The crack of a worn aluminum can was led up by the fizzing of a mostly flat, somewhat carbonated beverage welling up. Rough-looking hands scarred by burns raised the can to a pair of lips, and Andrei took a swig of the soda. Sat atop one of the tallest buildings in Nagoro, he overlooked the slowly rebuilding village alone. His hair was once more in a neat ponytail, and it seemed to be trimmed just a slight bit neater.
Setting the can down on the rooftop, he yawned and sat back. His clothes, which at one point had been burned away to mere scraps, now fit him better. What was his button-up undershirt was now the same in essence, though tied together by string rather than bound by buttons. The different, more cream-white shirt, sat comfortably around his exposed chest chain... for once, he was able to rest easy, free of the judgements that came with his being a partial Chimera. His body around the thing showed a slight bit as well, revealing a more lithe musculature than the near-starving boy who had turned up on Tokyo's doorstep only a month earlier.
Andrei adjusted himself as he looked out at the pinkish-orange sky, where only a few clouds spanned the treeline atop the Iya valley which surrounded Nagoro. Below, it seemed that the people were celebrating. Lanterns were strung up from strings all around the town, and some were sent flying into the sky, reds and blacks complimenting more traditional-looking oranges in the airspace above the town to remind the people of their savior. "This is it. The first step toward my humanity." Andrei thought to himself.
He fixed his jacket on his shoulders... It too had been redesigned by the expert craftsmen of Nagoro. A pair of red leather straps spanned his upper left arm, complimenting the semi-warm blacks of the jacket itself. Soft, somewhat puffy cuffs on the ends of the sleeves made it more comfortable to wear, the same red as the complimenting leather. The interior of the collar had also been sewn black-red, with the word "Breaker" emblazoned inside it. A steel plate made from the black bones of Nezumi-Raigo adorned his other side, on it engraved the insignia of the Nagoro peoples... something akin to the "J.P.G." that he had seen remnants of deep in the valley around the town, and a cartoonish engraving of his cat, Phanes in the corner of the plate.
His pants now sewn together with expertise, they too were adorned with an extravagant redesign. Black met a similar leather belt, with a golden buckle and red loops holding it in place. From the loops, red leather straps wrapped around Andrei's leg on his left. His right leg was bound at the thigh by two similar straps, though only detailed with red, and otherwise jet black. On the hems of his pant legs, almost flame-like designs had been stitched faintly into them.
On his feet, his once classy dress shoes were still just as sharp, though accompanied by newly fashioned red soles, and plates of black steel on the sides and heel. The toes also were plated, though these plates had been engraved with depictions of fire. With another sip of his drink, Andrei sat his arms down beside him, propping himself up now as he heard footsteps behind him, approaching with a mechanical rhythm about them. Heeled sandals approached, and stopped right behind Andrei, who lifted his arm to take another sip of his cola. He looked down at the label, it read "BANG Cola," and then up at Alpha.1 behind him.
"I've made sure. There are no traces of the Chimera Nezumi-Raigo. Thank you for your aid, Andrei Lowe." The android said, flat.
She wore a newly sewn leather eyepatch, which had been implanted with trace amounts of chimeric steel. A mana-insulator, something to prevent her power from exploding forth from the open socket in her head. It was embroidered with a loose floral pattern of white silk, and overall was a major upgrade from her previous patch.
Alpha's surface was now far more healed than when she had last seen Andrei. Her flesh was organic, even if she herself was not, and as such, she seemed to be all better. "I've lost an important part of myself. I... Came to inquire, rather selfishly." The android's single eye narrowed, and her green pupil dilated a slight bit. "Would you care to roam alongside me? I still intend on carrying out my given function. To crush every Chimera, and to defend humanity."
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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...
