Listen to the Medic-nin

The screen continues to flicker as the bartending station powers up yet again, and the place comes alive with the smell of cheap booze and the sounds of patronage. The bells attached to the door ring every minute or so, announcing the arrival of even more customers. I am behind the counter, taking orders and chatting away, hands busy mixing some classic blends or handing over plates of food that the cook made to the waitress.

The waitress goes from table to table, giving out ordered drinks and snacks to customers, uniform fluttering. Her warmth and energy is only rivaled by the boss in a corner, seemingly bragging about some of her past triumphs to Jamie, a regular of ours. I notice some more familiar faces and flash them a small smile. It's going to be a busy day today, it seems.

I mix another cup of brandtini with the needed ingredients and give it to some blonde. It seems like she's an online security consultant of some sort, and companies actually hire her to test out how well their system fares against cyber attacks. She's got quite the stories, too! From what she told me, apparently she had an arm implant to prevent carpal tunnel, the weird kinds of customers we attract, I swear. 

A businessman orders a large beer, and I blend together some artificial ingredients to mimic the taste and smell of the real deal. It's not the best, but it'll do. I begin going through the drawers, finally finding the can of adelhyde and putting a generous amount of it on top of the drink. He snatches it out of my hands, thanks me loudly, grabs his drink and leaves. Hm, must be late for work, that one. He usually rants about some news company he runs called The Augmented Eye before getting at least a few more big mugs of beers down his system.

I continued to hand out drinks and the occasional snacks made by the cook for two more hours, and after that the amount of customers finally thinned out. Finally, getting the last order from a teen and handing him a sugar rush, the queue is empty. The rush hour should be over for now, with most of the office workers and occasional students already at their respective workplaces or schools. The staff cleans up the mess, and all of us find ourselves with time on our hands.

"Hey, Akari, shouldn't you be sitting down? You almost died, you know." The waitress says. "Any sensible person who just went through life threatening injuries is supposed to be resting and taking it easy, and not working at a BTC bar."

"Is that so?" I hum. "Well, I never claimed to be sensible. Plus, it's pretty boring here, I'd like to be bored for a change these days. Everything goes by so fast, I can't handle it. Boss is also here, so if the bastard wants a round two, he won't be as lucky this time."

"How about you at least sit down? You got stabbed through the heart so take it easy for a bit. I'm sure the bar won't collapse if you aren't manning the bar for a couple minutes." The boss looks at me, worry showing on her face. "Come on, stop giving the staff a hard time. We always have to worry about you after all! Gillain already gives us enough trouble, try not to give us more things to stress about, alright? Indulge all of us just a bit, for once."

"It's not fair if you say it like that, boss." I pull out a chair and sit down. "You would probably tie me down to the chair if I refused anyways, so I might as well." I begin to pull out my phone and start to rearrange the Jukebox in the bar. "Hey, you guys won't mind if I choose some songs? Someone important is about to come visit, and I'd like him to listen to some of my favorite music. I even made a special treat for them. Boss, do you mind if I were to give the guest a piano man free of charge?" I gesture to the bar and the boss gives me a thumbs up.

I begin scrolling through my music playlist, and come across some songs that are perfect for the occasion. "Let's see… Hopes and Dreams, A Neon Glow Lights the Way, Welcome to VA-11 HALL-A, and Every Day is Night. Ah, the last one's my favorite, so jazzy! Hey, do you think my guest's going to enjoy these handpicked tracks?"

The boss shrugs, "They will, if they have good music taste."

The bells ring, and Inochi Yamanaka comes in, looking dazed and confused, and definitely overwhelmed.

"Welcome, Inochi! You might not be familiar with this place, so I am very sorry if a car ran you over on your way here." I wave at him. "Here, I got something good for ya. It's a piano man, I bet you never tried it before, have you? Interesting story behind this one, apparently this drink is made to honor a good friend after his passing."

He walks over to my table and slams his hands down. Ouch, the prick's lucky it ain't broken, or the boss might just label him as a trouble maker and throw him out right then and there.

"What is this…place?" He demands. "I've never seen any mind like this. It's too complex for it to be merely imagination, with fucking metal boxes on wheels going faster than the average Jounin, and every kind of strange shop imaginable. Hell, there was a shop just for something disc shaped called 'DVD's, so you better explain yourself!"

"Come on, Inochi," I give him a look. "You are definitely smarter than this. The answer is simple, is it not?" I motion to everything around me, "See this? This is what's called a BTC bar in my world. It is extremely popular for people to buy simple sweet non-alcoholic drinks or fancy alcohol, and generally chill in. Hell, buy a piano man, bring your laptop, and you can stay here for the rest of the day with no one kicking you out! Speaking of which-"

The boss goes over to the kitchen and grabs the drink, already made, and puts it on the table that Inochi and I are at. "Try it out, I made the drink myself. I personally think my speciality is in mixing fluffy dreams, but I make a good cup of piano man too."

Inochi seems shellshocked, so I start to push it towards him and he swats it away, disgusted. "What the hell? What are you even trying to say? This is no time for games and treats!" He shouts, grabbing my collar. Man, this shirt is like the only fancy clothing I own. Sure, it was issued by the company, but it's either I wear this or the T-shirt with a giant SLUT spelling in front, so yea, he better don't fuck my only good piece of clothing up, or I can and will kick him in the balls.

"That drink was made with love, don't waste it like that. Someone might need to clean it up later, you know. Try and be a little more considerate of others." I look at the discarded cup and a large puddle lying pathetically on the floor. "At least drink a bit of the piano man I made before throwing it away, man. It's like the most expensive drink on the menu."

Huh, he's gritting his teeth pretty hard here, guess he really is pretty pissed? "Akari, why are you so nonchalant about this? Your world? You're practically saying that you came here because of some freak accident or something! This is a serious matter!"

"It really is not that much of a big deal." I lie. I am getting better and better at that these days. Uchiha genes, and all that. "Reincarnated, reborn, transmigrated, space-time seal, does it have a difference? In the end, I'm here in Konohagakure with no way back." I smile bitterly, and motion to the boss and waitress to leave us alone. They just left without a fuss. I really wish real people would do that more often.

Inochi looks green. Hooo boy, is he about to puke? Probably can't do that in my mind, but I don't wanna find out. "Hey hey, it's alright. I've been dealing with this shit for years, and I'm fine, see?" He looks at me disdainfully. "Alright, I definitely have issues, but hey, I ain't in denial, right? You might be a tad bit overwhelmed, but it's really fine. Just keep this to yourself and don't spill my secrets to anyone!" I wink at him for good measure and decide to mix a sugar rush for him to calm down.

He chokes on my drink and spits it out. After I told him not to waste it too! "Is it too sweet or something? Might have added too much sugar…"

"No, thanks for the drinks. They were great." But he still hasn't finished the thing, how does he know it's really that good?

"Hey, I'm serious about that. Don't go yelling my secrets out for the world, alright?" I smile at him. It's mean and horrible, and I knew it, so I take professional pride in him flinching. "After all, who would even believe you? Your clanmates probably won't see this when they check my mind, so be a pal and go clear my name or whatever you're working on. I'm sure the Hokage and many important people are eager to know if they got another Uchiha survivor or another clan killer on their hands."

Ah, now he looks positively murderous. That's what I'm used to these days. Seriously, what have I ever done to him? You know, except pretty much using him as a way out of this whole shitshow and dragging him into my problems without his consent? Everyone wants to murder Akari Uchiha for apparently doing nothing but existing and generally being a slight nuisance to mostly everyone.

I pat his shoulders and he stiffens. "Loosen up, Inochi! Hey, you know Shinya?" He nods jerkily. "He looks up to you, ya know? Sees you as a role model and all that shit. He's a good friend of mine, so I won't do anything to you as long as you play along, yea? You're a psychologist, after all. Might I ask you to be my shrink?"

He reluctantly meets my eyes. "I'm going to be watching you closely, am I clear?"

I beam at him. "I would be pretty disappointed if you didn't, so go ahead. I assure you, I have the wellbeing of Konohagakure as my number one priority. Just take good care of me, and I'll take good care of you." I hold my hand out and Inochi shakes it. "Looking forward to working with you, partner!" Oh boy, Inochi's seething!

Gaslight victim number one, and nine hundred ninety nine left. You go, girl!

Now all that's left is to show him some specific parts of my memories and try my best to not let one of the best mind readers take a peek at my more… secretive future stuff. It's going to be hard, but I'm always up for a good challenge. In the meantime, I guess I should start to change the scenery a bit. Hmm, maybe a theater would be better for memory viewing?