Update:
Yo people! I've decided to post the consecutive chapters on this thread as it is more of a self contained story for now and will remain so for a while. (dw, this will tie into the main story line down the road, but for now I'm going to devote most of my importance to the new characters)
Please do give it a read and let me know what you think
Chapter 1 KouzenYaa-chan had been at the training area for the past 3 days and they had finally received an order from the higher ups. After their last successful mission in kidnapping the three targets, Kouzen was pretty cocky and had missed out on the new mission. He didn’t really know what was going to happen to the three women, but he received his payment and could keep Yaa-chan training.
Lazily putting on his clothes, Kouzen sighed and searched around the room for his wallet. He had to pay the girl after all, for what he assumed was an amazing night. Kouzen was too hung over to remember.
Smiling to himself, he pulled out a couple of hundred ryo from his pocket and was relieved he didn’t have to go through the most girly looking hotel room he had been in.
‘Here’ he handed the money over to the girl, lazily.
The girl's face flushed red with anger and slapped Kouzen.
‘What the fuck woman?!’ he shouted
‘DO I LOOK LIKE A WHORE TO YOU? GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW!’ she screamed in embarrassment and anger
‘Oh shit!’ Kouzen exclaimed as he grabbed his things and darted outside.
He hadn’t found his wallet, but it was too late now.
‘Well, it isn’t like there was much in it’ he thought to himself. ‘At least I have a couple on me... I hope I never have to see that one again'
Buttoning up his shirt, he walked over to the nearest store and grabbed a smoke.
Letting out a huge puff of smoke, Kouzen walked over to the Kimai pub a few streets over. Fixing his long and flowing hair, he was debating if Yaa-chan would have already completed their mission by himself or would’ve been assigned another partner. If he was assigned a partner, Kouzen would finally be a part of a three man squad. If it was anyone, it had better been Nagi who was Yaa-chan’s partner. He knew that the two of them would cover for him.
Listening to all the other guys talk about their stupid fucking adventures as a Genin pissed him off. His childhood of getting homeschooled was the worst time of his life. His mother had constantly bugged him with the shitty books and taught him how to meditate right instead letting him practice his Shuriken Jutsu with the kids down the street. At least he could fuck all the girls he wanted to with just the touch of his finger. But it was nothing to ponder over anymore. He was a real man now.
When he finally turned the corner and approached the pub, Kouzen knew something was off. There was no one shady looking outside the pub and things were dead silent. He approached the entrance with his guard up, and peeked through the window to take a look at the situation inside.
The entire gang was there, excepting a few of the higher level chiefs, and instead of the usual cheer and laughter, it was sadness and anger on the faces of his comrades. Kouzen scowled as he entered the pub.
Inching his way to the edge of the pub, he asked Tensen, the kenjutsu expert with the long dark hair
‘Yo, what’s happening man?’
‘Where have you been?’ Tensen asked
‘Uhh, with Yaa-chan, taking care of business as usual’ he lied as he chuckled nervously. Tensen's expression turned to one of disappointment and sadness upon hearing Kouzen's reply. He remained tight lipped after their small exchange.
Confused with the reaction he was met with, Kouzen realized once again, how silent the pub was. It was an odd silence, and one that made Kouzen wary. The pub no longer smelled like beer and fine women... No, this was a familiar smell. One that haunted Kouzen.
A few years ago, Kouzen's dog had died. The usual one night stands had gotten to their peak, and Kouzen hadn't been home in more than a week. He had deprived Shark of any exits, and had no food left for him to survive off of. When the thieves broke in, Shark was already too weak to fend them off, but was loyal enough to protect his owner's home. When Kouzen returned home the next day, he threw up at the smell.
With no one explaining what was going on, Kouzen had a bad feeling. He felt something pulling at his chest, telling him to close his eyes, and run away. He tried to get a better look from behind. There seemed to be something big on the counter. He turned to Tensen once more and asked him, a bit louder this time
‘Hey man what the fuck is happening? Why is everyone so silent?’
Immediately, ‘Is that Kouzen?’ said a voice from the counter.
‘Y..yeah, hey boss’ he replied nervously.
Akeru Kimai sighed loudly and signaled to the crowd to make way for Kouzen to witness Yaa-chan and Nagi’s corpses on the counter.
Reina
The sound of water speeding through the small creeks always seemed to delight Reina. Rubbing her eyes, she woke up to the sunlight gently caressing her brown hair.
She walked out, to start getting ready for the day; kneading the dough, cleaning the mats, polishing the counter and finally turning the sign to open the ramen distillery.
She let out a sigh, and waited for her first customer.
Somber piano on the radio, and a lazy morning didn’t seem to faze Reina’s motivation to keep making more noodles and cutting the vegetables.
Not a thing had changed in her routine. After all, Reina was nothing more than a ramen cook. Involving the Kazan police or the shinobi was not her job. After all, none of her property was damaged. She stepped out for a quick look at the things that were going on and saw that the street was all cleaned up, and it was as usual. The way people had disregarded what had happened amazed Reina. ‘What pathetic existences. No impact on the world, no one important enough to take action against the crimes’ She realized the hypocrisy in her thoughts as she was thinking them, but she did nothing about it.
But Reina was wrong. Something HAD changed. Her minuscule involvement with the men yesterday had affected Reina. As she monitored the culinary district, she saw one of the men from yesterday. He had a cigarette in his mouth, and had tucked his hands into his pockets, letting out a huge puff of smoke staring at the sky. The man was walking toward her.
‘He’s trying too hard’ was the first thought she had.
Reina hurried back inside the distillery, hoping that the man wouldn’t enter, but she had already started preparing her signature ramen.
As he walked in, the man took off his humongous fur coat and placed it on the chair, and took a seat.
‘Ah, welcome. Would you like a bowl of our finest bowl of ramen?’
Biting his glove off his hand, he replied with a nod and took his seat.
‘Reina’s ramen distillery. Quite… unique... is that your name?’
‘haha, yeah, I am Reina.’ She replied nervously as she turned around and placed the bowl in front of her customer.
‘That's a very... nice name. Very nice indeed. My name is Agami. We uh... Made eye contact yesterday. You know, with the whole fighting and the cutting. I must tell you, that was just business.’
Reina smiled politely. She saw how awkward Agami was and how bad he was at talking, but she was wondering why was here. Was he going to silence her? No, they seemed like the good guys yesterday.
‘How is the food? Is it to your liking?’ She asked him as she refilled the ramen used for Agami.
Half swallowing, Agami replied ‘oh it is amazing. You’d make a great cook, Reina of the ramen! ’
The cringe is fucking real, Reina thought.
Quickly reading the room, Agami finally broke the awkwardness with a serious tone ‘You must be wondering why I’m here. I need to know: what was your affiliation with those two men? Did you know them? Do had ties with the Kimai?’
Startled, Reina replied ‘No, I didn’t know them. I might’ve served them some of my ramen occasionally, but I do not know them personally.’
‘So you’ve made contact with them then?’ Agami stood up ‘What have you learned from them? Do you know why they are searching for Atense-san?’
A little scared, Reina replied ‘No, I… I don’t know. They were just customers… I don't remember much.’
‘Fucking hell. I need to bring you in.’ Agami grabbed his huge coat ‘Come with me. You’ll be back soon. Even if you don’t remember, we can make you’
‘What? No, I… I need to take care of the distillery. I’m sorry but I can’t go’ Reina reached for the emergency kunai under the counter to defend herself.
‘It’ll be fine, taking a break once in a while won’t close down your business’ Agami reached for Reina’s arm, but noticed the kunai in her hand. His expression turned sinister. Raising the kunai in defense, Reina prepared for a brawl. 'How am i going to get out of this?' she thought.
Backing off, Agami softly started whistling along to the tune playing on the radio. Reina heard the most beautiful sound. What was this? She had heard the tune a million times, but what was it that made his whistling so beautiful?
‘How?’
She whispered as she lost consciousness.
KiroshiKiroshi was seated next to three girls at his brother’s side. The Bar was bustling with sounds of laughter and drinking. Kiroshi was not a fan of all the noise, but had to be accompanying his brother.
Girls on both sides, a table full of beer and music from a corner. What more could a guy ask for?
‘A lot more’ he thought.
‘He sure is taking his own sweet time. You think he’s out there trying to put the moves on that chick?’ Kinsho yelled.
‘I can hear you fine when you’re not yelling.' Kiroshi replied, annoyed. 'He probably is. I don’t reckon he’s going to have an experience better than last time, I should probably go check on him.’
'Yeah, save his ass from that tiny chick'
Kiroshi finally had an excuse to escape these girls and the noise.
As he walked out, Kiroshi notice that the sun was shining especially bright today. He pulled his sunglasses over his eyes,and adjusted his dark wavy hair. The culinary district was quite a walk and Krioshi was too lazy to go and check up on Agami. He jumped up over to the roof of the building opposite to the bar to enjoy the nice weather. After admiring the warm surroundings, Kiroshi looked down upon the people walking around going on with their daily routines.
Kiroshi’s attention was caught by Agami walking to the bar with the girl from yesterday. ‘Wow. Looks like he scored.’ He thought to himself. But Kiroshi noticed something amiss. The girl was walking too mechanically. The sly bastard had used his Genjutsu to bring the girl. This meant she wasn’t willing to show up.
They had received information about a rumor flying around that Shirobi Atense was in the culinary district. It was mere coincidence that they were there on time to stop the Kimai thugs. The only reason Agami wanted to return to that place was to take care of any collateral damage. Why had he brought the girl here?
She has to know something. Agami was probably too much of a pussy to get the memories. Kiroshi smiled in delight. He was going to have to take the girl to Gebai.
It had been a long time since they had met. Kiroshi had the fondest memories of Gebai. The man was a marvel. His work was art itself.
Kiroshi wasn't fond of extraction, but the way Gebai works his magic intrigued him.
'Finally... It has been too long' he thought out loud.
Kouzen
Kouzen felt a devastation he had never felt before. Yaa-chan was dead and his death wasn’t a quick one. It was painful and ugly. This wasn’t the aftermath of a fight, it was of a murder. A cold blooded murder. It was clear Yaa-chan was no match to his opponents. This scared Kouzen. He had personally never beaten Yaa-chan even once, revenge was not an option. Not a revenge that’d let him treat the murder the same anyway. What was he to do? He couldn’t possibly tell Yaa-chan’s parents he was out with a girl when their precious son was getting stabbed in the eye.
Kouzen noticed something when he saw into Yaa-chan’s life less eyes. His left eye was burned with a cigarette, this was a sight he had grown accustomed to. Kouzen felt devastated no longer. His anger had engulfed him.
‘Agami’ he thought out loud.
‘Where did you send them?’ He said to no one specific.
‘The culinary district. We don’t know how they knew we were going to be there, but…’
Kouzen didn’t need to hear any more. He knew all the answers and had confirmed his suspicions. Kouzen was on his feet.
‘Those who want to, can join me’ he announced as he left, picking up a kunai from the table.
‘There will be collateral damage’ he whispered with a dangerous look on his face.
--The End--
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Topic: The Agni Saga- Part II Chapter 1 (Read 14111 times)
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