#34 Takedown Underground

[falken]

Ran Town. That was where Kamui was right now. At least, that was where he assumed he was. With three towns named after its own island, things could easily get confusing. Either way, he was surprised at the loiterers that filled the many pubs and bars. While none of them were famous, it was obviously that they were just normal citizens either. With such rowdy and fouled language people that thrived their own arrogance. When one boasted about their conquest and destruction so loudly, it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that they were either bandits or pirates.

That in itself was rather surprising. Even if the criminals didn’t advertise themselves as such, they were still beside marine territory. While it could be said that the marines were a whiles way down by the harbour, it didn’t ease the fact that it was still on the same island. The sailor that had been talking about their destination during his trip here had said something the place having some of the most delicious alcohol in the world.

Usually, a logical man would have thought that to be a rather feeble reason to risk their lives for, but Kamui could relate if not in a roundabout way. As a collector of sorts himself, mainly due to his past occupation, he could understand the romanticism behind doing such a dicey thing. Thus, despite the aggravating mood from the noisy crowd, the young man made his way into the local bar- only to see the start of a fight as two men began to pummel each other with bare fights. Inwardly, he hoped Gaul didn’t get off to any trouble by himself. Most pirates were prideful and conceited; there was no telling how they would react- regardless if it was intentional or accidental.

Ignoring the brawl, Kamui took a seat at the bar table. Though, the bartender paid him no mind- instead focusing on the wreck behind as one of the men was thrown out the window.

“Stupid little shits,” the bartender mumbled under his breath as went back to his business, finally taking the order of the young man in front of him, “They know better than to do this on today of all days. The dumbass entered the tournament and gotten his ass beaten before the event started.”

Kamui raised an eyebrow at the man and threw down a pair of coins on the table. If there was anything illegal going on, this was usual sign for information. As he suspected, the bartender swiped the two hundred and slipped a piece of paper under the ordered alcohol.

“You don’t look like a fighter, so I’m going to say this once… if you don’t know what you’re dealing with here, you best be leaving as soon as possible. I don’t know how you know the sign, but you better be betting. I’ve got better things to do than watching a young man get beaten to death.”

Silently, Kamui raised his bottled drink in thanks. With the location written on the paper, it was all he needed to know.

[Renegade]

Far on the other side of town, the polar opposite of where Kamui was, Gaul was also in a bar. However, unlike Kamui, Gaul wasn't simply watching bar fights and paying for secret information. No, his business was much more sophisticated. Gaul was answering a call. One that had been tugging at him for the last hour, at least. Beneath him, a loud splash can be heard as a heavy object crashes into the water. Sighing in relief, Gaul reaches beside him and grabs some toilet paper off of the wall. After a thorough cleaning, he rises to his feet and opens the door to the stall he was in. He steps out just in time, as suddenly he hears someone loudly thrown into the side of the row of stalls and cause them all to crash. The poor man who was thrown landed, unfortunately, face first in the toilet Gaul had just risen from, his face now covered in the feces that Gaul had forgotten to flush.

Whistling casually, Gaul washes his hands quickly and exits the bathroom, returning to the bar with an innocent smile played out on his face. At one of the tables, a large man was being patted on the back and cheered for his exploits, presumably throwing the poor guy from a few moments earlier into Gaul's feces. Walking up to the large man, Gaul taps him on the shoulder a few times and says, "Hey Sasquatch, I have a bone to pick with you."

Suddenly, all around the bar, everything goes completely quiet as everyone stares at Gaul and begins to whisper things such as "He's dead," and "Idiot stranger".

The large man turns and glares downward at Gaul. "Yeah punk?" he says, flexing his hulking body menacingly in an obvious attempt to look tough.

"Watch where you're throwing people next time. If I had taken a second longer in that bathroom to finish up I would have been hit in the middle of all that. Then I would have had to come out here and beat your ass. That said, be more careful next time," Gaul says, completely oblivious to the gaping looks he was receiving from everyone around him.

Not waiting another moment, or even having the courtesy to respond, the hulking man swings a meaty hands at Gaul in an attempt to knock him flat. Using his incredible speed, Gaul ducks beneath the attack and drops to his hands. Turning in a hard spin, he knocks the large man's legs out from beneath him and completes the spin by regaining his feet and drawing his large scythe. Pointing the point of the crescent blade gently on the man's throat he smiles calmly and says, "Now, now, now, you'd best be running along with your little posse of yours before my hand accidentally slips and I make a bloody mess of this nice bar."

Rising to his feet angrily, the man storms out with mutterings of revenge, his cronies all following him. Turning his back to the door, Gaul smiles at the bartender and takes a seat at the bar. He orders a tall drink and grins when the man sets it down before him. Lifting the mug up to sip, he notices a slip of paper drop from beneath it. Opening the page up he sees a note written withing that says:

"Small house in the middle of the city, only one with a chimney. Fighting tournament tonight at 9 PM. Invite any strong friends as well. My money's on you.

Suddenly Gaul chokes on his drink as he remembers something. "Ah dammit. Kamui told me to avoid fighting. He's going to be pissed. But! At least I got something interesting to show for it!" he says, downing the rest of his mug and rising to his feet. Clenching the paper in his hand, he exits the bar and begins to make his way down the street to find his nakama.

[falken]

Kamui took a swig of out of the glass bottle as he walked down the street. The note in his hand was vague if anything. Unfortunately, there were only two words written on it. “House” and “Chimney” were apparently supposed to mean something significant. If the meaning was straightforward, then there wasn’t anything to worry about. Figuring he’d leave it for later, he pushed the piece of paper back into his pocket.

Now, the only thing he had to do was to find Gaul… wherever he had went off to. The moment they had entered the town, the scythe wielding male hurried off to somewhere. What exactly wasn’t said, but it did look rather urgent. Deciding that it must have been personal business, Kamui had decided not to question on the subject.

However, right now, he wished he had one of those vivre card things he had heard about from Belfangan. It would have made his life a lot easier right now. That being said, he could feel the emotion of impatience rise up again. He didn’t express it often, but Kamui was pretty irritable. Perhaps the twitching eyebrow served as an indicator, but then again he wouldn’t know if that was true or not.

Feeling pretty annoyed at himself having not set up a meeting place with Gaul, he practically stormed right up to the man down the street who had been talking about the asshole with the scythe messing with their boss.

“Where is he?”

“What? Mind your own business, girlie. Unless you want your hair rip-”

The sentence was left unfinished as the man who had been talking met with a face full of word and a mouthful of splinters from the building they were outside of. As the hand that held his head left, the rude man dropped to the floor unconscious. All thoughts regarding the fact that Gaul may have started a fight in a town of bickering pirates and bandits left Kamui. He narrowed his eyes at the fact that he had been made fun of due to his long hair. “So. The man with the scythe?”

The largest man of the group crushed the bottle he was holding. The attitude he gave was that of the ringleader, which Kamui assumed had been the one who had been humiliated by who he also presumed was Gaul. It goes to say that there weren’t exactly a bunch of people running round with a weapon like that.

Without notice, the bulky man moved into motion, throwing a fist towards the young male-

-which was quickly set upon the Kamui’s shoulder.

“Wha-”

“So,” the man interrupted crudely, “You’ve a bone to pick with that guy too, eh? I was going to go look for him myself to get some payback, but uh… well… not he's too strong or anything... er... Anyways, since we’re after the same things… we might as well team up right? We’ll make that scythe bastard regret he messed with us! Yes! Hahahaha!”

“What are you,” Kamui stuttered as his brain struggled to keep up with the amount of stupidity, “I don't even... what?”

"Don't worry, I've got it planned out. There's no rules against a two on one in a street fight. Hahaha!"

Hopefully Gaul wouldn't have one of his moments popping out of nowhere. It'd be horrendous day trying to live down the fact that he was even talking to these people.

[Renegade]

After exiting the bar, Gaul began walking down the street whistling casually as he went. After arriving, he told Kamui that he had to take care of some business and that he'd catch him later. Of course, in his rush to relieve his bowels he had completely forgotten to set up a meeting place with his friend. Now he had know idea where to find him, however considering the city was really all THAT massive, he was sure they'd run into each other eventually. I mean, Gaul wasn't exactly easy to miss. With his giant staff he could be spotted without any sort of trouble from a few hundred yards away.

Turning right down an alleyway, Gaul hops up onto a barrel and unfolds his slip of paper again. Staring down at it, he frowns in consternation and sighs. After a few moments, he shrugs and regains his feet, taking off towards the middle of town. He figured while he waited for Kamui to find him he might as well figure out where the house was. That way when he explained the situation to him they'd be able to get back to its location quickly and enter the fighting tournament. Gaul, himself, was eager to get in there and mess some people up. Grinning at the thought, he stepped out of the alley.

After taking a few steps, he sees the large gang of guys that was in the bar and tilts his head, as he also notices Kamui talking with the leader. Walking forward to the group, he walks toward his friend and jabs his thumb out in the direction of the large man. "Hey, uhhh, not that it's really any of my business, but why are you talking to this loser?" he asks, scratching the back of his head innocently.

[falken]

Kamui swore under his breath. It was just his luck that Gaul decided to show up at the most inopportune times. The leader, who had boorishly buddy-buddy’d up to him moments earlier, froze up at the sight of the green hair comrade. From the sound of what the man’s crew had been talking about earlier, he wasn’t all that surprised.

However, the look on Gaul’s face was what really frustrated Kamui. Being associated with weaklings was one thing; but being associated with a bunch of egotistical morons was that much worse. With a sigh, the young man replied, “This is really your fault, you know. I wouldn’t have had to converse with these people if you didn’t feel the need to pick on people like them.”

As the leader’s arm’s quickly fled from contact between them, Kamui paced over to Gaul’s side. Taking out his odd steel weapon of choice, he fanned himself for both his own pleasure and a slight indication of threat to the burly man. “As you can see,” he addressed the head honcho casually, “I’ve found my target... so you can run along now.”

Unfortunately, the large chap wasn’t satisfied with such a dismissal. “Is that so... We’ll see about that soon enough. Well then, I challenge you to a battle! The house with a chimney eight blocks down. This town has a... party of sorts over there.”

“The tourname-” was all Kamui could get out before he was interrupted once again.

“Oh. So you know. That’s good then. You may have won now... but you two will have the whole audience to witness your downfall. We’ll see who’ll have the last laugh at the end! Hahaha! Com’on guys, let’s out of here. Someone carry Larry out of here...”

Quickly, the group scurried out of the alleyway and out of sight before they could say anything else.

[Renegade]

OOC: Gah, sorry it's taken me so long to find my muse, but I suddenly find I have the drive to resume playing as Gaul. Interesting, really..

Gaul looks at Kamui with an insulted look as his friend accuses him of picking on random people. "I did nothing of the sort, I was minding my own business while in the bathroom and they threw someone in there. If I hadn't just finished up I would have been a mess. In fact, I kindly asked them to watch where they were throwing people and they attacked me. Their fault, not mine," he says, casually pointing his finger at the group of idiots.

He listens quietly as Kamui exchanges banter back and forth with the thugs, tilting his head slightly to the side at the mention of the tournament. It seemed Kamui had managed to get himself invited as well. That was interesting, considering the two of them had been on complete opposite sides of town. The two of them, he was sure, would definitely be able to blow through the competition with ease. Well, he assumed so at least, unless someone turned out to be far stronger than the imbeciles they were just talking to.

As Gaul's attention returns to the conversation, he hears the leader of the group tell them they were going down in the tournament before turning and leaving. He sighs and looks over at his partner with a resigned look on his face. "I guess we don't have much of a choice but to go to this tournament, huh? Who knows, maybe we'll run into someone who's worth our time to fight. I've been dying for a good one ever since we ran into those fruity rainbow pirates, or whatever it was they called themselves," he says, his gaze drifting upward as he ponders over what they were named.