The Warband of Kochi's survivors marched onward with the latest addition to their ranks. Suzuko Orio, a strange feline girl, whom the Nowhere Generation's Phanes had taken an interest in... possibly due to her tail, which he had found it fun to swat at, even though it caused her to jump each time he nicked her with his outstretched claws. Suzuko herself had found Andrei's chest chain, which he had opted to keep flying freely from his half-buttoned undershirt and undone jacket, the most interesting part of their encounter.
While apprehensive, worried she might be unwelcomed, it was surprisingly Okuri and Saionji she felt most comfortable around... the two who had given their all, or at least Suzuko's all, to chase her down. And the two who spared her a more grisly fate. Close behind though, she found Andrei's strange quiet to be quite soothing as well. Nothing she seemed to do, no trick she played, phased him.
Shimoda, though friendly, startled the jumpy cat-girl more often than not... somehow, the klutz of the Akoto twins had continued to get the drop on the masked thief. Even still, they all remained beneath the watchful eyes of the three most interested in them, those being Hirano, Okuri, and the android, Alpha.1. All the while, Inoshishi and Hattori, the two brothers least caring of the entire bunch, continued to keep morale high with their half-drunken storytelling. Together, the Nowhere Generation marched onward to Suzuko's home, Nagoro, the village in which the demon, Nezumi-raigo dwelled.
As the band slowly drew to an upwards incline, it was the Swords of the Merchant Company who noticed the increasingly strange scenery. Through the fog and the trees, as luminescent rodents and frogs darted between them, what looked like almost human architecture made itself known. Soon enough, it was the bulkiest of the bunch, Sharp-Eye, who was holding tight to her weapon. "This place... gives me the creeps, don't you think?" Said the meek Long-Ear, who sat on her shoulder.
While Sharp-Eye nodded, the other swords began to disperse, with Inoshishi following Red-Claws and Hattori following Cherry-Fang. They came across strange, cubic constructs... technology far too manufactured to be of this era. Behind them, Saionji's hand instinctively hovered over her rapier, and soft pulses of energy flowed through Alpha's blade, which had left its place at her back to hover just behind her. The android's sensors seemed to be going rampant at that moment... though her proximity to Andrei, and her previous miscalculations with that grafted Chimera made her doubt herself.
That was until Andrei felt the hairs on his neck stand on end, and he too reached for his sword. Alpha's processors now seemed to steel themselves, and she began to think. "Boy." She said, her face turned towards Andrei, but her eye scanning the fog. As Andrei turned around, partly out of instinct, partly out of knowing she rarely spoke to anyone but him, he raised a brow. "You feel it, don't you."
They continued to walk, all of them. The only promise of their direction was Suzuko's sense. No longer could the android who had brought them this far guide them. The skittish girl felt the pressure as she slowly pieced this together, and slowly, she made her way to the head of the caravan. Andrei followed behind her. No sense in letting their guide die, should they come across a fight... "Suzuko. I'm sure you can already tell, but-..."
Beneath her hood and mask, Suzuko nodded to Andrei, beginning to get a slight bit closer to him. It was something that made him feel... odd. He didn't like being so close to people. Drawing his sword, he began to realize now that they were no longer going up. Their path had plateaued quite literally, and the trees slowly began to spread outwards. The strange architecture grew more dense now, and the girl seemed fearful. "We-... We're close. I can get us there... I'm just not used to such large numbers with me."
It was a lie which the other caravan heads saw right through. Dove, atop her black-furred chimeric wolf, drew her stake-throwing crossbow. Stepping off, she drew closer to the two kids, her face serious as Big-Hat joined their congregation... Soon too did Okuri, even the most carefree of the three major heads taking the lead. "We need to know what we're going to find here, kid. More than just that demon?" Dove pondered.
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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...
