*Arisu's Prospective*
They say to be strong is to shape the weak.
Here, in this world, strength can take many unfathomable shapes. Every time I thought I'd seen how insane it that get, I'm proven a fool.
Merrah is often an exception to that.
Everything she does, she does it in a style that screams 'grit'.
Tales of her deeds may play things up, but having seen her in action... it's like watching a devil dance with death and right now, I'm on the way to her tavern.
The tavern itself plays an important role itself in various guilds activities and thanks to its small distance away from the city, it became a hub for things like the butchering of monsters and processing bounties, well, when there isn't a blizzard that is.
Intentional or not, the path Merrah took too that outlying bar was moulded into the snow itself and I'm proven a fool yet again. Her very presence shaped the world, even hours later that change remained, it was frightening.
The snow melted away and now refused to land where she once walked.
I owe Merrah a great deal, not just for saving my life, but for being my first true friend in this, literally, god forsaken world.
Sure, Enda was the first person I ran into, and by 'ran into', she found me drowning in the Waterborn district... thanks to the goddess of refection who sent me here using an underwater upside-down torii gate for her amusement... but I find it hard to call her a friend.
She acts like family, like my mother but more violent. I proposed she adopt me for a few reasons, that being I needed a place to stay and eventually learnt if I do kick the bucket, I'll at least live on in her memories because I have a soul not of this world...
Merrah and I grew close real fast, but we both agreed to act like passing acquaintances outside of that tavern. There was no exceptions to this rule, not for Enda, not for any of the misfit group like Ru who can't even talk in the first place.
Judging by her very minor interaction with Touji, she might be testing him.
I hope so.
Sadly, she is unable to express her emotions, and because of that, she's unable to make any friends... only pushing the people she cares for away, to no fault of her own understanding.
It's a problem I've seen a few times in my past life, when people bottle up their feelings for most of their early life, they lose the ability to express themselves through facial expressions and body language.
There is a balance to everything, from something so simple to expression to something so difficult as virtues and sin. Finding a position in between both sides is not easy, a coin wishes to fall, it is the strength of the soul to find a balance and that is never in the middle.
I felt sad for her, but thanks to this bodies heightened perception and strange 'kitsune gut feelings', I was able to understand her.
My hope is that if Touji can become friends with her too, his blessing might grow and evolve with interest of understanding her intent and emotions. She also has her own blessing, maybe she can teach him a bit?
When I took those two out to see Rider earlier today, I didn't realise she would even be out there.
"I forgot my scabbard!"
Ah whatever, I'll get it tomorrow, it's not like it'll get destroyed by leaving it a day.
I should of brought my robes to get through this blizzard, it'll only get worse after leaving the city. At least I could follow the crystal lights down Heroes Street, the main stone pathed road leading out of the city.
Named such as at the base, just inside the city, a solid metal statue was erected to honour the heroes party who defeated the very monster Dragons Mort was built on.
That road slowly curved upwards towards the peak, then spit two ways as the skull was just that massive making an angle too steep if built without stairs.
All of the buildings in this currently frozen wonderland happened to be two stories or more, with no houses being the same size, shape or general build. It reminded me of a town I once visited when 'looking for a cure' before I died, Positano in Italy, but more green and no exposed rock, just built up houses intertwined with nature.
A city without equal, too bad the weather made everything so hard to see.
"Ah screw it"
Time to use a trick Touji taught me.
I'm extremely proficient with wind and gravity magic, without either could probably imagine a cartoony like death to of been my end long ago. Now here I am relearning the basics.
Magic is not nearly as rigid as I thought it was.
'Windless', an adept tier spell that despite its name, is the spell I use to create a second layer above my white monk robes while propelling me forward. I used it together alongside the robes I designed with a bit of science to eliminate wind resistance and make movement like changing directions easier.
You could call 'Swirl' a tiny budget version used to draw in elements like a vortex.
Turns out that pull can be reversed and area enlarged with a bit of practice and can be held much longer thanks to the drain of mana it requires. Sure it doesn't propel me forward, but it still helps and I can't use Windless without my robes.
Thanks to that, I'm going to run over in this hoodie, sloth pants and borrowed boots.
I love this hoodie, you can probably guess who made it, I got her to add little ear parts so when I can pull it over my head, which I'm doing now for maximum warmth.
"I doubt I'll do this again, better give this a real shake of the tail, argh!"
...
*Dingle ding*
When did she instal that bell? This isn't a store- well it is a tavern I guess.
"Wha- did a Typhoon pass-"
"Drinks first"
Only three things had been spared her wrath. Tables, chairs, glasses, everything was smashed except two barstools and the piano near the back wall.
The damage looked recent, I'd say today.
Merrah was face down on the counter, her hands cut and bloody with glass poking out, her suit torn and stained.
She kept that glass in as punishment, her wounds could heal relatively fast, she's just that powerful, but keeping them in stopped that regeneration.
Self-inflicted damage.
I walked behind the counter, grabbed two glass slid them next to her.
The shelf behind me had been knocked off its hinges, meaning most of the drinks had been smashed and filled the air with the smell of booze. Even the cupboards had been smashed.
Looking around it looks like no bottle survived.
Well, it is a wild west sort of bar, there's got to be a stash of good stuff hidden around...
"Did I... destroy them too?"
Bingo, a small replace floorboard at the end of the counter.
"Hmm, wouldn't happen to have a hammer?"
With her face still down against the counter, she pushed a pair of poker cards face down towards me. A second later, the pair turned into a small ball of smoke, slowly blowing away revealing a crowbar, one of iron and rubber.
Rubber doesn't exist in this world to my knowledge and anything that requires oil in its production, including plastic, has yet to be developed either.
With the prominent nature of alchemy and monsters, technology and research could always be traced back to one of three origins. Magic, Flora and Fauna, all just as equal in their importance in everyday life, soooo-
"What type of relic creates things from my world..."
"Drink... Just *sigh* please"
Using the crowbar as leverage, I opened up the floorboard, then it dissolved completely into smoke as its purpose was fulfilled.
Sometimes it really sucks not being strong, speed is still nice but something so basic as pulling up a stuck piece of wood shouldn't be so hard, it's not even nailed down!
I'll have to ask Ota how she does it later.
Underneath the wood panel I saw two bottles, one large, one small and a paper note tied all together with some leather string.
"Lost love... three parts big bottle, one small. Drink with a friend... Well, it looks like tequila with a mixer... Uh... You alright with this?"
"Just... please mix it"
When she says please, it's not her being nice.
She's depressed.
Well, simple enough... I think. I'm no bar tender, but I think I use three times whatever amount I serve with that small bottle.
Hmm, what do I use to stir it? Surely a fork will be fine? Not much else here that isn't lining floor.
I mixed it into a single glass to the brim, then split it evenly. Sliding one to her, I walked back around the counter to sit on the stool next to her.
"Cheers"
"Thanks"
"..."
Something must be really wrong if she's thanking me.
"Who was it?"
"My... brother"
Taking a big swig of her glass, she grabbed the large bottle and poured out a little on the floor.
"We used to drink together... and work together"
Bounty hunting was not work for her, no, work is her role within the misfits.
That role was a merchant of sorts.
"I didn't know you had a brother"
I took a sip of my glass, it was rough. Not a taste I would go out of my way to drink, neither bitter or sweet, not fruity either, but it was strong. So strong I felt it hit me like a wave, heating me up like expensive sake before slowly fading.
"He was always working..."
She didn't get time to see him...
This drink might be poisonous, sort of, my body isn't immune to that, but it will expel negative effects really fast and also boosts effects that give me an edge. Until recently I almost always carried a berserker fruit with me for that very reason, taking it in quarters to activate my fight or flight trump card.
Should I tell her?
Unfortunately, being force fed a full fruit while already in an over exhausted state caused me to develop an allergic reaction, meaning I lost that trump card, but I was able to reconnect to the Goddess.
So far she has been teaching me about the capabilities of a Kitsune. At least I'm able to modify bits and pieces now and dodged a bullet by removing a few 'features' built in from her power, mainly with this bodies nature to go into heat again.
I already lived through that once, I couldn't survive a second time locked in a room for half a season.
"He was... nice. I miss him"
He was kind and she cared for him, they must of shared the workload.
Merrah had no choice in the role of a misfit, it ran in the family, a burden of an ancient pact. I think it's connected to this worlds doom... somehow, and I need to stop it.
"So what will you do now?"
"Find another member"
"Huh? You can do that?"
"We've been missing one, he had to fill in"
Missing one? That would explain why I couldn't find the last of them, but still...
"Only Enda is qualified. She said no"
"What role would she even fill?"
"Hades would follow her into battle, take the bodies"
Hades?
The Greek god of the underworld?
"Have you met Hades?"
"No, not sure if person"
"What does that mean?"
"Don't know if they're alive"
Urgh, this is getting to complicated, I need to write this down.
We both took a mouthful of our drink and I can feel it's really heating me up, what is in this drink?
Even Merrah took off her extra layers and unbuttoned her shirt.
"No more about work please, or him"
"Do you want me to leave?"
"..."
She turned to face me, the first time tonight she looked me in the eyes. She wanted to say yes and deal with this loss on her own, like she usually did with most of her problems.
I can't leave her like this.
Is she blushing? No this drink must be really strong, I'll mix us some more.
"Can I?"
If there was one thing that did bring her comfort, as much as it made me uncomfortable, it was my tails.
Just because I work on it doesn't mean I give everyone free access to its fluffiness, only her.
We both finished our glasses and I mixed us another then sat at the piano.
If I'm doing this then I'm doing it distracted.
I unclipped the equipment that hid my tail and placed it on top of the piano
"Sit"
"..."
I rolled up my sleeves and opened the piano case, checking the it's condition and really starting to regret not wearing a shirt underneath my hoodie, it's getting way too hot.
It's not every day I play a piano and I really don't like sad music. Most of the classical songs I knew are either or in their tone, happy go lucky or dark and depressing.
Moonlight sonata would feel out of place, and that always felt more fitting to be played solo, not sitting next to someone.
So I'll play something else, something that I always felt had more meaning behind its simple tune and notes then I could explain, a song I held dear.
Air, by J.S. Bach.
Beauty from simplicity, staring at the girl next to me as played, it fit her perfectly.
On the outside, strong and courageous, on the inside, she craved simple things she could never have, like stuffed toys or a friend to hold... my tails would have to do as she closed her eyes and hugged them.
"Why did it have to be him..."
She couldn't even cry, the height of her emotions was a single tear... and that was all.
"I told him not to go"
"..."
"Why..."
I had no answers for her, all I could do was provide a bit of company tonight.