"Excuse you, boy," a beer-thick voice called out as he bumped into Zipher.
"Sorry, sir," he smiled back.
"Slow down already!" Tanaka said.
Zipher narrowed his eyes and huffed at the request.
"Where is this fight club anyway!?" Gazi asked as he tried to politely push through the wave of people in front.
Zipher walked hurriedly as Tanaka tried his best to catch up to the glimpses of the yellow-brown patched shirt and shorts Zipher was wearing.
"Hey Tanaka, tell Zipher to slow down!" Gazi said.
"I told him six times!"
Tanaka sped up, stretching his hand aimed for Zipher's collar.
Gazi followed after them. He turned his head to the side of the street. His nose scrunched up and his hand reached up for his lion head pendant as he laid his eyes on the back of the giant building. The Yera shiri home.
"Gazi! Come on!"
Tanaka's voice snapped him back. He turned his head to the boy waving for him in between the sea of people. He glanced one more time at the structure before going to Tanaka.
"Quit slowing us down," said Tanaka as he held Zipher by the back of his shirt.
Gazi snapped his head back, squinting his eyes as he tried to look past the heads.
"Hey mister, what's wrong?" Zipher looked at the towering man with a cocked head. Tanaka looked behind him, seeing nothing special in the crowd.
Gazi smiled softly. "Tanaka, let the boy go."
He released the fistful of cloth in his hand, letting Zipher go.
"You okay there?" Tanaka raised an eyebrow.
"I thought I heard footsteps."
"I know the difference between normal footsteps and those of someone trying to hide them."
Tanaka curved his eyebrows inward. So you're telling me in a crowd like this, he can still hear quiet footsteps? he thought.
"Yeah right," Tanaka scoffed and ran after Zipher.
Gazi stayed on the spot, looking around for anything out of the ordinary. Once he had scanned the area, he sighed as nothing caught his attention. He picked up his pace, following after Tanaka and Zipher, who had stopped in front of a red building.
"Here we are," Zipher yelled when they finally caught up to him.
Tanaka looked up at the building and smiled.
"It's a tavern," Gazi said as he heard the drunken sounds of cheering coming from the tavern.
Tanaka smiled cheekily. "With these kinds of things, there's usually more to it than what you see at first glance."
"Make sure you don't have anything shiny on you. Well, not anything of value at least," Zipher said as he puffed his chest and placed his hands on his hips. "If you do when we get in," he laughed, "you probably won't when we leave."
Tanaka just shrugged his shoulder as he had nothing to secure. He looked to Gazi, who just shook his head "no" as he walked toward the wooden door.
Gazi pushed through the door, leading Zipher and Tanaka inside. The bell on the door rang, and the bar fell silent as the multitude of eyes stopped drinking and playing their games to stare at them.
"Oy, looky here, yer come to gimme me money, boy?" The fat bartender yelled through the bar.
"I told you I will give you your money when I have it, Aldo," Zipher groaned as he approached the counter.
"Well if yer can't pay up, yer could just put in a good word fuh me wit yer mum for me, huh?!" The dimly lit bar burst into laughter as he grabbed onto his large stomach, joining them.
"Ew. Gross, Aldo," Zipher frowned his face in disgust.
Aldo wiped a tear from his pale face, ruffling his untamed red beard. He tossed a towel over his broad shoulder and placed his elbow on the redwood counter. "Who yer friends here?"
"Just visitors," Zipher replied.*"I don't even know who these losers are. They just showed up," he thought.
"Is my sister in?"
"Aye, that she is. Got my money on her rival on the next match, haha. I love easy money."
"Can you just let us in already?"
"Sure, lad. Just don' cry when Brux wipes the floor with yer sister, ey? Hahaha, I have to mop up the blood—don' wan' to be moppin' up yer tears as well, eh," he laughed once more.
Tanaka frowned in disgust as he had a front-row seat to the crack of Aldo's backside when he bent over. Aldo reached below the counter and pulled on a sword-shaped wooden lever.
The room grumbled in response, revealing a trapdoor near the fireplace. The three proceeded toward it. "What? No thank yer daddy?"
"Screw you, Aldo," Zipher yelled as he descended the stairs of the trapdoor.
"Hehe, little brat."
--------------------------
"Gentlemen, welcome to the Underworld," Zipher turned around to face the two, "literally."
Gazi and Tanaka stood still, taking the sight in.
"I don't think I have ever seen so much vile illegality in one place," Gazi commented, trying his best not to frown at the people trading items that had clearly been stolen, others selling bird meat.
The Underground was more of an undercity with multiple stalls selling contraband and drawing tattoos onto one another.
"This is perfect. Ha, we just need someone here who can help us get that script."
"Yes, Tanaka, but right now let's first look for Zipher's sister," he looked around at the bald, shirtless men with face tattoos staring at them and licking their daggers. "We can't just start asking random people how to break into the Royal home."
"Yeah, you are probably right," Tanaka said.
"Hey you two. Come on."
"How did he get that far?" Tanaka asked as his eyes widened, looking at Zipher already five to ten stalls ahead in the brightly lit Underworld.
"Something tells me these siblings do a lot of things their mother does not know about," Gazi stated.
"See, saying stuff like that is why I always say you're old."
"Eyyy, come on. I don't have all day."
Tanaka and Gazi increased their paces, hoping to catch up to the boy, almost appearing as if they were chasing him down—but in a place like this, no one would have cared if they were.
"Are those fireflies?" Tanaka looked up at the wooden stalls and buildings with glowing bright purple and orange lights.
"And here we are," Zipher announced as he went inside.
"The Rooster?" Gazi said as he read the sign above the metal door.
"Whoa, this place is full of people—how are we supposed to find her in here!" Tanaka yelled, though his voice was still barely audible, drowned out by the waves of chants, cheering, and booing.
"Oh, I don't think that will be too difficult," Zipher smiled while raising a finger to point to the ring.
"AAAAAND THE FIGHT EVERYONE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR... THE MAIN EVENT OF MAIN EVENTS! PLEASE WELCOME THE BONE BREAKER, SKULL SQUEEZER, TEETH TWISTER, WITH A RECORD OF 11 WINS AND 2 LOSSES—THE ONE THE ONLY....BRUUUUUX!!!!"
The crowd erupted into cheers and applause as the man in the middle of the ring raised his giant arms high, basking in the people's adoration. "That's your sister?" Tanaka laughed.
"No, you idiot."
"AND HIS OPPONENT—FASTER THAN LIGHTNING, CUNNING AS A FOX, THE KNOCKOUT MAGICIAN ROOKIE FIGHTER OF THE YEEAAARRR—ZAAARRRAAAAA!"
A girl stood at the center of the steel-cage-covered ring, barely Tanaka's height. The crowd instantly burst into a choir of boos as she stepped forward.
"I guess it's obvious who they put their money on," Tanaka jested.
"So THAT'S your sister?" Gazi commented, looking at the girl in cornrows braided from her forehead and hanging down to her shoulders.
"Yup," he crossed his arms boastfully with a smirk on his pudgy face. "That's Zara."