"aaaahhhnnnnn…" Ryuma groaned and walked around like a zombie. Without any food, he couldn't work. Without any work, he couldn't eat. Living in poverty felt like a vicious, endless cycle of despair.
{Maybe I should leave town and go fishing again.}
"AAahhhhmmmgggfffff!" Ryuma heard a muffled scream. The sound of a woman. With strained eyes, he turned his head.
"Shut it you stupid bitch!" One guy yelled. He raised his fist and punched her in the eye. Another man held her down. As he kept his hand on her mouth, he began ripping clothes. "You think anybodies going to save you back here!?"
She kept fighting and struggling to no avail. Two grown men against one woman was too much.
"Huhh?" Ryuma asked. What a thing to stumble upon so early in the morning.
The men stopped for a second and turned to see who was staring at them from outside the alley. "It's just some punk kid," One of the men said.
"Beat it brat. We're busy here," The other man said.
"Please help me!" She pleaded.
Ryuma's stomach growled again. He grabbed it in pain and pushed his forehead against the wall. "Dammit this is fucking stupid," He shot the group a sharp glare. The two men looked at each other confused at the development before them. "Hey lady. If you got some food, I'll help you deal with these creeps,"
Both of their faces scrunched at his insult. "Why you…" One of them stood up and flipped a switch blade out.
Ryuma held his hand up. "Hold up. She has to answer the question first,"
"Oh don't worry about that. If you think your stomach is empty now, just you wait until I get through with it," The man ran at him with his blade drawn.
With Ryuma's basic combat training, he effortlessly dodged the man's stabs. Even hungry, his moves were basic and straight forward in comparison to the strikes of his fellow classmates. He was by no means a martial artist, but his reaction speed was above the average humans. He pushed the assailants arm out the way and struck him in the neck.
The man held his own neck as he choked from the blow. Ryuma punched him in the face and knocked him out.
Panicked, the other one let the woman go and attacked him immediately. Ryuma blocked his attack by huddling behind his fist in a boxing stance. He let his attack roll off his arms and kneed him in the gut.
After the man doubled over, Ryuma jabbed him twice in the face, knocking him out cold.
The woman sat there staring at him, stunned that he took both these men out like he was handling children.
Basic hand to hand combat was taught at the academy, coupled with his training being a priest made fighting with average drunken idiots easy.
He walked over towards her and kneeled. "Food! Do you have some?" Ryuma asked.
She stared at him with her jaw open. "Ughh… yes… sure. Follow me," She said, grabbing on to his hand and leading him out of the alley.
He was glad that she was leading him by the hand. Being this hungry, he didn't want to think for himself at the moment, his head was starting to get a little dizzy.
She led him all the way to her house. It was nicer than he thought it would be for a place like this. Better than the slums they just left. What was she doing there if she lived in a class above that?
She cooked him all the food he could ever need. She must not have been starved for money, and he didn't see any man in the vicinity. Was he working somewhere? Ryuma kept wolfing down the curry she made. Its level of spice mattered little to him. He had to get as much down as possible, else he forfeited his life to starvation. He could no longer wait a second longer now that the food was in front of him.
"Kinda makes me wonder what kind of background you lived if you could fight so well and still ended up like that," She said.
The woman had long brunette hair that made it all the way to her back. A cute face that made her look like a doll, and she was an inch shorter than he was. Despite her looks, her mannerism told him that she was older than him. She just had an air of maturity he couldn't quite put his hand on.
"I could say the same thing. A woman like you in the alley of the slums. Looked out of place to me," Ryuma said.
She looked away from him. "Not really. I cross that area to go to and from work,"
Ryuma continued shoving more food into his mouth. Whatever her past or current problem was, it wasn't in him to pry.
"I work the red-light district. Those two were former clients of mine. I guess this time they wanted the goods without the pay. So thank you for saving two of my checks," She said.
Ryuma almost choked on his food. He really didn't need an image like that floating through his head. "I wasn't asking you know,"
"I know… I just wanted to say,"
Ryuma continued eating his food. "Do you not have people to talk to?" He asked. That would have to be the only reason as to why she said that.
"None that can listen," She said. She went into her kitchen and fixed him another plate before he was done with the previous one. "Being an escort is a lonely life. It comes with its… side effects,"
"Really? It must pay well if it could help afford all this. From what I've seen here, most people here are dirt poor," Ryuma said.
The woman stayed silent for a moment. "Aren't you poor?"
Ryuma mentally kicked himself. He forgot that he was one of them now. He had a habit of separating himself from the common person. "I mean… well, yeah. I just didn't think Lue would be a place with such a high poverty rate," Hopefully, that fixed it.
The woman stared at him silently and without expression. "Oh that explains it. You're from topside,"
Ryuma felt like a two-ton anvil just dropped on his head like the donkey he was. Blending in with looks was easy enough, but some rando managed to piece almost his whole story from dialogue alone. He was going to have to learn how to talk without coming across as a Skylander.
"Guilty as charged. What gave it away?" Ryuma asked.
The woman put her finger on her lips. "Well for one, I've never seen someone who can fight as well as you, land themselves in such a desperate situation. Anybody who manages that is clueless with how things work down here,"
Ryuma felt another two-ton anvil drop on his head.
"I guess I can't deny that," He said. At the very least, it didn't look like she connected the dots on his identity. An escort like her is likely desperate for money. She'd turn him in no questions asked.
"Name's Saya by the way," She said.
He smiled. Despite the circumstances in which people lived down here, everybody he met never took it personally that he came from the Skylands. Still, it was best he kept it safe.
"It's nice to meet you Saya. My name is Eren," He said. The name of that kid was the first name he could think of as a pseudonym down here. There was no way he was telling somebody that already pointed out his origin, his original name. That's just asking to sell him out.
"Well that's nice. For a second there, I didn't think my savior was going to grace me with his name. Not many people respect my profession," She said.
"It's not about the profession. It's about survival," Ryuma said.
He wasn't stupid. He doubt she did this because she wanted to. The fact that she is willing to sleep with the two men that tried to pin her down earlier is testament to that.
She smiled warmly at his response. "Thank you. I appreciate that,"
"You're welcome…" He didn't know what the thank you was for to be honest. He just assumed that was common sense why someone would take a job like this. "If it's not too much to ask, can you teach me about how the lower world works? I like to know everything that's going on around here,"
"No problem, I could do that much. If you must know…"
"Mommy," There was a young girl that came out of the room. She was rubbing her eyes with a face that showed she was still half sleep. She looked like a carbon copy of the woman Ryuma was just speaking to.
Saya ran over towards her. "Maruna. You shouldn't be up so early," Saya said.
"I had a bad dream that you wasn't here mommy," The young girl Maruna said.
Saya hugged her close, causing the girl to drift into further sleep into her mother's arms. Ryuma looked at the interaction with a blank stare. People still have to raise kids in this environment. Who was this girl's father?
"It's like I said. Being an escort comes with its side effects,"