Ballad of a Brawler

Rika had never seen someone more passionate about getting to know someone than Akashi. Her way of getting to know Sarah usually bordered on stalker. But...what if Akashi was wrong about Sarah? What if there was no hope? The tension of that thought was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Of course the tension was broken when Tyler suddenly spit out the beer he was drinking. He did so at the mention of something Akashi had said. "Daughter?" he repeated. Suddenly he broke into a loud laugh. finding the whole ideahilarious apparently. "Yo think Sarah's my daughter?" He laughed again, but this time he actually fell out of his seat, and now he pounded his fist on the floor, trying to find room to breath during all the laughter. "Oh yeah, there's a real family resemblance going on there, isn't there?"

"You raised her didn't you?" She said standing up. "Family is family. What matters is the bond you have, the experiences you make together. Appearances have nothing to do with it. My father died when I was pretty early and my eldest brother took it upon himself to raise me as if I were his child. I love my father but my brother was more of one to me than my father was able to be. Don't you see?" She said. She stormed to fridge and grabbed another beer and opened it and downed half of it in mere seconds.

She shook the bottle at Tyler "if it's a problem, take it out of the cost of that chicken. That's that many fewer laughs I have to get out of the thing!" She said and plopped back down on the couch, her face reddening even more. "Shit..." She said and looked at Rika. "Rika-chan..." She said. "I... I think I'm already starting to feel this alcohol." She said with a laugh. "But no!" She wrinkled her brow. "This is a serious matter! Rika!" She said. "Tell me right now... please... please tell me..." She looked into Rika's eyes with both hope and worry. "Am I wasting my time on Sarah? Will she just always be this way until she finally gets into a fight that puts her away froever?" She sighed. "Well... at least tell me... at least tell me you're different. I gues s I can handle chasing after one windmill.. but two of them... I'm not so sure about that."

"Tyler, shut up!" Rika scolded. She looked in in wonder as Akashi kept drinking with ease. "Uh, Akashi? Maybe you should slow down a bit...." The sumo didn't seem to be listening to her. The alchohol was bringing out more of Akashi's pent up feelings about the situation. Akashi, I;m your friend," Rika confirmed immediately with no hesitation. "You'll never have to worry about that. But as for Sarah...." She frowned slightly. "I can't say. I can only hope. Cause if we were all friends, this would be so much easier."

"My daughter," Tyler kept laughing, barely even hearing Akashi's speech about her own family. Nor did he notice her stealing another one of his drinks. "Thank God she isn't! If my genes were in that kid, I'd be tearing my hair out. Well, if I had any to start with." Regaining his composure he got back to his feet with a content sigh. "Well, I'm glad you had a happy family lifestyle, Akashi. It wasn't quite the same for Sarah." He took to his seat again and grinned. "Aren't you wondering how she ended ended up being raised by a handsome gentleman like me?"

Akashi smiled widely when Rika quickly admitted that they were friends. She leaned against the girl and wrapped an arm Aaround Rika. "Rika-chan..." She said leaning her head against Rika's shoulde.r It means so much to me to hear you say that." She nuzzled Rika's shoulder affectionately. "Rika-chan..." She began again. "Don't worry either. If it comes down to it... I won't ever make you choose between myself and Sarah-san. I .. would never want to do something like that to you. I just hope we can work things out so it never comes to that."


Akshi then sat up. "You should be tearing your hair out now!" She said. "At least..." she sighed. "If you are any kind of father figure, you should be." She said solemnly. She then looked up at Tyler's next words. "I just assumed she had a rough life. It's not an excuse for bad behavior though! Lots of people grow up in harsh conditions and under unlucky circumstances. Someof them flounder and some of them pull themselves up. It's a way of life. We're not all dealt the same deck, but it's how we play our cards that matter." She then tipped back her ber and finished it off. "But... I still would liek to know all I can about Sarah-san."

"Oh for the love of God," Tyler groaned as he watched the two girl's hug it out. "If you two get any sweeter you're going to give me diabetes." Rika glared at Tyler out of the corner of her eye, holding Akashi tightly to her. She couldn't bare chosing between her and Sarah. She just couldn't be sure who would win out.

Tyler finally finished the last of his drink, since most of it had been spit out when he started laughing. "Sorry, not gonna tell you that," Tyler replied to Akashi's request. "Oh, did you think I was gonna tell you? Sorry to lead you on like that. I'm told I do that sometimes. If you wanna know that, you should ask Sarah yourself."

"But we don't know where she is!" Rika said drearily. "Ae you sure you don't know anything, Tyler?"

"Not a thing," the man answered without hesitation. "Sorry girls. You're barking up the wrong tree."

Akashi furrowed her brow at Tyler's words. She put her hand on Rika's leg and moved it back and forth idly as she watched Tyler. "What are you saying? You telling me that I can't show affection to my friend!" She said with a grin. Her eyelids drooped partially and her cheeks were very blush now.

"I will ask her!" She said in a determined voice. "And I will find her." She suddenly stood up. "All this time... we could have been looking for Sarah instead of wasting it with you. Do you even care that she's gone, that she might be in a bad state of mind or worse?" She turned away. "I'm not really interested in hearing that answer either. She went to the door and turned. "Thank you for the beer and the hospitality, Tyler-san. It was nice to meet you." She looked at Rika. "I don't see a reason to stay here anymore. Please help me find Sarah-san."

Tyler fished another cigarette out of his pocket and lit it up as Akashi repremanded him. "Yeah, I'm a bad, bad boy," he muttered, waving Akashi off with a wave of his hand. "Here I am taking time out of my busy schedule to share a bit of my knowledge with you. Not to mention you taking my drinks, without asking I might add." As Akashi made to leave Rika hastily stood up with her to go to the door. "Oi! Wait!" tyler would call, and he would throw Akashi back her rubber chicken she had bought from him, smiling wryly. "Stop by again sometime!"

Akashi narrowed her eyes. "If that's what you call sharing information..." She said with a sigh. She caught the rubber chicken. "Busy schedule... heh. Before you met us i bet you would have sold zich today. but you just wait, I'll make sure I'll get my monies worth, besides, I paid for one of them and the other was a gift." SHe then wrapped her arm around Rika and guided her out of the door. "Bye bye!" She said with a wave and closed the door. "Rika-chan..." She said. "I don't undferstand that guy either."

She made her way down ther stairs. "But i think i know more about Sarah-san than i did before." She clenched her free fist. It's not good enough though!" She said with renewed determination. "You know her... what kind of places does she hang out?" She then furrowed her brow. "Or maybe we could go to her place and see if she's there. She would still have to go home, right?"

Tyler waved the rwo goodbye with a pleasent smile as they left his appartment. Rika shrugged as they left. "Tyler isn't really a gut you can understand in one day.....or a few days...or ever." She smiled slightly. One thing was for sure there was always fun when she and Sarah were with Tyler. That thought alone made her very sad.

When they reached the ground floor and left the building to take to the street again, Rika suddenly bowed her head. While Akashi wanted to continue, she had no idea where to go now. She was out of leads. Sarah didn't go around making friends, she made enemies. "Akashi," she whispered. "I don't know where to go next. I'm out of ideas. Maybe....maybe we should just call it a day. I don't know what else to do now."

Akashi was surprised when Rika said they should just give up. She lowered her head and clenched her fists. "I won't..." She said firmly. "I am not ready to give up." She said. She then sighed and looked at Rika. "I ... still have an idea." She said. "But I definitely need your help." She smiled. "But first!" She said with a wide smile on her face. "Let's go shopping!"

She grabbed Rika's hand and ran out into the stteet. "I think that I have just enough left for... Ooooh!" She said and raised her hand to try and catch a taxi. "We need to stop at my house first! I hope that's ok!" She said and waved for Rika to hop in.