********* (I Love You) Chapter XXXIII: BarfightFollow

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Hehe, I’m having a lot of fun writing these chapters, and I hope you all don’t mind the fact that they are growing longer^^;

Oh, and to answer a couple questions I got in game last night, since I had posted that I slipped a lot of real references into my story...

The orange pearl that I reference in Part I to Dimitri using when he goes into the Necropolis isn’t a URB pearl, but is instead a rather obscure reference to Dawn, my Role Playing LS. Dawn was assembled originally by the Archduke in order to investigate the Magicite, and the possible rise of the Shadowlord...which I felt paralleled Dimitri’s mission (sort of) to the Necropolis, with the whole elite soldiers being called together by the Archduke thing.

The Isacio that I am including in the story is in fact the same Isacio that gives the subjob quest in Selbina, so yeah...ya'll got it right.

And finally, yes, that I did include myself in the previous chapter, with my old (and dead) love Kumori kissing...I felt it was appropriate, and I couldn’t resist^^

Previous chapters, aki, and Interludes

Part I - Connection (Enishi)

Kasho II - Kodoku (Solitude)

Part III - Reunion (Saikai)

Kasho IV- Suriyoru (Closer)
---
(Aki XXX)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=112238583589703268&num=3

(Chapter XXXI)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=1122559673284936731

(Interlude IV)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1122641776503699968

(Aki XXXII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1122987452126376636

No dedications this time either...and I don’t own FFXI.
***
Chapter XXXIII: Barfight
***
She went to sleep faster than I thought...she must really have a bad case of seasickness...

I’m worried about her.

I leaned in over her face, looking into her closed eyelids, and at the peaceful expression on her face as she slowly breathed in and out. Leaning in closer, I could see thin scars along parts of her face that were usually obscured by her hair or that old felt hat she wore everywhere. Tremblingly, I let my fingers trace a shallow path along one of the longer ones, that ran behind her ear.

Why haven’t I noticed this before?...She must have lived a life of suffering...

I want to just protect her from her sorrow.

After a moment I snapped out of it, and pulled away from her, and turned towards the door to go downstairs.

"Sleep well Hitomi. I’ll be back soon.," I whispered softly as I turned the golden doorknob sideways to slip out of the room. Once I had exited the room and returned the door back against its frame with a soft click, I started to stroll downstairs, into the pub section of the "Sailor’s Stay". The staircase going down seemed to be a lot more ancient and worn than when I had crossed it with Hitomi on the way up, as it creaked constantly and warped beneath each of my footfalls a little more than I would have liked. Not wishing for the stairs to finally break with me top of it, I clutched the handrail just a little bit tighter than before until I finally arrived at the bottom a few moments later.

There, I walked into a semi-open air bar. Unlike last time I was here, the place was packed with off duty recruits who were in training for my lord’s and country’s army. As I picked my way carefully through the rabble, I could see that they were drinking as hard as they were probably trained, as there were many empty glasses of ale lining each of the tables, with the pretty barmaids bringing more all the time. As I passed by a barmaid, I could hear the drunken soldiers wolf whistling and saying obscene things that I would never dream of coming out of a member of the Ducal Guard’s mouth while I was Commander. The barmaid would only look away from the offending table, blushing a shade of red as she did so while trying to quickly give out the new pints of ale so she could then retreat back to the relative safety of the inside bar itself.

Trying my best to ignore the place with disgust rampant in my mind, I searched and finally found an empty table and booth in the back, that seemed to insure a bit of privacy for me and Isacio to meet in. Wishing to keep from being noticed or recognized by any of the patrons (even though just from looking at them, that seemed extremely unlikely), I sat down rather auspiciously in the free table, turning my back to the room. Looking down at the glass-topped table, I could see faintly through the many ale stains a list of all the drinks that the "Sailor’s Stay" served laid out, even though it was faded and tattered almost beyond reading. Carefully picking through it, I finally managed to settle my mind on something, just as a waitress approached me from behind.

"Whadda it be, sirrr?" she asked in a thoroughly bored tone of voice. As I turned my head around to look at her, I saw a mithra standing there, who snapped a bubble of refined Lacquer tree sap out of her mouth, only to let it pop into a gooey mess and then be sucked back into her mouth. She was clutching a small pad of paper in her left, with a pencil in her other hand while her tail drooped down to the floor. It was a rather pitiful sight, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

"I’ll have...the Wizard’s Drink. Could it please be made with three ounces of Bastokian gin, one ounce of the Merry Minstrel’s finest vodka, a half-ounce of blond Lillet and then garnished with a small slice of a lemon peel? Be sure to make it shaken, not stirred. Also, would you mind keeping it as dry as possible? I want it dry enough that it could be mistaken for a dustbowl, and thus be declared to be a national disaster site by the Grand Duchy, please." I asked of her, being as clear and particular as possible about how I wanted my drink made.

To her credit, she didn’t blink at my instructions, but instead replied with a dull "Yes sirrr," as she then scuttled off to the bar to give the bartender my instructions.

Turning the back of my head to the wall again, I idly watched as a few of the locals passed by the pub’s open air window, only pausing to turn their heads to look in every so often when a particularly noisy drinker would make a rather loud noise. After about ten minutes of waiting, I saw a small drink in a slender and chilled cocktail glass be set down before me on top of a paper napkin. Picking up the drink and swirling it around, I could see the slice of lemon peel dance around the bottom of the Wizard’s Drink, and as I swallowed down a bit of the perfectly dry fluid, the peel slipped against my teeth a couple of times before I turned and spat it out against the tabletop.

The hooting started up and grew louder this time, even more so than before. I however paid it no attention until one of them shouted out "Hey guys, check it out! It’s a foreign chick! I ‘eard that their hole’s are split sideways!"

No way...it couldn’t be...

Setting my drink down, I turned around in my seat to see Hitomi leaning against the doorframe to the pub, her hat set askew on top of her head as she looked slowly around the room for what I guessed was probably me.

Gah...why did she come?!

Getting up a little bit too fast, my chair fell down to the ground with a clatter that was barely noticed of even cared about by the other patrons. As I started to walk across the room to Hitomi, I could see one of the more drunken patrons grabbing Hitomi’s arm roughly.

"Hey sweet stuff, wanna *** back wit me? I’ll sho you wha a REAL soldier can do fo you babi!" As started to pull her out of the room with Hitomi trying to resist him, I broke into a run and quickly caught his free arm.

"Dimitri-chan..." Hitomi breathed out at me quietly in relief, the tired look still evident on her face.

"Get your hands off her.," I said icily as I moved to step in between them.

"No one touches Hitomi."

The recruit just laughed in my face and then belched into it. "I tink she wans to *** wit me. Git outta my way!" He made a move to push me aside, but I refused to budge and instead quickly broke his grasp on Hitomi, shunting her behind me.

"I no go sorry..." Hitomi said from behind me, as she leaned against my back to the drunkard.

I saw the man’s face turn purple with rage, and then he cocked back his fist and drove it harshly into Hitomi’s face before I could move to protect her. I felt her fall away from me, and down onto the ground, her lips leading a trail of blood away from it.

"*****, lear' yo' place...lse I teach yo nother lesson..." he said as he shook his hand in the air back and forth, letting the mage’s blood fall from it.

The anger instantly riled up inside of me, and I started to pull back my arm so I could hit that *******’s body as hardly as possible.

"I said...NO ONE TOUCHES MY BUTTERFLY!" I yelled out at him, with every intent of avenging Hitomi’s pain in my motions.

I started to swing, when I felt someone grasp my arm strongly enough to hold me back.

"No, Dimitri-chan."

I turned around to that Hitomi had sprung to her feet grasping my arm tightly, but with seemingly little effort. A thin sliver of her tongue slipped out of her mouth, and I saw it lick up the blood that was even now still spilling out and draw it back into her mouth before she smiled.

Suddnely, Hitomi, almost too quickly to see, covered one of her hands with her other and mumbled a couple of words, so that when she uncovered her hand it was glowing with bright yellow spikes covering its surface.

"Oh shi-" I started to say as I saw it and realized too late as Hitomi plowed her fist into the guy’s groin that she had just casted a blaze spikes spell on her hand. The spike ate through the clothing, and burned through the flesh underneath, causing the man to scream in pure pain. He then crumpled over and stumbled over to a table, which he then flipped over onto its side as he fell down to the ground in a fetal position.

"Kutabacchimae." Hitomi sneered over the quivering emasculated man as she then spat a small bit of dark blood into his face and turned away.

"What the hell?!"

That came from another patron who had witnessed the whole thing, and stood up wobbily with his almost empty ale glass in his hand. He then tried to toss it at Hitomi, but instead only managed to smash it against a person’s head at the next table over when it slipped out of his grasp. The people at the next table over stood up and immediately started to beat the living daylights out of the guy, before his friends stepped up to defend him.

Suddenly, I felt rather than saw another bar glass slam into the wall next to my head, and I immediately grabbed Hitomi and ducked down behind the first overturned table, next to the fallen man who was still groaning. Peeking my head up over the table’s edge, I could see that the scruffle had spread to all the patrons in the bar, and that the whole place was starting to get torn up.

Oh ****...a bar fight...great...Rycharde’s gonna be pissed bout this.

Hitomi leaned her head against me, exhausted, while her mouth bleeding all over my clothes.

"Lets get out of here Hitomi, before the police show up..." I told her, and she only nodded her agreement slowly before letting me guide her slowly back out the doorway.

"Why did you come here anyway, Hitomi? I thought you were to stay in bed while I talked to Isacio." I asked her as we smoothly dodged a guy being thrown through the air over us.

"I wanted to be here with you..." she replied simply, "I was lonely."

I blushed at that slightly, and we were at the doorway. As we started to stand up to quickly scurry out, a man overshadowed us, blocking our exit.

"What the hell is goin on here?!" he shouted, and all the commotion in the room instantly stopped, the people who only milli-seconds before were beating the living daylights out of each other freezing in place. "Everyone, I want you back in your barracks now, and I expect a full report from each of you of what the hell happened here!"

Looking into his face, I could see that his eyes were narrow, but full of authority. As the soldiers filtered ashamedly out, I smiled weakly and spoke to the powerful man.

"I assume you are Isacio? It’s a pleasure to meet you..." I said meekly, feeling Hitomi drag on my side. He only nodded in response, and didn’t bother to speak until the last of the drunk’s backs had retreated from the room.

"Yes, I am. And I know who you are, Commander Dimitri. I heard you were asking about me in Mhuara?..." he said, his voice asked crisply.

Stunned, I could only mumble out a "yes".

He smirked, and then motioned over to one of the few undestroyed tables in the tavern, for me and Hitomi to sit down at. Once we were comfortably seated, he leaned in closely after a moment, and finally spoke.

"...You are after the Eruntalon Code...aren’t you? Well, you can’t have it, so good day to you."

-fin Chapter XXXIII: Barfight

Hitomi's got a hard side to her...no question about that.

Even if she can't handle seasickness, she can surely take care of herself if she needs to be or (more likely) wants to be, and to tell the truth...she really doesn't need Dimitri to be there to rescue her (tho she is the kinda person to let him...if only to show her that he notices and cares about her).

As a note that I can't resist pointing out, notice that this time it didn't take but an instant for Dimitri to decide to protect Hitomi...where as in the Necropolis, he had a huge internal debate within himself about if he should protect her or not. He's growing attached to her...even if he doesn't realize it himself yet.

...and kutabacchimae...

For once, I spelt this correctly (usually I mis-spell the Japanese on purpose, because Dimitri not being a native speaker, means he is gonna mishear the language a LOT). Translated, it literally means "I want you dead", but in an English context, it means "Go to hell".

EDIT: DO NOT go saying "Kutabacchimae" to a JPN player that makes you mad! I do NOT endorse it at all, but in fact, discourage it STRONGLY.

Edited, Thu Aug 4 11:20:10 2005 by Nightsintdreams

actually it is Kuttabarachimae and its actually means : F* you (pardon for the language)


Edited, Thu Aug 4 15:44:15 2005 by Apis

I'm not writing this story to teach people how to swear in Japanese >.<;

Hehe, the VG Cats avatar is part of "Steal an avatar day" thing over on the WoW boards, which I sometimes frequent. I've switched back to my Sakura and Syaoran one now^^



O.O...

>.<...

Didn't know it had THAT meaning to it...

At least it still fits...I guess...

I don't endorse using it!^^;