Bounty Hunters - Shokin Kasegi

Leonhardt Arc: Chapter 146

==A child’s curiosity==

Horuteph, Yafumi and Toru enter a storage hall that has been carved into the asteroid. They see many tools for ore mining and slaves of many common species who organize the equipment.

Ashthor then calls out: “Chroji! Come out!”

An old, orange Flumi comes out around the corner and greets him: “Hey Ashthor! What do you need?”

His slime body looks a little saggy because that’s how age shows on a Flumi.

He notices the new people and asks: “Who’s that? I’ve never seen them before.”

Ashthor explains: “They’re new slaves who’re friends of Erika-chan.”

Chroji is surprised: “You guys are friends with her? Oh you need to tell me everything you can about her! How is her life with you? What do you even do out here? I really want to see her!”

Ashthor warns: “Probably difficult. She’s probably with her dad now and prohibited from ever going back down here again.”

Chroji becomes more quiet and agrees: “Yeah… pretty sure the Kanzler’ll use this opportunity to keep a close eye on her.”

Horuteph introduces himself: “So, my name’s Horuteph, this quiet one here is Yafumi-chan and that scary raptor she always rides on is Toru. Nice to meet you. I was told you are pretty important. I would like to know more about that and about the reason why Erika is such a legend here.”

Chroji replies happily: “Oh I’d really like to tell you guys more about that but let’s get somewhere where we can talk first.”

Erika lets her mates into her room and Raiden comments: “Wow this looks like you’re eight.”

Erika explains: “Cause I haven’t been here since I was eight, maybe?”

They sit down on various things and Erika keeps going: “I think, at least for context, I’ll need to tell you about what happened here 10 years ago.”

Raiden tries to assure her: “Don’t worry about it. If you’re that uncomfortable talking about it, you don’t need to tell us anything. I already hate that guy enough to kick him into this solar system’s sun.”

Ketsuki asks: “Shouldn’t you be crying right now? You don’t need to play it cool like I do.”

Atsume thinks: “You rarely play it cool though.”

Raiden replies: “I know it got me good. Those news were such a big shock but I remembered that Shurui-chan won’t go down that easily. Erika improved her body in a way that she can’t really die anymore. We wanted to make sure of that after the factory thing. Now I just need to hope for the best.”

Erika starts narrating: “Listen up. In need to explain this. 10 years ago, I found out about my dad’s true ideology.”

An eight-year-old Erika is running around a garden on the surface of the asteroid. She’s happily running after a butterfly as a flamethrower suddenly incinerates it.

Erika almost gets hit as well and shouts, pouting: “Hans! Stop with your stupid flamethrowers already!”

Hans replies with a smug: “Just don’t run into my fire, stupid rat!”

“You almost hit me! I’m gonna tell dad about this so he takes them away from you!”, Erika keeps going and spitefully sticks out her tongue and runs away.

She runs down some path between houses and a rock wall.

She then stops and wonders: “Where is dad though? I have no idea how to get to him right now.”

She sees an entrance to a cave which is not guarded. She walks down it to explore and follows the white, silky line in the air. She starts hearing pickaxes and people talking. Around one corner, a younger Chroji and an old, purple skinned Onishgo are currently chatting.

Erika walks around that corner and shouts: “Helloooo!”, energetically waving her entire arm.

The slaves pretend to not see her after Chroji notices: “That’s a human! Quick, we need to go back to work!”

The little Erika strolls closer to them and asks: “What are you gentlemen doing here? I’ve never seen people who look so weird.”

She curiously wants to touch Chroji’s slime skin and Chroji startles.

He asks: “Can you please stop? I don’t like people touching me so suddenly.”

Erika quickly apologizes: “Oh! Sorry. I’m just a curious, cute, little girl.”

She looks at them with dog eyes to not get scolded.

The Onishgo giggles and Chroji replies: “Thank you. You see, we’re not human and therefore behave a little different than humans.”

Erika asks confused: “Not human? Eh?”

Chroji introduces himself: “My name is Chroji and my species is called Flumi. This guy right here is an Onishgo called Flora-san.”

Later, when she sees her dad again, Erika happily tells him about her day.

“Dad! Dad! You won’t believe this!”, she shouts with a joyful expression.

The Kanzler asks: “What is it? Tell me.”, and picks her up.

“I found a cave today! I walked in there and saw some weird looking people who said they’re not humans. They’re so fun and have some interesting stories!”

The Kanzler keeps up a fake smile and asks: “And how would you call your relationship to those people? Do you want to see them again?”

Erika shouts excitedly: “Yeah! I totally wanna see them again! That’s what friends do!”

The Kanzler puts her down and tells her: “Whatever you do, from now on, you mustn’t go in that cave ever again.”, leaving Erika very confused.

================================

Erika's backstory begins! Let's see where this leads!