[ Contents | 3. What Life Has to Offer | 4. Trouble on the Waterfront | 5. Captives! ]

Yamucha's Student

By Dragoness Eclectic

 

Chapter 4. Trouble on the Waterfront

After Lina and Nezumi left the bar, Yamucha stared pensively into his beer. Why had Lina taken the afternoon shift at work? She had to have known it would cut their date short. Maybe she wanted to cut it short! Damn. He was starting to lose her already.

Puar sighed in exasperation; she recognized the signs. Every time Yamucha met a nice girl, he couldn't believe his good luck--or rather, he couldn't believe that any woman really cared about him as more than a friend. It was never long before he started looking around for signs that she was ready to leave him--and if he looked hard enough, he inevitably found them.

If Puar had been capable of hating anyone, she might have hated Bulma for tearing Yamucha's heart out and taking all his self-confidence with it... except that it wasn't really Bulma's fault. Puar had tried to warn Yamucha for months after his resurrection that Bulma had changed since her trip to Namek, and he couldn't keep treating her the same old way. He'd finally understood, but it was too late by then; far too late.

"Yamucha-sensei," Saisei spoke abruptly, startling Puar out of her gloomy thoughts, "I need your advice." His face had changed abruptly, his smile vanishing into a thin, grim line.

Yamucha just raised an eyebrow quizzically and nodded.

"Sensei, I have seen one of my enemies here, in the city. I think I can find him again if we act tonight--but that will start something that I can not turn back from."

"Think there'll be trouble? Lots of trouble?" Yamucha asked, oddly hopeful.

Saisei nodded. "Oh, yes. I am sure of it."

A wicked grin slowly crossed Yamucha's face. "Then what are we waiting for?" he asked as he got to his feet. "Let's go!"

*      *      *      *

Hours later, Saisei was having second thoughts about his plan. Their quarry still hadn't shown up at the waterfront dive down the street from Saisei's apartment, and the bartender was giving them steadily sharper looks as time wore on. Periodically, Yamucha appeased the bartender by signalling for another beer; Saisei was beginning to wonder if the two of them would still be capable of handling the enemy when he showed up.

One of the two professional women still in the bar smirked scornfully at him and Yamucha, as if to say, "I know what you are." Saisei stared back at her quizzically; he couldn't begin to grasp what she thought she knew.

The other one, a thin blonde woman dressed in high-heeled sandals, a mini-skirt and a blouse cut too low for her to safely bend over, sauntered toward them and scratched Puar under the chin, cooing "What a cute little kitty!"

Puar tried her best to ignore the woman, only to be scratched behind the ears and petted; the blonde woman seemed to enjoy the feel of Puar's fur beneath her fingers, and Puar didn't really dislike being petted. "I like cats," she finally said, confessing the obvious to Yamucha.

Yamucha acknowledged her with a nervous smile, color touching his scarred cheeks, but did not move; she pouted, and looked at Saisei hopefully. He shook his head; he wasn't interested. Even if he had been, one of his enemies was out there, and he didn't need to be distracted now. The girl pouted again and made her way back to the bar, looking for other customers.

Trouble in the shape of a hard-eyed blonde wearing a black trenchcoat walked in the door. She was accompanied by three scruffy-looking men; the lead was a big blocky man, bald with a scar across his right eye--

--He was the one, his enemy from last night! Saisei hadn't truly recognized him as an enemy until he saw the man's face in his nightmares, nightmares of blood and pain as the mercenary machine-gunned his parents, then turned his gun on the terrified boy....

White-hot hate flashed through him and burned away the muzziness from too much beer, leaving Saisei coldly alert. Part of him cringed--this was not Right Thought!--but something else deep in his soul snarled with satisfaction and anticipation. The men dressed like sailors, but the way they moved--mercenaries! He glanced at his sensei--

Yamucha sat up, staring open-mouthed at the blonde. "Lunch! What are you doing here?" Puar, startled by the sudden move, fell backwards off of Yamucha's shoulder onto the floor.

The blonde's head snapped around, and she stared hard at Yamucha with peridot-green eyes. "Yamucha??" She laughed coldly. "I guess the reports of your death were greatly exaggerated! What happened to your hair? Did you run head on into a buzz saw or what?"

"I cut it," he said, puzzled, then his eyes narrowed as he took in her companions. "Who are your friends, Lunch?"

Puar peeked cautiously over the edge of the table, and didn't like what she saw. "Eeep!" she squeaked quietly, and hid under the table again.

The bald, scar-faced man with Lunch whispered to the blonde; she nodded in return and looked back at Yamucha. "They're business associates." She swaggered over to the table Yamucha and Saisei shared. "Who's the pretty-boy, Yamucha? I didn't know you were interested in that type."

The three with Lunch and the scornful prostitute at the bar laughed coarsely as Saisei reddened. Yamucha stared angrily at her, and then frowned. "If I didn't know you better, I'd think you were trying to start a fight, Lunch--but I know you know better than that."

He got to his feet, poised. Several other tough characters drifted over from the bar, and suddenly the small table was very crowded.

"I suppose I do, but.. boys will be boys. They just have to have their fun--right, Haze?" She stepped back as the bald guy stepped forward, grinning a gap-toothed smile; brass knuckles gleamed on his right fist as he smacked it lightly against his left hand.

"Your 'business associate' is going to look stupid without the rest of his teeth, Lunch," Yamucha said cooly.

"Yeah, right." Haze scowled, then his eyes lit in recognition; he laughed nastily. "I'm going to enjoy this; I lost 500 zenni on the game because of you! Let's see how tough you really are, ballplayer!"

Yamucha tossed back the rest of his beer and smiled cockily. "Nah, I don't think so. You aren't worth working up a sweat."

Under the table, Puar wiped her face with one fat paw. "Whew!"

"I'd let my cat do it..." Yamucha added, smirking as Haze's face darkened with anger.

"Eeep!" Puar squeaked and tried to spread herself flat against the underside of the table.

"...but my friend here wants a bigger piece of you than my cat does." Yamucha grinned insolently.

Lunch leaned against the bar, looking mildly amused. Haze and his thugs had Yamucha and Saisei's full attention as they maneuvered around the two of them; neither of them noticed Lunch signal the bartender, nor heard what she whispered to him.

Haze scowled angrily, and then smirked nastily. "Betcha work up a sweat with yer girlfriend there, ballplayer!" Haze leered and made an obscene gesture.

Saisei stood, crouched in fighting stance, his face hard.

"The little girl is upset. Well, come and do something about it!" Haze taunted.

"I shall... murderer!" Saisei growled--and then there was nothing but a blur, followed by thuds, screams and groans as men crashed to the floor, slammed into walls or flipped over the bar and then crashed to the floor. Haze himself writhed on the floor, holding his broken right arm and pulped hand, screaming as Saisei hammered him repeatedly.

"Oh, no!" Puar exclaimed from her hiding place under the table, but the small sound was lost in the general mayhem.

"Saisei! That's enough! He's down, he can't fight you anymore!" Yamucha shouted, appalled.

Saisei's hand, poised to shatter Haze's left kneecap, halted in mid-air. Saisei turned his head, looking at Yamucha. There was something inhuman and empty in his eyes.

"Why?" he asked in a disturbingly calm voice.

Yamucha started to answer-

"Damn it, Yamucha! Why don't you fight!" Lunch screamed as she pulled two Uzis out from under her coat. Patrons dove for cover as as bullets sprayed everywhere. Lunch snarled and forced the bucking muzzles down, hosing a stream of lead straight at Yamucha--

Click! Click! Both guns were empty, and Yamucha stood there smirking, one closed hand held in front of him. Lunch gaped at him as he grinned, and opened his hand; a pile of bullets dropped to the floor. Beyond him, Saisei stared, his victim momentarily forgotten.

"Ooooh! I hate you!" Lunch threw the empty guns at Yamucha and pulled two automatics from hip holsters.

"My turn," Yamucha said, and brought his other hand from behind his back. It opened, and a small cloud of black powder hit Lunch in the face.

"AH-AHH-CHOO!" She sneezed violently as the pepper got in her nose, hair instantly turning dark, long and soft.

"What--what? Ah-ahh-choo!" Blonde Lunch was back, screaming. "YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU FOR TURNING ME INTO THAT WIMP! AH-AHH-CHOO!"

Brunette Lunch looked around at the tough waterfront dive and the unconscious battered men. "Yamucha?" she said, big brown eyes wide and lip trembling. "What am I doing here? Ah-ahh---mmph!"

Her sneeze was abruptly cut off as Yamucha clamped a hand over her nose. "Let's get that little allergy of yours under control, okay? Take a nice slow breath and have a drink."

Saisei just stared in amazement. "Who is she, Yamucha-san? Is she...?"

"--an old girlfriend? No, we're just acquaintances. She was Tenshinhan's girl for a long time, though. I guess you noticed, she, uh, changes whenever she sneezes."

"Did I do that again?" Brunette Lunch giggled, and slowly sipped the beer Yamucha handed her. Again, Yamucha's attention was elsewhere, and he did not notice the sudden poker face on the usually expressive bartender as he served up two more beers for Yamucha and Saisei.

Puar finally started to creep out from under the table...

"Yamucha-san, I am sorry, but I am not.. so good at.. drinking.. ash you'er.." Saisei slumped forward on the bar.

"'S okay.. that lash roun's.. really.. stron--" Yamucha didn't finish the sentence before falling off the bar stool, out cold.

"Yamucha?" Brunette Lunch leaned over. "Was it something I said?" A remaining speck of pepper drifted into her nose. "AHH-CHOO!"

Blonde Lunch grabbed the nearest napkin and blew her nose. "That's better! Where are my antihistamines?" She searched through her purse and pulled out a pillbox, from which she took out an small blue pill and quickly swallowed it. Only then did she look triumphantly down at Yamucha and Saisei. "Jerome will LOVE these two!" She laughed wickedly and walked over to the still-moaning Haze.

"Get up, you crybaby!" She kicked him in his broken arm. "Get the rest of these losers moving, and take those two to the ship--alive!" Lunch stalked out the door, leaving the battered thugs to their own devices.

"Bitch!" Haze muttered, cradling his broken arm. "Oh yeah, I'll get those two to the ship alive, but they aren't going to enjoy the rest of their very short lives!"

"Oh, dear!" Puar whispered to herself. "Yamucha's in big trouble again!"

*      *      *      *

CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 5. Captives!


[ Contents | 3. What Life Has to Offer | 4. Trouble on the Waterfront | 5. Captives! ]

Disclaimer: See Credits.

Copyright 2001 by Dragoness Eclectic