~ Perfect Blossom Tea Room ~

[Lucend]

The night was getting long. Rain was pounding on the roof but inside the atmosphere was light hearted. Annoyingly earsplitting Kusari wind-music was drifting through the air and oil lamps produced light which bounced off the floors and walls: looking like wood but realistically was probably closer to a highly reinforced metal.

Several more KNF officers started to file into the dingy little Tea Room, and the gaijin at the bar suddenly started to get uncomfortable. More law meant more people that could potentially kill him. He was just thinking about leaving when another stranger came into the establishment.

This stranger stood out like a cowboy in a room full of cone-headed Kusarians. In fact, thats exactly what it looked like. The obvious gaijin wore a cowboy hat with a large cloth draped over his shoulders, a large shotgun slung over his back and a cigar that looked as though it were being slowly eaten alive. He made his way to the front bar and sat down to the other, much less obvious foreigner.

He removed his cigar from the death-trap that was his teeth and flicked the ashes at the end out on the ashtray between him and the other foreigner.

"Names Marquez, Andre Marquez. Seems we're the only buckaroos in this room. That makes us brothers." His Liberty accent was strong, much stronger than most Liberty citizens.

"Liberty, huh? I don't have any brothers in Liberty, friend..." His pad beeped and he looked down at it. His ship was ready and it was time for him to go.

"Well, nice meeting you, I've got a train to catch." The kimono-draped gaijin rose and started to head for the door, but a shout from the bar made his freeze in his path.

"Juan Lucendez," Marquez shouted, spinning around and unholstering his shotgun and cocking it. "You are under arrest by the Bounty Hunter's Guild for crimes against humanity." Marquez pointed his shotgun at him and heads went down. Juan looked around the tea room, the security systems were disabled. The KNF officers didn't have their side-arms with them. All eyes were on the two gaijin standing in the middle of the bar.

Juan's hands went up slowly, he whispered under his breath, "Perfect."

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Juan looked around at his position. He was still in a throng of people, so ran into a crowd, knowing the Bounty Hunter wouldn't dare shoot into the people. Running to the far side, he kicked over a table close the entrance to the main bar and used the metal table as cover. Once the crowd thinned, Juan heard shells hitting the table every other second. He responded by blindly shooting the other upturned table.

"So, you tracked me down. Hired by the Chrysanthemums? Or just out for general Corsair heads?" He raised his body and took aim at the table, almost getting Andre in the shoulder, but missing. The Bounty Hunter fell back.

"Boy, you have no idea, and will never know, why I'm going to kill you. You will never leave Kusari space, I promise ya." He cocked his fully-loaded shotgun, raised the barrel and made a couple of deep dents into the opposite table.

Juan thought. This was not going to end well. Even though Andre and Juan were both gaijins, the police would definately side with the Bounty Hunter than the Corsair.

Lucendez looked around. Where had the bartender gone? Juan didn't see him leave, he couldn't have escaped that quickly. Juan reloaded his gun, rose and gave himself some cover fire as he made his way to the entrance to behind the bar. As predicted, the barkeep was not to be seen, but a hastily concealed trap-door was.

Lucendez was reminded of Marquez's presence when the Saki bottles on top of the bar suddenly exploded due to a shotgun blast, soaking Juan and making glass tumble all around him.

"Give up 'Sair, the police will be here any moment and you've got nowhere else to run."

"Freeze!" A new voice came through the door to the Tea Room. A squad of police stormed in and restored order. The policemen hand-cuffed Andre and searched the entire establishment.

"Hey! I'm a Bounty Hunter! Look! Back pocket!" The head-policeman, unimpressed by the credentials, asked Marquez exactly why he was shooting up a Tea Room at the literal zenith of Kusari space.

"A Corsair! In the Bar! He's mine I tell you. You can't arrest him because he's MINE!" Andre started to shoot spit out of his mouth as he was talking. The policeman held up an authoritative hand and asked his partner if he had seen anybody else in the Tea Room.

"Negative, sir."

---

"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."

Osaika Moto, the Fall and Rise of a Kusari Farmer

Juan Lucendez, √ Corsair