==Scrap metal==
Some of the slaves find the unconscious Raiden and get cautious.
Others already shout: “There’s a human here! I’ve never seen this guy!”
Someone else suggests: “Let’s kill him while he’s asleep! The only human on our side is Erika!”
Ketsuki then comes by, dragging along the Kanzler and ignoring them.
The slaves notice him and one shouts: “Hey! Who are you! You’re a human so we won’t let you-“
The slaves notice the unconscious Kanzler and flabbergasted.
“THAT’S-“,
“The Kanzler. This guy there beat him up so please let him be. We’re both friends of Erika.”, Ketsuki explains.
One slave orders: “Give him to us if you’re really on our side! We all want to see him suffer! We want to torture him!!”
The crowd of slaves cheers and Ketsuki replies: “No way I’ll let you do that. We’re gonna hand him to the Space Force and get big stacks in return.”
A slave replies: “You shitty human! You’re only trying to save him, aren’t you!”
Ketsuki explains loudly: “This guy was the worst! I get it! But do you really want to become like him? You’re already being speciesist towards me! Can’t you trust your liberators? Can’t you give us our well earned price because we’re humans?”
The crowd gets quiet for a moment and then someone replies: “But we want to do that because we hate him for who he is! We’d never be specisist because we know best how shitty that is!”
Horuteph barges in: “Then you have a once-in-a-lifetime chance today! Forget your hatred and be grateful! Be the nicest people in the galaxy!”
“Why should we do that?!”, some slave asks enraged.
Horuteph holds up a key and smiles: “Because I found their food storage! Every nice person gets their first incredibly tasty meal in years!”
The mouths of the slaves are watering and they all fall on their knees with their heads touching the ground.
“Thanks for your help!”, they shout in unison, grab the key and run off with Horuteph.
Raiden slowly wakes up now and asks: “Why the hell is it so loud?”
Ketsuki replies: “Had to explain some things. You okay?”
Raiden answers slightly angry: “No! I’m bleeding all over because of that kick! Why the hell did you do that! You should seriously apologize!”
Ketsuki explains: “No, I won’t. There’s no reason for me to apologize. You should be thankful that I saved you.”
Raiden gives him a “Haaaaah?”, and Ketsuki explains: “You would’ve killed that asshole. I know he deserved it but I promised you something, and I will do it again.”
Raiden looks at him confused and Ketsuki declares: “I hereby swear to protect your humanity for as long as you won’t be able to bear with the consequences of ending a life. You’re just too important to me, to us all, so I can’t risk you becoming a wreck, simply because you couldn’t control yourself.”
Raiden’s eyes widen and he understands.
He giggles a little and says, smiling: “Thank you Ketsuki, for helping me with a problem I didn’t even know I had.”
Ketsuki smiles, muffles Raiden in his threads and says: “I’ll take you to Yafumi-chan.”
Meanwhile, Erika made her way to the trashing hall for old ships.
She is shocked at the sight of the dismantled Battery Bucket and gets annoyed: “Oi… just what is this half-assed job your men did, dad?”
You can still vaguely make out the ship as they only took the high class materials. Erika then looks through the still walkable parts of the ship with a sad and worried expression.
She sees the remnants of the big sleeping room and thinks: “Seems like they took most of our possessions for some reason.”
She looks at the charging station where Shurui always slept but doesn’t find her there. She then walks into the kitchen and gets flashbacks of the team, happily eating together. She continues to the cockpit and after a little investigation, she finds a little notebook.
The title reads ‘Captain Lightning Fist’s journey – Book XII’.
Curiously, because she’d never seen the book, she opens the first page and reads: “Day 4281 of my journey to find ‘The Man from Nowhere’- I met a very cool mechanic girl today. Her name’s Erika and Shurui-chan really loves her for her ‘Drop-dead gorgeous thighs’.”
Erika gets shocked and asks herself: “Did he write a diary for all those years? …I’ll better retrieve this. That will lift up his spirits after the message of Shurui-chan’s death really starts to sink in.”
Erika then hops out of the windshield and looks around the junk. Her gaze wanders for a few hopeful seconds and then she notices a blue blinking LED. She rushes toward the light and starts lifting metal scraps aside to unveil what is blinking. Erika’s eyes widen and she starts tearing up as she recognizes Shurui’s interface. With her destroyed body in her arms she silently starts to cry but then the software starts to boot up. Erika wipes her tears away and looks at the screen with hopeful eyes.
“Where… have you been? It was so… cold… and I was scared…”, Shurui slowly mumbles and Erika can’t stop her tears of happiness.
“YOU’RE ALIVE!! SHURUI-CHAN!!”, she shouts hugging the leftovers and Shurui explains, “It was really scary, getting dissected while still being conscious. I tried hiding my most important parts by rearranging my insides and I guess I succeeded.”
Erika replies: “You don’t have to worry about that anymore! I’ll repair you, no matter how long that will take!”
Shurui asks: “Can you do me a favor? Please, wipe my memory of that moment.”
Erika replies: “Of course! I’ll do anything for you!”
Shurui states: “I’m quite lucky, aren’t I. That you can simply make me forget that stuff is a blessing… just like your thighs.”
Erika starts to giggle very happily and Shurui joins in after seeing Erika’s smile.
==================================
Shurui-chan lives! Are you happy too?!
YOU ARE READING
Bounty Hunters - Shokin Kasegi
AdventureThis is the story of Raiden Adoratore, a young man, living on a seemingly endless journey throughout the galaxy. A galaxy, filled with life, civilisations and fantastic worlds. Can he find the man he's looking for? Can you share his excitement for e...
