With the adrenaline from the motivation of beating down a few of the cowards that left us, I could feel my focus become sharper than ever! My instinctual reactions were quick, and my mind had been quicker.
It was a good thing, too, since the next corridor concealed an ambushing assailant who swung a wooden stick straight for my face.
Raising my left leg, I brought it down with the force of a hammer to an anvil and smashed it to bits. After annihilating the weapon, I leaped to its origin, ready to pulpify whoever it was.
I snarled, bracing myself to confront a squad of knights only to be met with the fearful glares of two girls and that plain guy from earlier.
The guy backed away, proceeding to hide behind the taller of the two girls.
"That collar…are you one of us? Are you going to hurt us?" The taller one asked, still wielding the broken remains of the stick she'd tried to strike me with.
The second question I wasn't sure I had the answer to. I promised I'd beat anyone that left us senseless to the point of unconsciousness. I promised that I'd make the ones pay thinking that they'd achieved safety while we suffered.
These three, though? They were far from relief and safety. Their expressions shivered with complete dread, nearly to the point of tears. If I throttled them now, I'd probably lose some of the respect I had for myself.
'I'll postpone it,' I sighed.
My mind made up; I finally answered them. "I won't hurt you, but that's only if you stop waving that damn stick in my face!"
They whimpered at my demand, and though the taller one still expressed dread, she lowered her shattered beat stick. She glowered at me with an expression of angst mixed with frustration the entire time.
Seeing the taller girl conceding, the smaller one reacted with darting glances of panic. "No, sister, don't!" She pleaded, concealing herself behind and shaking on the tall one's arms.
'Sister?' I questioned.
Now that she had mentioned it, I did notice a plethora of similarities that the two shared.
Between their icy blue eyes and ashen black hair, there was no doubt they'd been related. Despite that, however, it was apparent who'd been the elder of the two, given that the taller one exuded an aura of maturity while the shorter was more reminiscent of a small animal.
"I don't have a choice, Hikari!" The tall one snapped, shaking the other off. "Please," she pleaded, "just don't hurt us."
"You're pretty slow, aren't you?" I clicked my tongue in annoyance. "I already told you that I wouldn't."
Hearing my guarantee, the older one relented from total hostility. Though she was still clearly wracked with distrust, given her twitchy demeanor and slightly furrowed brow. In spite of her clear agitation, we reached a point where a discussion was actually feasible.
"You're the guy that screamed at everyone and kicked the door... What was your name, again?" The older one asked in an unsteady voice.
"You first, "I smirked.
She hesitated, her hands still greased in a cold sweat and shaking with trepidation. Then, exchanging eye contact with the younger girl, they nodded to each other and stepped forward.
The older of the two took the lead. "I'm Hagiwara Ayame, and this is my little sister, Hikari." She asserted, taking hold of the smaller one's hand. "I'm in college, and she's a second year in high school. Call me Ayame. Now you," she pointed at me, expectedly, "what's your name?"
"I'm not telling you my name!" I cackled.
Though the older sister had become red with fury, Agawa was the one who'd jabbed my gut with her elbow. "The idiot is Takagi, don't mind him…." She leaned in, whispering something into Ayame's ear before backing away again. "And that's why you shouldn't be bothered, so don't worry!"
Upon Agawa's exit, Ayame looked at me with a blank stare before barely containing a quiet outburst of laughter. Holding her sides, she hunched over, finding comfort in leaning on the side of a wooden crate beside her. "I remember you now!" She kept giggling.
"Huh? What the hell did you say about me?!" I demanded, almost threatening Agawa.
But she only smiled coyly and turned away from me before replying, "nothing much."
I growled and felt anger writhing beneath my skin. Though I'd wanted to learn what she'd said by any means necessary, I was already occupied with a different burden. A burden that would give me back pain if it didn't wake the hell up already!
I clicked my tongue in frustration. "Whatever." I groaned.
After that, the ice was broken between our two groups thanks to whatever Agawa had said about me. Then, one by one, everyone introduced themselves. At least until the one person who couldn't, came up in the discussion.
pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ "Hey, "Ayame nodded towards Sato, "isn't that the famed 'soldier' from the tower? What happened to him?"
Agawa tensed up, still obviously uneasy about Sato's name somewhat. Awkwardly, she smiled at the sisters before replying. "He was caught fighting within the man-" But she was cut off by a sincere Kamida.
"He saved my life!" He exclaimed, clutching his chest. "I owe my life to this man, so we're protecting him at any cost!"
"Is that so?" Ayame asked rhetorically. "I'm glad he didn't just bail on us the way I thought he would."
"Sa-" Agawa paused, "Sato wouldn't do that!" Hers were the eyes of honest anger. Despite her whispering, her words seemed louder than a shout as she defended Sato's honor.
'When the hell did they get so close?' I asked myself, completely confused since I'd initially assumed that Agawa hated him.
Performing an easing gesture, Ayame awkwardly chuckled. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean any harm by it, honest. I just figured he'd leave, given his reaction in the tower."
Though still slightly awkward at Ayame's comment, Agawa and her returned to normal as we continued forward with the final introduction. The plain guy's…the lemming's introduction.
"So, "I leaned in, "who're you, lemming?" I presented him with a bladed grin.
Backing away in fear, he staggered over himself and tripped to the floor. "I-I-I am…"
"Huh?!" I snarled at him, not unlike what I'd done back in the manor.
"I'm sorry!" He frantically prostrated himself. "I'm T-Takahashi Hirosh-shi. "
Grunting at him, I left him in a puddle of his own fear. Now that I'd achieved revenge on one coward, I'd be able to at least sleep tonight…or morning, whenever I'd be able to actually rest next.
"Alright, "Ayame said, "did you guys want to help us with our plan?"
"Plan?" Agawa quizzically inquired.
"Yeah, the shaky guy over there?" She pointed to the lemming. "He said he saw one of those armored carriages they took us here with." Then, eyeing him down, she urged him to finish the briefing.
"Uh…yeah I…"
"HUH?!" I snarled again; it'd actually been fun to me.
But Agawa nudged me harshly. "Knock it off!" She ordered.
"Tsk, "I clicked, "you're no fun."
Takahashi struggled to recover, but he eventually stumbled to his feet. Nearly in tears, he continued to speak. "L-like she said, I saw…uh…one of the wagons that we were brought here in. There were only a few guards near it, so I thought we could take it to ride out of the city."
"That's it?!" I jeered. "Don't you idiots even know that the gates are blocked by a bunch of guards?!
Ayame looked at me matter-of-factly. "No, we didn't, but we figured it would be since that's the obvious thing for them to do." She shrugged, unknowingly stinging my pride since we hadn't thought of the possibility ourselves.
"I'm confused," Agawa replied, "if you know that the exit is barricaded, then why do you want to steal the wagon?"
"Didn't you guys notice it when we were being attacked by those bandits? Ayame asked. "That weird barrier? We can use that to protect ourselves!"
Reflecting back, I did remember. About when Sato threw me to the ground...it pissed me off just thinking about it. However, beyond that, I remember seeing an arrow suspended in the air by nothing more than a sheet of blue-green particles.
"Do you have the knowledge of how it works?" Nakamura questioned.
"Yeah!" She replied. "He said they activate whenever it detects a threat or something." She pointed to Takahashi.
"Would you mind elaborating how he figured it out?" Kamida inquired.
"I," Takahashi murmured, "I threw rocks at it."
I was dumbfounded. This guy wanted to bowl through an army of armed guards with just the confidence inspired by tossing rocks.
My eyes twitching, I just stared at him.
"Rocks? You threw…rocks?" I grumbled. "How're rocks, anything like spears and arrows?"
"Uh-" He'd begun to reply when Ayame spoke for him.
"The barrier will deflect anything! We've already seen that it works on arrows…or have you forgotten?" Her snark reminded me too much of Agawa, so much so that I'd wanted to leave them here and try to escape through some other means.
"Do you remember where this wagon is?" Nakamura asked.
"Yeah, "she replied, "follow us. We were actually heading to it when you stopped us." She chuckled.
"This better work…." I griped, preparing for a full march to wherever they were going to lead us.
Hearing my words, Ayame turned to me with an expression of absolute confidence. Surprisingly, she took hold of my shoulder and locked me in place, forcing an exchange of eye contact.
"It will work," she affirmed, "it has to."
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