Chapter 2c:  Later, that night. 
	Around midnight, B-ko sat in her leather armchair watching her television.
 Asa, Ume, Ine and Mari walked into the room. 
	"Umm, Mistress B-ko, ma'am?" Ume stuttered. 
	"Yes, what is it," she asked shutting off the television as Jay Leno had
finished giving his opening monologue.  _American humor is
so...interesting,_ B-ko thought, giggling to herself, then quickly
stopping, remembering that her stooges were in the room. 
	"We have some very good news for you," she continued.  "C-ko and A-ko have
arrived, they came here at about ten o'clock this morning, and were
assigned to room twelve." 
	"What?  They're in the same room?  TOGETHER?" B-ko demanded. 
	"Hai!" Ume answered.  "The Dean had originally intended to have them in
seperate rooms, but C-ko demanded that she be with A-ko." 
	"NANI?" B-ko shrieked.  "Why on earth would she want to be in the same
living quarters with that...that...COW!!" 
	"I don't know, mistress," Ume answered, slowly, hoping that it would not
bring B-ko's wrath upon her. 
	"You're dismissed for the night," B-ko said, waving her hand at them.  _I
must think of something, I was counting on C-ko and A-ko being in seperate
rooms, so that it would make so much easier to kill A-ko...Why, C-ko? 
Why?_ 
						* * * 
	"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  (Choke-hack-choke)...ha...damn..." 
	"Shut the hell up!" Craig said, throwing an empty beer can at Myles.  "And
when the hell did you start smoking?" 
	"I dunno," Myles laughed.  In a corner booth of the local tavern, named
The Purple Pussy.  Craig, Myles and Kei sat having a few cheap drinks,
sharing old times and cheap laughs.  They were making comments about some
of the women as they passed by, and some of the homely-looking ones sitting
at the bar, but mostly making comments at the people who where singing <or
attempting to> karaoke on the stage. 
	"Kei, my friend," Craig started.  "I must admit that you are a helluva lot
more fun to hang with after you've had a few drinks in ya." 
	"Yeah?" Kei asked, drunkenly, giving him a lopsided smile. 
	"I concur,"  Myles added, drinking down some local whiskey that made his
nostils flare when he downed a shot.  "You're too timid otherwise." 
	"Yeah, well, it's a living," he laughed.  Craig and Myles laughed as well,
not completely getting the joke. 
	"Saaay!  There's the catch of the day."  He said pointed to an olive-green
haired woman, who could have been mistaken for a man, that was being
dragged off the stage by one of the bouncers.  Insulted, she brushed
herself off and walked over to the bar and ordered a drink, which the
barkeep relunctantly gave her. 
	"I SMELL FISH!!" Myles yelled, sending the corner booth into laughter
again. 
	A drunk man got up on the stage next, placed a yen in the machine and made
his song selection.  Craig recognized the tune within a few short notes, it
was a song done back in the 1970's by a group called 'The Kinks'. 
	"This outta be good," Craig giggled.  The man began to sing the song in
English, which was how the song was intended, but his drunken, Japanese
accent didn't help him sing it very well.  The man came to the chorus line
of the song and blurted it out:  "Roe-ra...air-oh-air-a...Roe-raaaa!!"  At
this Craig and Myles laughed until Myles fell on the floor out of the
booth.  Craig grabbed his friend and helped him back in his seat.  After
the man was done, the man got off the stage, much to most of the patons'
joy, and continued to drink. 
	"I dunnooo," Kei slurred, blinking, staring, trying to get a clearer look
at the woman who had been dragged off the stage earlier.  Instantly, in
Kei's mind, the woman at the bar was replaced with an image of C-ko. 
"Sheee...kkooooo..." 
	"Huh?" Craig and Myles said in unison.  Kei stood up as best as he could,
stumbled over to the bar, and sat down next to the woman. 
	"Huullooooo," Kei stammered.  He leaned forward and kissed the woman on
the lips. 
	"Whoa!"  Craig exclaimed.  "This oughtta be good for a few laughs."  The
olive-green-haired woman stood up, revealing that she wore some sort of
military-style uniform, smacked Kei across the face, and began to yell
something unintelligible about how Kei was a stupid human who could not
hold his liquor.  She then demanded to the barkeep that he be thrown out of
the establishment at once, for the sake of her honor.  The barkeep would
not comply. 
	"D!  Get in here!"  she screamed into what looked like a large cellular
phone.  Suddenly, were the front door to the bar once was, stood what may
have been a man wearing an Armani suit, with a smoking plasma cannon in
hand.  The door was plastered on the other side of the bar pinning down two
innocent consumers behind it.  "D" as the woman had called it, walked over
to Kei, who sat there on the bar stool staring up at the monstrosity.  D
growled at Kei. 
	"Is this the one, Captain?" D asked the woman in the uniform. 
	"Hai!  Dispense that trash, now!"  the "Captain" ordered.  Craig and Myles
looked at each other and wondered what they should do.  They looked at Kei,
then at D, and then at the waitress who stood next to the booth, and then
ordered another round. 
	D picked up Kei, and flung him like a stone through the front window, the
glass shattered and fell to the ground around Kei.  D ran outside after
him, after which, all that was heard were loud smacks, thuds, crashes,
bangs, screams and cracks...then, a deafening silence, all of the patrons
stared out at the front of the bar.  Somewhere, a dog barked... 
	"Uh, Captain?" D said, poking her head into the bar.  "I think we should
leave now." 
	"Why, D?"  What happened to your new plaything?" she asked. 
	"I t'ink I broke it, cause he don't move no more..." 
	The Captain's eyes grew huge behind her narrow sunglasses and she quickly
rushed out of the building frantically after D as they disappeared down the
street.  Craig and Myles looked at each other with mild concern, but soon
ordered yet another round.  Kei stumbled back into the bar, his clothes
torn to rags, his right eye blackened, his hair mussed and dirty, his nose
bleeding along with a nasty gash on his left arm.  He looked over at Craig
and Myles, and smiled.  He then staggered over to the corner booth, sat
down and asked for help from the two of them.  Within minutes, the door was
back on the hinges, the window boarded up and it was business as usual as
if the events in the past ten minutes hadn't happened. 
	"Okay...now..."  Craig said, getting out a pad of paper and pen.  "Let's
plan as far as what we're gonna do about..." 
	"HEY!" Kei yelled, "Are you guys gonna help me out, er what?"  Craig and
Myles ignored him, continuing their conversation.  Kei, angered by this,
slammed his fist down on the table, knocking a bottle over onto the floor
which then smashed into a thousand pieces. 
	"HEY!" the bouncer said, walking over to the corner booth.  "Are you
looking for more trouble?"  Kei stood up and glared at the tall, fat and
burly looking man.  "I don't like the way yer lookin' at me, boy."  With
that, Kei took a swing at him.  The bouncer dodged the swing, picked Kei up
and threw him through the now boarded up window.  The bouncer immediately
ran out the door after him and was quickly followed by loud cracks, thuds,
screams and a final crash. 
	The bouncer walked in, wiping his hands together and cracking his
knuckles, smiling.  The patrons returned to their drinking, ignoring the
commotion.  Craig and Myles decided that now was probably a good time to
leave.  They got up, paid their tab and left, only to find Kei,
uncomfortably shoved into a trash can.  Craig smiled at Myles as they
pulled him out of the can and leaned him up against the wall. 
	"I dinnae think he was so...flexible," Myles stated, slightly drunk. 
	"Whoa," Craig said.  "You all right, man?" 
	"Craig, man?" Kei asked.  "What the hell happened?"  Craig threw Myles a
slide-long glance, and smiled. 
	"Uh, dude?" Craig replied, jokingly.  "Do I know you?" 
	"Yeah, we're roommates at the college." 
	"Like, whoa," Myles said, in a poor American accent.  "School's a drag,
man, why on Earth would *we* be going to school?"  Myles took a hit off an
imaginery joint, and acted out the part. 
	"Dude, like you'd better go home be--" Craig started but then saw the
arrival of a police car.  "MOVE!" he yelled to Myles, they moved so quickly
that the officers did not see them when they flashed on their seach light. 
Kei was immediately caught in the glare.  One of the officers stepped out
of the car and walked over to Kei. 
	"You alright, son?" he asked.  Kei thought that Craig and Myles were still
joking around with him and took a swing at the officer.  The officer
immediately dodged the strike, whipped out his gun and butted Kei in the
head with it, knocking him to the ground.  The other officer stepped out of
the car to cheer his partner on as he pummeled Kei into a bloody pulp.  The
officer that Kei tried to hit stood up and wiped the blood off his gun and
hands. 
	"Well, if *that* didn't sober him up," the officer standing on the
side-lines said.  "Nothing will."  The other officer laughed and they began
to pull Kei into the squad car. 
	"Let's get him down to the station," the other replied.  "You know, that
felt pretty good!" 
	"Yeah, there's nothing like beating up drunken college kids on a warm,
summer evening."  The two police men dumped Kei into the back seat and
drove off. 
						* * * 
	"HAHAHAHAAA!!!! (hack-hack-hack)....(choke-puke!!!)" 
	"I told you not to smoke and drink that cheap whiskey!" Craig called out
of the darkened dorm room. 
	"Shut the hell up!!!!" Myles screamed, wiping the vomit from his chin. 
-- 
 
Craig Vincent a.k.a. Greg Thompson <AkoMagami@usa.pipeline.com> 
 
Member, Red-Head Anime Girls Fan Club 
Co-Founder and High Priest of The Holy Order of A-ko 
            -----Folder of the Holy Fuku----- 
Co-author of Project A-ko:  The College Years