Forgotten But Not Lost

10

Shirou and Rin walked into the tavern an hour before sundown.

They had all decided, or Rin had decided and they all couldn't think of a good argument against it, that it wasn't a smart idea for they to go hunting right before Rin and Shirou would be leaving for the raid. They were supposed to take that day and the following day off in order to get their lives in order within the city walls while Rin and Shirou were off. With the five-gold paid up front, the party would have enough money for spare clothes, razors, and other small goods, though Rin warned them to be conservative with their spending.
S

hirou had spent the majority of the day preparing meals for the others to eat while he was gone, patched a few holes in the roof and generally cleaned up the barracks. Rin had teased him for working on his day off but stopped when he pointed out that she had spent it reading a book on the construction of vessels that can house an Elemental and learning a new spell; [Air Shield]. Things that could equally be considered work.
As it turned out, they were both workaholics. Shirou was just better with his hands, while she stuck to brainwork. Rin did however find it annoying that the landlord refused to give Shirou any sort of compensation for his work on the Barracks, not even one free night. While the work was for their own benefit, they man still should have given Shirou something.
Rin had left a little over half of the money with Sara in a bank account, along with strict instructions on how to ration it in order to last several months if need be. Riku hadn't seemed to like that timid Sara was being put in charge while Rin was away, but so long as Shirou and Rin came back alive, it wouldn't matter anyways. Rin would be back at the reigns before Sara ever had to take them out of the gates.
"Oy! Kid, girly! Back here!" Kuro shouted at them as he saw them walking through the door. Though he shouted, he was still hard to hear over the noise that filled the room. The two rookies might have missed him if it wasn't for how attention grabbing his team looked. "'Bout time you kids got here."
"We were just finishing taking care of some last-minute arrangements." Rin said crossing her arms as they approached, though Shirou accepted the strong handshake that the goateed veteran offered him.
"Thank you for inviting us, Kuro-senpai." Shirou said, paying his respect to the unusual senor.
"So, these are those 'Super Rookies' that you were talking about? They don't look like hot shit." One of the people sitting at Kuro's table said as he gave Shirou and Rin a quick look over. Shirou noticed that his eyes spent a little longer on Rin.
The man was a bit on the short side, dressed in darkly colored light armor with the only linked mail being that of his gauntlets. Shirou wasn't sure if his hair was brown with bits of blond, or if his hair was completely blond and simply has so much grim in it that it looked to be colored brown. Either way, his greasy haired stuck up and was push back in a very interesting hair style. One that Shirou couldn't help but feel like he had seen somewhere before, as it made the word 'mongrel' come to mind.
His skin was in similar condition to his hair, darkened into a serious tan and more than a little dirty. He had a scar over his nose, completing the rough look. Guy looked like absolute scum.
"Well, whatever." The guy scoffed, turning his head away from them and to an impressively large mirumi that was on the table, curled up like a cat. It wasn't one of the domesticated breeds, but rather a while breed that he must had tamed somehow. He scratched the creature behind the ear as he talked. "It was Kuro's idea to bring you weaklings along, so you can be his problem."
"Come on Rock, no need to be unfriendly. I'm telling you that these two are hot shit." Kuro said, laughing in his usual friendly manner. "Come on, just introduce yourself."
"You already told them my name stupid. No need for me to give it out." Rock said with a scoff. "Though I suppose someone should be telling them that I'm the leader of this rag tag group. So if you want our help, don't piss me off."
Rin glared at the man, seeming to want to give him a few chose words of her own, but Tsuga saved them by stepping forward. "I've already been acquainted with Shirou-kun, but I this is the first time the two of us have met. I am Tsuga, the group's Priest. I look forward to working with you." The man said in the manner of a perfect gentleman. "Sorry about Rock. He's actually a very good person, he just likes to have his bad boy act."
"Shut up you damned Priest!" Rock shouted, giving the kindly Priest a serious looking glare. "I keep telling you people I ain't a good guy! I don't care about doing the right thing! If it hasn't got anything to do with battle, booze or bitches I'm not interested! If I 'happen' to save people along the way to getting one of those three things than I can hardly be held responsible for that!"
"So… he the Dread Knight you mentioned?" Shirou asked Kuro with a raised eyebrow.
"Actually, that would be me." A man wearing a pair glasses so fashionable that it made one question whether he had any sort of problem with his eye sight. His hair was gelled by and he wore a sharp white military suit, complete with a pocket-watch chain… whatever a pocket watch was. He looked like the smuggest pretty boy who ever existed. If Shirou had been forced to guess a class for him, he would have guessed either Priest or Paladin, so hearing that the man was a Dread Knight was a bit surprising. "I am Moyugi, I'm glad to have you on board. We rarely get guests. Please, may I ask you for your name?" Moyugi asked, looking directly at Rin with a charming smile.
"I'm Rin, and this is Archer." Rin said gesturing toward Shirou while giving her own smug smile.
"My name is Shirou." Shirou said with a sigh. "Don't go spreading that nickname around."
"Rin, a dignified name for a dignified lady." Moyugi said, going down on one knee in front of her and holding out his own hand as if inviting her to let him kiss hers.
Rin just stood there with her arms crossed. "Aren't you the guy who Kuro said wanted to 'taste' all the women in the world."
Moyugi flinched at her words and gave Kuro a glare. "Kuro you bastard, you broke the bro-code!"
"No, I'm enforcing the bro-code. The girly's already spoken for by my junior here." Kuro said, pointing his thumb at Shirou.
"We aren't dating." Rin said sharply before Shirou had a chance to.
"Of course you two aren't. You're already fuckbuddies." Kuro said, someone saying it with a completely neutral face.
"Excuse me!?" Rin shouted as she turned bright red, her jaw dropping before throwing Shirou a glare. "What kind of crap did you tell him?"
"I never said anything like that! I have no idea where he gets this stuff from!" Shirou said, equally flushed and putting his hands up in defense.
"No, I'm sure I remember hearing that you two are sharing a room." Kuro said, nodding sagely.
"With two other girls in the room." Shirou said sharply.
"Three girls at once!" Moyugi said with a gasp before biting his thumb. "Damn, the new rookie works fast."
"Would the both of you stop purposely misinterpreting things." Tsuga said with a sigh before giving Shirou and Rin an apologetic smile. For the man to put up with this group every day… he must be a true Saint. "Well, that only leaves one member of our group let to introduce you to." Tsuga said pointing towards the last individual at the table. "This is Kajita."
It hadn't been like Rin or Shirou hadn't seen the man already. He was a guy who was hard to miss, no matter where you put him. Standing in at around six foot eight, he was a whole head and shoulders above everyone else in the room.
Kajita was completely bald with the only hair on his head being a thin mustache, and his eyes were hidden by a pair of black shades. This along with his black leather jacket, torn up jeans, and several leather belts that both held up his pants and strapped his massive great sword to his back, gave him the look of a gangster from the yakuza… though this didn't really seem to bother Shirou at all.
What did bother him was that the man's extremely oversized great sword was even more extremely oversized than the average one unusually held by Warriors, and so much of its weight was at the odd mushroom shaped tip of the blade that it would throw him off balance every time he swung it. The thing weighed a hundred pounds ten times more than a traditional great sword. Kajita had adapted to this fact with a very particular fighting style that revolved around kicks in order to fill his openings, but it was a stupid and suicidal style... Why did Shirou feel like a hypocrite all of the sudden?
After being introduced Kajita snapped his fingers, gave them a thumbs up and smiled at the two of them, but didn't say anything.
"Kajita doesn't really talk all that much." Tsuga explained.
"Well… it's nice to meet you all. Please take good care of us." Shirou said politely, earning him a scoff from Rock.
"You know, I was kind of expecting Kuro to be the weirdest member of his party, but he seems relatively normal." Rin said with a shake of her head.
"Ha, you think these guys are weird, you should me Sakanami! Now that guy is a riot and a half!" Kuro laughed for long enough to make Rin and Shirou worried about what kind of many this 'Sakanami' was. But eventually Kuro calmed down. "Anyways, here's that bow I promised. Should have some nice oomph behind it."
Kuro removed a longbow from his back and handed it to Shirou, along with a quiver full of arrows. Shirou glanced at the quiver as he took the items from the Hunter turned Warrior.
"Twenty-five arrows. So, you want me to kill twenty-five Orcs? That doesn't leave much for the rest of you." Shirou said, giving Kuro a playful smirk.
Kuro smirked right back. "Don't get too too full of yourself kid. These Orcs are going to be nothing like those Goblin's you've been hunting. They will be trained and equipped as a professional military unit. Full armor covering vitals. You aren't going to be getting one shot one kills on them."
"Unless I use that secret technique I copied from you." Shirou said back.
Kuro blinked and then his jaw dropped open. "Hey, don't talk about your senpai's super-secret technique like that! And what do you mean you can use it!?"
"Secret technique, the fuck is he talking about?" Rock asked, finally seeming interested.
"The one he uses to shot arrows through armor. I used it myself to shot through the Goblin Prince's shield and breastplate a few days back." Shirou explained. "It isn't all that complicated. All you have to do is…"
Kuro jumped onto of Shirou and forcibly covered his mouth with his hands. "Don't tell anyone about how to do the Super Kuro Death Shot! Don't use it either! It's my technique!"
"'Super Kuro Death Shot'? Since when does you shooting an arrow have a name?" Tsuga asked, rather perplexed by his teammate's odd behavior.
"Since this little bugger figured out how to do it and I had to patent the technique!" Kuro declared, standing up tall and putting his hands on his hips in a proud manner.
Rock began to laugh before asking the question that was on all of their minds. "The fuck is a patent?"
"I… Don't know!" Kuro admitted, maintaining his pose.
"It is good to see that your party are all still in good health, Rock." Someone said as they approached the group.
The speaker couldn't have been more different from the Typhoon Rocks team if he tried. The after member of Kuro's team was unwashed, minimally armored, if they had any armor at all, and looked like the kind of people you didn't want to meet in a darkened alley. This guy was cleanly washed, shaven and with even bowl cut hair. He was dressed in bright and shining steel armor with bronze trim and large white cape boasting the design of his clan, seven stars arranged in an X.
The armor and cape looked rather familiar, probably because Shirou had seen it all before… Kimura was standing right next to the guy in the same exact uniform. Shirou made a point in not looking at the guy. He hadn't seemed to have noticed them, so maybe they could get by without an incident. Rin also appeared to have not noticed him, either that or didn't consider him to be worth mentioning. It was more likely the latter of the two.
"Just make sure you get all of this extra energy out of you now. I'd rather you not get too excited and ruin the ambush again." The man said with a polite smile.
"Fuck you, Shino! I didn't need any damn ambush! Me and my boys just blew through them like a tornado!" Rock shouted at the guy, giving him the finger.
"Who's the poster boy?" Rin asked Tsuga.
"That would be Shinohara, the leader of Orion." Tsuga said with a shrug. "He and the boss have run into each other a few times since Shinohara first established his Clan and the two of them have very different views of the world. Shinohara believes that Volunteer Soldiers are like knights who the people should be able to look up to, while the boss thinks of us as more of bandits with government approval. With how different their ideals are, they tend not to get along."
"Still, whenever things get tough, he always calls on us to provide the real fighting strength that his clan sorely lacks." Rock scoffed, grabbing a beer off of the table and taking a long swig. "Just be glad you pay well."
"I always thought that your assistance had more to do with wanting to get into Hinata's skirt than the pay." Shinohara half whispered with a small smile. Rock looked just about ready to pull his sword out at that comment.
"Hinata?" Rin repeated with a quirked eyebrow.
"A female Paladin who is something of an idol among their Clan, and as such completely off limits to everyone outside of it." Moyugi explained, giving Rin a smile. "The forbidden fruit is by far the sweetest." Rin's eyebrow twitched as the Dread Knight licked his lips.
It seemed that her talking had managed to gain Kimura attention and the thick glasses Warrior suddenly recognized her. "Wait, aren't you that new rookie girl? What are you doing here?" Kimura said looking at Rin with genuine puzzlement, and perhaps a bit of a flush. "I wouldn't due for a lady such as yourself to be dealing with such unscrupulous characters."
Rin couldn't help but laughing at the man's choice of words. "Isn't your clan doing business with these 'unscrupulous characters'." She teased. "As for why I am here, Archer and I are joining team Typhoon Rocks in order to be part of the raid."
"Archer?" Kimura said before looking around the group and spotting Shirou. "Oh no, not you again!"
"Do I really deserve that kind of reaction." Shirou mumbled to himself.
"Is something the matter, Kimura?" Shinohara asked, giving his subordinate a look of query.
Kimura looked from his Clan leader to Shirou and then back again. "This is that Rookie I was telling you about." Kimura said, trying to regain his composure.
"…You mean the psychotic one who seemed to want to kill you the second he stepped out of the tower? The one who had tried to throw a burning oil flask at you?" Shinohara said looking at Shirou in a new light. A light that made Shirou rather uncomfortable.
"I didn't try. I was just… weighing the option." Shirou said, not making a very convincing argument. Even some of the boys from Typhoon Rocks were giving him looks.
Rin began to laugh. "Oh yes Shirou, that makes it sound so much better." She said through her chuckles. "I was only keeping the option of killing the man I just met open."
"I wouldn't have killed him, just injured him enough to make sure he wouldn't be a threat." Shirou said awkwardly. Rock's team broke out laughing, save for Tsuga who just shook his head in tired resignation. "What? He had a sword, and we were all unarmed."
"The sword!" Kimura said, gawking at Shirou. "I can't believe it, you actually stole that sword!"
It took Shirou a second to realize what sword the man was talking about. He did indeed have the sword that Kimura had very specifically told him not to try to steal strapped to his waist. "I didn't steal it. The Commander gave it to me."
"After you pointed it's edge at his throat." Rin added, a smile on her face. She was enjoying this.
"You mugged the Commander and stole his sword!?" Kimura shouted, they were staring to get looks from around the bar as people quieted down in order to listen in.
"…He attacked us first." Shirou said into the awkward silence. "He said I could have it, after I had already put the blade away. Rin was the one who stole his knives."
Rin just shrugged. "If he wanted to keep them, he shouldn't have thrown them."
"You know Kuro, I take it back. These two are great. If they can prove they know how to fight, we'll keep 'em." Rock said with a huge grin. Kuro returned the grin and gave a thumbs up.
Shinohara didn't look nearly as happy. "Rock, these kids are just Rookies. You can't bring them out to fight against a trained Orc escorting party."
"Huh!? Why the fuck can't I!?" Rock shouted at the man. "They may be Rookies, but they have MY personal seal of approval! You got a problem with my people then you can just do your fancy pants raid without us and we'll see how well you do!"
Shinohara went silent. Shirou could practically see the gears going around in his head. Rock had just called him out in front of nearly half of the Crimson Moon Reserves. Now he had two choses, agree to let Shirou and Rin to join in the raid and show just how much he depended on Rock's team to get the job done, or lose out on at the very least five extremely skilled fighters, each with at least seven years' experience under their belts. Either way, his reputation would take a hit. He would either look either desperate for help, or too petty to take assistance that would insure his people's safety just because the one offering was an asshole.
In the end, he decided on the course of action that would risk the least number of lives. "I can't be held accountable for their safety. If something happens to them, it will be on your head." Shinohara said, keeping his cool headed demeanor.
"I'll add it to the list of 'things that are on Rock's head'." Rock said with a mocking voice and a dismissive gesture.
"We'll be leaving soon, so finish your drinks and head towards the back of the tavern." Shinohara said before walking away, Kimura walking behind him.
"Uptight pricks." Rock grumbled from behind the rim of his flagon.
"So, we have your personal seal of approval, do we?" Rin said, giving the leader of the group a sideways look.
"I just said that crap to get back at Shino. Don't let it get to your head. You still have to prove yourselves as being useful." Rock said with a scoff getting up from the table and letting his mirumi pet to climb up his arm and perch itself on his shoulder. "Come on, we've got a battle to win."