Zach and Yuki had started their search for Tara at the motel where they had pulled the mobster off her, finding the same receptionist as the last time they’d been there.

The girl looked up, not seeming to register their presence until a pop of her gum pulled her back from the MTV-induced trance.

“Ah,” she said, “The sisters…”

“Have you seen our other sister?” Zach wanted to know.

The girl nodded, “She’s been around. Asking about you two actually. Have you guys heard of phones?”

“Never,” Zach said dryly, “Do you know where she went?”

“Out the door.”

“And?”

“Not my problem as soon as she’s out. Good luck finding her.”

Zach sighed, grabbed Yuki by the hand and pulled her back outside, where he produced a photo of Tara from his satchel and started the arduous project of trying to find his sister.

They had worked their way to the movie theater and Zach’s sense of dread had grown with every pedestrian who hadn’t seen her. He had started to see Vinnie in every other passer-by and warily been eyeing black sedans.

“Hey! You! You two!”

Zach, who was showing the picture of Tara to a taxi driver looked up when they were approached by a young man. He was dressed in an ill-fitted suit and already holding out a voice recorder before even across the road.

“Haven’t seen her, girly, sorry” the taxi driver said, clearly not in the least bit interested. He lit a new cigarette with the butt of the old one, then honked when the young man squeezed himself between the taxi and the one waiting in front of it.

“Mind the paint!” the driver yelled, “Dipshit!”

The young man ignored him and attempted to grab Zach by the shoulder, “Are you two the real thing?”

Zach responded to the grabbing arm by trying to grab it, but only managed to block it with a brief wrist on wrist contact.

“The real…” he started in his own voice, caught himself and switched to his girl-voice, “The real thing?”

“Allow me to introduce myself, Ross Kirby, Morning Mirror.. … I have my press card here somewhere.”

“What do you want?” Yuki asked as she joined Zach, a hint of suspicion in her voice.

“Well, you two have no doubt seen my two page spread, ‘Japanese Jostle for Criminal Control?”

“What?” Zach and Yuki said in unison.

“The subtitle was ‘Schoolgirl Scouts to Shake Stuff Up’?” the reporter continued, anxiously waiting for them to recognize what he was talking about.

“With all due respect,” Zach replied, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“As I said, I’m a reporter for the Morning Mirror. The crime section actually. I’m doing an exposé on the Japanese attempt to get a foothold here in…” “I hate to burst your bubble,” Zach sighed, ‘But we’re not Yakuza.”

“Triads?”

“No.”

“Tongs?”

“Tongue?”

“Han Cartel…?”

“Isn’t that the guy from Star Wars?”

“You’re not with any organized crime?” the man asked, clearly put out at finding he was wasting his time.

“Even if we were,” Yuki replied, “Would we tell that to a man we just met?”

“But you’re not?” Kirby pushed.

“No,” Zach replied, “We’re umm…”

“Exchange students,” Yuki finished.

The man got out a note block, “So you are just… What is the word. Tsuuuuu… Tsu. How do you pronounce it? Two-parr-e?”

“I don’t golf?” Zach tried lamely.

“He means ‘tsuparri’, Zach...Saki. And yes, that is us.”

“Can I interview you?” Kirby asked hopefully.

“Maybe another time,” Zach sighed and brought up the picture, “Have you seen this girl?”

“Asking the right man,” Kirby replied, taking the photo, “Oh yes. Seen her. She was looking for you two, or people that look like you even. Have you ever heard of phones?”

Zach swallowed his reply.

“I sent her to Riders,” the man continued, “Seemed to make sense.”

“Isn’t that a very rough…” Zach started, not sure how he should finish the sentence.

“Dyke bar, yeah. She was looking for motorcycle riding girls. Where else should I have sent her?”

Yuki stared blankly.

“Directions,” Zach demanded, dropping his-girl voice as he did.

“Puberty’s rough, huh?” the reporter replied and pointed down the road, “First you go…”

Zach ignored a one way sign, parked the bike across the road and got off, hanging the helmet from his handlebars, “Guess we’re here.”

“Looks like,” Yuki agreed.

The bar was easy to recognize, thanks to the dozen motorcycles parked in front of it and the habit of pedestrians to cross the road instead of going past the place and the fact the entire clientele seemed to be female. A handful sat outside, chugging beers and eating hot dogs. Nervously, Zach took Yuki by the hand as they headed a little down the road, then stared at the bar, trying to see through the window.

“Crap,” he said to himself. Yuki frowned, then saw what Zach saw. Tara, eating a plate of fries, and surrounded by four women dressed similarly to the ones outside, jovially talking to the girl.

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Zach nervously shuffled his feet, watching the bar.

“We are going to have to go inside if we want to get your sister,” Yuki said.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said and took Yuki’s hand to cross the street. Yuki shook her head at him, took a red cloth surgical mask from her pocket and and hid half her face behind it.

“Ah…” he said.

This was the moment one of the women, who was heavily tattooed and enough leather on her to pass for a cow, to spring into action.

“What do you ladies want?” she asked. Her words sounded friendly enough, but she crushed the beer can she was holding as she spoke.

“We’re looking for our… friend,” Zach said nervously and pointed to the eating Tara.

“Oh,” the woman said and folded her arms, “Are you the girls Vinnie’s looking for?”

“I don’t know any Vinnie,” Zach said dismissively, “Probably someone else.”

“Well, get your girl,” the woman said, “We’d prefer not to have any minors in our bar.”

Zach nodded and was about to lead Yuki inside when Tara spotted them. She abandoned her fries, grabbed her backpack and rushed to meet the duo. Zach was mildly amused to see his sister wore a red neckerchief, trying to emulate the school uniforms they wore.

“You two!” she yelled out of breath, “I want to join your gang!”

“First of all,” Zach said hastily, ‘We’re not a gang and secondly, Tara…”

“You remembered my name!”

“There’s something you should know…”

“What?”

Zach shuffled his feet, trying to figure out how to explain to his sister that he had dressed up as a Japanese schoolgirl to save her from a scary movie, finding very little in his mind that would make it sound even remotely normal.

“You girls with a gang?” the tattooed biker woman asked, “Cause then you’re on our turf.”

At the mention of the word ‘gang’, several of the bar’s regulars surrounded them.

“Yeah!” a tiny girl, who looked like she was barely out of high school, snapped, “We already got trouble with the White Bones, we don’t need some upstart nips trying to muscle in!”

Zach frowned at her, “I said we’re not a gang… How could we be? There’s only two of us!”

“Scouts!” the girl insisted, “I read the paper!”

“We’re not a gang,” Zach sighed, sure the girl wouldn’t believe him.

“Then why are you here?” a third biker, this one with a pink Mohawk, wanted to know.

“To get my sis...her,” he said, feebly gesturing to Tara.

“Her sister!” yet another yelled, “They certainly ain’t nuns, so they’s a gang!”

“Look,” Zach said, feeling he was rapidly losing control of the situation, “We’re not looking for trouble. I just want…”

“Yeah, yeah, your sister. And what else?”

“To race!” Yuki piped up, “We are just looking to race/”

“Oh,” the mohawked woman said, “That we can offer. Where’s your bike?”

Zach pointed to the green motorcycle across the street.

The local bikers took their distance to discuss who’d race, sizing up the foreign vehicle, then nodded in agreement, “You got a race.”

“Tara,” Zach said, “Go home.”

“But…”

“I know where you live. I’ll come say hi and… explain what we’re doing here.”

“How do you know where I live?”

“I know your brother…”

“Which one?”

“Both, I suppose,” he said, “Can you still get a bus?”

Tara shook her head, “My mother will pick me up in the morning.”

“You are not hanging around the city all night,” Zach informed here, barely keeping his girl-voice masquerade up.

“Why not?” Tara threw back, “You’re no the boss of me!”

“I am if you want to be in our gang,” Zach snapped, hoping that would convince his sister.

“So you are a gang!” the tiny biker called triumphantly.

“Crap,” Zach said to himself, “Crap crap crap.”

“Calm down,” she grinned, “We won’t kill you just yet, but the race is definitely on. And just so you know, if we win, we never want to see you around here again.”

“And what if we win?” Yuki wanted to know.

“Then you’re welcome for a drink, as long as you remember this is our turf.”

“Great,” Zach mumbled, “Just fucking great…”

“Can I watch?” Tara wanted to know.

“Can one your gang bring her home?” Yuki asked the woman, “She is not involved in this.”

“Oh yeah, sure. Julie! Julie has a sidecar, so that should be safe enough and we wouldn’t want to put kids in danger, would we?”

“We would not,” Zach miserably agreed.

Zach watched Tara get in the sidecar, clearly annoyed at being left out of the action. He waved as she left the street.

“This might be a good time to come clean,” he said when the bike was gone, already reaching for his wig,“Maybe they’ll think it’s funny.”

“Or they will kick your ass,” Yuki smirked.

Zach was about to take his wig off when a black dirt bike stopped in front of the bar. The rider wore no helmet and Zach cursed inwardly when he recognized the wild red hair, which seemed to have been sprayed to look like she was continuously in motion.

“Crap.” he said to himself.

“What is it now?”

“Classmate,” he said, “Penny Phillips.”

“So?”

“I can’t let her know it’s me,” he whispered, “She’s friends with Ladyshave. I don’t want him to have dirt like that.”

“Ah…”

“Dammit,” he muttered to himself, “You had to let the rumors be true huh, P.P.?”