Haruka sat, miserable, at the bar of a sake house she didn't even remember the name of. The place had originally been pretty nice, most of the furniture and flooring made of real wood, but years of neglect and fights had scarred everything pretty heavily. The clientele were definitely of the rowdier sort, this place being next door to the entrance of the infamous Lotus Pavilion, where she had left her recent employer to his fate. He had hired her as a bodyguard, but neglected to inform her that he expected her to help him cheat, and then was surprised when she let the Yakuza enforcers take him away to some interior room or another floor. The manager of that particular area had given her a nod and let her walk out unaccosted. Without the cheat having paid her yet, since he had promised payment by the end of her contract at midnight, she was forced to go without a real meal.

Thankfully, the owner of the place she was [i]currently[/i] in was the brother of another recent client, and one who had had much better luck and had been quite happy with her services, though the three men who had tried to rob him were decidedly less so. Well, maybe they were. Their lives may have been utter garbage before she had cut them down in that stinking alley, she didn't know. At any rate, it had bought her some cheap noodles and sake here by trading on her success, so here she sat. Her stomach wouldn't grumble tonight, at least, as it had so many nights since she had arrived here on this planet.

She tossed back another cup of sake, eyes a little bleary, and was upset to find that, when tipped to pour, her bottle was empty of any further libation. She set it down, and was about to try and flag down the barman and pry another from him, when she felt a hand grab her chest from behind. A disgusting voice, breath reeking of liquor, said loudly in her ear, “Hey, baby, how about you and me head on over to the- URK!”

She pulled the offending hand off of her by the wrist, twisting it hard as she did so. Her left elbow snapped up and back, catching the scruffy peasant in the throat and leaving him gurgling, hanging by the wrist she still held as he slumped to the floor. His free hand futilely grasped at his throat.

“Oh calm down, idiot, I didn't strike hard enough to kill even one as weak as you,” she snarled, dropping the captive limb in disgust. She pushed him away with a foot, and was turning back to the bar when her eye caught movement in the room. Several other men had just stood from a table, looking drunk and angry, and above all [i]stupid[/i]. But, as she sighed and stood, at least she would get some exercise today. Another man, standing from the other end of the bar, also caught her attention. This one was very clearly augmented, and a glint of differently coloured metal on a mechanical hand drew her eye to a ring. The distance was too great to make out details, but the way he moved make her think of a bounty hunter, and if that ring held a Takeda insignia, she was in trouble.

Before she could move to intercept the man, he turned to leave. And the three idiots were charging across the room, through other patrons, which looked like it was probably going to start a brawl. [i]”So much for coming back here any time soon,”[/i] she thought to herself. As the men came around the last table and at her, she launched into a charge, moving fast enough that none of them had a chance to react. She left her blades on her hip, instead using her limbs. The first she reached took a kick straight into his kneecap, bending the limb backwards. As he fell, she moved past him with a vicious elbow to the temple. The next attempted, poorly, to punch her. She caught the fist, twisted the arm straight, and slammed her palm into the outside of the elbow, snapping it. The third man grabbed a bottle from the nearby table and attempted to hit her in the head, but she ducked, letting him take the man with the broken arm in the face instead. He also clearly didn't know what he was doing, as the bottle shattered wrong, shredding the inside of his hand as well as the other mans face. She let the second fall, the punch the bottle-user twice in the sternum, up and under, seizing his diaphragm. He fell, caught between screaming in pain and coughing from the blows, sounding more like he was choking to death than anything else.

Around her, the entire place had erupted into chaos. Tables had been flung away, glass smashed, liquor soaking into everything. Many men were engaged in enraged, life-and-death struggles. Some, Haruka knew, were coming off of hefty losses in Mahjong and other games next door, and were suddenly presented with a way to vent their rage. Other were criminals and the desperate. It made for a violent combination any day, but her own fight has proved to be a spark for the entire powder keg.

Before she could get caught up in another assault or be asked to pay for damages, she slid past a few pairs of grappling patrons and made her way out to the street. Glancing around, she did not see the mysterious bounty hunter, which made her nervous on top of the adrenaline that chased the sake out of her system. She took the time to straighten her clothes, check her blades, and re tie her ponytail, then made her way down the street, past the Lotus Pavilion entrance. The guards there nodded at her, but their attitude made it clear she was not welcome after what had happened earlier, so she kept moving. Maybe she would find another client before the day was out.