The sun had calmed down since their initial entry to the true Shikoku countryside. Andrei felt as though something about it was odd... as they passed by dead towns and individual homes shredded by a war fought long ago, he felt as though it was all missing something. Shimoda noticed, and did his best to distract him, until they came upon the large, spiked log walls of the village Kochi. A place built out of the old bones of another place by the same name, this was a wholly new beast.
Hand-fashioned bows and rifles well-aged met them from the top of the wall. When one of the armored men atop the wall, who stood tall in decently fashioned armor painted with greens and yellows, noticed Big-Hat among the head of the caravan, the gates were drawn back, and the caravan was let in without a word. "Hirano, that's what you said your name was? I assume you've never been far from Tokyo, have you?" Big-Hat questioned.
The vampire shook his head, and admired the walls of Kochi as they passed through them. Nothing compared to the old shell of Scavver's Guild, but it was impressive nonetheless. Saionji and Mother-Hand passed through alongside the Swords of the Merchant Company, and their two tag-alongs. Shimoda and Andrei took up the rear, partially out of Andrei's fear that the people of Kochi too would see him as those from the Guild had when he first arrived, and how most saw him when he was forced out of the commune.
Shimoda looked to his side, and he noticed that Andrei suddenly wasn't there any longer. It seemed that Saionji and Hirano did as well... it was a theory that they had suspected just as Andrei had, and now it had been proven. "Huh? Hey, what the hell are you doing to him?" Shimoda yelled, turning around in full and putting a hand on his sword.
Three men, two with bows, and one with a rifle, had apprehended the half-Chimera boy, and he looked at Shimoda with a sympathetic look. The gun prodded Andrei's side, and he gave the man a glare which rightfully caused him to second guess himself, but the boy raised his hands anyways, parting his unbuttoned shirt further to reveal the Chimera bone-steel chain erupting from his rib cage under his clothes and jacket. "The kid's a Chimera, just look at him. You seriously think we'd let it into town on a whim? I don't care if it's a slave or what have you, we don't like their kind." The man with the gun had spoken from under his welded-together helmet.
As Hirano and Saionji arrived, Big-Hat himself had turned back to see the scene, and he began to approach as well, a hand on the bridge of his nose. It was an outburst from Saionji that clarified their arrival. "The hell'd you just call Andrei? He's got a name y'know? And if we've got a problem, I'm ready to solve it!" Her voice had gotten higher as she yelled out at the guards, and her hand had gotten low by her rapier. From through the gate, she noticed Alpha.1, who had remained a relative outsider the entire journey, and she calmed herself.
The android shouldered through the man with a bow at Andrei's back, and grabbed him by his jacket collar as she had in their first night as a group, when the Chimera 'Riago-Nezumi' had attacked them. "Come, beast. I could care less for what these people have to say about you." She spoke with her usual cold tone, ignorant to the dumbfounded guard behind her as she walked.
The village guard, the one with the rifle, raised as if about to shoot, and both Saionji and Shimoda nearly drew their weapons, but Hirano held out his arm in hopes to de-escalate at least the two twins. "Those two can face Chimera we can't hope to defeat... no bullet or arrow will be able to put them down, even now." As he spoke, Saionji stood at ease again and sighed, then he glared at Shimoda, who was still tense as if preparing to strike out.
Big-Hat passed by Alpha and Andrei, honestly relieved that nothing had broken out yet, and he raised his arms up as a gesture of peace. Shaking his head, he put on a calm face, then placed a hand on the barrel of the rifle. "What reason do you have for drawing on the boy, man? He can't change who he is, and he's already saved my caravan from the Chimera you lot haven't dealt with yet." He gave an aggressive grin the soldier's way, and the man lowered his weapon part-way. "Your town is already high on the list of stops our company might skip due to the danger on the roads. Don't make it to the top."
Hirano let out a quiet sigh as the guards relented, and he gave Big-Hat a courteous nod to show his thanks as Saionji and Shimoda walked off to rejoin Andrei and the newly re-appeared Alpha. Once they were gone, he approached Big-Hat, who held out a hand. "No need for thanks. I've been fed up with this place for some time... of course, the company heads above me haven't had a good reason to break ties just yet." He smirked, then nodded to himself and gave a cheeky shrug. "They'll be hearing about this though, maybe not the Chimera end of it all though."
The vampire laughed a slight bit, partially out of stress, partially because he found the reasoning for Big-Hat's intervention funny. "I'm glad my student could be of assistance then, Big-Hat. I just hope we don't have another problem like that..."
As the Nowhere Generation rejoined the caravan, they came to a stop in a rather barren marketplace, which slowly filled up as the wagons and carts which they had helped repair began to unload with the dozens of hands that the company had to them. It was honestly a spectacle of teamwork, watching as things opened up, were set out, and lights lit up with mana-sparks overhead. Andrei's glasses would've reflected the light, but with their frames shattered, he could only see the world more clearly...
Shimoda and Saionji were just as absorbed in the town around them now that they had passed the wall-top militia which had held them up. Their childish wonder led them to walk down the market streets in awe, until they reached the native Kochi shops, which were permanent buildings rather than mobile carts and covered wagons. A petty thief bolted out of a shop, and a proper guard clad in cool green detailed armor jumped onto him, revealing the white symbol on his pauldron, a circle with an arrow firing through the top half of it. The guard began to radiate a strange power, and the man fell unconscious as the aura enveloped him.
Watching in awe of the strange power, Saionji and Shimoda both looked on as the man hefted the crook up, then gave them a nod as he turned around. They now noticed his other features... distinct, wolf-like ears atop his helmet, and a long face guard to make him seem even more canine... and interestingly enough, the furred wolf's tail on his back. Again, they had come across a whole town of Beastkin. "Woah... Saiji, that guy looked totally different from the others... and he had that kinda' weird power, you saw it, right?"
Shimoda turned to his sister, who nodded. They looked back, then turned to find Andrei again, who had Phanes poking out of his bag once more. "Andrei, you gotta' hear this man!" Shimoda called out as Saionji shook her head and giggled behind him.
Alone once again, Alpha watched as Inoshishi and Hattori continued to get along with the Swords of the Shikoku Merchant Company. She watched as Hattori and the pink-clad samurai woman got on, and Inoshishi entertained the other blades, even Big-Hat as he returned to the group, who found the man attempting to balance his spear on the palm of his hand humorous.
Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she turned to see Hirano, the reclusive vampire who had joined them once more around the same time she had come to meet the Nowhere Generation. "Neat, isn't it? How easily those kids can move on?" Hirano laughed to himself, not expecting the same from Alpha.
She studied them all for a moment, then took in the sight of Shimoda explaining the strange power to Andrei, and Saionji laughing at her brother's utter immaturity about the whole situation. She didn't understand it... but in that same confusing way, yes, it was neat. Alpha nodded, then locked eyes with Hirano. "Yes... I'm guessing that's why you came to them as well, Beastkin?"
Hirano looked down to the ground awkwardly, and then he nodded. Perhaps that was why he came to them after orbiting them for the entirety of their adventure beforehand. He didn't want to see them lose that spark which he had grown to see as so interesting. "Yeah. You could say that, I guess. No need to be so blunt with me though, my name is Hirano." The vampire looked back up at Alpha, and offered his best smile. She seemed to mimic him, tilting her head ever so slightly, and smiling back.
YOU ARE READING
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...
