That morning, Andrei arrived with a pale, dying Ban in his arms. A single stroke of sheer luck had led to their meeting, and the boy was not intent on letting it go to waste. "Someone... Help, I've got Ban, he's wounded!"
Andrei stepped through the broken, ravaged gate of the Guild settlement. Fire and embers from his battle remained burning throughout the night and into the earliest hours of daylight. When a group of soldiers who had come to survey for the bodies of the fallen or injured noticed him, they initially hesitated. They feared what he had become... what he still very well could. But the sight of their leader, the man who had led them through thick and thin, caused them to act, and as the weight was lifted from Andrei, he collapsed back to his knees.
For a day there was not a soul who had come to move the half-Chimera. Sometime in the aftermath, the cat, Phanes, had made his way from the three-story home. Smelling a hint of the boy that had rescued him, the orange feline finally made its way to the clearing in which Andrei had laid himself out. Sitting beside him, the cat stood a solemn guard beside the boy who had kept his humanity.
It took another day and partial night for a single soul to locate Andrei. It was Inoshishi and Saionji, the siblings of two different families having been the fastest recoveries from the battle. A comatosed sleep left Saionji refreshed, not in her mental state, but her physical body. Inoshishi found Andrei still asleep, and was shocked to see the cat, Phanes, hiss at him when he attempted to move the boy.
After a hesitant moment, he tried again, and the cat relented after being distracted by Saionji. The girl was still terrified of Andrei and his power, and did not help the man bring the boy away for such a fear.
In the closest thing the Guild had to a hospital, warm lights kept Hattori of all people awake. Hirano had been let free to help with the efforts to attempt to rebuild, but Shimoda and Andrei both remained unconscious for a few days after the fact... as did Ban, who had lost too much blood, to the point that the few doctors they had questioned if the man would ever wake up from his coma. Hattori overlooked the two boys, gazing at the private quarter that Ban had been operated on in... would he wake up?
Another few days passed, and both Shimoda and Andrei had awakened to the sight of Hattori and Inoshishi at the door to Ban's chamber, and Saionji watching over them. Outside, the busywork of the settlement seemed louder than normal, accompanied by annoyed yelling and protests from a crowd. Andrei could make out the words. They were fearful of him, and angry towards the greater force that were all chimera. He frowned and looked to the ground, both his friends and himself aware that as they were, he would be unable to argue his place in the Guild against a rabid mob.
Hirano had prolonged the ejection of Andrei for a few more days, and over that time, it had been Shimoda who vouched most for the boy. Though hesitant, Saionji had returned to their trio, now accompanied more frequently by both Inoshishi and Hattori, who for men in their early twenties, acted just as childish. When Ban had only just woken from his coma, Andrei had stood at the gates of the Guild, feeling a sense of bittersweet accomplishment as the people he had saved were able to unleash their anger on something still.
When he had turned to face the world alone, in his now mended uniform, he felt a brush at his leg. Looking down, Phanes had joined him once more on his travels. Behind him, both Inoshishi and Hattori were walking with Shimoda. The three men ignored the hateful chants as they walked towards Andrei, their weapons and travel packs on their backs and at their sides. "Yo, 'Drei, wait up!" Inoshishi yelled. "Yeah, we're beatin' this joint too!" Hattori said in conjunction with his brother.
Shimoda remained quiet, a regretful look on his face. When he turned back, he saw that Ban now stood on the rooftop of the hospital, a new pair of shades over his eyes. Though they never got to quite say goodbye, Zeshin waved, a faux smile crossing his lips as a tear reflected in the early morning sun. Looking down, he saw his sister plowing through the masses of people. Having steeled her nerves after her brother had enlightened to her the meaning of toughness that fateful day, she joined the band of brothers and friends after a meaningful talk with Andrei that very morning.
Her eyes had been opened to the honesty in Andrei, even if he wasn't fully human, he still had more humanity to him than those that were driving him out, and that struck a chord deep inside her. "Waait!!" She yelled, much to Andrei's amusement.
After the group had joined together, they talked and laughed in the face of those that had so fearfully forced Andrei from the first place he had been able to call home. As the boy scooped Phanes up into his bag, they began to walk, their backs turned to the bitter and broken Guild which was once called Scavver's.
On the rooftop of the hospital, a robed Hirano made his presence known, and Ban tipped his head. "I'm guessin' you're off too then? To watch the kids?" He questioned.
Hirano nodded, and Ban smiled in earnest. "Good... I can keep things cool for when you're back, right? Then, we're gettin' to work on that dream we had back in the day."
The vampire took a few strides to stand beside Ban. He didn't speak. Before he leapt from the building to take flight in his bat form, the man beside him held his shoulder. "Hey, don't have too much fun without me."
FREE THE WORLD! TO BE CONTINUED... IN VOLUME 2!
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CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD
Action- BOUND THE WORLD - After falling from the sky in a blaze of glory, without so much as a memory to his name, and cleaving a path through the whole of the Tokyo Dead Zone with the discovery of his nature as a half-human half-Chimera, a monster from a...
