Accidental Alchemy

Gods help me.

Yui sighed, brushing the tips of her blonde bob out of her eyes with her black-painted fingernails. Desperate times, and all that. We don't have a choice. There's just not enough people left to work.

"Hey, Akane? C'mere a minute?"

It was a slow night at the Phoenix, but because it was a Saturday, its full staff complement was on hand for the evening. Figures. Tomorrow we'll have nobody behind the bar, and probably be slammed. Just our luck. Maybe not, though. I guess we should've expected it would be quiet without our star. Yui checked the digital wristwatch on her left arm. She's probably halfway through There Are No Words by now, down in Fukuoka. I wonder if Sakura's at the show. I wonder if she…

She glanced up at the little glass jar on the back counter of the main bar, with six blue stirring straws protruding slightly from its open mouth. Can't think like that. That's how bad shit starts happening in my head. There's plenty of people I love here to focus on, without worrying about the ones who chose to leave. She shook her head softly as if willing the darkness to pop out of her brain through her ears, managing a slight - if somewhat nervous - smile at her youngest sister's wife as Akane joined her behind the bar.

"Hey, Yui. What's up?"

Yui swallowed hard. "So, uh, how would you feel about, maybe, um… learning how to mix some drinks?"

Akane's face lit up like Christmas morning, bouncing excitedly on her white tennis shoes. "Really?! You're gonna show me?"

I'm gonna try, anyway. Yui looked around the back of the bar nervously. Any sharp objects I need to put away or anything? "Uh… Yeah! Sure! Whaddya wanna start with?"

"I mean… It's the Phoenix! It's gotta be the Dragonfire, right?" Akane giggled excitedly, not noticing the way Yui's shoulders slumped at her words.

Of course she picks that. Girl can't handle making a rum and Coke, so let's jump right to lighting shit on fire. Fan-fucking-tastic.

"Okay." Yui took a deep breath, letting it out slowly through clenched teeth. "First things first. In the fridge, there's a white jug. Grab it?" She began gathering liquor bottles from the back counter as she waited for Akane to retrieve the jug.

"So this…" Yui held up the jug Akane brought her. "... is the pineapple juice for the Dragonfire. It is not used for anything else, because we make this stuff special. For every 300 milliliters of pineapple juice, we cut up one jalapeño and leave it in the juice overnight. This is called infusing it, and it makes the juice nice and spicy. Use the regular pineapple juice in the cans for anything else that calls for it. Got it?"

Akane nodded, smiling brightly. "You bet! What next?"

Yui held up a steel device that looked like a small hourglass, open at both ends, like two funnels that had been welded together in the middle. "See this? This is called a jigger. We use it to measure stuff."

"Huh." Akane rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I've never seen you use one of those before."

"Yeah, well…" Yui smirked confidently. "I'm really good at this. You're… not. Yet. So, you use the jigger." I taught fucking Ranko to do trigonometry. I can handle this. "It has two sides, a big one and a small one." She turned the object over in her hand, letting Akane observe the difference, before handing it to Akane along with a thick mixing glass.

"Alright. Start with the big side of the jigger, and let's add two of them full of our spicy juice." She observed as her instructions were followed. "Great! Now, grab the mezcal? The clear stuff back there with the blue label."

"Mezcal?" Akane grabbed the bottle, cradling it in both hands and reading the label.

Yui shook her head with a sigh. "It's a lot like tequila, but, like, its older, pruder big brother. Let's add one of the big jiggers of that to the glass."

Akane nodded, following the directions precisely. If I screw this up, they're never gonna let me try this again. I've been waiting for over a year.

Yui beamed. "You're doing so great! Flip the jigger over to the little side now, and fill it up about halfway with lime juice. Little green bottle over there on the counter." She watched as her directions were followed. "Perfect! Add that, and then the same amount of the rum. Red label, second from the right."

"What next?" Akane spun on her heels to smile up at Yui. "This is so much fun!"

"I don't know if you can handle the next part," Yui said with a confident smirk. "It gets hard from here. We need ice. Great big scoop."

Akane grabbed the scoop, filling the mixing glass nearly to the top with ice cubes. A few fell onto the floor, and she winced. "Shit! Sorry about that!"

Yui waved her hand dismissively. "Occupational hazard, don't worry about it. That's why we got these rubber mats on the floor. Keeps us from slipping. Helps your feet not get tired, too." She spun a tin cup into her hand, larger than the glass Akane was building the cocktail in. "Alright. This is your shaker. Let's pop that upside-down on top of the glass, and kinda swat it on the ass a little. If you do it right, you'll sort of feel it pop a little when the seal forms. If you don't feel that, the stuff will go everywhere when we shake it. Don't go too hard though; we don't want the customers picking bits of glass out of their drink."

Akane giggled brightly. "Yeah, probably not." She gave the bottom of the metal cup a firm slap. "How's that?"

Yui picked up the mated glasses, examining them carefully. "Looks good to me. Now, shake the piss out of that for a few seconds, okay? Don't forget to smile when you do it; this is when we get the customer excited about what they're gonna get."

The younger girl began rocking the shaker over her shoulder with both hands, as she'd seen her sister do a thousand times. As she did, Yui's eyes rose to greet a customer approaching the bar. "Hey, hon, what can I getcha?"

The middle-aged man adjusted his glasses, checking the laminated menu that rested on the bar. "Oh, just a negroni, I think."

"Easy-peasy! Coming right up!" With a speed and deftness that shocked Akane, Yui built and served the beverage, trading it across the bar for a few bills in small denominations.

"Okay," Yui said, turning back to look at Akane. "That should be just about… wait… what… what the hell did you do?" She looked down in horror at the glass. Akane had removed the shaking tin from the mixing glass, but the drink was now no longer the appealing, milky yellow of pineapple. The color more closely resembled something Yui had mopped from the floor of the ladies' room a few hours ago.

Akane smiled proudly. "I remembered that we add some extra spice to it right before we serve it, so I got a head start!"

Yui glanced to her right, where the shaker of red pepper flakes remained out of Akane's reach. Her head slowly drooped until her nose rested in her palm. "And… how exactly did you do that?"

The black-haired girl waved a small red bottle in the air. "Hot wing sauce! Not too much though, just three or four squirts."

The Phoenix' lead bartender slumped as if her heart had just been torn out of her chest. Gods preserve me, she's hopeless. "Okay, well, let's just go ahead and dump that, and we'll start again."

Akane frowned dejectedly. "You're not even gonna taste it?"

Yui glanced up at the little cherry jar on the counter, counting the six plastic stirring straws sticking out of it with her eyes. "I… umm… I really shouldn't, Akane. Trying not to drink, and all."

Laughing, Hana waved at Yui from the service bar. "Oh, I think you'll be fine, as long as you just do a little taste with a straw. I'm super proud of you for turning it down, but you can't teach her if you don't don't taste what she's making and give her feedback. Don't worry, honey, we won't let you fall off the wagon, I promise. We'll watch ya."

But, I really, really don't want to, Yui thought with dismay. Way to go fuck up a perfectly good excuse, Ma. Oh well. Let's get this over with. Not much point wasting the prosecco to finish it.

Yui dipped a white plastic straw in the puce-colored liquid, capping the end of it with her thumb. Closing her eyes and steeling her nerves, she pulled the straw into her mouth and moved her thumb. Akane watched as her elder sister's eyes bulged nearly out of her skull. Yui dropped the straw on the floor, leaning over the polyurethane bar counter as she coughed and sputtered. "Oh, gods."

I mean, we've had people ask us to crank up the spice on the Dragonfire on occasion, but that thing's got less fucking balance than Ranko's bank account.

Cackling, Mei slipped behind Yui to retrieve another aluminum tray of spiral-cut lemon garnishes. "Good stuff, huh?"

Yui glared, grabbing another straw and jamming it down into the glass. "Mei, c'mere. Try this."

Mei brushed one of her electric blue pigtails from her face, a few strands of loose hair getting caught on the black spiked leather bracelet she wore on her left arm. "Let me get this straight."

She pointed down at the mixing glass on the counter. "Whatever that is in that glass…"

Her hands rose, waving her fingers in front of her sister's cheeks. "... put that look…"

Her pointing fingers fell slightly downward, now indicating Yui's torso. "... on your face…"

Mei turned her wrists, so that both of her index fingers were pointing at herself. "... and now you expect me to put it in my mouth?!"

Yui sneered, withdrawing the straw from the glass. "We're sisters. We suffer together. Get your scrawny ass over here." She reached out, grabbing Mei by the hood of her sweatshirt, and when Mei opened her mouth to protest, Yui crammed the straw into her mouth. Teach you to be a little shit.

Mei whimpered, leaning over the sink and spitting out the contents of her mouth. "Fuck me! Forget dragonfire; that tastes like fucking HELLFIRE!"

Akane frowned, fidgeting sadly with her hands. I'm sorry, girls. I'm just awful at this.

"Alright, by popular request!" Orochi called loudly to the crowd from the microphone mounted above his deejay turnstile. "Here's Ranko and the Dapper Dragons' Demon in Your Radio - the Hellfire Cut!" While the extended version of the song was reserved for live performances, Ranko had recorded a version of it for the bar to play in her absence.

"Wait, what did he say?" Yui blinked, her eyes darting between Mei's choking and the young man pressing buttons on the sound equipment.

"The Hellfire Cut. It's what Ranko calls the version of Demon with the extra verses." Akane sighed. Does she really not pay attention when her sister performs? I guess she's too busy. People actually want to drink the cocktails she makes.

Yui stroked her chin. "The Hellfire Cut…" She glanced down at the murky pinkish-brown liquid in Akane's mixing glass. "A drink that tastes like hellfire…"

Mei's eyes followed as her sister began darting around behind the bar, collecting armloads of ingredients. "Yui, what are you…"

"Shut up, Mei! Just, gimme a second. I got an idea!" Her eyes scanned the shelves. I need orange. I've got yellow. I need red. And I gotta balance that heat. Red and sweet. Red and sweet. Where are you…

She grinned, grabbing a small tin of strawberries from under the bar, garnishes for the daiquiris. "Akane, cut the tops off all these real quick!" Yui slid the tray over to her, moving frantically behind the bar. Wing sauce is no good, too many other flavors. But, tabasco…

Grabbing a new mixing glass, Yui began building another Dragonfire, using smaller measures of all of the ingredients except the alcohol to leave extra room in the glass. She moved at a dazzling speed, an almost possessed determination in her eyes. Okay. That's our base. Now, let's raise some hell. Yui dripped a small amount of the tabasco into the glass.

"Done!" Akane held up the tray proudly. At least I did that right.

Yui took the tin of strawberries from Akane, dumping its contents into a blender with a scoop of sugar and setting it to work. Within moments, a thick, deep red syrup sluiced from the pitcher into the mixing glass. As the heavier syrup began to sink in the milky yellow pineapple juice, it began to take on a wispy orange appearance. She flipped a metal shaker tin over her shoulder, catching it behind herself and slapping it firmly on the mixing glass.

"Whoa," Izumi said, leaning over to her mother behind the service bar with a joyful grin. "Mama, she's back."

Having finished rocking the glasses over her shoulder, Yui set them on the counter again with the mixing glass pointed down. What sloshed to the bottom of the mated glasses almost glowed a bright orange.

"Holy crap! It looks just like…"

Mei nodded, leaning over Akane's shoulder as they watched their energized mixologist sister work. "Like liquid fire."

"Ashes. Ashes. Where are you, ashes…" Yui scanned her supplies again, a wide grin crossing her lips. "Yes! C'mere, you." She reached to the back of her little caddy of rimming salts, pulling out a small jar that looked like it was filled with tiny grains of charcoal.

"You're gonna dump dirt in it?!" Akane blinked. And I thought I was bad.

"Black salt." Yui dumped a bit of the salt in a small dish. She flipped an empty glass upside down, dipping it first into a saucer of simple syrup before grinding it into the little pile of black powder. When she withdrew it, the entire rim of the glass was coated in what appeared to be blackened stone.

"I need a garnish. Something that'll burn orange." Yui's eyes scanned her supplies again, snapping her fingers with her left hand as she poured the drink from her mixing shaker carefully into the glass without mussing the salt rim.

"Hold that thought!" Hana grinned, disappearing through the blue saloon door into the back room. She returned from the kitchen a moment later with a long stick, on which two large white marshmallows were skewered on one end. "Leftovers from Hoshi's birthday. They'll burn real good…"

Yui grinned…"And they'll turn black almost instantly, and still taste good. And the extra sweet is there in case the spice overpowers somebody. My mother is a fucking genius." She leaned over as Hana crammed the stick into the glass, kissing her on the cheek. "Lighter!"

"Yo!"

Yui turned to face the sound, raising her hand just in time to catch the blue disposable lighter Izumi had thrown from the service bar. With a quick flick, the tower of marshmallows protruding from the glass of viscous orange liquid were blackening under a wisp of bright orange flame.

She slipped a clean straw into the glass, pulling it into her mouth and releasing her thumb. A satisfied purr rumbled from her lips as she tossed the straw in the trash bin, handing the still-aflame finished glass to Akane.

"I give you… the Hellfire."

Izumi smirked. "I don't know, Yui. You're talented as hell, but… strawberries, pineapple and tabasco? Who would ever put that combination together?"

Yui nodded with a grin. "It's batshit crazy. It's bold. It's unpredictable. And it's amazing." She grinned down at Akane as the younger girl's eyes brightened with her first taste of Yui's concoction. "Sound like anyone you know?"

Akane grinned, nodding as she thought of Ranko's favorite lip gloss with the taste of the cocktail still on her tongue. Sweet, tastes of strawberry, and then it sneaks up and smacks you in the ass with how hot it is. Yep, that's my wife, alright.

"So we're gonna have a new drink for the menu, then?" Mei grinned, waiting her turn to try the fiery libation.

"Not just one." Yui grinned excitedly. "We're gonna come up with a whole damn new line of specialty cocktails." She glanced up at the Japan Record Award plaque for Best Album by a New Artist hanging on the narrow wall separating the service bar from the dance floor. "And we're gonna theme them all on Ranko's songs. We're gonna make the menu synonymous with her music. Should'a done it ages ago, really."

Hana grinned proudly. "That sounds like an incredible idea! Even for you, coming up with a whole array of innovative stuff like that is gonna take time, though."

Yui laughed. "Nope! We're gonna do it all tonight. Because we have a secret weapon." Her eyes fell on the youngest of the five sisters in attendance.

Looking around, Akane fidgeted with the bottom hem of her black Ranko and the Dapper Dragons tee shirt. "It must be a secret, because I have no idea what the hell you're talking about."

The blonde whirled, handing a laminated drink menu to Akane. "Make another drink. Pick anything on the list you want. I'm not gonna help you. Just do whatever you think is right. The recipes are in that little black notebook on the bottom shelf."

"But… I utterly ruined the last one. Why would…" Akane slumped her shoulders, sighed in despair. "I'm just gonna fuck it up."

Yui reached down, giving her sister a tight hug. "Yes, you are. You're going to fuck it up spectacularly, in ways none of us would be creative or crazy enough to think of. And then, we're gonna get inspired. We're gonna fix it, we'll turn it into something amazing, and we're gonna match it up to something in Ranko's discography. C'mon, little sister. Let's do this together, you and me. Let's turn your curse into a fucking superpower."

Blushing, Akane looked over the menu, her fingers trembling slightly. I'm… actually helping! And we're gonna put Ranko's mark on this place! She'll be so proud of me!

"Let's do a Midori Sour," Akane said with a hopeful grin, finding the relevant page in Yui's little black notebook. "Okay. Midori liquor and vodka. Easy enough to start." She filled the large end of the jigger once each with the two ingredients, her hands trembling a bit with her nerves as Yui watched over her shoulder. It wasn't a judgemental stare, or the usual sense of shock and horror that people normally exhibited when they watched her work in a kitchen. It was more of… a childlike wonder, mixed with a healthy dose of morbid curiosity.

"Talk us through what you're doing, Akane," Yui encouraged as Seiichi sidled up behind Mei, wrapping his arms around her waist. "We need to know what you're thinking."

"Okay. Next, lemon juice." She scooped a yellow plastic bottle from the counter, filling the large end of the jigger again and adding it to the glass.

Hana opened her mouth, reaching forward slightly with her left hand, but Yui's hand fell softly on her shoulder before she could make a sound.

"Don't help her, mama. Just watch."

"Next is…" Akane checked the notebook again. "Lime juice. Got it!" Again, she filled the large end of the jigger, this time from the green bottle. The recipe had called for half that amount of both lemon and lime juice, but this detail was lost on the misguided mixologist.

"And… add ice and shake?"

Yui nodded. "Sure." She watched as Akane popped the mixing tin atop her mixing glass. "Whoawhoawhoa… when you shake, point the metal cup forward, not the glass."

Akane blinked, surprised at the advice. "But, don't the customers want to see the drink?"

"They'll see it soon enough, when you pour it. Until then, if that thing flies apart while you're shaking it, as a customer, would you rather get bonked with a tin, or have glass flying at your face?" Yui smirked playfully.

The raven-haired girl cringed. I never would have thought of that. "Yeah! I suppose that makes sense!" She set the glasses on the counter, smacking the side of the mixing glass to release the suction holding the shaker in place. A hopeful spark in her eyes, she dunked a straw in the glass, applying her thumb to create negative pressure. It would be just my luck, I'd finally get one right when everyone's hoping for me to screw it up.

She lifted the straw to her lips, releasing her thumb. Oh, no, Akane thought as she puckered her lips. "A little too sour. Give me a minute, I wanna see if I can fix it."

Yui nodded, motioning to the wall of ingredients. "Sure! Give it your best shot."

Akane smiled, her eyes falling on a small, transparent plastic bottle with a light green label. "Yes! Simple syrup will brighten it right back up!" She scooped the bottle up, adding two long squirts from it into the mixing glass.

"But… that's the sour syrup," Mei whispered in an ominous tone, a pronounced grimace on her face.

"Shhh. Let her go," Yui said, grinning deviously.

Akane returned the tin to the mixing glass, giving it another vigorous shake, this time turning the combined glasses upside down before beginning so that the metal shaker pointed toward the smattering of customers milling about on the other side of the bar. None of them seemed to be waiting to order; perhaps they, too, were merely curious about the liquid trainwreck being concocted over Akane's right shoulder.

Dunking another straw into the modified beverage, Akane coughed, spitting the green liquid into the sink. "Ewwww! That's way too sour now! How the heck did it get worse?! Maybe I can still salvage it… hey! Fruit's sweet! Maybe some of that?"

Yui shrugged, wearing an ear-to-ear grin of amusement. "Sounds plausible to me. Give it a try."

Akane's eyes scanned the countertops, grinning as she spied an array of dark fruits resting in a shallow tray of clear liquid. "There! Perfect!" She grabbed two of them with a pair of bar tongs, dropping them into the drink one at a time and swishing the mixture around a bit with a clean straw.

"Oh, gods," Izumi groaned quietly, turning her gaze away from Akane's work as the second sour sake-drenched plum plopped into the glass. "I can't watch."

"Alright, Akane. Let's… see what you've come up with." Yui reached for the glass, knowing full well what she was getting herself into.

Mei winced, reaching up and patting her elder sister on the shoulder. "Well, Yui, it's been a pleasure knowing you."

Filling only the very tip of a straw with the verdant liquid, Yui dropped the concoction onto her tongue. Hana watched, wondering if her daughter's cheeks would actually turn inside out, as they seemed to threaten to.

"O… okay," Yui sputtered, hacking droplets of acrid liquid into the crook of her leather-wrapped left elbow. "Little bit sour, there, hon."

"Still?!" Akane frowned. "I could have sworn the grapes would fix it."

Seiichi lowered his head, bringing his lips mere centimeters from Mei's ear. "She's pranking Yui, right? Nobody could be that clueless."

Mei's head fell limply into her palm. "No, Seiichi. Exactly one person could…"

Okay, Yui. Dial it in, the blonde mixologist thought as she flushed her palate with a sip of club soda. Stupidly sour. Bright green. Stuff floating in it. She snapped her fingers, pointing to the merchandise rack behind the service bar. "Izzi, grab me a couple'a CDs. One each."

Seiichi shuttled the two shrink-wrapped jewel cases between the twin bars, and Yui tiled them next to each other on the bar, her sister's image on the covers facing down so she could read the track lists on the backs.

"Yes!"

"Whatcha thinkin' this time, Yui?" Mei stood on her tiptoes, trying to peer over her taller sister's shoulder and get a sense of what she was focused on.

Yui popped open the cash register with a little ding, withdrawing a few small bills from the right side of the drawer. "Hey, Seiichi. C'mere a minute." She leaned forward over the bar counter, whispering to the server and handing him the wad of cash.

"Be quick," she admonished him, straightening her back and returning to her ingredients.

Mei blinked in curious surprise. "What are you doing with my boyfriend?"

Yui shrugged as Seiichi made for the front of the bar. "Just sent him on a quick errand to the novelty shop across the street. Don't worry about it." She interlaced her fingers, stretching her arms to their full extension and bending her fingers backwards, popping her knuckles. "Alright. Let's make some magic."

She spun a mixing glass into her hand, adding a shot each of Midori liquor and top-shelf vodka to it. "Okay… we want extra sour, but not a stupid amount. Let's go with double the lemon juice." She filled the large end of Akane's jigger from the yellow plastic squirt bottle, adding it to the glass.

That's what I… shit, that's where I messed up, Akane thought with a grimace.

"Izzi, you're up! Mind cutting me some pineapple chunks? Running low over here." Yui grinned, reaching under the counter for a small glass jar. Other than its contents and the presence of a label and a lid, it was identical to the one that held the six stirrers signifying her sobriety streak.

"Sure, just a sec," Izzi called in reply as she garnished a Manhattan for a young flight attendant standing across the service bar from her.

Yui capped the mixing glass with the shaker and gave it a good mix, tasting it with a straw. Too sour for the Midori recipe, but not sour enough to really kick your ass. She shrugged, looking over at the countertop directly in front of Akane. Well, worked for the goose, works for the gander. She picked up the small, clear bottle of sour syrup, adding a single squirt to her glass and swishing it around with her straw before tasting again. Okay. It tastes worse, and in bizarro cocktail world, that's a good thing. Now, to balance…

She dipped a bar spoon into the jar she'd retrieved from under the counter, dropping five maraschino cherries into the glass. She let the trace amount of cherry juice that pooled at the bottom of the spoon disappear into the green liquid as well, giving it a light squish with her spoon. Getting a little viscosity to it, too. Perfecto. Needs more chunks though… No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than Izumi handed her a small bowl of pineapple chunks for the Dragonfire cocktail.

"Thank you, ma'am." Yui grinned, flicking four of the small pineapple cubes into the mixture. "And now, we're just waiting on Seiichi."

Mei gazed quizzically up at her sister, careful not to poke herself with the metal spikes on her bracelet as she stroked her chin. "What are you up to now?"

"I'll show you," Yui said with an excited grin, reaching out with grabby fingers across the bar as Seiichi re-entered the bar through the glass double doors with an opaque green plastic shopping bag in his hand.

"They only had six, so I got 'em all," the young server said, handing over the spoils of his adventure. "Change is in the bag."

Yui peeked down into the bag, a giddy smile crossing her lips. "This is perfect. Thanks!" She reached down into it, withdrawing a small, black metal basin not much larger than a coffee mug, and half as deep. It resembled a miniature version of a Dutch oven, or perhaps even one of the old-timey cookpots people used to hang over fireplaces to cook stew in before the era of gas and electric stoves.

She set the empty vessel on the countertop, reaching back into the bag for a small rectangular cardboard box printed in bright blue and purple colors and tearing it open with the flaps at the narrow end.

"Pop rock candies?" Akane blinked. "The hell?"

Yui dumped the contents of the mixing glass, chunks and all, into the little metal container, adding a generous pour from the box of candies, and floating a splash of club soda from the gun protruding from her well on its metallic hose. Dipping a straw into it, she tasted the drink, but did not hand it off to her sisters yet. She waited just a moment before trying it again, as if she wasn't sure she agreed with her own original assessment.

"Fuck. Yes."

She slid the little metal cup over to Akane, who eyed it with no small measure of skepticism. "It's… bubbling."

Yui nodded sagely. "Yeah! That's the pop candies. The club soda too, a little, probably." The bubbles occasionally nudged one of the pieces of fruit out of their way as they made their frantic trek to the surface to release their gaseous contents.

"It looks like something out of Halloween," Mei mused, before wincing a bit, remembering that her elder sister didn't like acknowledging the holiday she shared her birthday with.

Akane pulled a draught of the sickly-looking green liquid into a straw, releasing it into her mouth. "Whoa! It's sour as hell, but it's good!"

Yui grinned, nodding with a smile that indicated she was excited about a secret she had yet to share. "Give it about ten seconds, and then taste it again?"

The younger girl watched the clock on the wall, and once the second hand had moved from the two to the four, she returned the straw to the little metal pot and again released its contents onto her tongue.

"The hell?! It tastes different!"

Yui snickered, glad her intoxicating chemistry experience had worked as she hoped. "As the candies melt, and the fruit sits in there, the sweetness kind of leeches into the drink and balances out the sour a little more. So the more you drink, the sweeter it gets. Kind of like…"

Izumi grinned, her eyes widening with a realization. "Like a love potion!"

The blonde barmaster nodded, handing the little iron cauldron to her sister as if it were a prize she'd won for solving the puzzle. "Ding, ding, ding! Behold, the Voodoo Brew."

Hana laughed merrily. "Witchcraft."

Yui spun to face her mother in the corner of the bar, so quickly that her knee-length black skirt flared up around her legs.

"And I'm finally gettin' through to you, through to you, with the voodoo that I brew," Yui sang with a chipper giggle. "Alright, 'Kane. You're up again." She nudged the little black book of recipes toward the black-haired girl.

"We could do a drink themed on Nothing, and just sell them an empty glass," Seiichi offered.

Yui laughed loudly. "Hilarious, but no."

"What about Hole in the Wall? We could just water down some light beer." Akane perked up hopefully.

"Points for theme, but it also has to be something people actually wanna drink," Yui said with a smirk. "Look in the book. We'll find somethin'."

Akane nodded, flipping through the pages. It took her a few moments, but she stopped about halfway through the book, her cheeks catching fire. "Let's… go with this one."

Yui peered over her shoulder at the book, laughing with a loud pfft. "Yeah… I can see where that one would make you think of your wife… Alright. Go for it."

"It's just a shot, though. How do I…"

The blonde shrugged. "Just double everything and put it in the same kind of glass. It's just for practice, anyway."

Her pupil nodded. "Sure! Okay… So I need… looks like a whole one of peach schnapps." She filled the jigger from the bottle Yui indicated, dumping the liquor into the glass. "Orange juice?"

Yui handed her a plastic jug from the refrigerator under the bar top, filled halfway with a pulpless fruit juice. "Here ya go."

Again, Akane filled the jigger, pouring its contents into the mixing container.

"Cranberry?"

Yui handed her a labeled plastic bottle from the fridge. "Cranberry!" Her voice was sharp in reply, as if she were playing at being a nurse handing tools off to a surgeon. In a moment, a jigger full of it had joined the other ingredients.

The bar's lead bartender nodded, somewhat impressed. Holy crap. Is she… actually gonna pull this off? I guess it is pretty easy, with just four ingredients and equal amounts of them.

"Aaaaand, vodka! Got it!" Akane reached for a bottle of clear liquid, measuring out the full jigger and splashing it into the drink. A little overflowed the jigger that wound up in the glass as well.

We were so close. Yui covered her eyes with her hand as Akane shook the drink. "Give it a try?"

Akane dipped a straw in the glass of bright pink liquid, releasing its contents onto her tongue. She gave Yui a disgusted look, sticking her tongue out as if she were trying to scrape her taste buds clean on the back of her teeth. "What the hell? I did everything right!"

Yui picked up the bottle containing the fourth ingredient, turning it so Akane could read the label. "Not quite."

Akane glanced up at her instructor with a mystified expression. "What's everclear?"

"It might as well be the shit you take nail polish off with," Yui said with a smirk. "So, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to dump my straws if I even taste that one, but I get the idea. It looks like a little softball, but then it runs up behind you and hits you in the back of the head with a fucking bat. Sound about right?"

The younger girl could only nod. "Why would anybody drink that?!"

Yui shrugged. "When you don't wanna feel anything for the rest of the night, and you don't wanna pay for twenty drinks to do it, it's the quicker fucker upper." She looked down at the counter, contemplating the glass of pretty pink poison for a moment. "Okay. So, pretty, feminine, unassuming, clobbers you with a sledgehammer. Sure sounds like a self-rescuing princess to me."

"Yeah!" Akane giggled. This is so much fun!

Yui grinned. "Okay. First things first, let's axe the Everclear. We're not looking to burn people's taste buds off. But, we need to sneak some more alcohol in it somewhere, but keep it almost sickeningly sweet." She bit her lip, smiling widely. "I got it. Hey, Iz! Where's that frothy thing you use for making your fussy bitch coffee?"

Akane cackled as the strawberry Izumi had hurled from the service bar ricocheted off of Yui's forehead, landing in the mixing glass. "Hey, projectile garnish!"

The blonde giggled. "You know what? Just for that, we're fuckin' running with it. And you said strawberry's Ranko's thing anyway." As she spoke, she sat about rebuilding the drink in a new glass, adding vodka, peach schnapps and orange juice in equal measures.

"We want to keep the pink, but cranberry's too bitter. We gotta have sweeter." Yui grinned, her eyes falling on the jar of cherries that had yet to be put away from the invention of the Voodoo Brew. "Heeeeeey. Come to mama." She picked up the jar, pouring a liberal amount of the thick red juice into the mixing glass and beginning to shake it.

Akane scratched her head. "Doesn't that have the same amount of stuff as the original one? I'm confused."

"Trust me," Yui said as Izumi handed her a handheld milk frother. "Watch this." In a new glass, Yui combined equal parts Irish cream liquor and a chocolate-infused liquor with a dash of the cherry juice, setting the frother to work on it. Within seconds, a light, fluffy foam in a pastel pink filled half the glass.

Yui poured the drink from her mixing glass into a conical margarita glass before coating the entire surface area of the drink in her foam concoction. She pierced three strawberries with the sides of the glass, rimming it at equal thirds with the fruit to give it the appearance of a crown.

"The Glass Slipper." Yui grinned, handing it to Akane.

Ranko's wife dunked her straw into the drink, releasing its contents into her mouth. "I mean, it's yummy, but it's not especially strong."

Yui grinned. "Try the foam. That's where it sneaks up on you."

Akane scooped some of the pink froth up with a strawberry, biting into it. "Whoa. That's strong. But good! It's like chocolate covered strawberries, with a kick in the ass!"

Mei picked up the glass, slipping a straw into it slowly to ensure she got some of the foam in her straw as well. She cocked her head back, dripping the contents of the straw into her mouth.

"Well? Whatcha think, sis?" Yui grinned up at Mei. "I know you like the sweet drinks."

The blue-haired girl said nothing. She simply dropped the straw back into the glass, walking away toward the service bar as she continued to drink it through the little plastic tube.

Akane giggled. "I think that's probably a pretty solid endorsement."

Izumi grinned. "And, hey! We already have the guy we ordered the glass slippers for Ranko's show from! We could get some more, and actually… serve the drink in a glass shoe!"

"Fucking genius," Yui said with a grin. "Meanwhile, Mei, if you're done getting schnockered over there, you mind cutting up some more peppers? We're running low over here for Dragonfire garnish." Yui waved the black book in front of Akane. "Up for one more experiment?"

The black-haired girl nodded emphatically. "Why not? Anything particular you want to try?"

As she watched the pink concoction disappear into Mei's mouth without even getting to try it, Hana gave a little hmmm of contemplation. "You haven't really done anything with dark liquors yet."

"Oooh, good call, Mama! Akane, hit the third section in the book there, and pick something." Yui whirled on her heels, beginning to whip up a Tequila Sunrise for a suave-looking young man with spiky black hair.

"Your peppers, miss." Mei smirked, handing a highball glass full of sliced jalapeño peppers to her sister. "And I'm gonna need another one of those Slipper things as soon as we close for the night."

Yui laughed, dumping the peppers into her garnish tray. "Glad you liked it." She set the empty glass on the back counter, returning to the drink she was making for the attractive man in the black sport coat.

"Okay, Yui! I think I wanna try this o… Sho?! Hey! What are you doing here?!" Akane blushed, wiping her fingers on the hips of her blue jeans.

Akane's lab partner shrugged, flashing her a winning smile. "I was in the neighborhood. I was thirsty. I've heard good things about this place from a very enthusiastic member of its staff."

Akane blushed, noticing her reddening cheeks in her reflection in the lenses of his glasses. Her realization did not help her mitigate the condition – quite the opposite, in fact. "Yeah, it's great! As long as I'm not tending bar, anyway. I'm awful at it. I screw up everything I make. But Yui? She's the best!"

Sho laughed loudly. "Oh, I bet you can manage." He motioned to the bottle of Jack Daniels in her hand. "Why don't you make me a Jack and Coke? Nobody can mess that up."

Clearly, you don't know my sister as well as you think you do, Yui thought with a smirk. But, to her shock and amazement, Akane managed to add equal parts Jack Daniels and soda to a highball glass.

"Whoa! You actually did it! Let me try. I have to experience your first successful cocktail." She was a bit nervous about it; Jack Daniels was her liquor of choice, and she worried that the taste of it might be too tempting for her to resist finishing the drink. I'll be okay, she thought, glancing over at her jar of straws. It's worth the risk to be supportive for Akane. I can be strong. For them. I promised Ran-chan.

Yui grabbed a clean straw, dunking it into the glass and releasing the liquid into her mouth. Her eyes bulged, and she slapped the counter twice with her palm, stomping her chunky black heel on the rubber anti-fatigue mat on the floor.

"Are you okay, miss," Sho asked, leaning over the bar with some measure of concern.

"Akane," Yui said, her voice hoarse as she struggled to regain her composure. "You didn't… happen to see where that glass Mei brought me the peppers in ended up, did you?"

"Sure, Yui! It was right… oh, shit." Akane smacked herself in the forehead with an open palm.

Sho cackled, but there was a nervousness in her eyes that hadn't been there a moment ago. "I mean, what are the odds, right?"

With this one, Yui thought, pretty much a hundred percent across the board. "We're still training, so, enjoy your Sunrise, huh? On the house."

The young man nodded. "You didn't have to do that, but thanks. Um, good to see you, Akane! Catch you at class tomorrow!"

"Uh, yeah." Akane fiddled with her fingers as she answered.

As Sho went in search of a table, Yui spun around to face her beleaguered protege again. "That guy is totally crashing on you."

Akane blinked, shaking herself out of her humiliation. "What? Crashing?"

Yui smirked devilishly. "Yeah. Somethin' me and Mei started saying. It's like… when somebody's crushing on you, but you're too much of a friggin' idiot to notice."

"Where the hell did you come up with a name like…" Akane stopped mid-sentence, chuckling. Her face was positively afire. "Oh. But… it's not like that with Sho. He's just nice. He's a good friend, and we just like, look after each other and stuff. He helps me, I help him, and oh gods, you're right."

"Mm-hmm." Yui smirked. "Anyway. Back to training. Fuck, that last one was like a fucking flaming spike through my tongue!" A spike, or… a nail. The Black Nail! Yes! Yui grinned. "But if we balanced it… Time to muddle!"

"Is that, like, where you cuddle in the mud?" Akane glanced up at Yui skeptically. "I hope not, 'cause that's weird."

Yui's face dropped into her palm. "Oh, girl, what are we gonna do with you? Gimme a highball glass."

Receiving a glass container from her younger sister, Yui threw a few of the pepper slices Mei had brought her into it. "So, muddling means to just sort of lightly smoosh some stuff in the glass. We're trying to get some of the juices out." She picked up a short steel rod, grinding the pepper slices into the bottom of the glass with it until a shallow pool of oil sat at the bottom of the glass.

"Now, let's scoop the pepper bits out." Yui used a bar spoon to do just that. "And now… we just make ourselves a nuclear version of the Black Nail. One of my favorites." After holding the bottle of Jack Daniels Akane had left on the counter upside down for a six-count, she bounced the pour spout to cut off the flow into the glass.

"Okay. Now, a splash of lemon juice…" Akane tossed her the yellow plastic bottle they'd used before, and Yui added a small squirt from it to the glass.

"And some soda." Yui grabbed the soda gun, holding it over the glass and filling it nearly to the top with carbonated, caramel-colored cola.

Akane peered over the glass. "Is it done?"

"Almost! But we gotta balance that spicy from the peppers, and we do that with sweet." Yui reached under the counter, pulling out a small plastic bottle shaped like a teddy bear, with a white nozzle sticking out of its top. She turned it over the glass, drizzling a bit of honey into the glass. "Give it a quick stir, and… voila!"

Mei bopped up behind Yui at the bar. "I wanna try!"

Yui handed her the glass, and Mei dropped a straw into it, the steel spikes of her leather bracelet clinking against the rim of the glass.

"Whoa. That's just… it's like… it's sweet, but it's like… evil."

The blonde grinned. "Evil sweet, huh? Hey, gimme that." She reached out, but rather than taking the glass from Mei's hand, she unsnapped the black leather bracelet from her sister's wrist.

"Hey! Where you going with that? Seiichi gave me that!" Mei growled, but she was even more upset when Yui next snatched the glass from her hand as well. "Hey!"

"It's sweetly evil." Yui wrapped the bracelet around the highball glass, snapping it in place such that one could not pick up the glass without piercing their palm on the spikes.

Akane smirked. "I mean, it looks hot as hell, but what's the point? You can't even pick it up easily!"

Yui whirled. "I know that you want it, girl. I understand. But, I'm gonna have to ask you, girl, to watch your hands…"