After Quinn headed out, I headed towards the dark and foreboding basement, where the liquid treasure was being formed. After I headed down to check the pressure of the minicontainer, the chill air of the room suddenly dropped a few degrees (Celsius). A presence that screamed death was at my back. I was too afraid to turn around right now. I decided that for my own safety, I would close my eyes and go up the basement, and not look.
That plan was shattered when a pair of hands gently wrapped themselves around my chest, and body was pressed unto my back. A feeling of comfort enveloped me, and I knew either it was my mother or Hiyuki who could make me feel this way. While my body relaxed, my mind was going at 500 miles per hour. In a dark room with a beautiful girl as your only company? Sounds like something that was straight out of a doujin. If it wasn’t so dark I would probably be seeing black spots right now. After what seemed like an eternity in that sweet embrace, the two hands that were wrapped around my chest spun me around.
What little vision I had was filled by Hiyuki’s face. Her blue bangs that hid her amber eyes, the light amount of gloss that gave her lips a sheen to them, a small cut across the side of her cheek, the affectionate gaze that held a tinge of madness in them. All of this made the beautiful portrait that covered my sight.
“W-what are you doing here Hiyuki-c-chan?”
A demure smile crossed her lips. Her hands clasped my face, and gently caressed it. Her hands were soft, even though we were in such a world where gunfights were common. Then, she let go of me and backed up, and shyly glanced to the side, while holding one arm behind her back. Then she closed her eyes, and walked up to me, and guided my hand to her beating chest. Somehow, I knew what this meant. Her eyes, her demeanor, her actions. All of this lead me to the one think that I knew she was saying.
You are the only one who I need no words for. And that means everything to me.
I was at a loss of words. This was the first time I was ever confessed to. Ever. My mind, while going 500 mph, was going 500 in a circle. I knew I needed to say something, to not let her confession go in vain, but everything that tried to come out of my mouth died in my throat. I was gaping like a fish, and I felt like the largest asshole in the world. Then, my brain decided it was enough and turned on the only self defense mechanism it knew.
I fainted.
When I woke up, I was on my bed upstairs. A white cloak was gently draped over me, and Hiyuki sat patiently on the corner of the bed. Funny. I felt light headed. I saw blood stained all down my shirt. Hiyuki noticed me awaken, and made over to me, checking over my head injuries that I had probably acquired when I passed out.
“...”
“It’s ok. It’s my fault, not yours. I tend to pass out often, please don't think too much of it.”
“...~”
“You want to do what?”
“......”
Abruptly Hiyuki stood up, and reached behind her back, to grab a gun that was holstered. She handed me the weapon, which turned out to be a futuristic looking gun, even for this world. It had an oscillating core, with a white exterior, that glowed slightly blue. It looked dangerous, yet beautiful.
“Hiyuki… this… I cannot accept.. such a gift…”
“Ah. Am I interrupting something, Hi~yu~ki?”
“...!”
Hiyuki’s smile became strained. Then, she closed her eyes and composed herself. Her smile became sickenly sweet as she turned around to face Quinn.
“...”
“Takeda, do you still have my gun?”
“Ah! Yes I do!”
The air dropped at least 10 degrees Celsius. Hiyuki’s eyes seemed to change from the warm amber, to a toxic green. She turned slowly towards me, and mouthed, “weapon?”
“Quinn gave me her gun to help protect me! I think you are misunderstanding!”
Quinn’s eyes took a mischievous glint. “You misunderstood nothing, Hikki-chan.”
Okay. Situation was reaching the critical point. Hiyuki was growing unstable. We were reaching DEFCON 5. Damage control was useless. The Hiyuki bomb was about to explode, and there was only taking cover now.
Hiyuki snarled and grabbed the two large sticks that weren’t there a minute ago. She snapped them and they quickly extended to reveal two tonfas, that sparked with electricity. She gave me a gentle look, before turning to Quinn.
Quinn gave Hiyuki an easy grin, before jumping downstairs, but not before a final taunt.
“Come get me, Hikki-hime” Quinn sang.
Hiyuki flew down the stairs, following Quinn with the intent to kill. Oh shit. There was going to be a fight, and it was in the middle of my not even complete bar. If it escalated to gunfire, we would be right where we started. Gathering my nerves, I went awkwardly down stairs, cowering every other step. They were in the middle of what was supposed to be the seating area of the bar, staring each other down. Quinn had drawn a small, white blade similar to the one Hiyuki gave me in a reverse grip. Hiyuki still had her tonfas out, with a cheerful expression that did little to hide the maliciousness behind it. Quinn had threw off her cloak, and dropped all of her firearms on one side. Hiyuki did the same, shrugging off her utility belt and suspenders. Each of them was just in their baggy jumpsuit, circling each other.
For several, tense seconds this continued, neither willing to make the first move. After reaching circling each other for what seemed to be the third time, Hiyuki seemed to have enough of this. She slowly walked up to Quinn, tonfas in a guarded position guarding her chest and torso. Quinn, mirroring this movement, drew a long dagger, which was held in her left hand in the hammer grip. She crossed the two weapons and strode towards Hiyuki. Once they were in 2 meters of each other, they both exploded in a burst of movement.
Quinn went for a quick swipe towards Hiyuki’s head, attempting to end this as quick as possible. Hiyuki simply dashed back, and went for a counterattack, switching the grip of the tonfas so that they would give her reach, and lashing out for Quinn’s legs. Quinn quickly noticed and responded by sidestepping left, and swiping down on the Hiyuki’s exposed back. Hiyuki responded by dashing right, just out of reach of her blade. This dance continued on for a while, as neither of them was willing to make a risky move that would cost them the fight.
I was in awe of their movements. Each step was flawless, there were no extra or unnecessary movements, the weapons struck like coiled vipers, hitting at nothing but air because each was too swift, and knew the other’s movement like they had fought a thousand times. These were warriors, both of them equally matched, locked in a stalemate that neither could break.
Then, Quinn drew first blood. She feigned a sword swipe, and when Hiyuki made to block it, Quinn followed through with a kick to Hiyuki’s shins, sweeping her off of her feet. She followed through with a swift knee to the gut, and then slammed her unto the floor before backing off.
Hiyuki got up slowly and threw down her tonfas. She replaced the two weapons with a pair of claws, and got into a ready stance. I noticed that she was breathing heavily, in short erratic breaths which gave her a mad look in her eye.
Hiyuki charged at Quinn recklessly, diving for the head in a much faster pace than before. What was once an elegant dance between the two began to become a savage cacophony. Desperate swipes that Quinn was having trouble keeping up with forced her on the defensive, and a few stray hits ensured that Quinn took multiple lacerations to her various parts of her body.
Hiyuki and Quinn were suffering from their injuries, and Hiyuki was too angry to care, while Quinn looked like she was used to this kind of pain, as if she had suffered much worse and kept on fighting. I needed to intervene before the situation became out of hand, lest the bar floor take any more damage than it already did. There were multiple scratches everywhere on the floor, deep ones that would take some cement to replace.
I needed to stop this soon. But how? I wasn’t going to risk my life to dive in there and stop them, would I? There had to be a better way. Shooting the gun? Out of question. It would only cause a even louder disturbance. Banging pots and pans? I had none. Which meant that the first option was the only one possible.
Okay, you can do this. All you have to do is run in between them, and tell them to stop. They wouldn’t kill me right? I steeled myself, got my blood pumping, and prepared to run into the fray. I closed my eyes and sprinted as fast as I could. This was easy, right? All I simply had to do was sprint in the middle of them and they would stop, right? So I dove in, yelling, “STOP!” at the top of my lungs. They both stopped to stare in wonder at the true alpha that came through putting himself in danger to protect his territory. They both dropped their weapons as soon as they saw the fight was only damaging the bar.
At least, that’s what was supposed to happen. Turns out, I lost a little too much blood and I tripped and knocked myself out before I even got anywhere near the pair of combatants. At least it would stop their fight.
I hope.
It didn’t.
When I woke up, Quinn and Hiyuki were covered in cuts and bruises, laying on opposite sides of the wall. Hiyuki was glaring daggers at Quinn, who took it in stride with a half smirk, leaning against the wall with her hands crossed under her chest.
“Are you still angry, HIKKI-chan?”
“.............”
“Don’t be like that, Hikki-chan. You had fun. You're just a sore loser.”
“.......”
Quinn continued their one sided banter, with Hiyuki most definitely sulking after what I assumed to be her loss. They had both applied some kind of green paste on their injuries, which hissed violently before it accelerated the body’s natural healing properties. Bruises lightened and soon faded away, while cuts began to scab and stitch themselves together in a matter of minutes. They both still seemed to be in pain, but the injuries had faded.
I slowly got up from my self-induced nap, still feeling very nauseous from the loss of blood. I staggered towards the back of the kitchen, where the ale was probably still fermenting. Fuck it. I needed a drink right now. I slid down the ladder and reached my miniature station, in a dark corner. I needed whatever liquid was inside it. RIGHT. NOW. I pried open the small lid with strength I didn’t know I even had in me, and took a huge gulp of the mysterious concoction that was inside of the container.
I chugged it down with reckless abandon. To my surprise, It tasted like actual ale, just very flat and a little too sweet for my liking. This wouldn’t be enough to get me drunk, or even slightly tipsy, but it would take the edge off.
Now that I could think clearer, (with alcohol I think clearer than without) I could analyze the flavor in the beer. The shukusolis were amazing at providing a rich malty taste, but made it very sweet in return. It did not have the bitter finish that most ales should, and the orange shukusolis fermented well too, but did not provide the same flavor as orange peels. It needed hops. I would have to compensate the shukusolis to put more water, and then I would have to add a lot more hops, to give it the bitter finish that the ale desperately needed. I ignored the fact that it tasted flatter than some of the lolis a certain friend of mine’s lewded, because it couldn't be helped. I drank it much too early for any kind of carbonation could have naturally formed.
I really hope the boilers for the alcohol pull through soon. I need to start making it so I can have it on opening day. I still needed to spice this place up with decor, and also make sure that I had time to make games that would be good for exploiting money, while people were drunk. Music was another must have, but I didn’t know what passed for music, so I would just run what I had on my phone, which was mostly swing music and some random other additions from many other categories.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
It was getting late. Soon the metal work would come in, and after I laid that in I could actually begin work on this lackluster concrete. I would have to have a floor that was soft enough to fall on, but not actually soft so that alcohol spilling would make it stain and smell. Normally a tough wood would do the trick, but here I had to settle for some other material. The atmosphere had to feel wild, so no soft lighting, but none of that ultra bright lighting too. I would light it with neon, and have dark areas in the bar itself. To promote non-violence, I could give a free drink to anybody who put their weapons on a rack, so that gunfights would happen less often than not. If I did it right, a bar would be open to shady business, so I had to make sure there were some enclosed areas where it was easy to hide conversations, so maybe a few unnecessary columns? There would be absolutely no windows anywhere, because the easier it was to lose track of time, the easier it was to buy more drinks. If fighting got commonplace, I could try and set out an area for people to duke it out, in hand to hand, and that would bring in crowds too. Settle your score and satisfy a crowd.
But first, the durable furniture and alcohol making materials had to come in. Thus, we wait.
Wait. I needed more shukusolis to make the ale. Shit. I would have to delay the alcohol by a day if I wanted to make it tomorrow. I hate myself. This was another day that I would have to go without the sweet sweet release of alcohol, and this bad sample only made me want it more. What could the first true brew in this world taste like? How would it taste to people who hadn’t had any alcohol in their lives, ever? With time, how many concoctions could I bring over to this world, and how many could I create? How much brewing space would I need to make so many different brews and blend? Could I try and replicate absinthe? Would I taste whiskey of my own making sometime? Could I find my happiness in a dinky bar in a different world and the company around me?
Only time would tell.
“Damn. That’s a way to close out a chapter. I would give it a 8/10 author.”
Ahem…
“Oh shit. We’re still rolling.”
Why did I create a retard?
“Because you are one?”
Oi.
~Exeunt~
……
Just fucking with you. This arc isn’t over until Neko-chan eats it.
Actually, she’s taking bites of the script. We should hurry before there’s nothing left.
A week had passed since the fight between the Quinn and Hiyuki had had their little quarrel, and the bar was progressing slower than expected. The ale was slowly fermenting at an agonizingly slow pace. It was now being chilled in the cold box, where it was carbonating naturally. Most of the bar was complete, and now I was working on the final touches, which meant a lot more work needed to be done. I needed to create a billiards table, and also a weapons rack. It looked like many people had automatic weapons that would be illegal literally anywhere in my home world. I would have to hang it in the back corner, so that people couldn’t steal it from the racks from outside. For the floors I spent a pretty penny(Leurat?) on special plasteel floors that were durable, yet would dampen rough impacts on the floor. Quinn had acquired a sound system from somewhere, refusing to tell me where or who she… Bought? Stole...? Obtained it from.
Hiyuki had made a point to come every single day, and help out with anything I needed help with. Sometimes she would get a call before she smiled at me, and left to take care of ‘business.’ Then, she would come back and sit on the stools at the bar counter and watch me work. While she had made her intentions clear, she seemed content and was taking it slowly. Hiyuki would grudgingly respect Quinn, but made a point to ignore most of her relentless teasing.
Quinn seemed to enjoy Hiyuki’s company, trying to antagonize her, while she stayed respectful, but not distant to me. I learned little about her, but she slowly gleaned information about me, including where I came from, what I did(she didn't know what a company worker was), and information about alcohol.
She still didn’t understand the beauty of alcohol. Her opinion of alcohol was, “Why borrow happiness from tomorrow to use today?”
Bitch.
Still, progress would not have been so great without Quinn’s mysterious, definitely-not-freaky strength that allowed her to lift things that even professional weightlifters in my world would struggle with, and she kept a lean figure. So, naturally I was transfixed by that fact. What kind of drugs did these people take? Shounen anime augments? Stands? Mysterious isekai power boosts? Was this a land of magic? Sacred Gears? I swore that I would find out how those arms lifted the things they shouldn’t be able to.
But first…
I needed find out where I could find some felt-like material, so that I could make a billiards table. I also needed plastic to make balls. The dimension of a pool table were 2.84 x 1.42 meters in each direction. I asked Hiyuki to help me find the materials, but before I finished explaining she was gone.
The quiet days were very nice, but it felt like the calm before some kind of storm.
The bar was slowly coming to be. More importantly, the alcohol was only a week from being ready. But alas, the demon known as Quinn had forbidden me from drinking any of the sacred nectar until the opening day. I suppose love was bittersweet. I had to content myself with watching the ale in steel barrels carbonate in the cold box.
I hoped that 240 liters of ale would be enough for the first week, because I was making weekly batches, which would be done every what passed for Wednesday. I would increase the batch size accounting for the amount of people and demand. I had spent about half of the money that we got from the one picture, so Quinn was very serious when she said that if we don’t sell well, she was going teach me how to become a bounty hunter with her.
Frankly I didn’t want to give up this bar. This was the chance that I would never have again. To give this up would be saying goodbye to my hopes and aspirations, forever. And also, I would die immediately if I ever had to hunt bounties on people’s heads.
Nevertheless, the bar was going well, especially since the fact that we didn’t have to pay a protection fee because we in some kind of “neutral zone” between two rival gangs. One of them wore red, and the other wore purple. Hiyuki was feared by both gangs, and was allowed to walk freely around their territory. When I asked her what she did to earn that kind of respect, she only smiled mischievously and proceeded to change the subject.
I was kind of scared of her, and in turn scared of the person stronger than her.
Work in the bar was always different. Most of the time it was just cleaning and preparation, while I attempted to talk to people who wandered in, curious. They weren’t sure what a Ka-n-ti-na was, so they would wander in, to see what was going on. I would try to explain the concept of alcohol, but I always would be met with confused glances, and puzzled stares. Then they would politely take their leave, promising to visit when it was open, but I knew that they wouldn’t come back for the most part.
I found that I could make felt out of the shariete’s pelts, by taking what little fur they have, and rubbing it into tufts, and then putting it into hot water. After the felt had soaked for a while, I took it in my hands and rolled it until it became firm in my grasp. This made about 10 centimeters of felt.
This was going to be a while.
After around 8 hours of tedious rubbing, I had completed enough to cover the entire area of the pool table. Now I had to find a method of dying it green, and stretching it over the entire board so that it was a tight and snug fit. I had gotten Barnholdst to create a pool table with the tunnels to collect the cue balls so we wouldn’t have to dig into the holes to get pool balls every time. Then, I made cue sticks with a combination of plastic, wood scraps and what passed off for rubber in this world, which felt okay despite it not looking like it was supposed to.
The cue balls were a whole lot of trouble. The stupid striped and solid colored balls took me the last week to make. While they were made out of plastic, to get the ideal weight and balance required a lot of patience and around 10,000 leurats worth of plastic and resin. First, they were too light, and bounced all over the place. So to compensate I put a dense rubber core inside of the ball to give it more weight, and consequently, more oomph to the hit. The problem was that it was now too heavy, and I couldn’t just simply shave off layers of plastic. Everytime I messed up, I would have to restart the process and make a brand new one.
Quinn took great amusement in watching me fail to make these balls. When she saw me start she would take a seat near me and watch with amusement as I tried, and failed to get the pool ball to just the right balance. Then she would watch me fume, pout and throw the ball furiously outside.
On the other hand, there was now a legend of mysterious rolling balls that rolled around the streets, causing people to step on them and fall onto the unforgiving cement.
After I finally got finished with the pool table, I was going to teach Quinn to play pool, so that way we could pass the time when she got to the bar from a bounty. To my amusement, the cool and confident warrior who could duke it out with almost anyone, struggled to make the balls go into the holes.
On the other hand, she was improving rapidly. Most likely because Hiyuki was very good at pool, and rubbed it in every time she was there, taunting Quinn. Quinn couldn’t stand to lose to Hiyuki, and spent every free minute playing against me to improve.
When I built a dartboard-esque board, Hiyuki and Quinn immediately had a competition.
With knives.
By the end of it, my dartboard had ceased to exist.
The timer on my phone went off. I had set it for two weeks, and this was the prime tasting hour. THE. ALE. WAS. DONE. I was going to have a drink and not even a lunatic with colorful stones and a metal gloves would stop me. I walked quickly towards the cold box, towards the golden liquid, and heaven in this shitty world. Nothing can stop me now. I’m all the way u-.
“Where are you going?”
And just like that Heaven was guarded by a ravenous she-wolf. I now had to journey through all of the circles of hell to even stand a chance to reach the lofty heights of euphoria. I needed a strong guide, and a tamer of beasts, to get this she-wolf to stop move aside and let me ascend to the very heights of heaven. But without that, I would rely on a silver tongue.
“H-h-h-hey. Could you move, please? I need to check on the alcohol.”
Damn. I forgot that I wasn’t good at socializing. Quinn stared at me, disbelievingly, as she leaned against the iron door casually, spinning her gun on the finger.
“You mean, you’re gonna drink a “sample”, which happens to be the rest of the keg, and then we won't have anything to sell on opening day? Yeah, no.”
The devil came in many forms. This one happened to be a devil with no horn, bright green eyes and a face/body that could’ve been an idol’s back in Japan. This thing had to be a succubus, sucking the joy out of my life here, tempting me with drink, and then holding it just out of reach of my lips.
I would have to wait it seems. Just a few more days until opening night. Hiyuki promised to bring her “associates” to come and drink their sorrows away.
Not gonna lie, I was nervous. Would they shoot me? Would they not enjoy the drink? Was the place too tacky? Was the music good enough?
Maybe I was obsessing over nothing. Hiyuki told me that if there was a way for these people to forget their sorrows, they would come, because a merciless place like this did not allow for a soft heart, and something to take all of the regrets away would be something that sold like hotcakes.
Maybe I should have a huge beast pit, where people would fight large monsters for money. Then I would make people who couldn’t pay debts fight in the pits while I gorged myself on food.
I was watching too much sci-fi.
The bar was ready. Quinn was expectant. Hiyuki was confident. The alcohol was fresh, ready to be tapped. The music was dope. The lighting was perfect. The pool tables were ready. The stools were itching for their first bar fight. My heart was going at 161 bpm, and I needed a drink. Neko-chan was…
Ah right. We haven't got to that part yet. Forget the author typed anything.
The bar looked empty, and clean. That was the problem. A bar was never clean. Tomorrow night was the night we opened, and we were judged. Tomorrow was the deciding night of my fate.
So, naturally, I was worried. As I was pacing around, I failed to notice someone walk in and take a seat in front of me. I was too busy wiping the table, making sure I could see my reflection.
A gruff voice caught my attention. “What do you serve here?”
Black spots danced in my eyes. Dizziness overcame me. My sense of balance all of a sudden became inverted. I reached out to the bar counter to stabilize myself. The voice reached out and grabbed my shoulder.
It couldn’t be helped. I passed out.
What a start.
~
When I came to consciousness, I was leaned against the wall, while Quinn was serving the man a full cup of ale, where she promptly asked for 150 leurats. The man, now that I was farther away, was a seemingly attractive man. His hair was in an undercut, with a rugged jawline and scars littering his face. A solid physique was shown by his exposed arms, but covered under the seemingly casual jumpsuit that he wore. He may have passed off as a normal person, but Quinn was on edge. Her seemingly relaxed posture was betrayed by the fact that she had rested her hands on her thigh, where her gun should have been.
The man was sipping contentedly, before he turned to me and asked “What is this drink? It makes me feel warm, and kind of odd.”
I stammered back, “I-it-its Shukusolis orange ale. It’s an experiment, so I would value your opinion.”
He guffawed, “Boy, MY OPINION is the only thing that should matter to you. And my opinion is…”
He glared at the drink, swirled it in the tall mug, glared at me, and stared at the drink. He took a mouthful, swirled in his mouth, and looking very much like a chipmunk, swallowed it. The once hard and tough-as-nails look all of a sudden became very relaxed, and his eyes were becoming woozy. He was becoming tipsy.
“And I shayy, Bring me anotheerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”
I think it might be too strong. These people had not had alcohol, ever, so I would have to lighten the dose so that way a few of them were coherent after the first mug.
Quinn on the other hand, was genuinely freaked out. She had this mixture of trying to stay stoic, but failing miserably and was conflicted between smiling and showing a disgusted face. She turned to me, eyes wide open, and whispered, “That’s one of most dangerous people in the Sakuetsuki. That’s Keuden, the right hand of the Bloody Business. And he’s acting like a total idiot. What the FUCK is in that drink?”
Hehehehe. Now do you understand the power of alcohol? Gives the weakest men strength, makes the strong man go woozy, and makes everyone forget their troubles, even if it’s just for a relapse of a few hours. I wonder what kind of drunk was this Keuden fellow. Was he a happy drunk, crying drunk, or a violent drunk? There was only one way to find out.
I opened the only tap, filling a fresh cup of ale, and handed it to Quinn.
“Here, give this to Keuden. Tell him it’s on the house.”
Quinn gave me a odd stare, but decided to go with it. She grabbed the mug and made her way to our esteemed guest, before putting it down in front of him, and taking his empty mug back to the bar counter. Keuden didn’t seem to have any qualms about taking the free drink and downing it all down in one go.
I shed a tear. A true drinker, on his first time ever. I have created a true believer, a harbinger of my the power of alcohol, to show the world how beautiful a cold drink could be.
“Ooooooooooooooooooi, I neeeeeed anothheeeeeeeeeerrr.”
Keuden was sitting at the far end of the bar, taking huge gulps of alcohol, sitting like he had been a bar countless times. He was a drunk.
The first of many, I hope.