryo smiled as the game continued at the easy progression it was going. He didn't even have to cheat in order to win. Despite the little trickery plan going on between Ruby and Haruhi he knew that the game was his. It wasn't until he spoke that things actually happened. After he said "Looks like I might win this one." he was surprised to find the table destoryed. As cards flew everywhere he activated his right glove and the cards that he could he put in his left hand. He sighed as he began to slowly gather up the cards by levitating them into his left hand and stacking them up.

It took him just a moment to finish, but as he did he heard a cry from outside. He walked outside to see a giant of a man brandishing a claymore that was now aimed at Kiku. Ryo's eyes flashed with anger and he summoned up nine of the playing cards from the deck shooting all of them at the giant's back "Hey! Stop now while you are still capable of walking away! Continue and I will teach you what happens to those who try to harm little girls."

Haru, still kneeling on her chair from obviously losing the card game, looked out the door from her pouty state and saw an extremely large man confronting Kiku. Haru leaped from her chair and sprinted outside. As she passed the door, the man took several cards to the back, most likely from Ryo.
"Thanks card guy!" Haru yelled. She leaped onto the mans back and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"How did you manage to piss him off, Kiku!"
"I bit him!" Kiku yelled.
"Ohhhh, like this?" Haru opened her mouth wide and wrapped her jaws around the mans shoulder. He yelled and tried to shake her off, having extremely trouble from the pain of Ryo's attack. Haru kneed him in the back dropping the big guy down a bit.
"C'mon big guy. You've got to have more than this!" Haru exclaimed.

The man sways from side to side for a moment before dropping his huge sword and grabbing Haru with both hands, and sending her flying against the tavern wall with a loud thump. "You can't... YOU CAN'T TREAT HARU LIKE THAT!! EFREET!" Kiku screams holding out her left fist as swirling hot fire wraps itself around it. "Now apologize!" Kiku demands, clenching her fist slowly. The man grasps his throat and falls to his knees, gasping for air. He reaches out to nearby on-lookers, pleading with his eyes for help. He scratches at his throat a final time before falling down and reaching towards Kiku. "Apology accepted trash."

Ryo watched with great interest as he saw the two of them in action together. He was a bit bewildered by the fact that neither of them seemed to have any issue with what they were doing. When the man took his last pained breath Ryo frowned deeply now whether it was anger, or sorrow no one could say, but he wasn't pleased by what he witnessed. The world around him was becoming far to viscious, and far too cruel if two young girls had no second thoughts about killing people. He shook his head in disgust as he tucked his cards away leaning against the doorframe of the bar.

He said nothing on the fact that they had killed the man, but instead he simply cleared his throat speaking of something else "Are you two alright? Neither of you are seriously injured right?"