Komo-Doubutsu

Chapter 16: The Three Traits - Part 2

By: Midori Ushi Law

The pudgy woman saw the dagger fall to the sidewalk, making one clink as it failed at bouncing. It didn't work? She slowly glanced back up at her target and shrieked as she saw Ray's enraged eyes behind a forest of two - foot quills on around her entire head.

"I am going to ask you one more time, ma'am. What do you think you are doing?" Ray faced the woman and raised her wrist to head-height, aiming with the intent to kill if answered incorrectly.

The woman's arms were still raised, but this time her surrender appeared genuine. She fell to the teenager's feet. "Please! Please don't kill me! I just wanted your ticket! That's all I wanted!"

"My ticket?" Ray wondered. "Why would you want my Great Quest ticket?"

"My husband heard some guy in a bar talking about how he saw a teenage girl, fitting your description, buy a Great Quest ticket. I know that husband of mine is too cowardly to steal from a child, but we don't have the money for one of our own nor do I want him to risk his life doing the Preliminary Trials! We need that ticket! Please don't kill me!"

"I am not going to give you my ticket, nor will I let you steal it. I earned it the hard way," Ray responded.

The woman's head lowered. Her medium-length blonde hair covered her face as she reached at something on the sidewalk. "We have bills we can't afford. We're about to be evicted. We need that ticket!" The woman lunged at the teenager from the ground and struck her in her right arm, the one she had extended.

Ray's eyes grew, when she realized the only reason the woman fell on her knees was to obtain the grounded dagger. She looked down at her slashed forearm. It wasn't a deep cut, but it was enough to make her forget about the soreness from her training.

She looked up in anger at the woman, who was now standing and smiling desperately. Ray tried to aim her other arm at the woman to fire projectile quills at her, but she realized something was holding her arms down. Noticing transparent threads of wool wrapped around her wrists and ankles, she glared back up at the giggling woman.

Chapter 16: The Three Traits

Forty minutes earlier, a tall young man knocked on a large office door. He patiently waited, rubbing the back of his neck behind his short, auburn hair. His clothes were name brand and fit to his muscular physique.

"Come on in," a deep, bone-trembling voice requested from behind the heavy door. Upon entering, the young man stood in an enormous office on the 30th floor. He saw across the room a man he admired with his back facing him, peering out the glass wall. The man wore a blue, pinstripe suit. His short hair was silver.

"You wanted to see me, grandpa?" the young man, Buey asked.

Elder Marduk motioned with his large, wrinkled hand for the teenager to join him in his observation. Side by side they stood, both the same height. They were definitely alike in many ways. Buey knew this fact and felt comfort.

"Five and a half more days, huh?" the leader of the World Elders asked.

"Yeah. Then I'll be even more powerful."

"Have you recovered from that incident at school yesterday?"

"Of course I did, Gramps! You know a puny attack like that can't stop an Ox Doubutsu beast like me! I've never felt better in my entire life!"

"Buey..."

"What?"

Silence. In times of arrogance, silence was Marduk's only way of mentally talking himself out of dangerous thoughts. They watched the actions of the common people below them. After a minute and a half, Buey heard his grandfather's voice again.