Chapter 203: Bar Crawl
News of Taki Kazo's death reached Ori's ears hours after the raid had ended. He'd scraped himself off of the floor after falling and made a walk of shame back to his crew, reporting what'd happened.
No one blamed him aside from a few since he'd 'ran ahead and still let Taki escape', but the derisive looks lessened into the mocking ones of people finding his tale hilarious. Wakako had her people drag out the bodies of the dead and throw them onto a huge pyre in the middle of the street, all but declaring her faction victorious.
Then, much to many people's shock, she had the gang renamed to 'Dragon Claws'. A few people protested but they were quickly silenced, either by their fellows or Wakako personally if they got loud enough.
Ori's original plans for the evening hadn't changed after Taki's death was discovered. He'd planned to get shitfaced and forget about it, but now he was just getting shitfaced to celebrate. It wasn't only him either, the entire city quickly learned of the Tyger Claws' eradication and the introduction of the Dragon Claws.
He was pretty sure Wakako had a hand in it, but the fact that 'Zombie' had a large part in it had also made the rounds, much to his chagrin. Being a known name was good, but being too well-known wasn't exactly beneficial.
Regardless, he was soon swamped with congratulations from friends and colleagues. Bats, Quentin, Rogue, Judy, Susie, hell, even the guys from the Combat Zone hit him up.
Maine and his crew also got in contact, which ended up with everyone getting together to party. Now that the Dragon Claws had taken over, Ori could actually spend time in Japantown without getting shot at.
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"So, that's it then? No more Tyger Claws?" David questions as he, Ori, Pilar, and Maine stroll down the street to get to the nightclub.
Ori shrugs, "Hopefully, I've had enough of those assholes pissing around kidnapping people. They'd be human cockroaches if they could pull themselves together now."
"Whatever, all you guys did was let those 'Dragon Claws' replace them as top-dog-fuckers. They'll be riding around the city on those douchy cock-rockets by the end of the week!" Pilar scoffs.
"Dunno 'bout that, they might not wanna get on 'the' Zombie's bad side." Maine chuckles.
"You're just mad I've been in the game half the time you have and done twice as much." Ori retorts, avoiding his attempt to smack him on the back. "To be honest, I wouldn't want everyone to call me 'Mega-Man' either."
"Will you lay off that already? That shit's dead in the water." the large merc grouses.
"Practise what you preach." Ori throws a glance at David. The kid was visibly taller than last he'd seen him, his legs larger and with obvious Cyberware judging by the humming sound his body made with every step. It was not audible to anyone else of course, but Ori's senses were stupidly acute at this point. "Taken up a sword then?" Ori questions, looking at the katana at the boy's hip.
"Yeah, thought on what you'd told me and it made sense. Works like a charm anyway." he grins, resting a hand on the scabbard.
"He ain't lying, cut some Russian gonk into mincemeat before the guy realised he'd been hit." Maine adds.
"You sure you should be bringing it...? Guns are a no-brainer but I doubt they'd let you in with someone so obvious." Ori queries.
David shrugs noncommittally, "I'll sneak."
The group step around a street corner but Ori pauses in front of an alley, the group looking back at him in confusion. "Something wrong?"
"H-hey-, we're being watched!" a voice from the alley draws everyone closer, allowing them to see two teenagers spraypainting something on the wall in luminescent paint... Pilar almost busts a gut with laughter when he realises what it is.
A big ass mural with an old school green-skinned zombie firing submachine guns akimbo, killing cartoonishly evil men who wore Arasaka-issue suits, not only that, but they also had Japanese-style straw hats with Tyger Claw written on them.
"Hahahaha! That's the funniest shit I've ever seen! Nice one kids! Hahahaha! Pilar cackles, much to the teenagers' annoyance.
"What's so funny you grinch-doppelganger motherfucker!?" one angrily says while jabbing a finger at him, "You one of those Corpo cock-suckers? Don't like Zombie shovelling out the shit!?"
"HAHAHAHA!"
Ori palms his face and looks away, "You sure 'Zombie' would want you doing this?"
"This building is Corpo-owned so fuck'em!"
"Y'know, I like you kids." David gives them a thumbs up, "Keep on keeping on, and don't mind what the schizo's on TV tell ya."
The teens huff, "'Least one of you gonks ain't full of shit." they say before running away, presumably to tag more Corpo property.
"Heh, nice fans ya got." Maine quirks a huge grin.
"I'd rather be nameless than be a hero to edgy teenagers..." he sighs before moving on. If he was lucky he'd get them drunk enough to forget about this.
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"Huh, so you guys were joking about 'putting your face on'?" Ori remarks as he and the others approach the girls of the two crews.
Rebecca, Lucy, Dorio, and Sasha just glance at the unimpressed-looking Kiwi and laugh to themselves.
At Ori's furrowed bro Pilar decides to pitch in, "Don't worry about it, they were probably just synching up their periods or some-AAHK!"
"Do you ever shut up!?" Dorio mutters as both she and Rebecca give him a punch and a kick respectively.
"See!? I told you!" Pilar responds despite his best interest...
"I ain't seen you in weeks but don't think I won't beat your ass bro!"
Pilar shoves Ori in front of him and takes cover, "Look what you've done to my sis! She wasn't this abusive before!"
"I don't have to listen to you bitch and moan after I got done beating you anymore!" Rebecca cracks her knuckles, "Say sorry or you'll be drinking beer through a tube!"
"Fuck you! Yahahahaha!" Pilar shouts and runs past them towards the Night Club, showing his ID and hurriedly entering before anyone can react.
...
"He's one sad puppy..." Dorio sighs.
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