Western Shootout! (Amaranta, Doku)

Why was today busy of all days?! It wasn't a holiday or a special event. Usually, those were the busy days. A baseball game or soccer game would bring in a lot of business for Doku. Props for installing that T.V. Regardless the man wasn't going to complain about extra customers. He had mostly regulars but in the back of the bar in a circular booth, doing some shady dealings. Doku wasn't gonna get involved just now.

There was one person who caught his fancy. A female named Amaranta, their conversations were light, but she had been in the bar a couple of times. As for the inside of the bar, it was rather seedy, and clean, though it showed its age, and cheapness, a classic example of a back alley bar.

Now that everyone had their drinks and settled in. Doku would slide the woman a drink, a class of gin mixed with melon juice. A shot in the dark, hoping she would enjoy it. "Amaranta right? Lemme know what you think about this..."

"What's up, Doku? Did ya miss me?"

Humoring the man with a grin, a bronze woman with an imposing figure stepped toward Doku, assuming a seat directly in front of him as he served her a drink. Tilting her head to the side, a whimsical grin playing across her radiant features, Amaranta lifted the glass to her lips, sampling the drink with a curious smirk.

Though none of this could ever reasonably affect her to the degree humans did, one of her profound pastimes sampling whatever the humans consumed that satisfied them - happiness. Whether food or drink, it always stroked her curiosity enough to pursue it, even if she would never truly understand it. Nodding approvingly at the taste, the corners of her mouth formed a pleasant grin.

"Not bad, not bad. Little tangier than what ya hit me with the last time, but I like it. How've ya been, bartender?"

"Aw~ You know me so well. It's hard to match the energy your energy, or your looks~"

The man threw a compliment her way, after all, it was always good to butter up the customers when you could! Though he wasn't lying, Amaranta brought a powerful energy to the bar, that was hard for Doku to describe, but he felt the bar's mood shifting, all eyes were on her. The bartender made sure to watch her reaction to the first sip, that was the most important part. He always tried to figure out the perfect ratios for his regular customers. For example, some people liked more alcohol, some people liked less.

The grin was reassuring, at her statement he would snap his finger and respond to her statements. "Tangy... Next time I'll make it sweeter for you. Probably gonna try watermelon specifically." He rambled a bit, thinking about making her drink better. No matter how shitty the bar was, Doku took pride in his work, it was the only way to keep regulars while not having the money to renovate the entire place.

"Honestly? Not bad. Recently I've had tons of interesting people come in here. This woman who said she was a queen, a weather-controlling fullbringer, this Shinigami woman who only said a few words to me-" He paused at that last part, that was pretty much his fault... but Amaranta didn't need to know that. "I had to get my hands dirty and take out this big hollow..."

As they spoke, those two individuals in the back were also looking at Amaranta, but not in the same way as the others. They seemed like they were sizing her up, with less admiration and more looking for trouble. They were probably stoned or tweaking.

"Singing my praises again, are we~? Well, don't hold yourself back at my expense. Always nice to see a pleasant face during drinking hours."

His compliments sated her ego as they always did. After all, ever since she frequented this place, that had become a common routine between them. Out of boredom, she entered his bar. He always complimented her, served her various drinks, and they would engage in conversation until she grew bored and traveled elsewhere. Of course, compared to everyone else here, Amaranta was a unique individual.

Such a unique nature lentitself to a myriad of wandering eyes no matter where she went. Far from self-conscious about that fact, she rarely acknowledged when others possessed ill intent. As such, she seemingly ignored the two glancing at her from afar, canting her head to the side as Doku revealed he fought an enormous hollow.

"Hoh? Damn. I keep forgettin' yer a capable fighter in yer own right. Shit, why didn't ya invite me, Doku? I would've loved to tag along."

"It's easy to do that~"

Well, she was drinking... and he kinda wanted to as well. Soon enough he'd grab a glass underneath the table placing it down as well, grabbing himself some whiskey and pouring a glass. Raising his small glass for the woman he would offer her a toast.

"Well. How about a cheer ay? To my favorite customer~" A lie, but Amaranta didn't have to know, she was definitely in the top 5! So that counted for something. Regardless if the woman took the cheer he would throw back the whiskey. Maybe it wasn't professional to drink with your customers, but hey, why not have some fun?

Doku kept glancing over at the two, as he spoke with the woman, seems that despite Amaranta being able to ignore things, it was harder for Doku to do that. As she spoke about him being a fighter, Doku would hold out his hand and summon his revolver, it was not the best thing to do alcohol around, but it was only for a moment before Doku made it dissipate into Reishi. Giving her an idea of the weapon he used.

Those two guys seemed a bit more agitated with a gun present. "I'll make sure to do it next time~ Speaking of that. I don't think I have your number anway~"

"Cheers."

Firmly tapping glasses with the bartender, Amaranta consumed her glass in full. Conversing with him was always pleasant, but the two annoying bastards eyeing them from a distance were starting to wear at her patience. Discerning them as negligible threats at the outset, she paid little heed to them and their sour gazes. When she recognized Doku forming that revolver in his palm, the bronze woman canted her head to the side, turning her head in their direction, voicing her blatant discontentment with a visible scowl.

"What? Do we turn you two on or something? Speak or fuck off."

Well good to know she was on board with drinking together. As bad as it sounded, Doku felt more comfortable with a girl when he was drunk, he felt more open. It was weird, though recently he had felt himself getting better at talking, he was getting friendlier with the customers and had been less of a shut-in. Things were going well for once.

As Arnaranta spoke up to the guys in the back, Doku hadn't seen them before, but they raised every red flag they seemed to be tweaking, and doing coke on at the booth, while Doku didn't promote that kind of stuff, it was sadly good for business so he had a don't ask don't tell policy. He would never sell drugs or anything, but if it got people in the bar...

A thin Asian man would stand up, one of the two in the group. He spoke in a very thick Japanese accent, slurred speech, and spoke loudly.

"Gun! He flashed a gun! He's a fuckin fed! She probably is as well!"

He said in Japanese. As the second man, stood up, this man was white, standing up cracking a smile, no teeth... and he looked like he hadn't bathed in a while, he wore a large baggy trenchcoat. he was the dealer.

"Fuck..." He whispered to Amaranta, "They're crossfaded..." He was high and drunk at the same time, definitely a violent thing. The white man pulled out a gun, before aiming it at Amaranta.

Doku's eyes widened before looking at the woman. What the fuck was he supposed to do?! He never had someone draw a gun on him at the bar! He would slowly raise his arms up.

"You got a plan miss fights a lot...?" He whispered to her. Truth be told Doku hadn't been shot before, and while his blut likely would prevent the bullet from entering his body it would hurt.

"Let us go or we shoot bitch!" The Asian man would focus on Amaranta. The white guy clapped still mumbling nonsense.

"What the fuck are they sayin'? Doku... can you translate? My Japanese is kind of lackluster..."

Among the many human customs she was still adapting to, learning multiple languages wasn't one of them. The extent of her knowledge was English and Spanish. This loud dumbass might as well be speaking the language of aliens.

Then there was that ugly bastard without the teeth. Even if she couldn't understand what the other guy was saying, she could discern his words. Let them go or they'll shoot? What the hell? What did it even mean to be crossfaded?

There were so so many questions she had right now, yet that hardly stopped her from voicing her default response to any combustible situation. After all, she was a woman of conflict by nature. What the fuck was a gun to an arrancar? Grinning from ear to ear, Amaranta flashed the middle finger.

"Do it, pussy."

Translate? Well here's the real question. Did Doku WANT to? He was saying some terrible stuff... regardless he nodded and translated for Amaranta. "They think you're a cop and are trying to get them arrested..." He sighed but kept his hands up not exactly wanting to get shot. However as Doku went to speak to Amaranta about going forward, he saw the middle finger followed by a threat.

He was shocked, however just as fast as she said that, the Asian man would aim and fire, aiming directly for her head. This is where Doku would duck for cover, hiding behind the bar, summoning his revolver to his hand yet again. However, the man's shot wasn't alone. It was followed by multiple others, three aiming for Amaranta while two shot at the bar Doku was at, causing some of his bottles to shatter.

"Damn it, hey watch the booze it's expensive!"

The gunshots caused a bit of a panic, as the normal customers scurried out, screaming and panicking.

"What the hell...? What the fuck is a fed?"

At the moment before she finished her sentence, a bullet flew through the air and connected with her head. For all intents and purposes, the bullet was very ineffective. It didn't even dent her flesh. Amaranta reveled in fooling people into thinking they had the upperhand only to fuck them over at the end. Giving into that whimsy, the bronze woman stumbled over across the bar, hit her head across bottle of red wine on her way down, and fell onto the ground beside Doku, motionless as though she truly had died just now, as if that bullet had been strong enough to take her out.

Obviously, it wasn't. But they didn't know that, now did they?