Andrei had woken on the road to the place where that bastard Chimera lay in wait. Nezumi-raigo, the demon who had laid waste to the village Kochi, was tracked by a barely conscious Alpha.1, the android's body still going through the stages of repairing itself from the inside out... though her missing eye remained just that. Missing. She stood over Andrei, quiet, alert, and still soaked in a now faded mix of her own blood and that of the Chimera that they now hunted. Fog shrouded her legs, and rain fell on her torn red and black cloak. For a moment, he held his breath as if to think of something to say, but there wasn't much that he could.
Around them, a full paramilitary had formed out of the bones that had been picked clean by the chimera, Raigo. Members of the Bounty Hunter's Guild rode on giant half-chimera wolf-back, and the Swords of the Shikoku Merchant Company had convinced Big-Hat's caravan to lead the charge alongside the Nowhere Generation and Inu Clan warriors.
"Alpha... your eye, it's still..." Andrei asked quietly, as if not expecting an answer he would want to hear.
"I cannot reconstruct that which is already gone." Alpha said flatly. A strap of leather covered her face so that her features could rest easily, thanks to Mother of the Merchant Company's handiwork. Her hair was ragged now, but she seemed steadfast as always. It was honestly admirable to Andrei.
"Right..." He looked down to the fog-coated ground, and then sighed. Rising to his feet, he figured it was about time to continue pushing on... then he realized just how young the rising sun truly was. "Shit... how long until we're off?"
Alpha looked to the sun, then shook her head. For a machine, she didn't pay much attention to the time. "That is not my choice." Cold as always. Andrei couldn't be mad at her though, it was something he should have predicted.
Andrei had gotten his shoes on and began to roam the camp. That was when he began to pick up on the little things. A satchel had been swapped here, something missing there. Then he noticed a most peculiar sight. Saionji and the battle-scarred Shimoda sat right beside one another on a log, with the hulking figure of Okuri, head of the Inu Clan. They each were cross-legged, and seemed to be meditating.
He remembered that they had shared the story of how Shimoda had ended up left at Kochi that fateful day, the day he was nearly lost to them. Okuri had offered to aid in their growth. It was something he extended even to Andrei, but he himself had chosen to go his own way. It was his promise that he would find his own strength... something to rival Ra, the reason he was even up at this hour. Something caused him to flinch, and he noticed as Okuri's piercing yellow eyes opened from his meditation at the same time. "What-...?" He turned to the head of the caravan...
Somewhere at the head of the camp, far up the road which hadn't been traversed in ages, he could hear the faint clash of blades. His nose twitched, and he looked around. Few others were awake, and few others seemed to hear it... but Okuri sure did. Before he could decide to run for support, or for the fight, the wolf-man flashed past him with terrific speed for his colossal size. Behind him, Saionji followed in tow, but Shimoda remained rooted. Good, he needed rest. "Hey- Saiji, wait up!" Andrei shouted, breaking into a sprint after the two of them, his sword forgotten by his sleeping ground.
She turned to see the boy, and nodded to him before continuing after Okuri. They together stormed past the rest of the camp, and broke the border which divided them from the pure wilderness for a short bit before coming across what engagement had already begun. "Stand back, men. Allow me!" Okuri shouted, drawing his blade in reverse-grip.
Andrei and Saionji finally caught the scene as the wounded soldiers of both Merchant Company and Inu Clan blood backed off. A large, larger than even a minivan, chimera. It was toad-like in nature, with the body of one, but coated in thick, bulbous warts. Each wart spewed colorful gasses, and were just as vibrant as the stuff which they puffed out. Its long tongue hung out of its ugly mouth, with a large bulb right on the end swelling up to near-bursting as the two kids got shoulder-to-shoulder with their massive ally.
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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...
