Sinking Into Pools of Mocha 1

By: Vash-chan aka Makoto Almasy

Rating: PG13

Summary: Weiss Kreuz/Sailormoon. ~Focuses on Schwarz~. Makoto bumps into someone from five years ago, discovering his latest profession.

Estimated no of chapters: 5

Disclaimer: Project Weiß owns Schwarz. Takeuchi Naoko owns Kino Makoto.

// = telepathic talking = thoughts

Richtig = correct (if you say 'richtig oder falsch', it just means the phrase 'true or false' but on its own richtig can mean 'right' or 'correct')

****

Makoto walked down the busy night time setting of Juuban's streets. Her tired eyes had trouble taking in the bright neon lights flashing above the shop windows as she strolled past enthusiastic shoppers, who breezed past like scattering ants escaping their nest to find food. In Makoto's perspective they appeared to be nothing more than moving shadows rather than an army of ants. She just wasn't paying any attention to absorb the faces of other people or other objects around her. She had never been this tired in a long time. Going to a long museum exhibition this afternoon with the other guys must have really worn her out. Science was never her thing, which explained the easy fatigue kicking in from the start.

Everyone went to the exhibition in order to make Ami happy. After all she was going to be a doctor soon so it wouldn't hurt to show some support for a mutual friend, right? Ami had to visit the museum to take notes and see whether some of the displays there could help her with completing her final year project at university. Like the others, Makoto had absolute confidence and faith in Ami. That blue haired girl was going to succeed in her final year without any problems. Everyone knew she was a hardworking girl who buried her head behind a book. There was no doubt she would do well.

Makoto's head was free from constantly hearing the word 'galaxy' and 'universe' ever since the exhibition ended and her friends had headed back home. There were always late night shoppers coming into town to spend their money away. Some youths wanted to party till they dropped dead whilst others insisted on buying clothes until their purses were empty. Makoto's green irises bulged when she approached a shop window with a very white background. The mannequins posing in front wore darker clothes while the setting they stood upon was simply white. What made Makoto blind briefly were the powerful lights shining from the ceiling.

She breezed past the window to continue her way back home when her pager bleeped out of nowhere. Her gaze ascended to the black object sitting on the waist band of her loose jeans and the words 'if you can, come for an hour shift' appeared in intense lettering. She knew who had paged her. It was one of her colleagues from work. Looked like she could still make up for the night off work she had requested in order to go the science exhibition. Maybe it might awaken her combat senses and remove endless jargon of physics that had been left behind since departing from the museum. Who cared if it was late? She never had anything to do these days. Finding a worthwhile job was hard for her. Catering business was always very difficult to break through in this town and Makoto had given up looking for any cooking-related job after writing millions of letters to companies. They just wouldn't reply to her and say whether she was successful or had been rejected. Talk about bad manners. Well if they were busy then she guessed she had to let them off.

Rather than go for a specific career, Makoto had instead found a part-time job as a late night bouncer outside a popular bar. Sounded unsuitable for someone like her, right? But to other people who got on her bad side, they were sorry for taking her too lightly. At least she had another skill to use – her fighting ability. That was what she needed during most of her nightly hours. Just throw some kicks and punches to disobedient losers then her job was done for the evening. Prior to arriving at her destination Makoto halted her casual stroll to approach a busy café. Her nostrils detected the fresh smell of hot chocolate and the distant odour of coffee floating in the evening air. Maybe a hot drink would wake her up so she could really wake up to do her job for an hour.

Perhaps coffee would be best to drink in order to wake up. Although she didn't drink it as much as hot chocolate, caffeine was a once in a while treat and only ever went into her digestive system whenever she felt like drinking it. Ami did warn her about how unhealthy caffeine was when taken too often. The brunette ordered a tiny cup to take away and paid the man standing by the cash till inside the café. Coffee had its other reasons to be rarely touched by someone like her. Apart from health concerns, there were personal memories. Some that even she couldn't recall so well from her past. Everything in her mind had consisted of duty, Youma and fighting.

However, drinking coffee somehow triggered another thought and freed her mind from thinking about Youma activity. She was thinking about a person. Someone she saw five years ago and didn't give her a good impression. Why the hell was she drinking coffee at a time like this? Makoto never liked drinking caffeine this much. What did this unusual thought mean? Becoming more curious by the minute, she sipped her coffee thirstily and continued to walk. Maybe it was a supernatural aura within the coffee that was making her think weirdly.

****

"So, how's your night going, Crawford?" Schuldig slammed the passenger door shut after returning from a nightly stroll in town. Bradley Crawford had his head in front of a Japanese newspaper. He didn't look up to greet his team mate as he continued to read the exclusive story sitting on the front page.

"Did you get my drink?" Crawford asked without looking up to see the German.

"Here." Schuldig placed the cup into his leader's awaiting fingers. Crawford sniffed the beverage before taking his first sip. Well, from looking at the way the American was behaving, he wasn't going to say anything else and concentrate on reading that newspaper. The orange haired German sighed and stared through the window next to him. These people tonight had nothing better to do, did they? Didn't their parents teach them to stay in at night? Shouldn't any kids be asleep? What would their mother or father say when they find out their kids had stolen their credit cards to buy something expensive behind their backs? Humans these days were going to be as bad as Schwarz soon if things like this kept on going.

Turning back to the inside of the car, Schuldig took a peek at the front of the newspaper sitting on Crawford's lap where the huge bold heading 'violence reduced in bar' was spread across the top of the page. According to the article the number of brawls outside the most popular night club had decreased yet again this past month. Why didn't the owners just close that place down if things constantly got out of hand? According to the article, the local hospital sometimes received four brutally injured casualties every night whenever violent scenes like this happened. The colour red was something that all staff in emergency rooms had grown used to in their time. But nowadays, things weren't so violent for a strange reason. Schuldig didn't know why that was the case. And neither did Crawford.

"Looks like the police are doing a better service in this town," The orange haired German said.

"I doubt this has anything to do with them," Crawford answered.

"Is it Weiss' doing then?"

The American shook his head. "Not likely. If it was them then there would be dead bodies. The paper doesn't state anyone being killed. Blood and bruises were the main words mentioned." Schuldig was surprised. So if this wasn't Weiß then who was the goody two shoes to fulfil the task of taking out the trash without murdering anyone? Sure there were drunkards who attended entertaining places like this night club but if Schuldig worked there he'd play around with their minds and make them kill themselves to end their sins. Either that or let Farfarello have all the fun in dicing each of the naughty humans.

"So who do you think is the hero of this town, Crawford?" Schuldig asked.

"I think we can find out," The Schwarz leader replied. He tilted his head over one shoulder to the back seats and Schuldig spotted a dark smile creep beneath the American's lips as he spoke to the third passenger. Witnessing his leader pull off a face like that always meant something amusing was going to happen. One amber eye glittered in the dark surroundings of the car as soon as Crawford's gaze turned into his direction. Farfarello had awakened from his slumber when he understood that tonight he could do as he pleased by his leader. Just one stare from the American and he knew exactly what he had to do in this new mission. Once he let out a throaty laugh, the length of his blade extended and his tongue licked the shiny segment of his favourite weapon. Schuldig and Crawford could sense the desperation to cut someone surface around Farfarello's exterior.

"Go to this place." Crawford showed the Irishman a picture of Juuban's popular night club on the front of the newspaper he had held in his hands. "If you cause enough attention, it will lure this so-called saviour out of hiding."

"Smart idea," Schuldig complimented and opened the door to leave the car. "I'll go watch the show."

/Don't let Farfarello get too carried away/ Crawford warned as soon as his team mates stood on the pavements that lead to the busy town.

/I'll keep an eye on him/ Schuldig replied back telepathically before disappearing into the noisy crowd.

****

Makoto threw the empty coffee cup into the bin. Why did the weather have to be so cold, even when the season was summer? Her fingerless gloves weren't helping her and Makoto had to cross her arms to hide her hands underneath her armpits. It was the only way to save some heat being released into the air. So far the night hadn't been any different ever since she started working here. Thanks to her the number of thugs coming to cause trouble had reduced dramatically, as did any number of deaths on the spot. It seemed each person who decided to come here definitely knew it was a bad idea to mess with someone like Makoto after hearing small gossip lurking among their neighbours about this latest bouncer.

Still although these past nights weren't as bad as before, Makoto was able to let off some steam by keeping up with her Karate training and of course earn some money to support her living. The other bouncers working in this club knew she was working temporary until something from the catering industry popped up. Maybe then her career as a professional chef would begin in front of her eyes. Her hour was almost up. Normally Makoto's shift outside was two or three hours, depending by how busy the night club was but tonight was the first time in her job that she was working for one hour only. She didn't notice how the shift was nearly over. It was probably down to her daydreaming and the fact that it was very quiet tonight.

The door to the disco opened and a fellow colleague who went by the name Tai appeared next to her. He was older by at least four years, had a height of 5ft10 and was tattooed all over his arms with pictures of dragons.

"Mako, thanks so much for coming - even if it was supposed to be your night off," Tai scratched his spiky brown hair embarrassingly as he talked. "You're probably one of the most reliable guys this club has ever had."

"Oh stop praising me," Makoto said, smiling. Tai was one of the main people who didn't approve of Makoto's company when she first came here to work, mainly because she was female and macho instincts were high among the male bouncers here. But after showing what she could do to two robbers down the street the owner of the club offered her a job without any need of an interview or filling in any application forms. "The science exhibition was long and my brain cells have to be refreshed from anything to do with space or atoms. Guess I had to do something to wake me up from science, right?"

Tai laughed. "Yeah I get your point."

"It's your shift now, right?" She stepped away from the door.

"Yeah, it is." He waved to her as she departed from her position. "Thanks again."

"Don't mention it. Have a good night!" Makoto waved back and turned on her heels to make her way back home. It was hard to believe how this club had grown quieter than previous years whilst the main town centre was swarming with people who were addicted to shopping. Having a very noisy town centre during the night was at least better than having a group of drunkards fighting outside a bar or stuffy nightspot. Passers-by here weren't intoxicated although there were chances of spotting individuals dealing with drugs. But that wasn't Makoto's job. Those things were dealt by the police. What Makoto did do was prevent any idiots from growing extremely violent while alcohol swirled through their bodies.

In spite of spotting very few policeman patrolling the streets at night Makoto could see the violence that occurred in all places within the Juuban district was falling; albeit very slowly. But it was progress, wasn't it? Not many people were being murdered or beaten up these days. Was it mainly down to her doing? Because she had been defending against various people each night it never crossed her mind that she was the likely candidate to have created a much peaceful environment at night. She doubted that anyone else in town knew about this discovery either.

"This sure was a good way to spend the rest of the night, wasn't it?" Makoto murmured while she strolled by a late-night supermarket. Tonight's shift made her feel like she had been standing outside for five minutes. Wasn't it strange how daydreaming just made you lose track of time? Well she didn't want to make such a fuss out of a short job for the night and thought the best thing to do right now was get some rest as soon as she arrived back home. Only then would she be able to get anything science-related out of her head and focus on other things – like how tomorrow night's shift was going to be and whether anyone wanted to get on her bad side.

But those visions couldn't get much of attention after Makoto received a hard nudge to the left shoulder. Someone had tried to run past her although wasn't successful in accomplishing this task and ended up slipping on the ground. Makoto expected it to be a delinquent male who wasn't as young as twelve. However, when her emerald irises ascended to the person who had collided with her, she took that thought back on there being a delinquent present. In fact it was a *girl* who had bumped into her. Someone who looked nothing like a rebel who lived off the streets. Perhaps a teenage girl who was out with her friends and who gained far too much attention from the male crowd.

"Hey, take it easy." The first thing that Makoto noticed was fear in her brown eyes. Actually she looked like she was scared all over. There was sweat trailing from her forehead and the girl's fingers were shaking heavily. She wasn't just scared. She was terrified. But of what? Makoto could easily guess what the reason was for the girl's running. It was to escape from someone and the likely reasons were either an abusive boyfriend or a thug who picked on weak women. Apart from the shaking and sweat on her skin, Makoto spotted some blood from freshly made scratches on the girl's face and lower arms. Whoever did this to her was going to be very sorry for picking on a young helpless female like this individual here.

"Who did this to you?" Makoto couldn't hear what the girl was saying. The shock was too much for her to speak normally and the former Karate maniac had to lower her ears closer to hear each word.

"T-the guy is crazy," The girl suddenly spoke. "He tried to kill me."

"*Who* tried to kill you?" Makoto asked. An unexpected gasp from the passers-by was a good enough sign to focus her awareness elsewhere and she turned over one shoulder to see who this crazy person was. Looked like he had caught up with his victim at last. And the girl had a point on saying this guy was crazy.  He looked like he was ready to pounce his prey with that long knife of his. Makoto could see why this girl was scared…but she couldn't stand around to be freaked out by such an appearance. This bastard was going to pay for frightening an innocent person. She turned back to the girl and said, "Go call the police. Tell them what happened."

"But I…" The victim wasn't certain whether this was okay to do, considering the fact that this knifeman was ululating in a high pitch and running towards Makoto at such speed.

"Dammit, just go!" Makoto didn't waste another minute of convincing the girl and pushed her away in time before ducking slightly to dodge a near pierce to the forehead. Ascending back to normal standing level, she grabbed the arm holding the pointy weapon and swung the thug's body around before throwing him into a lamppost. The clash of a human figure against steel collided in her ears and she saw the knifeman crouch into a sitting position as his backside hit the ground. Was he out cold *already*? That throw Makoto pulled off wasn't meant to black the guy out. Of course she expected the lamppost to bend (which it didn't by a large amount - strangely enough) but not see the thug bending over as though he was sleeping while sitting down.

As she steadily walked towards the white-haired thug, a quiet snigger surfaced from the knifeman. The laugh was horrible and alongside his scarred face it depicted a small hint of insanity. OK so he WAS still conscious after all. Makoto got herself ready in a front stance, inserting a block to defend the abdomen. While in her position, she was unsure on whether to be defensive or be the one to attack first. It was difficult to make this decision with the strange laughter coming from that guy. As though it was music being turned up loud on a hi-fi, the guy's horrifying cackle grew louder as his face tilted upwards to stare at the curious pair of emerald orbs observing him.

****

This is indeed a surprise Schuldig thought while watching his team mate recover bit by bit from that throw. Who would have assumed that a *young girl* was the town's saviour? It wasn't common to see any normal females show some moves like that in public. It was always the men who showed their macho side. Was this girl this generation's Wonder Woman? Where was the popular outfit to go with her heroine look then? Or maybe she didn't need one to prove her power. Well, regardless on having an outfit or not, it didn't matter to Schuldig at all. As far as he was concerned, he was happy watching this mysterious girl acting alert (and perhaps a little afraid) around the Irishman cackling like hell in his sitting posture.

/Schuldig, what's going on?/ Crawford's serious voice interrupted the German's entertainment.

/You wouldn't believe who this so-called saviour is/ Schuldig said, grinning at the same time.

/Who?/ the leader prompted. His mind grew more impatient when he heard Schuldig laughing ridiculously and the telepath grew serious before telling him the truth in words. Now his interest was growing /what does she look like?/.

/Ooh let's see/ Schuldig had to think carefully in order to describe an accurate profile of this female saviour, who looked like she was sweating nervously on the back of her neck/ Well she has long brown hair, probably acts violent and…wow for a Japanese girl she is pretty tall/.

/Tall, with brown hair and acts violent, did you say?/

/Richtig/ Schuldig confirmed. Judging by the brief silence between the telepathic conversation with his leader, the German assumed that Crawford was thinking about something…perhaps something that he might know or might please him somehow. Schuldig could see him smile in his mind.

/Hmm…I think I'll join you and see who this saviour is for myself/

****

"What the hell are you on?" Makoto asked, frowning. Whatever he had taken this evening, it was sure as hell making him high. Apart from the disturbing cackle being thrown at her, the knifeman's one amber eye was distracting Makoto from anything else surrounding them. Stop staring at that yellow eye, dammit She scolded herself. Who cared about how he stared at her? She could go for the other parts of his body too, right? "Oh man!" Makoto lost her inner concentration when the cropped haired dude decided to attack first, charging at her with that knife of his.

For someone who was a likely druggie this guy could move as fast as her. It was pure luck that kept saving her each time he moved in to attack with his weapon. Makoto wasn't sure whether he was aware of the very minute scratches he had successfully pulled off on her torso. The scratches weren't life-threateningly painful of course but they were still minor injuries that could be dealt with just by washing away the blood with water. She delivered a jump kick to the face and followed the strike with an elbow to the jaw, pushing the knifeman's face till he stared up into the dark sky. Once landing on the ground, Makoto was glad to see there was some blood showing from the guy's bottom lip. It proved she was getting somewhere with this fight.

She began to wonder whether this knifeman was superhuman or an alien who hid special powers beneath that human skin of his. Her fighter mind abruptly took control of her brain and she was back in reality to remember who tonight's opponent was. In time she grabbed his arm again, pushed it to the side and struck the open abdomen hard in one swift side thrust kick, pushing the knifeman backwards. As he stumbled, she continued her assault with ferocious jabs to the face and finalised her combo with a surprise roundhouse kick with the left leg.

"Let's see if you can recover from that," She murmured; pleased of the attacks she managed to deliver. People who underwent Makoto's combos like that usually couldn't stand erectly and most of the time collapsed to the ground in defeat. Perhaps that was going to happen with this guy right now. But then again…maybe not. His amber iris shot up once again and a grin caught her eye to show he was still around for another fight. Damn this prick! Didn't he feel any pain since the fight started? She thought that combo she did a minute ago would at least dizzy the guy. But he didn't seem anywhere near affected by any of the blows.

"Farfarello."

Far-what? Makoto's eyes grew in horror at the sound of another voice. Who the hell decided to interrupt? She knew it wasn't the police because there were no sirens blasting down the street yet. Did that girl not call the police at all after she went? Was she too frightened? Makoto couldn't blame her if she panicked too much and wasn't able to dial the emergency number; hence ran back home soon after escaping from this crazy guy. The white haired knifeman lowered his knife, which Makoto presumed was because he recognised the person who had arrived at the scene.

"Leave her to me," The new voice then said.

Makoto turned in all directions to see where this new opponent was. He wasn't in front of her or on the left or right hand side. Finding out who this new guy was just making her more anxious by the second. "Wait! W-who are…? Uh!" She received an immediate backhand strike to the right cheek and it was her turn to stumble and lose proper balance from standing. Makoto thought she was about to black out from that hit but she shook away the dizziness to recover immediately. This new guy packed quite a punch, she had to admit. And that was an automatic reaction coming from the first strike. Makoto could tell the voice wasn't purely Japanese but the speaker seemed to have a very good grasp at her native language.

"Shit," She cursed quietly at the pain on her cheek. This was the first ounce of pain she had received since the beginning of the day.

"I see that your aggression hasn't changed a bit." The new voice continued to say.

Upon hearing the new pair of footsteps approaching, Makoto pivoted on her heels to see who was behind her. The bright light coming from the lamppost was strong enough to show a new shadow form in the dark. Slowly, the new person's identity began to show in colour both through flesh and clothing. Her eyes widened when she saw who was standing in front of her. Surely it couldn't be him. That really cool graduate who she met a couple of times when working part-time in the local café while still at school.

"It's been quite a long time, hasn't it?" The person stated, grinning cruelly – much to Makoto's shock.

"Y-you can't be…you can't be Brad," She said.

TBC