Days had passed since that fateful battle, the one which saw Nowhere Generation reeling from its first major loss. Eleven figures stood on the mountain by the shore, then two more sat a few feet from them, each staring out at the sun that seemed to have never moved since that day, since that moment. A slight mist gathered on the surface of the sea beneath them, their feet, the ground they stood on, and the figure sitting beside the unmoving shadow looked to see it once more. The two figures were that of Hattori, or the memorial of him which his friends, his family, had built for him, and the foxy beastkin, Cherry-Fang.
Her eyes lowered, and so too did her shoulders as she finally registered the memorial in the more logical portions of her mind, a simple thing it was. Nothing but a pile of weighted, heavy stones, and a hand-carved sign with the man's name drawn into it. To her, it didn't much matter who's handiwork it was, she didn't even want to accept it was him.
Memories flooded Cherry-Fang, memories of her recent adventures, of her life that had been so tumultuous since the arrival of these strangers, newcomers to a road that she had walked for such a long time. She had always had companions, the Swords of Shikoku made sure of that, but ever since the bodies had begun to pile up, the road had grown colder where their souls had warmed it. The flood of memories caused her tear ducts to swell up with beads of salty emotion, and she bit her lip with her sharp fangs to keep herself from crying.
Days had passed since that fateful battle in her mind, the one which saw the Swords of Shikoku reeling from their latest loss. Five figures stood in the town of the mask-bound Beastkin, surrounding a closed grave. The man with the large straw hat tipped it, and looked to his disciples with a somber frown. Big-Hat was never one for words in tense moments. Even if he was to be their mentor, their leader in times like this, he hadn't expected it to come so soon. Neither had Cherry-Fang, who had heard Red-Claws' last words. Get the two nomads outta' here! I'll hold them off, Cherry! Go! He had shouted at her. "Red... A-Aniki..." She murmured now, as if in response.
Sharp-Eye planted her hefty gunblade into the stones of the street as she heard her friend, and she lowered her head as she too recalled Red's words. Through both their minds, the same thought was racing down different paths, though each river of emotions landed them in the same place. Why weren't we ready? Why weren't we stronger?
Mother, the eldest fox-woman of the company, held her hand out as if to reach for Cherry. With Big-Hat, she had practically raised the Swords like her own child now. To see the pain and regret in their eyes, it stabbed at a special place in her heart, a place she didn't even know was so vulnerable. Long-Ear was the next to go, the slender man's namesakes tucked behind his head as he found a place to swallow his sadness alone. That too was something that stabbed at Sharp-Eye's heart in specific. Enough for her to step between Mother-Hand and Cherry, stopping the older woman short of comforting somebody she saw as a daughter.
There was a second thought in Mother-Hand's mind that slipped away from her as she saw a pair of men appear from behind her. Purely human, clad in red and green respectively. The green-clad nomad, Hattori, placed a hand on Cherry's shoulder. She could only think of the hand, and how her brother would have done the same if he were there. In fact, the nomad man reminded her a lot of Red-Claws. He seemed reserved in conversation, but both opened up to Cherry, treated her like an adult, even if she had only known this 'Hattori' for a few days. Thinking of her brother, then of Hattori, she felt a bit of comfort in knowing that his memory lived on as a small fire in the back of her mind. The fire really had grown comforting, especially when it was the nomads who set one up, with all the beautiful colors they could manifest, and all the stories they all had to tell.
That day, Hattori and Cherry-Fang tried their best to mourn and move on with the loss of her brother, and his saviour. Hattori showed her his power of Wind magic, and she showed him Ch'i. They tried to practice each other's technique until night fell, with Hattori walking back to their merged groups with nothing but a new friend, and Cherry-Fang having learned to project her Ch'i at a distance, in broad, rotating blades.
YOU ARE READING
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...
