Bowels of the Bottle

Dust fell from the ceiling with every strike, the long dark room filled with grunts and smelling of sweat. A hard left, a stronger roundhouse, every second another beat on the worn out bag with sand falling from every rip and pore. Whenever it stopped moving, the fighter hit harder, the bag forced to swing from left to right, battered more and more before, inevitably, it flew off the hook. It slammed onto the floor, crushed under the pressure that it had taken.

It was thanks to this that Doresu Ayako finally had a good excuse to put a different punching bag up as part of the second rearranging of the furniture in this month.

Happily lugging the large, heavy bag over her shoulder, the tailor and kunoichi prepared to put it onto the hook the previous one had occupied, when her eyes drifted outside. A hustle. A bustle. A bar, specifically. Quite small, but lively. The short attention span kicked in immediately. Ayako looked around, the completely barren floor with all the furniture in one corner, and shrugged her shoulders. She could always do it later. She leapt down the stairs, out of her home and into the shop, charging out as she pulled her jacket across her dress and walking into the bar itself. It was lively and crowded, but not uncomfortably so. The wall was lined with drinks, all inviting, the scent of alcohol and the sound of laughter in the air. Ayako distractedly walked through the bar, right towards the counter.

"Evening, m'lady. What would you be having?" The tender asked, expecting her to order a girly, soft drink. After all, the young woman in the traditional dress couldn't have too much of thirst for alcohol.

"Double scotch." Ayako asked, her voice like a wisp. The tender blinked in surprise, but began to prepare her drink while the tailor made shapes with some spilt drink on the counter top, her lack of attention already making her bored.

ten beer bottles sitting on the wall. Ten beer bottles sitting on the wall. And if one beer bottle should be downed by a drunk Ryuji. There would be nine beer bottles sitting on the wall.

Yes the best way to numb heart ache was alcohol and lots of it. Drinking bottle after bottle until he was slumped on the bar tears on his cheeks while he whined to himself. He was going to have a slight hangover tomorrow but other then that he should be alright if he stopped after a few more bottles. He stopped counting how many he had drank. Maybe 5 or more?

He generally ignored the people who came to the bar. Until a Lady sat beside him. Ordering a double scotch and drawing in the split liquid. His eyes followed her movements which were luckily slow so it didn't make him dizzy. Which wouldn't be hard with how foggy his mind was. Sitting up his red hair messier then usual. "Yo....What brings you to the bar tonight..." He said surprizenly un-slurred just sounding more lazy and less energetic then usual.

"Yo....What brings you to the bar tonight..." Ayako could only blink in amazement at the man who addressed her. Or, rather, the nine empty bottles next to him, and the almost broken look in his eyes. Poor guy, the pain of a broken heart radiated out of him; it was just obvious. Ayako just wanted to grab his cheeks and tell him everything was alright, just so he'd stop looking at her like that. Still, at least he wasn't slurred in his speech.

"Somebody's getting his money's worth of drink." The tailor joked, smiling to the drunk man. She kept drawing in the drink on the counter, before her double scotch was slid towards her. She took a short sip of it, ice clinking against the glass as she tipped it to her lips. "So, was it a girl or a guy who broke your heart?"

(Sorry it's short)