A Cave Story

Chapter 2

"So I'm looking for that human female. You haven't seen her, have you?" Soldier asked.

"You gotta name?" The rabbit creature named Kanpachi asked. The Mimiga was even smaller sitting down as he fished in the village's reservoir. According to him, fish sometimes fall from the cement piping in the ceiling. They hadn't had a single bite in the past 6 hours.

Soldier was withholding information from Kanpachi, he knew the Mimigas hated humans the most, if he gave him a name it would most likely cause the network to inevitably give up her position and they would lynch her. The fisherman was mostly disinterested in Soldier's predicament. Soldier himself had felt like he pulled out all the stops. Kanpachi had given Soldier a spare fishing rod, telling him it would "increase our chances" which he took reluctantly to hopefully warm up to the Mimiga, to little success.

"I remember a lot of humans, most of em are dead. If you don't got a name, I might end up telling you the wrong story."

Soldier wondered if this Sue was even a real person. More of his memories came back, as the occupying military defected, there was a need to use code phrases that were constantly changed every day to prevent the enemy from being able to predict the next move. Even though the message seemed unprofessional, it could have been a secret message. Sue might have been a codeword. His train of thought would have to wait as he felt a bite.

"What are you waiting for? Reel her in!"

Soldier looked at him confused, reel in? Kanpachi took the fishing line from the robot and kept winding up the rod until the tension of the string released, water splashed onto Kanpachi's blue sweater, and his elation almost shocked Soldier as he was wondering how such a tired creature could suddenly burst with that much energy.

The object caught on the hook was a bracelet with a small silver fish trinket connecting the two ends of the string.

"Oh... tough luck. Next time, right?" Kanpachi said, his smile slowly extinguishing back to his low energy persona as he patted his back. Soldier looked down at the bracelet and prepared to throw it back into the river when his logic kicked in. He was more likely to find more information, even if it doesn't bring him closer to Sue it would help to learn more about this village.

"Do you know whose bracelet this is?" Soldier asked. Kanpachi looked away from his fishing spot to look at the artifact, squinting his eyes until they suddenly perked up in amusement.

"Huh, yeah. I think I remember, that's what Sue gave to Toroko I think. Poor kid was stressed over losing it. Maybe you should give it back... maybe not..."

"You said Sue?"

"Yeah, newcomer. She made friends with that Toroko kid a while back. It's strange, you know? We usually all stick together like family, but her? She seems so distant."

Just a Mimiga... but knowing it has been about 4 years, it was entirely possible that the situation has changed. Sue was undoubtedly one of them, yes, but it meant maybe the humans and some of the Mimiga are working together? There was only one person he could ask now.

"What about Toroko? Where is she?"

"Toroko's the youngest remaining. She's got a really young face, in the cute way... a bit of baby fat along the sides of her cheeks, you can see dimples when she frowns, she's got a forehead like a trapezoid..."

You're all covered in fur. How does any of this help?

Soldier did the basic formalities programmed into him and walked across the bridge back to the village when he saw an even smaller Mimiga wearing a green sweater. The girl was quivering as she stared at the bracelet in the robots hand.