The harsh Japanese sunlight beat down on an otherwise serene fall afternoon. As the golden star coated the entirety of Kochi in similarly colored light and warmth, the grunting of hard work and a day's strain could be heard coming from a secluded alley someplace near the Merchant Company's stationary caravan. Andrei felt as sweat dripped down his face, and he looked down to his arm on the ground, the other behind his back. "Two-hundred and forty-five..." He tried his hardest to keep his breath steady as he spoke.
Eventually, the leather strap across his back slid, and the colossal chimeric bone-steel blade he had been using as an extra weight clattered against the damaged street heavily. Though he had been working himself to the bone, he didn't fall. Instead, he lifted his fist from the pavement, his knuckles bloodied from their grinding against stone, and he pulled the sword back up and onto his back, switching hands in the process. "Two-hundred and fifty, again..." Andrei panted, feeling the sweat drop from his bare chest onto the ground.
The sun passed the center of the sky above him, and shadows shifted as he dropped himself and pushed back up again on his bare knuckles. Lifting his head as he counted the last of his set, he growled outwards as a means of alleviating the stress in his blood and bones. His heart pumped a fire into him that as he stood up, didn't quite go away. Dropping his sword, he looked at his discarded shirt and jacket, and the glasses atop them, then he looked down... it hadn't even been a full week since he had arrived alongside the Shikoku Beast-Merchants, but when he had heard of Shimoda's own endeavors...
He smiled, remembering back to when he first found Shimoda and Hirano that day, his friend all bruised and beaten, his teacher cut and blooded. Both seemed happy though, satisfied with the deeper power that they had awakened alongside one another. Andrei's smile faded as he heard an echo of Ra in his head, laughing at him, and he was reminded that the path they took, it wasn't one for him. "Shut the hell up in there, before I take a nap and come in there personally-..." The boy cut himself off as he heard footsteps approaching, familiar ones at that.
Saionji turned the corner, sweat dripping from her brow as she appeared, her usual attire of her jacket having been tied around her waist, and her shirt having been replaced for a now stained tank-top. Her emerald green eyes flashed in the sunlight as she looked Andrei over... it had been over a month now since they had met, and time had seemingly morphed him especially. "Andrei. You found my spot." She said, looking him over.
Andrei grabbed his jacket and slung it over his shoulder, alongside his shirt, and the two stared each other down for a moment. He could always sense the tension between them, something that was quite understandable, and it was especially present now, where they were alone without the mediation of Shimoda to keep them in check. He looked her over, then nodded. "Sorry. Was just finishing up, if you don't want to share a space."
She narrowed her eyes, scoping him out as he did her. He was far stronger than the borderline skeleton that he had come to them in, and seemed almost perfectly human, save for the ever-present chain on his torso. At her side was her rapier, and she looked at the Chimera across from her... ever since he had shown his true colors and unleashed his full power, or the closest thing to it, that was all she could ever see. The same thing that had torn her parents to shreds, and their peaceful dreams along with them. Saionji dipped her head, and her mind dwelled on what Ban had told her of her parents... then she wondered, why wasn't she training alongside Shimoda? "No, it's fine. I don't mind." As Saionji said so, she found a hefty pair of grain sacks, hefting them overhead.
Raising his brow at the slim frame that the girl had lifting such weighty items, he shrugged internally, it shouldn't be surprising after all... she was part of their original Chimera-hunting squad. Unfortunately, he had come to train alone. It was the only thing he was deserving of, he felt, as an outcast of the group, and of the people of Kochi... of Japan, or what remained, at that. He hefted his sword over his free shoulder, then dipped his head. "You train alone too? No Kochi guard Ch'i training for you?" He was honestly just curious. Once he was satisfied, he would take his leave.
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...
