"Uh...Mr. Ashen?"
"What?"
"I cannot breathe."
"What about it?"
"Can we not adjust ourselves? It is hard to move in this position."
"No, and shut up Nitwit if you don't want to get killed."
Such was the conversation of the two in the darkness under Jack's bed.
To describe it in words, their current position is that Ashen is on top of Rossweisse and was pressing her down with his entire body while Rossweisse is facing him.
A rather enviable spot for any normal males out there considering that Rossweisse is a very beautiful young woman with a rather blessed figure as seen(and felt) by Ashen. However-
"To think that right after waking up, the next problem instantly arrives. Tsk! Why am I stuck here, glued to you?!"
-he did not care and instead was once again pissed at his current situation even though he was the one who put himself there. Quite ironic really.
"Damn it...the pain is still there. If the ones at the bridge are the same idiots from before, we're screwed."
His current state where he is full of injuries was a bad one. With only one arm to fight with, he cannot hope to defeat even one of his enemies. Add to that, the fact that right now he has two non-combatants with him; Jack and Rossweisse. He had his hands full just protecting Rossweisse, and now he has to protect even old man Jack and as much as he hates humans, the old man wasn't all that unlikeable and by his own judgement, was one of those near-extinct, good-natured humans who understands even humanity's flaws thus he cannot leave the old man to die if the situation ends up becoming a fight. He hates the thought of owing a human a debt afterall.
The only thing he hopes to happen now is that their pursuers don't find them under the bed.
"Oh! Well now! Who might you be youngsters? Fancy clothes you got there."
Ashen heard Jack's voice from outside. Judging from his words, it seems the pursuers had just arrived.
"Old man, have you seen a couple of youngsters pass by here not too long ago?", a deep masculine voice responded.
"Two youngsters? Can't say meself haven't. So many of them passed by this afternoon. Any specific thing about these two young ones?", Jack responded with a question of his own.
"It's a couple comprised of a young man with ash-white hair and a young woman wearing a pure-white nun's habit. There was an accident down the highway a day ago, we believe they were somehow involved in it and one of them may be severely injured."
'Accident my ass...', when Ashen heard that, he resisted the urge to retort. Making unnecessary noise right now will just expose them so he held his tongue.
"Couple? A young man and woman...running away...a plebe and a nun..."
'A plebe? Did you just call me a plebe old man?!', the thought provoked a popping vein in Ashen.
"Well now! What star-crossed lovers they are!"
'What the actual fuck?!'
*Bonk!*, *Thud!*
The absurdity of Jack's words caused Ashen to jerk his head up and hit his head on the bed's underside.
"Are you alright Mr. Ashen?", Rosseweisse who saw the whole thing whispered worriedly.
"What was that?", the man outside asked.
Ashen cursed himself for that blunder while trying to adjust his body.
"Mmm-!"
He hears Rossweisse moan softly as he moved but-
"What the hell are you trying to pull Nitwit? If you're that noisy they'll hear us!"
-he did not care for it and even scolded her in a whisper.
"But-! Mr. Ashen...your body is verily pressed against mine. I cannot help it if I feel a little uncomfortable when you move around like that.", Rossweisse panted.
Ashen stared at her for good two seconds before finally saying, "Gross..."
"Eh?!"
*****
"It's just some of them rats scurrying around again.", Jack answered after a slight pause.
Ashen almost blurted out a retort after finding Jack's answer to be one of those cliched dialogues in movies.
'Don't trigger such a flag!!!!'
And so he just decided to just scream out loud in his mind and mentally scratching his head in frustration. A moment of silence passed making him a little nervous but as luck would have it-
"Hmm...well you are living out here near the forest."
-the man believed him.
"Speaking of accidents...", Jack chimed in, "There was this young man who appeared out of nowhere all covered in blood."
"Is that true old man?", the man's voice got excited at Jack's words.
"Un. Left a pool of blood he did over there by the bridge. Scared the living daylights out of me. Looked like a zombie at first."
'Why you sure have quite the mouth old man!', Ashen who is just listening intently to their conversation felt like he was being stabbed in the back by Jack's words.
"Where is that young man now? Did he die?"
"Hm? Ah that me don't know. He just tottered along while ignoring me. Though meself did see him enter the city. Told him to go see to the hospital meself did."
But somehow, Jack was continuing the conversation without a sweat and from how the man he was talking to was reacting, suspecting the old man was the least of the man's worries.
"Old man, can you tell us where that hospital is?", the man asked.
"The hospital? You don't know where it is?"
"I'm afraid this is the first time we've been here so we are not so familiar with the area."
"That so boy? Very well."
What followed from this point on was something Ashen would never be able to comprehend even until his death ;
"You enter the city by the highway yeah?"
"Yes."
"Well, you will see an intersection right after yeah?
"Yes."
"Well, it means you are not there yet."
"What?"
'Wait what?', Ashen was confused and felt like Jack was up to something when he said it like that.
But despite Ashen's (and probably even the man Jack is talking to) reaction, Jack continued with his instruction.
"So then you went left right?"
"Yes..."
"There you'll see a big sign that says, '4th Avenue'."
"And then?"
"If you see that..."
A slight pause.
"It means you made a mistake so you'll have go right and go down 5th and then head until you reach the end."
Ashen finally realized, Jack was one hell of a mischievous old man. An incomprehensible way of giving directions, a seemingly naïve asker, it sounded like a pretense to a comedy scene where watching the asker wander around the city like an idiot would be tons of fun.
Ashen could not help but grin while imagining such a stupid scene straight out of a sitcom.
'Since we're under a bridge...wouldn't that make the old man the troll? Ahahahaha! Trolling a bunch of humans! What a joke!'
Ashen was amused by the sudden realization.
"So the hospital is at the end of 5th Avenue?", asked the man.
"Of course not you idiot!", Jack exclaimed, "When you reach the end, you'll see 7th Avenue to the right, 8th Avenue diagonally to the right and 9th to your left.", he continued explaining.
Ashen could hear the man nod along with a 'Uhuh.' at each instruction making him almost laugh out loud at the naivety of the man.
"First you look at 7th and if you see a bright yellow truck by the restaurant near the hotel, it means you made a mistake so you go across and head to 8th. From there, walk down the road and when you see a sign that says, 'to Tekkadan', you'll have to turn around and head for 9th."
Somehow there was something strange mixed in there but Ashen was otherwise in complete amazement as to how Jack managed to say those words without even stumbling with his words.
The old man's tone was so smooth and natural that Ashen almost believed him if not for the fact that Ashen knew he was just spouting bullshit.
'I'm confident that I would start laughing mid-sentence while doing that.'
Ashen thought in recognition of Jack's ability to spout bullshit with a straight face like it was nothing.
"Mr. Ashen...", Rosseweisse called out to him in a whisper.
"What?"
Rosseweisse squirmed under him, "Oi Nitwit! don't just move around like that! I can't easily support myself with one arm in this cramped-"
In her squirming, she accidentally hits Ashen's right arm which he had been painfully using as support making him tumble down and face-first towards Rosseweisse's cleavage.
"Hyau!", Rosseweisse made a stifled yelp.
A cliched trope and an enviable one at that.
Ashen who had been cursing his luck lately somehow ended up in the luckiest situation a young man could ever get;
His face snuggly in a beautiful woman's cleavage.
But-
'Ugh...why this stupid-! Why am I unlucky enough to end up in this situation?! I can't muster any strength in my arm...and I'm stuck between these lumps of useless fat!', Ashen however was lamenting his apparent 'rotten luck' and his weakness while trying to get away from Rosseweisse.
"Mr. Ashen! Please don't move so much!", Rossweisse pleaded in a whisper. Her breath caressing Ashen's cheeks with each exhale.
But, 'I can't breathe! Damn it!', Ashen tried to get away using his arm and then-
*Pop!*
He felt something pop in his right arm and then it went limp. Further forcing him to plant his face in her cleavage.
"Hyaah!", Rosseweisse covered her mouth as she yelped.
If anything, this would be an erotic scene but-
'Fuck it...I can't think straight while suffocating anymore...'
-the thought of Ashen falling unconscious was anything but a sign of being in an erotic scene and not long after, he loses consciousness but not before muttering,
"Why do you smell annoyingly good?"
and so falling into the darkness once more.
'