"Hold up." Cayne said cautiously, backing away from the guy, "That's Akui?"
"Yeah," Shōhei responded stiffly, his hand twitching towards his gun.
Korū hissed. "Don't call me your grandson, you fucking-"
The next thing anyone knew, Korū's katana was on the ground, and he was bleeding from a gash in his arm.
"Respect your elders," Akui chided.
"Shut the fuck up!" The rage that burned in Korū's poison-green gaze matched the ferocity of the flames that Akui could wield.
Cayne slowly edged his way towards Korū, staring down Akui at the same time. He was ready to shift at a moment's notice. Linda drew her handgun and pointed it at Akui, while Alina crouched down to tie her shoelace. Her lips were curled in an unseen snarl.
Shōhei pulled out a pistol, grabbing Korū's sword from the ground swiftly and passing it back to him. Faced with three teens pointing weapons at him, with one tying a shoelace and another getting ready to shift, Akui laughed. "I'm not killing anyone today," he told them.
"Is that supposed to make us feel better?" Shōhei growled.
"That's up to you to decide," Akui said calmly.
His nonchalance was getting on Alina's nerves. He was a murder. A fucking murderer. Yet he was here, in front of them, not paying for his crimes.
She would make sure he does pay. Eventually.
"Well, what are you doing here, then?" Alina asked, carefully slipping her knife into her sleeve holster as she stood up, glancing at the enemy.
Akui merely smiled, then disappeared into the trees. Alina stuck her hand out, blocking Cayne who was about to lunge after him. Cayne glared at her. "His back is turned." He protested via mindlink.
Alina ignored him, squinting after Akui, and let out a shrill whistle a few moments later, causing Cayne to flinch.
"Ow, shit, a little warning next time." Linda said from right beside her, her ears ringing. "Fuck augmented hearing."
Alina chuckled softly as a hawk dove towards them from the sky and landed on a nearby branch. "Apollo?" Joanne must have sent him to watch after them. The bird would have flown back to its owner immediately if anything serious had broken out.
It squawked. Alina signed at it, and it took off in the direction that Akui left in. "Apollo will keep an eye on Akui. I think. At least, we would most likely know if Akui was near. We shouldn't do anything until we know his game plan." They hardly stood a chance, especially if they had a fight on Akui's terms. That would be suicide.
The others nodded hesitantly. Shōhei then started to fuss over Korū's arm, to which Korū was trying to stop him from bothering him. "Oi, stop. I'm fine."
"Was it poisoned?" Cayne asked, concerned. None of us had even seen Akui strike. How could the old man be so darn fast?
"No. Damn it, stop that!" Korū was wrapping a bandage around the gash, but Shōhei insisted on him taking a look first.
"Come on. Just let me check."
"Just stop the bleeding first. Do you even know first aid?" Alina asked Shōhei, raising a sceptical eyebrow.
"No, he doesn't." Korū shrugged Shōhei off. "Just stop." Shōhei gave up, retreating. "Fine."
"Wait. Where the hell is Kaguya?" Korū asked suddenly, the absence of the cat suddenly striking him.
"Car? Weren't you cuddling him or something?" Linda suggested, approaching to help Korū to bandage his wound, which he was trying to do with only one hand.
"No. He was just sitting between me and Shōhei." Korū replied, a little defensively. Alina, Shōhei and Cayne were standing close by, just waiting for Linda to deem Korū well enough for them to continue. It was the only thing they could do.
Linda hummed, pretending to be convinced. She had clearly seen Korū cuddling the cat.
Korū narrowed his eyes at her, which she ignored.
"Is everyone okay?" Hikari and Kumori asked, kicking down their mental doors. Hikari had sensed that something had happened.
Everyone flinched except Alina, who had multiple locks on each of her doors, and Shōhei because he was a dragon and couldn't mindlink. The latter glanced at his companions weirdly, and shrugged to himself when no one said anything.
"Yeah." Korū winced. "We're trying to find Kaguya- oh there he is- KAGUYA WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?"
Kaguya had bounded over with a pretty bloody, dead bird.
"What is he doing?" Cayne asked.
Kaguya crunched on the bird.
Korū sighed, "Damn it, not again."
"I see. He didn't share." Cayne muttered indignantly.
"You want to eat that?" Korū asked disbelievingly.
"We're wolves, what do you want to eat?"
"That's so fucking small."
"It's still food." he paused, then he and Alina said together, "I'm hungry."
Korū gave them the side-eye. "You didn't bring food?"
"I did, but we haven't eaten them yet…" Cayne said.
"And I want unagi." Alina voiced out.
"Again?" Linda asked. Alina nodded and shrugged.
Korū produced a small bag of unagi from somewhere and chucked it at Alina. "If you brought food, then eat it. It's not like you can't fight off anything with food, so you might as well eat it."
Cayne shrugged too, "I'll get something more appetising later."
"Why would you bring random Japanese snacks with you all the time? And how do they not spoil?" Alina asked, catching the bag. "Thanks, though."
"Hikari gets hungry. Food stops her from being high." He took a glance at his arm.
"No I don't." Hikari protested, while Kumori snickered.
Alina stopped eating for a moment. "Bribes?"
"Nah. She gets high when she's hungry."
"Bribes." Alina concluded. She then continued to eat the pieces of eel.
"No." Yes.
Hikari scoffed.
"We'll assume everyone is fine." Kumori said, "Update us later." And the two of them retreated from the mindlink.
"Do you want to continue looking at trees?" Linda asked.
Korū huffed. "No. Carry on."
"To the…" Alina started before trailing off, "village? Is that it?"
"Up to you."
Linda shrugged. "Guess so." and Cayne helped Korū up from where he was sitting on the ground.
The company then trudged their way to the nearby civilisation, on a quest to look for people they've never seen before.