The united wanderers had marched with the nomadic merchant company long enough to have doubled back from their place in Shikoku. Believing in the strength of the Nowhere Generation, and their secret weapon in the half-Chimera Andrei, Big-Hat had made the executive decision to shorten their route by cutting through old Tokyo. They had spent too much time exacting revenge on the now deceased Chimera, Nezumi-Raigo, and as such, needed to make up on time. It was a harsh business as a wandering sales clan.
"We've got eyes on us... There are those above our clan, we're a mere subsidiary of a greater mercantile company spanning Japan," Big-Hat had explained. "Strength in numbers. Our numbers come from them."
Though they had encountered a number of smaller Chimera, more than anything the old Tokyo-natives had seen in their lives, the group made out without any losses. Saionji and Shimoda's grappling kits offered them an advantage beyond their already massive boost in strength, and Andrei had the simple advantage of his raw power.
Encountering a band of scouts from a settlement bearing no mark, Inoshishi and Hattori recognized them as soldiers from Scavver's Guild... though it was no longer named after the man. Apparently, Ban had recovered the position of leadership he had, and they were now called the Scavenger's Guild, both in memory of Scavver, and something broader. Rumors of the Guild spread beyond Tokyo, and treasure-seekers ended up drawn in.
Passing through Tokyo, the band eventually found themselves in the world of nature once more. Mountainous terrain almost reflected Tokyo's infrastructure, and Shimoda's childish curiosity found him swinging and running from cliff sides. On more than one occasion, both Saionji and Andrei were required to save the boy from falling, depending on the height of the fall, or the gap the younger Akoto was attempting to span.
As the mountains grew more slender, Big-Hat and Okuri's leadership became even more vital, whilst the likes of Hirano were better spent keeping an eye on what he had come to consider man-children in Inoshishi and Hattori. The two alcoholics had found themselves near the end of the mountainside on a number of occasions. One night, it became worrying enough that Saionji and Andrei had put their feet down as well, and the two were placed in the care of Dove and Cherry-Fang, the two new friends that they had grown closer to in recent days on the road.
Once the mountains had begun to broaden once more, Andrei and the Akotos found themselves branching out more... straying from the path for a short while, before one of them tracked down the caravan. Suzuko began to join them on these adventures, the quartet eating lunches in bamboo forests, fending off the wild animal-chimera hybrids of the mountains, and even uncovering a second 'J.P.G.' battleground, or at least what was most likely one. Andrei recovered a thick, sturdy-looking greatsword from the decades-old ashes, and Suzuko found herself digging through machinery for strange, pulsating cores of mana.
Some shimmered blue, others were a flaming orange-red, some even other colors like green or even a purplish-pink one, which reminded Andrei in particular of a Chimera's core. When they inevitably returned from their excursions, Alpha queried on where exactly they had gone, almost in a motherly tone. This time, she even seemed interested in their haul.
"Hm? What is this... it reminds me..." Alpha trailed off as Suzuko gladly handed over her trinket. "Andrei, the energy."
He nodded at the implication. "That's what I thought. Hasn't given me that normal feeling I get though, when they're nearby." Andrei shrugged it off, and Alpha reflected the emotion, her own senses narrowly able to pick up a trace of the usual energy a Chimera would give off.
"Be careful with this, Suzuko. We might not know what it is exactly, but it could be unstable." The android warned, then looked up to see droplets of rain after they fell on her hand.
The machine-woman handed back the strange core, only for Suzuko to push it back on Alpha. It was a gift to her, she assumed, and the android offered a smile which caused her eyepatch to shift on her face. "I understand. I will watch over this for you then." It was then that she seemed to pause. Had she just smiled out of habit? Or was it the study of the others?
Suzuko nodded under her mask, and then skipped off to join Saionji and Shimoda as they reconvened with the rest of the merchant caravan. Alpha lingered behind for a while, and Andrei followed after her. The two strayed for a while, but eventually, as the rain began to come down thicker, they both caught up with the shaded carts, marching under the umbrellas that had been set out of the windows on the roofed wagons.
Eventually, later that night, Andrei sat awake. Alpha had closed her green eye and sat beside him, both facing out to the valley below the cliffside they were camped on. A campfire burned under a makeshift cover behind them, too small to provide any real warmth, so Andrei instinctively played with a ball of condensed flames in his hands. The crimson-black flames were a gentle warmth right now, though they also reminded him why he was awake.
His dreams had begun to scare him. Each night now he was plagued with vision of Ra, where he was simply too comfortable with him. It was unnerving, and it drew out a sort of primal fear he had never felt before... though perhaps that was part of being human. It was a bold claim he had made, and one he was still proving to himself.
A bolt of thunder struck the cliffside, and overhead, storm clouds swirled into a circular formation. It was something unnatural for certain, but even stranger was the strength with which the bolt struck. It shook the very stone they were camped out atop, and it woke many, Alpha included. She stood on edge, as did a tired Andrei. "Did you feel that, Andrei?" She asked, looking over at the boy. Another bolt of lightning struck, and Alpha was to her feet.
Andrei was now ready for a fight as well... a black-yellow streak of lightning had struck the same spot in their camp twice. He had seen it the second time around. Now, a rumbling shook the whole of the caravan. From above, a third lightning bolt formed in the sky and the pitch-black clouds. Tensed up, as if he was going to be able to redirect the very lightning in the sky, Andrei drew his sword. As it came down, he thought maybe he would be able to intercept the bolt before it struck somebody, but he was simply too slow.
This bolt exploded, causing the cliffside to fragment. Alpha remained silent as her footing crumbled out from beneath her, and unable to truly fly, the android watched as Andrei fell towards her. She grabbed hold of the boy, digging her feet into the cliffside and creating a streak in the stone. Eventually though, she lost her balance with the heavy Andrei in her arms, and the two began to tumble.
The whole of the caravan was now scattered, with others having fallen as well, though some not as far, onto aged trails below the original they had followed up to this point, while the likes of Shimoda and Saionji were able to use their grappling kits in order to save themselves. Dove and Cherry-Fang were able to escape with the drunkards in their care on wolfback, the massive canines able to navigate the sheer rock face. Meanwhile Hirano, with his vampiric abilities, was able to grab hold of the colossal Okuri. In his miniscule bat form, they were barely able to make it across the gap to the neighboring mountain and its trail. Finally, Suzuko herself was able to deftly escape with nothing but her Wind magic behind her...
Big-Hat's company itself was split now, between those on the lower trails and the ones who had yet to tumble in full. Among them, Mother-Hand stood beside Big-Hat, looking down at what would have been a certainly grim fate for herself and her child, who was swaddled in a wrap on her back. "God..." She murmured.
"We'll be alright. The wagons are all still visible, and on the mountainside." He shouted to his company. "We need to move! Quickly, before more collapses on us, or beneath us!" Before they could even count those who had been split from the group, the Merchant Company shoved off. Those who were awake now knew just as well as the Big-Hat Merchants did where they would head next. Iwatayama was where they would meet once more. There, they would no longer be lost.
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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...
