2.5

The youth with red right hand

Willow was burning up with embarrassment, that outburst of her was certainly out of nowhere and unwarranted. Even her Herald didn’t have anything to say. Was this why she wasn’t allowed to go on the field? The girl couldn’t help but thinking back about how much she had to beg to be on this mission.

“I’m so sorry, Heral… Hiro, I ended up bothering you again…”

“It’s fine” The young man handed her his cup “Have some juice, it should help”]

The girl accepted the cup, as she reached out to take it, shards of glass dropped from her palm. Oh right, she did break her own cup. She wanted to clean them up but the Herald was giving her something.

In the end, Willow ended up accepting the cup first. Before she could put it down, however, Hiro was already on his knees gathering the broken pieces.

She wanted to help but what to do about this cup in her hands. It took her a while to realise just putting it on the table was actually a valid option. Willow wasn’t the brightest in the shed. The tavern owner also gave her a small bag to put the shards in.

“Ouch”

Hiro recoiled slightly as a small piece cut into his finger. Not a serious wound by any stretch of the imagination.

Momo-chan: [And here I thought our skin would be able to handle that puny shard]

Hiro: {Well, apparently it couldn’t}

Momo-chan: [Or maybe you have become more thin-skinned, literally]

Hiro: {Well, that’s what years of working behind the desk would do to you}

That was the end of it. Momo-chan was going to get sassy with him, what was a better way to defuse that other than just simply accepting the fact.

But still, his reaction was disproportionate compared to the actual wound, however, which was a problem. To his surprise, it wasn’t Willow who responds. To be more precise, the girl was beaten to the punch by Suiren.

The woman took his hand in gently and examined it. The shard only drew one drop of blood, nothing more. Seeing that it wasn’t anything serious, she wiped away the red smudge and returned to her position.

A simple act but it certainly bothered the young man.

Despite his effort, Suiren’s existence just simply drifted away. Soon he didn’t really register her properly anymore, the woman became just an interactive part of the background, a doll. What just happened had certainly reminded him that she could be autonomous somewhat, of her human quality.

His disembodied companion, meanwhile, was always self-conscious about her though but he never talked about it.

“Anyway, back to our main topic” Hiro decided to think about something else “You said that there are supposed to be four of us here right”

“Definitely, as much as I despise Victor, that man knows what he is talking about”

“Then how come I didn’t see the other two, perhaps they were chased away by the Fallens?”

“I think so, then maybe they are in hiding, or maybe they aren’t even here at all!”

Talking about the Heralds had certainly raised the girl mood. Hiro did notice that she didn’t state the more obvious choice.

Stuck in a new world, facing with superhuman pursuers, it was more likely that the other two had perished.

Did Willow leave that speculation out deliberately or did her innocent mind simply couldn’t draw such a conclusion. Hiro wondered if it is the later, was it truly because out of innocence or blindness.

He decided to humour her anyway, it was not a bad thing to be positive.

“But if that is the case, how can we find them? I figure you don’t have any sort of Heralds’ tracker or anything!”

“Unfortunately no, but a thing like that would be useful” Willow completely missed Hiro joke “We could conscript every citizens here to help us. At least they will help us to comb through this area”

“Wait, conscription… There is no need for that. This place is quite big, even if everyone searches it will take some time. If that is the case, then wouldn’t their works be disrupted”

“It’s fine, Herald, there should be plenty of supply. Besides, this would be official state business, the next resupply will surely include a bonus for that”

“I see…”

“Besides, while this area is quite huge, most of it are open fields with no place to hide. The only possible place for the others to be is the wood nearby. The workers at the timber yard will no doubt be familiar enough with it to clean through in no time”

“That makes sense”

Willow could be quite sharp, noted Hiro. To think about all of this on the spot right after an outburst like that. Or perhaps he had underestimated the girl’s capability. Nevertheless, she was competent and that made him even more uncomfortable about her idolisation of him.

Anyway, the two had agreed on that. Willow adjusted her language setting back to the local tongue and tapped on her cup.

“Attention!”

Everyone in the tavern immediately stood up, ready to receive order. Such a sudden response was a surprise, to Hiro and Momo-chan at least. All of them were so childish and energetic, but now, they were brimming with seriousness.

What the two hadn’t realised was that Willow wasn’t the only zealot around. Every citizen of Eden was always ready to heed the Divines and by extension, state officials.

“I have a request to all of you. Please, if possible, relay this to all members of this community that aren’t currently present here. As you all have known, strangers are arriving to our world, Hiro here is one of them. These people are the Heralds, called upon by the Divines. Four of them were summoned here near this town but I only know of two. Your mission now is to spread out to every local area and look for the missing Heralds. This takes precedent over any other task, effective immediately”

The Willow who made that declaration looks so foreign. Commanding and cold, her words were somewhat threatening. That side of her soon dropped, however, as she turns to Hiro cheerfully. Talk about jarring.

“If the others are still here, I’m sure we would be able to find them in no time!”

That became truth sooner than they could have predicted as the tavern owner raised his hand to report.

“One of them came here even before Hiro in the cover of the night. He asked me to hide him from everyone. I’m sure he is still upstairs this very moment”

A secret he had certainly kept for a while now. But order from the Divines trumped all other priority, including himself. The tavern owner instantly broke his promise with the stranger without fazing at all.

As soon as the owner finished his report, sounds of window opening can be heard. Hiro could see someone jumped out to the ground. Before he could get away, however, everyone who was in the tavern was already there to cut him off.

Seated just less than a minute ago, they all mobilised after Willow’s order. Now, united in purpose, the lumberjacks surrounded their target with frightening coordination and efficiency.

“Huh, so this is a lunatic den after all”

The stranger smirked as he turned around to face Hiro and Willow who just made it there. A youth with curly red hair, his bright blue eyes may be similar to the locals but there was a calculating look to them.

A long black overcoat hung onto his shoulder, but the shirt and trousers were completely white. Completed with a black bowler hat, black boots and a cheap looking cane, he was nothing but out of place.

The youth raised his arms and clap slowly, with a smile on his face.

“You got me there, that was brilliantly done”

“We have no intention of harming you, there was no need to run away like that” Said Willow.

“I’m so sorry for wasting your time like that, Ms, or are you a Mrs?”

“Uh… it’s the former”

The youth took of his bowler hat and bowed to them slightly.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you then, Ms. Willow. And Mr. Hiro, I presumed?”

His manner was full of artificial friendliness that he didn’t even try to hide. Willow seemed obviously uneasy by that display for good reason. Hiro, on the other hand, found himself caring less about that than he had expected, the young man asked normally.

“The pleasure is all mine. And you are”

“I am Malcolm Burgess, at your service”

Another line stepped in sarcastic tone, was he trying to provoke them? Nevertheless, Hiro found such an attempt somewhat trivial and childish.

“Everyone can stand down now” The young man said, “As Willow had said, we have no intention of harming you”

Malcolm looked at Hiro, still a child-like smile on his face. His reply, this time, was devoid of sarcasm at least, the voice was actually deeper than he looks.

“Oh no, I’m not concerned about you at all”

“Then why did you run away in the first place”

“About that, you two were about to compromise my position, especially at the time like this”

“Like what exactly?”

For a moment, Malcolm eyes quickly darted around looking for an opening. But all of sudden, he gave up. The youth looked behind them and said calmly.

“Like when these guys are around”

___

Hiro and Willow turned around to find behind them three figures in white masks and halos. It was the man in red, completed with his axe and shield. Next to him is… Suiren! That one was wearing the komon, however.

Behind them stood the Legionnaire. He didn’t want to go after them this early but time was of the essence. The order was given, and he can’t go against it.

The von Brandt girl and the defected #2 readied their weapon at once. The civilians were ordered to leave immediately. Or maybe they were ordered to flank him? It was not like he could understand their language. It seemed to be the former, however. ‘That’s good’, the Legionnaire thought to himself. He despised unnecessary casualties.

He could see the girl trying to say something to the others. A battle plans? It didn’t matter. The centurion telepathically ordered his new aides to move in.

On the other side, both the girl and #2 moved their weapons to a more offensive stance.

This would just be a mild inconvenience.

Willow let out a war cry and charged forward. One of her hand suddenly parted from the sword and pointed to the ground, however. Soon, sparks flew out her palm. The moment they touched the ground, violent gusts of flame burst out.

An interesting opener. The Legionnaire ordered his aide to dodge away while he himself rushed forward, shield raised. If they thought fire was enough to deter him, they were sorely wrong.

The flame dissipated faster than it had appeared and soon there was only smoke. The Legionnaire swung his shield in a wide arc, clearing the area.

In front of him was no one. So they had decided to retreat instead, all the while pretending to fight head on.

But they couldn’t run forever, he would find them. The Legionnaire wasn’t the kind to revel in the joy of making his enemies struggle. Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but feel rather amused by their attempt to delay the inevitable.

‘Let the hunt begins’