Narrator's Pov
Ryan sat calmly in a chair, looking at his three companions sleeping on hospital beds, a woman with dark hair and red eyes approached, offering him a small cup with some coffee.
"Coffee, Ryan?" The woman asked with a small smile.
"Thank you, Miss Natasha..." He sighed and then smiled grabbing the cup.
"I already told you calling me Natasha was fine" she chuckled a bit and then looked at the trailblazers. "They are mostly fine, no signs of poisoning or anything, whatever Sampo used to make them sleep, it only did that...that guy seriously makes a mess every time..." She rubbed her forehead.
He gave a small sip to the cup "They are fine, that's what matters, what about Bronya?"
He looked to the other side, where Bronya was laying also completely unconscious on one of the beds, like the others she seemed to be unharmed.
"Just like your friends, unconscious, but nothing more...I don't know when they'll wake up"
"Did you really had to tell Sampo that they were poisoned?" He raised an eyebrow a bit amused.
"I had to, he owes me a lot, he better bring more medicine..." she sighed a bit but then looked at Ryan. "Would you like me to check up on you, Ryan? You seem...tired"
"No, I'm fine Miss Natasha, don't worry" he smiles to the woman and with a long sip he finished the coffee.
"You suddenly came here with Sampo...he's no strictly evil but whatever mess he causes always ends up harming others and not him, I would still like you check on you..." She crossed her arms above her chest looking at Ryan.
He sighed a bit but kept smiling. "It's really nothing, Miss Natasha, I don't have a single scratch."
She looked at him but then sighed. "Fine, I'll trust you, but if something happens come here okay?"
"Yes, I will, Miss Natasha" he stood up from the chair and let the empty cup on the table. "I'm leaving, I would like to explore the underworld a bit and see if there's something I can help with."
"If you want to help...you could try talking with Wildfire"
"Wildfire? Sampo did mention them...who are they?" He asked a bit curious.
"You could say they are the Silvermane Guards of the underworld, after all the Guards retreated to the surface, Wildfire took on the role of protectors"
"I see...then I might search them and ask if I can do something to help." He smiled a bit.
"Chief Oleg should be around here, he doesn't move too much unless a major ruckus happens"
"I'll try speaking with him them, bye Natasha" he nodded his head and then walked to the door of the clinic.
"Take care Ryan, if you get in trouble I'm sure Wildfire will help."
Ryan smiled and then came out of the clinic, he looked around the underground city and started to think where he could go, his companions (and Bronya) were still sleeping, Sampo had gone to god knows where, he could go back and ask Natasha where specifically could Oleg be...
His phone vibrated inside of his Kimono and he quickly grabbed it, seeing that it was a message from Herta.
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[Herta]
"Is the Express available to come to the station?"
[Ryan]
"No, why? Did something happen?"
[Herta]
"I have to seriously speak with you."
[Ryan]
"I'm a bit busy at the moment, can't we speak about it now?"
[Herta]
"No, it'll be a bother to speak about this by text, so as soon as you can come back to the station."
"We'll have a serious talk, 'Ace' "
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*Crack*
The screen of Ryan's phone cracked a bit, his hand squeezed his phone tightly as his eyes were completely fixated on the last message.
"How....does she know that?"
He quickly turned off his phone, putting it inside of his Kimono he clenched his teeth as his eyes slightly flashed silver before going back to his normal blue color...he sighed deeply calming himself but still frowned...helping around Boulder Town could wait.
"I have to kill something..."
He quickly looked to what seemed to be the exit of the city and he quickly walked to it, when he and Sampo were taking the others to Natasha's clinic, he had heard that Fragmentum started to appear around too...killing monsters would be hundreds of times better than killing humans...
A few minutes later...
Seele sometimes wondered if taking patrols all on her own was slowly driving her crazy or something like that...
She normally had to take care of Fragmentum monsters that came out of the corroded zones so they don't reach any mining zone or the city, but now she's not finding anything, usually 5 or 6 monsters make their way out of the Fragmentum, 1 if it's a powerful one.
But nothing.
No signs of anything around, and that didn't make her feel relaxed, maybe she was too used to fighting, maybe monsters already came out before she got there, maybe they hadn't come out yet and were making a group to come out as a wave...
Or maybe someone else was already taking care of them?
She looked slightly to the side, she was standing on the roof of a building so she had a good position to watch everything around...so of course she'd see an Incineration Shadewalker being thrown into the air before falling down shortly after, she quickly ran and jumped from roof to roof until she finally reached the spot and looked down, widening her eyes a bit curious.
"Who...is he?"
Ryan slid across the floor dodging a sweep from an Incineration Shadewalker, he quickly stood and jumped avoiding a tackle from a flamespawn, he then turned around waved his left hand making two spikes of ice sprung out from the floor piercing both monsters, killing them instantly.
A Frostspawn tried to tackle him from behind, but he quickly spun around dodging it and creating an ethereal Katana on his right hand, he quickly cut the monster splitting it in half.
A loud roar was heard and Ryan looked slightly up at the monster made of ice while dissipating the ethereal Katana... An 'Ice out of Space' had appeared...
"Should I help him?...he's strong but...he's not from Wildfire, and none of us would forget anyone like him..." Seele frowned a bit looking down at him.
"You seem to be strong...you remind me of a monster from my home..." Ryan muttered and gripped onto the ethereal katana.
Th ice monster quickly started to throw icicles towards Ryan, the boy quickly started to the monster while dodging the icicles, he jumped to dodge one of the icicles and the Fragmentum monster threw a wave of ice towards the boy.
"I'll be a bit selfish this time with my magic....I want to play with him a bit"
He opened his hands and threw a wave of fire towards the wave of ice that the monster had thrown at him, both powers clashed but the fire quickly overpowered the ice going towards the Ice out of space hitting its arm and making it back away with his arms melting.
Ryan fell on his feet in front of the Fragmentum monster and quickly threw a punch surrounded by fire, hitting one of the monster's legs breaking it and making it start to melt.
The Fragmentum monster quickly threw an attack with one of its hands towards Ryan, but he quickly backflipped away landing on his feet.
"Uh...he used fire? That's quite interesting..." Seele frowned a bit looking at the scene from above.
"Killing is always fun" Ryan grinned but quickly covered his mouth. "Fuck..."
The Ice out of Space quickly threw an Icicle towards Ryan but he summoned another ethereal katana and dashes towards the monster, dodging the icicle and then landing a clean cut against the Fragmentum monster splitting it in half, still covering his mouth he frowned a bit.
"Almost lost myself right there..." He frowned but then uncovered his mouth already with his grin gone.
A few more flamespawns appeared behind Ryan, he was about to turn around and kill them but in a purple flash, those were completely torn to pieces, Seele rested her scythe on her shoulder while looking at Ryan who simply looked at her before creating an ethereal Katana on his right hand.
"No need to be on your guard...not against me at least" Seele spoke while a few more Fragmentum monsters started to surround them. "There aren't usually this many..."
"How should I call you?" Ryan asked while looking at the monsters.
"You can call me 'Babochka' " She spoke while gripping tightly on her scythe.
"I hope that's not your real name or else Stelle is going to make fun of you." He spoke and Seele looked at him.
"Wait, what?"
A Frostspawn tried to tackle Seele but she reacted quickly and dodged it before throwing two slices to it easily tearing through its body, she then turned around and jumped before coming down with a quick swipe to split another one in half.
An Incineration Shadewalker attacked Ryan with an attack from its halberd but he easily sidestepped and gave a quick cut to the back of its knee, making it kneel and letting Ryan pierce it's throat with the ethereal Katana, he then turned around and with a quick slash he cut off the hands of an Everwinter Shadewalker he quickly three 2 more slashes splitting it in half and also decapitating it.
"I think he is...moving slower?" Seele frowned a bit looking at Ryan. "Is he holding back now because I'm here? Or is he just fighting more relaxed?"
A monster fell from above in front of Ryan and Seele, both of them frowned while looking at the big machine-like monster, a Frigid Prowler had come.
"That Fat one attracts Everwinter Shadewalkers! The Ice ones, we have to kill it quickly or it's going to be a damn swarm" Seele growled quietly while holding her Scythe.
"I feel tempted to let it bring hundreds of those things..."
The Frigid Prowler roared at the two and Seele quickly ran towards it, she flipped to the side dodging the sawblade on the right hand of the monster and quickly ran around it, giving its back a few cuts before backing away to dodge the hand of the monster that tried to grab her, Ryan jumped and fell on top of it, ready to pierce its head with the katana but the Frigid Prowler roared and a wave of ice came out of him, pushing Ryan back and making Seele cover herself with her arms and scythe.
The Frigid Prowler roared again and two Everwinter Shadewalkers came out from the floor, seemingly being called by the bigger monster, both of them locked their sights into Ryan and ran towards him, while the Frigid Prowler roared and ran towards Seele.
Seele's eyes turned red for a few seconds and then she disappeared completely leaving a purple after image that the Frigid Prowler tried to hit with its sawblade but it simply went through the after image, Seele appeared behind the monster in a burst of butterflies and gave a quickly and wide sweep with her scythe, giving a deep cut on the monster's back.
The Frigid Prowler turned around to smack Seele with its hand but she again disappeared and appeared again pretty close, she gave a quickly sweep upwards making a deep cut on the Frigid Prowler's stomach making it back away a bit, the monster tried to throw a wave of ice towards the girl but she disappeared in a burst of butterflies and appeared away from it, with her scythe in hand she quickly dashed towards the monster that tried to hit her with its sawblade but yet again ended up hitting and afterimage.
A huge cut went through its entire body, making it stumble backwards, Seele appeared above the Frigid Prowler and giving it a quick slash, she cut its head off, she fell on her feet as her eyes returned to normal and looked towards Ryan.
The boy didn't seem to have had any trouble with them, one of them was already disappearing on the ground after being decapitated, while he was using the halberd of that same one to pierce the chest of the remaining one, as both Everwinter Shadewalkers disappeared, Ryan looked around and crossed his arms above his chest.
"Looks like those were the last ones..." He spoke softly approaching Seele.
"Don't jinx it" she quickly warned Ryan.
"H-hum...sorry" he smiled a bit nervous.
"Who are you? I've never seen you here in the underworld...and I've seen quite a lot of people" she crossed her arms above her chest.
"Uh, I'm...Sampo's guest?" He looked a bit confused by his own words. "I'm not sure..."
"Sampo? Ugh! That scoundrel...what did he do now? Did he kidnap you or something?" She rubbed her forehead and Ryan simply sighed.
"It's a bit...complicated"
Seele's phone vibrated a bit and she pulled it out of her pocket seeing a message from Oleg she frowned a bit.
"I suppose you are not the only one that Sampo brought uh? Are you by any chance one of those Silvermane Guards?" She asked while putting her phone on her pocket.
"No, I'm not a Silvermane Guard...why do you ask?" He asked a bit weary.
"Chief Oleg wants to speak with the Silvermane Guard that Sampo brought" she replied quickly.
"Bronya...yes, Sampo brought her too alongside my companions" he sighed deeply and grabbed its phone turning it on.
Immediately he received a few messages from Herta, so he completely ignored them and decided to instead check the messages from the group chat he had with his companions.
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[Jarilo-VI expedition]
[March 7th]
"Ryan! Where are you?"
"We had quite some fun"
[Dan Heng]
"I fought in a fighting ring in exchange for some Intel."
[March 7th]
"Yeah! You should have seen us, Stelle and I entered into the ring and kicked robot ass!"
[Stelle]
"Yeah, my favorite moment was when I jumped and I looked at Dan Heng and said...."
" 'Cum in me if you want to live' "
"Dan Heng was like 'don't you mean come with me?' And I said 'what? Why? What did I said?' "
[Dan Heng]
"I still believe it was something inappropriate for the moment"
[March 7th]
"Ryan, I'm starting to feel like a third wheel, respond!"
"Natasha told us you left to check if you could help in something"
[Stelle]
"Did I jinx it by saying we wouldn't worry about you?"
[Dan Heng]
"I'm starting to get worried"
[March 7th]
"Ryan stop playing Candy Crush and reply! This is serious"
[Ryan]
"Sorry, I was busy"
[Stelle]
"Oh my gawd, he's alive"
[Ryan]
"Not in the mood Stelle, I'll go back to Boulder Town, I met someome new, part of Wildfire I think"
[Dan Heng]
"We'll speak more when you get here, we're looking for Bronya"
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Ryan sighed a bit and rubbed his forehead, he should have checked his phone before, his little rampant could've made his companions worry about him.
"I suppose we should go back to Boulder Town?" Seele crossed her arms above her chest and looked at him. "By the way...you never told me your name"
"I'm Ryan...is Babochka your actual name?" He asked a bit curious.
"....my name is Seele, a pleasure I suppose, let's go, after killing all these monsters, I don't think I'll have to worry about continuing patrol."
She turned around and started to calmly walk in the direction to Boulder Town, Ryan looked at her and drove a hand to his head, his eyes flashing silver again but quickly returning to his blue color, he sighed deeply but still decided to follow Seele.
"I really...need to kill more things"
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A/N: and that's today chapter, Ryan met Seele (honestly my second waifu of Honkai Star Rail), Stelle did a Xander reference and Ryan will finally speak with Bronya...probably.
Anyways! Hope you enjoyed